Until September when the s*** really hits the fan.
"Thousands of Palestinian refugees flee Syrian city; Neighborhood bears brunt of crackdown" August 17, 2011|By Anthony Shadid and Isabel Kershner, New York Times
BEIRUT - UN officials said yesterday that as many as 10,000 residents of a Palestinian refugee neighborhood in the Syrian port city of Latakia had fled during a four-day assault, as security forces carried out more arrests and intimidation in what residents said was a government attempt to rebuild a wall of fear in one of Syria’s largest cities.
It's so great to see the Zionist War Daily finally give Palestinians and their mistreatment it's due, huh?
Latakia, on the country’s Mediterranean coast, is the third locale to bear the full brunt of military and security forces, although the government has also persisted in its crackdown on the suburbs of Damascus and Homs, the third-largest city. The violence this month has provoked international condemnations that have grown sharper but still stopped short of demanding that President Bashar Assad step down.
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Yesterday in Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said it was more effective to forge international consensus against Assad - as well as intensify economic pressure through sanctions - than for the United States alone to lead the way.
“It’s not going to be any news if the United States says Assad needs to go,’’ Clinton said at the National Defense University. “OK, fine, what’s next? If Turkey says it, if King Abdullah says it, if other people say it, there is no way the Assad regime can ignore it.’’
The UN Relief and Works Agency, which assists Palestinian refugees, said that it had no information on the whereabouts of the Latakia Palestinians. Activists have said many of the displaced have left for the countryside or Aleppo, Syrian’s second-largest city, to the northeast.
“A forgotten population has now become a disappeared population,’’ said Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the agency in Jerusalem, calling the situation “very, very worrying.’’
The refugee neighborhood, Raml, was set up after 1948, when Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes during the fighting at the creation of Israel. It grew into one of the city’s largest neighborhoods, drawing poor job-seekers, but it still lacks some basic services.
Can you imagine over 60 years of such? I can't. I have no frame of reference for it.
Demonstrations have erupted there and nearby since the country’s uprising began in March, and activists there insisted the crackdown would fail to quell the spirit of dissent.
“The residents in Raml will rally the same day the army pulls out,’’ said one resident, Ahmed Bogdash. “They are poor, and they have nothing to lose.’’
Of course, the reaction is totally different if Israel puts 'em down.
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The reports from Latakia made headlines in Palestinian newspapers in the West Bank yesterday and prompted a strong response from Palestinian officials, although there was no evidence that the Raml neighborhood itself was a specific target of the crackdown.
I read this one.
“We urge the Syrian authorities to stop the attack on the refugee camp immediately,’’ said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. “It is unacceptable; we cannot accept it.’’
Another senior Palestinian official, Yasser Abed Rabbo, has described the attack on Raml as “a crime against humanity.’’ Speaking on the official Voice of Palestine Radio yesterday, Abed Rabbo said that the Syrian government had “lost rationality.’’
Syria has long given residence to Palestinian factions opposed to Abbas, including Hamas and some splinter Palestinian groups, and many Palestinians recall Syria’s decision to intervene decisively against them in 1976 during the Lebanese civil war. So far, Hamas has sought to avoid alienating the government in Damascus while stopping short of statements of support, like those from Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite Muslim movement, and even more pronounced, the allied Amal movement in Lebanon.
In a pro-Hamas newspaper in Gaza, a columnist criticized the ferocity of the Syrian crackdown....
Gee, even Hamas issued a statement against Syria?
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"US, allies urge Syrian leader Assad to step down; US freezes all assets, bans oil importation" August 19, 2011|By Steven Lee Myers, New York Times
WASHINGTON - The United States and several of its major allies yesterday called on Syria’s president, Bashar Assad, to give up power.
The carefully choreographed announcements followed months of popular protests and increasingly deadly reprisals that the United Nations commissioner for human rights said amounted to crimes against humanity by the Syrian authorities.
Gee, they are right out front on this one. Took 'em months to investigate Israel and then the lead author retracted it.
President Obama, who had faced criticism for not acting more assertively, ordered the freezing of all Syrian assets within US jurisdiction, banned the import of Syrian oil, and barred US citizens from having any business dealings with the Syrian government, which the administration once courted in hope of improving relations.
Obama called on other countries to impose their own sanctions, focusing on Syria’s oil and gas industry. European leaders suggested those sanctions were now under consideration.
Senator John F. Kerry, who played a prominent role in the administration’s effort last year to engage Assad, echoed the president’s criticism.
Assad missed a “historic opportunity for a new relationship with the West and economic transformation for Syria,’’ said the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. “Now, with no end in sight to the regime’s brutality, President Assad has lost credibility and legitimacy.’’
This is it. It's WWIII and the final push of the plan, folks.
The United States and its allies risked highlighting their relative powerlessness to alter events inside Syria. But their decision to turn up the pressure could have a profound psychological effect on a government that has survived by retrenching during crises and manipulating relations in the region - from Turkey to Israel, Lebanon to Iran - to keep itself relevant, if not admired.
Diplomatically, Syria appears more isolated than at any other time in the 41 years that Assad or his father, Hafez Assad, has led the country. US officials and diplomats said they hoped that fact alone could open fissures in the political and business elite cosseted under Assad’s rule. Until now they appear to have bet on the government surviving....
The UN human rights office in Geneva issued a 22-page report that concluded that Syrian government forces might have committed crimes against humanity by carrying out summary executions, torturing prisoners, and harming children.
When the Empire and its allies do it, though.
Look, I'M NOT EXCUSING ANY GOVERNMENT VIOLENCE; however, I AM SICK of DOUBLE STANDARDS in my PoS war daily!
The UN report - overseen by the high commissioner for human rights, Navanethem Pillay - accused Syria of grossly violating its citizens’ rights and carrying out “numerous summary executions, including 353 named victims.’’ It also said that members of the security forces “posed as civilians in order to cause unrest and portray an inaccurate picture of events.’’
Yeah, they are called AGENT PROVOCATEURS, and one could also say the same about the paper as far as portraying events.
The office recommended that the UN Security Council consider referring Syria to the International Criminal Court for prosecution. In New York, the Security Council met and discussed potential steps against Syria....
Meanwhile, they veto the charges against Israel.
Syria said the United States was trying to use the Security Council to instigate further instability....
Or start another war.
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"At least 20 killed in Syria, despite Assad’s pledge to UN; Protests continue on smaller scale" August 20, 2011|By Zeina Karam, Associated Press
BEIRUT - Syrian security forces killed at least 20 protesters yesterday despite promises by President Bashar Assad that the military operations against the 5-month-old uprising are over.
The killings, which came as thousands poured into the streets across Syria, suggest the autocratic leader is either unwilling to stop the violence or is not fully in control of his own regime.
Although Assad told United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday that military and police operations had stopped, residents and activists said soldiers, tanks, and armored personnel carriers were still deployed in cities.
Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000, is facing the most serious international isolation of his rule. On Thursday, the United States and its European allies demanded he step down.
Military operations have subsided in the past few days, following a fresh crackdown on major flashpoint cities that started at the beginning of the month to root out protesters.
But persistent gunfire and shootings, along with yesterday’s killings, underscore the difficulty of any kind of diplomatic pressure achieving results in the absence of any appetite for military intervention....
That very sly and subtle sentence means MILITARY ACTION IS NEEDED!
In other words, they will ONLY GET RESULTS WITH MILITARY INTERVENTION.
This is it, folks. WWIII is on the doorstep.
A high-level United Nations team recommended Thursday that the violence in Syria be referred to the International Criminal Court for possible crimes against humanity....
The number of protesters yesterday appeared to be markedly lower than in previous weeks, largely because of the crackdown and security presence. But amateur video posted online by activists showed thousands of protesters in various areas, some calling for Assad’s departure, others for his execution....
The unrest has laid bare old resentments in Syria, a primarily Sunni Muslim country with a potentially explosive sectarian mix. Beset by upheaval, Assad is increasingly relying on a coterie of relatives from his tiny Alawite sect, leading to speculation about how much power he commands over them.
His younger brother, Maher, is key - believed to be in command of much of the current bloody crackdown. Maher is chief of Syria’s elite forces and is reputed to have once shot a brother-in-law in the stomach in a family feud. His recent tactics have been denounced as inhumane by the prime minister of neighboring Turkey....
Isn't Turkey bombing the crap out of Kurds right now because they have run out of patience?
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"Syrian protesters under fire despite assurances from Assad; Regime rejects calls for leader to yield power" August 21, 2011|By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
BEIRUT - Syrian security forces fired on protesters in the central province of Homs yesterday, killing two people and wounding at least eight, as President Bashar Assad pushed ahead with a brutal crackdown despite assurances to the UN chief this week that the military operations have ended.
Assad has come under mounting criticism for the offensive again the five-month-old uprising, most recently from the United States and its European allies who demanded Thursday that the Syrian leader step down.
Yesterday, the government issued its first official response to the US and European demands for Assad to resign. There had been no official comments in Syria after Assad’s declaration to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday that military and security operations have stopped.
The daily Al-Thawra newspaper, which speaks for the Syrian regime, rejected the Obama administration’s calls and any kind of foreign intervention in Syria’s internal affairs, saying Damascus “will never permit anyone to do that.’’
It also accused the West of trying to sideline Damascus from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which it said is a strategic aim for Israel, Washington, and Europe. Syria is a major player in the Arab-Israeli conflict and is in a state of war with the Jewish state.
The Syrians certainly have a point there. And maybe it's just me, but every time I see the term Jewish state I can't help thinking Zionist supremacism.
A high-level UN team recommended Thursday that the violence in Syria be referred to the International Criminal Court over possible crimes against humanity.
On Friday, the UN released the full text of its report on the crackdown.
It said Syrian government forces may have committed crimes against humanity by conducting summary executions, torturing prisoners, and targeting children. The release includes rebuttals from the Syrian Foreign Ministry, offering a rare firsthand look into the regime’s justifications for the crackdown....
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"Defiant Assad warns West to stay out; Syria leader makes 4th appearance in public since revolt" by Zeina Karam, Associated Press / August 22, 2011
BEIRUT - Syria’s president said yesterday that he was “not worried’’ about security in his country and warned against any foreign military intervention in a speech designed to portray confidence as the regime comes under blistering international condemnation for its crackdown on dissent.
I suppose he has to say that, but I'd be shitting my pants if I were him.
The remarks by Bashar Assad, who spoke during an interview with state-run television, came just days after the United States and its European allies called for him to step down, and hours after a diplomat said Assad’s regime was “scrubbing blood off the streets’’ ahead of a UN visit....
If you want blood, you got it.
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Also see:
Turkish prime minister compares Syrian leader to Khadafy
This is the same guy whose government is currently bombing Kurds in Iraq?
Uh-huh.
PNAC Neocons pushing for invasion of Syria
Syria: Obama Threatens U.S. Military Intervention
And then Iran will be drawn in and away we go....
