I survived a local cease-fire

 Qusai Zakarya:

 'Most egregiously, bombardments continue and the regime has resumed arrest raids on civilians. Dozens of people have been tortured to death. The politicians and diplomats say a local cease-fire is in effect in Moadamiya, but they have abandoned us to the Assad regime’s brutal hands. De Mistura said this month that “President Assad is part of the solution,” but the regime has already shown that it is not serious about compromise and has no regrets for destroying the country. If the United Nations cannot even enforce a local cease-fire in a single town, what makes de Mistura think he can do it in Syria’s largest municipality?

 Coalition warplanes crisscross Syria every day. Where are the airdrops of food or medical supplies for the hundreds of thousands of Syrians besieged by the Assad regime in Moadamiya and elsewhere?

 Such glaring hypocrisy is bound to turn more Syrians toward the Islamic State. Correcting the hypocrisy should be a morally obvious choice. The world cannot help Syrian civilians by prodding us into negotiations with bloodthirsty murderers.'

Check Out These Homemade ‘Hell Cannons’

 Veronica Ramadan:

"For four years to date we've heard sneering from clueless Western pseudo-leftists about the “Western backed” Syrian rebels." Here in a few sentences you can see the truth is the reverse.

 'Syrian rebels are firing propane gas cylinders from howitzers as deadly battles with government forces continue.

 With little access to weapons other than small arms such as machine guns, rebels have taken to making their own ammunition.

 Fighters using the cannon are also made to watch online videos detailing how it is assembled and given a fact sheet on how to fire it.

 It was Assad’s regime, the White House believes, that was responsible for the innocent killings of thousands of civilians, including children, with chemical weapons. Such weaponry is barred under international law.

 The U.S. debated military involvement at the time since the White House said the “red line” it previously set for the embattled Middle East country had been crossed. But ultimately, there was no direct U.S. military involvement in Syria until President Barack Obama authorized airstrikes to help contain the Islamic State in late-summer 2014.'

Syrian Refugees Collectivizing in Jordan Becomes a Security Issue

 Somewhat at odds with the conclusion that Jordan could seek to ease its security concerns by reconciling with the Assad government.

 'These first-hand accounts support the dominant narrative that recounts the police and military brutality that suppressed the originally peaceful protests in these and other urban centers. Various testimonials also tell of the defections of ex-regime intelligence and military officials that led to the formation of the Free Syrian Army. This was Syria’s main oppositional force before the entrance of multitude of armed, primarily extremist ideological groups, the strongest now being the Islamic State and Jabhat an-Nusra, who have largely overshadowed the FSA in organization and military prowess.

 Most importantly, many of these testimonials recount the ongoing onslaught by regime forces in civilian areas in Dera’a City and the Dera’a and Damascene countryside, by means of tanks, barrel bombs dropped from airplanes, snipers, and landmines. Syrians who have left their homes for Jordan have frequently explained that their decision to flee Syria preempted or came as a result of these attacks. In other cases, the civilian victims of these attacks were escorted by the Free Syrian Army and then by Jordanian border security to Jordanian hospitals where they received life-saving medical treatment.'

Aleppo ceasefire plan in danger

 “After all the promises and initiatives from the international community and De Mistura, and before him Lakhdar Brahimi and so on, the revolutionaries no longer have confidence except in the barrel of the gun.”

Human rights award given to teacher that stood up to Assad and Islamic State

 "The behavior of ISIS is exactly the same as the behavior of Assad – they also suppress all freedoms, and use arrests and kidnapping of activists and anyone elsewho disagree with them. When I came and stood there, holding up a sign in front of ISIS’ headquarters, for the first time I could see the fear in their eyes. They were terrified by the idea that a woman could come and stand before them and all their weapons, holding up only a sign and still not be afraid of them. They threatened me daily with those weapons."

 I read this by Tony Greenstein* this morning, "Most supporters of the Palestinians and anti-imperialists support Syria against its Islamic opponents, Al Nusra and ISIS and oppose imperialist attempts to intervene in the civil war. " He hasn't got a clue what's going on in Syria.
*[https://azvsas.blogspot.com/2015/02/syrias-torture-and-murder-of-its.html]

Syrians are deeply split after years of warfare

 “Many of the doubts regime opponents held about the Free Syrian Army (FSA) last year have dissipated,” wrote the survey’s author, Craig Charney. “Now, views of the rebel army are almost entirely positive, despite the reported setbacks that it has encountered in the field. Respondents described the FSA as the ‘real army’ and the best hope against the regime.”

 Charney does also say he thinks Syrians would hope the plan for a local ceasefire in Aleppo works, despite their greater knowledge that this is a recipé for more starvation by the régime. Everyone, whether in the régime areas where any dissent can mean torture and death, or in the liberated areas where the fear of Assad remains, is afraid to be frank in their opinions; any survey, especially one of only 40 people, is not going to provide accurate polling, but the opinions are instructive, such as the lack of support for any partition of Syria.

Assad has crossed a new line on bread

 'The Syrian government increased the price of a standard bundle of bread (1.55 kilograms) to 35 Syrian pounds ($0.19) from 25 Syrian pounds on Jan. 17.

 While food was once a critical tool used to appease loyal populations and punish the opposition, the bread price hike suggests that the regime is feeling the pangs of its depleting resources.

 Cutting food supplies to rebel-held areas and channeling the bulk of humanitarian aid to government-approved zones has made the regime “the only reliable source of life-sustaining food.”

 Ensuring supplies to areas under regime control is crucial to Assad’s political calculus, as is depriving those areas deemed loyal to opposition forces. Deliberate scarcities harm adversaries, or those unlucky enough to be under their jurisdiction. In besieged districts, bread and flour deliveries not sanctioned by the regime are completely banned. When battles break out, finding bread becomes an impossible task. In opposition-held territories, flour shortages and supply disruptions mean that bread has been glaringly absent, although efforts by ISIS and other groups to distribute bread illustrate how central food is to sustaining popular support.

 The severe fuel crisis that Syria is undergoing, and the corresponding increase in the cost of producing bread, is slowly diminishing the regime’s ability to maintain crucial subsidies. U.S. airstrikes on ISIS-controlled oil-production sites in Deir al-Zor, well-known for supplying oil to the regime, have drained the government of its energy resources, a problem further exacerbated by its collapsing electricity infrastructure and interruptions in the delivery of tanker oil from Iraq and Iran.

 The collapse of the bread subsidy, once so central to the government’s social contract, suggests that the regime is being pushed to its limits. Bread is no longer a red line; now mere survival is.'

Syrians have been oppressed by a dictator and jihadists

 'Well, maybe they are right, maybe I am a terrorist? A terrorist who decided to leave her work as a broadcast journalist in a highly respected media outlet to go back home and help people under attack from Assad’s barrel bombs. I am a terrorist who is attached to life yet chose to face death on a daily basis, in the name of freedom and human rights.'

Syrians make a new life in New Jersey

 "They" aren't some impersonal civil war, or Western imperialism, but the Assad régime.

 ' "They were using barrel bombs and heavy artillery in the fighting. We lived in a situation where we could be detained at any moment without warning."

 The girls are old enough to remember living in fear in Daraa: being sent to shelters when the shelling began, and of keeping a daily tally of deaths.

 "Of course we are lucky to be here," Fatin says. "Imagine how our children lived under rockets and bombardment. But we see how much our families there are still suffering." '

Kayla Mueller's boyfriend describes effort to free her

 'Alkhani said he spoke to her often about Syria, where bloodshed has gripped the country under the regime of embattled President Bashar Assad, and sent her recordings, photographs and other information that she used for her blog. Nearly half of Syria's population has been displaced, and some 200,000 people have died in the fighting.

 "She wanted everyone to use their freedom to help us get freedom," he said.'

Relative of slain US Muslims hails Erdogan, slams US response

 ' “Unfortunately,Muslim countries did not rally for the Muslims’ blood in Syria or for children in Gaza, Damascus, Ghouta, Aleppo or Homs. But they send international coalition’s warplanes to kill children. If Deah’s blood is going to move the stagnant water, I hope so and let it be a light inside the darkness.”

 Shaza is from Idlib and works in humanitarian aid since the war on Iraq and was also on board the Mavi Marmara vessel to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza. After the Syrian revolution began, she went to Turkey, where she works as Arabic teacher. Her son was killed by the Syrian regime.'

Many players in the Deraa campaign

 More than ever, the Syrian revolution is a fight against foreign occupation.

 'Estimates of the manpower available on the regime side, bolstered by Hezbollah fighters and Shiite paramilitaries from several countries, have run as high as 8,000. The observer said he thought 4,000 was a more reasonable number, but with only 800 Syrian troops among them.'

 This is a hopeful sign.

 'Nusra is negotiating with rebel groups in a bid to make a dramatic break with Al-Qaeda and possibly move to the Islamic Front, an alliance of seven conservative militias. Nusra would likely accept such a move, the observer said, if its difficult conditions are met – such as being removed from the world’s terror lists – due to the extremely hostile international climate generated by the actions of its bitter rival ISIS.'

Governments should pay ransom for hostages

 After Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times was murdered by Assad's forces in Homs in 2012, media organizations stopped covering Syria from the opposition side, claiming that the proliferation of armed groups made it impossible to guarantee the safety of journalists. We never hear from the tame reporters who go to Damascus that the Free Syrian Army has tried to protect them throughout.

 'Aygün points out that FSA members respect journalists as they had helped him enter Syria numerous times before and cover the civil war across the country. “My calmness and relaxed attitude in the area largely stems from the FSA's stance. The FSA respect me as a journalist, even though I often take photographs of them executing their enemies, because there is bloodshed in the country and I help Syrians make their voices heard.” '

‘From Syria With Love’

 "Syrians send their love to all of those who remember us in these traumatic times. We send our love to the Free Syrian Army who have done their best to protect us and our dreams."
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYydp4d337Q]

The atrocities committed by Assad's forces must not be forgotten

 'Around 200 to 250 people were gathered in the public square when it was bombed by a fighter jet. Ambulances were immediately directed to the area to evacuate the wounded. The first batch of wounded arrived few minutes later: 20 bodies and 15 wounded. The triage started right away and priority was given to people with life-threatening wounds...'

The Assad regime’s Daraa campaign is a desperate defensive maneuver

 'Across an area of more than 50 kilometers, southern Syria is witnessing fierce battles: the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is pitted against fighters from Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRCG) Qods Force, supported by Iraqi and Afghan fighters.

 When asked about Syrian troops fighting in the battle, Abu al-Majd al-Zoabi, executive director of the Southern Front’s press office, says that their presence is marginal; that they are being used as bait for the FSA; and that foreign fighters are shooting and killing them if they are hit so as to prevent their capture.

 “We have actually come close to the gates of the west Damascus countryside, and that is what’s keeping the regime up at night. We are fighting to defend our land, our homes and our people, and [the regime] is fighting to defend an occupation project.” '

Douma exterminated

 Campaign member Firas al-Abdallah:

 "Activists in the city know very well that, once again, the world is turning a blind eye, which they know from their four years of similar experiences, but they are hoping to send a message that inspires those with an ounce of humanity in them to call on their government to do something.

 Since the beginning the month, they have documented 103 civilian deaths. This number could rise at any moment because the continued digging through rubble to uncover dead bodies and the hundreds of injured people, who the swamped medical posts can no longer take in."

Assad holds on in war without end

 Jeremy Bowen is full of bollocks. We start with him talking to FSA fighters in his only trip to the rebel side. They probably told him they wanted a democratic state that respected minorities (as you can see from the reference to Turkey), but all he hears is Islamist flavour and all he sees are beards.

 'I managed to cross from government-controlled Damascus to meet them last summer. Their commanders were bearded, pious Muslims who said they condemned the brutality of the jihadists. They said they were prepared to die to destroy President Bashar al-Assad and his regime, and wanted to build a state modelled on 21st Century Turkey, under a government with a distinct Islamist flavour.'

 He then interprets the teachers words as blaming all sides equally, after throwing in the she is a 'devout Muslim'.

 'It's President Assad's duty to leave the children out of this war. He needs to stop shelling the schools - but both sides need to stop attacking the children. They have nothing to do with this war. Adults started the fighting - and they can carry on - but they can't use their children to further their aims.'

 There is nothing that can be done is the cry of the liberal who wants to excuse injustice.

 'Is there a way to end the war in Syria? Not at the moment, or in the foreseeable future.'

 People are afraid to say how much they hate him because they know they may be arrested and tortured.

 'President Assad was never as unpopular as the leaders who were deposed in 2011.'

 He has support, most noticeably among the Alawis who have dominated his state, much as whites did in South Africa, to them the anti-apartheid movement must have been a cruel joke.

 'President Assad has survived, and that would have been impossible without a degree of popular support. For his supporters, and others who just wanted a quiet life, the so-called "Arab Spring" has been a cruel joke.'

 Civilians in areas besieged my Assad have had no food and face barrel bombings. The civilians in Adra were kept out of the fighting for three weeks. The BBC has generally gone with mentioning Nusra involvement in any attack to the exclusion of the FSA (see the Golan Heights border crossing). There was a disinformation campaign by RT claiming that the rebels had killed many civilians.*

 'Adra was damaged badly in the battle to eject a coalition of armed rebels, dominated by the Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate. Mohammad Raja Mahawish, a 40-year-old surveyor, was held in the cellar of his block of flats with his wife, children and 60 others for 22 days after the rebels seized the town almost a year ago.'

 It is only the foreign support that has kept Assad in power. He does not have widespread support among Sunni Muslims. Much of the business elite continues to support him, but it is fear that keeps others from expressing their opposition. And even the Alawis are beginning to demonstrate, such as against the governor of Homs for bombing schoolchildren in an attempt to blame rebels. The idea that the armed forces are intact is a joke. They've shrunk from 320,000 to 80,000 with the mass defections, and those remaining don't really want to fight, which is why he needs the Iranians so badly.

 'It has had military, diplomatic and financial support from Iran, Russia and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. But just as importantly, it has kept the support of most of Syria's minorities and enough of the majority Sunni Muslims to survive. That has helped deliver the loyalty of most of the armed forces, another crucial factor. Wholesale defections were often predicted in the first few years of fighting, but never happened.'

 Truth isn't important when reporting on Syria. What needs to be done is to interview régime supporters, put a weak version of the truth to them, and let their denial be the story, which is how you achieve balance.

 'What is important is not the truth or otherwise of his views.'

 Because they weren't armed they didn't cohere. They were right to blame the West. They had plenty of appeal, but power grows out of the barrel of a gun and only Assad was allowed to have them.

 'An effective and influential alliance of secular, moderate Islamist rebels never emerged. They blamed the West for failing to support them properly. But they were never able to come up with a coherent way to appeal to millions of Syrians locked in their own personal struggles to survive the war.'

 No, the US dismissed them as jihadists too, because the demands for removal were just rhetoric, and the US made no attempt to remove him.

 'The president's version of events was rejected and ridiculed by countries who demanded his removal, including the US, Britain, France and Saudi Arabia.'

 The truth, but discredited by Bowen as just one of the competing narratives, and one that he knows as a Western journalist doesn't fit things as well as his own insights, and the reality of Assad still being in power.

 'Opponents of the regime say that he worked from the beginning to create the stark choice between the regime and the jihadists, the reality he claimed existed from the start of the fighting.

His method, they say, was to target more moderate rebels and keep the pressure off the jihadists, first from al-Qaeda and now from the group that calls itself Islamic State.'

*[http://claysbeach.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/fake-adra-massacre-photos-expose-bloody.html]

Damascus under fire

 'Mohamed Al-Wazir of the NCSROF said that the Army of Islam’s rockets targeted solely military positions and that the regime reacted by shelling other parts of the city to incriminate the revolutionaries. People who examined the trajectory of the shelling support this view, saying that the capital came under fire from the Qasyun Mountains, known to be in regime hands.

 Alloush, who ordered the shelling of Damascus, is a controversial figure. Some members of the opposition describe him as a “fifth column,” noting that he was one of the first men to be released from prison by the regime after the outbreak of the revolution, having promised to cooperate with the authorities.

 Alloush later broke this promise, formed his own brigades, obtained funding from Arab sources and managed to increase the size of his forces until it numbered in the thousands. He has refrained from major engagements with regime forces, even when much smaller groups were regularly harassing them.

 Many opposition members note that Damascus, a city of five million people, is not necessarily pro-government, but is rather being held hostage by the regime.

 Damascus residents do not see the regime as a benefactor, but instead testify to the years of negligence and corruption that have defaced the city, and to the regime’s pro-Iranian policies that have virtually turned the city’s famous Umayyad Mosque into something akin to a Shiite shrine.'

The Streets Run Red

 Douma, ten miles north-east of central Damascus, where Assad appears to be trying to exterminate the local population with barrel bombs, to the extent that the streets run red with blood.

US warning as Hezbollah fighters launch assault on Syrian rebels

 Not warning about Hezbollah, but about any foreign fighters not on Assad's side. Why do they hate us so much? Not because the US are bombing Syria, but because they are ignoring the real threat to Syrians. The story reports the SOHR's repetition of Syrian state media claims about their advances, without giving the reports that the advance has been repulsed.

Isis forces Raqqa citizens to give blood

 'Mr Mohammed, 26, graduated from the Faculty of Law in Damascus before travelling to Raqqa when civil war broke out to become an activist. He said: “I went to Raqqa in 2011 to join the revolution against [Syrian President] Bashar-al-Assad. Me and my friends later founded the Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently campaign.” '

Hezbollah leads fight to retake Syria’s south

 'The south is one of the last remaining areas where mainstream, non-jihadi rebels fighting President Bashar Assad have a foothold.'

That's why Assad gets Hezbollah to fight them, not Jabhat al-Nusra in the North or ISIS in the East. They are murderous scum. The quote does underestimate how much the mainstream rebels are in almost all parts of Syria, and have support greater than their numbers. And the south is quite a foothold. And the Syrian government and its partners lie constantly about how succesful their military operations are, and who the targets are, so we'll have to wait and see if they can reduce any more of Syria to rubble which seems the only success they ever achieve.

Assad is overplaying a weak hand

 Assad is the only force that can take on ISIS, but he needs the Americans to save him from the moderate rebels, who don't exist, but Assad has made a mistake by not conciliating with them. Assad tells lies, but everyone but Patrick Cockburn will be taken in by them. When will he collapse under the weight of his own contradictions? And his mate Cockburn too.

The lies of a tyrant

 Not just part of the problem, but the fount of them.

 'Sticking one’s head in the sand and hoping the war on Isis will bring peace to Syria is a delusional approach. Syrian civilians are not helped when the west has no credible strategy to offer beyond air strikes on Isis and letting military data be communicated to the Assad regime. Nor are the Sunni constituencies that the coalition is supposed to rally against Isis ever going to be convinced of the efficiency of the strategy if Mr Assad, supported by Iran and Russia, is allowed to portray himself as part of a common fight. He is, as ever, part of the problem, not the solution.

 There were no words of empathy for a population that his troops have massacred, leaving whole cities, including Homs and Aleppo, in a state of ruin reminiscent of such 20th-century horrors as Guernica or Dresden. Thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of Syrians have been detained and tortured, some to death, in Mr Assad’s dungeons. Behind the slick images of an interview in a presidential palace, a whole country is being methodically and ruthlessly sacrificed to the interests of the Assad dynasty.'

Assad Is Still Pounding Damascus Residential Districts

 "Everything Daesh is doing now, the (Syrian) regime has done before and is still doing," said Syrian activist Ahmed al-Ahmad, referring to the Islamic State group by its Arabic acronym. "But the world protects Assad and only cares about Daesh crimes."

What's a barrel bomb?

'Footage shows them being used in Syria, but President Assad denies civilians have been harmed.'

 And the BBC gives greater prominence to his lie than the truth. And Jeremy Bowen's response it to suggest inadequacy,

 "either callousness, an awkward attempt at humour, or a sign that Mr Assad has become so disconnected from what is happening that he feels overwhelmed,"

 while Jonathan Tepperman of the Washington Post was less forgiving, "Either Syria’s president is an extremely competent fabulist — in which case he’s merely a sociopath — or he actually believes his lies, in which case he’s something much more dangerous (like a delusional psychopath)."*

 Here** is 37 minutes of footage of Assad's forces dropping barrel bombs from last year.

*[https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-interviewed-bashar-al-assad-about-syrias-civil-war-hes-still-too-delusional-to-end-it/2015/01/30/571671b4-a77f-11e4-a2b2-776095f393b2_story.html]
**[https://web.archive.org/web/20140601214354/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R4UK3r5_Ow]

We need Arab boots on the ground to defeat ISIS

 I am doubtful that any of the other Arab countries' interventions would be fully in support of Syrian self-determination, but it is less the problem than the current Iranian intervention with American support.

 'Our region simply does not have the luxury of Obama’s indolence. For this reason, a full-scale but balanced Arab military mobilization is needed right now. This will include sending in a coalition of ground troops made up of Arab countries as well as funding and arming the Free Syrian Army (FSA), putting them in Jordan and unleashing them from there once ISIS is being elbowed out of the areas it currently controls in Syria and Iraq. Crucially, Assad must not be allowed to benefit from ISIS’s becoming weakened as a result of this offensive. After all, it was Assad who allowed, and directly helped, ISIS grow and become stronger until he could use the group as a crutch with which to hold the world ransom with two stark choices: me, or the deluge. In reality, ISIS and Assad are two sides of the same coin.

 A military offensive of this kind would be the most appropriate response to the horrifying murder of Kasasbeh by ISIS. It would also help break this group once and for all and at the same time block, through the support of the FSA, any gains made by a resurgent Assad or ally Iran as a result. Most importantly, though, it would help lay the ground for serious political changes in the region, especially in Syria, and set the stage for a climate free of Obama’s “strategic cowardice.” '

Red Lines

 'The Syrian Army is shelling a city of cold starving civilians.'



 'When asked about the resurgent interest in the region after ISIS’ consolidation, Moustafa was ambivalent. There was bitterness at having been ignored about the growing islamist threat and the recognition that routing al-Qaeda from Syria is now more difficult than it would have been in 2012, as well as appreciation that Syria continues to be in Americans’ minds.

 Moustafa dubbed the war, “Obama’s Rwanda,” underlining the failure of the Obama administration to act while Kalin made a much stronger comparison. Kalin says that any doubts she had about the necessity of this film were taken away when a Syrian woman asked her, “Have they forgotten us? Are we human?”, words she says echo that of her grandfather who had been imprisoned in Auschwitz.'
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150214032357/http://blog.georgetownvoice.com/2015/02/10/award-winning-documentary-red-lines-depicts-democratization-attempts-in-syria/]

Samira, Razan,Wael, Nazem

 Yassin al Haj Saleh:

 'We have no millions to bribe to the kidnappers as the French, Italian and Spanish states did to Da’esh in order to secure the release of their respective citizens. We are also not affiliated with an influential sect, ‘minority’, or armed group. Second, there is no judicial system that we may resort to – locally, internationally, or any place in between. The United Nations does not care for the fate of individuals (or peoples, for that matter) and the International Criminal Court deals only with states.As activists and families of the kidnapped we find ourselves in an unfortunate position. On the one hand, we do not want to isolate the cause of these two women and two men from the general Syrian cause, which is a bitter struggle against a criminal Assadi-Iranian-Russian alliance. But on the other hand, it is impossible for us not to show special regard for our loved ones who are in the hands of a Da’esh-like organization that still denies its responsibility for the crime - a denial that only intensifies our concern now that more than 400 days have passed. What is more, we have not received help from the official opposition bodies, which did not even express solidarity.'

What is left unsaid about the siege on Ghouta

 'And for those who do not know – or know- what happened in eastern Ghouta:

 The Syrian people rebelled against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The latter had inherited power from his father after more than 40 years of rule by the Assad family. The revolution was modeled on the revolutions of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain which sought democracy and some of which went as far as to achieve it. The revolution was peaceful in its first months. During that time, thousands of martyrs fell; Hamza al-Khateeb, Ghyath Matar, Meshal al-Tammo, Maan Awdat and countless peaceful revolutionaries…With the failure of the international community to take a serious and effective stand to end this tyrannical rule, the people were left with no other choice but to resort to the right of self-defense.

 So many revolutionaries armed themselves and were able to liberate a lot of areas. And as the regime continued to wage its war on the people, some powerful and regional countries with interests in Syria managed to become key players in the course of the Syrian revolution. Many revolutionaries became beholden to the decisions of those countries when the latter started funding their military operations which were no longer possible without the support of those countries. In addition, other countries were backing the Assad regime, which had besieged many liberated areas, by sending logistical support and militias. And as the war went on and the Syrian people found themselves exposed to crimes against humanity on a daily basis, the most virulent and fundamentalist discourses gained in popularity among the people who had embraced the revolution when they saw themselves standing alone and alienated from everything they hear on the news regarding human rights, freedom and dignity.

 Some liberated areas were already being subjected to bombardment and daily death when, after the siege on Ghouta and other areas, they found themselves also dealing with a scarcity, and sometimes complete lack, of necessary basic supplies. None of the necessities of life were readily available anymore- neither water, nor food, nor medicine, nor fuel, nor electricity and not even air which the Assad regime had repeatedly filled with chemical gases.

 Who among those besieged would have believed that he would live through all those horrors? Thousands of martyrs, thousands of wounded, hundreds of thousands of starved people and thousands of deprived children…Life was crushing and no one heard their moans.

 Consider for a moment that one mother had to leave her two sons by a garbage container to be seen by passersby, another mother accidentally caused the death of her infant son when she ate soya bread because she could not find any alternatives and a crying mother was heard chanting “our soul and our blood, we sacrifice for you Bashar,” when she found herself unable to buy flour, which some charities sell at half the market price.'

Is it the beginning of the end for ISIS?

 Oh they stretch from Baghdad to Aleppo. Let's all shit our pants like Patrick Cockburn and demand an alliance with Assad.

 'A military source from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the IS-held city of Manbij said (under the condition of anonymity) that the number of IS militants has decreased in the city.

 “The IS group is even afraid of sending their gunmen on missions and patrols outside Manbij. Those militants, who are supposed to perform military missions and come back to their bases, mostly do not return, as in the recent cases in IS-held Amarna and Jazira checkpoints on the road to Jarablus.” '

Raqqa City between FSA control and ISIS occupation

 'The FSA took full control the city of Raqqa in early 2013 announcing the first liberation of a city center since the beginning of the Syrian revolution.

 Raqqa city lived a period of revolutionary prosperity and provided a wonderful model of revolutionary cultural manifestations which reflects the image of the future of Syria, the people of Raqqa lived this dream until the bats of ISIS came to rob their dreams and their future, kidnapping and killing, prosecuting and death threats against the media activists, and bombing the places of youth gatherings and fight FSA was not everything done by the organization, but ISIS also fought all the existing revolutionary factions until they dominated the whole city in early 2014, all activists and a lot of people began escaping and leaving the city, and ISIS has closed all youth gatherings in Raqqa which were ignored by the whole world.

 Today, the people of Raqqa became strangers in their city, and they are standing on the thresholds of their occupied city in waiting for something in a someday, hoping that the situation will change and they will live the dream again.'

I can see why some men would become radicalised

 When the situation in Syria seems complex, it is because the media has made no attempt to explain it, as in Ireland, where Muslims going to show their solidarity with the fight against Assad are lumped in with foreign fighters going to fight for ISIS.

 "My journey to Syria was on a mission. It wasn’t to a religious war of any sorts. But the mission in general was to topple the dictatorship. And our mission in particular was to help the Syrians themselves: train them how to protect themselves, how to maintain their weapons to topple the regime."

Britain has no idea who's in charge

 More obfuscation from Patrick Cockburn. The Americans are ignoring the Free Syrian Army in Northern Syria which has done most of the fighting against ISIS on the ground, while tolerating Assad who has done more than anyone to foster ISIS.

 'Speaking before the US Senate Armed Services Committee in January, retired US General James Mattis said that in the war against Isis, the US has a “strategy-free” stance. At one and the same time it is seeking to weaken and eliminate Isis, but is also trying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad whose army is the main military opponent of Isis. The US’s supposed aim is to install moderate rebels instead of Isis and Assad, but these barely exist outside a few pockets.

 At senior levels, US leaders probably do perceive their dilemma in combating Isis while heading an alliance that excludes most of those fighting it on the ground but includes those who helped to foster the self-declared caliphate.'

American held by ISIS moved by suffering of Syrian people

 ' "Syrians are dying by the thousands and they're fighting just to talk about the rights we have," the humanitarian worker told The Daily Courier, her hometown paper in Prescott, Arizona, in 2013. "For as long as I live, I will not let this suffering be normal."

 She described helping reunite a man with a 6-year-old relative after their refugee camp was bombed.

 "This story is not rare in Syria," the newspaper quoted her as saying. "This is the reality for Syrians two and a half years on. When Syrians hear I'm an American, they ask, 'Where is the world?' All I can do is cry with them, because I don't know." '

Newsnight

 Nicholas Burns fills in some of the gaps left by Cockburn and Frum last night. But still it is a former US administration official we hear from, reinforcing the perception that Syria is all about what the US does, not about the killing Assad and his allies are carrying out. If the rebels were really Western backed, we would see representatives of the Syrian rebels of the news putting their case, rather than the victims of this war remaining invisible.

 "I think that everything ISIS has done, against Japan, against Jordan, against the United States, against the Arab countries; has deepened the anger and revulsion of people round the world.

 I think Bashar al-Assad is part of the problem. He is guilty of massive human rights violations against the Sunni population in Syria. He's the one who destroyed Aleppo. He's the one who allowed the climate to be created where Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS could be born, could grow, and could succeed unfortunately. I don't think Assad's the answer.

 Most importantly, greater Western/NATO support to the moderate Syrian militia, who can fight ISIS on the ground inside Syria. That's the first step."

Kayla Jean Muller

 "I am in solidarity with the Syrian people. I reject the brutality and killing that the Syrian authorities are committing against the Syrian people, because silence is participation in this crime. I declare my participation in the Syrian sit-in on YouTube."

 When the Leftists who have abandoned Syria talk about ISIS, they never mention what took the hostages ISIS have killed to Syria, because they all went to show support for the revolution against Bashar al-Assad, and were kidnapped by ISIS, which has no interest in that revolution, thus blowing away the narrative that the Syrian rebels and ISIS are the same.

Amy sends another Valentine to Bashar

 'So why do I say this is pro-Assad propaganda? Because according to a more detailed report from EAWorldView, yesterday was one of Assad's bloodiest. 130 people were killed by the Assad regime while 6 may have been were killed by the rebel rockets Amy chose to highlight. This is typical of Democracy Now's shameful reporting on Syria and why I say "even-handed" Amy's reports on Syria are Valentines to Bashar. As Desmond Tutu famously said "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality." '

My people, under the bombs

 'The bombing doesn’t stop until sunset. The government jets target everything. Apartment blocks, mosques, schools, even a hospital. The assault is in reprisal for a major rebel attack that left 10 dead in the capital the day before. As I have taken to doing in such cases, I head down to the makeshift clinic, where I witness the most awful scenes you could imagine.'

The most important thing in the Middle East

 'The most alarming thing about Iran's management and framing of the Syria conflict is that it's actually worked. As Smyth writes, the "battlefield successes" of ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra "have effectively caused the Iranian and Assad messaging strategy to appear more like a self-fulfilling prophecy than an advanced operation to alter narratives about the rebels."

 And the secular rebels who Iran and its allies smeared as "takfiris" are barely holding onto what little territory they still control. The war is being fought along Iran's preferred sectarian fault-line, with Sunni extremists fighting a network of Shi'ite religious warriors largely organized from Tehran.

 The US has even "de-conflicted" with the Syrian and Iranian air forces in Iraq and Syria. That isn't tantamount to an endorsement of the Iranian narrative of the war, but it is a sign of how US policy has conformed to the conditions that Iran and Assad have imposed on the conflict.'

Newsnight

 Patrick Cockburn was talking rubbish on Newsnight last night.

 "The Islamic State is very powerful, it stretches from the border of Iran almost to the Mediterranean."[15m38s]

 "They are conscripting there, so this means their armies are getting stronger and stronger. They are conscripting from every family, so they will be able to put very large armies into the field."[15m50s]

 Raising a conscript army from a population you are terrorising does not make you strong. Do you think those frightened young men would be worth anything in a real fight?

 "The main opposition to the Islamic State in Syria is the Syrian Army and Assad. No Syrian Army, no Assad, then ISIS, the Islamic State, have a good chance of taking over the whole of Syria. So there's no-one else."[16m15s]

 We see openly what was once concealed, Cockburn thinks we should support Assad. When it's been suggested that Cockburn was an Assad apologist for the last two years, the answer has come back, no, that's just like the claim that those who opposed the Iraq war were supporters of Saddam Hussein. No, it isn't, because opposing a war for régime change is not the same as backing a dictator against a revolution, as Cockburn is doing. No mention of the rebel forces that have actually been fighting against ISIS while Assad has been doing deals with him. No mention of how those being barrel bombed, how the tens of thousands being tortured to death in Assad's prisons are supposed to reach an accommodation with him.



 "The Islamic State, which is slaughtering tens of thousands of people," I think you're talking about Assad mate.

 The answer to this is not an American invasion, but to give the actual rebels the weapons necessary to take on Assad and ISIS. A job that would have been much simpler in 2012, when there was no ISIS. But still, the approach of doing nothing doesn't mean that America is protected from instability in the Middle East, but that if the constructive solutions are spurned, then the more destructive solutions are the only ones on the table. And so Newsnight get to oppose Patrick Cockburn David Frum, the man who invented the term axis of evil to describe the enemies of America's neoconservatives. He doesn't argue to help the Syrian rebels, but to stay out of the fight against ISIS because that would strengthen Iran and Assad, and Iran is the main enemy in the Middle East. If the alternatives for Syrians are to be abandoned to Assad or treated as a pawn against the Iranians, it is no sort of a choice at all, though many will see the Frum position as slightly preferable, given that Iran has taken over large parts of Syria and assisted with Assad's genocide. But to argue against deals with Assad does not have to be to support the neo-conservatives, there is a better way.

 Also there is apparent news that Nancy Soderberg supports doing a deal with Assad*, and the former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia exploding the myth that the Saudis are running ISIS.**

*Kirsty Wark: "We spoke earlier to Nancy Soderberg earlier, who said, actually what you have to do is bite the bullet, you have to engage with Assad, Assad is the way we will deal with IS in Syria."[14m38s]
**Sir John Jenkins, "I think the claim that Saudi has been responsible for the rise of Daesh, personally, is absolutely nonsense." [11m25s]

If Saudis aren't fuelling the militant inferno, who is?

 Bashar al-Assad was buying all their oil, but Robert Fisk supports Assad, so he's just going to ignore that, in favour of the testimony of the spooks that got Iraq wrong because they couldn't tell one Muslim from another, and the "I was the 20th hijacker, until I got high" bloke from al-Qaida.

 Like many vile dictatorships, Saudi Arabia has much more use for democracy as a tool to undermine its enemies than it is at employing it at home.

 'When the international community finally decided to launch an international coalition against terrorism, Saudi Arabia once more emphasized that defeating ISIS must be linked to strengthening the forces of moderation, represented by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) as well as other moderate rebel factions.'
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150629000420/http://www.aawsat.net/2015/02/article55341171]

Angelina Jolie and the Left

 'Given that so many people around the world admired Angelina Jolie for this work, maybe the Left should consider how those people are likely to view the despicable track record of the Left as the world has watched more than 200 thousand people be murdered and millions made refugees by their own government.

 "I told them that since I’ve arrived here, all I’ve seen on CNN or NBC was news about the Malaysian airplane over and over. With all due respect for it, I think there are much more important things going on in the world – like Assad’s using chemical weapons dozens of times in limited doses during the past few weeks, barrel bombs destroying what’s left of Aleppo and Syria, or how about how Bashar fulfilled his promise that he made in the middle of 2011 and turned Syria into a new Afghanistan, or how Hizballah and Al-Qaeda are getting more experienced and stronger, while both of them are fighting side by side against the free Syrian army, above and below the radar."

 - Syrian refugee mhamou on State Department interview 14 April 2014'

'Musician of the Syrian Revolution' Debuts at Carnegie Hall

 'Jandali remains focused on using his music to raise awareness and, he hopes, help bring down the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

 “You know, the question is why a Syrian symphony at this time, where people are in need of medicine, food, shelter,” he said. “And I’m envisioning someone a hundred years from today, looking back, saying, 'What did the Syrian people do during their revolution? Ah, here’s a Syrian symphony!' Similar to what Shostakovich did, for example, in his Leningrad Symphony. So what I’m trying to do is preserve and present my culture that is being destroyed today.” '

Syrian government forces kill hundreds of civilians

 At least the Independent is mentioning Assad's war on Syria, but Britain was never going to go to war in 2013.

 'Bombings and chemical attacks like the ones that almost led Britain to war in 2013.'

 Assad is fighting ISIS as little as possible, and the groups actually fighting him are not separate from the anti-government sentiment.

 'President Assad’s forces are fighting a civil war on several fronts – against Isis, other Islamist militias, secular rebel groups and to quash the anti-government sentiment that started in the 2011 Arab Spring.'

 Assad's attacks aren't against the majority of foreign fighters fighting on his side of the conflict.

 'At least 100 fighters, the presumed target of the regime's attacks, were killed in the same strikes, including rebels, Islamists and foreign militants on both sides of the conflict.'

 Nobody but Assad is using barrel bombs.

 'The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is calling on the Security Council to issue another resolution condemning al-Assad’s regime for its “indiscriminate bombing” and to order all parties in Syria to stop using barrels bombs.'

 ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra are not the same thing, the latter fights Assad.

 'The extremist group Islamic State and al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, were responsible for systematic and widespread violations including targeting civilians, kidnappings, and executions.'

Regime security forces executed 60 detainees in rural Damascus yesterday

 Some days they do this. The catastrophe in Syria isn't about what America does, it's about what Assad is doing. It isn't right that the Jordanians killed a couple of prisoners in revenge for their pilot, but it isn't like they're doing it all the time. As all the Western correspondents failed to predict, Jordanian people have turned against ISIS now they know their pilot has been murdered. ISIS aren't criminal masterminds who would spirit away any weapons given to the Free Syrian Army to fight them and Assad.

Qatari FM: Assad is Root Cause Syria’s Problem

 'Attiyah stresses that people of the region do not sympathize with ISIS or its extremist views, but they are trying to remind everyone of the root cause of the problem, namely the Assad regime’s brutal policies. “The killing of over 300,000 people and the indiscriminate barrel bombing of women, children and the elderly underscores the brutality of this regime." '

Genghis Khan-style cruelty of Isis

 Robert Fisk had always decided that Assad was a moderate and his enemies were more horrible. A liar who was claiming only on Thursday, 'Soon, no doubt, we can expect Isis to have that other necessary accoutrement of modern statehood: an airline. Then it only has to wait for the West to identify the "moderates" in the Islamic State - and I suppose we’ll all be able to go and chat to Caliph al-Baghdadi himself.' This apologist for Assad is a reporter no more.

 'There will be ruthless leaders aplenty – Bashar al-Assad of Syria comes to mind, now that we have decided that his enemies are even more horrible than him – who will benefit from the cruelty of the last few hours.

 Our intolerance of the autocrats of the Middle East – of the al-Sissis and al-Assads, of the Hashemite monarchy, of the quivering princes of the Gulf, even of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei – is already mutating in the face of the Caliphate. All must surely become our "moderates" again, those who wish to ‘unite against terror’ now that we gaze upon the fires of hell in Raqaa and Mosul.'

Syrian rebels hope for swap deal

 It should be possible to tell the difference between the actual Syrian rebels, and the incompetent barbarians of ISIS who burn prisoners to death when they don't have a female suicide bomber released on their terms. The Western media narrative has been to present ISIS, Assad and the Russians as strategic masterminds, while the suffering Syrian people are a clueless bunch of farmers and pharmacists who can't have nice things. And their accounts can't be verified, however consistent they've been for the last four years.

 ' "We are questioning him on how Iranians operate in Syria. Our priority right now is a swap (of him) for our prisoners. We have so many women in government prisons and we want to swap him for (some of) them."
Reuters could not independently verify the account.

 The opposition has consistently demanded the release of thousands of women they say have been jailed for involvement in anti-government activism since March 2011, when the war began as peaceful street protests.'

Syria blames Lebanese 'manipulation' for currency slump

 "The Syrian Pound’s weakness will show when it loses all elements of power and stability."

Regime Barrel Bombs Pound Syrian Civilians

 "It is a terror and an anti-civilian tool. Part of Assad’s strategy is to make life as miserable as possible for the civilians living in opposition-held areas. It’s designed to kill many and terrify the rest so they will flee and gradually depopulate the area, to make it harder for the rebels to hang on."

Syria and the left

 Yassin Al Haj Saleh:

 "I think this high-politics, Western-centered worldview is better suited for the right and the ultra-right fascists.What prevents them from seeing the victims of Bashar, when they see perfectly well ordinary people in Kobanê? Why wasn’t there the slightest interest in the slaughter of 700 people at the hands of ISIS thugs themselves in Deir Ezzor last August? One is forced to ask: Do victims have different values based on who their murderers are? Why, as the regime is bombing many regions in the country every day, killing dozens of people every day, are the leftists in the West as silent as the rightists?

 Of course, these remarks are not meant to deny the existence of a small number of courageous dissident Western leftists who saved the moral and political dignity of the left in the United States and the West at large."

Inside Syria’s Jails

 'Torture was routine. Anyone who has been detained in Mr. Assad’s prisons will know these details. There are about 40 documented techniques, including suspending prisoners by their arms from the ceiling, electric shocks, beatings, cigarette burns and pulling nails. The screams of the tortured were unbearable; I nearly lost my mind in there.

 More than 60 men were held in a neighboring cell. Regardless of the charge, the guards called us all terrorists and beat everyone. The number of detainees went down as some died, and up again as more were brought in. Some were forced to sleep next to corpses before the dead were disposed of. Among the living, our exhausted bodies became infested with lice; we got rashes and skin infections.

 I was fortunate not to be harmed physically, unlike a doctor held with me who was falsely accused of kidnapping a Syrian Army soldier. They hung her from her hair instead of her wrists, and kept dousing her body with cold water and shocking her with electricity until she lost consciousness for days at a time.'

The Left's shill for Obama's red-line con

 'Remember the words of that old general that was one of Smiley's People in the John Le Carre novel by the same name, "Enemies I do not fear, Villem. But friends I fear greatly" The truth is air strikes against Assad for using "a whole bunch of chemical weapons" was never in the offing. It was only put out there, together with the 16 bullets, so that Obama could be in the position of pulling the rug out from under at the critical moment. All that was necessary was for Obama to throw the decision to Congress so that the Left could give him cover and, in fact, take credit for, this Sting, [which 95% of the Left counted a great victory they had won!!??]

 Get the Net: Revolutions cannot be defeated by military might but they can be defeated by betrayal and back stabbing.'

Syria and the Left

 Yassin Al Haj Saleh:

 "I am afraid that it is too late for the leftists in the West to express any solidarity with the Syrians in their extremely hard struggle. What I always found astonishing in this regard is that mainstream Western leftists know almost nothing about Syria, its society, its regime, its people, its political economy, its contemporary history. Rarely have I found a useful piece of information or a genuinely creative idea in their analyses. My impression about this curious situation is that they simply do not see us; it is not about us at all. Syria is only an additional occasion for their old anti-imperialist tirades, never the living subject of the debate.

 So they do not really need to know about us. For them the country is only a black box about which you do not have to learn its internal structure and dynamics; actually it has no internal structure and dynamics according to their approach, one that is at the same time Western-centered and high-politics centered.

 The problem is that their narrow anti-imperialist worldview only sees Obama, Putin, Holland, Erdoğan, Khamenei, Qatari Emir Hamad, Saudi King Abdullah, Hassan Nasrallah, and Bashar al-Assad. Possibly they see also Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. We, rank-and-file Syrians, refugees, women, students, intellectuals, human rights activists, political prisoners … do not exist.

 I think this high-politics, Western-centered worldview is better suited for the right and the ultra-right fascists. But honestly I’ve failed to discern who is right and who is left in the West from a leftist Syrian point of view. And I tend to think that these are the poisonous effects of the Soviet experience, fascist in its own way. Many Western leftists are the orphans of the late father, the USSR."