Obama seeks to ease backlash over Syria

 'Saudi officials have grown particularly concerned about what they see as Obama's tepid response to the Syrian civil war and have pressed the US to allow them to play a direct role in sending the rebels the air defence systems known as manpads. While administration officials have previously ruled out that option, a senior official said it was being considered anew, in part because the US has developed deeper relationships with the rebels over the past year.'

 Despite the conventional view of the US as backing the rebels, they have been a block on the rebels getting the weapons they need to end the war. It is a shame that that the rebels still are in a position where they have to go cap in hand to empires and monarchies for help, but needs must.

"Please don’t cut my pajamas sir, they’re new"

 'This is what a little girl in Aleppo, Syria is telling the cameraman as he checks her wound. Assad’s forces dropped a barrel bomb (barrel packed with TNT and tossed from a helicopter) onto this girl.

 She goes on to say: “My mother was so happy today because I was able to walk” … referring to a previous operation she had to repair her legs from a previous bombing attack by the Assad regime.

 This is Syria. There are Syria’s children. This is the "life" they live under the Assad regime.'

Essential solidarity

 'The Syrian revolution is not dead, but its enemies grow stronger. The first is undoubtedly the killing machine of the regime.'

 I don't think the Assad régime is growing stronger, it is having to press-gang young men for its latest offensive, and the economy cannot stagger on indefinitely on a permanent war footing.

The Silent Enemy

 "How was Aleppo before you left?"

 "Barrels and scud missiles and people in the street."

Arab countries still at odds over Syria's Arab League seat

 'Prince Salman said ending the conflict in Syria "requires the change of balance of power on the ground and give the Syrian opposition the support they need." The Saudi senior official attributed his remarks to the failure of the international community to help the Syrian people in the face of Syrian regime's killing machine, specially following the collapse of Geneva II negotiations, held last January.'

 It is again a matter of embarrassment that it should be left to a prince of one of the most reactionary monarchies to say the right thing.

 The Arab League has agreed to seat the National Coalition of Opposition and Revolutionary Forces, which may help with diplomatically delegitimising the régime and empowering the forces of change.

Assad’s Killing Industry and the Role of Intellectuals

 Yassin Al Haj Saleh:

 'There is a systematic, calculating and disciplined thought process on how to kill detainees with the utmost care to cover up any real information about how they died.'

Steve Israel On Syria: It Won't Matter In 2014

 'Israel, a self-described hawkish Democrat, said that he was personally inclined to support a congressional resolution authorizing the use of force, provided that it was tailored to ensure that U.S. troops aren't actually deployed in Syria.'

 The idea that there was going to be a catastrophic American intervention, i.e. an Iraq-style invasion, was always a lie, and stopped the question being asked about what could be done to help Syrians facing a genocidal dictator.

Assad is already counting on soldiers still at school

 Fisk has lost it big time. Much like Assad, in reality. Byzantium may have endured, but Assad will not.

 'But the army won, and it is this increasingly formidable force – let us, of course, remember that the West claims war criminals are among them – that is the one institution in Syria upon which Assad must rely.

 Only a few months ago, the Free Syrian Army was trying to find an accommodation with the regime, sending middle men to Damascus to talk to representatives of the President. But the government abandoned such contacts when the FSA decided to grab at the American offer of more arms at Geneva.

 Qatar is just – slightly – beginning to allow its suspicion and contempt for Saudi Arabia to outweigh its enthusiasm for the war against Assad.

 With a Russian-Iranian-Qatari guarantee of “fair” elections in Syria – please hold your breath, readers – who better to rebuild Assad’s rubbled country than Iran and Russia, backed by Qatar’s wealth? Why, they could even invite the workers of Crimea to give them a hand…'

Insurgents Inflict Heavy Losses on Regime Across Country

 'Syria’s opposition has appealed to an Arab League summit for “sophisticated” weapons to the insurgency, supported by Saudi Arabia’s declaration of the need for a change in the military balance to “end the impasse” in the conflict.

 In contrast, United nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, insisted on an “end to the supply of arms to all parties” to encourage a “political solution” to the conflict.'

Syria: Blaming the Opposition

 'One may criticize the Obama administration's policy toward Syria on many levels. Yet the intelligence and knowledge of key administration officials is beyond reproach. They know that a failure of strategic communication on the part of Syria’s opposition is far from the top reason for the Assad regime’s survival.

 Yet, saying it is so is an essential facet of the “someone else’s civil war” thesis; it is a useful excuse for standing aside, writing checks for humanitarian assistance, and otherwise merely bearing witness to the twenty-first century’s premier humanitarian abomination to date. Blaming the victim, positing the rough moral equivalence of the parties, claiming that intervention would only make things worse, clinging to an all-or-nothing thesis by citing mass murder elsewhere and using the Iraq catastrophe as a one-size-fits-all template—these are all excuses for translating “never again” to “well, maybe this once." '

Young Syrians bring Lear to life at a refugee camp

 ' “I seek to revive laughter and joy among children to help them express themselves,” said Bulbul, who was in several hit soap operas at home before falling foul of President Bashar Assad’s regime and fleeing into exile.

 “I seek to reproduce their childhood, which has been destroyed by war.” '

Nasrallah sent message to reassure Israel

 “You can tell the Israelis that Lebanon’s southern borders are the safest place in the world because all of our attention is focused on what is happening in Syria.”

 Remember last year when the Russians were going to provide Assad with missiles to stop the non-existent US invasion? And Israel were going to attack the Russian navy to stop it? Some people were gullible enough to fall for that baloney.

The Syrian Revolution and the Role of the Intellectual

 Dr. Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm:

 'I think what is happening in Syria today is, first of all, an overwhelming popular Intifada, in the classical sense of the word Intifada as invented by the Palestinian people, which was then forced to militarize. Any uprising against a military tyranny transforms the forces of the striking army to an occupation army, in the full sense of the term, which destroys the stone and the country as well as kills people without expense.

Second of all, what is happening in Syria today is also a revolution in that the popular Intifada in Syria seeks restoration of the republic through the toppling of the old hereditary regime that is worn-out in all its institutions, and to establish an alternative system of governance. Isn’t this adequate to recognize that what is taking place in Syria today is a real revolution?'

Left Orientalism - Syria and the Left

Sophia Deeg:

 '15/03/2014 marked the third anniversary of the commencement of the Syrian uprising against the Assad regime. In Berlin, there was a modest rally predominantly of Syrian supporters of the revolution on this occasion. In the speeches repeatedly sounded the disappointment and incomprehension at the lack of support from the "international community".Especially in the days before had the UN, NGOs and the media, as helpless as the pile of demonstrators complained about the humanitarian disaster that puts everything that has gone before in the shade and even the professionals of the management of apocalyptic proportions speechless.

 What activities has the party unfolds the Left to support the revolution in Syria? At any rate, no representative was to be seen at the rally. Perhaps no one had time. Or perhaps the Left Party is as helpless as an elderly passerby who asked: "Well, what can we do?" '

Sweeping Advances Made by the Revolutionary Fighters in Syria

 'The forces of Hilal's son (each spoiled Assad family member has their own gang of thugs, seemingly) furiously roamed Latakia's streets after his death, angrily shooting at anything that moves, and even allegedly fighting with Assad's forces.

 In addition, Assad's forces have surrounded the Sunni neighborhoods of Soliaba and Tabyat in Latakia city in response to the killings, sparking fears of sectarian massacres in retaliation. This vile regime has shown itself incapable of anything but violence and hatred, as well as irrationality and a lack of logic. Turkey aided Syrians, so as a result, Syrians must pay for that with their lives.

 However, we are sincerely hoping and praying that this will not turn out to be the case. Despite the constant media lies claiming that Assad is winning, the revolutionaries are advancing all across Syria.'

The Destruction of Syria: In Memory of Edward Said

 'America has systematically led the world away from the Syrian massacre. The handling of Assad’s chemical weapons is telling. In the hesitation that led to the policing of chemical weapons in Syria, the US forged an agreement with Russia that in the words of Al-Haj Saleh «punished the weapon and renewed the mandate of the killer … continued at Geneva 2 where the regime is being instated as a crucial partner in any solution for Syria».

 For us who sit in the West, we are politically and ethically responsible for averting our eyes from the Syrian tragedy. Our behavior has aided Assad to stay in power, which in turn greatly strengthened Islamist control over the revolution. We owe it to Syria to question the wisdom of our politicians, and the need of our governments to maintain Assad in his seat.'

Turkey downs Syria military jet 'in airspace violation'

 That's nice. One plane that to put it crudely, won't be killing any more Syrian children. Turkey's prime minister is a mad bloke who is trying to ban twitter, but isn't a serial killer, as far as I'm aware.

Note 5/3/25, my assessment of President Erdogan of Turkey has changed since this was written.

The killing of a soldier and his six-year-old son paints a chilling picture of Syria’s war

 'By chance, among the military mourners was Colonel Omar Shaaban.'

 I wonder if he is any relation to Bouthaina Shaaban, the régime's chief propagandist. This is like stories about cycling that ignore the hundreds mown down by car drivers, to focus on one pedestrian who stepped out in front of a bike.

The General’s View

 How low Fisk has fallen. He gives a coded message to his left wing readers that he's not totally taken by the general, "And that, of course, is exactly what the British Army used to say in Northern Ireland when it was also searching people's homes." But it is just a thin veneer over his peddling of every lie the general tells. And there must be a foreign conspiracy against Syria because Robert Fisk has seen Belgian weapons in government hands in Aleppo. He is no longer a journalist, unlike those his friends in the Syrian government have kidnapped and murdered.

The West's kneejerk peaceniks have some explaining to do

 I'm uneasy about the politics of condemnation, and while Bloodworth may be opposed in legacy to the Iraq war, many of those he has politically associated with were gung-ho then, lending credibility to the peaceniks' justification for their cautious approach. Mind you, this is bang on, and a truth often deliberately hidden.

 'This isn’t "collateral damage" either, to use the ugly euphemism. This is the result of a deliberate war being waged against the civilian population of Syria by the thuggish Ba’athist regime. The Syrian government’s position is to make life for those living in opposition areas as difficult as possible. This is why it has been bombing and shelling civilians, denying them access to UN-ordered cross-border assistance and blocking vaccination efforts in opposition held areas.'

Daraa province locked in stalemate

 'In February, as rumors circulated that Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and others would redouble efforts to arm Syria’s rebels with heavier weaponry, local groups announced a slew of unifications. But thus far, says Bardam, rebels are still waiting.

 “Obviously, the main reason [rebels have yet to advance] is that no new weapons have arrived,” he said.

 Instead, they make do with what they can make or capture. Rebel groups “have what are considered ‘individual weapons,’ in addition to whatever they can capture from regime forces,” he said.'

Syria’s secular uprising has been hijacked by jihadists

 'Why has the Syrian uprising, whose early supporters demanded that tyranny should be replaced by a secular, non-sectarian, law-bound and democratic state, so totally failed to achieve these aims?'

 Because Assad has plenty of weapons, but only the Islamic factions have had a regular supply of weapons. Cockburn continues the fantasy that the solution is to end the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Peace will come when Assad is gone, but that's not on Cockburn's agenda for Syrians at all. At least he's not among the genocide deniers, though his use of the kidnap of Razan Zaitouneh to discredit the whole idea of armed resistance is unreasonable.

Ordinary people remain the real victims

 This is a nasty piece, writing off the rebels as "hate-filled fighter(s)" and "various groups that want to kill each other".

Desperate children pretend they go to school, says Latakia housewife

 'This year, we reopened a school with the help of the rebels after the regime destroyed all the schools in our area.'

Syrians must not let the extremists undermine their revolution

 'The negligible support that moderate rebels received from the international community, often in the form of nonlethal aid such as communications equipment and night-vision goggles, at a time when Gulf donors were busy supplying cash and weapons to more extreme factions, proved another crucial factor in the ongoing marginalization of moderate elements from the scene, allowing for the effective hijacking of the revolution by extremists.'

WH orders Syrian embassy and consulates shuttered

 'It’s possible that this report from UN human-rights investigators could have prompted this, but it’s just as condemnatory on Assad’s enemies as the Assad regime.'

 It's not actually. ISIS have committed lesser crimes than Assad, and against actual rebels, not against Assad.

'Jihadist rebels have carried out mass executions of detainees in Syria, UN human rights investigators say. The commission of inquiry’s latest report documents several incidents blamed on the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Government forces are meanwhile accused of sharply increasing their use of indiscriminate weapons, such as barrel-bombs, against civilians. …'

 This is on point though:

 'Some might find it a surprise that we still have diplomatic relations at all with Assad, but that’s been a relic of the initial conclusion by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that Assad was a “reformer.” Even after demanding Assad’s resignation, freezing his assets, and threatening to bomb Assad’s forces for crossing the “red line” of chemical-weapons use, the US and Syria have maintained diplomatic relations. Suddenly closing off consular services seems like small potatoes in comparison.'

Syria: The Battle Beyond

 'Educated, middle-class Syrian exiles share their thoughts on the revolution and their determination to return home.

 "I talk a lot about Ghouta because I love it." '

Revolutionary Left Current in Syria: Establishment of the “People’s Liberation Faction” to commemorate the third anniversary of the Syrian Revolution

 'We see that our revolution is part of the struggles of the global toiling masses, of the oppressed and of the marginalized everywhere for freedom, equality, social justice and socialism. We see it in the struggle of the Palestinian people to recover all its land and rights, in the struggle of the peasants without land and labor in Latin America, in the strikes of the miners in South Africa and in other countries, in the struggle of the masses in Europe against neoliberalism and capitalist globalization, in the struggle of the oppressed workers of Southeast Asia, in the struggle of women for their rights and equality throughout the world...

 The time has come, at that particular moment of the revolution, for the revolutionary left current to play its role in the popular armed struggle through the establishment of the People’s liberation faction without giving up for a single moment all forms of peaceful mass struggle that allow us to confront both the violent fascist regime and the reactionary counter-revolutionary forces. This is the road for the victory of the popular revolution, in rooting its nature in democracy and socialism from below, in defending the immediate and general interests of the popular classes, in securing the independence of the will of the people from any imperialist or regional intervention from any foreign power, and in recovering our occupied territories of the Golan by all means possible.'



Note 4/3/25, their armed group was stopped at a Jabhat al-Nusra checkpoint in Aleppo, refused to surrender their arms, lost one of their members in a firefight, and disbanded.

Syrians mark uprising anniversary with arts festival

 'Matar acknowledged the risk of holding public events in a town that still comes under shelling, but said the festival was an important "demonstration from Syrians to the world that the revolution is still a revolution".'

Why Yabroud Fell

 'Russia, which is now occupying parts of Ukraine, has torpedoed every effort by the international community to prevent "foreign intervention" in Syria, the type of foreign intervention that is unpalatable to Western leftists and not to be confused with the foreign intervention of Russia in Ukraine or Iran in Syria. But that is alright because the West is backing these rebels according to the conspiracy theorists, and they are being told to cut off people's heads and incite sectarianism, not the sectarianism of a regime that shells mosques and slits the throats of children in Sunni villages.'

Britain to tackle big rise in Syrian refugee girls forced to marry

 We could provide refuge and jobs. Crazy idea I know. I don't know how true these figures are, but I know that the reason there are millions of refugees is because Assad is deliberately making them so to stay in some sort of power. And Britain appears to be doing nothing to change that. There was a guy on Inside Syria on al-Jazeera who suggested that sanctions against those with banking links to those fueling conflict now being considered over Russia's actions in Ukraine could be transferred to the Syria situation. There is a question of hypocrisy, Cameron was just this week promising to defend Britain's arms exporting business.

How Syria’s rebels lost the plot

 'The higher profile of the jihadists was much in the interests of the government, which had long claimed that the opposition was dominated by al-Qa’ida (true to the spirit of Middle East conspiracy theories, the opposition then claimed that Isis was in league with the government, asserting, against much evidence to the contrary, that the Syrian army and Isis seldom fought each other).'

 Cockburn and Assad are the conspiracy theorists. Cockburn has claimed consistently that the insurgency was predominantly Islamic radicals fighting a sectarian war (on behalf of the West and the Gulf Co-operation Council, of course) all along, whatever the evidence to the contrary. On the other hand, there is ample evidence that the régime has backed away from any fight with ISIS [http://claysbeach.blogspot.co.uk/…/memo-isis-assad-regime-f…]

 'By the end of 2012 it was clear that the rebels could not win without full-scale foreign military intervention. But to many, this was not obvious at the time because government forces pulled back from outlying positions and concentrated on holding strategic areas. A problem for the opposition was that the whole purpose of their exiled movement was to provoke a Libyan-type intervention.'

 Two more lies, the rebels wanted arms to finish the job themselves, not to rely on a foreign invasion, and as they had fought the régime to standstill with virtually no weapon supplies, it is not at all clear that granting those requests would not bring an end to the war and victory.

 'Its main tactic is to seal off rebel-held enclaves and bombard them with artillery and from the air, so that people are forced to flee. This is hardly a way to win the hearts and minds of the population, but the rebels have not found an answer to it.'

They have, it's the anti-aircraft weapons that Cockburn denies would have any effect.

 'In Syria the opposition has already been fighting its own bloody civil war since 3 January. This tends to discredit all the armed opposition and is, in any case, unlikely to produce a clear winner.'

The rebels take on the al-Qaida elements, and they are simply discrediting themselves. Pathetic from Cockburn.

 'President Assad remains ruler of a ruined land and does not have the resources to win a decisive victory. But unless the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and their allies are prepared to fight a long war in order to exhaust the government in Damascus, there is no reason he should not stay in power.'

Quite the opposite. As Assad can no longer rule Syria, he remains eternally a burden to his allies. It was suggested on al-Jazeera's Inside Syria today that the prospect of Assad re-taking the Qalamoun mountains and prolonging the war may finally induce the Saudis the provide heavy weaponry to the Free Syrian Army. It is to the world's shame that it is left to the most reactionary state to do the right thing.

Aleppo is now rubble, after waves of bombing

 'Nobody knows why the regime chooses this makeshift device – a crude container packed with up to half a ton of TNT and shrapnel – normally just unloaded from the back of helicopters. It may be it is running short of its Russian-made missiles, or that it wants to save them for military rather than easy civilian targets.

 But the group calculates that 4,000 people have been killed, of which 2,600 have been identified. Others, like Mr Ali's neighbours, were simply incinerated. At one point in January, up to 30 barrels were dropping a day. The suburbs hit are a roll-call of the poorer, Sunni Muslim districts, previously a magnet for people from the countryside seeking work.'

The revolution goes on until Assad is out

 'Even as the uprising turned into a popular revolution, and even as the brutality of the Assad regime increased exponentially, the Syrian people remained peaceful, waiting for the world to take action, for responsibility to protect to be applied by the international community. Syrians organized themselves into local committees, they established solidarity and aid networks, and they documented Assad’s savage repression by uploading thousands of documented films and photos on the Internet, waiting for help to come. But it never came.

 It was inevitable that Syrians would reluctantly be pushed into self-defense months later, joining thousands of heroic Syrian soldiers who had defected rather than obey Assad’s shoot-to-kill orders. Even though their light weapons were never going to protect them against Assad’s tanks, helicopters, jets and even ballistic missiles, all aimed repeatedly at civilians populations all over Syria, the Free Syrian Army valiantly tried to protect their compatriots and to defeat this bloodthirsty regime.

 Nothing could save them from Assad’s missiles and barrel bombs. Nothing could save them from barbaric torture until death in his dungeons. And nothing could save them from being gassed to death in their sleep when Assad unleashed his chemical weapons on them.'

Camp for Syrian refugees starts to look more like home

 ' "We took to the streets peacefully, calling for freedom, but the Syrian government responded with bullets," says Mahmoud.

 "We thought [the unrest] would last for a month or two, a year maximum, but it still continues until now," adds his friend, Jalaa.

 Many believe that without international military intervention to help the rebels fighting Syrian government forces, they will not be able to go back.'

The Conscience of Syria

 An Interview with Activist and Intellectual Yassin al-Haj Saleh:

 'When an armed structure uses the supposedly national army, media organs, and resources to kill its own people when they oppose its tyrannical rule—this can hardly be considered a sectarian conflict. We’re not talking about just any structure—we’re talking about the repressive state apparatus of the Assad regime. It thus becomes absurd to explain the Syrian struggle in sectarian terms. To the best of my best knowledge, states are not sects, are they?'

Syria Conflict: Who is in control and what is life like?

 The BBC ran a report last night on one of the kids whose torture for writing anti-government graffiti set off the revolution. He went to fight with the Free Syrian Army, and says there is no other option than the overthrow of Assad.

 You don't hear that much from the BBC, or the rest of the media. Introducing the report last night, the presenter said that "Fighting between government and rebels has ripped the country apart", as if they were equally to blame. A previous anchor yesterday had said, "It is a sectarian war, with an Alawite supported government agaainst Sunni rebels," when it is Assad's narrative that his enemies are all Islamic radicals rather than people struggling for dignity and the end of a torturous monarchy.

 There will be marches tomorrow on the third anniversary of the Syrian revolution. There was a debate in the British solidarity movement about whether to raise slogans of a No Fly Zone or against intervention. I think it's good that the latter in particular was defeated, as it has been one of the lies of this conflict that the danger was of the Americans reprising the Iraq invasion, rather than the real murder, chemical and otherwise, that Assad has inflicted with the help of Russia and Iran. I think the most important thing at the movement is unity in the fight against the dictatorship, and that we should avoid any split between those outside the organised left, who tend to reflect the enthusiasm for demanding the US do something of the majority of the refugees from Assad's terror, and the left now just getting involved, that from past experience feels like sticking in a demand that the West stay out as a precaution.

 I saw some of the former group suggest that they might bring placards calling for a No Fly Zone on the march tomorrow anyway. I don't think it's the best demand, partly because expecting more direct intervention isn't going to produce results when the West has been trying so hard to stay out of the conflict. I am in general in favour of the demand being heard. But while I think it is more the responsibility of the Left to appreciate what Syrians think, it would be easy for the different supporters of the Syrian revolution to get arguing with each other, and would rather nobody provokes a split unnecessarily.

Olly Lambert

 Newsnight had on Olly Lambert, he who made an eye-opening film about the aftermath of a barrel bomb attack in Syria, film from Eastern Ukraine. A couple of people explained that the main feature of their dislike of the EU and love of the Soviet Union was, "Boys going with boys, girls going with girls, gays. I can't tolerate their sexual orientation." I was half expecting the bloke to say, "I'm not gay, but if I absolutely had to fuck a guy, I'd fuck Vladimir Putin."

On the Third Anniversary of the Syrian Uprising

 ' "I was in a demonstration ... I started to whisper, freedom. Then I started to hear myself repeating, freedom, freedom, freedom. And then I started shouting freedom! I thought: This is the first time I have ever heard my own voice. I wanted to feel this freedom forever. And I told myself that I would never let anyone steal my voice again."

 The Assad regime responded with bullets.'

Assad: Russia restoring balance to world stage

 'SANA said the Russian delegation informed Assad he had been accepted into the Russian Academy of Sciences for having "strengthened Syrian-Russian relations." '

The man from Martyrs Avenue who became a suicide bomber in Syria

 'Back in Crawley, young people at the town's main mosque talk about Majeed's death.

 "Previously, suicide bombings have been targeting innocent civilians, like 7/7," says one prayer-goer, Zeeshan Hussain. "But as far as I'm aware anyone, no innocents were targeted [by Majeed]. Although you could question what he was doing, I wouldn't say he was terrorising anyone. The people who say it was an act of terrorism, who are they saying he's terrorising?"

 Many British Muslims share Hussain's view that Syria's jihad has blurred lines. Al-Qaeda linked groups are involved - but many people believe that the conflict is closer in character to the civil war in Bosnia. Some compare it to the Spanish Civil War in which international brigades of young men fought against General Franco.

 "My brother was not a terrorist. My brother was a hero," says Hafeez Majeed.

 "If I could put it like this, if my brother had been a British soldier and there were British people in that prison, I know he would have been awarded the posthumous Victoria Cross." '

Students commemorate three-year anniversary of Syrian uprising

 'Also known as the Syrian Civil War, the revolution began in 2011 when a group of teens and children were imprisoned and tortured for spray-painting anti-government graffiti. These events sparked nationwide protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which led to government violence on civilians.'

Inside a refugee camp in Jordan three years after the Syrian uprising began

 'All the people in Daraa are against the regime … the Americans should have helped our country from the beginning because this is a bloody regime. Everybody is under the direction of the Americans, so nothing happens until America does something … We hope to God we shall return. We don't want to be in the same situation as the Palestinians.'

The thousands missing or dead in regime custody

 'This time, however, they poured acid on my feet while I was hanging from the wall. The pain was beyond all description. I felt my heart would blow up at that moment.

 The third round of interrogation had a new method of torture, which was chaining my arms back to be lifted up. My arms were crushed together for 15 minutes. Breathing was almost impossible. My shoulders were dislocated.

 After 23 days, I was moved to a solitary cell. It was 180cm by 130cm but there were 14 detainees with me. A detainee would stand up to allow another to sit. I was sealed up in that cell for 43 days.

 Every 48 hours, we would have a piece of bread we couldn't even see. We were shut in, naked except for our underwear. It was January, freezing cold. We were sitting on a floor thickly covered with piss and dirt. I was interrogated only once within these 43 days but I would be beaten twice when I went to the loo.

 We were allowed less than 20 seconds: if you took longer, your torture would be atrocious.'

Assad sarin used in attacks

 'I have not heard of one action organize by the Left to protest the gassing of civilians in Syria, so I don't think there have been very many. What I have heard from the Left, when it was not silent on the sarin question, has been a fantastic defense of Assad in which they present one crack-pot theory after another about how the rebels gassed their own people, just as many of these same "leftists" are now asking us to believe it was snipers from the protest movement that were shooting protesters in Ukraine.

 The evidence of the Assad Regime's culpability for the use of chemical weapons was overwhelming even before this most recent UN report.'

Sarin gas probably government's, says UN

 'It is understood that samples from the surrendered sarin have been matched to samples taken in the days after the strike. Investigators also said that another chemical attack in Khan al-Assal, near Aleppo last April "bore the same unique hallmarks" as the Ghouta attack.

 The UN blamed the situation on a combination of government forces and non-state actors on both sides, including paramilitaries fighting alongside loyalist forces, and jihadist groups, who have been fighting with opposition militants.'

Syria's road to hell: A hair-raising journey between Damascus and Tartous

 'Yabroud, which is held by Jabhat al-Nusra, but mysteriously still has a large population of Christians who have not fled.'

 Al-Nusra aren't a nice bunch, but the mystery is why Cockburn is claiming that they are killing all Christians when it is not true.

The nature of war has changed, which is bleak news for Syria’s minorities

 Another pack of lies from Cockburn. [Also on Libya]. Isis are not dominating, they have just been thrown out of much of Northern Syria. They have much more in common with Assad than with those groups actually trying to overthrow him. They don't automatically kill non-Sunnis, they've been trying to collect taxes from Christians in their stronghold of Raqqa.

 'The jihadi groups that now dominate the armed opposition automatically kill non-Sunnis, who make up some 25 per cent of Syria’s population. In other words, at least five million Syrians have good reason to fear that they will be slaughtered if the rebels win the civil war.'

 He finally seems to have acknowledged that the government is killing more people - for months he claimed that SOHR figures showed the opposite. This is also not true:

 'The uprising of 2011 against President Bashar al-Assad was started by civil activists seeking an end to a cruel and corrupt authoritarian regime and the creation of a secular, legal and democratic society. But this option has long since disappeared, and for Western governments to pretend otherwise is to foster civil war rather than seeking to end it.'

Review: Return to Homs

 'He followed and documented everything: from lively protests, to civilians on the run from government grenades, to tanks annihilating rebel barricades...

 The United Nations makes an appearance, but with only six representatives to canvas the entire city of Homs in less than a day, their presence only highlights the rest of the world’s blatant inaction...

 Eventually, they dig underground tunnels, which take over three weeks to make, in order to avoid being shelled by Syrian forces. It goes without saying that such footage has seldom, if at all, made it to major media outlets...'

 The government are barbarians, who shell civilians to drive them out. That is why there are millions of refugees, that is why the Syrian government tries to kill those who report from opposition areas. This is the reality; not a civil war between two approximately as vicious sides, but an ongoing massacre by a tyrant.

Syrian Activist Forced From Hometown Pledges To Keep Publicizing Atrocities

 'The rocket strikes marked the start of Zakarya's evolution from just another Syrian nursing grievances against Assad into a tireless public opponent of the regime. He lived through the signature events of the war, from chemical attacks to forced starvation to complicated efforts to halt the violence. And like millions of others, the conflict would eventually force him into exile.'

12,813 women killed in Syria in three years

 'Most of the women lost their lives through attacks carried out by the Syrian regime. 483 women were shot by snipers, while 31 of them were killed by torture in the government's detention centers.'

UN human rights report shows Assad root cause of Syrian suffering

 'The report pays critical attention to the distinction between Syria’s mainstream opposition movement and extremists - who are exploiting conditions created by the regime. The Syrian opposition is actively engaged in military operations against extremists. The coalition, like the society it represents, is committed wholeheartedly to preserving Syria’s diversity.'

 You can obtain the report here:
[http://www.ohchr.org/…/IndependentInternationalCommission.a…]

Rima frontline is still holding

 '‪#‎Syria‬, ‪#‎breaking‬ the latest from ALQalamon battle: Rima frontline is still holding

 Anchor : Rebels captured areas at the outskirts of AlSihil and ongoing clashes at Rima outskirts.

 Q: what are the latest developments in Yabrood and AlQalamon ?
 A: Helicopter has dropped 2 TNT barrels on Yabrood specially the main market area, destroying entirely houses, and many casualties.'
[http://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/…/syria-breaking-the-lat…/]

Foreign Intervention In Civil Wars Discourages Democracy

 “Without foreign support, rebel groups have to depend more on the support of the people,” she explains. “The more the people are mobilized for the war effort, the more they will come to demand and expect changes favorable to themselves in the post-war regime. In turn, postwar political elites will want to meet these demands in some form in order to stay in power.”

 I was going to take the piss, especially as she is a professor of international affairs at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service [the A is for agriculture], but thinking twice it is a truth that the Syrian revolution is more imperiled by not being self-reliant. The headline I think has it the wrong way about, it is the dependence not the help that is the problem, it is the needing to rely on foreign arms shipments, not the arms themselves that those fighting for a free Syria have to worry about. And there is the confusing use of intervention as a catch-all term.