Rebel Troops Take Two Christian and One Kurdish Neighborhood Thursday Morning (Oct 25, 2012)

Reports from friends inside suggest that Aleppo is falling to rebel troops. Both major Christian areas – al-Syriaan al-Jadide and al-Syriaan al-Qadime have fallen. The regime’s largest Mukhabarat station is in the second area. FSA sharpshooters have gone to the tops of all buildings in these areas with no government opposition. The major Kurdish neighborhood – Ashrafiya – gave no resistance. The government had been counting on the Kurds to hold back the FSA fighters. If opposition troops can hold these neighborhoods in the center of town, it is bad news for the government. Regime seems to have cut it loose. (Correction at 3:oo SET – Syrian Army tanks appeared on al-Faisal street, the main thoroughfare of Aleppo that runs along al-Syiriyaan al-Jadide, causing the rebels to make a “tactical” retreat back into the Ashrafiyya neighborhood.  This is what I am being told by Aleppine friends who are on the phone with relatives inside both these areas. They put sharpshooters on top of their buildings. One said the family’s Filipino maid fainted due to the loud shooting earlier in the day. People are terrified that the regime may try to strike with airplanes. For now (7:00 Eastern S. Time), an eerie silence has settled over the city. Where will the government try to hold the line?

Addendum: (3:30 pm EST) Government tanks were moved into Faisal street, the main thurowfair running the length of al-Syriaan al-Jadide and Qadime. Rebel troops made a tactical retreat back into the Kurdish neighborhood of Ashrafiyya.

It seems that the Kurds of Ashrafiyya changed their attitude toward the rebels, taking a neutral stand and allowing them through to temporarily spread into the Christian neighborhoods mentioned above. The superiority of Gov tanks means that the rebels remain diffident about taking on the Government troops directly.

Here is an email from one friend: (6:00 am EST) “I just got a frantic call from sister in Aleppo. The city of aleppo has largely fallen into rebel hands. They took over syrian jdide overnight. They are minutes from our house. As i have been for a while, this appears over”

Good reports estimate that rebel troops number (correction: 40,000 in city. Regime cannot devote troops in that number. They are trying to impress as many young men into the army as they can. But most young men are staying home and hiding from conscription.

Addendum: (11:00 am EST) A high rebel commander claims that the government troops in Aleppo do not exceed 6,000. The Shabiha are 2,000 and rebel troops are close to 40,000. He says the 70,000 number I had published earlier was an exaggeration. This commander is close to the top of the FSA command and planning.

Aleppine friend writes:

I predict that the city of Aleppo will fall decisevely and completely in the next 10 days. As I have been saying, the scales have tipped in favor of the rebels. The regular army has massive difficulty sending reinforcement into Aleppo to help the limited numbers it has on the ground. The ones remaining in Aleppo are stuck. Does the regime use its planes and long distance shelling to attack the rebels in these areas now? This is what the citizens fear. Or does the regime see the writing on the wall and cut Aleppo loose and look to defend Damascus and the coast?

My bet is that it will resist the decision to pull the trigger as of yet. But, over the next 10 days the facts on the ground will make this a fact.

Obviously all possibility for a cease fire seems off.

Some say the Syrian government is coming back to contest these areas. It is not clear.

The two Christian neighborhoods are here (thanks citizenGeo)

تشهد مدينة حلب اليوم الخميس أحداث ساخنة تتمثل بمعارك عنيفة في مناطق عدة منها ، ويقوم فريق عكس السير بمواكبة الأحداث و نقلها إلى القراء أول بأول ..

ـ مراسل عكس السير: الجيش الحر يحاصر فرع الأمن الجنائي في حي الأشرفية و شهود يؤكدون حمل عناصره مضادات طائرات

ـ مراسل عكس السير في حلب: عواصف رعدية وامطار غزيرة في معظم المناطق، والشوارع تغرقها السيول.

ـ مراسل عكس السير: سماع دوي قصف المدفعي تسمع في كل احياء مدينة حلب والاشتباكات مستمرة في الاشرفية والسريان الجديدة

ـ مراسل عكس السير: الجيش الحر يدخل حي السريان القديمة و يقيم حواجز فيه

ـ المرصد السوري لحقوق الانسان: مقاتلو الجيش الحر يشنون هجوماً عنيفاً على الفوج 46 المحاصر منذ أكثر من 25 يوماً .

ـ مدافع النظام تقصف المناطق التي سيطر عليها الجيش الحر(الأشرفية ، السريان الجديدة ، السبيل خلف جامع الرحمن).

ـ عناصر و قناصة من القوات النظامية ينتشرون في مشفى ابن رشد الحكومي المجاور لفرع الأمن الجنائي .

عكس السير

Addendum (2:30 EST)

Guardian (GB): Syrian rebels advance into Aleppo
2012-10-25

After more than two months of near stalemate, rebel groups have advanced into three regime-held areas of central Aleppo, edging them closer to a tightly-defended security district. While the day-long skirmishes mark the first time that swathes of …

A rebel fighter in Aleppo, Anu Yousef, said: “Brigades of the FSA were able to progress from al-Ashrafiyeh district where the Criminal Security branch is. There was also progress in al-Midan and Sulaiman al-Halabi districts.

“In Khan al-Assal district, there is a police school which was under siege by the FSA for 10 days now. The Syrian army were sending reienfocrements every day to ease the siege on it. Today a convoy was heading towards the school and was faced by fire from the FSA and could not get there.”

Intelligence and security bases, such as the Air Force Intelligence headquarters, are a prime target for rebel groups, partly because they represent pillars of regime power, but also because they are known to house thousands of detainees rounded up since the uprising began 19 months ago “The FSA had to take al-Ashrafiyeh district to be able to reach the Criminal branch – and they did,” said Abu Yousef. “The advance now is just around the Criminal Security and it is not easy to get control.”

“There are spots of power for the Syrian army like the Criminal Security in al-Ashrafiyeh, Political Security in al-Azziziyeh and Air Force security and intelligence in New Aleppo. If the FSA can liberate all these branches, we can say at that time that Aleppo has been liberated entirely.”

Rebels calimed that Kurdish groups, headed by the PKK, had facilitated their entry to the Ashrafiyeh district after a deal was struck for neither side to attack the other. The Free Syria Army has previously accused members of the PKK of siding with the Assad regime.

“The PKK had agreed not to interfere and not to support any side of the conflict,” said Abu Yousef. “We did not attack any members of the PKK [today], in fact they pulled out to clear the way for us. It was a deal that they would pull out before the arrival of the FSA. The clashes were with the Syrian army only. Since the beginning of the revolution the regime has been trying to keep the PKK on its side but I think now it is going to lose them.”

Comments (118)


Syrian said:

A milestone on the road to victory

October 25th, 2012, 8:54 am

 

Syrialover said:

Just stop the fighting!

October 25th, 2012, 9:12 am

 

Citizen said:

Aleppo seems to have fallen to rebel troops
– Aleppo 4 million city is not composed of three quarters

The major Kurdish neighborhood – Ashrafiya – gave no resistance.
– there is no problem for the Kurds they have other quarters! so that the FSA is not able to be in Ashrafieh for a long time ! await the course of events!

Game up in Aleppo!=this is an absolute absurdity!

Your rating surface and picked up before the holiday as a psychological trick empty!

October 25th, 2012, 9:19 am

 

Chris said:

Hi Josh,

I’m a little bit surprised at your remarks on Aleppo, given what you said last week about arming the rebels with anti-aircraft weaponry. It seemed that you were arguing on Sunday that until the rebels were given surface to air missiles they would not be a match for Assad’s air force and not be able to emerge victorious. Yet today you have declared it ‘game over’ in Aleppo because the FSA have moved into previously government-held neighbourhoods. Surely, as you identified yourself, the rebels still have no way of defending themselves against air attacks and holding onto these newly captured areas. Is it not therefore a tad premature to declare the situation ‘game over’? Are we not just going to see yet another regime counter attack with air power and yet more parts of the beautiful city of Aleppo reduced to rubble?

October 25th, 2012, 9:19 am

 

Syrialover said:

The pinheaded f***wit coward Bashar Assad is even a failure at being a failure.

When he dies and they open his head they will find a shrunken dog turd. (Apologies to dogs)

This article shows the depths of the destruction he has presided over and sponsored.

Not only did he fail to come up with any strategy to protect Syria’s economic and commercial infrastructure, he has actively destroyed it.

Article: Aleppo business leaders targeted in Syria violence

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/24/syria-aleppo-industry-idUSL5E8LG31V20121024

October 25th, 2012, 9:36 am

 

zoo said:

Now that the responsible rebels and the government have finally officially agreed for a ceasefire, the parasite rebels opposing the truce are trying to prevent it, by attacking or at least making a lot of noises and propaganda to provoke the Syrian Army to retaliate.

The panicky and confused people in Aleppo are not reliable source of accurate information. I don’t know why, but JL is becoming increasingly agitated and impatient, picking any doom rumors and advocating a military breakthrough when most analysts agree that it is far from imminent and anyway will solve nothing. It is clear that only a deal between the USA and Russia will see the end of Syria’s ordeal and this may come only after the US elections.

In the meantime the war of rumors will flourish.

October 25th, 2012, 9:40 am

 

annie said:

http://soundcloud.com/zaidbenjamin/abu-laui-al-halabi

Abu Laui al-Halabi
ZaidBenjamin 39 minutes ago

October 25th, 2012, 9:53 am

 

Syrialover said:

ZOO wrote,

“The panicky and confused people in Aleppo are not reliable source of accurate information”

No, you are of course, ZOO. Your special sources as usual must be keeping you in the picture of what is happening and what is going to happen next.

and

“In the meantime the war of rumors will flourish”

Ah, so that’s the war you are so fiercely fighting to ensure it flourishes!

Just sit back in your armchair and dream on. Let others face and deal with reality.

October 25th, 2012, 9:54 am

 

zoo said:

L’Orient-le Jour today ( it is a pro-opposition media)
200 or 70,000?

http://www.lorientlejour.com/category/%C3%80+La+Une/article/784541/Syrie_%3A_del_Ponte_veut_identifier_les_%22hauts_responsables%22_des_crimes.html

Today, the Syrian rebels have extended their grip on Thursday Aleppo (north) entering a predominantly Kurdish area and took control of a military post Raqa (northeast), according to residents and Observatory Syrian human rights.

According to residents of Achrafiye, a predominantly Kurdish area in the north of Aleppo, about 200 rebels entered at dawn in this area so far untouched by the fighting and where many refugees live. “I saw armed men enter my street with machine guns mounted on vehicles Douchka which was written “Liwa Tahid “, told AFP a mason of 28 years. Tahid Liwa is the name of a brigade close to the Muslim Brotherhood, leading the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Aleppo.

“The snipers are installed in buildings and fifty armed men, dressed in black on the forehead headbands with Islamic slogans, entered a school near me. I heard say to people: ” We came to spend Eid with you, ‘”he added.

October 25th, 2012, 9:56 am

 

AIG said:

“The panicky and confused people in Aleppo are not reliable source of accurate information”

Yes, the rebel snipers on top of their buildings are just hallucinations. They are really pigeons.

I think Zoo’s role model is the following:

October 25th, 2012, 10:03 am

 

Aldendeshe said:

It is all over, Grey Alien now fighting alongside the Zionist mercenaries.

Common Landis, can’t you see that someone mercenaries units trying to blow up the truce. I said before, they won in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria is more important win for the Zionists. 70,000 fighters is bullshit, 7000 in mercenaries army maybe, they were serving in Libya.

That said, Assad will fail in the end, his strategy will not work. They will bleed him and Syria to death slowly. He should have declared State of War, dissolved everything and ruled by military Council, initiated real reforms and operated under 2 hour curfew with shoot to kill anything moving. But his Zionist advisors in Tehran wanted to hand Syria over now and Iran later so they paid him 10 billion to lose Syria to the Rothschild Islamist which they been part of for decades.

You see, the Inca and Aztec had a million men army, the Spaniard invaders had 1700 men, but they won, because a thousand year before Amen initiated a ruse that the returning Messiah will be white skinned coming on boats. He rose up both societies religesouley devout under an atrocious cast of clergy who passed fatwa on everything you do in life. When the invaders boats showed up, the clergies handed the two kings a fatwa; that this is the returning god messiah awaited and that they should not fight, rather surrender to his army. He kings and the rulling class agreed to abide by the FATWA and they were all executed, about 2.5 million exterminated by an “Ammonite Ploy”. Shia teaching is identical to that of Inca and Aztec, he clergy cast is such as well, they will hand Persia in the end, just as they handing over Syria and Lebanon.

October 25th, 2012, 10:28 am

 

Aldendeshe said:

Test.

October 25th, 2012, 10:31 am

 

zoo said:

The Orthodox priest kidnapped in Damascus found dead
after being tortured as the requested ransom could not be gathered.

http://www.news.va/en/news/asiasyria-the-orthodox-priest-kidnapped-in-damascu

Damascus (Agenzia Fides) – The body of the greek orthodox priest Fr. Fadi Jamil Haddad, pastor of the church of St. Elias in Qatana, was found today in the Jaramana neighborhood (north of Damascus) not far from the place where he was kidnapped, on October 19, by unidentified armed group (see Fides 24/10/2012).

This was confirmed to Fides by Fr. Haddad’s greek-orthodox confrere, who asked for anonymity. “His body was horribly tortured and his eyes gouged out,” he told Fides. “It is a purely terrorist act. Fr. Haddad is a martyr of our church. ” With regards to the responsibilities of the terrible act there is an ongoing rebound of responsibilities between the opposition forces and government authorities, that accuse the armed gangs of armed rebellion in the army. According to Fides sources, the kidnappers had asked the priest’s family and his church a ransom of 50 million Syrian pounds (over 550 thousand euro). It was, however, impossible to find the money and meet this exorbitant demand. A source of Fides condemns “the terrible practice, present for months in this dirty war, of kidnapping and then killing innocent civilians.” Among the various Christian communities in Syria, the greek orthodox is the largest (with about 500 thousand faithful) and is concentrated mainly in the western part of the country and in Damascus. (

October 25th, 2012, 10:31 am

 

Aldendeshe said:

It is all over, Gr*e*y Ali*en now fighting alongside the Zionist mercenaries.

Common Landis, can’t you see that someone mercenaries units trying to blow up the truce. I said before, they won in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria is more important win for the Zionists. 70,000 fighters is bu*ll**it, 7000 in mercenaries army maybe, they were serving in Libya.

That said, Assad will fail in the end, his strategy will not work. They will bleed him and Syria to death slowly. He should have declared State of War, dissolved everything and ruled by military Council, initiated real reforms and operated under 22 hour curfew with shoot to kill anything moving. But his Zionist advisors in Tehran wanted to hand Syria over now and Iran later so they paid him 10 billion to lose Syria to the Rothschild Islamist which they been part of for decades.

You see, the Inca and Aztec had a million men army, the Spaniard invaders had 1700 men, but they won, because a thousand year before Am*en initiated a ruse that the returning Messiah will be white skinned coming on boats. He rose up both societies religesouley devout under an atrocious cast of clergy who passed fatwa on everything you do in life. When the invaders boats showed up, the clergies handed the two kings a fatwa; that this is the returning god messiah awaited and that they should not fight, rather surrender to his army. The kings and the rulling class agreed to abide by the FATWA and they were all executed, about 2.5 million exterminated by an “Am*monite Ploy”. Shia teaching is identical to that of Inca and Aztec, the clergy cast is such as well, they will hand Persia in the end, just as they handing over Syria and Lebanon.

October 25th, 2012, 10:34 am

 

zoo said:

Exclusive: The Man Behind Hariri’s Secret Army

The events of 7 May 2008 represented the second transitional phase in his life
By: Radwan Mortada

Published Thursday, October 25, 2012
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/amid-hammoud-leading-future-army

In his first interview with the press, former Lebanese Army Colonel Amid Hammoud, the commander of the Future Movement military wing, denies any role in the recent violence that has rocked Beirut and Tripoli, but admits he would not hesitate to arm Sunnis as he believes it is their right to protect themselves.

The shadowy security chief of the Future Movement arrives amid a convoy of cars with tinted windows accompanied by armed men who vigilantly scan the surrounds looking for any possible threat.

October 25th, 2012, 10:35 am

 

Syrialover said:

Map of Aleppo showing Government’s diminished territory

http://twitter.com/zaidbenjamin/status/261461988109082627/photo/1/large

October 25th, 2012, 10:45 am

 

Mina said:

Taking the rooftops? Sounds like they dont want a truce. They wouldnt get the pay otherwise.
http://arabic.rt.com/news/598004/

October 25th, 2012, 11:15 am

 

Syrian Natonalist Party said:

Did not the Tehran Mullah already passed a Fatwa banning Nuclear weapon production! They will most likely over rule any Iranian army officer orders by Fatwa. The Mullah set up is even worse (to Iran) than the Aztec, they have IRGC to counter the National Army on the Mullah side. Most it’s top leaders have Hebrew names such as Mossawi /Mossavi (follower of Moses). Don’t forget the 3 Magi’s, so this goes back thousands of years too.

October 25th, 2012, 11:24 am

 

Syrialover said:

Wow MINA,

Jumping in again to sneer at people in a life and death situation.

Still waiting for you to tell us if there is anyone or anything anywhere that you in any way approve of and support.

October 25th, 2012, 11:25 am

 

Syrialover said:

SNP/Aldendeshe

Have some mercy, please. Just give us a break from the Aztecs 5,000 year old connection with Mossad and messing around giving yourself instant mass votes (and others thumbs down).

October 25th, 2012, 11:40 am

 

Aldendeshe said:

You never hear a word from Otrakji and Ihsani, both from Aleppo. All we have here is the Mossad paid lover boy and AIG cheering their mercenaries advance on Aleppo. They are excited, they must know what deal Zionist helpers Assad-Khemenei made with Israeli bosses in Herzalia to hand over Aleppo now and Syria on approved schedule.

اهدافنا امة عربية واحدة ذات رسالة خالدة – وحدة حرية اشتراكية – بعثيّة بعثيّة بعثيّة بعثيّة بعثيّة

I was told by family member the Syrian Baathist regime Mukhabarat changed the front sign on H.Q., now it is operating openly like the one in Tehran : وِزارَتِ اِطّلاعات جُمهوریِ اِسلامیِ ایران

This is what he new sign say:

“By way of Deception, thou shalt do war”
“בדרך של הונאה, תתן לעשות מלחמה”

And many inside offices posting framed Hariri picture with one real Dollar bill on it.

October 25th, 2012, 11:46 am

 

Aldendeshe said:

The barking dog…..do you hear his barking in Hebrew?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIgVfFu9PqU

October 25th, 2012, 11:48 am

 

Syrian said:

“The government wanted that story told, so it allowed a reporter based in Paris to have exclusive access to Homs in the company of a Ministry of Information officer, and to be effectively embedded for one day with Syrian soldiers.”

“HOMS, Syria — For more than 24 hours, President Bashar al-Assad’s soldiers fought their way through this city, bleary-eyed men, worn down by months of combat. Afraid to go into the streets, where snipers pick their targets, the government men snaked their way through “mouse holes” punched in walls of blown-out buildings. Their goal was to retake one building, just one, a former school controlled by the rebel Free Syrian Army.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/world/middleeast/syrian-soldiers-fight-rebels-and-fatigue-in-homs.html?hp&_r=0

October 25th, 2012, 11:56 am

 
 

James Miller said:

We’re covering the minute-to-minute developments on EA Worldview. It’s clear that the FSA made a lot of advances, but the main bases, the airport, and the artillery locations are still in complete regime control.

Here’s our best hypothesis:

Regime supply lines have largely been cut, and the FSA has been making advances for weeks in Aleppo. Furthermore, without a major victory in Ma’arrat al Nouman, the regime will lose a huge percentage of territory with no hope of ever regaining it.

It rained hard. The FSA advanced knowing that the regime could not strike it from the air. The regime pulled out, which gives the FSA no incentive to abide by the ceasefire. The headline will be that the FSA, not the regime, broke the ceasefire.

And the killing will continue.

http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/2012/10/25/syria-and-beyond-live-coverage-ceasefire-theatre-while-fight.html

October 25th, 2012, 12:21 pm

 

Badr said:

Discord grows between Islamist and secular rebels

By Lina Sinjab
BBC News, Damascus

“The rebels who refuse to hold the al-Qaeda flag and don’t have an extremist ideology are poorly funded,”

What started out as scare-mongering on the part of the government has now become a reality, with al-Qaeda elements and foreign jihadis fighting in Syria.

Mark C Toner from the US State Department told the BBC: “We’ve been very vocal about our concerns that the kind of environment that the Syrian government has created leads to these kinds of groups exploiting the situation and trying to gain a foothold….”

October 25th, 2012, 12:51 pm

 

zoo said:

Turkey blocking its border to Syrian refugees?

UNHCR to lobby Turkey over blocked borders

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2012/oct/25/syria-conflict-ceasefire-doubts-live#block-508954a195cb4897f0db5333

The UN’s refugee agency is to send a delegation to Turkey over mounting concerns that its borders are being unlawfully blocked to Syrian refugees.

Erika Feller, the UNHCR’s assistant high commissioner for protection is due to visit Ankara to raise the issue of border restrictions.

The Turkish authorities insist that borders are being kept open.

The visit comes after Human Rights Watch said that more than 10,000 Syrians are being prevented from claiming asylum in neighbouring countries – mostly Turkey.

October 25th, 2012, 12:54 pm

 

Humanist said:

” The government had been counting on the Kurds to hold back the FSA fighter…”

WHY? Apparently a big mistake….

I never got the impression from Kurds here that they are pro-Assad or even neutral, rather the opposite.

As a generalisation, all they care about is their “Kurdistan” and the fall of Assad could give them autonomy or even independence in (former) Syria. Also remember that they are non-Arabs and thus don’t fit into the ideology of Ba’ath and the Syrian ARAB republic.

October 25th, 2012, 1:01 pm

 

zoo said:

A rebel fighter’s account of events in Aleppo 24 mins ago

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2012/oct/25/syria-conflict-ceasefire-doubts-live#block-508954a195cb4897f0db5333

A Free Syrian Army fighter in Sulaiman al-Halabi district of Aleppo, who gave his name as Abu Yousif, has been describing today’s events in the city. He was speaking to our colleague Mona Mahmood via Skype.

“If we talk about Aleppo and the countryside, the FSA are in control of 90% of the ground but when it comes to Aleppo as a city, the FSA are in control of 60% of the ground to 40% for the Syrian army.

October 25th, 2012, 1:02 pm

 

zoo said:

Another tweet disputes Landis’s claim:

Joshua Landis @joshua_landis 25 Oct 12

Shooting has stopped totally in Aleppo. Eerie silence overtakes city as government relinquishes control and Rebels take over. #Syria #Aleppo

Muhammed Hamze @mhamze

@joshua_landis this is completely wrong, my family are in #Aleppo, still they are fighting there

October 25th, 2012, 1:06 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

Addendum: (11:00 am EST) A high rebel commander claims that the government troops in Aleppo do not exceed 6,000. The Shabiha are 2,000 and rebel troops are close to 40,000. He says the 70,000 number I had published earlier was an exaggeration. This commander is close to the top of the FSA command and planning.
__________________________________________________________________

It is a lie, a military hoax. The total number of fighters destroying Syria is under 20,000 in total, all groups. We know what the foreign hired mercenaries number about 7000 expendables assembled by the Zionist group, those are the same that served in Libya and are recruited by Israeli Mossad/ Alciada /Blackwater etc.., those are the foreign legion of genocidal drugged, mentally altered zombies and robotically controlled terrorists that the Zionist NWO is basically relying on to spear head the wars on Nations, assembled mostly from Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa, Chechnya etc. They are succeeding in making great damage because the Baathist imbeciles’ in Damascus, Shia imbeciles’ in Tehran, naive Russians in Moscow do not comprehend the nature of the forces assembled and the intended goals. The mercenaries P.R. arm, as we seen on this blog are exerting and spending huge effort on using deception to enlarge its numbers for obvious military advantage. The fake videos, the shallow victory that are heralded as utter defeat to Syrian forces, etc…It is all obvious “JEWISH” military tactics that are exclusively used by these people since the inception of time. It can all be broken down and analyzed down to its various components. That is why they were nuked by aliens before, and dispersed all over the world, for thousands of years they been doing the very same routine. The Bible said that in the end, they will be (the remnant thereof) removed from earth (144,000) shipped back to the planet they originally imported from as they originally known as the “HEXOS” to help Amen/Marduk rule Egypt dictatorially.

REVELATION 21: 1
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

It is very clear from this verse that they will be taken to another planet having no seas and if you look up, you see a different star system than if your feet on EARTH/ERUDU

October 25th, 2012, 1:35 pm

 

AIG said:

Zoo,

A few months ago you were telling us that all is quiet in Aleppo and Damascus. Now you are telling us that you don’t think the FSA controls all of it.

Do you see the direction things are going? How would you rate Assads achievements in the last few months, especially regarding Aleppo? Would you classify a regime losing 60% of its major industrial city as an “humiliation” according to your standards?

October 25th, 2012, 1:46 pm

 

Patriot said:

Aldendeshe,

Please, shut up, you are giving me a headache.

October 25th, 2012, 1:46 pm

 

Visitor said:

This is indeed a very good and blessed Eid Al-Ad7ha for Syrians. We will always remember that Aleppo was liberated from evil, the nazi-likes, the remnants of the Mongolian rejects, the shame of humanity on the eve of this blessed occasion.

Time to move operations west towards the sea liberating 7homs and 7hama on the way.

Many thanks for Dr. Landis for giving us this very precious Eid present.

October 25th, 2012, 1:54 pm

 

Syrian Natonalist Party said:

It is by design and according to a systematically implemented Jewish plot that Christians in Iraq, Pakistan, Russia, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and now Syria are being exterminated. The Bible, in the Book of Revelation spoke of the “Time of Tribulation” of Christians. In Russia, under Jewish Communist rule of Joseph Stalin (Dzhugashvili) Georgian Jew, 20 million Christians perished in concentration camps in Siberia, almost the entire Russian intelligenceia and nobilities were exterminated under Trotsky prison camp systems. In Iraq, 2.5 million Christians were killed or sent to exile, under threat of death, into other countries. In Syria, Christians are specifically targeted for the slaughter and genocide by the Zionist financed mercenaries. Yet, neither the Vatican, nor the Human Rights Watch, the Human Right of U.N. nor the security council had ever uttered a word in condemnation of targeting Christians for the kill and forced exile, seizure of property and desecration, destruction of Churches. Not one Church leader or Christian State Leader, Christian Monarch ever raised his voice in protest.

October 25th, 2012, 2:02 pm

 

Citizen said:

…..
Of international issues examined in detail the situation in the Middle East. We share the concern over the situation emerging in Syria. Confident that the crisis can only be a political solution. Rather than stop the violence and start a dialogue without preconditions, the more hope for a way out of this situation with minimal losses. I hope that the cease-fire, which is now trying to organize for the period of the Muslim holiday, will be held.
In general, based on the basic principles of respect for international law – here we are one with Switzerland. The main message of the need to respect international law, the central role of the UN and its Charter allows us to make close enough, and sometimes coinciding positions on many international and regional issues. Satisfied with the talks, I thank colleagues for their cooperation and call on him……
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPDlilah0RQ
http://www.mid.ru/bdomp/sitemap.nsf

October 25th, 2012, 2:08 pm

 

Warren said:

Jordanian Salafi-Jihadi Abu Muhammad Al-Tahawi: ‘We Will Enter Palestine From Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, And Syria’ To Wage Jihad And Liberate It

Abu Muhammad Al-Tahawi, a leading figure in Jordan’s Salafi-jihadi movement, reasserted the movement’s commitment to jihad against Israel, and likewise vowed that jihad fighters in Syria would continue waging jihad against Israel. Al-Tahawi’s statements were made at an October 19, 2012 event held by Salafi-jihadis in a refugee camp northwest of Amman in celebration of the “martyrdom” of a Jordanian, Al-Tahawi’s son-in-law, who died taking part in the fighting in Syria.

http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/6773.htm

October 25th, 2012, 2:21 pm

 

Ghufran said:

I will pop up from time to time to upset thugs and reassure decent people. Some of you have to be on drugs or should be on drugs, rebels were forced out from alsiryan and are not in full control of alashrafiyya, the cease fire is likely to be violated by Islamists and that will make it pointless, the army will not and can not leave Aleppo for the thugs, hang on to your dreams, Joshua made a major error in judgement, he lost my confidence, NATO lied about surface to air missiles, Turkey will pay the price sooner or later, the only way out is to stop this vicious cycle of violence and isolate thugs from both sides, easier said than done.

October 25th, 2012, 2:45 pm

 

Mina said:

Sorry for non-French speakers: a very interesting article where some features should be compared to what led to Hamas election and the current situation in Syria. “Predator state…and corruption…”
http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2012/10/25/au-mali-des-islamistes-largement-soutenus_1781011_3232.html

October 25th, 2012, 2:50 pm

 

Citizen said:

US coordinates weapon deliveries to Syria rebels: Russia
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/us-coordinates-weapon-deliveries-to-syria-rebels-russia.aspx?pageID=238&nID=33273&NewsCatID=359
http://arabic.rt.com/news_all_news/news/598024/
—————————

شاهد عيان من حلب لـ”روسيا اليوم”: مسلحون دخلوا مناطق آمنة وقتلوا مواطنا اعزلا
http://arabic.rt.com/news_all_news/news/598004/

اشار شاهد العيان حسان الحلبي في اتصال مع قناة “روسيا اليوم” الى ان المواطن الحلبي استقيظ وهو مندهش، حيث اقدمت مجموعة من المسلحين يصل عددها الى 100 شخص تقريبا على اقتحام احياء من المفترض ان تكون آمنة وهي مناطق الاشرفية والسريان.
واضاف الشاهد ان المسلحين قتلوا مواطنا عزلا في شارع الكنيسة بمنطقة السريان فقط لانه طالبهم بالابتعاد فقط.
وقال ان هذه المناطق لم تشهد اي مظاهر للتسلح، ولم يدخلها لا الجيش ولا المسلحون منذ بدء احداث المدينة. وتابع الشاهد القول ان المشكلة اضحت اننا فقدنا بعض من ثقتنا في مدى حمايتنا من قبل الدولة.. وان المواطن يتساءل أين الجيش؟ مشددا ومؤكدا على ان لا احد يشك بقدرته ونزاهته في ضبط الامور. والسؤال كيف وصلت هذه المجموعة المسلحة الى هذه الاحياء.
واوضح ان المجموعة وبعد دخولها للاحياء نصبت حواجزا. وحاليا الجيش دخل المنطقة وهناك اشتباكات في حي السريان.

October 25th, 2012, 2:56 pm

 
 

Citizen said:

Syria is very deep country! must know it better! otherwise get stuck in the throat like a bone!

October 25th, 2012, 3:05 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

@GUHFRAN,

Seems like Landis is being fed info from higher ups in ALCIADA, he tend to hold these people with awe and they know his “Provisional” weakness, so it is either he is trusting the lousy info given as “LEAK” or simply told publish it or else. It is obvious to all intelligent observant that he is not doing any verification, he is also lacking know how of media ops. He need crash course in how Intel community manipulate information, such as they did on 9/11, which is now a classic case being used as forensic tool to understand centuries old unsolved issues.

October 25th, 2012, 3:07 pm

 

MarigoldRan said:

The writing’s on the wall!!!!

October 25th, 2012, 3:08 pm

 

Visitor said:

It is possible that the criminal nazi regime still occupying some parts of Syria has accepted the ceasefire because it has no choice and it may try deception in order to re-supply its band of thugs after its recent defeats.

The FSA must not allow that to happen. If it notices any thug movement or any criminal aircraft flying in the air, the FSA should immediately destroy such moving objects.

This remnant of the Mongolian rejects is full of deception.

October 25th, 2012, 3:37 pm

 

zoo said:

The Aleppo victory hysteria of some commenters resembles very much the one we saw on Syria Comment at the failed victory of Damascus.

It costs the disapearance of MajedalKhaldoon too humiliated to reappear under the same nickname.

Who will disappear this time?

October 25th, 2012, 3:47 pm

 

zoo said:

Joshua Landis makes a ‘tactical retreat’?

Correction at 3:oo SET – Syrian Army tanks appeared on al-Faisal street, the main thoroughfare of Aleppo that runs along al-Syiriyaan al-Jadide, causing the rebels to make a “tactical” retreat back into the Ashrafiyya

October 25th, 2012, 3:54 pm

 

Johannes de Silentio said:

13. Aldendeshe

“It is all over. Zionist mercenaries won in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria is a more important win for the Zionists.”

Alde, you are a total, unmitigated idiot. You see Zionists under every rock. Why don’t you stick them where they belong? Up your ass…

October 25th, 2012, 3:59 pm

 

Citizen said:

cheap chatter on the university blog! as the sale of second-hand clothes

October 25th, 2012, 4:12 pm

 

Citizen said:

US deploys troops to Turkey amid Syria unrest: US General
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/10/25/268704/us-sends-troops-to-turkey-us-general/

The commanding general of the US Army Europe (USAREUR) says the Pentagon has recently sent a number of American soldiers to Turkey in a bid to assist Ankara in handling the spillover of the Syrian crisis.

“We have had a relatively few number of US Army Europe personnel in Turkey recently,” Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper quoted Lieutenant General Mark Phillip Hertling as saying.

The general added, “Some of that has been sharing intelligence.”

Hertling noted that Turkey is concerned about how to handle the humanitarian crisis on its border with Syria.

“It’s October. What [Turkey is] very concerned about is the approach of winter, and the way they can address the humanitarian crisis on the border,” he pointed out.

If Turkey asks for corporation, American soldiers could be used in evacuation operations, Hertling said. “However, no request has been made yet by Turkey.”

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011.

Damascus says outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists are the driving factors behind the unrest and deadly violence while the opposition accuses the security forces of being behind the killings.

The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country and that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey are arming the opposition.

October 25th, 2012, 4:26 pm

 

Syrialover said:

How they manage it.

A bunch of decent young skilled guys. Bashar Assad lacks any equivalent.

Article: In Aleppo Syrian rebels wage war with an Internet comnnecion

Excerpt:

Much of the satellite gear and computers was paid for and sent by the Syrian National Council (SNC), an umbrella group of opposition factions based in Turkey, along with other donors, the activists say. And they are not alone – similar media cells work across rebel-held areas, providing real-time images of the destruction that few foreign journalists can reach.

A cheer goes up when they get the satellite dish working: “YouTube!”

Holding flashlights and mobile phones in their teeth, the activists pick up all the computers, batteries, and the satellite modem, all connected with wires, and carry them triumphantly into a back room, safer from the danger of blasts and bullets.

“The regime is so stupid! They can’t find this dish,” says the engineer, as he wrestles into onto the balcony and then checks its alignment with a compass. Other activists watch the computer monitor; everything is plugged into a huge battery for testing.

A friend of the engineer works in the government telecommunications company, and knows that its monitoring abilities are very limited. Hardly any calls are listened to, he says; few can be tracked.

And while the regime is reported to have received specific electronic assistance in this regard from Iran and Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah – including an ability to pinpoint the source of satellite communications – the sheer volume of mobile-phone traffic from all sides is simply too much to manage.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2012/1025/In-Aleppo-Syrian-rebels-wage-war-with-an-Internet-connection

October 25th, 2012, 4:34 pm

 

Tara said:

Zoo

Aleppo may not have fallen yet in its entirety but it sure appears in its way. Too much for the initial analyses that the rebels would claim tactical retreat after few days after they launched the liberation battle. The regime can only use the loyal Alawites republican guards and the 4th brigade. The Sunni conscripts and officers are in their barracks. The question is how much Syrian territories can these 2units occupy? It seems that Bashar eventual geoographic location would be a self-declared Alawistan.

October 25th, 2012, 4:44 pm

 

Syrian Natonalist Party said:

Chill out Landis, some kid pulling you leg, stop being a Guppies Alciada Douche bag. Their terrorists can’t win, they are too few in numbers and the people are not with them, in fact, they are terrified of them Mossad/ALCIADA Islamic Terrorists. They will turn them in when exposed and Syrian Army will liquidate them slowly but surely. They have no support on the ground and neither of the majority Sunnis (THAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE). They looked upon as Zionist sent foreign terrorists. How they can hold any ground for lengthy time period, not possible. You see, if this was not a Zionist driven campaign to dismember Syria, they would have used force as negotiating tool to extract political concession from the regime. Assad, knew, that this is not what they after, so he is not offering any serious negotiation or concessions, reforms, or what have you, he is fighting to save Syria and millions of Sunni’s and minorities from the Zionist slaughter house, hundred more Deir Yassin by drugged, mentally altered Moslem Terrorists.

October 25th, 2012, 4:46 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

31. Patriotsaid:

Aldendeshe,
Please, shut up, you are giving me a headache.

16 30
.
October 25th, 2012, 1:46 pm
__________________________________________________________________

I am really sorry about that. Please don’t take any over the counter medication, hyenas inhabiting the Negev Desert known to develop severe non fatal allergic reaction to it. Use kitchen knife to sever your head, it is very effective with no side effects.

October 25th, 2012, 4:48 pm

 
 

annie said:

Maysaloon

The Philosophy of Tyranny

Stalin once said that half a million deaths is a statistic but the death of one is a tragedy. As Syrians we’ve stopped registering shock at the news of a hundred deaths a day in the country. We don’t bat an eyelid, and might even change the news channel upon hearing of it. Fatigue sets in, and our troubled minds look for entertainment and something to distract us. Then the deaths no longer make the news, because the news is not about what is worthy but about what people are talking about. Of course there will always be those few who will keep talking, and they will slowly pass through the curtain of respectability and we will quietly categorize them as the fringe, as the extreme. The numbers eventually don’t matter and they fade into statistics.

Then you sit down on a dinner table with somebody who has never voiced outrage about the outrageous but has plenty to say about those victims who dared to cry out – Why did you cry out? Didn’t you know it would only get worse? Now you’ve spoiled it for everybody. You should have just kept your mouth shut. That is what they mean as they quietly present their “point of view”, as if we are discussing fly fishing and not mass murder. Here, in the comfort of a civilized country, we can pretend to be other than what we are, and as sensible people we surely cannot be taken in by the extreme rantings of people who wish to disturb the peace – Oh and by the way, you did hear about such and such barbarism that the riff-raff claimed to be carrying out in the name of this so-called freedom? Oh you didn’t? Well I’ve heard it on good authority that… – and so on and so forth. I sit and seethe, eventually losing my composure. I say more than I meant to say, and with a louder tone. I speak quickly, because I feel as if there is no time to lose, and inwardly I curse my hastiness. I feel as if Truth is a flower that is about to be stamped out. I tell myself this is all quite illogical, that it’s clear that what is happening is obvious to all. But later, as the angry fever subsides, I realise that what terrifies me is the fading of memories. That at some point, those gentle lies will continue to grow and spread and take root.

Solzhenitsyn knew about Stalin, and he wrote about the Lie. He knew that the violence cannot sustain itself without the Lie. Assad’s friends know about the Lie as well. They know how to cultivate it like a weed, and then they help to gently spread it wherever it can grow. When it covers everything then they will be happy, because their job is done and the violence is stabilized. Everything Assad learnt about the violence, he learnt from his father, who, in turn, learnt a lot from Stalin. So we too should learn from those who came before us. We should learn about Solzhenitsyn and about the Lie. We should know that its harmlessness threatens us all, that it is the life support for Assad’s violence. We cannot stop his violence, but we can stop the Lie and in this way deny tyranny a shelter. We must force this tyranny out into the open and expose its ugliness and brutality, that nobody can be under any illusion about it. Only when the brutality is seen for what it truly is that it can die out, because it cannot sustain itself by naked violence alone.

There are some who might think that we can counter a lie with a lie and they are right to a certain extent, but the point is not to counter Assad’s lies, the point is to destroy them. To do that we only need to say the truth. It is this truth which can be used to shame those people who are outwardly good but justify such evil. When they only use their freedom of speech to deny it to others, in the civilized discussions where they can present their “point of view”, they use the Lie shamelessly, and are only silenced by the truth. The only weapon they have against the truth is time and the frailty of human memory and so they wait and listen in silence. A year passes, then two. Assad digs in and from his bunker in Damascus wages war upon those who will not worship him. One day, he knows, people will grow tired and forget. Then he can maintain with the Lie what he could only seize with violence. Until then, he waits, and waits and waits while the killing goes on.
http://www.maysaloon.org/2012/10/the-philosophy-of-tyranny.html

October 25th, 2012, 4:55 pm

 

Citizen said:

Political scientist – BBC HARDtalk 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNAKWF1uQ08

What the f**k has happened?
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/25/blood-libel/
When I was a little kid, growing up in Brooklyn, Israel was the land of hope and truth. It was those little blue boxes in all the stores into which you deposited your spare change. The money would go for trees, for bringing water where it wasn’t. It was the place for getting away from everything that had gone wrong in Europe, starting over, doing it right, doing it decently.

Now Israel is the place that maintains a blockade of the people whose land it has stolen and counts imported calories so the UN won’t be able to say the blockade amounts to a war crime. Now it is a place that wants us to start a third war in the Middle East. Now people who report on what Israel does are attacked not for telling lies, but for telling the truth, or for helping people say what they think.

They did kill those giraffes and that zebra in the Palestinian zoo. People like Norman Finkelstein do have a right to speak. The First Amendment is the Amendment the Founders put first for a very good reason: if you shut people up, none of the other rights matter because we never get to talk or hear about them. The advocates of Israel are the last people who should be demanding silence and punishing the users of honest words.

I’m not the anti-Semite. They are. I know what my tradition is all about. It is a tradition that treasures words. I’m proud of it. And I want my goddamned nickels back.

October 25th, 2012, 5:05 pm

 

Syrialover said:

Another brilliant new post by Maysaloon.

He writes about the Assadist Lie, the closet shabeeha who creepily cultivate it and why they do it.

http://www.maysaloon.org/2012/10/the-philosophy-of-tyranny.html

Excerpts:

“Then you sit down on a dinner table with somebody who has never voiced outrage about the outrageous but has plenty to say about those victims who dared to cry out – Why did you cry out? Didn’t you know it would only get worse? Now you’ve spoiled it for everybody. You should have just kept your mouth shut. That is what they mean as they quietly present their “point of view”, as if we are discussing fly fishing and not mass murder. Here, in the comfort of a civilized country, we can pretend to be other than what we are, and as sensible people we surely cannot be taken in by the extreme rantings of people who wish to disturb the peace – Oh and by the way, you did hear about such and such barbarism that the riff-raff claimed to be carrying out in the name of this so-called freedom? Oh you didn’t? Well I’ve heard it on good authority that… – and so on and so forth. I sit and seethe, eventually losing my composure. I say more than I meant to say, and with a louder tone. I speak quickly, because I feel as if there is no time to lose, and inwardly I curse my hastiness. I feel as if Truth is a flower that is about to be stamped out. I tell myself this is all quite illogical, that it’s clear that what is happening is obvious to all. But later, as the angry fever subsides, I realise that what terrifies me is the fading of memories. That at some point, those gentle lies will continue to grow and spread and take root.”

and

Solzhenitsyn knew about Stalin, and he wrote about the Lie. He knew that the violence cannot sustain itself without the Lie… Everything Assad learnt about the violence, he learnt from his father, who, in turn, learnt a lot from Stalin. So we too should learn from those who came before us. .. We cannot stop his violence, but we can stop the Lie and in this way deny tyranny a shelter. We must force this tyranny out into the open and expose its ugliness and brutality, that nobody can be under any illusion about it. Only when the brutality is seen for what it truly is that it can die out, because it cannot sustain itself by naked violence alone.”

October 25th, 2012, 5:12 pm

 

Syrialover said:

A brilliant new blog post by MAYSALOON, posted in full above by ANNIE (#54)

It’s a chillingly accurate description of the Assadist Lie, the closet shabeeha who creepily cultivate it and the reasons why they do it.

For anyone studying this, you’ll find lots of good examples among certain posters at work here on this forum.

It’s why I feel it’s important to hang in here, to keep clearing space between their spread of toxic weeds. Planting and watering flowers of truth.

And while I appreciate Joshua’s tolerance and I welcome open discussion and debate here, I feel it’s a shame that he has allowed toxic weed material (propagandist cut and pastes etc) to dominate this forum to the extent that it has turned off many previous contributors.

A call to all intelligent readers here to circulate Maysaloon’s words as a wakeup call! Here’s the link again: http://www.maysaloon.org/2012/10/the-philosophy-of-tyranny.html

October 25th, 2012, 5:45 pm

 
 

Syrialover said:

Why CITIZEN (#55), I know you’re trying to distract us, but in this rare case it’s OK.

I never have any problem with Norman Finkelstein’s messages about the problem of the Israel lobby’s grip on US politics.

He has a wrestling match here on the BBC with an interviewer who has clearly been briefed and primed by the Israel lobby:

October 25th, 2012, 6:10 pm

 
 

Citizen said:

It is hoped that people in the United States can see what forces among themselves have contributed to the perpetuation of Al Qaeda and its use as a militant proxy, and purge these organizations and their ideology permanently from the body politic.

October 25th, 2012, 6:15 pm

 
 

jna said:

An Aleppo resident activist reporting:

edward dark‏@edwardedark
rebel groups who stormed western Aleppo today met with very large regime forces, many rebels killed their bodies still on the ground
https://twitter.com/edwardedark/status/261571811358146560

edward dark‏@edwardedark
by all accounts, the rebel groups that stormed western Aleppo were very small in number. not more than 30 per group in any area
https://twitter.com/edwardedark/status/261572181568413698

October 25th, 2012, 6:33 pm

 

Citizen said:

Дандаши ! наслаждаетесь

“Dictator Assad is indiscriminately killing Syrian rebels and unarmed civilians,” Kagan lied. “US efforts to support the rebels have only served to empower Assad who does not share America’s values. Instead, the US should impose a safe zone in northern Syria.”

Whatever the Jews do they use code-words in order to HIDE the Jews’ true agenda. “Dictator” and all variations on that such as “BRUTAL DICTATOR” etc, is the very same Jew code-word as “FASCIST,” “A NEW HITLER.”

To the Jews, Assad is a “New Hitler.” Just look at the smear and slander of Libya’s Ghaddafi. A “dictator” in Jew “media-speak” is a powerful leader the Jews can’t control.

A “dictator” is an enemy of the Jews, and what the Jews make stupid and ignorant non-Jews do is to hate that “dictator,” and whatever measures the JewSSR take to topple that “dictator” is a righteous thing to do.

Once you remember a few Jew code-words, you can spot the Jews in any conflict, at any time in any part of the world, at any time in history.

Just look for who is smeared wholesale — that is the enemy of the Jews. Anyone that is praised to high heaven are the Jews themselves or the Jew’s useful idiot.

Or explained in a another way. Anybody the Jew-ruled JewSSR is backing is good for the Jews. Anybody that is smeared wholesale in Jew “media-speak” is an enemy of the Jews.

To spot the Jews in any conflict all you need to do is read the “official” statements from White House.

Forget the Jew “media.” Go straight to the source — what the White House says — and you will spot the Jew instantly.

It’s soooooooooooooooooo predictably once you know what and where to look for the Jews.

Putin’s Pipeline To Syria
http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=765

October 25th, 2012, 6:34 pm

 

Syrialover said:

To continue my post (#58), which I accidentally sent before finishng.

Relevance of the Finkelstein BBC interview to Syria?

Assadist loyalists cling to the mantra that they are fighting because Bashar Assad has protected Syria from attack by Israel.

(I saw a recent TV news interview with an Alawi militia leader fighting in Tripoli, Lebanon, who states this as his main justification for getting involved.)

Certain Israeli politicians and public figures mindlessly and pointlessly feed this line. Finkelstein identifies the stupidity of this and calls Israel on it, saying they are putting Israel on a suicidal course without good cause.

I know Israelis who think the same as Finkelstein, and the problem is being worn unnecessarily and unfairly by the US.

Finkelstein nails Obama’s dilemma very well.

I know this will set off the crank anti Semites here, but I am not in their camp and I find their comments disturbing and ugly.

October 25th, 2012, 6:38 pm

 

Tara said:

Was the fall of the two Christian areas in Aleppo planned by the regime purposefully hoping that some infiltrated foreign Jihadists take revenge and massacre some Christians?  I hope the FSA is in full control of all the fighting elements in these areas.  The regime is sinister enough to have its own shabeehas pose as jihadists and kill Christians.. 

Syrian rebels advance into Aleppo
Territorial gains break more than two months of stalemate as large areas of country’s second city change hands

Martin Chulov, in Beirut and Mona Mahmood
The Guardian, Thursday 25 October 2012 14.23 EDT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/25/syria-rebels-advance-aleppo

Rebel groups claimed gains in two Christian areas of Aleppo as well as a Kurdish enclave.

A rebel fighter in Aleppo, Abu Yousef, said: “Brigades of the FSA were able to progress from al-Ashrafiyeh district. There was also progress in al-Midan and Sulaiman al-Halabi districts. In Khan al -Assal district, there is a police school that was under siege by the FSA for 10 days. The Syrian army was sending reinforcements every day to ease the siege. Today a convoy was heading towards the school and was faced by fire from the FSA and could not get there.”

October 25th, 2012, 7:16 pm

 

zoo said:

50. Tara

‘Eventually’ has been overused. What’s your guess? weeks, months or years?

After a brief exhilaration because they got their salaries from their employers Qatar, KSA and some frustrated expats as well as their new acquisition of better weapons, the armed rebels, heavily infected by the virus of the Islamists extremists are doomed unless they turn their weapons against their ‘allies’.

They probably realized they are irremediably hijacked by the Islamists so they welcomed the ceasefire as a preliminary to negotiations.

October 25th, 2012, 7:30 pm

 
 

zoo said:

The rebels to declare Northern Syria a ‘buffer zone’ “within a matter of hours” to present the ‘fait accompli’ and therefore force the reluctant international community to provide aerial protection.

FSA close to securing “buffer zone” in northern Syria – Source

25/10/2012
http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=31584
By Paula Astatih and Sami Amara

Beirut/Moscow, Asharq Al-Awsat – Al-Assad regime forces withdrew from the city of Harem in Idlib Governorate on Tuesday following prolonged bloody clashes there. Following this, the Free Syrian Army [FSA] announced that it had been able to gain control of more than 18 checkpoints in the region. This withdrawal represents a turning point in the battle for northern Syria, with the opposition Local Coordination Committee [LCC] announcing that the Syrian rebels are now in control of around 80 percent of Idlib Governorate and may declare northern Syrian a “buffer zone” within a matter of hours.

Syrian National Council [SNC] member, Adib Shishakli, told Asharq Al-Awsat that “now that we control the city of Harem, it can be said that we are in the process of establishing a Syrian-made buffer zone, although we still don’t have any air cover due to the absence of an international resolution to provide the rebels with heavy weaponry.”

For his part, FSA Joint Command spokesman, Fahd al-Masri, expressed his fear that the al-Assad regime forces retreat from Idlib Governorate and the surrounding area was a precursor to a fierce aerial bombardment of the region utilizing rockets and internationally banned weapons. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Syrian rebels are doing everything in their power to announce northern Aleppo and Idlib as a liberated buffer zone, and to provide this zone with international protection in the forthcoming period.

October 25th, 2012, 7:48 pm

 

Tara said:

Zoo,

Read below.  Syria is a place where hijabs, skinny jeans, skimpy Lycra, and heavy makeup could exist in one girl..  The Syrian rebells are revolting against the regime to achieve freedom and dignity.  They are not mercenaries nor are they motivated by religious attraction for martyrdom.  The lack of understanding the real motives of the revolution is the regime’s fatal mistake that will lead to its demise.  The rebels can grow a beard to appeal to Qatar and KSA or whoever sponsors the weapons but at the end of the day, they are who they are.  I do not know how long is “eventually”, but I am sure of our final destiny.

—–

… and the crowds that flocked there on Thursday evenings – the beginning of the weekend – would always surprise anyone who had previously doubted that hijabs, skinny jeans, skimpy Lycra and heavy makeup could coexist on one girl in the so-called conservative Middle East. Muslims come to Bab Touma for the lively restaurant scene, but it is also not unusual to see women in hijabs tending to the Virgin Mary shrines at street corners.

It has long been said of Syria that this unselfconscious harmony makes it a paragon in the Middle East. And yet, this harmony is precisely what one man, Bashar al-Assad, along with a handful of family members, is bent on trying to destroy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/shortcuts/2012/oct/25/syria-bombing-damascus-blast

October 25th, 2012, 7:55 pm

 

Tara said:

Syria crisis: Discord grows between Islamist and secular rebels

Um Ahmad was the first woman to join the protests in Douma, a town on the eastern outskirts of Damascus.

She is 22 years old and Um Ahmad is not her real name, but nobody likes to give their real name in Syria these days.  Wearing a veil under her pink coat, she lights a cigarette and recalls the first days of the movement.  “I used to go door-to-door knocking on women’s houses to encourage them to take to the street,” she said.  Though Um Ahmad presents herself as a member of the conservative Islamist Salafi movement, she and her fellow protesters were not calling for a state ruled by Sharia law.  “We were going out for our call for freedom, democracy and a civil state,” she explained.

Um Ahmad has been detained before and is now in hiding after joining Free Syrian Army (FSA). “The only way forward is to fight this regime with weapons,” she said.  She joined the ranks of the Ghouta Revolutionaries brigade, part of the Damascus suburb’s military council, helping with logistics.  “I joined the Ghouta Revolutionaries because this brigade doesn’t have a conservative Islamic name, not like the rest of the brigades across the country,” she explained.
..
“There are various FSA brigades in Douma and most of the time they don’t coordinate with each other,” Um Ahmad said.  “The one that is most powerful and more organised is Liwaa al-Islam. They are the ones with the biggest funding and more weapons”.  Liwaa al-Islam is a conservative group applying Islamic Sharia. And this is what many in Syria – including many in the the opposition – do not want to see.  “They have set up a Sharia court and they prosecute whoever they suspect as an agent of the regime or amongst the security themselves. In most cases they are killed,” Um Ahmad said.  Liwaa al-Islam is getting most of its funding from Saudi Arabia, mostly from Syrians living in the kingdom.
..
But there are growing concerns within opposition groups about the potential spread of Sunni extremism in a country with a diverse religious make up.  “The rebels who refuse to hold the al-Qaeda flag and don’t have an extremist ideology are poorly funded,” Um Ahmad said.
“I am a Salafi by belief but I don’t have the extremist ideology that’s being imposed on the rebels by the Saudis. I fear these Islamist are going to prevail with their own extremist ideology in Syria.”

Those are the fears of an opposition Salafi woman. The concern is much greater amongst secular political opposition.

“The violence has got us nowhere,” said one opposition activist with a secular background who has been working on peaceful means of change.  “The regional players are manipulating our revolution and arming those who would only accept radical ideologies.”
….

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20079317

October 25th, 2012, 8:17 pm

 

zoo said:

Tara

“The rebels can grow a beard to appeal to Qatar and KSA or whoever sponsors the weapons but at the end of the day, they are who they are. I do not know how long is “eventually”, but I am sure of our final destiny.”

Permit me to doubt. Just ask the Tunisians girls if they dare to walk like the Syrian girls walk now, still protected by the secular system of the Baath party. Would they dare protesting in front of the Moslem Brotherhood thugs?
Ask the Iranians girls… There, the ‘eventually’ is 22 years and still not happened.
You are far too optimistic. When the fund providers to empoverished Syria are still the Saudis and the Qataris, Syria will become a country of malls, zero culture, and women restrictions.
I pray that Syria’s governement never owes anything to these uncultured, bigot, undemocratic and women rights abuser Arab “brotherly” countries.

October 25th, 2012, 9:31 pm

 

Tara said:

Happy Eid for everyone, Muslim or non-Muslim who reads SC, to Syria, the whole world, and to my freind Why-Discuss.

October 25th, 2012, 9:35 pm

 

zoo said:

#70 Tara

It just proves what I have been saying for a long time when the FSA started to flirt with the Islamists. The FSA has now been hijacked by the Islamists with their passive consent. Now it is too late, they are infected and they are to weak to get rid of that virus that is eating them.
The secular opposition needs to call for negotiations and may have to ultimately fight along the Syrian army against Al Qaeeda and its islamists derivatives. A second civil war may be brewing.

October 25th, 2012, 9:39 pm

 

Tara said:

Zoo

“protected by the secular system of the Ba’ath party”.

May I remind you that Women in Syria in the sixties and seventies used to wear miniskirts they are not wearing now…

October 25th, 2012, 9:45 pm

 

Majed97 said:

My hope is for the secular wing of the FSA to use this truce to strike a political deal with the government under the umbrella of the UN based on the Geneva principles, which is certain to be rejected by the Islamists and therefore prompt the secular FSA to join forces with the government to clean up the country of extremists. A road map for a political transition into a multiparty system and new elections is the only way out of this mess. I’m sure there are plenty of good people on both sides who care enough about Syria to save what’s left of it. It’s becoming obvious to the world by now that the government forces cannot be defeated, and the west is getting very nervous about al-Qaeda’s growing influence over the opposition. A resolution like that will leave both sides feeling vindicated..It’s my hopeful way of thinking since hope is all we have left…

October 25th, 2012, 9:56 pm

 

zoo said:

**** Eid Mobarak to all Moslems ****

October 25th, 2012, 9:58 pm

 

zoo said:

Tara

In the 60’s and 70’s, Syria was not a country lead by bigots like the Moslem Brotherhood and funded by ultra-conservative oil rich Arabs.

Egypt was also liberal under non-religious Nasser. Look what is happening now.

October 25th, 2012, 10:05 pm

 

zoo said:

Who is sending money to jihadists in North Mali?

Accused by the french media, Qatar denies, but the french government suspects that another Gulf Arab country is funding the jihadists.
Who can it be??

“The French secret services have assured the government that Qatar had not sent undercover agents with humanitarian jihadists, who control the north of Mali.”

http://blog.lefigaro.fr/malbrunot/

October 25th, 2012, 10:12 pm

 

Tara said:

Zoo,

It doesn’t have to be either the Ba’ath or the Muslim Brothers. I believe Syria will be ruled by neither.

October 25th, 2012, 10:13 pm

 

Syrian said:

“في ضوء استئناف عمليات الاغتيال في لبنان، بدا وكأنّ النظام السوري انتقل من تخويف السوريين من مصائر لبنان، إلى تخويف اللبنانيين من مصائر سورية”
http://alquds.co.uk/index.asp?fname=today%5C25qpt995.htm&arc=data%5C2012%5C10%5C10-25%5C25qpt995.htm

October 25th, 2012, 11:31 pm

 

SYR.EXPAT said:

From an eye witness in Damascus (I am paraphrasing here):
——–
There was a checkpoint in an area of Damascus and an older man in a car asked why there was a checkpoint in that area. The thugs belonging to the Air Force Mukhabarat, upon hearing him, dragged out of his car and beat him so viciously that the witness was hoping the man dies so his suffering can stop.
——–
Long time ago, I remember seeing a young man being viciously beaten by two guards inside the guardroom at the entrance of a building in Aleppo, where one of the government officials lived. I was passing by and witnessed few seconds of the beating. One of the guards appeared to be hysterical, beating the young man with the butt of the Kalashnikov. The young man appeared to be one of the vendors who were waiting outside the mosque to sell fruits and other items after the Friday prayer. Allah knows what prompted the beating, but I can’t forget the viciousness and cruelty of those guards. This was the Syria I grew up in and nothing seems to have changed. Rabid dogs unleashed to terrorize the population into submission. No regard for age, status, or humanity. This is why there is a revolution today.

October 25th, 2012, 11:42 pm

 

zoo said:

Tara

If there is a winner who is able to disloge by force the secular Baaath Party, be sure it will be a Sunni Islamic government because they are the strongest in the opposition. Alawites, Christians, Shia and Kurds will be discarded as traitors.
Unless the new rulers are forced to make arrangements to assign an important position to each community like in Lebanon, it will become like Tunisia and Egypt, a country ruled by Moslem Brotherhood sympathizers financed by Qatar and Turkey. A Salafist faction will also be present supported by Saudi Arabia. The liberals and the seculars, like in Egypt, will be the loosers.

I think that like in Iraq and in Egypt the Christians may emigrate in mass and the bitter Alawites will retrench in their mountains to plot against the Sunni Islamic masters: a poisonous atmosphere will prevail for years.

The West will go along with any Islamic government taking over the country, a long as this new government will be accept to turn its back on Iran and the resistance to Israel.
Welcome to the post Assad you’ve been dreaming of.

October 25th, 2012, 11:48 pm

 

Syrialover said:

Those were the days! Self-appointed Masters of the Universe, high fiving each other in their fantasy world.

The brilliant banner makers of Kafranabel would make clever use of this image.

Bashar this world is rejecting you, but you have a likeminded friend waiting for you in another place.

https://twitter.com/i/#!/Maysaloon/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com%2FGFoi5eL4

October 25th, 2012, 11:55 pm

 

Juergen said:

great article by Michal Shammas on the instrumentalization of christian refugees from Syria in Europe

Your asylum does not help us

http://translate.google.de/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zeit.de%2F2012%2F43%2FSyrien-Christen-Michal-Shammas%2Fkomplettansicht

October 26th, 2012, 1:26 am

 

MarigoldRan said:

The government needs the truce because it is losing badly in Idlib province and needs to pull their regiments back.

The rebels accepted the truce because they would look bad if they did not.

Militarily, there’s no reason for the rebels to accept the truce. They’re trouncing the regime.

The journalists are over-estimating the effect of Assad’s air force. Air power is pointless without ground support. And Assad’s army is being ground down.

October 26th, 2012, 1:54 am

 

annie said:

84. Juergen

About asylum seekers in Belgium : my country gives asylum to Syrians regardless of their religion or “ethnicity”. I am comforted to say that in my dealings with the refugee authorities I have been struck by their humanity. But then, I am not myself a refugee.

October 26th, 2012, 2:57 am

 

SYRIAN HAMSTER said:

SYR.EXPAT
What you witnessed is OK in the regime’s loyalist here, as long as it was Secular .

Joshua,
Glad to see the the “Friends” pill wearing out. Time to take back your site from the same influence, no need to ban anyone. Just get rid of this silly like/dislike system. It is easy, one click on the button in wordpress, and DANDASHI/SNP reason for living would be gone….

ON Aleppo
Why would the FSA try to hold on to neighborhoods where they don’t have good public support, and perhaps face great hostility and constant spoiled nagging of athad’s privileged… Until the next appearance from thug-buster with his instruction from the secular-sectarian prophet, think of the real objective of the Western Aleppo operation….

FSA Message:
We are here,
We can hit the regime anywhere we want
We have freedom of movement
You are holed in
You are afraid
You can’t control the city
You are deadman walking.

On Prayers
Anyone noticed the shrinking number of Seculars joining the thug of Damascus for Eid prayer.. Next Eid, if there is any for him, he will have a special session of prayer in his bunker…or hopefully in hell with his shabee7a.

MINAZOO
Any news on the upcoming Islamist takeover of Nauru.

October 26th, 2012, 3:23 am

 

annie said:

so much for the cease fire

http://youtu.be/3yQnOl-m2pI
S.N.N | Shaam News Network shared a link.

19 minutes ago.

#SNN | #Syria
Assad Regime Breaches Truce

News video| Damascus| Alqaboon| October 26, 201
Assad forces shelling on the neighborhood:

October 26th, 2012, 3:32 am

 

Syrialover said:

Hi there HAMSTER (#87),

Additional message to Bashar the Ass:

You’ve really f***ed your Aleppo business/commercial constituents and they wish you to hell

(Reposting article: Aleppo business leaders targeted in Syria violence

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/24/syria-aleppo-industry-idUSL5E8LG31V20121024)

October 26th, 2012, 4:36 am

 

Citizen said:

Syria Eid ceasefire broken as fighting erupts at army base – rights group
http://rt.com/news/syria-ceasefire-fighting-eid-286/
Fighting has erupted in Syria in the first violation of a ceasefire honoring the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, a human rights group said. Rebel fighters reportedly tried to storm a military base near a highway linking Damascus and Aleppo.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed that rebels had laid siege to a military base one kilometer from the highway, and that government forces had opened fire in a nearby village.
A truce was called into effect hours earlier on Friday morning following an agreement between the Assad government and the rebels to observe a four-day ceasefire in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

October 26th, 2012, 4:56 am

 

Warren said:

First payday for Syrian rebels in Aleppo

After months of fighting without pay, Syrian rebels in Aleppo are receiving their first salaries, paid with money commanders say is at least in part provided by foreign states. Duration: 00:52

October 26th, 2012, 4:59 am

 

Syrialover said:

HAMSTER,

1. I’m always waiting for MINAZOO to give us the news of the latest disaster and nastiness happening under the Islamist dictatorship in Iran.

But no, they never share their special knowledge on that one.

2. Agreed, Joshua getting rid of the corrupted vote system would be a great start as a weed control exercise (weeds as in http://www.maysaloon.org/2012/10/the-philosophy-of-tyranny.html)

October 26th, 2012, 5:02 am

 

Badr said:

A ceasefire only in name?

By Paul Wood
BBC Middle East correspondent

The Free Army is, in reality, more a brand name for hundreds of different militias than a single organisation with a unified command structure.

Civil wars have a trajectory: anger and energy at the beginning, mounting bloodshed and exhaustion at the end as the losses mount.

There are small local ceasefires: places where the local army commander and the rebels have just decided to leave each other alone for the time being (usually to the relief of the local population).
In one village, in August, we found that a well-known local drug lord who led one rebel group had killed the local Free Army commander and taken over leadership of all the fighters in the area.
He then did a deal with the police and army – he would not attack them; they would leave him to his drugs-smuggling business. In that village, at least, a kind of peace reigned.

October 26th, 2012, 5:10 am

 

Albo said:

74. TARA

“May I remind you that Women in Syria in the sixties and seventies used to wear miniskirts they are not wearing now…”

Yes, lots of people miss the good old times, but make no mistake the Dark Ages are upon us

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=plcp&v=TX4RK8bj2W0

October 26th, 2012, 5:16 am

 

Albo said:

Correction, here is the proper link, it is nothing short of EPIC.

October 26th, 2012, 5:45 am

 

Warren said:

Mona Eltahawy: women’s rights ‘disaster’ looms in Egypt

Egypt has risen up against a repressive regime but what will the post-revolutionary society look like?

Power has shifted in the direction of political Islam. Mona Eltahawy, who writes about the Islamic world and women’s issues, says 60 years of military rule has made it almost impossible to operate in the middle ground, between the regime and the Islamists.

You can watch the full interview on BBC World News on Wednesday 24 October at 03:30, 08:30, 15:30 and 20:30 GMT and on the BBC News Channel at 0430 GMT on Wednesday 24 October and 0030 GMT on Thursday 25 October.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/9763056.stm

October 26th, 2012, 6:11 am

 

Warren said:

Attack on Syria cover up

Erlich: The US massacre at Al-Sukkariya, Syria in 2008 was a clear violation of international law

October 26th, 2012, 6:21 am

 

Warren said:

U.S. Strike on Syrian Territory – October 2008

October 26th, 2012, 6:23 am

 

Warren said:

What next for US-Syria relations? – Inside Story – Oct 29 2008 – part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv6QKXlOQtU&feature=relmfu

__________________________________________________________________

The same Syrian Jihadis that were attacking US forces in Iraq, are now fighting against the Syrian government. The irony is the Sunnis that were screaming anti-US slogans in 2008 when the US retaliated, are now screaming for US intervention & protection. Tayyiqqa Sunnis at their best!

October 26th, 2012, 6:27 am

 

Tara said:

LLC reported 100 violations of cease fire and 19 death.

October 26th, 2012, 9:04 am

 

zoo said:

Another of these frequent ‘rare’ appearances of Bashar al Assad on TV. Certainly much less rare than the appearances of the SNC leaders in Paris or the FSA leaders hiding in their Turkish bunkers.

Syria’s Assad appears at Eid prayers as truce starts

DAMASCUS – Agence France-Presse
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/syrias-assad-appears-at-eid-prayers-as-truce-starts-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=33302&NewsCatID=352

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a rare television appearance today, attending morning prayers as a ceasefire took effect for the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

State television showed Assad, smiling and seeming relaxed, at an unidentified mosque in Damascus as the ceasefire, which both his regime and the main rebel group have conditionally accepted, took effect

October 26th, 2012, 9:18 am

 

zoo said:

Tara

Your painted and botoxed Cinderella with her XL Pizza.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/images/57189989.jpg

October 26th, 2012, 9:22 am

 

Tara said:

Zoo,

The key word is “unidentified” mosque. Never again he and his wife can hold hand and stroll in the old street of Damascus or Paris..never again he will be seen eating dinner in a restaurant in the old city. What a maerable life. Can you imagine?

October 26th, 2012, 9:25 am

 

zoo said:

Qatar peeling the Moslem “Brotherhood Banana”?

Why Is Qatar Mucking Around in Gaza?
Doha’s meddling in Palestinian affairs is much more about Iran than it is about Israel.

BY DAVID B. ROBERTS | OCTOBER 25, 2012
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/10/25/why_is_qatar_mucking_around_in_gaza?page=0,1

Indeed, while Israel and the Palestinian Authority may view Qatar’s embrace of Hamas with chagrin, it is Iran that is the central loser in this drama. The emir’s visit is part of a larger Qatari policy to unseat and reorient crucial Iranian allies around the Middle East — and by extension, amputate a long-used, effective limb of Iranian foreign policy. This is a remarkably forthright policy, for Iran will not — and cannot — take it lying down.
..
This move will, of course, catalyze another round of speculation that Qatar is supporting the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood across the Arab world. That Qatar’s supports the Brotherhood is not in doubt — indeed, it hardly tries to conceal its efforts at engaging with the Islamist movement in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria and now with Hamas, another Brotherhood offshoot. Yet Qatar is not nefariously trying to replace the Shia Crescent with a Brotherhood Banana, curving from Syria through Gaza, Egypt, and on to Libya and Tunisia.

October 26th, 2012, 9:28 am

 

zoo said:

Tara

I doubt the S.ultan and his Hanum have a better life… These are dangerous professions.
By the way, I have never seen any Middle eastern leader couple, except Bashar and his wife, ” holding hand and strolling in the old street of any city”

Did you see Cinderella and her XL Pizza doing that in Qatar or elsewhere? Or it will create a jealousy crisis with the 2 other wives.

October 26th, 2012, 9:34 am

 

Tara said:

Zoo

Not a good shot of her. The lips are too full, may be botoxed. I take it you do not like that kind of beauty….oh, I know. The Shushu look you prefer… is not what I call understated elegance and is not my style.

October 26th, 2012, 9:35 am

 

zoo said:

#107 Tara

Cinderella looks extremely bitter, sad and hard, somehow I understand her: The metamorphosis of the beast into a prince failed.
What a difference with the luminous, kind and joyful face of Asma.

October 26th, 2012, 9:47 am

 

zoo said:

Iraq, an example of a US lead post-dictatorship failure as it relied on exiles and militias to rebuild the country.

Reading Machiavelli in Iraq

Kenneth M. Pollack
October 24, 2012
http://nationalinterest.org/article/reading-machiavelli-iraq-7611

As always, any discussion of Iraq’s problems after Saddam Hussein’s fall needs to start from an understanding of America’s endless mistakes there. The catastrophically mishandled American occupation of Iraq following the 2003 invasion created a political and security vacuum in the country that produced an ethnosectarian civil war by late 2005. Those mistakes brought forth a new Iraqi political leadership comprised largely of exiles and militia chiefs, many of whom were focused primarily on aggrandizing their own wealth and power.

October 26th, 2012, 9:59 am

 

zoo said:

The Islamist’s Road to Failure

By: Muhammad Dibo
Published Friday, October 26, 2012
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/islamist%E2%80%99s-road-failure

Observing the actions of the Islamist movement as represented by its more moderate wing, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), who have gained power in several countries following the Arab Spring revolts, reveals that it is headed down the path to failure.

The Islamists are repeating the same mistakes as their nationalist, Marxist, and liberal predecessors (whether they succeeded in gaining power or not) on the ideological, intellectual and political levels.

This confirms what many suspect – that a deal was struck between the Muslim Brotherhood and Washington, giving the Islamists international legitimacy in return for a process of normalization with Israel to help it gain acceptance as a natural state in the region.

October 26th, 2012, 10:05 am

 

zoo said:

U.N. to probe errant U.S. drone attacks. War crimes?
Published: Oct. 26, 2012 at 3:30 AM

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 26 (UPI) — An independent U.N. counter-terrorism expert says he will probe U.S. drone attacks and other targeted assassinations that result in civilian deaths or injuries.

He said this summer some drone strikes in Pakistan might amount to war crimes.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/10/26/UN-to-probe-errant-US-drone-attacks/UPI-59031351236600/#ixzz2APjTXKiM

October 26th, 2012, 10:08 am

 

Tara said:

“the luminous, kind and joyful face of Asma,”..,, the children killer.

What else? Go ahead. Elaborate…any poetry too?

October 26th, 2012, 10:40 am

 

Johannes de Silentio said:

Don’t be so hard on Asma. You’ll break Zoo’s heart.

October 27th, 2012, 5:12 pm

 
 

Fawaz Alfawaz said:

I am not sure Mr Landis is correct on the spill over to Iraq rather than Lebanon . He is right and only marginally if the Isalmsts have a key role in overthrowing Assad/Makhlouf regime in Damascus ,,but even then the Shiites in Iraq are entrenched and have access to significant money ( espeically given the fact the oil is primarily in the south ) , the money they got in the last 9 years is more than Iraq had in the 28 years prior to Westren invasion of Iraq .As in Syria the majority will ultimately prevail , but the focal and marginalized Sunnis ( no more than small minority of the Sunnis community that will continue the fight. Against the Shiites). Actually a victory for the Sunnins in Syria might work against the Sunnis in Iraq as the Iraqi government will be more vigilant if not vengeful ) which is likely to weaken them further .
I think actually the effect on Lebanon is much more as it is the first time that the one sect ( maybe since the french handed power to the Christians decades ago ) , now the Shiites are feared Beacuse they are the only ones with more weapons than all other sects put together .Yet Hzballah is keenly aware of the limitations once the Syrian client state crumble , just today a British paper reported the Hizballah is thinking of ditching Assad regime , I reckon the reason is not ideological or political but keen awareness that ultimately they could be drawn to war against 15 milion Sunnins in Syria , with no end in sight .Nassr Allah knows that could result in giving Hizballah. A choice of disarming or defeat .

Fawaz alfawaz a Saudi columnist

October 28th, 2012, 5:45 pm

 

Fawaz Alfawaz said:

I am not sure Mr Landis is correct on the spill over to Iraq rather than Lebanon . He is right and only marginally if the Isalmsts have a key role in overthrowing Assad/Makhlouf regime in Damascus ,,but even then the Shiites in Iraq are entrenched and have access to significant money ( espeically given the fact the oil is primarily in the south ) , the money they got in the last 9 years is more than Iraq had in the 28 years prior to Westren invasion of Iraq .As in Syria the majority will ultimately prevail , but the focal and marginalized Sunnis ( no more than small minority of the Sunnis community that will continue the fight. Against the Shiites). Actually a victory for the Sunnins in Syria might work against the Sunnis in Iraq as the Iraqi government will be more vigilant if not vengeful ) which is likely to weaken them further .
I think actually the effect on Lebanon is much more as it is the first time that the one sect ( maybe since thefrench handed power to the Christians decades ago ) , now the Shiites are feared Beacuse they are the only ones with more weapons than all other sects put together .Yet Hzballah is keenly aware of the limitations once the Syrian client state crumble , nay today a British paper reported the Hizballah is thinking of ditching Assad regime , I reckon the reason is not ideological or political but keen awareness that ultimately they could be drawn to war against 15 milion Sunnins in Syria , with no end in sight .Nassr Allah knows that could result in giving Hizballah. A choice of disarming or defeat .

Fawaz alfawaz a Saudi columnist

October 28th, 2012, 5:51 pm

 

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