Makes it harder to help Iran. All part of the plan, folks.
Actually, it has moved beyond that to outright invasion.
Thus the parade of propaganda from my newspaper.
"Thousands of Syrians find refuge in Turkey; Many are sharing stories of violence during crackdown" June 14, 2011|By Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press
GUVECCI, Turkey — Syrians streamed across the border yesterday into neighboring Turkey, finding sanctuary in refugee camps ringed by barbed wire....
A-hem:
Pro Palestinians protesters try to rescue a wounded man after he was shot by Israeli troops along the border between Israel and Syria near the village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, Sunday, June 5, 2011 . Israeli troops opened fire across the Syrian frontier on Sunday to disperse hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters who stormed the border of the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, reportedly killing four people in unrest marking the anniversary of the Arab defeat in the 1967 Mideast war. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Someone else also seems fond of barbed wire.
Turkey’s prime minister said he would reach out to the Syrian leader to help solve the crisis. Still, many of the nearly 7,000 refugees in Turkey say they expect their government to inflict only more violence and pain.
Palestinians have you beat by about 65 years, but I know, I know, apples and oranges.
Are they?
Refugees were pouring across the border to flee a crackdown Sunday that sent elite forces backed by helicopters and tanks into Jisr al-Shughour, a northern town that spun out of government control for a week. Troops led by Assad’s brother regained control of Jisr al-Shughour on Sunday, and residents ran for their lives.
See: Syrians Run to the Hills
In Guvecci, two Syrians gave a bleak picture of life across the frontier.
“There are 7,000 people across the border; more and more women and children are coming toward the barbed wires,’’ said Abu Ali, who left Jisr al-Shughour. “Jisr is finished. It is razed.’’
Related: Hypocrisy and Western-centric Human Rights
Other refugees said the military is killing soldiers who refuse orders to fire on protesters.
“Assad’s men are killing anyone within the military, police or others who don’t obey their orders blindly,’’ said a man who gave his name as Abu Ali. Another, who gave his name as Ammar, had a similar allegation.
Turkey and Syria once nearly went to war, but the two countries have cultivated warm relations in recent years, lifting travel visa rules for their citizens and promoting business ties.
The countries share a 520-mile border, which includes several Syrian provinces. Refugees and relatives on both sides appeared to be crossing unimpeded around the village of Guvecci.
Syrian refugees staged open-air noon prayers behind wire fences yesterday at the Boynuyogun refugee camp inside Turkey. At another camp in the town of Altinozu, refugee families flashed V for victory signs as police guarded their compound.
Turkish authorities have blocked the media from entering the camps. Turkey appears to be trying to limit the publicity of the crisis even as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who won a landslide victory in Sunday’s general elections, says he will speak to Syrian President Bashar Assad soon.
Despite their support of NATO intervention in Libya, Arab governments have not responded to Syria’s crackdown, fearing the chaos that could follow Assad’s fall. The country has a potentially explosive sectarian mix and is seen as a regional powerhouse with influence on events in neighboring Israel, Lebanon, and Iraq....
Related: Syria the Cornerstone of Neo-Con Plan
Thousands of people demonstrating weekly — inspired by protests in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere — say they will not stop until Assad leaves power.
Related: Syria's See-Saw Protests
Syrian Spring Signals Long Hot Summer
It's all agenda, almost all the time.
The Local Coordination Committees, a group that documents the protests, said government snipers have killed at least 10 people in the nearby village of Ariha in the past two days.
Syria’s government has said 500 members of the security forces have died, including 120 last week in Jisr al-Shughour, although it has denied a mutiny. About 1,400 Syrians have died and 10,000 have been detained in the government crackdown since mid-March, activists say.
Yesterday, Syria imposed a travel ban on one of the president’s cousins, a move that appeared to be an attempt to show Assad is serious about investigating the bloodshed.
--more--"
"Syrian troops expand push to put stop to uprising" by Elizabeth A. Kennedy and Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press / June 15, 2011
BOYNUYOGUN, Turkey — Syrian tanks and the government’s most loyal troops pushed into more towns and villages yesterday, trying to snuff out any chance that the uprising against President Bashar Assad could gain a base for a wider armed rebellion....
Well, we know who is behind that, don't we?
“The (Syrian forces) damage homes and buildings, kill even animals, set trees and farmlands on fire,’’ said Mohammad Hesnawi, 26. He fled Jisr al-Shughour over the weekend to this border area of Turkey, where about 8,000 Syrians are seeking refuge in camps.
Oh, now they are behaving like Israelis!
Prodemocracy activists, citing witnesses, said the military also surrounded al-Boukamal, along the Iraqi border. Syrian officials have expressed concern over a reverse flow of arms into Syria.
Yeah, they should be concerned.
And why cut "in March security forces seized a large quantity of weapons hidden in a truck coming from Iraq?"
U.S. behind it, huh?
Assad initially responded with vague promises of reform, but the increasingly deadly government crackdown has only added fuel to the movement. Thousands of protesters across the country now vow to continue until Assad leaves power.
There is no sign of that, however. The crackdown has obliterated a view held by many in Syria and abroad of Assad as a reformer at heart, one constrained by members of his late father’s old guard who were fighting change, especially members of the Assads’ minority Alawite sect.
An offshoot of Shi’ite Islam, the Alawites represent about 11 percent of Syria’s population.
More cut:
"which is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim. The sect's longtime dominance has bred resentments, which Assad has worked to tamp down by pushing a strictly secular identity in Syria."
WTF? Isn't that what we want?
Back to the verbatim print:
But Assad is now relying heavily on his Alawite power base to crush the resistance, particularly amid rumors that Sunni army conscripts have been refusing to fire on civilians....
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United States condemns the “barbaric acts’’ in Syria. In a statement, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton accused Iran of assisting its ally Syria in the crackdown.
The way we assist Israel when they attack someone?
MORE CUT!
She didn't detail such assistance, but Syrian human rights activist Ammar Qurabi, at a Paris news conference, asserted that the Iranians have sent guns and electronic batons to Syrian authorities and Iranian computer specialists were in Damascus hacking into activists' e-mail and Facebook accounts.
You will have to excuse me for not believing the pronouncements by Sir Hitlery.
As for the Iranians sending guns and batons, we send that and fighter jets and chemical weapons to Israel.
Yeah, and who are the hackers again? Iranians spreading Stuxnet around?
For its part, Tehran yesterday warned the United States against any military intervention in Syria.
But once again, our leaders are not listening.
"This would be a mistake and an engagement in a scene which can bring dire consequences for the region," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters.
I think that's what they want.
Washington and its allies have shown little appetite, however, for intervening in yet another Arab nation in turmoil, as NATO has done in Libya. There is real concern that Assad's ouster would spread chaos around the region.
Related: US Warships Moved To Syrian Coast
So much for the concern. I just love deceptions and obfuscations from my "newspaper."
--more--"
"Syria’s forces advance to key town to quash rebellion; Residents flee to other cities and into Turkey" by Sebnem Arsu and Liam Stack, New York Times / June 16, 2011
GUVECCI, Turkey — Hundreds fled a town in northern Syria yesterday that appeared to be the next target of a military seeking to crush a three-month uprising against President Bashar Assad, activists said, joining thousands already displaced in a growing crisis that has embarrassed the Syrian government.
In a succession of often bloody operations, the Syrian military has sent tanks and soldiers to the country’s most restive areas. This week, forces were deployed to eastern Syria, a region that borders Iraq and is knit by extended clans, as well as to the northern town Ma’arrat an Nu’man, which is on the highway between Damascus, the capital, and Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city....
Nearly 8,500 are in three camps across the border in Turkey, and thousands more are stranded on the Syrian side....
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey toured the border yesterday, even stopping at the barbed wire to greet displaced people on the Syrian side. In the camps on the Turkish side, officials have sought to bar journalists from entering, though some people occasionally moved to the blue plastic sheets stretched along the compound to speak.
“Damn your legislation, laws, and the state you have established!’’ one woman shouted from the camp, denouncing the government of Assad. “Men’s fingers are cut off, and the wounded are piled on top of each other.’’
About 4,000 children in the camp staged their own protest, which was quickly quieted by Turkish police officers guarding the compound. “People want freedom,’’ the children chanted.
After a deluge of Syrians fleeing across the border, traffic slowed to a trickle near the frontier town of Guvecci, as Turkish authorities sought to quickly relocate refugees to the formal camps.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
Ahmed Jumaa, a 25-year-old smuggler from the Syrian town of Ain al-Baida, said he had traveled to Guvecci daily to deliver food for displaced Syrians hiding near the border.
He said crossing the border had become “very dangerous’’ because of a sharp rise in the number of Turkish soldiers and border police officers. He worried that he would not make it back.
“All they did in Jisr al-Shughour was have a peaceful protest, and now they are in the middle of so many problems,’’ he said, carrying bags of bread.
The Syrian government has sought to persuade Syrians to return to Jisr al-Shughour, where armed groups, military defectors, or a combination of both seized control for a while earlier this month. Syrian officials say 120 members of the security forces were killed by “armed terrorist groups,’’ and yesterday they showed journalists a grave they said contained several bodies. Reports of the events there remain murky, though a US official said this week that armed groups were involved.
CONFIRMATION of a COUP ATTEMPT!
Related:
"many of the details of how the accident unfolded remain murky"
"the truth lies buried in the murky world of spies."
See: They Don't Want Your Blood Money
Why Am I No Longer Reading the Newspaper?
Seeing through the murk yet?
Adnan Mahmoud, the Syrian information minister, said that electricity, water, and communications had been restored to Jisr al-Shughour and that the area was safe. The Associated Press, citing its reporter who traveled there on a government-organized trip, said vans packed with families and their belongings appeared to be returning residents to their homes, though other residents reached by phone said the town remained largely deserted....
What is the sense of even reading the AmeriKan media anymore?
In Damascus, Syrian television covered a large progovernment march that stretched more than a mile through the capital.
Say what?
--more--"
Maybe THIS will help you see through the AmeriKan media murk:
"The Destabilization of Syria and the Broader Middle East War"
by Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, June 17, 2011
What is unfolding in Syria is an armed insurrection supported covertly by foreign powers including the US, Turkey and Israel.
Armed insurgents belonging to Islamist organizations have crossed the border from Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. The US State Department has confirmed that it is supporting the insurgency.
The United States is to expand contacts with Syrians who are counting on a regime change in the country.
This was stated by U.S. State Department official Victoria Nuland. "We started to expand contacts with the Syrians, those who are calling for change, both inside and outside the country," she said.
Nuland also repeated that Barack Obama had previously called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to initiate reforms or to step down from power." (Voice of Russia, June 17, 2011)
The destabilization of Syria and Lebanon as sovereign countries has been on the drawing board of the US-NATO-Israel military alliance for at least ten years.
Action against Syria is part of a "military roadmap", a sequencing of military operations. According to former NATO Commander General Wesley Clark--the Pentagon had clearly identified Iraq, Libya, Syria and Lebanon as target countries of a US-NATO intervention:
"[The] Five-year campaign plan [included]... a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan" (Pentagon official quoted by General Wesley Clark)
In "Winning Modern Wars" (page 130) General Wesley Clark states the following:
"As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan.
...He said it with reproach--with disbelief, almost--at the breadth of the vision. I moved the conversation away, for this was not something I wanted to hear. And it was not something I wanted to see moving forward, either. ...I left the Pentagon that afternoon deeply concerned."
The objective is to destabilize the Syrian State and implement "regime change" through the covert support of an armed insurgency, integrated by Islamist militia. The reports on civilian deaths are used to provide a pretext and a justification for humanitarian intervention under the principle "Responsiblity to Protect".
Media Disinformation
Media Disinformation
Tacitly acknowledged , the significance of an armed insurrection is casually dismissed by the Western media. If it were to be recognized and analysed, our understanding of unfolding events would be entirely different.
What is mentioned profusely is that the armed forces and the police are involved in the indiscriminate killing of civilian protesters. Press reports confirm, however, from the outset of the protest movement an exchange of gunfire between armed insurgents and the police, with casualties reported on both sides.
The insurrection started in mid March in the border city of Daraa, which is 10 km from the Jordanian border.
The Daraa "protest movement" on March 18 had all the appearances of a staged event involving, in all likelihood, covert support to Islamic terrorists by Mossad and/or Western intelligence. Government sources point to the role of radical Salafist groups (supported by Israel)
Other reports have pointed to the role of Saudi Arabia in financing the protest movement.What has unfolded in Daraa in the weeks following the initial violent clashes on 17-18 March, is the confrontation between the police and the armed forces on the one hand and armed units of terrorists and snipers on the other which have infiltrated the protest movement.....
What is clear from these initial reports is that many of the demonstrators were not demonstrators but terrorists involved in premeditated acts of killing and arson. The title of the Israeli news report summarizes what happened: Syria: Seven Police Killed, Buildings Torched in Protests.
(See Michel Chossudovsky, SYRIA: Who is Behind The Protest Movement? Fabricating a Pretext for a US-NATO "Humanitarian Intervention", http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24591 Global Research, May 3, 2011)
The Role of Turkey
The center of the insurrection has now shifted to the small border town of Jisr al-Shughour, 10 km from the Turkish border.
Jisr al-Shughour has a population of 44,000 inhabitants. Armed insurgents have crossed the border from Turkey.
Members of the Muslim Brotherhood are reported to have taken up arms in northwest Syria.
There are indications that Turkish military and intelligence are supporting these incursions.
There was no mass civilian protest movement in Jisr al-Shughour. The local population was caught in the crossfire. The fighting between armed rebels and government forces has contributed to triggering a refugee crisis, which is the center of media attention.
In contrast, in the nation's capital Damascus, where the mainstay of social movements is located, there have been mass rallies in support rather than in opposition to the government.
President Bashir al Assad is casually compared to presidents Ben Ali of Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. What the mainstream media has failed to mention is that despite the authoritarian nature of the regime, president Al Assad is a popular figure who has widespread support of the Syrian population.
The large rally in Damascus on March 29, "with tens of thousands of supporters" (Reuters) of President Al Assad was barely mentioned. Yet in an unusual twist, the images and video footage of several pro-government events were used by the Western media to convince international public opinion that the President was being confronted by mass anti-government rallies.
On June 15, thousands of people rallied over several kilometers on Damascus' main highway in a march holding up a 2.3 km Syrian flag. The rally was acknowledged by the media and casually dismissed as irrelevant.
While the Syrian regime is by no means democratic, the objective of the US-NATO Israel military alliance is not to promote democracy. Quite the opposite. Washington's intent is to eventually install a puppet regime.
The objective through media disinformation is to demonize president Al Assad and more broadly to destabilize Syria as a secular state. The latter objective is implemented through covert support of various Islamist organizations:
Syria is run by an authoritarian oligarchy which has used brute force in dealing with its citizens. The riots in Syria, however, are complex. They cannot be viewed as a straightforward quest for liberty and democracy. There has been an attempt by the U.S. and the E.U. to use the riots in Syria to pressure and intimidate the Syrian leadership. Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, and the March 14 Alliance have all played a role in supporting an armed insurrection.
The violence in Syria has been supported from the outside with a view of taking advantage of the internal tensions... Aside from the violent reaction of the Syrian Army, media lies have been used and bogus footage has been aired. Money and weapons have also been funnelled to elements of the Syrian opposition by the U.S., the E.U....Funding has also been provided to ominous and unpopular foreign-based Syrian opposition figures, while weapons caches were smuggled from Jordan and Lebanon into Syria. (Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, America's Next War Theater: Syria and Lebanon? http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25000, Global Research, June 10, 2011)
The joint Israel-Turkey military and intelligence agreement
The geopolitics of this process of destabilization are far-reaching. Turkey is involved in supporting the rebels.
The Turkish government has sanctioned Syrian opposition groups in exile which support an armed insurgency. Turkey is also pressuring Damascus to conform to Washington's demands for regime change.
Turkey is a member of NATO with a powerful military force. Moreover, Israel and Turkey have a longstanding joint military-intelligence agreement, which is explicitly directed against Syria.
...A 1993 Memorandum of Understanding led to the creation of (Israeli-Turkish) "joint committees" to handle so-called regional threats. Under the terms of the Memorandum, Turkey and Israel agreed "to cooperate in gathering intelligence on Syria, Iran, and Iraq and to meet regularly to share assessments pertaining to terrorism and these countries' military capabilities."
Turkey agreed to allow IDF and Israeli security forces to gather electronic intelligence on Syria and Iran from Turkey. In exchange, Israel assisted in the equipping and training of Turkish forces in anti-terror warfare along the Syrian, Iraqi, and Iranian borders."
... Already during the Clinton Administration, a triangular military alliance between the US, Israel and Turkey had unfolded. This "triple alliance", which is dominated by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, integrates and coordinates military command decisions between the three countries pertaining to the broader Middle East. It is based on the close military ties respectively of Israel and Turkey with the US, coupled with a strong bilateral military relationship between Tel Aviv and Ankara. ....
The triple alliance is also coupled with a 2005 NATO-Israeli military cooperation agreement which includes "many areas of common interest, such as the fight against terrorism and joint military exercises. These military cooperation ties with NATO are viewed by the Israeli military as a means to "enhance Israel's deterrence capability regarding potential enemies threatening it, mainly Iran and Syria." (See Michel Chossudovsky,"Triple Alliance": The US, Turkey, Israel and the War on Lebanon, August 6, 2006)
Covert support to armed insurgents out of Turkey or Jordan would no doubt be coordinated under the joint Israel-Turkey military and intelligence agreement.
Dangerous Crossroads: The Broader Middle East War
Israel and NATO signed a far-reaching military cooperation agreement in 2005. Under this agreement, Israel is considered a de facto member of NATO.
If a military operation were to be launched against Syria, Israel would in all likelihood be involved in military undertakings alongside NATO forces (under the NATO-Israel bilateral agreement). Turkey would also play an active military role.
A military intervention in Syria on fake humanitarian grounds would lead to an escalation of the US-NATO led war over a large area extending from North Africa and the Middle East to Central Asia, from the Eastern Mediterranean to China's Western frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
--MORE--"
Related: Who is Behind the Protest Movement in Syria?
"Syria randomly detaining villagers; Troops sweeping through northern areas of country" by Bassem Mroue and Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press / June 17, 2011
GUVECCI, Turkey — Syrian security forces fanned out through villages and towns in Syria’s northern province of Idlib yesterday, randomly hauling in males over age 16 as the government worked to silence a center of antiregime protest.
That's what Israel does in Palestine and what AmeriKa does in Afghanistan!!
In this border region, where thousands of Syrian civilians have fled to havens in Turkey, Turkish officials were preparing to send food, clean water, medicine, and other aid to thousands more stranded on the Syrian side.
Gee, I'm glad Turkey is helping out(?).
The unusual plan for a cross-border operation on Syrian soil appeared to have Syrian clearance, being announced by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu after he met with an envoy from President Bashar Assad’s authoritarian regime....
Turkey already is hosting more than 9,000 Syrians who have fled the Idlib crackdown, a refugee stream that has been an embarrassing public spectacle for Damascus, which banned foreign journalists in order to control coverage of the uprising.
And does not Israel feel the slightest shame for the last 63 years?
Syria has appealed to the refugees to return to the flashpoint town of Jisr al-Shughour, saying it’s now safe. But many sound unconvinced.
Asked by the Associated Press about the appeal, a refugee who identified himself as Ali replied: “Do you believe that? They would kill us.’’ He said troops were “firing at anything’’ in Jisr al-Shughour.
Why should we believe any witnesses quoted by the agenda-pushing War Daily at this point?
The Syrian government blames a foreign conspiracy for the unrest, saying religious extremists, not true reform-seekers, are behind it.
That would appear to be correct, which is why the paper breezes right on past.
The government also has denied there are any cracks in the military, despite reports Sunni army conscripts are refusing to fire on civilians.
The rumors point up Syria’s potentially explosive sectarian divide. The Assad regime is dominated by the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam, but the country is mostly Sunni Muslim.
Alawite dominance has bred resentments, which Assad has worked to tamp down by pushing a strictly secular identity in Syria. But the president now appears to be relying heavily on his Alawite power base, beginning with highly placed Assad relatives, to crush the resistance.
--more--"
"Syria continues crackdown, with 16 killed in protests; EU is preparing more sanctions, UN resolution" by Elizabeth A. Kennedy and Zeina Karam, Associated Press / June 18, 2011
BEIRUT — Syrian security forces fired on thousands of protesters yesterday, killing a teenage boy and at least 15 other civilians as accounts emerged of more indiscriminate killing and summary executions by the autocratic regime of President Bashar Assad, activists said.
The three-month uprising has proved stunningly resilient despite a relentless crackdown by the military, the pervasive security forces, and proregime gunmen as Assad desperately tries to maintain his grip on power.
I'm sorry I'm getting tired of the media s*** spin, folks.
“What is our guilt? We just demanded freedom and democracy nothing else,’’ said Mohamed, 27, from a refugee camp in neighboring Turkey where nearly 10,000 Syrians have fled.
Mohamed, who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of reprisals, and other refugees offered harrowing accounts of the regime’s bombardment.
“I saw people who were beheaded with machine-gun fire from helicopters’’ and a man tortured to death when security forces poured acid on his body, he said.
And we should believe that because?
He said a sugar factory in Jisr al-Shughour was turned into a jail where they “hold quick trials and execute anyone who they believe participated in protests.’’ Jisr al-Shughour was a town that was spinning out of government control before the military recaptured it last Sunday.
I'm sorry, readers, but after all the lies we have been told all these years about "enemies" and wars I'm just not believing in my media.
Maybe it is all true; however, someone else needs to deliver the message because AmeriKa's newspapers can no longer be trusted -- regarding anything, not just Syria.
UN envoy Angelina Jolie traveled to Turkey’s border with Syria yesterday to meet some of the refugees, and she was greeted by a 45-foot-long banner that read: “Goodness Angel of the World, Welcome’’ in English and Turkish. Police prevented media coverage of the visit....
[As] Assad's regime escalates a brutal crackdown, it seems increasingly unlikely that he will regain any political legitimacy.
Yesterday, a French official said the European Union was preparing expanded sanctions that would target “economic entities’’ in Syria.
France, Britain, Germany, and Portugal are sponsoring a draft resolution at the UN Security Council to condemn Syria. They say they have the votes needed to pass it but want more support.
Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, told the Security Council in a letter that the proposed resolution is based on erroneous information and would intrude in Syria’s internal affairs.
The resolution, he added, would help the “extremists and terrorists’’ he blamed for the country’s violence.
Despite widespread calls for an end to the crackdown, the country’s future is far from certain, particularly as there is no clear alternative to Assad.
Then the goal is to keep him busy?
Syria has a pivotal role in nearly every thorny Mideast issue.
A staunch Iranian ally, Syria backs the militant groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It has also provided a home for some radical Palestinian groups and has exerted influence in neighboring Iraq.
As USrael and her Saudi servants just sit there, right?
So when did Syria invade Iraq?
As a result, chaos in Syria has wide implications for the region.
Syria has tried to exploit those fears, alleging that armed gangs and foreign conspirators are behind the unrest, not true reform-seekers. In what has become a weekly back-and-forth between activists and the government, both sides offered divergent death tolls....
If that isn't the AmeriKan media pot hollering kettle.
It is impossible to independently confirm many accounts coming out of Syria. Foreign journalists have been expelled from the country and local reporters face tight controls.
Here they control themselves by internalizing the agenda.
--more--"
"Syria moves in on refugees near Turkey border; Attack on village cuts off medical, food supplies" by Bassem Mroue and Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press / June 19, 2011
BOYNUYOGUN REFUGEE CAMP, Turkey — Syrian troops backed by tanks and firing heavy machine guns swept into a village near the Turkish border yesterday, cutting food supplies for nearly 2,000 refugees who have so far refused to leave their country. Many of those men, women, and children will have no choice but to flee across the frontier if troops descend on them.
The Local Coordination Committees, a group that documents antigovernment protests, said troops backed by six tanks and several armored personnel carriers, entered Bdama in the morning. The village, about 12 miles from the Turkish border, had a bakery that was the sole source of bread to the refugees crowded near the Turkish border. The town was also supplying medicine and other foodstuffs to the 2,000 Syrians who had hoped not to have to flee to the Turkish tent-city sanctuary.
I was just told the Turks were coming in and taking care of that.
Related:
Turkey to host NATO ground forces
That's helping?
“We still have some potatoes, rice, and powder milk but they will run out soon,’’ said Jamil Saeb, one of the Syrians who had so far decided to stay in Syria. “This is our first day without bread.’’
Saeb said there are children who are sick and there is no medicine.
Oh, like IN GAZA!!!!!
Others are picking apples for lack of other food.
“We are living in catastrophic conditions,’’ he said. Some women and children were already crossing into Turkey yesterday afternoon.
“We are besieged by the border fence from one side and the Syrian Army from the other,’’ Saeb said by telephone. “We are expecting a humanitarian crisis within hours if Turkey does not send aid to us.’’
The British Foreign office, meanwhile, urged Britons in Syria to leave the country immediately....
WAR COMING!
Britain, France, Germany, and Portugal will be sponsoring a draft resolution at the UN Security Council to condemn Syria.
The attack on Bdama occurred a day after Syrian forces swept into Maaret al-Numan, a town on the highway linking Damascus, the capital, with Syria’s largest city, Aleppo. Yesterday’s assault on Bdama was about 25 miles to the west....
The three-month uprising has proved stunningly resilient despite a relentless crackdown by the military, pervasive security forces, and gunmen loyal to the regime....
Yeah, I already saw that.
Bdama is next to Jisr al-Shughour, a town that was spinning out of government control before the military recaptured it last Sunday....
Yeah, I already saw that.
The fighting in the area, that started nearly two weeks ago, displaced thousands of people including some 10,100 who are sheltered in Turkish refugee camps. On Friday, actress Angelina Jolie, a UN goodwill ambassador, traveled to Turkey’s border with Syria to meet some of the thousands of Syrian refugees....
Why isn't she on one of the Flotilla II floats?
Carol Batchelor, the representative of the United Nations high commissioner for refugees in Turkey said coping with the flow of Syrians was challenging.
“We have offered our full support from the United Nations, from each of our agencies, for any support that might be needed. Turkey has said for the time being they are able to manage the situation, to cope with the circumstances,’’ she said.
The uprising is the boldest challenge to the Assad family’s 40-year dynasty in Syria. Assad, now 45, inherited power in 2000, raising hopes that the lanky, soft-spoken young leader might transform his late father’s stagnant and brutal dictatorship into a modern state.
--more--"
"Syrian troops cut off food, escape routes; Soldiers set checkpoints, burn homes; activists report mass arrests" June 20, 2011|By Zeina Karam, Associated Press
BOYNUYOGUN REFUGEE CAMP, Turkey — Syrian troops combing through restive villages near the Turkish border set fire to homes and a bakery yesterday, cutting off a lifeline to thousands of uprooted people stranded in miserable open-air encampments.
Palestinians have lived (or not) with such things for 60+ years, and the Syrian crisis has gotten more press in the last month.
The bakery was said to have been the sole source of bread for thousands stuck on the Syrian side of the frontier.
Activists said the military carried out mass arrests and threw up checkpoints in the village of Bdama and surrounding areas to block residents from fleeing, as thousands of others have done.
Turkey, whose leaders have denounced the Damascus regime’s deadly crackdown on dissent, began distributing food to those encamped on the Syrian side of the border, in the first such aid mission since the campaign against antigovernment protesters turned into a refugee crisis two weeks ago.
People from the Syrian side were collecting food at the border to take to the stranded families, the local Turkish governor’s office said.
With the 3-month-old prodemocracy uprising raging on, the Syrian government appeared desperate to put an end to the embarrassing stream of refugees. Activists said Syrian authorities at the border were making it more difficult for people to reach Turkey....
--more--"
"Syria’s Assad offers dialogue; foes unmoved; In TV appeal, refugees are told to return" by Leila Fadel, Washington Post / June 21, 2011
CAIRO — Even as President Bashar Assad of Syria offered new concessions in a televised speech yesterday, he remained defiant, blaming the mass protests rocking his government on “saboteurs’’ and “vandalism.’’
****************************
But his bid to subdue unrelenting protests and keep his grip on power by promising reforms failed to mollify his opponents.
Refugees who have fled their homes in northern Syria to escape the government’s violent crackdown reacted with derision.
On the Turkish side of the border, crowds chanted against Assad, calling him a liar and calling for his ouster. On the Syrian side, refugees reached by phone said they siphoned electricity from a nearby village to power up a television set in time for the address and immediately chanted against him....
Protesters, refugees, and observers largely dismissed what they say are more empty promises amid a security crackdown that has left 1,250 people dead. Analysts said his speech made it clear that the government was threatened and desperate to end the revolt.
Assad “is clearly concerned. They don’t do things unless they have to,’’ said Andrew Tabler, a Syria specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Once again the paper turns to a Zionist think tank for expert analysis.
“On the other hand, they still haven’t changed the playbook,’’ Tabler said. “They still believe that by pretending there isn’t a problem and blaming it on [Islamists], outlaws, and others, that people will buy that.’’
And the government's mouthpiece media still believes we are buying their bulls***.
--more--"
"Syria stages rallies by loyalists; Amnesty offered even as troops fire on protesters" by June 22, 2011|By Anthony Shadid, New York Times
BEIRUT — The government of President Bashar Assad of Syria offered a broad amnesty and rallied tens of thousands of supporters in Damascus and other cities yesterday in the latest move to blunt an uprising that poses the gravest challenge to his rule.
The scenes across the country illustrated the complexity of the three-month crisis in Syria, which has deeply isolated Assad’s leadership.
Though orchestrated, the rallies underlined the reservoirs of support Assad himself still draws on.
As opposed to the controlled-opposition protests often featured in my paper.
But even as his government seeks to suggest at least the intention of reform, violence erupted again, as security forces fired on counterprotests, killing nine people, activists said....
Who are these activists?
While Assad still enjoys support in Syria — particularly among minorities, the middle class, and business elite — opposition figures said people were bused in and state employees forced to attend the progovernment rallies. Companies owned by figures allied with the government also insisted their employees go, they said. Syrian television declared that millions had taken part in the rallies, though the numbers, at least anecdotally, seemed smaller....
Again, I'm simply tired of slanted s*** posing as reporting.
But even within the rallies, there were voices of dissent.
All agenda, all the time.
An employee of a private company forced by his manager to attend said he resented that, at a time of economic crisis, companies and the government came to a standstill for a political ploy....
Standard Operating Procedure in AmeriKa.
In several locales, counterdemonstrations were organized, and protesters occasionally clashed with government supporters....
--more--"
And what, NO SYRIAN STORY TODAY?
See instead: Turkish Actions Designed To Trigger NATO Confrontation With Syria?
Related:
"Of course! We always find a popular revolt on the border with another nation, right? Right? Right? Of course, those Turkish helicopters flying into Syrian airspace have nothing to do with Syria taking steps to prevent an invasion, right? Right? Right?" -- Wake the Flock Up
