Large crowds of Syrians rallied in the northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday in support of the government of President Bashar al-Assad, while Syrian troops kept up an offensive in central Syria and battled army defectors in the east.

Syrian security forces killed at least 25 people Monday when they attacked the opposition stronghold of Homs, while activists accused the government of intensifying its persecution of doctors who treat wounded protesters.

Residents and activists say tanks firing heavy machine guns swept into Sunni Muslim districts of Homs, where large protests demanding the removal of President Bashar al-Assad have taken place regularly.

Analysis: Hamas needed a victory to show its constituents; and it needed to start worrying about where it can go from Syria.

The death of Steve Jobs at the age of 56 brings to an end one of the most spectacular lives in corporate and technological history. Jobs’ Apple Inc. almost singlehandedly revolutionized the way we communicate, think and live through an array of wildly innovative and brilliant products like the Mac computer, the iPhones and iPads.

However, one little known fact about Jobs was that he was of partial Arab descent.

There is a lot of shame to go around after the United Nations Security Council failed last week to pass a resolution condemning Syria’s brutal crackdown. Russia, which used its veto, clearly values its arms sales and other trade with Damascus over the lives of the more than 2,900 Syrians killed during pro-democracy protests. China, which followed Russia, clearly fears any popular movement.

Brazil, India and South Africa should also be chastised for abstaining. As democracies, they should be leading efforts to denounce President Bashar al-Assad’s brutality, not enabling it.

More than six months after the start of the Syrian uprising, Iraq is offering key moral and financial support to the country’s embattled president, undermining a central U.S. policy objective and raising fresh concerns that Iraq is drifting further into the orbit of an American arch rival — Iran.

The loose band of global hackers known as Anonymous has claimed another scalp in its ongoing fight against tyrants, corporate crooks and naysayers, taking over the Syrian government Ministry of Defense website and replacing it with message of support for the Syrian people.

News of the hack, just the latest in a string of high profile takedowns that include Rupert Murdoch's News of the Word newspaper, and others, spread like wildfire over Twitter Sunday night as social media users echoed support.

The hacking excursion comes just hours after Syrian forces were accused of firing on civilians, killing an estimated 50 people in the rebel-controlled city of Deir al-Zour.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday he was praying for Libya's deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi and also sent a message of solidarity to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against "Yankee" aggression.

Two weeks after Egypt's uprising swept aside Hosni Mubarak, the presidents of Iran and Syria stood side by side in Damascus in a blunt message to the Arab Spring: The Syrian regime can count on its allies in Tehran.

Syrian refugees who have fled violence and bloodshed into neighboring Lebanon say they are unable to return for fear of persecution, but complain that they are still not safe from Syrian authorities who, they say, have infiltrated Lebanon

The news out of Syria today was as horrific as ever. After six full months the horror stories only get worse. The government of Bashar Assad clings to its claims that "armed gangs" are responsible for the turmoil and the violence in the troubled country.

Since the beginning of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in mid-March, officers have been defecting from the army and are either fleeing the country or joining the opposition.

NOW Lebanon talks to a high-ranking Syrian army officer about how and why he defected, and about his role in the Syrian Free Army.  To protect himself and his family, the officer chose to remain anonymous.

 

Diplomats: Intel reports show cuts due to group's failure to express support for Syria's Assad

IRANIAN snipers are being used in Syria to put down the growing tide of demonstrations against president Bashar al-Assad, claims a member of the regime's secret police who has fled to Turkey.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian parliament's foreign affairs committee, this week said ending support for Syria would spell disaster.

He said: "The interests of the Muslim people command that we mobilise to support Syria as a centre of Palestinian resistance."

Turkey has offered to join Iran in sending weapons to Hizbullah in Lebanon, with help from Syria, according to a report published in an Italian newspaper.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) committee said that Iran and Hizbullah are involved in killing Syrian soldiers who refused to shoot at anti-regime protesters, the French radio station reported on Saturday.

Ahmed Khalaf, a lieutenant in the Syrian army said that he was ordered to command his soldiers to shoot indiscriminately at everyone in Deraa, including women and children

Two U.S. administrations declined in recent years to place sanctions on Syrian officials who now are involved in that country's harsh crackdown on dissidents, despite the officials' involvement in crushing internal opposition previously, according to secret State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks.

Syrian troops killed at least 45 civilians in a tank assault to occupy the center of the besieged city of Hama, an activist said on Thursday, seeking to crush an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

History doesn't just repeat itself. It stutters. So it should come as no surprise that Bashar al Assad is following in his father's footsteps in ordering his security forces to bombard and open fire on civilians inside the city of Hama.

Hama was razed nearly 30 years ago by Hafez Assad in order to crush an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood. Now, his son is moving in that same direction, this time against peaceful protesters seeking political and social reforms.

Yesterday in Egypt, Tahrir Square, hundreds of troops armed with electric batons descended on dozens of unarmed protesters. Beating the protesters and tearing down tents in the make shift camp and clearing the square.

US: Massacre in iconic city "demonstrates true character" of Assad regime; EU spokesman calls reports of violence "appalling"; Syrian state news agency says military entered Hama to purge armed groups.

Video give an idea about how big some of these protests are!

Early one Friday morning in late April, Hala Abdulaziz, a 29-year-old interior designer, went online from her apartment in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC, to check the latest on protests in her home country of Syria.

Moments later, Hala recognized her father in a video of demonstrators under fire.

Hala didn’t receive confirmation that her father had died until she saw his name, Abdalgafar Abdulaziz, on a list of people killed on a news program.

In the following month, Hala sought recourse the only way she could from Washington – she sued Bashar Al Assad and members of his regime under an American legal clause that gives US citizens the right to sue foreign governments for torturing or killing their relatives.

That’s when the scare tactics began. As the Federal Bureau of Investigation later learned, employees of the Syrian Embassy in Washington were behind a campaign of intimidation.

Palestinian Refugees: An ongoing human rights scandal.

The Syrian army Sunday took control of several neighborhoods in Homs, the scene of deadly violence last week, while security forces conducted a spate of arrests in Damascus.

More than 50 people have been killed in the past week in Homs, 160 kilometers north of Damascus, either by army gunfire or in clashes between rival groups of demonstrators, rights activists have said.

The troops stormed a northwestern village Sunday and made sweeping arrests in a region where the army has been conducting operations for weeks to crush growing dissent against the regime.

While stripped of their nationality in Jordan and living in Lebanon in the worst socio-economic conditions of any in their community, Palestinian refugees in Syria have long enjoyed comparably better circumstances, including equal rights with citizens.

But in a development that challenges a central pillar of the Syrian regime’s legitimacy, Palestinians in Syria are beginning to turn against a dictatorship that for decades used its claims of resisting Israel and fighting for Palestinian rights as justification for the repression of its own people.

 

Syria just isn't in the news as much as it was a couple of months ago - but the protests against the Assad regime keep getting bigger.

Today, in Hama, hundreds of thousands making a huge human Syrian flag:

Some powerful videos on this page-- the size of the crowds of demonstrators is very, very impressive!

Hundreds of people in Syria have been killed in a popular uprising that began in March, according to human rights groups.

A few weeks ago, the conscript, who asked not to be identified to protect his family from possible reprisals, deserted and fled Syria after he was repeatedly ordered to open fire on un-armed demonstrators who were protesting against the Syrian government.

Inside a filthy detention center in Damascus, eight or nine interrogators repeatedly bludgeoned a skinny teenager whose hands were bound and who bore a bullet wound on the left side of his chest. They struck his head, back, feet and genitals until he was left on the floor of a cell, bleeding from his ears and crying out for his mother and father to help him.

Some 400 Lebanese women arrived in Syria Sunday to show solidarity with the protesters – the pro-government protesters, that is. They women did not come to to side with the activists calling for reform and democracy, but rather to support Bashar Assad's regime.

“How can we be a threat?” protests Ms. Bartolotti, making the most of her staid appearance and fluent English.

Oh dear, Pippa – you weren’t being entirely honest with that reporter, were you?

No mention of your trip to Syria last October as part of George Galloway’s ‘Viva Palestina’ convoy.  No reference to the fact that you had yourself photographed in Latakia, beaming away enthusiastically whilst sporting your ‘Viva Palestina’ badge and holding the flag of the Syrian Socialist National Party – a Nazi outfit.

The SSNP flag’s similarity to the Nazi swastika is not coincidental and there is plenty of available information about them, both old and new.

“They greet their leaders with a Hitlerian salute; sing their Arabic anthem, “Greetings to You, Syria,” to the strains of “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles”; and throng to the symbol of the red hurricane, a swastika in circular motion.”

Hundreds of Syrian government supporters attacked the U.S. Embassy in Damascus Monday, smashing windows and spray-painting walls with obscenities and graffiti that called the American ambassador a "dog."

A witness told The Associated Press that protesters scaled a fence, smashed windows and raised a Syrian flag at the embassy.

 

The U.S. and France both accused Syrian forces of being too slow to respond and demanded the government abide by its international obligations to protect diplomatic missions and allow envoys freedom of movement. The U.S. formally protested, calling the attacks "outrageous," and saying protesters were incited by a television station heavily influenced by Syrian authorities.

US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford visited Hama, a center of anti-government protests, in a display of solidarity with the demonstrators.

“The fundamental intention was to make absolutely clear with his physical presence that we stand with those Syrians who are expressing their right to speak for change,” said a statement from the U.S. State Department, cited by Western media.

Arab governments were swift to condemn Libya's Muammar Gaddafi in February when he tried to crush a popular uprising with machineguns and heavy artillery. Now, as Syria's Bashar al-Assad uses tanks and live bullets to smash a wave of street protests, the relative silence from Ara …

The Financial Times has an excellent guest-edito by Richard Haass. As usual, I have to link through Facebook in order to respect FT's copyright rules. I hope it's accessible this way.  :-((

Syrian security forces and gunmen loyal to the regime shot dead 11 people Tuesday as residents erected roadblocks to prevent the advance of tanks ringing the city of Hama, which has become a flashpoint of the uprising against autocratic President Bashar Assad, activists said.

Syria came under withering international criticism Tuesday as the White House said President Bashar Assad has "lost legitimacy" and the U.N. Security Council unanimously condemned attacks on the U.S. and French embassies in Damascus.

Syrian security forces may have committed crimes against humanity during a deadly siege in May, Amnesty International said Wednesday, citing witness accounts of deaths in custody, torture and arbitrary detention.

At the time of the operation, The Associated Press interviewed residents who told of a catastrophic scene in the town of about 70,000, including sectarian killings, gunmen carrying out execution-style slayings and the stench of decomposing bodies in the streets.

(Translated From the Hebrew):

"Im Tirtzu leaders Erez Tadmor and Ronen Shoval accompanied by four other activists arrived at the shores of Greece, where they hired a yacht to pass by the ships of the pro-Palestinian flotilla protesters the ships of the pro-Palestinians in the port of Piraeus. Activists sailed between the ships with their yachts covered in posters with the picture of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. Activists also distributed information materials in English, which states that 'freedom flotilla' of leftist activists 'must sail towards the oppressed cities in Syria - and not Gaza.'"

Back in 2006, the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah was riding high.

Unlike most of the other Arab countries where there have been anti-government demonstrations, the government here (Syria) has been extremely effective in suppressing media coverage-- but Sky News finally got this video out of Syria.

WARNING: SOME PEOPLE MAY FIND THIS VIDEO TO BE UPSETTING!

clip from article: The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants Monday for Muammar Qaddafi, his son, Saif Al-Islam and his intelligence chief, Abdualla Al-Senussi, for crimes against humanity allegedly committed between February 15 and February 28 of this year.

"The U.S. Congressman described what is taking place in terms of the meetings of opposition and independent figures who are expressing themselves and their views openly and freely as "a largely positive progress", saying "President Bashar al-Assad cares so much about what is taking place in Syria, which is evident in his effort towards a new Syria and everybody who meets him can be certain of this."

""President al-Assad is highly loved and appreciated by the Syrians," said Kucinich, voicing his belief that people in Syria are seeking a real change which is up to them."

When the Arab Spring came to Talkalakh, the little Syrian hill town a few minutes walk from this border village, it seemed to last barely a moment. Squads of secret police descended on the town within hours of the first protests. Then the army came with its tanks, and the shadowy pro-government militia called the shabiha.

Earlier this morning, CNN's Hala Gorani, one of the few Western journalists who has been permitted entry to Damascus, issued a strange tweet: "Ran into Dennis Kucinich in another hotel. Told me he's on fact-finding mission. Met w Assad for 3 hrs yest. Wouldn't
elaborate."

What is the anti-war, anti-Libya campaign Ohio Democrat doing meeting with the head of a regime accused of killing over 1,300 people in its crackdown on anti-government protests?

Children of Syria tell their story [HQ]

Bad Reviews for Assad’s Efforts to Win Hearts in Syria: Worldview – Bloomberg | The Fresno News

Critics of Syria's authoritarian regime, at a rare gathering in Damascus, called Monday for a peaceful transition to democracy and an end to the Assad family's 40-year-old monopoly on power. Otherwise, they said, Syria's current chaos might destroy the country.

"The Shiite militia is very nervous now,” said the  Western expert said  adding  ” Syria is the back yard through which passes the weapons that Iran sends to Hezbollah and the party want to get out its   its weapons before the Baathist regime fa …

Bayan al-Bayasi had been steadily growing disillusioned with her president over the years, but like most Syrians raised on fear and submission, she kept silent. When the Arab protest wave reached Syria, she even defended Bashar Assad to her friends, saying she was sure he was a reformer at heart.

Page last updated at 11:47 GMT, Tuesday, 21 June 2011 12:47 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version In hiding with Syrian protesters on the run in Damascus Young Syrian mother: I am protesting so my daughter can be free Sue Lloyd-Roberts BBC Newsnight, Damascus "You mus …

BEIRUT - Syrian President Bashar Assad's effort to drown out pro-democracy protests exploded into clashes between government supporters and opponents, and security forces opened fire and killed seven people, including a teenager, activists said. It was the latest deadly turn i …

Contentions Equivalence between Israeli Self-Defense and a Tyrant’s Crackdown Omri Ceren 06.06.2011 - 12:39 PM

Turkey have started delivering help for Syrians inside Syrian borders, so now people can get help also in the Syrian side, not just on the Turkey side.   With few past weeks, over 10.000 people have went from Syria to Turkey.

The United States is collecting information on possible war crimes by Syrian security forces amid a violent crackdown on opposition protesters There hasn't been a galvanizing effect, such as Gadhafi's threat ...

It's late and I should be asleep. Tomorrow is a big day of horse racing. The Belmont Stakes. CNNjust aired a most disturbing story on Syria and the suffering of her people. I feel that I must write. Bashar Assad continues to murder his own people.

Report: Military in control of Syrian city

Clipped from Article:

Horrifying stories and videos from a few children that survived being attacked by Assad Bashar Thugs... watch for yourself.   United Nations only allow 200 characters so that's about one sentence.. per message.

Once again a flood of headlines present Israel as an aggressor responsible for the deaths of dozens of unarmed civilians.

"The Syrian opposition website Nidaasyria, the website of the Damascus Declaration, reports that a Damascus demonstration in support of the Egyptian people and protesting the situation in Syria is now in its second day, and that the demonstrators intend to continue their demonstration until February 5, when a demonstration is planned to take place in front of the parliament in Damascus.

Syria and Lebanon, 1983

"The big question in Lebanon right now is what did Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati promise Syria and Hezbollah in return for his nomination to lead the new government .

"The Future Movement MPs asked Mikati to clarify his stance on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) and the illegal weapons ( Weapons outside the control of the Lebanese army) , Siniora said on Thursday after the bloc met with Mikati for consultations on cabinet formation.

"March 14 lawmakers have called for a "day of rage" throughout Lebanon Tuesday to protest gains by the Iranian and Syrian-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

In a news conference, lawmaker Moustafa Alloush called for protests to voice refusal for "Persian tutelage" over Lebanon — a reference to Hezbollah's patrons in Iran.

He said the protests should be peaceful.

"Protests broke out across Lebanon on Monday following the first day of the premiership consultations after Hezbollah appears to have engineered what was branded as a " coup" to control the next Lebanese government .

Ismail Sukariyya (a Syrian Hezbollah MP), in addition to accusing the Israelis of murdering Egyptian generals and poisoning food for profit, claims that the Israeli government is sending in "AIDS girls" into the Arab state.

"Reports coming out of Lebanon indicate that the UN special tribunal investigating the assassination of Rafik Hariri was set to announce that Syria, Iran and Hizbullah were behind the assassination.

"Sources familiar with the investigation into the assassination of Rafik Hariri in 2005 told Newsmax that the United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon will accuse Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei of giving the order to murder the former Lebanese prime minister, according to the Lebanese website Naharnet.

'A White House statement issued afterward said Obama had commended Hariri for his "steadfast leadership and efforts to reach peace, stability and consensus in Lebanon under difficult circumstances."

"The efforts by the Hezbollah-led coalition to collapse the Lebanese government only demonstrate their own fear and determination to block the government's ability to conduct its business and advance the aspirations of all of the Lebanese people," the statement said.

Turkey and Iran are rumored to be helping Hezbollah obtain new weapons, Italian daily Corriere Della Sera reported on Wednesday evening.

The arrival of a new Middle East player startled Washington and Jerusalem Military sources disclose that when Turkish Prime Minister Tayyep Erdogan met Syrian president Bashar Assad in Damascus Monday, Oct.

"As the United States works toward a drawdown of combat forces in Iraq by this August, and a withdrawal of all troops by 2011, military commanders and diplomats are scrambling to make sure that the Iraqi government will be ready to take over. Recent discussions have focused on the real, short-term challenges of finalizing national elections and forming a new government. But these talks have often deferred or overlooked the one underlying issue that has become the elephant in the room: Kurdistan.

This may be because Kurdistan, in many ways, seems so sui generis, a world apart from the rest of Iraq. Situated in the northern part of the country and bordering Turkey, Iran, and Syria, the Kurdish region of Iraq (organized into a formal association of three provinces referred to here as "Kurdistan") has a distinct history and topography.

"On March 21, 2010, the Syrian security forces opened fire with live ammunition on a crowd of 5,000 in the northern Syrian town of al-Raqqah. The crowd had gathered to celebrate the Kurdish festival of Nowruz. Three people, including a 15-year-old girl, were killed. Over 50 were injured. Dozens of injured civilians were held incommunicado by the authorities following the events. Some remain incarcerated. This incident was just one example of the repression taking place of the largest national minority in Syria – namely, the Syrian Kurdish population.

Ahmadinejad, Erodogan, Assad and Nasrallah, just a bunch of guys brainstorming...

In 1974, when Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was president of the Istanbul youth group of the MSP (the Islamist National Salvation Party), he wrote, directed, and starred in a play called Mas-Kom-Ya, which addressed subversive elements in Turkish society: masons, communist …

Why have Israel-Turkey relations gone from alliance to what seems to be the verge of war?

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- At one of Baghdad's two female juvenile prisons, the young Iraqi girls live in limbo, sadness and desperation permeating every aspect of their interrupted lives.

Israel is developing an army of robotic fighting machines that offers a window onto the potential future of warfare.

The 2006 war between Lebanon and Israel took not only outside observers by surprise, but also Israel and the government of Lebanon.

"The international community, in particular the United States and the European Union, should ensure that human rights concerns, including the treatment of Kurds, are part of their discussions with Syria," the New York-based group said in a report.

"Syria is persecuting its Kurdish minority, detaining activists and banning peaceful gatherings, even as neighboring countries have improved their treatment of the Kurds, an international human rights group said Thursday.

WASHINGTON - The International Atomic Energy Agency and Syria are walking a tightrope and appear to be headed toward a collision over two nuclear sites where undeclared uranium was recently found.

In September 2007, Israeli fighter jets destroyed a mysterious complex in the Syrian desert. The incident could have led to war, but it was hushed up by all sides. Was it a nuclear plant and who gave the orders for the strike?

Israel Navy chief says seized Francop vessel carried enough weapons and ammunition to supply Hezbollah for month or more of fighting against Israel. Navy chief: 'Ship's crew didn't know anything about it.

One night in 2007, however, the small village was startled by a huge lightning bolt, followed by a pillar of smoke rising above the waters of a nearby river.

A day after an explosion in southern Lebanon prompted a surge of speculation across the Middle East, the IDF released footage from an unmanned aerial vehicle which seemingly proved that the blast came from a Hizbullah arms cache. The video shows operatives evacuating munitions f …

Angelina Jolie met with Iraqi refugees in Syria on Friday and urged the world not to forget the plight of those among them who cannot return home because of the trauma they suffered and the country's instability.

The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Nakba (catastrophe) for Arabs, and the aggression by five well-armed Arab countries, assisting local Arab gangs and militias that had been attacking Jews for years, placed Jews in Israel and the state in mortal danger.

Iraq's prime minister is feeling a backlash over a bitter fight he picked with Syria, which he accuses of harboring Saddam Hussein loyalists suspected in deadly bombings in Baghdad. Critics say he just wants to divert attention from his own government's security failures.

An unusally good article about Walid Jumblatt, and the Druze in Lebanon.

Shipments consisting of more than 20 truckloads of Israeli grown apples will cross over into Syria from Israel via the Kuneitra Crossing which is located between the two countries in the Golan.

But the International Atomic Energy Agency said Syria was still blocking follow-up access to the desert site of what U.S. intelligence reports said was a nascent, North Korean-designed nuclear reactor meant to yield atomic bomb fuel, before Israel bombed it to pieces in 2007.

Current social and political affairs in Lebanon.

However, Abbas himself %u2013 co-founder of Fatah with Arafat, and known as Abu Mazen - now tells a different story.

"A lengthy piece published on Saturday in Egypt's official daily slams Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah, accusing them of attempting to overthrow the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.