News from Aleppo, Homs, and Hama
Posted by Joshua on Friday, April 29th, 2011
This following analysis was sent to me by an outraged reader: (This is not my analysis)
I am dismayed by the analysis provided by the anonymous retired diplomat. Below is my response to his argument that only 2% are involved in the protests. By examining many youtube videos of the Syrian protesters, one will conclude the following
1. Most protesters are aged between 18-40 2. 95% of protesters are men.
For the total number of protesters, I am going to use the same estimate provided by the anonymous retired diplomat, i.e. 400,000 protesters. ·
We can safely assume that for each male protester, a female relative of the same age group (wife, sister…) stayed home yet shared the same sentiment of her male relative ( I am going to call them passive female protesters). This makes the number of protesters (active & passive) 780,000.
Its probably safe to assume that the age group (18-40) constitute 35% of the population. This bring the total number of ( Active protesters + Passive-female protesters +their extended families) to 2,250,000… ·
Given the tremendous risk of being shot dead during demonstrations. It is safe to assume that only a % of the disgruntled population would actually go out and protest. I will estimate that only 3 out of each 10 disgruntled male citizens came out to the streets. This brings the total number of Active protesters + Passive-female protesters +their extended families+ scared-to-protest to 7,500,000.
Most protesters are sunni Muslims. Sunni Muslims are 70% of the population, this comes to be 16, 310,000. This means that 46% of sunnis are involved in the protests (active, passive, and scared)
Some people have been inflating the population of Damascus, it is only 1.64 millions. ( see tables) · Aleppo and Damascus (total of 4 millions inhabitants) have not yet participated in the demonstrations.
Governate | Population* ( in millions) |
Damscus (City) | 1.648 |
Damscus (Subrubs) | 1.711 |
Aleppo | 5.315 |
Homs | 1.977 |
Hama | 1.938 |
Latakia | 1.161 |
Deir ElZor | 1.511 |
Hasaka | 1.445 |
Raquah | 0.903 |
Swaydaa | 0.46 |
Daraa | 1.011 |
Tartous | 1.011 |
Qunaytira | 0.904 |
Tartous | 0.446 |
Idlib | 1.865 |
Total | 23.306 |
Population Under 15 years of age** | 40% |
Population over 65 years of Age** | 3.30% |
Popoulation between 15 & 65** | 56.70% |
*المصدر: المكتب المركزي للإحصاء (2008) National census Office | |
**المصدر: المكتب المركزي للإحصاء (2004) National census Office |
I have developed the utmost respect to the “original” Syrian opposition. People like Michel Kilo, Bassam Alkadi and a long list of others who have been imprisoned for years because they demanded reforms in Syria are now the only sane voices out there requesting calm. If the regime survives it should replace Hafez and Basel’s statues that were torn down around the country with statues for people like Kilo and AlKadi. They are investing all the credibility they have accumulated over the years to keep the country out of civil war. Watch this interview in Arabic.
Aleppo: Fadi writes about why Aleppo has been quite:
I think you have to add to it that Aleppo (like Damascus) has witnessed more openness during the last few years. Aleppo benefited the most from the openness with Turkey, both economically and culturally. It was a real window for breathing. The sectarian and religious tensions that exist in places like Banias and Latakia does not exist in Aleppo. Also, Bashar personally is very much liked in Aleppo. He roams the souks when there. Over the past years he developed a habit of staying in Aleppo frequently and meets with locals. He smartly had a hands on dealing with Aleppo.
These are all personal observations.
Aleppo by Karim:
There were several small protests around Aleppo in the last 10 days. These protests were allowed to proceed by security forces without interference. However, every single time, after 15 minutes or less from startup, a group of c…ivilians would arrive in trucks and buses outnumbering the demonstrators by around 5 times. This new group would start shouting pro regime slogans and would engage the original demonstrators brutally. The Security forces would eventually interfere taking the anti-regime demonstrators to the security stations for questioning. After 2 days or so of questioning most of them are released.
Rumors have it that these people are thugs brought up to deal with the demonstrators. No such thugs were captured so no one can confirm these rumors. Such stories are the main source of fear holding pro-reform demonstrators from gathering larger numbers.
On another note, Syrians have really outgrown sectarian ideas in the last 5-6 years. You have not been living here during this time and it is remarkable how much Syrians have become mature with regard to sectarianism. I have become very proud of the average Aleppean refusal to see things from this narrow angle. The people have grown in an impressive way.
Aleppo: Another person
Hope things are well; just wanted to say I fully concur with Karim’s recent comment on your facebook post, both regarding the small demonstrations in Aleppo and the surprisingly mature attitudes with regards to sectarianism here in the last years.
Two nights ago according to some friends there was another small demonstration right in Aziziye, a very central Christian/mixed upper middle class shopping district here in Aleppo, so not somewhere off in the ‘burbs like in Douma or Telbiseh. There again they brought in party goons in greater numbers to shout down and begin beating up demonstrators.
Aleppo continues to be calm, and there is a apparently a large pro-regime demonstration, yawm Bashar or something, being organized Friday tomorrow. People in the rest of the country are beginning to make jokes about Aleppo’s lack of action; a friend of a friend was
reportedly offered by a business contact from out of town to send him diapers, since Aleppines are so scared of demonstrating; someone else reported that some Aleppines travelling to Latakia were suddenly told there was no more room at the hotel when asked where they were from.
Regardless of whether it’s factually true or not, it does say something about the perception/self-perception of the people of Aleppo in the current situation. The people we talk with remain overwhelmingly dismissive of the protest movement; my taxi driver yesterday was the first to evoke the crackdown of 1980 (2000 dead, HRW figure).
Many foreigners have now left Aleppo, as their embassies or more specifically the governmental aid organizations they work for (and that is a high proportion of the foreigners who wind up in Aleppo) order them to leave by this Friday. Some have indicated how difficult it is to uproot their entire family, pull the kids out of school and pack on three days’ notice, but they are threatened with being fired and worse if they do not comply. Needless to say it’s not all countries who are doing this; it’s sanctions before the letter on the part of some. One of the International schools here is taking license to simply stop functioning 2 weeks earlier this spring. Small problems compared to elsewhere in the country, of course, but just goes to show that some foreign institutions, much like parts of the media, are positively anticipating the souring of the mood here.
Louai:
‘More than 230 ruling Baath members resign in Syria’ if Syria get back in its feet soon ,and it will . those people will be regreting ,reason is they are gambling that the Baath party is finishing soon however its not. This kind of people who resign and acuse the government of all the killing where more that 60 police officers and military men died whilst this ‘peaceful ‘demonstrators are demonstrating. Wouldn’t you ask your self how all those people dyed ?who shoot at them if its only a peaceful demonstrations?
I am a member of the Baath Party and as many others i have joined the party to get some privilege (was too young that time and i thought every one is in the party whilst they are 18 any way) but the party has nothing to do with all what is happening ,its the state fighting against terrorism.
George:
No question that the big cities haven seen more of the economic cake than the smaller towns and villages. In that sense, economics again is the main factor. Outside of aleppo and damascus it has an absolute disaster when it comes to an economic trickle down. In his opinion, Aleppo had suffered greatly during the MB uprising. The people of Aleppo went through hell during that period. They have no appetite for an encore.
Homs: From [A person from Homs]
I also talked to many of my relatives from Homs. The people I talked to are all liberal and open minded. The amount of anger in Homs against the regime is massive. Really massive. There are many low life, regime crony, Alawites in Homs that ran havoc in the city – including Bashar’s personal friend, the deposed Governor. A certified crook whose abuses have reached the ears of everyone. Yet Bashar stuck to him.
Then there is the First Lady’s family, who built for themselves another Makhloof empire.
My cousin was telling me how in Homs, and during Ramadan, you go to get a piece of paper from the Amn, and they all [being Alawites] are smoking and drinking tea , to make sure they annoy the public.
To say that the resentment for the regime in Homs is huge is an understatement. I don’t like the Islamists one bit, but I can only blame the regime for getting us here from there.
Also related to Homs and its anger: Guess what the current interior minister used to be? He was the deputy to Ghazi Kanaan in Homs [He graduated from military college in 1965 and rose to become head of intelligence for the central region. ] They both ran Homs as their own farm. Homsis have legends about their abuses during the old days when Kanaan was the head of intelligence in Homs and how the current interior minister, a certified thug and a rapist, did not spare a living sole from abuse.
And when Kanaan was given Lebanon to run [between 1982 and 2002 he headed the security and intelligence branch in Beirut], his deputy, ran amok even more. So for Bashar to appoint him as the Minister of Interior was a slap in the face. How much more stupid can the regime get? I dunno.
But I still cannot fathom the ideas of religious Homsis taking over anything. They need to be crushed. They are as criminal.
Hama
On our last evening in Hama some people warned us, right in the tourist district, to take the kids indoors and consider leaving town because a demonstration was happening near the citadel and would lead to trouble. We had actually just been at the citadel and hadn’t seen anything, so it can’t have been huge, but upon returning to the main square with the clock tower we saw several unmarked buses with guys in civil clothes and one clearly carrying a stick. I don’t think much actually happened that night, though the streets downtown were unusually empty (I moved our car into a back alley just to be safe!), but this seems to be a pattern which is being repeated in several cities. Come to think of it, the people (unusually suspicious and unfriendly) we had met in some Alawi villages around Masyaf that day had been talking in the same terms, that we should leave Hama and go back to Damascus. Maybe they already knew where they would be on duty that night…?
just to keep you updated, is my last friday here: Things are extremly calm, though today for the first time people from the old mosque in the Christian quarter (I forgot the name, it is next to the monastery) walked into the city and shouted: Brh, Bdam, Nadfik ja Deraa. I cannot verify the number, but from the shouts it could not have been much more than 40-50.
Since 4 p.m. traffic is normal in town, so there seems to be no “Hama is joining the protest”, otherwise things would have been different. Last friday we felt some tension in the city, but this friday life is back to normal, I might be wrong and missed some events, thus will try to get some more information and let you know.
Today I was really shocked by the German news which describe Syria to be in a state of complete war, with refugees, millions of demonstrators (I hate the sentence “non-confirmed information by eyewitness” or “cannot be verified”, I mean, guys, if you cannot verify information, do not publish them).
Am I living in a Syrian oasis? I really have a good time in Hama, Hama in spring is beautiful and green, people play backgammon in the parks (and at the same time AlJazeera reports protests and killings in Hama, how ridicoulous!), I do not have the feeling things are worsening at all. On the contrary, as shop owners loose income through protests (The traffic between Hama and Homs is limited and customers do not buy as before the crisis), people just want the protests to stop.
What are the ground comments you get from other towns?
رابطة العلماء السوريين حول بيان وزارة الأوقاف السورية
في رده على الاتحاد العالمي لعلماء المسلمين ونصرته للانتفاضة السورية
1- مطالب المتظاهرين السلميين في سوريا شرعية، ومساندتهم واجب شرعي على كلّ عالمٍ مسلم، أيًّا كانت جنسيته، فالقيم وواجبات الدين منظومة واحدة، والعلم رَحِم بين أهله، فلا يجوز التقوُّل على الدين وباسمه، كما لا يجوز ترديد مثل تلك الأوهام التي يعتاش عليها بعض السياسيين من قبيل تهمة “التدخل في الشؤون الداخلية”، ونربأ بعلمائنا أن يكرروا مثل تلك المقولات التي لا تتفق مع تخصصهم وما أمرهم الله به من بيان الحق والصدع به
2- ما قام به الاتحاد العالمي ورئيسه العلامة يوسف القرضاوي هو قيامٌ بالواجب الشرعيّ في نُصرة المستضعفين، وخذلان الباطل، كما أنه قيام بواجب الحق والعدل، وليس تدخلا في شأن خاصّ بقطر أو إقليم، لأن القيم الإسلامية والإنسانية لا تعترف بحدود جغرافية مصطنعة، كما أن التكليف الشرعيّ للمسلمين عامة والعلماء خاصة لا ينحصر في إطار جغرافي مهما تعددت التسميات.
Comments (301)
SANDRO LOEWE said:
I think the statistic is clear. Heroes and suiciders are a maximum of 1 in 10. So maybe 80 % of the total population (except the beneffit and favour suckers and clientlists in Damascus and Aleppo who are parasiting from the regime) are against the status quo and suffering from the crisis in a direct or indirect manner.
April 29th, 2011, 2:35 pm
Shami said:
Anyone know what happened to Buthaina Shaaban?
Did she appear in the syrian media lately ?
April 29th, 2011, 3:10 pm
Sophia said:
Prof. Landis,
I don’t agree with the arithmetics here for estimating the real number of protesters. There are certainly more scientific methods that will take into account more parameters that are specific to the protests and to the Syrian population.
I don’t buy into the argument that people are staying inside because they are afraid of being shot at. Egypt’s protesters were being shot at and imprisoned and the estimates for the three week protests are around 850 dead, a number higher than in Syria’s 5 weeks protests to date. I think Syrian women and children are staying inside because this is a civil war. If these were peaceful protests why would it take the army days and going to clear Deraa?
April 29th, 2011, 3:28 pm
MNA said:
Just wondering
So does that mean that the 54% of sunnis that is not participating is not against the regime?
Let’s assume that it is not pro, but it is not agianst either.
If we use prof Landis’ previous analysis that most christians and alawites are pro, then we have about 20-22% that is definitly pro.
So with 20-22% that is definitly pro and 54% that is up for grabs, the president could very well win a free election in any democratic multiparty system.
April 29th, 2011, 3:44 pm
Solitarius said:
It was very amusing to read this statistics
Reminds me of this joke:
لماذا يرسب الطلاب في الامتحانات ؟
ليس ذنب الطالب إذا رسب لأن هناك 356 يوماً فقط في السنة
أيام الجمعات : 52 جمعة في السنة
حيث يتبقى من السنة 313 يوم
العطلة الصيفية 50
يتبقى 263 يوم
8
ساعات نوم يومية
وهذا يعني 122 يوم
يتبقى بس 141
يوم
ساعة واحدة لللعب يومياً
(مفيدة للصحة)
مما يعني 15 يوماً إضافياً
يتبقى
126
يوم
ساعتين يوميا للأكل مع المضغ جيداً على قولة
مريم نور للحفاظ على الطاقة
أي
30
يوم
يتبقى 96 يوم
ساعة يومية للكلام والتحدث
(فالإنسان مخلوق إجتماعي)
وبذلك نضيف 15يوم ,يتبقى
81
يوم
أيام الامتحانات في السنة على الأقل 35 يوم
يتبقى 46 يوم
العطل النصفية والربعية وأيام الأعياد الدينية والوطنية والإنسانية والقومية
40
يوم
باقي 6 أيام
أيام المرض السنوية على أقل تقدير 3 أيام، يتبقى3 أيام
متابعة الأفلام وبقية الفعاليات الترفيهية
عايزين نعيش حياتنا برضه
على أقل تقدير يومين
باقي ……. يوم واحد
!!
و اليوم ده هوّ بالضبط عيد ميلادك …. ألف مبروك
April 29th, 2011, 3:57 pm
unbiased syrian said:
The “revolution” has already peaked, and now we entered the end phase, which will last 4-6 weeks
April 29th, 2011, 4:15 pm
SANDRO LOEWE said:
Let us compare with Egypt:
In Egypt some 850.000 active protesters out of 80 million citizens made 1 % of the population. Total of 850 killed makes 1 out of each one thousand active protesters killed.
In Syria some 450.000 active protesters out of 20 million citizens makes more than 5 % of the population (whitout Aleppo and most of the kurds still without intervining yet). Total of 500 killed makes more than 1 out of each one thousend protesters killed.
This numbers taking in consideration that there will be more deaths since protesters cannot succeed and that security apparatus is much more powerfull and represive than in Egypt shows 2 clear conclusions:
1) People is more afraid than in Egypt what let us imagine what would have happened had not been the state so represive.
2) People is more frustrated than in Egypt since the percentage of protesters and dead are overwhelming Egypt.
Maybe in Damascus people do not want to accept this fact but maybe if free press was allowed people could get a real picture of the tragedy.
April 29th, 2011, 4:35 pm
Solitarius said:
This 400,000 figure that just magically went up to 450,000 is just ridiculous.
And we shouldn’t compare to Egypt as Egypt’s numbers were also probably inflated by the same media machine.
I wouldn’t add up any protester numbers in Syria because they don’t represent a single movement and to be completely honest many of them are just a bunch of killers and thugs who are driven by sectarianism. Even if we combine them it wouldn’t be more than 70-80 thousand total. I mean seriously you expect us to rally behind Tal Kalakh? Tal Kalakh is going to lead my Syria out of darkness into the bright free future? They can certainly smuggle me into Lebanon but that’s the extent of it.
April 29th, 2011, 5:21 pm
Gus said:
This is the first time I post here, I have been following this site for almost a year and I feel forced to comment because some posts are unbearable.
During the egypt revolution,some days there were several millions in the streets.
This protest is not peaceful, is not supported by the majority of the syrian people, MB has no credibility what so ever.
Any amount of playing with numbers or wishful thinking is not going to change basic facts
April 29th, 2011, 5:28 pm
SANDRO LOEWE said:
According to your arguments the protests in Syria is fed up with criminal and or sectarian crazy people such as Tell Kalah´s and the regime is taking you into the bright free future that the so called thugs cannot. Also the international media and all analysts and reports are stupid and false intended to create caos in the paradise. Of course what´s happening in Syria has nothing to do with lack of freedom or lack of respect with individual rights. It is just a question of smuglers and radical homeless. Paranoia is a quite interesting word in medical terms.
April 29th, 2011, 5:41 pm
Shami said:
Azmi Bishar’s opinion on this matter:
April 29th, 2011, 5:50 pm
FreeSoldier said:
The killings of civilian cannot continue indefinitely. The wall of fear has collapsed. Soldiers are not trained to shoot on civilian. The army will probably start to breakup very soon.
I got an eerie feeling the Assad’s dynasty will end like the Ceausescu did in Romania.
Time will tell.
April 29th, 2011, 5:53 pm
SANDRO LOEWE said:
I have loved this country and I have even loved this president but we have to adapt to reality and it is not reality that must adapt to us. And there is one thing clear and it is that the president of Syria has no control over the security apparatus anymore (iranian and lebanese cooperators included) so the best way to keep a respectfull place in history is by dismantling the security state by presidential decree and open for free election. If this is not possible then the president has lost all credibility in the face of syrian people and the international community. And I keep on believing that He is the only one that can save the country from caos, war and ruin but acting against his own clan and violent cooperators.
April 29th, 2011, 6:18 pm
Mawal95 said:
Josh’s reporters on the ground in Aleppo and Hamas are much more telling than Josh’s effort at making up hard numbers. The anonymous retired diplomat living in Damascus indicated that he pulled his 400,000 estimate out of thin air, and he preferred to err on the too-big side rather than on the too-small side, as part of his making the point he wanted to make with it. If the 400,000 base estimate were 2, 3, or 4 times too big, it’d greatly dent Josh’s agglomerating estimate.
I’v seen lots of videos from today’s protests, and in general I see in the protesters’ demeanours that they’re confident they’re not going to get harmed for protesting. I was very, very pleased to see that. Professor Josh says he thinks there’s “tremendous risk of being shot dead during demonstrations”. That’s true in just a certain few well-known localities. It’s not true for the vast bulk of the country. The following youtube page has got loads of videos of demonstrations all over the country, all uploaded today, and I believe all recorded today (thanks REVLON). http://www.youtube.com/user/islam1tv#p/u/1/VTaJz72UyIw
Some of those same videos plus some others are at
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/04/syria-protests-video.html
The following youtube user has got two videos of a demonstration today in downtown Damascus close to the Stock Exchange. It includes a “bilrouh bildam” chant, but as with nearly all of the other videos you can see that the people know that the security forces are fundamentally civilized and wouldn’t do the sort of thing you’ve read about at al-Jazeera with regard to Deraa. http://www.youtube.com/user/barza200#p/u/0/OVLfgizyrng
April 29th, 2011, 6:20 pm
majedkhaldoon said:
Bashar has only one chance,and that is to fire his brother,exile him,and procede with true reform, if he doesnot do that this week,he is history,in june,syrian economy is so fragile,and foreign interference is imminent,the people will do something to defend themselves,there will be civil war,then someone will get rid of his brother, and bashar will resign.
April 29th, 2011, 6:41 pm
qunfuz said:
Good to hear these voices from Syria. I’d point out to the German visitor that news networks have no choice but to rely on unconfirmed reports when they are not permitted to work in Syria.
http://qunfuz.com/2011/04/29/some-shock-no-awe/
April 29th, 2011, 6:58 pm
why-discuss said:
A french writer in Le Monde recognizes that the Moslem Brotherhood were hiding behind and manipulating the legitimate protesters. As long as Damascus and Aleppo are relatively quiet, repression of the limited towns controlled by the MB is one way of stopping the civil war from happening.
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2011/04/29/en-syrie-le-risque-de-guerre-civile-est-reel_1514805_3218.html
En Syrie, “le risque de guerre civile est réel”
Pour la première fois depuis le début du mouvement de contestation, les Frères musulmans, organisation d’opposition interdite en Syrie, ont officiellement appelé les Syriens à manifester vendredi, jour de grande prière. Pour le journaliste Richard Labévière, auteur du livre Quand la Syrie s’éveillera… (Perrin, 2011), publié en janvier, le risque de guerre civile est réel entre sunnites et chiites.
Quel rôle jouent les Frères musulmans dans le mouvement de révolte syrien ?
Richard Labévière : Aujourd’hui, il y a deux niveaux dans la contestation. Il y a d’abord un mouvement général, avec des caractéristiques similaires à celles que nous avons pu observer en Tunisie ou en Egypte. C’est en fait un mouvement social profond, qui combine revendications politiques et sociétales. Cela correspond, en Europe, au mouvement “quarante-huitard” de 1848, avec le phénomène du printemps des peuples, et au mouvement “soixante-huitard” de 1968, avec la revendication de libertés.
Mais le second niveau, c’est le rôle joué par les Frères musulmans et les groupes salafistes. Deraa, l’épicentre de la contestation, n’est qu’à quelques kilomètres de la frontière jordanienne. Il y a toujours eu là-bas des tribus transfrontalières qui se sont opposées au régime baasiste central. Depuis le début, les Frères musulmans sont aux manettes dans ce mouvement. Il est certain aujourd’hui qu’ils ont infiltré les manifestations, et qu’ils provoquent des incidents, par exemple en tirant sur les forces de l’ordre.
On parle également d’hommes venus de l’étranger qui interviennent dans les manifestations. Quelles informations a-t-on à ce sujet ?
La Syrie est un pays à majorité sunnite, mais le pouvoir est alaouite, une branche du chiisme. Or, il ne faut pas oublier que la contestation en Syrie s’inscrit dans le cadre d’autres mouvements dans les pays voisins. Au niveau régional, la situation est complexe. Le Bahreïn a été agité par une forte révolte chiite. Et les autorités ont accusé l’Iran, principal pays chiite, d’être derrière ce mouvement. Je pense que, en réaction, les Saoudiens, sunnites, ont décidé d’affaiblir le maillon faible, la Syrie. Ils ont donc infiltré des groupes sunnites armés pour déstabiliser le pays.
Quelles sont les suites envisageables si le mouvement de contestation se poursuit ?
Le grand risque, c’est de basculer dans la guerre civile. Et en cas de confrontation entre sunnites et chiites, ce sera à coup sûr très sanglant. Les minorités sont également effrayées par ce risque. Mes amis chrétiens me disent clairement : “Si le régime tombe, on est morts.” Pour l’instant, les différents groupes ont réussi à cohabiter à peu près pacifiquement, malgré le mouvement de 1982 et le massacre de Hama. Mais il ne faut pas oublier que le risque de guerre civile est réel. On a entendu dans les cortèges le slogan : “Les alaouites dans la tombe, les chrétiens à Beyrouth.”
L’autre possibilité, c’est un scénario à l’algérienne, avec une répression circonscrite aux foyers de contestation. C’est envisageable tant que les villes pivots, Damas et Alep, restent stables.
Le régime de Bachar Al-Assad peut-il stopper la répression ?
Bachar Al-Assad n’est pas contraint de poursuivre la répression. Le problème c’est qu’il a été très long à répondre à l’exigence de liberté. Surtout qu’il n’est pas seul à avoir le pouvoir. Il est en fait le porte-voix d’une confrontation entre anciens et modernes dans le gouvernement.
Dans les autorités syriennes, on trouve des hommes comme le général Nassif, ou des anciens conseillers de son père, qui restent très conservateurs. D’un autre côté, on trouve Ali Mamlouk, directeur des renseignements généraux, ou encore sa conseillère spéciale, qui avait annoncé très vite la levée de l’état d’urgence. Ceux-là représentent le renouveau syrien, et faisaient pression par exemple pour mettre en place des forums civiques de discussion comme lors du printemps de Damas en juillet 2000. Dans cette courte période, il y a eu de vrais débats politiques et sociaux qui ont marqué les Syriens. La gestion de la révolte dépend de cet équilibre et de leur influence.
April 29th, 2011, 7:01 pm
Sophia said:
#9 Freesoldier,
So you want the Assad family to be executed like the Ceausescu without due process and in an act of revenge?
April 29th, 2011, 7:10 pm
SANDRO LOEWE said:
Things are beginning to get momentum and today we may have crossed the no return point. During next days may repression be brutal or may dramatic changes (including assasination of high profile personalities or coup d´etat) take place. But one thing is sure, that Syria will never be the same. I had the idea that Syria had become a capitalist country where economic powerfull class could have a voice in the political agenda. But I see it was wrong. And the reason appears now simple, that they owe all the money and power they have to the regime. That is way they do not have instruments to change anything and that is why they are afraid of the fall of the regimen.
April 29th, 2011, 7:18 pm
NAJIB said:
abou hussein’s estimate is about 1’500’000
April 29th, 2011, 7:39 pm
jad said:
البارحة كانت هناك اخبار سيئة لكل من كدس واشترى الدولار واليورو و الدهب
حيث شهدت البارحة مساءا هبوط الدولار واليورو والدهب حيث كانت الاسعار كاالتالي: هبط الدولار من ال55 الى 48 الدهب من 2400 ال2000 اليورو 80 الى ال70 وذلك بعد تصريح دولة ايران ببيع النفط بالليرة السورية دعما لليرة السورية….شكراً ايران
Is this a real news? Iran is selling it’s oil by the Syrian pound.
April 29th, 2011, 7:50 pm
Maryam said:
I realize that everyone has already criticized the statistics, but I also want to point out that in the vast majority of protests the men are always focused on. It really took a lot of effort on the part of some women to compile a lot of photos in which WOMEN were also shown during the Egyptian protests.
Women are very much involved in the Syrian protest movement–there’s no doubt about that. Off the top of my head I can name Suheir Atassi, Amina (the gay girl in Damascus), Syrian Jasmine, Razan Zeitouneh (a NY Times article mistakenly referred to her as a guy). I’m really proud of them for their courage, even though I may not necessarily agree with them on everything.
At the same time, I don’t think it’s fair to assume that a man’s womenfolk think the same way he does. Just because a guy is part of the protest movement doesn’t mean that his sister, mother, or wife is going to think the same way. Sorry, but women have minds of their own. For starters, my friend is anti-regime, and his sister is unabashedly pro-regime. I’m sure there are much more examples out there.
April 29th, 2011, 7:53 pm
jad said:
Please Najib don’t say that, if 400,000 end up being 16,310,000 by Dr. Landis calculation. The 1,500,000 will become 61,162,500 in a country of 23,000,000.
April 29th, 2011, 7:57 pm
Sophia said:
Arms flowing to Syria from Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon.
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2011/ss_military0504_04_28.asp
April 29th, 2011, 8:02 pm
Majhool said:
Jad,
You are incorrect in the way you reading the post.
400,000 end up being 7,500,000 and not 16,310,000.read it again.
If the number goes above 1000,000 you need to consider the 3 to 10 ratio and how it may change ( how safe is it to protest, and how motivated the protesters are)
April 29th, 2011, 8:13 pm
Majhool said:
MARYAM
In your opinion, what is the ratio of male to femal protesters in the streets?
All others are welcome to provide an estimate
April 29th, 2011, 8:16 pm
jad said:
Majhool, it was a joke.
April 29th, 2011, 8:20 pm
jad said:
Sophia,
Regarding you link it seems that things are going straight toward a long civil war in Syria and the regime have no choice but to use force.
Which means that all those analyses we read about looking for solution are nothing but intellectual-humanitarian BS!!
April 29th, 2011, 8:29 pm
Majhool said:
SOPHIA
Please watch the videos below and then tell me whether or not a person concerned with his/her personal safety would care to go out and protest. I personally think the 3 to 10 ratio is high
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sqSU3im5fo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA6UpMyNMYs&NR=1
April 29th, 2011, 8:34 pm
Majhool said:
Here is a sample of a protest..I think the 5% estimate for female protesters is high
April 29th, 2011, 8:35 pm
why-discuss said:
Jad
The civil war will take over unless the army cleans up the pockets controlled by the Moslem Brotherhood. See my post #14
It looks that the French are starting to realize that the media has abused them in hiding the major role of the MB in the uprisings.
I just hope the good-intentionned protesters realize that too before it is too late for everybody
April 29th, 2011, 8:45 pm
Nour said:
Jad,
We’ve known for a while now that weapons were smuggled into Syria in order to create chaos, but in the end this strategy is going to fail. There will not be a prolonged civil war as the army is going to clean up all the pockets of these terrorists and criminal thugs. The MB and other Islamists have failed miserably in trying to incite large numbers of people to protest and they are getting desperate. They know that once they fail this time around they will be finished for a very long period. And all the propaganda outlets supporting then are getting more and more ridiculous in their coverage that they are losing credibility fast. The two largest cities are still seeing very little activity and the vast majority of Syrians want the government to put an end to the murder rampage of these terrorist gangs. It’ll take a little more time but we are likely to see the situation stabilize in about 2-3 weeks.
April 29th, 2011, 9:08 pm
Jad said:
WD,
It’s only one article in Le Monde, I don’t think that reflect the mood of the French administration. Does it?
April 29th, 2011, 9:12 pm
Jad said:
Nour,
I’m not sure how long can the regime use this lethal force on people before the majority of Syrians decide to abandon it or before it collapse.
I still have some hope that things work out for the best of Syria and the Syrians, God willing.
April 29th, 2011, 9:36 pm
NK said:
Since you guys in Lebanon love Bashar so very much, if the regime falls in the future we the Syrians will make sure to keep every member of the gang safe and sound, then send them all to rule Lebanon for the next century, of course we will be hailing his greatness on this Blog and telling you guys how lucky you are for having such a wonderful gang in charge.
April 29th, 2011, 9:40 pm
why-discuss said:
Jad
Le Monde is a very reputable newspaper similar to NY times. This article maybe a wake up call to the french government who has got involved too fast in the Libyan quagmire and I guess they don’t want to make the same mistake. They probably want to see the results of the cleanup on Deraa and the MB pockets, then they will worry about the legitimate protesters.
France remembers the civil war (1991) in Algeria against the moslems extremists (The Armed Islamic Group (GIA, al-Jama’ah al-Islamiyah al-Musallaha),that made more than 150,000 deaths.
The Algerian government finally succeeded in 2002 in taking back the control of the country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_Civil_War
The French probably want to avoid that if they realize that the MB would trigger it.
April 29th, 2011, 9:49 pm
why-discuss said:
NK
Do you prefer the gang they have in Lebanon now? Ok help yourself!
April 29th, 2011, 9:52 pm
NK said:
why-discuss
LOL, I’m sorry you guys only vote for your corrupt sect leaders instead of voting for the best man for the job, I’m sorry you guys can’t come together and bring down the sick sectarian power structure that is ruining your country, however I’m very proud of my countrymen and I know for sure the overwhelming majority of Syrians don’t share your sickness.
If I were you I will spend most of my time trying to fix this
http://racing-thoughts.com/2011/04/cost-of-sectarianism-in-lebanon/
P.S I hope you don’t take this as a personal attack, I’m just tired of Lebanese telling us how wonderful Bashar is when our fellow countrymen are being shot in the streets for weeks now, they’re entitled to their opinion but have some respect (just a little) for those who just lost loved ones to Syrian regime brutality.
April 29th, 2011, 10:01 pm
Maryam said:
Majhool,
I don’t even want to try to make up a number for how many female protesters there are in the protests because I don’t know, but at least I am honest in admitting this. Everyone is making up numbers, but because the information flow is spotty, how can we rely on those numbers?
Even with such intense coverage of the Egyptian protests, Al Jazeera sometimes grossly exaggerated the number of Egyptians protesting. I am not saying that Al Jazeera is lying, but my point is that if even a prestigious news agency such as Al Jazeera gets things wrong, imagine how (un)reliable eyewitnesses are as sources.
So I wish that I could give a good answer. But to point out the ineffectiveness of making generalizations, I’ll link you to an article about Syrian women and children blocking a highway (April 13):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-new-protest-syrian-women-block-main-highway/2011/04/13/AFn4eJZD_story.html
April 29th, 2011, 10:18 pm
jad said:
WD,
Thank you for explaining.
Regarding your reply to NK, I can’t help but asking, don’t we Syrians deserve to have a democratic respected system like many other countries? We’ve been in the same ‘struggling’ state since ever, it’s time already, it’s really sad to be under authoritarian regime in 2011 and not being able to say what we want without the fear from someone hearing us or taking us to some dungeon somewhere in the 10 level underground of an ugly stinky building with a security person to do whatever they please with us without any concern or respect of any law or the consequences of what they will do physically to our bodies.
It’s way overdue to open up the system to let people see the ray of freedom after all this years.
I lie if I say that I don’t love the taste of freedom and the feeling of being a respected human being, sometimes more than food or money.
Syrians do deserve to be treated better, deserve to be liberated from fear and encouraged to give their best in all fields.
It’s way overdue.
I don’t know how can Syrians reach that level of responsibility as citizens without giving them the chance to do that and to practice, without giving them any structure of what are their duties and what are their rights.
It’s horrific to see too many people killed like that in the street and not being able to help, yes, maybe 1% of those people are thugs and bad but why to treat the rest 99% in this ugly way.
There must be other way to solve this conflict, there must be a better way that the regime can do.
We all loose without the right solution.
April 29th, 2011, 10:21 pm
NK said:
I just came across this blog, an interesting point of view
Note: this was posted back in 2005
http://syriaexposed.blogspot.com/2005/03/myth-no-7-alawie-is-still-religious.html
Myth No. 7: Alawie is still a Religious Sect
It might be very surprising for many people to know that the Alawie (the sect that the ruling thugs belong to) is the most oppressed religion in Syria!! Of course in terms of ideology not in terms of the status of the people belonging to it.
“King Lion the 1st” long ago realized how much he relies on the support of his sect to stay in power, and realized who much dangerous would be to rely on something that can be easily manipulated such as religion. He then diverted this lurking danger to his rule by imposing an overwhelming Sunni-fication policy on the very Alawie sect that supported him. This extreme policy took the shape of so many aspects that everybody here knows very well:
Introducing only pure Sunni Islam education to all schools;
Banning any public manifestation or even mentioning of any Alawie religious activities;
Banning and oppressing any Alawie religious organizations or any formation of a unified religious council or a higher religious authority; Many were killed by the great gangster Duba for starting to utter such ideas among people in Tartous and Jableh;
Building Sunni-style mosques in every little Alawie village and encouraging people to perform the pilgrimage through public and private (his late brother’s Hadjee Jameel) organizations;
Encouraging the Late Grand Mufti of Syria to brake down any attempt to present the Alawie religion as anything but a bad old mistake which people should renounce and forget.
Releasing the hands of the Sunni clerks to do whatever they whish regarding establishing a clear religious identity to all Sunni youth, and facilitating Sunni Islam educational and media sources (as long as it does not tackles politics and the King’s eternal right to his crown) while banning any sort of similar activities for Alawies and other minor sects. There are in Syria hundreds of Sunni religious schools while there is not a single school that is specialized in teaching not even the history of the Alawie sect.
etcetera etcetera…
“King Lion the 1st” managed even to convince many Alawies, especially young generations, that they are actually just Bad Muslims, someway or another.
“King Lion the 1st” and the rest of the gang around him knew well that this is not going to lead to any real results in term of unifying the Alawie sect with the main stream Sunni Islam. Everybody knows, especially those Alawies who tried very hard to integrate with their Sunni surroundings after moving to the main cities, that they will never be accepted by the Sunnis. There isn’t a single Alawie house in Damascus without a story or two on failed experiences in… what you may name: go out of own skin attempts. Alawies are still bad Muslims, the mosques the government built are still deserted, and the number of Alawie-Sunni “mixed marriages” is even much lower than the number of the mixed marriages between Syrians and foreigners. Of course excluding the upper class mixed marriages, where the thugs marry into each other’s families for the sole reason of solidifying their rule.
The Sunni-fication attempt did not work simply because it was not meant to work in the first place. While “King Lion the 1st” and his thugs were trumpeting this integration policy, they were at the same time systematically building a culture of separation and segregation between Alawies and Sunnis, and between all sects and ethnic and religious groups in Syria for that matter.
The real reason behind this policy was never integration with Sunnis or establishing an acceptance for the Alawies by the Sunnis. The real reason was to deprive the Alawies from any solid unified religious ideology that might one day pause a fatal danger on the rule of the King. To turn them into meaningless tribes ranked by how much they support the King.
Let Karfan explain this in his simple words: Imagine what the King’s position would be if all the Alawies in the Republican Guard, Special Forces, and Security Services (all composed of 95%Up Alawies) told him to go fuck-him-self because an Alawie higher religious authority decided it is not in the sect’s best interest to support him anymore? What exactly do you think this regime is hold together by? Baathis? That is the biggest joke that every five year old Syrians knows. Everybody here knows that these forces are the regime real power which prevents any opposition from even pondering on the idea of opposing publicly. The army in general has been long ago marginalized and made weak to have any real effect on the power balance. That was when many army units refused to carry out “King Lion the 1st” ‘s destruction plans against the Sunnis at the time when the regime and the Muslim Brothers were waging holly wars against each other. Many army officers who refused orders were fired and are still sitting in their houses doing nothing since. But that experience taught the King that he had better rely on very well organized, brain-washed, and loyal smaller units such as the infamous “Sarya Eldefaa” of his brother who eventually carried out the attacks on Hama. Since then, he learned how to balance these power tools by multiplying them into several separate entities: Republican Guard, Special Forces, and many strong Security Services Units. Those units are where the real military power of the regime exists.
Such essential power centers should be kept under the sole control of the King. That is why, unlike the Sunnis or Druuz or Smaeilis, the Alawies were doomed not have a religion in fear that this religion or whoever controls it might be in control of these essential power centers one day.
By erasing all sort of religious identity while making sure that Alawies will not find another one elsewhere, Alawies were simply transformed into a sort of tribes that are unified around one purpose: Keeping the King in Power. A couple of tribes that does not have any real religious conviction or ideology but are hold together by the fear of the others and the fear of revenge by the others for the regimes deeds. A sort of army units which sole purpose is to protect the leader, nothing else.
Meanwhile every one around them keep labeling the regime an “Alawie Regime” and keep throwing all the faults that this regime did on the Alawies shoulders. We will be doomed to carry the burden of the faults of the same people who destroyed our religion and destroyed any religious identity we might have had. The same people who instead of seizing the chance of being on top to establish a real secular society were all would be respected regardless of what they believe in, they encouraged Sunni extreme religious teachings and built a society were you have only two books to read: Ibn Taymeiya, or Michael Aflak.
After this systematic destruction of any unified religious authority, it seems unlikely that Alawies would bring themselves together to get rid of the gang ruling in their name and destroying the future of this country in their name. What makes it even more difficult is the accusations that the other sects keep building: An Alawie Regime, An Alawie Baath etc.. to the end of the list of everything bad+Alawie. Not a single opposition group had come forward to present a vision or an idea of what would be their stance on the thousands of Alawies serving in the Security Services and army. What should Alawies expect if they actually manage to realize that the ruling thugs are going to destroy what is left of the other’s trust in them? No one is saying anything about that: Sunnis are vague or just silent at best, and that is what the King exactly whishes for. With no bright future, Alawies are just maintaining the present, no matter how bad it is.
The Alawie sect had suffered hundreds of years of oppression and negligence before, but the biggest harm to it came when one of it’s own followers controlled the country! He succeeded in doing what long Sunni oppression and mighty Osman Emperors couldn’t do over hundred of years: erasing the Aalwie religion and turning its followers into an identity-less supporters of his rule.
One day the King and his gang will go and he will join his uncle “White Knight of Tadmur” in France in his luxurious life style and white suits, like all ousted kings and rulers. And only the Alawie King Lion and his dynasty and thugs will remain in people’s memory. People will forget all other great Alawies like Saad Allah Wannous and Nadeem Muhammad, and we will be responsible for all the backwardness of Syria and its society. Alawie will never have the right to build religious schools or demand a secular education, the majority would say: You didn’t do that when you were in power, why should we do it for you now? And they will be damn right in saying that.
Alawie, as a religion or sect, no longer exists like all other sects in Syria. But Alawies have one thing in common: they are the ones who keep this regime alive. And according to Karfan there is another thing that is common between us, Alawies: We have no future, at least not one that is worth looking forward to.
April 29th, 2011, 10:29 pm
Nour said:
Jad,
No one knows for sure what is going on on the ground, but for the security forces and the army to lose over 80 members since the unrest started means that there are armed thugs waging a battle against them, because soldiers and security officers do not just drop dead out of thin air. The majority of the protesters could have clearly condemned the armed thugs and distanced themselves from them. Instead, they chose to look the other way or just simply deny that they exist. Moreover, they completely ignored the fallen soldiers as if the didn’t matter or weren’t Syrian, with some even labeling them with repugnantly sectarian labels. At some point the state has to take action to protect itself and to restore order. During such operations civilians unfortunately get caught in the crossfire. But the question is, knowing that this battle is ongoing and that there are armed thugs exchanging fire with our soldiers why are people continuing to go down to the street and even sending their children, knowing that their lives are at risk. And this whole notion that the security and the army is simply shooting ay everyone indiscriminately sounds completely implausible to me. The other day CNN reported that the Army entered Deraa and was shooting at everyone. Then they reported that 12 people were killed, of course without mentioning the soldiers who were martyred. Now for the life of me I can’t understand how only 12 people would be killed if an army was simply mowing down everyone in their way. The propaganda has become way too heavy to swallow.
April 29th, 2011, 10:39 pm
jad said:
NK,
I’m sorry but I think your link is NOT WISE CHOICE! especially in these times and when you are not an Alawite.
I didn’t even read it because I noticed of how many times the word ‘Alawite’ are written in it…for me it sounds very sectarian.
April 29th, 2011, 10:39 pm
NK said:
Jad
It’s written by an Alawite, and since it was written and posted in 2005 it has nothing to do with the current events. This guy/gal is talking about how the Alawites probably suffered the most from this regime.
I think it gives a glance on what some Alawites think of the regime and of their situation in Syria in general, I don’t agree with him on how he protrays the Sunni/Alawite relationship, but it was worth reading at least for me. I definitely agree with what he said about H.Assad and how he oppressed his own people the most.
Nour
There are reports of defections in the army units besieging Daraa, one video they kept playing today showed the people of Daraa walking side by side with some army units, another report said some soldiers who defected helped families from Daraa flee to Jordan, other videos showed soldiers being treated by demonstrators.
If there was an armed gang in Daraa, how the hell did they survive for almost a week now ? they have to be hundreds/thousands resisting to survive this long. Do you really think under the watchful eyes of the mukhabarat over the past 40 years, thousands of “Salafis” could organize so well and arm themselves to the teeth like that ? because I doubt people with pistols and a couple shotguns/hunting rifles can stand up to the Syrian army, or at least I hope they can’t!!!.
April 29th, 2011, 10:49 pm
jad said:
Nour,
I do understand that, I just think that people need to be educated about their rights and duty and the government at the same time needs to communicate with it’s people and respect them and also understand it’s duty and rights.
I agree with you that going in the street is not the right thing to do in these days and I condemn using of kids in this conflict out of a strong believe that children deserve a better future than ours and we must protect them and their future instead of abuse them in our bloody conflicts.
I also agree on the media lies and the unethical manners every side is using.
However, I can’t stop thinking that there must be another way to solve this conflict, it shouldn’t be only by force.
Talking about lies, read this sentence from Aljazeera:
وذكر نشطاء أن المظاهرة التي بدأت من الميدان والمناطق المحيطة به ثم تزايدت, فرّقتها قوات الأمن التي أطلقت قنابل الغاز المدمع على المتظاهرين حول مستشفى المجتهد قرب ميدان الأمويين الرئيسي
Almoujtahid near Aloumawyeen square!!!!! Come on!!!!! check google to know that those two locations are not that ‘close’…how stupid is that?
April 29th, 2011, 10:50 pm
Nour said:
NK,
I have yet to see a response by a “revolution” supporter that explains how so many soldiers were killed. An armed gang can easily survive for several weeks and sometimes months and years. We saw that happen in 1982, and we saw it happen in Lebanon a few years ago in Nahr el Bared. This is especially true when they get support and cover from certain segments in the population.
April 29th, 2011, 11:06 pm
jad said:
About Qatar:
الجنون بعينه حينما صدّقت قطر نفسها أنها دولة.. الرئيس الأسد للمستشار الخاص لأمير قطر: لا مساومة على الثوابت السورية.. بقلم فاديا جبريل
http://www.dp-news.com/pages/detail.aspx?articleid=82096
This is the only interesting part in this article that explain why Qatar became anti Syria suddenly:
اليوم يبدو القطريون وكأنهم في سباق مع الزمن، تمثّل بحدة الهجمة القطرية عبر قناتها “الجزيرة”، والتي تزداد شراسة وعنفاً وإرهاباً وتحريضاً، والتي كانت مبنيّة على معلومات سوّقها بعض مرتزقة السياسة ومدمني التآمر في بعض الدول المجاورة أن النظام السوري سيسقط على أبعد تقدير في الجمعة الثالثة “جمعة الغضب”، وإن لم يسقط النظام تكون سورية قد دخلت حرباً طائفية لا تبقي ولا تذر، وفي كلتا الحالتين تكون قطر قد حدّدت كمية الغنائم التي يستحقها الدور القذر الذي لعبته.
هي قراءة غبيّة جاهلة لأمراء “أغرار” في السياسة، فسورية بشعبها وقيادتها صمدت وهي المتمرّسة والمعتادة على مواجهة وإجهاض المؤامرات ومحاولات الفتنة، والمحصّنة بوعي الشارع السوري.. وشعبية الرئيس الأسد التي قلبت الطاولة وخلطت أوراق المتآمرين أدخلت قطر ومن حولها في مرحلة للبحث عن المخرج. لذا أتت زيارة ولي العهد القطري غير المعلنة إلى دمشق في محاولة لإيصال عتب “الأمبرطورية القطرية” على القيادة السورية، وفي جلسة دامت لأكثر من ساعتين نُقل عتب أمير قطر على عدم مساندة سورية للدور القطري في ليبيا، والذي كان المأمول منه جني فوائد كبيرة من نفط وعائدات، أي بمعنى تقسيم الغنائم، إلا أن الجواب السوري الحازم والجازم كان: إن ما يحدث في ليبيا هو أكبر منكم بكثير، وإن ما يجري سينعكس سلباً عليكم والأيام القادمة ستحمل تلك الحقيقة بكل وضوح.
هذا الرد والزيارة أعقبه هجوم إعلامي غير مسبوق من “جزيرة حمد” على أمل مفقود في تليين الموقف السوري، ليسمع القطريون عبر وزير الخارجية حمد بن جاسم أثناء زيارة جسّ النبض لمعرفة أحوال القيادة تكراراً لما سمعه ولي العهد القطري.
إن غباء “أغرار” العمل السياسي وازدياد شراسة الحملة التخريبية، وتكشّف حجم المؤامرة، ما هو إلا انعكاس لحالة فقدان التوازن لدى المتآمرين، وسط الصمود السوري وقدرة السوريين على فضح المؤامرة ومراحلها، والتي ستكون إحدى نتائجها عودة قطر إلى حجمها الطبيعي، هذا القلق ازداد بعد الزيارة الاستطلاعية التي قام بها عبد الله بن زايد وزير الخارجية الإماراتي، حيث تبيّن فيها حقيقة ما تمتلكه سورية من الحقائق ومقومات المواجهة، وأن القادم من الأيام لن يكون في صالح من شارك في المؤامرة على سورية، كما استدعى هذا الأمر زيارة غير معلنة للمستشار الخاص لأمير قطر والذي سمع ما مفاده أن سورية أحبطت المؤامرة وأنها ماضية في الإصلاح، وأنها لن تقبل أي مساومة على الملفات المطروحة من دعم المقاومة والعلاقة الإستراتيجية مع إيران.
المرحلة القادمة ستحمل عناوين عدة، أكثرها محاولات قطر للخروج من المأزق السوري عبر التنصل من الدور القذر للجزيرة الذي أدّته وافتضح على الملأ، والعمل اليائس للفصل بين الجزيرة والموقف القطري الذي عبّر عنه وبرّره ولي العهد القطري أكثر من مرة. وأكده تالياً السفير القطري بدمشق بقوله لأوساط مقربة “إن الجزيرة رح تخرب بيتنا.
أخيراً جنون العظمة أفقد حكام الدوحة صوابهم، حتى ما عادوا يرون الحقيقة أن من صنع منهم دولة وأعطاهم أدواراً أثبتوا أنهم لا يستحقونها، بإمكانه أن يعيدهم إلى المربع الأول “حالة اللا دولة” وأن المشيخات والقبائل عندما تقرّر أن تقيم دولة عليها أن تبدأ من الداخل لا أن تتمدّد أفقياً وعمودياً وهي تفتقر لمقومات هذا التمدّد.
نقلاً عن موقع “جهينة نيوز”
April 29th, 2011, 11:19 pm
jad said:
What does that mean? Did they leave by themselves or were they thrown out by the Syrian regime?
«حماس» اتخذت قراراً بمغادرة دمشق والدوحة وافقت على استضافة قيادتها السياسية
السبت, 30 أبريل 2011
القاهرة – جيهان الحسيني؛ غزة – فتحي صبّاح
علمت «الحياة» أن حركة «حماس» اتخذت قراراً بمغادرة سورية، وأن قطر وافقت على استضافة القيادة السياسية فقط، بعدما رفض كل من الأردن ومصر ذلك. كما علمت «الحياة» أن القاهرة تتجه نحو استعادة ملف الأسرى، خصوصاً في ضوء وجود القيادي العسكري البارز في «حماس» أحمد الجعبري في القاهرة ولقائه رئيس الاستخبارات المصري مراد موافي.
وقالت مصادر فلسطينية لـ «الحياة» في غزة إن الأردن رفض طلباً من «حماس» للانتقال إلى أراضيه، كما رفضت مصر استضافة الحركة، وإن وافقت على فتح مكتب لها في القاهرة. وأضافت أن الحركة تقدمت بطلب إلى قطر التي وافقت على إقامة القيادة السياسية في الدوحة، لكنها رفضت استضافة القيادة العسكرية. ورجحت المصادر عودة القيادة العسكرية إلى قطاع غزة.
وكانت مصادر فلسطينية أخرى أكدت لـ «الحياة» أن رئيس المكتب السياسي لـ «حماس» خالد مشعل سيغادر دمشق قريباً للإقامة في قطر، بينما يغادر نائبه موسى أبو مرزوق سورية إلى مصر.
في غضون ذلك، أفادت مصادر فلسطينية لـ «الحياة» في القاهرة بأن القيادي البارز في «كتائب عز الذين القسام» أحمد الجعبري موجود في القاهرة حيث التقى رئيس الاستخبارات المصرية، مرجحة أن الزيارة تعيد لمصر دورها في رعاية صفقة تبادل الأسرى الخاصة بإطلاق الجندي الإسرائيلي الأسير غلعاد شاليت في مقابل الإفراج عن آلاف المعتقلين الفلسطينيين في السجون الإسرائيلية.
يتزامن هذا التطور مع إعلان مصر على لسان وزير خارجيتها نبيل العربي أن معبر رفح «سيفتح في شكل كامل»، مشيراً إلى أن مصر «ستتخذ خطوات مهمة تساعد على تخفيف حصار غزة خلال الأيام القليلة المقبلة»، وهو إعلان رحبت به حكومة «حماس»، فيما أعربت إسرائيل عن قلقها الشديد منه.
كما يأتي هذا التطور بعد يومين على رعاية مصر اتفاق المصالحة الفلسطينية واستضافة حفلة التوقيع الأربعاء المقبل. في هذا الصدد، تجرى الاستعدادات للاحتفال في مقر الجامعة العربية في القاهرة، علماً أن المراسم ستستمر ثلاثة أيام. ومن المقرر أن يزور وفد من «حماس» برئاسة مشعل القاهرة غداً حيث يعقد بعد غد لقاءات مع كبار المسؤولين المصريين، على أن يتوالى وصول وفود الفصائل والقوى الفلسطينية الاثنين والثلثاء المقبلين، لتعقد هذه الوفود جلسة محادثات مع كبار المسؤولين المصريين تمهيداً للتوقيع على اتفاق المصالحة الأربعاء المقبل في احتفالية يحضرها الرئيس محمود عباس ومشعل والأمين العام لحركة «الجهاد الإسلامي» رمضان شلح والأمناء العامون لفصائل منظمة التحرير وكبار المسؤولين المصريين.
في هذه الأثناء، ما زالت أصداء اتفاق المصالحة تتردد في إسرائيل التي تعيش أجواء من التخبط والقلق من التداعيات المحتملة عليها، إذ كشف تقرير سري أعده قسم البحوث السياسية في وزارة الخارجية ونشرته صحيفة «معاريف» أمس، أن من شأن اتفاق المصالحة أن يؤدي إلى انهيار السياسة الأميركية في المنطقة، وأن يجهض الجهود الأميركية لاستئناف المفاوضات. وحذر التقرير من أن الخطر الأبرز في الاتفاق هو اعتراف دول أوروبية بحكومة الوحدة الفلسطينية، وبالتالي «منح الشرعية الدولية للحركة التي ما زالت تعتبر منظمة إرهابية»، معتبراً أن المصالحة «ستقود في شكل شبه حتمي إلى الاعتراف الأممي بالدولة الفلسطينية». في الوقت نفسه، اتخذت حكومة بنيامين نتانياهو قراراً بشن حملة دولية لإجهاض الاعتراف بـ «حماس» وبحكومة الوحدة.
http://international.daralhayat.com/internationalarticle/261292
April 29th, 2011, 11:30 pm
FreeSoldier said:
Sophia,
“Due process is an American legal principle that the government must respect all of the legal rights that are owed to a person according to the law” per Wikipedia.
The day the Assad family applies the “Due Process” is the day they derserve “Due Process”. The Assad’s have not given any rights to the citizens of Syria for the last 40 years. Bashar is no reformer since if he was one, Syria would not be facing the turmoil it is facing today.
Due Process ? Yes but for convicted criminals? NO!!! And yes the Assads are criminals and would go down in history as such. The legacy of the father is Hama, the legacy of the son will likely be Deera
Peace be upon all the martyrs of the last 5 weeks and their families.
April 29th, 2011, 11:34 pm
trustquest said:
I think it is now genocide (Deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, religious, political, or ethnic group).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rilKqmkHchU
killing people indiscriminately…
April 29th, 2011, 11:35 pm
FreeSoldier said:
Sophia,
“Due process is an American legal principle that the government must respect all of the legal rights that are owed to a person according to the law” per Wikipedia.
The day the Assad family applies the “Due Process” is the day they derserve “Due Process”. The Assad’s have not given any rights to the citizens of Syria for the last 40 years. Bashar is no reformer since if he was one, Syria would not be facing the turmoil it is facing today.
Due Process ? Yes but for convicted criminals? NO!!! And yes the Assads are criminals and would go down in history as such. The legacy of the father is Hama, the legacy of the son will likely be Deera
Peace be upon all the martyrs of the last 5 weeks and their families.
April 29th, 2011, 11:50 pm
Sophia said:
Jad,
The protests were violent since the beginning. I think since the beginning there was a will not to give the regime any chance and to trap the whole thing in a cycle of violence out of fear that peaceful protests will not work, because of low numbers, despite prof. Landis’s arithmetics. Only violence can put pressure on the regime. I am not saying that the regime is peaceful, on the contrary, but the Syrian Baath and the Assads have weathered out many crises which means that they are not stupid like Saddam for example. But when faced with a real civil war threat they must use violence. Actually I think the logic of violence is working out to the benefit of the protesters.
The only thing that dismay me is that the violence of the protesters is never mentioned in the western press.
As for Palestinian leaders they never make a wise decision. Remember when Arafat stood by Saddam?
April 30th, 2011, 12:50 am
abbas said:
I just read the previous post from that lesbo in Damascus and I guess i need some help understanding some points:
2 goons come in the middle of the night and they were able to reason with them ! does that mean that they ignored the arrest order ? or was this just a nightmare she experienced while sleeping, the men who knock at your door in the middle of the night are chosen from certain kind of people, like the Natoon in Dha’et Teshreen when he said: habibi an ma befhem sa’aal alshabab and they said mazboot ma bifhem.It could be that they are security doing some freelancing work or someone wants you to think that he is security, there were a lot of incidents in the 80 when some alawite started kidnapping people for revenge and they used to impersonate mukhabarat to make people go with them..
second is that her dad was cool to the fact that she’s lesbo, I guess I have been out of Syria for a long time then
April 30th, 2011, 12:50 am
syau said:
Nk, #38,
One person’s opinion does not mean it is true. I think the writer; even if he is Alawi like you suggest, is clueless. There are mosques in Syria specifically built for the Alawi and it is a far cry to state they are deserted.
During the civil war in Lebanon, the Alawi were captured, slaughtered and mutilated in the most disgusting way. The same happened prior to 1982 and is now happening again. The men that were murdered and mutilated were so, because they were Alawi. They have been murdered for the simple fact that they are Alawi for centuries by the ikhwan. As you can see, the Muslim Brotherhood that has been sanctioning such acts in the past, have continued to in the present. There is no need to research this; all you have to do is take a look at the religious leaders khitabs uploaded on youtube and listen to what’s coming out of their mouths. These evil acts of cold blooded murder and mutilation were halted thanks to Hafez Al Assad. So, contrary to what is said in the article you linked, the Alawi were not oppressed, they were saved from being the victims of the viciousness of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hafez Al Assad, being the great man he is, gave rights to every religion in Syria to practice their religion freely and live as they wish. Syria has a diversity which is rare in the Middle East. I don’t see any freedom of religion or various religious mosques in Saudi Arabia to name one country in many.
People should stop labelling Bashar Assad as the Alawi or Nusarieh leader of a minority sect. He is the President of Syria and should be seen as such. As for marriages between Sunni and Alawi, I personally know many mixed Alawi/sunni, or Sunni/Alawi marriages. It is not just the upper class for “the sole reason of solidifying their rule”. That is a generalisation and nothing more.
I was labelled previously by Shami as mini sectarian. I am not at all. I think everybody deserves the right to live freely with the dignity they deserve and for an organisation such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the religious leaders affiliated with them to sanction such acts is nothing but a sign of evil, and downright hate of someone that does not have the same beliefs as they do. That is sectarianism looking at you straight in the face. Another stark example is the way Revlon bestows Al Fatiha on only deceased protesters. I have not to this day seen Revlon bestow the same on any soldier or victims of the vicious murder and mutilation- which is the stamp only used by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Contacts in Syria are stating that thankfully there have been no protests or gunshots in Syria and are positiv that Bashar is going to put an end to this nightmare violent revolution soon.
April 30th, 2011, 12:50 am
Sourione said:
The numbers does not add up: we were always informed by the books, during middle and high school years, that Damascus is the most populated city, also whoever provided the number he put Tartous twice.
Anyway the protesters number may be not huge, however, this does not call to exterminate them, I am an alawite living outside the country and I am not able to discuss what is going on in syria and how it is mismanaged or cleverly managed by the government with the stress on the foreign role and turning their war into a civil war yet, BUTTOM LINE I am afraid to speak up despite being outside syria in order not to jeopardize my family back home and the government to retaliate from me when I visit Syria ( IE what Baharin is doing now), on the other hand holding back make me angst ridden as this is in some way like Nazi times.
I strongly believe that as we have seen in Libia you do not need different muslims sects to start a civil war, also this government and the Baath party has overall more Sunni than alawite and Bahrin did silence the uprising without real reforms or actions of the international community?!
April 30th, 2011, 1:17 am
jad said:
Sophia,
You are right, there are two things that never mentioned in the media or they are hidden in only one line, those are:
1- There is violence by some protesters and some protesters do actually attack private and public buildings and cars. There are real thugs and criminals attending those protests and they are using those protests to do harm and even killing.
2- There is no mention for any of the almost 100 police, army and security Syrians who lost their lives which make them 1/4 or 1/5 of the total death toll yet no channel other than Addounya and Alikhbariya will properly mention them.
April 30th, 2011, 1:18 am
AIG said:
In 34 days of fighting in July 2006, Hezbollah killed 119 Israeli soldiers. Do you want us to believe that protesters already have killed 100 Syrian soldiers? This makes no sense. Most likely, many were shot for disobeying orders to shoot at civilians.
April 30th, 2011, 1:37 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
I explained the real situation from the first day and I explained what Assad would do. Assad did exactly what I said.
99% of the analyses we read have no clue about what is happening. If Assad did what they say, he would have fallen by now. Assad obviously still has the upper hand in Syria despite the fierce foreign attack against him and despite the fact that his regime is commonly described as a “minority regime” or an “oligarchic regime.” Do those stupid and clueless analysts who have always described Assad’s regime as a minority regime still believe it so?
During the last few weeks, 5 million people in Aleppo have dealt a lethal blow to the theories of all those stupid analysts. The majority of those 5 million people are still LOYAL to Assad despite the fierce American-Wahhabi attack. The majority of the people in Damascus and the eastern provinces are still LOYAL to Assad despite the fierce American-Wahhabi attack. This is Assad’s real strength—the LOYALITY of his people. The Americans have no place in Syria. You can’t do here what you did in Iraq. Just get lost and stop interfering in Syria before you pay a heavy price.
I said from the first day that this was an Islamist Wahhabi-led rebellion. Most Syrians are now convinced with that, even those who were skeptical at the beginning. You don’t need to be a genius to understand what is happening. You just need to have a minimal knowledge of Syrian demographics. If you don not know anything in Syrian demographics, you can just go to Wahhabi websites and read, they are all over the internet.
This is a quote from a Wahhabi website that I got by a random search:
الآن الثورة أشد ما تكون عليها في المناطق التي تنتشر فيها السلفية مثل دوما وحوران
http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1513768&postcount=15
This is a Wahhabi talking, not a Christian or Alawi.
The Syrian regime knew 20 years ago that it was going to face a Wahhabi rebellion one day. What surprised them was the timing, not the rebellion itself. They know the situation in their country very well and they know how to deal with the current crisis much better than any stupid foreign analyst. WE DON’T NEED YOUR ADVICE.
The Wahhabis in Syria are ignorant dirty rubbish. They don’t know anything about technology and they could not orchestrate such a rebellion not in a million years. This whole rebellion was orchestrated from OUTSIDE. The Wahhabis in Deraa are mostly repatriates from Saudi Arabia. The facebook pages are made and run by Islamists in Europe and America, including many non-Syrian Wahhabis. The mobile phones the rebels are using to transmit information outside Syria are all expensive phones that were sent to them from outside.
The foreign Islamists created cells in many Syrian cities to lead the rebellion, they trained them, gave them money, weapons, and expensive foreign communication technology, and they are now organizing the rebellion with them. This is an ORCHESTRATED operation; it is not a spontaneous uprising. It CAN be ended by detecting and arresting the leading cells. This is what the Syrian government has been successfully doing. Yesterday was a HUGE success. The demonstrations were much smaller than last Friday and there was much less videos reaching the Wahhabi-American TV channels. The rebellious cells in every city are being captured. Syrian official sources told a Lebanese newspaper that they expected the rebellion to completely squash in 2-3 weeks.
Foreign propaganda keeps portraying “Assad’s concessions” as if they were directed to the rebels. They are NOT, and they are not concessions. These reforms are directed TO ASSAD’S SUPPORTERS, NOT THE REBELS. They are Assad’s way to counter the foreign campaign of defamation against him.
Once the rebellion is squashed, millions will pour out to the streets to celebrate and I believe they will burn many American flags.
The US is trying with Turkey’s help to install the MB in Syria, this WON’T WORK. Try something else.
April 30th, 2011, 2:10 am
Revlon said:
On the highway to freedom,
Young martyr’s blood writes the Graffiti of sacrifice,
in defiance of the regime’s tracks of tanks,
Not for the faint hearted.
Talbeeseh’s village demonstrators were on the highway to join Comrades, in neighboring town of Rastan, when bruitally attacked by machine guns of army tanks.
The regime have absolved themselves of any reverence for human life.
Human rights organisations and the United nations concerned bodies have more moral responsibility to protect Syrian citizens from the outlawed Syrian regime.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rilKqmkHchU&feature=player_embedded
مجزرة في تلبيسة وهم في طريقهم الى حمص جمعة الغضب 29-4-2011
April 30th, 2011, 2:16 am
jad said:
Souri333
In what newspaper you read about the 2-3 weeks news? any link?
Thank you.
April 30th, 2011, 2:22 am
jad said:
In the same incident three soldiers were killed along with the 4 young guys we saw on the graphic clip of Revlon and Trustquest which means that an exchange of fire happened between both sides.
دمشق-سانا
صرح مصدر عسكري مسؤول أمس بما يلي..
هاجمت مجموعات إرهابية مسلحة وبأعداد كبيرة أمس الجمعة مساكن عائلات العسكريين في بلدتي صيدا وطفس من ريف درعا وقد أطلقت النار بغزارة على الأهالي فتصدى لها حرس المساكن والقاطنون فيها مما أسفر عن استشهاد رقيب وجرح عنصرين وسقوط عشرات الجرحى والقتلى في صفوف المجموعات المهاجمة وتوقيف 156 منها والاستيلاء على 50 دراجة نارية وثلاث عربات.
كما هاجمت مجموعة إرهابية حاجزا للجيش في مدينة الشيخ مسكين قرب درعا فتصدى لها عناصر الحاجز ما أسفر عن مقتل ثلاثة من عناصر المجموعة الإرهابية المهاجمة.
وقد حاولت مجموعة إرهابية أخرى قطع طريق عام حمص- حماة قرب بلدتي تلبيسة والرستن فتصدى لها عناصر الجيش وقد أسفر ذلك عن استشهاد ثلاثة عناصر من الجيش وسقوط عدد من الجرحى والقتلى في صفوف المجموعات الإرهابية المهاجمة.
April 30th, 2011, 2:31 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/10836
ويعتقد المسؤولون الأمنيون أن تنفيذ قرار المواجهة يستغرق، بلا مفاجآت سلبية، أسبوعين أو أكثر بقليل.
April 30th, 2011, 2:37 am
syau said:
Revlon, #53,
The link you have posted has already been posted today.
Unfortunately, in times of war, whether small or large full scale war, there will be civilian deaths.
I also wonder which comrades they were joining. I know for a fact that they Syrian army is not shooting randomly and for no reason, they are being shot at. If there were no terrorist cells in the area, it would not be taking so long to clear it. There are terrorist/insurgent cells there, and they are shooting at the army who inturn will shoot back to regain stability for the Syrian people. Stability that will enable the Syrians to live safely, without the threat of the violence and murder that has been taking place by these gangs. It is the people of Syria who have requested the government and army intervene.
If you really have the Syrian peoples best interests at heart, it would relieve you to know that many of these terrorist gangs are being caught and all of them admitting to basically the same thing. Violence, destabalisation, murder and all being paid large sums of money to create this havoc, aswell as large amounts of weaponary being smuggled to them. The only innocent people that are being killed is at the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood followers and the rebel gangs inside the protests. By their own admittion it might interest you to know.
April 30th, 2011, 2:42 am
Revlon said:
Yiderboo, Yalli ra7 ma a7san minni
Le them shoot, They who died are not better than me!
Defiance was the freedom youth’s response to the “Shock and Awe”.
They are propelled by,
the intoxicating spirit of freedom, and
the moral duty to remain faithful to the cause of their martyr friend’s and loved ones.
Talbeeseh, a village near Homs city, April 29th, Friday of rage massacre.
April 30th, 2011, 2:49 am
Revlon said:
The Syrian Revolution 2011 الثورة السورية
Names of 17 Martyrs of Friday of rage massacre in Rastan town, near Homs city, April 29th
الثورة السورية .. ارتفاع عدد شهداء الرستن الى 17 شهيد من جراء مجزرة يوم الجمعة وهم
1- عبد الباسط احمد الرجب
2- عبد الله عبد الكافي ادريس
3- عبد الحميد الحميد
4- زياد عبيد
…5- عقاب جمال الشيخ علي
6- حسان الحمصي
7- محمد امين الاشتر
8- ابراهيم غازي طلاس
9- ابن شعلان شريتح
10- احمد خالد الحج يوسف
11- حسان عباس
12- متعب شمير
13 حسن عمر الطويل
14بسام احمد العي
15محمود عمار خطاب
16-محمد علي مشارقة
17- عبد الحميد الحميد
الرحمة للشهداء واللعنة على المجرمين القتلة
نقسم أيها الشهداء أننا لن نترك دمكم يضيع هباء
سنحاكمكم ونحاسبكم ونعاقبكم أيها القتلةSee More
2 hours ago
April 30th, 2011, 2:57 am
jad said:
They count عبد الحميد الحميد twice or there are two guys with the same name?
April 30th, 2011, 3:05 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-out-of-syrias-darkness-come-tales-of-terror-2276392.html
“In the village of Hala outside Deraa, Muslim inhabitants told their Christian neighbours to join the demonstrations against the regime – or leave.”
I guess this was when they started singing:
العلوية على التابوت والمسيحية على بيروت
These chants made their way to most Lebanese newspaper and websites, but “surprisingly” not to any Western media outlet.
April 30th, 2011, 3:20 am
CC said:
“I am dismayed by the analysis provided by the anonymous retired diplomat.”
Which post or comment are you referring to? WOuld you be kind enough to link it?
April 30th, 2011, 3:30 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
Commenting on Hamas news:
They were kicked out. Hamas was being attacked on Syrian TV stations for weeks. The regime accuses them of not supporting it enough. Assad desperately needs support from any Sunni authority. He has long counted on Hamas as his source of Sunni legitimacy, but they have failed him.
April 30th, 2011, 4:04 am
Mark said:
“Its probably safe to assume that the age group (18-40) constitute 35% of the population. This bring the total number of ( Active protesters + Passive-female protesters +their extended families) to 2,250,000… ·”
You lost me there. That’s a pretty wild jump.
April 30th, 2011, 4:16 am
Mina said:
#14 WD
R. Labeviere is a serious journalist. As a result he has lost his job in 2008.
http://videos.wittysparks.com/id/36028862044569645
April 30th, 2011, 4:56 am
Solitarius said:
I agree with SOURI
Hamas was most likely kicked out because they did not demonstrate any support and were betting on the wrong sides.. I can’t believe people could be this stupid.
@ahmadtalk
#Syria #banias بانياس-الجيش يخرب متاريسه وينسحب من معظم نقاط تمركزه في المدينة، وتخوف من أنه تمهيد لاقتحام المدينة من قبل الشبيحة والأمن
@ahmadtalk
#Syria ياأقطاب المعارضةالسورية الكرام: حلّوعنا واتركونا بحالنا، كان معكون وقت منيح تنجزو اللي نحاول ننجزه، إذا مازبطت معكون لاتخربوا علينا
@ahmadtalk
#Syria يا أقطاب المعارضة السورية الكرام: اللي بده يركب على ضهرنا منكم بدنا ندوس على رقبته ..
I’m dismayed, to borrow from Dr. Landis, at how delusional some people, like the one I qoute above, could be! It shows their true colors.
April 30th, 2011, 4:59 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
Something that so many Westerners seem to not understand is that not only Syrian Christians are frightened by the Islamist revolution in Syria– the Lebanese Christians are not less frightened.
A Sunni Islamist state in Syria will shake the foundations of the already shaky Lebanon. Imagine if Iran was relocated and put right next to Lebanon, what would to happen to Hizbullah and the internal equilibrium?
Similarly, a Sunni Islamist state in Syria will reshuffle all of Leabnon’s equations. The Sunni Islamists in Lebanon will gain the upper hand. Hizbullah will lose no doubt, but Hizbullah is much stronger than the Christains. While Hizbullah fights off the new Sunni Islamist giant in Lebanon, the Christians will pay the price and they will be the biggest losers like they were in Iraq.
Somebody should tell the Zionist asshole Sarkozy that it is not worth to eradicate the Christians from the region just to relieve Israel from Hizbullah.
April 30th, 2011, 5:08 am
syau said:
Souri,
Sarkozy is too impressed with his biceps after having a hand in invading lybia, so, he wont listen to anyone because he is too busy following a trend whilst admiring himself.
April 30th, 2011, 5:22 am
Solitarius said:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD30Ak03.html
THE ROVING EYE
Arab Pipelineistan’s high stakes
By Pepe Escobar
………
…..
..
The new gas rush:
Now there’s another huge game at play in Arab Pipelineistan. Texas-based Nobel Energy has found massive natural gas deposits – trillions of cubic meters – in the eastern Mediterranean. The waters encompass all number of key regional players; Israel, Lebanon, Cyprus, Gaza, Egypt and Turkey. No treaties demarcate these territorial waters. What everyone may eventually enjoy is no less than over 300 years of assured energy; at least in theory, that would mean the end of a regional energy war.
Turkey is at the moment involved in a complex push to develop regional Pipelineistan not only along an east-west axis but north-south as well; this means it must cultivate a complex web of relations with no less than nine countries – Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. Before Tahrir Square, serious negotiations were already ongoing regarding an extended Arab Pipelineistan that could link Cairo, Amman, Damascus, Beirut and Baghdad. This would certainly do more to unify and develop the Middle East than any “peace process”.
The same applies to the newfound eastern Mediterranean gas. An ideal world would point to multi-nation corporation in charge of exploiting these new gas finds, maybe located in Cyprus, which is neutral and a member of the European Union (EU) to boot. That would simplify the sale of much of this gas to energy-hungry Europe, thus alleviating its dependency on Russian gas.
Russia’s energy giant Gazprom anyway won’t fail to be part of the action. It has already offered Lebanon its prospection services. China is already on the spot, ready to buy from anyone. For the moment, the heart of the action in this New Gas Rush is Cyprus airport. The Delek corporation – which controls the second-largest quota, after Noble Energy, of the extraction rights in Israel – wants to install a LNG refinery in Cyprus, on a site strategically located between two American naval bases.
So reality will be messy – especially with Israeli/US interests trying to get the upper hand while Arab governments think they could use this new gas bonanza as a way to pierce the economic/military hegemony of Israel.
At least one front of the great 2011 Arab revolt might seem to be spelling a rosy future, as in “natural gas”; commodity, capital and infrastructure leading to development for all. Or maybe not; and this will turn out to be yet another lethal chapter of ongoing energy wars.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His new book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).
He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.
(Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
April 30th, 2011, 5:23 am
SANDRO LOEWE said:
Souri,
Thanks for this link:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-out-of-syrias-darkness-come-tales-of-terror-2276392.html
Just point some words that explain how this country has been run for so many years:
…In an attempt to rid Syria of “foreign” influence, the ministry of education has ordered a number of schools to end all English teaching – even banning the names of schools in French and English from school uniforms. Even the kindergarten where the President’s two young children are educated has been subject to the prohibitions…
In the pre war situation we are living the Ministry of Education has no other idea than forbiding English teaching. Nothing better? Nothing else? It looks very educational mesure. If boys just understand arabic cannot read international news. They think in this way they punish Great Britain or United States? They just make their people poorer as they have always done. Even chanching the names from english to arabic in the uniforms is a measure that can change the course of history…? Really brilliant…
Finally Robert Fisk explains thant EVEN the kindergarten where the sons of President are educated will be subject to prohibitions. Should we suposse that the normal is that what is forbidden for all the people is not forbidden for the sons of the president. This is the clear idea we get.
Regarding Christians it is clear that in this time of crisis, of historical decisions, christians as any other syrian must take part and responsability. They cannot sit and wait for the winner. This is the loosers position. This is the idea of Christ being taken to the cross and all people around hiding their sins looking to another side, this is Judas position too. Christians and all syrians must decide between REGIME or CHANGE. If they follow the momentum of history they will have a place in the future Middle East. If they are victims of their panic for Islam they will be anyhow real victims of Islam sooner or later. If they take an active rol in the revolution they will be part of the future. I find logical that protesters ask christians to act or leave. Because when neighbours are being massacred all around, you just can be a friend or an enemy.
April 30th, 2011, 5:44 am
George said:
SANDRO LOEWE
Just a question what world do you live in and Who do you think yourself is?
We tried the so called regime change in Iraq. Where are the Iraqi Christians now?
Why should we as Syrian Christians decide against a government and president that protected us in the past from those same thugs that are now demonstrating and shooting at us from roof tops in our suburbs and openly calling us to leave to Beirut (basically calling to ethnic cleanse us).
Or maybe you’re asking us to take up arms to protect ourselves as the Lebanese did.
What I’m writing here is not some regime propaganda this from family and friends.
April 30th, 2011, 6:51 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
I don’t think Assad himself decided to ban English in schools.
I am not worried about that. It is temporary. Syria is going to be more open politically and we are going to have different parties. I don’t think the old-fashioned Baathists will be able to force such things on the Syrians anymore.
The only danger now is the American-backed Wahhabis. We must concentrate on defeating those thugs first and after that everything will be fine.
April 30th, 2011, 6:52 am
أمنية said:
Joshua
how could you let comments like the stupid souri333 claiming these awful things to be said among those who are paying their lives for us . just have some respect to them LITTLE RESPECT WON’T HARM ANYONE
April 30th, 2011, 7:23 am
أمنية said:
souri333
i wish u would go in tabout this evening
you are an awful human being
April 30th, 2011, 7:25 am
أمنية said:
no one won’t to believe that those who are paying their lives are just doing this for SYRIA not for muhammad or christ or the brotherhood or salafi or CIA or hariri or saudi or whatever excuses
those who are claiming these ugly things, believing it ,repeating it , even mentioning it are much worse than the security who are shooting the bullets , at least these bullets have made martyrs of these syrians , your words are making traitors of them
Souri 333 you are not even souri
April 30th, 2011, 7:30 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
The Hamas news was just a Syrian pressure on Hamas:
http://www.almanar.com.lb/adetails.php?eid=41603&cid=21&fromval=1&frid=21&seccatid=22&s1=1
April 30th, 2011, 7:34 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
#74
Why don’t you go and protest yourself?
Those young “liberals” who keep writing on the internet against the regime won’t go out to the streets not in a million years. The people who really go out are the jihadists. They recite jihad prayers, wear the dead clothes كفن, and then they go out shouting Allahu akbar, عالجنة رايحين شهداء بالملايين, حي على الجهاد etc.
Those who claim to be liberal activists (many of them are fake) are too coward to go out demonstrating. They know only to defend the jihadists while setting at the comfort of their homes. They think that they can ride on the jihadists to get to power. How stupid is that?
April 30th, 2011, 7:47 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
There is no hope in improving our relations with the US. It is hopeless. The US must get out of this region. Middle Eastern oil must be under OUR control. Those Wahhabi Arabian emirates must be abolished and replaced by national states. The US must be kicked out of Iraq ASAP. Israel must be removed. We don’t want the US in this region. Russia is welcome, US is not. Get out.
April 30th, 2011, 8:18 am
أمنية said:
SOURI
Some closed minded like yourself who has phobia against anyone who says allah or wear white when being buried, would only see these chantings the way you are seeing it
i would like you to act like a syrian when speaking of syria or keep your mouth shut
everyone is free to speak up his reason of why he is out on the street, if think that those who are in the streets are merelly islamist then you are mistaken
this guy- an atheist – from Daraa , he didn’t come on line since last Mon
i’ll let your eyes read his comments on the accusation of christian abuses which also spread two weeks ago , when this guy sign in again after the siege over, why don’t u go and ask him about عاجنة راييحين شهدا بالملايين؟
people there do not have anything in their hands but these words to strength their steps on the ground against the tanks. i myself is not that believer nearly atheist, i myself is now praying to God though i don’t think he listens much, i pray that those syrians who are holding the guns infront these bare hands syrians to drop their guns , for their hearts to feel their brothers.
what are you afraid of ? syria turns islamic country HA HAHAAHAHAHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA BULLSHIT ,most stupid joke, not in thousand years , I AM SYRIAN YOU ARE SYRIAN AND YOU KNOW THAT SYRIANS DO NOT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT EACH OTHER’S RELIGIONS OR GODS!! CLEAN YOUR MIND A BIT
HERE IS THE COMMENT
Safo Abuzed انا طول عمري بهاي المدينة العظيمة , درعا ام الشهداء , اليوم احد القيامة والكنايس بتقوم بالصلوات مع غياب الامن , هل الشعب الحوراني هاجمهم ؟ هل هاجمهم يوم الجمعة العظيمة .؟ , الجواب طبعاً لأ , الامن مستمد من الشعب وليس من القتلة المجرمين كلاب رجال الأمن السوري القذر الذي قتل اهلنا امام اعيننا , زوج اختي وابن خالي وافضل اصدقائي و قرايبي كتار , ما حدا نهائياً عانى من اي هجوم فردي على دار عبادة او اي عمل طائفي جبان , التحدي عندي سيذهب ابعد من ذلك معك لاخر هاليوم اذا ما حطيت فيديوهات الي وعدت انك تحطها سأضطر اسفاً لاعملك بلوك رداً على اشاعات على اهل بلدي , والي كل قطرة دم سالت منهم هي من قلبي , و هالطفل الي مات على صدري بإزرع و هو عمرو 6 سنين و كان يحلم بقطة صغيرة يربيها و رصاص الامن من فوق الامن السياسي قتلت احلامو , و الشباب الي جرجروهم بالشوارع بعد استشهادهم و كل شارع بحوران لو الو لسان كان حكا عن جرايم ما استرجو يسوها بتل ابيب , صديقي هاني / الي شفناه ما بيتحملو قلب انسان , ضرب الشهدا على الراس بالبسطار بس لأنو قال كلمة حرية , قتل بنت صغيرة عمرها 9 سنين بنص بيتها بدون اي ذنب , واذا بدك تقول سلفية الـ 5 اشخاص الي هم كتير مقربين مني و استشهدو ما الهم علاقة باي توجه ديني , بالعكس كلهم شريبة كاس و مثقفين على فكرة , و كل الشباب الي بطلت ساحة الكرامة تسع صورهم هم معتدلين جداً و غير متعصبين , حوران بتنزف و انتو بتطلعو اشاعات كراهية و حقد على هالبلد الي استعادت الكرامة السورية المسلوبة والمدعوسة تحت البسطار , هاي جزاتنا
5 hours ago · Unlike · 1 person
Safo Abuzed على فكرة الكنيسة الي بتقول عنها تكسرت والمسيحين الي تهجرو هي نفسها الي انفتحت مستشفى ميداني لجرحى المظاهرات , و الشب الشهيد بإزرع المسيحي السلفي كمان شاهد على هالجرايم و هالاشاعات , انا بقمة الانزعاج و التوتر , الشعب هون عم يظهر اكبر وحدة وطنية شفتها و توقعتها , ولا مسيحي طلع من درعا وعلى تحدي كمان , انا كنت عم بحكي لواحد من الشباب صحابي يطلع هو واهلو من درعا مش لأنو مسيحي لأ لانو عندهم بيت بالشام و لأنو بيتهم بمنطقة كتير فيها تواجد امني والرصاص وصل لغرفتو لأنهم قبال مفرزة امنية قذرة حكالي عمري ما بطلع من درعا , والمفرزة هاي بس صار الاتفاق مغ السلطات بخروج الامن غادرت و توقف القتل و توقف كلشي , لانو ثقالعصابات الغادرة والمجرمة هي عصابات النظام و ميليشيات حزب البعث
here is a christian guy comment on hearing the word Jihad
Gabriel Kebbe بالمناسبة انا مسؤول بالجيك ( الشبيبة الطالبة المسيحية ) لمدة 4 سنوات وضمن الوعود اللي بيعملوها الاشخاص في شي قبل ما يصير واحد مسؤول بيعمل وعد اسمو ( وعد المجــاهد )
فكلمة الجهد والاجهاد بالاصل تعني البذل ولا تعني الارهاب … طريقة تناول الاعلام الها حورها لمفهوم التفجير وربطها ببن لادن … بس هية بالاصل كلمة معناها واضح
SHAME ON YOU , TRUST YOUR SYRIANISM TRUST YOUR PEOPLE , SPEAK FOR THEM ISTEAD OF SPEAKING AGAINST THEM
April 30th, 2011, 8:26 am
Shami said:
Israel must be removed. We don’t want the US in this region.
Souri3333,who is going to remove them ,you,ahmad hassoun,hamsho,tlass ,maher and rami makhlouf ?
April 30th, 2011, 8:56 am
why-discuss said:
Shami
No, the moslem brotherhood and the salafi and wahhabi rich friends, they know better how to make war and jIhad.
April 30th, 2011, 9:07 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
#78
“SYRIANS DO NOT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT EACH OTHER’S RELIGIONS”
Oh really?
This is what we have, a bunch of jihadists and a bunch of teenagers making a “revolution.”
April 30th, 2011, 9:09 am
Shami said:
as for the syrian christianity and because you told us that you are from aleppo ,are should be aware of the dangerous decline of the christian community in this city during the asad regime years.
And try to calm your paranoia crisis otherwise.
April 30th, 2011, 9:10 am
why-discuss said:
The salafists are plotting in Morocco.. They are starting the cycle of violence under the cover of legitimate protests
“Pour les djihadistes salafistes, Marrakech est symbole de débauche”
http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2011/04/29/pour-les-djihadistes-salafistes-marrakech-est-symbole-de-debauche_1514785_3212.html
April 30th, 2011, 9:12 am
Shami said:
Why,the syrian people(as the egyptian) will decide democratically how to deal with such issues.
If the ikhwan can reach the government in a democratical way ,so ahlan wa sahlan even if i will not vote for them.
April 30th, 2011, 9:17 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
This is the language the Wahhabis understand:
http://www.lebanonfiles.com/news_desc.php?id=234929
Those Wahhabis need a behind-kick. Iran must teach them a lesson soon.
April 30th, 2011, 9:18 am
why-discuss said:
Shami
Aleppo’s christian decline: Do you think any of them will stay if Bashar Al Assad goes away and a Saudi style government takes over?
Especially when the peaceful protesters used slogans like: Christian in Lebanon!
Note that many copts are leaving Egypt now. They are worried of the extremists in Islam who are now let loose.
I may be paranoid , but you don’t seem to see the danger, just look at what is going in the region, the return of the extremist islam intolerant to other religions and they have the money and the power to make “their revolution”
April 30th, 2011, 9:21 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
The weaker the insurgents become on the ground, the fiercer Wahhabi media becomes. Wahhabi TV channels are propagating now that the Syrian regime is losing control and that Syria needs a “foreign intervention.”
April 30th, 2011, 9:23 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
SHAMI is Wahhabi. Stop arguing with him as if he was an agnostic.
April 30th, 2011, 9:27 am
Shami said:
Why,the europeans and the americans know that the terrorists are not representative at all ,are marginal and rejected by the muslim masses.
That’s why democracy will help in the rationalization of the arab political culture.
It has been badly affected by the authoritarian regimes ,who in fact contributed to the radicalization of the arab societies.
Now we are going out of this era.
April 30th, 2011, 9:30 am
aboali said:
A Gay Girl in Damascus tells of her chilling encounter with security forces, and how her father talked them down. An amazing read:
http://damascusgaygirl.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-father-hero.html
April 30th, 2011, 9:30 am
vlad-the-syrian said:
to #89 ABOALI
this story is a lie and this girl is a lier
all the details are absurd , this is a fiction
moukhabarat guys dont act like that
this girl is a kazzaba and you’re a kazab for spreading this shit
kizb 3la kizb
shame on you
April 30th, 2011, 9:40 am
why-discuss said:
Shami
The Western countries know that, but there is nothing they can do if the extremist islamist take over. Read Algeria experience with the islam extremists, almost 10 years of civil war and 150,000 deaths ,among them intellectuals, journalist etc.. The Western countries were impotent and only watched the chaos.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_Civil_War
Note that in Syria journalists and intellectuals dissidents were jailed but not killed.
April 30th, 2011, 9:46 am
Revlon said:
حركة سوريا شباب من أجل الحرية Youth Syria For Freedom
قائمة شبهة كاملة بالشهداء الـ 62 الذين سقطوا يوم الجمعة 29-4-2011 في مختلف المحافظات السورية
1. Abdulsalam Bargash: Child, Deir Biaalba – Homs الطفل عبد السلام برغش، حمص، ديربعلبة
2. Rahaf Bateekh: Child, Lattakia الطفلة رهف بطيخ، اللاذقية
3. Ahmed Khalaf Almahameed, Daraa أحمد خلف المحاميد، درعا البلد
4. Hassan Ali Rasheed, Daraa حسن …علي رشيد المسالمة، درعا البلد
5. Khaled Almasri, Saham – Daraa خالد المصري، سحم
6. Almasri, Taseel – Daraa حسن المصري منتسيلHassan
7. Adnan Ismaeil Alazizi عدنان اسماعيل العزيزي
8. Yasin Alqarfan, Adwan يوسف ياسين القرفان من عدوانYousef
9. Aldin Alshanboor, Tafas – Daraa نور الدين الشنبور من طفسNour
10. Bassel Alyadoda باسل اليادودة
11. Nidal Qoshan, Qadam -Damascus نضال الكوشان، القدم
12. Abdulraham Rifai, Daraa عبد الرحمن الرفاعي: درعا
13. Lieutenant Alshweiti, Khalideih – Homs الملازم علاء الشويطي، حمص الخالديةAlaa
14. Yousef Mohammed Alzoubi, Daraa يوسف محمد الزعبي، درعا
15. Mohammed Ahmed Abdulaziz, Daraa محمد أحمد عبد العزيز الزعبي،درعا
16. Reiyad Alzoubi, Daraa رياض الزعبي، درعا
17. Khaled Alzoubi, Daraa خالد عبد الرحمن الزعبي، درعاAbdulrahman
18. Haytham Khaled Alraies, Talbisah – Homs هيثم خالد الريس ، تير معلةحمص
19. Abdulhameed Mahameed, Daraa عبد الحليم محاميد، درعا
20. Monzer Mousa Alelwan ALmahameed, Daraa منذر موسى العلوان المحاميد،درعا
21. Hani Wajeeh Mishem Almahameed, Daraa هاني وجيه مشحم المحاميد،درعا
22. Mohannad Ahmed Almatar, Deir Maala – Homs مهند أحمد المطر،ديرمعلة
23. Ali Mahmoud Abo Horan, Sharqia – Daraa علي محمود ابو حوران، الشرقية،درعا
24. Ziad Omar Hreidin, Tafas – Daraa زياد عمرحريدين – طفس
25. Mohammed Ayman Albardan, Tafas – Daraa محمد ايمن البردان – طفس
26. Mohammed Aljamous, Dael – Daraa محمد الجاموس – داعل
27. Radwan Shadat, Dael – Daraa رضوان جميل شحادات – داعلJameel
28. Ayman Alahmad, Sheikh Miskeen – Daraa ايمن الاحمد – الشيخمسكين
29. Mohammed Shihada, Jilein – Daraa محمد شحاده – جلين
30. Mohammed Audeh Alseiroji, Jilin محمد عوده السبروجي – جلين
31. (Broken ID: unrecognized first name) Alian, Baser Alhareir – Daraa الكنيه عليان (هويته مكسورة) – بصر الحرير
32. Hassan Kamal Altaani, Saham – Daraa حسن كمال الطعاني – سحم
33. Ayman Shlash Alahmer, Sheikh Miskeen – Daraa ايمن شلاش الاحمر – الشيخمسكين
34. Mohammed Rajeh, Heit – Daraa محمد راجح – قرية حيط
35. Abdulrahman Jaber Alzoubi, Saida عبد الرحمن جبر الزعبي- صيدا
36. Abdulrahman Munir Maroof, Saida عبد الرحمن منير معروف- صيدا
37. Abdulkareem Alrashed, Tei Mouala عبد الكريم الراشد- قرية تيرمعلة
38. Hassan Abbass, Rastan حسان عباس- الرستن
39. Abdulhameed Alhameed, Rastan عبد الحميد الحميد- الرستن
40. Abdulbaset Ahmed Alrajab, Rastan عبد الباسط أحمد الرجب- الرستن
41. Hassan Omar Altaweel, Rastan حسن عمر الطويل- الرستن
42. Mahmoud Ammar Altaweel, Rastan محمود عمار الطويل- الرستن
43. Shalaan Shreiteh, Rastan شعلان شريتح- الرستن
44. Mohammed Ammar Khatab, Rastan محمود عمار خطاب- الرستن
45. Mohammed Khaled Obeid, Rastan محمد خالد عبيد- الرستن
46. Mohammed Hussein Ayoob, Rastan محمد حسين أيوب- الرستن
47. Obeid, Rastan خالد أحمد عبيد- الرستنKhaled Ahmed
48. Khaled Ahmed Saad Eldein, Rastan خالد أحمد سعد الدين- الرستن
49. Mohammed Sulaiman Ayoub, Rastan محمد سليمان أيوب- الرستن
50. Moteb Alshmeer, Rastan – Homs متعب عبده شمير- الرستن
51. Bassam Ahmed Alai, Rastan بسامأحمد العي-الرستن
52. Mohammed Masharqa, Rastan محمد مشارقة-الرستن
53. Ahmed Khaled Alhaj Yousef, Rastan أحمد خالد الحاجيوسف-الرستن
54. Mohammed Abdulhafeez Alshtar, Rastan – Homs محمد امين عبد الحفيظالاشتر-الرستن
55. Abdah Qassem Alahter, Rastan عبده قاسم الاشتر-الرستن
56. Iqab Jamal Alsheikh Ali, Rastan عقاب جمال الشيخ علي-الرستن
57. Hassaan Mohammed Alhomsi, Rastan حسان محمد الحمصي-الرستن
58. Alaa Hassan Shomeir, Rastan علاء حسن شمير-الرستن
59. Zeiad Obeid, Rastan – Homs زياد طه عبيد-الرستن
60. Abdulla Edrees, Rastan – Homs عبد الله عبد الكافيادريس-الرستن
61. Ibraheem Gazi Tlas, Rastan ابراهيم غازي طلاس-الرستن
62. Mohammed Alawi Alhameed, Rastan محمد علاوي الحميد-الرستنSee More
2 hours ago
Al Fati7a upon their souls,
May God bless their families with solace and empower them with patience.
April 30th, 2011, 9:50 am
why-discuss said:
Aboali
I think these alawites security officers who at first were vulgar and provocative turned out to be non-violent, human and open minded as they were convinced not by bribing or threats, but by a intelligent discourse. After all they are good people doing a dirty job.
I wonder if a Wahhabi security officer would have done the same!
April 30th, 2011, 9:50 am
Shami said:
souri3333,this reaction from you show how much coward and corrupt you are.
why,the Syrian christians were very dynamic and powerful(especially those of Aleppo) prior to Asad ,they were already the most prosperous and most influential community in ottoman Aleppo ,Asad did not creat christianity in Syria ,on the contrary he badly affected it,since Asad years ,their importance has suddenly declined ,nowadays they became a fossilized community.
April 30th, 2011, 9:59 am
why-discuss said:
http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=28358
The Brotherhood treasures Syria’s good position as a pillar of resistance, embracing Palestinian rights for liberating the land, supporting the armed resistance, embracing the stances of Palestinian faction leaders, and Palestinian and Lebanese legitimate rights while being against the Zionist-American Greater Middle East project. The MB fully supports the right of the Syrian people to a free and dignified life in an independent and secure country under a strong and modern state ruled by law and justice and approved by Islam and international conventions. We also completely reject aggression and terror against unarmed and peaceful civilians and condemn the shedding of one drop of Syrian blood.
Due to our deep concern for Syria’s unity, the Brothers appeal to the Syrian government to act promptly in order to achieve national reconciliation and meet the people’s demands and their aspirations for freedom, dignity and justice, putting an end to state-sponsored political violence, prosecuting those responsible for crimes against their own people, violating the sanctity of places of worship and the abolition of all laws of exception, especially all laws restricting the freedom of expression.
The Brothers warn not to take advantage of the tragic incidents in a state like Syria- un-subservient to US dictates- to be dragged into a resolution under the authority of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter; especially if the fighting and bloodshed escalates, under the pretext of protecting civilians, to destroy its army for the benefit of the Zionists.
Muslim Brotherhood
April 30th, 2011, 10:03 am
Revlon said:
The Syrian Revolution 2011 الثورة السورية ضد بشار الاسد
مظاهرة نسائية اليوم السبت 30 نيسان 2011 في دمشق (مواجه البرلمان) للتنديد بالعنف وإراقة الدماء والحصار.. واعتقال 11 من النساء
April 30th, 2011, 10:08 am
majedkhaldoon said:
The Assad regime is increasingly isolating itself,by making mistake after another,they, resorting to military crimes in Deraa,sending the shabbiha to kill indiscrimnately,even soldiers from the army,even security forces,those are killed by shabbiha,not by the demonstrators,who are not armed.
the news media in Syria are not ashamed of spreading lies and misinformations, people in Syria and outside Syria, realize this and they lost all credibility with this regime news media,quoting syrian news media are useless, no one believe them,even pro regime people are saying this.
Those who are supporting the regime on Syria comment they seem to talk to themselves,they do not make any sense,they will not convince us that what they say is correct,they are wasting their time,they are prejudiced,and correctly can be called MUSHAGHIBEEN,Trouble makers.
More and more demonstrations are happening every friday,they are spreading almost everywhere,they are in their seventh week,for the regime to say that they will be able to quell these demonstrations in 2-3 weeks ,is nothing but hope on their part,we will see if this is true, meanwhile,Europe and USA are getting more angry of Assad, and only giving him a chance to correct himself, from previous observations of the regime ,he will not change, there will be time the west will go directly against Assad himself.
Turkey is changing , they are criticising the regime politely,in the future.they will cricise Assad himself,isolating Syria completely.Assad will be on the black list, Hafez Assad was able to kill over 20,000 in Hama,in 1982, but then Syria was surrounded by dictators,now Syria is surrounded by democracies,in addition to this this is the day of internet and mobile phone Assad will be the paraiah of the world.
April 30th, 2011, 10:33 am
why-discuss said:
Contradictory informations on the Human rights Commission resolution.
Is there an independant probe or just a visit of the UN human rights commisionners in Syria?
UN-Led Syria Probe A Win For U.S. Diplomacy
“it fared better in the UN Human Rights Council, which voted Friday to launch an investigation “.
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/30/135850960/un-led-syria-probe-a-win-for-u-s-diplomacy?ft=1&f=1001
UN Human Rights Council condemns Syria crackdown
“…The Council, meeting Friday in Geneva, asked the UN human rights commissioner to visit Syria to look into alleged violations.”
However, the debate exposed some deep divisions within the UN’s top human rights body – and blocked a much stronger resolution that would have ordered an official independent investigation.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15040193,00.html
Anyone has seen who voted for against? This resolution is not even mentioned in the website of Human Rights UN Council
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/
April 30th, 2011, 10:37 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
http://www.sana.sy/ara/3/2011/04/30/344141.htm
وصفت روسيا الاتحادية تبني مجلس حقوق الإنسان بالأمم المتحدة مشروع قرار تقدمت به الولايات المتحدة ضد سورية بأنه أمر غير مقبول.
ونقلت وكالة الصحافة الفرنسية عن مصدر روسي قوله.. إنه من غير المقبول استخدام آليات الأمم المتحدة الهادفة لاحترام حقوق الإنسان في العالم لتحقيق أهداف آنية وللتدخل في الشؤون الداخلية لبلدان ذات سيادة.
وأوضح المصدر أن التركيز على الأحداث في سورية في ظل الوضع المتوتر في المنطقة يثبت سياسة الكيل بمكيالين وانحياز الداعين لاجتماع المجلس ومقاربتهم الانتقائية للأحداث.
وكانت روسيا صوتت ضد مشروع قرار أمريكي بشأن سورية خلال جلسة خاصة عقدها أمس مجلس حقوق الإنسان بالأمم المتحدة حول الأحداث في سورية.
April 30th, 2011, 10:47 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
What majed khaldoon is saying are rosy dreams. The Western colonialist powers neither can nor do they want to intervene in Syria to save your asses. The most they can do is economic sanctions. These sanctions will ultimately back fire on them because they will force Assad to start resisting the Golan occupation more seriously. The whole region will get inflamed.
Assad may go down, but you won’t be there to enjoy it. He will have exterminated you before he goes down. You have no hope. You should start running away to Saudi Arabia like the MB did in the 1980’s. This is your only chance to save your asses.
April 30th, 2011, 10:56 am
Austria said:
Professor Landis
Your anaylsis and calculations in response to the anonymous diplomat while exagerated divert from the point. However, even if your lofty assumptions (of an equivalent number of opposition sympathizer across all age groups, while everyone knows that the age group of 18-40 is by far in any opposition the most numerous. That 3 in 10 are demonstraring and again accross all age groups is an oversimplification) are true, the 7.5 millions does not represent only the hard core opposition but almost a democratic vote against the regime, which is not what the dimplomat was referring to.
On the other hand if we stick to the logic you proposed to see what the silent majority supports, we can conclude that a majority of the Syrian Sunnis still support Assad (54% b your calculation). Syria is not only Sunnis, we have Alawites, Shiites, Christians as well as other minorities who are very solidely behind the president. This means that the silent majority if they were to vote is decisively against the opposition, if we don’t want to accept that they back the regime.
April 30th, 2011, 11:14 am
AIG said:
SOURI333,
The moment Assad does anything in the Golan, Israel will hit him and his supporters hard, not civilians in Dera’a or Homs or Banias. First, the Republican Guard will go and then Israel will attack the elites and their interests. Assad and his regime would not last 6 days. Doing anything in the Golan is the worst mistake Assad can make, so don’t make idle threats.
April 30th, 2011, 11:29 am
why-discuss said:
Latest in Deraa, it seems it is the final phase.
…Syrian security forces have stormed a mosque in the opposition stronghold of Deraa after heavy shelling of the city’s old quarter, according to residents.
One said snipers had taken up positions on the roof of the Omari mosque and that government forces appeared to be back in control (Control they had lost to peaceful demonstrators?) for the first time since attacking the city earlier in the week. Tanks were reported to have moved into the area.
….Another resident, Abu Ahmad, also told Reuters that tanks had stormed the old city: “It looks like they [the security forces] want to finish their campaign today. From the new tank deployments, it looks as though they are intensifying their operations.”
“
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/30/syrian-death-toll-500-deraa
April 30th, 2011, 11:30 am
Sophia said:
An interesting article written in 2006 from Gary Gambill about the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. It may explain the difficulties of the syrian opposition today and it may explain the violence from the protesters which is meant in my opinion to coerce the regime into more violence in order to unifiy the opposition against Assad and to silence dissent inside the opposition and prevent any national reconciliation.
In my opinion, the chaos and the violence from the protesters are meant not only to coerce the regime but also to silence those in the opposition who would like a smooth transition in Syria. When violence speaks, everything else is silenced.
There is one party who can play this game and it must be an external party not preoccupied with Syria’s future and its people’s welfare: Hariri and Co. So in this sense, some in the actual opposition who are fighting the regime’s army and security in the streets can be considered as traitors to their country.
So only one option is left for the regime, pursuing its reform agenda while cracking down on violent protesters, and this is what the regime has been doing and this is what people outside Syria are unable to understand.
http://www.mideastmonitor.org/issues/0604/0604_2.htm
April 30th, 2011, 11:31 am
why-discuss said:
SOURI33
Bashar will make peace with Israel as he has been let down by most arab countries, that would be his revenge. He will get the Golan back peacefully. The Syrians who wants freedom and better life will get it!
Anyway ‘democratic’ Egypt is now becoming the supporter of the resistance ( Hamas, Iran, soon Hezbollah), so Bashar can withdraw and let the arabs manage on their own.
After these events, Syria can’t afford to support refugees and the resistance, the economy will be so bad that they will need lots of foreign investments. It will come from the Western countries happy of the peace with Israel. If Egypt and Jordan made peace with Israel, why not Syria?
April 30th, 2011, 11:37 am
why-discuss said:
Sophia
That was in 2006… It took the MB 5 years to prepare their coming back with the help of Hariri and Co.
I am sure that once the negative campaign against Syria is over, most western countries will realize how they were mislead by the media coverage! It does remind me the media campaign of the WMD of Saddam Hussein and the women-in-burka campaign to justify Afghanistan war.
If Bashar is able to come out of this, he will show the world that Syria is an very special country!
April 30th, 2011, 11:45 am
Revlon said:
More than 100 activists have been arrested in Harasta today.
شام : حرستا : عاجل : إعتقال أكثر من مائة وخمسون شاباً من مدينة حرستا منذ صباح اليوم …
:::: الحرية لكل المعتقلين السياسيين و الحرية لمعتقلي الرأي
April 30th, 2011, 11:51 am
SANDRO LOEWE said:
SOURI333
You represent the old politics of Syria from the 80s and 90s based on fears of colonialism and religion differences. It is good that you give your opinion so we can reafirm day after day that we are in a different time. We are in XXI century. Most of the bases of your politics does not work anymore. Changes is faster than you can asume. Your are out of time completely as the whole regime is going to be day after day.
You dirty words, your hatred, your bad feelings about everything meaning changes are those of someone who is ready to kill for one name not for the good of the people.
God thanks in front of criminals in the security apparatus we have the faith in tomorrow of those who give their souls for freedom of their country, be christian or muslim. In the future religion will play a less important role as in Turkey or even in Tunis. Please do not play the religion fear factor anymore. We are at XXI century.
April 30th, 2011, 11:54 am
Revlon said:
Another fabricated story has been videoed at al 3omary Mosque!
حركة سوريا شباب من أجل الحرية Youth Syria For Freedom
شام : درعا : تمثيلية جديدة من الإعلام السوري لم تعرض بعد وتم تصويرها اليوم : قامت قوى الأمن و الفرقة الرابعة التي احتلت الجامع العمري بجلب بعض المعتقلين و وضعهم في الجامع و وضع الأسلحة في حرم الجامع و تصويرهم على أنهم إرهابيين وإجبار بعض الأهالي على توزيع الورود على قوات الأمن والجيش الغادرين ليوضحوا للعالم أنهم جاؤوا بناءً على طلب الأهالي …
إفتحوا الاتصالات لأهالي درعا ووقتها سيتبين للعالم من الصادق من الكاذب يا أحقر و أحط و أنذل و أقذر نظام و إعلام في العالم كله …
about an hour ago
April 30th, 2011, 11:55 am
Revlon said:
Saving life, sacred as it is in the ethical code of medical practice, comes second to freedom of choice.
Jr, the Doctor and the politician, has honoured neither!
In Free Syria, his license to practice Medicine will be revoked.
His indifference to the sanctity of human life in the current ordeal shall make him ineligible to be licensed to practice human medicine, anywhere in the civilized world.
April 30th, 2011, 12:06 pm
Mouna said:
George,
Just got you a video of “those same thugs that are now demonstrating and shooting at us from roof tops”
April 30th, 2011, 12:11 pm
Sophia said:
Israeli-Saudi alliance
http://spme.net/cgi-bin/articles.cgi?ID=7965
April 30th, 2011, 12:24 pm
أمنية said:
Those bunch will teach how to respect your people
those bunch have broken the fear in the people’s hearts
those bunch have made the whole area to stand on one foot
those bunch will make sure you and every one thinks like you change his mind before he she lays in grave
those bunch are facing bullets with open chest so , funny enough, you would go back to live in syria with dignity
those bunch are more than happy to do it for you and for syria
April 30th, 2011, 12:28 pm
Revlon said:
Doctors who participated in treating the wounded are either wanted or have been arrested and tortured- Jableh Saturday April 30th
حركة سوريا شباب من أجل الحرية Youth Syria For Freedom
أخبار جبلة الأدهمية: كل الأطباء الذين شاركوا في اسعاف الجرحى أصبحوا مطلوبين و ملاحقين و تم تكسير يدي البعض منهم عندما اعتقلوهم
33 minutes ago
April 30th, 2011, 12:30 pm
Austria said:
Professor Landis
Your anaylsis and calculations in response to the anonymous diplomat while exagerated divert from the point. However, even if your lofty assumptions are true (of an equivalent number of opposition sympathizer across all age groups, while everyone knows that the age group of 18-40 is by far in any opposition the most numerous. That 3 in 10 are demonstraring and again accross all age groups is an oversimplification), the 7.5 millions does not represent only the hard core opposition but almost a democratic vote against the regime, which is not what the dimplomat was referring to.
On the other hand if we stick to the logic you proposed to see what the silent majority supports, we can conclude that a majority of the Syrian Sunnis still support Assad (54% by your calculation). Syria is not only Sunnis, we have Alawites, Shiites, Christians as well as other minorities who are very solidely behind the president. This means that the silent majority if it were to vote would be decisively against the opposition, if we don’t want to accept that it backs the regime.
On the other hand, we should now consider and further analyse why the epicenter of the opposition seems to be stuck in Daraa. Why does the spark even after almost 6 weeks of protest not reach Aleppo, Damascus, Hama or large parts of Eastern Syria. Why do the largest demonstrations that the opposition managed to spread number only a few thousands and take place only on Fridays.
I have some conclusions that may help answer those questions:
1. If there was a national sentiment in Syria, Daraa is certainly not the barometer. So in many ways this seems to be a Daraan problem as opposed to a Syrian problem.
2. There is a good logic and rationale to back the theory that the problem is almost isolated around Daraa and places with similar circumstances. This is a small rural city that has probably been treated as insignificant by the Syrian government. It is also largely influenced by Islamist trends hence the opposition to the government.
3. The location of Daraa on the Jordanian border and closest to Saudi is by any naiive account no coincidence. Tribes from that region are strongly connected to those neighbouring countries and as such it is very conceivable that Saudi with a blind eye from Jordan supported the move financially and with arms.
4. If we look at places outside Daraa where we have seen some demonstrations, it is clear that they are mostly along the coast line. There the demonstrations especially in Banyas seem to be more like armed conflict where many Syrian soldiers lost their lives. Armed rebellions as opposed to peaceful demonstrations in any country no matter how democratic must be crushed. Otherwise chaos and anarchy would take over.
To summarize, we have to see the reality as it is. This is not a widespread problem but a localized one. Yes the government is responsible for it and is probably willing to deal with it but the reactions of the opposition even after the governement’s admission and implemnetation of unprecedented reforms seems to indicate that there must be a plot from outside forces, most probably the Gulf countries to shake Syria no matter what the new government does. The Gulf has been able to exploit Daraa and some other highly localized spots but not the vast territory of Syria.
What is the interest of the Gulf in undertaking such an action? May be this is a signal to Iran to stop exploiting Shiite sentiment in Bahrain, Qatar or Eastern Saudi. Watching the exchange of Azmi Bchara (a supposed “Arabic thinker” with an Israeli passport on Qatari national TV Al Jazeera) with his interviewer while both were under the impression that they were no on the air is very interesting. Bchara strategized with the interviewer to ignore Bahrain and Jordan and focus on Syria for 40 minutes. The interviewer’s answer was even more interesting the station (Qatari national TV) is very happy with you and likes your strategy. This may be agrued as a minor incident but it is very telling.
April 30th, 2011, 12:37 pm
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
#105 why-discuss
This is what Assad has wanted for years. The problem is that Israel and America have never accepted to withdraw to the 1967 line as far as I know. This is the whole point. If those Zionist thugs have accepted to withdraw to the 1967 line, we would have had peace since the 1990’s.
Assad may find no option to convince the US to return the Golan other than heating up resistance. This is a desperate option that he may choose if he feels cornered. Economic sanctions will probably force him to do that.
April 30th, 2011, 12:47 pm
Revlon said:
Security forces firing at civilian protestors: a casualty is being hurried underfire, and a lady walks up to the armed thugs while screaming at them
Homs, Al7ouli April 30th today.
April 30th, 2011, 12:51 pm
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
Revlon,
What do you want? Are you trying to convince the Americans with your point? They are already convinced. You do not need to flood the blog with your pointless links and news. What you are doing is called spamming. We all know the websites you are getting this news from. We can go there and see the news ourselves. You don’t need to copy every line there and paste it here.
You are trying to visually flood the blog with your spam. This is inappropriate.
April 30th, 2011, 1:06 pm
vlad-the-syrian said:
to REVLON the fake syrian #116
a lady zombie you better say
April 30th, 2011, 1:14 pm
Badr said:
This article tries to shed some light on how Syria is run.
Family dynamics drive Syrian President Assad
April 30th, 2011, 1:27 pm
Sophia said:
Angry Arab making fun of Al-Jazeera
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/eye-witness-on-aljazeera.html
April 30th, 2011, 1:36 pm
Solitarius said:
Right… Al7ouli.. where Syrian soliders were shot and killed..
April 30th, 2011, 1:41 pm
Revlon said:
# 117 Dear Souri333 (formerly Souri)(later Bidoon)
First, this blog has an anti-spam function, Da!
Second, the short messages that I sometimes copy and link to, from other websites serve many purposes!
One of them is to highlight a point or relay an importtant message to those who do not have enough time to browse many blogs!
Another is to provide factual material that enrich this medium of discussion.
You find my messages visually flooding the blog! touche’!
Just adapt to it!
April 30th, 2011, 1:42 pm
Mawal95 said:
@ # 98 WHY-DISCUSS: See http://blog.unwatch.org/index.php/2011/04/29/voting-results-of-special-session-resolution-on-syria/ which is the “Voting results of Special Session resolution on Syria” and has the final text. See also http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1285603&ct=9375713¬oc=1 which has earlier texts that werent’ able to get a majority vote.
The dossier about the Muslim Brotherhood written in year 2006 linked to at #103 SOPHIA says: “The level of popular support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria today is difficult to gauge. There are no public opinion polls in Baathist Syria and the movement has not tested its popularity by calling for demonstrations or strikes in two decades.” Yesterday’s Friday demonstrations were the very first demonstrations that the Syrian Brotherhood explicitly endorsed. The turnout was lower than the Friday before (or no larger anyway).
April 30th, 2011, 1:43 pm
syria no kandahar said:
To Revlon
every day without blood in syria you need a sleeping pill.you love seeing blood.
April 30th, 2011, 1:47 pm
jad said:
تقرير – من سوريا آخر التطورات – مالك الشريف
April 30th, 2011, 1:55 pm
William Scott Scherk said:
It seems to me that Syria has no government — judging from official state information sources. I do not understand the absence, the silence, the non-appearance of government during the crisis.
Where is the President of Syria? Where are the legislators of Syria? Where is the person or persons who can speak with authority and knowledge — who can explain to the Syrian population what actions and policies the state security forces are undertaking?
Is this a feature of the Syrian system? As far as I can tell, the Syrian President spoke to Parliament on March 30, and spoke to his newly appointed cabinet on April 16, and has been silent since then.
There is no state ‘crisis desk’ in Syria? If a disaster struck, like an earthquake or horrible storm or chemical explosion or fire, would not a spokesman or other face of authority lead the information parade? Would not Syria speak through its official organs in those situations, reassuring, counting, reporting, responding to questions and concerns?
Why is the government of Syria silent? How does the state speak now and in the next month? Will the Syrian President speak to his people and be questioned by his people ever again?
The bifurcation of Syria is stark here in comments. One side cannot see but media lies and another can see only propaganda. One side sees thugs and the other sees regime. One traitorous side fabricates, incites, lies, shot through with jihadi salafi Brethren, foreign dupes, Lebanese and Saudi fiends. One side sees a Stalinist one party state using brutal repression. One side sees fiends.
Until Syrians can at least agree on a few facts and a few basics and a few tentative peace plans and a transition away from a security state, until Syrians like those here at Syrian Comment can contemplate and examine a future without a one party state, there will be no turn to peace in Syria, no ceasefire, no stand-down, no national accounting and reformation and no renaissance.
Since the President of Syria is silent, I would like to hear the various commenters here adopt the voice of a President, and frankly advise the Syrian people on the situation and the solution.
Can a Syrian citizen give his or her own Presidential Address? can any Syrian here capture the spirit of reconciliation and goodwill that is necessary for Syria to turn the page and move on? Can anyone offer a mutually-agreeable and unifying message that unites all the opinion groups here on Syria Comment?
This Canadian at a far distance from Syria hopes to hear from the peacemakers, to be reassured that there will emerge wisdom and grace in coming days, to be reminded of the unique Syrian spirit that will overcome terrible present days of crisis.
April 30th, 2011, 2:14 pm
Solitarius said:
On a more amusing note:
http://princewilliam-wedding.com/ Hacked by Syrian Hackers
We, as Syrians, are very happy for your happiness and your union. But we
consider that the British Minister of External Affairs have humiliated our Syrian Nation by banning the presence of our Syrian Representative, the Syrian Ambassador in UK, to your Royal wedding. We expect apologies from your people
April 30th, 2011, 2:14 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Impaler @ 118 and Formerly somone @ 117
What heppened? Truth @ 116, embarrases you in front of your civilized secular friends?……
This lady in the tape shouting at the soldiers is braver, more honorable, and a true human more than any one of you, in three seconds she shamed you for eternity. Can you hear her curses.
Sit down, to your keboards wherever you are, dream of impaling innocent poeple and torturing them, analyze the military situation and BS all of us about your mythic hero liberator, do that as much as you like. But in reality, you know that your beloved regime is very anemic now, and even if it manages to quell the demonstrations, it will only be temporary.
What makes you think that Israel will now give in and hand Assad the Golan, exactly when his regime is at bottom, the army is threatenned with minor and major splits, the economy is heading towadrds collaps, and his people have blown the fear barrier to smitherene. You are very delusional. Off course we all want the Jolan back, but it seems that you never understood your enemy. Not when it is Israel and not when it is your own Syrian People. As for you Mr. Souri, you have stooped so low with your link @85. I hate the Monarchs of the Gulf but to promote this:
رئيس الأركان الايراني: الخليج ملك لطهران
30 نيسان 2011 13:11
دان رئيس أركان الجيش الايراني الجنرال حسن فيروزبادي “جبهة الدكتاتوريات العربية” في الخليج المعادية لايران , مؤكداً ان هذه المنطقة كانت دائما ملك ايران.
As appropriate language to deal with Salafies is just beyond contempt.
If you are so proud of Iran, well get ready to move there, just tell your loved ones to learn how to wear Burka, the exact dress you are afraid off. How fake are you. Are the MB that different from the Mullas. No one with sane mind would really be able to make distinction between the two. They are two faces of the same fabric of rigidity and religuous intolerance. Good luck with your new Masters.
I on the other hand, am dreaming of the day Bahranis and Iranians, as well as Kazakhs join Egyptians, Tunisians, and hopefully soon, Syrians, Libyans, and Yemenies in tasting freedome that will unleash a new Erawhen the US, Israel and Europe would not matter, and their love or hate of our regimes would matter even less. Latin America did that over the last 10 years, and it is now our turn.
It is just so funny that you have exposed that the resistance regime is willing not only to sell the resistance, but also its own poeple, for what, a few additional billions. These stupid arses could make more simply devoting their time to managing the assets they stole and smugled already to the UAE (which you hate) including Dubai.
April 30th, 2011, 2:20 pm
Mouna said:
Angry Arab making fun of something else:
http://www.pdpks.com/ppp/?p=5362
April 30th, 2011, 2:28 pm
Mawal95 said:
@ WHY-DISCUSS: Here’s the key difference between the UN Human Rights Council resolution that couldn’t get a majority vote, and the one that did get a majority vote:
COULD NOT GET VOTE: “… decides to urgently dispatch a fact-finding mission to be appointed by the President of the UN Human Rights Council to investigate….”
GOT VOTE: “… requests the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to urgently dispatch a mission to investigate….”
The difference is that the former would have more political clout and higher political profile, and would be more willing and able to take an anti-regime political stance. The question of whether the regime’s use of deadly firepower has been judicious is very political, you know.
April 30th, 2011, 2:31 pm
why-discuss said:
Austria
I fully agree with your analysis, the problem started in Deraa and after the first round, Bashar met with the elders of the town to discuss their demand and made excuses and promises. They were totally ignored and the second round was an intensification of ‘peaceful’ demonstrations turning violent as the men behind this uprising are the not the majority of the people of Deraa but some extremist boosted by the uprisings in other arab countries. They have hijacked the people of Deraa and throw them into a cycle of violence with the aid of external help from some countries that have influence on the medias. The third round is happening now.
The other demonstrations, you are right, were haphazardly moving from one city to another. In Banyas, it very well know that the supporters of Abdel Halim Khaddam saw a golden opportunity to create chaos in order to remove Bahar al Assad. They were also supported financially by known friends of AH Khaddam in Lebanon.
As for your questions about why the Gulf country are supporting and encouraging this uprising. One more possibility is related to the current change of the game in the region. The Gulf countries lead by Qatar are considered to be the ‘moderate’ countries by the West. They just lost Egypt from their camp and they want Syria to become a weak ‘moderate’ with no voice. Their plan is to move on to a peace with Israel, thus putting an end to Iran’s influence in the region. Because Syria is cozy with Iran and actively supporting the resistance, it is a pain in the neck. They think that if Bashar is removed, the country will have no more say for years. The Golan will be given to Israel in exchange for other locations in Palestine. Syria will be cut into pieces. Gulf autocrats will remain in power.
The strategy Bashar is using is the right one: Cleanup the extremists armed pockets while making gradual and smooth transition to a process to ‘democracy’
April 30th, 2011, 2:33 pm
why-discuss said:
William Schek
Why is the government of Syria silent?
Because it’s a work in progress. What would they say that will be distorted and re interpreted by the media as a sign of weakness or whatever.
They’re right to be silent until they have finished the job
April 30th, 2011, 2:37 pm
jad said:
WSS,
There are daily announcement by the government/ministers about local issues and by the army about the military actions and the casualties but apparently no news agency is willing to publish them, it’s a trend to be anti Syrian government and regime whatever they announce.
Solitarius,
I disagree with the hacking of that page, how stupid is that? Why don’t they hack more meaningful sites.
حماس تنفي مغادرة سورية
http://www.dp-news.com/pages/detail.aspx?articleid=82147
(دي برس)
نفى مصدر قيادي بحركة المقاومة الإسلامية (حماس) في العاصمة السورية دمشق السبت 30/4/2011 أنباء تحدثت عن قرار الحركة مغادرة سورية، وأكد أن قيادة حماس الموجودة بالخارج ستعود في غضون يومين بعد انتهاء المهام المكلفة بها.
April 30th, 2011, 2:41 pm
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
126. William Scott Scherk,
What you say is wrong. What you say applies to democratic nations. Syria is a pre-national society. If we try to sit and talk, we will never agree and we will end up fighting each other. This is what happens in Lebanon and Iraq, and what used to happen in Syria before Hafez Assad. In Lebanon, they spend months to form a government that only lasts for months and then they start quarrelling again. The same is true for Iraq. The worst part is that in all these countries the quarrelling factions do not know how to keep the disputes peaceful and the disputes always end up violent.
The only model of state that can provide peace and stability in this region is a forceful repressive state. Hafez Assad tried to reach an agreement with the MB in the 1970’s, but this only led to a bloodbath. Similarly, Bashar Assad tried now to reach a deal with the people in Deraa; he sat with their leaders and agreed to all their demands, but what happened next? A militant insurgency in Deraa and a bloodbath.
The Syrian regime tries to use minimal repression compared to e.g. Israel. Israel is also a relatively safe country, but at what expense? They have daily massacres against the Palestinians to maintain their peace. The Syrian regime is an angel compared to Israel, but the hypocrite imperialist US does not see Israel. They only see the Syrian regime.
April 30th, 2011, 2:44 pm
ziadsoury said:
That lady is what scares you? Isn’t? Shame on all of you for not even coming to her defense.
Norman,
I am still waiting for you to condemn the atrocities committed by the regime and their thugs against our hospitals, doctors and health care professionals. I guess the scare tacticts you recommend hasn’t worked or these doctors part of the salafi movement.
Even Hamas is trying to get out of the Syrian regime shadow. They have recognized that. Just the blinds can’t see it.
Shame on you for attacking this woman. I hold you accountable for this regime crimes as much as I do the regime.
April 30th, 2011, 2:48 pm
why-discuss said:
Mawal95
The word ‘investigaton is different from “fact-finding mission”.
– What was NOT voted is the ‘investigation’ by a team appointed by the UN HR commisionner
– What was voted is a visit by the UN HR commisionners for a fact-finding mission on the situation in Deraa
Ironically Syria had asked the UN for a fact finding mission 10 days ago, so I don’t understand why the US is claiming a victory!
April 30th, 2011, 3:06 pm
SYRIAN HAMSTER said:
Mouna,
I read angry-arab blog earlier today, it is good work and well researched article.
William:
I really appreciate your sharp observation on the disappearance of the Syrian Government and the absence of Circis Desk. This is a byproduct of rigid, paranoid security mentality that has been ruling the country for nearly 50 years now.
I am waiting for a serious peacemaking effort. But in general, peacemaking between warring factions in the Arab world has always required an Arab third party such as you now see now happening between Hamas and PAL-Gov with Egyptian help. Qatar has also risen recently, with help from Syria, as the go-to ombudsman in the region. It has played a key role in Lebanon, and later in Sudan and in ensuring at least that the initial split was done peacefully. The Syrian regime has incited a frenzy against Qatar, even arguing as we have read earlier in an arabic post that it is not even a state, so the good Ombusman is not available. Turkey, who could really play a role if the MB had any strong role in the uprizing, is already sidelined by continuous delay of confidence building measures on the regime’s side, and by the frenzy of escallation it has adopted over the past week. In addition, as noted by Mawal95 @ 123, the MBs do not seem to have much sway on increasing the size of protest despite of their belated public endoresment. So Turkey is not fully out of the picture as peacemaker, but it will not get in unless the regime makes some promissies and delivers on them as a test.
Two weeks ago, one of the most honored and honorable members of the Syrian opposition argued for reform-path instead of a full scale confrontation and regime change. His name is Michele Kilo, and he is an Magna-Cum-Laude Alumni of Mukhabarats jail, so he does not lack credibility. He was joined by few others, but the response to their initiative was mute and lukeworm in either directions. Very few on the opposition side accused him as he feared of betrial, but not many embrased his call. The reason being is that the uprising, it seems, is not ready yet to open the card deck and show its leadership inside syria, which was also described today in Robert Fisk article in the independent.
Peacemaking may be attempted again. On Monday, the Syrian Parliament, phoney as it starts an exceptional session. It seems that the bloody escallation in Daraa, Jableh, and Banyas today aim at finishing as much as possible of the murder-security-operation in order to nueteralize these three hot-spot towns completely before that session. One MP, who has some islamic tint, promissed that the session will debate the single party rule article 8 of the constitution, and may even discuss the issue of security agencies. But that will have no effect unless the Army stops shooting at people, and the regime withdraws its thugs and pull the plug on the few backward clans participating in the internal siege of cities like Aleppo. The poeple have witnessed that lifting the state of emergency has done nothing to change the regime criminial mentality. In fact, another arabic writere today argued that Had the regime implemented the emergency status law as it should have been, the opposition would have had much better legal guarantees and redress than the regime has afforded anyone for the past 50 years. It is very hard to move from half a century of lawlessness in political opression and civil and human rights violations, to anything resembling negotiable framework.
the ball is really in the regime’s court more than it is in the protesstors. Some continue to hold hope, but reading the demonic plans some pro-regime posters have proposed on this site, I am not holding my breath.
April 30th, 2011, 3:13 pm
ziadsoury said:
I just picked an immediate family member from the airport. He is over 70 years old and has been in Syria the last 5 months. He is also a very moderate person and educated in the west (no salafi, wahabi or mb here). He is from Homs.
Here is his take on what is happening:
1- People were OK before the Dar3a children incident. They wanted the president to come out and condemn the security people for torturing 10 year old children. He ignored it.
2- Majority of people in Homs are still full of fear. That fear was reinforced by the massacre in Homs. There is a lockdown by parents on their children (even adult ones).
3- Homs is full of military and security personnel armed to teeth with orders to fire first and never ask questions. There are check points everywhere. He told me it reminded him of the occupied territories.
4- Number of dead is really unknown because there are so many people missing and no one knows where they are. After the massacre in Homs, the thugs dug mass graves and buried so many people. No one knows who and what.
5- Security thugs are going into hospitals and killing the injured. Doctors admitting people in with wounds to the legs and arms but pronouncing them dead with shots to the hearts.
6- No one has any arms. Not a single video has shown a demonstrator with a weapon.
7- The people want a change very badly. Bashar and his family are not wanted anymore.
8- People want their freedom and dignity.
9- No one bothered him at the airport. He doesn’t have a laptop.
10- People are not happy with Aleppo.
11- The very thin veneer of the president has been peeled off and you can’t replace anymore.
April 30th, 2011, 3:31 pm
jad said:
الحكومة: وضع خطة كاملة للإصلاحات في القطاعات السياسية والاقتصادية
قال رئيس مجلس الوزراء عادل سفر أن “الحكومة تعكف في الأسابيع القادمة على وضع خطة كاملة للإصلاحات المنشودة في مختلف القطاعات السياسية والاقتصادية والقضائية والإدارية”.
http://sana.sy/ara/2/2011/04/30/344175.htm
دمشق-سانا
أوضح الدكتور عادل سفر رئيس مجلس الوزراء أن الحكومة تعكف في الأسابيع القادمة على وضع خطة كاملة للإصلاحات المنشودة في مختلف القطاعات وفق ثلاثة محاور أساسية تتمثل بـ:
محور الإصلاح السياسي والأمني والقضائي.
محور الإصلاح الاقتصادي والسياسات الاجتماعية.
محور تطوير الإدارة وتطوير العمل الحكومي.
وبين سفر خلال ترؤسه مساء اليوم جلسة مجلس الوزراء أنه سيتم تشكيل ثلاث لجان لإعداد محاور الإصلاحات المذكورة من ذوي الكفاءات الإدارية والفنية والقانونية وبمشاركة واسعة من شرائح المجتمع والمنظمات والنقابات المهنية والشعبية والقوى الاجتماعية والسياسية.
وستقوم هذه اللجان بدراسة مجالات الإصلاح في القطاعات المذكورة واقتراح الآليات والإجراءات اللازمة وتعديل القوانين والتشريعات المطلوبة في هذا المجال ومن ثم عرضها على مجلس الوزراء لاستكمال مناقشتها واتخاذ الإجراءات القانونية لإقرارها.
April 30th, 2011, 3:34 pm
norman said:
In any civilized country, when a criminal is shot, doctors will take care of him in the hospital but they have to report his presence in that hospital, doctors who take care of wounded at their homes are accessory to the crime ,
Ziadsouri, look it up.
No American doctor can treat anybody who is wanted without informing the authorities and like it or not these wounded in Syria are considered wanted until it is proven that they not ,and the doctors that are treating them at their homes are breaking the law and should be prosecuted, That is if we want a country of laws .
Of Course if the authorities prevent a doctor from taking care of his patients because of who they are , they should prosecuted too, but do not blame the Baath party and the president for every stupid member of these security agency , identify the offender and prosecute him or her.
Do you get it now? .
April 30th, 2011, 3:38 pm
MO said:
Has anyone seen this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCt8LVTz0Yk
This is the main policy of the channel! No conspiracy guys!
April 30th, 2011, 3:52 pm
jad said:
Syrian Forces Seize Mosque That Was Uprising’s Symbol
By ANTHONY SHADID
Published: April 30, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/world/middleeast/01syria.html?hp
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Backed by tanks, helicopters and snipers, the Syrian military seized a landmark mosque that had become a center of protests in the besieged southern town of Dara’a on Saturday, killing at least six people in an escalation of a weeklong crackdown, residents and activists said.
The military’s capture of the Omari Mosque was another sign of its determination to crush dissent in a town that has become a symbol of the six-week uprising against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000.
After deploying reinforcements of four tanks and 20 armored personnel carriers to Dara’a at dawn, the mosque was shelled, then taken by soldiers, who closed it to worshipers, activists and residents said. Snipers took up positions on top of the mosque, and helicopters dropped paratroopers on its grounds, witnesses said.
At least six people were killed at the mosque and elsewhere, they said. Among them was the son of the mosque’s preacher, who was shot when security forces entered his house looking for his father. There was a report that the preacher, Sheik Ahmed Siasna, was arrested later, though that could not be confirmed. He was among a delegation that had met with Mr. Assad three weeks ago to discuss potential reforms in authoritarian Syria.
The military effectively laid siege to Dara’a on Monday, storming the town with tanks and soldiers, and cutting electricity and phone lines. Since then, Dara’a has become a rallying cry for protesters across Syria, though the government has insisted that the unrest there is the work of Salafists, its preferred term for militant Islamists.
“It is a matter of a few hours only, and everything will be finished in Dara’a,” a pro-government politician said from Damascus. “It is impossible for the Syrian regime to let some people announce a Salafi emirate in Dara’a. This is not Afghanistan.”
Heavy gunfire could be heard through the day, Abdallah Abazid, a resident, said. Amid reports of shortages of food, medicine and baby formula, residents remained inside their homes for another day, fearful that they might be killed by snipers if they went outside, he said.
“The security forces are hunting us down,” he said. “We are unarmed and protecting our town with our bare chests, and they are shooting at us.”
The military reinforcements in Dara’a came a day after the United States announced sanctions against three top officials in Mr. Assad’s government, including his brother Maher al-Assad, who is leading the military operations in Dara’a. The United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva also adopted a resolution on Friday condemning the violence and authorizing an investigation.
Activists warned of a humanitarian crisis in the town.
“The situation in Dara’a is worse today than it was before,” said Wissam Tarif, the executive director of Insan, a Syrian human rights group.
On Friday, 34 people were killed there when thousands of protesters from nearby villages, in a show of solidarity, descended on the town, which is in a largely agricultural region known as the Houran that is knit by extended clan loyalties. Some organizers said the protesters, carrying olive branches and white sheets to signal their peacefulness, were trying to break the siege and deliver food and water. Security forces fired at them anyway, in some of the worst carnage since the uprising began.
Mr. Tarif said that security forces refused to return the bodies of the dead to their families in hopes of stopping funeral processions, which have often turned into demonstrations in themselves. The only bodies given back, he said, were those of children, and their parents were told to bury them early Saturday in the presence of Syrian officials.
The death toll of protests across the country on Friday rose to 73, the highest since a week earlier, when at least 112 people were killed. Organizers said the breadth of protests on Friday was similar to previous weeks, with large demonstrations in the central cities of Homs and Hama, in towns on the Mediterranean like Baniyas and Latakia, and in Kurdish towns in the east. Hundreds of people protested in Damascus; the demonstration was bigger than in past weeks, but still relatively small by the standards set elsewhere in Syria.
Human rights groups say 535 people have been killed since the uprising began.
An employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Damascus, Syria.
April 30th, 2011, 3:59 pm
ziadsoury said:
The president is responsible for all activities of the security forces. He can’t just take credit in good time and ignore events in bad times. They are preventing and arresting doctors who are treating the injured. You want to compare this to the laws of the US (just like the permit law comparison). This is war crimes committed by the regime and their thugs. It is different from reporting an injured person with a gun shot. To you the Ba3th party leaderships and the president are bunch of pure individuals. They can never do wrong. Who is responsible for the behavior of the thugs? Maybe the victims? How dare they ask for their rights? Or maybe the doctors who are performing their duties under the oath they took.
Your head and heart are full fear that was forced upon us when we were kids.
April 30th, 2011, 4:03 pm
jad said:
How unethical can people get?
They are actually asking for a bloody conflict on purpose just to have people get killed to use their blood:
يوم الغضب السوري في دير الزور
عاجل :|| لجنة التحقيق تصل يوم الاثنين وهي فرصة وحيدة اذا لم يروا شيئا من اطلاق الرصاص على المتظاهرين فسوف يلغى ملف التحقيق وتعود اللجنة ويبرء النظام
ارجو النشر
April 30th, 2011, 4:09 pm
why-discuss said:
Hamster
‘The poeple have witnessed that lifting the state of emergency has done nothing to change the regime criminial mentality.’
….and the determination of some protesters to escalate the violence as there were violent demonstrations the next day without giving any chance for peaceful demonstrations to happen with the proper permission as in any other country
April 30th, 2011, 4:11 pm
why-discuss said:
Jad
That’s the mentality of some protesters ( some sitting in front of their computer), inciting people to go out and risk their lives: Go, become a martyr and we’ll do the rest!
April 30th, 2011, 4:15 pm
Alescander said:
Below is an example of how 5%of a group can bring on the public’s anger against the rest of the 95%
Also this looks into the deeper souls of the “revolution ” elements , and tells you the real feelings:
I copied below from the disgusting “revolution ” page:
Khaled Othman جاؤوا من جبال الساحل وسيطروا على كل المراكز الحساسة والحيوية في البلد…شوهوا النسيج البشري لمدينة دمشق واحتلوا الشاطىء السوري بكل مرافقه السياحية وكل شيء في البلد تحت سيطرة هذه الشرذمة التي جاءت من خلف الابقار في جبال الساحل واصبحنا نراهم ونساءهم يركبوا افخم السيارات ويسكنوا اجمل المناطق…اتمنى ان ارى ذلك اليوم الذي يحاسب هؤلاء جميعا مع عائلاتهم دون ظلم بل بما اقترفت يداهم
11 minutes ago · 1 person
End
…..well this comment should prompt Facebook people to close that page
April 30th, 2011, 4:37 pm
Sophia said:
This will prove to be the most stupid thing said at the UN by a US representative after Colin Powell’s speech on Iraq’s WMD capacity.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/29/diplomat-gaddafi-troops-viagra-mass-rape
April 30th, 2011, 5:02 pm
jad said:
Sophia
🙂 and we thought that Gaddafi is (he actually is) the craziest man on earth when he talked about حبوب الهلوسة… Viagra is more believable!
Is there going to be any presentation like Powel’s in the UN any time soon?
April 30th, 2011, 5:15 pm
Dr. Bassam said:
I am actually suprised at the transformation of Dr. Landis’s view and attitude towards the Assad regime. He used to be a great supporter of Bashar Assad, and whose editors on Syriacomment forbade comments against the regime to appear on the site! I am happy to see this change!
April 30th, 2011, 5:33 pm
trustquest said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBfYl6QyPFQ
*Barbaric assault on innocent civilians….. | In Daraa we do not call them civilians
*Hour by hour, we are working against the clock,, | In Daraa we do not give them clock..
*Gaza is a prison, embargo? 80% rely on foreign aid.|. In Daraa we do not allow anyone to think of aid…..
*800,000 without electricity……………|…We don’t say that, not allowed
*You wake up in the morning you give your children Glass of Milk,……
| In Daraa we kill anyone mentioning Milk and we will kill anyone who tries to get them Milk.
*Gaza Kids can not go to school, because it is not safe…|.Daraa Kids we bomb school if they dare to open it..
* It is just beyond believe to be honest……………..| In Daraa we make people believe it is now the land of Eiden and kill anyone who dispute that…
* Mothers in Gaza can not cook….. | in Daraa we kill anyone mentioning cook.
April 30th, 2011, 5:49 pm
jad said:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.159351594129478.39885.125766864154618¬if_t=photo_album_reply
رداً على البيان المزعوم أنه صادر عن مجموعة من محامي بانياس
أولاً : إن هذا البيان عارٍ عن الصحة والحقيقة ، وهو مجرد مجموعة من الأكاذيب والتهم المكذبة بالأدلة اليقينية والصور ومقاطع الفيديو المصورة ، ومكذبة بواقع حال مدينة بانياس أيضاً حيث أنه ومنذ تاريخ 9/4/2011 وحتى تاريخ هذا الرد يعتبر الجزء الجنوبي الغربي من مدينة بانياس (( حي رأس النبع + حي القبيات + حي الميدان + حي الكورنيش + حي البازار .. )) هي أحياء خارجة عن سلطة الدولة والقانون (( إمارة بكل ما تعنيه هذه الكلمة من معنى )) وقد تم عزلها من قبل أهل تلك الأحياء بمجموعة من الحواجز الأسمنتية والحديدية ، وأصبحت مغلقة تماماً ولا يستطيع أي شخص من خارج تلك الأحياء الدخول إليها إلاّ بعد إبراز هويته فإن كان من سكان تلك الأحياء سمح له بالدخول أو الخروج منها ، كما أنه لا يستطيع أي موظف حكومي (( من عناصر الشرطة أو موظفي الكهرباء أو الماء أو الهاتف أو محضري المحاكم أو أي موظف كان .. )) الدخول إلى تلك الأحياء للقيام بواجباتهم الوظيفية .
ثانياً : في الرد على بعض النقاط التي تضمنها البيان المزعوم :
1) رداً على الزعم القائل بأن المظاهرات كانت (( عفوية ومدنية وسلمية تطالب بالحرية والكرامة والوحدة الوطنية .. ونبذ الطائفية .. وأن تكون سورية دولة مدنية … وتزيد من دورها الممانع والمقاوم … )) نقول : لو أن المظاهرة الأولى التي خرجت في مدينة بانياس بتاريخ 18/3/2011 كانت سلمية كما يزعمون ، فلماذا تم تحطيم عدة سرافيس ومحل تجاري في كراج بانياس لأشخاص فقراء كل ذنبهم أنهم من طائفة أخرى !!!؟؟؟ إن الشعارات والهتافات التي سمعت في المظاهرات المتتالية هي شعارات غريبة عن الشارع الوطني السوري وتميزت بطروحات طائفية نسيها الشعب العربي السوري منها (( العلوية ع التابوت والمسيحية ع بيروت … بدنا نموت … إي يلا .. إيران طلعي برا … شهادة .. شهادة … شعب درعا لا تهتم بنشرب من العلوية دم … الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام … )) !!!؟؟؟ والسؤال المهم الذي يدعو للاستغراب والتعجب هو كيف نوفق بين ما جاء في البيان لجهة دعم توجه سوريا الممانع والمقاوم وبين ما جاء على لسان أحد المحامين الموقعين على هذا البيان بتظاهرة 1/4/2011 حيث جاء في خطابه للمتظاهرين ما يلي : (( .. يقولون أنهم داعمون للمقاومة ونحن نقول لهم إننا لا نريد أن ندعم المقاومة نريد أن نكون نحن المقاومة .. بعدها يردد المتظاهرون خلفه .. شهادة .. شهادة .. بدا نموت .. بدا نموت … )) !!!؟؟؟ ضد من يريدون أن يستشهدوا وبمواجهة من يريدون أن يموتوا في مدينة بانياس فهل أصبحت مدينة بانياس هي الجولان أم فلسطين أم جنوب لبنان كي يقوم المتظاهرين بالاستشهاد والجهاد فيها !!!؟؟؟ بالعودة للصور الملتقطة للمتظاهرين بتاريخ 8 و9 /4/2011 يتبين للمشاهد ما يلي : أ ــ هنالك ما لايقل عن مائتي شخص من المتظاهرين قاموا بلبس الأكفان استعداداً للموت ب ــ إن أغلب الذين صعدوا للمنبر للتحدث للمتظاهرين ، ومن حملوا على الأكتاف للهتاف بالمتظاهرين هم من أصحاب السوابق الجنائية والجنحية // سرقة .. النصب والاحتيال .. تعاطي المخدرات .. الإيذاء المقصود .. وغيرها من الجرائم الشائنة // كما هو ثابت من سجلات محاكم بانياس وطرطوس !!!؟؟؟
2) رداً على الزعم القائل (( … بأنه لا يوجد بين المتظاهرين في بانياس سلفيون وإخوان ومخربين ومتآمرين يعملون لأجندات خارجية والمتظاهرين هم مواطنون سوريون شرفاء من كل أطياف الشعب وبكل تياراته وطوائفه … )) نقول : إن الشعارات التي ذكرت سابقاً أليست دليلاً يقينياً بأنها صادرة عن جماعات سلفية خاصةً تلك التي تدعو للجهاد والشهادة والفتنة والتحريض الطائفي (( كما حصل في آخر تظاهرة بتاريخ 22/4/2011 عندما صعدت على المنبر طالبة أدب عربي وقالت : إن أبناء الطائفة *
العلوية أندال !!!؟؟؟ وأليست الشعارات الخاصة بإيران وحزب الله هي تنفيذ لمشروع وأجندة خارجية خاصةً إذا ما ربطنا هذه الشعارات بالأحداث التي تحدث في الوطن العربي وخاصةً في لبنان والبحرين والسعودية (( كما جاء على لسان المدعو محمد بياسي بتظاهرة 22/4/2011 عندما قال مخاطباً وواعداً نساء ورجال البيضة أنهم وبعد خمسة عشر يوماً فقط سوف يكون أهل البيضة هم الحماة والمراقبين على الحدود السورية اللبنانية كي يمنعوا سوريا من دعم المقاومة المتمثلة بحزب الله !!!؟؟؟ إن التحضير والتنظيم الغير مسبوق الذي ظهرت به مظاهرات بانياس (( مثل تحضير شاشات العرض الكبيرة والبث المباشر لقناة الجزيرة وتأمين مكبرات الصوت والمنصات وتأمين وجبات الأكل للمتظاهرين وتأمين الحصر والسجاد وخيم الاعتصام )) ألا يدل ذلك بشكل واضح وأكيد أن وراء هذا التنظيم والتحضير حزب خبير ومدرب وله أسبقيات في التحضير لمثل هذه التظاهرات / حزب الأخوان المسلمون / !!!؟؟؟ إن جميع من خرج في مظاهرات بانياس هم من أحياء محددة في مدينة بانياس وهم من طائفة واحدة فقط ، ومن تيارين فقط إما إسلاميون سلفيون وإما إخوان مسلمون !!!؟؟؟
3) رداً على الزعم القائل (( … إن ما وصل إليه مبعوث رئيس الجمهورية عضو القيادة القطرية السيد أسامة عدي من حقائق بعد لقائه بوفد من أهالي مدينة بانياس ، فقد ثبت لدى المبعوث بأن لاعلاقة لها بمقتل أفراد جيشنا الوطني وأن الشبيحة وبعض الأجهزة الأمنية هم من كان وراء تلك الجرائم .. وتأكيداً على ذلك أصدر السيد الرئيس عفواً عاماً عن أهالي بانياس ومنع الأجهزة الأمنية من دخول المدينة وانتشار الجيش بدلاً عنها )) نقول : إن هذا الأقوال هي مجرد أكاذيب بدليل ما يلي : أ ــ إن ممثل السيد الرئيس السيد أسامة عدي لم تكن مهمته التحقيق في الأحداث التي حصلت في مدينة بانياس وإنما كانت مهمته هي سؤال المتظاهرين عن مطالبهم التي يريدون إيصالها للسيد الرئيس ، بدليل أن السيد الرئيس شكل لجنة مؤلفة من // السيد رئيس دائرة التفتيش القضائي في الجمهورية العربية السورية وعضوية المحامي العام الأول وقاضي الإحالة الأول وقاضي التحقيق الأول في مدينة دمشق ومحام عام طرطوس وقاضي التحقيق في بانياس// وذلك للتحقيق والتقصي عن حقيقة من أطلق النار على باصات المبيت للجيش العربي السوري ، ومن خلال التحقيقات الأولية ومن خلال التقارير الطبية الشرعية ومن خلال شريط الفيديو الذي صوره أحد المواطنين للكمين الذي تعرض له الجيش ، تبين أن الجيش العربي السوري تعرض لكمين غادر من قبل مجموعة من المسلحين المدججين بالأسلحة // رشاشات + قناصات + قنابل + أصابع ديناميت // المتواجدين على جسر المرقب وجسر رأس النبع ومن أسطح المنازل والمآذن المجاورة لأوتستراد بانياس طرطوس ، وذلك بعد لحظات من قيام مشايخ الجوامع الموجودة في تلك الأحياء بالمناداة (( الله وأكبر .. يا أهالي بانياس إلى الجهاد .. إلى الجهاد )) ب ــ وإن العفو الذي أصدره السيد رئيس الجمهورية لم يكن يخص أهالي بانياس وحدهم كما توهم من كتب البيان ، بل شمل جميع أبناء القطر العربي السوري ممن شارك بالمظاهرات ولم يثبت ارتكابه لأي مخالفة قانونية ، وإن ذلك العفو كان مكرمة من السيد الرئيس لأبناء وطنه الشرفاء وليس لمن حمل السلاح وناد على الجهاد وطالب بإسقاط الدولة والنظام وتتطاول على مكانة ومقام رئاسة الجمهورية وعلى مفتي الجمهورية وعلى رمز الأمن والاستقرار والعزة والكرامة الجيش العربي السوري ج ــ والسؤال الذي يطرح نفسه هو إذا كان فعلاً أهالي مدينة بانياس ممن كانوا يتظاهرون يحبون الجيش ويعتبرونه هو الحامي لأمن واستقرار هذا البلد فلماذا حتى هذا التاريخ لا يسمحون له بالدخول إلى أحيائهم وشوارعهم لملاحقة المجرمين الذين أطلقوا النار على الجيش وعلى الذين قاموا بخطف المرحوم الشهيد نضال جنود من بازار الخضرة ومن ثم التنكيل به بالسواطير والسكاكين والشنتيانات ومن ثم إجباره على السير ضمن شوارع بانياس وهو ينزف ثم أخذه للمشفى الخيري الموجود ضمن إمارتهم لتصويره على شريط فيديو لبثه على قناة بردى وبعد ذلك قتله وتقطيعه ورميه على قارعة الطريق في مكب النفايات ، كما هو مبين من خلال الصور الفوتوغرافية ومقاطع الفيديو التي تثبت كل تلك الحقائق !!!؟؟؟ د ــ والسؤال *
1) الأهم لماذا قام أهالي البيضة بالتعرض والتهجم على اللجنة المشكلة من السيد الرئيس !!!؟؟؟ ولماذا قامت مجموعة من أهالي بانياس وضمن المدينة بتوقيف سيارات اللجنة وقطع الطريق أمامها والتهجم عليها ومنعها من الدخول إلى مدينة بانياس إلا بعد التدخل المشكور للسيد رئيس النيابة في بانياس !!!؟؟؟ ولماذا قاموا بإهانة تلك اللجنة بكتابة بعض العبارات البذيئة على إحدى سياراتهم !!!؟؟؟ علماً أن تلك اللجنة كما أوضحت لهم هي لجنة قضائية مستقلة وليس لها أي صفة أمنية هـ ــ إن الإعلام السوري لايسوق اتهامات وزارة الداخلية بوجود مجموعات سلفية في مدينة بانياس بل هي حقائق مؤكدة ومثبتة لجميع أهالي بانياس الشرفاء من خلال الأدلة المذكورة أعلاه ومن خلال ما يتم كشفه من اعترافات لمجموعات إرهابية سلفية تخريبية تم القبض عليها في بعض المناطق الأخرى !!!؟؟؟ وأما عن الشاب المسيحي حاتم حنا فقد تم قتله من قبل شخصين من أهالي البيضة وذلك من أجل إثارة الفتنة بين الطائفة المسيحية الكريمة والجيش العربي السوري الذي كان يلاحق المسلحين في قرية البيضة ، وبالنسبة للمزارعين الأربعة من منطقة الجزيرة الذين كانوا يعملون في مزارع البيضة فقد قتلوا أثناء مقاومتهم وإطلاقهم النار على عناصر الجيش العربي السوري وليس على أيدي أجهزة الأمن كما زعم كاتبوا البيان .
2) وأخيراً نتساءل : هل انتحر الشهيد المرحوم نضال جنود بإلقاء نفسه على سواطير أصحاب المظاهرات السلمية !!!!!؟؟؟؟ ألم يكن ذلك فرز وقتل على الهوية !!!؟؟؟ أليس مهاجمة مبيت الجيش العربي السوري بعد النداء في الجوامع إلى الجهاد هو من أفعال الخونة وعملاء إسرائيل والصهيونية العالمية !!!؟؟؟ أليس حرق المحلات التجارية والسيارات العابرة وقطع الاوتستراد الدولي والسطو على المزارع وجني محاصيلها وسرقة تجهيزاتها وطلب الخوّة وخطف الأبرياء والتنكيل بهم (( كما حصل مع أشقاء شهيد آل الهوشي في مدينة بانياس )) هي من الجرائم الجنائية التي يعاقب عليها القانون أم هي من مبادئ المظاهرات السلمية !!!؟؟؟ أليس واضحاً أن هؤلاء القلة القلية من أهالي بانياس ليس لديهم أي انتماء وطني تجاه بلدهم الأم سوريا ، وخاصةً بعد إصدار بيان تظلم إلى رئيس دولة أجنبية (( أردوغان في تركيا )) !!!؟؟؟ وهل قيادة الإمارة الإسلامية المعلن عنها في مدينة بانياس للمدعو (( أنس عيروط )) تمثل رأياً تقدمياً وتصالحياً !!!؟؟؟ إن الغريب أن تكون بانياس بمعظم مثقفيها من أطباء ومحامين ومهندسين ومعلمين وطلاب جامعيين وتجار ومهنيين ، تحت راية شخص مثل أنس عيروط !!!!!!!!؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟
بانياس في 30/4/2011
مجموعة غير محصورة من أهالي مدينة بانياس الشرفاء الوطنيون المتمسكون بالوحدة واللحمة الوطنية لكافة أبناء القطر العربي السوري
April 30th, 2011, 6:03 pm
Sophia said:
Jad,
The problem about a Powell style US presentation in the UN concerning Syria is that for Iraq they had a single source feeding them with lies so it was more easy to go to the UN with a single story.
Did you notice that the Ghaddafi story was fed to the US by Al-Jazeera?
There was a powerful story in the academic world in the 90s. A physicist from NY sent a fake article to an academic journal on the basis that they publish anything critical of the sciences without any scrutiny about the authors’ knowledge about science. Their authors were most of the time cultural studies academics and there were some French philosophers too. He tailored his article to the editorial line of the journal which is very critical of the sciences and got accepted. And he revealed afterward that he fabricated his article and that there is not one single truth to it. The story shook the academic world of sociology and cultural studies in the US for some time.
http://www.physics.nyu.edu/sokal/lingua_franca_v4/lingua_franca_v4.html
I suggest that someone sends Al-Jazeera fake and crazy stories form Syria which suits their editorial line and then uncover their poor standards.
April 30th, 2011, 6:17 pm
ziadsoury said:
W D,
Violence was and still one sided. I have yet to see a video of any armed demonstrators alive or dead. The regime’s thugs and criminals are the only ones doing the killings. Any one willing to kill his people, is willing to kill few soldiers or cops, who object, to make the conspiracy story sound believable. You are full of hate and fear and spreading that all around. The regime can’t succeed without the fear factor. And boy did that work on you guys.
April 30th, 2011, 6:24 pm
why-discuss said:
Sophia
It is hilarious…. I am sure we will see a flourish of videos on the subject soon. I
April 30th, 2011, 6:27 pm
jad said:
Sophia,
Aljazeera is already doing exactly that with their stories where they take whatever the witness say and put it as the main news:
حرب تشنها محطات لتخريب استقرار سورية
April 30th, 2011, 6:29 pm
why-discuss said:
Ziadsoury
“I have yet to see a video of any armed demonstrators alive or dead.”
I have yet to see armed security officers shooting on peaceful demonstrators.
I have no hate or fear, just trying to be objective.
Anyway the whole thing will unravel soon and the truth will appear.
April 30th, 2011, 6:34 pm
AIG said:
It is not the protesters that are blocking the press and objective coverage. It is the regime. Therefore, who is trying to hide the truth?
April 30th, 2011, 6:48 pm
ziadsoury said:
W D,
If you have not seen any videos of security thugs shootings at people then you need to have your eyes examined by the DOCTOR. I am sure you both have 20/20 vision.
April 30th, 2011, 6:49 pm
Louai said:
to ZIADSOURI
with recpect
as requested here is a link ,i hope its enough ,i have many many more if you wish to see the ‘peaceful demonstrators’ actually they are on youtube to whom it may concern
April 30th, 2011, 6:56 pm
majedkhaldoon said:
Ziadsoury
IN USA it is not against the law to treat injured person at home,Norman as usual he is wrong,the problem in Syria is that they will not accept treating injured person without getting permission from the security which they are oppression forces.
Furthermore, Baath party has nothing to do with the current leadership in Syria they are bunch of oppurtunistic people,Norman has an idole he warship, his name is Assad.
As we talk, several officers from the fivth brigade are executed by the Alawite officers who are controlling the fourth brigade, ,who they definitely can defeat Deraa ,will be remembered for their atrocities,
April 30th, 2011, 6:57 pm
ziadsoury said:
Now they arresting 80+ year olds. They must be the old guards and leaders of the salafi and MB movement is Syria. Or they might be part of the Mundaseen or the Khawana. Shame on you.
They torture 10 year olds, arrest and imprison 85 year olds and eveyone in between.
Reforms at work?
“Security agents detained two veteran human rights activists on Saturday: Hassan Abdel Azim, 81, of the National Democratic Grouping, from his office in Damascus and Omar Qashash, 85,
of the People’s Democratic Party, as he was walking in a park in Aleppo, the Syrian Centre for the Defence of Prisoners of Conscience says”.
Then the department of education cancels all english language classes. Wow. I am sure Syria will be stronger as a result. Now I see the Jolan coming back.
April 30th, 2011, 7:00 pm
majedkhaldoon said:
Why Discuss,He said he is objective, this is a joke
April 30th, 2011, 7:01 pm
syria no kandahar said:
Every MB and wahabi commenter on this site knows that this is a (revolution)which is dead peacefully.they all know that blood is ther only path to power. for them blood is oil to ignite fire.without blood they have no agenda.they are not interested in dialogue or reform all they want is power.they dont mind having syria dead .they will then try to revive a dead body with epinphrine of sectarism .they will then cut syria into pieces like they are doing in iraqe and like they have done wilth syrian soldiers and civilians.ther have been never a (revolutiohn)as dirty as this in history.in crime science it is said look for who is benifiting.in syria every time you see blood think who is benifiting.
April 30th, 2011, 7:05 pm
ziadsoury said:
Luoai,
I am confused now. Are you a pro-freedom anti-regime or pro-regime and his thugs?
All what I see: few people with sticks and a couple with old swords and one with a shovel. They are shouting anti Iran slogans and for freedom. Then they all mention “No Destruction”. I don’t see any weapons at all. No one has any firearms or ak47 or automatic weapons.
Deep down you must be pro freedom your self if this all you got.
April 30th, 2011, 7:12 pm
majedkhaldoon said:
Seif Al Arab, son of Qaddafi and his three children were killed
April 30th, 2011, 7:16 pm
majedkhaldoon said:
http://all4syria.info/web/archives/6331
April 30th, 2011, 7:26 pm
SuzukiOFTokyo said:
It is ridiculous to see that nearly all the people in this forum apparently fail to understand or even realise the existence of Damascus-Aleppo alliance and its importance in Syrian politics and economy.
A collection of other cities and towns are powerless in front of the overwhelming influence of Damascus-Aleppo alliance. It is often useless to collect town names where protest occurred and to count numbers of death.
Uprising in Daraa was a failure because it doesn’t have a universal cause. Their cause is only local and even tribal. (A news just comes in that around 250 armed gangs in Omari Mosque in Daraa have surrendered.)
In the eyes of Damascus-Aleppo alliance, demonstrators are more sectarian, more tribal, more extreme, more short-sighted, more backward than Bashar. In one word, demonstrators are extremely anti-business.
Yes, Bashar made a grave mistake, especially the price control of meat and fertiliser. Protest organisers utilised the frustrations of low earners. But this time he’s proved that he is a person to listen to his people and to modify his policy when necessary. This is very important.
When Bashar begins to look after low-income families, what those demonstrators can offer is destabilisation, sectarianism and tribalism with a smell of foreign conspiracy! These are not what people want.
It is also funny to see that some people and/or news articles mention to brutality of the Syrian regime. The United States still keeps Guantanamo open, illegally abducted people living in territories beyond U.S. jurisdiction, continue to hold some people without charge, torture them, refer to the military tribunal, and no apology or recovery of dignity to those released. In contrast, Bashar has just officially abolished military court.
Which country should be referred to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in the 21st century?
April 30th, 2011, 7:47 pm
aboali said:
guys seriously come on, you’re still discussing who’s doing all the shooting and killing at this stage? how about you call someone from Hama or Homs or Banyas or Daraa or any other city where people have been killed and find out for yourselves. How about you call a member of the Taqem family in Hama, who had a member shot in the back, then dragged into a building and beaten by the mokhabarat, then an officer took out his pistol and emptied it into his head execution style. That was on Friday 22nd April. The poor guy’s father was contacted by a moukhabrat officer the next day to warn him to say his son was killed by unknown snipers, to which the father replied “i will only be satisfied with 1000 of your men”. His son was released the same day, and was buried as he died as is the custom for martyrs, minus his head of course. I know this because I spoke to a cousin of his, I suggest you guys do the same and find out for yourselves.
April 30th, 2011, 7:53 pm
syau said:
Ziadsoury, #151
If you are not seeing any Ak47’s or automatic weapons with the ‘peaceful protesters’ it is because they are not filming it, because as we know, it would not suit the fabricated video clips they are sending off to Al jazeera and other news agencies who are happy to fabricate stories along with the ‘revolutionists’.
During these ‘peaceful protests’ there are gangs hiding amongst them to cause chaos and begin the spiral of violence. They do this because it would mean more blood spilled with them shooting from the inside while their accomplices tape around them. Therefore, more sensationalised clips to send to Al jazeera. Cowards hide amongst innocent civilians. Listen to the recollections of some of the armed gangs that have been caught.
So, if you dont see any ‘peaceful protesters’ with automatic weapons, dont be surprised. Just open your eyes.
There are also homemade bombs that they have made alongside the weapons they have managed to smuggle.
The army would not take so long to clear the area of Daara if there was no one with weapons shooting at them. They are also shooting at them while declaring Jihad (under the cover of a peaceful protest)- that is the day many army personnel lost their lives. The evidence is there. You dont have to look very hard to find it, not only are they armed gangs that are being caught admitting it, the army personnel that are injured are giving their recollections of the situation.
If your peaceful protesters are so peaceful, there would be no need to murder and mutilate innocent civilians. This is the stamp of the MB and you know it.
April 30th, 2011, 7:56 pm
Louai said:
to ZIADSOURI
first thank you for spotting me of being pro-freedom and anti regime however that dose not make me a supporter of the demonstrations that taking place on the streets of Syria now days .
ZIAD who is not pro-freedom in Syria ? apart of a tiny small groups we all want freedom and much more ,we all want a dramatic reform and wish the best to our country !! yes i am from the opposition however i stand strongly against what is happening right now in Syria , and i support the government as its the only safe way to give Syrians another chance before going ugly Iraq !!
i actually wanted you to see the swords and sticks . if you were peaceful why you need to Cary sticks and swords and chant against shia and Iran?
i said in my previous post that’s not the only i got ,i have many more and i will show you what those peaceful demonstrators could do with the old swords and sticks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTvrAPRl7Rs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgXiqleqL38
another one peaceful act of our ‘cute’ demonstrators and what can they do if they had some guns to an army official and his children!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7eSoRoj8uE
i am sorry for all the horror in the Videos but you asked .
finally my brother ,i know that not all the demonstrators are violnts and probably the vast majority of them have nothing to do with the terrorists taking place in Syria however its obvious that there are many groups that wishing to hijack these uprising and therefor me and every one i know who used to heavily criticize the government are taking the side of the government to put an end to the opportunists and the devil behind them .
finally yes i want freedom but not at any price .
April 30th, 2011, 8:04 pm
Mouna said:
What about the nuclear issue?
April 30th, 2011, 8:24 pm
why-discuss said:
MajedElkhaldoon
Are the NATO supposed to PROTECT the civilians , not to ATTACK and kill indiscriminatly.? They have brought more desolation to this country. It’s sickening.
Once the Western countries get in a country, under a humanitarian pretext, to protect the oil they need to sustain their democracy, they become real ugly.
April 30th, 2011, 8:32 pm
jad said:
Another game by the ‘organizers’, this time they’ll use women and children in a better way than leaving them home, they are planning to send them unnecessarily to Jordan and Lebanon as refugee to pressure the regime more:
عاجل: من غرفة (ساجد) “العميل السعودي” على البالتوك : ” أنصح الأخوة الثوار (بحسب الغرفة) بإرسال أولادهم وعلائلاتهم إلى لبنان والأردن كنازحين… لزيادة الضغط على النظام” والتوجيه إليهم للاتصال بالتلفزيون والراديو الأردني فور وصولهم الأردن من أجل تنظيم لقاءات متلفزة”
This report is from Friday by Aljadeed TV talks about those who are seeking refuge in Lebanon at the borders, listen to the lady at 1:10min, she said that arms exist and that there was some resistance to the army by the locals, the next women said there are 2-4 tanks, the man didn’t want to say anything first them he said that those who are using arms are actually the security and not the army, apparently this family is from Tal Kalakh area known for being a smugglers area where many are already armed even before this uprising.
April 30th, 2011, 8:36 pm
Mouna said:
🙁 🙂
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42840449/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa
April 30th, 2011, 9:30 pm
haz said:
Louai,
Those videos you posted, one again they are just film of dead people. Obviously they have died horribly, but there is no way to know who did it, when, or where.
Seriously, if you believe ad-Dunia you are a fool.
In the first video, are you able to tell me whether that shovel was supplied by Israel or Saudi Arabia? I couldn’t see it closely enough.
Louai,
Your paranoid rantings are ridiculous. If it’s so easy for protesters to film themselves being shot at, why don’t the army, or mukhabarat film protesters shooting? Don’t they have cameras? Aren’t they watching the protests very carefully?
April 30th, 2011, 9:53 pm
NAJIB said:
descendants of Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. (لعنة الله عليه ) at work in Syria.!?
April 30th, 2011, 9:54 pm
Louai said:
to ZiadSouri
firs you are calling me a fool ! thank you very kind of you .
second if the video broadcasted by AL Dunia TV dose not make it created there ,it was broad casted on youtube before and Al Dunia TV broadcast
i am a fool to believe AL Dunia TV and you are genuse to believe AL-Jazeera? i envy you !
the second vedio is not a ‘dead person’ he is moving before being slaughtered i don’t know how you didn’t see that ,here a photo before he was killed and dragged by his attackers
http://www.aksalser.net/ar-sy/News/14/3409.aspx
i thought you are truth seeker that’s why i sent you the links just because you asked in your post but now you proved that there is nothing on earth will change your mind and its up to you to believe or not but its not up to you to destroy Syria by covering those criminals and calling them peacful protesters ,when are you going to belive they are not ?when they announced on AL jazeera that they are bunch of terrorists? keep waiting they will not do it .
April 30th, 2011, 10:26 pm
N.Z. said:
For those who are condemning the victims for their suffering, I hope you will never loose sight, of how and why this situation escalated, the reaction taken by the government on the people of Deraa is horrific and must be condemned by fellow Syrians, first.
“Down with the regime” a phrase jotted by a group of youngsters on a blackboard’s school. SO WHAT ?
Despicable punishment, followed by numerous arrests, and a promise from the president to allow protests till the apprehended are released.. And so it was, till the security interfered with live ammunition… and… nobody knows how this bloody siege/saga will end.
No more masks, no more excuses and no more lies.
The die hard on this commentary blog are humans before being anything else. Put yourselves in their shoes and never lose sight. What goes around comes around. Reflect and do not react blindly.
April 30th, 2011, 10:27 pm
why-discuss said:
AL JAZEERA Blog
“The protesters pledged new countrywide demonstrations from Sunday at the start of what they called “the week of breaking the siege”.
Demonstrations are also expected to take place on Sunday in Deraa….
…. Activists have called for rallies on Monday in Damascus, Tuesday in the northern towns of Baniyas and Jableh, Wednesday in Homs, Talbiseh and in Tall Kalakh on the border with Lebanon, and night vigils on Thursday… “
April 30th, 2011, 10:30 pm
why-discuss said:
N.Z
To know exactly what happened in Deraa after the meeting of the elders with Bashar al assad more than 2 weeks ago there must be an investigation. Before the promise investigation was even started, the situation escalated in Deraa. You and the organizers claim that the security officers shot at peaceful demonstrations, others say that they were provoked and attacked, whether with guns or knife and they acted in self defense. How can we know? we only have the testimonies of some eye witness but none from the security officers.
So no one can determine the responsiblities at this stage. So it is irresponsible to jump to conclusions and condemn anyone on presomptions.
April 30th, 2011, 10:43 pm
Norman said:
Hey Majed,
You got me you smart boy , I am an idol worshipper, Bashar Assad is just one of them, with time you will figure out the others you smarty pants,
April 30th, 2011, 10:59 pm
MRPHSMITH said:
Anyone else notice how virtually all the reports of atrocities are now “anonymous” (or as good as anonymous) telephone conversations with random individuals who claim to be “eyewitnesses.” The idea that these reports might not be the slightest bit credible seems to conveniently elude all those mainstream media outlets that are uncritically reporting them. Based on this, it is reasonable to assume that the constantly escalating alleged death toll being reported by a few small Syrian “human rights” organizations is based on similar, and similarly unreliable evidence. Of course, none of the mainstream Western news organizations bother to report this or point out the obviously unreliable nature of the unsubstantiated claims involved. Instead, they do the opposite, by placing these unproven claims in headlines, and only briefly and often obscurely referring to the source of the claims. The Los Angeles Times has now informed us that the same Syrian “human rights” group responsible for these inflated death tolls is now requesting “humanitarian intervention but not military intervention” (whatever that means) in Syria.
An example of the way completely unproven claims are being uncritically disseminated is the story about the supposed resignation of some members of the Baa’ath Party. Note that these reports almost never cite a source for this information and all these claims involve suspiciously round numbers (200, than 200 more, than 50, etc). And sure enough, it turns out to be a claim initially circulated by Saudi Arabian media (Which initially claimed that 30 had resigned, and than raised the numbers) with absolutely no evidence to support it.
April 30th, 2011, 11:57 pm
SuzukiOfTokyo said:
I want people to stop calling “peaceful demonstrators.” According to the legislative decree No. 54 dated April 21, 2011 which was installed in place of the emergency law, demonstrations are allowed in case they receive permission from the interior ministry in advance. It adds that all the other gatherings are regarded as “riot” stipulated in the criminal law.
http://www.sana.sy/ara/2/2011/04/21/342709.htm
Still more, the ministry of interior has issued a temporary order to ban any kind of demonstration on April 19 and 28.
Demonstration without license is also banned, with or without weapons, in the United States, Great Britain, France as well as in Japan (my country).
So those arrested are NOT AT ALL peaceful demonstrators or political prisoners. They are just rioters. Since the military court has already been abolished, they will be tried in an ordinary court which they hoped for so long. They should be happy for sure.
April 30th, 2011, 11:57 pm
MRPHSMITH said:
With respect to the claim involving the number of protesters. The claim fails in several respects. First, just as in other countries, the number of younger protesters likely outnumbers other protesters by an extremely wide margin. This is especially obvious after viewing footage of protesters in Syria. Thus, the attempt to triple the number of protesters by claiming equal representation in other age groups fails from the start. Second, the assumption that protesters are representative of one or several other family members is also questionable. It may be true in some cases, and it may be false in others. With no way to conclusively show this it is an unwarranted assumption. And, as has been pointed out already, the risk of being shot did not deter millions of protesters, including women, from demonstrating in Egypt and Yemen, among other places. Thus the final attempt to inflate the protest numbers, in addition to being an uninformed supposition, also fails when compared to most other recent protests in the region.
May 1st, 2011, 12:07 am
Joshua said:
Many readers mistakenly thought I wrote the critique of the anonymous diplomat’s numbers. I did not. It was sent to me by a commentator. I published to give a different view. I was in a hurry to publish before leaving for Dallas with the family this weekend and neglected to clarify that I did not write it. Best, Joshua
May 1st, 2011, 1:17 am
syau said:
While the US is condemning the the Syrian government trying to regain stability in its country and capture all the terrorists cells, NATO seems to think it’s ok to drop missiles on Ghadaffi’s family home, killing his youngest son and 3 grandchildren, after they initially stated that they have no interest in striking Ghadaffi and his family.
It also seems that while the world is watching many fabricated stories about Syria, it’s ok for the Saudi army to wage war on the Bahrain protesters and kill many Bahrain residents, also accusing 4 men of shooting 2 officers sentencing them to death row immediately. It seems that no one is interested in sending Human Rights activists to Bahrain, but are quick to request outside interference in Syria.
No one seems interested in naming or recognising the fallen soldiers or murdered and mutilated residents, just continuing on with there ideas that there is only peaceful protesters in Syria and not terrorist/armed gangs even while some of the captured terrorists are admitting to the orchestrated attempts to destabalise Syria. By the way, to date 149 of the terrorists have been apprehended, some of them stated there are above 500 other terrorists linked to them across the country.
I wonder what the US government would do if there was over 500 terrorists in their country, definately not play hide and seek with them.
May 1st, 2011, 1:19 am
Mawal95 said:
You can see the growth momentum of the Friday protests by looking at Youtube videos recorded in the same town in the different weeks. For example, I entered مظاهرة كفر نبل in the search box at Youtube, where مظاهرة means demonstration and كفر نبل is the town Kafr Nabl in Idlib province. Then I clicked “Search Options” at the top of the search results, then picked “Upload Date: This Month”. That gives me a list of the Youtube videos of demonstrations in this town for the past month. There were demonstrations there each Friday, April 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29, and they are covered by dozens of videos at Youtube. The town’s demonstration on April 29th was larger than it was early in the month but smaller than it was on the 22nd. By repeating the exercise for many other towns, one can get a picture of momentum. I’ve done it for just a few towns, but I think I’ve seen enough to convince me that April 29th was overall a little smaller than April 22nd. Growth momentum has been halted. That has been widely acknowledged already, but seeing is believing.
To repeat myself from an earlier post, the many televised funerals for security personnel plus the confessions by wild hooligan killers, that were airing on Syrian TV in the days leading up to the 29th, put off ordinary decent citizens from going out to protest. People tend to rally round the establishment when security personnel are killed by bad people.
May 1st, 2011, 1:39 am
haz said:
Louai,
Please read more carefully – I called anyone who believes what they hear on ad-Duniya a fool, not just you. And I wrote it, not ZiadSouri.
I do not believe what I hear on al-Jazeera either – I know that they are a political tool of the Qatari ruling family, like the Syrian tv stations are tools of the Assads and their allies.
I saw a video of a man who had been severely injured. He was also shown dead. Who was he really? Why was he attacked? Who attacked him? Don’t know, don’t know, don’t know.
The videos I have seen show these things:
Peaceful, unarmed protests;
Angry protests – armed with sticks and farm tools (you didn’t answer whether those tools were supplied by Saudis or Israeli by the way. Or were they American?).
Unarmed people being shot at – usually not clear who is shooting;
Soldiers, mukhabarat/shabeha with guns;
Some people (government and anti-government) who have been shot or otherwise killed, their funerals.
From this information, it is illogical to infer that the protesters are shooting at the military. Maybe they are, but there is no direct evidence that they are.
Why doesn’t the government release footage of gun battles between their forces and insurgents? Cameras work in Afghanistan and Libya, why not in Syria?
May 1st, 2011, 1:46 am
Mawal95 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmhBWE8FM1M
The above is a Friday demonstration march video. In the marching crowd I can see lots of boys of age 12 and 14 and thereabouts, and I see one 10-year-old walking along holding his father’s hand, but I don’t see a single female in the whole crowd. Can somebody please explain to me why women don’t participate?
May 1st, 2011, 1:50 am
Louai said:
to HAZ and ZIADSOURI
Post 187 is a reply to post 185 HAZ ,sorry ZIAD
May 1st, 2011, 1:52 am
Louai said:
HAZ
the sticks farm tools and the swords (you forgot that one ) are MADE IN hatred ignorance and too much religion !
here are more slogans and sowards MADE IN SAUDI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htbcVWf10u0&feature=player_embedded
i will repeat myself there is a difference between the simple man on the street and the insidious forces moving them behind the borders .
you agree that the army is being attacked and so far more that 60 officers are dead however you dont know who is doing the killing ,i am sure you want to say the security forces is shooting at them and doing the Mangling?
you saw Nidal Janood being dragged and wounded in the picture
you saw a short documentary for his funeral and death
you saw his brother testimony
but you stil don’t know
i am sorry but i can’t help it not to recall God’s words
ختم الله على قلوبهم وعلى سمعهم وعلى أبصارهم غشاوة
May 1st, 2011, 2:51 am
haz said:
Mawal95,
I imagine it’s generally because a lot of places in Syria are very conservative in their attitudes to women. Generally, women stay at home when they are not shopping or visiting relatives. It would be considered indecent for women to be out in the street ‘socialising’ with men who are not relatives. I don’t like this but it’s the way it is in most of the Middle East.
Also, many of these protests start in Mosques. Traditionally, mosques are pretty much the only place people are regularly allowed to gather in large numbers, and especially under the current government. Going to the mosque for Friday prayers is generally a man’s thing, generally, but not always, women pray at home.
This does not necessarily mean they are Salafiyeen or Muslim Brothers – most Syrians are very conservative in their views of women (especially the poor and rural) compared to Northern Europe – Druze, Christian, Sunni or Shia, Arab or Kurd or Armenian. Even Alawi and Ismaelis are more like southern Italians than Scandinavians. Don’t be fooled by the lack of headscarf.
May 1st, 2011, 3:07 am
Revlon said:
Republican Guards; Deceit and defection: A soldier from Republican Guards tells how they were asked to dress in black suit antiterrorist units and how they defected to avoid shooting at civilians.
A case for the UN finding mission!
– Walid Al Qash3ami, based at the command centre (CC) at Qassiyoon, Damascus post 227
– Showed Military ID and metal ID
– Summoned to CC
– Briefed on mission to deal with armed gangs that were killing people in 7arasta.
– We were asked to change their military camouflage uniform into the black of the antiterrorism units.
– On 23d of April, 250 fully armed groups were transported to 7arasta.
– We were surprised to find a civilian demonstration chanting: Down the system and freedom. It included women and children.
– Security forces were already shooting live ammunition at them.
– We were ordered to shoot without any warning.
– We and a group of my comrades approached the demonstrators without shooting, until within 10 meters. Then we threw our guns and disappeared in the crowd.
– We did not shoot because it would have been against what we swore to do, as army soldiers; To protect the country, the people, and the army chief.
– We were then fired at by the army soldiers and the security forces. A friend of mine was hit in the shoulder.
– I plea to my comrades in the army to protect the unarmed people and not to fire at them.
May 1st, 2011, 3:21 am
haz said:
Louai,
Firstly, do not criticise others for too much religion and then quote God to me as if that ends the discussion.
Your ad-Duniya video of Nidal Janood:
It looks as if he was murdered, definitely. But again, we don’t know who, or why. We cannot trust ad-Duniya. Would you accept information given by Al-Jazeera, tool of the Qatari government? No. For the same reason I cannot accept information given by Ad-Dunya, tool of the Syrian government.
Again, I would not be surprised if members of the security forces have been murdered by anti-government protesters. There are many, many people in Syria who have grudges against the mukhabarat – in the past 40 years a lot of people’s brothers, fathers, cousins have disappeared, been beaten, tortured, and imprisoned. But this video is not reliable evidence of who killed Nidal Janood or why. It is also not evidence of widespread violence agains the security forces.
The dead soldiers:
I have friends in the Syrian army. They are there not by choice, but because that is the law. I know they are not any better or worse than any other person in Syria. I feel terrible for their families when I see this footage. I never claimed it was done by security forces. I said the only people we have seen with guns (outside the ‘confessions’ on ad-Dunia) are the security forces.
Your new video – again angry young men waving their sticks. Does every member of the Muslim Brotherhood receive a stick or is it only their elite fighters?
Where are the guns?! Where are the soldiers fighting armed insurgents?
May 1st, 2011, 3:35 am
Amir in Tel Aviv said:
Revlon, thank you for translating!
May 1st, 2011, 4:46 am
NK said:
http://all4syria.info/web/archives/6316
توضيح حول مقال روبرت فيسك….عن المسيحيين في حوران
طالعتنا بعض المواقع بان هناك دعوات من أهالي درعا و حوران للمسيحيين في بعض القرى تدعوهم إما الانضمام للثورة أو الرحيل وذلك اعتمادا على مقال للسيد روبرت فيسك في الاندبندنت ولكن بعد مطالعتنا المقال لم نجد في المقال شيئاً يذكر ذلك .
إن أهالي درعا وحوران لم يطلبوا من المسيحيين في درعا أي شيء بل على العكس بادر االحوارنة المسيحيون إلى فتح الكنيسة في درعا لاستقبال الجرحى والبيوت في درعا المحطة كانت تخبئ الشباب أيام مجزرة القرى كما ورد في تقرير الجزيرة عن احداث درعا .
نرجو من جميع المواقع التي تخاطب خطاباً وطنياً عدم نشر اخبار غير دقيقة
لأننا كمواطنيين سوريين بحاجة إلى الوعي ولابتعاد عن الاخبار والتسريبات غير الدقيقة وذات البعد الطائفي.
فاقتضى التنويه
أ الياس حوراني
http://www.syriatruth.info/content/view/2124/36/
ترجمة رديئة وغير أمينة في صحيفة “القدس العربي” لمقال روبرت فيسك وضعتنا في موقف محرج مع أهلنا في درعا
النص الأصلي لمقال روبرت فيسك ، وبخلاف تعقيب القراء ، يتضمن إشارة إلى الموضوع ، ولو أنها صيغت بطريقة ملتبسة تسمح بتأويلها إلى أكثر من معنى!؟
لندن ،الحقيقة ( خاص): تلقت “الحقيقة” رسالة توضيح بشأن مقال للصحفي البريطاني المخضرم روبرت فيسك ، نشرنا ترجمته صباح اليوم ، ورد فيه أن ” أهالي درعا خيروا المسيحيين في المدينة بين الرحيل عنها أو المشاركة في الثورة”. وجاء في رسالة التوضيح الموقعة باسم الياس حوراني أن المقال الأصلي لفيسك لم يتضمن شيئا يذكر من ذلك .
تعقيب “الحقيقة” : لقد درجنا في هذا الموقع ، وكما لاحظ قراؤه ، على أن أن لا ننشر مقالا مأخوذا من صحيفة أجنبية إلا ونضع له رابطه الأصلي لكي يتمكن القارىء من العودة إلى النص الأصلي بنفسه. وربما كنا الوحيدين الذين يلجأون إلى ذلك في المواقع السورية بشكل منهجي مستمر. و نحن نفعل ذلك حتى حين يتعلق الأمر بنص في الصحافة العبرية ، رغم أن هناك قلة قليلة جدا من القراء العرب ـ كما هو معروف ـ ممن يمكنهم قراءة أو فهم العبرية.
أما فيما يتعلق بمقال فيسك تحديدا ، فقد نقلناه حرفيا عن صحيفة ” القدس العربي” (انقر هنـــا ، وراجع الفقرة الثانية من التقرير). وبتعبيرآخر ، فإننا لا نتحمل مسؤولية الترجمة ، ولم نعد إلى النص الإنكليزي الأصلي لثقتنا بصحيفة “القدس العربي” ومهنيتها ، التي خيبت أملنا هذه المرة إلى حد ما!
بالعودة إلى النص الأصلي الإنكليزي لمقال فيسك ، وفيما يخص المسألة موضوع الإشكال ، نجد العبارة التالية حرفيا:
But in the village of Hala, Christian shops are shut as their owners contemplate what are clearly sectarian demands to join in the uprising against Assad
أما الترجمة الحرفية للعبارة فهي ” ولكن في قرية حالا ، فالمتاجر ( الدكاكين) المسيحية مغلقة لأن أصحابها يعتقدون أن هناك طلبات طائفية بشكل واضح للمشاركة في الانتفاضة ضد الأسد”.
من الواضح أن صياغة فيسك ، وبغض النظر عن قامته المهنية العالية ، هي نفسها ملتبسة . ولا يعفي هذا بطبيعة الحال صحيفة “القدس العربي” من المسؤولية عن دس عدد من الكلمات في الترجمة ( مثل : رحيل ) لا وجود لها في النص الأصلي.
أما فيما يتعلق بأهلنا في درعا ، فنحن نعتذر عن أي إساءة قد نكون تسببنا بها لهم جراء نقلنا هذه الترجمة الرديئة عن الصحيفة العربية . فاقتضى التنويه ، رغم أننا كنا وضعنا في نهاية النص أنه من ترجمة وإعداد “القدس العربي” ، وبالتالي لا نتحمل أي مسؤولية عما جاء فيه.
تبقى الإشارة ، والحق يقال ، إلى أن مسيحيي درعا وضعوا أكثر من كنيسة من كنائسهم بتصرف أهلنا في درعا لاستخدمها كعيادات ميدانية لمعالجة الجرحى ممن سقطوا برصاص الأجهزة الأمنية.
In short, the people in Daraa never said to the Christians (join us or leave).
May 1st, 2011, 5:24 am
SANDRO LOEWE said:
Today I read this analysis:
Syria represents to the regional stability what american banks represent to the world economics. Banks were managed by criminals but the colapse of a big bank could bring world economics to chaos. In the same way Syria is managed by criminals but no one dares to let syrian regime colapse since it would bring chaos in Syria, Kurdistan, Irak, Lebanon, Palestine and even Jordan.
I guess that Bashar Al Assad regime will survive this crisis. Syria will lose a lot of prestige in the international scene and will become a political satrapie of Iran and an economical vilaya of the Turks. This let´s say renewed regime will keep the power for some years more but I am afraid that next time the revolution will be much bitter. Even if protesters and their families are massacred and tortured there will be everyday 1.304 people in Syria celebrating its 18 th birthday. So the potential of revolution will be higher and higher.
May 1st, 2011, 5:54 am
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
No demonstrations at all today, and the head of Deraa rebels has been arrested. Yet some Israeli and Wahhabi writers still maintain that Assad is about to fall!
Many leading cells have been arrested. The uprising is losing momentum and it will die completely in a few weeks.
May 1st, 2011, 6:21 am
Revlon said:
#204 Dear NK, thank you very much for posting the clarification of Mr Fisk column on the 7oranite Christins.
May 1st, 2011, 6:26 am
SANDRO LOEWE said:
SOURI,
I imagine you are very worried about your bussiness that is not working anymore with this situation. Your only tool is optimism and encouraging repression and torture but it is sad to see how people like you have no principles but to keep their material dominance. This is the kind of arab people that created dictatorships with the help of colonialists.
May 1st, 2011, 6:27 am
Austria said:
I propose that we start referring to Al Jazeera as the “QATAR NATIONAL TV” or even better “SHIBH AL JAZEERA TV”. “Shibh Al Jazeera” has two meanings that truly depict what the station is all about:
1) The peninsula: Qatar is not an island but actually a peninsula. Since the station represents the views and policy of the Qatar government it would be more appropriate to call it “Shibh Al Jazeera” (The Peninsula)
2) “Shibh” also means similar to or looks like, which is again what Qatar is trying to accomplish. Have the people believe that this is an independent and professional TV station called Al Jazeera to manipulate Arab sentiment and hide the fact that it is “Shibh Al Jazeera” (something that looks like an independent and prefessional station) a highly biased national station driven by an authocratic government.
May 1st, 2011, 6:29 am
Revlon said:
حركة سوريا شباب من أجل الحرية Youth Syria For Freedom
كلنا شهداء حوران ||عاجل درعا البلد| إطلاق نار كثيف في حي الكرك بدرعا البلد و تقوم قوات الأمن الغادرة لإطلاق الرصاص الكثيف على الحي و من ثم تبدأ بمداهمة البيوت و اعتقال كل شخص عمره فوق خمسة عشر سنه
..
4 minutes ago
Who said there are no demonstrations today?
The regime is arresting people in Dar3a, because they are demonstrating in their homes!
May 1st, 2011, 6:32 am
MOHAMED KANJ said:
THIS IS A KNOWN FACT ON THE GROUND IN THE STREETS OF SYRIA. FOR EVERY SINGLE SYRIAN SOLDIER THAT IS BRUTALLY MURDERED BY THE REVOLUTION, THE INCREASE IN BASHAR AL ASSAD’S POPULARITY GROWS BY THE HOUR. PEOPLE ARE FED UP WITH THESE THUGS AND ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS TAKING OVER THE REVOLUTION. THE REVOLUTION DIED OUT ONCE THE ISLAMISTS TOOK OVER. IN THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD DIDNT GET A MENTION OR EVEN PUT ITS HANDS UP TO FORMALLY PARTICIPATE IN THE REVOLUTION. THE SYRIAN MUSLIM BROTHERHOODS ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT AND IT’S CALLS FOR PROTESTS, WILL BRING ABOUT THE DOWNFALL OF THE REVOLUTION. THEIR IS NO ARGUING AGAINST THIS FACT. ANYONE WHO DOES ARGUE AGAINST IT IS IN DENIAL. 80% OF SUNNI MUSLIMS WILL NOT SUPPORT AN ISLAMIC STATE IN SYRIA. ITS BAD FOR BUSINESS AND THE ECONOMY.
May 1st, 2011, 6:36 am
Revlon said:
7ama part II ethnic cleansing is underway in Dar3a as we speak!
حركة سوريا شباب من أجل الحرية Youth Syria For Freedom
شام : درعا : عاجل : حملة اعتقال واسعة لمئات الأطفال و الشباب و الرجال من المنازل في درعا البلد و اطلاق نار كثيف في أغلب أحياء درعا البلد أثناء عمليات الاقتحام و تأكيد سقوط شهيدين حتى هذه اللحظة ….
الفزعة الفزعة يا حوران … الفزعة الفزعة يا حوران
الفزعة الفزعة يا حوران … الفزعة الفزعة يا حوران
الفزعة الفزعة يا حوران … الفزعة الفزعة يا حوران
الفزعة الفزعة يا حوران … الفزعة الفزعة يا حوران
..
14 minutes ago
The city resistence has been softened by weeks of siege and cut off of water, electricity and food and medicine supplies.
The blackshirt security units are carrying the campaign of killing and arrests with tactical and logistical support from the republican Guards.
Thousands are disappearing. They will end up as for life detainees or unaccounted for, in mass graves.
The world is callously watching!
Some, in the comfort of their VIP offices, via global satellite!
World leaders had the excuse of regime media black out in 7ama part I
World leaders now, can only claim that they are blind, dumb, or plain hypocrites when it comes to preaching freedom and human rights.
May 1st, 2011, 6:49 am
MOHAMED KANJ said:
REVLON –
WHY DIDNT U MENTION THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA BLACKOUT ON THE MURDERED SYRIAN ARMY PERSONNEL OR POLICE OFFICERS? DONT BE SO ONE SIDED. IT IS SO OBVIOUS TO EVERY SINGLE SYRIAN OF WHAT IS GOING ON. I ORIGINALLY WAS WITH THE REVOLUTION, BUT HAVE SWITCHED SIDES. ID PREFER TO STAND ALONGSIDE THE 90% OF THE SYRIAN POPULATION AND PREFER SECURITY AND FREEDOM OF RELIGION. I WANT TO WALK OUT ON THE STREET WITHOUT HAVING TO WORRY ABOUT ME AND MY CHILDREN. WE HAD THAT BEFORE THE REVOLUTION STARTED. IF WE WALK IN THE SYRIAN STREETS NOONE WOULD MENTION RELIGION OR EVEN BOTHER TO ASK WHAT RELIGION YOU ARE. THESE ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS HAVE TRIED TO FORCE THEIR EXTREMISTS VIEW POINTS ON EVERY SINGLE SYRIAN. SHAME ON THEM
May 1st, 2011, 7:13 am
syau said:
Revlon,
It seems that you are continuing on with spreading your sectarian poison. Do not make this out to be something it is not. The ‘cleansing’ that is being conducted is simply cleansing the country of the terrorists who are spreading their own poison and attempting to destabalise Syria. If there was any kind of ethnic cleansing as you put it, then that would be the kind that is being conducted by the followers of the MB and religious leaders affiliated with them.
As for the world ‘callously watching, some in their vip officers’ I would think that would be the administrators of the Syrian revolution who are endorsing this violent ‘revolution’, not being man enough to demonstrate themselves. Stop sensationalise everything, Al Jazeera/bbc/al arabia is enough.
#201, I wonder how much he has been paid. By the way, his ID card and metal tags were not clear at all, and everyone is wondering where the women are at the protests, so, for him to state that there were women and children there is another lie. Shirtless protesters? Come on! He also seems to constantly repeat himself. All these fake eyewitnesses/video clips is getting old.
May 1st, 2011, 7:31 am
Mina said:
Fisk has nothing to say about the massacre of Libyan civilians? Saqat min ‘ayni.
We didn’t see at the beginning of the so-called Libyan revolution half the country migrating from Tripoli to Benghazi, or the Libyan exiles coming back in thousands to Benghazi to help the rebels.
Instead what we saw, is big party in freed Benghazi organised by aljazeera while people where being killed a hundred kilometers away
http://www.breakingnews.com/item/ahBicmVha2luZ25ld3Mtd3d3cg0LEgRTZWVkGK3d5QIM/2011/03/17/image-from-al-jazeeras-coverage-shows-large-crowd-celebrating-in-benghazi-ajelive
(before the Western intervention).
Instead as the Qaddafi forces got closer (precipitating the Western intervention for not being accused of letting a new Bosnian type massacre of Muslims), people were staying at home watching the advance on TV instead of fleeing from Benghazi to the Egyptian border. A new type of wars indeed.
As for Banyas and Daraa, the strategy was to start from the weak points who have been traditionnaly opposed to the central power.
May 1st, 2011, 7:32 am
syau said:
Revlon, #201,
Another question I have is if the ‘republican guard soldier’ was asked to change into the black anti terrorist unit uniforms, why was he filmed in his ‘republican guard’ uniform?
It is not hard to have a uniform made up and one of the coached ‘eyewitnesses’ or the famous actors of this revolution to wear it and try out their acting abilities. It has also been proven that the terrorists behind the attacks on innocent people have been impersonating security officers of all sort. I also believe the actual real Republican guards are much more on the beefier side than the man in your clip. For people to set up a fake mass funeral – (coffins flipping through the air from one person to another, caught on camera) it wouldnt be hard set up a fake republican guard soldier.
May 1st, 2011, 8:02 am
Mina said:
#SYAU
Thanks for pointing at that, i felt something was fishy in this video. First of course one wonders “this guy has no family that may get into troubles?” And in the last 2 minutes he seems to look at a text held by the interviewer to find his answers.
May 1st, 2011, 8:05 am
syau said:
Mina,
No worries, I also think if an analyst was to analyse this ‘admittion’ they would uncover many more lies than I did.
May 1st, 2011, 8:15 am
Sophia said:
Thanks prof Landis for the addendum, I am reassured now that I know that the arithmetics are not yours. This is not something that comes from an academic. As for your anonymous reader, by sending the youtube videos he is becoming really ridiculous. First he does his calculations based on the youtube videos, and when he finds that his ‘brilliant’ analysis did not impress anybody then he sends us the links to the youtube videos, but everybody knows that the youtube videos that the protesters are circulating cannot be trusted. So he piles bad analysis over lies.
I think the Syrian uprising is small, it is a Hama like uprising but the context of the Arab revolutions is providing it with some hype and spin especially from Al-Jazeera and some western outlets, not all of them. And I think the protesters who are doing these fabrications to make believe that their protests are BIG are killing actually any real serious future impetus to challenge Assad’s rule. The factions that took over in this uprising are not to be trusted and this is why the opposition against Assad is not unified.
My prediction is that this ‘uprising’ will serve to turn off the Syrian population and to give Assad some edge over the real opposition while at the same time pushing some reforms. All is well…
May 1st, 2011, 8:22 am
Amir in Tel Aviv said:
Some Reactionary Ba’athists here are really nervous about the expiring of this Junta regime. It’s so heartbreaking, really. They feel so lost without the junta telling them what to do what to think and what to say. Or rather, what not to say.
.
May 1st, 2011, 8:27 am
why-discuss said:
Austria
I also call Al Jazeera, Al Fantazeera. It used to be a good news channel but I has gone down the drain reflecting maybe the paranioa that has taken the Qatari government, suddenly wanting to play Zorro of the middle east, but a Zorro with full pocket.
SOURI
I am sure Bashar is very disappointed by the silence of Hamas and the Palestinians in general ( except that they voted against the US resolution) and with the Arab countries ( see the vote for the UN HR )
Voting NO were: Bangladesh, China, Cuba, Ecuador, Gabon, Malaysia, Mauritania, Pakistan, Russian Federation.
ABSTAINING were: Cameroon, Djibouti, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine.
ABSENT were: Angola, Bahrain, Jordan, and Qatar.
Of the 500,000 palestinians in Syria who are mostly sunnis, we have not seen any demonstrations of support to Bashar. No declaration of support by Hamas. No support from Egypt. None from North Africa. He got support only from Shia lead countries.
I am sure this will reflect very much on the next phase of Bashar’s foreign policy. He may give to the ‘Arab cause’ less importance, downgrade the Hamas representation, lessen his support of palestinians, and change his policy to give the priority to the “Syrian cause”: Peace, freedom, security and a better quality of life.
Now that he sees how isolated he is in the Arab world, I won’t be surprised if he makes more moves to a peace deal with Israel soon. Only Lebanon will be left in the cold
May 1st, 2011, 8:41 am
syau said:
Amir in tel aviv,
You should stick to Tel Aviv, because obviously you are looking through tainted glass. If you actually look at the clip, even you would be able to see through the lies. But you would prefer to just add your silly comments while not knowing what you are talking about.
Your absolute glee at the situation in Syria is showing more and more with every comment you post. You are not interested in the Syrian people nor do you care what happens to them, so stop jumping up and down everytime a fake video is uncovered as such. Furthermore, I can imagine you clapping and rubbing your hands together everytime there is a death in Syria, so dont act like you care.
May 1st, 2011, 8:43 am
Amir in Tel Aviv said:
SYAU,
If I have a glee, it’s only about the doomed fate of this junta. I have lots of sympathy and admiration to those brave Syrian (the ones you call Wahhabi Salafi). Believe it or don’t.
Faked videos? Faked thousands of videos? Let’s leave this to historians to determine.
Fear is not a policy. Fear of sectarianism cannot be a policy. Even a policy, that a fear of sectarianism, is in it’s basis, is doomed to fail. This is a short summary of this junta. Why should I care about what’s going on in Syria? Because I can see Dar’a from my window.
The only solution to different segments of society, fearing one another, is a social-political agreement. The way of this junta: iron fist preserving a status quo, is temporary, shortsighted, dangerous and might be disastrous. So I support those who want to achieve an understanding, a social agreement, a different political structure. Those who you call Wahhabis, and I call, reasonable, and their demands, just.
.
May 1st, 2011, 9:13 am
Revlon said:
Hasakah, Dar3a, Darayya (Suburb of Damascus)
– besieged by security forces and republican guards.
– Water, electricity and telecommunications are cut off.
– House to house search and arrests are carried out for all over 15 years of age.
Dar3a:
– Refrigerator container with douzens of bodies was seized and taken away be security forces.
– Some patiens on Renal dialysis in dar3a died because of inability to have regular dialysis.
Damascus:
– People are queuing to buy bread. A limit of 50 Syrian pounds ( USD 1) was set for buyers.
حركة سوريا شباب من أجل الحرية Youth Syria For Freedom
شام : الحسكة : قطع الاتصالات الخليوية عن مدينة الحسكة لا زال مستمراً حتى الآن .
28 minutes ago
شام | درعا :: كثير من مرضى الفشل الكلوي الذين يحتاجون للغسيل الكلوي الدوري توفاهم الله بسبب عدم تمكنهم من عمل جلسات الغسيل الكلوي في المشفى
لازال هناك نقص حاد في الغذاء وحليب الاطفال والدواء ، علماَ بأنه لازال حظر التجول مفروض ومن يتحرك يطلق عليه النار فورا”وبدون انذار ..
about an hour ago
شام : درعا : عاجل : مؤكد : قوات الأمن تقوم بخطف البراد الذي بداخله جثث عشرات الشهداء الأبطال من مكانه ليلة أمس و تقوم بإعادته لمكانه فارغاً من الجثث ظهر اليوم …
إعتقال الأطفال و الشباب و الرجال الأحياء … و اعتقال شهدائنا الأحياء ايضاً لن يرهبنا …
والله لن نركع يا بشار إلاّ لله … والله لن نركع يا بشار إلاّ لله … والله لن نركع يا بشار إلاّ لله
about an hour ago
تنسيقية داريا || موجة اعتقالات واسعة، المدينة محاصرة بالكامل، الاتصالات مقطوعة، الناس ممنوعون من الدخول الخروج وقد منعت سيارات الخضار من الدخول
about an hour ago •
Bottom of Form
فلاش || دمشق || الناس يقفون بالدور للجصول على الخبز والكمية المسموح بشرائها بخمسين ليرة كحد أقصى
2 hours ago
Bottom of Form
شام : داريا : عاجل : حصار داريا بشكل كبير و قطع الاتصالات و منع سيارات الخضار اليوم من الدخول للمدينة و منع الناس من الدخول و الخروج من داريا الا ما ندر …..Top of Form
2 hours ago
May 1st, 2011, 9:24 am
Solitarius said:
The kid thats supposed to be a defected republican guard soldier looks nothing like that.. he looks like a southern syrian in army uniform. i’m sure syrian army experts can easily figure this out.. he did not name his unit, his commanders, his comrades or any other sensitive information to help support his claim.
Also regarding Aljazeera.. someone was saying how it was a great channel and then went down the drain. Well aljazeera certainly had better days.. However it always played on sectarian strife and used blood to get attention and popularity. Its coverage of the Iraq war is only one example of how it used to play with people’s emotions and show scenes of horror and blood all the time.. they just like trouble..
also, the MB presence in Aljazeera is no secret. They are a very clearly MB dominant channel since day one. One of the examples that I have experience with is the year of Darwin a couple of years back when they tried to cover evolution.. the speaker and so-called expert they invited was some primate called Zaghloul Al Najjar who has zero scientific credibility… the lies and bullsh*t they spread about evolution and, later on the Ardy paper, was unbelievable.. after that day i paid more attention to their inaccuracies in scientific articles, and combined with their behavior on other frontiers i lost faith in their performance and their neutrality and professionalism. From this point of view it is thus no longer a surprise to see how Aljazeera is covering the events in Syria and the previous events in Egypt and Libya
What seemed like the Arabs’ first own modern weapon is now proving to be pointed right at us
May 1st, 2011, 9:27 am
syau said:
Amir in tel aviv,
I choose not to believe that you care in any way for any Syrian person, either opposition or not. And furthermore, the ones who want to achieve understanding, a social agreement, a different political structure would be called Palestinians. They are the ones robbed of their country, so if you can see Daara from your back window, that would be the window which rightfully a PALESTINIAN window.
May 1st, 2011, 9:29 am
Revlon said:
Martyr, Soldier Ghassan Abdulkareem Al3abdo was handed by his militery unit to his family in Saraqeb.
The family were told that he was killed by “the armed gangs”.
The family took a look at the body and concluded that he was executed.
They refused the participation of his commander and Syrian TV personnel in the funeral.
A case for UN fact finding mission
حركة سوريا شباب من أجل الحرية Youth Syria For Freedom
فلاش || سراقب : أهالي مجند شهيد في سراقب يطردون العميد والفرقة المرافقة لجثمان ابنهم
استشهد غسان بن عبد الكريم العبدو في درعا “على يد العصابات المسلحة” كما ادّعى العميد والفرقة التي أحضرت جثمانه إلى سراقب، لكن أهله ومن خلال كشفهم على الجثة والأخبار التي جاءت من زملائه المجندين علموا أن الأمن هم من أعدموه ميدانيا لرفضه إطلاق النار على أهله في درعا…
طرد أهالي سراقب العميد والفرقة العسكرية والتلفزيون السوري الذي جاء ليصور الجنازة ومنعوهم من المشاركة…..
..
9 minutes ago
May 1st, 2011, 9:30 am
Amir in Tel Aviv said:
Universal Subtitles.
Help spread the word to other languages.
http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/teams/al-jazeera/
.
May 1st, 2011, 9:44 am
Revlon said:
Dar3a: the security forces are setting the stage for temporary façade of normality in Dar3a, in preparation for UN fact finding mission visit.
Busloads of civilians of both genders are brought to the city.
They are to temporarily occupy houses along the main highway, that were forcefully vacated from their owners / tenents.
The scene will include sprinkling of rice and flowers, by “civilians of Dar3a” on tanks and soldiers for liberating them from the armed gangs”
The Syrian Revolution 2011 الثورة السورية ضد بشار الاسد
تنبيه هام جدا || عطفا على الخبر الذي وردنا بوصول باصات تحمل رجال و نساء يلبسون اللبس الحوراني إلى درعا وردنا أن قوى الامن تخلي المنازل على جانبي الطريق الرئيسي المؤدي إلى درعا في قرية النعيمة والطريق المؤدية إالمسجد العمري وذالك لوضع مجموعات مدنية من طرف النظام بما فيها الجنسين وذالك لتضليل الرئي العام وهيئة الأمم المتحدة وحقوق الا…نسان حيث ان هذه المجموعات ستعطي مظهراً يدل على ان هؤلاء التابعين للنظام هم أسر من أهالي درعا وسيقومون برشر الورود والأرز على الدبابات والمدرعات التي كانت بالامس تقصف كل ما يتحرك بدرعا من طفل و امرأة واخضر ويابس على ان هذه الدبابات هي التي حررت أهالي درعا من الجماعات المسلحة (هذه احدا التجارب القديمة التي أتبعها الظام السوري وحزب الله في أحداث لبنان ) وينوي النظام السوري تكرارها في درعا
نرجو من الجميع تنبيه وسائل الإعلام ومنظمات حقوق الإنسان وأهالي درعا عن هذه المسرحيةSee More
about a minute ago
May 1st, 2011, 9:50 am
syau said:
Revlon,
If people are limited to their purchases of breat at 50 Syrian Pounds, that would buy 3 packets of bread with 5 loaves of bread in each packet. As you can see, that would be more than enough to feed a family for a day. I am assuming this is happening in respons to the bulk buying of bread, -thousands of Syrian pounds by the so called
‘revolutionists’ to deprive residents of their daily bread use.
May 1st, 2011, 9:58 am
why-discuss said:
Amir in Tel aviv
“Fear is not a policy.” Who’s talking?
May 1st, 2011, 10:11 am
Alex said:
What is the real reason behind US-backed terrorists, trying to destroy Syria?
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/176776.html
Comment from US:
Press TV: Are you suggesting that the Americans want to take out China and replace these investments with American companies?
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: Or anybody, that’s right. And I think the Russians are beginning to perceive that the whole Syrian thing is a move against them and their base there.
So what we’re really doing is antagonizing two large countries: China, which has an economy that is probably better than the US because their people have jobs; and the Russians have unlimited nuclear arsenal — and so we’re starting to press very strong countries in a very reckless way. We’re behaving in a very reckless and dangerous way.
May 1st, 2011, 10:20 am
why-discuss said:
Revlon
As you are very resourceful in finding videos on Youtube, do you have any videos to corroborate this?
May 1st, 2011, 10:21 am
majedkhaldoon said:
So far US policy toward Syria is unclear,some officials are expecting this policy to change by next week,and more condemnations of Assad is certain to come.
May 1st, 2011, 10:27 am
why-discuss said:
Alex
Thanks, it’s an excellent insights on the US using the uprisings as an opportunity to kick out China and Russia from Africa and the Middle east countries.
May 1st, 2011, 10:29 am
Revlon said:
5 seriously wounded republican Guard soldiers get first aid by civilians in Dar3a.
The fact that they are in civilian hands speaks for their defection from their units
May 1st, 2011, 10:46 am
Revlon said:
#214, 216, 217, and 225 Dear Konanites,
The soldier also did not provide the size of his TV!
May 1st, 2011, 11:00 am
MOE said:
Prof Joshua,
Thanks for clarifiying the analysis source; it’s anything but academic. According to the analysis my comment here represents around 4000+ people if you include active+passive+scared.
Moe
May 1st, 2011, 11:34 am
Revlon said:
A witness swears he is telling the truth told two stories.
First, a Doctor at Teshreen Military Hospital, in Damascus, told him that most casualties of soldiers and security forces were due to disobediance. They arrive exhusted and tortured. They are mostly from 4th brigade (Maher Al Asad Republican Guards).
They try to flee the Guards at the hospital. Many escaped, while others were less fortunate.
Second, a friend of his from Dar3a told that he found 10 soldiers, at his door step, on Thursday morning. They begged him for help to pass through the security checkpoints. He provided them with civilian clothes, and drove them out of the city by a farm vehicle.
It loos like the time will come when Republican Guards are left with so many 3alawi commanding officers and no fighting soldiers!
يشهد الله على صدق كلامي واللهم حاسبني إن كنت كاذبا وعجل بهلاكي لو كنت أروي حرفا كاذبا، قال لي أحد الدكاترة الثقات في مشفى تشرين بأن أكثر من يأتي إليهم هم مصابين من قوى الجيش ورجال الأمن الذين رفضوا إطلاق النار على المعتصمين والأبرياء، وقال لي يأتون إلينا وقد أنهكهم التعذيب وأكثرهم من منسوبي الفرقة الرابع…ة التابعة لماهر الخنزير، ونقوم بعلاجهم وكثير منهم يهرب أو يحاول الهرب من الحراسات الأمنية المشددة عليهم ومن من فلح ومنهم من وقع بإيديهم.
وقد آلمني كثيرا حين روى لي صديق لي يسكن درعا بأنه استيقظ فجر الخميس وقرابة العشر جنود من الجيش يقولوا له: افتح لنا الباب الله يوفقك نحن هربانين من الفرقة الرابعة لأنهم عطونا أمر انوا نضرب أي واحد بيطلع من الحارة اللي ماسكين مراقبتها، فدخلهم وألبسهم لباس فلاحي وأركبهم طريق زراعي أوصلهم إليه ليجتازوا نقاط التفتيش وأكملوا مسافة كبيرة مشيا على الأقدام، وقد شكرتهم وأطعمتهم وقالوا لي لقد شكلنا فرار نحن وهناك غيرنا عشرات. فادعوا اخواني لهم وأن يرفع الظلم الذي نحن فيه فقد قاموا هؤلاء الشرزمة بإجبار الكثيرين على القتل وهددوهم بالقتل فقد أصبحوا كالكلاب الضالة ونسوا أن من يقتلوهم أبناء بلدهم، لقد نسوا أنهم بشر وأن الكلاب أوفى منهم فقد تركناهم يسرقون وينهبون بلادنا وهم الآن يقتلونا لأننا سكتنا عليهم، نعم لأننا سكتنا عليهم، ولكن لا مشكلة أكررها ملايين المرات لا حرية بدون دماء فدمائنا ودماء أحبتنا لن نحزن عليها مقابل حريتنا فستبقى هي دماء شهيد.
May 1st, 2011, 11:44 am
jad said:
Why Mr. Haytham Almaleh and Mm. Suhair Attasi communicate with Fida Alsayed and be part of something they don’t really know who is behind? Who is paying for all those AlThuraya phones, computers and the internet podcasting materials they are smuggling to Syria?
Regarding the illogical news in #224 and 228
– Why the army would take the refrigerator which I assume is a big container empty it and then bring it back? why the effort to bring it back, they could just take it, I think locals did that not the army for something will hear about later, FLASH: Mass grave scandal, the coming days will show.
– Who will accept to come in buses to stage a fake normal life in a city under siege and where gun shots are flying everywhere as they say, besides, don’t they need at least 5000 people to replace one neighborhood in a city of 1 million inhabitant? It doesn’t make any sense and if it does they need hundreds of buses to bring this mass of people in and how are they going to keep this thing quite with all those ‘actors’….why to stick HA story in the middle as a prove of this?
The video on 235 is not of today it’s 4-5 days old, changing the date to today wont make it a FLASH!
Isn’t there any other division in the Syrian army but the 4th division to use? It seems that the weakest soldiers are in this division, Maher need to re-establish it.
May 1st, 2011, 11:55 am
Revlon said:
Witness from Dar3a: Security forces rounded up civilians in front of 3omary Mosque.
They will be videoed while:
– Cheering for bashar Al Asad and
– While being interviewed to tell the regime’s story of “armed thugs” and “army saviors”!
13 minutes ago
For the purists of regime supporters, who are asking for corroborating YouTube videos; Please expect soon on your Syrian TV station.
The Syrian Revolution 2011 الثورة السوريةالثورة السورية || شاهد عيان من درعا في اتصاله مع قناة الجزيرة يقول ان قوات الأمن قامت بتجميع الأهالي أمام المسجد العمري .. حيث ستقوم بتصويرهم وهم يهتفون لبشار مجبرين .. وتجري مقابلات بأنهم هم طلبوا تدخل الجيش لملاحقة العصابات المسلحة ..
May 1st, 2011, 11:57 am
syau said:
Revlon,
I think the Syrian revolution is what can be likened to konanites, actually, not even that movement will have the effect of that much shaking. But I see the video you posted being shown as a fake has ruffled some feathers, anyhow, I will let you know that the video you posted in #235, does not show anything other than some people dressed in army clothes, some with what looked like fake blood spilled over them – we know how the Syrian revolution admin loves that. Anyway, who told you they were republican guards? Could it have possibly been the actor in the previous clip you uploaded- the one who also claimed to be a RG. I suppose you will just keep trying, but fake video’s can be seen for what they are.
As for #238 – Is your witness the same ones that Al jazeera/bbc/al alrabia use? Your clutching at straws, the shorter one going by your comments. Anyway, there are actually people in Daara that do want this nightmare revolution to end, they would be the ones that are not affiliated with the revolution and do not stand for lies, betrayal, violence and cold blooded murder. They know who to fear, and, know who is beginning the downward spiral of violence, that would be the so called ‘peaceful protesters’ that is why the people of Syria, including Daara want the army to intervene.
#240- You are getting desparate now, if this is true, and we will see it on Syria tv tomorrow, then that would mean that Daara is almost clear of the terrorist gangs and the people would be relieved. Lets hope that is the case. By the way, you need to let your connections know to be more on the ball and not send you old footage.
May 1st, 2011, 12:03 pm
why-discuss said:
REvlon
You earn well your name, you “make up” good stories
May 1st, 2011, 12:03 pm
Revlon said:
Demonstrations continue today May 1st. Shutting internet and disconnecting electricity and telephone services is delaying their appearance on the net
Darayya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODOYy3Uaa6Y&feature=player_embedded
Kafr Nibl, Idleb
Aslaybeh, Latakia
http://www.facebook.com/Syrian.Revolution?closeTheater=1
May 1st, 2011, 12:09 pm
jad said:
If we believe the flash news in #226 about Darreya:
تنسيقية داريا || موجة اعتقالات واسعة، المدينة محاصرة بالكامل، الاتصالات مقطوعة، الناس ممنوعون من الدخول الخروج وقد منعت سيارات الخضار من الدخول
about an hour ago •
شام : داريا : عاجل : حصار داريا بشكل كبير و قطع الاتصالات و منع سيارات الخضار اليوم من الدخول للمدينة و منع الناس من الدخول و الخروج من داريا الا ما ندر …..Top of Form
2 hours ago
How can we believe #246 that people are demonstrating?
One of those two news is incorrect, which is #226, which means that the army are letting people to demonstrate and they are not shooting at them and there is no blood? Why? Because most of them are walking nicely and peacefully.
Conclusion:
-Don’t believe all the news you read
-If you are demonstrating peacefully in Syria nobody shoot at you, they might beat you but no killing.
-I actually LOVED this demonstration because it’s very respected and have a goal (free our women).
May 1st, 2011, 12:16 pm
SIQQA said:
Is there really still someone out there who’s watching all those youtube files ?
Suppose the attention is dropping, since Al Jazeera is increasing the effort : video’s with subtitles in “”over 10 languages”. No joke.
@AJELive tweeted the following this morning :
“We’ve just posted a video from #Syria that was subtitled in over 10 languages onto our live blog: http://aje.me/mMOGrrour”
If this wasn’t all so dramatic for Syria and the Syrians, one would laugh out loud in disbelief.
May 1st, 2011, 12:17 pm
co-existence said:
#230
Amir,
Are you Palastinian or Israeli any why don’t you rise up against the occupation? It would be interesting to see how Israel will handle a “peaceful” uprising, and much more how the “free” Media will react on it.
Yes, we need reforms and change, but a peaceful change and transition of power to the people without the MB, their sponsors and their spiritual arsonist at Al Fantazeera.
We need parties and politics that can unify this great nation, rather than divide it.
May 1st, 2011, 12:19 pm
syau said:
Jad,
When someone is constantly putting up lie after lie, and, one fake video after another, they will eventually forget what is stated in previous comments. Therefore we will end up with a case of contradictive comments.
This whole ‘revolution’ was based on a lie to begin with. They were not after any reforms, they just wanted to create chaos while trying to meet their larger agenda.
May 1st, 2011, 12:25 pm
Vedat The Turk said:
REGIME DOWNFALL: A Question of When Not If
The days of the regime are numbered. They may be able to temporarily crush the demonstrations but in the long term the security aparatus lacks the ability to stop the instruments with which the demonstrators communicate (facebook, twitter etc).
May 1st, 2011, 12:32 pm
Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:
If you visit Wahhabi websites (like I do), you will understand why REVLON keeps posting these news. Wahhabis count on an American or NATO intervention in Syria to save their asses. They are flooding every website that has a comment section with their messages hoping that this will influence public opinion in their favor. This is part of the revolution. It is “media jihad.” Every news REVLON posts makes him/her closer to heaven.
May 1st, 2011, 12:32 pm
jad said:
SYAU,
I think we need to be a bit balance in our judgement; we shouldn’t dismiss any video we see as fake, I think many are actually genuine in showing bits and pieces of all this dramatic situation Syria is in today and I actually blame the regime on this vagueness in information and letting rumors to take over reality, it did badly affect the Syrian society fabric and I’m not sure how long it will take us to fix this fabric together.
I also believe that the ‘revolution’ did start with the right causes only in the first two weeks and the regime did the minimum changes that if the organizers where smart enough and accept the offer we would’ve been in a much stronger position as a society today but they didn’t, as usual of any movement led by ideology, they always want everything or they die and take all of us down with them, and that in my opinion what made this movement easy to be hijacked because of the shortsighted gangs who are using it.
May 1st, 2011, 12:46 pm
AIG said:
Who is not letting the press cover events? The regime. Therefore if anyone is surely lying it is the regime. If they have nothing to hide, why isn’t the press allowed to report freely?
The regime does not understand that the playing field has changed. It cannot control the media when many people have video cameras on their cell phones. It can only make itself look stupid and hypocritical. Isn’t it ironic that Rami Machlouf has supplied the Syrian people with the tools needed to get rid of the regime?
May 1st, 2011, 12:47 pm
Akbar Palace said:
Alex,
How many “U.S.-backed terrorists” did the Syrian government identify? How are these terrorists forcing all these Syrians to demonstrate? Why doesn’t the Syrian government allow the foreign press in to see all these terrorists?
AIG – Exactly…
May 1st, 2011, 12:50 pm
SANDRO LOEWE said:
I do not understand what is the implication of accepting the fact that some technical or economical help is coming from outside Syria. Is this bad because it comes from outside Syria or is it good because it backs the demands of unarmed people against the armed forces?
May 1st, 2011, 12:55 pm
jad said:
Apparently the west is suspicious about the ‘revolution’ news and is planning to check Syrian demonstrations from the skies to decide:
”الأقمار الصناعية” تراقب صلاة الجمعة القادمة في سورية!
قالت تقارير صحفية إن دولاً أوروبية وغربية أمرت أجهزتها بإجراء مراقبة لصيقة لحجم المشاركة الشعبية.
وأفيد بأن هناك عواصم، وتحاشيا للمعوقات على الأرض، قررت تسليط أقمارها الصناعية في اتجاه سورية، من أجل أن تتمكن من رصد التظاهرات ، بعد صلاة الجمعة في أنحاء البلاد.
May 1st, 2011, 12:58 pm
trustquest said:
Anyone who is watching the videos from Daraa of hot spots of the way the security forces moves and march in aggregate, the way they look around and their confidence walking the streets realize the lies of the regime that they are not really fighting gangs they are their to prevent demonstration and to terrorize population.
Here is a lady, relative of Syrian VP, Sharaa, speaks to reporters about Daraa.
http://bit.ly/kygEzw
May 1st, 2011, 1:04 pm
jad said:
Sandro,
Are the German (I assume that you are either German or Swiss from your name) politicians by law allowed to accept any financial or technical help coming from outside countries?
Helmut Kohl was in the middle of a huge scandal in 99 when he didn’t announce where he got large amount of money for his party from and until today he refuse to say. Why for Germans it’s forbidden and for Syrians should be allowed?
You as a westerner represent the exact mentality we the non-westerners always criticize, your policies toward the developing world have different standards than yours and you always look down at our people and our society and you think that you have the answers for everything and until the moment where you start seeing us as equal in humanity to you conflicts in the world will never end.
May 1st, 2011, 1:08 pm
N.Z. said:
Power to the people.
Government’s first duty is to defend its citizens.
IF’S and BUT’S are empty excuses, only, the lowest of low uses.
And there are many here that are blindly defending the brutality of this family run regime. In suppressing the noble few who are out to regain dignity for all, is a crime against humanity.
What did this regime accomplished ? Let us have an open debate!
May 1st, 2011, 1:16 pm
SANDRO LOEWE said:
JAD,
I am sorry but I am not understanding anything about Helmut and german laws. And I do not care what is legal or not. I just care what is for the good of freedoms and what is not. I am not defending the german law system, nor I created it no I defend it here.
I just ask to the regime followers?
The reason for delegitimation of protesters is not that their demands are not legitimate but that they receive help from outside?
The base of the argumentation is:
FACT 1 – HELP FROM OUTSIDE IS ALWAYS BAD
FACT 2 – PROTESTERS ANTI REGIME ARE HELPED FROM OUTSIDE
CONCLUSION: PROTESTERS ARE BAD SINCE THEY RECEIVE HELP FROM OUTSIDE.
For me the fact 2 is not clarely probed but even if it was then the fact 1 is absolutely false. Help coming from outside can be good or bad as a regime inside can be good or bad. Not only depending on real facts but also on the subjects that judges.
So all comentaries that point to protesters as ill minded rebels ans thugs is base on the tribal religious primitive idea that all that comes from outside is bad and all that comes from inside is pure (even toruture?). The feeling that ALL THAT COMES FROM OUTSIDE IS BAD is the same feeling that Nazis had and that Sionists
have. Also the semites arab will act as a primitive racist tribe? Egytians showed me we expect excellence between arabs and I am sure many arabs are much more proud of being arab today than before 6 months.
May 1st, 2011, 1:36 pm
Sophia said:
Jad,
Satellite pictures can actually give accurate numbers about people assembling. However, they cannot report on what is going on. Let’s say that after a friday prayer you count x persons coming out from a mosque, does it mean that they are all protesters?
Do you have a link to the info? Thanks
May 1st, 2011, 1:37 pm
jad said:
Sandro:
“HELP FROM OUTSIDE IS ALWAYS BAD” go read Syrian history to know how true is that.
“And I do not care what is legal or not” If you don’t care about law then we have no discussion to continue.
Thank you.
Sophia,
As requested 🙂
http://www.asdaaalwatan.net/print.php?news_id=3875
May 1st, 2011, 1:59 pm
SANDRO LOEWE said:
JAD,
Then your reasoning is that of all suporters of the regime. Nothing good will come from outside and anything bad inside is better than anything new from outside. In time it takes you to zero, to no nation as in the times of Hitites and Pharaos. As in the Roman, Bizantin, Omeyyad (you qere conquered by the prohet forces), Abbasid, Mameluk, Otoman and colonialist times.
See, regarding legality, nothing is legal. Not the reaction and criminality of the state nor the protesters violating the laws of the dictatorship. The main problem here is that this dictatorship is not legal from its begining so everything derived from it is not legitimate nor legal.
May 1st, 2011, 2:16 pm
Sophia said:
Thanks Jad.
May 1st, 2011, 2:26 pm
Ghassan Karam said:
I am dumb founded to find that such naive estimates are taken seriously and are deemed to be worth being highlighted.
The writer is simply using speculation and assumptions to prove what s/he is trying to prove; nonsense.
The writer is supposedly responding to an estimate which is weak in its own way that under 2% of the Syrian populace are involved in the protests and demonstrations but then he goes on a wild goose chace of making unsupportable assumptions to demonstrate that there are many sympathizers of those that are engaged in the actual demonstrations. How does he know that? well he assumes it of course.
What the writer of this totally unacceptable analysis is doing is to confuse two issues. What is at stake is not the number of sympathizers but the actual feet on the ground and to confuse one with the other is like comparing apples and oranges. A regime can stay in power even if 99% of the population is dissatisfied withit as long as 98% of these 99% are not willing to do anything about their dissatisfaction. Sadly for some and not so sadly for others the Syrian demonstrators/protesters/freedomfighters have failed, so far, to come out in large enough numbers that are usually needed for the precipitation of a radical and momentous change.
May 1st, 2011, 2:31 pm
Sophia said:
New low for Al-Jazeera. It is the only information source doubting the death of Ghaddafi’s son from Nato bombing. They have not a shred of evidence but they publish their skepticism anyway based on Lybian rebels accounts who in turn celebrate and doubt at the same time!
”Rifle fire and car horns rang out in Benghazi as news of Saturday’s attack spread. Cars whizzed by the sea front beeping their horns and shouting “God is greatest” as the night sky was lit up by red tracer fire…
…Al Jazeera’s Sue Turton, reporting from Benghazi, said there were “an awful lot” of suggestions in Libya that the news of the deaths could be fabricated.
“One of the main spokesmen for the Transitional National Council, Abdul Hafez Goga, is saying he thinks it could all be fabrication, that it may well be Gaddafi is trying to garner some sympathy,” she said.”
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/05/20115110482047680.html
May 1st, 2011, 2:35 pm
jad said:
Sandro,
You start your argument in comment 254:
“I do not understand what is the implication of accepting the fact that some technical or economical help is coming from outside Syria.”
In my reply I showed you that in political world the concept of getting money by foreigners even in Germany (and the rest of the world) is illegal and scandalous.
You came back with a comment can be summarized by Machiavelli argument that the end justifies the means and that you “do not care what is legal or not” and we the Syrians are using the Nazi arguments.
I wrote back that if we don’t have the base of LAW to build upon then our discussion is empty.
Yet, you come back accusing me of a regime supporter and that if we don’t accept the outside help in everything, by time Syria will end up back to the cave men times.
Do you see how arrogant your argument is when you want us to do whatever you/the west are suggesting with no question asked.
Thank you for proving my point of how westerner think when they discuss developing world and how standards and policies inside your countries are different when you deal with us.
Regards.
May 1st, 2011, 2:54 pm
Mina said:
Insider report by an American student who was doing some tourism around lately. I hope a few “journalists” will read it.
http://markellison.me/post/5107847279/thoughts-on-syria
May 1st, 2011, 3:08 pm
Mina said:
“Syrian Jews back al-Assad” according to Israeli newspapers
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=218586
About crossing to north Lebanon, (and coming back to Syria for some, but that’s not in the title of the article)
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/Apr/30/Syrians-continue-crossing-into-northern-Lebanon.ashx#axzz1Ky5hP800
May 1st, 2011, 3:26 pm
SANDRO LOEWE said:
JAD,
When you talk about legality in Syria is as if you talk about laws in the jungle. There is no legality since the judge is the legislator and the legislator is the force of dictatorship. Do not come to me with civilized arguments since there is no legitimacy for the juridic order under a dictatorship. You, the defenders of the dictatorship, please do not acuse democtats of Machiavelli since your boss is the most perfect follower of Machiavelli in recent history. Voltaire, the liberal and defender of freedoms, teached us that you cannot be tolerant with the intolerant, you need to be radically intolerant to keep fredoms. In the same manner when you have to face an unlegitimate dictatorship you cannot use democratic means. You need to be radically violent if necessary so the people recover his power to election and freedom. I think it is clear and you know it well.
May 1st, 2011, 3:47 pm
Shami said:
Mina,
Jack Avital s ancestors were from Syria but he is a zionist extremist ,a likudist and Asad’s advocate.
Israel has no better choice than Asad.
AIG what do you think?
May 1st, 2011, 3:53 pm
محمود said:
دول مجلس التعاون الخليجي متورطرة في سوق و قيادة قاطرة اجرام ضد أمان و اطمئنان الشعب السوري ! متحالفة مع برنامج مسعور لاسرائيل لعزل سورياعن ايران ! هؤلاء مصابون بالبلاهة السياسية ! نحن السوريون حلفاء استراتيجيون لدولة روسيا الاتحادية هل دلك يعني شيء ما لهم ! لن تتمكنوا منا ابدا ابدا ! و لاداعي لتحويل صفحة سيريا كومنت الى صفحة غالوب للاحصاء ! تدرجون تفاهات ! أما عن تحميل رؤوس نووية صاروخية اسرائيلية على متن غواصات المانية فان المانيا تزج بنفسها في عداوات ليست من مصلحة شعبها !
May 1st, 2011, 3:54 pm
Sophia said:
#266 Mina,
The guy from the US studying in Syria is an IT specialist and he has a charity teaching people how to make youtube videos with cellphones and he hasn’t been interrogated by the Mukhabarat yet! I don’t know what to say…He is either a naive or the exact opposite.
May 1st, 2011, 3:59 pm
jad said:
Sandro,
You, are arrogant for not being able to accept how wrong your first comment is.
You, are uncivilized for not accepting my civilized argument.
You, are no democrat for not recognizing that there are third, forth and fifth views other than the dictatorship and the protesters
You, are no liberal when you call for violence.
You, know nothing of what I ‘know well’
You, are obviously fake.
Regards.
May 1st, 2011, 4:06 pm
SANDRO LOEWE said:
JAD,
Sorry but this is enough. I am not the arrogant, undemocratic, violent. Please do not try to play words. You know who has been arrogant, dictator, violent, killing and torturating for the last 40 years. Stop playing with words, that´s your last card but it is fake.
Read Voltaire and you see that freedoms are kept through blood.
May 1st, 2011, 4:39 pm
jad said:
Sandro,
I’m the one who will tell you enough, not you.
When you accuse others you don’t even know of being ‘supporters of the regime’ and ‘defenders of the dictatorship’ and when you put words in their mouth they didn’t even say, for simply daring to ask you a question about an obvious flaw comment you wrote that you can’t even logically defend, then, sorry, you will get a reply, so if you can’t handle a civilized discussion then don’t write something too flaw and nobody will ask you a thing.
Now it’s enough.
Have a lovely evening 🙂
May 1st, 2011, 4:58 pm
SANDRO LOEWE said:
The falacy of the MB has been unveiled in Egypt. I hope it is unveiled one day in Syria too. Dictators have been using the fear of MB to keep their citizens and Occident accepting them as the less worse solution. But the key is that the MB grew in support just because of dictators who showed no values and created injustice and poverty in society. Dictatorship concentrated support of the MB and in return the regimes got more support from rest of the population based on fears of MB creating a muslim state. I believe that when absolutist regime (with corruption and clientelism) disappear then the MB will fit in the new society just as one more choice but not the only one. And no one has proven that they will be antidemocratic in a democratic society, specially if they reach a more fair distribution of richness and keep good diplomatic relationships like is the case in Turkey.
May 1st, 2011, 5:35 pm
Mawal95 said:
My thanks to # 202 HAZ for making a couple of good points going toward answering the question of why we don’t see any women in the demonstration marches. An additional point is that, worldwide, women on average are more supportive of political incumbents, and less supportive of political challengers, compared to men. That is demonstrated in polling statistics in every country where statistics have been collected. There’s no reason to not presume it’s the case in Syria too. I will make one additional point about it. If you asked me to think of Syrian women, I’d think of Asala Nasri (my personal favourite Syrian), Rouwaida Attieh, and various other Syrian women I’ve seen on TV. Although I’ve never been in Syria, I’m sure Syria contains plenty of women like them, and university educated women, plus a larger number with an intermediate level of education. They’re all totally absent from the protests. Now the point is that their absence in the marching videos gives you powerful visual evidence that the better-educated people of either sex are choosing to not participate in the anti-regime demonstrations.
The absence of the better-educated from the protests is another piece of evidence that the regime will not be toppled (and parenthetically I say, should not be toppled).
May 1st, 2011, 6:43 pm
why-discuss said:
Sandro
You are really naive… Where does the MB gets its financial support. Most from Wahhabis from Saudi Arabia. What is the philopshy of the Wahhabis: a country rules by the islamic law ( women with hejab and no rights, non-moslems second citizen, no freedom of religion, just like in dear Saudi Arabia)
Besides Saudi Arabia, there are other examples of Wahhabis countries : Taliban Afghanistan and Gaza, you choose what is best for Egypt!
Now the MB in Egypt is showing a sweet face but they are working on the grassroot and they are well financed and organized. They may get 50% of the seat in the parlement and possibly elect an MB president, then we may have a crisis like in Algeria in 1990.
Many christian copts I know are worried and seriously thinking of emigrating.
You can’t trust a MB. Just read their philosophy and forget their sweet talk.
The Brotherhood’s stated goal is to instill the Qur’an and Sunnah as the “sole reference point for … ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community … and state
….Its founder called for “a campaign against ostentation in dress and loose behavior”, “segregation of male and female students”, a separate curriculum for girls, and “the prohibition of dancing and other such pastimes…”[22]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood
May 1st, 2011, 6:54 pm
tarek said:
xxx
May 1st, 2011, 7:15 pm
Ali Hussain said:
To why -discuss,
I do not live in Saudi Arabia but, I have lived for a while in Syria .the Saudis are actually much more forwarding looking than the syrians , this is largely because of the rotten system that restrict and impede the talented Syrian people .
Imagine a country until few years ago you have to get permission to get a fax machine . The Saudis and Egyptians ( governments) are not like the syrians that only works via Russia , then Iran .
MB is a genuine grass roots movement , if you are sectarian or in love with the trappings of westren culture, it is your right, but do not try to impose it on others , because you will be defeated .
May 1st, 2011, 7:18 pm
tarek said:
Mejid, NK, Shami and friends,
you still have a chance ,
الداخلية: اعفاء من يسلم نفسه وعدم ملاحقته اعتبارا من اليوم
May 1st, 2011, 7:19 pm
SANDRO LOEWE said:
WHY DISCUSS
I don´t believe in MB profecy. So, do you believe that if you give freedom to parlametary election most of the syrians will vote MB? Do you really believe it? So simple minded are the syrians? Really believe there would be no other options also leaded by sunni open minded politicians? I believe in wisdom of the free peoples and the syrian people more than you, I guess. Do you think that 30 % of alawis, druze, ismailis and christian will vote MB? Do you thinks there is not some 25 % of the sunnis that would not vot or vote for other alternatives? Do you think that even if they got majority in parliament people would vote for them again if they do not solve economical basic problems. I am not naive, I am probably most realistic than most of the syrian who base their rational on fear more than on democratic politics and realities of de XXI century.
May 1st, 2011, 7:25 pm
SANDRO LOEWE said:
But at the end if most of the syrian want dictatorship because they are afraid of themselves voting in free elections then let dictatorship rule happily. At the end history shows that every population has what they deserve.
May 1st, 2011, 7:27 pm
why-discuss said:
Sandro
Maybe you’re right. Let’s see what is going to happen in Egypt as the MB are trying to get a large chunk of the parlement in September election and they may succeed as they are well organized while the others political parties are not.
We’ll see how it unfolds and if they are as ‘moderate’ and ‘tolerant’ toward other religions as they claim.
May 1st, 2011, 7:57 pm
Norman said:
Sandro,
The MB will win the first election as revenge and reaction vote to the long rule of the secular Baath party,
The question is if they lose the second election after people feel that the MB do not represent their values, will they relinquish power, I and many others doubt that.They will use their divine mission as a reason to stay.
May 1st, 2011, 8:27 pm
Jad said:
The peaceful rebels and the Iraqi future of Syria they are calling for
دعوة الى امارة كردستان سورية
May 1st, 2011, 8:47 pm
syau said:
Here is a link to an analyst who is analysing the fake ‘republican guard’ that was previously posted by revlon. Basically, he describes the differences between the real repulican guard uniforms and the fake on used in the clip revlon linked. He also states that there is no ‘post 227’ or any ‘command centre at Quassiyoon. He also goes on to expose his ‘ID’ card and metal tags as fakes and shows what the real ones look like. He does not even bother to go into what he states because that is a no brainer.
http://www.youtube.com/user/HananNoura#p/u/0/iGjowbwCTWM
By the way, Revlon, there are other links on this page, but most of them are tributes to fallen soldiers, wounded soldiers describing being ambushed with shooting comming in from all directions and admittions from some of the captured terrorists, so I dont think they will interest you very much.
May 1st, 2011, 9:19 pm
NK said:
why-discuss
I’m not sure why you’re blaming the MB for the ailments of the Egyptian/other middle eastern societies, all religion groups in the middle east are bad, every single one of them, it has nothing to do with the religions themselves, it’s just what you get when you have totalitarian repressive regimes. For instance some lovely scared-for-their-lives Copts in Egypt did this not 10 days ago
http://bit.ly/kNQFmF
Based on your logic all Muslims in Egypt should be very scared should a Copt become president, will their fears be justified ? absolutely not.
May 1st, 2011, 9:21 pm
MALI MAJNOON said:
You Agents of the Regime are a disgrace to your homeland and your fellow citizens. Where is your dignity? Where is your sense of right? When have we, the proud people of Syria, abandoned our country for the sake of a few misguided leaders?
عيب عليكم يا اخوان، عواد ما إنكاوم ضد إسرائيل عمت تقتل اخوانكم، أمهاتكم، شبابنا إلي متلل ورد! نحن شعب عظيم، يوجد من بيننا أكثر من زعيم واحد – لا يوجد فالقوم شعب متلنا ، عندكن علم أن شعب السوري ليس غبي . أوقف معنى كلكن، نحن شعب واحد
May 1st, 2011, 9:54 pm
why-discuss said:
NK
MB is a religious group with the aim of a society based on Islam and the Qoran within a rigid frame. Christian, druze and alawite have no ambition to rule the society according to holy books.
that’s why I worry that if they get the power, they may be encouraged in moving in that direction more radically. The examples of the Algeria in 1990-2002 are still present in my mind
May 1st, 2011, 10:34 pm
majedkhaldoon said:
Fox news said,
Usama bin Laden is dead.
May 1st, 2011, 10:47 pm
jad said:
الصحافي المعارض ميشال كيلو
May 1st, 2011, 11:05 pm
jad said:
The beginning of Egypt evolution toward ‘democracy’ when the religion of one person needs thousands of people to protest for sectarianism in a country of one ethnicity and two religions only….very promising future.
عقب تظاهر آلاف السلفيين المصريين أمام الكاتدرائية
الكنيسة القبطية توافق على مثول “كاميليا شحاتة” أمام النيابة لتأكيد مسيحيتها
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/05/01/147446.html
وقال المجلس إنه لاحظ في الآونة الأخيرة زيادة نبرات الاحتقان بين نسيج الأمة المصرية، وهو ما يهدد أمن واستقرار وطننا العزيز، ولا يخدم إلا أهداف أعداء هذا الوطن الذين يُسخرون كل إمكانياتهم في سبيل تحقيق أمانيهم بانهياره.
May 1st, 2011, 11:58 pm
Louai said:
SYAU
thank you for the link ,allow me to add tow more things about this ‘movie’ that ,if you run away wearing black cloths how come you are wearing the army uniform now? its pathatic and disgusting
also the guy said ,the incedent took place in Harasta ,and 250 solders and securty guirds start to shoot tword us ,we didnt hear about any victim reported from Harasta ,not even on its holiness AlJazeera
the all video is an insult to any one even to the one who fabricated it .
May 2nd, 2011, 12:12 am
jad said:
This news will boost Obama administration and a sure second term for Obama…
Here is the news on BBC:
Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden dead – Obama
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13256676
Al-Qaeda founder and leader Osama Bin Laden has been killed by US forces, President Barack Obama has said.
The al-Qaeda leader was killed in a ground operation based on US intelligence, the first lead for which emerged last August.
Mr Obama said after “a firefight” US forces took possession of his body.
Bin Laden was accused of being behind a number of atrocities, including the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001.
He was top of the US “most wanted” list.
Crowds gathered outside the White House in Washington DC, chanting “USA, USA” after the news emerged.
May 2nd, 2011, 12:16 am
Sophia said:
Jad,
Does Bin Laden’s death represent another US-Saudi deal? I am sure all this time SA must have known the whereabouts of Bin Laden.
May 2nd, 2011, 12:30 am
jad said:
Sophia,
I’m not sure, but it must have something to do with the american election and it may take Syria news to be third for a week time on the American news channels and three days on Aljazeera since it’ll announce three days mourn for him 🙂
May 2nd, 2011, 12:39 am
syau said:
Louai,
Your right, Harasta is another unnoticed point.
The Syrian government has announced that it will give anybody affiliated with these terrorist groups until 15/5/2011 to give themselves up, along with any weapons they have, and, provided they did not commit a crime – (one like the murder of innocent civilians), and they provide any further information related to the terrorist organisations, immunity will be provided to them and they will not have a jail term imposed.
To date, the army/security forces have captured 500 terrorists affiliated with the organisations promoting the violence, destabalisation and murders in Syria.
May 2nd, 2011, 12:46 am
Shami said:
Tarek and other mukhabarati people,
rami makhlouf ,maher and bashar will be changed and finish into the dustbin but be careful, If you dont resume your support to them after that the road turned for good ,it will mean that you are a corrupt soul.
May 2nd, 2011, 1:06 am
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