“Given the savage response of the Syrian regime, they may get their last wish.”
Robert Fisk: Sectarianism bites into Syria’s rebels

The deathwish of fighters in Damascus terrifies many who oppose Assad
Robert Fisk
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-sectarianism-bites-into-syrias-rebels-7964251.html
..
If this initially took the form of unarmed demonstrations across the country – provoked by the torture and murder of a 13-year-old boy by secret policemen in Deraa in March last year – armed men did appear rapidly on the streets of some towns. There is video footage of gunmen on the streets of Deraa that same month and al-Jazeera footage of armed men fighting Syrian troops just across the northern border of Lebanon in April 2011. Mysteriously, al-Jazeera chose not to broadcast it.

Now, of course, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where al-Jazeera is based, make no secret of the funds and weapons they are running into Turkey and Lebanon for the resistance – without apparently caring very much who the “resisters” are. The Lebanese army managed to stop one out of five shiploads of guns, but the others, carried on Sierra Leone-registered vessels, were able to unload.

One of the two organisations that claimed responsibility for last week’s Damascus bombing, Liwa Islam – the Islam Brigade – raises again the Salafist element in Syria’s armed opposition. One newly arrived refugee from Syria told me last week that they have forbidden alcohol and openly say they intend to die fighting in Damascus. Given the savage response of the Syrian regime, they may get their last wish.

The irony of the “Miracle” of Israel economical success.

Israeli Protester Dies After Self-Immolation
By JODI RUDOREN
Published: July 20, 2012

JERUSALEM — Moshe Silman, the desperately indebted Haifa man who set himself aflame last weekend as part of a social justice protest in Tel Aviv, died Friday from the second- and third-degree burns over 94 percent of his body.
“He sacrificed himself,” his sister, Bat Zion Elul, who made the decision to take him off life support, said in an interview with Channel 2 News broadcast on Friday. “He really sacrificed himself for the sake of others, for those who are in the same position as him, who don’t have anything.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/world/middleeast/israeli-protester-moshe-silman-dies-after-self-immolation.html?_r=1

Tit for Tat: FSA vs PKK.

Al-Assad arming PKK militants, report says

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/al-assad-arming-pkk-militants-report-says.aspx?pageID=238&nID=26044&NewsCatID=338

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has given orders to provide arms and supplies to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), according to Tolga ?ardan of daily Milliyet.

Al-Assad’s alleged aid to the PKK was revealed in a special report written by the Turkish Gendarmerie Command and sent to the Turkish Police Department.

The article in Atlantico posted above makes the most sense regarding the rumors about Tlass leaving but not defecting and the death of the security heads that were about to work to depose the Assad family.

It is imperative at this stage to start a truth and reconciliation commission and to announce it as part and parcel of any transition regime.

No to lynching and massacres and yet to justice and the rule of law.

By the way the Russian ambassador in Paris re affirms his story. Mohamad Makhlouf is in Moscow, probably finding a place for the brat to live in.

https://www.facebook.com/ramijarah/posts/10151144789007873 (21 hours go)

Omar Al Hariri who recently traveled from Cairo to Amman was stopped by Jordanian authorities and handed over to their intelligence services, I managed to speak to him for a few moments on a cellular line of someone present with him in this process. He explained that they were about to send him to the Jaber Syrian border checkpoint to be handed over to the Syrian Airforce Intelligence bodies present there. we contacted a number of parties in Jordan to try and resolve the matter but it was not long after that the number we had spoken to him on was placed out of order, it was only possible had the Jordanian authorities themselves done this. yesterday evening we managed to contact the authorities in Amman and were told that he signed a document allowing them to hand him over to the Free Syrian Army on his responsibility: this is unrealistic given the FSA is not considered an official party the jordanians would deal with officially and in all cases is unacceptable. Omar al Hariri was very active as an activist and lead demonstrations in Syria before he was outed by Syrian intelligence and wanted for what the regime considered “crimes” if he is in their hands now this would mean an inhuman act. to support this possibility Omar is not the first to be handed over to Syria by the jordanians: only this week 7 others have been subject to the same process in addition to families trying to flee Syria into jordan forced to pay bribes to officers and most of the time being sent back anyway upon arrival into the jordanian grounds. It is a disgusting act of abuse to humanity to see this happening to the people of Syria.

“Omar Al Hariri signed a document allowing them to hand him over to the Free Syrian Army on his responsibility”
So where is the problem ? Or is it a typo?

#5. Syrialover

No surprise. Jordan is confirming that they consider the Syrian government as legitimate and the opposition as the outlaw.
The only neighboring country where opposition activitss are relatively safe is a non Arab country : Turkey. The question is for how long. As time goes they become embarrassing guests…

Improvement: For the last 2 days, no electricity cuts in Damascus and the suburbs under government controls. Internet works also with no problem.
Who’s on strike?

Observer

It is imperative at this stage to start a truth and reconciliation commission

Thank God, you’re finally coming to your senses.

Observer (#4),

I agree, that French article offers some interesting scenarios about Bashar engineering the explosion to head off a coup. All adding to the vivid speculation mix.

How can we get a copy to his sister Bushra and mother?

http://www.atlantico.fr/decryptage/syrie-coup-etat-manque-origine-chute-appareil-securitaire-bachar-el-assad-wassim-nasr-426581.html

People will remember this Ramadan as the time when Syria we knew is no longer a state.

It is going to be substituted with smaller states based on religion or ethnicity.

Syria started dividing: the Kurds started taking parts and raising their flag. The Arabic tribes of the eastern parts, decides to fight them today. al-Assad is arming the Kurds of course. al-Assad’s control over the east is weakening by the day so why not let the Kurds do the fight and they get their state?

al-Assad is going to have a tough fight in Damscus and Allepo from now on. The opposition decided to attack in both cities after their relative failures in other cities. They want big symbolic targets. They saw the hoopla they got after the latest assassination of the high ranking officials.

Who is going to win: who knows or care now: the loser is Syria and the poor dead Syrians getting wasted along this violent path.

The Alawis in Damscus started getting back to the coast. The coast is the only place in Syria now where the real estate market is doing well. There is an estimated half a million Alawi in Damscus and its surrounding. They started getting back to their areas.

Chatted with a person, in the know, in Syria today who told me that Lattakia is the next Capital for the new Alawi State.

Ladies and gents: happy Ramadan every one.

While the Europe economy is faltering, the main preoccupation of the Germans: Cut or no Cut

Sunday,July 22 2012, Your time is 10:19:16 AM
German circumcision row could reach highest court: minister
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/german-circumcision-row-could-reach-highest-court-minister-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=26077&NewsCatID=351

Germany’s constitutional court may have the last word on religious circumcision, the justice minister said in remarks to appear tomorrow, after lawmakers called for a legal framework to protect the practice.

#6. Annie,

The item states that claim by the Jordanian authorities was “unrealistic” (and why) – in other words, an obvious lie

“Hezbollah is not neutral, but in the heart of a battle that is liable to redraw the entire map of the region.”

Nasrallah’s Message to Israel

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/nasrallah%E2%80%99s-message-israel

Attempts to depose the regime in Syria by political means have failed. The focus has shifted to intelligence operations as part of an open war, as evidenced by developments on the ground, including the assassination of the security chiefs in Damascus. But that is still not enough to radically tip the balance of power or change the rules of the game. After yesterday’s Russo-Chinese veto of a UN Security Council resolution sanctioning further foreign intervention, the enemies of Syria and the resistance have only Israel and its thuggery to turn to.

It has been sending out signals, whether by voicing fears that the Golan Heights could turn into another Sinai, or by talking of the grave threat posed by the transfer of sophisticated Syrian weaponry, including chemical weapons, to Lebanon.

If Israel is considering such a step, it now knows, for sure, that Hezbollah is not neutral, but in the heart of a battle that is liable to redraw the entire map of the region.

they’re not fleeing. they’re just on holiday. everything is just fine in syria!

Lebanese officials on the border were prepared for another busy day. It was more of a trickle than a flood, however, and none of the Syrians coming across into Lebanon described themselves as refugees. On a Friday at the start of Ramadan, they might have been coming to visit family, as they claimed.

Many of the refugees who came over on Thursday were believed to be supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from Damascus and its suburbs, like a driver who came on Friday, saying he had brought some people for a two-day visit.

?“No one better will come after Assad. It’s not possible. There is no one better than him. 85 percent of the people are with him and 15 percent are getting paid to be against him,” said Ibrahim Ibrahim

“Hezbollah is not neutral, but in the heart of a battle that is liable to redraw the entire map of the region.”

Nasrallah’s Message to Israel

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/nasrallah%E2%80%99s-message-israel

After yesterday’s Russo-Chinese veto of a UN Security Council resolution sanctioning further foreign intervention, the enemies of Syria and the resistance have only Israel and its thuggery to turn to.

It has been sending out signals, whether by voicing fears that the Golan Heights could turn into another Sinai, or by talking of the grave threat posed by the transfer of sophisticated Syrian weaponry, including chemical weapons, to Lebanon.

If Israel is considering such a step, it now knows, for sure, that Hezbollah is not neutral, but in the heart of a battle that is liable to redraw the entire map of the region.

It’s only the beginning in the ghettos: Riots in Syrian refugee camps in Turkey

Syrians revolt, fly own flag at refugee camp in Turkey

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/syrians-revolt-fly-own-flag-at-refugee-camp-in-turkey-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=26083&NewsCatID=359

GAZ?ANTEP – Do?an News Agency

Syrian refugees at the site began protesting about the 1,500 Turkmen refugees that had been added to the camp, precipitating a verbal argument with security officials. The row soon escalated into a riot as hundreds of Syrians took Turkish police officers hostage and seized their guns. The Turkish flag at the entrance was taken down and refugees replaced it with their own.
Syrian refugees also heavily damaged the central building nearby while destroying computers and crime-scene vehicles on the scene. Local authorities immediately asked for back up.

Special forces soon arrived and entered the camp, dispersing the rioters. Turkish citizens also tried to intervene but were prevented from doing so by security officials.

Turkish citizens quickly took down the Syrian opposition flag, replacing it with the original Turkish one.

Syria: Rebels claim border victory as al Qaeda reports emerge – 22/07

http://www.euronews.com/2012/07/22/syria-rebels-claim-border-victory-as-al-qaeda-reports-emerge/

Syrian rebels have claimed control of a third border crossing with Turkey.

But as amateur video looked to show them celebrating their capture of the Bab al-Salam crossing, reports emerged that al Qaeda militants may increasingly be joining their ranks.

More amateur footage, purportedly taken at Bab al-Hawa – another rebel-held crossing on Syria’s border with Turkey – is said to show extremists. Reports from there speak of around 150 armed Islamists, claiming to come from places like Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Chechnya.

[…]

Omen, everything in Syria is better than fine if you ask Irritated.

Evidenced by the helicopter gunships and tanks and other heavy weaponry to make sure the country keeps burning, fulfilling Bashar Assad’s ambition.

Assad We Love You, You Are Our Hero, Our Prophet, Our Eternal God, Assad Forever. Our Teacher, Our Eternal Leader. We are your soldiers. All Syrians Love You. Sionists and Salafists are Conspirators against the Baath Party and the Arab Nation Eternal Mission: Unity, Freedom and Socialism.

Assad we are coming to meet you…

10. syrialover,

i’m not persuaded but
bashar heading off a coup is an interesting theory.

the piece by as’ad abukhalil mina earlier pointed to also suggested that possibility.

“But American officials knew Shawkat and wrote about him in WikiLeaks — he was the key figure that coordinated the murderous intelligence cooperation between the two countries, where prisoners were dispatched to Syria (and other countries) to be tortured at the behest of a grateful US. That is an aspect of Shawkat that supporters of the regime don’t want to acknowledge.”

a paranoid dictator would be suspect anybody talking to americans. even if the project was sanctioned by the regime.

separately, this description in a profile of shawkat gave me pause:

Diplomats say Maher, Bashar’s younger brother and head of the elite Republican Guard, once shot him. Some believe Bashar himself was wary of his brother-in-law and his sister, who was the favorite of their late father.

“We do know there was a certain amount of rivalry … Shawkat and Bushra for quite a long time used to think of themselves as more presidential than Bashar and (his wife) Asma,” said British historian Patrick Seale.

if bashar knew shawkat harbored ambitions…

US gives Jordan $100 mn to help host Syrian refugees

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gMC090qMtc1LeSEa3b2SXS4RpVmw?docId=CNG.f14b30618d72b360f008dc33199704fb.291

Comment: Compare that with the payments Bashar would be making to corrupt Jordanian officials for the handover of opposition members.

Video: Thierry Meyssan report from Damascus – English subtitles

http://dotsub.com/media/6fdcfc58-cb9d-4b12-b008-5a29a1d1f225/embed/eng

Contradicting NATO’s narrative, was Thierry Meyssan in Damascus, Syria who reported that Syria’s continuity of government seamlessly moved forward after the assassinations last week, and that state institutions are still standing and very much functional. He describes Syria’s latest unrest as the result of a coordinated NATO-backed terrorist operation aimed at creating confusion and panic, coupled with Western propaganda – and warns that more operations are likely on the way.

[…]

US Prepares For Direct Intervention in Syria – July 22, 2012

As FSA proxies fail and psychological operations falter, US prepares more direct (and desperate) approach for long-sought regime

by Tony Cartalucci

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=32010

As it becomes increasingly clear that last week’s “surge” by NATO-backed so-called “Free Syrian Army” terrorists was a failed psychological operation, coordinated with meticulously timed assassinations the day of the UN Security Council vote designed to stampede the Syrian government out of power, the FSA’s foreign sponsors are preparing the public for a more direct intervention while desperately attempting to maintain the illusion of chaos and the imminent collapse of Syria’s government.

The Telegraph’s, “Bashar al-Assad’s Syria is now in a death spiral,” and the Guardian’s “Syria endgame: who and what will emerge from the ruins?” both desperately attempt to write off the Syrian government as already finished, an unsubstantiated reoccurring narrative being repeated daily by the West. Both articles however, categorically fail in qualifying their premises with subsequent facts – instead they depend on rehashing the initial violence that accompanied last week’s assassinations – violence that has already been adequately dealt with by Syrian security forces.

In New York Times’ article, “US to Focus on Forcibly Toppling Syrian Government,” is all but an admission that indeed NATO’s FSA terrorists have failed, and that what is in reality imminent, is the restoration of order by the Syrian army after over a year of foreign subversion and armed infiltration. Essential to the West’s plan, is now fabricating a justification the US, Israel, and the Gulf despots currently do not have – to more directly intervene before the limitations of NATO’s proxy forces are irrevocably exposed.

To achieve this, the Western media has decided to continue depicting Syria as “collapsing” even as security has been fully restored in Damascus, border crossings retaken after NATO-harbored terrorists struck from across Syria’s borders, overrunning small platoon-sized garrisons, and now it is confirmed that bolstered Syrian border defenses near Daraa on the Jordanian-Syrian border, entirely balked FSA terrorists.

Despite this, the Western media is still reporting “battles” in Damascus, that have “spread” to Aleppo. Aleppo being another relatively unscathed city, is being purposefully attacked in order to enhance NATO’s campaign to terrorize, panic, and divide the Syrian people. Already, however, Syrian troops have begun security operations to surround and neutralize terrorist elements, just as they have done already in Damascus.

But before the violence ebbs, at least, before the Western media finds it no longer tenable to report battles that have subsided days ago, the West has stampeded through several declarations. New York Times’ article, in addition to admitting more direct military intervention is being prepared, admits that the US and France are putting their proxy “Syrian National Council” in place to lead a “transitional government.”

The West’s problem is that not a square-inch of Syrian territory is held by NATO’s terrorist proxies – unlike in Libya where NATO proxies were operating out of Benghazi – raising the specter that some larger military intervention emanating from Syria’s borders will take place. The most likely location of such an operation would be via Turkey to establish a seat of power for the Western client regime.

To justify more overt Western intervention, an incredible amount of time and energy has been invested in preparing the general public for the prospect of a “chemical attack.”Syria has never deployed its chemical weapons, nor does it stand to gain from any such deployment, tactically, politically, or geopolitically. The only beneficiaries of such an attack would be NATO, Israel, and the Gulf despots, who could then use it to justify the “forcible toppling” of the Syrian government they now openly seek. If chemical weapons are deployed in Syria, it will most certainly be the work of NATO and its FSA proxies, using Libya’s admittedly pilfered and proliferated arsenal.

The announcement that indeed the US and France are maneuvering their client regime into place, while they plan on openly intervening on behalf of the so-called “Free Syrian Army,” is the final nail in the “opposition’s” legitimacy, exposing them as place holders of Western geopolitical aspirations in Syria, and in the Arab World. Earlier it was reported that the Syrian opposition was literally being coached and tutored by the US State Department, via the US government-funded US Institute of Peace (USIP) who is literally writing Syria’s “new” constitution, as well as engineering the entire “transitional” process on their behalf.

[…]

SL

Comment: Compare that with the payments Bashar would be making to corrupt Jordanian officials for the handover of opposition members.

…and to the millions of dollars of weapons sent by the USA to kill Syrians and protect Israel.
The USA generosity toward Syrians refugees in its protégé, Jordan, bring tears in my eyes.

forgot to copy!

i had a post commenting on suggestion of bashar cutting off a coup that got swallowed. hope i didn’t mess up the formatting.

10. Syrialover said:

Observer (#4),

I agree, that French article offers some interesting scenarios about Bashar engineering the explosion to head off a coup. All adding to the vivid speculation mix.

If it were true why did the FSA claim the responsibility for the explosion.

Do you have doubts about the credibilty of the FSA?

So can we say now, that Damascus and Haleb joined the revolution?

Because it was a main theme by mnhebaks, that this is happening only in the periphery, and that the two main and important cities remain loyal.
.

Islamic fighters flocking to Syria
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/islamic-fighters-flocking-to-syria/article4432160/?service=mobile
pay particular attention to 2 things here–
1. The west, and in particular America, is NOT worried about ‘militant’ Islam. In the case involving Syria, they are in bed with militant Islamists in furthering Israel’s long term goals in the region.

and–

2) What Israel’s head of Military Intelligence Kochavi said about the Golan–

“The Golan area is liable to become an arena of operations against Israel in much the same way the Sinai is today, and that’s a result of the increasing entrenchment of global jihad in Syria’

Translation–the Arab spring was all about de-stabilizing the area so that Israel would have the ‘facts on the ground’ she needed to justify going to war against her Arab neighbors and stealing more land.

936. HALABI said:

Shabee7 in the U.S. will get a taste of a U.S. prison. Unfortunately he will be treated a thousand times better than in Syria, but prison is prison and eventually everyone drops the soap in the shower.

DOJ Says Va. Man Sentenced To 18 Mos In Prison For Acting As Unregistered Agent For Syrian Govt

WASHINGTON – Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid, 48, a resident of Leesburg, Va., was sentenced today to 18 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for collecting video and audio recordings and other information about individuals in the United States and Syria who were protesting the government of Syria and to providing these materials to Syrian intelligence agencies in order to silence, intimidate and potentially harm the protestors.

anybody seen jad or snc lately?

anybody seen jad or snc lately?

936. HALABI said:

Shabee7 in the U.S. will get a taste of a U.S. prison. Unfortunately he will be treated a thousand times better than in Syria, but prison is prison and eventually everyone drops the soap in the shower.

DOJ Says Va. Man Sentenced To 18 Mos In Prison For Acting As Unregistered Agent For Syrian Govt

WASHINGTON – Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid, 48, a resident of Leesburg, Va., was sentenced today to 18 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for collecting video and audio recordings and other information about individuals in the United States and Syria who were protesting the government of Syria and to providing these materials to Syrian intelligence agencies in order to silence, intimidate and potentially harm the protestors.

https://joshualandis.com/blog/?p=15408&cp=all#comment-319508

The FSA is so stretched and desperate that they are leaving the control of the border with Turkey to their extremists allies: Foreign Taliban, Al Qaeeda, jihadists, after having repeatedly denied any collusion with them.
They seem to be ready to go to bed with the devil, now that they see their end coming.
Running out of effective propaganda options, we hear wave of the chemical weapon bogeyman reappearing, another wave of “promises” of the USA to do something outside the UN, and a wave of doomed predictions and lies about the state of the army.
The situation seems to slowly getting back to “normal” with occasional clashes in hot spots, overdramatized by the UK Observatory now in total disarray after the Damascus battle fiasco

In Turkey, riots in the refugees camps as well as the looting of the Turkish lorries by the FSA is gradually changing the Turks public opinion about the real motives of the ‘proud’ Syrian rebels.

28. IRRITATED

http://fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/the-lies-we-tell-us-aid-to-syrian-terrorists-is-flowing/18103/

The Lies We Tell: US aid to Syrian terrorists is flowing
Posted on July 22, 2012 by Admin
AntiWar – by Justin Raimondo A recent report in the London Telegraph is emblematic of the lies Washington tells, and the means by which they give these lies circulation:

“Despite mounting fury from the Syrian rebels, who are seeking assistance for their efforts to overthrow the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, the White House has refused all requests for heavy weapons and intelligence support.

“Syrian lobby groups in Washington, who only a few weeks ago were expressing hope that the Obama administration might give a green light to the supply of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, said they had now been forced to “take a reality pill” by the US government.

“The Telegraph understands that the Syrian Support Group (SSG), the political wing of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), recently presented American officials with a document requesting 1,000 RPG-29 anti-tank missiles, 500 SAM-7 rockets, 750 23mm machine guns as well as body armor and secure satellite phones. They also asked for $6m to pay rebel fighters as they battle the regime. All their requests were rejected.

“’Basically the message is very clear; nothing is going to happen until after the election, in fact nothing will happen until after inauguration [Jan 2013]. And that is the same message coming from everyone, including the Turks and the Qataris,’ said a Washington lobbyist for the group.”

Let’s unpack this one: To being with, the US is already arming the rebels, theTelegraph to the contrary notwithstanding. As the Washington Post recently reported:

“We are increasing our nonlethal assistance to the Syrian opposition, and we continue to coordinate our efforts with friends and allies in the region and beyond in order to have the biggest impact on what we are collectively doing,” said a senior State Department official, one of several U.S. and foreign government officials who discussed the evolving effort on the condition of anonymity.

“The U.S. contacts with the rebel military and the information-sharing with gulf nations mark a shift in Obama administration policy as hopes dim for a political solution to the Syrian crisis. Many officials now consider an expanding military confrontation to be inevitable.”
…..

27. expatriate, what do you mean steal more land?

bashar offered to give away the golan:

Assad has occasionally offered to sign a peace treaty and resume diplomatic ties with Israel in return for a total surrender of the area

A friend in Zabadani reports:

For the last 3 days it has been almost impossible to leave the town. It is encircled by four sides by the army. Zabadani has been under thick fire for the last 4 days. The old part of the village in the valley is receiving 8 to 10 rockets per minute. The is only a break or two of two hours each per day.

The description of the ruins of central Zabadani is like a holocaust.

God may Judge Assads and syrian responsibles, Putin, China, US, EU, NATO, UNO, and rest of dirty world powers that merit the worst after allowing this.

Assad rebuilds fighting command, retaliates against Turkey
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 22, 2012, 11:30 AM (GMT+02:00)

http://icestationzebra.eklablog.com/debkafiles-assad-rebatit-son-commandement-operationnel-mene-des-repres-a47935584

President Bashar Assad quickly recovered from the blow he suffered with the loss of his four top allies last Wednesday, July 18. Within 24 hours, he had put in place a new command for fighting the rebels headed by his younger brother Gen. Maher Assad, commander of the 4th Division, debkafile’s military and intelligence sources report exclusively. He also appointed Gen. Ali Mamloukh to head the General Security Service; Gen. Hafez Makhlouf, military commander of Damascus; and Gen. Ali Hassan, new chief of the Alawite Shabiha militia.
Gen. Fahad Jassim al-Freij was sworn in as Defense Minister Thursday.
Despite a wave of desertions, the Syrian army was soon back on the job, showing no signs of shock or wavering at the command level.
Within 48 hours the army had driven the rebels out of the Maidan district of Damascus. And while some media focused on the rebels’ capture of two Syrian-Iraqi crossings Saturday, our sources report that Assad and his new command had already moved on and were busy with a tactical move in retaliation against Turkey for the assassinations at the top of Assad’s inner circle: They opened the door to an influx of rebels of the Turkish PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) from Iraq into Syria’s northern Kurdish regions, with permission to set up bases of operation along the Turkish border.

This step had three immediate consequences:

1. By giving the armed Turkish Kurds’ separatist movement bases of attack against Ankara, the Assad regime was able to pacify Syria’s own 2-3 million-strong Kurdish minority (ten percent of the population) and make sure their towns in the north did not join the Syrian uprising.
2. By guaranteeing his own Kurdish minority’s loyalty, Assad released the troops posted there to fight Syrian rebels on other fronts.
3. While acting as hosts for the rebel Free Syrian Army commands which are campaigning against Damascus, Turkey is itself exposed to a new strategic threat from its southern border with Syria.
debkafile’s military sources report that the flow of Turkish Kurdish fighters into northern Syria has advanced the local Kurdish separatist drive led by the Syrian Democratic Union Party. Friday, July 20, PYD and PKK fighters from Iraq joined forces to seize control of two Syrian-Turkish border towns, Afrin and Ayn-al Arab.
Assad calculated that semi-autonomous status achieved by Syrian Kurds in Syria would act as a shot in the arm for the PKK on the other side of the border and encourage their raids on Turkish government and military targets in support of their demand for like status in Turkey.
debkafile update: The PKK were quick on the draw: Friday, they blew up the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline carrying about a quarter of Iraq’s oil exports at the southeastern Turkish town of Midyat near the Syrian border.
Assad has therefore begun exacting revenge on Turkey for the assassinations which cut down his inner circle.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the menhebakjis have given up, and have resigned themselves to having lost this struggle. Otherwise there would be no need for them to pout every hour, on the hour, and declare their intentions of moving to the coast. They can move if they want, wishful thinking and hurt feelings won’t make the Assadan Republic of Qurdaha any more realistic or feasible.

“anybody seen jad or snc lately?”

LOL!

I think the impalling of Assad and Nasrallah should be voted in the UN Security Council. I know this is an old fashioned execution mode but this is my opinion, my point of view. I find it very suitable for them.

China and Russia will fight to sell their own missiles in order to fulfill the rear side impalation of the infamous leaders.

Televising military movements 8)

Turkey sends missile batteries to Syria border – 22 minutes ago

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gqZJVqyDyvYg4IiOsCCur2PmxO5w?docId=CNG.f14b30618d72b360f008dc33199704fb.ab1

Television footage showed at least five vehicles in the convoy were carrying air defence missiles, in the latest show of force by Syria’s one-time ally which is now a fervent critic of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

[…]

Syria warns of Western-backed media disinformation campaign – 2012-07-22

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-07/22/c_131731460.htm

DAMASCUS, July 22 (Xinhua) — Syrian Information Ministry charged Sunday that Western intelligence parties in cooperation with Arab ones are planning to hack into Syrian TV frequencies in order to spread false news that would deceive the Syrians about the situation of the current ruling regime.

In a statement broadcast on all Syrian TVs Sunday, the ministry said that the foreign and Arab intelligence parties are planning to hack into the frequencies of the Syrian TVs for a little while via the broadcast control stations that exist in neighboring countries in order to disseminate false news such as broadcasting news about a military coup or high level defections and so on.

The ministry said that local or Arab anchors might be used to spread the falsifications.

The ministry have warned that a copycat of the state TV with the same station’s logo has been broadcasting since a couple of days ago airing national songs. The state media warned the Syrian watchers of following these channels.

Syria has for so long warned of a media disinformation campaign.

The Arab League has officially asked the satellite operators of Arabsat and Nilesat to stop broadcasting Syrian media, either public or private TVs.

[…]

10. SYRIALOVER said: How can we get a copy to his sister Bushra and mother?

i see i’m not the only one who has imagined bushra running headlong into bashar with her kitchen knive, taking vengeance on her brother for causing her husband to be killed.

bashar is probably too scared to see her.

…

40. ann warning against disinformation.
that’s adorable.

“…The FSA is so stretched and desperate”. Irritated.

The Alawi loyalists (or what is left of the “Syrian Arab” army) are not stretched… Do we live in the same universe, Irritated?

On every loyalist, the rebels can theoretically recruit 10.

And from what I see on YouTube, the rebels aren’t at all “desperate”.
.

“….admits that the US and France are putting their proxy “Syrian National Council” in place to lead a “transitional government….””

SNC Takeover means bloody Civil War in Syria. Syrians will not accept foreign/ Zionist paid and appointed mercenaries to lead them now. They need fairly elected, legitimate leaders, not foreign appointed puppets. They will not accept the Egyptian model either that foreigners are attempting a ploy at to cheat Syrians from fair rule as they did in Egypt.

“….US Writing New Syrian Constitution…”

Any Constitution for new Syria will require prior discussions and public debates by all Syrians and 2-3 interim and final referendum to be legal in Syria. Afterward, a general election under International monitors can be conducted to appoint legal representatives and leaders of a new State.

If there is no unanimity on the above and in the event of deviation from these proscribed rules, it will mean a Civil War: Western/ Zionist backed traitors and foreign mercenaries-vs. -Russia/China/Iran/Syrians backed ones. It will assuredly drag the entire Middle East and its oil resources under fire and the global banking cartel under water. Add the Seven years long draught we are into now and…you get the picture.

Syria is not a silly Air-heads Zionist game plot, it is a destiny humanity will have to take.

I doubt any SNC “leader” would appear in Damascus anytime soon.
They won’t receive eggs and tomatoes only.

joshualandis has claimed in a another post that Asasd wont last then another month or so from point of view as i was following the crisis since last year.

Mainstream news outlets so called experts have been proclaiming that since the conflict.
Ever since then the mainstream news outlets the western think tanks who are mostly responsible for the crisis.

Have been very desperate to get rid off Assad from power in order to create another Islamic state as Egypt. Or worse for that matter, what the mainstream news outlets haven’t noticed that is if they have noticed it by now.

People aren’t going to be fooled as they were with Libya.

@irritated
Do you believe that Assad would be able to win against the uprising? because the way am seeing the rebels or more rather the terrorists are losing.

#42 Amir

You live in the universe of Al Jazeera. Look at the realities on the ground. Where are the armed rebels now in Damascus? they have ‘tactically’ retreated in tunnels and sewages as the civilian population has become aware that these ‘courageous’ rebels are using them as human shields.
What happened to the heroic calls of Abdel Baset Saida for strikes, civilian desobedience, massive defection of official, active support of the rebels?
One more time: Zilch

The title of this post this post is misleading. Iraq isn’t arming the kurds, Syrian kurds are getting weapons from kurds in Iraq.

42. Amir in Tel Aviv said:

“…The FSA is so stretched and desperate”. Irritated.

The Alawi loyalists (or what is left of the “Syrian Arab” army)

Ask Brigadegeneral Yoav Mordechai.

43. for what it’s worth, i agree on principle, aldendeshe (though not the wider war prediction and the zionist stuff.)

too many syrians have sacrificed and have been martyred to now be denied the right to self determination.

Assad is still in Damascus according to israeli sources.

Let’s imagine the following scenario:

Assads exterminates 30.000 syrians and most of the FSA members.

The regime regains the whole 185.000 sq Klm of Syria and peace comes again to the country.

After controlling the situation Assad send a campaign of political repression against all those who defied its power. Families and properties are included in this campaign.

Economic situation leads to many people to strict poverty. But Assad controls the army and the repression system.

What in hell will the future be for a state like that?

Will then Assad celebrate presidential elections and win tem again?

Which kind of permanent and radical repression will be needed to control populations in Idlib, Hama, Homs, Deir alZawr, Daraa, and large parts of Aleppo and Damascus?

Can some of the supporters like IRRITATED, JAD, BRONCO and company DESCRIBE how they imagine a post war Assad state wuld be?

It would be very interesting to have an idea about where we are going in the event your whishes came true.

“..What in hell will the future be for a state like that…”
_________________________________________________________________
A whole lot better future than being ruled by Zionists and their genocidal puppets using Islam as banner. Syrians will be living then like cattles in a wild ranch, used for body parts harvesting, just like SOFA shia and Paleo living today.

52. Aldendeshe

No more details about what would come next? Is that all you can add? Talk and more talk about the zionist? Well, I see you have no new ideas to improve people’s life.

With new Assad’s Syria all the world will be terryfied about Assad’s power and Golan Heights occupied by Zionists will be returned inmediately, is that the idea?

@SANDRO LOEWE

(Assads exterminates 30.000 syrians and most of the FSA members.)

Sandro isn’t that the same claim that the mainstream news outlets and Self proclaimed philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy had claimed about gaddafi when his forces came close to benghazi? the claim that he would exterminate 50,000 Libyans with fighters?

Even though as the war started in Libya it was proven time and time again that gaddafi never used any fighters nor bombers to attack the western funded rebels.

gaddafi from the way i have seen it never had an interest in modernizing his military force, usual dictators would do that right?

The point is,gaddafi hasn’t imprisoned innocent people but radical Islamists, yet at the same when the rebels came closer they started on freeing them.

So my question is basically why is America on the wrong part of history?

Since Bosnia America has supported the mujahideen fighters in other Islamic countries in order to stir up conflicts just there would be an later excuse of either helping them, helping the rebels or even an need to call for an military intervention.

America has a problem with dictators yet at the same time America is funding and has been allied with three dictators in the arab peninsula.

Ranging from.

Saudi Arabia:house of saud
Qatar:House of Thani

The House of Thani a royal family one of its prince has funded and co funded the mainstream news network al jazeera and the same al jazeera which Hillary Clinton has praised for its excellent coverage.

Even though despite the biased coverage of some anti-Americanism on the station since the praise the network has been following the same path as much as CNN,BBC and with there one sided journalism.

Bahrain:Al Khalifa family royal family

Its quite Ironic to see US Official like John McCain and other high officials on the news accusing Russia, China.
For there support on Assad and accusing them of supplying arms to Assad forces well at the same time.

These same high officials, think tanks and such others have no problems with.

Supplying arms,tanks, armored military vehicles to the brutal regime of the royal family Al Khalifa, it seems to me that America has no problems with that Dictator.

Which has been arresting children as young 12 year olds in
prison, prison guards even used martial arts on the prisoners.

And now i heard reports that Saudi Arabia and its royal family is sending out mercenaries to crush the protesters.

Yet i haven’t seen either BBC,CNN or AJ for that matter on about the protests in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia in the east, the protests have been slowly growing into a revolution.

It wont be to long before it becomes an uprising against American imperialism as i have seen the activists are growing widely on the social media and elsewhere trying to the tide against the royal family.

And those activists who want a better life and freedom from the royal family.

Yet the hypocrisy from America and it allies is that, we don’t want dictators who would be allied to Russia or China or those who seek to destroy the American dollar.

No in fact America has no problems with Pro western dictators. Or western installed prime minsters like Jibril in the case of Libya.

Meanwhile..
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=330735
Bahrain: Al-Khalifa Prince Attends UK’s Olympics as Crackdown, UK Arms Supplies Continue

Yes UK & America Supplies Continue while the pro western dictator still can stay in power for as long the west wants him to.

Bahrain protesters have my thoughts and prayers.

This is what Nut McCain stated a few months ago.

( John McCain – Assad, Russia, China Scared of Arab Spring – US Senator Slams Dictators 10-16-11 BBC )

No i think America and its puppet allies should be very scared of the ever growing protests in Bahrain,Qatar and in Saudi Arabia because if should they turn for the worst.

America’s imperialism will cease to exist.

Sandra:

It would be the paradise that was Syria in the 80’s and 90’s. When children like me would be taken to the maghfar and be beaten for simply looking at somebody the wrong way. Nobody trusted anybody. Doctors were driving taxis to supplement their incomes. The only thing young men dreamed about was leaving, only to have embassies from all over turn them away. We watched Old Damascus decay while government officials stole donations to fix it. Forced to repeat nonsensical accounts of history, trying to do so as sarcastically as possible, a desperate attempt to hold on to some self respect. When we would see a perfectly sane and healthy person disappear for a few years, and return battered, handicapped and clinically insane, knowing that he had been taken to a political prison but never saying a word about it. When a person would see a black BMW and shake in fear. When we were decades behind every state technologically, sattelite dish bans were enforced, and we snuck around books that weren’t approved by the propaganda machine. When our fathers were slaves and our mothers were whores in the eyes of the generals. Absolutely wonderful times!

Never again will Syrians allow that to happen to them. You’ll see a million self-immolations before you see the people fighting for liberty give up.

“After the clash beween Turkish security forces and Syrian refugees, some returned to their homeland Syria, Sabri Hallac a syrian refugee in Turkey said”

—–

Sabri Hallac. Zudem würden die Flüchtlinge von den türkischen Sicherheitskräften genauso schlecht behandelt wie in Syrien. Einige machten sich deshalb auf den Rückweg in ihre Heimat.

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/syrien-assad-bombardiert-damaskus-a-845785.html

@SANDRO

You are talking to a strategist with military know-how. I laugh at Landis and Cole posts and can tell when Syria’s enemies are so desperate, losing it mentally, when everyone thinks otherwise after reading MSM news props.

You cannot remove Assad Baathist regime using terrorism as military tactics. And you cannot use state operated forces without Russia, China and Iran prior agreement and approval. Russian officials, will be committing a treason against Russia should they give this permission or approval. Should unilateral action is taken, it will go into protracted conflict that will take the entire Middle East with its flame.

The delusional, fanciful pipe dream of Air head Zionists, being able to install a weak facade, a front, called SNC in power. That Syrians will be cheering them up with rice in hand. Afterward, use Syria as launching pad on other States will not fly. The more you push the more the retaliation becomes severe. It is a pipe dream. Keep livin it.

But for now, manage to hold an inch of Syrian land for 72 hours first.

57. ALDENDESHE said: You are talking to a strategist with military know-how. I laugh at Landis and Cole posts and can tell when Syria’s enemies are so desperate, losing it mentally

please elaborate. tell us what makes them wrong. i haven’t read cole yet.

…

54. BRUNO said: puppet allies should be very scared of the ever growing protests in Bahrain,Qatar and in Saudi Arabia because if should they turn for the worst.

you support protests in bahrain, qatar & saudi arabia but not syria?

there you go, exclusively how they practice at the FSA in Turkey

Irritated you have taken leave of your senses a long time ago when you chose to support a murderous criminal regime.

The truth and reconciliation is to avoid whole sale slaughter of the Alawi community and others that collaborated all these years with the regime including the large number of Baath party members forced to join to get a chance at a decent job.

The justice however will be meted out to all those who tortured and killed and robbed and raped and to all those who aided such efforts. Again no lynching and no massacres but real unequivocal justice.

Justice a word that many regime supporters have forgotten its meaning.

Irritated,

I don’t watch Arabic AJ. But I do follow quite a few YouTube channels, and I watch (usually on weekends) tons of YT videos.

I’m sure your next argument would be, that all those videos are forged, and it’s all propaganda and a grand YouTube conspiracy. I watch them and judge for myself.

Yes, the rebels are tactically retreating here and there. No wonder. The Alawi junta loyalists have all the weapons and the equipments, which belong to all Syrians. But those weapons and equipments are being used against the people who own them.

I would be very unhappy if the equipment of the IDF , that I helped purchase with my taxes (and the American tax payer, of course), will be used against me. In order to oppress me, and deny me my rights and freedoms that I now enjoy..
.

57. ALDENDESHE

Your words just show how a military and moukhabaraat elite are based on the support of Iran, Rusia and China. This is a military know-how question. That’s the important thing for rulers to consider in this contest.

You do not care a shixxx about people’s demands, people’s wellfare and future and intelectual and material misery widespread by the present status quo. This is a very moral and gratifying position from your side. My best congratulations. I hope with your know how you can exteminate 50 % of syrian population and intimidate the rest.

Army men and military strategists always made me feel sick. I consider them parasites born around an excrement called power.

“………You do not care a shixxx about people’s demands, people’s wellfare and future and intelectual and material misery widespread by the present status quo. This is a very moral and gratifying position from your side. My best congratulations. I hope with your know how you can exteminate 50 % of syrian population and intimidate the rest….”

_________________________________________________________________

Stroke me harder… No I don’t really giva a Sh**t about the X- Baathists demands for bigger share of loot from Assad Baathist Mafia, nor the Zionists demands for giving up the Golan and splitting Syria into One Sect cantons, nor about the poor people of Syria who for 40 years cheered the Baathists Mafia, sent their children to help the Baathist regime military enrolments, and neither for the others, the one with self interests in the West. I am not an air head who watches t.v., read newspapers, play balls. To believe that Western Countries all the sudden do giva a dam about well being of Syrians. WHAT A CROCK, common, is that all you can come up with?

Read my lips: LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSERS. You aint got a chance in hell. No mater how hard the air heads tries, the harder and harsher the end result is going to be.

@SANDRO
I am happy to hear that.Don’t take any medicines, save it for the worthy ones fighting in Syria. Armchair Generals can always hit the nearby bar and get a shot. Of course, some take their “General” status seriousely and they end up needing much more to get them to see reality.

#59 Observer

“The justice however will be meted out to all those who tortured and killed and robbed and raped and to all those who aided such efforts.”

Well then not many from the FSA would pass clean through that…
Human rights have been repeatedly accusing the FSA of lyunching, tortures, rapes etc… The horrors they did will finally be exposed.

50. SANDRO LOEWE

Bashar is in Damascus
That’s what your Israeli friends told you confidentially while the media have been trumpeting that he is in Russia or Latakia?

63.ALDENDESHE

You have no choice but to trust in the Assad’s mafia state. If they fail to control the state you will be a frustated human waste. All you military know-how will be worth less than a penny. Assef Shawkat used to think the way you do. Your lack of values may make you hard and unbeatable (until you get killed) but as a human you already lost the most valued and beatiful things life offers. You are the first loser. But I do need to write it in capital letters.

There is a despicable kind of persons who feel superior with weapons in their hands because they have nothing better to offer to Humanity. I hope Assad’s crash help them to recover some kind of love for the others.

I know perfectly Syria and syrians, and what is happening inside Syria, and I tell you this time is over. Syrians will defeat the mafia and you will lose your violent point of view. You know your Assad Suckers cannot long anymore. You know it but try to deny it in order to let you ill mind survive.

65. IRRITATED

The old town of Zabadani is totally destroyed. There are no rockets being shot from the low area of the valley. The army has been shooting rockets and missiles from long distance to the same point for 4 days in a row. They simply do not attack any FSA cellules but practice a collective punishment in order to let nothing behind of what one day was Zabadani.

56. Stick to the Truth

The Turks are uncreasingly fed up with the Syrian refugees and are doing everything they can to make their stay miserable. No more Angelina Jolie and amusement parks..
They want them out.

Does anyone understand the Kurds reaction? After so many years of fighting and suffering now that they have a golden opportunity to create their own state (starting with Syria, Iraq) and later Iran, Turkey, they turned to be bonesless !?

#67. SANDRO LOEWE

Strange, as no media is reporting anything going on in Zabadani after 12 July, even the fake Al Jazeera. Be sure that they would not have missed that headline : “Four days of collective punishment and old Zabadani totally destroyed”

I think your friend is understandingly depressed.

Bashar Al Assad Family Album

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9416845/Syrian-President-Bashar-al-Assads-family-photo-album.html?frame=2283528

Laughable!

‘Syria is calm,’ Iran foreign minister says
AFP –
http://news.yahoo.com/syria-calm-iran-foreign-minister-says-133320787.html

The situation in Syria is “calm,” requiring no repatriation of Iranian citizens there, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Sunday, according to the official news agency IRNA.
“Syria is calm and Iranian nationals who are there have no problem and there is no need to conduct any special action” for them, Salehi was quoted as saying.

Germany divided over circumcision ( is it a hidden antisemitism?)

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/0721/1224320527907.html

The German population appears split. A poll by YouGov for the DPA news agency found 45 per cent of Germans favour a legal ban on circumcision of boys, while 42 per cent opposed a ban and 13 per cent were undecided.

Lots of hysteria in the media about helicopters bombing Damascus and Aleppo and the borders taken by the rebels.
Big words and noise for nothing significant in favor of the rebels on the ground. The journalists say it: Just symbolic.

I am soo dying to be in the movie making business.  What a sad and an expressive title! 

The Fear of Breathing – review
Finborough, London 
Michael Billington
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 22 July 2012 11.47 EDT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/jul/22/the-fear-of-breathing-review

THE FEAR OF BREATHING, the world premiere of a new play based entirely on verbatim reports from inside Syria itself, opens at the Finborough Theatre for a limited four-week season from Tuesday, 17 July 2012.

As thousands have been tortured, jailed, maimed or killed by the Syrian regime, THE FEAR OF BREATHING is a hard-hitting evocation of a life or death fight for freedom, experienced from the inside.

To uncover these personal stories from the uprising, award-winning journalists Paul Wood of the BBC and Ruth Sherlock of The Daily Telegraph, together with theatre director Zoe Lafferty, travelled into Syria covertly, circumventing the ban on journalists and restrictions on movement for all non-Syrians. Immersed in Syria’s suffocating environment of oppression and fear, they spoke to protesters facing tanks and guns, soldiers who deserted to form the Free Army, activists who dream of change, as well as citizens who love President Bashar al-Assad and are terrified of a future without him.

“Turkey, where critics of the Islamist government are either physically imprisoned or imprisoned in their brains, scared to speak or write.”

Which country will be next?
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/which-country-will-be-next-.aspx?pageID=449&nID=26092&NewsCatID=425

Conflicting reports from and about Syria indicate that perhaps the Syria chapter of the so-called Arab Spring – or should I say “the Greater Middle East and North Africa Project”? – is approaching a close as well. Whatever opened in Libya, Egypt or Tunisia with the closure of the “spring” may soon open in Syria as well.

Barack Obama, the American president who has proved to be a “Black Bush,” and may indeed be worse than the original white one, the other day voiced his praise for the Muslim fighters for democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere. His words reminded me, and perhaps many others, of the Rambo series: fighting hand-in-hand with the Muslim Taliban and other Muslim guerillas against the Soviet infidel occupiers in Afghanistan. The Soviet Union is long gone, and Americans are now fighting the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other Muslim guerilla groups in Afghanistan in a war that has begun to turn into a second Vietnam.
..
Those goals might be valid, but it is obvious that the real aim of the project is to convert these large regions into an open market and capitalize on their vast natural riches. That’s what must be seen after the mask is removed: the mask that says the aim is to bring democracy to those countries, grieving under dictatorial, oppressive regimes.

Guess who is the co-chair of the project, which has been under implementation for quite a long time through exploitation of governmental woes, poverty, oppression and gross violation of human rights? Turkey, where critics of the Islamist government are either physically imprisoned or imprisoned in their brains, scared to speak or write. Who is financing it? The Saudis and the Qataris. Are they more democratic than, let’s say, Syria?

The Syrian rebels get a boost and advices from leader of al Qaeeda in Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who became head of the Islamic State of Iraq in 2010.

http://news.yahoo.com/al-qaida-were-returning-old-iraq-strongholds-131645698.html

CAIRO (AP) — The first online statement from the new leader of al-Qaida’s affiliate in Iraq claims that the militant network is returning to strongholds from which it was driven by U.S. forces and their Sunni allies before the American withdrawal at the end of last year.

Al-Baghdadi devoted almost half of the 33-minute speech to the uprising against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, member of a Shiite offshoot sect. The rebels are largely Sunnis, and fighters from al-Qaida, including Iraqis, are believed to have taken an increasingly active role in recent months.

“Our people there have fired the coup de grace at the terror that grasped the nation (Syria) for decades … and taught the world lessons of courage and jihad and proved that injustice could only be removed by force,” he said.

He warned the Syrian rebels “not to accept any rule or constitution but God’s rule and Shariah (Islamic law). Otherwise, you will lose your blessed revolution.”

70. zoo, Thanks for the Bashar Al Assad Family Album

I hated Bashar. Then I saw the photo album. Now I love Bashar.

A small observation. Look how flexible Bashar is. I mean his body, look at Photos 11 and 13.

My guess, Yoga, or some kind of stretching exercise.
.

Tara,

Ramadan Blessed (Mubarak) and Great (Karim, or is it Kabir?) to your Family and You.
.

Rebels debacle in Damascus…

http://news.yahoo.com/syria-govt-forces-rebels-battle-damascus-aleppo-093101597.html

BAB AL-SALAM, Syria (Reuters) – Syrian forces bombarded parts of Damascus with helicopter gunships on Sunday, witnesses said, driving rebels out of a northern district a week after opposition fighters launched a major assault on the capital.
….
Rebels were driven from Mezzeh, the diplomatic district of Damascus, residents and opposition activists said, and more than 1,000 government troops and allied militiamen poured into the area, backed by armored vehicles, tanks and bulldozers.
…
Syrian forces regained control of one of two border crossings seized by rebels on the frontier with Iraq, Iraqi officials said, but rebels said they had captured a third border crossing with Turkey, Bab al-Salam north of Aleppo.
…
The neighborhood of Barzeh, one of three northern areas hit by helicopter fire, was overrun by troops from the Fourth Division, commanded by Assad’s younger brother, Maher al-Assad, 41, who is widely seen as the muscle maintaining the Assad family’s Alawite minority rule.

“At least 20 Fourth Division tanks and hundreds of its members entered Barzeh this afternoon,” opposition activist Abu Kais said by phone from the district.
…
Other opposition and rebel sources say the guerrilla fighters in the capital may lack the supply lines to remain there for long and may have to stage ‘tactical withdrawals’.

Amir,

Thanks.

You saw the photo album and you love Bashar now? Please do not love him. He is not lovable. He is disgusting.

Finally doubts emerges even in the mouthpiece of KSA

Syria: The formation of a new regime?
22/07/2012
By Emad El Din Adeeb

http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=2&id=30429
…
Therefore, we are facing an evil regime that will fall soon, God willing. But what guarantees that the system succeeding it will be any less evil?

Here, hundreds might respond to me saying: Surely the new regime cannot be worse because there is nothing worse than a regime that ruled the country with oppression and an iron fist for more than 42 years.

This may be the logical outcome, but it is not certain or final…We do not know the components of the Syrian opposition. We don’t really know the identity of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), its foreign obligations or commitments and its sources of arms and funding. We do not know the ideological origins of the jihadist groups that are currently undertaking popular operations against the regime, or the reality of their political projects if they were to overthrow the regime. We are being presented with the “pure evil” of the regime and the “flawless” nature of the opposition as a whole.

This oversimplification is dangerous and frightening. We are just around the corner from a process of radical change, removing a fascist regime that formulated all aspects of the Syrian state with its own men, ideas and interests.

Already we have a crisis in terms of factual information about the nature of the forces expected to shape the form of the next Syrian political system.

Still a very important question remains, which is: To what extent are the loyalties of these forces committed to the Syrian national project, rather than other motives that only God knows?

Sorry Tara. This album completely changed my mind. Now I am acute mnhebak.
.

Notice how clean and tidy Gaza is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da0fVEvTcNc&feature=player_embedded
.

Amir

The concept of “acute love” is interesting. Can “acute” lasts for more than a year? It gets pretty tiring..I imagine.

irritated, you said there were no protests?

this, along the turkish border.

65. IRRITATED said: Human rights have been repeatedly accusing the FSA of lyunching, tortures, rapes etc… The horrors they did will finally be exposed.

yet you don’t cite any sources.

I hope Hassan has learned a lesson.

Abducted Lebanese well, to stay in custody: Syria rebel

BAB AL-SALAM, Syria (Reuters) – A Syrian rebel commander told Reuters on Sunday that 11 kidnapped Lebanese Shi’ites are staying in air-conditioned rooms and are in good health but will not be released until President Bashar al-Assad leaves power and a new parliament is elected.
“Their health is good and they’re fine and they’re eating and drinking well, staying in a farm with full comfort and air conditioning, and they’re alive,” Abu Omar, commander of the Storm of the North brigade, told Reuters at the Bab al-Salam border crossing with Turkey, which his men had overrun on Sunday.
..
Abu Omar said the men were senior members of Hezbollah, the armed Lebanese Shi’ite political group that supports Assad.
“(They) are from Hezbollah, their fate will be decided by the new Syrian parliament, because Hezbollah attacked us and is helping the Syrian regime,” he said.
“We’ve interrogated these Lebanese and during this transparent and fair investigation we found they are senior members of Hezbollah. They were caught taking pictures and giving information to the Syrian regime and Hezbollah.”

http://news.yahoo.com/kidnapped-lebanese-healthy-stay-custody-syrian-rebel-160135930.html

aldendeshe, what can the zionists do that bashar hasn’t already done??

look at this!

photo

(click to enlarge)

Irritated,

I thought you loved Damascus.. It appears that you love Bashar more than you love Damascus. Have you ever really loved Damascus or was it just a self -delusion?

Where are the defenders of armed rebels to tell us who killed general Nabil Zugheib and his family in Bab Touma, may be our Israeli friends can provide us with a more informed answer. Denying the truth does not make it disappear .

Ghufran,

“Where are the defenders of armed rebels to tell us who killed general Nabil Zugheib and his family in Bab Touma, may be our Israeli friends can provide us with a more informed answer. Denying the truth does not make it disappear .”

OTW mentioned something about it on his blog earlier today:

https://7ee6an.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/status-of-humanitarian-aid-to-the-syrian-people-by-souria-alkarama/comment-page-4/#comment-12486

?? ???? ??? ????? ?? ??????? :
??????? ?????? ???? ???? ?? ???? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ????
?? ??? ??? ???? ????????? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ????? ?? ???? ?????? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ?????? ??????? ????? ??? ??????? ???? ????? ???? ??????? 4 ????? ?? ????? ???? ???? ?????? ??? ???? ??????? ???????
???? ?????? ???? ???? ?????? ???? ??? ?????? ??? ???
????? ?????? ??????? ??? ???? ??? ??????
??? ????? ?? ???????? ???? ???? ??? ?????
??? ??? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ???? ?? ??????

I know for a fact nothing happened in Bab Touma on that night, rest I can’t verify however given that it comes from OTW I am inclined to believe it.

A whole lot more evil. Zionism is the embodiment of evil manifested in our dimension in the most grotesques of images. There never existed in the Universe a more nightmarish, diabolic, satanic occult than Zionism: What can they do worse you are asking, well here is 1 image out 30 millions:

This is the new liberated Libya that CNN/Aljazeera will not show you: This is what Zionist led rebels are doing. Filling graves up and burning the corpses:

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=libya+mass+graves&start=115&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1123&bih=660&tbm=isch&tbnid=aFOrG9z6GcsHeM:&imgrefurl=http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2012/02/the-war-crimes-of-nato-in-libya/&docid=VZvGUGIdP0fPkM&imgurl=http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Libya3.jpg&w=500&h=499&ei=8Z8MUIzUOcPQ2AW25cDzDw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=712&vpy=305&dur=758&hovh=224&hovw=225&tx=106&ty=182&sig=105775003953748251341&page=7&tbnh=143&tbnw=142&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:115,i:80

Zionists killed 6 million Moslems on prompt up 911 towers demolition scam, that is a real Holocaust not a Hollowhoax .

Assad’s, Saddam, Khomenei, Khamenei, Gaddafi are all part of a Zionist game plan.

http://www.jewwatch.com

#55. INFORMATION, Thankyou for your memories of Syria. A vivid first-person look the grim, totalitarian state built by Hafaz Assad, 1970-2000. A reminder of the underbelly of cruelty and fear, the economic and institutional stagnation, the failure to modernize.

Bad enough, but Syria this century then suffered accelerated decay and decline under the idiotic Syrian-people-hater Bashar Assad.

For a stunning picture of Bashar’s personal messes, mistakes and mis-steps over just the past 7 years, go back to the very start of SyriaComment and you can read how it unfolded.

In particular, note the scary facts and warning bells on the economy expertly chronicled here in posts by Ehsani since 2005.

Looking back, the wishful thinking, commitment, pride, hope and concern for Syria on this blog over these years is very moving.

But re-reading the history of Bashar Assad’s “rule” you see how firmly he was driving the country towards a cliff with his foot on the accelerator and a bomb on the back seat. Quacking rubbish and lies as he went about further dirtying the shabby nest of “government” his father left him.

Those who loudly cheer on Assad are clearly either mega-fools or collaborators. Or simply Syrian-people-haters like him.

I will share my own highlights of Bashar Assad’s “innovations” in separate posts.

BASHAR’S GLORIOUS LEGACY – Part l

Before his current rampage to burn the country, Bashar Assad was breaking it up into firewood in readiness for what’s happening now.

Since Bashar “took office” (in the sense of receiving stolen goods), Syria has experienced:

– infrastructure decay and neglect

– agricultural decline and environmental damage

– official abandonment of rural communities (people in the 21st century without access to community facilities, running water and electricity)

– worsening urban poverty and child labor

– serious underemployment and fewer job opportunities for graduates

– further bureaucratic corruption and paralysis

– luxury vehicles, mansions and trashy treats and shops for the elite, springing up in the cities next to crumbling public buildings

And so on.

All the above and plenty more was overwhelmingly witnessed by anyone driving around Syria (and verified and quantified by reading any report of international economic indicators).

A reminder of why Syrians are fighting and what they are fighting to change in their lives.

Unbelievable…who the hell this moron thinks he is? The FSA a transitional government? Is Iraq chairing the Arab League or Qatar hijacked it?

Arab nations urge Assad to give up power
AFP – 29 mins ago
http://news.yahoo.com/arab-nations-call-syrias-assad-step-down-qatar-225421617.html

Arab nations have called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to swiftly give up power in order to end his country’s unrest, Qatar’s prime minister said on Monday.

“There is agreement on the need for the rapid resignation of President Bashar al-Assad,” Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani told journalists following a ministerial meeting of the Arab League in Doha which wound up in the small hours Monday.
The Arab League also urged the rebel Free Syrian Army to form a transitional government of national unity.

“We call on the opposition and the Free Syrian Army to form a government of national unity,” Sheikh Hamad said as he delivered the results of the Arab League meeting.

BASHAR’S GLORIOUS LEGACY – Part ll

Some of the critical changes Bashar deliberately engineered for Syria are well described in that excellent recent academic study on the Assads and the Alawites (thanks again Son of Damascus for the reference.

Example 1 – Loss of an independent foreign policy

Excerpts:

Where Hafiz al-Asad relied only on Alawite support to give domestic stability to his regime, which allowed him to follow a more independent foreign policy, Bashar, from the mid 2000s began to rely more heavily on his external Shi’ite Islamist allies.

From 2006 onwards Bashar al-Asad in buttressing his rule actively promoted himself in Syria alongside ‘resistance’ figures the Secretary General of Hizballah, Hasan Nasrallah and the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad This was a significant deviation from the propaganda strategy of Hafiz al-Asad, who never included others in his personality cult apart from members of his family and occasional Islamic symbols. This change in policy also represented a shift in the balance of power in the Syria-Iran-Hizballah alliance in favour of Iran and Hizballah.

Example 2 – “Corporatizing corruption” to enrich his family

Excerpts:

Economic change emerged, but in a way that ‘corporatized corruption’ and allowed the dynasty’s inner circle to reap the benefits of reforms.

The size of the privileged Alawite elite shrunk as Bashar al-Asad withdrew into greater reliance on his trusted inner core of family and close friends. According to opposition sources, in 2007 the combined wealth of the regime inner circle, including the wider Makhlouf, Shaleesh and Asad families was approximately forty billion US dollars. In the same year the total projected revenue of Syrian fiscal operation was approximately 8 billion US dollars while government debt was 13 billion US.

[in addition to the burgeoning extreme wealth of those close to the regime such as Bashar’s cousin Rami Makhlouf] The ‘corporatization of corruption,’ among the dynasty’s inner core, reaches into the very heart of the Syrian economy.

The Commercial Bank of Syria (CBS), for example, which controls nearly ninety percent of all deposits and controls most of Syria’s foreign currency reserves, was in 2004 and 2006 listed internationally as a “financial institution of primary money laundering concern.”

Source: http://otago.ourarchive.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10523/2232/GoldsmithLeonT2012PhD.pdf

Annan plan is dead, Geneva plan is dead, welcome back to Qatar’s Arab League original plan still alive and kicking

Ankara mulls options to ‘dead’ Geneva deal
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ankara-mulls-options-to-dead-geneva-deal.aspx?pageID=238&nID=26109&NewsCatID=338

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News
The Geneva process on Syria is off the table, Turkey says as vetoes of UN resolutions refocus attention on the ‘Friends of Syria’ group;

Toppling al-Assad will take weeks if not days, after the FSA’s recent military achievements, according to Turkish diplomats. Control of Syria’s borders with Iraq and Turkey is almost entirely in the hands of the FSA, and the rebels have also gained advantageous positions in Damascus and Aleppo, the country’s two largest cities.

One concern for Turkey is the increased visibility of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the political offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Syria, which has seized control of a number of border villages.

“We are closely following developments on the border with regard to the PYD. The reason for the increased visibility stems from the fact that Damascus pushed them to take the control of these villages a while ago,” sources told the Daily News.

Zoo @96

France asked the opposition to do the same: forming a provisional government as soon as possible.

Moderator, it would be much appreciated if you can find a way to uncapture my posts replying to Information # 55 (and tribute to SyriaComment) and Bashar’s Glorious Legacy part ll.

Thanks.

Syria is imploding and exploding at the same time. The current situation is unacceptable to Syria’s neighbors, ofcourse only the powerful states can do something about it(Turkey and Israel). the USA(Israel’s biggest ally) will try to accelerate the downfall of the Asad regime. the Gulf Arabs will be doing their part of implementing American policies, thus purchasing weapons for the rebels. defections will accelerate the process.

what matters: will syria achieve a true democracy within the next 5 years??

Moderator, I see you did it. Thanks.

Tara

No Syrian who a minimum of pride and dignity can accept orders from outside.
I would loose respect for any Syrian who would bow to diktats coming from a country with a colonialist history full of blood and a cheap and arrogant island who thinks they can buy the world and the soul of people with their smelly money.

So. The Assads have now released pictures of their children in a propaganda exercise to get sympathy.

They have always been very carefully kept away from the cameras for security reasons.

This is an act of desperation.

106. Syrialover

It was published in a UK newspaper that has been attacking Bashar and his wife in the last 15 months. No one obliged it to publish the album.

Irritated said:

“No Syrian who a minimum of pride and dignity can accept orders from outside”

That’s right. They should keep themselves small and inert and timidly lap up the stupid orders of Syrian-people-hater Bashar Assad.

(Which happen to be currently also orders from Iran, Hezbollah and Russia).

Of yes, Syrians have pride and dignity – and we’ve now seen it unleashed.

And it made Bashar Assad wet his pants and start burning the country.

@Syrialover

(- serious underemployment and fewer job opportunities for graduates)

Unreal so you really think and honestly believe to yourself that under a western controlled Sryian government things and the underemployment rate would be any better and would improve? only moron, delusional person would believe that Sryia would be just fine after Assad is taken out from Power, and that the the underemployment rate would go down.

For anyone who believes this nonsense, why don’t you go and ask how are the people of Iraq,Afghanistan, Bosnia doing? well lets see.
shall we now?

Afghanistan:In 2008 the underemployment rate was at 35% very high, yet at in 1995 it was around 8% imagine that.

Iraq:underemployment 15.3 rate is still growing higher in Iraq even after war in Iraq.

Bosnia: underemployment %43.1

Sryia:Underemployment rate 8.3% the only time it was at highest was when before Assad took power in 2000 back then it was just above 20%.

Hey Sryia Lover what are you talking about? the underemployment Sryia is very low and down, which means pretty good in western standard.

(- worsening urban poverty and child labor)
And if and i doubt Assad will be taken out of power you think that the worsening urban poverty and child labor wont change?

In Today’s Bosnia its a safe heaven for Drug trafficking, and human smugglers and in some areas they are using children to do there work.

(- luxury vehicles, mansions and trashy treats and shops for the elite, springing up in the cities next to crumbling public buildings

And so on.)

Well with that i can tell your no Sryian.

( luxury vehicles, mansions and trashy treats and shops for the elite, springing up in the cities next to crumbling public buildings)

Ah that reminds me just like in the west to, Government officials get luxury vehicles and luxury private planes, while we citizens fly on upon trashy ones.

(- agricultural decline and environmental damage)
Thats a weak argument because an agricultural decline is also happening in the west.

As for the unemployment rate number on Sryia here you go.
http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?v=74&c=sy&l=en

One thumb down eh? if thats the case state your point with facts, i already shown you my facts.

108. Syrialover

Sorry, Syrians will never, never, accept these artificial monarchies to patronize them.
If they do, it’ll be a great humiliation as they’ll loose their self respect and they’ll be despised and laughed at for their weakness that obliged them to beg for help.

Two thumbs down now eh? State your point rather then thumbing me down i understand the truth sometimes hurts it doesn’t it.

Bruno,

Why are you parading your 0.00001 cm depth of knowledge of Syria and economic and development issues?

You appear not to have understood what was said.

But then again, as discovered on other forums, you are here to play games and amuse yourself.

@Syrialover

(But then again, as discovered on other forums, you are here to play games and amuse yourself.)
Not so, if i was here to amuse myself i wouldn’t be amusing myself with facts and sources.

But since you stated on other forums your not suggesting the.

The something awful.com forums are you Sryialover? thanks for admitting to me and everyone else here you were and are spying on me just because i am against whats happening in Sryia and have been following the uprising since last year.

Sounds like you have a Grudge. which is not surprising.

(Why are you parading your 0.00001 cm depth of knowledge of Syria and economic and development issues? )

I know alot about the middle east and the Balkans, but now since you mentioned were and what you were doing.

Maybe you could care to explain this statement by you?

(But then again, as discovered on other forums, you are here to play games and amuse yourself.)

(as discovered on other forums)
Again as i mentioned are you talking about Something awful forums?

Or more rather above top secret forums?

Sounds like Espionage in my case, if thats the case isnt that illegal?

When every time i post with the facts, i get insulted and there was this user on twitter who asked for my name, and i wonder what would have had happened if i had given her?

Let me guess i would be shut dead eh?

And no i am not here to amuse myself, again you aren’t even a Sryian yourself.

If thats the way you are attacking me now are you going to be attacking irritated like that as well to claim that his only here to amuse himself?

Care to explain why i was banned on the something awful forums? i have never had insulted anyone on the something awful forums.

Yet just because Brown was a mod on the forums i got banned just because for my views?

Well it just shows that forum really doesn’t care about the freedom of speech or democracy for that matter.

Yet in matter of a month already that forum had banned 14,000 members or so, i have to say thats a record for a web forum known to ban members just for there opinions and views.

And here you here admitting that you are from that forum. “Other forums”

I can see thats why Brown isn’t showing up here anymore, i wonder howcome.

No rituals of death in shattered Damascus
By Michael Peel in Damascus

In a cemetery in the Damascus district of Qaboun, residents wearing disposable face masks unzipped one of the 17 body bags around them and gazed at the neatly bearded man with a bloody wound in his throat who lay inside.
“It’s Ahmed,” said one. “I heard he is a barber,” said a second, before zipping up the corpse’s cover again in preparation for a brief improvised funeral.
…
On a street close to a burnt-out bakery, where squashed tomatoes and smashed crates of vegetables were scattered on the road, a local businessman named Yasser said his house had been robbed of a laptop and between 25,000 and 30,000 Syrian pounds in cash. He blamed government soldiers for the theft.
“This government is the killer government,” he said. “Now the people are not waiting for any help from any countries – they are going to do the revolution by themselves, God help them.”
On the same street, a man named Ahmed pointed to a modern apartment block and said a regime sniper had shot his brother-in-law from there.
Asked whether he thought the Free Syrian Army’s presence had endangered the local population, Ahmad retorted that loyalists had already killed many people in Qaboun by firing on peaceful demonstrations.
“The government is shooting whether the FSA is here or not,” he said. “We lost 42 guys before now – and they were all civilians, from 12 years old to 70.”
…
But many independent rights activists say the heavily armed regime is by far the more responsible for the violence in Syria and may well have committed war crimes by bombarding residential areas. The experiences of Qaboun and other rebellious Damascus districts underscore how the Syrian government’s “security solution” allows it to regain physical control of areas at the expense of smashing and alienating whole communities. The arrival of the battle for Syria in central Damascus is making the city’s conflict areas and beyond feel angry, afraid and itinerant.

[…]

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/092087f4-d416-11e1-a5c2-00144feabdc0.html#axzz21POKLLGQ

@Syrialover
So again no Syrialover your pretty much wrong on everything you claim and have stated about me.

I noticed on the something awful forums that i have been insulted not as a conspiracy theorist but rather as just dumb? excuse me but i am dumb? well if i am so dumb i wouldn’t be talking nor discussing about the issues in the world whatever or not they are either in Sryia or the Balkans or in Asia.

Yet whenever i mention Qatar,Saudi Arabian, Bahrain dictators i get either no replies or people like you just basically ignore it.

So i see you people are basically fine with dictators as long they are allied with America or the west for that matter.

Not surprising.

If i were to amuse like you are Sryialover, i wouldn’t been using links and other sources to back up my statements.

I guess some people just love insulting other people who post the facts and with sources.

about something awful forums and a review from someone.

( Comments: Internet moderators are internet moderators. Prepare to agree with the masses and chant along with the cult or be banned for thinking differently. Not a place of enlightened discussion and free speech. It was probably cool once, but over-zealous mod-nazis have strangled the life out of it. )

Yes getting banned just for thinking differently and yet here you sryialover pretending that you actually care about Sryia and that you want them to have freedom?

I guess in some forums internet directorship is a reality.

BRUNO,

I have zero idea or interest in what you are on about, but I seem to have stung you into some admissions about yourself on other forums.

What I said was based on what we read on SyriaComment a couple of weeks ago:

17. BROWN MOSES SAID:

Bruno, calling you an idiot after you claimed you could identify Israeli agent working against Assad on Twitter by Israeli flags on their profile pictures, and when you deleted your own comment on my blog so you could accuse me of deleting it isn’t threatening you, but it is mocking you, and rightly so.

https://joshualandis.com/blog/?p=15408&cp=all#comment-318464

You probably forgot it was here, you are so busy zoom-crashing around on different blogs.

Irritated if you have a case against anyone from any side, please bring it to the justice system. Justice is above all and is blind as it should be.

No one is above the law and that is what you and regime supporters do not seem to understand that the basic principles for a viable society are totally lacking in dictatorships especially ones that have become ingrained and familial.

The other reason for a truth and reconciliation commission is to make sure that the victors do no write history and pass their judgement. For example the Russians wanted to bring to the Nuremberg trials the arial bombardment of Russian cities and of course the US and the UK refused for they used the arial attacks on Germany with gusto.

It seems according to the WSJ that the regime is arming minorities such as Christians and Druze as it plays on their fears of being persecuted.

I had said before that the regime is diabolical and is absolutely without a single scruple.

This is why it needs to be fully uprooted. Once and for all.

Fear of a future that is unstable and uncertain is not a reason to keep such murderous regime incapable of progress and reform.

Son of Damascus, thanks for responding about the Zugheib family’s murder. A doctor who says he tried to save them at the ER had the following to say. (I didn’t post it earlier because I’ve given up on discussing anything with sectarian opponents to the revolution who base their views on the garbage produced by the mukhabarat).

Bassel Diebo
???? ???????? ????? ??????? ??????? ? ???????? ???? ??????
?????? ????? ??????? ?? ??????? ???? ??????? ?? ???? ??????? ???? ? ?????? ?? ???? .. ? ??? ????? ??????? ??????? ? ???? ??????? ????? ? ?? ???? ??? ????? ????? ..
??? ???? ?? ???? ?? ???
?????? ????? ? ???????? ?????? ? ?????? ???? ???? ????? ?? ???????? ???? ??? ??? ???? ???? ??????? .. ? ?? ??? ?? ??? ????? ???? ?????? ????? ???? ???? ???? ?????

Bassel Diebo
????? ????? ? ??? ?????? ?? ??????? ??????? ???? ? ??? ????????? ?? ????? ????? ??????? ??? ????? ???? ? ?????? .. ? ?????? ????? ?? ??????? ??? ??????? ??? ???? ??????? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ???? … ? ??????? ????? ??????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ?????? .. ????? ?? ????? ?? ??? ???? ??? ?? ???? ???? ?? ???? ??????? ????????? ????? ?????? ?????? ????? ????? ?? ????? .. ? ????? ???? ????? ? ???? ? ???? ?????? ???? .. ???????? ? ????? ????? ??? ???? ???? ?? ????? ?? ????? ? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ??? ??? ??????? .. ?????? ??? ???????? ???? ???? ? ???? ??? ?????? ? ????? ??????? ?? ?? ?? ????? ??? ?? ????? ????? ???? ???? ?? ??????? ??????

Bruno,

You could start your own blog. If it is any good at all it will attract followers, just like this one has.

It should keep you busy and distracted, instead of suffering all the hurts and injustices you seem to encounter on all those other blogs.

A serious suggestion.

@Observer
(Fear of a future that is unstable and uncertain is not a reason to keep such murderous regime incapable of progress and reform.)

That could be said the same thing for the three most brutal regimes and they are backed by America, Qatar,Bahrain which is murdering its own protesters.
But it seems to me that users on this site, really dont mind having an Islamic government in power in Sryia, and it seems some of the users like Sryialover are just fine by insulting other users and claiming that they are here to amuse themselves.

Ironically the same users that voted in the poll Syria’s next leader will emerge from the crisis both of the users, have stated neither, which is not surprising.

So it really seems some users on here like Sryialover and Observer really have no problems with the dictatorship in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain.

Or the fact that we are arming them?

Once again i get a thumbs down after i mentioned Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain.

So i take from the users who are thumbing me down are you all supporters for the dictators that i already mentioned here?

@Syrialover

(You could start your own blog. If it is any good at all it will attract followers, just like this one has.)

I already had a look on alexa. Percent of Visitors:32.1% not a huge burst. The majority of visitors are from the US.

(It should keep you busy and distracted, instead of suffering all the hurts and injustices you seem to encounter on all those other blogs.

A serious suggestion.)

So your insulting me again? and for your information i already started my own blog since two years ago. Since it has been getting quiet flow of traffic.

Here’s another example of the kind of garbage analysis that pro-Assad and sectarian opponents of the revolution use to justify the slaughter of the Syrian people.

?????? – ??? ???: ?????? ?????? ?? ?????? ?? ???
http://youtu.be/ewo9PbqTL2o

@Halabi
Ah yes YouTube as one of the BBC reporters stated the rebels have been using it as a brilliant propaganda.

Damascus Electricity was cut all over the city and then a deploy of major military units to the capital. Something is happening

Robert Fisk: If Alawites are turning against Assad then his fate is sealed

The Long View: There seems to be a Baathist pattern of destroying Sunni villages on the edge of the Alawite heartland

Monday 23 July 2012

[Selected quote]

And that’s the point. While the drama of last week’s assault on Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus stunned the Arab world, the sudden outbreak of violence in Aleppo this weekend was in one way far more important. For Aleppo is the richest city in Syria – infinitely more so than Damascus – and if the revolution has now touched this centre of wealth, then the tacit agreement between the Alawite-controlled government and the Sunni middle classes must truly be cracking.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-if-alawites-are-turning-against-assad-then-his-fate-is-sealed-7965154.html

The Sunday Telegraph published photos of the eyedoc and his family.

just a small appetizer what we will see once the homes and palaces are raided…

click through the images

http://news.nawaret.com/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%89-%D8%AA%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%81-%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%B4%D8%B1-%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%8B-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%AD

Rebels to government: Bring the journalists on a tour while we take siesta, we will return after iftar.

Again i am seeing a lot of desperate rebel supporters.
From Omen.

( Damascus Electricity was cut all over the city and then a deploy of major military units to the capital. Something is happening)

Says an activist on titter, the same activists that i assume that claimed there operation in Damascus would work right?

@Juergen
(just a small appetizer what we will see once the homes and palaces are raided…)

So Juergen are you another one of those who could see into the future and see the outcomes of the conflict eh?

Bruno

No one has to be a clairvoyant to know the outcome of this.See there are folks out there who will see bombs fall from the sky and say everything is normal here, folks who see people fleeing their country in despair and will comment, they just go on a holiday. Well, you can bet what i think about such delusional thinking. If you prefer to think that Assad and his criminal clan will be able to hang on, ill let you dream.

@Juergen

(If you prefer to think that Assad and his criminal clan will be able to hang on, ill let you dream.)

From the way i am seeing it so far Assad forces are recapturing lost grounds that were taken by the rebels. Rebels only control one Iraqi border after brutally killing an Iraqi border guards.

I guess you don’t have a problem with that it seems.

From my last post and from AJ.

(“This is my urgent message to all Mujahideen from all brigades to join their brothers the Mujahideen of Damascus who are defending the revolution. Those willing to join have to go … through safe routes to Damascus. It is the moment of truth. It is the Damascus fight for salvation. It is either life, dignity and freedom or martyrdom and paradise.”

Commander of Al-Emary Brigades, Captian Quais Quatana’s statement for all Syrian Mujahideen)

Then i guess you don’t have a problem that the Mujahideen would be taking in over in power?

Or the fact that there has hasn’t been any major high level defections other the Iraqi ambassador?

(See there are folks out there who will see bombs fall from the sky)

Oh you mean the claim that Assad is using fighters and bombers to attack civilians?

Why don’t you mention the fact that your terrorist thugs are using child soldiers?

So i am getting 3 thumbs down just because i quoted this?

“This is my urgent message to all Mujahideen from all brigades to join their brothers the Mujahideen of Damascus who are defending the revolution. Those willing to join have to go … through safe routes to Damascus. It is the moment of truth. It is the Damascus fight for salvation. It is either life, dignity and freedom or martyrdom and paradise.”

Commander of Al-Emary Brigades, Captian Quais Quatana’s statement for all Syrian Mujahideen”

Since you dont believe me here you go.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2012/07/20127189020730553.html

Read the bottom part. That was confirmed by a guest who was on aljazeera and who overheard the commander talking to aljazeera.

Bruno,

What on earth are you on about?

You must think you are posting on one of those other blogs you crash-rush between all day.

Or are these template postings you use for all of them.

You need to really lift your game if you want to be taken seriously here.

@Syrialover
(What on earth are you on about?

You must think you are posting on one of those other blogs you crash-rush between all day. )

So now aljazeera is a blog, i only quoted the text from AJ article from the bottom which i am surprised you are ignoring it.

(You need to really lift your game if you want to be taken seriously here.)

Oh yes i know how i would be taken seriously here that is if i change into been a rebel supporter, well Brown Moses thats not going to happen.

Nice to see that the users on here support the Mujahideen.

quoted @ Walls:

From face book, Rami Jarrah · ·

?#Syria – This is it, the most decisive moment in the uprising yet. what I am about to say is not to reflect my role in the revolution but rather to justify what i am about to do. I was there on the 18th of march in Ommayyad mosque when thousands stood in a joint call for Freedom and Democracy, I watched our beautiful people break the barriers of fear that had engulfed their lives for years, the power of the people coming together this was the most beautiful moment in my life. I can still smell the atmosphere as i type this message.

I joined the ground committees that had been formed and sole goal was a peaceful transition to equality and justice,

we worked endlessly day and night only to try and make a presence in one location all of us together but this was a task that the Syrian regime made sure was not a possibility.

I looked up to the people of Daraa when they stood together with such boldness,

I was inspired when the Homsi’s took over freedom square,

I laughed when Qashoosh sang “irhal ya bashar”

I knelt to the people of Hama when Assi square witnessed their their scream,

I cried when our Palestinian brothers joined us and endured our pain

I fell in love with this revolution because it represented me, it spoke on my behalf, if i were to go back in time i would not change anything.

after much sacrifice from the Syrian people and the ongoing insult to their aspirations from the Syrian regime and no less the international community I think its easy to say that the only support we have had the privilege of was the solidarity of the people of this world.

our revolution has been polluted & distorted, Yes there is an armed resistance, yes we did not wish for it, yes we had dreams of understanding and coming together and yes we understand the meaning of peaceful uprising. But we are humans, we have feelings, we have families, we have memories that we will not allow anyone to take from us, we have our dignity and so we are sucked in by violence.

This is our decisive moment where we choose our fate, where we decide if this revolution still represents us or not and I say this is still the beautiful moment it was all those months ago. It is our duty to preserve it and for my contribution towards doing just that I wish to fight along side my countrymen. I can not sit here and speculate whether they are positive or not but I can be a positive and be with them.

The future of Syria is in our hands.

SOD,
OTW is trustworthy,I hope he really knows how Nabil was killed,I will try to get more info on the killing,I am not sold on the story that the guy was killed by mistake,he is the second Syrian associated with the missile program who got killed in the last few weeks,I am suspicious to say the least.
To change the subject,here is a video showing Turkish security forces getting rough with Syrian refugees:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt-Ep6JRzns
Hamad’s call to form a government by the FSA and the opposition is going nowhere,it is a proof that Arab regimes want the conflict to continue.

“Whatever happens from here, one thing is utterly certain. There is a growing network of grass roots activists that is emerging, and this is something that will not go away regardless of who is controlling Syria. There will be long term instability, but it will also be next to impossible to govern the information coming out of the country, or flowing through the country. Anybody who comes into power following Assad will have to answer to an angry, highly educated, and active population that are now speaking to each other more than in a generation. Across the world, Assad’s regime might have networked its way through journalists, MP’s and rich industrialists or business moguls, but Syria’s regular people have also been doing their networking. ”

Maysaloon’s full article : http://www.maysaloon.org/2012/07/syria-analysis.html

Another video on the same incident:

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???? ???? ??? ????? … ????? ???? ??? ????????.. ????? ????? ???????? .. ????? ???? ????? ?? ????? ???????…????? ???? ????? ??????? ..???? ??????? ????? ????????..???? ????? ??????????? .. ???? ???? ??????? ????? .. ???? ?? ??? ?????…???? ?? ??? ??? ?????… ???? ?? ??? ?????.. ???? ?? ??? ???????? ?????? ?????.. ???? ???? ????? ?? ??????? …???? ????? ??????? ???????? ???????
??????.. ???? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ?????? ?? ?? ?????? ????????

Samir Aita:
What makes a ceasefire difficult is the shabiha, recruited at tribal and community levels, as well as other opposition groups driven by Sunni revenge, or al-Qaida-formed ideology, and supported by regional powers. The first are starting to send their families out of major towns towards their villages and local strongholds. The second are taking advantage of the general chaos to kill on a sectarian basis, like the recent killing of Shia citizens in Saida Zeinab. Both these groups could lead Syria into a spiral of violence with death tolls far exceeding those of the last 16 months, and towards a division of the country based on local dominance.

Dear God above, debating Bruno is like trying to have a conversation with vapor; you can see it, but there’s absolutely nothing of substance. And vapor that’s obsessed with the number of thumbs down it gets.

Let’s see if Bruno can answer some elementary questions;

1) Why was Najati Tayara thrown in jail?

2) Why was Ali Ferzat beaten up and his fingers crushed?

3) Where were your “mujahideen” in the middle of April 2011 when over 100 people in Homs were massacred by your prethident’s ex-convicts shabiha?

4) Why were Malik Jandali’s elderly parents beaten up?

5) Why hasn’t your prethident been to a single military funeral, ever?

6) Why did 133 nations at the UN vote to denounce the regime, with just 12 abstaining or voting in support? Are all these countries in on a salafi-zionist-mujaheedin plot? Seriously?

7) How is it that a “westerner” can’t tell the difference between “their” and “there”? Did you not get much schooling?

8 ) How many hours at night do you lay awake, thrashing about, tormented by the number of thumbs down you’re getting? Get bullied much at school?

9 ) If you have a blog, link it, I’m sure it will provide much amusement to everyone here to pick apart your terrible grammar.

Between the menhebakjis’ wet dream of a Qurdahan hereditary republic, and the SNPer’s fantasies of being a “military expert” vacationing with “blonds and more blonds”, this comments section is starting to resemble high-fantasy along the lines of Lord of the Rings.

So, to test the SNPer’s claims to being a military expert, I’d like to lay out some common military scenarios, the kinds that every military cadet in the world has to study and analyze;

1) You are tasked with defending a coast from an enemy amphibious invasion. Do you a) put your strongest units at the points where you most expect the enemy to land and try to throw them back before they can establish a strong beachhead b) keep your strongest units in reserve, see where the enemy is making their landings, and then counter attack.

2) You are in charge of an offensive that has (somehow) managed to achieve a breakthrough. The enemy is in full retreat but is consolidating new lines. Your forces have outpaced their supplies and support. Do you a)continue the offensive with your under supplied units before the enemy can fully consolidate b) wait for your support units and supplies to catch up before mounting a stronger offensive against a potentially stronger enemy line.

3) You are tasked with taking a city. Winter is approaching, and your soldiers will need the shelter and supplies of the city to bunker in during the harsh winter months. Do you a)totally level the city, thus guaranteeing its conquest, but leaving your troops woefully exposed during winter b) try to spare as much of the city as possible, thus making its capture less certain, but allowing its use by your troops during the winter months.

If, as I feel likely, you are confused or baffled or need any clarifications, by all means let me know. I can’t wait to see what kind of military geniuses the SNP produces. And if anyone else would like to jump in and give their opinions, by all means do so. These are classical military scenarios that have been studied to death over and over again.

???? ????? ????? ??? ??????

Arm chair/video game General supreme Amir al-Mu’minin comander:

Weren’t you the dude who left this blog because it is not up to your standards? What brought you back? Who missed you here? Want to debate: be a man and respect others, instead of being a bully from behind the screen. Take it easy Shakespeare.

I read your posts and I could tell that you are about to lose your mind as obvious. You are ????? ?????.

You call for quality debates and then come up with this military crap questions, really?

Amjad #138,

You are setting the bar far too high for Bruno.

He is very new to this Syrian thing, and only jumped into it a few weeks ago.

It would be fairer and more appropriate to ask him what the capital of Syria is, what religious sect the Assads belong to, whether Bashar’s father is Hafez or Rifaat, is the population of Homs bigger than Aleppo or vice versa, who fired the first shot in all this trouble, and who has promised to burn the country.

If he was forced to go back to some basics, do some reading and thinking he might realise how scatty and lightweight his opinions on Syria look. And how obvious he makes it that he doesn’t care about the place.

But I suspect he’d never do that. He doesn’t have the time or headspace – or respect for the subject. He has too many different blogs he’s enjoying playing on, looking for attention to give him a buzz.

ANNIE (#132)

Thank you for posting that beautiful piece by Rami Jarrah.

It lifts us and reminds us what matters.

Jihad Makdesi says Syria will use chemical weapons in case of foreign military intervention against Assad regime.

He says Assad will not use chemical weapons againts its own populations but only against foreign armies.

He is a gentleman, syrians are welcomed deserve only rockets and conventional missiles.

News round-up: As’ad Abu Khalil in the last couple of days is ALL about Syria, check it
http://angryarab.net/

MINA,

Proud about Assad I guess.

Syrians will kill Assad with their own hands. He is killing and will use his last arguments (arms, even chemical ones) because he knows he is not safe anymore outside its own country.

Even if Russia or Iran guarantee to him a refugee, syrian people will track Assad for years and even if they find him after 10 years when he is 50 or so, they will kill him. Keep no doubt about this.

Mjabli from days of yore

“WHERE ARE THE FRENCH TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANKS”

That’s right bitches, I’m back. Took the menhebakjis long enough to figure it out. Offended by my questions? Why, do they make you feel insecure? Too busy whining that Ali didnt get the khalifa 1400 years ago? Talk about holding an old grudge 🙂

Come on, let’s have a discussion and see who is the real military expert. Those are scenarios any military cadets knows the answer to. I dare the menhebakjis to take on those questions.

So come on Mjabli, ye self proclaimed righter of all hurts ever done to the Alawites. Why did your Alawites beat up Malek Jandali’s parents? Why did they torture Ali Ferzat? Why did they throw Najati Tayara in jail? Were those people Jihadists who cut the throats of your shabihas? Were they responsible for Ali not getting the Khulafa 1400 years ago?

Syrialover

“You are setting the bar far too high for Bruno. ”

I suspect you are right. It’s like a kid who keeps insisting he be allowed to drive the family car. Instead of listening to him whining, give him the keys and watch as he makes a mess just pulling out the driveway. You won’t hear a peep out of him until his 21st birthday.

Juergen,

Interestingly, those poseur propaganda pictures of their children the Assads have released are far less natural and normal than those videos we saw of Gaddafi playing with his grandchildren. Or those of Saddam Hussein picnicking with his extended family.

In the pictures of Assad family released recently there is something I should not say about a child but I cannot avoid it. Their parents are responsible for showing their children so any opinion is free.

In my opinion Hafez Al Assad, son of Bashar, has a face of pathological criminal. I hope he never can take power so we do not have to test if this is true or not.

Lol, so the “liberation of Aleppo” has begun? Shouldn’t they like finish the job in Damascus first? Oh, they lost there, didn’t they?

When they lose Aleppo, they can go and “liberate” the desert.

We have lost everything but Assad will lose honour, life and family. Here we come Assad. Get ready.

150. SANDRO LOEWE

So I gather you’re writing this from some shattered building in Homs? Lol.

Come on menhebakjis, these should have been easy questions for you. Did you miss them? All I want to know is why were Malek Jandali’s elderly parents beaten up? Why was Ali Ferzat tortured? Why was Najati Tayara thrown into prison? And why are the menhebakjis so afraid of these simple questions 🙂

More on the modest life of the humble Bashar.

You can see a picture of Assad’s palace sitting loftily on the hill above the Assad home town of Qurdaha (his father had a walled place in the town, but Bashar wanted to be up higher).

There’s also a picture of the large extravagant mosque the regime built in Qurdaha, which is apparently seldom used except by special Iranian and Hizbollah dignitaries. It’s positioned next to a flourishing liquor trading centre.

It’s on p.281-82 of the pdf (p.268-9 of the study) of that academic paper on the Assads and the Alawites.

http://otago.ourarchive.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10523/2232/GoldsmithLeonT2012PhD.pdf

Chemical weapons are only for foreigners. As for Syrian citizens, we have dedicated tanks & attack helicopters.

That is in essence what Jihad Makdasi said today.

151. HABIB

I write it from the sewer system in Damascus. From now on supporters of the Assad Mafia should think twice before they use their own W.C. because at any time they can receive an impact from behind.

155. SANDRO LOEWE

Wow, so the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Super Mario have joined the revolution through the sewage! Allahuakbar!

It’s forbidden to depict the prophets and companions, to translate the Quran, to display women, to …………………
except when it is Saudi sponsored!
http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/tv-depiction-revered-islamic-figure-causes-stir

Welcome to Gulf schizoprenia!

Mina (#144), are you seriously suggesting we’d want to read Angry Arab’s rants about the opposition being an Al Qaeda plot when we have the sincere and moving words of an authentic, involved Syrian hero Rami Jarrah to read in #132?

156. HABIB

Just wait until Assad begins to suffer real urban terrorism technics and see their own car and homes explosion under their feet.

Last week was just an introduction. Some kind of happening for the press boys.

Haleb this morning. Another tank is deleted from the inventory list

Make it 3 tanks

Did Haleb join the revolution?
.

Panic at the Arab League after the fiasco of the Damascus “Volcano”

Asking the FSA to create a transitional government is the stupidest idea the AL came with for months. The FSA is crawling out of all areas they inhabited for months, hiding behind the civilians, in Damascus and Aleppo. They are in no position to call for anything else than a retreat to the nearest Turkish refugee camps.
Is it really stupid or does it show their total disarray in front of the return of the Syrian Army to more efficiency as they thought ( wrongly as usual) that the terrorist attack that some of the AL members have financed, would “decapitate’ the army.
With their poor imagination they are running out of ideas, so these people who should be ashamed to claim representing the Arabs, recycle their own ‘plan’ with a prime of 100 millions dollars for the Syrian refugees that their hundred million of dollars of weapons have created.

Using the natural desire for people for an improvement to their life, these molluscs, with their belly fully of gases, have transform it into a vicious attempts to remove a resilient supporter of the Arab stand in the region, who dared compete with them for popularity.
Another slap on their face is expected, but this time even an answer is not needed.
Let them meet again with FUKUS ( France,UK, US) and FOS in a 4 star hotel in Timbuktu, nothing they call for will happen.
Syria is an independent country, with its destiny in its hand. It is up to the Syrians to decide of it.

The FSA gives four weeks and “it’ll be over” if…

Syrian Opposition Leaders: We Need U.S. Weapons
by Eli Lake Jul 23, 2012 4:45 AM EDT
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/23/syrian-opposition-leaders-we-need-u-s-weapons.html

Two rebel commanders tell Eli Lake they could oust Assad within a month—if the U.S. supplies them with some heavy-duty weapons. Why American officials are weary of pulling the trigger.
..
Two Syrian rebel commanders interviewed by The Daily Beast say they need advanced weapons to take out President Bashar al-Assad’s regime within the month and transition to a stable government. Khaled Habous, the head of the Damascus military council of the Free Syrian Army, said, “Before the end of this holy month of Ramadan it will be over.” Ramadan ends on Aug. 19.

But Habous also said that depends on whether his forces get high-tech weapons from the United States to finish the job. He cited Stinger missiles, the shoulder-fired rockets the Central Intelligence Agency supplied Afghan holy warriors in the 1980s, “that can neutralize the helicopters and tanks of Assad’s regime.” According to Habous, “This is all in the hands of the Americans. They have the say and we will hold them responsible for more victims.”

Another rebel commander, Ahmed Nema, who heads the military council for the Free Syrian Army in Daraa, said on Sunday, “The regime is falling no matter what. I expect in four weeks the regime will go down, but because we lack advanced equipment it could go long

Irritated

You said: “Syria is an independent country, with its destiny in its hand. It is up to the Syrians to decide of it.”

How about condeming the involvement of Iran, Hezbollah and Russia in Syria’s internal affairs?

Or is that different because they heavily involved with the Assads.

And Bashar Assad and his family, as we know, personally own Syria.

Alawi split from Syria would spell disaster
July 22, 2012
By Benjamin Jensen

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/34fddf0c-d27c-11e1-8700-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz21RwrDXly

“a vicious attempts to remove a resilient supporter of the Arab stand”

And yet the “resilient” supporters are all making plans to head to the coast and set up their own banana republic.

US taking covert steps to cripple Syria’s Assad – newspaper – 23 July, 2012

http://www.rt.com/news/us-quiet-steps-remove-assad-816/

The US government has made repeated covert attempts to block arms and oil shipments to Syria, the Wall Street Journal reports. Officials said Washington also provided rebel forces with key military intelligence against President Bashar al-Assad.

The WSJ cites unnamed government officials in its report, which claims that the US has tried to coerce Iraq into blocking flights crossing through its airspace that are suspected of carrying weapons and supplies to the Assad government.

In addition, US intelligence agencies have moved to block ships believed to be transporting military equipment to Syria from traversing the Suez Canal.

Washington has recently intensified its covert efforts against Syria, in line with its stated aim of removing of President Bashar Assad.

“There is a renewed effort to crack down in any way possible,” a US official told the WSJ, referencing Washington’s plan to control transit on the Suez Canal.

Officials stated that Washington had been feeding key intelligence, including satellite imagery, to the Turkish and Jordanian militaries, which support the Syrian rebel army.

There were also reports of the CIA coordinating and sharing intelligence with Syrian opposition groups.

[…]

#139 Amjad

I have easy answers for your 3 military questions.

1. Defending the Coast. Get the US to back you. Declare 100 miles a safety zone. Blow up any ship you don’t like so nothing doesn’t even get close (Including U.S. ships like the U.S.S. Liberty.) It kind of makes where to put the coastal defenses moot.

2. Supply lines too long? Steal.

By Haaretz Service

“If our fighters deep in Lebanese territory are left without food our water, I believe they can break into local Lebanese stores to solve that problem,” Brigadier General Avi Mizrahi, the head of the Israel Defense Forces logistics branch, said Monday.

3. Why take the city. Find some way to get the people to fight each other. (See Shi’ite vs. Sunni fighting in Lebanon). Then just march in and take over. You may have to pay some corrupt warlord Christians…but at least it makes taking the ‘city’ easy.

SL
Never Iran, Russia or Hezbollah have had the arrogance that the FUKUS, GCC and Turkey have repeatedly showed when they kept telling the Syrians what they should do, what is “best for them” and ordering the legitimate leaders of the country to leave as if they were their vassals..

These FOS have been intervening in patronizing ways in Syria’s internal affairs and moreover they have hypocritically financed and support armed rebellion while on the appearance encouraging Annan ‘peace’ plan. Lies upon lies.
For some Syrians to trust these vocal vipers and expect something useful out for them has been a fatal mistake. Syria is not an oil rich country. It can never pay back the expenses of a NATO war. Foreign powers want only to weaken it and contain it for fear of threats on Israel. The arrogant Qatar and KSA want to humiliate Syria to prove that their weight in the region is not only their grease or their oil or their visceral fear and jealousy toward Iran.
They don’t give a damn about the Syrians.

New spin in media war? Syria uncovers TV hijack plot – 23 July, 2012

http://www.rt.com/news/syria-media-hijack-plot-811/

Syria has accused Western and Arab intelligence agencies of plotting to “hijack” its satellite channel frequencies in order to spread misinformation about the alleged advances of the rebels, military defections or the fall of certain cities.

­“An Information Ministry source warned that Western intelligence are planning, in cooperation with some Arab parties, to hijack the frequencies of Syrian satellite channels,” state news agency Sana reported on Sunday.

The ministry said its goal would be to broadcast false news on an “alleged coup d’etat” and that for this purpose they could use “Syrian presenters and journalists who work for Arab and Western channels, or who might have been abducted.”

Similar alarms about a new plot against Syria were also broadcast through other official national media sources such as Syria TV, al-Dunia TV, and Sham FM.

It is not the first time Syria’s Information Ministry has warned of misleading media reports pretending to be coming from official Syrian TV sources.

On Friday, the ministry announced that a satellite channel was using the logo of the Syrian Satellite Channel and its frequency. The channel was reportedly broadcasting nationalistic songs in an alleged test run before a massive media attack against Syria.

The Information Ministry emphasized that the genuine Syrian channels can be recognized by the presence of well-known presenters and programs.

[…]

Mick at #167 LOL 🙂

“Declare 100 miles a safety zone”

Yes, because declaring a 100 miles safety zone is really going to be respected during times of war 🙂

“Supply lines too long? Steal.”

You ignored the basic problem. It doesn’t matter whether your supplies are stolen or fall from heaven, do you pause to be resupplied and possibly give the enemy pause for breath, or do you resupply in whatever manner you see fit, and launch an attack later much stronger, but also giving the enemy time to recover from your offensive?

And “supplies” to an army means much more than water bottles and biscuits. Spare parts for tank tracks, shells for artillery, medicine, flares, ammunition, all the things that get expended and used up in a battle.

“Why take the city. Find some way to get the people to fight each other”

Now you’re just being whimsical. I can’t think of any theater of war in the history of warfare where the attacker had the luxury of ignoring everything that was going on around them, and taking the time out to foment a plot to get the inhabitants of a city to fight each other. Can you imagine Stalin at the gates of Berlin going “hey, let the Nazis just fight each other.”

If it was the last standing city in your way, and if there were political divisions among your enemy, and if there was a chance that the party favorable to you might win, then it might be a good idea. But that’s alot of “ifs”.

But you get credit for trying, unlike the SNPer you aren’t claiming to be a military expert.

Irritated,

You keep complaining that the west, fellow Arabs and the Turks have been saying sympathetic things to the Syrians and telling Bashar Assad to leave.

It’s all mild breezes compared with the destructive tsunami of Iran and Hazbollah’s interference and influence on Syria’s affairs that Bashar Assad has inflicted on the people of Syria. And now Russia is arming and supporting him in killing Syrian citizens.

If your conspiracy theories about the Gulf interfering in Syrian affairs to get back at Iran were true, well, whose fault is THAT?

Who invited Iran and Hibollah to become so closely involved with Syria’s internal and external affairs? And for whose purpose and what benefit?

I suggest you read my post #99 and the reference I give.

#170 Amjad

I don’t do old war theory.

I attempt to figure out what is happening in the current world. What prompts things to show up on ‘the news’.

I have a fairly good understanding of what is going on Syria. I won’t say I know everything, because NO ONE DOES. Syria is too fragmented and too many people changing sides/positions that no one can predict what will happen in the next 24 hours. No one.

That said, I have enough understanding to know when I am having smoke blown up my ass.

Like when I pop on the Washington Post to see a video and have to wait for a BP add telling me the Gulf Coast is fine and the food is just yummee. So the BP liars pay for the WP liars on the editorial board to present news to fit their needs.

Case in point. The first article the WP published on Syria shooting down the Turkish plane didn’t even mention that the plane was in Syrian airspace. Like every other propaganda piece, that part was either ignored, or danced around. The State Department slammed Syria! The Turkish government slammed Syria! This was all widely spewed out in the the so-called news. Even Al Jazeera ran an article after a few weeks that basically said Syria was right and the media hype was bullshit.

So if you want to talk about modern warfare, and present relevant questions, please include ‘media and cyber’ as a function of your question. That is modern warfare.

Iraq rejects Arab League proposal for Assad to leave – 2012-07-23

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-07/23/c_131733647.htm

BAGHDAD, July 23 (Xinhua) — Iraq Monday rejected a call by the Arab League (AL) for the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside from his post, an Iraqi official television reported.

“The Iraqi government rejects the AL call because it is a sovereign decision that should be exclusively decided by the people of Syria,” the state-run Iraqia channel quoted government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh as saying.

[…]

Let’s get on with this last battle will ya, we need to move forward any way we can and you are in the way. Waisted, nothing to show for but what your Zionist puppet master intended to leave, death, bloody streets, destruction, mayhem, refugees, tata…tata.. the usual Zio masters favorites in human sacrifice ritual for Marduk, the horned god.

UNresponsive on Syria, Ladsous’ DPKO Stonewalls on Golan & Geneva Convention

By Matthew Russell Lee

http://www.innercitypress.com/syria6ladsous072312.html

UNITED NATIONS, July 23 — It’s one thing if the UN observers in Syria now observe only their suites in the Hotel Dama Rose in Damascus, to which they were confined by UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous and then a day later General Robert Mood, who has now left the UNSMIS Mission.

But why can’t or won’t Ladsous’ Department of Peacekeeping Operations, even in New York where they are out of danger, answer basic questions about Syria?

On the morning of July 22 amid conflict reports of firing on and from the Tishreen military hospital in Damascus, and events in the Golan which would give rise to a formal complaint to the Security Council, Inner City Press sent two more Syria questions to the spokesman for DPKO under Ladsous, who has taken to refusing all Inner City Press questions, as well as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s top two spokesmen:

“Has DPKO / UNSMIS heard of an attack on a hospital in Damascus? Has it made an effort, including by talking with its interlocutors, to confirm or dissuade it? Does / would it violate the Geneva Conventions? Is DPKO / the UN aware of any other presumptive violations of the Geneva Conventions in Syria since July 19? Which? What is DPKO’s comment and action on reported shelling in the Golan?”

Twenty two hours, slower even than on Cote d’Ivoire, DPKO and the UN had not answered the questions, even as a complaint was received by the Security Council and Ban’s office. This is Ladsous’ and ultimately Ban’s UN.

[…]

#170 Amjad

Your questions are based on theory. I don’t do theory. I observe modern warfare. Which includes such topics as media and cyber war.

The media has always been easy to manipulate. Just look at easy the lazy US and British media were sucked into supporting the war in Iraq.

cyber is new. But it is used. And like politics, the more money, the more it used.

So please address a military (which is also a political goal) question in a modern setting using both media and cyber.

No military ‘takes a city’ in the 21st century in a vacuum.

Mike;

“Your questions are based on theory”

Well done sir, very very well done. The questions are as answerable as trying to solve a + b = x where all you’re given is “a”. Not enough information is given to make an intelligent decision. No self respecting doctor would make a diagnosis when all he has to go on is “doctor, I dont feel well. I got a slight sneeze”

Like in the first question, you’re not told anything about the state of each side’s air superiority. It was the scenario that faced the Germans right before D-Day. Hitler went against Rommel’s advice and kept his panzer divisions in reserve. The allied air force made any counter attack impossible. So any answer other than “Amjad you self important prick, I dont have enough information to take an intelligent decision” is quite frankly, wrong 🙂

Too bad, I was looking forward to the SNPer’s attempts at proving he was a modern day Caesar.

Russia stopping commercial flights to Syria. According to Zoo, this will backfire on the “arrogant” Russians… Doesn’t Putin know that everything is under control in Syria?

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=421815&MID=149&PID=2

“…The Syrian National Council sounded a defiant note in an overnight statement, saying fierce clashes in cities across the country was a sign the opposition was “at the gates of victory.”
__________________________________________________________________
I thought you already cashed those checks Mossad and the emir sent you to sneak Syria’s enemies inland. Now go celebrate your victory and get off our back, stop destroying Syria.

What will the Shia do?

“Hezbollah; I don’t know what they are anymore,” says Soha, a 50-year-old Shia woman who’s lived her whole life in South Lebanon. She survived the Lebanese civil war, every Israeli invasion, and has never ever complained about Hezbollah, despite her disagreement with the party’s ideology. “I saw them grow and develop into the most reliable party in the South. They took the notion of resistance beyond clichés and speeches. They have actually resisted Israel and liberated the South. That’s when their only concern was liberation. Today, they seem distracted with other concerns; they’ve become weak,” she says.

Many other Shia share Soha’s concerns today. They see Hezbollah stuck in a corner and acting defensively, and they don’t like what its leadership is doing on many levels. But they are also scared because they cannot abandon the Party of God, their only political reference.

…
“When the war started in 2006, I left with my family to Damascus, where we stayed with another family whom we did not know,” says Imad from Bint Jbeil. “We had common friends who took us in. They were so welcoming and shared their food and house with us. We stayed in touch, and today they contacted me to see if they can come over for a few days until the clashes in Damascus subside. They are Sunnis, and I am not sure if they are going to be safe here in the South, so I told them the truth and put them in touch with my friends in Beirut. I don’t know if they will go, but I feel so bad and ungrateful. Why does it have to be that way?”

…
Are the Shia ready to pay the price of another war? Are they ready to remain the human shield behind which Hezbollah hides? In his last speech, Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah called slain Syrian Defense Chief Assef Shawkat “a comrade in arms and resistance.” No Lebanese can deny his crimes in Lebanon or how many Lebanese suffered because of him and his regime. Are the Shia willing to suffer the consequences of the war Hezbollah declared against the Syrian people?

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=421798#ixzz21SLMdIB0

News Analysis: Syria’s Kurds raise the stake of partition – 2012-07-23

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-07/23/c_131733773.htm

According to a pro-government Syrian website (Syrian Politics), the Kurds have recently begun and for the first time their militarized movement toward their dream, and recently alleged they have control of the Derek (Maliki) area, a region where the majority of Kurds, as well as Armenians, Arabs, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Syrians, live in northeast Syria. The area belongs to the province of Hasaka.

In conjunction with the Kurdish military action, there were stunning political steps.

A member of the Syrian National Kurdish Council has announced that his council and another Kurdish party will announce the formation of a higher committee for the management of the Kurdish enclave in Syria.

Mahmoud Mohammad, member of the politburo of the Yikiti, reportedly said that the National Kurdish Council will discuss soon in the Iraqi city of Erbil the mechanism for running a Kurdish enclave in Syria in the aftermath of the collapse of the Syrian regime.

Some observers in Syria believe that this announcement is a Kurdish inclination towards federalization.

Observers believe that this step means that the Kurds are planning to build up the “state for the Kurdish people,” an issue unanimously rejected by the Syrian opposition parties and most of the Syrians.

Bickering between Kurdish parties and other members of the oppositional National Syrian Council appeared at a conference that was held on the 4th of July in Cairo when the Kurds walked out of the conference to protest the conferees’ reluctance to state in their final communique that Kurds are a distinct ethnic group in Syria who are living on their land and in their own country and enjoy their own history and identity.

Gas and oil in Syria concentrate in northeast part and they are basic resources to support the treasury, and the Kurds’ possible control of those vital resources would make it harder or even impossible for any coming government in Damascus to make any political decision.

The Kurds have been able within a short period of time to agree on committees to manage the areas in which they live, at a time when the Syrian opposition remains divided and could not come to any practical agreement on the future of their in the country.

[…]

On Sunday, a Syrian force of 30 troops reportedly infiltrated 500 meters into Lebanon’s eastern border region of Masharii al-Qaa.

165. Amjad

Syria can be unified again once the ugly trend of Salafism has either been rooted out by force or simply abandoned by its followers out of disgust.

As for now, the government should let the Kurds do whatever they want in the northeast, that could keep the FSA busy as well, can’t let one inch of their precious, hypothetical caliphate being left out.

Almost a week after losing senior military leaders and still no speech from Bashar to lift the spirits of his shabi7a. But we got the criminal Makdisi today who assured the world that the Assad regime will protect its stockpile of unconventional weapons of mass destruction.

How can anyone trust these assurances from a regime that has lost tanks and planes to defections and can’t protect the lives of its senior leaders while meeting at a highly secured facility nor maintain its border crossings?

Iraqi PM orders all borders open to Syria refugees: Iraqi general – Jul 23, 2012

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/23/us-syria-crisis-iraq-refugees-idUSBRE86M0QF20120723

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has told Iraq’s border officials to allow Syrian refugees into the county, a senior border commander said.

“The order came 30 minutes ago,” General Issam Yassim told Reuters at Iraq’s southern Al-Waleed border crossing with Syria, 560 km west of Baghdad.

He said it applied to all Iraqi border crossings with Syria.

Al-Waleed, one of Iraq’s three main border crossings with Syria, is held by Syrian government forces and has been the main crossing point for Iraqis fleeing the violence in Syria, especially from Damascus.

Syrian rebels say they hold the Albu Kamal-Qaim crossing, based on a major trade further north. It was sealed by the Iraqi army fearing a spillover of violence.

Rabia, near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, passed briefly to rebel hands but is now under the command of the Syrian government forces.

There is another crossing in Iraqi Kurdistan, near the Turkish border.

[…]

I do not understand the regime propaganda except as it relates to their own ears and eyes.

So we have had armed terrorist gangs that have infiltrated the country. Did that change? No it is the same story from day one.

So we have opposition and then some opposition is acceptable and others are not for they are servants of outside powers. Did that change? No it is the same story again.

So we have a UN plan of six points and the regime supports it. Did that change? No and in the meantime there is ongoing violence and the use of heavy weapons and the incarceration of hundreds of thousands.

So we have reforms and the new majlis and the new government is working diligently and life is normal. Did that change? No the same story again.

Yet we have the continued assault on Rastan and the continued assault on Homs and the spreading of assaults on areas in Damascus and Aleppo and the increased shelling of Deir and continued strife in Deraa and the border posts being taken and retaken.

So how come it is getting all over the country? How come there is an increase rather than a decrease in the attacks? how come the inner sanctum was breached? how come more high ranking officers are defecting? or is this all fabricated? if it is fabricated it is equivalent to the D Day invasion of France deceptin scheme where whole armies were created with rubber inflated material.

The greatest ally of the enemies of Syria and its role in resisting the US and Israel albeit it was used mainly to oppress is the STUPIDITY OF THE REGIME.

This guy is beyond stupid. How is it that Russia and Iran can rely on such a dude?

Putin: Non-stop civil war if Assad ousted – 23 July, 2012

http://rt.com/politics/putin-nonstop-civil-assad-869/

Russian President Putin has warned that if the Assad government is overthrown, the ensuing civil war in Syria may see no end.

Speaking after a meeting with Italian PM Monti, Putin said that if the current government is toppled “they will take the place of the present opposition”.

‘No Chechens fighting in Syria’ – Kadyrov – 23 July, 2012

“Let those in the zone of conflict who are currently looking for those who are not there, instead deal with the real problem that is being caused by the financial and political support that certain countries have extended to those who are fighting against Syrian authorities,” Kadyrov suggested.

http://rt.com/politics/kadyrov-chechnya-syria-militants-852/

Kadyrov says those propagating this “fraud” dislike Moscow’s position that the Syrian crisis be resolved via international law and in strong compliance with UN resolutions. Kadyrov stressed that the Chechen republic “strongly supports” the Russian leadership’s course regarding the issue.

“We all remember perfectly well that during the military operation in Afghanistan, some media – citing western politicians and the military – stated that up to tens of thousands of Chechens were fighting there against the coalition forces,” the head Chechnya said in an official statement on the republic’s official website.

When foreign troops failed to seize a Taliban camp, they alleged that Chechens had offered fierce resistance, he recalled. Later, though – when the defenders of the “Taliban camp were captured and taken to Guantanamo” – it appeared that there were Chechen nationals among them.

This new “hoax” is of the same kind, Kadyrov stressed. “Someone somewhere on the border [between Syria and Turkey] claimed that there were Chechens among them. Who said that and to whom? Where’s the evidence? There is none and there cannot be,” Kadyrov stressed.

[…]

A message from the Syrian opposition: “We just want to thank our sponsors in the CIA, MI6, Mossad, al-Qaeda, Qatar and the House of Saud for their generous financial support and high tech communications equipment.”

http://pulsemedia.org/2012/07/23/syrian-oppositions-foreign-funders-no-laughing-matter/

Observer

The “stupidity” of the regime is nothing compared to the stupidity and ineptia of the SNC and their sponsors, France Turkey and Qatar. I forgot the AL…

Syrian refugees clash with police in Turkey border camps – July 23, 2012

“We don’t have money to sustain our life here. They are selling one loaf of bread for one Turkish lira [55 cents],” said Hallac. “Everybody here will starve to death.”

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Jul-23/181575-syrian-refugees-clash-with-police-in-turkey-border-camps.ashx

KILIS: Turkish police fired tear gas on stone-throwing Syrian refugees who were protesting Sunday at the lack of food and water at camps on the border with their conflict-ravaged homeland.

“The clashes were some of the most violent of recent months,” the official told AFP.

We have had no food for three days”.

“Kill us!” cried a Syrian woman carrying a baby in her lap, as dozens of gendarmerie forces and police were passing by.

“Get rid of us,” she shouted.

Refugees at the Kilis camp said two demonstrators has been killed but the Turkish official said there was no confirmation of any deaths, although one Turkish policeman was injured.

After the clashes, many refugees gathered outside the camp, and some were leaving Turkey in their cars, heading back toward the Syrian side of the border.

Similar protests erupted at the Islahiye camp about 90 kilometers away, the official said.

[…]

#183 Halabi

The results on the ground, the pityful debacle of the FSA in Damascus now either hiding in sewages or hanging symbolically a flag on a border after looting the duty free shops from all the booze they could get hold of, is the best speech that Bashar could give.
I think that it’s the FSA depressed gangs that are in bad need from some pep talk from Ryad al Assad, their hidden leader, from his bunker on Turkey or from Abdel Basset Saida, waking up from his coma.
Instead they got the AL circus clowns with the master clown smiling HBJ giving a lesson of recycling old stuff.
It’s also possible that the Turks told Ryad al Assad to shut up.

These are the deeds of the FOS and the AL with their aimless and endless promises, threats, meetings and empty talks:
Lots of weapons, promises and noise for nothing.

190. ann

What’s Angelina Jolie phone number?

Yo Mama So Zionist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAeOkdB2cl8&feature=player_embedded
.

SYRIA: REGIME CHANGE AND SMART POWER
The rise and fall of Turkey’s Erdogan

By M K Bhadrakumar Jul 24, 2012

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NG24Ak01.html

Israel’s emergence from the woodwork can signal only one thing: the Syrian crisis is moving towards the decisive phase. The lights have been switched on in the operation theatre and the carving of Syria is beginning. What is going to follow won’t be a pretty sight at all since the patient is not under anesthesia, and the chief surgeon prefers to lead from behind while sidekicks do the dirty job.

So far, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have done the maximum they could to destabilize Syria and remove the regime headed by

President Bashar al-Assad. But Bashar is still holding out. Israeli expertise is now needed to complete the unfinished business.

Someone is needed to plunge a sharp knife deep into Bashar’s back. Jordan’s king can’t do the job; he measures up only to Bashar’s knees. The Saudi and Qatari sheikhs with their ponderous, flabby body are not used to physical activity; the North Atlantic Treaty Organization prefers to be left alone, having burnt its fingers in Libya with a bloody operation that borders on war crime. That leaves Turkey.

In principle, Turkey has the muscle power, but intervention in Syria is fraught with risks and one of the enduring legacies of Kemal Ataturk is that Turkey avoids taking risks. Besides, Turkey’s military is not quite in top form.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also unable to carry the majority opinion within Turkey in favor of a war in Syria, and he is navigating a tricky path himself, trying to amend his country’s constitution and make himself a real sultan – as if French President Francois Hollande were to combine the jobs of Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Socialist Party chief Martine Aubry.

Obviously, Erdogan can’t risk his career. Besides, there are imponderables – a potential backlash from the Alawite minority within Turkey (which resents the surge of Salafism under Erdogan’s watch) and the perennial danger of walking into a trap set up by militant Kurds.

Al-Jazeera interviewed a leader of the Alawite sect in Turkey last week who expressed concern over the increasingly sectarian tone of Syria’s internal strife inspired by Salafist Sunnis. They fear a Salafist surge within Turkey. The Alawites in Turkey see Assad “trying to hold together a tolerant, pluralist Syria”.

Contingency plans
But all that is becoming irrelevant. The New York Times reported on Friday, quoting American officials in Washington, that US President Barack Obama is “increasing aid to the rebels and redoubling efforts to rally a coalition of like-minded countries to forcibly bring down the [Syrian] government”.

It further reported that the CIA operatives who are based in southern Turkey “for several weeks” will continue with their mission to create violence against the Syrian regime. Meanwhile, the US and Turkey will also be working on putting together a post-Assad “provisional government” in Syria.

Accordingly, the leaders of Syria’s proscribed Muslim Brotherhood held a four-day conclave in Istanbul and announced plans on Friday to create an “Islamic party”. “We are ready for the post-Assad era, we have plans for the economy, the courts, politics”, the Brotherhood’s spokesman announced.

The New York Times said Washington is in close contact with Ankara and Tel Aviv to discuss “a broad range of contingency plans” over “how to manage a Syrian government collapse”.

The emergent operational plan is that while Ankara steps up the covert operations inside Syria (bankrolled by Saudi Arabia and Qatar), Israel will cross the border into Syria from the south and attack Bashar’s military and degrade its capacity to resist the Turkish threat.
…
At the end of the day, Erdogan will bite the bullet, which is greased with pork fat. The plain truth is that Israel is going to complete the messy job for him in Syria.

Erdogan has no choice but to accept that he belongs to Washington’s “toolbox” – nothing more, nothing less. He was never destined for the role to lead the Muslim Middle East. The West was merely pandering to his well-known vanity. That role is Washington’s exclusive prerogative.

“Israel is going to complete the messy job for him in Syria.”
The rise and fall of Turkey’s Erdogan

By M K Bhadrakumar Jul 24, 2012

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NG24Ak01.html

So far, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have done the maximum they could to destabilize Syria and remove the regime headed by

President Bashar al-Assad. But Bashar is still holding out. Israeli expertise is now needed to complete the unfinished business.

Someone is needed to plunge a sharp knife deep into Bashar’s back. Jordan’s king can’t do the job; he measures up only to Bashar’s knees. The Saudi and Qatari sheikhs with their ponderous, flabby body are not used to physical activity; the North Atlantic Treaty Organization prefers to be left alone, having burnt its fingers in Libya with a bloody operation that borders on war crime. That leaves Turkey.

In principle, Turkey has the muscle power, but intervention in Syria is fraught with risks and one of the enduring legacies of Kemal Ataturk is that Turkey avoids taking risks. Besides, Turkey’s military is not quite in top form.

Obviously, Erdogan can’t risk his career. Besides, there are imponderables – a potential backlash from the Alawite minority within Turkey (which resents the surge of Salafism under Erdogan’s watch) and the perennial danger of walking into a trap set up by militant Kurds.
…
Accordingly, the leaders of Syria’s proscribed Muslim Brotherhood held a four-day conclave in Istanbul and announced plans on Friday to create an “Islamic party”. “We are ready for the post-Assad era, we have plans for the economy, the courts, politics”, the Brotherhood’s spokesman announced.
….
The New York Times said Washington is in close contact with Ankara and Tel Aviv to discuss “a broad range of contingency plans” over “how to manage a Syrian government collapse”.

The emergent operational plan is that while Ankara steps up the covert operations inside Syria (bankrolled by Saudi Arabia and Qatar), Israel will cross the border into Syria from the south and attack Bashar’s military and degrade its capacity to resist the Turkish threat.
…
At the end of the day, Erdogan will bite the bullet, which is greased with pork fat. The plain truth is that Israel is going to complete the messy job for him in Syria.

Erdogan has no choice but to accept that he belongs to Washington’s “toolbox” – nothing more, nothing less. He was never destined for the role to lead the Muslim Middle East. The West was merely pandering to his well-known vanity. That role is Washington’s exclusive prerogative.

Lol, this video gives a pretty good indication of the IQ level of average FSA members: http://www.timesofisrael.com/syrian-rebels-burn-palestinian-flag-thinking-its-iranian/

These retards are going to rule future Syria? Might as well pack our bags for Congo, the standards of living will be better there.

Iran: Syrian elections way out of crisis
Associated Press – 12 mins ago
http://news.yahoo.com/iran-syrian-elections-way-crisis-115533813.html

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s parliamentary speaker is proposing Syria hold presidential elections as a way to end the civil war between Syrian rebels and the regime of key Tehran ally President Bashar Assad.
…..
Ali Larijani told Iran’s state-run Arabic language Al-Alam TV on Monday that presidential elections in Syria could be held while planning future parliamentary elections. He said fighting in Damascus and elsewhere has blocked an attempt to organize voting.

Larijani claims Assad’s government backs the idea.

#194 Antoine

Don’t worry, we are all equipped with Pif-Paf and Baygon

The presence of extremists and jihadists among the FSA fighters is a proof of our ‘pluralism”, but don’t call them Al Qaeeda

No Al-Qaeda elements in the FSA – Al-Kurdi
23/07/2012
By Nazeer Rida
http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=30440

Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat – Colonel Malik al-Kurdi, the Free Syrian Army’s [FSA] deputy commander, has denied that fighters at the Bab al-Hawa crossing point between Syria and Turkey were members of the Al-Qaeda organization, calling the claims, “totally baseless”.
….
He stressed that “the FSA includes all Syrian society’s sectors and these – with their various affiliations — are operating under the FSA’s banner.” “We are absorbing all society’s sectors, the radical, secular, and other ones, for the purpose of achieving a balance for a Syrian society that is known for its pluralism.” Al-Kurdi added.

I don’t understand why menhebaks respond to me, and I definitely don’t understand the twisted logic used in such responses. I guess it’s due to an overdose of ?????? ???? ???????? soon to be an Aleppo delicacy.

Syria’s Kurds stand alone after rejecting rebels and regime

Aymenn Al Tamimi
Jul 23, 2012
http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/syrias-kurds-stand-alone-after-rejecting-rebels-and-regime
Developments in Syria and Iraq have led some to speculate that the birth of an independent Kurdish state might be at hand. A closer analysis shows that a united Kurdistan is still unlikely, although a separate semiautonomous Kurdish community in Syria, with some parallels to the Kurdish Autonomous Region in Iraq, is a growing possibility.
In Syria, Kurds are sitting on the sidelines of the uprising against the Damascus regime. Indeed, the Free Syrian Army has accused members of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) of hindering its operations in some areas against the Assad regime, according to the Kurdish website Rudaw.net. Leaders of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is affiliated with the PKK, have made it clear that they will not tolerate the spread of Syria’s conflict into the Kurdish-dominated areas of Syria.
…

Al Arabiya obtains new leaked emails of Assad’s New York-based media advisor

…
In addition to work-related messages, the leaked emails include a large amount of personal correspondence between Jaafari and her boyfriend, a man who lists the Iranian city of Tabriz as his hometown on Facebook. In one email sent on December 14, 2011, Sherry congratulated him on getting U.S. citizenship. “This is ur first day waking up as an official American citizen,” she wrote. “Woho!! I’m loving this.”

Attached with the emails were many photos of the happy couple, hanging out with friends and partying in nightclubs; as well as some steamy conversations and images which Al Arabiya will refrain from publishing.

But her work for the Syrian regime, as well as the fact that she is the Ambassador’s daughter, was causing some conflict in the happy couple’s relationship.

When he posted graphic pictures from Syria’s uprising on his Facebook wall, she asked him to stop doing that out of respect for her and her family. He apologized and said he “should have not posted several pics back to back,” but he did not think it was disrespectful. In that email, sent on February 6, he said he cannot watch regime’s violence in silence.

“I don’t think what I do ( and I have been doing it only for last month or two since the crises started in Syria) is disrespectful to [you] or your family…what I see in Syria is barbarism done by the regime and my silence as your boyfriend means that I advocate what is happening.”

…

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/07/23/227932.html

Zionists-Israelis-Neocons-Globalists-Satanists and their ANZA (Goat- Lucifer symbol) Bedouin tribes and Islamic terrorists puppets all are getting unhinged. I told ya nearly couple years ago, Syria is a door stopper, and I told you couple of days ago, Syria is not an air heads game plan; it is a destiny humanity will have to choose. You can go on to live in a new age of enlightenment guided by the Syrian Messiah’s ADAD /EL (ELOHIM, those from heaven came down to earth), SHAMASH, and NINURTA or to hell guided by the horned and tailed messiah living/operating from under sea and subterranean bases, you choose, you are responsible for our action, ignorance is not an alibi.

#139 Amjad

‘Lord of the Rings’

LOL. What is it about LOTR that draws an immediate appearance from MJABALI (#140)?

Anyway, good to have you back, safe and well.

Assad and supporters will not meet Gaddafi end, that Zio-puppet, had no International support after the Ziope*dia needed his gold and cash badly enough to dump him, and needed him quite to cover all the corruptions and illegal contribution bribes, the money trail. He had very little local support too, he was just a hired puppet for foreigners. Thanks to the dummies mercenaries sent to Syria by Mossad, they managed to push about 5 Million of minorities toward Assad and not only that, but they managed ignorantly to tie up their destiny with Assads. So you got to have a whole lot of dull knives to finish the job.

Assad also has own sect army and own sect militia, own stockpile of WMD’s and missile and what have you, enough to wage war on other countries. It is all intact and growing in strength and quality. These assets and the 40 + billion stashed are all owned by tightly knit sect/family. Ghaddafi, had to relay on National army who have no personal alligance to the dictator. They have no need or use for him, he was out on his won in the desert.

The most you get out of this, beside all the help you give Israel and other Syria’s enemies, is of course the cash you stash aside for London and Paris lifestyle when all failed, give it few days. That, and great help for ALCIADA in getting rid of tens of thousands of Islamists, that many countries are tired of holding and torturing, waterboarding and feeding etc..etc… They are smart enough at the top to know that this is a very good way for mass rendition to other WORLDS of these born Islamist genocidal characters.

“Attached with the emails were many photos of the happy couple, hanging out with friends and partying in nightclubs; as well as some steamy conversations and images which Al Arabiya will refrain from publishing.”

I think Al Arabiya should not refrain from publishing anything… I want to know.

Hizbistan’s and Bashar’s assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri will soon be detailed as soon as Husam Husam begins talking.

Can somebody please tell Hasan Nasrillat to shut up? (thanks sister Tara)

Free Syria & Palestine!

Zoo #201,
South-Sudan, North-Mali, and now Kurdistan!! Oil guys see their hottest dreams realized! All these future contracts!

@Amjad
(6 Why did 133 nations at the UN vote to denounce the regime, with just 12 abstaining or voting in support? Are all these countries in on a salafi-zionist-mujaheedin plot? Seriously?)

Ah you mean the same war mongering, the same 133 nations at the UN that voted for the military intervention during the conflict in Libya?

(Are all these countries in on a salafi-zionist-mujaheedin plot? Seriously?)
If thats how you are going to be you cant taken Seriously if you werent paying attention to the conflict since libya.Which i may add it is timely and was timely planned. As for the zoinist plot sinceyou mentioned it, thats funny i dont remember Israel talking or mentioning anything mouthbad about saudi arabia.

Iroincally arent these the same 133 nations that were in favor of the Iraqi war? that has left 1 million people dead?

(3) Where were your “mujahideen” in the middle of April 2011 when over 100 people in Homs were massacred by your prethident’s ex-convicts shabiha?)

Ah yes the shabiha first used by CNN and its so called analysts by the westren think tanks?
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/07/world/meast/syria-shabiha/index.html
Ah yes Michael Weiss of the -based Henry Jackson Society. Known for its war mongering articles on abuot Iran
What does the based Henry jackson soicety support?

1.Supports the maintenance of a strong military, by the United States, the countries of the European Union and other democratic powers, armed with expeditionary capabilities with a global reach, that can protect our homelands from strategic threats, forestall terrorist attacks, and prevent genocide or massive ethnic cleansing.
Ah yes strategic threats bascailly anything preventing America from becoming an empire which it already is..
As for the claim that to prevent genocide or massive ethnic cleansing well i can see how that worked in rwanda.
But i take the Henry jackson soicety has no problems of radical muslims in Bosnia ethincal cleansing none muslims.

2.Gives two cheers for capitalism. There are limits to the market, which needs to serve the Democratic Community and should be reconciled to the environment.
Two cheers for capitalism, the same capitalism that is destroying almost half of Europe and the same capitalism that is causing poverty.

7) How is it that a “westerner” can’t tell the difference between “their” and “there”? Did you not get much schooling?
Cant you tell whats a mistake, and i would take you dont and that you never make any mistakes right?

8 ) How many hours at night do you lay awake, thrashing about, tormented by the number of thumbs down you’re getting? Get bullied much at school?

Excuse me but we are starting to go off topic.

200. HALABI
????? ??? ???? ?????? ????????? ???? ???? !

@ SANDRO LOEWE

(We have lost everything but Assad will lose honor, life and family. Here we come Assad. Get ready.)

Well with that i can tell that your quiet desperate just like CNN is.

I find it quiet amazing that most if not all of the rebel supporters with likes of Sham News Networks are in love bed with Anderson Cooper.

FSA lost control of most of the positions they took last week in Damascus,Reef Dimashq is not much better,FSA focus is now Aleppo,I see no reason why the outcome will be different, I wish the FSA stuck to their original goal to protect civilians instead of engaging in assassinations, random attacks and taking part in the destruction of many Syrian neighborhoods and towns.
if the regime manages to control Aleppo,attention will be switched to areas under FSA control in the East and the North.

http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/syrian-state-tv-2-egyptians-killed-syria
“(…) The first Egyptian to be killed in the Syria uprising was Eid Salah Eid. He was killed in March 2011 in the city of Deraa. Many other Egyptians have been killed since the start of the Syrian uprising (…)”

Syrialover

Thank you for posting this book. Great by the author to publish it free. The mosque was build after the death of the mother of Hafez. To me the most impressive thing was the lavish Paris style Champs Elysees street lights( so neat to have that in a village) and the multi lane highway which was enlarged to connect the village Quardaha with Damascus. One thing, i was sure to see a 50 m golden statue of hafez which would turn with the movement of the sun. Pretty modest place except for the mosque and every now and then a palace of a modest servant to the regime. I am sure Quardaha would make a nice summer camp for all those displaced Homsi children.

Ah yes, I ask about the infamous massacre in Homs in April 2011, and Bruno goes on a looooong tirade about capitalism and secret societies, and how 133 countries in the world are in on a giant decade old plot (the same countries that can’t even agree on whether climate change is real). The conspiracy-meter needs to be re-adjusted for this one. Most thermometers can measure boiling water, but with Bruno “ah yes its a conthpirathy”, you need one that can measure the surface of the sun.

“Ah you mean the same war mongering, the same 133 nations at the UN that voted for the military intervention during the conflict in Libya?”

Ah yes, your ignorance of how the UN works is remarkable. Military action in Libya did not require a vote in the General Assembly, and wouldn’t have been binding in any case. It required a vote in the Security Council, which your beloved Putin failed to block. He’s been in a bad mood over that shafting ever since.

“Two cheers for capitalism, the same capitalism that is destroying almost half of Europe and the same capitalism that is causing poverty.”

Capitalism worked way better for Eastern Europe and China than your socialism ever did. Ah yes it did. Yes it did. Whose a cute little socialist?

“Cant you tell whats a mistake, and i would take you dont and that you never make any mistakes right? ”

Ah yes, I don’t claim to be a Westerner with a terrible command of basic grammar. You’ve set yourself up as “ye spokesperson for ye skeptical Western menhebakji”, and yet with every post you prove the only place you could have learned English is at the Tehran schooling system.

Ah yes, not a word about Malek Jandali’s elderly parents, nor Najati Tayara, nor Ali Ferzat. Maybe I can ask your prethident the next time he shows himself in public. But I might have to wait a while…

Wazzup gangsters?! Ramadan Kareem

Good to hear you still alive and kicking Aboud (3omr elsha2i ba2i mo heek 🙂

So where’s elBatta waq waq waq?

Safe exit where? Sudan?   Cool.  I can see him and Asma in Sudan splashing in the Nile, wearing the rope and that head thing.  Will add this picture to the family album.

Assad offered ‘safe exit’ by Arab League
Secretary general also promises $100m to help Syrian refugees as fierce fighting continues in Damascus and Aleppo

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/23/assad-offered-safe-exit-arab-league
guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 July 2012 04.03 EDT

@Amjad

(Capitalism worked way better for Eastern Europe and China than your socialism ever did. Ah yes it did. Yes it did. Whose a cute little socialist?)

Really Capitalism worked way better for Eastern Europe? and China? if Capitalism really worked out in Eastern Europe why don’t you go there and see the poverty on the streets eh?

Or better yet why don’t you go to china? and ask the people there oh thats right you cant because for sure the mainstream news outlets told me China is a police state.

Well then lets see what the Eastern Europe the unemployment rate numbers for the countries that are in Eastern Europe show us then shall we.

http://www.indexmundi.com/poland/unemployment_rate.html

Poland unemployment rate:12.1% 2010
Poland unemployment rate:12.3 2012

Romania says poverty reduction is ‘impossible target’
http://www.euractiv.com/enlargement/romania-says-poverty-reduction-impossible-target-news-468172

Almost half of Romanians live in poverty
http://romaniantimes.at/news/General_News/2012-02-08/19657/Almost_half_of_Romanians_live_in_poverty_

Slovakia unemployment Rate: 13.6% as of May 2012

Slovakia Population below poverty line
http://www.indexmundi.com/slovakia/population_below_poverty_line.html

The Czech Republic numbers are growing as well, slowly along the poverty. It wont be to long before they became like Hungary.

Hungary unemployment Rate: 10.9%
http://magyardiplo.hu/szegenyseg-konferencia-cikkek-en/262-worsening-social-circumstances-and-exclusion-in-hungary

Bulgaria unemployment Rate:12.2%

Bulgaria has almost the highest unemployment rate in eastern Europe, next to the Balkan counties.

The numbers don’t look great for the Balkans either and wont be any better come 10 years from now.

Oh i am sure they are all grateful for Capitalism when you look at the numbers and the links i provided to you, do you think i am here to amuse myself?

(Ah yes, I don’t claim to be a Westerner with a terrible command of basic grammar. You’ve set yourself up as “ye spokesperson for ye skeptical Western menhebakji”, and yet with every post you prove the only place you could have learned English is at the Tehran schooling system.)

My English is just fine, and from that post of yours alone what are you from texas? most people and users who use Ye in there posts that you use in between are usual from texas.

(you could have learned English is at the Tehran schooling system.)
Nice try with the insulting and Pickering but i am not an Iranian.

Looks like the last deck of cards is played. When this regime talks bluntly to use international banned chemical weapons, it looks like they are really on the brink to fall apart. Nice try by Makdissi to clarify they would never use that against their own folks, but anyhow Syrians arent taking part in the rebellion,only thousands of “foreign terrorists” are therefore subject to this special treatment by the regime.

“Syria admitted on Monday it possesses chemical weapons and warned it would use them if attacked by foreign powers though not against its own people, as regime troops battled rebels in Damascus and Aleppo.

The warning by foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi comes amid growing international concern that Damascus is preparing to deploy its chemical arsenal in the repression of a 16-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.”

http://wires.univision.com/english/article/2012-07-23/syria-threatens-to-use-chemical

Last night i was invited for not only a good meal ( moulohiyeh with chicken and rice) but also for a good discussion. such discussion really help to clear thoughts. I came to the conclusion that many countries in the west might be actually not very disappointed about the stand of the russian or the chinese regime. I think behind doors there might be some agreement not to agree, what do you guys think of that?

Russia, Saudi Arabia discuss ways out of Syrian crisis – 2012-07-24

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-07/24/c_131733873.htm

“The ministers exchanged opinions on key aspects of the Syrian problem. The Russian side called for an immediate end to violence, whoever it came from, and a broad national dialogue involving all Syrian political forces,” the ministry said on its website.

[…]

@ Tara, howz going? Good job for keeping these apologists on a tight leash

A safe passage to Sudan, mmmm what a perfect choice for an exile at. least elBatta will get to spend time with alDabi

tara, can i ask you something? when did basil’s driver disappear? shortly after basil died? or a long while afterwards?

The curious case of Latakia:
visitors to that city can not tell that there is a civil war in some parts of Syria and street fighting in other towns,even relationships between Latakians are not as tense as you might expect in Syria’s toxic environment,I hope this continues and the FSA stays out of Latakia and let people live,Assad and his clowns have nowhere to go but out of power or/and out of the country but why do we have to destroy Syria to get that mission accomplished?
Latakia airport now accepts large size passenger jets, just to let you know !!

Posted above, this article is a must read,
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NG24Ak01.html

” (…) Erdogan has no choice but to accept that he belongs to Washington’s “toolbox” – nothing more, nothing less. He was never destined for the role to lead the Muslim Middle East. The West was merely pandering to his well-known vanity. That role is Washington’s exclusive prerogative.”

besides the fact assadists being blatant liars, isn’t the regime’s “own people” the alawites?

218. JUERGEN said: many countries in the west might be actually not very disappointed about the stand of the russian or the chinese regime.

it’s called playing good cop/bad cop. a charade. they pretend to be on opposite sides but are really colluding to achieve the same goal.

if the u.s. was really upset with russia, obama wouldn’t have agreed to move the missile defense system arrayed against russian borders, the pentagon wouldn’t have defended russian military contracts continuing in afghanistan AND congress wouldn’t be on the verge of passing a trade bill with russia. call me crazy but bending over backwards to appease russian interests doesn’t sound antagonistic to me.

and then there is this from a reporter:

In every war I have covered, cease-fire is a synonym for buying time to kill more civilians.

Ghufran

Yes, you might land with an Airbus 320, but with two or three jets in parking position this tiny airport is crowded. To me this airport always looked more like an VIP Assad clan airport.

It says it all, Syrians will come back home.

At the Masnaa border crossing, not everyone was driving into Lebanon.

Majed, a 45-year-old taxi driver from Damascus’ Midan district, was heading home, “now that the state has carried out its duties and cleansed” the area.

“The people of Damascus are not used to wars,” he said. “There was real fear in Damascus last week.”

http://news.yahoo.com/bread-queues-destruction-war-comes-damascus-170934014.html

Juergen

Have you solved the circumcision issue? It seems that it is Germany highest priority these days. Around half of the Germans want to prevent Moslem and Jewish to perform their tradition in Germany.

It seems to be a sign of a ‘politically correct’ antisemitism

Omen

very strong article, thanks

“Syrians who called themselves Syrians a few months ago now say they are Alawites, Christians, Sunnis, Shias, Druze.”

Irritated

If you say so, it must be true right?

Sounds familiar?

“In Aleppo, the Free Syrian Army has announced that they will consider those who do not take sides as enemies.”

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/people-in-aleppo-caught-in-crossfire-witness-says.aspx?pageID=238&nID=26182&NewsCatID=352

Bravo Qatar.

A female Qatari swimmer going to compete in the Olympic.

Juergen : “behind doors there might be some agreement not to agree, what do you guys think of that?”

They are of course in cahoots. Russians and Chinese provide the alibi for inaction.

Syrialover : thank you for referring us to Goldsmith’s book.

Says Rime Allaf : Menhebakis say we exaggerate about the Syrian regime’s savagery.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bandannie/7632550940/

230. ZOO said:
“In Aleppo, the Free Syrian Army has announced that they will consider those who do not take sides as enemies.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies

Putin’s Geopolitical Chess Game With Washington In Syria And Eurasia
By F. William Engdahl
author of Myths, Lies and Oil Wars
7-23-12
http://rense.com/general95/putin-dc-chess.html

#229 Juergen

Obviously you prefer to remain silent and it’s understandable after the lessons you gave us that Germans are not concerned about any other German’s religion.

Omen,

The Abu Subeih I knew disappeared within a year after Hama massacre. I was in elementary school and I liked him very much

Destabalising Syria is a Mossad operation – Shoruk

238. Expatriate,

What an upper class arrogant mnhebak b*tch…

No lady, it isn’t a Mossad operation. It is the Syrian people who is fed up with upper class minorities (like yourself, probably), that dictate the Sunni majority.

The last Arab bastion my arse. You desperately try to preserve your and your family’s benefits. Bi*tch.
.

No wonder Saddam warned the world about Hafez, to this madschnune Hafez was even a bigger threat to this world.

The people who should be feeling collectively depressed and ashamed are the Iraqis at the way they are not helping Syrian refugees.

Two million Iraqis fled into Syria and were given a spectacularly kind and tolerant reception by Syrians. I’ve heard many very emotional at how good the Syrian people were to them.

Now of course they have conveniently forgotten what it was like to flee for their lives. They don’t want to know about the suffering of those who rescued them from the same situation. They are beating the Syrians back with sticks at the airport when their govenment sends rescue flights for them, and blocking their borders.

Their disgusting sectarian government says to desperate, terrified and displaced Syrians sorry, we can’t help. While providing material and economic lifelines to Bashar Assad.

Is this telling us something about a basic bad character of Iraqis? Exposing how their culture and attitudes are different to the decency and generosity of ordinary Syrians? That they are simply not nice people.

They have backed a losing, vicious and disgraced horse, and this selfish and inhuman behaviour leaves a dirty stain on the Iraqis reputation. The Syrian people will remember that long after the Assad regime has been buried.

Irritated
You concede the regime is stupid that is a first
Another stupid declaration by Makdisi by admitting to the existence of chemical weapons
Stupid to the sixth power as it now opens Pandora’s box of WMD that will justify anything including FSA taking control!
If he keeps his job it will be another stupid decision
Cheers
No flights no borders no control no news no views and stupid e mails and yet Fredo is winning the only match to the regime stupidity is that of regime supporters who will be left after he goes shopping in Moscow

bruno, amjad, this isn’t capitalism we see at play. when corporations run government, that’s fascism. the game is rigged.

nothing wrong with being a socialist, amjad. don’t take bruno to be representative.

#239 Expatriate,

Her smug childish arrogance and ignorance made me feel irritation, but then I found myself laughing at her. She is so stupid and bizarre in her statements.

Her family obviously has a strong stake in the Assad regime and she has been coached on that absurd script how to justify it.

I would love this to appear on prime time British TV, then she would have to go and slink into a hole with Asma’s daddy.

Her corrupt, delusional, privileged world is about to come crashing down soon anyway.

Syrians in the UK, do your duty. Join the “Syrian Social Club” she says she belongs to.

Bruno, are you seriously maintaining that capitalism has failed to improve the standards of living of the countries that adopted it? That capitalism has failed in China, India and Russia? Seriously?

OK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_past_and_future_GDP_%28nominal%29

Russia’s GDP in 1991 (just before the USSR collapsed) was $85 billion dollars. Today, it is $1.8 trillion.

China’s GDP in 1991 was 408 billion. Today, it is almost $8 trillion.

Poland’s GDP in 1991 was $80 billion. Today, it is $528 billion.

Romania’s GDP in 1991 was $19 billion. Today, it is $186 billion.

Slovakia’s GDP in 1993 (the earliest available statistics) was $13 billion. Today, it is $94 billion.

Hungary’s GDP in 1991 was $38 billion . Today, it is almost $130 billion.

The unemployment figures you cite are normal per the world average these days. Bust and boom is a natural economic cycle. You might as well cry your eyes out at the injustice of a lion eating a zebra. Dizzying heights of growth are tempered by regular recessions.

By every measure you care to use (telephone lines per 1000, hospital beds per 1000, university graduates per 1000), the lot of China, Russia and Eastern Europe has vastly improved over that of 5th world republics like Cuba and North Korea. The people of China, Russia and Eastern Europe are not clamoring for a return to state controlled socialist policies.

How is it that the per capita GDP in Lebanon is three times that of Syria? How is it that Jordan’s GDP per capita is $800 higher than that of Syria’s, even though Jordan doesn’t have a tenth of Syria’s natural resources? I suppose the evil Main Stream Media cooked up the numbers?

“most people and users who use Ye in there posts that you use in between are usual from texas.”

*facepalm* Are you confusing “ye” with “yehaaa”? Seriously dude? You’ve never come across the word “ye” before? Did you ever hear JR Ewing use the word “ye”? Do you even know who Jr Ewing is?

??? ???? ??????? ??????? ???? ??????? ??????? ?? ?????? ???????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ???????? ???????? ??? ????? ???? ?? ????? ??????? ????? ?????? ????? ?? ?????. ????? ???? ???????? ???????? ?? ??? ???? ?? “???? ??????? ???? ??????? ???? ???? ????? ??????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ????????? ?????? ??????? ???”.
More than 100 Iraqis were killed by Jihadists today after islamist terrorists announced their intention to “liberate” Iraq,yet,every time we speak about the issue of terrorism we face accusations of Islam phobia and anti Sunnism.
Israel and the GCC sheikhs are sitting pretty while Muslims are busy killing each other.

Omen, when it comes to medical care and access to education, I am all for a more socialist system, like they have in Canada. But Bruno is claiming that capitalism and the free market is putting down the standards of living in Europe. Listening to Bruno, you’d think they had it so good under Communism.

The chemical weapon seem to have an effect on Obama. He woke up.

Published on Jul 24, 2012

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_825537.html

RENO, Nevada (AFP) – United States (US) President Barack Obama warned Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad on Monday not to make the ‘tragic mistake’ of deciding to unleash his stockpile of chemical weapons.

Mr Assad’s beleaguered regime had earlier threatened to use such weapons if Syria faced international military intervention, although it vowed not to turn them against its own civilians.

‘Given the regime’s stockpile of chemical weapons, we will continue to make it clear to Assad and those around him that the world is watching,’ Mr Obama told an audience of US veterans in the western state of Nevada.

‘They will be held accountable by the international community and the United States should they make the tragic mistake of using those weapons,’ he said.

Bab Alhawa:
“This used to be a very classy area. … The Turks would come here to see our village,” said a fighter named Abdullah Behri, who was treated in a hospital in nearby Turkey after losing his left eye to shrapnel during a battle here last May.
“Now it has all turned to hell,” he said, pointing at the town’s deserted streets.
I find it tragically comic that armed rebels are mourning the destruction they were instrumental in causing,a fight requires two parties the last time I checked.

Annie and Juergen, that recent study on the Assads and the Alawites is a doctoral thesis, which should become a book.

It was Son of Damascus who first recommended it.

It includes the current crisis, and I found it offers fresh perspectives and information that throws useful light on what is happening now. The author did his ground work inside Syria.

I would be interested in Mjabali’s thoughts on it.

And anyone here who has any opinions and ideas about the Assads and/or Alawites should read it.

http://otago.ourarchive.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10523/2232/GoldsmithLeonT2012PhD.pdf

The german tv station N24 was able to get into Syria for 1 week, Steffen Schwarzkopf made this stunning report. He went from Damascus to Douma and Homs.

In German, but again many interviews in Arabic and some in English. The pictures are also worth to see. Devastating pictures of Homs and Douma.

He explaines that they have a minder who is proposing them to visit the military hospital in Damascus, of course in the beginning of this week one better obey the wishes of the regime.

Inside the clinic the usual pics, Schwarzkopf is surprised how much death is routine nowadays for the workers, a dead soldier is put into the coffin and the worker has a smoke while placing the dead body. 20-25 soldiers receive military honors here every day.

One doctor tells the reporter that all the insurgents are foreign, he has seen them in the hospital, and he claims that the opposition is using chemical weapons to kill.

One other solier says that the insurgents have the most advanced foreign weapons, assault weapons no one has seen so far in Syria.

After the hospital the crew learns the difference of allowed and not allowed pictures in Syria, the filming of armed security men on the streets are not allowed pictures, almost the crew got arrested.

They arent allowed to visit Derra, too dangerous. Instead they are taken by the UN to see Douma.

After that they are taken to Homs by an other minder. There in Homs they are shown leftovers of burned corpses, the regime said that the opposition used to torture people and burn them afterwards. In the courtyard a gallows is shown to them , Schwarzkopf finds that the rope and the whole arrangemnet looks prepared just for them to see. The highlight is an weapon shown to them to throw grenades. Thats may be the proof for the advanced equipment the FSA has.
The army admits to the crew that for months they have bombed the area, that was the only way to “clean” the area from snipers they said. No words about civilian casulties.

They were able to film in front of Omayad mosqe, when coincidentally a group of youngsters sing about their hero: the eyedoctor.

At the very end ( min 39:37) Ali Haidar welcomes the crew, the newly elected, sorry choosen minister for reconciliation.

Why does the regime kill?

“It is war, and in a war many bad things happen. We have to work that this ends.”

To the surprise of the reporter Haidar admits that the regime has violantly cracked down on peaceful protests.”The government should have never used weapons. But that happens in many revolutions all over the world. Thats the way it is.”

http://www.n24.de/mediathek/video_1565130.html

Europe prepares evacuation of up to 200.000 foreign citizens( european and other countries). A possible country of evacuation is now being discussed to be Cyprus.

I predict Aleppo is going to offer some difficult developments for the regime. The opposition and its supporters aren’t wasting their time behind the scenes.

I’m watching and waiting.

Tara:

I have just watched al-Far
ouk movie series online on MBC. It is about my historical hero, the great Khalifa Omar. Have you watched it?

free Syria & Palestine!
p.s., I prayed in Omar Masjid in Jerusalem-next to al-Aksa Mosque

219. Juergen said:
Looks like the last deck of cards is played. When this regime talks bluntly to use international banned chemical weapons, it looks like they are really on the brink to fall apart. Nice try by Makdissi to clarify they would never use that against their own folks, but anyhow Syrians arent taking part in the rebellion,only thousands of “foreign terrorists” are therefore subject to this special treatment by the regime.

Not quite right, Juergen. Here’s what Makdissi had to say: “The ministry wants to re-affirm the stance of the Syrian Arab Republic that any chemical or bacterial weapon will never be used – and I repeat will never be used – during the crisis in Syria regardless of the developments…These weapons are stored and secured by Syrian military forces and under its direct supervision and will never be used unless Syria faces external aggression.” http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/07/23/syria_wont_use_chemical_weapons_unless_it_decides_to

Stymied at U.N., U.S. Refines Plan to Remove Assad
By ERIC SCHMITT and HELENE COOPER
Published: July 21, 2012 210 

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has for now abandoned efforts for a diplomatic settlement to the conflict in Syria, and instead it is increasing aid to the rebels and redoubling efforts to rally a coalition of like-minded countries to forcibly bring down the government of President Bashar al-Assad, American officials say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/world/middleeast/us-to-focus-on-forcibly-toppling-syrian-government.html?_r=1
….
“We’re looking at the controlled demolition of the Assad regime,” said Andrew J. Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “But like any controlled demolition, anything can go wrong.”

Administration officials said the United States is also working with Syrian rebels to establish a transition process for the day that Mr. Assad’s government falls, including trying to set up a provisional government that would include representatives …

But as last week’s unexpected turn of events indicate, planning for the end of the Assad government, which administration officials insist will happen without saying precisely when, is virtually impossible. “What is the end? That’s the dilemma,” said one senior defense official. “No one knows what the end is. So it’s all about mitigating the risks.”
……
…American officials are expressing fears that the implosion of the government could lead to a breakup of Syria, with Mr. Assad’s minority Alawite sect retreating to coastal mountain redoubts still armed with their chemical weapons.

“It’s an outcome that contains the seeds of a war that never ends,” said Robert Malley, Middle East and North Africa program director at the International Crisis Group. “The rest of Syria won’t accept having part of their territory under the control of the people who’ve been oppressing them.”
…
A small number of C.I.A. officers have been operating secretly in southern Turkey for several weeks, helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive weapons to fight the government.

The C.I.A. effort is aimed in part to help keep weapons out of the hands of fighters allied with Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups, one senior American official said. By helping to vet rebel groups, American intelligence operatives in Turkey also hope to learn more about a growing, changing opposition network inside of Syria and to establish new ties to fighters who may be the country’s leaders one day.

American diplomats are also meeting regularly with representatives of various Syrian opposition groups outside the country to help map out a possible post-Assad government.

more..

Dawoud

Did not watch it. I miss Ramadan in Damascus. It is getting depressing.

Antoine, I warned you before. Threats to other commenters are not acceptable. You are going to be under moderation for one week.

——–
IRRITATED,

We are coming for Damascus and all those who are looked after by the regime prepared to meet Gaddafi-style fate,

Btw this is what happened to some of Assad soldiers who refused to listen and continued to be slaves : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG0lPNgHjII&feature=plcp

( Sakhour is the toughest neighborhood in Aleppo )

Tara:

I am in NY and still can watch it despite my sadness regarding al-Assad’s war crimes!

Next year Ramadan in Free Damascus and free Jerusalem!

FSA fighters withdrawing from some places and engagements is not bad news for me. It means they are being careful and staying alive. They have more work to do and a victory to look forward to.

I also wish Syrian ordinary army soldiers are allowed to survive this and enjoy a future in Syria.

@Amjad
So 10 people like Amjad insulting post eh? well with that i can tell see where Amjad and such users are coming from.

Bruno,

No, it means THEY can see where YOU are coming from.

It is déjà vu all over again,but Aleppo is the new victim. Sections in northern and eastern Aleppo are under armed rebels control largely due to the abscence of regime forces in some areas and their “tactical withdrawal” in others.. Armed rebels,many are common thugs,are wrecking havoc and using their skills to loot and shoot. Angry citizens are blaming the government for “abandoning” Aleppo which is now being punished for being silent or supportive when it comes to the regime. Aleppo battle may prove to be nastier than the one that is ending in Damascus. The FSA wants to create a continuous corridor from Turkish borders,if they succeed they will attack Hama. Regardless if they succeed or fail,one thing is certain if violence does not stop:
Syria will be a failed fractured state under the hegemony of the GCC and their backers including Israel,the biggest losers in addition to syria and Iran will be the Palestinians who will have to wait another generation before they have a chance to get their legitimate rights.
All of your anti regime and the revolutionary talk will not change this basic fact, no wonder interested parties and their reps here are celebrating this bloody war.

265. Bruno said: …”well with that i can tell see where Amjad and such users are coming from.”

Can’t imagine either that the (secular) Syrian opposition would be too happy with these public displays of disparaging both those supporting revolutionary opposition and those supporting peaceful transition, managing to alienate both.

“the OneMideast.org website, perked his interest, and he requested that it be translated and sent to an individual named “bekhtiar.” (doc-id 2095860)” http://english.al-akhbar.com/syria-file/2095860

@ Otrakji

So did bekhtiar approach you at that time? Did this idea make you closest to Imad Mustapha and elBatta? Or did they try to question you about it?

C’mon spill your beans .

“Syria will be a failed fractured state under the hegemony of the GCC and their backers including Israel,the biggest losers in addition to syria and Iran will be the Palestinians who will have to wait another generation before they have a chance to get their legitimate rights.”

First of all, the Syria government, for close to 40 years, it could not get one inch square of the Golan Heights back, let alone do anything for Palestinians. Empty slogans no longer work.

As for Syria becoming a failed state, you can thank Assad and co. for this catastrophic failure. It didn’t have to come down to this, but tyrants never learn. That’s why they are tyrants.

Stirring religious sensitivities.

The 2nd Caliph, Omar Ibn al-Khattab, to appear on the Arab silver screen
http://www.forwardsyria.com/story/316/The%202nd%20Caliph,%20Omar%20Ibn%20al-Khattab,%20to%20appear%20on%20the%20Arab%20silver%20screen

In what has been described as a revolution in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and television drama, the Saudi channel MBC and Qatar have teamed up to produce a 30-episode epic on the life of Omar Ibn al-Khattab, one of the most powerful and influential Muslim leaders in world history. The work is being written by the Jordanian Walid Seif and will be crafted by the popular Syrian TV director, Hatem Ali, who a few years back, made a groundbreaking TV biography of Farouk I, the last King of Egypt. According to sources close to production, the work will feature Syrian star Taim Hasan—who played Farouk and Nizar Qabbani in the past—as the Caliph Omar.

A frenzy of debate has already ripped through political, religious, and cultural circles throughout the Arab and Muslim world. Many are asking how producers make an entire work about Omar, who according to Islamic norm, cannot be shown on screen—as the case with the Prophet Mohammad and all his companions. One cannot see them or hear their voice, so as not to associate their name with the actor who depicts them on screen, and additionally, one cannot draw their image or make a statue out of their likeliness. Audiences remember that back in the 1970s, Hollywood based director Mustapha al-Akkad made his classic, Mohammad: Messenger of God without ever showing the Prophet—only his cane and camel. This time, sources add, if objections snowball about bringing Omar to the silver screen, director Hatem Ali might satisfy himself by showing blurred shadows of the Caliph and not his full face.

Iranian sensitivities
Politically, the upcoming TV series (earmarked for the summer of 2011) will undoubtedly enrage the Shiites of Iran, who hold very negative views of Omar and his predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. Shiites claim that the two men hoarded the caliphate for themselves after Prophet’s death in 632, threatening to assault and burn down the house of his daughter Fatima (wife of Ali) if she did not endorse Abu Bakr’s caliphate. Omar’s assassination at the age of 58 in 644 is another controversial juncture that the TV series will have to deal with, since he was stabbed at the mosque in Medina by a Persian (Abu Lu’lua) in revenge for his invasion and occupation of the Persian Empire (present-day Iran). His son, Ubaidullah Bin Omar, pledged to kill all the Persians in Medina in revenge—and actually managed to hunt down accomplices of the man who killed his father. Earlier this year, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered that Iranian media and culture refrain from insulting anyone who had been close to the Prophet. Theoretically, this applies to Omar who accompanied Mohammad for 16-years, during all his wars, and both within Mecca and Medina. Centuries of indoctrination against the Caliph (who Sunnis call Prince of Believers) will undoubtedly prevent hardliners in Iran from being quiet about Omar revisiting them next Ramadan—made all the more notorious, perhaps, thanks to Saudi and Qatari funding of the TV drama

Sobering up… time to think again about negotiations between Syrian sides (with UN monitor assistance)?

“Despite reports last week that suggested rebel forces were on the verge of major triumphs in Syria, the last few days of fighting there show that a long battle still looms.”

“Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad in recent days have tightened their grip on the Lebanese border, re-established control over at least one neighborhood in Damascus and perhaps reached an accommodation with the country’s Kurds that will free up more troops for battle.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/23/3719544/fighting-in-syria-indicates-bashar.html#storylink=cpy

Two Syrians belonging to the opposition kidnapped in Lebanon
24/07/2012

Despairing of the official efforts to secure their release, the relatives of the kidnapped Shiite pilgrims went into action yesterday and kidnapped two Syrian opposition members in Lebanon, with the purpose of an exchange. According to a Syrian opponent, other kidnappings of hostages are expected to achieve an equivalent or higher than the 11 Lebanese pilgrims abducted on May 22 in Syria. Yesterday, panic was spreading among the Syrian opposition in Lebanon, the source said.
http://www.lorientlejour.com/category/Liban/article/769972/Deux_opposants_syriens_enleves_au_Liban.html

Expat,
Those who did the fight until now were not Aasad and his regime,it was Hizbullah and Hamas,for the first time since 1973,Israel could not finish a war on its terms,the war in 2006 six years after Israel was forced to withdraw from any Arab land in its bloody history.
You can call the regime anything you want,but the truth is that Syria was instrumental in bringing the Arab-Israeli conflict to a new level that is not favorable to Israel, Arabs never had a real deterrence sincec1973,but that was starting to change in 2000 and certainly in 2006.
Opposing Assad does not mean ignoring basic strategic facts about the Middle East,and thinking that a GCC sponsored new leadership in Syria will help the Arab cause is naive and laughable ( I am not here describing your comment).
A failed state that is torn in pieces by violence,sectarian conflict and multiple regional and international allegiance can not bring peace to Syria or the Middle East. I second your condemnation of the regime that oppressed and impoverished syrians but I do not want to forget the whole picture. You guys are right in opposing the regime but dead wrong in supporting violence and cheering a deformed opposition that is made in Qatar and KSA,people like Kilo, Manna, Dalila and others will have zero chance of influencing events if Hamad et al have their way,mark my words.

271. jna

This can only happen when one side will win or both will be too exhausted to continue.
Until now the government won the Damascus battle and the rebels lost the hope they could have another try.
The battle of Aleppo is the key. If the Syrian government wins it,the opposition will be in a weak position and may call the UNMIS to arrange for the dialog they have rejected until now. If the rebels win the control of Aleppo, both sides will call the UNMIS to arrange for negotiations for a cease fire, and the negociations can start.

Islamist rebels in Aleppo

@273. Ghufran
” I second your condemnation of the regime that oppressed and impoverished syrians but I do not want to forget the whole picture. You guys are right in opposing the regime”
At least we agree on something. As for cheering for violence, I do not. I didn’t even want the Arab Spring to spread to Syria because I didn’t want anarchy and civil strife. However, after the government killed so many people and bombed so many homes and destroyed so much property, armed resistance became the only option, despite its heavy price.

As for the “GCC sponsored new leadership in Syria,” I am not a fan of it and I am most certainly not a fan of MB, but what can one do. This is a result of the lack freedoms in Syria. It’s the Baath and not MB that stifled political freedoms in Syria and prevented people from coming up with alternatives.

Today, the name of the game is sectarianism. This is the new tool to divide the people and let them kill one another. The regime did its best to respond in a sectarian manner (bidkin hirrieh) and those fanning the flames of sectarianism didn’t have to blow hard.

So here we are seeing Syria self-destroy because those in charge didn’t want to yield to the will of the people. All this talk of an intergalactic conspiracy is secondary. If there was such a grand conspiracy, the regime could have defeated it with real and tangible reforms. At the very least, they could have tried.

???? ??????? ?????? ???????? ??????? ????? ???????? ????? ????? ??? ????? ??????.
???? ???? “??????” ???????? ?????? ?????? ?? ??? ???????? ???? ????? ????? ??? “??????” ????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ???? ??? ???? ???? ??? ??? ???? ???? ????? ????????? ??????? ?????? ????? ????? ????? ????? ?? ??? ???????? ?????? ????? ??? ?????? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ????????? ?? ??? ??? ????? ??????? ??? ????????? ????????.
«??? ?? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ?????? ???? ????? ???? ??? ??????? ???? ??? ?????» ???? ??? ?????? ?? ?????. ???? ??? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ???????? ??? ?? ?? ????? ????? ?????? ????????. ??? ??????? ?????? ????????? ??? ????? «???????» ???????.
????? ?? ????? ?? ????? ??????? ????? ??????? ???????? ???????? ?? ???????? «???? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ??? ?? ?? ???? ??? ??????? ???? ????? ????? ????? ?? ??????? ?????? ????????? ??????? ???? ?????? ????? ?????? ?????».
(BTW,I do not mind the thumbs down I receive as long as you guys read my posts or at least the headlines,we can only get out of this mess if we chat not shoot)

I love the diarrhea of statements of concerns about chemical weapons in Syria coming from all freedom-loving politicians after Maqdisi said what he said. It is common knowledge that Syria has a large stock of missiles and chemical weapons, pretending of being “shocked and outraged” is shocking and outrageous, the only reason for this sleuth of political garbage is a desire to justify future military or semi military actions against Syria. Syria’s borders are now ready for intrusion by our lovely neighbors,tell me how is that good for the country !!

@Ghufran
Sryia,Iran both don’t have any WMDs i am not surprised the war mongering Republicans are digging into this lie yet again.

Its ironic that every time people start questioning the events on 9/11 the neo cons call them Conspiracy theorists.

Yet when the war in Iraq had ended in Iraq and no WMDs were found, the Neo cons then claimed that.

Iran and Sryia both had Saddam WMDs that sounds like a Conspiracy theorist to me doesn’t it?

And yeah i agree with you Ghufran.

@GHUFRAN @277

Here I left you 2 thumb up, I have 500 IP addresses in my home network alone, find me an auto clicker script and will click’em all for you… LOL.. Thats for stupid neocons semite to care about, who care about it, as long as you place the comment in their face and let them simmer and boil over it, you done the job man. This not a popularity contest,it is a war.

JNA

Yes i take him by his words, doesnt the regime see the insurgents to be all foreign terrorists acting on syrian soil?

Dawoud

There was as usual a big controversy over the series, not only from KSA came the accusation that Omar ibn al Khatab shouldnt be portrayed. The fact that Anthony Quinn portrayed a famous sahaba was seen as ok, since he is foreign. The rage was that arabs for the first time made a film about a famous sahaba.May be it just takes time for arabic muslims to accept this kind of story telling. I remember back in 1998 i saw in Indonesia an video of the beautiful talal badru alaina song, in this video they had a actor put on a camel riding through the rainforest, his face was covered from light, so it was Muhammed. At the end he marched with thousands of people into the big stadium of Jakarta, all sing Talal al badru alaina. At that time i thought to myself, only Indonesians have the guts to to that, an arab producer might not get old for such an work.

here are two examples of indonesian islam:

Since more than 25 years this all women band tours the world:

Nasida Ria-Ya ramadhan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feFm-VgFbSU&feature=related

Siti Nurhaliza

Father Paolo at Chrstine Amanpour

sorry for the bad camera, its not available on CNN yet.

Kicked out of Syria because he asked for democracy

the apologist position seems to be that bashar has the right to gas his own people – and to do so with impunity – without having to worry about bothersome interference from outside powers.

i don’t know why i continue to be surprised by the lack of conscience.

last time chem weapons were used – saddam against the kurds – we blocked sanctions from being applied and rewarded saddam with a billion dollar contract six months later.

despite the fearmongering and the cooked intelligence, the u.s. knew saddam didn’t have wmd even before we invaded. scott ritter said the stockpiles were destroyed earlier. saddam’s son in law said the stockpiles were destroyed earlier. one could argue if saddam had kept his stockpile, that might have retarded the eagerness of bush inc. to invade.

i’ve yet to hear a real threat leveled by u.s. officials against the regime if it dared to use its stockpile. obama said the regime would be “held accountable.” i think nuland said there would be “consequences.” which would be what, exactly? hitting bashar with more sanctions? we’ve already threatened bashar with accountability. this is not a ratcheting up of a threat. this is not the rhetoric of deterrence.

the u.s. has a history of ignoring genocide when not actively inflicting one. we’re not in the humanitarian business.

“No, it means THEY can see where YOU are coming from.”

LOL, well said 🙂

“This not a popularity contest,it is a war.”

If they can’t fight, most people do their part in a war by demonstrating, writing articles, boycotting the enemy. The SNP’s idea of fighting a war apparently, is spending money on proxy services and giving “thumbs up”.

Thanks for proving that the votes on behalf of the menhebakjis are meaningless. Not that anyone except Bruno didn’t know that anyway 🙂

“tell me how is that good for the country !!”

And yet here you are, loudly proclaiming your love and devotion to a junta that can’t even secure the country’s borders and has to resort to threats of chemical warfare. Tell me how such blind obedience to an inept warmonger is good for the country? I thought the invasion of Baba Amr was supposed to have “broken the back of the terrorists”? What an anti-climax.

284. AMJAD said :

“I though the invasion of Baba Amr was supposed to have “broken the back of the terrorists”?

______________________________________________________________

Not only the one in February, but as early as the one in November 2011 on Eid al-Adha, when Abdur Razzak Tlass first came into the limelight. We remember SNP here boasting that 1000 terrorists had been eliminated by Assad’s forces in Baba Amr in November, whereas the sober reality was that it became a stronghold of the FSA for the next 4 months where any pro-regime forces feared to tread.

Some people here who claim to speak for the Palestinians and claim that a “Free Syria” will spell the doom for Palestinian Independence, were the same ones enthusiastically cheering when the Lebanese Army was destroying Nahr al Bared.

So i have a (not so) distant relative in the Army who died. He was still in his early years, recently married, not politicized. Certainly he had no other choice to do his job and defend his patry, near the Turkish border and I was told (western info) that Al Qaeda militants were operating in the area. His comrades gave the family a number to call so that they could talk to the rebels (apparently a number to negotiate and retrieve prisoners and corpses from each side)

The FSA repeatedly turned down their calls and say not to call again, he’s dead and buried. So he’ll stay somewhere in a mass grave without the possibility to have a religious office and a tomb close to his widow and family.

Who really is defending that this so called FSA is other than a bunch of unruly gangs, fanaticized idiots, or foreign agents by large- and present them as chivalrous, principled freedom fighters

It may be true that palestinians enjoyed far more rights in Syria than in neighboring countries, but just like the iraqi refugees the syrian profitted and exploited them. The usual rascism Palestinians faced even in Syria i will leave aside for now.

DER SPIEGEL writes that in the central prison of Aleppo the detained have started to riot and demonstrate. In the last night 8 inmates were killed when security personal fired tear gas and live ammunition at them.

Concerns have been raised that the regime could repeat its brutal methods like they have proven in the Tadmor prison massacre.

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.spiegel.de%2Fpolitik%2Fausland%2Fsyrien-gefaengnisrevolte-in-aleppo-und-homs-laut-aktivisten-a-846044.html

Juergen,

I do not think Palestinian refugees faced “racism” in Syria, but they did face “hostility” from locals sometimes (very rarely), Syrian racism against Palestinians and Iraqis is more based on skin colour, many Palestinians and Iraqis who have fair skin and light hair can pass for Syrians.

254. Syrialover

It fails by concluding that Alawite fears of Salafists are unfounded.

Habib,

Confusing the Palestinian with the Iranian flag isn’t related to “IQ”.

It must be a result of the great Syrian education system…

(Please don’t put this post into spam)

Al-Qaeda is responsible for at least 90 terror attacks in Syria, according to Germany’s intelligence agency, BND.

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/us-intelligence-struggling-syria

Citing government responses to a parliamentary inquiry, German daily Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) said Al-Qaeda operatives were well and truly in Syria.

The revelations confirm Western fears that Al-Qaeda is taking advantage of the crisis, potentially undermining rebel efforts against the Syrian regime.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has frequently contended that his forces are fighting primarily an Islamist insurgency.

Berlin also admitted it had information on the May 25 Houla massacre, in which over 100 Syrians were slaughtered, including women and children.

But the German government refused to disclose details of the massacre to the parliamentary inquiry, stating that such information had to remain classified “by reason of national interest.”

Signs that exhaustion is starting to affect the opposition?

SNC welcomes regime-led transitional government

Published Tuesday, July 24, 2012
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/snc-welcomes-regime-led-transitional-government
Marking a significant shift, Syria’s exiled opposition said it would be willing to accept a transition led temporarily by a member of the regime if President Bashar al-Assad steps aside, the Syrian National Council said on Tuesday.

“We would agree to the departure of Assad and the transfer of his powers to a regime figure, who would lead a transitional period like what happened in Yemen,” SNC spokesman George Sabra told AFP.
….
“We accept this initiative because the priority today is to put an end to the massacres and protect Syrian civilians, not the trial of Assad,” Sabra said.

Asked about which regime figure could lead such a transition, Sabra said “Syria has patriotic figures both in the regime and among officers in the Syrian army who could take such a role,” without giving further details.

The comments were cautiously welcomed by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) headed by Ali Haidar, Syria’s new Minister of National Reconciliation.

“It’s an improvement from their side. We welcome any kind of political discussions. Any political initiative is more than welcome, but it has to be achievable and reasonable,” Elia Samaan, senior member of the SSNP’s political bureau told Al-Akhbar from Damascus.
..
The shift comes after Syrian government forces repelled a rebel offensive on Damascus last week, and battles against another rebel offensive in Aleppo.

With the fear of the WMD falling in the hands of irresponsible rebels, is Israel shifting toward keeping law and order in the hands of a united and reliable “enemy state” than dubious “revolutionary friends”?

Israeli official says Assad “responsibly” guarding WMDs

Published Tuesday, July 24, 2012
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/israeli-official-says-assad-responsibly-guarding-wmds

An Israeli official said that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime is dealing responsibly with the chemical weapons in its possession, and that it is taking action to prevent these weapons falling into the hands of the Syrian opposition.

In my post 255 where i posted the video of a german tv team, one can see the rare recorded anger of ordinary Syrians who seem not to care anymore about goverment minders and even the blunt violent gestures of suddenly popping up security forces seem to be meaningless to many. In a remarkable scene a women is outraged about the shortage of cooking gas. She bluntly accuses those in the top, they are responseable. No word about the evil western countries who imposed sanctions. There is a bottle of gas( for 1 month) for every citizen, but some come by and get a dozen, while others have to go home without any gas.

Der Spiegel on the propaganda war Sana has intensified

Sana usually would sent out Twitter messages like those:

“35 degrees today in Damascus” and “Pool Party with DJ Beat mate and Majd al-Ali at the Carlton Hotel”

now there is a shift to:

“The Syrian state television shows the bodies of killed terrorists from Egypt and Jordan,” it says, and “The authorities of Damascus have successfully hunted the terrorists in the suburb of Berzeh ”
“A-Sana message shows how the regime is nervous in the propaganda war now. It warned the Syrian Ministry of Information, Western intelligence agencies wanted to chop the channel of state television and replace the official program by false reports. Perhaps these false reports were presented by the speakers, even the Syrian state television itself – by the Speaker kidnap and force to such statements.

It is not known whether members of the Syrian state television were actually kidnapped by insurgents, maybe if some of them ran over to the rebels – or whether Damascus feared simply, the building of the station could fall into the hands of the rebels.

It is becoming apparent, however: The regime has apparently even in the studios of state television, in the center of his power, for now vulnerable.”

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.spiegel.de%2Fpolitik%2Fausland%2Fbuergerkrieg-in-syrien-offensive-an-der-twitter-front-a-845895.html

SNC welcomes regime-led transitional government
In a sign of “unity”, the SNC immediately denies it. Qodmani wants more blood.

SNC rift over Syrian transitional government
Published Tuesday, July 24, 2012
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/snc-welcomes-regime-led-transitional-government

A spokesperson for Syria’s external opposition has denied accepting a unity government led by a member of the regime, contradicting a statement by another SNC member.

The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) will not accept a unity government led by a member of the regime, spokeswoman Kodmani said Tuesday,

“There was never any question of a national unity government led by a member of the regime,” Bassma Kodmani told AFP, hours after another SNC spokesman, George Sabra, said the council was ready to agree to a transfer of President Bashar al-Assad’s powers to a regime figure who would take power for a transitional period.
….

@Albo

My cousin was stabbed, my sister jailed and beaten up, my house looted, and my family business (that’s more than 200 Years old btw) has been destroyed by shabi7at Assad.

The FSA was in my family area for nearly 6 months without fear or threats, the day the Assad army invaded that all changed. The moukhtar tried in vain to negotiate with the shabi7a filth but their answer was to kill him, he had been the mayor of the qarieh longer than Bashar has been alive.

Russia’s anger toward Turkey on display

Russian air defense in Syria would have shot down Turkish jets like ‘ducks’

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/russian-air-defense-in-syria-would-have-shot-down-turkish-jets-like-ducks-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=26223&NewsCatID=359

Syria’s Russian-made air defense systems would have shot down Turkish jets like “ducks” if Turkey had attempted an attack on Syria, Russia newspaper Izvestia has reported.

Turkey was ready to launch an attack on Syria but aborted its plans when the Turkish General Staff realized that Turkish forces knew very little about Syria’s defense systems, the report said.

Zoo

George Sabra must be kidding. I think the opposition should NOT agree to a regime-led transitional government. Members of the regime who have no blood on their hands can be part of it but not leading the transitional government . And that of course means Bashar is not in the picture at all.

Erdo?an warns Syria of reprisals in event of further hostility

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/erdogan-warns-syria-of-reprisals-in-event-of-further-hostility-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=26206&NewsCatID=338

Turkey is prepared to retaliate against Syria for any hostile action, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an said yesterday while arguing that the Syrian regime’s days are numbered.
…
“We believe that the Syrian people are closer than ever to victory,” he said.

Juergen, and? Suddenly the bourgeoisie will find it believeable that rebels can provide the basic commodities and public services? How was that in Iraq? You know, we’re talking of people who do not confound the Iranian flag for the Palestinian here.

298. Tara

George Sabra must be kidding.

That’s what Basma Qodmani implied in another show of divisions, struggles and confusion in the ranks of the SNC on respirator..

Five Syrian Nightmares: The Mideast Can’t Live With Assad, But Living Without Him Won’t Be Easy

Nobody’s expecting a happy ending any time soon to Syria’s civil war. Here are just five things that could go badly wrong when the Assad regime falls
By Tony Karon | @tonykaron | July 24, 2012 | 1

Read more: http://world.time.com/2012/07/24/five-syrian-nightmares-the-mideast-cant-live-with-assad-but-living-without-him-wont-be-easy/#ixzz21XraPC8z

Erdogan refuses to accept the aspirations of the Kurds and the Alavis in his own country, how could he consider accepting the aspirations of the Alawis, the Christians and the Kurds in Syria?

Why Does Turkey Want Regime Change in Syria?

Halil Karaveli July 23, 2012
http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/why-does-turkey-want-regime-change-syria-7227
…
Ankara has neglected to address a key reality: the uprising against the Assad regime is a civil war. But the Turkish government has not made any attempt to give the impression that it embraces the cause of the Alawites, Christians and Kurds in equal measure. That negligence is not a coincidence; indeed, any Turkish attempt to appear to be doing so would have lacked credibility. Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) refuses to accommodate the aspirations of the country’s own, largest religious minority, the Alevis, and is suppressing the Kurdish movement—eight thousand Kurdish politicians and activists have been imprisoned during the last three years—which demands equality just as the Kurds in Syria do. The Syrian policy of Turkey’s ruling Sunni conservatives mirrors a sectarian tilt that has become more pronounced internally as well.

Zoo

Aren’t we done with the one opinion, the one leader, the president for life, the one demi-god? Diversity of opinions is good. No? Decisions need to be made by vote. I think it is ok to have different views, it is a sign of democracy and strength.

Assads’ family rule makes an Alawite state impossible

Faisal Al Yafai
Jul 24, 2012

http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/assads-family-rule-makes-an-alawite-state-impossible

304. Tara

In peace yes, not in war. You don’t win a war with many leaders who bicker with each other.

Ultimately, if you look at the french Revolution, it was the bourgeoise class which decided its fate. Of course they did manipulate the angry masses in order to eliminate the aristocracy. But the french revolution was the model of “révolution bourgeoise”, and the people who died was left behind and ended up in the sweatshops of the emerging industrial revolution- for generations a condition worse than feudalism.

Many differences here, but it also seems many young Syrians are manipulated and won’t be much better off.
But so long as the syrian bourgeoisie isn’t confident, particularly the Sunnis, this uprising isn’t going anywhere.

Zoo

I don’t think the majority Sunnis will allow the division of Syria and the creation of a separate Alawi coastal state. JL mentioned that Tartus and Lattaki were and still majority Sunnis. Alawis are from the mountains and descended to the urban cities in the second half of the 20th century. Syria without the coast is not viable and whoever rules Damascus will have the international legitimacy so any other statelet will not be defensible… Unless Alawis retreat to the coast and take the chemical weapons with them.

SO now the regime is bombing its people with fixed-wing fighter jets? Disgusting, utterly disgusting development…the regime must be stretched so thin that it has to scramble its fighter jets to prevent the rebels from taking Aleppo…

How will the menhebakhji’s respond to this?

309. Tara said:
Syria without the coast is not viable and whoever rule Damascus will have the international legitimacy

Is the opposition going to demand the return of ISKANDERUN to Syria?
Is it aleady a subject of negotiation with Turkey? What is the reaction of Erdogan? Or is the opposition going to abondon Syrian territory for the price of military support?

I know many Syrian from Iskendrun, they consider themselves Syrian and do not appreciate the Turkish dominance -Despite wealty economical developent in Turkey over the last years.-

By the way, its one of the most beautifull and fertile area of the coast and I would love to have it in Syrian hands again.
Do you agree?

I think Landis could be wrong: Lattakia used to be majority Sunnis during the Ottoman days. Now, there is at least as many Alawis as Sunnis. If the city keeps on expanding, like it has been doing, it will be an overwhelming Alawi very soon. There is one third of the city at least Christians.

Damascus has hundreds of thousands of Alawis that started moving to Lattakia and the coast. The demographic composition of Syria is changing for sure, something Landis and others did not take into account.

Tartus was a small city during the Ottomans. Sunnis live then near the castle by the water. Many of them live in the Castle itself that was meshed into the urban landscape. Now Tartus is big with Alawi and Christians as the majority with little Sunni populace.

Not that I like the division of Syria, but an Alawi state could emerge very easily especially with what is taking place now.

General Cheese:

Of course I knew it was you from the first time I read your posts under the new name. You sound like a broken record. Same talk with the same inept attitude and disrespectful language. AT the end of the day who cares about you general…

Not that I like the division of Syria, but an Alawi state could emerge very easily especially with what is taking place now.

I deeply and honestly wish this will never happen. I wish that Syria and Syrians remain united. Multi-ethnicity is the strenght and fascination of our country.
Whenever I visit a district populated by one of the ethnic groups, I feel its different but again a part of me.

I may get many thumbs down for this comment, but this will not rock my belief

Any news that the fighting has reached the old city of Aleppo?

291. Funk_Monk

I’d assume people who join such groups never went to school in the first place.

309. Tara

Who cares what Sunnis will “allow”? What the hell can they do? Blow themselves up even harder? Whine to the West a little more?

For those that are interested and happen to be in Montreal, there is an iftar dinner being hosted tomorrow tonight at the Cathedral Saint Sauveur with Father Paolo.

312. MJABALI

It is clear you are for the creation of an alawi state in case alawis cannot control the whole state. This is what I call medieval sectarianism even worse than in Lebanon.

<317. Son of Damascus said:

For those that are interested and happen to be in Montreal, there is an iftar dinner being hosted tomorrow tonight at the Cathedral Saint Sauveur with Father Paolo.

Great Idea, I regret I cant attend.
But why noone comes to this idea in Syria and invite all groups to Iftar?

I guess many badly need it and appreciate it.

Habib

The Sunni is deposing the most ruthless family mafia in history, establishing a democracy in Syria and will not allow its division. They have done and can do much.

Stick

No the opposition is not asking for Iskandsron back. I have not heard that Iskandsron people are engaged in struggle to go back to Syria. They should be allowed to chose their destination through a binding vote.

318. SANDRO LOEWE

I don’t see any of you guys denouncing similar Kurdish aspirations, how come?

320. Tara

They’re merely replacing an autocracy with a theocracy. And this one will be more oppressive, judged on the credentials of Salafists elsewhere.

Democracy? Please.

321. Tara said:
No the opposition is not asking for Iskandsron back. I have not heard that Iskandsron people are engaged in struggle to go back to Syria. They should be allowed to chose their destination through a binding vote.

Tara,

Do you believe that Erdogan or Turkey in general would accept and respect such a binding vote?

Stick

I do not know. Syria should take it to the UN. Of course, not now. May be in 10 years from now when we are considered an established respected democracy with institutions.

Habib,

If you think the vast majority of Sunni Syrians are interested in theocracy, think again. Most Syrians are modest and enjoy life pleasures. They are not genetically-engineered salafis. They like outings, partying, mingling and socia life. If you do not agree, then you don’t know them well.

#342 TARA
I do not know. Syria should take it to the UN. Of course, not now. May be in 10 years from now when we are considered an established respected democracy

Te best place to be vetod by USA, UK, FR. Did any of the UN-Resolutions against Israel became effective?

324. Tara

Lol, you think the majority of Iranians or Afghans wanted a theocracy?

It doesn’t matter what the majority wants, the people with the guns decide, and in this case, those people are supported by Saudi Arabia and Qatar for their Islamist credentials.

Fifty men with guns can control a million unarmed men.

Stick

I do not want to go in a circle. The point is: not now and only through a referendum.

#324. Tara said:

Most Syrians are modest and enjoy life pleasures. They are not genetically-engineered salafis.

I fully agree with you. I have heared recently about families offering stay to people from a different ethnic group who lost their place to stop with them until they find a solution.

But you know that these type of people are not radical, they are peacefull – the silent majority-

The risk comes from extremist which are determind to eliminate any sort of co-habitation in Syria.
And you know there are recently a lot of them but no answers about how to deal with them.

We all need to show these people that there is no place for them in SYRIA

Apparently Qatar and Saudi Arabia are spending $36 billion to build a fake Damascus in Hollywood and have famous actors play Syrian officials announcing a coup. The menhebak mind is definitely warped beyond repair.

http://youtu.be/DDNAAtS297I

@ Habib

That’s what they said about Libya, yet they VOTED the secular alliance into power. Many, many made the case that Libya was even more prone to Salafist/AlQaeda/Extremist influence than Syria is now. You keep on stoking the flames of theocratic, salafist fear, with the intention of boasting that Assad is the better, fairer secular alternative.

NEWS FLASH: PEOPLE ARE RATIONAL

Your assumptions that Sunni’s in Syria are all a bunch of AK wielding extremists is so far from the truth, and it shows how far removed from reality you are. You obviously do not know the Syrian people; like Tara said, they are social, friendly, and RATIONAL. They are just like you and me…so please stop painting them to be monsters. The real monsters are the Assads and their Shabiha friends.

“AT the end of the day who cares about you general…”

Har har har. Apparently you do, hence your obsession that’s openly on display. It hasn’t lessened all those months, you poor thing 🙂

So ya menhebakjis of little intellect, I’ll repeat my questions again;

1) Why was Najati Tayara thrown in jail?

2) Why were Malek Jandali’s elderly parents beaten up?

3) Why was Ali Ferzat tortured and his hands broken?

You’d think after all these months the menhebakjis would come up with at least a pathetic attempt at an answer.

Syria: just a front in the Iraq war.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NG25Ak02.html

Mjabali and Amjad,

Please note that I will not allow personalization of the discussion or exchange of insults. This is now a friendly reminder. Do not personalize the discussion. Thank you.

MJABALI,

You are defending pro alawi positions no matter what Assad does or not. What about all christians and sunna living in Latakia and Tartus, do you really think they would accept Assads rule once again? Hahahaha…. be realistic guy.

Others defend unity, freedom, social justice, dignity, reign of law, repression, etc. But what is your ideal? An alawi state in Syria at any price? Is this a value?

Happy to see the wit of “Amjad” back (we know who he is lol! Helaaa!) Please let us not ban him now.

I have a question please. Can any of the apologists for the mass murdering psychopath with a lisp please confirm that the toppling of Saddams statue (with the fall of Baghdad) was orchestrated in the TV studios of Qatar.

Thank you.

Second Question. I heard that the new Alawite state will have a KFC in its capital (population after the revolution , 4 male Shabiha thugs aged 82 with very loose dentures, 2 granny shabiha and behold a duck!!! )

I personally would find that objectionable. You know it is very unhealthy this KFC.

Syrian rebels’ ‘liberate Aleppo’ campaign enters fourth day – 24 July, 2012

http://www.rt.com/news/aleppo-syria-rebels-helicopters-970/

The Syrian army has had to evacuate residents from several areas in the commercial hub of Aleppo as sporadic gunfire intensified, reports RT’s Oksana Boyko. Other sources say attack helicopters were sent to deal with the rebels in the northern city.

­Aleppo, the largest city in Syria, had long remained immune to the 17-month uprising against President Bashar Assad. This held true until four days ago when rebels launched a “liberate Aleppo” offensive in the city of three million.

“Sources in Aleppo report clashes in four suburbs. Residents took refuge at several university campuses,” reports RT’s correspondent in Syria, Oksana Boyko, in her Twitter microblog.

[…]

Knesset member Gideon Saar to Arab Knesset members:
“For years, you licked the murderous Assads’ soles of shoes. You were their submissive servants”.

Arabs members speechless and embarrassed.

.

Iran threatens to ‘strike out’ at any intervention in Syria – 24 July, 2012

http://www.rt.com/news/iran-strike-intervention-syria-960/

“None of Syria’s friends or the great front of resistance has yet entered the scene, and in the event that this happens, decisive blows will be struck at the enemy, especially the hated Arab rulers,” Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, a spokesman of the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Fars news agency.

To complete this exchange, Iran’s Jazayeri also dismissed Tuesday the ability of “enemies” to overthrow the Syrian government. “The country’s people and its friends will not allow such a move to take place,” he said.

Still, many recognize the pattern of a psychological war. Paul Lashmar, an investigative journalist and academic at London’s Brunel University, says the accusation may be targeting one goal: to create an image of dangerous Syria, which cannot exercise control over itself.

“Chemical and biological weapons are no good against rebel units that are fighting in a house-to-house combat. These are weapons you use nation against nation in a full scale battle. The fact that Americans and other countries are getting so concerned is to put the emphasis on Syria as a rogue nation. What is going on is to emphasize that this is a country with chemical and biological weapons that appears to be out of control,” Lashmar told RT.

[…]

‘There are unconfirmed reports that Lamia Hariri, the Syrian ambassador to Cyprus, has defected.’

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/topic/syria/unconfirmed-reports-state-syrian-ambassador-cyprus-has-defected

Syrian envoy to Cyprus defects

Defection brings to three the number of top diplomats who have quit and comes amid heavy fighting for control of Aleppo.

24 Jul 2012

Syrian charge d’affaires to Cyprus Lamia al-Hariri has defected, becoming the second diplomat to leave her post in July, Al Jazeera has learned.

[…]

Tuesday’s defection deals a harsh blow to the Syrian government as the regime battles a near 17-month-old uprising.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Imadi said that Hariri’s defection is also significant because she is the niece of Farouk al-Sharaa, Syria’s vice president.

“It must be very embarassing to the regime that one of his [Sharaa’s] closest officials is defecting,” he said.

Read more:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/07/20127248104698718.html

Aleppo now being bombed by fighter planes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18973719

“The Syrian army has had to evacuate residents from several areas in the commercial hub of Aleppo”

loool! Stupid Shabiha!. Of course the “glorious patriotic Syrian armed forces” (who by the way according to that mug Talib Ibrahim have the ability to enforce a no fly zone in the Mediterranean. :). ) have “evacuated” civilians.

Is there some secret sectarian Assadist dictionary of crimes against humanity?!

empire invented islamophobia. how cynical is it for sociopaths posturing as anti-imperialists would stoop to exploit that bigotry as a way to attack the very entity that created it?

after bashar topples, pepe escobar, webster tarpley and sharmine narwani should be “invited” to tour the regime’s torture dungeons for a few hours to see what their advocacy enabled. have them meet with the martyrs’ families to hear their testimony. let these pundit look the survivors in the eye and explain to them the regime’s brutality that victimized all syrians was really a western/sunni/zionist/imperial plot.

you see, the regime was forced to destroy syrians in order to save them.

i’m sure they’d understand.

?”Sunni women are giving birth to babies who will fight us in years to come, so we have the right to fight anyone who can hurt us in the future,” said the Alawite militiaman, a member of the ancient offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the powerbase of his regime belong.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/world/jan-june12/syria_06-15.html

Stratfor analysis – good explanation of motives and severe negative consequences now facing Russia and Iran

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/consequences-fall-syrian-regime?utm_source=fr

Consequences of the Fall of the Syrian Regime

Excerpt:

But the Russian and Chinese game was subtler than that. It focused on Iran. As we have argued, if the al Assad regime were to survive and were to be isolated from the West, it would be primarily dependent on Iran, its main patron. Iran had supplied trainers, special operations troops, supplies and money to sustain the regime. For Iran, the events in Syria represented a tremendous opportunity. Iran already held a powerful position in Iraq, not quite dominating it but heavily influencing it. If the al Assad regime survived and had Iranian support to thank for its survival, Syria would become even more dependent on Iran than was Iraq. This would shore up the Iranian position in Iraq, but more important, it would have created an Iranian sphere of influence stretching from western Afghanistan to Lebanon, where Hezbollah is an Iranian ally.
….
The Chinese primarily provided political cover, keeping the Russians from having to operate alone diplomatically. They devoted no resources to the Syrian conflict but did continue to oppose sanctions against Iran and provided trade opportunities for Iran. The Russians made a much larger commitment, providing material and political support to the al Assad regime.

It seems the Russians began calculating the end for the regime some time ago. Russia continued to deliver ammunition and other supplies to Syria but pulled back on a delivery of helicopters. Several attempts to deliver the helicopters “failed” when British insurers of the ship pulled coverage. That was the reason the Russians gave for not delivering the helicopters, but obviously the Russians could have insured the ship themselves. They were backing off from supporting al Assad, their intelligence indicating trouble in Damascus. In the last few days the Russians have moved to the point where they had their ambassador to France suggest that the time had come for al Assad to leave — then, of course, he denied having made the statement.

A Strategic Blow to Iran

As the Russians withdraw support, Iran is now left extremely exposed. There had been a sense of inevitability in Iran’s rise in the region, particularly in the Arabian Peninsula. The decline of al Assad’s regime is a strategic blow to the Iranians in two ways. First, the wide-reaching sphere of influence they were creating clearly won’t happen now. Second, Iran will rapidly move from being an ascendant power to a power on the defensive.

The place where this will become most apparent is in Iraq. For Iran, Iraq represents a fundamental national security interest. Having fought a bloody war with Iraq in the 1980s, the Iranians have an overriding interest in assuring that Iraq remains at least neutral and preferably pro-Iranian. While Iran was ascendant, Iraqi politicians felt that they had to be accommodating. However, in the same way that Syrian generals had to recalculate their positions, Iraqi politicians have to do the same. With sanctions — whatever their effectiveness — being imposed on Iran, and with Iran’s position in Syria unraveling, the psychology in Iraq might change.

This is particularly the case because of intensifying Turkish interest in Iraq. In recent days the Turks have announced plans for pipelines in Iraq to oil fields in the south and in the north. Turkish economic activity is intensifying. Turkey is the only regional power that can challenge Iran militarily. It uses that power against the Kurds in Iraq. But more to the point, if a country builds a pipeline, it must ensure access to it, either politically or militarily. Turkey does not want to militarily involve itself in Iraq, but it does want political influence to guarantee its interests. Thus, just as the Iranians are in retreat, the Turks have an interest in, if not supplanting them, certainly supplementing them.

The pressure on Iran is now intense, and it will be interesting to see the political consequences. There was consensus on the Syrian strategy, but with failure of the strategy, that consensus dissolves. This will have an impact inside of Iran, possibly even more than the sanctions. Governments have trouble managing reversals.

Syrian envoy to Cyprus defects
__________________________________________________________________

What charges she faces? I will throw the whole book at her. To start: Aiding and abetting of a Mafia rule. Accepting and serving an illegal government that ceased a legally elected State Government by force. Accessory to murder.. You complete the list please. Don’t be cowards, she is a double traitor, a totally unworthy of life, she betrayed the people of Syria by serving Baathists, then the opportunist criminal betrayed the very hand that fed her peasant stock butt. She will betray anyone else in the future, be a mole for Mossad like the rest of the SNC criminals.

In Russia, Even Putin’s Critics Are OK With His Syria Policy

Julia Ioffe
July 23, 2012
http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/105281/in-russia-even-putins-critics-are-ok-his-syria-policy

On Monday afternoon, Italian premier Mario Monti and Russian president Vladimir Putin convened a small press conference in the slanting, gold light coming off the Black Sea. They had just met to discuss the European economic crisis as well as energy (Italy is Russia’s second biggest gas client), but they also touched on the deepening conflict in Syria.

“We do not want the situation to develop along the lines of a bloody civil war and for it to continue for who knows how many years, like in Afghanistan,” Putin said, standing with his perfect posture in a slate-gray summer suit. “We want there to be peace.” Russia does not want to see the establishment and the opposition to simply switch sides and keep fighting, Putin went on. Russia’s position remains unchanged, commented the reporter of Channel One, the country’s biggest (and state controlled) television channel. “The only way out of the crisis is through negotiations.”

In Syria conflict, U.S. struggles to fill intelligence gaps

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-syria-conflict-us-struggles-to-fill-intelligence-gaps/2012/07/23/gJQAW8DG5W_story.html?hpid=z1

Sixteen months into the uprising in Syria, the United States is struggling to develop a clear understanding of opposition forces inside the country, according to U.S. officials who said that intelligence gaps have impeded efforts to support the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

U.S. spy agencies have expanded their efforts to gather intelligence on rebel forces and Assad’s regime in recent months, but they are still largely confined to monitoring intercepted communications and observing the conflict from a distance, officials said.

Interviews with U.S. and foreign intelligence officials revealed that the CIA has been unable to establish a presence in Syria, in contrast with the agency’s prominent role gathering intelligence from inside Egypt and Libya during revolts in those countries.

With no CIA operatives on the ground in Syria and only a handful stationed at key border posts, the agency has been heavily dependent on its counterparts in Jordan and Turkey and on other regional allies.

The lack of intelligence has complicated the Obama administration’s ability to navigate a crisis that presents an opportunity to remove a longtime U.S. adversary but carries the risk of bolstering insurgents sympathetic to al-Qaeda or militant Islam.

“Syrian envoy to Cyprus defects”

Sorry conspiracy. Any new clip of a supposed defection is actually a fake. I know the actor, he is my next door neighbour here in Damascus. He has a good bakery actually .Thoroughly recommend it. I love the cheese pastries (ok, a bit too much salt but please do not tell him, he is very sensitive). Shame about his acting though.

Urgent no-fly zones needed to save what is left of the FSA

No-Fly Zone Needed With Syria
Max Boot 07.24.2012
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/07/24/no-fly-zone-needed-with-syria/

The situation in Syria seems to get worse by the day. Now the Assad regime is threatening to use chemical weapons against any foreign force intervening in Syria and is actually using fighter aircraft and helicopter gunships to bomb Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo. Bashar al-Assad is clearly growing desperate–his ground forces are not enough to suppress the uprising which has now spread to Damascus and Aleppo, and so he is having to resort to his air force to help.

This creates a fresh vulnerability. Early on in the conflict calls for a no-fly zone were rejected because this would have done little to impair Assad’s operations. Now, with the regime increasingly calling out the air force, a no-fly zone could make a difference tactically. It would also make a huge difference symbolically by showing that the world will not put up with the regime’s murderous misconduct and is prepared to act to stop it. That might well encourage more defections from the ranks of the Syrian armed forces.

while a conservative would restrict attacks only to militants, the shabbiha take a liberal approach to genocide.

344. SAINT said: Sunni women are giving birth to babies who will fight us in years to come, so we have the right to fight anyone who can hurt us in the future,” said the Alawite militiaman

It’s funny to see all these journalists talking about the ‘after Bashar’ when the fiasco of the Battle of Damascus is still fresh and Aleppo is on the way to be cleanup up once for all from armed gangs.

It is even funnier that Erdogan is extaticly announcing ‘The Opposition is very close to victory’ just as the FSA have been destroyed in Damascus and are rushing to Turkish borders for safety.

They should all talk about ‘after the opposition’ instead, as what we see on the ground is the collapse of the ‘grand plan’ that the Friends of Syria, Turkey at its main operator had prepared for Syria.

The proof that the ‘grand plan’ is in a mess is that now the USA talks openly about getting seriously involved before the situation of the opposition gets worse and it collapses completely.

The problem is that it can’t become anything else than worse.
Erdogan, get more Turkish camps ready , here comes the FSA.

At this stage it’s quite apparent that the FSA, maybe in few months down the track post to the American presidential election, will bring the regime down and push the thugs back to the mountains.

However, in its current structure of different unaligned ideologies the FSA will be #1 threat to freedom in new Syria. The civil society should start from now putting a strategy together of how to deal with the inevitable clash with fundamentalists. The real show of armed gangs is yet to start further to toppling the regime.

Any news from elBatta?

Here’s a bottom line:

Syrian-people-hater Bashar Assad (acting from idiocy, immaturity and ego) tried to deliver a Sunni majority country to Iran.

This was an abandonment of his father’s core strategies and wrecked existing internal alliances* as he replaced their influence with his exciting new pals from Iran and Hizbollah.

He stuffed it up, so now he’s panicking and burning the country.

He’s desperate not to lose face and fail his external Shia buddies, who’d made him feel such a Big Man.

But they will now hate and despise him as much as his opponents for the disastrous wider setbacks he’s inflicting on their interests.

(* e.g. Khaddam and Kanaan)

It is funny to see a mnhebak in denial.

Who exactly is going to “clean up” Haleb? The loyalists, who’s numbers are rapidly dwindling ? Every day, the number of the Alawi shabbiha and army loyalists is shrinking.

wake up and smell the coffee.
.

#353 TRUE

it’s quite apparent that the FSA,…. will bring the regime down

Really? What is apparent is that the FSA has received a devastating blow in Damascus and soon in Aleppo. What is even more apparent is that its days are numbered. Its thugs will soon enjoy Turkish hospitality…

for all those laughing what Syria is thinking Hollywood type scenario the west is preparing to change reality on the ground, have a look at this fake CNN during iraq war:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTWY14eyMFg

marc

# 348. ZOO

Hey man, that story about the CIA not being a player in Syria is messing with the minds of the conspiracy theorists and obsessive anti-westerners on this forum.

Quick, find a story alleging that the CIA has outsourced it all to Mossad.

Rescue them from their stunned and tearful confusion.

In Aleppo, time plays against the FSA

Syrian army bombards Aleppo as rebels attempt to ‘liberate’ Old City
Zoi Constantine
Jul 25, 2012
http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/syrian-army-bombards-aleppo-as-rebels-attempt-to-liberate-old-city
…
Mustapha Abdullah, commander of a rebel unit called the Martyrs of Aleppo, said a lack of ammunition was becoming a problem. “Rebels are coming from the countryside but they are running out of ammunition and arms,” he said.

Forces loyal to Bashar Al Assad were shelling the countryside north of Aleppo to disrupt rebel advances, he said. “We are attacking in small groups in hit-and-run operations.”

# 352. Irritated said: “It’s funny to see all these journalists talking about the ‘after Bashar’”

It’s even funnier still to see some people pretending it isn’t going to happen.

#357 SL

Rescue them from their stunned and tearful confusion.

Your altruism is touching.

#359 Syria Lover

It’s funny, I think I read that 16 months ago…

Israeli military chief says attack on Syria may spark broader conflict – 2012-07-25

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-07/25/c_131736339.htm

JERUSALEM, July 24 (Xinhua) — Israel’s military chief on Tuesday afternoon warned that an attack on Syria’s chemical weapon stocks could ignite a regional conflict.

“The army may find it difficult to launch a pinpoint attack and we may be dragged into a broader conflict,” Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz was quoted by the Ynet news site as telling the parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee.

Gantz said the Syrian government has bolstered protection around what is widely believed to be among the Middle East’s largest stores of weapons of mass destruction, and none have made their way to “negative elements” as of yet.

“But this situation may change, and then we will be faced with a dilemma,” the military chief said.

[…]

@356. irritated

Poor kiddo you got to visit an ophthalmologist ASAP eh. I’m not sure about Mars where you live but here in reality it does not look good for apologists like yourself, go ask your Batta how does it feel hearing the sound of bullets and explosions while he’s hiding under his bed, that’s in Damascus not in Mars? Or hang on a second elBatta might be back to the mountain waq waq waq

Zoo, come on. You can do it. They need you to undo that awful shock you just gave them.

That would be a nice reward to Erdogan for his creative intervention in Syria

Drugs traffickers targeting Syria through Dubai

Wafa Issa
Jul 24, 2012
http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/drug-traffickers-targeting-syria-through-dubai

He said drug traffickers were probably using Syria as a transit point on the way to countries such as Lebanon and Turkey.

294. ZOO said: Israeli official says Assad “responsibly” guarding WMDs

assad regime and israel’s officials have a long history of partnership.

also makes me suspect israel wouldn’t really mind if bashar resorted to gassing arabs.

True

About Battas…

Russian air defense in Syria would have shot down Turkish jets like ‘ducks’

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/russian-air-defense-in-syria-would-have-shot-down-turkish-jets-like-ducks-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=26223&NewsCatID=359

#364 SL

Better worry about your own shocks.

@ 367. Irritated

“Russian air defense in Syria would have shot down Turkish jets like ‘ducks’”

I’d enjoy the show, Turkish leaders deserve more.

Back to the point

I reckon you guys as full-time devoted apologists deserved to be addressed by elBatta, I wonder why he’s not flying high these days!!

Where’s elBatta? That’s the question waq waq

#368. Zoo said: “Better worry about your own shocks”

You’re right. Like Assad now aerial bombing Aleppo.

And I suspect that will be seen as a great move in a fun war game by some here.

“Plan needed for rising Syrian refugees, EU says”

Where was the EU when million of Iraqis took refuge in Syria during the invasion of Iraq? busy looking the other side?

True

If you want to keep using animal names and sounds to qualify and humiliate people, let me know I am good at that too.

Manaf Tlass for Syria president!

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Syria-s-Assad-appoints-new-security-officials-3729618.php

BEIRUT (AP) — A top Syrian military commander, a close friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad, has confirmed his defection from the regime.

Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass, son of a former defense minister, said in a video broadcast on Al-Arabiya TV that Syrians must work together to build a new, democratic country.

It was his first public appearance since he left Syria earlier this month. His long silence raised questions about whether he had joined the anti-Assad uprising or merely fled the civil war.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Son-of-ex-Syrian-defense-minister-defects-3729618.php#ixzz21Zus1oNJ

That would be a nice reward to Erdogan for his creative intervention in Syria

Drugs traffickers targeting Syria through Dubai
——————————————————————

The whole Central Intervenes Drug Agency interests in Syria and the FSA/SNC is that cartel business. Not sure why Tel Kalakh and Arida farmers not jumped on this great business opportunity, Poppy growing, Between Hermel and Arida they can put CIDA out of business and out of Afghanistan all together. They should make a deal with Assad to legalize growing and refining, Lebanese politicians are hands and feet for that too, less dependence on cash delivery from Bedouins and Station chief.

Al Qaeda is back in business in countries allies to Iran ( Iraq and Syria)
Sunni Islamists are embolded by their success in the Arab Spring, by USA’s conciliatory attitude towards Islamists and more money from KSA and Qatar to prevent Shia’s hegemony in the region.

Iraq’s deadliest day since 2010 as al-Qaeda attacks
AFP July 24, 2012 5:55PM

Deadliest day in Iraq in two years
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/iraqs-deadliest-day-since-2010-as-al-qaeda-attacks/story-fnd134gw-1226434143090

At least 111 people have been killed and more than 200 injured across Iraq in a deadly day of violence.

A WAVE of violence swept across Iraq, with 111 killed on the country’s deadliest day in two-and-a-half years, after al-Qaeda warned it would seek to retake territory and mount new attacks.
…
The Islamic State of Iraq said in an audio message posted online that it would begin targeting judges and prosecutors, and appealed for the help of Sunni tribes in its quest to recapture territory it once held.

@ 372. irritated

Hold your horses and don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just quoting what elBatta likes to be nicknamed by Asma. I’m sure elBatta would have asked Asma to stop if he did not like it. I know it sounds a bit weird but as you said some people like to be called by animals names, maybe being from the mountain has something to do with it, so please don’t step between a husband and wife.

Refresh your memory in case you forgot

“Syria: Bashar al-Assad nicknamed \’duck\’ by wife Asma”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9156325/Syria-Bashar-al-Assad-nicknamed-duck-by-wife-Asma.html

waq waq waq

Sandro L:

First stop the accusations. I never defended al-Assad. I care about the Alawis, yes that is true. al-Assads (father and son) never thought of the Alawis. They thought of themselves and used the Alawis. When you (and other freaks) find me defending al-Assad come and show it to me.

I speak reality. I do not come armed with illusions of unity and love. Syria is going through a period where dividing the country is a reality. the Kurds are taking their parts away from current day Syria. The rest is in the grip of war. The coast so far is waiting to see what is going to happen.

As for the Alawi State on the coast: The Sunnis, the Christians and the Alawis could and should live together in a democratic atmosphere, where they are equal. The Sunnis of the coast are two types: those who want to fight the Alawis and those who are meshed with the Alawis and Christians and care less about religion. The outcome of this armed confrontation if happened is yet to be determined, but it is obvious who has the advantage.

The Sunni and Alawis could live there with the Christians. I know this from personal experience Justice and equality could be guaranteed with a modern new law.

If al-Assad comes back and rule an Alawiite state on the coast: I say that is a nightmare, but it could happen. al-Assad controls the army and security now and could try to separate the coast. The use of chemical weapons as a deterrence is new but it could also happen.

I am a Syrian that does not like all of this to happen. But, this does not mean that I will not think it could happen especially with the level of hate and violence around.

…

@ 372. irritated

Hold your horses and don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just quoting what elBatta likes to be nicknamed by Asam. I’m sure elBatta would have asked Asma to stop if he does not like it. I know it’s weird but as you said some people elike to be called by animals names, maybe being from the mountain has something to do with it, so please don’t step between a husband and wife. Refresh your memory in case you forgot

“Syria: Bashar al-Assad nicknamed ‘duck’ by wife Asma”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9156325/Syria-Bashar-al-Assad-nicknamed-duck-by-wife-Asma.html

waq waq waq

Irritated “The proof that the ‘grand plan’ is in a mess is that now the USA talks openly about getting seriously involved”

I also wondered: if everything was going smoothly for the opposition as in western journalistic narratives, why pledging more support?

All this in suffocating 40’ heat during Ramadan. The achievement of Syrian-people-hater Bashar Assad, into the history books to be remembered.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/be3bc2a2-d5a6-11e1-af40-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz21a8cZj2E

Conflict squeezes life in Damascus

The conflict across Damascus has tightened an already severe economic squeeze on the Syrian capital, shaking a key supply route, trapping workers at home and sending business plummeting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Fuel queues have snaked through the city this week and shops have been shuttered, as violence disrupted traffic and supplies on the main road linking the capital to the cities of Homs, Hama and Aleppo.

True,

Hi True. It is been some time..

Hey Tara,

224. TRUE said:

@ Tara, howz going? Good job for keeping these apologists on a tight leash

A safe passage to Sudan, mmmm what a perfect choice for an exile at. least elBatta will get to spend time with alDabi

True

I missed your first post. I am listening to al Jazeera now. Batta is committing a massacre inside the prison in Homs. They are speaking life to a political prisoner inside . Batta’s savegry has no limits.

Explosion Rocks S. Arabia’s Intelligence Headquarters

TEHRAN (FNA)- Reports from Saudi Arabia said an explosion rocked the Arab country’s intelligence headquarters and killed the Saudi deputy intelligence chief.
_________________________________________________________________

Neo-Zionist terrorist group “Menahem Hagganeh” claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mjabali, I don’t understand how an “Alawi State” will be a beacon for democracy and equality when the basic concept behind the formation of this state is discriminatory. At best it will be a benevolent apartheid state.

But that’s the best case scenario. In reality this state will be ruled by Assad or one of his criminal cronies that will do everything they can to replicate the police state we’ve suffered under for decades. There will be no freedom and democracy because the state will be under constant attack from the rest of Syria as well as other powers who oppose Iran and Hezbollah, probably the “Alawi State’s” only allies. That dynamic will reinforce the need to continue ruling with an iron fist and crack down on dissent from any side, especially Sunnis who would be viewed as suspected traitors and 3ara3eer.

As the rest of Syria moves on and struggles with a democratic experience and freedom, the “Alawi State” will continue to talk about the universal conspiracy and force its citizens to worship their corrupt leaders, who will continue to rob and brutalize the people because that’s the only thing they know how to do. Sounds like paradise.

I am so inflamed. In new Syria, Qurdaha should be evacuated from its people for one day and Hafiz’ burial place and the mosque attached must be bombed and flattened out. We want nothing to remind us with this criminal.

…
“The family said they had felt safe in Ariha when the army controlled the streets. While the opposition says army checkpoints were used to arrest the innocent, the family said the soldiers were friendly and their presence proved that the government was doing its best to maintain security.”

“The checkpoints are now manned by “5th graders with guns,” said the oldest sister, referring to the rebels.”

“Even if one person in this town is killed by an army bullet, it is the fault of the Free Syria Army,” the younger sister said. “Every clash I have seen in this city, they always attack first. Of course the army must return fire if they are fired upon.”

“She said the Free Syrian Army uses “shabiha” as a perpetual scapegoat. The shabiha are a feared group of paid government thugs, civilians who activists say are responsible for large scale slaughters, particularly of women and children.”

“If they kill anyone, they just label them shabiha,” she said dismissively. “They kidnap people for money and say they are shabiha.”
[…]
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/syria/120719/not-everyone-hates-bashar-al-assad

A good tableau of Levantine — and more specifically Syrian — ethno-religious demographics, from Columbia University’s Gulf2000 Project map collection.

The first link takes you to a very large Jpeg image that lets you see detail of interpenetration of varied groups, whether IDed by ‘sect’ or ‘ethnicity’ — from Turkey to the Nile to the Arabian peninsula.

http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Levant_Ethnicity_lg.jpg

The second is Syria-specific and sheds more light on a putative Alawite redoubt or future Baathi mini-dictatorship.

I think there are many more complications of Us/Them/The Big Us/The Bigger Us sectors in the country than shown by the map in the earlier post by Joshua.

Unless Assadists themselves overtly urge (or impose) large population transfers, it seems reasonable to expect Syria will retain its quilt of peoples and traditions inside its present borders.

http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Syria_Ethnic_Detailed_lg.jpg

@ Tara

“Hafiz’ burial place and the mosque attached must be bombed and flattened out”

It would be more fun if it occurs before toppling the regime, it’s like I’m in your mummy’s bed ya Batta

Majbali

A democratic secular Alawi state where Sunnis Christians and Alawis live together under the rule of law with separation of powers is an oxymoron. If it is an Alawi state citizenship would be to being an Alawi, how would a Sunni or a Christian fare in such state?

If it is secular and non ethnic or religious why then have a separate state for the Alawis; why not apply this to all of Syria the Syria that was under the old constitution but now with a huge opportunity for significant improvement.

Your claim of being realistic is appropriate in one sense : recognizing that this is an Alawite state dominating a majority that wants its freedom and therefore recognizing that in a future state the preferential state that the Alawis enjoy will be gone and a fear of a possible huge amount of retribution. This is why like all minorities in power, the fear of loss is so blinding that they cannot imagine any other scenario. It is like the monkey who holds a piece of salt in the hole of a tree and cannot let go and remains stuck there. The maronites of Lebanon did the same mistake of holding on to the unrealistic and refused to see the inevitable collapse of the preferential regime that they benefited from until it was too late.

You are also realistic in your assessment that a pure Alawi state is non viable and therefore has to include areas where other groups will have to be included unless a huge campaign of ethnic cleansing is undertaken. The later is not in the power of the regime to do for the population density and the lack of sufficient manpower will not allow such an outcome.

I also realize that the facade of resistance and of a secular arab nationalist regime is just that and that the masks have fallen.

questions for you
1. Which constitution will you have for the Alawi state
2. What will it be called
3. Can you define the citizenship
4. Can you define the borders
5. Do you want the Alevis of Turkey
6. Do they want to be part of it
7. How many Christians will join
8. How many Kurds can join
9. How many Sunnis are allowed
10. Can one emigrate to the Alawi state
11. Can one apply for citizenship to that state and if so on what basis
12. What is the economic basis
13. Will it have the total coast
14. WIll it have a border with Turkey and Lebanon
15. What currency will it have
16. Who will recognize the state
17. Will it recognize Israel
18. What is its position regarding Palestine and the Arab nation
19. Is it Arab and if not what is it.

I concede again that you are realistic. Today I went to see Mayadeen tv channel and they had a correspondent in Jouret Chiah in Homs pretending that it was liberated by the regular army. I urge to go and watch the destruction brought down and then I am certain that your realistic fear of retribution is well placed.

Finally, when will you have the Alawi population in Damascus and Homs and Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria start moving to your state.

The burial place of Hafez should become a teaching point about megalomania and next to the mausoleum a museum for the documentation of the torture methods and the abuse of power and the cult of personality to teach generations of Syrians the meaning of oppression and one man rule.
It should not be bombed nor razed to the ground it should be used with its museum of horrors as a tourist destination and an educational opportunity. It also will help the region benefit from some form of tourism for many in the area were not really treated well by the ruling family very well either.

i don’t follow your logic. if she was bad for supporting the mafia, how is her defecting (yet another crack in the wall, hastening the collapse of the regime) also bad?

what’s you solution?

346. ALDENDESHE said:
Syrian envoy to Cyprus defects
________________________________________________
What charges she faces? I will throw the whole book at her. To start: Aiding and abetting of a Mafia rule. Accepting and serving an illegal government that ceased a legally elected State Government by force. Accessory to murder.. You complete the list please. Don’t be cowards, she is a double traitor, a totally unworthy of life, she betrayed the people of Syria by serving Baathists, then the opportunist criminal betrayed the very hand that fed her peasant stock butt. She will betray anyone else in the future, be a mole for Mossad like the rest of the SNC criminals.

unworthy of life?? you would kill her for this?

If it is an Alawi state citizenship would be to being an Alawi, how would a Sunni or a Christian fare in such state?
_________________________________________________________________
As bad as they fare now under Greater Alawi State called Baathist Syria.

388. tara: We want nothing to remind us with this criminal.

one thing i found remarkable during the reporting in the run up to the libya elections was that it was noted how there were so many different faces on campaign posters. the formerly prevalent images of gaddafi had been replaced by the people instead. a fitting illustration of the transfer of power.

not even a year after his death and he’d been rendered irrelevant and almost forgotten.

next year, syria might be at the same place.

bashar, who?

?????? ??? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ???????. ?? ?????? ?????? ?????? ??? ??? ?????? ????? ?????? ????? ?????? ???????? ?? ???? ‘?????????? ?????????‘ ?????? ??? ????? ???? ?????? ??????? ??????? ??????? ??? ????? ??? ?????????? ?? ??? ???? ????? ????????? ?? ??? ????????? ?? ????? ????? ??? ?? ?????? ‘???????‘ ???????? ????? ?? ???? ?? ?? ???? ?? ???? ?? ??? ‘?????? ????‘ ???? ‘?????? ???‘ ??????? ????? ??? ????? ???? ???????? ???????? ?? ?????? ???????? ?? ?? ????? ????? ???? ?? ??? ??? ??????? ???????? ???????? ?? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ??????? ??? ???? ?????? ??????? ??????? ?????? ???????? ???? ???? ?? ??? ??????? ?????. ?? ?? ?????? ??? ?????? ?????? ????? ??????? ??????? ?? ?????? ????????????? ?? ?? ??? ???? ?????? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ‘?????‘ ???? ???????? ??? 2000 ???? ??? ???? ????????
This was a comment from a reader who dared to speak out against the FSA which allowed Islamist terrorist to infiltrate their ranks and put a Palestinian in charge of their fighters in Alqadam. Saying that the FSA will clean its body from thugs and terrorists later is as credible as claiming that the Syrian army will allow armed rebels to send Syrian troops to the mountains where “they belong”, you guys are in denial,this mentality brought nothing but division and destruction to Homs and other Syrian towns,too much for “protecting civilians”..

Paper tigers of the world unite 8)

Netanyahu Urges Better Turkey Ties, Cites Regional Turmoil – July 25, 2012

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v6/newsworld.php?id=682954

“Turkey and Israel are two important, strong and stable states in this region … We must find ways to restore the relations we once had … it is important, particularly now, for stability in the region in these times,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.

[…]

what’s you solution?
__________________________________________________________________

What is the solution you ask? and why should I help you in that if I have nothing to gain from it, even think, you are not even Syrian, rather, someone out to destroy the country.

@OMEN

I will reply after dinner.

394. OMENSAID:
i don’t follow your logic. if she was bad for supporting the mafia, how is her defecting (yet another crack in the wall, hastening the collapse of the regime) also bad?
what’s you solution?
346. ALDENDESHE said:
Syrian envoy to Cyprus defects
_________________________________________________________________

A peasant Baathi chik who earned her way up from sofa to sofa is now one of the pillars of the Baathist regime, she can cause a crack? Did Baathist Mafia bosses Tlass and his daddy, or V.P. Khaddam, or the “BOMBING” caused a crack in the regime? Nonsense, only thought of by foreign arm chair generals who have absolutely no experience, or knowledge, about anything outside own delusional ideas, and watching way too many Hollywood movies. I don’t follow your logic. Are you Syrian, you don’t have feelings inside you as one. This pattern of thinking coming on from strangers as westerners ways of thought. If you were Syrian, it would be natural to you to understand the resentment we have against people like that, you will intuitively comprehend the danger of not only having no association with such INTIHAZI’s, but even the failure not to prosecute these despised Baathi criminal can taint a real Syrian Revolutionary. When Assad Brother, Maher, defect, then I will be concerned. When 150,000 of Syria’s army defect with half the tanks, bombers, copters, missiles, WMD stockpile, I will pay attention. Any thing short of this news, to me and SNP members, it is just a Zionist game plot ala 9/11 all fakes.

You see, this plot in Libya and Syria is very old, thousands of years old, been tried by that sinister entity before, we human, some of us, understand clearly, what is really going on. For the majority, it is confusing and perplexing, they can not decipher the deception, because they lack the knowledge.

OBSERVER (#392),

Here’s the thing. If this new Alawite state is ruled by Assad regime remnants, the answers to most of your questions are predetermined.

Forget any consitution, for a start.

And the economy would be underpinned by a drug empire (long-established in Assad’s senior security circles) and the liquor trade currently flourishing next to the extravagant mosque in Qurdaha, in the shadow of Bashar’s home town palace.

(For the mosque and palace, see my entry #155)

Syrian president rebuilds administration pillars – 2012-07-25

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-07/25/c_131736402.htm

DAMASCUS, July 24 (Xinhua) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rebuilt the pillars of his administration on Tuesday by appointing five security officials to sensitive positions in a bid to control the months-long crisis a week after a bomb rocked a high-profile meeting attended by his inner circle.

A source told Xinhua Tuesday that Maj-Gen Mohammad Deib Zaitoon has been appointed as the chief of the Syrian Intelligence, while Maj-Gen Ali Yunus is appointed as the chief of the military intelligence.

Maj-Gen Ali Mamlouk is appointed as the head of the National Security, replacing Hisham Ikhtiar, who was killed in last week’s bombing.

Maj-Gen Abdulfattah Qudsieh is appointed as deputy National Security chief.

Meanwhile, Rustom Ghazaleh, former head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, is appointed as the head of the Syrian Political Security.

The appointment came after last Wednesday’s bombing that ripped through a high-level meeting and killed four security officials from the inner circle of President Assad. The bombing hit the Syrian administration to the core.

Syrian Defense Minister Dawood Rajha, his Deputy Assef Shawkat, National Security chief Hisham Ikhtiar and crisis management head Hassan Turkmani were killed by the explosion, and Syrian Interior Minister Mohammad Sha’ar was injured in the blast. Shawkat was also the president’s brother-in-law.

Shortly after the incident, Assad appointed Fahad al-Freij as the minister of defense and Gen. Ali Abdullah Dayyoub as chief of staff.

The appointment of security officials on Tuesday came against the backdrop of the escalating violence and clashes between government troops and armed rebels in the capital Damascus and northern Aleppo province, the commercial hub of the country.

The clashes started about 10 days ago in several neighborhoods of Damascus and recently moved to Aleppo as part of the rebels’ resolve to bring down both of the two cities of vital importance, which are the strongholds of the current leadership and the source of its coherence.

On Monday, state-run SANA news agency said the authorities repelled some armed groups that were trying to infiltrate across the Lebanese borders into Syria at different sites in Talkalakh area in the countryside of Homs province, adding that hefty toll was inflicted upon the infiltrators.

SANA also said the Syrian army on Tuesday pursued the defeated armed terrorist groups at Nahr Isha neighborhood in Damascus after theyterrified the citizens, devastated and spread chaos in the area.

Also in Damascus’ countryside, the authorities are hunting the “terrorists” in al-Sayida Zainab, Hajera and al-Diybia neighborhoods, causing big losses among them while many of them surrendered themselves to the authorities, according to SANA.

In Aleppo, the troops clashed with some armed groups in al- Sukari and Salah al-Din neighborhoods, said SANA, adding that many of them were rounded up and others surrendered along with their weapons.

The state news agency also reported similar incidents in northern Idlib, central Homs and coastal Latakia provinces.

[…]

You guys are so funny!

True-I’m just quoting what elBatta likes to be nicknamed by Asma. I’m sure elBatta would have asked Asma to stop if he did not like it…., so please don’t step between a husband and wife.

Omen- Bashar who?

Syrialover-Rescue them from their stunned and tearful confusion.

399. ALDENDESHE

why did you shorten your response? the longer version was more interesting.

did you let something slip out of the bag? you would be more concerned if maher defected? why would you be concerned? i thought you didn’t support the mafia.

What is the solution you ask? and why should I help you in that if I have nothing to gain from it, even think, you are not even Syrian, rather, someone out to destroy the country.

in other words, you don’t have an answer.

when you damn someone for staying and damn them the same for not staying – you’ve boxed them into a corner from which they cannot move. i just wondered if there was a third alternative i hadn’t considered.

392. OBSERVER said: 2. What will it be called

syria no duckistan!

Minority rights, he told me, was a concept invented by the CIA in order to destabilise countries that stood in America’s way, and by raising this issue in Syria I was proving myself to be nothing more than a CIA agent sent as an agent provocateur.
“There are no minorities in Syria,” he said.
I laughed. He got flustered.
Khawla intervened to suggest that the issue could not be ignored. He relaxed a little. I explained that if he and his in-laws were truly reformers, they would see it as their mission to decouple the Alawite community from political authority and chart a process towards democratic rule.
If they really championed reforms, I said, they could still retain power through the democratic process: championing reforms would give them legitimacy and credibility and people would vote for them irrespective of their confessional background. They could become a legitimate political dynasty, I said, instead of one fearing for its survival from the mere mention of the word “minority”.
Asef Shawkat-Ammar abdulhamid “meeting” in 2005 according to the latter who is not exactly known as Mr Honest ,however, the last part ,whether it was said or not,is true.

If an Alawi state could be the real wonderland of post-conflict Syria (with free-er, more Western social mores, a ‘secularism’ in civic matters) would this be accompanied by a social compact among its constituents, or would it be imposed by the remnant of the present militarized and hyper-loyal security state? Do the Alawis get to choose, greater Syria or Assadistan? Is it probable that the totality of Alawis will have forever hitched their wagons to the Baath and all that it means?

If a brute-force military occupation of Lattakia and Tartus did not pay off, I wonder if the future breakaway might share the fate of lands such as Abkhazia, about as free as a Russian vassal state can be, un-reconstructed from war, and rather peacefully moribund as an economy and a national enterprise, exhausted and poor, under tutelage from a large subsidizing ‘protector.’

If a overwhelming majority of Alawi feel they must build their state, a Belarus-on-the-Mediterranean, and do not purge post-war ‘enemy’ communities, and if they can deconstruct the deep state that kept all of Syria as its clients, if it can obviate persistent corruption, if it can peel the fingers of the Clan from all economic levers, if it can rediscover their lovely idiosyncratic traditions of worship and celebration, if it can open its Stalinesque economy to the real world, if it can find a use for the returning unemployed Shabiha and other militia, if it can reconcile itself to and reconcile over its own history, if it can disengage from the death embrace of its chemical and biological weapons, then I will wholeheartedly wish the new nation the best as it navigates the post-Assad seas, just as I wished the post-Soviet European states the best after their great referendum votes, as I would wish to Scotland or Quebec were they to return great thumping majorities in favour of independence.

Sadly, the prime places for Syrian regimist escape fantasies are likely European or North American, definitely ‘western.’ The ball-capped minions of the rallies for Assad, the gelled and Lexus-ed young creme de la creme, I don’t think they dream of their allies’ capitals, of Teheran or Minsk or Beijing or Moscow or Caracas or Pyongyang. They dream of Paris, London, Berlin, Montreal, Toronto, New York City, Vancouver, Stockholm, Los Angeles. As Asma, pariah queen of Syria, chose European luxuries for her palaces, so too do regimists on down the pecking order enjoy the Western things in life.

Oh, if only those damned Western conspirators who deny us their luxuries and who arm our opponents could understand the special promise that Assadist/Baath autocracy brings! If only they understood we have the best of the West (ball-caps, babes, booze, beaches, capuccino, skiing, malls and cell-phones) without its bullshit Zionism and its pickiness over human rights, plus the best of the Levant (Family Mafia Security State)!

I think, sadly, that the Belarus/DPRK/DDR-ish regime currently pounding the salafist evul out of many of its population centres is not the best friend of any dreamy statelet in the short or long long term.

Why would its manifold cruelties and paranoia end if it retreated to the coast? Would it allow an opposition to rise that petitioned for confederation or re-unification? Would the post-war project even get started under such a bizarre dictatorship at complete odds with the moneybags of the world?

Defecting general calls for Syrians to start preparing for post-Assad government
12:14AM BST 25 Jul 2012

Reading a prepared statement on Saudi-based pan-Arab television channel Al-Arabiya, Gen Tlass called on Syrians to “unite… to serve a Syria after Assad… and do the impossible, to ensure the unity of Syria, and to be sure to start building a new Syria.”
Gen Tlass, who defected on July 6, said he was “reaching out to (Syrians) in these difficult times for the country, as the blood of its innocents is being shed, and whose only crime has been to call for freedom.”
The defector said the “new Syria … should not be built on revenge, exclusion or monopoly” in decision-making.

He said he was speaking as “one of the sons of the Syrian Arab Army, who has rejected this regime’s criminal and corrupt ways … and who cannot accept its crimes to our country.”
The defector said he did not blame those troops who have not defected, adding that “whatever mistakes made by some members of the Syrian Arab Army … those honourable troops who have not partaken in the killing … are the extension of the Free Syrian Army.”
It is “the duty of Syrians to unite, to build a free, democratic Syria,” said Gen Tlass.
….
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9425199/Defecting-general-calls-for-Syrians-to-start-preparing-for-post-Assad-government.html

For the youtube lovers on this blog 🙂

The FSA rehearsal attack on Damascus is now out of Damascus proper ( I do not want to say I told you so), Aleppo is now witnessing a similar scenario: irresponsible and random attacks by the FSA, a harsh response from the army,scores of dead Syrians, a “tactical withdrawal by the FSA,then a new cycle of senseless violence.
Starting today I will refer to the FSA as the IAT: Islamist Armed Thugs, this put them in the same class as Assad Shabiha,like it or not.

After the failure of the FSA in taking Damscus, a greater confusion among the SNC pressed by the AL and France to create a transitional government immediately.

Sabra says yes, Valero says great, Qodmani says no

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=53552

PARIS – The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) will not accept a unity government led by a member of the regime, spokeswoman Bassma Kodmani said Tuesday, contradicting a statement by another SNC member.
…..
Before the SNC’s denial, French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero had welcomed Sabra’s statement.

“Anything that can help bring about an end to the violence as quickly as possible… and the formation of a provisional government is a move in the right direction,” Valero told a press conference.

#408 Tara

And the Syrian government is reorganizing for the ‘post opposition’ Syria

Irritated

Do you like photography?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2012/jul/24/photographs-syrian-rebels#/?picture=393548020&index=1

His reasons for taking a special interest in my case were not entirely connected with politics. I am, after all, the son of Muna Wassef, Syria’s most celebrated actress, and Shawkat claimed to be “her biggest fan”.

In fact, he had met my mother a few days before our encounter to ask her permission to interrogate me. Such was his subtlety. She gave him her permission while reminding him that I was her only son, and should anything happen …

Her warnings notwithstanding, a lot of untoward things could have happened during that first encounter, had a second guardian angel – my wife, Khawla – not insisted on accompanying me. Khawla’s presence softened his attitude at certain critical moments, and allowed for some rational discussion between accusations and threats, albeit that his threats at the time were less direct than they might have been: he was trying to appear benevolent while exercising his authority.
…..
The day I met Syria’s Mr Big
One of the most feared men in Syria before his assassination, Assef Shawkat told me minority rights were a CIA invention
Ammar Abdulhamid
Tuesday 24 July 2012 07.58 EDT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/24/day-met-syria-mr-big-assef-shawka

More…

In Russia, Even Putin’s Critics Are OK With His Syria Policy – July 23, 2012

http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/105281/in-russia-even-putins-critics-are-ok-his-syria-policy

“The essence of the conflict is portrayed differently here than in the West,” explains Lukyanov. “Here, it is not a picture of peace-loving freedom fighters against a secretive, repressive regime. The Western picture is highly ideological and primitive. They have a template that’s used for all countries, even though, when it comes to these revolutions in the Arab world, each country is more complex than the previous one. The situation in Syria is much more tangled.” And though you can find a great variety of views on Syria in Russia—anything from the conspirological view that America is arming the rebels and ginned up the uprising to begin with, to the pro-Western, liberal chagrin that Russia is once again backing the bad guys—you would be hard-pressed to find a news outlet that uses the term “Arab Spring.”

In large part, this is because the Russian point of view starts with the naiveté of the Western point of view, and its corollary: That Russians alone can glimpse the ugly truths that run the world. “The Russian press is more accurate than the Western press, because the West, in painting [the Free Syrian Army] as freedom fighters, doesn’t understand that these guys, are blood-sucking vampires and if they come to power there will be hell to pay, and for the Americans, too,” says Maxim Yusin, the deputy editor of the foreign affairs section of the daily newspaper Kommersant, Russia’s largest and among its more liberal. (I should note that, in my three years reporting on Russia and befriending local colleagues, I’ve only ever previously heard the opposite: a refrain about the superiority of American journalism to the unprofessionalism of the still young Russian press.)

“The Americans came to terms with the Arab Spring because they think that this is something they can understand, that democracy works the same way in America as it does in the Arab world,” Yusin goes on. “But it’s not how democracy works in the Arab world,” he says, pointing out that, in Gaza, a democratic election brought Hamas to power. “Russians understand it better,” Yusin explains. “They understand that this is a conflict between the civilized world and the suicide bombers who cry ‘Allahu akbar!’”

[…]

413. Tara

Not this kind…

True

I’m just quoting what elBatta likes to be nicknamed by Asma.

How is your wife calling you: Mickey Mouse or Cookie Monster?

would a cookie make you less grumpy, irritated?

Smart move that angers already close to hysteria Erdogan. SNC’s Sayda tried to calm him down.

Ankara: Assad leaves Turkish border to Kurds
Tuesday,July 24 2012
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ankara-assad-leaves-turkish-border-to-kurds.aspx?pageID=238&nID=26287&NewsCatID=338

Ankara has furiously accused Syria’s embattled government of turning over the area along their mutual border to affiliates of the PKK

The Syrian administration has deliberately left the three districts on the Turkish border in northern Syria to the control of the Democratic Union of Kurdistan (PYD), known as an affiliate of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), reliable Turkish sources have claimed. Ankara is concerned that the potential expansion of the Syrian Kurdish-controlled area in northern Syria could establish another front for the PKK in its attacks against Turkey.
…
Ankara’s concerns about the Kurdish mobilization were addressed during the July 23 meeting between Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu and Abdulbasid Seyda, head of the Syrian National Council (SNC).
Seyda, himself a Kurd, said the Kurdish groups were on the side of the revolution. “The Syrian regime has handed over the region to the PKK or the PYD. The Kurdish people are not on the side of these two groups, but on the side of the revolution,” he said in a statement after his talks with Davuto?lu.

TARA,

That article you linked on a meeting with Asef Shawkat in 2005 missed a punchline:

“The country is not ready for revolutions and civil disobedience,” he told me.

“This country is ours,” he said, “and we will burn it down rather than give it up.”

Comment: How about that!

(Reference:

The day I met Syria’s Mr Big

Assef Shawkat told me minority rights were a CIA invention

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/24/day-met-syria-mr-big-assef-shawkat)

414. TARA said: The day I met Syria’s Mr Big

this piece reminded me to look up ammar’s newsletter:

But the move by Bashar Al-Assad may not have come soon enough, if we are to believe these sensational claims made by Captain Maher Al-Nouaimai, the official spokesman of the Free Syrian Army. For in an interview with the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan, Al-Nouaimi says that the Damascus rebels have recently captured missiles from a base on Mount Qasayoun that are actually loaded with WMDs. He also said that the rebels now have 15 helicopter gunships under their disposal after their original pilots defected and joined the rebels.

It’s difficult to dismiss these reports offhand, since they are made by the official spokesman for the FSA, but it’s reasonable to demand and expect proof, perhaps in the form of a video.

Meanwhile, irrespective of whether these reports are true or false, the regime can now use WMDs and blame it on the rebels.

if accurate, wonder if general sillu, recently defected, in charge of chemical weapons, helped engineer this capture.

in an english translation of jihad makdissi’s press conference, he also floated this scenario of blaming the rebels.

Growing anxiety in Turkey about the Syrian kurds

The PKK in Syria

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-pkk-in-syria-.aspx?pageID=449&nID=26266&NewsCatID=458
While we were busy talking about northern Iraq, if a “Western Kurdistan Autonomous Region” is formed in northern Syria, it is obvious what kind of a nuisance Turkey will be facing. The developments are only adding to this anxiety.

Ron Norland-NYT:
While leaders of the Syrian political and military opposition continue to deny any role for the extremists, Al Qaeda has helped to change the nature of the conflict, injecting the weapon they perfected in Iraq — suicide bombings — into the battle against President Bashar al-Assad with growing frequency. The evidence is mounting that Syria has become a magnet for Sunni extremists, including those operating under the banner of Al Qaeda. An important border crossing with Turkey that fell into Syrian rebels’ hands last week, Bab al-Hawa, has quickly become a jihadist congregating point.

Ghufran, you can call the FSA what ever you decide. You have always strike me as closeted regime supporter. The FSA or anyone else other the Assad mafia did not start this mayhem. The Syrian people started this peacefully, but the regime decided to shoot them. The regime is responsible for massacres, shelling civilians, yet no beep from you about the regime’s behavior, only the FSA did this or that.

The FSA’s new strategy is brilliant. They are dictating when and where the fighting takes place. They don’t need to be sitting ducks by trying to hold neighborhoods. The regime mafia will collapse under exhaustion.

Aleppo as seen by an eyewitness
Jul 24, 2012
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_07_24/Aleppo-as-seen-by-an-eyewitness/

Fatima Banaui, a citizen of Aleppo who works at a local university, told VOR correspondent Nawaf Ibrahim about the situation in the city.

We try not to go out into the streets, because it’s unsafe there right now. Some kind of rallies are held all the time, organized by the so-called Free Syrian Army. But there are no locals at those rallies.

Who comes to the rallies then?

Some from Idlib, some from Hama.

Have you seen them yourself?

Yes, they are young, around 15-16. They look very strange, walk with weapons, curse and shoot in the air. Seems like they’re not themselves, either drunk or drugged.

And what’s the life of ordinary citizens like right now?

Well, the prices have grown. The rebels attack cars with food provisions and other products, but they don’t use them. They either throw everything out or burn it. Why do they do that? It makes no sense. Maybe to make the local population protest against the government, I don’t know.

Today in the morning they were threatening the owners of some bakeries. They put huge gas tanks in front of the shops and said “If you open the shop today, we’ll blow it up!” Then they blame the authorities for us sitting here without bread.

But all in all, we manage. It’s Ramadan right now, so we still go visit each other, celebrate together, try to support each other. We believe that everything will get settled and the army will take care of the bandits. They can’t frighten us!

And what does the local TV show?

We don’t know which channel to trust. The “Halab-Today” channel that supports the opposition gives reports of every explosion and shoot out right from the hot spots. And sometimes they even show news before they happen! I’m not kidding, it’s true.

And how do the Syrian defense units operate in the city?

The soldiers probably try to make it so that the local residents don’t get hurt. But the militants shoot wherever, they don’t care who to kill. They even kill children! And then they put horrible pictures of those killed children on the internet and write that they are victims of the regime.

In other cities, including Damascus, the rebels forced citizens out of their homes and occupied their houses…

We’re not leaving our homes! The militants would ransack them. Those people have no education, no faith, they’re savages!

I’m sorry, seems like there’s some kind of noise. Is that the TV or the sound is coming from outside?

Don’t worry, that’s the street vendors. They use megaphones to advertise their products (laughs).

???? ??? ???? ?????
http://www.alquds.co.uk/index.asp?fname=today%5C24qpt998.htm&arc=data%5C2012%5C07%5C07-24%5C24qpt998.htm

Halabi:

I know that the name “Alawi state” is wrong when you have people from different sects and religions in that “state.” I use it to denote to the area where the Alawis are a majority and which was called an “Alawi State” by the French and not me. They should call it Syria No Kandahar if you ask me.

Again, if al-Assad and his cronies rule this possibility state this is a nightmare. But, for the Alawis who had put down thousands of kids dead for the adventures of al-Assad, they should ask for a part of the rule and would not settle for a dictator to rule them no matter how brainwashed they are. Most Alawis want democracy and not an absolute rule. I refer to you the writings of Fu’ad Humayra regarding this (???? ?????)

Believe me mr. Halabi that the Alawis are wising up to the games of al-Assad and if he is going to dupe them again to defend him or be soldiers in his army, they are going to stand up and ask for this to change. Remember many Alawis had went to prison under the Assads for asking for democracy. Many of them died defending him for no real gains. He brainwashed the Alawis without making any real progress for them. There are way too many Alawis that know this fact.

If you are an Alawi who has your son dead defending this fiasco of a rule, you are allowed to ask not to be ruled by this failed apparatus again.

As for Allies for the new emerging state: they come in dime a dozen. Don’t worry about that. There are enough people who hate al-3Ara3eer.

As for our friends al-3ara3eer: they are a reality. al-3ara3eer are going to take Syria to hell. al-Assad has been taking advantage of the existence of those 3Araseer. Syria is in a bad shape because of the absence of an alternatives. Do you have an alternative?

@zoo

Looks like Gaddafi was right about the Drugs part in your post.

(Yes, they are young, around 15-16. They look very strange, walk with weapons, curse and shoot in the air. Seems like they’re not themselves, either drunk or drugged.)

Yeah i agree with that with the supposed defection videos + Dell laptoop they really do seem they aren’t like themselves.

I have heard stories from my friends who were soldiers once that the American government wanted to test out an new drug which control soldiers sanity.

I guess this one of those drugs that are untested. Interesting link Zoo thanks for that.

Tara

The mausoleum is a dull place, nothing fancy about it, overall Quardaha will be an empty place with more swimmingpools than inhabitants once this regime has parted. It could be a good place to build an recreation area for all of those victims of this regime. The place where the east german regime resided was turned into an sanatorium for heart diseases.

Observer:

I know, again, that the name “Alawi state” is not correct if you have Christians, Sunnis and Alawis in one “state.” I used it to refer to the area that was called “Alawi State” by the French.

When the French called it an “Alawi state” and nominated some people to run it, they was a mixture of Sunnis, Christians and Alawis. There was few Alawis in that council, as I remember. Still it was called the “Alawi State.” It included Christians, Alawis and Sunnis. It was there, and it was a reality.

The monkey analysis is not viable or realistic, we are talking here about humans who do not want to live with each other any more. It is not about losing preferential status, it is about the reality of what is going on today on the ground where violence is dividing the country. Your talk is a moral lecture that does not make sense in the realities of today’s hatred in Syria. It is too late to lament the past, you need to look at what is taking place today. It is not about me or you, it is about the thousands dead so far, and how to stop thousands more from being killed. People do not want to live with each other as these days are proving.

There will be no ethnic cleansing in the coast, I hope. People there are more open that what you think. but, if that happened it is not in my hands to control. People there may chose to fight instead of living together. The near future will carry the answer to this question.

As for your many questions: replying to them is a task, because many of them are hard to answer. There is no real answer to some of them because the realities on the ground are changing everyday. Who knows how the border would be for example!

But I will try to answer for the sake of argument. Remember, I am in no position to be the one answering them.

Now to answer your questions:

1- The constitution should be secular that equals all living in that “state.”

2- The name should be :Syria no Kandahar.

3- Citizenship should be: Citizen of this state, protected by this state, equal to other citizens under the law of the state.

4- The borders are yet to be determined to see who is in this state and who is out of it.

5- The Alevis of Turkey have their own agenda most likely.

6- The Alevis of Turkey have their own agenda most likely, you have to ask them if they want to join or not. But, if you mean the Syrian Alawis and Christians of Iskandarun, why not? This land and people are the same as Lattakis and a part of the coast.

7- About Christians: you also have to ask them. The ones on the coast will be in the state of course. How many Christians of the interior are going to emigrate to the coat: that has to be known from the level of the violence and intimidation against the Christians.

8- Kurds constitute a huge percentage of the Sunnis of the coast, so if they want to be in that state, you also have to ask them.

9- How many Sunnis allowed: As many as you want as long as they respect the law that equals all and put religion at home.

10- Anyone can emigrate to the Alawi state as long as they respect its laws regarding religion, citizenship and justice.

11- As for applying for citizenship: it should be based on: those who deserve to be citizens could apply and get it.

12- The economic basis is: Agriculture, and tourism.

13- Of course it will have the total coast.

14- Yes it will have a border with Turkey and Lebanon.

15- It should have its own currency.

16- United States, Russia, France, and many other countries should recognize this state and help it emerge.

17- yes it should recognize Israel and should have no ill intentions against anyone to that effect.

18- As for the Palestinian/Israeli conflict: The Alawi state has nothing to do with it and wishes to stay out of it. Let the concerned parties solve that problem.

19- For sure it is not an Arab country and should not go after any ethnic look.

There is vengeance taking place and more is going to happen in the near future. Syria had witnessed a bath of blood that is going to reshape the look of that country forever.

As for the Alawis of Aleppo, Damscus and Homs: remember that Aleppo had thousands of Alawis before the Turks massacred them. Damascus and its surroundings had Alawis too at some points in history, those were massacred also. Homs and its surroundings is the home of many Alawis and it is a very sad case because of the blood that was spilled there. I see no future healing in Homs. It is too sad to see this. But, things took place and now we need to be ready to deal with the consequences.

To answer your question: Yes I will ask the Alawis of Allepo and Damascus to start heading to the coast. Why should they live among those who do not want them and consider them the children of a lesser god? Maybe you can exchange them with Sunnis from the coast who want to live in Alleppo and Damascus. This may be a real good idea.

Here are my questions for you:

1- Do you think the Alawis have the right, and should be able to live freely in Damascus and Aleppo?

2- Do you think the Sunnis would ever recognize the Alawis’ right to claim Aleppo as one of their historical places and allow them to visit the tomb of al-Khasibi for example?

3- Do you think Syrian Sunnis would ever live again with the Syrian Alawis after what had happened?

Zoo
“And what does the local TV show?

We don’t know which channel to trust. The “Halab-Today” channel that supports the opposition gives reports of every explosion and shoot out right from the hot spots. And sometimes they even show news before they happen! I’m not kidding, it’s true.”

Just like al Jazeera on Egypt and Libya last year. I hope some journalits will watch the hundreds of hours of material available and write something one day.

Turkey closes all border crossings with Syria

The last crossings which remained open which were Cilvegözü, Öncüpinar und Karkamis will close today. With a car it will be impossible to cross into Turkey. Exceptions are made only for those who travel in transit.

The impact on the refugees will be small, most of the refuggees use irregular routes into Turkey.

Majbali
Your answer is totally unrealistic.

The state is clearly a sectarian based state hiding behind the so called secular facade.

It is clear that the sectarian elephant in the room is the prime mover of most of the Alawi population.

Humans share 99% of the genes with monkeys. The mentality of fear can lead to foolish actions and the folly of dreaming of being on top of all Syrians forever is only equaled by the folly of having an Alawi state along the entire coast of Syria.

It is clear that you have in mind an Israel like Alawi state where it is nothing more than another apartheid state in disguise behind a facade of democracy.

I am wasting my time.

Observer:

I am for one Syria undivided. But, if I play the devil’s advocate and calculate for the dark days to come, what is the problem?

Everyone in Syria is sectarian, so why hide behind the facade of living together? The non-sectarian Syrians are a small amount that they barely exist these days.

Of course fear brings out “foolish” actions, can you deny the fear we always lived in?

The entire coast of Syria is where the Alawis live, and if they succeed from Syria, the coast would go with them, but also they would lose the rest of Syria. What is a state for them without Allepo and Damascus? The Alawis will lose a lot if they go with the coast, but this does not mean it may not happen especially with the planning and greed of the Assads?

The state is not like any other. It will guarantee equal rights for everyone. No religion allowed.

Sorry to waste your time.

Russia says US tries to justify terrorism in Syria – Jul 25, 2012

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/russia-says-us-tries-to-justify-terrorism-in-syria/274557-2.html

Moscow: Russia accused the United States on Wednesday of trying to justify terrorism against the Syrian government and berated Western nations it said had failed to condemn a bomb attack that killed senior security officials.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, referring to what he said were comments by US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland indicating such attacks were not surprising, said: “This is a direct justification of terrorism.”

“To put it mildly, we don’t understand the refusal of our partners to condemn the terrorist attack in Damascus,” he said.

He suggested Washington was using the threat of further attacks to push the UN Security Council to place international mediator Kofi Annan’s peace plan under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.

Chapter 7 allows the council to authorize actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention, although US officials have said they would prefer the former course of action.

Lavrov said the US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, had cited the July 18 bomb attack in Damascus as evidence that the Security Council should not delay further in adopting a Chapter 7 resolution.

“In other words this means ‘We will continue to support such terrorist attacks until the Security Council does what we want,'” Lavrov told a news conference after talks with Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis.

“This is a terrible position.”

[…]

Tel Aviv residents vulnerable to ballistic missile strike: report – 2012-07-25

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-07/25/c_131738728.htm

JERUSALEM, July 25 (Xinhua) — Some 400,000 residents of Israel ‘s Tel Aviv will not be sufficiently protected in case of a missile strike, local media reported Wednesday.

[…]

Don’t try to talk about torture by Americans forces.

““Oral argument from the media and ACLU will emphasize the critical public interest in open proceedings at Guantánamo,” said James Connell, attorney for Mohammed’s nephew, Ammar al Baluchi, an alleged logistical co-conspirator, who is also known as Ali Abdul Aziz Ali.

At issue is the war court system that employs a 40-second delay of the proceedings, time enough to let an intelligence official hit a white noise button if any of the men describe what CIA agents did to them after their capture in Pakistan in 2002 and 2003 and before their arrival at Guantánamo in September 2006.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/02/2927497/media-aclu-to-argue-against-censorship.html#storylink=cpy