December 2011

Palestinians are an invented people, says Newt Gingrich

Republican frontrunner says Israelis have a right to their modern-day homeland but implies Palestinians do not

Newt Gingrich declares the Palestinians an ‘invented’ people.The US Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has declared that the Palestinians are an “invented” people who want to destroy Israel.

The Jewish Channel, a cable TV station, posted online its interview with the former US House speaker, who has risen to the top of Republican nomination candidates to challenge Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 2012 election.

Gingrich differed from official US policy that respects the Palestinians as a people deserving of their own state based on negotiations with Israel. “Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire” until the early 20th century, Gingrich said.

“I think that we’ve had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and who were historically part of the Arab community. And they had a chance to go many places, and for a variety of political reasons we have sustained this war against Israel now since the 1940s, and it’s tragic,” he said.

Most historians mark the start of Palestinian Arab nationalist sentiment as 1834, when Arab residents of the Palestinian region revolted against Ottoman rule.

Modern-day Israel, founded amid the 1948 Arab-Israel war, took shape along the lines of a 1947 UN plan for ethnic partition of the then-British ruled territory of Palestine. Arabs rejected the division.

Gingrich and other Republican candidates are seeking to attract Jewish support by vowing to bolster US ties with Israel if elected.

Gingrich said the Hamas militant group, which controls the Gaza Strip, and the the governing Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank, represented “an enormous desire to destroy Israel”.

The US government has sought to encourage the Palestinian Authority to negotiate with Israel but regards Hamas as a terrorist group.

The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, opposes violence against Israel as a means to secure an independent state, pinning his hopes first on negotiations and more recently on a unilateral bid for statehood via the United Nations.

Gingrich said he would be willing to consider granting clemency to Jonathan Jay Pollard, who has been serving life since 1987 for passing US secrets to Israel. Successive US presidents have refused Israel’s requests to free him.

“If we can get to a point where I’m satisfied that there’s no national security threat, and if he’s in fact served within the range of people who’ve had a similar problem, then I’d be inclined to consider clemency,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich sharply criticised the Obama administration’s approach to Middle East diplomacy, saying it was “so out of touch with reality that it would be like taking your child to the zoo and explaining that a lion was a bunny rabbit”.

source

December 10, 2011 0

My testimony to the Committee Against Torture in Geneva about torture in Sednaya Prison

I was beaten while being questioned by State Security Intelligence, Branch No. 285 (based in Damascus). The interrogator slapped and punched me several times, and I was forced to stand, blindfolded with my hands cuffed behind my back, for the entire three-hour interrogation. The interrogator more than once threatened to use the “tire” on me and whip me. When I refused to answer some questions, I was made to kneel down on my knees.

Prisoners arrive at the Sednaya Prison cuffed and blindfolded, having no idea where the security truck is taking them as they leave the detention centre. Prisoners are usually transferred in groups. After I reached the prison, I was thrown in a solitary cell; it was smaller than I was and I could not stretch out. The cell was two floors underground, dark with no light, measuring about 160 by 180 cm. It contained a detached toilet about halfway up the wall. The cell smelled awful and filth was everywhere.

The next day, food was distributed. Through holes in the door, I saw rations in front of each cell for four people. It later turned out that the two solitary cells facing mine and next to me held four individuals—four people packed into the same space that was confining for me alone.

In the evening, I heard the First Aide to the Director of the Shift Guard tell the guards not to touch me, since I was connected to the press and appear on television. He told them that the prison director explicitly stated that “we don’t want problems with this prisoner.”

Groups of prisoners began arriving in the next few days. I spent 55 days in that cell during which two groups of prisoners arrived, each one numbering seven to ten people. Three prisoners arrived individually.

The guards began screaming, “They’ve brought them, they’ve brought them! May God send good fortune, bring the tire.” Prisoners arrived to the hall, lined on both sides by solitary cells like mine. More than ten guards arrived with a major from the Military Police, which runs the Sednaya Prison. The guards began beating the prisoners using rubber car tires. The prisoner would lie on his back and bend his legs, after which the tire would be put around his legs. Then the prisoner would be turned face down and a guard would stand on his back to prevent him from moving. Other guards would then whip the soles of his feet, and the screams would grow louder. The whipping was done with a very thick piece of rubber, probably an engine belt from a large machine.

The guards beat the prisoners—at the very least, each prisoner got more than 50 lashes. During the whipping, a guard would stand on the prisoner’s back to prevent him from moving and the major would make fun of the prisoners as they were being tortured. This is a verbatim dialogue of the conversation between the major and a prisoner undergoing torture:

Major: What do you do?

Prisoner: I’m a farmer.

Major: So you know what a tractor sounds like.

Prisoner: Yes sir, I know.

Major: So let’s see. Make me the sound of a tractor or else the beating won’t stop.

Prisoner: I swear, I don’t know how, sir.

Major: You don’t know, or you forgot?

Prisoner: I forgot, I forgot the sound.

Major to the guards: So remind him (an order to whip him).

The guards gave him more than 20 lashes and the prisoner screamed.

The major stopped the guards and asked the prisoner: So, have you remembered?

Prisoner: Yes, yes, I’ve remembered.

Major: So do it, make the sound of a tractor.

The prisoner began making a tractor-like sound while the major and guards laughed for five minutes.

The major ordered the prisoner to be quiet: So, you remembered quite well. Now c’mon, make him forget

the sound again.

He ordered a new round of beating and the guards gave him more than 20 lashes.

At this point, another prisoner had nearly passed out from his own screaming. The major stopped the

guards and threw water on the prisoner’s face.

Major: Are you okay?

Prisoner: If you want to whip me, whip me, but don’t let anyone stand on my back. I swear, I can’t

breathe.

Instead of stopping the torture, the major followed his wishes and he was whipped without having a guard stand on his back to restrain him. This torture session lasted more than two and a half hours, after which the prisoners were stuffed four in a cell, as small as mine.

The second group of prisoners was larger. This time a different officer, a captain, came, but the captain also kept his sense of humor while torturing the prisoners.

During the whippings, he would ask the guards to stop and then order the prisoner restrained by the car tire to sing. He would say, “Sing this song by so-and-so,” and then later the singing would be used to justify more torture. The captain would scream, “Shut up! Shut up! Your voice is disgusting. Give me a scream instead of a song,” and then he would gesture at the guards to resume the whipping.

Later the captain would order the prisoner to bark, howl, or make other animal sounds. After one prisoner began howling like a dog at the captain’s order, the captain shouted at the guards, “I told you he’s a dog. Go ahead and beat him.” The guards then began beating him again.

This torture session lasted more than three hours, after which the prisoners were placed in solitary cells like mine.

Three prisoners arrived individually, not part of groups. The three were severely beaten. Apparently, if a prisoner arrives by himself, it gives the guards more time to be creative with the beating.

One prisoner, Khidr Abdullah Ramadan, reached the Sednaya Prison on about April 18, 2006, after being held for 70 days at a military detention branch run by Military Intelligence.

The prisoner was placed in the “tire” and four guards began whipping him. They competed to see who could cause him the most pain, who could make him scream more. I started to count the lashes until I reached 58 and then stopped when I realized that the session would be a long one. During the whipping, the guards began getting inventing new methods, like jumping up in the air and then bring the whip down on the prisoner’s feet. After whipping for more than 30 minutes, by four guards together, they couldn’t find any empty space in any cell. They sent for the first aide and he came. They told him there was no other place but with the journalist, meaning me. The aide vehemently refused and insisted on stuffing the prisoner into any other cell. At that point, one of the guards said, “We’ve got 131 prisoners in 31 solitary [cells], where should we go with him, sir?”

The aide opened the door of my cell, came up to me, and said, “Look, we didn’t treat you like the rest. We’re treating you much better. You know that. This prisoner’s going to share your cell. Talk is prohibited. If anything happens, it’s him we’ll beat. We’ll torture him very badly, and it’ll be on your conscience.”

The young man, his head completely shaved, was brought into my cell, which was too small for just me alone. The guards forced him to jog for a half hour so the blood wouldn’t clot on his feet. They kept saying, “Trot, you animal.”I carried the young man to the toilet for three days after that since he could not stand on his feet.

Abdullah, my cellmate, told me terrifying stories about the torture he had seen at the military interrogation center in Damascus. He had spent 70 days there in a group cell. He said that he wasn’t beaten at all at the branch, but that every day a prisoner would be taken in for interrogation and would be brought back bleeding on a blanket. The thing he most remembered was one prisoner who was severely injured by the torture. After he was carried on the military blanket and thrown down by the soldiers, he didn’t stop bleeding. The prisoners started screaming that he would die. The soldiers came back with some gauze and disinfectant and threw them through the small slot in the door of the cell and told the prisoners to clean up his wounds.

Often the soldiers, the prison guards at the Sednaya Prison, would force the prisoners to make sport. A guard would open the small slot in the cell door and order the prisoners to lie down, stand up, jog, or jump, knowing that the cell wasn’t big enough for even one prisoner to do this.

In some cases, the prisoners would bang on the cell door. When the guard would ask who it was, the prisoner had to answer with his cell number; the use of names was prohibited. Most often, the prisoners asked for water. The water in the cells had been cut off and was turned on for only ten minutes three times a day. When the water was turned on, the guards would tell the prisoners to fill their plastic containers or to use the toilet.

The scarcity of water was a big problem in the Sednaya Prison. I spent 55 days in that filthy cell, bathing only once. Prisoners began scratching themselves. The guards were worried and sent for the prison doctor an officer at the rank of first lieutenant, who diagnosed the problem as scabies. He ordered the guards to distribute a gallon of hot water to every prisoner, and he gave them a disinfectant solution which they put in the water. That was the only time I bathed.

After that, I spent 18 days in a group cell on the third floor, measuring 9 by 6 meters. It was very large. I was placed in there with my father, the writer Ali al-Abdullah, who told me about cases that were totally like what I had seen.

In the two months we spent there together, I learned for certain that as soon as any prisoner arrives to the Sednaya Prison, he is greeted the same way, in what is known as a welcoming party, or the welcoming tire. The beating is very severe, after which he is placed in a solitary cell with three other prisoners for up to one full year, during which time he does not breathe, or see light or sunshine. He only bathes if the doctor orders it, fearing the spread of scabies or other skin diseases.

source

December 9, 2011 0

The Techniques of Torture in the Prisons of Syrian Security Forces

Hedaya Aburwein

REMEMBER SYRIA

SNN | #Syria:

The following report shows a condensed summary of the techniques of torture adopted in the prisons of the Syrian security forces during the last nine months of the popular uprising in Syria. It is based on written testimonies of some released detainees, who do not know each other, where the technique of torture is documented in the below summary only if three detainees agree unanimously on the fact that they were subjected to this kind of torture.

All the written testimonies of the former detainees are saved at the the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in London.

The following is a summarised presentation of the first part of the techniques of torture adopted in the prisons of Syrian security forces since the beginning of the popular uprising in Syria on March 15th, 2011, which will be followed by the second and third parts in the near future:

1 – Electric Shock: where the live electric cable is put, after separating the copper small wires which comprise the element that transfers electricity within the plastic sheath of the cable, and spreading it on a distance that ranges from 5-10 cm in order to be used to stun the detainee electrically on the ears, nose, mouth, body parts, trunk, and the genitals of the detainee.

2 – Torture in the Wheel: where the detainee is put inside two large vehicles’ wheels, in a position that his backside is down, his hands are tied behind his back, and only his head and feet are on the wheels as to be beaten up on his face and feet until they bleed, and then they shift to another way of torture.

3 – Torture With Metal Chair: it is a metal chair frame that has got no seat, where the detainee is enforced to sit on it in a position in which his backside is limited to the boundaries of the seat metallic frame after it gets down near the ground so that makes all parts of his back and the back side of the legs and thighs exposed to brutal beating with the so-called quadripartite cable, which is a thick stripe used to conduct the high voltage electricity with a diameter that is more than 5 cm whose tip that is used for torture is stripped so that the small copper wires become cutting tools which tear up the skin of the detainee when he or she is beaten up with it.

4 – The Tying Up, Kicking, and Booting: where the two feet of the detainee are tied up, his hands get tied behind his back, and he is put on the ground as to be kicked and booted with the huge military boots worn by the investigators on all parts of his body, with a special focus on kicking the chest and the genitals of the detainee until they get swollen as a result of the inner bleeding and become several times bigger than their normal size. In many cases, the detainee vomits blood due to the dangerous visceral lacerations at the level of the gastrointestinal and respiratory track that occur as a result of such violent beating.

5 – Torture by the struggle with the wedged cat: it is a technique mainly used with female detainees in order to avow some information about the places where the activists are hidden. This happens by unclothing the woman of all her clothes, and enforcing her to get into a large bag of cannabis usually used to transfer compost or forage in Syria, and then letting a big cat in and wedging it with the detainee in the same bag so that the cat uses all of its claws and canine teeth in an attempt to get out of the bag in which it is wedged, the thing that causes absolute surficial and deep wounds on the whole body of the detained woman.

6 – Pincer Technique: it happens through using the pincer that builders use to root out the nails from the wooden stems used for construction, where such pincer is used first to pluck out the hair of the detainee’s head, uprooting his nails one by one, and then rooting out his teeth. This technique is mostly used with the children between 14 and 18 years old.

7 – Urinating in the detainee’s mouth: where the warder enforces the detainee to open his mouth so that the warder can urinate in it, and enforces him to swallow the urine.

8 – Burning Technique: it happens by extinguishing cigarettes smoked by the warders in the detainee’s body, in addition to using cigarette lighters to burn different parts of the detainee’s body, especially the most innervated areas like the genitalia and the breasts.

9 – Deaf Technique: it is based on the violent and repeated slapping of the detainee on the area of the ear until the eardrum is torn up and the ear of the detainee starts bleeding, and then he becomes deaf as a result of the intense bleeding that occurs in the middle ear of the detainee that has been exposed to the severe contusion.

10 – Roasted Thicken Technique: it happens through tying up the hands of the detainee behind his knees, and then inserting an iron rod, of the type used in the concrete construction, under his armpits, and then the detainee gets hung on a special holder of that technique so that the warder pushes the detainee from time to time to fluctuate and suffer from an intense pain due to the friction of the metal rod with his armpits. The detainee is left in such position for long hours that may last 20 hours a day.

11 – Ghost Technique: it means transforming the detainee into a ghost. This occurs through putting handcuffs on the detainee’s hands and hanging him to the ceiling of the investigation room, in a position where his feet do not touch the ground. He is left as such for long hours of up to 20 hours a day. This leads to the paralysis of hands due to the stretch and contusion of hands’ nerves. It causes dangerous dislocations on the joints of the hands and irreversible deformations as a result of this type of torture. It should be noted that this kind of torture is the most common, and it is used almost with all detainees without exceptions.

12 – Wind Carpet Technique: it occurs by putting the detainee on a plank in the mid of which exist joints that allow the folding of the board so that the detainee’s hands and feet get tied to the front and back of the plank, and his face on the ground of it. Then, the front side of the plank is lifted as to fold it so that the body of the detainee gets folded until the backside of his head touches the heel of his feet. This leads to a dangerous stretch in the ligaments and nerves of the spine, which results the most dreadful kind of pain a person can suffer from, the thing that causes an entire paralysis to the detainee for a period of not less than four days, and leads in many cases to the death of the detainee during this type of torture.

13 – Flask Technique: includes the enforcement of the detainee to take off his clothes from the chest down, and enforcing him to sit on a glass flask, where the upper side of the glass flask gets inserted in the detainee’s anus, and he is enforced to remain in such position until he loses conciseness as a result of the bleeding that occurs due to the tear and rupture of the tissues because of the stretch they were exposed to as a result of the wedging of the flask in the anus of the detainee.

It should be noted that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has been able to document 204 cases of death under torture of the detainees. This documentation includes all obtained details by direct testimonies from the victims’ families and the doctors who wrote the death certificates of the detainees or had examined them before their burial.

In the following table, there is a condensed summary of the information available at the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights concerning the detainees who died under torture in Syria since the uprising erupted on the 15th of March 2011 , among them were eight children and a woman. To have a look at the table in Excel format, please click on the link below:

syriahr. org/204-Victims-Killed-by-Torturing-Nov-2011.xls

As for the geographical distribution of the number of detainees died under torture, they were as follows:
– Homs province 112
– Damascus and Damascus countryside provinces 22
– Idlib province 19
– Hama province 12
– Dir Zour province 5
– Aleppo province 3
– Latakia province 4
– Daraa province 27

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights asserts that all documented written testimonies of those who were exposed to torture in the Syrian security branches by using the above techniques of torture doubtlessly affirms that the violations of human rights taking place in Syria actually amount to be considered as crimes against humanity that should be referred to the International Criminal Court without any hesitation or delay that may raise scepticism about commitment of the international community to refer everyone who may be contributing to the crimes against humanity in Syria to the International Criminal Court as it was previously the case, and a lot faster, with the similar crimes committed by Gadhafi former regime in Libya.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
London December 5th, 2011
Posted by Bivi …Patterns live blog

source

December 9, 2011 4

(12.09.2011) Nemer | Daraa | Large protests in support of Homs, Friday of “Strike For Dignity”

[youtube http://youtu.be/PRjvLj0-Wqk?]

December 9, 2011 0

Details of the executive Plan for Wadulfitnah (Burying Sedition) secret memo from the General Directorate of Intelligence in late march of this year.

39. Revlon said:

Here is the english translation of the leaked document:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150567415020727&set=a.10150567414445727.656159.420796315726&type=3&permPage=1#!/photo.php?fbid=10150567414640727&set=a.10150567414445727.656159.420796315726&type=3&permPage=1

== PAGE 1/3==

Syrian Arab Republic
General Directorate Of The Intelligence Services
No. / /
Date / /
Without Record / Top Secret

General Directorate Of The Intelligence Services / Top Secret

Detailed Plan for implementation:

Subject:

There is a rising sentiment among a specific group aiming at imitating what happened in Tunisia and Egypt by making use of the current economic conditions in the state and the international environment, which is currently supportive of popular movments. This sentiment might increase after what happened in the city of Dar’aa a few days ago.

Evaluation:

It is imperative to make use of the previous experience in dealing with the hostile Muslim Brotherhood movement, and to learn from the mistakes of the Tunisian and Egyptian regime, especially since they neutralized the power of the army and Republican Guard from the beginning, and allowed media outlets to cover every movement until matters got out of control.

In the detailed plan, things won’t get to point where the regime or state is endangered or the current continuation [of rule] is under threat, and the final result will be passage of many tiresome months, and after that the regime emerge more powerful indefinitely.
The minature security panel consisting of A.S. [likely to be Asef Shawkat], M.N., H.K., A.M., H.M. covened at 23/3/2011 regarding opposition protests and discussed the matter from all its aspects (Security, Economic, Political) and has set the following measures: It is stressed that the treatment of the matter requires shared security-media-political-economic work in the least.

Detailed plan:

The plan depends on thee complementary factors: Media [PR], security and field perfroamnce, political and economic.

Media/PR factor:

– Connecting the protests with personalities who are detested among the Syrian public, such as known Saudi and Lebanese personalities [possibly alluding to March 14] and connecting all of them with Zionism and the USA. There is a plan prepared being prepared by a security cell, which will be introduced/implemented in a suitable, timed way on questionable sites under the name of “Bandar Sultan’s plan”, which is believable and convincing.

– Intense Media campaign accusing protesters and opponents of subservience to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the USA. In the case of killings, the security cell should repeatedly accuse armed or radical gangs, and claim that the security apparatus and army are contributing to the protection of order, stability and the people.

– Indirect media campaign on TV and privately-owned channels about sectarian strife/disorder, and instilling fear of the Muslim Brotherhood in Christians and Druze, warning them of the reprisals they might face by them if they did not participate in ending the protests. Enlisting the Alawites in the coastal regions so they can defend ‘their’ regime and lives, which are going to be threatend by Sunni radicalism.

– Instructing some security units in all security agencies to work within Facebook to respond to and disrupt the communication of the opponents, labeling them as opponents of the regime with fake names/nicknames, posting views/opinions which damage the reputation of the opposition, and possibly also exposing ‘schemes and plans’ hostile to the president and the state.

– Forbidding all media outlets from going to the places of unrest, and punishing anyone broadcasting any news which doesn’t serve the state – and not showing any tolerance in this matter.

– In case the opposition manages to take pictures or film any videos, the security cell should prepare scenes from the protests and insert loopholes in them, so they can broadcast on state media and subsequently exposed so as to remove credibility from the films/videos of the opposition

The last page of the document leaked late March 2011

PAGE 3/3
– Depolying Druze and Christian units/officers in the army to the places of protest and tempting them to defend themselves, also depolying units of the army based in remote regions to prevent cases of refusal, rebellion, or hesitation.

– If a critical or potentially dangerous situation develops, getting everyone to choose between security and stability, or the freedoms they’re demanding, and here they will choose their security and safety. This can be implemented with some assassinations [of individuals] belonging to different sects and clans, or detonating some places of worship in regions with intense protests.

Economic factor:

– Planning/Sending out a massive demonstration in favour of the president before his speech in front of the people’s assembly, so his speech would be a response to the demands of the masses and nothing more. Strict instructions should be issued here to government institutions, syndicates, unions and schools to gather employees and pupils and issue new slogans/banners to them.

The president’s anticipated speech:

– Delaying the speech as much as possible, as this delay is an expression of the state’s power and its immunity to the current events – it also contributes to clearing the image and setting the amount of political movement needed. Any change we might be forced to make must be presented as if we were the ones who started it and called for it.

– Giving a picture stable impression of the regime.

Measures that can be presented in the president’s speech before the people’s assembly:

– Increasing the salary of government and public sector employees after consulting the minister of treasury and putting plans for returning the economic stability with 3 months, especially if this raise might destabilise the current economic interests.

– Promising to create new jobs to distribute among the governorates.

– Lowering the price of some essential goods.

– Partial governmental change and exposure of the corruption of some ministers – this requires one security panel to decide which ministers will be sacrificed.

– Lowering the price of mobile phone calls officially, with the possibility of reclaiming part of the losses through hidden costs.

– Giving personal and public privileges to some Muslim and Christian religious figures who are close to the regime and using them to slander the protesters and the opposition, and asking them to use convinsing verses from the Qu’ran or specific hadiths discouraging them from participating in the current events.

– Sending official figures acceptable to the people to talk with opposition and to ask them to accept the political leadership’s attempts to converse with them – some of them will accept immediately, some will accept with reservations, and some will reject the matter entirely. This is useful in creating disputes and splits within the opposition and preventing them from appearing as an effective, monolithic actor which can be influential in the protest movement.

– Responding to some of the Kurdish demands regarding citizenship, but only if that happens in a way that doesn’t change anything in the state and society or disrupts the current balances – and this response is only to conscript them and suppress their acceptance of foreign intervention if the opposition protests intensify – for the northeastern region is the only problem in regard to this issue as the other regions are not expect to accept such a thing.

– Instructing Syrian embassies overseas, as well as the foreign ministry to reassure the USA and the European states, and reminding that the Golan front might be suspectible to instability if the radicals succeed and gain control.

– Instructing the Syrian embassy in all states to monitor Syrians and their behaviour – the foreign ministry is to act in this matter.

– Preparing security and media teams for implementation as soon as possible and as secretly as possible.

Note: The entirety of the detailed plan is not to be put in the hands of anyone or any team of the operation, but should be split into branches and sections

December 8, 2011 0

The President’s interview : a Syrian comment

On Syria Comment this by REVLON

37. Revlon said:

((“I’m president. I don’t own the country, so they’re not my forces.”))

Assad’s Parallel Universe Suggests a Long Struggle
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
http://abcnews.go.com/International/bashar-al-assad-interview-defiant-syrian-president-denies/story?id=15098612#.Tt_c0vLO18A

Jr does own the country: he has absolute powers to issue and implement any decree to alter or retain any facet of the political, economical, and social activities in the country.
Jr has uncontestable powers not only over his forces but also over all Syrians: he can promote, demote, arrest, detain, torture, and kill whoever he regards as a threat to his will.

((“There’s a difference between having a policy to crack down and between having some mistakes committed by some officials. There is a big difference,”))

Jr did deliver a policy statement on how he intended to tackle the crisis as early as March 30, 2011. It was communicated in his first Speech to the Syrian Parliament on Wednesday, March 30, 2011
http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=8917 . Here is the relevent excerpt:

((Burying sedition is a national, moral, and religious duty; and all those who can contribute to burying it and do not are part of it. The Holy Quran says, “sedition is worse than killing,” so all those involved intentionally or unintentionally in it contribute to destroying their country. So there is no compromise or middle way in this. What is at stake is the homeland and there is a huge conspiracy))

Here is how the Revolution according to Jr was:
– The nature of the uprising: Conspiracy
– The aim of the uprising: incitement of sedition.
– How sedition was to be confronted: Burying
– Why sedition was to be buried and not accommodated: God said sedition was worse than killing. So, killing in this context was both legitimate, and the lesser of the two evils as per divine discretion. Applying even worse techniques than killing, namely all kinds of torture would only then achieve complete justice!
– Who contributors to sedition were: those involved intentionally or unintentionally;
o Intentionally: demonstrators; no age or gender limits were set.
o Unintentionally: relatives, acquaintances, and friends of demonstrators and passers by in the street at times of demonstrations

As such, Jr himself, being Patriot One he felt he was, called upon himself to bury sedition.
Here are the capacities that Jr have been commanding since the start of the revolution:
– President of the Republic, who chose the cabinets, including the minister of interior and the head of the General Intelligence Directorate
– General Secretary of the Baath party and its related Para-militia / Lijan AlAmniyya (Shabbeeha)
– Commander of Chief of the Army and related Army and Air Force intelligence forces.

The rules of engagement of all Armed forces and related intelligence units are communicated to soldiers by their superiors, down all the way from their their supreme commander; Thug one.

Details of the executive plan for Wadulfitnah (Burying Sedition) were spelled out in a secret memo form the General Directorate of Intelligence in late march of this year.

see next post

December 8, 2011 0

The President’s interview with Barbara Walters

and Barbara Walters on her interview with the President

Source at ABC News

ABC’s Barbara Walters: Mr. President, you have invited us to Damascus and you have not given an interview to the American media since this crisis began. What is it you want us to know?

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: I would like to reiterate what I used to say after 11th of September, to every American delegation I met, first of all I think the American people, people should know more about what’s happening beyond the ocean, second the American media I would like them to tell only the truth about what’s happening in the world, and for the American administration. Don’t look for puppets in the world.

Walters: Don’t look for puppets?

Assad: Only deal with administration that, on people that can tell you know about the truth, because what’s happening in the world now is taking the world toward chaos, what we need now is we need to deal with the reality. So the message now is about the reality.

Walters: Tell me what the reality here is your country is. What is the reality?

Assad: It’s too complicated, it takes hours to talk about… so let’s be specific.

Walters: Not long ago you were widely seen as a fresh pragmatic leader, a doctor whose life was in healing people, now sir, much of the world regards you as a dictator and a tyrant. What do you say to that?

Assad: What’s important how the Syrian people look at you, not how you look at yourself. So I don’t have to look at myself. This is… second, it’s about the system. You have a dictator and you have dictatorship, there’s a big difference between the two, dictatorship is about the system, we never said we are democratic country, but we’re not the same, we– we are moving forward in, in reforms, especially during the last nine month, so I think we are moving forward, it takes a long time, it takes a lot of maturity to be full fledge democratic country, but we are moving that, that direction, for me as a person, whatever I do should be based on the will of the people, because you need popular legitimacy and this is against dictatorship for person.

Walters: But you talk about the support of your people. You did have the support of your people, and then began these demonstrations, which I will discuss in more detail and crackdowns, and you have people now who don’t want you to lead. You don’t have the support of your people.

Assad: You always–

Walters: Of all of your people.

Assad: You always have people that don’t want you to be in that position, that’s self-evident, that’s normal, you cannot say that having the support of the people. All the people support you means something absolute. You’re talking about the majority, and people are against you, they’re not majority, when they are majority you don’t have to stay in that position.

Walters: But you have people who are against you who are protesting every day. It started with people marching with olive branches and with their children asking for more freedom, for freedom of press, for freedom of expression, and much of the country now, sir, is not supporting you, that’s what these, that’s what your crisis is about.

Assad: Yeah. That’s why we had the reform started quickly, after the very beginning that you described as simple, so we didn’t take the role, we didn’t play the role of stubborn government, they say they need more freedom. We right away had new party laws, new media law, new election law, new local administration law, and we are revising our constitution now.

Assad: Showing your opinion, whether you like somebody or doesn’t like government or president or whoever, should be through the election, the ballot box, this is the only way.

Walters: If you have elections, will they be elections for president?

Assad: No, no, we are going to have first of all the local administration election this month…

Walters: Local administration, but what about the president?

Assad: Yeah, after that, we are going to have the parliamentarian election, which is the most important. Talking about presidential election, it’s going to be in 2014, this is the…

Walters: People don’t want to wait that long, till 2014.

Assad: Which people?

Walters: The people who are protesting.

Assad: How, how, how much, how many, are they majority or not, that’s why you need, you need to wait first of all for the parliamentarian election, these election will tell you are you going to have majority or minority, then when you can think about presidential election, but not before, before that you don’t have any indication, any clear indication.

Walters: In 2014, when there are presidential elections, will you allow opposition parties?

Assad: That’s why we are changing the constitution.

Walters: OK. And if somebody else wins, will you step down in 2014?

Assad: If he wins he’s going to be in my position, I don’t have to step down, he’s going to be president. So you don’t step down. He will win the election, he will be president. So step down means you leave, while if you win the election, he’s going normally, he’s going to be in that position instead of me.

Walters: Mr. President, you once had positive things to say about President Obama. Now President Obama says, and I quote, “President Assad has lost his legitimacy to rule, he should step down.” What do you say to President Obama?

Assad: I’m not a political commentator. I– I comment more on action rather than word. At the same time if I want to care about something like this I would care, I would care about what the Syrian people wants. Nobody else outside Syria is part of our political map, so whatever they say we support, we don’t, he’s legitimate, or he’s not, it’s the same for me. For me what the Syrian people want, this is the popular legitimacy that put me in that position, and this is the only thought that can make me outside, so anyone could have his own opinion, whether president, official or any citizen, it is the same for me, outside our border.

Walters: Public opinion doesn’t matter?

Assad: Outside Syria?

Walters: Outside Syria.

Assad: No. It’s Syrian issue.

Walters: But Syria is almost completely isolated. The prime minister of Turkey, who was your ally has said, and I quote, “no regime can survive by killing or jailing.” Jordan says you should step down, the Arab League, Syria was a founding member, have said that they have suspended you, you’ve lost all the support of your neighbors and friends. Does that matter to you?

Assad: That depends how do you describe, or how do you define isolation and support? How did they support, how did they support me and how did they isolate me? Isolation is not by visitors or by supporting by words, it’s about your role, your position.

Assad: Nobody can support– can isolate Syria because of our position. That happened in 2005 and they couldn’t, Bush tried to isolate Syria, Chirac, Blair… everybody, they couldn’t, we have role to play. We are related to two different problems. If they isolate Syria, Syria will collapse and it’s going to be doing effect, everybody will suffer, so they don’t have interest to isolate Syria, we’re not isolated.

Walters: Sir, they are isolating you, they have economic sanctions against you, they may have further sanctions, all of these neighbors, so-called friends, have now abandoned you.

Assad: Yeah.

Walters: So you are isolated.

Assad: We’ve ban-, we’ve been under isol-, of, under embargo for the last 30, 35 years, it’s not something new, but it’s fluctuating, up and down depending on the situation, those country that you’re talking about, they have little influence on the situation in Syria.

Walters: Your neighbors have no influence?

Assad: No, no, we have, we still have good relation with them, they’re not, we’re not isolated. You have people coming and going, you have trade, you have everything, so that’s why I said, how do you define isolation, if you don’t define it, it’s just term. In reality, we’re not isolated here.

Walters: They have sanctions against you.

Assad: What kind of sanctions, nothing?

Walters: Economic sanctions against you.

Assad: It’s not implemented. They’re going to suffer, the countries around Syria the countries suffer. What about the transit, what about many, many other things, they have common interests with us, they won’t implement it, or they cannot or they’re going to suffer. That depends on the option that they are going to take, that’s why I said, isolating Syria is not something easy. It’s not only a decision that you implement, it’s not easy. So it’s not about the economy, it’s about the whole role in the, in the political arena in the Middle East, it’s not only about the economy.

Walters: You know, sir, that many leaders in the region have been overthrown.

Walters: You have seen, I am certain, the pictures of Egypt from the President Mubarak in jail, pictures of, uh, in Libya of Moammar Gadhafi killed, are you afraid that you might be next?

Assad: No, I am afraid that the people won’t support me, Syrian people.

Walters: That they won’t support you?

Assad: I mean the only thing that you could be afraid of as president to lose the support of your people that the only–

Walters: You don’t.

Assad: Thing that you should be afraid of not to be in jail or things like this.

Walters: Do you feel now that you still have the support of your people?

Assad: If you don’t have the support of the people you cannot be in this position.

Walters: But–

Assad: This is Syria. It’s not easy, it’s very compli–, it’s very difficult country to govern if you don’t have the public support.

Walters: But Mr. President, you have people an hour and a half away from here protesting you have people who have been killed and people who have been tortured and still they are protesting and you say you have the support of your people?

Assad: No, no you are mixing between the protesters and the killing, it’s different. Now we are having terrorists in many places killing.

Walters: Now?

Assad: No, no, not only now, no from the very beginning, no not now, now it’s recognized in the media that the difference, that from the very first few weeks we had those terrorists they are getting more and more, more aggressive, they have been killing. We have 1,000– over 1,100 soldier and policeman killed, who killed them peaceful demonstrations. This is not logical this is not palatable.

Walters: Let me ask the question again, do you feel now, even with people who have been protesting, that you have the support of your people?

Assad: The majority or the minority? Because you are talking about protesters.

Walters: The majority, the majority of the people you feel still support you?

Assad: Not the majority of the people only in the middle always, the majority of the Syrian people are in the middle and then you have people who support you and you have people who are against you. So the majority always in the middle. Those majority are not against you. If they are against you you cannot have stable most of the city is not Syria let’s say, as you see, you’ve been here for two days now.

Walters: You feel the majority of the people in this country support you?

Assad: I say the majority are in the middle and the majority are not against — to be precise.

Walters: OK, the majority that is in the middle support you.

Assad: Yeah.

Walters: The protest really began with after the detention and torture of children who were writing graffiti calling for your downfall; I’ve seen awful pictures of what happened, why was there such a brutal crackdown?

Assad: What happened?

Walters: Well I will give you some examples and you can tell me if you’ve seen these, these are some of the images and stories and some of the images that I saw, a 13-year-old boy who was arrested in April, a month later his body was returned to his family bearing scars of torture. A famous cartoonist whom you know who was critical of you badly beaten his arms are broken. A singer, famous singer who wrote a popular song calling for your oust he was found with his throat cut. You have seen these pictures, have you not?

Assad: No, but I, I…

Walters: Is this news to you?

Assad: No, no, no it’s not news. I met with his father, the father of that child and he said that he wasn’t tortured and he appeared on the media, you have to see, we have to see things with a stereoscopic vision with two eyes, not with one eye to be frank.

Walters: Ok, the cartoonist…

Assad: I don’t…

Walters: The cartoonist who was critical of you, I have seen his pictures, his hands were broken, he was beaten.

Assad: Many people criticize me, did they kill all of them, who killed who, most of the people that have been killed are supporters of the government not the vice versa.

Walters: But in the beginning, what about the singer with his throat cut?

Assad: I don’t know about him, I don’t know about every single case.

Walters: He was a famous singer, a famous song, you don’t know about it?

Assad: No I don’t think he’s famous. I don’t know about him.

Walters: You don’t know about him? Well I saw those pictures.

Assad: Famous in the United States but not in Syria.

Walters: This is.

Assad: Do you know about him? This is editing, I don’t know, I don’t know.

Walters: You don’t know?

Assad: No. I didn’t hear this story, it’s the first time for the child I met with his father and there were special investigation committee to see if there was torture, there was no torture. This is only false allegations to be frank with you that’s what I said at the very beginning of my message for the media to tell the truth not to listen to rumors.

Walters: Well in the beginning these protests, the women were marching with children carrying olive branches nobody at that point was asking for you to step down. It has escalated. Do you think that your forces cracked down too hard?

Assad: They are not my forces, they are military forces belong to the government.

Walters: OK, but you are the government.

Assad: I don’t own them. I am president. I don’t own the country, so they are not my forces.

Walters: No, but you have to give the order?

Assad: No, no, no. We have, in the constitution, in the law, the mission of the institution to protect the people to stand against any chaos or any terrorists, that their job, according to the constitution to their– to the law of the institution.

Walters: The crackdown was without your permission?

Assad: Would you mind, what do you mean by crackdown?

Walters: The, the reaction to the people, the some of the murders some of the things that happened?

Assad: No, there is a difference between having policy to crack down and between having some mistakes committed by some officials, there is a big difference. For example, when you talk about policy it’s like what happened in Guantanamo when you have policy of torture for example we don’t have such a policy to crack down or to torture people, you have mistakes committed by some people or we heard we have some allegations about mistakes, that is why we have a special committee to investigate what happened and then we can tell according to the evidences we have mistakes or not. But as a policy, no.

Walters: Have there been mistakes made in this crackdown, yes?

Assad: Yes, for one reason because we don’t, when you don’t prepare yourself for new situation you are going to make mistakes.

Walters: OK, have the people who made the mistakes been found accountable, have they been punished?

Assad: Some of them yes, according to the evidences, but you cannot puni–, punish anyone according to rumors or allegations so this is judicial committee independent judicial committee, it’s, it’s, uh, job to detain people if they are guilty and to send them to the court for prosecution.

Walters: So some people have been found accountable?

Assad: Yes, according to my knowledge from the very beginning.

Walters: Last week an independent United Nations Commission who interviewed more than two hundred and twenty five people issued a report what it said was that your government committed crimes against humanity and they went on torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence against protesters including against children, what do you say to them, I mean what I am saying again and again is that protesters were, were beaten, things happened to them, um, do you acknowledge that, do you acknowledge what the U.N. said?

Assad: Very simply I would say send us the documents and the concrete evidences that you have and we will see if that is true or not, you have not offered allegations now.

Walters: Did the U.N. not send you these documents?

Assad: Nothing at all.

Walters: You mean the first you’re hear–

Assad: They didn’t say. They don’t have even the names, who are the rape people or who are the tortured people who are they, we don’t have any names, they didn’t.

Walters: But they’ve issued–

Assad: Sorry.

Walters: Mr. President they have issued this report.

Assad: Yeah.

Walters: They have accused you and your regime…

Assad: According to what?

Walters: Well according to what they said is 225 people, witnesses, uh, men, women, children, whom they interviewed and identified and that’s when they called it crimes against humanity.

Assad: They should send us the documents, as long as we don’t see the documents and the evidences we cannot say yes that’s normal, we cannot say just because the United Nations who said that the United Nations is a credible institution first of all.

Walters: Who says if the United N–

Assad: Who said? We, we, we know that you have the double standard in the world in the United States policy in the United Nations that is controlled by the United States and this so it has no credibility so it’s about evidences and documents, whenever they have we can discuss it just to discuss the report that we don’t see in reality related to it. It is just a waste of time.

Walters: You do not think the United Nations is a credible organization?

Assad: No, for one reason, they haven’t implemented, they never implemented any of the resolutions that related to the Arab world for example the Palestinians to the Syrian land why don’t they, if they talk about human rights what about the Palestinians suffering in the occupied territory, what about my land is my people that live their land because it’s occupied by Israel, of course not.

Assad: For every citizen it is not for me as president I am telling you about the perception in the whole region.

Walters: You do, you do not think the United Nations is credible?

Assad: No.

Assad: Never it’s not something before my generation it’s something we inherited as a concept as a belief.

Walters: You have an ambassador to the United Nations.

Assad: Yeah, it’s a game we play. It doesn’t mean you believe in it.

Walters: I see. Even some of your armed forces are not remaining loyal. Some of them have defected and some of them are fighting now against you, what do you say to that?

Assad: What do you mean by defected?

Walters: Well they are– some of your armed forces have left the military.

Assad: But every year, in the normal situation you have thousands of soldiers that fled from the army. You have it normal when you have this situation you have a little bit more you have higher percentage and then you have some few officers that leave the army to be against you and this cannot say if you talk about deflection in the army different from having few people deflecting so we cannot generalize.

Walters: You don’t think that they are a great many, you think it’s just a few.

Assad: No, otherwise we have different situation. You are in Syria now you see most of the things are stable if you have defection in the army you cannot have stable country or stable major cities like Damascus, Aleppo and the majority of Syria is stable.

Walters: You describe your country now as a stable country?

Assad: In most of the areas, yes. We have trouble we have turbulence but not, not to the extent that you have a divided army. If you have divided army you are going to have real war. You don’t have war, you have– instability is different from war.

Walters: You do not feel now that you are at the brink of a civil war?

Assad: No. No, not because of our policy because of the history of this society.

Assad: We don’t think that we are on the brink of civil war because the people are aware about the need to live together that’s why.

Walters: I want to make this clear, you say that the country in general is stable, certainly we see here in Damascus since we’ve been here it’s business as usual but there are areas of this country an hour, an hour and a half away in which there is still fighting, in which there is still protest–

Assad: That’s true.

Walters: Do you see that as something important, people fighting for their freedom or do you see it as a little something here and a little something there?

Assad: No it’s, you have different components. Not everybody is fighting for the freedom, you have people who want freedom and that’s why we have reform because we recognize those people and most of the people that they need freedom. Not everybody in the street was fighting for freedom. You have different components, you have extremists, religious extremists, you have outlaws people who have been convicted in the courts and they have been escaping for, for years now.

Assad: Drugs smugglers and you have like-minded people of Al Qaeda and those so it’s different components. You have money coming from outside just for the media, uh, propaganda they give money to people they demonstrate for 15 minutes or for half an hour and in the media you see demonstration. You have everything, you have real demonstrations, you have peaceful demonstrations you have militants, you have terrorists, you have everything in the same place sometimes.

Walters: So here you have what seems to be much of the world condemning you so what’s the biggest misconception why is there this misconception in the USA, the country is stable, we have some factions what is the misconception?

Assad: First of all who is most of the world, most of the West do you mean?

Walters: Not just the West– Turkey, well Turkey, Jordan.

Assad: Turkey is not most of the world.

Walters: The members, that is not the West, the members of the Arab League, they are saying to you they are imposing sanctions, some of them are telling you to step down these are your neighbors?

Assad: There is an agenda for those countries. It’s not, it’s political gain it’s not because they don’t care about the killing, they don’t care about democracy most of these countries they have agenda not going to talk about it now, I am not going to talk about their agenda because we have information but when we have evidence we will announce it. But this is not because they care about the Syrian people.

Walters: Right.

Assad: If we talk about Turkey and the Arab League.

Walters: Yeah.

Assad: But going back to the condemnation no we still have good relation with most of the world and not vice versa, even with the neighboring countries we still have normal relation.

Walters: With who?

Assad: With our neighbors.

Walters: Not Jordan.

Assad: With Lebanon, we have trade, we have normal–

Walters: Not– well Lebanon…

Assad: With Iraq.

Walters: But what is the agenda, for example, of Turkey or Jordan or the Arab League, why?

Assad: I’d rather ask them. I wouldn’t answer on their behalf.

Walters: OK.

Assad: They will tell you they have an agenda.

Walters: Do they want to destroy you?

Assad: You should ask them, I cannot talk about their will I don’t know about their will to be frank.

Walters: One of the things that the Arab League has asked for consistently is to have monitors, to have objective people come and visit these areas where there is discontent. Will you allow monitors?

Walters: Will you now allow monitors to come into this country?

Assad: Of course.

Walters: Of course?

Assad: We want that but in line with our sovereignty.

Walters: What does that mean?

Assad: What does it mean to everything in cooperation with the Syrian government you have a state here?

Walters: Yeah but if–

Assad: They cannot just come and do whatever they want.

Walters: But if you had monitors they have to be free to look around they can’t be.

Assad: Of course they are free.

Walters: They can’t, but you are saying they have to be free with your people accompanying them.

Assad: NO.

Walters: They’re not independent.

Assad: They ask for protection so they need our people, they are asking for protection how can they go to conflicts and being killed if they want this is their responsibility.

Walters: I am going to ask this again because I want it very clear this is important. Will you allow monitors outside monitors to come into your country and look around to go to these other cities, to Homs for example will you allow them to come, yes or no.

Assad: Yes as a principle, of course we would say yes.

Walters: Under what circumstances?

Assad: To be in line with our sovereignty to do everything in cooperation with the Syrian government, they cannot say that we’re going to send, send say, for example, 15,000. It’s two sides. It’s contract you don’t make contract from one side it’s a technical issue you have technicalities I don’t know everything about these technicalities.

Assad: How to move, how to prepare, how to protect them, what their job, what’s our job>? We are party, you cannot have protocol just to explain to you very clearly you cannot accept protocol that is made there and we don’t have anything to discuss, very simply.

Walters: Are you now negotiating with the Arab League?

Assad: Of course that is what we are doing. Yeah, yeah.

Walters: You are?

Assad: Of course we are still negotiating, yes.

Walters: So you think that monitors will be allowed to come soon?

Assad: Of course, as I said we ask this before.

Walters: You asked for monitors?

Assad: Yeah before they have this–

Walters: Can they travel wherever they want?

Assad: Of course. But according to certain rules, how to discuss this rules, they are going to, when you make contract you discuss it. At the very beginning they didn’t want to discuss it with us. We said no if we don’t discuss it we cannot sign it, it will be discussed in details.

Walters: Are you now discussing with the Arab League allowing monitors to come?

Assad: Yeah, yeah.

Walters: Can outside foreign reporters come, they have not been allowed?

Assad: No, they were allowed and you are here.

Walters: I am here and I have a correspondent here, but in–

Assad: But you have been here for two days now did anyone tell you where to go or where not to go nobody you are free to go wherever you want.

Walters: I am appreciative that I have been allowed here and that you’ve granted an interview, can other foreign correspondents, American and others come into this country now?

Assad: Yeah, exactly.

Walters: We have not heard this, you will say yes?

Assad: You have to hear; to hear the truth, you have to look for the truth, the truth–

Walters: Well I’m, I’m asking you now.

Assad: But that doesn’t mean they can come without a visa. We are a country where they have to take visa. We give visa to people, maybe we don’t give visa to– we are like any other country against our sovereignty.

Walters: OK, but in–

Assad: That doesn’t mean anyone can come any time and do whatever they do.

Walters: I grant you but as soon as you say visa it means this one can’t come, that, in general now can foreign correspondents come to this country.

Assad: Of course. Yes, and we have been receiving the delegations from Europe, from the United States, from the rest of the world.

Walters: No sir, you have not been receiving delegations.

Assad: I met with them, I met with them.

Walters: Foreign correspondents?

Assad: Of course, of course foreign, they can give you the article they made interviews with me.

Walters: But now?

Assad: I met with two British recently, one a French we meet we had and others.

Walters: Let me ask you once more time so we are clear, in general, can foreign correspondents, if they are accredited, come to this country?

Assad: Of course they can come.

Walters: They can?

Assad: Yeah of course.

Walters: You said that if there is any outside attempt to bring you down it would mean an earthquake, what do you mean by that?

Assad: Syria is the fault line in the Middle East. You know, the Middle East is generally it’s very diverse in ethnicities, in sects, in religions, but Syria the most diverse and this is the fault line where all these diversity meet so it’s like the fault line of the Earth of the, of the Earth. When you play with it, you will have earthquake that is going to effect the whole region. So playing don’t mean to overthrow me or to deal with me it’s not about me it’s about the, the, the fabric of the society in this region that is what I meant.

Walters: You know your father led this country for 30 years until his death. You have now led the country for more than a decade.

Assad: Yes.

Walters: If the Arab Spring means anything it seems to be that the era of one-family rule is over.

Assad: OK, no I never supported being a dynasty, is that correct?

Walters: That’s correct.

Assad: Yeah of being a dynasty.

Walters: You are not raising your son to succeed you?

Assad: No, no and my father never spoke with me in politics, you don’t believe this. We never and he never tried to prepare me. He always wanted me to be a president against what you hear in the media that he asked me to come from London. He wanted me to go back to London to continue and I refused.

Walters: But your older brother was supposed to be, take your father’s place when he was killed.

Assad: No, he had no posit–

Walter: Your father asked you to come back?

Assad: My brother had no position when my father was there and I had no position. I wasn’t, I was nothing in the party, I was only, I was in the military since I was a doctor, nothing else.

Walters: But your father did not expect his sons to take his place?

Assad: Never, he never spoke about this.

Walters: Really?

Assad: Yeah.

Walters: Then, then with all due respect you’re a doctor you’re an ophthalmologist how did you become the leader of this country?

Assad: I was a military doctor and according to our laws that military law you can move from how to say sector to sector within the army.

Walters: OK.

Assad: So I left the, I was military doctor. Even when I was in London I was a military doctor. They only sent me to London not the Ministry of Higher Education, for example, or anything or the university or university. And so I was in the army since 1985 since I was made a student at the school, few people knew that. I wasn’t civil doctor. So anyway when I became, when I became president, I became president through the party after President Assad died. Not, not– When he was alive I was not there I didn’t have any position.

Walters: But when your father died the son became the leader.

Assad: Yes.

Walters: So there were not free elections to make you the leader.

Assad: No anyway we don’t have free election we have referendum this is our constitution.

Walters: So your constitution said we want the son?

Assad: No not the constitution, the party.

Walters: The party said?

Assad: And the people demonstrating and they surrounded the parliament they said we need a president so many people who didn’t want the president in the government they accepted this new president and I nominated myself, before that I never thought about it.

Walters: So when you have elections which you say is in 2014, you will have opposition parties?

Assad: Yeah.

Walters: Yes.

Assad: We have them already now.

Walters: OK and if they want somebody else and not you, you say OK and you step down?

Assad: The people will say OK, the people say OK. Of course you have to be, to leave that is self-evident you don’t have to discuss it. To stay to be president while the people don’t want you how can you, how can you succeed.

Walters: You are not training your eldest son who is now, 8?

Assad: He’s 8. No.

Walters: To take your place?

Assad: No I was never trained to be in this place.

Walters: Do you sometimes wish that you were still an ophthalmologist?

Assad: No, because I was in the public sector anyway as son of president, I couldn’t have my own clinic and get money from the people, so I was in public sector now in wider public sector in the same place. So you wish you still have kind of let’s say emotion and feeling toward that job and I am still in touch with the new innovations in that field. But you cannot look back to see yourself as a doctor now we have more important position.

Walters: You have said often that you don’t see yourself doing this job for life. You’ve said you’re doing it for your country. With all the turmoil in your country is it perhaps better for Syria that you no longer remain its leader?

Assad: I don’t have problem. For me Syria as a project, project of success, if you don’t succeed you don’t have to stay in that position and that success again depends on the public support without public support you cannot, whether you are elected or not. It’s not about the election, now it’s about public support. This is the most important thing. So when I feel that the public support declined, I won’t be here even if they say, if they ask or not I shouldn’t be here if there is no public support.

Walters: OK.

Assad: That’s conclusive.

Walters: So you are still having protests and now your military is involved and there are armed people on the other side there is turmoil in your country but you are saying that in general you have the support of your people?

Assad: Yeah but let’s wait for the elections to be, to be clear.

Walters: That’s too, no but that’s, that’s, this is 2011 we are talking this can’t go on for two years.

Assad: No, no, no I am talking now about these next elections now we are going to have the parliamentary elections.

Walters: And…

Assad: I belong to the Bath Party we will see what the position of our party is because this is an indication it’s important it’s not only the person you are part of another party of another identity.

Walters: Yeah but your party is not going to want to give up power?

Assad: Yeah no to give up why to give up if the party has the right like the other party to compete and win the elections. But to see through the election do we still have support as a party, if yes well this is an option and if not they have another option.

Walters: And your parliamentary elections which are when in two months?

Assad: In three, two to three months.

Walters: And they will be open enough so that people can vote against it?

Assad: Of course. Anyone.

Walters: And that would be the end of the Bath Party and you as terms of leadership?

Assad: If the people said no to the Bath Party, if they lost you, can say this is the end.

Walters: Is there an opposition that they can go to?

Assad: We have opposition but it takes time to have strong opposition you have so many figures now if they unified themselves and go to the election you can have one strong election that depends on the tactic that they are going to adopt I cannot tell you they are going to be strong or not I don’t know. And I don’t know about how much among the people they have, how much support they have among the people I cannot tell you.

Assad: As I said, it’s about personal mistakes. Not about policy. There was no policy of cracking down.

Walters: Who made them?

Assad: There was policy of facing the terrorists when you have militants; you have to face the militants. You don’t allow in the United States to have militants, and remember what happened in Los Angeles in the ’90s, when you send the army to the city, to face the terrorists. That the same.

Walters: Our protest, we don’t kill people. And we have– we have press seeing it all.

Assad: Yeah, but nobody knows yet who killed the people. Because– when the same question who killed the 1,100 soldiers. If you don’t know, if you don’t know who killed those, you can’t tell who killed the civilians.

Walters: The crackdown in the beginning, the brutality. Do you think it went too far?

Assad: I cannot tell you this, without the evidence. You ask me to tell you according to rumor, or to reports. It’s not enough for me, as president. For me, when there is policy, I could say yes, or no, when there is individuals with concrete evidence, who committed mistake, I will say yes or no.

Walters: Did you give the order? For the crackdown?

Assad: No, we gave the order to implement the constitution, and the law. That’s the order and that’s the job of the president.

Walters: You gave– but who gave the order to react against the protests?

Assad: You don’t need order, because this is their job.

Walters: Well somebody had to say–

Assad: No, no, no…

Walters: You know, use guns, somebody had to say their arrests.

Assad: No, no. There was even written not to use guns, that’s why I said it wasn’t policy. Their job is to prevent people like any other country, you have the own means. Whenever they used machine guns against civilians, this is breaching of the law.

Walters: It happened.

Assad: In some cases yes, and they were caught, and they were detained I mean.

Walters: People went from houses to houses. Children were arrested. I saw those pictures.

Assad: When, but you, to be frank with you, Barbara, I, you don’t live here– how did you know all this– this– you have to be here to see. We don’t see this. So it cannot depend on what you hear in the United States. You have to–

Walters: But I saw reporters who brought back pictures.

Assad: Yeah but how did you verify those pictures? Yeah so, that’s why we are talking about false allegations and distortion of reality in this region, and most of the things that happened. In Syria, not reflected in the media, I’m being frank with you. So I cannot answer about fake pretenses, I can only talk about reality. Yeah.

Walters: Some people say that it’s not the protests that may bring you down, but the economic sanctions, uh, now. Not just the West, but your, as we said, your former allies having imposed economic sanctions on your country.

Walters: Shell Oil for example, which is the largest oil production in Syria, has stopped production. How much are the economic sanctions are going to hurt Syria?

Assad: How much, it’s difficult to tell. But it– it will hurt from us, one aspect, but from another aspect, it will have positive effects because of course this is surprising. But actually, we were under sanctions, strong sanction, in the second half of the ’80s, and we built our industry in that period of time. So you can use sanctions for example the– agreement between Syria and Turkey, wasn’t fair.

Assad: It was against our interest. Many industrialists in Syria, many business men, most of the economic sector were against it, and they asked our government many times, to stop working with this treaty. They sent to see– I think two folds, export, something like this, I don’t have the numbers now, so, you have– if you– if you are smart enough, if you are creative enough. You know, every cloud has silver lining, and we have a lot of political clout in this region. So we have lot of silver lining, but you have to see the silver lining to know how to– to have the positive. So it will affect you badly, from one side, but you can decrease the harm. I wouldn’t say you can win now, let’s not exaggerate, but you can decrease this harm and get some benefits from it.

Walters: How can you get benefits from economic sanctions?

Assad: First of all we are not oil producing country, we are not like Iraq. Iraq was depend– oil dependent. We are not oil dependent, we produce. We can leave the– we export the food. We eat our food.

Walters: So you were saying that it would take more maybe creativity, more industry.

Assad: Exactly.

Walters: In this whole country to become independent.

Assad: Exactly. And we can. We don’t have problems if– and this could be the strong point of Syria. That’s why I said they cannot isolate Syria.

Walters: They cannot isolate you?

Assad: No.

Walters: I have seen the markets filled with food so I, you are able to– to keep feeding your people.

Assad: Of course, no, we don’t have trouble. We can– we can eat two years without, with full embargo. We export wheat to many countries.

Walters: Your wife was raised and went to school in England. It has been said that she is a force for moderation. I’d like to know, when you and she discuss things, um, what has she said about what’s happening in your country?

Assad: We are used to live as one family in Syria, because Syria is small country. Whenever you have one crime, the whole country will hear about it. It’s very safe country. Of course it’s still the same pain, to feel– we feel sorry about what’s happening, but at the end– the– the, the discussion– is always and I think everywhere in Syria is part– what can we do to have to prevent more blood shedding in Syria.

Walters: Your wife has her own projects in the country.

Assad: Yes. Development project. Charity of course.

Walters: But do you discuss the situation?

Assad: Of course yes. That’s what I said, part of the solution is how to make life better in different aspects. Development is part of the solution. It’s not only about demonstrations and militants and terrorists and things like that.

Walters: Is your wife a source of support for you?

Assad: Of course, all my family.

Walters: Let me ask about the children. Because you have three young children, 9, 8 and 6.

Assad: Yes.

Walters: What have you told them about what’s happening in this country?

Assad: The reality.

Walters: Which is what?

Assad: What– what I told you.

Walters: What do you say to them?

Assad: I told them all.

Walters: Especially the older boy?

Assad: I told them about terrorists, I told them about people– innocent people being killed. About investigation we have to know who– who helped looked for the reason. Everything.

Walters: You’ve told them about innocent people getting killed?

Assad: Of course.

Walters: Some of whom are children.

Assad: Uh we didn’t talk about whether– innocent is innocent. Whether it’s children or– is innocent.

Walters: Do they see pictures? Do they have Facebook?

Assad: Of course.

Walters: Or YouTube?

Assad: Of course. Of course.

Walters: Do they ask questions?

Assad: They can watch the Internet every day. Of course. They ask a lot.

Walters: Pay attention?

Assad: They are very curious to know.

Walters: What do they say?

Assad: About the question– about what’s happening? Why– why do you have militants, why do you have evil people? Why do the– why do those people want to kill?

Walters: I want to hear the answers, what do you say?

Assad: I told them a lot of things. Sometimes people commit mistakes, sometimes you have bad people. In every society you have bad people. So they kill more to undermine the government, that’s what you explain to the children.

Walters: How does this all end? How do you restore peace?

Assad: By reform and facing the terrorists.

Walters: Is the reform, too little too late?

Assad: No, because anyway, the reform will not have direct impact on the terrorists, because most of the terrorists, and I would say, all the terrorists, they don’t have political agenda. They don’t care about reforming. The reform is for the majority in the middle that I told you about and the people who support you, and the people who are against you. But terrorists don’t care about this.

Walters: Will you allow freedom of expression, freedom of press?

Assad: We already have it.

Walters: You don’t have freedom of press, they can’t criticize you.

Assad: We have in every– every society, you have a, like– I wouldn’t call taboo? You have a limit.

Walters: Taboo? Not in mine. We have freedom of press.

Walters: How do you hope that you will be remembered?

Assad: By doing the best I can, can for, for this country. Whether you agree, or whether the people agree or don’t, don’t agree, but at– at the end, I was not a puppet. I care a lot about being independent president for independent Syria. And do my best, according to my convictions. That’s the most important thing. At the end, even if they disagree with you, they will respect you.

Walters: What do you think is the biggest misconception that my country has of what’s happening here, if indeed there is a misconception?

Assad: Misconception about a lot of things. I cannot tell you, because it’s so many facts, distorted facts, you have them in the media. But the most important thing, as accumulation of these facts, you don’t have vision. The problem with the West in general, especially the United States, They don’t have vision about– at least my region, I wouldn’t talk about the rest of the world — failing in Iraq, failing in Afghanistan, failing in fighting terrorism.

Assad: The situation is getting worse and worse in the rest of the world. The question you ask as American, what did you get? Well, where did you win? Well, you spent trillions, where you could spend few hundred of millions, and get the terrorists out. So that will– you– it harms your interest, but at the same time, it harms others’, interest. So this is the misconception I think.

Walters: Dealing with the protest– with the protesters. What is the misconception, if there is any?

Assad: About this situation?

Walters: About the protests, that’s what is being focused on now.

Assad: OK, we don’t kill our people, nobody kill. No government in the world kill its people, unless it’s led by crazy person. For me, as president, I became president because of the public support. It’s impossible for anyone, in this state, to give order to kill people.

Assad: We have militants, those militants killing– soldiers and killing civilians. This morning, we lost nine civilians, killed in Homs, in the middle of Syria, and they are supporters. Most of the victims are support government supporters. That’s something they don’t know, they think every civilian is demonstrator, and every civilian is against the government, which is not true.

Walters: But the protesters in the beginning, who were killed…

Assad: Yeah.

Walters: What about them?

Assad: What do you mean?

Walters: OK. Our view is there are peaceful protesters, they were killed, some were tortured. It was a brutal reaction. Are we wrong in thinking that?

Assad: Every single– every brute reaction, was by individual. Not by institution. That’s what you have to know.

Assad: We don’t have institution that kill people, or give order to– for brute reaction. This is individual– and that’s what I call– what I describe as– individual mistakes.

Walters: OK. Done by the military, or done by whom?

Assad: We don’t know everything. In some cases done by the police. In some cases done by civilians.

Walters: But not by your command?

Assad: No, no, no. We don’t have– nobody– no one’s command. There was no command, to kill or to be brutal.

Walters: So that was individual people?

Assad: Of course.

Walters: Are you remorseful?

Assad: Let me just check…

(side chat)

Assad: What do you mean remorseful? You mean being sad or– or regret?

Walters: Regret.

Assad: No, a regret– you regret when you do– when you do mistakes, when you commit a mistake. I always try to protect my people. How can I feel remorseful if I try to protect the Syrian people?

Walters: But people were killed. You’re not remorseful?

Assad: Well, just let me be. So you mean remorseful be sad?

Walters: Yeah, do you feel guilty? Guilty. Guilt.

Assad: Because if you mean guilty, it means you made the mistake. That’s why I have be precise. So if you can change the term just for me to–

(side chat)

Walters: And then I’m done. Do you feel guilty?

Assad: I did my best to protect the people, so I cannot feel guilty, when you do your best. You feel sorry for the lives that has been lost, but you don’t feel guilty — when you don’t kill people.

Walters: Thank you, Mr. President.

Assad: Thank you.

December 8, 2011 0

League Action Reflects Regional Rivalry

By Ramzy Baroud, Special to Gulf NewsAccording to various media commentators, the rapid Arab League mobilisation against Syria is proof of the organisation rising to an urgent collective responsibility against impending dangers. However, such an assumption is either misguided or misconstrued.The so-called Arab Spring has largely been credited for the League’s actions. While the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen have indeed introduced a new factor — the people — that will affect any future political trends in Arab and Middle Eastern countries, it is misleading to claim that the League has been empowered by such a collective movement.

The ability to champion decipherable foreign policy shifts could only follow fundamental shifts in the political attitudes of such consequential member states as Egypt, which, frankly, are yet to take place.

While the League’s new-found power might not be a reflection of a genuine desire to assume a leadership role, it is at least a fretful response to the court of Arab public opinion. “Gone are the days when Arab leaders could act with total disregard for their people’s opinions,” wrote Robert M. Danin, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Public opinion throughout the Arab world resoundingly disapproved of Gaddafi’s behaviour, and now of [Bashar] Al Assad’s. This sentiment is motivating Arab leaders to respond to their people’s anger, through the Arab League” (CNN.com, December 1).

But why are such enthusiastic actions confined to Libya and Syria, which have been decidedly demonised by western powers? Surely Danin realises that Arab popular opinion is not exclusively focused on these two nations. Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi was hardly on Arab public opinion radar, and few seemed concerned with Al Assad’s domestic policies before his regime’s crackdown on protesters. The latter had, in fact, garnered many fans throughout Arab countries owing to his support of the Hezbollah, which has twice defeated Israeli military designs in south Lebanon.

A quick overview of history may be useful here.

The League, since it was founded in 1945 by merely six Arab countries, shifted its allegiance to any centre of power that happened to dominate the Arab world. When Egyptian president Jamal Abdul Nasser sat on the throne of Arab nationalism, the League seemed anti-colonial to the core, locking horns with the most powerful western countries on behalf of Arab nations seeking independence.

Palestine became the rallying cry of Arabs, as League members didn’t hesitate to use military and economic might to help Palestinians achieve freedom.

When Egypt’s far less popular president Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David agreement with Israel in 1978, the League still possessed a semblance of resolve. League members rejected both Sadat and his undemocratic initiative, which disjointed the ‘Arab front’ and once again shifted the centre of power elsewhere.

In later years, the League became devoid of any real value as a political institution. Its overriding political objectives — of unity and economic integration — faded into oblivion.

The League’s response to Libya and Syria cannot be explained by the Arab Spring, but there are some other signs that point to an explanation. A major clue can be found in the League Summit held in Damascus on March 29, 2008, which reflected the deep chasm dividing the Arabs.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia sent low-level representatives to attend the conference, while others boycotted the summit altogether. Points of contention between competing Arab camps included Syria’s role in Lebanon and Iran’s influence in the region. Al Assad, who saw his country as the engine that would steer the Arab fold back to its days of glory under Nasser, had, more or less, a free podium to present a new vision of the Arab world.

Gaddafi, on the other hand, had one of his freest platforms to express ideas almost never communicated on a stage defined by tedious formalities and little action.

In addition to criticising the Arabs for doing nothing as the US invaded and destroyed Iraq, Gaddafi asked: “Where is the Arabs’ dignity, their future, their very existence? Everything has disappeared … Our blood and our language may be one, but there is nothing that can unite us … We hate each other, we wish ill of each other and our intelligence services conspire against each other. We are our own enemy” (as reported by Al Jazeera and cited by Bridget Johnson in About.com).

Gaddafi, no saint by any standard, paid heavily for his intransigence — with a Nato war coupled by enthusiastic League approval and participation. No surprises here. Al Assad, whose crackdown on Syrian protesters has been harrowing to say the least, is also facing the wrath of the League.

Interestingly, aside from its response to Syria and Libya, the League still remains as irrelevant as ever. For example, on November 29, the UN-designated International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the League’s Secretary-General Nabeel Al Arabi said: “Israel’s disregard for international law, public opinion and human rights conventions is far beyond all limits” (Middle East Monitor. December 1). True, but this indignation remains confined to press releases and fiery statements. If ‘Arab public opinion’ was indeed of much concern, the League would have pushed the issue of Palestine with all of its might and resources.

The fact is, the activation of the League will not endure. It is a temporary renewal aimed at realising regional policies, punishing or isolating old foes, and ultimately redrawing the centres of powers in the region. This largely resembles its behaviour following the second Gulf war in 1990-91.

The so-called Arab Spring has really done little to truly revolutionise the political institution, which continues to tread between its members’ own political ambitions and outside influences and pressures.

– Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story. (This article was originally published in Gulf News – www.gulfnews.com)

Story Copy Right Link

If you like this article, please consider making a contribution to the Palestine Chronicle.

December 7, 2011 0

Nonsense

Posted: 06 Dec 2011 11:12 AM PST

There is no state on earth that will not use the misfortune of its neighbour for its own benefit. It’s a fundamental tenet of international relations (at least in realism) that states are self-maximising agents that constantly scheme against each other. In the Middle East, Syria took advantage of the turmoil in both Lebanon and Iraq for its own advantage, as did Iran. So why is it such a surprise that the Gulf states would seek to capitalise on the turmoil in Syria? And what on earth does that have to do with forcing the Syrian regime to stop killing its citizens?There are some intellectuals, activists and writers who, blinded with their hatred for the West, are incapable of uttering a single word of condemnation against the Assad regime in Syria, that has killed over 4,000 of its own citizens, all because they fear this would weaken the “resistance” project against the Israeli state. I simply don’t understand what could be more important than stopping this senseless bloodshed, taking place solely to maintain a police state that has treated its own people far more ruthlessly than the “Zionist enemy”, which has bombed the country freely and without retaliation over the past number of years. It is this hypocrisy which is far more blatant than the obvious Gulf Arab bias towards the Syrian revolution at the expense of the crushed Bahraini one.

For After Prison, There is Only the Glory of a Rising DawnPosted: 05 Dec 2011 04:13 PM PST

Here is a beautiful poem written in 1922 by Najib al Rayess. I’ve never been able to find a rendition that does it justice, and so I will just put down the poem, and try to translate it in English as best as I can. When I hear that more and more people that I know are getting imprisoned, these are the first words that come to mind:

يا ظلام السجن

كلمات: نجيب الريس (1922)يا ظلامَ السّـجنِ خَيِّمْ إنّنا نَهْـوَى الظـلامَا
ليسَ بعدَ السّـجنِ إلا فجـرُ مجـدٍ يتَسَامى

أيّها الحُرّاسُ رِفـقـاً و اسمَعوا مِنّا الكَلاما
مـتّعُـونا بِـهَـواء منعُـهُ كَـانَ حَرَاما

إيـهِ يا دارَ الفخـارِ يا مـقـرَّ المُخلِصينا
قدْ هبطْـناكِ شَـبَاباً لا يهـابـونَ المنونا

و تَـعَاهدنا جَـميعاً يومَ أقسَـمْنا اليَـمِينا
لنْ نخونَ العهدَ يوماً واتخذنا الصدقَ دِيـنَا

يا رنينَ القـيدِ زدني نغمةً تُشـجي فُؤادي
إنَّ في صَـوتِكَ مَعنى للأسـى والاضطهادِ

لـسـتُ والله نَسـيّاً ما تقاسِـيه بِـلادِي

فاشْـهَدَنْ يا نَجمُ إنّي ذو وفــاءٍ وَ وِدادِ

Oh the darkness of this prison, descend on us for we love the dark;

There is naught after imprisonment but the glory of a rising dawn

Oh guards, be gentle, and listen to our words;

Deny us not this air, for banning it is a sin

Oh land of pride and home of the loyal;

We the youth have arrived, and fear no death

And we had all promised, the day we gave our oaths;

To remain true to our word and took truth for our creed

Oh ringing chains, sing me a song to raise my spirits;

For your voice gives meaning to oppression and hardship

By God I have not forgotten what my country suffers;

So bear witness, oh stars, that I remain faithful and loyal

December 7, 2011 0

band annie's Weblog

I have a parallel blog in French at http://anniebannie.net

Month

Palestinians are an invented people, says Newt Gingrich

My testimony to the Committee Against Torture in Geneva about torture in Sednaya Prison

The Techniques of Torture in the Prisons of Syrian Security Forces

REMEMBER SYRIA

(12.09.2011) Nemer | Daraa | Large protests in support of Homs, Friday of “Strike For Dignity”

Details of the executive Plan for Wadulfitnah (Burying Sedition) secret memo from the General Directorate of Intelligence in late march of this year.

The President’s interview : a Syrian comment

The President’s interview with Barbara Walters

and Barbara Walters on her interview with the President

Source at ABC News

League Action Reflects Regional Rivalry

Nonsense

Blog Stats

Blogroll

Archives

Abonnement courriel

Pages