“How is it that
Assad is still in power?” This question by Nobel Laureate and Holocaust
survivor Elie Wiesel will continue to hang over President Obama’s head until
Assad is removed. The mere delay is a stain on President Obama’s record and honor.
Sunday April 29, 2012
More
than 450 people were reported killed in the period of April 24-29 in the ongoing
crackdown against protesters ... The cities of Homs and Hama and surrounding communities
continue to be pounded by pro-Assad troops ... The northern province of Deir
Ezzor has become a battleground between pro-Assad militias and members of the local
resistance, especially the town of Mouhassan ... Authorities report attacks on
a number of targets along the coast of Lattakia, but details remain murky as no
opposition groups claim credits ... A ship reportedly carrying weapons and supplies
to rebel groups was halted by Lebanese authorities off the coast of Lebanon ...
New “suicide” attacks were reported, with timing and contradictory reports spread
by local media suggesting the attacks were government-staged as was the case on
previous occasions.
News
Op-Eds & Special Reports
President Obama is on the right track with
Monday's executive order, but the United States needs to get tougher on the
global digital arms race.
Obama’s Atrocities Prevention Board
institutionalizes indifference to mass murder.
“The greatest tragedy in history could have been
prevented had the civilized world spoken up, taken measures,” he said,
referring to the Holocaust and how its perpetrators “always wanted to see what
would be the reaction in Washington and London and Rome, and there was no
reaction so they felt they could continue.” So he asked the audience at
Monday’s ceremony: “Have we learned anything from it? If so, how is it that
Assad is still in power?”
SNC & the Obama Administration
SNC
leader, Burhan Ghalioun, and other figures from the SNC Executive Office, were scheduled
to attend an event arranged by The Atlantic Council and the Hariri Center in Washington,
D.C. on April 26, followed by meetings with a number of ranking Congressmen. The
event cancelled at the last minute, and according to an email sent out by Mr. Ghalioun
to a number of Syrian lists by way of explanation, the decision was made after
a long meeting with Mr. Jeffrey Feltman, Assistant Secretary of State for Near
Eastern Affairs, and Mr. Frederick Hoff, the Obama Administration point man on
Syria.
“We found
it better,” Ghalioun said, “to wait for an official invitation to be sent
instead of one from a research center, considering how significant this will be
to the image of the Council.”
More
importantly, he goes on, “we find that it will not be useful today to create
any contradiction [sic] between Congress and Administration. It is not
politically proper for us not to show consideration to the Administration’s
request that we postpone this visit. The administration has undertaken to
contact all congressmen and explain the situation to them and to arrange for
higher level meetings with all at the next possible opportunity.”
In a
follow up communication, and after people on the list complained that this is a
wasted opportunity, he explains that Feltman and Hoff promised to “arrange for
a combined meeting with the Administration and the Congress during a future
visit.”
Let’s see
if I got this correct. The Administration has agreed to recognize the SNC at a
certain point in the future if its leaders agreed in return to avoid embarrassing
the Administration politically by showing up in town so soon after Elie Wiesel challenged
Obama’s credibility on Syria?
How will
this benefit the people who are dying every day in Syria? And “how
is it that Assad is still in power?”
Be that as
it may, as far as many Syrians are concerned, Mr. Obama has lost his
credibility on Syria long ago. It will take much more than recognizing the perennially
dysfunctional SNC to redeem him in our eyes. It will take a safe haven, it will
take support to the people on the ground, it will take air strikes, it will leading
from where leading is actually done, it will take doing everything he can to
ensure Assad’s removal from power, it will take a backbone. Hopefully, he’ll
manage to develop one in time, because this is not a comedy routine for us, but more like, how
shall I put it?, slaughter.
Syria’s
Political Opposition: A report by the Institute for the Study of War
* The SNC has not
meaningfully engaged with local opposition forces, and is losing credibility
and influence within Syria as the conflict grows more militarized.
* The other significant
established political opposition coalition is the National Coordination
Committee (NCC ). The NCC is based in Damascus and favors a negotiated
political settlement and dialogue with the regime. This stance has made the NCC
less popular amongst the grassroots opposition movement.
* The grassroots
movement functions at a local and regional level through coordination between
the local coordinating committees and revolutionary councils. This movement has
become tactically adept, better organized, and more cohesive, developing
nascent political structures.
* The established
political coalitions such as the SNC have articulated a national vision for a
post-Assad future and have received nominal support from the international
community, yet they lack strong networks and popular legitimacy inside Syria.
On the other hand, the grassroots political opposition has gained the support
of the people, but it lacks a national vision and united front as the basis for
international support.
* A bottom-up strategy
would provide an avenue for U.S. support that incorporates both national and
local opposition groups and encourages the emergence of a legitimate national
political leadership.
The Assads and Al-Qaeda
The only
Al-Qaeda cells that operate in Syria are those manipulated by Assad’s security
apparatuses. The suicide bombings are directly staged or facilitated by them.
Issues pertaining to the timing and real beneficiaries, and everything we know
about the Assads’ involvement in terror networks all point in this direction. And
for those who forgot, here is a reminder http://youtu.be/F-wfOpPhLLc
.
Objectivity demands that international
media outlets say whenever they report on such developments in Syria that many
experts believe, on the basis of their analysis of available footage in the
past, that the Assads are in the habit of staging terrorist attacks inside
Syria when that suits their purposes. I am referring here not only to the attacks
that were staged during the revolution, but even to attacks in previous years, including
the attack on the American Embassy in 2006. It’s not enough to say that the
opposition casts doubts, when there are many respected experts who also do.
Video Highlights
A new
child martyr from Mouhassan, Deir Ezzor Province http://youtu.be/nC6RTRnS7Qg Another
9-year old Qouriyeh, Deir Ezzor Province http://youtu.be/E8RJwcqGwcA
Finding
deformed cadavers like this is becoming commonplace – Saraqib, Idlib
Province http://youtu.be/2BqfIf3sBsI
Defections
and the formation of new fighting units remain commonplace as well – Aleppo Province
http://youtu.be/9Zp6DOlY1Wo Hama
Province http://youtu.be/cdIInYkuygA Hama
City http://youtu.be/mKA14UYTOQ0 Homs
Province http://youtu.be/hO9UOokiWK0
The pounding
of towns continues: Alatareb, Aleppo http://youtu.be/8J9JKsFc-_A
People
keep burying their dead with all due defiance: Douma, Damascus http://youtu.be/0eShUfnBzMA
And the men
and women of Homs City continue to defy death in their colorful manner http://youtu.be/M-TkoU0YZPs
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