28,000 Syrians Abducted by Assad's Thugs

Avaaz reports Assad's thugs disappeared at least 28,000 Syrians since the start of the uprising.

Ma'arrat Noman Liberated

Ma'arrat Noman liberated. Despte all the murders Assad commits he still loses even this.

As Feared Assad's Thugs Murder 19 in Qudsaya

As noted in the last blog some Syrian netizens feared a massacre in Qudsaya. The massacre happened.

Remember how I said #Qudsaya in #Damascus was going to burn today? I was right. 19 killed so far, among them 5 from single family. (From NMSyria.)

 And the Revolution continues.

Syria Secretive Minority Sect, the Allawites. (PBS.)

 Protest in Iran in solidarity with Syria.

Tragic picture of Aleppo.

Trailer for The Unknown Soldier, a movie about the Syrian revolution.

How to know when to say, You are an Embarrassment to the Revolution.

Al Arabiya columnist wonders why many Muslims protest over a 'film' no one saw (until some Egyptian yahoos with a TV program made it an issue) but no such protests occurred over the murder of Fatima of Idlib, whose photo of her decapitated body. Why is are Muslims not protesting over her? she asks.

LCC statement regarding the deadly border incident with Turkey.

Hat tip to NMSyria for these links.

SANA throws a temper tantrum at Hamas leader Kaled Meshal for having the decency to not support Assad's murderous rampage.

The Independent has a tale of arms for the Syrian opposition being held up in order to persuade the Syrians to be more coordinated.

MEMRI has this article discussing how Syria might disintegrate if it split apart.

Hat tip to Syria Comment for these links.

Disorganized like a Fox. Article from the Institute for the Study of War arguing the benefits of Syria's opposition being decentralized the way it is.

Massacre at Qudsaya

Look at the Twitter feed forQudsaya
. Reports indicate Assad's forces have committed a massacre there and maybe they might murder even more people there soon. I hope that will not be the case.

Link. Video of the grave of Caliph Omar bin AbdelAziz, Maarat al Nouman.

The grave site of the Islamic Caliph Omar bin AbdelAziz in #MaaratAlNouman was shelled and damage during shelling from Wadi Aldayf. #Idlib (Source)

On other matters I heard that a "senior military figure" from Hezbollah, Ali Hussein Nassif, was killed. It has been said that Hezbollah is sending fighters to Syria (Hezbollah denies this,) in a desperate attempt to protect the Assad regime from the justified wrath of his own people whom he slays day after day.

If Hezbollah is sending their fighters into Syria to protect Assad then I think Nasrallah and the rest of Hezbollah's leadership should feel ashamed sending their men to die for a murderous dictator who has lost any legitimacy and right to rule over Syria.

Also just heard about the bombing that just occurred in Aleppo. Alas these horrific deadly acts will surely continue until Assad is overthrown. Peace will never come as long as Assad continues to rule.

Assad blames everyone but himself for Syria's 'chaos'. Sadly unsurprising to me.

Also heard that Assad had to send in troops to repress his own hometown.

Assad sent thousands of troops to Latakia in order end clashes between pro and anti-government Alawite militias in his home city of Latakia. ...

Assad sent thousands of troops to Latakia in order bring stability back and end clashes in his home city of Aleppo [I think it means Latakia] as scores of Alawite militiamen were killed and many more were injured as heavy fighting continued between pro and anti-Assad militias in his home city of Kerdaha and the Sport City of Latakia province. (Source.)

 If Assad has to even send troops to oppress and terrorize his own hometown he is surely doomed. 

Assad's Forces Massacre 104 at al Thyabeyyeh, Damascus

Assad's forces have unleashed yet another mass massacre in Syria. After Houla, Qubeir, Darayya this time it is at al Thyabeyyeh, in the Damascus suburbs.

Al-Thyabeyyeh: A new atrocious massacre committed by Al-Assad forces as 104 bodies were found, most of them for elderly, women, and children, The victims were slaughtered with knives, their bodies mutated. Further, Al-Assad forces stormed the town reinforced with tanks. There is a fear of committing new massacres against civilians in the town. (Source from Revolutionary Command Council in Damascus Suburbs, 26 September, 2012.) 

This terrible massacre proves once again the utter disregard for human life that the Assad regime has planted and nurtured among themselves. Assad must be stopped. His forces will only do this again in a futile attempt for them to remain in power for just a little longer.

The Complete Legal Documentation of the Daraya Massacre. Speaking of massacres here is a detailed account of the Darayya massacre. It includes the names of 524 of the slain. This report is from the Syrian Network for Human Rights - London, as presented by the Damascus Center for Human Rights. 

Other links:

Hand in Hand for Syria. UK based charity focused on Syria. Here is a BBC news report that mentions this NGO.

Homs Up to Date. Facebook page focusing on Homs.

The Revolting Syrian. That is revolt as in revolt against authority.

It includes an eloquent arguement for funding 

Link. Washington Post article that suggests that Hezbollah are sending fighters to prop up the Assad regime. I feel very sorry for any Hezbollah soldier fighting for Assad in Syria, if this rumor is true. They fight for a doomed cause. They are lied to and told that the Syrian people love Assad, that they are fighting 'foreigners'. 

History Repeats Itself as Tragedy. Foreign Policy article detailing a Pentagon report on the 1982 Hama Massacre.

Makeshift Arms Production in Aleppo Governorate. New York Times report analyzing the rise of makeshift arms production in Aleppo Governorate.

Insufficient Respect. A blog that devotes a lot of its time to the Syrian revolution. Includes this eloquent argument for arming the Free Syrian Army.

One real alternative is arming the FSA with modern anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, and lots of ammunition.   This will almost assure their victory.  Since there is a war going on, we may also be sure that the FSA will commit war crimes and human rights violations - just like, for instance, the Allies in World War II.

 Another real alternative is not arming the FSA.    In this case, perhaps Assad would win, and certainly the struggle will go on much longer.   Régime forces will continue to operate for months or even years.   The certainties here are that the régime will commit war crimes and human rights violations many orders of magnitude more vicious and more extensive than anything perpetrated by the FSA.   If Assad wins, repression incorporating these crimes will go on indefinitely.

There are no other real alternatives.   The FSA will never conduct itself with Ikea-level innocuousness.   The Syrian régime will never, in the heat of war, attain a level of basic humanity that it never reached in peacetime.   Neither side will ever compromise because because both sides face an enemy absolutely determined to destroy them.   And because this is a world of adults, not children, 'we' will never find allies in Syria 'we' can trust,  nor will the orgy of violence become an orgy of nonviolence.   Finally, the hand-wringing West will not suddenly be overcome with lust for empire and conquer Syria with a crusading army.  These ideas, like negotiating with Assad, can arise only within a determined effort to deny reality.

May Assad soon be overthrown so that the people of Syria will be able to live in peace again.

Mothly Death Toll Worse Than Iraq at its Worst

Syria's Shocking Death Toll. (PBS.) This chilling report notes that more Syrian civilians have been killed in August 2012 than during the height of violence in Iraq.

Syria Massacres seem to show slow, steady strategy. Report from LA Times of residents who tell their horrific accounts of the Darayya massacre.

(Warning: Contains graphic content.) Goran Tomasevic's dramatic photos of the fighting around Aleppo in Syria. Media coverage seems to have lessened but right now Syria largest city, Aleppo, is in the midst of a catastrophic battle that has been raging for nearly two months now. Here are some photos of this life and death struggle.

Syria and Obama's Five Excuses for Inaction. This column argues that President Obama is being inactive regarding the situation in Syria and rebuts various objections towards greater intervention for Syrian Revolution.

 Link. This looks interesting. Some sort of news roundup concerning Syria.

Another Post on Syria

Link. Journalist Austin Tice has been captured by the Assad regime. The Syrian Expatriates Organization calls for his immediate release.

Link. Three-fifth of Aleppo still under rebel control.

After Assad's Darayya Massacre

A few days ago I heard about the massacre in Darayya. I had heard that 300 were wickedly murdered by Assadite forces. Just a little while ago I have read actually 600 were murdered by the Assadites.

Assad will soon fall. His regime cannot survive and will fall.

Link. Robert Fisk's report of Assad's latest massacre. Says it was sparked off from a prisoner exchange which went wrong. Also talks to several persons who talk of people being killed. Responsibility for deaths mentioned is left obscure.

The Local Coordination Committees’ in Daraya response to Mr. Robert Fisk. LCC Darayya asserts that various atrocities highlighted by Fisk were actually committed by Assadites or caused by them and dismisses prisoner swap story as an "unbelievable...story" from the Assadites.

Link. FSA targeting Assadite military airports in Aleppo to cripple Assad's planes. FSA blame Assad regime for car bomb which killed 27 people in Damascus.

But the opposition Syrian National Council accused Assad’s regime of staging the bombing against its own supporters in a bid to divert attention from the killings of hundreds of people during an army assault last week on a largely Sunni Muslim suburb of the capital [Darayya].

“The regime wants to cover up for its massacres,” SNC spokesman George Sabra said, alluding to the deaths in the town of Daraya that sparked an international outcry.

“It also wants to punish residents of Jaramana -- who are of mixed religious backgrounds -- for welcoming people who were displaced from nearby towns,” Sabra told AFP by telephone.

“The regime’s fingerprints are clear,” charged Sabra, himself a Christian. “The regime does not want anyone to welcome refugees from other cities. And it wants to turn the revolution... into a bloody civil war fought along sectarian lines.”

I am somewhat skeptical of this assertion but I will say that I have heard before how the Assad regime punishes communities simply for letting in refugees from other parts of Syria. I remember hearing after Assad bombarded Baba Amr, Homs that towns which accepted refugees from there were being harassed by the Assad regime, including Christians.

Link. Abdelbaset Sieda, leader of the Syrian National Council criticizes the US government for telling France that preparing a government-in-waiting is premature. I feel compelled to agree. Good on President Hollande for trying to help the creation of a new, non-Assadite government. This is a good move.

Link. Daily Kos profile of Clay Claiborne, a dedicated blogger who has been closely following the situation in Libya and Syria. Hat tip to him for the following two links.

Syrian Support Group. An NGO based in the US dedicated to aiding the Free Syrian Army and sending money to them. The US Treasury have given the Syrian Support Group a license to raise funds for the FSA. The New York Times and Wikipedia have discussed this group.

Link. 25 minute documentary of a reporter who visited Benghazi and Misrata, Libya in August 2011 during the turmoil of the Libyan Civil War and records what he sees there. May the Libyan people's victory be soon replicated in Syria by the Syrian people.

Link. Gulf News says Iran is sending Revolutionary Guards to aid Assad's murderous repression.

Link. A dire report of the state of literally hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the fighting caused by Assad's military and thugs embarking on their murderous rampage which has shocked the world.

Bosnians Who Fled Syria Describe a Hellish War. Bosnians flee Syria and talk about it.

Dzenana Abas, 33, survived the 1992-95 siege of Sarajevo. But she said what she endured in Aleppo was "beyond belief."

May this unfathomable horror soon end for the Syrian people. May the murderer, Bashar al-Assad, and the murderous regime he now leads, be soon defeated so that the Syrian people may live in peace and love their families and friends, and work for better lives for themselves and their families in peace. May that day soon come.

Assadite Propaganda: North Korea Supports Assad

I literally laughed when I saw this little propaganda piece (August 12) in which SANA, the murderous Assad regime's media mouthpiece, boasts of having support from the North Korean dictatorship.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) expressed full support to the Syrian leadership, army and people against the conspiracy targeting Syria. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea leader, Kim Jong-un, and Foreign Minister, Pak Ui-chun, described the US and its Arab agents' policies against Syria as ''state terrorism.''

Outside Assad's controlled society North Korea is widely viewed as a byword of oppression, tyranny, political idolatry with its wicked cult of personality for the Kim dynasty, which sends thousands of people into labor camps every bit as vicious and unfathomably cruel the Stalinist gulag.

How poetically appropriate that such murderers as the Assad clique should welcome words of support from the most infamous North Korea dictatorship.

In Assad's bizarre fantasy world shooting 5000 people in cold blood did not cause the Syrian people to rise up against him. He simply blames some sort of vague foreign conspiracy, in order to completely ignore the fact that it is the Syrian people themselves who are propelling events, it is the Syrian people who were forced to take up arms after 5000 people, the vast majority unarmed protesters murdered by Assad's gangs, were killed and it is the Syrian people who will soon crush the forces of the murderer Assad. 

Readings on Syria

The Olympics will soon begin. But the terror continues in Syria. While the rest of the world eagerly awaits the Olympics (as do I) the Syrian people are still going through the darkest days. How dare Bashar al-Assad force such pain and misery upon the Syrian people. His days are numbered.

A terrible battle seems to be raging in Aleppo, the largest city in Syria. Aleppo did not rise in revolt for months after the initial protests began but now about half is controlled by the Free Syrian Army and Bashar al-Assad will be sending his forces to do battle. I fear for what will happen there.

Link. This Washington Post article suggests that pro-Assad Alawites are trying to create an Alawite state within Syria's borders and the recent mass massacres (Houla, Qubeir, etc.) are attempts to create predominantly Alawite enclaves. I really hope that this theory is not true.

Link. Juan Cole has an article detailing some of the recent diplomatic defections that have been occurring.

Link. An article discussing the nuances of Iraq's position regarding Syria.

Link. Love the title of this Daily Telegraph article, 'Last week's bomb attack was the rebels' own (successful) Stauffenberg plot. Could Assad still cling on?' My opinion is the sooner Assad goes away the better.

Link. Intriguing words from this Daily Telegraph article by David Blair.

But the price of reinforcing Aleppo has been high. The army [Assad's forces] appears to have abandoned large areas of rural Syria to the rebels. In the process, Assad’s new survival strategy seems to be emerging: the regime will do its utmost to hang on to Aleppo and Damascus and the highway between them. It will pay a heavy price by effectively conceding many rural areas. Yet by grimly retaining control over the country’s two major cities, Assad will hope to contain the challenge to his rule. This is not a plan for long term survival...

Link. Free Saraqib learns how to govern itself free from Assad's murderous regime despite Assad's murderous shelling.

Link. This man has recently been discussing a black flag that is often thought of as Al Qaeda's flag. He says that it is actually a traditional Islamic symbol that has often been used many times by many different Muslims though history and does not necessarily indicate that the bearers are Al Qaeda.

Link. Column from The Independent's Robert Fisk. Mentions that 58% of Syrians under 24 years old are unemployed.

The sooner Bashar al-Assad goes the better. Syria does not need him. He is the problem. He is the threat to his people's well being and he needs to be overthrown as soon as possible. The regime can not survive. It threw away any legitimacy it had by murdering thousands of its own people, thus forcing the opposition to take up arms and wage an armed struggle of self defense, not just to overthrow the regime but for mere survival and to stop this insane gang of murderers from killing even more of their own people. It is just a matter of time before the murderer Bashar al Assad is thrown out with the trash.



(Source, NMSyria.)

Stories and Images from Syria

It seems the focus of attention is now focused more on Aleppo as opposed to Damascus. Today I looked at a map of Syria and saw Aleppo near the Turkish border and I just thought Aleppo shall be taken. It is closer to people friendly (or at least tolerant) to Syrian revolutionaries.

Here's hoping this dark time of violence will soon end for the long suffering Syrian people.

Other links:

Link. Video of Syrian revolutionaries mocking a cult statue of Hafez al-Assad.

Link. Article detailing the work of artists producing pictures for demonstrations in Qusayr.

Protest in Al Mezzeh, Damascus, on 20 July, 2012.

Link. Protest in Saraqib, Idlib on 22 July, 2012. With all the talk about the military moves made by the Assad regime's forces and the Free Syrian Army and other revolutionary forces one can forget that it is these brave protesters who first sparked the cry for justice and freedom.

Concerning Assadite propaganda I heard that SANA, the Assad regime mouthpiece, no longer provide figures for how many of their forces are being killed. A sign of just how much this conflict has escalated. How did Bashar al-Assad mess up this situation so badly? There no such armed opposition at all before March 2011, and even for several months afterwards, the Assad regime's slanderous lies against peaceful protesters notwithstanding.

More Stories on Syria

Link. Amazing video in which FSA soldiers proclaim their seizure of Azzaz and show several tanks destroyed by the FSA.

Link. One resident of Homs shares his thoughts and experiences with a British journalist. (January-June 2012).

There is no al-Qaida in Syria; if there were, they would attack the shabiha and bomb their areas.

Link. The head of the National Security intelligence agency, Hisham Bekhtyar, has also died due to the revolutionaries' bombing that also killed the Defense Minister and Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law.

A view of Homs on 17 July, 2012.



Link. British Foreign Minister William Hague listening to Syrian refugees.


Link. Article on Israelis' views of the dramatic events caused by the Arab Awakening.

On Twitter there has been a lot of discussion about an apparent mutiny in the Homs Central Prison but it seems very difficult to tell what happened. It might have been suppressed by the Assadites but it is hard to know.

More on Syria

Been reading about Syria recently.

Link. Story from the Daily Telegraph featuring confessions of a Shabiha member captured by Syrian revolutionaries, infamous pro-government militia. This interview is particularly chilling in how the shabiha seems to relate these events so casually, and how he was motivated not by patriotic love of the regime or even of follow Alawites but simply because he was power mad and he was paid for this dirty work.

Link. Was reading an article from the BBC about defected Ambassador Nawaf Fares and was amazed to see him accuse the Assad regime of collaborating with Al Qaeda to commit massacres.

He also said that major bombings across Syria had been orchestrated by the regime in collaboration with al-Qaeda....Mr Fares's claim that Sunni Muslim militants in al-Qaeda are collaborating with a regime dominated by those from the minority Allawite sect will surprise many. Challenged on his view that al-Qaeda was collaborating with the regime despite this, Mr Fares said: "There is enough evidence in history that lots of enemies meet when their interests meet." He added: "Al-Qaeda is searching for space to move and means of support, the regime is looking for ways to terrorise the Syrian people."

This statement reminds me of how the Syrian revolutionaries blamed the Assad regime for causing the bombing in Damascus in March 2012. Personally I am somewhat skeptical of such theories but makes me wonder what is the truth with this matter.

Pro-Government propaganda:

Link. Had a laugh out loud moment while I was reading this leaked email (courtesy of WikiLeaks) from the Syrian Communist Party, which is aligned with the Assad regime, describing the situation in Syria as they saw it in early June 2011.

I literally laughed out loud as I read their description of the Muslim Brotherhood. Some of us in the West are fearful of the Muslim Brotherhood and tend to view them crudely as 'scary Muslims'. In fact that is how I first heard of them from a right wing web site which viewed the Muslim Brotherhood very negatively.

I hear this view expressed so often I get tired of hearing it in the news media. (Why can't you say something else about them for once, Mr. Reporter? I may think to myself.)

So I was quite surprised and amused to see these Communists describe the Muslim Brotherhood as a tool of Western countries and 'colonialism'. Apparently they have been telling the Syrian people that we are allies.

(Note: translation of this document is in not perfect English. It is presented as it is on WikiLeaks. I have added italics to make clear how the Communists are portraying the Muslim Brotherhood. I do not agree with their portrayal but am showing this to state how absurd and ridiculous I regard their views they present here.)

The positions of the Turkish government - the main member in NATO- are not friendly towards Syrian national steadfastness, which reject the imperialist dictations. Turkey embraces reactionary groups that disguised by religion like Muslim Brotherhood, which share the ruling party in Turkey its thought and loyalty to imperialism.

So the Muslim Brotherhood is loyal to the US? How absurd!

Under the auspices and facilitation from the ruling circles in Turkey conferences for the enemies of the Syrian national approach were held, the last conference held in Antalya, attended by Muslim Brotherhood elements and many unknown persons from the Syrian political arena, the essential aim of these conferences is making a radical change in Syria for the benefit of loyal forces to colonialism.

The Muslim Brotherhood want their country to be enslaved by Westerners? What an absurd idea.

This is propaganda plain and simple.

The Communists are not trying to tell the truth but are striving to incite people to fear and hate any one opposed to the Assad regime and to silently accept any murderous measures the Assad regime uses to suppress them.

In the same context, a meeting was held in capital of the Atlantic, Brussels, the most prominent activists were leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood. This organization stained with the blood of innocent people, especially during the events in Syria in the late seventies and early eighties of the last century, this organization known with full loyal to imperialism, which leading centers are located in Western capitals and sponsored exceptional from the ruling circles, as well as from Arab obscurantist reactionary regimes.

This statement is particularly disgusting. No mention is made here of the infamous Hama Massacre of 1982 in which thousands of people were murdered by Syrian governmental forces in order to suppress the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood did indeed wage an armed struggle to overthrow the government in the years preceding the massacre but such acts cannot be used to justify the horrific massacres which the Assad regime inflicted upon the Syrian people in Hama in its mad attempt to destroy opposition. Indeed the long years of silence and repression the Assad regime has inflicted since then are precisely what caused the protesters to rise up against the regime, knowing no change, no justice, can occur without a change in the government.

Bashar al-Assad has to go.

And he will go.

More Syria Links

SOS Siege on Syria: The situation in Syria now.

Syrian Now. Syrian revolutionary website.

Link. Intriguing article that lists ten TV stations run by Syrian revolutionaries opposed to the illegitimate murderous regime of Assad. I willhave to investigate that further.

Voices about the Syrian Revolution

I have often thought about the horrendous situation currently unfolding in Syria.

There is a whole world of people striving to reveal what is currently happening in Syria despite the Assad regime's murderous frenzied attempts to silence and even murder those who dare to report what is happening.

Aside form mainstream media sources there are many outlets by revolutionary Syrians. Some of the more prominent sources may be seen in my previous post. Here are some more links of relevance:


Link. Douma Committee striving to advance the revolution in Syria.

Link. Intriguing article comparing the differences between the Syrian Revolution and the Lebanese Civil War.

We Are All Al Shadly. Facebook protest page calling for justice for a brave man who spoke his uncensored words to a Western reporter and paid for his brave act with his life.

Duma News Translation. Facebook page that translates news bulletins produced by Syrian revolutionaries.

FromSyrians.com. Syrian revolutionary website that translates news from Syria into English and other widely used languages.

TheNewSyria. Facebook profile of a Syrian revolutionary.

Map of Syrian refugees.

Shahed3yanFB. Syrian revolutionary's Youtube page. (Arabic.)

NMSyria. A Syrian revolutionary's Twitter profile.

Link. Another revolutionary's profile.

Link. (In Arabic.)

Assadite propaganda:

Link. Typical dehumanizing propaganda. This article accuses Syrian refugees of being terrorists. Demonstrating the blind "reasoning" worthy of any conspiracy theorist the article says that the reason Turkish authorities forbid journalists from taking photos in refugee camps is, wait for it, to hide that they are not refugees but terrorists.

Are the forces of Assad preparing to murder the refugees now?

While it may be reasonable to suppose some of those people might strive to work with the Free Syrian Army or try to help Syrians back home from where they are by sending them aid, but to pretend that they are not refugees but just terrorists is a disgusting slur upon them.

This only further expose the paranoid siege mentality that is gripping the Assad regime and making them deny reality and lash out viciously at anything that even remotely looks like a threat to them.

It is madness to deny that there are refugees there. The Assad regime is simply excusing itself of any obligation towards their own people that they cast out in their mad attempt to retain power no matter the cost in human lives.

Links on the Unfolding Horror in Syria

Just been reading about what's been happening in Syria lately. Here's some places I went recently.

Link
Latest report from Amnesty International detailing wanton murders, burnings of houses and enforced disappearances committed by the Syrian Army earlier this year.

Link
Photos of Syrian conflict.

Link
Overcoming legacy of Baathist rule and the propaganda Assad regime has imprinted onto the Syrian people.

Link
Fascinating interview with a former aide to the murderer Bashar al-Assad and revealingly shows how she disassociates herself from the horror that is happening.

Assad's propaganda:

Link
Desperately trying to distract people from Assad's crimes by trying desperately trying to incite hatred at Israel and pretending to be passionately concerned for the welfare of the Palestinian people.

Link
Thanking Russian government for preventing Syrian regime from facing the consequences of its crimes and murders.