Syrian Revolution Digest (Washington, D.C.): The fight for Syria’s future reaches the capital The clash that took place between members of the local resistance and security forces loyal to Assad took place less than a block away from our apartment, still awaiting our eventual return. My mother lives just across the highway. The local security headquarters that came under attack is one that I know very well, as I have been interrogated there on a number of occasions. The battle is coming home. Sounds of the nighttime battle http://youtu.be/nzBgmqxV8rE Just a little north, a couple of blocks really, is Mazzeh Jabal and the famous Commune 86, an unplanned settlement inhabited by Alawite soldiers and officers whose guard rushed in to join the fray, and ended up killing many of their own. Most mid- and high-ranking loyalist officers have been evacuated, and are unlikely to return anytime soon. But the foot soldiers and security guards will likely become more vicious, and that will only pave the way for more clashes, as things in the neighborhood has been heating up for a while. Besides this attack, and the two bombings that targeted security headquarters in Tahrir and Jamarek, there were other relatively minor incidents all across the city over the last couple of days, confirming what I have been saying for a while now: Assad’s recent victories are rather pyrrhic, he and his henchmen have only succeeded in transforming the country into one giant battlefield. (read more)
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Syrian Revolution Digest (Washington, D.C.):

The fight for Syria’s future reaches the capital

The clash that took place between members of the local resistance and security forces loyal to Assad took place less than a block away from our apartment, still awaiting our eventual return. My mother lives just across the highway. The local security headquarters that came under attack is one that I know very well, as I have been interrogated there on a number of occasions. The battle is coming home.

Sounds of the nighttime battle http://youtu.be/nzBgmqxV8rE

Just a little north, a couple of blocks really, is Mazzeh Jabal and the famous Commune 86, an unplanned settlement inhabited by Alawite soldiers and officers whose guard rushed in to join the fray, and ended up killing many of their own. Most mid- and high-ranking loyalist officers have been evacuated, and are unlikely to return anytime soon. But the foot soldiers and security guards will likely become more vicious, and that will only pave the way for more clashes, as things in the neighborhood has been heating up for a while.

Besides this attack, and the two bombings that targeted security headquarters in Tahrir and Jamarek, there were other relatively minor incidents all across the city over the last couple of days, confirming what I have been saying for a while now: Assad’s recent victories are rather pyrrhic, he and his henchmen have only succeeded in transforming the country into one giant battlefield.

(read more)

Syria and the art of revolution

Al-bab (UK):

Next week, The Assad House for Arts and Culture (as the building is officially known) will be staging Gao Xingjian’s absurdist drama, Bus Stop. When first produced in China, it ran to 13 performances and was then closed by the authorities on grounds of political ambiguity. It’s a story about people who spend 10 years waiting for a bus and complaining before they eventually decide to walk.

I can’t help thinking that Syrians will detect a subversive message in the play but perhaps the regime is assuming it must be OK since it comes from China. Either way, its Damascus run will be even shorter than that in China – only five nights.

(read more)

Mayasaloon (Syria): Looking at the conflict in Syria from different angles …supporting the Syrian revolution is not a binary choice of siding with the Muslim Brotherhood against Assad’s fascist secularism. Taking a principled stand against brutality and murder, and for a dream of a better Syria, is a difficult one, but it is not impossible. If you are a Syrian then you should speak up - if you haven’t done so already - and debate the best way you would like to govern your own country. Supporting the Syrian revolution does not mean you are supporting some foreign conspiracy against the country, or that you want to be invaded, it means you are fed up with being afraid to speak your own mind. For far too long, the fear of having your name “noted down” by some of Assad’s secret police has meant that we have all opted for silence. Today that is no longer an option, and as the country hurtles down an abyss, it is more important than ever that each and every one of us starts to articulate our own position. (read more)
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Mayasaloon (Syria):

Looking at the conflict in Syria from different angles

…supporting the Syrian revolution is not a binary choice of siding with the Muslim Brotherhood against Assad’s fascist secularism. Taking a principled stand against brutality and murder, and for a dream of a better Syria, is a difficult one, but it is not impossible. If you are a Syrian then you should speak up - if you haven’t done so already - and debate the best way you would like to govern your own country. Supporting the Syrian revolution does not mean you are supporting some foreign conspiracy against the country, or that you want to be invaded, it means you are fed up with being afraid to speak your own mind. For far too long, the fear of having your name “noted down” by some of Assad’s secret police has meant that we have all opted for silence. Today that is no longer an option, and as the country hurtles down an abyss, it is more important than ever that each and every one of us starts to articulate our own position.

(read more)

Syria News Wire (Damascus/London): One year ago today, Syria changed forever One year ago today, demonstrations were still called unprecedented. One year ago today, the country was silent. One year ago today, Syria found its voice. In March a small, brave group marched through Souq Al-Hamidiyeh chanting slogans and recording the whole thing on their mobile phones. Still, we said, nothing more would happen. And it might not have, if a group of children hadn’t been arrested and beaten in Deraa in the south of Syria. They had scrawled revolutionary graffiti on the walls. Children with pens were considered enough of a threat to the state to justify detention and torture. The trouble was, these arrests hit right at the heart of a massive fault line: the kids were from big tribal families in Deraa, and the head of political security was the president’s cousin. This was the tribes against the Assads. (read more)
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Syria News Wire (Damascus/London):

One year ago today, Syria changed forever

One year ago today, demonstrations were still called unprecedented. One year ago today, the country was silent. One year ago today, Syria found its voice.

In March a small, brave group marched through Souq Al-Hamidiyeh chanting slogans and recording the whole thing on their mobile phones. Still, we said, nothing more would happen. And it might not have, if a group of children hadn’t been arrested and beaten in Deraa in the south of Syria.

They had scrawled revolutionary graffiti on the walls. Children with pens were considered enough of a threat to the state to justify detention and torture. The trouble was, these arrests hit right at the heart of a massive fault line: the kids were from big tribal families in Deraa, and the head of political security was the president’s cousin. This was the tribes against the Assads.

(read more)

America Blog (USA): Hacked Assad emails detail ruling family’s wartime shopping spree As is usually the case in these situations the initial disclosures mostly confirm what we already knew but besides the thuggery and the bragging there is the banality of the wife’s demands for crystal chandeliers and fondue sets in the midst of a civil war. We have no way to know whether the emails are genuine or fake but many of the major intelligence services monitoring Syria will have a pretty good idea. It takes a lot of information to produce a forgery that would withstand cross checking with the volumes of information they have on file. (read more)
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America Blog (USA):

Hacked Assad emails detail ruling family’s wartime shopping spree

As is usually the case in these situations the initial disclosures mostly confirm what we already knew but besides the thuggery and the bragging there is the banality of the wife’s demands for crystal chandeliers and fondue sets in the midst of a civil war.

We have no way to know whether the emails are genuine or fake but many of the major intelligence services monitoring Syria will have a pretty good idea. It takes a lot of information to produce a forgery that would withstand cross checking with the volumes of information they have on file.

(read more)

Informed Comment (USA): World stands idly by as Syrian revolt enters second year The world community has failed Syria, just as it failed Rwanda and the Congo, though the human toll in Syria is a fraction of those killed in the African events. Russia and China have used their veto to block any effective United Nations Security Council resolution that might lead to regime change. India has also, unlike the Arab League, opposed any call for President Bashar al-Assad, the Butcher of Homs, to step down. Much of the protest is also for basic human values like dignity. It is no fun to live in a police state, where you are monitored and can be arrested and tortured at will. Some of the impetus for the Syrian rebellion comes from this demand for basic dignity. The regime has promised reforms, including allowing other parties to run for office and a lighter hand by the secret police. But few analysts believe that the Baath Party will voluntarily share power or change its brutal ways. US intelligence analysts believe that the uprising is unlikely to dislodge al-Assad any time soon. Syria has an army of some 330,000, with its upper echelons heavily Allawite and loyal to the regime. It has about 5,000 tanks. (read more)
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Informed Comment (USA):

World stands idly by as Syrian revolt enters second year

The world community has failed Syria, just as it failed Rwanda and the Congo, though the human toll in Syria is a fraction of those killed in the African events. Russia and China have used their veto to block any effective United Nations Security Council resolution that might lead to regime change. India has also, unlike the Arab League, opposed any call for President Bashar al-Assad, the Butcher of Homs, to step down.

Much of the protest is also for basic human values like dignity. It is no fun to live in a police state, where you are monitored and can be arrested and tortured at will. Some of the impetus for the Syrian rebellion comes from this demand for basic dignity. The regime has promised reforms, including allowing other parties to run for office and a lighter hand by the secret police. But few analysts believe that the Baath Party will voluntarily share power or change its brutal ways.

US intelligence analysts believe that the uprising is unlikely to dislodge al-Assad any time soon. Syria has an army of some 330,000, with its upper echelons heavily Allawite and loyal to the regime. It has about 5,000 tanks.

(read more)

Razan Zaitouneh at The Damascus Bureau (Syria): Syrian opposition doctors struggle to save lives It seems that Syrians can no longer benefit from treatment in regular hospitals, be they private or public. All Syrians have left are the few, ill-equipped field hospitals, which could be raided at any moment, their equipment confiscated and their staff arrested. A field hospital is a miniature version of the inferno that lies outside its walls. Inside are people striving to chase away the spectre of death as they move from hospital to hospital and city to city, witnessing the enormous suffering that Syrians go through every day. They use their scarce medical supplies to rescue children, soldiers who have defected and even prisoners of war, captured fighting on the regime’s side. These medical activists discriminate in favour of only those who have a better chance of survival. When measured against the total number of physicians in Syria, the number of those among them who have joined the revolution seems small. Most of them are still young and haven’t finished their medical residencies, yet they often find themselves forced to perform all sorts of medical duties irrespective of their area of expertise. (read more)
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Razan Zaitouneh at The Damascus Bureau (Syria):

Syrian opposition doctors struggle to save lives

It seems that Syrians can no longer benefit from treatment in regular hospitals, be they private or public. All Syrians have left are the few, ill-equipped field hospitals, which could be raided at any moment, their equipment confiscated and their staff arrested.

A field hospital is a miniature version of the inferno that lies outside its walls. Inside are people striving to chase away the spectre of death as they move from hospital to hospital and city to city, witnessing the enormous suffering that Syrians go through every day. They use their scarce medical supplies to rescue children, soldiers who have defected and even prisoners of war, captured fighting on the regime’s side. These medical activists discriminate in favour of only those who have a better chance of survival.

When measured against the total number of physicians in Syria, the number of those among them who have joined the revolution seems small. Most of them are still young and haven’t finished their medical residencies, yet they often find themselves forced to perform all sorts of medical duties irrespective of their area of expertise.

(read more)

Syrian army ordered to shoot civilians or else be shot

Maysaloon (Syria):

I was told by a source close to me that soldiers in Idlib are given three magazines a day and told to empty these into the crowds, otherwise they will be shot. The person who told my source is a close friend who is doing his military service in the Idlib area. That person was back in Damascus on leave, and he looked like he had lost much weight. He said that there are sectarian chants by protesters, and that, though he and his friends had once tried to explain that they are Sunni, but they had been attacked by mobs and had to fire back. The situation is very tense over there and he is at his wit’s end. Morale is very poor.


(full article)