freepalestine
18th December 2012, 06:30
What happened in `Aqraba near Hama Yesterday: the unreported massacre
A comrade sent me this: "According to the page of the (pro-opposition) `Aqrab page, it went as follows: an armed group called "the free sunni army" was attacking aqrab and about to take it and clean it from the majous and the monkeys of the mountain (the terms they use), then they take the town and many of its alawites are killed. I will let you make your judgment.
The opposition actually had two successive narratives: first that it was army aerial bombardment that killed the alawites (it was carried on al-arabiya and others), then they explained that it was mass suicide, upon the takeover of the free sunni army, alawites decided to kill their wives and children and themselves."
http://angryarab.blogspot.it/2012/12/what-happened-in-aqrab-near-hamah.html
-----------------
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
The stupid lies of the Free Syrian Army
These are the stupid lies of the Free Syrian Army to explain their massacre in `Aqrab:
"The Free Syrian Army surrounded a building belonging to regime loyalists in Aqrab village, which was occupied by regime forces who had taken women and children (mostly Allawite) captive to use them as human shields to protect themselves from attack by the FSA. After this, a group of eight senior figures in the village, including Sheikh Ali Al-Omar Sheikh Saa'do Hamash and retired Colonel Shaker Akkash went to negotiate the release of the women and children, and to ask the regime forces to turn themselves in, promising their safety.
These community leaders were kidnapped, however, in an attempt to pressurisee the FSA, which retreated from the building as instructed. Immediately after this, the regime shabiha killed all eight of the negotiators and fled, throwing hand grenades into the building still housing the women and children as they attempted to escape in an attempt to frame the FSA for the despicable attack.
Regime forces also fired missiles and ordered air strikes on the building, destroying it completely and killing almost all of the 200 - 250 civilians (including women and children) inside. Some people survived the massacre and verified this report." Now does that make sense to you? Don't you think that the Free Syrian Army needs new liars and fabricators to give better spins? (thanks Max)
Posted by As'ad AbuKhalil at 11:19 AM
http://angryarab.blogspot.it/2012/12/the-stupid-lies-of-free-syrian-army.html
------------
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Patrick Cockburn maybe the only Western journalist who is defying the conventional (lack of) wisdom on Syria
"The video underlines a startling contradiction in the policy of the US and its allies. In the past week, 130 countries have recognised the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people. But, at the same time, the US has denounced the al-Nusra Front, the most effective fighting force of the rebels, as being terrorists and an al-Qa'ida affiliate. Paradoxically, the US makes almost exactly same allegations of terrorism against al-Nusra as does the Syrian government. Even more bizarrely, though so many states now recognise the National Coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, it is unclear if the rebels inside Syria do so. Angry crowds in rebel-held areas of northern Syria on Friday chanted "we are all al-Nusra" as they demonstrated against the US decision.
Videos posted on YouTube play such a central role in the propaganda war in Syria that questions always have to be asked about their authenticity and origin. In the case of the beheading video, the details look all too convincing. Nadim Houry, the deputy director for Human Rights Watch in the Middle East and North Africa, has watched the video many times to identify the circumstances, perpetrators and location where the killings took place. He has no doubts about its overall authenticity, but says that mention of one district suggests it might be in Deir el-Zhor (in eastern Syria). But people in the area immediately north of Homs are adamant the beheadings took place there. The victims have not been identified. The first time a version of the film was shown was on pro-government Sama TV on 26 November, but it has been widely viewed on YouTube in Syria only over the past week.
The film begins by showing two middle-aged men handcuffed together sitting on a settee in a house, surrounded by their captors who sometimes slap and beat them. They are taken outside into the street. A man in a black shirt is manhandled and kicked into lying down with his head on a concrete block. A boy, who looks to be about 11 or 12 years old, cuts at his neck with a machete, but does not quite sever it. Later a man finishes the job and cuts the head off. The second man in a blue shirt is also forced to lie with his head on a block and is beheaded. The heads are brandished in front of the camera and later laid on top of the bodies. The boy smiles as he poses with a rifle beside a headless corpse.
The execution video is very similar to those once made by al-Qa'ida in Iraq to demonstrate their mercilessness towards their enemies. This is scarcely surprising since many of the most experienced al-Nusra fighters boast that they have until recently been fighting the predominantly Shia government of Iraq as part of the local franchise of al-Qa'ida franchise. Their agenda is wholly sectarian, and they have shown greater enthusiasm for slaughtering Shias, often with bombs detonated in the middle of crowds in markets or outside mosques, than for fighting Americans...
The execution video is the most graphic illustration of deepening religious bigotry on the part of the rebels, but it is not the only one. Another recent video shows Free Syrian Army fighters burning and desecrating a Shia husseiniyah (a religious meeting house similar to a mosque) in Idlib in northern Syria. They chant prayers of victory as they set fire to the building, set fire to flags used in Shia religious processions and stamp on religious pictures. If the FSA were to repeat this assault on a revered Shia shrine such as the Sayyida Zeinab mosque in Damascus, to which Iranian and Iraqi pilgrims have flooded in the past and which is now almost encircled by rebels, then there could be an explosion of religious hatred and strife between Sunni and Shia across the Middle East. Iraqi observers warn that it was the destruction of the Shia shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad, by an al-Qa'ida bomb in 2006 that detonated a sectarian war in which tens of thousands died.
The analogy with Iraq is troubling for the US and British governments. They and their allies are eager for Syria to avoid repeating the disastrous mistakes they made during the Iraqi occupation. Ideally, they would like to remove the regime, getting rid of Bashar al-Assad and the present leadership, but not dissolving the government machinery or introducing revolutionary change as they did in Baghdad by transferring power from the Sunnis to the Shia and the Kurds. This provoked a furious counter-reaction from Baathists and Sunnis who found themselves marginalised and economically impoverished.
Washington wants Assad out, but is having difficulty riding the Sunni revolutionary tiger. The Western powers have long hoped for a split in the Syrian elite, but so far there is little sign of this happening. "If you take defections as a measure of political cohesion, then there haven't been any serious ones," said a diplomat in Damascus...
The picture of Syria most common believed abroad is of the rebels closing in on the capital as the Assad government faces defeat in weeks or, at most, a few months. The Secretary General of Nato, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said last week that the regime is "approaching collapse". The foreign media consensus is that the rebels are making sweeping gains on all fronts and the end may be nigh. But when one reaches Damascus, it is to discover that the best informed Syrians and foreign diplomats say, on the contrary, that the most recent rebel attacks in the capital had been thrown back by a government counteroffensive. They say that the rebel territorial advances, which fuelled speculation abroad that the Syrian government might implode, are partly explained by a new Syrian army strategy to pull back from indefensible outposts and bases and concentrate troops in cities and towns...T
his misperception of the reality on the ground in Syria is fuelled in part by propaganda, but more especially by inaccurate and misleading reporting by the media where bias towards the rebels and against the government is unsurpassed since the height of the Cold War. Exaggerated notions are given of rebel strength and popularity.
The Syrian government is partially responsible for this. By excluding all but a few foreign journalists, the regime has created a vacuum of information that is naturally filled by its enemies. In the event, a basically false and propagandistic account of events in Syria has been created by a foreign media credulous in using pro-opposition sources as if they were objective reporting.
The execution video is a case in point. I have not met a Syrian in Damascus who has not seen it. It is having great influence on how Syrians judge their future, but the mainstream media outside Syria has scarcely mentioned it. Some may be repulsed by its casual savagery, but more probably it is not shown because it contradicts so much of what foreign leaders and reporters claim is happening here (http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/syria-the-descent-into-holy-war-8420309.html)."
Posted by As'ad AbuKhalil
http://angryarab.blogspot.it/2012/12/patrick-cockburn-maybe-only-western.html
-------------
Abu Jaylabib At-Tubasi
So the brother-in-law of Abu Mus`ab Az-Zarqawi, Abu Jaylabib At-Tubasi, seems to have been killed. Jordanian Salafis have announced that he was replaced as leader of Jabhat An-Nusrah. But no worry. Western media don't bother with such news anymore because the US and Al-Qa`idah are now in the same trench in Syria. Soon the New York Times will be referring to Jabhat An-Nusrah as "pro-Western". By the way, many in the Arab world are wondering: what did it take the US such a long time to declare Jabhat An-Nusrah as a terrorist organization when the State Department report indicated that it has been active in Syria since November of 2011 (yes, November of 2011 when Western media were even denying the presence of extremists in Syria when they were insisting that the armed groups of Syria were liberal and feminist and were led by Suhayr Al-Atasi. In my years in the US, I have not seen a dumber coverage than the Western coverage of Syria).
http://angryarab.blogspot.it/2012/12/abu-jaylabib-at-tubasi.html
-------------------------
The FSA's massacre in `Aqraba: a story covered up in the Western media
Alan sent me this: "
Here is a blog post and video from Alex Thompson Channel 4 news UK, “Was there a massacre in the Syrian town of Aqrab?” (http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/happened-syrian-town-aqrab/3426#comment-58674) 14/ 12/ 2012 he is reporting from the outskirts of the village of Aqrab, Hama, Syria. It confirms the view you expressed in a blog post of your own on Wednesday last (http://angryarab.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/free-syrian-army-thugs-and-free-sunni.html) “Free Syrian Army thugs (and Free Sunni Army thugs--another gang) kidnap those `Alawites and make them tell a different story (http://angryarab.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/free-syrian-army-thugs-and-free-sunni.html)”
I found the following a particularly upsetting reference to the plight of Alawite hostages been held by FSA fighters; “In that time they say almost no food was delivered, and women were hitting their own children to try and stop them crying. When it rained, they were holding rags out of the window to soak up and drink the moisture.”"
http://angryarab.blogspot.it/2012/12/the-fsas-massacre-in-aqraba-story.html
A comrade sent me this: "According to the page of the (pro-opposition) `Aqrab page, it went as follows: an armed group called "the free sunni army" was attacking aqrab and about to take it and clean it from the majous and the monkeys of the mountain (the terms they use), then they take the town and many of its alawites are killed. I will let you make your judgment.
The opposition actually had two successive narratives: first that it was army aerial bombardment that killed the alawites (it was carried on al-arabiya and others), then they explained that it was mass suicide, upon the takeover of the free sunni army, alawites decided to kill their wives and children and themselves."
http://angryarab.blogspot.it/2012/12/what-happened-in-aqrab-near-hamah.html
-----------------
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
The stupid lies of the Free Syrian Army
These are the stupid lies of the Free Syrian Army to explain their massacre in `Aqrab:
"The Free Syrian Army surrounded a building belonging to regime loyalists in Aqrab village, which was occupied by regime forces who had taken women and children (mostly Allawite) captive to use them as human shields to protect themselves from attack by the FSA. After this, a group of eight senior figures in the village, including Sheikh Ali Al-Omar Sheikh Saa'do Hamash and retired Colonel Shaker Akkash went to negotiate the release of the women and children, and to ask the regime forces to turn themselves in, promising their safety.
These community leaders were kidnapped, however, in an attempt to pressurisee the FSA, which retreated from the building as instructed. Immediately after this, the regime shabiha killed all eight of the negotiators and fled, throwing hand grenades into the building still housing the women and children as they attempted to escape in an attempt to frame the FSA for the despicable attack.
Regime forces also fired missiles and ordered air strikes on the building, destroying it completely and killing almost all of the 200 - 250 civilians (including women and children) inside. Some people survived the massacre and verified this report." Now does that make sense to you? Don't you think that the Free Syrian Army needs new liars and fabricators to give better spins? (thanks Max)
Posted by As'ad AbuKhalil at 11:19 AM
http://angryarab.blogspot.it/2012/12/the-stupid-lies-of-free-syrian-army.html
------------
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Patrick Cockburn maybe the only Western journalist who is defying the conventional (lack of) wisdom on Syria
"The video underlines a startling contradiction in the policy of the US and its allies. In the past week, 130 countries have recognised the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people. But, at the same time, the US has denounced the al-Nusra Front, the most effective fighting force of the rebels, as being terrorists and an al-Qa'ida affiliate. Paradoxically, the US makes almost exactly same allegations of terrorism against al-Nusra as does the Syrian government. Even more bizarrely, though so many states now recognise the National Coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, it is unclear if the rebels inside Syria do so. Angry crowds in rebel-held areas of northern Syria on Friday chanted "we are all al-Nusra" as they demonstrated against the US decision.
Videos posted on YouTube play such a central role in the propaganda war in Syria that questions always have to be asked about their authenticity and origin. In the case of the beheading video, the details look all too convincing. Nadim Houry, the deputy director for Human Rights Watch in the Middle East and North Africa, has watched the video many times to identify the circumstances, perpetrators and location where the killings took place. He has no doubts about its overall authenticity, but says that mention of one district suggests it might be in Deir el-Zhor (in eastern Syria). But people in the area immediately north of Homs are adamant the beheadings took place there. The victims have not been identified. The first time a version of the film was shown was on pro-government Sama TV on 26 November, but it has been widely viewed on YouTube in Syria only over the past week.
The film begins by showing two middle-aged men handcuffed together sitting on a settee in a house, surrounded by their captors who sometimes slap and beat them. They are taken outside into the street. A man in a black shirt is manhandled and kicked into lying down with his head on a concrete block. A boy, who looks to be about 11 or 12 years old, cuts at his neck with a machete, but does not quite sever it. Later a man finishes the job and cuts the head off. The second man in a blue shirt is also forced to lie with his head on a block and is beheaded. The heads are brandished in front of the camera and later laid on top of the bodies. The boy smiles as he poses with a rifle beside a headless corpse.
The execution video is very similar to those once made by al-Qa'ida in Iraq to demonstrate their mercilessness towards their enemies. This is scarcely surprising since many of the most experienced al-Nusra fighters boast that they have until recently been fighting the predominantly Shia government of Iraq as part of the local franchise of al-Qa'ida franchise. Their agenda is wholly sectarian, and they have shown greater enthusiasm for slaughtering Shias, often with bombs detonated in the middle of crowds in markets or outside mosques, than for fighting Americans...
The execution video is the most graphic illustration of deepening religious bigotry on the part of the rebels, but it is not the only one. Another recent video shows Free Syrian Army fighters burning and desecrating a Shia husseiniyah (a religious meeting house similar to a mosque) in Idlib in northern Syria. They chant prayers of victory as they set fire to the building, set fire to flags used in Shia religious processions and stamp on religious pictures. If the FSA were to repeat this assault on a revered Shia shrine such as the Sayyida Zeinab mosque in Damascus, to which Iranian and Iraqi pilgrims have flooded in the past and which is now almost encircled by rebels, then there could be an explosion of religious hatred and strife between Sunni and Shia across the Middle East. Iraqi observers warn that it was the destruction of the Shia shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad, by an al-Qa'ida bomb in 2006 that detonated a sectarian war in which tens of thousands died.
The analogy with Iraq is troubling for the US and British governments. They and their allies are eager for Syria to avoid repeating the disastrous mistakes they made during the Iraqi occupation. Ideally, they would like to remove the regime, getting rid of Bashar al-Assad and the present leadership, but not dissolving the government machinery or introducing revolutionary change as they did in Baghdad by transferring power from the Sunnis to the Shia and the Kurds. This provoked a furious counter-reaction from Baathists and Sunnis who found themselves marginalised and economically impoverished.
Washington wants Assad out, but is having difficulty riding the Sunni revolutionary tiger. The Western powers have long hoped for a split in the Syrian elite, but so far there is little sign of this happening. "If you take defections as a measure of political cohesion, then there haven't been any serious ones," said a diplomat in Damascus...
The picture of Syria most common believed abroad is of the rebels closing in on the capital as the Assad government faces defeat in weeks or, at most, a few months. The Secretary General of Nato, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said last week that the regime is "approaching collapse". The foreign media consensus is that the rebels are making sweeping gains on all fronts and the end may be nigh. But when one reaches Damascus, it is to discover that the best informed Syrians and foreign diplomats say, on the contrary, that the most recent rebel attacks in the capital had been thrown back by a government counteroffensive. They say that the rebel territorial advances, which fuelled speculation abroad that the Syrian government might implode, are partly explained by a new Syrian army strategy to pull back from indefensible outposts and bases and concentrate troops in cities and towns...T
his misperception of the reality on the ground in Syria is fuelled in part by propaganda, but more especially by inaccurate and misleading reporting by the media where bias towards the rebels and against the government is unsurpassed since the height of the Cold War. Exaggerated notions are given of rebel strength and popularity.
The Syrian government is partially responsible for this. By excluding all but a few foreign journalists, the regime has created a vacuum of information that is naturally filled by its enemies. In the event, a basically false and propagandistic account of events in Syria has been created by a foreign media credulous in using pro-opposition sources as if they were objective reporting.
The execution video is a case in point. I have not met a Syrian in Damascus who has not seen it. It is having great influence on how Syrians judge their future, but the mainstream media outside Syria has scarcely mentioned it. Some may be repulsed by its casual savagery, but more probably it is not shown because it contradicts so much of what foreign leaders and reporters claim is happening here (http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/syria-the-descent-into-holy-war-8420309.html)."
Posted by As'ad AbuKhalil
http://angryarab.blogspot.it/2012/12/patrick-cockburn-maybe-only-western.html
-------------
Abu Jaylabib At-Tubasi
So the brother-in-law of Abu Mus`ab Az-Zarqawi, Abu Jaylabib At-Tubasi, seems to have been killed. Jordanian Salafis have announced that he was replaced as leader of Jabhat An-Nusrah. But no worry. Western media don't bother with such news anymore because the US and Al-Qa`idah are now in the same trench in Syria. Soon the New York Times will be referring to Jabhat An-Nusrah as "pro-Western". By the way, many in the Arab world are wondering: what did it take the US such a long time to declare Jabhat An-Nusrah as a terrorist organization when the State Department report indicated that it has been active in Syria since November of 2011 (yes, November of 2011 when Western media were even denying the presence of extremists in Syria when they were insisting that the armed groups of Syria were liberal and feminist and were led by Suhayr Al-Atasi. In my years in the US, I have not seen a dumber coverage than the Western coverage of Syria).
http://angryarab.blogspot.it/2012/12/abu-jaylabib-at-tubasi.html
-------------------------
The FSA's massacre in `Aqraba: a story covered up in the Western media
Alan sent me this: "
Here is a blog post and video from Alex Thompson Channel 4 news UK, “Was there a massacre in the Syrian town of Aqrab?” (http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/happened-syrian-town-aqrab/3426#comment-58674) 14/ 12/ 2012 he is reporting from the outskirts of the village of Aqrab, Hama, Syria. It confirms the view you expressed in a blog post of your own on Wednesday last (http://angryarab.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/free-syrian-army-thugs-and-free-sunni.html) “Free Syrian Army thugs (and Free Sunni Army thugs--another gang) kidnap those `Alawites and make them tell a different story (http://angryarab.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/free-syrian-army-thugs-and-free-sunni.html)”
I found the following a particularly upsetting reference to the plight of Alawite hostages been held by FSA fighters; “In that time they say almost no food was delivered, and women were hitting their own children to try and stop them crying. When it rained, they were holding rags out of the window to soak up and drink the moisture.”"
http://angryarab.blogspot.it/2012/12/the-fsas-massacre-in-aqraba-story.html