Obama issue sanctions on Syrian President

[deziloooooo]

For those reading this thread, as I have done on other threads, to keep as many articles , same topic, on the same thread as possible, and to not clog up the zone with many articles, threads on the same topic, I will add articles as they come up to one thread, dealing with the topic, and change the header to reflect the last article posted. To read the article the header refers to , just scroll to the end article, same title , and if interested, all articles by being together , makes it easier to read the time line on those events that have happened regarding the presented topic, in this case for example, Syria.
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"Syria, Blood bath , troops, Tanks, MG..against unarmed civilians, own citizens , snipers against those trying to take killed to cemetery's to bury them, thousands arrested...
While we will never know, the same event may had played out in Lybia, same kind of leadership willing to do anything to hang on to power when Rebel city was surrounded and just about to fall to Gaddafi's forces. He said he would, search out and punish all and any, including children, wives of insurgents, why not believe him.
Coalition should have just stayed on side lines? These so called leaders of these types of Regimes, they do do these things, that's why they stay in power for decades and decades, not because they re loved and benevolent leaders looked up and revered by their subjects, but because they are known to use brute force to stay in power, as you see is happening now , Lybia and in Syria. Syria, the populace, unarmed, still being slaughtered.


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www.debka.com/
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DEBKAfile Special Report April 25, 2011, 4:40 PM (GMT+02:00)

At least 8 Syrian tanks invade DaraaBashar

Assad has launched all-out war on his people. Tanks firing artillery, APCs, infantry units, commandoes and snipers were deployed for the first time at daybreak Monday, April 25 in cities across Syria for the most brutal assault on any Arab anti-government protest in the four-month uprising.

In the first few hours, hundreds are estimated to have been massacred (over and above the 350 shot dead in the last three days) and thousands injured. Denied medical attention, they are left in the streets to die.

debkafile's military sources report that protest centers in cities with populations of 2-3 million have been stormed by Syrian troops backed by tanks firing automatic 120-mm guns at random, commandos dropped by helicopter and snipers.

The military offensive to break the back of the uprising (which debkafile Saturday, April 23 first disclosed Assad had decided to launch) is led by his younger brother Maher Assad at the head of the Republican Guard and the 4th Division which is made up mostly of the Assad's Alawite clan.

Its first target Sunday night was the southern town of Deraa where the protest movement began and the Mediterranean coastal town of Jableh.

Monday, Syria shut its land borders to Jordan to conceal the scale of the carnage inflicted on the border town of Deraa from outside eyes.

Foreign correspondents have been banned from the country since the uprising began.

Monday, indiscriminate fire was also reported in Duma, a dissident suburb of the capital Damascus. By Monday afternoon, thousands of soldiers had spread out across the North, South and Center of the country, apparently preparing to storm the large cities and protest centers of Hama, Homs, Latakiya and the Kurdish north.

While times may have changed, Bashar is his father's son.

In 1982, President Hafez Assad turned his artillery on a district of Hama and slaughtered 25-30,000 civilians to smash a Muslim Brotherhood revolt.

The operation was commanded by Rifat Assad, Bashar's uncle, today an opposition leader in exile.

The incumbent president's killing fields extend not to one but to a score of Syrian cities with unimaginable consequences.

And yet no Western power is rushing to help the pro-democracy protesters of Syria who are dying in their hundreds day by day.

And the verbal condemnations coming from Washington and European capitals are soon buried under layers of inaction.

Sunday, April 24, debkafile reported:

Bashar Assad's tanks and infantry made their first assaults Sunday night, April 24 on Jableh on the Mediterranean and Daraa in the south, after a 48-hour bloodbath by his security forces claiming up to 350 lives failed break the five-week countrywide uprising against his rule.

Video-clips show tanks converging on the two towns with soldiers running in their wake while heavy gunfire continued to resound in Hama, al-Nuaimeh near Daraa and Saraqeb, southwest of Aleppo.

The Syrian ruler continues to ignore all the evidence that by massacring civilian protesters he has only magnified their numbers and Sunday decided to press ahead with his last resort for piling on the violence by deploying trained infantry men and tanks in a final attempt to smash the five-week uprising, debkafile's military sources report.

The southern epicenter of the uprising Daraa has resisted the most ruthless attempts to suppress its protest rallies. Less has been heard about Jableh, a town of 80,000 situated between Banias and Latakia. Anti-Assad demonstrators have barricaded themselves inside the Abu Bakr Siddiq Mosque, one of Syria's main Sufi centers."

[Value Buy]

And what do you want done about these atrocities?

[wyouser]

Appears we are attempting to rely for the moment on Turkey which buys Assad a few days time to massacre more protestors (refer to additional reports on Debka.com)

[Deleted]

against unarmed civilians, own citizens , snipers against those trying to take killed to cemetery's to bury them, thousands arrested...

I see not problem because it's none of our business. We should not be involved (or for that matter even say something) in a countries business. We can't even handle our own affairs so we should keep our nose out of something that we have nothing to do with. Now if it expanded & threatened our oil supply, that's something else.

[wyouser]

got to be a tough one to call. There are reports of increasing Iranian involvement with the rebels, also of deals of sale of poison gas shells to Hamas and Hezbollah which may be en route for Gaza and Lebanon, note side reports of strikes taking out vehicles in the Sudan where this stuff may be headed. Lots of things to think about.

[deziloooooo]

Apr 26, 2011 10:15:18 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

And what do you want done about these atrocities?

Actually there really is not much that can be done, beyond sanctions that most t likely Russia and China would veto, just because, and doubt would have any help in this situation.

It's a Syrian problem, Israel has their own problems, are sitting on the Golan, thank the lord, so no threat by the Syrians as a diversion and if they did intervene, it would probably galvanize the Syrian Army and a good part of the populace to come together to confront and defend the country's honor.
Possible clandestinely give some arms but the problem is that would come out, the arming of and give Assad another excuse to continue the massacre's and put down of the populace.

Jordon, Turkey, Iraqi , in fact any help from Arab forces , nations, just not going to happen.

We , no national interests plus no $, to involved else where, and Europe, NATO, involved in Lybia and no way could afford to get involved.

The only hope, as the article posted suggests, 75% of his armed forces are of the people he is putting down, killing, and families involved, possible, if any top commanders as well as the troops them selves realize this is not right, and turn on Assad, his supporters, tribal support, smallest part of the country, in % of , and then on has a civil war..but that's about it.

[Value Buy]

Nicely put Dezi.
I just wish after posting an article you would expand on your thoughts, rather than leaving it up to us, to either blindly agree with, or trash, the article.

[reasonfreedom]

So everybody agrees that war is about commodities and money?

[Value Buy]

Apr 26, 2011 16:36:25 GMT -5 reasonfreedom said:

So everybody agrees that war is about commodities and money?

Are we talking about
A. Iraq
B Afghanistan
C. Libya
D. Syria
E. All of the above

Maybe, it is the "Crusades", circa 2012

[wyouser]

it may be more than ...ALL... of the above. We are witnessing a tidal wave of potential change in the region with no idea of what things will look like when the "water" recedes

[deziloooooo]

Apr 26, 2011 17:11:43 GMT -5 wyouser said:

it may be more than ...ALL... of the above. We are witnessing a tidal wave of potential change in the region with no idea of what things will look like when the "water" recedes

Couldn't agree more , it is even more involved in some ways then when the wall fell in Berlin, there it was all held together by the Soviets, the people in all the satellites were of the same mind, well all those but leadership , the armed forces were ready to switch over and over turn except the die hards, secret police, I'm thinking Romania.
There when they captured Ceausescu,his wife, very quickly , up against a wall, he and his wife and that was that.
Actually they were so out of touch with the populace, they couldn't understand it at the end, they actually thought they ruled well and were beloved by..
Possible that is what the ones in power feel..that they are doing a good job thus there holding on.
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The following is actually not that pretty, a warning, but shows when the people finally get control, their lives back, they want their lb of flesh and justice for them is not pretty but possible necessary so they can recover and move on to a better life.

[deziloooooo]

This is the latest on Syria, and if true might be what was suggested in a earlier article , what will be the way Assad and his supporters will be stopped in his bloody suppression of the populace to his rule, reports of units, some miilitary joining the rebellion against the regime, as I suggested might be the way the suppression will stop.
Remeber, 75 % of the Syrian military consists of troops who belong to the tribes, areas and families who are taking part in the uprising , who have been suppressed, and to fire on them , asking the impossible in my estimation.

This is just unconfirmed reports so far , Mutany, but where there are small flames, soon there could be a raging inferno.
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[Click on the link to read, actually short article so printed in total, but many vidio's are on the site for those interested]
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Mutiny in the Syrian army?

"With increasing military defections, the Syrian regime's violent crackdown may have backfired, analyst says.
Ammar Abdulhamid Last Modified: 26 Apr 2011 14:58

Citizen video shows Syrian troops positioning themselves to quell protests in Deraa.

In the early morning of April 25, the city of Deraa was invaded from all four corners by units affiliated with the 4th Division, which falls under the direct leadership of Maher Al-Assad, and the 5th Division, led by Muhammad Saleh Al-Rifai, with reinforcement from the 132 Battalion.

Shortly thereafter, reports began trickling then pouring in speaking of a mutiny in the units affiliated with 5th Division and troops from these units standing up to and halting the advance of units from the 4th Division trying to reach Al-Omary Mosque in central Deraa.

At first, many of us thought this might be a reference to a few more defections, as had transpired two weeks ago, but the reports continue to come from different sources and eyewitnesses that we managed to reach all through the day, leading us to believe that there might indeed be something worth monitoring here.

If such a mutiny has indeed taken place so early in the game, then Assad’s military gambit seems to be backfiring, a development that could spark a wider division within the army in the next few hours and days, with all different sorts of implications for the protest movement, depending on how this internal conflict plays out.

If, on the other hand, the reports turn out to be nothing more than exaggerations and wishful thinking, then the protest movement will still have a way to go before producing a significant impact on the structure and power base of the regime, and the challenge will be to keep on message and peaceful all the way through despite the mounting violence on part of the Assads.

It is important to note at this stage, however, the sheer falsehood of the regime allegations of widespread violence on part of the protesters and Salafist designs.

The videos we have clearly show protesters facing tanks with rocks not guns. Had Salafists really been present in the city and planning to establish an independent Islamic emirate, why did not they do so in three weeks of peace they had, and do they disappear all of a sudden, with their alleged caches of weapons, each time the army and security forces show up?

One potential answer is that regime is dealing here about Salafist infiltrators trained by an undead Harry Houdini, or armed with Klingon cloaking devices. The other answer, and pardon me for finding it more likely, is that regime officials is lying just like their counterparts in Libya, Yemen, Tunisia and Egypt.

Be that as it may, despite the violent crackdown in Deraa and the reported two dozen deaths there, not to mention, and the incursions by security forces into the coastal city of Jableh and the suburbs of Mouaddamiyyah, Douma and Barzeh in Damascus, the fatalities that were reported there, and the hundreds of arrests, protesters still managed to organize sizeable demonstration in Homs, Darayyah and Al-Tal, etc.

The protesters are a very determined lot, and might just prove to be a tougher nut to crack than the regime"

[deziloooooo]

A new article from "Debka" media, regarding Obama consulting with Turkish PM regarding happenings in Syria, IMHO, I haven't a clue , besides official sanctions and voicing displeasure of Assad's crack down, that we, the US, could do in this situation, or even Turkeys displeasure would do as far as influencing Assad and his supporters to change their behavior. They, assad and his followers/supporters, have made up their minds that to stay in power is the only thing that they will consider and to use all the forces needed to obtain that end and to the rest of the world , be damned.

The only way to stop it and change the out come, IMHO, is if enough , if any of consequences, Syrian forces turned against the regime and i have a feeling he will use his 4th division, totally loyal to him and his family, under the command of a brother to do the actual dirty work and keep the rest of the forces of using their might in direct attacks against those who are demonstrating so they , the soldiers and commanders will NOT be in the direct line of attacking and destroying their families , friends, tribes people, staying on the fringes of the conflict, there to give support, contain but not actually do the dirty work.My opinion.
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www.debka.com/article/20874/
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[Click on link to read article]
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Obama dodges action against Syria by turning to Turkish leader

DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis April 26, 2011, 9:08 AM (GMT+02:00)

Obama and Erdogan let Syria off the hookUS President Barack Obama continues to avoid direct action against Bashar Assad's increasingly savage crackdown on dissidents by cultivating a partnership with Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan. After talking on the phone early Tuesday April 26, the two leaders voiced "deep concern over the unacceptable use of violence" in Syria and went on to say: "The leaders agreed that the Syrian government must end the use of violence now and promptly enact meaningful reforms that respect the democratic aspirations of Syrian citizens."

There was no condemnation of Bashar Assad, his brother Maher Assad or their use of tank artillery and troops to pound entire city blocks, shoot civilians at random or mass arrests. Early Tuesday, Washington recalled nonessential US embassy staff and diplomats' families from Damascus.

These actions, rather than reining in the Syrian ruler, will have told him he has at another 48-72 hours at least to use the army for polishing off his violent purge of protesters in towns where they have swept up entire districts. In the coming hours, those towns will be condemned to the same fate as the southern city of Daraa, the first to rise up against the Assad regime last month, where Monday, tanks and snipers began massacring the population after shutting down its electricity and telephone communications with the outside world.

Obama and Erdogan have therefore given the Assads a precious lease of life for reasserting their grip on power by brute force."

[wyouser]

repots today indicate Iranian Republican Guard leading government forces against protestors in the Syrian government crackdown. How popular are Iranians among rank and file Syrians??? (See article in Debka.com)

[deziloooooo]

Apr 27, 2011 14:24:24 GMT -5 wyouser said:

repots today indicate Iranian Republican Guard leading government forces against protestors in the Syrian government crackdown. How popular are Iranians among rank and file Syrians??? (See article in Debka.com)

I saw that, they know how to put down folks all right , have the right expertise , so it seems they offered to help and now Assad took the help, a lot of innocents are going to die, be hurt and go to the prisons before this is over.

[wyouser]

all makes for strange bedfellows. In Syria we profess sympathy for protestors while Iran supports the status quo. In lybia, Iran supports the "insurgents" along with us and parts of Nato, while china and parts of eastern europe aid Kahdaffi.

[reasonfreedom]

It is official, no matter what the reasons are it is a clusterfook

[wyouser]

you've got to feel for some of the folks there. In 2003 thousands fled to Syria from Iraq to avoid the violence. 2011 they are fleeing back to Iraq to avoid violence in Syria.....but is it safe for them to return now??

[Deleted]

Since none of it makes sense, I question how we can pick sides in any of this. I would like to see all out troops home, put our efforts in to defending ourselves from Iran, N. Korea, global terrorists, Mexico... The only place I care about over there is Israel, and only them because these psycho leaders seem to agree on one thing, for the most part, and that is kill the Jews, and take Israel. As was said above, if we are on the same side as Iran ANYWHERE, we are fighting with people that would shoot us on sight. It's messed up. I want out of the region. Plus- I don't think it matters how long we stay in Iraq or Afghanistan. I think the minute we leave they will regress to their natural state. The way we are going with our own oil, and development of alt energy it will be a long time before we can not care what is going on over there. I don't believe for a minute anyone cares about the people over there. The way we pick and choose does not support that idea.

[deziloooooo]

Apr 27, 2011 17:57:52 GMT -5 @krickitt said:

Since none of it makes sense, I question how we can pick sides in any of this. I would like to see all out troops home, put our efforts in to defending ourselves from Iran, N. Korea, global terrorists, Mexico... The only place I care about over there is Israel, and only them because these psycho leaders seem to agree on one thing, for the most part, and that is kill the Jews, and take Israel. As was said above, if we are on the same side as Iran ANYWHERE, we are fighting with people that would shoot us on sight. It's messed up. I want out of the region. Plus- I don't think it matters how long we stay in Iraq or Afghanistan. I think the minute we leave they will regress to their natural state. The way we are going with our own oil, and development of alt energy it will be a long time before we can not care what is going on over there. I don't believe for a minute anyone cares about the people over there. The way we pick and choose does not support that idea.

Kricke..I could argue about great powers, influence and yadda , yadda, but you have some good points.
I don't think we can be isolationist but while there are back and forths you do have a point and in some ways, our prioritys, may and in some cases, are , out of wack and your not all wrong, even though it isn't that simple, but good points brought up.
Here , it's been a while. ;D wow, holy S***, 151, you go girl

[marshabar1]

Syrian Americans sent Obama a letter today asking for help in Syria. Looks like you've got a lot of Syrians in Arizona, Krickitt.

www.aifdemocracy.org/news.php?id=6742

[Deleted]

Thx, Dez, and back atcha.

Yes, Marsha- when we have Muslim protest things here the turnout is huge. I got caught in one a few years ago in my cab. It was an anti-Israel thing. Tons of cops, lots of women in full dress with terrible signs, screaming.. They shook one of their signs in my face, I shook my head NO, and they started coming at my cab!! Cops backed them to the curb. It was weird. I was glad when the light turned and I could get out off there. We have a new mosque going up in a predominately Hassidic Jewish neighborhood... not sure how that happened. After 9-11 3 small terrorist cells were busted up around the campus area of town. They had been watched before that, we were told... We are very close to the border.. BP has found prayer rugs, Korans, pics of Mohammed in the desert.. which can be googled. I'm not saying those mosque ladies are connected to anything-- I have no idea, but those Muslims sneaking in to Tucson from the desert-- where do they go? Who helps them? Hides them? Someone does.........

[deziloooooo]

No comments from me on this one...
Just a taxi drivers comments....

"No Humanity left in Syria"
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blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/04/24/no-humanity-left-syria-0
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.'No humanity left' in Syria

By Cal Perry in Middle East
on April 24th, 2011.



Every other journalist is trying to get into Syria, but on Saturday I was trying to get out. The government had made it perfectly clear: My visa was expiring and unless I left on April 23, I would "face the full force of the law".

I had agreed the night before with my cameraman, Ben Mitchell, over a drink that neither of us wanted to discover what "full force of the law" meant. So the debate was really whether I should fly out from Damascus or drive to Amman, Jordan, and fly from there.

The decision was made that he would fly out from Damascus, the Syrian capital, with the gear and I would drive to Amman. I had left my second passport there with a friend. One for Arab countries and the other for Israel. Welcome to 21st century diplomatic relations.

I decided to wait until after noon prayers before setting out south to the border. If the roads were going to be blocked with various pieces of burning detritus, as they had the day before, I wanted to know first. It's about 125km from Damascus to the Jordanian border - a drive that should only take an hour or so, especially with the way Syrian drivers tend to step on the gas.

I was in a really bad mood on this particular morning as I was by default being expelled from the country. I said very little to the driver as we set out, which is unusual for me. I've been grilled in the old school style of journalism: I can still hear the voice of one of my mentors saying "eyes and ears Mr Perry ... eyes and ears".

The only two questions I asked my driver as we left Damascus were his name, and where he was from. "Abdel … from Daraa," he told me.

"Beautiful city," I responded.

Truth was: I didn't know if it was beautiful or not. It was less than four weeks ago when I tried to access the city (which lies right against the Jordanian border in the South) and was turned back by the army. It was my first week in Syria when we tried to cover the initial protests in Daraa. I remember coming across that army checkpoint and two machine-gun positions had been "pre-sighted".

'Kill zone'

An old military technique that I learned from the US Marine Corps about after years in Iraq: Soldiers will simply take two posts, put them at approximately "two o'clock and ten o'clock" as your eyes would scan the horizon: a certain distance out - fire off a few rounds until you hit the post. Then mark that spot on the machine guns sightings - and just like that ... you've got yourself a "pre-sighted kill zone".

A kill zone. The name says it all. US marines have a particular knack for naming things that describe exactly what they really are.

I knew that day, seeing those posts and that "kill zone" that the government was taking these small demonstrations (at the time) very seriously. Syria up until these past five weeks had been a quiet country, while the rest of the region seemed to continue to burn.

Of course it became clear the day before, on April the 22nd, that the government would no longer stand for the type of dissent that had spread: clear opposition to the regime. Over a hundred people were killed across the country on a bloody Friday, the bloodiest since the protests began.

I tried to get out of the hotel and around the country as best I could throughout my month there. But as I told a colleague: "I don't blend in really well - and this government is rounding up journalists."

It was really that, and a few bad incidents I had come across while trying to get out and about. Be it my camera being wrested away from me outside the main mosque in Damascus or my drive through the neighbourhood of Barza in Damascus the previous week.

Barzah: A bad neighbourhood to begin with ... it had gone from bad to worse the Friday I decided to drive through and take a look. Men with metal pipes were in the middle of the street beating people.

At least a dozen walking wounded were headed away from the main mosque there, some bleeding from the head; others had their hands bandaged. Clearly there had been a hand-to-hand brutal battle. Ambulances raced away from the scene - and each time I would have the driver circle back they would wave the pipes as if to say: "We dare you to get out of that car."

Gunfire raining into crowd

My grumpy attitude, Abdel [the driver] and I were approaching the city of Izraa when something immediately clearly horrible was unfolding down the road directly in front of us. People, mostly truck drivers, were standing on the highway ... yelling at the cars approaching - telling them to pull over.

Screaming and waving widely. I saw one making signs with his hands. He was mimicking the motion of a machine gun firing. I got my bearings, noticing right away two road signs: one pointing to the right that read "Izraa: 1km" and the other pointing to the left that read "Daraa".

It dawned on me at that moment that I had been here before. We were just outside the "kill zone" I had seen weeks earlier on the outskirts of Daraa.

About 50 metres from where we pulled over was an overpass that connected Daraa to Izraa. I could see clearly a crowd of people marching from my left to my right over the bridge.

Suddenly gunfire rained into the crowd. The truck drivers dove for cover. And, for what seemed like an eternity, I sat there in the car, stunned and frozen. People were falling on top of each other, being cut down like weeds in a field by what I think must have been a mix of both small arms fire and machine gun fire. I saw at least two children shot. They fell immediately. People were screaming. Gunfire rattled on.

Two cars tried to gun it under the overpass and continue down the highway, even with the gunfire continuing to cut people up. One of the cars got hit immediately before it passed under the bridge and ended up slamming into the embankment on the right side of the road. Someone fell out of the passenger side and scrambled under the bridge and crawled into a ball ... just hoping for survival, I suppose.

I've been playing it through over and over again in my head for the past 16 hours and I still do not know where the gunfire was coming from. It seemed to be coming from a field that lay off to my right - on the Izraa side of the bridge. I could see some muzzle flashes, but I've never in my life seen people walking, and just shot at indiscriminately.

I could not take my eyes off what was quickly becoming carnage. One of the last things I remember seeing clearly were people lying flat on the road, taking cover behind those who had already been wounded or shot dead ... lying in what must have been pools of blood to avoid a hail of flying hot hell.

Abdel's brain finally switched back on and he flung the car into reverse and headed backwards down the highway, laying on his car horn the entire time, weaving backwards through the cars that were now slowly approaching the spot where truck drivers were taking cover in the ditch. I was gripping the handle of the door so hard, I noticed my knuckles had gone totally white.

Mini-massacre

Abdel spun the car around, drove over the median and started driving back to Damascus. There was really nothing to say at that point. But out of immediate instinct, I rang our news desk in Doha. I can't remember what I said initially, but clearly it was enough for the editors to get an anchor up immediately to tape an interview over the phone, getting my fresh reaction to what I had seen.

I didn't know what to say honestly except it was clear security forces [or Assad loyalists, who are now, based on behaviour, part of the security forces] had just carried out a mini-massacre. I'm sure I repeated myself too many times, something you try not to do ... but this was unlike anything I had ever seen. After covering seven separate wars in as many years, I've never seen people march directly into a hail of gunfire.

As the interview was rapping up, we came across a heavy army checkpoint. We had driven through maybe a dozen on our way down, and the further we headed south, the more frequent they became. It was as if around 25km north of the Jordan border there was an invisible military zone that had been put up.

I didn't notice the ones on the other side of the highway, but as soon as we started approaching one (now driving back north), Abdel and I looked at each other. Immediately I apologised to Tony Harris [our anchor] and shoved the phone into my pocket, bringing a quick end to the interview.

Being seen talking on the phone as a journalist, right after fleeing that scene, we would have ended up in detention, there is not a doubt in my mind.

As we passed through the army checkpoint, the soldiers were smoking and laughing; looking at each other; smiling, waving us through various barriers. I can only describe it like what it felt to me: an evil grimace of enjoyment was on their faces. We were maybe, at the most, 3km from where I had just seen people cut down, bullets tearing their bodies into pieces. It was disgusting.

I turned to look at Abdel, to begin asking him a series of questions about the best way to proceed from that point on - and I saw a man of maybe 40 years old with a single tear running down his cheek. "Are you ok, habbibi," I asked like an idiot.

"Yes ... yes - but shou (what) … shou," he repeated … what do we have? There is no humanity here anymore."

'No humanity left'

After a few minutes of silence and many cigarettes passed back and forth we debated the best way for me to get out of the country. We debated it all the way back to Damascus.

In the end, Abdel and I agreed: make a run for the Lebanese border now, spending another night in Damascus; overstaying my visa to face the "full force of the law" after reporting what we had both just seen was not a smart idea.

So, off to the Lebanese capital Beirut we went.

Ironic that a place where I've seen a war and many clashes break out before was suddenly a seven-hour refugee for me as I waited for the first flight to any European city so I could then connect home to see my elderly and sick grandfather on Easter.

As I sit at this airport in Paris, writing this piece, watching people come and go, I am haunted by two thoughts: The first is a question I cannot answer. How can you shoot people like that? Just watch a crowd march towards you; sit in a firing position, wait ... watch; then fire directly into a crowd of civilians.

I did not see a single shot fired from the crowd in the few minutes we sat there watching people flail without any place to hide - a gut wrenching pink mist spraying strait in the air.

It is that thought, and the words of a young man from the southern city of Daraa speaking about the country he once loved, a country that has forever changed asking me rhetorically: "What do we have? There is no humanity here anymore."

[Deleted]

Geez, that was some pretty powerful writing. Made the hair on my arm stand up for that poor cab driver. But what can we do?? We can't save the world, and it seems wrong to pick from all these Muslim nations and choose who we will let live, and who we will let die. Especially since no one even knows exactly who the rebels are!! Do we want another Osama Bin Laden on our hands in a few years? Or Saddam?? These people get real dangerous if not handled correctly, and we seem to be miserable at that.
I guess I just don't get it.

[deziloooooo]

Another report of units of assads forces fighting each other..5th division troops protecting civilians, refusing to fire on them, fired upon by the 4thj division, commanded by Assads bother, and very loyal to Assad ...
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english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/04/2011428182333234775.html
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Members of two Syrian army units have clashed with each other over carrying out orders to crack down on protesters in Deraa, the southern city at the heart of an anti-government uprising, according to a witness and human rights groups.

More than 500 people have been killed across Syria - about 100 in Deraa alone - since the popular revolt against the country's president, Bashar al-Assad began in mid-March, according to human rights groups.

While the infighting in Deraa does not indicate any decisive splits in the military, it is significant because the army has always been seen as a bastion of support for the regime. The Syrian military has denied that there have been any splits in the military.

On Thursday, more soldiers in armored personnel carriers rolled into Deraa while snipers took up positions on high rooftops and mosques, a resident told the AP news agency by satellite telephone. Residents were huddled inside homes in fear amid the blasts of mortars and heavy gunfire, the resident said.




Ausama Monajed, a spokesman for a group of opposition figures in Syria and abroad, said clashes among soldiers had occurred since Assad sent the army into Deraa on Monday.

The deployment was a clear escalation in his crackdown on the uprising.

"There are some battalions that refused to open fire on the people," Monajed told The Associated Press news agency, citing witnesses on the ground in Deraa.

"Battalions of the fifth division were protecting people, and returned fire when they were subjected to attacks by the fourth division."

The fourth division is run by the president's brother, Maher al-Assad."

[deziloooooo]

For the few here who might be interested in Syria ,from "Debka" media, here is a article that , if I am reading it correctly. seems to show how weird and insane governments actions and desires , in their own national interests, can be, in the way we normal populace look at them anyway, as they seem to have more then one side to them, contradicing sides actually.

If I am reading this article correctly, what is suggested by debka, what is happening, the US leadership, State Dept , shakers and movers, wants the harsh put downs of the uprising by Assad in Syria and his use of force against his populace to stop. Fine, think the American public want the same thing in general.

Whether we, US, want a change in leadership here, I am not sure if that is what is desired.
Understand , for a country's best interest, some times what is wanted by a country's populace, in this case, a despot removed, people have freedom yadda, yadda, is NOT what the leaders of a country prefer since what might come about in leadership might bring more troubles then what has been known to be in place, more troubles real or imagined and the repercussions of change can really change the playing field big time.

Here, it seems we, our country leadership, do NOT want the Iranians involved in getting a foothold in Syria, as it seems they are in the process of happening, due to their help in putting down the Syrian rebellion, being expeerts in this type of action, learned by doing so with their own populace.

Better Assad stays in place , leasdership, independent of them would be betteris better, just if he would only stop slaughtering his people, possible give more freedom, so we are warning that all sides coyuld be held for war crimes and assets frozen.. , it seems two separate things here..staying in power, by Assad, but no close ties to Iran, but no slaughter of his people...

In a way, similar to back in the day, the Vietnamese, Communist, after taking control of the whole country, went into Cambodia and sent the Khmer Rouge packing, stopping the slaughter of the populace there , which all of the world applauded, but since it was the Vietnamese who ended it, actually invaded Cambodia, the Chinese were not happy about that, so continued to support the Khmer Rouge , even though they had been slaughtering their own people, and we also ended up supporting the Chinese, indirectly the Khmer Rouge because the Vietnamese, who actually won their war with us, I know we won all the battles but yadda, yadda, that P us off so even thought the Vietnamese stopped the slaughter , we were unhappy so..I know makes no sense..same here in Syria , if this report is correct..confusing as hell.
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www.debka.com/article/20887/
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[Click on link to read article]
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"President Barack Obama signed an executive order Friday April 29 imposing sanctions on members of the Assad family for brutality against civilian protesters after learning that pro-Iranian officers and intelligence chiefs within the ruling family and top military command were conspiring to overthrow President Bashar Assad.

They accuse him of being too slow and too soft (sic) in suppressing the popular uprising and are pushing for more direct Iranian intervention before it develops into a full-blown armed rebellion.

The conspirators targeted by the new American sanctions are the president's brother Maher Assad, commander of the Republican Guard and the Army's 4th Division, which is responsible for the ongoing massacre in Daraa; Bashar's cousin Atif Najib, head of the Political Security Directorate for Daraa Province; and Gen. Ali Mamluk, director of the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate.

The sanctions order also named the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) for aiding the Syrian crackdown.
Mahar Assad claims his brother should have rooted out the uprising against the regime much earlier on by swifter and harsher physical action before its ringleaders had a chance to turn to armed rebellion, debkafile's intelligence sources report. He has warned the president that the level of suppression pursued in the last six weeks has left the dissidents able to set up armed cells in Syrian cities and bring their defiance of the authorities to a standoff. Before long, he says, armed resistance will take hold in Damascus too."

[deziloooooo]

US Intelligence is of the opinion , with 7 million Syrians in revolt out of a population of 26 million, Assads rule is definitly over or close to it..also being thouhght the same by Turkey and Iran is also worried.
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www.debka.com/article/20887/
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Western intelligence: 7 m. Syrians in revolt can no longer be suppressed

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 30, 2011, 10:35 PM (GMT+02:00)

"Slaughter at Moaret Al-Noman near Homs

"After shelling, tank assaults and siege left 100 protesters dead in the last 48 hours without quelling the unrest, Western intelligence sources believe it has careered beyond President Bashar Assad's ability to hold the menace to his regime at bay – and estimate shared by Ankara. It is likely to keep on spreading and evolve into armed rebellion. Those sources estimate the uprising as already encompassing 6-7 million Syrians (out of a population of 26 million) and a third of its area.

There are centers of dissent in the north, south and center, including the coastal strip. The outlying towns of Damascus the capital are in rebel hands. President Assad has thrown into the crackdown on the uprising every military asset he can spare without further jeopardizing his regime.
At the end of the week, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was worried enough to send a delegation of intelligence chiefs to Damascus to warn Assad that after his bloodbath had claimed up to 800 lives in six weeks, it must be stopped or his regime would go down.

Friday, April 29, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Interior Minister Osman Gunes, Dep. Chief of Staff Gen. Aslan Guner, MIT Intelligence chief Hakan Fidan and Ambassador to Syria Omer Onhon put their heads together in Ankara on the crisis in neighboring Syria. They were all pessimistic about Assad's chances of survival and concluded the uprising against him had gone too far to stop."

[deziloooooo]

Latest from alJazeer...Obama to put sanctions on Syrian President, Assad because of his attacks / violence againce and the killings of..on civilien populace in the demonstrations occuring in the country
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english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/2011518164713908756.html
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Middle East

US imposes sanctions on Syrian president

US officials say sanctions are to increase pressure on Bashar al-Assad to end his violent crackdown on protesters.
Last Modified: 18 May 2011 17:32

"Syrian rights activists say at least 700 civilians have been killed in two months of clashes [Reuters]


The United States is to impose sanctions on Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, and six senior Syrian officials for human rights abuses over their brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.

The White House announced the sanctions on Wednesday, a day before Barack Obama, the US president, was to deliver a major speech on the uprisings throughout the Arab world with prominent mentions of Syria

The sanctions are part of "an effort to increase pressure on the government of Syria to end its violence against its people and begin transitioning to a democratic system," a US official told the AFP news agency on the condition of anonymity.

Syrian rights activists say at least 700 civilians have been killed in two months of clashes between goverment forces and protesters seeking an end to his 11-year rule.

Swiss sanctions

The US announcement came as Switzerland announced new sanctions against Syria on Wednesday, saying that it was following the European Union's lead in imposing an embargo on arms and equipment used for internal repression.

"The new edict on measures against Syria includes an embargo on military assets and equipment that could be used for internal repression," the Swiss economic ministry said in a statement.

"It also includes financial sanctions and travel restrictions on 13 people from the Damascus regime," it added.

The ministry said that through the new sanctions, "Switzerland is joining sanctions announced on May 9, 2011 by the European Union against Syria."

EU heavyweight Germany, meanwhile, is pushing for further sanctions against Bashar.

"Our demands are clear. Violence and repression against peaceful demonstrators must be stopped immediately," Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s foreign minister, said.

Tighten sanctions

European governments agreed on Tuesday to tighten sanctions against the Syrian leadership, but said they would decide next week about whether to include Assad on the list.

The EU put 13 Syrian officials on its sanctions list in what it described as a move to gradually increase pressure.

Meanwhile, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, said Russia would not support any United Nations resolutions on the use of force against the Syrian government.

"As for a resolution on Syria, I will not support such a resolution even if my friends and acquaintances ask me about it," Medvedev told reporters during a rare news conference on Wednesday, arguing Syria must be allowed to settle its domestic affairs.

He did not specify what he meant, adding that such resolutions were open to interpretation.

Last month, Obama signed an executive order imposing a first round of US sanctions against Syria's intelligence agency and two relatives of Assad's for alleged human rights abuses."