The alleged leader of purported global terror group Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, yesterday released a video in which he espoused a message strikingly similar to that of his traditional enemies in the West. Speaking in an 8 minute video entitled “Onwards, Lions of Syria”, released to Jihadi forums Saturday, al-Zawahiri refers to the "pernicious, cancerous regime" of the “butcher” Assad in Syria, and calls on Muslims in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to join the rebels and overthrow the Syrian government.

Whilst in the past Western politicians and the mainstream media have crudely conflated Al-Qaeda with Middle Eastern governments to provide justification for their overthrow – most notoriously the fraudulent links to Saddam Hussein concocted by US Neocons, and more recently the absurd insinuation that Osama bin Laden was being sheltered in Tehran – Al-Qaeda is in reality very hostile to the governments of Iran, Iraq and Syria. Al-Qaeda is comprised of fundamentalists who follow the Sunni branch of Islam, and they regard liberal Muslims, Shias and other sects as heretics.

In denouncing the Shiite Assad regime, the Sunni al-Zawahiri’s rhetoric mirrors that of the West, who are currently pushing for the overthrow of the Syrian government through blatant war propaganda in the media and political speeches, as well as covert on-the-ground support of the Syrian opposition. Whilst the Free Syrian Army have been simplistically depicted in the Western media as freedom fighters bravely battling Assad’s murderous butchers, in reality those fighting Assad are engaging in outright terrorism in their attempts at toppling the government. The FSA has denied being behind Friday’s twin bombing in the city of Aleppo, in which many civilians were killed, but in an early report they admitted responsibility, as reported immediately after the attack in Friday’s The Guardian:

“Speaking on al-Jazeera, Amin said that the FSA described the military compounds as "legitimate targets" and said that if any civilians were killed they were killed by members of the regular army trying to fire at the FSA attackers. The FSA said it attacked with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, Amin said.”

Even the US has now stated that Friday’s attack was likely carried out by Al-Qaeda. This follows huge bombings in Damascus in December and January, in which many civilians were killed. The West is evidently prepared to overlook the terrorist acts being committed in Syria - by rebels connected to the very organisation they allege murdered over 3000 people on 9/11, and who they have been fighting for over a decade in “The War On Terror” – whilst condemning in the strongest and most emotive terms possible any violence perpetrated by the Syrian government’s forces.

Such double standards should come as no surprise to those who followed last year’s illegal takeover of Libya by NATO. It has been widely acknowledged that Islamic extremists previously behind the killing of allied soldiers in Iraq were amongst the Libyan rebels who murdered Gaddafi and overthrew his regime – NATO providing them with a high tech airforce whilst British and Qatari special forces directed operations on the ground. Following the rebel victory, the black Al-Qaeda flag was seen flying above a courthouse in Benghazi, the city in which the uprising began, and the country is now operating under Sharia law.

Events in Syria appear to be closely following the template established in Libya. With a cynical Western public weary of the protracted, costly and destructive campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, the West’s new war model carefully avoids deploying traditional ground forces to invade countries whose governments it wants to topple. Instead, opposition to the target government is supported and funded amongst the domestic population – who often have legitimate grievances - thus fomenting dissent and protest against the regime. The West then turns a blind eye to foreign extremist terrorists entering the country with their own agenda - even actively funding and supporting them, as in Libya and allegedly Syria - so that they can do the dirty work that peaceful protestors are unwilling or opposed to carrying out. When those merely protesting and demanding greater freedoms are caught up in the resulting government crackdown against terrorists, Western leaders blame the regime they wish to depose for the resulting carnage. Thus events in Syria have been portrayed as a genocidal assault on those simply demanding more freedoms, with little context provided as to why the government is conducting military operations in its own country.

Syria is clearly the latest target in the list of “7 countries in 5 years” that US Neocons had in their sights immediately after 9/11, as described by General Wesley Clark in 2007 - the ultimate goal being to topple Iran's Mullahs and replace them with a friendly pro-Western puppet regime. Whilst the 5 year timeframe seems to have been overly optimistic, one look at the list of countries suggests that in its other goals the Neocon-Zionist plan is very much going to schedule. As libertariannews.org state:

“Iraq – Check

Libya – Check

Somalia – Check

Lebanon – Check  (see assassination of Rafic Hariri and the Cedar Revolution)

Sudan – Check  (Southern Sudan became a sovereign State on 9 July 2011)

Syria – Currently in progress

Iran – The saber rattling and war propaganda has reached a fever pitch.”

For the Western warmongering elite, Syria will prove a much tougher challenge than Libya, due to the country's powerful allies in China and Russia. Following the outrageous events in Libya last year, Russia has explicitly warned against another Western contrived coup in Syria. We can only hope that the situation does not escalate into a World War 3 situation, as the West’s attempt at forging a new world order - to secure natural resources and protect Israel - increasingly threatens and provokes the powerful and heavily nuclear-armed Russians and Chinese.