The Syrian war is the most documented war in history, however, videos and posts about the war contain a huge amount of lies and misinformation,that is what fighting factions do in a war especially the one we have now where information war is an essential part of the war as a whole.
Here is an example of a lie that was told on SC by few posters and was refuted by the victim’s family:
Al-Bouti family speaks out:
 ننفي بصورة جازمة الافتراء الذي روجته قناة عرفت للقاصي والداني بالكذب والافتراء، ونوضح وبكل تأكيد أن فضيلة العلامة الشهيد ليس له أبناء وبنات في تركيا ..
و ننفي أن يكون أحد من أبناء العلامة الشيهد البوطي وبناته أو أحفاده قد أدلى بأي تصريح يتهم به النظام السوري، وخاصة لقناة دأب العلامة الشهيد على التحذير من نشأتها المشبوهة وعمالتها وكذبها
من يستقرئ شبكة الانترنت يدرك من هم الذين كانوا يقيئون عبارات التهديد والوعيد للعلامة الشهيد، ومن هم الذي حرضوا على قتل العلماء، والشامتون باستشهاد العلامة.
Joshua as imperfect as he is,is today one of the most prominent Syria’s expert in the West.
The video about the Christian rebel group is humerous.

Watch who Lebanese politicians will choose as their new PM, if Hariri comes back that could very well mean that KSA has signed on a political solution for the Syrian war.

I find it amusing that Jabhat alNusra did not lead the attack on Da’el, instead there are reports about a new coalition led by Jordan and supported by the US to boost the FSA and isolate Nusra, if those reports are true we will see another war inside the Syrian war, the target this time will be Jabhat al Nusra and other Takfiri groups. The question is where is the Syrian army in the middle of this new repositioning attempts?

About time Syria Comment catches up to the Video frenzy. Good luck.

Also, Professor Landis should include the videos from the Arab Channels too regarding Syria and especially the Fatwas and those freaks.

Just saw a video on al-Arabiyah talking about the weapons the Anti Assad groups received. It is obvious that these weapons made their way to new groups, or a fighting group that was assembled for this reason.

I agree with Ghufran that al-Nusra is going to cause trouble.

It was not Allah, or his ghost soldiers that some freaks claimed had made this military gain. It was these weapons and those purchased it. Of course do not forget those who transported it.

The question here: is Jordan ready to deal with the armed Islamists? Turkey is playing with fire of course, so far they bas been channeling all of these fighters to Syria, but for how long?

The first look at the new video site is disappointing, the site DOES look like a mouth piece for rebels, I hope Joshua and the UOO do not put their good name bahind it, let me know if my observation is biased.

Ghufran, I think you are mistaken to assume that Syria Video is a “mouth piece for the rebels.” It aggregates video coming out of Syria that is posted to Youtube and sorts it by region. Most of these videos are created by activists and rebels. Most users will have their own biases and read into the videos what they believe and learn. Some may find them an indictment of the Syrian government. Others may find them an indictment of the rebels themselves.

The service is meant to make it easier to follow the progress of events in any particular area and to track particular militias.

I respect your opinion, Dr Landis, but I want you to just take a look at the videos posted by a given region, for example, Idleb, and tell me if you think the collection is mixed or even close to being balanced, it is not just the rebels and anti government people who are posting videos, pro regime people do that too, but trying to find a video that criticizes the rebels will be harder than convincing a vegetarian to eat raw meat.
I expected more from you and UOO.

Chechnyan Brigade in Syria Calling their terrorist brothers around the world to join them in Syria – 30 mins ago

Location: Aleppo-Syria-somewhere near the Turkish border

…..translation for the man speaking in Arabic:

“our brothers around the world, please join us and come here to Syria, the road is easy to get in, and I repeat again, it is easy to get inside Syria and very easy, we need you so we can fight the infidels who are RAPING OUR SISTERS.” End of translation

Raping your sisters?!!
That’s how you motivate other terrorist to join you?!!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ba9_1364786882

CHEERS

7. majedkhaldoun

‘He who lives by the sword dies by the sword’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=FWZkgvelC80

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=hwl5EebbQ4w

Happy Easter

Syria Video works with what it finds online. No one is selectively picking particular videos; both sides of the conflict should be represented in the material acquired.

As mentioned, the majority of uploaded video content on the web comes from the opposition. However, most of the material that acts in a self-incriminating fashion (for both sides) comes from videos that those parties themselves (regime forces and rebels) have captured. So it is not a given that this service would be tilted in the favor of one side merely because of an overabundance of material originating from that side.

The utility of Syria Video will be in what it provides researchers and others in making some organized sense of the mass of content constantly emerging.

Thousands of videos from Syria are uploaded each month. That a particular video that you consider important hasn’t been featured or discussed on SC does not necessarily conceal a political agenda or conspiracy.

Israeli Settlers Uprooted Palestinian Olive Trees – 58 mins ago

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e2c_1364787323

Israeli settlers with Israeli forces bulldozers uprooted around 400 olive trees belonging to a Palestinian farmer in the South Hebron hills.

An official spokesman reported that over 10,000 olive trees belonging to Palestinians were destroyed since 2011. Many of these trees were centuries old. The livelihood of many Palestinians depend on their olive trees.

[…]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e2c_1364787323

12. Matthew Barber

Are you the moderator?

If you are, can you please release my post from the spam Q?

Thanks

Rebels announced their withdrawal from a position near Raqqa blaming lack of ammunition, lack of help from FSA and actions by Nusra. A video was posted on the net.
أعلنت كتائب مقاتلة في ميليشيا الحر انسحابها من حصار اللواء 93 في الرقة وانسحابها الى الخطوط الخلفية
Mr Barber, your reply dances around the issue, if there was no selection or a deliberate attempt to take sides how come I could not find a single video about Nusra terrorist acts, those videos are all over the net, even anti regime sites have posted them. I think Joshua and UOO should distance themselves from that site if they want to stay objective, having watched Joshua over almost two years, I doubt that he was involved in this project, again do not take my word for it, just check those videos.

15. ghufran

Must be another one of their countless technical withdrawals 😀

CHEERS

I spoke about this before, Israel is the main winner of Syrian war followed by Turkey:
رام الله ـ “القدس العربي” ـ من وليد عوض ـ اكدت مصادر امنية اسرائيلية الاحد بان الخطر الذي كان متمثلا في التهديد من قبل سورية قد تلاشى، وانه لن يكون هناك اي تهديد لاسرائيل خلال العشرين السنة القادمة بحجة ان الصراع الدائر في سورية حاليا سيقود الى تقسيمها الى ثلاث دويلات.
ونقلت اذاعة الجيش الاسرائيلي الاحد عن المصادر الامنية قولها: لا تهديد علينا خلال ال 20 السنة القادمة، لان تقسيم سورية لثلاث دويلات اصبح واقعا”.
وحسب اذاعة جيش الاحتلال فان تقسيم سوريا الى ثلاث دويلات اصبحا واقعا، مشيرة الى التقييمات الاستخبارية تؤكد انشاء كانتونات كردية ودرزية وعلوية وسنية في سوريا في ظل تناقص المساحة التي يسيطر عليها النظام في المناطق السنية ومناطق الاقليات الاخرى.
وواوضحت اذاعة جيش الاحتلال ان الاجهزة الامنية في اسرائيل تجري اتصالات اقليمية على اعلى مستوى بما فيها تركيا لضمان عدم انفلات الاوضاع على الحدود في الجولان، موضحة ان لا تهديد جدي سيكون خلال العشرين سنة القادمة على امن اسرائيل من الجبهة السورية وان الجهود تتركز الان على تهديد حزب الله فقط.
وبينت ان رسائل متعددة وتطمينات وصلت تل ابيب من اجنحة مختلفة في المعارضة السورية حول مستقبل التعاون والتهديدات التي تشهدها المنطقة وافق العلاقات في المستقبل، الا ان تلك القوى لا تتمتع بقوة مقاتلي القاعدة وتاثيرهم على الارض
this is why there are so many powers opposing a political solution even if they support it on paper, a functioning state in Syria is threat to Israel and GCC pimps.

Matthew Barber obviously Syria Video is a propaganda channel for the terrorists. It doesn’t matter if that is your intent or not – it is the effect.

99.999999999% of the videos are from one side.

“The Syrian government has tried to exploit the fog of war to gain advantage over its opponents by barring foreign journalists, restricting what Syrian journalists can report, and attacking its own citizen journalists.”

Aside from the above statement being untrue it shows your bias.

Back a few months ago Josh wanted to give the terrorists advanced weapons. I don’t have time to dig up the post now but it was about giving them SAMs I believe.

Contrary to propaganda the rebels never held all of Raqqa to begin with. They can announce they hold this town or that town – film themselves and upload it and within a short time it will now be on Syria Video for the world’s journalists to reference.

It reminds me of Syria Deeply – another biased site that shows one side.

I really wish some of these Ivory Tower academics had to go live in a town the Nusra Front controlled for a few weeks. Let’s see if they could keep their heads on their shoulders in that environment – literally.

We won’t forget just how quick the Syria expert here posted Assad was living on a Russian ship. That story came from a rag like Al Arabiya who made it up out of whole cloth.

Several hours ago I heard from army sources that Raqqa was being cleansed of rats. The following report confirms this. Running out of ammo, screaming for help..

AL-RAQQAH UPDATE:

VICTORY IS ON ITS WAY INSHALLAH, AS DIVISION 17 BEGIN REGAINING CONTROL !!!

The awesome Troops from Division 17, have from two hours earlier regained control over the following Roundabouts in the City of “Al-Raqqah”, the Roundabouts “Al-Souwame’e” and “Al-Farouseh”, with our brave Troops pushing through and now arriving at the Faculty of Arts and Education Building, as they move through in an aggressive offensive to regain the City of “Al-Raqqah”, reports of distress screams could be heard from the Terrorists in the City, calling out to other Terrorists that were fleeing the attack by our awesome Army …

EVERYONE PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR WONDERFUL TROOPS AS THEY RAGE THIS BATTLE TO REGAIN THE CITY OF AL-RAQQAH, AND PURGE IT FROM THE INFESTATION OF TERRORISTS, AMEN … – J

Source: Syrian Intelligence
https://www.facebook.com/homs.news.network.english?fref=ts

If you believe the rebels,a battle to take Dayr Azzour airport is looming:
“فصل الخطاب” هو اسم المعركة القادمة التي ستستهدف مطار دير الزور من أجل تحريره من قوات الأسد، كي تشكل فصلاً بين الحق والباطل. هذا ما أعلنه الناطق الرسمي باسم الجبهة الشرقية، الإعلامي عمر ابو ليلى في حديثه لموقع 14 آذار اللبناني، الذي قال أنّ الجيش الحرّ يعدّ العدة بشكل جدّي منذ فترة لإخراج عصابة الأسد من المطار عبر خطة محكمة ومن خلال اللجوء إلى هجوم على مختلف محاور القتال المحيطة بالمطار الدولي الواقع على بعد 5 كلم شرقة المدينة، والتي يقوم بالدفاع عنه كل من اللواء 113 وكتيبة الصواريخ والدفاع الجوي.
وفي هذا الإطار، اضاف الناشط السوري ابو ليلى “أنّ الثوار سيلجأوا هذه المرة إلى استعمال الأسلحة الثقيلة والنوعية التي غنموها من معسكرات وثكنات الأسد والتي ستشكل مفاجأة، وهذا تطور في تكتيكاتهم القتالية بعد خبرة سنتين في الميدان، أنا كنت منذ يومين على جبهة المطار وعلى بعد 800 متر من سور المطار، ورأيت ما يجري بأم عينيّ. ومع اسقاط هذا المطار المدني والذي تحول الى قلعة عسكرية، تتحقق عملية التحرير الكاملة لمدينة دير الزور”. وعلى مستوى المحافظة، لم يبق لكتائب الأسد سوى ثلاث ثكنات رئيسية هي: ثكنة الطلائع، واللواء 137، ومطار دير الزور، اما ما تبقى فهو مجرد فقاعات.
وبحسب الجيش الحرّ في دير الزور، فإنّ تأخير عملية التحرير كانت ولا زالت لوجستية وبالتحديد موضوع شحّ الذخيرة التي في أيدي الجيش الحرّ. كما حاول النظام إشعال فتنة في ريف دير الزور بين بعض القرى لإشغال الجيش الحرّ عن هدفه الأساسي أي اسقاط الطاغية. ومع هذا، فقد حصلت انشقاقات بشكل مستمر بين صفوف حامية المطار، حيث شهد الأسبوع الماضي لوحده انشقاق ما يقارب الـ25 عسكري بشكل متقطع، والذين نقلوا مستوى المعنويات المتدنية تحت الصفر بين المحاصرين في المطار بعد منع الائرات مؤخراً من الهبوط والإقلاع بسبب القصف الشديد. ولا يمكن تشبيه تحرير مطار دير الزور بما حدث في تفتناز التي طالت معركتها لأيام واسابيع، بل أنّ المطار في دير الزور من المرح أن يسقط خلال أيام وربما ساعات من دون مبالغة خصوصاً أنّ حامية المطار لم تعد تشمل إلا ما بين 400 إلى 500 ضابط وصف ضابط وجندي.
I find it interesting that the rebels are speaking publically about their next target, they are either : distracting attention from real plans to attack another target or they indeed feel very confident about the outcome, the fall of Raqqa,or most of it, was not possible without the active cooperation from people inside that city, the regime may be worried that a similar scenario can be repeated elsewhere especially that there are indications the Kurds are playing nice with Turkey and the rebels.
Assad does not have enough troops to stop the rebels over all of Syria, he has to focus on what his commandors consider most important and he also may increase arms supplies to Allijan Al-shabiyyah and recruitment efforts among civilians who are willing to bear arms, expanding the war to other countries requires a green light from Russia and Iran, that also requires more troops, none of that seems to be available now.
Any way you look at it, more blood shed is likely and not the opposite.

If most of the opposition support Al-Khatib and promote him on an open free election, then he will have a chance.

Otherwise, he will remain to be a “nobody” to most Syrians.

To win an election, it requires a team work, a solid political body. Personality and charisma count only after the person gets promoted to the very front.

Right now, Syria has no such luxury to have a general free election even after the war ends. Whoever can provide security and peace will get high ticket to be the winner. If Al-Khatib does not have strong military backing, he won’t be able to make it.

On the other hand, Assad has huge advantage. Guess that is the main reason the opposition have to take down Assad before negotiation.

Assad leader of the safari camp called Syria

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=509772342392211&set=a.186824541353661.34965.182806365088812&type=1&theater

A rare and important article on Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/31/dirty-wars-terrorism-victims

We have to wonder where is the end: American think tanks make predication that due to advance of technology, weapon proliferation including WMD will be a reality and threat in the next 10 to 20 years.

Can US always make sure their technology is at least 2 generations ahead of others? What if one day that kind of technology lead is no longer a safeguard?

Imagine radicals and fundamentalists one day can have their own drones with global attacking capacity. Or miniature weaponry of size of insects are available on black market.

Solving problems facing humanity by force and technology is fundamentally doomed.

What this got to do with Syrian conflict? Everyone needs to keep it in mind: Not only US administration does not have genuine or objective mentality to get involved, but also they are impotent to truly comprehend complicit of Syrian history, culture, emotion and feelings, let alone solving the crisis.

The US Must Supply anti-Aircraft Missiles to the Syrian Opposition
by Joshua Landis
October 22, 2012
https://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=15984&cp=all

That was the non-biased Landis in Oct 2012 calling for arming the Nusra Front with SAMs. Surely a Syria expert like Landis knows any weapons provided to any fighters end up with the Nusra Front. FSA Nusra Liwa blah blah all the same terrorism.

Chavez in cartoons paradise… at least the Junta TV tells so

This is why Syrians have risen up and overcome their fear to end such an barbaric regime.

Syria Video’s pretty awesome.

*********************************

Technology can always be countered by technology. If rogue regimes like the Syrian regime begin using drones, that would be a GOOD thing because drones are easily countered by other technical advances.

The most difficult people to fight are the ones who DON’T USE ANY MODERN ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT AT ALL. They’re almost impossible to track and to counter.

The regime is losing ground because it doesn’t have enough soldiers.

In the former Syrian military, there has already been elections: the soldiers have voted with their feet.

ننفي أن يكون أحد من أبناء العلامة الشيهد البوطي وبناته أو أحفاده قد
أدلى بأي تصريح يتهم به النظام السوري

I don’t know who killed Al-Bouti, and I did not trust the regime to tell me who did. But on the other hand, if one of Al-Bouti’s nearest relatives doubts the “official” account, s/he is highly unlikely to speak up her/his mind for fear of consequences.

This week in Syria Deeply

http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=8b78e9a34ff7443ec1e8c62c6&id=3fd5475943&e=2a2d671819

Israel’s favorite Arab dictator of all is Assad
Both Assad senior and Assad junior advocated resistance against Israel. This slogan was hollow, serving the regime merely as an insurance policy against any demand for freedom and democracy.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-s-favorite-arab-dictator-of-all-is-assad-1.352468

Syrian rebel fighters blast Muslim Brotherhood for ‘delaying victory’

“We hold you responsible for delaying victory of the revolution and the fragmentation of the opposition,” the Joint Command of the Free Syrian Army said in an open letter to the Muslim Brotherhood.”

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/syrian-rebel-fighters-blast-muslim-brotherhood-for-delaying-victory

AJE Syria blog 27 minutes ago:

Fierce fighting has been taking place between government troops and the FSA in the Al-Zablatani neighbourhood in Damascus.

Tx for this ressourcefull new Website. Very appreciated, as other sites like liveleak are full of assadist trolls with multiple aliases who spam nonstop Propaganda Videos with bloodthirsty and often blatantly faked descriptions.

8. JOSHUA
By the naked eye can easily determine your reference point! you hostile towards Syrian People! the people and not the regime! You can follow any responses to play more games of destruction!! by the way where the vidios of the severed head of Sheikh, who was put on minirete! why not in your articles are?

Good John Wreford ist still in Damascus, I liked his work when I visited a gallery who sold his work in old Damascus.

A Day in Damascus

“For me the only journeys I ever take these days are around the souks and alleyways of my neighborhood. On these walks I am not only trying to get a sense of the situation, but also a bit of the reassurance that comes from seeing the market busy with shoppers and children heading off to school. I drop in on friends and get updates on the crisis. Often it’s only gossip and rumor, but there are few other reliable sources of information. I check to see what food is in the market and at what price, as there have been days when fresh food and bread have been scarce. Those are the things on my mind as I slam the heavy metal door of my house and head out into the warren of passageways tucked in a corner of the Old City between the ancient gates of Bab Touma and Bab Salam.”

http://roadsandkingdoms.com/2013/damascus/

Ghuffran @1
The Syrian war is the most documented war in history, however, videos and posts about the war contain a huge amount of lies and misinformation,that is what fighting factions do in a war especially the one we have now where information war is an essential part of the war as a whole.

I think that this new tool is created to help the khaliji illiterate,a lot of them rely on audio visual help,and this is the only way to prove that this blog is no longer academic or objective,it is Saudi Comment.

Josh,

Thank you for Syria’s video project.

Funny how regime supporters were unhappy about the video project.  You explained that no one is manually selecting the videos and that it is automatically picked and therefore it should reflect reality.  Mathew Barber further pointed out that the documentation of the crimes has usually occurred in a self-incriminating fashion where the perpetrators, full of “pride” taped themselves committing the crime, and I add to depravedly either relish on it or even sell it.  Although there were some crimes committed by the rebels, the massive numbers of atrocities and vicious crimes were committed by the regime’s thugs, so yes it will not be a balanced portray of atrocities.

I  wish this can be pre-dated to the beginning of the revolution to reflect the unaltered reality as it happened:  A savage regime committing savage crimes against its innocent people.   

I used to support Dr. Assad but now…

Professor Josh,

How about a video of your telephone conversations with your in-laws in Syria?

We’d like to get the REAL scoop about the war, and listen to what the people on the ground there really think. Or is that still risky?

الحر يسيطر على السفيرة بريف حلب
Aljazeerah news said.

Congratulations to Ann, today is april 1st, she is free to say what she wants

Majed
That character is stuck in a perpetual fool’s life. Doesn’t need a fool’s day.

41. majedkhaldoun said:

“”” Congratulations to Ann, today is april 1st, she is free to say what she wants “””

Okay Dr., here is your April fools, but remember you asked for it 😀

Syria – Formation of another christian FSA brigade 😀 😀 😀

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9b8_1364808438

Allahu Akbar .. Allahu Akbar ..

“I wish this can be pre-dated to the beginning of the revolution to reflect the unaltered reality as it happened.”

Yes it is really too bad that we don’t have video of the “peaceful demonstrators” shooting policemen and soldiers from the very start but we don’t.

The videos at Syria Video are uploaded by whom? Government supporters? The government? No, not ever. You won’t ever see the other side. You won’t see Syrian soldiers defending Syria. You will see no videos of your terrorist friends murdering al-Bouti or the more recent murder of the cleric in Aleppo.

“Although there were some crimes committed by the rebels, the massive numbers of atrocities and vicious crimes were committed by the regime’s thugs, so yes it will not be a balanced portray of atrocities.”

That isn’t what these videos show at all. Watch them again. You see pro-terrorist statements mainly and dead rats. You are not shown dead Sunnis murdered by the terrorists Tara. Ever.

I will point out that Landis and Barber are biased to the extreme and this collection of videos is like war pornography. It isn’t anything other than that.

Yes, the regime idiots expect every media outlet to be professional and objective as Tishreen. After all, that is the high standard they are used to.

In short, they are pathetic whiners.

edward dark ‏@edwardedark 15h
video: rebels using mosques as fire bases in Shiekh Maksud Aleppo, then they tell you the regime bombs mosques http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIFeGzBsTEk … #Syria

Reve,

Unfounded argument. You are a worshiper of Batta therefore your reality is altered. And what adds insult to the injury is that some may have no insight that the reality they see is altered. The regime has killed and tortured people savagely. This is an accepted fact to the whole world except those with a fake reality. What you fail to understand is that your fake reality fools you ONLY. It does not fool the rest of the world.

Tara the rest of the world? Like who? Israel? Saudi Arabia? Qatar?

Tara I don’t care about Syria Video in the way you believe. It is a self-selecting collection of pro-terrorist propaganda but let’s not get all giddy and claim it is documenting a revolution, or war crimes of Assad, because it isn’t. It is one sided. That’s all.

The Muslim Brotherhood has long been a problem in Syria Tara and if you are really Syrian you know that. Your FSA (something that isn’t a reality itself) said that the Muslim Brotherhood was holding things up. Etc. I don’t need to tell you this stuff except you tend to gloss over it.

Let’s call a spade a spade. Syria Video might as well be Nusra Video. That’s okay with me but don’t tell me it is some sort of honest and valiant project to document a civil war. Landis called for arming the Nusra Front with advanced anti-aircraft missiles without a care in the world. If that isn’t biased I don’t know what is.

In name of objectivity I have put together a video archive of all the Assad regime and Hezbollah “resistance” activities in the last 5 years: http://www.blankwebsite.com/

I am not a regime supporter and never was despite what others say about my comments and criticism of the rebels, it is the rebels behavior and the Bush approach , you are either with us or against us, taken by opposition that stopped many from supporting rebels and accepting internet jihadists’ arguments. The video project that is celebrated here by some is not worth adding to your favorites or using unless you made it a life mission to look at the Syrian war from one angle, while it may be OK for some regular people to do that, it is unacceptable for an academic institution to put its name behind this propaganda stunt, make sure the UOO knows about this, I mean no disrespect for Joshua , I appreciate his work and I like this site,but I think the video project ,as it is now, is a liability for UOO and Joshua himself:
(add @ou.edu to first 2 emails)
Catherine F. Bisho, Vice President for Public Affairs, cbishop
Sarah Soel,Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs, ssoell
publicaffairs@ou.edu
webcomm@ou.edu

This just breaking! Hezbollah disrupts natural gas flow in Israel:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-04/01/c_132275006.htm

I’ll go add that to the database.

Free Syrian Army commander praises Al Nusrah Front as ‘brothers’

Colonel Riyad al Assad, the founder of the Free Syrian Army and one of its top commanders, described the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, as “our brothers in Islam,” and commended the terror group for its prowess on the battlefield. The US government is currently supporting the Free Syrian Army with nonlethal military aid despite the fact that the Free Syrian Army backs the Al Nusrah Front and fights alongside it on the battlefield.

“We have offered martyrs and other things and, accordingly, nobody should blame us for this matter,” he said. “The Al Nusrah Front has proved that it is proficient in fighting and has treated the people very nicely.”

“They might have some ideological thoughts over which we differ, but the majority of the people are looking with admiration toward the Al Nusrah Front ,” he continued.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/03/free_syrian_army_com.php

Ghufran,

How many email campaigns did you organize against non objective Syrian sources and projects? Was it even ONE?

Sure, it is your right to complain, go ahead and do it. But is our right to ask why you did nothing for so many years in the case of Syria’s universities and media outlets.

Ghufran

Prof Landis and OU can’t distance themselves from Syria video, they created it. It is clear to me that is the latest attempt in promoting the Syrian revolution, which without any doubt has turned to a neocon + NATO + GCC projact, irrespective of how it started. Given the large number of provably faked video, no serious scolar or academician would consider posted videos as a serious source of reliable information. For some reason prof Landis switched sides some times in 2012, and became an ardent promoter of this revolution. It is just sufficient to look the selection of articles he posts. Ofcoarse prof Landis is entitled to his opinion and can write whatever he likes on a blog he owns.

SC was unique as a clearing house for information about the Syrian events. To me the comments were more valuable than the postings which became selective biased, and predictable. Given the wide spectrum of commenters, the comments covered both sides of the issue and were more useful with all the references they provided. SC has been descending steadily in quality and left the academic level long time ago. The smarstest commenters recognized that early on and left.

I am thinking of starting a new blog to act as an objective clearing house for the events in Syria. No postings but only serious comments from serious commenters respecting the other side. All commenters from both sides will be welcome, as long as they are able to critique the message while respecting the messenger. The site rules will be simple. It will not be moderated, but offending messages will be removed if voted down by the readers, and commenters will be blocked after three violating messages.

I will be in touch with Alex, since he is the only ex SCer I know how to contact. Any serious commenter interested in collaboration please contact me at zsaeed0@gmail.com. Syria deserves a better blog than SC which became a hasbara tool and a site for ranters and name callers.

This video project has already backfired on the “brains trust” that created it. It is Takfiri porn.

Top rabbis move to forbid renting homes to Arabs, say ‘racism originated in the Torah’

Dozens of Israel’s municipal chief rabbis signed on to the ruling, which comes just months after the chief rabbi of Safed initiated a call urging Jews to refrain from renting or selling apartments to non-Jews.

Syria is now the Afghanistan of the Soviet Union quagmire being played on the Iranian side.

No one really cares about the Syrian people except the Syrian people.

Some in the opposition like Khatib are being sidelined by hardliners. Just as the regime sidelined the moderates in its side like Haidar.

Khatib is right about the outcome being one “breaking bones” and in it the outcome does not matter, what matters is ongoing conflict.

Just as Khatib tried to pull the rug from under the hardliners and was actually thwarted by the lack of response of the regime; now I would say that the regime should pull the rug from under its hardline elements and declare a cease fire for at least three days and release all the women and do even more to give credibility to Khatib.

Barring this we will have Somaghanistan as the only outcome.

The regime needs to be uprooted for its deep reform is impossible without uprooting the security house of cards. However, it is clear now in my opinion that what will come may be chaos for awhile. However, I do think that the people will get it right on the long haul.

As for the videos, I would say, this is democracy of the videos. No one is preventing the pro regime elements from filming and posting.

They can give every third soldier a camera to film the actions and reactions. The only problem is that they cannot control what gets posted. Could be embarrassing for the regime.

Reve

here is something you might enjoy, could have been aired on syrian state tv

Incitement case against Safed rabbi dropped

“The State of Israel is obligated to treat all its citizens equally,” the rabbis’ statement read. “This approach is based in the Torah and the law.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4252803,00.html

Reverse,

I know you have a keen interest in the “Zionist Project”. I agree, it’s a weird country where people can vote and speak freely.

Anyway, how are things back home in Syria these days? I seriously doubt there is anything at all resembling the daily horrors we are witnessing in Zionist Occupied Palestine™.

Juergen I’ve seen your boring propaganda many times. You support murder and terrorism.

German secret service (BND) president Gerhard Schindler on Syria in an interview with Bild am Sonntag:

BamS: Al-Qaeda fighters mix with and are part of the Syrian opposition. Does that mean sometimes al-Qaeda is good, sometimes evil, in our view?

Schindler: In Syria, there are terrorist structures belonging to al-Qaida, and they have a strong inflow. There are now several thousand fighters of al-Jabhat Nusra. In the armed resistance against Assad this organization plays an increasingly important role.

BamS: What makes you so sure that Assad will lose at the end ?

Schindler: The Assad regime is in the reverse gear and will lose in the end. You can not win a war against your own people. The rebels are now about 100 000 men strong and growing. The regime, however, has constant losses and hardly finds new recruits.
BamS: How big is the risk that in Syria chemical weapons will be used?

Schindler: The Assad regime has plenty of chemical weapons. However, we currently see no signs of use of such weapons. Whether the regime in the crash phase will use these inhumane means, nobody knows.

Translated

http://www.bild.de/politik/inland/bnd/haben-bnd-agenten-die-lizenz-zum-toeten-herr-schindler-29720092.bild.html

Reve
sorry, when I did I use the words you constantly use when you call for an endgame, for an extinction of all “rats” in Assad-Syria?
You remind me of the stories people told me when I was in Sarajewo. During the siege of the city sniper positions were rented out, many Serbs living in Germany were taking weekend vacations to rent out sniper positions to kill what they called “rats”. Since I read your comments I understand that such people do exist, in every conflict. I hope words alone make you high and let you indulge in your Assadmania.

Better version of the Al Khatib interview:

The regime idiots complain as if they have not supported the repression of freedom of speech in Syria for years. Now they demand objectivity? What vile hypocrites. Go found your own site and post only there. Alex left this site because he is a coward and cannot take free debate which he cannot censor or limit.

As for all those “moderates” who are against both the regime and the rebels, please tell us what you did for 11 years against the regime before the rebellion started. If it was licking Ba’athist ass, don’t bother.

Odd the SAA has nearly 400,000 soldiers. Maybe these are the same inept Germans off the coast?

Thanks to the dedication, discipline, sacrifices and efficiency of the holy warriors of the Nusra Front, Liberated Syria is now in control of most of the oil in Syria in addition to electric power generation, as well as the bread basket of Syria.

http://www.alarabiya.net/ar/arab-and-world/syria/2013/04/01/الجيش-الحر-يسيطر-على-70-من-النفط-السوري.html

It is clear that, unlike what the manipulative US admin would like to admit, the Nusra holy warriors are the most positive element in this noble revolution of the Syrian people. However, the behaviour of the US admin is clearly meant to serve a specific agenda (the so-called Israeli security and nothing else) which is in complete contradiction to the interests of Syria and its great revolution. Anyone who badmouths the holy warriors of Nusra is acting against the interests of the Syrian revolution and is nothing but a cheap stooge of the USA. The Syrian people will exorcise ALL such stooges out of their noble revolution. Have no doubts about that.

Juergen Khatib is a Muslim Brotherhood stooge. He is of no consequence except when used – as you do – for propaganda purposes.

If you have proof he is not a Muslim Brotherhood stooge I am open to reading it.

He appears to be schizophrenic. You yourself can read his contradictory statements.

Is this all you have? Some clown from Texas who hasn’t set foot in Syria in nearly 40 years and Khatib? Good luck.

And as for those that support either the regime or Al-Nusra, they should respectively move to Iran and Waziristan where their role models live. I am sure that the academic standards there are much higher.

“69. AIG said:

And as for those that support either the regime or Al-Nusra, they should respectively move to Iran and Waziristan where their role models live. I am sure that the academic standards there are much higher.”

AIG shut up.

Syria is none of your business.

WE will support Nusra wherever we happen to be.

You’re living off MY taxes stupid.

REVE
Only 400.000? I always thought they had at least on the paper 600.000 soldiers.

I think not in the wildest dreams has this regime 400.000 soldiers ready to defend this regime.Half that number and you may get an actual amount, resignation and desertion of bataillions is a everyday issue for Syria High Command, but I assume you want to prove us, all is fine within the SAA right? How many of your 400.000 soldiers are Alawites? May be 80-100.000? I remember well many rich Damascenes were quite inventive when the draft call came to them, I am sure now families do the utmost to prevent their sons to go to war.

Honestly, no April fools joke:

Hosni Mubarak filled a lawsuit against his forced resignation and “illegal”imprisonment

http://rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20130401/266889344.html

March 2013 was the deadliest month of this revolution

Over 6000 were killed.

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/77847

Ghufran

The rebels have dumped hundred of videos to convince the international community that they were the ‘innocent’ victims of a “brutal’ dictatorship.
For the expat opposition fluent in new technology, they made it an effective propaganda weapon. With the financing of Qatar who provided the cameras, an army of Youtubers went into a frenzy of creating and posting videos.

The Syrian government and the local opposition do not have neither the sufficient technological knowledge nor the financial means to make an equivalent propaganda. No many soldiers are equipped with video cameras.
Most media repeated that the Syrian government lost the propaganda war, and that’s absolutely correct.
Yet, because many videos produced by the rebels turned out to be staged fake, over time their impact has significantly decreased.
In addition the Syrian government has reacted by encouraging the Electronic Syrian army to perform more spectacular hacking than producing videos.

Therefore videos used as propaganda have been loosing steam.
The site promoted by Joshua Landis, under the pretext or reporting the course of the war, serves two purposes: It gives Joshua Landis a personal prestige of ‘documenting” supposedly impartially a war in images. It also give the opposition produced propaganda videos an official platform.

JL and the UOO cannot deny that their sponsorship of this Website is making it a more powerful propaganda tool for the rebels, while claiming it is only an academic exercise.
I would not interested to know is financing this project at the UOO.
My position: I am ignoring its existence.

Funny and so true:

Assad will probably give a speech soon. It is a sad state of affair when you only appear on TV to prove that you are still not dead.
https://twitter.com/THE_47th/status/318702126975025154

Juergen

No need to post your anti-regime videos anymore, just send them to Matthew Barber to post on this new rebel propaganda platform.
They will be very useful for ‘academic’ research, more people wil see it and anyway anti-regime on SC are addicted to that site that boost their hopes, so they will see it there.

Here is how Syria Video will try to address criticism of bias:

1-Create an unsorted videos section. The channels selection process for this section would have more loose criterias that would allow us to add pro-government channels that don’t meet the criterias of being geo-specific/original content creator. Videos in this section will appear in the latest videos stream on the front page but not in any other specific region page.

2- I can modify the current structure to identify channels as pro-government/pro-opposition channels. The video box would show a flag that shows the possible affiliation of the content provider(channel, cameraman)

3- edit the video page where you actually watch the videos to include the complete social network of the channel. Most of the channels that we are choosing are not random people, they have twitter feeds, facebook page, google page and websites. They can be contacted and anybody can monitor their activity to determine their reliability and honesty. By adding all the links pointing to the content creator social network can provide a tool for researchers to do their own assessment of whether the content is reliable or not

4- Being more transparent by listing the criteria we use in selecting channels and adding a “Recommend a channnel” form that allows people to tell us about channel they think we should include

Visitor,

You are skating on thin ice supporting an organization designated by the US as a terrorist organization. Good luck with that.

And of course a sincere thank you to you and all Americans that support Israel. The help is very much appreciated.

Juergen aside from your opinion do you have a source for that lie? We both know you don’t or the ones you do have are so tainted they might as well have been said by Tara aka FSA Air Force or Mari “the war goes on” Goldran. I have seen idiots saying Assad was down to 20,000 men – this was 2-3 weeks ago. My 400k figure is from those in the army itself.

Why talk of Alawites when you know the army is mostly Sunni? It’s leadership is Sunni. It is a lie you tell when you ask about Alawites.

I don’t have figures on desertions/resignations. Defection numbers are very small. That I do know.

Who can blame parents for not wanting their children to die? Patriots serve in the army. Cowards don’t. That’s pretty much the same in any war.

If things were as dire as you seem to want others to believe Iran would send soldiers en masse to aid Syria.

You are biased to the extreme and this colors every word you post. You say things you know will get those who agree with you to cheer. I don’t care who agrees with me. I am not sitting here making up nonsense that a Texan named Hitto – who hasn’t been to Syria in nearly four decades – and an obscure fool like Khatib represent Syrians. You are.

Josh,

Nothing you can do short than alter or hide reality that can make the pro regime happy.

Revenire

JL has been juggling for months to decide on which side he should show himself as he does not have clear view of the outcome of this conflict.
He may think that he could always use the pretext that he is an impartial academician, but some of his posts and certainly that new propaganda platform he offered the rebels do not offer any doubts on which side he really is.
Unfortunately for him, with this last action, he is irreversibly labelled now as an confirmed anti-regime propagandist, therefore less credible on the international scene.

It is really disgusting to repeatedly see the plight and sorrow Syrians are going through to be used against them to make a sick comparison that somehow attempts at not only justifying the aggression against Palestinians but denying it.

Assads criminal behavior does not justify Israels, no matter how sadistic Assad is. To keep using Syrian lives to excuse Isreali aggressions is not a valid argument, it is akin to saying since Stalin fought against Hitler that makes him a standup guy!

Josh it doesn’t matter really. It is what it is. You know very well the videos posted are posted to collect money from Saudi Arabia/Qatar. You also know there is no way to verify any of it.

I still can’t believe you called for arming the Nusra Front with advanced anti-aircraft weapons. Okay, you didn’t name Jabhat but said the “moderate” opposition but you’re astute enough to know that any weapons sent to anyone fighting the government ends up int he hands of the Nusra Front. So the effect of giving say Idriss these weapons would be that they’d end up in the hands of the JAN terrorists.

Nor can I believe you use EA as a source. It is biased to the extreme.

Reporters have always been allowed into Syria. Not everyone but is this any different than the US banning Press TV etc? Not by much.

Hitto’s “government” will have very short life

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/algeria-voices-fears-syria-opposition-group-133058964.html#Xq386gh

Algeria’s foreign minister said Monday that any decisions taken by just one Syrian group will have a “very short life”, after the opposition coalition was handed Syria’s seat at the Arab League.

“It is up to the Syrians to decide, and any decisions coming from just one Syrian group — more than that, any decision coming from a group of Syrians which is subject to external pressures — risk having a very short life,” said Mourad Medelci, speaking on national radio.
…
Medelci on Monday reiterated Algeria’s policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations, and insisted the Arab League charter did not allow a state’s membership to be given to “something that is not a state.”

Zoo yes, I have to agree. When Landis called for giving advanced anti-aircraft weapons to the rebels back in November – well, what else can we say?

His posts showed a very anxious tendency to use sources he knew were tainted. The oft-mentioned Russian ship Assad lives on is perhaps the most egregious example but he uses Enduring America as a news source and all Enduring America does day after day is take videos and Twitter posts and turns them into “news”.

The other amusing post was the Raqqa “take over” one and the way the rebels – admitted to be from the Nusra Front – were described in a fawning manner. They were young and vital and the captured Baath men were old and tired as if men who were captured by people who cut off heads should have looked happier. It was almost like reading a romance novel. A love affair with terror we can call it.

I don’t know what Syria Comment was like years ago. I didn’t read it. I started reading it a few months ago.

Syrian Media sources say that Croatian weapons have begun to appear intensively in Syria, including rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles, in addition to developed light and middle weapons, which was smuggled to Syria especially to Daraa through Jordan after USA overseeing on the training of thousands of the fighters on using them.

…

“77. AIG said:

You are skating on thin ice supporting an organization designated by the US as a terrorist organization. Good luck with that.”

Again AIG STFU.

I am not waiting for an idiot like you to tell me which ice I’m skating on.

Remember: Syria is NONE of your business. You can have your entertainment with your idle pseudo-arguments with idiots like you, i.e. regime supporters, but you should always remember NOT to go over the top of your head.

And also you need to remember that ALL you arguments with these idiots are MOOT. A child can do much better, and the Syrians have gone way past the narrative you would like to discourse with.

National Security Brief: U.S. Lacks Legal Justification For Military Intervention In Syria

The Wall Street Journal late on Friday took an inside look at the Obama administration’s internal deliberations on what the United States should do in Syria and found that the White House appears most skeptical about getting deeply involved, particularly militarily, and the State Department pushing for a greater U.S. role. And those advocating for a military response are being confronted by administration lawyers who aren’t seeing much of a legal green light:
..
The clearest legal case could be made if the U.S. won a U.N. or NATO mandate for using force. Neither route seemed viable: Russia would veto any Security Council resolution, and NATO wasn’t interested in a new military mission.

Administration lawyers honed a third legal justification: collective self-defense, according to current and former officials involved in the deliberations. To work, however, Syria would have to attack one of its neighbors. Besides occasional errant Syrian artillery shells that veered into Turkey, Damascus kept a lid on cross-border tensions to avoid provoking a response.

Joshua

It might make easier to navigate if the embedded videos were not embedded in the sites homepage. Having many videos upload at once can cause older PC’s or those with a slow Internet connection experience a long delay in opening the homepage and for it to load properly.

This might as well help with the calls of bias since the only bias will be the actual end users choice of videos in their searching habits.

Oh and maybe a logo that is not from the 90’s. A modern camera instead of a video reel might be more relevant with todays technology.

Juergen,

Doesn’t the Syrian government have both the legal and moral right to combat terrorism?

It is a simple question.

How can people who have never been voted on lead Syria? I speak of Hitto or Khatib (or the latest puppet). There has been no election held in Syria except the government ones (and there never will be). You might not like the results, or call the elections unfair, but you don’t have the right to impose your opinion on Syria with guns provided by the West. If you do Syria will fight and kill those trying to do so. Syria will kill anyone trying to overthrow the government by force.

You talk of the army as if it was weak but it is your side that begs, on its knees, for NATO to do the job it can’t. Didn’t Khatib beg over and over for NATO to provide Patriots to protect the Nusra Front?

These questions are the kind you won’t, and can’t, answer.

Millions of Syrians support Assad. This is a fact you can’t dispute.

I second SAMI’s suggestion @1:21PM. I already made similar suggestions previously indicating that the embedded videos cause problems navigating with an iPad or a mobile phone.

It will be much appreciated if Joshua would do something about it.

I also agree with Sami. Very difficult to access SC with a mobile phone when the page is loaded with embedded videos as the page just go blank. Please turn that function off.

Tara we can’t cotton to every single thing the Nusra Front wants here. Please. You have a place for your beheading videos. You just want to CENSOR us. This is the freedom you like.

Part 3- Cyprus, Israel, Turkey, Syria: NATO and global resource diversion/control

Is the Turkish economical boom coming to an end?
Turkey posts sharp fall in growth rate for 2012

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News
Turkish economy has expanded only 2.2 percent in a year, failing to meet the lofty expectations of the government after impressive figures of 9.2 and 8.8 percent growth rates in 2010 and 2011
…
The opposition MP underlines this is the slowest growth of Turkish economy in three years. With this rate, Turkish has posted fifth fastest slowing growth among 150 developing economy, he said.The Turkish government has downgraded its 2013 growth target to 4 percent, signaling that the slowdown policy will continue throughout the year.

Reve,

You did not tell us about your visit to NYC last wk. Did you make the trip? I hope you enjoy it? NYC is anti -Batta as much as Montreal is pro savagery.

http://www.aljazeera.net/news/pages/fdc4064f-6470-4af7-a538-fb6b6a59a38e?GoogleStatID=1
الثوار يقتربون من أكبر معامل تصنيع الذخيرة بسوريا

الحر يسيطر على السفيرة بريف حلب

واصل الجيش السوري الحر تقدمه في ريف حلب، وسيطر على مدينة السفيرة، بعد أن تراجعت قوات النظام إلى منطقة معامل الدفاع التي تعد من أكبر معامل تصنيع الذخيرة في سوريا. وقد أصبحت معامل الدفاع هدفاً لقوات المعارضة، بعد أن قطعت خطوط الإمداد عن الجيش النظامي.

في غضون ذلك أفادت شبكة شام السورية بأن 15 شخصا قتلوا في قرية مدايا بريف إدلب، وأن أربع جثث عثر عليها بريف دمشق، في حين قالت الهيئة العامة للثورة إن قوات النظام قصفت أحياء بجنوبي دمشق، وأطلقت صاروخين من طراز سكود باتجاه شمالي البلاد.

وقالت شبكة شام إن 15 شخصا سقطوا قتلى في قرية مدايا بريف إدلب، موضحة أن 11 من بينهم ينتمون إلى عائلة واحدة. كما أفادت بأنه عثر على جثث أربعة أشخاص أعدموا ميدانيا على يد حاجز حي سيدي مقداد في بلدة ببيلا بريف دمشق. كما قتل تسعة أشخاص اليوم معظمهم في درعا وحلب، بحسب الشبكة السورية لحقوق الإنسان.
من جانبها أفادت الهيئة العامة للثورة بأن قوات النظام قصفت حيي الحجر الأسود ومخيم اليرموك في جنوبي العاصمة دمشق، وأن القصف بالمدفعية تركز أيضا على مدينة داريا التي شهدت اشتباكات بين قوات النظام والجيش الحر.

وفي هذه الأثناء، اندلعت اشتباكات عنيفة فجر اليوم في بلدة البحدلية بريف دمشق سبقها قصف شنته قوات النظام بالمدفعية وراجمات الصواريخ وصل إلى بلدة الذيابية المجاورة ومسرابا. وتعرضت بلدتا عربين وكفر بطنا في ريف دمشق لقصف عنيف من قبل قوات النظام، مما أدى إلى سقوط ضحايا بينهم أطفال ونساء.

اشتباكات بين الجيشين الحر والنظامي في أحياء بدمشق (الجزيرة)
اشتباكات
وتدور اشتباكات بين الجيش الحر والقوات النظامية قرب سوق الهال في الزبلطاني بدمشق. كما تشن قوات النظام حملات دهم للمنازل في أحياء كفرسوسة والميدان بدمشق وسط انتشار أمني كثيف، حسب شبكة شام.

كما وثقت عدسة مراسل شبكة شام في مدينة دير الزور اشتباكات بين الجيش الحر وقوات النظام بالقرب من كتيبة الصواريخ بمدينة دير الزور، في حين دارت اشتباكات في محيط مطاري حلب الدولي والنيرب العسكري في حلب بين الجيش الحر وقوات النظام، حسب نفس الشبكة.

ومن ناحية أخرى، أفادت لجان التنسيق المحلية بأن قوات النظام السوري أطلقت صاروخين من طراز سكود باتجاه شمالي البلاد من اللواء 155 في بلدة القطيفة بريف دمشق. وقد أطلق الأول فجر اليوم في حين أطلق الثاني بعد ساعات من ذلك.

مطار حلب
وفي حلب ذكر ناشطون أن مقاتلين من لواء التوحيد وألوية أخرى قصفوا مطار حلب الدولي المحاصر منذ شهور بمدافع الهاون والصواريخ.

من جهته، قال قائد المجلس الثوري في حلب العقيد عبد الجبار العكيدي للجزيرة إن الثوار يسعون للسيطرة على المطار قريبا، مؤكدا سحب كبار الضباط من المطار.

ويحاصر الثوار أيضا منذ شهور مطار النيرب العسكري القريب من مطار حلب، والذي قصفت القوات النظامية انطلاقا منه الأحد حيَّ كرم الطرّاب وفقا لمركز حلب الإعلامي.
[…]

Tara if you are coming onto me again the answer is still no. Don’t try to pry into my personal life.

Published on Mar 31, 2013
“With Your Soul You Protect the Jasmine”
~ Syrian First Lady Asmaa al-Assad
~ on the occasion of Mother’s Day, 21st March 2013
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Syrian first lady Asmaa al-Assad held a reception on the occasion of Mother’s Day, 21st March 2013, to show the gratitude of all Syrians to over 5,000 Syrian mothers whom each of them sent all of her sons to defend the country in the face of an unprecedented NATO and stooges alliance with all evil forces on the planet including Al Qaeda terrorists to destroy Syria, the mother of all mothers.
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First Subtitled & Published by https://www.youtube.com/user/3arabiSouri
…thank you…
~
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDaAx3…
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Recorded from Syrian National Television
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Reloaded by SyrianFreePress.net Network
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http://www.syrianfreepress.net/
http://syrianfreepress.wordpress.com/
http://www.tg24siria.com/
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and associated web spaces

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Published on Apr 1, 2013
2013. Syrian Arab Army – the pride and dignity of Syria.
2013. Сирийская Арабская Армия – гордость и достоинство Сирии.

Reve,

Not really. I have no interest in you. I would tell you if I like you. I don’t.

Reve

For the record, there hasnt been any election in Syria for the past 40 years who could be described to fulfill any lowest democratic measures. I may remind you of the “support” rallies which were summoned to take place in every factory, every higher school and even in the prisons prior to the paper folding ceremonies, which you discribe as elections. Yet the word alone is an joke in Syria. In my opinion, and I am surely not alone in this, Assad had the best chances to even win an “democratic” election prior to the regime handling of the uprising. By declaring millions of people as terrorists and legitimate targets for the army or the loyalist shabiha militia is as cruel and mischievous as this regime is known for.

Do you think Assad let the command of the Army to be in the hands of Sunni generals at this stage ? All leading Sunnis are under surveillance, I know that the whole family of Al Sharaa is treated this way. Assad and the regime know all to well , they can not win this, there is nothing to win also only much more to destroy.

The (Media) Crisis in Syria

Reviewing the volume of fabricated news over the past two years, one couldn’t miss the magnitude of disinformation on both sides. However, it is still not the most noteworthy media transformation in Syria today. It gets much worse.

http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/15323

76. JOSHUA

Dear Mr. Landis:

Yes, please create a list of TV channels, newspapers, etc. and identify them either pro-Iran/Wilayat al-Faqih, or pro-Freedom (the Syrian Revolution).

As an observation, the recent posts on this blog are counter-revolution and pro-Bashar’s bloody war crimes.

When you post any articles for Mr. Ayman al-Tamimi, please accompany the post with a disclaimer that “Syria Comment” does not endorse the Islamophobic and pro-Israel positions of Daniel Pipe’s “Middle East Forum,” for which Mr. al-Tamimi is a fellow.

Thanks,

Dawoud

103. ZIAD

al-Akhbar Newspaper is Lebanon’s pro-Hizb@@s/pro-Iran/pro-Syrian dictator/pro-Wilayat al-faqih. It is a propaganda machine, not a real objective journalistic “newspaper!”

See why Max Blumenthal resigned from al-Akhbar:

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1480&Itemid=74&jumival=8493

Max Blumenthal Resigns Al Akhbar Over Syria Coverage

Max Blumenthal discusses his article, “The right to resist is universal: A farewell to Al Akhbar and Assad’s apologists” – June 22, 2012
PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay, coming to you from Baltimore.

Max Blumenthal, a well-known author, journalist, and regular contributor to The Real News Network, was also a staffer at the newspaper Al-Akhbar. Well, yesterday he resigned. And he wrote a letter, and the title of the article or letter of resignation is “The right to resist is universal: A farewell to Al Akhbar and Assad’s apologists”. Now joining us to talk about why he quit Al-Akhbar is Max Blumenthal. Thanks for joining us, Max.

MAX BLUMENTHAL, AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST: Thanks for having me.

JAY: So what’s—tell us the moment you were in. What kind of was the decision-making moment for you to quit Al-Akhbar? It’s—Al-Akhbar is known as a fairly progressive newspaper, especially coming from the Arab world. It’s not one of these sort of government publications or broadcasters that seems to dominate most of the Arab world. Why did you quit?

BLUMENTHAL: Well, I had noticed—I started really paying attention to the coverage closely on the website, and mainly the opinions following the Houla massacre, which was by all accounts carried out by shabiha affiliated with the Assad regime, to the embarrassment of the Assad regime. But, I mean, it was part of their campaign of suppression inside Syria, to crush what I consider to be a legitimate attempt at removing a dictator. And I noticed the opinions in favor of Assad had grown more strident on the website.

This is a point where, by all accounts, the Assad regime had killed as many as 10,000 people in order to remain in power, possibly 13,000, according to people I know inside Syria who’ve come out. I’ve done extensive interviews and during the past few weeks, partly prompted by my anguish about my own position as a staffer at Al-Akhbar.

The Assad regime was running an institution of torture in prisons. Possibly 100,000 people are in prison right now. And this makes Israel look like, you know, a champion of human rights.

And at the same time, while there were dissident voices at the paper, while there were still some great writers and some really humanistic people working at Al-Akhbar, I noticed that it was publishing op-eds by people like Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, who were just openly apologetic of the Assad regime, if not cheerleading Assad as this kind of subaltern freedom fighter leading what she called a front-line resisting state, or Sharmine Narwani, the blogger who was nickel-and-diming civilian casualty counts, who was blaming the victims of the Assad regime and who was attacking the international press corps for attempting to gain access to the scene of the Assad regime’s crimes, which reminded me of the Israeli government during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza when they banned reporters from Gaza.

This just was really too much for me. And I’d always felt like Al-Akhbar was the most courageous—one of the most courageous publications in the Arab world, certainly the freest—gave me more latitude than any paper in the United States to write about Palestine, to write about Israel and Palestine, and still remains, in some respects, a valuable publication on a lot of issues, like, for example, the abuse of domestic workers inside Lebanon, which is a plague and very few other publications report on
[…]

Visitor,

Why don’t you organize a demonstration to support Al-Nusra in the US? That would be fun. I am sure many Americans of Syrian heritage will join you.

Did you write your US congress representative asking the US to support Al-Nusra? If not, why not?

You are just the flip side of the regime idiots. Between you and them, nothing will be left of Syria unless people like Tara call the shots.

Sami,

You are using straw-man arguments. Nobody is using what is happening in Syria to justify anything that is happening to the Palestinians. What AP points out often is that the outrage for an Arab killed by Jews is about 100 times that of the outrage to an Arab killed by other Arabs and both he and I wonder why that is the case. If Israel were killing per day the number of Arabs that Assad kills per day, there would be mass demonstrations in the Arab world and storming of embassies. There would be mass demonstrations in front of the UN and in many Western cities. But 70,000 Syrian dead and counting? By and large, most Arabs just continue as if nothing serious is happening. When was the last mass demonstration, I must have missed it?

Yeah AIG.

I wrote several letters including a letter to Obama himself.

So, as you can see I am not waiting for an idiot like you to tell me what to do.

It is also clear that the few tricks you have up your sleeves have all been exposed. You can play on others egos but it won’t work with Syrians.

You are an OUTSIDER and a very bad one for that matter.

So get lost buffoon.

Nusra is calling the shots.

Visitor,

You say:
“I wrote several letters including a letter to Obama himself.”

Good for you, now you are on all the FBI lists. If you actually sent the letters, then you are really dumb.

“Nusra is calling the shots.”
That is true unfortunately. It is also bad news for post Assad Syria.

….

“For the record, there hasnt been any election in Syria for the past 40 years who could be described to fulfill any lowest democratic measures.”

For who’s record? You live in Germany and have nothing at all to say about Syrian elections. Who elected Hitto? Khatib or the stooge before him? Qatar? KSA? Certainly not Syrians.

“Do you think Assad let the command of the Army to be in the hands of Sunni generals at this stage?”

The head of the SAA is Sunni. Most of the army is Sunni. You are really off base Juergen. It is ridiculous and laughable.

What is the source of your blathering? And if it is some Western rag spare me.

Assad would take an absolute majority of the vote in any election held today. You, and your biased friends, don’t like Assad – so what?

The rest of your comment is more of the same empty rhetoric we’ve come to expect from you.

The sight of a Nusra Front boy begging Obama for help made my day.

Thank you Visitor.

“Visitor,

Good for you, now you are on all the FBI lists. If you actually sent the letters, then you are really dumb.”

You are a real idiot. I am in several US airports almost every week.

You go converse with like-minded idiots fool.

Visitor,

You are a short tempered jihadist and a supporter of a US declared terrorist organization. Not to mention that you have not yet decided if you want Sharia in the US even though that is clearly against the US constitution. Have you thought about joining Al-Nusra? Why don’t you do that? Why don’t you start the Al-Nusra chapter in the US?

How can we believe that the Gulf remains safe from upheavals that have shaken the Arab world over the past two years?

Beyond the debate created by Qatari investments, tensions whose epicenter is Bahrain are indicative of a future earthquake to come.

The capacity of countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar) to continue their long-term international expansion is uncertain.

Behind their financial clout the signs of the disruption of an economic rentier model can be seen in the energy, employment and tax crisis they are facing.
…
How can we believe that the Gulf remains safe from upheavals that have shaken the Arab world over the past two years?

http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2013/04/01/la-crise-larvee-des-pays-du-golfe_3151438_3232.html

Hugo Micheron (Spécialiste du Moyen-Orient, diplômé du King’s College de Londres et de Sciences Po Aix)

Visitor would be thrown into an American prison so fast his little head would spin if he acted this way in public. He’s one of those Internet trolls we hear about. I bet he’s really Israeli.

“I am in several US airports almost every week.”

Works for the TSA?

Zoo,

I thought Le Monde is a biased newspaper according to you. Why are you posting things from there? Do you also accept and post the tens of anti-Assad articles printed there? If not, why not?

In order to fight Israel’s propaganda, please share the following article with as many people as possible:

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/passover/israeli-crackdown-on-palestinian-mobility-began-well-before-suicide-bombings.premium-1.512752

Israeli crackdown on Palestinian mobility began well before suicide bombings

Most Israelis labor under the misconception that restrictions on Palestinian movement were a result of suicide bombings, but they started long before that.

Dawoud,

Thanks for posting an article from an Israeli paper thus demonstrating the freedom of speech and the ability we have in Israel to criticize ourselves and our government.

Can you point out to me your successes in allowing freedom of speech in Syria in the 11 years Assad was in power? What did you do to advance freedom of speech in Syria?

Earn Money in your Free Time NewZ

What AP points out often is that the outrage for an Arab killed by Jews is about 100 times that of the outrage to an Arab killed by other Arabs and both he and I wonder why that is the case.

I’ll give somebody $50 if they can answer that question for me.

Maybe Norman Finkelstein has an answer. He has a Phd.

120. AIG

Your Welcome! Surprisingly (to you), I agree with you! However, and that’s where I strongly disagree with you, Israel has great freedoms only as far as Jews (Israeli Arabs and Occupied Palestinians excluded) are concerned. In fact, all news about the Israeli broadly-defined/expansive “security” news (including most news about Israel’s racist wars in Palestine) are subject to military censorship! Didn’t you read last month about the Mossad spy, who was Australian, who was jailed and killed by the Israeli government. Israeli papers were banned from covering the news for weeks!

Now, please check human rights watch and millions of global organization that track freedom of speech and journalism. You will see millions of cases where Palestinians in Occupied Jerusalem and Palestine who were jailed and their newspapers/blogs censured and blocked by Israeli. When I spent some time working in occupied Jerusalem, I can’t count how many times the Arabic daily al-Qud’s was published with the editorial section covered with “We are sorry” because the racist/fascist Israeli occupation authorities did not allow this newspaper and Palestinians from expressing their views about Israeli racism, ethnic cleansing (forcing Palestinians out of Jerusalem and preventing Palestinians from reaching al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem), and occupation!

Wake up!

Hey regime idiots, simple question for you. If Assad is so sure he could be elected, why didn’t he allow freedom of speech and free elections during the 11 years he was in power? Is that the way a man who is so sure of winning elections acts? Why was he and still is afraid of freedom of speech and free elections?

It is such a simple question, but I don’t expect any intelligent answer.

Dawoud,

What do you mean you agree with me? What have you done for freedom of speech in Syria? Kindly tell us.

As for censorship in Israel, the only thing that is censored are security related information. Opinions are NEVER censored. You can rant in any paper or web site as much as you want about racism or whatever in Israel. Israel does not block ANY web site from anywhere in the world. You can even deny the Holocaust in Israel without any legal repercussions.

What you write about Palestinian blogs and Al-Quds is just false. They can publish any opinion they want wherever in the world they want and Israel does not take ANY blog down or block it in Israel.

More insight into Moaz al-Khatib’s thinking

(Source: https://www.facebook.com/hassansquared/posts/10152695991630537)

Reasons cited by Syria’s Moaz Khatib for the disunity of the opposition, which he says can prevent the country from lapsing into chaos if united:

There is mutual cynicism among Syrians towards each other, many people are getting to know one another. Opportunism among some individuals, in all honesty.

Regional and international interferences also prevent the opposition from unity. Some outsiders have “shops” within the opposition. Some receive salaries from outside & now speak for the opposition, cursing this and labeling that as traitor.

There is also the culture of takhween (labeling one as traitor), which is a product from Baathists.

Great interview here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFdufJlnBw4&feature=youtu.be

Mental Blocks isn’t just a Child’s Game

Now, please check human rights…

Dawoud,

I did check human rights listings, and if you check under ME, Israel is the only country with a green line (aka: “free”).

Maybe you’re reading something else.

journalism.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_in_the_World

ann @13

jews destroying olive trees is understandable.

olive trees have memory and know these jews are nothing but alien monsters. they have no connection or right to the land of palestine. no connection to land anywhere.

these jews are getting rid of evidence, getting rid of a superior life form.

10,000 trees murdered since 2011 is an undercounting. again, understandable. these jews fear not only memory and morality. they fear truth above all.

to AIG (p.s., Mr or Ms. AIG: stop pretending that you oppose Bashar’s war crimes while apologizing and denying Israeli occupation and war crimes. True freedom-lovers, like me, support freedom both in Palestine and Syria!).

Just one example of a million I can cite:
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/censorship-haaretz-deletes-amira-hass-article-surging-settler-violence

Censorship? Haaretz deletes Amira Hass article on surging settler violence

Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Fri, 07/20/2012 – 17:09

Update: 21 July 2012

As of today, the deleted article has been restored to the Haaretz website, at a new url: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-anti-semitism-that-goes-unreported-1.452594

Original post

Israel’s Haaretz has mysteriously deleted a powerful article by Amira Hass headlined “The anti-Semitism that goes unreported,” about an unchecked upsurge in violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers.

This is at least the second notable act of apparent censorship by Haaretz in recent months. In December, as we reported, the newspaper expunged from its website an article by David Sheen on a horrifying anti-African rally in Tel Aviv.

Hass’ article, originally published on 18 July, likened the alarming increase in settler attacks to the period leading up to the 1994 settler massacre of Palestinians in Hebron:

For the human rights organization Al-Haq, the escalation is reminiscent of what happened in 1993-1994, when they warned that the increasing violence, combined with the authorities’ failure to take action, would lead to mass casualties. And then Dr. Baruch Goldstein of Kiryat Arba came along and gunned down 29 Muslim worshipers at the Ibrahim Mosque.

Hass is one of Haaretz’s best known writers, renowned internationally for documenting Israeli human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Article disappears

The Hebrew version of Hass’ article still appears on the newspaper’s Hebrew language website. It is the English version that is gone.

An image of the now deleted English version can still be seen via Google Cache (above).

However, the original url for the article now redirects to an unrelated page: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-anti-semitism-that-goes-unreported-1.394279.

A search of Haaretz archive for articles by Amira Hass indicates that as of today, her most recent article was from 16 July. The 18 July article is nowhere to be found.

Ironically the url originally leading to Hass’ article now links to one by a man subtitled “Women, don’t be suckers; The protest’s female voice is not being heard.” Hass is one of Haaretz’s few prominent female writers, and apparently her voice cannot be heard.

Full text of censored article

Luckily, The Electronic Intifada captured the text of the article Haaretz didn’t want you to read. Here it is in full:

Amira Hass: The anti-Semitism that goes unreported

18 July 2012
By Amira Hass, Haaretz – 18 July 2012
Tens of thousands of people live in the shadow of terror

Here’s a statistic that you won’t see in research on anti-Semitism, no matter how meticulous the study is. In the first six months of the year, 154 anti-Semitic assaults have been recorded
[…]

Moaz al-Khatib – a grown up taking a stand and trying to rid the playground of Mean Girls and bullying acts so everyone can get on with what matters.

BRICS warns against militarising Syria conflict further

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/brics-warns-against-militarising-syria-conflict-further-347420

At the same time, the BRICS declaration in Durban says, “A Syrian-led political process leading to a transition can be achieved only through broad national dialogue that meets the legitimate aspirations of all sections of Syrian society and respect for Syrian independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

Moaz al-Khatib – a puppet begging NATO to do the job his terrorist friends, and Muslim Brotherhood backers, can’t do alone.

Oh God not Hassan Hassan again.

DAWOUD,

What example are you giving since the article has been restored?
That is not an example. Try harder. Plus, the article could be read in Israel even when it was not on the Ha’aretz site in English because Israel does not block Abu-Nimah site. There is no censorship of opinion in Israel.
And why do you think it is the government telling Ha’aretz what to do? It looks like just some problems on Ha’aretz site that were then taken care of. Abu Nimah did not even bother to ask them.

You say you are for freedom of speech, so I ask again: What have you done in the last 11 years to improve freedom of speech in Syria?

Moaz al-Khatib – someone who really bothers the Assadists who can’t come up with any substantial dismissal of him just silly stuff.

Watch out, he’s outmanoeuvering.

The part that I look forward to is his live TV debate with Bashar Assad.

10,000 Olive Trees bit the Dust in Zionist Occupied Palestine ALERT

10,000 trees murdered since 2011…

AIG,

Not only are Jews killing arabs much more important than arabs killing arabs, but now it’s jews killing trees is more important than arabs killing arabs.

Pretty soon, it will be jews killing chickens or jews setting up, G-d forbid, a wall or a roadblock.

Meanshile, 6000 Syrians were killed this past MONTH. More than all those killed by Israel in the past TEN YEARS in a Palestinian declared state of war.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4362704,00.html

#123 SL

Al Khatib can talk and preach in perfect literary arabic but he won’t dare take any consistent action or stand on any of his political declarations.
His silence about the postponement of his ‘resignation’ that has been announced by the USA and his silence on Hitto”s rejection by his ‘friends’ the FSA indicate that the guy is increasingly isolated, weak and incoherent.
I know there is no one else in the opposition you can bet on, but don’t bet on too much on Al Khatib his record up to date is not reassuring. You may loose big.

Algeria Says Syria Opposition Group’s Decisions Will be Futile

Algeria’s foreign minister said Monday that any decisions taken by just one Syrian group will have a “very short life”, after the opposition coalition was handed Syria’s seat at the Arab League.

“It is up to the Syrians to decide, and any decisions coming from just one Syrian group — more than that, any decision coming from a group of Syrians which is subject to external pressures — risk having a very short life,” said Mourad Medelci, speaking on national radio.

He did not elaborate on those external pressures.

Last week in Doha, on Qatar’s initiative and despite the reservations of Algeria and Iraq, the pan-Arab bloc handed Syria’s empty seat to the opposition coalition, whose chief Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib addressed Arab leaders.

Syria’s Arab League membership was suspended in November 2011 amid a brutal regime crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising that spiraled into a civil war which the United Nations estimates has killed more than 70,000 people.

Medelci on Monday reiterated Algeria’s policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations, and insisted the Arab League charter did not allow a state’s membership to be given to “something that is not a state.”

SourceAgence France Presse

The Kurds, in a sudden flip, gave Sheikh Masoud to the rebels. Was it the fear of having it destroyed when the rebels threatened to take it by force or a strategic realignement of the P.Y.D militias against the Syrian army?

The Kurdish Factor

http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/could-syrias-kurds-change-the-course-of-the-civil-war/

It remains to be seen whether the Kurds’ newfound cooperation with the rebels in Aleppo is part of a larger realignment by the P.Y.D. But if over the weeks ahead government forces are pushed out of their remaining bases in Kurdish areas, like oil-rich Hasakah in the northeast, then the fall of Sheikh Maksoud on Friday will have marked the beginning of a dramatic shift in Syria’s civil war.

LATAKIA:

BELGIAN TERRORIST RAT KILLED ALONG WITH LITTER-MATES

Syrian Army destroys cell of rodent killers at GHNAYMIYYA in Latakia Governorate. Of the killed, one was a miserable little Belgian skunk by the name of:

AHMAD STEVENBERG (I kid you not. Belgian citizen who will not be going back)
Nour Muhammad Al-Sharbeen (Egyptian crud)
Uthmaan Al-Noubi (Egyptian fungus)
Saleem Baazeed
Mu’tazz Khamees

Al-Sukkariyya: Alert police and SAA kill the following rat droppings:

‘Umar Hassan Hussaynu
Another Libyan was also killed. He was identified as such by the 12 rats who surrendered.

Jabhat Al-Nusra creamed at Waadi Shikhaan. The so-called Zayd Bin Haaritha Battalion (yawn) was routed, crushed and pulverized as its members walked straight into an ambush artistically set by the SAA.
Wael’s list contains only one Syrian, the other 16 dead rats are foreigners who facial features looked like Chechens.

Diyaab Barakaat Jaa’ooni (Wael says Jaa’ooni studied in Russia which is why he was chosen to accompany these wasted carcasses)

At ‘Urwa Al-Sarmeeni, the following hog droppings were collected:

Talee’ Mansoor
“Abi Ahmad Al-Homsi” (id pending)

http://syrianperspective.blogspot.com/2013/04/first-post-april-1-2013-syrian-army.html

Syria’s Civil War: The Mystery Behind a Deadly Chemical Attack
By Aryn Baker
April 01, 2013

In August rebel forces took Sabbagh’s factory by force, as part of a sweep that also netted them an electricity station and a military airport about 30 km from Aleppo. Sabbagh, who has since fled Aleppo for Beirut, says that his factory is now occupied by Jabhat al-Nusra, a militant group with strong ties to al Qaeda that has been designated a terror group by the U.S. He knows this because his site manager has struck a deal with the rebels – they supply 200 liters of fuel a day to keep the generator running so that the valves of his $25 million factory don’t freeze up. The factory isn’t operational anymore, but this way at least, says Sabbagh, it might be one day in the future. In the meantime he has no idea what has happened, if anything, to the 400 or so steel barrels of chlorine gas he had stored in the compound. The yellow tanks, which hold one ton of gas each, are used for purifying municipal water supplies. “No one can know for certain, but if it turns out chlorine gas was used in the attack, then the first possibility is that it was mine. There is no other factory in Syria that can make this gas, and now it is under opposition control,” he says.
(…)
http://world.time.com/2013/04/01/syrias-civil-war-the-mystery-behind-a-deadly-chemical-attack/?xid=rss-topstories

Odd:

“PYD ‏@pydinfo 9h
Rumours of cooperation between YPG and FSA in Şêx Meqsûd are false.
#TwitterKurds #Syria”

This was supposed to be Ghaddafis yacht, a 333m long, 500 million Euro expensive cruise ship which could have hosted 4000 people and over 700 staff members. Ghaddafis son Hanibal was in charge to build this modest ship for the private pleasure of the Ghaddafi clan. The ship was supposed to be named „Phoenicia”, its now part of the italian cruise company MSC and was named: “Preziosa”. To bad for Ghaddafi that the Arab spring knocked at his door.

AIG,

More Frenchmen died during te French Civil war than during the Nazi invasion of France, does that make the any less wrong or the atrocities committed any less outrageous?

Civil wars are the worst kind of wars for it turns neighbors against each other, you cannot compare the death toll in a civil war with one of a war of aggression. It is a morally bankrupt argument to make.

And I as someone who has lost people in this revolution find it disgustingly low to have my loved ones who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country used in a way to humiliate them for their sacrifice should not be used as a tool for oppression.

I find AP’s rhetoric arrogant and full of self serving hubris, using Syian deaths as arsenal to win an argument is crossing the line and callously so.

CNN Interview with Bassem Youssef

Before Mina and others would say, told you so… Under Mubarak such a show would also brought “reflection time” for those responsible.

Amanpour reads out Morsis office statement: The public prosecutor operates independently and that he President Morsi respects free speech.

Youssef: “This is exactly the same reference we heard from the exregime.The expresident Mubarak never put someone directly in an investigation. Other people who were great supporters of the regime did that for him. And he would come at the end and showed his grace and released them.”

134. Syrialover said:

Moaz al-Khatib – someone who really bothers the Assadists

The part that I look forward to is his live TV debate with Bashar Assad.

 
Assad will not be in televised debates, he will be dragged through the streets by a pickup truck.

Bashar isn’t merely winding down his political career here, but his breathing career as well.

Sami,

AP made the same point for years on this blog before the civil war in Syria started. A point by the way that you still have not answered. He is just using the death tolls to expound on his original point: Why the huge degree of difference in outrage between the case a Jews kills an Arab and an Arab kills an Arab?

And again, no one is saying that any of this justifies anything done to the Palestinians. You seem to be missing the point.

And of course you can compare death tolls. They are a good indication of how savage a war is. Also, civil wars are not the worst wars. WWII was much worse than any civil war as were many other non-civil wars. AP has not crossed any line. You are just deflecting the very good point he raises.

It is obvious that AIG is here not because he supports the Syrian Revolution as he claims. He is here in order to poke fun at the regime supporters as we all grew accustomed on doing. We all know they are retards. Now an Israeli finds it a golden opportunity to enjoy the spectacle while seeking to gain audience among Syrians who belong to the Revolution.

AIG: Israel and YOU by extension are STILL our enemies regardless of who is in Damascus.

AIG is in fact a dimwit whose main concern is to show us that Israel is ‘superior’ to its neighbour, using the regime supporters as partners in his idle and futile pseudo-arguments.

Well, AIG go and enjoy your ‘superiority’ inferiority complex. We do not care the least.

Much more to come…
First Iranian tourists arrive in Egypt amid tight security

Within context of recent Egypt-Iran tourism agreement, 50 Iranian tourists arrive in Upper Egypt, stoking Salafist fears of perceived Shia influence in Sunni-Muslim world\

Ahram Online, Monday 1 Apr 2013

Is it time for the Iraqi army to move?

Gunmen attack Iraq’s Akkas gasfield, three workers killed

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/gunmen-attack-iraqs-akkas-gasfield-three-workers-killed
….
But al Qaeda in Iraq is also now linked to Sunni Islamists fighting in neighbouring Syria. Officials say it has been invigorated by arms, insurgents and support flowing to rebels battling against President Bashar al-Assad across the border.

Visitor,

Yes, we know, Israel is your enemy, except that you pay taxes that go to making the IDF stronger. Strange thing to do for an enemy.

Not only do I support the revolution, I have been saying for years that it will come. You can check the archives of this blog.

Yes, Israel is a better place than Syria. But Israelis are not better than Syrians. Israel is doing better only because of the Assad regime which has strangled Syria for decades.

What is the relationship between America terrorists and the gas attack of militants in Khan Asal?
In state of Virginia was arrested a Ayrek Charon. As it turned out, the police took Ayreka immediately after his return from Syria, where he was involved in armed clashes with government forces in the side of the terrorist groups.
The arrested accused of being a member of a terrorist organization “Dzhebhat Al-Nusra” associated with “al-Qaeda”, and now, according to an official at the Ministry of Justice Neil Mc Pride, he could face life imprisonment.
An interesting fact is that in this regard the Journalists arrest who was interviewed by a representative of the ministry, the question arose as to whether the detainee anything to do with the incident in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo with the application of chemical weapons, which the official refused to answer .

http://youtu.be/xGmW-ikdZx4?t=1m3s

I find AP’s rhetoric arrogant and full of self serving hubris, using Syian deaths as arsenal to win an argument is crossing the line and callously so.

Sami,

Our arguments may be callous, but they are good arguments. The same people who are whining about Israeli atrocities and some perceived lack of freedom are supporting MUCH WORSE in arab countries. Don’t you think their gripes about Israel ring somewhat hollow?

Why are trees and Palestinians worth more than Syrian lives? $50 for a good answer.

AIG wants to know why people who supported the Assad family’s decades-long venture into terrorism are suddenly surprised when the table turns. Finally you get burned playing with matches. What has Hezbollah and Iran done to help the Syrian people?

The whole mess in the ME was caused by spoon-feeding anti-Zionism, anti-semitism, and hate of Israel. Are you better off because you hate Israel? Does that pay your bills?

But, oh no, that was not enough. This gave the despots (who are STILL supported by the willful idiots) the needed excuse to subjugate their own people. It kept them in power for life, it kept them from improving the standard of living, and it kept them from having to produce positive results. You can only dumb-down the people for so long. Jew-hate just doesn’t get the humus onto the kitchen table any more.

Naturally, the rest of the world can see what happened from the outside looking in. Maybe the Phds need to go back to school. They’re slow learners…

A Moral Imperative to Save Syria

Syria is under attack by an insidious, premeditated foreign assault, intentionally using terrorist proxies in direct and complete violation of any conceivable interpretation of both national and international law. The world has a moral imperative to support the Syrian people and their government as they fight this assault – both politically and logistically. While US Secretary John Kerry is unable to account for how his nation’s support for moderates has left Al Qaeda’s al-Nusra front the premier militant faction in Syria, he has demanded that Iraq help stem the flow of alleged aid Iran is providing the Syrian government as it fights these terrorists.

Does US Secretary of State John Kerry deny that Syria is fighting a significant (and continuously growing) Al Qaeda presence within their borders, which according to the US State Department’s own statement, is operating in every major city in the country? What conceivable explanation or excuse could be made to justify the blockading of aid sent to Syria to fight Al Qaeda terrorists? In fact, why isn’t the US aiding the Syrian government itself in its fight against Al Qaeda – a terrorist organization the US has used as an excuse to wage unending global war since 2001 when Al Qaeda allegedly killed some 3,000 American civilians?

Does Secretary Kerry believe that further arming “moderates” is a legitimate strategy to counter Al Qaeda’s growing presence in Syria when these “moderates” openly defend Al Qaeda’s al-Nusra? The US’ own hand-picked “Syrian opposition leader,” Mouaz al Khatib, demanded the US reconsider its designation of al Nusra as a terrorist organization. Retuers reported in their article, “Syrian opposition urges U.S. review of al-Nusra blacklisting,” that:

The leader of Syria’s opposition coalition urged the United States on Wednesday to review its decision to designate the militant Islamist Jabhat al-Nusra as a terrorist group, saying religion was a legitimate motive for Syrian rebels.
“The decision to consider a party that is fighting the regime as a terrorist party needs to be reviewed,” Mouaz Alkhatib told a “Friends of Syria” meeting in Morocco, where Western and Arab states granted full recognition to the coalition seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad.
The US is directly responsible for the emergence and perpetuation of Al Qaeda and other extremist groups in Syria. The statements of Secretary John Kerry are made merely to maintain an increasingly tenuous “plausible deniability.” The precedent being set by the US and its allies is one of using full-scale proxy invasions, that if successful in Syria, will be directed into Iran, up through the Caucasus Mountains in Russia, and even onto China’s doorstep via extremists the West is cultivating amongst the Uighurs. It is also clear that the West is directly responsible for the extremists within their own borders, and that these extremists are being used as a political tool against the people of the West, just as they are being used as a mercenary force abroad.

A united front between nations against this wanton state sponsorship of terrorism is needed – with nations pledging political and logistical support to the Syrian people to defeat this open conspiracy. Individually, we can identify, boycott, and permanently replace the corporate-financier interests who conceived of and are driving this agenda. Failure to stop such wide scale criminality against the Syrian people now, will only invite greater criminality against us all in the near future.
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2013/03/world-must-unite-against-us-saudi.html#more

“Not only do I support the revolution, I have been saying for years that it will come. You can check the archives of this blog”

AIG,

You are a LIAR. And by the way this is not the first time you lie. It doesn’t matter what you said in the past. What you are doing now is exactly what I said in my previous comment.

I was right in my previous discussions with you. You cannot be trusted in an argument and perhaps not even in real life.

What are you trying to proving here? I told you so? This is the most pathetic form of argument one can get involved in. Who wants to waste time on such idiocy?

Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi ‏@Shaykhabulhuda 5h
شهادة مهمة تؤكد وقوف النظام الأسدي وراء جريمة قصف كلية الهندسة المعمارية بدمشق: http://wp.me/p1BBfP-nZL

Google translation:

Important testimony confirms Parking System Asadi behind crime bombing of the School of Architecture in Damascus: http://t.co/UvPmivIR5R

Visitor,

You claim I do not support the revolution without any evidence. Claims are easy to make, but of course you cannot substantiate what you say. Show me ONE post I wrote that shows I do not support the revolution. Just ONE. Either that, or admit you are in fact mistaken. Until you can produce this ONE post, you are in fact the liar.

Slow news day.

The war continues. The regime loses more territory, more soldiers defect, etc. etc.

The usual.

Last week, the hacker organization “Anonymous,” symbolized by the famous “Guy Fawkes” mask, hacked Israel’s Mossad.

The hack, initially exposing a hidden network of 30,000 covert operatives, some openly labeled “hitman,” came only days after Israel admitted to their 2010 act of piracy and terrorism against the Freedom Flotilla.

Now the Israeli regime has filled the internet with threats against “Anonymous,” if detailed information on their terror cells is leaked.

After all, who is better to carry out acts of terrorism than an organization with 30,000 covert operatives around the world, almost all trained in use of explosives and demolition, building IEDs, car bombs, kidnapping and assassination and with a long and very public history of, not just murdering people but getting away with it as well.

Every day we see it in the news, dozens killed in Pakistan, dozens more in Iraq, Kenya, Nigeria, the covert army of 30,000, planning terror, building a dozen car bombs a day and then being able to, not just write the lies blaming others but, in most cases, direct public officials, controlled through blackmail, threats or bribery, to “respond as directed.”

Did I forget Syria?

The army, more correctly the “cells” exposed by Anonymous include:

1. Direct Action: Assassins, explosives experts (for the Mossad “signature” car bombs) and kidnap/rendition teams

2. Espionage: Made up of trained agent handlers and signals intelligence personnel, often specially trained while posing as doing their “national service,” this group runs the Pentagon and White House, makes up Congressional employees, most think tanks, AIPAC and the ADL/SPLC. Key espionage operatives are seldom Israeli. Many are Turkish, Saudi, Jordanian and even Cuban diplomats.

3. Controlled opposition: Most obvious are the White Supremacist/Neo-Nazi groups recently exposed as being funded through Merkel’s government in Germany at the direction of the Likudist Party in Israel. Nearly every individual or organization, with few exceptions, that describes itself as “holocaust denial,” “anti-Zionist” or “historical revisionist” is now funded and directed through Israel.

4. Thought Control: No textbook, no university chair, no broadcast executive nor any news editor is ever employed unless a member of the “30,000.” All belong, all are, not just “answerable,” but actively involved in creating cover stories to shift blame for mass killings, political assassination, economic crimes or simply to put forth a continual “drumming,” of the big lie.

http://granews.info/content/horror-israel-30000-mossad-spies-exposed

“156. AIG said:

You claim I do not support the revolution without any evidence. Claims are easy to make, but of course you cannot substantiate what you say. Show me ONE post I wrote that shows I do not support the revolution. Just ONE. Either that, or admit you are in fact mistaken. Until you can produce this ONE post, you are in fact the liar.”

AIG

I am basing my claim on EVERYTHING you said so far. That is EVERY SINGLE POST OF YOURS. It is obvious you only want to poke fun at the regime supporters. You draw so much satisfaction out of the whole exercise. It is almost sadistic.

In my dictionary that does not translate into support for the revolution. Neither does ‘I told you so’ translate into such support, particularly when we consider the fact that you are an Israeli, and also when we know for certain that you LIED in the past.

Dear MJABLI along with AIG, can you please give my dear Visitor a break!

My dear Visitor, I have a philosophical question for you (we have not engaged in idle philosophical talk for a while). Allah in Surat Al-Nahl verse 79 says that He keeps all those billions of birds afloat.

1. What force do you think Allah (Glory Be to Him alone) uses? it seems that Allah has created anti-gravity machine.

2. Do you think Allah might one day give us the secret so that we can live in a society like the Jetsens (the cartoon sitcom)?

3.Better yet why not give us the technology so that we can reduce air pollution and save His earth?

Visitor,

In short you cannot show ONE direct quote from me in which I do not support the revolution. Not only that I clearly state that I support the revolution. So you are just lying. Furthermore, showing that regime supporters are shameless hypocrites is not “poking fun” at them. That is only your infantile interpretation. And furthermore how does that show I do not support the revolution, which of course I do.

“we know for certain that you LIED in the past”

Again, you are inventing things.

It is very easy to make unsubstantiated claims, but when you are called to provide evidence you fail miserably.

My brother just returned from the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. The human misery he is describing is unbearable. A whole generation of children is lost. Some roam around and have no parents and no siblings left. Many people and many children paralyzed. Syrians have become beggars. Charity get stolen by the corrupt. Even donated children toys get stolen, and yes, the once very prized, full of themselves Syrian girls are worth few dollars a night..

Darryll,

You have not yet sincerely apologized for ALL Muslims here for previous insults.

I would answer your question, but NOT before you solemnly apologize and PROMISE NEVER to go back to your old ways.

Now come on my dear Visitor, when did I insult you or other Muslims? which statement was insulting?

AIG @7:36PM,

What I said is not based on unsubstantiated evidence. The evidence in all your comments.

You want to prove ‘I told you so’. you want to draw satisfaction that your yesterday’s opponents are idiots. You want to tell the Syrians, in general and not only regime supporters, that Israel is ‘superior’ to its neighbors. Every thing you’re doing is self-serving. Again, none of that translates into support for the revolution in my dictionary on anyone elses’s for that matter.

Furthermore, you tow the US line with regards to the revolution. We know for a fact that the US stabbed the revolution and the people of Syria in the back from day one. Again, your actions are self-serving. No Syrian in his right mind would translate that into support to the revolution.

You did LIE in the past when you deliberately changed your statements from one comment to the next. I accused you at the time as being DISHONEST IN ARGUMENTATION and therefore unworthy of enagement. I still maintain that charge and would prefer not to waste time with you.

Darryll,

You know when. So don’t play games.

Visitor,

Stop your babbling and show ONE quote where I contradict the fact, that I again declare here, that I support the revolution. You have provided zero evidence. Your impressions from my comments are not evidence. When people claim to provide evidence based on written texts they provide quotes. You have not provided ONE quote to show I do not support the revolution. Are you going to provide ONE quote or not?

Here is a quote from me that shows I support the revolution: I support the revolution. Now, show me ONE place where that is contradicted in my writing. You can’t, because you are a liar, just as you lie about my dishonest argumentation. Again you make a claim without providing any evidence. Provide evidence or stop babbling.

Obama’s Easter Message

Darryl,

Visitor likes to make unsubstantiated arguments. He never actually provides any quotes or evidence. Quite sad.

Asma’s special to the Syrian people for Mother’s Day.  For those who do not know, Syria celebrates Mother’s day in March. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21995400
Syria crisis: March was ‘conflict’s deadliest month’

More than 6,000 people died in Syria in March, the deadliest month since protests against the government began two years ago, activists say.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based activist group, said it recorded 6,005 deaths last month.

It said victims included at least 291 women, 298 children, 1,486 rebel fighters and army defectors, and 1,464 government troops/

AIG,

I do not want to waste time with you because it is useless. You give yourself to the right to say one thing and the opposite while arguing just so not to admit you are wrong.

Secondly, my impressions are correct and I am not the only one who made such impressions. I remember Damascusrose made similar comments accusing you of the same.

You want a quote? Here is one: “Bashar ruled for 11 years and failed to make reforms.”. This is repeated by you ad-nauseam. Well, AIG, we know that! A Syrian kid knows that! So why are you telling regime supporters continuously what is so common knowledge? The proper thing for you to say, which would convince me and perhaps others, is this: “Bashar is inherently non-reformable.”. Anyone who makes this kind of statement as a self-evident truth, I would consider him/her honest and has good intentions towards the revolution. The way you continuously frame the statement is misleading, mischievous and is only meant for your self-serving pleasures and as a means to prolong the Syrian havoc, which by the way is the undeclared US policy towards Syria.

I could go on and on. But there is no use. Because words for you are just a play, a past time and a means to draw pleasure from. Besides you cannot be held accountable simply because you are a liar and worse you deny that you are a liar.

Visitor,

Are you joking? Is this your evidence? That I stated a FACT as a premise for an argument, that is the evidence I do not support the revolution? Only a demented mind can interpret a simple FACT as non-support for the revolution.

This is your argument:
AIG wrote “Bashar ruled for 11 years and failed to make reforms” therefore AIG does not support the revolution.

Even a child in kindergarten would not make this ridiculous argument. Find ONE quote where I imply that I do not support the revolution. If not, admit you are a liar.

“172. AIG said:

Even a child in kindergarten would not make this ridiculous argument. Find ONE quote where I imply that I do not support the revolution. If not, admit you are a liar.”

AIG,

YES. You use a FACT AD-NAUSEAM for the simple purpose(s)as I stated in my previous comment.

The SIMPLE FACT is that Bashar is inherently incapable of reform. When you can make that simple jump of reasoning then you’re getting somewhere. Otherwise, why the repetition? You are wasting our time. I would say since I started reading your comments here, you made this statement at least 100 times. And you also build on variations of it, which I have no time nor the inclination to delve into. But never did you say Bashar is inherently incapable of reform.

This is what a Syrian kid knows far better than an Israeli self-serving sadistic impostor who comes here claiming he supports our revolution.

No you don’t. Neither does the US. And of course neither does the government of Israel.

JL on Hitto:
““The positive side is that this guy is an executive who has experience trying to deliver goods into Syria. The opposition, at this point, is a song and a prayer. To a certain degree they just need to do something, anything,” says Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. “Syria is desperately poor. It needs everything. Whoever comes into town with some money and a little bit of skill, may be able to get something started.”
I still think selecting Hitto and the whole business of a government was a mistake, he will always be seen as America’s boy who was carried to his position by the MB, that will make him a transitional figure at best.

[…] Syria Video Syria Comment Announces a new web service: Syria Video, which can be found at http://syriavideo.net Syria Video is a web application that maps and aggregates Syrian war videos by tracki…  […]

Visitor,

So more hand waving and not ONE, I repeat not ONE quote from me that implies that I do not support the revolution. You just jump to conclusions based on “impressions”. You need to provide ONE quote that implies that I do not support the revolution. You have failed miserably.

And the nonsense about “Bashar is inherently incapable of reform” is just a red herring. It has zero bearing to the argument. No one can look inside Bashar and know what inherently he can or cannot do. One can only look at his track record, which is what logical people do. And who cares if he is “inherently incapable of reform”, he needs to go because his track record of utter failure, because of the things he did, not because of some theory you have of what he is.

I call upon all Syrians who live in the USA and has american citizenship, to form a committee to start adopting Syrian children.
We can adopt several thousands,in the future they will have american citizenship,

Majed,

I always knew you are a very good guy…

It is a great idea. One’s heart bleeds listening to stories from refugee camp but isn’t adoption “haram” in Islam?

No adoption is not haram in Islam, as long as they know who their parents are and you call them by their parent name,and if they dont know their parent names they are our brothers, the prophet himself adopted Ussama.

Lost in Translation

Visitor,

How is AIG stating, “Bashar is inherently incapable of reform”, a statement against the opposition? The opposition is agreeing with AIG. No question.

AIG (and me as well) are repetitive with our opinions, but aren’t we all?

When you said to AIG, “So why are you telling regime supporters continuously what is so common knowledge?”, the point is it is NOT common knowledge to regime supporters. Regime supporters disagree with you. They think Assad is great.

I suppose we should all stop posting because expecting to change anyone’s mind is futile.

My concern is that when this fight is over, is one authoritarian, anti-democratic terror regime going to be replaced by another.

Will it be endless war?

Also, I meant to tell you that I was less than impressed by the militant jihadist standing over the headless corpse. Pretty sick stuff IMHO. Too early to celebrate. As you know, I am very confused by this fight for “freedom”. Aren’t there any normal people out there? Where is President Hamster?

Majedkhaldoun,

Is it possible for a Jew to denounce his religion and become a Muslim? I’m really getting tired of Matza. There’s no question. Arab food is better than Jewish food. Lastly, which arabs eat with their hands and which do not? When I was eating with the UAE folks we were eating with our hands. I thought it was very cool. I eat this way when my wife isn’t looking;)

It is revealing that Croatian weapons paid by Qatar have no problem getting in Syria while there is no humanitarian help from the GCC for refugees in Jordanian camps.

“Free Syrian Army members claim Jordanian forces continue to prevent the influx of arms, aid and refugees over the shared borders.”

Syrians stage border protest over aid shortage

http://en.trend.az/regions/met/arabicr/2134433.html

Protestors called on the UN and the Jordanian government to facilitate the flow of basic aid through a stretch of the Jordanian-Syrian border, Al Arabiya broadcaster said.

Last week, rebel forces allegedly captured a 30-kilometre stretch of the border with Jordan – from the Yarmouk Valley to the occupied Golan Heights. The area is a favoured crossing point for refugees fleeing violence into Jordan.

Free Syrian Army members claim Jordanian forces continue to prevent the influx of arms, aid and refugees over the shared borders.

“Although we have liberated a large portions of the Yarmouk Valley and the Golan, we remain isolated,” Abu Kamal al-Golani, a Free Syrian Army commander based near the Yarmouk Valley, told dpa.

MajedK @176

The proper term is كفالة.

I already made provisions for several such كفالة. And I prefer not to say how many,

Here’s the info for anyone who is interested,

والله لتجدن بركتها على مالك واهل بيتك. فرصة للخير
الآن كفالة أطفال سوريا الأيتام الذين استشهد اباؤهم وامهاتهم
ٱكفل يتيم بـ (125) ريال شهريا أو (1500) في السنه ، مع تزويدك بتقارير عن اليتيم و لك الأجر بإذن الله خصص من دخلك الشهري 125 ريال وتشوفون الخير
و تذكر قول الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم :
( أنا و كافل اليتيم كهاتين في الجنه و آشار بأصبعيه
السبابه و الوسطى )
و ذلك عن طريق مؤسسة مكه المكرمه الخيريه يمكنكم الإتصال على المؤسسة أو احد فروعها عن طريق
الرقم الموحد
– رجال :
920000903
– نساء :
920000906
– آو الإداره العامه :
014944647

I also believe the kids will be better taken care off through the above or similar institutions.

Akbar Palace,

The militant standing over the headless corpse does not represent the Syrian people. He represents himself and certain ideology, we, the Syrian people abhor.

Ex-CNN Reporter Ordered to Manipulate News on Syria and Iran

Tuesday, 2 April 2013, 10:52 am
http://www.legitgov.org

Ex-CNN Reporter: I Received Orders to Manipulate News to Demonize Syria and Iran [Apparently, MSNBC and Faux got the same orders.]

30 Mar 2013 Ex-CNN reporter Amber Lyon revealed that during her work for the channel she received orders to send false news and exclude some others which the US administration did not favor with the aim to create a public opinion in favor of launching an aggression on Iran and Syria. Lyon was quoted by the Slovak main news website as saying that the mainstream US media outlets intentionally work to create a propaganda against Iran to garner public opinion’s support for a military invasion against it. She revealed that the scenario used before launching the war on Iraq is being prepared to be repeated where Iran and Syria are now being subject to constant ‘demonization’.

Thanks #181 for the information.

Jihadis’ Exploitation of Muslim Girls

by Khaled Abu Toameh • March 31, 2013 at 2:00 am

What is disturbing is that many Arab and Islamic human rights organizations have remained silent about the crimes committed against Muslim women throughout the Arab and Muslim world. By contrast, these organizations are often quick to denounce Westerners for “insulting” Islam by depicting the Prophet Mohammed. If anyone is really insulting Islam, it is the Muslim fundamentalists and jihadis who show no respect for Muslim girls and treat them as sex slaves.

What are the Muslim jihadis in Syria doing when they are not fighting against Bashar Assad’s army?

According to reports in a number of Arab media outlets, the jihadis are importing Muslim girls to satisfy their sexual needs.

The sexual exploitation of girls was revealed after several Tunisian families reported that their teenage daughters had gone missing in recent months.

It later transpired that the girls had been dispatched to serve to Syria on “jihad marriages.” In other words, the girls had been sent to Syria to satisfy the sexual needs of the anti-Assad jihadis.

The jihadis, some of whom are affiliated with Al-Qaeda, are probably not getting enough weapons from Arabs and Westerners to fight against Assad’s forces. But what is evident is that they are in the meantime getting enough supplies of young girls to satisfy their sexual needs.

Continue Reading
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3652/exploitation-muslim-girls

I have observed AIG for years on this and other forums. I can say he is not a liar and he is consistent and well-informed and spot on in what he says in criticizing Bashar Assad and co.

I happen to be unenthusiastic and less than convinced by much of what he says about Israel. But he comes across as authentic, and reacting from his personal perspectives and background, not just playing games – he’s a window into that thinking. I respect that.

He also happens to be an intelligent and competent debater, and SC sure needs those now more than ever.

I will say much the same about Akbar Palace.

Go back deep into the Syria Comment archives and you’ll see what I mean about AIG and AP.

I just randomly clicked on 2007 for example, and there they were, sparring with MAJEDKHALDOUN and other familiar names (some of who sadly quit here in disgust when the Assadist operators started to swamp and distort this forum in 2011).

Much as I desperately wish it was otherwise, Israel (i) is what it is and does what it does and (ii) is a factor in the Syrian issue. And one that’s been inflated further and exploited in the pseudo games and propaganda of the Assad dictatorship for the regime’s own crude purposes.

So we are wearing blindfolds and earplugs if we reject an opportunity to get insight into educated Israelis’ thinking through people like AIG and AP.

And importantly, they are able and willing to engage in some sort of dialogue not just incoherent insults.

Visitor
You are right adoption in Islam called Kafaleh, Yakfal the important thing is that they know the name of their parent and they know the one who kafalahom is not their true parent, there is no name in US for Kafaleh it is called adoption however.

Akbar palace, anyone can convert to Islam not because of food, but to accept two things, Shahadeh and do good deed and avoid bad deed, believes in God who has no son,no equal no wali and commits himself to do good and avoid injustice.

Iraqi mercenaries fighting for the lionking

176. majedkhaldoun

Islam does not allow adoptions. You will not be allowed to take orphans out of Syria or any Islamic country.

rally in Aleppo with actor Humam Hout.

Western style adoption in Islam: No.
Fostering: Yes

http://gulfnews.com/news/adoption-in-islam-1.1004914

Yousuf Al Qaradawi chairman of International Union for Muslim Scholars does not disagree with this interpretation of the law, “giving a child your name does not change the fact that he’s not yours, he’ll never look like you, or inherit any of your traits, and so adoption in that manner is prohibited in Islam.”

However, many scholars including Al Qaradawi agree that sponsoring or rather caring for an orphan without passing on their name to the child is highly recommended.

The foster parent-child relationship or (Kafala) meaning to feed, has a specific set of rules in Sharia law.

Firstly, the adopted child is to keep his or her own biological family’s name; secondly, the child can only inherit from his or her biological parents, not automatically from the adoptive parents.
…
However, the Islamic Council of Fatwa in Jerusalem issued a Fatwa stating that it’s possible for the adoptive parents to name their adoptive child on official documents as theirs, but the adoption stays on paper, meaning the child is not to inherit anything.

Oh see Sheikha Ann has spoken a fatwa. Mashallah!

Zoo
Thank you for your sane words, but you cite Qaradawi?

Akbar Palace @9:41PM,

As you may well know beheading is perfectly legal in Islam. And I do not see it will ever change. By the way many argue that beheading is the least painful form of execution if done properly and the sword used is the proper one, i.e. razor sharp. You may also want to check with a medical expert.

I am sure the Mujahids formed a legal council and determined that the man deserved the capital punishment. Besides you are speaking from a comfortable environment in the US. You should try to imagine what state the people in Syria are in right now. Vengeance is unavoidable considering the levels of atrocities perpetrated by the regime and its stooges. But I do not believe the man was beheaded because of vengeance only. There is a lot of blood on his hands.

There is a huge difference between arguing as AIG does by repeating the same mantra over and over again and by stating that Bashar is inherently incapable of reform.

AIG’s way keeps the argument static going around in circles for the same purpose as the undeclared US policy of maintaining the status quo in Syria i.e. more killing and more destruction. We have gone through this before. We are not going to repeat it again. The US was the first country to give Bashar the license to kill by calling on him to reform when the revolution began. This is how the US first stabbed us.

Stating that Bashar is inherently incapable of reform moves the argument to the next logical step which is the necessity of excluding Bashar and his henchmen from any future discussions regarding the Syrian outcome. We all know the US is hypocritical regarding this point. You just need to take into account the so-called Geneva agreement with the Russians.

AIG is as hypocritical as the US. He argues the eleven year rule with no reform as well as the shelling and destruction unleashed over the ast two years. Yet he fails to make the obvious conclusion that Bashar is inherently incapable of reform. The simple question that needs to be asked is this: what benefit do we get by citing the eleven year reformless rule mantra while we are already two years into destruction and killing? Who in his right mind would ask such an evil-possessed Bashar about his reformless years of rule while we are witnessing the current state of affairs?

AIG is advancing a discussion of polemics. There is no benefit whatsoever gained from engaging in such argument as far as the Syrian Revolution is concerned. He also assumes that the regime supporters are idiots. They are not idiots, even though we all tell them they are idiots. They are bound by the same rules and limitations which make Bashar incapable of reform. So, AIG is here on a self-serving mission.

If you want to go further, we can explore the truth about the unwritten deal between the Assads and Israel which allowed the Assads to rule over Syria for the last half century, and which will further prove the self-serving mission of AIG here on SC. Are you aware of such a deal?

I also agree that AIG, AP, and Amir are genuine supporters of the revolution and I personally do not believe that their support hides a desire to weaken and destroy Syria as some tend to think. One must make a distinction between a government and the people.

If the casualty numbers were as accurate as those MSM published, then the war would have been over by now.

The only military advantage the rebels have is their number of fighters.

If SAA suffered more casualty than the rebels, can anyone with common sense explain to me how the SAA can sustain that kind of loss without losing any strategic city?

1400 loss of rebels within a month? Impossible, consider the intensity of fighting from the south to the north and battles in Damascus, Homs, Aleppo and Lattakia.

BBC is so laughable and in the meantime losing its meager credibility right there.

MAJEDKHALDOUN and TARA

I remember after the huge earthquake in Iran which left many orphans, serious and well-monitored projects were set up to place these children with people who were related to them or had known their parents.

These people had to demonstrate they were willing and able to care for these children and rear them in the environment they were familiar with. I think there was a bit of community responsibility and oversight too. The expenses of these children were paid by the agencies responsible for placing them (I think it was NGOs working with the Government, I forget the details).

This was done instead of orphanages or remote adoptions.

Worth a try.

The militant standing over the headless corpse does not represent the Syrian people. He represents himself and certain ideology, we, the Syrian people abhor.

Thanks Tara,

I read a lot here from these two crazy sides/ideologies that seem to be dominating this war, and I rarely hear from the “normal” Syrians stuck in-between.

I hope all is well with you and your family.

Syrialover,

Thanks for the compliment. And your post 186 is SPOT ON.

Shukran.

SL,

It is a good idea too. Expat’s money sponsoring the expense of an on site agency.

I think MK meant adopting Syrian children so they become American citizens and therefore giving them the gift of well being, freedom and dignity that remained elusive in the ME

“I call upon all Syrians who live in the USA and has american citizenship, to form a committee to start adopting Syrian children.
We can adopt several thousands,in the future they will have american citizenship”
This is something most Syrians can agree on. I indeed looked at the issue and found many hurdles, mostly on the Syrian side, may be more informed posters here can tell us how to do that without breaking US or Syrian law, it will help if the subject is openly addressed by Moaz one day even though I think it is unlikely for a politician to act like he is making it easier for Syrian children to be taken out of the country.

You know who was big on beheading and carried it out with gusto? The Nazis and the Japanese army in WWII.

Both were notorious for excessive cruelty, sub-civilized behavior and vicious disrespect for humanity.

In all the hell of wartime, that practice in the 20th century stood out as a source of horror, shock and deep disgust. Today you read of it a particular source of shame by surviving veterans of those armies who witnessed or were involved in the practice.

It was an act of savagery intended to shock and show disrespect for the “enemy”.

So yeah, good for you al-Nusrah. Show us what you are really like.

And what a bloodthirsty thrill and game for those holy warriors who have come from countries where such acts are regarded as pathological and deeply abhorrent.

Ann
Many moslem families adopted children in Syria, The Kifl is adoption as long as they know who their parents are, to Takfali a child means in Islam to bring him home and take care of him, sending money to orphans is called Sadaqa, at the time of the Prophet(PBUH) the Kifl was by bringing the child home to live in your house, this is in america is called adoption,what is forbidden in Islam is to give the false impression that they are your blood children,Zayd was adopted by the prophet but he knew his father was Haritha, Zayd lived with the prophet,till he became adult and could take care of himself then he moved out.

Ann
In Islam bringing a child home and take care of him and raise him is acceptable as long as they know who their parents are,sending money is not KIFL,it is sadaqa, Kafaleh is adoption in American term,many moslem families in Syria adopted children,those adopted kids should know who their parents are,and they dont inherit
Do you have children?

TARA and GHUFRAN,

I think you’ll find there’s a lot of thinking these days about the risks of displacing and disrupting childrens’ lives into a new culture where they have nothing around them and nobody connected to their earlier remembered years, especially if they are of school age when adopted.

You have probably seen various articles and documentaries about how such adoptees often grow up feeling incomplete and unsettled despite having great adoptive families in a new country. As young adults they will make huge efforts to go back and reunite with distant family etc

That’s why the Iranian program made the news and received a lot of endorsement from psychologists and other experts around the world with experience in international adoption.

But I am the first to agree that if this is absolutely impossible, and their communities cannot provide that option, then international adoption is better than allowing them to starve and suffer unprotected and uncared for.

AKBAR PALACE #197,

But notice I only got a feeble instant 7 thumbs down for making accurate and fair observations about you and AIG. Waiting for a certain voter (singular) to treble that score…

SL @200
JAL did not behead Darwish’s head, the man who did it was a man who was looking for his missing brother inside the 38 brigade and when he did not find him he took his rage on the dead Darwish who had already committed suicide,here is the post from one of the guys who were there.
اللي ظاهر بالصورة امام جثة العميد , بعرفه

بيقول لم يقبل العميد الاستسلام , حاولنا معه ووعدناه ان يلقى معاملة طيبة ومحاكمة عادلة ” قال عادلة ”
فرفض u
الزلمه دخل الحمام وادخل ويسكي معاه شرب وانتحر .. لهذا ترى الحمام لم يمسسه سوء ’ ولم يدمر بالمعركة

الولد اللي اخذ راس العميد لا ينتمي للجيش الحر ,,, له اخ معتقل داخل اللواء , ذهب للبحث عنه فعندما لم يجده انتقم على طريقته , يلعن ابوه على ابو اخوه

…

another interesting thing about the liberating of the 38th brigade is that many of the FSA group carry the JAL flag just because the Syrian army runs away when they see their flags
Here is another comment from one the FSA members
المهم اليوم حكاني من داخل اللواء 38
كنت شوفه رافع علم جبهة النصرة سالته عنجد انضميت لجماعة النصرة
قلي لاء بس الكلاب اول ما يشوفو العلم بشخو تحتهم وما بيعرفو من وين بدهم يهربو
I hope you can read Arabic, to tell you the truth you were not very convincing when you took the Arabic test by your ex friend Visitor.

The best news came today from Aleppo with the Kurds finally taking a stand with the FSA
only ZOO picked up on it but he could not really spin it
138. ZOO said:
“The Kurds, in a sudden flip, gave Sheikh Masoud to the rebels. Was it the fear of having it destroyed when the rebels threatened to take it by force or a strategic realignement of the P.Y.D militias against the Syrian army?”
I don’t think they did it out of being threaten but more likely Erdogan has something to do with it, maybe the MBs gave some kind of future deal
It is a good development for the FSA none the less

Syrian,

Again thank you for bringing sanity to the discussion as in comments 205, 207 and 208.

I just wish Akbar Palace can understand the Arabic text in your comments.

I really don’t care about this character who calls himself قيس سوريا or مجنون سوريا

Whether he undertands your comments or not, the character is irrelevant and obviously working for a dubious and manipulative US agenda which is clearly opposed to the revolution. His likes will whither away and will have no impact whatsoever.

But I do care about Akbar Palace and would like him to get the real picture as you conveyed it in those comments, especially with regards to beheading.

Great work.

Jon Stewart comments on President Morsi

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/stewart-destroys-pres-morsi-for-going-after-egypts-jon-stewart-after-vowing-to-welcome-every-opinion/

SYRIAN #205, that may be the story behind that image or maybe not. But like with a lot of incidents the true version may never be clear.

I am angry with the minority who are dirtying the revolution. They are betraying everyone who has fought and sacrificed for Syria.

It’s irresponsible that beheading is presentd as a fine tradition by holy warrior fantasists here. And claiming that it’s being carried out inside Syria by fair courts and responsible people is delusionary and absurd.

Beheading people is something that brings universal revulsion, and if the al-Nusrah representatives have no idea about that and are happy to be filmed making threatening speeches about decapitation standing next to a headless body, well they may as well cut off their own heads they are creating such a terrifying, shocking and out-of-control image of themselves.

I have no doubt that this is happening on both sides, but it appears to be being proudly linked to the ideology of certain extremist elements in this conflict.

When in fact it is sordid and degrading for all involved and all who witness it. And shows an animalistic lack of respect and awareness towards the dead victims and all who knew them.

But maybe you disagree – until confronted with it in real life or it happens to someone you know.

You seem interested in me personally. Readers here know my dream is that when my longed-for family reunion happens in Aleppo and this nightmare is over I will celebrate with a photo of the event on SyriaComment. I hope others including you will do the same and that none of us will be standing beside graves.

http://www.maysaloon.org/2013/04/to-brave-syrian-people.html
http://youtu.be/SFKBi15o9hI

Maysaloon : Sometimes Goodness can win.

The US State Department’s Syrian Women’s Network
http://rt.com/op-edge/afghanistan-syria-womens-us-153/
How does the history of women in Afghanistan relate to women’s rights in Syria in the context of the current crisis?

The undeclared US-NATO war on Syria (2011-2013) in support of Al Qaeda affiliated rebels appears to have a similar logic, namely the destruction of secular education and the demise of women’s rights.

Will Syrian women be facing the same grim future as that of Afghan women under the Taliban regime?

Last January, “a diverse group of Syrian women” said to be “representing the leading opposition movements” attended a conference hosted by the Women’s Democracy Network (WDN), in coordination with the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues in Doha, Qatar.

WDN is an initiative of the International Republican Institute, well-known for supporting dissidents in various countries defying US imperialism. The US State Department is clearly using “women’s rights” as a tool, while at the same time it is funding an Islamist “opposition” with a view to undermining the secular state and eventually installing an Islamist government in Damascus.

The Syrian Women’s Network was formed at the US-sponsored conference and a Charter was written “to ensure women are included in the conflict resolution and transition of their country”:

In the charter, participants call for equal rights and representation for all Syrians, demanding equal participation of women at all international meetings, negotiations, constitution drafting and reconciliation committees and in elected governing bodies. The charter also covers topics including prevention of and prosecution for acts of violence against women, access to education and the overall need for women’s participation in ongoing conflict resolution while ensuring women’s future participation in the rebuilding of Syria. U.S. government leaders also participated in the conference, underscoring their support of the Syrian women […] In her remarks, Carla Koppell, senior coordinator for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment at the United States Agency for International Development [USAID], advised, “If the most diverse group of women can find a common agenda, it will have enormous strength.” (Women Demand Role in Syria’s Transition and Reconciliation, January 28, 2013, emphasis added.)
The first striking paradox of this conference is that it is being held in Qatar, a country where women’s rights remain limited, to say the least. In mid-March, the Qatar government even expressed concerns “about references to women’s sexual and reproductive rights” which are contained in the UN declaration of the Commission on the Status of Women called Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls.

Second paradox: USAID, which contributed to the demise of women’s rights by promoting religious indoctrination in Afghanistan, is now promoting women’s rights to bring about regime change in Syria. In the meantime, the US along with Qatar and Saudi Arabia is supporting Islamist extremist groups fighting against the secular Syrian government. Some so-called “liberated areas” in Syria are now run by religious extremists:

“Religious Wahhabi school and women’s rights in a ‘liberated’ area of Aleppo run by the US-Saudi backed ‘opposition’, ‘a definite improvement’ when compared to the prevailing system of secular education in Syria.” (Michel Chossudovsky, Syria: Women’s Rights and Islamist Education in a “Liberated” Area of Aleppo, Global Research, March 27, 2013.)

Were a US proxy regime to be installed in Damascus, the rights and liberties of Syrian women might well be following the same “freedom-threatening path” as that of Afghan women under the US-backed Taliban regime and continuing under the US-NATO occupation.

“Research – Policy” # 15 “The Syrian chopper” on the geopolitical kitchen. Who as a chef, but who lunch defined. Marat Musin

http://youtu.be/NU7Pu1xwJBc?t=8m32s

A crystal clear breath of hope, sanity and reason.

Moaz al-Khatib answering questions about Syria’s future and the Alawite sect.

He makes clear he sees sectarianism as dangerous and wrong and speaks of his tolerance, sympathy and respect for his Alawite brothers.

He strongly condemns Islamic extremists who are out to impose their will on others, saying they are at odds with true Islam.

(As an aside, he responds to comments about his use of Facebook.)

Moaz al-Khatib gives Syrians a strong, human and intelligent voice. He speaks with optimism, wisdom and dignity about Syrians, to Syrians and for Syrians.

As a speaker, he’s a deep pleasure to listen to, both in the sound of his voice and the words he speaks.

His comments here are also subtitled with English.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD9TvQaQXXY

(ignore the comentary under the video – it is intended for another video from the same source about the jetstrike massacre of children in Kafr Batna City, in Damascus)

English translation of a Shaykh Yaqoubi statement from 6th March:

Difficulties of War Do Not Annul the Duty of Jihad

Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi

Praise is to Allah and may He send prayers upon our master Muhammad, his family and companions.

I became aware of certain suspicions and objections against the Syrian revolution from some people of knowledge. Most of their claims do not require a rebuttal for they are merely doubts and misconceptions. However since reminding people is a duty, I considered it appropriate to reply in light of the Glorious Qur’an.

At the core of these suspicions and delusions are the issues and complaints of killing, bloodshed and lack of food & drink, i.e. difficulties of war. It is further claimed that these difficulties cancel the incumbency of Jihad and that fighting is not permitted because it leads to killing and destruction.

[…]

An Islamic Identity for Syria and Working with the 1950 Constitution

Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi

Posted on 30th March 2013

[The Shaykh clarifies an answer he gave to an earlier question about implementing the Syrian Constitution of 1950 after the current regime is removed]

Perhaps the questioner is historically unaware of the constitutional development in post-Ottoman Syria. Certain facts need to be noted when looking at the legality of the 1950 constitution such as constants & changes in demands, the secular movement and its successful conversion of people en mass to secular principles and the separation of religion from state. The inattention towards rights and diminution of demands must be considered along with historical changes and the formation of the Syrian Republic.

In order to shed light on the issue, consider the following:

[…]

An Islamic Identity for Syria and Working with the 1950 Constitution

Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi

Posted: 30/3/13

[The Shaykh clarifies an answer he gave to an earlier question about implementing the Syrian Constitution of 1950 after the current regime is removed]

Perhaps the questioner is historically unaware of the constitutional development in post-Ottoman Syria. Certain facts need to be noted when looking at the legality of the 1950 constitution such as constants & changes in demands, the secular movement and its successful conversion of people en mass to secular principles and the separation of religion from state. The inattention towards rights and diminution of demands must be considered along with historical changes and the formation of the Syrian Republic.

In order to shed light on the issue, consider the following:

[…]

But notice I only got a feeble instant 7 thumbs down…

Syrialover,

7 thumbs down is probably better than what Assad would get if he were in a fair, multi-party election. Don’t feel bad.

But I do care about Akbar Palace and would like him to get the real picture as you conveyed it in those comments, especially with regards to beheading.

Visitor,

Thanks. I am trying to be open-minded. Mutilating a dead corpse and using this mutilated body to preach about how this is what happens to oppressors is still war crime. An army has to have discipline, and how an army treats prisoners tells us more about the people who capture them than the captured thug or tyrant.

Every army during war-time is guilty of these atrocities, but 2 wrongs do not make it right. SL’s post 211 shares my opinion on this.

Majedkhaldoun,

What does Islam say about how to treat captured POWs?

Because Judaism has evolved over the years, here is one (woman) rabbi’s interpretation of POW treatment in Judaism. The fact that she is a woman rabbi is a fairly recent idea in and of itself.

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/beliefs/Issues/War_and_Peace/Combat_and_Conflict/Ethics_of_Jewish_War/Prisoners_of_War.shtml

If Al-Khatib is not converting his inspiring speeches into real influence and power, he would be just an orator.

And the reality is the only one who will eventually stand out from the opposition will be the one who is willing to engage with the regime seeking a political solution.

Honestly, I respect Al-Khatib but I do hope he could push forward with his vision and courage to take a dramatic move to solve the political stalemate.

APPLE_MINI

Moaz al-Khatib is making natural and spontaneous responses, not delivering oratory.

We are learning and understanding more about him with everything that appears. His persona is not staged, it’s authentic and sincere with a sharp brain ticking away.

And I believe he IS taking all steps possible to move things along in the present environment. Let’s see he gets more momentum if the MB are finally pushed into a corner and stop selfishly blocking the way. (I just read somewhere that Khatib’s father was not an admirer of the MB, so young Moaz was reared to see them as a problem and not a solution for Syrians).

Akbar Palace
I am not scholar in Islam as far as POW, I can give you what I would do which it may not be consistant with Islamic law.I can tell you what I understand Islam says.
1- there is difference between POW captured between two states fighting each other, and between Rebels fighting with another group or fighting a state.
2- I will say things, as I remember the prophet had done, and what I understand Quraan says.
There is no long term prison sentence in Islam,some people may not like such system,or disagree with it.
Ther was a woman during the life of the prophet,her name was Hind, wife of abu Sufian, she killed Hamza the prophet uncle,hiring a slave and promised to free him if he killed Hamza, after the Prophet conquered Mecca she was brought in front of the prophet, he set her free
2- the daughter of Huyey Safiyeh,was not POW she was against her father and thus considered Moslima
3- there is no difference if the woman is beautiful or ugly,both get the same treatment,fighter women are treated just as fighter men.captured non fighting women or men will be free after the war ends.they are not POW during the war.
4- when the prophet captured the jewish who were fighting the prophet, he asked them to decide themself what punishment they feel they deserve,and they choose their punishment.however there was a choice ,they either leave the area leaving all their properties behind or death
5- during fight between rebels and goverment, you don’t take POW as prisoners,unless the war is close to the end and it is clear that you will be victorious,in other word you have the capability to provide them with prison.after that you will try them and punish them if they commit crimes.

“219. AKBAR PALACE said:

Thanks. I am trying to be open-minded. Mutilating a dead corpse and using this mutilated body to preach about how this is what happens to oppressors is still war crime. An army has to have discipline, and how an army treats prisoners tells us more about the people who capture them than the captured thug or tyrant.

Akbar Palace @219,

According to Syrian@205, the man committed suicide after being offered a fair trial before the Brigade fell. The beheading was done by the brother of a detainee who is not even Nusra. As for the Sheikh speaking over his corpse, I did not see any attempt by the sheikh or any one else to mistreat the body, unlike what the Assad thugs usually do. The sheikh only used the incident o deliver a sermon to draw a lesson from. I do not see any war crimes here except a pathetic attempt at revenge by the brother of the detainee.

By your logic, the US is guilty of war crimes in Abu Gharib, in the manner in which Saddam was executed under its own nose and even in the manner it conducted OBL’s assassination to mention a few. And since you’re talking about discipline, all those involved were US army personnel.

Nusra has so far proven to be of exemplary discipline,even more so than the US army. And that dscipline is being attested to by foe and foe within and outside Syria.

The person that you quote is a fool with an agenda that no real Syrian will follow or even listen to.

US policy in Syria is linked to Iran nuke talks. By failing to prevent the fall of their ally Bashar Al Assad orchestrated by the West, Iran may be less inclined to renounce having the capability of developing nuclear weapon. Solving the nuclear issue is the USA’s top priority. .

http://www.news24.com/World/News/US-Restraint-in-Syria-can-aid-nuke-talks-20130402

Washington – President Barack Obama’s reluctance to give military aid to Syrian rebels may be simply explained in part in three words: Iranian nuclear weapons.

For the first time in years, the United States has seen a glimmer of hope in persuading Iran to curb its nuclear enrichment program so it cannot quickly or easily make an atomic bomb.

Negotiations resume this week in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where encouraging talks in February between six world powers and the Islamic Republic ended in what Iranian diplomat Saeed Jalili called a “turning point” after multiple thwarted steps toward a breakthrough.

But Tehran is unlikely to bend to Washington’s will on its nuclear program if it is fighting American-supplied rebels at the same time in Syria.
…
“I think that the United States has not taken a more active role in Syria from the beginning because they didn’t want to disturb the possibility, to give them space, to negotiate with Iran,” Javier Solana, the former European Union foreign policy chief, said on Monday at a Brookings Institution discussion about this week’s talks.

Solana, who was a top negotiator with Tehran in the nuclear program until 2009, added: “They probably knew that getting very engaged against Assad, engaged even militarily, could contribute to a break in the potential negotiations with Tehran.”

Solana also warned of frostier relations between Moscow and Washington that could scuttle success in both areas. “With Russia, we need to be much more engaged in order to resolve the Syrian problem and, at the end, the question of Tehran,” he sai

#221 SL

Keep crossing your fingers.
Moaz Al Khatib has no powerful allies. You say he dislikes the MB while he is the ‘president’ of the SNC dominated by the MB. He opposes the Salafists while supporting Al Nusra. He dislikes the USA while asking Kerry for NATO. He is cold with Turkey and he snubs KSA, Russia and Iran.

Until he is able to have strong, consistent and reliable allies, he can preach all day long but he’ll remain a romantic and powerless figure.
He has until May to prove he is relevant.

Majedkhaldoun,

Thanks for the explanation as always.

There is no long term prison sentence in Islam,some people may not like such system,or disagree with it.

I guess this means death?

…the man committed suicide after being offered a fair trial before the Brigade fell

Visitor,

I’m glad he was offered a “fair trial”. I can’t imagine otherwise;)

And who was responsible for guarding this person from the aggrieved party? Who let this person saw his head off? I don’t like this and I don’t like Abu Graib.

I don’t know what you have against, what I think, are some fairly intelligent, moderate and reasonable posters here, who care just as much about Syria as you do.

188. Juergen said:

Iraqi mercenaries fighting for the lionking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIE3KrTNRkM

 
Yeah, Iraqi Shia are sсum. First they waved their purple fingers like idiоts (around 2005), and now they are trying to kill pro-democracy protesters.

The Shiites are ready to murder for their false god Husayn ibn Ali.

But we are going to demolish their practices of polytheism.

The ruins of Fallujah and Aleppo bear witness to Shiite barbarity.

Thanks Akbar Palace @226,

Many people can infiltrate during times like this, especially if motivated by revenge.

As for the person you’re inquiring about, he is as childish as childish can be. Sweet talk does not necessarily translate into your hoped-for ideals. It is just that sweet empty talk. Syrians have become immune to such impostors over the last two years. And they are growing even more so by the hour. You want the truth, take it from those who are not eager to sugar coat it or gain favor with anyone. I am not disputing intelligence laced with mischief and manipulation. I am against dishonesty and those whose evil agenda oozes through their words. Most often such agendas are counterproductive meant to serve everyone but the Syrian revolution and its people.

But believe me, his likes are inconsequential and will have no impact whatsoever.

There is little doubt who HBJ is and what Qatar is about these days yet it is very hard to find any real stories on Qatar’s israeli and CIA connections in the western press, after all, exposing Qatar,Israel’s reliable ally and CIA homeboy, will be considered a form of “treason”. Qatar royal family depends on an army of foreign agents and a major US military presence to stay in power, if you are waiting for HBJ clan of pimps to take a stand against Israel or western policies you will die waiting:
نقل موقع «ايغاليتيه، ريكونسيلياسيو» الفرنسي الإخباري عن صحيفة «يديعوت أحرونوت» أن الرئيس السابق للموساد الإسرائيلي شابتاي شافيت أكد أن قطر لعبت دورًا تاريخيًّا لصالح «اسرائيل» في المنطقة،
بل أكثر من دور بريطانيا نفسها، مضيفاً أن الخدمات التي قدمتها قطر إلى تل أبيب تفوق بكثير تلك التي قدمتها «اسرائيل» للدوحة.
ووفق ما ذكره الرئيس السابق للموساد على صحيفة «يديعوت أحرونوت» فإن الشيخ حمد بن خليفة الثاني أمير قطر يأتي جنبًا إلى جنب مع «اسرائيل» والولايات المتحدة لحل الملفات الإقليمية.
من جانب آخر، أكد شافيت أن السياسة الخارجية لقطر تمثل الذراع السياسية لـ «اسرائيل» والولايات المتحدة في المنطقة، حسبما ذكر موقع جريدة العلم.
وكانت الكاتبة والشاعرة الفرنسية «أدريانا ايفانجيليست» قد وصفت في مدوّنة لها على الأنترنت حاكم «قطر» بـ»الشيخ النفطي» وأنه «شيطان» كبير للموساد ولوكالة الإستخبارات الأميركية (سي آي إيه).
مضيفة: هذه هي الحقيقة.. أمير «قطر» أداة للموساد والـ»سي آي إيه» وخائن للعرب والسلام، مردفة أنه خلد كبير للموساد ولوكالة الإستخبارات الأميركية «سي آي إيه» وهذا كلام لا يرقى إليه الشك بسبب مواقفه إزاء «ليبيا» و»سورية» و»مصر» و»تونس».
الكاتبة والشاعرة الفرنسية ترى في الشيخ القطري أنه أكبر خائن يمكن أن تحمله الأرض.. خائن للعرب وخيانته المزدوجة ستتم مكافأتها قريباً، معربة عن قناعتها بأن سيف العدالة الذي يدعي حمله سينقلب عليه، وخاصة في هذه الفترة التي يجب أن يسلّط فيها الضوء على كل شيء.
واستهجنت الكاتبة الفرنسية سكوت العالم على أفعال هذا الشيخ القطري بالقول: يجب أن نرى ما فعل في «ليبيا» وما يستمر بالقيام به في «سورية»، متسائلة: كيف يمكن له أن يكون غير ذلك، وخاصة عندما نعلم أنه يزور بشكل سري «إسرائيل» للتنسيق مع الصهاينة!.
وقالت الشاعرة الفرنسية: إن قناة «الجزيرة» محطة هذا الأمير التلفزيونية لم تبث أي مقطع فيديو يظهر زياراته إلى «إسرائيل» لأنها تفضل أن تبث معلومات كاذبة حول ما يجري في «سورية» لدفع العالم للاعتقاد أن الجرائم التي يرتكبها الإرهابيون الذين تمولهم «قطر» هي من عمل الحكومة السورية.. ولكن الإسرائيليين نشروا ذلك المقطع بدلاً منه، لأنه من الواضح أن الصهاينة لا يعرفون الاحتفاظ بالسر وخاصة ما يتعلق بزيارات الأجانب لهم وقد دفع الأمير الثمن.
وسخرت الكاتبة من تحليلات الأمير السياسية بالقول إنه يروّج لـ«إسرائيل» بأنها ترغب دوماً بالسلام وهذا الكلام «ينطبق على جزء من الإسرائيليين لا يؤخذ برأيهم» كما هي الحال في «فرنسا» فهم مضطرون لتحمل النظام الصهيوني الذي يريد الحرب دائماً

I believe HBJ is an Arab nationalist.

Above is only propaganda. We are all used to Takhween when one does not serve our agenda. HBJ is against the regime therefore he MUST be a Mossad. This ME mentality of Takhween have to stop.

Tara

HBJ an Arab nationalist? Do you really believe that?
Your naivety in putting a label on people to fit your romantic fantasies is touching.

Syria’s Kurdish Supreme Council (KSC) bans more refugees from fleeing to Iraqi Kurdistan

April 2, 2013

Syria’s Kurdish Supreme Council (KSC) says it is banning any further emigration of Syrian Kurds across the border to Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region “under any conditions,” putting a halt to the large numbers escaping Syria’s anti-regime civil war.

“The council decided to place constraints on emigration of the Kurdish people in Syria to Iraqi Kurdistan due to the large numbers of people who fled the country and resorted to the region over the last few months,” the KSC said in a statement Sunday.

The KSC, a coalition of several Kurdish political parties in Syria, said it was imposing the ban because of “the danger of such a mass emigration on our areas in Syria.” It called on the people to “show cooperation” in this regard.

It added that its armed Popular Protection Units (YPG), which control the border areas, will start to implement the council’s decision immediately, preventing all citizens without special permission from crossing the border to the Kurdistan Region.

215. Syrialover
Thank you for this Moaz intervention.
Hope so much that it is people like him who will prevail over this nightmarish brood.

March : bloodiest month in Syria.
March: Deliveries of KSA provides Croatian weapons

Any connection?

Supposedly more weapons to the rebels would allow them to better protect the civilians.

For Egyptians and Tunisians, the ‘freedom’ they fought for implies a better life and better paid jobs. Obsessed by holding on power, the Moslem Brotherhood is trapped in its own rhetoric as he can’t fulfill any of its promises .

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/68283/Egypt/Politics-/Protesters-block-railways-in-Tanta-and-Assiut-.aspx

The workers at a state-run company in Tanta in the Nile Delta are demanding unpaid financial incentives and permanent contracts.

Local residents in Upper Egypt’s Assiut blocked the Cairo-High Dam railway on Tuesday in a separate protest over fuel and bread shortages.

Train drivers will take part in a nationwide strike on Wednesday if the government fails to respond to their demands.

Drivers were to begin their strike on Monday but the action was delayed for two days after the government said it would meet their demands. The demands include additional bonuses, weekly holiday allowances and equality with Metro drivers.

tara,
many Syrians who are falling in love now with HBJ are doing so out of their justified disgust with the regime but that does not mean HBJ is an “arab nationalist” or even a good leader. Qatar was and still is an ally of israel and NATO, it is the home of one of US largest military bases in the Middle East and the emirate is ruled by a family that gives Qataris no choice but to say YES to anything the ruling elite does, dissent even on twitter takes you to jail in Qatar.
You can hate the regime as much as you want but please let us not kid ourselves about Qatar and the GCC pimps.

Even in Tunisia, Syrians are divided
Challenges of Arab Uprisings Reflected at World Social Forum
by Medea Benjamin

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/04/02-4

This clash between Islamists and secularists in the Arab world was present throughout the Forum.
…..
But it was the conflict in Syria that really spilled over into the forum in an ugly way, with supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shouting down and beating up opposition supporters—even women. Rumor had it that the Assad government purposely sent provocateurs to the forum. The atmosphere was so explosive that a group wanting to discuss nonviolent alternatives in Syria felt compelled to leave campus and meet instead in a downtown hotel.

Zoo,

Romantic fantasies? May be in regard to some regime supporters that I like to believe they hide enormous deal of humanity below their evil facade of supporting a savage regime..

What is your evidence? He became a traitor because he doesn’t ‘worship Batta? So do I!

No more bellicose rhetoric, no comment on the murdered Imam in Aleppo, no visit of SNC leaders in Istanbul anymore, why is Erdogan so silent about Syria?
Is the SNC a exclusive property of Qatar now?

It really does not matter if Syrian leaders are pro or anti-Israel. For a good say, 10 years, after the war is over, Syria will be mainly interested in two things which is rebuilding Syria and getting Syrians jobs. These two are not compatible with anything more than anti-Israel rhetoric. Syria will need all the help it can get from the international community and it will not get it if it is not a responsible actor in the middle east. All the talk whether a certain leader is this or that is irrelevant in my opinion. Syrians need a leader that can make their economy strong, not one that can give nationalistic speeches. Assad failed miserably because his economic policies were a disaster. It would be a mistake to repeat that.

As I kept telling the regime idiots on this blog for years, you can have “resistance” or you can have economic development, but you cannot have both. I was proven right of course. This is also true for a post-Assad Syria. This does not mean peace with Israel or liking Israel, but it does mean putting aside violent means to combat Israel for quite a long period of time.

I can hear the pin drop NewZ

why is Erdogan so silent about Syria

Zoo,

Maybe because Syria is run by an arab dictator and not by a Zionist democracy? Just guessing.

#225 Zoo

At this point, Mr. Alkhatib seems to be the best hope to save Syria. He does not need allies as much as he needs people like you to support him. He is a unifying figure and can do for Syria what Nelson Mandella did for South Africa. Syria was an apartheid state for half a century, and we are now reaping the fruit of the system. Regime supporters and minorities cannot be saved by Assad and his gangs. They can, however, be saved by a genuine unifying figure like Mr. Alkhatib. I hope they do not waste the chance.

Salafists and Jihadists are taking over the tribal leaders

http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/one-fighters-story-reveals-the-challenge-syria-faces#page1

Lawlessness is spreading in Deir Ezzor, made worse by increasing oil-related disputes among FSA fighters and local militias.

Multiple sources from different areas say Salafi-leaning fighters are currently almost the only people who focus on fighting the regime and conscientiously catering to the daily needs of their communities. The opposition’s remarkable detachment from what is happening in Deir Ezzor is another factor in the rising popularity of Salafi and jihadi fighters.

In Deir Ezzor, the government collapsed shortly after the uprising became armed. Regime forces shelled or bombed certain areas. A strong social structure has helped to limit lawlessness in the province, compared to other areas of Syria. But that is quickly changing. Tribal leaders, although they can still use their clout to mediate and solve disputes, feel the situation is getting out of control, mainly due to disputes over resources.

This prompted Sheikh Rami Shaher Al Doush, a prominent tribal leader from Shuhail town in Deir Ezzor, to speak last weekend of oil disputes as “the problem of all problems” and “imminent danger … In a few months, we will not even be able to bury our dead because of it”. He added that “our authority [as tribal leaders] to end this issue is becoming weak”.
He urged other tribal leaders to join armed men from credible groups in the province – he cited Salafi and Jihadi groups – to stop the ad hoc oil trade. “If we do not stand up together against it, it will be more dangerous to us than anything else.”

Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/one-fighters-story-reveals-the-challenge-syria-faces#ixzz2PK3LISGH
Follow us: @TheNationalUAE on Twitter | thenational.ae on Facebook

#242 Hopeful

Al Khatib is only popular within a tiny part of the Syrian population.

His preaching is moving some romantics who dream of a Nelson Mandela to save Syria and who want to be reassured by a preacher that God is on the side of the opposition.

He could be an advisor on humanitarian and religious matters, but I doubt he will turn out to be butterfly.

If anyone has hopes of Khatib or HJB being saviors for Syria they’re clearly deluded.

# Zoo & Rev

Syria can only be saved by a unifying figure. Do you believe otherwise?

Can you try to explain to me what you would envision Syria to be like if the regime manages to survive and crush the rebels? An impossible scenario in my opinion, but I just want t play it out to hear your thoughts on what “the day after” would be in your opinion in this scenario?

239. zoo said:

no visit of SNC leaders in Istanbul anymore, why is Erdogan so silent about Syria?

 
You have an illness which forces you to mention Turkey out of nowhere.

Leave Turkey alone, and focus on the subject at hand: Assad is using Migs on his own cities, do you approve of such actions.

Hopeful if Assad doesn’t win Syria will be destroyed. That is what it all boils down to. That’s the bottom line. Everything else is a waste of time.

I am surprised you see Khatib as a unifying figure. Millions of Syrians see him as a traitor who they want dead.

edward dark ‏@edwardedark 30 Mar
next tweets are about what rebels did after they entered Shiekh Maksoud area in Aleppo. All taken from eyewitnesses who live there #Syria

edward dark ‏@edwardedark 30 Mar
rebels seemed to have an organized car theft branch, all cars in Shiekh Maksoud were stolen or towed away. others were simply burned #Syria

edward dark ‏@edwardedark 30 Mar
after rebels entered Shiekh Maksoud, they proceeded to loot the stores there, they carried off the goodw in pick ups, then burnt the shops

edward dark ‏@edwardedark 30 Mar
rebels beheaded the cleric of a mosque in Shiekh Maksoud in public, then took his body and kidnapped his son #Syria

edward dark ‏@edwardedark 30 Mar
rebels had a list of people & houses they wanted in Shiekh Maksud, they went around burning those houses % blew up a whole 3 story building

edward dark ‏@edwardedark 30 Mar
many people who were on the rebel’s wanted list were beheaded on the spot, their houses burnt -Shiekh Maksud #Syria

edward dark ‏@edwardedark 30 Mar
@BSyria yes, I am 100% certain of this. It was done by an Islamist faction, haven’t confirmed the name yet, but there are many eyewitnesses

If you have armed gangsters who are beyond the control of the opposition, what is the point to discuss political solution?

From the EU/CIA/al Qaeda/Salafi/Jew/KSA Press:

Egypt’s state Investment Authority says it will revoke the license of a private TV station that airs a popular satirist if he does not stop the use of “unacceptable and offensive” language.

The warning comes two days after the satirist, Bassem Youssef, was questioned by prosecutors over accusations that he insulted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and Islam, and a day after the U.S. criticized the Egyptian government for a “disturbing trend” of growing restrictions on freedom of expression.

The Investment Authority said it has received complaints about Youssef’s ridicule of “symbols of the nation” together with insults and sexual innuendos violating the operating license’s conditions.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-april-1-2013/morsi–viva-hate—-egyptian-democracy

“Revolution” supporters i.e. terrorists are always stunned by Dark’s tweets given he was one of the biggest cheerleaders of the fake revolution until he saw it up close.

He is doing a valuable service to shake the idiots who believe in delusions out of those delusions.

Ghufran, Zoo

I may not be that well read in regard to Qatar. Kindly find a report of human right abuse of native Qataris to share with us. I have not heard of any civil unrest in Qatar.

—
Dark who? As if the revolution care about some unknown imposter tweeting..

The regime idiots again equate one faction of the rebels with ALL the rebels. First they complain that the opposition is not unified and then they blame the action of one group on all the rest. Typical propaganda logic.

What is clear is that even though Assad is “winning”, he can’t protect people in Aleppo.

Hopeful asked a very good question: How do the regime idiots see Syria at the end of the war? He got the regular answer: “Bashar or we burn Syria.”

Two Tickets to Paradise

Hopeful if Assad doesn’t win Syria will be destroyed.

I swear, that’s what Mitt Romney should of done to secure his presidency of the USA.

Now we’re stuck with Obama. The Syrians are smarter than we are.

jon stewart-leibowitz is a zionist jew giving the usual jewish BS.

“Syria: Democracy vs. Foreign Invasion. Who is Bashar Al Assad?”

By Arabi Souri Global Research, March 31, 2013

http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-democracy-vs-the-foreign-invasion-who-is-bashar-al-assad/5329181

Bashar al-Assad has been systematically demonized by the mainstream and so-called alternative media who claim that he is a brutal dictator.

Actually Bashar is a reformer who has done much to further the causes of democracy and freedom. It is the “opposition” and their foreign supporters which represent the most repressive elements of the former ruling party in Syria.

To fully understand this its is helpful to look at the historical context of the current crisis. The so-called “spontaneous popular uprising” started in Daraa on March 15th, 2011. The court house, police stations, governor’s house, and other public buildings were looted and torched by the “peaceful protestors” in the first week of the crisis. The people in Homs then began to protest in solidarity with Daraa, but this was uncharacteristic of peaceful Homs and many Syrians knew that it was a fake revolution.

About 110 unarmed police officers were murdered in Daraa and Homs, sparking anger against the “revolutionaries.” There was an incident in the city Baniyas where an Alawite truck driver was attacked by an armed mob, skinned, and paraded through the city. This was strongly resented by almost all Syrians and since then not a single major city actually rebelled against the government.

The foreign backed “revolutionaries” would attack a neighborhood, police station, or army base, from across the borders of Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq. Then they would claim that the city was in rebellion.

But the Syrians, seeing the same lies in all the western and Arab news stations, and the exiled rotten officials adopting the ‘revolution’, mostly took an anti-revolution stance. That is why whenever the rebels would infest a town or city you would immediately hear of a massacre to punish the residents for not supporting them. Of course the mainstream media would claim that it was Assad forces punishing the town that dared to oppose him!

Assad took advantage of the revolution to introduce his packages of reforms, putting aside those in the old guards who opposed them. Many of the old guard then joined the opposition abroad.

The opposition demanded the removal of article 8 from the Syrian constitution making the Baath Party head of the government. Instead of just deleting it Bashar Assad had the constitution re-written buy a specialized committee of Syrian experts from all parties in Syria and with input from all Syrians.

A referendum was held and the new constitution was approved with almost 90% of a voter turnout of 60%.

Assad then enacted a Media Law that would allow more freedom of expression and the establishment of new independent media outlets. Assad eased requirements on the formation of political parties, excluding sectarian based parties. We now have at least nine new political parties.

Municipal elections were held in December 2011. Many of those who won seats were assassinated or threatened throughout the country by the same revolutionaries who claimed to want democracy. Parliamentary elections were held in May 2012 with no eligibility restraints on the candidates.
Many new members of parliament have also been assassinated by the FSA including the wife and three daughters of parliament elect trustee Abdulla Mishleb in the infamous Houla massacre.
Historical Context: Syria in the 1980s

Recent events can be better understood in the context of Syrian history. Bashar al-Assad is the son of late president Hafez al-Assad. Hafez was described by western mainstream media as a tyrant and oppressor but he was not nearly as bad as any other leader in his time like Thatcher, Reagan, or any of the region’s rulers including Turkey’s military rule.The current anti-Assad opposition often refer to the 1982 Hama ‘massacre’.

They claim that Hafez besieged the city and then bombed it killing up to 40,000 civilians. I lived in Damascus at that time and you must understand the conditions in the country at the time to know what really happened.

1) The Muslim Brotherhood was engaged in a war of terror at that time, nothing less than what the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is doing now. The Muslim Brotherhood’s forces were called the ‘Fighting Vanguard’ (Arabic “Al Taleea Al Muqatleh”). Many of the present leaders of the FSA are the same men who led the Fighting Vanguard in the 80s; and they were as savage as their sons now. One of the Fighting Vanguard’s bombings included the Azbakiyeh Bombing in Damascus which took the lives of over 175 civilians and injured hundreds more, and there were many other terror attacks.

2) The entire Hama episode was led by Hafez al-Assad’s younger brother (Bashar al-Assad’s uncle) Rifaat Assad. Rifaat was heading the Saraya Difaa (later to become the Republican Guard). At that time the Syrian minister of defense was Mustapha Tlass, and the Syrian minister of foreign affairs was Abdul Halim Khaddam. All three of them: Riffaat al-Assad, Mustapha, and Abdul Khaddam are leading and financing the political opposition against Bashar from abroad right now.In the current conflict Mustapha’s son Manaf Tlass was sent to negotiate a settlement with his cousins who were rebelling in Rastan.

3) But instead of negotiating he gave them weapons from the Republican Guards caches and leaked secrets causing the deaths of many Republican Guard soldiers at the hands of the FSA.Thirty years after the fighting in Hama a report by US intelligence was declassified revealing that the death toll didn’t even reach 2,000. That number included 400 Muslim Brotherhood Fighting Vanguard militants; many Syrian Army soldiers and officers; Baath Party and other state officials; and a number of civilians who were caught in the fire.

4) Syria was under harder sanctions than it is now. Syria has been under increasingly severe western sanctions since 1956, 15 years before Hafez Assad took power.

Late Hafez Assad followed a more complex policy regarding foes and foreign agents in his government than Bashar does. Hafez would keep his foes in their posts but under his watchful eyes.

When Bashar was selected by the Syrian Parliament to succeed his father in 2000 he removed all of the treasonous foes and foreign agents that Hafez had maintained in office.Bashar’s first reform was to ease some political restrictions, allowing politicians to move more freely. In June 2000 the Damascus Spring was started. It lasted until Autumn 2001 by which time most of the treasonous opposition’s foreign funding, and relations with the US Department of State and corporate think tanks had been exposed. The corrupt officials and their families were expelled from Syria and settled in foreign countries.

They used their massive accumulations of wealth to mount political opposition to Bashar from abroad. In 2003 the US was occupying Iraq.

US Secretary of State Collin Powell visited Bashar and handed him a list of demands including:

1. Cutting all ties with the five main Palestinian factions in Syria,

2. Severing Syria’s relations with Iran in exchange for a promise of better relations with some Arab states.

3. Signing a peace treaty with Israel similar to one Syria had already refused.

4. Removing books from schools with any enmity towards Israel.

5. Allowing western banks and companies unhindered access to Syrian markets and resources along with other neo-liberal reforms.

Bashar refused these demands in the face of the nearly 200,000 coalition troops across the Syrian border in Iraq. Instead Bashar sought to hinder the occupation of Iraq and demanded that the occupying forces withdraw. Because of the proximity of Damascus to the western boarder with Lebanon Syria has the strategic need to secure this border. None the less in 2000 Bashar started withdrawing Syrian troops from Lebanon where they had battled Israeli forces.

The troops were reduced from 35,000 in the year 2000 to 14,000 in early 2004.In 2005 Lebanese Prime Minster Rafic Hariri was assassinated with the help of members of the Lebanese Future Movement party and likely the help of the US and France. This was a political blow to Assad within Lebanon, and he was also blamed for the assassination using media manipulation and prepared activists.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese took to the streets to condemn the killing of Hariri including members of Syria’s closest allies Hizbullah and Amal.The media claimed that the crowds were against the Syrian Army presence in Lebanon. US and France tried to pressure Assad into reinforcing the Syrian Army in Lebanon to stabilize the country but Bashar withdrew all Syrian troops from Lebanon.

This background gives the context accompanying president Assad’s reform attempts in Syria, where he had to face foreign powers from abroad and their agents from within.

The current crisis is not a civil war or rebellion, but a foreign aggression against a sovereign nation.

Cutting & Pasting for my Poster Child God NewZ

5 Ahmads,

Thank you for that informative article from “Global Research”.

Do you always post stuff from such kooky websites?

I mean, while their article fawns over the Syrian Poster Child God of Baathism, I noticed they ALSO have a theme directly on the issue of “Police States” & “Civil Rights”.

Why would a “research” organization like this support Assad as well as civil rights? I mean the two are as far apart as democracy and anti-semites like yourself.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/theme/police-state-civil-rights

#252 Tara

Not worth a reply.

Syrian, Iraqi jihadi groups said to be cooperating

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and DIAA HADID
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_IRAQ_SYRIA_JIHADI_ALLIANCE_?SECTION=HOME&SITE=AP&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

BAGHDAD (AP) — The wounded Syrian government troops were returning to their country in trucks escorted by Iraqi soldiers. They’d almost reached the border, near the frontier town of Akashat, when the attackers struck.

Regional intelligence officials saw the March 4 ambush, which left 48 dead, as evidence of a growing, cross-border alliance between two powerful Islamic extremist groups – al-Qaida in Iraq and Jabhat al-Nusra or Nusra Front in Syria. Nusra Front is the most effective rebel faction fighting President Bashar Assad’s regime, and the U.S. designates both Sunni jihadi groups as terrorist organizations

#257

You mean you do not have one?

Was not expecting one.

Have we ever had a weaker president than Obama? 

The US’s reluctance to arm the Syrian rebels or get involved in the conflict directly is partly due to America’s wish not to upset Iran at a critical time in nuclear negotiations, Javier Solana, the former EU foreign policy chief, has said.
….
The US’s reluctance to arm the Syrian rebels or get involved in the conflict directly is partly due to America’s wish not to upset Iran at a critical time in nuclear negotiations, Javier Solana, the former EU foreign policy chief, said yesterday:

I think that the United States has not taken a more active role in Syria from the beginning because they didn’t want to disturb the possibility, to give them space, to negotiate with Iran. They probably knew that getting very engaged against Assad, engaged even militarily, could contribute to a break in the potential negotiations with Tehran.

Solana was one of the negotiators with Iran until 2009.

James F Jeffrey, a former US ambassador to Iraq, agreed, telling the Associated Press:

Resolving the nuclear impasse with Iran is the biggest challenge this year in the Middle East, and that requires careful handling of not only Iran, but Russia and China. Decisions on Syria and other international questions certainly will be taken in this context.

Seven-party talks with Iran are due to resume in Kazakhstan this week. Along with Russia, Tehran is one of Bashar al-Assad’s key international backers. Iranian forces are believed to be fighting alongside Assad’s army, and a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander was killed outside Damascus in February.

AP summarises the history of the talks so far:

Off-and-on talks between Iran and the world powers the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany, known as P5+1 began after the six nations offered Tehran a series of incentives in 2006 in exchange for a commitment to stop uranium enrichment and other activities that could be used to make weapons. Iran long has maintained that it is enriching uranium only to make reactor fuel and medical isotopes, and insists it has a right to do so under international law.

Last summer, the US and European Union hit Iran’s economy and oil industry with tough sanctions to force it to comply. But Iran has continued its program despite the sanctions. In February, in an attempt to move flagging negotiations forward, the world powers offered broader concessions to Iran, including letting it keep a limited amount of enriched uranium and suspend but not fully close a bunker-like nuclear facility near the holy city of Qom. The world powers’ offer, which also included removing some of the Western sanctions, was hailed by Iran as an important step forward in the process.
(…)
From the Guardian

#201 Majedalkhaldoon

Why are you not telling the whole story about Zayd, the “adoptive” son of the Prophet?

Zayd was a slave and the prophet freed him and treated him as his son and he lived with him.
Zayd married Zeynab ben Jahash but he divorced her to allow the Prophet, his ‘father’ to marry Zeynab. That marriage did not last either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zayd_ibn_Harithah#Marriage_to_Zaynab_bint_Jahsh

You wrote:

“Zayd was adopted by the prophet but he knew his father was Haritha, Zayd lived with the prophet,till he became adult and could take care of himself then he moved out.”

#259 Tara

Any argument will fall on deaf ears.
You hate Bashar, you love HBJ. Simple.

The fate of Fahd Jassem Al-Freij, so-called defence minister of thugocracy, is now unclear, after the heroes of the FSA succeeded in targeting the ammunition supply building near Sayda Zainab district completely destroying the supply center. Freij convoy was passing by at the time of the incident.

The building is a main supply centre for ALL the thugs in including those of the evil-possessed Hezbos of Nus-lira.

On the other hand the criminal regime continues to posture promising the people of Damascus increased levels of destruction in the upcoming days indicating that its Killing Machine will use new destructive weapons with even more destruction powers.

http://www.alarabiya.net/ar/arab-and-world/syria/2013/04/03/غموض-يكتنف-مصير-وزير-الدفاع-السوري-.html

# Zoo

And you worship Bashar…and anything Iranian. And hate everything else..

Simple too.

Amid Syria’s Atrocities, Kurds Scratch Out a Home

Will the minority group succeed at creating a flourishing, autonomous region after Assad?

EXCERPT:

In northeast Syria, Kurdish militias have carved out a zone of control independent from both the Assad regime and the Syrian rebels. The power on the ground in this area is the Syrian franchise of the PKK guerrilla organization, a militant nationalist Kurdish movement that has been waging war against Turkey since 1984.

The Syrian Kurds are determined to preserve their fragile autonomy, but rebels, backed by the Turkish government, are equally committed to nullifying it.

One of the side effects of the turmoil in the Middle East over the last decade has been the significant improvement in the strategic position of the Kurds. The Kurds were the main losers of the Middle East states system that emerged following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, when the area of Kurdish population was divided up between four new states – Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran.

The Syrian Kurds are determined to preserve their fragile autonomy, but rebels, backed by the Turkish government, are equally committed to nullifying it.

In recent decades, the survival of brutal, repressive military-nationalist regimes in key Arab states prevented change in the Arab world. Among these states were two of the main sites of Kurdish residence – Iraq and Syria.

In the last ten years, two processes have changed this situation. First, the U.S. destruction of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq enabled the emergence of a quasi-sovereign Kurdish entity in northern Iraq. The Kurdish Regional Government is today the most flourishing and stable part of what was once Saddam’s domain.

Secondly, the rebellion that broke out in Syria in March 2011 has led to the contraction of the Bashar Assad regime and its departure from most of Kurdish-majority northeast Syria. The result has been the emergence of a second Kurdish de facto self-governing area.

This new area of Kurdish quasi-independence is a far more fragile construct than the well-established KRG in northern Iraq. It is the subject of the unwelcome attention of both remaining regime forces and elements among the Syrian rebels. Its survival has important implications, both for the Kurds themselves and for the future of Syria.

In mid-February, I traveled into the Kurdish controlled part of Syria. I wanted to get a sense of the true relations between this uneasy new enclave, the forces of the rising, mainly Islamist rebels and the declining regime.

Continues…

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/amid-syrias-atrocities-kurds-scratch-out-a-home/274573/

263#

Good riddance!

At least Hamad bin Jassim has done something for the people, Qatar GDP is enormous.
What have the Rafidah done in Syria? Atrocity du jour on YouTube.

Tara

I don’t worship anybody and I am consistent in criticizing the opposition’s inability to present an acceptable alternative to all Syrians.
I think that this revolution was premature and turned out to be a tragic disaster for Syria.
In the end, there will be negotiations and Bashar won’t be toppled.

Yup, Qatar is like Monaco, and princess Moza is like princess Grace

Minus the Casino..and the French riviera

Former “revolution” supporter now in Aleppo:

edward dark ‏@edwardedark 32m
hearing a lot of accusations that rebels raped girls after entering Shiekh Maksud in Aleppo, especially minorities. can’t confirm it #Syria

edward dark ‏@edwardedark 13m
@Talalsaa those same rebels beheaded a cleric, executed ppl, stole cars and looted shops and burned houses when they entered Shiekh Maksud

edward dark ‏@edwardedark 9m
@Talalsaa well, those are the types of rebels that operate in Aleppo, the majority of them anyway, little more than common criminals

There is good report by Elizabeth Obaji dated march 24, it is long 30 page but worth reading about FSA

271. REVENIRE
يعني بدنا عالم بالجرائم ادوارد عبد الصمد لحتى يوصف لنا الحالة الجرمية لكي يتم الاعتراف بها و اقرارها ؟ لقد علقوا رأس الرجل المقطوع أعلى المئذنة لترويع السكان بأطفاله و شيوخه و نسائه. ولا تذهب بعيداففي هذا الموقع يتم بعناية اختيار كل الصور و الفيديويات و الخرائط الملونة و الكارتونيات ذات التأثير المروع و النفسي و توضع في مقدمة مقالات السيد لانيس .

http://youtu.be/m6qyKmHB4ps?t=52s

The West and the US have been unable to shake Al-Assad loose from his power in Syria, no matter how much arms and training have been given to rebel forces for the last two years.

It will most probably take a true, overt invasion to start that process; the questions remain as to who will start the process, and when it will happen. This is no longer a question of if, because the US and the West have come too far down this road to quit or give up now.

But a question I hope the adults in the bowels of power of NATO, the US, and Tel Aviv are asking themselves, and each other is, what, precisely, is the government of Russia prepared to do when this starts?? I will remind you ! Then will be no surprises.

Zoo

“I don’t worship anybody”

No insight?

Don’t you think that your inability to see the possibility of finding one person among 22 millions to lead the country, and always admiring the one and only, no matter how stupidly and savagely he ran the crisis from day one is worshiping? If this is not worshiping, then please tell me what is it? How do you define your emotional state towards Bashar? Infatuation? Profound love? Admiration ? What is it?

One must be honest with his emotions and just call it the way it is.

MAJEDKHALDOUN (#272) said:

“There is good report by Elizabeth Obaji dated march 24, it is long 30 page but worth reading about FSA”

WHERE?

Tara anyone knows the president of a nation is the symbol of that nation. Assad is Syria. Syria is Assad.

#276 Tara

I admire Bashar for his pride, resilience, self-control and his ability to outsmart a coalition of powerful and richer countries that want to destroy Syria under the pretext of saving it from a ‘brutal dictator’.
No leader could have survived such gigantic assault, keep his army intact and a large part of the population, sunnis, alawites, druze, kurds loyal to him.
It is an incredible achievement and even his enemies are stunned and enraged.

I despise the opposition that has shown cowardice, petty divisions, foreign dependency and corruption even before they took power.

I don’t see any solution than negotiations with the regime once the opposition would have finally realized that they have lost control of the revolution in favor of Islamists extremists that even the Syrians opposed to Bashar hate.

Just remember that Ataturk was hated by a large part of Turks and by the West when he was in power. Now he is worshiped as a hero.

TARA,

You ask what motivates regime supporters to persist at all cost, defying reason and moral sense.

The answer is usually that they have something invested in the Assad-run system, something personal at stake.

Money, position, connections, status, protection, privileges, patronage, whatever. It will be something they couldn’t get under a freer and more open system.

The real story about Bashar Assad. Not much pride, strength and independence here.

Daddy Dearest – Inside the mind of Bashar al-Assad

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/03/04/daddy-dearest-inside-the-mind-of-bashar-al-assad.html

COMMENT: A Syrian writer demystifies the Assads

(Sorry ZOO, but it rings very true)

What is independence for a country? A warning to the SNC that already sold Syria to Qatar.

Mustafa Kemal’s basic tenet was the complete independence of the country. He clarified his position:
“ …by complete independence, we mean of course complete economic, financial, juridical, military, cultural independence and freedom in all matters. Being deprived of independence in any of these is equivalent to the nation and country being deprived of all its independence.

#281 SL

Thousands of contemporary writers wrote similar pseudo-psychoanalysis of Ataturk, Gamal Abdel Nasser and other leaders.
Who reads them now?

SL

In addition, by using a parody of a book title written by actress Joan Crawford’s daughter describing her monstrous mother, that ‘syrian writer’ is revealing which audience he is aiming at.. movie tabloid readers.

#280 SL

Try harder…

Momentum is shifting
in favor of the opposition.128
Syria’s state security apparatus will fall apart as the Assad
regime finishes its transformation into a militia-like
entity.129 The Supreme Military Command is currently
the only organization that could serve to fill the
security vacuum left by this transformation. If properly
supported, the SMC could establish a monopoly of force
in Syria and potentially serve as the next Syrian Army.
Further Obaji described the different groups in the opposition, their differences,their support and finances,my understanding from her report that Syr Islamist front,and the Nusra are more powerful in the south and around Damascus, while the secular nationalistic forces comprise the SMC are more powerful around Aleppo.
The weapons the rebels posses are more powerful,more accurate from a distance,much better than the Assad troops has
The weapons, which include
RPG-22 rocket launchers, M79 Osa rocket launchers,
M60 recoilless rifles, and Milkor MGL/RBG-6 grenade
launchers, were all designed, manufactured, and used
in the former Yugoslavia, and none of them are part
of the Syrian military arsenal.120 This influx of new
foreign weapons helped spark a series of surprise attacks
capturing several towns, border crossings, and roads in
Deraa province. These weapons have also been linked to
the offensive in Damascus, and reports suggest that they
are playing a key role in the fight for the capital.121

An intelligence analyst says the recent FBI arrest of US soldier and alleged CIA agent, Eric Harroun, for joining foreign-backed militants in Syria is a mockery of US operations as it shows the CIA and FBI’s disunity. The comment comes as Harroun’s father Darryl says his son was serving the CIA in Syria and reporting back to the Agency from the country. He says his son, who was arrested and charged with conspiracy on Wednesday for fighting with al-Qaeda-linked militants, is extremely patriotic and would not join militants.

However, the FBI affidavit mentioned no word of Harroun working for the CIA. Harroun, 30, was arrested upon arriving at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, after fighting with the notorious al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front in Syria since January. The detained soldier has confessed to shooting 10 people and using a rocket-propelled grenade while in Syria and being involved in downing a Syrian chopper. He is also charged with plotting to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the US.

http://youtu.be/1rMEYr6BOYs?t=45s

Majed

The FSA will be at the negotiating table with Bashar al Assad instead of the SNC very soon for a military transitional government.

Qatar will loose its role in Syria as it lost it in Tunisia and in Libya.

Will be nano-weapons in hands of Syrian Arab army if you increase in chatter!!!!

Zoo,

You are aching my heart again.  I wish I can dismiss your character as SL suggested as someone invested in Assad-run system and that you have something personal at-stake.  I would be very happy placing you under the same category as Reve and Ann.  I would simply pity the character for the miserable evil sub being it represents, detach my self, and that is that.  

You admire him for his pride, resilience, self-control, and intelligence.  Ok.  But how  can you disregard the sheer barbarity and savagery that occurred under his watch or based on his instructions?  Do you think the regime did not torture children?  Do you not believe he killed peaceful demonstrators?  Do you not believe the incident where shabeehas stepped on demonstrators?  Do you not believe the security thugs burned people alive or set them in fire when they refuse to say no God except Bashar?  Do you not believe he air-bombarded cities and towns?  Or used cluster bumbs? Do you not believe that his security forces committed even one massacre?  Do you not believe the incident where they shot the older women looking for their children dead?

You can’t possibly admire him if you believe that any of the above has happened.  Can you?  
If you believe that any combinations of the above did happen and you still admire him then I 
simply my mind can not fathom it except in the context of worship.  You may call it admiration but it is not.  It is worshiping.  

Or may be you think that none of the above taken place and that all were forged by the opposition?  And therefore you continue to support your “hero”.

Where do you stand?         

No ZOO, YOU try harder.

You obviously haven’t read the story yet, or you wouldn’t make such silly irrelevant comments. It’s nothing to do with Hollywood, you are clutching at air on the headline.

Read it and you’ll see it is 100% pure Syrian. By a respected Syrian writer who has lived his life there and actually knows the score with the Assads. Not some outside keyboard jockey who relies on others scripts.

Anyone who missed it, here’s a chance to see Bashar is a clearer light:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/03/04/daddy-dearest-inside-the-mind-of-bashar-al-assad.html

I see it has made ZOO very uncomfortable and he seems emotionally unable to digest it.

TARA, have you read that insightful article on Bashar?

Read it and you will find it’s a case of say no more. It punctures any fantasies about Bashar Assad’s personal qualities.

Bad news for ZOO.

#291 SL

Don’t worry, after the massive amount of demonization and hate-filled articles written on Bashar, one more one less does not make much difference.

In any case I think they are an excellent consolation for frustrated opponents so they stop grinding their teeth with rage.
You are doing a generous action in telling the anti-bashar to read them. I hope it reassures them.

#290 Tara

I have nothing to add.
You have asked the same question several times and I have responded the same way several times. I hope you won’t ask again as I won’t reply anymore.

Zoo# 294

Your answer means you do believe that he committed savage acts and you still “admire”. It may be admiration alright but lot of ordinary people like me call it worshiping.

Will the USA allow Syria to become the new front for the global Jihadist movement by favoring the fall of Bashar Al Assad through military means?

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/04/02/humility_now

The war in Iraq provided al Qaeda with a new front for its struggle with the West. After the invasion, Zarqawi — the man who would lead al Qaeda in Iraq — pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and, consequently, money and weapons flowed into the country. The United States didn’t “face down” al Qaeda in Iraq; it inadvertently helped Zarqawi evolve from a lone extremist with a loose network to a charismatic leader of al Qaeda. By extension, it would be safe to say that the al Qaeda in Iraq affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, exists because of the Iraq invasion, and likely would find new authority and power if the United States made Syria the next front for the global jihadist movement. oi

ZOO@262
I don’t know how you got that conclusion and where did you read the “that marriage did not last either,
I understand your spinning the news when it come to Syria,But what does the marriage story has to do with the adoption topic and why you bringing it up now,
All I can I think of is you are trying to insult our holies, So in return I say screw your Bashar
@288
Were you not saying that FSA did not exist few weeks back?
are you in few weeks going to suggest that Batta negotiate with the MB next,so to avoid JAL ?

No ZOO, this is something more authentic and more considered than a demonization article about Bashar Assad.

Do you know as much about the Assad family and understand them like that eminent Syrian writer who has actually lived in the midst of Assadist Syria for decades?

Unless you do, you can’t really make a serious comment on the article linked in #291 above.

It’s a fascinating read for both pro- and anti-Bashar people.

It says in a different way what former regime loyalist Syrian Commando realized and exploded in frustration and stopped publicly supporting Bashar.

I assume you read my account of Syrian Commando’s dramatic online meltdown in the previous thread –
https://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=18336&cp=all#comment-358249
and see Comment #138

#295 Tara

If it makes you feel safer, give any label to what I expressed. Labeling seems to be your way of dealing with complexities you can’t grasp.

Zoo# 299

With all due respect, I think you are projecting your own defense mechanism on me. It took me two years to suggest your emotional connection to Bashar. It took you a day and half to “call me names”.

SL this trashy piece of journalism on Assad is funny.

I find Assad to be very strong – much stronger than his opponents, especially Obama, Cameron, Netanyahu or Erdogan. He projects confidence and a steely calm.

Zoo said it when he said how Assad had stood strong under this huge assault.

I believe when history is written Assad will be remembered as a Nasser-type hero.

http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-new-propaganda-is-liberal-the-new-slavery-is-digital

The new propaganda is liberal. The new slavery is digital.
This article originally appeared in the New Statesman, UK

SL

You are right, I apologize, it was my mistake.
Zeynab, after divorcing from Zayd remained married with The Prophet and died after him.

SL,

I have not read it yet. I have been a master in avoidance behavior. I do not jump to read what gives me dysthemia. I will eventually force myself into it. I kinda came across Bashar at a personal level when I lived in Damascus and I am so underwhelm ( if you will).

Talking about Aleppo and food, The best 2 restaurant in Montreal are Aleppo restaurant and Damascus restaurant. And guess who has the best food? I am soooo jealous… I hate to admit inferiority 😉

…..

Here’s a link to Elizabeth O’Bagy’s Free Syrian Army excutive summery,

http://www.understandingwar.org/report/free-syrian-army

From there you can download a pdf file of the full report.

#304, TARA, it’s an easy and interesting read. You will find a lot that’s familiar and adds to your picture. Enjoy it.

If Aleppo food is in the arena there’s no contest.

#303 Zoo, it is none of my business. But why wasting time engaging debates with those single-minded people? You cannot nudge their stance or mentality a bit.

On the other hand, it is worthwhile to trade opinions on facts and analysis. But do skip fixation of mindset and cheap sophism.

SL,

I enjoyed reading the article you linked to. Seems as though Erdogan and Batta were best buds until Assad decided kill a few thousand demonstrators.

I wonder why Erdogan isn’t making the poster child prethident issue any apologies for shelling Turkish border towns, downing military aircraft, and murdering so many of his own people.

Some things in life cannot be explained.

REVENIRE, nothing is as funny as your comments! 100% satire.

Are you doing anything about getting Syrian Commando back online again?

He was one of Bashar Assad’s most powerful and aggressive advocates out there. That was until he collapsed in angry disillusionment at Bashar’s weakness and indecisiveness.

Your team really couldn’t afford to lose him. And it seems as the weeks pass he can’t be replaced.

You guys need him badly more than ever. He did a far, far stronger job than you or anyone else online.

(See again my account in the previous thread of Syrian Commando’s dramatic online meltdown –
https://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=18336&cp=all#comment-358249
where see Comment #138)

I guess Revenire’s the sort of troll that makes people LAUGH.

At him.

Ha ha ha.

SL and Tara,

“If Aleppo food is in the arena there’s no contest.”

Tese2yeh, Helou, Fawakeh Moujafafeh, Shawarma 3al Fa7em, Sabarah and Chocolates.

Aleppo does not have Damascus beat on all aspects of food!

#310

Can you show us a person who changes heart and mind to switch sides just because of revelation from online comments and tweets?

I do not know what is your purpose to make your comments here. I believe for many of us, we do because it is the way to express ourselves and keep our mind clear on development and problems by articulating our opinions.

Many of us do not do it for propaganda and we do not care for propaganda.

Sami,

Nothing beats Tese2yeh from Damascus. I changed my mind. None beats the Damascene kitchen.

SyriaLover,

I believe this is the report majedKhaldoun is referring to.

http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/The-Free-Syrian-Army-24MAR.pdf

النظام بدأ يستعد ليس لمواجهة المعركة بل للهروب من دمشق ..
عدد كبير من الضباط وعائلاتهم هربوا من العاصمة الى طرطوس .. وقسم كبير من الشبيحة المسلحة تركت العاصمة ..
مؤخرا نقل بشار الأسد كم كبير من السلاح والعتاد والمال من دمشق الى الساحل ..
قررت العصابة الأسدية الانتقال من امل البقاء الى أمل التقسيم ..
We are coming to the battle of Damascus,it already started, but it will take two months to become more violent, Damascus battle will be easier than Aleppo,as the people in Damascus are against Assad,it will get worse before it gets better.
Zoo
FSA will never negotiate with Assad, While I like Moaz Khatib,he is not a strong leader,I will vote for him if he runs for the presidency,but I doubt he will.

أكد مقاتل في “جبهة النصرة” الاسلامية، يسمي نفسه “أبو البراء”، إن عناصر من “الجيش السوري الحر” والقوات الحكومية تبيع النفط الخام من حقول ديرالزور إلى تركيا.
وقال “أبو البراء” في مقابلة مع صحيفة “الغارديان” عبر سكايب “إن آبار النفط حول مدينة ديرالزور تعاني الآن حالة من الفوضى، وتقوم عناصر من الجيش السوري الحر والقوات النظامية ببيع النفط الخام إلى تركيا بالشاحنات”
واضاف “نبحث عن مهندسين متخصصين للتعامل مع آبار النفط لجعلها تعمل، ونقوم في هذه اللحظة بحراسة هذه الآبار ولا نستخدمها على الاطلاق، لكننا نستخدم الغاز فقط لتلبية احتياجات الناس اليومية”.
وقال “أبو البراء” أن وجود الجيش السوري في مدينة ديرالزور الواقعة شرق سورية “يتناقص وهو يسيطر على مطار المدينة وعلى الجبال المحيطة بها فقط، وسنقوم بالتركيز الآن على تحرير المطار وخاصة بعد أن صادرنا كمية كبيرة من الأسلحة من القوات الحكومية”.
وقال “لدينا الآن دبابات روسية وأوكرانية الصنع وعربات مدرعة ومدفعية وصواريخ مضادة للطائرات من طراز كوبرا، ولا نحتاج لشراء أسلحة من العراق بعد الآن”.
واضاف أن “جبهة النصرة بدأت توزيع المساعدات الغذائية المقدمة من قبل منظمة الصليب الأحمر على المدنيين خوفاً من قيام مقاتلين يدّعون بأنهم أعضاء في الجيش السوري الحر ببيع هذه المساعدات للحصول على المال بدلاً من توزيعها على الناس”.
وهاجم “أبو البراء” رئيس الائتلاف الوطني لقوى الثورة والمعارضة السورية، أحمد معاذ الخطيب، لاعتباره أن المقاتلين الأجانب غرباء على سورية، وقال إن هذا الوصف “ينطبق في الواقع على الخطيب واتباعه المقيمين في تركيا معظم الوقت ويتحدثون فقط ويعقدون المؤتمرات الصحافية”، على حد تعبيره.
Translation of rebels plan for Damascus : we will destroy the city if that what it takes to
” liberate” it. If the plan succeeds, Syria will be partitioned and massive sectarian leaning will follow. I hope none if that comes true, Damascus is too pretty and valuable to get destroyed, again.

FYI:
Cast your vote for the leaders, artists, innovators, icons and heroes that you think are the most influential people in the world. Official voting ends on Friday, April 12th. The final TIME 100 list is selected by our editors and will be revealed on Thursday, April 18th.

The Results:

By TIME StaffMarch 28, 2013
(Name, Absolutely, No Way)

Mohamed Morsi 62,296, 71,714

Arvind Kejriwal 30,504, 1,384

Bashar Assad, 27,243, 27,756

Read more: http://time100.time.com/2013

Why not respond to AlKhatib’s initial initiative and release all the women prisoners and proceed with giving a three day cease fire across the country as a good will gesture to start any dialogue?

At one point I thought that the regime would not dialogue until the odds were against it and it saw no way to survive in power and therefore making the playing filed even by arming the rebels would bring it to its senses. This is what Kerry had in mind when he said that we are going to make the regime re think its calculations.

Now it is clear that the regime is only in reactive mode. In the same logic as that of a guerrilla movement facing an army; not losing outright and surviving is considered a victory hence the “victory” of HA against Israel in 2006 comes to mind.

The problem is that the regime is not a guerrilla movement unless it thinks that being in power and staying in power even though over a ruined country is an end in itself without due consideration to the welfare of the people.

I am afraid that this is the case now as I read the posts of ZOO and Ghufran. There is just this idea that staying in power even on a small strip of coastal towns and villages surrounded by chemical weapons is “victory” and it does not matter the cost to staying in this power.

I am now very pessimistic at the prospect of any solution.

I agree with Khatib

It is now essential to sit and talk true and meaningful transition as no one is having any control over anything.

Controlling MRL bombarding this or that neighborhood is not governance.

As for the regime support base, it will have to sleep in the bed it made unless it can come up with separation from the regime immediately.

#313. APPLE_MINI

I’m not sure what you are talking about. Syrian Commando changed his mind about supporting Assad because of what Assad did (or rather didn’t do). Nothing to do with who tweeted what or anything.

Why not read what happened?

Syrian Commando was a powerful and controversial force online, aggressively supporting Assad and attacking his opponents. His absence has left a gap in the Assad international promotional machine.

My purpose in following SC for years is what you describe for most people. Gaining and sharing information and expressing ideas and opinions.

But you would have to talk to sociologists, psychologists, media and political advisers and other experts to know if people “changes heart and mind to switch sides just because of revelation from online comments and tweets?”.

I think they would tell you that yes it happens, and they can demonstrate it scientifically. And that this sort of information particularly influences journalists and politicians and others who shape public opinion.

That’s the basis of the false hopes of various Assadist propagandists who have joined this forum.

this comment in aksalser site summarizes the difference between many of us ,expats, and the people in Syria who are ACTUALLY paying the price for this dirty war:

الاسم : مواطن خايف
العنوان : الطرفين أنجس من بعض
يا شباب والله الموضوع سهل . ياسين بقوش ماتت بقذيفة طايشة من احد الطرفين الاوباش (النظام + الثوار) لأنو الظاهر كل المعلقين مغتربين . يا حبيبي نحن مات عنا عشرة بالحارة قدام عينا وماعرفنا مين قلون . الطرفين دمويين ومو سآلين علينا . مو رايحة غير عالشعب أصحو ياعالم وحاج نتجادل ونختلف خلينا نرجع نحب بعضنا والله الطرفين ما بيستاهلو صرمايتنا مع أحترامي للشرفاء المغررين طبعا ..
والله يا جماعة انا عندي أولاد عبيمرضو مافي مكان اخذةن اداويهون خافو الله فينا ارحمونا تقطع قلبنا على أولادنا

Observer if you think the government is going to sit down with terrorists you’re out of your mind.

still waiting for thawrajiyyeh to educate me on how armed rebels will suddenly let expats and educated men with a tie rule Syria:
(LA Times)
The armed uprising against President Bashar Assad is led mostly by working-class volunteers, many of whom resent the expatriates, the better-educated and others seeking to establish political leadership through local or national opposition councils. Some rebels also view the councils as proxies for the West and other outside interests. Many refuse to recognize the councils’ authority.
If the men who now lead armed fighters refuse to give up power after the civil war, Syria could become a failed state and fertile ground for warlords and competing militias.
“I am the one who is here every day fighting and dying, and then they want to bring someone else to put them on the council?” asked Lt. Col. Ahmad Suood, military commander of the Slaves of the Merciful Brigade. The brigade is based in Maarat Numan, a city of 120,000 that has seen most of its residents flee in recent months as shells have rained down from nearby military bases.
As class resentments surface, fighters complain that better-educated civilians feel entitled to positions of power.
“They say, ‘How can an illiterate person come and rule me?’ ” said Muhammad “Abu al-Zaki” Aassi, spokesman for the Suqoor al-Sham Brigade, which, along with the Martyrs of Syria, controls the villages of the Jabal al-Zawiya area.
“With regards to those who made civilian councils, and I have said it a million times, when did they join the revolution?” asked Aassi, who worked as a merchant in Lebanon before the uprising. “How are you going to defect late and then … try to rule over those who made this whole revolution possible?”
Aassi attended the provincial council elections in Turkey months ago even though he wasn’t invited, and said civilian activists aren’t coordinating with the rebels.
(many of you are still in denial, they think that a country that is being reshaped by violence will suddenly change course and embrace democracy and the rule of law as soon as rebels emerge “victorious” !! )

SL I don’t know anyone named “Syrian Commando” but perhaps you are too deeply into Twitter to know the difference between fantasy and reality. Millions of people support Assad so I can’t imagine one made such an impression on you. Perhaps in the New Syria a marriage between the two of you will be legalized. Isn’t that what we’re all fighting for after all?

Someone – think it was the feeble-minded Majed – posted a link to a report on the FSA from the ISW earlier. I wanted to make readers aware the ISW is an American neocon think tank. It is associated with Dick and Lynn Cheney (the witch sits on the ISW board), among other scoundrels. If that makes you feel better – either pro- or anti- Assad I am pleased.

@ 270
Yup, Qatar is like Monaco, and princess Moza is like princess Grace

شو جاب طز لمرحبا

United to stop the growing war against Syria
http://mycatbirdseat.com/2013/04/conference-at-damascus-28-th-and-29th-april-against-war-in-solidarity-with-syrian-people/
Conference at Damascus 28 th and 29th April against war, for peace, development and reform, in solidarity with the Syrian people and with people of all countries across continents facing threat of war for seizrure of resources of all citizens.

The U.S. economy is a giant bubble, inflated money Fed, which will burst in the next few years. I warn: The U.S. solutions will be in one thing, war, war and war again!!

For the past two years, US Government has been lying about supposedly sending only “nonlethal humanitarian aid” to Syrian “rebels” — when in fact US Government has been coordinating the flow of weapons from “friends” in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Turkey to “rebels” who are largely non-Syrian Sunni extremists who either are Al Qaeda or are admirers of Al Qaeda. All this time US Government has been demanding “regime change” in Syria, suddenly discovering that the Assad regime (with which US Government happily did business for many years and indeed sent American “enemy combatants” to Syria for interrogation by torture) has just become a “brutal dictatorship” which cannot be tolerated by the “civilized world.” And who are US “best Arab friends” US crusade for democracy in Syria? The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of Jordan and the Emirate of Qatar — all brutal dictatorships which allow no dissent from their own people and which harbor (expecially Saudi Arabia) Sunni extremist clerics whose bigotry and hatred motivate the very Islamic terrorists whom US Government is purporting to fight all over the planet. Now US Government is surprised to find that the fire it helped light in Syria is blowing back out to the neighboring arsonists who lit the fire in the first place. We should not only stop this madness, but hold US “leaders” in Washington accountable for the tragedy they have in fact cause. Impeachment would be a good first step.

AJE Syria Blog about 2 hrs ago:

A newborn baby abandoned on the street in the battleground Syrian city of Aleppo has been named “Gift from God” by the family who adopted her even at the cost of an extra mouth to feed.

In a city that has been devastated by fighting since July last year, where jobs have disappeared and prices for even basic goods have risen beyond most
people’s reach, parents face impossible choices.

Doctors say the abortion rate has increased, as parents take fright at the prospect of having to fend for another child. Others have sent children to live
with family members, or abandoned them altogether.

Amjad of Arabia ‏@amjadofarabia 5h
By the sectarian @edwardedark’s own admission,rebels went after only specific people,unlike regime who massacre entire villages #Aleppo

Amjad of Arabia ‏@amjadofarabia 5h
When rebels capture an area,they go after specific people.When @edwardedark’s beloved regime captures an area,massacres ensue #Syria #Aleppo

I like the way Amal Hanano (and others) pull up Edward Dark on his claims:

https://twitter.com/AmalHanano/status/319203390578110465

From the same twitter convo this time including Amjad’s tweet:

Amjad of Arabia @amjadofarabia 5h
@AmalHanano @edwardedark The sectarian Edward Dark never quotes sources,& his lies are dutifully retweeted by a dozen idiots

REVENIRE, you seem to have a pretty shallow and recent game playing around with the Syrian issue, and you often make out you know about people and events than you don’t, and claim not to know about things that you do.

All part of your comedy act.

Your comment on Syrian Commando makes me suspicious. Journalists and commentators accused him of having a number of aliases.

There may be “millions of people who support Assad”, but pathetically and tellingly few who became so well known pushing the regime cause like that guy did. And who got frequently quoted in news articles, blogs and other forums.

I didn’t read the Commando as much as I read what others used to say about him, but I saw enough to be struck by how you write like a weak parody of him.

It’s like you’re setting out to copy him but can’t take it seriously and keep grinning at your own outrageousness.

Syrian Commando was a jewel in the Assadist thug propagandists crown. What are you – a scrap plastic stick-on ?

The American economy is doing better than the Syrian economy.

************************************************

Most regime supporters have no life and no jobs. Why else are they spending 16 hours of their life per day on the comments section of blogs?

They’re losers. Simple as that.

Just insult them. Since they have no self-worth, they know they deserve it.

335. MARIGOLDRAN
Hands off Syria!We will build it better than it was! not you !We!

ذكرت صحيفة “واشنطن بوست” الأمريكية أن الولايات المتحدة والأردن يقومان بتدريب قوات المعارضة السورية التي قد تستخدم لإقامة منطقة عازلة على خط الحدود الجنوبية لسورية. ونقلت الصحيفة أن التدريب بدأ في العام الماضي، ليتم توسيع نطاقه والإسراع فيه مع تقدم الثوار في الجنوب وسيطرتهم على جزء من الحدود الأردنية السورية بالقرب من مرتفعات الجولان. وقال مسؤولون أمنيون أردنيون إنه كان من المقرر استكمال تدريب نحو ثلاثة آلاف من أفراد الجيش السوري الحر بحلول نهاية يونيو/حزيران المقبل، ولكنه تم تقديم الموعد إلى نهاية أبريل/نيسان الجاري على ضوء الانتصارات على الحدود. وتهدف إقامة منطقة عازلة إلى تحويل المناطق التي يسيطر عليها الثوار إلى مأوى دائم لآلاف المنشقين والنازحين يمكن إيصال المساعدات الإنسانية إليه. يذكر أن أكثر من 470 ألف لاجئ سوري قد دخلوا إلى الأردن، ويتوقع مسؤولو الأمم المتحدة أن يتجاوز عددهم المليون هذا العام. وكانت إدارة أوباما قد أرسلت نحو 150 عسكريا أمريكيا إلى الأردن في العام الماضي، ولكنها رفضت مرارا التعليق على تقارير تحدثت عن قيامهم بتدريب مسلحين سوريين.

http://arabic.rt.com/news/611904/ :روسيا اليوم

279. zoo said:

I admire Bashar for his pride, resilience, self-control and his ability to outsmart a coalition of powerful and richer countries that want to destroy Syria under the pretext of saving it from a ‘brutal dictator’.

 
It’s not a pretext, he actually is a brutal dictator.

His family organized a coup 50 years ago, and since then only his family gets to run the dictatorship.

Lately he has been using Russian hardware to destroy his own cities.

Many civilians have died, courtesy of these Shiite monsters and their KGB enablers.

Sensible people are in favor of ending this Bashar rule once and for all, using the only method that can work (military means).

Next up for regime change: Iran, Russia.

Next up for regime change: Iran, Russia.
If the U.S. and the West will be by then! HA HA HA

You Assad supporters won’t be building anything after this is over. You’ve had your chance to rule, and you’ve blown it.

Feel free to cling to your delusions, but the war continues and the Assadists continue to lose ground.

If you wish to fight to the finish, then you will be finished. Simple as that.

[…] January, Syria Video has collected over 40,000 videos from 42 Syrian cities and 10 governates. https://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=18340   Assad Sends Letter to Emerging Powers Seeking Help to End Syrian War By Rick Gladstone and Hala […]

You can rejoice in the fact that the regime is strong and destroys your (favorite) guys ultra-fanatics, otherwise will begin uncontrolled war that will bring fire and destruction to your home!!
About building advice you hamburgers people! reconsider the construction and reconstruction of own shattered economy!

Yes, Syrian Commando was a formidable foe for the revolution. A great asset for the regime.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he was to reappear after this break, raring to go, fully refreshed, ready to inject much needed energy into the menhabek movement.

Times running out. It may be too late soon.

Even Al Nusra is better than this evil regime.

I rejoice in the destruction of evil and the triumph of vengeance.

What comes around, goes around. You’re only getting what you deserve.

A clear admission and confirmation that the rebels are closing in on Damascus.

AJE Syria blog:

Syria about an hour ago
Syria’s military is warning rebels against pressing an ongoing offensive into Damascus, saying the push by opposition fighters into the capital means their “certain death.” Rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad have established strongholds in the suburbs surrounding the capital during the two-year-old-conflict. In recent weeks, they’ve stepped up mortar attacks on the center of the city, bringing the conflict closer to the seat of Assad’s
power.

A military commander told the pro-government al-Watan newspaper that any advance by the rebels on Damascus means “certain death for them and their leaders.” The commander, who is not named in the Wednesday report, said the bravery of government troops on the battlefield is keeping Damascus safe.

Denial isn’t just a River in Egypt (Part II)

The American economy is doing better than the Syrian economy.

Marigoldran,

Ya think? Please don’t disturb the great denial from the great “resistance” movement.

Repeat after me: “America is dying”, “America is bankrupt”, “American is falling apart”

q:o)

An now from the CIA Factbook:

Syria per capita GDP: $5100

US per capita GDP: $49,800

Oh, over and above the amazingly bleak economy, the Lion King decided to destroy his own cities, reduce the population by about 70,000, and displace over 1 million people.

What comes around, goes around.
not always !
there is no evil in the world more than yours Hiroshima, Vietnam,Yougoslavia, Iraq , Libya,…., satanic monster!

Citizen Slave

… satanic monster …

Citizen,

As your name so aptly applies, at least OUR “satanic monster” protects our country, was voted into office and can only serve a maximum of 8 years.

What’s your excuse?

Was Assad naive before, or he is now?

Assad says ‘no word of truth’ from Turkey PM

Syria is on the verge of being liberated from al-Assad’s murderous dictatorship-which is the worst in modern Arab history.

Too bad for Bashar, Hasan NasrA$s, and Iran! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Free Syria, Free Palestine, Bahrain is Arab Forever!

Interview with Bashar al Assad sponsored by the Martyrs Brigade of Yarmouk who announced his death a week ago, Majedalkhaldoon dixit

Al Assad says ‘no word of truth’ from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Damascus accused Ankara of financing, training rebels

AFP Published: 15:55 April 3, 2013 Gulf News

Beirut: Syrian President Bashar Al Assad accused Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of not having said “a single word of truth” about Syria’s conflict, in an interview with Turkish media posted on the web.

“Erdogan has not said a single word of truth since the beginning of the crisis in Syria,” Al Assad told journalists working for Turkish television Ulusal and Aydinlik newspaper.

the interview with Al Assad was conducted on Tuesday and is to run on Friday, according to the president’s YouTube channel.

Egypt Becoming a Nightmare for Muslim Brothers

By Zvi Mazel
http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2013/04/03/egypt_becoming_a_nightmare_for_muslim_brothers_105050.html

For the Muslim Brotherhood, the long awaited dream come true is turning into a nightmare. Having survived 80 years of persecution to achieve power democratically, they suddenly find themselves the focus of widespread popular hatred.

Never have Egyptians been in such dire economic traits.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, however, is not about to give up and make way for new presidential elections. The Brotherhood will spare no effort to stay in power.

Such is the depth of the economic, social and political crisis that the threat of civil war appears all too real.

Most commentators believe the army won’t let things go that far and will step in; however the road back to recovery and a civilian regime accepted by all will be long and arduous.

Civil disobedience is rampant.

In Port Said the police have disappeared from the streets and

Freedom-fighting Syrians are becoming a nightmare for Bashar (Murderous) al-Assad and his Lebanese/Iranian/southern Iraqi apologists!

Syria is on the verge of being liberated from al-Assad’s murderous dictatorship-which is the worst in modern Arab history.

Too bad for Bashar, Hasan NasrA$s, and Iran! 🙂

Free Syria, Free Palestine, Bahrain is Arab Forever!

Sorting out the Syrian opposition
By David Ignatius, Published: April 2

As the decisive battle for Damascus approaches, the array of Syrian opposition forces facing President Bashar al-Assad appears to share one common trait: Most of the major rebel groups have strong Islamic roots and backing from Muslim neighbors.
…
Although the Syrian revolution is two years old, the rebel forces haven’t formed a unified command. Gen. Salim Idriss, commander of the Free Syrian Army, has tried to coordinate the fighters. But this remains a bottom-up rebellion, with towns and regions forming battalions that have merged into larger coalitions. These coalitions have tens of thousands of fighters. But they lack anything approaching the discipline of a normal army.
…
Idriss and his Free Syrian Army command about 50,000 more fighters, rebel sources say.

Realistically, the best hope for U.S. policy is to press the Saudi-backed coalition and its 37,000 fighters, to work under the command of Idriss and the Free Syrian Army. That would bring a measure of order and would open the way for Idriss to negotiate a military transition government that would include reconcilable elements of Assad’s army.

“Consolidating forces under Gen. Idriss would extend his recognition and credibility,” explained a Syrian rebel activist here Tuesday night. But without a strong Saudi push, this coordination is a long shot.
….
What is the United States waiting for?

I agree with MajedK about Al-Khatib. He is NOT suitable. But, I would NOT vote for him either after Bashar is hone for any office he may run for.

http://www.aljazeera.net/news/pages/b4778aff-d682-40ca-b7af-39e122a77d03?GoogleStatID=1

قتلى بسوريا وتقدم للحر بدرعا

أفادت الشبكة السورية لحقوق الإنسان أن أربعين قتيلا سقطوا اليوم في سوريا معظمهم في دمشق وريفها وحلب. وبينما سيطر الجيش الحر على كتيبة الدفاع الجوي التاسعة والأربعين في درعا، قال شهود إن طائرة سورية توغلت داخل لبنان وأطلقت صاروخين على مشارف بلدة عرسال الحدودية.

وقال اتحاد تنسيقيات الثورة إن دبابات النظام شنت قصفا عنيفا على مدينة الزبداني في ريف دمشق صباح اليوم. وبحسب الناشطين فإن القصف أسفر عن أضرار مادية، فيما يواصل الجيش النظامي حصاره للمدينة الواقعة شمال العاصمة دمشق ويمنع دخول الدواء والغذاء إليها.

وقالت لجان التنسيق المحلية إن جنودا متمركزين على الحواجز المحيطة بالزبداني أعدموا ميدانياً عدداً من أهالي المدينة في الأيام القليلة الماضية.
مقاتلو الجيش الحر سيطروا على كتيبة ومصنع عسكري (رويترز)

تقدم للحر
وفي المقابل قال ناشطون إن الجيش الحر أعلن سيطرته على كتيبة الدفاع الجوي التاسعة والأربعين في درعا بعد حصار دام بضعة أيام. وتتبع الكتيبة للواء 38 الذي سيطر عليه مقاتلو المعارضة قبل شهر تقريبا. وتأتي أهميتها من كونها تتوسط محافظة درعا وتحوي كميات كبيرة من مختلف أنواع الأسلحة كما يفيد الناشطون. وبحسب لجان التنسيق المحلية فإن الكتيبة كانت مركزا للقصف على معظم أنحاء محافظة درعا.

وأضاف ناشطون أن الجيش الحر سيطر على حاجز مصنع الوليد العسكري ومشفى ابن سينا في منطقة عدرا بريف دمشق.

كما تجددت الاشتباكات بين مقاتلي الجيش الحر وقوات النظام في بلدة المليحة في محاولة من عناصر المعارضة للسيطرة على حاجز “تاميكو” العسكري. وامتدت الاشتباكات لتشمل أحياء جوبر وبرزة والقابون والتضامن وسط العاصمة.
[…]

One point we all seem to agree: Al Khatib is not a leader and has a limited role in bringing a solution to Syria’s deepening crisis.

I believe General Selim Idriss may be coming out as a leader. This is why I think the SNC is dying and the negotiations with the regime will be about forming a military transition government.

The first priority of that government will be to join forces to fight Islamists extremists and restore security in Syria, a daunting task.

Syria per capita GDP: $5100
US per capita GDP: $49,800
Compared Syria, United States of America in this way funny!I encourage you to obtain a master’s degree in economics!

“Satanic monster” protects our Country also funny (from whom?)the World is busy with own works More important than you!

 was voted into office and can only serve a maximum of 8 years. Very funny
And the two sides of the same old coin!
No world peoples respect for the United States! The balance Reached zero!
http://youtu.be/2zPiQgUQt3E?t=2m20s

It was time Bashar attacks Erdogan on his vicious manipulation of the Syrian opposition.

Erdogan is in a sensitive situation where his political career is a stake.
He wants to change Turkey parlamentary system to a presidential system where the president has very strong power. Then he wants to become that president.
To achieve that he needs popularity and the Kurds’ vote to change the Constitution. Thus, he is working on a peace deal with the PKK and has engaged the government in the process of changing the Constitution.
If that is not done soon, or the change to a presidential system is not approve, Erdogan has no more political carreer as his mandate as PM ends in sunmer 2014 and he wouldn’t want to become a powerless president.

By raising his voice on Erdogan in Turkish media, Bashar al Assad is trying to disrupt that process. He hopes to shake the Turkish public opinion and especially the Kurds by spreading doubts about Erdogan’s political honesty.
That may resonate with the Kurds who are are asked to trust Erdogan in accepting the disarming of the PKK fighters.

Reading Bashar’s interview, that’s the question some Turks in the opposition may ask themselves:
If Erdogan is a liar on Syria to achieve his personal ambitions. why wouldn’t he be lying when it comes to the Kurds?

BRICS Summit draws clear red lines on Syria, Iran

At the heart of the Summit’s agenda lies the BRICS’ determination to anchor any emerging global order in “multilateralism” – whether by demanding permanent seats within the UN Security Council, forging alternative economic constructs that will shift the balance of power their way, or proactively influencing outcomes in global conflict zones.

The BRICS hit some major western sore spots by announcing the formation of a $50 billion jointly-funded development bank to rival the IMF and World Bank. Deals were signed to increase inter-BRICS trade in their own currencies, further eroding the US dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency.
http://mycatbirdseat.com/2013/04/brics-summit-draws-clear-red-lines-on-syria-iran/

Press Tv presenter and former taleban captive, journalist Yvonne Ridley:

How the Graffiti Boys ignited the Syrian Revolution

Yvonne Ridley
27th February 2013

“Ashaab yureed isqat annidham.” This phrase is ringing in the ears of tyrants and despots around the Arab world and means quite simply that the people want to bring down the regime. It is the enduring chant of the Arab Spring, so it’s hardly surprising that these are probably the first words children learn in their cradles as they are rocked to sleep to the beat of this rousing street anthem.

When a group of 11-year-old Syrian boys made their way home from school one day and started larking around, as boys of that age do, it was almost inevitable that among the graffiti they scratched on a partially-collapsed wall would be these iconic words.

[…]

But let me return to the 18 boys at the beginning of this story because it is vitally important that we all remember exactly how the revolution in Syria began. It did not begin with CIA interference, nor an influx of foreign fighters, Al-Qaida, rebranded weapons from the West, NATO or a global call across the Muslim world for jihad.This was a reluctant revolution, a revolution forced on the people by the acts of an evil, malevolent regime.

[…]

Oh please.

Who really cares about what an embattled dictator says about a democratically elected leader of a very successful government of an economically-sound country?

Who is the idiot who listed GDPs of the US and Syria to “prove” how great the US is doing?

The US is a basket case economy. It is doing better than Syria though. What an idiotic comparison made by a fool.

I can’t believe some of the nonsense posted on this forum.

Tara come again? “The political system of Qatar is an absolute monarchy, with the Emir of Qatar as head of state and head of government.”

The odd thing is Syria has the democratically elected president while Qatar has an Emir. You’re so stupid Tara. It’s beyond belief.

Tara’s comment that the Emir of Qatar was elected takes the Syria Comment Award of the Week from me this week – even though it is only Wednesday.

Any other gems today Tara? If they charged me to come here I would just to read your idiocy.

We will have to add this one to your belief the FSA had an air force.

Keep going baby. You’re on a roll.

The message(s) of the Russian war games
The American Empire is arranging the geopolitical chessboard with is satraps in its ongoing war on Syria. Perhaps it plans on using Israel to do a re-play of the Suez Crisis. In 1956, after Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, the UK and France drew a plan with Israel to annex the Suez Canal by getting Israel to attack Egypt and then claiming to intervene militarily as concerned parties who wanted to keep the Suez Canal safe and open for international maritime traffic. A new assault against Syria under the banners of the Israelis is possible and could be used as an excuse for a Turkish and NATO “humanitarian invasion” that could result in the creation of a northern humanitarian buffer zone (or a broader war).

A pattern can be depicted from all these events. At the start of 2013, Russia held major naval drills in the Eastern Mediterranean against a backdrop of tension between Moscow and the US-led NATO and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) coalition that has been destabilizing Syria. After the US and its anti-Syrian coalition threatened to intervene militarily and deployed Patriot missiles on Turkey’s southern border with Syria, a Russian naval flotilla was dispatched off the Syrian coast to send a strong message to Washington not to have any ideas of starting another war. In turn, the US and its allies tried to save face by spreading rumours that the Kremlin was preparing to evacuate Russian citizens from Syria, because the Syrian government was going to collapse and the situation was going to get critical.

A ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet during large-scale military exercises Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered while flying back from the South African Republic to Moscow. (Screen shot of a video of Zvezda TV channel).(RIA Novosti)

Paralleling the Russian war games in the Black Sea, the Russian Air Force held long-range flights across Russia. This included flights by Russian nuclear strategic bombers. On the other end of Eurasia, China also conducted its own surprise naval war games in the South China Sea. While the US and its allies portrayed the Chinese moves as a threat to Vietnam over disputed territory in the South China Sea, the timing of the naval deployment could be linked to either Syria (or North Korea) and coordinated with Russia to warn the US to keep the international peace.

In a sign of the decline of the American Empire, just before the Russian war games in the Black Sea, all the increasingly assertive BRICS leaders warned the US against any adventurism in Syria and other countries. The Russian and Chinese muscle flexing are messages that tell Washington that Beijing and Moscow are serious and mean what they say. At the same time, these events can be read as signs that the world-system is coming under new management.
http://rt.com/op-edge/russia-war-games-nato-intervention-syria-268/

There is a GOD up there and the Devil is going to be slowed down in his destroy the World-Second series. THank you Mr.Putin

Any idiot who thinks the US economy is strong should just turn on any American TV channel and watch it for a few hours. Or, better yet, take a drive to any large American city and see the roads left unrepaired, the schools closed down, the lack of police, the lack of hospitals, the people without jobs. Sure it isn’t like Syria – a nation under attack by the USA – but it is a Hell hole in its own right. All American banks are bankrupt, unable to cover their derivatives positions. Unemployment is in the 10s of 1,000,000s. People are losing everything without decent health care and this doesn’t come from some conspiracy crackpot but this comes from the mainstream media.

What sort of deranged fool would compared the US and Syrian economies? LOL God you’re stupid.

Idriss is nothing but a traitor “leading” Syria to Hell.

Retard,

Liar and retard too!?

Where did I say that Qarar’s Emir was elected?

I usually respect people but you always force me otherwise.

The amount of sour grapes and delusion is reaching astronomical heights. Things must really be going bad for the regime.

Tara I am curious if you know anything at all about the history of Qatar? Let me help you out: they were made into a “country” by the British Empire because they had oil and the Queen needed oil to run her fleet so she could plunder and destroy the world. Before that the British East India Company held sway over the slave-holding Arabs that populated the area. The Ottoman left in the early 20th century.

The Al Thani family has been in power for over a 100 years. The British protected the Al Thanis from any outside threat.

Anglo-American oil companies were granted concessions (and if memory serves French ones too). Qatar operated as a colony. Of course, any tiny “nation” with oil will be awash in money. Goes without saying.

You really should be ashamed of what you said. It is stupid in the extreme and you see proud of being stupid.

I recommend you open a history book now and then Tara.

Tara you’ve fawned over Qatar here at SC for years. Stop lying. You’re a petulant little girl who drops names of famous Syrians and act like you were part of the elite of Damascus. Go to one of your liberated towns and see if you walk away with a head on your shoulders. They will force you to dress and act as they want. Syrian women are being raped and beaten by your “freedom fighters” and you sit here praising dictators like the Al Thani family.

Tara,

How are you doing in your Canadian “hell hole”? How is the New York “hell hole” you recently visited?

Serious question now. Are all regime supporters that delusional? How do those in Montreal explain why they support subjugating fellow Syrians while they demand full democratic rights as Canadian citizens?

“Go to one of your liberated towns”

Well, well, the regime idiots contradict themselves and admit that the rebels control some towns. The more they write, the more it is clear they are lying propagandists.

Reve,

Prove first that I said Qarar’s Emir was elected or apologize for making a mistake then come back.

If you don’t, then you are a liar.

That simple.

Weak, weak Hasbara brain – the US, nor Canada, are involved in a war on their soil at the moment – except against their own people per the control of finance by Wall St.

During the US Civil War Lincoln suspended habeas corpus.

Let’s not even talk of the prison camp known as Israel murdering Palestinians with cancer, or women and children daily. They give them no rights. It is obscene.

Those against Assad are pathetic. No revolution is supported by the Al Thani family and Netanyahu. It is a foreign proxy war.

Kill them all Dr. Assad.

The regime idiots have completely lost it. Of course, many of them will be lining up to get visas to the “hell holes” in the US, Canada and Europe. But they should all go to Iran and Russia, which are not “hell holes”. The US or Europe should not accept anyone that supported the Assad regime. In fact, regime supporters should be deported from the US which they slander so much. After the regime falls we will see all those dishonorable cowards claim how they had been for the rebels all along.

And thanks again to Assad, the Zionist of the decade, for completely wrecking Syria. The Rabbit of the Golan not only did not fire one shot at Israel, he actually used the SCUDs against his own cities and people!

Prisoner Maysara Abuhamdia dies; son accuses PA of betrayal

Maysara Abuhamdia has died, shackled to his bed in Saroka Hospital. He was 64 years old.

This marks the second time in less than two months that a Palestinian prisoner has died in custody. Arafat Jaradat was tortured to death in Megiddo prison on 23 February.

Information on Abuhamdia’s life and resistance to the Israeli occupation, and details on how the Israeli prison authorities delayed treatment for his cancer for many months can be found in my article for The Electronic Intifada, published yesterday. Today, I woke up to an email message from Tariq Abuhamdia, Maysara’s oldest son currently studying in Virginia, who thanked me for highlighting his father’s cause.

When I reached my office this morning, I received the news that Maysara had passed away. It wasn’t altogether shocking, but it still was a kick in the stomach for me.

An article in the Ayyam newspaper today quoted the Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Prisoner Affairs, Issa Qaraqe, as saying that there are 25 other prisoners who have cancer. Ziad Abu-Ein, the deputy minister of prisoners, was quoted in a press conference today as saying, “Israel no longer is entrusted with the safety of the prisoners.”

Two sides of the same coin

As one friend commented, “The very thought of even having a ministry for prisoners is such a dirty idea.”

Twenty-one prisoners began a hunger strike on 31 March in Eshel prison, in support of Maysara Abuhamdia, according to Ayyam. They were attacked with batons and tear gas, and dragged off to solitary confinement by the prison authorities as a means of pressuring them to quit.

Another friend sarcastically tweeted, “Did the third intifada start yet?”

We’ve witnessed the protests fuelled by anger over Muhammad al-Salaymeh’s death in Hebron last year; he was killed on his 17th birthday (12 December) by an Israeli border official. We’ve seen the protests as they rippled mostly from Hebron when Arafat Jaradat was killed. These waves of anger — with protests closely monitored by Palestinian Authority security forces and intelligence officers — subside almost as quickly as they begin. And we find ourselves — those who are outside of the prison cells and “free” — shackled and mute. We utilize social media as a platform to furiously denounce the collaborative role the PA plays in ensuring Israel’s security at the expense of our people. Yet we remain silent on the ground, helpless and drowning in a sea of PA complicity.

Meanwhile the prisoners — who spend their youths locked up behind bars, banned from their loved ones, who use every weapon they have from hunger striking to disobedience to resist against their occupiers — seem more and more like the liberated ones.

There is no question that the road to liberation passes through the PA compound of the muqataa. The PA and the Israeli occupation are two sides to the same coin. They both must be annihilated.

“Not helpless”

On 15 March, Tariq Abuhamdia recorded a message directed at the Palestinian leadership. It was one of the most eloquent and hard-hitting verbal attacks delivered to the PA. I have translated his message, with the help of Yasmine Hamayel:

Don’t you dare think that Maysara’s case is a humanitarian issue. Maysara is a national issue. Maysara is a national issue just like the Palestine cause. You will not feel that it will be solved unless the leadership is dissolved. Maysara is not an issue of a prisoner or a sick person. Maysara is the issue of a government and an authority that day and night say “we are helpless” — an authority helpless in front of every national topic. Every topic has a value. It is helpless in front of settlements. It is helpless in front of Jerusalem. It is helpless in front of refugees. It is helpless in front of the occupation. It is helpless in front of corruption.

Suddenly this leadership stops being helpless, when it comes to beating up people. Our state is incapable of liberating one prisoner, but it was not helpless to beat me up for being in one demonstration for Gaza. It is not helpless to send two security patrol cars to prevent people from getting angry at the occupation every time the occupation commits a crime. It is not helpless when it comes to uncovering weapon warehouses and tunnels and resistance cells. It is not helpless when it comes to getting permits for “his highness” or “his eminence” or “his excellency” (this governor or that security commander).

Maysara is the cause of a leadership which has sunk in humiliation. It is the leadership that has continued to bathe in corrupting wealth, and drowned in humiliation for so long to the point that it implements the Oslo accords from cover to cover in all of its details through the hanbali [strict] way. At the same time this leadership did not bother to intervene to free one officer of the many officers who have served this country. The issue of Maysara is thus very clear on one thing: all the talk on reconciliation is nothing but lies and fraudulence.

The PA security forces that Maysara served in left him in prison without even bringing him a lawyer because there was one word on his file: Hamas.

Maysara will die. And whether he dies on his prison bed, or during the bosta [a windowless vehicle with a metal corrugated interior used to transfer prisoners], or during the counting and standing of prisoners that take place five times a day in Israeli prison, he always knew from the start where his destiny would be. And he will die an honorable and dignified death. But his death shames those who call themselves the leadership; his death shames us all.

It is shameful to the point where you want to throw the books about the history of Islam in the sewers. It is a disgrace to the point where “Abdullah” [slave of God] has become “AbdelRateb” [slave of the salary] and is afraid to speak or show his face. He will listen to what I’m saying and swallow uneasily and turn away, afraid to speak out against them lest the government frowns on him.

It’s sickening. The official suits, the escorts and entourage, the convoys. The sycophantic prose…it is just sickening. The prisoners and especially the sons of Fatah are nothing more than propaganda for elections. And when the elections are over, you return back to your air-conditioned offices while the prisoner remains in his cell.

You have turned the prisoners detained by the security forces into doormats in an attempt to convince people that you are respectable beings after you arrest a patriotic youth or when you find yourselves in the middle of a scandal.

You will never face corruption charges, precisely because you represent the corrupt. You will never confront the occupation, because you have become part of the occupation. You will never be able to liberate not one prisoner, because you yourselves are not free.

Thank you. It is because of you that our dreams have shrunk from liberation and a homeland to giving a medicine pill to a sick prisoner in his cell. Thank you. Thank you for transforming Fatah into a mechanism merely for exploitative elections, festivals, and social gatherings. God is watching everything and knows what you do.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/linah-alsaafin/prisoner-maysara-abuhamdia-dies-son-accuses-pa-betrayal

It is great how the regime idiots highlight the propaganda of the regime. While urging others to support the Palestinians both the regime and Hezbollah did nothing, absolutely nothing, in the last 6 years. Not ONE “resistance” operation. And of course they did nothing in the Golan for decades. But that does not stop them from trying to portray themselves as helping the Palestinians.

Let’s recap. Assad has parted ways with Hamas and now they are enemies of the regime. The Assads saw Fatah as traitors after the Camp David agreements. So the Assad regime supports NEITHER of the main Palestinians factions which represent over 80% of Palestinian people. But they still talk a big game about helping the Palestinians when in fact they are enemies of the Palestinians. The Syrian people support the Palestinians, but the Assad regime doesn’t.

LOL Hasbara rat always trying for attention.

Many on this forum said Assad was dead. He looks pretty good for a dead guy.

I never knew we have so many crazy people in Syria,I never imagined we have so many criminals in Syria,many liers,many stupids,they showed up here on SC as Assad supporters, when we get rid of Assad they all has to go to Iran

AIG I know you want attention so I will toss you a bone and ask you a question: If you were Assad what would you do right now (not in the past but now as the war rages)? Should he surrender? Flee? Hand over power to the Holy Warriors?

Really looking forward to the answer Hasbara.

Yes, a man jumps from an 80 story building, and when he reaches the 40th floor, he asks people for advice what to do implying that he has no other solution than to continue on his current track. Assad has no good options and he will die like a dog. When he says he will burn Syria rather than leave, I believe him.

But the Alawites and the minorities do have better options. They need to untie the rope from Assad so that his plunge to death doesn’t not cause them to fall off the building. If they want to go down with him, they will. But they still have options that are not great but are also not awful.

So, AIG no answer right?

He should just prepare to die?

LOL not really an answer. I asked if YOU were Assad what would you do. That question puts you on the spot I know but being a Hasbara rat that is used to abusing women and children (and Sephardi Jews) you’re used to it.

Fleeing the Syrian Utopia NewZ

So the Assad regime supports NEITHER of the main Palestinians factions which represent over 80% of Palestinian people.

AIG,

Maybe you didn’t realize this, but perhaps the Lion King doesn’t support the main Palestinian factions because he believes HE is the leader of the Palestinians.

Every ME despot has claimed this position at one time or another. Just ask Nejad.

Meanwhile, why help the Palestinians? Are they special? The Syrians need a lot more help than the Palestinians do.

Seeing as the war on Syria was planned a decade, or longer, ago Assad could have crawled on his belly like a snake to Tel Aviv. It would have changed nothing. It isn’t about reforms or a democracy movement or a revolution. It is a proxy war on Syria. Just look at the players involved. There hasn’t been one revolution in the world where you had Qatar-Israel-Saudi Arabia-US-UK-France-Turkey on the side of.

Assad could have fled to Mars and it would not have changed a thing. It isn’t about Assad at all except he is a symbol of what Syria is.

It is about war on Syria and war on Iran and was on Hezbollah to change the map of the region. It always was.

#352 DAWOUD, after two years of bloody civil war with near 100,000 death and thousands of posts here on SC, you are still screaming death to the tyrant and shouting your revolutionary slogans.

Is it getting too old and too late for that?

If I were Assad I would not reach the position he is now, so again it is a stupid question, just like asking what I would do if I were the person that jumped off the building. Of course if I were that person I would die, but I wouldn’t be dumb as Assad to jump off the building in the first place.

You can continue your nonsense on some geopolitical conspiracy. Yeah, right, the kids who were tortured in Der’aa were Qatari agents. And of course all the BS about the “inevitability” of all this is just crazy talk. Not ONE regime supporter said before this mess began that this “grand coalition” you describe is going to plunge Syria into a civil war. In fact, you kept saying that all these “conspirators” were weak and that a revolution will never come to Syria. So either you were lying then, or you are lying now. You are just grasping at straws like a drowning person.

It isn’t about Assad at all …

Reverse,

It is about freedom and basic human rights. Which Assad withheld from the people for 11 years until today.

I’m afraid it is too late for the Lion King to apologize.

If Israel was serious about peace in the region they’d go back to the ’67 borders. End the illegal settlements. Stop threatening Iran. Free the prisoners they hold. Get out of the occupied territories. It is that easy.

I think Israel likes Al Qaeda. It gives them an excuse to be fascists.

The Syria war is a proxy war. It has nothing to do with these idiotic expats moaning about freedom and abuse.

But Wait, There’s More!

It is that easy.

Reverse,

Weren’t the arabs at war with Israel before 1967?

The Syrian civil war is a war inflicted by the Assad regime on all Syrians. Assad had 11 years to reform and improve the life of the average Syrian. He failed miserably and all Syrians are paying the price for Assad being a complete idiot and a miserable leader. All this deflection about Israel is the usual nonsense we have been hearing for the last 13 years. Nobody buys it anymore. Israel did not torture the kids in Der’aa, Assad did. Israel is not bombing or shooting SCUDs at Aleppo and Homs and other cities, Assad is. And Assad would continue to do this whether Israel returned to the 67 borders or not.

AIG, you did it again. QED

Akbar you know as well as I do if Israel were to go back to the ’67 borders the conflict would largely be over. All would have peace. The war in Syria is as much about Palestine as it is about anything else.

Rev,

I think Assad can still make a deal for a safe exit that will ensure that are protected and secured by the international community and the new Syrian Army. Russia can help him and I believe the US would also help. The US wants this problem to go away. The majority of Syians want an end to this mess. He should take advantage of that.

What do you think?

Rev,

I think Assad can still make a deal for a safe exit that will ensure that the Alawites are protected and secured by the international community and the new Syrian Army. Russia can help him and I believe the US would also help. The US wants this problem to go away. The majority of Syians want an end to this mess. He should take advantage of that.

What do you think?

Reverse,

All would have peace.

Sounds tempting. I’ll have to think about it.

“The war in Syria is as much about Palestine as it is about anything else.”

The usual regime supporters nonsense. The war has nothing to do with Israel or Palestine. It is about Assad mis-managing Syria and denying prosperity and freedom from 20 million people. It is about Syrians seeing change all around them and waking up and asking for it themselves. Even if Israel would leave the Golan and the West Bank tomorrow, there would still be fighting in Syria because it doesn’t solve any of the basic problems that Syrians face. It does not provide them good jobs, education, freedom and a hope for a better future.

Akbar the only other option is the destruction of Israel.

This war will push back Syria for a decade maybe – that is the goal stated by some Israelis – but it will not stop Iran or Hezbollah.

Even if Israel launched an attack on Iran today it would not be able to defeat Iran.

Israel could not defeat a Lebanese militia and was rebuffed. How can it defeat Iran? The strategic map of the region has changed. A decade ago Israel might have had overwhelming superiority militarily but not today. Iran is the strongest nation in the Middle East.

What is the source of the conflict with Iran or its allies Syria and Hezbollah? Occupied land. Sovereignty. Palestine.

We all know the history of the region. Israel has no men of vision like Nahum Goldman or Rabin left it seems. I fear another Holocaust if Israel doesn’t come to her senses. Iran will destroy Israel in a future war. Israel is surrounded. If a war breaks out the Muslim world will back Iran despite their differences.

AIG despite your self-appointed role as the chosen people you can’t possibly be delusional enough to believe you speak for Palestinians. You don’t even speak for Israelis. You speak for yourself and are here to gloat over dead Arabs – your enemies.

Movie Scripts for Peace

Akbar the only other option is the destruction of Israel. … it would not be able to defeat Iran. Israel could not defeat a Lebanese militia… I fear another Holocaust…

Reverse,

You’re doing good. Sounds like a great movie script.

But what does this have to do with Syria?

Are you implying Assad could help save Israel in some way?

Akbar I realize you’re an American Jew but why do you dismiss other’s beliefs as you do? Who made you God? Seriously.

You’re not stupid and can read SANA or Iranian media or any resistance media and get your answers. You don’t accept that?Fine. I am not worried because I know Nasrallah will destroy your rogue state the during the next war. I know many Israelis. I roomed with soldiers from the IDF in college. I know they’re scared of Hezbollah. You don’t have to believe me. It is fine.

You patronize and play. Enjoy yourself. I am.

I am not worried because I know Nasrallah will destroy your rogue state the during the next war.

Reverse,

We’ve been hearing such things for years.

I know many Israelis. I roomed with soldiers from the IDF in college. I know they’re scared of Hezbollah.

I know Israelis too, my cousin’s son did 3 years in the IDF and spent some long days fighting the Hezbos.

War hurts for sure and isn’t a pleasant thing.

But we can talk about hypotheticals from now until kingdom come. Sorry, I trust AIG and my own people more than I trust you.

I guess I’m not sure why you’re more concerned about Israeli lives than you are about Syrian lives.

daily beast owned by jane harmon, agent for israel. all staff are zionists.

My friend Adiv was a Sephardi Jew who fled the IDF due to racism. Gadi was another Israeli friend who showed me photographs of Israeli soldiers standing on Lebanese corpses like the Lebanese were slaughtered deer.

Syria? What do you seriously want me to say?

I support Assad 1000%.

We’re not talking about saving Syrian lives are we? If we are what is your proposal for that? Assad should surrender?

Funny, almost all you say is a hypothetical isn’t it?

You, or the lying Hasbara, can try to separate the war from the realities of the region but Israel’s bombing of Syria makes the two of you appear foolish.

Regime idiot,

I answered your questions now answer mine:

If Nasrallah can destroy Israel, why can’t he destroy and beat an un-unified rebellion? Why is it taking Assad and Nasrallah so long and why are they losing?

You yourself admitted that attacking Israel would be suicide. So which is it? Will Israel be destroyed or is it suicide to attack Israel?

If Nasrallah can destroy Israel why has he not attempted ONE resistance operation in 6 years? Why has he not shot ONE rocket at Israel or fired at ONE Israeli soldier for so long?

Akbar remember you might consider yourself superior to anyone other than other Jews – “your people” – and you might feel the IDF is invincible but you’re wrong on both counts. Your cowardly army ran out of Lebanon humiliated in 2006.

Your Hasbara friend is a Johnny One-Note bleating like sheep do.

You seem smarter but perhaps I am wrong.

Regime idiot,
Why are you not answering the questions?
These are legitimate and very specific questions. Let’s see you answer them.

Akbar no one could be so ignorant as to assume the world has to accept the Zionist narrative on the Syrian war.

You take the side of the terrorists. Okay. That is your right. It is also the right of a sovereign nation to destroy anyone attacking her. That is the right of self-defense.

You can carp and moan about Assad but should concentrate on the violations of Obama and Netanyahu first. You are an American FIRST and then a Jew. That is your only choice unless you want to end up rotting in an American prison like the Zionist spy Pollard.

Of course some Israelis are having orgasmic like fits watching Syria burn. They enjoy death.

Akbar no one could be so ignorant as to assume the world has to accept the Zionist narrative on the Syrian war.

Reverse,

The Zionist Narrative™ = the World Narrative™ = the Opposition Narrative™

Your best bet is to contact Pat Buchanan, but he’s an isolationist.

Regime idiot,
Why are you still not answering the questions, coward?
These are legitimate and very specific questions. Let’s see you answer them.

France has not decided yet to provide weapons to the rebels:

It has asked to meet next week with Hitto, Khatib and Idriss in London.
Interesting confrontation as Idriss has rejected Hitto’s election and Khatib has criticized Qatar and the MB.

The Three Stooges

Idriss = Moe?
Khatib = Larry?
Hitto = Curly?

Let’s toss in Shemp aka Sabra for good measure.

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