BREAKDOWN: Has this Toner cartridge finally run out of yellow ink?
21st Century Wire says…
After US Secretary of State, John Kerry, “muddied the waters” of the US terrorism support policies in Syria on June 28th in Aspen, Colorado, it seems US State Department spokesperson, Mark Toner, was feeling left out of the farcical parallel dimension inhabited by the US foreign policy oligarchy.
In this extraordinary US State Department press briefing, Toner gives one of his most convoluted and mind bending explanations for the US refusal to designate Ahrar al Sham a terrorist organisation despite their involvement in the ethnic cleansing of Syrian minorities and affiliation to Al Nusra [Syrian Al Qaeda] and Jaish al Islam.
To see John Kerry’s statements read 21st Century Wire’s article: SYRIA SHOCKER: John Kerry Torpedoes “Moderate Rebel” Narrative
Welcome to the smoke and mirrors world of US double speak, watch..
In case you missed anything here is the transcript of this masterful display of obscurantism:
QUESTION: … the Russians insist on designating Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam as terrorist organizations. And in fact, all indications show that these groups keep spawning other groups that are very, very similar, and in fact, in many ways, whether in dogma or practice, Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam really look very much like al-Nusrah in many ways. So why is it so difficult to say that these guys that commit these acts in this fashion are actually terrorist groups and fair game?
MR TONER: I’m sorry. Your question is why would it be so difficult for us to make that leap?
QUESTION: The question is – yeah, why – yeah. Are you, let’s say – is this like a red line for you that you will not designate Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam as terrorist organizations?
MR TONER: Well, our response to that is that these are – Nusrah, Daesh are groups that have been designated by the UN through an agreed-upon process. The – all other groups – and we have recognized and we’ve said this before – Kirby’s spoken to it, I’ve spoken to it – there is – the Secretary’s spoken to it – there is – on the battlefield there are groups that mesh together or individual fighters or groups of fighters. It’s not a clean situation all the time, which is why we need to work harder to coordinate our efforts to delineate between those groups.
QUESTION: But the reason that —
QUESTION: Last —
QUESTION: The reason that they haven’t been designated by the UN is because you won’t let the UN do it. It’s a bit disingenuous to get up here and say, “Well, it’s not up to us. It’s up to them UN” —
MR TONER: No, but —
QUESTION: — when you’re preventing the UN from doing it, is it not?
MR TONER: But that’s not entirely true. And the fact that – I mean, it’s – look, I mean, we – there is an agreed-upon process by which these groups have been —
QUESTION: Yes. And you – when it is raised, when people want to put them on, you and others – your allies, the Saudis in particular – say no. But then you say – you stand up and say, “Well, the reason they’re not on the list is because it hasn’t gone through that process.” And I’m just saying, don’t you think it’s a bit disingenuous to say they’re not on the list because it hasn’t gone through this process —
MR TONER: No, because —
QUESTION: — when you are one of the prime reasons that they haven’t been gone through – it hasn’t gone through this process, no?
MR TONER: Well, again, I’m not going to speak to that. All I’m going to say this is a – it’s a consensus-based decision-making process.
Photo: DNES
Gayane Chichakyan of RT then picks up the Ahrar al Sham baton and runs with it, eliciting one of Mark Toner’s familiar gritted teeth grimaces. From 17:33 watch…
“QUESTION: Well, did the U.S. and Russia reach an understanding on what to do with Ahrar al-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam whom last month in Aspen Secretary Kerry called subgroups underneath al-Nusrah and Daesh. Do the U.S. and Russia have an agreement on what to do with these groups?
MR TONER: Well, so I’m not going to get ahead of discussions that will be taking place when he’s actually in Moscow, wouldn’t want to do that. But we have long been saying that we would welcome Russian engagement to combat al-Nusrah and Daesh. We’re continuing to discuss with Russia – and I’m not going to get into the details of that discussion at this point – but we continue to discuss with Russia the imperative of focusing the fight on Daesh and al-Qaida in Syria and on ways that we can collectively better enforce the cessation of hostilities. And I was trying to make this point with Lesley, because until we have that credible cessation of hostilities back in place, we can’t get this political process up and running that we all – all members of the ISSG say, “Okay, we recognize this is the way forward.”
So we’re really at a stalemate. We need to get a cessation of hostilities back. We need to focus on how we can enforce that. And then, again, the humanitarian piece is also always foremost.
QUESTION: So do I understand —
MR TONER: Please.
QUESTION: — there’s no agreement on these particular groups?
MR TONER: We’re still – again, we’re still talking with Russia about how we can coordinate better our efforts.
QUESTION: The policy has not changed —
MR TONER: I’m not going to get into – yeah.
QUESTION: But doesn’t the Secretary’s assessment that these groups or subgroups [Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam] of designated terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida in Syria, which is al-Nusrah – doesn’t that warrant some change of policy? Or do you think that as long as these terrorist subgroups call themselves differently, they’re off the hook?
MR TONER: I think – I’ve spoken to this before. I’ll say much the same as I’ve said before, which is that we recognize that in places like Aleppo and elsewhere that there’s a mixing or comingling, whatever you want to call it, and that we need to work more closely together to disentangle where these groups are mixing with known terrorist groups. We’re willing to have that conversation with Russia, and —
QUESTION: But as I understand, you’ve been having that conversation for months now. I ask many times on this —
MR TONER: Sure.
QUESTION: — and you answer the same thing.
MR TONER: Sure.
QUESTION: There has been no progress reported on that.
MR TONER: It continues to be a challenge. I don’t know how to put it any other way. That said, we have seen – and I can – we have reports again today of additional bombings of civilians, whether it’s from Russia or whether it’s from the regime, of areas. There was a strike near Jordan, near the border with Jordan, that we’re looking into now, where refugees may have been hit. So we’ve seen continued examples of innocent civilians also being hit by regime bombs, and that continues. And all that does is create, frankly, a situation where the political process can’t move forward.
QUESTION: I want to go back to these —
MR TONER: Of course.–
QUESTION: — particular groups that I asked about.
MR TONER: Yep.
QUESTION: If you insist that these groups be treated differently, then you also suggest that there is a distinction between them and al-Nusrah. What is that distinction?
MR TONER: Well, again, I – these groups have been designated, as I was trying to make the point to Matt, through a very detailed process – not by me, certainly, and I’m not making this up from the podium. But it was a consensus-driven process. Not everyone is in agreement on this, but that is how these things work. This is how the ISSG functions. Not everyone in that group, whether – it’s not just U.S. and Russia – agrees on who all the bad guys are and who all the good guys are. But what we had said is there needs to be a process. We need to say, okay, these groups, we all agree, are designated terrorist groups – we can agree with that. The other groups, as long as they adhere to the ceasefire – and we’ve talked about this before; that is incumbent on them, it’s their responsibility to adhere to the cessation of hostilities, just as it is for the regime. Otherwise this thing falls apart.
QUESTION: But when they don’t, when they don’t, when they are fighting alongside —
MR TONER: But we do have a process in place. We do have monitors – or not monitors, we do have a process in place – we’ve talked about this – where we – where there are violations of the cessation of hostilities. We look at these, we work with Russia; we’ve still got that structure still in place.
QUESTION: Is it permissible to go after them without a UN Security Council designation?
MR TONER: I’m not sure I understand the question. One more time.
QUESTION: As they are violating the cessation of hostilities thing, I mean, does these two groups – Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam – fighting alongside al-Nusrah and Daesh occasionally – would that be all right to go after them without a UN Security Council designation?
MR TONER: Well, again, it is – we’ve seen violations, frankly, by – credible allegations, let me put it this way, of violations by many different parties to the cessation of hostilities. You are correct in one point: that enforcement of that cessation of hostilities is in some ways voluntary or self-identifying. If I’m a member of a group, a moderate opposition group, and I say I adhere to the ceasefire, then my actions dictate how I’m treated. But that also applies, frankly, to the regime, who consistently also violates the cessation of hostilities.
“Please.” ~ U S State Department
Please indeed Mr Toner, please stop lying to us and protecting what is clearly your terrorist asset on the ground in Syria, your outsource assassins massacring the Syrian people with your government’s endorsement as already admitted by your US Secretary of State, John Kerry in a rare and bewildering betrayal of the US narrative on Syria.
For how much longer will the media pundits keep pushing this irrational propaganda despite being faced with the outright denial of its veracity by US Government officials? For how long can the American people insist “they dont know what is happening“?
The US mass media is the intrinsic mind control bridge between Congress and the American people, a media demonstrated time and time again to be nothing more than an amplification of the Government propaganda designed to cajole reaction, persuade perception and conceal the truth of their neo-colonialism and its devastating consequences for the prey nations.
As William Blum says in his book, Killing Hope:
“During the early 1950s, the CIA instigated several military incursions into Communist China. In 1960, CIA planes, without any provocation, bombed the sovereign nation of Guatemala. In 1973, the Agency encouraged a bloody revolt against the government of Iraq. In the American mass media at the time, and therefore in the American mind, these events did not happen”
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