Darayya Massacre Escalates Killings

Sunday, August 26th, 2012

Assad forces accused of massacre in Damascus suburb – aljazeera

“The Assad forces killed them in cold blood,” said Abu Ahmad, 40, a resident of Daraya, where the Syrian government has waged a campaign it described as a “cleansing.” “I saw dozens of dead people, killed by the knives at the end of Kalashnikovs, or by gunfire. The regime finished off whole families, a father, mother and their children. They just killed them without any pretext.”…..more than 200 bodies had been found in the town, activists said another 15 bodies were discovered in the basement of a home in the area. That put the death toll for the week at more than 630 in the city, said the Local Coordination Committees, including 300 people reported executed….

When the government assault started activists said that rebels had established a large armory inside the city. They said it had been rumored to be holding missiles — a detail that could not be confirmed — perhaps to target helicopters at the Meze airport.

The government operation began early last week. Troops first surrounded Daraya and set up checkpoints, blocking food and other supplies from entering, residents said. The electricity was cut, then the Internet and phone service.

Shelling — intense and relentless — started midweek and that was followed by hundreds of Syrian soldiers entering the town, backed by tanks and pickup trucks with mounted machine guns. Residents reported that the soldiers and government militiamen known as shabiha initially faced strong resistance from the Free Syrian Army. But by late Friday or early Saturday, they said the Syrian military seemed to be in control of most of Daraya.

House-to-house searches accelerated. People were not allowed to leave….

“I will not forget my son, and I swear that I will raise his 3-year-old son to take revenge for his father from those Alawite shabiha and soldiers who kill our husband and sons,” she said. “We will not forget the Assad massacres and crimes.”…

“We don’t consider the Assad army to be the army of a nation, we seem them as gangs of robbers who kill, steal and rape,” said Abu Mohammed, 50, a resident helping with the burials. “No national army commits acts like these except the dogs of Assad.”

The Russia Take from RT

Massacre accusations have been leveled at Syrian government forces by opposition watchdog groups after a fierce offensive to retake a Damascus suburb. But with no independent observers on the ground it remains unclear what exactly happened in Daraya.

A gruesome video has emerged showing a man navigating a sea of bodies in what he says is a mosque complex in Daraya, a working class Sunni Muslim town of 200,000 located southwest of Damascus. Amid repeated calls of Allahu Akbar, the individual filming the scene proclaims there are “more than 150 martyrs in this mosque in Daraya so far.”

Blood is conspicuously absent in the dimly-lit room, as the bodies were evidently moved to the Abu Auleiman al-Darani mosque post mortem.

Anti-government activists claim many of the corpses bore the marks of sniper fire, while others had been shot “execution-style” in house-to-house raids.

The video’s authenticity could not be independently verified, and the details of just what happened during the five-day offensive in Daraya remain sketchy at best….

Syria’s rebels: More than they can chew
Following an audacious offensive, the rebels are struggling to survive the regime’s counterattack
Aug 25th 2012 | ANTAKYA AND IDLEB |Economist

the rebels are failing to win hearts and minds among the urban middle class in Aleppo. The same was true of the failed attempt to take the capital, Damascus, in July. …..

Meanwhile, the political opposition is as divided as ever. Much to its dismay, America’s secretary of state, Hillary Clinton snubbed the Syrian National Council, a group of exiles, during her recent visit to Turkey. The group is “on the verge of irrelevance”, says a Western diplomat…..

Take the Tawhid (Unity) Brigade that is leading the assault on Aleppo. It is the biggest and best organised opposition force in Syria. Although formed on July 18th it still lacks a unified command. Its men manage to draw up a rota for front-line duty and joint operations.

Most fighting forces are less organised. Bassel Shahoud, a calm, thoughtful commander of just 80 men in Sarmeen, a small town in the north-western province of Idleb, says it is easier to command that way—and adds that many want to lead. With four groups in Sarmeen alone, he reckons there could be as many as 2,000 groups across the country. Some, such as fighters in Hama, Syria’s fourth city, are not plugged into national networks….

The Idleb Military Council is one of nine or so provincial military councils that were set up late last year by defectors to oversee the fighting groups that are staffed mainly by volunteers. But this is far from a unified force. “There was a lot of hope these councils would create a nationwide military, but we haven’t seen that,” says Asher Berman at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.

Competition for resources and personal feuds have already led some groups to fall out. The two main rebel forces in the Homs area, the Khaled Ibn Walid Brigade and Farouq, both work out of the rebellious town of Rastan, but their leaders are at loggerheads. ….

Syria: the myth of partition
Salam Al-Kawakibi , 25 August 2012, Open Democracy

…it seems that some western experts who are searching for excitement, are now leaning towards discussing the possibility of an “Alawite” state being set up on the Syrian coast, based on “advanced agriculture, modern infrastructure, and ports,” claiming that the Syrian regime has developed these sectors in anticipation of such a scenario. …

Britain and US plan a Syrian revolution from an innocuous office block in Istanbul
An underground network of Syrian opposition activists is receiving training and supplies of vital equipment from a combined American and British effort to forge an effective alternative to the Damascus regime.
By Damien McElroy, Istanbul
26 Aug 2012

Dozens of dissidents have been ferried out of Syria to be vetted for foreign backing. Recipients of the aid are given satellite communications and computers so that they can act as a local “hub” linking local activists and the outside world.

The training takes place in an Istanbul district where handsome apartment blocks line the steep slopes and rooftop terraces boast views over the Golden Horn waterway.

Behind closed doors the distractions of outdoor coffee shops and clothing boutiques gives way to power point displays charting the mayhem sweeping Syria.

“We are not ‘king-making’ in Syria. The UK and the US are moving cautiously to help what has been developing within Syria to improve the capabilities of the opposition,” said Alistair Harris, a British political consultant overseeing the programme. “What’s going to come next? Who is going to control territory across Syria. We want to give civilians the skills to assert leadership.”

Once up and running dissidents can expect help to deal with local shortages and troubleshooting advice from sympathisers….

But the activists also face two days of vetting designed to ensure that the programme does not fall into the trap of promoting sectarian agendas or the rise of al-Qaeda-style fundamentalists…..

Jon Wilks, the Foreign Office diplomat who serves as envoy to the Syrian opposition, told the Arabic newspaper al Sharq al Aswat last week that Britain was already working to lay the foundations of democracy in a post-Assad Syria…..

The scheme has, however, infuriated the exiled opposition body, the Syrian National Council. Its failure to provide a united and coherent front against the regime has led some western officials to brief privately that foreign governments were shifting support beyond the exiled body.

But in a barely furnished office in a tower block near Istanbul airport an SNC official decried the false promises of its allies. “We’ve heard a lot of promises from the very beginning of the SNC but none of those have been fulfilled,” the SNC official said. “This has reflected absolutely negatively on our work. The opposition of Syria wants the world to provide humanitarian aid for the people in need and the Free Syria Army wants intervention to stop planes bombing their positions.

“Instead they go around behind our back undermining our role.”…

A Critique of Joshua Landis
By The Global Perambulator
July 31, 2012

This is a response to a recent talk on C-SPAN by professor Joshua Landis of Oklahoma University…..

Rights of Women

One important issue that was missing from his talk (and is missing in almost all discussions on Syria) is the threat to the rights of women if the Assad regime falls. This is no small issue….

Christians, Kurds and Minorities

In the question and answer period after Mr. Landis’ you will note that there is a Syrian Christian man asking a question about the rights and status of Christians in Syria after a Sunni extremist takeover of the country. He is very concerned about this issue and he has good reason to be. Since the beginning of the so-called ‘revolution’ there have been many incidents of rebels killing Christians and bombing churches all over Syria. The chant of the fighters has been: “The Alawite and Christians to Beirut!” The intentions can’t be made any clearer. Nobody will be safe in Syria after Assad except orthodox Sunni Muslims. Mr. Landis made this very clear to the Christian man when he said that the solution for Turkey was ethnic cleansing. The reason there is no problem in Turkey with Christians is because there are no more Christians. They used to be 20% of the population. …All that is left of Christianity in Turkey are ancient Christian sites that are advertised to attract tourists to the country. Istanbul, which is still the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church, barely tolerates what is left of the Christian community there. The Church has virtually no sovereignty and is at the mercy of the government and its flock has dwindled to almost nothing, when compared to its vibrant past.

If ethnic cleansing and forced conversion has been Turkey’s solution for diversity, take a look at the other country that is supplying weapons and Islamist fighters to topple Assad: Saudi Arabia. There is no country in the world that as intolerant and anti-democratic as Saudi Arabia….

“Non-Lethal” Support

Hillary Clinton regularly acknowledges that the United States is providing ‘non-lethal’ support to the rebels. There is no such thing as ‘non-lethal’ support. The U.S. claims to be supplying material logistical support and training. That is lethal support. They are training people to kill other people and giving them the logistical means to do so. But to claim that the Americans limit themselves to these forms of support is disingenuous. Turkey and Saudi Arabia are two very close allies of the U.S. Saudi is America’s biggest customer in weapons and military hardware. The Turkish military is trained and armed by America. The weapons come from America, go to Turkey and Saudi and end up in the hands of militant Islamic fighters in Syria. This is not an attempt to make a connection between America and weapons on the ground in Syria. This is the actual flow-chart of weapons from origin to destination: From America to Syria.

Geo-Political Agendas

It is in this area where Mr. Landis must seriously be taken to task. When he spoke about his shock when dealing with the Chinese about geo-political concerns in the region, one must wonder what planet he is living on. He claimed that America was helping the ‘good guys’ and China was helping the ‘bad guys’.* One needs to merely look at the public record on the history of the region and the world to find where Washington’s sympathies lie. The best place to access this history is William Blum’s website: Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II.

If we focus on the Middle East we can find an atrocious record of war, sabotage, coup d’etats, mass-murder, assassinations and the creation of failed states as a result of American foreign policy of global hegemony.

America claims to promote democracy….

When Mr. Landis goes abroad representing the U.S. government and supporting its policies, let us remember what agenda he is pushing forward. In General Wesley Clark’s 2003 book Winning Modern Wars he wrote that in November 2001 he had visited the Pentagon and was completely stunned when he came across a list of countries that were to have their governments overthrown by the United States. That list included: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan and Somalia.

So when you turn on the evening news and see the chaos, killing and destruction, you will now understand what a work in progress looks like.

Robert Fisk: The bloody truth about Syria’s uncivil war
Those trying to topple Assad have surprised the army with their firepower and brutal tactics

By Jean Fleury, General, former Chief of Staff of the French Air Force
LE MONDE | 23.08.2012

….But for aviation to destroy tanks or artillery threatening civilians, it must have the prior control of the sky, that is to say, knocked out air and ground batteries as well as enemy fighter planes.

In the case of Libya, it was not too difficult because the dictator’s Air Force had little operational and terrestrial means of defense and his airplanes were quickly destroyed.

For Syria, the song is not the same. Its Air force totals approximately 500 combat aircrafts, more than twice ours although some of them only are modern, yet the number and quality of a training directed to a possible war against Israel are a serious contender. We are not big enough to cope.

In June, when the Turks wanted to test the Syrian air defense (for any expert, this is evident in the review of published trajectories), the reaction was not long in coming, and the airplane was shot down. To overcome Bashar al-Assad today’s aviation, the whole American war machine must be used as well as the airports of Greece and Cyprus, or the Middle East. For Libya, it is our airforce who led the first raid of liberation of Benghazi. If U.S. assistance was essential for the continuation of the war, we have done no less than a quarter of the protection missions of the population threatened by Gaddafi, placing us at the forefront of the coalition.

Against Syria, we would be just a little extra strength under the orders from Washington, it would not be very glorious.

As for the no-fly zone demanded by others, it raises exactly the same problem as for destroying Syria’s plane it would require a mastery of the sky even more perfect!

It seemed surprising that this view has not been discussed further in France. But there is a good reason for this: it would recognize the weakness of our military aviation.

Syrians are torn between a despotic regime and a stagnant opposition
The Muslim Brotherhood’s perceived monopoly over the Syrian National Council has created an opposition stalemate
By Hassan Hassan, Guardian, Thursday 23 August 2012

…A year ago this week, the Syrian National Council was formed in Istanbul by a coalition of political forces and figures that presented themselves as society’s representatives. In the absence of a mechanism to determine the power base of each political force, the Muslim Brotherhood came to dominate the council, benefiting from its relations with Islamist-leaning Turkey.

The Brotherhood’s perceived monopoly over the council has led to a chronic political stalemate within the opposition and will most likely undermine an orderly transition if the situation persists. But the appointment of Algerian veteran diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi as the new UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, along with the recent defections of high-level technocrats, presents a new opportunity to reverse the group’s domination.

…When the Brotherhood was part of the political system, the business community in both Aleppo and Damascus allied itself with the People’s party, a nationalist non-Islamist party, and then to the Ba’ath party. Politically, the business community today is also more likely to ally itself with non-Islamist groups.

Also, in both of these significant cities, the business community is socially tied with a local pragmatic clergy that adheres to a classical Sunni religious school similar to that of al-Azhar in Egypt….

the country appears set for a war that will continue until the regime falls. Significant segments of society in Syria are torn between a despotic regime that is committing atrocities on a daily basis and a stagnant political opposition that has so far failed to present a viable alternative and is dominated by a group they view suspiciously. That is a torn majority, not a silent majority.

Damascus
Torrent of Syrian Refugees Strains Aid Effort and Region

International relief agencies reported an alarming increase in Syrian refugees on Friday, shattering calculations made by the United Nations and spreading fears that the violence in Syria is creating a broader humanitarian crisis that could further destabilize the Middle East.
….
But those forces also have dropped leaflets encouraging people to flee, especially from Aleppo,
suggesting that Mr. Assad may be trying to use refugees to punish Syria’s neighbors, especially Turkey, a former Assad ally that turned on him as the repression in Syria worsened.

“It is a way for Assad to put pressure on Turkey,” said Ayman, a Syrian activist working with refugees at the Turkish border, who used only one name for security reasons. “He is seeking to destabilize Turkey.”

Libya Islamists let loose in their frenzy of destruction
Libya Islamists destroy Sufi shrines, library: military
25/08/2012

ZLITAN, (Reuters) – Conservative Islamists blew up the tomb of a 15th century Sufi scholar and burned down a library in the Libyan city of Zlitan, a military official said on Saturday, the latest attacks on sites in the region branded idolatrous by some sects.

The attackers used bombs and a bulldozer to destroy a complex of shrines that included the tomb of Abdel Salam al-Asmar on Friday and ruined thousands of books at the Asmari Mosque library, said witnesses and Zlitan military council official Omar Ali.

Hardliners, many of them emboldened by the Arab Spring revolts, have targeted a number of sites belonging to Islam’s mystical Sufi tradition in Libya, Egypt and Mali over the past year.

Syrian Christians in 2-week blockade by rebel fighters, residents desperate
25 August, 2012, 17:01

An estimated 12,000 people have spent two weeks blockaded in the Christian town of Rableh, Syria, near Homs in the south. Experiencing a shortage of food and medical supplies, residents could not leave as rebel snipers were shooting at them.

The town, close to the border with Lebanon, was liberated by Syrian government forces on Friday, according to Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen satellite channel. These reports are yet to be verified. Sixty militants were reportedly eliminated.

Syrians are torn between a despotic regime and a stagnant opposition

Hassan Hassan: The Muslim Brotherhood’s perceived monopoly over the Syrian National Council has created an opposition stalemate

How the Syrian Revolution Became Militarized – The Nation
Sharif Abdel Kouddous, August 23, 2012

Zabadani, Syria — Emad Khareeta says he had no choice but to defect. The 23-year-old member of the Free Syrian Army stands outside his family home in a deserted section of town. Shards of concrete and…

“I was ready to die after what I had seen and been through,” he says. “I don’t want to oppress anyone.” He eventually bribed an officer 20,000 Syrian pounds (approximately $300) for a three-day vacation leave. On January 26, Emad left and never returned, making his way back home to Zabadani.

Emad is just one of thousands of army defectors who are switching sides in a conflict that began as a nonviolent popular uprising but has since spiraled into an increasingly bitter and polarizing civil war, one that has become a theater for geopolitical interests.

The armed opposition to the Assad regime first began to take form in the late summer of 2011, following months of mass demonstrations that were overwhelmingly nonviolent. Facing repeated crackdowns and mass detentions by security forces, protesters began to arm themselves, many by purchasing smuggled weapons from border countries like Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan. The revolt was further militarized by increasing numbers of army soldiers defecting to their local communities and bringing their weapons with them.

“They dragged us into arming ourselves,” says Malek al-Tinnawi, a 25-year-old FSA volunteer. He limps badly as he goes to retrieve a newly acquired assault rifle. Two months ago, he was shot through the ankle in clashes with the army. The local doctor inserted a metal rod in his leg to replace the shattered bone. “It’s a good one, isn’t it?” he smiles, brandishing the German-made H&K Model G3 rifle. “Not too used, almost like new.”…

Don’t Fear All Islamists, Fear Salafis
By ROBIN WRIGHT, August 19, 2012, New York Times
As Syrian War Drags On, Jihadists Take Bigger Role (July 30, 2012)

….A new Salafi Crescent, radiating from the Persian Gulf sheikdoms into the Levant and North Africa, is one of the most underappreciated and disturbing byproducts of the Arab revolts. In varying degrees, these populist puritans are moving into the political space once occupied by jihadi militants, who are now less in vogue. Both are fundamentalists who favor a new order modeled on early Islam. Salafis are not necessarily fighters, however. Many disavow violence.

In Tunisia, Salafis started the Reform Front party in May and led protests, including in Sidi Bouzid. This summer, they’ve repeatedly attacked symbols of the new freedom of speech, ransacking an art gallery and blocking Sufi musicians and political comedians from performing. In Egypt, Salafis emerged last year from obscurity, hastily formed parties, and in January won 25 percent of the seats in parliament — second only to the 84-year-old Muslim Brotherhood. Salafis are a growing influence in Syria’s rebellion. And they have parties or factions in Algeria, Bahrain, Kuwait, Libya, Yemen and among Palestinians.

Salafis are only one slice of a rapidly evolving Islamist spectrum. The variety of Islamists in the early 21st century recalls socialism’s many shades in the 20th. Now, as then, some Islamists are more hazardous to Western interests and values than others. The Salafis are most averse to minority and women’s rights.

A common denominator among disparate Salafi groups is inspiration and support from Wahhabis, a puritanical strain of Sunni Islam from Saudi Arabia. Not all Saudis are Wahhabis. Not all Salafis are Wahhabis, either. But Wahhabis are basically all Salafis. And many Arabs, particularly outside the sparsely populated Gulf, suspect that Wahhabis are trying to seize the future by aiding and abetting the region’s newly politicized Salafis — as they did 30 years ago by funding the South Asian madrassas that produced Afghanistan’s Taliban.

The case against intervening in Syria
HENRI J. BARKEY, August 25, 2012
One thing unlikely to come of American involvement: Goodwill.

…Taking sides and delivering power to one group does not always induce the winners to be magnanimous. Iraq is the perfect example of this. It’s sad to say, but civil wars have to be fought and won by locals — and it is generally only after experiencing the horrors of war that the participants learn to compromise….

Syria VP Dispels Defection Rumors – VOA

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, left, head of Iran’s powerful parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy meets with Syrian Vice President Farouk Al-Sharaa, ending rumors that Al-Sharaa had defected to Jordan in Damascus, Syria, August 26, 2012.

Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa has appeared in public for the first time in weeks, ending speculation that he had defected from President Bashar al-Assad’s embattled government.

Q&A: Free Syrian Army deputy leader, Anita McNaught – aljazeera

Colonel Malik al-Kurdi says opposition fighters only need another two months to take the Assad regime down.

Report: Egypt turns down U.S. request to inspect Iranian arms ship on way to Syria – Aug. 26, 2012

Suez Canal Authority chairman tells Al-Ahram newspaper Egyptian navy refuses to inspect ship’s cargo; President Morsi to attend Tehran summit later this month.

Olmert struck Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007 immediately after Bush refused to do so
2012-08-26

Olmert struck Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007 immediately after Bush refused to do so ‘If you’re not going to act against the reactor, then we are,’ PM told president, says advisor Elliot Abrams. Then, as now on Iran, the US favored diplomacy …

Comments (256)

Ghufran said:

It is a bloody lie to claim that all victims of darayya massacre were armed rebels, there was clearly a lot of innocent civilians who were killed, for the life of me,I do not understand why the rebels accepted the order to occupy villages and towns knowing very well that the regime forces are ready to bomb a whole neighborhood in order to kill few rebels. Those of you who point to the fact that the regime has lost any respect for civilians right to live need to remember that it was wrong in the first place for the FSA to use civilian areas as their HQs and expose civilians to the wrath of shelling and bombs.
The massacres in Azaz and Darayya among others will make it more likely that counter massacres will take place if the regime loses control, that fear is at the core of minorities thinking today, especially alawites.

August 26th, 2012, 9:53 pm

Tara said:

Daryya is the new Houla. The only difference is that the regime denies responsibility for the first but shamelessly admitted the “cleansing” in the second. The regime continued to read the cart blanche covert “approval” of the international community that sets the red lines. Unfortunately, to the international community, Syrians’ oil-less lives worth absolutely nothing. The red line settled at the mere movement of WMD in fear of it’s fall into the wrong hand. Mr. Obama will leave office with this legacy on his shoulder..

August 26th, 2012, 9:55 pm

Johannes de Silentio said:

“We don’t consider the Assad army to be the army of a nation. We see them as gangs of robbers who kill, steal and rape,” said Abu Mohammed, 50, a resident helping with the burials in Darayya. “No national army commits acts like these except the dogs of Assad.”

Amen, Abu Mohammed. Only the Assad Mafia does this.

August 26th, 2012, 10:17 pm

اشار رئيس جامعة الحكمة الاب كميل مبارك الى اننا “لاحظنا ان قضية المخطوفين بدأت عنيفة من جهة الخاطفين ومائعة من جهة المسؤولين وكان هناك تسلية بالموضوع حيث لاحظ الناس الوعود المتكررة لعودة هؤلاء”. وقال: “اذا كل مخطوف بقينا اربعة اشهر لنعيده فهذا يعني اننا نحتاج الى 40 شهر اخرين، واطلاق مخطوف واحد هو امر ليس ببادرة حسنة فاطالة الازمة وراءه “.
واعتبر مبارك عملية الخطف تدخل في اطار لعبة الحرب التناسلية، مشيرا الى عملية ضبط النفس التي قامت بها الجهات الحزبية التي ينتمي لها اهالي المخطوفين، لافتا الى ان دول قطر والسعودية والولايات المتحدة الاميركية واسرائيل وايران تدفع سلاحا ومالا ولجوءا سياسيا وعتادا تدفع مقابل اعادة المخطوفين”.
وقال: “لنفترض ان المعارضة السنية تريد ان تقاتل العلويين، فلماذا احرقت 7 كنائس للمسحيين في حلب ولماذا هجر 25 الف مسيحي من هناك في ليلة واحدة؟”، سائلا “هل هذه هي الديمقراطية بسوريا؟”.
Anybody who can verify the accuracy of father Mubarak?

August 26th, 2012, 10:33 pm

Aldendeshe said:

The regime finished off whole families, a father, mother and their children. They just killed them without any pretext.
________________________________________________________________
Common Landis, They are not like Israeli soldiers in West Bank of Palestine. There got to be a reason. Just making statement like that without any names and investigation!!

August 26th, 2012, 10:41 pm

Syrian Natonalist Party said:

“I will not forget my son, and I swear that I will raise his 3-year-old son to take revenge for his father from those Alawite shabiha and soldiers who kill our husband and sons,” she said. “We will not forget the Assad massacres and crimes.”…
_________________________________________________________________

Syriacommenttabloid.com / joshualandisgossip.us

She should blame those that brought the Syrian army to town. The Islamic mercenary cowards who used homes for weapon storages and children for cover, then ran out of town in the nick of time to hide in sewer before the army mechanized unit advanced.

August 26th, 2012, 10:53 pm

Observer said:

My questions to Joshua Landis
1. Can you explain the apparent hardening of the regime’s position with the Drum talking tough in Tehran and Freddo saying that “any price will be worth the fight”
2. Do you think that the regime has degenerated into a militia and if so can you explain how the regime can aim to survive if it prevails
3. What is the definition of prevailing in your opinion is it that the inner circle stays in power even over ruins and destructions
4. Why bring the minority fears when we all know that the revolt is being carried out mainly in non urban centers and areas by a population that is not particularly Islamist and as a matter of fact from the areas where the Baath party recruited initially such as Deir and Daraa and Rastan.
5. Do you think Russia is still active beyond giving a veto cover and if not more so than now then do you think it has only Iran and is the hardening of the position due to Iran promising full financial and military support
6. How do you think the economy will fare when the dust settles if it ever does.
7. Will action happen after the November elections

August 26th, 2012, 10:58 pm

Zenobia said:

Really? Whose idea was it to publish this utter piece of trash writing – “the Global Perambulator”… ??? hard to fathom what worth such a piece of uncredible crap has…

August 26th, 2012, 11:06 pm

abbas said:

Still the best line about what’s happening in Syria I read at True post a while back after he visited Damascus when someone said to him:
There was a pact between the government and the people of Syria, we leave politics to them and they keep their attack dogs away from us

August 26th, 2012, 11:10 pm

VISITOR said:

This is for the drumb beaters of the upcoming so-called historic Morsi visit to NAM meeting. You might as well deflate your expectations to bare minimum. Morsi is in Tehran for 5 hours only and NO normalization in relations, Egypt Presidential sources announced,

مرسي في طهران لساعات .. ولا تطبيع

بدت زيارة الرئيس المصري محمد مرسي لايران الخميس المقبل بمثابة مؤشر على مدى التقارب الذي يمكن ان يتحقق في طبيعة العلاقات بين طهران والقاهرة، في حين حرصت الرئاسة المصرية امس على الحد من التوقعات حولها، بالاشارة الى انها ستستغرق 5 ساعات فقط ولن تتناول قضية اعادة تطبيع العلاقات الديبلوماسية، التي قطعت قبل 30 عاما.
وعقد خبراء 120 دولة اجتماعا، في طهران امس، تمهيدا لانعقاد القمة الخميس والجمعة المقبلين، بينما كشفت طهران عن أن رئيس الوزراء السوري وائل الحلقي ووزير الخارجية وليد المعلم سيمثلان سوريا في أعمال القمة.
وقال المتحدث باسم الرئاسة المصرية ياسر علي، في القاهرة، إن مرسي سيتوجه إلى طهران في 30 آب الحالي، للمشاركة في قمة عدم الانحياز التي ستسلم مصر رئاستها لإيران. وستكون هذه الزيارة الأولى التي يقوم بها رئيس مصري لطهران منذ قطع العلاقات الديبلوماسية بين البلدين قبل أكثر من 30 عاما.
وأكد علي أن الزيارة لن تستغرق سوى «ساعات» وستكون مخصصة فقط لحضور الجلسة الافتتاحية لقمة «عدم الانحياز». وأوضح، ردا على سؤال بشأن ما أثير من احتمال استئناف العلاقات الديبلوماسية بين البلدين، أن الزيارة لن تشمل أي موضوع آخر، مشيرا الى انه
سيغادر طهران مباشرة بعد انتهاء الجلسة الافتتاحية للقمة.
ودافع علي عن الاقتراح الذي طرحه مرسي في قمة مكة الاسلامية، بتشكيل مجموعة اتصال إقليمية بشأن سوريا، تضم مصر وإيران والسعودية وتركيا. وقال «لو كتب النجاح لهذه اللجنة، ونحن مصرون على نجاحها، فستكون إيران جزءا من الحل وليس من المشكلة، وبالتالي نحن دعونا إيران لتكون جزءا من هذه اللجنة الرباعية».
وأضاف علي «إذا كنا نريد أن تحل المشكلة فلا بد من أن نجمع كل الأطراف التي لها تأثير حقيقي في المشكلة»، معتبرا انه «إذا نجحت هذه المجموعة فإن إيران ستكون جزءا من الحل وليس المشكلة». وتابع ان «المحاولات الأخرى محاولات مهمة جدا، وبالتأكيد حققت جزءا من النجاح، لكن كان يغيب عنها طرف او اكثر، وما تحاوله اللجنة الرباعية التي اتت بمبادرة من الرئيس هو جمع كل الاطراف المؤثرة في المسالة السورية».
وقال المتحدث باسم وزارة الخارجية الإيرانية رامين مهمانبرست، ردا على سؤال لوكالة «مهر» حول أن مرسي سيمكث في طهران 4 ساعات فقط، إن «مرسي، باعتباره الرئيس الحالي لحركة عدم الانحياز، سيزور إيران على رأس وفد رفيع المستوى، إلا انه حتى الآن لا يعلم احد عن فترة مكوثه في طهران»، مضيفا «من المؤكد أن زيارة الرئيس المصري طهران ستساهم بشكل لائق في تنمـية العـلاقات بين طهـران والقاهرة».
وكانت وكالة «ارنا» نقلت عن مهمانبرست قوله إن «مرسي سيلتقي كبار المسؤولين الإيرانيين خلال مشاركته في مؤتمر القمة». وأضاف «بحسب الإحصاءات فإن ملكين و28 رئيسا و8 رؤساء وزراء و9 نواب رؤساء جمهورية واثنين من رؤساء البرلمانات و6 مبعوثين للزعماء أعلنوا استعدادهم للمشاركة في القمة. كما أن 25 وزير خارجية و3 وزراء مشرفين على وزارة الخارجية سيشاركون في المؤتمر».
سوريا
وقال رئيس لجنة الأمن القومي والسياسة الخارجية في مجلس الشورى (البرلمان) الإيراني علاء الدين بروجردي، خلال مؤتمر صحافي عقده في مبنى السفارة الإيرانية في دمشق، إن الرئيس السوري بشار الاسد ابلغه انه «سيرسل رئيس الوزراء السوري للمشاركة في هذا الاجتماع». وأضاف إن وزير الخارجية السوري وليد المعلم «سيشارك كذلك في الاجتماع». وكان وصل إلى طهران مساعد وزير الخارجية السوري فيصل المقداد للمشاركة في اجتماعات خبراء «عدم الانحياز».
واشار بروجردي الى مبادرة طهران المتعلقة بتشكيل مجموعة اتصال تضم السعودية وتركيا وايران ومصر خلال اجتماع خاص على هامش القمة من اجل التوصل الى هدنة في سوريا تؤدي الى وقف العنف وتوفير البيئة الملازمة لاجراء حوار بين الحكومة السورية والمعارضة، و«عندها ندخل في الاجراءات التنفيذية». واكد ان اي خطوة في هذا المجال «يجب ان تتم بالتشاور مع الحكومة السورية» موضحا انه «من دون ذلك لا يمكن انجاح اي مقترح».
واضاف بروجردي «إننا نغتنم فرصة عقد قمة حركة دول عدم الانحياز في طهران للتشاور مع الأصدقاء حول سبل إنهاء الأزمة السورية»، مقترحاً اجراء لقاء تنسيقي بين الدول الصديقة لسوريا قبل انعقاد المؤتمر البرلماني الدولي في كندا في ايلول المقبل.
تركيا
ونقلت صحيفة «زمان» التركية عن مصادر ديبلوماسية تركية توقعها، الجمعة الماضي، عدم مشاركة الرئيس عبد الله غول أو وزير الخارجية احمد داود اوغلو في القمة.
وأعلن مسؤول في مكتب الرئاسة ان غول لا يخطط للمشاركة في القمة، بالرغم من دعوة تلقاها من نظيره الإيراني محمود احمدي نجاد، موضحا أن تركيا ليست عضوا في «حركة عدم الانحياز». وأشار إلى أن هناك عاملين وراء عدم مشاركة غول، هما مرضه والاحتفالات بيوم النصر في 29 و30 آب الحالي.
وتوقع مصدر في وزارة الخارجية التركية الا يشارك داود اوغلو ايضا لازدحام جدول أعماله، مشيرا الى انه ليس معروفا حتى الآن على أي مستوى ديبلوماسي ستشارك تركيا في القمة، إذا قررت هذا الأمر.
صالحي
ودعا وزير الخارجية الإيراني علي اكبر صالحي، في افتتاح الأعمال التحضيرية للقمة التي ضمت خبراء من حوالى 120 دولة، إلى التصدي للعقوبات الدولية التي فرضت على طهران بسبب برنامجها النووي.
وقال صالحي إن «حركة عدم الانحياز يجب أن تتصدى بجدية للعقوبات الأحادية الجانب التي فرضتها بعض الدول ضد بعض أعضائها». والى جانب إيران، تخضع ثلاث دول أخرى من حركة عدم الانحياز لعقوبات دولية أو أحادية الجانب، هي سوريا وكوريا الشمالية وزيمبابوي.
وكرر صالحي أن أنشطة إيران النووية «سلمية». وقال «نحن لا نطالب إلا بحقوقنا المشروعة. نرغب في حل عادل (للملف النووي الإيراني)، وليس حلولا منحازة تعتمد سياسة الكيل بمكيالين من قبل الوكالة الدولية للطاقة الذرية وهيئات أخرى من الامم المتحدة».
وعبر عن رغبته في ان تتخذ القمة «إجراءات فعالة ضد أعمال الإرهاب التي تقوم بها حكومات بدعم من قوى غربية»، مشيرا بشكل خاص الى اغتيال عدة علماء نوويين ايرانيين منذ العام 2010. واتهمت طهران الاستخبارات الاسرائيلية والاميركية والبريطانية بانها تقف وراء هذه الاعتداءات التي تهدف الى تعطيل البرنامج النووي الايراني. وقامت السلطات الايرانية بعرض هياكل سيارات دمرت من جراء العبوات التي أدت إلى مقتل بعض هؤلاء العلماء، عند مدخل مركز المؤتمرات. («السفير»، «مهر»، «ارنا»، ا ف ب، ا ب، رويترز)

I am not sure if Ann understands Arabic. But I did my best to convey the story in my opening remarks to her. Believe me Ann this is what it says.

Well, Zoo probably knows Arabic and this may wake him up from sleep.

But I would have to go to sleep now for some engagements, and should be back around the time of this meeting. I am sure this topic will be alive by then. Lots of things and weird spins to talk about, I am sure.

August 27th, 2012, 12:03 am

أغتال مسلحون مجهولون صباح اليوم الأحد الشيخ حسن برتاوي خطيب مسجد الإمام النووي في حي ركن الدين بدمشق.
و جاءت عملية اغتيال الشيخ ” برتاوي” ، الذي ظهر مرارا على شاشة التلفزيون السوري و صلى إلى جانب الرئيس الأسد في صلاة عيد الفطر بجامع “حمد” ، إمام دار الأيتام بجانب جامع أبو النور.
و ذكرت صفحات مقربة من السلطات السورية على موقع الفيس بوك أن مسلحين قاموا في الآونة الأخيرة بإحراق منزله و تهديده لمنعه من الظهور على التلفزيون السوري.
So,are we allowed to denounce the killing of this sheikh whose only crime is that he does not oppose the regime ? Under which quranic or sunnah rule his life was taken ?
Losing the upper hand in the moral fight is far more reaching than losing a battle on the ground,if the opposition fails to topple the regime,it will not be becuse of Russia, it will be due the actions of people who kill in the name of the revolution when the victim did not deserve to die, people are not ready to replace one dictator with another, do not hold your breath for any condemnation from opposition sources,they will either ignore the crime or blame it on shabeehas, a convenient hanger for all of the armed thugs sins used every time a non deserving citizen is killed.

August 27th, 2012, 1:19 am

Juergen said:

I think its crystal clear now who has the most interest in any massacres, the regime.

When you see this Al Dunia report, i really forgot my manners for a moment. I was utterly shocked how this regime reporter was wandering inmidst bodies, making an interview with an severly wounded women in an graveyard. Is an interview the first aid for Al Dunia? May be its for the regime an aid, but surely not for this women. As it looked, they just finished their cleansing and then let Al Dunia do their work. Apparantly no dead “terrorists” were shown, or the detained “snipers” of the rebels.

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/26/234403.html

August 27th, 2012, 1:21 am

11 Ghufran,

“So,are we allowed to denounce the killing of this sheikh whose only crime is that he does not oppose the regime ?”

Why do you ask?
The answer is NO. YOU IN PARTICULAR CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO DO THAT. Because you abandoned this privilege by failing to denounce the more horrible and despicable massacres committed by the regime on more than one occasion, the most obvious of course was the most recent in Daraya. Instead you treated those massacres with callousness and utter disregard to human life.

Others however, who may prove to be more genuine in their sentiments, may choose to do so by all means and we would be very eager listen to their arguments.

August 27th, 2012, 1:40 am

Tara, there is no carte blanche approval from the so-called international community for the Assad Mafia. And it has nothing to do with Syria’s “oil-less-ness.”

The problem for us Syrians is, the Assads spent a lot of time making enemies and almost no time trying to make friends. And now, with the country blowing up, the chickens are coming home to roost. The only help being offered to Bashar is from Venezuela, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Iran and Hizbollah. It’s like having the five stooges tossing you a lifeline.

So don’t be surprised if Obama and the EU continue to do nothing. Just don’t blame them. After forty some years of insults and bad vibes, they have the right to turn their backs as Damascus burns to the ground.

Just thinking out loud.

August 27th, 2012, 1:47 am

New massacres uncovered, while central cities are fully destroyed and turned into ghost towns,

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/27/234438.html

August 27th, 2012, 1:58 am

Syrian children playing-cartoon

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=486085251420628&set=a.201716413190848.57037.201686009860555&type=1&theater

August 27th, 2012, 2:14 am

Mina

this author lives in Berlin

http://www.youm7.com/News.asp?NewsID=255535

August 27th, 2012, 2:18 am

annie said:

What strikes me in the West is that the “anti-imperialist” supporters of the regime are overwhelmingly non Syrians

August 27th, 2012, 2:30 am

SYR.EXPAT said:

A video purporting to show a helicopter shot over the Jobar suburb of Damascus.

August 27th, 2012, 3:17 am

More on the downed chopper:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD2j3pW0APg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAIjsac4XZw

It must be a malfunction, the Syrian regime will claim.

August 27th, 2012, 3:21 am

Hassan said:

So now you have a taste of what our brave and supermen soldiers are capable of ? So what if majority of Darayya “victims” were civilan ? They sheltered terrorists and they paid the price.

FSA is wiped out, now is the time for hunting down, I love this time.

Assad Soldiers are supermen and invincible.

Assad will stay for a 1000 years, this is an eternal regime and NOBODY can topple it.

We are ready to sacrifice every drop of our blood for you Bashar !!!

August 27th, 2012, 5:26 am

7. OBSERVER said :

“4. Why bring the minority fears when we all know that the revolt is being carried out mainly in non urban centers and areas by a population that is not particularly Islamist and as a matter of fact from the areas where the Baath party recruited initially such as Deir and Daraa and Rastan.”

Holly sh*t, what about Hama, Homs, Midan, Douma, etc ? All centres of typical urban cowardly petty bouregoisie and lower-middle class Islamism, all nests of sarasir. They didn’t learn the lesson of 1982 it seems.

And what makes you think so-called non-urban is not infested by MB and Salafists ? I can show you 8 to 10 wild tribal beheading videos from Deir Ezzor itself . And Daraa has been quite well-infiltrated by Islamists for the last decade. Daraa countryside has been well-known stronghold of radical movements for the last decade.

Al-Rastan is the same as Homs and Hama in character, only difference is they have a large number of Army officers for the last 40 years, mainly because of favoritism and nepotism of Mustafa Tlass the traitor.

All Governorates of Syria are infiltrated and influenced by Islamism. Even the Kurds and the Palestinian camps are not safe from this influence. All because of GCC financing.

Because GCC wants to destroy the Socialist State System of Syria and impose their own urban petty bourgeois consumerist model.

August 27th, 2012, 5:40 am

OBSERVER rural hardcore soldiers of the Syrian Army will CRUSH the petty bourgeois urban Islamism just like they did in 1982.

Its time to clean up Ottoman leftovers from our cities.

August 27th, 2012, 5:46 am

Antoine said:

Sorry to burst your bubble Hassan Shabbih,

Wael al-Halqi is our new Prime Minister,

He is from the village of Jasem in Daraa, from a rural background,

He is from the well-known al-Halqiyeen clan.

According to the Center for Documentation of Violations in Syria,

45 people have died in Jasem in Daraa in the last 18 months.

OF these 16 are from al-Halqi clan,

and of these 14, 7 are defected soldiers and officers who were killed elsewhere.

A similar case can be said about the famous al-Miqdad (Moqdad) clan of Busra al-Sham in Daraa ( The Shia Mokdads of Bekaa valley are in fact their distant cousins).

According to the above-mentioned statistical source, 37 members of the Mikdad (Sunni) ckan have been killed by Assad in Daraa in last 18 months.

I guess the Lebanese Mikdads should pick on Assad instead of FSA

__________________________________________________________

( I can even show 7 dead al-Dandashe’s in Telkalakh when the shabbiha entered it last year, but the stubborn Dandashi on this blog won;t listen to me).

Take revenge for your sect and Clan and hometown, like Nawaf Fares and Riyad Hijab.

August 27th, 2012, 6:21 am

Syr.EXpat,

Now that FSA took out that chopper, expect more massacres and blood-drinking hillbilly baathist genocidists like Hassan here to cheer it.

August 27th, 2012, 6:24 am

People like Hassan here are the reason why FSA should exist and why FSA is right.

HASSAN. I think you should worry about saving your brothers in JABAL MOHSEN-TRABLOUS at this moment, they are in deep trouble since they ran out of ammunition 2 days ago and begging the Lebanese Army to help them.

August 27th, 2012, 6:26 am

Uzair8 said:

A very good read. The left being told.

‘Hands Off Syria’ and Other Slogans of Assad’s Fans

By Pham Binh
August 16, 2012

[Selected quote]

What is bizarre and disturbing is that Western progressives who are fighting for the very same freedoms and rights revolutionary Syrians are being killed for wanting are adopting the same slogans and policy preferences as Assad’s defenders, namely: “hands off Syria” and “no to Western intervention in Syria.”

I am talking about people like lifelong revolutionary socialists Tariq Ali and John Rees.

http://www.indypendent.org/2012/08/16/hands-syria-and-other-slogans-assad%E2%80%99s-fans

August 27th, 2012, 9:43 am

Yvonne Ridley message to the people of Syria. She is a journalist and was once captured by the Taliban. She is also a member of George Galloway’s Respect Party.

August 27th, 2012, 9:48 am

افاد اهالي لسيريانيوز ان قذائف عدة سقطت صباح اليوم الاثنين في الزبلطاني وباب توما والقصاع في دمشق,
Who is shelling Bab Touma and Qassa?
If we know that the whole Jobar or Qaboum will pay the price of downing the helicopter,what is the point of doing it?
Who won from changing this uprising into an armed conflict ?
Why are the rebels hiding in civilian areas?
Most of you know the answers, some are in denial.

August 27th, 2012, 9:52 am

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg. Got this from Yvonne Ridley’s twitter. The tweet went something like ‘Confused about Syria? Read this….’

SYRIA: My journey to the land of blessing, and torture
Thursday, 16 August 2012

http://www.cageprisoners.com/our-work/opinion-editorial/item/4758-syria-my-journey-to-the-land-of-blessing-and-torture

August 27th, 2012, 9:53 am

AJ said:

29. UZAIR8 said:

“Yvonne Ridley message to the people of Syria. She is a journalist and was once captured by the Taliban. She is also a member of George Galloway’s Respect Party.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlHodW6ifBA ”

Very interesting given George Galloway`s position on Syria. Who claims he supports people rising up, but criticizes this revolution as a western initiated coup d’etat.

August 27th, 2012, 9:54 am

29. Ghufran

Taking your logic further one can say if the people knew the regime would respond horrifically then why rise up in the first place? What was the point?

August 27th, 2012, 9:56 am

#26,

Actually people like Hassan are just reading from the same textbook.

If you want to know what the textbook says you just have to look again at the SANA/DUNYA TV reporter who was practically dancing shamelessly over the bodies of the Daraya victims.

The objective is simple: to instill fear. That is what comes out of that book.

So after 50 years of rule by fear and 18 months of breaking the fear barrier, the regime has only three cards in its pocket: FEAR and FEAR and FEAR.

OK, Syrians you got the picture now. You lose the war when FEAR grips you again.

The contributors on this site who either crudely or subtly reverberate the fear theme are just playing from the same textbook also. Here they are by name: Norman, Ales (AKA Alex, AlexNO), Zoo, Irritated, Hassan, Ghufran, Spam Ann and many others who dropped out of the race.

It seems that Dendeshee just scared most of them by claiming to have gained access to their IP addresses: Chicken who know only how to make hollow posturing. But do not blame them for they are just the product of the fear kingdom.

I was greatly annoyed by Assad’s defiant statement and his confident smile while welcoming the Iranian crew.

There can be no greater motivation for the opposition than to wipe that smile of his face.

August 27th, 2012, 10:01 am

Richard said:

1. Ghufran said:
” Those of you who point to the fact that the regime has lost any respect for civilians right to live need to remember that it was wrong in the first place for the FSA to use civilian areas as their HQs and expose civilians to the wrath of shelling and bombs.”

How do you expect a guerilla war to work? In asymetrical warfare, the less-armed side relies on being able to melt-away into the population.

Part of any insurgent strategy is to goad the government into over-reacting, creating civilian casualties and losing credibility. Certainly Assad has fallen into this downward spiral.

Do you expect the FSA to occupy bases out in rural areas that can be identified and bombed? The regime controls the airspace, no doubt has lots of satellite intelligence from the Russians.

If you care about civilian casualties, you might call for a no-fly-zone. But no, you simply sit on the fence, criticize all parties, and offer no practical steps to make a horrible situation less horrible.

I respect your knowledge and goodwill. I criticize you because you are a thoughtful person who might be able to advocate a way out, but are trapped in paralysis.

August 27th, 2012, 10:07 am

Ales said:

Hassan,
your methods are as vile as those of Salafis. I hope Syrian army has not been degraded to that level.

Soldiers are simply not meant to kill civilians. Germany used their army to mass kill civilians at start of 2nd world war and even elite SS balked and suffered serious psychological and effectivity damage. But Germans solved their problem on even more horrible way – concentration and working camps and gas chambers.

As conflict goes on and situation deteriorates, measures are becoming more extreme on both sides.

August 27th, 2012, 10:33 am

http://youtu.be/aDM-HcppVyQ
برومو رائع لـ يبرود أغنية شامنا شامنا عبد الباسط ساروت

Don’t know why the mute repeat but good video from SYRIANFREEDOME

August 27th, 2012, 10:35 am

Citizen said:

Exposed: IDF abuses kids, uses children as human shield
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16TW0ereUUI
Around 100 pro-Palestinian activists have been stopped by Israeli authorities on their way to the West Bank from Jordan. The group aimed to deliver aid to schoolchildren in Bethlehem refugee camps but were reportedly turned away without any explanation. This latest incident follows another scandal involving Palestinian children…

August 27th, 2012, 10:36 am

29. Ghufran said:
“If we know that the whole Jobar or Qaboum will pay the price of downing the helicopter,what is the point of doing it?
Who won from changing this uprising into an armed conflict ?”

It was obvious that peaceful protest failed. The choice was taking-up arms or submiting to a brutal tyrany. There was no middle way.

Downing the helicopter is the most productive step imaginable. The regime will be less active in use of air power if helicopters are threatened.

You are advocating for a surrender to a brutal dictatorship. There will be far more death and brutality in that way.

Assad has not won. It is not clear what the nature of the new Syria will be. I suggest you use your considerable intelligence to help shape a more positive future, and stop lamenting the fact that the people of Syria chose to fight for their freedom. That train left the station a long time ago.

August 27th, 2012, 10:38 am

All your comments are not more than empty talk and papers filler ! All the cards are already disclosed and little left to add! Article becomes dull and not valuable! look for another job friends!

August 27th, 2012, 11:01 am

غالبا ما يكون التغابي اكثر غباءً من الغباء٠

Here’s a striking example from this comment section,

“I hope Syrian army has not been degraded to that level.”

Courtesy of Ales (AKA Alex, AlexNO).

How good is it to hope against hope when facts on the ground show such hope is hopeless? But feigning blindness is an excellent alibi for those who have been to the school that produced the robots that we see around us. This is an army of thugs, it is designed to be an army of thugs, it can only behave as an army of thugs, it has never displayed any behaviour other than thuggery and sheer criminality, and it will never behave except as an army of thugs.

It is the epitome of thugishness and evil. Were the SS to be brought back to life, they would feel much obliged to re-learn crime and thuggishness from this army of thugs, by joining their most elemetary training classes.

Feigning blindness is just another way of absolving self from previous comments that are even viler than the same comment the author means to reprimand.

Our only true National Army is none but the FSA.

Actually, we’re much better off with comments like Hassan’s as we know exactly who we’re dealing with instead of the Ales-like/Ghufran-like comments that are interlaced with pseudo-intellectual flavors that can only fool the novice.

August 27th, 2012, 11:04 am

On 18 June, Syrian state TV broadcast a startling interview with a young woman dressed in a white hijab.

In measured tones Alaa Morely said she had fabricated news reports for the al-Jazeera news channel.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19347555

Hassan does not mean what he says, just trying to get our reaction

August 27th, 2012, 11:11 am

erin said:

I would like someone to count the lies, fabrications, rumors, media sexy propaganda. Al Jazeera made up stories.
assasination which all are made up or edited video etc..
Even the US army loses Chopper in Afghanistan and the Taliban didn’t down it!!!!.
it is clear that the rebels are no less criminals than the regime.
Syria is going to hell in the hands of the rebels and the forces of the regime.
Bye bye Syria, if you have anyone there better escape than being a number or a victim of wahabi civilian killing machine.
the Syrian army is not able to protect its own people because the wahabi are paying to kill the civilians and massacre them.

August 27th, 2012, 11:25 am

ghufran said:

سئم القائمون على صفحة “سوريات مع الثورة” من طلبات الزواج التي تردهم من “شباب عرب يريدون الزواج من لاجئة سورية لسترتها، مما دفع بمدير الصفحة “طارق الجزائري” الطلب من قراءه قائلا: “أرجو من الجميع عدم ارسال هذه الرسائل لأنه الوقت مو وقت زواج عنا بسوريا في حرب وأن ما تسمعونه من إشاعات تحصل في الأردن وتركيا ولبنان من زواج اللاجئات السوريات بالمجان هذا كلام فارغ وعاري من الصحة”.
لكن تقارير محلية اردنية تنوه لانتشار الظاهرة في المدن التي نزح إليها سوريون. حيث نشر موقع الصوت الإلكتروني الأردني مقالة عن صحيفة الدستور بعنوان “أردنيون يستغلون الاحداث ويتزوجون من لاجئات سوريات”. يقول كاتب المقالة ماهر أبو طير:
“تجلس هنا وهناك، فلا تسمع حديثا هذه الايام إلا عن الزوجة السورية التي يمكن الزواج منها بمائة دينار، او بمائتي دينار وماعليك الا ان تذهب الى المفرق أو عمان أو الرمثا او اربد او الكرك، لتختار حورية من حوريات الشام، لأن اهالي هؤلاء يريدون سترة بناتهم، ويقبلون بزيجات عاجلة، دون شروط، مجرد مهر عادي، وزواج سريع، لأن الأب المكلوم يريد ستر ابنته بأي زواج، حتى لو تقدم لها الاعور الدجال”.
تقرير آخر نشره موقع أخبار 24 الأردني يشير إلى عدد الطلبات التي تقدم بها سعوديون للسفارة السعودية في الأردن للموافقة على طلبات الزواج ما بين سعوديين وسوريات مقيمات في الأردن.
قاصرات
يصعب الوصول إلى أرقام وإحصائيات عن عدد الزيجات لكن هنالك أيضا مؤشرات قوية بأن هنالك اقبالا على تزويج الفتيات السوريات لا سيما الصغار منهن والتي لا تتجاوز أعمارهن 14 او 15 عشر من العمر.
في تصريح لشبكة الأنباء الإنسانية (آيرين) قال دومينيك هايدي الممثل المحلى لصندوق الأمم المتحدة للطفولة (اليونيسيف) إن الصندوق يدرك مشكلة تزويج القاصرات السوريات في الاردن مضيفا: “إننا قلقون بشأن الزواج المبكر الذى يستخدم كآلية للتأقلم مع الأوضاع”. ويعلق عاملون ميدانيون في الاردن بأن ظروف المعيشة الصعبة ومخاوف التعرض للاغتصاب تدفع بالأهالي السوريين النازحين تزويج بناتهم في سن مبكرة. وبسبب تحديد سن الزواج القانوني يلجأ الأهالي للزواج غير الرسمي وغير المسجل لدى السلطات.

August 27th, 2012, 12:10 pm

A reading of the Iranian Syria house of cards,

http://www.alarabiya.net/views/2012/08/27/234571.html

August 27th, 2012, 12:44 pm

I disagree with the conclusion that downing a helicopter will stop or reduce attacks from the air,the opposite will happen, every time violence is escalated,there was a more violent reaction from the regime, this is a war not a chess game,I am sickened by the fact that both the regime and armed rebels have chosen this bloody bath and ignored the interest of the people who want to live and let live.
foreigners who advocated and pushed for a civil war are doing this out of revenge (regime’s and country’s support for Iraq’s insurgency), fear of Iran and support for Israel,only a fool will believe that this bloody war is helping Syrians, I have to remind those who are calling for blood that life has a funny way of taking turns and choosing different targets, religious people call that an act of God. those who are killing innocent civilians in Syria will pay the price one way or the other, those of you who are inciting violence under any name should be ashamed of themselves, others who are calling cessation of violence a surrender do not know Syrians and do not appreciate how much the country has changed, there is nothing the regime can do to take the clock back to the era before March,2011, this regime is doomed and I can not wait to see a new and accountable leadership in Syria, unfortunately, such a leadership is unlikely to come any time soon and unlikely to be supported by the same people who are helping Syrians kill each other.
(BTW, we are not sure yet if that helicopter was downed by a missile or not,if it was,expect a lot of firework about that serious development)

August 27th, 2012, 12:45 pm

Syria: Neither Riyadh nor Tehran but Popular Revolution

by Jamie Allinson

Just as the Assad regime in Syria approaches what appears to be its terminal decomposition, prominent figures on the Anglophone left are hurrying to defend it—or at least to oppose its opponents. The anti-anti-dictatorship crowd includes not only sub-Ickean conspiracists such as Michael Chossudovsky but also people one would have expected to know better, such as Tariq Ali, George Galloway and John Rees. Some of the arguments are expressed in more inflammatory style than others—such as Galloway’s claim that the Syrian uprising is a ‘massive international conspiracy’—but they follow a similar line. This is that: the Syrian revolution, whether it has popular roots or not, has now become a purely military endeavour of Sunni supremacists acting as the catspaws of a Saudi-Qatari-U.S. (perhaps also Franco-Zionist) effort to topple Assad, the last redoubt of the anti-imperialist forces in the region. This externally funded rebellion represents an extension of the U.S. imperial project launched after the 9/11 attacks, embracing the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. Stories of Syrian government atrocities in the Western media are the counterparts of the lies circulated in 2002-3 about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, and therefore must be discredited. The only solution to be hoped for is a negotiated peace (a prospect also raised by parts of the Syrian opposition) leaving some remnant of the Ba’ath regime in place, thereby denying the U.S. and its co-conspirators the prize of a pliant regime on Israel’s front-line and a significant weakening of the Iranian position. These arguments are not made solely by Anglophone commentators: outside of Egypt’s revolutionary currents , they are extremely common on the Arab left. One need only glance at the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar to find the Arab revolutions damned tout court as examples of “Political Sunnism”.

Is any of this true? The situation in Syria is both extremely violent and extremely complicated and difficult for even those within the country to grasp, let alone those outside of it. Nonetheless, information is available if one is ready to consult people within Syria or those who have reported from there recently—a step rarely taken by those proposing the anti-anti-Assad argument. Let us take the claims in turn.

‘Massive international conspiracy’?

The charges laid by, amongst others, Charles Glass and Patrick Seale, are that the Free Syrian Army is trained, funded and armed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia (leading to an increase in Islamist influence within its ranks) as the co-conspirators of the USA and Turkey. These arms and funds, it is claimed, are flowing largely through the contact points established between FSA-held territory and the Turkish border in the north. It is this weaponry that accounts for the recent boldness of the rebels, and the likely demise of the current regime will be a victory for the suppliers of this ordinance and not the Syrian people.

There are elements of truth to this story. It is no secret that the U.S., and its more vociferous junior imperial partner, wants rid of Assad and in this aim they are joined by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the GCC more generally. The Saudis and Qataris are providing money, and in some cases materiel, to those bits of the FSA of which they approve. Nor is it any revelation that Western (and Turkish) agencies are attempting to broker the flow of these resources into the country and thereby exercise influence over the revolutionary situation. In any revolution, anywhere, now or in the future, outside powers will try to do this. Where this line of argument goes very wrong is in claiming that the Syrian revolution, as a result of these attempts, now consists of ‘sundry’ elements working for Western intelligence agencies and abetting the recolonisation of the country.

First, the weaponry and funding in question is not very much, and not for everyone. One can spot images of FSA anti-aircraft guns or cannon but very rarely. These are also most likely to have been taken with defectors of the defeat of a regime garrison. The regime’s advantage in airpower and ground armour is overwhelming: the FSA’s resources bear no comparison. One would expect a massive international conspiracy worth its salt to furnish its fifth column with some serious anti-tank and anti-aircraft weaponry. Such munitions are not evident. Most of the FSA’s light arms seem to come from the Syrian army itself, through defection or purchase with money from Syrian exile businessmen in the Gulf. Here is an example of FSA members having taken Rastan in July, disabling at least two armoured vehicles visible in the video:

ARTICLE HERE :http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/syria_neither_riyadh_nor_tehran_but_popular_revolution#.UDtfRQawOgo.facebook

August 27th, 2012, 12:56 pm

Yesterday I posted the news of the FSA attack on the oil tankers (17 detroyed, 6 captured).

Just read this update on AJE Live Blog with a retired egyptian Brigadier General commenting on the current military situation in Aleppo. He talks about the FSA focus on attacking regime supply lines and also the effectiveness of the regimes use of air power.

In an interview with Al Jazeera television, retired Egyptian Brigadier General Safwat al-Zayat, commented on the battle in Syria’s Aleppo and the current military situation there.

The following are excerpts from his comments:

‘What we have seen on the battle front was Free Syria army (FAS) attempts at cutting Syrian army supply lines by bombing moving fuel tankers coming from Riqqa district aimed at refueling Syrian troops in Aleppo.

The FSA is apparently giving top priority to cutting off regime forces supply lines, for the time being, rather than winning the battle in Aleppo.

The heavy shelling at Ariha, Qastoon and Aleppo airport, is an indication that Syrian regime troops appear to be strangled in Aleppo districts and facing difficulties in securing fuel supplies.’

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/topic/syria/retired-egyptian-brigadier-general-safwat-al-zayat-speaks-about-syria

August 27th, 2012, 1:12 pm

KDD said:

I’d like to comment on #5:
“The regime finished off whole families, a father, mother and their children. They just killed them without any pretext.
________________________________________________________________
Common Landis, They are not like Israeli soldiers in West Bank of Palestine. There got to be a reason. Just making statement like that without any names and investigation!!”

I’m not sure if Mr. Aldendeshe is being facetious or serious, but I will assume the latter.

First, if we assume that the goal of the “Syrian Arab Army” is to protect us, and that we should support them, then they should be accomplishing that aim. The FSA decided to withdraw from the neighborhood, and the Army advanced (as documented on video).
Second, the bodies began to collect after the Army entered the town. Why? Shouldnt the Army, in working towards its noble aim of protecting innocent life carefully strategize in order to minimize loss of innocent life?
Third, If by reason, you mean that the people deserved to die for whatever reason and the Army did indeed kill them – then I’m quite certain that the soldiers did not follow any sort of due process
before meting out capital punishment.
Fourth, no one in the town has pointed the finger at anyone other than the army and Shabbiha.

My uncle who just arrived from Damascus called his business partner in Daraya while I was at his side. That man witnessed the Army executing his neighbor. His neighbor was frail, and was afraid of the Army, sought refuge at his house when they were under bombardment. My uncle’s partner managed to escape – made his way to Jordan. The first hand accounts that I’m hearing are not cooberating the regime narrative.

This is

August 27th, 2012, 1:27 pm

45. ghufran said:
“foreigners who advocated and pushed for a civil war are doing this out of revenge (regime’s and country’s support for Iraq’s insurgency), fear of Iran and support for Israel,only a fool will believe that this bloody war is helping Syrians”

No foreigners pushed for a civil war, who are the suspects? Israel is comfortable with the devil-they-know, especially considering the possibility of an Islamicist state emerging from a war.

Your theory on revenge for Iraq’s insurgency is strange – you must know the Iraqi government supports Assad. You mean the U.S.? If the U.S. wanted a civil war, surely they would be doing more to support the FSA, especially to counter-balance the Islamicists.

You think Turkey wanted this civil war? Are the Europeans blood thirsty?

I guess that leaves the Saudis and Gulf States. That is at least plausible. After watching nearly a year of protests, where the violence and persecution came nearly entirely from the regime, it seems a convienent fiction to blame this war on Qatar et.al. The Gulf Arabs have taken sides against Iran, but they didn’t instigate this disaster.

August 27th, 2012, 2:22 pm

#48

That is tragic, KDD

Let me finish your comment.

This is the beginning of the end.

August 27th, 2012, 2:25 pm

The Melkite Greek Catholic archbishop of Aleppo has fled to Lebanon and his offices in the war-ravaged city have been looted, Vatican media said on Monday, amid fears over the fate of Christian minorities.

The reports also said the Maronite archdiocese in Aleppo and the Byzantine Christian museum of Maarrat Nahman in the city had also been damaged.

The Vatican silence is not only very disturbing, “IT IS IMMORAL “, THE POPE IS BEING IMMORAL TOWARD HIS CHRISTIAN SUBJECT. THE JESUIT’S SILNCE SHOULD BE CONSIDERED IN BETRAYAL OF CHRIST.

If according to the Vatican spokesman both sides (Regime-Islamists) committed human right abuse and murder, what did the Christian side committed of crimes? Just because out of fear for their lives they did not side with the Islamic Terrorists they have to be killed by Moslem backed by the Zionist Jews in Israel and Arabia. Most Christians of Syria already departed in the 60’2 and 70’s and left idiotic Syrians to boil in their S^***t, only the not so well to do and rural ones left. What is their crime POPE BENEDICT THE WHAT ? you deserve no number next to your name other than -O- a big fat zero indeed, shame on you and the Christian Churches, shame on Christians for not standing up to Iraqi and Syrian Christians? You acted like a Zionist Shia, are you Zionist Christian too?

Bashar Assad action is despicable, worse than Zionist Shia, he is taking 2 years to nip these Bedouins and Turkmen in the butt. He did not even cut diplomatic relation with these monsters. He should not only withdraw recognitions of these Islamic Terrorist states but should have sprayed Arabia and Turkey in a blink of an eye and allowed four legged intelligent creatures to roam the place free.

BASHAR IS A WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE, Attacks own people but not the culprits, like his daddy:

متل الاسد في لبنان متل الجاجة بالجولان

Here is new one for you:
بشار متل الاسد في سوريا متل البطة بالسعودية

August 27th, 2012, 2:38 pm

@KDD

I get my own raw intelligence reports; I don’t read newspapers and never owned or watched T.V. since September 30, 2001, when I received from Moscow the structural analysis simulation, assessment report.

The information I have now about his event, is that the Islamic Terrorists who are backed and supported by various foreign enemies’ intelligence operatives did hide weapon and anti aircraft missiles in residential homes and attacked the army from the residential area. Knowing that the army will respond to fire by fire, it is rule of war, they should have not done so. The guilty party here is the Islamic terrorists; they are in violation of all rule of war and conduct of military according to the Geneva Conventions. They should be held accountable under International Law and be brought to justice for this violation. An inquiry should also be conducted to see the level and whose supporting (Government) these foreign militant terrorists so they too can be held accountable under the Geneva Conventions and be liable for all financial damage and compensation to innocent parties they used as cover.

Further in this file, at least 500 of those died are foreign militants, the corpse of these terrorists are deliberately burned with household kerosene, burned to hide the identity of the foreign Nationals, but despite that, it is evident that they are not Syrians, many are Africans. According to International Laws, these are foreign mercenaries and unlawful enemy combatants. Landis and Syria’s enemies’ media portraying all casualties as civilians, Hoag wash, and yet the faces and skin tones shown are that of African race. Mossad and Israeli mercenaries companies are well known to have recruited tens of thousands of these genocidal criminals, primarily to run havoc on the world to achieve whatever the International Zionists are plotting. They will be defeated, the people of Syria know what is going on they see it in their own eyes, the foreigners the ones that are duped.

They failed to get Syrians to side against own Nation Interests, so all they are doing here on this blog and other media is fan out the hatred against the regime, in the hope that an international outrage will support their Demonic Zionist plan. If you to read all non MSM media, even high ranking military blogs of United Stated military personnel, you will find that they too understood what is going on, and are in Assad support as well.

I don’t buy your narratives, it could be true, but it could be just another story telling.

August 27th, 2012, 2:40 pm

I think it was Antoine who complained about me. I am a Nationalist, not clan or tribal chief. I did my job and called my causin to warn him to tell the family as he is in contact with large part of it. He refused the task and I told him LATIZI. That was t least 5 month before the first demo or shot fired in Syria.

I am sorry I have brains and seriously interested in bringing Syria out of Baathist clutches, I am sorry I have nobilities, valor and Nationalism in me, and the worst of all I have a WINNING strategy.

As Chief Strategist for the Syrian Nationalist Party, I have spent decades campaigning for our noble goals for Syria, I am not going to plunder it all, my reputation and honor, nationalism, just serve the interests of a bunch of losers, Islamists Terrorists, Genocidal Zionist Jews and what have you Turkmen.

I gave you and all the opportunity long time ago to come over and will have you set on the right track, give you the right weapons and strategy, even volunteered to spent 5 million Dollars of party saving account, and you (so called opposition) turned down and started mocking me and calling me delusional, fictitious imaginary party and a host of crap that only degenerated mentally Jewish person could come up with, VERY UN SYRIAN – VERY OBVIOUS.

Now, I have more info about the so called Syrian Oppositions and have no interests whatsoever in associating with them running my name and SNP name.

August 27th, 2012, 2:43 pm

The French president, François Hollande, has urged Syria’s divided opposition to form a provisional government, saying that Paris would give it official recognition.
The announcement on Monday was aimed at increasing pressure on Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, but also revealed differences with other western capitals. Washington and London have been more guarded in their dealings with Syrian opposition groups which they see as too fractured and ineffective to form an alternative government.

August 27th, 2012, 3:00 pm

Actually, Hollande specifically mentioned that France and Turkey are seriously working towards creating secure zones.

He also urged the Arabs to work with the opposition and facilitate creation of some government.

This is the most explicit statement made by Hollande so far.

Iran will definitely not be happy.

August 27th, 2012, 3:13 pm

This is what US readers of CNN think about whether the US should intervene and how:
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/27/what-readers-think-about-u-s-intervention-in-syria/?hpt=wo_r1
comment: you can pretend that this is not important,but it actually is, regional powers and local rebels are not enough to defeat the regime militarily, a foreign military intervention is required to defeat the Syrian army, only fools think otherwise.
if fighting Syrians were not a bunch of blood-thirsty losers,we would have reached an agreement by now that saves the country from utter destruction, allow different parties a fair share in power and above all stop the bloodshed.
there is a reason why third world countries have that name.

August 27th, 2012, 3:27 pm

ALEPPO

In Aleppo, I saw carnage left by war
and the shepherds who fled
like others down winding dusty roads
carved from centuries of wind and stone.
Here, among the freezes of the Hittites
where myrtle mingles with the dead,
an ancient Syria rises up from its Citadel,
drenched in spume and blood.
Today, the newspapers and television
tell of thousands slaughtered.
Night has spilled its black ink over Syria
but the sun will burn again.
The rug vendors, coffee drinkers, and chess players
will come out into the streets of Damascus,
with their fists raised.
The dry air will celebrate its bleached bones.

Luis Lázaro Tijerina, Burlington, Vermont

Mr. Aldendeshe –

I don’t receive my information from Moscow like you. I receive it from Damascus. I have family in Kafr Sousa, Midan, Jobar, and Harasta. The family on Kafr Sousa are now with me here in the US. If you wish to speak with them, you are welcome. They left after their building was rocketed by a Helicopter and large bullets from the gunships penetrated into their living room and bedrooms. They were sleeping in the corridor. Many people died there from shelling.

My family in Harasta has escaped to Beirut in the last month. There testimony is not good for your side, I am sorry. It spans almost a year of actions. Many people have gone missing.

My family in Midan was the one to bear the full brunt of the regime onslaught. They stuck it out and almost lost their lives when the building they were in came under tank fire. Also mortar fire. They have now relocated.

By far the most information I have been able to get were from those fortunate to be able to leave the country. People inside wont speak as freely as those right next to me here in US. Those in Lebanon now after having escaped also are Also provinding me with information. These are my family members, not some Soviet intelligence reports.

August 27th, 2012, 3:41 pm

There testimony is not good for your side
_________________________________________________________________
What side is that? I am neither on the regime nor the terrorists side. Do you think that if you to repeate this song and dance few hundreds time you will turn me into the terrorists side. If these are really Syrian revolutionary, they will not do anything that will bring harm to one innocent Syrian civilian.

August 27th, 2012, 3:44 pm

The apparent urgency in Mr. Hollande’s latest statement seems to be triggered by recent events in Lebanon. Hollande expressed concerns about the developing spillover into that country.

If that is the motivation for France’s willingness to take some concrete steps in the Syria affair, then that means Athad has once again miscalculated, and as usual proved to the world the foolish idiot he really is.

Kamal said:

Ghufran, why the act of wrapping yourself on the veil of impartiality when you are clearly the side of this murderous regime. Your reaction to the massacre in Darayya was disgusting. You practically blamed the victims for siding with the FSA. When a single regime supporter got killed, as unjustifiable as it was, your fiery emotional outrage bubbled to the surface.

Stop being a hypocrite and just be yourself. The regime supporters, who say what they believe have more honor and deserve more respect than you.

August 27th, 2012, 4:27 pm

jna said:

Oksana Boyko‏@OksanaBoyko_RT
New video of #Syria police & army personnel executed by rebels & shown on al-Jazeera as slain civilians http://fb.me/1yxsXQRqd

https://twitter.com/OksanaBoyko_RT/status/240174785995366401

August 27th, 2012, 4:31 pm

a bit off the topic, but i guess more entertaining than the 1.000000th rt video on foreign “terrrorists” destroying the mhnbak paradise of Assadia.

BBC documentary: “My brother the islamist”

a young filmmaker made this unique documentary about his stepbrother who became an islamist

( its in parts on youtube)

August 27th, 2012, 4:44 pm

U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Israel, the Arab League and Al-Qaeda and western institutions with some logistics and NATO military bases and with the participation of the armed Islamists and the Arab Spring fighters cross the border into Syria , western embargo – All this comes to drop the Syrian regime and the Syrian president! Oh My God! what bastards they are in nature! judge by their results! they are slowly destroying the country!

August 27th, 2012, 5:40 pm

A MIG has just fallen,

أسقط الجيش السوري الحر اليوم طائرة مقاتلة من نوع ميغ وأخرى مروحية في ريف إدلب ودمشق، في حين سقط أكثر من 200 قتيل اليوم في مناطق مختلفة من سوريا، وفي مقابل ذلك قالت وسائل الإعلام الرسمية إن السلطات السورية أفرجت اليوم عن عدد من المعتقلين المتهمين بالمشاركة في المظاهرات المناوئة للنظام.
وقال ناشطون إن كتيبة الحق التابعة للجيش السوري الحر أسقطت طائرة حربية من طراز ميغ في ريف إدلب الجنوبي.

وكان التلفزيون السوري الرسمي قد تحدث عن سقوط مروحية بجانب جامع الغفران بمنطقة القابون في دمشق دون ذكر تفاصيل أخرى. وبث ناشطو الثورة السورية على الإنترنت فيديو يظهر إسقاط المروحية واندلاع النيران فيها قبل أن تهوي في حي جوبر.

——————————–

I just noticed this veiled threat made by none other than our resident pontificator:

“(BTW, we are not sure yet if that helicopter was downed by a missile or not,if it was,expect a lot of firework about that serious development)”

اركب اعلى خيلك

August 27th, 2012, 5:54 pm

Halabi said:

What do you say to someone who doesn’t spend a second of his time condemning aerial bombings from helicopters and fighter jets on civilian neighborhoods that have fallen out of control of a brutal, illegitimate criminal government, but goes on and on about the dangers of bringing down these indiscriminate weapons of deaths?

Nothing to be said. The sectarian opponents of the revolution in Syria will have to find a space for themselves in a new Syria or leave. Those who are already abroad probably never intended to return anyways, given the fact they voluntarily left the secular paradise that is Assad’s Syria.

As for supporters of the Assad regime, the genocide enthusiasts, remember that with every massacre you cheer the blow back will be worse. This is human nature. There will be amnesty for many, but no one will forget what you and your lord have done – you’re future is filled with shame and fear. I would add guilt, but only humans feel that emotion.

Mocking our dead, prancing around crime scenes with your sectarian propagandists doesn’t signal reform or dialogue. Your position was clear from March 15, 2011, and for the preceding four decades. You ruled by fear and murder and now those days are over. The removal of a tyrant, a tragedy for the sick menhebak, is Syria’s salvation.

August 27th, 2012, 6:05 pm

63. CITIZENSAID:
U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Israel, the Arab League and Al-Qaeda and western institutions with some logistics and NATO military bases and with the participation of the armed Islamists and the Arab Spring fighters cross the border into Syria , western embargo – All this comes to drop the Syrian regime and the Syrian president! Oh My God! what bastards they are in nature! judge by their results! they are slowly destroying the country!
__________________________________________________________________

The demand for Assad to step down is identical cop out for the demand on Saddam to step down. In both case they know that this is not going to be accepted by the regime. But this will give them an alibi to go on destroying and sanctioning the country, weaken it to the point they can invade it.

One difference here, Saddam like other Zionist stooges Khaddafi and Iran, gave up on WMD. Syria, despite having the world’s largest stockpile, is now on race the clock production three shifts a day, non-stop. They are adding new deadly biological strains and poisons chemicals that will assuredly be used should any outside invader put a foot in Syria, in a way that can be seen as existential to the State survival. I am not sure of the tolerance level in Assad head, he is a softy. He may let few incursions but how far that will be anyone bet. The problem is that most foreigners rely on other countries intel, biased with hidden motives, wrong assessments and spies that will say anything for cash.

August 27th, 2012, 6:10 pm

SANDRO LOEWE said:

Syrians are finally left alone in front of the Beast.

France and US will “only” act if there if Assad uses chemical arsenal.

So implicitly Assad can use all kind of weapons and massacres against syrians. Everything is allowed except chemical weapons. Assad can use all kind of internationally forbbiden weapons, also 500 tons weapons if required, but never chemical weapons ?

If Assad keeps on killing syrians at a rate of 200 per day in one year we can reach 75.000.

If Assad uses chemical weapons in one day in one place maybe 3000 people get killed.

So France and US will only act if 3000 people get killed in one place in one day but not if 70.000 get killed all year round by any means which are not chemical means.

Great !!! Congratulations to Hollande and Obama…. and Israel for make it possible.

August 27th, 2012, 6:22 pm

zoo said:

Turkey Blocks Refugees , full house.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/sharp-increase-in-refugee-flows-from-syria/2012/08/26/939c19ee-efb8-11e1-892d-bc92fee603a7_story.html

A surge in the number of Syrians seeking sanctuary from their country’s soaring violence prompted the Turkish government to halt the flow of refugees at two key border crossings Sunday amid an escalating humanitarian crisis that is swamping Syria’s neighbors and intensifying pressure for international intervention.

The closure left more than 7,000 refugees stranded in olive groves just inside Syria at the two places where most of the Syrians cross, while Turkish officials look for a way to accommodate them at camps that can’t keep pace with the influx.

August 27th, 2012, 6:42 pm

If Turkey goes to war the AKP risks a national political crisis

The Syrian war becomes a Turkish political issue

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-syrian-war-becomes-a-turkish-political-issue.aspx?pageID=449&nID=28763&NewsCatID=409

All of these factors make the Syrian crisis a matter of Turkish domestic politics, which makes the Tayyip Erdoğan government uncomfortable in implementing its foreign policy.

The first of these regards the security dimension. It is not only the activity of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on the Syrian side of the border, as well as the Turkish side, but that is part of it. The PKK has escalated its armed campaign and extended it from the Iraqi border — where it has military bases — to the Syrian border, since Turkey decided to support the Syrian opposition against the Bashar al-Assad regime.
,,,
Secondly Turkish public opinion, which in general welcomes the hosting of refugees on humanitarian bases, is disturbed by reports that Turkish intelligence is collaborating with its American, British, French, German and Saudi counterparts to provide military and training assistance to the armed groups involved in the Syrian civil war.
…
Third, the international dimension becomes more complicated day by day. Turkey has now become part of an international coalition forming to impose a partial no-fly zone (the area from Hatay, over the Mediterranean Sea to Aleppo is one of the areas being considered) over Syria, in order to reassure the Syrian people that Syrian jets and helicopters will not strike them, so they will stay where they are and not flee to neighboring countries.

August 27th, 2012, 6:52 pm

Opposition receive training, says SNC

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/opposition-receive-training-says-snc.aspx?pageID=238&nID=28768&NewsCatID=352

Syrian opposition activists are receiving training in a number of different fields, including using the vital equipment necessary in determining whether war crimes have been committed, a prominent member of the Syrian National Council (SNC), Fevzi Zakiroğlu, has said.

“We are constantly organizing this kind of training for the Syrian activists. The training is mostly given by Western experts coming from international organizations. This is not a secret,” Zakiroğlu told the Daily News yesterday.

Training in hotels

The British Daily Telegraph reported on Aug. 26 that an underground network of Syrian opposition activists was receiving training and supplies of vital equipment, in a combined American and British effort to forge an effective alternative to the Damascus regime.

“The training takes place in an Istanbul district where handsome apartment blocks line the steep slopes and rooftop terraces boast views over the Golden Horn waterway,” the newspaper said.

Zakiroğlu confirmed that training was indeed taking place, but that it was not given in houses or apartment blocks, but rather in hotels. Each training session lasts for about four or five days, he said.
“It is not just about how to use media materials, but also on legal issues such as how to determine whether war crimes have been committed in Syria,” he said.

Western experts

The training is mostly given by Western experts or journalists from international organizations, Zakiroğlu said. “Our last trainer was from Canada, for instance,” he said.

Zakiroğlu said it was not only the SNC that was organizing such training for opposition activists, but also that a number of other opposition groups were organizing their own training programs, also with the help of international organizations.

“Sometimes they ask us what names can be invited, and we help them in terms of finding the right people to invite,” he said.

August/28/2012

August 27th, 2012, 7:12 pm

I RATHER BORN SYRIAN OR A DOG said:

بشار متل الأسد بسورية متل البطة بالسعودية

August 27th, 2012, 7:14 pm

The USA to Mosri: Obey us, or you’re out

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/dennis-ross-u-s-must-halt-aid-to-egypt-if-it-continues-to-violate-treaty-with-israel.premium-1.459522

Dennis Ross: U.S. must halt aid to Egypt if it continues to violate treaty with Israel

In an op-ed published in the Washington Post, former U.S. envoy to the Middle East calls on the U.S. administration to require new Egyptian government to obey human rights, international obligations.
By Avi Issacharoff | Aug.20, 2012 | 10:03 PM | 6
Former U.S. envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross called Monday on the U.S. administration to reconsider supporting Egypt financially if the country continues to violate the peace treaty signed with Israel in 1979.

In an op-ed entitled “Egypt’s new leaders must accept reality” published in the Washington Post, Ross, who also served as a National Security Council senior adviser on the Middle East in the Barack Obama administration, used harsh words to criticize the new Egypt government under President Morsi.

The newly elected president and the Egyptian people, Ross says, must understand that the U.S. is ready to assist in mobilizing the international community and financial institutions around the world to offer Egypt with assistance, but only if the Egyptian government is prepared to obey certain rules and conditions.

August 27th, 2012, 7:31 pm

ann said:

Israelis fret over ‘lynching’ of Palestinian

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/21/13395615-israelis-fret-over-lynching-of-palestinian?lite

The near-fatal beating of a 17-year-old Palestinian Arab by a mob of dozens of Israeli Jews was explained in purely racial terms by a 15-year-old suspect in the attack.

“For my part he can die, he’s an Arab,” the suspect told reporters as he left court Monday.

Eyewitnesses say about 40 young Israelis, egged on by a 15-year-old girl, chased four Arab youths, shouting racial insults and “Death to Arabs” at them.

The Arabs fled, but one, Jamal Julani, tripped and fell to the ground. At least 10 Israelis caught him and beat and kicked him until he was unconscious.

No one intervened?
The attack is shocking enough for many Israelis; but just as shocking, according to the many newspaper reports and Internet comments, is that although there were hundreds of bystanders, reportedly nobody intervened to try to stop the beating.

“There appears to be a worryingly high level of tolerance – whether explicit or implicit – for such despicable acts of violence,” the Jerusalem Post wrote in an editorial about the attack.

Seven Israeli teenagers are in custody for the beating, including four between the ages of 13 to 15, one of them a girl.

The news of the attack, described here as a “lynching,” and the detentions, have provoked chest-beating among Israelis and a debate about what influenced the attackers most: their parents or the environment outside the home.

It’s an old debate, but doubly relevant here as a perceived radicalization, believed common among Arabs, appears to be spreading among Jews, too.

Violence against Arabs has been increasing. Just the day before the Jerusalem attack, a firebomb was thrown at a Palestinian taxi driving near Bethlehem, injuring the six passengers and the driver. The police called it a “Jewish nationalist attack.”

There has been such an increase that a U.S. State Department report labels such Jewish violence against Arabs “terrorism,” a catchphrase in Israel that is rarely applied to Jews.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack on Tuesday, five days after the brutal assault!

[…]

August 27th, 2012, 7:54 pm

I do not see a reason for some of you to jump on me other than your inability to accept dissenting opinions. Those who care to read,most of my post now are probably goes unread but fully judged, know very well that I went aginst Bashar from day one and condemned the killing of civilians from day one,but what can you do with a group of people after the creator shuts their brain and shielded their ears:
صم بكم عمي فهم لا يرجعون
المسلحين أسقطوا الطائرة المروحية باستخدام سيارة دفع رباعي مزودة برشاش نوع “دوشكا عيار 23” فوق منطقة القابون، وقد تم استهدافها من منطقة جوبر حيث كانت تتمركز السيارة.
As of now,there is no evidence of the use of anti aircraft missilies in this conflict,but it may be a matter of time, my opposition to violence and escalation of military attacks stem from the fact that violence will increase death toll among civilians and increase brutality of counter attacks by government forces,it is not a coincidence that everywhere armed rebels mass a large number of fighters and stage major attacks on regime forces, scores of civilians lose their lives, armed rebels enthusiasts will deny this and repeat the same usual slogans that did nothing but move Syria from bad to worse.

August 27th, 2012, 8:26 pm

Visitor said:

Morsi before so-called historic visit to NAM: Time for Bashar to go.

القاهرة | في تصريح بالغ الدلالة والحساسية، في ظل مبادرة مصرية لتسوية الوضع في سوريا، وعشية قمة دول عدم الانحياز في طهران، دعا الرئيس المصري محمد مرسي، أمس، حلفاء الرئيس السوري، بشار الأسد، إلى المساعدة في إزاحته عن السلطة. وقال مرسي، لوكالة «رويترز»، في أول مقابلة يجريها مع وكالة أنباء عالمية، «آن الأوان لكي يقف هذا النزف ولكي ينال الشعب السوري حقه كاملاً، ولكي يذهب من المشهد هذا النظام الذي يقتل شعبه». وأضاف «لم يعد هناك مجال الآن إلا لأن يحصل الشعب السوري على حريته وأن يقوم على أمر نفسه وأن يدير شأنه بنفسه». في هذا الوقت، وحده الإرهاق الذي يسيطر على الأطراف المتنازعة هو السبب الرئيسي الذي قد يسهم في نجاح المبادرة المصرية حيال الأزمة السورية. هذا ما يراه مصطفى عبد العزيز، مساعد وزير الخارجية السابق وسفير مصر السابق في دمشق.

August 27th, 2012, 8:36 pm

A video after armed rebels captured an army checkpoint in Andan, notice how young those captured soldiers are, they have no dog in this fight, the regime and its opponents are more than willing to fight this war until the last Syrian while they make plans for the day after.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/aug/01/syrian-rebels-aleppo-video?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3486

August 27th, 2012, 8:43 pm

With ‘Friends’ like these…: Contact group industry in overthrowing govts (Op-Ed) – 27 August, 2012

We can see a sneak peak from the destroyed streets of Aleppo to the scarred landscape of the Damascene countryside, the persecution of Syrian minorities, desecration of churches, murder of Syrian civil servants, extrajudicial executions of government supporters, exodus of Syrian professionals, abduction and murder of journalists, terrorist bombings of civilian centers, killing of doctors, and kidnapping of foreign nationals that has taken place under the Syrian Free Army.

http://rt.com/news/contact-group-overthrowing-governments-665/

Anybody who has studied how the US and NATO worked to topple the Jamahiriya in Libya knows that the US has tried to replicate the same regime-change mechanism in Syria.

The formation of multilateral contact groups supporting proxy oppositions has been a key to this process. What most people do not know is that Americans’ contact group industry started in Somalia.

2006 was a critical year for Somalia, because by its end it appeared the war-torn African country was going to be stable once more after decades of civil war. Somalia’s autonomous northern regions, Puntlandand Somaliland, had been run relatively peacefully. The south, however, had seen continuous fighting since 1991. The Islamic Court Union (ICU) defeated most the warlords and united most the south under its rule, managing to bring law and order. Peace talks were also in the works to unite Somalia. There was high anticipation that a period of relative peace in 2007 was about to begin.

Then the US and its regional ally Ethiopia launched major hostilities on December 20, 2006. General John Abizaid, the commander of CENTCOM who was directing the wars in Iraq and NATO-garrisoned Afghanistan, had visited Ethiopia about three weeks earlier to hold a low-profile meeting with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on December 4. The two had planned what would become the US-Ethiopian invasion of Somalia. US warplanes, ships, intelligence, and special force units all took part in the war while the Ethiopians sent the bulk of the ground force to fight the ICU.

To justify the invasion the US invoked the Global War on Terror and portrayed the ICU as an affiliate of Al-Qaeda.

The ICU would fall into disarray and a power vacuum would emerge as a result of the US-Ethiopian invasion. The Somali Transitional Federal Government (STFG), a rival US-supported foreign group that declared itself Somalia’s legitimate government, would be imported to take the ICU’s place. Sounds familiar? It should. This is essentially what would happen — only on a larger scale and with an armed opposition — to Libya four years later when NATO would usher in the National Transitional Council (NTC). This is also what the US, NATO, and the Arab petro-sheikhdoms want to do in Syria with the Syrian National Council (SNC).

Somalia’s status as a divided, lawless, and unstable state has been the model for the now divided and lawless Libya and what the US sees on the cards for a Syria plagued with civil war — 1975-1990 Lebanon-style. Somalia-ization is at play here.

The US and NATO also have a role to play in the emergence of the pirates phenomenon that has turned the Gulf of Aden into “pirate alley.” They have watched as foreign vessels looted Somalia’s fisheries and as foreign corporations dumped deadly toxins off Somalia’s shores that transformed desperate local fisherman into armed pirates. The destruction of the Libyan economy has also created an unemployed armed class, which is now being exported for America’s McJihad in Syria — and then possibly Algeria, Lebanon, Iranian Baluchistan, China’s Xinjiang, or Russia’s North Caucasian Federal District?

In Somalia, several African countries planned on sending a US-backed multinational contingent, but were foiled in June 2006 when the ICU took full control of Mogadishu. It was at this point that the US and its allies formed their regime-change “template” with the Somalia Contact Group.

Through the Somalia Contact Group an appearance of international legitimacy was given to the ICU government’s STFG rivals and to foreign intervention. Sound more and more familiar? This “contact group” would become the basis for the NATO-dominated Libya Contact Group (Friends of Libya) created in 2011, which imposed the NTC through “missile diplomacy” in Tripoli, and later the Syria Contact Group (Friends of the Syrian People) created in 2012 to impose the SNC in Damascus.

America’s contact group industry has undemocratically imposed foreign-based collaborationist clients on to states where the Atlanticist cabal from NATOistan has a strategic or economic interest of expanding their influence. The usual suspects have all been involved.

Aside from the US, the Somalia Contact Group’s members included the UK, EU, Italy, Norway, and Sweden. NATO would join in June 2009, to secure its military role in Somalia and the waters of the Horn of Africa. All these players would have recurring star roles in Libya. Now they are trying to recreate the same scenario in Syria under the backdrop of a foreign-armed and supervised insurgency that has been deliberately targeting civilians to pave the way for interventionism.

In Somalia, African Union forces were deployed under NATO supervision with the primary mission of protecting the STFG, just as NATO has stood on guard as subordinate foreign-controlled institutions have been erected in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, and now Libya.

The agenda of the STFG was set by the US to “reconstruct Somalia’s institutions and economy” with the help of so-called “foreign experts.” The program is the same for the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated SNC and NTC. The NTC has privatized Libya’s assets and siphoned off its wealth under the management of Libyan-American neo-liberal economist turned “oil and finance minister” Ali Tarhouni. Libya’s oil is no longer in the hands of Libyans, who are now too busy fighting one another with RPG launchers, armored vests, and light infantry rifles, courtesy of NATO.

In Somalia and Libya what has replaced the ICU and Jamahiriya is a never-ending state of “transition” and enclaves of guarded bureaucrats tied to Washington, Brussels, the IMF, and World Bank, who are detached from the violent reality in their countries.

Outside of these bureaucratic offices, the rule of law has crumpled and the streets are run by militias and thugs. The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) took over in Libya and Al-Shaabab ran wild in Somalia, both with the help of foreign fighters. This is the future that is in store for the Syrian Arab Republic if Hillary “Bomb ’em” Clinton and Obama are successful in installing the SNC.

http://rt.com/news/contact-group-overthrowing-governments-665/print/

August 27th, 2012, 9:03 pm

This is a good one:
وصفت “جبهة النصرة” عضو “المجلس الوطني السوري” ، جورج صبرا ، بأنه “علج” و “نصراني كافر عدو الله والمسلمين”، وطالبت بتدفيعه”الجزية”! وجاء وصفها هذا في سياق تعليقها على بيان صحفي رجّح أن يشكل “المجلس الوطني” حكومة انتقالية في المنفى برئاسة جورج صبرا. وتساءلت “الجبهة” في تعليقها على الخبر”هل هانت عليكم دماء أطفالكم لتسلموا الحكم لنصرانى كافر عدو لله وللمسلمين ؟؟هل هانت عليلكم عظامهم التى كسرتها سواطير النصيرية حتى تسلموا أمركم لعلج جبان؟؟هل هذا أمر ربكم بإلزامهم الجزية والصغار؟؟هل هذا أمر ربكم بعدم تولى اليهود والنصارى؟؟يا من تولون أمر المسلمين لنصرانى جبان ، أف لكم ولما تعبدون من دون الله”!
Sabrah met with Adnan Ar’our in an effort to ” unite” the opposition.

August 27th, 2012, 9:06 pm

Idlib Turns Into Death Bed For ‘Free Syrian’ Terrorists (With Vote) – Aug-26-2012

‘Free Syrian’ Terrorists infiltrate Idlib civilian neighbourhoods and turn them into hell holes, driving out the residents, causing death and destruction on a large scale. The city turns into the death bed for many of these terrorists, as shown in this video where you can see some dragging their dead comrade away.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b46_1346105242

August 27th, 2012, 9:09 pm

صم بكم عمي? Sounds like you Ghufran. I jump on you not because you aren’t allowed to have an opinion, but because you have repeatedly spread the worst kind of propaganda from mukhabarat sources with the sole purpose of smearing the opposition. You admitted to using suspect sources so there is no need to deny it, claiming that you are just bringing in different views.

Lies aren’t opinions sir, they are lies.

I promise not to comment on your posts from now on. You are free to live in your sectarian bubble where all the problems in Syria are caused by goat-princes in the GCC, mongols from Turkey, Sunni/Salafi/Wahhabi terrorists in Syria who only want revenge and could never understand freedom. And of course Assad is bad too, but not so bad that we shouldn’t negotiate with him and his regime for the sake of Syria.

And of course Iran should never ever be mentioned as a negative factor. Goodbye Ghufran. I hope we never meet in person.

Iran Said to Send Troops to Bolster Syria

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444230504577615393756632230.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#articleTabs%3Darticle

August 27th, 2012, 9:15 pm

Live Summary Execution By ‘Free Syrian Army’ Of Old Man Coerced To Admit Crimes

Ahmad Fadil Ahmad is an old man who was not involved in fighting, yet he is executed in cold blood without trial, and perversely on camera. He is forced to admit that he worked for Syrian government intelligence. He was kidnapped only the day before his execution by the Musab Brigade of the ‘Free Syrian Army’. This is according to their own accounts.

This shows the true nature of the ‘freedom’ claimed by these people. They complain about injustice by some individuals in the current government, but instead of working to correct what they feel is wrong, they call for the overthrow of the government. They perpetrate criminal and terrorist acts on a wide scale. The result of their acts is far worse than anything experienced by Syria under the current government.

This man was executed without a trial, forced to admit to killing people, one can only imagine he confessed and was compliant in order to avoid a punishing death. Videos showing these styles of executions in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan always show a compliant victim. Compliance often ensures an easier execution, which is the best that can be hoped for. The victim stands no chance of a fair trial, nor the ability to call witnesses, and he is not able to present any kind of defence. This is the irony of the ‘freedom’ of the ‘Free Syrian Army’.

Video 1: Execution. July 2nd 2012

Video 2: Kidnapping of same man. July 1st, 2012. According to the ‘brigade’s’ own description, this was a kidnapping. They also claim to have kidnapped another man along with Ahmad Fadil, and say they are not yet releasing his name.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=76e_1341529991

August 27th, 2012, 9:19 pm

IDF exposed:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/aug/26/breaking-silence-israeli-abuse-palestinians-video
The guy freely chose to speak out,I respect that.
The girl at least was not killed, I am not sure how her fate will be if she defied a curfew in Syria,depressing.

August 27th, 2012, 9:20 pm

Ghufran
Self defense is a right for every person.

The use of brutality and force by the regime from day one with the torture and murder of children in Deraa was and is and remains the modus operandi of this regime.

It the responsibility of the regime to put the troops back in the barracks and to allow for free and orderly peaceful demonstrations.

After all the state of emergency has been in principle abolished and the new constitution should not in principle allow for the use of force without legislative oversight.

So if you want to be logical and condemn violence start by asking the regime to desist and to withdraw its troops.

It is easy Freddo can go on TV and announce that his troops will leave and that the police will go back to their stations and that the FSA can go and work with them to insure order and to have all armed presence withdrawn.

I CHALLENGE you to propose this to the regime and I challenge you to come up with any other proposal I am open to any alternative you may have.

I also CHALLENGE you not to hide behind the so called right to use arms and force by the state and only by the state until and unless the armed forces are put back in the barracks and full control of the shabiha is accomplished. The regime has always used back door tactics and double dealing and betrayals from the outset.

I also CHALLENGE you not to put the burden of proof on the FSA but on the regime that started this spiral to hell and to acknowledge that the burden of proof is on the regime as it broke its own constitution, flaunted the abolition of the state of emergency, ignored the legislative branch, and deprived whole populations of basic goods and services.

I also CHALLENGE you to accept that the correspondents of many outlets are allowed into the country and that free flow of information and aid be allowed.

I also CHALLENGE you to present to us your version of how dialogue is to be conducted and what principles of this dialogue you propose for the resolution of the crisis. In essence what your solution that allows for true reforms that would not in reality result in the end of the regime as we know it.

August 27th, 2012, 9:25 pm

More on the IDF treatment of Palestinian children:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/26/israeli-soldiers-mistreatment-palestinian-children

August 27th, 2012, 9:32 pm

The mullahs excitement in regard to Mursi and the NAM meeting was too premature I guess.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/mursi-calls-support-syrian-people-223512580.html?_esi=1

Egypt’s newly elected president Mohamed Mursi told Reuters Monday that there is no more room for talk of reform or dialogue between the Syrian president and his opponents to end bloodshed.

“The ones who will decide what to do with this regime are the Syrian people and the Syrian people have spoken clearly to the whole world that this regime has to go. So it is not up to us when we hold a dialogue as nations supportive of the Syrian people’s movement and their revolution and their right to freedom and stability and an end to bloodshed — when we speak about that we are not speaking about a dialogue between two sides or reform, but we are speaking about supporting the will of the Syrian people for the need for change and the necessity for the regime to depart.” He said he could not support military intervention

“We are against any military action on Syrian soil, in any shape or form. We want to intervene using peaceful, effective and efficient means to enable the Syrian people to achieve their goals from this revolution and this movement for freedom.

August 27th, 2012, 9:40 pm

Observer,
You do not have to “challenge” me, I can not disagree with what you said, these are principles that most Syians agree on.
Unfortunately , I have no direct or indirect channels that connect me with the regime, my mom’s family has a lot of leftists who visited almukhabarat branches more than any one of you,as far as I can tell. My dad,was and still is as secular as seculars can be, most of the people he dealt with and helped were not from his town or his sect.
The regime hijacked alawites, and the Islamists will make sure the job is finished, the hateful and sectarian tone on this forum is nauseating,even educated Syrians in the west are now advocates of ethnic cleansing and holy revenge, do not expect much from the new regime in Syria, the country is too sick to be cured and too divided to get united.
Dialogue can not start without Bashar being out of the picture or at least be reduced to a title with no power over tribunal issues and political reform, this dialogue will be a circus but it is better than the bloodbath we have now, adding more conditions to the dialogue means that the ” adder” does not want a dialogue, thinking that you can have one government and one country while uprooting every government office or officer also means that the “uprooter” does not want a dialogue.

August 27th, 2012, 9:47 pm

Tara,
Morsi’s statement is nice and sexy but I want to see how he thinks we can get from one stage to the other without using force,I am certainly cautious especially that we do not know how much power he has over the opposition and how able he is as a politician, I will give him the benefit of the doubt if I was an average Syrian.
Our thawrajiyeh friends gave my post 4 thumbs down for exposing the IDF treatment of children,they only want to hear stories about the Syrian army which they consider worse than the IDF.
I will share specific ideas that were circulated which focus on ending bloodshed and allowing free elections, one proposal asks for a political model that borrows from Iraq and Lebanon experiences,both of whom led to a defacto partition of the countries and an endless insurgency (Iraq)

August 27th, 2012, 9:54 pm

83. Observer said:
It the responsibility of the regime to put the troops back in the barracks and to allow for free and orderly peaceful demonstrations.

The idea that the Syrian Army would unilaterally order all troops back to their barracks at this point in time, leaving Syrians at the mercy of the opposition, is delusional. If a cessation of combat is to happen it wiil be after after a ceasefire agreement with political steps to follow. Impossible demands are not a step forward to end the killing.

August 27th, 2012, 10:02 pm

Ghufran

The Syrian army is a misnomer. It should be called the Assad’s phalanges. The true Syrian army is the FSA. The Assad’s phalanges are much worse than the IDF, not only the Assad’s phalanges surpass the IDF in it’s brutality but also because they are nothing but traitors. American heritage dictionary defines a traitor as “the one who betrays one’s country, a cause, or a trust”. Here you go, the Assad phalanges betrayed their country burning it, their cause of serving and protecting the people, and the trust we the people have had in them.

August 27th, 2012, 10:16 pm

عبّر لاجئان سوريان في تركيا عن تقديرهما لاستضافة السلطات التركية للاجئين السوريين، الفارين من العنف في بلادهما، بإطلاق اسم رئيس الوزراء التركي رجب طيب أردوغان على مولودهما.
وأفادت وكالة أنباء الأناضول اليوم الاثنين أن اللاجئين السوريين، اللذين عرفت عنهما باسم مجيد وناديا عبرا عن حبهما وتقديرهما لرئيس الوزراء التركي ولهذا أطلقا على مولودهما الجديد اسم رجب طيب أردوغان.
ونقلت عن الزوجين قولهما “لو رزقنا بمولودة كنا سنسميها أمينة تيمنا باسم زوجة أردوغان” .
I am waiting for Hamad and Moza. It is unfortunate that Turkey did not stop at the humanitarian assistance but moved to harbor armed rebels and allow smuggling of weapons into Syia. Turkey is guilty to its bone in encouraging violence and inciting ethnic and sectarian conflict in Syria including the latest attempts to ” Homsatize” Latakia.

August 27th, 2012, 10:41 pm

The regime tactic committing Houla and Daryya massacres is to teach residents that harboring the rebels will be punished with mass murders. Smart indeed. Who is behind the dark intelligence of the regime? I doubt very much Batta the retard can manifest any sort of intelligence, dark or otherwise… Read this by the Washington post editorial board. Is public pressure mounting on Obama?

http://m.washingtonpost.com/opinions/syrias-escalating-slaughter/2012/08/27/c50e09f4-f06e-11e1-892d-bc92fee603a7_story.html

EVIDENCE IS emerging of yet another horrific massacre by the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, this time in the suburbs of Damascus..

The newest war crime, like those before it, reflects a deliberate strategy. As the Post’s Liz Sly has reported, the Assad regime is seeking to regain control over opposition-held areas by teaching their residents that harboring the rebels will be punished with mass murder. In Daraya, opposition accounts said, government soldiers first drove the forces of the Free Syrian Army from the town with artillery and air attacks, then went house-to-house, rounding up people and shooting them in groups.

The mounting massacres and refugee flows are rendering the Obama administration’s stubborn stance of passivity on Syria unsustainable. As soon as Thursday, the Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a member of NATO, may ask the U.N. Security Council to authorize a safe zone for refugees inside Syria. While that is likely to be resisted by Russia, the United States would be foolish to continue standing by while allies such as Turkey and Jordan are swamped, and possibly destabilized, by Syrian refugees. Even more reprehensible is refusing to intervene while a state systematically murders its own citizens.

Mr. Obama has said that that “preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States of America.” In a speech at the Holocaust Museum in April, he said that “we need to be doing everything we can to prevent and respond to these kinds of atrocities — because national sovereignty is never a license to slaughter your people.” Yet now, as atrocity after atrocity is recorded in Syria, he rejects proposals by aides and allies for even limited and humanitarian intervention. Administration officials reportedly have discussed options for a safe zone, but the president has repeatedly sided with those favoring inaction.

Last week President Obama did say that his “calculus” about “military engagement” would change if the regime began using or deploying its stocks of chemical weapons. But as the Syrian blogger Ammar Abdulhamid has written, the drawing of that red line may have emboldened the regime to conclude that anything short of using weapons of mass destruction will be tolerated by Washington.

Mr. Abdulhamid wonders “why slaughter would be deemed tolerable if it happened one way and not another.” It’s a good question — and one for which the administration’s morally bankrupt policy has no answer.
,,,,
Washington Post Editorials
Editorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the editorial board. News reporters and editors never contribute to editorial board discussions, and editorial board members don’t have any role in news coverage.

August 27th, 2012, 10:48 pm

Syrian said:

Guffran in 87said
“one proposal asks for a political model that borrows from Iraq and Lebanon experiences,both of whom led to a defacto partition of the countries and an endless insurgency (Iraq)”
Syria is nothing like Iraq and Lebanon,they are almost evenly divided sects,in Syria we have a majority that is ruled by a minority,it’s more like 1970 south Africa, except this minority has built nothing,robed the country blind and they never let a Syrian Mandela to emerge for the day after

August 27th, 2012, 10:51 pm

As France Hypes on Syria, Ban to Iran, Pakistan Sends DPR, Colombia Holguin

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 27 — With France making more noise about Syria as its month atop the UN Security Council comes to a close, Inner City Press on Monday asked at what level Council member Pakistan will be represented at Thursday’s ministerial meeting.

Deputy Permanent Representative, came the answer.

Colombia, meanwhile, tells Inner City Press that its Patricia Holquin will be attending. Recently she and the rest of the government resigned, calling her previously RSVP-ed presence into question. But it is back on, even if the government in Bogota won’t confirm Telesur that it is negotiating with the FARC.

While French Ambassador Araud was evasive as he entered the Security Council Monday morning, later a non-Permanent 5 Permanent Representative told Inner City Press Lakhdar Brahimi will meet with the Council on Wednesday. There is talk, too, of a lunch with ministers on Thursday.

Meanwhile another anti-Assad Arab dipomat scoffed to Inner City Press, they are just talking, just giving him more time.

The Syria issue was everywhere and nowhere at the UN on Monday. A conference on Small Arms began, with the Small Arms Survey rating Switzerland the tops in weapons export transparency. But Swiss grenades showed up in Syria, through the United Arab Emirates, an opaque pass-through of arms.

Ahmad Fawzi, the spokesman for Kofi Annan who leaves the envoy post in just four days, buzzed around the North Lawn past 7 pm, seemingly already hired to speak for Lakhdar Brahimi.

http://www.innercitypress.com/syria1holguin082712.html

August 27th, 2012, 10:54 pm

37 ANNIE,

RE: ”
برومو رائع لـ يبرود أغنية شامنا شامنا عبد الباسط ساروت

Don’t know why the mute repeat but good video from SYRIANFREEDOME”

I found a link to a version with better audio,

August 27th, 2012, 10:55 pm

Child militant shot dead

Syria – ‘FSA’ child shot through the heart 24/08

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=53d_1346074744

August 27th, 2012, 11:02 pm

A fair evaluation of the Syrian army is very difficult to come up with when there is a war going on and many Syrians are getting killed by other Syrians. Tara’s post about the subject is a reflection of genuine anger and disappointment,however, I think she went too far and did not take the time to consider few essential facts:
1. Close to 6,000 soldiers have lost their lives on the hands of armed rebels,that is the same number of Syrian soldiers Israel killed in 1973
2. Any army officer or a soldier in syria today is a genuine target according to many of you and most opposition parties,self defense is now a forgotten word,vengence is the rule, and that goes both ways.
3. Armed rebels hide in civilian areas and use them to launch attacks on the army , then they complain when the army returns fire.
Syria is a killing field today, your chance of being killed if you are an alawi,using simple math, is at least 3 times higher than if you were Sunni , the claim that it is a war where alawites are killing Sunnis may sound attractive but it is simply not true .
Here is what went wrong and what needs to be done regarding the army :
1. Religion and politics must stay out of the army,Syrians deserve a national army that is not a tool in the hands of a ruling party or parties.
2. Involving the army early in the conflict when violence was not out of control like it is today was evil and foolish depending on how you see it, it made many Syrians see the SA as their enemy not their protector.
3. Rebalancing the demographic composition of the army is needed but it will not be easy, what took 50 years to build can not be redone in one month or one year. We all know that rich and educated Sunnis do not send their sons to the army,that was true in the 1950s and is till true today.
4. Sending 300,000 soldiers and officers home after Assad is gone is both idiotic and undoable, bone heads in the opposition need to give those people a way out, only a fraction of those soldiers deserve to be put to trial,most are as poor and oppressed as those who are now trying to kill them.

August 27th, 2012, 11:05 pm

islamexplained said:

funny how we dont hear about the christians that are being kidnapped in aleppo and ransoms are being paid to someone behind a desk in broad daylight to these rebel thugs! or who cares that over a million people are dislplaced, as long as saudi gets what it wants and amercia keeps selling weapons.
Why arent we seeing millions in the street thanking the rebels? why are there fighters, all muslim i add, from all over the world? isnt there enough people in syria who want to get rid off assad? no there isnt. the west will keep publishing crap and people like tara will keep support the criminals who are killing innocents and taking over their houses. But i suppose thats not a big deal as long as we try to get rid of bashar, who is killing the rebels and yes innocents get killed like in every war.

Please people if u are not syrian stay away. we were happy before the world gave a damn about syria and if we want to overthrow our president there are over 20million of us here!

When will the oil of the gulf ever end to finish these lies being paid for by them.

August 27th, 2012, 11:08 pm

Tara

“We want to intervene using peaceful, effective and efficient means to enable the Syrian people to achieve their goals from this revolution and this movement for freedom.”

What does this mean practically? I wonder…
He sounds like a soft spoken version of Erdogan.

August 27th, 2012, 11:15 pm

Syrian VP says solving domestic crisis needs no preconditions – 2012-08-28

DAMASCUS, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) — Syrian Vice President Farouq al- Shara’a stressed Monday that his country is seeking to solve the crisis without preconditions and in accordance to the peace plan laid forward by former UN special envoy to Syria Kofi Annan.

The vice president’s remarks came in a statement issued by his office Monday and published by pro-government media.

According to the statement, al-Shara’a has told an Iranian delegation who visited Syria Saturday that Syria’s crisis should be solved without preconditions and through halting violence form all parties and embarking on a national dialogue.

Al-Shara’a has also informed the Iranian delegation of Syria’s acceptance of the Iranian initiative, which will be discussed later this week at the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran.

The vice president has also positively commented on the initiative by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who has recently proposed forming a quartet of contact group for resolving the crisis in Syria, including Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said recently that his country will present a proposal for settling the conflict in Syria during the NAM summit to be held in Tehran on Aug. 30-31.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-08/28/c_123637394.htm

August 27th, 2012, 11:18 pm

#90 Ghufran

“Turkey is guilty to its bone in encouraging violence and inciting ethnic and sectarian conflict in Syria”

It is matter of time before it will pay a heavy price for that crime.

Another Turkey crime: Inciting violence and rejecting the refugees resulted from that same violence

Turkey closes its borders to fleeing Syrians (VIDEO)

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/syria/120826/turkey-closes-its-borders-fleeing-syrians

…
“The local economy is suffering,” said Ahmed Kaya, a resident of Antakya on the Syrian border. “Housing prices have doubled with so many Syrian families looking for a place to live. Tourism is down. Business is down. I know several businessmen who have gone bankrupt already since the start of the Syrian crisis.”

August 27th, 2012, 11:28 pm

France recognize the ottoman islamist terrorist government before it’s formation 8)

France to recognize an Syrian opposition government – 2012-08-28

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/video/2012-08/28/c_131812249.htm

BEIJING, Aug. 28 (Xinhuanet) — French President Francois Hollande has called on the Syrian opposition to form a provisional government and says France will recognize it once it is formed.

The announcement by Hollande – believed to be the first of its kind – appears to be an attempt to jolt Syria’s deeply fragmented opposition into unity. It has increased diplomatic pressure on the already isolated government of President Bashar-al-Assad.

The repulsive, insane and pure evil exemplified in Israel road map System. Why if there is Allah, he would not send his Moslem nation to put an end to the humiliation and suffering of 6,000,000 Palestinian Moslems.

http://thefunambulistdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/visualizing-palestine-segregation-roads-map.jpg

سوآل للمسلمين – هل يرضى النبي محمد صلة الله عليه وسلم بأن يحكم اي دولة او شعب اسلامي بحاكم يهودي فكيف ياأهل العار اللذين تدعو الايمان بالله ونبيه محمد وسنته الكريمة ان تقبلو بحكم اليهود لفلسطين والقدس والحرم الشريف لماذا لانرا تأسيس حركة الجهاد الاسلامي لتحرير الديار الاسلامية المقدسة فلسطين والجزيرة العربية من اليهود والصهيونية العالمية ـ العار على المسلمين

http://islamic-intelligence.blogspot.com/2009/10/are-saudi-royal-family-jewish.html

الله يغضب عليكم يامنحرفين ـ تهيؤ للجهاد في سبيل الله ورفع الراية السودآ على القدس وعلى سينا وعلى إمارات الجزيرة العربية الآسلامية ـ هيؤ سلاحكم وآمرأكم لأنه سنجعلكم امرآء منتصرين

August 27th, 2012, 11:29 pm

Why Sunni Islamism is the world’s greatest threat

By BARRY RUBIN
08/26/2012 22:43

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=282689

To understand al-Qaida, which of course goes under many names and regional local groups, is simple. It has one strategy: kill!
..
Sometimes the Brotherhood uses the Salafis as a convenient excuse. If Islamic Jihad lobs rockets and mortars at Israel, well – wink, wink, nudge, nudge – that isn’t the fault of Hamas, is it? At times, the Salafis can furnish the Brotherhood with the needed stormtroopers, though I would not suggest for a moment that the Brotherhood owns the Salafis.

They are definitely two different groupings, but their interests can blend and the “radical” Salafis provide the “moderate” Brotherhood with a convenient excuse when one is needed.

One thing is clear though: the Salafis’ goal is exactly the same as that of the Brotherhood. The only question is how fast to go, how radical to talk, and how much violence to use.
…
One step forward, one step back; tell the Western reporters and politicians what they want to hear. Pretend to be moderate in English while screaming death curses in Arabic.

These are the people who are coming to power. They hate their Shia counterparts generally and will kill them, too, at times. They will drag down their countries’ economies.
…

August 27th, 2012, 11:32 pm

Tara if mr obama, ogre, cared about atrocities and genocide he would not be in politcs love! he only cares about selling weapons and millions in his pocket from KSA.

Why should he give a damn about the syrian people? and if he did why does he not send a few million of them visas to get out? He does not care and he will never care. Neither do other western countries. If he did he would put a stop to persecuted people in iraq, libya and eygpt the countries the americans ruined. I dont see anyone around the world raving that iraqis are better off now. no we have millions desplaced trying to flee. we did not have that under saddam hussein. if he was sooo bad why werent people in the millions fleeing. same with egypt we have churches burning. libyans never seemed to complain until some thugs were sent weapons. and now even worse in syria they cant even get enough support they get freedom fighters from libya and pakistan. fricking strange how this can even happen.

I hope Bashar gets rid of all those devils in the streets and let syria be syrian!

why didnt the world care when there were beheading videos on youtube years ago filmed in homs! now all of sudden people care about syrians. no way. the so called freedom will never happen in the mid east and we all know it so why not just keep it the same as most people were happy.

August 27th, 2012, 11:33 pm

Zoo

Mursi is visiting Russia and China before or after Tehran NAM meeting. If I was him, I would try to convince the Russians to force Bashar into exile by threatening not to use the veto to try him in the ICC, etc..The opposition factions, the FSA, the LCC, the NCB, and the SNC can then negotiate peaceful transition with non-murderer regime figures. If Bashar and the rest of the Assad clan is exiled, most of the opposition will soften up and those stiff can be easily pressured to comply.

On another note, being the first in the class means commitment, you are supposed to have perfect attendance. You got me worried..

August 27th, 2012, 11:34 pm

Turkey, Saudi, Qatar, Israel, blah blah blah.

“Iran is sending commanders from its elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and hundreds of foot soldiers to Syria, according to current and former members of the corps.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444230504577615393756632230.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird

August 27th, 2012, 11:36 pm

Palestinian Authority angry with Mursi gov’t

27/08/2012

http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=30838

By Kifah Zaboun
Ramallah, Asharq Al-Awsat – Well-informed Palestinian sources have revealed to Asharq al-Awsat that a state of anger and dissatisfaction prevails among the Palestinian leadership regarding the new Egyptian administration’s dealings with the Palestinian issue, and especially with regards to Palestinian representation and legitimacy.

104. Tara

“Mursi is visiting Russia and China before or after Tehran NAM meeting. If I was him, I would try to convince the Russians to force Bashar into exile by threatening not to use the veto to try him in the ICC, etc”

Mursi is still on “probation”. His government is a transition government. Many wonder of he is going to stay in power in 2012 after the new constitution promised in September will come out and new election set.
He is under pressure from all sides, his bankrupt economy, the USA-Israel blackmail, the Palestinians-Israel conflict, the Al Qaeeda in the Sinai etc.. and he has zero leverage on the big powers
What Morsi says has absolutely no real weight on the course of the events.
His foreign policy is embryonic. Egypt is now a beggar not a chooser.

August 27th, 2012, 11:46 pm

I agree that the departure of Bashar should be at the top of the list of any peace initiative, details can be negotiated but I do not want to see ” alductour” anymore, Syria has an army of talented and patriotic people from all sects, enough of Alassads.
Here is how the regime treats dissent:
أكد المعارض السوري ميشيل كيلو تعرض أمواله وممتلكاته في سوريا للحجز من قبل وزراة المالية وذلك ضمن إجراءات شملت عددا من المعارضين للنظام السوري.
وقال ميشيل كيلو في اتصال هاتفي مع موقع سكاي نيوز عربية من باريس :” نعم أصدرت وزارة المالية قرارا بالحجز على أموالي وممتلكاتي وأيضا ممتلكات عائلتي وعدد آخر من الأخوة المعارضين”.
وأوضح أنه علم بالقرار قبل صدوره بخمسة أيام من خلال صديق له.
وقال كيلو تعليقا على القرار :” لا يهمني أن يأخذوا ممتلكاتي فهم يأخذون أرواح الناس”.

August 27th, 2012, 11:54 pm

Hey..weren’t you not too long ago cheering Egypt participation in the NAM in Tehran after 30 years of lack of diplomatic relation between Egypt and Iran? Why the reality check all of the sudden?

August 27th, 2012, 11:58 pm

75. Ghufran said:

I do not see a reason for some of you to jump on me other than your inability to accept dissenting opinions.

Ghufran, your opinions represent the opinions of the vast majority of Syrians (95%) that the allahu akbar brigades of evil and hate failed miserably to mobilize

Don’t get mad, get even

Keep posting, you’re driving them nuts 😉

August 28th, 2012, 12:03 am

It is certain that any Egyptian president visiting Iran after 33 years, even for a few hours, is symbolic and historical.
Yet, after I saw the interview and heard Morsi’s empty rhetoric and undiplomatic words, I doubt that anything practical will come out of his vague recommendation of forming a group with Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt to ‘solve ‘ the Syrian crisis.

In addition he has far too many pressing issues nationally to get seriously involved in other Arab countries problems.
The guy has zero charisma.

August 28th, 2012, 12:13 am

This patriotic Syrian is asking us to invade and destroy his country! Why ask us?! Why not ask the israelis?!

Syrian Opposition Asks U.S. to Introduce No-Fly Zone – 28/08/2012

http://en.rian.ru/world/20120828/175469961.html

The Syrian Support Group (SSG) called on the United States for the first time since the 18-month-old uprising to immediately establish a no-fly zone over Syria.

The group, which represents the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Washington, claims that Syria’s ruling authorities intensified use of air strikes to attack cities held by rebels.

The Cable quoted Louay Sakka, co-founder of the SSG, as saying that, “This is right now the time for a no-fly zone to take place.”

“We need to stop the fixed-wing and helicopters from attacking. The regime cannot hold ground without air power or heavy artillery,” he added.

August 28th, 2012, 12:24 am

Ann wrote, “This patriotic Syrian is asking us to invade and destroy his country! Why ask us?! Why not ask the Israelis?!”

Amazing. Ann actually wrote something on her own. She must be on drugs!

August 28th, 2012, 12:33 am

“Zoo

Hey..weren’t you not too long ago cheering Egypt participation in the NAM in Tehran after 30 years of lack of diplomatic relation between Egypt and Iran? Why the reality check all of the sudden?”

Zoo is now accepting condolences for forty days on behalf of his mullah-gods for the death of the neo-fatimid dreams of his late khomeini-god*s).

See you in another thousand years and sweet fatimid dreams until then.

كل الف سنة وانت بخير٠

وقد اخبرنا النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم ان اهل مصر في رباط الى يوم القيامة وان تسعة اعشار البركة في ارضها٠ فانى لشيطان ان يطأها؟

Dream on.

August 28th, 2012, 12:38 am

Darryl said:

“12. ANN said:

This patriotic Syrian is asking us to invade and destroy his country! Why ask us?! Why not ask the israelis?!”

Well you know Ann, Syria is not going anywhere until the Christians and Jews run the country like the days of the Ummayads. In those days, Amir Al-Mu-imeen was a Muslim but most of the government was run by the Christians and Jews of Damascus and the empire stretched from Spain to Pakistan.

When the Jizya was introduced to force mass conversion, it all fell apart.

Lastly, can some one explain to me two things please:

1. If the FSA controls 80% of Syria as some seem to claim, then the Syrian government should be begging for a no fly zone, no?

2. If the FSA is meant to represent all Syrians, how come they always start with Bis-Allah Al-RaHamn Al-RaHeem, always end the communique with Takbeer, and all the units have strong Islamic Arabian identity? Why not have brigade of the Arameans, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Eblites, the Phoenicians who built Syria or have the the Brigade of Zimri-Lim Sargon or Naram-Sin the great etc?

August 28th, 2012, 12:52 am

Here’s another flesh and blood peace loving patriotic islamist terrorist!

Syrian man threatens to blow up the Arab League – 3 hrs ago

http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-man-threatens-blow-arab-league-011937710.html

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian authorities arrested late on Monday a Syrian man who threatened to blow up the Arab League’s headquarters in Cairo after he learned that his parents had been killed in Syria during a battle between the rebels and troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, Egyptian news agency MENA reported.

At least 62 people were killed in an assault on the suburbs of Damascus on Monday, according to opposition activists, as the anti-Assad uprising is about to enter its 18th month in September. The United Nations says more than 18,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict in March of last year.

MENA did not name the Syrian man and said that the incident started when the head of Cairo’s security received a complaint from the League’s security department about a man threatening to blow up the League.

The agency said the man stopped his car near the League’s building and said he had planted explosive devices in the car, warning “he would blow up the Arab League’s building if the League did not come up with a decision against the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.”

August 28th, 2012, 12:53 am

101. ANN said:

“France recognize the ottoman islamist terrorist government before it’s formation
”
Seriously ,how can you put the words France and Ottamans in the same sentence,
I mean France dose not even like secular Turky,
I bet if I say the word Ottomans 3 times you will faint.
As long you mentioned the Ottomans,In the rewritten Syrain school history books,we were taught that the worst ruler ever was Jamal pasha alssafah(السفاح)that even Syria and lebanon made May the 6 the day of the martyrs(عيد الشهداء) for what he did,and all he did was hanging 6 people.
In the new Syria I wonder if August 25 th will be the new martyrs day ,or will we see even bigger massacres that are yet to come

August 28th, 2012, 1:07 am

Darryl

You beat me to it. If I to advise the FSA, I would come with “all inclusive” names for it’s brigades..for instance, in addition to Allah Akbar brigade, I will have other names like Jesuus brigade, or The father, the son and the wholly spirit brigade. Would you feel included then?

And if I get my way, I will start adding some favorite earthly names..I will introduce some western names too. Why not? The regime propagandize that Islsmists infiltrate the FSA and in return I will have a counter propaganda names: Steve’s and jade’s brigades. Something like that.. and will also take requests…

August 28th, 2012, 1:16 am

101

you forgot to mention the zionist regime, be precise Ann!

August 28th, 2012, 1:21 am

“118. TARA said:

You beat me to it. If I to advise the FSA, I would come with “all inclusive” names for it’s brigades..for instance, in addition to AllahunAkbar brigade, I will have other names like Jesuus brigade, or The father, the son and the wholly spirit brigade. Would you feel included then?”

No Tara, but thanks for the offer ( I appreciate the offer and laugh very much). I do not like to see any religious names or slogans. I would love to see mention of the rich history that Syria had before the Arabic Islamic invasion where by we are still burning our rubber tires and still moving at the speed of a super sloth.

August 28th, 2012, 1:25 am

MORSI: There is NO room for talk about dialog but ONLY for talk about Assad’s departure”

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/28/234628.html

August 28th, 2012, 1:58 am

Will the NAM meeting trigger the Iranian Spring?

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/28/234646.html

Iranian activists emboldened by Ki Mon NAM visit call on Iranians to once again climb on the roofs of their homes and invoke Allahu Akbar on Ki Mon’s arrival in Tehran. This time, however, the invocation is meant to be against the mullahs.

Come on guys. Be honest. You still don’t like al-Arabiya?

August 28th, 2012, 2:28 am

SYRIAN HAMSTER said:

WIN WIN
The more time one spends forging up/down ticks promoting one’s garbage and severely disturbed ego, the less time one spends writing garbage. A win-win solution.

August 28th, 2012, 3:01 am

The little girl point of view
http://t.co/bDalqVQj

August 28th, 2012, 3:06 am

Karabennemsi said:

BERLIN: Syrian opposition activists have drafted a political roadmap after a possible ouster of President Bashar Assad, drawing on examples from other states that moved to democracy such as South Africa.

The working group, which brought together a broad spectrum of political organisations and religious faiths, produced a report called “The Day After Project: Supporting a Democratic Transition in Syria”.

August 28th, 2012, 3:09 am

108. GHUFRAN said:

“Here is how the regime treats dissent:”

Thank you for the Kilo quote. This is how the regime deals with “peaceful” dissent. I hope it’s now clear to you why people revolted and why there is no going back.

This most stupid and empty president, married to a stupid and empty wife, could have made himself a hero of the Syrian people instead of a villain. However, as one of my teachers said, barbarity and stupidity go hand in hand.

August 28th, 2012, 3:33 am

here is the link to the draft of an post assad era, as it was presented today in Berlin

here the most important facts:

Introduction of the rule of law: even before Assad’s overthrow trusted people from the present Law are determined to lead the transformation from an arbitrary-law and his support. A committee will review the existing laws and make suggestions for changes in the law that may be implemented by the fall of dictator. To prevent acts of revenge also must quickly transitional justice be established, “which is based on international norms and standards.” This is the desire of the victim to take account of atonement and also prevent future violations.

Reform the security services: The Syrian opposition assumes that shortly after a change of supporters of the Assad regime – will try to stir up trouble in the country – especially by the infamous Schabiha militias. Therefore we have already laid the foundations for a reform of the security sector. The armed opposition groups need to improve their command structures and also adhere to humanitarian standards. After Assad’s fall based on the existing police to a security force can be formed. You should by former officers still active or credible representatives of the army and police are given. The entire security sector – army, police and intelligence services – must be in the future, however, a top civilian supervision.

Suspension of the new Constitution which was issued by the regime in February. For the transition period, a new piece of legislation has to be drawn up – possibly on the basis of the Constitution of 1950. Then to a Constituent Assembly has to draft a new set of rules. This should then be submitted to a vote of the people. Special emphasis is laid, the report indicated that all Syrian ethnicities and religions may be involved in the future constitution.

http://www.thedayafter-sy.org/media/thedayafteren.pdf

August 28th, 2012, 5:14 am

A Thousand Deaths to the Muslim Brotherhood

A Thousand Deaths to the Criminal Brotherhood

A Thousand Deaths to the Agent Brotherhood

A Thousand Deaths to the Bought Brotherhood.

August 28th, 2012, 5:55 am

Wim Roffel said:

Any news on how many of those who died in Daraya were rebel fighters who died in battle?

After all it has been a trick of the rebels from the very beginning to sell their battle casualties and their victims as innocent civilians killed by the government.

August 28th, 2012, 6:23 am

Akbar Palace said:

Hassan,

It that all you want? Just “a thousand deaths”??

As you may be aware, the civil war produced over 20,000 deaths, and I suppose this isn’t enough for you.

All because one criminal family and their cronies can’t stomach free elections and freedom of speech.

The very definition of cowardice.

August 28th, 2012, 6:58 am

more pilgrims for a (s) Zainab pilgrimage?

Commanders and Hundreds of Elite Soldiers Deployed to Damascus, Members Say, as Deepening Conflict Worries Key Ally

BEIRUT—Iran is sending commanders from its elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and hundreds of foot soldiers to Syria, according to current and former members of the corps.

The personnel moves come on top of what these people say are Tehran’s stepped-up efforts to aid the military of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with cash and arms. That would indicate that regional capitals are being drawn deeper into Syria’s conflict—and undergird a growing perception among Mr. Assad’s opponents that the regime’s military is increasingly strained.

A commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, appeared to offer Iran’s first open acknowledgment of its military involvement in Syria.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444230504577615393756632230.html?KEYWORDS=syria

August 28th, 2012, 7:28 am

mjabali said:

ياحج فيزيتر:

أولا أعتقد أن محمد لم يقل هذا الكلام. من نقل هذا الكلام عنه؟ ماهي مصداقية الناقل أو الكاتب؟ تخريف بتخريف لأن الذكي يعرف أن مصر ليست كما تزعم في حديثك الملفق. في مصر أقباط ومسلمون غير متدينون ولايقيميو وزناً يذكر لفكر الرباط أو لا؟ هل يرابط الاقباط مع شلتك إلى يوم القيامة؟

أما عن أرض مصر فياحسرتي أرض صحراوية يجري فيها نهر يقل منسوبه سنة بعد سنة. مصر بلد تعيس بكل معنى الكلمة فمن حكم الديكتاتورين إلى حكم الاخوان الحالي الذي سيفشل حتماً لأن الشعب المصري جائع، يريد فرصة عمل وفرصة تعلم. من يحشو عقل المصريين بهذا الكلام الديني الملفق يتأمر عليهم.

أين هو المفكر الذي قال أن الخطر الاسلامي غير موجود في الشرق الاوسط؟ هل هناك أجندا إسلامية أم لا؟ هل هناك خطاب اسلامي يفكر بمنطق إمبريالية أم لا؟ أين هو الفطحل الذي يريد حفظ حدود سوريا الحالية من دون النظر إلى التحالفات الدينية والعرقية التي هزمت التفكير القومي. التفكير القومي الوحيد الموجود على الساحة هو التفكير بقومية دينية وليس بقومية مركبة “كالسورية مثلاً.”

من يتأمر على الحدود الحالية للدول هم الاسلاميون الذين لديهم أجندا معلنة تبغي الاتحاد وتشكيل دولة عمادها نوع معين من الاسلام.

August 28th, 2012, 7:43 am

Last wake up call for the armed rebels and the opposition before ‘it is too late’

http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-army-drops-leaflets-over-damascus-082850275.html

Sieda said the U.S. comments show the international community was not ready not ready” to take decisive decisions when it comes to Syria.

“It seems to me as if the international community is not prepared to take decisive decisions and blames the Syrian opposition for its own shortcomings,” Sieda said.

“Yes there are differences within the Syrian opposition and this is normal in any country, but as long as we are agreed on a common vision, these differences can be overcome,” he added.

“The international international community must make a move before it’s too late.”

Syria’s opposition has been plagued by divisions and infighting since the start of the uprising last year, and forming a transitional government is fraught with difficulties.

In addition to the SNC, several other opposition groups are known to be making similar plans, including a new opposition alliance headed by veteran opposition figure Haitham Maleh.

Sieda said his group has been contacting other opposition figures and the Free Syrian Army rebels to consult over a transitional government, but admits they have not started discussing names yet.
…
Some of the leaflets dropped Tuesday, which were signed by the armed forces and the army’s general command, read: “The Syrian army is determined to cleanse every inch in Syria and you have only two choices: Abandon your weapons … or face inevitable death.”

“No one will help you. They have implicated you in taking up arms against your compatriots,” they said. “They drown in their pleasures while you face death. Why? And for whom?”

August 28th, 2012, 8:47 am

# 132 MJ,

You need to sit down once again with your knowledgeable dog.

You two may also need to condole each others and collaboratively send some much needed condolences to your mullah-gods in Qom.

———————————-

Damascus once again to the front lines with embedded video of close combat showing FSA overrunning thug’s army checkpoints,

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/28/234682.html

August 28th, 2012, 9:00 am

Will the international community show a “militarily supported” compassion in front of such despair?

Syria rebels dream of weapons to down aircraft
By Sara Hussein | AFP – 1 hr 35 mins ago

http://news.yahoo.com/syria-rebels-dream-weapons-down-aircraft-112149056.html

“That’s the difference between us and them,” one commander said of the Syrian army. “They have everything, we have nothing but God.”

August 28th, 2012, 9:05 am

Morsi: NO military intervention in Syria crisis – 2012-08-28

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/video/2012-08/28/c_131812632.htm

Mohamed Morsi, Egyptian President said, “We are against any military action on Syrian soil, in any shape or form. We want to intervene using peaceful, effective and efficient means to enable the Syrian people to achieve their goals from this revolution and this movement for freedom.”

August 28th, 2012, 9:09 am

Another bitter acknowledgement of how the armed rebels in Syria have been abandoned after having been encouraged: Shame on Obama and Erdogan.

Obama’s Callow, Cruel Reaction to Syrian Massacres
By Fouad Ajami Aug 27, 2012 6:33 PM ET

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-27/obama-s-callow-cruel-reaction-to-syrian-massacres.html

…
We exhausted and stretched the language of outrage — our diplomacy ran out of adjectives, as Senator John McCain so aptly put it. Our cavalry would turn up if only the Syrian opposition would overcome its differences. Then there was the specter of the jihadists:
….
But the truth is that the Syrian ruler some months back concluded that he could kill with abandon, and that powers beyond wouldn’t come to the rescue of the Syrian people.

Instead, the myth of Prime Minister Erdogan, the new darling of “the Arab street” and the standard-bearer of Sunni Islam in the regime, was laid to rest. The Syrian people were on their own, and they had come to a stark recognition of their solitude.

August 28th, 2012, 9:13 am

136. ann

I am stunned by Morsi’s creativity. Thin air and cliches.

While begging for money from KSA, Qatar and the IMF, we can’t expect much more originality.

August 28th, 2012, 9:24 am

“Conflict between “democracy” and dictatorship” ?

Gangs of Aleppo

The Arab Spring succumbs to post-state violence
By William S. Lind • August 28, 2012

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/gangs-of-aleppo/
…
In the view of our Laputan foreign-policy establishment, what is happening in Syria and elsewhere is a conflict between “democracy” and dictatorship. Valiant youths who fight for “freedom” are destined to triumph, bringing happiness and prosperity to their formerly oppressed lands. This is the Whig version of history—the progressive narrative. It bears little resemblance to reality.

A Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi came closer to truth. He was quoted in the New York Times as saying that Syria faces “gang warfare.”

Gangs are one of the most basic, and most potent, building blocks of stateless Fourth Generation war. We commonly think of gangs in connection with crime. But through most of history, the line between crime and war was blurred, often to the point of vanishing. (See Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century.)
…
Fighting spreads not because of some “cause” like democracy but because idle young men see a fight and join in. Why not? They have nothing to do, nothing to lose, and thanks to their new gang and AK-47, lots to take: money, women, and fame.
…
Gangs fight not only the government but also each other, and their internecine wars further weaken the state.
….
Meanwhile, if you want to envision places such as Libya, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Mali—the list keeps growing—you could do worse than to think of spreading rumbles in the ’hood. That is a far more accurate picture than the two-sided “democracy vs. dictatorship” image purveyed by politically correct Polyannas. The bulletins of the Syrian Foreign Ministry, it seems, mislead less than those of the U.S. State Department.

August 28th, 2012, 9:31 am

I am shocked at the high level and quality support the World’s given the Syrian uprising and so called Syrian oppositions. And they plundered it all. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOSERS

SNP would have appreciated only, say quantitevly 10% of that support and would have made major stride in bringing the Baathist regime to the table, with no bloodshed.

August 28th, 2012, 9:32 am

Panic in Turkey

Up to 200.000 Syrians could flee to Turkey

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/up-to-200000-syrians-could-flee-to-turkey-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=28798&NewsCatID=359

Up to 200,000 Syrian refugees could flee to Turkey if the conflict continues to deepen, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday.

“We are already looking at potentially up to 200,000 and are working with the Turkish government to make the necessary plans,” Sybella Wilkes, spokeswoman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told Reuters in Geneva. “We are ready to send in stocks at very short notice.”

August 28th, 2012, 9:47 am

Canada grinding teeth…

John Baird urges Ban Ki-moon to cancel visit to Iran-led summit of ‘non-aligned nations’ in letter to the UN Secretary-General

Kathryn Blaze Carlson | Aug 28, 2012 7:00 AM ET | Last Updated: Aug 27, 2012 11:29 PM ET

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has implored the UN Secretary-General to reconsider his upcoming visit to the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Iran, citing the Islamic Republic’s “egregious human rights record” and its president’s calls for the annihilation of Israel.

August 28th, 2012, 9:59 am

Tehran NAM Summit: the Failure of Anti-Iranian Plots

by Kourosh Ziabari / August 26th, 2012
http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/08/tehran-nam-summit-the-failure-of-anti-iranian-plots/

The 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement kicked off in the Iranian capital of Tehran on August 25 and the heads of state and government of the 120-member organization are slated to meet on August 30 and 31 to discuss the most important international developments ranging from the violence and crisis in Syria, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to Iran’s nuclear program. During the summit, the rotating presidency of NAM will be conferred to Iran by Egypt which has held the movement’s presidency since 2009.

Consisting of nearly two-thirds of the United Nations body, the Non-Aligned Movement is the second largest international organization, and its members are said to be politically independent of the world’s great powers; namely, the United States and its European allies. As the Cuban revolutionary President Fidel Castro stated, the ultimate objective of the movement is to foster “the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries” in their “struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics.”

The United States and Israel have been intensively trying to dissuade the world leaders and politicians from attending the summit through running an all-out media campaign aimed at derailing and undermining the largest diplomatic gathering in Iran’s contemporary history; however, as Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi pointed out, more than 100 countries will be sending delegations to the summit of which 51 countries will take part in the level of president, Prime Minister and vice president.
..
Bolivian President Evo Morales, Cuban President Raul Castro, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Emir of Kuwait Sabah Al-Ahmad, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, Sultan of Oman Qaboos bin Said al Said, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Senegalese President Macky Sall, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Turkish President Abdullah Gul are among the high-ranking guests of the 16th NAM summit in Tehran.

In an excruciating defiance of the calls by Israel and the United States, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will also attend the summit.

August 28th, 2012, 10:05 am

Welcome to the ugly Syria. The by-product of Hafiz and his monstrous son. Note the mention of the arrogant peasants.

Some anti-regime activists believe that two reported massacres of Sunnis earlier this year, in the towns of Houla in May and Qubeir in June, aimed to drive Sunnis out of areas near main routes to the coast to ensure control of the Alawite enclave

In Damascus’ mostly Sunni neighborhood of Mazzeh, a resident named Moaz nostalgically remembers the woods that once stood on a hill close to his home. Then, years ago, the trees were cut down, and apartment blocs went up to house Alawites taking positions in the military and government. Their area, built within the Mazzeh area to promote an image of integration, became known as Mazzeh-86.
“Our relation with them was like a cold peace, ‘We mind our own business and you mind yours’,” recalled Moaz, a 28-year-old anti-Assad activist. He spoke on condition his full name not be used to protect himself and his family from reprisals.
Now the two areas are virtually at war. Alawites from Mazzeh-86 frequently help put down protests by Sunnis in the larger district, beating up protesters outside mosques alongside security forces. Checkpoints divide the two areas. In Sunni Mazzeh, there have been numerous slayings of those believed to be informers for the government, both Alawites and Sunnis, said Moaz.
“People with coastal accents (Alawites) are instantly recognized. They are arrogant and sure of themselves,” he said.
Damascus had been largely unaffected by the fighting raging elsewhere in the country, until last month when rebels staged a major offensive in the city of 1.7 million people, sparking a heavy regime counter-attack. As the fighting raged, sectarian violence increased. So far, it has been concentrated in poor or lower middle-class neighborhoods of the capital, while most upscale districts remain peaceful, residents and activists say.
(…)
http://news.yahoo.com/syria-sectarian-divide-turns-fear-flight-183006235.html

August 28th, 2012, 10:11 am

138. zoo said:

He’s shopping for the highest bidder ZOO!

Think China 😉

August 28th, 2012, 10:38 am

US and German think tanks prepares a plan of transition for Syria’s elusive day after.
Note that the Syrian local political opposition is absent while the moribund SNC is still trying to kick.

Syrian opposition announces roadmap for post-Assad Syria

Published: 28 August, 2012, 18:07
http://rt.com/news/syria-day-after-berlin-732/

Syrian opposition activists announced they have drafted a political roadmap for the country’s development in the event of the ouster of President Assad. The project, initiated by US and German think tanks, is currently being presented in Berlin.

Developed by the US Institute of Peace and German Institute for International and Security Affairs as early as in January, the group put together a document titled, “The Day After Project: Supporting a Democratic Transition in Syria.”

The authors reportedly include members of the Syrian National Council, the Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups, members of the Free Syrian Army and youth activists – some 50 people in total.

While no single leader has emerged to unify Syria’s opposition since internal conflict began in the country in March 2011, the group claimed their 120-page project lays out the development of a new national identity based on civic unity, citing South Africa’s post-apartheid transition as an example.

The document, the first of its kind from the Syrian opposition, also offers recommendations for writing a new constitution and calls for a special independent tribunal to try former members of the regime for crimes committed against the Syrian people, AFP reported.

“We view this document as our collective contribution to an ongoing debate among Syrians – both inside and outside the country – about the most effective ways to manage the challenges that are sure to arise following the end of the Assad regime (which is an outcome that can no longer be in doubt),” the group said.

The presentation came the day after French President Francois Hollande called on the Syrian opposition to form a provisional government, and pledged that France would recognize it as legitimate.

Both steps will likely spur a new wave of diplomatic pressure against the government of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. But Syrian opposition forces remain fragmented and divided; many political experts say that even if Assad goes there is no guarantee that the bloodshed will end, and that the worst-case scenario of prolonged civil war is a distinct possibility.

August 28th, 2012, 10:41 am

“The by-product of Hafiz and his monstrous son. ”

Was it so ugly during the last forty years? Whose by-product is it really?

August 28th, 2012, 10:44 am

Juergen

not yet as many as Islamists freedom fighters…

August 28th, 2012, 10:46 am

Coincidence? A “massacre” attributed to the government before every UNSC meeting

Ban Ki-moon urges immediate investigation into ‘Daraya massacre’
http://rt.com/news/syria-daraya-massacre-blame-690/

On Monday, the UN Secretary General called for an immediate investigation into what happened in Daraya. Ban’s spokesman said that the UN Office for the Commissioner for Human Rights was trying to gather information on the incident and “whoever is responsible needs to be held accountable and it underscores again the lack of protection for civilians that there is in Syria.”
….
Meanwhile, many fear that this atrocity could be used as a PR tool in the conflict.

Journalist Neil Clark told RT that every time he hears of another crime allegedly committed by the Assad regime, he experiences a sense of déjà vu.

“It’s pretty clear that there’s an agenda here; it’s to blacken the Syrian government’s name, and to use it as another pretext for intervention. It’s happened before and it’ll happen again, I’m afraid.”

Clark pointed out that massacres always seem to happen just before an important UN meeting “and we’ve got to ask ourselves why.”

“It’s all about the likes of William Hague and Hilary Clinton trying to put pressure on Russia and China to change their positions. And so before we get any independent verification of what’s gone on, we get these calls from these hawks that say look, Assad’s murdering his own people, we’ve got to intervene,” he said.

“And then when the dust settles then we find a bit more information, it’s not as clear-cut as it appeared to be. Later on we find that actually the rebels were responsible for much of the killing then. It wasn’t clear-cut. So we’ve got to be very, very wary.”

August 28th, 2012, 10:50 am

A shift in Germany’s Syria policy?

Is the coalition of the willing coming together after Darayya?

http://www.aljazeera.net/news/pages/8bda79da-2e7a-49b8-8f0c-7c16126f057b?GoogleStatID=9

http://www.aljazeera.net/news/pages/79758818-c1d7-4fd6-8105-9ca2c5cd20b0?GoogleStatID=9

And thus spoke al-Mualem!

http://www.aljazeera.net/news/pages/9921f6ec-d5a5-4713-95a9-ccdc2e333f8f?GoogleStatID=24

August 28th, 2012, 10:52 am

Ann, you’re right…

‘Egyptian leader heads to China, Iran to find non-Western cash flow’
Edited: 28 August, 2012, 11:59
http://rt.com/news/egypt-china-iran-relations-699/

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is set to kick off his first visit to China, shortly followed by a historic trip to Tehran. Middle East history professor Lawrence Davidson believes Cairo wants to diversify its economic relations.

The Egyptian President, who took office in June, will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on Tuesday. His visit is expected to largely focus on economic cooperation, which is why Morsi is accompanied by a number of Egyptian businessmen.

August 28th, 2012, 10:53 am

The Damascus “Gay Girl” publishes fictions…

After the success of the Gay Girl in Damascus blog that has thrilled important newspapers le Monde and the Guardian and “revealed” the politically ‘repressive’ atmosphere of Damascus thought an out of closet fake Gay girl, the author is now a published writer

“MacMaster has no qualms using the Gay Girl hoax as his launching point for a career in fiction. He now has two self-published e-books available on Amazon. One is a fantasy novel, ‘The Conspiracy of the Gods’ and the other, ‘Children of Nowhere’, is a spy novel set in the Middle East and Russia.”

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/bad-fiction-damascus-gay-girl

August 28th, 2012, 11:01 am

This is what ZOO wrote

Unbelievable from ZOO. I do not know in what universe and in which country he lives in.

If the last 40 years were not a monstrosity then I do not know what the definition of oppression and corruption and slavery are.

August 28th, 2012, 11:46 am

Why don’t you believe me when I tell you that to native Syrians it was vey ugly?

I am drawn to your passion about Syria but you really can’t generalize you perception about Syrians during your exposure as a visitor to how the vast majoity of Syrians really feel sbout the regime behind close door. Additionally, I doubt you have ever had an intimate Syrian Sunni freind. Unfortunately..

August 28th, 2012, 11:51 am

After President Morsi, President Munsif al-Marzouqi of Tunisia calls for referring Bashar to the International Criminal Court,

http://www.aljazeera.net/news/pages/c947b394-fa99-4071-b635-ccff43243221?GoogleStatID=1

We know our Libyan brothers have been supportive of the Syrian Revolution since day one. Where are our Yemeni brothers? We need to hear you say something, Yemen!

August 28th, 2012, 11:53 am

Why don’t you believe me when I tell you that to native Syrian it was vey ugly?”

I prefer OBSERVER’s monstrosity to the ‘ugly’ understatement.

August 28th, 2012, 11:59 am

Here is the supportter of the Syrian revolution!
killer, zionists, wahabi machine paying for killing of the Syrians, Christians, turning Syria into a backward country ruled by idiots ideology and retards people.
Morsi wants Assad to go because he is a worse wahabi radical muslim terrorists killed many innocent people over decades of live.
I can’t wait for the west to start sending drones to kill the ones who they are supporting at the current time.
give it few years and that’s what history has taught us about the west and USA.

http://www.bing.com/search?q=rachel+corrie&src=IE-SearchBox

August 28th, 2012, 12:40 pm

A reality check on the upcoming Alawite implosion:

“Given that the regime’s praetorian units are still in Damascus, at what stage, if an exodus toward the Alawite mountains becomes imperative, do the Assads sound the retreat? Do the elite units fight on in the capital indefinitely, weakening them for the future, or do they decide at some point that the priority must be to defend their communal redoubt? This imposes delicate choices. Too sudden a withdrawal from the capital could provoke a rout for the Assads; too late a withdrawal could mean their forces get bogged down in a debilitating struggle that undermines the fallback plan.”

Speaking of monstrosity:

” The Fear of Breathing
Stories from the Syrian revolution
Ellie Violet Bramley, August 16, 2012

The Fear of Breathing is nothing if not daring. Staged recently at London’s Finborough Theatre, it takes verbatim reports from Syria and turns them into an urgent, artistic, thoughtful play.

It is the product of reports garnered by the BBC’s Paul Wood, The Daily Telegraph’s Ruth Sherlock, and theatre director, Zoe Lafferty.”

To read more: http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=428306#ixzz24rO4F2DF
Only 25% of a given NOW Lebanon article can be republished. For information on republishing rights from NOW Lebanon: http://www.nowlebanon.com/Sub.aspx?ID=125478

August 28th, 2012, 12:46 pm

DARAYYA: THE CAMERA OF KILLING AND SADISM

داريا: كاميرا القتل والساديّة
زياد ماجد، الثلاثاء 28 آب 2012

تعبّر تغطية تلفزيون “الدنيا” مجزرة داريا في سوريا، في ما هو أبعد من الغباء والانحطاط الأخلاقي المعهودَين، عن ساديّة جرميّة جمعت جنوداً وشبّيحة بصحافيين ومصوّرين.

فالكاميرا التي تجوّلت برفقه مقاتلي النظام بين جثث ضحاياهم وجرحاهم والناجين من طلقاتهم وحرابهم لم تكن تبحث عن توثيق أو تغطية أو روايةٍ لقصصِ موت ونجاة.

Read the rest….

http://www.nowlebanon.com/Arabic/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=431230

August 28th, 2012, 12:52 pm

Visitor@ 159

There is a reason why al Dunya TV was shamelessly parading the massacre and interviewng the relative. It is the same reason why theses savages call detainees’ family and have them listen to the detainees’ screams while being tortured. It is meant to teach us a lesson..to re-
establish the wall of terror. Their tactic is to teach residents across Syria that harboring the rebels will be punished with mass murders as simple as that..

August 28th, 2012, 1:07 pm

160 TARA Said,

“Visitor@ 159

This is what I said in 33 in this comment section:

“Actually people like Hassan are just reading from the same textbook.

If you want to know what the textbook says you just have to look again at the SANA/DUNYA TV reporter who was practically dancing shamelessly over the bodies of the Daraya victims.

The objective is simple: to instill fear. That is what comes out of that book.

So after 50 years of rule by fear and 18 months of breaking the fear barrier, the regime has only three cards in its pocket: FEAR and FEAR and FEAR.

OK, Syrians you got the picture now. You lose the war when FEAR grips you again.”

August 28th, 2012, 1:14 pm

Erin said:

I have a question for all the wahabi radical suppoters of the killing of the Syrians by the thugs, mercenaries, foreign bags terrorits here.
Aren’t you ashame of yourself to post here as being a pro revolution after all the innocent killing done by the wahabi money and the backing of the thugs of the MB.
SNC is probably dead and regime still in power just get use to it and understand that the syrians don’t want radical in power.
USA is shoving the radical islam in the mouth of the Syrians and still they are vomiting it everyday and still supporting the regime inspite of all its corruption, crimes, faults etc, get a hint, radical trash bags and leave Syria alone.
I got a phone call from a young woman in Syria who is suppose to be a pro revolution and told me that we don’t need this killers from outside the country and that’s why the regime is still in power.
dah we have said that for months but apparnetly the wahabi killers insisting on dying in Syria.
ok keep sending them and will return them in trash bags, black color pleaes.

Here what the Suadi pigs want to do to Syria.
being run by retards imams and backstone theology.
people are living the 21st century and the Suadi living like pigs even pigs have more respect in the west.
how about some of this flags to all the Saudi sinners all over the world that would be more fair and square.
shame on arabs.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/08/cairo-the-plight-of-nagla-wafa-an-egyptian-mother-sentenced-500-lashes-in-saudi-arabia-following-a-business-dispute-wit.html

August 28th, 2012, 1:54 pm

152. Observer

Were you in Syria in the past 5 years?

August 28th, 2012, 1:55 pm

#152 Observer

“If the last 40 years were not a monstrosity then I do not know what the definition of oppression and corruption and slavery are.”

Is your country of reference Switzerland or Saudi Arabia?

August 28th, 2012, 1:58 pm

The rebels retaliate by killing 12 innocent civilians during funerals and the ‘humam rights abiding’ SNC calls it a government conspiration…as usual.

Deadly bombing hits loyalist funeral outside Damascus
AFP – 1 hr 51 mins ago

http://news.yahoo.com/army-pounds-east-damascus-chopper-downed-085724776.html
A car bomb rocked the funeral of two government loyalists in a Damascus suburb, killing 12 people on Tuesday as the army kept up its bombardment of rebel strongholds in the east of the capital.

August 28th, 2012, 2:06 pm

Here is the reason we have the war in Syria.
because the USA and Israel have significant benefit from selling weapon to the middle east, remember the middle east has been the best customer for the last fifty or more years for weapons regardless where the war is the selling is ongoing.
Arabic spring is given a shot into the amercian and european failed economies.
oh by the way israel economy is benefiting as well i am sure.

http://www.assafir.com/Article.aspx?EditionId=2240&ChannelId=53729&ArticleId=2513&Author=

August 28th, 2012, 2:08 pm

153. Tara said:

Why don’t you believe me when I tell you that to native Syrians it was very ugly?

How do you know? You said you’ve not been there for many years. Did you get the news of the ‘uglyness’ of Syria from your relatives in their villa in Zabadani or from your rich family in Damascus that you mentioned several times?

August 28th, 2012, 2:14 pm

Good death business for the USA…

US arms sales hit record high over deals with Arabian Gulf countries

Elizabeth Dickinson
Aug 28, 2012
http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/us-arms-sales-hit-record-high-over-deals-with-arabian-gulf-countries

Arms deals with Arabian Gulf countries helped push United States weapons sales to a record $66.3 billion (Dh243.5bn) last year, a report for the US Congress found.

The tripling in sales compared to 2010 represents growing concerns among Gulf states and their American allies about the possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran as well as a more fragile region in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.

August 28th, 2012, 2:18 pm

The unity of the Moslem world achieved after the OIC Mecca meeting:

Moslem brotherhood Sunnis cracking down on Salafists in Egypt, Sunni Salafist cracking down on Takfiri in Saudi Arabia

All of the above cracking down on Shia..

Saudi uncovers ‘terrorist’ plots in the kingdom
Associated Press – Sun, Aug 26, 2012

http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-uncovers-terrorist-plots-kingdom-133154977.html

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s news agency says authorities have uncovered “terrorist” cells plotting attacks against Saudi police and civilians in Riyadh, the capital.

“The terrorist cell in Riyadh promoted the deviant Takfiri thought,” the statement said, in reference to an al-Qaida-like extremist ideology.

August 28th, 2012, 2:28 pm

The sad reality: Massacres and killings get no response from numbed Syrians.

Daraya massacre fails to stir Damascus

Phil Sands
Aug 29, 2012
http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/daraya-massacre-fails-to-stir-damascus

DAMASCUS // Despite its huge scale and proximity to the centre of Damascus, the killing of up to 350 people in Daraya seems unlikely to prove a dramatic watershed in the struggle for Syria, beyond pushing it further down the dark path towards sectarian civil war.

Both those supporting President Bashar Al Assad, and those backing the uprising against him, may have had reason to hope the assault on Daraya would serve as a turning point in their favour.

As news of the mass killings spread, some activists believed the shock of discovering such horrific bloodletting had been committed on the capital’s doorstep would finally spark a massive, open rebellion against the authoritarian regime in Damascus.

However, rather than taking to the streets in large numbers, holding a citywide strike or even a collective minute of silence out of respect for the dead, central Damascus carried on very much as before.
…

August 28th, 2012, 2:32 pm

Keep on dreaming these fantastic Jewish daydreams of Civil War in Syria. It has been 2 years and massacre after another. NOTHING. NADA. Give up you ignorant genocidal Zionist/Bedouin slimes.

Why Damascus not revolted, OR MOVED A FINGER after this, because they all know about the more than 700 corpses of Islamist fighters laying in town like heap of trash, many burned by the terrorists to hide the Zoo they came out of.

KEEP ON BARKING while ASSAD KEEPS ON KILLING. It is obvious, you are sending all those Islamist to die in Damascus, so none will be avalable to fight you when Jordan and Arabia turns comes on.

August 28th, 2012, 2:50 pm

I have a question for all the wahabi radical suppoters of the killing of the Syrians by the thugs, mercenaries, foreign bags terrorits here.

Erin,

Are you saying your hero Dr. Bashar Assad is NOT a thug? All the creep had to do was institute reforms and call for multi-party elections instead of shooting into crowds of demonstators.

That’s all he had to do.

But no, this thug and his close associates decided thousands of Syrians would have to die so they could remain in “government” and at the head of a backward police state.

August 28th, 2012, 2:53 pm

Jasmine said:

44. GHUFRAN said:

This is white slavery,and this what the Saudis use to do during their summer holidays in Syria,they use to marry teenagers for 2 months and divorce them and leaving them pregnant,the children were born and they couldn’t name them after their fathers,I read very disturbing article about this issue 2 years ago.
I suggest that in the future every visitor from the gulf should be banned from marrying Syrian girls unless he is of Syrian origin,or they should be castrated on arrival to Syria.

August 28th, 2012, 3:04 pm

Piety versus expediency: Egypt Islamists change tack on IMF loan

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/51412/Business/Economy/Egypt-Islamists-change-tack-on-controversial-IMF-l.aspx

Once seemingly opposed to international borrowing, Islamist parties are now giving approval to Egypt’s request for a $4.8 billion loan; Ahram Online compares the Islamists’ stances to IMF funding before and after Morsi’s election

Bassem Abo Alabass, Tuesday 28 Aug 2012

Egypt’s Islamist politicians seem to have had a rapid about-face with regards to a prospective multi-billion dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Before an Islamist held high office, many religious conservatives poured scorn on the idea of borrowing from the international institution, an idea mooted by the transitional government of Essam Sharaf in spring 2011.

Some politicians called such a measure ‘haram’; others suggested there was no need for IMF funding and the budget shortfall could be made up in other ways.

Now, with leading figure of the Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi holding the presidency, the Brotherhood affiliated Freedom and Justice (FJP) and Salafist Nour parties both seem to be backing the government’s request for a facility from the IMF.

A request was made last week for a $4.8 billion loan during a Cairo meeting between President Morsi and the fund’s chief Christine Lagarde.

Below, Ahram Online below compares the Islamists’ stances to IMF funding before and after Morsi’s election.
…..

August 28th, 2012, 3:23 pm

Syria – FSA death squads massacre civilians in Daraya – 18 hours ago

CIA’s el-salvador option: death squads. I hope Syria defeats this imposed war.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bb3_1346117108

August 28th, 2012, 3:40 pm

أكد نائب الرئيس السوري فاروق الشرع أن الشرط الأساسي لتحقيق التسوية السياسية في سوريا يتطلب “وقف العنف من كل الأطراف”، ومن ثم “الدخول في حوار وطني”، بحسب ما نقلت عنه صحيفة “الوطن” المقربة من النظام.
وقالت الصحيفة إن مدير مكتب الشرع نقل عن الأخير قوله خلال استقباله رئيس لجنة الأمن القومي والسياسة الخارجية في مجلس الشورى الإسلامي الإيراني علاء الدين بروجردي يوم الأحد الماضي في مكتبه في دمشق أن “الأساس لتسوية الأزمة في سوريا من دون شروط مسبقة يتمثل بوقف العنف من كل الأطراف والدخول في حوار وطني”.
وأوضح الشرع بحسب الصحيفة أن ذلك يعني الإستناد إلى خطة المبعوث الأممي كوفي أنان ووثيقة مؤتمر جنيف وهو ما يتطلب قراءة موضوعية متلازمة لهاتين الوثيقتين، معتبراً أن القبول بهاتين الخطتين يجعل الدول الغربية خارج الفيتو الروسي والصيني في مجلس الأمن.
I think the first step should be taken by the regime with UN presence. armed rebels should stop firing their weapons after written guarantees that door to door searches will not be conducted and shelling comes to an end, if the rebels keep fighting and attacking the army,then it won’t matter what Alarabiya and others say,everybody will know who is refusing to implement a cease fire.
the outcome of such a plan is almost certain, many armed rebels will not stop and will not listen to anybody until they are physically unable to hear or become convinced that they have won, for many,it is a fight til death, in a perfect world,a deal between the army and the FSA can isolate rouge groups and help reduce blood shed, the lack of trust and the presence of Assad are the two biggest obstacles that prevent a deal between these two sides, Islaimst groups are thriving due to the absence of a deal.

August 28th, 2012, 3:51 pm

Those who are justifying the regime tactic of shelling and aerial bombing civilian areas by blaming rebel presence there are presumably justifying the Isreali tactics against Lebanon in 2006?

August 28th, 2012, 4:04 pm

UZAIR8,

You haven’t heard of the “double standard”? One standard for Israel and another standard for Arab despots? Let me know, I can explain it in more detail.

Also, your anology is a little off. Your analogy would be more correct if you said, “…the Israeli tacktics against Israel…”.

Syrians are killing Syrians. This isn’t an international squabble.

August 28th, 2012, 4:11 pm

Is JAD still sharing this SC forum or probably committed suicide after realizing what the Assad Mafia Regime is about ? Or was he the real Assef Shawkat ?

August 28th, 2012, 4:16 pm

Druzes are playing a very sad character in this terrorific civil war or let’s say war of Assad against the people of Syria.

They would probably agree in the original message of the popular pacefull revolution but there is somthing that hurts too much:

They know they played an important role in the army massacre of Hama 1982. They even are proud of it. I have heard them one hundred times talk about the issue in proud and hate for the islamists. So for this mistake they committed now they know something bad is on the way. Druzes will support Assad til the end and only international or lebanese mediation can avoid some kind of bloody retaliation.

August 28th, 2012, 4:20 pm

Frend in America said:

Hassan @ 21
Your comments suggest there cannot be no negotiated settlement. Is this is correct? I ask this question because all strategists must have a second best option. What is yours? If the government in Damascus could not carry on, would you support and participate in moving the government leadership and the military to to the west coast to establish a separate Aliwite country or province?

August 28th, 2012, 4:44 pm

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

It’s better to be dead, than to be wounded and in a need for medical service, in today’s Syria.
.

August 28th, 2012, 4:48 pm

anwar said:

assad and his cronies on here think they can talk their way out of this. The FSA will make them all pay ten folds in the end. Keep laughing and dancing for now, you and your children’s children will be paying for this regime.

August 28th, 2012, 4:56 pm

Zoo @ 168

“How do you know? You said you’ve not been there for many years. Did you get the news of the ‘uglyness’ of Syria from your relatives in their villa in Zabadani or from your rich family in Damascus that you mentioned several times?”

When I first came to the US, it took me a while to want to go back… I have all my life had low tolerance to mental pain coming from watching injustices inflicted on people. It is part of an avoidance behavior. I had been a frequent flyer to Damascus for the last few years prior to March 2011.

You keep mentioning a rich Damascus family. I am not clear to your intended insinuation. You may want to avoid fitting me into some mental image you want to have to justify my anti-regime stance..Don’t be shy. Ask me. I will answer.

August 28th, 2012, 4:59 pm

Just for one minute imagine you can imagine that Assad can defeat the insurrection. Try to imagine what would Syria be like…

How refugees would come back to their homes to find nothing left. How activists would have to live under Assad repression.
How families of those killed in battle or as civilians under Assad bombs would be treated (how to prove who was or who was not in the FSA…)
What about the tens of thousands of boys and children who lost their fathers and even mothers and will have to live under a poor Syria under embargo?
What about the 3 or 4 millions of young people looking for a job without any resources to marry or even to a home…

Best can Assad do is disapearing and the Syrian Army will have to be deeply reformed.

August 28th, 2012, 5:01 pm

You mentioned you’ve never been to Hamidiyeh probably considered not good enough for your style of shopping or souk Al Harika or Medhat Pasha.
So I guess you just stayed for short durations confined in your family house in a upper class quarter and enjoying the many contacts and connections your family has with the regime and with wealthy sunnis and even sheikhs, including visits to the villa in Zabadani when Damascus was too hot.
Unless you were secretly distributing food for the poor or working in a dispensary I doubt that you have often visited Jaramana or Barze or Zamalaka, therefore I am curious to know where you have observed the ‘ugliness’ of the life of the native Syrians that gives you the authority to claim it.

August 28th, 2012, 5:26 pm

A scandal looming in France

Switzerland suspects Arafat died poisoned by pollonium which may point to Israel and other enemies.

Who bought the silence of the french doctors to hide the real cause of Arafat death in 2004?

Arafat’s death now a murder investigation, French prosecutors say
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1248142–arafat-s-death-now-a-murder-investigation-french-prosecutors-say

PARIS—French prosecutors opened a murder inquiry into the death of Yasser Arafat on Tuesday, his widow’s lawyer said, after she and a TV investigation raised new questions about whether the Palestinian leader was poisoned.

Arafat’s widow seeks ‘assassination’ probe

There have long been rumours in the Arab world that Arafat was poisoned, and a Swiss lab’s recent finding of elevated levels of polonium-210 — a rare and highly lethal radioactive substance — on Arafat’s clothing has fed those claims.

However, the Institute of Radiation Physics said its findings were inconclusive and that only exhuming Arafat’s remains could bring possible clarity. Palestinian officials have waffled on that matter — initially approving the exhumation and then saying the matter needed more study — only further fueling suspicions.

Arafat died in a French military hospital in 2004 of what doctors have said was a massive stroke, but the Swiss lab’s tests have renewed interest in his death. The findings were first broadcast by Arab satellite TV station Al-Jazeera, which approached the lab on behalf of Arafat’s widow, Suha. She provided the lab with his clothing and other belongings.

After the results were released, Suha Arafat filed a complaint in French court asking for a murder investigation. Her lawyer, Pierre-Olivier Sur, confirmed on Tuesday that the prosecutor’s office in Nanterre, a town west of Paris, has agreed to take up the matter. Next, a judge will be appointed to lead the inquiry.

August 28th, 2012, 5:46 pm

اعلنت مسؤولة العلاقات الخارجية في المجلس الوطني السوري بسمة القضماني عن انهاء عضويتها في المجلس ابتداءً من اليوم.
A solution to this crisis lies in the hands of fighters not politicians, that solution can not go forward if Islamists and rouge regime chiefs are allowed to be in the driver seat.
Asking Assad to step down or step aside is now a national,not just an opposition, demand.
His departure will open doors and help Syrians heal, I see no need to preserve the current leadership,Syria has many patriots from all walks of lives and all sects who are ready to fill the void.

August 28th, 2012, 5:59 pm

I do justify Israeli tactics against Hizbullah in 2006. The Hizb has no right to attack and kill Israeli unprovoked,that is terrorism. Israeli fly recon missions over Lebanon,likewise anyone in Lebanon is justifed in flying recon mission as well. But they have no right to kidnap people accress boarder and kill them unprovoked.

August 28th, 2012, 6:12 pm

يشكر المجلس الوطني السوري ، الأشقاء في ليبيا الحرة على تقديمهم مبلغ ١٦،٦ مليون يورو تنفيذاً لتعدهم بتقديم كل ما يستطيعون من دعم للشعب السوري ، ويشهد المجلس أن الأخوة الليبيين وعلى كل المستويات لا يترددون في بذل الغالي والنفيس لدعم أشقائهم السوريون
كما يشكر المجلس الوطني السوري الأشقاء في دولة قطر على تقديم مبلغ ٥ ملايين دولار نقداً للمجلس الوطني ، لتضاف إلى جملة الدعم العيني والنقدي والإغاثي الذي تقدمه دولة قطر وبشكل منتظم إلى الشعب السوري منذ إنطلاق الثورة السورية المباركة
يذكر أن مجموع ما سبق أن تلقاه المجلس الوطني من مبالغ نقدية منذ تأسيسه بلغ ١٥ مليون دولار قدمت دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة الشقيقة ٥ ملايين منها ، ودولة قطر ١٠ ملايين ، تم إرسال ٩٥ بالمئة منها إلى الداخل السوري
كما يتعهد المجلس الوطني السوري بتوزيع المبالغ الجديدة بأسرع وقت ممكن لتلبية الحاجات الهائلة للشعب السوري وعلى رأسها الحاجات الأكثر إلحاحاً لأكثر من مليوني لاجئ ونازح ، والمناطق المحاصرة
سمير نشار
المكتب المالي والإقتصادي للمجلس الوطني السوري
I doubt that anybody from the SNC will have a political future, I always maintained that tomorrow’s leaders will come from within, those who want to lead have to be accepted by fighters on the ground ,fighters who are Syrian and willing to accept other Syrians as partners not potential targets for assassination. Insisting on excluding every Syrian who was a member of the government or the army is a non starter.

August 28th, 2012, 6:21 pm

هاي متل ماتحط الطمبور قدأم البغل وتصرخ له ادفش يابغل شبحو دفوش الطنبور قرد قرد

August 28th, 2012, 6:27 pm

What do I say? Your post completely finish my puzzle and to my satisfaction. You just do not know and I forgive you because you could not possibly know.

Let me try to answer the question. Although it would be much fluently answered with a cup of coffee in a Damascus veranda but I will give it a try. No, I have not been personally exposed to extreme poverty and I certainly not an authority in that regard. And to be honest with you, I am not even in it because I am defending the poor.

Living in Syria, there are small encounters Syrians from all walks of life experience under this regime that point to their slavery, loss of Karamah, dignity and the favoritism of the one sect. The meaning and impact of those subtle but cumulative encounters are probably only understood by Syrian themselves. You encounter an institutionalized raping of one’s Karamah everywhere you go. Syria is a country that has had no value what so ever to one’s Karamah and one’s life under Assad’s rule.

You encounter it in elementary school when parents do not dare to criticize the regime in front of their children lest the children innocently repeat what they heard in school. You encounter it when the student leader in the school is the one and only Alawi girl out of couple hundreds non-Alawi. You encounter it when a child innocently ask his teacher what a free press is having head it on TV and the next thing the parent is interviewed in al Mukhabarat. You encounter it in high school where the students who signed up to Shabeebat al Thawra parachute jumping end up in medical school after hardly passing the Baccalaureate while the brightests of the brightests do not measure up. You encounter it when a peasant Alawi receive you in the airport and suddenly does not like how you look like and all of the sudden his initial Damascene accent consciously changes into the Qaf accent in an attempt to intimidate you. You see it when the Syrian conscripts become servants and guards at the door of the Madam ( a wife of a thug) running to buy her groceries and chauffeuring her around. You see it when the the student council in the university are mostly Alawi. You see it when you witness an every day skirmish in a coffee shop or a restaurant and all of the sudden some one being slapped on the face by an Alawi thug. You see it when a university professor getting beaten up by Alawi peasants for not allowing another Alawi peasant from the al Assad family to take an exam half hour late. You hear it when those thugs shouting at the professor while kicking and whipping him with a belt saying “يا إبن الشر…عم تطاول على اسيادك. You see it when a security thug most likely an Akawi is the de facto ‘to go to’ in any government institution. You see it when a brigade general answers to a “no one” security officer. You see it when you enter the commerce bank of Syria and the real boss is a very nice really helpful woman who happened to be from the mountains. You see it in Hama 1982. You see it and see it and see it… Syrians can write volumes..These are just very very few examples..

There is a reason why Syria is deservedly called the republic of fear…

——
I have actually not enjoyed any contact I have had in Syria. I told you before I must have a peasant root in me.

August 28th, 2012, 6:34 pm

صدر عن القيادة العامة للمجموعات المسلحة بيانا يلفت نظر عناصره إلى ضرورة تفتيش المتسولين المتواجدين على مقربة من المسلحين، “بحجة حيازتهم لشرائح إلكترونية عمل النظام على تزويدهم بها لمعرفة أماكن تواجد الجيش السوري الحر”.
وجاء في البيان الذي مُهر بصفة خاص وهام “إذا شاهدتم أي شحاد أو متسول أو متسولة, نرجوا القيام بتفتيشهم لأنه وجد معهم شرائح للطيران, فقد تم القبض على متسولة منذ قليل في أحد أحياء دمشق و عثر معها على شرائح للطيران تقوم بوضعها في أماكن تواجد الجيش الحر”.
مصادر المجلس العسكري في دمشق، وريفها أشارت إلى ان “جيش النظام النظام عمل على إستهداف عناصرنا بواسطة هذه الشرائح التي يرميها المتسولون بالقرب من الحواجز التي نقيمها، أو داخل السيارات التي تنقل المقاتلين”.

Even Jewish writers are offended by the terrorist settlers:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/08/the-moral-and-intellectual-corruption-of-settler-ideology/261641/

August 28th, 2012, 6:39 pm

ZOO
1. My country of reference is Syria before the Baath. I remember the rule of law, the sanctity of the home, the liberty to publish, the ability to get a proper education, the presence of accountability, the desire for progress. My reference is the incident whereby my father took to court an employee of the postal service and the intelligence service who was opening his mail without proper authorization, the country of reference is the one whereby the dean of Damascus University refused to register the son of the President for he failed the high school exam.
2. I visit Syria twice a year and I can tell you that I saw and predicted this explosion more than 10 years ago BECAUSE of the uneven crass distribution of wealth AND services on the one hand the explosion of the demographics without hope or salvation on the other hand.

The last 50 years are a nightmare and will go down in history as examples of barbaric rule and deep divisions and sectarian strife.

My God man, I had to bribe my way to have the electricity bill payed and that after going through at least six employees and it was so because the system was built to encourage corruption. And if I did not pay the bill the electricity would have cut and to make me bribe them they would not sign that I paid the bill. I can also tell you of my relatives who spent years in jail on rumors of secondary rumors that they were active.

Read from Tadmur to Harvard it is nearly identical to my family relative story.

Syrialover said:

Tara,

I have never seen such an unpleasant silly personal tantrum as Zoo is pushing at you.

Something has stung him. Is it that he is uneasy as his lack of personal history and credentials to be commenting on what Syrians think and want?

Looking at Zoo’s views, I have assumed any connections and experience he’s happened to have with Syria are with people who rely on the Assad regime.

I am bothering to comment because Zoo is one of those who have hijacked and diluted this forum into a shadow of what it once was and should be.

August 28th, 2012, 6:40 pm

Observer #195,

Thank you for that insight. It explains the depth of the comments and conclusions that you post.

I always appreciate what you have to say.

Unfortunately, many others of your calibre and experience have given up on this forum because of its misuse and abuse by cut-pasters and conspiracy obsessives.

August 28th, 2012, 6:50 pm

Syrialover

Thanks for your concern but really,nothing said offended me. I wanted him to ask me.

August 28th, 2012, 6:55 pm

يشهد حزب البعث الاشتراكي في اليمن صراعا وانشقاقا بين قيادات الحزب وشبابه الذين يؤيدون ثورة الشعب السوري، ويطالبون الرئيس بشار الأسد بالتنحي.
وزاد التصدع في الحزب مؤخرا إثر تجميد عضوية ثلاثة من قياداته على خلفية زيارتهم لإيران، ووجهت لهم اتهامات باستلام أموال منها، وتفاقم الصراع على شرعية تمثيل الحزب في ظل غياب الأمين القطري للحزب عبد الوهاب محمود منذ عامين، في رحلة العلاج إلى الولايات المتحدة الأميركية.
وقال رئيس تحرير صحيفة “الأضواء” القيادي البعثي علي الأسدي إن ما يحدث في حزب البعث (قـُطر اليمن) هو صحوة تنظيمية وقيمية، وامتداد لحركة احتجاجات واسعة بدأت في يناير/كانون الثاني الماضي وطالبت -وما زالت- بتغيير ومحاكمة القيادة القـُطرية، لوقوفها العلني ضد إرادة الشعب السوري التواق للحرية والتغيير.
وأكد أن “دعم النظام السوري ضد شعبه تحت مسميات دعم الممانعة والمقاومة رهان خاسر، وضحك على الذقون، وانتحار سياسي محقق للنظام السوري وللقيادة القومية ولحزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي حاضرا ومستقبلا في سوريا واليمن”.
وأضاف الأسدي “نحن مع مطالب الشعب السوري وحقه في الحرية والتغيير كما كان موقفنا في ثورة اليمن، لأنه لا يجوز أن نكون ثوارا في اليمن، وشبيحة في سوريا”.

A vision for transition by the Day After Project. I’m sure Assad’s plan which he will talk about tomorrow on Addunya will be better.

And in Arabic
http://www.thedayafter-sy.org/media/thedayafterar.pdf

August 28th, 2012, 7:18 pm

Assad’s soldiers are losing control of so many weapons, which is a risk to everyone in the region.

http://youtu.be/Se6Sjpb8rWQ

This is either a sign of a severely weakened military that is so stretched that it can’t defend sensitive posts because most of the soldiers are involved in killing innocent civilians, or its a ploy by the regime to allow for the deluge of chaos and destruction. Either way, the regime and military are responsible for protecting these weapons. If they can’t they need to step down and call in the international community to safeguard the missiles.

At least that’s what a responsible and legitimate government would do. Menhebaks, watch the video and then say khilsit.

August 28th, 2012, 7:29 pm

167. Erin said:

“Here is the reason we have the war in Syria.
because the USA and Israel have significant benefit from selling weapon to the middle east, remember the middle east has been the best customer for the last fifty or more years for weapons regardless where the war is the selling is ongoing.”

The U.S. sells fighter jets to Israel & Saudi Arabia & Turkey. Advanced weaponry like anti-missle systems. They provide a few fighter jets to Iraq, Syria’s ally. Syria is of course armed by Russia.

What are you talking about?

The U.S. has had very little involvement in Syria, has demonstrably provided no weapons.
Your posts suggesting the U.S. is promoting Islamicists in Syria is too strange to address.

I am reminded of that Dr. Strangelove movie where the paranoid general says the Russians are “trying to steal our precious bodily fluids.”

The bizarre theories I’ve read here that the West wants to weaken and ultimately invade Syria are insane. Why would the U.S. or other countries want to invade and occupy Syria, to steal your precious bodily fluids?

The U.S. would be delighted to see Assad fall because he is an agent of Iran. But that is happening all on its own.

I wish the U.S. cared more about sparing Syrian lives, and imposed a no-fly zone, but that is unlikely to happen.

August 28th, 2012, 7:37 pm

It is becoming a curse living near an Alawi district. How many generations it will take Syrians to forget.

Syria’s worst massacre: Daraya death toll reaches 400
If opposition group figures are correct, Saturday’s action would be worst single atrocity by regime forces in 17-month civil war

Tuesday 28 August 2012 15.56 EDT

Kinan said the army remained in Daraya for two-and-a-half days. In this time government troops combed the district – followed by Shabiha “death squads”.

The siege of Daraya had now eased, he added, with some roads open again, and the wounded able to travel to hospitals. “We are still finding bodies,” he said. Another resident, Abu Mua’tasim, added: “The Syrian army stayed in some of the houses. One belonged to my friend. People were forced to serve them food and tea. Just before they were leaving they killed the people in the house …I know the family.”

President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has portrayed the killing in Daraya as a counter-terrorism operation, saying it cleansed the area of “terrorists”.
….
He went on: “People are scared of repeated massacres. The big problem we have here is that Alawite districts surround al-Qadam district … The five bodies we found today are of men aged between 25 and 45.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/28/syria-worst-massacre-daraya-death-toll-400?newsfeed=true

August 28th, 2012, 8:14 pm

And you call that the Syrian Army? They should be only called Assadi phalanges and they nothing but traitors.

Troops ‘demanded hospitality then killed their hosts’
Mona Mahmood has spoken via Skype to another resident of Darayya, who gave his name as Abu Mua’tasim. He spoke of Syrian troops demanding hospitality – and then killing their hosts.

The Syrian army have stayed in some of the houses. One of these houses belongs to my friend. They made it a base. People were forced to serve them food and tea, and just before they were leaving they killed the people in the house. That was on Saturday. I know the family.

They did the same thing with our neighbour Muhammad al-Sayed. The Syrian army stormed his house, [and] had some grapes, fruit and tea. He himself was serving them, but when they were just pulling out of Darayya, they killed him.
,,

August 28th, 2012, 8:27 pm

Do not waste your time trying to find a condemnation or even a recognition of the murder of 27 civilians in Jirmanah on any of the GCC media outlet or any of the AIRs posts, killing children at a funeral is not worthy of any attention according to some especially that the funeral was rumored to be for two “shabeehas” in an area that has a lot of Druz.

August 28th, 2012, 8:30 pm

What’s in a name?

Michelene 3Azzar.

That was the name of the Dunya reporter at the scene of the Darayya massacre.

http://www.nowlebanon.com/Arabic/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=430956

August 28th, 2012, 8:52 pm

Sorry but the bomb that targeted the Druze feels, smells, and looks like Batta’s work to clash the Druze and the Sunnis, Samaha-style. The Druze has recently been pretty vocal against the regime. What is better than to bomb a Druze funeral and conveniently blame it on the revolution?

August 28th, 2012, 8:55 pm

visitor@206

OMG!! this human mutation of a woman should be paraded all over Facebook and let live in fear for her callous subhuman behavior. She should be tried and sent to prison in free Syria.

August 28th, 2012, 9:02 pm

#192 Tara

I am amazed that sitting in your upper class house you have witnessed all that? or maybe you’re talking about second hand information clearly stained with religious sectarism: The big bad Alawi and the little richer but helpless Sunni.

I am not going to dwell further into that. Countries go through changes over time and Syria in 2010 was not what it was in 1960 or in 1980 or 2005.

If you prefer to hang on a period where things were bad, it’s your choice.

I prefer to look at the beauty of Syria and its people despite its scars of having being part of the Western crippling colonization and having suffered hardship and injustices and still shining.

August 28th, 2012, 9:05 pm

Tara,
I do not know who murdered those civilians in Jirmanah, you have your opinion and I have mine, to me ,the explosion is probably done by an Islamist terrorist to ” revenge” the massacre in Darayya, we should condemn the killing of civilians regardless of who they are and who killed them, the fact that this crime went unreported by “concerned” media and thawrajiyyeh sounds suspicious to say the least.

August 28th, 2012, 9:16 pm

Zoo@209

After reading through the first paragraph of your post , I am going to have to tell you and coming from me for the first time: your post is not worth a response.

I am going to refrain from saying the sectarianism is all yours, and just say thank you. Enjoy the angle through which you are seeing us. It would sure make you feel better.

Twelve killed, scores injured by suburban Damascus car bomb (PHOTOS, VIDEO) – 28 August, 2012

The attack, said to be the third bombing in Jaramana in 24 hours, comes amid escalating fighting between government forces and rebels in Damascus’ eastern belt, home to some of the rebel Free Syrian Army’s best-organized battalions

http://rt.com/news/syria-car-bomb-funerals-758/

At least 12 people have been killed and another 48 injured as a car bomb detonated at a funeral procession in Jaramana, a suburb of Damascus. The men being buried are reported to have been supporters of the Bashar al-Assad government.

”At around 3 pm (12:00 GMT), a funeral procession was making its way to the cemetery, when a car parked on the side of the road exploded, killing and inuring many people,” AFP quotes an army official as saying.

Many of those injured are in critical condition, state television reported.

The attack at the entrance to a Druze cemetery in the Jaramana district in southeast Damascus is alleged to have targeted Assad supporters.

Some buildings near the cemetery were severely damaged by the blast. The façade of one was completely destroyed, a photographer at the scene said. The windows of apartments several stories up were shattered.

“During the funeral of two martyrs of ours who had been killed yesterday we were having our breakfast when a very huge explosion was heard, the whole building rocked. My brothers were injured when all the windows fell apart. We took them to the hospital – they were hit by shrapnel, and their injuries are moderate. Downstairs as well there were injuries; more than 20 people injured,” AP quotes a witness whose name was not given as saying.

#195 Observer

“My country of reference is Syria before the Baath”

Before the Baath? Please specify the year, as the Baath party was founded in 1947… or you mean 1963?

The number of times you used pejoratively the term ‘A Alawi peasant’ leaves no doubt about what you really feel and think, despite your facade of liberalism, just hiding racism and class consciousness.

Enjoy your superiority over the Alawi peasants, you don’t deserve them.

August 28th, 2012, 9:26 pm

A good “FSA” terrorist is a dead “FSA” terrorist 8)

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f5b_1346173454

August 28th, 2012, 9:38 pm

Armenians in Syria fear likely Muslim Brothers’ rule

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/armenians-in-syria-fear-likely-muslim-brothers-rule.aspx?pageID=238&nID=28876&NewsCatID=352

YEREVAN – Hürriyet Daily News
Syrian Armenians who fled to Armenia says they fear that the Muslim Brotherhood could seize power in Syria. ‘If the Brotherhood takes over in Syria, all Christians will have to leave the country’ says a member

August 28th, 2012, 9:40 pm

Who are they?

Wealthy Syrians founding businesses in Istanbul

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/wealthy-syrians-founding-businesses-in-istanbul.aspx?pageID=238&nID=28860&NewsCatID=345

ISTANBUL – Anatolia News Agency
There has been a 218 percent jump year-over-year in companies with Syrian capital investing in Istanbul, according to Istanbul Chamber of Trade (ITO) data

August 28th, 2012, 9:42 pm

The USA to Hollande proposal of a buffer zone: NO

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-08/29/c_123642221.htm

Hollande said: “We are examining the buffer zone initiative proposed by Turkey. We are doing that in close cooperation with our closest partners.”

American officials said on Monday that the French announcement was not coordinated with other nations that have been working on a diplomatic solution to the civil war and that the U.S. would not echo Hollande’s proposal anytime soon.

August 28th, 2012, 9:54 pm

I looked up the synonyms for peasant and here’s what I found:

“peasant
Synonyms:

Babbitt, Bauer, Philistine, agriculturalist, agriculturist, agrologist, agronomist, arriviste, boor, bounder, bourgeois, bucolic, bumpkin, cad, churl, clod, clodhopper, clown, coffee-planter, collective farm worker, country, country bumpkin, countryman, countrywoman, crofter, cropper, cultivator, dirt farmer, dry farmer, epicier, farm laborer, farmer, farmhand, fellah, galoot, gentleman farmer, granger, groundling, grower, guttersnipe, harvester, harvestman, haymaker, hayseed, hick, hind, hooligan, husbandman, ill-bred fellow, kibbutznik, kolkhoznik, kulak, looby, lout, low fellow, lump, mucker, muzhik, nouveau riche, oaf, parvenu, peasant holder, peon, picker, planter, plowboy, plowman, provincial, raiser, rancher, ranchman, reaper, ribald, rough, roughneck, rowdy, rube, ruffian, rustic, serf, sharecropper, sower, swain, tea-planter, tenant farmer, tiller, tree farmer, truck farmer, upstart, vulgarian, vulgarist, yeoman, yokel”.

As you can see some of these synonyms have negative connotations. But many, I would say most, have positive connotations, and, in fact, imply some positive and useful function for those who fall under this category.

Nowhere Did I find the terms thug or henchman in the list. The worst synonym in the list is hooligan and that is the closest one can identify with a thug.

So, I would continue to use the term thug to describe the Assad henchmen, as it is the most accurate description.

Many Alawites were and still are peasants. But many are not thugs.

August 28th, 2012, 9:56 pm

What army and police defectors do in Jordan secret camps?

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-syria-defectors-live-secret-camp-193745917.html

MAFRAQ, Jordan (AP) — In an isolated stretch of Jordanian desert, a heavily guarded, secret compound houses 1,200 senior police and army officers who defected from nearby Syria.
….
The men spend their days exercising and playing backgammon and chess, and the Jordanians provide them with access to the Internet, TVs, cellphones and computers, said Khaldoun, who insisted on being identified by his first name only, citing concern for the safety of relatives in Syria.

“It’s good to be here, away from the tension and war, but this is not what I had hoped for,” he told the AP.

“I wanted to be part of the rebel movement fighting to liberate Syria,” Khaldoun added. He said he spends most of his day watching TV, exchanging gossip, or browsing the Internet for news on the violence back home.

“It’s difficult to watch the war in Syria on TV and the Internet and not be part of it,” he added

August 28th, 2012, 10:00 pm

Inside Daraya, Syria: How a failed prisoner swap turned into a massacre

Robert Fisk

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/robert-fisk/inside-daraya-syria-how-a-failed-prisoner-swap-turned-into-a-massacre-16203638.html

August 28th, 2012, 10:26 pm

لا تسقني كأس الحياة بذلة
بل فاسقني بالعز كأس الحنظل

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/28/234746.html

Fatimah, the Syrian woman from Aleppo, nicknamed the mother of the fighters, who may well fall into the peasant category, yet dignity, honor and integrity are traits that are quite apparent on her when she speaks, not to mention her smile that mesmerizes.

She lost one of her sons. Yet, she still sent her other four sons to fight in the FSA in order for Syrians to live in freedom.

Despite her few resources, she opened her house to the FSA fighters and provided them with food, medicine and shelter.

Even if we look at her as a ‘peasant’, she, by all measures, contributed to Syria far more than any middle or upper class Syrian.

—————————-

TARA,

You could be right. Ann might be a Syrian Product as you said a while ago.

I am glad you used the term Syrian Product and not Syrian.

August 28th, 2012, 10:54 pm

Spann,

Don’t forget to cut & paste the latest article showing the GOI (Government of Iran) openly admitting that they are sending military personnel to Syria to help keep their stooge in power.

August 28th, 2012, 11:20 pm

Son of Damascus said:

A personal note about Daraya.

There was this orphaned 12 year old girl that had the unfortunate life of not only being an orphan but had to work as a live-in maid in Malki.

This unfortunate young girl did the best she can in the circumstances she was in, the family that she worked at were very correct with her but when she got older she wanted to get married and the live in situation was less than ideal for her. Even though she grew very fond of the three children she helped raise, she knew she had to move on (She was 6 years older than the eldest daughter in the family).

She moved on and worked at another family this time in Abou Rummaneh, there she spent over 20 years to help raise another three children. She got married, had children of her own, and most importantly she bought a house for her family with the hard earned money she made raising rich Damascene brats.

When the shelling started she bundled her children in the middle of the night and hurried them to Abou Rummaneh. Seeing her family relatively safe her mind started to wander about the fate of her house, if a shell tore apart her living room or even worse her daughters room. So on that fateful morning she got on a micro from sa7et Al-Rawda and headed to her home in Daraya at 7 AM.

When her husband went to pick her body, the Army demanded from him to sign a piece of paper that said the “terrorists” killed her. When he refused they arrested him.

Now her children are orphaned.

August 28th, 2012, 11:49 pm

Fighting is taking place in neighborhoods close to Damascus. Civilians are trapped by fighting and can’t bury their dead.

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2012/08/28/pkg-syria-undercover-part-2.cnn

August 29th, 2012, 1:17 am

219

“Many Alawites are peasants, but many are not thugs.”

How many aren’t thugs. Give us a number.

August 29th, 2012, 2:20 am

215. ANN:

“A good “FSA” terrorist is a dead “FSA” terrorist.”

You are promoting the dead of regular people in the army, so you deserve that they wish your dead. So this is good to you:

A good Assad State Terrorism supporter is a dead, killed or slaughtered one.

August 29th, 2012, 3:41 am

Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan said:

WE Kurds absolutely hate the Free Syrian Army, more than 500,000 Kurds in Aleppo Countryside are curently besieged by the FSA terrorists, all Kurdish villages have been cut off by FSA on Turkish orders, where is the World and mainstream Media ?

August 29th, 2012, 4:47 am

All Syrian Kurds support President Assad’s cautions reform programme and NONE support the racist sectarian FSA who are killing Kurds by the dozen in Aleppo, our only request to him is to legalize the public use of the Kurdish language and State sponsoring of Kurdish culture. Kurds and PKK have been given guarantees from Baath Party officials that our demands will be met after defeating the racist Turkish terrorists on Syrian soil.

Save the Syrian Kurds, we do not want to end up like our brothers in Turkey.

August 29th, 2012, 4:54 am

Robert Fisk is just another Men7ebak mukhabarati, no different from Addounia reporters.

I think his details and adresses and every detail should be passed on to all the FSA brigades in Syria, they will deal with Fisk the same way they deal with Mukhabaratis, Fisk deserves it.

August 29th, 2012, 5:06 am

^ I should add that Fisk managed to survive the Lebanese Civil War, he should consider himself very very lucky if he comes out of the Syrian civil war alive.

August 29th, 2012, 5:11 am

Someone has left a good comment at the end of that Robert Fisk article. Now where have I heard that name before….

August 29th, 2012, 7:07 am

Robert Fisk is the western counterpart of Michelene 3Azzar.

Her job was to convey the message of fear to Syrians.

His job is to sanitize the massacre to the Western audience.

They are both on the same payroll.

A regime which prevents independent journalists entry to Syria is always guilty of hiding the truth.

August 29th, 2012, 7:55 am

Daraya before the massacre:

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2012/08/27/exp-amanpour-daraya-cnn.cnn?iref=allsearch

The Massacre happened not because of the FSA presence but because Daraya dared to call itself free.

August 29th, 2012, 8:58 am

CNN in Tadamoun another Damascus suburb being flattened by Assad:

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2012/08/28/pkg-syria-undercover-part-2.cnn

The account of the female activists at the end is beyond words…

August 29th, 2012, 9:06 am

Video showing how official syrian reporting from Daraya was done. The reporter is seen dancing and laughing after the brutal massacre.

http://youkal.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61720%3A2012-08-29-08-41-23&catid=54%3A2011-04-29-12-25-44&Itemid=126

August 29th, 2012, 9:12 am

The good comment on Fisk’s article
“Fisk’s article is very unclear and quite confusing. Is he claiming that the 300+ civilians murdered at close range and in their basements were all hostages held by the Free Syrian Army? That is quite an astonishing claim to make, with so little proof to back it up.

If the same Syrian army soldiers who murdered my neighbors were walking in my streets, and manning the checkpoints I’d need to pass everyday, the last thing I’d do is tell a Western journalist that they committed mass murder.

Fisk came to the town in a Syrian army APC, and left in a Syrian army APC, so how does he realistically expect to get impartial and accurate information from there?

Antoine!! There is freedom of expression even for dumbmasses like Fisk.

August 29th, 2012, 9:44 am

Akkar N Lebanon Due to Explode — Jean in Lebanon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSPhRnFPhV4
Good Background Info – and current situation status. Very real report I thought. My voice over with some generic and poignant images of Lebanon. Hariri, Joumblat, and more

August 29th, 2012, 9:54 am

227. Antoine, 228. Antoine

I think these are the most disgusting messages I’ve yet to see on Syria Comment.

August 29th, 2012, 10:26 am

أشار المعارض السوري ميشال كيلو في حديث صحفي إلى انه “لا ملكية لي في سوريا لكنهم صادروا منزل ابنتي البالغة من العمر 40 عاما وسيارتها على الرغم من أنها مواطنة سورية بلغت سن الرشد منذ أكثر من 20 عاما”، منتقدا هذا الإجراء من قبل دولة تقول إنها لا تمارس عقابا جماعيا وإن المسؤولية فيها فرديّة وشخصيّة.
وسأل: “هل يعقل أن تصادر الدولة أملاك أفراد عائلتي على الرغم من أنه لا علاقة لأي منهم بالسياسة وقد لا يشاركونني آرائي السياسية حتى”، لافتا إلى أن “القرار نوع من الانتقام من دوري الشخصي، ومن الضيق بخط المنبر الديمقراطي ومواقفه المؤيّدة لإطلاق الحريات والتمسك بأهداف الثورة وسلميتها ونبذ الطائفية والمطالبة بالديمقراطية”.

August 29th, 2012, 10:50 am

More USA teeth grinding over the NAM and “ungrateful” Morsi

Morsi’s Wrong Turn
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: August 28, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/29/opinion/friedman-morsis-wrong-turn.html?_r=1

I find it very disturbing that one of the first trips by Egypt’s newly elected president, Mohamed Morsi, will be to attend the Nonaligned Movement’s summit meeting in Tehran this week. Excuse me, President Morsi, but there is only one reason the Iranian regime wants to hold the meeting in Tehran and have heads of state like you attend, and that is to signal to Iran’s people that the world approves of their country’s clerical leadership and therefore they should never, ever, ever again think about launching a democracy movement — the exact same kind of democracy movement that brought you, Mr. Morsi, to power in Egypt.

August 29th, 2012, 10:55 am

The West: Let’s wait until either they are all crushed or become magically trustworthy.

Syria’s rebels are not yet worthy of our trust
After the debacle in Libya, the West needs guarantees from any government-in-waiting

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9503775/Syrias-rebels-are-not-yet-worthy-of-our-trust.html

The opposition is deeply divided, its most effective elements – namely those fighting in Syria – are closely associated with hard-line Islamist groups,

By Con Coughlin

8:36PM BST 28 Aug 2012
The Muslim Brotherhood might not pursue the same hateful agenda as the fanatics of

al-Qaeda, but it is highly unlikely that the establishment of an Islamist government in Damascus would make Syria any better disposed to the West than it is under the current regime.

Indeed, the prospect of a second Muslim Brotherhood government taking root in the Arab world is one of the reasons that Egypt’s newly elected president Mohamed Morsi will be looking forward to his visit to Iran later this week, when he will be discussing the possibility of finding a regional solution to the Syrian conflict.

With avowedly Islamist leaders such as Mr Morsi seeking to determine the political outcome in Damascus, it certainly makes sense for the West to find out how the Syrians view their own destiny before making any rash commitments about no-fly zones and the like. And it is why Mr Hollande’s proposal, plausible and level-headed though it may sound, should be treated with extreme caution.

August 29th, 2012, 11:01 am

محمود درويش أمر بأسمك

أمر باسمك إذ أخلو إلى نفس
كما يمرّ دمشقي بأندلسي
هنا أضاء لك الليمون ملح دمي
وها هنا وقعت ريح عن فرسي
أمر باسمك لا جيشٌ يحاصرني
ولا بلاد كأني آخر الحرسِ
أو شاعر يتمشّى في قصيدته
في دمشق تطير الحمامات
خلف سياج الحرير
اثنتين ثنتين
في دمشق ارى لغتي كلها على حبة قمح مكتوبة
بأبرة انثى ينقحها حجر الرافدين.
في دمشق تطرز أسماء خيل العرب
من الجاهلية حتى القيامة أو بعدها
بخيوط الذهب
في دمشق تسير السماء على الطرق القديمة
حافية حافية
فما حاجة الشعراء الى الوحي و الوزن و القافية

August 29th, 2012, 11:03 am

Assad acknowledges struggle to win Syria civil war

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jA7iPXvj_nsocVrAAWyKEl5vbVTQ?docId=c18ad3345c6b42b9bf31dd5e623c141e

Bashar Al Assad on a private Syrian TV: “I can sum up all this explanation in one sentence: We are moving forward. The situation is practically better but it has not been decided yet. That takes time.”

“The fate of Syria, I tell the Syrian people, is in your hands,” Assad said. “This broad base of the Syrian people protects the country.”

Appearing confident and relaxed, Assad paid tribute to the Syrian people, saying they stood steadfastly behind him and his armed forces.

“If we ask ourselves which segment (of Syrian society) did more than all others in enabling this country to stand fast, it is undoubtedly the armed forces.”

August 29th, 2012, 11:05 am

Is Turkey ready to do “something heroically and therefore cleanse their image” ?
Turkish military is key factor in Syria planning

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jec0V8KoIlzkDIXpoVvEVRNwvWzQ?docId=9adc91de4d2248e994d89a4d2910e2ea
….
Turkey and its allies are averse to intervening in Syria because of fears it could ignite a wider conflict, though Turkish government rhetoric against Syria has been among the harshest, notably after the deaths of two Turkish pilots whose jet was shot down when Syria claimed the plane was violating its airspace. Turkey disputes Syria’s claims, and the Turkish military continues its investigation.

In the wake of that incident, Cagaptay said, Turkey may have “slowed down its rhetorical response” at the urging of the U.S., “realizing that it could be left alone in a conflict situation against the Assad regime.”
..
Henri Barkey, a Turkey analyst at Lehigh University in the United States, said the Turkish military “would not mind doing something heroically and therefore cleanse their image,” but he noted that it is already burdened by a low-level war with Kurdish rebels who seek self-rule.
…
Additionally, there is no public clamor in Turkey for intervention in Syria, and a general aversion to casualties, particularly when it comes to the idea of Turkish soldiers dying to protect Syrian civilians. Turkey, Barkey said, has yet to find a strong enough justification to go into Syria without the participation of a multilateral or U.N.-sanctioned force, and its military, stripped of political clout, is on board with that cautious perspective.

“They are now subservient to the civilians and there’s a very funny way in which Erdogan is now emerging as a protector of the military,” he said. In this new scenario, according to Barkey, the prime minister views the military “no longer as a potential opponent but rather a child in his ward.”

August 29th, 2012, 11:11 am

The Jihadist Element in Syria
By Paul Rogers

http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2012/08/29/the_jihadist_element_in_syria_100208.html

This briefing analyses the growing significance of the foreign and home-grown jihadists in Syria. There may be over 1,000 foreign fighters in Syria now as the war becomes more violent and may continue for some time. Even if the regime falls soon, the jihadist element will have influence in a post-Assad era. If, however, the regime endures, and the longer it goes on, the more likely the jihadist element will gain in influence. Against all expectations, the al-Qaida idea could increase in significance. This could have disastrous consequences beyond Syria and makes the need to seek a negotiated solution a top foreign policy priority.
…
Conclusion

In these circumstances, there is an urgent need to encourage any initiative that seeks to bring the conflict to a negotiated settlement as soon as possible. However difficult, every effort has to be made to encourage this. In particular, it would be wise to offer support to the new UN representative, Lakhdar Brahimi, in what will prove to be a very difficult post but one for which he is certainly well-suited, given his experience. In addition, intelligence and policing efforts directed towards cutting finances to violent Islamist groups in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere should also take account of these developments in Syria at an early date. The lesson from over a decade of counter-terrorism activities in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere is that sending in overwhelming force later is counterproductive.

There is one final element that may be significant. Russia provides the most important major diplomatic support for the Assad regime, but Russia is itself experiencing an increase in Islamist violence in areas that have previously been considered peaceful and stable. … If Russian support for the Assad regime in Syria helps provide a motivation for radical jihadists to be more active within Russia, it is possible that Russia may be more willing to consider more active diplomatic cooperation towards regime transition in Syria.

The briefing was originally published by the Oxford Research Group

August 29th, 2012, 11:16 am

الكاتب السعودي نسي أن هؤلاء الثوار المجاهدين إنما ينهجون نهج نبيهم محمد بن عبد الله ( زعيم “تنسيقية مكة”)، الذي وصل به فحيحه الجنسي وشهوانيته الحيوانية ( وصف أحد الصحابة ، على ذمة كتّاب السيرة، طاقته الجنسية بأنها تعادل طاقة أربعين بغلا!) حد مراودة “كنته” ( زوجة زيد بن حارثة) عن نفسها ، فاخترع ـ على عادته في النصب والاحتيال ـ آية إلهية تنهي التبني في الإسلام من أجل يستولي على”الكنة”، وهي بمقام ابنته. فكان له ما أراد. ويومها تساءلت عائشة، المشهود لها بشجاعتها، مشككة به وبألاعيبه البهلوانية وبربه ، وقد أكلت قلبها غيرة النساء، عما إذا كان ربه يتواطأ معه فينجده بالآيات التي يريدها لتبرر له أفاعيله كلما أراد ذلك!؟

إنه طاعون الإسلام المحمدي التلمودي .. فأين المفر!؟

The whole story here:

http://www.syriatruth.org/الأخبار/أخباروتقاريرأخرى/tabid/94/Article/8159/Default.aspx

August 31st, 2012, 12:20 am

252

“one final element that may be significant: Russia provides the most important major diplomatic support for the Assad regime”

This will be less and less important over time, as fewer and fewer players in the mix pay attention to Russia’s stance.

September 2nd, 2012, 4:03 pm

Bernard Lewis with Fareed Zakaria
CNN’s “Global Public Square”
September 2, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iXZSods76U

FZ: When Frank Lloyd Wright was once on a witness stand, the judge asked him to describe who he was. He said, “I am the world’s greatest living architect.” The judge was surprised. Wright said, “Your honor, I am under oath.”
If Bernard Lewis were in a similar situation he could say he is the world’s greatest historian of the Middle East. He’s taught at Princeton for many decades and he joins us now.

BL: Thank you very much.

FZ: “Notes on a Century: The Reflections of a Middle East Historian” so naturally the first thing anyone would want to know from you, Bernard is tell us about the Arab Spring, how important is it?

BL: We can’t say yet, it could be very important or it may end in disaster. I don’t know, both are possible.

FZ: But when you look at it, does it strike you as a kind of - there seems to be a long suppressed liberation, not just from particular rulers but from foreign domination which has been so much a part of the Middle East.

BL: Well I agree that there are good signs. But I don’t believe foreign domination was the main problem. Foreign domination was brief and ended some time ago. And that didn’t make their problems any better, it made them rather worse since there was nobody that they could conveniently blame.

FZ: When you look at the prospects for democracy in the Middle East, how would you assess them?

BL: It depends what you mean by democracy. I think we in the western world have made the great mistake of assuming that our way of doing things is the only right one. The word “democracy” is used in many languages with many different meanings. When we use it in English, we usually mean the Anglo-American parliamentary system. That is very suitable for the English-speaking peoples, and it has worked fairly well in a small group of others, but it is not a law of nature and it is not (inaudible a regnum?). I think in the Middle East, and more particularly in Islam, they have their own political traditions, they have their own cultural traditions. And what is very important is that there is a tradition of having bodies in society where authority comes from within and not from above. And that is the basis of what I would call a democratic society in any meaningful sense of that word.

FZ: Your first claim to fame was Turkey, you wrote your first major book about Turkey, the emergence of modern Turkey. You speak Turkish, also Arabic and Farsi you speak many languages. Lots of people worry about Turkey and say “this is an Islamist government that is turning Turkey into an illiberal society.” Others say, “No, no, no this is the real expression of Democracy. You had a military junta that was running it. Now you have a genuine liberal Democracy.” How do you look at Turkey?

BL: Well, I think there is something to be said for both of those interpretations, they are not mutually exclusive. This government did come to power by a free and fair election, no doubt about that. Turkey was the first Muslim country which held genuinely free and fair elections. I was there in 1950, I spent a year in Turkey, when the first real free and fair election took place. The government lost. The government conducted and controlled the election, it lost the election and gracefully withdrew from power and handed it over to the opposition. It was a memorable experience. Since then, Democracy has had a rather checkered experience in the region. It’s an alien concept, it’s taken some time to assimilate. But I think there is progress. And umm, two things I think are important. One is the point I mentioned before: the existence and development of institutions and bodies where authority comes from inside and not from above, the professional organizations probably being the most important, the religious organizations, the craft guilds and so on. And the other is the increasing participation of women.

FZ: You spent your life – when you started working on the Middle East it was all dictatorships. Do you look at it now and see a more hopeful place than when you began?

BL: I am cautiously optimistic, yes. The thing one has to bear in mind about the Middle East is this: It was pointed out not long ago by an Arab committee that the total exports of the entire Arab world other than oil and gas amount to less than those of Finland, one small European country. Now, that is a staggering statistic. It means that their economies depend entirely on oil. And this is true even in the countries who don’t have oil because they depend on the others. Sooner or later, oil and gas will either be exhausted or superseded as the modern world turns to other sources of energy, and when that occurs they will have nothing left. Now, one possibility is that they may develop alternative forms of economic activity. Another, more likely, is that the region will relapse into insignificance.

FZ: Do you think the latter –

BL: I think the latter is more likely at the moment.

FZ: Americans are losing interest, honestly, in the Middle East.

BL: Exactly. America is clearly losing interest. Europe has some interest but is unable to do much about it. And Russia is obviously unable to do much about it. The superpowers of the second half of the twenty first century will be India and China, they will be the superpowers of the world contesting world domination.

FZ: It’s a good thing you studied the Middle East when you did, while it was the cockpit of history.

BL: And when I was still able to move around freely.

FZ: Delightful to have on.

September 2nd, 2012, 9:54 pm

Aleppo said:

الله أكب

What else do you expect people to say? Aleppo is being destroyed every minute of the day. For what? Bashar has no future, he is probably the only one that doesn’t know that.

September 3rd, 2012, 7:34 am