1.
1.
#*Syria* <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Syria&src=hash> Sarin Blame
Game: Is Carla Del Ponte at it again? http://
claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/05/syria-
sarin-blame-game-is-carla-del.html … <http://t.co/JzxUgToNQG>
2. [image: Clay Claiborne] <https://twitter.com/clayclai>Syria falls
off Internet, electricity cut in Damascus, as Assad massacres continue
http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/05/syria-
falls-off-internet-electricity.html … <http://t.co/LoPc9SwtVR> #*Syria
* <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Syria&src=hash>
#*Assad*<https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Assad&src=hash>
Syria Today: Remembering a Mass
Killing<http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/2013/5/7/syria-today-remembering-a-mass-killing.html>
inShare
Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 5:20 | James
Miller<http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/author/james-miller>
in EA Live <http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/category/ea-live>, EA
Middle East and
Turkey<http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/category/ea-middle-east-and-turkey>
, Middle East and
Iran<http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/category/middle-east-and-iran>
*Commander of the "Alawite Syrian Resistance" Mihraç Ural --- is he
bragging about "ethnic cleansing"?*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CGZnXTDdfeg*
*
------------------------------
2040 GMT: *The Internet is Down.*
Another watchdog, Umbrella Security Labs,
reports<http://labs.umbrella.com/2013/05/07/breaking-news-traffic-from-syria-disappears-from-internet/>
:
*
At around 18:45 UTC OpenDNS resolvers saw a significant drop in traffic
from Syria. On closer inspection it seems Syria has largely disappeared
from the Internet.
*
Brown Moses has checked
Google,<https://twitter.com/Brown_Moses/status/331870460717441024> and
this is the result:
However, the opposition still has plenty of ways to communicate. Satellite
phones and other, more secret, methods have been established since the
earliest days of the revolution. This blackout will have a significant
impact on information coming out of Syria, but it's not a total blackout.
This is not the first time Assad has cut the
internet<http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/2012/11/29/syria-analysis-a-threatened-regime-cuts-the-internet.html>.
The last time, it was cut at the same time of surging insurgent advances
and massive defections. The worry, however, is that this internet outage
may be an attempt to hide something even more sinister, perhaps like the
Baniyas massacre which was trending earlier today on Twitter.
2030 GMT: *Internet Down in Syria.*
The internet has been cut in Syria, according to a global internet watchdog
and several other sources:
Anonymous @*an0nyc* <https://twitter.com/an0nyc>
*Breaking* Internet traffic out of Syria disappears..
#*YAL*<https://twitter.com/search?q=%23YAL&src=hash>
pic.twitter.com/q2yRBlSKnC <http://t.co/q2yRBlSKnC>
Fawkes Mulder @*Star_Fawkes* <https://twitter.com/Star_Fawkes>
>> “@*an0nyc* <https://twitter.com/an0nyc>: *Breaking* Internet traffic out
of Syria disappears.. #*YAL* <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23YAL&src=hash>
pic.twitter.com/zCanjYFUJA <http://t.co/zCanjYFUJA>”
2000 GMT: *US and Russia to Broker Transition.*
The details are trickling in, but anti-Assad activists are already
expressing their anger at statements emerging from US Secretary John Kerry
after he met with Russia leader Vladimir Putin. What is emerging is that
the United States will work with Russia to broker a political solution to
the crisis. According to Fox News, that deal might even consist of the
breakup of the country into various regions. From what is known, Russia
agreed that they are willing to discuss a Syria without "certain persons"
in it, and John Kerry has suggested that the US is willing to keep Assad in
the picture.
Jon Williams *✔* @*WilliamsJon* <https://twitter.com/WilliamsJon>
#*SecKerry* <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23SecKerry&src=hash>:
"Impossible for me, as a person, to see how Assad could govern future #*
Syria* <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Syria&src=hash> but.. I'm not going
to decide that in end"
#*SyriaABC*<https://twitter.com/search?q=%23SyriaABC&src=hash>
At the end of the day, the takeaway is that a "roadmap" for peace will be
discussed at another conferencelater this
month<http://bigstory.ap.org/article/kerry-meeting-putin-syria>
.
So far, the US has been applying more pressure on the regime to push it to
negotiate. But even that may soon change if Assad is willing to come to the
table:
The Associated Press *✔* @*AP* <https://twitter.com/AP>
BREAKING: Kerry suggests US may not need to arm rebels if Syrian political
transition moves forward. -SS
This is not a surprise to me. While Washington did approve the moving of
Croatian weapons to the rebels, those shipments have never been in
quantities large enough to end the crisis, and they appear to have stalled
in recent months. Washington's goal has always been to push the regime to
the negotiating table, and we've been saying that for a long time.
Washington may have finally convinced Russia (and maybe even Iran) that the
stalemate has been accomplished, and a negotiated settlement is the only
solution.
*See our February analysis, Syria Analysis: Washington Supports Arming of
Insurgents So the Regime Will
Negotiate<http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/2013/2/28/syria-analysis-washington-supports-arming-of-insurgents-so-t.html>
*
1906 GMT: *Sulfuric Acid Attack?*
There are reports that several children were killed and others wounded in a
sulfuric acid attack in Al Qusayr, south of Homs. The area is the front
line of battle between rebels forces and Hezbollah & regime allies. This
video <https://twitter.com/Johnyrocket69/status/331840434005491712>,
reportedly taken on May 3rd, claims to show the victims. The doctor in the
video says that these three children show symptoms of sulfuric acid,
including a "yellow substance coming out of their mouths."
This video is graphic:
Graphic video from Syria alleges sulphuric acid poisoning. Blue lips,
yellow discharge from eyes. Right symptoms? https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=lw4ga1RDSMU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
…<https://t.co/r0mAKzJ7rl>
1822 GMT: *Death Toll Rising.*
According to the latest update from the Local Coordination Committees just
a few minutes
ago<https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=653690467991426&set=a.221856221174855.74557.217848338242310&type=1>,
96 people have been killed so far across the country:
*
32 martyrs reported in Daraa; 30 martyrs in Damascs and its suburbs; 9 in
Hama; 8 in Aleppo; 5 in Qunaitra; 5 in Homs; 3 in Deir Ezzor; and 3 in
Idlib.
*
The Local Coordination Committees (LCC) is an activist network operating
both inside and outside of Syria. They claim to use stringent verification
processes to ensure that a member of the LCC can vouch for any information
posted either on . The LCC also cooperates with an independent
organization<https://www.facebook.com/notes/%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7/cooperation-statement-between-vdc-and-lcc/246158392077971>
to
populate database of those killed in the Syrian conflict, which can be seen
at the website for the Center for Documentation of Violations in
Syria<http://www.vdc-sy.org/>
.
The LCC's casualty figures are often a mix of insurgents and civilians, and
never include regime casualties. Syrian State Media has stopped reporting
regime casualty figures.
Also see our description of the Local Coordination Committees and how we
utilize their reports in the Columbia Journalism
Review<http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/straight_news_from_the_citizen.php?page=all>
.
1803 GMT: *Rebels Advance in Aleppo.*
North of Aleppo city, the Menneg airbase has been penetrated by rebel
fighters who have been in the process of ultimately securing the entire
base for several days. Pictures and videos reportedly show the rebels
inside the perimeter of the base.
In the northern districts of Aleppo city itself, rebels continue to work to
consolidate gains around the Central Prison, which has been surrounded for
weeks. While rebels have been able to redress a renewed Assad offensive in
the south, in the last month they have established at least nominal control
of nearly 5 square miles of Aleppo's northern districts.
Al Jazeera, via *Now Lebanon* has posted videos and
pictures<https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/nowsyrialatestnews/al-jazeera-aleppo-airport-prison-to-fall-into-rebels-hands>,
and has this update on the rebel advances in both locations:
*
“Rebels have tightened the siege on the area… and have cut all supplies
[reaching] the Syrian army,” Al-Jazeera’s reporter in the Aleppo province
said.
He added that the negotiations concerning Aleppo’s Central Prison were
centered around the release of political detainees as well as women and
children.
The same reporter went on to note that the regular army had requested to
move its troops to a nearby area in exchange for handing over the entirety
of the Minnigh airport, but the rebels refused.
*
1728 GMT: *UN Peacekeepers Detained in the Golan.*
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has called for the release of the UN
peacekeepers <http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=6802> detained
in the Golan:
*
The Secretary-General strongly condemns the detention of four UNDOF
peacekeepers by armed elements in the vicinity of Al Jamla, in the area of
limitation and calls for their immediate release.
The Secretary-General reminds all actors in Syria that UNDOF is mandated to
monitor the Disengagement of Forces Agreement between Israel and Syria. The
Secretary-General calls on all parties to respect UNDOF’s freedom of
movement and safety and security
*
1510 GMT: *UN Peacekeepers Detained in Golan.*
A picture has been posted on a Facebook
page<https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=457209741030132&set=a.448247201926386.1073741828.438737752877331&type=1&theater>
that
reportedly shows the four detained UN peacekeepers (see previous update).
We're posting it below because we were unable to find it after conducting a
reverse-image-search, suggesting that this is the first time it has been
uploaded, but the last UN peacekeepers were also from the Philippines.
-------------------------------Assad’s backers on the left are ignoring
reality
*Posted* by John <http://enpassant.com.au/author/john/>, May 8th, 2013 -
under Anti-imperialism <http://enpassant.com.au/category/anti-imperialism/>
, Assad
<http://enpassant.com.au/category/assad/>,Imperialism<http://enpassant.com.au/category/imperialism/>
, Israel <http://enpassant.com.au/category/israel/>,
Syria<http://enpassant.com.au/category/syria/>
.
<http://www.sa.org.au/media/k2/items/cache/190b45d6e70c926b2036190992a772ce_M.jpg>
Assad’s backers on the left are ignoring reality
“Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to
speak of,” claimed a recent *New York Times*
article<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/world/middleeast/islamist-rebels-gains-in-syria-create-dilemma-for-us.html?pagewanted=all&_r=3&;>
.
For those on the left convinced that the US is hell-bent on backing the
Syrian rebellion against the regime of Bashar Assad, or who claim the US is
backing these “Islamist” forces, or even that the whole Syrian rebellion is
a “US war on Syria”, this statement was greeted as a sign that “even the
US” is coming to understand how bad the rebels “that it supports” are.
A more obvious explanation is that the *NYT*, which tends to closely
reflect US ruling class thinking, is making this ridiculous, sweeping and
clearly false statement precisely to justify the US policy, consistent over
the last two years, of *not* supporting the Syrian uprising.
But isn’t the US sending arms to the Syrian rebellion? Simply making that
statement does not prove that it’s true. CBS
reported<http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57582025/Syrian-rebels-to-get-1st-direct/>
on
1 May, “The first shipment of US aid to the armed Syrian rebels was being
delivered Tuesday to the opposition Supreme Military Council (SMC). It
includes $8 million in medical supplies and ready-to-eat military food
rations.”
Note that: After nearly two-and-a-half years of the Syrian uprising, about
two-thirds of that time in the form of armed rebellion, the *first* US
shipment of aid to the rebels occurred in May 2013 in the form of “medical
equipment and food rations”. I guess the medical equipment and food rations
have been launching this two-year “US war on Syria” retrospectively.
In reality, what we see most of the time is the US expressing extreme
reservations about any kind of intervention in the Syrian civil war. In
February, the US authorised a $60 million package for “non-lethal aid” for
the SMC, once it had decided that the SMC leadership could be controlled
and could control the flow of whatever equipment it got. Of that $60
million, it is only this $8 million in food and medicines that has yet seen
the light of day.
More recently, there were hints that the package could include things like
body armour and night-vision goggles. On 1 May, the *Washington Post*
reported<http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-04-30/world/38924687_1_chemical-weapons-chemical-sites-syrian-opposition-forces>that
US was “moving toward the shipment of arms” at some unspecified time in the
next few months”. But [officials] emphasised that they are still pursuing
political negotiation,” with Obama pursuing further talks with Russia to
try to find agreement.
The US government stresses that its lack of material support for the rebels
is due to US hostility to the growing “Islamist” part of the rebellion.
Some of the Islamists are supported by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, others are
not (e.g. the powerful Al-Nusra militia linked to Al-Qaida). The Islamist
forces are generally hostile to US imperialism and very hostile to Israel,
which has in stronger terms expressed opposition to these forces coming
anywhere near power in Syria.
The idea that the US wants to support these Islamists but is pretending not
to is nothing but a fantasy indulged in by parts of the left who have
decided to throw their lot in with the reactionary dictatorship of Assad.
Since the Islamists are doing a significant amount of the fighting, and the
extreme fringe (e.g. Al-Nusra) has taken responsibility for the most
“war-like” actions (e.g. terrorist bombings), the best way to claim the
uprising is a “US war on Syria” is to make the unlikely claim that the US
is supporting and arming these Islamists, despite the US and other
imperialist governments stressing nearly every day that these Islamists are
the primary reason they are not supporting and arming the uprising.
Indeed, with all the hoo-ha about the Syrian military allegedly using
chemical weapons, and leftist claims that this was the parallel of the
“WMD” excuse to invade Iraq, one might have expected the US to order some
kind of “strong” action. In reality, Obama’s reaction was to
redefine<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/04/syria-red-line> the
“red line” of greater US involvement in Syria from *any* use of chemical
weapons to any “systematic use”. In sharp contrast to the lies about Iraqi
WMD peddled in order to justify an invasion, in this case Obama has reacted
to allegations of use of chemical weapons by stressing that the evidence
“was still preliminary” and thus he was in no rush to intervene: ” If we
end up rushing to judgment without hard, effective evidence, we can find
ourselves in a position where we can’t mobilise the international
community…” Most analysis concludes the US is very unlikely to change
course. Phil Stewart and Peter Apps, writing for Reuters, noted
*US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel [has] stressed that no international or
regional consensus on supporting armed intervention now exists… NATO chief
Anders Fogh Rasmussen has ruled out Western military intervention and US
Admiral James Stavridis, NATO’s supreme allied commander, cautioned last
month that the alliance would need agreement in the region and among NATO
members as well as a U.N. Security Council resolution.*
Likewise, the till-now more hawkish British government is now,
according to Anshel
Pfeffer in
*Haaretz*<http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/britain-less-eager-to-arm-Syrian->,
exercising more caution in its attempts to arm the rebels fighting the
Bashar Assad regime in Syria, following intelligence reports and warnings
by other governments that the major part of the rebel movement has been
taken over by Jihadist groups with links to Al-Qaida.
There are of course the much more hawkish calls from Republicans such as
John McCain and Lindsay Graham for US air strikes on Syria’s chemical
weapons sites. Notably, McCain was not concerned about whether Assad’s
forces had used chemical weapons or not – even if they hadn’t, he said, the
US should still “use Patriot [missile] batteries and cruise missiles” and
ready an “international force” to enter Syria to secure stocks of chemical
weapons.
Clearly McCain is a more aggressive imperialist than Obama. Yet his
testimony is still not that useful for Assad fans as an argument. His
hawkishness stems from a desire to not see chemical weapons fall into the
hands of the Islamist
opposition<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/article11595592.ece>
.
According to Stewart and
Apps<http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/27/us-usa-syria-military-options-idUSBRE93Q0C620130427>,
“possible military choices range from limited one-off missile strikes from
ships to bolder operations like carving out no-fly safe zones”.
Alternatively the US could create “humanitarian safe areas that would also
be no-fly zones off limits to the Syrian air force”.
However, as Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst and Middle East expert at
the Brookings Institution warned: “Once you set up a military no-fly zone
or safe zone, you’re on a slippery slope, mission creep and before you know
it, you have boots on the ground.”
*Israel*
Many of the assertions about US aid to the Syrian uprising are nothing but
reiterations of the well-known fact that the reactionary Gulf monarchies of
Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been providing a moderate stream of arms to
specific rebel groups. The fact that they are pro-US is twisted in
discussion to mean they are mere puppets of the US, as if they cannot have
their own policies.
In fact, these two states are engaged in an aggressive regional
“sub-imperialist” project, with the dual aims of rivalling Iranian
influence in the region and turning the democratic impulse of the Arab
Spring, including its Syrian chapter, into a sectarian war.
The US is very wary of this strategy, principally because the only
available shock troops are “jihadists” who are more anti-US and especially
anti-Israel than Iran, and much more so than the Assad regime, which does
not have an “anti-imperialist” history at all.
The argument that the US “must” be behind the anti-Assad rebellion because
some of its Arab allies are behind parts of it, is even more strange given
the key US ally in the region, Israel, remains steadfastly opposed to the
Saudi-led project. Israel views the victory of a Syrian uprising with a
strong Islamist component as a nightmare scenario.
Israel carried out one airstrike in January, and there are reports that two
more strikes have been carried out over the last few days. In these cases,
the aim has clearly been to prevent the delivery of arms (apparently
long-range missiles) to Hezbollah in Lebanon. But while Israel wants to
weaken the Assad regime in order to disrupt the passage of arms between
Iran and Hezbollah via Syria, it is also aware that the Syrian government
has both kept the border with the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan completely
quiet for 40 years, and has continually waged war on the Palestinians
whenever they got too strong.
Speaking to CBS news in the
US<http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57582025/syrian-rebels-to-get-1st-direct/>,
Yuval Steinitz, Israeli Minister of Intelligence and Strategic Affairs,
explained that the “only scenario” for Israeli military action in Syria
would be “to prevent the delivering of arms, chemical weapons and other
kinds of weapons into the hands of terrorists”.
“Steinitz emphasised,” the report said, “that Israel was not urging the US
to take any military action ‘whatsoever’ in Syria at this stage”.
For Israel, these “terrorists” mean both Hezbollah in Lebanon (which is
currently allied to Assad) and the Sunni Islamist forces fighting to topple
Assad. In an interview with BBC
TV<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22195516> in
late April, Netanyahu called the Syrian rebel groups among “the worst
Islamist radicals in the world. So obviously we are concerned that weapons
that are ground-breaking, that can change the balance of power in the
Middle East, would fall into the hands of these terrorists,” he said.
According to Aaron Heller, writing in *The Times of
Israel*<http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-wary-quiet-on-Syrian-front-may-soon-end>,
Israel is also worried “that whoever comes out on top in the civil war will
be a much more dangerous adversary” than Assad – specifically in relation
to the Golan Heights. “The military predicts all that (the 40-year peaceful
border) will soon change as it prepares for the worst.” The region near the
occupied Golan has become “a huge ungoverned area and inside an ungoverned
area many, many players want to be inside and want to play their own role
and to work for their own interests,” said Gal Hirsch, a reserve Israeli
brigadier general, claiming Syria has now become “a big threat to Israel”
over the last two years. The military’s deployment on the Golan is its most
robust since 1973, “and its most obvious manifestation is the brand new
border fence, 6 meters (20 feet) tall, topped with barbed wire and
bristling with sophisticated anti-infiltration devices”.
Those raising false “anti-imperialist” flags to justify their support for a
capitalist regime involved in horrifying repression of its people are
ignoring reality. Israel, the key imperialist asset in the region, very
clearly sees the Syrian rebellion as a far worse alternative to the Assad
regime. Assad’s Western defenders either don’t mention Israel at all when
they list the countries they think are waging “war on Syria” (and hope
no-one notices the omission); or, even worse, they add Israel to their list
despite the evidence (and hope no-one notices).
*This article, by Michael Karadjis, first appeared in Socialist
Alternative<http://www.sa.org.au/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=7734:assad%E2%80%99s-backers-on-the-left-are-ignoring-reality&Itemid=386>
on
5 May 2013.*
*
*
*
http://enpassant.com.au/2013/05/08/assads-backers-on-the-left-are-ignoring-reality/
*
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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