The GCHQ listening post on Mount Troodos in Cyprus is arguably the most valued asset which the UK contributes to UK/US intelligence cooperation. The communications intercept agencies, GCHQ in the UK and NSA in the US, share all their intelligence reports (as do the CIA and MI6). Troodos is valued enormously by the NSA. It monitors all radio, satellite and microwave traffic across the Middle East, ranging from Egypt and Eastern Libya right through to the Caucasus. Even almost all landline telephone communication in this region is routed through microwave links at some stage, picked up on Troodos.
Troodos is highly effective – the jewel in the crown of British intelligence. Its capacity and efficiency, as well as its reach, is staggering. The US do not have their own comparable facility for the Middle East. I should state that I have actually been inside all of this facility and been fully briefed on its operations and capabilities, while I was head of the FCO Cyprus Section in the early 1990s. This is fact, not speculation.
It is therefore very strange, to say the least, that John Kerry claims to have access to communications intercepts of Syrian military and officials organising chemical weapons attacks, which intercepts were not available to the British Joint Intelligence Committee.
On one level the explanation is simple. The intercept evidence was provided to the USA by Mossad, according to my own well placed source in the Washington intelligence community. Intelligence provided by a third party is not automatically shared with the UK, and indeed Israel specifies it should not be.
But the inescapable question is this. Mossad have nothing comparable to the Troodos operation. The reported content of the conversations fits exactly with key tasking for Troodos, and would have tripped all the triggers. How can Troodos have missed this if Mossad got it? The only remote possibility is that all the conversations went on a purely landline route, on which Mossad have a physical wire tap, but that is very unlikely in a number of ways – not least nowadays the purely landline route.
Israel has repeatedly been involved in the Syrian civil war, carrying out a number of illegal bombings and missile strikes over many months. This absolutely illegal activity by Israel- which has killed a great many civilians, including children – has brought no condemnation at all from the West. Israel has now provided “intelligence” to the United States designed to allow the United States to join in with Israel’s bombing and missile campaign.
The answer to the Troodos Conundrum is simple. Troodos did not pick up the intercepts because they do not exist. Mossad fabricated them. John Kerry’s “evidence” is the shabbiest of tricks. More children may now be blown to pieces by massive American missile blasts. It is nothing to do with humanitarian intervention. It is, yet again, the USA acting at the behest of Israel.
Hardly surprising that Jemand has reappeared, making my reappearance crystal clear for his when he concluded about crackpot conspiracy theories. and Ben has now gone missing, I shall still continue posting as it is about the only site around where free posting can occur about a most serious international confrontation since the end of the Cold War, though the posting here has gone steadily downhill since Jemand returned.
Obama is experiencing his JFK moments now with both the confrontation with Russia, and its backlash occurring almost at the same time.
The President, like JFK, certainly did not want to go ahead with what hawks like Biden and McCain want to thrust upon him, and he finally faced up to them by leaving the decision up to Congress – what JFK achieved similarly during the Cuban Missile Crisis by arguing it out with almost everyone concerned in the White House Situation Room.
Now Obama has to worry about his own assassination, and I hope that all the Swedish authorities take his security most seriously because if he is assassinated in Sweden, we will have another showdown with Russia et al. because they fell prey again to the alleged Stockholm Syndrome.
And my conclusion about Biden being behind it all is based upon America’s security state going through all my papers when my furniture was going through New York’s Port Authority after it had scanned the cargo container at my expense for a dirty bomb or some explosives, only to go through the papers to see if I had gotten help from the Iranians about who killed John Wheeler and their prospective Shah after I had revived their fate on The Local, only for it to advertise that it had made an unsuccessful drug bust to hide what it was really up to.
This is just another example of what our crazy conspiracy theorists, the counterterrorists, thrive on.
“My enthusiasms/psychological fortitude in face of all the crap we have to deal with waxes and wanes like Craig’s seems to – and please bare with the odd silly typos – I get a bit dyslexic when in full flow.” Wikispooks.
No worries, your dedicated work is very much appreciated by those of us who seek to question official/superficial narratives in a rational manner.
The MSM is still at it despite the opinion polls saying less than 20% approved of Military action-
And then they give the excuse that we are all war weary as if we were not tired of the death , destruction and mayhem we cause , but just tired of actually carrying it out-
And this empty vessel that is our Foreign Secretary is telling Miliband he has pissed some pretty powerful people off.The same people who have been spouting that the ME needs democracy. Yet as soon as it works , producing any other result than the one they want, they ignore it. As Miliband said so well, the UN is not just an inconvenient side show.
Still no evidence ! The best the JIC could do was say that all the You Tube video’s couldn’t be falsified ! That’s like saying eat shit, 10 billion flies can’t be wrong !
Dreoilin: thanks for the link. It’s revealing that Obama acted on his own. He would appear to be more far-sighted than his predecessor.
Suhayl: Is Ha-aretz worth $1? Nah, stick with Al Jazeera, which has been criticised by so many countries that it must be doing something right. The BBC’s Frank Gardner spoke of it respectfully in the Oxford Union (set of small but good videoclips on Youtube).
John Goss: A great broadcaster has passed away. I remember reading an interview of him with Billy Graham published as a book many years ago. I’ve ordered the film Frost/Nixon (cheap on DVD). I guess you would recommend the whole original interviews, also on DVD (though not so cheap)?
@Juteman
I’m not anti Scots.
Just anti Nationalist knuckledraggers.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/09/01/321529/antiscots-indep-front-gains-momentum/
@Donald – Great thinking if I may say. I think you may have be right that Obama may have played Cameron like a kipper but Obama still believes in proxy wars and a ‘leading from behind’ policy. He may not want this attack but he is still a very dangerous dictator who wants to see America becoming a basket case
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Friends_of_Israel
@N_ : What are YOUR credentials on this, to make such specific statements. We KNOW what Mr Murrays are- and they are easily checkable.
The internet is FULL of these supposed secret systems that every Country has. Ours, followed by USA is probably about the most comprehensive, but even then they don’t get everything they want.
This idea that the world is crammed with people sitting behind a desk listening in to ANY AND ALL conversations is interesting, but entirely untrue.
The US has 2 ships full of marines among the destroyers.Obama has said no boots on the ground in Syria. But those same marines have a gripe with Lebanon as does Israel with Hezbollah.
Hezbollah could end up fighting on 3 fronts.
If any poster needs evidence of how precarious President Obama’s position is now over Syria, they should read Mark Landler’s NYT article where he recounted how Obama decided to go for congressional approval without consulting Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, and over the objections of his White House staff.
Obama is naked to his enemies now, and he should be worried about some inside assassination, as I have warned Swedish authorities on The Local.
Stockholm or some place in Europe when he goes to the G20 meeting in Saint Petersburg could prove to be Obama’s Dallas.
For when JFK was in this precarious position, read Christopher Andrew’s terrible book, For The President’s Eyes Only, where he acts as if the President and the CIA were on the same page when it came to Castro as JFK was preparing to go to Texas, and the President’s limo had the “bubble top” off as just part of safe, domestic electioneering in Dallas – what made it easy, according to the Cambridge professor, for an assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, to assassinate him. (pp. 305-6)
@ Mary (08h50)
“She {ie Dr Rola Hallam }should stick to medicine and leave out the politics.”
_________________
Why?
Because you don’t agree with her views?
I see we have all been posting the link to Sharmine Narwani’s piece. I saw it posted by Emersberger on Medialens and put it here this morning.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/08/the-troodos-conundrum/comment-page-2/#comment-426850
~~
Before I went out this morning, I watched the beginning of Marr’s programme. It was his first appearance since his stroke which has left him walking with a stick, a useless left arm and drooping to the right side of his mouth. Is he brave or foolhardy? Wouldn’t the sensible thing be to have taken it easy for a while longer.
He had Hague, Osborne and Alexander on whom none of whom I saw as I switched off when I heard they were coming on. To review the Sunday papers he had Simon Schama and Amanda Platell, Hague’s press secretary when he was party leader. After they had reviewed the papers which were almost all about Syria, Schama was given time at the end to publicize his BBC 2 five-parter, starting tonight, The History of the Jews. There is a book to flog too with the same title.
Do the BBC ever give us five whole hours on the history of the Palestinians, or the Native American people or the Australian Aboriginal people? No. Of course they don’t.
PS I heard Marr use the phrase ‘when the missiles start to fly’ referring to an attack on Syria. He has obviously learnt nothing since propagandizing for B.Liar’s war on Iraq.
~~
Suhayl. Agree about Dr Rola’s mission in life but when is a doctor keen to see ‘missile strikes’. Is she an insert? Stick the name of a doctor on a charity website’s About Us and it instantly adds gravitas.
@Fred.
So all the ex British Empire countries are knuckledraggers?
As you never answered my first question, can i assume you do work for the British State?
Trowbridge; fascinating perspective. I just don’t get how Obama is tempting the assassins by going it alone.
Dreoilin; Yes, thanks. I had also previously heard Oregon coastline warnings about tsunami and fukushima debris approaching their shore, (and ours). I have eaten only farm raised fish for a while now. No matter where you are, this should be your practice.
Those poor bastards in Congress. The neocons and libertarians are split. They have to decide if they love war more than they hate Obama. Shit, they might even have to choose a peaceful solution. It’s a bad time for war mongers.
We had to destroy the Village to save the Villagers. (sorry Villager)
It appears I confused Ghouta with Aleppo in my previous posts. It always pays to do your research before kicking off!
Apologies.
Simple.
If Congress turns down the planned assault on Syria, hawks like Vice President Joe Biden – you know the guy whose photos these days look so understandably sour – leaving him without a pot to piss in unless we get yet another surprise.
A live, lame duck Obama would severely undermine even Hillary’s chances of making the White House
Get the picture!
The U.S. is now trying to trump the UN, which it would dearly love to replace. John Kerry has announced that the U.S. has ‘evidence’ that sarin gas (specifically) was used in the Syria attack.
The UN saying they are uniquely placed to carry out objective analysis – but no results yet.
(quoting Sky News)
And meanwhile someone announced this morning that Hague (and others) have said that there will NOT be another vote in the British parliament.
I suppose Dave can’t afford to lose twice.
“” I like Obama,” Bullshite.
So, you would have preferred to see President Romney and Defence Secretary McCain handle this situation?”
Well, after that impressive pageantry I think I’ll take it back. I had no idea he had fans of your caliber.
Dre; Kerry is truly carrying water in a leaky bucket, and he’s proving to be a good soldier for Obama. Role-playing is his specialty, whether he’s in a Swift Boat or on Air Force One.
But Trowbridge, Biden is so benign with that baby-face. How can you malign?
Mike; How do you interpret Obama handing the ball off before the scrum? Is he really dodging a possible bullet from his unhappy handlers?
Good analysis of pro/con..
http://www.theonion.com/articles/the-case-for-and-against-intervening-in-syria,33690/
Here’s one report (part of it)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/01/us-syria-crisis-usa-idUSBRE97T0NB20130901
(great practice for mental arithmetic in that captcha!)
Sarin;positive? The responders weren’t wearing gloves, which is SOP even when the object has been flushed with water. It’s been speculated that an errant rocket hit a supply, and there may have been gas, but a cocktail of various kinds. I want to see a consistent toxicology on all victims being hit with sarin. I suspect there is more than one.
@Trowbridge H. Ford
Don’t try my patience Trowbridge or I will be forced to start deleting some of your posts again.
I already have your IP address from the embedded MIME meta data in your comments and am currently reading some very interesting logs on your PC via an FTP backdoor that I hacked.
I’m sure the NSA will be very interested to learn of some your activities. VERY interested!
A strange story emanating from Trrodos.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/425981/Senior-Syrian-military-chiefs-tell-captain-fire-chemicals-or-be-shot
“In one heated exchange, a regional commander was overheard demanding the captain of an artillery battery in a Government-held suburb of Damascus to fire chemical shells.
When the officer protested, he was told “in direct terms” that failure to comply would result in him facing a firing squad, and the chemical weapons were then fired.
The dramatic revelation, disclosed by a high-placed RAF source, came as the defiant Syrian government declared it was “fully ready” with “its finger on the trigger” for an expected US attack.”
We’ve learned how untrustworthy the words of our leaders can be, and now we must learn how to vet the interpretation of data we aren’t allowed to see.
It’s a conundrum for everyone, but ti started with secrecy.
Just another lie from you apparently, Jemand, as my last post was deleted before it could appear.
In short, it said that John Kerry is an established liar, Washington’s continuing certainty that sarin was used is just to give it an alibi because of what made John Wheeler a leaker before he was assassinated, and Joe Biden has been working 24/7 ever since he saved Bill Clinton’s presidency in the hope of following him.
Your blind hatred of Israel leads you to some really illogical analysis. Why in the world would Israel want to spur Obama to bomb Syria? First of all, US attacks could quite possibly lead to retalitory strikes on Israel by Syria/Hezbollbah. Second of all, no one can predict if the end result of the US strikes would be to weaken or strengthen the Assad regime. Thirdly, even
if Israel believed it could could predict the result, Israel has no interest in either the weakening or strengthening of the Iranian/Hezbollash backed Assad regime vis a vis the Sunni jihadist rebels. Both are hostile enemies. Lastly, as you almost corr5ectly pointed out, Israel has no problem striking on its own at Syrian attempts to illegally transfer advanced weapons to Hezbollah.