Over 700 bodies (mostly executed young men) found in Darayaa after regime withdraws

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FG
by FG
26-Aug-2012
 

The other victims included women and children in cases were families were known to sympathize with the FSA.    The latter had withdrawn from the town before Assad's forces entered.    All 700 victims were known to be alive at that time.   At least  1700 more were arrested and have disappeared.   Of course, the regime is already blaming the opposition.

The regime seems to have killed virtually every young man of military age, except for supporters.   Apparently, as Enduring America points out, its goal was to deter tactics used in the American revolution at Concord, in which townsmen would join revolutionary forces and then return to their trades.   In Darayee it's apparent that every young man was targetted on the assumption he was pro-FSA or would be evrntually except where a family was known to be pro-regime. 

In one massacrte alone yesterday, over 300 were killed--including women and children.   As Enduring America points out:

To be clear - all indications were that the Free Syrian Army moved out of this city and the regime stormed the city long before these massacres took place. There have been no reports that we've seen indicating battles or skirmishes in this city since then. The reports we've seen indicate large security presence, with perhaps thousands of infantry and dozens of tanks, not to mention the constant presence of helicopters overhead. Even the regime admits control oveer the city as they "purify... terrorist remnants." If several hundred people have been killed, the killings were either directly done by the Assad regime or they were allowed to happen under the careful watch of the military. This is very likely the worst single massacre in the history of this uprising.

Prior to yesterday, Assad had begun killing over 200 a day.  Yesterday's known total nationwide was 440. broken down thus: 

310 in Damascus and its suburbs (mostly in the Daraya Massacre), 40 in Aleppo, 28 in Deir Ezzor, 24 in Idlib, 15 in Daraa, 9 in Hama, and 4 in Homs

 

.

To President Obama: THE REGIME HAS CROSSED A RED LINE & MAY AS WELL BE USING CHEMICAL WEAPONS.

Obviously it intends to continue such tactics daily so long as the West ALLOWS it a free hand. I think the West and the USA have no choice but to end their reservations about supplying the people with anti-tank and anti-air, vetting out extreme Islamists in the latter case or using Special Forces if need be. A few prediators would be useful in going after the military units responsible.

 

Within Syria, James Miller notes one potential repercussion below.  Another possiblity is further defections within the government and military.  Whether the West helps or not, the regime will continue to slaughter civilians.   The big difference will be in the numbers slaughtered otherwise.  Still, the number certain to die will be much higher unless the West starts providing them with the means to defend themselves.    That will shorten the conflict and spur quick defections.  Finally, can you imagine anyone--including Khamenei--giving shelter to Assad after these crimes? 

INTERESTING COMMENTS FROM EA SUBPOSTS:

James Miller:  if the regime is making a habit of killing ALL fighting aged men in places like Darayya, this could backfire. If you feel like it's a guarantee that you'll be murdered in your sleep, it's easier to make the leap and take up arms. That's what happened in Homs. Lots of people that have been interviewed said that the more shells landed the more they realized that peaceful resistance was naive.  I think we're about to find out soon enough which of these things happens, because a massacre of this scale always has a reaction.

 Kevin (asking a question Iran's Greens need consider): What were these activists plans for toppling the regime? Do they think that marching in the streets getting mowed down like cattle was going to do the job? I would be sorry to be the one to tell them that if they truly want that regime gone then it will not happen without force. Can they really not see that?

 

 

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Rea

Frashogar

by Rea on

"Now the uprising of March 2011 against Assad was genuine." Agree.

But then, from that point on we differ.

Had Assad offered to negotiate from the very beginning, Syria wouldn't have come to this. The opposition wouldn't have radicalized to the extent we are witnessing now, ie. al-Qaida fighters would've been prevented from highjacking the uprising. Or, at least, they wouldn't be there in their present numbers threatening the very existence of the country.


Frashogar

Rea

by Frashogar on

Everyone in the former Yugoslavia, and I suspect yourself included, knows that the break-up and civil war in Yugoslavia was orchestrated from the outside. The fact that the Croatians were receiving material and logistical help from former Ustashi and sympathizers is one sore-thumb proof of this. The same is going on in Syria today.

Besides Israel, the major enemy of the Assad regime in Syria has always been diehard Sunni Wahhabi Islamists who have since evolved into al-Qaeda and its various offshoots. Bashar's father dealt a serious blow to these animals in 1982 but as of 2011/2012 these monsters have re-emerged as the FSA. 

Now the uprising of March 2011 against Assad was genuine. However that development is now history because opportunists in the form of the United States, Great Britian, France, Turkey, Israel, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have since completely hijacked the movement and brought in the same al-Qaeda shock-troops who toppled Qadaffi in Libya into Syria to topple Assad. What is going on in Syria is extremely dirty, but the dirt as of the summer of 2011 is totally on the hands of the US and NATO countries, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf monarchies and Israel. Because of this any real chance for a genuine democratic future for Syria has now been blown sky high - the Arab Spring has become the Arab Nightmare - and many of those who marched in the streets of Damascus in March 2011 against Assad are now openly joining the Syrian government against the mercenaries who have invaded their country and are terrorizing it. 

While the corporate Western media is outright lying about what is happening in Syria, luckily the alternative media exists which is putting out the real narrative and setting the record straight against this shameless disinformation campaign by Western governments in cahoots with Wahhabi monsters.


Rea

ps. FG

by Rea on

I'm not speaking of Serbs and Bosnia. For crimes were committed not only by Serbs but by my own people as well as by Bosniaks. In the final analysis, even if the Serbs bear the major rensposibility for what had happened in the ex-Yu, none is completely white or black in that, or any other, conflict.


Rea

Horrible video (cnn), DK

by Rea on

Sums up what I tried to convey in my previous comment.


@FG
, you're reading me wrong. None is denying the crimes committed by Assad' forces, Chahibas in particular. It's just that both sides' accounts should be heard.

I'm affraid the worst is yet to come, ie. break-up of Syria, unless Russians (with Chinese) decide that it will threaten their interests and they tacitly approve (like in the case of ex-Yu) foreign intervention.

But then, the question remains of IRI, will they allow any sort of intervention? And if they do, will they at the same time work behind the scene to make it fail.

Syria is no longer to Syrians, larger forces are at play.


Darius Kadivar

What threatens Syria Not just Jihadists but Sectarian Partition

by Darius Kadivar on

THAT is the Major Issue at hand ... Not the Well documented Fact that Assad's Regime has lost total legitimacy at least from a moral standpoint ...

 

Is an Alternative to Assad's horrendous regime organized enough (i.e: mainly the Syrian National Council and the Syrian National Army) to take over the country and put it back on the path of peace and stability and successfully fill in the power vaccuum which will inevitably result once Assad is removed or not ?

 

No one to date can answer this legitimate and essential question for the good reason that the deemed opposition is disorganized and that unlike in the case of Libya the country is divided along sectarian lines and ambitions which are emerging beyond Syria's current frontiers ...

 

The weeks and days to come may prove otherwise but to date that is a major concern ...

 

That is why the longer the Assad regime hangs on to power the more likely that this conflict will spill over across it's immediate frontiers ...

 

On the otherhand Maybe Not and none of my above observations are valid ... cause politics and history are not rocket science and no one can claim to know exactly what will happen once ( and if ?) Assad is toppled ... 

 

But modest observations should command us far more than grandstanding statements at this juncture regardless of what I believe most people genuinely concerned about the plight of the Syrian people may wish ( me included) that Assad be toppled and a rapid end be brought to this bloody conflict which has lasted too long and which is bound to contunue if there is no hopeful prospect of seeing a foreign intervetion whatsoever to date ...

 

 


Frashogar

Ziad Fadel: Syrian Military is Winning

by Frashogar on


Frashogar

FG

by Frashogar on

Your facts are pure fictions of US State Department generated delusion, propaganda and outright misinformation. You cannot argue with any of the items posted here. If you want to beat your chest for a bunch of al-Qaeda Wahhabi Islamist murderer terrorists, be my guest. But at least be honest about it and admit that this is what you're doing.


FG

Give it up Frashogar

by FG on

KNOWN FACTS:

1) The huge massacre occurred in a solidly anti-Assad town that had been supporting the uprising.  Why would the FSA kill its own people?  But a regime which has visibly targeted the same with shelling and bombs would hardly hesitate at one more slaughter common sense suggests.

2) The FSA had left the town prior to the massacre.  At that time ALL of the known victims were alive.

3) Regime forces fully occupied the town at the time of the massacre.

4) Families of the victims further attest to the massacre because in some cases the victims were massacred in front of their eyes.

5) Your denials recall claims of the Khamenei regime denying Neda's murder.  They said "she committed suicide,"  "the protestors killed her," her fiance killed her," "the doctor who tried to save her killed her," etc.  It's standard Goebbels practice for the regime.

6) What's the point?  It may work in Latakia but it wont work here or anywhere people have access to a free press.  As I said, you can't hide your bombing of civilian neighborhoods so why deny other massive crimes against civilians.

7) After all this, Assad has no more chance of winning over popular opinion now than Khamenenei.

Nor does he have any chance of getting the people to negotiate or of getting a safe exit than Hitler had as he sat in his bunker in April of 1945.   It's totally inconceivable after so many crimes.  Would Jews have negotiated with Hiter then?  Would the western allies?   Would the Russians?


Darius Kadivar

Rea Has a Valid Point be it from a purely journalistic outlook

by Darius Kadivar on

Syria bloodbath: Who's telling truth?(video report by Jim Clancy)

 

The question of Assad's personal responsibility in this conflict which is a given fact or that of his horrendous regime aside, the troubling fact remains, that No one can report accurately on what is taking place nor who is or isn't entirely responsible in the crimes being committed for the simple reason that most journalists reporting on the conflict do it from the safe haven miles away notably from their respective bureau be in Beirut, Amman or frontier viliages. 

No one can directly confirm or deny the allegations. Even the bodies gathered in front of the Cameras can be bodies brought in and gathered in a given corner to suggest a massacre took place.

I have absolutely no doubt that massacres and executions have been carried out and are being carried out by Assad's Chahiba loyalists all the more that this has been corroborated by confirmed war correspondents like Paul Conroy or Marie Colvin ( who died reporting from Syria) and as such we have little reasons to doubt their first hand accounts:

 

NIGHT OF THE GENERALS : Paul Conroy describes "pure, systematic slaughter of civilians" 

 

but it is impossible for any objective observor (particularly reporting based on images recieved through social networks or delivered to them by other means) to dissect these horrific images and reports with certainty. Are these dead bodies those of people executed in cold blood or corpses found in the streets  killed during the gunfire exchanged by both sides or collateral victims due to bomb, tank attacks and shootings - regardless of which sides they were on) and gathered in a room by those claiming it was a massacre ? Maybe maybe not ? 

When reporting in the thick of the battle, war correspondents take great risks in bringing out their stories with as much accuracy as possible but here unlike in Libya reporters rely essentially on what they recieve through emails or through testimonies in refugee camps.

That hardly constitutes irrefutable evidence since no one can confirm them.

If some professional journalists suspect that crimes are being committed by both sides in this conflict then one can at least give Rea the benefit of the doubt.

Does that mean nothing should be done to topple Assad ? Certainly not but one cannot ignore that whatever the fatal outcome of a Post Assad Syria nothing can guarantee that the conflict will be over.

There are many troubling signs that the conflict is spilling over into Lebanon and Iraq. A conflict which could have been contained or at least limited to Syria, at the wake of the conflict, had the International community intervened as in Libya, seems now to spin out of control with unpredictable consequences for everyone in the region ranging from Lebanon, Jordan to Iraq on the otherside of the frontier ...

Who will benefit from such a generalized and prolonged conflict if not Assad himself but also most probably international Arms dealers ( American, European, Russian or Chinese) who will make their offer to the highest bidder involved in this conflict.

The Iran Iraq war lasted 8 years despite the fact that Iran sent 9 year olds to the war zone ignoring the Geneva Convention and other deemed "principles" of warfare in order to get even with it's agressor: Saddam Hussein. 

 

Given that Assad knows that the only fate for himself and all around him will be no better than Gaddafis, he will do anything in his power to turn this conflict into a prolonged conflict like Vietnam or Lebanon and we all know that in such a scenario then anyone involved in the conflict will end up committing war crimes regardless on whose side they are.

 

That is why the longer the conflict in syria lingers on with Assad and his henchmen in power the larger the risk of seeing this conflict turn into a never ending one like that of Ex Yougoslavia indeed.

 

Whatever the outcome Assad and his henchmen ( and maybe even allies like Russia's Putin or China's Leadership) will have to be held accountable for turning this conflict into a far more dirty and prolonged war.

 

But only an independent investigation can offer accurate answers as far as the exact responsibilities or not of all involved in this confict is concerned.

 

As to whom is responsible for this conflict in the first place ... Assad and his inner circle are clearly on top of the list. But are Pro Assad Militias or regular forces directly involved in all the horrors committed ? I am not sure. That is not to say that they They don't have blood on their hands  ... Far from That !

 

But what is certain is that parrallel to the conflict itself there is also a propaganda war being carried out by both sides in this conflict and for diametrically opposite reasons but motivated by a common instict of survival in this lingering and clearly dirty conflict ...  

 

My Humble opinion,

 

DK 

 

Recommended Watching on firsthand reporting by France 24 War Correspondents during the Libyan conflict:

 

TRIPOLI BRIGADE: France 24's Groundbreaking Documentary on Libyan Rebels 

 

 


Frashogar

Civilians Massacred in Daraya A Town Overrun By NATO's FSA

by Frashogar on

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiYKAoMcTHI

Iranian.com seems to be overrun by US State Department and NATO agents (not you Irena)

Robert Fisk: Rebel Army? They're a gang of foreigners 


FG

To Rea

by FG on

There is no doubt that Assad's tanks, artillery, planes and copters have been killing thousands of civilians from the air and continue to do so every day.  Not only do photos confirm this but also reporters from numerous newspapers--western and non-western as in Japan.  

Also there is no doubt yesterday's massacres by Assad's forces occurred and there have been quite a few in the past.   Several have been confirmed not only by impartial journalists but by UN observers.

 You speak of Bosnia where the Serbs committed horffic crimes and denied doing so.  All such charges turned out to be both true and unexagerrated as will prove the case here.

You equate the five known executions (all horrifically Bad Guys and none of them civilians) carried out by the opposition as "equal" to the 25,000 killed by Assad's forces, most of them civiian.  You stretch things to suggest some sort of "equality of evil."

I'd say in those five cases the rebels more closely resembled concentration camp inmates who tore to pieces any SS guards they could get their hands on as allies entered WWII camps.  

By your reasoning, those concentratation camp inmates were "just as bad" as Eichman, Hitler, Dr. Mengele or the guards who beat and worked them to death day after  already murdering their families.  In other words, if you administered justice, you'd give the concentration camp victims the same sentence you'd have given to a Mengele.


Rea

Look, FG

by Rea on

I'm neither an Assad supporter (quite the opposite), nor a rigid bureaucrat.

All I know is following. During the war in the Balkans, lots of things were reported inaccurately. Even the people on the ground, including myself, didn't know the thruth about what was going on in certain regions of the ex-Yu, let alone foreign journalists reporting what they were being told. So, we'd had to rely on domestic media, feeding us b/shit.

How do you then expect foreign media to report accurately on what's going on in Syria and who is actually executing whom when the Syrians themselves probably don't know ?

A bon entendeur, salut !


FG

One to two Assad agents have been assigned here

by FG on

FRAGONARD: "Al Queda did it."

A. Al Queda has little interest for now in taking on the FSA and the Syrian people at the same time.  It targets the regime.

B.  The opposition--Islamist and non-Islamist alike--has no interest in targeting a community that is solidly anti-Assad.

C. There were no opposition military units in the town when Syrian troops arrived, nor was there any combat.

D. All of the dead were alive at the time Assad's troops arrived and dead afterwards.

In sum, you are wasting your breath here.  Ditto on Yahoo, the Guardian etc. where you guys often take Anglo names.  Ditto when it comes to persuading France, Turkey, the USA or anyone else to accept your bull. 

REA: "Both sides are executing people."

Rea is either an Assad supporter or a poor soul trying to be even handed but committing several boo-boos.  She combines the fallacy of degree (black and white fallacy) with argument by analogy (a very bad analogy) in arguing thus.

Would an innocent be so stupid as to overlook this?:

1. Differences of degree:

The FSA is known to have executed four top shabiha in Aleppo and through a well-known interpretet out the window.  That's five known murders and none of innocent divilians.    Assad's troops have murdered over 20,000 civilians--some by torture, some by indiscriminate bombing and several thousand by cold-blooded execution.

2.  There is no evidence the FSA has killed even one innocent civiian but tons of evidence (the buildings speak for themselves) that the regime has done so.

3. PRE-MEDITATED MURDER Under the laws of any civilized country we distinguiish between cold blooded, well-planned first degree murder and other murders.   In some cases (a wife kills a perpetual wife beater) jury nullification and common sense lead to a not-guilty verdict.

4. Motive, motive, motive comparison.   The regime kills people to intimidate them into laying down and accepting dictatorship.  The 5 guys executed so far by the opposition were the equals of SS Guards being killed by concentration camp inmates right after liberation.  In other words, its hard to blame them.

The only kind of person who would take your "no difference bertween them" line would be a regime stooge, a simple-minded soul, or a rigid, rule-spouting bureaucrat with no common sense.  Few people would sympathize with calculated, systematic, top down and organized COLD BLOODED MURDER and a man killing someone who tortured, raped or murdered his friends, family or neighbors when he get his hand on such a man.  Yet Rea, sitting in her comfortable lazy boy back home, tells as "Bad Boy!  Bad Boy!"


Rea

Executions are carried out by both sides

by Rea on

Each side blaming the other. Except those directly involved, none knows the truth. 


Frashogar

Al-Qaeda (FSA) Execute Prisoners Then Blame The Army

by Frashogar on


Frashogar

Daraya handiwork of al-Qaeda (FSA) not Syrian government

by Frashogar on


FG

If you want to write to Obama (plus a roundup)

by FG on

 

Here's the address:

//www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments?_fsk=9b08c2ab368ca12b177100a9f846ca95 

***

ANOTHER REPERCUSSION NO ONE HAS MENTIONED YET:

Turkey is flooded with refugees close to it limits.  Jordan and Iraq are also likely to suffer new and massive refugee influxes due to these tactics.  Turkey has made clear it can't handle it.  Erdogan will insist the West do something.   Whether he wants to or not, he may be forced to act on his own.

PHOTO: STREETS ARE FLOWING WITH BLOOD...LITERALLY!

//www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1083550&l=357daf83e7&id=182806365088812

Video: Dozens of bodies in a single room

//www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=/watch%3Fv%3DIOT8FK7oKSE%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded

Reuthers comes under attack in Iran for not assisting the regime's domestic censorship efforts.

(I did not know it had such an obligation)

 The hard-line Raja News launches an attack on Reuters, condemning the agency for its reports on Iran's nuclear programme, economic tensions, and political situation.

The Reuters bureau in Tehran was effectively closed this spring by authorities, with its reporter Parisa Hafezi summoned to court and forbidden from leaving the country.


EGYPT'S MORSI SLAPS KHAMENEI IN THE FACE

spokesman for the Egyptian President has said, ahead of Mohamed Morsi's visit to Tehran for the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, "The matter (of restoring diplomatic ties with Iran) is out of the question at this stage."

Morsi will be the first Egyptian head of state to visit Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Al-Ahram also downplayed any significance, saying that Morsi will spend only four hours in Tehran on August 30, long enough to hand over the Presidency of the NAM to Iran. The site added pointedly that the Egyptian President will stop in Tehran on his way back from a 36-hour visit to China.

OBSERVATION:

Originally I was alarmed by the news that Morsi would attend the Tehran conference.  I hadn't considered his need to hand over the organization's presidency.  That he plans to stay only four hours and miss the debate over Iran's Syrian peace proposals is a definite insult.

News of Assad's latest tactics, comined with Saudi attitudes and Iran's loud support for Iran make it unlikely that Morsi or the Muslim Brotherhood will ever consider ties to Iran now.  Domestically it would be poison.  If Sunni Arabs hate Assad they've really got to hate Khamenei and Putin (Obama, playing Neville Chamberlain) can't be far behind).

One more good sign concerning Morsi: He recently denounced an Egyptian court decision justifying the arrest of a journalist who criticized the Brotherhood and released the journalists.  By contrast, Erdogan has been arresting journalists in droves.  Have you noticed?

AND WHILE ASSAD IS SLAUGHTERING HIS PEOPLE, WHAT WAS IRAN DOING?

A Parliament delegation, including the head of the National Security Committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, is in Damascus. The group has been received by President Assad.

NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS: 

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has signaled that a new initiative to solve the Syrian crisis will emerge within a few days: “These days, we are focusing on a meeting for the Syrian crisis that will bring Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran together.”....

Significantly, Egyptian President Morsi publicly called last week for a new diplomatic effort with --- contrary to the wishes of the US and some European states --- the involvement of Iran.

(I wonder if Assad's recent change in tactics and the resulting refugee flood will stop that effort cold).

TURKEY TURNED AWAY 6,000 SYRIAN REFUGEES LAST NIGHT JUST A HUGE NEW INCREASE LOOMS

The Turkish government has said that it simply cannot take in more than 100,000 Syrian refugees, and that number has already surpassed 80,000. If the refugee crisis continues, Turkey will either have to try to close its borders, or will have to intervene and house refugees inside Turkey, a move that would likely require a no-fly zone. Is any of that likely? Check this report from Al Jazeera English's Andrew.

Chappelle: Turkey actually turned away 6k Syrian refugees overnight according to one of our producers in Turkey who spoke to foreign ministry.

 TUNISIA'S RULING "MODERATE" ISLAMISTS ARE BEING FORCED TO CONFRONT SALFAFIS.

The President of the newly-elected National Congress, Mohamed al-Magariaf, has called the Prime Minister to an emergency meeting after attackers bulldozed the Sha'ab mosque, with Sufi Muslim graves, in the centre of Tripoli on Saturday.

The assault followed Friday's wrecking of Sufi shrines and burning of a historic mosque library in Zlitan.

"What is truly regrettable and suspicious is that some of those who took part in these destruction activities are supposed to be of the security forces and from the revolutionaries," Magariaf said on Saturday night.

A public protest has been called for Sunday at Algeria Square in Tripoli, mobilising support against "the lawless minority" who carried out the attacks.

OBSERVATION:

Tunisia's ruling Islamists have been a huge disappointment to date on the issue of "moderation."  Their leader returned to Tunisia declaring "We are not Iran," but has since proposed blasphemy laws and another law suggesting women were less then men when it comes to marriage.  

Maybe now they'll be forced to confront the Salafis instead of catering to them and allowing their thugs a free hand.

(Any details abovre are from Enduring America) 

WHAT DRONES CAN DO (A SYRIA POSSIBILITY?):

Excerpts from the Washington Post:

Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said Sunday its operatives have confirmed that the son of the founder of the powerful Haqqani militant network was killed in an airstrike in Pakistan, even as the Taliban vowed that he was alive and well...

Haqqani’s death would mark a major blow to the organization...

//www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/taliban-spokesman-denies-report-that-key-militant-commander-was-killed-in-drone-strike/2012/08/26/3cd5d248-ef46-11e1-b624-99dee49d8d67_story.html?hpid=z3