Went through those leaked STRATFOR email a few weeks back and had taken these notes so figured I would post them up here for anybody who is interested... This is not comprehensive but rather just some of the more interesting details that emerged (mainly focused around Middle East, but some random outlandish stories included as well). For disclosures sake (not that it matters) I did subsribe to STRATFOR for one year following the Jan25 uprising in Egypt as they provided good daily news bulletins and frequent updates/reports - although the Egypt focused content decreased substantially following the parliamentary elections... Without further ado:
$125B of Mexican drug money each year between 2004-2007
b. Interesting correspondence around Flotilla sabatoge… Nothing groundbreaking but just
clearly they are supportive of Israel’s position (i.e. writing “Nice move” when the
sabotage was successful
c. Apparently, Democrats were ballot stuffing in US elections but McCain decided to be
the bigger man
1. Russia-Israel-Georgia-Mexico-Iran weapons trading/espionage ring (http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/64027_insight-russia-israel-georgia-mexico-defense-deals-and-swaps.html) – this adds some additional credence to the whole Iran taking over a US unmanned drone and landing it safely per the code swaps and drone hacks
4. Egypt – Post Mubarak (http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/309308_re-for-comment-conclusion-to-egypt-monograph-contemporary.html) – nothing groundbreaking but a nice summary of STRATFOR’s views that it was a palace coup and not a true revolution of the people (i.e. without army desiring removal of Mubarak nothing would have happened)
5. On Hamas’ role/view on Egyptian revolution (http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/309308_re-for-comment-conclusion-to-egypt-monograph-contemporary.html)
6. Libyan Contact – correspondences between an employee of http://www.scginternational.com/ (see website here – covers operations, logistics, intelligence, Iraq/Afghanistan, etc.) who was on the ground around September 2011…
Fred Burton: Interesting. You guys lending the opposition a hand? I would hope so.
James Smith: Certainly are. They need it. At the request of a usg committee and the rebs. Been there since no-fly.
Fred Burton: Tactical and intel support too?
James Smith: No, mainly tac ground training and psd for key figures.
Fred Burton then shares some article about potential assassintation of rebel leaders and asks if the threat is real/credible
James Smith: Completely. Last week of August I was at a house here (32DEG 52.552'N / 13DEG 8.512'E) owned by a man last name Hakin (like the MOD Hakin but not the same man).
After midnight we recv'd ph call from anonymous caller telling him to get ready for a vehicle to come by to pick him up and take him to a pos so he could pickup some money.
We then called a contact at MOD and ran it by them, they knew of the ruse somehow and said it was a trap aimed at the real Hakin (MOD head) and that we should vacate asap. We grabbed weapons, go-bag and moved out of the house on foot down the streets (can't drive this area due to roadblocks at every corner) to a safe(r) house. I happened to be solo that night. I moved him to the top of the house (3rd deck), barricaded the door on ground and the access to the roof, then put him down and maintained overwatch of the street below from the roof til dawn. This happens frequently here. Definite threat to NTC and lower level brigade leadership as well.
MAP of location mentioned: http://ow.ly/9WIMt
7. Hugo Chavez health issues and Venezuela transition plus some tidbits around Iran and George Friedman’s advice on how to secure a source - also, examples of how militaries all over the world enjoy their luxuries (http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/202526_re-insight-venezuela-update-on-chavez-s-health-power.html)
8. Feeling that global elite are lost. http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/1116544_re-insight-for-internal-use-only-on-pain-of-agony-.html These emails are from 2010 and also have much discussion about Kissinger believing Iran is about to go to war which obviously turned out to be false…
9. Halliburton alleged dirty games (http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/5417564_sam-kent-and-halliburton-.html)
Date 2011-12-13 16:02:19
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Reva's note - this is extremely interesting, especially the bolded part below. DOes Iran really think it can convince the US to collaborate with them on regime change in SYria in such a way that will end up in Iran's favor? the whole point of the US focusing in on Syria is to contain Iran in the first place. This sounds like the Iranians are getting to be in an increasingly desperate position. Always be wary of source bias, but why would a HZ source want to spread info on the weakness of the Syrian regime and the lack of options for Iran? I do believe the part about Iran preferring a palace coup over the Turkish strategy of building up an opposition via FSA.
SOURCE: ME1 and ME1386
SOURCE DESCRIPTION: ME1 and member of Hamas politburo
SOURCE HANDLER: Reva
Marhaba Reva,
I strongly believe that Asad's regime will fall in 2012. The conventional wisdom that Asad will survive, because both Iran and Israel view him with favor, is a thing of the past. The situation in Syria has reached the point of no return. It is true than nine months of demonstrations have not brought down the regime but, by the same token, regime brutality and heavy handedness have not quelled the uprising. If anything, the level of hostilities and army defections is on the rise.
The breaking point will come when the military establishment realizes that Asad must go. There are signs that the military establishment is beginning to disintegrate. I talked to [ME1386] and he told me that Alawite officers and enlisted men are beginning to join the ranks of the FSA. This represents a major development. Alawite officers are divided since many of them are unhappy about the use of excessive force against Sunni protesters. Alawite officers are aware that Asad is trying to find an asylum for himself and his family should his regime become unslavageable. This is upsetting many Alawites who are coming to realize that Asad will abandon them. If so, they reason that it would be suicidal to continue to win the wrath of the Sunnis. Walid al-Muallim offered to resign but Asad turned down his request. This is a clear indicator that many of Asad's men are realizing that they are putting a vain fight against the burgeoning uprising.
The Iranians are weighing in the situation in Syria very carefully. One must read beyond the public statements of the Iranians, especially ayatollah Khamenei. Both Khamenei and Ahmadinejad have concluded that Asad's regime cannot be rescued. It is perfectly understood that the regime in Damascus will fall along lines similar to the Libyan model. There will have to be a coup in Damascus, be it a military or political one.
One must not dismiss the pragmatism of Khamenei. Iran appears to be willing to use its influence in Syria to stage a coup, provided that it is able to ensure that the new leadership will continue to pursue excellent relations with Tehran. The Iranians have approached the Americans on this. In the past, Iran collaborated with the U.S. on the ouster of Saddam Hussein and Iran won big in Iraq. The Iranians would not mind working again on ousting Asad if they can secure good results in Syria. Syria's contiguity to Iraq allows Iran to play a direct role in the affairs of Damascus.
The Iranians feel they need to act on Syria soon because the Turks have their own plans for Syria and are not coordinating with the Iranians. He says the Turks are moving slowly but systematically. Iran does not want to allow Turkey to take over Syria. Whereas the Turks are coordinating with the Brotherhood and the FSA, the Iranians prefer a palace coup in damascus in order to maintain their ties with Asad's successors. What is delaying action in Syria is the fact that the U.S. has not yet decided on the shape of the post-Asad political system. Nevertheless, he insists that Asad's regime will fall, although the future of Syria after the regime change remains nebulous.
12. Other:
- Russia-Israel-Georgia-Mexico-Iran weapons trading/espionage ring – this adds some additional credence to the whole Iran taking over a US unmanned drone and landing it safely per the code swaps and drone hacks
- Examples of Mexican-Israel corruption
- View from an IDF source who was an old high school buddy of a STRATFOR employee
- Egypt – Post Mubarak – nothing groundbreaking but a summary of STRATFOR’s views that it was a palace coup and not a true revolution of the people (i.e. without army desiring removal of Mubarak nothing would have happened)
- On Hamas’ role/view on Egyptian revolution
- Libyan Contact – correspondences between an employee of SCG International who was on the ground around September 2011
- Hugo Chavez health issues and Venezuela transition plus some tidbits around Iran and George Friedman’s advice on how to secure a source
- Feeling that global elite are lost: These emails are from 2010 and also have much discussion about Kissinger believing Iran is about to go to war which obviously turned out to be false…
- Halliburton alleged dirty games
- Crazy discussion about Israeli commandos using Kurdish elements (or Jewish citizens) within Iran to bomb nuclear infrastructure in November, 2011
- STRATFOR’s Middle East source (Lebanese military apparently) and a Hamas member gave this overview of Syria claiming that Iran is reaching out to the US on controlled regime change
- Other
$125B of Mexican drug money each year between 2004-2007
b. Interesting correspondence around Flotilla sabatoge… Nothing groundbreaking but just
clearly they are supportive of Israel’s position (i.e. writing “Nice move” when the
sabotage was successful
c. Apparently, Democrats were ballot stuffing in US elections but McCain decided to be
the bigger man
1. Russia-Israel-Georgia-Mexico-Iran weapons trading/espionage ring (http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/64027_insight-russia-israel-georgia-mexico-defense-deals-and-swaps.html) – this adds some additional credence to the whole Iran taking over a US unmanned drone and landing it safely per the code swaps and drone hacks
- This is the interesting part, though. Idra had an offer to sell UAVs to Georgia (this was happening during and after the war).The reason Georgia needed the UAVs is because the UAVs they had bought from Israel had been compromised by the Russians. The Russians got the data link for the UAV (there is some suspicion that the Israelis after the war may have given this to them. Remember all the intense mtgs b/w the Israelis and the Russians where the Russians got the Israelis to back off of defense deals to Georgia in return for Russia backing off Iran?). Anyway, the Georgians gave Idra a picture of one of their crashed UAVs. The source explained though that if the UAV were targeted, it would have been blown to pieces pretty much (it's like the size of a car basically). But the picture he saw showed the UAV intact. He inquired and basically what happened was that the Russians acquired the data link to hack into the system and force the UAV into the ground. I think they may have crashed another one too.
- Here is the most interesting part: I inquired more about the compromised Israeli UAVs. What he explained was that Israel and Russia made a swap -- Israel gave Russia the 'data link' code for those specific UAVs; in return, Russia gave Israel the codes for Iran's Tor-M1s.
- I asked about the S-300 (source tracks a lot of defense deals for Jane's). He doesn't think the Russians will give it to the Iranians. Besides, he said... Israel and Turkey have been collaborating very closely on the S-300s. He explain how about 8 years ago when Russia sold S-300s to Greece to base in Crete (which were supposed to protect Cyprus), Russia delivered those with a carrier so that Turkey wouldn't try to sink them. (things got a bit noisy so i may have misheard some of this). The gist of what he said is that Turkey has been cracking the S-300 since the Crete sale and has been sharing intel on the S-300 with the Israelis to ensure that they retain an advantage over Iran should Iran get them from the Russians. as far as the Georgian UAVs go, they were interested in the Mexican ones because the Mexican UAVs had something (forget the name. it was auto-something' that basically backs up teh UAV system in case someone hacks into it and immediately returns the UAV to base.
- There is a private Mexican company called Idra that the government funded to make UAVs. They are actually pretty high standard according to him and beat out the Israeli UAVs in testing. My friend was consulting Idra at the time and so he was privy to a lot of deals that were on the table. This is the story --
- The Mexican government is now paying some $25m (? can get the #s later) for UAVs from Israel. Idra is basically like WTF, but the reason is basically corruption. There is a deal b/w the Mexican interior ministry and the Israelis where they're getting a hefty kickback.
- When I tried to explain that we typically scoff at calling it the Arab Spring as well, I was cut off, so that I could hear another lecture about how horrible Arabs were.
- Source is in D.C. frequently for meetings with DIA. When I asked if they are often trained by the Americans, the response was a smirk and, "We like to think we don't need the Americans to train us." IDI, source said, is "more creative" than American counterparts
- Source openly said that none of this shit would be happening right now had Obama not abandoned Mubarak like he did.
- Because Obama abandoned Mubarak, source lamented the fact that Egypt was no longer the leader of the Arab world. This does not mean source believes the MB is on the verge of completely taking power in Egypt - (I specifically asked if that was the belief the IDI holds) - but it does mean that there is a steep drop in faith that the SCAF has ability to maintain the status quo. Overall I found the message on Egypt a bit confusing.
- Source says they jokingly refer to AQAP as "AQHP" after the HP printer bombs that got seized on those DHL flights a few years back.
4. Egypt – Post Mubarak (http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/309308_re-for-comment-conclusion-to-egypt-monograph-contemporary.html) – nothing groundbreaking but a nice summary of STRATFOR’s views that it was a palace coup and not a true revolution of the people (i.e. without army desiring removal of Mubarak nothing would have happened)
- As (now deposed) President Mubarak aged, however, an internal challenge arose to the military oligarchy in the form of the former president’s son, Gamal Mubarak, who wanted to transform Egypt from a military oligarchy into a more traditional Egyptian dynasty. Doing this required the breaking of the militarya**s hold on the economy. Gamal and his allies -- often with the express assistance of international institutions like the World Bank -- worked to privatize Egyptian state assets to themselves. This process was a direct threat to the military’s political and economic position at the top of Egyptian society. The military also viewed Gamal, who never completed his military service, as a political neophyte, incapable of understanding and managing the country’s security imperatives.
- The result was the Arab Spring. In the months leading up to the January demonstrations, Egypt’s top generals were delivering very stern ultimatums to the president to abandon any hope of passing the reins to Gamal while looking at their options to unseat Mubarak via more unconventional means. The military strategically positioned itself early on in the demonstration as the honest broker and guardian of the protesters, taking care to avoid a violent crackdown on the demonstrators while Mubaraka**s internal security forces were vilified on the streets.
- Such a light hand was not due to lack of capacity, but due to lack of need. The demonstrations provided the generals with the means to dismantle the Mubarak legacy, the biggest liability to their own livelihood, while maintaining the paramount role of the military.
- But perhaps the most central indication that the revolution was misconstrued comes from the participation levels. On the day that Mubarak ultimately stepped down the protests reached their peak. By the most aggressive estimate only 750,000 people -- less than 1 percent of the population of densely populated Egyptian’s took to the streets. In true revolutions such as that which overthrew Communism in Central Europe or the shah in Iran, the proportion regularly breached 10 percent and on occasions even touched 50 percent. In short, Egypt’s Arab Spring was a palace coup, not a revolution.
- But the military’s Mubarak removal strategy did not come without risks. The military would much prefer to return to the days of ruling behind the scenes while leaving day to day governing to a civilian government that ultimately answers to the generals. But the political opening that the military helped to create has also greatly complicated matters: the military must now employ a much more complex balancing act at home to altogether keep the civilian government impotent, the opposition divided and foreign funding flowing toward a half-hearted democratic transition.
- With trade and tourism severely curtailed as a result of Egypta**s political unrest, the military must place extra effort in keeping up democratic appearances with the west now that the country is once against dependent upon the economic largess of outside powers. In dealing with the opposition at home, the military is no stranger to divide-and-conquer tactics and has maintained a robust intelligence service to keep tabs on already severely divided opposition.
5. On Hamas’ role/view on Egyptian revolution (http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/309308_re-for-comment-conclusion-to-egypt-monograph-contemporary.html)
- Hamas will have to do more than a public relations campaign to break out of isolation. The Egyptian military, which shares Israel’s interest in keeping Hamas contained and the Sinai buffer clear of foreign threats, remains the biggest obstacle to Hamas’ strategic objective of dominating the Palestinian political scene without Egyptian and Israeli shackles. Hamas would like to see a political evolution in Egypt that results in an Egyptian Islamist government friendly to Hamas and hostile to Israeli interests. This is an ambitious agenda, but is one likely worth working toward from the point of view of the Hamas leadership. The best chance that Hamas has in accelerating this evolution is by creating a crisis of legitimacy for the Egyptian military by drawing the military into a conflict with Israel. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, and there is no shortage of militant proxies that have benefited from the Egyptian military’s political distractions to expand their area of operations in the Sinai. Israel is already frustrated by the Egyptian military’s slackened control over the Sinai and tends to revert to a more preemptive regional posture when neighborhood threats cross a certain line. Add to this the potential for Iran and Syria to exercise their militant proxy options to take the attention off regime change campaigns in Damascus, and Egypt could find itself in the midst of a Sinai crisis with Israel that both sides have spent the past 33 years desperately trying to avoid.
6. Libyan Contact – correspondences between an employee of http://www.scginternational.com/ (see website here – covers operations, logistics, intelligence, Iraq/Afghanistan, etc.) who was on the ground around September 2011…
Fred Burton: Interesting. You guys lending the opposition a hand? I would hope so.
James Smith: Certainly are. They need it. At the request of a usg committee and the rebs. Been there since no-fly.
Fred Burton: Tactical and intel support too?
James Smith: No, mainly tac ground training and psd for key figures.
Fred Burton then shares some article about potential assassintation of rebel leaders and asks if the threat is real/credible
James Smith: Completely. Last week of August I was at a house here (32DEG 52.552'N / 13DEG 8.512'E) owned by a man last name Hakin (like the MOD Hakin but not the same man).
After midnight we recv'd ph call from anonymous caller telling him to get ready for a vehicle to come by to pick him up and take him to a pos so he could pickup some money.
We then called a contact at MOD and ran it by them, they knew of the ruse somehow and said it was a trap aimed at the real Hakin (MOD head) and that we should vacate asap. We grabbed weapons, go-bag and moved out of the house on foot down the streets (can't drive this area due to roadblocks at every corner) to a safe(r) house. I happened to be solo that night. I moved him to the top of the house (3rd deck), barricaded the door on ground and the access to the roof, then put him down and maintained overwatch of the street below from the roof til dawn. This happens frequently here. Definite threat to NTC and lower level brigade leadership as well.
MAP of location mentioned: http://ow.ly/9WIMt
7. Hugo Chavez health issues and Venezuela transition plus some tidbits around Iran and George Friedman’s advice on how to secure a source - also, examples of how militaries all over the world enjoy their luxuries (http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/202526_re-insight-venezuela-update-on-chavez-s-health-power.html)
- Guess who has been most cooperative with us lately? The military elite. These guys have been living the good life. They love women... lots of women. THey love booze. They love bora bora. They are easy to bribe. They dont care about chavez. they care about maintaining their current lifestyles. We've seen a lot of these military elite reach out to us lately, trying to insulate themselves in a post-Chavez scenario.
- This is why you'll see Chavez investing a lot of time and money in developing the militia. They're his best insurance policy. The more of a problem the militia can create on the streets, the more the military elite will hestiate before acting against him or his potential successor.
- The intent of the ley de precios is very simple. The money laundering schemes in food, pharmaceuticals, energy parts, etc. etc. have gotten worse./ Completely unchecked. This price controls law is the government's way of controlling opposition campaign spending. Very straightforward - they have the legal justification to intimidate corporations into cutting back their support for the opposition, or else, their company is taken over. This will allow the state more control of the private sector.
- we were talking a bit about a recent PdVSA-Iran joint venture. They shifted their main base of operations from Caracas to Ankara, though. This has become a trend lately, where a lot of Iran's sanctions circumventing oeprations in VZ are quietly being relocated to Turkey. Part of Turkey's balancing act with Iran.
- Remember that there are four key players propping up the regime - China, Cuba, Russia, Iran. All four are split on how to manage a post-Chavez regime.
- From George Friedman himself: If this is a source you suspect may have value, you have to take control od him. Control means financial, sexual or psychological control to the point where he would reveal his sourcing and be tasked.
8. Feeling that global elite are lost. http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/1116544_re-insight-for-internal-use-only-on-pain-of-agony-.html These emails are from 2010 and also have much discussion about Kissinger believing Iran is about to go to war which obviously turned out to be false…
- One sense I'm getting here is that the American elite, along with Europe's, China's and just about everyone but Russia's his suffering from three problems: First, none are really aware of the political pressures on other elites. Second, they completely misunderstand the alienation of the publics, three, except for Volcker, they think this can be handled by the elites among themselves. We have a crisis of the elites, in my view.
- Friedman: Turkey would break with israel and the united states. It would be an opportunity erdogan is looking for. Iran would become more visible but not more powerful. A year after the attack its underlying weakness would still be there and its dependence on turkey greater. In my view the ourtcome of this is turkish power. But remeber, my insight is not that israel will attack. Its that Kissinger thinks they will attack. Huge difference.
9. Halliburton alleged dirty games (http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/5417564_sam-kent-and-halliburton-.html)
- I had lunch yesterday in Houston with former-Federal Judge Sam Kent (the first Federal Judge found guilty of serious crimes in the US) and he told me why he thinks he was prosecuted. (For those who haven't followed this, he was found guilty on perjury & sexual misconduct. Yes, he slept with those two women, but it was consensual - they were old affairs and long over.)
- What Sam said was that "isn't is strange that the Justice Department begins sniffing around for dirt to throw at me just weeks after I ruled a heavy case against Halliburton. Then a small set of affairs turn into an untrue situation and then spun up into an unprecedented case against a Federal Judge."
- Of course, I told him he was nuts to rule anything against Halliburton. I also told him that this sounds like a John Grisham plotline.
- Chain starts of with news reports of blasts in Iran (confirmed by Iran) and quotes Ehud Barak: “I don't know the extent of the explosion," he told military radio, asked about the incident. "But it would be desirable if they multiply."
- Then, a source claims: “I think this [push for war] is a diversion. The Israelis already destroyed all the Iranian nuclear infrastructure on the ground weeks ago. The current "let's bomb Iran" campaign was ordered by the EU leaders to divert the public attention from their at home financial problems. It plays also well for the US since Pakistan, Russia and N. Korea are mentioned in the report. The result of this campaign will be massive attacks on Gaza and strikes on Hezbollah in both Lebanon and Syria.”
- When asked to clarify response, source re-confirmed, saying: Israeli commandos in collaboration with Kurd forces destroyed few underground facilities mainly used for the Iranian defense and nuclear research projects. Despite the reports in the media and against any public knowledge, the promoter of a massive Israeli attack on Syria is the axis India-Russia-Turkey-Saudi Arabia. The axis US-Germany-France-China is against such an attack from obvious reasons. Not many people know that Russia is one of Israel's largest military partners and India is Israel's largest client. If a direct conflict between Iran and Israel erupts, Russia and Saudi Arabia will gain the advantages on oil increasing prices. On the other hand, China and Europe are expected to loose from an oil crisis as a result of a conflict. Based on Israeli plans, the attack on Iran will last only 48 hours but will be so destructive that Iran will be unable to retaliate or recover and the government will fall. It is hard to believe that Hamas or Hezbollah will try to get involved in this conflict. In the open media many are pushing and expecting Israel to launch a massive attack on Iran. Even if the Israelis have the capabilities and are ready to attack by air, sea and land, there is no need to attack the nuclear program at this point after the commandos destroyed a significant part of it. If a massive attack on Iran happens soon, then the attack will have political and oil reasons and not nuclear. It is also very hard to believe that the Israelis will initiate an attack unless they act as a contractor for other nations or if Iran or its proxies attack first. With the revealed of the new UN report the Israelis have green light to take care of the Iranian proxies in Gaza and Lebanon now with the entire world watching Iran. I think that we should expect escalations on these fronts rather than an Israeli attack on Iran.
- Continued discussion: Ah. As stick said, they would more likely use proxies. But if not, special operations forces do often move undetected. Don't think of them as going in on a helicopter, think of them as going in with a group of migrant workers crossing the border. There used to be a lot of jews in Iran, not so much anymore, that's who I would recruit form.
- Response: There are still about 20,000 Jews in Iran (Tehran and Esfahan mostly), but IMO, they are far too scared of being accused as Israeli spies too actually help Israel out.
- After someone cites Stuxnet as an analogous previous Israeli attack: Penetrating a major military installation and causing a blast is a totally different ballgame. Not saying it can't happen. But we can't assume that because they did stuxnet that they are capable of doing this blast as well. It is a huge leap in capabilities.
- And finally Fred Burton closes with: “p.s. I'm offended that we may believe an Iranian before a Jew”
Date 2011-12-13 16:02:19
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Reva's note - this is extremely interesting, especially the bolded part below. DOes Iran really think it can convince the US to collaborate with them on regime change in SYria in such a way that will end up in Iran's favor? the whole point of the US focusing in on Syria is to contain Iran in the first place. This sounds like the Iranians are getting to be in an increasingly desperate position. Always be wary of source bias, but why would a HZ source want to spread info on the weakness of the Syrian regime and the lack of options for Iran? I do believe the part about Iran preferring a palace coup over the Turkish strategy of building up an opposition via FSA.
SOURCE: ME1 and ME1386
SOURCE DESCRIPTION: ME1 and member of Hamas politburo
SOURCE HANDLER: Reva
Marhaba Reva,
I strongly believe that Asad's regime will fall in 2012. The conventional wisdom that Asad will survive, because both Iran and Israel view him with favor, is a thing of the past. The situation in Syria has reached the point of no return. It is true than nine months of demonstrations have not brought down the regime but, by the same token, regime brutality and heavy handedness have not quelled the uprising. If anything, the level of hostilities and army defections is on the rise.
The breaking point will come when the military establishment realizes that Asad must go. There are signs that the military establishment is beginning to disintegrate. I talked to [ME1386] and he told me that Alawite officers and enlisted men are beginning to join the ranks of the FSA. This represents a major development. Alawite officers are divided since many of them are unhappy about the use of excessive force against Sunni protesters. Alawite officers are aware that Asad is trying to find an asylum for himself and his family should his regime become unslavageable. This is upsetting many Alawites who are coming to realize that Asad will abandon them. If so, they reason that it would be suicidal to continue to win the wrath of the Sunnis. Walid al-Muallim offered to resign but Asad turned down his request. This is a clear indicator that many of Asad's men are realizing that they are putting a vain fight against the burgeoning uprising.
The Iranians are weighing in the situation in Syria very carefully. One must read beyond the public statements of the Iranians, especially ayatollah Khamenei. Both Khamenei and Ahmadinejad have concluded that Asad's regime cannot be rescued. It is perfectly understood that the regime in Damascus will fall along lines similar to the Libyan model. There will have to be a coup in Damascus, be it a military or political one.
One must not dismiss the pragmatism of Khamenei. Iran appears to be willing to use its influence in Syria to stage a coup, provided that it is able to ensure that the new leadership will continue to pursue excellent relations with Tehran. The Iranians have approached the Americans on this. In the past, Iran collaborated with the U.S. on the ouster of Saddam Hussein and Iran won big in Iraq. The Iranians would not mind working again on ousting Asad if they can secure good results in Syria. Syria's contiguity to Iraq allows Iran to play a direct role in the affairs of Damascus.
The Iranians feel they need to act on Syria soon because the Turks have their own plans for Syria and are not coordinating with the Iranians. He says the Turks are moving slowly but systematically. Iran does not want to allow Turkey to take over Syria. Whereas the Turks are coordinating with the Brotherhood and the FSA, the Iranians prefer a palace coup in damascus in order to maintain their ties with Asad's successors. What is delaying action in Syria is the fact that the U.S. has not yet decided on the shape of the post-Asad political system. Nevertheless, he insists that Asad's regime will fall, although the future of Syria after the regime change remains nebulous.
12. Other:
- Interesting case of Wachovia (seemingly knowingly) participating in the handling of $125B of Mexican drug money each year between 2004-2007 with penalty of paying federal authorities $110m in forfeiture, for allowing transactions later proved to be connected to drug smuggling, and incurred a $50m fine for failing to monitor cash used to ship 22 tons of cocaine.” (The total fine was less than 2% of the bank's $12.3bn profit for 2009. On 24 March 2010, Wells Fargo stock traded at $30.86 - up 1% on the week of the court settlement.) http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/1115826_re-us-bank-dirty-money-.html
- Interesting correspondence around Flotilla sabatoge… Notihng groundbreaking but just clearly they are supportive of Israel’s position (i.e. writing “Nice move” when the sabotage was successful and “there's gotta be some rich Turkey or qatari or hollywood actor who just gets a kick out of telling his rich friends that one of his boats is involved in supporting the cause of the repressed palestinian peoples”). Additionally, STRATFOR seem to have little/no connection to Arab government insiders (other than the ME1 contact within the Lebanese military) but very brazenly ask “Should I ask the IDF?” Also, this post contains a reference to an “IDF document” that was circulated last week so clearly they are getting intel directly somehow (http://english.al-akhbar.com/gi-files/activists-israel-sabotaged-irish-vessel-too)
- Democrats ballot stuffing: pretty interesting
a. http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/339396_re-insight-the-dems-and-dirty-tricks-internal-use-only-pls.html
b. http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/347043_insight-mccain-5-internal-use-only-pls-do-
not-forward-.html