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.