Aren't they saying the same thing about Khadafy and that stalemate?
"Syrian troops kill 27 as protests near capital intensify; Rallies in rest of country meet little resistance" July 16, 2011|By Liz Sly, Washington Post
BEIRUT - Syrian security forces killed 27 antigovernment protesters in several towns and cities after prayers yesterday, primarily in Damascus, amid indications that opposition to President Bashar Assad is hardening in the capital.
According to the Local Coordination Committees, a group that organizes and monitors protests, 22 people were killed in neighborhoods and suburbs of Damascus, the highest daily toll there since the nationwide uprising began four months ago. Activists said the protests in the capital were also the largest yet, pointing to what they said was a rising tide of anti-Assad sentiment in the heart of his government’s power base.
The violent response shows that the authorities “are 100 percent worried about Damascus,’’ said Rami Abdelrahman of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, who estimated that 50,000 people took to the streets in and around the city.
Figures could not be independently confirmed because the government has restricted journalists’ access to Syria. But the reported size of the demonstrations remains small compared with those that have toppled rulers elsewhere....
I'm sorry, readers, but I'm no longer interested in reading about CIA-inspired protests.
Elsewhere, far bigger demonstrations went off without incident, in an indication that the government may be losing its grip in some parts of the country.
Also see: Syria a Suicide State
In the eastern border towns of Deir al-Zour and Bokamal, security forces made no attempt to prevent tens of thousands of people from marching. Large demonstrations also proceeded unhindered in the central city of Hama, which was effectively taken over by government opponents more than a month ago.
The scale of the protests in Damascus was seen as significant because, until now, the capital has been considered a stronghold of government support.
“Damascus has proved that it is changing,’’ said Wissam Tarif of the human rights group Insan.
Some activists said the protesters have been encouraged by signs that the international community is toughening its stance against Assad, after comments this week in which Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Assad had “lost legitimacy.’’
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Related:
"The Arab League said yesterday that Washington overstepped its bounds by saying President Bashar Assad of Syria had lost the legitimacy to lead his country....
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Which international community is it that you think the average Arab considers?
"Syrians mourn the dead as opposition seeks change" by Zeina Karam Associated Press / July 16, 2011
BEIRUT—Tens of thousands of Syrians shouting "We want freedom!" carried slain protesters through the streets Saturday as opposition figures meeting in Turkey called for a united front to bring down the 40-year ruling dynasty of the Assad family.
Syrian security forces killed at least 28 people Friday during the largest protests since the uprising began more than four months ago, activists said. Hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets nationwide, but they were met with gunfire and tear gas.
"The regime has kidnapped the entire state, and we want it back," said Haitham al-Maleh, one of Syria's most prominent dissidents, who led Saturday's opposition conference in Istanbul. The 80-year-old lawyer spent years in Syrian prisons for his political activism.
As an American I understand the feeling -- if it ever really was ours.
Syria's crackdown on the protests has led to international condemnation and sanctions. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday that President Bashar Assad had dashed hopes of reform.
"What's happening in Syria is very uncertain and troubling because many of us had hoped that President Assad would make the reforms that were necessary," she said in Istanbul. "The brutality has to stop, there must be a legitimate sincere effort with the opposition to try to make changes."
For her to say that after what her government is doing and what it has done around the world.... hypocritical Hitlery!
Activists say the government's crackdown has killed some 1,600 people since March, most of them unarmed protesters.
Actually, that turns out to be a huge, stinking lie -- but what do I expect, the CIA paper to blow the whistle on a covert CIA operation?
But the regime disputes the toll and blames a foreign conspiracy for the unrest, saying religious extremists -- not true reform-seekers -- are behind it.
And it turns out that is much closer to the truth here.
Saturday's conference was an attempt to form a unified movement that can offer a realistic alternative to Assad, whose supporters argue that he is the only force who can guarantee stability in a region bedeviled by civil wars and religious strife.
Related: Syria Splits the Opposition
The guys meeting in Turkey are the US guys, readers.
Although Assad's regime is shaken, he still draws from a significant well of support from the middle classes, business community and religious minorities.
Translation: the UPRISING is NOT AS LARGE as we are LED TO BELIEVE by my PAPER!
I've reached the point where I almost want to cry because of so many lies.
Still, the uprising appears to be gaining momentum.
Readers?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Witnesses told The Associated Press that tens of thousands from Damascus and the suburbs held funerals for slain protesters Saturday, carrying the bodies overhead on stretchers and shouting "God is Great!" and "We want freedom!"
Like most witnesses in Syria, they spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
It is sad that I have stopped believing in agenda-pushing witnesses cited by a mouthpiece media.
Witnesses also said security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters in the eastern border town of al-Boukamal near Iraq's border, killing at least one protester and wounding others.
Related:
"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?
State-run Syria TV contested that, however, and said gunmen killed two police officers in al-Boukamal and armed groups stormed a police headquarters and confiscated weapons.
I can believe it; it is not like my newspaper is going to say it's CIA-Saudi-Mossad covert operations and assets.
The government has banned most foreign media and restricted local coverage, making it difficult to independently confirm accounts on the ground.
But when "witnesses call in" they lead. The qualifiers come much later.
A small group of activists in Damascus also took part in Saturday's opposition meeting, but they had to join by telephone. The opposition had planned to hold dual meetings in Damascus and Istanbul, but the location in Syria was besieged by security forces on Friday, forcing them to scale back their plans....
But there is a groundswell and Assad is as good as gone.
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So when is the USraeli invasion?
"Syrian forces deployed in restive border towns" July 18, 2011|Associated Press
Syrian troops flown in on helicopters descended on an eastern town near the Iraqi border yesterday where scores of soldiers defected to join the four-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad, witnesses and activists said.
Assad has unleashed military and security forces on restive towns across the country to crush the unrest, but the uprising has been building steadily.
I sit here having read all that is above and say WTF?!!!
Friday saw the largest protests yet with hundreds of thousands turning out nationwide to challenge the president’s rule. About 30 people were killed over the weekend and authorities rounded up more than 500.
Yesterday, residents in the eastern town of al-Boukamal said about 150 soldiers arrived in helicopters, but there were no immediate reports of violence. The progovernment Al-Watan newspaper reported that a military operation in the town was imminent.
Activists reported that dozens of soldiers defected and joined protesters in al-Boukamal late Saturday. The crowds chanted “the people and the army are one!’’ - echoing the rallying cries heard during Egypt’s revolution.
Syrian troops also stormed a town near the Lebanese border yesterday....
The military defections were reported by Syria-based human rights activist Mustafa Osso and Omar Idilbi, a spokesman for the coordination committees, which help organize and track the protests. Both cited witnesses on the ground to back up the defection reports.
There have been previous reports of army defections, although it is difficult to gauge how widespread they are. Assad, and his father who ruled before him, stacked key military posts with members of their minority Alawite sect.
I'm reaching a tipping point with the propaganda!
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And over I go:
"Sectarian killing spree leaves 30 dead in Syria; Mutilations spur rampage" July 19, 2011|By Zeina Karam, Associated Press
BEIRUT - The discovery of three mutilated corpses set off a sectarian killing spree that left 30 people dead in a chilling sign the Syrian revolt against President Bashar Assad is enflaming long-simmering religious tensions.
The opposition accused the president’s minority Alawite regime of trying to stir up trouble among the Sunni majority to blunt the growing enthusiasm for the four-month-old uprising. The protesters have been careful to portray their movement as free of any sectarian overtones.
Yes, but since that has not worked in dislodging Assad the covert operations turn to the old solid standby: sectarianism
The killings over the weekend in the central city of Homs “undermine the peaceful nature of the revolution and serve its enemies who want to turn it into a civil war,’’ said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the director of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
I think that would be good enough for the war planners.
Homs-based activist Mohammad Saleh said the violence began Saturday after the corpses of three Alawite government supporters were dumped in Homs with their eyes gouged. The men had disappeared two days earlier.
Oh, the peaceful protesters started it?
On Sunday, six bodies from various sects were found in the city, apparently attacked in revenge, Saleh said. Progovernment Alawite thugs called shabiha then went on a rampage, another activist said, opening fire in predominantly Sunni neighborhoods of Homs.
The dead included a 27-year-old mother of three, who was shot as she left her home, and a man in his 50s who was struck by a bullet on his balcony, a resident said....
Sectarian warfare is among the most dire prospects facing Syria. The country is home to more than 1 million refugees from neighboring Iraq, who serve as a clear testament to the dangers of regime fracture in a religiously divided society. They also see the sectarian tensions in Lebanon as a cautionary tale.
Yeah, SYRIA ABSORBED 1 million Iraqis because of our mass-murdering mess, and did they EVEN GET a THANK YOU?
No, it has just been CONSTANT CRITICISM and now an ATTEMPTED COUP!
“The Assad regime itself has a vested interest to portray the protest movement as one which is violent led by criminals, terrorists, and by external actors,’’ said Anthony Skinner, associate director at Maplecroft, a British-based risk analysis company. “This is potentially an issue that Assad can manipulate to try and divide the momentum that we have seen building up,’’ he said.
Hey, that is the SAME WAY the U.S. GOVERNMENT sees PROTESTS!
The Assad regime has long held together a fragile jigsaw puzzle of Middle Eastern backgrounds, including - Sunnis, Shi’ites, Alawites, Christians, Kurds, Druse, Circassians, and Armenians.
Syria’s sectarian tensions have been laid bare for the first time in decades.
Yesterday, the Interior Ministry said it will deal firmly with “terrorist groups’’ and gunmen carrying out terrorist acts.
And by now you know who he means, readers.
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"Security forces fire on Syrian mourners; Up to 10 killed, witnesses say" July 20, 2011|By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
BEIRUT - Syrian security forces opened fire on a funeral procession yesterday, killing up to 10 people in a city that has been besieged for days by some of the most severe violence seen during the country’s four-month-old uprising, activists said.
Dozens of people - possibly as many as 50 - have been killed in Homs since Saturday, according to activists, human rights groups, and witnesses. Syria has banned independent media coverage, making it difficult to verify accounts from witnesses or Syrian authorities....
The discrepancy points to the confusion surrounding the violence in a country that has prevented any independent media coverage.
As if my Zionist-controlled media was somehow independent.
But it also illuminates the fear among some opposition members that reports of sectarian conflict would discredit their movement internationally at a time when the prodemocracy forces are hoping for greater support from the West.
Human rights groups say more than 1,600 people have been killed in President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on a largely peaceful protest movement. But the government blames the unrest on gunmen and religious extremists looking to stir up sectarian strife.
After the weekend attacks, opposition figures accused Assad’s minority Alawite regime of trying to stir up trouble with the Sunni majority to blunt the growing enthusiasm for the uprising. The protesters have been careful to portray their movement as free of any sectarian overtones.
Sectarian warfare would be the worst-case scenario in Syria, evoking painful memories of the worst days of the Iraq War. The Syrian regime’s supporters have exploited those fears by portraying Assad as the only force that can guarantee law and order.
Yes, it is a good thing AmeriKa's government never does things like that.
The country is home to more than 1 million refugees from neighboring Iraq, who serve as a clear testament to the dangers of regime collapse and fracture in a religiously divided society. They also see the seemingly intractable sectarian tensions in Lebanon as a cautionary tale.
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"Syria wants ambassadors in capital; US, French envoys told not to travel" July 21, 2011|By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
BEIRUT - Syria warned the US and French ambassadors yesterday not to travel outside the capital without permission, two weeks after they angered the regime by visiting a city that has become the center of the country’s four-month-old uprising.
If the United States and French envoys disobey the order, Syria will ban all diplomats from leaving Damascus, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said at Damascus University.
“We did not evict the two ambassadors because we want the relations to develop in the future,’’ Moallem said....
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Heide Bronke Fulton said the order reflected a government that has something to hide. She said diplomats must be allowed to travel throughout Syria to document the crackdown.
So how many are CIA agents?
Related:
"CIA officers serving overseas often use the State Department as their official “cover’’ to avoid revealing the true nature of their work"
Also see: CIA chief promises spies 'new cover’ for secret ops
Then I will simply take it for granted that all Americans overseas are CIA.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Syrian authorities “to stop repression immediately’’ and urged President Bashar Assad “to concretely respond to pressing grievances and longer-term concerns of the Syrian people,’’ UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said....
When you start getting in Israel's face get back to me; otherwise, go to hell, U.N.
On July 7 and 8, US Ambassador Robert Ford and French Ambassador Eric Chevallier traveled to Hama, about 125 miles north of the capital, in separate trips to express support for the Syrian people to demonstrate peacefully. The State Department said friendly Syrians welcomed Ford and lavished his car with flowers and olive branches....
You know, the same way we were greeted in Iraq.
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Related: The Hama Hammer
Looks like they missed the nail:
"Troops tighten grip on Syrian city, sowing alarm" July 22, 2011|By Nada Bakri, New York Times
BEIRUT - Syrian security forces tightened their grip on the central city of Homs and its surroundings yesterday, firing machine guns randomly and arresting scores of people in house-to-house raids, said residents and activists....
Of course, when the U.S. does such a thing in Afghanistan it is called liberation.
The military campaign came five days after a wave of sectarian killings that threatened to provoke wider conflict. Although most Syrians are Sunni Muslims, there are a number of sizable religious and ethnic minorities....
An activist in Homs who gave only his first name, Abdallah, said that neighborhoods had been sealed off and that people were trying to build barricades in the streets to block raids by security forces. Other residents spoke of shortages of bread and other staples. One protester who gave his name as Mohammad said that residents were pleading for blood donations from nearby villages....
The violence is especially troubling because of the city’s demographics and has alarmed the antigovernment protesters, who see in it a portent of civil conflict....
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"Syrian protesters stress unity, defy Assad crackdown; Five reported dead in clashes" July 23, 2011|By Bassem Mroue and Zeina Karam, Associated Press
BEIRUT - Hundreds of thousands of Syrians defied a violent government crackdown yesterday, vowing that they will not be terrified into submission through bullets, mass arrests, and more than four months of attacks by security forces. At least five people were killed, activists said.
Yesterday marked a clear attempt by the opposition to present a united front against the Assad family dynasty, the only regime Syrians have known for more than 40 years.
“One, one, one, the Syrian people are one!’’ protesters shouted in the capital, Damascus, in what has become a weekly ritual, with hundreds of thousands of people flooding the streets across the country demanding President Bashar Assad leave power.
The regime has banned nearly all foreign media and restricted coverage, making it nearly impossible to independently verify events on the ground or casualty figures. By some estimates, more than a million people were protesting yesterday.
The Syrian conflict has become a test of wills between protesters emboldened by the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia and an entrenched family dynasty that refuses to relinquish power.
Although the protests are growing, a strong alternative to Assad has yet to emerge - in part because dissidents have long been silenced, imprisoned, or exiled by the regime in Damascus.
But the uprising refuses to die, and some say the country is nearing a tipping point.
And thus the title of this post.
“The Assad regime faces a stark choice: change or be changed,’’ Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, wrote in an analysis of the situation this week. “Either way, Syria will be a very different place by the end of this year.’’
He added: “There seem to be two paths open to Syria. Either the regime will accept a new deal based on serious political reform and inclusion, or the country will drift toward civil war.’’
Two special advisers to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that there was a serious possibility that Syria has committed crimes against humanity.
The U.N. is nothing but a tool.
How about Bush and Bliar's war crimes, huh?
In a statement, Francis Deng, the adviser on preventing genocide, and Edward Luck, the adviser on the responsibility to protect civilians in conflict, pointed to “persistent reports of widespread and systematic human rights violations by Syrian security forces responding to antigovernment protests across the country.’’
Israel.
Syria has a volatile sectarian divide, making civil unrest one of the most dire scenarios.
Yeah, they have only intermarried and coexisted for centuries.
Man, am I sick of the sectarian card being played to cover covert operations.
The Assad regime is dominated by the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam, but the country is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim.
Alawite dominance has bred resentments, which Assad has worked to tamp down by pushing a strictly secular identity in Syria.
But he now appears to be relying heavily on his Alawite power base, beginning with highly placed relatives, to crush the resistance.
The uprising has brought long-simmering sectarian tensions to the surface....
Activists and protesters said the regime is stirring up sectarian fighting to discredit the protest movement. The government blames the unrest on terrorists and foreign extremists, not true reform-seekers, and has taken pains to portray itself as the only guardian against civil war.
During yesterday’s demonstrations, protesters insisted they were driven by the desire for liberty, and their slogans and banners emphasized national unity.
“No to sectarianism, yes to freedom,’’ read a banner in the small northern coastal town of Jableh, where hundreds of young people covered their heads with the Syrian flag.
“They are trying to turn the conflict into a sectarian one, and we insist that it is not,’’ another protester said by telephone from Hama.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was appalled by the continued violence in Syria....
“The regime has killed over 1,500 civilians and has blood on its hands,’’ Hague said in a statement Friday....
The unrest in Homs has sent hundreds of residents fleeing to neighboring Lebanon in recent months. Several of them painted a grim picture of life in Syria, saying yesterday that they cannot imagine returning until Assad falls.
“I watch the news every day on television and I feel that Syria is not my country anymore,’’ said Maher, a Syrian man in his 30s who asked that only his first name be published. He fled two months ago with his wife, two sons and daughter when security forces and pro-regime gunmen known as “shabiha’’ started surrounding the area and entering homes.
That is one thing I do not do any day.
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The only AmeriKan news I see is the pos Globe.
"Syrian troops stormed a northwestern village yesterday, making sweeping arrests in a region where the army has been conducting operations for weeks to crush growing dissent against the regime....
The government denied reports that the attack was a sign of divisions within the country’s military.
Syrian authorities have unleashed a brutal crackdown in an effort to put down a four-month-old uprising.
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"Syria moves to allow other political parties; Egypt’s generals seek out allies; Iran tends to rift" by Associated Press / July 26, 2011
BEIRUT - The development came as security forces detained dozens of people in the capital, Damascus, and several other cities in a search for antigovernment protesters and regime opponents, activists said yesterday. The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria said a 7-year-old child, a boxing champion, and a writer were among those arrested....
Yesterday, security forces tightened their siege of neighborhoods in Homs, in central Syria, sending military reinforcements and cutting mobile and land lines in the Khaldieh and Bayada districts, activists said.
An activist in Homs said there were fears of a large-scale military operation to try to force an end to the unrest there before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins next week.
Looks like it is tipping back the other way.
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Next Day Update:
"Syria boosts troops in Damascus suburbs, human rights activist says; Protests expected to rise during Ramadan" by Bassem Mroue, Associated Press / July 27, 2011
BEIRUT - Syria sent troop reinforcements yesterday to two Damascus suburbs that have witnessed antigovernment protests as authorities rounded up dozens in the capital, a human rights activist said.
Activists expect protests to escalate during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins next week. The moves by security forces appear to be an attempt to prevent wide-scale demonstrations when Muslims begin the month of fasting from dawn to dusk....
Rami Abdul-Rahman of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told the Associated Press that hundreds of soldiers and plainclothes policemen were being sent to the capital’s suburbs of Zabadani and Moaddamiyeh. He said dozens of people were detained starting late Monday and into yesterday, including many in the Damascus suburb of Qadam.
Another human rights activist, Syria-based Mustafa Osso, said that more than 200 people were detained in the southern province of Daraa, where the uprising was sparked in mid-March.
On Monday, troops shot dead three civilians in central and northern Syria, Abdul-Rahman said. Among the dead was a woman who was shot when her husband did not stop his car at a checkpoint in the northwestern city of Idlib, he said.
That has happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and yet is rarely reported.
Hey, maybe this is all true; however, I no longer trust witnesses in war-promoting press.
Sorry.
The Local Coordination Committees, which monitors and helps organize antigovernment protests in Syria, reported that doctors at a government hospital in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, held a strike yesterday to protest against the detention of some of their colleagues. The committees said there are fears that security forces might storm Al-Razi hospital....
Then that would be a war crime (and again, storming hospitals is something AmeriKa has done in Iraq and Afghanistan).
President Bashar Assad has made overtures to try to ease the growing outrage.
He lifted the decades-old emergency laws that gave the regime a free hand to arrest people without charging them, granted Syrian nationality to thousands of Kurds - a long-ostracized minority - and issued several pardons.
The revolt has only grown more defiant in the face of the government response, and protesters have shifted their demands from political change to the outright downfall of the regime.
That's the point where the U.S. tipped its hand.
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