Dat de Assad aanhang gewelddadig was, hadden we al een tijdje door, hoor.quote:Op zondag 4 maart 2012 19:30 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
Voor de Arabisch sprekende onder ons:
quote:• People fleeing the Syrian army's crackdown in Homs have been giving horrific first hand accounts of the violence. More than 1,000 Syrians fled to neighbouring Lebanon.
quote:3.16pm: The BBC's Paul Wood has return to Syria despite the dangers facing journalists reporting from the country.
In his latest dispatch, from near Homs, he details horrific accounts of those fleeing Baba Amr.
. One man told me that any man detained at a checkpoint is killed.
"They took our husbands, they took them at the checkpoint, they will slaughter them like sheep," one woman said.
Everyone shares the same fears that their husbands are not coming back. For now, they are on their own, with nothing.
It is absolutely freezing. The children here are spending a night in a house with no heat and no electricity and, more than that, they are wondering what on earth has happened to their fathers.
This family says that they witnessed a massacre. On Friday, they say, troops took 36 men and boys from one district and killed them all.
"My son's throat was cut," a woman told me. "He was 12."
quote:Amerikaanse senator John McCain roept op tot luchtaanvallen op Syri
De Amerikaanse senator en voormalige presidentskandidaat John McCain roept vandaag op tot luchtaanvallen op Syri. Doelwit moeten volgens hem luchtmachtbases van de Syrische president Bashar al-Assad worden. Op die manier wil McCain de bevolking van Syri beschermen tegen het geweld van Assad.
De Verenigde Staten moeten deze internationale luchtoperatie gaan leiden, vindt de voormalige Vietnamveteraan. McCain is de eerste Amerikaanse politicus die zich uitspreekt voor militair ingrijpen in Syri. McCain zei eerder vandaag in de Amerikaanse Senaat:
. Het uiteindelijke doel van de luchtaanvallen moet zijn veilige zones voor burgers in Syri te creren en te verdedigen, in het bijzonder in het noorden, waar de oppositie zich dan kan organiseren en zijn politieke en militaire activiteiten tegen Assad kan plannen
Eerder al riep McCain op de Syrische oppositie te bewapenen. Volgens McCain zijn de misdaden die het Syrische regime begaat vergelijkbaar met die van kolonel Kadhafi in Libi. Daar leidden luchtaanvallen van de NAVO uiteindelijk tot de val van het bewind.
McCain wil dat Saoedi-Arabi en Turkije rol spelen bij luchtaanvallen
De regering-Obama blijft voorlopig nog zoeken naar een politiek oplossing. Zij kan ook niet anders, omdat Rusland en China tegen internationaal ingrijpen in Syri zijn.
Beide landen blokkeerden een maand geleden zelfs een resolutie in de VN-veiligheidsraad die de Syrische president Assad veroordeelde.
McCain is zich bewust van de tegenwerking door Rusland en China, maar stelde vandaag dat de Verenigde Staten Arabische sleutelpartners als Saoedi-Arabi zou moeten winnen voor het plan. De NAVO en in het bijzonder Turkije zouden in de plannen van McCain een nadrukkelijk rol moeten spelen.
Ondertussen sloot Canada vandaag, net als eerder onder meer de VS, Groot-Brittanni en Frankrijk zijn ambassade in de Syrische hoofdstad Damascus. De Nederlandse ambassade in Damascus is nog wel open. In een verklaring van de Canadese regering staat:
Linkjes met een waarschuwing lijken mij ook wel voldoende.quote:Op maandag 5 maart 2012 21:48 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:
Ja en bovendien zou het veel beter zijn als het vanuit de Arabische Liga komt. Als de VS zo'n missie gaat leiden gaat dat zeker veel kritiek opleveren.
Lekker bericht op nu.nl trouwens...
http://www.nu.nl/buitenla(...)iekenhuis-syrie.html
Oh, en mocht je de video willen posten, doe dat dan wel ff onder een lading spoilers aub, maar lijkt me beter als zulke video's helemaal niet gepost worden hier.
De oorlog tussen het blok Iran-Syrie en anderzijds Amerika-Israel-Saudie Arabie wordt nu dus verplaatst van Libanon (Hizbullah vs Hariri) naar Syrie. Waar eerder ook Iran al Assad's regime hielp en helpt en ook Hizbullah gaat nu de andere kant dus ook over tot bewapenen.quote:Qatar crosses the Syrian Rubicon: 63m to buy weapons for the rebels
A milestone has been reached in the conflict and, just as with the Libyan uprising last year, Doha is backing regime change
On Monday, Qatar's prime minister declared his state's intent to start helping the Syrian opposition "by all means", including giving them weapons. Two days later, anti-Assad officials received an offer of a $100m (63m) donation, from their brothers in arms in Libya. Coincidence? Unlikely, if the Libyan revolution is any indicator.
The third act, in what looks very much like the beginning of a concerted push to arm the Syrian insurgency, [u]took place today when the previously gun-shy Syrian National Council formed a military council, which it says will act as a clearing house for anyone offering it arms.[/i]
Two probabilities have quickly emerged: the first is that a militarised Syrian National Council is unlikely to be short of suppliers. And, second, Libya is merely a conduit for the $100m, which was at least partly funded by Qatar to get things rolling.
Libya's national transitional council has been quick to stress that the money it is sending is for humanitarian aid, which is clearly desperately needed in western Syria, withering under a regime offensive. No one in the nascent Tripoli government is quibbling about where the cash comes from. When asked yesterday how a state still in turmoil could afford such a generous gift, an spokesman for the Libyan council replied simply: "It won't be a problem".
Qatar's remarks this week, as well as Saudi Arabia's claim last Friday that arming the Syrian rebels would be an "excellent idea", clearly shows a new reality. The Rubicon has been crossed. Hopes of resolving Syria's raging insurgency through patience, or dialogue, have evaporated.
From the early days of the uprising against Colonel Gaddafi, Qatar was running more weapons to Libya's rebels than any other state. Throughout the war, giant Qatari military transporters regularly disgorged tonnes of weaponry in plain view at Djerba airport in Tunisia, not far from the Libyan border.
The Qataris sent jet fighters to bomb Gaddafi's armour and special forces to train rebels. They opened a military operations room in Doha and hosted the regime's highest-profile defectors, as well as rebel leaders to whom they provided with money and mentoring.
As Syria has unravelled throughout the past year, Qatar has played another lead role. It was centre stage in the Arab League's move to suspend Damascus as a member state and it has been increasingly strident in its criticism of President Bashar al-Assad, whom Qatar's ruling emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, had earlier tried to engage. As was the case in Libya, its agenda remains unclear.
The change in attitude had been subtle at first: a gradual disengagement, followed by increasingly stern back-channel diplomacy. All carried out in the way of the Arab world: avoiding insult or direct confrontation.
Not any more. "We should do whatever necessary to help them, including giving them weapons to defend themselves," said Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani, on Monday. "This uprising in Syria now [has lasted] one year. For 10 months, it was peaceful: nobody was carrying weapons, nobody was doing anything. And Bashar continued killing them.
"So I think they're right to defend themselves by weapons, and I think we should help these people by all means."
After urging political recourse and discouraging intervention for so long, the Syrian National Council is now also speaking from a markedly different script
"We wanted to organise those who are carrying arms today," its president, Burhan Ghalioun, said, stressing that any weapons coming into the country should be vetted by the council.
"The revolution started peacefully and kept up its peaceful nature for months, but the reality today is different. We know that some countries have expressed a desire to arm the revolutionaries. The SNC will be this link between those who want to help and the revolutionaries. It is out of the question that arms go into Syria in confusion."
It is also beyond doubt that a long predicted milestone in the Syrian conflict has now been reached. From this point, nation states, rather than black-market arms bazaars, loom as potential suppliers to the outgunned opposition. Such a prospect is alarming the US and Nato, which said this week it absolutely ruled out direct intervention in a war that nobody seems to want and most seem to fear.
The Guardian
quote:Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory. - Sun Tzu
quote:• Although the Syrian government has retaken Homs, it is losing the second city of Aleppo and the broader North, according to Syrian watcher Joshua Landis. He also reports that opposition militias are being formed with growing frequency.
A contact from Aleppo told him:
. The fact that neighbourhoods, such as Azaz, Hreitan and Anadan have fallen out of government control is significant because cars can no longer travel, even in daylight, to Turkey from Aleppo. The entire boarder area is becoming unsafe. This is much worse than Baba Amr or Khaldiye falling out of government control from the point of view of security because Turkey is the base for the Free Syrian Army, arms exports into Syria, and most opposition groups ...
Even the middle and upper classes that live in the city centrs are beginning to panic and look for a way out of the country. Plane flights to Lebanon from Aleppo are booked for the next month. The exodus has begun.
This is the first real breakdown of Aleppo control.
Een oude video. Maar hoe zit het nu CLF, ben je in het Iraanse kamp? De gehaatte mullahs moeten jouw favoriete regime helpen van de ondergang?quote:Op zondag 4 maart 2012 19:30 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
Voor de Arabisch sprekende onder ons:
quote:TR325's business partner has an old classmate friend who was the lead
surgeon on Erdogan's most recent operation. He said that Erdogan has colon
cancer, but they haven't seen the second biopsy results yet to see if it's
metastasized. In the last operation, they cut out 20 cm of Erdogan's colon
(I just looked up that the average colon is about 1.5m long.) That's a
really significant operation. Erdogan is not going to be able to travel
for a while, and he's going to have to carry around with him a colonoscopy
bag for at least 2-3 months. The prognosis is not looking good, though.
The surgeon said they were estimating 2 years for him.
This is very likely going to cause major splits within the AKP. Gul
doesn't have much support. Davutoglu is paranoid that everyone else is
trying to undermine him (there's a definite competition between him and
TR325.) When I asked who Erdgogan trusts, two names were mentioned - Ali
Babacan (Deputy PM) and Taner Yildiz (energy minister.) Both sources were
asking how the US is likely to react to this situation. Would they try to
back the military like the old days? CHP is still very much divided. Both
seemed to think the military won't be able to take advantage of the
situation.
On Syria - the conversation centered on how far Turkey is actually going
to go. TR325 explained that the Turkish plan is centered on civil war in
Syria. Officially, it's Turkey providing the main training,a rms and
support to FSA. Unofficially, US and TUrkey are doing this together in
deploying SOF for this mission. Notice all the talk in the press now
about civil war breaking out in Syria. This is the narrative Turkey and US
want to build. I pointed out that creating the conditions for civil war -
actual neighborhood to neighborhood fighting - is still pretty difficult
considering that the Alawite forces are still holding together, but he
seemed to think that this can escalate within 2 months time. He also said
without saying that they're working on making that happen. He acknowledges
it'll be messy and it will take a lot of blood and time for a Sunni power
to emerge in syria, but that this is the Turkish obligation.
The Turkish plan to preempt the instability that would result from civil
war conditions is to implement the buffer zone 5-40km into Syrian
territory and set up refugee camps. I asked what levers Iran and Syria
have to get Turkey to back off in relation to PKK. He said
(half-jokingly) that Karilan is Turkey's man (ie. turkey can actually
negotiate with him.) But he said PKK third-in-command (still need to get
this guy's name) answers to Syria and Iran. Turkey knows this very well
and he says Syria and Iran are already making moves to threaten attacks
via this faction.
Interessant. Inmiddels zijn er twee aanslagen gepleegd in de laatste week in Istanbul, beide waren gericht tegen Erdogan. De media blijven vaag, ze zeggen dat de daders ofwel PKK zijn, ofwel linkse/rechtse radicalen of jihadisten. Ik denk PKK.quote:Op dinsdag 6 maart 2012 11:50 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
Stratfor Leaks
Mail van 10 december 2011
quote:http://wikileaks.org/gifi(...)her-s-concerns-.html
From: "Kamran Bokhari"
To: "Alpha List"
Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2011 8:33:27 PM
Subject: [alpha] INSIGHT - SYRIA - Bashar's Mother's Concerns
Source is a Reuters correspondent of Syrian-Jordanian heritage who
recently got kicked out of Syria.
Bashar's mother - the matriarch of the family (along the lines of her
mother-in-law) - is disappointed in Bashar and Maher for the mess that
they have created. She has been saying things like had your father been
alive things would have never come to such a point. She is very concerned
that her boys will meet the same fate as al-Qaddhafi and his sons and is
pressing Bashar and Maher to seriously look into an exit strategy before
the rapidly closing window of opportunity completely shuts itself.
Verschrikkelijk las het net op AD. En de wereld kijkt toe en grijpt niet in.quote:Op maandag 5 maart 2012 21:48 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:
Ja en bovendien zou het veel beter zijn als het vanuit de Arabische Liga komt. Als de VS zo'n missie gaat leiden gaat dat zeker veel kritiek opleveren.
Lekker bericht op nu.nl trouwens...
http://www.nu.nl/buitenla(...)iekenhuis-syrie.html
Oh, en mocht je de video willen posten, doe dat dan wel ff onder een lading spoilers aub, maar lijkt me beter als zulke video's helemaal niet gepost worden hier.
Bekleed die moeder dan een positie in het regime?quote:
Yep, een soort matriarch.quote:Op dinsdag 6 maart 2012 12:03 schreef Billy-jazz het volgende:
[..]
Bekleed die moeder dan een positie in het regime?
Vind ik ook, maar het lukte hem indertijd. Maar dat was dan ook een andere tijd.quote:Maar wat ze over de vader van Bashar Assad zegt is toch onzin aangezien hij net zo bruut te werk ging.
Maar gelijk heeft ze... als Bashar slim is, dan heeft ie aan een exit-strategy gedacht, want als ie in de handen van de rebellen komt, dan zal het nog slechter met hem aflopen dan met Kaddafi.quote:Op dinsdag 6 maart 2012 12:06 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
[..]
Yep, een soort matriarch.
[..]
Vind ik ook, maar het lukte hem indertijd. Maar dat was dan ook een andere tijd.
papa had er al veel eerder de duimschroeven opgezet, dan was het idd nooit zover gekomen en dat vind mevrouw jammerquote:Op dinsdag 6 maart 2012 12:03 schreef Billy-jazz het volgende:
[..]
Bekleed die moeder dan een positie in het regime?
Maar wat ze over de vader van Bashar Assad zegt is toch onzin aangezien hij net zo bruut te werk ging.
quote:Belangrijke vluchtweg uit Homs gebombardeerd
Het Syrische leger heeft vanochtend een brug gebombardeerd in de provincie Homs die door duizenden burgers is gebruikt als vluchtweg naar buurland Libanon. Dat meldt het Syrische Observatorium voor de Mensenrechten.
Het gaat om een brug over de Orontes-rivier, gelegen in de buurt van de stad Qousseir, vlakbij de grens tussen Syri en Libanon. Volgens een woordvoerder van het Observatorium hebben de afgelopen dagen ruim 1500 vluchtelingen het land ontvlucht via deze brug. Voornamelijk voor gewonden is het de belangrijkste vluchtweg, benadrukt de woordvoerder.
In totaal zouden ruim duizend Syrirs hebben de grens met het noorden van Libanon overgestoken op de vlucht voor het geweld in hun thuisland. Dat meldde een woordvoerder van de VN-Vluchtelingenorganisatie (UNHCR) gisteren. Door de hevige beschietingen van de laatste dagen zijn voornamelijk vrouwen en kinderen op de vlucht geslagen, waarvan een groot deel gebruik maakte van de betreffende brug.
quote:Stratfor Leaks
2011-12-07 00:49:18
A few points I wanted to highlight from meetings today --
I spent most of the afternoon at the Pentagon with the USAF strategic
studies group - guys who spend their time trying to understand and explain
to the USAF chief the big picture in areas where they're operating in. It
was just myself and four other guys at the Lieutenant Colonel level,
including one French and one British representative who are liaising with
the US currently out of DC.
They wanted to grill me on the strategic picture on Syria, so after that I
got to grill them on the military picture. There is still a very low level
of understanding of what is actually at stake in Syria, what's the
strategic interest there, the Turkish role, the Iranian role, etc. After a
couple hours of talking, they said without saying that SOF teams
(presumably from US, UK, France, Jordan, Turkey) are already on the ground
focused on recce missions and training opposition forces. One Air Force
intel guy (US) said very carefully that there isn't much of a Free Syrian
Army to train right now anyway, but all the operations being done now are
being done out of 'prudence.' The way it was put to me was, 'look at this
way - the level of information known on Syrian OrBat this month is the
best it's been since 2001.' They have been told to prepare contingencies
and be ready to act within 2-3 months, but they still stress that this is
all being done as contingency planning, not as a move toward escalation.
I kept pressing on the question of what these SOF teams would be working
toward, and whether this would lead to an eventual air camapign to give a
Syrian rebel group cover. They pretty quickly distanced themselves from
that idea, saying that the idea 'hypothetically' is to commit guerrilla
attacks, assassination campaigns, try to break the back of the Alawite
forces, elicit collapse from within. There wouldn't be a need for air
cover, and they wouldn't expect these Syrian rebels to be marching in
columns anyway.
They emphasized how the air campaign in Syria makes Libya look like a
piece of cake. Syrian air defenses are a lot more robust and are much
denser, esp around Damascus and on the borders with Israel, Turkey. THey
are most worried about mobile air defenses, particularly the SA-17s that
they've been getting recently. It's still a doable mission, it's just not
an easy one.
The main base they would use is Cyprus, hands down. Brits and FRench would
fly out of there. They kept stressing how much is stored at Cyprus and how
much recce comes out of there. The group was split on whether Turkey would
be involved, but said Turkey would be pretty critical to the mission to
base stuff out of there. EVen if Turkey had a poltiical problem with
Cyprus, they said there is no way the Brits and the FRench wouldn't use
Cyprus as their main air force base. Air Force Intel guy seems pretty
convinced that the Turks won't participate (he seemed pretty pissed at
them.)
There still seems to be a lot of confusion over what a military
intervention involving an air campaign would be designed to achieve. It
isn't clear cut for them geographically like in Libya, and you can't just
create an NFZ over Homs, Hama region. This would entail a countrywide SEAD
campaign lasting the duration of the war. They dont believe air
intervention would happen unless there was enough media attention on a
massacre, like the Ghadafi move against Benghazi. They think the US would
have a high tolerance for killings as long as it doesn't reach that very
public stage. Theyre also questiioning the skills of the Syrian forces
that are operating the country's air defenses currently and how
signfiicant the Iranian presence is there. Air Force Intel guy is most
obsessed with the challenge of taking out Syria's ballistic missile
capabilities and chem weapons. With Israel rgiht there and the regime
facing an existential crisis, he sees that as a major complication to any
military intervention.
The post 2011 SOFA with Iraq is still being negotiated. These guys were
hoping that during Biden's visit that he would announce a deal with
Maliki, but no such luck. They are gambling ont he idea that the Iraqis
remember the iran-iraq war and that maliki is not going to want to face
the threat of Iranian jets entering Iraqi air space. THey say that most
US fighter jets are already out of Iraq and transferred to Kuwait. They
explained that's the beauty of the air force, the base in Kuwait is just a
hop, skip and jump away from their bases in Europe, ie. very easy to
rapidly build up when they need to. They don't seem concerned about the
US ability to restructure its forces to send a message to Iran. They gave
the example of the USS Enterprise that was supposed to be out of
commission already and got extended another couple years to send to the
gulf. WHen the US withdraws, we'll have at least 2 carriers in the gulf
out of centcom and one carrier in the Med out of EuCom. I asked if the
build-up in Kuwait and the carrier deployments are going to be enough to
send a message to Iran that the US isn't going anywhere. They responded
that Iran will get the message if they read the Centcom Web Site. STarting
Jan. 1 expect them to be publishing all over the place where the US is
building up.
Another concern they have about an operation in Syria is whether Iran
could impede operations out of Balad air force base in Iraq.
The French representative was of hte opinion that Syria won't be a
libya-type situation in that France would be gung-ho about going in. Not
in an election year. The UK rep also emphasized UK reluctance but said
that the renegotiation of the EU treaty undermines the UK role and that UK
would be looking for ways to reassert itself on the continent ( i dont
really think a syria campaign is the way to do that.) UK guy mentioned as
an aside that the air force base commander at Cyprus got switched out from
a maintenance guy to a guy that flew Raptors, ie someone that understands
what it means to start dropping bombs. He joked that it was probably a
coincidence.
Prior to that, I had a meeting with an incoming Kuwaiti diplomat (will be
coded as KU301.) His father was high up in the regime, always by the
CP's/PM's side. The diplo himself still seems to be getting his feet wet
in DC (the new team just arrived less than 2 weeks ago,) but he made
pretty clear that Kuwait was opening the door to allowing US to build up
forces as needed. THey already have a significant presence there, and a
lot of them will be on 90-day rotations. He also said that the SOFA that
the US signs with Baghdad at the last minute will be worded in such a way
that even allowing one trainer in the country can be construed to mean
what the US wants in terms of keeping forces in Iraq. Overall, I didnt get
the impression from him that Kuwait is freaked out about the US leaving.
Everyhting is just getting rearranged. The Kuwaitis used to be much
better at managing their relations with Iran, but ever since that spy ring
story came out a year ago, it's been bad. He doesn't think Iran has
significant covert capabililiteis in the GCC states, though they are
trying. Iranian activity is mostly propaganda focused. He said that while
KSA and Bahrain they can deal with it as needed and black out the media,
Kuwait is a lot more open and thus provides Iran with more oppotunity to
shape perceptions (he used to work in inforamtion unit in Kuwait.) He says
there is a sig number of kuwaitis that listen to Iranian media like Al
Alam especially.
On the Kuwaiti political scene - the government is having a harder time
dealing with a more emboldened opposition, but the opposition is still
extremely divided, esp among the Islamists. The MPs now all have to go
back to their tribes to rally support for the elections to take place in
Feb. Oftentimes an MP in Kuwait city will find out that he has lost
support back home with the tribe, and so a lot of moeny is handed out.The
govt is hoping that witha clean slate they can quiet the opposition down.
A good way of managing the opposition he said is to refer cases to the
courts, where they can linger forever. good way for the govt to buy time.
He doesnt believe the Arab League will take significant action against
Syria - no one is interested in military intervention. they just say it to
threaten it.
Dank, maar google was net iets snellerquote:
Isral zal proberen gebruikt te maken van Syri om Iran aan te vallen.quote:Air Force Intel guy is most
obsessed with the challenge of taking out Syria's ballistic missile
capabilities and chem weapons. With Israel rgiht there and the regime
facing an existential crisis, he sees that as a major complication to any
military intervention.
Als je vader er was had ie er wat anders van gemaakt.quote:
Ze bedoelt dat vader de opstand veel sneller en harder de kop in had ingedrukt?quote:Op dinsdag 6 maart 2012 12:03 schreef Billy-jazz het volgende:
[..]
Maar wat ze over de vader van Bashar Assad zegt is toch onzin aangezien hij net zo bruut te werk ging.
quote:Syria's Baba Amr is deserted, Red Cross says
Associated Press= BEIRUT (AP) — The U.N. humanitarian chief toured the shattered Syrian district of Baba Amr on Wednesday but found most residents had fled following a bloody military siege, while activists accused the government of trying to cover up evidence of atrocities there.
The visit by Valerie Amos, the New York-based undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, was the first by an independent outside observer since the Syrian military began its month-long assault of the rebellious neighborhood. A key stronghold of the uprising to oust authoritarian President Bashar Assad, it was wrested from rebel control on March 1.
Amos made no statement, but a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said she entered the ravaged neighborhood with a team from the Syrian Red Crescent that had been waiting nearly a week to be allowed in to deliver aid.
"The Syrian Arab Red Crescent stayed about 45 minutes inside the neighborhood," Red Cross spokesman Hicham Hassan said in Geneva. "Volunteers say that most inhabitants have fled Baba Amr."
The Syrian regime has kept the neighborhood sealed off over the past six days, saying it was too dangerous for humanitarian workers to enter. But activists accused the government of engaging in a "mopping-up" operation to hide their atrocities.
"They haven't let anyone in for a week, and now they are going to let them in?" Homs activists Tarek Badrakhan told The Associated Press. "Today it's simple: They finished their crimes and hid all the proof. Now they think they can show that everything is normal."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lashed out at the delays.
"The regime's refusal to allow humanitarian workers to help feed the hungry, tend to the injured, bury the dead, marks a new low," she said. "Tons of food and medicine are standing by while more civilians die and the regime launches new assaults."
Amos said the aim of her two-day visit to Syria was "to urge all sides to allow unhindered access for humanitarian relief workers so they can evacuate the wounded and deliver essential supplies."
She met with Syria's foreign minister on Wednesday and was to meet other government officials in Damascus on Thursday, but it was unclear whether she would be allowed to return to Baba Amr or whether any aid deliveries were imminent.
The U.N. says more than 7,500 people have been killed since Syria's uprising began. Activists put the death toll at more than 8,000.
In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta delivered a sober assessment of Syria's sophisticated air defenses and its extensive stockpile of chemical weapons — a strategic reality check to demands for U.S. military action to end Assad's deadly crackdown on his people.
Republican Sen. John McCain has called on the Obama administration to launch U.S. airstrikes to end Assad's crackdown, but Panetta pushed back Wednesday against the demand.
"What doesn't make sense is to take unilateral action right now," Panetta told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "I've got to make very sure we know what the mission is. ... Achieving that mission at what price?"
Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described a well-armed Syria that bears little resemblance to what the U.S. military and its allies faced in Libya. Syria's air defenses are five times more sophisticated than Libya's, and its chemical and biological weapons stockpile is 100 times larger, they said.
Suppressing the air defenses would require a sustained air campaign over an extended period of time with a significant number of aircraft, and the U.S. would have to lead the effort, Dempsey said.
Because the air defenses are located in populous neighborhoods, airstrikes could mean scores of unintended deaths, Panetta said.
Dempsey warned of the "need to be alert to extremists," and other hostile actors, including Iran, which he said "has been exploiting the situation and expanding its support to the regime."
"And we need to be especially alert to the fate of Syria's chemical and biological weapons. They need to stay exactly where they are," Dempsey said.
After seizing Baba Amr from the rebels, regime forces now appear to be turning their attention to other rebellious areas. A wave of new arrests was reported in Homs by the Local Coordinating Committees, an activist group, as well as assaults on the northern province of Idlib near Turkey.
The shift suggests the Syrian military is unable to launch large operations simultaneously, even though the security services remain largely strong and loyal.
According to witnesses, Syrian troops shelled the northern villages in Idlib on Wednesday. There also were reports of snipers in Homs province.
Russia and China, powerful Syrian allies that have blocked a Security Council resolution against Syria, have made clear they are still standing by the regime in Damascus.
Still, in a sign of China's growing alarm, Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said Beijing was pulling its workers out of Syria because of the violence.
"I can tell you most Chinese workers have been withdrawn from that country to China," he told a news conference. "There are only about 100 people left there taking care of projects, assets and property. We will wait until the local situation stabilizes."
In Moscow, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said the government wasn't considering granting political asylum to Assad, shooting down rumors that such an offer is on the table as a way to end the Syrian regime's deadly crackdown.
Putin, who is currently prime minister but regained the presidency in an election Sunday, said "We aren't even discussing the issue" of granting asylum to Assad.
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quote:Minister Syri loopt over – hoogste functionaris die Assad rug toekeert
Nog niet eerder keerde een hooggeplaatste regeringsfunctionaris als onderminister Abdo Hussameldin zich af van president Bashar al-Assad. Werkzaam op het ministerie van Olie, neemt hij via een video op YouTube afstand van ‘de misdaden van dit regime’.
Hussameldin zegt zich in het filmpje, waarvan de bron nog niet is vastgesteld, terug te trekken uit de Baath-partij en zich aan te sluiten bij de revolutie van het waardige volk. Hij stelt 33 jaar werkzaam te zijn geweest voor de Syrische regering.
. “Ik geef er de voorkeur aan om te doen wat juist is, ook al weet ik dat dit regime nu mijn huis zal afbranden en mijn familie zal vervolgen. Ik zeg tegen dit regime: je hebt het volk waarvan je beweert dat het het jouwe is een jaar lang ondergedompeld in lijden en verdriet. Hen is een normaal leven en menselijkheid ontnomen, en Syri is naar de rand van de afgrond gedreven.”
‘Economie op punt van instorten’
De regeringstroepen van Assad hebben volgens de VN al zeker 7.500 mensen gedood sinds de opstand een jaar geleden begon. Het rode Kruis probeert al dagen toegang te krijgen tot het epicentrum van de opstand, de stad Homs. Gisteren kregen hulpverleners drie kwartier toegang.
Hussameldin werd volgens Reuters ooit door Assad zelf aangesteld en hield zijn functie als onderminister over aan een regeringsbesluit in 2009. Volgens Hussameldin staat de economie van Syri ‘op het punt van instorten’. Hij zou met hulp van Syrische oppositieleden zijn overgelopen.
twitter:AnonOpsSweden twitterde op donderdag 08-03-2012 om 13:51:30@OoPsRevolution btw @TripToSyria #OpTripToSyria has landed in Jordan is safe, and looking for safe routes reageer retweet
quote:Geef de Syrirs wapens, en snel
Vandaag moet de Syrische oppositie zich met geweren verdedigen tegen tanks en granaten. Europa kan helpen, meent oud-premier Guy Verhofstadt, Europees Parlementslid en fractieleider van de Europese liberalen (Open Vld).
....
Wat vandaag in Homs gebeurt, maar ook in andere Syrische steden is van eenzelfde omvang en gruwel als de slachtingen in Sabra en Shatila, Srebrenica of Hama. Het is zo erg dat de inwoners van Homs tot alles bereid zijn, als het moet zelfs een bezetting door Isral. En toch gebeurt er niets. De VN-Veiligheidsraad slaagt er niet eens in om de Syrische dictator Bashar al-Assad te veroordelen. En de conferentie in Tunis van de zogenaamde 'Vrienden van Syri' kwam niet verder dan wat nieuwe sancties en de (niet-ingewilligde) eis van Assad dat hulporganisaties toegang zouden krijgen. Een minister van Buitenlandse Zaken zei in de marge van die conferentie dat verder gaan niet ging wegens "de verdeeldheid van de Syrische oppositie en de schrik voor een burgeroorlog en de uitbreiding ervan naar de hele regio". Met zulke vrienden heb je geen vijanden meer nodig.
http://english.al-akhbar.(...)iased-syria-coveragequote:Al Jazeera reporter resigns over "biased" Syria coverage
Published Thursday, March 8, 2012
Al Jazeera Arabic's Beirut correspondent, Ali Hashem, resigned on Tuesday after leaked emails revealed his frustrations over the news channel's coverage of Syria, according to a source within the television network.
Hashem's resignation comes weeks after pro-Assad hackers leaked emails that revealed the dismay among Al Jazeera's staff over its “biased and unprofessional” coverage of the Syrian uprising.
“Hashem's misgivings are clear and well-known, and are no longer a secret to anyone," the source, wishing to remain anonymous, said.
"You can check the emails he sent to his colleague, Rula Ibrahim, to know his position which changed after the station refused to show photos he had taken of armed fighters clashing with the Syrian Army in Wadi Khaled. Instead [Al Jazeera] lambasted him as a shabeeh (implying a regime loyalist).”
The source also said that Hashem reported his dismay to several officials in the station, not just to his colleague, Ibrahim.
Complicating matters for Hashem was Al Jazeera's refusal to cover the uprising in Bahrain.
“[In Bahrain], we were seeing pictures of a people being butchered by the 'Gulf's oppression machine', and for Al Jazeera, silence was the name of the game,” the source added.
According to the source, Hashem was not the only Al Jazeera reporter to express his frustration over its coverage. Staff members in Al-Jazeera's offices in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Bahrain also voiced similar opinions.
The source explained that most reporters at Al Jazeera are professionals and come from prestigious schools of journalism where such biased coverage is unacceptable and particularly since several field reporters are “seeing the truth” themselves.
“There is a division among the staff members in the station. As for Hashem, he thought he could change one thing, but he couldn't so he chose to resign," the source said.
"This is what happens to the majority of people who oppose the station's provocative policy. They end up resigning.”
Al Jazeera is a Qatari owned and based satellite network, and has been the center of controversy throughout its short history.
It made US officials angry when it aired gruesome footage of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq last decade.
But Qatar's hardening foreign policy in the Middle East, in particular its efforts to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad while supporting Bahrain's crackdown on dissent, has made inroads on Al Jazeera's coverage of Arab affairs.
(Al-Akhbar - Wissam Kanaan contributed to this report)
Hij kan beter niks van zich laten horen. Vooral dat dikgedruktequote:Op donderdag 8 maart 2012 21:34 schreef zuiderbuur het volgende:
Verhofstadt laat weer van zich horen:
www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/246(...)wapens-en-snel.dhtml
[..]
Het kunnen ook Iraneze drones zijn.quote:Op donderdag 8 maart 2012 20:13 schreef Billy-jazz het volgende:
Is deze video al gepost? Isralische drones helpen Assad om de revolutionairen te doden.
Of Russischequote:Op donderdag 8 maart 2012 23:39 schreef rakotto het volgende:
[..]
Het kunnen ook Iraneze drones zijn.
Hij was daarnet ook bij Pauw en Witteman: http://pauwenwitteman.var(...)66de387b7adb6cbf887dquote:Op donderdag 8 maart 2012 23:17 schreef killfrenzy het volgende:
[..]
Hij kan beter niks van zich laten horen. Vooral dat dikgedrukte
http://www.washingtonpost(...)IQAAaN9yR_story.htmlquote:Syrian Kurds seen as revolt’s wild card
By: Ernesto Londoo
IRBIL, Iraq — Syria’s long-oppressed Kurdish minority is emerging as a key wild card with the potential to boost the momentum of a scattered and beleaguered opposition movement as a year-old revolt appears poised to become more violent.
So far, the Kurds have not been enthusiastic supporters of the wider revolution, which is primarily led by Syria’s Sunni Arab majority and has increasingly taken on sectarian overtones. They remain fearful that a new government dominated by Sunnis could deepen their marginalization.
But largely unnoticed, the Kurds in the northeast of the country have been sustaining daily peaceful protests against the regime led by President Bashar al-Assad. The government has concentrated most of its efforts to suppress revolt on Sunni Arab cities such as Homs and Hama, and has for the most part refrained from using force against the Kurds.
Sunni Arabs are the majority in the nation of 22 million, which for decades has been ruled by members of the Shiite Alawite sect. Kurds make up between 8 and 15 percent, according to estimates. Syria’s deep ethnic and religious divides make its revolt far more complex and potentially divisive than those in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia.
Syrian Kurds appear divided over what kind of role they want to carve out for themselves if the opposition movement succeeds in toppling the Assad government. But U.S. and allied Western nations are increasingly trying to find ways to bring the Kurds into the mainstream opposition, an effort that remains elusive.
A Western diplomat involved in Syria policy said that the United States and European allies have worked behind the scenes to encourage the mainstream opposition to make commitments about Kurdish rights in a post-Assad era.
“If and when the Kurds decide to get involved in a big way, it could cost the regime physical control over an entire region and could also be key to getting Aleppo and Damascus to rise up,” said the Western diplomat, who insisted on anonymity.
The predominantly Kurdish region, strategically important because it shares borders with Iraq and Turkey and has substantial oil reserves, remains essentially up for grabs.
Officials in Turkey, whose own oppressed Kurdish minority includes an insurgent wing, and in Iraq, where Kurds have attained a great degree of sovereignty, are watching the conflict closely, worried about cross-border ripple effects. The Kurds, an ethnic group spread out in Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria, have long aspired to have their own state, an ambition that has often led to their persecution.
The story of the uprising of Syrian Kurds, based on interviews with experts and with Kurdish leaders in Syria and neighboring Iraq, is key to understanding why the revolt in Syria has been slow to gather decisive momentum and just how messy the post-Assad era could become.
Restraint by the regime
When Syrians first took to the streets in March, buoyed by the successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, Kurdish political leaders were initially reluctant to rise up, according to those who were interviewed. As a long disenfranchised segment of society with an extensive history of revolt, Kurds had every incentive to join the protest movement. But political leaders decided they shouldn’t play a visible role early on.
“The Baath regime has always tried to teach that the Kurds are trying to divide Syria,” said Abdul Baki Youssef, a Syrian Kurdish politician, said in an interview in Irbil, referring to Assad’s political party. “If we had started, the regime would have just said we were starting to partition.”
As the revolt gathered steam in the southern Syrian city of Daraa, Kurds began holding large protests in the northeastern town of Qamishly and other predominantly Kurdish areas, at times drawing tens of thousands, Kurdish leaders say. Protesters tore down once-ubiquitous posters and portraits of Assad and tore down a statue of his late father, former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, Youssef said.
Kurdish antipathy toward the regime soared in October, after the assassination of Mashaal Tammo, a prominent Kurdish activist. As he was buried, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in the northeast, marking one of the relatively rare instances in which security forces were accused of firing live ammunition into crowds in the area, Kurdish activists said.
In addition to chants against Assad, the demonstrations in Kurdish areas featured calls for greater sovereignty and self-determination. Protesters waved the red, white and green Kurdish flag. Security forces kept close tabs on activists and demonstrations, Kurdish activists said, and sought to disperse some with tear gas. But security forces have shown a notable degree of restraint in Kurdish cities, a stark contrast from its recent bombardment of Homs.
“The regime doesn’t want to start clashes with the Kurds,” Saleh Kado, a leader in the Kurdish Leftist Party in Qamishli said in a phone interview. “Until now, we stress that the revolution must be peaceful. Our belief is that change will come through peaceful means.”
Denise Natali, an expert on Kurdish politics at National Defense University, said the Assad regime has sought to woo certain Kurdish factions, making concessions such as offering full citizenship to Kurds who have for years been denied official documents.
“To repress the Kurds violently would be another nail in the coffin,” she said. “It is one of the communities the regime is trying to co-opt.”
Although Kurdish leaders say most Syrian Kurds remain staunchly opposed to Assad, the Kurds have become increasingly alarmed by the leading role Turkey has played in organizing the opposition. Turkey has become a haven for Syrian refugees and members of the opposition’s armed faction, known as the Free Syrian Army.
As Turkish leaders have devised their Syria policy, they have likely been mindful of the Kurdish angle at every turn. Members of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, which has for years fought the Turkish government in a bid for independence, have used remote Syrian areas as staging grounds for attacks in the past and could more easily do so with complicity from the Assad regime.
Kurdish groups boycotted a summit of Syrian opposition parties in May because it was held in Turkey. Few attended a conference in Istanbul in August during which the Syrian National Council was formed.
“The regime has sought to divide the opposition through divide-and-conquer tactics,” Shelal Gado, a Kurdish political leader, said in an interview in Sulaimaniyah, an Iraqi city where he is now based. “We regret that the majority in the opposition think the same way as the regime: They don’t want to recognize the rights of the Kurdish people.”
Seeking to bridge the divisions among Syrian Kurdish groups, Massoud Barzani, the president of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, hosted a gathering of Kurdish politicians from the neighboring country last month. He pledged support from the prosperous region as long as long as they found a way to band together. The Kurdish elder also stressed that they should not join the armed resistance.
“The era of armed struggle is over,” he said.
Nee dat zijn geen Israelische drones dus niet liegen, dat is niet netjes.quote:Op donderdag 8 maart 2012 20:13 schreef Billy-jazz het volgende:
Is deze video al gepost? Isralische drones helpen Assad om de revolutionairen te doden.
Weet je niet. Weet niemand hier.quote:Op vrijdag 9 maart 2012 00:46 schreef WammesWaggel het volgende:
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Nee dat zijn geen Israelische drones dus niet liegen, dat is niet netjes.
Succesquote:Op vrijdag 9 maart 2012 01:02 schreef WammesWaggel het volgende:
[..]
Gewoon Stratfor hacken en je weet alles.
"Speculation abounds online that the UAS caught by an amateur cameraman flying over Kafr Batna on valentines day is either a variant of the Iranian Mohajer or a new platform altogether, being called at the moment ”Pahpad” which is the Persian equivalent of UAV. The drone would very likely be a Syrian government airframe.quote:
En nog steeds hetzelfde. Speculaas.quote:Op vrijdag 9 maart 2012 01:04 schreef Nibb-it het volgende:
[..]
"Speculation abounds online that the UAS caught by an amateur cameraman flying over Kafr Batna on valentines day is either a variant of the Iranian Mohajer or a new platform altogether, being called at the moment ”Pahpad” which is the Persian equivalent of UAV. The drone would very likely be a Syrian government airframe.
Iran has defied arms embargoes and exported several unmanned systems to Sudan and a similar mystery airframe was spotted there." Meer: http://www.suasnews.com/2(...)ver-syria-from-iran/
[ afbeelding ]
mohajer-4
Het propellorgeluid is in ieder geval gelijkend.quote:Op vrijdag 9 maart 2012 01:08 schreef killfrenzy het volgende:
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En nog steeds hetzelfde. Speculaas.
Ze zijn buren...quote:Op vrijdag 9 maart 2012 01:17 schreef Nibb-it het volgende:
Hoe zou Assad aan Isralische drones moeten komen?
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