Turkey and Syria – Will Turkey Go to War?
Posted by Joshua on Sunday, October 14th, 2012
Concerns Build Over Violence In Syria – Talk of the Nation – October 11, 2012 [Go to minute 13]
Artillery fire between Syria and Turkey has further raised the stakes, and NATO has pledged to defend its Turkish ally. NPR’s Peter Kenyon, Joshua Landis, and Soner Cagaptay of The Washington Institute discuss the broader implications. listen
Syria’s Islamist rebels join forces against Assad [The most important article on the month]
By Mariam Karouny – Reuters
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Powerful Syrian Islamist brigades, frustrated at the growing divisions among rebels, have joined forces in what they say is a “liberation front” to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
Mistrust and miscommunication have been a feature of the rebel campaign against Assad. Differences over leadership, tactics and sources of funding have widened the rifts between largely autonomous brigades scattered across Syria.
After more than a month of secret meetings, leaders of Islamist brigades – including the Farooq Brigade that operates mainly in Homs province and the heavyweight Sukour al-Sham brigade of Idlib – formed the “Front to Liberate Syria”.
The agreement is not the first which seeks to bring together disparate fighting groups and its Islamist emphasis has already alienated some other fighters.
The growing role of the Islamist fighters and their battlefield prowess has also caused concern among Western powers as they weigh up how best to support the opposition forces arrayed against Assad.
The new front does not include some groups which Western officials consider the most radical such as the Nusra Front, an affiliate of al Qaeda which has claimed responsibility for a series of devastating bombs in Damascus and Aleppo.
Ahrar al-Sham, a Salafist group which includes a large contingent of foreign fighters, withdrew, objecting to the killing of a Salafist leader killed by a rival rebel force.
But rebel sources said talks were continuing to bring Ahrar al-Sham back, and leader of the new front, Ahmad al-Sheikh, said it was continuing to attract members.
“We have more than 40,000 fighters now and the numbers are growing because more brigades are expressing interest in joining,” said Sheikh, known to his men as Abu Eissa.
Accurate figures for the total rebel numbers are hard to establish but such a force could represent around half of Assad’s armed opponents.
Originally the group was called the Islamic Front to Liberate Syria. Brigade leaders voted to drop the word ‘Islamic’ but Islam remains a central element, Sheikh told Reuters.
“We are proud of our Islamism and we are Islamists. But we do not want to show it in a slogan because we might not live up to the responsibility of Islam,” said Sheikh, who is also the head of the Sukour al-Sham Brigades. “But we want a state with Islamic reference and we are calling for it.”
Brigades in Damascus, Deir al-Zor, Aleppo, Idlib and Homs provinces have joined the front and logistical offices have been opened across Syria to facilitate coordination, Sheikh said.
CHECKPOINT ATTACKS
Since its formation, the front’s fighters have been focused on attacking checkpoints as part of their attempt to push Assad’s forces out of towns.
On Tuesday fighters from the Sukour al-Sham (Hawks of Syria) seized the town of Maarat al Nuaman in Idlib province from government forces….
But the move which is supposed to unite the rebels has also widened the rifts. Some in the FSA denounced the front and said that the emphasis on Islamic identity would worry minorities in the religiously mixed country.
Some fighters also said the group receives funding from Gulf states which promote the same Islamist ideology – a reference to Saudi Arabia and Qatar – and also has better access to weapons coming through Turkey.
They accused them of denying some of those arms to rebels from smaller groups fighting alongside them.
“We are fighting and getting killed but some do not even bother helping us. They just watch us as if we are not on the same front,” said a fighter in a brigade composed of less than 500 insurgents.
Sheikh said his front would maintain “brotherly relations” with all groups but fell short of offering support.
“Whoever wants to work with us is a brother and a son of the front and whoever wants to work under other wings in the interest of the revolution is also a brother for us. But the others who are in the camps (in Turkey), they do not have any acceptance among us.”
Islamic militants help seize missile base in Syria
By Ben Hubbard and Zeina Karam, Wash Post: October 13
BEIRUT — Fighters from a shadowy militant group with suspected links to al-Qaeda joined Syrian rebels in seizing a government missile-defense base in northern Syria on Friday, according to activists and amateur video.
It was unclear whether the rebels were able to hold the base after the attack, and analysts questioned whether they would be able to make use of any of the missiles they might have taken.
Nevertheless, the assault underscored fears of advanced weaponry falling into the hands of extremists, whose role in Syria’s civil war appears to be increasing.
Videos purportedly shot inside the base and posted online stated that the extremist group Jabhat al-Nusra participated in the overnight battle near the village of al-Taaneh, three miles east of the country’s largest city, Aleppo. The videos show dozens of fighters inside the base near a radar tower, along with rows of large missiles, some on the backs of trucks.
A report by a correspondent with the Arabic satellite network al-Jazeera who visited the base Friday said Jabhat al-Nusra led the attack, killing three guards and taking others prisoner before seizing the base….
Syria despatch: rebel fighters fear the growing influence of their ‘Bin Laden’ faction
The growing strength of Islamists in the fight against President Bashar al-Assad is alarming Syria’s secular opposition, reports Ruth Sherlock
By Ruth Sherlock, Idlib province, 13 Oct 2012, Telegraph
The Sunday Telegraph accompanied the head of the Free Syrian Army Supreme Military Council, General Mustafa al-Sheikh as he moved the FSA’s command centre from Turkey to inside Syria. They travelled nervously through Idlib’s countryside, in cars with blacked out windows, heavily armed, and with their rifles locked and loaded.
“It’s not because of the regime that we are carrying weapons. It’s because we are afraid of being attacked by the jihadists,” an FSA rebel later admitted. ..
Even before President Bashar al-Assad has been defeated, a war within the civil war is brewing in Syria. It is a battle of ideas, a struggle for the overall direction of the insurgency that is pitting moderate-Muslims against Salafists, jihadists and other Islamist groups.
Syria’s most powerful Islamist brigades have united under a new “liberation front” to wage jihad against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and turn the country into an Islamic state….
Secular rebel commanders also revealed that they are working to cut the supply lines of jihadist groups, and limit the influx of foreign fighters to their ranks.
“We watch the borders. If we find supplies entering for [jihadist groups] we will take them,” said one secular FSA fighter. “We have also caught 25 foreign fighters trying to cross from Turkey. We gave them to the Turkish intelligence.”
But moderates aligned with Gen al-Shiekh’s men are suffering from a lack of credibility. Rebel commanders on the front lines have praised the battlefield prowess of Islamists – many of who learnt to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan – and are angered that the head of the Free Syrian Army was based in Turkey for so long, saying it stripped him of any legitimacy among fighters who were dying inside the country.
“We are tired of paper tigers outside the country who have no link to the battlefield,” said Abu Eissa, whose 16-year-old eldest son was killed in fighting in Idlib six months ago.
Can FSA leadership be relevant again in Syria?
By Daniel DePetris, Special to CNN, an independent researcher.
For the first time since the Syrian rebellion began, the leadership of the opposition Free Syrian Army is making a concerted effort to unify the dozens of armed factions fighting under its name. The announcement by Colonel Riad al-Asaad, leader of the Free Syrian Army, that the FSA will be relocating its staff headquarters inside of Syrian territory is widely seen as a step in the right direction. Whether the move will make any practical difference in the fight, however, remains to be seen.
Al-Asaad was once a mid-level commander in the Syrian military, but his defection last year, and his attempt to form a band of former soldiers willing to fight against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, steadily changed the nature of the conflict. He is often considered by Syrian activists and deserters to be the first really high-ranking commander to flee the Syrian army in protest over the crackdown, and his actions appear to have inspired thousands of conscripts to follow in his footsteps: the FSA now includes more than two dozen former Syrian generals……It seems highly doubtful that moving its headquarters from Turkey to Syria will resolve any of these dilemmas for the FSA.
Yamin (A Christian whose family is originally from Raqqa) writes:
” The Baath took some land from us too and we were not big landholders. We however forgave. Old landowners are starting to feel that they now have a chance to recover their confiscated land, which they describe as “stolen land”. (See an article by Rania Abouzeid in Raqqa Province in Time Magazine dated October 10, 2012, titled “Who will the Tribes Back in Syria’s Civil War?”.)
This is why most of the people of Raqqa Province and other provinces in Syria, who acquired land in the 1960s, have been concerned about the aftermath of the Syrian Revolution. Tribal heads lost the most, as they claimed wide uncontested areas without documentation or title deeds. It was like claiming land in the desert or in the ocean, when it should have been communal tribal land. Large areas in Syria were claimed that way by powerful chieftains, and Nasser and the Baath took the land from feudal groups and gave it to the peasants and tribesmen.
This is why the peasants and tribesmen backed Hafiz Assad in the early 1980s when he crushed the Moslem Brotherhood rebellion. They considered the Moslem Brotherhood the army of the landholders. To the many who benefited from Baathist land reforms, Hafiz Assad was a savior. But that was in the past and today they have rebelled against his son. If this matter escalates it may split the Syrian Revolution…..
I forgot to mention that the people of Raqqa Province always treated the Christians well. They trusted us Christians, almost like brothers, and we reciprocated.
The industrialist Christians of the Jazirah, who hailed from Turkey before Ataturk expelled them and fled to Qamishli, Hassakeh, Derbassieh, Amuda, Ras Al-Ain, were among the first to open the Jezzera land to wheat and barley farming in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Bedouins who had settled in Raqqa some 30 years earlier paid in land for the services of the Christians who knew about mechanized farming and who were importing the pumps, piping, and tractors to the region. The Christians still own thousands of acres in the Raqqa province.
My father had a head-on collision accident at midnight near Dyar Al-Zor in 1965. Four people were killed and many blamed my father. By coincidence the three dead from the other car were from our Syriac Catholic Church in Qamishli. One of our Raqqa neighbors was in the passenger seat next to my father. He died. My father was never the same. He spent months in the hospital being repaired, but emotionally, his convalescence took years. My father cared for the neighbor’s family for years, and they appreciated it. They never sued or threatened to sue. The family of the other three sued and it was settled through our Church years afterward.
God protect the people of Raqqa.
Syrian writer Samar Yazbek: ‘A woman like me makes life difficult’
Aida Edemariam, The Guardian,
Syrian novelist Samar Yazbek was born into a wealthy Alawite family, but became ‘a traitor to her kind’ to fight the Assad regime. Her latest work is a visceral, nightmarish account of the revolution that drove her into exile…
She says that Syrian women have the best conditions in the Middle East after Tunisia. But “it seemed that when Hafez al-Assad was president he was accomplishing reforms, but in reality, in profound ways, it was getting worse, going backward.” And things did not improve under his son, Bashar.
“The real revolution will begin after the fall of Assad,” she says. “Then we will have a feminist revolution to construct a new life, a new education, build a new society.” But aren’t you afraid of unintended consequences? Of the influx of Islamists, or of mirroring Egypt and Libya? “If we are afraid of the religious impact, we need to work from now to help in the revolution, to be able, after, to rebuild.”…
John Howard Wilhelm writes:
The Israelis would be wise as they pause for thought on bombing Iran to go after the Syrian air force instead. Surely the Israelis have the capacity to destroy that air force and bring about a swifter outcome to the fighting in Syria to the advantage of the Syrian people, of regional stability, and of undermining Iranian influence in the region to the benefit of all. Regime change in Damascus might even hasten regime change in Tehran which, with the exception of the current leaders there, would be the best outcome for others.
Syria: New Evidence Military Dropped Cluster Bombs HWR
Nick Blanford in Hezbollah role in Syria grows more evident– describes how Shiites and Sunnis in the Bekaa support different sides of the Syrian revolution and eye each other warily.
Iran’s Tumbling Rial Undermines Its Support of Syria’s Economy
Ibrahim Saif , Tuesday, October 9, 2012, Carnegie
The latest slide in the value of the rial has surprised many in its severity and speed. There is now a growing concern that it will have severe ramifications for Iran’s regional allies, including Syria.
Time: Is the Glass Half Full for Syria’s Assad?
2012-10-11
Winter is coming, and with it the near certainty that the lot of millions of suffering Syrians will get substantially worse. Some 335,000 and counting find themselves in refugee camps in neighboring Turkey and Jordan, the lucky among them in pre …
Two forgotten dimensions to the Syrian conflict
Jonas Bergan Dræge , 11 October 2012
Two other fault lines, unrelated to the sectarian issue, need to be taken into account in order to understand the multi-dimensional Syrian conflict.
Syria’s Tangled Roots of Resentment
October 11, 2012 Lindsay Gifford – Sada
Syria, Turkey, Israel and the Greater Middle East Energy War
By F. William Engdahl, Global Research, October 11, 2012
On October 3, 2012 the Turkish military launched repeated mortar shellings inside Syrian territory. The military action, which was used by the Turkish military, conveniently, to establish a ten-kilometer wide no-man’s land “buffer zone” inside Syria, was in response to the alleged killing by Syrian armed forces of several Turkish civilians along the border.
There is widespread speculation that the one Syrian mortar that killed five Turkish civilians well might have been fired by Turkish-backed opposition forces intent on giving Turkey a pretext to move militarily, in military intelligence jargon, a ‘false flag’ operation.[1]
Turkey’s Muslim Brotherhood-friendly Foreign Minister, the inscrutable Ahmet Davutoglu, is the government’s main architect of Turkey’s self-defeating strategy of toppling its former ally Bashar Al-Assad in Syria.[2]….
The geopolitical dimension
The significant question to be asked at this point is what could bind Israel, Turkey, Qatar in a form of unholy alliance on the one side, and Assad’s Syria, Iran, Russia and China on the other side, in such deadly confrontation over the political future of Syria? One answer is energy geopolitics.
What has yet to be fully appreciated in geopolitical assessments of the Middle East is the dramatically rising importance of the control of natural gas to the future of not only Middle East gas producing countries, but also of the EU and Eurasia including Russia as producer and China as consumer…..
Is Turkish foreign policy becoming sectarian?
by Ahmet T. Kuru*, Zaman
ALAWITES AND ALEVIS: WHAT’S IN A NAME? [JL. They suggest that Ankara does not have to be too worried about internal sectarian dissent if it intervenes in Syria. Alevis will not object even it Alawites do.]
By Khairi Abaza and Soner Cagaptay
Tensions are rising on the Turkish-Syrian border, as Turkey recently became the first country to take direct military action against the al-Assad regime since Syria’s uprising began in spring 2011. In response to the Syrian shelling of the Turkish town of Akcakale on October 3rd, an incident which killed 5 people, Ankara began shelling Syrian military targets. What is more, Turkey has issued a number of escalation threats — on October 7th, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that “although Turkey does not want war, it is close to war,” suggesting that Ankara is concerned with the spillover effect of the Syrian conflict in Turkey.
One major concern in this regard is the sectarian dimension of the Syrian conflict…..Problems between the Arab Alawites in Hatay and the government in Ankara are leading some to surmise a broader cleavage between Turkey’s Alevis — a community that represents 10-15 percent of Turkey’s 74 million citizens — and the Ankara government. Partly due to their similar names (Alevi vs. Alawite), many commentators appear to be confusing the groups, leading them to the erroneous conclusion that Alevis are close kin to the religious sect that controls Damascus. Alawites and Alevis alike represent non-Orthodox Islam, and the two groups have similar-sounding names because of their shared reverence for Ali, son-in-law of Mohamed. Nevertheless, Alawites and Alevis are in fact different groups ethnically and theologically, and confusing the two would be akin to saying that all Protestants are protestors. Just to name a few, here is a list of five ethnic and theological differences between the Alawites and the Alevis, detailed in length in a recent article published in Turkish daily Zaman:……
Confusing the two distinct groups would only serve to stoke sectarian tensions and further divide the Turkish public on the issue of involvement in Syria. Some Alevis, like many other staunchly secular-minded Turks, take issue with the rise of Sunni Muslim Brotherhood-led regimes in Damascus, which they fear might discriminate against or even persecute “non-orthodox” sects. Others, but also many Sunni Turks, are concerned over the security risks for Turkey of becoming more deeply involved on one side of the Syrian civil war. But Turkey’s Alevis as a whole, unlike Syria’s Alawites as a whole, are not predominantly supporters of Assad’s regime…..
At least 100 bodies found near Damascus, say activists
2012-10-14
Damascus (dpa)- At least 100 bodies were found Sunday near Damascus, reported opposition activists. The victims appear to have been executed, in the town of Darya on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, they added.
Israel, Syria Held 2010 Golan Talks, Official Says: NYTimes Link
2012-10-13
Few good Options to Secure Syria’s Chemical Weapons
Times (GB) [Reg]: Videos reveal a new horror for Syrian civilians: cluster bombs
2012-10-14
The videos leave little room for doubt: they show cluster bombs lying on dusty ground next to buildings, or stuck nose first in the earth. All around are dozens of the unexploded bomblets that they released in mid-air and scattered over areas larger …
Comments (121)
Ghufran said:
It is not necessarily bad that Islamist rebels are forming a united front, despite my doubts that this can actually happen, it is time that Syrians understand what is being cooked for their country, a surge is Islamist violence led to a change in western governments position about how far they should support rebels, another surge may leave non Islamist rebels with two choices: going home or fighting foreign rebels to keep the fight clean. Another possibility is further shifting in western countries attitude which can only benefit the regime.
Islamist rebels are now looked at with extreme suspicion by most players with the exception of Qatar and to some extent KSA, there will be a day when those Islamists find themselves fighting everybody and that will make them more violent and more reliant on suicide bombing and assassinations.
October 14th, 2012, 12:47 pm
Ghufran said:
??? ???? ???? ???????? ???? ???????? ?? ????? ??? ???? ?????? ????????? ??? ??????? ?? ??? ?????? 1701? ????? ????? ?? “?????? ?????? ????? ???? ??? ????????? ?? ????? ??? ???????”? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ?? ??? ????? ?? ????? “???? ??????” ???? ????? ?? ??????.
(if you have no shame you can say what you want)
October 14th, 2012, 12:59 pm
Syrialover said:
Joshua, thanks for the link to that thoughtful piece “Two forgotten dimensions to the Syrian conflict.”
It helps clarify what is going on in the Syrian opposition, and what’s making it harder to unite.
Quote: “The complexity of the Syrian opposition cannot be adequately captured by a simple sectarian schism…A Secularism-Islamism axis—similar to that in Turkey—and a left-right axis—similar to that in European politics—will also define the crucial fault lines that determine Syria’s political future”.
Read more: http://www.opendemocracy.net/jonas-bergan-dr%C3%A6ge/two-forgotten-dimensions-to-syrian-conflict
October 14th, 2012, 1:02 pm
ann said:
*** FRIENDS OF SYRIA ***
Mali Al-Qaeda terrorists threaten France over intervention – 14 October 2012
http://mwcnews.net/news/africa/22139-mali-rebels-threaten-france.html
Al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Mali have threatened to “open the doors of hell” for French citizens if France kept pushing for armed intervention to retake the rebel-held north.
The renewed threats against French hostages and expatriates came on Saturday as French-speaking nations met in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where French President Francois Hollande was expected to urge the rapid deployment of an African-led force to rout the rebels.
Hollande said the threat would not deter France’s determination to quash the rebels in Mali.
“If he continues to throw oil on the fire, we will send him the pictures of dead French hostages in the coming days,” said Oumar Ould Hamaha, a spokesman for the armed group MUJWA, in apparent reference to the six French nationals still held by armed groups after being seized in the region.
“He will not be able to count the bodies of French expatriates across West Africa and elsewhere,” Hamaha said by telephone.
[…]
http://mwcnews.net/news/africa/22139-mali-rebels-threaten-france.html
October 14th, 2012, 1:32 pm
Observer said:
This was from the last post
317. ZOO said:
The Alawites and the Future of Syria
by Harold Rhode
October 12, 2012 at 6:00 am
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3394/alawites-syria
Are we to understand that the Alawites would want their separate state ZOO?
Are you in favor of such a state?
I always advocated that the country cannot stay intact. So I agree let them have their state and let them fight for it and take the land that they consider theirs and let them do it by negotiations if possible but more likely it will done by force.
If they can create an enclave in their areas I would welcome it and let them have their state and let the Druze have theirs and the Kurds theirs and the Armenians theirs and the Azerbaijanis theirs and the Baluch theirs and the Pashtun theirs and the Persians theirs and the Gashkai theirs and the Ahwazis theirs and the Najdis theirs and divide the region from the Mediterrenean all the way to the Indus river.
I truly see no problem that these people if they so desire separate according to their ethnic identities.
Please ZOO take Freddo and the Corleone family with you and create your wonderful Alawistan and take with you Majbali and Ghufran and Syria no Kanadahar and Citizen and create your wonderful state and continue posting here on how terrible the situation is from Libya all the way to Yemen.
Who gives a hoot just get out of our hair and leave the rest of the people of Syria alone.
October 14th, 2012, 1:34 pm
Observer said:
Forget to include ANN to take with you please ZOO. Please take her to Alawistan
October 14th, 2012, 1:36 pm
ann said:
*** FRIENDS OF SYRIA ***
October 14th, 2012, 1:39 pm
ann said:
President Obama – Why is the US supporting Al Qaeda in Syria?
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=86a_1348427615
October 14th, 2012, 1:41 pm
Syrialover said:
Another excellent read linked above, ”Syria’s Tangled Roots of Resentment”. Thanks Joshua.
A clear-headed look at the historical background to Syria’s sectarian makeup and how it hasn’t been a threat to social harmony. Until now of course – thanks to the Assad regime’s idiotic efforts – when we’re seeing a current rush towards identity politics.
Article excerpts:
“Sectarian civility was severely stunted throughout the Assad years precisely because the state co-opted previously vibrant institutions that cut across society (like the labor, student, and women’s unions) under the party banner.
[…]
“…sectarianism is only part of the explanation for the all-consuming violence of the civil war. Face-to-face relations at the grassroots level between members of varied Syrian sects have been deep, meaningful, supportive, and even life-saving. But without the organizational structure to buttress and maintain these relations, individuals and families become isolated while more fragile cross-cutting relationships with friends, colleagues, and neighbors are relegated to past memories.
Read in full: http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/2012/10/11/syria-s-tangled-roots-of-resentment/e0i4
October 14th, 2012, 1:42 pm
Mina said:
Crash course: how a Salafi head functions
Bible burning was not insulting to Egyptian Christians: Abu-Islam
Islamist preacher Abu-Islam Ahmed Abdullah arrived with his supporters at a court in Nasr City on Sunday to face charges of burning a Bible during protests outside the US embassy in September.
The trial had been adjourned on 30 September until Sunday and was adjourned again until 21 October.
Abu-Islam, who is the president of two Egyptian satellite channels – the Umma and Mariya – which he maintains are culturally orientated, defended his radical views in an interview with Ahram Online.
“There is no such thing as the Bible or the Torah, there is only the Quran!” Abu-Islam said when asked why he said his act of burning the Bible was not an insult to Egypt’s Christians
He asserted that he had set fire to an English-language Bible, rather than an Arabic version approved by the Coptic Church, out of respect for Egypt’s Coptic Christians.
“All these translations of the Bible are evidence of its invalidity!” he said.
During a demonstration against an anti-Islam film in front of the US embassy in Cairo on 11 September, the Muslim cleric tore and burned copies of the Bible. Before leaving the demonstration, he told the crowd that next time he would get his grandson to urinate on it.
Abu-Islam’s case is the first time charges filed for denigrating Christianity have been investigated, Egyptian Union for Human Rights leader Naguib Gebrail said, and it is a breakthrough because other cases filed against him have not been properly addressed.
In contrast, Coptic Christians charged with defaming Islam are immediately brought to justice, Gebrail asserted.
Abu-Islam stated his admiration for the Salafist Nour Party and the Muslim Brotherhood.
“They both have their strengths. The Nour Party is ideologically strong, strictly adhering by Sharia law, while the Muslim Brotherhood is sound in terms of organisation and structure,” he stated.
They should combine their different strengths, he said.
Both groups have an equally strong following, he asserted, and their ongoing success will be dependent on their use of the media, especially television.
Maintaining their public services will be an important factor in preserving their support bases, he added.
Abu-Islam dismissed the possibility of secular and liberal groups triumphing in the future.
“Secular groups have no voice and do not stand a chance as they lag far behind the ideological and organisational strength of the Islamists,” he said.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/55594/Egypt/Politics-/Bible-burning-was-not-insulting-to-Egyptian-Christ.aspx
October 14th, 2012, 1:43 pm
zoo said:
By giving the Islamists the leading role to topple the regime, the opposition through the FSA admits two things: First that it has failed in gaining the mass of Syrians on its side and second that it is now a strictly an Arab Sunni rebellion, supported exclusively by Sunni countries allies to the Moslem Brotherhood and the Salafists who, on the side are providing aid to Al Qaeeda affiliates.
Kurds, Alawites, Christians, moderate Sunnis and the West have no more any doubts about what will happen if Bashar al Assad goes.
As an example of what’s to come, Libyas’ chaos is been watched with the re-emergence of Islamists after the West was claiming it would be a secular country. Hypocrite Qatar is pouring money in Libya to boost the Islamists in the next elections
There is no way the Syrian government can allow this to happen and it is justified to use any means and any external help it can to prevent the take over of the countries by terrorists thugs whose culture is clearer than ever.
October 14th, 2012, 1:47 pm
Syrialover said:
OBSERVER #5,
Hear! Hear!
But of course many of the most vocal here didn’t even want to live in pre-crisis Syria. But instead feel free to buy in from their armchairs, scoffing and wishing ill to all Syrians who don’t support Assad.
October 14th, 2012, 1:50 pm
zoo said:
5. Observer said:
“The Alawites and the Future of Syria”
Ask this question to Harold Rhode. He wrote the article.
As for your personal attacks and your condescending remarks on SC posters, I suggest you stop them right now.
October 14th, 2012, 1:51 pm
Syrialover said:
ZOO #11,
That’s it, take OBSERVER’S advice and keep happily dramatizing and theorizing, obsessing about Libya, and leave those of us interested in Syria to get on with it.
October 14th, 2012, 1:56 pm
syrain said:
Another gem from the Kharafan
328. Ghufran said:
”
??? ???? ???? ?????? ????? 30 ????? ??? ???? ????? ????? ??????? ?????? ???????? ?????????? ????????? ?? ??????? 35 ???? ??? ?? ???????? ???????? ???????.”
”
???? ????? ???? ?? ????? ????? ????? ???? ????????? ?? ????? ????? ????????? ??? ?? ???? ?? ???????? ??????? ?? ????? ?? ??????? ??? ???? ????????? .”
LOL,Where did you get this one?
the comment section of Bashar’s face book Page?
October 14th, 2012, 1:58 pm
Syrialover said:
ZOO,
You are the dominant dog on this forum.
It’s very cheeky for us littler dogs to address you, I know.
Roll on the time in Syria where the because-I-say-so-or-shutup system has been replaced by one of openness and accountability.
A system where even the humblest questioning yaps and challenging little woofs must receive a response.
Come on dear ZOO, share the vision.
Why not start practising for it here and now.
October 14th, 2012, 1:59 pm
ghufran said:
random violence may destroy the state but it can not topple a government, rebels are now punishing the people for not joining the fight, this page is taken out of Taliban Terrorism Manual:
??????? ???? ????? ???? ????????? ??????? ??????? ???? ???????? ?? ???? ??? ???? ???????? ??? ???? ???? ?? ??? ?? ????? ??? ????? ?????? .
??? ??? ??? ???? 4 ?????? ?????? 18 ????? ???? ????? ?????? ???? ??? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ????? ????? ??????? ?? ???? 12 ???? ????? ??? ???????? ????????? ??????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????? ???????? .
# 15
I did not make up the story,I chose to post it the same way you chose to be a fool with a sharp tongue.
October 14th, 2012, 2:02 pm
zoo said:
SL
If you missed it
https://joshualandis.com/blog/?p=16376&cp=all#comment-331227
October 14th, 2012, 2:07 pm
Aldendeshe said:
316. ZOOSAID:
The Alawites and the Future of Syria
by Harold Rhode
October 12, 2012 at 6:00 am
_________________________________________________________________
I hate it when foreigners, pretending to be expert, like Landis, go on regurgetating the same false urban legends as expertise knowledge of the nuances about a society. Even worse, when member of that society find it of interest to repeat it over and over, not knowing what the hell they are talking about. Minority of Syria needs to stop repeating in your generation what your, obviously Baathist daddy fairytales and liable against Sunni, just to justify the evil deed and abusive treatment he did to Syria and Syrians.
Syrian Society is overloaded with urban legends, non sense garbage that came out of penniless, landless lower than dirt classes of Syrian minorities of all shades. Certainly, they don’t come out from the Othmani Alawi family. Before Baathism, there was no distinction whatsoever in sectarian ways, or other ways, in Syrian society and according to laws. More importantly, how fairly the law was applied. Alawites and other minorities (all of them) held all varied positions in the government, participated in fair elections in Syria, have sent representative to the Syrian Parliament, have held nobilities status of Agha and Beik, and in particular, Alawites were trusted and given key positions in all armed forces available then by the Syrian Nation to protect them, how could a nation give and trust its security on minorities they despise and look down upon!!. Syrian government spent a tremendous financial resources on training Alawi Volunteers youth, like Hafez Assad, Salah Jadid as much as on the mother f*****rs Louai Sharmootassi and his relatives. One can easily say that Alawites have betrayed the trust of all Syrians that were trusted to them. The grievance of Sunni against Alawites is legitimate, the grievance of Alawi against Sunni, is furbulous as much as the Jews claims against Paliothugs and Arabs. It is designed and propelled that way as a cover to genocide and unfair rule on the majority and justifies the theft of resources, denial of rights to the majority Sunni population.
The Alawites (Nusairi) are not an offshoot of Shiite Islam, that too is fraud like saying there were Kingdom of Juda and a king named David. There is nothing wrong of being a NUSSAIRI-Alawi or ALAVI- it is better way of life (religion) than Wahabism. It is far more humane and natural to human to live under it, if it is practiced right, than living under Wahabi Devil (Dajjal) and worshipping HUBAL/AMEN. Assad destroyed his faith, built more than 40,000 mosques for Sunni’s and promoted sectarian hatred, instead of tolerance, he changed Alawites faith from godly, natural way of living, into political, violent, corrupt one, changed it into a Political-Alawism, and destroyed the faith, just as Political and violent movement of Islam destroyed what was basically supposed be a peaceful religion (never was), and in the same way Zionist filth destroyed the Hebrew religion. The ten commandment s were trashed and replaced by the Protocol of Zion, the 5 books of Moses were trashed and replaced by the Babylonian Talmud. What Assad did to Alawism is no difference than what Zionism did to Moses faith. Murder, oppression, theft of national resources became the HALAL order, and to cover this and justify it, they fabricated all kind of myth, liable and demeaning offences against others, relegated them into Goyeem status.
Specifically, Alawites brought the typical grievance that was furbelows against Sunni’s. I heard them all growing up at Abd Alhamid Zehrawi high school in Homs, Not from Alawite kids, they treated me with respect, but from Homs local Sunni kids, even herd them from Christian kids when I was attending the Jesuit School. But never from Alawites, have they just passed the urban legend on to others discreetly. O- pair is practiced the world’s over, even U.S. upper middle income kids go on o pair jobs in japan and Europe, so as Swedish and French girls come to U.S. on the same. Works as nannies and housekeepers. There is nothing insulting about this job or demeaning, it is a way for people to live and exchange culture. In Syria, it was a way for girls to live a better life than what the Alawite family can provide for her as peasant girl. If Alawites view this as a demeaning job, then why it was not banned in the country when they took illegally sole control of the nation and its law and military? Why Alawites gone all the way to the Philippine to import maids and butlers to serve them, should the Philippines have grievance like this on Alawites now. No, they did not, and will not, because their daddy did not kill and rob Syrians and needed an alibi to justify his crimes. Horror story of abuse is told by ones that are more filthy than Zionist. I have at least 8 Alawites maids in my life and they all cried when the work contract expired and left. We never asked them to leave; the father kept asking more and more money every year. Young Alwites anger should be at the older family generation for practicing this profession. I am angry at my family for not picking up guns and fighting when Baathist stole Syria, and I am tolerant of Moslem Brotherhood for having the bravery to fight them, I just think they are brainless loser who fight not to free Syria, but to serve its enemies.
The idiot so called expert, suggested a list of outcomes that Israel and Syria’s enemies will work hard at doing. No, we can end this war, if the FSA and SNC will come over and talk to me the “AGHA” instead of peons made up of Turkey’s lower classes that are ruling over there now, and dirt of humanity Bedouins in Arabia. But MB is not after solution or freeing Syria of Baathism, they are after money, millions of it to stash and hide away. We can end it by an agreement with President Assad; we will pursue this route now. The only way this will resolve amicably, is to scrap sectarianism, Baathism, Arab Nationalism out and replace it with Syrian Nationalism, Syrian National Congress and a Senate and fair and equitable laws and legal, economic system, a new Syrian Social contract.
October 14th, 2012, 2:09 pm
Syrialover said:
ZOO #18
No, I didn’t miss it. In fact, I was reminded of that tantrum when I saw what you wrote to OBSERVER above.
Which is why I offered you the grown up perspective in #16.
October 14th, 2012, 2:14 pm
Mina said:
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syrians-queueing-escape
“I believe things will take more than 20 years to return to what they were before the events. That is if the killing, fighting, and violence stop today,” he adds.”
http://arabic.rt.com/news/597056/
????? ????? “?????? ??????” ?????????? ??? ??????? ?????? ??? ????? ?????? ?????????? ??? ??? ???? ??? ??? ???? ????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ???? ????? ????? ?? ???? ???? ?? ??? ???????.
October 14th, 2012, 2:31 pm
Tara said:
Guys
Please leave Zoo alone. He offers a different perspective of ours but yet one that belongs to a sizable portion of the Syrian society. This is the whole point of being here. Dominating the site with pro or anti is not going to make the difference on the real outcome in Syria. Syria will not be won or lost based on what is discussed here. I for one appreciate his contributions
October 14th, 2012, 2:35 pm
Mina said:
Kuwait’s information minister files a complaint against a programme screened last february…for being too liberal? Islamic winter at its best. They can’t wait to elect a new Morsi there.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/kuwaiti-presenter-yusra-muhammad-affronts-islamists
October 14th, 2012, 2:37 pm
Visitor said:
All Praise be to Allah The One, Allah The Eternal, neither did He beget nor was He begotten nor is there to Him any equivalent.
RE: Previous post comments # 321 and By the ZOO regarding empty posturing about Itranistan so-called power
The ZOO spoke thus in 321,
“#317 Tara
“then all Arabs should unite to dismantle it’s power, no?”
Saddam Hussein, helped by the USA, the EU and the all the Arab countries, except Syria, already tried that with the success we know.
I doubt any Arab country has any power to try again.,”
And the Zoo also spoke thus in 315,
““Why can’t Qatar say no to Iran?”
Because they fear Iran, as simple as that.
Iran has one of the most powerful army in the region, Qatar has gas, malls and bellies.”
I’ll give it to you in a nutshell ya delusional Zoo.
1) No Arab country is afraid of your Itranistan. I blame TARA for giving you the opportunity to regurgitate your usual empty posturing about your idol mullahstan of Iranistan currently the laughing stock of the whole world and particularly the Arabs. The truth of the matter is ya Zoo Qatar is member of the GCC and its defense structure. When the GCC decided to roll out its military into Bahrain despite US objections, the true power of your mullahstan became evident: nil.
Again the blame is directed towards TARA for posing a non-relevant question allowing you such posturing. Unfortunately, TARA always does that for some non-comprehensible reason.
2) The only war that your mullahstan fought by its own army was the Iraqi war against. We all know how that war ended. It ended in utter defeat for your mullah as evidenced by the declaration of your grand mullah almaqboor Khomeini who said upon signing the ceasefire agreement in 1988 the following exact words: I drink the cup of poison as I sign on this paper. As if prophetically he died few weeks later perhaps out of deep frustration and feeling of defeat.
3) Thirty years after almaqboor Khomeini instructed his followers that the time has come for them to rule over the Muslims, mullahstan of Iranistan is facing an existential day of reckoning as you can surmise by clicking on the following link and downloading the PDF analysis file relating to this issue,
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCgQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fride.org%2Fdescarga%2FPB_135_Iran_regional_quagmire.pdf&ei=xwB7UJSkI4PmiwLLkYCACg&usg=AFQjCNG8mOZWGEeHhLGNc7dLtdsA3NYGXg
QED
——————————-
22 TARA,
No we are not going to leave anyone and particularly ZOO alone. You want to help him be my guest. Then you’ll be treated as such.
October 14th, 2012, 2:47 pm
zoo said:
I wonder if Syrians have to choose between a Moslem Brotherhood Islamist lead regime or a Alawite secular lead regime, which one will they will choose?
October 14th, 2012, 2:55 pm
zoo said:
I appreciate the posters who put a “heading” to show their color. It makes it lot easier to skip reading the rest.
Thanks for the ones who do that ..in bold. It saves me time.
October 14th, 2012, 3:01 pm
zoo said:
Tara
Don’t make yourself enemies for the sake of defending free speech and respecting different opinions.
They dont’ know what that is and their reactions show exactly what they are: intolerant and dangerous bullies.
October 14th, 2012, 3:06 pm
Visitor said:
All Praise be to Allah The One, Allah The Eternal, neither did He beget nor was He begotten nor is there to Him any equivalent.
In 24,
“2) The only war that your mullahstan fought by its own army was the Iraqi war against.”
should read,
“2) The only war that your mullahstan fought by its own army was the Iraqi war against Saddam.
———————————
The Zoo 25 again spoke thus,
“I wonder if Syrians have to choose between a Moslem Brotherhood Islamist lead regime of a Alawite secular lead regime, which one will they will choose?”
Hypothetical and irrelevant but judging from the last 50 years of so-called secular Baath, the MB’s will win by landslide.
But honestly, forget about any Alawite, secular or otherwise, ever having a leading role in future Syria. There is no trust left whatsoever, not to mention that the Sunnis will never accept a non-Sunni to rule over them again. Do you think the Sunnis do not have the talent to rule Syria? Come on after all they are the majority with over 80%. Call it whatever you want: sectarianism, supremacists or whatever else you may think of. The lines have been drawn. A cheap delusional sectarian Iranistani-lover like you does not deserve to be treated any better or be given any better answers. GO TO IRANISTAN PERIOD.
AND THERE WILL BE NO ALAWISTAN IN SYRIA AS LONG AS WE ARE ALIVE AND FIGHTING.
October 14th, 2012, 3:12 pm
mjabali said:
Old Money Observer:
I read your posts and recently you stopped making any sense.
Your posts are just rants, in Arabic ???? ???
What do I have to do with the ideas of Zoo or Ghufran or Syria No Kandahar? Each of us is a human being with his own ideas. You are one of those who can not understand this. My assessment is that you never respected other people’s ideas. I “observe” this in your rants.
Wasn’t it you, mr Franklin, who started talking about the need to divide Syria? You are changing your attitude. ??? ?????? ??? ?? ?????
?????? ?????? ?? ??? ?????
If I live in the same country with people like Syria no Kandahar, what is the problem? Syria no Kandahar sees the real problem and you never did. You just give us the normal rant about Zionism, Iran and HizbAllah. Really mr. Observer? You just write “assessments” that are too shallow mr. old money.
Do you think that a “high class” kook like you ever considered someone like me as a part of his state? I know all of those who think like you. You guys are lost.
Good luck living in the same state with your man Visitor and Uzair, and the like.
Your attitude is very sour ya observer…Cheer up dude
By the way, when did your family came to Syria, 150 years ago?
Did they behave like al-Assad family?
October 14th, 2012, 3:13 pm
syrain said:
25. zoo said:
“I wonder if Syrians have to choose between a Moslem Brotherhood Islamist lead regime or a Alawite secular lead regime, which one will they will choose?”
why dose it have to be one or the other?!.But this is the regime’s line, either me or the MB, to scare enough people in the country into accepting them with all their corruptions and 50 years of mismanagement. As if the threat of the other choice the regime is peddling will make enough Syrians forget and forgive and join his supporters to rule the rest of the country for another 50 years.
October 14th, 2012, 3:31 pm
Tara said:
Ya Visitor
Relax! Extreme anger can burst an undiagnosed brain aneurysm.
My questions are open to all so please feel free to respond. You often provide a good substance (except when you resort to insults). What I do not like is your expectation that Tara should conform to a particular behavior or discourse and Tara can’t conform. It us just not her. You have to accept that people are different and you have to accept the differences. These differences are what enrich human life, otherwise it becomes so dull. You want to treat Tara as an enemy, please go ahead. She would completely ignore you.
October 14th, 2012, 3:38 pm
Visitor said:
31 TARA,
Be assured that I have great medical care supporting my well being. I do not usually ask a pharmacist or a nurse for an opinion. With all due respect.
Secondly, your surmise that I was angry or extremely angry is an indication of an inability to rely on diagnostic advice that you may feel qualified you can offer. I was totally not angry.
Thirdly, I do not care whether you like or dislike my contributions. Totally irrelevant. I do care when people make stupid questions. And for that reason I made my last comment concerning you. Rest assured you will see more when the need may arise.
Lastly, I am the least in need for lessons about people’s differences. So get rid of your condescending nonsense and go down to earth. You are not entitled to make the request as in 22 nor are we to listen to such requests. Why don’t you stand on your own feet and let others such as the Zoo stand on their own? I call that real free speech and not an orchestra of robots.
QED
October 14th, 2012, 4:25 pm
Ghufran said:
Ibrahimi is now trying to build support for a peace keeping force similar to the UNIFEL, he wants to exclude Arab countries, Turkey, Iran, the US and the UK from that force.
Russia is likely to take punitive measures against Turkey after US admitted that the cargo on the Syrian plane that was forced to land in Turkey was legal but “unethical”, I think we all agree that when it comes to ethics nobody can claim to be a hero.
Tara, take this,or leave it,from an older fellow, it is a waste of time trying to reason with people who have decided to shut their brain:
?? ????? ????? ??? ????? ? ?? ?????? ???? ??? ?????
October 14th, 2012, 4:28 pm
William Scott Scherk said:
A question for Zoo to evade
SYRAIN asks of Ghufran’s copy/past from the last thread, at 15:
The copy/paste was as usual not attributed to any place or any person or any site.
The copy/paste originated at this site: https://www.facebook.com/albaath.lovers
Whether or not Ghufran picked up his copy/paste from the Baath-lovers site is unknown, as it was widely copied/pasted elsewhere. As is my habit I always, in every instance, try to track down the source of Ghufran’s copy/paste entries. This one in particular appeared in many other places, as can be seen by this Google Search:
For those who do not read or do not attempt to translate Arabic, this is the Google Translate version of Ghufran’s unattributed comment:
Now, Ghufran replied (sort of) to Syrain (at 17), with a fresh copy/paste. This time the chunk of ‘information’ apparently comes from http://loveasaad.syriaforums.net/t4553-topic
We rarely know where Ghufran’s materials come from, since he almost never gives a URL to Arabic materials. I have asked him before to please provide links, but he does not. I do not know why. In the absence of any indication of where his copied materials come from, what are we to think? How can we respond to these mysterious non-sourced plugs of opinion and reporting?
As for the criticism and questions put to Zoo, I suggest that this is a free and open forum of opinion. Anything we write here may be challenged. Asking questions of a Baathist mouthpiece may be forbidden in the one-party autocracy Zoo prefers, but it is hardly ‘harassment.’ I further suggest Zoo should quit his unseemly whining. If you get in bed with the Baath, if you carry their water, if you ignore and evade all questions about the brutality of the regime, if you pretend to a perfect vision, if you can accused named people of psychological defects … then you have made yourself a focus of questions. No one else here (save the demented spammer ANN) takes the Baath line to such a degree as Zoo. Why he thinks this exempts him from questioning is beyond me. Is this how the reigning Baath paradigm of dialogue is instantiated?
Here I have a question for Zoo; I hope he does not feel attacked, harassed, frightened or upset at the question.
At 11, Zoo proclaims that in his Baathist opinion, the Syrian government “is justified to use any means.”
Any means? Zoo, does this include cluster bombing? If so, this seems carte blanche for Assadism, a pretty wide leeway you give to your favourite side in the conflict. Of course, you may not answer, in which case readers gain insight into your blind spots and your occluded cognition.
[I have put a handy Bold Header so that Zoo may read past my remarks and save himself some discomfort]
October 14th, 2012, 4:52 pm
Syrain said:
Here is an arrest opertion in the Syria Zoo’s wondering about if we have the choice to live under.
https://m.facebook.com/aksalser.web.offcial?id=235395973220945&_rdr#!/235395973220945/timeline/story?ut=3&hash=2722876072880690606&wstart=1350235263&wend=1350235322&pagefilter=1&ustart&__user=100003131418721
October 14th, 2012, 5:00 pm
Tara said:
Zoo
Cc: Visitor
Can you tell me again Why Qatar can’t say no to Iran? I’d like to read the same
answer again.
October 14th, 2012, 5:12 pm
William Scott Scherk said:
At 7, Syria Comment’s mysterious American ‘ANN’ posts an interesting link to a Youtube video. She titles her post, in her usual gurning effusion, Friends of Syria exclamation exclamation, grin grin — but she does not tell us what the video says or claims.
Well, the text accompanying the video says this:
The video is from Canada’s right-wing neo-con ‘news’ channel SunTV. It seems odd that ‘Ann’ finds this Zionised channel worthy of our note.
Also worthy of note, judging from the number of times ‘Ann’ has posted it**, is a report from FoxNews 19 in Cincinnati, where Ben Swann told his viewers that the USA created Al Qaeda.
Swann continues, asking “If Al Qaeda is our sworn enemy, why is the United States supporting Al Qaeda fighters as part of the Syrian opposition, just as we supported Al Qaeda fighters in the Libyan uprising?”
I think this is where ‘Ann’ gets stumped. She is unable to critically examine or discern the defects in Swann’s report.
On another note, one of ‘Ann’s giggly repetitions is a post (again from the shoddy Liveleak site) that features a link to a picture of a bloated, eye-bulging corpse. ‘Ann’ seems to think that a bloated, eye-bulging corpse with rotten skin (grey) is a Libyan ‘African’ … or as she puts it, with smiley faces, “Dead african Mercenary Terrorist” and “Black african jihadist.”
How ‘Ann’ could have found the time to become a CSI-style forensic expert while fulfilling her copy/paste quota, well, we will never know. How she applies her cognitive filters to such cheap and nasty propaganda is another mystery. Her taste for body-farm images is perhaps the creepiest thing about her mania.
___________
** at last count, ‘Ann’ has posted the FoxNews effluvium ten (10!) times, the eye-bulging rotted corpse pic only four.
October 14th, 2012, 5:28 pm
Juergen said:
Guernica of Aleppo
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=448075271900529&set=a.385104894864234.84843.153281208046605&type=1&theater
October 14th, 2012, 5:51 pm
Visitor said:
TARA 36 said,
“Zoo
Cc: Visitor
Blah….blah…..blah….blah….”
Why don’ t you Just admit you lost and just ran out of answers?
What are you trying to prove? That you you can be a moron if you choose to?
Why don’t you go and fill out a customer prescription order, or perhaps change the linens for some incoming patients?
Lucky Moza did not take you in?
Sometimes things just work out better the way they work out!!!
Truthfully, are you not just a cyber female?
But the question then becomes why would a non real female choose a female sounding moniker for blogging?
October 14th, 2012, 5:52 pm
Tara said:
Visitor, aka Aqoul
I admit I lost..not because I ran out of answers, but because your post does not deserve an answer.
Aqoul, you are Lebanese. Right?
October 14th, 2012, 6:03 pm
Visitor said:
TARA 40 said,
“I admit I lost..not because I ran out of answers, but because your post does not deserve an answer.”
And here you are contradicting yourself and making an answer!!
Really impressed with your pseudo medical expertise and your ability to see through.
What is AKA Akoul, anyway?
Are you playing a name game that you now ran out of answers?
Buzz off.
And NO I am not Lebanese.
I already mentioned where I am from.
Are you also dumb?
October 14th, 2012, 6:14 pm
Visitor said:
TARA 40
Hey you did not answer my question. I answered yours.
Are you not just a cyber female hiding behind a female sounding moniker?
October 14th, 2012, 6:16 pm
William Scott Scherk said:
At 33, Ghufran said:
Earlier reports (from unnamed people, attributed to ‘diplomatic sources’) suggested this was Brahimi’s intent: to provide a force (like UNIFIL) that can monitor a ceasefire and escort aid to its recipients — as part of a package of measures that include release of detainees and other aspects of the Six Point Plan.
But, Brahimi’s spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi denies the story as told by Ghufran (from the Guardian:
Lakhdar Brahimi’s spokesman Ahmad Fawzi has denied a report that the international envoy is considering a plan to deploy 3,000 peacekeepers to Syria.
Asked whether there was any truth in the Sunday Telegraph’s story, Fawzi said “no”, adding “they have bad sources”. He did not elaborate.
No. Russia is not likely to take anything like punitive measures against Turkey. Foreign Minister Lavrov said this today (from Reuters, and confirmed by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti):
Visitor continues to degrade discussion, using his nasty side to devalue and denigrate anyone (from any quarter) who does not toe his line and give him obeisance. The latest target of his wrath is Tara.
I must ask Visitor if he has ever been part of negotiations. Perhaps negotiating with the bank for a loan, or his business partners for a new venture, perhaps within his family over spending priorities — or even the course of his childrens’ lives and education.
Can we expect him to behave in a similar manner — with namecalling, accusations, denunciations, and threats? Can we expect him to be a man of principle, a man of heart, in real face-to-face situations where he is not able to dominate by sheer invective?
Is it too much to expect Visitor to behave like a man? Is it too much too expect him to grant difference in opinion as a difference in opinion, rather than as enemy utterances?
The verbal casuistry against Tara is sad and revealing. Visitor does not appear to know how to dialogue without insult and denigration — as if he cannot be happy in his own opinions unless everyone in earshot gives him his due as master.
You demean yourself, Visitor, with the ugly verbal scoldings of such as Son of Damascus and others, now Tara.
Headlining your scrappy, authoritarian nature with professions of faith and the supremacy of God is a dodge. We have no reason to believe you use religion as other than a club with which to beat your friends/enemies.
**********************
Is there a place in Syria for those who use religious profession to browbeat others into submission? Perhaps. Perhaps Visitor can sell out his holdings in America and return and build himself a mosque, declare himself Mufti Uber Alles, and get down to his business of hate and exclusion under cover of religion. The meanness and autocracy should give him the followers he deserves, while the rest of Syria rebuilds its damaged relationships.
October 14th, 2012, 6:27 pm
Tara said:
Visitor
You brought it on… Let’s have a deal, You being so religious, I will answer any question if you swear on the Quraan that you are not Aqoul. I will understand if you decline, but if you do decline, then I will only answer questions when I feel like it.
And how dumb I am, I will leave it to your judgement.
October 14th, 2012, 6:31 pm
Tara said:
William Scott Scherk,
I miss your posts in here. I wish you post more. Like to read you with a cup of coffee.
October 14th, 2012, 6:35 pm
Visitor said:
44 TARA,
Listen carefully. I did not bring anything on myself. On the contrary it was your presumptuous fake medical knowledge that you brought on yourself.
I do not have to answer anything to you or swear on anything. You do not want to answer my question then simply buzz off and do not play the name game.
So, now I understand from your last inquiry that this AKA Aqoul is some sensible entity? Is he/she something like True or Abboud? You wre wrong before. So why can’t you be wrong again? What does it matter to you anyway. I can tell you for certain that I am not female. Can you make that assertion?
————–
WSS 43,
So how is Port Coquitlam these days? You still have gangs roaming around?
Listen man, we know that you’re aiming to become some kind of moderator for this blog and you only appear when the discussion becomes heated perhaps to announce your willingness to do the job. I am glad that you have noticed there are two sides to me. So do not awaken the side that you do not like. I promise you I can make your comments look like hell despite your carefully composed paragraphs. You seem to have a lot of time on your hand unlike many of us who can only follow and look after their English composition on weekends or such. By the way are you out of work?
For your own information, no I do not use the same arguments I use here when I am negotiating in matters as you mentioned. Also for your information, it has been long established that there is no real debate going on on this board. It is simply propaganda and counter propaganda and that includes most of the material provided by the host.
Also for your information, I have a policy here on this board of gradual escalation when somebody goes out of line and I made that clear on more than one occasion. Out of line is defined by me as someone making a personal attack on me (but not my comments as I always make a clear distinction between the comment and the commentator). I raise his/ her attack by a notch every time until he/she/it retracts. You can go back and verify on your own as you seem to have plenty of time on your hand.
And as for my choices in life, these are mine and only mine to make and your input in this matter is neither solicited nor appreciated.
October 14th, 2012, 6:54 pm
Darryl said:
31. TARA said:
“Ya Visitor
Relax! Extreme anger can burst an undiagnosed brain aneurysm.”
Can this be treated with Aspirin? You are not recommending Aspirin anymore.
October 14th, 2012, 7:12 pm
Darryl said:
Is this site moderated again?
I have submitted two post to my dear Visitor twice and did not appear. What is happening?
October 14th, 2012, 7:18 pm
SANDRO LOEWE said:
Huge explosion in Mezzeh Autostrade in Damascus Mezzeh area happening at midnight.
Probably the Iranian Embassy which works as the Iranian Intelligence Centre or as the real Ministry of Interior and Defense…
October 14th, 2012, 7:29 pm
Visitor said:
Dear Darryl 48,
Please do not expect that I will treat your comments to me from now on with the same promptness as I used to.
You should know the reason why.
Last time I spent a whole night and a full day of my precious weekends to get my lengthy comment out of the filter in response to one of your inquiries. Now you should taste what it is like to be filtered.
I even brought to you a full three hour movie to entertain you with my answers. But you did not even bother to say hello.
Next time you address me with one of your inquiries, I will put it in the freezer until I feel like it.
October 14th, 2012, 7:37 pm
Observer said:
Well well,
ZOO posts an article by Mr. Rhode. I conclude that he wants to inform us of its content just as he wants to tell us of what is happening in Libya.
Posting the article is usually an indication of the importance the person posting attributes to the article. In my mind he is reminding us of the need for the Alawi community to be protected and its imperative to actually fight to the death for this protection.
My conclusions are as follows:
1. The ruling clique in Syria has 0% secularism in it.
2. The statement by ZOO on whether the people will prefere an Alawi secular rule or an Islamist rule is actually an oxymoron. There is no such thing as Alawi secular rule just as there is no such thing as a secular Christian rule. The two words together are self contradictory.
3. Every sect want the majority Sunnis to be secular while they retain their particular religious affiliation and protection. Well you cannot have the cake and eat it too.
4. I would like very very much for the Alawi community to be fully protected and to have their own state if they so wish and if they cannot have their state then to be protected from any acts of vengeance or reprisals. Criminals from all the sects and all the clans and all the communities participated in the oppression of each other and their own sects as well.
5. The problem is that the use of force by the regime has let out the Genie out of the bottle and it will have a very hard time putting it back together. Even if the regime were to prevail for a few years there is so much bloodshed that another round of fighting will happen sooner or later.
6. Majbali you also wanted to have a state called Syria No Kandahar and therefore from its very origin has excluded a certain part of the population outright and you also wanted a state where the Alawi community is safe and secure and would never ever suffer again any discrimination.
7. The regime being inherently incapable of reform it will have to go and PLEASE MAJBALI AND ZOO AND CITIZEN AND SNK let us work on a truth and reconciliation commission before it is too late.
8. Majbali I post ideas to challenge and to invite debate. Your freedom of speech is music to my ears for it allows you to insult if you so wish. I have no problem with what you say. You are a human being like me and disagreements are just that and perhaps one day we can be friends agreeing to disagree. No ill will in any thing I have said and I am puzzled as to why you felt insulted.
Cheers
October 14th, 2012, 7:42 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
yo, Mr. I did not bring anything on myself.. well think again, because you just did.
out of line? … well make me get back in line.
Bombastic and arrogant, and with this line, proved no less demented than SNP-DANDASHI, or better than the skunk, or than the one who gets his unreferenced feeds from the disappearing humanitarian secular/sectarian poster… The only worthy thing in you is your good writing, and what a waste of talent.
October 14th, 2012, 7:44 pm
Syrian said:
34. WILLIAM SCOTT SCHERK
I did not have to search google to know his likely source, but thanks for your effort to show every one that most of his sources are from the lies of the hard core supporters sites.
October 14th, 2012, 7:54 pm
Tara said:
Turkey bans Syrian flghts
Turkey has confirmed that it is banning Syrian civilian flights from its air space, AP reports.
Earlier Syria said it was barring its air space to Turkish flights, as a response to a ban by Turkey. But there has been no word until now from Ankara on which ban came first.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said Turkey had made the decision because the Syrian regime was “abusing” civilian flights by transporting military equipment.
He said Syria was notified of the decision on Saturday. He added: “The Syrian announcement has no value for us.”
Last week, Turkey forced a Syrian plane to land and confiscated what it said was military equipment on board. Russia said the plane was carrying spare radar parts, while Syria accused Turkey of piracy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2012/oct/14/syria-bans-turkish-flights-live#block-507ac1bc58f91d7bbadac518
October 14th, 2012, 8:05 pm
syria no kandahar said:
Praise Erdogan Visiter’s and Hamster’s mighty god,the most powerful,the grandson
of Kazook inventor and 1.5 armenians killers.
Praise Erdogan the mighty god of democracy,the number one jailer of joirnalists
on the face of the earth.
praise Erdogan Visiter’s and Hamster’s mighty god,the most honest and the most powerfull,the 24 hours a day exporter of weapons to terrorists to Syria,the killer
of 10000 syrian soldier.
praise Daudoglu the most beutiful,the genius,the powerful,the Hamster look alike,
Visiter’s idol, the smiler,the political philosopher of the 21 century,the previous
lover of Assad goverment,the sudden conscious founder after 10 years of lack of consciousness,the builder of the new coming completely burned syria.
praise Visiter the SC MB fighter, the most god praiser on SC,the one with unlimitted credit with god,the Turk and Ottman fan to the bone,the one which has
nothing Syrian above the bones.
Praise Hamster, the skunk,the funk and the punk,the blind rat with selective visual
acuity to only non-islamist crimes,the friend of Kaled abo Salah the Aljazera massacres producer,and Abdulrazak tlass the dude of Alarabia femae rats.
October 14th, 2012, 8:21 pm
Darryl said:
Dear Visitor, I am sorry that you were waiting for an answer. It was a weekend for me and did not have time to answer you then.
October 14th, 2012, 8:28 pm
Tara said:
UN Syria envoy holds talks in Tehran
TEHRAN – The UN-Arab League envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on the Syrian crisis in Tehran on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Salehi announced that Iran has already presented Brahimi a “written proposal” on the Syrian issue.
He added that a copy of the proposal has also been presented to the Syrian government.
….
He went on to say that like any other nation, the Syrian people have the right to freedom and free elections and the Syrian government has repeatedly said that it is ready to meet the demands of its people and even announced that “if it is necessary, it will revise certain decisions made in the past.”
Salehi also said that Iranian officials and Brahimi believe that “the violence and bloodshed should be stopped” in Syria before taking any action.
….
“I also announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran is fully ready to cooperate with him” because the United Nations, by selecting Brahimi as its troubleshooter, has put itself in an impartial status in regard to Syria.
….
Commenting on Iran’s written proposal, Brahimi said that the views are good and can help resolve the problem.
….
http://tehrantimes.com/politics/102381-un-syria-envoy-holds-talks-in-tehran
October 14th, 2012, 8:31 pm
Ghufran said:
Ibrahimi is tight lipped about his future plans for good reasons, what leaked about his plan may or may not be true but I think this is the way to go, we talked about this subject in length before, schrek ” indepth” tracking of my posts is both wrong and aimless, I ,like most, bring up pieces of news that I find interesting,you can skip my posts if that makes you feel better but you will not see me inciting violence or spreading hatred and celebrating the death of innocent Syrians, many of you can not make the same claim,unfortunately.
As for the Russian jets story,it was actually brought up by Lebanese press from Russian military source, I tend to believe the story for a number of reasons, Russia is not about to hand Syria on a silver plate to ??? ?????and their pimps but is fully willing to sacrify Assad or any person to protect its interests.
You guys keep babbling and I will keep posting.
October 14th, 2012, 8:43 pm
zoo said:
WSS
Thanks for the bold header, it allowed me to skip that long post.
I am sorry that other commenters who started this style, have renounced to it.
October 14th, 2012, 8:43 pm
zoo said:
What is happening in the Arab Spring countries show the choices the citizens have when they vote:
a) The Moslem Brotherhood whose aim is an authoritarian Islamic ‘democracy’ similar to Iran with a “mild” Sharia
b) The Salafists whose aim is a authoritarian Caliphate with a “hard” Sharia
c) The Liberals whose aim is a secular democracy with a “little” Sharia.
That’s all. There are no more communists, nasserists etc.. It is all about the level of Sharia that will rule the country.
In Syria, the choice will be the same. There is no doubt that all the Alawis, the moderate Sunnis, the Christians and all the minorities will be in Liberals camp.
Who is leading the opposition now? It gives you an idea of where they would stand in a free election. Will they get a majority? I doubt.
This is exactly why they do not want parties or elections. They want a coup where they hope to take the power by the force of weapons and keep it. Then who will force them to democracy? Protests? Qatar? Saudi Arabia? The UN?
Just look at what happened to the liberals in Egypt who started the revolution, they got nothing. They have no voice anymore.
Liberals in Syria, if the present secular government is toppled by force, will get nothing. They’ll be taken over by the most organized and well funded groups as it happened in all the Arab countries, and this last 18 months showed us who they are..
No illusion.
October 14th, 2012, 9:04 pm
ann said:
Putin’s Responds to Turkish Air Piracy, Sukhoi-35 over Turkish Coast – Oct-14-2012
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=078_1350250734
After Turkish air piracy of a Syrian civilian passenger plane traveling from Moscow, Russian Air Force decided to send 30 Sukhoi-35 to Cyprus. These aircraft will patrol the Turkish, Syrian, and Lebanese coasts about ten times a day! Russia lacks sufficient aircraft carriers and the Greek Cypriot military has a strategic relationship with Russia.
Turkish jets violate Cypriot airspace daily, passing over the skies of Greek Cyprus, excluding the capital. A Russian official said that Moscow considers the airspace of Greek Cyprus Russian
Federation airspace and it does not accept the Turkish aircraft flying over it. Turkey declared today that it will not fly over Greek Cyprus anymore.
The Su-35 has thrust-vectoring capabilities, six Vympel R-73 air to air missiles, with 90% lethality, and is classified as 4++ generation fighter. It is superior to the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet
and F-15SE Silent Eagle.
[…]
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=078_1350250734
October 14th, 2012, 9:05 pm
Observer said:
Once again I did go first to Mayadden and manar and alalam and press tv and RT and sana.
No word whatsoever of the use of cluster bombs. no word on the loss of several positions in the north and the south of the country.
So the news must be great, the brave Syrian army is cleansing the areas of the remnants of the terrorist mercenaries.
In the meantime, ZOO tells us that Turkey is on the brink of collapse.
SNK on the other hand is still stuck in historical nightmare of oppression. The whole view of the world revolves around the atrocities of the forefathers of Erdogan and the Sunnis and all the oppression of all the minorities.
What will happen if the majority Sunni were to view the world in the prism of the current oppression that they are subject to in Iraq and Syria?
Endless cycles of violence. Give each community its autonomy, keep the economy out of the clutches of the state, and federate in an entity where religion has no part.
I suspect if this were to happen the minorities will actually surpass the Sunnis in every way, for the Sunnis are too divided and too preoccupied with the dress code of their women to work on progress.
So here I post another challenge but pray tell us WHAT IS HAPPENING IN MALI?
October 14th, 2012, 9:07 pm
Observer said:
THE 35 SUKHOI WILL LAND WHERE AND BE POSITIONED WHERE PLEASE ANN TELL US. ON THE BRITISH BASE THERE? IF ON THE OTHER HAND THEY ARE JUST FLYING WHY NOT FLY ON THE BLACK SEA COAST? WHY CYPRUS TO HELP SYRIA? I think Putin has been stung by the breach of his security.
October 14th, 2012, 9:10 pm
zoo said:
Who’s talking about moral bankruptcy?
Russian cargo to Syria did not violate laws, admits U.S.
Atul Aneja
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/russian-cargo-to-syria-did-not-violate-laws-admits-us/article3997108.ece
The United States has acknowledged that Russia did not violate any law by transferring cargo in the Damascus-bound civilian flight from Moscow, which was forced to land by Turkey in Ankara on Wednesday.
During the course of an extended back-and-forth between a reporter and spokesperson Victoria Nuland at a regular State Department briefing, the U.S. official agreed that the movement of material by Russia, part of which was confiscated by Turkey, on board the Syrian aircraft was not illegal. However, Moscow’s policy toward Syria was “morally bankrupt”.
October 14th, 2012, 9:18 pm
Ghufran said:
Syrian government forces have used Russian-made cluster bombs on populated areas in their effort to push back rebel advances along the country’s main north-south highway, according to Human Rights Watch.
The watchdog on Sunday pointed to videos put up on the internet showing bomblets from cluster munitions in Idlib, Homs, Aleppo and Latakia provinces and outside Damascus. It said interviews with witnesses backed up the video evidence and there were clear signs the weapons had been dropped from aircraft.
October 14th, 2012, 9:25 pm
Visitor said:
Syrian Hamster 52 said,
“out of line? … well make me get back in line.
Bombastic and arrogant, and with this line, proved no less demented than SNP-DANDASHI, or better than the skunk, or than the one who gets his unreferenced feeds from the disappearing humanitarian secular/sectarian poster
Are you sure you want to be straightened out?
OK, you have resorted to name calling. So I will just give you name calling in kind. Fair enough?
Why does a skunk (Synonym for Hamster) want to make others skunks? Does the Hamster/skunk feel lonely?
You like to carry on with name calling? Will be happy to go on until you feel as straight as a mouse (another one of your synonyms).
I didn’t choose name calling. You did. But this seems a favorite on this blog that some delusionally think is made for debate.
Find yourself something else to play with. I have a full week ahead of me. Write something more reasonable if you do not like to waste your own talent, mind your own business and get straightened out.
October 14th, 2012, 9:27 pm
Visitor said:
Syrian Hamster 52 said,
“out of line? … well make me get back in line.
Bombastic and arrogant, and with this line, proved no less demented than SNP-DANDASHI, or better than the skunk, or than the one who gets his unreferenced feeds from the disappearing humanitarian secular/sectarian poster”
Are you sure you want to be straightened out?
OK, you have resorted to name calling. So I will just give you name calling in kind. Fair enough?
Why does a skunk (Synonym for Hamster) want to make others skunks? Does the Hamster/skunk feel lonely?
You like to carry on with name calling? Will be happy to go on until you feel as straight as a mouse (another one of your synonyms).
I didn’t choose name calling. You did. But this seems a favorite on this blog that some delusionally think is made for debate.
Find yourself something else to play with. I have a full week ahead of me. Write something more reasonable if you do not like to waste your own talent, mind your own business and get straightened out.
October 14th, 2012, 9:29 pm
Aldendeshe said:
Hey Visitor, what is your real Syrian name coward? What Ismaili village did you born in, and how much your daddy stole from Syria? You are pro regime demented character what are you afraid of not writting in your own name coward. Are you ashamed of yourself, your family perhaps, worse your daddy? Don’t tell me you afraid of mukhabrat. Don’t worry,they have no access to the basement floor 6 in Mossad Herzalia H.Q. Write in your own name, have some biography on some webpage will ya, you could be a janitor at some beer hall in London whore house, and we are wasting our time dealing with your crap, giving you dignity that you do not deserve.
October 14th, 2012, 10:16 pm
Darryl said:
Dear Visitor,
Over the last week, you were doing a lot of Allah praises, as well as, not begotten etc etc. Hence, I thought I will ask you a few questions, you can freeze them if you want just like previous questions.
1. Allah says in His book (Surat Al-Jinn verse 18) not to associate Him with anyone else in His own house. It is obvious this is violated, is it not?
2. Allah says in His book, all prophets were Muslims, what shahada did they use, do you know?
Based on the above it is clear to me you are a Mushrik while still doing all this praising. Feel free to answer on your own terms.
October 14th, 2012, 10:49 pm
Syrain said:
Alarabia apologizes over the leaked documents
http://english.alarabiya.net/views/2012/10/13/243404.html
October 14th, 2012, 10:50 pm
Ghufran said:
Ibrahimi’s plan according to western press:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9606805/UN-peace-envoy-draws-up-plan-for-3000-strong-peacekeeping-force-in-Syria.html
October 14th, 2012, 11:05 pm
Ghufran said:
????????? ?????? ??????? ???? ?????? ???? ?? ??????? ???????? ??? ?????? ??????? ??? 157 ????? ????? ??????.
???? ?? ??????? ???????? ??? 60 ????? 2012 ????? ???? ?? ??????? ???????? ??? ?????? ??????? 157.959.594.70 ????? ?????? ???? ????? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ????? (???? ?????).
October 14th, 2012, 11:20 pm
Ghufran said:
Why would Cyprus, a member of the EU, allow Russian military to use its water and space?
The Republic of Cyprus, with its 840,000 people, has been in the Eurozone for less than five years. Yet it burned through mountains of euros faster than anyone could count. Now it needs a bailout whose magnitude balloons every time someone blinks.
The financial problems came to a head last year when the markets refused to go along with the country’s profligacy. So Cyprus went begging to Russia and got a €2.5 billion loan last November.
October 14th, 2012, 11:30 pm
Visitor said:
67 Dendeshe,
Just not long ago you insisted that I am not Syrian. Now you changed your mind. What is the matter with you? Make up your mind once and for all
OK. I am from the same city you claim you descend from. Do you know any Ismailis in Tartus? You may guess based on your oscillating conjectures but you’ll never be sure. So I’ll keep you guessing.
But I’ll give you a clue. You see? I am sometimes nice. I am not Ismaili, with all due respect. My tribe (and we are a tribe located on the coast extending all the way to Aleppo and even to Mosul in Iraq and we keep the bond alive no matter how the centuries turn) are ardent Sunnis to the very very core.
I am not required to provide any real names on this board or anywhere else. This board means nothing to me except for the entertaining propaganda I often read from almost all the contributors. I do enjoy your stories and find them a different kind of propaganda. In a way they are quite unique.
And yes my father is rich without having to steal anything from idiot and his father thug. But I am even richer than my father and we made our fortunes outside Syria.
October 14th, 2012, 11:49 pm
Visitor said:
Dear Darryl 68,
Despite your previous shortcomings, I will not keep you waiting.
The answers to your questions are forthcoming:
1) Surat Jin V. 18 says,
??? ??????? ??? ??? ????? ?? ???? ????
Which translates to:
And [He revealed] that the masjids are for Allah , so do not invoke with Allah anyone.
2) You did not provide reference to your second question. So I will provide a relevant reference which should answer your question,
??? ??? ???? ????? ??????? ??? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ?? ????? ???? ???? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ???????? ??? ??????? ?????? ??? ???? ???? ????? ?????? ??? ??????? ???? ???? ?? ???????? ??? ???? ??? ??? ?????? ?? ????????
3) This is the answer to your false conclusion. Allah has many Attributes. You can find them throughout the Holy Qura’n. You can call him by His Proper Name Allah or by any of His Attributes according to the following verse,
?? ????? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ??? ?? ????? ??? ??????? ?????? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ????? ??? ??? ?????
The particular ones I was using which I will go back to very soon and for very good reasons come from the following,
( ?? ?? ???? ???, ???? ?????,?? ??? ??? ????, ??? ??? ?? ???? ??? )
I hope the above satisfies your curiosity and your inquisitive mind.
October 14th, 2012, 11:59 pm
Juergen said:
Viewpoint: Echoes of Spanish civil war in Syria
Although Syria’s revolutionaries took inspiration from their counterparts in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, their situation is unique in the Arab world, argues Fouad Ajami. He sees vivid parallels, though, with the Spanish civil war.
Pity the Syrian people. They had been given to believe that fighter jets in the arsenal of the state – those Russian-made MIGs they once viewed with pride – were there for the stand-off with Israel.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19882416
October 15th, 2012, 12:08 am
Ghufran said:
?? ???? ??????? ?? ???? ????? ??? ?? ??? ???? ??????? ?? ??????? ????? ???? ?????? ??? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ??? ?????? ??????? ?? ???? ???????.
???? ????? ?????? ??? ???????? ????? ?????? ??? ???? ???? ??? ????? ????? ???????? ???????? ?????????? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ???????? ??? ??? ???? ?? ??????? ?? ?????? ?? ???????
So, would it not make more sense for those rebels to go inside occupied territories?
Qardawi forgot Israel when he asked Muslims in the upcoming hajj to curse Iran, China and Russia.
October 15th, 2012, 12:11 am
Visitor said:
69 Syrain,
Are you sure that Faisal Abbas is not being sarcastic in that apparent apology?
October 15th, 2012, 12:14 am
Ghufran said:
????..
??? ???? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ??????? ??????? ???????? ????? ???? ?????? ??????? ?????? ??? ??????? ??? ??????? ???? ???? ??????? ??????? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ????????? ?? ?????? ?????? ?? ?????.
???? ?????? ???? ???? ??? ????? ?? ????? ???????? ??? ???????????? ?? “?????? ???????? ? ??????? ??? ??????? ???? ??????? ????? ????? ???? ???? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ?????? ??????? ??? ???? ??????? ???????”.
???? ?????? ?? ????????? ??????? ???????? ??? ??????? ??? ??????? ?? ????? “?? ???? ??? ???? ???? ?? ??????”.
???? ?????? ?????? ??????? ?? ??????? ???? ??????? ?? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ???? ?????.
Early reports about the involvement of foreign Islamists and thugs like Uqab Saqr in Syria’s war were labelled as regime propaganda.
October 15th, 2012, 12:18 am
ann said:
Syria’s stolen archeological artifacts worth 2 bln USD – 2012-10-15
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-10/15/c_131905819.htm
DAMASCUS, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) — At a time when the Syrian administration and the rebels are involved in a tug of war for controlling hotspots in the country and driving each other out of them, some people are busy in smuggling the country’s centuries- old artifacts and relics.
The on-line Syria Steps website has warned Sunday that the Syrian artifacts, some of which go back to more than 6,000 years ago, have been pillaged at the hands of a well-organized mafia that smuggles them outside the country, especially to Syria’s arch- enemies or the countries that overtly support the Syrian rebels.
The on-line report said the artifacts which were plundered from the Syrian museums and smuggled to the museums of Tel Aviv, London, the United States and other countries are estimated at two billion U.S. dollars.
It deplored the Syrian government’s dereliction in protecting its monuments and its failure in taking precautionary measures to prevent looting, indicating that the government should have taken its archeological treasures to safer places.
The report urged the government to work immediately to look after its treasures to prevent the repetition of the Iraqi scenario in Syria.
“At any rate, some say that the value of the looted Syrian artifacts is two billion U.S. dollars, and we say what has been stolen is priceless,” said the report.
Since the outbreak of protests in Syria 19 months ago, the two conflicting sides have been trading blames for the damage that has been inflicted on some archeological citadels and other historical monuments, the most recent of which was the fire that has gutted at least 600 shops at the Aleppo’s Medieval covered ancient market or souk that has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Archeologists warned against ruining Syria’s archeological monuments that include Greek, Islamic, Roman and Aramaic artifacts, and pleaded with concerned international organizations to safeguard them.
Some activists claimed that Syrian tanks and personnel carriers have been stationed amidst archeological sites, and that several ancient citadels have been transformed into military sites.
Few months ago, some Syrian intellectuals, journalists, writers and artists implored the international community to protect domestic archeological sites.
The Syrian government, on its part, accuses the opposition of looting and damaging the country’s monuments.
It has said that some old mosques have been turned into field hospitals in various hotspots and that some rebels barricaded inside historical citadels, like the Crac De Chevalier in Homs, to flee the Syrian army’s shelling.
UNESCO believes that five of Syria’s six World Heritage Sites, which include the ancient desert city of Palmyra, the Crac des Chevaliers crusader fortress and parts of old Damascus, have been affected by the ongoing armed conflict.
In July, the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums in Syria stressed that several museums and archaeological cities in Syria were pillaged of treasures
[…]
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-10/15/c_131905819.htm
October 15th, 2012, 12:20 am
Juergen said:
Ann
Did you ever think about the mass sale the regime has been keen on since decades? Check the market for Palmyra heads or hethite decors, all is widely available.
Of course the usual excuse that they just sell antiquities which were stolen by the colonial powers, ask the right folks and you will know anything is for sale.
October 15th, 2012, 1:02 am
Darryl said:
Dear Visitor,
Most often, you answer my questions by rephrasing my question back and claiming it is an answer. You clearly associate Allah with the Messenger in Shahada and most certainly Surat Al-Jinn. In the Mosque, Allah and the Messenger’s name are always next to each other at the same level, his is association, the prayers invoke the Messengers name in the same sentence.
Moreover, Allah says in His book (Surat Al-AHzab verse 56), that Allah and the angels are praying on the Messenger. Who is Allah and who is a prophet in this verse? For the love of Allah and His prophets do not answer with the same question I am posing to you.
It is clear as day and night, you as a practicing Sunni Muslim is associating with Allah! This is Shirk, a most severe offence.
October 15th, 2012, 1:05 am
ann said:
Syrian troops cleared five suburbs of capital: state media – 2012-10-14
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-10/14/c_131905587.htm
DAMASCUS, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) — Syrian state media said Sunday the army troops have cleared five restive suburbs of the capital Damascus, as other media reported that many armed rebels fled toward the Lebanese territories due to the intense army shelling on a central Syrian town.
Syrian troops finished Sunday rooting out insurgency from Damascus’ suburbs of Zibdeen, Deir al-Asafir, Shaba’a, Mohamadieh and Jisreen, the state-run SANA news agency reported, giving no further details.
The cleansing campaign is part of the army’s operations nationwide to mop out the rampant armed insurgency that has engulfed a considerable number of Syrian cities.
Meanwhile, Lebanese OTV said many armed elements fled Sunday the central Syrian town of al-Qusair toward the al-Qa’a border town in neighboring Lebanon due to the heavy shelling by the Syrian army on al-Qusair, which has been largely out of the government’s control recently.
Syrian official media said the army was advancing on the ground in al-Qusair and other hotspots nationwide.
Also on Sunday, Sham FM said the government troops carried out a qualitative operation in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, leaving 72 dead and 150 injured.
In separate accounts, activists reported heavy shelling by the Syrian troops on many hotspots across the unrest-ravaged country, which has resulted in an undisclosed number of casualties and injuries.
[…]
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-10/14/c_131905587.htm
October 15th, 2012, 1:06 am
ann said:
Syria brands Turkey’s grounding of civilian plane “stupid and reckless” – 2012-10-14
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-10/14/c_131905559.htm
• The Turkish authorities forcefully grounded Wednesday a Syrian civilian plane.
• Both Syria and Russia dismissed the statement made by Turkish prime minister.
• Syria goes through legal and legitimate channels to obtain its military needs.
DAMASCUS, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) — A Syrian state-run newspaper said Sunday that Turkey’s grounding of a Syrian civilian plane last week was a “stupid and reckless” action.
“Regardless of their intents, what the Turkish authorities have recently done regarding the Syrian civilian plane has no other synonym in the international political dictionary but a stupid and reckless action,” Tishreen daily, a mouthpiece of the Syrian government, editorialized Sunday.
The Turkish authorities forcefully grounded Wednesday a Syrian civilian plane en route from Moscow to Damascus, under the pretext that the plane carried “non-civilian cargo.”
The Turks alleged that the Syrian flight carried Russian military gears destined for the Syrian ministry of defense.
Both Syria and Russia chided the Turkish move and dismissed the statement made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyep Erdogan, who said Russian military gears destined for Syria were confiscated on the plane.
Syrian Information Ministry challenged Erdogan on Thursday, demanding the latter publicly display the confiscated gears to prove his claims.
Tishreen said Turkey’s action amounts to a crime of “public piracy” according to international laws, adding that the move was not unexpected by the Syrian part due to the policy of ” recklessness and aggression espoused by the Turkish government since a year and a half ago.”
Tishreen noted that what happened has proven Turkey’s siding with the countries that support terrorism and hinder any political solution, contending that the move has backfired on the Turkish government and its plans.
Syria goes through legal and legitimate channels to obtain its military needs to protect its sovereignty, and does not need to use a civilian plane to carry weapons, the paper said, adding that the Turkish government has proven its ability to foment problems with neighboring countries, which exceeds its ability to make peace in the region.
[…]
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-10/14/c_131905559.htm
October 15th, 2012, 1:12 am
ann said:
Explosive device slices through Syrian journalist’s car in Damascus – 2012-10-14
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-10/14/c_131905554.htm
DAMASCUS, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) — An explosive device affixed under a car of a Syrian journalist went off Sunday at an upscale district of the capital Damascus, injuring the journalist, sources said.
The blast occurred in al-Mazzeh district in Damascus, which had been struck at early hours Sunday by another blast caused by a car bomb.
Ayman Wannous, the journalist, was injured along with other passersby, sources said, adding that the blast left some material damage on nearby buildings.
Many journalists have paid a steep price in Syria’s 19-month- old crisis as many of them have been either kidnapped or killed.
Earlier Sunday, a booby-trapped car went off on the main highway in al-Mazzeh before the crack of dawn, leaving material damage but no casualties.
[…]
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-10/14/c_131905554.htm
October 15th, 2012, 1:17 am
ann said:
No evidence that Syria uses Russian cluster bombs – Lavrov – Oct 15, 2012
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_10_15/No-evidence-that-Syria-uses-Russian-cluster-bombs-Lavrov/
Russia does not confirm information spread by human rights groups that Syria is allegedly using Russian cluster bombs. This statement was made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“The scope of internationalization of this conflict is wide enough, and there is an abundance of weapons there,” – said the minister. “The region is oversaturated with weapons: its next to impossible to establish the ‘who, where from and how’ regarding arms supplies there,” – stated Lavrov.
[…]
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_10_15/No-evidence-that-Syria-uses-Russian-cluster-bombs-Lavrov/
October 15th, 2012, 1:25 am
Visitor said:
Dear Darryl 81,
This particular point of yours was answered in a previous exchange with you over two months ago.
As I mentioned in a previous comment, I will not treat your inquiries with the same promptness as I used to. Because now it is obvious to me that either you do not read the responses, or you read and do not understand (and I did note previously that you have such a problem), or you are simply engaged in idle talk for your own agenda.
Had you shown the proper attention I would gladly go back and dig the answer in that comment of mine for your own benefits. But due to your clear lapses and lack of seriousness, I would leave it as an exercise for you to go through the archives and dig that particular response. You will have to produce that response and link it in a comment in order to prove your seriousness and desire to learn.
You have also failed to produce a response to that lengthy comment which cost me dearly to unfilter. So that is another clear indication of lack of seriousness.
So the ball is in your court. Prove that you are a serious student. Believe me my time is precious. I often would be doing three or four tasks while writing a comment here. So you should appreciate the dilemma of time management I am facing in order to respond to your non-serious inquiries. Help and do your part. I am becoming a multitasking walking android because of you.
Your first task now: find that response of mine to your repeated question and link it in your next inquiry in order to proceed further.
October 15th, 2012, 1:35 am
ann said:
Saudi Arabia pushing for Syria-Turkey fight – 9 hours ago
Reports 2 pilots murdered after being shot down
http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/saudi-arabia-pushing-for-syria-turkey-fight/
WASHINGTON – The Saudi-run Al-Arabiya news channel alleges that documents purport to show Syrians murdered two Turkish pilots recently shot down there in an effort to draw Turkey into a full-blown military confrontation, analysts say in a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Al-Arabiya said that the two Turkish pilots had been captured by Syrian Air Force intelligence after their American-made F-4 Phantom had been shot down in coordination with the Russian naval base in the Syrian city of Tartus. It further claimed that the order was sent directly from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Brig. Hassan Abdel Rahman, chief of Syria’s Special Operations Unit.
The documents, which have not been authenticated by independent sources, were displayed on the news channel. They allege that the prisoners were interrogated about Turkey’s role in supporting the Syrian opposition forces of the Free Syrian Army.
The documents suggest the possibility of transferring Capt. Gokhan Ertan and Lt. Hasan Huseyin Aksoy into the custody of Syrian ally and Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. However, a subsequent document purportedly called to “eliminate” the two pilots.
“Based on information and guidance from the Russian leadership,” Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya news channel said, “comes a need to eliminate the two Turkish pilots detained by the Special Operations Unit in a natural way, and their bodies need to be returned to the crash site in international waters.”
The documents reportedly were made available to the news channel with the help of members of the Syrian opposition. However, the opposition members refused to divulge how they obtained the documents.
Turkish officials, who have not commented on this latest revelation, previously had said the pilots’ bodies were recovered from very deep water in the Mediterranean Sea. They were still strapped in their seats and had not ejected from the aircraft.
Regional sources say, however, that Saudi Arabia wants Sunni ally Turkey to engage militarily against the Syrians in an effort to oust the al-Assad regime, a goal of the Saudis and Qatar. Saudi Arabia and Qatar already are providing financing and military supplies to the opposition through Turkey.
They add that the effort also is designed to damage Russian relations with the other Arab governments, given Moscow’s support for the Syrian government.
Saudi Arabia has been helped by Qatar and Turkey in its efforts to topple the al-Assad regime. It seeks to sever ties with Shi’ite Iran which has made major strides in extending its influence among the Sunni Arab countries that constitute the Gulf Cooperation Council.
WND/G2Bulletin has reported that the Saudis have placed intelligence operatives in Syria, northern Lebanon and Turkey to coordinate opposition efforts to launch attacks inside Syria.
Turkey recently retaliated to what was a Syrian mortar attack just inside Turkey, killing five civilians. The Syrian government apologized for this incident.
Yet, shelling into Turkey has continued, prompting regional sources to suggest that the Saudi-backed Syrian opposition may be continuing the shelling in an effort to draw Turkey into a full-blown fight with Syria.
[…]
http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/saudi-arabia-pushing-for-syria-turkey-fight/
October 15th, 2012, 1:36 am
Syrialover said:
SYRAIN #69
That’s a refreshingly articulate and rational statement by Faisal J. Abbas.
Though I’m unsure what he meant by “apologizing” for the leaked documents published by Al Arabiyam (whether he’s being ironic or not), I enjoyed what he wrote, especially his comments on Angry Arab.
In this current surreal situation, I’m confident that any faked leaks will turn out to be mild compared to the mad reality of what’s going on behind the scenes in the Assad regime.
http://english.alarabiya.net/views/2012/10/13/243404.html
October 15th, 2012, 3:03 am
William Scott Scherk said:
Question for Zoo on his justification of cluster bombs
At 53 Syrian remarked on my criticism of Ghufran’s unattributed excerpts:
I cannot accept your thanks for showing that most of Ghufran’s sources are from hardcore Baathi sites — because that is not at all what I find. I don’t understand Arabic, but I use a translator to get the gist of commentary that I know will be interesting, intriguing, or challenging.
Ghufran’s sources are not only or primarily or even largely from pro-regime sites. They are from all over the place. I do not have any problem with what Ghufran posts — I think, like Observer, that it is very important to keep abreast of the regime-friendly media, and it is no foul to excerpt from these kinds of places — it is part of a broad discourse. It matters. I read what the Russian, Indian and Soviet media are reporting, and I dip into the wild churning that is the Lebanese media.
My issue with unattributed postings of excerpts from gawdknowswhere is simple: it is sloppy and unhelpful, even irresponsible not to give sources. When I was moderator I did what I do now with Ghufran’s posts — search them down, find the original story. As moderator, I would append missings link to Ghufran’s posts.
It does not make sense to me that he is so lazy, when by appending a link he serves all Syria Comment readers.
So, please, Syrian, don’t get me wrong — I value Ghufran’s contributions very much. Regardless of any disagreements I might have with him at times, I know that he represents an important constituency, and is engaged and active, and that he sends aid to Syria. I respect him.
Visitor wonders what is happening in Port Coquitlam, regarding gangs. Well, sadly, Port Coquitlam leads the national news again tonight here in Canada, carryover from what is seen as a terrible scandal, another teen suicide due to bullying — this one particularly poignant and disturbing (it was preceded by a ‘last video’ on Youtube). The young lady who killed herself was 15. The story has struck many hearts in this country — we have the luxury of being outraged by teen bullies and the needless death of a young person, because we don’t have a government shelling and bombing us, and because we don’t have torture and death and detention to face, let alone 30,000 graves filled from armed conflict.
I live in White Rock, which is an entirely different suburb of Vancouver, but if Visitor wishes to know more of what is happening in Port Coquitlam, I recommend the Tri-city News site. It of course leads with the aftermath of the young woman’s death. It contains no statements from SANA, nor maundering lies from the Minister Of Information.
I wish Visitor the best. I wish I could help him understand that he is antagonising his allies. For him to use demeaning language against Tara serves no purpose for his side, or for a future reconciliation in Syria. Same with his attacks on Son of Damascus. He has cursed his erstwhile allies as enemies!
It isn’t possible to point out these optics to Visitor (that he may embarrass himself). I find his belligerent posturing alarming and depressing. On the one side he talks like he is the freaking mufti of all muftis, holier than the Pope, and on the other he demeans his fellow citizens who have the same hopes and dreams as he does, whose shared homeland is torn, suffering and grieving.
This arrogance can come at a price, even if it does not reflect the real man, the real spirit on the side of the oppressed in Syria. I hope for more heart and integrity from the Syrians I meet. I hope for much better from Visitor.
As for the manic Aldendeshe’s demands that Visitor fork up some ID, this is hilarious. I find ironic that the Syrian expat should demand a freaking WEBSITE as bona fides — when the creaky octogenarians of the SNP still have not got their sh*t together to do the same, let alone publish a party programme other than fantasies of domination. Instead of insane-seeming run-ons about the debbils and r.e.p.t.i.l.i.an invaders and Zionist Arabians all around him, he could start thinking about the day after.
One day the guns will still in Syria. You will be able to go home without prison, should you wish to, Aldendeshe. All of you will. What will you do then?
***************
I try to imagine the meeting of Visitor, Tara, SOD, Ghufran and the other Syrians like Zoo in the aftermath of war.
They all know what kind of homeland they want and need and likely agree on the broad outlines of its structure and its immediate needs for relief … could they manage to reconcile their differences in light of their shared dreams and tasks, or would it be like the invectathon here? Do you never despair at your squabbling and posturing, you heroes?
Ann, my sweet cross-eyed darling, we are ready for another bulge-eyed rotten corpse link whenever you are.
Zoo, the question you evaded was about your opinion that the Syrian government “is justified to use any means” in its war. I wondered if you considered the use of cluster bombs on civilian populations to be justified.
It seems you have a blindspot, sometimes. This makes it hard to pose as an honest broker and makes it seem you owe allegiance to the Baath. If you had integrity, you could and would comment. Like Tara, I put a value in your opinion, and think it revealing that you cannot bring yourself to have opinions on some items in the news. Like Bronco and Irritated, you seem to fly far far above the field, far from the blood and suffering.
October 15th, 2012, 4:12 am
Mina said:
Any “democracy” in international relations with KSA?
“Saudi Arabia says it is “insulted” by a parliamentary inquiry into how the UK deals with the country and Bahrain.
Saudi officials have told the BBC they are now “re-evaluating their country’s historic relations with Britain” and that “all options will be looked at”.
While they stopped short of cancelling ongoing trade deals, the move reflects growing Saudi resentment at the West’s reaction to the Arab Spring. (…)”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19943865
October 15th, 2012, 4:19 am
Mina said:
Arab spring is all about love. Russia loves Syria, KSA loves Bahrein, and Qatar loves Egypt.
“A report by the Nadim Human Rights Center said police abuses of human rights in Egypt have not changed significantly in the first 100 days of President Mohamed Morsy’s term, saying that dozens were either killed or tortured by police.
The report recorded at least 34 cases of death at the hands of police in police stations, prisons or the streets, either by firearm or as a result of torture, of which there were at least 88 cases.
The report also monitored seven cases of rape, mostly of men and minors, with one case of a woman detained at a police station.
One man was tortured and raped in his home in front of his wife by a police officer after he reported that the same officer tortured him in detention. (…)”
http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/report-88-tortured-34-killed-morsy-s-first-100-days
Qatari spy chief arrives in Cairo (to teach them how to deal with human rights organisations according to Qatari and Saudi law?)
http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/qatari-spy-chief-arrives-cairo
October 15th, 2012, 4:23 am
Citizen said:
revenge will be cruel!
Turkey intercepts Armenian plane en route to Syria
Turkish authorities are searching a Syria-bound Armenian plane after forcing it to land in the eastern city of Erzurum, Turkish media report.
The aircraft was heading to the Syrian city Aleppo.
It is not immediately clear what the Turks are looking for on board the plane.
The news comes just days after Turkish military forced a Syrian plane traveling from Moscow to Damascus to land in Turkish territory.
October 15th, 2012, 5:32 am
Mina said:
Syria: Waiting for someone named Obama
By M K Bhadrakumar
“(…) When United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi visited Riyadh recently, King Abdullah complained to him as much about Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi as about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. No wonder Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is proceeding to Kuwait this week. Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi just visited Qatar. The isolation of the Saudis is no longer possible to be ignored. The prominent pro-Saudi daily Al-Hayat wrote bitterly on Saturday:
The countries of the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] do not now have the choice to head to the Arab League and then to the [UN] Security Council … This sexpartite bloc perhaps does not have the option of heading to NATO and asking it to intervene … In fact, it may not even be possible to reach unanimous agreement even among these six countries, due to the differences in their stances.
In sum, the United States’ regional allies are waiting expectantly like the pair of men in Samuel Beckett’s play vainly for someone named Godot to arrive any time soon after November 8. To keep themselves occupied in the meantime, they eat, sleep, converse, argue, sing, play games, exercise, swap hats, and contemplate suicide – in fact, anything “to hold the terrible silence at bay”.
They may, it seems, even interdict an airplane or two. The end game is beginning in Syria. ”
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/NJ16Ag02.html
October 15th, 2012, 5:38 am
Mina said:
Zoom on the future Egyptian constitution: back to prehistory
http://www.egyptindependent.com/opinion/fascism-our-new-constitution
http://www.egyptindependent.com/opinion/constitution-s-bad-education
October 15th, 2012, 6:05 am
ann said:
Armenia-to-Syria flight lands in Turkey for ‘security check’ – 15 October, 2012
http://rt.com/news/turkey-intercept-armenian-plane-462/
Turkish authorities have searched an aircraft traveling from Armenia to Syria after it landed in the eastern city of Erzurum. Ankara demanded in advance the on-the-ground cargo inspection as a condition of flying through Turkish airspace.
“There was nothing extraordinary about it,” Air Armenia head Arsen Avetisyan assured the Interfax news agency.
The aircraft was grounded for about two hours and then cleared to continue its flight. The cargo plane is carrying humanitarian aid to war-torn Aleppo.
[…]
http://rt.com/news/turkey-intercept-armenian-plane-462/
October 15th, 2012, 7:35 am
ann said:
EU backs new UN Syria envoy’s plan to deploy 3,000 intl peacekeepers – 15 October, 2012
http://rt.com/news/syria-peacekeepers-plan-brahimi-466/
The EU has approved a new plan to deploy 3,000 peacekeeping troops in Syria, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said. The plan was first introduced by Lakhdar Brahimi, the new UN-Arab League peace envoy to Syria.
The soldiers sent to Syria will possibly include European nationals. Ashton also said that she expected Russian participation in any successful peace plan, RIA Novosti news agency reports.
UK and US soldiers are unlikely to participate in the mission due to their countries’ deployments in Afghanistan, the Daily Telegraph reported. However, the new peace plan may draw on troops currently involved in UNIFIL, the mission founded to guard the Israel-Lebanon border. The 15,000 soldiers stationed there include forces from Ireland, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
Brahimi previously stressed that the key to resolving the conflict in Syria is dialogue, rather than the use of military force. He also tried to downplay expectations, saying it may be “nearly impossible” for him to succeed.
The plan was revealed on Saturday as Lakhdar Brahmi visited Istanbul in a bid to calm rising tensions between Syria and Turkey ahead of his trip to Damascus to broker a ceasefire.
[…]
http://rt.com/news/syria-peacekeepers-plan-brahimi-466/
October 15th, 2012, 7:40 am
ann said:
Syrian president orders restoration of centuries-old mosque in Aleppo – 2012-10-15
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-10/15/c_131907569.htm
DAMASCUS, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ordered Monday the formation of a committee tasked with repairing the 1,300-years-old Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo, the state TV said.
The presidential decree sets December. 31, 2013 as the final date for the completion of the restoration process. The Syrian troops regained control of the time-honored mosque on Sunday after the rebels had held it for 24 hours.
The western part of the 8,000-square-meter mosque has been severely damaged due to the clashes that have taken place inside it.
[…]
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-10/15/c_131907569.htm
October 15th, 2012, 7:44 am
Observer said:
If the new Egyptian constitution is back to pre history perhaps we can be inspired by the Syrian constitution. It is post Mafiosi
October 15th, 2012, 8:05 am
Tara said:
Bravo Erdogan
Turkey grounds another Syria-bound plane
Turkey has forced an Armenian plane, bound for Syria, to land in eastern Turkey, Hurriyet reports. The plane was on its way to Syria’s Aleppo, according to officials from Turkey’s foreign ministry. The exact cause for the grounding remains unknown.
The plane will be permitted to depart as soon as the checks are completed, Hurriyet added in later update.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/armenian-plane-grounded-in-turkey-report-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=32448&NewsCatID=338
October 15th, 2012, 8:15 am
Tara said:
Visitor
You are a liar. You and me know that you are Aqoul. You should have not denied it. You could have chosen not to respond if you did want to confirm it. Denying it makes you a liar. Please go and read the Quraan again. You have gotten it all wrong.
I am ready to hear a barrage of insults now. I know you are very capable of this one thing that I call Tashbeeh.
October 15th, 2012, 8:20 am
zoo said:
#89 WSS
Thanks for respecting the bold header rule, it allows me to swiftly skip the post.
October 15th, 2012, 8:46 am
zoo said:
The rebels praying while attacking and destroying Aleppo Mosque in a state of religious hysteria
13 10 Aleppo ??????? ??? , ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKBoX3Co_Hs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4hpjMBUTCg
Note: The Mosque has been taken back by the Syrian Army.
October 15th, 2012, 8:53 am
Tara said:
The US is committing a serious mistake allowing arms to flow to unwanted Islamists while withholding them from genuine non-jihadists rebells. We do not want the Islamists concept to become a genuine home-grown phenomena with time.
—–
Rebel groups in Syria are playing up their Islamist credentials, including growing Salafi beards, as a ruse to secure arms from conservative Gulf-based donors, according to a report by the International Crisis Group.
It said the increasing presence of jihadi fighters was irrefutable but added that groups with very different motives were being confusingly bracketed together. It said:
In some cases, adoption of Salafi nomenclature, rhetoric and symbols reflects a sincere commitment to religious ideals; in others, it expresses an essentially pragmatic attempt to curry favour with wealthy, conservative Gulf-based donors
The report said “not all Salafis are alike; the concept covers a gamut ranging from mainstream to extreme”.
It added:
The money flow from conservative donors did more than strengthen Salafi factions relative to their mainstream counterparts. It also pushed non-Salafi combatants toward joining Salafi units capable of providing them with the requisite weapons and ammunition. Groups with no ideological affiliation whatsoever began to adopt the symbols, rhetoric and facial hair associated with Salafism for that purpose.
It cited the example of Abdul Razzaq Tlass, a popular mid-level leader of Katibat al-Farouq in Homs who grew a Salafi beard to please Gulf financiers of his brigade.
It added that last June a small group of militants released a YouTube video officially naming their unit after a Kuwaiti cleric who had provided support.
The rebel faction, based outside Abu Kamal on the Iraqi border, called themselves Katibat al-Sheikh Hajaj al-Ajami – a Salafi Kuwaiti cleric who was prominent in raising money for the Syrian Revolutionaries’ Front.
Rebel fighters pragmatically shift from one group to another based on the availability of funds and weapons, the report said.
It argued that western reluctance to arm the opposition was encouraging rebels to turn to the jihadi rhetoric favoured by private Gulf donors. It cited a Homs-based activist group who claimed that donations from Syrian expatriates and other Arabs in Gulf countries helped fuel a growing Islamist trend among militants.
It warned:
While such forms of behaviour typically might start as a largely opportunistic phenomenon and thus lead to exaggerated assessments of a rising Islamist tide, over time they could well turn into more genuine feelings, as the experience of a religiously inspired struggle permeates a generation of fighters. It is also is liable to provoke a backlash, should these superficial Salafis engage in conduct that tarnishes the broader brand … It is, in other words, far too early to predict whether the Salafi trend is temporary or destined to persist.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2012/oct/15/syria-crisis-russia-denies-cluseter-bombs-live#block-507bd28bc0e361310bc6ceed
October 15th, 2012, 9:03 am
zoo said:
Draw your own conclusion: These initiatives aimed at forcing a regime change in Syria made the headlines in the last few months:
Morsi’s quartet : dead
SNC Transition government in exile: dead
Opposition Unity meeting in Qatar: dead
Armed rebels unity with FSA in Syria: dead
Friends of Syria meetings : dead
This is besides older plans:
AL League plan : dead
UN Annan Plan : coma
October 15th, 2012, 9:04 am
Visitor said:
100 TARA ?????? ??????,
Listen for the last time. Get lost because you know nothing. You are hoping for a barrage of insults, you are not going to get it this time. You will get it if you insist on making further stupid comments.
Who do you think you are for me to lie to you? Or, even to swear on anything for that matter? The whole matter is a trifle to me.
So get lost and do your own blah…blah…blah…with your invalid buddies.
October 15th, 2012, 9:08 am
zoo said:
The West is indirectly helping the expansion of Islamists terrorists while trying to topple an authoritarian secular regime.
Rebel Arms Flow Is Said to Benefit Jihadists in Syria
By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: October 14, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/world/middleeast/jihadists-receiving-most-arms-sent-to-syrian-rebels.html?pagewanted=all
WASHINGTON — Most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the
tar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster, according to American officials and Middle Eastern diplomats.
That conclusion, of which President Obama and other senior officials are aware from classified assessments of the Syrian conflict that has now claimed more than 25,000 lives, casts into doubt whether the White House’s strategy of minimal and indirect intervention in the Syrian conflict is accomplishing its intended purpose of helping a democratic-minded opposition topple an oppressive government, or is instead sowing the seeds of future insurgencies hostile to the United States.
…
American officials worry that, should Mr. Assad be ousted, Syria could erupt afterward into a new conflict over control of the country, in which the more hard-line Islamic groups would be the best armed. That depends on what happens in the arms bazaar that has been feeding the rebel groups. In several towns along the Turkey-Syria border, rebel commanders can be found seeking weapons and meeting with shadowy intermediaries, in a chaotic atmosphere where the true identities and affiliations of any party can be extremely difficult to ascertain.
October 15th, 2012, 9:26 am
zoo said:
Is Turkey sneakily trying to implement its long wanted No-Fly zone using its F-16 ?
Turkey grounds Armenian plane in growing de facto air blockade of Syria
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2012/1015/Turkey-grounds-Armenian-plane-in-growing-de-facto-air-blockade-of-Syria
A week after raising Russian ire by grounding a plane traveling from Russia to Syria, Turkey grounded an Armenian airliner – this time in a routine check arranged in a recently inked agreement.
By Arthur Bright, Staff writer / October 15, 2012
October 15th, 2012, 9:48 am
zoo said:
The Region: Empowering the Middle East’s radicals
By BARRY RUBIN
10/14/2012 21:38
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=287805
There are two problems with US policy toward the Middle East: both the analysis and response aren’t just wrong, they make things much worse.
October 15th, 2012, 9:51 am
zoo said:
No panic in Iran
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/no-panic-in-iran.aspx?pageID=449&nID=32412&NewsCatID=418
Iran’s currency virtually collapsed last week, and the public protests that followed in Tehran stirred memories of the massive anti-regime protests of 2009. This has caused excited speculation in the United States and its allies about the imminent fall of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the abandonment of Iran’s uranium enrichment program, or even the end of the whole Islamic regime.
Don’t hold your breath.
…
So the sanctions are working, in the sense that they are hurting people. But what are they accomplishing in terms of their stated purpose of forcing Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program? More importantly, perhaps, what are they achieving in terms of their UNSTATED purpose: triggering an uprising that overthrows the whole Islamic regime?
First of all, Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapons program. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the U.S. and Israeli intelligence service are all agreed on that, although the public debate on the issue generally assumes the contrary. Iran says it is developing its ability to enrich uranium fuel for use in reactors, which is perfectly legal under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Israel’s current government has talked itself into a state of existential panic over Iran’s uranium enrichment program, but the U.S. certainly doesn’t believe that Iran has any immediate plans to build nuclear weapons. So what are these sanctions really about?
Overthrowing the Iranian regime, of course.
October 15th, 2012, 9:56 am
zoo said:
Will Turkey ‘go on it alone’? Even Fouad Ajami disagree.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/will-we-go-it-alone.aspx?pageID=449&nID=32416&NewsCatID=406
“The international allies clearly signaled that if Turkey was going to take military action inside Syria it would do so alone” reports Al-Jazeera. The foreign press is increasingly focusing on the opposition to war within Turkey.
Even Fouad Ajami, who is known as a supporter of removing the Bashar al-Assad regime, reminds Erdo?an of Atatürk’s approach to regional politics in a very sarcastic way. Ajami suggested that Erdo?an, “a proud Islamist, might better appreciate the wisdom of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The secular founder of modern Turkey advised his countrymen: Look West, leave the old lands of the Ottoman Empire to their feuds and backwardness” (“Turkey’s Dangerous al-Assad Dilemma,” The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 12, 2012). Leaving aside the Orientalist overtones, Ajami (who has little in common with Atatürk, other than unconditional admiration for Western civilization) was once a great supporter of moderate Sunni politics in regional affairs.
It seems now that nobody – including former supporters of Turkish politics of Syria – is convinced by Turkey’s current Syria policy.
October 15th, 2012, 10:00 am
Visitor said:
WSS 89,
Man, I appreciate the sentiment. Your desire to help me really touched me? help with what? I do not feel that I need any help especially with my allies or my own personal choices. I choose them both carefully and they have to fit a minimum standard.
Glad to know you’re from White Rock ~50 miles away from PQ, and that much further from gangsters.
Who wants to be in that neighborhood? Stay safe.
October 15th, 2012, 10:03 am
zoo said:
Israeli sexually frustrated women take advantage of Palestinians ‘modern slaves’
Palestinian labourers sexually harassed in Israel: study
There are 55,000 illegal Palestinian labourers in Israel
By Nasouh Nazzal, Correspondent
Published: 15:34 October 15, 2012
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/palestinian-territories/palestinian-labourers-sexually-harassed-in-israel-study-1.1089603
Ramallah: Palestinian labourers working in Israel are at a high risk of sexual harassment by Israeli women, according to a recent field study conducted by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. The study found that 77 per cent of the Palestinian labourers in Israel had been subject to sexual harassment by Israeli women.
In an interview with Gulf News, Shaher Saad, the President of the Union of the Palestinian Labourer Federations, said the Palestinians face a real problem with the labourers who work in Israel on permits other than the official legal work permits.
He stressed that the problem increased further with the illegal labourers who are smuggled into Israel and spend days and weeks there for work. He said those labourers usually are blackmailed, harassed and forced to get involved in illicit and intimate affairs.
October 15th, 2012, 10:04 am
ghufran said:
???? ????? “??????? ?????” ????? ??????? ?? ?????? ??????? ???? ???? ??? ??? ????? ?????? ?? ???????? ???? ???? ??? ?????? ?????? ???? ??? ???????? ?????? ??????? ???? ?????? ?????.
????? ??????? ?? ??? ?? ????????? ?????????? ????? “?? ??? ?? ????????? ???? ???? ???? ?????? ???? ???? ??? ?????? ???????? ????? ?????? ???? ?? ???? ????????? ??????????”
October 15th, 2012, 10:16 am
ghufran said:
this is the full English text for article in NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/world/middleeast/jihadists-receiving-most-arms-sent-to-syrian-rebels.html?hp&_r=0
(those jihadist groups pose a serious and long term threat for Syria’s stability and security regardless of what regime Syria ends up with)
October 15th, 2012, 10:41 am
ghufran said:
????? ???? “???????” ????????? ?? ???? ?????? ??????? ????????? ???? ???? 19 ???? ?????? ?????? ??????? ??? ????? ??????? “??????”? ???? ???? ???? “??????” ???????? “?? ?????? ??????? ???????? ???????? ??? ????? “??? ?? ??” ??????? ??????????? ?????? “??????” ?”???” ?????? ?? ???? ???? ??? ????? “??????”
Hypocrisy is the hallmark of western position against Iran, freedom of speech means that you must not block others from speaking just because you disagree with them.
October 15th, 2012, 10:46 am
syrain said:
89. William Scott Scherk said:
“I cannot accept your thanks for showing that most of Ghufran’s sources are from hardcore Baathi sites…..”
It is ok ,
because that was half my comment,I was explaining like you did later about what he did wrong, then I deleted it thinking what the use of beating a dead horse.
October 15th, 2012, 1:17 pm
syrain said:
77. Visitor said:
“69 Syrain,
Are you sure that Faisal Abbas is not being sarcastic in that apparent apology?”
As the great Syrian Hampster said , you do have a great command of English, I did not notice that it was kind of sarcastic apology,at the same time it was a great piece like Syrian lover said,exposing Assad khalil who kinda cut his nose to spite Alarabia
October 15th, 2012, 1:26 pm
syrain said:
104. zoo said:
“Draw your own conclusion: These initiatives aimed at forcing a regime change in Syria made the headlines in the last few months:”
My own conclusion is the regime wants to go down fighting, becuase all this initiatives is to save the regime’s ass
October 15th, 2012, 1:31 pm
Uzair8 said:
DamascusTribune
#Breaking: Clashes in Qurdaha (#Assad home town) are taking place right now, Louay Almokdad spokesperson for #FSA
http://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/damascustribune-breaking-clashes-in-qurdaha-assad-home-town/
October 15th, 2012, 2:19 pm
Syrialover said:
VISITOR,
There will be so much to be done in Syria the Day After.
I call for the energies and emotions of those who care about Syria to be channelled into that rather than aggressive religious debates here.
We owe it to all Syrians who have lost so much to help prepare for rebuilding the country.
Think about the millions of people who will need help to “rebuild” psychologically and materially.
It doesn’t matter what anyone’s interests and abilities are, there would be a way to contribute to post-Assad Syrian recovery.
October 15th, 2012, 2:45 pm
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