It looks that the SNC interim government cannot have its headquarter in Aazzaz anynore. It is in the hands of Al QAeda

Jihadists overrun FSA to seize Azaz
September 19, 2013 12:08 AM

AMMAN/BEIRUT: A rebel group affiliated with Al-Qaeda overran a Syrian town near the Turkish border Wednesday after fighting broke out with units of the Arab- and Western-backed Free Syrian Army, opposition activists said.

In other battles on the border, Kurdish fighters forced jihadists to pull out of the village of Aluk, in northeastern Syria, after clashes that left 21 dead on both sides.

Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) stormed the town of Azaz, 5 kilometers from the Syrian-Turkish border and killed at least five Free Syrian Army members, the activists said, adding 100 people were arrested.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Sep-19/231787-jihadists-overrun-fsa-to-seize-azaz.ashx#ixzz2fHmVSpKz
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

[…] Aleppo's Hayaa Sharia (Legal Commission) is the biggest experiment in local governance and rebel rule in northern Syria, although still just one of many mostly local attempts.  […]

It looks that the Obama, Cameron, Hollande and Erdogan have failed to convince that the West should punish or change the regime in Syria by force.
This is a clear message that the leaders should switch to a serious negotiation strategy and stop these useless military threats.
Poll: Americans, Europeans oppose Syria intervention

….
The poll found 62 percent of Americans and 72 percent of Europeans felt their countries should avoid military intervention in Syria, where more than 100,000 people have been killed.

Only 30 percent of Americans and 22 percent of Europeans felt their countries should intervene in Syria.

In Turkey, 72 percent said their country should stay out, while 21 percent favored intervention.

In all regions, the survey found a hardening of attitudes against outside intervention, compared with last year.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Sep-19/231789-poll-americans-europeans-oppose-syria-intervention.ashx#ixzz2fHnf2GCr
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

Fazel Sabahi a leader of an Iraqi terrorist group fighting on the side of the regime will not get ant attention from the board of Syria comment.
Here he is standing in the middle of Damascus as if he owns the place
https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=515531405200180&id=500142886739032&set=a.509696632450324.1073741828.500142886739032&source=46&__user=100003131418721
The good news is he has been sent to hell by totally the Syrians braves of the FSA

FoxNews issues statement on Dennis Kucinich interview with Bashar al-Assad that will air at 6:30 PM

FOX News will present a two-hour edition of Special Report with Bret Baier this evening from 6-8 PM/ET. The interview with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was conducted by FNC Senior Correspondent Greg Palkot and FNC contributor Dennis Kucinich and will run from 6:30-7:30PM/ET, followed by a panel of analysis from 7:30-8PM/ET . Moderated by Baier, the panel will include Stephen Hayes, Charles Krauthammer and Juan Williams.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad interview tonight on Special Report

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/special-report-bret-baier/blog/2013/09/18/syrian-president-bashar-al-assad-interview-tonight-special-report

1548. Observer said:

“I do think that Qatar is better than Russia and Iran.”

and Monaco is better than Qatar…

‘Israel wanted Assad gone since start of Syria civil war’

“Tehran-Damascus-Beirut arc is the greatest danger,” says outgoing Israeli envoy to US Michael Oren.

“Bad guys” backed by Iran are worse for Israel than “bad guys” who are not supported by the Islamic Republic, Israel’s outgoing ambassador to the US Michael Oren told The Jerusalem Post in a parting interview.

Oren, in the interview that is to be published in full on Friday, traced the evolution of Israel’s message on Syria during the three weeks of the chemical weapons crisis.

http://www.jpost.com/Syria-Crisis/Oren-Jerusalem-has-wanted-Assad-ousted-since-the-outbreak-of-the-Syrian-civil-war-326328

Unverified videos allegedly show Syria rebels using chemical weapons

Unverified footage, which came into the spotlight following a post by prominent blogger ‘Brown Moses’, allegedly shows Syrian rebels using chemical weapons on 21st of August. RT discusses the videos, the potential chemical trail, and for the record, comments on Brown Moses’ in-depth work on social media coming from the Syria conflict.

Aron,

The incessant focus on the Islamist factions and their Shariaa when they constitutes 10% of the rebels in Syria us greatly appreciated by the regime who invented their presence on day one of the revolution before they even stepped a foot in Syria. I am sure the regime is forever indebted to your research that targets the western audience as your research serves as great distraction from how it all started: Native Syrians revolting for freedom and dignity.

I would like to know if you have any conflict of interest to disclose? I think it is fair to ask if you receive any financial support or honorarium from the Syrian government or a proxy “Syrian society”.

Sorry for asking a direct question.

Nice piece. The Syrian Revolution in 3 minutes made by Kafrnabl activists.

Ziad.

I invite you to stop using Bold in your posts.

It does not serve your purpose of making them credible. To the contrary, it gives the impression of self-doubt.

In fact, Tara, this is the idea abroad. Al Qaeda against Assad. I believe this the misinformation orchestrated by Russia powerfull media and in this case I am afraid it is being conducted and developed by US and Western media too. The truth is very uncomfortable to both powers. Their news agencies avoid to mention the 90 % of syrian rebels and talk only about jihadists and Al Qaeda.

Well at the end their are just trying to hide and ignore the real causes of the revolution. Sincé causes are still there unsolved and no problema of Young arab generations has been solve the revolution will not die but will even grow, in Syria, in Egypt and so on until fxxxx militar dictatorships fall or be killed.

Former Guantanamo prisoner killed in Syria after joining Islamist brigade
7:28 p.m. EDT, September 18, 2013

(Reuters) – A former prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base died fighting for anti-government rebels in Syria, according to an Islamist opposition group which posted a video of his funeral on YouTube.

Moroccan-born Mohammed al Alami, who was released in 2006, is the first former Guantanamo detainee to die in battle in the Syrian civil war, analysts say.

Full Fox interview with Bashar Al Assad

http://www.itv.com/news/update/2013-09-19/syrian-presidency-uploads-full-fox-news-interview/

Aron,

Allow me to introduce a glimpse of what the other 90% of the Syrian rebels may look like.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2013/sep/18/syria-revolution-story-video

I apologize in advance that Nour covers her hair. I know she could make her case stronger had she not, but a hijab or a cleavage should not make her less or more human to a civilized audience… One would think.

Fortunately most people, including western intelligence, do not believe the claim that Islamist terrorists are only 10% of total rebel force, the figure according to the Brits is 50% and if you believe other western sources it is more than 70%, that explains how they dominate large parts of Syria, believing otherwise suggest that the FSA is a bunch of incompetent fighters, which is not supported by data from the battle field.
News about Isis attacking FSA units are significant and may be under reported , the reason for this infighting is likely to be over money and who should have access to smuggled and stolen goods and ,very soon, oil.

This is from Reuters :
AMMAN | Wed Sep 18, 2013 7:06pm EDT

(Reuters) – A rebel group affiliated with al Qaeda overran a Syrian town near the border with Turkey on Wednesday after fighting broke out with units of the Arab- and Western-backed Free Syrian Army, opposition activists said.
Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant stormed the town of Azaz, 5 km (2 miles) from the Syrian-Turkish border and killed at least five Free Syrian Army members, they said.
It could pose a dilemma for the Turkish government, which has been allowing militant Islamist fighters to cross into Syria from its territory, but may not be keen to see a formidable al Qaeda presence so close to its border.
Activist Abu Louay al-Halabi said the fighting broke out after the Storm of the North Brigade, a Free Syrian Army unit, resisted attempts by the Islamic State fighters to abduct a German doctor working as a volunteer at a private hospital in Azaz.
“By taking Azaz, the Islamic State is a step closer to controlling the crossing. Its objective seems to be taking over the whole countryside north of Aleppo,” he said.
Activist Abdallah Tareq said the violence had undermined efforts to capitalize on the relative weakness of Assad’s forces in the north of the country.
“Every rebel group is suspicious of each other and the regime has been good at exploiting it. Not only we have been seeing fighting between the Free Syrian army and al Qaeda, but also among the Free Syrian Army itself and jihadists against jihadists,” he said.
To the east, opposition sources said the Islamic State on Wednesday drove out the Ahfad al-Rasul brigade, an Islamist rebel unit backed by Qatar, from the central areas of the city of Deir al-Zor on the Euphrates River, in fighting that killed six guerrillas from the two sides.
Fawaz Tello, a veteran opposition activist, said the strength of al Qaeda-linked brigades stemmed from the failure of the Free Syrian Army to unite rebel units inside the country and the reluctance of Western and Arab backers of the revolt to provide Assad’s more moderate foes with advanced weapons.
“The al Qaeda-linked groups seem to be fighting with everyone wherever they go. But no one is going to seriously challenge them as long as the Assad regime is in place and the opposition’s pleas for advanced weapons to bring him down goes unanswered,” Tello said.
“The solution to al Qaeda in Syria is to get rid of the Assad regime and then build a national force to rout it from the country.”
(Editing by Peter Cooney)

Pentagon proposes training Syrian rebels

Nothing new. We’ve been hearing for months that the rebels were trained by the CIA, the UK, France in Jordan and Turkey.
Is this new spectacular announcement just a gimmick to calm down the furious Saudis and to bring the reluctant opposition to Geneva II now that their hopes of seeing the Syrian army weakened have been shattered?

By Barbara Starr CNN Pentagon Correspondent

If approved, it would dramatically increase role of US military in Syrian’s civil war

WASHINGTON (CNN) —The Pentagon has “put a proposal on the table” for U.S. military forces to train and equip moderate Syrian opposition forces for the first time, two Obama administration officials told CNN.
If approved, it would dramatically increase the role of the U.S. military in Syrian’s civil war and would for the first time put American troops in direct contact with opposition forces.

The idea has been under consideration since the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack outside Damascus, which the United States says was carried out by the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

There are few specifics on troops or other aspects of the military proposal, but both officials said the effort envisions training taking place in a country near Syria.

“We have any number of options under development that could expand our support to the moderate opposition, but no decision has been taken at this point,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey said when asked by reporters on Wednesday about the proposal.

Until now, any training and equipping of Syrian opposition forces has fallen under the purview of the CIA and has not directly been acknowledged by the United States government.

Read more: http://www.wesh.com/news/politics/Pentagon-proposes-training-Syrian-rebels/-/11788048/22009356/-/nbeawb/-/index.html#ixzz2fIENx7my

Syria: As the World Backs Off, the Jihadists Attack

By Yossef Bodansky | Wed, 18 September 2013 23:04 | 0

The military and political dynamic in and around Syria continued to escalate since late in the week ending September 14, 2013, and more so in the days after that (September 15/16, 2013) with the Syrian military clearly having the initiative and the opposition forces either getting out of the war or venting their frustration and wrath on the civilian population.
…
An interesting phenomenon reported by the Syrian security forces since the weekend of September 14-15, 2013, is that the food, supplies, and clothes of virtually all the jihadist fighters encountered in the northern and north-western parts of Syria were from Turkey.
This means that the opposition’s fighting forces can no longer rely on local villages for food and basic supplies, and that the majority of the jihadist fighters encountered were recent infiltrators who had to bring everything with them.

In the greater Aleppo area, the Syrian security forces have mainly further expanded the secure zone surrounding the city and eliminated pockets of resistance inside the city. The scope and pace of these operations keep escalating growing. Meanwhile, the jihadists’ abuse of civilian population — mainly the more affluent Sunni Arab — has intensified in the greater Aleppo area. The jihadists are committing crimes, murders, and overall abuse in the name of resisting the government encroachment. Significantly, there has been discernible upsurge in crimes and abuses in the areas where the influx of jihadist foreign fighters were most pronounced.
The jihadists — both local and foreign — accuse the population of betraying them and their sacred cause. They then rob and pillage in the name of jihad and for the needs of jihad. Since late in the week ending September 14, 2013, several thousand people have been evicted from houses and apartments and forced into exile while leaving their entire property behind.

Funny how Ghufran believes western intelligence when it comes to Islamist figures but not when it comes to the chemical attack on Aug.21
I watched the end of the fox interview, the panel discussion was great, they called chemical Bashar with a liar and delusional among many other fitting description of a criminal.

I think this post about Aleppo is totally besides the point.

I do not know if Mr. Lund is reading the news about the use of CW in Syria a war crime, a crime against humanity and a damning report from the UN on the absolute evidence of this use.

Even though Mr. Lund the report did not lay the blame, it is clear that the attack bears all the hallmarks of a regime unit doing the deed.

I saw the interview of the iPad retard and it is a circular argument from someone who invented a story and is believing it fully. Either way he is a dead man walking.

The 3 minute video is worth the hundreds of hours of regime propaganda.

Syrian,
It is not just western intelligence agencies which believe that rebels are dominated by terrorists, keep denying the obvious to cover for your nusra friends.
As for the chemical attack, I did the right thing by waiting for the conclusion of the UN investigation, I repeatedly called for holding the culprits accountable.
As much as I dislike Bashar and want him to step down, it is obvious now that Americans believe him more than the opposition especially after the attack on maloula and the numerous head chopping ceremonies held by your friends !!
Many may have difficulty saying this but Isis and nusra are now the real target of Assad’s opponents, I find that ironic but true and logical, just look at areas held by those terrorists and compare that to areas held by Assad. The argument, unfortunately, is not whether Assad is good or not, it is whether he is ” less bad” than nusra and Isis, most people know the answer, hope you will ” discover” that too. What is best for Syria is a deal that sidelines Assad, a major distraction now, and focuses on confronting the terrorists.

None other than the nuns themselves have challenged the pro regime narrative that Islamist fighter desecrated Maaloula

Christian villagers cast doubt on Syria jihadist ‘threat’
By Lina Sinjab
BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24148322

A number of armed men then entered the St Takla monastery in the north of the village and asked the nuns there whether there were any government soldiers hiding there.

The BBC reached one of the nuns who has remained in the village’s St Takla monastery
“There were around 20 of them. They looked like Islamists, but they did us no harm,” one of the nuns told the BBC a few days after the incident.

“They told us they were after Bashar al-Assad and his army, not Christians,” the nun explained.

Then the armed men returned to the monastery, which is home to nine nuns and 35 others, children and elderly people cared for by the nuns. They all stayed in Maaloula, even during the intense fighting.

On their second visit, the nun explains, the men asked the nuns to make a video statement to the effect that they hadn’t been harmed or attacked by the rebels, which was then posted on YouTube.

The rebels then left their arms outside the monastery and climbed up to film the village from above in an attempt to prove that they left without causing damage or attacking the churches, according to the nun the BBC spoke to.
—
The attack resulted in the death of three residents of the village and most of Maaloula’s residents have now fled the violence to Damascus.

Later on, there were increasing exchanges of fire between the two sides.

Residents of Maaloula called on the army to come and protect them but as one resident said: “The army betrayed us and sold us to the media.”

More.

For the first time America’s top beauty queen is a woman of Indian origin, a first partly clouded by a spate of hateful Tweets branding her an Arab terrorist.
http://news.yahoo.com/miss-america-crowns-first-winner-indian-descent-114319838.html

Davuluri was beaming despite a spurt of racist tweets about her.

“I have to rise above that,” she said at a news conference Sunday night after being crowned. “I always viewed myself as first and foremost American.”

While many American saluted Davuluri’s victory, some online commenters described the beauty queen, who is believed to be a practicing Hindu, as an Arab who looks like a terrorist.

One user said “It’s called Miss America. Get outta here New York you look like a terrorist. #bye #americanforamerica.”

A person who apparently tweeted from Kansas wrote, “Are you serious??!!! The Arab wins??!!! This is miss AMERICA!!! Not miss Arabia!!! Miss Kansas is in the army and is a country girl!!! C’mon.”

Others, like the Jezebel feminist blog, denounced the comments, saying “racists are being racist because Miss America isn’t white.”

“This world is so ignorant. #MissAmerica Indian or not had every right to gain the title of MissAmerica. This is why I want to leave America!” chimed in @CJlovebug.

Davuluri competed on the platform issue of “celebrating diversity through cultural competency.”

Ghufran,

“is not whether Assad is good or not, it is whether he is ” less bad” than nusra and Isis, most people know the answer, hope you will ” discover” that too.”

How can you say this after Ghouta, Darayya, Houla, Qubair, Tremseh, Jisr Al-Shgour and the Banyas massacres?

And choosing the supposed “lesser evil” is nothing but a cheap cop out and an indirect support for Assad. Why not reject both? Or do you deny that there are civilized Syrians that oppose Assad?

Russian Expose of Syrian Chemical Attack: Riyadh and Doha Paid, White House Approved, British Organized, Libyans Helped, Ukrainian Mercenaries Executed

There’s no need in specifying all the details of the Assad regime alleged use of chemical weapons – all the facts have been covered a number of times. All the facts that have been properly stated in numerous publications are now covered with a thick layer of groundless accusations and therefore properly forgotten. But you don’t need a lot of facts to save the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov from making excuses.

It’s all so very clear. The chemical substances that were used against the civilians in Guta on August 21 were in fact produced in the Soviet Union. But they were shipped to Syria from Libya on by a security agency called BRITAMDefense. This operation was sponsored by the Syria’s archenemies – Qatar and Saudi Arabia. This was the reason why the British media on September 17 was the first to come across the “breaking news” that the chemical weapons that were used in Syria were of the Russian origin. Those news were not hard to come across since it was the British security firm that hired the Ukrainian mercenaries to set the Syrian government up, the operation was approved by the White House. There’s a lot of detailed analysis pieces published in New Eastern Outlook that explains who was behind the attack in Guta. Those who missed out on these can find out to themselves all the facts that the attack was an operation orchestrated by the White House and sponsored by the Wahabiite monarchies.

http://tarpley.net/2013/09/18/russian-expose-of-syrian-chemical-attack-riyadh-and-doha-paid-white-house-approved-british-organized-libyans-helped-ukrainian-mercenaries-executed/

Syria: The Fabricated Evidence

There’s no need in specifying all the details of the Assad regime alleged use of chemical weapons – all the facts have been covered a number of times. All the facts that have been properly stated in numerous publications are now covered with a thick layer of groundless accusations and therefore properly forgotten. But you don’t need a lot of facts to save the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov from making excuses.

It’s all so very clear. The chemical substances that were used against the civilians in Guta on August 21 were in fact produced in the Soviet Union. But they were shipped to Syria from Libya on by a security agency called BRITAMDefense. This operation was sponsored by the Syria’s archenemies – Qatar and Saudi Arabia. This was the reason why the British media on September 17 was the first to come across the “breaking news” that the chemical weapons that were used in Syria were of the Russian origin. Those news were not hard to come across since it was the British security firm that hired the Ukrainian mercenaries to set the Syrian government up, the operation was approved by the White House. There’s a lot of detailed analysis pieces published in New Eastern Outlook that explains who was behind the attack in Guta. Those who missed out on these can find out to themselves all the facts that the attack was an operation orchestrated by the White House and sponsored by the Wahabiite monarchies.

http://journal-neo.org/2013/09/18/rus-siriya-zapad-fal-sifitsiruet-fakty-po-himoruzhiyu/

Russia scolded the UN inspectors for their ‘biased’ report.
Will France prevent the UN inspectors from finally visiting Khan Al Assal, where rebels are suspected to have used chemical weapons against loyalists and soldiers?

Russia did very well to scold the UN inspectors for their preliminary report that included insinuations in which the UK, France and the USA immediately read the confirmation of their accusations.

The UN inspectors are not balistic experts, they are supposed to analyze the gaz and give indications of its use, not to make statements on geographical location where they think the attack came from. They overstepped their mandate.

The inspectors have realized that the report appears ‘biased’ and has given ammunition to the Sarin trio, just after Ban Ki Mooon allegedly said that Bashar al Assad has commited many “war crimes’. Curiously that declaration has not been reported by the media. Either he regretted having said it or he never said it.

After having to defend the “professionalism” of their report, the UN inspectors quickly announced that they will go back to visit Khan Al Assad and Saraqed where they were supposed to go in the first place.
Lret us remember that France had objected to the visit to Khan Al Assal that the Syrian government called the UN to inspect.

I won’t be surprised that France will try to prevent that visit again, as they perfectly know that in Khan al Assal the rebels have used the chemical weapons.

Let’s see what the rebels advised by France will do to stop that visit that may totally change the game.

Obama Waives Ban on Arming Terrorists So He Can Aid Syrian Rebels

The Obama administration promises over and over again they are only sending arms to secular, freedom-loving Syrian rebels, not those Islamic jihadists associated with terrorist groups like al-Qaeda.

If that’s true, then why was it necessary for the president to unilaterally waive the federal law prohibiting the supply of lethal aid to terrorist groups? The Washington Examiner:

President Obama waived a provision of federal law designed to prevent the supply of arms to terrorist groups to clear the way for the U.S. to provide military assistance to “vetted” opposition groups fighting Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

Some elements of the Syrian opposition are associated with radical Islamic terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, which was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., in 2001. Assad’s regime is backed by Iran and Hezbollah.

The president, citing his authority under the Arms Export Control Act, announced today that he would “waive the prohibitions in sections 40 and 40A of the AECA related to such a transaction.”

Despite claims of a robust “vetting” process rebels must go through to be eligible for U.S. arms, Mother Jones reported last week that the process is shoddy and easily overcome by disparate rebel officers less concerned with Washington’s vetting process and looking to get as many arms as possible. Moreover, a recent study by the defense consultancy corporation IHS Jane’s found that nearly half of the approximately 100,000 rebel fighters are Islamist.

http://antiwar.com/blog/2013/09/17/obama-waives-ban-on-arming-terrorists-so-he-can-aid-syrian-rebels/

“Russia did very well to scold the UN inspectors for their preliminary report that included insinuations in which the UK, France and the USA immediately read the confirmation of their accusations.”

How dare the investigators investigate the remnants of the ammunition used and establish the trajectory they came from…

this rant is only topped by the unbelievable sack of BS that precedes it and is conveniently highlighted in bold by another believer in crack pot conspiracy theories:

Russian Expose of Syrian Chemical Attack: Riyadh and Doha Paid, White House Approved, British Organized, Libyans Helped, Ukrainian Mercenaries Executed

They forgot to mention the Jews or is this implied automatically?

Obama: “when you look at the details of the evidence they present, it is inconceivable that anybody other than the regime used it.”

It is “inconceivable” that Bashar al Assad would still be in power and on two USA TV channels in interviews when Obama and his team have repeated that he is no longer legitimate and should step aside.

It is “inconceivable” that will the billions of dollar given by Qatar and Saudi Arabia to the CIA to build a credible Syrian opposition, it is in such a mess

While it is very conceivable that Obama is not a psychic and knows very little of what is coming next week in Syria.

Therefore he should keep his to mouth shut.

Excellent and very convincing interview of Bashar al Assad on Fox news.

When are we going to have Charlie Rose or Fox News interviewing Jarba or the PM Tumeh or even Selim Idriss ?
I can’t wait to see that.

Iranian President Talks Nuclear Weapons, Syria in Interview with NBC’s Ann Curry

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/iranian-president-talks-nuclear-weapons-syria-in-interview-with-nbcs-ann-curry/

Rohani: Country calling for war are weak in our eyes. We respect countries who call for peace.

#

Need to highlight it in bold and add 2-3 exclamation marks and few “very” and whatever embellishment you may think of to reinforce your assessment. It did not sound emphatic enough.

Ghufran
Like the Fox News panel said correctly,the ISIS was your beloved Assad creation, it was created to go and kill Americans in Iraq. And now through his and your beloved Iran infiltration of this group he lets them into the liberated areas to go and fight the FSA which they have been doing, your gloating can be seen a mile away,
You keep coming back to Ma’aloula were in a week of fighting only 3 people died and not 8 as you claimed initially screaming bloody murder , but when it comes to the 1400 mostly civilian including 400 kids who were poisoned in 3 hours you want a UN investigation to make up your mind. And when “Fortunately most people, including western intelligence” said that Bashar did it, we did not see your famous outrage but only side talks and trolling that makes Revenire look like an amateur next to you.
The Syrians will get rid of your beloved “less bad” Bashar, and he is going to the Hague if not worse.

It seems Bashar Al Assad interview was a success. A staunch Israel supporter expresses his admiration and furor

Krauthammer: Assad ‘one of the great liars of all time’
Published September 18, 2013

Charles Krauthammer told viewers Wednesday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” following Fox News’ exclusive interview with Syrian President Bashar Assad that Assad’s comments indicate “he is very smart, extremely sophisticated, and one of the great liars of all time.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/18/krauthammer-assad-one-great-liars-all-time/#ixzz2fIndc05A

Sami,
I agree that a third choice is better for Syria, both the Islamists and the regime are not good for Syria. The opposition that believes in a civil society and the rule of law needs to rally its troops and reject terrorism and Wahhabism and challenge the regime, let me know when this happens, it was the FSA and its foreign friends that brought tens of thousands of jihadists to Syria,those jihadists are now killing the FSA and anybody they disagree with.
There will be a day, soon I hope, when Syrians who are fighting each other will unite against a common enemy, that enemy is the jihadists.
Assad and his regime may not be in power much longer after the war ends but the jihadi movement, as we see in other countries, has the ability to grow and multiply if not confronted by a coalition of syrians who do not want to deliver their country to foreign jihsdists and their financiers, i hope the FSA will be part of this coalition.
As for the atrocities committed by regime forces , and rebels, i prefer that a unity government, if we will ever have one, or an international tribunal deliver justice to the victims and their families, street justice is not justice, it is thuggery, I hope you agree.

His favorite music “I am sexy and I know it”

Yup. Extremely sophisticated…

Didn’t Tumeh in his first speech as a PM, say that the first priority of the opposition was to regain control of the borders with Turkey?
He got the answer from Al Qaeda. It may snowball in all the villages near the Turkish border.
It is clear that Al Qaeda wants to keep control of all the borders. The SNC is in deep trouble

Al-Qaeda linked group seizes complete control of Syrian border town with Turkey: Activists

BEIRUT – Agence France-Presse

An Al-Qaeda front group fighting in Syria on Sept. 18 overran the northern town of Azaz near the border with Turkey after fierce clashes with rebels, activists told AFP.

“The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has seized complete control of Azaz. They are in control of the town’s entrances,” said Abu Ahmad, an activist inside the town.

Ghufran

After 3 years and billions of dollars the opposition has proven without any doubt that it is not able to replace the present Syrian government. It still has zero legitimacy and will be rejected by the Syrians who have seen how stupid, corrupted and inefficient it has been. The opposition has no chance to be the third solution.

In my view, the third solution is like Egypt, a governement lead by the military. It will secular and authoritarian.
The FSA, the SAA and the Kurds will join forces to kick out this cancer called AlQaeda and its affiliates.
That will be in 2014.

Ghufran said:
“As for the atrocities committed by regime forces , and rebels, i prefer that a unity government, if we will ever have one, or an international tribunal deliver justice to the victims and their families”
Of course in Ghufran’s mind the seven massacres identified by HRW as done by the regime versus the one done by the ISIS is equal, never mind that the 7 massacres happened by the state and the one done is by a shadowy group that was on the regime payrolls 5 years earlier,
He,then and when and if this and that happens the victims will get their justice, in the mean time he will keep on defending the” less bad” regime that sponsored 7 massacres against the rebels who were infiltrated by the regime’s old Al Qaeda friends who did one massacre

Look, I am not a fan of Islamists, to put it mildly, but I do believe that Syrians need a new government and a new political, legal and economic system.
This war needs to end because as long as violence continues none of the objectives of this ” revolution” will be achieved.
There is no way for Bashar and his regime to control Syria , he will either be a war lord and stay president over parts of Syria or accepts a transitional government that prepares for elections, I suspect that he will not run in 2014 for one reason or the other.
The opposition did fail in winning support inside and outside Syria, they also could not produce a leader to articulate their program and present an alternative to this regime.
Sadly enough, many have suggested that Syria still needs a strong national army and a competent security service controlled by an elected body, I agree with the concept of an Egyptian model that zoo mentioned, however, Syria is far more diverse and complicated than Egypt and I am afraid that the national Syrian identity , as vague as this might be in the eyes of many, is much weaker than that of Egypt. This makes a Syrian Taef, versus a military junta ruling behind the scene, more likely but not more desirable in my opinion.
Assad looked much better than his previous interviews, a lot of people did not believe him when he refused to accept the fact that his leadership, or lack of, was essential for the tragic outcome of this conflict, but he looked calm and confident. One of fox news commentators called him a brilliant diplomat who is also one of the biggest liars the world has known. The same person said that the impression about him being simple and stupid is replaced with the reality that he is neither.

According to reports from the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA), a Syriac Christian-run media outlet, the Saudi Arabian government sent over 1,200 death-row inmates to Syria to join the ongoing civil war on the side of the rebellion.
The AINA report cites a leaked memo from the Interior Ministry as saying the 1,239 inmates were all sentenced to “execution by sword” for various crimes, and were given full pardons, as well as stipends for their families.
An unnamed Iraqi MP confirmed knowledge of the program, and said that Saudi Arabia had been forced to end the policy after Russia threatened to bring the issue to the attention of the United Nations.
The quiet deal between Russia and Saudi Arabia was that the influx of inmates would end and Russia would keep the matter from becoming public knowledge. Now that the information is out there, it will be interesting to see how Russia and Saudi Arabia react.

Another nail in the coffin of the myth that the war is about an army killing its own people:
The newest data, from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, find that of the more than 100,000 people who have died in the fighting, 21,850 have been rebel fighters and 45,478 have come from the pro-regime side (27,654 from the regular army and 17,824 from semi-official, pro-regime militias). The group also counted more than 40,000 civilians among the dead.
The Syrian Observatory, which relies on a network of personal contacts throughout the country and says it only verifies a death when it has more than one source, has consistently been one of the most reliable tabulators of casualties in the Syrian conflict.
The organization is also generally sympathetic to the uprising, making some of its recent assessments — including its finding of so many more regime casualties than rebel ones — all the more telling about the character of the grueling war.
(source: The Huffington Post)

Look,,what you fail to realize is that Alawais are more religious than Sunnis, except that their religion is Alawisim and their god is Bashar, and because it is war,its only natural that people and fighters in particular to become religious, in most cases just to hedge their bets in case there is a god ,heaven and hell,specially when the chances of getting killed is around every corner,.Syrian Sunnis in general are not Islamists,it is only a reaction to the war being waged on them by the minorities .
Your only hope to turn Syrians to your type of secularism, (which is also a religion that have its own books, temples, fanatics andGod)Is to import a whole secularist people from around the world and offset the Sunni majority,
If you look at pictures from Syria in the 50s and 60s you’ ll see 10 times more women walking the street with out covering their head than you would see pictures from 4 years ago.
The point is when you force people into something foreign to their cultures, their reaction always to go to their comfort zone,
Give the people their freedom and naturally they will relax and reject extremism no matter what type it is , be it Islamism , secularism or any other ism out there.

Jon Stewart Good Time Syria Jamboree
Syria’s Bashar al-Assad crosses the line of what the American government feels is the appropriate way to kill people. (06:14)

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-september-3-2013/uncle-jonny-stew-s-good-time-syria-jamboree

[…] The Question: Is the new Sharia Council of Aleppo that administers the sharia courts run by Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaida affiliated militia? Why do we ask?  […]

beware of the ambitions of short men…

#29 Sami

“They forgot to mention the Jews or is this implied automatically?”

The Jews TOLD them to do this. Don’t you know that the Jews have the magic power of making everyone in the world do what the Jews want them to do?

I wish I had that magic power!

Assad: “What we have is not a civil war; what we have is a war, but it’s a new kind of war.”

Can someone tell me please how the hell you can have a peace negotiation to end a civil war if neither party acknowledges that it is a civil war?

Didn’t we all learn in school that solving a problem starts with acknowledging that the problem exists?

46. Juergen said:

beware of the ambitions of short men…

Putin is 170 cm tall. A. Hitler was 173 cm tall as a young man. Assad is 189 cm tall. Hmmmm is the theory …

Assad is 189 cm tall. Saddam was 188 cm and Gaddafi 183 cm. David Ben Gurion was 152 cm tall. The theory has some “points” if we watch the results 🙂

Mussolini was taller than Berlusconi, though Berlusconi is richer.

Hitler was taller than Stalin. Hmmmm …

Merkel (let’s not be sexists in this height theory) is as tall as Stalin and Lenin were (165 cm). Well all three belonged to the same …

Castro is 190 cm. Taller than USA presidents during his time.

Name Height, Cm

Height, Feet and inches (rounded to nearest)

Country
Abdelaziz Bouteflika 159 5’2 Algeria
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner 164 5’4 Argentina
Julia Eileen Gillard 166 5’5 Australia
Stephen Harper 188 6’2 Canada
Fidel Castro 190 6’3 Cuba
Tarja Halonen 172 5’8 Finland
François Hollande 170 5’7 France
Nicolas Sarkozy 165 5’5 France
Napoleon 168 5’6 France
Jacques Chirac 189 6’2 France
François Mitterrand 172 5’7 France
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing 189 6’2 France
Georges Pompidou 181 5’11 France
Charles de Gaulle 196 6’5 France
Angela Merkel 165 5’5 Germany
Gerhard Schröder 174 5’8 Germany
Helmut Kohl 193 6’4 Germany
François Hollande 173 5’8 Germany
Adolf Hitler 173 5’8 Germany
Viktor Orban 174 5’8 Hungary
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 157 5’2 Iran
Saddam Hussein 188 6’2 Iraq
David Ben Gurion 152 5’0 Israel
Silvio Berlusconi 165 5’5 Italy
Benito Mussolini 169 5’6 Italy
Yasuo Fukuda 169 5’6 Japan
Kim Yong Ill 160 5’3 Korea (North)
Muammar Gaddafi 183 6’0 Libya
Benito Juarez 137 4’6 Mexico
Josef Stalin 165 5’5 Russia
Dmitry Medvedev 163 5’4 Russia
<bVladimir Putin 170 5'7 Russia
Boris Yeltsin 187 6’1 Russia
Vladimir Lenin 165 5’5 Russia
Tony Blair 183 6’0 UK
David Cameron 185 6’1 UK
Winston Churchill 168 5’6 UK
Gordon Brown 180 5’11 UK
Nick Clegg 185 6’1 UK
Margaret Thatcher 165 5’5 UK
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil 193 6’4 UK
Sir Alec Douglas-Home 185 6’1 UK
James Callaghan 185 6’1 UK
Edward Heath 183 6’0 UK
John Major 180 5’11 UK
Queen Elizabeth II 163 5’4 UK
Harold Wilson 173 5’8 UK
George W. Bush 182 5’11 USA
Barack Obama 185 6’1 USA
John F Kennedy 183 6’0 USA
George Washington 187 6’2 USA
Abraham Lincoln 193 6’4 USA
Ronald Reagan 185 6’1 USA
Bill Clinton 184 6’2 USA
George H.W Bush 188 6’2 USA
Gerald Ford 183 6’0 USA
Richard Nixon 182 5’11 USA
Hugo Chávez 173 5’8 Venezuela

Hang on, blowing the referee’s whistle on a comment by MJABALI in at the end of the previous thread (#1547).

He wrote:

“The Sunnis of Syria made a huge mistake of letting the crazy international fanatics into Syria.”

COMMENT: You mean back when jihadists set up a recruitment centre outside the US Embassy in Damascus to support al Qaeda against the Americans in Iraq?

And so on and so on, the welcome mat rolled out by the regime.

ALSO, when did “the Sunnis” invite fanatical Hezbollah and Iranian Shia militia to operate in Syria?

Notable and quotable comments I love:

“..do you deny that there are civilized Syrians that oppose Assad?”

– SAMI (to Ghufran in #24)

“Assad the father destroyed the soul and spirit of Syrians, and Assad the son is destroying physically what is left of it”

– HOPEFUL (previous thread)

Keep saying it, guys.

SIMOHURTTA gives us some fun data in #49. Thanks.

But a fascinating measure would be their head circumference.

Bashar Assad would break the record for the smallest.

This editorial is a nice response to the iPad retard and his thircular arguments about a new war waged on Thouria

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/19/opinion/kristof-fawzias-choice.html?ref=opinion

Fawzia is the tragedy of the mafia regime

47. Hopeful said:

I wish I had that magic power!

Sami, Hopeful,

Thanks. I think it is “implied automatically”. All we want is peace and security like everyone else, which is nearly impossible with Hezbollah, Syria and Iran calling the shots and keeping everyone at war.

Just FYI, I recently got thrown off the Veterans Today website. I lasted about a week. I was first brought to this website by a few links Ziad included in his posts, and if you scan their articles, you can quickly see that we Jews are guilty of pretty much everything. One of their “Top 50 Articles” is: “The Top Ten Reasons Why Israel Should be Bombed Back to the Stone Age”. So I guess they want another 6 million dead Joos.

Anyway, anti-semitism is alive and well. Thanks for pointing that out.;)

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/09/13/the-top-ten-reasons-why-israel-should-be-bombed-back-to-the-stone-age/

52. SYRIALOVER said:

Bashar Assad would break the record for the smallest.

I doubt that Syrialover, simply based on the pictures of Assad. I suppose the smallest head (number of hat) had the smallest man in the list (David Ben-Gurion), who by the way was certainly not the most stupid in the list.

Do you seriously believe, that that strange D-P Assad talk by one of “you” and personalizing everything, what is happening in Syria, to Assad (or in Russia to Putin) gives some credibility to “your side”? Maybe Omen type twitter-automats and some American “Syrians” love it, but certainly all educated people with some historical knowledge are shy of such style of “simplifying” propaganda and such “daemon image building”. I really doubt, that you Syrialover could say who (the person in charge) on the rebel side is answerable of that, what is done by them. Why?

Could/should we make here some estimates which body parts are the longest among Syrian-lovers? I doubt that? 🙂

Damascus doctor Mohamad Osama Al-Baroudi arrested in early 2012 for treating wounded demonstrators has died in prison after torture:

https://twitter.com/Baselsyrian/status/380644285307035648/photo/1

Another Syrian hero to be always remembered for his strength and human decency.

Just so you may know, our well informed and highly reliable sources who work very hard, around the clock and behind the scenes authorized the release of the following very important heads up.

Our benefactors again reviewed the material presented in this latest falsification of truths and facts on this site, an ongoing process fueled by its owner and associates. they once again came to the same unavoidable conclusion as they did when reviewing the previous post about the misrepresentation and falsification concerning the Ma’loula military operation conducted by the glorious revolution. The material and so-called evidence of photos and videos are in total contradiction to the gist of the post seeking in essence to tarnish the repuation of the glorious revolution of the peope of Syria, implying a clear desperate attemp to spread propaganda on behalf of the falling and desperate regime of pervert criminals.

After the positive step of banning the mostly offending commentators initiated by the moderator, our benefactors were considering upgrading the status of the site from the black list to the dark grey list. However, following the latest post of falsification and fabrication of facts, our benefactors decided instead to downgrade the site further to the pitch black list.

Therefore, we urge readers to exercise extreme caution, sound judgement and critical analysis when reading anything emanating from the this clearly suspicious and much-below standards site.

The West campaign of arming the ‘good’ rebels is exposing them to full annihilation.
According to IHS Jane, the “nationalist secular” FSA fighters make only 20% of the total of the 100,000 rebel fighters. Therefore even with weapons they’ll possibly get, they have no chance to survive against many enemies: ISIS, the islamists and the SAA,
ISIS has started a violent campaign to control the flow of weapons from the borders.

Al-Qaeda affiliated group seizes rebel-controlled Syrian town

By Borzou Daragahi in Cairo

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/706f1636-210f-11e3-a92a-00144feab7de.html#ixzz2fLF8gMoj

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or Isis, allied with al-Qaeda and comprised of fighters from Iraq and other Muslim countries, has voiced fears that nations supporting more moderate rebel groups are equipping them to eventually wipe out their more extreme rivals in tandem with potential US air strikes.
Tensions between Isis and other extremist groups on the one hand and more moderate groups on the other have been building for months.

But the outbreak of open warfare between the camps across several Syrian provinces creates a potentially new dimension in the two-and-half-year conflict between the Damascus regime and its opponents

SIMOHURRTA #55 we all know how much you admire Bashar Assad personally, though you yet to offer any rational reason for your view. Or any reason at all.

But I guess unlike YOU none of us are “educated people with some historical knowledge” otherwise we would be “shy of such style of “simplifying” propaganda and such “daemon image building” about Assad.

You are deeply ridiculous.

Your attitudes and agenda indicate you have no connection to or stake in Syria, and are an insult to Syrian people. Syrians are not human like everyone else, according to your thinking, which matches pinheaded Bashar Assad’s.

Let me ask you a question raised by SAMI:

“Do you deny that there are civilized Syrians that oppose Assad?”

I’ll bet you do. Your agenda demands it.

It is high time that Erdogan gets a taste of the nightmare he has imposed on the Syrians by allowing free access to islamists terrorists to Syria. He now has to negotiate with them.
One less border for the transit of Western and Saudi offered weapons

Turkey shuts border gate after clashes on Syrian side

The emergence of al Qaeda-linked fighters along its 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria, within striking distance of Turkish territory, is a nightmare scenario for Ankara.

Turkey has been one of the strongest backers of the Syrian rebels, giving them shelter on its soil. It denies arming them, but fighters including militant Islamists have been able to cross its porous border into Syria.

Turkey says it does not favor any particular group in the opposition and has strongly denied accusations it has directly assisted more radical elements, especially in their fight against Kurdish rebels on Syria’s northeastern border.

Violence has repeatedly spilled over the border.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/19/us-syria-crisis-turkey-idUSBRE98I0C120130919?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=992637

Maybe time is coming for France to pay the price of its aggressive and senseless foreign policy dictated by the lure of GCC money

France fears backlash from militants fighting in Syria
by AFP

France’s interior minister revealed Thursday that hundreds of homegrown militants were signing up to fight in Syria and warned they could pose a security threat when they come back.

More than 300 French nationals or residents are either currently fighting in Syria’s civil war, planning to go and fight or have recently returned from there, the minister, Manuel Valls, told France Inter radio.

Most of them were young men, often with a delinquent past, who had become radicalised, he said.

“This is a phenomenon which worries me because they represent a potential danger when they return to our soil,” Valls said. “We have to be extremely attentive.”

Careful ZOO, you are waving a flaming torch in front while your backside is catching fire.

Make up your mind, is the Syrian rebels’ and their local supporters fierce fight to oust ISIS a bad thing or a good thing?

We all know it’s a good thing because is showing the welcome truth to international support circles and wrecks a crucial Assadist propaganda line.

But it also highlights the disastrous failure of the Assad regime to tackle these outside extremists it once rolled out the welcome mat for.

More on Azaz. A German doctor triggered the fight

The Azaz clashes broke out earlier Wednesday, when ISIL fighters tried to detain a German doctor they accused of taking pictures of their positions on behalf of the rival rebels, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory. The doctor, who was a volunteer in the region, escaped but the two rebel factions started fighting.

Amateur videos showed dozens of gunmen with heavy machine guns mounted on pickup trucks gathering at the nearby border crossing with Turkey. The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other Associated Press reporting on the events depicted.

Abdul-Rahman said three opposition fighters and two jihadis were killed in the fighting. On Thursday, mediation was under way to get the jihadis to leave Azaz, he said.

Loay al-Mikdad, a spokesman for the Western-backed rebels of the Free Syrian Army, said the Azaz clashes were a “provocation” by the al-Qaida-linked fighters.

“They want to occupy the area … What they are doing is unjustified, it serves the (Assad) regime,” Mekdad said by telephone from Turkey.

In July, ISIL fighters killed two FSA commanders. The deaths enraged the FSA leadership, which has since demanded that the killers be handed over to stand trial.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/19/3636334/jihadis-capture-northern-syrian.html#storylink=cpy

Maybe time is coming for the UK to pay the price of its aggressive and senseless foreign policy dictated by the lure of GCC money

Two more arrested in Britain over Syria terror links
September 19, 2013 03:52 PM

LONDON: British police said Thursday they had arrested two more people over alleged involvement in terrorism in Syria following the discovery of ammunition at the port of Dover.

A man aged 27 and a woman aged 26 were detained at a house in Essex, east of London, on Wednesday following a search and are still being questioned, the Metropolitan Police said.

They were held “on suspicion of being involved in the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism”, it said.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Sep-19/231866-two-more-arrested-in-britain-over-syria-terror-links.ashx#ixzz2fLNN7hOr
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

SL

Don’t waste your time addressing me. I just skip your post systematically. I just stopped because I notice my nickname in Uppercase. Please refrain from doing that,
Your posts don’t need Thumbs , they need Yawns

Great article by Hassan Hassan about the fight by moderate rebel forces and local people against the extremists:

EXCERPTS:

If the United States wants to move against jihadists in Syria, there has never been a better time. Tensions between moderate rebel groups and extremist forces are coming to a head across the country.

The potential of a U.S. military strike over the past several weeks — which mainstream forces largely welcomed, and jihadists, fearing that the United States would target them, opposed — appears to have exacerbated tensions between the groups.

Full-blown clashes broke out in the north and east of the country today, with Free Syrian Army (FSA)-affiliated groups in the city of Deir Ezzor battling with the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Meanwhile, ISIS also launched an offensive on the northern town of Azaz, which lies close to the Turkish border.

The clashes follow an ISIS announcement earlier this week declaring war against the FSA-affiliated Farouk Brigades in Aleppo, along with another moderate rebel brigade. Dubbing its operation “The Repudiation of Malignity,” the jihadist group said its offensive was in response to an attack by the brigades against its headquarters in the northern city of al-Bab last week.

ISIS even appears to be picking fights with more radical brigades. The jihadist group reportedly kidnapped nine commanders from the Ahrar Souria group in the northern city of Raqqa on Sept. 12. It also killed a commander from the powerful Ahrar al-Sham militia, after the man objected to ISIS’s kidnapping of Malaysian aid workers.

The eastern city of Abu Kamal, close to the Iraqi border, has emerged as a case study of the jihadists’ limited appeal. Over the past several months, multiple residents told me that Syrians were growing increasingly restless over the jihadists’ presence. They cited their tendency to interfere in people’s personal affairs and force their own worldview on residents.

But their central complaint was the extremists’ focus on maintaining a monopoly over local resources: One resident from Abu Kamal and another from Aleppo told me that jihadists tend to claim anything under government control as spoils of war, from schools to telephone and water facilities.

Jihadists know that the single greatest threat to their existence is not drone attacks or a regime military offensive, but rejection by local populations. They are paranoid about a repeat of the rise of “Awakening Councils,” or sahwat, which began in Iraq’s Anbar Province after al Qaeda alienated the Sunni population of the area.

Syrians’ growing hostility towards jihadists is not the result of a push from outsider powers — it comes from genuine public concerns about their presence. As people in rebel-held areas no longer have a need for the jihadists’ ruthlessness in battle, moderate groups will have a new opportunity to win the hearts and minds of the local populations in liberated cities and towns, as well as on the front lines. If the world wants an ally in their fight against creeping extremism, they will find a broad array of Syrians willing to help them drive the jihadists out.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/09/18/rebel_vs_rebel_syria_jihadists_groups

@57 Syria Comment soon on the ‘pitch’ blacklist of Heads up “benefactors”

Headsup is doing an excellent job on boosting the Thumbs up for the pro-rebels and the Thumbs down for the loyalists.
I guess it is part of the effort to discredit the Blog that his ‘benefactors’ have repeatedly announced.

Despite his effort to discourage the voices opposing his ‘benefactors’ machiavellian schemes to kill more Syrians and worship the king of Saudi Arabia, he doesn’t seem to have succeeded.

Therefore the “benefactors” have decided that Syria Comment is moving to be blacklisted.
Any one knows what it means?

ZOO always pretends to be asleep when I write about him.

But he can’t afford to doze off while his backside is smouldering and likely to go up in flames when he can no longer shoot the propaganda line that Syrian opposition fighters are all members of al Qaeda.

But I recognize that ZOO must be yawning and blinking from exhaustion at his huge extra workload since REVENIRE has left.

McCain’s shameful reply to Putin leaves no illusion about his political infantilism .

In Dueling Op-Eds, Putin Calls For Calm As McCain Calls Putin Names

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/09/19/in-dueling-op-eds-putin-calls-for-calm-as-mccain-calls-putin-names/

And Thursday, in an example of our rabid and unsophisticated body politic, former Presidential wanna-be John McCain penned his version of the Putin op-ed. This one in Russia’s Pravda.

In the piece, titled “Russians Deserve Better Than Putin“, McCain doesn’t thank Putin for coming up with a solution. He doesn’t even try to debate his position like a senior statesman. Instead, he bantered like an angry 12 year old, calling Putin names.

He wrote that some of the world’s most offensive and threatening tyrannies came from Russia and scolded them for supporting “a Syrian regime”…”that is murdering tens of thousands of its own people to remain in power and by blocking the United Nations from even condemning its atrocities.”

Syrian children return to school amid war

By ALBERT AJI — Associated Press
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2013/09/19/3230380/syrian-children-return-to-school.html

DAMASCUS, Syria — Facing extraordinary challenges, millions of Syrian children in government-controlled areas returned to school this week despite the civil war that has left almost 4,000 schools — one in five — damaged, destroyed or sheltering displaced families.

In Damascus, the Syrian capital, a frequent target of mortar shells fired by rebels entrenched in the suburbs, the government insisted on starting the academic year on time, despite the constant threat.

At the Suleiman Hassan Shuaib school in the upscale Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus, children and parents greeted the start of school with a mix of anticipation and concern.

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2013/09/19/3230380/syrian-children-return-to-school.html#storylink=cpy

I am not very familiar with the structure of the rebels. But that is the problem with the so-called moderate rebels and its supporters, as many people like me are not aware of their existence.

Evey battles with any military advance or publicity is done by the Islamists. We do occasionally “see” them on media during so-called photo ops.

After this latest news claiming Al Qaeda overran the moderate rebels, I guess that those moderate rebels are probably just some locally self-appointed fighters who took up weapons after radical fighters took over the territories from the regime.

It seems to me the case is just the hardline Islamic fighters wanted to take back all matters to their own hands including administrating Azaz town.

If we hope the moderate rebels fighters can eventually work side by side with SAA to drive out or kill those Jihadis, I think it is good for PR. But in reality, those moderate rebels are not much of a force on battleground, some US drones can be more useful.

Putin: chemical attack in Syria “sly and ingenious” provocation by rebels

By The Associated Press September 19, 2013 11:01 AM
http://www.canada.com/news/Putin+chemical+attack+Syria+ingenious+provocation+rebels/8932760/story.html

VALDAI, Russia – President Vladimir Putin says that Russia has strong grounds to believe that Syrian rebels were responsible for the country’s chemical attack.

Putin said Thursday that “we have every reason to believe that it was a provocation, a sly and ingenious one.” He added, however, that its perpetrators have relied on “primitive” technology, using old Soviet-made ammunition no longer used by the Syrian army.

@71 Apple_mini

The ‘good’ rebels are in danger of being wiped out, not by the Syrian Army but by the ‘bad’ ones supported by a huge network in Iraq and by Saudi ‘charities’.
Maybe it is time for the ‘good’ rebels to put aside their political differences and move on the sides of the SAA against Al Qaeda

Selim Idriss should resign. They need someone who is ready to make a courageous move for the sake of preventing Syria to become another Afghanistan. Who?

Egypt to Qatar: You can’t buy us with your money. Take it back

Egypt returns $2 bn to Qatar after talks to securitise it fail
Money returned after talks on converting $2 billion into three-year bonds break down

Egypt has returned to Qatar $2 billion that the Gulf state had deposited with Egypt’s central bank, after negotiations to convert the funds into three-year bonds broke down, central bank Governor Hisham Ramez said by telephone on Thursday.

Qatar had sent Egypt $3 billion in May, of which it converted $1 billion into three-year bonds.

Cairo’s relations with Qatar deteriorated after the Egyptian army deposed President Mohamed Morsi on July 3 following massive uprisings flocked to the streets nationwide demanded the Islamist President to leave.

Qatar had been a firm backer of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and lent or gave Egypt $7.5 billion during the year he was in power.

ISIS “Expunging Filth” campaign has started to annihilate the FSA.
“Aron Lund, a researcher and expert on the Syrian opposition, said this round of fighting appear to be more serious.”
The terrified FSA is begging the West: “Don’t leave us between Assad, Hezbollah and al-Qa’ida.”

The rebels divide: Is this the new front in Syria’s civil war?

Many were keen to make a distinction between the ‘real’ Free Syrian Army and those claiming the mantle. Now divisions will be made clearer within the rebel movement

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-rebels-divide-is-this-the-new-front-in-syrias-civil-war-8827244.html

…
Last week, ISIS announced the beginning of a new campaign dubbed “Expunging Filth”– the target of which was not Assad’s army, but the FSA-affiliated Farouk Brigades, a force of around 14,000 fighters.

…
“We knew this would happen from day one,” said Abu Admad, an activist with an FSA-affiliated media centre in Aleppo. “From the moment foreign fighters came flooding into the country saying they were fighting for Jihad and for Sharia we knew it would end like this.”

The battle lines being drawn in Azaz could have a dramatic impact on the course of the war in Syria. The most immediate effect will be a weakening of the front-lines where rebels are battling against Assad’s army, as protagonists on both sides call reinforcements to fight it out in the north.

Although there have been skirmishes among the rebels before, Aron Lund, a researcher and expert on the Syrian opposition, said this round of fighting appear to be more serious.

“The new thing is that you’ve had an uptick in battles between the Islamic State and others in several areas at the same time, and there’s an impression spreading that they’re knifing the rebellion in the back,” he said.
…
Even as the fight was still ongoing on Thursday, the Free Syrian army called for support from the West.

“We are asking for the West’s help,” said FSA spokesman Louay al-Miqdad. “We cannot fight on two fronts. Don’t leave us between Assad, Hezbollah and al-Qa’ida.”

Mr Miqdad said that FSA leaders were holding meetings to decide on a response to the attack on Azaz.

“I don’t think there is a chance of a solution [with ISIS],” he said. “They are fighting for different goals. They are fighting for their own agenda.”

“We are short in resources and we need help, but they shouldn’t forget we have been here for 7,000 years, living together. We will not allow them to hijack our revolution.”

Turkey and Qatar vicious plot has failed.

By allowing Al Qaeda and other Islamists to pass freely through its borders and by allowing weapons and even Sarin gas to enter Syria, one can see that Turkey had a agenda other than bringing ‘freedom and pride’ to Syrians.
In view of the destruction that Syria has incurred thanks to Turkey’s geographical/logistical participation and Qatar’s money, one wonders if the whole purpose was not actually to let Syria destroy itself politically and economically so Turkey and Qatar could impose a Moslem Brotherhood rule and control the country politically and economically.
What they did not expect is that Bashar Al Assad would oppose an amazing and smart resistance and that Egypt would surprisingly kick out the Moslem Brotherhood for good.
Now that the plan failed, the Islamist terrorists that Turkey allowed in Syria are turning against Turkey and threatening it. Not only the plan failed but it is backfiring.

For this disastrous plot that killed 100,000 people and created a human tragedy, Qatar’s HBJ was kicked out and Erdogan’s time will come soon.
It is not enough, they must pay for their crimes and they will.

#73 Zoo

“The ‘good’ rebels are in danger of being wiped out, not by the Syrian Army but by the ‘bad’ ones supported by a huge network in Iraq and by Saudi ‘charities’.
Maybe it is time for the ‘good’ rebels to put aside their political differences and move on the sides of the SAA against Al Qaeda”

These are the exact same jihadis that Assad cultivated and supported during the Iraq war. They are indeed based in Iraq and supported by GCC charities money. I will try to give the regime the benefit of the doubt and assume it is not behind these bad rebels today, but those rebels were certainly its yesterday’s allies.

If the SAA stops firing at the rebels, and shows a vision where Assad and his thugs will exit, as the Americans did in Iraq, then I am certain the good rebels will cooperate with the national army to defeat the jihadis. The rebels are not after the SAA or the Syrian state, they are after the corrupt regime exemplified by Assad and his mafia: the occupiers of Syria and the hijackers of Syrians dignity, just as the Americans were in Iraq.

# Akbar Palace

I have always admired your cool headedness and continued participation despite the fact that most of the people on this forum treat you like a punching bag.

Are you sure you are a republican :-)?

#76 Zoo
“What they did not expect is that Bashar Al Assad would oppose an amazing and smart resistance and that Egypt would surprisingly kick out the Moslem Brotherhood for good.”

Let’s see… Had Assad allowed the people to demonstrate without massacring them, and had he stepped down and allowed the people to go down the path of democracy, perhaps the people would have elected the MB for about a year, then revolted against them as the Egyptians did, then perhaps the Syrian army would have stepped in and removed the MB from power, with the majority of Syrians behind it, as had happened in Egypt.

But noooooo!!! Assad’s smart and amazing resistance is so much better, leaving behind over 100,000 dead, millions exiled, and a country in ruins!

I have always admired your cool headedness and continued participation despite the fact that most of the people on this forum treat you like a punching bag.

Hopeful,

Thanks? Well, I’ve been known to lose my cool once in a while.

Keep up the good work. You and the other opposition supporters are doing a great job. Hoping one day Syrians will get their basic human rights.

There is no point debating ZOO. He is a regime insider. His posts are regurgitated declarations and pontifications from the very prethidential palath.

We were told that the rebels are 90% Al Qaeda and yet we have the FSA battling them in Azzaz. So how come the 10% are battling the 90% but I guess ophtalmology and mathematics do not go hand in hand.

We are also seeing that the rebel areas around Damascus are deprived of bread. The same iPad Retard Mafiosi was telling us that the fate of the civilians is due to the actions of the rebels when his troops have actually besieged the towns to starve them to death.

The first demonstration in Harika in Damascus praised this mafiosi to show that the people wanted reform not regime change and yet in his continued brutal stupidity he unleashed his stupid brutality. To the point that he is using CW on civilians.

Vlad is saying that he is not sure that the CW removal will be 100% which means that the UNSC should pass a resolution forcing the Syrian regime to comply fully with the CW convention that it signed just last week.

Time to seize on his “rhetorical” comment please and move forward.

He says he is not wedded to the regime but he fears for the Christians. Well how come he does not fear for the death of innocents of other faiths? Is he not the ultimate sectarian and the true racist fanatic Rusky?

Is not democracy the best guarantee for all people’s rights?

I still remember ZOO regurgitating the mantra that democracy is a path we move towards as the regime propaganda whereby we continue to postpone the arrival of democracy as we follow an endless path of false promises and fake reforms.

Shameful post indeed this time.

Hopeful

No country in the middle east has ever allowed peaceful demonstration, because they know that they turn out to be violent because of the inflitration of criminals or people with another agenda and the lack of preparation of the security forces to control them.
Turkey who praise itself of ‘democracy’ has used tons of tear gaz and rubber bullets to repress mini demonstrations of people protesting about a park. Despite that, there were death. Imagine what Erdogan would have done if the protesters were shooting at the police and telling him to go.
Contrary to Turkey’s police that was very well prepared, Syrian police lacked anti-riots equipment and this weakness has been immediately used by the trouble makers with their own agendas to increase provocation so as to justify the escalation of violence. Right from the start, the demonstrations were coming out of Sunni mosques and were violently sectarian.
Bashar Al Assad did what he could in extremely difficult circumstances when the rabid countries around were jumping in to try to reduce Syria to a failed state like Somalia.
After 3 years, despite the destruction and the horrors, Syria is still strong, the Syrian governement is respected and increasingly trusted internationnally and its people are even more united behind their leader, while the opposition is crumbling, oscillating between ridicule and pathetic.

I just look at the reality of today and I guess the opposition will soon be forced to crawl to Geneva II without putting any conditions.
Obviouslky Bashar al Assad has outsmarted the most educated and powerful leaders in the world. Despite the relentless efforts of his demonization by the West, Bashar al Assad is a source of pride for Syrians who care about their country to remain secular and for all the Arabs who are proud of their independence from the West games.

#82 Zoo

Now you just sound like you are a paid propagandist of Assad, which I am sure you are not.

I am making a simple point: “if the goal is to defeat the MB, which path was better traveled? Egypt’s path or Syia’s path? Who did better for his country? Assad or Mubarak?

Observer

I guess my posts are enraging you and I am really glad they do.
Your impotence in convincing anyone on the blog of your own agenda is a proof of your failure.

All you have been repeating for the last two years is that Syria should be divided by sects.
That is clearly your agenda and that is Netanyhahu’s agenda too.

If I am a Syrian governement insider, you are an Israeli governement insider.

Hopeful

I an not interested neither in what you think I am nor in your questions as you know the answers, as usual.

#85 Zoo

Hmmm… You said the same thing to SL and others, so you are not interested in engaging with people with other points of view. Maybe I am wrong and Observer is right after all.

Hopeful

you got it

CNN to Louay al Mokdad, FSA spokesman in a state of hysteria: You are in a awful mess

Free Syrian Army: We’re fighting al Qaeda

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2013/09/18/syria-rebels-fighting-anderson-lok.cnn.html

Here is a leader who truly understands his country and is in touch with his countrymen!

“Internally, it is about the administration and the people’s feeling and dignity, about the people participating in the decisions of their country….. We have more difficult circumstances than most of the Arab countries but in spite of that Syria is stable. Why? Because you have to be very closely linked to the beliefs of the people. This is the core issue. When there is divergence between your policy and the people’s beliefs and interests, you will have this vacuum that creates disturbance. So people do not only live on interests; they also live on beliefs, especially in very ideological areas. Unless you understand the ideological aspect of the region, you cannot understand what is happening.” Bashar Assad – Jan 31, 2011

Here is a leader who truly understands his country and is in touch with his countrymen!

A breakthrough of AlQaeda in Azaz. The ‘liberated town’ previously administered by the FSA and destined to host the ‘transitional government’ is now in the hands of Al Qaeda, just across the border with Turkey. A page is turned.
If no one stops Al Qaeda, the Edlib villages are next.

Al-Qaeda Allied Fighters Capture Rebel-Held Syrian Border Town

Islamist faction takes control of town from the Free Syrian Army

Details on the number of casualties are scant but the Associated Press says hundreds have been killed on both sides in what it calls “a war within a war in northern and eastern parts of Syria.”

An eyewitness inside Azaz told the BBC that no one can be seen smoking in the streets—an indication that ISIS is enforcing Islamic law, which bans the use of tobacco.

In response to ISIS taking control of the town, Turkey shut down the border crossing, which had been a lifeline for rebel-held areas through which passed vital humanitarian aid, building materials and food, Reuters reports. Ankara is alarmed at the existence of an extremist Islamist redoubt on its border — never before has an affiliate of al-Qaeda been perched so close to NATO territory.

Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/09/19/al-qaeda-allied-fighters-capture-rebel-held-syrian-border-town/#ixzz2fMpq6Bs1

No country in the middle east has ever allowed peaceful demonstration…

Really? What about “The Apartheid State”?

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.535858

http://972mag.com/watch-arab-women-protest-against-domestic-violence-in-israel/71975/

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/171728

http://www.jta.org/1958/05/22/archive/communist-demonstrations-in-nazareth-irk-arab-leaders-in-israel

http://www.timesofisrael.com/2000-israeli-arabs-rally-in-support-of-morsi/

Basma Atassi | بسمة @Basma_ 18 Sep
Why did Damascus hand the new “evidence” implicating rebels in CW attack to the Russians and not UN inspectors when they were in #Syria?

On wednesday morning after 1am, I tuned into BBC Radio 5 and thought I caught the last couple of words of an interview with what sounded very much like Prof. Landis. I forgot about it yesterday but remembered it today and decided to listen again online:

Listen from 13:00 minutes till 18:40 minutes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b039x0jh

Even Assad has stopped claiming that neighboring countries are supporting the Jihadis. Is this a shift? No more accusations of Qatar, Turkey, etc.!

“Fox News: These are the rebels? You’re not maintaining that all of your opponents are Jihadists, are you?

President Assad: No, not all of them. Of course we have many other different groups, but they are small, they are becoming a minority. At the very beginning, the Jihadists were the minority. In the end of 2012, and during this year they became the majority with the flow of tens of thousands from different countries.

Fox News: Where are they getting their money from? Can you tell us right now?

President Assad: Mainly from donations.

Fox News: But donations from where? Can you name nations that are donating?

President Assad: From everywhere in the Islamic world. They mainly come from individuals, not from countries. We don’t know if some countries support them directly, we don’t have any information. I have to be very precise, but mainly from donations from people who carry the same ideology in their minds.”

ZOO’s lost it.

Really lost it:

“After 3 years, despite the destruction and the horrors, Syria is still strong, the Syrian governement is respected and increasingly trusted internationnally and its people are even more united behind their leader”

“Obviouslky Bashar al Assad has outsmarted the most educated and powerful leaders in the world” (#82)

COMMENT: HOPEFUL, OBSERVER, SYRIAN HAMSTER and co. you guys seem to have tipped ZOO into panicky raving and hallucinations.

He used to be more self-controlled, but without sick jokester REVENIRE here he is resorting to trying to channel him.

Hey, what did I just stumble on? Do we now have cyber team ZOOVENIRE posting here?

In view of the debacle in Azaz and the increasing Al Qaeda threats on the FSA, the SNC should jump on that face-saving offer.

Syria regime would call for ceasefire at Geneva talks: deputy PM
September 19, 2013 10:30 PM

LONDON: The Syrian government believes the civil war ravaging the country has reached a stalemate and would call for a ceasefire if long-stalled peace talks in Geneva were to take place, the deputy prime minister told Britain’s Guardian on Thursday.

“Neither the armed opposition nor the regime is capable of defeating the other side,” Qadri Jamil told the newspaper.

When asked what his government would propose at the stalled Geneva-2 summit, he replied: “An end to external intervention, a ceasefire and the launching of a peaceful political process”.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Sep-19/231923-syria-regime-would-call-for-ceasefire-at-geneva-talks-deputy-pm.ashx#ixzz2fMzLaWog
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

#94 HOPEFUL

So Assadists and their camp followers were given a script to deafeningly bark accusations that the Gulf states and the west have been supporting the jihadists, but when asked direct the one with wet pants dodges his way out of repeating it. Suddenly now it’s just “individuals” .

He desperately imagines the world is as stupid as he is.

#96 If the Syrian regime is serious about calling for a ceasefire from ISIS it must have some inside connections and control there.

Or is this just the usual ploy to save face and play for time?

The face saving and game playing to stop delivering is reaching hilarious levels.

Here Bashar Assad says it will take over a year and he will need a billion dollars to round up and get rid of his chemical weapons. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24155674)

No talk that the CW are in the hands of rebels, although we have Russia playing the desperate last-minute card trick of suddenly claiming to have evidence that “the rebels did it”.

And a few hours ago Putin declared he is not 100% sure and can’t guarantee that Syria will hand over its chemical weapons.

They tell so many lies they lose track themselves.

All they know is they don’t want to lose face and they need to stall and dodge doing it – and the two aims are now starting to collide.

rumors are isis kidnapped two more western reporters! one of them well known.

i noticed something. both kissinger and zbig shifted in their stance and made brief calls supporting intervention. but then went back to their original programming of calling for political solution. kissinger even going so far as to argue assad should remain in power.

did the chemical attack move them to briefly support a strike? or was this done so just to provide PR cover lest they look inhumane having failed to demand accountability for the regime having gassed babies?

OMEN #99, you have to look at it from the perspective that Brezinski is now 85 and Kissinger 90.

Hard to imagine them constantly on the internet keeping on top of the Syrian issue in depth for the past couple of years.

there is a constant merry-go-round of media reporting that either the u.s., britian or france pledging to provide more support for the opposition & to arm the rebels. this has been going on for two years now.

what the press fails to note is how many times these fraudulent promises have been made in the past.

when media just acts as stenographer, it has been reduced to a state propaganda organ, no better than soviet era pravda.

where is media challenging power & holding them accountability for past statements? where are the questions demanding to know why past pledges haven’t been fulfilled?

بسام الخوري
4 hours ago ·
Von Mahmoud Zaibak
من معرفتهم بتقديس اهل الشام للخبز من باب رعاية النعمة .. تتفنن حواجز النظام في امتهان ربطات الخبز المصادرة من العجائز الذين يحاولون ادخالها إلى الغوطة ، فيجمعونها تارة ككراسي يجلسون عليها ، ويلقونها تارة في الارض كممرات لهم ، وبين الحين والاخر يحرقونها جماعيا امام اعين الناس الذين يمضي احدهم ست ساعات على الحاجز في بعض الاوقات .
بالأمس فتشوا كهلا يقود سيارته بحثا عن خبز .. قالوا له أخيرا “معقول ما معك خبز لنصادره ” فأقسم لهم بذلك .. قالوا اذا سنعطيك نحن ربطة .. اخذها فرحا
وبعد أن مشى قليلا تفاجأ برائحتها النتنة في سيارته .. فتحها ليجد أن أحدهم قد تغوط داخلها .

https://m.facebook.com/bassam.alkhouri?__user=100003131418721

One nun puts entire US intel community to shame over ‘stage-managed’ Syria footage

The US intelligence community has been put to shame by the dedication and determination of a lone Christian nun. Her modest study of the videos of the Syrian chemical attack shows they were productions involving staged bodies.

Those who take the time to read the report by Mother Agnes and the International Support Team for Mussalaha in Syria (ISTEAMS) will realize that it disgraces the entire US intelligence community for endorsing video footage that is clearly dubious and not credible upon careful study by even a layperson.

No one denies that chemical weapons were used. The US federal government and the mainstream media in the US and countries allied to it have been playing a dirty game of equating the a) rejection of accusations that the Syrian government used chemical weapons with b) an outright denial that chemical weapons were used. The two are deliberately being mixed together to confuse the general public. The question is who used the chemical weapons?

http://rt.com/op-edge/syria-chemical-weapons-children-063/

101. Syrialover said: you have to look at it from the perspective that Brezinski is now 85 and Kissinger 90.

if you follow their interviews, it’s apparent both are paying close attention. so they may be old but it’s likely the oligarchical interests they’re defending are old as well.

they wouldn’t be feted in corporate media as they are if they weren’t useful.

Rebel-on-Rebel Violence Seizes Syria

An al Qaeda spinoff operating near Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, last week began a new battle campaign it dubbed “Expunging Filth.”

The target wasn’t their avowed enemy, the Syrian government. Instead, it was their nominal ally, the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army.

Across northern and eastern Syria, units of the jihadist group known as ISIS are seizing territory—on the battlefield and behind the front lines—from Western-backed rebels.

Some FSA fighters now consider the extremists to be as big a threat to their survival as the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

“It’s a three-front war,” a U.S. official said of the FSA rebels’ fight: They face the Assad regime, forces from its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, and now the multinational jihadist ranks of ISIS.

Brigade leaders of the FSA say that ISIS, an Iraqi al Qaeda outfit whose formal name is the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, has dragged them into a battle they are ill-equipped to fight.

Some U.S. officials said they see it as a battle for the FSA’s survival.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324807704579082924138453120?mg=reno64-wsj.html?dsk=y

104. Ziad: One nun puts entire US intel community to shame over ‘stage-managed’ Syria footage

it’s like reading the onion. all that’s missing is a monty python soundtrack. this could be a made to order saturday night live skit.

p.s.

on another topic, is internet connection for aleppo still blocked?

How the Syrian Chemical Weapons Videos Were Staged

Detailed Video Analysis on GRTV

In the wake of the Syrian chemical weapons attack, shocking footage of the victims of that attack were widely circulated in an effort to raise the ire of the public and spur support for military intervention.

Now, a new report on that footage finds troubling inconsistencies and manipulation with the video that calls the official narrative of the attack and its victims into question.

The report has been used as justification for the US and UK’s allegations that the attack originated from the Syrian government, but it does not in fact reach this conclusion. The inspection team’s mandate was limited to determining if an attack took place, not where it originated from, limiting their findings to a simple statement of fact:

“On the basis of the evidence obtained during our investigation of the Ghouta incident, the conclusion is that, on 21st August 2013, chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic, also against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale.”

The determination of where the attacks originated from is of course the key issue geopolitically speaking. If the attack originated with the Syrian government it would mark a serious escalation in the conflict, but if the weapons were launched by the terrorist insurgency it would mean the attack was a false flag provocation, designed to draw the US and its allies into armed military intervention in the country.

As analysts have been at pains to point out, the motive for such an attack has always suggested that it was more likely that the terrorists were the culprits in Ghouta, not the Syrian government. They have been losing the ground war against Syrian government forces for months, and they knew that the use of chemical weapons was the “red line” that Obama had set as the threshold for military intervention. Those who argue Assad’s culpability have to believe that not only did he suddenly and inexplicably resort to using chemical weapons on his own people for no strategic military reason, but that he waited until UN chemical weapons inspectors arrived in the country before doing so.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/how-the-syrian-chemical-weapons-videos-were-staged/5350471

1505. Uzair8: Is it true Shaykh Ramadan al-Buti (ra) supported the Libyan uprising?
[…]
The reason I want to know is because some argue from a religious point of view the impermissibility of rebelling against the ruler.

this quote (paraphrased) doesn’t provide sanction?:
“the highest jihad is a word of truth against an unjust ruler.”

Islamist rebels are hired guns who have been the whores in every conflict since the 1980s, they were used by all including the Syrian regime, that makes them unreliable as friends or as enemies for the countries and regimes that pay for their services or fought against them.
Rebels in Syria who fight under the FSA flag have hit a brick wall after they lost some of their old friends and won new enemies, a political solution or a U turn is in their best interest and the interests of Syria but that requires the removal of Assad as the head of state and the CIC of the ASA, it is not certain that Russia and Iran have accepted this fact yet but there is a real chance today to break the stalemate with Iran and give KSA something to brag about to end this conflict without losing face. I hope that both Obama and Hollande will meet with Rouhani soon, the language from Iran is conciliatory and I think it is different this time.
You know that a rebel group has lost its moral compass when they use tactics similar to the enemy they are fighting against (summary executions, torture, seiges, assassinations, kidnapping, theft ,etc)the latest was the shelling of a village, Jabourin, in Homs that killed 13 civilians, having the moral high ground is still important if you want people to believe in your cause, rebels were sold by the same people who told them the regime has only few months left, 30 months later the fsa rebels only managed to have زواج متعه with Islamists that is now coming to an ugly end after nusra and Isis surpassed the regime’s security forces as the new thugs in charge, Syrians in ” liberated” areas are the victims of rebels lack of vision and political savvy.

This is now a national scandal in Tunisia and a slap on the face of those who denied that jihad al-Nikah is real:
Lutfi Bin Jiddo ( Tunisian Interior Minister) speaking to the parliament:

ZIAD #104 & 108,

If it makes you feel better to seize on Russian propaganda and stuff from a marginal conspiracist group that is a 9/11 denier and all the rest, go for it.

It doesn’t change the reality of what has happened on the ground in Syria.

But it is going to be very hard to stay in denial if you ever go back to Syria and experience the death, dust and rubble legacy of Bashar Assad.

No it is not a stalemate and the people of Syria will inevitably emerge victorious.  We are not sitting Geneva || unless Bashar steps down.  The regime is crumbling.  It is losing grip on its militia.  The economy is destroyed and the regime is losing swaths of territories every day.   It is not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and therefore is crawling to have a Geneva II to avoid humiliation and preserve what it can.     

Syrian government says war has reached stalemate
Exclusive: Deputy PM says neither side is strong enough to win and government may call for ceasefire at Geneva talks

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/19/syrian-government-civil-war-stalemate

Qadri Jamil said that neither side was strong enough to win the conflict, which has lasted two years and caused the death of more than 100,000 people. Jamil, who is in charge of country’s finances, also said that the Syrian economy had suffered catastrophic losses.

“Neither the armed opposition nor the regime is capable of defeating the other side,” he said. “This zero balance of forces will not change for a while.”

Meanwhile, he said, the Syrian economy had lost about $100bn (£62bn), equivalent to two years of normal production, during the war.

If accepted by the armed opposition, a ceasefire would have to be kept “under international observation”, which could be provided by monitors or UN peace-keepers – as long as they came from neutral or friendly countries, he said.
……
He repeatedly stressed Syria was changing but it needed support rather than pressure. “Let nobody have any fear that the regime in its present form will continue. For all practical purposes the regime in its previous form has ended. In order to realise our progressive reforms we need the west and all those who are involved in Syria to get off our shoulders,” he said.
….
Details of Russia’s position on who should represent the opposition at Geneva Two have also emerged. Members of the National Co-ordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, an umbrella group for several internal parties, met Sergei Ryabkov, a Russian deputy foreign minister, in Damascus on Thursday evening.

Safwan Akkash, an NCB leader, told the Guardian afterwards that Ryabkov told them Russia was proposing there should be three opposition teams at Geneva. These should be the NCB, the Syrian National Coalition, and a combined delegation of Kurds.

The SNC, while cautiously accepting Geneva Two as a means of breaking an entrenched stalemate, insists that Assad’s resignation remains non-negotiable.

It is also sticking to a position that a transitional government must follow the ousting of Assad.

It has remained insistent that those who carried out the chemical attack must be held to account – a point it has hammered home ever since the Russian-US deal to force Syria to hand over its chemical weapons stockpiles.

ZOO admits he is a regime insider. Very well.
He accuses me of being an Israeli insider. Very well indeed. This is the typical way the regime operates by “treasoning” dissent. You a traitor if you express any views that do not fit the regime. Very well indeed. Coming from the likes of ZOO is a badge of honor indeed.

Now, I challenge ZOO to show one declaration of any Israeli leader that they wish the break up of any country around them except perhaps for Jordan. They have gobbled up and destroyed and continue to deny Palestinians their right and they have called for Jordan to be the new Palestine. That we all know that they did. I have no doubt that they may harbor ideas and feelings about breaking up the entire Middle East into whatever suits their purposes but to claim that they actually voiced I am not aware of. I am willing to be corrected of course for I do not claim to have complete knowldge of the declarations.

Ben Gurion advocated the state from the Nile to the Euphrates for sure.

On the other hand there are documents and demands and attempts on the part of several sects to create their own states starting with the Maronites as well as at least some Alawi leaders.

On the other hand, some Syrian Christians refused France’s offer to be part of a Christian based entity saying in essence that they have lived for thousands of years amidst the people of the region and that is more important than a mirage of a state.

Now, to call the disingenuity of the pro regime trolls, I have advocated federation of the entire region. All you have to look at are the killing fields in Iraq, the pure hatred unleashed in Syria, the deep wounds still raw in Lebanon where you can clearly see that the communities live passed each other and try to be as far apart as possible. Some of my Lebanese friends say that Tripoli should belong to Syria without shame or embarrassment. With the federation comes a free economic zone with the rule of law to allow for investments and entreprises. Otherwise the place is dead and gone forever. Cheers

OMEN

I was just being very kind in suggesting Kissinger’s statement that Assad should remain in power could be down to him being 90 years old.

Otherwise we might think it could be because he is an egotistical, self-informed, tyrant approver who does not have a high opinion of Arabs. That’s what I thought about him years ago.

He’s been wheeled out again because of his past expertise and connections on Russia. And maybe they are right, Putin is a throwback to the crudest thinking of the cold war era.

Tara
I respect your opinion but I disagree with you.
It was over a year ago when I said that this war can not have winners, only tired and poor losers, and that is still true today.
Three reasons for this:
The war is a regional war
The rebels failed to win the support they need
The Islamists scared away many potential allies
However, I agree that Bashar needs to step down.

Just so you may know, we rely on very well informed and highly reliable sources who work very hard, behind the scenes and around the clock in order to keep you informed with news before it becomes news. Our knowledgeable benefactors made this heads up available to us for release.

Again, Hussain Abdu Al-Hussain hits the jackpot by accurately dissecting the curent US Presidency. This is an absolutely must-read for proper undstanding of America under Obama.

”
President Reluctant

Hussain Abdu Al-Hussain

In 2008, TransCanada applied for a permit to build a 1200-mile pipeline to carry Canadian oil to the Gulf of Mexico. Despite overwhelming popular support for this measure in the US, President Barack Obama repeatedly ordered a review of the project, and has yet to decide on it. He has not said yes, but he has not said no either. This made the Canadian company announce that the pipeline would now extend from Canada’s west to its east. Obama can take his time deciding, but life goes on, with or without him.

On Syria, Obama consulted with his generals who said a strike was not urgent. He also consulted with his top aides – three of whom are Senate veterans – who warned him that handing over powers of war to a divided Congress would undermine America’s ability to act. Obama listened only to those who agreed with him, and just when Congress was about to defeat his proposal, Russia threw Obama a lifeline agreement, which put the US president and his foreign policy under the mercy of Moscow.

On Afghanistan, Obama was torn between endorsing a surge of troops, recommended by his generals, and his view of a diminished American role around the world. He split the difference and sent half the number of soldiers required.

And if you watched Zero Dark Thirty, a film whose release was timed to remind Americans of Obama’s single foreign policy achievement shortly before the 2012 election, you might remember that the CIA agent on the case grew frustrated after more than 100 days had passed since having located Osama Bin Laden’s hideout. Obama simply couldn’t get himself to order that operation, and maybe got lucky that the world’s top terrorist remained unaware that Washington had found him.

Welcome to the world of Barack Obama, where decisions are nuanced, incremental, ambiguous, contradictory, reluctant, late, and useless.
And while the absence of resolve can pass domestically for usual beltway politics, it is extremely hurtful to America’s standing and interests overseas, something that Obama seems unable to understand.

Obama is honest and charming. He is a self-made lawyer and a charismatic politician. He is a family man with no distracting sideshows like mistresses or sexting. But Obama is clearly no leader.

Obama is not America’s first charmer to fail as president. Before him, Jimmy Carter had captured the hearts of Americans. In 1976, the public waved posters of his smile, which many considered reassuring.

Like Carter, Obama’s charm proved useless inside the Oval Office. Both presidents are known for ignoring advice and for micro-management. Both believed tyrants act in good faith.

Pride of his “success” in Syria made Obama unveil an exchange of letters with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Rumors suggest the two might meet at the UN General Assembly in New York next week.

But before boasting about another “breakthrough” with Iran, Obama might want to revisit Carter, who went out of his way to entertain Iran’s Ruhollah Khomeini, and made his National Security Advisor Zbig Brezinsky meet Iranian Prime Minister Mahdi Bazarkan in Algeria in 1979. Only when Carter believed that he had his diplomatic breakthrough, Khomeini’s thugs invaded the US Embassy in Tehran and took its staff as hostages.

In retrospect, we know that Khomeini feared that rivals, like the Communists, might outbid his anti-American populism. He also thought Washington was propping Bazarkan at his expense. Therefore, he ordered the invasion of the embassy. Bazarkan resigned.

Similarly, Iran’s top ruler today, Ali Khaminei, might not be able to strike a deal with the US for fears that he might be outflanked on the right. He might let Rouhani try his hand. If Rouhani succeeds, he will throw him to the anti-American crowd. If Rouhani fails, Khaminei will use him as a scapegoat to justify Iran’s diplomatic and economic failures.

Carter left the White House from the backdoor, and he remains an outcast today, not because he was a one-termer, but because he projected weakness. He wanted to lead by example by turning down the heat at the White House, to conserve energy, and wore a cardigan when addressing Americans on TV. What Americans saw, however, was a president who looked like an ailing grandparent, and thus replaced him with someone who could project power and confidence.

Obama has been obsessed with his legacy. He presumably listened to popular opinion on Syria, but not on the XL Pipeline. He authorized military intervention in Libya without Congress, but not in Syria. He failed to court Congress to pass laws on guns, immigration, and jobs. He became a liability to his own party and did not stand by his own candidates Susan Rice and Larry Summers to become Secretary of State and Fed Chairman.

Obama might call it style, but it is clearly reluctance, weakness, and ultimately failure. So far, this is his legacy.”

Here is Rouhani asking to have friendly ties with KSA. This is from Mayadeen the pro Iranian station in Lebanon

http://www.almayadeen.net/ar/news/iran-eUfRR4K_MUWxbKI,AOGoRA/روحاني-رغبة-مشتركة-مع-الملك-السعودي-بإزالة-الخلافات

Well well, it seems also that they freed political prisoners in advance of the UN General Assembly

Well well, it seems that the new Iranian President is now putting the interests of the country ahead of the Revolutionary Zealots’ and is doing his utmost to break the grip of the sanctions on his people.

Inspectors are coming to Iran, the program will remain peaceful and verifiable, the sanctions will be lifted, the US and Iran have a common interest in preventing Thouria from becoming a heaven for Sunni extremists. For that to happen, the iPad retard is going to be shipped out in a crate to Western Iran. His henchmen will be rounded up and join Saif Ghaddafi in Zintan prison. His sectarian based rule will be finished. McCain’s op-ed hit a nerve, Putin is no longer wedded to the tyrant of Damascus. Distancing is started. Kadri Jamil is now admitting that the regime cannot crush the revolution. He is trying to save his skin. Smart man, the first of the rats to start preparing the exit.

If Kadri Jamil remains in his post, then there may be some hope. If as I fear he is going to go to prison or dismissed it means that the hardliners are still pushing for full war.

It seems to me that the Iranian have concluded that bleeding further in Thouria and having the entire Sunni muslim world railing agains their support is not worth the price.

I wonder how bad the end of the iPad retard is going to be.

I imagine”pleathe do not touch me, I am the Prethident for life in Thouria”

He hehhehehe

Ghufran, I do not put any hope on the rebels even excluding those hardline Jihadists.

This war is sectarian and in the same time, it is a class war as well.

The best example would be Aleppo. Fighters from the poor countryside of Aleppo swamped the ranks of the rebels and their “liberation” of Aleppo was full of punishment to the city dwellers who were claimed to fail the revolution.

In reality, the driven force is economic disparity. Given opportunity to any economy marginalized class, they will start or join in unrest and call it a revolution in the name of justice. US would not be immune to this path only at this moment the state has powerful institutes to “maintain” order.

If we are convinced to believe those rebels could bring anything progressive to Syria, then we are just doped.

In any case, the regime will not accept any precondition from the opposition if there will be Geneva II. Majority of Syrians would not buy that either unless they see there is an acceptable alternative.

Here as Tara has posted but now by RT

http://rt.com/news/syria-civil-war-stalemate-100/

Stalemate indeed now that the regime cannot use CW.

People have been without bread for three months in the suburbs of Damascus and the rebellion has not stopped. If the iPad retard does not understand this he is either delusional or the most thtoupid person on earth.

Time to ask APPLE_MINI the question:

Do you deny that there are civilized Syrians that oppose Assad?

(with thanks to SAMI)

Secondary question:

Is there any person left in Syria – including yourself – who seriously believes it has any future as a country while Assad remains?

117. Hussain Abdu Al-Hussain: On Syria, Obama consulted with his generals who said a strike was not urgent. He also consulted with his top aides…who warned him that handing over powers of war to a divided Congress would undermine America’s ability to act.

this sets up the argument of whether or not potus is enabled to act outside of unsc rulings and even absent congressional approval:

Ivo Daalder, who was U.S. ambassador to NATO during the 2011 military intervention in Libya, says the United States should conduct military strikes against Syria, even if it can’t get the backing of the United Nations. He argues that Syrian President Bashar Assad would interpret inaction as an invitation to use chemical weapons in the future. He also says that despite asking for congressional approval for military action, this is ultimately President Obama’s call.

by what principle would obama be empowered to do this?

To what extent does the West have a ‘right’ to intervene in Syria? For pro-intervention European politicians and commentators, the key to justifying action in Syria is the ‘responsibility to protect’ (commonly referred to as the R2P) doctrine. This, it is argued, has substantively changed international law meaning that intervention on humanitarian grounds, even without United Nations Security Council authorisation, would not be illegal. Downing Street, for example, has explicitly stated that intervention would be legally based upon humanitarian grounds. Neither US secretary of state John Kerry nor President Barack Obama has appealed to the R2P specifically. But in a recent report, Madeleine Albright and Richard Williamson urged the US government to invoke it.

HEADS-UP and co. I think attempted analysis of Barack Obama’s character and motives is nowhere near as useful or relevant as taking a closer look at Bashar Assad (or Putin for that matter).

Here’s something packed with interesting information and insights that cuts through the myths about the “mild young doctor who studied in the west”

Read this radio program transcript and you’ll have a firmer grip on what the world is trying to deal with:

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/the-reluctant-president–bashar-al-assad/4915278#transcript

114. Observer: ZOO admits he is a regime insider. Very well.

wait, what? he did? where?

MOSCOW — As a top Russian official met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared that Moscow will not try to persuade Assad to step aside.
Russia “has no experience in this kind of ‘political engineering,’” Lavrov told participants in a high-level forum in the resort town of Valdai, northwest of Moscow, according to a social media post by Gleb Pavlovsky, a former top Kremlin aide who was in attendance.

http://www.alquds.co.uk/?p=85819

واشنطن وطهران: مصارعة في سورية وتانغو في إسرائيل؟
صبحي حديدي
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
“غير أنّ الضوء الأخضر الأشدّ سطوعاً، على طريق ابتداء حوار أمريكي ـ إيراني، جاءً من آية الله علي خامنئي، المرشد الأعلى للثورة الإيرانية، في لقاء ـ غنيّ الدلالات، كما يتوجب التشديد ـ مع قادة ‘الحرس الثوري’؛ قال فيه التالي، حول التفاوض: ‘لا أعارض الدبلوماسية المرنة، شريطة ان تكون شجاعة’، و’أؤيد إظهار تسامح الأبطال’، إذْ ‘قد يتساهل المصارع لأسباب تكتيكية، ولكنه يجب أن يتذكر مَنْ خصمه وعدوّه’؛ ثمّ قال التالي، الذي لا يقلّ أهمية، حول وظائف المنصتين إليه: ‘الحرس الثوري، ومن أجل الحفاظ على الثورة، ينبغي أن يمتلك بالتأكيد معرفة كافية وشاملة عن التطورات والتيارات في مختلف الساحات’، ولكن ‘ليس من الضروري أن يمارس الحرس الثوري أنشطة سياسية’، لأنّ ‘العيش حياة ثورية، والديمومة الثورية والثبات من المظاهر الجميلة للحرس الثوري”

“الأرجح، إذاً، أنّ تقاسم المهامّ بين المصارع الإيراني ومواطنه راقص التانغو سوف يفضي إلى طراز من الازدواج والتضارب والتناقض، وليس إلى أيّ حدّ أدنى من التناغم والانسجام والتكامل؛ الأمر الذي يراقبه، بأناة وخبث وترصّد، أناس من أمثال بنيامين نتنياهو، رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي، وينجرّ إلى حلباته البيت الأبيض أسوة بالكرملين، كلٌّ من حيث تقديره لحصيلة الربح والخسارة؛ ويتساقط ضحيته، باضطراد وثبات، خاسرون طغاة من أمثال بشار الأسد، وخاسرون أتباع على شاكلة حسن نصر الله. والأيام القادمة، القليلة، كفيلة بتبيان الحدود القصوى للفارق بين ‘التسامح البطولي’ في المصارعة، و’الحركات الفنّية’ في التانغو!
“

….

Things may not be going very well in Ghoutah. A letter from rebel groups is being circulated on the net that effectively ask every man 18 to 30 to join the rebels or else:
أعلنت قيادة هذه التنظيمات في بيان لها عن رفع النفير العام في صفوفها، واستدعاء الشباب الذين تتراواح مواليدهم بين “1994 و1983” للجهاد في صفوفها قسراً بمهلة لاتتجاوز الـ24 ساعة، وإلّا ستقوم عناصر هذه التنظيمات بتجنيدهم “بالقوة”، كما نوّه البيان إلى ضرورة زيادة تعداد عناصرميليشياتهم “بالإشارة للنقص الحاد الذي تعاني منه هذه التنظيمات بين عناصرها”، كي لاتترك أي ثغرة ممكن أن تباغت منها قوات الجيش السوري مراكز تجمعهم أو انتشارهم في مناطق الغوطة، وقد اختتمت قيادة هذه التنظيمات بجملة تهديد “وقد أعذر من أنذر”
7 brigades are pushing for a draft:
وقّعت على هذا البيان عدّة كتائب وألوية عاملة في منطقة الغوطة الشرقية وهي “اللجنة الشرعية في لواء الإسلام وقوات المغاوير[لواء سعد بن عبادة الخزرجي] واللجنة الشرعية في المليحة وكتائب شهداء الهدى ولواء الإسلام [كتيبة عبدالله بن عباس] وكتيبة شهداء بردى وكتيبة مغاوير الغوطة وكتائب الشهيد حسن البدوي
I thought there was a shortage of weapons not men among rebels.
A copy of the letter was published on a regime-friendly site (arabi press) which will prompt some to claim it is a forgery, however, this piece of news may be more than regime propaganda, the news from reef dimashq are not encouraging for rebels supporters who have been talking about taking Damascus since July,2012.

Christian Hostel has Own View of Syria Rebels

As social media abound with horror stories of jihadists murdering minorities in Syria, a group of elderly Christians in Aleppo and the rebels who care for them portray a different reality.

They object to attempts, including by President Bashar Assad, to portray everyone fighting to overthrow the regime as jihadists seeking to eradicate anyone who is not an ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim.

Once Syria’s commercial capital, the northern city of Aleppo is said to have had a Christian community of 20-30 percent, well over double the nationwide figure.

Today, only a small number remains, as people have fled the brutal fighting which has engulfed the city for more than a year.

Six of them live in Mar Elias House, a church hostel for the indigent in the Old City that was founded in 1863, exposed daily to the sounds of fighting only meters away as government forces seek to dislodge rebels who control the area.

Theirs are memories of a time in Syria when Christians and Muslims lived peacefully side by side, and they refuse to believe they are doomed to fall victim to sectarian violence.

The rebels protecting them, devout Muslims to the man, feel the same way.

“A lot of people hear news about how the Islamists are all from al-Qaida and are pursuing Christians or Alawites,” an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad belongs, said one hostel resident, Georgette Juri, aged 71.

Not so, she protests.

The hostel is under the protection of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) and a brigade of Islamist fighters, Liwa al-Tawid.

Michael Oberi, another resident, said: “Every morning the men of (Tawid commander) Abu Ammar bring us bags of bread, and every fortnight they bring us flour, salt, rice and pasta.

“Thanks to them, we can move freely around the Old City without fear of radical Islamists, who have a strong presence in this part of Aleppo.”

Juri is even more to the point.

“Abu Ammar and his men… watch over us. If they are the ones who kill Christians, why would they protect us?”

A few blocks away from Mar Elias, named after the Hebrew Prophet Elijah who is highly revered in Aleppo, is a Liwa al-Tawid command post.

There, Abu Ammar said: “Christians are not our enemies. The Prophet (Mohammed) respected Christians, and so do we. We did so before the war, and we will afterwards.”

Indeed, he says that when the brigade seized the Old City, Liwa al-Tawid chief Haji Mara ordered his men to protect Mar Elias House.

“He knew it from before, because he lived in this part of the city, and he wanted us to treat them as if they were our own family.”

Seij Abu Mohammed is a Sunni cleric who acts as a sort of a chaplain to the fighters.

He says any fear among the Christians is the fault of the regime, which many blame for exaggerating stories of atrocities against them to undermine support for the uprising.

“We would never do anything to a Christian. We are all brothers,” Abu Mohammed said.
…
While acknowledging that there are jihadist militias who have murdered Christians, he expressed frustration with what he feels are misconceptions in the West.

“They think that just because we have long beards and pray we are all religious fanatics. They should learn that Islam preaches peace and respect.”

Looking to the future, the residents of Mar Elias House are steadfast but wary.

Had Assad stepped down in 2011 and left Syria alone, I believe Syrians would have taken the same path Egyptians did: elected a MB-dominated government, then revolted against it a year later. I know it is difficult to predict what will happen next in Egypt, but Egypt is 1000 times better than Syria today. Syria is a divided country in ruins with over over 100k dead, a million injured, and millions in exile.

Anyone who says that Assad had to stay at the helm to keep Syria a secular country, has only to look next door to Egypt and compare the alternative.

Here is his post Omen.
“Observer

I guess my posts are enraging you and I am really glad they do.
Your impotence in convincing anyone on the blog of your own agenda is a proof of your failure.

All you have been repeating for the last two years is that Syria should be divided by sects.
That is clearly your agenda and that is Netanyhahu’s agenda too.

If I am a Syrian governement insider, you are an Israeli governement insider.”

he of course qualifies it as “if” but you and I know that he is a regime insider.

As for enraging me he is delusional. I actually get my sources from the regime side first and foremost and I read the pro regime sites as well first and I read the comments of the pro regime people as well. It is truly a very nice glimpse into the mind set.

As for insider, his assertions are straight from the “ass’s” mouth so to speak. The argument are paste and copy from SANA.

I miss Rev and ANN terribly. Ali too. They were invaluable.

This is from Juan Cole’s blog, as a former Bahai he is keenly aware of the happenings in Iran and follows that country closely.

There goes the “rethithtanthe” axis as Rohani is clearly in a charm offensive with non other than the Zionist entity

http://www.juancole.com/2013/09/37620.html

Here is more reading of the charm offensive that the axis of resistance is conducting with the Americano-Zionist-Takfiri trio

http://www.juancole.com/2013/09/37620.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/world/middleeast/iran-said-to-seek-a-nuclear-accord-to-end-sanctions.html?hp&_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/us/politics/on-mideast-heads-spin-over-shift-in-diplomacy.html?hp&gwh=FA2B41CB85185519ACDFED7A1656BC24

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/world/middleeast/kerry-challenges-security-council-to-take-syria-action.html?gwh=0981DF3B20DF8381D6D8DC13A9A5EB0B

Observer, your naivety is pathetic

Do you seriously believe that Israel is stupid enough to announce publicly that they want to break the whole middle east in sectarian entities?

“Now, I challenge ZOO to show one declaration of any Israeli leader that they wish the break up of any country around them except perhaps for Jordan.”

Will the deal announced between Al Qaeda and the FSA hold in Azaz after the SNC, under strong Western pressure, publicly condemned ISIS for the first time ever?

It is clear that ISIS-Al Qaeda strategy is to join the FSA in ‘liberating’ areas by pushing away the SAA, then try to take full control of the areas by eliminating the FSA fighers. The FSA and ISIS have a totally different agenda and sooner or later they will clash. How the Azaz situation will be solved is an indication of the future of the ISIS-FSA relation.

Syrian opposition slams al-Qaida-linked militants
September 20, 2013

http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/378254/Syrian-opposition-slams-al-Qaida-linked-militants.html?isap=1&nav=5030

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s main Western-backed opposition group has slammed al-Qaida-linked gunmen and their expanding influence in the country, saying the jihadis seek to establish an Islamic state in Syria.

A statement on Friday from the Syrian National Coalition follows days of vicious infighting in which the extremists seized control of the northern town of Azaz from mainstream opposition fighters.

The SNC says the actions of the al-Qaida-linked fighters “counter the principals that the Syrian revolution is trying to achieve.”

The group also warns that the Islamic fighters are “strengthening their positions” in opposition-controlled areas.

The infighting threatens to further split opposition forces outgunned by President Bashar Assad’s troops and strengthen his hand as he engages with world powers on relinquishing his chemical weapons

Hundreds of Syria rebels pledge loyalty to Qaeda groups -activists
Source: Reuters – Fri, 20 Sep 2013 12:08 PM

By Erika Solomon
http://www.trust.org/item/20130920120010-8m0yh/?source=search

BEIRUT, Sept 20 (Reuters) – Hundreds of rebels have pledged allegiance to al Qaeda-affiliated forces in northern and eastern Syria, activists and Islamist sources said on Friday, strengthening the group’s control in the region.

Not only individual fighters, but entire units have joined the small but powerful al Qaeda-linked groups – the Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) – in recent days, according to the sources inside Syria.

“This is a sign the radical groups are still growing in power. This region could fall to the jihadists,” said an activist in the eastern town of Raqqa, who asked not to be identified. “We may see this become a trend.”

While 64 countries worldwide calls for referral of Syria to the ICC, 7 countries out of the 11 “Friends of Syria” do not call for it: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, UAE, Egypt, USA

http://www2.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/campaigns/syria-icc-international-criminal-court

The most recent meetings have been represented by 11 core states: Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States. Out of these, only four “friends” of Syria support an ICC referral out of the 11.

“The Guardian statement should be completely disregarded.”

Syria’s deputy PM denies call for cease-fire
September 20, 2013 02:57 PM

BEIRUT: Syrian Deputy Prime Minister and leader of Syria’s so called “internal opposition” Qadri Jamil has denied he told The Guardian newspaper the Syrian government will call for ceasefire in the country.

Jamil told The Daily Star the report was “inaccurate” and that he was speaking in a personal capacity and on behalf of his party, and his comments should not have been presented as speaking on behalf of the government.

“I was speaking in a political and partisan capacity,” he told The Daily Star via telephone from Damascus.

He said while he believed that “violence in general should stop,” he did not specifically call for a cease-fire at anticipated Geneva II talks.

“I was talking about stopping the violence in general. The Guardian statement should be completely disregarded.”

On Jamil’s reported comments that the war was at a stalemate and that “neither the armed opposition nor the regime is capable of defeating the other side,” Jamil clarified that while he believed it was “impossible” for either side to win militarily, he put this down to foreign intervention.

“There should be an end to foreign intervention to stop the violence. As long as there are weapons flowing in to Syria, there is no hope of a cease-fire, ” he told The Daily Star.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Sep-20/231979-syrias-deputy-pm-denies-call-for-cease-fire.ashx#ixzz2fRBB42DR
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

The Syrian “revolution”: Sex, lies, videos and death

Tunisian women waging ‘sex jihad’ in Syria

Media reports say hundreds have gone to have sex with multiple jihadists
Published: 16:31 September 20, 2013

http://gulfnews.com/news/region/syria/tunisian-women-waging-sex-jihad-in-syria-1.1233374

Tunis: Tunisian women have travelled to Syria to wage “sex jihad” by comforting Islamist fighters battling the regime there, Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou has told MPs.

“They have sexual relations with 20, 30, 100 militants, the minister told members of the National Constituent Assembly on Thursday.

“After the sexual liaisons they have there in the name of ‘Jihad Al Nikah’ – (sexual holy war, in Arabic) – they come home pregnant,” Ben Jeddou told the MPs.

He did not elaborate on how many Tunisian women had returned to the country pregnant with the children of jihadist fighters.

Jihad Al Nikah, permitting extramarital sexual relations with multiple partners, is considered by some hardline Sunni Muslim Salafists as a legitimate form of holy war.

The minister also did not say how many Tunisian women were thought to have gone to Syria for such a purpose, although media reports have said hundreds have done so.

Liwa al Tawhid, part of the “Syrian Islamic Liberation Font” has been called to negotiate a truce with ISIS-Al Qaeda in Azaz.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/82046/World/Region/Qaedalinked-fighters-tighten-grip-on-Syria-border-.aspx

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that rebel fighters from Liwa al-Tawhid, one of Aleppo province’s most powerful groups and allied to the FSA, had arrived in the area.

A Liwa al-Tawhid spokesman told AFP via Skype the group “will work to try and calm the situation… We are doing our best to solve the differences and to find a solution that satisfies everyone”.

Who is Liwa al-Tawhid?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Tawhid_Brigade

Liwa al-Tawhid, or the al-Tawhid Brigade (Arabic: كتائب التوحيد‎, English: Unity Brigade) is a unit of the Syrian Islamic Liberation Front which was involved in the Battle of Aleppo.[7] The brigade was formed in order to coordinate the battle for Aleppo and was originally composed of three subunits: the Fursan al-Jabal Brigade, the Daret Izza Brigade and the Ahrar al-Shamal Brigade.[

8] According to Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, the brigade had ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.[3]

Syria’s new game
http://www.zcommunications.org/syria-s-new-game-by-ramzy-baroud.html

…
Israel has killed too many Arabs to worry about the death of some more, and the brutality of the Syrian government or its opposition has never been a concern to Israel and its lobby.

For them, another American war is yet another opportunity to knock down an old adversary, engender further chaos and bask in the glory of being ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’ among a sea of tumultuous, unruly neighbors.
However, lack of appetite for intervention has thwarted the plan for now, leaving the US and Israel searching for new options to maintain their relevance in a region of quickly shifting balances.

The anger directed at Putin’s article has a lot less to do with Putin’s own legacy as a leader, and much more to do with the frustration that new players in the Middle East are now successfully involved in a ‘game’ that has for decades been dominated by if not reserved for western powers and their allies.

It seems that the first deadline has been met

OPCW says it has received chemical weapons inventory from Syria; does not release details
By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, September 20, 9:39 AM

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says it has received an “initial declaration” from Syria outlining its weapons program.

Spokesman Michael Luhan told The Associated Press on Friday that the declaration is “being reviewed by our verification division.”

Observer

You said about me:

“As for insider, his assertions are straight from the “ass’s” mouth so to speak.”

Becoming vulgar from someone who always tried to show self-control, is a sign of intellectual impotence.

Freedom of speech in Turkey for artists?

Turkish pianist Fazıl Say sentenced to 10 months in prison for blasphemy in retrial

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-pianist-fazil-say-sentenced-to-10-months-in-prison-for-blasphemy-in-retrial.aspx?pageID=238&nID=54824&NewsCatID=341

…
The 19th Istanbul Peace Court sentenced Say to 10 months in prison but since Say has no criminal record, the court suspended the sentence and ordered supervised liberty.
…
Say was convicted after tweeting the following lines: “You say its rivers will flow in wine. Is the Garden of Eden a drinking house? You say you will give two houris to each Muslim. Is the Garden of Eden a whorehouse?”
( attributed to Omar Khayyam)

Activist: ISIS wants to take over the whole countryside north of Aleppo

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/al-qaeda-group-and-fsa-declare-truce-as-turkey-keeps-syria-border-gate-closed.aspx?PageID=238&NID=54744&NewsCatID=338

“By taking Azaz, the Islamic State is a step closer to controlling the crossing. Its objective seems to be taking over the whole countryside north of Aleppo,” activist Abu Louay al-Halabi said. Another activist, Abdallah Tareq, said the violence had undermined efforts to capitalize on the relative weakness of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the north of the country.

“Every rebel group is suspicious of each other and the regime has been good at exploiting this. Not only we have been seeing fighting between the Free Syrian army and al-Qaeda, but also among the Free Syrian Army itself and jihadists against jihadists,” he said.

@117 Heads up

Thanks for posting the source of your post

President Reluctant

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentaryanalysis/president-reluctant

Tunisia: $ 6 billion invested in Qatari projects

http://www.africanmanager.com/site_eng/detail_article.php?art_id=18660

The President of the Tunisian businessmen Council in Qatar announced that the value of Qatari projects to be signed during the visit of the Crown Prince of Qatar in Tunisia exceeds $ 6 billion.

Better late than never! Good step.

http://www.etilaf.org/en/press/the-islamic-state-of-iraq-and-the-levant-group-are-not-in-line-with-the-syrian-revolution.html

In 2014 Syria and Turkey will elect a new president.

The direct presidential election in syria: May 2014

“On August 2011 President Assad signed Decree No. 101 on amending the General Elections Law. The Law stipulates that elections are to be held with public, secret, direct and equal voting where each Syrian voter, who completed eighteen years old, has one vote.

The Law does not allow army members and policemen in service to participate in elections.

The presidential election in Turkey will be direct for the first time: June 2014

The presidential elections campaign will be held in an “American manner”, where candidates can accept personal donations for their campaigns, however one person cannot donate more than 8.259 TL (~$4.500 USD) for a campaign.[1]

Only people with criminal records cannot vote

While the SNC in Turkey has declared war against ISIS, we are still waiting to see what Selim Idriss, the chief of the FSA has to say after he openly supported Al Nusra

The FSA despises the SNC. Therefore the SNC’s declaration is meaningless for the forces on the ground,

The only way the SNC could get some legitimacy in the eyes if the FSA is if they can get the West to send weapons. Until now they have failed.

Their declaration is only for the comsumption of the West in order to reassure the West that the ‘rebels’ will not pass the weapons they requested from the West to Al Qaeda.
Yet, they may alienate further the fighters of FSA whose ‘victories’ are ISIS’s

zoo,
do you realize that 16 out of the last 17 comments on this forum have been posted by you ?

Can all you people, like Tara and the rest of the jihadi fan club, stop calling it a revolution!!! It’s not a dam revolution….. It was imported from the outside, from the beginning there were no grassroots protesters. Most were paid to protest!!! Some didn’t even know they were protesting anti govt. Every single Arab country that had some form of protest, was planned, funded, and executed by the most terror backed country on the planet……..KSA, Israel, USA, turkey. Ect. Ect. Ect. It just behooves me to think that there are people on this site who actually cheer on the Islamist murdering jihadist! Don’t like Bashar!!! We don’t want people like you Tara to like him. BUT!!!!! How can you admire or even waste your breath to defend these dogs of war!? You can claim all you want , that this was a peaceful revolution, there are articles out there that reported massive gun running from Lebanon , turkey, and Iraq starting back in 2009! It was one of the biggest smuggling operations dating back to the Lebanon civil war. Al queda has been involved since day one, so stop saying that pres Assad , (like quadfafi) were using that as an excuse. The whole world now knows, that west will never commit troops to battle ever again, instead, they use the al queda clowns, terror mercs, and Saudi criminals furloughed from jail to cause death and destruction of our great country of Syria. Hear these words……they will reap what the sow!!! You think for one second that they will not hesitate to turn their guns on their handlers?!! Soon enough, they will be hitting KSA, Jordan, turkey. Guess what??? I may turn into you Tara!! I’ll start cheering for the Islamist then!!!

https://twitter.com/mannoush/status/380805499500773377/photo/1

#152 Sam

“there are articles out there that reported massive gun running from Lebanon , turkey, and Iraq starting back in 2009”

There are also articles out there on the Internet about aliens visiting earth. Check it out:

http://www.openminds.tv/aliens-are-visiting-earth-according-to-former-canadian-minister-of-defence-1040/

As predicted Qadri Jamil retracts his statement. After shoe shining the iPad retard’s shoes he got the message that he went too far. The balloon if indeed it was a balloon was short lived.

This means that the hardliners are going full tilt to continue the offensive.

The regime insider continues to flail right and left about Turkey, Erdogan, Qatar and Tunisia. The Tunisian women who returned from Syria and the arrival of 400 Russians to fight with the rebels and yes we will hear about the ISIS executing officers and yes there will be a video of the attack on this or that town.

In the meantime, we have more checkpoints destroyed, and of course more areal bombing and long distance shelling.

Jamil did not deny that the economy lost 100 billion dollars in two years. He did not say that the dollar pound exchange is at 300 and he did not utter any word about the complete lack of gas in many parts of Syria. He did not say anything about the 7 million refugees and displaced.

Well well, a final definition. An Ass is a product of a horse and a donkey an appellation well deserved by none other than the leader for eternity.

I still insist that these peoples cannot and do not want to live together. All they have is hatred of the other and it is increasing by the day.

The next phase is a 30 or 50 year confessional war that will destroy Sykes Picot forever and will redraw the maps and displace the people and create purely sectarian based entities.

In the long run, the people will look at this medieval period the way the Europeans look on theirs and if smart enough learn from it.

I love it. Rohani is going to mediate now. Let him put his money where his mouth is unless the mouth is that of an A……….. Oops some sensibility need to be considered for the regime insider. He cannot watch videos of reality in Reef Dimashq or else his appetite may be suppressed.

Final question: how come Muallem keeps gaining weight? Does he ever work? Or is he eating all the food to starve Barzeh?

He He He He He

Break it up it is no use.

Oh I forgot: who wants to stay part of Syria once the regime falls and the Sunni majority has a say in the affairs of state ?

152. racist white man sam, syrians are free and have a right to call their own revolution by its proper name: a revolution. who the f are you to say otherwise?

there are articles out there

there are articles that insist saddam engineered 9/11 and represented an imminent threat (mushroom cloud, smoking gun) with his wmd stockpile. did you fall for those too?

guess whose fault it is extremists are running around:

mouna: Syrian people demanded International community to intervene to stop Assad’s crimes & to prevent AlQaeda from entering Syria for years!

not to mention the fact assad released alqaeda militants from prison.

That is what Bashar Al Assad was mostly worried about in his interview: the Islamist ideological brainwashing.
It seem it is going on in full scale with the help of the Wahabbis

Al Qaeda lures Syrian children into its new schools

http://observers.france24.com/content/20130920-al-qaeda-syrian-children-schools
Despite the war in Syria, some schools in rebel-held areas have managed to open their doors for the new academic year. Some of these schools are run by jihadist groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an organisation allied with Al Qaeda.

In Aleppo, Ar-Raqqah, around Latakia and even in the suburbs of Damascus, jihadist-run schools are working hard to enrol Syrian students. Following two and a half years of conflict in Syria, public schools in these areas have been completely destroyed.

According to UNICEF, nearly 40% of all students between the ages of 1 and 9 — roughly two million children — were forced to drop out of the Syrian school system last year because of the war.

An advertisement for Koranic schools run by the Ahrar al-Sham jihadist group in the Hama region. Video uploaded on September 16.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5maM_3pagL0&feature=player_embedded

“Syrians are totally destitute, so they take help wherever they can get it”
Mohammad is the leader of a jihadist brigade close to the Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (both of which are linked to Al Qaeda) in northwestern Syria.

The people running these schools are very dedicated and have significant financial resources. They don’t force children to attend or parents to send their children. But they know very well how to cater to their needs by helping out with meals, providing toys, etc… Some parents were scared at first, but after more than two years of war, most Syrians are completely destitute and so take help wherever they can get it. In my region, jihadists opened a school in Aïn el-Baïda, near Latakia, just over a month ago. It’s a sort of pilot school.

Promotional video for “Madrasathak al-Oukhoua” (“School of the Right to Fraternity”), “a boarding school that can host 50 children six days out of seven”. At the end of the video, you can see Abou al-Walid “the Chechen”, a well-known jihadist who participated in the latest operations of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Latakia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMFX2EsyCKs&feature=player_embedded

Classes mainly focus on teaching the Koran and Arabic, so that the children learn how to read and correctly pronounce words in the holy book. The students are also taught the basics of other disciplines such as mathematics and geography.

The “Islamic State” is careful that philosophical or ideological questions related to political Islam, such as Salafism, are not discussed at the school. They don’t want to scare people away, as they are trying to attract as many students as possible.

Instructors are residents of the village or the surrounding area, often unemployed Arabic professors. They receive nominal salaries of between 200 to 250 US dollars per mont

151. ghufran

So what? If you have a problem with that, please alert the moderator.

#157 Zoo

If Assad really worried about that, he should have sent the army on day one to the borders to prevent jihadis from coming in, instead of sending it to the cities to shoot at demonstrators and arrest Syrans in their homes.

Better yet, he should have stepped down, as Mubarak did, to keep the army intact and strong. That would have stopped the jihadis from daring to come in the country.

He is at worst a criminal who does not care about his people, and at best an incompetent failure whose decisions have destroyed the country, killed thousands, and turned millions into refugees.

A recording of Qadri jamil’s cease fire statement is available on the Guardian web site, however, he says that outside interference needs to stop first.

132. Observer said: This is from Juan Cole’s blog, as a former Bahai he is keenly aware of the happenings in Iran and follows that country closely.

There goes the “rethithtanthe” axis as Rohani is clearly in a charm offensive with non other than the Zionist entity.

i was wondering about this. with obvious rapprochement coming down the pipeline, why is israel being so quiet? where are the howls of protests? they’re immune to being charmed. israel must have signed off on the effort.

Omen,

Near as I can tell, the Israelis don’t see any “obvious rapprochement” from Iran, just more attempts to buy time.

Does the oppostion feel Iran has given up on Athad?

Another chechnyan jihadi terrorist killed by our heroic soldiers:

https://ar-ar.facebook.com/pages/الحرية-للطبيب-محمد-أسامة-البارودي/246009345482932

#161 Omen

“i was wondering about this. with obvious rapprochement coming down the pipeline, why is israel being so quiet? where are the howls of protests? they’re immune to being charmed. israel must have signed off on the effort.”

They are not quiet. Netanyahu is making noises. I hope Akbar does not like that dickhead!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/world/middleeast/prime-minister-netanyahu-on-iranian-president-rouhani.html

i hope the recently banned are reading this:

Statement By Dale Gavlak On The Mint Press Article

One article that has become a regular feature in the debate on who was responsible for the August 21st sarin attack in Damascus is “Syrians In Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack”, published on the Mint Press website, with Dale Gavlak and Yahya Ababneh on the byline.

Dale Gavlak has now sent me the following statement about the article.

Mint Press News incorrectly used my byline for an article it published on August 29, 2013 alleging chemical weapons usage by Syrian rebels. Despite my repeated requests, made directly and through legal counsel, they have not been willing to issue a retraction stating that I was not the author. Yahya Ababneh is the sole reporter and author of the Mint Press News piece. To date, Mint Press News has refused to act professionally or honestly in regards to disclosing the actual authorship and sources for this story.

I did not travel to Syria, have any discussions with Syrian rebels, or do any other reporting on which the article is based. The article is not based on my personal observations and should not be given credence based on my journalistic reputation. Also, it is false and misleading to attribute comments made in the story as if they were my own statements.

The lies and deceptions are Absolutely incredible! How low can they get?

http://brown-moses.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/statement-on-russia-todays-use-of-my.html?m=1

Syria’s rebels: Lots of Islamists, but what does that mean?

An attempt at breaking down who Syria’s rebels are, and what they want.

By Dan Murphy, Staff writer / September 20, 2013
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2013/0920/Syria-s-rebels-Lots-of-Islamists-but-what-does-that-mean

Charles Lister, an analyst at IHS Janes Terrorism and Insurgency Center, has been tracking the war in Syria almost since its beginning. I touched on some of his work in this post a few days ago and he was kind enough to email some more details on his estimates about the nature and number of “operationally active” rebel fighters. He emphasizes that they’re estimates and that this is not an exact science.

Jihadists – 10-12,000

Hardline Islamists – 30,000

Ikhwani Islamists – 30-40,000

Genuine moderates – 20-25,000

Kurds – 10,000
….
Jihadis are strong in Syria now. Anyone who says otherwise is ignoring a long string of reporting from inside the conflict. But guaranteeing any future on the basis of that fact is unwise.

You may disagree with Haikal or call him names but he is always worth listening to:
قال الصحفي الكبير محمد حسنين هيكل انه يستبعد ان يرشح الرئيس السوري بشار الاسد نفسه في الانتخابات الرئاسية المقررة العام المقبل.
واعتبر هيكل ان بعض فصائل المعارضة السورية هو من استخدم الاسلحة الكيمياوية مؤخرا مشككا في بعض صور مجزرة الغوطتين، وان الولايات المتحدة تعلم ذلك، ولهذا وافقت على المبادرة الروسية.
واعتبر هيكل، أن “المشكلة في سوريا تكمن في الحديث عن خيارات سيئة أو أسوأ، نختار ما بين الكارثي والمأساوي، وقال “بالنسبة لموضوع الأسلحة الكيماوية، لنتذكر أنه عندما بدأ السباق النووي في الخمسينيات والستينيات، وبدأت محاولات الحد من انتشاره، من أنتجه اكتفى بما عنده، ومن حاول بصعوبة، وجد في الغازات السامة والبيولوجية سلاح الفقراء لردع السلاح النووي، هكذا لا توجد دولة عربية واحدة لم تنتج أسلحة كيماوية أو بيولوجية، كلها لديها مخزون منها، بما فيها مصر”.
وأكد هيكل رداً على سؤال أن “المعارضة السورية مصرة على جلب التدخل الخارجي بأي شكل”، وتطرق الى موضوع الأسلحة الكميائية، فصرّح “قيل إن النظام هو من استعملها، ثم ثبت أن ذلك غير صحيح. هذه المرة تكرر ذات الاتهام، وأنا أشك في ذلك لعدة أسباب”.
وتعجّب هيكل “كيف هناك عرب محبطون، لأن أوباما لم يستجب للضربة”، مشيراً الى أن “”إسرائيل” تريد اكتمال سقوط النظام العربي، دون أن تحارب، فالعرب يقتلون بعضهم، وهي في منتهي السعادة.”
هيكل استبعد توجيه ضربة عسكرية لسوريا “لأن الكل يميل لحل سلمي ينتج عنه نظام قوي، الكل يراهن على أن نهاية فترة رئاسة الرئيس السوري بشار الاسد ستكون عام 2014، وأنه يصعب ترشحه ثانية، وسيخلفه شخص محل توافق”، وتابع “لو جاء 2014 والأزمة مستحكمة، ستلحق سوريا بفلسطين”.
وقال هيكل إن الولايات المتحدة لا تمانع فى حكم إسلامى داخل سوريا، لكنه ليس القاعدة أو جبهة النصرة.
وتابع هيكل، خلال حوار تليفزيونى عبر شاشة “CBC” مع الإعلامية لميس الحديدى: تعاملات الولايات المتحدة مع جماعة الإخوان كانت توحى بأن هؤلاء هم المستقبل.
وأكد إنه بعد ثورة 1952 بدأ الحديث داخل الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية عن تكوين حلف إسلامى داخل تركيا ومصر وباكستان.
وقال هيكل،أنه يشعر بالذنب لعجز مصر عن التدخل فى الأزمة السورية، مؤكداً أن سوريا تحملت الكثيرعن مصر فى حرب أكتوبر فهي أخلصت لمصر لكنها لم تجد رداً للجميل.
وأشار هيكل أنه تعجب من موقف الرئيس المعزول محمد مرسى بقطعة العلاقات بين مصر وسوريا، لافتاً أنه كان على علاقة مع حافظ الأسد قائلاً “ما كان بين الأباء لا يصلح مع الأبناء”
وقال هيكل: “سوريا دولة ضمت جميع الثقافات من أفريقيا وآسيا وأوربا، وأشعر بالذنب لأن مصر لم تتدخل في قضية سوريا التي تحملت الكثير عنها في حرب أكتوبر”.
وأضاف أن مصر لم تكن تستطيع الانتصار في حرب أكتوبر لولا ضغط الجبهة السورية على الجولان وتشتيت قوة الجيش الإسرائيلي.
ولفت إلى أن الشعب السوري بعدما حدث في ثوارات الربيع العربي، أصبح رافضًا أن تدخل سوريا في نفس النفق الذي دخلت فيه دول الربيع.
وأشار هيكل إلى أن المجتمع الدولي ينظر بقلق للمعارضة السورية التي يهيمن عليها الجهاديون، وتنظيم القاعدة، منوها إلى أن تقديرات أعداد المقاتلين تحت لواء المعارضة في سوريا، يتراوح بين 60 و70 ألف شخص من 48 دولة مختلفة.
وأوضح هيكل، أن الإدارة الأمريكية لم تكن راغبة في توجيه ضربة عسكرية لسوريا، مضيفاً: “أخشى أن تكون مبادرة نزع السلاح الكيماوي السوري، مبادرة أمريكية في الأساس”، مستشهدًا بأن المبادرة أعلنت على لسان وزير الخارجية الأمريكي جون كيري.
وتابع: “موقف الإدارة الأمريكية من توجيه ضربة عسكرية لسوريا خيب آمال الدول العربية”، مؤكدًا أن تقارير الأمم المتحدة تجزم بأن هناك أسلحة كيماوية استخدمت، ولكنها لم تستطع أن تحدد جهة الاستخدام.
وقال ان حزب الله سيكون في موقف صعب في حالة ضرب سورية، مشيرا إلى أنه في حالة حدوث أي تغيرات في منطقة الشرق الأوسط فإن هذه التغيرات ستعصف بلبنان، لكنه اعتبر ان الضربة الامريكية اصبحت غير واردة في الوقت الحالي.
وأضاف هيكل أن مستقبل دول الخليج في خطر حقيقي في ظل عمق عربي مدمر، وتراجع القوة الامريكية امام روسيا والصين.’
وأضاف هيكل أن الصين تمارس القوة بمنطق مختلف ولا ترغب في ضياع إيران أو تغيير النظام بداخلها، مشيرا الى ان عوائد النفط الايراني تصب في حساب مصرفي صيني، في اشارة الى ان التحالف قوي بين البلدين.
وأشار هيكل إلى ضرورة استكمال مشوار مصر نحو خارطة الطريق لأن الأمر لا يحتمل أي تعطيل. وأضاف أن العالم العربي يسير وبسرعة شديدة إلى الهاوية دون أن يسأل نفسه إلى أين.
ووصف ما يحدث في هذا العصربـ ‘إننا أمام عالم يفكر في صنع المستقبل وعرب يفكرون في تسوية حساباتهم’، مشيرا إلى أنه لا مستقبل لمصر خارج العالم العربي.’
وعلى الصعيد الداخلي قال هيكل إن جماعة الإخوان يحتاجون إلى بعض الوقت من أجل الاستشفاء من عملية الصدمة التي يمرون بها، مطالبا بعدم إجراء أي حوار مع جماعة الإخوان في هذا التوقيت.

You ain’t seen nothing yet. These fanatics are going to look like boy scouts compared to what is coming out of the dungeons and torture chambers and propaganda machines and demonizing articles of all the oppressive regimes around the world. Even democracies run by corporate greed will not be immune.

But oh wait, I must be repeating what came out of the A….’s mouth as he forgets that his and his father’s dungeons and torture chambers have been mass producing these monsters.

Help help help we are fighting Al Qaeda: we have found the enemy and he is us.

Breaking up is hard to do as the song goes; but in that case there was love whereas now there is nothing but hatred.

Fireworks coming to a theatre near you.

He He He He

Rohani is an apt name, let us find if he has a Rouh. What a shame, indeed.

How come Muallem is so huge when children are starving in Syria? Is he eating all of their foods? Is he eating all of the aid being sent by Russia for Syrians?

Is he going to explode? Is Qadri Jamil going to join Khayer in Prison?

The tragicomedy of the Ass in Charge of the Hope of the generations to come.

Very nice postings today.

The opposition has no other choice than to go to Geneva and stop whining and begging ..

“John Kerry called coalition president Ahmad Jarba and asked him not to pursue the issue (of a transitional government) for now”

Opposition advised to accept new realities
September 21, 2013

http://gulftoday.ae/portal/f00c8c0e-bd58-4a34-9e35-5bba2e00753a.aspx

AMMAN: The Syrian opposition feels badly let down by Washington’s decision to do a deal with Moscow to eliminate Bashar Al Assad’s chemical weapons but diplomats are warning the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) that it risks losing Western support if it cannot adapt to new realities.

The opposition is furious that Washington suddenly and without its knowledge changed course a week after informing leaders of the SNC that a strike was imminent, according to coalition members.

In the opposition’s view, the deal with Russia contains a de facto admission of the legitimacy of the Assad government, undermining the goal of Syrian uprising and the likelihood that any peace talks will result in Assad’s removal.

US President Barack Obama said this week that while it was still his goal to “transition” Assad out of power, dealing with his chemical weapons would come first. Diplomats who monitored a major opposition meeting in Istanbul at the weekend said a lack of flexibility by the coalition in the way it deals with the changing diplomatic priorities, as spelled out by Obama, could rob the opposition of Western support.

The Arab- and Western-backed Free Syrian Army needs what friends it can get as it struggles to deal with mounting chaos in rebel areas.

“The coalition just has to make the right noises and realise that there is a big powers game going on,” one diplomat said.

“They cannot ignore that the removal of Assad’s chemical weapons is a good thing and the people in Ghouta are probably sleeping better now,” the diplomat said, referring to the site of the Aug.21 chemical attack.

“Otherwise our parliaments will not keep giving us the mandate to support the Syrian opposition forever. We’re already having to convince lawmakers that not every other Syrian is an Al Qaeda member.”

A senior opposition official acknowledged that the coalition’s meeting, which concluded on Monday, did not come up with any new strategy. The opposition was still reeling from the US-Russian deal, which he described as “slap in the face” for the coalition.

“The Americans did not even bother to send a single diplomat to inform us what they were doing with the Russians,” the opposition official said.

In a further sign of difficulties with Washington, the coalition elected moderate Islamist Ahmad Tumeh as provisional prime minister, shortly after US Secretary of State John Kerry called coalition president Ahmad Jarba and asked him not to pursue the issue for now, coalition sources said.

Observer

Are you in state of senile delirium?

Watching Al Qaeda “winning” their revolution, the opposition is in a state of impotent panic.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_SYRIA_THE_WAR_ANALYSIS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Labwani said the world is now witnessing the birth of an “Islamic, extremist state capable of destabilizing countries from Pakistan to North Africa.”

“We are the biggest losers in all of this, the people who held up the banner of democracy, civil society and freedom,” Labwani said.

Bruce Hoffman, director of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University, said Syria has become more central than Iraq to al-Qaida’s brand.

“It brings al-Qaida within striking distance of the United States’ three biggest allies in the region: Turkey, Jordan, and Israel,” he said.

As for the rebel infighting, he said that any suggestion the rebels would purge their ranks of extremists was “wishful thinking.”

This has been a trend for sometimes now, more fighters are leaving the FSA and joining Nusra and ISIA, that can not be good for efforts to build a rebel army that can stand up to both the regime and the islamists. The end result of this may be the dissolution of the FSA.
قال نشطاء وإسلاميون الجمعة 2092013إن مئات من المقاتلين السوريين تعهدوا بالولاء لقوات موالية لتنظيم القاعدة في شرق سورية وشمالها الأمر الذي يعزز قبضة التنظيم في المنطقة، بحسب وكالة رويترز.
وذكر النشطاء الموجودون في سورية أن الأمر لا يقتصر على مقاتلين أفراد بل وحدات بأكملها انضمت في الأيام القليلة الماضية إلى مجموعتين صغيرتين لكنهما تتمتعان بالنفوذ وترتبطان بالقاعدة هما “جبهة النصرة” و”الدولة الاسلامية في العراق والشام” (داعش).
وذكر ناشط في بلدة الرقة بشرق سورية “هذا مؤشر على أن نفوذ الجماعات المتشددة لا يزال ينمو. قد تسقط المنطقة في ايدي الجهاديين… قد يتحول هذا الى اتجاه”.
ويتردد أن لواءين كاملين على الأقل انضما لجبهة النصرة في محافظة الرقة الخاضعة لسيطرة المعارضة والتي تقع على الحدود مع تركيا. وقال مصدر قريب من القوات الاسلامية إن أحد اللوائين هو لواء ثوار الرقة ويضم 750 مقاتلاً على الأقل.
أما اللواء الثاني فهو لواء المنتصر بالله الذي أعلن في بيان على موقع فيسبوك أن كافة قادته ومقاتليه تعهدوا بالولاء لجبهة النصرة. وذكر البيان أن لواء المنتصر بالله الذي يتكون من 15 كتيبة تعهد بالولاء لجبهة النصرة والخضوع التام لها في أوقات الشدة واليسر.
وأظهر شريط فيديو قام نشطاء من الرقة بتحميله الجمعة قافلة ضخمة من مقاتلين يستقلون السيارات والشاحنات التي تعلوها المدفعية والبنادق الآلية وهم يلوحون بالاعلام السوداء. وذكر عنوان الفيديو أنه يظهر قوة موحدة جديدة من مقاتلي جبهة النصرة وكتائب أخرى من مقاتلين أعلنوا ولاءهم مؤخرا.

OMEN #165 and HOPEFUL #166

If the Assad regime and its Russian bedfellows are so confident that “the rebels did it” why are they resorting to desperate lies and tricks like

i) the fake Reuters story claiming locals had witnessed Saudi-supplied rebels firing the CWs, fraudulently using the name of a real reporter who knew nothing about it (#165), and

ii) using fabricated videos claiming to show rebels firing CWs saying they had been posted on a widely-respected blog where in fact they had actually been analysed and identified as being fake (#166).

It reinforces what crude liars they are and how corrupt and rubbish-laden their official media is.

And also how frantic they are to hide the truth.

Sam@152

Your post is interesting and sounds genuine. It seems that you are not pretending and that you really believe it is not a grass root movement rather a Joo-takfiri-west conspiracy.

Sam, I am bint shammieh. I have been there and done that. I watched the oppression with my own eyes. I left the country in disgust. I never wanted to return until….I was not personally exposed but I knew first hand how profound the oppression was. My family was married into a head of an intelligence (one of the many branches), ministers, MPs, and the inner circle. Syria is a republic of fear. I watched fear with my own eyes. I watched oppression with my own eyes. I watched corruption and rubbery with my one eyes. I watched how a human get degraded into worse than an animal status in my own eyes.

You sound like a right wing fanatic Israeli who is convinced that Israel is from the Nile to Euphrates and that there is nothing called “Palestinians”. How could you argue Palestinian rights when their mere existence is even denied. Wouldn’t such argument be futile.?

It is a grass root revolution and I am sorry you don’t want to see it for what it is.

SAM #152

Your rabidly furious statement suggests you are either a. a secret Islamist extremist who is frustrated by the mainstream moderate Syrian rebel movement trying to kick you out or b. a member of Team Assad, with super-conspiracist wiring.

Come on, man, wipe the froth from your eyes and tell us where TARA actually cheered for the Islamist extremists.

Just about every Syrian you will meet who opposes Assad has always feared the jihadists presence and wished they would go to hell and leave Syria alone.

So maybe try again to tell us what you meant to say.

Maybe cite the articles that talk about Islamist gunrunning in 2009. I promise to read them – though I am doubtful that it occurred the way you claim because the Assad regime previously allowed the al Qaeda types a pretty free run in Syria, no need for them to smuggle things.

#163. HOPEFUL

The torture death of that gentle doctor illustrates the black cruelty and rotten cowardice that fuels the Assad regime.

Some great philosopher once said that in every revolution, people of great hearts will always be sacrificed to it.

But I bet he never imagined anything as pointless and evil as the Assad killing machine.

Engel: How Syria’s horrors could lead to the end of the civil war

By Richard Engel, Chief Foreign Correspondent, NBC News
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/20/20601581-engel-how-syrias-horrors-could-lead-to-the-end-of-the-civil-war?lite
….
Why the rebels might want diplomacy now, and not before.

The moderate rebels, the Free Syrian Army, have lost control of the revolution. Militants linked to al Qaeda have flooded the country on a mission to topple President Bashar Assad and establish a new caliphate, an Islamic empire.

A report from the respected military consultancy IHS Jane’s estimated that 10,000 hardcore al Qaeda-style jihadists have entered Syria. More arrive every day. Tunisia alone has said it has banned 6,000 of its citizens from traveling to Syria, worried they’d join the war.

This week, Islamic radicals took over the Syrian town of Azaz near the Turkish border. They killed members of the Free Syrian Army as they drove the rebels from the town.

The extremists have kidnapped journalists. They’ve carried out public floggings and executions of alleged sinners and traitors.

This is not what most Syrians were hoping for when they started spray painting “the people want to topple the regime” on city walls two and half years ago.
A human rights worker who helps provide services in rebel-held areas shocked me last week with this admission:

“If I knew two years ago what I know now, I wouldn’t have supported the revolution. If Bashar Assad didn’t have so much blood on his hands, I would join him; but he does, so I can’t. I would have stuck with Bashar, even fought for him, if I knew it was going to get like this,” he said. He’s terrified of the Islamists who hijacked the revolt.
….
Syria is supposed to have presidential elections in May 2014. Assad has said he will respect the results. He’s said he’s unsure if he’ll run for office again.

There is no reason why the elections can’t be held earlier. The goal of a ceasefire and negotiations could be to find a moderate group of consensus candidates to replace Assad in early elections and oversee an end to the conflict and reconciliation.

It would not be easy, but both sides – perhaps for the first time in the war – have incentives for a negotiated solution.

Without that motivation there can never be peace.

This is laughable.  Was Qadri Jamil reprimanded?   I said before in Thourya Al Assasd no one can have an opinion no matter how prominent his position is.  The letter from the head of the parliament to the congress was not his own intuition.  Aside from deciding what is for dinner, those in the government can’t even express an opinion.  No one can understand this express Syrian themselves!

The party of Syria’s deputy prime minister, Qadri Jamil, has denied telling the Guardian that the Assad government is calling for a ceasefire. 

The Guardian’s Jonathan Steele in Damascus is standing by his account of his interview with Jamil.

In a letter to Guardian, a spokesman for the People-Want Party, claimed Jamil was talking in his capacity as leader of the party, not as a member of the Assad government when discussing the possible peace negotiations.

The spokesman admitted that Jamil said a ceasefire should be priority for the conference, but denied that this amounted to a government call for a ceasefire as the headline on the report implied. 

Steele [see below] has produced a more detailed transcript of the comments showing the context in which Jamil made the ceasefire remarks, via a translator. The translator confirmed that the comments were made in Jamil’s capacity as deputy prime minister not as party leader. Steele pointed out that the interview was conducted in a government building, was arranged by a government information officer, and that only later in the interview did Jamil speak as leader of the People-Want party. 

The party also denied that Jamil used the term “civil war” to describe the conflict, as the Guardian reported in a version of the story first published. An online version of the story has been amended to remove any reference to the phrase. 

Here’s the letter from the People-Want Party

Dear Sirs,

In reference to the interview made on September 19th by your esteemed correspondent Jonathan Steele with the Syrian Deputy Prime Minister, Secretary of the People-want Party, and member of the Presidium of the Popular Front for Change and Liberation, Dr. Qadri Jamil, published on your website on the same day, we would like to illustrate the following points:

1- Contrary to what is being mentioned in your first-version title, opening paragraph or elsewhere, never during the interview Dr. Jamil used the term “Civil War” to describe what is taking place in our country,

2- When asked about the “proposals for Geneva (2)”, the question did not include any reference whatsoever to “the Syrian government” or “President Bashar al-Assad’s government” as stated in the article, and hence Dr. Jamil was speaking in his capacity as a Secretary of the People-want Party and a leading figure of the Popular Front for Change and Liberation, both being components of the Syrian opposition working inside Syria to realize true radical and deep changes in Syria, and not as a spokesman of the current Syrian coalition government, that has enough spokespersons from the majority party.

3- And even when answering the same question, Dr. Jamil said clearly enough that the priorities were “halting external intervention, having a ceasefire (i.e., stopping violence), and launching a peaceful political process”. He never said that “The Syrian government is to call for a ceasefire”!

4- Contrary to what has been mentioned in the article, Dr. Jamil never said that for certain parts he was speaking as a member of the government and for others as a leader of his political party.

Hoping that you are going to link and publish this letter with the same interview asap, in order to avoid any misunderstanding and to keep your heritage of objectivity and high professionalism, please do accept our best regards.

The Press Office

The People-want Party

This is Steele’s response: 

My access to Qadri Jamil was organised by the Syrian Government’ s Ministry of Information.

He received me in his office in the main government building in Damascus where the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister also have their offices.

My tape-recorded question on Geneva was “Let’s move on to the Geneva conference. What is the main priority for you in attending the Geneva conference? Will you propose a ceasefire immediately? Is that an idea?” Dr Jamil’s reply, as translated by his interpreter, was: “Of course. The immediate ceasefire. First of all putting an end to external intervention, having a ceasefire and the launching of the peaceful, political process in a way that the Syrian people could enjoy self-determination without international intervention in a democratic way, and this process could take place under internal observation and international observation as well”.

I then asked: “Will you be going to Geneva? Who will your delegation be?”

He replied: “Until now the size of delegations has not been decided upon yet”.

About twenty minutes later just before the interview ended the deputy prime minister explained why his party joined the government last year.

His interpreter said: “Now, please note, Dr Qadri is speaking as a political figure, not a governmental figure”.

Back in the hotel, before sending the article to London, I rang the interpreter to double-check whether the interview was with him as Deputy Prime Minister or as a party leader. The interpreter said that only in the last section about the government of national unity was he speaking as a party leader.

The Guardian is planning to release an audio version of Jamil’s comments later today. 

A message from #Kafranbel #Idlib protesters to #US people: Do not let #Assad fool you; he lies on you! #Syria #US pic.twitter.com/LLJry2G3dM
,,,

Joshua Landis: Syria is divided in 3 political sphere..

Foes of al-Assad turn against each other

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/foes-of-al-assad-turn-against-each-other/article14449865/

The growing sway of the Islamists also complicates the question of who would represent the anti-Assad rebels at any peace conference. In the northeast of the country, Kurdish militias that drove the Assad regime out months ago, also now find themselves battling ISIL and the allied al-Nusra Front, another jihadi group.

“You’re beginning to see a division [of Syria] into three political spheres. A Kurdish northeast, a Sunni-dominated middle and north, and an Alawite minority-dominated coast and south,” said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma. Mr. al-Assad’s family and power base are Alawites, a sect of Shia Islam.

The ISIL offensive appears aimed at seizing strategic assets – such as grain-distribution centres and power stations – that would allow the organization to provide basic services in the areas it controls, services that can buy the loyalty of the local population.

“They’re smart – much smarter than the FSA,” Prof. Landis said. “They understand that providing energy and providing food are the basic elements of a future state.”

cartoon:

world betrays humanity.

Rocket attack targets police buildings in Ankara

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/rocket-attack-targets-police-buildings-in-ankara.aspx?pageID=238&nID=54873&NewsCatID=341

An attack involving three rockets targeted two police buildings in Ankara’s Dikmen neighborhood in the evening of Sept. 20.

There were no casualties as a result of the attack, according to the Health Ministry. However, the rockets have caused material damage to one of the buildings targeted.

this has obama’s panties in a wad:

“Probably only 2,000 to 3,000 are real extremists that we have to worry about,” he told DW.

while the world ignores 100,000 shabiha extremists including hezbollah & iranian foreign fighters!

The exiled Raqqa dance troop rejects Qatar’s money and sponsorship:
“It is impossible to shake a hand stained with the blood of our relatives and people even if the alternative is the disintegration of the troupe and its total collapse. Money does not make up for one’s country and the deeply-rooted Syrian traditions cannot be domesticated in vulgar cultures and societies.”

Syria: Raqqa Dance Troupe Branded Apostates

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syria-raqqa-dance-troupe-branded-apostates
…
He told Al-Akhbar how he, along with members of his troupe, fled from the city of Raqqa after they were accused of apostasy. “We received several threats before armed Islamist brigades entered the city, and so we were awaiting our ‘just punishment.’ As soon as they entered the city, and while they were still preoccupied with collecting the spoils of war and divvying up furniture and machines from governmental institutions, we took the chance to escape the bullets and black smoke.”

Twenty-five male and female dancers fled in the middle of a March night to safer cities and provinces after the black flags of Islamist movements that conquered Raqqa pushed them out.

Ojeili lamented: “We left the city of Raqqa, which we had always been loyal to.”

Ibrahim al-Akhras, the troupe’s 60-year-old rebab player (a bowed string instrument), is also wanted for apostasy and is now living as a fugitive. But how long can this last?
…
“We’ve been out of Raqqa now for five months and the Qatari contacts have not stopped. Major offers were heaped on us, contracts worth thousands of dollars. Salaries for all the members, social security and permanent work permits. Our answer was a categorical no,” says Ojeili. “It is impossible to shake a hand stained with the blood of our relatives and people even if the alternative is the disintegration of the troupe and its total collapse. Money does not make up for one’s country and the deeply-rooted Syrian traditions cannot b domesticated in vulgar cultures and societies.”

The only way to revive the troupe now is to find a sponsor. Ojeili does not know if the Syrian culture ministry has the desire to take on this role.

‘Maybe if you film the cats here and put them on YouTube people will help’ … American filmmaker and adviser to rebel fighters Matthew VanDyke is taken around the ruined streets of Aleppo by Mowya, a Free Syrian Army fighter and Nour, a photographer. They describe how the war has changed the lives, and how they remain resolved to fight for a democratic Syria despite the threat of death. Warning: this film contains violent scenes that some viewers may find distressing

#177 SL

I cannot stop thinking about this Doctor. It is hitting me harder than any other bad news I heard in the past 2.5 years, and I think this has to do with SyriaComment. I am meeting here people who are either in denial that this criminal torture machine that eats up Syrian patriots exists in Syria (people like SAM), or people who do not give a s* about the death of innocent people (like Zoo).

I am starting to understand how the Jews feel about holocaust denial. It is such a strange feeling that is hard to describe: a combination of anger, despair, disgust, sadness…. You basically slowly lose fate in humanity itself.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/الحرية-للطبيب-محمد-أسامة-البارودي/246009345482932

Israel is disappointed that Obama did not bomb Syria, they will be disappointed again when Rouhani goes to the UN and give a conciliatory speech. The Israel lobby and Israel’s mouth pieces in the US media are warning Obama not to meet with Rouhani and not take out the “military option” against Syria and Israel.
The truth is that Israel is an apartheid state that is in violation of international law and dozens of UNSC resolutions, Israelis want peace like everybody but they do not want to pay the price, they prefer an environment of instability and war, as long as that does not reach their borders, to a peace that requires compromise.
Expectations are high for a possible breakthrough with Iran, and most Americans will support Obama if he ends hostility with Iran peacefully.

CNN summarized Israel’s uncomfortable assessment of what might comes next:

Israeli officials are worried that the United States and Europe, in an effort to encourage Iranian moderation, will begin to relax the devastating financial, shipping and oil sanctions built up against Iran, and allow more time to coax the Iranians toward agreement in the long-running “P5 + 1” talks. That would be a fatal mistake, in the Israelis’ view, allowing Iran to run the last lap toward building a bomb.

Israeli officials were disappointed — to put it mildly — when Obama decided to seek congressional authorization for military strikes. And they were horrified when it appeared that Congress, under the influence of overwhelming public opposition to another foreign engagement, seemed unlikely to grant that authorization. What a message to send to Iran.

Most Israeli analysts are deeply skeptical that al-Assad will give up all his chemical weapons. Syria developed the weapons in response to Israel’s growing military superiority and its nuclear deterrent. Ely Karmon of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at The Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya says chemical weapons are also al-Assad’s insurance policy, his ultimate deterrent in protecting the Alawite minority.

The Israelis appear confident of being able to contain Sunni extremists should they emerge as a force in a post-Assad Syria. Until now, Israeli policy has been to say little and hope al-Assad’s forces and the rebels cancel each other out. But Michael Oren, Israeli ambassador to the U.S., suggested this week that al-Assad is the worse of two evils.
“We always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran,” he told the Jerusalem Post.
“The greatest danger to Israel is the strategic arc that extends from Tehran, to Damascus to Beirut,” he added.

#188 Ghufran

“But Michael Oren, Israeli ambassador to the U.S., suggested this week that al-Assad is the worse of two evils.”

Israel is a democratic state with a coalition government and open society. For every one who says “Assad is worse”, you will find one who says “Jihadis are worse” and one who says “free democratic Syria is worse”.

We Syrians should focus on what is best for Syria instead of caring about what is worst for Israel. What is best for Syria is an outcome where Assad and his cronies are gone, and the Jihadi Islamists are defeated and marginalized. Only then can a new free prosperous and strong Syrian state emerge. Only then can we have the credibility, the support, and the power to resolve our differences with Israel, or any other neighbor for that matter.

#187 HOPEFUL,

I am with you in those feelings. You describe it so well.

But those who refuse to condemn the subhumans of the Assad regime for their savage destruction of Syria’s human capital are in a sense WORSE than holocaust deniers (who are ignorant, crank conspiracists or crude political provocateurs such as Neonazis and Iran’s Ahmadinejad).

I am not talking about those trapped inside Syria, fearful of the unknown and of losing their only normalcy and livelihood, living in a propaganda bubble and unable to trust in an alternative.

I am talking about those active defenders and promoters of Assad, the people who are aggressively selling the regime’s perspective and lies and “protecting its reputation”.

Their attitude is based on having something personally invested in the Assad regime and the way it operates. That’s where the denial acts and indifference and contempt for Syrians you see here on SC is coming from.

And worst of all are those living a free, safe and comfortable life in the west while spitting on their suffering fellow Syrians as if they were not deserving of the life and systems they themselves are enjoying.

They are entitled to think whatever rubbish self-serving thoughts they want in private, but their crime, and it IS a crime, is in actively working to deflect exposure or criticism of the regime, and doing whatever it takes to inflict damage and interference on the cause of those who oppose the regime – or even worse again, those who are the direct victims of it.

To me, they have dirtied their own lives. They have made the choice to involve themselves in the senseless destruction of a country and the degradation, desperation and damaged lives of the majority of its population.

And for what purpose and end result?

For an unwavering, clear eyed and rational perspective on the Assad regime, you can’t beat Burhan Ghalioun.

He’s at https://twitter.com/ghaliounn

A rocket warhead and chemical substances in Turkey? What brand of rocket is it? Soviet? As usual the Turks will cover up

Syrian detained as Turkish police seize suspected chemical substance, warhead

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-327039-syrian-detained-as-turkish-police-seize-suspected-chemical-substance-warhead.html

21 September 2013 /ERSAN TEMİZEL, KAYSERİ
Turkish police on Saturday seized some amount of suspected chemical substance and a rocket warhead from a suspicious car stopped in central province of Kayseri and detained three people, including a Syrian national.

According to the Kayseri Police Department, counterterrorism teams stopped a suspicious car along the Kayseri-Malatya Highway early on Saturday. Police found a rocket warhead as well as some amount of suspected liquid chemicals in the car and detained three people, including a Syrian national.

Police stepped up security around the area and the teams from the General Staff are still examining the seized materials.

#188 Ghufran

Obama is softly squeezing the Israelis as negotiations with Palestinians are going very very discreetly.
There is almost no media coverage of these negotiations

Saudi Arabia: Bashar Al Assad should be ousted… but not now.. in long term

Saudi Arabia’s Proxy Wars

By FAHAD NAZER
Published: September 20, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/opinion/global/saudi-arabias-proxy-wars.html?_r=0

Saudi Arabia appears resolute: It wants Bashar al-Assad out of Damascus. The Saudis view the fighting in Syria with the same intensity that they did the civil war in Yemen that raged in the 1960s — as a conflict with wide and serious repercussions that will shape the political trajectory of the Middle East for years to come.

The Syrian war presents the Saudis with a chance to hit three birds with one stone: Iran, its rival for regional dominance, Tehran’s ally Assad, and his Hezbollah supporters. But Riyadh’s policy makers are wary. They know that once fully committed, it will be difficult to disengage. And so they are taking to heart the lessons of another regional war that flared on their border 50 years ago.
…
But on Monday, the Saudi Council of Ministers issued a strong statement making clear that it considered preventing another chemical attack by Assad to be only a short-term goal. In the long-term, he must be ousted.

Run down of the news

HA is allowing the security services to enter the Dahyie as Aoun threatened a break with it if it does not comply.

Russia is preparing to abandon iPad retard “if they find him lying” well well, the pathological liar is being discovered finally by Vlad

The Syrian arrested with weapons is Syrian security agent in E Lebanon

The Guardian is sticking by its story. I fear Qadri is going to become Badri or Ma Idri

Villages falling to the FSA in South Aleppo, Likewise in Hama.

Latest video show the FSA using tanks and artillery these days.

Here are the posts.

Each one of the posts is another indication of the slow squeeze of the situation around the iPad retard.

I am delighted he gave a Fox News Interview for it became the butt of jokes and ridicule all through the entire media in the US.

Interestingly Al Alam and Manar are both much more subdued

http://arabic.rt.com/news/628170-الكرملين_روسيا_قد_تغير_موقفها_حول_سورية_في_حال_إدراكها_أن_الأسد_يتلاعب/

http://www.skynewsarabia.com/web/article/438076/الحر-يسيطر-قرى-بريف-حلب-الجنوبي

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Sep-21/232094-russia-may-change-syria-position-if-assad-cheats-official.ashx#axzz2fCN1M5S6

http://www.lorientlejour.com/article/834099/syrie-quand-certains-islamistes-protegent-les-chretiens-.html

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2013/Sep-21/232080-syrian-intelligence-member-among-e-lebanon-arrests-source.ashx#axzz2fCN1M5S6

#190 SL

You are absolutely right. This also explains why they keep accusing me, you, Tara and others of supporting/condoning the jihadis’ crimes even though all of us have condemned them over and over again. It gives them a way out of their moral dilemma to believe this lie that they themselevs made up.

As for the battlefield, optimistic scenarios are hard to find. The best outcome would be that the civil war is frozen, with the country divided for the foreseeable future into regime-controlled areas in the centre and around Damascus and rebel strongholds in the north, east and parts of the south. Lebanon was similarly partitioned during the 1975-90 civil war.

Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/in-syria-little-is-assured-except-the-survival-of-assads-regime#ixzz2fWyFgYcX
Follow us: @TheNationalUAE on Twitter | thenational.ae on Facebook

Just so you know, we always rely on well informed, very credible and very reliable sources who work very hard behind the scenes and around the clock bringing you in the process the news before it becomes so. Today our benefactors authorized us to release the following very very important heads up.

In this heads up, Tony Badran follows in the footsteps of Hussain Abdu Al-Hussain in proving that America under Obama did not only become irrelevant on the world stage but it also is facing a very serious credibility gap. The effect of the receding American credibility and power on the Glorious Revolution of the Syrian people is also explored revealing in the process patterns of betrayal, duplicitousnous and collusion with the most perveted criminal in human history. The US under Obama has allowed itself to be trampled upon by the very Arch-enemy of the human kind, the Serpent-head, a.k.a. Ass-head, the forever sworn enemy of humanity.

”

Obama’s Credibility Gap

By Tony Badran

In an interview on Sunday, President Barack Obama made the case that, despite his public zigzagging, he is pursuing the right policy in Syria. Far from displaying weakness and lack of resolve, the president claimed that he has leveraged a “credible threat of force” into a diplomatic win that, in partnership with Russia, will seize the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons stockpiles.

At the same time, Assad was also claiming victory and the dictator has a point. Nonetheless, while Assad benefitted greatly from Obama’s missteps, it’s important not to lose perspective. For what happened is not really about Assad, nor is it about getting rid of Assad’s chemical weapons (CW) arsenal, a process that, at best, is an irrelevant sideshow. Rather, it’s about the weakening US position in the Middle East and its effects on American allies and enemies alike. At the end of the day, the Russian-American deal barely changes anything on the ground in Syria. What it does affect, quite negatively, is US prestige.

Reacting to the deal, some analysts went so far as to say that it represented a turning point in the Syrian conflict, beginning the countdown toward Assad’s triumph over the rebellion. This view overstates the case. Assad’s principal, and most important win from this deal, is that he has extended his lease on life by dodging a US strike, which, in theory, could have further degraded his depleted military’s capabilities. From the outset of the revolution, the Syrian dictator has sought to neutralize the US and avoid a military intervention. For as long as the US kept away, he had a chance at staying in the game, even if his prospects for ruling all of Syria once more were nil.

With the Russian initiative and its planned process to control Syria’s chemical weapons, Assad now knows that the Obama administration will remain neutral until at least mid-2014. Therefore, he has no reason to fear any American military action. Although the White House has maintained that the threat of force remains real, its investment in this Russian-sponsored process has forestalled any military action indefinitely.

Furthermore, thanks to the Russians, Assad has gained politically. As some astute commentators have pointed out, the deal means that instead of being punished, let alone forced out, the mass-murdering dictator has been re-legitimized as a necessary partner in an indefinite process. It also means that Obama’s stated policy that Assad must go has been shelved, if not entirely reversed. In that sense, Russia has managed to make explicit what some had suspected to be Obama’s implicit preference: the US is not pursuing regime change in Syria.

This is no mean feat, even if none of it is really Assad’s doing. In fact, Assad himself is entirely irrelevant to the dynamics that brought about this deal. After all, it was introduced by Russian president Vladimir Putin and adopted by a US president who would have seized upon anything to keep him out of Syria.

Still, the contention that the deal marks the beginning of the end for the rebels is overstated. The US may have relieved Assad with its inaction. However, he knows that neither the rebels nor their backers intend to follow suit. Furthermore, despite claims to the contrary, Assad knows that his regime has not regained the momentum nor recaptured significant lost territory, despite the lack of any serious American help to the rebels. The regime’s recourse to CW in the suburbs of Damascus is a case in point. For more than a year, Assad failed to recapture these critical neighborhoods despite brutal shelling and aerial bombardment, to say nothing of a number of tactical CW attacks leading up to the larger one on August 21.

For this reason, Russia is trying to leverage this deal to get the US to stop all support to the rebels, and to force them to accept a deal with Assad. There are signs that the Obama administration might freeze whatever plans it had to train the rebels. Two unnamed administration officials said as much on Thursday, noting that “the timing might be too sensitive now to engage in such an initiative.”

The thing is, since the US hadn’t militarily supported the rebels anyway, this doesn’t constitute a change in the existing balance, which has seen the rebels make gains regardless. That is why the Russians also want Washington to lean on its regional allies to stop supporting the rebels. And some analysts think the Obama administration might well oblige.

While this is certainly a possibility, it misses a key point. Not having supported the rebels for over two years, and having backed down from a military strike – and from regime change more broadly – Obama has forfeited US credibility with America’s regional allies.

These allies understand – and have publicly stated – that the narrow focus on CW and the process to seize them is a way to buy time and avoid the actual issue, which is to bring down Assad. For two and a half years, Obama turned a deaf ear to their pleas for action. However, if they now see that Obama has moved from passivity to actively elevating Iranian and Russian interests over theirs, key US allies may likely conclude that they must ignore him and press their interests on their own. By insisting on staying out of Syria and exhibiting weakness before Assad’s patrons, all Obama has done is make the US irrelevant.

And that’s the bottom line of this episode. It’s not the farcical CW process, which is only intended to buy time – as much for Obama as for Assad. It’s certainly not Assad, who is now a mere vassal, whose political affairs are handled by Moscow and his military by Tehran. It’s that the US president has forgotten what it is that compels actors to deal with Washington: its American power, which he has willfully forfeited.

What matters is not whatever political gain Assad came away with. Rather, it’s the dangerous erosion of US credibility, and the effects this has on its alliances in the region.”

We Syrians should focus on what is best for Syria instead of caring about what is worst for Israel.

Hopeful,

Of course. Israel has always been the focus of excuse-makers who want to deflect attention away from the crimes of their own people.

Hate comes from fear, jealousy, and feelings of inadequacy.

Holocaust Deniers, for example, seem to always contradict themselves. They’ll claim “there was no mass execution of Jews” while at the same time say that “Hilter should have finished the job”.

Do a quick google search “psychology hate”.

I think regime supporters have been brainwashed that arabs can’t “handle” democracy, and thus, must have a “strong man”. I would call it “self-racism”.

@198. Heads-up

Your Saudi and Qatari “benefactors” seem to be very worried by the decline of the USA in the region as the USA will not be able to remain the protector of dictators and cowards anymore.

Analysis: UN may see big action on Syria, Iran

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UN_UN_HIGH_HOPES_ANALYSIS?SECTION=HOME&SITE=AP&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

….
Assad will likely be a winner as well. Tehran, like Washington and Moscow, is frightened of the increasing power of radical Islamist fighters flooding into Syria. The interests of the United States, Russia and Iran, to one degree or another, all point toward heavy pressure on Assad to sign on to an agreement, where his survival is the least bad outcome.

“The only reason the Russians and Syrians are playing along is to ensure Assad’s survival. The idea that this is going to lead to a diplomatic solution that leaves Assad out is just not in the cards. I don’t think this process is going to lead to Assad’s demise. Quite the contrary,” said Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Deflecting attention from psychology hate as practiced by special people in actual photos:-

http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-idf-manhandling-diplomat-marion-castaing-2013-9

I think the NC needs a new leadership, people at the top are so afraid of saying anything that look conciliatory because that will make them look “weak”, read this piece of garbage from the NC:

In a Washington Post op-ed on Thursday, the recently elected Iranian president called for an end to “the unhealthy rivalries and interferences that fuel violence and drive us apart.” And he signaled his desire for better engagement with the West.
Syria’s opposition fired back, saying it didn’t consider him an independent broker.
“The Syrian National Coalition considers Iran’s offer as ridiculous amid all the bloodshed that Iran participated with the (Bashar) al-Assad regime, through political, economic support and military support during the past two and a half years.”
Syrian opposition coalition said Iran is part of the problem.
“There is no doubt that Rouhani’s offer is a desperate attempt to prolong the crisis and increase the complexity,” the coalition said in a statement.

smart politicians try to corner their enemies by challenging them to produce actions that match their rhetoric, the NC should have said that Iran’s words need to be backed by actions, we at the NC are not war mongers, we want peace for Syria and that can not be achieved without a cease fire and a changed leadership.
The NC as of now is becoming increasingly isolated, support for them inside and outside Syria is at all times low mostly because they talk too much but do very little.

Ghat al Bird,

Another IDF group caught red-handed “man handling” someone. Another example of unfathonable Israeli human cruelty. Did they steal his wallet?

Ghufran

The only garbage I see is Rohani’s offer to broker peace. His country is the problem and Assad us fighting a oroxy war for it. how can a peace be brokered by Iran when Iran is the leading cause of death in Syria supporting Batta with money, militia. weapons, rhetorics, propaganda, and even high tech technology.

#203 Ghufran

The incompetence and lack of vision of the NC does not need more proofs.
They are stuck in the 2011’s period when the West was calling for Bashar al Assad to step down.
In 2013, the West desperately wants him to stay after they watched with displease how the opposition recklessly offered the country to Islamists extremists under the pretext that the West did not want to help them as it did in Libya.
The NC is now depassé, there is no more FOS meetings to give them any legitimacy. They are obsolete. Even Turkey lost hopes and is turning its back on them.
They are resorting to tempestuous declaration and promises with no results and use a ridiculous propaganda that no one buys anymore;

It’s time it splits into opposition parties and move on in the new government system that the president has announced in 2011 and to what they replied laughing ” Too little, too late”.
They are the ones who are ‘little’ and ‘late’ and they are the ones laughed at.
Selim Idriss is on the way to the garage and if Tumeh persists in putting conditions to Geneva II, he will be kicked out too.
Beggars can’t be choosers

test ! Hello everybody !

Ridiculous and desperate? No doubt the NC is and more everyday as the time to bow and go to Geneva II is getting closer

U.S.: Syrian CW list is encouraging
Opposition rejects Iranian president’s offer to help with peace deal
http://www.ksat.com/news/U-S-Syrian-CW-list-is-encouraging/-/478452/22055462/-/i7xk0/-/index.html
(CNN) –

U.S. officials were pleasantly surprised and encouraged by the initial declaration that Syria has submitted to the world’s chemical weapons watchdog outlining its inventory of the munitions, a senior administration official said Saturday.
….
Also on Saturday, the Syrian opposition coalition rejected an offer made by Iran to broker a peace deal between rebels and the government, calling it “ridiculous and desperate.”

I don’t know who the beggar is and who is bowing?

by all accounts, it looks like it is Batta the dictator who is begging the West to come and destroy his chemical weapons “raping” his sovereignty and monitoring his every move to prevent a military strike against his regime!

But of course bowing, crawling, and begging is a victory, regime style.

The trouble with beggars is that they don’t realize they are beggars. The NC members and their supporters still think of themselves as the ones who will bring “freedom and dignity” to the Syrians when they only brought refugees camps, sectarian brainwashing, humiliation and death.
When will they wake up and see what they are : pathetic and inept puppets manipulated by rich non-democratic Arab countries and colonialist powers who play with them? Their only reaction is more whining and begging.
After how many thousands of death more will they accept a ceasefire in Geneva?

The international chemical weapons watchdog says the Syrian government has complied with its promise and handed over the last remaining details of its toxic arsenal to the agency. This comes as part of Syria’s chemical disarmament plan hammered out by Russia and Washington last week.
http://youtu.be/WoiWAYfgmOY?t=15s

The trouble with mass killers is that they don’t know they are mass killers, hyena that they are not to be sat down with or trusted. No one negotiate with his daughter rapist or his son killer. Why is that so difficult to understand?

How much death loyalists can carry on their consciounce while cheering and at the same time denying massacres?

In groups of “al-Qaeda”, fighting in Syria, joined several hundred opposition supporters
http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.1tv.ru%2Fnews%2Fworld%2F242314&sandbox=1

AP @202.

Remember a Dr. Basson Wounter. He directed the secret research program into chemical and biological weapons led jointly by Israel and apartheid South Africa, from 1985 to 1994.

According to news reports not beholden to you his research resulted in the death of several thousand guiea pigs in South Africa. He was tried twice the second time in 2011.

Syria: Al-Qaeda as the black operations wing of the US
http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_09_19/Syria-Al-Qaeda-as-the-black-operations-wing-of-the-US-2104/

Tara,
Nobody seriously thinks that Iran can be a mediator in the Syrian war, it is part of the war, an essential part, that is why it needs to be part of any negotiations to end the war, refusing to engage Iran is the garbage I was referring to, peace is made between enemies not friends, the NC needs to stop pretending that it can negotiate an end to this war by only talking to anti regime countries and parties, if you want to buy a car you go to the dealer, you do not take a friend with a gun and big muscles to finish the deal, the era of cowboy diplomacy needs to come to an end in the Middle East.
What many of us said in 2011 is still true today:
Israel is the only benefactor of this war
No winner is allowed in this war
The regime had and still has support but Assad needs to go
Militant Islamists may have a shot in dominating in Afghanistan and the GCC but not in Syria

5 people per hour are killed in Syria!

Ghufran:
What do you think Iran want to negotiate about, you agree that Assad has to go, so what do they want exactly. Syria has nothing to offer them, specially now that Syria is completely destroyed, they don’t even have the money and power to help rebuild Syria after they helped destroy it, when they did not stay true to their revolution motto of helping the oppressed.
I think Iran after its incompetent puppet Assad Jr. Proved that he is unable to win and is about to bankrupt them, is trying to cut its losses and collect as much as 5 cent on the dollar by all of the sudden offering to mediate,
Putting their nuclear program on the table is just to buy time for their nuclear program.Khamiene will never forgo the bomb ambition, his willingness to sacrifice Syria’s strategic weapon as a sign of his good faith negotiations about his nuclear program will buy him the time needed to finish the bomb.by then the Assad card has done its job.and Assad can later retire there for few years before giving him up to stand for trial at the Hague.

Dear Syrian,

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=th9U1Czu_4k&sns=fb&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dth9U1Czu_4k%26sns%3Dfb

Enjoy!

#198 HEADS-UP

I have lost track – whose side are you on?

You keep expending a lot of keystrokes and adrenalin in circular patterns trying to show that the US is a complete failure and its leadership idiotic.

Tony Badran the person you are quoting has always had a tendency to be a negativist and catastrophist when attempting to prove his points. I still recall him going over the top with his attacks on SyriaComment a few years ago.

But he HAS written something worth reading on Syria where he blasts away the shallow clichés about Christians and Assad.

Here it is: “Christians in Syria”

The relationship between Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and his country’s Christian minority is far more complex than the portrait drawn by Assad allies and opponents of a U.S. military intervention, according to Christians from the region and Middle East experts.

http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/christians-and-syria/

Thanks dear Tara, Nadim is always great, with our own Sharif Shahad in this site, he kinda saves us the trouble of looking for those kind of crazy contradictions, but it is good to see how other paid Lebanese supporters make fools of themselves.

McCain was spot on when he wrote that Russians deserve better than Putin.

Their country is being cheapened and their future put at risk by the bluffing and chest beating antics of their current “leadership”.

Putin’s thuggish support for Assad has no economic, security, international relations or reputation upside for Russians.

Russia needs the west, Gulf states and Turkey much more than those powers need Russia. Russia also needs calm relations with any post-Assad regime.

Syria and the Assads have no value for Russia, only as a rare remaining tool and opportunity for Putin’s diplomatic ego games.

The unstable CW situation leaves Russia more exposed than many others. Putin’s now doing inept contradictory dances “to avoid busloads of jihadis armed with chemical weapons travelling from Syria via Chechnya to Moscow”, as one analyst put it.

Another massacre of the Sunnis in Syria.

Syria: Bashar al-Assad’s forces kill at least 15 in Sunni Muslim village
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says woman and two children among victims of soldiers and pro-government militia
theguardian.com, Saturday 21 September 2013 08.37 EDT

A Syrian government soldier in combat in Damascus earlier in the week. Forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad killed at least 15 people in Sheikh Hadid overnight. Photograph: Pochuyev Mikhail/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis
Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed at least 15 people in a Sunni Muslim village north-west of the city of Hama.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a woman and two children were among those killed in the overnight attack in the village of Sheikh Hadid by soldiers and pro-Assad militia.

The British-based group, which monitors violence in Syria through a network of activists and medical and security sources, said the killings followed attacks by rebels on military checkpoints in the area over the previous two days.
—

The rebels attack a checkpoint and the “heroic” regime mercenaries take revenge by killing Sunni villagers.

SL:
That piece by Toney Baradan was great, it should have been a post by itself.
I’ll put some quotes.
“Ahed al-Hendi, a Christian Syrian opposition activist who moved to the United States in 2007, objected to the notion that Assad has been good to religious minorities.
“[Assad] wants the Christians to protect him,” said Hendi. “He’s not protecting the Christians.”
““Under [Assad’s] command, it’s not like [Christians] have privileges,” said Badran. “They were basically allowed to exist as apolitical creatures. You can do your rituals, you can do whatever you need to do. But they’re not in a position of power or anything like that.”
““From father to son they want it to appear as being moderate, non-radical, et cetera,” he said. “But if you look at the facts, their support to all these groups, radical Islamists, whether it’s Sunni or Shia, it definitely goes against any idea or any concept that these leaders are friendly to the Christians or moderates. Their main allies in the Arab world are radical groups, radical Muslim groups.”
– See more at: http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/christians-and-syria/#sthash.N5SMKOIh.dpuf
That peice was also in the Washington free beacon newspapers
http://freebeacon.com/christians-and-syria/

The heroes inside Syria.

Samer Attar, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Northwestern University travelled to Aleppo last month.

He paints a clear picture of how the Assad regime keeps viciously lashing out at ordinary Syrians nonstop, and what hell it has created for people living in Aleppo. Everyday ordinary heroes, enduring for their future.

It should be made a compulsory field trip for all Team Assad and their associates sitting hypocritically in the west churning out lies, distractions and denials.

Article: “The heroes inside Syria”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-heroes-in-syria-good-people-enduring-for-their-future/2013/09/20/0b96d22c-2073-11e3-b7d1-7153ad47b549_story.html

Just so you know, we only rely on well informed and highly reliable sources who work very hard behind the scenes and around the clock in order to bring you the news before it happens. We now have a very vety important heads up available for release.

Consensus is building among experts who see the US under Obama as no more the a duped banana republic to be trampled upon by any proxy of the Serpent-head, a.k.a. Ass-head as was the case recently with the so-called CW Romance between Putin and Obama as Michael Weiss aptly put it:

”
Chemical Romance

By Michael Weiss

The KGB used to specialize in a form of political subversion and sabotage known as “active measures,” which included everything from clandestine assassinations of dissidents to the spread of disinformation and counterfeit intelligence designed to hoodwink and weaken the West. At their most elegant, active measures were intended to make a dupe feel that he himself had originated some ultimately self-defeating idea or stratagem when the true credit belonged to Moscow Center. The quixotic and idiotic plan to try and rid Bashar al-Assad of his chemical weapons in the midst of a punishing civil war did not arise because of a gaffe made by John Kerry. We know from the New York Times that it arose because Vladimir Putin broached it to the president of the United States at the G20 in St. Petersburg, and the president then duly conveyed it to his national security advisor Susan Rice, who then briefed Kerry, who then said the following in London about how Assad might avoid US airstrikes for unleashing sarin gas in Damascus: “He could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week. Turn it over, all of it, without delay, and allow a full and total accounting for that. But he isn’t about to do it, and it can’t be done, obviously.”

It can’t be done, obviously, but Kerry already knew that Russia was interested in pretending it can be, and that’s what counted. It’s open to speculation as to whether the secretary of state subconsciously channeled prior information and ad-libbed the above or he was instructed in the most delicate way possible to issue a public RSVP to the Kremlin’s invitation. Whatever the case, the White House would have a still-admiring press believe that it was just as surprised as everyone else that one of Kerry’s allegedly uncorked moments at the podium suddenly led to a “diplomatic breakthrough.” The timing and circumstances of this deal are beyond suspect. The United States was in an obvious bind. Its commander-in-chief didn’t want to go to war with Syria and was nonetheless asking Congress to authorize one. Faced with the prospect of legislative defeat and national humiliation, Barack Obama needed rescuing from his own famed ambivalence. Who better for the job than the ever constant KGB czar bearing not only a late-breaking offer but a way for the administration to argue that it had been the one to accidentally precipitate it?

I cannot recall another episode in American history in which Washington’s top diplomat was called a liar one week by a head of state, only to then be embraced as a partner in peace the next week by that state’s foreign minister. Obama has gone from being a squish on crimes against humanity to acting as a junior broker to Moscow’s conflict resolution, never mind that the conflict is largely of Moscow’s own making. Putin, meanwhile, has gone from prevailing upon “the Nobel Peace Prize winner” to being advanced by his own state-controlled news organs as the next nominee for that overrated laurel. More important, as the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia wrote in a glowing editorial for its own side, Russia has gone from being a pariah for persecuting gays, harboring a fugitive American intelligence contractor, and arming and defending a criminal regime, to being a full-fledged superpower again. “In a way that previously had been inconceivable,” the paper’s Boris Mezhuyev wrote, “Russia returned the international authority to itself.”

Still, only a brash American exceptionalist would balk at Russia’s return to geopolitical prominence if the yields of this proposal weren’t so imaginary. The US and Russia don’t agree on the details and it’s the details that matter. The US wants to keep naval warships in the Mediterranean until Assad complies with chemical disarmament. Russia says those ships can go home now. “We proceed from the fact that the solution of this problem will make unnecessary any strike on the Syrian Arab Republic,” Lavrov said on the first day of his three-day wrangle with Kerry in Geneva about chemical disarmament. “I am convinced that our American colleagues, as President Obama stated, are firmly convinced that we should follow peaceful way of resolution of conflict in Syria.” This means the US should back off and let Russia help Assad finish off the armed opposition by other means, which it’s already started to do. In the last week, “[w]arplanes dropped bombs over far-flung Syrian towns that hadn’t seen airstrikes in weeks, government forces went on the attack in the hotly contested suburbs of Damascus,” noted the Washington Post.

Syria will formally accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention on October 14, according to Ban Ki-Moon. Yet, Assad has already thrown up plenty of preconditions for compliance with sequestration and destruction of his sarin, VX, mustard, and sulfur stockpiles and precursor agents, in an interview with another Russian state media outlet, Rossiya 24. These preconditions include but are probably not limited to the following: Israel should ratify Convention first (it has only signed it); the US should stop arming the Syrian opposition at a time when the US has only just begun arming it; and airstrikes should be categorically abandoned. Only then, Assad said, would a full accounting of the his WMD program be able to commence in 30 days time from date of accession, which is standard procedure under the fine print of the Convention.

Except, 30 days is quite a while to wait as “conventional” rockets and missiles and incendiary bombs continue to rain down on Syrians. Kerry’s initial response to this demand was sensibly skeptical: “There is nothing standard about this process. The words of the Syrian regime in our judgment are simply not enough.”

But if his administration has taught us anything, it’s that yesterday’s prohibition is tomorrow’s permission slip. Now, according to the joint US-Russian “framework,” Assad can have his 30 days following a week’s deadline to submit “a comprehensive listing, including names, types and quantities” of all the toxins he’s got. Inspectors are then expected to be allowed unfettered access to all of Syria’s chemical facilities and to complete their “initial…on-site inspections” (“initial” here is not defined) by November. Then, the last of the 1,000 or so metric tons of chemical agents should all be eliminated “in the first half of 2014.” Even Soviet five-year plans were given two years to reach fruition.

What would an accelerated chemical disarmament policy require? Here’s a former UN weapons inspector from Iraq talking to the Times: “We’re talking boots on the ground. We’re not talking about just putting someone at the gate. You have to have layers of security.” In hoping to avert what Kerry termed “unbelievably small” airstrikes, Russia has thus decided to advocate a virtual foreign occupation of Syria. I’m not sure what this move is called in chess.

Moreover, eliminating such a large and entrenched chemical program as Syria’s could also take years, if not decades. The regime has already moved unknown quantities of its nerve agents to 50 sites throughout the country and will no doubt try to hide plenty more if and when the international monitors arrive. According to the Wall Street Journal, citing officials briefed on the latest US intelligence, “Unit 450—a branch of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center that manages the regime’s program—has been moving the stocks around for months.” One unnamed US official told the newspaper: “We know a lot less than we did six months ago about where the chemical weapons are.” It pays to complement this assessment with what another unnamed official, or perhaps the same one, told the Times: “We only know a good deal about 19 of [the sites].” So where do we learn about the other 31? From Bashar al-Assad. Here’s the framework again: “The United States and Russian Federation expect Syria to submit, within a week, a comprehensive listing, including names, types, and quantities of its chemical weapons agents, types of munitions, and location and form of storage, production, and research and development facilities.” So much for Kerry not taking the regime at its word, then.

As it happens, we do know a great deal about one chemical facility, in al-Safira, Aleppo. As my colleague James Miller has pointed out, this installation has been besieged for months, mainly by jihadist rebels including Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, both al-Qaeda franchises. The chances are slim that they will quit scene once the rifle-wielding Hans Blixes land and ask them to. The chances are excellent, however, that Assad’s own security forces or any number of his Alawite and Shiite militiamen will open fire on inspectors in an attempt to blame “terrorists.” Russia will no doubt back the regime’s claims if and when this happens and Obama will not be in any good position to argue otherwise since even the rebels he nominally supports think this is a farce. As ever, Moscow is completely on-script with its ally whereas the United States hasn’t even consulted its own.

Dan Kaszeta, former US Army Chemical Corps officer with 22 years of experience in chemical defense, seems to have misplaced his audacity of hope for this plan’s successful implementation. In an email, he told me: “Nothing of the sort has ever been attempted, and this sort of work needs a permissive environment, not an active war zone.”

The absurdity of seeking Russia’s help on Syria’s chemical disarmament is further underscored by the Kremlin’s unchanged position as to which party was responsible for facilitating such a spurt of heightened diplomacy. The Russians blame the August 21 sarin attack on Eastern Ghouta – which has now been confirmed by the United Nations – on rebels looking to gas themselves and women and children as a pretext for foreign intervention. In his much-discussed Times op-ed, Putin re-articulated this conspiracy theory, raising the yet unanswered question of how Russia purports to rid Syria of chemical weapons if it believes that its own client is no longer in control of them. Putin considers the majority of rebels to be al-Qaeda. By what historical precedent does he think anyone else can negotiate the surrender of nerve agents from Bin Ladenists? Asking the Russian Foreign Ministry to deal with this problem is like asking David Irving to preside as a judge at Nuremberg.

A few clever analysts have suggested that this is all part of his cunning scheme concocted by Obama to put the onus or “ownership” of this doomed initiative on Russia and then return to Congress with a sigh when it goes tits-up and say, “Now will you let me lob cruise missiles?” Even assuming that this is the case (and that’s a very charitable assumption), it’s a bad strategy borne of failed prior bad strategies. By the time Assad’s done toying with everybody, the Ghouta atrocity will have become a distant memory and what was already an unimpressive sense of urgency to respond will have become obsolete. A war-weary Congress in September is unlikely to grow more hawkish by November, much less by the first half of 2014. And if Obama foregoes the legislature next time, he’ll only have wasted anywhere from two months to a year to do what he might have done earlier and without the cost of telegraphing to the world that he hates himself for doing it.

“Delay, derail, obfuscate — in three words, that’s what the Russian proposal is really about,” says a friend of mine on the Hill who understands the Kremlin better than most. Somehow I suspect Obama realizes what a mess he’s got himself into this time. He just doesn’t care.”

SYRIAN #224 that article has important truths about Syrian Christians rarely heard in all the ignorance and disinformation about Syria.

Christians have as much to gain as every other Syrian by the removal of the Assad dictatorship. They have been cynically used, unnerved and put in danger by the Assad regime.

I remember after Michel Kilo made a speech in the early days of the opposition Syrian Christians going online to say hearing him speak against Assad made them feel proud for the first time to be Christian and a Syrian.

An alliance with and full inclusion of Christians has all along been part of the policy and values of the key original players in the Syrian opposition (obscured by the Muslim Brotherhood’s selfish wrecking act).

HEADS-UP #226, please try to summarize, edit and put links like the rest of us.

Your cut-pastes are far too long to read.

And your anti-American obsession is drowning out any interesting information or opinions you are presenting.

Another article about the Assad regime use of the minority
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/09/21/syria-christians/2843139/
“Some Syrian Christians say the regime is causing the worst of the attacks to force the Christians to choose sides decisively for the regime. Some even blame the regime for the terrorists being in Syria in the first place.

“I think that the regime is very accomplished in promoting sectarianism,” said Osama Edward, 35, a Syrian Christian who runs the Assyrian Network for Human Rights and is currently based in Stockholm. “The incident at Maaloula proves that beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“The Syrian regime has been taken advantage of Christians feeling their days are numbered”
Joshua Landis, Center of Middle East Studies at Oklahoma University”

The money to kill comes from the Gulf countries Islamist citizens, especially Kuwaitis. By closing their eyes on it these countries are accomplices in murder

Private donations give edge to Islamists in Syria, officials say

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/private-donations-give-edge-to-islamists-in-syria-officials-say/2013/09/21/a6c783d2-2207-11e3-a358-1144dee636dd_story.html

Obama administration officials say that they were working with gulf allies to shut off private cash flows but that the efforts have been complicated by the fundraisers’ under-the-radar tactics. The organizers also take advantage of lax regulations in some gulf states that allow fundraisers to set up small religious charities and canvass in mosques and other public venues, U.S. officials say.

“Much of this funding comes from private citizens in the gulf, particularly in Kuwait,” said David S. Cohen, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. The country, a source of financial aid for extremist groups during the Afghan and Iraq wars, “unfortunately continues to be a permissive environment for terrorist fundraising,” he said.

What is more worrisome, officials say, is a new tendency among fundraisers to seek influence over the Syrian paramilitary groups they support. Some have adopted their own rebel militias and sought to dictate everything from ideology to tactics. Officials at one gulf-based organization, which calls itself the Ummah Conference, have helped promote a campaign to recruit thousands of Muslim volunteers for Syria while openly calling for a broader struggle against secular Arab governments and what one of its leaders terms “American terrorism.”

In Maaloula, the regime forces entered the town and within the first 24 hour pulled out. They pulled out for one reason. They pulled out to sell Maaloula for media-op hoping that rebels wreck a havoc and destroy the town. The regime doesn’t care for Christians. It will sell them out for cheap any time.

#226 Heads up

Michael Weiss? Beurk and Yawnnnnn…

The rebels are officially paid by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. We can see what they care about. It is not “freedom and dignity”, it is “ego and money”
They are only fooling some naive idealists and some Bashar haters.
Nobody trust them anymore.

Yawning too much.

Yawning during awake interval and snoring at night are signs of sleep apnea, a disease shared by Tabl al Moualem, ” the pride of Syrian Sunnis”.

Ghufran

Do you think the USA is not part of the problem in Syria?
It has been the main source of the problems in Iraq and the whole region for decades with its unconditional support to Israel and Arab dictators.

Yet you seem to accept it to be part of the solution in Syria.
You also seem to accept that Turkey should be part of the solution when this country stole a part of Syria and for centuries has oppressed the Syrians.
Iran does not such a long and vicious history within the Arab World, why shouldn’t it be part of the solution?
Just because they are Shias and that the Sunnis hate them more than they hate the Christians and the Jews?

Zzzzzzz…

‘Proud’ Sunnis kills 65 Shias mourners during funerals

At least 65 killed in Baghdad blasts

http://gulfnews.com/news/region/iraq/at-least-65-killed-in-baghdad-blasts-1.1233849

Three bombs wreak mayhem in a tent filled with mourners

Baghdad: More than 65 people were killed in a triple bombing that targeted a tent filled with mourners in Baghdad’s Shiite stronghold of Sadr City on Saturday, police and medical sources said.

Police said a car bomb went off near the tent where a funeral was being held, a suicide bomber driving a car then blew himself up, and a third explosion followed as police, ambulances and firefighter were gathering at the scene.

A hero or another liar?

Assad ordered me to gas my people, but I couldn’t do it, says Brigadier-General Zaher al-Saket

http://www.dnaindia.com/world/1892074/report-assad-ordered-me-to-gas-my-people-but-i-couldn-t-do-it-says-brigadier-general-zaher-al-saket

The ” pride of Syrian Sunnis” should donate one tenth of what he gulps in a day to feed the children in Ghouta that the regime is starving.

The Syrians are taking the fate of their country in their own hands.
While the rebels are becoming more and more divided and infiltrated by Sunni extremists ideologies, pro-government militias are becoming more and more a coherent force to reckon with.

Syria’s pro-government militias a major boost for Assad’s army

The numerous militias in Syria have gone from ill-organized neighborhood watch groups to a coherent paramilitary organization.

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-syria-paramilitary-forces-20130920,0,1807511.story
…
DAMASCUS, Syria — At age 70, Ahmad Saidi took up arms after the slaying of his son, a father of five who was killed when a remote-controlled bomb blew up his car.

A neighbor suspected in the attack was later overheard bragging about his “gift” for the Saidi family.

“This is our homeland,” Saidi, a textile merchant, said this week as he stood in camouflage pants amid the shrapnel-scarred interior of the Zubair Mosque, where even a stack of Korans had been shredded by bullets. “We will die defending it.”

The defiant septuagenarian with the patrician crown of snow-white hair and matching beard is not a soldier with the Syrian army or a militant in a rebel brigade. Rather, he belongs to a neighborhood branch of Syria’s National Defense Forces, a government-backed umbrella group of militias that has emerged as a kind of parallel national army.

Saidi said his son Imad was killed Feb. 2 in the Tadamun neighborhood of Damascus, the Syrian capital, for refusing to join the rebellion against the government of President Bashar Assad.
…
The militias include disproportionate numbers of generally pro-government minorities — including Alawites, Shiites, Christians and Druze — but in Damascus, many Sunni Muslims are also members.
..
In the Old City district of Shaghour, where antigovernment protests were common in the first year of the rebellion, the tide has turned in Assad’s favor. Tension between Sunni and Shiite residents that roiled the historic district last year have calmed, according to militia commanders and residents. Some former rebels have even joined the pro-Assad militia and now help keep the peace, they said.

Zoo and Syrian ( allow me to reply to both),
Syria’s significance was never about its non existing oil wealth, it is about its geopolitical importance, Syria was always at the center of every conflict in the Middle East in a way or the other. Much but not of all Syria is destroyed, and lessons from other countries clearly show that nations can rebuild and stand up again if they stay in one piece and abandon violence, both conditions look elusive today so there are good reasons to be pessimistic for the short term.
Syrian,
You asked the question then you answered it, Iran does not want a hostile regime in Syria, what it got from the first weeks were threats and unfriendly statements from the SNC even before Iran’s involvement was as heavy as it is today.
I am puzzled by the refusal of many Syrians to acknowledge that it is a regional and international problem now, that means we either need a clear victor, very unlikely, or a compromise which requires that one side has to talk to another side that he does not like.
For the war to end, parties involved need to get something tangible in return of cooperation, efforts to dominate the country have failed by both sides, I hope that Syrians and their “friends” can agree on a common enemy and on the goal of ending blood shed,
Ironically, a win by rebels will only give them incentives not to negotiate, as for the regime, they have a lot of reasons to reach a settlement.
Whether Iran develops a nuclear bomb by June 2014 or not is a matter for speculations, I personally believe that Iran does not need the bomb and the mullahs and rouhani may not be bluffing this time, it would be a big mistake not to test Iran’s new leadership and give peace a chance, Obama I hope will manage to silence the Jewish lobby for few months before he can say with confidence that Iran is just buying time.
Israel and Iran’s foes are nervous because they know that 2014 may bring unfavorable changes, they are probably right.

Assad regime supplied with barrel bombs from the theocratic Islamist republic of Iran, threw this morning 2 huge barrel bombs over a Sunni town,killing indescremently babies,women, and anything that breath in the town of Kafer Zita in the country side of Hama
http://youtu.be/cAzoaO60A5c

Has the war in Syria boosted further the hope of the creation of a Kurdish state?

The prospect of Kurdish autonomy moves ever closer

Kurdish groups in northern Syria have been successful in fending off challenges from jihadists and others who seek to use these same territories for their own purposes. They are, in effect, building an annexe to the KRG in Syria. Both fractured countries will, therefore, produce Kurdish areas that will be, at the least, virtually independent.

Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/the-prospect-of-kurdish-autonomy-moves-ever-closer#ixzz2faQUqnA9
Follow us: @TheNationalUAE on Twitter | thenational.ae on Facebook

#241 Ghufran

My point is that there are enough reasons to justify that Iran should be involved in the peace negotiations in Syria.
Excluding Iran while including Turkey, France and the UK is an aberration.

Congrats to Tunisia: their population is growing with babies carrying the Sunni Jihadi gene

Tunisian Girls Are Coming Home Pregnant After Performing ‘Sexual Jihad’ In Syria

Published 4:37 pm, Saturday, September 21, 2013
http://www.seattlepi.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Tunisian-Girls-Are-Coming-Home-Pregnant-After-4833376.php

A number of girls from Tunisia have become pregnant after traveling to Syria to participate in “sexual jihad,” according to Lotfi Bin Jeddo, Tunisia’s Interior Minister.

The girls “are (sexually) swapped between 20, 30, and 100 rebels and they come back bearing the fruit of sexual contacts in the name of sexual jihad and we are silent doing nothing and standing idle,” Al Arabiya reported he said during an address to the National Constituent Assembly.

The Telegraph has more:

“After the sexual liaisons they have there in the name of ‘jihad al-nikah’ – (sexual holy war, in Arabic) – they come home pregnant,” Ben Jeddou told the MPs.

The visit by a prominent EU politician to Syria raised questions in Belgium :

Syria’s Bashar al-Assad stressed that he will seize the power and people will decide who will rule the country during the presidential elections taking place in 2014. Assad stated that Syria’s existence is on the verge of the abyss. Assad’s words are quoted by the Member of the European Parliament Véronique De Keyser after a one-hour meeting held by both parties last Thursday.
Speaking to the Belgian press, De Keyser said after her meeting with the Syrian president many messages are to be concluded pointing out that, “The first message surprised me because Assad told me that he is not holding onto power because he has another life however he will let the ship sink.”
The Belgian politician added that Assad stressed that “Syria’s existence is on the verge of the abyss, Syria the secular country, tolerating the minorities also the national unity is in danger too however extremist Islamic groups leave no choice to any regime but fighting them.”
As for the credibility of this speech, De Keyser declared that ,”People are reiterating that Syria is about to disappear, the president is saying such words too probably using them for propaganda but the truth is that Syria is disappearing. The culture, the heritage and the Christians in the East, all are in danger.”
Member of the European Parliament quoted Assad’s wish to see the presidential elections outcome to decide who will be in power in 2014.
In this context, De Keyser pointed out that, “The Lebanese leader Walid Jumblatt whom I met in Lebanon is not friends with Assad. He told me that if the presidential elections took place in Syria, at least 60% of votes will be for the president because people will be afraid of Syria’s explosion, President Bashar al-Assad, represents, whether we like it or not and despite all his flaws, most of the Syrian people for he is protecting them from an external threat.”

Why should anyone mediate between Syrians? Oh I forgot, the inviolate sovereignty of Thouria is off limits except when it involves Israeli strikes to which we will choose the place and time of response, and the admission of possessing CW and the immediate laying down and signing the treaty and the immediate agreement to destroy them and the immediate surrender of the deterrent that could prevent a nuclear attack.

Why should Iran intervene or Turkey or anyone else for that matter? Oh I forgot that they are sending the iPad retard a billion a month to prop up his regime and fighters galore and ammunition and weapons and experts as well.

Well well more villages keep falling to the rebels and more and more tanks are being destroyed and more and more heavy weapons are being used.

As a matter of fact I think the fact that Obama did not strike is actually good for the opposition for they now know that they have to do it themselves.

Yesterday a Sunni mosque was bombed and today Sadr city was bombed.

Is this the work of Zionists or of locals? Continuing to blame the “outside” is stupid.

Break up the place. They cannot live together.

Cheers. Long live Alawistan and Kurdistan etc……

Syria: ‘Bashar al-Assad ordered me to gas people – but I could not do it’

General Zaher al-Sakat tells Richard Spencer that he was ordered three times to use chemical weapons against his own people in Syria – but he could not go through with it

EXCERPTS:

Few thought that the Syrian regime’s promise to destroy its chemical weapons would be the end of the story. Brigadier-General Zaher al-Sakat, a former chemical weapons chief in President Bashar al-Assad’s own army, certainly did not.

Gen Sakat says he was ordered three times to use chemical weapons against his own people, but could not go through with it and replaced chemical canisters with ones containing harmless bleach.

He also insists that all such orders had to come from the top – President Assad himself – despite insistent denials by the regime that it has never used chemical weapons.

Now he also claims to have his own intelligence that the Syrian president is evading the terms of a Russian-brokered deal to destroy his chemical weapons by transferring some of his stocks to his allies – Hizbollah, in Lebanon, and Iran.

Gen Sakat spoke to The Sunday Telegraph last week, his first interview with a western newspaper, as Mr Assad confirmed for the first time what he and much of the rest of the world already knew – that regime possessed a huge arsenal of chemical weapons, and the delivery systems to go along with them.

—
Gen Sakat’s personal history gives new insight into the extent to which, it is said, the Assad regime gradually turned to the use of chemical weapons, despite angry public denials, after rebels encroached on Damascus and Aleppo, the country’s two biggest cities, in the summer of last year.

As chief scientific officer in the army’s fifth division, he ran chemical weapons operations in the country’s southern Deraa province, where the uprising began in March 2011.

He says he witnessed the first uses of violence against peaceful protesters – and the first use of “dirty tricks”, placing weapons in the mosque where the protests started to suggest the protesters were armed.

Gen Sakat said the regime wanted to “annihilate” the opposition using any means, and said he received his first orders to use chemical weapons in October last year. On three occasions, he said he was told to use a mixture of phosgene and two other chlorine-based agents against civilian targets in Sheikh Masqeen, Herak, and Busra, all rebel-held districts.

However, under cover of darkness, he said he had replaced the canisters containing the chemicals with ones containing water mixed with dilute bleach which would give off a similar chlorine smell.

At first, his trick worked. “They were completely convinced that this was the same poisonous material,” he told the Sunday Telegraph in an interview. “In this way I saved hundreds of lives of children and others.”

But after the third occasion, in January, his bosses became suspicious at the lack of deaths in his “attacks” and he began to plot his escape to Jordan, where he has been based since the spring.

Gen Sakat believes chemical weapons have now been used 34 times, rather than the 14 occasions cited by international intelligence agencies. But he agrees with a variety of assessments that differing substances and concentrations are used, which would account for the differing death rates, with some attacks killing very few or none.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10325193/Syria-Bashar-al-Assad-ordered-me-to-gas-people-but-I-could-not-do-it.html

Before 1980s no Syrian have seen an Iranian since before the Romans,so they have no history what so ever. Actually Iran before 1979 was a sworn enemy and the Ba’ath took the cause of Ahawaz as much as the cause of Palestine,now that the Assad made it a sectarian war, with Iran standing behind him in every step,the masses are very suspicious of Iran and its grand design even if its exaggerated, the people doesn’t trust their claim of the resistance struggle anymore,.It is a war to keep Syria’s Arab identity before Syria became another Iraq under the complete influence of a self declared Islamist system, that you hate so much yourself, not only Syria’s Arabic identity is at stake but Syrians own religious identity is involved, even if that is also exaggerated but that is how they will always be perceived.
Syria has no border with Iran so its location should not be any of Iran concern.unless it has the unattainable dream of reestablishing it old long dead Persian empire,

Observer,
I share your sentiment and disappointment even if we disagree on whether the rebels can be trusted or not, my position is that neither parties can be trusted alone.
It is not possible for Syrians today to end the war without mediation, we may not like this fact but this is the nature of the conflict now.

According to Suhail Saadeh, Nusra committed crimes in Maloula and forced 450 families to flee:

بيروت..
التقى وفد من أهالي مدينة معلولا اليوم رئيس تكتل التغيير والإصلاح النائب اللبناني العماد ميشال عون في بيروت وأشادوا بالمواقف التي يتخذها مما يجري في سورية.
وقال المتحدث باسم الوفد سهيل سعادة خلال اللقاء “إن جبهة النصرة دخلت معلولا وخربت الكنائس والأديرة والمنازل وحاولت أن تغير ديانات أهالي القرية” مشيرا إلى استشهاد ستة أشخاص من المدينة وتهجير 450 عائلة توجهوا إلى دمشق أو الى دير المخلص أو إلى لبنان.
وأضاف سعادة “إن لمدينة معلولا رسالة إيمان وشهادة ورسالة محبة وسلام من موقعها الديني وما تمثله من حضارة وثقافة وهي لم تلحق الأذى بأحد” مؤكدا أن هذه المدينة “ستبقى تتكلم بلغة سيدها الآرامية وهي لغة محبة وسلام” ونتمنى أن يعم السلام على كل الأديان لكي نعيش سويا.

Ghufran@246
Assad also told De Keyser that the rebels kidnapped Abdel Aziz Alkher, in other words he died in Assad’s dungeon
قالت البرلمانية الأوروبية فيرونيك دو كايزر ” نائبة رئيس كتلة الاشتراكيين الديموقراطيين في البرلمان الاوروبي” بعد لقائها مع بشار الاسد الخميس الماضي إنها سألته عن مصير المعارض السوري عبد العزيز الخير، الذي اختفى في 20 ايلول 2012 بعد عودته من الصين، فأجابها ان “المسلحين هم من خطفوه”.
هذا الجواب يعني انه لا يمكن المطالبة به مستقبلاً من اي جهة تابعة للنظام ؟! ….وحيث انه من المستحيل ان يقوم مسلحون وفق قول بشار الاسد من خطفه مع رفيقيه من امام حاجز المخابرات السورية ولم يتصلوا باحد ولم يطلبوا شيئاً مقابل الافراج عنه ولماذا يخطفونه اصلاً ؟! …..فهذا يعني ان الوضع سيئ جداً .
http://all4syria.info/Archive/99940

I doubt that dr AA al-khayyer was kidnapped by rebels, his friends believe that he was taken by AFI because he was seen as a threat to Assad. As far as I know, no rebel group mentioned his name or asked for a ransom,etc and nobody on the Syrian government side has done anything to find him.

I doubt that dr AA al-khayyer was kidnapped by rebels, his friends believe that he was taken by AFI because he was seen as a threat to Assad. As far as I know, no rebel group mentioned his name or asked for a ransom,etc and nobody on the Syrian government side has done anything to find him. Jamil Hassan of AFI may know where AA khayyer is.

The Chechen and Dagestani militants in Syria
http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftrueinform.ru%2Fmodules.php%3Fname%3DNews%26file%3Darticle%26sid%3D19871&sandbox=1

#252 Ghufran

The regime was/is very strategic at arresting, killing, or driving to exile ANYONE who can be a political threat to it. Assad uses his security gangsters to hunt down his political opponents and uses his army to hunt down his militant opponents. He learned that recipe from his father, who took it from Stalin’s cook book.

This is the big problem that the Syrian revolution faces today (and has faced from day one). Zoo, correctly, always talk about the opposition’s lack of strong political leadership, and I agree. What he fails to mention is that the regime is responsible for that tragedy.

Al-Khayyer is more dangerous to Assad than any other opposition figure because he STAYED in Syria and he has strong international relationship with Assad’s own allies! Here is his last interview before his arrest last year:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xssl67_syrian-ex-opposition-leader-says-violence-cannot-bring-democracy_news

His case ALONE brings down all Zoo’s arguments about the regime!

I call on ALL Syrian political opposition groups to nominate Mr. Abdul-Aziz Al-Khayyer to lead the opposition delegation to Geneva II. Force the regime’s hand to release him from prison – exactly like the South African apartheid regime released Mandela from his prison in 1990.

SYRIAN @218
Iran wants to be at the table so that it can claim victory brought on by the brilliant Iranian diplomats. Either way; whether wet-pants athad is sacked or whether it just retains its status as dead-cockroach walking Iran will try to claim victory. Very much like their poodle wet-pants.

Propaganda and appearances are far more important to the mullahs than anyone can think of. It is the obsession of a maniac.

255. Hopeful: I call on ALL Syrian political opposition groups to nominate Mr. Abdul-Aziz Al-Khayyer to lead the opposition delegation to Geneva II.

i hate to shock & be the bearer of bad news but i was told he had passed away.

was the report i was pointed to incorrect?

i usually dimiss presstv but this bit of weirdness was interesting:

Obama to demand Syria’s Assad removal at UN speech

US President Barack Obama will use his Tuesday’s address to the United Nations in New York to demand that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down, according to US officials.

yet, oddly enough, nothing in the article provides support for this startling assertion.

prominent pundits keep giving obama flack for having earlier demanded assad step down only to have bashar refuse to do so – making obama look ridiculously impotent. would obama once burned make the same mistake twice? i don’t think so.

so why would iran raise the possibility of assad stepping down when there is nothing in the cards that suggests this will happen?

this is probably getting my hopes up & chances are i’m wildly misinterpreting this, but – could iran be sending a signal?

like afghanistan was for the russians, has syria bled iran enough to cause them to say enough is enough? letting assad go but retaining the inner circle would relieve a lot of pressure but would still be a victory for iran.

wonder what assad makes of this headline.

Hopeful

“What he fails to mention is that the regime is responsible for that tragedy.

Who cares who is responsible? What counts is the result.
Anyway you give too much credit to the regime and much less to the foreign ‘benefactors’ that lead the opposition to a dead end by ill advising them and to their own political immaturity.

#246 Ghufran

“Jumblatt: 60% of Syrians will re-elect Bashar al Assad”

That has been obvious for a long time. That’s why the rebels refuses negotiations and reject the election. They prefer a “coup” with the help of the West to avoid elections that may keep Bashar possibly for 5 more years..
The trouble with the opposition is they have nobody to propose as an alternative leader except a bunch of pathetic puppets and they still insist.
If nobody forces them into retreat, the end result will be the breakup of Syria (to the joy of Observer).

“The Lebanese leader Walid Jumblatt whom I met in Lebanon is not friends with Assad. He told me that if the presidential elections took place in Syria, at least 60% of votes will be for the president because people will be afraid of Syria’s explosion, President Bashar al-Assad, represents, whether we like it or not and despite all his flaws, most of the Syrian people for he is protecting them from an external threat.”

Syria Islamists rake in funds
Donors giving cash to push own agenda

The Washington Post

Sep 22, 2013

GAZIANTEP, TURKEY – The stream of U.S. weapons heading to moderate rebel groups in Syria is being offset by a fresh torrent of cash for Islamist extremists, much of it from small networks of Arab donors who see the Syrian conflict as a step toward a broader Islamist uprising across the region, U.S. and Middle Eastern officials say.

The private donors, who use Twitter and other social media to collect millions of dollars from sympathetic Muslims, are providing crucial backing for Islamist militias that appear to be gaining ground in northern and eastern Syria even as fighting stalls elsewhere, the officials said.

Dollars raised over the Internet are wired between private banking accounts and hand-delivered by courier, often in border towns like Gaziantep, a Turkish city of 1.4 million about 30 km from the Syrian frontier, according to Middle Eastern intelligence officials who monitor the activity.

Some fundraising pitches ask for specific pledges to cover the cost of a weapon, for example, or to finance an operation. For $2,400, a donor can pay for the travel, training and arming of a single non-Syrian fighter.

“You can even get a video afterward showing what it was you paid for,” said one senior intelligence official based in the region.

While radical groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham have long relied on charitable giving from Persian Gulf states, the flow of private cash has enabled the extremists to retain their battlefield edge despite the loss of support from key Arab backers such as Qatar, which cut off aid to the most radical groups under pressure from the United States and Saudi Arabia.

These are the first signs that the SNC is preparing its retreat from its long standing ‘conditions’: It does not ask anymore that Bashar al Assad steps aside before or after the Geneva conference

Syrian SNC backs Geneva talks if transitional govt the aim

(AGI) Istanbul, Sept. 22 – The Syrian opposition has said for the first time that it is willing to take part in the Geneva conference if the talks aim to set up a transitional government with full powers. Syrian National Coalition (SNC) president Ahmad Jarba made this declaration in a letter sent to the UN Security Council in which he urged ”all parties” to ”agree that the purpose of the conference will be the establishment of a transitional government with full executive powers” as stipulated in an agreement last year by international powers

I thought Sunni Islamists hate Shias but love and respect Christians…

UPDATE: Suicide bombers kill more than 60 at Pakistan church
Two suicide bombers kill at least 60 and wound more than 100 in attack on church in restive northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar
AFP , Sunday 22 Sep 2013

Pakistan’s small and largely impoverished Christian community suffers discrimination in overwhelmingly Muslim-majority Pakistan but bombings against them are extremely rare.

exactly as zoo said, wet-pants athad is winning

Cruise missiles do not return the peace to Syria
“Attempts to justify military intervention sorts of specious slogans – such as the promotion of democracy, Where were applied force recipes, democracy and freedom was no more – let’s not be hypocritical in this regard.” The seizure of colonies also masked noble words about “communion”, “backward” peoples to progress and civilization. But often the facade hiding behind demagogic “banal commercial interests.”
The Cold War is over, but the unipolar model was shaky , international relations are becoming more complex and less predictable , and security challenges – more numerous and diverse. ” The world is still far from stability”,
For the “Arab Spring” followed by “autumn” and “winter.” And if you analyze the events in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Mali – it is clear that the prediction comes true. It is necessary to respect the rights of peoples to determine their own destiny, and in resolving conflicts emanate from the strategic vision, not to look at the needs of election campaigns.

Sergey Ivanov

russia is qualified as a hole not as a pole.

#259 Zoo
“Who cares who is responsible? What counts is the result.”

I do, for a simple reason: Tthis confirms that so long as the regime and Assad are in power, Syria will never have the opportunity to transition to a democratic state. This is why I believe that the regime’s removal is the first step to accomplish that. We need people like Khayyer and Ghiath Mattar to stay alive and out of prison; otherwise, there is no hope.

Three Russian diplomats wounded by mortar shells in Syria

Syrian rebels fired at Damascus Mezze district. One of the mines came to the territory of the Russian Embassy, ​​three people were injured. Doctors say the injury is not serious, life is not in danger of diplomats. The Russian Foreign Ministry, meanwhile engaged in the investigation of the incident. Together with Syrian counterparts, Russian diplomats are doing everything to the Russian embassy were no injuries, according to ITAR-TASS.
This is not the first time in Syria shelling the Russian embassy. So militants protesting against the holding of the second Geneva conference. Official Damascus has agreed to hand over their weapons under the supervision of the international community, but the armed opposition, this situation is not pleasant….
http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vesti.ru%2Fdoc.html%3Fid%3D1133034%261133034&sandbox=1

Mr. Putin! if you do not respond, then they will continue to reach your Kremlin!

This world is a monster! it is understand only the language of force!
http://youtu.be/Yvn296EOyhs?t=3m48s
http://youtu.be/1tUdOPcet-o

West made a mistake in Syria
And now can not admit it

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Western countries two years ago, decided to change the regime of Bashar al-Assad and now they can not admit they were wrong.

“Our Western partners are simply blinded by their task of regime change. A couple of years ago, the leaders of the Western world publicly declared that Assad almost no place on this earth and that he should leave. Now they can not sign, which once again made a mistake. Similarly, they made a mistake with Libya, bombing the country and putting it on the brink of collapse, and with Iraq, which even had a ground operation. Power methods are widely applied in the region until recently, have led to disaster in a number of states. This is not to say they are now in hand. Western countries have started down this path only to prove that they will call the tune in the Middle East “- the minister said in an interview with Channel One.

As noted by Lavrov, U.S. blackmail Russia, saying that without the Syrian Security Council resolutions on the seventh chapter of the UN Charter will be rolled work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. And this is an absolute departure from what Moscow has agreed with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Ghufran 450 Christian families were displaced. I must confess I did not follow closely the events. I remind you that 7 million Sunnis were displaced. I say Sunnis because I do believe that there is anything called Syrian anymore. There are other sects included as well but now we are seeing Syrian washing up on Italy’s shores for not even their “arab” brothers are welcoming them and these “arab” countries are also in pure turmoil.

The repression of any dissent has led de facto to a fragmented opposition. Slowly and surely they are cooperating well together now. The lack of an internal opposition that is true and credible is a huge detriment to the regime as well. It cannot but negotiate with the armed and outside opposition. Putting a window dressing in Jamil or some other person is pure fantasy.

As to who cares about the process we need to look at results this is again the work of a regime insider that would like to exonerate the guilty so that they can get away with it again and again.

The regime is finished it cannot even enter Darraya and is being chased out village by village and it is losing its supporters daily.

As for the interviews the iPad retard is giving; he is the butt of jokes and derision around the world. Not even Laughvrov can help him any longer.

Iran to mediate my foot, Russia to mediate my foot. The weapons on the ground are going to bring him to his knees. He intimated to de Keyser that he has another life that he can pursue. Well Pleassssssssssssssse go on and have that other life and get out of our hair you and your Ajhizeh Amnieh and Mafia turf captains and your uncontrollable thugs and militia and your massacring Lijan Shabieh.

Break it up there is no compromise there is no respect for the other there is no consideration for the humanity or this or that group there is nothing but self centered hatred of the others and utter contempt towards the “mosaic” of secularism and tolerance. There is not an ounce of tolerance or secularism in ANYONE in the ME except a few old guard ex-communists and even at that many of them with just a veneer only.

BREAK IT UP.

It seems that one of Syria’s closest neighbor is not only involved but participates in events as reported by a US website:…. the intelligence coordination between Israel and the United States has not suffered, and Israel continues to (feed)share the vast amounts of information that it has about Syria with the United States. Published reports credit Israel with giving the CIA, as the Wall Street Journal put it, “intelligence from inside an elite special Syrian unit….

“We have a very extensive knowledge of what is happening in Syria. Our ability to collect information there is profound. Israel is the eyes and ears, sometimes exclusively, sometimes as complementary aid, to what the U.S. intelligence is able or unable to collect itself,” Maj. Gen. Uri Sagi, Israel’s former chief of military intelligence, told me on Sept. 19. ..

“a surgical strike”
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BUw_autCMAIxnvk.jpg:large

Also laughable?
Not realistic to talk Syria without Iran: Turkish President

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/not-realistic-to-talk-syria-without-iran-turkish-president-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=54927&NewsCatID=338

Gül is in New York to represent Turkey at the 68th General Assembly meeting of the United Nations, where Syria will likely be the top item on his agenda. DAILY NEWS Photo/Selahattin Sönmez

Gül is in New York to represent Turkey at the 68th General Assembly meeting of the United Nations, where Syria will likely be the top item on his agenda. DAILY NEWS Photo/Selahattin Sönmez
Turkish President Abdullah Gül has said it would be “unrealistic” to have any discussion on the Syrian war without the inclusion of Iran, adding that Turkey and Iran were both directly involved in the ongoing process.

“Frankly, it’s unrealistic to talk about Syria without Iran. There has yet to be a common understanding with Iran, but you cannot exclude it,” Gül told reporters in New York, in which he highlighted “the new era” in Iranian politics with the election of President Hassan Rouhani.

Hopeful

“This confirms that so long as the regime and Assad are in power,”
…the country will not fall into the hands of Islamists.

It is not is people like Khayyer and Ghiath Mattar who will prevent Al Qaeda and armed Islamists with infinite fundings to take over the country, it is the Syrian Army, and the Syrian army would cease to exist if the Syrian governement falls.

The choice is obvious to me and it seems to have become obvious to the international community.

One wonders which countries are really “shame” for Islam

Egypt ‘shame’ for Islam, Arab world, Turkish President Gül says

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/egypt-shame-for-islam-arab-world-turkish-president-gul-says.aspx?pageID=238&nID=52700&NewsCatID=338

QABALA – Anadolu Agency
President Gül says he deeply feels the pain for every single Egyptian that was killed and Egypt is a shame for Islam and the Arab world

Its now known by the whole world who is most interested in getting Al Queda in power in Syria….

http://www.jpost.com/Syria-Crisis/Oren-Jerusalem-has-wanted-Assad-ousted-since-the-outbreak-of-the-Syrian-civil-war-326328

Under Saudi and Qatar pressure, France and the UK have been pushing hard to insert a clause in the UNSC resolution that they wish to use later as an UN official autorization for a military intervention, just like Iraq.

” Russia is sure to veto a resolution that includes a mandate for military action.”

http://www.canada.com/news/session+Obama+finds+unexpected+diplomatic+openings+Iran+Syria/8944118/story.html

Just a reminder: The Geneva agreement dated June 12 2012

“Geneva meeting agrees ‘transition plan’ to Syria unity government
World powers meeting in Geneva to try to agree a peace plan for Syria said they had come up with a transition plan and that regime figures could join a new government of national unity. ”

Since then, the opposition has consistently refused to participate in Geneva meeting unless Bahar al Assad steps aside. Now after 14 months of destruction and thousands of death, weakened and desperate, it seems to make a major concession.

Syrian opposition says willing to attend Geneva talks

AMMAN | Sun Sep 22, 2013 5:27am EDT

(Reuters) – The president of the opposition Syrian Coalition, Ahmad Jarba, said the group was ready to attend a proposed Geneva conference to end two and a half years of conflict in Syria if it aims to establish a transitional government with full powers.

It was the first clear commitment by the Western- and Arab-backed coalition to attend the proposed conference, sponsored by the United States and Russia. The coalition has been dithering on whether to attend, especially after a chemical weapons attack on August 21 that killed hundreds of people in Damascus.

In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, obtained by Reuters and dated September 19, Jarba said the coalition “reaffirms its willingness to engage in a future Geneva Conference”.

But “all parties must … agree that the purpose of the conference will be the establishment of a transitional government with full executive powers”, as stipulated at the first round of international talks on Syria in Geneva last year.

Rebels and political opponents of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad have also insisted that he play no role in a transitional authority. But the president has played down prospects that he might transfer any powers.

In the letter, Jarba called on the security council to make any resolution on a U.S.-Russian deal to destroy Assad’s chemical weapons subject to “Chapter 7” of the U.N. charter, which could authorize the use of force in case of non-compliance.

Jarba also called on the council to take the “necessary measures” to impose a ceasefire in the country and release thousands of peaceful activists.

http://youtu.be/LPwQlVxVt9A?t=33s

Syria: Al-Qaeda as the black operations wing of the US

At the end of July Saudi Prince Bandar met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and with the full support of the United States of America first attempted to bribe President Putin to pull Russian support for Syria and President Bashar Al-Assad and then threatened the President and the Russian Federation with terrorist acts during the Sochi Olympic Games.

The fact Bandar admitted that the Saudis control Chechen terrorists and Al-Qaeda elements in Syria (ties between the Saudis and the US Black Operations Community have been suspected and known about for years, as President Putin stated to Bandar during the conversation) was a watershed moment, but the fact that he threatened Russia, a sovereign nation, with a terrorist attack was an event of such magnitude that it would have served as a legitimate self-defense pretext for leveling Saudi Arabia had President Putin so desired.

This admission I would argue is the key to unlocking the events of 9-11 and showing who was actually involved in the murder of 2,999 civilians on that autumn morning in September of 2001. Osama Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, the Saudis, MOSSAD, the CIA, the NSA and the Shadow Government controlling the United States are all clearly aligned and working together in efficient unison to bring about their goals.
http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_09_19/Syria-Al-Qaeda-as-the-black-operations-wing-of-the-US-2104/
=+=+=+=+=
Dear Putin ! It is alarming !!!
S.Peters-burg. 21 September 2013. Shooting Caucasians and cries of “Allah Akbar” on the streets of an evening city.
From the witness: “… shot Caucasians all in a row …” and “persons of Caucasian nationality … in an amount of not less than 25 schschey, attack and shoot guards and visitors of the bars …
http://youtu.be/Yaghthvakgk?t=1s
=+=+=+=+=
Saudi Arabia’s Proxy War in Syria to Maintain Oil, Gas & the Dollar’s Reserve Status
http://12160.info/forum/topics/saudi-arabia-s-proxy-war-in-syria-to-maintain-oil-gas-the-dollar
=+=+=+=+=
The Spies Inside Damascus
The Mossad’s secret war on the Syrian WMD machine.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/09/19/the_spies_inside_damascus_mossad_syria

The Belgian teacher kidnapped by Jihadist fighters in Syria.
https://soundcloud.com/bbc-world-service/newsday-the-belgian-teacher

Syrian Hamster@256
Declaring victory in defeat is a given in the “resistance” axis, I asked Ghufran because he believe strongly in their “essential” participation,
His answer gave the reason why it can not be a participant, he said its Syria’s land location, which means the necessary connection between Iraq and Lebanon which will give Iran a sphere of influence from the borders of Afghanistan all the way to the Mediterranean shores.
That is what Iran really want but won’t get. Not anymore, had Iran stayed neutral and not shared with the killing, maybe some Arrangement would have worked out,after all The MBs of Syria had always good relation with Islamist Iran. Even the whole 1982 uprising was inspired by the Iranian Islamist revolution..

Ghufran @252
Every one knows that the Air Force security branch kidnapped AA alkhayyer,
But when the head of the mafia regime declares that he does not have him, that means Dr. Alkhayyer is either dead or that was an order to kill him, because after that declaration, Jamil Hasan will not dare to make the Assad look like the incompetent lair that he already is.

Also you should know by now. A valid Alawi opposition member is ten time more dangerous to the Assad mafia regime than any other opposition member.his elimination is very logical in the eyes of the mafia regime.

The Syrian Mokhabart and it’s PR agents are working very hard on this site to change the image of Assad’s the thug. It will not work. Trust me on this…. The killer and thug will be so and can’t be changed ..

Observer,
so, how would you ” break it up” ?
Easier said than done especially in place where there is no clear majority of one sect over the other. Even if one sect is 90% of the population, are you going to displace the rest?
One interesting example is Latakia where there are hundred of thousands of Sunnis and now there is at least 1/2 million refugees, some say close to a million, most of whom came from areas that are overwhelmingly Sunni, the majority are women and children, the men are nowhere to be seen (!!) locals suspect that many of the men in those families are probably fighting with the rebels killing other Syrians (most of whom are from the same areas that are helping those displaced families and keeping them safe) yet we have not heard of a single accident where the citizens of that town, Latakia, rose up and mistreated those refugee families, compare that to how Syrians, especially women, are treated by Arabs in Jordan for example (where both the victims and the perpetrators are typically Sunni).
I say that the sectarian element is not as critical as some say and that there is still hope, even if Syria breaks up in smaller semi independent states , that will not be along sectarian lines, moderate Sunnis, Christians and alawites do not want to live under the rule of Nusra thugs and their friends, sooner or later the Assad dynasty will come to an end but the Nusra-AlQaida can last for a generation because it is not linked to a person or a family, militant islamists are way more dangerous than any dictatorship.

Jabra’s letter to the UN agreeing to Geneva II is interesting. I heard The spokesperson of the FSA, Mr. Mekdad, in a program on Al Arabyia yesterday and I also got the feeling that the FSA gave an implicit agreement to participate.

This is a sudden change for both the NC and the FSA. Has anything been cooked behind close door and we just do not know it yet? I find it extremely difficult to believe that the NC and the FSA have just sold the 100,000 slaughtered Syrians. Have they gotten any assurance that Russia does not care about Batta any more?

Batta has said that Syria is at the brink of the Abyss. Did it get to him finally that he has no future remaining in power?

البحرية الأميركية تؤكد سقوط مروحية تابعة لها في البحر الاحمر

أكدت البحرية الأمريكية سقوط مروحية تابعة لها كانت قد أقلعت من مدمرة موجودة في البحر الاحمر الاحد 22 سبتمبر/ ايلول، التي قد تستخدم في حال توجيه ضربة ضد سورية.وأعلنت قيادة الاسطول الأمريكي الخامس أن المروحية من طراز “ام اتش-60″، في حين لم يصرح على الفور عن مصير افراد الطاقم الخمسة. كما لم يصرح عن ظروف الحادث، إلا أن البحرية الامركية اكدت أنه “ليس ناجما عن اي عمل معاد”.وكانت المروحية، وهي النسخة البحرية لمروحية “بلاكهوك”، قد اقلعت من المدمرة “وليام-لورنس”، احدى البوارج الاربع التي ترافق حاملة الطائرات “نيميتز”.

تونس تتصدر قائمة أميركية لأعداد القتلى العرب في سورية
http://youtu.be/0zKHvTwqkg0?t=48s

# 274 Zoo

“.. the Syrian army would cease to exist if the Syrian government falls.”

The Egyptian Army did not fall when the Mubarak regime fell. On the contrary, the Syrian Army is falling day by day because the Syrian regime still clings to power. The army gets its support and power from the people, not from the regime.

tara,
Jarba’s letter as far as I can see has not been posted on the NC’s website yet, the NC and especially the FSA are uncomfortable making this public for fear of reprisal.
For Geneva 2 to take place, the NC needs a face saving concession from the regime, I suspect that concession will be a commitment from Assad that he will not run in 2014.
Jarba’s letter emergged after FSA came under fire from Nusra and Al-Qaida and after rebels failed to score any significant military victory in Damascus.

militant Isamists failed everywhere they tried to govern, they have nothing to offer but violence, oppression and maltreatment of women and minorities. This is their last achievement:

Two bombers blew themselves up outside the church in the Pakistan city of Peshawar, security officials said.
After the service ended, people started to come out and the suicide bomber rushed towards them.Najeeb Bogvi, police officer
Pakistan’s interior ministry said the death toll from the attack was 78, including seven children and 34 women.
Police has earlier said the death toll included four children, six women and two policemen, and was likely to rise. Around 100 people were injured.
At least 400 parishioners were inside the church at the time of the attack.

Tara, Ghufran

A war can only end if:

1. One side resoundingly defeats the other
2. Each side gets face saving concessions from the other so it can claim it won

For example, Assad the father won the October 1973 war because the Israelis agreed to give him back Qunaitra. Saddam Hussain won the first golf war because the US agreed to leave him in power.

The regime and the rebels will either keep fighting until one defeats the other, or must understand that each needs to give the other face saving concessions to end the war.

Lavrov: The West focuses more on using force than on chemical weapons in Syria

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described the West’s attempts to seek politicized draft UN Security Council resolutions against Syria as “irresponsible and unprofessional”.

Lavrov accused the Western countries of being less interested in the disposal of the chemical weapons in Syria than in trying to exploit the Russian-U.S. agreement so as to carry out what Russia and China have blocked them from doing, namely adopting a resolution involving using force against the “Syrian regime” and shielding the opposition.

“They see in the U.S.-Russian deal not a chance to save the planet from significant quantities of chemical weapons in Syria, but as a chance to do what Russia and China will not allow, namely to push through a resolution involving (the threat of) force against the regime and shielding the opposition,” Lavrov told Rossiya 1 TV channel in an interview on Sunday.
http://sana.sy/eng/22/2013/09/22/503720.htm
’

There are several ways to break it up. We can look at Belgium and Luxembourg when they requested a separation. They were granted the Duchy of Luxembourg and whoever wanted to live there was granted permission to do so.

We can do it a la Pakistan India with massive transfer of people into areas where the entities are independent.

We can do it by regions as it is in Iraq with provinces that are self ruling.

We can have it a a huge Greater Syria entity whereby the regions are federated with redrawing of the provincial boundaries.

People can sit down and discuss it. Simple discussion on the table.

We can have a referendum and ask the people what they want.

At the end of WWI when the League of Nations was established and mandates were allowed for the peoples of the ME the question posed to the people of the ME as to which Mandate power is to be governing your independence was answered overwhelmingly by the greater Syria people except in the Christian enclaves of Lebanon by choosing the USA as the mandatory power for it was actually due to Woodrow WIlson’s self determination declaration that he espoused and the fact that the US was not an empire or a colonizing power and that the people were very suspicious of France and Britain and rightly so.

Their wishes were not taken into account and here we have the Peace to end All Peace with Sykes Picot.

Today some have started to agree with me that there is no prospect of the Syria we know to come back to life. I like to ask questions that shake the foundations of our assumptions and I like to look at a problem from very different angles. I want people in the ME to live in freedom and dignity the same way Norwegians and Swedes and yes Americans and Brits and yes Swiss and I dare say Kurds live today.

I want them to have the rule of law, proper education, a level playing field, an accountable government, institutions of governance, religious freedom, and freedom not be religious. I want them to stop living in fear and arbitrary rule.

The road is long and messy and fraught with danger but there is no doubt that the current regimes in ALL of the countries of the ME are finished. How and when is only a matter of semantics and particularities but no doubt the end of an era is at hand.

Can we have Greater Syria, Free Kurdistan, Smaller Turkey, Single Arab Emirate with Qatar and Bahrain all in one and last but not least a Republic of the Arabian Peninsula instead of the moronic KSA? If it was possible to divide us along Sykes Picot it is equally possible for us to unite along our common incredibly common and incredibly rich heritage: same language, same food, same concept of solidarity, same concept of family, same concept of justice, same history, same aspirations, same fears, same pride, same complexes of inferiority and superiority, same fierce individualism, same undisciplined behavior, same traffic jams, same music, same jokes, same food. And yet look at Europeans who fought each other with millions of dead over more than 300 years trying to forge it together as a single entity.

Ghufran who are you? Syrian Arab, Arab Syrian, Sunni Syrian, Syrian Sunni, etc…..

That is the crux of the matter we do not have a true identity but this war is forging it in blood and steel instead of in dialogue and mutual respect.

I would advocate for a Greater Arab Syria whereby Lebanon and Jordan and Palestine and if so desired part of Iraq come together. I would advocate that it be a constitutional kingdom for if it were a Republic we would have communities fighting over the posts.

I would advocate a lower house and an upper house with seats depending on districts. I would advocate any political party to form under any ideology. i would advocate that the constitution bars anyone that does not accept the rule of democracy for you cannot be part of a democratic principle if your political affiliation denies it thereby automatically barring anyone that puts the sovereignty of the people as second. That way we cannot have a dictatorial rule be it religious or secular as we have had a mirror image of Baath and MB in their dictatorial mantras.

So here and just quickly a room for many a debate.

Cheers

to the nearest psychiatric hospital!

The large-scale war in Syria seems to be going to its logical conclusion. A sign that the West tacitly concedes defeat in the war, which began a movement of Al Qaeda terrorists from Syria to troubled countries of the former Soviet Union. The day before yesterday the National Security Committee of Kyrgyzstan was detained in the south of the international organization a terrorist group “Islamic Jihad Union”, by decision of the Al Qaeda had been transferred from Syria to commit acts of terrorism resonance in Bishkek and Osh. As was to be expected after official visits to the republic prime minister of Qatar Bin Jassem (now former Prime Minister of the former emir). And this is just the beginning …

the latest one : http://youtu.be/Yaghthvakgk

I want to know what Zzzzzzzz mean? Snoring?

Is there a meaning for say Ccccc? Or Eeee? Or you pick your letter?

I am not versed enough..

#280 Alan

“The fact Bandar admitted that the Saudis control Chechen terrorists and Al-Qaeda elements in Syria…”

Wow, Bandar is even more powerful than the Jews!

Wait, does the Mossad report to him or does he report to the Mossad?

Hopefull,

You have not heard?

We were yold on SC that Al Saud are Jews in disguise.

#Tara

Aha! It all makes sense to me now! I have seen the light!

#293 Observer

Stimulating thoughts. Thank you for posting. I enjoyed reading them and I hold you in the highest regards.

Children in Syrian Town of Ras al-Ayn Playing

#293 OBSERVER

Thanks for sharing your thoughts in more detail on the subject of new borders for the Middle East.

You say:

“I want them to have the rule of law, proper education, a level playing field, an accountable government, institutions of governance, religious freedom, and freedom not be religious. I want them to stop living in fear and arbitrary rule.”

That’s my biggest dream too.

But your posts on breaking up Syria and the surrounds always leads me down the same path.

My mind is filled with questions.

First is the central debate about development in new or post-conflict countries (though the former is usually also the latter). The issue looks simple but it isn’t.

It is the question of what needs to be given top priority and immediate resources a. security and law and order, or b. infrastructure to aid economic development. It’s very hard to start making progress on one without the other being in place.

And underpinning all this is the issue of the source of revenue to achieve these two key foundation blocks.

We know from the breakup of the Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia that newly created independent nations struggle to finance basic services like education, health, justice systems and defence, let alone all the other things a country needs to give its citizens the life they aspire to in the 21st century.

And where there is oil or other wealth (and sometimes even when there isn’t) these new national entities fall prey to the worst type of corruption and dictatorships, leaving the country underdeveloped with social and political unrest.

I know the human race should be able to find answers and there is a lot of thinking and things being tried and studied out there. But when and how will a workable roadmap emerge?