Saturday, February 11, 2012

Welcome To Syria



Easter with President Bashar Al Assad and his wife Asma Assad


President Bashar Al Assad invited President Obama to visit Syria


Interview with Asma Assad


AOL HUFFINGTON POST CENSORING SYRIAN BLOG


According to statistics, more viewers are turning off the mainstream media which certainly didn't happen over the night. One of the reason is for this is the censorship that exists on the media.Sharmean Narwani, a blogger for Al-Akhbar English has been a victim of the censorship . She shares her story with RT's Liz Wahl.


People Power comes to Syria

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/dec/07/ukraine.comment

Nowadays, we can google the names of foundations such as America's National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and a myriad surrogates funding Ukraine's Pora movement or "independent" media. But unless you know the NED's James Woolsey was also head of the CIA 10 years ago, are you any wiser?

Throughout the 1980s, in the build-up to 1989's velvet revolutions, a small army of volunteers - and, let's be frank, spies - co-operated to promote what became People Power. A network of interlocking foundations and charities mushroomed to organise the logistics of transferring millions of dollars to dissidents. The money came overwhelmingly from Nato states and covert allies such as "neutral" Sweden.

It is true that not every penny received by dissidents came from taxpayers. The US billionaire, George Soros, set up the Open Society Foundation. How much it gave is difficult to verify, because Mr Soros promotes openness for others, not himself.

Engels remarked that he saw no contradiction between making a million on the stock market in the morning and spending it on the revolution in the afternoon. Our modern market revolutionaries are now inverting that process. People beholden to them come to office with the power to privatise.

The hangover from People Power is shock therapy. Each successive crowd is sold a multimedia vision of Euro-Atlantic prosperity by western-funded "independent" media to get them on the streets. No one dwells on the mass unemployment, rampant insider dealing, growth of organised crime, prostitution and soaring death rates in successful People Power states.





http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29221

Washington’s ambition to overthrow Syria’s Ba’athist state is a longstanding one which pre-dates the current uprising. The US state has been keen to install a pro-imperialist government in Damascus since at least 1957, when it tried unsuccessfully to engineer a coup there. In 2003, the United States initiated a program of economic warfare against Syria, and in 2005, if not earlier, started to funnel money to opposition elements to mobilize energy for regime change.


Friends of Syria
http://euobserver.com/24/115215

By Andrew Rettman

BRUSSELS - US and EU diplomats have begun recruiting countries to join a new group designed to bring down Syria's government.

US state department spokeswoman Victoria Nulland told press in Washington on Thursday (9 February) that senior US diplomat Jeffrey Feltman met with French and Qatari leaders to draw up plans for the new coalition.

She noted that Feltman was in Morocco on Wednesday and will travel to a congress in the Philippines on Friday: "He'll go tomorrow to Manama to a conference ... where there are lots of Europeans and lots of Arab League representatives to continue to talk about how this group might come together and what its mandate might be."

She added: "Now that the UN Security Council action has been blocked by the double veto [China and Russia] we are compelled to work outside the UN system."

Media Watch: Fake News About Syria

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3218415.htm

Folks, there is a concerted effort to take down Syria by telling lies to the American people about what is going on in Syria.

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/02/11/us-iraqi-officials-al-qaeda-behind-syria-bombing-arming-opposition/

Elements of al-Qaeda’s affiliates in Iraq have been moving into Syria to distribute weapons to the opposition and to carry out attacks against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

These terrorists, often described as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) carried out two recent bombings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and likely was behind the suicide bombings on Friday in the city of Aleppo that killed at least 28 people, anonymous U.S. officials told McClatchy Newspapers.
..................
The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command are currently reviewing possible U.S. military options against the Syrian regime and the specter of a proxy war of world powers in Syria has been raised as of late. But there is no indication yet of which posture the U.S. is taking in light of this supposed intelligence of jihadists in Syria.

Old City Folks Still Support Assad.
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/syria/old-city-folks-still-back-syria-s-al-assad-1.979179


Then there is the all important idea of getting one's story straight....

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/105605.html

UPDATE: I received this e-mail from Prof. Mark Almond this morning:

"Just a footnote to add to your excellent piece: I was being interviewed live on the BBC World Service yesterday (10.30GMT) when the presenter Dan Damon listened to the spokesman of the 'Syrian National Council' saying that the car bombs in Aleppo had been planted by the Assad regime to kill its own policemen but broke in to say he was reading on the wires the communique of the Free Syrian Army claiming responsibility! I suggested that this disagreement on tactics and truth was not a very hopeful sign for a post-Assad Syria since there could be a different type of civil war between his enemies if/when he fell - rather like in forgotten Libya



Saying No To Gun Boat Diplomacy
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2012-02/20/c_131420379.htm

By Li Qingsi

BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- After Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Syria on Feb 4, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution condemning the violence in Syria on Feb 16. Though non-binding, the newly passed resolution will put more pressure on the Syrian government and might prove to be the beginning of future outside intervention.

Sectarian conflicts, geopolitical factors, and particularly the West's "divide and conquer" involvement have given rise to the intense and sharp contradictions in the Arab World, and Syria's internal clashes have provided an excuse for the West to get involved.

The current Syrian crisis is not an issue purely concerning human rights protection as the West alleges. The West wants to topple the Syrian government and replace it with a pro-Western one. Syria is considered a problem in the West's Middle East strategy because of its close relations with Iran and Lebanon, which are hostile to the United States.

In order to play a part in the Middle East, the Arab League is willing to charge into the West's Middle East strategy. After solving the Syrian issue in a non-peaceful way, the West's next target, no doubt, will be Iran.

China's veto does not mean that Beijing takes sides with the Syrian government, or that it is turning a blind eye to the bloody clashes, it means it does not want Syria to end up on the same disastrous road as Libya, which finally ended in a full-scale civil war.

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China has the responsibility and obligation to defend the UN Charter, international justice and code of conduct, and so must reject any resolutions that are in violation of the UN Charter and purposes.

If China knows that a resolution is likely to endanger state sovereignty and go against justice and it does nothing, it will be serious malpractice.

The West's furious response to the vetoes by China and Russia shows the vetoes have exposed the West's true purpose of trying to dominate the Middle East and monopolize UN affairs, which they had sought to veil behind their lofty claims of protecting human rights in Syria.

The world has witnessed too many invasions of sovereign states and the killing of innocent civilians in the name of humanitarian intervention. The military interventions since the end of the Cold War show that the West, while holding high the banner of human rights protection is in reality seeking its own global or regional strategic interests.

Whether in the countries invaded after the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US, or in some Muslim states that underwent "color revolutions" last year, the fact of the matter is, instead of protecting human rights the invasions and "revolutions" have caused domestic stability and humanitarian situation to deteriorate.

Experience shows that, since the Cold War, Western countries, no matter how great their quarrels are, will join hands when in conflict with non-Western countries. Even in this era of globalization, there is still a clear dividing line between the West and non-Western world.

For historical and practical reasons, the balance of power between the West, especially the US, and non-Western world is uneven. As absolute power without supervision and restriction results in corruption inside a state, a power without a counterweight in the international community also will become imperious and ruthless, which, threatens the stability of the whole world.

After the Cold War, the US managed to "have a firm hold over the UN to oppress the international community" while small and medium-sized countries dared not voice their discontent.

The US' hysterical reaction to China's veto shows it has not adapted to China's change. At a time when gunboat policy has been revived in a new guise, a modest, self-disciplined diplomatic approach seems ill timed.

If China and the US can peacefully coexist, it will be an unprecedented, pioneering undertaking. But the history of China-US contacts indicates such cooperation cannot be attained through compromise or requests, nor should expect any cooperation for win-win by our own wishful thinking. Struggle without breaking relations should not be the bottom line of the Chinese attitude to the US, only when we are ready to pay the price for splitting will we manage to attain the struggle without splitting.

No matter how difficult the external situation is, China won't stop developing. Not until the diplomats stop appealing for "heart- to-heart" thinking. Not until the 1.3 billion Chinese people's feelings are no longer easy to hurt, and not until China is able to defend the UN charters and norms and the world peace and justice with actions instead of just words.

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China should shoulder the great responsibility of safeguarding world peace. In order to maintain unity, China has been restrained in the use of its veto.

As one member of the international community, China is aware that it cannot realize its own interests without cooperation with the outside world. But China will also be alert to those Western countries that push too far. Having been invaded by Western powers, China understands the suffering that results. So a rising China will not repeat the errors of others, because the Chinese people believe that what you do not want done to yourself, you do not impose on others.

The author is a professor at the School of International Studies, Renmin University of China.



Article 88: States the Syrian President of the Rebublic is elected for 7 years as of the end of the term of the existing President. The President can be elected for only one more successive term



Referendum begins for new constitution that allows for several political parties and limits the presidents term in office.

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