When our people demonstrated peacefully, they were shot at by snipers and attacked with
tanks, when they finally began fighting back, they were pounded with heavy artillery
and helicopters, when armed fighters withdrew from towns and cities after they ran
out of ammunition, pro-Assad militias went in and perpetrated massacres, and yet,
and yet, somehow, the resistance continues, and the revolution spreads. With
light weapons, and little help from the outside world, the Syrian popular resistance is
taking on a criminal consortium that stretches from Russia and China to Iran,
Iraq and Lebanon. Add in Venezuela and Belarus for good measure. We don’t plan
on being defeated, and we’re no longer waiting for help. While geopolitical
imperatives continue to trump the moral ones in policy circles around the world,
the only thing that counts for us is staying the course, bitter be the end or
sweet. Backing down is a breaking of our spirit, something we cannot live with
anymore. We've been there, we’ve done that, and it didn’t feel right. So we rebelled.
And that’s that.
Thursday June 14, 2012
Death tolls: 78. The Breakdown: 28 in Damascus, 19 in
Homs, 13 in Daraa, 5 in Lattakia, 4 in Deir Ezzor, 2 in each of Aleppo, Idlib,
Hama and Hassakeh, and 1 in Raqqah.
9 of the dead in Damascus were executed in the town of Hammourieh
by pro-Assad militias. Some were shot, others had their throats slit http://youtu.be/sneRJRxdkPM , http://youtu.be/eZPRDvD4aig , http://youtu.be/ZW1AbTgeR5s , http://youtu.be/UM3bi9kY-RQ
The nearby towns of Misraba, Douma and Harasta continue to be
targets for shelling. The Pounding of Douma http://youtu.be/x8vJTL0zM8w , http://youtu.be/lF7IR6o0qVc , http://youtu.be/HEavVTlAcAw Tanks Storm
In http://youtu.be/opZ3BOZQ6E8 The
Martyrs of Douma http://youtu.be/9ER_MwSnVsg
, http://youtu.be/SDWbYe0-b7Q , http://youtu.be/epdueD2Erdg , http://youtu.be/cFJBnj10VBo , http://youtu.be/yjIkJYY4a54 , http://youtu.be/wb8hHmwD8Z4 , http://youtu.be/AIxLUdGmtrQ , http://youtu.be/oUVMdGx4-mM , http://youtu.be/1dhex7OaUFs , http://youtu.be/K1C_Nhnyu7o , http://youtu.be/JIy77Dogpkc Impact of
Pounding In Douma http://youtu.be/3cjYqwNqK-c
Snipers in Action http://youtu.be/vca-mDQI2yU
The Pounding of Misraba http://youtu.be/rYSqAH4vTaM
The town of Anadan in Aleppo is undergoing intense pounding
http://youtu.be/dsHNK_9YKn0 , http://youtu.be/fnlrPGoHv-k Pro-Assad
militias put fire to the crops http://youtu.be/f_VcAjXGvZU
In Daraa Province, 5 were killed in the pounding the town of Heet
and many were injured in the pounding of the town of Nasseef near the border
with Jordan. The Martyrs of Heet http://youtu.be/ira5mlvT95E
, http://youtu.be/hEv8C5YyolU
Impromptu funeral http://youtu.be/-ERpc5D-DBU
Meanwhile, Jordanian authorities continue to deny entry through
its airport to Syrians trying to get to Amman. Refugees in Jordanian camps
complain of restrictions on their movement, and of poor living conditions.
And of course the pounding of Homs City continues http://youtu.be/MSt1XztpbvI , http://youtu.be/tS4RASfYCH0 , http://youtu.be/WGN_tJCZO9A , http://youtu.be/0cPOWR3jcI4 And Talbisseh
http://youtu.be/GRs5xP0KLtc , http://youtu.be/hTq0YqqVM1Q And Rastan
http://youtu.be/NJyWT_9H4LY , http://youtu.be/Gy7rhjtdBlU , http://youtu.be/M71DEESe5Ds Martyrs http://youtu.be/W7Flh5qiF4A , http://youtu.be/zH5NOzxkdTc
News
'Stench of dead bodies'
in Syria's al Haffe (My Comment: No bodies were found, because they were all
taken by pro-Assad militias to hid traces of their crime. We will not know the
full extent of the massacre that took place for a while to come.)
The
overnight barrage from nearby hills followed the withdrawal of hundreds of
troops backed by tanks that had entered the city on Wednesday to root out
rebels, the sources said. About 200 people were wounded in the shelling, they
said.
Op-Eds
& Special Reports
The
creation of safe havens will save civilian lives and reduce the influence of
Islamists in the Syrian opposition. It will show the Syrian elite that the
Assad regime is finished. And it will end Putin’s perverse free ride.
Syrian
opposition activists tell me that the Russian Embassy in Washington has
scheduled several meetings with different factions of the external opposition.
"The Russians offer power-sharing with Assad," says a leading Syrian
human-rights and pro-democracy activist, Ammar Abdulhamid. "They want to
push the opposition to talk to the regime." Abdulhamid said Russian
Embassy officials "told opposition activists: 'The Americans won't help
you. You had better come to us.' "Syrian activists regard the Russian
proposals as a mere face-saver for Assad. Indeed, the Kremlin firmly believes
the Assad regime can survive the current upheavals.
Syrian
oppositionist Ammar Abdul- Hamid and the Christian Science Monitor newspaper,
for example, first detailed the use of attack helicopters against civilian
protesters in Syria on June 15, 2011.
In Syria, life goes on
despite violence
(A report on daily life in Al-Qusayr, Homs Province)
Videos
from my participation at “From glasnost to the Arab Spring: the moral
foundation of anti-authoritarian revolutions,” an 1-day conference organized by
the American Enterprise Institute, on June 13, 2012 Unity of Expectations http://bcove.me/wh9zrder Death but not
Humiliation http://bcove.me/hixtkf0p Entire Panel http://bcove.me/hixtkf0p
Statement from the
People of Houla
We write this letter
in the name of the residents of the four cities of Houla (Taldo, Kafarlaha,
Taldahab, al-Tiba al-Gharbiya), in response to a disgusting slur published in
the weekend in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung German newspaper, which
shamefully presented lies as facts in the report written by reporter Rainer
Hermann and published on June 7, 2012. The report cast the 108 people who died
here at the hands of the regime as conspirators instead of victims. In almost four weeks since this dreadful act
of savagery was brought to our village, we have been contacted by numerous
reporters from many countries, all of whom have been in search of the truth.
None of us recall being contacted by a German or non-German reporter that works
for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. We most certainly have not been
contacted by Rainer Hermann or any representative of the Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung.
The least that can be
said about the claims of the newspaper that the families killed were Alawite
and that the FSA is responsible for the massacre, is that they are ridiculous.
Everyone who is involved with the Syrian issue knows that the four cities of
Houla are exclusively Sunni, and all the families who lost members to this
slaughter are identifiably Sunni.
To anyone foolish
enough to doubt this we invite you to look at the Sunni burial rituals, which
are there for all to see on videos posted on YouTube.
The FSA is an
essential part of Houla. They are our brothers, fathers, uncles and sons. Any
reporter suggesting that they are in fact the villains in this plot are
woefully blind or lying.
To conclude we say
without reservation that this reporter spoke to no one from Houla before
compiling his disgusting report from Damascus. If he has spoken to anyone at
all it is stooges put up by the regime in an attempt to deceive. Despite the
renewed anguish that this reporter has caused our community and the shame he
has brought to himself and his newspaper, we invite him to come to our village
to interview survivors and meet the community he has defamed. We guarantee him
protection from justifiably angry residents here but wonder whether he first
has the courage to slip from the grip of his masters in Damascus.
Video Highlights
It
should be borne in mind that the peaceful pro-democracy rallies continue
throughout the country, despite my inability to keep reporting them.
Damascus: Kafar Sousseh
http://youtu.be/FJOPs0P461Q Daraya
http://youtu.be/ss1TPAt5eTs Jobar
http://youtu.be/wRhAeR4avy4
Deir
Ezzor City:
funeral http://youtu.be/wmvcgtFg6sE
Aleppo
City:
Boustan Al-Qasr http://youtu.be/4LSgb0xI4_Y
Sukkari http://youtu.be/AKICZpCAH90
Aleppo: Manbij http://youtu.be/-5Td_gkYSKc Protesters
come under fire http://youtu.be/zzeeoc6QqaM
Hassakeh: Malkiyeh http://youtu.be/gDI8P45SmR0 Qamishlo
http://youtu.be/gHG_Bg03STk Dirbassiyeh
http://youtu.be/mX9NPmgmVS0
Daraa: Daraa City
(funeral) http://youtu.be/qPQPDjhLL0o
Idlib: Kafroumah http://youtu.be/7Dk45h9Sni0 Hazzano
http://youtu.be/aSKvNOLU9fc
Hama: Karnaz http://youtu.be/m6lYY-2iR-U
Homs
City:
Wa’er (funeral) http://youtu.be/hdQfrGqp6PM
An analysis of FAZ, Seale on Houla:
ReplyDeletehttp://mneumann.tripod.com/seale.htm