Iran Calls Shots in Syria

MASSACRING THEIR OWN PEOPLE By Tom Gross April 26

This dispatch is a follow-up to my recent article on Syria.

Because some in the international media are still not covering the six-week-old Syrian uprising properly, and indeed certain journalists are still taking Assad regime propaganda at face value, I attach four videos below.

(As recently as yesterday, the correspondent for The New York Times, for example, was still referring to Bashar Assad as though he was some kind of moderate reformer who may have little or nothing to do with the current crackdown in Syria, much in the same way that for years other writers at The New York Times made excuses for Yasser Arafat, deluding themselves that Arafat had nothing to do with the terrorism which he was in fact initiating.)

Bashar Assad, even more than his father, has formed an ever closer alliance with the regime in Tehran, hence U.S.President Obama’s reference yesterday to the role of Iranian advisors in the present massacre of Syrians.

Israel is on high alert in case Assad and his partners in Tehran create a crisis in Lebanon or Gaza. We should not forget that the cause of the crisis that led to the 1967 Six-Day War was Syrian instability, and the willingness of Syria’s Alawite rulers to act against Israel in order to maintain their rule.

Carrying out acts of terror is nothing new for the Assad family, of course. They have been aiding and abetting terrorism against Israelis, Lebanese, Kurds, Iraqis and others for decades.

Al Jazeera is carrying interviews with witnesses in the city of Daraa, and in the Damascus suburb of Duma, saying that after Syrian security forces have shot unarmed demonstrators, they have then executed many of the injured, and shot anyone trying to help them. The authorities have turned off water and electricity in the area, so the injured can’t be treated properly in hospitals in any case.

Meanwhile, Syria is still in line to become the newest member of the (cruelly misnamed) U.N. Human Rights Council when a vote takes place on May 20 at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Be warned, this first video (filmed over the weekend) is one of the most graphic I have ever posted. (The other two videos after that are not nearly as gruesome. In particular I recommend watching the second video. There are some other notes after the three videos.)

-- Tom Gross

UN Security Council divided over Syria

Smart diplomacy: Syria gloating over US failure at UN

Here's some more smart diplomacy from the Obama administration: Syria is gloating over the failure of the Obama administration to get sanctions enacted and a condemnation of Syria at the United Nations.

Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Hot Air).

Reuters: Syrians Back on Streets

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)
World
United Nations

Syrians Back on Streets

Thousands of Syrians once again defied a government crackdown on Friday to call for the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad. Lending their voice to the weeks-long protests, the exiled Muslim Brotherhood called on Syrians to join in demonstrations against Assad. It was the first time that the Brotherhood, which was crushed along with secular leftists under the rule of late President Hafez al-Assad, had thrown its weight behind the demonstrations. In Daraa, where protests erupted weeks ago when the several teens were arrested for drawing graffiti, Syrian soldiers fired into the air to prevent people attending Friday prayers. Also in Daraa, Syria's official state news agency said that an “armed terrorist group” attacked a checkpoint, killing four soldiers and kidnapping two. One resident told Al Jazeera that “snipers are on rooftops of buildings firing at anything that moves.” Another witness said security forces armed with machine guns patrolled the circular road around Damascus. Meanwhile, the European Union is meeting today to discuss the possibility of imposing sanctions against Syria in condemnation of the crackdown that has killed at least 500 people so far.
Read it at Reuters

Will Syria Join the UNHRC?

United Nations Watch has put together a coalition of human rights groups to oppose the election of Syria to the United Nations 'Human Rights Council.' Elections are scheduled for May 20. Syria is running unopposed.

Led by UN Watch, an independent human rights monitoring group based in Geneva, the coalition of rights groups from Africa, Asia, the U.S. and Europe, (see list of members below) also urged action from the UN Security Council and other international bodies to protect Syria's civilian population from government actions that it said may amount to "war crimes and crimes against humanity."

The election of 15 new council members is scheduled for May 20 at the UN General Assembly in New York. However, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said that "if the council this week declares President Bashar al-Assad unwelcome as a member, it would sound the death knell for Syria's cynical candidacy to be elected a global judge of human rights."

The coalition called for leadership from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton, Ban Ki-moon, and UN rights chief Navi Pillay.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that leadership. On the other hand, you all know that I believe Syria would fit right in at the 'Human Rights Council' anyway.

What's perhaps more intriguing in Neuer's efforts is this.

Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey was asked to convene the high contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions to address the Syrian army's grave assault on thousands of civilians who are protected as non-combatants under the treaties.

That's a nice idea but there are two small problems with it. First, Calmy-Rey is a loon who's enamored with Bashar al-Assad's friend Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The odds of her convening this type of meeting to condemn Assad are not good.

Second, if such a meeting were to be convened, I would bet on the agenda being hijacked to discuss Israel - and more specifically the Goldstone Report.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Geneva Convention, Goldstone Report, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Micheline Calmy-Rey, Operation Cast Lead, Syria, Syrian uprising, United Nations Human Rights Council, United Nations Watch

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:36 AM

Syhrian Tanks to Deraa Govt Joins UNHRC

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Thursday, April 28, 2011 | 10:48 Beirut Subscribe to NOW Lebanon RSS feeds

TOP OF THE NEWS
Assad under pressure as hundreds of Baathists quit
April 28, 2011 share
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[Assad under pressure as hundreds of Baathists quit]
An image grab taken from footage uploaded on April 14 by Sham SNN, a Syrian opposition web channel, shows a Syrian security officer kicking an anti-government protester in the face while he is handcuffed with other demonstrators following a crackdown in the northwestern village of Bayda. (AFP/SHAMSNN)

Foreign pressure mounted on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday, and hundreds of members resigned from his party, as troops kept their grip on the flashpoint town of Daraa.

Syria's opposition warned Assad that he would be toppled unless he ushered in democratic reforms, although the UN Security Council failed to agree on a condemnation of the violence.

And in a fresh blow to the regime, 233 members of Syria's ruling Baath party announced their resignation in protest at the deadly crackdown on protesters, according to lists seen by AFP.

"The security services have demolished the values with which we grew up. We denounce and condemn everything that has taken place and announce with regret our resignation from the party," they said in a signed statement.

Baath party signatories from the Banias region, which covers Daraa, condemned "the house raids and the indiscriminate use of live fire against people, homes, mosques and churches."

On the international scene, influential US Senator John McCain said Assad has "lost his legitimacy" and called for UN sanctions to force him to halt attacks on his people.

"I obviously think he has lost his legitimacy. He has ordered his army to fire on his own people, and yes I think he should leave," the senator told AFP in Paris.

The Security Council, however, failed to agree on a statement condemning the killing of Syrian protesters, diplomats in New York said. After talks ended in deadlock, Western nations called for an immediate open meeting.

A stormy meeting on Syria, coming only days after the 15-nation body failed to agree a statement on Yemen, highlighted a growing divide on how to handle the uprisings in the Middle East and Arab world, with Russia warning the West that "outside interference" could spark civil war.

France called for "strong measures" if Assad rejects appeals to end violence in which hundreds have died. The United States said Assad must "change course now" and end the use of tanks and guns.

Russia and China blocked the statement proposed by Britain, France, Germany and Portugal that would have condemned the violence and backed calls for an independent investigation.

The European Union, meanwhile, is mulling sanctions and the UN human rights body has called for a special session in the wake of the Syrian regime's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

Five EU countries were also summoning Syria's ambassadors over the violent crushing of dissent, France said, adding it was joined by Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.

According to human rights activists, the military assault on Daraa, 100 kilometers south of Damascus, has left more than 30 people dead since Monday, with at least 453 civilians killed across Syria since protests first erupted in mid-March.

A military source, meanwhile, said soldiers on Wednesday confronted "terrorist armed groups" who had cut off roads and opened fire on passers-by in a Daraa drive-by shooting.

"One member of the armed forces was martyred and five others were wounded," said the source, quoted by the official media, adding that several of the gunmen were also killed.

-AFP/NOW Lebanon

Syria: 2,500 Arrested in Crackdown

Syria arrested at least 500 pro-democracy sympathizers Monday—the same day in which tanks killed at least 23 people in the city of Daraa. At least two more people were killed in the Damascus suburb of Douma. The White House denounced on Monday the "brutal violence" and said it was considering sanctions. The State Department, meanwhile, has recommended that all U.S. citizens leave Syria.

Read it at Reuters

Bashar Al Assad: Syrian Stability

Bashar al-Assad believes that Syria is different than any other country in the region, and because it is 'stable' it will not be swept up by the revolutionary winds that are blowing. But that apparently is not so. This New York Times op-ed is from a Syrian dissident whose name has been disguised.

The Syrian government now seemed to understand that it had to take this surge of unrest seriously. So last week a counselor to Mr. Assad affirmed the right to peaceful protest, assuring Syrians that government troops had been ordered not to open fire on demonstrators.

The next day, a Friday, I went out with one of my friends to join a small protest in the Hamidiyah Market in the Old City section of central Damascus. We were, all in all, just a few dozen people chanting slogans for freedom, and yet we were surrounded by hundreds of members of the security forces, who responded with chants in support of President Assad. The security forces then began to beat and arrest protesters. My friend and I slipped away from the market and headed to Marja Square, just outside the Old City, where — it turned out — even more security forces were waiting for us.

First, they went after those photographing and recording the demonstration with their mobile phones. Then they began to hit the rest of us with batons and sticks. Dozens were arrested. (They are still in police custody, but we don’t know where.)

After that, the security forces were joined by other young men, apparently civilians, who formed themselves into a march for President Assad. This demonstration the guards allowed to be photographed and recorded. And, in the evening, state television reported on the marches all over Damascus in support of Mr. Assad.

That same day, the situation worsened elsewhere in Syria, when security forces violently oppressed protests in the cities of Homs and Latakia. Dozens of peaceful protesters were killed in Dara’a.

When the international community condemned the violence, the Syrian regime began to blame “armed groups,” from inside and outside the country, for killing the civilians in Dara’a as well as members of the security forces. The official Syrian position on the motives and nationality of the armed men changes often: sometimes they are Palestinian or Jordanian; sometimes they are working at the behest of foreign operatives from Israel or the United States. An Egyptian-American was even arrested on charges of espionage and, on state television, made a transparently false confession to inciting the protests and to being paid 100 Egyptian pounds ($17) for each photo he took.

This conspiracy theory, to which the regime continues to cling and of which many Syrians have been convinced, means that there are conflicting reports of the violence in places like Latakia. Eyewitness reports of what happened there last weekend vary: some say security forces opened fire on a peaceful protest; others spoke of snipers on the rooftops shooting civilians and security forces alike; still others of cars using loudspeakers to stir up the residents of different neighborhoods of the city against one another on sectarian grounds. What is certain is that people are now dead.

And it is also clear that these “armed groups” attacked only those protesters asking for freedom and reform, those who rally for those killed in Dara’a and elsewhere, who call out “peaceful, peaceful.” One can’t help but wonder why the police did nothing to protect these small groups of demonstrators. Some commentators close to the Syrian regime have justified this lack of action by saying that the security forces could not defend civilians because of President Assad’s orders not to fire.

Read the whole thing.

Stability? At what price? And did Barack Obama go after the wrong dictator?

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Syrian regime change

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:37 AM

Assad in Syria: Too Little Too Late

Meanwhile, Assad is trying the formula that failed Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt and Saleh in Yemen - buying time by dismissing his cabinet, a move scheduled to take place tomorrow, and promising some cosmetic reforms.

Abolishing the supremacy of the Baath Party and the emergency regime that has been in place since 1963 will do little to reduce his and his family's grip on the military and economic resources of the state. At the same time, he is trying to recreate the regime of fear that his father imposed in 1982 and which has given Bashar 11 years of quiet. He shoots and kills civilians, arrests hundreds, and mainly relies on the military, which, unlike its Egyptian counterpart, risks losing many of the benefits it enjoys because of its loyalty to the regime.

Sooner or later, he's toast. The only questions are how long it will take and who will take over.

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Syrian regime change

posted by Carl in Jerusalem

Syrian security forces open fire on protesters

Israel Radio just referred to riots in the Syrian port of Latakia on Saturday, the first I have heard of riots there.

Here's an al-Jazeera report from Deraa on Friday, the place where the riots started.

Let's go to the videotape.

Update: Syria unrest - Al Jazeera