Libya and Syria – Looking Over Our Shoulder
Posted by Joshua on Monday, August 22nd, 2011
The fall of Qaddafi yesterday at the very time that President Assad was addressing his country about the uprising at home created much comment. Here are a few comments collected from the comment section and emails.
Looking over our shoulder
Aug 22, 2011, By Sami Moubayed
The dramatic developments in Libya have raised eyebrows throughout the Arab world and within the international community. In the early hours of August 21, Libyan rebels finally entered the capital, Tripoli, with the aim of arresting – or killing – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Common sense dictates that Gaddafi’s days are numbered; he will be gone, one way or another, within days.
Gaddafi has lasted five months of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) strikes. Had he not shot at his own people when young Libyans rebelled on February 17, then perhaps his fortunes would have played out better. He might have been allowed a dignified exit, for example, and offered an exile in Italy. He is now either going to be dragged in chains to the International Criminal Court or might commit suicide before angry Libyans get hold of him, and tear him apart.
In typical fashion, Gaddafi spoke to what remains of his supporters on Sunday, accusing his enemies of being “traitors” who want to “give” Libya to the French. He shouted, “March forward! March forward! March forward! They have lost. Now is [their ending].” His bravado echoed those of Saddam Hussein on the eve of Iraq’s 1991 war with the United States, when he said, “We and the Americans are at the tip of the pyramid – and we will see who falls off first!” History remembers only too well who fell first, with the dictator meeting his end in a hangman’s noose.
Many would have expected Gaddafi’s collapse to spark happiness in the angry Syrian street, where rebels have been trying to topple the Damascus regime since mid-March. On the contrary, many Syrians were clearly worried as news of the march into Tripoli reached Damascus.
True, they hate Gaddafi and long to see his end – but as of Sunday morning it was no longer Gaddafi that mattered to Libya-observers inside Syria. Rather, it was Syria itself. Having succeeded in Libya, NATO might now rethink its options on Syria, where pressure has been growing from the international community for President Bashar al-Assad to step down.
Internationalizing the Syrian crisis militarily has to date not been on many minds in Syria – until now. Few on the Syrian street and within the opposition have contemplated any kind of foreign intervention, claiming that political escalation and sanctions headed by the Barack Obama White House is one thing, an armed attack by NATO quite another.
For weeks, people have been saying: “No matter what happens, NATO will never strike Syria.” That made sense as long as the mess in Libya dragged on – Western taxpayers were fed up with fighting a war that did not concern them and that was failing to achieve its end objective: getting rid of Colonel Gaddafi……
….Its territory has not been under attack since 1945, when the French army bombarded its capital during the colonial era. Simply put, its people are not used to war, unlike the Libyans – and more importantly – they don’t want it to happen.
The Syrians feel that they can solve their problems on their own, whether by democratizing the regime, keeping it as it is, or bringing it down completely.
Off the Wall writes:
Just heard the following on Aljazeera
عاد الوطن المخطوف الى اهله٠ عاد الوطن المقهور المظلوم بعد اربعة عقود الى اهله٠
I can’t stop crying.
Syr. Expat writes:
The official Syrian media is mum about Libya. Can anyone guess why?
A Syrian writes
The president had a wonderful balanced speech!!! I loved it. He was calm and confident. But sadly sounding hurt and wounded! What a decent man!! And what a vicious crime being committed against the Syria and Syrian people!!!! Advocating civil war between Syrians, implementing measures that leads to starving Syrians and trying to replace this young educated reformer with extremists and morons, in order to serve Israel and the needs of the US. I am praying for Bashar and for the Syrian people, to be strong in facing this crime and conspiracy!!! Peace for Syria!!!!
EHSANI2 writes:
By March 13 1973, the late Hafez Assad was able to put the finishing touches on one of the most intricate houses of cards ever assembled. That was the day of course when the current Syrian constitution was adopted. This essentially helped codify his master plan and legally shield his house of cards from any attempts to bring it down. Those who have read all the 156 articles that make the construction cannot help but be impressed by the air-tight quality of its construction. Article 8 of course is the linchpin that ties the entire system together. The constitution even foresaw the need for what is currently is referred to as the “shabihha”. It refers to them more officially as popular organizations or
“lijan Shaabiye”. Set below is the relevant article:
Article 49 [Organizational Functions]
The popular organizations by law effectively participate in the various sectors and councils to realize the following:
(1) Building the socialist Arab society and defending the system.
Defending the system is, therefore, the “constitutional” right and duty of these organizations.
When Bashar came to power, he may have had all the right intentions. By his own admission, he was not particularly into politics growing up. Presumably, he was not appreciative of how tightly and intricately his father constructed his house of cards. His first instinct was to allow some free speech. The Atassi forum quickly followed. Too quickly and successfully for the “system” it turns out. Those in the security services, in particular, had to sit the young President down and show him the full master plan that his father used to construct this system that he was now in charge of.
It did not take long for Bashar to realize that this was a house of cards. Many of us built those during our childhoods. No matter how impressive the structure is, pulling out one card inevitably results in a speedy crash.
One does not need an advanced engineering degree to realize that a house of cards can come down with the slightest of tinkering (reforms).
Prior to the fourth appearance today, many were hopeful that some reforms were soon on the way. Some even speculated that article 8 was going to be deleted, modified, frozen, suspended, something. 10 minutes into the interview all such hope were dashed, yet again.
Deleting article 8 from the constitution is akin to telling the Baath party that your 48-year monopoly on power is history. That all its 2-3 million members are just like the rest of their country fellowmen. No privileges. No access to power. No monetary or social benefits. Most importantly, that its head will not have the luxury of an uncontested referendum that quickly lands him at the highest office in the land unopposed. Indeed, we were told today that changing article 8 was thought to make no sense (gheir mantiki) as it is “jawhar al nizam al siyassi”. To be sure, during the interview we were told that the reason for keeping it was because it is interlinked with other articles and that unless the whole constitution is rewritten it would be hard to cancel it alone.
Today’s interview helped clarify beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Syrian system will not be tinkered with. It is built on resisting America and the west. It is built on giving the appearance of strength regardless of the external and internal realities. It is built on giving the security services a carte-blanch to promote – well security. It is also built on steadfastness and sacrifice (accept poverty) to achieve the nation’s lofty and noble goal.
Why did I think that this interview was rather scripted?
1- My wife thought that the answers were given too fast after the question was asked. Surely a short pause to think and calibrate the answers during such a crucial period would have made more sense unless the questions were prepared in advance.
2- Surely, the Saudi decision last week required an explicit question. It seems that the two sad interviewers were not allowed to go there.
A Young Syrian Writes:
I attended the national dialogue and I’m working very hard with everybody including many dissidents to finish the unrest in a peaceful way. But the solution is not a national one, it is now in the hands of the int. community.
The protesters can’t topple Assad without direct foreign assistance from the West, as in Libya. But also the situation in Syria is much more complex than in Libya. Syria is part of a regional order and any military intervention will lead to large scale destruction in many countries. I agree with one of the Syrian dissidents who told me “only a strong and firm Russian objection can make things better” because foreign interference would be much worse than the current regime. Believe me Joshua no one in Syria want the current security regime, but many of them believe in Assad because he was a good president and he did a lot of improvements for Syria. The majority of Syrians are silent now because they are afraid of Nato intervention and another Iraq.
The next stop on the Arab freedom train is Damascus
A critical mass of deposed Arab leaders is starting to form, but phase two of the Libyan revolution will prove to be harder than just ousting Gadhafi.
By Zvi Bar’el in haaretz
“The world would be a better place without Gadhafi, and our region is beginning to rid itself of those leaders who brought their citizens nothing but destruction,” Tariq Alhomayed, the editor of the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat, wrote on Monday.
Alhomayed, whose boss is one of the princes of the Saudi royal family, surely does not mean to get rid of the Saudi king, whose regime symbolizes the exemplary model of autocratic rule in the Middle East.
But today, when Gadhafi is slowly losing its grip on the Libyan capital, and the Arab revolution movement has checked off a third victory after Tunisia and Egypt, a “critical mass” of ousted leaders is accumulating, which may pave the steep slope for more leaders. King Abdullah, whose streets are absent of riots and protests, could also afford to have a look at Alhomayed’s op-ed.
The following two leaders are already waiting in line: Syria’s Bashar Assad and Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh. Like their ousted predecessors, each of them is still certain that his own fate and luck are more successful than that of his colleagues.
Arrogant Assad has shrugged off with contempt demands made by the United States and European states that he relinquish power. He does not see any problems with continuing the crackdown on protesters, such as Saddam Hussein in his time, or like Iran under sanctions, and he continues to call the protesters “armed gangs.”
Yemen’s Saleh is convinced that his deviousness and his street smarts, which have held him in power for 21 years, will continue to serve him well in the future.
However, the toppling of rulers, which turned into the ultimate symbol of the revolutions, is not a sure recipe for a lifetime of happiness. Whoever is impressed by the coordinated operation of Western states and local resistance movements, cannot ignore the Western abandonment which characterized the revolutions that the West initiated in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American foot-dragging on all that relates to aiding Egypt, and the panic that struck the West in light of the protests that arose in Bahrain. There are “convenient” revolutions for the West and there are “dangerous” ones.
Libya is a “convenient” revolution. After the West received a green light from the Arab League, and after it turned out there is an impressive military force in Libya that can carry out a violent offensive against the regime, and especially after the apathetic response toward the Tunisia revolution, the right circumstances have led to a Western intervention.
Here ends the role of outside intervention, and Libya, who got to topple its dictator after his 42-year rule, must now decide what to do with this tremendous victory. There are many options.
….
Chapter Two of the revolution is likely to be even more critical than Gadhafi’s ouster. Its impact will not only affect Libya, but will also determine the Western and Arab countries’ stances towards similar interventions in Syria or Yemen.
Syria opposition may announce council names this week: – Dunya Times
Senior Syrian opposition figures expect to finish talks this week on nominating a broad-based council to support the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, organisers said on Tuesday.
They say one main purpose of forming such a council would be to allay concerns of a power vacuum if Assad should be toppled by the ongoing unrest in the country.
“The discussions are focusing on moving away from quotas toward a more merit-based council,” Professor Wael Merza, a political scientist based in the Gulf, told Reuters after a second day of talks ended early in the Turkish capital
“We expect to reach consensus on the list of names by the end of this week,” he said.
Another delegate, who declined to be named, said participants are dealing with the delicate issue of the safety of would-be council members from inside Syria….
Western governments, which have stepped up sanctions on Assad in reaction to his crackdown on protesters, privately have expressed frustration with opposition’s lack of unity. At a meeting with anti-Assad Syrian activists in Washington this month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraged them to work toward a “unified vision” for Syria.
The Syrian opposition strongly criticized the idea of establishing an interim council, which was taking place in Istanbul. Activists said that the rush to form these councils was precipitated by participants who were eager to share the cake and to get positions only…..
معارضون يهاجمون فكرة المجالس الانتقالية في سوريا Elaph
بهية مارديني GMT 22:00:00 2011 السبت 20 أغسطس
انتقد معارضون سوريون بشدة فكرة تأسيس مجالس انتقالة في سوريا من قبل بعض المعارضين لنظام الرئيس بشار الأسد، وقال ناشطون إن الهرولة نحو هذه المجالس هو لاقتسام الكعكة فقط وأن المشاركين فيها يريدون الحصول على المناصب فقط.
2011/08/21
لندن ـ سوريون نت:
دعت الهيئة العليا للثورة السورية على صفحتها على الفيس بوكتماع و التوحد ، و أن يكونوا على مستوى التضحيات التي قدّمها ويقدّمها أبناء شعبناالسوري، والتي استطاعت وحدها أن تصنع الإنجاز الذي نعيشه
وسوريون نت تنشر البيان الكامل لأهميته:” .. تشهد الساحة السياسية السورية في الداخل والخارج انعقاد
عدد من المؤتمرات، ودعوات لمؤتمرات أخرى … وإنّ الهيئة العامةللثورة السورية تؤيّد أيّ مسعى حقيقي لتوحيد جهود المعارضة السورية في الداخل والخارج بما يدعم الثورة السورية، إلا أننا نؤكد – للمصلحة الوطنية والثورة السورية- على رغبتنا تأجيل أي مشروع\ تمثيلي للشعب السوري؛ وذلك من أجل العمل على التوافقية الكاملة لكافة أطياف و مكونات الشعب السوري في الداخل والخارج؛ مما يمكّن الثورة السورية من تحقيق أهدافها وتطلعات شعبنا بإسقاط النظام وبناء الدولة المدنية الديمقراطية لكل السوريين. ونودّ أن نستفيد من هذه الفرصة لدعوة كل السياسيين السوريين المعا!
ضين في الداخل والخارج إلى أن يكونوا على قدر المسؤولية بالاجتماع و التوحد ، و أن يكونوا على مستوى التضحيات التي قدّمها ويقدّمها أبناء شعبناالسوري، والتي استطاعت وحدها أن تصنع الإنجاز الذي نعيشه اليوم. الخلود لشهدائنا والنصر لشعبنا العظيم
U.S., Britain, France Said to Seek UN Sanctions Against Assad
2011-08-22, By Bill Varner
Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) — The U.S., Britain and France are preparing to ask the United Nations Security Council this week to freeze the foreign financial assets of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, a Western diplomat said. The measure would also bar foreign travel by the Syrian leader and call for an arms embargo on Syria, the diplomat said. The three nations are planning to introduce the draft resolution that targets Assad and about five other government and military leaders, according to the diplomat, who spoke on condition of not being identified because the text hasn’t been made public.
After the Jamahiriya: TNC Draft Constitution
Brian Whitaker notes that the draft interim constitution released by Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC) includes no reference to Libya as an “Arab state”. Article 1 of the document reads as follows:
Libya is an independent democratic state wherein the people are the source of authorities. The city of Tripoli shall be the capital of the State. Islam is the Religion of the State and the principal source of legislation is Islamic Jurisprudence (Sharia). Arabic is its official language while preserving the linguistic and cultural rights of all components of the Libyan society. The State shall guarantee for non-Moslems the freedom of practising [sic] religious rights and shall guarantee respect for their systems of personal status.
The omission of any form of ethnic or racial identity is notable; Arab, Berber or African identities receive no specific mention. It has been reported that Berber strugglers in the west of the country had drawn up a list of demands on this issue, in hopes of gaining protections for Berber culture and communities (which simply did not exist under the Qadhafi regime).
More….
Time: Why the Arab Spring’s success depends on jobs, not guns
2011-08-22
Euphoria erupted in Tripoli as rebel forces rolled into the Libyan capital, likely bringing an end to the brutal 42-year reign of Muammar Gaddafi. Libya now joins Egypt and Tunisia on the list of Arab states where opposition movements toppled long …
Free Republic: Iran replaces ambassador in Syria who quit his post
2011-08-22
Iran has appointed a new ambassador to Syria to replace Ahmad Mousavi, who decided to quit his post amid growing popular protests against President Bashar Al Assad and his rule. Iranian Foreign …
Ankara should confront Tehran Zaman
A few days ago the US and the EU finally did what they had been expected to do for some time: In a coordinated action they called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.
According to Washington and Brussels the Syrian leader has lost all legitimacy after his government’s recent brutal attacks against his own people.
Before the US and EU issued their call, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had made clear that the American and European demands would only be effective if they were joined by countries like Turkey and Saudi Arabia, regional powers that, according to Clinton, have more influence on Syria. White House officials told the press that President Obama had held back from issuing his ultimatum to give Turkey’s diplomatic attempts of the last two weeks more time to work. Unfortunately, Ankara’s pressure on Assad was not effective, so now we are moving to the next phase. The question is whether Turkey will join the US and Europe in their call for Assad to go.
I think Turkey should and probably will do so, preferably together with Saudi Arabia. This last connection is a significant indicator of the fact that the Syrian crisis is having a profound impact on the region’s political balance. Saudi King Abdullah has decided to come out against the Syrian regime because, with good reason, he has made the analysis that getting rid of Assad would seriously weaken Iran, which currently uses its closeness with Damascus to play a role in Lebanon (Hezbollah) and the Palestinian territories (Hamas). For years now, Riyadh has considered Tehran its arch enemy and main rival for control of the Gulf. The Saudi interest in undermining Iran’s influence in the region is clear, but what about Turkey and Iran?
We know how closely Ankara aligned itself with Tehran on the issue of the peaceful use of nuclear energy, voting against sanctions on Iran in the UN Security Council. Turkey’s support for the Syrian opposition has caused some cracks in its relations with Iran, but still the Turkish government claims that because of its past alignment it has the potential to influence Iran’s policy. The problem for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is that a growing number of international observers wonder whether this will really prove true when push comes to shove. Assad did not listen to Turkey’s repeated requests to implement reforms, despite similar claims from Ankara to strong ties with Syria. Why would Iranian President Ahmadinejad pay any attention to Turkey’s concerns about Syria when Iran’s future role in the region is at stake?
In my opinion there are three good reasons why Turkey should join the growing crowd of those who are convinced that there is no future for Assad as president of Syria, thereby knowingly confronting Iran. One is, as Suat Kınıklıoğlu put it in his column in this paper this week, “If Turkey is going to become a leading player and an inspiration for the people of the Middle East, it needs to come out of the Syrian crisis on the right side.” It is now clear that this means joining the US and Europe, not Iran. A second good reason is the new round of Turkish attacks on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraq. It is true that Iran has the potential to make life difficult on Turkey if it wants to, as Tehran skillfully demonstrated with the well-orchestrated rumors of the arrest of PKK leader Murat Karayılan. But in the end, in fighting the PKK, Turkey has more to gain from good intelligence cooperation, non-transparent though it might be, with the US, because both have a clear interest in diminishing the presence and influence of terrorists in Iraq.
Finally, my guess is that Turkey and the rest of the world will be confronted with a new wave of protests in Iran in the foreseeable future. In 2009, Turkey sided with the Iranian regime in its violent suppression of the demands for more democracy during and after the rigged presidential elections. After Turkey’s support for the Arab Spring, Ankara should realize that it cannot remain silent when the Persian Spring arrives. Better to be on the right side then as well. For all these reasons, I believe Turkey has a unique chance to use the Syrian revolt to recalibrate its regional alliances and put some more distance between Ankara and Tehran.
SYRIA: Troops caught on camera behaving very badly [Video] LA Times, August 20, 2011 | 8:01 AM
All is calm in Damascus Russia
In an interview to the Voice of Russia, a member of the Russian delegation, the President of the Society of Friendship and Business Cooperation with Arab Countries Vyacheslav Mutuzov shared his impressions.:
“Streets are calm in Damascus. Even if some people are not satisfied with the government, they do not set demonstrations, to say nothing of armed clashes. The real picture is very different from the one that some Western media are trying to present.”
Bashar must go: No No Legitimacy for the Illegitimate
One of the most popular expressions of the Lockian idea of “natural rights” can be seen in the preamble to the US declaration of independence written by Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The above simply means that it is not up to government to offer its populace personal rights since these are among the bundle of rights that cannot be alienated from the individual. No government can take away that which is embedded into citizens by virtue of birth and to act otherwise is a gross act of hubris and egregious exploitation. When the state adopts policies to take away from people part or all of their natural rights then the state is acting against the will of the governed whose welfare it is supposed to enhance. Such acts of diminution of the rights of citizens are best described as immoral, unethical, exploitative and constitute justifiable uprisings against the ruler whose acts have violated all accepted responsibilities of a governor.
Unfortunately, history is replete with states that have acted as authoritarian rulers, absolute monarchs, brutal dictators and autocrats. Yet the movement towards more democracy and responsible government got its biggest boost with the American and French revolutions of over 235 years ago. Many philosophers and political scientists have argued that the spread of democracy is probably the single best achievement of the 20th century. Alas this glorious trend appears not to have found even a toe hold in the Arab world until the onset of the Arab Spring that started in Tunis, spread to Egypt, Libya and Yemen then Bahrain and Syria not to mention the defensive moves in Morocco, Jordan and possibly Iraq and Palestine…..
China and Syria The Diplomat.com
In the first of a series of interviews, Dean Cheng discusses the likely motivations behind China’s actions over Syria.
This week, The Diplomat has been providing coverage of the Syrian crisis from an Asia-Pacific perspective. China has featured prominently, as any escalation against the Assad regime could threaten Chinese national interests. Given the country’s powerful voice within the United Nations, and its ability to undermine the effectiveness of US-led energy sanctions, The Diplomat’s Eddie Walsh will be conducting a series of interviews with thought leaders from US and regional think tanks looking at how recent events affect China’s position on Syria. The first interview is with Dean Cheng, Research Fellow at the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation……..
Robert Fisk: It’s his fast-disappearing billions that will worry Assad, not words from Washington
Nearly 10 per cent of Syria’s deposits went in the first four months of 2011, some ending up in Lebanese banks
Obama roars. World trembles. If only.
Obama says Assad must “step aside”. Do we really think Damascus trembles? Or is going to? Indeed, the titan of the White House only dared to go this far after condemnation of Bashar al-Assad by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, the EU and Uncle Tom Cobley and all (except, of course, Israel – another story). The terrible triplets – Cameron, Sarkozy and Merkel – did their mimicking act a few minutes later.
But truly, are new sanctions against Assad “and his cronies” – I enjoyed the “cronies” bit, a good old 1665 word as I’m sure Madame Clinton realised, although she was principally referring to Bashar’s businessman cousin Rami Makhlouf – anything more than the usual Obama hogwash? If “strong economic sanctions” mean a mere freeze on petroleum products of Syrian origin, the fact remains that Syria can scarcely produce enough oil for itself, let alone for export. A Swedish government agency recently concluded that Syria was largely unaffected by the world economic crisis – because it didn’t really have an economy.Of course, in the fantasy of Damascus – where Bashar appears to live in the same “sea of quietness” in which the Egyptian writer Mohamed Heikel believes all dictators breathe – the world goes on as usual. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon – another earth-trembler if ever there was one – no sooner demands an “immediate” end to “all military operations and mass arrests”, than dear old Bashar tells him that “military and police action” has stopped…..
Basil Hakki, “Syria’s New Leaders,” Middle East Forum
Finally, political pundits will debate how the struggle for political power will play out in the post Assad Syria between the Baathists, the Islamic fundamentalists, the secularists, etc. etc. All such prognostications are to a large extent beside the point. The emerging free Syria will be a populist country that will chart its own course based on the consensus of its own citizens. And the most important attribute of the future Syria is that it will be a country based on freedom, justice, inclusiveness and respect for human rights. And it will be led by young nationalists who will bring much needed fresh political thinking. Future Syrian leaders will come from the young generation who fought tyranny and paid the price of freedom with their blood. They will be the vanguard of a new Syrian awakening.
المعضلة السورية ومآلاتها المحتملة
Hayat, الأحد, 21 أغسطس 2011
ياسين الحاج صالح
مع دخول الأزمة الوطنية السورية شهرها السادس، تقف جميع الأطراف المحلية والدولية المعنية بها أمام معضلات عسيرة. الانتفاضة تواجه معضلة. إذا ثابرت على الاعتماد على التظاهرات السلمية أداة احتجاج أساسية لها في مواجهة نظام لا يمتنع عن القتل، تحفظ تفوقها الأخلاقي والوطني، لكنها تدفع ثمناً إنسانياً باهظاً. وهي في الوقت نفسه لا تستطيع مواجهة العنف بالعنف لأسباب مبدئية وعملية معاً، ولا التعويل على التدخل الخارجي لأن من شأنه أن يدرج الانتفاضة في «لعبة الأمم»، فتخسر روحها. فهل يسعها، من دون سند داخلي أو خارجي، تحقيق هدفها الأولي المتمثل في إسقاط ال�! �ظام؟
Escape From Syria
By Michael Weiss, Jul 26 2011, Atlantic
The story of a young opposition activist who says he had to flee for his life
Farid, a 25 year-old Damascene journalist, was sitting with Bashar smoking argileh, Syria’s version of the hookah, when his friend told him, “You should seriously consider leaving the country. It’s not safe for you anymore.”
One of Farid’s many contacts within Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Bashar was a “freelance” IT consultant who helped the regime track down cyber-dissidents. Farid, who asked that his real name not be used for fear of retribution, had heard this warning from him before, usually before Bashar ended up crying in his beer about his complicity with a criminal dictatorship. Farid’s stock response was usually to cajole Bashar to quit the losing side and join the revolution. “You’ll get your own weed farm and a brewery in the middle of Damascus. I won’t let them crucify you for catching demonstrations when Assad falls,” he’d promised. But this time was different; there was a more menacing tone to Bashar’s instruction…..
“Now I feel useless,” Farid says. “Like I can’t do anything. But that won’t stop me from trying. It’s personal, my war against the regime is personal. Each Syrian’s war against the regime is personal. The regime deprived us of many things, whether it’s economic, social, cultural, political, religious, or whatever. We want justice. And personally, I want revenge, as that’s what justice would be for me.”
“Get out now.”
“If you are ever to see your girlfriend again, leave the country. Do you still have people who owe you money?” he asked.
“No,” said Farid. “I’ve got some money laying around.”
Statement by Ms. Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Human Rights Council 17th Special Session on“Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic” in Geneva
22 August 2011
…… OHCHR fact-finding mission found a pattern of widespread or systematic human rights violations by Syrian security and military forces, including murder, enforced disappearances, torture, deprivation of liberty, and persecution. Although the report covered the period of 15 March to 15 July 2011, there are indications that the pattern of violations continues to this day. It is our assessment that the scale and nature of these acts may amount to crimes against humanity.
It is regrettable that the Government of Syria did not give access to the Mission, despite my repeated requests. Nonetheless, the Mission gathered credible, corroborated, and consistent accounts of violations from victims and witnesses, including military defectors, and Syrian refugees in neighboring countries.
The Mission concluded that while demonstrations have been largely peaceful, the military and security forces have resorted to an apparent “shoot-to-kill” policy. Snipers on rooftops have targeted protestors, bystanders who were trying to help the wounded, and ambulances. The Mission also documented incidents of summary execution outside the context of the demonstrations, and during house-to-house searches and in hospitals. Victims and witnesses reported widespread attempts to cover up killings by the security forces, including through the use of mass graves…..
Amal Hananu – Final Journal Entry – Jadiliyya
Aide Signals That Coburn Will Again Oppose Robert Ford’s Confirmation As U.S. Ambassador To Syria
Ben Armbruster on Aug 11, 2011
Last year, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), “acting on his party’s behalf,” blocked Robert Ford’s confirmation as the next U.S. ambassador to Syria. While President Obama ended up using his power to recess appoint Ford to the position, in a May 14, 2010 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, twelve Senate Republicans complained that sending an envoy rewarded Syria for its support for terrorism.
The Senate still must confirm Ford if he is to remain at his post. His visit last month to the Syrian city of Hama — which has recently been under assault by the Syrian military — drew wide praise. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who opposed Ford’s confirmation last year, now says he supports it and he is urging his colleagues to follow suit. And as The Cable reported yesterday, “Congress is warming to the idea of confirming” Ford. Or is it?
Change In Libya A Lesson For Everyone-Turkish Foreign Minister, 2011-08-22
ANKARA (AFP)–Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu Monday hailed the developments in Libya as a “significant achievement,” and said the change in the north African country was a lesson for everyone. His comments came after Libyan rebels entered the heart of Tripoli in a final drive to oust the country’s leader Moammar Gadhafi. ” The change taking place in Libya in compliance with people’s demands, following the one in Egypt and Tunisia, should teach a lesson to everyone,” Davutoglu told a news conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during a visit, according to the Anatolia news agency. “Leaders of other countries must also be aware of the fact that they will be in power as long as they satisfy the demands of the people,” he said. His remarks were interpreted as an implicit warning to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Comments (244)
ziadsoury said:
Dr Landis,
It was Tara and not OTW who wrote
Just heard the following on Aljazeera
عاد الوطن المخطوف الى اهله٠ عاد الوطن المقهور المظلوم بعد اربعة عقود الى اهله٠
I can’t stop crying.
August 22nd, 2011, 1:58 pm
OFF THE WALL said:
Dear Joshua
ZIADSOURY is right, TARA wrote that nice phrase, and I was basically quoting her.
August 22nd, 2011, 2:18 pm
SYR.EXPAT said:
UN expresses disappointemnt about Assad Jr. not fulfilling his promise to stop military operations. Apparently they have forgotten that he is notorious for not fulfilling his promises.
الإثنين 22 رمضان 1432هـ – 22 أغسطس 2011م
انباء عن اقتحام مدينة البوكمال وشن حملة اعتقالات فيها
الأمم المتحدة: الأسد لم يفِ بوعده بوقف العمليات العسكرية في سوريا
دبي – العربية
عبّر الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة بان كي مون في مؤتمر صحافي عن انزعاجه لعدم وفاء الرئيس السوري بشار الأسد بوعده وقف عمليات الشرطة والجيش في بلاده، حيث قال مون “استمر الأسد بالعمليات العسكرية رغم تأكيده لي سابقا أنه سيوقفها”. وميدانيا أعاد الجيش السوري، اليوم الاثنين، اقتحام مدينة البوكمال وقام بشنّ حملة اعتقالات واسعة، حسب ما أفاد شهود عيان لـ”العربية”. كما ذكر شاهد عيان آخر أن دبابات تحاصر مدينة الميادين جنوب دير الزور تمهيداً لاقتحامها. ومن جانب آخر، قالت المفوضة السامية لحقوق الإنسان التابعة للأمم المتحدة، نافي بيلاي، إن أكثر من 2200 شخص قتلوا في الحملة السورية على المحتجين المناهضين للحكومة منذ منتصف مارس/آذار. وكان الإحصاء السابق للأمم المتحدة يتراوح بين 1900 و2000 قتيل. وقالت بيلاي لمجلس حقوق الإنسان التابع للمنظمة الدولية الذي يعقد جلسة عاجلة بشأن الوضع في سوريا حتى اليوم قتل أكثر من 2200 شخص منذ بدء الاحتجاجات الحاشدة في منتصف مارس مع ورود أنباء عن مقتل أكثر من 350 شخصاً منذ بداية رمضان. أو يواصل الجيش وقوات الأمن استخدام القوة المفرطة بما في ذلك المدفعية الثقيلة لإخماد المظاهرات السلمية واستعادة السيطرة على سكان المدن المختلفة.
وعلى صعيد آخر، أعلن المحامي خليل معتوق لوكالة فرانس برس أن السلطات السورية أفرجت اليوم عن الناشط السوري عبدالكريم الريحاوي رئيس الرابطة السورية لحقوق الإنسان الذي كان قد اعتقل في 11/آب أغسطس، واستناداً إلى معتوق تم الإفراج عن ريحاوي دون أن يتم إحالته إلى القضاء.
جميع الحقوق محفوظة لقناة العربية © 2010
August 22nd, 2011, 2:28 pm
SYR.EXPAT said:
ليبيا: مصطفى عبد الجليل يدعو الى ضبط النفس وعدم التعرض للارواح والممتلكات
2011-08-22
بنغازي (ليبيا) ـ (ا ف ب) – دعا رئيس المجلس الوطني الانتقالي في ليبيا مصطفى عبد الجليل الاثنين الثوار الليبيين الذين سيطروا على طرابلس الى ضبط النفس وعدم التعرض لارواح واموال وممتلكات اللييين وغيرهم في العاصمة الليبية.
وقال عبد الجليل في مؤتمر صحافي في بنغازي “ادعو الليبيين الى ضبط النفس وعدم التعرض لارواح واموال وممتلكات الليبيين وغيرهم”.
وشدد عبد الجليل على اهمية “الصفح والعفو والتسامح وعلى بناء دولة القانون التي ستوفر محاكمة عادلة لكل من تضرر ولكل من اتهم في احداث هذا الضرر”.
وقال “اهيب بثوارنا في طبرق ودرنة …. وفي طرابلس والزاوية، عدم استيفاء الحق بالذات، وترك هذه الامور للقضاء العادل الذي سيعاقب كل من ارتكب فعلا تضررت منها فئة معينة من هذا المجتمع”.
August 22nd, 2011, 2:32 pm
SF94123 said:
Question to ALL who want Basher to resign,
What if he did resign next week and a new Alawite president -not related to the Assad family- was appointed, would you stop protesting and start working with the new president?
August 22nd, 2011, 3:12 pm
SYR.EXPAT said:
Assad Jr. and Mu’alem hitching a ride with Qhdhafi.
http://www.ali-ferzat.com/ar/comic/key_word/كاريكاتير%20اليوم/732.html
August 22nd, 2011, 3:12 pm
Khalid Tlass said:
Allez au diable, vous athées laïcs de votre Chi’aisme culte est fini. Chi’aisme est une secte et elle sera détruite Inchallah
August 22nd, 2011, 3:16 pm
Khalid Tlass said:
I’ve heard reports from some people that the new Libyan Flag was raised on the embassy in Damascus, and that Iranian snipers have surrounded the embassy. Apparently, a group of 30-40 young bearded men with strong Farsi accents, probably Iranian students, are chanting slogans outside the embassy calling for the death of the Ambassador and calling him a Zionist. Snipers have been positioned on the rooftops and I think its an attempt by Besho and the Ayatollahs to pressursie the Ambassador to change his stance and use this as a bargaining chip against UN.
I don’t know for sure, but can u confirm this S.G.I.D ?
EDIT – The Libyan Embassy in Tehran is still refusing to abandon Gaddafi. Terrible creatures. these Ayatollahs.
August 22nd, 2011, 3:19 pm
SF94123 said:
# 7. Khalid Tlass aka Shikh Araor wrote:
“Allez au diable, vous athées laïcs de votre Chi’aisme culte est fini. Chi’aisme est une secte et elle sera détruite Inchallah”
Google traslation:
“Go to hell, you lay your Christian atheists worship is over. Christian is a cult and Inshallah it will be destroyed”
You are a hyena! Shame on the Western countries that empowered you and your kind!
August 22nd, 2011, 3:37 pm
To #5 SF94123 said:
Can that Alawite be Aref Dalila or another Alawite who has no ties to the Baath or other regime support structures? It’s about more than family, it’s about breaking with the structures that the family used to gain control in the first place. To do so Syria must have someone in control who understands that Syrians need a dramatic shift in how political participation in the state is conducted. If it is someone who is a true independent and Alawite, that would be an acceptable transition, and is a good idea for a show of faith to minorities. I don’t care what the person believes about God, I care what they believe about the state of Syria. I would accept Michel Kilo as a transitional president, would you SF94123?
August 22nd, 2011, 3:37 pm
Aboud said:
“What if he did resign next week and a new Alawite president -not related to the Assad family- was appointed, would you stop protesting and start working with the new president?”
No, I want to drink the blood of everyone who isn’t just like me. Duh.
That the person replacing him is a Alawite wouldn’t influence my feelings towards him one way or another. But if he had a hand in suppressing the Syrian people, then he can expect the same reception. And if he thinks he’s going to be a president for life, then he can count on his life getting cut short.
August 22nd, 2011, 3:40 pm
OFF THE WALL said:
I do not know french, but I have a feeling that the translation in 10 is a forgery. The original repulsive phrase also includes a misspelled french word for secular, which would lump me with those heading to hell. Forgery may not be as repulsive as sectarianism, but forgery to incite further sectarianism is beyond repulsive.
SF94123 and Khalid are soul-mates. They deserve each others and will be rejected by Syria and Syrians the same way the assads mafia regime is being rejected.
August 22nd, 2011, 4:16 pm
Tara said:
Khalid Tlass
I again think you are a mukhabarat in disguise. You have attempted repeatedly to taint the revolution in a sectarian fashion and that what the regime is trying hard to achieve.
In case you are not, can’t you understand that 2200 people died wanting freedom and dignity and through your attempt to show hatred and intolerance, you are disrespecting all the dead.
FYI, I love my Christian friends dearly and sincerely. The sectarian regime’s supporters one encounters on SC represent themselves only and do not represent the vast majority of Syrian Christian I have had experience with while living in the US. While the ones on SC preaching hate, intolerance, and Islamophobia, most of the real Christians I have encountered are sincere, loving, and very tolerant.
My best friends while studying/training in the US were two Christian men. One was a Syrian Christian from Wadi al Nasara, and the other was a Coptic Egyptian from Alexandria. Both fasted with me for 7 Ramadans during 7 years of training and would not eat until we all ate at sunset. They did it out of respect to my tradition and were genuinely anything but islamophobes.
So please spare us your hatred and intolerance.
August 22nd, 2011, 4:22 pm
Haytham Khoury said:
Dear NZ:
Thank you for you compliment in#204 in the previous blog. What I write is what I believe in. I continue fighting for my beliefs.
Best
August 22nd, 2011, 4:31 pm
SF94123 said:
# 10,
We need a Charismatic Leadership with authority to maintain order and navigate in the murky water of a broken and divided country. Who? I don’t know.
Having said that, I don’t have interest in Dalila or kilo at this point. Sorry..
August 22nd, 2011, 4:43 pm
beaware said:
Syrian President Assad raises doubts over Turkey’s sincerity
22 August 2011, Monday / TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-254598-syrian-president-assad-raises-doubts-over-turkeys-sincerity.html
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has put special emphasis on Turkey while warning against any foreign military intervention as he questioned the intentions of the neighboring country in dealing with the crisis in Syria.
“In general, we always meet with officials from different countries, we take advice, if they have experience we discuss it, especially countries that resemble us in terms of society, but when it comes to the decision, we don’t allow any country in the world, near or far, to interfere in Syria’s decisions,” Assad was quoted as saying in response to a question on bilateral relations with Turkey during an interview with state-run television on Sunday. In the interview, Assad assumed several possibilities for the Turkish officials’ statements, citing that of sincerity, saying, “In this case we highly appreciate others’ sincerity on Syria,” the Syrian news agency SANA reported.
“It may be a kind of concern that any defect in Syria will affect Turkey and this is normal. The third possibility is that the reason behind these statements is acting as the guide or instructor or the role player at the expense of the Syrian issue. This matter is totally rejected from any official anywhere in the world, including Turkey,” Assad said.
Turkish leaders who once backed Assad sound increasingly frustrated with the Syrian leader in the same way they became frustrated with Muammar Gaddafi after trying to mediate in the Libyan civil war.
No country has proposed against Syria actions like those that NATO forces have carried out in support of Libyan rebels seeking to topple Muammar Gaddafi, but the West has called on Assad to step down and Washington has imposed new sanctions.
Officials at the Foreign Ministry in Ankara on Monday declined to comment on Assad’s latest remarks concerning Turkey.
The Syrian issue was also a key subject during a lengthy telephone conversation between Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday.
Erdoğan stopped his convoy for 35 minutes on İstanbul’s busy E-5 highway to talk to the Iranian president, news reports said. They discussed bilateral relations and regional developments, including most notably the situation in Syria, a statement published on the Prime Ministry Press Center’s website said.
Erdoğan encouraged Ahmadinejad to assume a joint regional stance towards Syria as he urged the Iranian leader to help find a solution concerning Syria together with the other regional countries, officials told Today’s Zaman.
According to Iranian news agency IRNA, Ahmadinejad “expressed gratitude to Erdoğan for voicing opposition to the US-led Western alliance of NATO’s military invasions, saying that foreign meddling in regional matters only exacerbates the state of affairs.”
The political crisis in Syria has apparently led to tension between Turkey and Iran. While Turkey has stepped up its criticism of Assad over a deadly crackdown on anti-regime protests, Iran defends the Syrian regime and says foreign powers should stay out of Syria’s internal matters.
A recently drafted report by the Ankara-based Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM) suggests that Iran has been influential in disrupting Syria’s confidence in Turkey by disseminating anti-Turkish propaganda, saying that Turkey supposedly favors the United States over Syria and provides arms to opposition groups that are trying to topple the Assad regime.
“This statement looks to be influenced by Iran. Assad might be bothered by Syrian opposition meetings in Antalya and İstanbul but he has to remember that Turkey supports non-violent actors that will make a transition in Syria easier and actually helps Assad in the long run,” Mehmet Seyfettin Erol, a professor of international relations at the Ankara-based Gazi University, told Today’s Zaman on Monday when asked to comment on Assad’s remarks on Turkey.
August 22nd, 2011, 4:50 pm
beaware said:
Syria Emerges as Front Line of Arab Uprisings
By ANTHONY SHADID
Published: August 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/world/middleeast/23syria.html
BEIRUT, Lebanon — On the night that Libyan rebels poured into the citadel of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, inaugurating Libya’s future, his counterpart in Syria offered assurances borrowed from the past: Syria would stay steadfast, plots hatched from abroad would fail and calls for his removal were meaningless because the people supported him.
“I am not worried,” President Bashar al-Assad declared in a television interview on Sunday.
But with the end of Colonel Qaddafi near and rebellions elsewhere in the Arab world either repressed or dangerously anarchic, the uprising in Syria emerges as the front line of the Arab revolts. In eight months, three strongmen have fallen in a region renowned for decades for its leaders dying on their thrones. While Libya and Syria have little in common beyond their repression, the arithmetic of the region seems to be betting against authoritarian rule that fails to reform.
“The change taking place in Libya in compliance with people’s demands, following what happened in Egypt and Tunisia, should teach a lesson to everyone,” the Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said Monday in Ethiopia, in a thinly veiled reference to Mr. Assad. “Leaders of other countries must also be aware of the fact that they will be in power as long as they satisfy the demands of the people.”
Jubilation, fascination and a hint of disdain at the Libyan rebels’ reliance on Western power reverberated through the Arab world Monday, as scenes were broadcast of rebels in Tripoli’s Green Square. “Victory” was a word heard about the end of a figure seen by many as despotic and unhinged; a line from a speech early on by Colonel Qaddafi, when he vowed to fight “zanga zanga,” or alley to alley, became a pop culture reference and introduced a new phrase into colloquial Arabic.
Syrian activists were quick to caution against parallels. Unlike Libya, they hold no cities; few if any are calling for Western intervention; and the military and security forces engaged in a brutal crackdown against them show little sign of fracture. But the lesson of the Arab revolts was reiterated — that absolute power can no longer go uncontested.
“The fall of the Libyan regime is a victory for the Arab world,” said Samir Nashar, an opposition figure who took parts in earlier bouts of opposition to Mr. Assad.
He recalled the scene Sunday night at a cafe in Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city and, until now, relatively quiescent. When the television announced the arrest of Seif al-Islam, Colonel Qaddafi’s son and heir apparent, many in the mostly intellectual crowd of about 70 jumped out of the chairs, congratulated each other and exchanged kisses.
“This is going to give a push to the Syrian people to continue,” he said.
Some analysts suggested it might also push Mr. Assad to continue. Of the three leaders toppled so far, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia is in exile in Saudi Arabia; an ailing Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is on trial, appearing in court in a humiliating cage; and Colonel Qaddafi and his son face war crimes charges that will complicate any exile. None of them managed to appreciate the seriousness of uprisings until it was too late.
In his speech Sunday, Mr. Assad dismissed Western calls for his resignation as meaningless and signaled that a crackdown that the United Nations now estimates has killed more than 2,000 people, 350 this month alone, would go on. That was the case Monday, when security forces killed three protesters in Homs, at the very time that a United Nations fact-finding team was visiting the city, Syria’s third largest, activists said.
“The lesson next time is to leave early,” said Nadim Shehadi, a scholar at Chatham House, a research organization in London. Mr. Assad “needs to understand first that it’s over. He probably does but hasn’t shown it. Then he needs an exit strategy.”
Since the beginning of the uprising, Mr. Assad’s leadership, having squandered its traditional support in a now-restive countryside, has relied almost solely on an argument that resonates in Syria, bordered by Iraq in the east and Lebanon in the west. Both neighbors fought civil wars and both examples serve as a basis for the Syrian government’s warning that only it can stave off chaos, even if Syria is in more tumult these days than any time in a generation.
more….
August 22nd, 2011, 4:55 pm
sf94123 said:
# 12 OFF THE WALL wrote
“I do not know french, but I have a feeling that the translation in 10 is a forgery.
First of all it was post # 9 not 10.. Don’t get confused! .
Go ahead and traslate it in Google and find out yourself..
http://translate.google.com
As always, if you don’t like or agree of what you read, IT IS A FORGERY…
August 22nd, 2011, 4:55 pm
Dale Andersen said:
Qaddafi & Besho. Dumb & Dumber…
August 22nd, 2011, 4:56 pm
Abu Umar said:
“9. SF94123 said:
You are a hyena! Shame on the Western countries that empowered you and your kind! ”
So why did you hypocritically cite a pro-Western Jewish Neocon to attack Muslims? Why did the criminal Hafez al-Asad collaborate with the Americans in Gulf War I? Why the CIA rendition jihadists to be tortured in Syrian dungeons? Why did so many Alawis collaborate with the French colonialists?
No, the Syrian Sunnis will never accept an Alawi leader when the overwhelming majority of them supported the crimes of the Asads.
August 22nd, 2011, 5:03 pm
OFF THE WALL said:
SF94123
You know what, i do not need any further sectarian pollution. Think what you want…
My sincerest apology to the author of post 10 with whom I fully agree.
August 22nd, 2011, 5:03 pm
Tara said:
#16
“Erdoğan stopped his convoy for 35 minutes on İstanbul’s busy E-5 highway to talk to the Iranian president, news reports said”
Geez. Some men can not multi task. Can’t he talk and drive or be driven at the same time? Turkey should have a women prime minister.
August 22nd, 2011, 5:06 pm
Khalid Tlass said:
Firstly, I think most of the people who are attacking me do not know any French, hence their reliance on Google Translate. This proves that most of them are not Syrians or Lebanese.
Secondly, I did not refer to “Christians”. The French word I used was “Chi’aisme”. Please see my post. “Chi’isme” is basically the French rendition for ” Shia “. I was referring to those hypocrite Mullahs in Tehran, who have now sent snipers in Damascus to surround the Libyan embassy.
The French word for Christian is “Chrétienne”.
And Tara, I’m not Mukhabarat, and it pains me immensely when you think it like that. Believe me, the Mukhabart are pretty busy now trying to save their asses and chasing facebook groups.
I am not attempting to taint the revolution with sectarianism. I have merely responded angrily when confronted with anti-Sunni sectariansim and Islamophobia by the fils de putes des agents secrets et des infiltrés on here pretending to be Syrians.
August 22nd, 2011, 5:16 pm
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
I hope Assad has read the IMF report on Iran:
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/20/irans-economic-reforms/
The sanctions on Syria are not nearly as tough as those that were put on Iran. However, the sanctions on Syria provide a great pretext for the Syrian government to get rid of the subsidies.
The sanctions can become a great success story for Syria if the Syrian government frees the prices of oil products and expands instead the allowances distributed by the social welfare fund.
I just hope that Assad does this and does not blow it.
August 22nd, 2011, 5:20 pm
Tara said:
Kaled Tlass
I apologize.
I am too against Ayatollahs sending snipers to kill Syrians under the disguise of religion.
August 22nd, 2011, 5:25 pm
Tara said:
Can someone tell me how many Ayatollahs there is? And what qualifies one to be an Ayatollah? Are Ayatollahs Persian only? Or there are Arab Ayatollahs?
August 22nd, 2011, 5:29 pm
Khalid Tlass said:
^ Whats worse is that they are not only killing Syrians, they are intimidating the Libyan embassy officials in Damascus who had the guts to declare their allegiance to the NTC.
Also, almost all the Libyan embassies around the world have declared their allegiance to the NTC, except in 2 countries – Iran, and Zimbabwe. Isn’t that funny ?
August 22nd, 2011, 5:30 pm
Khalid Tlass said:
Do you know any French, Tara ?
Interesting thing, but in Papa Assad’s time, 1 in 3 educated Syrians were fluent in French !!
August 22nd, 2011, 5:36 pm
sf94123 said:
Yes he ( Khalid Tlass # 23) used Chi’anime not Chrétienne.. He was referring to Chia not Christianity…I am sorry, I did not mean to mislead the readers on this Forum.
Either way he was wrong!
August 22nd, 2011, 5:42 pm
Ss said:
141; Haitham Khoury,
“avinenna (abo sina), is an arabic scientist,,,,,,,,etc)
I think you should review your history background. It is insulting for many persians that you lable Avicenna as an Arabic physician. For your information he was born in Iran, died in Iran, and burried in Iran. It looks you are sharing a radical views like many radical muslims wants to label all the muslim scientist as being Arabs. I do nit blam you, its the MB manifesto.
We are against radical Islam not Islam itself so I do not know who are you defending. Are you defending radical Islam?
August 22nd, 2011, 5:42 pm
Abu Umar said:
“30. Ss said:
We are against radical Islam not Islam itself so I do not know who are you defending. Are you defending radical Islam?”
So why are you allied to Iran and Hezbollah? Explain this hypocrisy for me.
August 22nd, 2011, 5:47 pm
Muhammad said:
Bashar has proven himself to be a total failure. He is the biggest weakness of the regime. Every time he opened his mouth he made things worse. I bet they are trying to figure a way to get rid of him without losing power – almost impossible.
In his last interview he came across as very callous – almost a psychopath. He dwelled so much on some technicalities and the minute details of the text in his “reform” laws. He completely ignored the tens of thousands of people affected by the current crisis (killed/wounded/displaced/imprisoned). He has shown disregard to those who are going to suffer more due to continuing violence & sanctions brushing them off as “they won’t starve” … it was a particularly ugly statement. He just does not care … not even for those Alawi’s he is using as a cannon fodder in the sectarian war he is pushing the country to. I bet you he won’t be able to name three of the people killed in the revolution.
The English translation of the speech makes it look better than what it really is. He just came across as insincere and arrogant. This interview was his worst. Even worse than the first speech, especially when you think that this one was pre-recorded.
August 22nd, 2011, 5:54 pm
SYR.EXPAT said:
BLITZER’S BLOG: Syrian leader’s nervous eye on Libya
By CNN’s Wolf Blitzer
(CNN) – If you’re watching Tripoli from Damascus and your name is Bashar al-Assad, you’re very nervous.
Only a few months ago, who would have thought that Moammar Gadhafi would go down this way? Then again, who would have thought that Hosni Mubarak would wind up in a hospital bed in a courtroom cage?
The Arab spring continues to unfold in dramatic ways.
What’s happening in Libya will certainly have an impact in Syria. The Syrian protesters will be emboldened to continue their struggle against the al-Assad regime. Al-Assad and his allies probably will be emboldened to become even more aggressive in trying to crush the opposition.
The key will be the Syrian military and security services. Will they remain blindly loyal to al-Assad’s regime, or will we start seeing cracks? I suspect that some senior military officers eventually will say no more killing and torturing of unarmed civilian demonstrators.
It’s at that point that al-Assad rule could really be endangered.
The Libyan rebels received enormous assistance from the NATO allies. The airstrikes pounded Gadhafi’s troops and military facilities. In the end, the no-fly zone worked.
It’s unlikely that NATO will launch a similar operation against al-Assad’s military. I don’t see any desire on the part of the U.S. and its NATO allies to ask the United Nations Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Syria.
Still, al-Assad should not rest easy. What eventually could bring him down is what brought Mubarak down – namely, the will of an angry and frustrated people seeking freedom. In the end, that may be even more powerful than NATO airstrikes.
August 22nd, 2011, 5:56 pm
Khalid Tlass said:
SS said “It is insulting for many persians that you lable Avicenna as an Arabic physician. For your information he was born in Iran, died in Iran, and burried in Iran. It looks you are sharing a radical views like many radical muslims wants to label all the muslim scientist as being Arabs. I do nit blam you, its the MB manifesto.”
Thanks for exposing your ethnic background Majoosi. Please don’t comment about Syria.
Btw, Arab chauvinism is not MB manifesto, its Ba’ath Party manifesto. According to Michel Aflaq, Omar and Khalid ibn Walid, Salaheddin Ayoubi, etc. are great heroes of the Arab nation. So being a supporter of Ba’ath, the Sunni Caliphs should be your heroes.
August 22nd, 2011, 6:02 pm
ann said:
IBSA Opposes Measures Against Syria – Tuesday, 23 August 2011 07:28
http://www.international.to/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2062:ibsa-opposes-measures-against-syria&catid=80:politics&Itemid=120
CAPE TOWN, Aug 22 (IPS) – Members of the emerging economy grouping known as IBSA – India, Brazil and
South Africa – have joined China and Russia in opposing measures against Syria.
“The South African government is of the view that the Syrian issue is best resolved by the Syrians
themselves and they must be given space to do so,” South African Department of International Relations
and Cooperation spokesperson Saul Kgomotso Molobi told IPS. “The Syrian government has indicated
that it has been and continues to take reforms to open up the political space.”
Molobi said the international community’s positions are informed by the interests of the leading
countries rather than a desire for change in the Middle East. “The examples are Bahrain and Yemen,
where despite repression there were no attempts to seriously sanction and weaken the regime. In the
case of the former, all was done to bolster it through military support from the Gulf Cooperation
Council.”
IBSA appears keen to play an independent role. On Aug. 10, a delegation with representatives from all
three countries met with Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian foreign minister, Walid Al-
Moualem.
At the meeting, the Syrian government again outlined its assertion that the protests stem from three
disparate sources – academics and intellectuals pushing for democratic reforms, sections of the
population responding to economic hardship and repression in particular regions of the country, and
militants fighting to overthrow the government.
Assad acknowledged that “mistakes” had been made in the government’s response to the protests and
repeated his claim to be committed to reform, offering as evidence proposed new laws he says will steer
the country towards multi-party democracy in consultation with the citizenry.
“The Syrian government has indicated that it has been and continues to take reforms to open up the
political space,” said Molobi. “It also wants to open up the economic space. This will be achieved
through various laws that are being passed, such as the multi-party law, the media law and others. A
national dialogue forum has been started although it has not attracted the attention of the country as a
whole. The government would like to see an elected parliament that would continue the reform
process.”
Molobi said South Africa and IBSA condemned violence – “by all parties” – but conceded there has been
little sign of restraint by the Syrian government since the meeting – which shelled Latakia with tanks
and gunboats on Aug. 14.
“We regret the escalation of violence and call on all parties to exercise restraint since an all-out conflict
will be a disaster for all,” said Molobi.
University of Cape Town political scientist Zwelethu Jolobe said IBSA’s position should be seen to some
degree as a reaction to the slowly growing international response to the Syrian crisis: “Everyone is giving
their two cents and they probably felt they should too.”
He said that South Africa’s previous engagement with Syria was limited to a pair of bilateral agreements
on trade and education, signed over the past two years as part of South African President Jacob Zuma’s
administration’s broader activity in the Middle East.
South Africa’s calculations on Syria’s present crisis, he argued, are primarily informed by the significant
roles each country plays with respect to the Palestinian Authority. South Africa’s ruling African National
Congress Party has strong ties with the ruling West Bank party Fatah, dating back to the days of the
anti-apartheid struggle and extending to financial and political support at present.
Syria has been a strong backer of Fatah’s sometime-rival Hamas, offering financial, military and
political backing as well as hosting the party’s political bureau in Damascus.
“South Africa cannot afford to have Assad’s government completely implode – it upsets a delicate
regional balance with extremely high stakes, within which South Africa has invested an enormous
amount of historical, emotional, political and financial resources,” Jolobe said.
The relationship between Syria and Hamas is under strain, in part due to Syria’s internal crisis. The
Palestinian party has refused to make a public show of support for the Assad government and a
Palestinian neighbourhood in Latakia was among those which came under attack by state security this
week.
Hamas is actively exploring relocating its offices to Cairo – a country with which Jolobe says South
Africa has invested far more time cultivating close ties recently.
Asked whether, given the history of international support for the anti-apartheid struggle in South
Africa, the ANC government’s affirmation of Syria’s “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity”
was somewhat implausible, Molobi responded, “The situation in Syria has different aspects to it and
violence is the sad part of it. This has been perpetrated by government and non-government groups
with serious results. There are no short cuts and a proper Syrian process is the only hope to bring peace
in Syria and no outsiders can do this.”
While highlighting the uneven responses by the U.S. and European countries to uprisings and violent
state repression across the Middle East this year is important, the people who have not retreated from
the streets even after months of repression surely require more from South Africa and its IBSA partners.
Friday saw the close of another deadly week in the five-month-old uprising in Syria. Activists
documenting protests from within the country said demonstrations took place in several parts of the
country; security forces are again accused of firing on protesters, killing at least 10.
The protests, which activists inside the country say involved thousands of people in the capital
Damascus, the eastern city of Deir ez-Zour, the southern province of Daraa, and the port city of
Latakia, came a day after the European Union and the United States called for Assad to step aside.
Speaking on Syrian state television on Sunday, Assad rejected calls to step aside, while announcing
multi-party elections for parliament would be held in February. A U.N. humanitarian mission finally on
the ground in Syria was greeted by protesters calling for Assad to step down in the city of Homs;
according to the Local Co-ordination Committees, security forces opened fire once the team had left.
August 22nd, 2011, 6:06 pm
SYR.EXPAT said:
ابن سينا هو أبو علي الحسين بن عبد الله بن الحسن بن علي بن سينا، عالم مسلم اشتهر بالطب والفلسفة واشتغل بهما. ولد في قرية (أفشنة) بالقرب من بخارى (في أوزبكستان حاليا) من أب من مدينة بلخ (في أفغانستان حاليا) وأم قروية سنة 370هـ (980م) وتوفي في مدينة همدان (في إيران حاليا) سنة 427هـ (1037م). عرف باسم الشيخ الرئيس وسماه الغربيون بأمير الأطباء وأبو الطب الحديث. وقد ألّف 200 كتاب في مواضيع مختلفة، العديد منها يركّز على الفلسفة والطب. ويعد ابن سينا من أول من كتب عن الطبّ في العالم ولقد اتبع نهج أو أسلوب أبقراط وجالينوس. وأشهر أعماله كتاب الشفاء وكتاب القانون في الطب.
Avicenna was born c. 980 in Afshana, near Bukhara, the capital of Samanids, a Persian dynasty in Central Asia and Greater Khorasan. His father was from Balkh, in present-day Afghanistan and his mother from Bukhara, in present-day Uzbekistan.
August 22nd, 2011, 6:10 pm
Khalid Tlass said:
Its not surprising that South Africa is supportuing Besho. Its expected of those savagesm cannibals, racial genocidist followers of Mugabe.
I have said this before, and saying it again –
Some people deserve repression, like Shias, South African Blacks, Communists, etc.
August 22nd, 2011, 6:16 pm
mjabali said:
The so called “Arabic History” needs to be re-written based on science and not political/religious agendas.
August 22nd, 2011, 6:19 pm
some guy in damascus said:
Passed by the libyan embassy today, yes its true , the NTC flag is up and high.
It was an eerie moment, a symbol of change in a nation whose regime is resisting change.
August 22nd, 2011, 6:19 pm
Ali said:
@19 Amu umar
“No, the Syrian Sunnis will never accept an Alawi leader when the overwhelming majority of them supported the crimes of the Asads.”
You have shown you hate for Alawis from day one. This is not because you think Bashar is a killer. If that was the case you would only hate him, not every Alawi existing. You are jealous that the Syrian president is Alawi and not of your religion.
The Holy Quran.
6:159 Those who divide themselves into sects do not belong with you. Their judgement rests with GOD and He will inform them of everything they have done.
[9] We should not support any party fighting because we like that party. We should support the party that stops fighting and does not transgress.
“Muslim is a unique Ummah among the whole of mankind. Their land is one, their war is one, their peace is one, their honor is one and their thrust is one” Prophet Mohammed (saw).
Abu Umar… stop your sectarian BS and put your hand in others who hope for a better world. Think of a solution that suits both parties and stop spreading hate in the world.
August 22nd, 2011, 6:23 pm
SYR.EXPAT said:
Syrian armored vehicle shooting randomly at parked cars in Homs. Part of the promised reforms. This is the real face of the regime’s army ABUGHASSAN. This is how they establish law and order. This is not an isolated incident. This is the norm.
المدرعة في باب السباع تقصف السيارات بشكل عشوائي ردا على مظاهرة لجنة الأمم المتحدة 22 8 2011
August 22nd, 2011, 6:41 pm
ann said:
Turkey is no African solution – August 23 2011 at 12:00am
http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/opinion/turkey-is-no-african-solution-1.1122787
On Saturday, Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu held a meeting with International Relations and Co-operation Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, in Pretoria and later with President Jacob Zuma.
At a joint press conference after their meeting, the two foreign ministers, though both friendly, made it clear that there were sharp differences between the positions of the two countries on Libya and Syria.
August 22nd, 2011, 6:42 pm
ann said:
It’s too soon to declare Libya strategy a success, analysts say
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/08/22/3091524/its-too-soon-to-declare-libya.html
With Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi under siege in his own capital, President Barack Obama soon may be able to claim success for his approach that ultimately toppled a dictator while leaving much of the dirty business to the rebellious Libyans themselves.
Last spring, his strategy of a limited U.S. role in a NATO effort that was itself just a supporting effort did not guarantee a good outcome in Libya, but it allowed America to avoid direct involvement in another war.
But by leaving the battle to the rebels, Obama and the West left uncertainty. It’s unknown whether a unified, democratic government will replace the dictator. Nor did it establish any U.S. policy that would carry through to other countries such as Syria. And it may have made it more difficult to get China and Russia on board such international alliances again.
“It’s premature to declare victory here,” said Robert Danin, a senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “If Libya turns out to be a unified, semi-representative government, then we can uncork the champagne. If, on the other hand, removing Gadhafi leads to a failed state, then I don’t think we will be looking at this as a success.”
Obama at the outset signaled that he wanted to stop Gadhafi as he marched toward the rebellious city of Benghazi with the intent to kill the Libyans caught up in the fervor of the Arab Spring.
Mindful of a wary American public, he supported a limited role for the U.S. He said the U.S. would support a NATO-enforced air mission to stop Gadhafi from slaughtering his own people. It would take days, not weeks, he said in March. And he would never commit U.S. troops to the ground in Libya, he vowed.
“This was a strategy that was designed by the White House to suit domestic political needs,” Danin said, “to address what it perceived as a potential human catastrophe and square the circle with limited U.S. involvement. Even then, the polling did not suggest a great deal of support for this. People don’t care about this.”
Though it took months, not days, the Libyan rebels eventually did fight their way into Tripoli this weekend, cornering Gadhafi.
“It’s early to make a final assessment of the allied approach to Libya,” said Mark Quarterman, senior adviser and director of the Program on Crisis Conflict and Cooperation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Having said that … it appears that the approach taken by President Obama, by NATO and by the U.N. Security Council seems to have borne fruit.”
Significantly, no U.S. lives were lost. Obama pledged anew Monday that no U.S. troops will go into Libya.
“He’s done all right as far as it goes,” Danin said. “We’ve seen the ambivalence the president feels about this operation projected throughout.”
Obama’s success, if it is his, may be limited. In Libya, it may be limited to the toppling of Gadhafi, with the future of the country unknown. And in North Africa and the Middle East, it may have been a one-time-only exercise that cannot be repeated in a place such as Syria, where another dictator is slaughtering his own people.
One reason lies in the way the United States and others got the U.N. Security Council to back action against Gadhafi – without drawing the usual veto from China and Russia.
They did it by making sure the U.N. resolution narrowly authorized the humanitarian mission of stopping Gadhafi from killing his people. It did not call for removing him. Obama did call for Gadhafi’s ouster, but he insisted his stand was aside from the U.N.-sanctioned military mission.
“Some of the parties like Russia, China, maybe some of the middleweight countries, will be very reluctant to sign up to such a resolution in the future because they believe there was a bait and switch here,” Danin said. “If Libya was not really a vital interest, what happens when we have to address a greater interest in the area, such as Syria? … It may be difficult, if not impossible.”
Politically, one potential benefit for Obama would be a possible drop in gasoline prices. But beyond that, don’t expect any increase in Obama’s dismal approval rating.
“He can claim he took the appropriate steps. It’s a net plus for him. But he doesn’t need any distraction from what he’s trying to do domestically,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, which conducts the McClatchy-Marist Poll.
Obama did enjoy a brief bounce in popularity after the killing of terrorist Osama bin Laden in early May.
Immediately before the killing, 46 percent of Americans approved of the way Obama was doing his job, according to the Gallup Poll. Within days, that number jumped to 52 percent. But within a month, it was back to 46 percent. And last week, it dropped to 39 percent, the first time it went below 40 percent.
“I don’t think there’s any long-term benefit other than saying he handles diplomacy well,” Miringoff said. “It does not get him back to the mid-40s. It will have a minimal effect.”
August 22nd, 2011, 6:55 pm
Tara said:
Khaled
I don’t speak French.
We are all human beings. We are created equal. No one deserves repression.
August 22nd, 2011, 6:58 pm
jad said:
السعودية منزعجة من تركيا بسبب موقفها من سوريا وتصفها أنها ” بائعة أحلام ”
أبدت السعودية انزعاجها من الموقف التركي تجاه الأحداث في سوريا , وسخرت من ” أردوغان ” , واتهمتها بالبراغماتية و واصفة موقفها بالضجيج قبيل الانتخابات البرلمانية التركية.
وعبرت السعودية عبر ” عبد الرحمن الراشد ” مدير قناة العربية السعودية في مقال له في جريدة الشرق الأوسط السعودية عن انزعاجها من الموقف التركي , قائلة أنه ” أخذ موقفا حماسيا ضد النظام السوري بلغ مرحلة التهديد، رفع شعبيته إلى أقصاها، ورُفعت صوره في معظم المظاهرات السورية، وبكل أسف كان كل ذلك الضجيج قبيل الانتخابات البرلمانية التركية ” .
وتابع الراشد : ” بعدها تبدلت لغة تركيا، حتى المواقف الكلامية الإنشائية. ووصلت حكومة أردوغان لمشاركة الروس موقفهم ، والإعلان صراحة أنهم ضد التدخل الدولي، وأنهم ضد حتى بيان دعوة الرئيس بشار الأسد للتنحي. كان الأولى بتركيا الصمت على الأقل، بعد أن هيجت تصريحات أردوغان الانتخابية الشارع السوري ” .
واضاف الراشد : ” لا أريد أن أرسم أردوغان كزعيم إسلامي خائب آخر، لأنني أعتقد أن أمامه الكثير من الوقت لتوضيح حقيقة مشروعه. لا أحد يريد من تركيا أن تفعل ما لا تستطيع أو لا تريد فعله، لكن أيضا عليها ألا تبيع الناس أحلاما لأغراض دعائية . لقد مر من هنا كثيرون من باعة الأحلام ” .
ونصح مدير قناة العربية أردوغان بالقول : ” ننصحه ألا يقول ما لا يعنيه في منطقة شعوبها عاطفية سريعة الحب، سريعة الكراهية، تملك ذاكرة قوية ” .
يذكر أن السعودية دخلت على خط الشأن الداخلي السوري من خلال بيان أصدره الملك ” عبدالله بن عبد العزيز بن ال سعود ” ملك المملكة العربية السعودية , واحتوى نصائح ” ديمقراطية ” سعودية لسوريا .
August 22nd, 2011, 6:58 pm
ann said:
Walid Phares: Obama, NATO Must Stop Libya’s Hardline Islamists From Taking Power
Monday, 22 Aug 2011 06:04 PM
http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/WalidPhares-Libya-Gadhafi/2011/08/22/id/408231
Libya is in danger of becoming “another Iran” if the Obama administration fails to act quickly to support non-Islamist factors who led the country’s revolution Middle East expert Walid Phares says.
The hardline Islamists are just waiting to take over the country and it is only the United States and its allies in NATO that can prevent them, Phares says in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV.
“The Islamist network has its own propaganda and the propaganda is not in the interests of having the image of the United States being defended and protected,” he said. “From the beginning of the process we should have engaged with and partnered with the democracy forces not with the fundamentalist forces.”
Phares was speaking on the day it became clear that the rule of Moammar Gadhafi was at an end 10 days before it would have marked its 42nd anniversary. Three of the dictator’s sons were captured as the capital, Tripoli, fell, although Gadhafi’s own whereabouts remain a mystery.
He said Libya is in danger of falling under radical Islamist leadership if the U.S. doesn’t throw solid support behind secular forces. “Look what happened in Egypt and look what happened in Tunisia. We entered very late in the game.
“We know that the interim council has former bureaucrats, people who would like to build a pluralist democracy, but it also has a large contingent of Islamic militants, so one has to be very careful about how the transition will go about.”
Phares, the Advisor to the Anti-Terrorism Caucus in the US House of Representatives, said the chances of the Islamists ending up victorious are about even. “It’s a 50/50 possibility.
“The Islamist militias within the rebels are the most organized, widest network. The people we see on the streets, those thousands of young men … happy to see the departure of Gadhafi or at least his demise, are not those who have power. They will only have power in the future if they organize themselves into a political party if democracy or a democratic culture takes root in Libya.
“Waiting… is basically inviting the Islamists … to seize the revolt and turn it into another authoritarian regime.
“If the Islamist militias take over in Libya, then they are going to support their colleagues in Tunisia and in Egypt and in Gaza and in Syria, so it all depends on the near future of events in Libya. This is where we, the United States and the international community, will have to be swift, smart and strategic.”
Phares said the Islamist groups have proven to be the best equipped, organized and funded throughout this year’s Arab Spring and they are now setting the agenda in both Egypt and Tunisia, the other Middle East countries where the government has been overthrown.
He pointed out that in Egypt, the revolution was led by “the youth, women, minorities, the Facebook people, liberal elements of society,” who were then joined by the middle classes and labor groups.
“But soon enough, the Muslim Brotherhood moved in,” said Phares, a Newsmax contributor and author of the book “The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East.”
“They are now leading politics in Egypt. The same could be said about other countries, it could be about Libya and Syria and Tunisia as well.
Phares said the Libyan revolution would not have succeeded without NATO and the United States, but now the war has been won, it is important for the west to win the peace as well. He said the Islamist factions will be keen to ensure that NATO’s role in their country is now at an end.
“The Islamist militias…were the ones who did not want to see (NATO) boots on the ground, because they know that if the international presence comes to Libya it will connect with Libya’s civil society, which is unarmed, and it will impose a disarming of militia.
“So the Islamist militia in Libya will make sure that NATO’s mission is over and that way they can move forward to grasp power.”
Phares said the new Libyan government’s top priority has to be disarming militia groups. Otherwise it could find itself fighting both the remnants of forces loyal to Gadhafi and to Islamists bent on seizing power for themselves.
“This is where the United States and the international community and the Arab moderates must put all the pressure they can on the new government to disarm the militia before they engage in the political process.”
August 22nd, 2011, 6:59 pm
jad said:
“الاحتفالات تعم أنحاء واسعة من ليبيا، بعد انهيار نظام العقيد معمر القذافي، والغموض يلف مصيره مع بعض أفراد أسرته ومعاونيه بعد سيطرة المعارضة المسلحة على العاصمة طرابلس، فيما دارت معارك عنيفة صباح اليوم داخل العاصمة وحول مقر إقامة القذافي في باب العزيزية، حيث قال مصدر دبلوماسي إن القذافي مازال داخله.
إلى ذلك ذكرت صحيفة نيويورك تايمز الأمريكية أن الولايات المتحدة كثفت في الأيام الأخيرة نشاطاتها الجوية حول طرابلس، مستخدمة طائرات بدون طيار مزودة بأسلحة لرصد ومتابعة وضرب القوات الليبية.
من جانبه أكد المتحدث باسم الحكومة الليبية أن 1300 شخص قتلوا في الساعات الأربع والعشرين الماضية في طرابلس، واصفا المعارك بأنها مأساة حقيقية.”
August 22nd, 2011, 7:01 pm
Tara said:
Aboud
You ok?
August 22nd, 2011, 7:02 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
TUNISIA تونس
August 22nd, 2011, 7:18 pm
SYRIN HAMSTER said:
Egypt مصر
August 22nd, 2011, 7:19 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Libya ليبيا
August 22nd, 2011, 7:21 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
SYRIA SURIA سوريا
August 22nd, 2011, 7:22 pm
ann said:
First We Take Manhattan, Then We Take Berlin!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/First-We-Take-Manhattan-T-by-Timothy-Gatto-110822-640.html
August 22nd, 2011, 7:28 pm
some guy in damascus said:
There were no farsi guards outside the NTC libyan embassy in damascus, I passed it by numerous times today, that red,green and black flags casts more fear into the Assads mafia’s heart more than 40 shabeeha can scare us. They even removed the pro-gaddafi propaganda, I wish I was there to witness the flag raising…
August 22nd, 2011, 7:32 pm
ss said:
36 by Syrian Expat”بن سينا هو أبو علي الحسين بن عبد الله بن الحسن بن علي بن سينا، عالم مسلم اشتهر بالطب والفلسفة واشتغل بهما. ولد في قرية (أفشنة) بالقرب من بخارى (في أوزبكستان حاليا) من أب من مدينة بلخ (في أفغانستان حاليا) وأم قروية سنة 370هـ (980م) وتوفي في مدينة همدان (في إيران حاليا) سنة 427هـ (1037م).”
Avicenna was born c. 980 in Afshana, near Bukhara, the capital of . Samanids, a Persian dynasty in Central Asia and Greater Khorasan
We agree on that, so tell your friend Dr. Khoury not to make him Arab. He is not Arab. FYI; Afghanistan was an Iranian land back then. Its funny how the arabic translation try to avoid the facts you mentioned in English “Samanids, a Persian dynasty in Central Asia and Greater Khorasan”. FYI also; Bahrain was part of Iran. FYI also the Arabic gulf is one of the names that Arabs stole from Iranians….I am sure it has been known Persian Gulf throughout history and it will remain that way. This is the way of Radical Islamist Wahabis to demolish any facts related to Iran…They cannot do that, Iran is too big to be swallowed by them or their masters
August 22nd, 2011, 7:33 pm
Dale Andersen said:
Memo To: TARA
RE: “…can someone tell me how many Ayatollahs there are? And what qualifies one to be an Ayatollah? Are Ayatollahs Persian only? Or there are Arab Ayatollahs?…”
These are wonderful questions as they cut directly to the heart of God’s relation to man (and woman, too, I think). Let me answer them one by one.
1. How many Ayatollahs are there? The number is infinite. As Yunis Firouzbacht, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a recognized scholar on ayatollahology put it, “There are as many Ayatollahs as there are grains of sand at the sea shore.”
2. What qualifies one to be an Ayatollah? First and formost, one should have a grave and dignified demeanor. Second, one must look good in a robe. And third and most important, one must be entirely without sin. There is the story of an Ayatollah in Shiraz who lost his ayatollahship because he sent out for a cheese pizza one minute before sunset during Ramadan.
3. Are ayatollahs Persian only? No. An Ayatollah can also be an Iranian.
These are wonderful questions. Thank you for asking them and, please accept, as a gift from the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, a recipe book of the Ayatollah Khamanei’s favorite macaroni dishes.
August 22nd, 2011, 7:41 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Idiots ايديوتس
August 22nd, 2011, 7:42 pm
Haytham Khoury said:
Dear All:
I accept that I did a mistake by calling Ibn Sina as Arabic scientist. It is better to call him an Islamic scientist. However, that does not change very much my purpose that Islam (in its both branches Sunni and Shai’i) is not against civilization and human dignity.
I am finishing my work now. I have more to write, but later.
August 22nd, 2011, 7:47 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Embarrassed ?
August 22nd, 2011, 7:53 pm
SYR.EXPAT said:
54. SS
Although I am not a friend of Dr. Khoury, but he sounds like a fine gentleman that I hope to meet one day after Syria is freed from the monsters who rule her. Maybe he can become Syria’s new PM.
As for the Arabic translation, it does mention the Samanid sultan whom Ibn Sina treated when he was just 18 years old.
Regarding him being considered an Arab, we Arabs consider anyone who is fluent in Arabic an Arab. Having said that, we have no problem with him being of Persian origin. In Islam, what matters is piety and merit, not country of origin. This is why Muslims were able to produce one of the greatest world civilizations, which also helped get the Christian Europeans out of the Dark Ages and paved the way to what followed.
I don’t understand why you’re so incensed about Dr. Khoury calling Ibn Sina an Arab scientist. When referring to Islamic civilization, it doesn’t mean that only Muslims contributed to it, but it’s the umbrella under which these contributions occurred. The same applies when Westerners talk about the Arab civilization. It doesn’t mean all the contributors were Arab.
Take it easy. Don’t let your blood boil over nothing. All you had to do is link to the biography of Ibn Sina. Dr. Khoury would have thanked you for your correction. You should instead be exposing the crimes against humanity committed by the Syrian government. You should be condemning torture and corruption. This is where your energy should be directed. You’ve condemned those who attacked the army and police (I also condemn them if it’s not for self defense), now show us your condemnation for the systematic and institutionalized brutality committed by the Syrian government.
August 22nd, 2011, 8:02 pm
SYR.EXPAT said:
60. SYR.EXPAT said:
54. SS
“As for the Arabic translation, it does mention the Samanid sultan whom Ibn Sina treated when he was just 18 years old.”
This is mentioned in the full article. I only quoted the first fe sentences.
August 22nd, 2011, 8:04 pm
ann said:
Mideast Expert: Syria’s WMD Could Fall to Islamists
Monday, 22 Aug 2011 07:30 PM
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/israel-katz-syria-WMD/2011/08/22/id/408235
Israel is “very concerned” over the potential fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, according to Yaakov Katz, Israeli military expert and defense correspondent for the Jerusalem Post.
“All of this extensive, advanced weaponry that Assad has manufactured and hoarded over the past decade will find itself in the hands of people who might even be more radical than Assad, and who don’t have the political calculations that he had.”
In an exclusive Newsmax interview, Katz also suggests a more positive scenario: “If Assad will fall, the supply line to Hezbollah will be cut off and Iran will find itself more isolated without the friend it used to have in Syria. That could be a very good outcome for Israel. At the same time though, Israel is very concerned [that] no one in the world can say who will be the potential successor in Syria.
“[Assad] has an extensive chemical weapons program, and thousands of SCUD missiles . . . that could do a lot of damage against Israel,” Katz says, reasoning that western powers were able to militarily intervene in Libya because, “There was basically no place for Libya to respond to. On the other hand, If the United States or NATO starts to bomb Syria, Assad could fire SCUD missiles into Israel.
“It’s an extremely dangerous time, mostly characterized by uncertainty . . . a level of which hasn’t been seen for years. Israel could find itself as not only the only democracy in the Middle East, but the only country that’s not run by radical Islamists.
“Since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel hasn’t faced enemies on its northern and southern fronts,” says Katz, regarding the tense situation on Israel’s border with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, where a Palestinian terror attack last week killed eight Israelis and ignited a round of fighting between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“Sinai has turned into a lawless Wild West of sorts. The Egyptians have completely lost the Sinai and are now trying to restore law and order, and Israel is allowing Egypt to deploy forces inside of the Sinai.”
Per the peace treaty signed between Israel and Egypt in 1979, the peninsula was to remain demilitarized. “Israel is bending the peace treaty to allow them to insert those troops,” Katz explains.
After striking targets in Gaza through the weekend, Israel agreed to a ceasefire on Monday for two reasons, according to Katz: “What happens in Gaza affects Israel’s ties with Egypt. An Israeli onslaught against Gaza today is something the Egyptians refuse to accept.”
Also, “Israel restrained itself to some extent because of the potential diplomatic and international fallout it would face ahead of September,” when the Palestinians plan to ask the United Nations General Assembly to grant statehood to Palestine.
“Gaza today is linked to what’s happening in Egypt, and that’s due to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood is a growing force in Egypt, particularly on the political level . . . [and] is the founding fathers of Hamas.”
The Muslim Brotherhood aren’t the only players behind the scenes, according to Katz: “It’s all under the umbrella of the Islamic regime of Iran.”
“The weaponry comes from Iran, some are produced in Gaza with Iranian tech and knowhow. The model of the most recent attack [against Israel] was very similar to some IDF officers who are familiar with fighting in Lebanon against Hezbollah . . . It’s almost like they come off the assembly line straight out of Iran.”
August 22nd, 2011, 8:07 pm
Afram said:
38. mjabali said:
“The so called “Arabic History” needs to be re-written based on science and not political/religious agendas”
go to DR.Kamel al-Najar site and read about fabricated arab/islam history.read article# 3422 and#3433
DR.Najar is a former muslim NOW athiest
scroll down to read his 100,s of articles
http://www.ahewar.org/m.asp?i=1204
العلمانية، الدين السياسي ونقد الفكر الديني 2011 / 7 / 21 3433 متى ظهر الإسلام 2-2 2
العلمانية، الدين السياسي ونقد الفكر الديني 2011 / 7 / 10 3422
متى ظهر الإسلام؟ 1-2 3
August 22nd, 2011, 8:09 pm
beaware said:
UK minister cautious on Syrian oil sanctions
Sat, Aug 20 2011
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/20/syria-britain-idUSL5E7JK0A320110820
LONDON, Aug 20 (Reuters) – Britain has not yet decided whether to back proposed EU sanctions on Syrian oil, and is wary of measures that could hurt the Syrian people more than President Bashar al-Assad, a junior foreign minister said on Saturday.
The United States imposed an oil embargo on Syria on Thursday in protest against Assad’s crackdown on civil unrest that the United Nations says has killed around 2,000 people.
But the European Union has taken a more incremental approach on sanctions. It agreed on Friday to expand the number of Syrian officials and institutions targeted, deferring discussion of an oil embargo until next week.
Some EU governments are concerned about harming their commercial interests and long-term relations with the government . Firms like Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and France’s Total are significant investors in Syria.
“We have not taken a decision on oil,” British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said in a BBC interview.
“Our view is that sanctions must continue to be targeted on those who support the regime, and sanctions should be considered on the basis of what will have most effect on changing that situation or improving the situation of the Syrian people.”
EU countries such as Sweden have been more supportive of an embargo on Syrian oil. Europe is a major consumer of Syrian oil exports, which are an important source of revenue for Assad’s government.
However, some analysts say that sanctions might drive Assad closer to Iran, and might have little short-term impact on the level of violence in Syria.
Burt said an oil embargo would need to be EU-wide, and that EU governments had to be wary of enabling Assad to blame them for any future economic hardship that Syrians suffer.
“What we have got to do and what we are doing is increasing the pressure in a manner that does not enable a Syrian spokesman to say ‘You are damaging the Syrian people’,” Burt said. (Reporting by David Milliken; editing by Elizabeth Piper)
August 22nd, 2011, 8:18 pm
jad said:
WTF!!!!!!
Tripoli-Libya:
Fox News, Reuters, and Associated Press refuted Reports of Seif El Islam Gaddafi being captured by Libya rebels.
من ليبيا – سيف الاسلام :
تكذيبا للقنوات المغرضة و قناة الخنزيرة
يخرج سيف الاسلام في طرابلس وبالتحديد في باب العزيزية في وسط الجماهير ليأخد الصحفيين لاكثر الاماكن خطورة
هاهي قناة الحقيرة تضحك على الشعوب العربيه من جديد
يعني بعد ان قلبت الجزيره الدنيا اليوم تنقل الخبر من غير اي تكذيييييب
http://youtu.be/6BvfVw1Nego
August 22nd, 2011, 8:19 pm
Aboud said:
Yep Tara, I’m fine, thanks for asking. Just sleeping off way too much spaghetti.
So, what was it that got the Iranians so riled up on this forum? LOL!
August 22nd, 2011, 8:30 pm
Tara said:
Aboudi
Hay, you got me worried.
I heard 10 were killed in Homs today.
August 22nd, 2011, 8:36 pm
Tara said:
Dale
I cook Iranian already. I have many Iranin friends. Do not need a recipe book from the grand ayatollah. You can keep it. Consider it a gift from me.
August 22nd, 2011, 8:39 pm
Akbar Palace said:
Assad’s Feeble, Last-Gasp Fear Tactic
Mideast Expert: Syria’s WMD Could Fall to Islamists
Ann,
Thanks for this profound article!
Please tell us, how is Syria’s WMD in the hands of Assad any different?
This “fear card” was played so long it no longer has any value, except, perhaps, to pro-Baathist professors in danger of losing their job.
August 22nd, 2011, 8:46 pm
Tara said:
AP
Well said.
August 22nd, 2011, 8:50 pm
beaware said:
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has not been captured
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8717211/Saif-al-Islam-Gaddafi-has-not-been-captured.html
Muammer Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam, wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, has not been arrested by rebels – despite earlier reports – and is still in Tripoli.
Saif al-Islam arrived in a vehicle in front of the building complex, which was bombed by the Americans in 1986.
.. more
Gaddafi son makes surprise appearance in Tripoli
http://rt.com/news/gaddafi-sons-rebels-detain-557/print/
Published: 22 August, 2011, 20:07
Edited: 23 August, 2011, 04:46
One of Gaddafi’s sons, Seif al Islam, who was earlier reported to have been arrested, made a surprise appearance in Tripoli.
He appeared at the Rixos hotel in Tripoli early Tuesday in a convoy of armored Land Cruisers. Fox News spoke with Saif Gaddafi, who said that his father and several of his sisters are indeed alive and well, and that he is still in Tripoli.
“Yes, he is in Tripoli, he is alive and well and we are winning,” he said. “The rebels have been lured into a trap and we will crush them.”
Another Muammar Gaddafi’s son Khamis may have been killed, Reuters reported, citing Al Jazeera. Another son Mohammed, one of three Gaddafi sons captured by rebels Monday, has allegedly escaped house arrest with the help of loyalist fighters.
Two bodies have been found that could be those of Khamis and Gaddafi’s intelligence chief, Abdallah Senussi, Al Jazeera reported, citing unnamed sources.
As for Mohammed Gaddafi, he was captured on Monday night in his home. At the time of the assault on the house, a man identifying himself as Mohammed Gaddafi was giving a telephone interview to Al Jazeera. He claimed on air that his house was being attacked.
One other son of Muammar Gaddafi held by the rebels – Saadi – remains in custody. It was believed that Saif al-Islam is also held by the rebels.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague is currently holding talks with the Libyan transitional government about the surrender of Saif al-Islam, a top official in his father’s regime.
The court has arrest warrants for Gaddafi himself, his son Saif and military intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi. They are wanted “for crimes against humanity (murder and persecution) allegedly committed across Libya from 15 February 2011 until at least 28 February 2011, through the State apparatus and Security Forces.”
The ICC’s spokesperson, Fadi El-Abdallah, said that as yet they do not have any clear information on when Saif might be transferred. El-Abdallah added that this was an important step for international justice in the interests of the victims in Libya.
The ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, also confirmed that Saif had been detained by “rebel special forces.”
He made it clear there is an obligation to surrender Saif to the ICC in accordance with Security Council resolution 1970, The Hague Justice Portal reports.
The third son captured was Saadi Gaddafi, a businessman and one-time professional soccer player. He and Saif al-Islam had been detained by opposition forces prior to Mohammed’s arrest, say rebel leaders.
The whereabouts of Muammar Gaddafi and his other four sons remains unknown.
August 22nd, 2011, 8:53 pm
Tara said:
Seif al Islam “sad fate” is sealed. Really.
Suicide, execution, or trial at the ICC. No other alternative available.
August 22nd, 2011, 8:59 pm
uzair8 said:
Tyrants & Dictators – Hamza Yusuf
This video talks about the disgusting ‘secret police’, ‘dictators’ etc.
Must watch. The Sheikh is not salafi. The video is old frolm the 90’s I think.
August 22nd, 2011, 8:59 pm
jad said:
http://www.facebook.com/HNN.SYRIA
كما يقول المثل : / فوق الموتة عصة قبر / ـ
بعد أن قام الكفرة أصحاب من يدعون أنفسهم فوار
وتم اسقاط حرف الثاء لأنهم ساقطين لا محالة
بعد أن قاموا بقتل الشهيد ماهر الأشقر
الذي قمنا بتغطية تفاصيل استشهاده
وبعد التمثيل بجثته ومتابعة عهرهم الكافر بنشر الأكاذيب
وتسويق خبر استشهاده لصالحهم
حيث قاموا بايصال اسمه إلى قناة العربية على أن الأمن قتله
ومن ثم قاموا بتصوير جثمانه الطاهر لينسبوه لمسلسل افتراءهم
ومنذ لحظات قاموا بنسب عملية اغتيال الشهيد إلى أنفسهم
وهذه الصورة تثبت بالدليل القاطع أنهم أصحاب الكفر
وأصحاب النفاق وأهل بيت الفتنة التي يحاولون خلقها بين أهالي حمص الشرفاء
وهذا هو رابط الخبر المنشور لديهم
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=261149130581293&set=a.257092524320287.76963.256236484405891&type=1&ref=nf
August 22nd, 2011, 9:00 pm
SYR.EXPAT said:
Saif Al-Islam is free after all.
The ICC has a lot o explaining to do. It’s also reported that the eldest son escaped with the help of Qhadhafi forces.
“http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14625205”
Yesterday, I stated in one of my posts that I won’t celebrate until I see visual confirmation of his arrest. It was rather suspicious for the ICC to claim he was captured without producing visual confirmation. At any rate, we’re looking forward to seeing him and his father getting the punsihment they deserve.
August 22nd, 2011, 9:18 pm
True said:
Besho’s interview proved him as an alien who came from outside this world with no clue of what’s going on his own country, and it confirmed beyond any doubt that the regime is impossible to be reformed, and that Syria’s future cannot be built with this regime nor with such an illegitimate president who decided to live in denial and chose voluntarily to enter the path of murder and persecution in the hope of breaking the will of the Syrian people. Although the price is exorbitant, the fall of two thousand innocent and more was not sufficient to break the will of the people and their determination to topple the walls of the big prison, Hafiz’s prison.
August 22nd, 2011, 9:20 pm
husam said:
Thanks uzair8 @ 73, everyone should watch that link, there is a surprise at the end that rings true after 20 years!
August 22nd, 2011, 9:23 pm
beaware said:
Mideast Expert: Syria’s WMD Could Fall to Islamists
Monday, August 22, 2011 07:30 PM
By: Brett Sandala
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/514878511?-16531
Israel is “very concerned” over the potential fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, according to Yaakov Katz, Israeli military expert and defense correspondent for the Jerusalem Post.
“All of this extensive, advanced weaponry that Assad has manufactured and hoarded over the past decade will find itself in the hands of people who might even be more radical than Assad, and who don’t have the political calculations that he had.”
In an exclusive Newsmax interview, Katz also suggests a more positive scenario: “If Assad will fall, the supply line to Hezbollah will be cut off and Iran will find itself more isolated without the friend it used to have in Syria. That could be a very good outcome for Israel. At the same time though, Israel is very concerned [that] no one in the world can say who will be the potential successor in Syria.
“[Assad] has an extensive chemical weapons program, and thousands of SCUD missiles . . . that could do a lot of damage against Israel,” Katz says, reasoning that western powers were able to militarily intervene in Libya because, “There was basically no place for Libya to respond to. On the other hand, If the United States or NATO starts to bomb Syria, Assad could fire SCUD missiles into Israel.
“It’s an extremely dangerous time, mostly characterized by uncertainty . . . a level of which hasn’t been seen for years. Israel could find itself as not only the only democracy in the Middle East, but the only country that’s not run by radical Islamists.
“Since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel hasn’t faced enemies on its northern and southern fronts,” says Katz, regarding the tense situation on Israel’s border with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, where a Palestinian terror attack last week killed eight Israelis and ignited a round of fighting between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“Sinai has turned into a lawless Wild West of sorts. The Egyptians have completely lost the Sinai and are now trying to restore law and order, and Israel is allowing Egypt to deploy forces inside of the Sinai.”
Per the peace treaty signed between Israel and Egypt in 1979, the peninsula was to remain demilitarized. “Israel is bending the peace treaty to allow them to insert those troops,” Katz explains.
After striking targets in Gaza through the weekend, Israel agreed to a ceasefire on Monday for two reasons, according to Katz: “What happens in Gaza affects Israel’s ties with Egypt. An Israeli onslaught against Gaza today is something the Egyptians refuse to accept.”
Also, “Israel restrained itself to some extent because of the potential diplomatic and international fallout it would face ahead of September,” when the Palestinians plan to ask the United Nations General Assembly to grant statehood to Palestine.
“Gaza today is linked to what’s happening in Egypt, and that’s due to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood is a growing force in Egypt, particularly on the political level . . . [and] is the founding fathers of Hamas.”
The Muslim Brotherhood aren’t the only players behind the scenes, according to Katz: “It’s all under the umbrella of the Islamic regime of Iran.”
“The weaponry comes from Iran, some are produced in Gaza with Iranian tech and knowhow. The model of the most recent attack [against Israel] was very similar to some IDF officers who are familiar with fighting in Lebanon against Hezbollah . . . It’s almost like they come off the assembly line straight out of Iran.”
August 22nd, 2011, 9:51 pm
SYR.EXPAT said:
73. UZAIR8
“Tyrants & Dictators – Hamza Yusuf
This video talks about the disgusting ’secret police’, ‘dictators’ etc.
Must watch. The Sheikh is not salafi. The video is old frolm the 90’s I think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFhBoHTIR00”
This is amazing. A short but powerful video that applies to Syria big time. Is there a transcript of it?
August 22nd, 2011, 9:56 pm
Aboud said:
““[Assad] has an extensive chemical weapons program, and thousands of SCUD missiles ”
Dear God, what kind of military expert is this guy? Only the Soviet Union had “thousands of Scuds”. Not even Iran, which makes its own missiles from N.Korean designs, has the capacity to maintain “thousands of Scuds”
Syria has at best, several dozen mobile Scud launchers. The fixed missile sites can all be written off within an hour of a war.
August 22nd, 2011, 10:05 pm
Haytham Khoury said:
Dear Syr. Expat:
@60
Thank you very much for your post. Indeed, I have condemned the regime many times. Further, I am fully committed to bring the regime down. Please find below some of my contribution to that cause. If you feel that I can do more, please tell me.
-“Indeed, the regime is panting and feeling that its end is coming closer. However, it is fighting back by more oppression, persecution and killing. For long time the regime was restricting the people’s claim for their basic rights by threats, oppression and persecution. For long the regime thought it was successful doing so. But, when the people started to demonstrate asking for freedom and dignity, the regime was startled. The only answer it has was more oppression, persecution and killings, because this is the only the language the regime knows. Further, because the regime madness the persecution and oppression transformed into massive killings and crimes against humanity.”
http://haytham-khoury2.blogspot.com/2011/07/urgency-for-transition-council-in-syria_14.html
-The regime is vicious, resistant to any repair and extremely insecure. One important thing about highly insecure people (that applies to insecure political systems) is that they can’t live with others in normal and respectful relationship. Deep in their mind, they believe that in order to live they should kill all “living” people around them (please refer to the analysis of Hitler personality in “Anatomy of Human Destructiveness”). They want people around them to be either completely subdued (spiritually dead) or physically dead. For this reason, the Syrian people’s struggle with the regime is a war of existence.; either the regime demises or the people “die”.
http://haytham-khoury2.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-ferocious-and-unrelenting-war-with.html
-“Let me start my present e-mail by analyzing Bouthaina Sha’aban, the president advisor, and Rami Makhlouf’s, the president cousin, statements to the NY times. It seems both of them believed (or maybe still believe) that the uprising is finished; however, this is wrong. What happened today with the expansion of demonstrations to new cities and the increase in the number of demonstrators proved that they were wrong. I think they built their assumption on the premise that by destroying Dara’a they were sending a strong message to all Syrians. However, that backfired inside as well as outside the country. Inside the country, the people seem to be more than ever determined to take this regime out. Outside the country, the regime has lost all legitimacy (as Alain Juppé stated), even among their friends (I mean particularly Turkey).”
http://haytham-khoury2.blogspot.com/2011/07/strategies-to-fight-regime.html
August 22nd, 2011, 10:05 pm
ann said:
Syria’s Assad ‘not worried’, hints at secret assets – Monday, August 22, 2011 INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2011/me_syria1054_08_22.asp
NICOSIA — President Bashar Assad has warned of hidden Syrian military capabilities.
Assad asserted that the Syrian military contained greater capabilities than known outside the regime. The president, who did not elaborate, said his military could repel any foreign attack.
“As for the security situation, it has become more militant in the recent weeks,” Assad said. “We are capable of dealing with it. I am not worried.”
In an Aug. 21 interview on Syrian state television, Assad made the first reference to Syria’s military might. He hinted to Syria’s missile and non-conventional arsenal, believed to include chemical and biological weapons.
“As for the threat of a military action, any action against Syria will have greater consequences, greater than they can tolerate,” Assad said.
Western diplomats said Assad appeared to be responding to rising military tension with neighboring Turkey. They said the Turkish government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan was examining the prospect of forming a safe haven for rebels and refugees along the border with Syria.
“Turkey sees its opportunity in controlling northeastern Syria as in the Ottoman days,” a regional diplomatic source said.
“They know part of it [Syrian military prowess],” Assad said in the 40-minute interview. “But they do not know the other parts and they will not be able to afford the results.”
The president did not cite Syria’s capabilities. Western intelligence sources said Assad still controls his medium-range Scud D ballistic missiles, designed to be fitted with chemical and perhaps biological warheads.
Syria has been using its Russian-origin military in an effort to quell the revolt, which began in March. So far, more than 2,100 civilians were said to have been killed by Assad’s military and security forces.
Assad said the revolt was led by Islamist insurgency groups. The president said more than 500 soldiers and police were killed since March as the attacks on the regime intensified.
The rebel attacks were said to have peaked on Aug. 19. Assad said Islamic fighters attacked police and army posts and killed officers as well as destroyed military vehicles.
August 22nd, 2011, 10:10 pm
ann said:
China concerned with latest developments in Syria: envoy – 2011-08-23 03:43:26
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-08/23/c_131067268.htm
GENEVA, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) — China has been following the latest developments of Syria with great concern and called on all sides to resolve the issue in a peaceful way, Chinese diplomat He Yafei said here Monday at a special session of UN Human Rights Council on Syria.
China has hoped all parties in Syria would show maximum restraint and refrain from all acts of violence, He, Chinese Permanent Representative to the UN office at Geneva, said in a statement.
The concerned parties should seek a political solution through dialogue and consultations, so as to prevent escalating violence and more bloodshed, and restore stability and order to the country as soon as possible, He added.
“The future of Syria should be determined by its people rather than being dictated by outside forces,” He said, stressing that the only way to end the current crisis is to initiate a home-led and inclusive political process.
In view of the reform measures that the Syrian government has taken, China urged the government to implement its promised reforms, adding that “we would also appeal to all interested parties to participate constructively in the dialogue so as to jointly move forward the political process to diffuse tensions.”
The stability of Syria has significant impact on the overall stability and security of the Middle East as Syria is an important country in that region, He said.
Therefore, “the turmoil affecting parts of the Middle East and North Africa is seriously disrupting the economic and social development and people’s lives in those countries.”
The international community has proposed a number of initiatives to solve the Syrian issue, He said, while the Chinese government held that these initiatives must be guided by the UN Charter and the international law, and must fully respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Syria.
Meanwhile, these initiatives should also aim at solving the issue through dialogues and consultations, while maintaining stability and social order of Syria, and more broadly, that of the overall Middle East region.
This is the second time in a year the human rights council met in special session to discuss the human rights situation in Syria.
“It is our hope that in expressing its concern on and discussing this issue, the Council will maintain its impartiality and objectivity and base its actions on accurate and reliable information,” He said.
“We also hope that the special session will help advance dialogue and cooperation, instead of turning into a forum to level accusations and exert pressures on the country, with the view of bringing an early solution to the problem in the interests of the healthy development of the international human rights cause,” said the statement.
August 22nd, 2011, 10:47 pm
SYR.EXPAT said:
81. HAYTHAM KHOURY said:
Dear Dr. Haytham,
May God reward you for speaking against injustice. I am against injustice regardless of who is committing the injustice. We’re all praying for a better Syria without this criminal gang that respects no religion and is devoid of humanity.
The Assads followed the old and proven strategy of divide and conquer. They killed what used to be a relatively healthy democracy and turned it into a tyranny. At one point, the PM was a member of the Khoury family. He was a respected leader and severed his country with honor. May be you can be the second PM from the Khoury family after Syria is liberated from Assads and the Baath party. 🙂
August 22nd, 2011, 10:47 pm
ann said:
Bias corrupts U.S. foreign policy – Monday, 22 August 2011 21:08
http://www.dailygamecock.com/viewpoints/item/1755-bias-corrupts-foreign-policy
Syrian conflict presents issues with U.S. diplomacy
The White House’s denunciation of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria on Thursday presents a series of dilemmas before American foreign policy experts.
Currently the United States is waging two wars in the Muslim countries of Iraq and Afghanistan and is involved indirectly via NATO in supporting the Libyan rebels. The country’s war weariness has caused many foreign policy officials and the White House to question the merits military interventions.
When Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi was on the outskirts of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, the Department of State pushed the White House to take the position of intervening to support the rebels. However, the congressional rebuke of the Libyan intervention ultimately led to defunding U.S. operations. Now President Barack Obama, after waiting weeks and observing the situation in Syria and witnessing the slaughter of hundreds, has finally called on al-Assad to resign.
The movement in Syria to oust al-Assad from power is part of a broader movement in the Muslim world known as the Arab Spring. Whether in Egypt, Libya or elsewhere, these social protest movements present a unique challenge for U.S. foreign policy officials. The relatively peaceful transition of power in Egypt created hope that other movements might have similar peaceful outcomes.
However, in countries with more hard-line regimes such as al-Assad in Syria, Gadhafi in Libya and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, these movements have at times led to violence. As the U.S. government continues to respond slowly to the developments in the Muslim world, one wonders if the confusion and lack of a coordinated foreign policy agenda regarding the Arab Spring is not the result of American public’s biases weighing on the countries leadership.
Since 9/11 Muslims in America have been stereotyped and ridiculed, and have faced discrimination for practicing their beliefs. Perceptions of all Muslims as terrorists because of the acts of a few extremist has lead to Quran burning and attempts to stop construction of mosques throughout the country. America’s Muslim bias coupled with blind pro-Israeli support motivated by Jewish lobbying groups has caused the American government time and time again to turn a blind eye to the atrocities that Israel commits against the Palestinians, while quickly condemning the Palestinian Authority when it seems appropriate in the eyes of its Israeli ally.
As the U.S. seeks to build and nurture a positive relationship with Muslims as outlined in Obama’s June 2009 Cairo speech, we must end our double standards. We have a standard for Israel and a standard for Muslims. We cannot be outraged by what we view as Muslim sexism toward women, while people in the United States practice racism toward Muslims. It is time for our double standards to end, and allow our foreign policy experts the freedom to evaluate the merits of Middle East policy without fear of the American public’s biases affecting its judgments.
August 22nd, 2011, 10:57 pm
Akbar Palace said:
Ann,
Here’s another article for your collection:
From the “Daily Planet”….
Unconfirmed reports from Damascus indicate that al-Queda operatives have penetrated Syrian airspace and are close to releasing chaos over Western civilization. Syrian President Bashar Assad has warned the international community that only he has the leverage to stop this madness.
August 22nd, 2011, 10:59 pm
Haytham Khoury said:
Dear Syr. Expat:
@84
Thank you very much for thinking that I can fulfill the office of PM. Indeed, I think that there are a lot people inside the country as well as outside the country who merit to assume that responsibility more than me. There are a lot of people who struggled against the regime and paid many years of their lives in prison, just to mention few Riad Saif, Wafaa Horani, Suhair Atassi, Louay Husein, Anwar al-Buni, Kamal Libewani and many others. In front of these names, I have only one attitude, respect and admiration.
Thank you again
August 22nd, 2011, 11:06 pm
ann said:
After the fall, US concerned about Libyan weapons – Tue Aug 23, 2011 4:46am
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/08/22/idINIndia-58912120110822
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has pressed for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to step down, but a leadership vacuum raises concerns about the security of Libya’s weapons stockpiles and the danger of them falling into the hands of adversaries, officials said on Monday.
Libyan rebels have taken over most of Tripoli, Gaddafi’s location is unknown, and great uncertainty exists about who will eventually end up in charge of the country.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers warned of security concerns while Gaddafi’s rule crumbles.
“Even after Gaddafi is out of power we will have to step up and lead to ensure U.S. national security interests are safeguarded,” Rogers, a Republican, said in a statement. “In particular, we must ensure that Gaddafi’s stockpiles of advanced weapons, chemical weapons and explosives don’t fall into the wrong hands.”
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in February said Libya kept 9.5 tonnes of mustard gas in a secret desert location guarded by the army, but had destroyed aerial bombs designed to deliver chemicals in 2004 as part of a short-lived rapprochement with the West.
Gaddafi’s stockpiles of chemical agents are still being closely guarded by forces loyal to the Libyan leader, a U.S. official told Reuters on Monday.
The United States, NATO and the United Nations have been keeping a close eye on the stockpiles during the crisis, officials said.
“The stockpiles at this point appear to be well-guarded,” the U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s worth keeping in mind that Gaddafi did in fact destroy many of his most dangerous weapons, and that much of what remains is outdated or difficult to make operational.”
A U.N. official told Reuters that due to their age, Libya’s chemical stockpiles might be more of an environmental hazard than a military or terrorist threat.
They consist of “very old chemical components which are not very useful as weapons,” the official said. Mustard gas decays with age and Gaddafi’s stockpiles are old enough that they are not even necessarily that hazardous, the U.N. official said.
U.S. and European officials also are concerned about keeping secure Libya’s stockpiles of conventional weapons — surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank rockets, armored vehicles, rocket-propelled grenades and explosives.
Libyan forces fired three Scud-type missiles on Monday from the area of Sirte, Gaddafi’s home town. That followed the launch of another Scud missile last week, the first time his forces fired the weapon since the conflict began.
Some counter-terrorism officials were much more concerned about Gaddafi’s arsenals of conventional weapons being looted than they were about his stockpile of chemical agents, a European security official said.
The fear is that such weapons could either make their way to militant groups or insurgents seeking to destabilize other African governments. But so far there was little evidence of significant weapons leaks or militant involvement in Libyan forces opposed to Gaddafi, a U.S. official said.
“As we move forward, the international community must ensure a peaceful transition where the will of the Libyan people is heard,” U.S. Representative C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger said.
“We must also ensure radical extremist groups do not take control of the country. Libya has a large stockpile of chemical weapons and explosives that must not fall into the wrong hands,” said Ruppersberger, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
August 22nd, 2011, 11:08 pm
N.Z. said:
This is the newest amendment to Bashar’s Reform
NO DEITY BUT BASHAR! A NEW ALL TIME-LOW
What kind of hatred are these men fed?
August 22nd, 2011, 11:43 pm
SYR.EXPAT said:
مجلس حقوق الإنسان يصوت الثلاثاء على قرار يدعو سورية لـ”وقف العنف والسماح بلجنة تحقيق مستقلة” .. ومندوب سورية يصف لغة القرار بـ “المقيتة”
الاخبار المحلية
شارك
http://www.syria-news.com/readnews.php?sy_seq=136503
عقد مجلس حقوق الإنسان التابع للأمم المتحدة يوم الاثنين جلسة استثنائية حول الوضع في سورية، تم خلالها عرض مشروع قرار يدعو السلطات السورية إلى “الوقف الفوري لجميع أعمال العنف”، والسماح لـ “إرسال لجنة تحقيق مستقلة بشكل عاجل”، وتم إرجاء الجلسة ليوم الثلاثاء للتصويت على القرار، فيما اعتبر مندوب سورية في جنيف أن “اللغة المستخدمة في مشروع القرار مقيتة” وأن التصويت عليه سيساهم في “إطالة أمد الأزمة في سورية”.
وذكرت تقارير إعلامية متطابقة أن مفوضة الأمم المتحدة العليا لحقوق الانسان نافي بيلاي أشارت لدى افتتاح الجلسة إلى أن انتهاكات حقوق الإنسان “مستمرة حتى اليوم في سوريا””، مبينة أن “حجم وطبيعة هذه الأعمال يمكن أن ترق إلى مستوى جرائم ضد الإنسانية”.
وتمت الدعوة إلى عقد هذه الجلسة الاستثنائية بطلب من 24 دولة عضو، بينها أربع دول عربية من المجلس هي السعودية والأردن وقطر والكويت.
وتم إرجاء الجلسة إلى يوم الثلاثاء للتصويت على مشروع قرار يدعو السلطات السورية إلى “الوقف الفوري لجميع أعمال العنف”.
ويطالب القرار أيضا بـ “إرسال لجنة تحقيق مستقلة بشكل عاجل” على الأرض “لإجراء تحقيقات حول انتهاكات حقوق الإنسان في سوريا منذ شهر آذار” و”تحديد المرتكبين للتأكد من إمكانية محاسبتهم”.
من جهته، أشار مندوب سورية في المجلس فيصل الحموي أن “اللغة المستخدمة في مشروع القرار مقيتة” وأن التصويت عليه “لن يكون من شأنه سوى إطالة أمد الأزمة في سورية”.
وكانت اللجنة العليا للأمم المتحدة لحقوق الإنسان أشار في تقرير لها يوم الخميس الماضي إلى أن القوات السورية قامت بأعمال في الأحداث الأخيرة التي تشهدها البلاد قد ترقى أو تمثل جرائم ضد الإنسانية، داعية إلى إحالة المسألة إلى المحكمة الجنائية الدولية.
فيما قال محلل سياسي في وقت سابق لسيريانيوز بأن الغرب “يهدف من خلال هذه التحركات إلى التدخل بالشؤون السورية الداخلية تحت غطاء الدافع الإنساني، مقللا من إمكانية إحالة الملف السوري للمحكمة الدولية”.
وتعتبر هذه المرة الثانية، التي يخصص فيها مجلس حقوق الإنسان جلسة طارئة حول سورية، بعد جلسة عقدت في 29 نيسان الماضي.
وتبنى مجلس حقوق الإنسان التابع للأمم المتحدة، الذي يضم 47 دولة، بجلسته المنعقدة في نيسان الماضي، قرار تقدمت به أميركا، يدين ما أسماه “استخدام العنف ضد المتظاهرين في سورية”، وإرسال بعثة تحقيق بصورة عاجلة، وذلك بعد أن حاز على تأييد 26 دولة، مقابل معارضة 9، وامتناع 7 عن التصويت، في الجلسة التي غاب عنها ممثلو قطر والبحرين والأردن.
وتقرأ سورية مواقف الدول الغربية بأنها تأتي في إطار حملة الضغوط عليها للحصول على تنازلات في مواقفها من القضايا الوطنية والإقليمية، الداعمة للمقاومة في لبنان وفلسطين، والمتحالفة مع إيران.
واشارت التصريحات من اكثر من مسؤول سوري على الدوام الى ان مثل هذه الضغوط تهدف الى “تحييد سوريا عن مواقفها الثابتة من قضايا المنطقة والحصول على مكاسب سياسية تصب في خانة الدول الغربية”.
وتشهد عدة مدن سورية، منذ بدء حركة الاحتجاجات الشعبية منتصف آذار الماضي، أعمال عنف أودت بحياة الكثيرين من مدنيين ورجال أمن وجيش، تقول السلطات إنهم قضوا بنيران “جماعات مسلحة” تعمل تحت غطاء المظاهرات السلمية لزعزعة الاستقرار في سوريا، فيما تتهم منظمات حقوقية وناشطين السلطات بارتكاب أعمال عنف لـ “قمع المتظاهرين”.
August 22nd, 2011, 11:44 pm
SYR.EXPAT said:
“87. HAYTHAM KHOURY said:
Dear Dr. Haytham,
You’re most welcome. Hope when can meet in Syria in the near future.
August 22nd, 2011, 11:45 pm
ann said:
Witcover: On damaging perceptions – August 22, 2011
http://staugustine.com/opinions/2011-08-22/witcover-damaging-perceptions
Tribune Media Services
After rolling around the Midwest in his shiny new megabus and telling Syria’s President Assad to get lost, President Obama is off at Martha’s Vineyard for his annual vacation. But where is that promised laser-like focus on jobs?
Upon surviving the debt-limit crisis in which the congressional Republicans ate his lunch, the president pledged to make job-creation Job One. Now he says he will lay out his plan after Labor Day. What’s the rush?
His cruise through the heartland got the usual press coverage, but much of it was about the new $l.1 million presidential welcome wagon (one of two bought) equipped with flat-screen TV and other state-of-the-art gadgets. The trip was billed as nonpolitical, but it sure had the appearance of talking the talk on economic recovery as a holding action, until he produces that jobs-creation plan.
The bus tour created little of the sense of urgency that a prime-time television talk to the nation from the Oval Office might have generated to an infinitely larger national audience. But, then, what would the president have said, with his plan still in the making?
And why, out of the blue, did he find it imperative to pivot from the focus on American jobs to tell Assad it was time to pack up his bags and hit the road from Damascus? Sure, the repression in Syria had gotten worse, but what did that have to do with Job One at home?
American presidents, of course, should be capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time, to paraphrase LBJ’s ridicule years ago of good old Jerry Ford. But with Obama still trying to talk Moammar Gadhafi out of Libya, you might have thought the browbeating could have been left to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was also giving Assad a verbal push out the door.
Surely the President of the United States, who has amply demonstrated that he knows his own current job is a 24/7 operation, deserves a little vacation getaway with his family. Statistics-keepers have reported that Obama has taken many fewer vacation days from the Oval Office than his predecessor spent on his Texas ranch in the comparable period.
As we are repeatedly reminded from every occupant of the White House and his mouthpieces, the presidency is where the president is. That is especially so with all the latest communications technology at his disposal on land, in the air and at sea. But when it comes to sustaining public approval, perception can be just as critical as reality. One swing of a presidential golf club can negate hours of shirtsleeve toiling at the desk where the buck stops.
For Barack Obama particularly, his attempts to cajole the opposition into compromise rather than fighting tooth-and-nail for what he wants has fostered an unfavorable image with many voters. On the bus tour just ended, he toughened his words against the uncompromising Republicans, but for how long and with what likely result?
Unsurprisingly, neither Standard and Poor’s nor the stock market has been cooperative in shaking the public gloom over the economy — and the recovery that Obama has said all along was happening, albeit at a snail’s pace. But the president has been feeding the sense of drift, rejecting demands to call Congress back from its own vacation to act on job-creation proposals he has already made.
In 1948, Harry Truman demonstrated the political advantage of calling what he labeled “the do-nothing Congress” into special session. The summons itself rather than any resulting legislative achievement revealed him as the man in charge. His upset victory over heavily favored Thomas E. Dewey followed.
To be sure, Truman had already conveyed a scrappy persona to the public with his responses to the faithful’s calls to him to “Give ’em hell, Harry!” He would reply: “I just tell the truth about them and they think it’s hell!” That was hardly always the case, but Obama too often sounds like he’s just giving the opposition “heck.” And that may well be part of his problem.
August 23rd, 2011, 12:04 am
uzair8 said:
#79. SYRIA.EXPAT
“This is amazing. A short but powerful video that applies to Syria big time. Is there a transcript of it?”
Sorry. I dont know if there is a script. I searched briefly but didnt find one.
August 23rd, 2011, 12:19 am
SYR.EXPAT said:
فارس الخوري كلمة حق قناة الجزيرة
August 23rd, 2011, 1:03 am
mjabali said:
Mr Afram comment# 63
I am well aware of the writings of Dr. al-Najjar. I have been reading him in al-Hiwar for a long time. He destroyed many myths the Muslims has about their religion and history. He is good and I like his ideas. Thank you for this good referral.
August 23rd, 2011, 1:03 am
Real Syrian said:
To Dr.HAYTHAM KHOURY
Congratulations………Mr.SYRIA.EXPAT Has indirectly nominated you to be a prime minister in the coming Syria………..
Your efforts in marketing you resume on this blog has been proved to be successful…………..
My dear…….. the place of (khoury) people and the Syrian Christians will be to emigrate to Canada or Australia………If you do not believe me go and share some of your Iraqi Christian friends in Canada their prays next Sunday. I think they are more able to tell you how the future of all minorities (including Christians) in Syria would be in case your radical Islamic terrorist partners could control Syria…
August 23rd, 2011, 1:11 am
mjabali said:
Mr. Aboud:
While you were repeating your ideas bout the military and what are the policies, gains, and plans that should be followed and reaped you said the following (Comment #136 in the last thread):
“Tell me, who served their country better, the German generals who took an honest look at why they lost WW 1, and came up with the Blitzkrieg, or the French who thought that the fixed fortifications of the Maginot Line were still the way to go?”
Video game General Aboud of course admires the Nazis.
He likes to boil soldiers in urine and the Nazis like to blitz and send others to the gas chambers. Same way Aboud do not run and call me Iranian as if it is a diss. Iranians and how you use that word is coming to you soon. Here you are admiring the Nazis and what they perfected.
The question General Aboud is not who came up with a better military method.
The question is about transgression and who attacked the other. The question is MORAL. The German failed on the moral front.
Yes, the Germans perfected a form of a land blitzkrieg but did they learn that when you gather way to many enemies, more than you can handle, you lose the war like what happen to them in World War 1. They did not take an “honest look” as you said. They wanted revenge for their loss in World War I. Their vision was clouded. They were not “honest.” They were insane.
The Germans did not lose World War II because of the failure of the blitzkrieg or not, they lost it because they made way too many enemies. What did your wise German Generals do when the Americans, the British and the Russians airplanes perfected the blitzkrieg from the sky we know that it reduced Germany to a pile of sand and dirt while making from the Germans guilty and losers for generations to come. I am not surprised by your logic that champions those who are more aggressive and violent. This is video game logic.
You said: ” The Syrian army is hopeless. It needs to be torn down, and rebuilt from scratch. No more reliance on 50s era Soviet antiques, which just drain the military budget and are useless in a modern war. ”
General Aboud is fabricating the inventory of the Syrian Army, which weapons they are buying that are made in the 1950’s? This is a straight up fabrication and a lie. The whole world knows that Syria gets good Russian, almost top of the line, weapons.
AS for destroying the Syrian Army now, General Aboud does not know that you can build on what the Syrian Army had learned so far from fighting many battles. This is what a rational person would advise. But, as we all witnessing, rationality is being outed.
You said: ” The nature of military service must be changed. Scrap the conscription system, and give us 100,000 highly motivated professional warriors, better than 450,000 conscripts who go about their service as if serving out time in prison. ”
Aboud want to make warriors like those he sees in his video game. He want them to be like Ninjas. Your choice of words is failing you mr. Shakespeare.
You said: ” When the Israelis are faced with the prospect of taking on a modern, professional army on its northern border, Syria will get back the Golan without a shot having been fired.”
Mr. Aboud, who would give Syria modern weapons while Israel is around? Where did you learn how to read the events of this world? why don’t you say that I do not want to fight anyone and cancel the whole army and use that money on education. I want to fight no Israel and no Turkey and no one. I want to spend that money on improving the lives of Syrians, something you really do not care about.
To be continued….hoping in the meanwhile you come up with something better than calling me Iranian? do you think yourself better than the Iranians?
August 23rd, 2011, 1:53 am
Arsalan said:
@Khalid Tlass #7
“Allez au diable, vous athées laïcs de votre Chi’aisme culte est fini. Chi’aisme est une secte et elle sera détruite Inchallah”
Shia Ithnā‘ashariyyah represents legitimate school in Islam. Ghulat sects like Alawis and Alevis who deify Ali are an issue.
@ann #46
“Obama, NATO Must Stop Libya’s Hardline Islamists From Taking Power”
There is no legitimate secular opposition left in Syria and only Muslim Brotherhood. You can thank Assad family who see only their sons as political heirs.
August 23rd, 2011, 1:57 am
Syrialover said:
Seif-al-islam – what an advertisement for cocaine! They should just leave him to run around in circles until his supply runs out and he comes begging for a fix.
August 23rd, 2011, 1:58 am
OFF THE WALL said:
بوادر أزمة مالية بين الحكومة السورية والبنك الأوروبي بعد وقف القروض لدمشق
2011-08-22
http://www.alquds.co.uk
دمشق ـ ‘القدس العربي’ ـ من كامل صقر: قالت مصادر اقتصادية سورية ان أزمة مالية قد تندلع بين الحكومة السورية وإدارة بنك الاستثمار الأوروبي، بعد أن أوقف البنك الأوروبي تعاونه مع دمشق في إطار سلسلة العقوبات التي أقرها الاتحاد الأوروبي ضد النظام السوري.
وأضافت المصادر أن خطوة بنك الاستثمار الأوروبي تلك جاءت من طرف واحد بما أخل في شروط التعاقد مع الحكومة السورية وأضر بمصالح الدولة السورية وبالمشاريع التي كان متفقَاً على تمويلها أوروبياً وبجدوى وإمكانية متابعة إنجاز هذه المشاريع، ما يعني وفق تلك المصادر أن السلطات السورية قد تفكر ملياً في مسألة تسديد ما كان بنك الاستثمار قد دفعه من قيمة تلك القروض.
لكن خبراء اقتصاديين قالوا انه لا يحق للحكومة السورية التلكؤ في تسديد الدفعات التي قدمها البنك الأوروبي من جملة القروض المتفق عليها كون أن رئاسة الاتحاد الأوروبي هي التي أوقفت تعاون بنك الاستثمار مع سورية وليس البنك هو مَن اتخذ هذا القرار بمفرده، أي جاء القرار من سلطة سياسية تفوق سلطة البنك وقدرته على القرار، وان أية خطوة سورية من قبيل عدم التسديد ستدفع كل المؤسسات الدولية ـ وفق القانون الدولي ـ للتعاطف مع بنك الاستثمار وتوقف أية تعاملات مع السلطات السورية.
وترجح تقارير اقتصادية سورية مجمل القروض التي كان بنك الاستثمار الأوروبي قدمها لدمشق بما يزيد عن 700 مليون يورو، وأبرز المشاريع الممولة تصب في مجالات الرعاية الصحية ومشاريع المياه والطاقة وتشغيل المرأة والبنى التحتية والموانئ والنقل عبر المترو وغيرها; إضافة لقروض لتمويل الصناعيين السوريين عن طريق المصرف التجاري السوري الذي طالته العقوبات الأوروبية، وقرض لتمويل نصف صفقة شراء الطائرات التي تعتزم مؤسسة الطيران العربية السورية القيام بها والبالغة 600 مليون دولار، وقروض أخرى لتمويل المشاريع الصغيرة والمتوسطة في سورية.
وتزيد خطوة بنك الاستثمار تلك من الأعباء الاقتصادية في سورية التي تتزايد حدة العقوبات الاقتصادية على حكومتها وقطاعاتها الأساسية لا سيما القطاعين المصرفي والنفطي اللذين يشكلان أبرز وجوه الحراك الاقتصادي في سورية.
August 23rd, 2011, 2:08 am
Syria no kandahar said:
OTW
مبروك
August 23rd, 2011, 2:12 am
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Freedom حرية
August 23rd, 2011, 2:24 am
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Dignity كرامة
August 23rd, 2011, 2:26 am
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Citizen مواطن
August 23rd, 2011, 2:27 am
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Home وطن
August 23rd, 2011, 2:29 am
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Law قانون
August 23rd, 2011, 2:31 am
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Justice عدالة
August 23rd, 2011, 2:32 am
Syria no kandahar said:
Growing up in Syria you hear over and over again,every morning:
أمة عربية واحده ذات رسالة خالده
What happened to that?why is it that Iran is going to be Syria’s body?I think that
This is big political miscalculation.Iran is as bad as SA ,it is a religious system where women get stoned and police can stop a woman if her pants are not touching the ground.why should Syria be liable for Iran bad behavior?it is not too late for divorce.Iran killed about one million Iraqis ,kills and tortures Arabs in Ahwaz….it is زواج مصلحه which has to be terminated.Assad knows exactly that the west,Turkey,SA and isreal could care less about reform,if they did they would have pulled there ambassadors out of SA where a camel has rights more than a SA woman,he knows very well that they can’t cut the head of the snake(Iran),they can’t even cut the tail of it (HA),so the knife is on Syria which is connecting the head and the tale.Assad should realize that nations work out of there best national interest and all the west,isreal,Turkey and SA nation interests are only done by cutting this relationship.playing on the edge of the cliff is something which can be done,but it is just temporary.
Syria’s best national interests are never in Iran.if Iran is pushing five or six billions in the system now,all the current enemies will immediately turn into friends as soon as Iran is divorced بالثلاث,and instead of few billions,hundreds of billions will be injected in the Syrian economy by SA ,the west and the US.SA gives Jordan a billion every few months justعيديه.
Iran is being used by Syria now similarly to the Soviet Union in the past,but that is way out of date and reality.Iran is not the soviet union,and Russia and china has much more national interests with the world than with Syria.Sadat changed history by going to isreal,Assad can do the same thing by turning the relation with Iran to a regular one like any other nation,and by dumping HA ,befor they dump him,like what Hamas is almost doing,then democracy and freedom seekers will be praising him,and remove their hands from around his neck.
August 23rd, 2011, 3:02 am
jad said:
Why don’t we have true politicians in our Arabic world that work for the public good and for the society progress instead of building these ugly kingdoms and republics of fear, misery and blood?
Why don’t we have politicians and leaders that make us respect, trust and love them and feel really and sincerely sad when they leave instead of wishing to see them publicly killed and curse their souls?
Is it our leader’s nature, or the culture’s product, or our religions, or our customs or simply our inability to progress and the desire to stay victims of our own mistakes?
Why as a society and as a nation we always end up in the same hole we fought to go out from couple decades ago?
Why we always want to destroy what we have and start building everything from scratch, could it be true that our Bedouin nature is this strong?
What are our secrets to stay backward?
Today, a great Canadian politician passed away, I couldn’t but to realize the huge gap between him and every Arab leader we have in this useless zone called the Middle East.
Here are his last words to the Canadians:
“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.”
Jack Layton
1950-2011
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/08/22/pol-layton-last-letter.html
August 23rd, 2011, 3:07 am
abbas said:
Looks like Syrian Hamster is conducting some kind of experiment to see who press the dislike button on his comments no matter what he writes
August 23rd, 2011, 3:08 am
Samara said:
The United Nincompoops (UN) the United States of Asses (USA), the European Underwear (EU) and the National Atlantic Termite Organisation (NATO) should think about human rights in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, Afghanistan, and…and…hmmm, where else? That’s right! There own bloody countries! Or are they only good for attacking countries that they do not control?
August 23rd, 2011, 3:41 am
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Anger غضب
August 23rd, 2011, 3:50 am
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Depression إحباط
August 23rd, 2011, 3:54 am
Samara said:
الأسد فارس
August 23rd, 2011, 3:58 am
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Escape هروب
August 23rd, 2011, 4:12 am
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Beleaguered محاصر
August 23rd, 2011, 4:14 am
Mina said:
Could lies by international media networks become a crime?
When you read that you wonder:
http://www.lemonde.fr/libye/article/2011/08/23/saif-al-islam-fils-de-kadhafi-apparait-libre-a-tripoli_1562312_1496980.html
Where it seems that he is far from having been arrested.
August 23rd, 2011, 4:21 am
Syria no kandahar said:
بطيخ
August 23rd, 2011, 4:35 am
Syria no kandahar said:
عجور
August 23rd, 2011, 4:36 am
N.Z. said:
هذا الفيلم الممتاز اعده اهالي اللاذقية حول الاقتحام العسكري الاجرامي لاحياء مدينتهم
August 23rd, 2011, 4:51 am
Syria no kandahar said:
NZ
عمل مرشح للفجله الذهبيه
عنوان الفلم: مأساة العصر اللاذقية بلا جرذان
بطولة ن ز
اخراج الهامستر السوري
مع شكر خاص لجميع الجراذيين
ولكوكل ايرث
August 23rd, 2011, 5:08 am
abbas said:
I just want to know who pressed dislike on Homeland, law and justice?
does it mean they like injustice, and disorder
August 23rd, 2011, 5:32 am
some guy in damascus said:
@ samara
114. Samara said:
الأسد فارس
i say :
الأسد حيوان
well, its true isn’t it?
he is the brute that terrorizes me. i mean you no offense but you have much more to learn about syria. why did you parents leave syria?
August 23rd, 2011, 5:42 am
Jasmine said:
I am finding it so hard to comment on the Libyan Revolution for only one reason because it is not fair to compare, Libya has oil and Syria doesn’t ,so the success of their revolution was helped by certain bribery.
IMHO,The way out of the situation now is by initiation a union between Syria,Iraq and Lebanon.
This can create a strong country, demographic and religious balance and save the three countries from further interference from the west.
This is just a thought and I am not supporting any political party(just for verification).
August 23rd, 2011, 6:08 am
Samara said:
SOME GUY IN DAMASCUS:
You have got it wrong, it truly is الأسد فارس
And my parents did not leave Syria. Not that it is any of your business, but (not sure if i have mentioned before), my mother is Lebanese. She and her family left Lebanon when she was 6 years of age, so she grew up in Australia, and finished high school here also. They left due to the conflict in Lebanon, and sought to come here. When my mum finished her high school education, she and my grandparents went to Syria for a holiday. There, what do you call it, نسيب, and she married my father. She did not want to live there, as her entire family is in OZ, so, after much deliberation, my dad came. And since then, every 3 plus-minus years they, soon us, would go to Syria for a holiday. Not that it is any of your business. But there. Wait, now you will twist all this around and say that my parents hated Syria! And they couldnt wait to get out of it! Hahaha…lol. that is why my father only calls Australia al ghourbi. he loves it, but he loves his country more.
I know all i need to know about Syria, thanks for the unwanted concerne. And i find it highly funny how one man “terrorizes” you. Shows what a جبان you are.
بشار الفارس
August 23rd, 2011, 6:12 am
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Mirror مرآة
August 23rd, 2011, 6:26 am
some guy in damascus said:
you were spot on. i thought your family left syria for better economic decisions. i didnt want your life story
“every 3 plus-minus years they, soon us, would go to Syria for a holiday. ”
seriously? an 18 year old that comes over every 3 plus – minus years? what does that amount too? 6 visits??
i’ve been in syria much longer than that. i guess you don’t know who rami makhlouf , atef najib, zulhuma shaleesh, ali mamlouk and many more are?
“And i find it highly funny how one man “terrorizes” you. Shows what a جبان you are.”……. sorry, you forgot to type one man in command of a mafia.
Heres the best part samara, i live in damascus, i took part in demonstrations, i inhaled tear gas, i demonstrated despite the 50+ thugs chasing us. i wake up in damascus everyday, and see the reality of syria on the ground. i had friends and family imprisoned, i watch how the people who are given preferential status drive around damascus not abiding by the simplest of laws.
you live in far away australia, where you anyone can become prime minister( unlike syria).
now tell me again samara? what do you think of rami makhluf’s monopoly on the economy? furthermore what do you thinks of besho’s blind eye on rami’s monopoly?
August 23rd, 2011, 6:35 am
OFF THE WALL said:
Samara and SNK
Now that you’r both up, did you memorize your lesson from yesterday?
repeat the phrase
My uncles Besho and Meeho have committed crimes against humanity and I am proud of them.
Tomorrow’s lesson will be posted at midnight, moon time
August 23rd, 2011, 6:42 am
Amir in Tel Aviv said:
OTW,
I’m waiting patiently.
====
Tribal Jad #109,
Nice!
====
Abu Umar,
Go drink from the sea of Gaza.
.
August 23rd, 2011, 7:11 am
Aboud said:
N.Z
“This is the newest amendment to Bashar’s Reform
NO DEITY BUT BASHAR! A NEW ALL TIME-LOW
What kind of hatred are these men fed?”
Remember, only one of those thugs could have distributed the video. The menhebak turds would sell a porn video of their sisters for a few hundred dollars.
@97 An excellent example of how one should never write a post when one is angry and hurt. In his effort to strike back for exposing his Iranian leanings, and his chauvinistic attitude towards people from an underprivileged background, this writer makes some very absurd and outlandish statements, which only expose his ignorance on the very ideas he is trying to tear down.
“Aboud want to make warriors like those he sees in his video game.”
Apparently you haven’t heard of the American and British armies. They are all-volunteer armies. A volunteer force is much more motivated and professional than an all conscript army.
“Mr. Aboud, who would give Syria modern weapons while Israel is around”
The same people who give weapons to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE etc etc etc. There are numerous European countries that need to sustain their arms industries, and it would take a very, very odious dictatorship to earn the ire of the world so much as to earn an arms embargo. They would have to do things like occupy their neighbors, and support terrorist groups in every single one. Oh wait, that’s your president, isn’t it?
“do you think yourself better than the Iranians?”
I am far, far better than the Iranian who said “Economics is for donkeys”. No wonder the Iranian economy is in such a mess despite its massive oil wealth. Iran hasn’t been able to diversify towards a non oil based economy, but seem happy to spend billions on ineffective missiles that were out of date even while they were being designed.
“AS for destroying the Syrian Army now, General Aboud does not know that you can build on what the Syrian Army had learned so far from fighting many battles”
Ah, you are talking about the experience of the officer corp? What experience? The Syrian Armed forces haven’t fought a battle against Israel since 1982, and the lessons it seemed to have learned is how to lose a third of your air force in a week. The rest of their “heroics” has been in suppressing a civilian population.
The Syrian army’s doctrines and way of thinking is outdated, and totally out of place for a modern war, but it is a way of thinking that is now so ingrained in the officer mindset, that these officers know no other way. In terms of fighting a modern war, they are useless.
Tell me, in Iran when you want to put up a skyscraper, but there is an apartment building in its place, do you build on top of the apartment building? Idiots would. But a competent engineer would know that the foundations that need to be dug for a skyscraper are very different from an apartment block, and so the latter gets torn down.
“General Aboud is fabricating the inventory of the Syrian Army, which weapons they are buying that are made in the 1950’s? This is a straight up fabrication and a lie. The whole world knows that Syria gets good Russian, almost top of the line, weapons. ”
He says, without offering a single example of an “almost top of the line” Russian weapons system in the Syrian army’s inventory. This is a brief inventory of the Syrian “Army’s” weapons;
Syrian Army; best tank T-72, made in the 1970s. The Russians give Syria the “export version”. Most tanks in the Syrian army are of the T-55 variety, made in the 50s. The most modern anti-tank rocket was made in the late 80s. Nothing in the Syrian army was made in this century.
Syrian Air Force: The best air craft is the MiG-29, designed in the 1970s. Most aircraft in the Syrian Airforce consist of the hopelessly out of date MiG-21s and MiG-23, which the Israelis have shot down hundreds of time and time and time again.
The Syrian army has equipment made for dumb soldiers, soldiers who cannot operate anything too complex. It is for this reason that Soviet weaponry was a favorite among 3rd world countries that needed big impressive numbers to suppress their populations.
What exactly does the Iranian writer of the original post imagine the Syrian army to have in terms of modern weapons?
“The question is about transgression and who attacked the other. The question is MORAL. The German failed on the moral front. ”
Uh no, but thanks for showing your desperation to call me a Video Game Aboud 🙂 If we only studied tactics and military doctrine from those we considered “moral” armies, there would be scant little to teach at the military academies.
Nazi aggression was in the end its own undoing, but the issue here is in competence of tactics, weaponry, training, logistics, and doctrines ie the *tools* to further national aims.
But since you are ill equipped and incapable of arguing in those terms, you try to accuse anyone who studies German tactics of being a Nazi. It is good that the British and Americans did not take the same ridiculous attitude as you do, otherwise they could never have launched D-Day.
The French did not do anyone any favors by getting themselves beaten in a few months. It really didn’t have to be that way, the French had better tanks than the Germans, but they deployed them in piecemeal fashion with no infantry support, just like tanks were deployed in WW 1.
But the Germans were light years ahead in their mass armored concentrations and close coordination between the different arms of the armed forces. One can say so, and not be a Nazi. I’m sure the Israelis are earnestly hoping that the X-Box president continues to accuse anyone of studying their weapons and tactics as being a Zionist 🙂
The German army’s build up after WW 1 is an excellent case study in how to rebuild an army from scratch. In the end, it was Hitler’s strategic blunders that doomed him. It just goes to show that when the man at the top is completely detached from reality, it can ruin an entire nation. Another lesson Besho should have been taught.
“He likes to boil soldiers in urine”
After the latest videos I’ve seen, even that is too good for the turds who call themselves soldiers in junior’s army of self occupation. In a modern war, this “army” would be annihilated faster than junior has time to pack up his X-Box. A lion only against Hama, but a rabbit on the Golan. And a rabbit that needs Iranian handouts to survive.
August 23rd, 2011, 7:13 am
Chris W said:
‘Aboud’, one can know about the German military (which you seem not to) and not be Nazi. It’s the glee that gives you away as an Israeli, or more likely an American fellow traveller.
Either way, I’m wondering if any of the anti-government posters on this forum are Syrians. It’s surprising, one would expect at least one or two.
August 23rd, 2011, 7:24 am
syau said:
Off the Wall,
As you are handing out lessons, here is your lesson for the day.
The revolution in Syria is a revolution of terror.
The revolution in Syria is backed by Al Qaeda.
The revolution in Syria is an evolution of terrorist animals.
The revolution in Syria is sectarian.
The revolution in Syria disgraces the word ‘revolution’ and has failed in its attempt to divide the great nation of Syria.
And last but not least, supporting the revolution in Syria is supporting terror, armed gangs, and destruction of infrastructure, murders and mutilations and supporting Syria’s enemies.
Although all ‘revolutionists’ are aware of the above, they still try to cover up or deny the existence of terrorists affiliated with this revolution of terror, thinking eventually people will believe them and ignore the facts. Quite sad really.
August 23rd, 2011, 7:31 am
NK said:
Some guy in Damascus
LOL, I’m pretty sure I spent more time in Syria than the time Samara and his/her parents spent there combined. But I guess spending a couple weeks every few years is all one needs to know all there is to know about a country. I wonder how many times Samara ventured into نفوس or any other department for that matter. Dear Samara, do you even have a Syrian ID ?
BTW it’s called نصيب, بالصاد .
August 23rd, 2011, 7:32 am
Ali said:
Samara,
الأسد فارس. Indeed he is and you are his soldier.
writing your personal information to these
haters is only going to make them use your own information against you. Not recommended. Its none of anyone’s business except your own and you don’t have to explain anything to anyone. You are a true Syrian and may God give you the will and power to keep fighting for what you believe in. God Bless
August 23rd, 2011, 7:32 am
Ali said:
#130 Aboud
“Remember, only one of those thugs could have distributed the video. The menhebak turds would sell a porn video of their sisters for a few hundred dollars.”
SC Rules. READ AS MANY TIMES AS YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THIS.
Personal attacks against other contributors;
Racist, sexist, obscene, or otherwise discriminatory or hateful language;
Provocations designed to derail discussions away from substantive debate into dead-end arguments;
Links to commercial sites or posting of commercial messages;
Threats of death or violence;
Comments that violate these guidelines may be edited or deleted at the discretion of the moderating team. Furthermore, commentators who repeatedly violate the site regulations may be warned, temporarily suspended from posting, limited to a set quantity of daily posts, or permanently banned. The moderators reserve the right to ban anyone who annoys or badgers them excessively.
***Finally, we ask that commentators bear in mind that even well-intentioned humor or sarcasm can be “lost in translation” on an online discussion forum. As such, commentators should maintain a respectful tone with others and be tolerant of opinions that may differ from their own.***
August 23rd, 2011, 7:50 am
some guy in damascus said:
@NK
i guess she also doesn’t know about the outrageous mobile telephone fees we pay, or the heavy restrictions on the internet…maybe if a male relative of her’s lost 2 years of his life serving his ” duty to the nation” she would realise the pathetic rule the Assad mafia has bought us too, maybe she never heard of the horrific Baccalaureate examinations. but ignore that, she lives in far-away australia where she take advantage of freedom of speech to show support to a regime that has banned any form of freedom of speech.
seriously samara, spending summer in syria, eating بطيخ and buying some barazeh doesn’t make you an expert on Syria.
August 23rd, 2011, 7:51 am
Ali said:
Reports state that huge crowds gathered on Monday evening in the main squares of Damascus, Aleppo, Sweida, Hasaka and Raqaa to express their support to the national and pan-Arab principles, maintaining Syria’s sovereignty and independence and rejection of all attempts to sow chaos to undermine Syria’s security and stability. In Damascus, thousands gathered in the Governorate Square expressing their love to Syria and insistence to work to build modern Syria and protect the national unity. The participants denounced the killing and sabotage acts perpetrated by the armed terrorist groups against the Syrian people.
August 23rd, 2011, 7:54 am
Amir in Tel Aviv said:
Dear SGID,
“…maybe she never heard of the horrific Baccalaureate examinations”. Can you explain in short what are those examinations? Thanks! BTW I think Samara is a male.
.
August 23rd, 2011, 7:55 am
Samara said:
DUDE IN DAMASCUS, AND NK,
You are not worth my time. I do not sit here and go on and on about your life and the crap that you do or dont do. And i can go to syria once in a lifetime, and know all i need to know. Dude in damascus, i am truly sorry that you only inhaled tear gas. Looks like they should have used something stronger.
“now tell me again samara? what do you think of rami makhluf’s monopoly on the economy? furthermore what do you thinks of besho’s blind eye on rami’s monopoly?” Im sorry. I dont live in Syria. And according to you, my answers would be highly innappropriate, and very misinformed. As i have only been to Syria about 6 times, in my 18 years of living. hmmm, i guess i should have killed some poeple for money, like the revolutionaries and get rich so i could have gone to Syria every year in my 18 years. Oh well, i dot like killing people. I am not a Syrian revolutionary. And even if my answer was perfect, you’d be like, “what do you know? i live in damascus, and you live in far away Australia!”.
nk,”I’m pretty sure I spent more time in Syria than the time Samara and his/her parents spent there combined.”, interesting, i didnt realise you were so old. Oh, and dont you live in the United States of Asses anyway? so why are you talking? And dude, if you are that confused, i will tell you kindly, i am a she, not a he.
OTW,
I have one lesson to give you…get a life. You need one.
My uncles Bashar and Maher have killed so many criminals, i am proud of them. My uncles Bashar al Maher have committed acts which piss the Western world off, i am proud of them. I love them. Allah yehmeekon my brave and beautiful uncles.
August 23rd, 2011, 7:59 am
Samara said:
Guy in Damascus,
I dont like بطيخ .
And you live in far away Syria. That doesnt make you an expert on Australia. You people are just pissed that a well read Australia, and a Syrian living outside Syria, knows what is really going on. It makes you fear that soon the world will see…actually, they already know, they are just turning a blind eye.
August 23rd, 2011, 8:02 am
some guy in damascus said:
@amir,
it’s basically the 12’th grade examinations, your future and career is determined on around 9 tests taken within 1 month. your previous progress in grades 11,10,9 and below contribute nothing to the university evaluation. the exams are widely dreaded, and are a shame to academia.
the curriculum provided is the very same curriculum provided in the 1980’s or 1970’s.
one of the obligatory subjects is civics where we have to memorize Assad senior’s speeches.
They are taken once a year and not until now, Mighty besho has provided us with make up-examinations.
it relies heavily on memorizing even in mathematics( i had a friend who told me that there are around 990 mathematical problems in the books, memorize and you pass!) and reciting( something all besho supporters are good at). its the only curriculum provided, there is no alternative.
when writing a essay for the Arabic exam, we are provided with the viewpoint we must “ascertain” and are provided with quotes and poems that play well into the baath’s public image, this is why there is no critical thinking in Syria, because we are fed words.you will notice that one the syrian media’s failures is there lack of critical analysis
it is a far call from academia, and is a result of poor baathist management. rather than educating its a method of brainwashing.
hope i helped!
@SAMARA,
I insist, please answer my question relating to Rami makhlouf and his monopoly. i know you don’t think im worth it, but if you give me a convincing answer i’ll support bashar, and thus you would have recruited one more syrian to bashar’s cause. yes i know, what you’re going to say: bashar doesn’t need people like you. but if you really love bashar, make him some genuine support….START WITH ME!
August 23rd, 2011, 8:16 am
Jasmine said:
To # 108 SNK
I think that we should be close to all nations and at the same time not to get too close to any one.
To help us preserve our sovereignty,we should be able to maintain ourselves economically without any foreign aid.
Being a developed country,and surrounded with tough neighbours make it so hard to achieve.
Internal problems like corruption ,tax evasion and money laundering add extra weight to hinder our progress.
Syria is becoming a stadium for the different international powers to play their games and made the syrian blood pay the price.
August 23rd, 2011, 8:29 am
Amir in Tel Aviv said:
SGID,
Thank you! That sounds like a typical archaic Ba’athist mentality. But things will change. I see the creativity of the Syrian opposition, and it makes me optimistic.
Samara,
It’s quite a filthy mouth you’ve grown in just short 18 years. I recommend you flush your mouth 3 times a day with bleach. Any way, you live in the west while criticizing it. Why shouldn’t young Syrians enjoy same privileges? They want to think freely, speak freely and live freely. Same as the rude Samara.
.
August 23rd, 2011, 8:31 am
Jasmine said:
To# 109 Jad
Because we are arrogant nation,still living in the past and letting our religions and emotions ruling our brains.
August 23rd, 2011, 8:35 am
Aboud said:
SGID, that is the best explanation of the the Bakaloria I’ve ever seen. Please consider setting up your own blog sometime, you are too talented to be confined to just the comments section of Syria Comment.
“You people are just pissed that a well read Australia, and a Syrian living outside Syria, knows what is really going on.”
1) How many of the more than 2,200 Syrians that your uncles Besho and Cro Magnum Maher killed, were armed insurgents?
2) Why is Najati Tayara in jail?
3) Why haven’t the regime caught, or tried to catch, the people behind the trail derailment, attack on the military academy, and pipeline blast?
4) Why is the regime so weak that it doesn’t withdraw its ambassadors from Italy, Tunisia, Switzerland, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Bahrain?
5) Do you believe that article 8 of the constitution should be repealed?
6) Do you even have a rat’s ass clue about what article 8 is?
August 23rd, 2011, 8:43 am
Syria no kandahar said:
OTW
Thanks so much for your efforts,and I wish you speed recover from my (Even OTW)statement yesterday, (edited for inappropriate language) Since you are trying to compensate for this regression by acting as a teacher,can I help you and ask one question that I get your lecture but what do classify crimes against your country’s soldiers . Are they crimes against humanity or are they crimes against animals?
Anne one more question:why no one got killed or wounded or got screeched in all the demonstrations over 32 weeks in :kamishli,hassaka,Rassaleen,malekeha,derbassih?
August 23rd, 2011, 8:46 am
majedkhaldoon said:
Guys; Samara is a kid,,ignore Samara.
I think it is a mistake for the rebels in Libya to try to invade Bab Al aziziya,there is no need to loose one martyr,in order to catch Gaddafi, how long he can survive in there ? one month,he will surrender later on,he is hiding like a rodent in the tunnels underground,they can gas him,they can flood him with water,cut the electricity,dig a trench around the place, just do not loose one soul to get him.
August 23rd, 2011, 9:02 am
Syria no kandahar said:
اخر شعارات المجرمين في حمص اصدقا برات الحيط: مافي روحه عبيروت بدنا نوسع التابوت
August 23rd, 2011, 9:10 am
uzair8 said:
#141 SGID
“one of the obligatory subjects is civics where we have to memorize Assad senior’s speeches.”
This is unbelievable. LOL.
Look on the bright side. At least they dont have to memorize a lengthy Gaddafi speech (like the 1 and half hour speech at the UN). LOL
August 23rd, 2011, 9:26 am
Aboud said:
@148 Show me a picture or video of such a slogan. Yet one more tired lie from this forum’s failed writer.
“can I help you and ask one question that I get your lecture but what do classify crimes against your country’s soldiers ”
What a muddled sentence. I think any editor who reads your work is going to have to work overtime. And FYI, those aren’t soldiers. Soldiers defend their country. Those are thugs in tanks. Dumping in the Assi is too good for them. They should be shot in the head, and sent to Iran for burial. Syrian soil is too good for these turds.
The Syrian army is a disgrace. It is an impotent force that has never won a single war, and allows itself to be used for crimes against its own people.
Junior is such a wimp. Hamwis come out in their hundreds of thousands, and the tanks get sent in. Deir el Zour comes out in their hundreds of thousands, and the tanks get sent in. Latakia, the same. Dar’a, the same. The X-Box president has only one solution to democratic and free demonstrations; the antique tanks he inherited from Papa.
August 23rd, 2011, 9:31 am
Darryl said:
204. NK said:
“Dear Haytham
You are wasting your time trying to debate and educate some of the people here about the history and culture of our country, those people were raised believing Islam is the source of all evil and their parents most likely told them bed time stories about the big bad Sunni who is waiting around the corner for any chance to kill them and slaughter their families.”
Dear NK, your statement is too much of a generalization. The Islam that my parents spoke about was actually a more tolerant Islam than what I am hearing and seeing now, Christianity was also more tolerant in Syria I suspect. My father had a Muslim business partner, my mother was a Godmother for two Muslim boys (yes their mother baptized them in church and they are Muslims) but my mother still treated them like the other Christian kids. When I was growing up it was customary, Muslims would visit Christians and wish them bets wishes for Christmas and Easter and have a meal with them. My father and grandfather and town leaders all visited the neighboring Muslim towns during Eid Al-Adha and shared a meal with them. This was done without invitations and was on their calendar, no work for that day. This off course probably does not happen now.
On the contrary, the stories from the older generation was totally different to your scenario and it was very tolerant and amicable situation.
So what happened, my hypothesis is as follows:
1. The petro funded sheikhs are one problem as the world becomes a single village. The sheikhs are losing their authority as young Muslims are seeking democracy and freedom. Hence, I am seeing more radicalization and nonsense spewed than when I was growing up.
2. I think the Arab Israeli problem, Iraq & Afghanistan , is also causing a situation where some Muslims (extremist) are “Lumping” Christians of the Middle east with the Christians of the west and are not differentiating between them. I believe this is evident in Iraq as Christians and Muslims there lived for a very long time together and all of a sudden it went bad. This is causing anxiety now in Syria.
3. Many Muslims are now working in Saudi Arabia and Gulf and I believe they are being “radicalized” because of the way of life there which is totally different to Syria. Saudi Arabia is totally intolerant to other religions and that is changing the attitudes of Syrians who work and live there. This is seen in their attitudes before and after. The petro sheikhs are there too; live audience. Years ago, Syrians were not favored to work in Arabia.
4. Religion is now being used as an identity by both Christians and Muslims replacing national identity, I believe this is caused by the fact that more Christians and Muslims are fleeing the country and using religion as their identity card. let’s face it, Syria does not have the best image thanks to the Israeli conflict and Syrians are viewed with a different lens compared to others.
Do you have Christian friends? Do you wish them happy holidays? Do they wish you best wishes for Eid Al-Adha?
August 23rd, 2011, 9:41 am
Syria no kandahar said:
Arbood
Nice peaceful person you are like your criminal friends.you want to shoot soldiers in the head and send them to Iran.Do you have family in Syria?don’t you know that military service is mandatory ?so your nephew who is just doing his service you don’t mind someone shooting him in the head and then shipping him to Iran?
No Syrian will say that.
August 23rd, 2011, 9:47 am
mjabali said:
Mr. Aboud Comment # 130
You sound like the guys from al-Baath in your response.
al-Baath likes to “expose” the foreign leanings of their critiques.
You said that you “exposed my Iranian Leanings.”
Do you mean that I like Ahmadi Najad and want my wife to cover “Iranian Style” and worship what Khameni said and advance Shia causes?
You must be out of your mind and can not read English, although you consider yourself Shakespeare. I am not a fan of Iran and Saudia Arabia and every religiously inclined system. They are all insane in my book.
Here is my brief response to your claims:
1- Aboud you were caught admiring the Nazis so do not run from this and make it as if you are a lecturer at West Point teaching tank warfare to future army officers. You have a video game at best and from it you learned your history lessons and military strategy. You are trigger happy who wants to create “warriors” and not soldiers. No wonder the Nazis liked Islam. Himmler said that Islam is “a practical and sympathetic religion to soldiers.”
2- The Naziz build an army of monsters and in no way or form one should follow any example from them. They also lost the war so why not follow the winner’s model if any?
3- The Americans and the British did not learn anything from the Germans on D Day. This is another fabrication of yours, like the French had a better tank than the German, the question here, if they did have a better tank why wasn’t this ghost tank mass produced to fight the better German tanks and replace the outmatched American and British tanks? Maybe in your video game it is better.
4- Calling you Video Game Aboud, or General Video Game Aboud, or Adoud the Video Game General is not an act of desperation, it is FUNNY, and since you are a reader of the Onion, you should appreciate this at least. You are talking like the Baathis here.
May be you should cut my life short as you threatened in a post earlier today.
5- Iran’s rocket arsenal, that you seem to have a name of all of it, can hurt and can cause damage to the world economy as well its neighbors. I read they have one fast rocket that could close navigation in that area and hit almost most ships. As for the Iranian economy, if they spend money on weapons destroying their economy is certain. you should spend your money on education and health and infrastructure….etc
6- The Syrian army has Russian top of the line weapons like anti tank systems and some anti aircraft system as well some top planes like Sukhois. How effective they are, we know that the anti tank ones are, but the other ones only real war would tell. This is a fact mr. Shakespeare. Again, this is not a video game.
7- You do not get it that you do not need to build an army and spend this money in this day and age. You need to spend money on infrastructure, agriculture, roads, schools……etc
August 23rd, 2011, 9:48 am
Syria no kandahar said:
Arbood
You are in Homs,you can go around and take pictures.You statements here of boiling in urine and shooting in head are worse than that slogan,why do you need a picture,just look in the mirror.
August 23rd, 2011, 9:53 am
beaware said:
U.S. Syrian ambassador’s surprise visit
By: Tim Mak
August 23, 2011 09:23 AM EDT
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61905.html
As the Libyan rebels were cementing their control of Tripoli, the U.S. Ambassador to Syria made a surprise – and provocative – visit to one of the country’s most restive cities in a show of support for the pro-democracy demonstrators.
Robert Ford’s unannounced trip to the Syrian town of Jassem was his second such visit to an area which has been home to months-long protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The trip was the first of its kind since President Obama called for Assad to step down.
“He came by car this morning, although Jassem is swarming with secret police. He got out and spent a good of time walking round. He was careful not to be seen talking with people, apparently not cause them harm,” one resident told Reuters.
Jassem, which is 65 miles outside of Damascas, was the town where 15 protestors were killed last week as part of a crackdown by Assad’s security forces. It is considered one of the core areas of Syrian protest against Assad’s regime.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Damascas told Agence-France Presse that Ford’s trip was part of his “routine diplomatic duties.”
Ford had previously visited the city of Hama ahead of a planned demonstration in July, to show support for protestors who were concerned that Syrian military forces would crack down on them.
……
Also …
Syrian troops kill 7 after UN team visit
http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-troops-kill-7-un-team-visit-093535376.html
……
On Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Syria said that Ambassador Robert Ford visited the country’s south after getting permission from the Syrian foreign ministry. …..
more….
August 23rd, 2011, 9:53 am
SQI said:
قناة “روسيا اليوم” الفضائية
http://www.youtube.com/user/RTarabic#p/u/2/P5UjsIeL3Q0
ظهر /سيف الإسلام القذافي/ أمام مناصريه في طرابلس بعد تردد أنباء عن قيام قوات المعارضة الليبية باعتقاله.. وقد فند سيف الإسلام كل الشائعات محملا الناتو مسؤولية ما يجري في ليبيا.
August 23rd, 2011, 9:54 am
Aboud said:
@152 For the first time in his life, No Klue has stumbled by accident on an issue that is worth discussing (which just proves the old saying that even a broken clock is right twice a day)
“so your nephew who is just doing his service you don’t mind someone shooting him in the head and then shipping him to Iran?”
Doing one’s service in normal times is one thing, and cowardly keeping one’s head down and trying to go on as if its business as usual is unacceptable.
Martin Luther King junior once said that in order for evil to win, it is enough that good men do nothing.
Soldiers are there to defend their people. They put themselves in harms away and fight on behalf of those who cannot. That is what soldiers do. Any soldier still in the Syrian army is complicit in its crimes. A Syrian soldier has an obligation to defend his people. A Syrian soldier must take an active role in fighting for his people’s lives.
I don’t give a rat’s ass if that soldier is never sent to Hama or Latakia; the very fact that he does not have the guts to leave this army of thugs, or use his weapons to defend his people, makes him complicit.
If my cousin was part of an army that invaded Hama, I’d kill him myself and spit on his corpse. If my cousin did nothing more than man a check point, I’d still not mourn him if that checkpoint got attacked.
And if he was killed, having never even moved from his baracks all this time, I would not attend his funeral, nor give condolences to his family, on account of his cowardice while I and my other relatives were out risking our lives in demonstrations for the past 6 months.
The time for sitting on the sidelines is over. Syrian soldiers who do nothing while their people are trampled under tanks, do not deserve the honorable term “warrior”.
August 23rd, 2011, 10:00 am
tara said:
Aboud
I share your views in regard to the army completely. They should revolt and not obey orders to kill otherwise they are accomplices. And if they are manning a checkpoint and got killed, they do not deserve to be mourned. Honorable people in the army should not participate in killing civilians or defending the regime against the people in any shape or form, other wise they deserve their fate. The army is there to protect people and the soldiers are expected to die defending people not a regime.
August 23rd, 2011, 10:27 am
Aboud said:
“You are in Homs,you can go around and take pictures”
Exactly, I am in Homs, and not once have I seen a single example of what you claim is there. So you just exposed yourself yet again as a liar. What a shock.
@153 You automatically take an opposing opinion of everything I say, not because you have better information to the contrary, but just because I said it. If I were to say the sky is blue, you’d have the same knee-jerk reaction to prove it was anything other than blue, and you’d blame it on Salafis.
If you don’t mind, I’d like to save your post, and refer to it anytime I need a text book example of a comment written with the sole purpose of attacking a person, and not with the aim of discussion.
“Aboud you were caught admiring the Nazis ”
Once more, not all German soldiers were Nazis. I admire the way the Germans built up their army from scratch and created new doctrines of warfare. One can admire the organization and tools, and also condemn the ends to which those tools were used.
“Himmler “a practical and sympathetic religion to soldiers.”
OK, scratch out a religion of a billion people because some odious Nazi war criminal said it was practical and sympathetic. I am not responsible for who praised my religion, I am responsible for its contents and what it asks me to follow. It’s also a plus if it can get racists like you all riled up.
“They also lost the war so why not follow the winner’s model if any?”
Oh dear me, do you know nothing about WW2? The Germans started losing the war once the countries opposing them learned their tactics, and came up with a means to counter them. In short, learning of the victor’s means of winning, must also include a study on the evolution of their tactics, and how they adapted from their initial defeats.
And where did your limited comprehension interpret that we should only take lessons from WW2 Germany, and stop there? I know that junior still thinks the world’s means of war stopped developing after 1973, but alas that isn’t the case. Again, a sad case of you immaturely distorting and attacking a person’s idea, just because you don’t like the person. What’s the weather like in Tehran?
“like the French had a better tank than the German, the question here, if they did have a better tank why wasn’t this ghost tank mass produced to fight the better German tanks”
Dude, please stop digging, you are embarrassing yourself. Not only did the French have the best tanks in the world, they had more of them than Germany. But the French deployed them in piecemeal fashion, which was a tactic hopelessly out of date against Germany’s mass armored formations. Again, one can admire the tactics of Blitzkrieg, without admiring the ends to which it was used.
It is a classic example of how the best weapons cannot save an army if the commander is a fool. No matter what weapons Besho gets, he is still a fool.
“The Syrian army has Russian top of the line weapons like anti tank systems and some anti aircraft system as well some top planes like Sukhois”
Which weapons? Name one. The best Syrian anti tank weapon was made in the early 90s. The closest Besho ever got to a Su-27 was playing on it on his X-Box.
“Iran’s rocket arsenal, that you seem to have a name of all of it, can hurt and can cause damage to the world economy as well its neighbors”
The Iranians put guns before butter, to disastrous effect. But thank you for admitting to Iran’s destabilizing intentions on the region. The only thing they can export besides oil is terrorism.
Your entire post, was one big example of trying to defend the indefensible. It is the sign of an amateur’s desperate desire to attack a person’s ideas, not because you know any better, but because you hate the person. It is just another example of how the menhebaks are hopelessly outclassed in any discussion or forum 🙂
(Daaaaamn I’m good! Hehehehehe)
August 23rd, 2011, 10:28 am
Aboud said:
“May be you should cut my life short as you threatened in a post earlier today.”
Kindly point to the post where I said I’d cut your miserable life short. I said that any replacement to Besho who thinks he is a president for life, is going to find his life cut short. Dude, it’s not a good idea to lie when your lie can be so easily exposed. Credibility is a precious thing to waste when you are fuming through the nostrils. By the way, what’s the best place in Tehran to get an Ayatollah turban? 🙂
August 23rd, 2011, 10:35 am
Aboud said:
Some free advice for the menhebaks, I think it’s been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that none of you can hold a candle to the revolutionaries when it comes to debating. This is especially true when it comes to discussing military matters.
You’d be better off serving Besho by taking a month or two off, and taking some debating classes. Because nothing is so painful as seeing someone trying to discuss intricate topics in WW2 when he hasn’t even heard of Dunkirk.
August 23rd, 2011, 10:42 am
Haytham Khoury said:
@151
I agree completely with Darryl analysis.
However, the Ba’ath regime also contributed to the increased sectarianism in Syria. Sectarianism in Syria has existed for long time (at least since the Mamuluke era). However, it was highly encouraged by the French. In syria, it decreased after the indepadance, however fluctuating with some small peaks during al-Shishakli rule and the unity with Egypt. On the other hand, there has been steep increase since 1963 (I will discuss that in a later post). Further, Hafez al-Assad contributed largely to that by
1. Using on his sect to consolidate his power.
2.Increasing the intervention of the state (which has sectarian foundation)in every aspect of life, thus reminding people of sectarianism all the time.
3.The attack on the Sunni culture and way of life (particularly after 1982), thus pushing them to be less open and more insecure.
4. Destroying the Christian’s social and economic activities, thus pushing them to be more isolated and to find refuge only in their churches and their religion.
All remedies that were tried by Hafez al-Assad and Bashar were like analgesics to reduce the pain but not drugs that deal with the cause:
1. Getting Bashar married to a Sunni women was not a help among the Sunni population, because they felt Asmaa like a stranger.
2. The visits that Bashar did to some Christians monasteries or Christians religious leaders made the Christians like Bashar as a prson but did not solve their feeling of isolation and estrangement.
This will follow by more analysis later.
August 23rd, 2011, 11:00 am
jad said:
It’s ‘rich’ to quote MLK Jr. while calling for violence, boiling soldiers, shooting your cousin in the head, admiring the Nazis, and threatening someone’s ‘half’ life…all under one thread, and yet you admire your self for all that “(Daaaaamn I’m good! Hehehehehe)”
You better quote Arour next time, he is more your way of thinking than cut&paste MLK Jr. quotes without understanding his message.
August 23rd, 2011, 11:06 am
Haytham Khoury said:
Dear all:
The question of sectarianism in Syria is an important one. we should deal with it face to face, however without bitterness and without attacks on the other people beliefs. Further, we should deal with it a social problem from the point of view of tolerance and respect. That means everybody is free to believe in any religious system or culture; we will not use comparative approach to compare the different beliefs, but we will discuss methods how to tolerate each other.
August 23rd, 2011, 11:09 am
Mango said:
Concentration camp of America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8_XGPmFKyw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSmaEQhEtQU
August 23rd, 2011, 11:10 am
Revlon said:
Asad-Makhloof Syndicate may retreat to the mountains, together with their loyal, security and Armed forces!
مصادر في اسطنمبول لـ سوريون نت: طهران تتجه إلى دعم دولة علوية للوصول إلى البحر المتوسط، ومخطط تطهير طائفي بدأ في حي الرمل ،وتركيا تتصدى لمخططها
2011/08/23
اسطنمبول ـ سوريون نت:
http://www.sooryoon.net/?p=31459
كشفت مصادر وثيقة الصلة في اسطنمبول لـ سوريون نت إن إيران تسعى إلى المضي قدما في دعم النظام السوري حتى لو وصل ذلك إلى تشكيل دولة علوية في الساحل السوري متصلة مع بعض المناطق في لبنان، وتضيف المصادر بأن دعم إيران للنظام السوري في إقامة قاعدة بحرية تصل تكلفتها إلى 23 مليون دولار أميركي بالإضافة إلى ما تردد عن رسالة مرشد الثورة الإيرانية علي خامنئي من أنه طالب بشار بنقل الأسلحة الاستراتيجية إلى حزب الله وتخزين الأسلحة في مناطق الطائفة العلوية ينصب في ذلك السياق.
ويقول المحللون بأن طهران عززت من تواجدها في العراق عبر استنساخ النموذج اللبناني بحيث يكون نوري المالكي بمثابة نبيه بري عراقي ، ومقتدى الصدر بحيث يكون حسن نصر الله عراقي بالإضافة إلى التحضير لضربات للمملكة العربية السعودية وتحديدا في المنطقة الشرقية الزاخرة بالنفط وهو ما سيؤثر على الأمن الوطني السعودي بالإضافة إلى وضع الاقتصاد السعودي..
ورأت مصادر المعارضة السورية أن الحل الوحيد لمواجهة المخطط الإيراني الخطير والذي سيضرب هوية واستقرار المنطقة برمتها وبالتالي لا بد من تنسيق الجهود المنطقوية من أجل وقف المخططات الإيرانية الخطيرة التي تستهدف المنطقة وليس سورية فحسب، سيما وأن نيران التقسيم الطائفي والعرقي سيطال المنطقة برمتها ولن يقتصر على سورية فحسب ..
August 23rd, 2011, 11:20 am
Fred said:
Perhaps the best military option is to reform the army so that it operates like Hizballah? The current system of conscription with corruption can be devastating for poor families, and is an unnecessary waste of the young men’s time and the state’s resources. Hizballah fighters seem to have very high morale, unlike the starving wretches the government is throwing at the people. I’ve been told of residents in both Hama and Daraa feeding the soldiers that surround them. Also in Deir Ezzor soldiers from Aleppo were breaking into homes simply to steal food. An acquaintance of mine was recently re-drafted into the military and retrained as an intelligence officer. He paid a lot of bribes in order to be relieved of his duties and he is now a civilian again. While he was there he paid from his own pocket to keep 5 conscripts in food and provisions.
To Tara and Aboud – I understand your point about soldiers’ loyalty to the people but please don’t forget that many of them are terrified, hungry and exhausted and are in some respects the people most abused by the system.
Military question:
How do we get Syria’s arsenal of rockets out of the hands of Assad and Company and into the hands of the new state without losing them to other countries’ intelligence services????
Strategic positions:
I like the idea of keeping both Iran and Turkey happy at the same time without needing the current Assad mafia. I don’t understand why we should throw away a valuable relationship with Iran, simply because it supported Assad. What do you expect it to do? If we get the support of Iran and Turkey, then we can get rid of Assad very quickly, because they can guarantee a way out for him.
August 23rd, 2011, 11:24 am
atassi said:
Syria dissidents, UN pile pressure on Assad regime
23 August 2011
Agence France Presse
Syrian dissidents formed Tuesday a council to coordinate anti-regime protests as the UN Human Rights Council decided to probe violations in the government’s crackdown on dissent.
The European Union also piled the pressure on President Bashar al-Assad’s regime by adopting Tuesday sanctions against 15 more people and five businesses as diplomats said more measures were in the offing.
Meanwhile US ambassador Robert Ford travelled to the southern province of Daraa, epicentre of the anti-regime protests, six weeks after he undertook a visit to the flashpoint central city of Hama that infuriated authorities.
On the ground security forces conducted arrests in eastern Syria while tanks were seen heading towards the town of Al-Bukamal near the border with Iraq, activists said.
Dissidents gathered in Istanbul set up a broad-based “national council” to coordinate their campaign to topple President Bashar al-Assad, an activist said in the Turkish city after four days of meetings.
“We have given martyrs and some of us are injured… With all these efforts and sacrifices, as a result of this responsibility, a sense of unity has been formed,” said activist Ahmad Ramadan.
The body brings together opposition groups from inside and outside Syria and the council would convene in about two weeks to elect its chair and adopt bylaws, dissidents said.
The council is the latest body announced by dissidents as they try to close ranks against the deadly crackdown on dissent that has claimed more than 2,200 lives since protests were launched in mid-March.
Last week 44 “revolutionary blocs” came together into a coalition called the Syrian Revolution General Commission vowing to bring down Assad and the ruling Baath party which has reigned over Syria for nearly 50 years.
By 33 votes to four, with nine abstentions, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution in Geneva to “urgently dispatch an independent international commission of inquiry… to investigate alleged violations of international human rights law” in Syria.
The resolution came after a damning report by UN investigators suggested the Assad regime was using a “shoot-to-kill” policy against pro-democracy protesters.
Opening the meeting on Monday, UN rights chief Navi Pillay told the council that 2,200 people had been killed since protests began in Syria.
Council members China, Russia and Cuba opposed the resolution and China’s envoy warned that by adopting it “the council will only complicate the situation, and injure the political process in Syria.”
But US ambassador to UN Human Rights Eileen Donahoe hailed the resolution as “a victory for the Syrian people” that will send them a clear message from the international community saying: “We will not stand by silently as innocent civilians and peaceful protesters are slaughtered by security forces.”
Her colleague in Damascus meanwhile went on a tour of the town of Jassem in Syria’s southern Daraa province, epicentre of the protests, where 15 people were killed last week by security forces, according to activists.
“Ambassador Robert Ford went this morning to Jassem, 65 kilometres (about 42 miles) south of Damascus as part of his routine diplomatic duties,” an embassy spokesman, who declined to be named, told AFP.
Ford — and French ambassador Eric Chevallier — in July angered Syrian authorities when they visited separately the flashpoint central city of Hama, after two huge anti-regime protests were held in the city.
About two weeks later Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem warned the envoys not to travel outside Damascus.
“We will impose a ban on any (diplomatic) travel more than 25 kilometres (15 miles) outside Damascus, if the ambassadors continue to ignore (our) guidance,” Muallem said.
The latest EU sanctions against Syria brought a list of names covered by asset freezes and travel bans to 50 people and nine businesses.
Security forces arrested dozens on Tuesday in the Mayadin region of eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
It also quoted witnesses saying that tanks were rumbling towards the nearby town of Al-Bukamal near the border with Iraq while security forces raided at dawn the Ghota district in the central city of Homs.
August 23rd, 2011, 11:29 am
Aboud said:
@163 Another Angry Ayatollah heard from. Anyone else notice how dissing Iran brings out the angry little boy in the menhebaks? 🙂
Alas, most times, violence must be met with violence. Hitler sure as heck wasn’t going to be stopped by pacifists. Stalin had to be faced down for decades after he tried to strangle West Berlin. And Besho will be just one step ahead of the mobs with torches at the palace gates. He has a spare X-Box all packed up and ready to go.
By the way, why can’t Iran seem to protect its nuclear scientists? Frankly, I don’t believe the donkeys even have it in them to make a nuke. They would have done so by now.
Also, how is it that Ambassador Ford can seemingly travel all the way to Jasem, but Imad Mustapha is content to be put on a very short leash?
August 23rd, 2011, 11:32 am
Aboud said:
Fred,
“To Tara and Aboud – I understand your point about soldiers’ loyalty to the people but please don’t forget that many of them are terrified, hungry and exhausted and are in some respects the people most abused by the system.”
In this, you are absolutely right. It is easy to forget that for decades, the Syrian army stamped out any and all hints of initiative in its conscripts. They were trained to be unthinking drones, to follow orders no matter what.
I’m sure the ordinary soldier loathes himself for the tragic situation he finds himself in; part of an army of oppression, but no clear way to break away without the very high risk of a bullet to the head. It is a situation every soldier or group of soldiers have to come to terms with, because the longer they do nothing, the more Syrians that will die.
“Perhaps the best military option is to reform the army so that it operates like Hizballah”
Behind the lines, special operation teams have been part and parcel of any armed force since the British SBS. Hizbollah is small enough so that its entire military wing can be trained and works effectively as a guerrilla force.
While it is the only way to fight an army as well equipped as the Israeli, it comes at a cost of drawing the enemy into your cities where he can be bogged down.
But doubtless, there will be a significant special forces component of the new Syrian Army, one that is trained to fight on the Golan, and not in Hama and Deir el Zour.
August 23rd, 2011, 11:50 am
Akbar Palace said:
I wonder what Asma thinks about “Active Citizenship” now?
http://www.newstatesman.com/middle-east/2011/05/lady-asma-syria-assad-london
August 23rd, 2011, 12:04 pm
Revlon said:
Istanbul opposition groups are divided over the best organisational formula to coordinate the political efforts to expedite the fall of the regime and assure a smooth transition of power.
The National Coalition for the support of the Syrian revolution, who originated the invitation to Istanbul meeting, are in favour of a united opposition front.
This move is supported by the National Conference of the Syrian Activists and Muslem Scholars, Brussels Conference, and FSA.
Antalya group apparently joined later in walking out.
The other side see a National Council as a necessity at this stage. They included a group of technocrats who convened a week earlier. They pre-empted the opening of the conference by announcing the impending formation of the “National Council”.
There is no alternative to adherence to team work and collective counsel. Notwithstanding the body’s name, The broader the base the stronger the mandate
تكوين مجلس انتقالي سوري لم يبصر النور رغم كل المؤتمرات
2011/08/23
بهية مارديني من القاهرة ـ إيلاف
http://www.sooryoon.net/?p=31453
قال الدكتور هيثم رحمة المنسق العام للائتلاف الوطني لدعم الثورة السورية في تصريح خاص لـ”ايلاف” أن الائتلاف الوطني “دعى الى مؤتمر اسطنبول لتوحيد المعارضة عبر مبادرة ارسلت للمؤتمرات التي عقدت فوافق عليها مؤتمر النشطاء السوريين والعلماء المسلمين ومؤتمر بروكسل والجيش السوري الحر، وبعد طلب وقت وصل لثمانية أيام من قبل المؤتمر السوري للتغيير (أنطاليا)، وافقوا من حيث المبدأ وقدموا ورقة عمل كما قدم الجميع أوراق عمل في ذات الموضوع “.
وأوضح رحمة “هدفنا كان جمع ممثلين عن المؤتمرات وعن المستقلين وعن الاحزاب، والأمر يتعلق بالخارج فقط لأن الداخل يمكن أن نتواصل معه لاحقاً لأن لكل منا امتداداته في الداخل”، واعتبر” أن المهم كان أن يجلس الجميع ونخرج بالتوافق على مظلة تمثل المعارضة السورية”.
وقال “عندما ذهبنا لاسطنبول للقاء التحضيري للاجتماع الموسع وجدنا أنفسنا أمام أناس لديهم مبادرة أخرى وقد عكفوا أسبوعاً على دراستها مع مجموعة تكنوقراط من الولايات المتحدة الاميركية وقد شكلوا لجان وحددوا موعد اللقاء وصرحوا لوسائل الاعلام بأن المجتمعين سيعلنوا عن تأسيس مجلس وطني سوري”.
وأضاف “لقد حاولنا جاهدين أن نغير وجهة النظر نحو مشروع لتوحيد المعارضة في الخارج مبدئياً وعدم الخوض في تأسيس مجلس وطني بمعنى البرلمان على مستوى سوريا فهذا شأن يجب أن يكون للشعب وليس للمعارضة، ولكننا لم نصل لنتيجة وطالبنا بمعلومات إضافية عما فعله المجتمعون منذ أسبوع فلم نحصل على شيء إلا على أسماء المرشحين للمجلس المراد تأسيسه “.
وأشار الى “لقد فكرنا بالأمر ملياً وتأكدنا من أن المطلب الملح هو توحيد المعارضة وليس برلمان سوري مؤقت تملأه المعارضة وليس ممثلي الشعب”.
وقال “مع تغييب كل المؤتمرات باستثناء مؤتمر انطاليا الذي لديه شروط على المسالة أيضاً رأينا عدم المشاركة وهكذا كان ولم نصدر البيان المقتضب إلا للتأكيد للفرقاء والكتل التي وافقت وساندت مبادرتنا لتوحيد المعارضة”.
مؤكدا “أننا ماضون في مبادرة توحيد المعارضة وبالتعاون مع كل المؤتمرات التي عقدت وعدم تغييب أو إقصاء أحد من أطراف المعارضة السورية الوطنية”.
وكان الائتلاف الوطني لدعم الثورة السورية قد اعلن انسحابه من مؤتمر اسطنبول كذلك المؤتمر السوري للتغيير (أنطاليا) اضافة الى عدة انسحابات لم يتم الاعلان عنها.
من جانبه اعتبر عبيدة فارس مدير المعهد العربي للتنمية والمواطنة (لندن) في تصريح خاص لـ”ايلاف” أنه “بلا شكّ فإنّ هناك حاجة كبيرة لتشكيل مجلس وطني سوري، يشكّل واجهة للحراك السوري في الخارج، ويكمّل الحراك الميداني، وهي حاجة تزداد مع اتساع نطاق الحراك الشعبي، وتأثيره المتزايد على الوضع السياسي في الداخل السوري”.
وقال “مما لا شكّ فيه أيضا فإنّ الحراك السوري المعارض قد تأخّر في تشكّله، نتيجة لظروف موضوعية متعدّدة، منها التشتّت الجغرافي للمعارضة في أكثر من خمسين بلداً على الأقل، ومنها أن المعارضة مقسّمة أيديولوجياً وسياسياً وفكرياً، كما هي حال كل الأحزاب السياسية في العالم. إضافة إلى العوامل السلبية الإضافية، مثل دخول رأس المال الذي يريد أن يدير العملية السياسية بالعقلية التجارية”.
وأشار فارس إلى “أن الحديث عن توحيد للمعارضة، وجمع كل الأطياف، أمر غير ممكن ولا واقعي، فحتّى في البلدان التي تعيش ديمقراطيات عريقة لا يمكن الحديث عن توحيد للمعارضة، فلكل طيف اتجاهه ورؤيته، وإن كان من الوارد أن تتفق الأحزاب المعارضة أو حتى الأحزاب الموالية على بند معيّن، أو على قضية معيّنة، ولكنها من غير الممكن أن تتوحّد كلها في إطار واحد، وإلاّ انتفت أسباب انتماءتها الفكرية والسياسية. والذين يُطالبون بتوحيد المعارضة في إطار واحد، على نمط الجبهة الوطنية التقدّمية، إنّما يريدون أن يقدّموا للشارع رؤية توهم بأن المعارضة ممزّقة، ويوحوا بقصد أو بدون قصد أنّ النظام لا بديل له، وهذا أمر لا يستند إلى الحقيقة، فكل الأنظمة في العالم لها بدائل، ولا يوجد في بلد واحد معارضة موحّدة على قلب رجل واحد، بل أننا نجد تيارات داخل الحزب الواحد في الديمقراطيات العريقة، بعضها قد يعارض الآخر”.
ورأى “أنّ ما تحتاجه الساحة السياسية في سورية، كما في أي بلد آخر، هو جبهة أو مجلس متجانس، يتّفق أعضاؤه على برنامج للعمل، وليس فقط على الهدف القصير المدى الذي تتشاطره المعارضة السياسية مع الحراك الشعبي وهو إسقاط النظام، فقد وصلنا إلى مرحلة الرؤى والبرامج المتكاملة، ولم تعد هناك حاجة إلى المجالس التي تعتمد الأسس التمثيلية، دون وجود رؤية واضحة”.
ومن هنا، بحسب فارس، “يمكن القول أن اللقاء التشاوري الذي عُقد في اسطنبول خلال الأسبوع الفائت، والذي انتهى إلى تشكيل نواة لمجلس وطني، يمثّل منعطفاً هاماً في الحراك السياسي، لما احتواه من تمثيل سياسي واسع من جهة، ولاعتماده على الخبرات الشابة في مقابل الأسماء الكبيرة في المعارضة التقليدية، والتي شكّلت العقبة الأساس في نجاح مشاريع متعددة”.
August 23rd, 2011, 12:04 pm
Abu Umar said:
” 40. Ali said:
Who are you kidding? You’re damn right I will be sectarian when your regime slaughters tens of thousands of Sunnis so your Alawi regime can stay in power, and forces people to say la ilaah illah Bashar, and this is ovewhelmingly supported by the majority of Syrian Alawis. Weren’t you calling for a scorched earth policy in your other posts and now you pretend to be innocent?!
163. jad said:
Who are you to speak when you have been supporting the violence of your regime?!
” 153. mjabali said:
al-Baath likes to “expose” the foreign leanings of their critiques.
You said that you “exposed my Iranian Leanings.”
Do you mean that I like Ahmadi Najad and want my wife to cover “Iranian Style” and worship what Khameni said and advance Shia causes?”
You regime is allied to Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah, and were it not for this alliance, your regime would fall tomorrow. That you claim to not like this doesn’t mean a thing and you are bound by your alliance to your Shi’ite Islamist allies. Your Alawi sectarianism is very clear, despite your claims of being non-religious, just like many Jewish secularists and atheists are among the most fanatical Zionists. It’s over, I hope you enjoy your permanent vacation in Iran
August 23rd, 2011, 12:09 pm
NK said:
Darryl
I think you misinterpreted what I wrote, I was not talking about Syrian Christians or Syrian Shias in general. I was talking about the few Islamophobes spewing sectarian hatred on this blog. The situation in Syria is still very tolerant, I’m not sure when was your last visit to Syria but if you have doubts you should definitely check for yourself.
I lived in the same building with 4 Jewish families they used to babysit for my mother from time to time. I attended a Christian private school up to 7th grade, my nephews today attend the same school. my Christian friends invited our Muslim friends to their weddings and our Muslim friends did the same. Actually my best friend and lab partner in med school was a Christian and every time I visit Syria he drives all the way from Hama to pick me up and we spend the weekend at his village, normally all our friends Christians and Muslims alike will drive there and those 2-3 days are truly the highlight of my trip.
as for your Theory
1- The petro funded Sheikhs are a joke to everyone in Syria, Muslims before Christians, the only one who takes them seriously are those same individuals criticizing them on this very blog. Even our own Syrian Sheikhs get ridiculed when they say outrageous things, or tell some stupid story. Just remember what happened to Al Buti when he opposed the broadcast of a Syrian Series last Ramadan.
2- I was in Syria during the Iraq war, I honestly never heard a single person cursing Christianity or Christians. and though this was my own personal experience I doubt others had different experiences across Syria.
3- I had many friends in med school who were raised in Saudi Arabia (their parents worked there), they were normal Syrian kids, they were actually very critical of the ridiculous laws of Saudi Arabia regarding … well everything LOL.
4- I don’t believe this is the case at all. To be honest I can’t remember any indecent where Syrian Christians and Muslims were at each others’ throats. Even today when you read sectarian statements it’s purely Islamic, anti Sunni, anti Alawite or anti Shia.
For your final questions I’ll just post some stuff straight from my facebook, I’ll remove last names for obvious reasons.
Lina ******
To all my friends: Ramadan karim.
July 31 at 1:35pm
Alan *****
kifak *********? ramadan kareem w eb2a call ya 3rs
July 31 at 1:27pm
Michael ******
***********
kifak????????????
ramadan kareem
July 31 at 10:13am
***********
Merry Christmas abkarmo 😉 … enshalla al sne al jay nshofk 3riis …
December 25, 2010 at 6:11am
***********
A7la Mikha, wallah el 3azim eshta2telak ya zalameh
Merry Christmas
December 25, 2010 at 5:58am
***********
Merry Christmas Lina. Salmeli 3la George.
December 25, 2010 at 5:54am
***********
Abogreeg el malek, Merry Christmas 🙂
December 25, 2010 at 5:52am
***********
Firas 7abibi, be3ref enak mn elseneh ll seneh la tefta7 el facebook
eb2a 3aberna
Merry Christmas
December 25, 2010 at 4:46am
August 23rd, 2011, 12:18 pm
Haytham Khoury said:
Dear Real Syrian @96.
I have no intention to go to Syria and I have no gains by being in this blog other than proposing my idea about Syria. I do not have terrorist friends, because I do not believe in violence and terror. I know what the Iraqi Christians going through. I see what is happening in Syria is completely different.
August 23rd, 2011, 12:19 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Democracy ديمقراطية
August 23rd, 2011, 12:20 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Commonality القواسم المشتركة
August 23rd, 2011, 12:22 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Equality مساواة
August 23rd, 2011, 12:23 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Empowerment التمكين
August 23rd, 2011, 12:24 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Fairness الإنصاف
August 23rd, 2011, 12:25 pm
atassi said:
قالت رابطتان سوريتان إن أبناء الطائفة العلوية لا يؤيدون التعاطي الأمني للنظام السوري مع المظاهرات التي تشهدها مختلف أنحاء البلاد مطالبة بإسقاط النظام الحاكم، وذكّرتا بانخراط الطائفة في كافة مناحي الحياة السياسية في البلاد بعيدا عن أي اصطفاف مذهبي.
وأصدرت رابطة تنسيقيات الساحل السوري ورابطة الإخاء الوطني والعيش الواحد في الساحل السوري، بيانا بشأن ما وصفتاه بالزوابع الإعلامية المثارة حول ما يسمى تأييد الطائفة العلوية لممارسات النظام السوري ومليشياته ضد المتظاهرين وقوى التغيير الديمقراطي في سوريا.
وتساءل البيان من أين جاء النظام أو الأطراف الأخرى بما نسب للعلويين على منابر الإعلام بشأن تأييد نظام الرئيس بشار الأسد الذي ينحدر من الطائفة العلوية.
وأوضح البيان أنه لم يصدر عن الطائفة العلوية أي فتاوى تجاه النظام أو غيره، وذلك لانعدام وجود من يفتي أو يشكل مرجعية مذهبية أو مليّة للعلويين، على خلاف ما هو عليه الأمر لدى طوائف أخرى.
ودعا البيان أبناء قرى ومدن وتجمعات الساحل السوري ومن انتمى إلى الطائفة العلوية إلى التجند في مشروع وطني سوري يجسد العيش الواحد والحراك الواحد والمصير الواحد، في إطار وحدة الوطن السوري ووحدة قضية التغيير الديمقراطي.
وحذر البيان -الذي حصلت الجزيرة نت على نسخة منه- من خطر تخطيط النظام للاقتتال الداخلي، عبر افتعال المؤثرات الطائفية عبر أدواته و”شبيحته” وقواه الأمنية بأسلحة كانت مليشياته قد هربتها وباعتها.
وأوضح البيان أن من يسمون “الشبيحة” -الذين يحملون السلاح في وجه المتظاهرين- هم من بقايا سرايا الدفاع التي شكلها رفعت الأسد شقيق الرئيس الراحل حافظ الأسد، وبقايا جمعية المرتضى التي شكلها جميل الأسد عم الرئيس بشار الأسد، وبقايا العاملين في المرافئ غير الشرعية التي يديرها جميل الأسد وعائلته.
وكانت جهة تسمي نفسها “شباب الطائفة العلوية” قد أصدرت قبل نحو شهر من مدينة حمص بيانا تؤكد فيه رفضها الشديد “لأي سلوك أو تحريض يقوم على أساس مناطقي أو ديني أو طائفي”.
وأكد البيان “رفض العنف أيا كان مصدره، وتحمل النظام وأدواته من الزعران والشبّيحة من كافة الطوائف المسؤولية الكاملة عما جرى في مدينة حمص من قتل وتخريب وتحريض على الكراهية”.
وأشار بيان شباب الطائفة العلوية إلى أن “الاستبداد لا دين له ولا طائفة، فهو تحالف قوى ومصالح تنتمي لمختلف مكونات المجتمع، وأن اتهام الطائفة العلوية بولائها المطلق للنظام يصب في خدمة النظام الذي يحاول تجيير الطائفة لمصلحته عبر تخويفها من التغيير”.
August 23rd, 2011, 12:26 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Homeland وطن
August 23rd, 2011, 12:26 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Silk
Silk
Silk
Silk
Silk
S I L K
What do cows drink?
August 23rd, 2011, 12:35 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Monopoly احتكار
August 23rd, 2011, 12:49 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Nepotism محاباة الأقارب
August 23rd, 2011, 12:50 pm
Akbar Palace said:
Aboud,
How much longer until the Syrian “D-Day”?
August 23rd, 2011, 12:52 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Exclusivity تفرد
August 23rd, 2011, 12:52 pm
Revlon said:
Due to the mounting loss of human lives, imprisonment, and torture amongst street demonstrators, activists and their families, Youth Syria For Freedom website has issued a statement revising its recommendations on the issue of armed resistence.
– The statement stresses the importance of maintining peaceful demonstrations and the speedy formation of a representative national councuil.
– In addition to encouraging army defection, the statement sanctions operations by the FSA against Shabbee7a and Asad’s forces in defense of civilians.
– It also acknowledges, that the time might come when Libya style foreign military assistance would be needed!
حركة سوريا شباب من أجل الحرية Youth Syria For Freedom
أموي مباشر #syria ◄ رأي شبكة أموي الإخبارية ◄ حول التدخل العسكري ؟!
نسمع كثيرا هذه الأيام ونقرأ عن مناشدات ودعوات إلى تدخل عسكري مدعوم عربيا وتركيا لحماية الشعب السوري من مجازر ترتكب بحقه يوميا , وبحق نقول , أن أغلب هذه الرسائل والدعوات هي من الداخل السوري وليس من الخارج , لأن الصوت الغالب في شباب الثورة في الخارج هو الميل إلى سلمية الثورة مع ممارسة ضغط دولي لتنحي النظام وانتقال سلمي للسلطة , بي…نما ثوار الداخل ومن يقدمون دماءهم أنهاراً للزود عن بلادهم ولإعلاء كلمة الحق ورفع الظلم عنهم , نرى ونسمع ونقرأ عنهم , مطالبتهم بحماية دولية لهم , فهم يشهدون حرب حقيقية لا يشعر بها الكثيرين من المعارضة في الخارج , وعليه نقول , أن رأيهم مقدم على رأي ثوار الخارج , فلا يجب كبح جماح رأيهم بتخوينهم أو الطعن بأرائهم عبر صفحات الفيس بوك والحكم بجهل كل من يدعو إلى تدخل عسكري لحماية شعبنا الأعزل , بل يجب أن نقدر مشاعرهم ومعاناتهم ونعمل على التسريع لإيجاد حل لهذه المعاناة .
ومع تذكيرنا لأحبتنا من شباب الثورة في الداخل والخارج , على أن النصر من عند الله وحده وأن الاستعانة به واللجوء إليه دوماً , هو طريقنا إلى النصر , مع أخذنا بكل الأسباب التي تتاح لنا حالياً ولعل أهمها :
أولا – استمرار المظاهرات السلمية يوميا دون انقطاع .
ثانيا – الإسراع بتشكل مجلس إنتقالي , وتقديم طلبات للإعتراف الدولي به .
ثالثا – تحريض الجنود والضباط من معارفنا وأقربائنا على الإنشقاق والإنضمام إلى الجيش السوري الحر – لواء الضباط الأحرار .
رابعا – أن تكون عمليات لواء الضباط الأحرار , مركزة على تدمير العنصر البشري لقوات الشبيحة والإحتلال الأسدي , وعدم التركيز كثيرا على تدمير الأليات , لأن النظام قادر على تعويضها بسهولة في ظل دعم روسي وايراني وصيني مفتوح ,
وتصفية العنصر البشري في العصابات المجرمة , يسبب مصيبة كبيرة على عائلته وعلى النظام , فتعويض العنصر البشري , صعب جداً , بالاضافة الى زيادة نقمة عائلات هذه العناصر على النظام وسياساته , لأنه يعرض أبناءهم لمخاطر الموت لحمايته فقط .
في حال تصاعد مجازر النظام ووحشيته , وأصبح من المستحيل سقوطه بدون عملية إستئصالية , تخلصنا من هذا الورم السرطاني , فلا بد أن يكون على شاكلة التدخل العسكري الليبي , بتوفير غطاء جوي للثوار ومناطق أمنة وتسليحهم بإشراف لواء الضباط الأحرار والقيادات المنشقة عن الجيش ,
واريد أن أختم بمسألة مهمة جدا لعلنا نتطرق إليها تفصيليا بمقالات لاحقة , إلى أن سقوط هذا النظام بتركيبته العقائدية , غير ممكن إلا بعملية عسكرية سواء من ثوار الداخل أو تدخل عسكري تركي وعربي ودولي والسبب ببساطة .
في حال قبل النظام بتسليم السلطة سلميا والتنحي عن الحكم ( وهذا مستحيل )
فسيصبح , حزب الله الثاني لإيران في سوريا بجناح مسلح عسكري لن يفرط به أبداً كما يفعل حزب الله في لبنان والذي يهدد بسلاحه كيان الدولة اللبنانية
بشار وماهر , يمتلكان فرق عسكرية وأمنية يغلب عليها طائفة واحدة موالية لهم تمام
وعدم حل هذه الفرق العسكرية والأمنية ( لاعادة تشكيل الجيش على اسس وطنية غير طائفية تعتمد الكفاءة والاحترافية ) , سيجعل منها جناح مسلح يهدد ويبطش بأي حكومة ديمقراطية منتخبة , وسيكون فزاعة بيد إيران لتهديد سوريا وشعبها ودول المنطقة .
وسيكون من السهل لهذا الجناح المسلح , أن يستولي مرة أخرى على الحكم , عندما يرى اللحظة مناسبة لذلك .
فأقول ختاماً , إن مستقبل سوريا لن يستقيم , إذا لم يتم حل الفرق العسكرية والأمنية القائمة على أساس طائفي , وهذا الأمر صعب جداً بدون عملية عسكرية .See More
Wall Photos
8 hours ago ·
August 23rd, 2011, 1:04 pm
beaware said:
Syria opposition tries to unite, divisions remain
AP By ZEINA KARAM 23 August 201
http://news.yahoo.com/syria-opposition-tries-unite-divisions-remain-152649477.html
BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s fragmented opposition took steps toward forming a national council Tuesday, but serious divisions and mistrust among the members prevented them from presenting a unified front against President Bashar’s regime more than five months into the country’s uprising, participants said.
Syria’s opposition, fragmented by years of sectarian and ideological tensions, has made unprecedented gains against the regime, but there is no clear leadership or platform beyond the demands for more freedom and for Assad to step down.
With Assad’s forces cracking down on the protests, the overall death toll has reached 2,200, the United Nations said this week.
A group of opposition members have been meeting in neighboring Turkey in recent days, but participants gave conflicting reports about exactly what emerged. Obeida al-Nahhas told The Associated Press that a council had been formed but the details were still being completed; others said there was no council to speak of yet.
“People are just beginning to form an opposition and so they are treading carefully. This is understandable,” said Mahmud Osman, an opposition member at the meeting in Turkey. “We don’t claim to represent the whole of Syria. But we are talking to everyone and we are trying to build a consensus.”
The unrest in Syria shows no sign of abating, with both sides of the conflict energized. Protesters pour into the streets every Friday, defying the near-certain barrage of shelling and sniper fire. But the regime is strong as well and in no imminent danger of collapse, setting the stage for what could be a drawn-out and bloody stalemate.
Assad has shrugged off broad international condemnation and calls for him to step down, insisting that armed gang and thugs are driving the violence, not true reform-seekers.
Activists said Tuesday that Syrian security forces killed at least seven people in the central city of Homs on Monday, soon after a U.N. humanitarian team left the area because the security situation was deteriorating.
Syria has banned foreign media and severely restricted local coverage, making it nearly impossible to confirm events on the ground.
Syria had granted the U.N. team permission to visit some areas to assess humanitarian needs, but activists and a Western diplomat have accused the regime of trying to scrub away signs of the crackdown.
Residents and activists said it was quiet until the team left, after which troops opened fire on an anti-government protest, killing four. Gunmen also killed three others elsewhere in Homs, which has become a hotbed of dissent against Assad, human rights groups said.
The U.N.’s top human rights body voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to demand that Syria end its crackdown and cooperate with an international probe into possible crimes against humanity.
Also Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Syria said that Ambassador Robert Ford visited the country’s south after getting permission from the Syrian foreign ministry. An official at the embassy described it as a “short and routine” trip to the village of Jassem near the southern city of Daraa. The area has been witnessing large anti-government protests.
A trip last month by the U.S. and French ambassadors to the central city of Hama to express support for protesters drew swift condemnation from the Syrian government, which said the unauthorized visits were proof that Washington was inciting violence in the Arab nation.
The Syrian foreign minister then warned both ambassadors not to travel outside the capital without permission.
The Local Coordination Committees and the London-based Observatory for Human Rights, two activist groups with a wide network of sources on the ground, reported that security forces stormed several villages in the southern and northern parts of the country, arresting scores
August 23rd, 2011, 1:08 pm
Revlon said:
SOS message from a ground, coordination activist:
We ask the United nations to intervene and protect us from the savagery of Asad’s armed forces and Shabbe7a!
We do not care if we were to be dubbed traitors. We need help to protect our lives and those of our families and loved ones.
حركة سوريا شباب من أجل الحرية Youth Syria For Freedom
أموي مباشر #syria ◄ مشاركة هامة جداً :: على لسان متظاهر يحترق قلبه الف مرة يوميا والطرف الاخر ينتظر : بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم بالمختصر المفيد لا يخفى على احد ان الظام السوري يفعل المستحيل للحفاظ على وجوده سواء من استعمال اساليب الاعتقال و التعذيب و القتل و الارهاب كل ذلك في سبيل الحفاظ على وجوده بالمقابل المتظاهرون السوريون في جميع المناطق يقومون بالتظاهر رغم كل هذا الارهاب سلميا ما اريد قول…ه و هذا الكلام موجه بالاخص الى اخواننا المعارضين في الخارج و على ما اعتقد اغلب المتظاهرين في الداخل يوافقوني بالراي فيما سأقول الثورة السورية في خطر نعم في خطر بسبب تجاهل الجميع لامر هام جدا و هو حماية المتظاهرين المتظاهرين بالرغم من سلميتهم و استمرار خروجهم على مدار 6 اشهر و رغم كل شيء مازالو يحاولون الصمود و النظام يعول على عامل الزمن الذي اصبح الآن في صالحه المتظاهرون لن يستمرو الى الابد بالتظاهر اذا لم توفر لهم حماية و للأسف سنجد ان اعداد المتظاهرين ستنحسر هذا اذا لم تكن قد بدأت بالفعل بالانحسار و كذلك المناطق التي يتم بها التظاهر ستنتقل الى مناطق اقل اهمية لذلك الرجاء العمل على طلب حماية دولية للمتظاهرين السلميين و الذي يريد ان يسميني خائن فأنا خائن لاني اطلب الحماية لي و لاهلي و للمتظاهرين من عصابات القتل و جيش الاحتلال السوري الذي لم يتوانى بالدفاع عن آل الاسد في حين ان اهلنا في الجولان كانو دائما يستنجدون بالجيش الذي لم يحرك ساكنا ابدا فمن هو خائف من المعارضين بالخارج من ان يطلق عليه لقب خائن ارجو منه ان ياتي و يتظاهر سلميا و بدون حماية و سوف نرى كم سيستمر بالتظاهر هذا اذا خرج للتظاهر بالاصل ارجو ان تكون الفكرة قد وصلت فأنا اطلب الحماية الدولية من مجلس الامن للشعب السوري من بطش النظام القائم في سورية و جيشه الخائن ارجو التعميم و النشر على جميع المواقع و عرضها على اصحاب الصلات مع الدول بالخارج و لتكون لافتاتنا و شعاراتنا في المظاهرا منذ اليوم (الشعب السوري يطلب الحماية الدولية)See More
17 hours ago
August 23rd, 2011, 1:15 pm
beaware said:
The Libya lesson
Kadafi may fall, but that doesn’t mean the U.S. should pursue the same strategy in, say, Syria.
August 23, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-libya-20110823,0,5149844.story
The international campaign against Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi is on the verge of a historic achievement: The judicious use of force by Western nations has given that nation’s rebellion the opportunity to eliminate a longtime scourge. And yet the experience of Libya, though it ushers out an unstable ruler, offers an uncertain model for U.S. foreign policy.
The use of force to address the internal abominations of other nations raises profoundly difficult questions for American policymakers. Eager not to serve as the world’s police force and yet determined to support democratic values and human rights, the United States often finds itself facing limited, unpalatable options. It may stand aside and allow rulers to abuse their people, or it may intervene, risking American lives and reinforcing the international impression that this nation is entitled to govern others.
In Libya, the Obama administration chose a middle course. The U.S. provided limited air and drone support to rebels who might well have been defeated without it. It declined to act unilaterally but rather played a supporting role in an effort led by European nations that have a greater stake in Libya’s stability. And though there were signs of mission creep, of deepening embroilment in Libya’s civil war, the U.S. largely resisted those temptations. Not one American soldier set foot in Libya.
Success should not breed complacency, however. What caused Kadafi to lose control of the country was less the pressure of outsiders than the fundamental weakness of his hollow regime. It would be foolish to assume that other governments, even in the region, are as susceptible to challenge. In Syria, for instance, the government of Bashar Assad retains, at least for the moment, the support of a formidable army and continues to pummel its people into submission; the death toll there is thought to exceed 2,200. Last week, the Obama administration, in conjunction with U.S. allies, called for Assad to step down and imposed sanctions on Syrian oil and American investment in Syria. Those were wise and measured steps, calibrated to the specifics of that situation.
Some will see in the crumbling of Kadafi’s regime a template for action in Syria. That’s the wrong lesson. Instead, the apparent success of the Libyan rebels is a reminder that every crisis is unique, and that each calls for the nuanced application of leverage in defense of American values and interests. Force is sometimes justified, but it should only be deployed when other methods have failed, when it can serve a vital end and when it can be effective in securing that result.
August 23rd, 2011, 1:21 pm
beaware said:
TURKEY AND SYRIA: A PARTING OF WAYS
Richard Weitz 15 August 2011
http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/turkey/2011/110815A.html
The turmoil in Syria threatens to deprive Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of one of its most significant foreign policy achievements. Since coming to power in 2002, the AKP has achieved a remarkable improvement in relations with Syria as part of its general goal of “zero problems with neighbors” that underpins its foreign policy. Now the upheaval in Syria is straining ties not only between Ankara and Damascus but also between Turkey and Iran. In addition, Turkey could suffer massive economic loses, increased threats to its border and internal security, and a more complicated regional Kurdish problem.
…..
CONCLUSIONS: The Syrian case is a reminder that Turkey must address a larger flaw in its regional policies. The “zero- problem” foreign policy aimed to bring Turkey strategic depth through improved ties with regional governments. But the plan had a flaw: In undemocratic states like Syria and Libya, Ankara was not expanding its relationships with the people, but with brutal regimes. With the Arab Spring toppling tyrants, however, Turkey must not only take into account its relationships with dictators, but also the popular uprisings that challenge these rulers. How the ruling AKP grapples with this conundrum will be the defining issue of Turkish foreign policy.
Concurrently, the Syrian crisis potentially offers Turkey the opportunity to bolster its claims that its NATO and EU partners actually benefit more from Ankara’s newly independent foreign policy because it enhances Turkey’s ability to support Western-supported initiatives in the Middle East and Eurasia. U.S and Turkish officials have been in constant contact during the last few months regarding Syria.
Domestic opinion may however impede how closely the AKP government collaborates with Western allies regarding Syria. Even though foreign minister Davutoğlu, upon his return from Damascus, stressed that “We conveyed only Turkey’s messages and none other,” Turkish opposition leaders joined with the Iranian and Syrian media in criticizing the AKP government for supposedly following U.S., European, and Israeli marching orders. Selahattin Demirtaş, leader of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), claimed that Davutoğlu travelled to Syria “not only as the foreign minister of Turkey, but also as an envoy of the U.S.” And in a comment that smacked of the anti-Western impulses of the secularist opposition, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), complained that Turkish-Syrian relations had deteriorated once “Western powers got involved” and had persuaded the AKP to act as their “subcontractor.”
The question is whether it is more damaging for the Turkish government to appear to be a “stooge” of Western powers or a passive bystander to the atrocities of the Baath regime.
Richard Weitz, Ph.D., is Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis, Hudson Institute.
August 23rd, 2011, 1:23 pm
5 dancing shlomos said:
the libyan rebels/traitors will be slaughtered. nato will run like a dog with its tail on fire. excuses will flow like the blood these monsters spilled.
August 23rd, 2011, 1:32 pm
jad said:
خطـة «كـرة الثـلج» الأميـركيـة لإسـقاط الأسـد
سامي كليب
حين قرر قيصر روسيا طرد اليهود من دولته، وقف ببابه رجل يهودي وخلفه زوجته وأبناؤه وقال راجيا: «يا سيدي لو تركتني عندك عامين فسأجعل كلبك يتحدث الروسية كأي إنسان آخر». نظر القيصر إليه باستغراب شديد وأجابه محذِّرا: «سأقبل عرضك، ولكن لو لم ينطق الكلب فسوف أعدمك وعائلتك». فرح اليهودي وعاد مع عائلته إلى منزله ليواجه غضب زوجته التي ما إن اجتازت عتبة البيت حتى صاحت به :«ماذا فعلت بنا؟ أتريده أن يقتلنا؟». ضحك زوجها اليهودي وأجاب: «بعد عامين سيموت القيصر أو أموت أنا أو يموت الكلب، الزمن كفيل بتغيير كل شيء يا حبيبتي».
يبدو أن واشنطن قد فهمت تماما أسرار الاستراتيجية السورية، وبين هذه الأسرار لعبة الزمن. الرئيس الراحل حافظ الأسد أتقنها تماما وربح الكثير من المعادلات عبر خياراته الذكية بين الاتحاد السوفياتي والولايات المتحدة. الرئيس الحالي بشار الأسد ورث عن أبيه قيمة الانتظار، ومفادها انه ينبغي تثبيت الأمن الداخلي بحزم وانتظار متغيرات إقليمية ودولية. منطقة الشرق الأوسط حبلى بالمتغيرات والمفاجآت.
ولأن واشنطن فهمت الاستراتيجية السورية، فهي ستحاول بكل الوسائل منع نظام الأسد من الإفادة من لعبة الوقت. تقول معلومات موثوقة من واشنطن، إن السفير الأميركي في دمشق روبرت فورد عاد مؤخرا من بلاده بخطة عمل واضحة لتسريع الخطوات بغية إسقاط نظام الأسد. إنها «كرة الثلج»، وتقضي هذه الخطة بدفع المعارضة لتوحيد صفوفها بأسرع وقت ممكن، والاتفاق على بيان سياسي لا يتعدى الصفحة الواحدة يكون عنوانا للمرحلة المقبلة. كما تقضي بالبحث جديا عن عدد من الضباط السوريين الذين يمكن أن يشكِّلوا مجلسا عسكريا، ولا تعارض واشنطن أن يكون جل هؤلاء من الطائفة العلوية، شرط الالتزام بعدد من الشروط المتعلقة بالانتخابات الحرة والإصلاحات والمصالح الأميركية والعلاقة مع إسرائيل.
كان السفير الأميركي الذي يتقن لغات عديدة بينها العربية، قد استُقبل في واشنطن في مطلع آب الحالي استقبالا لافتا حيث خصّه الرئيس باراك أوباما بلقاء طويل نسبيا، والتقى وزيرة الخارجية هيلاري كلينتون ومسؤولي الأمن القومي والاستخبارات. تقول المعلومات إن فورد عاد من تلك اللقاءات بكلمة السر التالية :«قرارنا أن الأسد فقد شرعيته، وان أي كلام عن إصلاحات لم يعد نافعا، والمطلوب منه الآن فقط وقف العمليات العسكرية وسحب الجيش».
جاء الموقف الأميركي هذا بعد تقارير وافية حملها فورد حول حركة المعارضة السورية وتحديدا «التنسيقيات»، وجاء أيضا بعد زيارته مدينة حماه، التي بقيت ظروفها غامضة حتى وقت قريب لجهة كيفية وصوله إلى تلك المدينة الحساسة ولقاءاته بمسؤوليها المحليين والمعارضة فيها، والتي يغلب عليها الطابع «الاخواني».
حين عاد فورد من حماه، روى كيف انه فوجئ بان الإسلاميين يقيمون هناك دولة داخل الدولة، فلهم قيادة خاصة وتراتبية في المناصب، وعندهم ترتيبات أمنية ووسائل حماية خاصة.
كيف وصل فورد إلى حماه؟
تشير مصادر أمنية إلى أن السفير الأميركي استخدم حيلة ذكية في الوصول إلى حماه. لجأ إلى اتفاق سابق بين دمشق وواشنطن يسمح للملحق العسكري الأميركي فقط بالتنقل عبر المناطق السورية بمجرد أن يقدِّم طلبا إلى القيادة العسكرية. أي أن الملحق قادر على التحرك قبل حصوله على الموافقة أو حتى من دونها. تحرَّك السفير بسيارة الملحق واسمه. جاء الرد الرسمي السوري غاضبا. تم منعه لاحقا من التحرك في مسافة تزيد على 25 كيلومترا. ردت واشنطن بموقف مماثل حيال السفير السوري هناك. لكن فورد عاد بعد فترة ليطلب رسميا الذهاب إلى مدينة حلب. جاءه الرد السوري بان الحفاظ على أمنه الشخصي يمنع وزارة الخارجية السورية من منحه الإذن، أجاب: «هل هذا يعني أن الأمن السوري عاجز عن حفظ الأمن في تلك المنطقة؟». يبدو أن دمشق قررت عدم إجابته على سؤاله، لأنها فهمت المغزى.
تم تقديم زيارة فورد إلى مدينة حماه على أنها عمل بطولي. كانت واشنطن تنتظر أن يؤدي ذلك إلى تأجيج التظاهرات في المدينة ومحيطها، ولكن أيضا إلى تأجيج الشعور العربي السني ضد نظام الأسد. وثمة هدف ثالث بقي بعيدا عن الأنظار ويتعلق برغبة الإدارة الأميركية في التجاوب مع مطلب أنقرة. كان رئيس الوزراء التركي رجب طيب أردوغان قد أفهم الإدارة الأميركية، ومعها بعض القادة العرب وسوريا نفسها، بان حماه هي «قضية شخصية» وانه تعهد بحمايتها. يبدو انه قال الأمر نفسه لبعض قادة الإخوان المسلمين.
بادر أوباما وقبله كلينتون إلى تهنئة السفير الأميركي على ما قام به في حماه. تأكدت الإدارة الأميركية من أن فورد، ذا التاريخ الناجح جدا في عدد من الدول العربية والإسلامية في عهد جورج بوش (من الجزائر والمغرب وتركيا ومصر إلى العراق فسوريا)، كان الخيار الأفضل لأوباما إلى دمشق رغم الامتعاض الأولي للجمهوريين وبعض الديموقراطيين. نجح أوباما في فرض وجهة نظره بالنسبة للسفير على أعضاء الكونغرس الأميركي.
كان لافتا أن يبقى فورد في دمشق، بينما جل السفراء الخليجيين خرجوا من سوريا بضغط أميركي أولا واحتجاجا على القمع الأمني للمتظاهرين ثانيا. والأغرب أن يبقى السفير في العاصمة السورية بعد أن أعلن أوباما نفسه أن على الأسد الرحيل، وانه بات فاقدا الشرعية.
هذا بالضبط ما يحمل على الاعتقاد بان الرجل يحمل فعلا خطة مدروسة لدعم الشارع السوري ضد القيادة. ثمة كلام جدي لدى بعض الأوساط العائدة حديثا من واشنطن بأن البحث جار عن كيفية تحريك «كرة الثلج» في الشارع. يقال إن المطالب الملحة من قبل الغرب، لكن أيضا من قبل تركيا، لوقف العمليات العسكرية وسحب الجيش تمهد لتطبيق تلك الخطة. تبين للأميركيين أن «التنسيقيات» هي السبيل الأفضل لتحريك الشارع وليس وجوه المعارضة المعروفة. كان لقاء هيلاري كلينتون مع عدد من أركان المعارضة مخيبا لآمال الإدارة الأميركية. جرت لقاءات أخرى بعيدة عن الأضواء مع عدد من المعارضين الآخرين. اقتنعت الإدارة الأميركية بأنه لا بد من التحرك في الداخل السوري، وهذا يفترض توفير مناخ جيد لذلك. الضغط سيزداد في المرحلة المقبلة لسحب الجيش.
الأوساط السورية شبه الرسمية تشير إلى أن القيادة أدركت منذ البداية أن التساهل في الموضوع الأمني سيجعل إمكانية تأثير الخارج على الشارع كبيرا. كان هذا أحد أهداف تشديد القبضة الأمنية، وليس فقط القلق من المسلحين أو من توسع رقعة التظاهرات.
سعى الأميركيون قبل فترة قصيرة إلى الترويج لفكرة أن الأسد نفسه ليس مسيطرا تماما على القرار الأمني. تباحثوا في هذا الأمر مع عدد من رموز المعارضة. سرت معلومات تقول بان واشنطن ومعها بعض حلفائها يبحثون عن شخصية بديلة من قلب النظام نفسه. ترددت أسماء كثيرة، بعضها سني الطائفة وبعضها علوي، لكن بقاء القيادة متماسكة طيلة الأشهر الماضية، ومشارفة شهر رمضان على الانتهاء، أقنعت الجميع بصعوبة المراهنة على انشقاق داخلي، فكان الاتجاه نحو تبني اتجاهين في خطة «كرة الثلج»: أولهما استمرار البحث عن بدائل للنظام من قلب النظام، وثانيهما تفعيل حركة الشارع ودعمه وتقديم نصائح حثيثة للتنسيقيات بغية توحيد صفوفها وتنظيم عملها. ليس غريبا والحالة هذه أن تجاهر بعض رموز المعارضة في القول لزوارها انه ما عاد بالإمكان قلب النظام من دون تدخل خارجي، برغم انتقاد جزء من هذه المعارضة للتدخلات الأجنبية.
تركيا وقطر والسعودية
في بحثها عن مناطق إسناد خارجية لتطبيق خطة «كرة الثلج»، ضغطت الإدارة الأميركية على دول الخليج لاستصدار موقف ضد سوريا. جاء الموقف الخليجي الرسمي من قبل بيان مجلس التعاون أو البيان الذي صدر عن الملك السعودي عبد الله مفاجئا للقيادة السورية. تفيد معلومات دبلوماسية دقيقة في دمشق أن الأسد كان غالبا ما يتلقى اتصالات من كبار المسؤولين الخليجين يؤكدون له فيها أنهم إلى جانبه، وأنهم لا يريدون سقوطه، وإنما عليه أن ينتهي سريعا من العمليات الأمنية. يؤكد هؤلاء أن الملك عبد الله نفسه كان المبادر في الشهر الأول من الاحتجاجات السورية إلى الاتصال بالأسد وإبلاغه موقفه المؤيد. لم تنقطع الاتصالات الخليجية. كان نائب رئيس حكومة الإمارات الشيخ محمد بن راشد آل مكتوم يؤكد للمقربين منه انه يصدِّق الرواية السورية حول وجود مسلحين، وكان يحرص على استمرار الاتصالات بالأسد. تشير المعلومات الدبلوماسية نفسها الى أن اتصالات بعض القادة الخليجيين لم تنقطع حتى بعد سحب السفراء. سعى البعض لتبرير ذلك والقول بان القيادة السورية تتفهم موقفهم.
لم ترد دمشق على المواقف الخليجية. لا بل إنها حرصت منذ البداية على عدم المجاهرة باستيائها من القيادة القطرية رغم كل ما تقوله عن دور قناة «الجزيرة» في تأجيج الشارع السوري. لم يقل الرئيس الأسد شيئا في مقابلته المتلفزة عن الموقف الخليجي. ثمة من يفسر ذلك بالحرص على إنجاح المساعي الهادفة إلى إبقاء الاتصالات مع الخليج قائمة، وخصوصا مع السعودية والإمارات.
تنفرد قطر في استثارة الاستياء السوري. يقال إن اتصالات أميرها بالرئيس الأسد بقيت مستمرة خصوصا في الشهرين الأولين للازمة السورية، لكن مواقفه مريبة. ينحو البعض صوب القول بان خطة «كرة الثلج» الأميركية كانت بحاجة إلى ذراع إعلامية قوية. دخلت فضائيتا «الجزيرة» و«العربية» في دائرة الاتهامات السورية المباشرة، طال الاتهام أيضا صحفا تابعة للسعودية وقطر.
يقول البعض الآخر إن اتصالات أمير قطر مع طهران تصب في خانة معرفة حقيقة الموقف الإيراني من النظام السوري وإمكانية إقناع القيادة الإيرانية بان سقوط الأسد لن يؤثر على علاقة طهران بدمشق لاحقا، وان لإيران مصلحة في شيء من الحياد حاليا في المشهد السوري في مقابل أن يقدم لها الغرب تسهيلات لجهة رفع العقوبات انطلاقا من سياسة «الخطوة خطوة» التي طرحت مؤخرا. يقول أصحاب هذه النظرية إن ثمة محاولات حثيثة للتوجه صوب إيران وإقناعها بان الإخوان المسلمين ليسوا ضدها، وأنهم يتفهمون أكثر من أي طرف آخر الموقف الإيراني القائل بان ما يحصل في الوطن العربي هو صحوة إسلامية. ثمة من يسخر من هذه المعلومات ويقول إن إيران لا تقبل أي نقاش حول احتمال سقوط النظام السوري. على العكس تماما كثفت إيران جهودها الدبلوماسية (زيارة رئيس لجنة الأمن القومي والعلاقات الخارجية في إيران علاء الدين بروجردي إلى القاهرة) وإغراءاتها الدولية (إحياء الوساطة الروسية في الملف النووي)، أو الإقليمية (تقارب مع السعودية وقطر) بغية مساعدة النظام السوري والتصدي للتدخلات الأميركية.
العلاقات المتقدمة بين إيران ومصر تعطي مفعولها. يقول مسؤول مصري مقرب من المؤسسة العسكرية إن المجلس العسكري لا يريد سقوط نظام الأسد، ويشير إلى أن جدلا قام مؤخرا في أوساط القيادة المصرية بعد أن طرح البعض إمكانية تحميل إيران وسوريا مسؤولية الهجوم على ايلات. رفض القادة العسكريون ذلك. هل للتقارب الإيراني المصري دور في ذلك؟
كان احد ضيوف الرئيس الأسد نقل عنه مؤخرا موقفا واضحا حيال إيران. قال الرئيس السوري انه يعتبر الموقف الأوروبي من بلاده «قبيحا». شرح أن الأوروبيين طلبوا منه غير مرة فك التحالف مع إيران أو تسهيل مصالحهم مع طهران، وأكد انه رفض ذلك غير مرة، لا بل انه قال إن الرئيس الفرنسي السابق جاك شيراك كان على حق حين قال للرئيس الحالي نيكولا ساركوزي انه لن يحصل على شيء في مقابل تقاربه من القيادة السورية، لان شيراك يعرف انه لم يحصل على شيء بالنسبة للملف الإيراني. الموقف السوري واضح إذاً حيال الأهمية الوجودية لهذا التحالف.
أما بالنسبة لتركيا فيشرح دبلوماسي مقرب من دول الخليج أن السعودية ليست مرتاحة أصلا إلى التفرد التركي بالملف السوري. يؤكد أن بيان الملك عبد الله جاء معتدلا حيث انه تحدث عن ضرورة «الحكمة» في الملف السوري. كان لا بد من صدور موقف سعودي، ليس بفعل الضغوط الأميركية فقط، وإنما لان الرياض لا تقبل بان تصبح أنقرة هي «الراعي السني» لأهل سوريا أو المنطقة.
يتعزز هذا الاعتقاد حول الاستياء السعودي من التفرد التركي، بعد المعلومات التي رشحت عن الاتصالات التركية -الإيرانية الأخيرة. زيارة وزير الخارجية التركي احمد داود اوغلو لطهران أثارت السعودية وبعض دول الخليج. اضطرت تركيا لشرح الموقف لاحقا للقيادة السعودية. مفاد الموقف أن الهدف هو وقف العنف في سوريا وتهدئة الأوضاع وإقناع الأسد بسحب جيشه وليس أي شيء آخر.
ليس مهما من وجهة النظر السورية معرفة أي دولة إقليمية مستاءة من الأخرى. الأهم هو رصد تأثير ذلك على الداخل السوري. حين طرحت الإدارة الأميركية فكرة أن تطلب السعودية وتركيا من الأسد التنحي، كانت هذه الإدارة تدرك تماما أن الاستياء السعودي من الرعاية الأميركية للدور التركي في الملف السوري واضح. سعت واشنطن لإرضاء الرياض ولكن هدفها بقي نفسه: لا بد من تشكيل محور إقليمي سني يساهم في تكبير «كرة الثلج» من جهة، ويشكل حاجزا أمام التدخل الإيراني.
في هذا المسعى ثمة دول عربية تضغط على حركة حماس للخروج نهائيا من سوريا. يحاول البعض جر الحركة إلى الموقف العام للإخوان المسلمين وللاتحاد العالمي لعلماء المسلمين لجهة المجاهرة بشجب النظام السوري. يصطدم ذلك بمواقف عدد من القادة البارزين في الحركة. يؤكد رئيس المكتب السياسي لحماس خالد مشعل لزواره أن أحدا لم يقدم للحركة ويدعمها كما فعل الرئيس بشار الأسد. يقول مسؤول حماسي آخر إن ذهاب الحركة إلى قطر يشابه إلى حد بعيد مع ذهاب الرئيس ياسر عرفات إلى تونس، أي الدخول في مرحلة إنهاء الحركة، وان استقرارها في مصر قد يلغي دورها المقاوم. لكن الأكيد أن الضغوط تكبر لفك التحالف بين حماس ودمشق، وذلك بذريعة أن تغيير المشهد السوري يعني وصول الإخوان المسلمين إلى السلطة أو إلى جزء أساسي من السلطة في سوريا، وان وضع الحركة مع النظام المقبل سيكون أفضل.
لصالح من ياعب الوقت؟
يتغير المشهد الإقليمي في الوقت الراهن. تشتد المعارك التركية مع الأكراد. توحي إيران بأنها دخلت مجددا إلى الملف الكردي (إعلان عن اعتقال الرجل الثاني في حزب العمال الكردستاني مراد قره يلان ثم نفي ذلك). يغلي العراق امنيا وسياسيا على وقع المفاوضات بشأن مستقبل القوات الأميركية. تلتهب إسرائيل بالعملية الفدائية في ايلات ثم الهجمات الهمجية على غزة. تتوتر العلاقات المصرية الإسرائيلية. تنشط الحركة الفلسطينية بشأن إعلان الدولة الفلسطينية في الأمم المتحدة. يضغط الأميركيون على إسرائيل للاعتذار من تركيا بشان مجزرتهم ضد الأتراك في «أسطول الحرية» إلى غزة. تعتقد واشنطن انه لا بد من هذا الاعتذار في مقابل دعم الإدارة الأميركية للجهود الإسرائيلية ضد الدولة الفلسطينية. الأتراك ينتظرون الاعتذار وأمامهم كل الاحتمالات.
وسط هذا المشهد ، يمكن لـ«كرة الثلج» الأميركية أن تستمر في سوريا، ولكن ثمنها سيكون باهظا جدا. القيادة السورية لن تترك الملف الأمني يفلت من يدها مرة ثانية، و«التنسيقيات» تعلم أن أي استعادة للقوة على مستوى القيادة السورية يعني دفع ثمن باهظ لاحقا. سعى الرئيس الأسد لسحب البساط عبر حواره المتلفز أمس الأول وتحديد مواعيد روزنامة واضحة للإصلاحات. سارعت المعارضة للقول إن الأمر تأخر. المعركة الداخلية مرشحة إذاً لخضات لن تهدأ قريبا. المعركة مستمرة وقد تطول والرئيس الأسد تعمد في لقائه المتلفز التأكيد على قوة الدولة والأمن، تماما كما تعمد الحديث بالتفصيل عما جرى في اجتماع اللجنة المركزية لحزب البعث، ذلك أن الحزب يبقى أولوية بالنسبة للنظام في المرحلة المقبلة. المعركة طويلة، لكن التوترات في المنطقة تعيد الأمور إلى منطق اليهودي الذي كان ينتظر عند باب القيصر. فلمصلحة من سيلعب الزمن؟
http://www.assafir.com/Article.aspx?EditionID=1928&ChannelID=45506&ArticleID=2703
August 23rd, 2011, 1:42 pm
Revlon said:
Syrian Activists Form A ‘National Council’
Group Denounces Bashar al-Assad’s Regime
By the CNN Wire Staff
POSTED: 2:18 am PDT August 23, 2011
UPDATED: 8:18 am PDT August 23, 2011
(CNN) — Syrian dissidents have formed a national council to lead the opposition to Bashar al-Assad’s regime, opposition members meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, said Tuesday.
This appears to be one of several opposition movements and parties claiming to represent the Syrian opposition inside and outside Syria. The creation of the council came as Libya’s National Transitional Council is primed to take the reins of power from the Moammar Gadhafi regime.
More….
August 23rd, 2011, 1:42 pm
Vexed Levantine said:
http://bit.ly/nQGA1P
Is Turkey shutting its doors to Syrians?
by Burcu Gültekin Punsmann*
Are we on the verge of losing Syria? This idea fills me with bitterness and frustration since Syria is facing what may be its greatest isolation in more than four decades of rule by the al-Assad family. Turkey was on its way to helping Syrians win.
While Syria can’t officially be an internal issue for Turkey, it is beyond a doubt a personal matter for many Turkish citizens, as it has become for me. I started rediscovering my Syrian roots in summer 2003.
The daughter of a Turkish diplomat, I spent my childhood and youth in embassies all over the world. Geopolitics was part of daily life. I was truly scared of Syria and I recall having feared former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. I was probably intimidated by his ascetic and secular appearance, which singled him out among the extravagant Arab leaders.
It was June 2003 and I was crossing the border into Syria from Kilis a few months after the US invasion of Iraq. I decided to extend my field study in Gaziantep — which was for the PhD I was earning in France — to Syria. This was before the Ahmet Davutoğlu era, at the very beginning of rapprochement with Syria, first launched after 1998 as a result of actions taken by former Foreign Minister İsmail Cem and the administration that preceded the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
At that time I needed a visa. I went to the Syrian consulate in İstanbul for an interview. “Why do you want to visit Syria?” Fearing that the inquisition took an interrogative tone, I want to avoid mention of my research. I decided it was better to be straightforward with the most essential. “My grandfather was born in Damascus,” I said. This had an immediate effect on this vice-consul. Yes, my grandfather was the son of an officer. He grew up in a boarding school in Damascus and decided to cross into Hatay just before the referendum. I regret that I missed the opportunity to have a direct encounter with him. He passed away too early. When he came to Turkey, he was fluent in Arabic and French but could barely speak Turkish.
I spent a couple of weeks in Damascus and Aleppo, hosted by a French research center, investigating Syria’s developing trade links with Turkey. I loved Aleppo in particular, a vibrant city that preserved the cosmopolitanism lost on the Turkish side of the border. I could find my translators among the Armenian community, as many were fluent in Turkish. The country seemed less Arabic — contrasting with the Egypt that I knew a bit about — to my eyes and so close to Turkey. My willingness to transcend borders was mainly inspired by the European experience. Did I also have in mind Napoleon’s words, pointing to the importance of geography in conducting diplomacy?
The last time I visited Syria I was with a large delegation headed by Foreign Minister Davutoğlu. I attended the ceremony for the signature of the agreement that removed visa requirements between the two countries, which was held at the border crossing. The mine warning signs erected on both sides of the road stood as a reminder of the recent past and a testimony of lost opportunities. Turkey and Syria share a minefield three times the size of Cyprus. Demining efforts that were under way have been postponed because of the internal conflict in Syria.
I see the “zero problems with neighbors” policy more as a statement of aims than a naive outlook on the region. Geography has proven a liability for Turkey. The Davutoğlu approach embodies a reconciliation process that aims to reverse years of antagonism with neighbors and transform political liabilities into assets.
A reconciliation process extended to non-EU neighbors indeed, to those located to the South and to the East and North.
Developing relations with Russia are a good case study. The normalization of relations with Armenia would have been a huge achievement in this respect. I still nurture hope that it remains within reach. Economic interdependence has been singled out as the most important tool in this dogged diplomatic pragmatism supported by using the soft power of trade, along with cultural links.
Some 50 bilateral agreements were signed with Syria. Bilateral trade boomed and visa restrictions were lifted. Turkey provided Syria with political and economic relief, helping it emerge from its international isolation and attract much needed foreign investment. In January 2004, Bashar al-Assad became the first Syrian president to visit Turkey. The Turkish public liked the young, smart and modern looking presidential couple. However Syria has never been Turkey’s ally and the two countries never each other’s best friend.
There was much hope that in the case of Syria, economic interdependence could have been converted into political convergence, that it was possible to tame the other side’s behavior with our force of traction. Turkey has become the country that enjoys the most leverage in Syria. Syria could be managed as long as the regime felt comfortable of its survival. Today Damascus and Aleppo remain calm as the economic elite are fearful of a chaotic aftermath to Mr. Assad’s government. No one can wish to see Damascus and Aleppo go up in flames. The Syrian government should return to rationality.
There will be no going back to the ’90s in Turkish-Syrian relations. Turkey will not become the enemy of yesterday again. A total of 7,239 Syrians escaping from their own government found shelter in Turkey, while some 17,000 more are said to be on their way. This refugee flow was boosted the public’s sympathy for the plight of their persecuted neighbors.
No one had ever pursued any democratization agenda in Syria. That can’t be a ground to put Turkey’s engagement policy on trial. According to the data of the Turkish National Police, entries from Syria to Turkey have increased by 635 percent in the last 10 years, the fastest growth registered from countries in the Middle East. Syria ranks second after Iran in terms of visitors, which equaled 899,494 in 2010. Over holiday periods, hotels in Mersin were full of Syrian tourists, mainly middle class families. By opening its gates, Turkey has had the most powerful effect, demonstrating the benefits of democracy, and has directly supported the social transformation process across the border.
Are we going to shut our doors to Syrians today? Will this be the best way to stand by the Syrian people?
August 23rd, 2011, 1:42 pm
Haytham Khoury said:
@ Revlon # 172.
Obeida Fares has wrong idea what it means unify the opposition. Unify the opposition does not mean we should make from them one political party. We need them to remain different with different ideologies, because this reflects the diversity the Syrian society (which is a source of richness). However, we need them to make a temporary coalition till the end of the regime. Coalitions are being formed always in democracies. Some of these coalitions comprise some parties with opposing ideologies, however they coalesce temporarily for what they think is the benefit of the country. After the regime falls, we need them to compete as different parties in democratic elections. We, as Syrians, will have the choice to vote for competing ideologies and competing visions. I laid this vision out previously in the following article
http://haytham-khoury2.blogspot.com/2011/07/syrian-opposition-lacks-sense-of_6972.html
August 23rd, 2011, 1:47 pm
Aboud said:
“the libyan rebels/traitors will be slaughtered. nato will run like a dog with its tail on fire. excuses will flow like the blood these monsters spilled.”
I’ve saved a screen shot of your comment. I’m going to savor it everytime I turn on the news about Libya 🙂
August 23rd, 2011, 1:55 pm
mjabali said:
I do not hate you mr. Aboud, I hate the your lies and of course I hate your pro-violence stance and disregard for the lives of Syrians. You are throwing gas to this fire burning Syria and killing its kids.
Aboud you are losing this discussion as obvious and that is why you are resorting to the Baathi method of claiming victory while obviously losing. Also, you are trying to make this personal and attacking me and making references to Iran. You represent a joke on your best day Mr. Aboud. See the amount of smiley faces and heeeehhehehehe in your posts.
Aboud you are funny. How do you consider yourself outclassed someone in a discussion while you can not come with one real and convincing answer and are getting caught fabricating things time after time?
1- How did you win this discussion?
2- You seem to obtain the ultimate truth.
3- You seem to see that some German Soldiers may not be Nazis but still you would shoot your cousin or brother if he invaded Hama or Homs, how can you explain this contradiction? You would shoot every Syrian Soldiers and spit on them as you said if they entered your city and still consider that some German soldiers are not Nazis.
3- As for Dunkirk, how did you know if I knew or not about what had happened there or not? Another fabrication of yours. Believe me General Aboud I know what happened in Dunkirk.
4- As for the French Ghost Tank I am still waiting for your answer about why they did not mass produce it instead of the other models to match the German Tanks?
5- As for cutting someone’s life short, those were your words describing what you would do if a president of Syria intended on staying forever on the seat. You are a violent person. You could infer this from this attitude, can you deny your words and attitude here? Haven’t you heard of democracy, demonstrating and removing presidents through peaceful means, especially when you are bringing the King’s family name into this. Did MLK, jr. or Sr. call to kill soldiers and spit on them while boiling them in urine.
6- AS for you and the Blitzkrieg, there is an affinity between you and this violent method. I do not admire this vulgar display of power. Video Games Generals do. I tried to show you the relationship between Islam and the Nazi mode of thinking and you tried to say that I do not see the billion Muslims in this world. The funny part is your pro human rights tone you adopt here and there. Of course an emotional thinker like you does not see that both the Blitzkrieg failed Nazis liked this vulgar display of power like the Muslims. It was no surprise to me the Nazis has a Muslim Waffen SS division.
7- Aboud insists to try and tease me with Iran and references to Iranian Mullahs and where they buy their turbans. Iran and its Mullahs are not in my interest. I wish the best for my Iranian friends, who are all against this regime. The ones that I know mr. Aboud you can not touch with a 30 feet pole in terms of Culture and achievements
August 23rd, 2011, 1:55 pm
Akbar Palace said:
Anyone feel the earthquake??
Mjabali,
Are you saying the demonstators should stop demonstrating?
August 23rd, 2011, 2:09 pm
Aboud said:
@199
So, you’ve given up on the idiotic notion that the Syrian Army has up to date weapons that can match what Turkey or Israel has.
So, you recanted your previous statement when you said I threatened to cut your life short.
So, you’ve climbed down from your absurd statement that studying German WW2 tactics and doctrines makes one a Nazi.
So, you looked on the Internet, and found that what I said about the French having better and more tanks than the Germans to be true.
And you ask how I won this discussion? LOL!
“As for the French Ghost Tank I am still waiting for your answer about why they did not mass produce it instead of the other models to match the German Tanks?”
Do I have to draw a cartoon for you? I answered that twice, but you seem incapable of comprehending a simple statement. They had more and better tanks than the Germans, but they used them in *piecemeal* fashion ie they used out of date tactics that were useless against German mass armored divisions.
Seriously, what part of the following don’t you understand? Despite having better and more tanks than the Germans, the French in WW 2 used them in piecemeal fashion
Everyone else on this form has taken away an important historic lesson, and you’re still banging your head against a wall, trying to prove you can take me down. My Persian Pussy Cat, you can’t 🙂
“Haven’t you heard of democracy, demonstrating and removing presidents through peaceful means”
Yes, we tried that in Hama, Homs, Dar’a, Deir el Zour, Telkelakh, Idlib, Aleppo, Damascus, Latakia, Houran, Baniyas, Rastan. In every single case, the barbaric regime responded with tanks and your turd Iranian snipers.
The menhebaks, like this Iranian, denounce violence, except when they are using it.
They plead Martin Luther King, except when it comes time for them to apply his lessons.
They want unarmed struggle, but are quick to use tanks when they can’t muster an orchestrated demonstration.
“You seem to see that some German Soldiers may not be Nazis but still you would shoot your cousin or brother if he invaded Hama or Homs how can you explain this contradiction”
How can anyone except a menhebak connect these two statements;
1) Not all Germans were Nazis.
2) I will kill my own relative if he committed atrocities on the Syrian people.
The fact that you assume that every single German was a Nazi just shows, one more weary time, how ignorant you are about the very things you are failing to argue about. Many high ranking German generals were not part of the Nazi party, and yet committed atrocities in the name of the Fuhrer. The fact that they were not Nazis did not save them at Nuremberg.
“Nazi” is not shorthand for “bad Germans”. Many very bad Germans did not need to belong to the Nazi party to commit war crimes. Only someone intellectually lazy would make that mistake.
“You are a violent person”
Stick around, you’ve only seen me online. If Cro Magnum Maher was on fire, I wouldn’t waste spit on that turd.
“Did MLK, jr. or Sr. call to kill soldiers and spit on them while boiling them in urine. ”
Obviously, you did not understand the MLK quote. Read it again. MLK condemned the silence of the silent majority. What he said was that it wasn’t enough for someone not to belong to the KKK, one had to actively condemn them and their activities. I agree completely. Evil must be condemned and fought, and its agents buried in a mass grave in Iran.
Has anyone else noticed how it takes five of the menhebaks to deal with just me? LOL! I wish the Israeli forums were this easy back then 🙂
August 23rd, 2011, 2:18 pm
Aboud said:
“It was no surprise to me the Nazis has a Muslim Waffen SS division. ”
And it’s no surprise to me that you single out Muslims, racist that you are, and ignore the fact that the Germans had Croat divisions, Ukrainian divisions, French collaborators. In fact, everywhere they went, they found willing collaborators.
Generalize much, Persian Pussy Cat? And please teach Ahmadinejad some culture, in the shaving department perhaps 🙂
August 23rd, 2011, 2:22 pm
Khalid Tlass said:
@Mr. 5 Dancing Shlomos,
Fils de pute, les hérétiques Shabbiha seront abattus.
Venez à ma maison. Je vais vous montrer une pièce de 2 kg de la statue en bronze de Kadhafi, avec un trou de 7.62 mm balle.
Come to my house. I will show you a 2-kg peice of Gaddafi’s bronze statue, with a 7.62 mm bullet hole in it.
August 23rd, 2011, 2:26 pm
Tara said:
Akbar Palace
I did feel an earthquake. Was it one?
August 23rd, 2011, 2:32 pm
Khalid Tlass said:
Aboudi, you are great, we should make you a General in the new Syrian Army with a permanent commission ( I’m serious). Its bcoz of people like you that the revolution has been sustained for this long. No use arguing with these Majoosi grave-worshippers, the Syrian people are digging a huge grave for them.
And if I had some more money, I would have tailor-made a bullet-proof vest, helmet and combat boots for you. I would have given you 2 assault rifles with load of ammo, and paid for your training with the SAS or SBS. Please don’t think I’m joking, I’m getting emotional nowadays and I simply love dedicated Mamenhebaks like you, Tara, etc.
August 23rd, 2011, 2:32 pm
SYR.EXPAT said:
Bad news for the menhibak crowd.
“Rebels have entered the fortified compound of Muammar Gaddafi in Bab al-Azizya in Tripoli, following intense fighting with forces loyal to the Libyan leader.
The rebels “broke through the gates of Bab al-Aiziya [and] some opposition fighters managed to enter the government’s stronghold in the Libyan capital,” Al Jazeera’s correspondent Zeina Khodr said, reporting from the compound on Tuesday.”
There is visual confirmation that the rebels reached the building from where Gaddafi issued his zanga zanga warning.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/08/20118234144136279.html
However, it’s not over until the Qaddafi and family are captured.
August 23rd, 2011, 2:32 pm
Aboud said:
“I wish the best for my Iranian friends, who are all against this regime”
Let me make something very clear to you and your Iranian friends. I don’t give a rat’s ass if some Iranians are against the Syrian regime. I want them to be against the Iranian regime. It took only five weeks for the Iranian revolution to fall flat on its face, and yet the Ayatollahs did not use even a quarter of the suppression the Syrian people have proven resilient against.
The Iranians failed to win their freedoms because not enough of them wanted to be free, and those who did, did not want it badly enough. As a result, we have the Ayatollah donkeys around to apply the same methods in Syria.
The Syrian people have proven braver and more resilient than any other on the face of the Earth. Besho was right about one thing; Syria will give lessons to the rest of the world on democracy, freedom, and what it takes to be free. After we pack junior off with his X-Box.
August 23rd, 2011, 2:34 pm
Akbar Palace said:
5.8 earthquake hit VA/DC area.
The world is coming to an end.
August 23rd, 2011, 2:35 pm
Aboud said:
“I would have given you 2 assault rifles with load of ammo, and paid for your training with the SAS or SBS”
Ramboud
🙂
August 23rd, 2011, 2:37 pm
Khalid Tlass said:
These Iranians whenever they’ve tried a revolution, have failed miserably. In Iran they were crushed within 6 weeks. they tried it in Bahrain but they got crushed by a 100-odd sleepy soldiers from KSA. In 1991 they tried it in Iraq and Saddam crushed them and gave them a good lesson. Looks like Imam Mahdi and Aba Abdillahil Hussein don’t help them.
August 23rd, 2011, 2:47 pm
Badr said:
“It did not take long for Bashar to realize that this was a house of cards…the Syrian system will not be tinkered with.”
Ehsani
If Bashar is powerless, does it make him blameless?
August 23rd, 2011, 2:49 pm
Khalid Tlass said:
Its all over BBC, visual evidence. Rebels have entered Gaddafi compound and are trashing it. They found 100-odd RPGs, a Tank and guess what, 5 Iranian passports. They are at this moment in the process of destroying what remains of the “Golden Fist”.
Hard luck Menhebaks.
August 23rd, 2011, 2:51 pm
abughassan said:
did some of you guys suggest that soldiers who got shot at checkpoints do not deserve to be mourned?
(you guys know very well that manning a checkpoint is not a crime and those soldiers do not have a choice and most did not fire a bullet,they are just standing there,and I am not referring here to combat units).
So,did we move from justifying shooting back when the army shoots at people,armed or unarmed,to actually endorsing shooting at the army,period?
I hope I misunderstood the statements,because if I did not,I would like “leaders” of this new opinion to stand up and explain to this forum how they managed to get to that point.
August 23rd, 2011, 2:53 pm
jad said:
‘شبكة أخبار حمص H.N.N
حمص- الان-إنفجار سيارة سياحية بالقرب من المركز الثقافي بجانب حلويات ابو اللبن ولكن دون وقوع اي إصابات ولا نعلم تفاصيل التفجير حتى الان سنوافيكم بالتفاصيل حال ورودها’
August 23rd, 2011, 2:54 pm
Khalid Tlass said:
Pourquoi ne pas vous perdre Abu Ghassan? Personne n’a besoin de votre propagande Mukhabarat catimini ici.
We are tired of your views Abu Ghassan. And you want us all to believe that none of your Alawi relatives have/were been in the Army ?
After the revolution, we should reserve 80 % of the vacancies at Homs Military Academy for Sunnis, 15 % for Druze and 5 % for Christians. The rest can go back to the mountains.
August 23rd, 2011, 3:00 pm
Aboud said:
Abughassan obviously has never had to pass through a checkpoint. What do you think those checkpoints are set up for?
They are there to strangle roads leading to areas and cities the regime doesn’t like.
They are there to arrest people who have to pass through those roads.
They are there to shoot at demonstrators who try to go out on the main road.
Seriously Abughassan, since when did you get so naive that you started to think that checkpoints in Syria were innocent affairs? I can understand checkpoints at military bases, or those gaudy Baathist Party HQs.
But the regime has set up checkpoints at areas to oppress, intimidate, arrest and shoot people. I say its about time they got shot back at. Let’s see how long it takes for those checkpoints to become deserted.
“hose soldiers do not have a choice and most did not fire a bullet”
No more God damn bloody excuses! After five months, any Syrian soldier still in uniform had better be trying to find a way out, or defending the people he had taken an oath to defend. Otherwise, they are complicit in these atrocities. A soldier cannot take a passive stance while his people are getting murdered.
Or would you have soldiers stationed in Aleppo taking a passive role while Damascus was being overrun in a war?
August 23rd, 2011, 3:00 pm
Ales said:
We will see in a maybe decade, what good will change of system bring to Libyans. But no one can convince me foreign countries were not behind it.
That’s how it started:
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/libyan-islamists-seize-arms-take-hostages-20110221-1b19c.html
There’s a certain correlation in comments from some bloggers here and article.
August 23rd, 2011, 3:01 pm
jad said:
Abughassan,
Don’t dare to point out the calling of violence and killing advertisement on SC by Doude and the two criminal friends Abu Umar and TlAss who is actually promoting of arming people ‘PUBLICLY’ online, otherwise you are Ayatoullah, Majoosi and irony enough ‘Violence’ supporter…
I wonder if Dr. Landis is reading all this sectarian/violence/killing calling and trash thoughts on his website?
August 23rd, 2011, 3:02 pm
jad said:
HNN| شـبكة أخـبار حمص
خاص شبكة أخبار حمص
https://www.facebook.com/HNN.SYRIA
انفجار سيارة مفخخة في حمص
بالقرب من المركز الثقافي
وعند الاستعلام عن التفاصيل
تبين أن السيارة كانت مفخخة بعبوة ناسفة
مجهزة بحشوة تفجير خفيفة
والأمر الذي أدى إلى اصابة مواطن
خاص شبكة أخبار حمص
https://www.facebook.com/HNN.SYRIA
August 23rd, 2011, 3:06 pm
Syrialover said:
This is interesting. Here are some of the US PR and lobby firms on Gaddafi’s payroll exposed.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/as-qaddafi-falls-k-street-rises-20110823
Let’s find out which firms in the US and Europe have been employed by Bashar and co (eg to engineer the infamous Vogue whitewash, to advise and coach him and regime apologists and propagandists).
August 23rd, 2011, 3:13 pm
Aboud said:
“I wonder if Dr. Landis is reading all this sectarian/violence/killing calling and trash thoughts on his website?”
God I hope so. I hope Landis is telling his friends, that this country is moving towards a civil war that will make the Iraq mess look like a company picnic. Well done Besho, very well done. Or what did you menhebaks expect people to do, after so many cities got invaded?
Once junior has to start counting dead republican guards in the thousands, then he’ll be more flexible when it comes to a national dialogue.
Oh and Jad, it wasn’t a booby trapped car. Just ask the people who live in Damascus road. More on this very soon.
I mean, use your head, who the heck would want to blow up Abu Laban?
August 23rd, 2011, 3:19 pm
Khalid Tlass said:
Aboud, have any significant number of Republican Guards.Cowards been killed in Homs or Rastan recently by the freedom fighters ? Just say yes or no.
August 23rd, 2011, 3:25 pm
Jasmine said:
Dear Prof Landis
So far this forum has been a rich source for the news,and decent discussions,I must congratulate you on the objectivity of your articles.
I have few concern regarding certain posts recently,I am not worry too much about the occasional bad language,some unintended personal insult or swear words.
The real worry is transferring this forum to a base for the Syrian uprising by using inflammatory language,posting names,a call for aggression and killing.
I don’t think this type of language has been used in a war zone,let alone an academic forum.
I describe these people who are doing this as a pure coward,because they are contributing to the killing of more Syrian,by only sitting at their desk behind their PC,and they are claiming that they are revolutionary ,while sacrificing the blood of their fellow Syrians.
Is there any way that you could help?
August 23rd, 2011, 3:30 pm
mjabali said:
General Aboud:
1- How do you know what do the Syrian army has in its arsenal? A Video Game General like you can not know that. You have no resources. Only idiots deny the fact that Russia gives, and been giving al-Assads good weapons from what they make. If that matches what Israel and Turkey has that is another story you are trying to bring us to.
2- I did not take back anything. I was quoting your words and mode of thinking. Your words fail you mr. Shakespeare. You threaten to kill right and left, so what I said about your attitude is very possible.
3- General Aboud where is this French Ghost Tank and why they did not mass produce it? Still waiting for this answer. I am waiting for the list of the battle this tank proved it is better.
4- General Aboud: did you go to the Army?
did you study that the Blitzkrieg the German applied was not only based on concentrated German Armored Division, but, on the coordination of a fast paced attack where the massive and effective AIR RAIDS pave the way for the armored divisions.
This little important information passed you. The French did not fight the German tanks first, they had to go through hell and back from the German air raids before they set their sites on any tank. In your video game you do not have the option of having a real blitz, German Nazi style: Air raids and tanks.
Learn this lesson, take notes and stop your patronizing annoying tone. You are making a fool out of your self.
Where did you mention the role of the German air force? You still think that the Blitzkrieg is only based on tanks. It is not General. It happens like that in video games and not when Nazi Germany blitzed France.
You have no clue as obvious Mr. Shakespeare.
AS for the Muslim Waffen SS, I am not talking to a Croat or anyone else. I am talking to you and want to show a parallel attitude with the Nazis. Both of you like to torture. Both of you have the same disregard for human lives. Both of you think that some “Other” deserve to die.
AS for the non-Nazi German officers, their numbers are so minute they are close to a zero. Where were they during the war years, why didn’t they do anything to stop the war. You are going to tell me that they put a suite case bomb that almost killed Hitler. Is that it? This is what they were able to do during the insanity years from 1933 to 1945. They had 12 years and did nothing but “Honestly” perfecting the Blitzkrieg, that you Video Game Supreme General Aboud could not understand obviously.
I remind you again Aboud: The Blitzkrieg is not about Tanks only. Remember this lesson and write this note. I do not know how much it would help you in your Video Game analysis at your West Point Tank Warfare classes.
5- The Iranians I know are against the Mullahs and Najad and co. and surely they are more cultured than you. They have better attitudes and morality than you any day. You are a prophet of hate. It is the end of the world when someone from Hums dismisses the Iranians as a whole. Your Sunni take on things is nothing but a road to hell.
I am a secular person and do not want any relation for Syria with any religious Mullah or Sheikh. Syria should be independent from all of these warring factions. Syria should distance itself from the Sunni/Shia conflict. Iran became friends with al-Assad because of the Sunni hatred for the Alawis. These are the real facts from history as I lived it.
6- How many times I have to explain to you that I am not pro Assad? I want change but I like change to be done while saving Syrian lives.
Idiots like you lose people like me from the fight to save Syria.
idiots like you can not distinguish who is with change and who is not and who is with Syria and who is not.
You want violence. you incite violence. You throw accusations. You label people. you smear people. You accuse people. You think you know more than everyone. You patronize people.
August 23rd, 2011, 3:33 pm
EHSANI2 said:
BADR,
In comment 211, you ask me to elaborate on my point and explain whether I feel Bashar was both blameless and powerless.
In my opinion, Bashar was very well aware of what he inherited. It was a dysfunctional system. The best analogy here is Gorbachev when he inherited his own stagnant Soviet system. He first proposed a vague programme of reform. He soon realized that this will not work and that deeper reforms were needed. Initially, he still wanted to stick to the idea that he can prop up his centrally planned economy. He soon decided otherwise. More radical reforms in the shape of perestroika soon followed. Three years into his leadership, he decided to introduce Glasnost which brought the Soviet people radically increased freedoms of speech. Soon thereafter, he launched even more radical reforms that were meant to reduce party control of the government apparatus. He then introduced a congress of people’s deputies for which free elections throughout the Soviet Union were held. By 1989, his reforms were largely complete as he assumed the office of the head of state (Chairman of the Supreme Soviet).
For all the reforms that Gorbachev introduced, he still later lost to Boris Yelstin who wanted faster and deeper reforms.
I guess Bashar could have been Syria’s Gorbachev but he clearly did not. The status quo ruled in the end.
August 23rd, 2011, 3:37 pm
mjabali said:
Aboud:
Also, i forgot, some violent person like you is not allowed to bring MLK into the discussion.
August 23rd, 2011, 3:47 pm
Aboud said:
“Idiots like you lose people like me from the fight to save Syria.”
I think we can live with the loss of a Muslim hater, and someone who dismisses the legitimate demands of a large segment of Syrian society because they are “poor and conservative”
“General Aboud where is this French Ghost Tank and why they did not mass produce it?”
Here you go;
“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanks_in_World_War_II”
And I quote
“French tanks generally outclassed German tanks in firepower and armour in the 1940 campaign, but their poor command and control doctrine made these advantages irrelevant to the final outcome.”
Need me to do your research for you as well? Or do you need this paragraph explained to you?
Seriously, from the way this guy is going on about French tanks, you’d think the very survival of Besho depended on who had the better tank in WW2 hehehehe 🙂
“The French did not fight the German tanks first, they had to go through hell and back from the German air raids before they set their sites on any tank. ”
Go back, and read where I mentioned that the Blitzkrieg depended on close coordination between the different branches of the armed forces. You just admitted my point that the German focus on lightning warfare was far superior to the French’s reliance on the Maginot Line. And all to prove you aren’t ignorant on WW2 matters as you’ve already proven to be.
Are you that desperate to score points against me that you are so willing to be lead this deep into a debate that has nothing to do with Syria? LOL! 🙂 Damn I’m good.
“Both of you like to torture. Both of you have the same disregard for human lives. Both of you think that some “Other” deserve to die. ”
Said the menhebak whose regime has killed 2,200 people, imprisoned over 15,000 and made refugees out of tens of thousands. I am calling for retribution against the thugs who do Besho’s work for him, the shabiha turds and the army soldiers still on the side of the regime, and who would piss their pants if faced with anything other than unarmed civilians.
Would I mind if they died horrible deaths? Not in the least bit.
“AS for the non-Nazi German officers, their numbers are so minute they are close to a zero. ”
*facepalm* Have you ever heard of Erwin Rommel? Look him up. Montgomery and Patton did not consider him insignificant.
“I am a secular person and do not want any relation for Syria with any religious Mullah or Sheikh”
Don’t shove your secular racism down our throats and whine about how the Saudis shove their wahabism down other people’s throats.
“They had 12 years and did nothing but “Honestly” perfecting the Blitzkrieg”
In your desperation to prove you are anything but an amateur debater, you nit pick on points that have nothing to do with Syria or even the discussion. What exactly is your point here, because damned if I can make heads or tails of it. Take a deep breath, think before you write, and lie down on a Persian rug with the Ayatollah’s face embodied on it 🙂
August 23rd, 2011, 3:52 pm
mjabali said:
Mr. Akbar Palace Comment # 200
You said:
“Are you saying the demonstators should stop demonstrating?”
Mr. Akbar Palace, I think it is time now to organize real parties. Demonstrating should be planned more and as we see al-Assad is using this as a pretext to show his might, buy more time while more blood is being spilled. This game is easy to figure out but one has to look at things rationally.
August 23rd, 2011, 3:54 pm
Aboud said:
Some nice quotes from MLK
“A lie cannot live.” Indeed, Dunya TV has no life after Besho is gone.
“A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live” Correct. So called soldiers of the Syrian army are supposed to put their lives on the line for their people.
“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan. ”
Wow, that’s a good one. I’ll be using soft-minded men alot to describe certain posters. Hey, it can’t be an insult, MLK used that phrase 🙂
My favorite:
“A right delayed is a right denied. ” Yes Besho, step out of the way and give people their rights, you only delay the inevitable.
August 23rd, 2011, 3:56 pm
abughassan said:
I respect individual differences between people in terms of their mental abilities,emotional IQ,etc, and I can not underestimate the influence of personal experiences and family teachings on one’s political views,I am obviously not a good example of a Syrian who had to suffer from checkpoints,because I never did,and I have little respect for sectarian feelings because I never had any.I was simply asking a basic question about the army and I got an answer.
This forum is now anemic when it comes to substance and obese when it comes to blabs,the funny part is that many obese people are anemic too. I am as guilty as everybody else of this “blabitis”…
August 23rd, 2011, 4:18 pm
Khalid Tlass said:
Aboud, have you done your military service ? Do you have any basic training as regards handling firearms, etc. ?
August 23rd, 2011, 4:19 pm
mjabali said:
General Aboud:
1- Aboud, you are denying me an entry to an uprising just because I hate Islam. See your true colors. I do not like religions across the board and have the right to participate in anything related to my country. You are showing your Salafi colors here. So it is a Salafi movement with a Salafi agenda. You were denying this all along and here you are “exposing” your real Salafi mind with your own words. How smart of you mr. Shakespeare?
2- you did not answer why they did not MASS PRODUCE this French Ghost tank of yours. I have heard the same rumor you are trying to spread as a fact that it did outmatch the German Panzer. If Wikipedia is your source, I say this world is coming to an end. Why they did not MASS PRODUCE this GHOST TANK?
3- You failed to mention the role of the German Air force and while you were ranting about the Blitzkrieg you were only talking about “concentrated German armor” as the ONLY reason for the success of the Germans over the French.
4- So Rommel was against Hitler, we all probably have seen a tv. show about that or read about it here and there, but who proved that? You or National Geographic or the Military Channel? AS far we we know he was given a state funeral. The number of the German officers against Hitler is so little you could consider it non-existent.
5- You call for retribution and street justice, I speak of law and proving that people are guilty. This is how you prove if you are civil or not. It is obvious.
6- As for prayer, I do not own a prayer rug. You do and it probably has the face of al-Arur on it.
You hate me because I “exposed” (to use your Baathi term) Islam. So keep on bringing Iranian references, and remember that I told you it is the end of the world if a Humsi is making fun of Iranians across the board. Get some culture General Aboud it may help you. The Iranians that I know are a light year ahead of you in every field.
August 23rd, 2011, 4:20 pm
Aboud said:
Abughassan, I apologize for calling you naive, it was uncalled for.
Since it is clear that the regime is willing to murder tens of thousands of Syrians, aren’t we already in a war situation? More Syrians have been killed in six months than in 29 years of Syria’s involvement in Lebanon.
“So Rommel was against Hitler, we all probably have seen a tv. show about that or read about it here and there”
Um, no, that Tom Cruise movie was about von Stauffenberg, a different person altogether. Seriously dude, you are MASS PRODUCING a head ache for everyone on this forum.
Again, why you are so hell bent on defending the French in WW2 when even they gave up and surrendered, is beyond me. Are you of Franco-Persian extract? I quoted a source for my statements, you have not come up with a single one for yours 🙂
MLK Quote;
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent. ”
Exactly. Syrian backs are not bent anymore (except the shabiha when they kneel to kiss Besho’s picture). Continuous struggle is what junior can expect until him and his X-Box are gone.
August 23rd, 2011, 4:22 pm
mjabali said:
Some quotes of Aboud:
– I will cut your life short
– I am going to shoot these turds and spit on their dead bodies.
– I am going to boil them in their urine.
– I want retribution and street justice and I have a list of those going to be dealt with.
– My friend likes to take the Alawi women as a spoil of war and I like that.
– No one who does not respect Islam is allowed to participate in this uprising against this infidel al-Assad.
MLK sends you his regards and tells you: Aboud the blitzkrieg’s lover you are not allowed to mention his name or his words.
August 23rd, 2011, 4:31 pm
Fred said:
@ Aboud:
“No more God damn bloody excuses! After five months, any Syrian soldier still in uniform had better be trying to find a way out, or defending the people he had taken an oath to defend. Otherwise, they are complicit in these atrocities. A soldier cannot take a passive stance while his people are getting murdered.”
I think this is a bit naive – have you served in the army? Soldiers follow orders. Those who have defected are the exception, not the norm.
As for the sectarian checkpoints, I take your point. I know of a checkpoint outside Aleppo where a Hamwi family with children was turned back, at night, and forced to return to Hama, even though there were military operations occurring in Hama at that time. I’m sure that if the family were Alawi Hamwis they would have been allowed to pass.
August 24th, 2011, 4:41 am
Samara said:
“I’m sure that if the family were Alawi Hamwis they would have been allowed to pass”
At least now that family know how it felt to be Alawi. I oppose what happened, but I don’t see you or anyone else shedding tears for the Alawi people that, back in the day, were afraid to walk in the streets. And I don’t see you shedding tears on the Alawis that were murdered and mutilated at the hands of the revolutionaries. Or who cares right? They are only Alawi. Pft
August 24th, 2011, 5:51 am
Fred said:
@236. Samara
Cool down – I’m certainly against any sectarian nonsense perpetrated on anyone. I definitely care about ALL Syrians and I don’t want Syria to resemble either Lebanon or Iraq.
Also, there will inevitably be mistakes committed by overzealous revolutionaries. I know of an elderly Sunni man, from Aleppo and definitely anti-regime, stopped by mourners at a Hamwi funeral procession and beaten up so severely (because he’s from Aleppo) that he spent a long time in hospital. They refused to believe he was anti-regime. He is still anti-regime even though he tasted first hand some of the chaos that will ensue when the regime falls.
Are you saying that we should respond to the people’s sectarian violence with more government sectarian violence?
August 24th, 2011, 6:20 am
Aboud said:
@234 Anyone else notice that this menhebak seems to be a tad bit obsessed about me lately? LOL! 🙂
“- No one who does not respect Islam is allowed to participate in this uprising against this infidel al-Assad.”
A lie, point to where I said that.
“- My friend likes to take the Alawi women as a spoil of war and I like that.”
Another lie, again point to where I said that. But if you have certain fantasies, this isn’t the place to share them 🙂
“- I want retribution and street justice and I have a list of those going to be dealt with.”
Yet another lie. Point to where I said I have a list of people. But I have absolutely no problem in selectively retribution against the turds who torture prisoners, snipers who kill kids in the streets, or the shabiha tants whose only heroism is driving up in ambulances to shoot up funerals.
But then, I’m sure none of these things will earn your condemnation, since they were all done in the name of your X-Box president.
“- I will cut your life short”
And yet another lie. Point to where I said I would cut your life (such that it is, all you seem to have time for is to be obsessed with me LOL!) short.
“- I am going to shoot these turds and spit on their dead bodies.
– I am going to boil them in their urine.”
Yes, the turds who shelled mosques and killed civilians deserve much worse than my poor, uncreative mind can come up with.
MLK quote;
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.”
Very true, and an excellent response to those who claimed that Besho kept Syria stable for 11 years. He didn’t keep anything stable, the tension was always there ready to explode. What kind of fragile, weak “stability” did junior build if according to him, it could all be undone by a demonstration in Dar’a.
August 24th, 2011, 6:38 am
hsyrian said:
Dear Joshua,
My little academic question :
How many INNOCENT people have been killed by terrorists from the Muslim Brotherhood between 1976 and 1982 in SYRIA ?
Including the massacre of cadets at Aleppo Academia . ( > 80 ) ?
Sorry , I don’t have time ( and envy ) to browse through one week of lies and propaganda by the Muslim Brothers crowd to find your answer.
(Furthermore , it has to be done manually because the comments are not properly referenced by Google )
Disclaimer
My citation on ” History repeats itself ” is from Marx ;
Karl albeit Groucho would be often more suitable for some full time commentators here !
August 24th, 2011, 7:29 am
5 dancing shlomos said:
131. Chris W said:
“Either way, I’m wondering if any of the anti-government posters on this forum are Syrians. It’s surprising, one would expect at least one or two.”
all are israeli. their fellow travelers in u.s. are also israeli. so commenting from tel aviv or DC same crowd
August 24th, 2011, 1:24 pm
riad said:
It looks from your english that most of you live abroad . Well , I live in Homs and I can tell lot of stories of the on going situation in Homs and thus in Syria .
What we are all witnessing is not a revolution , it is a revenge from the Sunni against Sheaa and Alawai . It is not about democracy , nor about corruption or human rights etc…., it is about Sunni not wanting to be governed by an Alawai . I asked many Sunnis , friends of mine , if Assad was a Sunni , would you have acted as the way you are acting now ? All of them had the same answer : NO.
The west , have a broader agenda for the middle east . They have taken advantage of all the government mistakes that have pilled over the decades to enhance the uprising .
When talking corruption , Nekka has a high corruption rate .
When talking democracy , Saudi is the bottom of the line .
Social democracy in most of the Arab world , a phrase no has heard about . Social democracy in Syria is among the best in the Arab world . Who wants to give up social democracy for political policy ?
The Assad family controlling most of Syrian economy and politics . Yes they are and its deadly wrong . But what about the Gulf states ? 25% OF Saudi oil income goes directly to the royal family .Hamad of Qatar , took over Qatar illegally and this small forgettable island is striving to control the middle east in partner ship with US . Well its to big a fish to have in one swallow .Hamad will certainly choke out his guts shortly.
President Assad is still very popular in Syria . Proof : Nothing is happening in Damascus , ( don’t listen to khanzeera ) go and see for yourselves how damascusians are living . Aleppo is still secure , Homs , were I live , is mostly secure . Are you astonished , well you should be . Aren’t shops , offices , banks , factories etc … open on daily bases . Restaurants and cafes are open daily . Traffic , shoppers and government offices are open daily . During day hours , business is almost as usual .
During night time , Homs turns to be a diferent city. Well it is mostly due to armed gangs occupying the streets .These are facts no one can deny .
Where do you feel the weight and fear of the uprising ?
Answer : Where the Sunni live .
Try going to the mountainous area next to Homs like Mashta Helou , Hawash , Safita , Mermerita , Nasra up to the Lattakia . Nothing is happening there . This is a huge chunk of Syria .
Why is area has been quiet since the uprising ?
Answer : only a very tiny Sunni population live in this area . Mostly Christian and Alawai .
On the 14th of August , St. Mary’s day is widely celebrated in the mountainous are . Celebrations carried all night through with most of restaurants have singers . I was there . I was told the next morning that every one during celebration sang for President Assad and even there were night marches pro Assad . No one can say they were paid to do so . They did what they did because simply they love the President .
Are you astonished ….again ?
Well don’t be . This is what happened .
Why are everyone disregarding the feeling of these people ?
Adding . there is over 100000 armed Alawai in that Area . Armed and trained and on top , rich and some are filthy rich and willing to fight back and start an armed up rest in Syria in case the government is taken by force .
Question : What are the new regeime plans to control this huge chunk of Syria ? and how to control all these well armed ,well trained population that are willing to stand up and fight any new government who takes power by force and especially if this act was done with Nato aid ?
Answer : New armed revolt similar to the on going armed revolt happening now .
If a neoconsevative reading this article , surely he will be pleased .
If a Syrian patriotic , he would start thinking .
If a Sunni he would say , I do not care what happens next , will deal later with all post Assad government problems .
Before signing off , would like to remind all of you of the kidnapping of the Christians , Alawai and cutting them to pieces before dumping their bodies in the garbish .
August 24th, 2011, 9:42 pm
Aboud said:
@241 Uh, OK. And how do you define as “secure”? No protests? Why don’t all the APCs and checkpoints leave for a week and then we will see how “secure” Homs is.
And what did it take to make Hama “secure”? Deir el Zour “secure”? Dar’a “secure” Latakia “secure”? What is it taking to make Aleppo “secure”? When your entire army is deployed to crush demonstrations, that isn’t called security, that’s called a recipe for a civil war.
“Aren’t shops , offices , banks , factories etc … open on daily bases . Restaurants and cafes are open daily . Traffic , shoppers and government offices are open daily . During day hours , business is almost as usual .”
This line alone is enough to prove you aren’t in Homs. How many strikes have we had in the past months alone? And so what if shops are open, why would they ever be closed? Why would the revolution need shops to be closed unless it was a general strike for a particularly heinous act by the government?
“Well it is mostly due to armed gangs occupying the streets .These are facts no one can deny .”
I deny it, and I call you a liar. Go out and show me one video shot of these armed gangs.
“there is over 100000 armed Alawai in that Area”
Your pathetic 100,000 armed shabiha thugs never go anywhere without a tank brigade infront of them. 100,000 turds and you meti snorters still can’t subdue this so called armed insurrection? Pathetic.
One of my favorite videos, an over emotional menhebak who screams like a little girl;
August 24th, 2011, 10:01 pm
atassi said:
I hear you brother Riad, and I am taking your threats seriously, but, you should think of your 100k fighters to be able to integrate into a new national civil society governed by the law, and harmony revitalizing and spreading between all sects and religions. If your aim is to breed fears and sectarian feeling between Syrians, you will be let down by most Syrian. I think Assad MUST start to sense outside the box and beyond his limited self interest zone, maybe he should sense at the level of his own family and the needs to raise his kids and see them grow, he needs to think of practical way to get the county out of this chaos and stop the bloodshed, again, I think your 100k fighters should be part of a constructive force and not a distractive element. I agree that Assad still have support among some groups, so does Saddam, Mubarak, and other defeated tyrants… no matter how you spin it Assad and his regime cannot be rehabilitated. We need a new Syria for all.
August 24th, 2011, 10:36 pm
beaware said:
‘Emir of Qatar to visit Iran’
Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:28AM GMT
presstv
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, will arrive in Tehran on an official visit on Thursday, an Iranian offcial says.
Abdollah Sohrabi, Iran’s ambassador to Qatar, told IRNA on Wednesday that the visit is part of Qatar’s “Ramadan diplomacy” which aims to further expand relations between Tehran and Doha.
“This is the sixth Iran visit by the Qatari Emir under the ninth and tenth Iranian governments,” he said.
Sohrabi noted that President Ahmadinejad also went to Qatar last year heading a high-ranking delegation.
Iran’s envoy to Qatar opined that relations between Tehran and Doha have turned into a model for other Islamic countries.
“Cordial ties between Iran and Qatar have been effective in solving various problems facing the Islamic and regional countries and can serve as a role model for other Islamic states,” he said.
Appreciating active diplomacy of Qatar and its cooperation with Iran in Lebanon and Gaza, the Iranian diplomat expressed hope that the cooperation will continue in the future.
August 24th, 2011, 11:03 pm
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