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October 2011

So, what do you think of your husband’s brutal crackdown, Mrs Assad?

Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Syria's First Lady Asma al-Assad, who stonewalled questions about the violence carried out in her husband's name GettySyria’s First Lady Asma al-Assad, who stonewalled questions about the violence carried out in her husband’s name

Vogue magazine famously called her a “rose in the desert”, while Paris Match proclaimed she was the “element of light in a country full of shadow zones”. But when Syria’s glamorous First Lady invited a group of aid workers to discuss the security situation with her last month, she appeared to have lost her gloss.

During the meeting, British-born Asma al-Assad – who grew up in Acton and attended a Church of England school in west London – came face to face with aid workers who had witnessed at first hand the brutality of her husband’s regime. Yet according to one volunteer who was present, the former investment banker and mother of President Bashar al-Assad’s three children appeared utterly unmoved when she heard about the plight of protesters.

“We told her about the killing of protesters,” said the man, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution. “We told her about the security forces attacking demonstrators. About them taking wounded people from cars and preventing people from getting to hospital … There was no reaction. She didn’t react at all. It was just like I was telling a normal story, something that happens every day.”

Syrians working with aid agencies to try to help the thousands injured as Mr Assad’s security forces unleash tanks, guns and airpower to crush a seven-month uprising against his rule had hoped for a lot more. The First Lady’s office contacted them and said she wanted to hear about the difficulties they faced in the field. She met the humanitarians in Damascus.

“She asked us about the risks of working under the current conditions,” he added. But when she was told about the abuses of power being committed by her husband’s notorious secret police, Mrs Assad’s blank face left them unimpressed. “She sees everything happening here. Everything is all over the news. It’s impossible she doesn’t know,” said the volunteer. Yet even if Mrs Assad does know about the worst of the violence and the 3,000 civilians human rights groups accuse the regime of killing, many people who have met her question what she could possibly do about it.

“Whatever her own views, she is completely hamstrung,” said Chris Doyle, the director of the Council of Arab-British Understanding. “There is no way the regime would allow her any room to voice dissent or leave the country. You can forget it.”

Mrs Assad, who achieved a first class degree in computer science from King’s College University, was brought up in Britain by her Syrian-born parents, who were close friends of Hafez al-Assad, the former President of Syria. She started dating Bashar al-Assad in her twenties, and they eventually married in 2000, when she moved to Syria for the first time.

According to one prominent Western biographer of the Assad family, Bashar chose Asma against the determined opposition of his sister and mother. “He had lots of beautiful girlfriends before her,” said the journalist, who asked not to be named. “He faced opposition when he wanted Asma because she was Sunni and he is Alawite. Here was Bashar al-Assad marrying outside the clan.”

She championed several development initiatives, and delivered genuine change by helping to create NGOs in Syria, as well as highlighting the plight of disabled children and laying the groundwork for plans to rehabilitate dozens of Syria’s ramshackle museums.

For some, she is the modern, made-up face of a former pariah state; to others, an aloof, 21st-century Marie Antoinette. Either way, nothing perhaps crystallised the fate of Syria’s First Lady better than the disastrously-timed interview run by Vogue magazine in its March issue this year.

Amid obsequious descriptions of Chanel jewellery and her matey banter with Brad Pitt during the Hollywood star’s 2009 visit to Syria, the article described how the Assad household was run on “wildly democratic principles”. According to Mrs Assad: “we all vote on what we want, and where.”

Naturally, many outraged Syrians were left asking why the Assads could not extend them the same courtesy.

source

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Hip-hop band DAM supports Palestinian prisoners’ actions with new track

[youtube http://youtu.be/R6Kq-NeHqlE?]

SEE ARTICLE HERE

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The Most Important Prisoner in the Whole Wide World Submitted by Jaime Omar Yassin on Thu, 10/

Hatem Omar

13/2011 – 20:16

Its possible that there is a name more well-known than Gilad Shalit this week, but not likely. For the last two days, media of all kinds have been tripping over themselves trying to describe, explain, hagiographize, and contextualize Shalit, who is to be released soon after a five year detention by Hamas in a prisoner swap.

But the silence on the one thousand Palestinian lives to be exchanged for Shalit is deafening. Many Palestinians and supporters have been fuming at the discrepancy, but its not entirely true that all of the names and faces of the likely thousand to be released have been ignored. Rather, US media drama queens have enthusiastically joined in the shirt-rending of Israeli punditry and officials about the “terrorists” and “murderers” that are likely to be released under the deal, enumerating Hamas’ alleged top ten list of prisoners implicated in some act of violence against Israelis during the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

Media Mirror Israeli Focus on Schalit

Mainstream media have been happy to have Israeli officials direct the narrative for them. The Associated Press [Wednesday, October 12] introduced an article by reiterating the anxiety Israelis now claim to suffer under with the release of the Palestinian prisoners. Jennifer Rubin’s column in the Washington Post was particularly nauseating. Though Rubin, like others, has no concrete list of the prisoners that will be released, she offers one anyway, richly embroidered with misleading statements. The Washington Post also carried a primer on Schalit, as well as a photo story which even seemed to imply that even Gazans care more about Schalit’s release than that the freedom of other Palestinians.

New York Times Jerusalem Desk Editor, Ethan Bronner excelled at the one sided coverage he is now famous for, reiterating Israeli talking points and reinforcing the idea that Palestinian prisoners in general present a threat of violence for Israelis:

Israel worries about having to contend with dozens of convicted militants’ suddenly being freed, some of them to the West Bank […] Israel agreed to allow more prisoners back into the West Bank even though the history of such releases suggests that some released killers return to violence

This is highly ironical in that there are no guarantees that Israel will not simply arbitararily arrest more Palestinians soon after the swap, as it has done in the past. But, of course, those are Palestinian concerns, and apparently not worth reporting. Though Bronner reports on a local strike in support of Palestinian prisoners, he fails to mention the hunger strike currently being waged by Palestinian prisoners , nor a solidarity strike by Haifa youth within the 1948 borders.  Bronner visited Gaza and the West Bank, but did not bother seeking out families with loved ones in Israeli prisons. As Ali Abunimah notes, Bronner also misleads readers about Israel’s cross-border attack on Egyptian soldiers.

Disinterest in the Personal Stories of Palestinian Prisoners

Fond of Schalit’s case, media organizations like the NYT, the Washington Post and CNN have an odd antipathy to the plight of over 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners. Certainly, there’s been a disinterest in the fact that at least 200 of the Palestinian prisoners will be exiled to Gaza and other countries. Such reporting ensures that many Americans by now know well the name of combat soldier Shalit. Some may even know the names of the most notorious [by American standards] of Israel’s prisoners. It remains unlikely that they will ever know any others.  They’ll hear little or nothing of the over 5,000 political prisoners currently in Israeli jails.

Certainly, not the names of over two hundred Palestinians under administrative detention, charged with no crimes at all, some incarcerated for over two or as many as five years. Not the names of Naji and Bassem Tamimi, who were arrested by Israel’s occupation forces for civil disobedience against a totalitarian military regime—acts which are celebrated throughout the region with the one exception being the Arab world’s “only democracy”.

Not the name of Hana Al Shalabi, a twenty-eight year old Jenin resident, never charged with a crime, but held in concurrent administrative detention for over two years. Not the name of Ayed Dudeen, an ambulance driver and activist, recently arrested again just a few weeks after being released from a four year stint of Israeli administrative detention.

Like Dudeen and many other Palestinians, the Tamimis had been arrested several times over the last two decades, and held for various periods, but never charged. The Tamimis have recently been jailed for the alleged offense of “solicitation” to throw stones at Israeli soldiers—a charge too ridiculous to be distinguished from administrative detention except for its advantage of having an end-dated sentence.

There is little that separates Israeli occupation justice—used like a magic wand by Israel to intimidate Palestinian communities and their leaders for over forty years—from the one imposed on Schalit by Hamas. The biggest difference, of course, is that Palestinians have only one prisoner: an adult who volunteerd for combat service in a military occupation. Somehow, at that time and since, the story that Israel holds thousands of Palestinians—some in a never-ending cycle of renewable detention, some of them even children—has been rejected again and again, in favor of ongoing saga of Schalit and his long suffering family. The dynamic continues today and shows no sign of abating soon.

source

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First iPhone 4S Test (Official Review) !

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Amy Goodman on Occupy Wall Street

Don’t miss the October 11 show. A must !

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/11/occupy_wall_street_organizer_protest_expands

You can watch the following parts of that show. I was particularly moved by John Carlos

 

 

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/11/civil_rights_pioneer_olympic_medalist_john

 

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Virtual Field Visit: Impact of the Annexation Wall

[youtube http://youtu.be/1S2cOL6-30A?]

From MOndoweiss

Virtual field visit: Impact of the Annexation Wall
This tour shows how the building of the Annexation Wall on Palestinian land; the severe restrictions on movement resulting in loss of livelihoods; and the expansion of the settlements, are tactics being employed by the Israeli Occupying Power to fragment Palestinian existence in the West Bank. –  Read Al-Haq’s legal analysis of the Impact of the Annexation Wall. http://www.alhaq.org

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‘General’s son’ condemns Israeli oppression, supports BDS

Friday, October 7, 2011

“For the good of both peoples, the Separation Wall must come down, the Israeli control over the lives of Palestinians must be defied so that a secular democracy where all Israelis and Palestinians live as equals can be established in our shared homeland,” says Miko Peled, Israeli writer and peace activist.

Peled gave a public lecture, sponsored by the Queensland Council of Unions, under the theme, “Moving towards a democracy in Israel/Palestine,” at the TLC building here on September 23.

Peled is the son of one of Israel’s most famous generals, Matti Peled, who went from Israeli war hero to peacemaker. Miko Peled’s new book, The General’s Son, will be released early next year.

“This is a crucial moment in the Middle East,” Peled told the audience of around 80 people. He noted the recent controversy around the boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS) campaign to boycott Israeli-owned chocolate shop Max Brenner in Australia.

The fact that it’s a “Jewish business” has got “nothing to do with it,” Peled said. Max Brenner, which is part of the Strauss group of companies, “supports a terrorist organisation, the Golani Brigade,” which was involved in the massacres of Palestinian refugees in Beirut, and the invasion of the Gaza Strip in 2008.

“Australians should boycott any business, Jewish or not, which supports the Israeli military,” Peled said.

“Israel has been on a mission to destroy the Palestinian people for over six decades. Why would anyone not give solidarity to the Palestinian people?”

He gave a summary of the history of Israeli attacks on the Palestinians, from 1948 on. The original expulsion of the Palestinians from their land was “a systematic ethnic cleansing of people from their homes.”

He said the Israeli invasion of Gaza in December 2008 is “etched in my memory as a day of shame for the Jewish people.

“Israel has no intention of giving up any part of its territory. Zionism and peace are incompatible.

“Where is there going to be a viable Palestinian state established? The only viable solution is a united, non-racial state — a free, pluralistic democracy.

“To claim that the BDS movement is anti-Semitic is shameless. Israel and its military have committed war crimes.

“People of conscience must embrace BDS,” he added. “Boycott and sanctions are totally legitimate tactics in trying to stop this Israeli armed juggernaut.”

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Dr Shapiro predicts the catastrophy

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Syrians debate

This is a comment from  SC which is a very good retort to the positions of the Syrian pro regime people

Sheila answers :

You said: “The most significant has been greater opening of the economy to the international marketplace and futher moves away from Statism and socialism. The process is far from finished and is proceeding at a pace of gradual, organic evolution, and certainly not revolution”. I would like to contend that the only reforms that happened in Syria under Bashar are those that help somebody in the regime make a lot of money. If this is the Chinese model of gradual change, can you explain why China was able to achieve so much more, in the same period, than Bashar? Not withstanding the fact that China as a country is far more complicated than Syria.

I would like to go over your points:

1- You said:”(1) The overall number of people who accepted the invitation to join anti-regime demonstrations was “small” (though no hard number is available)”. Very disputable. Taking into consideration the brutal crack down on dissent in Syria, I would like to argue that the number of demonstrators in the streets is amazingly high (though no hard numbers are available). With the understanding that upon leaving your house you might never come back. That makes one demonstrator, too many.
2- You said: “(2) The educated classes did not join the anti-regime demonstrations“. Very wrong. University students are demonstrating across the country, lawyers, doctors and engineers have staged many demonstrations and sit-ins. The Diaspora, mostly educated, are vehemently against the regime. I do not know where you get this idea. Examples abound: in Homs, the Attasis the Jandalis and the Sbais to name a few. My family alone, which counts in the thousands all highly educated and mostly against the regime.
3- You said: “(3) Most of the religiously conservative classes did not join the anti-regime demonstrations“. Wrong again. Religious conservatives in the Sunni community are staunchly anti regime. You said: “Neither did the clergy; most of the Sunni clerical leadership went on record as anti-tumult and pro-civil-process“. Wouldn‘t you have done the same when your neck is on the line?. Wrong again. Even with the brutality, many clergy men announced their disgust with the regime. You said:” Most of the people who attended the mosque on Friday did not attend an anti-regime demonstration afterwards, not even if there was a demonstration conveniently available and on offer to them at the doorstep”. True when you know you might very well be killed, arrested or tortured. You said: “since most of them don’t express alienation against the regime, you shouldn’t expect them to vote en masse against the regime”. But who can express anything in Syria without fear of severe repercussions?.
4- You said: “(4) No representatives of agricultural or rural interests having been talking up an alternative to the Assad regime“. Of course. Who dares talk about an alternative to the Assad regime?. We know their names: either murdered, in jail, or fled the country. You said: “There was very little or no movement of people from rural areas into the towns and cities to participate in demonstrations (despite some fake boasts from the fake revolutionaries to the contrary)”. Wrong again. There were many attempts to do so. Muhammad just mentioned the one in Idleb that resulted in the killing of 70 demonstrators trying to enter Idleb from the villages to participate in demonstrations. All cities today are enclosed in and protected by check points, precisely to stop the rural areas from pouring into the cities.
5- You said: “(5) Once the reforms announced by Assad are completed, there will be no major disagreements between Assad and the general Opposition on the structure of the institutions of the State”. What reforms?. Is he going to arrest his cousin Najib for torturing children?. Is he going to prosecute his cousin Makhlouf for racketeering? Is he going to issue an arrest warrant for his uncle Rifaat for crimes against humanity? And is he going to go after all the regime thugs for embezzlement?. No reform is meaningful without rooting out corruption and rooting out corruption means throwing all the regime members in prison. This will result in Assad not being able to stand for elections being a convicted felon.
6- You said: “(6) The demonstrators were predominantly from the poorly educated working class. Most of them did not have an agenda beyond wanting Assad to leave and wanting a breath of fresh air in the country of an unspecified kind”. I would like to venture to say that the breath of fresh air that these people want is of a specified kind. It is called dignity.
7- You said: “(7) The various Syrian opposition parties are very weak today, their representatives are barely known or entirely unknown to the Syrian public, and I can’t see a route by which they can make themselves a whole lot stronger by election day”. This depends on when election day is and on whether Syria is still under the Assad regime. You said: “The attempt to unconstitutionally overthrow the regime has discredited swathes of opposition”. May I ask: how do you constitutionally overthrow a dictator?. I would give Syrians more credit than that, even the ones you are accusing of being poorly educated. Even the illiterates get it.
8- You said: “(8) Aleppo (all overwhelmingly Sunni in religion, btw) have had essentially or very nearly zero anti-regime demonstrations during this past six months”. Nearly zero is not true. There has been many demonstrations, however not at the scale of other cities. Aleppo is boiling under the surface and I assure you that the majority of the city would never vote for Assad in a free election.
9- You said: “9) Everybody in Syria knows that the anti-regime crowd has been lying about security forces atrocities and that the regime has been telling the truth. (Foreigners don’t know it, since they don’t watch Syrian TV, but foreigners are irrelevant since they won’t be voting). More generally, the regime has been able to use its control over Syrian mass media especially TV news to strong effect. The State-controlled TV news puts out good quality products for the most part, which enjoy good credibility with the Syrian public, and have good market penetration”. This one renders me speechless. No one I know in Syria believes Syrian TV. Everyone I know in Syria knows what is going on and what atrocities the regime is committing. Even those that are pro regime, are aware of how bad the regime is and are only supporting it because of their fear of the unknown.

I am really tired by now. You exhausted me. Have you lived in Syria?. Do you know or understand the meaning of the word dignity?. This is what it all boils down to. Years and years of being trampled on in every aspect of life. Humiliation in every possible way. Syrians have had enough. The only way Assad will win an election is if he is still in power when it is held and we all know why.

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