Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the Syrian people have been treated like shit. Seems to be a common characteristic of government no matter what you call it; however, cui bono when the war paper is beating the drum on this one?
"Syrian president dismisses Cabinet; Assad vows stop to emergency laws" March 30, 2011|By Zeina Karam, Associated Press
DAMASCUS, Syria — Facing an extraordinary wave of popular dissent, President Bashar Assad of Syria fired his Cabinet yesterday and promised to end widely despised emergency laws — concessions unlikely to appease protesters demanding sweeping reforms in one of the most hard-line nations in the Middle East.
The overtures, while largely symbolic, are a moment of rare compromise in the Assad family’s 40 years of iron-fisted rule. They came as the government mobilized hundreds of thousands of supporters in rallies in the capital and elsewhere, in an effort to show it has wide popular backing.
Nearly every aspect of Syrian society is monitored and controlled by the security forces, and the feared secret police crush even the smallest rumblings of opposition. Draconian laws have all but eradicated civil liberties and political freedoms.
The coming days will be key to determining whether Assad’s concessions will quiet the protest movement, which began after security forces arrested several teenagers who scrawled antigovernment graffiti on a wall in the impoverished city of Daraa in the south.
The protests spread to other provinces and the government launched a swift crackdown, killing more than 60 people since March 18, according to Human Rights Watch. However, the violence has eased in the past few days and some predict the demonstrations might quickly die out if the president’s promises appear genuine....
Still, tensions remained high in Daraa, where several hundred people were still staging a sit-in yesterday, and in the Mediterranean port of Latakia, which has a potentially volatile mix of different religious groups....
The unrest in Syria, a strategically important country, could have implications well beyond its borders given its role as Iran’s top Arab ally and as a front line state against Israel.
Syria has long been viewed by the United States as a potentially destabilizing force in the Middle East. An ally of Iran and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, it has also provided a home for some radical Palestinian groups.
But the country has been trying to emerge from years of international isolation. The United States recently reached out to Syria in the hopes of drawing it away from Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas — although the effort has not yielded much....
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"Syrian leader offers no concessions, calls stability top priority; Says democracy activists are dupes or conspirators" March 31, 2011|By Michael Slackman, New York Times
CAIRO — The much-anticipated speech yesterday by Syria’s president, Bashar Assad, was a choreographed effort to showcase his firm grip on power, as he refused to offer concessions and said prodemocracy demonstrators were either duped or conspiring in a plot to destroy the nation.
There was no somber tone in the address, even though government forces have killed dozens in the past two weeks as demonstrators in several cities challenged the president’s authority.
Instead, the speech was a throwback to a vanishing era of leader worship, with audience members bounding from their seats to praise the president and crowds waving his picture.
Assad fell back on the strongman’s standard justification for holding on to power: “The first priority,’’ he said, was “the stability of Syria.’’
At this point I'm just getting offended by the ax-grinding slop.
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As for the recent unrest, he said it was both misguided and manufactured by saboteurs who want “to fragment Syria, to bring down Syria as a nation, to enforce an Israeli agenda.’’
It certainly isn't out of the realm of possibility. May not be all that; intelligence agencies may simply be exploiting the situation.
Within hours of Assad’s speech, residents in the restive northern city of Latakia took to the streets in protest, and armed forces once again opened fire. Witnesses said two protesters were killed....
The promises were part of a rhetorical bait and switch, a common practice of the Syrian government to offer and not deliver, analysts said.
I'm sick of the kettle-hollering pot press of AmeriKa, folks.
In reality, Assad has little room to maneuver without undermining his leadership. If he allows free speech, the demonstrations will only grow; if he ends Ba’ath Party rule, it will probably lose an election, analysts said....
Analysts said the president may also have been confident because the protests had not turned into a national movement and did not involve Damascus, the capital.
Agenda-pushing Zionist AmeriKan media blowing things out of proportion?
Surely you jest!
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"Assad moves to ease Syria strictures; Will set substitute for emergency law" April 01, 2011|By Edward Cody, Washington Post
CAIRO — The Syrian government, in a gesture to protesters who have shaken the country for the past 13 days, said yesterday that it will draw up new antiterrorism legislation as a first step toward lifting the country’s 48-year-old emergency rule.
Then why did my paper tell me yesterday he flipped them the finger?
The announcement, relayed by the official Syrian Arab News Agency and national television, seemed designed to soften the impact of President Bashar al-Assad’s stiff speech Wednesday in which he offered no concessions and blamed the prodemocracy demonstrations on conspirators out to undermine Syria’s strength as an Arab leader on the front lines against Israel.
The government also appeared intent on reducing enthusiasm for another round of protests called for today by an informal network of human rights activists. Inspired by revolts across the Arab world, the protesters have demanded that Assad expand democratic freedoms for Syria’s 23 million people.
Activists denounced the announcement as a ploy, suggesting that Assad is only offering to replace one set of repressive laws with another, baptized this time as antiterrorism.
“Under the emergency laws we were conspirators. Under the terrorism law we will be terrorists, and the role of the security apparatus will stay the same,’’ said Razan Zeitoneh, a Syrian human rights lawyer.
“This is not significant,’’ said Ammar Qurabi, the Cairo-based head of the Syrian National Organization for Human Rights. “It would take just one minute to reverse the emergency law. They are just trying to find something to replace the emergency law. Anyway, people are not interested in a law. People are interested in what the security forces are doing on the ground.’’
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In his internationally televised speech, Assad said legislation to end emergency rule had already been drafted but that he had not found the time to get it passed in Parliament because he was busy addressing economic reforms and international tensions. He expressed a willingness to abolish the widely hated legislation but declined to set a timetable.
Getting rid of the emergency legislation has been a major demand of the protesters who have taken to the streets in Damascus, Daraa, Hamas, Latakia, and other Syrian cities, mounting the most serious challenge to Assad in the 11 years since he inherited the presidency from his father.
Now I was told above and yesterday that protests had not touched Damascus.
WTF, readers?
According to the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch, about 60 people have been killed in confrontations between protesters and security forces, most of them in Daraa, on the border with Jordan.
Gunfire was reported Wednesday evening in Latakia, on the Mediterranean coast, and Damascus residents who had been in touch with their families there said clashes were continuing, with many people afraid to go out.
In Daraa, where the protests began March 18, an antigovernment activist who refused to be identified out of fear of reprisals told the Associated Press that up to 17 people were arrested Wednesday evening.
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"Emboldened protesters speak out in Middle East; four are killed in Syria" April 02, 2011|By Edward Cody, Washington Post
CAIRO — Prodemocracy demonstrators streamed into the streets of cities across the Middle East yesterday, dramatizing the Arab world’s enduring hunger for change three months into a revolt that has toppled two presidents and challenged the region’s stultified political order.
Security forces in Syria killed at least four people in a suburb of the capital, Damascus, where violent clashes had erupted, according to a Syrian human rights activist with a list of victims’ names. But in most other instances, the protests — in Yemen, Egypt, and Jordan, as well as Syria — were generally contained and peaceful.
Even so, the spectacle of crowds in four countries relentlessly shouting “Freedom!’’ suggested that many Arabs have shaken off the passivity and fear that for generations kept unrepresentative leaders in power in the region, home to 340 million people and a large part of the world’s oil reserves.
When will Americans do such a thing?
Better not; might get in trouble.
The protests in Syria, although relatively small, were the most widespread since unrest broke out there on March 18 with demands that President Bashar al-Assad’s Arab nationalist government expand civil liberties. Crowds took to the streets after midday prayers, in demonstrations of varying intensity, in Daraa, Homs, Baniyas, Idlib, Qamishli, Damascus, and the capital’s outlying Douma area.
Wow, relatively small protests(?) and yet they get loads of coverage day after day?
Protest leaders had labeled yesterday Martyrs’ Day, calling for widespread demonstrations to mark disappointment with Assad’s tough speech Wednesday, in which he rebuffed demands for repeal of Syria’s 48-year-old emergency law.
And then the day after.... awwwwwww, what's the use anymore?
The hated measure, which gives police broad powers, has been a key part of the complex security apparatus on which Assad has relied to smother opposition....
The Obama administration issued a statement condemning the violence and saying it was not the answer to popular grievances....
Yeah, just REMEMBER THAT HERE at HOME!
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"Syria tightens security after protests; Death toll rises as Assad regime cracks down" April 03, 2011|By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
BEIRUT — Syrian agents tightened security and made sweeping arrests yesterday as President Bashar Assad tried to cut off two weeks of deadly pro-democracy demonstrations that are threatening his family’s ruling dynasty.
The death toll from two weeks of protests was around 80 people, after at least seven were killed Friday in clashes with security forces....
The extraordinary wave of protests has proved the most serious challenge yet to the Assad family’s 40-year dynasty, one of the most rigid regimes in the Middle East....
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed deep concern about the violence and called on Syria’s government to address the “legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people.’’
This as Israel is hammering the hell out of Gaza.
And why ain't he pipin' up about Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, and the rest?
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The strength of the burgeoning protest movement is difficult to gauge because Syria has restricted media access and expelled journalists, making it difficult to determine the extent of the protests and how many people are turning out. Two Associated Press journalists were ordered to leave the country Friday with less than an hour’s notice.
It would still be difficult to determine anything reading an AmeriKan newspaper.
Assad has blamed a “foreign conspiracy’’ for the unrest....
Certainly a possible hand in it. Not something I'll ever read in my newspaper, though.
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"Thousands of Syrian activists marched through a Damascus suburb yesterday in funerals for those killed in new protests, as the president appointed a former agriculture minister to form a new government as part of limited gestures to those calling for sweeping political change.
Human rights groups and activists say at least 10 people were killed during protests Friday in Douma, just outside the Syrian capital, and in nearby areas.
Yesterday, a witness said thousands of people gathered for prayers before the funeral of eight of the victims at Douma’s Grand Mosque, which was at the center of Friday’s protests.
The crowds shouted “We want Freedom’’ and “Douma and Daraa, one hand,’’ in a reference to a drought-stricken and impoverished city in the south from where Syria’s protests began on March 18.
The witness said the two other people killed in areas near Douma were also buried yesterday. All the coffins were draped with Syrian flags, he added. He said there was no sign of security forces in Douma, adding that mourning tents for receiving condolences were set up in the city later.
President Bashar Assad, facing the biggest challenge yet to his 11-year rule, has made a series of overtures that protesters say do not satisfy their demands for real change.
The president sacked his government last week in answer to growing cries for reform in Syria, one of the most authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. On Thursday, he set up committees to look into the deaths of civilians during two weeks of unrest and replacing decades-old state-of-emergency laws.
Yesterday, he appointed Adel Safar, the former agriculture minister, to form a new government. Safar, 58, is seen as a respectable figure in a government that many had accused of corruption. Safar holds a doctorate in agricultural sciences from a French polytechnic center and was the dean of Damascus University’s agricultural faculty from 1997-2000.
The violence in Douma Friday was some of the worst seen in two weeks of bloody protests in Syria, during which at least 80 people have died, according to rights groups.
Activists said protesters had come under attack by security forces as they left the Grand Mosque chanting slogans for freedom. The troops hit people with clubs and threw stones before firing tear gas and finally live ammunition.
Authorities blamed Friday’s bloodshed on “armed gangs’’ and Assad has described the unrest as a foreign-influenced conspiracy against Syria....
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I think my enthusiasm for the Globe is slipping away:
"Syrian Activists called yesterday for a new wave of demonstrations to honor more than 80 people killed in a crackdown on antigovernment protests that erupted nearly three weeks ago.
Also yesterday, the state-run news agency said gunmen killed two police officers in a suburb of the capital. Police killings are extremely rare in this tightly controlled country, although the government says that several police officers and other security troops have been killed since the mass protests began March 18.
Mossad agents or assassins entering the country in the chaos?
It was not clear if the shooting in Kfar Batna, about 9 miles from Damascus, was connected to the recent unrest. President Bashar Assad has blamed the recent bloodshed on gangs and a foreign conspiracy to sow chaos in Syria.
I'm starting to believe it.
“The Syrian Revolution 2011’’ Facebook page called for protests across the country today, tomorrow, and Friday, calling it “Martyrs Week.’’ By yesterday, the page had more than 105,000 fans.
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"Protesters and Syrian regime claim casualties; Egyptians rally, 1,000 march on Israeli Embassy
April 09, 2011|By Bassem Mroue and Zeina Karam, Associated Press
BEIRUT — Mass protests calling for sweeping changes in Syria’s authoritarian regime turned deadly yesterday, with the government and protesters both claiming heavy casualties as the country’s three-week uprising entered a dangerous new phase.
The bloodiest clashes occurred in the restive city of Daraa, where human rights activists and witnesses said Syrian security forces opened fire on tens of thousands of protesters, killing 25 people and wounding hundreds.
That's not going to help the situation.
At the same time, state-run TV said 19 policemen and members of the security forces were killed when gunmen opened fire on them.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
It was the first significant claim of casualties by the Syrian government, which has contended that armed gangs rather than true reform-seekers are behind the unrest. The claim could signal plans for a stepped-up retaliation.
Is the AmeriKan media trying to suggest some sort of lie or false flag there? What ballsy gall.
The protests were in response to calls by organizers to take to the streets every Friday to demand change in one of the most rigid nations in the Middle East. Marches were held in cities across the country as the movement showed no sign of letting up, despite the violent crackdowns.
Yeah, CRACKDOWNS NEVER WORK and result in the OPPOSITE EFFECT, but LEADERS NEVER LEARN!!
At least 32 protesters were killed nationwide, according to human rights activists. The bloodshed lifted the death toll from three weeks of protests to more than 170 people, according to Amnesty International.
The calls for reform have shaken the regime of President Bashar Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for over 40 years. Assad, a British-trained eye doctor, inherited power from his father 11 years ago and tried to help the country emerge from years of international isolation and lift Soviet-style economic restrictions. But despite early promises of social and political change, Assad has slipped back into the autocratic ways of his father.
Like I always said about the Bushes: Like father, like son.
As the wave of protests has gathered momentum, Assad has offered limited concessions, firing local officials and forming committees to look into replacing the country’s despised emergency laws, which allow the regime to arrest people without charge. On Thursday, he granted citizenship to thousands of Kurds, fulfilling a decades-old demand of the country’s long-ostracized minority....
They could be the "gunmen."
Related: P.J.A.K.
Plan B
Ever notice those items never get much play in the AmeriKan media?
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"Syrian security forces fired on mourners at a funeral for slain protesters yesterday as authorities vowed to crush any new unrest from a three-week uprising that showed no sign of letting up even as the death toll topped 170.
If they think firing on mourners was a way to calm things down.... if it was them at all. I can niot really trust my newspaper anymore, so who knows who it really was?
Activists vowed to accelerate their movement with daily protests nationwide, bringing new pressure on President Bashar Assad’s authoritarian regime.
Again, the EXACT OPPOSITE of what the government would have wanted.
Assad has answered the tens of thousands of protesters with both force and limited concessions that have failed to appease an emboldened movement inspired by the Arab uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
“Old-style crackdowns and techniques simply do not work anymore,’’ said Aktham Nuaisse, a prominent Syrian pro-democracy activist. “The first thing authorities must do is stop this violence and enact serious reforms. Failing that, I fear everyone is going to lose control of the situation.’’
He has the RIGHT IDEAS!
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"Witnesses say four protesters killed in Syria; Gulf bloc urges Yemen’s Saleh to resign" April 11, 2011|By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
BEIRUT — Syrian security forces and progovernment gunmen killed four protesters yesterday in the port city of Banias after the army sealed off the city as hundreds gathered, undaunted by the regime’s use of deadly force to quell more than three weeks of unrest, witnesses said.
State TV reported that nine soldiers were killed in an ambush near the city.
Details were sketchy because telephone lines, Internet access, and electricity apparently were cut to most parts of the city. Army tanks and soldiers circled the city, preventing people from entering.
But one witness, reached by telephone, said hundreds of protesters had gathered near al-Rahman mosque when security forces and armed men in civilian clothes opened fire on them.
The names of the dead were read through mosque loudspeakers.
He said dozens of people were wounded, but most of them asked to be treated at a small clinic instead of at the main hospital, which was under the control of the feared security forces.
Several other human rights activists, also citing witnesses, reported shooting in Banias yesterday.
“There are demonstrations throughout the city, and people are chanting against the regime,’’ said Haitham al-Maleh, an 80-year-old lawyer and longtime rights activist who spent years as a political prisoner in Syria.
The accounts could not be independently confirmed. The government has placed severe restrictions on news coverage, and many journalists have been ordered to leave the country....
President Bashar Assad has answered the protesters with force and limited concessions that have failed to appease an emboldened movement inspired by the Arab uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, but he has stopped well short of the protesters’ demands. Instead, he has promised to form committees to look into reform.
Other gestures include granting citizenship to thousands of Kurds, the country’s long-ostracized minority, and sacking his Cabinet.
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Thing is starting to snowball:
"Unrest expands to Syrian university; Military moves into port city on Mediterranean" by Fredrick Kunkle, Washington Post / April 12, 2011
CAIRO — Syria’s military moved into the Mediterranean port of Banias early yesterday, human rights workers and activists said, a day after at least 13 people, including four demonstrators and nine members of the state’s security forces, were killed in violent clashes there.
Other antigovernment activists reported that the unrest in Syria had reached Damascus University, Syria’s oldest and most prestigious institution of higher learning, in the nation’s capital.
A demonstration by up to 1,500 university students turned violent yesterday when security forces raided the gathering. Protesters said one student was killed, the Associated Press reported. There were conflicting reports about whether the student was shot or beaten to death.
Opponents of the Assad family’s dynasty said that their numbers appear to be increasing. “We are like a snowball that’s getting bigger every day,’’ said Haitham al-Maleh, a longtime opposition lawyer in Damascus who was recently released from prison.
The nearly monthlong wave of protests has claimed an estimated 170 lives so far and presented the fiercest challenge to President Bashar Assad and his ruling Ba’ath Party since his taking over upon the death of his father 11 years ago.
Thousands on both sides of the escalating conflict attended the funeral services yesterday for those who were killed Sunday, said Nadim Houry, senior researcher in Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division....
The Syrian government has expelled many media organizations, and frequent outages of Internet and mobile phone service have hampered efforts by human rights workers and others to follow events inside the tightly regulated country.
The Syrian government has blamed the killings on “armed groups’’ that ambushed the military convoy outside the city, a seaport that human rights activists said had been cut off by security forces Sunday.
But videos smuggled out of the country and posted on Facebook and played on Al Jazeera have shown scenes from Daraa and other cities that show torched cars, demonstrators burning images of Assad, and snatching up tear gas canisters and throwing them back at security forces.
Others depict people spraying gunfire from car windows and a group of what appear to be security forces beating a man with clubs and dragging away a body.
Over the weekend, activists called for continuous demonstrations every day that would climax this Friday, the Muslim prayer day.
The president has promised reforms, including revising the hated emergency decree in place since 1963, shaken up his government, and repealed a measure banning citizenship to ethnic Kurds, but has so far been unable to restore order.
Just a heartbeat from disaster.
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Also see: Student from Vt. released by Syria
Vermont student missing in Syria returns
Vt. student recounts Syrian jail experience
Was he tortured like the rendered terror suspects AmeriKa sent them?
