Only in Syria; bomb crater turns into a swimming pool.
Showing posts with label syria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label syria. Show all posts
Thursday, 5 September 2013
Sunday, 1 September 2013
How do you investigate CW attack in a foreign country in the midst of a civil war?
How do you investigate CW attack in a foreign country in the midst of a civil war?
This is how (article excerpts):
Satellite Imagery
On Aug. 21, regime forces were observed making further preparations for a chemical attack, “including through the utilization of gas masks,” according to the intelligence summary. Soon afterward, satellites and other surveillance aircraft picked up the flashes of rockets and artillery shells being fired from government positions toward rebel-held and contested villages east and south of the city. The first reports of a gas attack appeared on social-media sites soon after the projectiles landed.
....
Three days before the rockets fell outside Damascus, a team of Syrian specialists gathered in the northern suburb of Adra for a task that U.S. officials say had become routine in the third year of the country’s civil conflict: filling warheads with deadly chemicals to kill Syrian rebels. The preparations, as described by U.S. intelligence analysts, continued from Aug. 18 until just after midnight on Aug. 21, when the projectiles were loaded into rocket launchers behind the government’s defensive lines. Then, at 2:30 a.m., a half-dozen densely populated neighborhoods were jolted awake by a series of explosions, followed by an oozing blanket of suffocating gas.
Motive for Chemical Weapons
The document proposes a possible motive for the attack — a desperate effort to push back rebels from several areas in the capital’s densely packed eastern suburbs — and also suggests that the high civilian death toll surprised and panicked senior Syrian officials, who called off the attack and then tried to cover it up.
...........
Echoing the findings of a British intelligence assessment a day earlier, the report links the Assad government to “multiple” chemical weapons attacks in the past year, including a small-scale attack in the same part of the Damascus area that was struck Aug. 21.
It suggested that a relatively controlled use of chemicals had in recent months become part of the normal military strategy whenever government forces were unable to push back rebel offensives or break through defensive fortifications.
“The Syrian regime has used chemical weapons over the last year primarily to gain the upper hand or break a stalemate in areas where it had struggled to seize and hold strategically valuable territory,” it says. “We assess that the regime’s frustration with its inability to secure large portions of Damascus may have contributed to its decision to use chemical weapons on Aug. 21.”
Indeed, in the week before the attack, government troops had been repeatedly frustrated in their efforts to dislodge rebels from dozens of villages east of Damascus, despite the use of aircraft, helicopters and heavy artillery barrages. The fighting appeared to have stalled when, on Aug. 18, U.S. intelligence agencies observed a team of chemical weapons specialists being activated in Adra, a northern suburb “near an area that the regime uses to mix chemical weapons, including sarin,” the document states. The ordnance team was attached to Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Center, a military-run institute linked to Syria’s chemical and nuclear weapons programs.
Who's To Blame?
While unusually detailed, the assessment does not include photographs, recordings or other hard evidence to support its claims. Nor does it offer proof to back up the administration’s assertion that top-ranking Syrian officials — possibly including President Bashar al-Assad — were complicit in the attack.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nearly-1500-killed-in-syrian-chemical-weapons-attack-us-says/2013/08/30/b2864662-1196-11e3-85b6-d27422650fd5_story_1.html
The Phone Call Evidence:
The U.S is confident that Syria was behind the deadly chemical weapons attack after intercepting a phone call from a Syrian defence chief demanding an explanation from its chemical weapon military unit for the action, according to new claims.
Just hours after the attack last Wednesday an official at the Syrian Ministry of Defense exchanged panicked phone calls with a leader of the unit, demanding answers, according to website Foreign Policy. The phone call was intercepted by U.S spies according to the website, and is now the reason that America is confident that it was carried out by the regime.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2403778/Syria-crisis-U-S-spies-certain-Assad-used-nerve-gas-intercepting-defence-chief.html
Proof that chemicals been used before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6CZtF6pGvQ&feature=youtu.be (at minute 4 see Syrian official flag in bottom right corner)
This is how (article excerpts):
Satellite Imagery
On Aug. 21, regime forces were observed making further preparations for a chemical attack, “including through the utilization of gas masks,” according to the intelligence summary. Soon afterward, satellites and other surveillance aircraft picked up the flashes of rockets and artillery shells being fired from government positions toward rebel-held and contested villages east and south of the city. The first reports of a gas attack appeared on social-media sites soon after the projectiles landed.
....
Three days before the rockets fell outside Damascus, a team of Syrian specialists gathered in the northern suburb of Adra for a task that U.S. officials say had become routine in the third year of the country’s civil conflict: filling warheads with deadly chemicals to kill Syrian rebels. The preparations, as described by U.S. intelligence analysts, continued from Aug. 18 until just after midnight on Aug. 21, when the projectiles were loaded into rocket launchers behind the government’s defensive lines. Then, at 2:30 a.m., a half-dozen densely populated neighborhoods were jolted awake by a series of explosions, followed by an oozing blanket of suffocating gas.
Motive for Chemical Weapons
The document proposes a possible motive for the attack — a desperate effort to push back rebels from several areas in the capital’s densely packed eastern suburbs — and also suggests that the high civilian death toll surprised and panicked senior Syrian officials, who called off the attack and then tried to cover it up.
...........
Echoing the findings of a British intelligence assessment a day earlier, the report links the Assad government to “multiple” chemical weapons attacks in the past year, including a small-scale attack in the same part of the Damascus area that was struck Aug. 21.
It suggested that a relatively controlled use of chemicals had in recent months become part of the normal military strategy whenever government forces were unable to push back rebel offensives or break through defensive fortifications.
“The Syrian regime has used chemical weapons over the last year primarily to gain the upper hand or break a stalemate in areas where it had struggled to seize and hold strategically valuable territory,” it says. “We assess that the regime’s frustration with its inability to secure large portions of Damascus may have contributed to its decision to use chemical weapons on Aug. 21.”
Indeed, in the week before the attack, government troops had been repeatedly frustrated in their efforts to dislodge rebels from dozens of villages east of Damascus, despite the use of aircraft, helicopters and heavy artillery barrages. The fighting appeared to have stalled when, on Aug. 18, U.S. intelligence agencies observed a team of chemical weapons specialists being activated in Adra, a northern suburb “near an area that the regime uses to mix chemical weapons, including sarin,” the document states. The ordnance team was attached to Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Center, a military-run institute linked to Syria’s chemical and nuclear weapons programs.
Who's To Blame?
While unusually detailed, the assessment does not include photographs, recordings or other hard evidence to support its claims. Nor does it offer proof to back up the administration’s assertion that top-ranking Syrian officials — possibly including President Bashar al-Assad — were complicit in the attack.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nearly-1500-killed-in-syrian-chemical-weapons-attack-us-says/2013/08/30/b2864662-1196-11e3-85b6-d27422650fd5_story_1.html
The Phone Call Evidence:
The U.S is confident that Syria was behind the deadly chemical weapons attack after intercepting a phone call from a Syrian defence chief demanding an explanation from its chemical weapon military unit for the action, according to new claims.
Just hours after the attack last Wednesday an official at the Syrian Ministry of Defense exchanged panicked phone calls with a leader of the unit, demanding answers, according to website Foreign Policy. The phone call was intercepted by U.S spies according to the website, and is now the reason that America is confident that it was carried out by the regime.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2403778/Syria-crisis-U-S-spies-certain-Assad-used-nerve-gas-intercepting-defence-chief.html
Proof that chemicals been used before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6CZtF6pGvQ&feature=youtu.be (at minute 4 see Syrian official flag in bottom right corner)
Tuesday, 20 August 2013
What is your solution
Syria has been in a turmoil (revolution, chaos, conspiracy…call
it what you like) Close to 3 years now. Many errors were made, plenty of
accusations and judgments passed around, and plenty of confusion from all
sides.
Everyone (from either side) has been bashing the opposite
side/view. ¾ of Syrians (inside or abroad) are now political analysts (the
other ¼ either dead, disappeared or displaced); this is (most likely) due to
the fact that free political life with no strings attached to the regime were
none existence. People of Syria are now less scared to talk about politics and discuss
the regimes’ mistakes and corruptions; which in itself is a good thing. However
constructive criticism is what needed. Pointing out faults is not enough,
passing blame and pointing fingers will not resolve issues, and most certainly
blaming of a sect/ethnic group for all of our problems is out right stupid.
I hear so much criticism but not enough solutions. We need solutions
that will involve Syria; all of Syria and its people from all different ethnic
backgrounds. Such solutions can NOT involve more bloodshed nor will it
tolerate imposing ones views (shariaa law) onto others. Syria requires
solutions that are coming from the heart of its people, all of its people with
no exceptions regardless of their ethnic or religious background. These
Solution needs to guarantee basic equal rights to all. [Muslim (Sunni, Shiite,
Alawaite, Druze, Ismailis..etc) Christians (catholic, protestant, orthodox..etc)
, Arabs, Kurds, Circassians, Turkmen, Assyrian..etc].
Any decent human, with a bit of logic can tell you what basic rights are. The important thing to do is to eradicate the extremist element that exists within each group/ethnicity. Moreover; a reconciliation dialogue needs to be launched; in order to help grieving families overcome the revenge sentiment, and make sure that we do not repeat past errors/mistakes.
Any decent human, with a bit of logic can tell you what basic rights are. The important thing to do is to eradicate the extremist element that exists within each group/ethnicity. Moreover; a reconciliation dialogue needs to be launched; in order to help grieving families overcome the revenge sentiment, and make sure that we do not repeat past errors/mistakes.
Now; that we know what we need to heal Syria; I want to
know; can anyone (pro regime or pro opposition) provide detailed plans for
national reconciliation program? Does anyone have a plan to revive the economy?
Or a plan for government employees’ efficiency increase? Does anyone have a
detailed plan to restore agriculture sector? Does anyone have a plan to develop
a dependable industrial sector? Or at
least does anyone have a plan to relief Damascus traffic!?
Does anyone have a
plan for anything at all?!?! Other than planning to destroy the country and
chase its citizens away???
Does any one have a plan to stop this bloodshed.....other
than shedding more blood?????
Monday, 25 March 2013
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
Syria in Ruins
Al-Khalidieh-Homs
Derbies in Aleppo
Aleppo
Bustan al-Basha
Karm al-Jabel
Karm al-Jabel-2
Mazeh - Area 86
Ariha-Idlib
3Erbeen-Damascus
Aleppo
Aleppo
Bab 3amro - Homs
Bab Sbaa3-Homs
HOMS
Juret-al-Shay7ah-Homs
Salaheddin-neighborhood-Aleppo
Salaheddin-neighborhood-Aleppo
Yabroud-near-Damascus
Dier-Al-Zour
Taftanaz-Idlib
Sources:
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/category/syria/
Friday, 30 March 2012
The Resolution is Within Syria !
Since the start of the demonstrations and civil unrest in Syria, the administration declared a conspiracy against the nation. The claimed conspiracy is aimed at crippling the force of resistance, manifested in the Syrian regime. The Plot involves western, imperialistic powers that are working to destabilize the country in order to ignite a sectarian war, divide the country and re-draw its map.
The country is divided between those who are pro the brutal/vicious response; to the initially undersized civil disobedience, and those who revolted against corruption, social inequality, and the un-fair division of the economic benefits. Syria as a country is now divided; which is what the “conspirators” want.
A weak divided country will help the west control Iran and better secure Israel’s borders. Now that we established the conspiracy is real; let’s try to understand who the conspirators really are. The conspirators are those who sent tanks, heavy artillery, and thugs that have no morals to squash down the uprising. The conspirators are those who let the security forces’ hands free to detain torture and butcher whoever manifests or objects.
A weak divided country will help the west control Iran and better secure Israel’s borders. Now that we established the conspiracy is real; let’s try to understand who the conspirators really are. The conspirators are those who sent tanks, heavy artillery, and thugs that have no morals to squash down the uprising. The conspirators are those who let the security forces’ hands free to detain torture and butcher whoever manifests or objects.
Syria is now divided and the conspiracy is taking effect. The continued aggression will only create more violence, hatred, and deepen the division. The damage that had been inflected on Syria so far is irreversible. The way out is to stop the violent re-action to civil protest, give people the true freedom to assemble and manifest, apply the rule of the law on everyone with no exception.
Stopping the violence and judging those who killed, stole, and violated any law are not impossible things to achieve. However; the strength of character to do the above is missing which will result in dividing Syria just like it did Sudan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGVUZ5rPxWY&feature=player_embedded
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
the Truth about syria
The below video is a pretty accurate and objective summary of Syria's situation during the past 12 years
Syria's past 12 years <-- click here
*I hope you speak French
Syria's past 12 years <-- click here
*I hope you speak French
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Revised constitution
Mr. President Bashar al-Assad issued Decree No. 85 of 2012, identifying Sunday, 26/02/2012 as the date for a referendum on the draft constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic.
I will not lie; I have read the draft circulating on the internet. I read it and was surprised to what little changes been made, and how some outdated/racist articles did not get scratched out.
Anyhow I am not here to discuss or depict the new draft constitution, as I am not a lawyer, human right activist, nor a politician. However; I was curious to know if polling/voting station will be opened abroad for Syrian communities around the world to participate in this ‘democratic process’. SO I called our embassy in Ottawa. A nice polite lady named Amira answered. I told her the purpose of my call, so she responds by questioning me about my family name, phone number and where I am calling from rather than answer my concern. After a series of questions, she replies with: “I do not know we have not received any directives in this regards” when I asked her about the date of the referendum she said the 28th of the month and she volunteered to call me once she gets further information.
I will keep you posted ....if she calls me back (and yes I gave her my real name and phone number)
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Syria in turmoil
As you know Syria is in big trouble.
Syria’s situation just prior to the start of the trouble; is as follows (based on numbers from 2010, you can imagine these figures are much worse now):
· -unemployment rate is 9.4% and increasing
· -unaccountable big-business endeavours
· -habitual adoption of the Social Market Economy which harmed the middle and lower classes and threatens the stability that the regime values so much.
· -administrative and investment environment that misallocates resources and often makes counterproductive investments
· -continued absence of any consistent application of the rule of law in the economic sphere or any other sphere for that matter
· -protracted political succession and consolidation crisis
· -regional and international isolation
· -Impending decrease in oil reserves -- in 2008 we pumped out 398000 barrel a day of oil @ around 100$ a barrel.
· -Ongoing drought and a mismanaged water-supply ---
· -migration of hundreds of thousands of people from the countryside to over-populated and under-serviced cities
· -Syrian products have remained uncompetitive, both regionally and internationally, despite low labour and other input costs -- reasons for non-competitiveness are unclear ..!!!??
· -Benefiting fully from economic opportunities are usually regime insiders or associates
· -regime decision makers perpetuate such an environment of neglecting to set an industrial policy (or any other real effective policies) and by not imposing reciprocity for the generation of added value in the form of employment, exports and public goods.
· -Syria has seen a 10 percent increase in poverty since 2005 –
· -Gap between inflation and government salaries has seen a steady widening
Close to a year later; with plenty of errors, plenty of accusations, and plenty of confusion from all sides. This is how I see things ():
1. People protest for reasons X, Y, Z
2. Regime responds violently.
Then we start hearing that every other guy and his mother becoming an activist. They start bashing the current regime, analyze the situation and predict the future. In shorts most if not all are saying more or less: REMOVE THE REGIME AND PUT ME THERE INSTEAD
I want to know; can anyone (pro regime or pro opposition) provide detailed plans for economy revival? Detailed plans for government employees’ efficiency increase? Detailed plans to restore agriculture sector? Detailed plan to have a dependable industrial sector? Detailed plans to relief Damascus traffic!? Does anyone have a plan for anything at all???
Most importantly; does any one have a plan to stop this bloodshed.....other than shedding more blood?
Friday, 8 June 2007
Golan Heights are Syrian
Golan Heights are Syrian, including Lake tibrias. The 40th anniversary for our Golan been under the Israeli occupation had just passed us, and I wanted to write this post to remind everyone that the Golan is Syrian. furthermore; the UN and the international comunity should act toward making Israel withdraw from this territory, and release all the syrian detainees in Israeli prisons.
Friday, 1 June 2007
Where to start ... ?
I have been attempting to create this blog for a while now. The main purpose for it, is to post news related to our mother land, and comment on them. Moreover, the real intended purpose is to deliver an opinion that will provoke people to think about their situations, and question the authorities that implemented and developed the people present situation.
The present situation in Syria is complicated to say the least. However, reform is needed. Corruption had penetrated in all areas of the society, from the smallest traffic cop on a street corner to the biggest minster in governments office.
Syrian people are all equals, just the same way that all Humans are equal. Syrian people deserve a good life. Syria has plenty of resources to insure a good life to all of its citizens.
My blog will be dedicated to the truth and nothing but the truth. I am a proud Syrian, and nothing will change that. I will try to be subjective at all times, as my purpose is not to insult nor tarnish anyone's Image.
The present situation in Syria is complicated to say the least. However, reform is needed. Corruption had penetrated in all areas of the society, from the smallest traffic cop on a street corner to the biggest minster in governments office.
Syrian people are all equals, just the same way that all Humans are equal. Syrian people deserve a good life. Syria has plenty of resources to insure a good life to all of its citizens.
My blog will be dedicated to the truth and nothing but the truth. I am a proud Syrian, and nothing will change that. I will try to be subjective at all times, as my purpose is not to insult nor tarnish anyone's Image.
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