I’m sure Mrs Obama would go for at least a half dinar in the slave markets of Mosul…

10942 prisoners were transferred from Tadmur to Abu-Alshamat and other nearby prisons.

The evacuation process involved all sorts of vehicle buses, army vans, army trucks, even civil micro-buses. The prisoners were not blindfolded or handcuffed.

130 prisoners were left behind in Tadmur, some of them isalmists while others mainly there for disciplinary military related crimes.

Two sections of Tadmur prison were completely leveled to ground before departure, and white acid powder sprinkled in the backyard of the prison.

I can confirm that water tanks and power transformers were destroyed before leaving Tadmur.

http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2015/05/22/the-islamic-state-as-us-strategic-asset/
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/130897/World/Region/INTERVIEW-Hezbollah-sees-no-end-to-Syria-war,-Mide.aspx

Once again Assad feeds the Islamic State by leaving all islamists prisoners in Tadmor while he evacuates the rest of political prisoners. They have a value in the market. Assad criminal system has been trading with political prisoners, speacially lebanese for the last 35 years.

In May 2013 Assad and Malki sent all radical islamists in prisons of Damascus and Baghdad to Raqqa to créate ISIS. Now he repeats the same.

The fall of Palmyra is another message sent by Assad to the world. But I guess nobody will hear to this fuyxxxing criminal anymore.

US activity above Syria need to be shut down to zero because the game going to be over. The United States has nothing to do more in the Syrian airspace. ?US activity by proxy against Syria must to be finished.

No comment

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2015/05/22/the-insiders-the-islamic-state-is-entirely-a-creation-of-obamas-policies/?hpid=z3

On a different note, the “victory” in the hospital claimed by the regime reminds of the “victory” in 1967 that Nour Eddine Atassi claimed on TV as the aim of the Zionist aggression was to topple the Baath regime.

Where is Ghufran to give us one of his famous laughable quotes

Memo to Alan: there is no Syria anymore; therefore, there is no Syrian airspace.

Face reality. Get with the program, boy.

There is no comedy when it comes to the Middle East situation especially Syria but there is no shortage of clowns on this blog. I yet have to read a single intelligent comment that explains what the regime did to end the war or what did thawrajiyyeh gain by resorting to violence and allying themselves with Islamist thugs. Turkey, ksa and Qatar are deep to their neck in syrian blood but we still have an ikhwanji leader at the SNC who still think that he means something or that anybody listens to what he has to say.
Most of you are cheer leaders for Nusra or the regime and some can only find comfort by trashing other sects as if their sect is better !!
Assad and his cronies need to let others rule the country and Assad opponents need to understand that they are not trusted to have a monopoly on power. The elephant in the room is the armed gangs that have thrived on theft and terrorism, they are not likely to give up any time soon and they could not care less about what you, I and others want.
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Memo to all commentators, Authors, writers and edinors here: Please enrich knowledge.
EL CHINO said:there is no Syria anymore. Face reality. Get with the program, boys.

I agree with Ghufran that too many here talk up sectarianism, which only does harm in my opinion.

And why is partition so often bandied about any time there is a crisis in the Middle East? When the Lebanese Civil War was going on there was constant talk of partitioning even tiny Lebanon.

The Palestine partition can’t exactly be called a resounding success.

The original partition of Syria didn’t solve anything, but rather created more problems. Let us not forget that Syria included Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan up until the end of the First World War. That partition cut off the reduced Syria from 80% of its coastline and the geniuses proposing further partition today would make it landlocked.

It seems like the neo-colonialists, neo-cons, Zionists and pretty much anyone who serves foreign interests just loves to jump on any partition plan for pretty much any Middle Eastern country in crisis, usually one close to the Zionist entity. It’s as if partition ever really solved anything, which it most definitely did not.

I recently met an Iraqi who said he cried over the destruction of Homs like it was his own city. I met a Jordanian who lamented the events in Syria like he was losing a brother. Or we can go further back to 1948, when Syrians and Lebanese en masse mourned the loss of Palestine.

There is plenty of feeling of brotherhood between these “nationalities”, yet the only talk in western media (and by many on this board) is of partitioning them even more than they have already been. Sykes-Picot is not going to be remedied by more Sykes-Picots.

Rwanda had one of the worst genocides of the 20th Century. Yet I can’t remember anyone ever proposing partition for the Hutus and the Tutsis. Why not? It didn’t serve any particular foreign interest would be my guess.

But for Syria and the Middle East, people jump over themselves to suggest a new and improved partition plan.

I have a better idea: stop the sectarianism and start talking about representative governments that actually serve their people and not the other way around. This madness will never stop if people just keep accusing and fighting, and partition will only lead to more fighting and squabbling–and ethnic cleansing and cultural elimination–and ultimately, genocide.

American hawks, including John McCain, lashed out at Obama for openly “the failed” policies in Iraq.
But the United States did everything to divide the Shia and the Sunni community in Iraq, simultaneously setting the local Kurds against the central government.
Fall Ramadi – this is not a failure, but a real “triumph of American policy,” when the fight against the ISIS only declared. When in fact, Washington is destroying any state formation in the region, capable of resisting the Islamist plague.
Now Republicans say that US forces must return to Iraq and stay there again for an indefinite period because the Iraqi forces “inexplicably” not able to stop militants ISIS.
Seen in this way that, the US agenda and strategy in Iraq is precisely the same as that for the entire region.
such a policy cynicism of the highest order. While that is the true insidiousness of colonialism and imperialism.

Good article on the fall of Palmyra in french. Use google or bling to translate.

Palmyre : «L’Etat islamique méprise la notion même de patrimoine»

Palmyra: “The Islamic state despises the very concept of heritage”

“The Islamic state is not only a literal or obscure interpretation of Islam, but a real cult. I consider him a true cult of death, a cult of death. He rejects everything from what the West can develop, and everything that the Syrians of different religions and ethnic groups (Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Syrians, Armenians …) could apply to a rich, shared history. They despise the highest notions of heritage, elections, parliament, government, citizenship. Culture, apart from religion, all that does not exist and must disappear. They try to cut off the people from their roots. These are the Khmer Rouge of Islam!

http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2015/05/22/palmyre-l-etat-islamique-meprise-la-notion-meme-de-patrimoine_1314653

Irony at its best.

Saudi Arabia ‘seeking to head United Nations Human Rights Council’

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/saudi-arabia-reportedly-seeking-to-head-united-nations-human-rights-council-10267783.html

NADIA #2, thanks for that information. It’s of interest to a lot of people.

Who was designed and planed the terrorist act in Qatif this time?

The regime and its supporters from day one painted the revolution as sectarian based which it was not. What goes around comes around; who sows the wind harvests the storm. That is the reality whereby the regime and the sect and its supporters saw only the others in sectarian terms never as fellow citizens.

Laughable indeed and utmost ridiculousness to continue the same mantra

American celebrity Cher shows she has a better grasp than many of the current situation. God bless her.

She tweets:

PRES..OBAMA…LOVE U,BUT ISIS IS KICKING OUR ASS,& IRAQI ARMY FIGHTS LIKE OLD PPL F>¥!*!$&?K??
BTW..WHERE IS NO IDEAS,NO BACKBONE CONGRESS??

https://twitter.com/cher/status/601512094911963136

MATTHEW, again top marks and thanks for exposing ISIS’s garbage, the self-deluding, pseudo-rationale for its sick crimes against humanity.

The promise of being able to rape, terrorize and brutalize captured women is a crucial drawcard for their recruits.

Intercepted communications record new Daesch arrivals in the field asking their colleagues “where are the women?” as their first question.

Things will start to get better when supporters of Assad regime and the opposition stops practicing internet Taqiyyah (saying something that does not reflect their true beliefs)and starts supporting Syria instead. Syria is not a country that can be ruled by one sect and it is not a country that can be dominated by one foreign country or government, we have learned that the hard way.
Give the sectarian devil inside you a break and do something useful like sending money to needy people or helping a Syrian family abroad, etc. Talk is cheap and many of you are blabbers who hate others more than they love Syria.

For those of you who deny that Hadi alabdallah is just another Nusra apologizer and supporter, go and see his tweets:
https://twitter.com/HadiAlabdallah
Hadi and many others leave no doubt about the nature of the rebel force and their supporters:
blood thirsty sectarian thugs !!

Washington has blocked the final document of a UN conference that reviewed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, accusing Egypt of manipulating the gathering to target Israel. Moscow has slammed the US for rendering the four-week meeting futile.
the US diplomacy is an ugly and disgusting!!!
***
Why Obama decided not to confront Saudi Arabia and Qatar about their financing of an al-Qaeda offshoot in Syria that has made the most dramatic gains in the jihadist war against the SYRIAN regime?

#dabiq justifies rape by saying it is better than prostitution
I prefer the uncompromising statement by Jesus.

Matthew 5:27-28

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart