Ma'an News reports as a UN delegation arrives in Damascus, Syrian forces are scurrying to erase bloody evidence from their 'crackdown' in Latakia prior to the delegate's inspections.
Security forces were seen scrubbing blood off the streets and walls of al-Ramel refugee camp ahead of the cross-agency mission’s anticipated arrival in the port city, which has faced a week of attacks.
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It fits "perfectly with the version of events which the regime is denying: that there was an attack on Latakia camp, home to thousands of UN registered Palestinian refugees who were forced to flee as they came under fire," the diplomat said.
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Security forces have said their campaign targeted "armed men" who "opened fire on residents" in Latakia, but witnesses said the assault began after a small group held a peaceful demonstration.
On Saturday, Assad regime officials brought state television crews to one section of Latakia which had been opened to inspection, rights activists told Ma'an. Prior to filming, however, security forces scrubbed off dried, days-old blood from the streets and planted flowers in a bid to present the area as a regular public space.
For readers who have not been following events in Latakia I recommend Thousands Flee Syrian Assault on Latakia from Adalah as well as a CNN's cryptically titled Mission in Latakia completed.
Well this would be the first time anyone gives a damn about the slaughter of Palestinians!
So can Israel finally be condemned for the slaughter of thousands of Palestinians along with Syria?
Why would Assad’s forces attack a Palestinian refugee camp? Just does not make sense?
Globalist Richard Haas Calls for NATO Occupation of Libya/Financial Times
The whole Syrian regime accepts the diversity it has in its midst, as long as the Syrian people obey orders. Given that these protests are an existential challenge to Assad’s regime, any and all insurrection must be quelled. And even if you are just twiddling your thumbs in a refugee camp, Assad’s men will kill you, just to set an example.
The goal of Assad’s crackdown is to instill enough fear so that Syrians will never again agitate in large numbers like this. It worked for a time after the Hama massacre, but the Syrians have realized they have nothing to lose but their lives.
mmm245, Hama was ugly and there’s nothing to justify it but keep in mind and in context that it was provoked by the Muslim Brotherhood going after Assad’s Baathists. From Wiki:
“… The town of Hama in particular was a “stronghold of landed conservatism and of the Muslim Brothers,” and “had long been a redoubtable opponent of the Ba’athist state.”[10] The first full-scale clash between the two occurred shortly after the 1963 coup, in which the Ba’ath party first gained power in Syria. In April 1964 riots broke out in Hama, where Muslim insurgents put up “roadblocks, stockpiled food and weapons, ransacked wine shops.” After an Ismaili Ba’ath militia man was killed, riots intensified and rebels attacked “every vestige” of the Ba’ath party in Hama. Tanks were brought in to crush the rebellion and 70 members of the Muslim Brotherhood died, with many others wounded or captured, and still more disappearing underground.
After the clashes in Hama, the situation had periodically erupted into sporadic clashes between the government and various Islamic sections. However a more serious challenge occurred after the Syrian invasion to Lebanon in 1976. From 1976 to 1982, Sunni Islamists fought the Ba’ath Party-controlled government of Syria in what has been called “long campaign of terror”.[12] In 1979 the Brotherhood undertook guerrilla activities in multiple cities within the country targeting military officers, government officials. The resulting government repression included abusive tactics, torture, mass arrests, and a number of massacres. In July 1980, the ratification of Law No. 49 made membership in the Muslim Brotherhood a capital offense.[13]
Throughout the first years of the 1980s the Muslim Brotherhood and various other Islamist factions staged hit-and-run and bomb attacks against the government and its officials, including a nearly successful attempt to assassinate president Hafez al-Assad on June 26, 1980, during an official state reception for the president of Mali. When a machine-gun salvo missed him, al-Assad allegedly ran to kick a hand grenade aside, and his bodyguard (who survived and was later promoted to a much higher position) smothered the explosion of another one. Surviving with only light injuries, al-Assad’s revenge was swift and merciless: only hours later a large number of imprisoned Islamists (reports more than 1200) were executed in their cells in Tadmor Prison (near Palmyra), by units loyal to the president’s brother Rifaat al-Assad.
Full story:
link to en.wikipedia.org
Eye-witness in Hama July this year:
“I was surprised that the image of Syria, portrayed by the Western media as a country undergoing full scale revolution, does not correspond in any way whatsoever to the reality of the situation.”
link to pierre.piccinin-publications.english.over-blog.com
Brewer, without in any way minimizing the regime’s oppression, suppression and so on, it’s worth repeating here the disinformation being spread about what is really going on in Syria; from your link above to describe the bogus information being spread by:
AFP (and other news services):
“… So what sources does the AFP cite?
The same which crops up systematically throughout the media and has now become a monopoly in its own right, regarding the Syrian protests: the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Behind this superficial veneer of respectability and professionalism, hides a political organisation based in London, its president none other than Rami Abdel Raman, a man who has consistently sided against the Baath regime, who is loosely linked to the Muslim brotherhood.
Therefore, for many months now, the Western media have diffused an edited reality, corrected by a single source which nobody has deemed it necessary, it seems, to question.
This portrayal of a Syria in full scale revolution and of a Baath party on the brink do not correspond in any way whatsoever to the reality of the situation; that the government hold control and what is left of the protests have in effect splintered and become considerably marginalised.
However, the consequences of this latest case of disinformation regarding Syria are far and reaching: the lessons of Timisoara, the Gulf War or events in Yugoslavia haven’t been learned. Still, European media continue to be lured into basing reports on loosely assembled news feeds and risk depicting a virtual reality for their readers/viewers.
Yet, when the media fail their duty of assembling genuine information, it is democracy itself which is in danger.
Can anyone explain why Syrian forces would attack Palestinians in a refugee camp in Syria? Has Mossad infiltrated those camps?
It doesn’t have to be anything that byzantine. Assad, as a despot, has plenty of his own reasons for attacking a refugee camp, Palestinian or not. Democracy movements always find a font of support from the downtrodden.
“Can anyone explain why Syrian forces would attack Palestinians in a refugee camp in Syria? ”
The question could be why aren’t the Palestinians backing Assad. Could be that love is back in the air between the US and Syria. Don’t be influenced by the heated rhetoric between them.
Wouldn’t the Palestinians in Syria naturally identify with mainstream Syrian Islam and find the Alawites rather alien?
The mainstream Syrian Islam is Sunni, to which belong the majority of Syrians and eventhough the country is ruled by the minority (Shia) Alawites, it is governed according to Sunni laws and the school system is also Sunni. But within the Sunni, you have the Muslim Brotherhood fundies and the few ultras in the Palestinian camps probably identify with them but these wouldn’t be the majority of Palestinians. I’m guessing that those that demonstrated against Assad in the camp were probably sympathizers with the Muslim Brotherhood that’s part of the current insurgency.
What a fucking bastard. Palestinians have been attacked in many countries in the past, too. Gaddafi did the same at one time.
Take it easy, Saleema, we still don’t know the full story of what this is about. There’s a lot of tit for tat going on between government forces and the insurgents and unspeakable horrors and hackings and mutilations are being committed by both sides. Maybe this was a case of a soldier having been caught by some Palestinians and cut to pieces and the assault on the camp came as a result. Maybe the Palestinians were simply demonstrating against Assad and the army went in and started killing them. Ugly stuff is now being done by both sides.
Hmm, Walid, when it’s the Syrians killing Palestinians, you start to wonder about what is behind it, maybe the Palestinians did something. Not that Assad and company need any excuse to butcher people. This also might make some readers realize what Israel has been facing all these years. Dictators like the Assads who would do ANYTHING to maintain control, even if meant using the Palestinians in every way possible.
Meanwhile, YOUR country drops a bomb on a school and we’re all supposed to believe they were “terrorist” students firing rockets into Israel.
You really shouldn’t parade your naked emperor, hypocrite. He’s covered in blood.
Yeah, that has never happened in Gaza before:
link to youtube.com
Even if that video isn’t mislabeled — because you know the IDF and MEMRI have fantastic track records in that regard — that doesn’t give you an excuse to bomb every school, hospital and mosque you can reach. You’re basically taking the same attitude toward Gaza that the Nazis took toward the Warsaw Ghetto.
And people wonder why I characterize Israelis as child killers. NOT ONE OF YOU so far can help from adding “but…” and coming up with an excuse to bomb Palestinian children. Your state is a monstrous blight, a moral black hole of bloodshed and perverse greed.
LLI, you read only part of what I said and stopped on what I said that was music to your Zionist ears. Please read the whole thing:
“…Maybe this was a case of a soldier having been caught by some Palestinians and cut to pieces and the assault on the camp came as a result. Maybe the Palestinians were simply demonstrating against Assad and the army went in and started killing them. Ugly stuff is now being done by both sides.”
Yeah, nothgin like showing unverified footage, from an unverified location and compositing labels on the screen to tell the viewer what they are supposed to be looking at.
“Not that Assad and company need any excuse to butcher people.”
Abandoning – cause and effect -, are we?
>> This also might make some readers realize what Israel has been facing all these years. Dictators like the Assads who would do ANYTHING to maintain control, even if meant using the Palestinians in every way possible.
So…because the Assads will do anything to maintain control in their country, Israel is justified to continue with its ON-GOING and OFFENSIVE (i.e., not defensive) campaign of aggression, oppression, theft, colonization, destruction and murder against Palestinians.
Another fine example of Zio-supremacist “common sense”.
Thanks, Annie, for posting this. He’s terrorizing the Palestinians to stir up sectarian tensions. Ditto for Christians and even members of his own sect. He’s killing the Palestinians to stoke fear into the population. There is also an ongoing controversy about the numbers of Palestinians killed in this coastal city and the scope of the bombardment in Latakia from the sea with numerous witnesses noting bombardment by sea.
The Maan link carries the ubiquitous “activists said” qualification. Please be cautious.
Here is an alternative viewpoint:
“For their part, Palestinian powers’ Alliance Factions on Monday condemned statements of The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) about allegations of shelling al-Ramel Camp for the Palestinian refugees in Lattakia, calling for not involving the Palestinians in the latest events in Syria.
“The Palestinian factions deny what has been included in the UNRWA leadership about shelling the refugees camp in Lattakia, considering this provocation as part of attempts to harm the Syrian and Palestinian stances,” official spokesman of the Palestinian Alliance said in a press statement.
Ali Mustafa, Director of the Arab Palestinian Refugees General Committee called on UNRWA Commissioner –General Filippo Grandi to correct what has been included in the statement of UNRWA Official Spokesman about the concern of the Agency of the reports claiming that the Syrian Security forces launch heavy fires inside the camp in Lattakia.
“We would like to bring your attention that what has been included in the UNRWA statement was baseless and untrue…”
link to dp-news.com
I honestly don’t know the truth of it but I am hesitant to give full credibility to what “activists said”. Powerful interests have a stake in destabilising Syria right now.
thank you very much brewer, i’m going to see if i can front page your link.
“The Maan link carries the ubiquitous “activists said” qualification. ”
Rather than “ubiquitous”, I’d use “dubious”. Jazeera has been quoting “activists said”-type information for months and videos transmitted to it by satellite phones but it had the decency to state each time that the videos were from unverified sources although it never stopped showing them over and over and over again as if they represented the whole truth and nothing but. Well, Libya got it a NYC license and maybe now with Syria, it will get ones for Chicago and Los Angeles. In Libya and Syria, Jazeera, Reuters, AFP, CNN and the rest were passing “activists-said” information to each other which made it appear that it was coming from several sources, which wasn’t the case.
thanks for the reminder walid, really.
Hi Annie, sorry if I seem to be telling you things you already know; I’m just sounding off. What I just read in Haaretz takes the cake, but what with Bernard-Henri Lévy doing the choreographing in Libya, it was to be expected and here I was concerned simply with Israeli companies working in Libya whereas it’s about full recognition of Israel:
“Rebel spokesman to Haaretz: Libya needs world’s help, including Israel’s
Ahmad Shabani says recognition of Israel by future elected Libyan government is ‘very sensitive question. The question is whether Israel will recognize us’.”
lol! yes i read that earlier! cracked me up. i thought about making a draft of it but felt like… wrf? too much a** licking and hasbara for my taste. plllllease..
ps, never think of apologizing to me, i always appreciate your contributions here.
Can’t remember if I have posted this before, it is most intriguing. The perpetrators of the “Syrian Lesbian Blogger” scam had some very interesting connections:
link to lespolitiques.blogspot.com
Interestingly, I have tried to post all this stuff on Huffpo with commentary from me, without commentary, just the bare links. No dice.