http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/07/obamas-good-cop-tactics-in-syria-exposed.html
Thursday, July 18, 2013 Obama's "Good Cop" tactics in Syria exposed! <http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fclaysbeach.blogspot.com%2F2013%2F07%2Fobamas-good-cop-tactics-in-syria-exposed.html&media=&description=&guid=t_U3z8vBExGB> <http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/> >From the beginning, US President Barack Obama, as the supreme leader of NATO, has talked a good game of support for Bashar al-Assad's opposition in Syria. He has played *"good cop"* to Putin's *"bad cop."* He has been helped immensely in this task by elements in the US Left, a majority I'm afraid, that have accused him of arming and, in fact, instigating, the Syrian opposition from the beginning. Of course, they have never produced anything like a shred of evidence to support these claims. Now as US weapons are finally showing up on the Syrian battlefield, but in the hands of those fighting for Assad<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/07/syria-pro-assad-militias-now-receiving.html>, David Ignatius, writing for the Lebanese Daily Star<http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2013/Jul-18/224069-syrians-learn-to-trust-the-us-at-their-own-peril> has done a very good job of chronologicalizing Obama's entirely predictable *"Good Cop"* betrayal of the Syrian Revolution: Syrians learn to trust the U.S. at their own peril July 18, 2013 12:58 AM One of the worst recurring features of U.S. foreign policy is a process that might bluntly be described as *seduction and abandonment.* Now its happening in Syria. The seduction part begins with an overeager rhetorical embrace. Nearly two years ago, on Aug. 18, 2011, President Barack Obama first proclaimed *the time has come for President Assad to step aside.* He didnt back up his call for regime change with any specific plan, but this hasnt stopped him from repeating the Assad must go theme regularly ever since. The next stage is a prolonged courtship with ever-deeper implied promises and commitments. The CIA began working with the Syrian opposition in 2011, and has been providing training and other assistance. When the Syrian opposition was wooed by other suitors (say, Turkey and Qatar), the United States chased those rivals away with renewed avowals of affection. Then comes the formal engagement. On June 13, the White House announced it would provide military aid to the Syrian opposition because the Assad regime had crossed a red line by using chemical weapons. The rebels began preparing warehouses to receive the promised shipments hopeful that at last the United States was serious about its intentions. And then? Well, this is a story of unhappy romance, so you know what comes next. Its what 19th-century English novelists called *the jilt.* To quote a New York Times story published last weekend, it turns out *that the administrations plans are far more limited than it has indicated in public and private.* Imagine for the moment that you are a Syrian rebel fighter who has been risking his life for two years in the hope that Obama was sincere about helping a moderate opposition prevail not just against Assad but against the jihadists who want to run the country. Now, you learn that Washington is having second thoughts. What would you think about Americas behavior? Let me quote from a message sent by one opposition member: *I am about to quit, as long as there is no light in the end of the tunnel from the U.S. government. At least if I quit, I will feel that I am not part of this silly act we are in.* A second opposition leader wrote simply to a senior American official: *I cant find the right words to describe this situation other than very sad. * An angry statement came this week from Gen. Salim Idriss, the head of the moderate Free Syrian Army. After the United Kingdom, like the U.S., backed away from supplying weapons, he told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: *The West promises and promises. This is a joke now ... What are our friends in the West waiting for? For Iran and Hezbollah to kill all the Syrian people? * More...<http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2013/Jul-18/224069-syrians-learn-to-trust-the-us-at-their-own-peril> The remains of what used to be a child's bedroom | 18 July 2013 <https://twitter.com/MouriKawji/status/357873865046761473> Here are two more pieces from today's news that highlights where the United States really stands with regards to the Syrian Revolution. >From PolicyMic we have this piece<http://www.policymic.com/articles/55099/in-syria-s-civil-war-are-the-cia-and-hezbollah-working-together-in-an-unholy-alliance> : In Syria's Civil War, Are the CIA and Hezbollah Working Together In An Unholy Alliance?Usman Butt 17 July 2013 Lebanese officials have confirmed<http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/07/15/196755/lebanese-officials-say-cia-warned.html#.UeaimWSDQUs> that they were tipped-off about a possible bomb attack in Beirut by the CIA. It is likely that the targets were senior and high-ranking Hezbollah officials. The CIA tip helped foil the plot. Islamist groups operating along the Syrian-Lebanese border are believed that have wanted revenge for Hezbollahs role<http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidesyria/2013/06/20136910716700762.html> in the re-taking of Al-Qusayr by Syrian President Bashar al-Assads forces. Hezbollah is a staunch ally of Syrias belligerent president and the battle of Al-Qusayr was the first time Hezbollah actively and openly fought alongside Assads forces. Hezbollah justified<http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/85405> their involvement by saying that they were defending the Arab world against the *"same Zionist plot,"* and that the *"road to Jerusalem passes through Al-Qusayr." * According to Lebanese officials, the CIA Beirut station chief passed on information obtained by the National Security Agency (NSA) to Lebanese intelligence, with the *"understanding"* that it would be passed onto Hezbollah. U.S. law prohibits direct contact between U.S. officials and the militant Lebanese Shia organization. Its alleged that groups *"linked"* to Al-Qaeda were planning to assassinate senior Hezbollah officials. Hezbollah acknowledged the warning and tightened security in Al-Dahiyya, a Hezbollah controlled suburbs in Beirut. One Hezbollah internal security commander told the Olympian, Yes, a warning came from the CIA. They passed us the information thought the Mukhabarat (Military Intelligence), but we had our own information about the bombs." The U.S. government has not yet commented on the matter, but Lebanese officials have said, that the NSA had intercepted phone calls being made by Al-Qaeda suspects based in Syria, Lebanon and an unnamed Gulf country. The information provided included location of potential suspects and movement of military-grade explosives. The Lebanese army carried out raids in the city of Aarsal, in-which, a number of different Arab nationals, including some from the Gulf, were arrested and explosive equipment sized. As a result of the information, Hezbollah has been conducting, overt security patrols and detaining suspicious people, likely Syrians. More...<http://www.policymic.com/articles/55099/in-syria-s-civil-war-are-the-cia-and-hezbollah-working-together-in-an-unholy-alliance> This article doesn't connect its revelation with the fact that US weapons have been recently spotted in the hands of Hezbullah fighters<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/07/syria-pro-assad-militias-now-receiving.html>, but it should. Writing in Al Arabia, Joyce Karam tells us<http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2013/07/18/Obama-in-no-rush-on-Syria.html> : US Advises French not to Arm Assad's Opposition Sources tell Al Arabiya that Syrias opposition has not received any of the arms shipments that U.S. President Barack Obama had pledged to vetted groups. Obstruction from Congress intelligence committees on funding such effort, has politically crippled the plan. Although the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is authorized to act alone in launching covert operations while allocating the money from other sections in its budget. While Washington has approved indirect arming by regional countries to the opposition, it has exercised its leverage in controlling what kind of arms cross the Syrian border. Sources say that the U.S. has recently advised the French government against selling an Arab country heavy arms that might end up in the hands of the Syrian opposition. It has also not provided key Arab governments like Saudi Arabia and UAE with an end user agreement on arms purchases they have made from the U.S. Without such an agreement, re-exporting these arms is not an option. EAWorldView has this piece<http://eaworldview.com/2013/07/syria-today-another-day-in-the-permanent-conflict/#kerry> today: US Secretary Of State On Syria No-Fly Zone: *I Wish It Was Very Simple* US Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday<http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57594290/syria-refugees-begging-john-kerry-for-no-fly-zone/> that Washington had *a lot of different options are under consideration* regarding helping the Syrian opposition in their battle against President Bashar al-Assad. Speaking during a visit to a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, Kerry addressed questions from refugees as to why the US had not established a no-fly zone over part of Syrian airspace. His response? *Its not as easy as it sounds. * I wish it was very simple. As you know, weve been fighting two wars for 12 years. We are trying to help in various ways, including helping Syrian opposition fighters have weapons. We are doing new things. There is consideration of buffer zones and other things but it is not as simple as it sounds, Kerry was quoted as saying. Kerry later told reporters that he empathized with Syrian refugees frustration because he felt the same way. More...-------------------------- -<http://eaworldview.com/2013/07/syria-today-another-day-in-the-permanent-conflict/#kerry> ---------------------- http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/ [image: They survived Assad’s strike on their home in Tabaqa, Raqqa (Syria), but their mother did not. Here is the video of the three kids being taken out of their home.]<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/image/56436828219> They survived Assads strike on their home in Tabaqa, Raqqa (Syria), but their mother did not. Here is the video of the three kids being taken out of their home. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q53ktDNv2QM <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/post/56436828219/they-survived-assads-strike-on-their-home-in> Posted 2 days ago <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/post/56436828219/they-survived-assads-strike-on-their-home-in> 56 notes <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/post/56436828219/they-survived-assads-strike-on-their-home-in>0 Comments and 0 Reactions<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/post/56436828219/they-survived-assads-strike-on-their-home-in#disqus_thread> Tagged: Syria <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Syria>, Tabaqa<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Tabaqa> , Raqqa <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Raqqa>, Assad<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Assad> , Bashar Al Assad <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Bashar-Al-Assad> , Children <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Children>, Arab Spring<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Arab-Spring> ,Revolution <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Revolution>, Revolt<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Revolt> . [image: A toddler killed by an Assad tank shell in Aleppo, Syria on July 24, 2013. ] <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/image/56433734279> A toddler killed by an Assad tank shell in Aleppo, Syria on July 24, 2013. <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/post/56433734279/a-toddler-killed-by-an-assad-tank-shell-in-aleppo> Posted 2 days ago <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/post/56433734279/a-toddler-killed-by-an-assad-tank-shell-in-aleppo> 10 notes <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/post/56433734279/a-toddler-killed-by-an-assad-tank-shell-in-aleppo>0 Comments and 0 Reactions<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/post/56433734279/a-toddler-killed-by-an-assad-tank-shell-in-aleppo#disqus_thread> Tagged: Syria <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Syria>, Aleppo<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Aleppo> , Tank <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Tank>, Attack<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Attack> , Child <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Child>, Toddler<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Toddler> , Baby <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Baby>, Assad<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Assad> , Bashar Al Assad <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Bashar-Al-Assad> , Dead <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Dead>, Photo<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Photo> , Revolution <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Revolution>, Arab Spring <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Arab-Spring>. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuwUedeJpEU ASSADS FORCES GET THEIR TARGET. A LITTLE BABY GIRL. Aleppo (Bustan Al Qasr): July 25, 2013 - Assads forces do what they do worst. They targeted a busy marketplace killing at least 11 people. Among them this toddler. The man in the video asks Assad if this girl was an armed terrorist who warranted being targeted like this. Thanks @aleppomediacent <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/post/56430825811/assads-forces-get-their-target-a-little-baby> Posted 2 days ago <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/post/56430825811/assads-forces-get-their-target-a-little-baby> 13 notes <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/post/56430825811/assads-forces-get-their-target-a-little-baby>0 Comments and 0 Reactions<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/post/56430825811/assads-forces-get-their-target-a-little-baby#disqus_thread> Tagged: Syria <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Syria>, Syrian Revolution <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Syrian-Revolution>, Revolution <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Revolution>, Revolt<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Revolt> , Aleppo <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Aleppo>, Bustan Al Qasr<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Bustan-Al-Qasr> ,Dead <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Dead>, Child<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Child> , Martyr <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Martyr>, Assad<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Assad> , Tank <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Tank>, Bashar al Assad<http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/Bashar-al-Assad> , News <http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/tagged/News>. Against All Odds » <http://www.majalla.com/eng/2013/07/article55243748> The women in one Syrian city succeed in keeping their protest movement alive The women of Salamia, Syria, defy the threat of government reprisal by continuing their opposition sit-ins week in, week out. The movement has suffered many setbacks, but the women continue to express their resistance within their homes. [image: image] Every Saturday, a group of women in Salamia, a city in western Syria, meet to discuss the events of the past week in relation to the two-year uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad. The women, who oppose the Syrian government, draft a political statement expressing their views. They print out the document and distribute it in the streets of their city, as well as publishing it online for all the world to see. At one of the sit-ins earlier this month, Khozama was one of the roughly ten women who read out a statement<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y3P2ssOjVE> in solidarity with the female political prisoners at Syrias Adra Prison. The prisoners had just begun a hunger strike amid demands for fair trials, among other things. The week before, Salamias female protesters expressed<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7CeEdaeM2o>their desire for a civil democratic state. Though she lives in Damascus, Khozama, whose full name has been concealed to protect her identity, returns to her home town of Salamia in Hama governorate every Thursday. On Friday afternoons, she joins a group of approximately fifty protesters in an anti-Assad regime demonstration. On Saturdays, she meets with the citys female opposition before returning home. The Salamia womens movement is distinct in that the women did not stop protesting publicly, holding sit-ins, and participating in other forms of nonviolent resistance despite the regimes strict control of the city, Khozama said in an online interview. Even when revolutionary activity in the city declined, the women were determined to keep going out, and they motivated the guys to join them. Although supporters of the current government have tried to paint the uprising as a sectarian, Sunni-Shia conflict since its infancy, the people of Salamia, most of whom belong to the countrys Ismaili minority, claim to defy that narrative. (Ismailis belong to the Shia branch of Islam.) Ismaili and Sunni Muslims joined the large-scale protest movement against President Assad just ten days after its birth on March 15, 2011. Though the city rarely gets any media coverage in the heavily covered conflict, they have not stopped. Women have taken part since the very beginning. Khozama, who is forty years old, said she was one of five women who joined the thirty-person protest<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dGi6sLOyqQ> on March 25, 2011. The protests grew week on week, she said, and eventually the women got to know each other well. Three months into the revolution, they began meeting independently and they established a committee for the women of Salamia, through which they planned various anti-government activities. When refugees began flowing in to Salamia from Hama and Homs, the women organized relief efforts, including arranging accommodation and preparing monthly baskets of food for the new arrivals. They also reached out to other female activists across the country, though they failed in their attempts to establish a national Syrian womens coalition. According to Khozama, the increasing violence in the country and the forcible displacement of people were among the reasons for the failure, as they made it difficult to coordinate efforts across the country. Khozama believes the women of the city have led the way for other women in the revolution. They were the first women to take to the streets against the Assad government, and they were the first group to establish an exclusively female revolutionary group. She also said they have continued to participate in all kinds of anti-government activities in most Syrian cities for the past twenty-eight months; she is active in both Salamia and Damascus. Nursing is the one area where Khozama sees the women of Salamia as lacking. Syrian women across the country have adopted the role of treating the wounded. But there are no female nurses in Salamia, because we dont need it, she said. The city is still safe. Her insistence on Salamias safety is surprising, since over the past eighteen months the armed elements of the Syrian uprising have overshadowed its nonviolent beginnings. In March 2012, the Independent Syrian Center for Protest Statistics <https://www.facebook.com/iscsp2012> documented close to 700 protests on Fridays, known to be the day of protest. This summer, the number has dwindled down to less than 100. According to the United Nations, the Syrian death toll has reached 100,000. More than 4 million people have been internally displacedincluding many who have come to Salamia from other citiesand many parts of the country have been reduced to rubble. These factors have all led to the decline of civil resistance, but Salamia has not given up. Women make up at least half of the crowd at its weekly protests. The women were the catalyst that kept the protest movement alive when security forces began cracking down, said Aziz, a 26-year-old activist who lives in Salamia. Us guys used to see them go out, and we would be motivated to join them. Khozama admitted that the relative safety of Salamia compared to other Syrian cities has helped maintain their civil resistance. As of yet, Salamia has not come under heavy attack by the government, ostensibly because the armed opposition has no presence there. Assads forces have been known to retaliate against areas housing opposition fighters by fiercely bombarding them. While many of Salamias men have taken up arms, they have joined battalions that operate outside the city, wanting to spare it the unnecessary violence and destruction witnessed across Syria, including in nearby villages. But that does not mean that the womens movement in Salamia has been without its problems. Khozama, a separated mother of two, recalled an incident that took place about a year into the uprising. We were standing in the main square, carrying signs demanding freedom for the regimes female detainees, when the [director of Salamia] came and hit one of the girls, Khozama said. She hit him back, and then the *Shabiha* [paramilitary forces] came and started hitting us and we hit them back as well. As security tensions in the city increased, Aziz said, the men began fearing for the women and asked them to stop going out publicly. His fiancée, whose identity he chose not to reveal, was once an active member of the protest movement. But after her name was added to the governments wanted list in September 2011, she snuck out of the country. Her family was eventually able to clear her name, and she returned to Salamia about a month ago. We dont allow her to go out anymore, Aziz said. We fear for her. The fear never goes away. Despite the danger, he does still encourage womens participation in the protests. The presence of educated, secular women working toward a civil society is invaluable, he said. Salamia is one of the few areas where women continue to play a role in demonstrations and on the ground. Azizs former high school teacher, who goes by the nom de guerre Ornina, is one of these educated women. She believes that the women of Salamia are at the forefront of the Syrian female opposition movement, due to the fact that they are highly educated and are active members of society. Many people tried pushing me away from revolutionary work out of fear of arrest, and because everyone knows what happens to female detainees, she said. But I tell them, no matter what happens, I will remain free. I have been beaten by [government forces], but my voice cannot be silenced. Orninas daughter was once arrested by regime forces, as was Khozamas 63-year-old mother: in March, her mother was detained for a week for participating in and initiating anti-government protests and, according to Khozama, she was subject to abuse. I will remain free. I have been beaten by [government forces], but my voice cannot be silenced Khozama prides herself on coming from a politically active family. Her father, who was a two-time political prisoner under Hafez Al-Assads government and who was arrested twelve times during the current uprising, encouraged his wife to continue protesting upon her release from prison. But Khozama cannot ignore the fact that fear of reprisal from government forces has indeed suppressed the womens movement. The at-home sit-ins are no replacement for our protests in the streets, but they are safer, she said, referring to the weekly meetings held by the citys women in which they film themselves holding up signs and reading a statement. We began meeting indoors out of fear of arrest by security forces. They have a choking grip on the city, and the sit-ins are one way the women can continue their civil resistance. The women have seen their personal lives and relationships impacted as well. Many of Orninas friends and colleagues stand with the government. Some of them respect my opinions and let me be, she said. But others try to bring me down, and others attack me. Some of them use obscenities when referring to the Syrian opposition, and others have told me they await my death at the hands of the *Shabiha*. Despite this abuse, she said, I will revolt, until victory or until death. By Maryam Saleh <http://www.majalla.com/eng/author/maryam-saleh> Maryam Saleh is SyrianAmerican. 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