Commentary on the Struggle for Freedom

Thousands of lives may be at risk in al-Qusayr - intervention is essential

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 16:07:33 -0400

al-Qusayr may have fallen to Assad’s forces - meaning that thousands civilians are still trapped within the city, at risk of being slaughtered by Assad and Hezbollah’s forces. Raising our voices and urging intervention is essential. In the words of Hadi Abdullah, Qusayr-based journalist and activist:

Furthermore, in the words of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights:

Homs province: Fighters from the Lebanese Hizbullah have overrun the city of al-Quseir after intense bombardment cover overnight by regime forces, which continued until dawn today.

Reports indicate that the rebel forces retreated from the city due to lack of ammunition and men, this comes despite the many promises that supplies would reach the rebels of al-Quseir.

The SOHR voices its deep concern over the fate of more than 1200 injured in the city, we urge the Red Cross to enter the city immediately.

Raising awareness and getting various humanitarian groups and governmental outlets to act is ESSENTIAL. To save more lives, and prevent more small, vulnerable towns from falling into the hands of Assad and Nasrallah’s brutal forces, a no-fly zone and international intervention are urgently needed, including supplying the Free Syrian Army with all the arms it needs.

Here are some useful contacts to contact with this information, to raise awareness:

1. Human Rights Watch:

Emma Daly dalye@hrw.org

Human Rights Watch

350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor

New York, NY 10118-3299

USA

Tel: 1-(212) 290-4700

2. Amnesty International:

http://www.amnesty.org

To contact:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=523035454422468

3. Children’s Defense Fund (CDF)

Children’s Defense Fund

25 E Street NW

Washington, D.C. 20001

Tel: 800-CDF-1200 (800-233-1200)

Email: cdfinfo@childrensdefense.org

www.childrensdefense.org

http://www.childrensdefense.org/

4. Human Rights Action Center:

Jack Healey: HRAC Director

can be reached directly by:

jackghealey@gmail.com

http://www.humanrightsactioncenter.org/

5. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:

InfoDesk@ohchr.org

http://www.ohchr.org/

6. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees:

syrda@unhcr.org

http://www.unhcr.org/

Get to it! If enough emails are sent en masse, action may be taken, in the form of news reports, increased awareness as a result, more outctry, etc.

Thanks for your time and help.

- Ben, and Radio Free Syria.

AN URGENT MESSAGE FROM DR. QASSEM EL ZEIN IN AL #QUSAYR, SYRIA - PLEASE SHARE AND SEND TO ALL MEDIA AND HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 12:24:00 -0400

(PLEASE READ THE LIST OF CONTACTS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE).

In Qusayr alone, thousands have died in a matter of days due to a brutal assault by Hezbollah and Syrian government troops and militants. As the army encircles the besieged town, thousands more are under threat of being massacred en masse, as was the case in Darayya, Houla, al-Bayda and Baniyas, and elsewhere. This is a report by Doctor Qassem el-Zein, who is within the besieged city of al-Qusayr:

‘We call upon all humanitarian organisations.

We have got hundreds of wounded civilians; some in critical conditions.

We cannot do anything to help them due to the lack of medical supplies.

We just want to get them out of the city. We just want safe corridors to get them out.

We have thousands of children in dire need of care, medicines and food.

We have thousands of women and elderly people in need for care and and medicines as well.

We have no flour, no water, or electricity or water.

We are bombarded by fighter jets, tanks and rockets.’

As Assad’s genocide goes on with no end in sight, it is urgent that action is taken. Please send this to all the humanitarian organisations, all the governmental outlets, all the humanitarian organisations, and all the high profile figures you can. I have already rattled off one email to several outlets, reading the following:

My name is Ben. I’m an activist for a free Syria, and a worker at Radio Free Syria, with friends within Syria. Why, you might ask, does a non-Muslim westerner care about the people of Syria? My answer to you is that there is an ongoing genocide in Syria, with hundreds of thousands being slaughtered merely for expressing opinions which their myopic, thuggish dictator doesn’t want his closed, brutal ears to have to hear. Every day, hundreds of innocents are being slaughtered and the world continues to do very little.
In Qusayr alone, thousands have died in a matter of days due to a brutal assault by Hezbollah and Syrian government troops and militants. As the army encircles the besieged town, thousands more are under threat of being massacred en masse, as was the case in Darayya, Houla, al-Bayda and Baniyas, and elsewhere. This is a report by Doctor Qassem el-Zein, who is within the besieged city of al-Qusayr:
“We call upon all humanitarian organisations
We have got hundreds of wounded civilians; some in critical conditions.
We cannot do anything to help them due to the lack of medical supplies.
We just want to get them out of the city. We just want safe corridors to get them out.
We have thousands of children in dire need of care, medicines and food.
We have thousands of women and elderly people in need for care and and medicines as well.
We have no flour, no water, or electricity or water.
We are bombarded by fighter jets, tanks and rockets.’”
As you can see, this is becoming appalling for all, regardless of if you are an armed revolutionary or a defenseless civilian. The original report can be seen posted onto our radio’s Facebook page, here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=464814896937056&set=a.382885705129976.91927.363889943696219&type=1&theater
Could I please ask all of you to use any power vested in you to raise awareness of this - via announcements, posts on your websites on social media sites, contacting anyone of influence you can (particularly those in the media), and so on. It may not seem like much, but if enough awareness is raised, genocide may be prevented, at least in this instance.
So far the world has remained largely indifferent to this genocide perpetrated by Assad - but all this could change, with even some support from you and your organisations. I hope this message reaches you well.
Regards,
Ben, and the rest of Radio Free Syria.”

Qusayr is facing the same danger that Benghazi faced in 2011, when Gaddafi’s forces were about to invade it. But, unlike in Libya, there are no fighter jets or foreign aid coming to the oppressed people of Qusayr, to help defeat the forces of Hezbollah and Assad.

GENOCIDE is incoming, if nothing is done. The same genocide that Assad is inflicting on all of Syria. It is already underway in Qusayr, and must be halted.

Here is a list of contacts to email:

1. Human Rights Watch:

Emma Daly dalye@hrw.org

Human Rights Watch

350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor

New York, NY 10118-3299

USA

Tel: 1-(212) 290-4700

2. Amnesty International:

http://www.amnesty.org

To contact:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=523035454422468

3. Children’s Defense Fund (CDF)

Children’s Defense Fund

25 E Street NW

Washington, D.C. 20001

Tel: 800-CDF-1200 (800-233-1200)

Email: cdfinfo@childrensdefense.org

www.childrensdefense.org

http://www.childrensdefense.org/

4. Human Rights Action Center:

Jack Healey: HRAC Director

can be reached directly by:

jackghealey@gmail.com

http://www.humanrightsactioncenter.org/

5. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:

InfoDesk@ohchr.org

http://www.ohchr.org/

6. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees:

syrda@unhcr.org

http://www.unhcr.org/

Please send emails and phone calls as soon as possible

Regards,

Ben, and all of Radio Free Syria.

The Syrian Revolution: help me to help others!

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:50:01 -0400

*The link is at the bottom of the page*

The violence in Syria has become worse and worse, with hundreds of thousands of people killed so far in Assad’s genocide.

My project has the aim of helping me to travel to the region (the border with Turkey) as soon as I can possibly do so this summer, where I will document information, meet with people who have some relation to the conflict, gather evidence of what has happened there, and generally offer assistance in any way I can.

I hope to bring back photographs of the situation, film footage of the reality on the ground, and other such things - things that will raise the world’s awareness, and help Syrians themselves.

What I see and do there will hopefully be invaluable in bringing an end to the conflict which has claimed so many innocent lives. Although I could not possibly hope to trump the efforts of those But any help for fellow human beings is surely only an asset.

Your donations will go towards the trip there, money and possible aid for refugees and others, for equipment and documentation tools, and for other such things. Thank you.

The donation link: Please assist in my efforts here.

- Ben, UK

yallair7al: LEAKED VIDEO ASSAD’S FORCES TORTURE,...

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:48:25 -0400

yallair7al:

***LEAKED VIDEO*** ASSAD’S FORCES TORTURE, HUMILIATE AND THEN EXECUTE AN OLD MAN. (Date & Location Unknown) - They already shot him in the leg. He’s injured badly. AS they hurl insults at him “I will f**k your mother you dog” they force the man to crawl to the side of the path where they can execute him. The Assad thug treats the elderly man as dog as he makes him crawl. The executioner even has the time to answer his phone, seemingly annoyed, and say “I’m busy, i’m busy, talk to you later” as casual as someone would say it if they were loading a shopping cart.

When the Assad thug finally decides to execute the man, with each shot he shouts “This is for Bashar Al Assad! BANG. This is for the Alawites! BANG”

These are Assad’s thugs. This is what they do. Are you not outraged?

Thanks @Racanarchy

yallair7al: LEAKED VIDEO ASSAD’S FORCES TORTURE,...

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:47:02 -0400

yallair7al:

***LEAKED VIDEO*** ASSAD’S FORCES TORTURE, HUMILIATE AND THEN EXECUTE AN OLD MAN. (Date & Location Unknown) - They already shot him in the leg. He’s injured badly. AS they hurl insults at him “I will f**k your mother you dog” they force the man to crawl to the side of the path where they can execute him. The Assad thug treats the elderly man as dog as he makes him crawl. The executioner even has the time to answer his phone, seemingly annoyed, and say “I’m busy, i’m busy, talk to you later” as casual as someone would say it if they were loading a shopping cart.

When the Assad thug finally decides to execute the man, with each shot he shouts “This is for Bashar Al Assad! BANG. This is for the Alawites! BANG”

These are Assad’s thugs. This is what they do. Are you not outraged?

Thanks @Racanarchy

I lived in Syria for a good 8 months lol, okay, so the foreign militants, what do you think of them? and yeah, but isn't the Israeli bombing of Syrian territory evidence for the western double standards? come on, I don't know if Assad killed citizens, bombs are bound to have some casualties of innocents, but then again, the americans know that from their pretty little drones right? no, you follow the bias crap duude

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:45:46 -0400

I think they’re an agressive, radical minority - not a majority. Israel likes Assad, for protecting their borders for so long. They weren’t bombing him, they were bombing Iranian weapons being sent to Hezbollah.

Bombs will always kill ‘some innocents’ when they’re supposed to hit those civilians, you fool. That’s the whole point - this is a genocide.

Two wrongs don’t make a right. Just because the US government is bad, doesn’t mean Assad is a force for good. They would rather he stayed in power.

Now, tell me, what part of that is ‘bias crap’?

Assad is preparing another massacre in Al-Qusayr

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:58:00 -0400

Recently, it has become abundantly clear that Hezbollah is fighting by the thousands in Qusair, on the orders of Iran - which hopes to keep the regime of Bashar al-Assad as secure as possible. Hezbollah’s former leader has even stated that Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria (which he condemned) is as a result of Iranian pressure.

It goes without saying that Hezbollah is/has been responsible for some of the most brutal massacres against Sunni Muslim Syrians in this conflict - burnings, beatings, massacres, torture, etc. Thus making their argument that they are only ‘protecting’ Shias in border villages seem utterly fabricated and redundant. The only reason the Assad regime has managed to regain any ground at all in the Homs region is due to Hezbollah. In the words of one activist:

“The only reason why the regime is advancing in the Qusayr area is because of Hezbollah’s troops. Hezbollah fighters advance on the ground, while the (Syrian) air force gives them cover.”

So far, Hezbollah has taken heavy casualties in the ground battle for the Qusayr region. However the advance has so far continued, with Qusayr being now surrounded as a result. The regime is clearly planning to commit more atrocities there - it has allegedly dropped leaflets warning civilians to leave, the Hezbollah fighters in the region have committed some of the most horrendous massacres, etc.

If the regime’s history of ‘cleansing’ towns after capturing them is anything to go by, then atrocities are a certainty. There have already been atrocities. In the words of one activist (who denied any leaflets were dropped):

“What is more worrying than that is that there is no safe exit for civilians. All of us here in Al-Qusayr have been condemned by the regime to a slow death,” added Abdullah, a spokesperson for the Syrian Revolution General Commission, a network of anti-regime activists.
“Every time civilians try to leave the town, they are shot or shelled at the town’s edges by tanks or snipers. We are trapped — civilians, activists and fighters together.”

If civilians are killed merely trying to leave the town, imagine what will happen when the military attacks? And it will attack - first by using pulverising artillery barrages which kill hundreds, then sending in tanks in an attempt to crush the opposition, then committing massacres if it takes back control of the area.

This cannot, and should not, be allowed to happen. But with Obama’s red lines being proved time and time again to be little more than cynical lies, the complete lack of action by the international community, and the surrounding of Qusayr on three sides by Hezbollah (acting on behalf of Iran and Assad), then another massacre is very likely indeed, if nothing is done. Which it will probably not be.

The best we can hope for is a repelling of the Hezbollah/Assad regime offensive. The momentum of their attack seems to be slow but sure, as their casualties pile up across the border region. But the danger of a massacre is still all too real - in fact, very likely. Yet another village has fallen to the army very recently, tightening the noose over the city. In the words of one of Assad’s goons:

“We have almost finished our work in the north. Other battalions are arriving from the west and the south, and the east is already under our control. The city is caught in the middle.”

Please share this article, and raise as much awareness as possible. It may not seem like much, but if enough awareness is raised, another massacre may be prevented.

"Assad slaughtering his people".. lol good one

Wed, 08 May 2013 04:22:34 -0400

The truth hurts, I see…

what do you think about the UN's claim that concluded the opposition used chemical weapons against Syrians and not the government? And then the US and the opposition supporters undermining it? How is someone that wages war against a legitimate government undermine every little thing that makes the rebels look like the bad guys?

Wed, 08 May 2013 04:22:25 -0400

I believe that the UN investigation lacks any real legitimacy, as none of it was conducted within Syria. Do you want to know why? Because the Syrian government blocked access to the areas in which they used the weapons, because they wanted the evidence to degrade first.

You’re focusing so much on external factors in this uprising, that you airbrush the Syrian people out of their own revolution. Nobody from outside is waging ‘war’ against an illegitimate dictator (which is what he is, the facts speak for themselves - in every referendum, he gave himself 97% or something, and banned others from taking part). The regime is waging genocide against the people.

your posts about Syria are completely groundless and completely devoid of any type of impartiality. You have researched the agenda of NATO, Israel and the US right? Making the legitimate president look like a criminal, PAH! western countries can protect their sovereignty with whatever fucking weapons they want, but as soon as Lebanon or Syria becomes violated, the UN and those shitty western countries turn a blind eye, put that in your posts, nobody likes bias commentary bro

Wed, 08 May 2013 04:19:42 -0400

You seem like the kind of cretin who believes that any leader who mouths off against the oh-so-evil west and their ‘agendas’ has to be good. Assad is not ‘legitimate’ - he’s never allowed other candidates in any election, he kills anyone who opposes him, and he inherited power from his father.

I know people in Syria, and they all say the government is responsible, and I communicate with them regularly. so stuff your ignorant crap.

Assad cuts the internet - are more massacres imminent?

Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:44 -0400

Today, Assad has been widely cutting the internet, all over Syria - the signal for computers, for mobiles, and for various forms of electronic communication. It is being reported to be currently being shut off in a gradual process, spreading across the nation.

It is widely feared that the government will use such communication blackouts to commit more horrendous atrocities and crimes across Syria, now that there are fewer available mediums that can be used to get information out to the outside world. In fact, some have reported that this is the precise plan. Via Twitter:

‏@arahban51m

Activist warn that the regime is planning major military op in Jobar and Daraya in #Damascus and Qusayr in #Homs #Syria CWB will be used

‏@jenanmoussa1h

Finally got through to an activist in #Daraa. She tells me: ” There is no net and no mobile connection here.” | @akhbar

The nation of Syria has been disconnected from the Internet again http://tnw.to/f0eU1

via @TNWinsider

Retweeted by Ben A.D.

In the words of the former article:

On Tuesday at around 18:45 UTC, all Internet connections between Syria and the outside world were severed. It’s currently unclear if the outage is an accident, part of a short test (as the country has performed in the past), or a longer attempt to censor citizens.

Umbrella Security Labs first reported that OpenDNS resolvers saw a significant drop in traffic from Syria. On closer inspection, the security firm discovered that the Middle Eastern country had largely disappeared from the Internet.

Here is a chart of DNS traffic from and to Syria (the small amount of outbound traffic depicted indicates Umbrella’s DNS servers trying to reach DNS servers in the country):

Google followed up with the news that all its services are inaccessible in the country. At around the same time, there’s an obvious drop in traffic, all the way down to zero.

Out of the six regions around the world that Google is seeing a disruption, Syria is by far the worst off:

Other companies that track the state of the Internet have also confirmed the current outage.

Internet disconnections have been a tactic used by governments in Egypt and Libya before, and Syria’s government has been accused of cutting Internet and telephone connections to block opposition activist and rebel communications multiple times, including in June 2011, July 2012, and November 2012.
In all cases, the Internet was eventually restored, though outages ranged from less than an hour to over two days.

Please share this story as widely as possible - it may not seem like much, but it could help to discourage the regime from more disgusting massacres, if much more awareness is raised.

Chemical weapons being used in Saraqeb

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:09:00 -0400

As Assad’s genocide rages onward without stopping, there is widespread evidence suggesting that he has been using chemical weapons, in small quantities, all over the place in Syria - as if he is cautiously testing the waters in preparation for a much larger attack.

This is one very recent use of chemical weapons in Saraqeb. Chemical munitions can clearly be seen being fired onto this town. The numbers of deaths (if there are any) is currently unknown. However, in this video, fighters and civilians clearly appear to be struggling for life. Meanwhile, the world wrings its hands and does sod all, as usual:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W7HINobdUU&feature=youtu.be

It has even been reported that the wounded were stopped at the Turkish border by Turkish border guards, and refuses to let them pass. It has even been claimed that the same types of canisters that have been used in this attack, were used in a previous attack in Aleppo, by blogger Elliot Higgins (AKA Brown Moses). Donations to enable him to continue his invaluable work would be much appreciated.

(PLEASE READ AND SHARE WIDELY) Syria: A heartbreaking appeal from an elderly lady in Homs

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:59:23 -0400

The siege of Homs goes on unchecked. Thousands of thousands of civilians have been massacred in Homs - bombed, starved into submission, shelled, gunned down in the streets, and so on. Many more are trapped in the city and surrounding areas, bravely enduring the military’s savage attacks upon them, day by day.

One video recently caught my attention - one showing a kindly looking elderly lady who states she is 95 years old, and surrounded by signs of destruction and injured people, some of whom seem to be limping. The lady begs the (disgustingly silent) world to lift the suffocating, brutal siege of Homs so that supplies can be brought in for those that need them - the children, the women, the wounded, and so on.

PLEASE watch this video, and share it as widely as possible - with news outlets, activist groups, humanitarian organisations, etc: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbctokQZK1U

Here is the full transcript of this woman’s address to the world:

Peace be upon you. How are you?

My brother, open the road for us please.

I am ninety-ninety five years old,

it’s very hard for me to find something to eat.

I swear I do not have anything to eat,

I have no one to bring me anything to eat,

open the road for us. These young children need doctors,

they need clothes they need… this is so sad.

They need milk, a four year old child, where can I get,

the wall fell on his mother and she can no longer nurse him.

Where can I get milk for him?!

I swear we cannot find anything,

this is only a child.

Can you accept the loss of children just like that?!

Look at them; they are nude with bare feet, brothers.

May God bless you. Please open the road for us.

*At which point her nephew interjects.*

The leaders who are inside too…

*He is evidently referring to the FSA and others.*

Can open roads for us. Address them auntie.

*She continues*

May Allah be with you. Please open the road for us!

Open this road for us!

We are the servants of God, we have no food, no water, and no clothes, and doctors.

These corpses, and the injured people on the ground all over it, do they not need someone to treat them, brother?

May Allah be with you! Open this road for us!

yallair7al: From #Kafranbel, #Idlib (#Syria): #Assad hangs on...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:42:31 -0400

yallair7al:

From #Kafranbel, #Idlib (#Syria): #Assad hangs on (for now) as we fight amongst ourselves…

Assad's massacres get bigger, and the world becomes muter

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 22:12:00 -0400

One of the young victims of Assad’s massacres. Note the
horrible scrawl on this child’s face: “Assad or no-one.”

Assad’s genocide in Syria seems to be powering ahead without mercy, and without end. Massacres such as the Houla massacre (in which 108 were killed on the 25th of May, 2012) were bad enough, but they have just been getting worse.

Some months later, Darayya experienced a huge massacre back in August of 2012. After the town become a revolutionary stronghold, 500 people were butchered by government troops and militiamen in the town of Darayya (outside Damascus) by the Assad regime; making it one of the single deadliest massacres to date.

As usual, the world procrastinated and released the usual outbursts of hot air in which revulsion was expressed. But again, there was no concrete action taken - no attempts to arm the fighters trying to protect their people (the Free Syrian Army), no decisive backing of the opposition and decisive condemnation of Assad… nothing.

Nothing is what continues to be done, and it has only served the purpose of consolidating Assad’s position and confidence - since he knows that the world will do nothing, he knows that no holds are barred. Hence why the massacres are getting much larger, and will continue to nightmarishly do so.

The justification for such a disgraceful lack of action is that a minority of the fighters are extremists, and thus one or two weapons will get into their hands. In (allegedly) trying to starve a minority, they are punishing a majority - secular fighters are starved of arms, and jihadists receive any amount of support from foreign sources. As does Assad - from Hezbollah, Russia, Iran, and so on.

The REAL reason is that Israel is increasingly unhappy about losing the protection that their favourite ally grants/granted them for well over a decade - like his father before him. If Israel truly hated Assad (just as they loathed Saddam, for being the only Arab leader to back his rhetoric with action) then foreign intervention would have pushed him out long ago. But as he guarantees their illegitimate borders, he is their best friend - and so Israel’s sock-puppet will not intervene.

Syrians see jihadists as an effective solution, and so support for them is entrenched - Obama’s strategy of attempting to starve the opposition of arms is backfiring terribly. He is on the road to creating the very terrorists that he is (allegedly) working so hard to inhibit.

100 dead in Houla has become 500 in Darayya, thanks to the silence of the world’s ‘leaders’. And so it goes on. Again, on the 21st of April, another 500+ people were brutally slain around a town south of Damascus (around Jdaidet Artouz and Jdaidet al-Fadel).

A currently trending topic on Twitter is #mentionthe450, in an attempt to raise awareness of the horrific massacre that went on there, and break the world’s silence. Please Tweet about this massacre, using said tag. Much awareness could be raised.

Yet again, thanks to the silent green light that the world’s ‘leaders’ continue to offer Assad, yet ANOTHER horrible crime has been allowed to occur.

It would also help if you could widely share this URGENT REPORT, which suggests that another massacre may be imminent - send it to journalists you know of, those who could use their influence to make it well-known, humanitarian organisations, and so on. With your help, we could try and do what the world has no interest in doing, and avoid yet another massacre.

Assad uses chemical weapons, and Obama's hot-air continues

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 21:55:00 -0400

Back in mid-2012 (when Assad started to look as if he were in more serious trouble, and serious questions were arising in regard to Syria’s chemical weapons, and how safe they were in government hands) a regime spokesman indicated that chemical weapons would never be used against Syrians (despite the fact that all manner of weapons have been, for around three years), but instead announced that they could be used to defend Syria against attacks by foreign powers.

Jihad Makdissi, speaking in a televised conference in July, declared that:

“No chemical or biological weapons will ever be used, and I repeat, will never be used, during the crisis in Syria no matter what the developments inside Syria,” he said. “All of these types of weapons are in storage and under security and the direct supervision of the Syrian armed forces and will never be used unless Syria is exposed to external aggression.”

The Syrian government was quick to distance itself from such a statement, and seemed irritated at the fact that Mr Makadissi had done what no official had done before - clearly stated the fact that Syria possesses such weapons in the first place. They seemed irritated to the extent that they actually made him amend his statement, in a clear attempt to assure observers that Syria’s weapons were secure. The amendment read:

“all of these types of weapons — IF ANY — are in storage and under security.”

Meanwhile, however, the Syrian government was busy testing these weapons near the embattled city of Aleppo, in a move that some interpreted as a sign that the government was preparing to use such weapons. This suspicion became all the more ominous when a defected Major-General named Adnan Sillu (who fled the regime around June 2012) claimed that he had been part of high-level regime discussions, regarding plans to use these weapons against rebel forces and civilians, especially in Aleppo itself. Speaking to The Sunday Times, he declared:

We were in a serious discussion about the use of chemical weapons, including how we would use them and in what areas. We discussed this as a last resort - such as if the regime lost control of an important area such as Aleppo.

In September of 2012, due to the increased momentum of the rebel forces, the Assad regime began to move Syria’s chemical weapons to more secure locations within Syria, in an attempt to “secure” them, according to Leon Panetta, US defense secretary; a report which caused further alarm. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, attempted to defuse such worries, when he claimed that Russia had established a line of communication between Syria and the US, which Syria’s government had used to give “explanations and assurances” to the US, in regards to the weapons.

However, this did little to alleviate the worries of many observers and Syrians. Another defector, Captain Abdul-Salam Abdul-Razzaq, who had been part of the Syrian army’s chemical weapons department, made the alarming claim that such weapons had already been used within Syria, aganist Syrians - in the rebellious Baba Amr neighbourhood of Homs (which the government has constantly tried to subjugate). They had apparently been used in a ‘limited manner’.

This can be backed up by a multitude of reports, both from media outlets and activists, which suggest that a concentration of gas was unleashed in Homs in December 2012. The results of an investigation by Scott Frederic Kilner, the U.S. consul general in Istanbul, are also ominous, coming to the conclusion that the Assad regime has used Agent 15, an incredibly powerful hallucinogencic chemical (which is both odorless and colourless), on rebel-held areas of Homs, by launching the gas via a tank.

The gas caused nausea, pain, delirium, vomiting, seizures, and all-manner of horrifying symptoms, on those it came into contact with. This was confirmed in Kilner’s investigation, as it involved testimonials from FSA rebels, civilians, and Mustafa al-Sheikh himself, a defected general who led Syria’s WMD program. The Syrian observatory for Human Rights also backed up the investigation, claiming that six fighters died after inhaling deadly ‘white smoke without a smell’ in Homs, in that same December period.

Around this time, Obama and his government were firmly declaring that the use of chemical weapons was a “red line” that must not be crossed, and woe betide Bashar al-Assad if he were to cross it. He declared that:

“We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.”

But Mr Obama, clear evidence was available to you in January of 2013, days after the first use of these weapons. Your ‘red line’ was breached, and what did you do? Nothing.

No. The world continued to drag its feet in long drawn-out arguments over sending ‘humanitarian aid’ to rebel fighters low on ammunition, and endless debates over arming the fighters. While the politicians bickered, tens of thousands more Syrians suffered and died at the hands of shellfire, artillery-fire, bullets, torture, and other unspeakable acts of barbarity.

Which brings me onto my main point - how come Assad murdering people with tanks, artillery, bullets, torture, and stoking of sectarian tensions is acceptable, yet doing exactly the same thing with chemical weapons somehow makes it unacceptable?

Obama’s argument may be shrouded in a facade of leadership and some sort of high-ground, but it is as hypocritical and morally bankrupt as anything that Assad would say in one of his generic speeches. Genocide is fine, but genocide using chemical weapons is apparently unacceptable… How unspeakably hypocritical.

Obama’s rhetoric was further exposed as completely hollow by the use of chemical weapons in Aleppo onMarch 19th by the Assad regime, killing around 20 people, and injuring more than 70 of them.

Normally, the Syrian government strongly expostulates when accused of such abuses, denying that they ever occurred. However, this time, they employed a maverick tactic of quickly admitting to the use of chemical weapons, but claiming that opposition forces launched them (firing them via rockets) into the to wn of Khan al-Assal (where the attack took place), and not the regime.

However, the opposition claims that one of the military’s scud missiles is responsible for the attack. Via Reuters:

Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi said rebels fired “a rocket containing poison gases” at the town of Khan al-Assal, southwest of Aleppo, from the city’s southeastern district of Nairab, part of which is rebel-held.

“The substance in the rocket causes unconsciousness, then convulsions, then death,” the minister said.

But a senior rebel commander, Qassim Saadeddine, who is also a spokesman for the Higher Military Council in Aleppo, denied this, blaming Assad’s forces for the alleged chemical strike.
“We were hearing reports from early this morning about a regime attack on Khan al-Assal, and we believe they fired a Scud with chemical agents,” he told Reuters by telephone from Aleppo.

The government’s claim seems to be a clear lie, for several reasons:

1) Syria’s chemical weapons are stored in secure facilities, with the help of Russian military advisers. The FSA has failed to procure any so far.
2) To launch such weapons requires some reasonably sophisticated, extensive military equipment - specifically, some sort of missile capable of delivering such a payload. Where are they going to get some sort of scud missile capable of that kind of attack?
3) The chemical weapon attacks today were focused on rebel-held areas, in which intense fighting has been ongoing. Why would rebel forces want to bombard areas that they themselves hold? Not only would it compromise their fight, but such a (hypothetical) false-flag attack would lose them the support of the local population, and be exposed by observers and/or others. They have no interest in attacking areas they themselves hold, or in using chemical weapons. In the words of James Miller:

Let’s look at where these locations are. Al Otaybah, in rural Damascus (map), is east of the city, and it has been in rebel control for a very long time. Furthermore, Assad bases to the north, in Adra, are under attack, and it is from this area in East Ghouta that the rebels are leading their charge into the heart of Damascus. The area is constantly under regime air and artillery attack.

Otaybah is not particularly noteworthy as it is not of military, geographical, or symbolic importance. It is, however, in the heart of rebel-held eastern Damascus, and it is far enough away from the center of the capital so that the area of effect could not spread very far.

In Aleppo, Khan al Asal is different. It is a district on the western edge of Aleppo (map), the front lines of battle where a major cohort of rebels are marching against some of Assad’s most hardened bases. Last month the Police Academy here fell to the rebels, but that was only the beginning. The rebels, equipped with tanks, artillery, and other weapons captured from several major regime bases, are pressing their attack against Assad’s artillery academy and other military installations that constitute the major strongholds of the regime in southwest Aleppo. Without these bases, the city will fall to the rebels.

This are has also been routinely hammered by Assad’s artillery and airstrikes.
Motive is a primary question here. Why attack these sites now? With rebels on the advance in both locations, and with today’s news of the appointment of a new opposition Prime Minister, who thinks that they can benefit from today’s attacks?

Victims of the chemical attacks, in a hospital in Aleppo.

Instead of stating that they would be investigating the incident, and expressing clear outrage over the fact that chemical weapons had been used at all, the US continued in the familiar foot-dragging pattern it has proceeded in throughout the uprising, insisted that there was no evidence for such use of chemical weapons use, especially regarding the government claims that the FSA had used them (to their meager credit). More rhetoric ensued about the regime being “held accountable” if they had used such weapons, but again, all the signs point to no action being taken.

Even senior Israeli and US officials have claimed that it is very likely that such weapons have been used (off the record), but this seems to have done little to convince some. All the US has done is promised yet more investigations… But the last investigation was clear enough, and what action was taken in regard to that one? Nothing. It was simply covered-up and pushed aside under some red tape, only coming to light after being leaked.

Obama’s ‘red line’ has been trampled into the mud by Assad on numerous occasions, and little has been done about it. Furthermore, it looks like little willever be done about it. In the words of this excellent analysis by David Frum:

Syria has been driving up to and over President Obama’s red lines for months now.
Back in December, a State Department fact-finding mission discovered evidence of Syrian chemical weapons use.

In January, Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy broke news of the mission’s discoveries - which led to an embarrassing back and forth in which the administration first claimed that Rogin had misreported, then had to back down.

The December events now look like a deliberate Syrian test. They concluded that they could get away with more - and now they are trying again.

President Obama said Wednesday that the United States was investigating claims that chemical weapons had been used in Syria the day before and that he was “deeply skeptical” of the Syrian government’s assertion that the insurgency had deployed such weapons.

President Obama does not want to intervene overtly in Syria. We all get that. But then why raise the possibility that he might? Issuing threats on which the president is not firmly committed to act if necessary is dangerous.

Need I even come to any sort of conclusion? The words of the defected Prime Minister of Syria, Riyad Hijab, say it all:

He said the lack of serious action by the West had consolidated President Assad’s confidence.
“Bashar used to be scared of the international community – he was really worried that they would impose a no-fly zone over Syria,” he said. “But then he tested the waters, and pushed and pushed and nothing happened. Now he can run air strikes and drop cluster bombs on his own population.”

Assad now seems to have gone to new lengths to slaughter his people, and Obama’s hollow rhetoric and cynical statements have only enabled his genocidal campaigns to continue.

Is the Turkish shelling of Syria a foreboding of intervention?

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 02:11:18 -0400

On the 3rd October 2012, an artillery shell fell into Turkey over the Syrian border, seemingly having been deliberately fired by Syrian government forces. It fell onto a house in the central area of Akçakale and killed five members of a family and injured another 13 people, including police.

But this wasn’t the only incident. 48 hours later, a shell fired from the Syrian province of Lattakia landed in a rural area of Aşağıpulluyazı village in Yayladağı district of Hatay province. However, this shell caused no damage to anything, or anyone, fortunately.

Was this shelling deliberate, or was it the result of the increasing clashes along the Syrian border between the FSA and Assad’s forces? Both are equally possible - with all the exchanges of fire along the border, it is inevitable that shells will go astray. However, it is the rebels which are deficient in many heavy weapons, so it is not as likely that it could be one of their shells. That said, it is believed that French journalist

Gilles Jacquier who was killed back in Homs in January, is believed to have been killed by rockets fired from opposition-held areas of Homs.

But regardless of which side is responsible, it is the results which are much more significant. On that same day at 6PM, several Turkish F-16 fighters flew over the border to indentify Syrian military targets, sending their coordinates to the army, which shelled their locations around Ayn al-Arus. The total number of Syrian soldiers killed was initially reported to be three, but is now believed to be around 34. The second incident was also immediately followed by Turkish artillery fire into Syria from Turkish border troops stationed in Yayladağı.

If these had only been brief retaliatory clashes on Turkey’s part then this incident may not require much further thought. However, Turkish shelling went on for hours and pinpointed Syrian military targets from across the frontier. It was/has been followed by a motion passed in the Turkish parliament which permits ground troops to enter “foreign countries” to conduct operations. No prizes for guessing where…

So, what does this mean? For a start, it clearly shows that the Turkish government expects such incidents to be repeated - and maybe even become the norm. We must not forget the fact that Turkey conducts regular raids over the Iraqi border to strike and harass PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) insurgents using Iraqi Kurdistan as bases from which to strike Turkey. The passing of this motion could be the rubber stamp used to justify such actions being replicated in the case of Syria, if these incidents continue to occur.

It could even be the justification for full-scale intervention in Syria. We must keep in mind the fact that Turkey has been lobbying for a no-fly zone to be set up over Syria to protect refugees, as well as calling for the setting up of “safe zones” within the country - both actions would require military intervention, and the latter would require ground troops to enter the country. Which is exactly what the bill permits…

But is this intervention feasible? In terms of Turkey itself, then yes, by all means. Syria’s military forces were much smaller than Turkey’s as it is, and they are now rather degraded and under-staffed due to attrition, defections, and the general ravages of the civil war. Much of the border area around Turkey is under the control of the Syrian rebels as it is, and most would no doubt welcome Turkish troops with open arms. In the words of one Syrian in April of 2011 (before the civil war proper even started): ”Let Obama come and take Syria, let Israel come and take Syria, let the Jews come - anything is better than Bashar Assad”.

But such actions would no doubt require at least some sort of backing by foreign powers, to not only give the intervention legitimacy, but to help coordinate the moves and developments. Turkey is eager to be friends with the Western world - it is still clamouring to be able to join the EU, in spite of some serious opposition from some European nations. It is also a member of NATO, and so cannot afford to cause NATO member states much upset either.

Furthermore, a close ally, the United States, has recently shown a clear lack of appetite for any form of substantial military action by attempting to limit the amount of heavy weapons that reach the rebels from foreign backers (such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar) out of fear that they could fall into the hands of extremist elements. Squabbling over these weapons has also resulted in supply shortages to the FSA.

From the evidence, it looks as if Turkish intervention in Syria is imminent. However, sadly, it looks like it will never be the sort of intervention that topples this vile regime. Rather, it will be limited cross-border raids and artillery fire in response to Syrian government provocations. Even if it wanted to intervene, it seems as if its hands would be tied by fellow “friends of Syria” (otherwise known as the Hot Air Alliance). That said, time will only tell. Turkey now has the legal backing for intervention, as well as ample justifications, which keep flying over their borders…

Russia and China's stance on Syria is detrimental in the long-term

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 20:24:55 -0400

On the 19th July, yet another UN resolution designed to slap sanctions on the Syrian government and condemn their brutality was vetoed by Russia and China. The resolution carried no real clout and was merely designed to pave the way for further action against Syria in terms of sanctions and diplomacy.

This is not the first time they have done so either. They vetoed the first resolution (which would merely have threatened sanctions if it had been approved by the security council, instead of actually putting them into practice) in October. Then they vetoed yet another similarly toothless resolution in February. Then they yet again vetoed the recent resolution on the 19th, which, again, would only have waved the mere threat of sanctions in the face of the Syrian government if it failed to remove troops and heavy weapons from populated areas (which it has continually failed to do, despite an alleged ceasefire which never actually happened).

To them, this may seem entirely logical - after all, Russia is a key ally of Syria. It enjoys lucrative arms deals with Syria, has a naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus (a very important asset, especially considering the fact that it is the only such base that Russia has enjoyed since the collapse of the Soviet Union) and so on.

In addition, China enjoys significant trade relations (considered worth some $2.2 by the IMF in 2009) which are entirely one way - exports from Syria to China only make up 1% of that amount at $5.6 million. In other words, they get much more out of Syria than Syria gets out of them. Like Russia they too have military interests in the region - it is reported that they helped upgrade Syria’s ballistic missile programme in the 1990’s.

Speaking from a realist’s perspective, you could see why they want to preserve the status quo, and protect their interests. It could indeed be argued that the US is doing the same in the case of Bahrain. But regardless of this, not only do two wrongs not make a right (as many who try to be apologists for Assad by Assad by bringing up US involvement in Bahrain fail to see), but this is a clearly illogical long-term solution.

This is simply because the Assad regime is finished. What’s more, everyone with a true sense of objectivity knows it. Admittedly, the regime enjoys an enormous advantage in terms of firepower when up against the rebels. In the words of Yusef Khalil and Lee Sustar in this article for the Socialist Worker:

From a purely military standpoint, the Assad regime retains enormous advantages in terms of firepower—it has tanks and helicopters against rebels who are relatively lightly armed and poorly supplied, despite promises by Western powers and their Middle Eastern allies who are trying to shape the resistance to suit their own agenda. If the Syrian armed forces can prevent large-scale defections, the regime may be able to hang on for some time.

But that aside, it is clear that all the regime can do is hang on and buy slightly more time. Whole swathes of
Syria are out of their control due to rebel activity degrading their military capacity and overstretching their supply lines, key regime strongholds that were once thought immune from violence and the danger of falling into opposition hands (such as Aleppo) are either falling into opposition hands or having their government control challenged, regime supply lines are thought to be in critical condition, and so on.

It is now abundantly clear that this cannot be reversed. Yet Moscow and Bejing still stick closely to Assad. Presenting a strong face to the world is all very well, but it will have little tangible value once the Assad regime goes down.

Syrians will not forget the fact that their fellows were shot with Russian-made bullets, fired at and assaulted by armoured columns of Russian T-72 tanks, and attacked by Russian-made helicopters - helicopters which Russia was still trying to deliver to the regime as recently as this month. Any post-Assad government will surely not forget this, and will take a hostile tone towards Russia and China.

For Russia this could mean the forced withdrawal of their naval base in Tartus, the loss of their extensive arms deals with the nation (worth at least $4 billion), about $19.4 billion in exports, and so on. The Chinese would also lose their extensive trade deals, any military contacts, and more.

What makes it worse for them is the fact that all Syrians are aware of the fact that their myopic dictatorship is being propped up by Russia and China - some apologists have even praised that. It is far too late to turn back the clock now. When Assad falls, the Russians and the Chinese will no doubt change their tune and try and become friends with the regime - only to find themselves shunned and condemned for their role in the murders of thousands of innocents.

Psychologically battered, Syrian soldiers abandon Assad

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 12:25:24 -0400

Psychologically battered, Syrian soldiers abandon Assad :

leaveobashar:

As one of the Sunni Muslim soldiers who form the bulk of the Syrian army, Lieutenant Adnan Suleibi kept being pushed to the front of units fighting in the rebellious city of Homs.

Alawite personnel - members of the same minority sect as President Bashar al-Assad - remained in the rear. Alawites control the military through their domination of the officer corps and, crucially, direct the Soviet-style intelligence and secret police apparatus entrusted with preventing dissent.

“The Sunnis are cannon fodder and morale has been sapped. There are 75 men left in my brigade out of 250. The rest were killed, injured or deserted,” said Suleibi, a slim 23-year-old in jeans and striped t-shirt.

“As soon as the chance came, I made a run for it,” he said after crossing to the safety of Turkey last week with a comrade.

They are among a new wave of Sunni defectors who have abandoned the military in recent weeks as the army, short of gung-ho infantry, relies more on heavy artillery to batter Sunni towns.

Click the title to read more …

Debunking Ankhar Kochneva's RT 'report'

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 05:35:00 -0400

If you have been following Russia Today’s recent coverage of the Syrian uprising (which could arguably be called a civil war) then you will know that it has been far from objective, commonly parroting the Syrian and Russian government narratives. As much more evidence damaging to the Assad regime has been emerging recently in the form of emails leaked by Anonymous and Wikileaks, the Russian propaganda machine has become that little bit more vicious.

The most malicious and shamelessly biased piece of propaganda to emerge from the Kremlin’s media machine is the recent ‘report’ filed by Ankhar Kochneva, a Russian ‘journalist’ working for RT. In this article she goes out to insult the intelligence of millions of Syrians, and make ridiculous accusations, barely providing a shred of evidence. The ‘report’ takes the form of a Question-and-Answer article, where ‘RT’ asks questions and the ‘journalist’ responds.

The article is rather melodramatically titled: ‘Bloody bandits and Western lies: What’s really going on in Syria’. The reference to the rebels as ‘bloody bandits’ is clearly supposed to invoke the indignant protest of the readers, as is the reference to alleged ‘Western lies’ - the RT watchers are well-trained in marginalising any evidence that doesn’t fit their Western-bashing world view. This is the alleged “reality” of the situation in Syria.
Now for a little analysis of the content, courtesy of moi. Firstly she declares in response to an RT question:

RT: While visiting Turkish camps for Syrian refugees, I was told that the Syrian army was shooting at them.
Ankhar Kochneva: There are a large number of videos from those camps showing people walking upright, not ducking down even though you can hear shooting. The options are that either the sound was added to the video later, or that people knew that they were only shooting in the air without any intention of actually hitting them.
The Syrian army has no reason to shoot up these camps, as Syria is doing its utmost to ensure these people return home. And in fact they are doing just that if you go by the official Syrian data; 16,500 people have returned. Meanwhile, Turkey and the Syrian opposition are strongly interested in having those camps. If it weren’t for these camps, who would believe in the regime’s atrocities described by the opposition?

There is no basis for these allegations of tampering. Furthermore, the allegation that the shooting was “in the air” is also ridiculous. No explanation is given for thw two Syrian refugees and the Turkish translator which were badly wounded. Were they flying in the air at the time? Otherwise how would they have been hit if the gunfire was directed into the air? The facts just don’t add up.

The alleged cross-border shooting is also rubbished by the ‘journalist’ (and I use the term with great disdain) on the grounds that the Syrian army has no reason to ‘shoot up’ the camps. On the contrary. Up until the recent months, these camps have been an attractive prospect to many refugees who see them as a safe haven away from the terror and repression across the border. If the Syrian government forces can dispel this impression and make it seem as if there is no escape, then it may encourage fewer people to attempt to leave the country.

Next is the allegation that Syria is “doing the utmost to ensure” that these refugees return home. On the contrary - the terror campaign has resulted in them fleeing in their thousands, as they continue to do. In fact, it is reported that 1000 Syrian refugees fled to Turkey in one single day. But maybe Syria does want them to return - to silence any voices getting to the outside world and telling the truth about the government atrocities. If some 16,000 have returned then who could blame them - anyone would find it hard to be suddenly uprooted from their livelihood, and would certainly return if given the opportunity.

Then there’s the part I find the most ludicrous - “If it weren’t for those camps, who would believe in the regime’s atrocities described by the opposition?” How can anyone claim to be a ‘journalist’ and then spout this kind of biased reporting? Since March of last year, the regime’s atrocities have been documented by footage posted all over the web, testimony of countless military defectors, refugee testimony, satellite imagery clearly showing the positions of Assad’s heavy weaponry in the cities… Yet all this can just be marginalised? Disgusting. With or without those camps, the government atrocities are clear for all objective observers to see.

By the way, many of these camp residents had to flee due to the atrocities committed by bandits. For instance, in the city of Jisr ash-Shugur on the border with Turkey, 120 policemen and a large number of peaceful civilians were murdered in a deadly incident last summer.

I can’t tell who she’s working for at this point in time - RT or SANA? This is a downright lie. Tens of thousands of people wouldn’t just flee because of a few ‘bandits’. A few gangs of bandits would have no public support and would be quickly seen off by the people and security forces. Heck, they wouldn’t have the resources to terrify so many people from all across Syria into going to Turkey - especially as Turkey is portrayed as housing these ‘bandit’ bogeymen.

Yet again, more important evidence is being marginalised - the testimony of the refugees themselves. They are painting quite a different story - the ‘bandits’ driving them from their homes in terror are actually the Syrian government. Here is a Reuters article containing some testimony from refugees. Some of the best examples of which are:

“The killing in Syria hasn’t even started yet,” says Abdullah Kartan, a teacher who fled to the Reyhanli refugee camp in Turkey.
“Syrians have made a decision and if three-quarters of them have to die, if their houses have to burn, they will do it to get Assad out. There is no going home until the regime falls.”

“There is not enough trust left in our country for any kind of truce. Assad was supposed to move his tanks before stopping the shooting, but he didn’t because he knows he really will lose control if he does,” says Kartan, who is from the countryside of Hama, one of the centers of rebellion against four decades of Assad family rule.

“The soldiers burned down around 100 homes in the village of Kileh when it rebelled, and mine was one of them. It was burned to the ground, even the chickens were lying dead on the floor. Why would I leave here? We have no work, we don’t even have a house,” said Abdelatif Muadil, wearing a tattered sweatshirt over a faded traditional Arab robe.
The farmer, 65, from the Idlib countryside close to Turkey, said his sons remained in his village “because they still have work to do” - a vague reference to the rebels.
Nearby, the young Abdelrahman gives a nod of approval: “Everyone knows this truce is temporary.”

The narrative that the government is wanting people to return to their homes seems to be true, as mentioned in the RT article and confirmed by various other news sources - the difference being that nobody seems to be doing it, in stark contrast with the alleged en masse returns that RT would like us to believe:

Syria’s Interior Ministry urged Syrians who have escaped violence to return to their homes, but Kartan - staring beyond the rows of white tents towards the green, mountainous border - said no one was thinking about heading back.

Next, we have this quasi-SANA-type jargon:

All Syrians have a large number of family members who live across the entire country in large, spacious houses. When they have troubles at home, they go stay with their relatives rather than in camps in strange countries. The bandits, however, blocked all the roads except for the ones leading to Turkey. People found themselves caught in a trap, just like Israelis shooed Palestinians off their land by building them a ‘corridor’ to Jordan.

How could ‘bandits’ block every single road along a border that is some 900 kilometers long?! What a load of utter nonsense. That also ignores the fact that Syrians have crossed from all over the country, and not just Syrians from the border regions. This article is also very self-contradictory - why should Turkey be a “strange country” if they have relatives there? It reminds me of Syrian government spokesman Reem Hadad claiming that the refugees fleeing over the border was them basically “visiting their mum’s for a bit”…

Oh, and then we get the typical Israel-bashing propaganda - that is, trying to stirr up the unmitigated bias possessed by most of the readers by comparing the refugee exodus to Palestinians ‘shooed’ off their land by the evil Israeli’s. Did the Israeli’s massacre some 20,000 Palestinian civilians when Israel was founded?

RT:Where will refugees resettle within Syria, as only 20 thousand of them went to Turkey and there’re many more of those?
AK: The majority of refugees mainly stay with their relatives or rent apartments. It’s very difficult to find an apartment in Damascus, Tartus or Latakia. For instance, in Homs, the previous school year was disrupted as people had to move to areas where their children could go to school. We see that people run to the government, rather than from the government, for protection. Getting these people to settle is a huge burden for the state treasury as they have to establish new schools, to provide food, healthcare, and so on for hundreds of people. And this is what the government is doing. There are a large number of volunteers who work for free helping people resolve their problems as they get settled.

Whilst the logic that many internal refugees will resettle with their families in other areas is a certainty, any slight objectivity that may follow on from this is somewhat dashed down due to the fact that the ‘report’ suddenly begins to extol the virtues of the benevolent Syrian government once again. If people “run to the government, rather than from the government, for protection” then why have some 60,000 soldiers defected to the opposition’s Free Syrian Army? To say nothing of the huge refugee exodus? Anyone who can ignore these facts isn’t writing anything resembling a “report”. Regarding the “large number of volunteers” helping people then this is indeed true - helping them after they were attacked by their own government.

People are returning to Homs, to areas that have been cleared of bandits. The army guards their homes. I have pictures showing soldiers in one of the streets taking pot flowers out of houses and placing them outside so that they can water them until the locals return home. None of them had any idea that some journalists would show up – we appeared totally out of the blue.

I’m becoming more incredulous as these paragraphs go on. The “bandits” in Homs - the Free Syrian Army - were welcomed by the people as a means of protecting areas of Homs such as the opposition stronghold of Bab Amr. When they pulled out of Bab Amr in February (due to a government military offensive) then many residents were genuinely angry about this, having wanted the FSA to protect them, and even going so far as to call them cowards for withdrawing. This is an extract from the linked BBC article above, of an opinion given by a Bab Amr resident:

“They betrayed Baba Amr,” he said.
“Those who took the decision to withdraw are cowards. Now they are drinking tea and chit-chatting in Qusayr [a nearby town] and watching Baba Amr being destroyed.”
He went on: “Why didn’t they do something to protect us? They could have attacked the artillery positions from behind. They waited until after 30 days of bombardment to withdraw. They could have left on the first day if that’s what they were going to do.”
On Monday afternoon the Free Army pulled back again, hurriedly leaving the village just outside Homs where we had been staying.

Furthermore, satellite imagery clearly showed/shows that evil in April, people were not returning to their homes. Rather, large areas of Homs are practically deserted due to the ongoing fighting in the city. Compare the satellite imagery from August of 2011 in comparison to April 2012. Samsomhoms, an activist active on Twitter and living in Homs itself, tweeted on the 4th March that:

“All signsof life are absent here in #Homs since Feb 5th- shops, institutions , banks, schools, universities are all closed #Syria”

The allegation by Ankhar is further damaged by the fact that Abo Emad, another activist inside Homs itself at the time, reported in early March that:

“The main humanitarian need in Homs is for the Assad militias to leave, because they are the people who are killing us. That’s more important than the lack of food and water and medical supplies.
“They [the authorities] have been trying to clean the Insha’at and Baba Amr area so that they can say ‘armed gangs’ did all the damage. It’s a kind of setup.”
Emad said the regime was bringing in supporters from pro-regime neighbourhoods to Baba Amr in a stage-managed ploy to demonstrate support for the government.
Regime forces recaptured Baba Amr last Thursday but residents say Damascus deliberately delayed allowing the UN and the Red Crescent to make a visit in order to cover up evidence of atrocities and carry out “mopping up” operations by pro-government soldiers and militias.

Then there’s the laughably ludicrous assertion - that Ankhar arrived on a visit to Bab Amr, “totally out of the blue” and surprised a group of soldiers who were placing “pot flowers” outside deserted homes for the returning people.

How could any sort of journalist or reporter gain access to Homs and turn up unexpectedly without the regime’s knowledge, when organisations like Red Cross have been barred from entering the area several times, the people who live there have been expelled, and journalists who managed to enter were killed, and so on? It smacks of an untruth through and through. They were evidently on a stage-managed visit; the regime knew they were coming and was prepared accordingly. Thinking from a logical perspective, soldiers who have been massacring innocents one minute, plant flowers for what’s left of their families the next?

RT: Why do you keep calling people fighting against the Syrian government bandits?
AK: Because I have seen what they do to the kidnapped people. I have been to the torture chambers; I have met mothers who saw their children die. The whole country loathes them as bandits. There is nothing worse than being loathed by your own nation. They killed a mufti’s son, they kill Christian priests, and they kidnap and torture children. A few days ago they killed two elder brothers of a five-year-old boy to take vengeance on him for reciting poems at rallies to support Syria. They massacred the whole family of an MP. I have been to homes turned into bandit hideouts. I have seen empty liquor bottles; how does it square with Islam? I have been to churches destroyed by bandits in Homs. I have been under their fire, with grenades dropping right next to me. I have been targeted by snipers who could perfectly see I am a woman, not a soldier. In the bustling street where I lived, near the marketplace, they blew up a few cars. Why blow up civilians shopping for food?

This is now becoming pathetic. This smacks totally of an individual who has been taken on a Syrian government-sponsored tour of the ‘cleaned’ areas formally occupied by the ‘armed gangs’, and who has totally embraced their narrative.

Talk is made of alleged “torture chambers” used by the rebels. Yet, as is usual in this report, next to no evidence is given that might back up this claim. But, in the meagre defence of this allegation, Human Rights Watch has declared that Syria’s rebels are also guilty of human rights abuses, which include torture. Yet the report also declares that they are much fewer and further between in comparison with the level of atrocities committed by the government. This is in utter contrast with what Ankhar is doing here - completely ignoring the huge number of reports and first-hand testimonies that blame the government for what is being called a widespread policy of state-sanctioned torture, to the extent that it is a ‘crime against humanity’. Instead, all the focus is put into staying entirely mum on these allegations, and putting a disproportionate level of blame on the rebels.

What Ankhar is doing here is doing what all totalitarian apologists do when justifying atrocities by their favourite dictator - seeing things in black and white. Here, she is portraying the rebels are portrayed as a sacreligious (hence the “empty liquor bottles”, conveniently forgetting the fact that not everyone in Syria is Islamic), drunken, civilian-murdering, assassinating, bomb-detonating, homogeneous mass of mercenaries and bandits. This could not be further from reality - the rebels are actually a rather disorganised mass of different armed groups opposing the Assad regime, as is documented in this well-sourced, objective assessment of them by Nir Rosen - a report which is the exact opposite of this piece of claptrap.

It is true that the rebels have not been saints - but as a whole, the crimes of the minority should not be used to brand the majority. How does she know for sure that they are responsible for the car bomb attacks which “blow up civilians shopping for food”? On the contrary, these attacks do not even seem to be carried out by the general rebel groups, but possibly by a non-aligned group of Islamists known as the al-Nusra front, who claimed responsibility for the attacks, or other such extremist groups - not the rebels in general.

Then, after some 17,000 innocents have died, she even has time to briefly lament the loss of Mufti Hassoun’s 22 year old son in an assassination (she doesn’t do the same for any such individual connected to the opposition) and the alleged death of the family of an MP (who is very conveniently left unnamed), and claim that she was shot at by snipers - and blame it all on the evil rebels on the basis of no evidence whatsoever. The rebels are not one armed group with the same ambitions and beliefs - they are many. If one group commits atrocities (atrocities are unacceptable on both sides, for the record) then it does not mean that the entire opposition cause is something inherently evil as Ankhar would like the readers believe.

Besides, Mufti Hassoun has threatened the Western world with suicide bombers, criticised President Assad and then gone back on his word, and so on. Hardly an innocent observer in this crisis a Ankhar would have you believe.

I don’t think I even need to address the poisonous, vicious, generalised sneering expressed in the statement claiming that “The whole country loathes them as bandits. There is nothing worse than being loathed by your own nation.” She evidently hasn’t seen, or has ignored, the countless rallies held all over the country by thousands of people wishing to show support for the Free Syrian Army.

RT: The opposition and the insurgents have sought to assure me that this is all the doing of criminals released and hired by the Syrian government. The insurgents also claimed it was the Syrian government that staged explosions in public places.

AK: This theory is ridiculous. The government has announced nine amnesties for criminals and opposition activists never implicated in any murders. Yet now the government is blamed for these amnesties! Let me remind you that the bandits would first set court archives on fire with files of criminal cases and smuggling. A few terrorist attacks targeted buildings that stored the intelligence and police archives. For example, on December 23, 2011, suicide bombers set the intelligence archives ablaze before blowing themselves up in a car.

These attacks targeted these buildings because they were housing organisations that are notorious for being important outlets of Syrian government repression. Besides, it is not known it was responsible for those bomb attacks, so how can this ‘journalist’ rubbish the notion that the government could be responsible with such ease? In fact, many Syrians do in fact blame their own government for the bombings. As usual, the assertions in this article are largely based on hearsay and opinion.

RT:Are the escape of the Syrian pilot to Jordan and the Turkish aircraft incident related?
AK: When the aircraft got hijacked on July 21, I was in Beirut, at the Al Mayadin TV channel which was headed by Ghassan Bin Jiddu, the former chief of Al Jazeera’s bureau in Libya. He was the one who caused a scandal by quitting the channel due to lies that the channel had been broadcasting for the last year and a half. On that day, this channel was the first to report the jet hijacking in Jordan. The first question was, how quickly Jordan would return the plane, which it was obliged to do according to the international laws. It wasn’t as much about the aircraft itself, but rather about the friend/foe enciphering system. According to military experts, it takes about a week to decipher it. The fact that the aircraft wasn’t returned immediately gives a reason to doubt Jordan’s neutrality. There are reasons to suggest that the incident was thoroughly staged. On 23rd June, a Turkish reconnaissance aircraft flying at an extremely low altitude intruded into Syria. Some experts believe that by then, Jordan could’ve deciphered the codes, and that Turkey made an attempt to use them.

What a preposterous allegation. There is no evidence suggesting that the aircraft was hijacked by an opposition bogeyman whatsoever, nor does Ankhar attempt to provide any. She’s also completely marginalised the fact that a Syrian pilot was piloting the plane - if that isn’t true, then where is the pilot? Because all CREDIBLE sources say that the pilot is in Jordan and has been seeking asylum. Besides, Jordan is one of the many nations appalled by the Syrian government’s barbarity. No wonder the aren’t returning the jet. Even Jordan’s monarch has spoken out against President Assad. The theory about the codes sounds plausible, given that all nations are self-interested, but there is no evidence to prove it. Again, an attempt is made to discredit the entire opposition on the basis of the alleged media bias of Al-Jazeera. Can someone please remind this ‘journalist’ that no media outlet is unbiased?

RT:Turkey denies its plane was flying over Syrian territory. What do they say in Syria

AK: The aircraft was flying at an altitude of 1,000 meters. It deliberately performed several circles over neutral waters and land. It was then shot down with a weapon of a range not exceeding 3,000 meters. A machine gun was used, rather than a missile launcher, as the world’s media insist. Immediately Syria proposed establishing a bilateral commission for investigating this incident. But Turkey refused doing it. And now, the latter has been declaring that it was Syria that didn’t want to do it. It gets even funnier than that: Turkey says that it will not let Syrian provocations go unanswered. They are bringing a large number of armored vehicles to their border, even though provocations, arms smuggling and militants infiltration are happening on the part of Turkey, with the consent of the Turkish government.

The claim about the machine gun seems to be true at least, with US intelligence agencies seemingly agreeing with the Syrian government story and not the Turkish one. Or is it? Recent information seems to suggest that the jet may have been brought down in an accident. Besides, why complain at Turkey for increasing border defences and refusing talks after a direct attack on military personnel and their hardware? No state would let such an act happen without showing a strong face in response.

RT:Reports say that Burhan Ghalioun, a Syrian opposition leader, has sneaked into Syria and there are already areas in Latakia and Homs beyond the control of Damascus.
AK: The Benghazi scenario is impossible in Syria. So in order to justify a possible intervention, they spread sensational yet false information. It is only recently that the media have stopped huffing and puffing over the takeover of an air defense base in Al-Rastan. A video even claimed the missiles would target the presidential palace in Damascus. The next day I was in Homs, which is within a distance of some 10 km from Al-Rastan. When asked about the seized base, the officers joked and treated me to tea, while the province governor was holding a conference to restore the affected regions and provide aid to citizens. If the information on the seized base and weapons were true, they would only be concerned about the air defense base rather than compensations for destroyed homes. This is copybook deception. When you hear that the presidential palace is under fire, you will believe it, because you have already been brainwashed that there are enough weapons to open fire. They used the same method of preemptive lies in January. First they said that hostilities were rife in the center of Damascus when there were none, next they doctored rumors of the president’s allegedly fugitive family.

To deny that there are areas of the country beyond government control (which she seems to be doing) is to deny reality. Al-Qusayr has been out of government control since at least November of 2011, despite frequent Syrian army attempts to retake it. Al-Rastan has changed hands at least twice, despite several vicious army offensives. Half of Homs is still out of government control, despite a fierce siege since early May of 2011. Even your camera crew caught them on film, clearly in control of a Damascus suburb. Caught in your own trap of lies, eh? This is to name but a few examples. The media naturally stopped “huffing and puffing” over the takeover of the air defence base in Al-Rastan because it happened OVER A MONTH AGO. The conflict in Syria is changing constantly every day, to focus on an individual topic for too long would not be appropriate.

You were clearly taken in by these lovely officers treating you “to tea”. What did you talk about over the cuppa, Ankhar? How many civilians they had massacred? How many shells were indiscriminately fired into the city? While you were snuggling up to the Syrian military’s higher ranks, people were being slaughtered all over the country. Besides, just because the Syrian military deny a story, it does not mean that what they say is bible truth, or that they are an objective source of information. Quite the contrary. I believe you are forgetting that they work for a government that classes any form of opposition as the work of Islamist and terrorist bogeymen.

Besides, if anyone should pay “compensations for destroyed homes” then should it not be the military which is responsible for destroying them through intense shelling. How can a large, disorganised and often penniless rebel group carry out a guerrilla war and find the time and money to carry out repairs?

Besides, nobody in the evil Western media ever said the FSA rhetoric about the missiles and the presidential palace was a certainty. They merely quoted the FSA rhetoric in their report/reports. You are so focused on the ‘brainwashing’ of the Western media, that you fail to address the bias of the Eastern media - outlets such as RT (which you work for) have constantly been parroting the Syrian government narrative and marginalising other pieces of evidence?

AK: This is a lie. All the military I know sneer at these messages. Naturally, they’ve intimidated some people into doing that and paid others. They made other people choose between an officer’s honor and familial honor, but 90 per cent of videos that feature desertion cases show soldiers abducted by bandits. They read a text someone else wrote.
I will never forget a military pilot with his hands bound and two dozen insurgents behind his back. If they bound his hands, it means he fought to the utmost. They kidnap soldiers from their homes; they attack their cars and capture the passengers. Sometimes bandits would stop a regular bus and take the military hostage. First they make the soldiers claim they are deserters, next they torture them, and finally kill and play them off as victims of the army. Kidnapping people is a major business of the so-called revolutionaries. Lately, they have kidnapped 12 Lebanese pilgrims on their way home and two Iranian drivers on the same day.

Not even good lies. A small number of armed men could not possibly abduct dozens of soldiers, and get them to stand in front of a camera, against their will. Especially not with weapons in their hands. They would resist or refuse to be filmed, or even be tied up, clearly exposing such a video as fake. Dozens of videos of army defectors exist - often of defections of whole units which have filmed themselves - and none of the soldiers look restrained or as if they are forced to stand for the videos, let alone as if they are about to be killed afterwards. What is more, figures exist to back up the alleged 60,000 or so defections, showing that as many as half the conscripts have not shown up in the past three call-ups. Explain that.

If soldiers were being abducted and murdered on this scale, then their families and others would create such an outcry that even the media outlets that you so despise would not be able to hide it. If the Free Syrian Army are kidnapping or killing soldiers then that may be true, but in war, each side is allowed to target the combatants of the other. How you can completely marginalise the torture, kidnapping and murder carried out against thousands of innocents by the Syrian government is beyond me, especially when you live in Syria.

Then again, maybe that isn’t so surprising. The reason you are the only journalist living permanently in Syria is due to the fact that you are an unmitigated parrot of the Syrian government narrative. Anyone denying this needs to read this article, and note the lack of Western journalists or others living in Syria.

The opposition claims that the people do not support the government, even though it has to use mercenaries from Iran and Hezbollah. They claim that there are 15,000 soldiers in Syria, but so far the opposition has only been able to show the world a video with five Iranian electricians. They must have killed the sixth one to intimidate the rest. Wait and see when they show us “Iranian mercenaries” and twelve “Hezbollah mercenaries”, they have to make use of the kidnapped people after all! I have seen what they do to the military captives. This is the price they pay for having chosen this job. The military are one of the main targets for attacks. They can be killed for wearing a military uniform. So why flop over to those who can kill for wearing a uniform?

Ahh, now this I find interesting. Your own employers were one of the most significant parroters of the reports that up to 15,000 Iranian soldiers are currently assisting the Syrian government inside Syria. By your logic, is that not a media lie - therefore, are RT and others (hypothetically) lying too? What is more, Iran, a strong Syrian ally, has admitted sending troops to Syria as admitted by General Ismail Qa’ani, Deputy Commander of the Revolutionary Guards. This corroborates earlier reports of Iranian soldiers and Hezbollah fighters on the ground. Again, an Iranian official admitted the presence of Hezbollah fighters in Syria, specifically mentioning around Zabadani.

Regarding the Iranian electricians, nobody is sure of the answer to that question. But it is said that Iran has been sending military men under the guise of electricians and others. Taking the above evidence into account, it is ignoring evidence in the extreme to suggest that “so far the opposition has only been able to show the world a video with five Iranian electricians”.

RT:Does Damascus still have the situation under control?
AK: Due to the commitment to suspend fire, the army has slowed down slightly.

There never was a commitment to suspend fire. The army never slowed down. The ceasefire plan only exists on paper and in Mr Annan’s head. Hence why he has been frantically flying around the Middle East in an attempt to save it.

But if necessary, all areas can be quickly brought under control again. The bandits “supervise” the places from which the army has been withdrawn upon the order of the United Nations. So, these territories were not occupied by military operations. They can’t and they don’t know how to fight the army. I have information that a military invasion of Western forces into Syria is expected to take place in August-September. But there’s hardly any reason for justifying such invasion. They’ve searched for this reason for the whole year. But they didn’t give any information about the exact deadline. Now it’s done – and we should expect new provocations and new information during the time that is left. If the world believes this, it will empower the aggressor.

Can I point out at this stage that the point of propaganda is that it is supposed to be a convincing bunch of biased reporting and/or lies. This is none of those. Ankhar has no proof that the UN are behind the FSA control of these areas, the evidence clearly shows that the army is degrading and cannot defeat the armed opposition fighters (which seemingly know very well how to fight the army, given the high casualty rate sustained). Furthermore, her lies are clear. When asked to produce her evidence, she declares…

RT: What kind of information regarding this decision is there? What is the reaction to it in Syria?
AK: I’m not going to reveal my sources. I have no doubt about their reliability. In Syria there’s no panic or certitude about such an attack. People in Yugoslavia, Libya and Iraq didn’t believe in the possibility of such invasion until recently. One of the indirect pieces of evidence regarding the information I have is the widely spread news that Russia and China allegedly agreed to remove Assad. This is as much a lie as all the trash that the media sells to its audience.

Of course you aren’t. They don’t exist. How stupid do you think we are? Can I also point out the hypocrisy of calling such reports “trash” when you have written one of the longest strawmen since the conflict began - based on too little evidence, and too much hearsay.

RT: Who takes part in pressurizing Syria and how is it done?

AK: Iraq, especially in light of the fact that about 2 million of its citizens live in Syria, supports it, in particular, by helping combat smuggling. Lebanon helps the struggle against smugglers, but Saad Hariri’s Mustaqbal movement is one of the major stakeholders in the anti-Syrian campaign. This person finances the militants, supplies them with weapons and manpower. His media empire leads the information war against Syria. We’ve recently witnessed the turmoil in Beirut. Hariri’s people tried to pull the forces from the border by inciting the riot in the capital as the army almost overtook the smugglers. As for Jordan, its state can’t be envied. On the one hand, the country is much dependent on its relationship with Syria – economically, in food supplies and transit, but, on the other hand, if Jordan isn’t much of a compliant ally of the USA an NATO, the King isn’t likely to save his power during the «Islamic awakening».

Smuggling has been going on across the Syrian border on all sides since the Cold War, and before. I can also see right through your clever linkage of Saad Hariri to this. Saad is the son of the late Rafiq Hariri, the Lebanese politician who was assassinated in 2005 (in an assassination which Syria and their ally Hezbollah seem to be responsible for) due to his anti-Syrian stance (given Syria’s long-term occupation of much of Lebanon, ended by the consequences of the Hariri assassination). Given that Ankhar is such a shameless parrot of her hosting government’s narrative, it seems she has shamelessly adopted their anti-Hariri stance (stemming from his position opposing the Syrian government) and split any hairs she can so as to paint his son in a similarly negative light by making up nonsense about his “inciting the riot” in the capital - again, based on a tiresome lack of evidence and a conspiratorial attempt to put two and two together and make five.

Regarding Jordan’s alleged dependence on Syria, then I’m sure a post-Assad government would be more than willing to deal with Jordan in terms of economic supplies. Besides, after a year or so of Syrian civil war, Jordan has had plenty of time to forge new routes and relationships with the surrounding Arab nations. What that was, is a not-so-subtle attempt to frighten Jordanese people away from aiding Syrians, and hypocritically waving the threat of an uprising in the face of Jordan’s ruling clique. A stab is also taken at the Arab Spring in general - it is referred to as the “Islamic awakening” to stirr up all the typically drilled-in preconceptions about Islamists, and their often large-scale participation in the Arab Spring across the Middle East.

Civil war and instability in Syria are very profitable for Israel. Apart from this situation, nobody raises the issue of returning the Golan Heights and Jerusalem. The specific characteristic of Israeli mass media is making up sensational news. As for Qatar, one could speak for ages about this nano-aggressor: they provide weapons and money supplies in an attempt to solve their own internal problems.

Another incorrect misconception. By being all talk and no action against Israel for years, Assad has been guaranteeing Israel’s borders for years and keeping up regional stability - stability which has increasingly shown with time. Israel has no love for the Assad regime, but it would take no pleasure in seeing it suddenly collapse - with all the insecurities about dangerous weapons (which are already causing some alarm), rampant civil war, and refugee influx that it would likely create if something resembling an invasion destroyed such a centralised system of repression, Deja Vu Iraq…

But of course, RT and other Kremlin-satellite news outlets could never resist the traditional whining and finger pointing against Israel (the regime of which I am no supporter of) could they?

To conclude, a naked piece of propaganda designed to promote the Russo-Syrian/Iranian agenda and smear the Syrian uprising in the eyes of all who care to read it. Sadly, many of RT’s most zealous, unscrupulous supporters will probably swallow this as bible truth. I know the media in the West are not the most objective sometimes, but is this the only alternative? Biased reporting, parroting of a dictatorial agenda, and unscrupulous marginalising of evidence? Is the notion that the Arab Spring is not selective, and that all these dictators from Saleh to Assad are tarred with the same brush really so hard to fathom? She can deride the atrocities by the government all she likes - they are reported by sources too numerous to state, and impossible to gloss over.

Countless cynics will no doubt disagree with me or deride me for taking this stance, but I felt unable to stay silent when I read this naked piece of propaganda. All I can do I thank you for reading, and hope that the sceptics will at least study my article with a practical eye.

- Ben, 18, soon-to-be university student, UK.

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