Bezzle wrote..

Quote:

I heard an interview a couple years back about how the Cheney administration would send terrorism suspects caught in the U.S., over to Syria to soften them up. One guy was relating his story.

Yeah, because Cheney and Syria were like best buds.

Fatso was probably talking about Maher Arar
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e....

Quote:

Yeah, because Cheney and Syria were like best buds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar

Quote:

Arar was detained during a layover at John F. Kennedy International Airport in September 2002 on his way home to Canada from a family vacation in Tunis. He was held without charges in solitary confinement in the United States for nearly two weeks, questioned, and denied meaningful access to a lawyer. The US government suspected him of being a member of Al Qaeda and deported him, not to Canada, his current home, but to his native Syria, even though its government is known to use torture.[5] He was detained in Syria for almost a year, during which time he was tortured, according to the findings of a commission of inquiry ordered by the Canadian government, until his release to Canada[/b]

I can't speak to Cheney's friendship with Syria, but it does appear that Syria was willing to accept offers of suspected Al Qaeda members from the American Government.

Syria isn't keen on Al Qaeda either.

Daraa today

jimlandale RT @monaeltahawy: RT @Mohammad_Syria: Eyewitnesses: People are screaming and the sound of shooting is terrifying in #Omari mosque #Daraa #Syria
Twitter - 4
4 seconds ago
bopbop_simsim RT @seyahchoumeh: Awaiting confirmation about probable mass massacre taking place in Daraa. #Syria #Daraa V @JohnitoBlog V @sara055
Twitter - 4
4 seconds ago
canaan07 RT @AbdullahAli7: Heavy gunfire is being heard near & around Omari Mosque in #Daraa now. #Syria
Twitter - 5
5 seconds ago
BreakingNews Protesters reported under attack by Syrian army at mosque in Daraa
Twitter - 6
6 seconds ago
patrickl_ Syrians troops enters the Syrian city of Daraa, and are shooting civilians of all ages!!A massacre is happening right NOW!#Syria

Arar was still a citizen of Syria, was he not?

KnightsOfLabor7: RT @Shoruk_K: There is no coverage on this massacre that is happening right now in Daraa. Baathis thugs are killing innocents in ... - More »
Twitter - seconds ago

nohawagih: RT @Gsquare86: RT @daraanow: UPDATE: MASSACRE IS STILL ON GOING BY THE SYRIAN REGIME IN #DARAA #SYRIA MEDICAL SUPPORT IS BADLY ... - More »
Twitter - seconds ago

TrellaLB: Dr. Ali Mahameed reported SHOT DEAD by the army in #Daraa
Twitter - seconds ago

Sushihorn wrote..

Arar was still a citizen of Syria, was he not?

He had tried to renounce his citizenship, but Syria doesn't let you do that.

maybe istime to pin this Karl

latest numbers from Daraa 12 death, over 200 injured today

France urges Syria to make immediate political reforms

23 Mar 2011 12:34

Source: reuters // Reuters

PARIS, March 22 (Reuters) - France urged Syria on Wednesday to carry out political reforms without delay and respect its commitments to human rights.

"France calls on Syria to follow its international commitments to human rights, to which it has signed up especially with regard to freedom of expression and opinion," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in a daily briefing to reporters.

"Political reforms must be put in place without delay to meet the aspirations of the Syrian people," he said. (Reporting by John Irish)

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/franc....

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middle....

Quote:

Security forces have attempted to storm a mosque in the southern Syrian city of Daraa, reportedly killing at least six people.

The government, however, blamed the violence on an "armed gang", according to the state-run SANA news agency.

Residents said heavy gunfire was heard near the Omari mosque in the early hours of Wednesday in the city, which has been the scene of anti-government protests since Friday.

"It seems that security forces may be trying to storm the complex. It is not clear because electricity has been cut off. Tear gas is also being used," one resident told the Reuters news agency.

Protesters calling for political freedoms and an end to corruption had said earlier that they were going to remain in the mosque until their demands were met.

Mohammed Al Abdallah, an exiled Syrian rights activist living in the US, said he had been communicating with people in Daraa who told him that a doctor was among those killed.

"Security forces opened fire, they used bombs and live ammunition," he told Al Jazeera. "There are many injuries, including women and children."

He said electricity had been cut off before the attack and that security forces were preventing ambulances from entering the centre of Daraa, where the mosque is located.

Meanwhile there are reports that Daraa has been completely sealed by the military & police. People from other areas are marching towards Daraa to break the barrier it seems.

Huge protests coming from #Inkhil #Jasim #Alhirak #Tafas moving towards the city of #Daraa #Syria to break the siege

http://twitter.com/daraanow

# URGENT: Parliament Member Yosef Abo Roumeh was shot while trying to calm down the protesters in #Alharaa #Daraa #Syria meno di 5 secondi fa via web

#

URGENT: (SHRC): Soldier Kalid Al Masri has been executed by authorities for his refusal of storming the #Omari mosque last night in #Daraa 4 minuti fa via web

#

URGENT: Jet fighters and Helicopters up in the sky of #Daraa #Syria to terrify the protesters in #Albalad & #Almahata 6 minuti fa via web

#

URGENT: Thousands of people and vehicle have gathered in #Daraa #Syria and preparing to head down to #Albalad 14 minuti fa via web

#

URGENT: Full blackout on #Daraa #Syria, authorities have shut down power

this is going to detonate ME

Today Libya, Tomorrow Syria?
There’s a bigger picture to consider.
Wednesday, 23 March 2011 08:50 Gwynne Dyer

Last Friday saw the first nationwide protests against the Baath regime in Syria. If these protests develop into a full-scale revolt, the regime’s response may dwarf that of Col. Muammar Qaddafi in Libya.


The last time Syrians rebelled, in the city of Hama in 1982, President Hafez al-Assad sent in the army. Hama’s center was destroyed by artillery fire, and at least 17,000 people were killed.

The current ruler, Bashar al-Assad, is allegedly a gentler person than his father Hafez, but the Baath Party still rules Syria and is as ruthless as ever. So what happens if the Syrians revolt and the Baath Party starts slaughtering people again? Do the same forces now intervening in Libya get sent to Syria as well?

Muammar-GaddafiSyria has four times Libya’s population and very serious armed forces. The Baath Party is as intolerant of dissent as the old Communist parties of Eastern Europe. Moreover, it is controlled internally by a sectarian minority, the Alawis, who fear that they would suffer terrible vengeance if they ever lost power.

The UN Security Council was absolutely right to order the use of “all necessary measures” (meaning armed force) to stop Qaddafi’s regime from attacking the Libyan people. But it moves us all into unknown territory: Today Libya, tomorrow Syria?

The “responsibility to protect” concept that underpins the United Nations’ decision on Libya was first proposed in 2001 by Lloyd Axworthy, then Canada’s foreign minister. Frustrated by the UN’s inability to stop the genocides in Kosovo and Rwanda in the 1990s, he concluded that the problem was the UN’s own rules. So he set out to change them.

The original goal of the United Nations, embedded in the charter signed in 1945, was to prevent any more big wars like the one just past, which killed more than 50 million people and ended with the use of nuclear weapons. The deal was that the great powers (and indeed, all UN members) would have absolute sovereignty within their own territory, including the right to kill their opposition. The UN would have no right to intervene in the internal affairs of a member state no matter how badly it behaved.

By the early 21st century, the threat of nuclear war between the great powers had faded, but local massacres and genocides proliferated. Yet the UN was still hamstrung by the 1945 rules. So Axworthy set up the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) to popularize the concept of humanitarian intervention.

“You can’t allow dictators to use the facade of national sovereignty to justify ethnic cleansing,” he explained.

The commission he set up concluded, unsurprisingly, that the UN has an obligation to protect people from mass killing at the hands of their own government. Because that could only be accomplished, in practice, by military force, the suggestion was actually that the UN Security Council have the right to order attacks on countries that indulged in such behavior.

This recommendation languished for years, opposed most strongly by the great powers — Russia and China in particular — who feared that the new doctrine might one day be used against them. But in 2005, the new African Union included the concept in its founding charter, and after that things moved fast.

In 2006, the Security Council agreed that, “We are prepared to take collective action, in a timely and decisive manner ... should peaceful means be inadequate and national authorities manifestly fail to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.” And here they are five years later, taking military action against Qaddafi.

When 10 of 15 Security Council members voted in favor of the action, the rest, including Brazil, Russia, India and China, abstained. Russia and China didn’t veto the action, because they have finally figured out that the new principle will never be used against them.

Nobody will ever attack Russia to make it be nicer to the Chechens, or invade China to make it change its behavior toward Tibet. Great powers are effectively exempt from all the rules precisely because they are so powerful. That’s no argument for also exempting less powerful but nastier regimes that are murdering their own people.

So what about Syria? The same crude calculation applies: If it’s not too tough and powerful to take on, then it will be stopped from murdering its own people. If it is too big and dangerous, UN members will express strong disapproval, but won’t actually do anything.

Consistency is an overrated virtue.

Gwynne Dyer is a London-based journalist whose articles appear in many countrries..
http://www.fwweekly.com/index.php?option....

Oh really??????

"We now advise against all travel to the southern city of Der’aa"

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-livi....

(Reuters) - Syrian security forces opened fire on Wednesday on hundreds of youths who marched on Deraa in solidarity with the city after the killing of six civilians, witnesses said, in the sixth day of protests.

"The security forces fired as they came from the north, bodies fell in the streets," one of the witnesses said. (Reporting by Suleiman al-Khaldi; Editing by Jon Boyle)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/2....

Syria Blames 'Gang' for Violence in Southern City

VOA News


In this image grab obtained by AFPTV from YouTube on March 23, 2011, Syrian protesters run for cover from tear gas during a recent but undated demonstration in the southern town of Daraa. AFP could verify that the pictures were shot in Daraa.

Rights activists in Syria say security forces carried out a deadly attack near a mosque where anti-government protesters have gathered. However state media said "an armed gang" was behind violence in the southern city of Daraa early Wednesday.

Syria's state news agency SANA quotes an official source as saying the gang attacked an ambulance near the city's Omari mosque, killing a doctor, a paramedic and a driver. The report says security forces confronted the attackers and "hit and arrested" some of them.

A member of the security forces was also reported killed in the incident.

But rights activists and residents say Syrian security forces killed six people after opening fire near the mosque where demonstrators calling for political reform have gathered for the past six days.

The conflicting reports could not be immediately reconciled.

Security forces killed four demonstrators in Daraa when protests erupted on Friday. Another demonstrator was killed on Sunday, and an 11-year-old boy died Monday after suffering tear gas inhalation.

In an attempt to contain the unrest, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Tuesday fired the governor of Daraa Province. But his dismissal failed to quell popular anger as protests reached several neighboring towns.

Authorities have also ramped up detentions across the country. A Syrian rights organization said police arrested a prominent activist Tuesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Loay Hussein, a former political prisoner who had spoken out in favor of the protests, was taken from his home near the capital, Damascus. Rights groups have reported dozens more "arbitrary and random arrests."

Protesters are demanding Assad end Syria's emergency law, curb its pervasive security apparatus, free thousands of political prisoners and allow freedom of expression. Activists have so far not called for the end of his government.

Syria has been under emergency law since the Baath Party took power in a 1963, banning any opposition to its rule.

The United States and the United Nations have called for an independent investigation into the recent violence. On Monday, the U.S. condemned Syria's reaction to the protests.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/midd....

CASH is KING



A Syrian man looks at a damaged Automated Teller Machine in Daraa on Monday following a crackdown on protests

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/....

official state press

http://www.sana.sy/eng/21/2011/03/23/338....

Official Source…Armed Gang Attacks Medical Team in Daraa Killing Doctor, Paramedic, Driver, Security Member

Mar 23, 2011



Damascus, (SANA) - An official source stated the following:

An armed gang early Wednesday attacked a medical team in an ambulance while passing near al-Omari Mosque in Daraa.

Victims in armed gang attack in Daraa

A doctor, a paramedic and a driver were martyred in the attack, while the security forces in the vicinity of the site confronted the attackers and hit and arrested some of them.

A member of the security forces was also martyred in the attack.

Security forces disclosed weapon stockpiles of the gang

The source added that the security forces will continue pursuing the armed gangs which terrify civilians, and execute killings, in addition to looting and burning public and private facilities in Daraa.

The official source disclosed that the armed gangs in Daraa have stored weapons and ammunitions inside al-Omari Mosque, and used children whom they had kidnapped from their families as human shields.


Armed gangs use houses as launch pads to snipe at citizens

The source pointed out that the armed gang, further, terrified the inhabitants of the houses adjacent to the Mosque occupying them as a launch pad to fire against passers-by and arrivals for the prayer.

The security forces encountered, pursued, and brought members of the gang as to face justice.



Citizens are receiving millions of SMS messages from outside inciting for riots

The Syrian TV broadcast pictures showing the weapons, ammunitions and big amounts of money stockpiled by the armed gang inside al-Omari Mosque.

The pictures showed various types of weapons and ammunitions including hand grenades, machineguns and Kalashnikov rifles.

Two months ago, the General Supervisor of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, Riyad al-Shaqfa, announced the group's return to military action in the country.

Foreign circles continue to fabricate lies about the situation in Daraa claiming that they have obtained letters and images from inside the city, and that massacres took place in it in order to provoke and terrify the citizens.

The source added that more than one million SMS were sent from outside Syria, most of which are from Israel inciting Syrians to use the mosques as launch pads for riots.

Meanwhile the security forces in Daraa continued to find caches of weapons smuggled across the borders, in addition to sophisticated communication devices, while the citizens cooperate with the security forces to chase, arrest and bring the members of the gang as to face justice.

The source said that the citizens of Daraa guided the security forces to the hideouts of the armed gang members who broke into their houses to snipe at passers-by and terrify civilians.

The security forces, added the source, are chasing the criminals with the help of the citizens to disarm and bring them to justice.

SMS messages with death threats against reporting the gang crimes

The photographers and journalists in Daraa reported that they have been receiving death threats through SMS messages from abroad warning them against reporting the crimes committed by the criminals of the armed gangs against civilians.

The official source said that the journalists have asked for the protection of the security forces against those threats.

Some satellite channels known for their anti-Syria stances have broadcast lies and fabricated news inciting for riot in Daraa under the name of eye witnesses or human rights organizations to cover up their lies. They have also broadcast photos of old events at the time when life is going back to normal in the city streets.

English Bulletin

Rumors of 100+ dead in Daraa

Are we going to do a no fly zone in Syria?

NOT FOR CHILDREN AND OR SENSIBLE PERSONS

darra yesturday

REPEAT HARD IMG inside

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znIEcwj4q....