[The first one below is a statement released by the organisation on January 20th, this year, the day Donald Trump took oath as the new US President.
The second one is a testimony by an individual - Volunteer at Syrian American Medical Society- SAMS, Board Member at Illinois State Board of Health and Founder at American Relief Coalition for Syria - in the wake of the the latest chemical attack against the opposition, this time in Khan Sheikhoun in the rebel-controlled Idlib area of Syria. The third, and the last, one is from a a news and information website (no way known to be connected with the Syria Solidarity International or any such other organisation).] I/III. https://www.facebook.com/AssadOut/posts/709302565896741 Syria Solidarity International 20 January “Answer” Trump's Racism & Islamophobia: Build Solidarity with the Syrian Democratic Revolution! Democracy is the Alternative to the Phony War on Terror, Sectarian Violence and Dictatorships! The handover of power in Washington DC this week will inaugurate a deeply unpopular president-elect Trump into the White House, and a new era of unprecedented threats to hard-won civil liberties and basic democratic rights across the country. Trump has capitalized on economic despair and justified anger against trade deals that hurt working people, and is attempting to channel this ire into a narrow chauvinist fervor, blaming the country’s woes on marginalised groups and public policies that benefit the poor. People of color, women, Muslims, immigrants, working people, and the poor now face immediate threats, including the proposed roll-backs of hard-won civil liberties, health care, public education, environmental protection, social safety net provisions, and basic democratic rights. A new era of necessary defensive domestic battles - against these losses, and the looming threat of fascism - is upon us! This new era also poses grave challenges for supporters of peace and justice internationally. Trump’s aggressive and jingoistic isolationism is a threat to democratic and civil liberties around the world. His demagogic threats to wall off Mexico, arrest and deport millions of immigrants, and treat all Muslims as potential terrorists must be repudiated as assaults on fundamental human rights and democratic liberties. Trump’s praise of Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin is a clear indication that he will continue the phony “War on Terror”, even escalating the attacks on civilians. The Trump-Putin “bromance” also constitutes a dangerous approval of Putin’s very real campaign of terror, from the occupied Caucasus to Syria. Principled opposition to the War on Terror must be based on a rejection of all attacks against civilians. We cannot oppose the War on Terror while being silent about Putin’s methods of genocide in Ichkeria, Russian occupied Chechnya, and Putin’s intervention to defend the 46-year Assad dictatorship in Syria against the popular uprising for freedom and democracy, which began in 2011 as part of the immensely hopeful Arab Spring. Bashar al-Assad’s sectarian-focused genocide, which targets Syria’s majority Sunni Muslim population, has murdered more than 500,000 people, and driven some 12-million (more than half the population) from their homes. Six years ago, teenagers spray-painted slogans calling for Assad to step down; the regime has responded with ferocious repression, burning Syria, burying civilians in rubble, and dismissing the victims as “terrorists”. Assad is the terrorist! Assad is responsible for the humanitarian crisis! Assad is an unacknowledged junior partner in the phony, US-led “War on Terror”. Trump promises to continue the “War on Terror” in Syria and around the world, in partnership with Putin and Assad! It is hardly surprising that Trump seeks a closer relationship with Putin, whose air force has rescued the Assad regime from the brink of collapse by raining tens of thousands of bombs on civilians, hospitals, and children. The savage repression of all opposition to the Assad regime has driven more than 6-million Syrian refugees to flood the shores of Europe, feeding the xenophobic dystopian fears that have enabled significant electoral victories for Europe’s far-right, paving the way to Brexit, and rolling out the red carpet for Trump to move from his gilded penthouse in Manhattan to the White House. Now Trump and his far-right advisors hope to entrench their right-wing project across the globe - much of it under the bloody farce of the “War on Terror” - in alliance with Putin and puppet fascist regimes like Assad’s and Kadyrov’s. We must stand together on the firmest of principles: An injury to one is an injury to all! Solidarity with the struggle for democracy at home and abroad!! We can only stop fascism at home by standing against fascism everywhere! We can only fight for democracy at home by fighting for democracy everywhere! There is a great deal we can do if we stand together to stop Trump’s agenda. But we can only do this from a position of principled solidarity with the democratic struggles of the Arab people - and in particular, the Syrian Democratic Revolution! Sadly, the antiwar coalitions we build together in struggle against the Bush-era wars have been coopted by leaderships who seek to substitute isolationism --Trump’s program!--for international solidarity with democratic struggles and principled opposition to attacks on civilians. Leaderships such as UNAC and ANSWER do not understand that peace,justice, and democracy are international principles, that these principles should never be surrendered! The leaderships of the ANSWER Coalition, UNAC and other remnants of the broad Anti-War Movement built in opposition to Bush and Clinton’s criminal war against the Iraqi people, propose to ANSWER US wars abroad and repression at home by supporting Russian imperialism and Assad’s repression! These organisations have stood resolutely in defence of the Assad dictatorship, and support the intervention in Syria by Russia, Iran and its proxy militias, including Hezbollah. To oppose US imperialism, ANSWER and the like support sectarian genocide and the disintegration of Syria! Ironically, by apologizing for the regime’s crimes against humanity, ANSWER and the like have resorted to the same arguments used by Israel to justify its terrorist attacks on civilians in Gaza or by previous administrations to dismiss civilian casualties as “collateral damage”. Worse still, by repeating Assad’s lies that all who oppose him are terrorists, ANSWER and company have adopted Orientalist and Islamophobic rhetoric. Even as they exclude Syrians from speaking about their revolutionary experience and Assad’s repression, ANSWER and their followers propose themselves to lead the fight against racism, sexism, Islamophobia and xenophobia! Hypocrisy! It is high time to Listen to Syrians! To stop Trump and his ilk leading us into the abyss of fascism, we must cut off the tree at its root! The root from which this right-wing shift in the world has grown includes the isolation of the Syrian democratic revolution - an unacceptable injustice vigorously promoted by the very forces who today pretend to lead our resistance! Leaving the Syrian revolution behind cannot be the way forward! How can we fight racism in the US while asserting Arabs must choose between dictators or jihadists? Who is ANSWER to choose for them! Orientalist and Islamophobic garbage! Chauvinism! The same kind of vicious logic was once used in an attempt to discipline African Americans and postpone their struggle for civil liberties until after defeating fascism in WWII. How can we fight sexism in the US, while allowing Assad and Putin to barrel bomb hundreds of thousands of women and children, drive millions of others out of their homes, and torture thousands of women - with techniques including rape - for supporting the revolution? How can we fight Islamophobia - and particularly Trump’s specific anti-Syrian Islamophobia - in the US, while accepting a discourse that erases millions of Syrian revolutionaries who have fought and risked everything for freedom and democracy, and insists instead that “they are all terrorists”? How can we fight xenophobia and defend the rights of immigrants in the US, while ignoring and even supporting the fascist Assad dictatorship and its allies, who have created a massive humanitarian crisis, driving millions from their homes under the force of barrel bombs and chemical weapons. The regime’s paramilitary gangs fight under the slogan “Assad or we burn the country.” How can this be tolerated? How can we protect and build democracy in the US, while apologizing for war crimes and crimes against humanity of genocidal proportions committed by the regimes of Assad and Putin? The real “ANSWER” is that we cannot! Our failure as the broad progressive forces of the US to defend our Syrian sisters and brothers these past six years has contributed greatly to the crisis we face here today. As we respond in disbelief and even horror to the prospect of what lies before us, let us remember that we have barely begun to feel anything remotely close to the repression Syrians have faced for the last 40+ years! The fight to defend civil and democratic rights in the US must begin and walk forward side by side in solidarity with the Syrian democratic revolution! The Syrian revolutionaries have shown international solidarity in their own struggle. Even as they struggle against the Assad regime, Syrians have built solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. As their own struggle has grown into the current revolutionary struggle for democracy, they have publicly expressed solidarity with other democratic struggles. The banners and signs raised in Kafranbel and other liberated areas have specifically expressed support for Black Lives Matter, the #NoDAPL struggle against the invasion of and environmental threats to Native American lands, and for the rights of refugees and immigrants, Syrians stand together with all refugees and immigrants, in the US and beyond, seeking safe harbor and a place to rebuild their lives. WE CALL ON ALL PROTESTERS DEMANDING PEACE AND JUSTICE IN THE US TO STAND TOGETHER WITH SYRIANS DEMANDING THE SAME IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY! WE CALL ON ALL WHO STAND AGAINST FASCISM IN THE US TO STAND WITH THE SYRIAN DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION AGAINST THE FASCISM OF THE ASSAD REGIME AND ITS FOREIGN BACKERS FROM RUSSIA, IRAN AND HEZBOLLAH! WE CALL ON ALL WHO FIGHT FOR AN END TO WAR AND MILITARISM TO STAND AGAINST ALL WAR AND MILITARISM - EVEN WHEN THE MAIN PERPETRATORS ARE NOT “OUR OWN”! WE CALL ON ALL PEACE AND JUSTICE ACTIVISTS TO DEMAND AN END TO THE PHONY US-LED “WAR ON TERROR” - AND TO EXPOSE THE PHONY “RESISTANCE” THAT SEEKS TO REHABILITATE THIS WAR! WE DEMAND: STOP THE BOMBING! END THE SIEGES! DROP FOOD NOT BOMBS! ASSAD AND HIS REGIME OUT NOW! IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS & ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE DISAPPEARED! BRING THE TORTURERS AND WAR CRIMINALS TO JUSTICE! REFUGEES & IMMIGRANTS WELCOME! STOP RACISM! STOP SEXISM! NO FASCISM ANYWHERE! DEMOCRACY FOR ALL! ISSUED ON 20 JANUARY, 2017 BY: SYRIA SOLIDARITY INTERNATIONAL - A COALITION OF SYRIA SOLIDARITY ACTIVISTS AND ORGANISATIONS WORKING TO BUILD A UNITED INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT WITH THE SYRIAN DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION. II/III. https://www.facebook.com/AssadOut/posts/709302565896741 Zaher Sahloul 15 hrs · The Globe and Mail - Connect I testified at the United Nations Security Council multiple times about chlorine attacks, slow death from sieges, attacks on medical facilities and about my last medical mission to #Aleppo. UN ambassadors had tears in their eyes as I spoke. There were strong words of condemnation. There were multiple resolutions and hundreds of reports. There were joint investigating missions that assigned clear responsibility at the Syrian regime and the Islamic State for several chemical attacks. But two things were lacking: the implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and accountability. More important, there were no improvements on the ground. Syrians continued to suffer and children continued to die unnecessarily. One day before this week’s chemical attack, the largest nearby hospital, operated by the @Syrian Syrian American Medical Society- SAMS, was bombed out of service by #Syrian and #Russian jets: A sinister plan to cause as many deaths as possible by first taking hospitals out of service. On Thursday, U.S. President Donald J. Trump approved a missile attack directed at the airfield from which the Syrian jets took off to drop nerve gas on the civilians of #KhanSheikhoun while they slept. I am no fan of Mr. Trump, but what he said was right on target: “Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered. No child should ever suffer such horror.” I, like many, hope that all Syrian children will finally have the chance to dream of a day when they can play in the streets, go to school and breathe fresh air. III. http://heavy.com/news/2017/04/idlib-attack-chemical-gas-graphic-photos-khan-sheikhoun-is-syria-bombing-isis-al-qaida-uncensored/ Syria Chemical Weapon Attack in Idlib: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know Published 2:21 pm EDT, April 8, 2017 Updated 1:13 am EDT, April 9, 2017 By Jessica McBride Syrians bury the bodies of victims of a a suspected toxic gas attack in Khan Sheikhun, a nearby rebel-held town in Syrias northwestern Idlib province, on April 5, 2017. (Getty) The chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhoun in the rebel-controlled Idlib area of Syria has horrified the world. (Warning: Some of the photos in this article are graphic.) It was also the pretext given by President Donald Trump for launching missiles to destroy a Syrian airfield. The American president says that airfield was used to stage the earlier gas attack that killed men, women, and children. On April 8, apparently undeterred, the Syrian government launched another attack on Khan Sheikhoun (sometimes called Shikhun), in Idlib province. The regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and his Russia allies claim they are bombing ISIS and other terrorists; the U.S. accuses Syria of using ISIS as a cover to brutally clamp down on anti-Assad rebels in the Syrian Civil War. What’s really going on in Idlib? What is Idlib and where is it located? Is ISIS there? What happened in the chemical gas attack? Is Syria bombing ISIS? Here’s what you need to know: 1. The Poison Gas Smelled Like ‘Rotten Eggs’ as it Wafted Through the Town, Killing Small Children idlib attack, syrian attack, syrian chemical attack photo An unconscious Syrian child receives treatment at a hospital in Khan Sheikhun, a rebel-held town in the northwestern Syrian Idlib province, following a suspected toxic gas attack on April 4, 2017. (Getty) The stories coming out of Idlib – and the town of Khan Sheikhoun within it – are horrific and have outraged the world. Idlib (sometimes called Idleb) is a northern province in Syria. According to Al-Jazeera, at least 86 people died and hundreds more were sickened, “including people foaming at the mouth” after the chemical weapons attack on April 4. The UN is investigating the attack as a war crime, and many – including Trump – blame Assad. According to Al-Jazeera, Syria and its Russian ally deny responsibility. Al-Jazeera reports that Assad claims “the Syrian army had bombed a warehouse belonging to rebels that contained chemical weapons,” a claim the rebels deny. Amnesty International has been gathering detailed accounts about what happened in Khan Sheikhoun. A senior director of research for Amnesty International laid the blame at the feet of Syria and Russia, writing on the site’s website, “Security Council members, and in particular Russia and China, have displayed callous disregard for human life in Syria by repeatedly failing to pass resolutions that would allow for punitive measures to be taken against those committing war crimes and other serious violations in Syria.” Amnesty argues the victims were likely poisoned by the nerve agent, Sarin, and many died while sleeping in their beds. According to the humanitarian organization, it has authenticated 25 videos of the attack, which show horrors, including people with pinpoint pupils, “twitching and jerking movements,” and trembling. “One piece of footage, which Amnesty International has corroborated with other available content, shows nine children lying lifeless in the back of a pick-up truck. The children, little girls and boys, are naked or partially dressed; they appear to have died in their bed,” reports the organization. One of the most horrific images to circulate around the world showed a father cradling his two deceased twins. A nurse told the organization he heard a thump like something was dropped, and then patients started coming into the hospital. The nurse told Amnesty International, “The smell reached us here in the centre; it smelled like rotten food. We’ve received victims of chlorine attacks before – this was completely different. Victims had vomit from the nose and mouth, a dark yellow colour, sometimes turning to brown. Paralysis in respiratory functions – children were dying faster than adults because of this. We tried injections … but it just didn’t work. Victims were unable to swallow, they were unconscious, completely unresponsive.” 2. Trump Says the Airfield Was Used to Stage the Attack & Khan Sheikhoun Was Already Struck Again The Trump missile attack on Syria. (Twitter) Trump struck the airfield with missiles in the wake of the chemical attack, saying the air base was used to stage the attack and describing how children had perished in it. No “child of God” should have to suffer such horrors, the American president said. If the Trump air strikes were intended to get Syria to back off the people of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib, that isn’t happening. It took the Syrians all of two days to regroup and hit the town again, CNN reports. At least it appears that way. According to CNN, new airstrikes “targeted the town” on April 8, and only Syria and Russia conduct airstrikes in the region. A woman was killed in a residential neighborhood and others were injured during the new strikes, reported CNN, adding that it wasn’t clear where they were launched from since the airfield was demolished by Trump’s missiles. 3. Idlib Was the Rebels’ ‘Final Stronghold’ in the Fight to Topple Assad Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. (Getty) Why Idlib? What’s the reason that Assad is focusing the tip of his spear there? It’s a rebel hotbed, and, in 2016, was regarded as the rebellion’s final stronghold against the Syrian leader. In late December, the rebels lost Aleppo, which was regarded as a strategic prize, according to ABC News, because it was “the most densely populated and prosperous region under their control” and even a “de facto capital.” ABC News reports that the government took back Aleppo because, with the help of Russian air cover, it cut the supply link between Aleppo and Turkey and then hammered the city. How does Idlib fit in? According to ABC News, Idlib is the neighboring province of Aleppo, and it’s the location where the rebel fighters and families were bused to after Aleppo was seized back by Assad. ABC News reported, “Idlib still has a strong supply line from neighboring Turkey but as a strategic base it is deeply compromised.” The network says it’s “home to a large displaced population” and is dominated by “two extremist groups.” Which brings us back to the Syrian and Russian claims that Assad is bombing ISIS. 4. Both Extremist Groups & Moderate Rebels Fight in the Same Area khan sheikhoun, idlib, syria chemical attack, syria attack, syria gas attack Bodies lie in the parking area of a hospital in Khan Sheikhun, a rebel-held town in the northwestern Syrian Idlib province, following a suspected toxic gas attack on April 4, 2017. (Getty) So what’s the truth? Is Syria really bombing religious-focused terrorists? Or is it using that angle as a cover story to stifle the rebellion so the secular Assad can maintain control of the country? According to ABC News, at least two extremist groups are active in Idlib: Ahrar al Sham and Jabhat Fateh al Sham (JFS), which was founded by Al-Qaeda. It gets really complicated. “More moderate rebels and the extremists” are “crammed now into just one major redoubt,” reported ABC News. Ahrar al-Sham is also known as “Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya, or the Islamic Movement of the Free Men of the Levant,” according to Stanford University. Stanford describes the group as “a Sunni Salafist militant group operating in Syria that aims to replace the Assad Regime with an Islamic government.” The group was founded by men Assad had imprisoned but released during the Arab Spring. According to Stanford, the group worked with ISIS until January 2014, when ISIS killed one of its fighters after its leader, Hassan Abboud “criticized IS commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi for rejecting reconciliation efforts between Syrian Sunni militant groups and classifying other jihadists as infidels.” In response, the organization pushed ISIS out of Raqqa. Stanford says it has pioneered the use of IEDs in Syria and targets military bases. Jabhat Fateh al Sham cut its ties to Al-Qaeda in 2016, reported BBC. According to BBC, “The former Nusra front was formed at the end of 2011, the result of al-Qaeda in Iraq’s leader (and now leader of so-called Islamic State (IS)) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ordering Abu Muhammed al-Julani to organise jihadist groups in the region.” The group has claimed it was behind suicide bombings and rejected an overture to align with ISIS, choosing to align with Al-Qaeda instead, reported BBC. Idlib was its power base, according to BBC, which reports, “By the summer of 2015, the Nusra Front controlled most of Idlib province, including the capital, establishing Sharia courts and taking over government services.” These two extremist groups, reports BBC, “were key to taking over Idlib from the Syrian government,” but they are mostly Syrian fighters, not foreign Jihadis. 5. Moderate Groups Are Also Operating in Idlib syria gas attack A Syrian child receives treatment at a small hospital in the town of Maaret al-Noman following a suspected toxic gas attack in Khan Sheikhun, a nearby rebel-held town in Syrias northwestern Idlib province, on April 4, 2017. (Getty) The rebel groups do not all get along, according to Al-Jazeera. The news site reported that “six armed opposition factions in Syria” joined Ahrar al-Sham, “one of the country’s largest rebel groups.” They did so after Jabhat Fateh al-Sham “attacked their positions in Idlib and Aleppo provinces,” reported Al-Jazeera. Also in the mix: The Free Syrian Army. Hareetz reports that the The Free Syrian Army “began with a core group of senior officers who defected from the Syrian army and recruited thousands of soldiers and civilians.” It was believed that the Army – affiliated with Turkey – could overthrow Assad but three years ago, the Free Syrian Army fractured into “six large militias, which are organized into brigades and battalions that operate in a number of areas in Syria without a central command,” reports Haaretz. The Free Syrian Army is helping Turkey fight ISIS, reports Haaretz. Jessica McBride is a Heavy contributor. She was a crime, government, and breaking news reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and reporter for the Waukesha Freeman newspaper. Her award-winning work has appeared in numerous magazine, newspaper, and online publications. She has also appeared as a crime reporter on Investigation Discovery Channel, History Channel, and Oxygen Channel. She can be reached by email at [email protected]. April 9, 2017 1:13 am -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
