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Greetings citizens of the world, I am happy to announce that our statement */"Hands off Syria" /**means Russia too* <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/please-join-us-by-signing-this.html> is now available in seven languages: [English] <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/please-join-us-by-signing-this.html> [Italian] <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/giu-le-mani-dalla-siria-vale-anche-per.html> [German] <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/hande-weg-von-syrien-gilt-auch-fur.html> [Spanish] <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/manos-fuera-de-siria-se-aplica-tambien.html> [Arabic] <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/blog-post.html> [Russian <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/blog-post_19.html>] and [French] <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/pas-dinterventions-en-syrie-sapplique.html> I am asking that you join with people from over the world in signing this statement and standing with us in opposing all military attacks on civilian targets. Russia has already bombed five hospitals in Idlib province with no admission of responsibility and no apology. Putin is fighting to keep in power the most homicidal regime we have seen in many decades. My second ask is that you reach into your pocket to help a couple of Syria refugees in Kusel, Germany. Basel Abdulla Watfa is a Syrian from Homs that volunteered his services as professional translator to Linux Beach in the past. He has translated a number of my most important pieces into Arabic and he has translated a number of important pieces coming out of Syria into English, allowing Linux Beach to share them with a wider audience. I hadn't communicated with him for over a year and when I reached out to him for a Syrian translation of our statement, he brought today's headlines about the Syrian refugee crisis home to me in a very personal way. He responded through his smart phone from a refugee camp in Kusel in the west of Germany. When last I had contact with him, he was already a refugee in Egypt and his girlfriend, Luna, and brother had just been arrested in Damascus by the Assad regime. His brother was released in a matter of weeks but Luna, who is a journalist and photographer and had been working with the Violations Documentation Center to document Assad's chemical massacres in East Ghouta in 2013, was being charged with /"leaking fake photos of chemical massacre to foreign parties." /Although I didn't know it at the time, she was the author of an important report in the sarin attack that Basel translated, and I published under the title Witness to CW Attack: When Paradise turned to Hell <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/09/witness-to-cw-attack-when-paradise.html>. She was held in Assad's torture gulag for more than a year. After she was released she reunited with Basel in Turkey and after some months they decide to risk the rubber /"death boat" /because they think their chances of reuniting with Luna's two sons will be better there. Now they are living in a tent with 250 other Syrian refugees. Although Basel has just seen his first professional book translation published a few months ago, he had to leave his laptop, and much else, behind when they took the boat from Germany and they have no Internet where they are. They carefully documented their refugee journey from Syria to Germany in pictures and video, and Luna has begun to document her experiences in Assad prison on this wordpress site <https://baselluna.wordpress.com/>. They now want to make this material available to the world. These two Syrian freedom fighters have contributed much already and have so much more to contribute that when I heard about their situation, I thought, /"Its time for another GoFundMe campaign."/ But not for me this time. I am doing quite well now and I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who contributed to my two fund raising campaigns in 2014. You allowed me to survive a particularly difficult period in my life and arrive a place where I'm in a position to give back more than ever. Now I'm asking you to do this again. This time for Luna and Basel Walfa. See this blog post for more about Basel & Luna and for the link to the GoFundMe campaign <https://www.gofundme.com/7z6m5qq4>: Basel & Luna made it from Syria to Germany safely but they still need your help <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/basel-luna-made-it-from-syria-to.html> In Solidarity, Clay Claiborne -- Clay Claiborne, Owner Cosmos Engineering Co. <http://CosmosEng.com/> 116 Rose Ave, Ste. 9 Venice Beach, CA 90291 (310)581-1536 (323) 219-6507 cell _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
