So long as the debate over Syria still revolves around the issue
of whether to intervene rather than how to intervene, delusion will continue to
rule the day and disaster will keep inching its way to fulfillment.
Friday June 01, 2012 – A day dedicated to the
children of Houla
Today’s death toll: 50. The Breakdown: 21
in Damascus and suburbs including 2 children who were summarily executed, 12 in
Homs province including 3 children and 1 defected soldier, 6 in Aleppo including
3 children, 4 in Daraa including 2 women, 3 in Idlib including 1 child, 3 in
Hama and 1 in Deir Ezzor.
The Syrian Chargé d’Affaires in Yemen announces
his defection and support for the Syrian Revolution.
News
Op-Eds
& Special Reports
Leaked video shows
tanks driven by pro-Assad militias crushing the body of a local activist in Al-Barrah
Village, Idlib Province http://youtu.be/eX5rU_DBFAY
Highlighted Articles
What needs to be done
is quite straightforward: Under the auspices either of NATO or a coalition of
the willing, Washington should pursue air strikes against select targets,
especially the columns of tanks and heavy artillery that are bombing restive
towns indiscriminately.
The U.S. and its
allies should provide arms to local resistance fighters, enabling them to
secure their communities. They should create safe havens across the Turkish and
Jordanian borders. And they should encourage high-level defections by offering
amnesty to Assad's key military, security and political figures.
Washington should
build a coalition of peacekeepers who can maintain order in the country, and
work with opposition groups to piece together an interim governing body that
can take over once Assad's regime has fallen.
It won't be easy, and
it won't be cheap, but the cost of non-intervention will be much higher.
Comment: If the Russian
Church truly wants to protect Syria’s Christian communities, then removing
Assad should be Item Number 1 on its agenda, for it is Assad and his family who
have paved the way to the current situation and it is their dabbling with
Al-Qaeda that brought it to our backyard. Putin and his advisers know that
pretty well, and could have informed the patriarch of the Russian Church.
Instead, they play them like puppets and motion them to express for Assad and his
regime. But, the naivety and/or duplicity of Russian patriarchs
notwithstanding, one thing should be clear: Putin and his advisers care as much
about the future of Christians in Syria as they do about the concerns,
aspirations and basic rights of Russia’s own opposition groups.
Putin’s gambit is
clear and simple: he wants to rebuild the foregone imperial prestige of the
good old Soviet Union even at the expense of our aspirations for freedom. And
yes, many of the experts I met during my recent visit to Moscow reiterated
elements of the argument
below:
What if the line in
the sand that Mr Putin wants to draw is not about Russia's prestige and role in
the Security Council? What if his plan is far grander: halting, at the gates of
Damascus, what he sees as the green tide of Sunni Islamism stretching from
Morocco, through North Africa and the Levant to Turkey and thence almost to
Russia's unstable southern border? If that is the case then to prosecute a
civil war in Syria, far from being a disaster, is both necessary and desirable
- like the one he fought in Chechnya.
Meanwhile, Putin’s dear
old friend, Bashar Assad, continues to unleash his thugs so they can bombard the churches of Old Homs and to
prevent a Christian family in Damascus from holding
a proper funeral for her martyred son. After all, he was killed while
documenting the atrocities of pro-Assad thugs.
“Defections in Deir
Ezzor City and surrounding areas have increased dramatically over the last few
days,” said Ammar Abdulhamid in his daily Syrian Revolution Digest.
“Most of the city and the larger province seems to have fallen under the
control of the local resistance.”
Abdulhamid, who has
been a leading pro-democracy activist in exile from his native Syria, also
commented in an email, “Increased death and suffering with an end-game in sight
is something most Syrians would accept at this stage, because by now the only
choice we have is to get to the other side no matter how high the cost will be.
It’s the combination of death and abandonment that fuels extremism and kills
hope.”
Abdulhamid also
reported that authorities and pro-Assad militias in Damascus prevented a
funeral for the Christian activist Bassil Shahada in order to avoid what he
called “an embarrassing show of anti-Assad sentiments” by the city’s large
Christian community. “Assad and his supporters are still trying to portray the
revolution as an exclusively radical Sunni phenomenon, but, in truth,
discontent with Assad rule is endemic to all communities in Syria,” Abdulhamid
said.
German Chancellor
Angela Merkel said Thursday that she would talk about Syria during Putin’s
visit, which had been scheduled to focus on economics. “A disaster is taking
place in Syria, and we will do everything we can to alleviate the suffering of
the people,” Merkel told reporters in Stralsund, Germany. “There’s growing
demand to do something,” said Stefan Kornelius, foreign editor of the German
daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. “But nobody knows what that something would be.”
Video Highlights
In the town of Hamouriyeh,
Damascus, a family of two women and two children is found slaughtered. Local blame
roving pro-Assad death squads which have been operating in the area for a while
http://youtu.be/7GyzIVNCVb4 , http://youtu.be/xQ0_W7bN2iM
Tens of thousands of
local residents in Aleppo City march towards the central square chanting
for freedom and the Free Syrian Army http://youtu.be/RoysSRWz06s
, http://youtu.be/P4RogxTDHag
Different rallies come from different parts of town before converging on Saadallah
Al-Jabiri Square http://youtu.be/BOC5uF7SSz4
, http://youtu.be/9GiJTRi4obg , http://youtu.be/dG-1zplNlnA , http://youtu.be/KTLtKXHFetA But the
moment they arrive at the Square, pro-Assad militias open fire on them http://youtu.be/CkJjiYUqAhk But some
protesters hold their ground on the outskirts of the Square and throw stones at
the militias http://youtu.be/3QXoglUZ55k
In Sakhour suburb, protesters come under fire before they leave the
neighborhood http://youtu.be/ZoVIQJFCsos
Rescuing the injured http://youtu.be/UCR7nKmMPzo
Some children are killed http://youtu.be/J-rG3-TZD-g
The pounding of Homs City continues from morning (Jouret
Al0-Shayah) http://youtu.be/F1boBrIvQB8
, http://youtu.be/jd-H9R26dNw , http://youtu.be/8E3sjV4sRHw way into the
night http://youtu.be/2tPT4j9m7DQ
Setting whole buildings on fire Qoussour http://youtu.be/UWGkB41byBI Malaab
http://youtu.be/LePuYnP-rV8 Khaldiyeh
http://youtu.be/sgMY2rZrHig , http://youtu.be/2mPOjennRFw Martyrs
http://youtu.be/R5JGKP68Ikg , http://youtu.be/oar2MAPBYa4
Tanks continue to
pound the town of Rastan http://youtu.be/26QvL217Hrw
while others pound Houla http://youtu.be/SXJeMVo1m1c
, http://youtu.be/6cd_M8cUoTc And In Qusayr
where shelling kills several http://youtu.be/UczJu4B-7qA
The shelling was meant to break up this rally http://youtu.be/wSeCwRHLJho
Eastern
Bouyadah,
Homs Province: UN monitors pay a visit to the site of Thursday’s massacres
perpetrated by pro-Assad death squads http://youtu.be/CxkEloj0_gU , http://youtu.be/vrnSSMLf0j0 , http://youtu.be/smkS3D8CtHM
The town of Al-Atarib,
Aleppo Province comes under heavy pounding http://youtu.be/UGLSd3BsUK0
Protesters in the neighborhood
of Salhiyeh in Central Damascus come under fire http://youtu.be/cDmbWzu_5cU The town of Douma,
east of Damascus, comes under heavy pounding http://youtu.be/WREOxgQlTRA The Damascene
suburb of Daraya comes under pounding http://youtu.be/pVHZ2oKypLU
Despite
the violent crackdown, hundreds of rallies took place across the country, even
in Houla and many other communities that have witnessed massacres and still
witness bombardments and attacks by pro-Assad militias and death squads.
Homs: Houla http://youtu.be/qKxbq0RhgXw Qaryatein
http://youtu.be/9HTThQtwPeo Rastan
http://youtu.be/ncMTkbgNpi0 Talbisseh
http://youtu.be/v7MqdDLCG6Q Homs
City (Wa’er) http://youtu.be/SzsuhcpwaVo
Qusayr (funeral) http://youtu.be/4gu3HOeNZuE
Damascus: Barzeh http://youtu.be/si2I561GLgs Zamalka
http://youtu.be/6pV_-LyMH-8 Yabroud http://youtu.be/ht3RmR1xM_8 Daraya
(funeral) http://youtu.be/lYlE_MoouWU
Douma http://youtu.be/XpctnR742gU
Qarrah http://youtu.be/3aYNoI3dcFM
Yarmouk http://youtu.be/mtYiU6QC4FI
Harasta http://youtu.be/UKgA4eSqM9k
Mazzeh http://youtu.be/aLL64Y8-yE0
Idlib: Ma’arrat Massreen
http://youtu.be/rLOD_fE07Nc Kafar
Takhareem http://youtu.be/bGvdM0e8xxE
Khan Shaikhoon http://youtu.be/RrK12r3t7gk
Ma’arrat Hourmah http://youtu.be/zdRGninl-F4
Kafroumah http://youtu.be/l5JkYRE_6x0
Courine http://youtu.be/vombLqRVjzI
Kafrenbel http://youtu.be/PJ5HZiVgl88
Salqeen http://youtu.be/8VxcIA8uJvY
Ariha http://youtu.be/2uT_zGqoxKs
Tilmens http://youtu.be/K3yRqUNY7Pc
Kastan http://youtu.be/yCfTxDNGv-A
Hama: Kafrenboudeh
http://youtu.be/I_SMs9fK6vg Taybat
Al-Imam http://youtu.be/GHQeA4DgO5A
Karnaz http://youtu.be/yOTbE2fc5EQ
Ellatamneh http://youtu.be/K6CwfgpdDLs
Hama City (Aleppo Road) http://youtu.be/bkLnC4hlzk4
Madeeq http://youtu.be/953fI0HVPJY
Kafar Zeiteh http://youtu.be/uwhZdiIL1kk
Deir
Ezzor Procvince:
Albou Kamal http://youtu.be/8DJIJOdrHVA
Jbeileh http://youtu.be/7LkMt_mqxaE
Deir Ezzor City http://youtu.be/7Pg8RomeXoo
Aleppo: Dar Azzah http://youtu.be/0cqvAqXn5zM Elbab
http://youtu.be/ana3O5jh2p0 Jineh
http://youtu.be/OdXT-K-r640 Ibyan
http://youtu.be/oWUE5IDbzfI Eizaz
http://youtu.be/CpRrw3SYRT0 Tal
Rif’aat http://youtu.be/L-Smie2JETw
Bza’ah http://youtu.be/VxfmWqJk9Z8
Kobani http://youtu.be/8lrnHR5hnZo
Anadan http://youtu.be/T58i9FBS0aY
Hreitan http://youtu.be/_VV8r9wmKfo
Daraa: Kafar Shams http://youtu.be/1VvxNfxNTc0 Khirbet Ghazaleh
http://youtu.be/gry3Vp1dmRc Nasseeb
http://youtu.be/3XMgDe3cvco Bosra
http://youtu.be/HUjfs7buWMA Yadoudeh
http://youtu.be/Cy_oSgqRDtc Mseifrah
http://youtu.be/A_OzOjdtPBg Daraa
City (Al-Balad) http://youtu.be/Z4VYVofVSUo
Tafas http://youtu.be/_PAIAeA0Fhc
Hassakeh: Qamishlo http://youtu.be/pMiptd3yFho , http://youtu.be/c6mGjlQVJ28
Amoudeh http://youtu.be/MgGJ31Mhy2k Ras
Al-Ain http://youtu.be/w4VIwYydkYk
Ghuweiran http://youtu.be/1aEnsk019Ok
Lattakia: Hiffeh http://youtu.be/CGXX9G6JboE
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