By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Suleiman al-Khalidi
AMMAN | Fri Apr 29, 2011 5:56pm EDT
AMMAN (Reuters) - Security forces killed more than 60 people across Syria on Friday during demonstrations demanding the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, and the United States imposed new sanctions on key figures.
A medical source told Reuters soldiers in Deraa killed 19 people when they fired on thousands of protesters descending from nearby villages in a show of solidarity with the southern city where Syria's uprising broke out six weeks ago.
Syrian human rights group Sawasiah said it had the names of a total of 62 people killed during protests in Deraa, Rustun, Latakia, Homs and the town of Qadam, near Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave a similar death toll.
Friday's bloodshed occurred as demonstrators across the country again defied heavy military deployments, mass arrests and a ruthless crackdown on the biggest popular challenge to 48 years of authoritarian Baath Party rule.
U.S. President Barack Obama imposed new sanctions against Syrian figures, including a brother of Assad in charge of troops in Deraa, the first diplomatic reprisal for Syria's violent crackdown.
Obama signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the intelligence agency, Assad's cousin Atif Najib and his brother Maher, who commands the army division which stormed into Deraa on Monday.
Shortly after Obama's move, European Union diplomats said they had reached preliminary agreement to impose an arms embargo on Syria and would consider other restrictive measures.
Obama's sanctions, which include asset freezes and bans on U.S. business dealings, build on U.S. measures against Syria in place since 2004, but they may have little impact since Assad's inner circle are thought to hold few U.S. assets.
One official said the White House was "not ready" to call on Assad to step down because Obama and his aides "do not want to get out in front of the Syrian people".
But thousands of Syrians took to the streets across the country after Friday prayers demanding his removal and pledging support for the residents of Deraa.
"The people want the overthrow of the regime!" demonstrators chanted in many protests, witnesses said.
More demonstrations flared in the central cities of Homs and Hama, Banias on the Mediterranean coast, Qamishly in eastern Syria and Harasta, a Damascus suburb.
Damascus saw the biggest protest in the capital so far, with a crowd swelling to 10,000 as it marched toward the main Ummayad Square before being dispersed by security forces firing tear gas, rights campaigners said.
Syrian rights group Sawasiah said this week at least 500 civilians had been killed since the unrest broke out six weeks ago. Authorities dispute that, saying 78 security forces and 70 civilians died in violence they blame on armed groups.
DERAA SHOOTING
State news agency SANA blamed "armed terrorist groups" for killing eight soldiers near Deraa. It said groups had opened fire on the homes of soldiers in two towns near Deraa and were repelled by guards. SANA said security forces detained 156 members of the group and confiscated 50 motorbikes.
But a witness in Deraa said Syrian forces fired live rounds at thousands of villagers who descended on the besieged city.
"They shot at people at the western gate of Deraa in the Yadoda area, almost three km (two miles) from the center of the city," he said.
A rights campaigner in Deraa said on Friday makeshift morgues in the city contained the bodies of 85 people he said had been killed since the army stormed the city, close to Syria's southern border with Jordan, on Monday.
Assad's violent repression has brought growing condemnation from Western countries which for several years had sought to engage Damascus and loosen its close anti-Israel alliances with Iran and the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas.
The top United Nations human rights body condemned Syria for using deadly force against peaceful protesters and launched an investigation into killings and other alleged crimes.
A U.S. official said Friday's sanctions were meant to show that no member of the Syrian leadership was immune from being held accountable. "Bashar is very much on our radar and if this continues could be soon to follow," the official said.
The new sanctions also target the General Intelligence Directorate and its director, Ali Mamluk. The spy agency is accused by U.S. officials of repressing dissent and of involvement in the killing of protesters in Deraa.
The fifth target is Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -- Qods Force. A source familiar with the new sanctions said the force is accused by the Obama administration of being the conduit for support Iran has provided to Syrian authorities in their crackdown on protesters. Syria has denied Iran has played any role in confronting the protests.
Security forces shot dead 120 protesters on Friday April 22, according to a Syrian rights group, in the biggest protests Syria has seen since the uprising ignited in Deraa on March 18.
Three days later an army division under the control of Assad brother's Maher stormed into Deraa. That echoed their father's 1982 attack on Hama to crush an armed revolt led by the Muslim Brotherhood, killing up to 30,000 people.
In a sign of rare dissent within ruling circles, 200 members of the Baath Party resigned on Wednesday in protest at the bloody crackdown.
(Writing by Dominic Evans; Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Beirut, Mark Hosenball and Matt Spetalnick in Washington and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; Editing by Jon Boyle)
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Showing posts with label Reuters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reuters. Show all posts
Friday, April 29, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Reuters and CNN Won't Tell of Gaza Beating Reporters
Gaza cops use ‘beatings, stun guns’ on women reporters J Post, by Khaled Abu Toameh (hat tip Marc)
Hamas security personnel raid offices of media organizations, including Reuters and CNN, confiscate equipment and documents.
A number of Palestinian women journalists complained on Sunday that they had been beaten and tortured by Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip.
They said the assaults occurred in recent days when they and their colleagues tried to cover pro-unity rallies in different parts of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas policemen used force to disperse the protesters, who were calling for an end to the dispute between the Islamist movement and Fatah. The rallies were part of a Facebook campaign organized by Palestinian youth on March 15.
At least eight journalists were beaten by the Hamas police officers during the rallies.
Some had their cameras and laptops confiscated, while others were taken into custody and made to sign a document pledging to refrain from covering such events in the future.
Later, Hamas security personnel raided the offices of a number of media organizations and confiscated equipment and documents. Among the offices targeted were Reuters, CNN and a Japanese TV network.
One of the female journalists, Samah Ahmed, complained that a Hamas policeman in military uniform stabbed her in the back as she tried to leave the al-Katiba Square, where pro-unity protesters were staging a sit-in strike.
She said that she and another female journalist, Asma al- Ghoul, were later also beaten with clubs before they were taken to detention.
“At the police station, they continued to beat us and curse us,” Ahmed told the Palestinian news agency Aswar Press. “When they realized that I was bleeding from the area where I was stabbed, the police interrogators sent me to hospital.”
She added that the Hamas police officers who accompanied her to the hospital forced the medical team to admit her under a different name and to list her as a victim of a traffic accident.
Jihan al-Sirsawi, another woman who works as a journalist in the Gaza Strip, said that the police officers who attacked the demonstrators beat her severely.
“They used electrical shocks against us,” she said. “They beat me so strongly that I lost consciousness and fell to the ground. I woke up only 15 minutes later.”
Two more female journalists, Manal Khamis and Dima al-Lababidi, also complained that Hamas policemen had beaten them up during the demonstration. Khamis said that the policemen confiscated her mobile phone and attacked her physically. Al- Lababidi accused the Hamas policemen of hitting her on the back with an iron chair.
The two said that the Hamas security officers also set fire to a tent that was being used by the journalists in the square.
Read the rest, though you don't have to. You know how it goes.
Atlas Shrugs
Hamas security personnel raid offices of media organizations, including Reuters and CNN, confiscate equipment and documents.
A number of Palestinian women journalists complained on Sunday that they had been beaten and tortured by Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip.
They said the assaults occurred in recent days when they and their colleagues tried to cover pro-unity rallies in different parts of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas policemen used force to disperse the protesters, who were calling for an end to the dispute between the Islamist movement and Fatah. The rallies were part of a Facebook campaign organized by Palestinian youth on March 15.
At least eight journalists were beaten by the Hamas police officers during the rallies.
Some had their cameras and laptops confiscated, while others were taken into custody and made to sign a document pledging to refrain from covering such events in the future.
Later, Hamas security personnel raided the offices of a number of media organizations and confiscated equipment and documents. Among the offices targeted were Reuters, CNN and a Japanese TV network.
One of the female journalists, Samah Ahmed, complained that a Hamas policeman in military uniform stabbed her in the back as she tried to leave the al-Katiba Square, where pro-unity protesters were staging a sit-in strike.
She said that she and another female journalist, Asma al- Ghoul, were later also beaten with clubs before they were taken to detention.
“At the police station, they continued to beat us and curse us,” Ahmed told the Palestinian news agency Aswar Press. “When they realized that I was bleeding from the area where I was stabbed, the police interrogators sent me to hospital.”
She added that the Hamas police officers who accompanied her to the hospital forced the medical team to admit her under a different name and to list her as a victim of a traffic accident.
Jihan al-Sirsawi, another woman who works as a journalist in the Gaza Strip, said that the police officers who attacked the demonstrators beat her severely.
“They used electrical shocks against us,” she said. “They beat me so strongly that I lost consciousness and fell to the ground. I woke up only 15 minutes later.”
Two more female journalists, Manal Khamis and Dima al-Lababidi, also complained that Hamas policemen had beaten them up during the demonstration. Khamis said that the policemen confiscated her mobile phone and attacked her physically. Al- Lababidi accused the Hamas policemen of hitting her on the back with an iron chair.
The two said that the Hamas security officers also set fire to a tent that was being used by the journalists in the square.
Read the rest, though you don't have to. You know how it goes.
Atlas Shrugs
Friday, March 25, 2011
Cutting and Pasting from Reuters "terrorist" quote
Looking at Google's cache, I can see that it was not only Reuters who wrote yesterday this disgusting phrase:
Police said it was a "terrorist attack" -- Israel's term for a Palestinian strike.
Jeffrey Goldberg has a nice article about this phrase.
But the exact same phrase was used in reports by CNN (since changed,) Sky News (since changed) and the Daily Mail (also since changed.) In none of those articles was Reuters credited. (Of course, many, many news sites still have the original Reuters report with that phrase, but they at least credit Reuters.)
Not that we needed any more evidence of how lazy many reporters are, but to plagiarize an already offensive sentence is really something.
(h/t Joel)
Elder of Ziyon
Police said it was a "terrorist attack" -- Israel's term for a Palestinian strike.
Jeffrey Goldberg has a nice article about this phrase.
But the exact same phrase was used in reports by CNN (since changed,) Sky News (since changed) and the Daily Mail (also since changed.) In none of those articles was Reuters credited. (Of course, many, many news sites still have the original Reuters report with that phrase, but they at least credit Reuters.)
Not that we needed any more evidence of how lazy many reporters are, but to plagiarize an already offensive sentence is really something.
(h/t Joel)
Elder of Ziyon
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Reuters Sickens Us All by Its Bias
It is most interesting to see how the mainstream media's initial breaking stories betray their inherent anti-Israel bias. Then when their attention is called to this, they quietly change their articles, without acknowledging the initial bias.
For the second time in three weeks, Reuters has shown what they really think of Israel.
On March 12, Reuters referred to the IDF as "Israel's occupation forces" - an anti-Israel term used by Arabs only. They silently corrected that.
This time, Reuters headlined its story about the terror attack today this way:
Jerusalem bombing kills woman after 7-year lull
And then it says:
Police said it was a "terrorist attack" -- Israel's term for a Palestinian strike. It was the first time Jerusalem had been hit by such a bomb since 2004.
I grabbed this from the Reuters-UK feed, because the American version was quickly changed (and the UK version might be changed by the time I post this.). The headline is now
Bomb explodes near Jerusalem bus, 1 dead, 30 hurt
and the other sentence has been turned into a lie:
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion, which Israeli police termed a Palestinian "suicide attack."
No one said this was a suicide bombing!
But back to the initial headline. Reuters is saying that there has been a seven year lull in bombings in Jerusalem.
This is not only a lie, but it is intentionally misleading.
The last suicide attack in Jerusalem was in September, 2004. But there have been other suicide bombings in Israel since then, as recently as 2008 (Dimona.)
But let's say that Reuters is only talking about Jerusalem, for some reason, as if terror attacks there are different than those in the rest of Israel. The last fatal terror attack in Jerusalem was a man being knifed to death in October, 2008, and in July 2008 three Jerusalem Jews were killed by a terrorist who rammed into them with a bulldozer.
But let's say that Reuters is only referring to roadside bombs. There was a pipe-bomb in Gilo, Jerusalem only a couple of weeks ago, and a sanitation worker lost his arm in the explosion. Obviously the intent was to kill there as well.
So Reuters, by seemingly referring only to the lack of major, fatal bombings in Jerusalem itself as a "lull," was consciously trying to minimize the number of terror attacks in Jerusalem - in the headline of an article about the latest attack!
Not to mention that Reuters pooh-poohs the term "terrorist attack" as some sort of Israeli propaganda when a mere 38 people are injured and only one dead. Reuters instead refers to it in more military terms: a "Palestinian strike." No doubt the lady who was killed was a legitimate military target as well, in Reuters' writers' minds.
They say that you can find out how people really think when they are drunk or sleepy. In reuters' case, you can see how they really feel in the initial bulletins after Jews are killed.
(h/t Zach)
Elder of Ziyon
For the second time in three weeks, Reuters has shown what they really think of Israel.
On March 12, Reuters referred to the IDF as "Israel's occupation forces" - an anti-Israel term used by Arabs only. They silently corrected that.
This time, Reuters headlined its story about the terror attack today this way:
Jerusalem bombing kills woman after 7-year lull
And then it says:
Police said it was a "terrorist attack" -- Israel's term for a Palestinian strike. It was the first time Jerusalem had been hit by such a bomb since 2004.
I grabbed this from the Reuters-UK feed, because the American version was quickly changed (and the UK version might be changed by the time I post this.). The headline is now
Bomb explodes near Jerusalem bus, 1 dead, 30 hurt
and the other sentence has been turned into a lie:
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion, which Israeli police termed a Palestinian "suicide attack."
No one said this was a suicide bombing!
But back to the initial headline. Reuters is saying that there has been a seven year lull in bombings in Jerusalem.
This is not only a lie, but it is intentionally misleading.
The last suicide attack in Jerusalem was in September, 2004. But there have been other suicide bombings in Israel since then, as recently as 2008 (Dimona.)
But let's say that Reuters is only talking about Jerusalem, for some reason, as if terror attacks there are different than those in the rest of Israel. The last fatal terror attack in Jerusalem was a man being knifed to death in October, 2008, and in July 2008 three Jerusalem Jews were killed by a terrorist who rammed into them with a bulldozer.
But let's say that Reuters is only referring to roadside bombs. There was a pipe-bomb in Gilo, Jerusalem only a couple of weeks ago, and a sanitation worker lost his arm in the explosion. Obviously the intent was to kill there as well.
So Reuters, by seemingly referring only to the lack of major, fatal bombings in Jerusalem itself as a "lull," was consciously trying to minimize the number of terror attacks in Jerusalem - in the headline of an article about the latest attack!
Not to mention that Reuters pooh-poohs the term "terrorist attack" as some sort of Israeli propaganda when a mere 38 people are injured and only one dead. Reuters instead refers to it in more military terms: a "Palestinian strike." No doubt the lady who was killed was a legitimate military target as well, in Reuters' writers' minds.
They say that you can find out how people really think when they are drunk or sleepy. In reuters' case, you can see how they really feel in the initial bulletins after Jews are killed.
(h/t Zach)
Elder of Ziyon
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Reuters Now Calls IDF the Israel Occupation Force
Only in sites that are virulently anti-Israel is the IDF referred to as the "IOF".
And now we can add Reuters to that list.
Although they changed the text in later versions of the report to "Israeli troops" that initial phraseology shows everything you need to know about Reuters' bias.
Elder of Ziyon
And now we can add Reuters to that list.
Although they changed the text in later versions of the report to "Israeli troops" that initial phraseology shows everything you need to know about Reuters' bias.
Elder of Ziyon
Sunday, April 18, 2010
US Won't Share Fort Hood Evidence with Senate
Two U.S. senators vowed on Thursday to subpoena the Obama administration next week unless it produces information sought in a congressional investigation of last year’s rampage at the Texas military base in which 13 soldiers were killed.
They said the Justice and Defense departments had until Monday to provide the information or face legal action.
Gates, speaking to reporters after attending a Caribbean security conference in Barbados, said the U.S. government had no interest in hiding information from Congress but the legal case against Major Nidal Malik Hasan had to take priority.
“Anything that does not have any impact on that prosecution, we are more than willing to share,” Gates said.
“But what’s most important is this prosecution. And we will cooperate with the committee in every way — with that single caveat, that whatever we provide doesn’t compromise the prosecution.”
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, an independent, and Susan Collins, the panel’s top Republican, have been trying for months to obtain specific information about the rampage, which also left many wounded.
Responding to Gates’ statements, Lieberman and Collins said, “There are many examples for allowing Congress to interview FBI agents, even while a criminal prosecution was in progress for which they could be witnesses, so we view that argument as baseless.”
Earlier, Lieberman and Collins said their committee wanted access to documents and witnesses regarding what the FBI and Defense Department knew about Hasan before the shootings. They have rejected administration claims that the information could compromise the pending prosecution of Hasan.
Gates suggested that the Obama administration was unwilling to reconsider its position ahead of the threatened deadline.
The subpoena could be an unwanted distraction for a White House already under pressure to cut unemployment, nominate a new Supreme Court justice, pass climate change legislation and regulate the financial industry.
Source: Atlas Shrugs
They said the Justice and Defense departments had until Monday to provide the information or face legal action.
Gates, speaking to reporters after attending a Caribbean security conference in Barbados, said the U.S. government had no interest in hiding information from Congress but the legal case against Major Nidal Malik Hasan had to take priority.
“Anything that does not have any impact on that prosecution, we are more than willing to share,” Gates said.
“But what’s most important is this prosecution. And we will cooperate with the committee in every way — with that single caveat, that whatever we provide doesn’t compromise the prosecution.”
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, an independent, and Susan Collins, the panel’s top Republican, have been trying for months to obtain specific information about the rampage, which also left many wounded.
Responding to Gates’ statements, Lieberman and Collins said, “There are many examples for allowing Congress to interview FBI agents, even while a criminal prosecution was in progress for which they could be witnesses, so we view that argument as baseless.”
Earlier, Lieberman and Collins said their committee wanted access to documents and witnesses regarding what the FBI and Defense Department knew about Hasan before the shootings. They have rejected administration claims that the information could compromise the pending prosecution of Hasan.
Gates suggested that the Obama administration was unwilling to reconsider its position ahead of the threatened deadline.
The subpoena could be an unwanted distraction for a White House already under pressure to cut unemployment, nominate a new Supreme Court justice, pass climate change legislation and regulate the financial industry.
Source: Atlas Shrugs
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