We have often joked about Assad’s uncanny resemblance to Hitler, but we never really imagined how easy it would be to actually get him to act like Hitler, until now.
Tuesday August 16, 2011
Lattakia goes through a 4th day of shelling as more neighborhoods are targeted and Assad Death Squads conduct house-to-house searches. The 4-day death toll in Lattakia is currently put at 34. Elsewhere in the Lattakia Province, sounds of heavy gunfire were also heard in the coastal city of Jableh, as tanks laid siege to the City. Pro-Assad militias set fire to the town-hall, which is the excuse always by military units to justify their intervention. Hundreds of residents are said to have evacuated the city before the army troops come marching in and the shelling begins.
In Homs, 2 more people died of wounds sustained during the crackdown that took place in Al-Sibaa Neighborhood yesterday.
In Damascus, security forces reinforced their presence in a number of Damascene suburbs, including Al-Zabadani, in an attempt to curtail further mass demonstrations.
Links
The Syrian navy is a pissant, 4th-rate force, incapable of even slowing down any half-decent fleet. A foe would have to be virtually unarmed for Syria’s rusting warships to threaten it. Which means the fleet still does have some purpose for the Assad regime: terrorizing its own people.
The ICG’s latest report on Syria, titled “Popular Protest in North Africa and the Middle East (VII): The Syrian Regime’s Slow-motion Suicide,” relies almost exclusively on the testimony of Syrian regime figures and its Western apologists, dressed up as “independent” sources. The result is a deeply flawed picture of the last five months of Assadist sadism, where a dynastic regime with a proven history of churning out blatant propaganda and committing mass murder and torture is taken as more credible or sincere than its serious and credible opposition movement.
For the United States and other countries, the regime's murderous behavior should add to existing pressure to act quickly and strongly to stop the bloodshed.
Affecting the outcome in Syria will require a mix of international isolation, economic pressure, and the exacerbation of internal fissures. Within each pillar there are a number of steps -- the withdrawal of Western ambassadors, the formation of an international "contact group" to coordinate policy, the imposition of energy and other economic sanctions, for example -- which can be taken to add to the strong measures which the Obama Administration has already put in place. But the United States must start by ensuring that our own policy -- toward Syria and toward democracy in the Arab world broadly -- is unmistakable.
In revolutions, there rarely exists a middle ground. Turkey’s delicate balancing act between the Syrian people and their oppressor could backfire if its foreign policy does not keep pace with the growing popular revolt next door. A telling sign recently carried by peaceful protestors in the Syrian city of Hama read, “Erdogan: Our disappointment in you is great.”
As a well-known Turkish expression, with a quaint reference to an Egyptian town, goes, "One might lose his rice while trying to take Damietta." In other words, Turkey could lose both the Arab people and their rulers if it bets on the wrong horse.
A sharp discrepancy between Syria's nose-diving economy and its relatively stable currency is fueling speculation among observers that either another country, presumably strategic oil-rich ally Iran, has injected huge amounts of cash into its economy, or Damascus is quickly draining its foreign-currency reserves.
DAMASCUS — Syria announced yesterday it has found a promising gas field in the central governorate of Homs, as Human Rights Watch urged the European Union to freeze the assets of Syria’s state oil and gas companies.
“It’s not going to be any news if the United States says, ‘Assad needs to go.’ Okay, fine, what’s next?” asked Clinton, who spoke before a room packed with service members, academics and journalists. “If Turkey says it, if [Saudi] King Abdullah says it, if other people say it, there is no way the Assad regime can ignore it.”
Years ago, I used to have a monopoly on calling Bashar Al-Assad all different sorts of names, in public, in Syria, as my audience shuddered with fear. Now, it’s a common practice in Syria to call Assad names, I can hardly keep up. But a Fascist Pig seems to be very apt indeed, considering the rhetoric of Assad supporters and the practices of his security officers. We have often joked about Assad’s uncanny resemblance to Hitler, but we never really imagined how easy it would be to actually get him to act like Hitler, until now. But the thing that I cannot forget is that a few short months ago, there were world leaders staking their reputations, and our future, on him being a reformer. The Assads are not the only ones who are cut off from the realities developing on the ground: the entire world seems to be in the same boat. Our revolutions are wakeup calls to the entire world, but they come as a rude awakening of sorts, and some do not take kindly to that. Hence, the denial, the anger, the bloodshed, but so be it. All the sleepers have awakened, and we all have to deal with that.
A woman and her two children die in the town of Sauran in Hama Province due to shelling by Assad death squads http://youtu.be/PViA5k16chI a woman and her husband get killed by a sniper as they try to drive out of Hama City on August 3 http://youtu.be/k3c-gdNMZ7I Assad gangs roams the streets of Hama and terrorize the local population , http://youtu.be/BGEJ5wbcyXM http://youtu.be/nHB3GfU59VQ , http://youtu.be/036eR4fCWRo A former detainee is delivered to his folks dead with his body revealing signs of torture. The tape below his left knee says: the detainee Zakariyah Lahlah. This is how security thugs identify the corpses http://youtu.be/6wq8SPtb6Ls Elsewhere in the province, major demonstrations broke out in Kafar Zita http://youtu.be/IrEZebBZzcM Taybat Al-Imam http://youtu.be/YHPwHl2QyOk
Syrian banks said to provide forged currency to clients as evident in this video made by employees from a state-run bank. The video shows 2 500-pound bills both dating from 1998 and belonging to the same batch, yet they show marked differences between them, clear evidence of forgery. Still, both bills have been obtained from the same bank and security apparatuses are said to be the main suppliers of these forged notes http://youtu.be/CgzLodn87t0
LATTAKIA
Protesters come under fire in Boustan Al-Seidawi Neighborhood on August 15 http://youtu.be/_BkFtmyO5m8 , http://youtu.be/bbpJF25VWto The presence of children in the streets was not a deterrence http://youtu.be/562Qk55zkuw Assad death squads celebrate their victory (August 16) http://youtu.be/Lolrhy5ZwDk Tanks invade the narrow streets of Al-Ramel Neighborhood (Aug 14) http://youtu.be/sA8X39ej9TM , http://youtu.be/x7ScdeC2cPk The night of August 15 http://youtu.be/i4tHq_5jB4M A wounded young man from August 13 http://youtu.be/SF4bSTjpYj4 Tanks and troops (Aug 14) http://youtu.be/hJmHG6QjD38 A martyr from August 15 http://youtu.be/NAIw6Abb-Ek Rescuing the wounded of Boustan Al-Seidawi on August 14 http://youtu.be/k1WHnwXuAFQ Tanks and troops celebrating http://youtu.be/R3Z1ADzRHGA
HOMS
Protests took place in Al-Khaldiyeh http://youtu.be/jB4kKschGLg , http://youtu.be/IDqHuA9fUOQ Al-Qoussour http://youtu.be/cCdVUdj6DPo Al-Bayadah http://youtu.be/Doe5CRVkhdc Stadium Street http://youtu.be/J5LHoKQmbj0 The city observed a general strike http://youtu.be/J90eVPe6RbE explosions heard in Baba Amr on August 15 http://youtu.be/dcoMa-qdMtE , http://youtu.be/C1RjUJ3ebhE Al-Qseir http://youtu.be/10dB2lZZyGU Elsewhere in the Province, Tadmor http://youtu.be/_P92oQG852w Talbisseh http://youtu.be/gKkdR2F-DjE , http://youtu.be/YZ5Xf6ujxlA Days of crackdown and many martyrs later, and Al-Houleh keeps fielding protesters http://youtu.be/G85Swny-A7s Deir Baalbah http://youtu.be/agBRDwUXz3w Rastan http://youtu.be/G2_5jstzgc0
DAMASCUS
Major protests took place in Douma http://youtu.be/nQDwNH1EMrI , http://youtu.be/gMiF10xFJ1A , http://youtu.be/Ag2LSxYraxI Madaya http://youtu.be/WN3jWXob9gE Midan http://youtu.be/RgfBFk3aTA0 , http://youtu.be/HeyZotnFleE , http://youtu.be/y3V5xGSaIHk Harasta http://youtu.be/wamh2Ki0d4A Al-Kisweh http://youtu.be/Bnp0gr2K8Ok Daraya (an all women demonstration) http://youtu.be/FMGNAmOwu64
IDLIB
Protests took place in Binnish http://youtu.be/QI7VloGf2zE Kafar Takhareem http://youtu.be/spTOoOQZ-54 Ma’arrat Al-Nouman http://youtu.be/Hwak1hG8mL0 Idlib City http://youtu.be/TUVi5y7PyFs Kafroumah http://youtu.be/cCLTybY6vTo Haass http://youtu.be/dDTfeFU-rRc Sarmeen http://youtu.be/aCOQnMxffCo Kafar Nabbol http://youtu.be/idl8MmEkpIY Jarjanaz http://youtu.be/ZbYLm2HzcUU
DEIR EZZOR
Assad death squads in action in Deir Ezzor City http://youtu.be/TAkNWNTNQ_s , http://youtu.be/grGT6eI7sF4 Still, protests take place at night http://youtu.be/iT3LPTUOKrw , http://youtu.be/rPz4UWz4PuE the martyr, Nibras Al-Sayyah http://youtu.be/TX47LxgzSsQ , http://youtu.be/wdecvhXk5Pk Elsewhere in the province: Mayadin http://youtu.be/sbO0FRQSpTE Albou Kamal http://youtu.be/1-1C6b-3bkI
HAURAN
Protests took place in Da’el http://youtu.be/vtA1N6My3Qo Al-Ghariyyeh http://youtu.be/EHEC2gpjUyI Al-Jizeh http://youtu.be/F2hra9UvGy0 Basr Al-Harir http://youtu.be/n1Pvq4Dzj88 Khirbet Ghazaleh http://youtu.be/9VuNlR5Qnc4 Smaller demonstrations also took place in Ankhel, Jassem, Sanamein, Al-Harrah, Nahteh, Tafas, Tseel and Al-Mleihah. Meanwhile tanks continue to be stations in key locations throughout Deraa City http://youtu.be/qCJ3mJReJa0 , http://youtu.be/zBVjlqG1rs4 , http://youtu.be/_4tBrF6L9P0 and throughout Al-Haraak http://youtu.be/GzMBb1VlC90 , http://youtu.be/nZQwO5ZAKWw , http://youtu.be/qC2i2VSf3Hg
ALEPPO
Firdoss http://youtu.be/iRVCBV97Nng Salaheddine http://youtu.be/HIr5QhNEA14
AL-HASSAKAH
Amoudeh http://youtu.be/55FBOu-cw80 Al-Qamsihly http://youtu.be/WpPI1wBkfFA
Hello, Ammar. I'm a journalist from Brazil and I would like to interview you about syrian revolution. I also want you to recommend me other blogs whose narrate the conflicts in Damasco and Syria, because my article will list them. Could you help me? My e-mail is rossana.silva@zerohora.com.br. Thank you.
ReplyDelete