Loyalist
security troops, Arab monitors and now foreign journalists and even the
loyalist civilian base, the Assads have always been lucky regarding the nature
of terrorist acts that take place in their neighborhood. Terrorists seem to
have a soft spot for them: they always attack at times that are most opportune
for the Assads, and the choice of targets has always been amazingly fortuitous
for them. But despite knowing them to be the real culprits, the world continues
to dither. It’s on this lingering tendency that the Assads are hedging their
bets.
Wednesday 11, 2012
Today’s death toll: 28. The breakdown:
8 (Homs City), 15 in Hama Province, 1 in Deir Ezzor…
The deaths in Homs City occurred when mortar rounds fell on a
pro-Assad rally attended by foreign journalists who had been brought in by
loyalist security forces. The dead included a French journalist, Gilles
Jacquier, and 7 locals. 2 other foreign journalists, a Belgian and a Dutch,
were injured.
Protesters say that use of heavy artillery in the attack is clear
indication that the regime itself is behind it, since rebels have no access to
such weaponry. Indeed, no pro-Assad rally has ever been targeted before. Many
argue that for the attacks to take place at this stage when foreign journalists
have been brought into the city for the first time since the beginning of the
Revolution is simply too convenient.
We cannot forget in this regard as well that recently Arab League
monitors came under attack from loyalists in Lattakia City. It should also be
obvious that protesters would never risk hurting the very people who are taking
their story to the world, seeing that almost every story filed by foreign
journalists who were allowed access to the country has served to corroborate
the protesters’ version of events. Let’s not forget here, as some protester have noted, that
dozens of foreign correspondents have come and gone to Homs City where they lived,
walked and even danced with the protesters, such as this Japanese journalist http://youtu.be/rBz5gDbanv4 with no
incidents whatsoever. It’s only when and where there are regime officials,
security men and TV crews that we see these incidents take place. Why?
(Answer below)
Meanwhile, protesters throughout the country have dedicated Thursday
January 12 to the memory of Gilles Jacquier.
In, Hama, the 15 reported deaths happened as part of an attack by
loyalist troops on the towns of Karnaz and Kafranboudeh. Locals say that Kafranboudeh
was targeted due to presence of defectors, and that clashes left many loyalist
troops dead and injured as well.
Links
The Macabre Gambit of the Assads
After 10
months of protests, the Assads seem to have realized that they have so far
failed to produce any videos similar to those made by protesters, videos that
can highlight their own suffering. But how can they when they have not really
been suffering? Had they been any suffering, had their loyalists been really
targeted, as they so often claim, videos of it would have emerged long ago,
organically, made by their own followers using that same weapon used by
protesters and known as the cellphone. The absence of that suffering has been
undermining the Assads’ credibility in the ranks of their own supporters of
late. The suffering of Assad’s supporters, their victimhood, which has so far
been imagined, can no longer be relied upon as the sole instrument of control
and manipulation. The people’s ability to lie and believe their own lies has
finally reached its limits. There is now a need for what has long been imagined
to become real in order for the Assads to retain control over their camp.
This
realization, which must have dawned upon the Assads recently, seems to have compelled
them to stage the very events they need in order claim that they are
suffering too, if not even more. Hence the presence of professional loyalist camera
crews in each and every one incident, including the attack on the loyalist
rally in the majority-Alawite neighborhood of Ikrimah in Homs City, which left
Gilles Jacquier and 7 loyalists dead. Reliance on these crews might change in
the future, however, and production values might improve, as the Assads read
criticism of their mediocre oeuvres, such as this one, and learn.
But their
shrinking loyalist base is not the only intended audience that the Assads have
in minds, international observers are also targeted. For while they might be
willing to see the obvious for now, that is, the staging and the lies, sooner
or later, some will be forced to wonder whether there isn’t any truth beyond
all these “dastardly deeds!” For, who in his right mind would do this to his
own people?, they will begin to wonder, even though the Assads have been doing this
and more to their own people for all these long and bloody months? The Assads
don’t view their supporters as human beings any more than they do their
opponents. To them all Syrians are pawns and tools to be used to serve their
own interests. Their supporters at this stage are their only remaining
hostages, some of which can be executed in order to keep them in check, and in
order to send a message to those trying to free them.
Of
course, what the Assads want the most is for them to stop having to stage
events down the road. What they really want is for some protesters to begin
committing the very crimes of which they have been falsely accused from the
start. Protest leaders have so far managed to find ways to keep things in
check, but the more the international community dither on the issue of
intervention the more difficult maintaining these checks will become.
Had the possibility
of devolution into mayhem not been real, there would have been no need to call
for foreign intervention. Protesters have been undermining the Assads on their
own so far, and the sanctions have definitely helped, and would have probably
been sufficient. But it is this damn scenario that the Assads keep pushing and which
is finding some real resonance within small circles in the ranks of their
supporters that is truly frightening.
Unless
end-game looms the serious fissures that exist in the Assad camp will not
surface. End-game at this stage means international intervention and the
establishment of buffer zones. Only when these scenarios begin to play
themselves out on the ground will we see the major defections need to weaken
and isolate the Assads.
Meanwhile,
this is the type of videos of which the Assads will be producing more and more
in the days and weeks to come http://youtu.be/q0hRhhyiM_4
Video Highlights
Leaked video – whereabouts unknown: Assad
loyalists storm into a protest community, shooting randomly at homes, and
making random arrests http://youtu.be/pG3C7E3HjHE
Sooner or
later though, loyalists will have to come to terms with the fact that they
simply cannot defeat this: http://youtu.be/RwpQ6MPJ_l4
(Deir Ezzor city, Jan 11)
Loyalist
storm into the town of Kafrenboudeh in Hama Province http://youtu.be/Shecw9y7MVU , http://youtu.be/RtZD3UfSw0M And the
pounding begins http://youtu.be/h1r5cpBa3JA
Three martyrs http://youtu.be/GRTWYX9urwM
An impromptu funeral for 4 martyrs http://youtu.be/D-fSlY4L8HA
More martyrs http://youtu.be/mAtO1Y8IV6w
, http://youtu.be/JWJGtdgVdRM , http://youtu.be/J-Ck9hdDtSw Sample of the shells used http://youtu.be/Pm6VHtRR5r0 Elsewhere in
Hama, there were martyrs in Taybat Al-Imam http://youtu.be/hZEFDBnYwoU and Karnaz
http://youtu.be/9tnMickZkXs
Khalidyeh Neighborhood in Homs City comes under fire http://youtu.be/p48XIujyyeU Impact of
shelling on homes http://youtu.be/na6G6WeyJyY
Wadi Al-Arab Neighborhood also came under fire leaving several seriously
injured http://youtu.be/LjgxEBvL3to Boustan
Al-Diwan as well, leaving this martyr http://youtu.be/4-FLMGEVeSw
In the Damascene
Suburb of Moadamiyeh, loyalist militias drive their trucks into crowds
of protesters while shooting. After all, their lord and master has just
declared open season on dissent. http://youtu.be/fYrku8HRyIk
Elsewhere
in Damascus, Assad showed
up at a loyalist rally in Omayad Square, accompanied by his
withered rose of the desert, his trophy wife with the atrophied soul, and their
future orphans, and all 3,000 people (a portion of whom said to be Lebanese,
including Aun supporters and Hezbollah members) were happy http://youtu.be/2QsXgLiepHk But just in
case the rally wasn’t so pro-him, he slipped out of the square by growing
through the nearby bushes http://youtu.be/mLU1ezyn5J0
Next, it will be sewer time!
As Kurds
join the protest movement more forcefully, offering martyrs and holding
funerals are fast becoming part of the routine: a funeral for 3 martyrs in the
town of Qamishly in Hassakeh Province http://youtu.be/AwY9a9anevk , http://youtu.be/2oaydEpU7Z4 In neighboring
Amoudeh, locals receive a delegation of Arab League monitors http://youtu.be/hjexQI2czzA , http://youtu.be/5h-zMgeYSps , http://youtu.be/aL8HWV_NZaI
Another
AL delegation went to Idlib City http://youtu.be/UJs-EChmi7o
, http://youtu.be/c02Vo5y32AI Elsewhere
in the restive province, specifically in Kafar Takhareem, loyalists open
fire at night http://youtu.be/iiN0zSdgQ4c
Mass
funerals continue to take place: Deir Ezzor City (Deir Ezzor) locals
bury some of the 15 locals killed by loyalists on Jan 10 http://youtu.be/z6Nxq_MT8Vw , http://youtu.be/I4Ob7HJexFE , http://youtu.be/U1Km1AapAW0 , http://youtu.be/MLVyzfV_Kfs Mourners
came under fire http://youtu.be/gOBoxgTyito
but remained defiant http://youtu.be/RwpQ6MPJ_l4
Other
funerals: Deir Baalbah (Homs City) http://youtu.be/-qvIPziHJCU
, http://youtu.be/R3p-ZGxUif8 Ma’arrat
Al-Nouman (Idlib) http://youtu.be/BtcqkL4rRME
Khan Shaikhoon (Idlib) http://youtu.be/BmwnVTrLioI
, http://youtu.be/DBOkWu1zXe0
Students
in Aleppo University remain in a defiant mode with a new sit-in http://youtu.be/iyn31HWKI8Y , http://youtu.be/WqqgGDqAp1w , http://youtu.be/kcTprPQWry0 In Rural
Aleppo, Marei remains a protest hotspot http://youtu.be/tauzUy7lsmA But the
contagion continues to spread to other communities (Dabiq) http://youtu.be/dR1cnv1EKBM Kafar
Nouran http://youtu.be/VCamXVfPe7M
Defections
in Deraa (Jan 10) http://youtu.be/J-CmNf_PXLU More
defections (Homs on Jan 11) http://youtu.be/M65Pa8_awuk
Homs City: funeral for 6 martyrs (Jan 10) http://youtu.be/k3WRpTlD1lE The
bodies belong to local activists who were arrested back in October of 2011.
It’s not clear when they died, but the bodies were kept on ice the central morgue.
All bodies show signs of severe torture http://youtu.be/UP9PUpQDn_I
This body belonging to a 25-year old activist was burnt, it’s not clear if the
activist was alive at the time, or if it were done after he died http://youtu.be/iDBo6llSHS0
Meanwhile,
Damascus continues to simmer and sizzle:
The City Qaboun http://youtu.be/xo02xjpkCQU Barzeh
http://youtu.be/k2Y2qP0gv1Q , http://youtu.be/sUiVx8KQJW0 Al-Hajar
Al-Aswad http://youtu.be/JJ0iby-WbOI
Shoueikeh http://youtu.be/hJlLFtf5gck
Midan http://youtu.be/oVsWXxSl7Mc
And in Daraya, high school girls continue to lead the way http://youtu.be/uRnvTQUJkqE After
student anti-Assad rallies are now a fact of daily life all over the
country.
East Arbeen
http://youtu.be/ohjHBPKqYRg Saqba
http://youtu.be/XH0giUVk3l8 , http://youtu.be/OZna5PtL7-M Kafar
Batna http://youtu.be/H_4tSMMX8F8
Douma http://youtu.be/MoPp7OTJW7Y Zamalka http://youtu.be/zDD2fuuaamg
North Rankous
http://youtu.be/iflqQvd6uNc Dmeir
http://youtu.be/6bXjOVoePM4
West Zabadani
http://youtu.be/aUEgGxlV3dI
South Kisweh,
an all-women rally despite the fact that community is under military siege http://youtu.be/ofvR8piaaGA
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