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Syrian Defector: Assad Poised to Torture and Murder 150,000 More
World News
07.31.14
Josh Rogin
THE DAILY BEAST
Congress was shocked Thursday when a Syrian defector recounted how he documented Assad’s killing of over 11,000 innocents. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg, according to ‘Caesar.’
- See more at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/31/syrian-defector-assad-poised-to-torture-and-murder-150-000-more.html#sthash.GtqLchZt.dpuf
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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
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Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
AP Analysis: Putin cornered over Ukraine
Associated Press
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
6 hours ago
YAHOO! NEWS
MOSCOW (AP) — For Russian President Vladimir Putin, there are few options left in the Ukraine crisis and they all look bad.
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He is caught between a determined West demanding that he disavow the pro-Russian insurgents in Ukraine and increasingly assertive nationalists at home urging him to champion the mutiny and send in the Russian army.
The Malaysian plane disaster this week triggered another round of U.S. and EU sanctions, which for the first time targeted entire sectors of the Russian economy, severely limiting Putin's room for maneuver. He may be eager to sever ties with the rebels, but he would need to find a way to do so that would allow him to save face — an exceedingly hard task amid growing Western pressure.
Bowing to Western demands would potentially spell political suicide for the Russian leader, who has built his popularity on standing up to the West. Under pressure, he may choose instead to escalate the crisis and risk an all-out confrontation.
Putin didn't plan for it to happen this way.
Last fall, he used a combination of pressure and subsidies to prevent Ukraine from signing an association agreement with the EU and lure it into a Moscow-led alliance. When mass protests chased the Russian-leaning Ukrainian president from power in February, Putin saw it as a Western plot against Russia and quickly moved to annex Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea to head off what he said was the imminent threat of Ukraine joining NATO.
Putin then sought to maintain pressure on the West by fomenting a pro-Russian insurgency that flared up in Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking industrial east in April, apparently hoping that a slow-burning conflict would help persuade the West to strike a compromise that would allow Russia to keep Ukraine in its orbit.
View gallery
Shrapnel damage on Malaysia plane consistent with missile …
A piece of wreckage from the Malaysia Airlines jet downed over Ukraine. The piece is seen near Petropavlivka village, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine Wednesday, July 23, 2014. The crash site, in territory held by the pro-Russian separatists accused by the Ukrainian government of shooting the plane down with a missile, remained unsecured five days after the disaster _ another source of frustration among foreign governments concerned about establishing the facts. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
Children walk past a piece of wreckage from the Malaysia Airlines jet downed over Ukraine, in Petrop …
That strategy has failed. The West, especially Europe, long showed unwillingness to take a strong punitive stand against Putin. But the downing of the Malaysian passenger plane was the unforeseen event that overturned the dynamic, and compelled the West to act.
It appears that the Russian leader now is desperately looking for a way out from the crisis in hopes of containing the gravest threat to his rule to date. Here are some possible scenarios that may play out:
RUSSIA STRIKES COMPROMISE
From the start, Putin wanted to a deal with a West that would allow Russia to maintain its leverage over Ukraine, and he has steadily tempered his ambitions.
At the onset of the turmoil, Putin hoped that Ukraine would join a Russia-dominated economic alliance. When such hopes evaporated with the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych, Moscow began pushing for a "federalization" of Ukraine that would give broad powers to its provinces and allow them to deal directly with Moscow. Rebels later backed those demands by conducting independence referendums that both Ukraine and the West declared a sham.
The Kremlin then softened its rhetoric and started calling vaguely for a "dialogue" between the central government and the regions that would give the provinces a bigger say over local issues.
Now with his hand weakened by the plane disaster, Putin may be eager to accept any vague deal that would allow Moscow to maintain just a symbolic degree of influence. Such a deal, however, would have to involve concessions by both parties, something that is hard to achieve amid continuing fighting and growing distrust.
The West has demanded that the Kremlin disown the rebellion in eastern Ukraine. While Putin may despise the ragtag band of retired Russian officers and Moscow political consultants that have helped foment the mutiny, it would be hard for him to distance himself from them without denting his support base.
The Malaysian plane disaster, however, could offer a face-saving way of publicly condemning the rebel leadership. If an international investigation confirms that the missile that downed the plane on July 17 was launched by the rebels, Putin may say that Russia can't support those who were responsible for the tragic death of nearly 300 innocent people. Such a statement could pave the way for talks.
MORE SANCTIONS PROVOKE TOUGH RESPONSE
Putin possibly fears that any concessions would only lead to more Western pressure and may choose to remain defiant. If he keeps refusing to distance himself from the rebels, the West will remain reluctant to engage in any talks. Fighting in the east, which already involves heavy artillery and rockets pummeling residential areas, will raise the pressure on Putin to intervene militarily.
Putin is already facing scathing criticism in Russian nationalist publications and online forums for betraying Russian speakers in Ukraine by failing to send in the army.
At some point, fearing that the damage to his popularity could become irreparable, Putin may send more weapons to the rebels. More Western sanctions will not stop his hand, but rather may push him into a situation where any compromise would look like kowtowing to the West.
Pressed against the wall, Putin may even decide to send troops into Ukraine. They would likely crush the weak and disorganized Ukrainian military within days. The West would be unlikely to intervene militarily, but it would freeze virtually all ties with Moscow, sending the Russian economy into a tailspin. Living standards will plummet quickly, possibly spawning social unrest.
GROWING TURMOIL, UNPREDICTABLE CONSEQUENCES
Some in the West may hope that the sanctions will encourage members of the Russian elites as well as the broad public to demand a change of course.
However, the tightly controlled Russian political system leaves little room for dissent. Billionaire tycoons, some of whom have close personal links to Putin, stand to lose a lot from Western sanctions and would like Putin to soften his policy. But hopes that they may somehow persuade the president to pull out of confrontation seem futile, as the oligarchs are too scared to form any kind of united group, and official loyalties are closely controlled by Putin's fellow KGB veterans who dominate the officialdom.
Many in Washington expected Putin's businessmen friends who were hit by U.S. sanctions in March to push him toward de-escalation. The opposite has happened. Instead of encouraging a pro-Western opposition, more sanctions will likely further strengthen the Kremlin hawks, who may push Putin toward an even more confrontational and isolationist course.
In a sense, the Russian leader has become hostage to his own propaganda that has cast the West as an enemy of Russia.
Putin's approval ratings so far have remained high, but if the economy starts collapsing under the brunt of Western sanctions his popularity would dwindle quickly. It doesn't mean, though, that pro-Western democratic forces would have any chance to expand their presence on Russia's political scene.
Amid the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions, the weak and disorganized Russian liberals have become increasingly marginalized, while extreme nationalist forces have strengthened considerably.
Economic meltdown would further allow nationalist groups to expand their sway, and Russian volunteers now fighting in eastern Ukraine may become an explosive element in a changing political equation.
The prospect of potential unrest could re-ignite fears that accompanied the 1991 Soviet collapse. Thousands of nuclear warheads, smoldering conflicts between a myriad of ethnic groups, separatist movements and crumbling industrial infrastructure that could lead to technological disasters make any instability in Russia deadly dangerous for the rest of the world.
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Isachenkov has covered Russia and other ex-Soviet nations for the AP since 1992.
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: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-analysis-putin-cornered-over-ukraine-161356582.html
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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
01082014
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Syrian defector testifies, shows House lawmakers graphic images of Assad torture
By Barnini Chakraborty
Published July 31, 2014
FoxNews.com
July 31, 2014: A Syrian defector who goes only by the name 'Caesar,' and who wore a hood to obscure his face, testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.FNC
WASHINGTON – EDITOR'S NOTE: The images linked in this story are of extremely graphic photographs of Syrian torture victims, which should be considered before viewing.
A Syrian defector who goes only by the name “Caesar” delivered dramatic and disturbing testimony Thursday to a congressional committee about the Assad regime's atrocities, sharing with lawmakers just a few of the thousands of photos he took showing prisoners who were brutally beaten, starved and murdered.
Dressed in a blue rain jacket with the hood up and tied tightly around his face to disguise his appearance, Caesar spoke before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about what he saw while working for Bashar al-Assad's army.
WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC IMAGES
Speaking through a translator, Caesar, a former military photographer, testified he had smuggled 50,000 photographs of 10,000 dissidents out of Syria with the help of family members. Thursday’s hearing is the first time he told his story in a public setting on American soil.
Several pictures -- some of which were turned into poster-size prints and displayed in the hearing room -- depicted emaciated corpses, the bony skeletal remains littered in dirt fields.
Other pictures were of young children and the elderly. One man had his left eye gouged out. Others showed deep wounds, marks from strangulation and “beatings that broke through bones,” Caesar said.
“I not only had access to my photographs but others taken by other photographers as well as the state,” he said through a translator.
Caesar said he knew he had to show the world the images but also “knew death would be my fate” if caught.
“But my work ethic, morals and religion did not allow me to be quiet,” he said.
Caesar's trip to the U.S. has been managed by the Coalition for a Democratic Syria – a Syrian-American umbrella organization that coordinates nonprofit groups in Washington aiding the Syrian opposition.
The photos Caesar showed offered lawmakers a rare glimpse of the human tragedy tied to Syria’s three-year-old civil war which has already claimed more than 170,000 lives, by one group's estimate.
“No one here can bring their lives back to them but I am here to tell you there are 150,000 people still incarcerated,” Caesar said, adding, “their fate will be the same fate as those I’ve taken pictures of.”
Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., who in March 2013 introduced the Free Syria Act which authorizes President Obama to provide “lethal assistance to carefully vetted members of the moderate Syrian opposition,” blamed the White House for not acting sooner.
“If we had taken that approach a year and a half ago, we may have been able to stem the growth of ISIS and weaken the regime of Bashar Assad,” he said.
Instead, Engel said America has failed in its pursuit of Assad.
“We had a responsibility to send a message to Assad that his criminal behavior would not be tolerated, but we didn’t,” he said. “Instead, here we are a year later, and we see new evidence of the Assad regime’s torture chambers and death squads.”
Obama has come under fire for cooling his once-strong Assad “must go” demands. Despite the situation in Syria falling of the media’s radar, the death toll in the country’s three-year civil war is escalating daily.
Fresh casualty figures from the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as reported by Reuters, say at least 700 people were killed in a 48-hour period two weeks ago that represented "the bloodiest fighting since the civil war began in 2011."
That same group put casualties at more than 171,509, as of July 8 -- though they believe the actual number could be much higher.
WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC IMAGES
READ MORE: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/07/31/syrian-defector-caesar-shows-lawmakers-thousands-pictures-assad-related-torture/
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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
01082014
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Sydney jihadist photographed with decapitated heads taunts police and threatens ‘surprise’ after warrant issued
Date
July 30, 2014
Tom Allard
THE AGE
The Sydney man photographed apparently holding the heads of decapitated rivals in Syria has scoffed that he will be arrested if he returns to Australia, saying he was not coming back even as he suggested that a terrorist plot was afoot here.
Former boxer Mohamed Elomar responded to news that the Australian Federal Police had issued arrest warrants for himself and associate Khaled Sharrouf – both of whom are fighting with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known asIslamic State) – by launching a flurry of messages on Twitter accounts that were subsequently shut down.
Taunting Australian law enforcement officials, Mr Elomar tweeted: "Don't worry ASIO there is plenty of work for you guys coming up." In another message, he said: "Did you think I would leave your country without leaving a surprise. Fireworks coming up soon keep a close eye."
Counterterrorism officials said they regarded the threats as scaremongering more than a disturbing revelation, notwithstanding the fact that both men are regarded as extremely dangerous.
Mr Elomar and Mr Sharrouf have been distributing increasingly horrific images via their social media accounts for months, including photos of dead men apparently assassinated by ISIL forces and the heads of dead men impaled on fence spikes.
The latter post was accompanied by a message from Mr Sharrouf: "bucket full of heads any1 in aus want some organs please dont be shy to ask I would love to assist u with body parts."
The gruesome photo of Mr Elomar holding two heads was posted by Mr Sharrouf and accompanied by the message: "few more heads how lovely bludy amazing stuff abuhafs [Elomar's Twitter handle] u keep on cutting those infidel throats but the last 1 is mine!"
The AFP had ample evidence beyond the photographs and tweets to charge the men, not least under foreign incursions and recruitment offences in the Crimes Act, which prevents Australians from taking part in overseas conflicts.
The crude and graphic tweets with their disturbing attempts at humour are typical of the social media messages used by foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, estimated to number as many as 15,000.
Australian security agencies believe there are 150 Australians currently in Iraq and Syria supporting the uprisings there, with about 60 actively fighting with Islamic extremist groups such as ISIL.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said: "I have a very strong message for any Australian who is thinking of going overseas to engage in guerrilla warfare, jihadism, anything of this nature: Don't do it. It is a serious crime.
"If you come back to Australia you will be arrested, you will be charged, you will be jailed."
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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
31072014
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
