By Tony Cartalucci: Continuity of Military Agenda: Syria Catastrophe Engineered Under Bush,

Executed Verbatim Under Obama. The rise of Al Qaeda in Syria and the predictable bloodbath that followed is the documented work of US, Israel, & Saudi Arabia. Tens of thousands of deaths, devastated cities, and the scattering of terrified Syrian minorities add up to a catastrophe that has unfolded in Syria over the last 2 years. International organizations including the UN call it the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st century, and despite this, have put little effort into tracking down the actual genesis of the conflict, the key players perpetuating the violence, and in prescribing the obvious solutions to this conflict. With a recent initiative by Russia and Syria blunting the West's pro-war drive, Western propagandists have attempted to reassert their crumbling narrative regarding the conflict, past, present, and future. The Genesis of Syria's Conflict! We are told by Western politicians and Western media houses that the conflict in Syria began with a spontaneous "peaceful," "pro-democracy" uprising influenced by similar demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt. We are told that these peaceful protests were brutally crushed by the Syrian government and resulted in the militarization of the so-called "opposition." This is a verified lie. In an April 2011 AFP report. Michael Posner, the assistant US Secretary of State for Human Rights and Labor, admitted that emphasis added: "US government has budgeted $50 million in the last two years starting in 2009 to develop new technologies to help activists protect themselves from arrest and prosecution by authoritarian governments. "The report went on to admit that the US "organized training sessions for 5,000 activists in different parts of  the world. A session held in the Middle East about six weeks ago gathered activists from Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon who returned to their countries with the aim of training their colleagues there." Posner would add, "They went back and there's a ripple effect." Not only were the protests in Syria planned, funded, and directed by the US State Department, years before the so-called "Arab Spring" began, but so where the alleged protests that "triggered" events in Syria, namely similarly the alleged protests that "triggered" events in Syria, namely similarly engineered protests in Tunisia, Egypt, and the violent US-led subversion carried out in Libya. What's more disturbing is that the US-engineered "protests" were not designed to overthrow targeted governments, but instead to serve as a smokescreen for similarly pre-planned armed subversion. As early as 2007, under then President George Bush, the arming, funding, and otherwise supporting of sectarian extremists across the Middle East to undermine Lebanon, Syria, and Iran was put into motion. Admissions by administration officials, intelligence agents, and the very groups the US was funding and otherwise supporting of sectarian extremists across the Middle East to undermine Lebanon, Syria, and Iran was put into motion. Admissions by administration officials, intelligence agents, and preparing for armed subversion in 2007 were documented in Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh's New Yorker extensive 9-page report.