FOLLOW US ON:
GET THE NEWSLETTER
CONTACT US
Man continues live TV interview as two bombs explode behind him
10.14.2013
04:18 pm
Topics:
Tags:

explogracesyr.jpg
 
Political analyst Hussam Shuaib was a guest on Syrian state television when two massive car bombs exploded directly behind him.

Relatively unfazed by the explosions, Mr. Shuaib continues on, asking the interviewer to repeat his question.

Impressive.
 

 
Via Max Keiser

Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
10.14.2013
04:18 pm
|
On Syria: Every American of every political persuasion should watch this. Now.
09.05.2013
04:26 pm
Topics:
Tags:


 
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who I personally consider an American hero, has such a common sense worldview that at least something he’s saying here is bound to see you nodding your head in agreement, no matter where along the spectrum your own particular political persuasion falls.

And I don’t even know you.

It doesn’t matter. Whether you think going to war is a bad thing or even if you just want to send that Kenyan-born Muslim back to his homeland of… Hawaii, there’s something for you here. No, really.

It’s telling how the fiercely independent Sanders—he belongs to neither party—relates the same story that we’re hearing over and over again from virtually every teabagger pol as well: Their constituents are NOT happy about the prospects of going to war with a third country in the Middle East. The calls and emails they are receiving are overwhelmingly against attacking Syria (I called my Congresswoman and Senators today, I hope you’ll call your reps, too).

And speaking of the teabaggers, one of them seems to think the proposed Syria attack is a conspiracy to cover up Benghazi, the IRS scandal and distract the public from the implementation of Obamacare. Is hating Obama a legitimate reason not to go to war? Who the fuck cares? Take what we can get! However, it’s this bit from the Bernie Sanders interview comes closest to the reasons why I think this is a bad idea: We have our own troubles at home. Why should Syria’s problems take precedence over America’s own citizens?

“Our Republican friends have made it very clear. They’re not going to ask the wealthy or large corporations to pay more in taxes. They already want to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. What may well be happening is the cost of this war may be paid for by more kids being thrown off Head Start. Senior citizens being thrown off Meals on Wheels programs. Educational programs being cut. The Republicans would go in that way to pay for this war. That’s clear to me.”

I love the irony of seeing Fox News and the GOP’s most obsessed Obama-hating, war-loving hawks put into a bind this way, but if that’s what it takes to slow, if not stop, the march to war, I’m all for that improbable teabagger/progressive alliance. Republican vote counts in Congress are said to be 10 to 1 against authorizing a strike against Syria. House Democrats are said to be 4 to 1 against military action.

Hell, if the orneriest, most racist GOP congress-critters want to vote against “that Obama’s war,” well god bless ‘em, I say.
 

 
Bonus clip: Rep. Alan Grayson (who I hope runs for President in 2016) on Democracy Now earlier today. (Sign Grayson’s anti-war petition here). The segment with Grayson starts at 10 minutes in:
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
|
09.05.2013
04:26 pm
|
Syria: Bloody hell, do we really need another war?

fghjkbbvg
 
The streets are littered with bodies. Up to 5,000 people (children, women, men) are dead. Between 7,000 and 10,000 are injured.

The cause of death and injury is chemical weapons—some experts claim these weapons “may have included mustard gas, the nerve agents sarin, tabun and VX and possibly cyanide.”

Yet, no action is taken against the dictator who authorized the attack.

This may all sound familiar, but it’s not Syria, it’s Halabja, Iraq, in 1988.

This was “Bloody Friday” when thousands were gassed on the orders of a psychotic and deranged dictator, Saddam Hussein.

This was when Ronald Reagan was POTUS and Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister.

When news of the slaughter reached governments in America and the United Kingdom, nothing was done. Well, that’s not quite true, the Americans blamed Iran for the attack.

Now sheriff President Obama and his side-kick deputy, British Prime Minister David Cameron, are warming-up to declare possible war on Syria’s dictator, President Bashar al-Assad for allegedly authorizing the use of chemical weapons on his country’s people.

Over 100,000 Syrians have died since civil war began in the country in 2011. Nearly 1.5 million people have fled the country, while an estimated 1.2 million have been displaced within the country—nearly half of these are children.

Today, UK Prime Minister Cameron gave a strong performance in Parliament, where he referenced the Geneva Protocol, which prohibits the use of chemical weapons. Syria was a signatory to this protocol in 1968, but with reservations—they only agreed not to use chemical weapons in a war with another country.

Syria did not sign the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993.

Essentially this means it doesn’t matter what chemical weapons Syria uses on its own people.

We all may be horrified by this, but there’s very little we can legally do to change it.

This also means countries like America and the U.K. have no legal recourse to action against Syria on the basis of the Geneva Protocol or CWC.

With this in mind, why are the elites of America and Britain so keen to “intervene” in Syria with public opinion in both countries so overwhelming against getting involved?

There have been 14 instances of the use of chemical weapons in Syria already noted, why now?
.
Also, what is the actual evidence of who used what chemical weapons and when? Even Cameron admitted he didn’t know but had made “a judgement” Also, filling news channels, papers and sites with pictures of dead children will not help a rational debate.

Moreover, why is the use of chemical weapons considered a fair reason (the “red line”) to intervene, and not the deaths, since 2011, of 100,000 Syrians?

What is their end game?

It would be fair to assume that Iran is somewhere on the US/UK agenda. But why? Why now, that the once feared looney tunes, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is out of office, and has been replaced by the mature, level-headed Glasgow Caledonian University-educated, Hassan Rouhani as President?

Moreover, with Russia upping the ante (by allegedly sending in two warships to the area), why are East and West falling back into their expected roles as enemies? Is it better for business? Does it save these countries from dealing with internal dissent? 

Whatever the answer, the next few days will be crucial, and it can only be hoped that our glorious leaders will get their facts right, and think before they shoot from the hip.

Again.

UPDATE:

Thankfully it does seem some politicians are thinking before acting, as David Cameron’s hope of a UK Government motion on “a strong humanitarian response” being required, which may “include military action,” has been defeated tonight by 13 votes—285 (No), 272 (Yes).
 

 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
08.29.2013
05:30 pm
|
Islamic group issues fatwā on croissants!
07.31.2013
02:42 pm
Topics:
Tags:


 
This makes absolutely NO SENSE.

Al Arabiya is reporting that a sharia committee closely associated with a faction of Syrian rebels in Aleppo has apparently issued a religious ruling declaring croissants(!) to be “haram” (forbidden under strict Islamic practices).

The, er, logic, if you can call it that, behind the fatwā forbidding the French pastry popular the world over is that the crescent shape of croissants apparently celebrates European colonialists’ victory over Islam. I know that’s what I’m thinking every morning when I eat mine! Aren’t you?

In 2011, a Somalian Islamist group, the al-Shabaab al-Mujahedin Movement, declared a holy war on the savory Egyptian meat pastries shaped like triangles called sambousa, because a triangle is supposed to symbolize the Holy Trinity, never mind that it’s been a Middle East diet staple probably for centuries. What shape WOULD these assholes approve of for someone else’s food? Talk about OCD control freaks, this takes it to a whole new level of group psychosis!

And here’s the thing, The Free Syria Army, the ones who issued this fatwā against fluffy, buttery bread is one of the more moderate groups fighting Assad! Another one issued a ban on listening to music—any music—and to make little girls wear veils. Still another wants to ban women from driving. They even set up their own informal tribunals for this!

Poor Syria, obviously the country has much bigger problems than merely deposing a brutal despot when the proposed “new bosses” want to dictate the very shape of their food.

Posted by Richard Metzger
|
07.31.2013
02:42 pm
|
Genocide in Syria: News Correspondent Stuart Ramsay’s chilling tweets
02.09.2012
05:41 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
Stuart Ramsay, Chief Correspondent of Sky News has been tweeting chilling coverage of the current genocide from inside Syria.

from homs to the leb border people making preps to die

huge military offensive expected families saying goodbye to loved ones

i predict a further massacre

FSA say as many as 10 thousand troops deployed outside homs - cant confirm

tanks apc artillery infantry everywhere - fsa all but overwhelmed - counting bullets

fsa attacking across region but feels like a hornet on an elephant

You can follow @ramsaysky here.
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
02.09.2012
05:41 pm
|
Syrians swiping and trashing portraits of al-Assad


 
The destruction of a dictator’s likenesses has always proved symbolically powerful, whether it’s a Haitian kid taking a pick-axe to a Jean-Claude Duvalier poster in 1985 or Libyan protestors shoeing the televised image of Muammar Gaddaffi more recently.

It’s been a spring and summer of brave protest in Syria, and a bloody crackdown by the country’s president Bashar al-Assad has resulted in the deaths of more than 1,600. A squad of Madrid-based Syrian expatriates have taken a cue from fellow protestors in the Arab world and offered their own show of solidarity.

No portrait of Assad in a Syrianair office is safe now. Oh, and sorry, trash-bin.
 

 

Posted by Ron Nachmann
|
08.16.2011
06:27 pm
|