Syrian rebels (likely Terrorist Factions) prepare to launch mortar rounds toward regime forces

Syrian rebels prepare to launch mortar rounds toward regime forces on June 10. (WARD AL-KESWANI/AFP/Getty Images)

Summary

In the wake of their seizure of Qusair in western Syria, Syrian loyalist forces are bent on capitalizing on their newvfound momentum by wresting more of the loyalist core from the rebels and advancing on rebel-held territory. In order to continue their advance, however, loyalist forces will have to address logistical difficulties, potentially fight through powerful rebel blocking positions and overcome increasing U.S. weapons aid to the rebels. 

Analysis

The regime has by and large proved that the loyalist core is not seriously threatened at the moment. However, for their resurgence to seriously undermine the rebellion, the loyalists would need a victory in Aleppo. Seizing Aleppo would simultaneously give the loyalists effective control of the vast majority of Syria's population centers, defeat perhaps the largest concentration of rebel forces and inflict a terrible blow to the rebels' morale.

War Update

The regime's offensive in the critical city of Homs, which connects Damascus, Aleppo and the Alawite-dominated coast, has not stopped with the successful operation in Qusair. Instead, loyalist forces continue to target remaining rebel positions in the governorate. Several rebel villages south of Homs have been stormed, and troop movements and bombardment patterns suggest the regime will likely stage additional attacks on rebels in Homs city proper and around Rastan and Talbiseh along the M5 highway, which leads from the Jordanian border, through Damascus and all the way north to Aleppo.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has committed significant manpower to the Syrian regime's recent successes in the west. Despite Hezbollah's high casualty rate in the fighting, the investment in the conflict has paid off so far. As long as Lebanon -- and more specifically Hezbollah's core operating areas -- remains unthreatened, Hezbollah can continue to focus on supporting loyalist forces in Syria. However, Lebanon's security is strained, and tensions and violence are increasing every day. If Sunni forces begin to seriously threaten Hezbollah's interests in Lebanon, the paramilitary group may be forced to recall its forces.

Syrian loyalist forces are also on the offensive in Damascus and in the south. Having mostly isolated the sizable rebel pocket in the Eastern Ghouta region with the seizure of Otaiba, loyalist forces continue their efforts to reduce the rebel pocket, though they have yet to make much headway. Similarly, the regime will continue to attempt to advance in the south toward Daraa in order to reinforce its position there and to cut rebel supply lines from Jordan. However, the rebels in the south have been greatly strengthened since January and they are still making gains, such as their successful operation in Inkhil during the week of June 9.

Meanwhile, the regime has remained active in Aleppo and has in fact launched a number of local attacks against the rebels from positions within the governorate. Airstrikes and aerial resupply operations have been greatly accelerated over the past two months, with helicopter resupply missions to the Shiite villages of Nubl and al-Zahraa being especially prominent.

The regime has convinced the Shia residents of the villages to raise a 1,500-man militia by promising them government jobs, weapons, money and the establishment of the villages as the centers of Aleppo's countryside. Bolstered by supplies, Republican Guard officers and even, reportedly, Iraqi and Hezbollah fighters, the militia has been directed to attempt to relieve the besieged Menagh military airport further to the north while attempting to link up with loyalist forces in Aleppo city proper to the southeast. Regime forces within the city have also launched their own attacks, particularly in the neighborhoods of Tishreen, Ashrafiyeh, Suleiman and Sakhur. Despite local victories, it is doubtful that regime forces in Aleppo can achieve many long-term gains in the province without the help of a significant loyalist push from the south.

Logistical and Other Challenges

For all the regime's announcements of an imminent victory in Aleppo, it is important to remember the very significant obstacles. Many of these are in fact the same that prevented the regime from ousting the rebels from the city in summer 2012.

First, the main concentration of regime forces is a considerable distance from Aleppo and is largely isolated due to rebel efforts to sever its supply lines. The closest significant concentration of regime forces is in Idlib city, but those troops are mostly cut off from the south. Therefore, any serious advance on Aleppo would have to come from the main concentration of loyalist forces in the core. The closest realistic staging point for these forces to advance northward would be from Hama governorate. 

There are, in effect, two ways that the regime can reach Aleppo in force. The first involves a thrust northward along the M5 highway from Hama. The M5 highway would offer the regime the best supply infrastructure leading to the city, greatly alleviating the logistical burden necessary to support a considerable mechanized advance on Aleppo. However, there are a large number of significant rebel positions along this route. The advancing force would have to pass through northern Hama governorate; Maarat al-Nuaman and Saraqeb, Idlib governorate; and Khan Tuman and Khan Asal, Aleppo governorate. All of these positions would have to be seized or reduced before the regime could advance without fearing for its supply route.

To maintain the integrity of the M5 route, the loyalist forces would also need to displace the rebels from the immediate area of the highway and leave enough security forces along the route to maintain its ability to function. This would be no easy feat. In fact, in some areas along the M5 highway -- such as Morek, which the rebels seized June 13 -- the rebels are actually advancing.

The regime's second option to reach Aleppo is to skirt the main M5 highway and instead take secondary roads from Salamiyeh to Khanasser, avoiding or defeating the new rebel offensive in the eastern Hama plain. From there, the force would move north to link with the outer reach of the regime position in Tall Sughayb and the Safira defense factory in Aleppo governorate. Even though this route avoids the bulk of rebel forces along the M5 highway, it is not clear that the secondary roads have the capacity to support a large regime offensive. In any case, the rebels have already recognized the potential for this route and have placed some units in a blocking position, ensuring that an advance would not be unopposed.

Complicating the regime's future battle plans even further is the recent U.S. decision to increase the arming of the rebels. There will likely be a combination of more direct aid from the United States and looser restrictions on the quantity and quality of weapons that other states are already providing. The United States is moving toward a more prominent role in arming the rebels, but at least initially its involvement will be heavily tempered by its desire to avoid putting weapons, particularly man-portable air-defense systems, in the hands of extremist groups.

Regime forces are making progress, but they need a victory in Aleppo before they can legitimately claim to be close to undermining the rebellion. In order for the loyalists to seriously threaten the rebel position in Aleppo, they need to be able to reach the area with a force of considerable size and to keep that force supplied.

Read more: Obstacles to a Syrian Regime Victory in Aleppo | Stratfor

Syrian rebels are pledging their allegiance to al Qaeda and other terrorist factions. U.S.A. to help arm terrorists.

A NEW SOURCE HAS GIVEN ME VIABLE INFORMATION LEADING TO THE CONCLUSION THAT, WHILE THE U.S. GIVES ARMS TO SYRIAN REBELS, WE WILL BE ENABLING THE TERRORISTS.

WHY?

THE REBELS ARE BEING USED BY AL QAEDA AND BY OTHER TERRORIST FACTIONS.

HOW IT THAT POSSIBLE?

THESE TERRORIST GROUPS GO IN AS CHARITY AND HELP FOR THE REBELS, HELPING THEM FIND REFUGE, HELPING THEM TO BE WELL FED, HELPING THEM WITH WEAPONS AND SO FORTH.  THIS IS HOW TERRORISTS GATHER RECRUITS AND HOW THEY GATHER LAND AND PROPERTY.

HERE ARE SOME SOURCES THE MY SOURCE GAVE ME REGARDING THIS ISSUE.

REMEMBER, THE U.S. IS NOW GETTING INVOLVED WITH THE REBELS, THROUGH TURKEY, PROVIDING WEAPONS.  THE U.S. IS NOT CURRENTLY (ACCORDING TO WHAT HAS BEEN RELEASE, WHICH YOU CANNOT ALWAYS TRUST) PUTTING BOOTS ON THE GROUND

Syrian rebels pledge loyalty to al-Qaeda

In this Jan. 11, 2013 file citizen journalism image provided by Edlib News Network, ENN, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows rebels from al-Qaida affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra waving their brigade flag on the top of a Syrian air force helicopter, at Taftanaz air base that was captured by the rebels, in Idlib province, northern Syria.

by Mona Alami, Special for USA TODAY

BEIRUT — A Syrian rebel group's April pledge of allegiance to al-Qaeda's replacement for Osama bin Laden suggests that the terrorist group's influence is not waning and that it may take a greater role in the Western-backed fight to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The pledge of allegiance by Syrian Jabhat al Nusra Front chief Abou Mohamad al-Joulani to al-Qaeda leader Sheik Ayman al-Zawahri was coupled with an announcement by the al-Qaeda affiliate in Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq, that it would work with al Nusra as well.

Lebanese Sheik Omar Bakri, a Salafist who says states must be governed by Muslim religious law, says al-Qaeda has assisted al Nusra for some time.

"They provided them early on with technical, military and financial support , especially when it came to setting up networks of foreign jihadis who were brought into Syria," Bakri says. "There will certainly be greater coordination between the two groups."

The United States, which supports the overthrow of Assad, designated al Nusra a terrorist entity in December. The Obama administration has said it wants to support only those insurgent groups that are not terrorist organizations.

Al Nusra and groups like it have seen some of the most significant victories against Syrian government forces in the course of the 2-year-old uprising in which Assad's forces have killed about 80,000 people. Rebels not affiliated with al-Qaeda have pressed Washington for months to send weaponry that will allow them to match the heavy weapons of the Syrian army. They've urged the West to mount an air campaign against Assad's mechanized forces.

President Obama refuses to provide any direct military aid. Foreign radical Islamists streaming into the fight from the Middle East and Europe are making headway with the Syrian population by providing services and gaining ground in battles.

Tamer Mouhieddine, spokesman for the Syrian Free Army, a force made up of Syrian soldiers who have defected, said the recent announcements would not change his group's attitude toward al Nusra.

"The rebels in Syria have one common enemy — Bashar Assad — and they will collaborate with any faction allowing them to topple his regime," he said.

He confirmed that al Nusra is generating loyalty in Aleppo, a region battling for months with Assad, by providing financial support as well as setting up charities.

Aaron Zelin at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington says al Nusra's ability to provide security and basic needs such as bread and fuel to Syrian civilians, as well as to reopen shops and restart bus services, has won gratitude from people who would not usually adhere to its strict ideology.

Zelin says some Syrian people have criticized al Nusra for banning alcohol, forcing women to wear a full veil and whipping men who are seen with women in public.

"This illustrates the need for American leadership in the Syrian conflict, particularly with regard to helping non-Qaeda-aligned rebels contain the growth of (al Nusra) and similar groups," he said. "Washington should also try to take advantage of cleavages within the rebellion and civilian population, since al Nusra is outside the mainstream and more concerned with establishing a transnational caliphate than maintaining the Syrian state.". .  

READ MORE AT USA TODAY.COM

Syrian rebels execute teenage boy for ‘heresy’ - report (GRAPHIC PHOTO)

Published time: June 10, 2013 12:05
Edited time: June 11, 2013 08:11

15-year-old Mohammad Qataa during a pro-democracy protest in Aleppo. Image from www.facebook.com/syriaohr

An al-Qaeda-affiliated opposition group has allegedly executed a teenage boy in Syria in front of his family, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports. The boy was shot by the group for supposedly blaspheming.

15-year-old Mohammad Qataa was taken hostage by the extremist group and was then summarily executed in the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday night. Pro-opposition group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) released a photo of the boy with bullet wounds in both his face and neck. 

The SOHR said witnesses claim Qataa got into an argument at a coffee stand where he worked in the Sh’ar neighborhood of Aleppo. He was overheard saying: "Even if the Prophet Mohammad comes down (from heaven), I will not become a believer." 

His words caught the attention of members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria who kidnapped Qatta. They then brought him back to the stall late on Sunday night with whiplash marks on his body.

According to the report published by the SOHR, one of the members of the group addressed the crowd and said:“Generous citizens of Aleppo, disbelieving in God is polytheism and cursing the prophet is polytheism. Whoever curses even once will be punished like this.” 

"He then fired two bullets from an automatic rifle in view of the crowd and in front of the boy's mother and father, and got into a car and left," the report said. It added that the SOHR demands the killers be brought to justice. Qatta’s mother allegedly pleaded with the killers, whose accented Arabic suggested they were not from Syria. 

I refuse to post the photo of child executed by islamist rebels in Aleppo (Photo from www.facebook.com/syriaohr)

The group expressed concern that the Sharia court of Aleppo had done nothing to stop the execution of the 15-year-old. 

"The Observatory cannot ignore these crimes, which only serve the enemies of the revolution and the enemies of humanity," said the group's leader Rami Abdulrahman. The Observatory also released a photo of the boy participating in pro-democracy protests in Aleppo. 

There have been a number of reports of opposition brutality in Syria in recent months. A video disseminated over the internet in May, purported to show an opposition member taking a bite out of a soldier’s heart, and drew widespread condemnation from the international community. 

Abu Sakkar, the leader of a group called the Independent Omar al-Farouq Brigade, an offshoot of the Free Syrian Army, says in the video "I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog". Sakkar expressed no remorse for the “eye-for-an-eye” attack and pledged to carry out more such acts.

read more at RT

Syria rebel group's dangerous tie to al Qaeda

By Peter Bergen, CNN National Security Analyst, and Jennifer Rowland, Special to CNN

updated 12:57 PM EDT, Wed April 10, 2013

Peter Bergen says the most effective fighting force against the Syrian regime is now allying itself with al Qaeda

Editor's note: Peter Bergen is CNN's national security analyst, the author of "Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden -- From 9/11 to Abbottabad" and a director at the New America Foundation. Jennifer Rowland is a program associate at the New America Foundation.

(CNN) -- On Tuesday, al Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq announced that it had merged with the Syrian opposition group Jabhat al-Nusra to form the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant."

The announcement came in the form of an audio message from the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, that was distributed to key jihadist websites.

The merger was first reported by SITE, a Washington-based group that tracks jihadist material online. The authors were able to confirm the announcement by monitoring the jihadist site, Ansar al Mujahideen, which frequently posts material from al Qaeda, including Tuesday's news of the merger of the Syrian and Iraqi wings of al Qaeda. Complicating matters, on Wednesday al Nusra claimed it wasn't merging with al Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq, but instead was pledging its allegiance to al Qaeda's overall leadership.

The news that there is some kind of connection between al Qaeda in Iraq and the Syrian Jabhat al-Nusra (in English "the Victory Front") is not entirely surprising. U.S. officials have long suspected that al-Nusra was really, in part, a front for Iraqi jihadists who had crossed the Syrian border to join the fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The State Department added Jabhat al-Nusrato its list of designated foreign terrorist organizations in December.

The fact that al-Nusra has publicly aligned itself with central al Qaeda is worrisome. A long-term safe haven for this group in Syria could be the prelude for the formation of an organization with the wherewithal to attack the West, just as al Qaeda's sojourn in Afghanistan when it was controlled by the Taliban prepared the group for the 9/11 attacks.

Second, al-Nusra is widely regarded as the most effective fighting force in Syria, and its thousands of fighters are the most disciplinedof the forces opposing Assad.

read more at CNN

U.S. Getting Involved In Syrian Conflict

CIA preparing to deliver rebels arms through Turkey and Jordan

By Greg Miller and Joby Warrick, Published: June 14

The CIA is preparing to deliver arms to rebel groups in Syria through clandestine bases in Turkey and Jordan that were expanded over the past year in an effort to establish reliable supply routes into the country for nonlethal material, U.S. officials said.
The bases are expected to begin conveying limited shipments of weapons and ammunition within weeks, officials said, serving as critical nodes for an escalation of U.S. involvement in a civil war that has lately seen a shift in momentum toward the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

Syria experts cautioned that the opposition to Assad remains a chaotic mix of secular and Islamist elements, highlighting the risk that some American-provided munitions may be diverted from their intended recipients.
But U.S. officials involved in the planning of the new policy of increased military support announced by the Obama administration Thursday said that the CIA has developed a clearer understanding of the composition of rebel forces, which have begun to coalesce in recent months. Within the past year, the CIA also created a new office at its headquarters in Langley to oversee its expanding operational role in Syria.

“We have relationships today in Syria that we didn’t have six months ago,” Benjamin J. Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said during a White House briefing Friday. The United States is capable of delivering material “not only into the country,” Rhodes said, but “into the right hands.”

The confidence conveyed by Rhodes’s statement is in contrast to the concerns expressed by U.S. intelligence officials last year that the CIA and other U.S. spy agencies were still struggling to gain a firm understanding of opposition elements — a factor cited at the time as a reason the Obama administration was unwilling to consider providing arms.

“The Syrian puzzle has come into sharper focus in the past year, especially the makeup of various anti-regime groups,” said a U.S. official familiar with CIA assessments of the conflict. “And while the opposition remains far from monolithic, its military structures and coordination processes have improved.”

The official, like most others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence assessments and planning.

The increased certainty is one of several factors that led to the reversal of a U.S. policy against providing lethal aid that had been in place since the uprising began in Syria more than two years ago.

Rhodes said the change was driven by a new determination by U.S. intelligence agencies that Assad’s regime had used chemical weapons, including sarin gas, on at least four separate occasions. Obama also faced mounting pressure to intervene more aggressively as members of Congress and overseas allies became increasingly alarmed that Assad’s forces were gaining strength with expanded assistance from Russia and Iran.

For the CIA, the shift on Syria marks a return to a covert-action role that was familiar to the agency during Cold War-era conflicts but that gave way to increasingly direct lethal operations as the agency’s drone campaign surged in the years following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The agency’s mission in Syria carries substantial risks, including a long-standing fear that arms could fall into the hands of extremists who may seek to impose Islamist rule in Syria or turn those weapons against targets in Israel and other Western countries.

That concern accounts for initial limits imposed by Obama that will allow the delivery of rifles and other munitions, but not — at least for now — antitank or antiaircraft weapons that rebels have desperately sought.

Obama’s decision to approve CIA weapons shipments, spelled out in an updated covert-action finding recently signed by the president, may also signal that the administration is now prepared to endorse the delivery of heavier arms by regional allies.

“The Qataris and Saudis have been chomping at the bit,” said Will McCants, a research analyst at CNA Analysis and Solutions and former counterterrorism adviser at the State Department. “They’ve been wanting to give heavy weapons, including antitank and antiaircraft, from the beginning. And it’s us that has put the brakes on it.”

The CIA shipments will be aimed at bolstering the capabilities of an umbrella group known as the Supreme Military Council. The council is headed by Gen. Salim Idriss and other former Syrian military officers who favor the creation of a democratic government, although the network includes avowedly Islamist groups.
Some are members of the Syrian Liberation Front, a separate alliance that wants Islamist rule in Syria but is regarded as moderate and pragmatist.

Competing groups advocate the creation of an Islamist state. These include the Syrian Islamist Front as well as more radical groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra — literally “Victory Front” — an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq that is listed as a terrorist group by the Obama administration. Another, Ahrar al-Sham, embraces a similar jihadist ideology and supports the imposition of austere, Taliban-like Islamic rule.

Those groups and potentially dozens of others have been in near-constant flux since the start of the war, adding to the confusion among U.S. analysts. But officials and experts said alliances among rebel organizations in recent months have created clearer ideological boundaries.

The CIA’s expanding role as conduit of nonlethal assistance over the past year has also given the agency deeper insight into the composition of groups and the flow of material, U.S. officials said.

The CIA does not have an established presence inside Syria, one official said. But it has been using bases in Turkey along the Syrian border, near where Idriss is based, since the outset of the conflict.

The agency’s weapons shipments are expected to be concentrated on routes out of Turkey, but U.S. officials said deliveries will also likely flow into southern Syria from Jordan, whose intelligence service has a long-standing relationship with the CIA.

“As the nonlethal aid has ramped up, U.S. intelligence has learned a lot more about who these guys are, who’s trustworthy and who’s not,” said a second U.S. official familiar with the shipment activity.

Less clear is the extent to which the CIA has technical means of monitoring the flow of arms shipments. U.S. military leaders have warned that they have no reliable way to track the heavy weaponry sought by rebel groups, including so-called MANPADs — the man-portable air-defense missiles that could help counter Assad’s air strength but could also be used by terrorist groups against civilian aviation targets.

As part of an effort to reassure the United States, regional allies presented a plan earlier this year in which rebels would be issued a small number of missiles and forced to return empty casings for each before receiving a new supply, said a Middle Eastern diplomat familiar with the plan.

“The Arabs have argued that MANPADs could be provided under highly controlled circumstances,” said the diplomat, who insisted on anonymity in describing private discussions with the United States. “The U.S. administration said it would investigate the matter, but they never responded.”



Craig Whitlock and Julie Tate contributed to this report.
source: Washington Post

SYRIAN TROOPS CAPTURE DAMASCUS SUBURB NEAR AIRPORT

By BASSEM MROUE

— Jun. 15 3:18 PM EDT

Protesters demonstrate against western intervention in Syria, outside the US embassy in central London, Saturday, June 15, 2013.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops pushed forward with their offensive against rebels Saturday, capturing a suburb near the Damascus international airport as the U.S. warned that the alleged use of chemical weapons by President Bashar Assad's forces and the involvement of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah in the civil war threaten to put a proposed political settlement out of reach.

The U.S. and Russia have been pressing for a peace conference to end Syria's civil war in Geneva, but prospects for that have been dampened after a series of regime battlefield victories and hardened positions by both sides as the death toll from the more than 2-year-old conflict has surged to nearly 93,000.

President Barack Obama's decision this week to send lethal aid to Syrian rebels and the deepening involvement of trained Shiite fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah group also has raised the stakes, setting up a proxy fight between Iran and the West that threatens to engulf more of the Middle East.

The U.S. reversal after months of saying it would not intervene in the conflict militarily came after Washington said it had conclusive evidence the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons, something Obama had said would be a "red line."

Syria has denied the accusations, saying Obama was lying about the evidence to justify his decision to arm the rebels. Syria's ally Russia also suggested Saturday that the evidence put forth by the United States of the use of chemical weapons doesn't meet stringent criteria for reliability.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was quoted in a statement as saying the United States continues to work aggressively for a political solution with the goal of a second Geneva meeting. But "the use of chemical weapons and increasing involvement of Hezbollah demonstrates the regime's lack of commitment to negotiations and threatens to put a political settlement out of reach," he said in a telephone conversation Friday with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

read more at AP

The United States Secret Courts, Secret Surveillance and Other Dealings in Secret Combinations Behind Closed Doors.

I've been reading about what a surveillance state actually is.  Remember Demolition Man?  It's the movie with Sylvester Stalone and Sandra Bullock in which a cop from the past is brought to the future...anywho, this future is ruled by laws where people get tickets for saying the wrong words and other behavioral things.  In other words, they don't get to have individual rights and therefore no individuality at all.

While members of Congress refuse to admit that they are in the know on the NSA secret snooping program, it has all been done with the approval of congress, so it is not very likely that the truth is being told here.  So, is there anyone in Washington who actually tells the truth?

"A top Republican lawmaker claimed Thursday terrorists have already started to change their behavior after a self-described NSA whistleblower leaked information about classified U.S. surveillance programs to various media outlets, saying the leaks may make it "harder to track bad guys." (Read more: Fox)

In steps the Electronic Frontier Foundation.  They had a victory Wednesday towards the release of a ruling on violations our precious (and now severely troubled) 4th Amendment rights.  Even the Director of National Intelligence has revealed that the SECRET FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE COURT (FISC) ruled that there has been 4th Amendment violations in the surveillance by our government.  While we talk about the citizens of China having a lack of freedoms, at least in China you know what to expect with the state.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation scored a remarkable — and remarkably timely — legal victory on Wednesday. The secret court at the center of the recent NSA surveillance revelations allowed the group's push for the release of a ruling on violations of Americans' Fourth Amendment rights to move forward.

In May, we reported on what was then a fairly sleepy issue, a distant node on the EFF's longstanding push to uncover how the NSA's intelligence-gathering systems conflicted with the Constitution. In July 2012, a letter from the Director of National Intelligence to Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon revealed that a ruling by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) found Fourth Amendment violations in the government's surveillance. source: Atlantic Wire 

In the Federalist Papers, No. 16 (Hamilton), it reads that this secret surveillance is deemed unconstitutional.  It reads as follows...

The State leaders may even make a merit of their surreptitious invasions of it (the Constitution) on the ground of some temporary convenience, exemption, or advantage.

Hamilton also talks about the power hungry leaders and how they may have a tendency to be wanton of domination instead of working for the citizens they represent.

An experiment of this nature (exertion of unconstitutional power) would always be hazardous in the face of a constitution in any degree competent to its own defense, and of a people enlightened enough to distinguish between a legal exercise and an illegal usurpation of authority.

... The regulation of the mere domestic police of a State appears to me to hold out slender allurements to ambition.  Commerce, finance, negotiation, and war seem to comprehend all the objects which have charms for minds governed by that passion; and all the powers...would contribute nothing to the dignity, to the importance, or to the splendor of the national government.

Were the Founders and those who wrote the Federalist Papers psychic?  Sure seems like they envisioned a future much like what we have, which has exploded into scandal after scandal that is ignored by Obama and his administration.  I agree with the following statements regarding the attitude of Obama and his administration.  I know that this was not started under Obama, but it has literally exploded with corruption under his administration because he has ignored the U.S. Constitution, as he has stated that he thinks of it as a nice historical document.

Surely, you might think, such all-encompassing surveillance must be unconstitutional, and ultimately will be stopped or modified by the Supreme Court. 

Think again. President Obama, among many others, has assured us that the government’s spying operations are entirely legal. 

The problem is not that the president has taken leave of his senses, or suddenly taken the rest of us for fools. The problem is that he may well be correct, at least according to the way the Supreme Court has thus far interpreted the Constitution. 

Because of their classified status, and notwithstanding the recent press revelations, the NSA surveillance operations’ extent and exact methodology remain largely unknown. But from a civil liberties standpoint, what we do know isn’t very encouraging. 

Phone RecordsOperating under various code names, such as Trailblazer, Stellar Wind and Ragtime, authority for the collection of telephone metadata—the phone numbers each of us calls and the numbers of those who call us—derives from Sections 215 and 505 of the Patriot Act, which was initially passed in 2001 and amended key provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. 

Section 215 (codified at 18 United States Code 1861) authorizes the FBI on behalf of the NSA to apply for court orders requiring phone companies to produce business records “to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.” The section served as the legal basis for the order published by The Guardian that was issued in April by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to Verizon Business Services. 

The court deliberates in secret, issues its orders on an “ex parte” basis without hearing from those affected by them, and only rarely publishes its decisions, although the Justice Department reports annually to Congress on the overall volume of surveillance applications. In 2012, the FBI submitted 1,789 applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. One was withdrawn; all the others were approved. 

Section 505 (codified at 18 USC 2709) authorizes the FBI to issue national security letters, without any judicial oversight, to obtain subscriber information and toll billing records from telecom carriers. Recipients of national security letters are subject to gag orders that forbid them from ever revealing the letters’ existence. In 2011, the FBI issued 16,511 such letters.Those seeking to declare these sections unconstitutional face at least one enormous obstacle: the 1979 case of Smith v. Maryland, in which the Supreme Court held that telephone users have no reasonable expectation of privacy in the records of their calling activities. As the Smith ruling instructs, absent a privacy expectation, no illegal search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment occurs. Unless the Supreme Court overrules or distinguishes Smith from the NSA’s current spying platforms, legal challenges to orders like the one issued to Verizon are likely to meet with little success. 

Internet Content SurveillanceThe obstacles facing those seeking to halt or limit the collection and reading of emails and other electronic communications under the PRISM program are in some ways even more daunting, courtesy of the Supreme Court’s decision in Clapper v. Amnesty International, released in February. In a 5-4 majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, the court dismissed a complaint brought by Amnesty International and other human rights groups, reasoning that none of the organizations had suffered actual legal harm, and thus lacked “standing” to sue. None could show, the majority argued, that its communications in fact had been intercepted in the past or that they would likely be intercepted in the future.  

Although domestic wiretapping warrants issued by judges must be supported by probable cause, the collection of emails challenged in the Clapper case and involved in the PRISM program is governed by another set of legal provisions, found in Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (codified at 18 USC 1881). These permit the attorney general and the director of national intelligence to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approval of surveillance operations against foreign targets upon certifications of reasonableness that fall short of the warrant requirement for probable cause. The provisions also authorize such operations to proceed without any court approval for up to seven days in “exigent circumstances,” as determined by the attorney general. 

Although the PRISM operation on its face is directed solely at foreign targets, even the sleuths at the NSA can’t always determine where a person is located. As a result, the agency reportedly collects information on targets believed with only 51 percent certainty to be outside the U.S. 

American journalists and others who investigate national security issues are thus left in a Kafkaesque dilemma, validly concerned that their emails to and from people abroad are being swept up in secret government data dragnets yet foreclosed on technical standing grounds from challenging the dragnets because they are unable to penetrate the very secrecy they object to.In the absence of a highly improbable constitutional turnaround by the Roberts court or some equally improbable decisive reform of the Patriot Act and FISA by Congress, this is the legal structure we will have for the foreseeable future. 

All nations have the right to protect themselves against terror. But in a country that prides itself on the values of transparency and the rule of law, we can do better than the current system, which seemingly falls short in both respects. source: Truth Dig

 What is a top secret court doing in our United States?!  They work in secret combinations behind closed doors, allowing for the signs of the times to come forth, written almost in exact wording with the Biblical prophecy.  They are an organization, like more organizations that we are finding out about, that are running our country from behind closed doors and by a few elite individuals.

Are we ready now for that discussion about secrecy? In December, in a holiday-season rush to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the U.S. Senate shot down several amendments intended to limit the powers the act grants to the government and to scale back the near-total secrecy that it authorizes. source: Bloomberg

Additionally, many are waking up to the fact that the votes for government leaders are fraudulent and are created behind closed doors as well.  What a frustrating thing to wake up to!  To wake up to the fact that your vote does not really count is a rough thing, especially for those of us who are instinctively and deeply patriotic to our United States of America.

The question for Barkin is not whether we should have a surveillance state since the surveillance state is certainly here but what type of surveillance state we will have. He notes that there are a number of dangers posed by the surveillance state. With all the data collected there may be a move towards a parallel track of preventative law enforcement that may be contrary to guarantees of a bill of rights.

Traditional law enforcement may begin also to follow this parallel track. With the vast data base of information collected by the government, local police forces will want to access and mine this information not just intelligence agents. Similarly social service providers will want access to information to serve clients better but also no doubt to weed out "undeserving" clients. Finally, Barkin claims that the government may use more and more private agencies to collect information for it, in order to circumvent constitutional guarantees. I am not sure that the government worries that much about such constitutional issues. James Clapper. National Intelligence Director, claims that the snooping is all perfectly legal under the Patriot Act and has been authorized by Congress:"Clapper said the data collection under the program, first unveiled by the newspapers The Washington Post and The Guardian in Britain, was conducted with the approval of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court and with the knowledge of Internet service providers."

The obvious reason to have the work done by private entities is that they can make a profit from this activity and then donate to election campaigns of politicians who helped privatize the data collection.

Balkin claims that there can be a democratic surveillance state or an authoritarian surveillance state. A democratic surveillance state collects as little data as possible and tells the public as much as possible about what it is being collected and what is being done with information. An authoritarian surveillance state will collect as much information as possible about its citizens and tell them as little as possible. Paul Krugman claims that the US should be classified as an authoritarian surveillance state. His position is stated in the appended video clip.
source: Digital Journal 

How do you feel about your 4th Amendment and about the secret dealings of our government?  I really want to hear from you!

Will NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden Be Assassinated?

Ron Paul: Edward Snowden May Be Target Of U.S. Drone Strike

Posted: 06/11/2013 8:53 pm EDT  |  Updated: 06/12/2013 9:44 am EDT

WASHINGTON -- Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) warned Tuesday that the U.S. government may use a drone missile to kill Edward Snowden, who recently leaked classified information on National Security Administration surveillance programs.

"I'm worried about somebody in our government might kill him with a cruise missile or a drone missile," Paul said during an interview on Fox Business News. "I mean, we live in a bad time where American citizens don't even have rights and that they can be killed. But the gentleman is trying to tell the truth about what's going on."

Snowden, a former NSA contractor, fled to Hong Kong before disclosing over the weekend that he was behind the leaks of information on NSA's sweeping monitoring of phone calls and Internet data. His actions have reignited a debate on Capitol Hill around security and civil liberties, and revived bipartisan legislation aimed at declassifying court opinions used to justify mass surveillance.

Paul, an ardent libertarian whose son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), waged an hours-long Senate filibuster in March in protest of the administration's drone policy, lamented that Americans are in an age "where people who tell the truth about what the government is doing" get in trouble.

"I don't think for a minute that he is a traitor," Ron Paul said of Snowden. "Everybody is worried about him and what they're going to do and how they're going to convict him of treason and how they're going to kill him. But what about the people who destroy our Constitution? ... What do we think about people who assassinate American citizens without trials and assume that's the law of the land? That's where our problem is."

Paul has a fan in Snowden: Campaign finance reports show that Snowden donated $250 to Paul's presidential campaign twice in 2012.

source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com

'US may kill NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden'

Last Updated: Wednesday, June 12, 2013, 16:58

Washington: Former Representative Ron Paul has expressed fear over US' potential use of ' drone missiles' to kill whistleblower Edward Snowden for leaking classified information about US snooping programme. 

Ron Paul has said that Americans live in an age where those who tell the truth about what the government is doing may face troubles, reports Huffington Post. 

According to the report, Paul does not believe that Snowden is a traitor and is concerned about the manner in which US will convict him for the treason.

Paul, whose son Senator Rand Paul protested against the administration's drone policy, expressed concern about those who destroy the Constitution and assassinate American citizens without trials and assume that's the law of the land. 

Snowden who in an attempt to escape US prosecution fled to Hong Kong was recently reported missing from hotel he was staying in rising concerns among his supporters. 

Paul has a fan in Snowden as he had donated 250 dollars to her Presidential campaign twice in 2012, the report added. 

source: 

http://zeenews.india.com

NSA leaker contributed to Ron Paul campaign: Records

Last Updated: Monday, June 10, 2013, 20:30

Washington: The computer expert behind the leaks about about two sweeping US surveillance programs gave money last year to libertarian Ron Paul's run for the Republican presidential nomination, election records indicate. 

Edward Snowden, the ex-CIA employee turned whistleblower, gave $500 to Paul, a presidential long-shot who bowed out of the race last May when it became clear Mitt Romney would be the Republican nominee. Federal Election Commission records show an Edward Snowden of Columbia, Maryland, whose employer is listed as Dell, contributing $250 to Paul's campaign on March 18, 2012. The man who leaked the vital US surveillance data worked at one point as a contractor for US computer giant Dell, according The Guardian, the British newspaper that published stories based on the leaks. 

On May 6, a man with the same name cut a check for $250, with his address listed as Waipahu, Hawaii, about nine miles (15 kilometers) from the NSA facility where Snowden said he recently worked as a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton. 

Snowden, 29, revealed himself Sunday as the source of The Guardian's expose of the US dragnet of Americans' telephone data as well as intelligence agencies' mining of Internet information such as email. 

The revelations have rocked Washington, and some US lawmakers have called for his extradition and prosecution. 

Ron Paul, an 11-term congressman from Texas who retired in January, earned a loyal and impassioned following, particularly among young Americans. 

His campaign focused on his vehement defense of constitutional principles and individual liberties, electrifying some young voters who had become disillusioned by years of war and skyrocketing deficits. 

read more at http://zeenews.india.com

No signs Edward Snowden has left Hong Kong

Updated 10:52 a.m. ET

HONG KONGThe former CIA employee who suddenly burst into headlines around the globe by revealing himself as the source of top-secret leaks about U.S. surveillance programs has just as quickly gone underground again.

Two days after he checked out of a Hong Kong hotel where he told the Guardian newspaper that he had "no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," Edward Snowden's whereabouts were still unclear, but it appears unlikely he has left the city.

Law enforcement sources say there is no evidence Snowden has left Hong Kong, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr, who adds that the sources suggest investigators have a pretty good idea where he might be.

The South China Morning Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation,claimed Wednesday to have obtained an exclusive interview with Snowden. Their report states he "has been holed up in secret locations in Hong Kong."

"People who think I made a mistake in picking (Hong Kong) as a location misunderstand my intentions. I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality," Snowden is quoted as telling the Post earlier Wednesday.

He told the Post he will fight any extradition attempt by the U.S. government, saying: "My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate. I have been given no reason to doubt your system."

Snowden, in his Sunday interview with the Guradian newspaper, said he wanted to avoid the media spotlight, noting he didn't want "the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the U.S. government is doing."

read more at http://www.cbsnews.com

As Snowden Vanishes, Russia Reaches Out to Him

NSA WHISTLEBLOWER DROPS OUT OF SIGHT IN HONG KONG

(NEWSER) – Edward Snowden checked out of his hotel in Hong Kong yesterday and has essentially disappeared. And while he is believed to still be in the territory, Russia has suggested it might welcome the man who exposed the NSA's secret surveillance, the Wall Street Journal reports. If a request for asylum is received, "it will be considered," the Kremlin's chief spokesman says. The head of a Russian foreign affairs committee called the former CIA employee a human rights activist—and predicted "hysteria" in the US if Moscow decided to grant him refuge. In other developments:

• There are more explosive stories to come from Snowden's leak, according to Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald. "We are going to have a lot more significant revelations that have not yet been heard over the next several weeks and months," Greenwald tells the AP, "and we intend to pursue every last one of them."

• A quirky tidbit from the New York Times on how Greenwald's meeting with Snowden went down. He (along with a colleague and documentarian) were to enter Snowden's hotel and ask for directions; if Snowden felt comfortable, he would walk past them carrying a Rubik's Cube—and that's exactly how it happened.
• Bloomberg dug extensively through Snowden's background and found little to suggest he would become one of the biggest whistleblowers in US history. Snowden, whose father retired from the Coast Guard a few years ago, never finished high school and spent a few years living alone in a Maryland condo where neighbors described him as "serious" and "studious."
• Snowden was apparently a Ron Paul supporter, but the feeling is mutual. On Piers Morgan Live, Paul last night said Snowden has "done a great service"—and deserves a thank-you letter from President Obama. "The president ran on transparency, we're getting a lot of transparency now."
• What Snowden will likely get instead: charged, and soon. Two officials tell ABC News the Justice Department is hustling to file criminal charges and try to get Snowden back on US soil.
• Snowden's exposé is also causing international headaches for Obama, the Guardian reports. Angela Merkel plans to grill Obama on NSA surveillance of European communications when they meet next week, and the European Commission chief has also promised to get answers from US officials.

read more at http://www.newser.com/story/169291/russia-wed-consider-snowden-asylum-request.html