• Arab League officials say extension likely
• Syria to devalue pound amid economic turmoil.
• Protesters rallying for Syrian prisoners
(Continuing ... )
Posted by
Haroon Siddique
Friday 20 January 2012 11.52 GMT
guardian.co.uk
Article history
Syrian anti-regime protesters march through Zabadani the day before government forces withdrew. Photograph: AP
11.52am: The Idlib town of Kafranbel, which has signalled its opposition to the Assad regime each week in distinctive banners written in English in black and red block capitals, has directed its ire at Russia this Friday.
When Russia, along with China, vetoed the UN security council motion condemning Syria last year, the Kafranbel protesters raised the spectre of Stalin.
11.27am: Two senior Arab League senior officials say the organisation will likely extend its monitoring mission in Syria, with several nations that had been opposed to the extension changing their position in recent days, AP reports.
The officials said on Friday that the thinking within the League is to keep the mission in place as the international community is not yet ready for "escalation" to an intervention in Syria.
Qatar, a harsh critic of the Syrian crackdown on protesters, has called for the dispatch of Arab troops to the country, where 10 months of unrest and crackdown have left thousands dead.
Arab League foreign ministers were set to meet Sunday in Cairo to discuss the future of the one-month observer mission, which expired on Thursday.
11.25am: Egyptian blogger Mostafa Hussein has news, which, if accurate, gives a clue into what kind of response the security forces are planning to protests next week to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak. He tweets:
According to a highly trusted source, huge amounts of teargas arrived to Cairo airport in the past few days.
Meanwhile, people are gathering in Tahrir Square for the "Friday of Martyrs' Dream".
10.59am: Activists in Bahrain say an 11-year-old boy has died after inhaling teargas.
Maryam al-Khawaja from the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights tweets:
News of a new death, 11-year-old Yaseen AlAsfoor had acute asthma, died from teargas suffocation acc to relatives RIP #bahrain #arabspring
Picture by @iFattema
Yaseen is pictured left in hospital. Blogger Marc Owen Jones wrote on Tuesday that 15 people have died as a result of teargas inhalation since protests against the regime began on 14 February last year. Yaseen is the 10th person reported to have died since the release of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry report into human rights abuses. The death toll includes a protester who died on the morning of the release of the report and a six-day-old baby who died on 11 December from inhaling teargas.
10.41am: There are also demonstrations in Egypt today, Ahram Online reports.
***
17 comments, displaying
PeterBrit
20 January 2012 9:09AM
Meanwhile in Iraq, great to know that we've been so successful at creating a stable truly democratic state there, that all the money and killing was so well worth it:
McClatchy/Miami Herald "BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's security services have locked up more than 1,000 members of other political parties over the past several months, detaining many of them in secret locations with no access to legal counsel and using "brutal torture" to extract confessions, his chief political rival has charged...
There's little doubt that Maliki ordered the roundup, diplomats and analysts here say. Security forces that answer directly to the prime minister made the arrests.
Juburi also said he had no doubt that those arrested since October had been tortured. "So many detainees have given false confessions under torture," he told McClatchy. "So many have been convicted of crimes they didn't commit."
Juburi said he couldn't provide a number for those arrested since October. He said many were being held in buildings that are under the Ministry of Interior, outside Iraq's prison system.
Others said the number was much higher than 1,000, with Allawi putting the figure at "thousands."
Another Iraqiya member and Maliki critic, Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al Mutlaq, estimated that 1,500 people have been detained, while Sattar al Bayar, who deals with human rights issues for Iraqiya, put the number at 1,800...
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/19/2597925_p2/iraqs-maliki-accused-of-detaining.html#storylink=cpy
BrownMoses
20 January 2012 9:16AM
More trouble in Mali with Tuaregs returning from Libya after fighting for Gaddafi
Mali military says 47 killed in northern clashes
Mali's military said on Thursday its armed forces had killed 45 gunmen and lost two soldiers in attacks on two towns in the north of the country this week, a toll immediately rejected by a spokesman for the Tuareg-led rebels.
The toll was the first to be given for the clashes in Aguelhok and Tessalit, by the border with Algeria, which started on Wednesday after earlier fighting further south on Tuesday killed several others.
This week's fighting ended several years of fragile peace in Mali's desert north and appear to confirm fears that Libya's war would bring instability to its southern neighbours as nomadic gunmen previously employed by the Libyan army return home.
capmint1
20 January 2012 10:03AM
interesting John Pilger article on antiwar, the world war on democracy, highlighting US and UK support for democracy:
Since the Second World War, the US has:
Attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, most of them democratically-elected.
Attempted to suppress a populist or national movement in 20 countries.
Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries.
Dropped bombs on the people of more than 30 countries.
Attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders.
Under the Indonesian tyrant Suharto, anointed "our man" by Thatcher, more than a million people were slaughtered. Described by the CIA as "the worst mass murder of the second half of the 20th century," the estimate does not include a third of the population of East Timor who were starved or murdered with western connivance, British fighter-bombers, and machine guns.
In the early 1960s, the Labor government of Harold Wilson secretly agreed to a demand from Washington that the Chagos archipelago, a British colony, be "swept" and "sanitized" of its 2,500 inhabitants so that a military base could be built on the principal island, Diego Garcia. "They knew we were inseparable from our pets," said Lisette, "When the American soldiers arrived to build the base, they backed their big trucks against the brick shed where we prepared the coconuts; hundreds of our dogs had been rounded up and imprisoned there. Then they gassed them through tubes from the trucks’ exhausts. You could hear them crying."
This act of mass kidnapping was carried out in high secrecy. In one official file, under the heading, "Maintaining the fiction," the Foreign Office legal adviser exhorts his colleagues to cover their actions by "re-classifying" the population as "floating" and to "make up the rules as we go along." Article 7 of the statute of the International Criminal Court says the "deportation or forcible transfer of population" is a crime against humanity. That Britain had committed such a crime — in exchange for a $14 million discount off an American Polaris nuclear submarine — was not on the agenda of a group of British "defense" correspondents flown to the Chagos by the Ministry of Defense when the US base was completed. "There is nothing in our files," said a ministry official, "about inhabitants or an evacuation."
http://original.antiwar.com/pilger/2012/01/19/the-world-war-on-democracy/
why did UK ethnically cleanse 2,500 people; Diego Garcia is strategically important, it was used for Iraq, Afgahanistan and will also be used if US decides to launch airstrikes against Iran; bombing for democracy
BrownMoses
20 January 2012 10:16AM
Libya had undeclared chemical weapon stockpile
The organization that oversees a global ban on chemical weapons says a team of its inspectors has confirmed that former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi had an undeclared stockpile the weapons.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says inspectors who visited Libya this week found sulfur mustard and artillery shells "which they determined are chemical munitions."
Libya's new rulers told the Hague-based organization about the previously unknown stockpile last year after toppling Gadhafi from power.
The organization said in a statement Friday the chemical weapons are stored at the Ruwagha depot in southeastern Libya together with chemical weapons that Gadhafi had declared to international authorities.
zerozero
20 January 2012 10:33AM
Response to capmint1, 20 January 2012 10:03AM
Yes, true, most of it I agree. But then if you believe that the US/UK is this bad (which it is, but your way of understanding it is different to mine), why wouldn't you agree with revolution in the US to solve it? Instead you speak of peaceful appeasement. If they are really these genocidal butchers, it is hard to make sense of your position of supporting mere charity and talks.
capmint1
20 January 2012 10:33AM
interesting article on Reuters 'Not-so-covert Iran war buys time but raises tension':
"If Israel thinks they can prevent our studies with four terrorist attacks, it's a very weak way of thinking... Everybody will learn that they can't stop us with such actions," said Iran parliament speaker Ali Larijani the day after the killing.
Ali Vaez and Charles D. Ferguson of the Federation of American Scientists wrote that "such acts of terrorism" are unlikely to significantly delay or deter Tehran's nuclear work.
"The resulting climate of insecurity feeds ammunition to hardliners in Tehran demanding reprisals."
Ahmadi-Roshan's killing happened less than two weeks after the Obama administration signed into law an unprecedented tightening of sanctions aimed at Iranian oil exports.
To some, the evident effectiveness of tougher sanctions in getting the attention of Tehran's leaders might obviate at least for the moment any need for a resort to clandestine methods.
In response to a new U.S. law targeting Iranian oil income Tehran threatened to choke the West's supply of Gulf oil if its exports are hit. Washington warned that the U.S. navy was ready to open fire to prevent any blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a third of the world's seaborne traded oil passes.
"In this process of ever-accelerating sanctions, we have arrived at a point where sanctions begin to blur into actual warfare," wrote Iran expert and former U.S. official Gary Sick.
"If the sanctions succeed in their purpose of cutting off nearly all oil exports from Iran, that is the equivalent of a blockade of Iran's oil ports, an act of war."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/18/us-iran-methods-idUSTRE80H1SS20120118
so... we are in a covert war with Iran (which killed four, injured wife), and US economic sanctions are an act of war; but so far... not many takers in msm... a bit off message
capmint1
20 January 2012 10:52AM
morning zerozero
Yes, true, most of it I agree. But then if you believe that the US/UK is this bad (which it is, but your way of understanding it is different to mine),
the US and UK are bad and hypocritical, but I dont believe in an eye for an eye, it just leads to spiral of violence; can you imagine what an internal US war on terror would look like, drones are already being used for survellience in US, next step would be to arm, Homeland Security would get an even bigger influence etc
'why wouldn't you agree with revolution in the US to solve it? Instead you speak of peaceful appeasement. If they are really these genocidal butchers, it is hard to make sense of your position of supporting mere charity and talks.'
I oppose violent regime change in most instances as usually it leads to bloodshed and civil war; given the US has the world largest military, 2-300 overseas bases, I really dont think anyone, any country, even the rest of world militaries put together would have a chance
the US achilles heal is its economy, it has $15tn debt, if the $ loses its status as worlds reserve currency they will no longer be able to afford such high levels of debt servicing and will need to roll back on military spending; getting govt to shift from military to civil spending via peaceful activism like OWS is far from appeasement but the most effective means
NegativeCamber
20 January 2012 10:53AM
Response to capmint1, 20 January 2012 10:33AM
so... we are in a covert war with Iran (which killed four, injured wife), and US economic sanctions are an act of war; but so far... not many takers in msm... a bit off message
The assassinations were all over the MSM, economic sanctions are not an act of war otherwise we are at war with lots of nations. Iran can say what they like, but they're not a legal basis for going to war. Blocking the Straights of Hormuz however is totally illegal, even the Chinese have told Iran not to try it.
PBouckaert
20 January 2012 10:56AM
Video of attack on Goga in Benghazi (Ghar Younis University) yesterday--pretty serious, he had to be carried out by his guards:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9G17xqnx_0
NegativeCamber
20 January 2012 10:58AM
Response to PBouckaert, 20 January 2012 10:56AM
Looks like what would happen to Cameron if he went to South London.
capmint1
20 January 2012 11:04AM
Negativecamber
'The assassinations were all over the MSM'
the msm reported the assassination, but I was specifically referring to the reuters article not being picked up, it mentions that the assassination are short term and counter productive; and wife being injured in another bombing
'economic sanctions are not an act of war otherwise we are at war with lots of nations. Iran can say what they like, but they're not a legal basis for going to war'
yes, Iran can say what it likes, except that Reuters were quoting Iran expert and former U.S. official Gary Sick (NSC staff under Ford);
also, if any country imposed oil sanctions on US, carried out four assassinations, used drones US airspace, supported terrorist organisations inside US; anyone would be deemed an act of war; whereas Iran wanting to trade in euro and yuan, is seen by neo cons as petro dollar warfare which under 1% doctrine and full spectrum dominance is seen as a real threat to US national security (or free trade to you and me)
BrownMoses
20 January 2012 11:05AM
Response to PBouckaert, 20 January 2012 10:56AM
Here's a video of him having a little cry afterwards.
zerozero
20 January 2012 11:23AM
Response to capmint1, 20 January 2012 10:52AM
I agree about OWS at the moment. However, Vietnam was a small nation and it defeated US imperialism, so you are wrong if you think the US is untouchable. But in any case I am not talking of a unitary 'US'. The US was founded by revolution and there are many revolutionary spirits in the US, and the people also bear arms, which is a legacy of their revolutionary rights, the US is not a monolithic blob but a democracy that could have more democracy, or improved democracy (less lobbying power for corporations). You seem to say such a lot of stuff condemning the west as if it is immune from the same struggles as exist in the east, but it is not, and then your solution is so weak I think it leads merely to despair and the feeling that we are all subject to this vast conspiracy that we will never be able to exit apart from some small offerings to charity and some tents. History changes via revolution, this is fact, and you need to take account of it.
NegativeCamber
20 January 2012 11:24AM
Response to capmint1, 20 January 2012 11:04AM
Iran have terrorist forces in Gaza and South Lebanon, armed militias in Iraq whose munitions killed British troops and were traced back to Iran.
They're not innocent either.
capmint1
20 January 2012 11:33AM
negativecamber
'Iran have terrorist forces in Gaza and South Lebanon, armed militias in Iraq whose munitions killed British troops and were traced back to Iran.
They're not innocent either.'
I never said Iran were innocent, I had a friend in Basra who came back with ptsd, another Afghanistan semi paralysed (accident not ied) so I'm no fan of Iran using proxies; but I am against wars off aggression
Iran are in a covert war with US via proxies, they know it, we know it; but its US that are escalating, it was Bush who didnt reply to Iran, or Ahmadinjad overtures, US is using sanctions as part of that war (Ron Paul calls it that, so did Gary Sick) and the senior US offical cited in Washington Post headline which then changed three times.
AJE article on WP changing headline:
Headline #1: Goal of Iran sanctions is regime collapse, US official says
Headline #2: Goal of Iran sanctions is to get nation to abandon alleged nuclear programme, US official says
Headline #3: Public ire one goal of Iran sanctions, US official says
The fuss over the article revolves around this passage from the original version (now completely removed):
The goal of US and other sanctions against Iran is regime collapse, a senior US intelligence official said, offering the clearest indication yet that the Obama administration is at least as intent on unseating Iran's government as it is on engaging with it.
The official, speaking this week on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said the administration hopes that sanctions "create enough hate and discontent at the street level" that Iranians will turn against their government.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/01/201211111562697555.html
Irishman45
20 January 2012 11:43AM
Response to PeterBrit, 20 January 2012 9:09AM
Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's security services have locked up more than 1,000 members of other political parties over the past several months, detaining many of them in secret locations with no access to legal counsel and using "brutal torture" to extract confessions, his chief political rival has charged...
Which country negotiated the deal behind closed doors to ensure Maliki became Prime Minister, even though his party actually came second overall in terms of seats
capmint1
20 January 2012 11:51AM
Irishman45
'Which country negotiated the deal behind closed doors to ensure Maliki became Prime Minister, even though his party actually came second overall in terms of seats.'
yes Iran are evil and rigged an election; not that US ever engaged in such behaviour, or Europe (ECB, IMF, Greece and Italy); or the whole unelected TNC
the other related question you fail to ask, given those concerns about Maliki and Iran and the sectarian bloodshed, which country is to move ahead with arms deal with Baghdad, worth 'nearly $11 billion worth of arms and training for the Iraqi military', according to The New York Time?
______________
What do you think ?
Các anh chị nghĩ thế nào, có ý kiến phê bình gì qua bài viết "Syria: Arab League considers extending mission" và 17 Ý kiến phê bình từ "17 Comments" của đọc giả ?
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog"
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
20012012
___________
CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
No comments:
Post a Comment