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.