As I suspected, with the agenda-pushing press pushing it so hard. Strange how that report never made my Boston Globe, although if you read their reports right they practically confirm it.
Snipers aim at Syrian protests (By Liam Stack and Katherine Zoepf, New York Times)
My printed piece that day was by AP. Sigh.
"Women, children join protests in Syria; Yemeni rivals clash" April 14, 2011|By Zeina Karam, Associated Press
BEIRUT — Women, children, and students took to the streets in Syria yesterday, lending their voices to a monthlong uprising that President Bashar Assad insists is the work of a foreign conspiracy....
Security forces and progovernment gunmen have cracked down on dissent in recent days. The protesters were demanding the release of hundreds of men who have been rounded up in the villages of Bayda and Beit Jnad....
In an apparent attempt to calm the women’s demonstration, authorities released about 100 of the detainees and paraded them in front of the protesters, prompting cheers and cries of triumph, a witness said. Some of the men were bruised and appeared to have broken bones, witnesses said.
Related: Syria aims to ease unrest with release of detained protesters
Residents and activists said hundreds of men, young and old, were arrested Tuesday when security forces attacked the villages in northeastern Syria in a move to crush growing dissent there.
Also yesterday, about 500 students gathered at Damascus University in the capital and in Aleppo University in the north as young people joined the protests in increasing numbers. Another protest was reported outside the state-run news agency’s offices in the capital.
Witness accounts suggest an expansion of the protests, with a broader cross-section of society joining in....
--more--"
"Syrian protest largest so far, activists say; Yemen military shows restraint in the capital " April 16, 2011
BEIRUT — Syrian riot police clashed with protesters in Damascus yesterday, firing tear gas and beating people with batons, while other demonstrations erupted across the country in a marked expansion of a month-long wave of unrest, witnesses said.
Shouting, “Freedom! Freedom!’’ and “National unity, Muslims and Christians,’’ a large crowd marched toward al-Abbasiyeen Square in northern Damascus, where police were blocking access late in the afternoon, witnesses said.
It was the largest day of demonstrations since the uprising here began in mid-March, according to Syrian activists reached via the online Skype service....
It was impossible to independently confirm the number of protesters because foreign news media have been restricted from reporting in Syria.
Protests also took place yesterday in other cities across the country....
--more--"
"Syrian president to end emergency laws; Mubarak party is dissolved by Egyptian court" by Associated Press / April 17, 2011
BEIRUT — Syria’s president said yesterday that he expects state of emergency laws that have been in effect for nearly 50 years to be lifted by next week at the latest, a key demand by a monthlong protest movement that has posed the most serious challenge to the authoritarian regime....
The protest movement has been steadily growing over the past four weeks and swelled Friday to the largest and most widespread gatherings to date as tens of thousands of people made a bold march toward the capital, Damascus.
The protesters demanded concrete reforms even as Assad’s security services launched a bloody crackdown. More than 200 people have been killed in the government crackdown on protesters over the past four weeks, rights groups say.
Assad has tried to calm the protests with promises....
The protesters say the gestures are not nearly enough.
Syria’s government and its state-run media have sought to cast the unrest as a foreign conspiracy perpetrated by armed gangs targeting security forces and civilians. Reform activists, however, say their movement is peaceful.
In his speech yesterday, Assad took on a much more conciliatory and serious tone....
While reiterating that much of the violence in Syria was the work of a foreign conspiracy, he acknowledged that Syrians have legitimate grievances and an urgent need for reform.
He expressed sorrow at the deaths that have occurred, describing those who were killed as martyrs.
His choice of words and tone appeared to be a subtle nod to protesters who were angered by his perceived lack of sympathy for the dead in his last speech.
--more--"
"Gunmen opened fire during a funeral for a slain antigovernment protester yesterday, killing at least three people on a day when tens of thousands of people took to the streets nationwide as part of an uprising against the country’s authoritarian regime, witnesses and activists said.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the shooting at the funeral near Homs.
In the past four weeks, Syrian security forces in uniforms and plainclothes have launched a deadly crackdown on demonstrations, killing at least 200 people, according to human rights groups. The government has blamed armed gangs looking to stir up unrest for many of the killings.
One witness said gunmen wearing black clothes opened fire at hundreds of people in the Talbiseh district in central Syria at a funeral for a protester who was killed Saturday. Other witnesses said they saw soldiers and security forces open fire, even shooting at homes and balconies."
"Syrian protesters call for Assad ouster" April 19, 2011|By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
BEIRUT — More than 5,000 antigovernment protesters in Syria took over the main square of the country’s third-largest city yesterday, vowing to occupy the site until President Bashar Assad is ousted and defying authorities who warn they will not be forced into reforms.
The government, however, blamed the weeks of antigovernment unrest in the country on ultraconservative Muslims seeking to establish a fundamentalist state and terrorize the people, in the latest official effort to portray the reform movement as populated by extremists.
The Egypt-style standoff in the central city of Homs followed funeral processions by more than 10,000 mourners for some of those killed in clashes Sunday that a rights group said left at least 12 people dead.
It also brought a high-stakes challenge to security forces over whether to risk more bloodshed — and international backlash — by trying to clear the square....
Never seems to effect Israel.
--more--"
"Syria speaks of reforms, then bans most protests; Yemeni forces open fire on demonstrators" April 20, 2011|By Anthony Shadid, New York Times
BEIRUT— Syria tried to placate protesters with declarations of sweeping reform yesterday while also issuing harsh threats of reprisals if demonstrations did not come to an end, as one of the Arab world’s most repressive countries struggled to blunt the most serious challenge to the 40-year rule of the Assad family.
The mix of concession and coercion came hours after the police, army, and the other forces of an authoritarian state were marshaled to crush one of the biggest gatherings yet by protesters bent on staging an Egyptian-style sit-in in Homs, Syria’s third largest city. At least two people died, protesters said, as the government cleared the square by dawn yesterday.
The events punctuated a tumultuous day in a monthlong uprising that, like Egypt’s, has the potential to rework the character of a Middle East shaken with dissent. While Syria lacks Egypt’s population or even Libya’s wealth, its influence has long outstripped its power, given its location, its alliance with Iran, and its status as kingmaker in Lebanon.....
Yes, and WHO BENEFITS from regime change here?
WHO has been trying to split off Syria from Iran?
--more--"
"Uprising keeps up momentum as Syrians defy ban on protests' Many skeptical of government’s pledge of reforms" April 21, 2011|By Anthony Shadid, New York Times
The demonstrations paled compared with those of recent days....
I JUST LOVE DECEPTIVE AmeriKan newspaper headlines!!
“People don’t trust the regime anymore,’’ said Haithem Maleh, a former judge and an often imprisoned human rights activist in Damascus. “I don’t think that the Syrian people are going to stop before they bring down this regime.’’
I understand the feeling.
But Syria is a complicated country, with sizable minorities of Christians and heterodox Muslim sects that have looked with trepidation to the example offered by Iraq’s civil war. The prospect that Maleh raised — the government’s fall — has alarmed some, particularly among the minorities, who worry about society’s lack of independent institutions to navigate a transition and the fearsome prospect of score-settling in chaos....
Assad’s government, which seems to have staggered amid the breadth and persistence of the protests, has hewed to a policy of crackdown and promised compromise....
--more--"
"Syria deploying security forces ahead of protests; Gatherings to be a test of reaction to Assad reforms" April 22, 2011|By Anthony Shadid, New York Times
The government has maintained that the uprising is led by militant Islamists, and organizers acknowledge that organized religious forces like the banned Muslim Brotherhood have forcefully taken part. The government has also accused foreign countries of supporting the protests. And, indeed, some of the largest have occurred in cities near Syria’s borders: Daraa, a poor town near Jordan, and Homs, an industrial center near conservative northern Lebanon....
I think the NY Times just confirmed that this is in fact a U.S.-inspired situation.
--more--"
Now that is not to say many regular Syrians haven't been swept up in it, nor does it justify or excuse government security forces mowing people down.
"Syrian forces kill 81 protesters; 5-week revolt spreads on its bloodiest day" April 23, 2011|By Anthony Shadid, New York Times
BEIRUT — Security forces in Syria fired on thousands of demonstrators after noon prayers yesterday, killing at least 81 people in the bloodiest day of the five-week-old Syrian uprising, according to protesters, witnesses, and accounts on social networking sites.
From the Mediterranean coast and Kurdish east to the steppe of the Houran in southern Syria, protesters gathered in at least 20 cities and towns, including in the outskirts of the capital, Damascus. Cries for vengeance intersected with calls for the government’s fall, marking a potentially dangerous new dynamic in the revolt.
“We want revenge, and we want blood,’’ said Abu Mohamed, a protester in Azra, a southern town that had the highest death toll yesterday. “Blood for blood.’’
Doesn't that leave the whole world bleeding?
The breadth of the protests — and people’s willingness to defy security forces who were deployed en masse — painted a picture of turmoil in one of the Arab world’s most authoritarian countries. In scenes unprecedented only weeks ago, protesters tore down pictures of President Bashar Assad and toppled statues of his father, Hafez, in two towns on the capital’s outskirts, according to witnesses and video footage.
But despite the bloodshed, which promised to unleash another day of unrest as the dead are buried today, the scale of the protests, so far, seemed to fall short of the popular upheaval of revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.
Gee, that sure is not the way the AmeriKan papers were playing it (sigh).
Organizers said the movement was still in its infancy, and the government, building on 40 years of institutional inertia, still commanded the loyalty of the military, economic elite, and sizable minorities of Christian and heterodox Muslim sects who fear the state’s collapse.
President Obama condemned the latest use of force and said the regime’s “outrageous’’ use of violence against the protesters must “end now.’’
Or what? US or Israel starts bombing?
And he has some nerve condemning others for violence.
******************
In a sharply worded statement, the White House said the “outrageous use of violence to quell protests must come to an end now.’’ The statement, which comes after warnings to Iran against capitalizing on the region’s unrest, also said that Assad was seeking Iranian help in repressing his people but did not provide details.
Translation: The U.S. government is Israel's attack dog.
In the capital, a city that underlines the very authority of the Assad family’s decades of rule, hundreds gathered after Friday Prayer at al-Hassan Mosque. Some of them chanted, “The people want the fall of the government,’’ a slogan made famous in both Egypt and Tunisia. But security forces quickly dispersed the protests with tear gas, witnesses said.
Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, was relatively quiet....
Then you can hear my sigh, huh?
--more--"
"Amid weekend of violence, hundreds in Syria missing; Crackdown widens despite reform claims; rights group urges sanctions" April 25, 2011|By Anthony Shadid, New York Times
Many of those arrested were taken from their homes at night, according to Haitham al-Maleh, a member of the Syrian Human Rights Committee....
Kind of like a U.S. military raid in Afghanistan, right?
Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations to set up an international inquiry into the killing of protesters and urged the United States and Europe to impose sanctions on officials responsible for the shootings and detentions of hundreds of protesters.
“After Friday’s carnage, it is no longer enough to condemn the violence,’’ said Joe Stork, the deputy Middle East director at the organization, which is based in New York.
Have they said the same regarding Israel?
--more--"
Related:
"the country might be entering a prolonged period of turmoil."
And CUI BONO?
The Egypt-style standoff in the central city of Homs followed funeral processions by more than 10,000 mourners for some of those killed in clashes Sunday that a rights group said left at least 12 people dead.
It also brought a high-stakes challenge to security forces over whether to risk more bloodshed — and international backlash — by trying to clear the square....
Never seems to effect Israel.
--more--"
"Syria speaks of reforms, then bans most protests; Yemeni forces open fire on demonstrators" April 20, 2011|By Anthony Shadid, New York Times
BEIRUT— Syria tried to placate protesters with declarations of sweeping reform yesterday while also issuing harsh threats of reprisals if demonstrations did not come to an end, as one of the Arab world’s most repressive countries struggled to blunt the most serious challenge to the 40-year rule of the Assad family.
The mix of concession and coercion came hours after the police, army, and the other forces of an authoritarian state were marshaled to crush one of the biggest gatherings yet by protesters bent on staging an Egyptian-style sit-in in Homs, Syria’s third largest city. At least two people died, protesters said, as the government cleared the square by dawn yesterday.
The events punctuated a tumultuous day in a monthlong uprising that, like Egypt’s, has the potential to rework the character of a Middle East shaken with dissent. While Syria lacks Egypt’s population or even Libya’s wealth, its influence has long outstripped its power, given its location, its alliance with Iran, and its status as kingmaker in Lebanon.....
Yes, and WHO BENEFITS from regime change here?
WHO has been trying to split off Syria from Iran?
--more--"
"Uprising keeps up momentum as Syrians defy ban on protests' Many skeptical of government’s pledge of reforms" April 21, 2011|By Anthony Shadid, New York Times
The demonstrations paled compared with those of recent days....
I JUST LOVE DECEPTIVE AmeriKan newspaper headlines!!
“People don’t trust the regime anymore,’’ said Haithem Maleh, a former judge and an often imprisoned human rights activist in Damascus. “I don’t think that the Syrian people are going to stop before they bring down this regime.’’
I understand the feeling.
But Syria is a complicated country, with sizable minorities of Christians and heterodox Muslim sects that have looked with trepidation to the example offered by Iraq’s civil war. The prospect that Maleh raised — the government’s fall — has alarmed some, particularly among the minorities, who worry about society’s lack of independent institutions to navigate a transition and the fearsome prospect of score-settling in chaos....
Assad’s government, which seems to have staggered amid the breadth and persistence of the protests, has hewed to a policy of crackdown and promised compromise....
--more--"
"Syria deploying security forces ahead of protests; Gatherings to be a test of reaction to Assad reforms" April 22, 2011|By Anthony Shadid, New York Times
The government has maintained that the uprising is led by militant Islamists, and organizers acknowledge that organized religious forces like the banned Muslim Brotherhood have forcefully taken part. The government has also accused foreign countries of supporting the protests. And, indeed, some of the largest have occurred in cities near Syria’s borders: Daraa, a poor town near Jordan, and Homs, an industrial center near conservative northern Lebanon....
I think the NY Times just confirmed that this is in fact a U.S.-inspired situation.
--more--"
Now that is not to say many regular Syrians haven't been swept up in it, nor does it justify or excuse government security forces mowing people down.
"Syrian forces kill 81 protesters; 5-week revolt spreads on its bloodiest day" April 23, 2011|By Anthony Shadid, New York Times
BEIRUT — Security forces in Syria fired on thousands of demonstrators after noon prayers yesterday, killing at least 81 people in the bloodiest day of the five-week-old Syrian uprising, according to protesters, witnesses, and accounts on social networking sites.
From the Mediterranean coast and Kurdish east to the steppe of the Houran in southern Syria, protesters gathered in at least 20 cities and towns, including in the outskirts of the capital, Damascus. Cries for vengeance intersected with calls for the government’s fall, marking a potentially dangerous new dynamic in the revolt.
“We want revenge, and we want blood,’’ said Abu Mohamed, a protester in Azra, a southern town that had the highest death toll yesterday. “Blood for blood.’’
Doesn't that leave the whole world bleeding?
The breadth of the protests — and people’s willingness to defy security forces who were deployed en masse — painted a picture of turmoil in one of the Arab world’s most authoritarian countries. In scenes unprecedented only weeks ago, protesters tore down pictures of President Bashar Assad and toppled statues of his father, Hafez, in two towns on the capital’s outskirts, according to witnesses and video footage.
But despite the bloodshed, which promised to unleash another day of unrest as the dead are buried today, the scale of the protests, so far, seemed to fall short of the popular upheaval of revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.
Gee, that sure is not the way the AmeriKan papers were playing it (sigh).
Organizers said the movement was still in its infancy, and the government, building on 40 years of institutional inertia, still commanded the loyalty of the military, economic elite, and sizable minorities of Christian and heterodox Muslim sects who fear the state’s collapse.
President Obama condemned the latest use of force and said the regime’s “outrageous’’ use of violence against the protesters must “end now.’’
Or what? US or Israel starts bombing?
And he has some nerve condemning others for violence.
******************
In a sharply worded statement, the White House said the “outrageous use of violence to quell protests must come to an end now.’’ The statement, which comes after warnings to Iran against capitalizing on the region’s unrest, also said that Assad was seeking Iranian help in repressing his people but did not provide details.
Translation: The U.S. government is Israel's attack dog.
In the capital, a city that underlines the very authority of the Assad family’s decades of rule, hundreds gathered after Friday Prayer at al-Hassan Mosque. Some of them chanted, “The people want the fall of the government,’’ a slogan made famous in both Egypt and Tunisia. But security forces quickly dispersed the protests with tear gas, witnesses said.
Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, was relatively quiet....
Then you can hear my sigh, huh?
--more--"
"Amid weekend of violence, hundreds in Syria missing; Crackdown widens despite reform claims; rights group urges sanctions" April 25, 2011|By Anthony Shadid, New York Times
Many of those arrested were taken from their homes at night, according to Haitham al-Maleh, a member of the Syrian Human Rights Committee....
Kind of like a U.S. military raid in Afghanistan, right?
Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations to set up an international inquiry into the killing of protesters and urged the United States and Europe to impose sanctions on officials responsible for the shootings and detentions of hundreds of protesters.
“After Friday’s carnage, it is no longer enough to condemn the violence,’’ said Joe Stork, the deputy Middle East director at the organization, which is based in New York.
Have they said the same regarding Israel?
--more--"
Related:
"the country might be entering a prolonged period of turmoil."
And CUI BONO?
"Israel’s Barak offers Syrian peace talks" March 01, 2011|Associated Press
JERUSALEM — Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel must look beyond the risks arising from the changes sweeping the Arab world, where longtime autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt have been toppled and the 42-year dictatorship of Libya’s Moammar Khadafy is under assault.
Barak acknowledged that the revolts might have negative implications for Israel, because it is not clear what form of government Egyptians will choose and whether the successor to ousted president Hosni Mubarak will be as committed as he was to the three-decade-old peace treaty with the Jewish state.
Still, Barak said, Israel must see the changes as an opportunity to move peacemaking forward....
That really makes me suspicious, wary, and anxious.
9/11 was an "opportunity."
--more--"
Updates: Tanks, troops escalate Syria’s suppression (By Anthony Shadid, New York Times)
"Criticism of Syrian crackdown grows; Global leaders show no signs of formal action" by Liz Sly and Edward Cody, Washington Post / April 27, 2011
BEIRUT — The escalating violence stirred the fiercest criticism of Damascus yet from world leaders, though there was no indication that the international community was ready to take formal action to condemn or sanction a regime whose collapse many fear could trigger widespread regional instability.
“The situation has become unacceptable,’’ French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a joint news conference in Rome with the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. “You don’t send tanks, the army, against demonstrators. You don’t fire on them.’’
Unless you are a puppet ally of the West. Then it's okay and kept quiet by the media.
***********
In Washington, the State Department’s head of policy planning, Jake Sullivan, also said US sanctions were an option only “under consideration.’’
***************
British Defense Secretary Liam Fox, in Washington to meet with his US counterpart, Robert Gates, bluntly told reporters that there are limits to what the world can do to influence the outcome of domestic rebellions....
Translation: Not every coup attempt succeeds, and Syria isn't sitting on gobs of oil or gas.
With China and Russia expressing misgivings about the UN-mandated air campaign in Libya and unwilling to take further action against Middle Eastern leaders facing domestic opposition, imminent action by the UN also seemed unlikely.
--more--"
