Syria

Fresh Doubts About Syria’s Sarin Guilt

December 15, 2013 Robert Parry, www.consortiumnews.com Educate! Media, Syria, Wars and Militarism

A United Nations analysis of samples taken from one of the two sites of the alleged Sarin attack outside Damascus, Syria, on Aug. 21 found zero chemical weapons agents, and one UN laboratory backed off its earlier claim to have found a residue that can result from degraded Sarin on the remnants of the missile, according to revisions in a new UN report. This failure to find Sarin anywhere in Moadamiyah, a suburb south of Damascus, undercuts analyses by Human Rights Watch and the New York Times that relied on a vectoring of the two attack sites – the other in Zamalka/Ein Tarma to the east where Sarin was detected – to conclude that an elite unit of the Syrian military must have been responsible for the attacks that brought the United States close to war in Syria. There were already problems with the analyses by HRW, which has long pushed for a U.S. military intervention in Syria, and the New York Times because of doubts about the flight paths of the missiles and their maximum range. UN inspectors only had a rough idea of the trajectories because the projectiles may have deflected off buildings as they crash-landed. Also, if the two missiles had been fired from the elite military base of the 104th Brigade of the Republican Guard northwest of Damascus, they would have had to fly about nine kilometers though independent experts have suggested that the improvised missiles probably could go no more than three kilometers.

Seymour Hersh Raises Doubts About Whether Syria Was Source Of Sarin

December 8, 2013 Seymour M. Hersh, www.lrb.co.uk Educate! Syria, Wars and Militarism

Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack. In the months before the attack, the American intelligence agencies produced a series of highly classified reports, culminating in a formal Operations Order – a planning document that precedes a ground invasion – citing evidence that the al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, had mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity. When the attack occurred al-Nusra should have been a suspect, but the administration cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad.

Syria & Summers: Obama ’08 Voters Finally Find Their Voice

October 9, 2013 Mark Weisbrot, www.theguardian.com Educate! Finance and the Economy, Syria, Wars and Militarism

"President Obama was twice defeated last month on matters of national and international importance, by grassroots opposition and resistance from within his own party. The first was over his planned bombing of Syria; the second was over his attempt to appoint Larry Summers as chair of the Federal Reserve. The blocking of the Syria bombing was a historic victory with profound implications, perhaps the first time in the past 50 years that the American people were able to prevent an announced military intervention by pressuring Congress. Although some politicians and media outlets tried to say that Obama's military threats led to the agreement on Syria for destruction of its chemical weapons, the exact opposite is more likely true."

Palestinian Activist Budour Hassan Explains The Case Of A Jailed Syrian Journalist

October 3, 2013 Budour Hassan, www.socialistworker.org Organize! Human Rights, Syria

"SYRIAN SECURITY forces arrested Syrian journalist and Marxist dissident Jihad Asa'ad Muhammad near Athawra Street in central Damascus on August 20. News of his arrest was confirmed by his sister Lina, a fellow Marxist and anti-regime activist forced into hiding. Jihad had been among the few revolutionary activists who remained in the Syrian capital, a deceptively quiet bubble under the strangling iron fist of the regime, despite the ominous threat of arrest hovering over his head. Soon after his arrest, a Facebook page was created that both demanded Jihad's immediate release and republished articles he had written during and before the uprising."

The London Review of Books on Syria

October 3, 2013 Robin Yassin-Kassab, www.pulsemedia.org Educate! Media, Syria

Watching the representation of the tragedy in the media has been almost as depressing as watching Syria burn. As someone with strong leftist and anti-imperialist leanings, it’s been particularly galling to find that ‘leftist’ commentary on Syria has often been the worst of all. Large sections of the left have wholeheartedly embraced the very discourse that they resisted during the War on Terror years – that of ‘terrorists’ and al-Qa’ida conspiracies explaining all. Leftist journalists have paid little or no attention to the regime’s blatant and deliberate instrumentalisation of sectarian hatreds, but have focussed on, and exaggerated, the backlash. Robert Fisk has gone so far as to embed himself with the regime army, and to (grotesquely) interview survivors of the Darayya massacre in the presence of the perpetrators of the massacre. Many leftists have convinced themselves, against all the evidence, that the American-led empire has been conspiring against the Syrian regime since the start of the revolution, that this is a re-run of Iraq.

Questions About UN Report On Chemical Weapons In Syria

October 2, 2013 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Media, Syria, Wars and Militarism

A senior United Nations official who deals directly with Syrian affairs has told Al-Akhbar that the Syrian government had no involvement in the alleged Ghouta chemical weapons attack: “Of course not, he (President Bashar al-Assad) would be committing suicide.” When asked who he believed was responsible for the use of chemical munitions in Ghouta, the UN official, who would not permit disclosure of his identity, said: “Saudi intelligence was behind the attacks and unfortunately nobody will dare say that.” The official claims that this information was provided by rebels in Ghouta. A report by the UN Mission to investigate use of chemical weapons (CW) in Ghouta, Syria was released last Monday, but per its mandate, did not assign blame to either the Syrian government or opposition rebels. Media commentators and officials from several western countries, however, have strongly suggested that the Syrian government is the likely perpetrator of CW attacks in Ghouta and other locations.

Robert Fisk Asks “A Syrian Solution To Civil Conflict?”

October 1, 2013 Robert Fisk, www.independent.co.uk Educate! Middle East, Robert Fisk, Syria, Wars and Militarism

"Six weeks ago, a two-man delegation arrived in secret in Damascus: civilians from Aleppo who represented elements of the Free Syrian Army, the rebel group largely composed of fighters who deserted the regime’s army in the first year of the war. They came under a guarantee of safety, and met, so I am told, a senior official on the staff of President Bashar al-Assad. And they carried with them an extraordinary initiative – that there might be talks between the government and FSA officers who “believed in a Syrian solution” to the war. The delegation made four points: that there must be an “internal Syrian dialogue”; that private and public properties must be maintained; that there must be an end to – and condemnation of – civil, sectarian, ethnic strife; and that all must work for a democratic Syria where the supremacy of law would be dominant. There was no demand – at least at this stage – for Assad’s departure."

How Progressive Won Four Important Victories in Ten Days

September 24, 2013 Phyllis Bennis, Sarah Anderson, Tiffany Williams, Sam Pizzigati, www.alternet.org Organize! Larry Summers, Syria, Worker Rights and Jobs

Progressives won big in four arenas over the past two weeks. They played key roles in stopping a military strike on Syria, defeating Larry Summers’s bid to head the Fed, winning basic protections for 1.9 million home health care workers, and forcing companies to disclose the gap between their CEO and worker pay. Were the stars just aligned for once? Or are there some lessons here for future fights? Here are some thoughts from four Institute for Policy Studies analysts and activists ... It is a huge victory that the United States is not bombing Syria right now. If not for the huge mobilization of anti-war pressure on the president and especially on Congress, things would have turned out very differently.

The Syrian Resistance: A Tale of Two Struggles

September 24, 2013 Maciej Bartkowski and Mohja Kahf, www.opendemocracy.net Educate! Nonviolence, Syria

It is a tragedy of history when so many people regardless of sect, ethnicity, religion, and gender join in nonviolent resistance to demand freedom for all, and achieve so much with so little during such a brief time, only to have their accomplishments go largely unrecognized, and their struggle devolve into a fight with oppression on its own violent terms - as if these could be complementary to nonviolent resistance, an effective method to protect people, or a proven instrument to defeat a brutal regime. This happened in Syria.

UN Report Provides Information, Not ‘Intelligence’

September 22, 2013 Jim Naureckas, www.fair.org Educate! Syria, Wars and Militarism

The United Nations mission to investigate allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria has released its report on the mass deaths in Ghouta on August 21, and it presents compelling evidence that the killings resulted from a deliberate attack with the nerve gas sarin. While the report explicitly declines to attribute responsibility for what it describes as a war crime, the details it provides of the quality of the sarin, the munitions used to deliver it and the trajectory of the projectiles used point to the Syrian regime as the likely perpetrator.

American Gun Use Is Out Of Control. Shouldn’t The World Intervene?

September 22, 2013 Henry Porter, www.theguardian.com Educate! Syria, Wars and Militarism

"That's America, we say, as news of the latest massacre breaks – last week it was the slaughter of 12 people by Aaron Alexis at Washington DC's navy yard – and move on. But what if we no longer thought of this as just a problem for America and, instead, viewed it as an international humanitarian crisis – a quasi civil war, if you like, that calls for outside intervention? As citizens of the world, perhaps we should demand an end to the unimaginable suffering of victims and their families – the maiming and killing of children – just as America does in every new civil conflict around the globe."

Mintpress News Says Author of Syria Chemical Weapons Story Being Threatened

September 22, 2013 Mnar Muhawesh www.mintpressnews.com Educate! Chemical Weapons, Saudi Arabia, Syria

Dale is under mounting pressure for writing this article by third parties. She notified MintPress editors and myself on August 30th and 31st via email and phone call, that third parties were placing immense amounts of pressure on her over the article and were threatening to end her career over it. She went on to tell us that she believes this third party was under pressure from the head of the Saudi Intelligence Prince Bandar himself, who is alleged in the article of supplying the rebels with chemical weapons.

Syria: Deciphering the Propaganda War over the Ghouta Massacre

September 21, 2013 Nafeez Ahmed, ceasefiremagazine.co.uk Educate! Chemical Weapons, Syria

The ongoing war of words illustrates that Syria is not just a civil war, but a propaganda war being fought for competing geopolitical interests. The end-result of this tug of war between pro-interventionist and anti-interventionist narratives has been the victory of neither, and thus, the entrenchment of violence amidst a Syrian stalemate. Meanwhile, Syrian civilians continue to be killed largely by conventional, not chemical, weapons. According to the latest UN human rights report, both Syrian government forces and Free Syrian Army rebels—and not just those affiliated to al-Qaeda—have committed war crimes, although government forces are culpable in the vast bulk of the violence including at least eight massacres.

Revolution, Civil War and Imperialist Intervention

September 20, 2013 Marea Socialista, www.internationalviewpoint.org Educate! Arab Spring, Chemical Weapons, Syria

This statement on Syria was issued by the Venezuelan revolutionary organization Marea Socialista (“Socialist Tide”) on 8 September 2013. Active since the beginning within the Chavista movement and the Bolivarian process, Marea Socialista is a current organized within the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela), founded by Hugo Chavez. It advocates deepening the popular process in Venezuela and mobilizes against the bureaucratization of this process. It is interesting, in this respect, to know its analysis and its positioning concerning events in Syria. Its call for the internationalist and democratic radical Left to make itself heard in a coordinated manner is also important.

Can Peace Movement End US Empire?

September 20, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.truth-out.org Organize! Syria, Wars and Militarism

The US military has undermined US security, weakened the economy and caused instability around the world. The most recent victim of US attack, Libya, is now a failed state engulfed in tribal wars and weak leadership. Iraq, after years of US occupation, is experiencing violence and ethnic divisions that are pushing the country toward civil war. As the United States leaves Afghanistan, violence continues in that country. Across the Middle East, the Arab Spring is not only a revolt against leaders the United States has supported, but a revolt against the neoliberal economic policies the United States is forcing on the region. Our task as citizens of this empire is to work together to consciously unwind the American Empire in a systematic way that does not cause greater destruction and division in the world; to end an empire that produces destructive empire economics and unjust policies at home and abroad. Our task is to end the largest empire in world history.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

assetto corsa mods

Daily movement news and resources