"Syrian forces kill 2 as thousands protest" August 27, 2011|Associated Press
BEIRUT - Syrian security forces killed at least two people as tens of thousands of antigovernment protesters again flooded the streets on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan, a time that many activists hoped would become a turning point in the uprising.
But more than five months into the revolt against President Bashar Assad, the conflict has descended into a bloody stalemate....
The regime got a boost yesterday from its ally in neighboring Lebanon, the Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah. The group’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, echoed the regime’s assertions that the unrest in Syria was being driven by a foreign conspiracy seeking to destabilize the regime because of its support for anti-Israel resistance groups.
“Those who are pushing toward sectarian strife in Syria want to destroy the country,’’ Nasrallah said in a nationally televised speech.
Nasrallah gave you a kiss of the truth there?
Assad’s backers portray him as the only man who can guarantee peace in a country with a potentially volatile mix of religious groups.
But the opposition said the protest movement is free of sectarian overtones and is simply demanding freedom and democracy....
Looks like its empire-influenced and controlled.
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"Turkey says confidence in Assad lost" August 29, 2011|By Anne Barnard, New York Times
BEIRUT - After trying for months to engage with Syria in an effort to ease the violence there, Turkey’s president declared yesterday that he had lost confidence in the government in Damascus, and he stopped just short of calling on President Bashar Assad to step down.
“Clearly, we have reached a point where anything would be too little too late,’’ the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, told his country’s Anatolia news agency, expressing frustration that Assad’s violent crackdown on protesters has continued past the 15-day window in which Turkey had said it expected a change.
“Today in the world there is no place for authoritarian administrations, one-party rule,’’ Gul said, adding that such governments could be “replaced by force.’’
The statements were particularly harsh coming from Turkey, which has invested enormous diplomatic efforts in Syria. Hours earlier, the Arab League said it would send its secretary general to Damascus to seek a resolution to the violent crackdown, which the United Nations said has killed 2,200 people.
The Arab League called on Syria to “end the spilling of blood … before it is too late.’’ The statement was issued after the foreign ministers met through last night and into this morning in Cairo.
You SEE what they are HINTING AT, right?
The league did not detail its proposals, but Al Jazeera reported that they would include holding presidential elections, pulling back the army from the cities, releasing political prisoners and those arrested during the protests, and forming a national unity government in which opposition leaders would play a role.
Syrian officials reacted with defiance to the Turkish and Arab League statements, declining to agree to receive the Arab envoy.
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We can all see where the agenda-promoting paper is pushing us:
"Syrian activists discourage use of arms" by Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press / August 30, 2011
BEIRUT - Syrians should not take up arms in their uprising against President Bashar Assad or invite foreign military action like the intervention that helped topple the government of Libya, a prominent activist group warned yesterday.
They don't want NATO's help?
There have been scattered reports of some Syrians using automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and improvised weapons to repel government troops, but there appears to have been no organized armed resistance to Assad during the five-month uprising.
Or it is being covered up and obfuscated by the agenda-pushing media here. Reports like that have been out on the blogs since the start, and yet here we have the pos newspaper basically saying it's true but minimizing it.
Any wonder why I'm sick of reading this s***?
Calls to launch such a resistance have been rare, but they were more widely reported than usual by witnesses at protests in Syria on Friday, at the end of a week that saw Tripoli fall to rebels fighting Moammar Khadafy with the help of NATO.
In other words, pick up arms and join up 'cuz the empire is coming.
“While we understand the motivation to take up arms or call for military intervention, we specifically reject this position,’’ said a statement e-mailed by the Local Coordination Committees, an activist group with a wide network of sources on the ground across Syria. “Militarization would . . . erode the moral superiority that has characterized the revolution since its beginning.’’
The prime minister of Turkey, a former close ally, warned Assad that his regime could face a demise like those in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya if the violent suppression of protests does not stop.
The comments were some of the bluntest warnings yet and were particularly biting because they came from a leader whose government had extensive diplomatic ties with Syria.
“The only way out is to immediately silence arms and to listen to the people’s demands,’’ said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking in his monthly address aired on Turkish TV late Sunday....
Tell it to the Kurds your nation is bombing!
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Related: Syrians mark end of Ramadan with more demonstrations
"EU bans oil imports from Syria; Action taken over protest crackdown" September 03, 2011|By Nada Bakri and Steven Erlanger, New York Times
BEIRUT - European Union members escalated the pressure on Syria’s government yesterday by banning all imports of Syrian oil in response to its violent suppression of the nearly six-month-old uprising. It was the most punitive action by the EU to date over the crackdown in Syria, which sells nearly all its oil to Europe and whose government relies heavily on that export income.
The new sanctions, which take effect today, came as protesters marched and demonstrated in Syrian cities and towns, including Damascus suburbs, despite a heavy presence of police officers and troops, who in some cases outnumbered the protesters....
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"US dismisses Syrian assertions on protests; Ambassador says demonstrators are no terrorists" September 07, 2011|By Zeina Karam, Associated Press
BEIRUT - The US embassy in Syria said yesterday that President Bashar Assad is not fooling anyone by blaming terrorists and thugs for the unrest in his country....
And yet the British think it will work?
In comments posted on the embassy’s Facebook page, US Ambassador Robert Ford said, “Peaceful protesters are not ‘terrorists.’ ’’
Unless they happen to be against the New World Order and the Empire's agenda.
I'm just wondering why the U.S. government spied on peaceful protesters whose voices should have been heard.
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Ford’s comments came the same day that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon leveled some of his strongest criticism yet at the Syrian regime, saying Assad must take “bold and decisive measures before it’s too late.’’
TO WAR!!!!
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While Ban stopped short of calling for military intervention yesterday, he said it is time for UN member nations to unite and take “coherent measures.’’
TO WAR!!!!!
Nearly six months on, the unrest has descended into a bloody stalemate with neither side willing to back down. Assad has sealed the country from foreign journalists and most international observers, insisting that foreigners are meddling in his country and serving an outside conspiracy to destabilize the nation.
When the media uses the word conspiracy it is as close to a confirmation as you will get.
Ban had won a pledge from Assad in a phone call in mid-August to end the violence, but the killings continued.
Ford acknowledged that security forces have been killed. The regime estimates around 400 have died.
“But the number of security service members killed is far, far lower than the number of unarmed civilians killed,’’ he said. “No one in the international community accepts the justification from the Syrian government that those security service members’ deaths justify the daily killings, beatings, extrajudicial detentions, torture and harassment of unarmed civilian protesters.’’
Of course, when it's an ally doing it it's not much of a problem -- or when the same actions occur during a U.S. occupation.
Yesterday, security forces opened fire from a checkpoint near the restive central city of Homs, killing two people, including a 15-year-old boy, activists said.
They also said five unidentified corpses, including that of a woman, also were found dumped around the city center.
A longtime political activist and resident of Homs said it was not clear if the killings had sectarian motives. “The situation is very tense, people are very scared,’’ he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The discovery in July of three corpses with their eyes gouged set off a series of sectarian killings that left 30 people dead.
The opposition has long accused the president’s minority Alawite regime of trying to stir up trouble among the Sunni majority to blunt the growing enthusiasm for the uprising.
The government’s violent crackdown has led to broad international sanctions aimed at isolating the regime, including a ban on the import of Syrian oil, a mainstay of the Syrian regime. France said yesterday that the European countries are working on a new set of economic sanctions for Syria in a bid to end the crackdown....
The uprising in Syria has posed the most serious challenge to the Assad family’s 40-year ruling dynasty in Syria but it has yet to bring out the middle- and upper-middle classes in Damascus and Aleppo, the two economic powerhouses, although protests have been building.
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"Russian envoy assumes role of mediator in Syrian conflict; Hopes to broker deal to keep Assad in power" by Lynn Berry, Associated Press / September 9, 2011
YAROSLAVL, Russia - A Russian envoy said yesterday that he is to meet with representatives of both sides in the Syrian conflict to help broker a political settlement that would keep President Bashar Assad in power.
Mikhael Margelov, a Russian presidential envoy to the region, told journalists on the sidelines of an international policy forum in Yaroslavl that Moscow has been trying to convince both sides that the chance for dialogue is not yet lost.
He made it clear that Moscow continues to support Assad, despite the Syrian government’s violent crackdown on the opposition, and warned the West that the ouster of another secular leader in the Middle East could lead to unintended consequences.
TO WAR!!
Assad “is young, he is well-educated, he is broad-minded, and we think that he has a chance for modernization in his country if the ruling class of Syria becomes more open-minded, more receptive to new ideas,’’ Margelov said....
Margelov acknowledged that Syria is an important customer for Russia’s defense industry, but said Moscow was motivated by broader political interests.
He referred to the ouster of a string of secular, yet authoritarian, leaders in the region as the cause of Moscow’s trepidation. As an example, he described Saddam Hussein in Iraq as the “only counter balance for Iran.’’
So Russia is in on the whole deal? Or is he just tweaking us about the success of Iraq?
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Margelov warned that Western attempts to bring democracy to the Middle East risked bringing to power radical Islamic forces, citing Algeria and the Palestinian territories as evidence....
Yeah, funny how those guys always show up after us.
And if he is trying to say the ELECTED GOVERNMENT of Hamas.... sigh.
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So that's what a Russian racist reads like.
Also see: Syrian artist Ali Ferzat gets hands broken by gunmen
Syrian forces said to be conducting searches for activists (By Nada Bakri, New York Times)
Attorney general of Syrian province resigns in protest (By Nada Bakri, New York Times)
2 killed as Syrian forces hunt for defector
Syrian military unleashes wave of violence
Syrian troops make arrests in hunt for defector
Syrian security forces kill 11 people
Next Day Update:
"Syrian protesters seek outside help" September 10, 2011|Associated Press
BEIRUT - Thousands of Syrian protesters appealed yesterday for international help amid a bloody government crackdown, marking a shift in an uprising that has defied bullets, tanks, and snipers but has failed to crack the regime of President Bashar Assad.
The revolt in Syria began six months ago with modest calls for reform and an insistence that there be no foreign intervention.
But as the crackdown continues, and as the death toll tops 2,200 people, protesters are increasingly calling for outside help - although not necessarily military action like the NATO intervention that helped topple the government of Libya.
Instead, they are largely calling for observation missions and human rights monitors who could help deter attacks on civilians. “We want international protection!’’ protesters shouted in cities across the country, taking to the streets as they do every Friday after the main Muslim prayer service of the week, despite the near-certainty that regime forces will respond with deadly force.
Security forces opened fire on yesterday’s marches, killing several people, including a 15-year-old boy. The death toll was not immediately clear as activists gave conflicting figures.
The calls are a sign of growing frustration - and desperation - by a resilient movement that is nonetheless stuck in a stalemate with the regime.
Assad still has the iron loyalty of the armed forces, which is key to his power. Assad and his father, who ruled before him, stacked key military posts in the overwhelmingly Sunni country with members of their minority Alawite sect, melding the fate of the army and the regime.
His main base of support also includes Syrians who have benefited financially from the regime, minority groups who feel they will be targeted if the Sunni majority takes over, and others who see no clear and safe alternative to Assad.
Isn't it the same in every country? Sure looks like it to me.
Still, there have been growing signs of alarm even from Syria’s strongest ally, Iran. Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Wednesday that Assad should back away from his violent crackdown and talk to the opposition.
Related: Iran Splits With Syria
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Syria to be sacrificed on the altar of globalist empire?
Looks like they have lost their two biggest friends and Turkey.
