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By Shamus Cooke

“Assad’s days are numbered” – President Obama, February 2012

Living in denial is the easiest way to avoid hard truths, but it’s a horrible way for a government to conduct foreign policy. Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry recently scoffed at the elections in Syria, calling them “meaningless.” The U.S. media obediently agreed, while the rest of the world drew a much more realistic opinion. It’s true that an election during an ongoing conflict isn’t ideal for democracy, but the deeper truths exposed by the election were completely ignored by the U.S. government and media.

Interestingly, few governments or media outlets doubted the Syrian election was fair for those who were able to vote. There were no large-scale allegations of fraud, and the numbers announced by the government were not seriously contested.

The results of the election weren’t a surprise to anyone familiar with Syrian domestic politics. Russian Television points out the two most obvious reasons Assad’s victory was assured:

1) The president never lost the support of his core constituencies — the Syrian armed forces, the government and business elite, the major cities, the minorities (Christians, Druze, Alawites, Shia, etc.) and secular Sunni (most of the 3 million members of the Baath Party are Sunni).

2) The opposition was fundamentally unable to present a cohesive front and a common political platform — this includes both domestic and external opponents — let alone rally behind a single candidate. http://rt.com/op-edge/163596-western-focus-delegitimizing-syria-election/

While ignoring these clear truths, John Kerry attempted to justify his characterization of the election as “meaningless,” by adding “…you can’t have an election where millions of your people don’t even have an ability to vote.”

Kerry’s point, although true, would hold greater weight if not for the fact that the Syrian Government controls all but one major city in Syria. Most of the Syrian rebel strength is in the less populated rural areas.

Therefore, it’s quite meaningful that 73 percent of eligible voters went to the polls and that 88 percent of them voted for Assad. Eleven out of 15 million apparently voted. And although one could likely poke further holes in the electoral process, the general sentiment in Syria found expression, the meaning of which was accepted by most of the world.

Equally meaningful was the huge voter turnout in neighboring countries, though especially Lebanon and Jordan, where tens of thousands of Syrian refugees voted at the Syrian embassy overwhelmingly in favor of Assad. Of course this fact directly contradicts the longstanding lie that these refugees were all “victims of Assad.”

In fact, Syrian citizens around the world voted at their embassies, overwhelmingly for Assad. This didn’t make the U.S. media think twice about their strict anti-Assad narrative. Ignorance is bliss. The media had a similarly muted attitude when thousands of pro-Assad Syrian protesters across the U.S. attended anti-war protests in response to Obama’s plan to bomb Syria.

Perhaps the deepest truth the Syrian elections exposed is that, were it not for the U.S. and its allies, the war in Syria would have long ago ended, and tens of thousands of lives spared. Millions of refugees would not be homeless.

It’s now very clear that the motor force of war in Syria has long been orchestrated from the outside. The people on the inside want peace. The media has long acknowledged that Obama’s CIA has led regional allies Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, etc., against the Syrian government, by funneling guns and training foreign fighters. Without this the rebels would have been crushed long ago.

Ultimately the elections proved that the catastrophic war in Syria is not the will of the Syrian people. Many likely voted in favor of Assad simply to show the world that they don’t support the rebels — that they want an immediate end to the insane war that has nearly destroyed an entire nation.

Will Obama listen? Not likely. John Kerry’s blathering about the election was out of sync with most of the world, but in line with the Obama administration’s consistently out of touch perspective about the situation in Syria.

Stunningly, when the official spokeswoman for Obama’s State Department, Jen Pskai was recently asked if the administration still believes that Assad’s “days are numbered,” she responded by saying “ yes we do .” Being in denial too long can resemble psychosis.

Obama also recently re-enforced his failed Syria policy in his big speech at the West Point military academy, where he said he would “…ramp up support for those in the Syrian opposition who offer the best alternative to terrorists and brutal dictators.”

To “ramp up” support for the Syrian rebels at this point means only one thing; that much more blood is about to be spilled. And for what?

Obama’s West Point plan to “arm the Syrian moderates” is the same worn-out “strategy” that Obama has used since 2011 to justify his support of cash, arms, and training to the Syrian rebels, which has artificially lengthened the Syrian catastrophe while directly resulting in a the revival of Islamic extremism and terrorism in the region.

Ironically, Obama’s West Point speech also mentioned a plan to create a $5 billion dollar regional anti-terrorism fund, no doubt a way to “legally” funnel more money to further target the Assad government while creating yet more terrorists in the process.

It was also revealed recently that Obama is now supplying rebel groups with sophisticated anti-tank missile launchers, ensuring that blood will flow more freely. By continuing down this policy that the Syrian people have clearly rejected, Obama is proving that he cares nothing for democracy nor for the lives of the people in Syria. Nor does he care about the will of the American people: In a 2013 poll conducted by the Pew Research Center “ 70% of Americans oppose arming the Syrian rebels.”

The number is likely much higher now.

At home and abroad Obama’s Syrian policy has been condemned as a failure, yet he shows no signs of stopping, even after most Syrians voted for peace. This is the same peace that Americans and the rest of the world demand.

Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action ( www.workerscompass.org ).

07 June, 2014
Countercurrents.org

 

By Nile Bowie

Since the start of the armed conflict in Syria in 2011, voices from Western and Gulf capitals have maintained a common narrative: that the Assad regime lacks popular legitimacy and stays in power by systematically killing it’s own people. The sweeping election victory of Dr. Bashar al-Assad not only shows the depth and breadth of popular support for his government, but also it demands an objective interpretation of events inside Syria.

In the midst of a civil war that has seen rebel militia groups and foreign Islamist fighters occupy areas of territory around the country, polling for the recent elections were held only in government-controlled areas. Assad ran against two challengers and won with 88.7 percent, garnering 10,319,723 votes. According to Syria’s supreme constitutional court, 73.42 percent of some 15.8 million eligible voters took part in the elections.

There are many reasons to explain why Assad – though internationally condemned and characterized as a dictator – is able to conjure up mass support at the ballot box. After three years of brutal fighting that has left many areas of the country devastated, Assad is seen as the only figure that can stabilize the country and ensure a stable, secular rule that respects all minority communities.

Assad entered office in 2000 as a reformer, and is credited with ushering in economic reforms that boosted consumer spending, increased tourism, and emboldened the private sector; his government is also highly regarded for providing free education and health care, while heavily subsidizing other public services.

Although the fighting in Syria is known to have a sectarian dimension, Syrian society has been known to be highly tolerant and fair towards a multitude of religious and ethnic groups, such as the Christian, Alawite, Druze, and Kurdish minorities, and the majority Sunni Muslims. The recent election results are to a testament to how Assad – who belongs to the Alawite sect of Shia Islam – can still command huge support from the Sunni majority.

There are undoubtedly many Syrians who would like to see greater political pluralism in the country, including expatriates who returned to Syria to cast their vote, but even many of these people voted for Assad because they distrust the opposition. Syria’s opposition groups and parties that are opposed to Assad can be put into three categories.

The first are the domestic non-parliamentary opposition groups represented by the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change (NCC), which opposes foreign involvement in Syria’s war and supports non-violent resistance and negotiations with the government. This umbrella group consists of mostly left-leaning parties and independent activists, and is a representation of genuine grassroots opposition to Assad’s rule. The organization called for a cease-fire agreement before elections, and boycotted the polls.

The second are the hundreds of disparate rebel groups and Islamic militant organizations fighting the Syrian army, which include the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Jabhat al-Nusra, the Harakat Sham al-Islam, and other organizations with ties to al-Qaeda. Though these groups are often opposed to other rebel militia groups and are marred by infighting, they command the strongest presence on the battlefield and are heavily reliant on foreign fighters from all corners of the world.

ISIL has a large presence in the in northern regions such as Ar-Raqqa, Idlib and Aleppo. These groups target minority groups such as Alawites and others suspected of supporting Assad, and mete out brutal abuses and targeted killings that include beheadings, dismemberment, and crucifixions. Women and children are not spared from these horrific acts. These organizations are said to be receiving support from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar.

The third opposition force is the Syrian National Council (SNC), an umbrella organization based in Istanbul comprised of exiled pro-Western dissidents. The SNC represents a negligible segment of rebel groups on the ground, and is not seen as credible inside Syria. Members of the SNC claim to support moderation, human rights, press freedom, and democracy. The organization receives tremendous financial and diplomatic backing from the United States, and other Western and Gulf countries, and is the main component party of the Syrian Opposition Council.

The military affiliate of the SNC, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), consists of personnel that have defected from the army, and other volunteers. The group’s influence is severely outflanked by Islamist militias. Washington regards the FSA as moderate, although it fights alongside the Islamic Front and other Islamist groups that are arguably less-than-moderate.

Countries that have supported the rebellion against Assad, including the United States, along with several European and Gulf countries, entirely reject the elections and argue that the results are illegitimate. US Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the polls, saying the vote couldn’t be considered fair “because you can’t have an election where millions of your people don’t even have an ability to vote.”

Although these elections were held in the midst of a civil war, and some margin of error may be plausible, over three-quarters of Syria’s population of eligible voters participated. The polling was overseen by international monitors and was uninterrupted by major incidents of violence. There is substantial photo and video evidence that show Syrians voting en masse, and the outcome clearly reflects public opinion.
The irony of John Kerry’s statement is that the US, along with authorities in Turkey, Germany, France, and other Gulf states effectively banned Syrian refugees from voting at Syrian embassies, forcing many to return to the country to exercise their rights. The opponents of Assad didn’t hide the fact that they prevented Syrians from participating in these elections.

The criterion for Western and Gulf states deciding whether or not an election or referendum is legitimate depends entirely on political considerations. The United States and its European allies enthusiastically supported recent elections in Ukraine, which took place while the government launched military operations against rebellious provinces in the east, whose citizens did not take part in the vote.

In Ukraine, billionaire politician Petro Poroshenko, who supports aligning the country closer to the European Union and the United States, won with 54.7 percent of the vote, while some 60.9 percent of eligible voters participated.

Despite holding elections under similar conditions, the Western countries quickly congratulated Poroshenko’s victory, but condemned Assad’s victory, despite a higher percentage of public participation in Syria’s polls. The double standards couldn’t be clearer.

Syria’s polls should be viewed as a public referendum on Assad, but also on the actions taken by the Syrian armed forces. Any government has a legal and political responsibility to maintain control of territory, especially when it comes under control of non-state actors and terrorist elements.

The fighting in Syria is not a civil war, but a full-blown international conflict with arms and financing being meted by various intelligence agencies and state actors who want to see regime change in Damascus. The results of the polls demonstrate that the Syrian population rejects foreign interference and stands with the democratically elected government.

Despite the clear majority support that Assad enjoys, the Obama administration is ramping up efforts to aid Syrian rebel groups with a $27 million aid package, and by granting formal diplomatic mission status to the Syrian Opposition Council’s offices inside the US.

The White House has also recently sent anti-tank missiles to rebel groups, and is conducting operations at a secret base in Qatar, where rebels are being trained to use sophisticated weapons. Sources at the base, according to a documentary released by PBS, claim that rebels are being taught advanced fighting techniques, including how to “finish off the soldiers still alive after an ambush.”

While the Western countries shed crocodile tears over the dead in Syria, their policies further prolongs the conflict and endangers more civilian lives. The armed opposition isn’t winning on the battlefield, and they do not have popular support. At the current juncture, Washington and its allies treat the unelected exiled dissidents that make up the SNC as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people, despite the fact that these people could never unseat Assad at the ballot box. They only represent themselves.

Countries that take a neutral position on the Syrian issue should recognize the extent of popular support that Assad enjoys, and call for an end to the conflict through immediately ending the flow of arms and finances to non-state actors and terrorist groups operating in Syria.

Over 150,000 people are said to have been killed in Syria; the country’s GDP has nearly fallen by half; nearly half the population lives in poverty; millions of refugees have been displaced; nearly half the population is unemployed, while public services such as schools and hospitals have operated sporadically throughout the ongoing fighting.

The people of Syria have but their trust in Dr. Bashar al-Assad to end the fighting and stabilize the country, and the continuation of regime change policies from Western and Gulf capitals amounts to legitimizing terrorism to overthrow a popular and democratically legitimate government.

Those haranguing scowls will continue to blare from Western and Gulf capitals, perched on a moral high ground that has collapsed and given way under the landslide of a sovereign people’s choice. The people of Syria have taken back their name, and those in the West can only claim to speak for them in as much as a bullet can claim to speak for it’s target.

Nile Bowie is an independent political commentator and photographer based in Kuala Lumpur. He is also a research affiliate with JUST.

6 June 2014

By Chaiwat Satha-Anand

Have you heard the sound of the most recent coup in Thailand? When such a phenomenon takes place in this fair land, the usual responses follow: foreign countries issue warnings as well as expected nominal sanctions, and urge the country to return quickly to the democratic abode of civilization; while journalists provide “analysis” of the situation. Such “analysis”, much of the time, is based on a universal narrative of democratic journey encountering dictatorship. Responses from some patriotic Thais include: “we are too complicated, you don’t understand us”; “it’s none of your business”; or “please understand our situation and pray for us.”

Having been born and growing up much of the time under the spectres of several coups, this most recent coup doesn’t surprise me as another episode in the biography of Thai politics, but it worries me. I am worried about both the degree to which contemporary Thai society and the nature of the coup are understood by those who have staged and supported the coup. Since the former will reveal itself, here I will concentrate on the latter.

There are people who think of a coup as a reset button for politics which signifies a new beginning much needed in the context of impasse such as what has transpired in Thai society. Maybe there is some truth in such belief. But silently anyone who pushes the button might hear the sound of failure in the project h/she has worked on. If it’s the computer game we are talking about, usually the reset button comes when one admits, rightly or wrongly, that h/she cannot win. As a result, there is no point in continue playing. Perhaps, one needs to hear the sound of this reset button.

If a coup has a sound, and if one tries to listen to that sound, what will be heard? I am certainly not referring to the generous flow of nationalist songs heard again and again by all who cared to eagerly await the next official announcements during the first two days after the coup. I would argue, however, that by listening to its sound, the meaning of this coup staged in the second decade of the twenty first century might be better construed. But to do so sometimes it is better to go back in time.

In the seventeenth century, Cardinal Richelieu- the villain made famous by Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers sent an agent to work in Rome. This agent, Gabriel Naude, later wrote in an interesting book titled: Considerations politique sur les coups d’ Etat (1639) that “…with coups d’ Etat, we see the thunderbolt before we hear it rumbling in the cloud; in coups d’ Etat… everything is done at night, in the dark, in the fog and shadows.”

Political science textbooks generally define a coup as a non-constitutional seizure of political control of state institutions. But seen as an element, an event, or a way of doing that does not submit to the laws, Michel Foucault- the French thinker- points out in his Security, Territory, Population (2007) that a coup d’etat is “the state acting of itself on itself, swiftly, immediately, without rule, with urgency and necessity, and dramatically. It is therefore not a takeover by some at the expense of others but the self-manifestation of the state itself. It is the assertion of raison d’etat (reason of state) that the state must be saved, whatever forms may be employed to enable one to save it.”

Foucault’s last sentence underscoring both the reason and the methods used importantly crystallizes the ontology of a coup. Despite noble purposes declared and valid justifications given, fundamentally a coup is a military solution used on political problems, characterized by the threat of violence on those who refuse to submit. It goes without saying that military solution is generally considered as the “last resort” to be used when other methods, diplomatic ones in international affairs or national dialogue in domestic affairs for example, do not work. In this sense, the silent sound of a coup is a sense of despair that existing political process no longer works and a society cannot deal with its problems politically.

To embark on a journey out of the coup, apart from effectively solving existing problems plaguing people and crafting a new rule of governance, the first phase as rightly outlined by General Prayuth Chan-Ocha, the leader of the National Council for Peace and Order, on May 30 is to rebuild national peace and unity through reconciliation. And here lies any coup’s paradox. Rebuilding peace through reconciliation in a badly divided society requires hope in the strength of political society that conflict can be dealt with through political process characterized by reason and dialogue.

In order to rebuild national peace and reconciliation, the NCPO has to walk Thai society out of a sense of hopelessness echoed by the sound of the coup. A difficult but necessary task at present is to rekindle new hope that conflicts in Thai society can be dealt with politically and therefore peacefully.

Dr. Chaiwat Satha-Anand is a professor at Thammasat University in Thailand and a member of the JUST International Advisory Panel (IAP).

4 June 2014

 

By Franklin Lamb

Jewish Quarter, the Old City, Damascus: It’s always encouraging when one comes upon some inspiring human enterprise, here in Syria or elsewhere, that refutes the worn shibboleths and clichés about how this or that group, or this or that religion, hates others and won’t cease targeting them until they are destroyed and burning in Hell.

In Syria today there is much evidence to refute the claims, often politically motivated, that Jewish cultural heritage sites are being singled out for destruction by rabid anti-Semites. One example of this is the Eliyahu Hanabi Synagogue in the neighborhood of Jobar, on the outskirts of Damascus. For centuries, Jobar has been inhabited by a peaceful, mixed community of Muslims, Christians, and Jews, many of whom often attended events together at the synagogue.

Reports this week in Zionist media about the destruction of the 400-year-old (not 2000-year-old, as claimed, erroneously, by one report in Israeli media) synagogue, along with the loss of all its contents, are similar to reports over the past three years which turned out to be patently false. This observer has been waiting for clearance to visit the site, to learn exactly what happened there this week, to assess its current condition and inventory its religious artifacts, which comprise part of Syria’s, and humanity’s, collective heritage.

One of the more virulent charges to come forth this week, particularly from the colonial Zionist regime occupying Palestine, is the mantra of ‘see what the hatred of those Arabs for the Jewish people has done.’ Admittedly it’s an effective fund-raising mechanism—as well as a handy intimidation tool—for the Zionist lobby, as it scrabbles to retain control of the US government and American public sentiment, a public which seems to be growing increasingly vexed by the lobby’s actions and which are finally pulling back from rubber-stamping the crimes of the apartheid regime.

Jobar is a suburb of Damascus, and location-wise the Eliyahu Hanabi Synagogue (measuring approximately 17 meters long by 15.7 meters wide) sits undeniably at a crossroads, in an area that has been occupied by rebel forces since the beginning of the Syrian conflict—which means it was sure to get damaged. With each shelling of the district over the past three years, claims were made that the synagogue had been destroyed by government forces. One such report, published on April fool’s day in 2013 by the Times of Israel and widely circulated by Zionist media outlets, claimed that, “The 2,000-year-old Jobar Synagogue in the Syrian capital of Damascus—the country’s holiest Jewish site—was looted and burned to the ground by government forces.” The report was patently false but got spread far and wide, despite the fact that there have been no government forces in Jobar since the conflict began. Two copy-cat reports followed later in 2013, but they were equally false. Nearly a year later, however, in March of 2014, media reports conceded that the synagogue was still standing, with only minor damage, and that its contents appeared to be in good condition.

This observer has received credible reports about certain stolen artifacts, including gold chandeliers, from the Eliyahu Hanabi Synagogue being offered for sale. It is well known in Syria that certain militia and other opportunists have been financing themselves by selling this country’s cultural heritage whenever and wherever they get the opportunity. There is in fact a multi-million-dollar black market in this type of illicit trade. Security agencies in Syria, in coordination with INTERPOL, have been alerted to the thefts of Jewish property, just as with thefts of other antiquities, and they periodically issue what are referred to as “watch for and confiscate” lists of stolen artifacts.

It is not true…based upon this observer’s many personal experiences in Syria…that Arabs hate Jews, although they would have plenty of reasons to, or that animosities between the two peoples are irreversible and irretrievable, and the reason I say this is that increasingly, in the Middle East as well as globally, people are beginning to distinguish between Jews as individuals (as “people of the book” and basically more or less like the rest of us) and fascist Zionism—an ideology being exposed as the greatest enemy and threat to Jews everywhere.

The latest, but so far unverified, information received by this observer from rebel sources claiming to have “contacts” in the Jobar Synagogue indicate that some early 20th century artifacts, including gold chandeliers and icons, were stolen early on in the conflict, and also that the area surrounding the synagogue has been shelled sporadically over the past nearly two years, resulting in modest damage to the exterior walls. This information was obtained as of last month. Conditions may well have changed this week. Other Syrian sources indicate that there has been interior damage with some scattered rubble in the nave and prayer rooms of the temple. But there has been no confirmation to claims of thousands of manuscripts, including Bibles, being looted from Jobar. On the contrary, many documents, including Bibles and other artifacts, were transferred by the local Jobar Council, with the full cooperation of the Syrian government, to an Ottoman-era synagogue in the Old City of Damascus for safe keeping. The location, which this observer has visited and where many Jobar Synagogue artifacts are today in storage, is one of six areas in Syria currently listed on the World Heritage List of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The site currently has round-the-clock government security that continues to guard the Old City of Damascus. It is also one of the 11 synagogues that President Assad had promised in 2011 to repair and restore, but alas that’s a project that the rebellion has put on hold.

In light of all the unverified claims about the synagogue in Jobar, one is reminded again of the decade-long US/UK War against Iraq and the false reporting about what happened at certain archaeological sites in that country. Specifically we might recall the Iraqi Jewish artifacts that Ahmad Chalabi claimed he was able to ‘rescue’ for the Coalition Provisional Authority. Chalabi, of the ill-fated Iraqi National Congress, along with the Bush administration’s Coalition Provisional Authority, sought to gain some much needed good press for himself and pals Richard Perle, Nathan Sharansky, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, this after April 2003 reports of thousands of priceless ancient artifacts being looted from Iraqi museums. The war planners were being castigated for their failure to protect Iraq’s cultural treasures, and it soon became clear that some of Chalabi’s pronouncements regarding the fate of Jewish artifacts were false and politically self-serving. Discredited, Chalabi’s party did not win any seats in the December 2005 election.

Some suspect similar political grandstanding motives in the current reports about Jobar, and it may be a while before credible eyewitness accounts from the scene are gathered. At that point we will we know the truth about the fate of the Eliyahu Hanabi Synagogue and the whole of Jobar. A delegation, including a Jewish representative from Damascus as well as this observer, has been trying to visit the area, but armed conflict and the continued occupation of the synagogue by rebels has prevented us so far from gaining entry.

What’s important to note, though, is that the people of Syria and their government have made herculean efforts to avoid what happened in Iraq, and to assure the preservation of their global cultural heritage, of which Jewish antiquities is an important pillar. One example of these efforts is the fascinating case of the Dura-Europos Synagogue, discovered in 1932.

The synagogue in Dura Europos had survived in such good condition because of its location, near a small Roman garrison on the Euphrates River. Parts of the building, which abutted the main city wall, were requisitioned by the Roman army and filled with sand as a defensive measure against northern and eastern marauders. The city was abandoned after Rome’s fall, never to be resettled, and the lower walls of the rooms remained buried and largely intact until excavated. The archaeological dig discovered many Jewish wall-paintings and also Christian texts written in Hebrew. Especially interesting perhaps was the discovery of paintings in the synagogue depicting limited aspects of Mithraism, a religion practiced in the Roman Empire between the first and 4th centuries and that was especially popular within the ranks of the Roman legions. Named for the Persian god Mithra, many Syrians followed the cult, as did some Roman senators who resisted the ‘new’ Christianity.

Itemized in the list below are specific Jewish-Syrian antiquities, including Old-Testament-themed paintings, this observer has verified as being under protection. Keep in mind, these are only a few examples, among many thousands, that I have been advised appear to be in excellent condition as of late May 2014:

• The Torah niche from the ancient Synagogue of Dura Europos on which are drawings of the Prophet Abraham, including the scene of his offering his son. Also beside them a drawing of the candle stick and the temple façade.

• A drawing featuring the Prophet Ezra reading a papyrus, Prophet Moses in the flames of boxthorn, the Ark of the Covenant in the hands of Philistines, and David anointed as a king by Samuel.

• A number of paintings with themes from the Old Testament

• A drawing of the pharaoh and Moses as a child, and a beautiful painting of Abraham between the two symbols of the sun and the moon.

• A drawing representing the story of Mordechai and Esther and Elijah bringing life back to a baby.

Despite the current and legitimate focus on Jobar, the record of the Syrian people on preserving their cultural heritage, especially during the current crisis, is admirable. Two weeks ago this observer visited the old city of Homs, and spent a fair bit of time at the Um Al-Zenar Church of Saint Mary, Church of the Holy Belt, which dates from 52 AD. Tradition has it that this seat of the Syriac Orthodox archbishopric contains a venerated relic, and indeed the Bishop spoke to me about it one day as he shoveled rubble from around the altar. The relic is claimed to be a section of the belt of St. Mary, the mother of Jesus, and is said to be hidden near a below-ground spring. One arrives at the spring by walking down a long, very narrow, pitch black set of stone steps. The Holy Water that can be found there, a small pond in essence, is filled with fragments of stone and wood chunks from the fighting, yet supposedly this water has curative powers. I scooped up a couple of handfuls, and it was indeed very refreshing, but did nothing, so far, to cure my leg problem.

Be that as it may, this observer was struck by the number of parishioners, along with volunteers from the neighborhood, mostly Muslims, covered in dust and soot as they worked at cleaning out the rubble. In the courtyard in front of the church this observer stoked a still smoldering heap of burned bibles and other church documents and icons which I was told rebels had torched as they prepared to vacate the compound earlier this month. Two days after I departed Homs, the Um Al-Zenar Church, though a partially burned out shell devoid of pews and religious artifacts, held its first Holy Communion since the conflict began.

From my experience, Syrians, without exception, are deeply connected with their cultural heritage and do not distinguish all that much among its origins. Many Syrians are proud to help others protect and rebuild their damaged religious and cultural sites, and in fact it seems to be a unifying factor among this besieged population. People this observer speaks with as he travels around Syria to visit archeological sites seem to blame both sides for the damage, but they tend to focus more on the task of restoring their heritage sites. Space does not allow me to enumerate the countless examples of this, but I will mention one.

This observer was served tea one day by some members of the Jewish community in the old City of Damascus, including my friend Saul, who claims to be the last Jewish tailor in Syria, as well as the lovely elderly ladies known as ‘the Jewish sisters’ and whose apartment is near where St. Paul, according to tradition, converted to Christianity. The view expressed by my hosts that day—and I believe them—is that Jewish cultural heritage in Syria is being respected, protected and preserved with the same care as Muslim, Christian, and pagan antiquities.

A volunteer with the Sabra-Shatila Scholarship Program (sssp-lb.com), Franklin Lamb is in Syria doing research. He is author of the book, Syrian’s Endangered Heritage, scheduled for publication later this year.

31 May, 2014
Countercurrents.org

 

By Vacy Vlazna

When I was a kid we had fun letting off firecrackers. Most had quite an impact – going off with a mighty bang. A few were weak, feeble and fizzled out. We called them ‘fizzers’. The pope’s tour was a fence-sitting fizzer for truth and for Palestinian justice.

Still, Palestinians were warned in advance by the Vatican that the tour had “no political agenda” it was simply a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage, apart from the usual Christian holy sites, to the grave of Theodor Herzl where, flanked by two war criminals, Netanyahu and Peres, Francis, the Vicar of Christ, laid a giant wreath in honour of the mastermind of Zionism that unleashed the atrocities of the Nakba committed by Jewish terrorist militia; the massacres, rapes, looting, demolition of 500 Palestinian villages and the forced deportations and dispossession of 750,000 indigenous Palestinians from their beloved land…a paltry three years after the holocaust.

What a feather in the Zionist cap! A Catholic pope honouring Herzl the Zionist atheist! Francis’ rabbi friend, Abraham Skorka was spot on when he noted that it ‘could be understood as a nod to Zionism’. It was much more than a nod. For the gleeful Netanyahu gang, it was an imprimatur on the expansionism of Greater Israel negating Francis’ two-state solution.

Coincidentally? On the very same day, ten bills were submitted to the Knesset that “could lead to the annexation of Area C which “makes up about 60 percent of the West Bank, including all Jewish towns and settlements.”

In Bethlehem, the pope made an impromptu stop at the illegal Annexation/Apartheid WAll saying a quiet prayer. Vatican officials assured the Israeli Foreign Ministry that Francis “didn’t pray against the security barrier, but he prayed against the situation that forces such a wall to be built.”

So,tit-for-tat, it was agreed that Francis make an impromptu stop at the Israeli Memorial for the Victims of Terror (curiously Palestinian victims were not mentioned on its tablets). Afterwards, the pilgrimage dutifully arrived at the Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem where Francis uttered the apogee of irony, “Never again, Lord, never again” and kissed the hands of 6 holocaust survivors.

He made no pilgrimage, laid no wreath to mourn the tens of thousands of Palestinians murdered by the terrorist state of Israel.

Neither was a papal plea of “Never again, Lord, never again” heard nor even a single flower was laid at the simple graves, of young Muhammad Abu al-Thahir and Nadim Nuwarah shot in the back ten days previously by the peace-loving Israeli military. Of course, the cavalcade avoided the old Muslim cemetery defaced and desecrated to make way for Israel’s Museum of Tolerance.

Franicis’ speeches give the distinct impression that the Palestinian and Israeli narratives are equal i.e. that the Palestinian state which has no army, navy, airforce nor nuclear armaments is a match for Israel which is the fourth largest nuclear military in the world;

“To this end, I can only express my profound hope that all will refrain from initiatives and actions which contradict the stated desire to reach a true agreement.”

To President Abbas, he talked on and on about the importance of religious freedom perchance unaware that not Abbas, but Netanyahu’s government imposed restricted access at Easter for Palestinian Christians to the Via Dolorosa, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or that it was Jews not Muslims who perpetrate hate-crimes against churches as well as sealing plans to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque.

While expressing his “closeness to those who suffer most from this conflict” the pope glaringly omitted mention of Gazan families who really do suffer the most, living, correction, barely surviving 46 kilometres away from His Holiness; perhaps not close enough.

Out of habit, though Abbas is in the middle of negotiations with Hamas for a unity government, he also neglected mention of Gaza and its severe humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s illegal and cruel blockade.

Much has been made of the pope’s acknowledgement of ‘the state of Palestine’ in his speeches. It’s nothing to get excited about; UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, made the referencing to Palestine as a state (no longer a territory) official in March 2013 after Palestine was overwhelmingly voted into the United Nations as an Observer State in November 2012.

Despite the clichéd content of the speeches all round, there were standup comedy moments albeit black black comedy:

Pope Francis lauded President Peres as, “a good and wise man”; the same Peres who supplied arms and offered to sell Israeli nuclear warheads to apartheid South Africa violating international embargoes, launched in 1996 ‘Operation Grapes of Wrath’ causing nearly half a million Lebanese to flee their homes, promoted war against Iraq, Iran and Syria and repeats his “denial of the native Palestinians and his reselling in 2013 of the landless people mythology …he denies the existence of approximately twelve million people living in and near to the country to which they belong.” (Ilan Pappe)

The pope said to Abbas, “You are known as a man of peace.” Seriously? Abbas, the head of the American trained Palestinian Authority security forces that brutally suppress Palestinian resistance to Israel ?

Now here’s a doozy from Netanyahu: “Your Holiness, in the heart of the Middle East, the turbulent and violent Middle East, where Christians are often persecuted, Israel is an island of tolerance. We safeguard the rights of all faiths. We guarantee freedom of worship for all and we are committed to maintaining the status quo at the Holy sites of Christians, Muslims, and Jews.” LOL.

The pope’s speeches, infused with diplomacy-speak and euphemisms that inoculate against reality, against the truth, diminished the potential influence for justice and peace he could have wielded not only in the Holy Land but globally. Then again popes are not known for having the courage of true Christ-like convictions.

Francis’ tepid understatement, “I wish to state my heartfelt conviction that the time has come to put an end to this situation which has become increasingly unacceptable.” recalls the tepid statement of the WWII pope, Pius XII:

“Defenders also point to his one public statement as evidence of his concern for the Jews. This is a reference to his 1942 Christmas message, which said, “Humanity owes this vow to those hundreds of thousands who, without any fault of their own, sometimes only by reason of their nationality or race, are marked down for death or gradual extinction.” The statement conspicuously fails to mention the word “Nazi” or “Jew.”

Guenter Lewy, quoted by Cornwell: “A public denunciation of the mass murders by Pius XII, broadcast widely over the Vatican radio and read from the pulpits by the bishops, would have revealed to Jews and Christians alike what deportation to the East entailed. The pope would have been believed, whereas the broadcasts of the Allies were often shrugged off as war propaganda.” Mitchell Bard

Sure, Francis’ speeches contained ambiguities (whom is he addressing) such as;

“[Shoah] enduring symbol of the depths to which human evil can sink when, spurred by false ideologies”

“Who led you to presume that you are the master of good and evil? Who convinced you that you were God? Not only did you torture and kill your brothers and sisters, but you sacrificed them to yourself, because you made yourself a god.

“So I express my hope and prayer that this blessed land may be one which has no place for those who, by exploiting and absolutizing the value of their own religious tradition, prove intolerant and violent towards those of others.”

But Palestinians in real-time suffering under Israeli apartheid and occupation do not glean hope from ambiguities and diplomatic neutrality. However the truth can set them free.

For the sake of justice, it is beholden of Pope Francis to imitate the plain-spoken Jesus who cleansed the temple with, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” or, at the very least, take a skyrocket from the feisty Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s box of pyrotechnic authenticity:

“I have witnessed the systematic violence against and humiliation of Palestinian men, women and children by members of the Israeli security forces. Their humiliation and pain is all too familiar to us South Africans.

In South Africa, we could not have achieved our democracy without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime. My conscience compels me to stand with the Palestinians as they seek to use the same tactics of non-violence to further their efforts to end the oppression associated with the Israeli occupation.”

“‘Those who turn a blind eye to injustice actually perpetuate injustice. If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Dr. Vacy Vlazna is Coordinator of Justice for Palestine Matters. She was Human Rights Advisor to the GAM team in the second round of the Acheh peace talks, Helsinki, February 2005 then withdrew on principle.

29 May, 2014
Countercurrents.org

By Nicholas Kristof

SITTWE, Myanmar — Minura Begum has been in labor for almost 24 hours, and the baby is stuck. Worse, it’s turned around, one tiny foot already emerging into the world in a difficult breech delivery that threatens the lives of mother and child alike.

Twenty-three years old and delivering her first child, Minura desperately needs a doctor. But the Myanmar government has confined her, along with 150,000 others, to a quasi-concentration camp outside town here, and it blocks aid workers from entering to provide medical help. She’s on her own.

Welcome to Myanmar, where tremendous democratic progress is being swamped by crimes against humanity toward the Rohingya, a much-resented Muslim minority in this Buddhist country. Budding democracy seems to aggravate the persecution, for ethnic cleansing of an unpopular minority appears to be a popular vote-getting strategy.

This is my annual “win-a-trip” journey, in which I take a university student on a reporting trip to the developing world. I’m with this year’s winner, Nicole Sganga of Notre Dame University, spotlighting an injustice that some call a genocide.

There are more than one million Rohingya in Rakhine State in the northwest of Myanmar. They are distinct from the local Buddhists both by darker skin and by their Islamic faith. For decades, Myanmar’s military rulers have tried systematically to erase the Rohingya’s existence with oppression, periodic mass expulsions and denials of their identity.

“There are no people called Rohingya in Myanmar,” U Win Myaing, a spokesman for Rakhine State, told me. He said that most are simply illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

This narrative is absurd, as well as racist. A document as far back as 1799 refers to the Rohingya population here, and an 1826 report estimates that 30 percent of the population of this region was Muslim.

Since clashes in 2012 claimed more than 200 lives — including children hacked with machetes — the authorities have confined Rohingya to internment camps or their own villages. They are stripped of citizenship and cannot freely go to the market, to schools, to university, to hospitals.

Tens of thousands have made desperate attempts to flee by boat, with many drowning along the way.

This year, the Myanmar authorities have cracked down even harder, making the situation worse. First, the government expelled Doctors Without Borders, which had been providing health care for the Rohingya. Then orchestrated mobs attacked the offices of humanitarian organizations, forcing them out.

Some kinds of aid are resuming, but not health care. That’s a sterile way of putting it. I wish readers could see the terrified eyes of Shamshida Begum, 22, a mom whose 1-year-old daughter, Noor, burned with fever.

Shamshida said that at home the thermometer had registered 107 degrees. Even after damp cloths had been placed on Noor to lower her temperature, the thermometer, when I saw it, still read 105 degrees. What kind of a government denies humanitarians from providing medical care to a toddler?

Noor survived, but some don’t. We visited the grief-stricken family of a 35-year-old man named Ba Sein, who died after his tuberculosis went untreated.

“He died because he couldn’t get medicine,” said his widow, Habiba, as friends made a bamboo coffin outside. Now she worries about her four small children who, like other children in the camp, haven’t been vaccinated. The camp is an epidemic waiting to happen.

Minura, the woman with a breech delivery, survived a 28-hour labor and hemorrhaging, but lost her baby. The infant girl was buried in an unmarked grave — one of a large number of achingly small graves on the outskirts of the camp.

“Because I am Rohingya, I cannot get health care and I cannot be a father,” Minura’s husband, Zakir Ahmed, a mason, said bitterly after the burial.

The United States has spoken up, but far too mildly; Europe and Asia have tried to look the other way. We should work in particular with Japan, Britain, Malaysia and the United Nations to pressure Myanmar to restore humanitarian access and medical care.

President Obama, who visited Myanmar and is much admired here, should flatly declare that what is happening here is unconscionable. Obama has lately noted that his foreign policy options are limited, and that military interventions often backfire. True enough, but in Myanmar he has political capital that he has not fully used.

As a university student, Obama denounced apartheid in South Africa. As president, he should stand up to an even more appalling apartheid — one in Myanmar that deprives members of one ethnic group even of health care.

Myanmar seeks American investment and approval. We must make clear that it will get neither unless it treats Rohingya as human beings.

25 May 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/

By Gulf Times

Saudi Arabia has arrested nine university professors for their alleged links to the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement, media reported yesterday.

Investigators found the professors, two Saudis and the rest from neighbouring countries, had been involved with “foreign organisations” based on “voice recordings and e-mails” linked to them, Okaz daily reported.

It identified the organisation as the Muslim Brotherhood, designated by the interior ministry in March as a “terror” group.

The investigation should be completed by mid-June, said the daily which is close to the government.

If convicted, the group could be jailed for 10-15 years, after which the foreigners would be deported, it added.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have cracked down on Islamists accused of links to the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups.

Riyadh had hailed the Egyptian military’s ouster of Mohamed Mursi, the Islamist president who hails from the Brotherhood. It has also pledged billions of dollars to the army-installed government in Cairo.

But in the past Saudi Arabia gave refuge to many Brotherhood members who suffered repression in the 1960s under the regime of Egypt’s first modern military ruler, Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Traditionally, members of the group were active in academic institutions in the kingdom.

On Sunday, Saudi Education Minister Khaled al-Faisal was quoted by media as saying that this was the reason behind the “spread of extremist ideology” in the kingdom.

“We offered them our children and they took them hostage… The society left the stage for them, including schools,” he said.
A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to death for shooting at security forces in the kingdom’s Eastern Province with a machinegun, a local newspaper said yesterday.

Shia Muslims have staged sporadic protests in the province for years. The latest wave of demonstrations coincided with the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 and 2012.

The man, who activists said was a Shia, was also found guilty of buying weapons and harbouring rioters, Okaz reported, without giving his name.

The paper said he shot at security forces in the towns of Tarout and Darin, both east of the Qatif governate, which has been at the heart of recent protests.

At least 21 people have been shot dead in the Eastern Province since early 2011. Most Saudi Shias live in the region and some say they suffer discrimination in the kingdom, a charge authorities deny.

27 May, 2014
Gulf Times

 

By Thalif Deen

The United Nations, which is trying to help resolve the widespread shortage of water in the developing world, is faced with a growing new problem: the use of water as a weapon of war in ongoing conflicts.

The most recent examples are largely in the Middle East and Africa including Iraq, Egypt, Israel (where supplies to the occupied territories have been shut off) and Botswana.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [in mid-May] expressed concern over reports that water supplies in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo were deliberately cut off by armed groups for eight days, depriving at least 2.5 million people of access to safe water for drinking and sanitation.

“Preventing people’s access to safe water is a denial of a fundamental human right,” he warned, pointing out that “deliberate targeting of civilians and depriving them of essential supplies is a clear breach of international humanitarian and human rights law.”

In the four-year Syrian civil war, water is being used as a weapon by all parties to the conflict, including the government of president Bashar al-Assad and the multiple rebel groups fighting to oust him from power.

The conflict has claimed the lives of over 150,000 people and displaced nearly nine million Syrians.

The violation of international humanitarian law in Syria includes torture and deprivation of food and water.

Maude Barlow, who represents both the Council of Canadians and Food and Water Watch, told IPS water is being increasingly and deliberately used a weapon of war in recent and ongoing conflicts.

During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, the Mesopotamian Marshes were drained, she said.

Iraqi president Saddam Hussein drained them further during the 1990s in retribution against Shias who hid there and the Marsh Arabs (Ma’dan) who protected them, she pointed out.

The Nile in Egypt. Credit: Khaled Moussa al-Omrani/IPS.

The privatization of water in Egypt and its diversion to the wealthy was a major factor in the “Arab Spring” uprising, said Barlow, a former senior advisor on water to the president of the General Assembly back in 2008/2009.
Thousands suddenly had no access to clean water and “thirst protests” were partial catalysts for the large uprising.

Also, more than four decades of Israeli occupation have made it impossible to develop or maintain infrastructure for water in Gaza, causing the contamination of drinking water and many deaths, she declared.

Barlow also said Botswana used water as a weapon against the Kalahari bushmen in an attempt to force them out of the desert, where diamonds had been discovered.

In 2002, the government smashed their only major water borehole, a terrible act that was only overturned in court years later, she noted.
A group of Kalahari Bushmen acting out their hunting techniques. Credit: Stuart Orford/CC By 2.0

Last week, Anand Grover and Catarina de Albuquerque, two U.N. experts on water and sanitation, said interference with water supplies even in the context of an ongoing conflict is entirely unacceptable.

They said the city of Aleppo has had intermittent access to water from the beginning of May 2014, with a total cut in supply on May 10, resulting in many, perhaps a million people, left without access to safe water and sanitation.
This affected homes, hospitals and medical centers, the two UN experts said.

The cuts appeared to come about as a result of deliberate interference with the water supply, with conflicting allegations suggesting that some armed opposition groups and the government of Syria have both been responsible at different times and to differing degrees, they pointed out.

Barlow told IPS the al-Assad government’s denial of clean water is consistent with its history of using water to punish its enemies and reward its friends.

In 2000, the Syrian regime deregulated land use and gave vast quantities of land and water to its wealthy allies, severely diminishing the water table and driving nearly one million small farmers and herders off the land, she added.
Ironically and tragically, many of them migrated to Aleppo where they are being targeted again, said Barlow.

She also said water has also been deployed as a weapon of “class war.”

Many thousands of inner city residents unable to pay their water bills have had their water services cut in Detroit, Michigan, in the United States, and more recently, as a result of Europe’s austerity program, in Spain, Greece and Bulgaria.

“Water as a weapon of war is a strong argument to governments and the UN they must make real the human right to water and sanitation, regardless of other conflicts taking place,” said Barlow.

Meanwhile, since 1990, almost two billion people globally have gained access to improved sanitation, and 2.3 billion have gained access to drinking water from improved sources, according to a new UN report released [in mid-May].

The joint report by the UN Children’s Fund and the World Health Organisation said about 1.6 billion of these people have piped water connections in their homes or compounds.
Titled “Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: 2014 Update,” the report said more than half of the global population lives in cities, and urban areas are still better supplied with improved water and sanitation than rural ones.
“But the gap is decreasing.”

In 1990, more than 76 percent of the people living in urban areas had access to improved sanitation, as opposed to only 28 percent in rural ones.

By 2012, 80 percent urban dwellers and 47 percent rural ones had access to better sanitation.

“Despite this progress,” the report warned, “sharp geographic, socio-cultural, and economic inequalities in access to improved drinking water and sanitation facilities still persist around the world.”

27 May, 2014
Inter Press Service

 

By Countercurrents

Domestic buildings have been hit by drone strikes more than any other type of target in the CIA’s 10-year campaign in the tribal regions of northern Pakistan, finds a new research by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ).

The research finds: More than 61% (three-fifths) of all drone strikes in Pakistan targeted domestic buildings, with at least 132 houses destroyed in more than 380 strikes.

Its finding says: At least 222 civilians are estimated to be among the 1,500 or more persons killed in attacks on such buildings.

The report says:

“In the past 18 months, reports of civilian casualties in attacks on any targets have almost completely vanished, but historically almost one civilian was killed, on average, in attacks on houses.”

The research reveals that on average more civilians die when a building is targeted than when a vehicle is hit.

It says:

“At least a quarter of drone strikes in Pakistan hit vehicles – cars, motorbikes and pickup trucks, according to the research, and these attacks were significantly less likely than average to harm civilians. There have been no confirmed civilian casualties in strikes on vehicles at night.”

The researchers analyzed thousands of reports including contemporaneous media reports, witness testimonies and field investigations to gather the data on drone strikes in Pakistan ‘s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

The TBIJ’s report by Alice K Ross and Jack Serle says:

“[A] new investigative project by the Bureau, Forensic Architecture, a research project based at London ‘s Goldsmiths University , and New York-based Situ Research, reveals that in Pakistan , domestic buildings continue to be the most frequent target of drone attacks.”

The project examines, for the first time, the types of target attacked in each drone strike – houses, vehicles or madrassas (religious schools) – and the time of day the attack took place.

The May 23, 2014 datelined report says:

“The CIA has consistently attacked houses throughout the 10-year campaign in Pakistan .

The time of an attack affects how many people – and how many civilians – are likely to die. Houses are twice as likely to be attacked at night compared with in the afternoon. Strikes that took place in the evening, when families likely to be at home and gathered together were particularly deadly.”

It cites Mansur Mahsud of the FATA Research Center . Mansur said: “Civilians usually avoid going out at night, because Taliban militants do not allow people to venture out of their homes at night without a valid reason.”

The Bureau’s analysis finds that strikes on mosques and madrassas – religious schools – are the deadliest. At least eight strikes have hit such targets, killing over 17 people on average in each attack. At least 99 civilians have reportedly been killed in total.

The research reveals “a continued policy of targeting buildings throughout the CIA’s campaign in Pakistan, despite an instruction in Afghanistan from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the body which commands foreign operations in the country, that forces operate under the rule that ‘all compounds are assumed to house civilians unless proven to be clear’.”

 

The report says:

“The data shows the constantly shifting nature of the drone campaign, as the CIA and their targets adapt their tactics and behavior in a game of cat-and-mouse.

It is also possible that more civilians die in attacks on buildings than the reporting indicates. The Bureau’s Naming the Dead project has found that the deaths of women are particularly vulnerable to being underreported.

Women and children

The report says:

“Women and children are more likely to stay indoors and therefore less likely to be seen ‘by [a] drone operator monitoring the structure,’ says Susan Schuppli, senior research fellow at Forensic Architecture and the project coordinator. Women and children’s ‘relative seclusion within private space makes them particularly vulnerable to becoming an unknown casualty when a strike occurs’, she said.”

Everything was burned, pieces of flesh

Forensic Architecture interviewed a woman who survived a 2010 drone strike. It says:

“Originally from Germany , she had moved to Pakistan with her husband and his brother.

“She and a female friend were in the house one evening, when a group of men sitting in the courtyard was attacked. Her son, aged two, was outside the compound walls with his father, who had gone to smoke a cigarette.

“‘While we were eating, we heard a very loud bang. The house shook and a lot of earth fell on us from the roof… everything was covered in thick smoke,’ she told researchers. In the courtyard, she saw ‘a big black hole where the rocket hit’, where the men had been sitting to eat.

“Everything was burned, she continued. There were ‘pieces of cloth, and metal from the rocket … everywhere there were bits similar to the pieces of flesh of the three men, which were scattered everywhere.’

“Her brother-in-law was killed, along with at least four others.”

Mosques and madrassas

The report says:

“The figures for strikes on mosques and madrassas are skewed by a particularly bloody strike that hit a religious school in Chenegai, Bajaur on October 30 2006 that reportedly killing 81 people.

“But even excluding this incident, strikes on madrassas and mosques remain far more deadly – including to civilians – than those reported to have hit other targets. Excluding the Chenegai strike, the civilian casualty rate is nine times that of strikes on vehicles – 2.7 for each strike on average.

“But here, again, the care taken over the past year to avoid civilian casualties appears to be bucking these historic trends.

“The Chenegai attack flattened the building and killed scores of civilians.

“By contrast, last November a drone strike targeted a madrassa in Hangu, in the first drone strike to hit beyond Pakistan ‘s tribal regions. The attack took out a single room.

“Although there were reportedly up to 80 students in the building, the strike killed at least six men, allegedly militants.

“An unnamed US official later denied to the Washington Post that the strike hit a madrassa, saying it targeted ‘a compound associated with the Haqqani Network’ near the madrassa.

“The difference between these two strikes hints at how the US has adjusted its tactics over the course of the campaign.”

Drone-firepower

Discussing drones’ firepower the report says:

“US drones fire Hellfire missiles and the much more powerful GBU laser-guided bombs. The Hellfire is a product of the Cold War, designed to destroy Soviet tanks. But the US has adapted the drone-mounted versions, lowering the explosive yield twice, according to Chris Woods, investigative journalist and author of forthcoming book Sudden Justice: America ‘s Secret Drone Wars

“Reducing explosive power ‘makes a great deal of sense’, Woods adds. ‘A missile designed to bore through thick Soviet armor when used against mud-brick houses in Pakistan is going to have pretty catastrophic effects.’

“The US has added new Hellfire variants to its drone arsenal, according to a former drone pilot. These new variants include specialized missiles for attacking vehicles, others with a delayed fuse designed to smash through walls and detonate inside buildings, and anti-personnel missiles with a metal sleeve that splinters on detonation.

“When drone strikes started in Pakistan , the CIA only had access to small fleet of slow Predator drones, carrying up to two Hellfire missiles. But when the CIA acquired larger, more powerful Reaper drones, larger and more powerful bombs was added to their armory.

“Meanwhile, the GBU-12 and GBU-38 laser-guided bombs have at least five times the explosive power of a Hellfire and, according to Woods, are ‘used when they want to be sure of a kill,’ particularly ‘when high-value targets are involved’.

“‘When vehicles used by militants began to be targeted frequently, militants decreased their use of vehicles to avoid drone strikes,’ Mahsud says. ‘Now in many areas, militants travel on foot from one place to another.’

“The Bureau has not recorded a similar change in Yemen where vehicles are the most common target.”

Yemen and Afghanistan

Making a comparison between Pakistan- , Yemen- and Afghanistan-drone strikes the report says:

“By way of contrast, since 2008, in neighboring Afghanistan drone strikes on buildings have been banned in all but the most urgent situations, as part of measures to protect civilian lives.”

Comparing to drone strikes in Yemen the report said:

“The drone strikes on vehicles in Yemen do kill civilians. However, they are generally targeted when in sparsely populated areas, outside urban spaces. This appears to be a conscious effort to reduce collateral damage. In general the attacks in Yemen are reportedly less lethal for civilians. In Yemen on average one civilian is killed in every other strike whereas in Pakistan , on average more than one civilian is killed in each strike.

“‘As we’ve seen in Yemen, the CIA is careful in what it chooses to target – for example the deliberate focusing on moving vehicles between towns to limit the potential for collateral damage,’ said Woods. ‘What is so shocking to think about in Pakistan is that the CIA has continued to target homes in villages even up until 2013.’”

Referring to Afghanistan-drone strikes the report says:

“This rule has been in place since at least September 2008 when, according to a leaked classified report, ISAF introduced a Tactical Directive that ‘specifically called for limiting airstrikes on compounds to avoid civilian casualties when ISAF forces are not in imminent danger’.”

A definition

The report provides definition of “compound”:

“In both Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan people tend to live in buildings that are often described as ‘compounds’.”

Quoting Mahsud it describes the way people live in these areas:

“One compound is used by many families, like brothers and first cousins, although every family has their own portion or space in the compound. The compounds in these agencies are quite big – most would measure half an acre or more.

“Normally you will find 20-25 people living in one compound, and in some cases you will find more than 50.’

“When drones attack buildings in Pakistan , the target is typically described in media reports as a ‘compound’ – and often as a ‘militant compound’. But these are usually domestic structures, which are often rented or commandeered by militant groups.”

The report also cites a British commander:

“A British commander told the Daily Telegraph in 2012 that the UK had stopped using the word ‘compound’: ‘We’re trying to get it into the guys’ heads that this is not compound no 28, it’s 34 Acacia Drive – so you don’t hit it,’ he said.”

The report says:

“A Ministry of Defense spokesman told the Bureau this is not official policy, but is ‘very much aligned to our teaching and thinking’. The UK does not carry out drone strikes in Pakistan .”

It says:

“While over the 10 years of the drone campaign in Pakistan, strikes on houses have been more dangerous for civilians, in the past 18 months there have been no confirmed reports of civilian casualties in any attacks – despite a rise in the proportion of strikes that hit houses.

“Mahsud says this is partly due to changes in behavior on the ground. In the early years of the drone campaign, sympathetic locals would sometimes host the militants as their guests, he said, and carry on living in their properties. But the threat of drone strikes means that now, when militants come to stay, civilians usually leave.

There is little locals can do about the prospect of their buildings being damaged, he adds: ‘You cannot say no to the Taliban in FATA.’”

US version

The TBIJ report refers to a US official:

“A US official told the Bureau: ‘ US counterterrorism operations are precise, lawful, and effective. The United States takes extraordinary care to make sure that its counterterrorism actions are in accordance with all applicable domestic and international law, and that they are consistent with US values and policy.’

“The US official told the Bureau: ‘The US government only targets terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to the American people. Period. Any suggestion otherwise is flat wrong. Furthermore, before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured – the highest standard we can set.’”

The report says US drones have been hitting Pakistan since June, 2004. However, the attacks largely increased since 2010 when 128 strikes killed at least 751 people, of whom 84 were civilians.

Earlier in 2014 BIJ informed that at least 2,400 people across the Middle East have been killed by drones.

Further info:

“Where Drones Strike: new Pakistan drone mapping tool” from @ForensicArchi @SituResearch & @TBIJ http://t.co/rGKpoLwAtI pic.twitter.com/xTKVqjQxBw
27 May, 2014
Countercurrents.org

By Countercurrents

Italian journalist torn to pieces, grenade attack on truck with wounded, ambulance fired, air strike, residential areas shelled, about 40 dead

Ukraine armed power is carrying on atrocities as reports by news agencies including AP said. The atrocities include air strike and shelling on residential areas. Reports of death of Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli and former dissident Andrey Mironov have emerged. The grisly murder torn into pieces the journalist’s body.

There were also reports of grenade attack on a truck carrying wounded. An ambulance with injured was also fired on.

The fighting in Donetsk is continuing around the airport and the railway station.

A Donetsk datelined AP report by Peter Leonard and Nataliya said:

The Kiev government launched an air strike on militants who occupied a major airport in the eastern capital of Donetsk .

In Donetsk , a city of one million, sustained artillery and gun fire was heard from the airport. Fighter jets and military helicopters were seen flying overhead, and dense black smoke rose in the air.

An Associated Press journalist saw several vehicles full of dozens of heavily armed men arrive to the area adjacent to the airport. Half an hour later, several flatbed trucks full of reinforcements came in.

The military operation has caused civilian deaths and destroyed property — angering many eastern residents — while still failing to crush the rebellion.

In the eastern region, less than 20 percent of the polling stations were open.

Other media reports said:

Witnesses have revealed new details of the killings in Ukraine of an Italian reporter and his Russian interpreter, Andrey Mironov – who was also a veteran human rights activist, a journalist and a Soviet dissident.

Mironov’s body was in a morgue in Slavyansk and might soon delivered to Russia .

Mironov, 60, was killed along with Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli, 30, by mortar fire on Saturday near the village of Andreevka , a couple of kilometers from Slavyansk , eastern Ukraine . French journalist, William Roguelon was wounded in the attack.

The journalists were in the area to report on fighting between local self-defense squads and Kiev forces amid an ongoing military operation launched weeks ago by the coup-imposed government to suppress protesters who seek more autonomy.

Following the tragedy, Kiev put the blame for the deaths of the journalists on “terrorists,” as the new Ukrainian authorities refer to opposition activists.

Nikolay Goshovsky, a senior official from Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said that a criminal case on “aggravated killing” was opened, reported UNN agency. He also stated that the journalists got killed as armed forces “responded” to actions of self-defense rather than during Kiev ‘s “anti-terrorist” operation.

Witnesses’ accounts, including Roguelon, claim the opposite and accuse the military of the armed assault.

Evgeny, a taxi driver who also survived the attack, told RT’s video agency Ruptly that the journalists left his car, “raised their hands and started taking photos when machine gun shooting began.”

The driver said that he got frightened and jumped into a nearby ditch where he was then joined by the Italian and French journalists and the Russian interpreter.

“We were sitting there when the mortar shelling started. The first shells fell near the ravine but then one shell reached us,” Evgeny said. “I saw that the interpreter was not moving at all [after the shelling]. The [Italian] correspondent, who was sitting next to him, crawled to me and then stopped moving too.”

The one surviving correspondent, apparently the Frenchman, the driver said, ran after him towards the car.

“When we got out on the road he ran but then fell on the ground being shot. I thought he was dead. There was no time to think, as mortar shelling went on, I dropped into the car and drove away to the city,” Evgeny added.

Roguelon reportedly managed flee the site and was then taken by locals to a hospital where he received treatment.

The bodies of the Italian journalist and his Russian interpreter were found on Sunday morning by local self-defense, witnesses told Ruptly.

“Apparently, one [of the attacked journalists] got hit into the head, because the head is absent. The other it seems was cut by shell splinters,” they said. The witnesses added that the head of one of the bodies was “torn to pieces” and “only scull” was left at the site. Documents – Mironov and Rocchelli passports – were in the pockets of the dead and parts of two photo cameras were found nearby, they told the agency.

So far, no official details of the incident have been made public. Ukrainian law enforcers said Sunday that they could not examine the site of the deadly incident since the area, according to their information, was controlled by self-defense forces.

The Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed Sunday that the Italian reporter was killed during the attack, adding though that final confirmation can only be made after his body is identified by relatives.

Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov “exchanged condolences” with his Italian counterpart over the deaths of “Rocchelli and his Russian interpreter Mironov,” it said in a statement.

On Monday, Ukrainian acting Foreign Minister Andrey Deshchitsa assured his Italian counterpart Federica Mogherini that Kiev is ready to investigate the circumstances of the tragedy and assist in organizing the transportation of the Italian reporter’s body to his homeland.

Mironov

Svetlana Gannushkina, the head of the Civic Assistance Committee and a member of Memorial rights organization, confirmed that Mironov, their “colleague and friend” was killed near Slavyansk .

Mironov “knew several European languages including Italian” and “often accompanied journalists, politicians and members of international rights organizations as an interpreter,” she said in a statement published on the committee’s website.

“But never and nowhere had the rights activist and former political prisoner Andrey Mironov been simply an interpreter,” Gannushkina said.

In 1985 Mironov was arrested for distributing ‘the samizdat’ – the underground press and books banned in the USSR and a year later sentenced to four years in prison in for “anti-Soviet propaganda,” his colleague recalled.

However, as Mikhail Gorbachev launched perestroika, Mironov along with other political prisoners was released.

As a rights activist – independently or together with colleagues – he visited many flashpoints, and repeatedly traveled to Chechnya during the conflict in the Russian Caucasian republic, according to Gannushkina.

“A man of a crystal-clear soul was killed,” she said.

Novaya Gazeta (NG) daily published the last report by Mironov with photos taken by Rocchelli in Ukraine

The paper applied to Russian Foreign Ministry asking diplomats to help organize transporting the body of the killed Russian journalist – who worked for them as a freelancer – to his native soil.

Mortar attack on Slavyansk

At least three civilians including a woman have reportedly been killed and several wounded when the Ukrainian Army launched a mortar attack on the town of Slavyansk in eastern Ukraine . One of the shells fell near a local teachers college. About 10 persons were injured in the attack.

Residential blocks were ruined as a result of the assault by Kiev ‘s forces on Monday. At least two apartment blocks were damaged.

The dead woman of about 60 years age was lying on the grass with a large blood stain on her back.

People were running out of their homes in Slavyansk with their children, half-dressed.

There were around six or eight shell craters near the college where the woman’s body was found.

Reports of gunfights on the outskirts of Slavyansk , in the villages of Vostochny, Semyonovka and Slavkurort also came.

Ukrainian army launched several artillery salvos from the mountain of Karachun near the town.

Ukraine ‘s likely president-elect Poroshenko, announced Monday that Kiev is not going to stop the military operation in the east of Ukraine neither will it hold negotiations with armed people.

“They don’t want to talk to anyone,” he told a media conference.

Poroshenko said the “anti-terrorist” operation in the south-eastern regions will be held in a more efficient way, with soldiers getting better ammo and their lives and health being insured.

Grenade attack on truck with wounded

A rocket-propelled grenade fired by the Ukrainian army has hit a truck carrying wounded self-defense fighters near the Donetsk airport, killing a driver.

There are conflicting reports on the number of casualties from the latest attack. Earlier people’s governor of Donestk Region, Pavel Gubarev, said in a post on Facebook that 35 people were killed and 15 were wounded in the strike. The truck carrying the wounded was marked as an ambulance, he added.

According to Itar-Tass citing a correspondent of St. Petersburg ‘s Fifth Channel, at least 24 people were killed.

It is hard to verify these reports.

Few hours later self-defense forces reported that Ukrainian military opened fire at an ambulance transporting two injured from the Donetsk airport. The doctors inside the ambulance were unharmed, deputy of Donbass’ self-defense forces, Sergey Tsypakov, told RIA Novosti. The two wounded remain in the ambulance and it is not possible to evacuate them at this point, he added.

This comes as the Ukrainian military is broadening its offensive against anti-Kiev forces in the southeast of the country.

On Monday morning, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic forces came to the airport demanding that Ukrainian troops leave.

In response, Ukrainian fighter jets and helicopters were unleashed at the armed self-defense occupying the airport.

A video posted on YouTube reportedly shows Ukrainian jets attacking the area around the airport on Monday:

Air strikes started after the self-defense forces failed to comply with the ultimatum put forward by Kiev ‘s troops, which was to surrender by 1pm local time, Vladislav Seleznyov, the head of the counter-terror operation said on his Facebook page.

Donetsk self-defense forces regained control over the airport.

Loud explosions and gunfire were reported from Donetsk throughout the day, with Ukrainian army aircraft occasionally circling around the airport.

Reports of fighting outside the city airport also emerged. A private housing area was being shelled by mortar fire “for over an hour.”

The clashes in Donetsk began just a few hours after the early results of the elections were announced.

A missile launched in one of the air raids reportedly hit the nearby Tochmash machinery plant, injuring at least one person.

At the Donetsk central railway station a fire broke out and gunfire was heard, the area evacuated. One civilian was killed and two, including an 8-year-old boy, sustained injuries in the shooting.

An ANNA News reporter streaming a live broadcast from the airport area came under helicopter fire together with local and foreign journalists. According to the streamer, fortunately, only one female journalist suffered mild shock.

28 May, 2014
Countercurrents.org