Press Release
Syrian Network for Human Rights

Violations Against Media Professionals:

Since the outbreak of Syrian revolution, Syrian government not just prevented all media –except pro-Alassad regime media outlets – to work freely and transmit news and the facts happening on the ground, but they also expelled, arrested tens of them , and restrict others in their work .

Syrian government’s crackdown towards media is one of the worst in the world comparing with other countries, restricting freedom of press and media in this way is a clear violation of all norms and international conventions in this regard .

This cause additional responsibility on Syrian revolutionaries, hundreds of citizens takes this task upon themselves to become citizen journalist exposing their lives to the danger of detention and death

SNHR documented since the outbreak of the Syrian Revolution up till now killing 168 media professionals and citizen journalists including 3 women , which is a clear indication of women participation in Media work in Syrian Revolution

The following link contains all the names of the killed media professionals and their death date as well as their photos and videos.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Bj18tlYYKBLXF4QzVXSURWZVU/edit?usp=sharing

Homs topped the list of Media victims with 73, followed by Damascus countryside with 21, Aleppo 16, Daraa 12, Damascus 9 , and the rest all around the other Syrian governorates

For the Non Syrian Media victims they were 12 all around the world

SNHR refuse to document pro-Alassad regime or pro-oppositions media outlet –where they don’t deserve the media capacity any more, cause by their actions they turned into intelligence agents depicting the faces of activists to arrest them – and forced residents by arms to admit that Alassad troops didn’t kill or shell , but on the contrary they were sophisticated in dealing and in humanity

The same for armed rebel , Media capacity falls from any correspondent carry weapon and turned into a solider

 

Detainees and torture of correspondents:

There are at least 3500 media activists and citizen journalists work as photographer, or have an administrative role on social networks, and reporters to transmit news and information to agencies and stations all around the world

According to the statements of eyewitnesses and survivors from Alassad prisons that the media activists of revolutions suffering from distinct type of torture more worse than the other detainee , 4 media activists killed under torture and 600 forcibly disappeared  .

The following you can see the reporters names how has been tortured to kill in prisons then the security branches hand over the bodies to their families and the signs of tortures appears on :

1-      Abdullah Hasan Kakeh – Aleppo – male – killed under torture in Military Intelligence branch  in 17-11-2012

2-      Baraa Yousef Alboshi – Sabonia / Hama – male – dissident             sergeant – was speaking media and journalist on the ground in Damascus countryside – killed in the random shelling on Altal in 11-8-2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXx7EehIS3c&feature=youtu.be             https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=472183366134460&set=a.376981942321270.94377.362879720398159&type=1&theater

3-      Mahmod Sudki Sakhita – Ariha / Idlib – male – media activist – Alassad army arrested him on a checkpoint and killed under torture in 22-7-2012

4-      Rami Suliman Ekbal – Dael / Daraa – male – married and have a girl child – killed under torture by Alassad troops in 21-6-2012

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=414616385255608&set=a.170186573031925.48606.165780076805908&type=1&theater

5-       Hasan Mohamad Azhari – Damascus – male – killed under torture in prison in 17-5-2012

6-      Juan Mohamad Katana – Derbasia / Hasaka – male – photographer , his body found and the sign of torture appears on it after three hours of his abduction from his house in Derbasia by masked people

7-      Farzat Yahia Aljarban – Kosayr / Homs – male – killed under torture in 20-11-2011– after he was arrested in 19-11-2011 , his body was dumped http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEbCNd7Gv0A&feature=youtu.be

 

Some of the Prominent Martyrs of Media Professionals:

Basil Shehadeh
A well known movie director, he was studying at Syracuse University in the United States, he returned to Syria in order to participate in the peaceful movement against the government. He was arrested when he was in one of the demonstrations in Damascus by the Intelligence forces in Damascus, and then released. He used his camera to document the attacks of the Syrian army on neighborhoods of the city of Homs. He was killed on 29/5/2012 in Safsafa neighborhood in the city of Homs after being bombarded by the Syrian government’s army.
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/basel.jpg

Rami Al-Sayed
A revolutionary prominent media professional in Homs, where he was filming the live broadcast of the demonstrations, he was documenting the victims of the regime forces bombing; those killed and wounded along with abuses against civilians. He was martyred in besieged Baba Amr after heavy shelling by the Syrian government forces on 21/2/2012.
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/rami.jpg

Mohammed Al-Khal (Abu Bilal al-Dairi)
A media activist volunteered to document the events of the revolution in his hometown Deir Ezzor since the breakout of the revolution. He worked on monitoring most military checkpoints on the axes of the city through filming them from a long distance. He was also able to document much of the “theft and looting” by the soldiers of the regime during raids. He martyred after missile bombardment by the Syrian government forces on 25/11/2012.
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/khal.jpg

Omar Abdul Razak Altawf (Omar Homsi)
A prominent media activist in the Syrian revolution, he is from the city of Talbisa in Homs, he contributed effectively in the dissemination of news about the Syrian Revolution on the news agencies around the world. He also filmed a large number of documentaries by his personal camera. He martyred in a field execution process with two of his brothers and a number of activists when he was returning from Turkey to Talbisa at Aicardaa military checkpoint on 20/10/2012.
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/omar1.jpg
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/omar2.jpg

Tamer Al-Awaam
A film director and a political activist from Al-Suwayda. He made many documentations about the Syrian Revolution activities, the most prominent was “Memories at the Checkpoint” (Zekrayat ala Al-Hagez). He was died by shrapnel of a random bomb shell as a result of shelling Al-Ezaa district in Aleppo city by the Syria Army Forces in 9/9/2012.
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/tamer.jpg

Mary Koven
An American journalist, works for the British Sunday Times Newspaper. She was killed in 22/02/2012 as a result of targeting the Media Center for Baba Amr district by the Syrian government forces. Thus, Mary was killed along with her French photographer colleague Remi Ochlik.
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/mari.jpg

Remi Ochlik
A French photographer. He worked in all the Arab Spring countries in 2011. He witnessed the Tunisian and the Egyptian Revolutions, then the war in Libya. His staling photos that is full of humanity were published in Paris Match and Time Magazines and in The Wall Street Journal. He was awarded the first prize for the young photographers in the “Visa Pour L’Image” photojournalism festival. He was killed along with his the journalist Mary Koven in Homs, Baba Amr district in 22/2/2012.
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/rimi.jpg

Mika Yamamoto
A Japanese journalist. A pioneer in the field of video journalism and she was awarded many prizes. She was working for the Independent Media Group (Japan Press). She was killed as a result of shelling Aleppo city by the Syrian Army Forces while fulfilling her media responsibility in covering the current events there in 21/08/2012.
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/mika.jpg

 

Media Professionals in Prison:

Mazen Darwish
A journalist, a member in the International Federation of Journalists, the founder and the head of “The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression”. He was interned in 16/2/2012 after breaking into the center by the Air Force Intelligence Forces. Since he was interned, he was not accused of any crime, and he is still interned and suffering from several health problems.
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/mazen.jpg

Activist, Ali Othman:
One of the most famous media activists in Homs. He participated in documenting tens of crimes and violations against the Syrian citizens. One of his most famous and important works was the first video for shelling when he commented: “Baba Amr is being shelled, where are you Arabs?”

He was interned in 28/3/2012 by military security detachment in Al-Bab city in Aleppo. He was then sent to the military security branch to end his journey in Palestine branch after only days from the being interned, and he is still interned.
http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/ali.png

 

Condemnation and Blame:

SNHR as human rights organization condemn blatantly targeting the journalist and attacks against them which is classifies as crimes against humanity and  holds Bashar Alassad as the Syrian president and the commander of the Army forces , the hole responsibility of all acts of murders , torture and massacres that have occurred in Syria.

Assad is primarily responsible for ordering these acts, and we consider all officials of the Syrian government , which leads the security and  army operations as a direct partner of this crimes , and  the same for the Iranian government and Hezbullah participate actively killings and holds them legal judiciary and responsibility , as well as all financiers and supporters of the system and who is committing massacres an almost unstopped daily basis, systematic in day or night, and we hold them all reactions and consequences, and that may be issued from the Syrian people, especially relatives of the martyrs and their families .

We demand the Security Council and the United Nations and Member States to work at a maximum speed to take all safe to protect civilians in Syria, and they are in droop for supporting the Syrian people and the protection of civilians bear with the Syrian regime a great deal of responsibility where they have to comply with the responsibility of ethical, legal and accelerate steps toward reference all those involved in the those massacres to the international Criminal Court.

Also appeals all the media around the world to standby their colleague in Syria who are risking their lives to give the voice of truth , even to transmit  a small part from the Syrian people suffering , thus all the media organization around the world have to launch an extensive campaign to press the Syrian government and demand them to  allow all media around the world unconditionally to carry out their mission and media role.

—

الشبكة السورية لحقوق الإنسان 

Syrian Network for Human Rights 

https://www.facebook.com/syrianhr

The Real Spillover Effect!

What’s the point of the international order that the United States in particular has played a crucial role in establishing, as flawed as it is, if conflicts like the one raging in Syria are neglected? What’s the point of working hard to come up with the legal notion of “Responsibility to Protect” if it is to be ignored when the challenge ahead is actually serious? Even if the dissolution of Syria followed by a regional meltdown had little impact on U.S. strategic interests, and that’s a rather big IF, the real spillover effect that we all should fear is the breakdown of the existing international order with no alternative in sight but chaos. It might take the world years before we get to this point, but we will get there eventually and the starting point will be the way the conflict in Syria was ignored and mismanaged. Why Syria and not Congo? The ongoing real time documentation of major developments over the last two years, the inherent racism in the current order which still ascribes more psychological and political relevance to developments closer to the West, and the timing of this development in Syria which coincides with a series of economic, social and political upheavals in different parts of the world, will combined in due course of time to give developments in Syria that weight. This has the potential of becoming the hair that broke the camel’s back.

Today’s Death Toll: 141 martyrs, including 12 children, 11 women and 2 martyrs under torture. 34 martyrs reported in Damascus and Suburbs, 27 in Homs, 30 in Idlib, 18 in Raqqa, 16 in Aleppo, 6 in Deir Ezzor, 4 in Lattakia, 3 in Hama and 3 in Daraa (LCCs).

Points of Random Shelling: 440 points: Shelling with Warplanes was reported in 33 points, with the fiercest shelling taking place in Raqqa, shelling with SCUD missiles was documented in 3 points; cluster bombs in 5 points; where vacuum bombs in 1 point in Maaret Noaman, and another point in Dar Abeera in Homs; whereas, shelling with Mortars was reported in 130 points, with artillery in 155 and with rocket launchers in 113 points (LCCs).

Clashes: 142. Successful operations include “liberating” both the political and the military security headquarters in Raqqa City, shooting downa MiG in the town of Heesh, Idlib, and shelling the military airports of Minnigh and Nairab in Aleppo with local made rockets. In Homs, FSA rebels managed to destroy a loyalist checkpoint in Zablatanim, and in Damascus City, they repelled an attack on Jobar Neighborhood (LCCs).

 

News

Syria’s refugee tide passes one-million mark Around half the refugees are children, most of them aged under 11, and the numbers leaving are mounting every week, the United Nations refugee agency said in statement. “With a million people in flight, millions more displaced internally, and thousands of people continuing to cross the border every day, Syria is spiraling towards full-scale disaster,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said in a statement.

Syria crisis: Teenage mother ‘becomes millionth refugee’ (Video) A teenager has become the one millionth refugee of the crisis in Syria, according to the UN. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has warned the country is “spiralling towards full-scale disaster”. Half of the refugees so far are children, the UN said, most of them under 11 and often traumatised by their experiences. Bushra, 19, registered as a refugee in Lebanon, along with her young children, as the BBC’s Nik Gowing reports.

U.N.: 20 peacekeepers detained in Syria The U.N. Security Council demanded their immediate and unconditional release. The capture of the peacekeepers marked a new escalation in the spillover of Syria’s civil war, now entering its third year. It followed the Feb. 25 announcement that a member of the peacekeeping force, known as UNDOF, was unaccounted for. The U.N. said the peacekeeping member, who has not been identified, is still missing. Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the current Security Council president, said talks are under way between U.N. officials from the peacekeeping force, known as UNDOF, and the captors.

Arab League discusses giving Syria’s seat to opposition
… ministers meeting in Cairo were divided on whether to let the opponents of President Bashar al-Assad take over Syria’s seat, previously held by the Damascus government. “The discussions on giving the Syrian seat to the opposition are taking place now and there are countries for it and others against it,” one diplomat said on the condition of anonymity.

Syria world’s top destination for jihadists, says William Hague, as aid promised Syria has become the “top destination for jihadists” across the world, William Hague said on Wednesday, announcing that Britain will give the opposition “non-lethal” military equipment for the first time.

Syria War: Rebels Joined By Chechnya Islamic Militants In ‘Jihad’ Against Assad (VIDEO) “This is the first time that a mass number of Chechens have taken part in military actions abroad,” said analyst Mairbek Vatchagayev, based in Paris, adding that claims were made that Chechens had fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan or in Iraq, but no definitive proof had been given.

Syria’s Assad says Chavez death is “personal loss” Chavez, an ally and regular guest of Assad’s, shipped diesel fuel to Syria last year to help it overcome shortages caused by Western sanctions, and described the Syrian conflict as an international plot backed by Western powers. Assad described Chavez’s death as “a great loss to me personally and to the people of Syria”.

Syria Civil War Threatens Cradle of World Cultures Tanks, looters prey on treasures of past civilizations of Macedonia, Rome and the Byzantine Empire and roots of Islam, Christianity and Judaism

 

Special Reports

Aleppo at War: Everyday Life in the Death Zone
In Aleppo, every footstep is a crunch. The streets are strewn with rubble and broken glass from destroyed buildings and shattered windows. It’s a sound that distinguishes a walk around this war-torn Syrian town from any other city in the world.

Syria’s House of Cards
After two years, 1 million refugees, and more than 70,000 dead, some Syrians — and one American president — are still looking to protect their own interests rather than save a country.

Syria’s war: Keeping up appearances
The regime continues to pay salaries to Syria’s civil servants, wherever they may be, even though government offices in swathes of the country are empty. Earlier this month the north-eastern provincial city of Raqqa fell to Mr Assad’s enemies—the first city to do so. Yet the show must go on. In Damascus the electricity board still issues citizens with bills. The postal service still delivers mail no more erratically than before. Even the Meteorological Office is on hand to publish forecasts of rain. For Syrians who enjoy star-gazing, the Astronomical Society has notified them to look out for a comet between March 12th and 14th.

Change the Focus of the Syria Debate
One approach would be for western governments to initiate assistance programs through the multilateral agencies (such as the UN, Islamic Development Bank and World Bank Group) which were designed for this purpose, but equally importantly, have the resources to put personnel on the ground and devote the funds necessary to have a meaningful impact. Call it ‘pre-emptive development’. Another idea is to create lending and guarantee schemes specifically earmarked for high risk post-conflict reconstruction. This has of course been done in the past, but usually too long after a conflict has ended, and often implemented too late to be maximally effective to those most in need. If we want post-conflict Syria to end up better prepared to survive the chaos and despair engulfing Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere in the region, we must do a much better job of marshalling and deploying the civilian, political and economic resources essential to the establishment of political stability. If this were to occur, perhaps Syria could serve as a turning point in ‘pre-emptive’ post-conflict reconstruction and development, rather than a continuation of the flawed approach that has been replicated numerous times over past decades, with predictable results.

My new paper, prepared for a briefing in Washington, D.C. that took place on January 15, 2013, is now out and is titled “Syria 2013: Rise of the Warlords.” It should be read in conjunction with my previous briefing “The Shredded Tapestry,” and my recent essay “The Creation of an Unbridgeable Divide.”

Quickly Noted
* “Pre-emptive development” is an interesting concept indeed, and one that the United States and European Union seems to be dabbling with at this stage in connection to developments in Syria, but the problem here is that the impact of such preemption will remain negligible so long as scuds and bombs keep raining down on people in liberated areas. Bear in mind what’s happening to Raqqah City at this stage: over 30 aerial raids have been undertaken and two scuds hit neighboring communities in the 24 hours following its liberation. What possible developmental activity can take place in these conditions? We don’t just anything to be done, we need the right thing to be done. If there no will to do that, than doing nothing might be preferable.

 

Video Highlights

A missile attack on Jobar Neighborhood, Damascus City http://youtu.be/XcjVJ-U_E7k The neighborhood of Tadamon was also pounded http://youtu.be/uujd1cr-UgY

In the town of Daraya, Damascus Suburbs, a local factory burns to the ground on account of the constant shelling by pro-regime militias http://youtu.be/Os0eH0r6sVQ

A Scud launched from the Qalamoun region in Damascus Suburbs takes course towards Raqqa Province passing over the town of Yabroud http://youtu.be/nigMFRm6OZI

The pounding of the town of Rabeeah in North Latakia by pro-regime militias http://youtu.be/ApWf7cs8P30

Rebels in Aleppo keep up their pounding of the Kuweiris Military Airport using home-made rockets http://youtu.be/oCznimD_ReA , http://youtu.be/QCTHLx0zneg , http://youtu.be/fowb2w6V0mQ , http://youtu.be/WqXti-T4Qdc

Clashes in Daraa continue http://youtu.be/4sFkjg48hCg , http://youtu.be/YMJP-fTyErA , http://youtu.be/Mfn3SK2EFhQ

Raqqa City: Over 30 air raids in less than 24 hours following the city’s liberation took their toll http://youtu.be/iCNT4SF4e3c , http://youtu.be/xvg8S8SPyw0 , http://youtu.be/oIuoCjqxtXk , http://youtu.be/raXjbd8a0M

Turkmen protest the elections in Gaziantep for a council in Aleppo Province, claiming they are being marginalized http://youtu.be/j26Ow23GcrU

The town of Jamla near the border with Israel continues to witness heavy clashes between rebels and loyalist militias http://youtu.be/bgvlHSGUL9s It’s a group affiliated with the rebels in Jamla that is currently holding the UN observer.

The battle for control of rebel strongholds in Homs city continues http://youtu.be/9Jkyc8E3vvY , http://youtu.be/EaVyZ0KHGNQ , http://youtu.be/uKLGQJm4lwM , http://youtu.be/DrfCv8966u4 , http://youtu.be/yrEkU2pbziM

The Frog!

Syrian Revolution Digest – March 5, 2013 

By trying to fill his father’s shoes, Bashar Al-Assad ended up magnifying his father’s sociopathy. One destroyed a city in order to concentrate his power, the other destroyed a country, and has little power left. The frog can never become a bull. Bashar can never become his father. And Syria will never be the same.

 

Tuesday March 5, 2013

 

Today’s Death Toll: 134 martyrs, including 9 children,7 women and 2 martyrs under torture. 34 martyrs reported in Damascus and Suburbs, 27 in Daraa, 23 in Raqqa, 18 in Aleppo, 12 in Homs, 11 in Idlib, 5 in Deir Ezzor, 3 in Hama and 1 martyr in Lattakia (LCCs).

 

Points of Random Shelling: 406 points: warplanes shelling was recorded in 12 points, and shelling with Scud missiles was reported in 4 points, while the shelling with mortar shells was reported in 122 points and artillery shelling was recorded in 160 points, the shelling with rocket launchers was recorded in108 points (LCCs).

 

Clashes: 138. Successful operations include the liberation of the village of Sfeira in Aleppo. In Damascus and Sububs, FSA rebels targeted a checkpoint in Ein Tarma and destroyed 2 tanks and inflicting heavy casualties on regime soldiers. FSA rebels carried out a successful raid on a loyalist convoy traveling on the Damascus International Airport Highway destroying tanks and inflicting heavy casualties near the checkpoint of Ghassouleh. In Hama, rebels destroyed a convoy east of the town of Khan Arnabeh (LCCs).

 

News

Kerry: U.S. more confident arms flow to Syria moderates Kerry, on his first overseas tour since taking office, told a news conference in Doha he had held talks with nations in the region about the kinds of arms being sent to the different Syrian opposition forces. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are widely believed to be providing weapons to the rebels, but the United States says it does not wish to send arms for fear they may find their way to Islamist hardliners who might then use them against Western targets.

Low on Ammo, Rebels Drive in Northern Syria Slows The rebels’ capture of this strategic city was a key success in their advances in northern Syria against regime forces. But it’s so far proven an incomplete victory. Maaret al-Numan remains a shell of a city. One major reason: Rebels have been unable to take a large regime military base on the edge of the city. Artillery fire from Wadi Deif and other nearby government strongholds regularly thuds into its largely empty residential buildings, while warplanes pound surrounding villages. The vast majority of the population has fled and it’s too unsafe for them to return.

Syria spillover, al Qaeda strain Iraq security Invigorated by the conflict in neighboring Syria, insurgents are gaining ground and recruits in Iraq’s Sunni heartland, regrouping in the vast desert where the Euphrates river winds through both countries, security officials say.

Free Syrian Army secret bakery helps quell food shortage in Aleppo – video A secret bakery, run by the Free Syrian Army, is helping to feed people in the Syrian city of Aleppo. With scarce fuel supplies, much of the industry in Syria’s largest city has shut down. However one bakery, which has resorted to operating in secret, is continuing to supply residents with fresh bread and is helping to quell the growing food shortage in the city.

Children lack schooling in Syria crisis, UNICEF says One in 5 Syrian schools have suffered damage or have been converted into shelters, UNICEF said in a new overview of the parlous state of education in Syria, where an armed rebellion has been raging for almost two years. In some cases, UNICEF said, armed groups have commandeered schools. At least 2,400 schools have been damaged or destroyed, the U.N. children’s agency said.

Syrian jets bomb northern city overrun by rebels The rebels continued to battle pockets of government troops in Raqqa, struggling to crush the remaining resistance in the city of 500,000 people on the Euphrates river. If successful, it would be the first major city they would completely control in the civil war, and would consolidate their recent gains in the northern Syrian towns along the river.

Syrian Forces Hit Two Cities as Rebels Claim Advances Highways through Homs and Hama connect the western coast, a stronghold for the ruling regime’s Alawite minority, to Damascus. The roads are vital supply routes for the military and possible exit routes for Alawites seeking to flee other parts of Syria and head back to the coast. While diplomats said Alawite officials have started to send some of their families to coastal villages and hometowns from Damascus, President Assad and the Alawite core that make up the security and military apparatus appear to be focused on controlling Damascus, Homs and Hama. “The Plan B for the regime seems to be consolidation in Damascus, not contraction to the coast,” a Western diplomat working on Syria said.

 

Special Reports

No point in raising false hopes in Syria

Obsessing over whether the ‘right’ people get whatever aid is sent to the Syrian rebels, however, misses the point. The real argument for keeping clear of the Syrian conflict, at least in a military sense, is this: neither America nor any other western nation is prepared to commit to the struggle against Al Assad in any substantive way. There will be no ground troops. There will not even be a no-fly zone. The political will to sustain an intervention in Syria simply does not exist. Lacking that will, it is better to keep clear of the conflict in any military sense.

Syria’s Many Militias: Inside the Chaos of the Anti-Assad Rebellion

…if the Military Command is to successfully stitch together the patchwork of factions and militias that make up the rebellion, it needs some form of leverage — and the funneling of weapons and ammunition into Syria is supposed to be its modus operandi. Although there are reports of new batches of armaments being shuttled mainly via Syria’s southern border with Jordan, as well as its northern one with Turkey, Idris says it’s all not enough: “We need between 500-600 tons of ammunition a week. We get between 30-40 tons. So you do the calculations.”

In Lebanon, a proxy battle for Syria

Sectarian violence in Lebanon may resemble Syria’s conflict, but residents say the real problems are poverty and neglect.

Two Years of Civil War in Syria, and What About the Future?

Syria as we know it in current maps, is for all intents and purposes a political fiction. There is no more one Syria, there are quite a few Syrias. In that regard, Bashar Assad may have a point. He keeps saying, that the “great game” of Turkey, the U.S., Saudi-Arabia and others is to divide Syria. Well, Syria is indeed divided, but the dictator should blame himself in the first place, as his policies made it impossible for any meaningful reform to take place in Syria, one that could have prevented the current calamity. But then, exactly because the regime has always been based on the Alawites and other minorities, it lacked any real desire for reforms which would have brought it down, if leading to a truly representative democratic regime.

Nihad Sirees: Daddy Dearest – Inside the mind of Bashar al-Assad

Why does war still savage Syria? When will it stop? Is President Bashar al-Assad a man trapped in his dead father’s web? Has his cruelty been thrust upon him by family and fate, or is it entirely of his own making? Does he want to flee in defeat? To admit he has been ruinously wrong?… The young president was completely immersed in his father’s experience. His father’s legacy dominated the mentality of the son, and he could not escape from it, or think outside it. Every time Bashar the president confronted a new development in the current crisis, he resorted not to his own common sense but looked back for similarities to what his father had experienced in the past and how he had reacted. He became a brutal mimic man.

Chester Crocker: Syria’s Crisis of Transition

First, successful repression by the Assad regime appears to have failed. Second, a scenario of de facto—let alone de jure—partition of the country would compound the turmoil already facing the region and thus would find little favor in Turkey, Iran or Iraq. Third, an outright victory by opposition forces that effectively blows away the regime is highly unlikely. Fourth, there is little chance of decisive external combat intervention on behalf of the opposition. Syrian mayhem appears unlikely to prompt a repetition of the kind of NATO/UN military action seen in the Balkans, and Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad knows it. One implication of these observations is that Syria’s best chance lies in the possibility of an internationally led, negotiated transition that is subject to some measure of external monitoring or peacekeeping (UN/Arab League). The key to such an outcome would hinge on American and Russian negotiators with the assistance of UN–Arab League special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, the veteran Algerian mediator.

 

My new paper, prepared for a briefing in Washington, D.C. that took place on January 15, 2013, is now out and is titled “Syria 2013: Rise of the Warlords.” It should be read in conjunction with my previous briefing “The Shredded Tapestry,” and my recent essay “The Creation of an Unbridgeable Divide.”

 

Quickly Noted

 

* “Chavez is with Hafiz now!” (Comment by a Syrian activist on Facebook)

 

* We want real policy for managing the Syria situation into a fair resolution, not a smoke screen meant to alleviate political pressure or some feeling of guilt.

 

* If people want to blame basketball player Dennis Rodman for saying that North Korea’s dictator is a “great” and “humble” man, what should we do, I wonder, with all those Syria experts who for years kept contending that Assad is a reformer? Especially when so many of them are still getting consulted on all things Syrian and are still providing advice to U.S. and western leaders?

 

* In his recent interview, Assad mockingly asked for the names of the martyrs his troops and militias had killed. Well, we actually have them. Even the U.N. acknowledges that the actual death toll is far in excess of the oft-quoted 70,000, but these are the documented cases.

 

U.S. efforts on Iran not working, Syria planning underway: Mattis

 

Mattis also painted a daunting portrayal of events on the ground in Syria, where he said the situation was too complex at this point for him to support arming rebels battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

 

“We don’t want to inadvertently, with the best of intentions, arm people who are basically sworn enemies,” he said before the Senate Armed Services Committee… “The collapse of the Assad regime, sir, would be biggest strategic setback for Iran in 25 years,” Mattis said in response to a question from Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island…

 

Mattis said “quiet planning” was also underway with regional allies for potential stability operations if needed after the Syrian regime’s collapse, and pointed to regional organizations like the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as groups “that may be able to take this on.”

 

“We are doing some planning with the regional militaries and getting basically a framework for what this would look like,” he said.

 

Still, Mattis said the situation in Syria remained “fundamentally unpredictable,” even though Assad’s power base and geographic area of control were eroding.

 

Asked how long he believed Assad could hold onto power, at least in a sub-region of Syria, Mattis said: “I really don’t have the ability to forecast this well, Senator.”

 

“I’d hate to give you some kind of certainty that I don’t sense right now,” he said.

 

Video Highlights

 

Thanks to this straightforward report by the Abkhazian News Network, a creation of Russian intelligence covering developments in Syria and of course wholeheartedly buying the regime line on its fight against terrorist, we are taken on a tour of the battlefield in the town of Daraya, Damascus Suburbs, to see exactly how the regime combats “terrorism. The report is succinctly tiled “A Tank Assault,” and is nothing more than a camera put on the top of an attack tank, with occasional commentary in Russian. The commentary is not as important as the visuals. The fact that ANN and its correspondents don’t realize that they are in effect documenting a war crime in action is… as surreal as the unfolding scene http://youtu.be/Vn_ABGjWAH8

 

Daraa: After liberating a loyalist checkpoint in the village of Jamlah, rebels executed their prisoners despite heated protestations from some in their ranks http://youtu.be/T5Z0E1EIBbc The fighters, however, are not affiliated with Jabhat Al-Nusra or any other Jihadi groups, their rhetoric and their adherence to the independence flag indicate that they are the “moderate” Islamists we hear so much about. There are no more moderates in this fight. We have waited too long. http://youtu.be/Mly9pm9FeDA “Those who don’t defect, will be killed” http://youtu.be/W7_qUMqtjcg The incident took place on March 4. In many ways, the options ahead for international intervention have become increasingly limited and perhaps the scenario described by Chester Crocker is the most realistic one at this stage.

 

In nearby Khirbet Ghazaleh, rebels destroy a tank http://youtu.be/u_mg7kCuenw

 

Meanwhile members of Jabhat Al-Nusra were busy destroying a shipment of alcoholic beverages http://youtu.be/_MY0bY5m9Qk Elsewhere, in Minnigh, rebels from JAN taking part in laying siege tot eh airport turn down a request from an old man to join them http://youtu.be/CykhsJ8MKYM

 

In Deir Ezzor, shelling by pro-regime troops besieging the provincial capital damages its famous suspended bridge. Locals believes it could soon collapse http://youtu.be/ISbTP-eSTUk Elsewhere in the City, clashes continue http://youtu.be/zdEtslCyhQ8

 

More and more villages come under shelling by regime forces as they intensify their assault on the provinces of Homs and Hama: Deir Fool, Homs local rush to save the wounded http://youtu.be/IKcKrLdshdo , http://youtu.be/paYYsUIfwPY

 

People stream out of the recently liberated Raqqah City to evade bombing b y MiGs http://youtu.be/1OLmxwfb8P4