Activists accused the government of trying to stage scenes for national TV from yesterday's explosion site in Damascus' Midan neighbourhood, after Syrian TV aired "unedited" footage by "mistake".
The first video below, aired on Syrian TV, shows what seems to be an injured man on the floor standing up just before the end of the shoot. The second video shows what activists alleged, a reporter placing "bags of vegetables" in the street to give the impression that some of the victims were people shopping in the nearby market. The third video, also taken from national TV, shows a person putting police shields in one of the damaged vans to portray that the victims in the vehicle were from the police force, according to activists. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuMdNDTbR_k&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYm91zdTgcs&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmkak8eReY4&feature=player_embedded --------------------- Dedacted from http://syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/ The Battle for Damascus! *Beyond the lies, the propaganda and the theatrics lies the simple truth of the increasing fragility and vulnerability of the Assad regime. The stalemate of the last few months is already given way to a slow but quite perceptible decay of the regime. The regime can still kill with impunity, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, but the tide is nonetheless shifting.* *Friday 6, 2012* *Todays death toll:* 36, in Hama, Deir Ezzor, Homs, Deraa and Rural Damascus. Assad official media allege that 26 have died in the Al-Qaeda attack that took place in Midan, and 63 were wounded. There were also reports of attacks in the Mazzeh Autostrad near the Iranian Embassy, but so far o word on casualties. This *Friday* is dedicated to the internationalization of the Syrian situation, in other words, protesters are demanding international intervention. *Links* *In Syria, peaceful protests but also signs of growing violence<http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2012/0106/In-Syria-peaceful-protests-but-also-signs-of-growing-violence-videos> * *Syria blames al-Qaida for Damascus bomb blast<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/06/syria-blames-al-qaida-damascus-bomb> * *Claim and Counterclaim: Who Is Bombing Damascus?<http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2103904,00.html?xid=rss-topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29> * *The Context* For weeks now, the regime has been losing control over the rural and suburban areas of Damascus, and of key neighborhoods within Damascus City itself. I have been trying to illustrate this for weeks now, but especially *here <http://syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/12/monitor-this.html> * and *here<http://syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-12-28T01:20:00-08:00&max-results=7> *. This is what I describe as a homsification process: the regime knows that it has lost control, and knows that regaining it requires conducting massive military operations that will involve tanks, armored vehicles, thousands of troops and, of course, random shelling of residential neighborhoods. By staging terrorist attacks in key neighborhoods that have grown restive over the last few months, the regime is seeking to create the necessary legitimating narrative for the eventual intervention it has been planning for a while. For the story of Damascus is no longer one of restive rural suburbs, rather, its a saga of restive neighborhoods and districts within Damascus proper. For this reason, the Assads War on Damascus is now unfolding and promises to be quite bloody. But then, no one has to take my word for it. All the world has to do is what it has exactly been doing for all the preceding weeks and months: kick back and watch the fireworks while debating the possibility of issuing more sanctions, and finding new justifications to avoid intervention. On the specifics of this event: had these attacks been real, the regime would have benefited from letting an independent commission investigate them, which would have required preserving the crime scene in each case for a few days/weeks to give time to such a commission to come and conduct its own inspection. But the regime opted for publicity: minutes after the attacks, it brought its own media to cover the scene live, then, it brought the few Arab and international journalists in the country, then, it undertook an extensive clean-up of the scene. Meanwhile, this is the message that the regime wanted to deliver: Sunni suicide bombers are killing unarmed Alawite law-and-order officers. International observers might take this with a grain of salt, if not sack-full of it, but international media will still have to cover it and there is enough fear, ignorance, stupidity, prejudice and private interests out there to turn attentions away, again, from the real crimes taking place throughout the country, all of which perpetrated by Assad loyalists, all of which can now be seen in a different light, if at all. As for the internal audience: the supporters will continue to supporters, the protesters will continue to protest, and the silent will remain silent. *In this entire clip of the scene shown by Syrian TV, we can see clearly that Assads scenarists have been working hard on their staging techniques since their last production. Still, not a single rifle or club can be seen. All the YouTube videos we have been receiving from protesters in the neighborhood since the beginning of the Revolution have consistently shown that loyalist security officers always come armed with clubs, rifles and Kalashnikovs. But in this clip, the only weapons we see are those carried by some of the rescuers who rushed in to save their comrades. Moreover, 20 seconds into the clip, we hear someone crying for his colleague Haydar. Haydar is an Alawite name. To the Alawites who constitute the main support base that the Assads have in the country, that call, and these scenes, must have hit home, just like the scenes of the massacres perpetrated against the protesters by their sons never did and will never do **http://youtu.be/yhmnhQZaxUc* <http://youtu.be/yhmnhQZaxUc>* When the event is not staged, this is what loyalists actually look like and this is how they behave **http://youtu.be/rX8lBxEy7z4* <http://youtu.be/rX8lBxEy7z4> * The clip is shot today in Central Damascus in the neighborhood of Kafar Sousseh, a 10 minutes ride from Midan (barring traffic). This clip is from Qudsayah, a suburb to the northwest of Damascus, also from today ** http://youtu.be/qXvErItPvIU* <http://youtu.be/qXvErItPvIU>* * * * *We should also bear in mind that Syrian TV was already present on the scene before the attack **http://youtu.be/8tJwLC_jWko*<http://youtu.be/8tJwLC_jWko> * Its not unusual for Addounia TV to send a reporter and a cameraman to the scene where anti-Assad rallies are expected to cover them in their own way, usually by shooting the empty side streets to claim that nothing have taken place, or to shoot protesters when they throw stones without showing what provoked them. But, it is not usual for Syrian TV to send an entire crew to the scene before anything has transpired. This clip was made by an activist **http://youtu.be/8tJwLC_jWko* <http://youtu.be/8tJwLC_jWko>*Also, this is the security cordon that existed in the area before the explosion **http://youtu.be/68t6LKFOnbY* <http://youtu.be/68t6LKFOnbY>* * * * *For its part, the Free Syrian Army simply does not use suicide bombers. In Hama City on this very Friday January 6, the same day of the alleged attacked in Midan, Al-Farouq Unit affiliated with the FSA blew up this bus carrying loyalist troops the old fashioned way: by using an RPG ** http://youtu.be/C_35uXlUvHw* <http://youtu.be/C_35uXlUvHw>* This is the kind of operations that Maj. Gen. Riyad al-Assad, head of the FSA was promising when he spoke a few days ago prosing surprises. * * * *The context then is clear. The subliminal messages are clear. The goals are clear. The stakes are as clear as they are high. And the war is unfolding. Powers across the worlds have stakes in the outcome, but no one will interfere. The situation is too complicated, they say, too inconvenient, and it will likely remain so until it is too late. * *But in reality, the situation is much simpler than thought .* despite the violent crackdown, the regime has not been able to prevail over the protesters the overwhelming majority of whom remain committed to nonviolent tactics. But the little armed resistance that has taken place has proven too daunting for the regime which has already lost control of Idlib, Homs, Hama, Deir Ezzor, Deraa and Rural Damascus. Yes, it is still putting up a fight and commit massacres, but the best it can achieve is establish control over certain municipal and security buildings in big cities, and retain the ability to carry out brief incursions into smaller communities to intimidate the local restive populations. In Hassakeh and Raqqah Governorates, the regime retains some control over the capital cities of Hassakeh and Raqqah, but the smaller communities, especially the Kurdish areas, have for the most part joined the protest movement. Rural Aleppo and certain neighborhoods in Aleppo City itself are quickly following suit. As for the coastal areas, they are nothing more than pressure cookers at this stage waiting for the right moment to explode. Moreover, and for all the concerns about minority rights, it is the diverse Sunni communities of Syria who have been suffering more than anybody else over the last few months, and the last few decades. In the coastal communities in particular, it is the Sunnis who have much to fear in terms of becoming victims of cold-blooded massacres and ethnic cleansing when the shit hits the fan. Still, the regime is clearly losing control, and if the attacks are not staged, then it is *really* losing control. ---------------------- Syria observers to be reinforced: Arab League AFP, Saturday 7 Jan 2012 The deputy chief of the Arab league deny that the organisation has plans to withdraw its observation mission from Syria A top Arab League official said on Saturday the group has no plans to withdraw its observers from Syria where they are charged with assessing whether the regime is keeping a deal to end the deadly violence. "No plan to withdraw the observers is on the agenda of the Arab ministerial committee meeting on Syria" in the Egyptian capital on Sunday, the pan-Arab body's deputy secretary general, Adnan Issa, told AFP. "We are not talking about a pull-out but reinforcing the mission," Issa added. He said there were now 153 observers in Syria with another 10 expected to arrive on Saturday from Jordan. "The Arab states want the observers to continue their mission, and that it be reinforced," he said. Activists have called for the League observer mission that has been in Syria since 26 December to admit its failure to stem the bloodshed in the crackdown on dissent and hand the task over to the United Nations. The world body estimated in December that more than 5,000 people have been killed in Syria since pro-democracy protests against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad erupted last March. Sunday's meeting in Cairo, where the Arab League has its headquarters, is expected to be briefed by the head of the observer mission. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/31118.aspx [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
