Hi Nick,

This is Robb Hart, I was thinking of you, and I think that through this posting I found may have been from you. I am now living in California, just google me and there are loads of ways of reaching me. All the best, Robb.

No harm done David.

Clearly a misunderstanding Nick.

Hey boys why are you arguing? I don’t think either of you thinks it is a good thing for Syrians to be killed no matter who by,

I suspect you would also both agree that no conflict like this one goes on without outside interests ‘lending a hand’ and doing so largely for their own interests. Be those interests religiously inspired or politically. And of course the two are more often than not deeply entwined.

So please, rather than get testy with each other and play ‘mine’s bigger than yours’ which is rather boring for the rest of us, why not put the bad feeling to one side.

You both appear to have things to add. I personally am glad to hear from both of you.

Mr Downie, would you still be interested to talk? If so please drop me an email at golemxivg@gmail.com

Gleaning what I can from your answer as a professional with field and combat experience, I take it as legitimate that Free Syria Army members are:

Not vetted
Poorly armed
Not supervised

Clearly however, the slaughter and decapitation of civilians can be carried out even with weapons that have been designed 65 years ago…

My point is that Western interests (whatever those may be) are sanctioning the wholesale slaughter of men, women and children, we are financing it and facilitating it…

And yes, my name is Guido Romero. I am suitably impressed. You must indeed have access to some high level and classified sources of information.

Hi guido (or should it be guidoamm or guidoromero?),

I see you are an acolyte of Anthony Watts and Lord Monkton. That’s quite worrying. I imagine you’ve never been to the Arctic? North of Watford? Do you indeed have any experience of the natural environment, or is your world composed of concrete, lit by municipal neon?

You certainly have no experience of war in general, or of guerrilla warfare in particular. Your question “Who vetted these people’s backgrounds and histories?” rather gives this away. (In which computerised, box-ticking bureaucracy did you have the misfortune to grow up?) Let me illustrate to you how resistance fighters tend to be recruited. (I write from experience, in the Middle East, not from YouTube drivel.)

“I am the son of Abu Hamid. I wish to join the struggle.”
“Welcome, brother. I knew your father. He was a good man. His death was a tragedy.”
“The shell that killed him also killed my mother, and my sister and her son.”
“Peace be upon them all. Allah is merciful. Do you know how to use a Kalashnikov?”
“No, I am a tailor, like my father, and his father before him.”
“No matter. It is a simple thing.” (True, but actually AK-47s are junk, designed 67 years ago for Soviet-style mass infantry assaults in which casualties were of no concern. You, of course, know this, and can also tell us whether it is faster to flick the safety catch of a loaded AK to ‘fire’ or to put a round into the breech by yanking the cocking-handle. Hint: the answer is not on your source of information, the Internet. It comes from having used one in action.)
Continued: “I will learn, by God. I am happy to be a martyr.” (They do actually come out with this sort of shit, and some of them even believe it.)
“Praise be to God. You are assigned to the unit of Muhammad Salim. Go in peace.”
“Thank you. God is great.” (The poor kid was probably killed on his second or third attack, or maybe just blown to bits before he fired a shot, because he knew damn all about how to fight – unlike you, of course, guidoromero.)

As for your other questions: “Who unleashed them from their camps in Turkey?” Oh, please! Don’t you have any imagination? The vast majority never got anywhere near Turkey – their units are formed locally, under no outside control.

Next, “Who armed them?” With what, exactly? I’ve read breathless descriptions of them having “rocket-propelled grenades” (I have a file entitled ‘Idiotic War Correspondents’), which means the RPG. This was designed slightly later than the AK-47, a mere 65 years ago, and it is also junk. One has to be phenomenally brave to use one, not least because it is wildly inaccurate, has a very short effective range, and does next to sod-all damage in the unlikely event that it hits anything. Yet again, boringly, I speak from experience.

Finally, “Who is tracking their movements and monitoring their “progress”?” Short answer: Nobody. I am actually appalled by the lack of frontline reportage from within Syria. A few younger codgers than me, such as Jim Muir and Lyse Doucet, are doing their best from the safety of first-class hotels in Damascus or neighbouring countries, but where are the younger generation, with their blue helmets, flak-jackets, and 2-day ‘Hostile Environment’ courses? Why aren’t they in there, giving us proper first-hand accounts of the slaughter? Tell you what, guido, my man. EasyJet is dirt cheap to Turkey. So is any tiny, video-enabled device to take pictures, and you can shove an SD card with hours of footage up your arse to conceal it if you have to (I started with 2½-minute film spools and a clockwork camera – try fitting that into your rectum), so you could bring back award-winning pics in no time. The pay is atrocious, of course, it’s effing dangerous, and no-one will insure you, but how about putting your money where your mouth is? Just a thought.

All the best, Nick Downie.

Doesn’t bode at all well.

Who, in your opinion, gave the green light to unleash the “syrian Liberation” army from their camps in Turkey into Syria?

Who vetted these people’s backgrounds and histories?

Who armed them?

Who is tracking their movements and monitoring their “progress”?

The Gulf Co-operation Council are the main financial players in Syria as they were in Libya and are run by a proxy of Gulf ‘petro states’ that have been pushing to bring Libya and Syria into the orbit of the West and the BIS backed up by the UK, US and EU – they’ve already destroyed Kofi Annan’s plans for a cease-fire and look like they are creating the conditions for western forces to eventually ‘step in’ and ‘resolve’ the situation.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=31710