May 12, 2012 The Prisoner Exchange Shows Who Controls The Terrorists Frome the Globe and Mail: Two Turkish journalists who went missing while reporting on the uprising in Syria two months ago were released on Saturday with Iran’s help, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced. The release of the pair demonstrated Iran’s influence with its ally Syria, which lost Turkey’s friendship when it cracked down on pro-democracy protests that erupted last year. Iran and Syria, both isolated by the West, have stuck by each other.

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In remarks on his Twitter account, Mr. Davutoglu said the Turkish government was sending a plane to bring them home. His Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi had told him earlier that the journalists had been freed, he added.

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Hopes for their release soared after Turkish officials revealed on Thursday that Iran was acting as a go-between. It was not immediately clear who had been holding them. Other western media carry similar stories. But I have found none yet that reports the real one. This was a prisoner exchange and it does not "demonstrate Iran’s influence with its ally Syria" but it demonstrates Turkey's influence over its puppet Free Syrian Army. Two Iranians abducted by an armed group fighting against the Syrian government have been released, Press TV reported. Abdolreza Shaqaqi, the spokesman of Iran's embassy in Ankara, told Press TV's correspondent that the two men, named Shahmorad Najafi and Shahqoli Ghalavand, were handed over to Turkey's gendarmerie in the southeastern province of Hatay on Friday. Shaqaqi stated that the Iranian Embassy is taking the necessary measures to repatriate the two Iranian nationals as soon as possible, adding that it is expected that the two men will leave Turkey for Tehran on Saturday. The Syrian government held two purported Turkish journalists and some FSA gang held two purported Iranian pilgrims. These prisoners on either side were exchanged and Iran was not a go between but a direct party of this exchange. But if you only read western media you would not know that. There only the Turkish prisoners count and there is no connection and influence at all of Turkey over the FSA. In reality though the Turkish intelligence service, under the guidance of the CIA, is the heart and brain of the FSA. It can simply order them to release Iranian prisoners if it benefits its plans. There is another intelligence service, also under the guidance of the CIA, that is the heart and brain of the terrorists that blow up suicide car bombs in Syria. Tony Cartalucci reminds us of a 2007 Seymour Hersh report in the New Yorker on the new plans the Bush government developed in 2007: The new American policy, in its broad outlines, has been discussed publicly. In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that there is “a new strategic alignment in the Middle East,” separating “reformers” and “extremists”; she pointed to the Sunni states as centers of moderation, and said that Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah were “on the other side of that divide.” (Syria’s Sunni majority is dominated by the Alawi sect.) Iran and Syria, she said, “have made their choice and their choice is to destabilize.” Hersh further reports that this project is done in cooperation with the Saudi prince Bandar who promised to activate and control Salafi terrorists to fulfill it: Bandar and other Saudis have assured the White House that “they will keep a very close eye on the religious fundamentalists. Their message to us was ‘We’ve created this movement, and we can control it.’ It’s not that we don’t want the Salafis to throw bombs; it’s who they throw them at—Hezbollah, Moqtada al-Sadr, Iran, and at the Syrians, if they continue to work with Hezbollah and Iran.” The Salafi suicide terrorists who are blowing up people in Syria are not just a random group of lunatics. They are controlled by Saudi Arabia and work for a bigger U.S.-Saudi project. I strongly recommend to reread the full Hersh report about Bush's 2007 change of policy in the region towards destabilization of the "Shia Axis". It seems to still be followed as much as possible. By now, of course, no one will be surprised that the Obama administration policies are just a continuation of such lunatic Bush policies with the only change being a slightly modified rhetoric. Posted by b on May 12, 2012 at 16:14 UTC | Permalink Comments