Syria

Bearing Witness in Syria: A Correspondent’s Last Days

Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

The armed opposition in Syria is led by the underequipped Free Syrian Army. More Photos »

By TYLER HICKS

Published: March 3, 2012

It was damp and cold as Anthony Shadid and I crossed in darkness over the barbed-wire fence that separated Turkey from Syria last month. We were also crossing from peace into war, into the bloodiest conflict of the Arab Spring, exploding just up the rocky and sparsely wooded mountain we had to climb once inside.

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Glimpses of the Armed Opposition in Syria

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The smugglers waiting for us had horses, though we learned they were not for us. They were to carry ammunition and supplies to the Free Syrian Army. That is the armed opposition group, made up largely of defectors from President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal army, we had come to interview, photograph and try to understand.

read on here

March 5, 2012 0

The foreign conspiracy financing

03SaturdayMar 2012

The theory goes like that: if you suspect a foreign conspiracy against your country, then the conspirators would be funding their locals agents with the foreign country’s currency. Well, this is at least what the Syrian TV and Iranian Al-Alam Channel think, who are in the same league with Addounia TV.

Believe it or not, as part of the evidence to prove the “conspiracy” against Syria, they portrayed some foreign currencies with the supposedly captured agents! I don’t know why foreign countries don’t do it with the Syrian currency or U.S. dollar, which is more sensible, but here you go:

Starting from bottom side of the photo and going clockwise: Turkish currency, 1 Israeli Sheqel, unknown currency, 10 Filipino Peso, and 10 Lebanese pounds! Yes, 10 Liras!! I didn’t know Philippine was part of the conspiracy too, but assuming they receive it, where do they spend it?

Let’s look closely at each:

This version of Israeli Sheqel has ceased to exist in 1986:

10 Filipino Peso is worth $0.23, and apparently it’s old Philippine money as well:

Our 10 Liras doesn’t exist in people’s hands now. But if you insist on it, it’s worth $0.0067 i.e. less than 1 cent!

My biggest question: where does the moukhabarat managed to get hold of these rare banknotes? Pity the audience of the propaganda channels.

source : http://lebanonspring.com/2012/03/03/funding-the-syrian-revolution-with-10-liras/

March 4, 2012 1

Until when ? Syria (letter from a girl to the silent ones)

[youtube http://youtu.be/XKpymHSHkXM?]

Marwa Marwaa ‎”Until when? Until when will we remain silent?! Until when will we keep doing nothing? The kids in Daraa were detained and their fingernails were removed 365 days ago! The detainees have been tortured in the jails for 365 days! The mothers have been crying over their children for 365 days! It has been 365 days that the people are being slaughtered. Until when will we remain silent?! Everyday I have to ask myself: Where am I? What am I doing? Where am I wasting my time? If it’s in my studies, what benefit will I gain from knowledge if the regime stays and the revolution is not victorious?! What will money and work benefit me if Syria is still in danger? I am not going to compare myself to the people who don’t care about the blood of their brothers and sisters? I’m not going to compare myself to the people who are going shopping. I’m going to compare myself those who have dedicated their lives to the revolution. I want to compare myself to the detainee who is being tortured day and night. To the one who escaped and can’t sleep at night. I want to compare myself to the martyr who gave his whole soul for the sake of the revolution! The fear of our families always keeps us from going out and doing anything. My mom always tells me don’t go out because I’m worried about you. But if they are really worried about us, they should be worried about the regime staying and about us having to live through humiliation for 40 more years under this regime. They need to fear for our future and for sham and all of Syria. Until when will we remain silent? What are we waiting for and Baba Amr has been bombed for 25 days now?! There is nothing left in Baba Amr! Do we have to wait until tanks are in our homes and until my brother is taken and until my mother is murdered?! Do I have to wait to say the truth until what is happening to them happens to me?
Baba Amr, February 10, 2012 (Bombing)
I beg you, do something! Do something, get moving for Syria, for the martyrs who died, for the detainees. I beg you!”
Break the silence…inside you (subtitle at the end)

March 4, 2012 0

A Syrian voice

On Syria Comment 320. UZAIR8 said::

Analysts have struggled to guess the state of the regime or predict its fortune.

The fate of former Hama Attorney General Andan Bakkour is a mystery and may remain so. However his words will remain long in the memory:

Former Public Prosecutor of Hama, Adnan al-Bakur on the revolution:

“….it confronts a godless regime that believes in no religion or denomination and does not recognize the existence of God. It has security bodies run by individuals who are nothing more than talking beasts. These bodies are considered among the most brutal criminal bodies in the world.”

“Bashar al-Asad regards the Syrian people as slaves who have to deify their king continuously. Those who do not do so deserve death. He is prepared to displace the entire Syrian people to the neighboring countries and replace them with another obedient people whom he settles in Syria. The human mind cannot endure the horrendous massacres committed by Bashar and the killing, torture, and brutalization. What this occupying sectarian gang is doing to Syria is difficult to describe. Nothing is forbidden for them and there is nothing to deter them.“

March 3, 2012 1