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Spudrick68 Great Old One Joined: 08 Jun 2008 Total posts: 1111 Location: sunny Morecambe Age: 45 Gender: Male |
 Posted: 02-06-2013 12:15 Post subject: |
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22742327
I know it's not an Arab uprising, but I didn't know where else to put it. This is a blog from someone who purports to have been there in Turkey, with innocent people sprayed with pepper spray and two (I think) killed. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17933 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 02-06-2013 13:02 Post subject: |
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| Spudrick68 wrote: | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22742327
I know it's not an Arab uprising, but I didn't know where else to put it. This is a blog from someone who purports to have been there in Turkey, with innocent people sprayed with pepper spray and two (I think) killed. |
It perhaps deserves its own tghread,. A lot of stories about it on the web. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17933 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 02-06-2013 13:02 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Syria claims sarin seizure at rebel hideout as Russia ‘blocks’ UN's Qusair resolution
http://rt.com/news/syria-sarin-qusayr-siege-124/
The Syrian Army has seized two containers with poisonous sarin agent in a rebel hideout, SANA said citing sources. Meanwhile, Russia reportedly blocked the UNSC resolution set to slam Damascus’ offensive on the town of Qusair held by opposition forces.
Syrian Arab News Agency reports that sarin, together with automatic rifles, pistols and homemade bombs (IEDs) was seized in the Faraieh neighborhood of the city of Hama.
Sarin (or GB) is an extremely toxic, though colorless and odorless, substance that disrupts the nervous system, over-stimulating muscles and vital organs, if it comes into contact with skin. This potentially extremely harmful nerve agent was originally invented and manufactured to be used as a chemical weapon. According to UN Resolution 687, Sarin is classified as a weapon of mass destruction.
The threat of chemical weapons deployment in Syria has become a major international concern, with American President Barack Obama even saying previously that the use of chemical arsenal by the Syrian government would be a “red line” and might precipitate a foreign military intervention.
However, in early May an independent UN commission came to the conclusion that Syrian rebels had used sarin nerve gas, while allegations of its use by the government have not yet received any official confirmation.
Russia 'blocks' another UNSC resolution on Syria
On Saturday a UN Security Council (UNSC) assembly failed to adopt a British-drafted resolution on the situation in Qusair, which the Syrian Army has blockaded and is said to be eliminating a large group of opposition forces that occupied the town several weeks ago.
A handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on May 30, 2013, shows Syrian army soldiers walking nearby facilities of Dabaa military airfield during an operation that led to the control of the airport, north of the Syrian city of Qusayr. (AFP Photo / SANA)
Rebels besieged in Qusair are pleading for military help. They claim that many civilians have been wounded in the assault of the government forces and that these people are in desperate need of medical attention.
The UK-drafted UN statement obtained by Reuters claims that Assad's government must “allow immediate, full and unimpeded access to impartial humanitarian actors, including UN agencies, to reach civilians trapped in Qusair.”
According to Reuters’ sources in the Security Council, Russia blocked the resolution during private discussions on Saturday, explaining that the UNSC had made no statement when the rebels came to Qusair in force and seized the town.
It is “not advisable to speak out as the UN Security Council didn't when Qusair was taken by the opposition,” a Russia diplomat reportedly said in the UNSC.
So far Russia has officially vetoed three resolutions on Syria in the UNSC saying they were "unbalanced" targeting Assad's government while sending weak to no message to the opposition fighters.
An empty ammunition casing and a fire are seen in a field after heavy fighting between Free Syrian Army fighters, and the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon's Hezbollah at the al Barak area near Qusair town May 31, 2013. (Reuters)
Earlier this week the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution on the worsening human rights situation in Syria and in particular in connection with battle for Qusair.
The document puts the blame for Qusair violence solely on Damascus troops and condemns the involvement of “foreign combatants” fighting on the side of the Syrian government.
The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that the resolution deliberately ignore numerous human rights violations and abuses of Qusair civilians committed by armed foreign jihadists, some of whom have links to Al-Qaeda.
The “foreign combatants” mentioned in the resolution are fighters of the previously neutral Hezbollah group which have joined Syrian military in the offensive on Qusair, overturning the balance in the stand-off to the opposition’s disadvantage.
The Syrian opposition has even threatened not to attend the peace conference in Geneva that is being prepared by Russia and the US for July because of Hezbollah’s involvement.
The ongoing siege of Qusair has raged for two weeks now. On Saturday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated that he is “following with the gravest concern” the situation in Qusair. He reminded the government of Bashar Assad of its responsibility to protect civilians on the Syrian territory, including those threatened by militants, and urged to allow thousands of Qusair residents to flee the town.
A partial view of the city of Qusayr, in Syria's central Homs province, as the Syrian army forces battle opposition fighters, on May 25, 2013. (AFP Photo)
In another statement issued on Saturday the UN Humanitarian Chief Valerie Amos and the UN Human Rights Head Navi Pillay maintained that there are as many as 1,500 injured people in Qusair who need immediate evacuation for emergency medical treatment.
UN officials said that if the information they are receiving is correct, “the general situation in Qusair is desperate.”
“We urge the parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian agencies to evacuate the wounded and provide life-saving treatment and supplies,” Amos and Pillay said in their statement.
Qusair, with an original population of 30,000, is less than 10 km from the Lebanese border and some 25 km from the city of Homs.
In the meantime there have been reports of intensifying clashes between the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Assad’s forces near Aleppo. Allegedly, the troops have captured Mount Shuwaihinah, a dominating point in the area.
FSA brigades are reportedly calling for reinforcements to be sent in from other areas. |
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| Analis Great Old One Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Total posts: 851 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 06-06-2013 11:09 Post subject: |
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| ramonmercado wrote: | | Spudrick68 wrote: | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22742327
I know it's not an Arab uprising, but I didn't know where else to put it. This is a blog from someone who purports to have been there in Turkey, with innocent people sprayed with pepper spray and two (I think) killed. |
It perhaps deserves its own tghread,. A lot of stories about it on the web. |
Not an Arab uprising, but these manifestations are directly influenced by the events of these last two years. It was a bit presomptuous from the Turkish and western rulers to believe that they would not affect Turkey. The protests were initiated by a project to remove a park in the midst of Istanbul, but they have become the focus of the larger exasperation at the methods of the Erdogan's government, for all a variety of reasons. His arbitrariness, rampant authoritarism, islamisation, and his help to the so-called Syrian insurgents, who are often not Syrian but have his support because they are sunni islamists. To the point, according to some reports, that they are given free rein in the border region, and are even allowed to intimidate locals who disagree with their presence.
The most worrying side is that it affects a country that was usually presented in the recent years as a model of an islamic democracy for Arab countries. But Erdogan has slowly undermined democratic past advances, to promote an authoritarianism mixing remains of the traditional Turkish closed-minded nationalism (historians who want to study the Armenian genocide are still prosecuted, as are journalists who support minority rights) with creeping but determined islamisation.
In any case, a spontaneous propagation of the 'Arab spring' to Turkey would probably not be welcomed by its allies from the West and the Gulf. |
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| Cavynaut Skoumed!
Usually tired. Joined: 10 Apr 2003 Total posts: 1976 Location: Crouch Wailing. UK. Age: 56 Gender: Male |
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| theyithian Keeping the British end up
Joined: 29 Oct 2002 Total posts: 11704 Location: Vermilion Sands Gender: Unknown |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17933 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 10-07-2013 14:00 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Russia claims Syria rebels used sarin at Khan al-Assal
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23249104
A photo released by Syria's state news agency purportedly showing victims of a chemical weapons attack at Khan al-Assal (19 March 2013)
Syria's government and rebels accuse each other of using chemical weapons
Russia says it has evidence showing a projectile that hit a northern Syrian village contained the nerve agent sarin and was most likely fired by rebels.
Moscow's permanent representative to the UN told reporters that the findings were the result of an independent investigation requested by Damascus.
Both sides have accused each other of attacks involving chemical weapons.
The incident in Khan al-Assal, outside Aleppo, on 19 March left at least 27 people dead and dozens injured.
Last month, the UN Human Rights Council's Independent International Commission of Inquiry said there were reasonable grounds to believe that "limited quantities of toxic chemicals" had been used at Khan al-Assal, as well as in three other attacks.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
The projectile involved is not a standard one for chemical use”
Vitaly Churkin
Russian permanent representative to the UN
But it had "not been possible... to determine the precise chemical agents used, their delivery systems or the perpetrator", it added.
The inquiry also called on the Syrian authorities to allow a team of UN chemical weapons experts into the country - a request Damascus has so far refused because of disputes over access to areas that the UK and French governments also want investigated.
'No credible reporting'
On Monday, Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, revealed that its Syrian ally had asked Russian experts to look into the Khan al-Assal attack.
They had visited the location where the projectile landed and taken their own samples, which were then analysed at a Russian laboratory certified by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Mr Churkin said.
The chemical agent was carried by a "Bashair-3 unguided projectile", which was produced by the Bashair al-Nasr Brigade, a rebel group affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, he alleged.
Continue reading the main story
What is sarin?
One of a group of nerve agents invented by German scientists as part of Hitler's preparations for World War II
Huge secret stockpiles built up by superpowers during Cold War
20 times more deadly than cyanide: A drop the size of a pin-head can kill a person
Called "the poor man's atomic bomb" due to large number of people that can be killed by a small amount
Kills by crippling the nervous system through blocking the action of an enzyme
Can only be manufactured in a laboratory
Very dangerous to manufacture
Syria chemical weapons allegations
Syria's chemical weapons stockpile
How to investigate chemical weapons allegations
"The results of the analysis clearly indicate that the ordnance used in Khan al-Assal was not industrially manufactured and was filled with sarin."
"The projectile involved is not a standard one for chemical use," Mr Churkin added. "Hexogen, utilised as an opening charge, is not utilised in standard ammunitions. Therefore, there is every reason to believe that it was armed opposition fighters who used the chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal."
Mr Churkin said the report had been submitted to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, whose spokesman said he took "seriously all credible allegations".
The UK and France sent letters to the secretary general in late March which reportedly detailed evidence based on witness interviews and soil samples that chemical weapons had been used on multiple occasions, including at Khan al-Assal.
In mid-June, the US said its intelligence agencies believed government forces had used chemical weapons, including sarin, "on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year", resulting in an estimated 100-150 deaths.
Following Mr Churkin's announcement, a UK government spokesman told the BBC: "We will examine whatever is presented to us, but to date we have seen no credible reporting of chemical weapons use by the Syrian opposition, or that the opposition have obtained chemical weapons."
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the US had also "yet to see any evidence that backs up the assertion that anybody besides the Syrian government has the ability to use chemical weapons, [or] has used chemical weapons".
"Our ability as an international community to investigate the use of chemical weapons in Syria is hampered by Assad's refusal to allow a United Nations investigation."
Sarin is considered 20 times as deadly as cyanide and is impossible to detect due to its odourless, tasteless and colourless properties. The agent attacks the nervous system, often causing respiratory failure and can cause death within minutes of exposure. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17933 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 24-07-2013 13:40 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Syria turning into ‘center of global jihad’ – IDF Intel Chief
http://rt.com/news/syria-rebels-jihad-idf-519/
Fighters of the jihadist group Al-Nusra Front stand on the top of a pick-up mounted with a machine gun during fightings against the regime forces on April 4, 2013 in the Syrian village of Aziza, on the southern outskirts of Aleppo. (AFP Photo/Guillaume Briquet)
Israeli Military Intelligence chief said that Syria is becoming a ‘center of global jihad’ right on Israel’s border, with extremists trying not only to topple President Bashar Assad, but also to create a state governed by the Islamic religious law.
Director of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi warned that Syria is posing a regional threat as it attracts thousands of global jihadists and Muslim extremists from around the world.
"A center of global jihad of vast proportions is developing on our very doorstep," Israeli media quoted Kochavi as saying. "It is liable to affect not only Syria or Israeli borders, but also the borders of Lebanon, Jordan and the Sinai Peninsula, and have implications for the region as a whole," he said at a graduation ceremony for Military Intelligence commanding officers.
Kochavi argued that the extremists will not stop at toppling Assad, but will go further and try to establish a state based on Islamic religious law, or Sharia law.
Free Syrian Army (FSA) spokesperson Zaky Mallah’s interview with RT confirmed Kochavi’s concerns, saying that Syrian opposition is willing to accept support from anyone, be it “Bin Laden” or “Hitler”.
“The situation in Syria with the opposition is complicated. Al-Qaeda took the advantage and they thought: ‘we are going to step in’, if their own brothers are being killed by this tyrant and the world is not doing nothing about it”, Mallah said.
Some Western states, including the UK, have so far backtracked on their arms supply to the opposition - voicing concerns about the threat of extremists in Syria.
But Mallah explained that the opposition does not fear losing Western support.
“Because a prime minister of some Western country says ‘there is extremism within the opposition’, it is not a justifiable reason not to help the moderates,” he argued.
Fighters of the jihadist group Al-Nusra Front arrive to hold positions on April 4, 2013 in the Syrian village of Aziza, on the southern outskirts of Aleppo. (AFP Photo/Guillaume Briquet)Fighters of the jihadist group Al-Nusra Front arrive to hold positions on April 4, 2013 in the Syrian village of Aziza, on the southern outskirts of Aleppo. (AFP Photo/Guillaume Briquet)
The Syrian president's cousin Ribal Assad earlier said that Syrian rebels are led by jihadists who are "worse than Nazis."
Jordan officials also spoke out back in December 2012, describing Syria as “a black hole that will lure jihadists from all over the world."
In the meantime, the House and Senate intelligence committees gave a green light to send CIA weapons shipments to opposition fighters in Syria, spokesperson for the United States Department of State Jen Psaki confirmed on Tuesday.
The US will use the money already in the CIA’s budget and transfer it to the Syria operation. The plan was announced last month by the Obama administration and involves giving small arms and ammunition to some of the 1,200 groups of Syrian rebels, some of which have known affiliations with Al-Qaeda.
The arms are expected to start coming in the next several weeks.
The number of jihadist fighters in Syria has recently been increasing. Hundreds of European Muslims have joined the Syrian rebels in their fight against the rule of Bashar Assad, the International Centre of for the Study of Radicalization (ICRS) revealed back in April. Most of them hold UK passports.
ICRS estimated that a total of up to 5,500 foreign fighters have traveled to Syria since the beginning of the uprising against the ruling regime.
Disunited Syrian opposition consists of diverse groups, including radical Islamists from abroad affiliated with Al-Qaeda. Some foreign militants fighting in Syria have experience fighting American troops in Iraq.
UN reported in July that the Syrian conflict is “drastically deteriorating” with up to 5,000 people a month dying and the total death toll reaching 100,000 people in over two years. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17933 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 25-07-2013 14:06 Post subject: |
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This takes in Iran as well but I reckon it best fits here. Full text at link.
| Quote: | Progressive sentiments amidst reactionary illusions
Gilbert Achcar has strongly objected to being described as a ‘social-imperialist’ in the Weekly Worker. So what is the truth about him? Yassamine Mather investigates
Gilbert Achcar does not fit the description of a stereotypical social-imperialist. First of all, he is passionately pro-Palestinian. His book, The Arabs and the holocaust: the Arab-Israeli war of narratives,1 is a valuable study of the myths created around the formation of the state of Israel. He describes himself as anti-war and indeed his articles written at the time of the US invasion of Iraq were unambiguously anti-war.
Achcar has distanced himself from both conspiracy theorists and those who defend reactionary dictators in the Arab world - those who claim that the enemy of the US is necessarily a friend or that Muslim fundamentalists are the ‘anti-imperialist allies of the international working class’. In Hands Off the People of Iran we have always argued against those who confuse reactionary anti-western rhetoric with anti-imperialism and we recommend Achcar’s article, ‘Eleven theses on the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism’.2 Achcar’s stance on such questions has been consistent. He is also right when he argues against the view held by many on the left that US wars in the Middle East are all to do with oil.
The only time I met Achcar (and shared a platform with him) was at a conference in Lausanne in 2003.3 The main difference in our two approaches lay in my insistence that the left should support the Iranian working class’s call for the overthrow of the capitalist Islamic Republic of Iran. (From memory GA was less critical of Tehran. He emphasised the difference between Shia and Sunni Islam, the latter being the religion of the oppressed, he said.)
Apart from that instance, as far as Iran is concerned, he has made some useful comments: for example, in criticising president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s holocaust denial, in clarifying the progressive characteristics of the Iranian opposition movement in 20094 and there is no doubt that until 2011 all his writing fell on the right side of the thin line between opposing both imperialism and the Islamic regime, on the one hand, and support for regime change from above, be it in the form of a military intervention or sanctions, on the other.
However, we are all judged by our current political stance and this is where Sarah McDonald, takes issue with Achcar’s position in last week’s Weekly Worker to which he has strongly objected,5 will know the Achcar who came out in support of western intervention in Libya, Mali and Syria. Although Achcar does not sit easily alongside those whose politics is often dictated by their soft attitude towards Israel, such as the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, at the end of the day his support for military intervention is of a social-imperialist character and, whether he likes it or not, what he has written on Libya, Mali and Syria has been praised and distributed by the Eustonites, the AWL and other social-imperialists. What made his stance on those countries all the more harmful was the fact that it stood in sharp contrast to his previously impeccable anti-war credentials.
Achcar’s recent statements on Libya and Syria have been unambiguous. In relation to Libya he wrote: “Every general rule admits of exceptions. This includes the general rule that UN-authorised military interventions by imperialist powers are purely reactionary ones, and can never achieve a humanitarian or positive purpose.”6
When it came to Syria, he actually advised the opposition on how to go about getting foreign intervention: “… the Syrian opposition must define a clear stance on the issue of foreign military intervention, since it is clear that its position has a major influence on whether or not intervention might take place. The reluctance regarding direct intervention that we see today on the part of western and regional states might change tomorrow if intervention requests made on behalf of the Syrian opposition were to increase. It was the Libyan National Council’s request for international military intervention at the beginning of March that paved the way for the similar request issued by the Arab League, and the subsequent resolution of the UN security council. Had the Libyan opposition opposed direct military intervention in all its forms (instead of just opposing intervention on the ground and requesting air support, as it did), the Arab League would not have sought intervention nor would such action have been sanctioned by the UN.”7 ...
http://www.hopi-ireland.org/c/progressive-sentiments-amidst-reactionary-illusions |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17933 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 05-10-2013 00:16 Post subject: |
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Cthulu fan on the loose in Libya.
| Quote: | Russian Gaddafi groupie girl triggers attack on embassy in Libya
http://rt.com/news/libya-embassy-gaddafi-girl-727/
Published time: October 04, 2013 13:24
Edited time: October 04, 2013 14:26 Get short URL
Photo from ossuley.livejournal.comPhoto from ossuley.livejournal.com
Diplomats in Libya have confirmed a Russian woman sparked an attack on her country's embassy in Tripoli. A former weight lifter, she had been in Libya since 2011 after heading there to fight on the side of Muammar Gaddafi in the civil war.
Russian officials say the alleged killing of a Libyan Air Force pilot and his mother by 24-year-old Ekaterina Ustyuzhaninova triggered the embassy attack. Diplomatic staff and their families have now left the country for their own safety.
While in Libya Ekaterina Uztyuzhaninova gained notoriety as a political activist. Using the pen name Katya Cyaegha she became one of the most vocal and passionate members of the online community supporting Col. Gaddafi.
Ustyuzhaninova is known to have been an accomplished weight lifter and won a number of competitions in Russia and participated in several international events.
“She is not a bad person, but she wasn’t completely stable since some tragic events in her life,” Dmitry Ershov, who met her when he was looking for people to work as journalists in wartime Libya. He told Life News. “She wanted to go to Libya, but not for journalistic work. She supported the image of Muammar Gaddafi. Not his regime, but his image.”
Image from za-kaddafi.orgImage from za-kaddafi.org
At the peak of the Libyan conflict, 'Cyaegha' raised money to fund her one-woman expeditionary force. She travelled to Libya through Tunisia, saying that her goal was “to help Gaddafi or die for him”.
She managed to publish a number of reports of her exploits in Tripoli, which by that time was taken by the ‘rats’ – the derogatory name she used for the opposition forces. The messages were full of disdain for Gaddafi’s enemies and showed Cyaegha’s disregard for her personal safety.
“Some guy threatened me with an assault rifle and even shot in the ground next to my feet. But when he saw that I’m not afraid and have a knife, he ran away with his ass forward,” one of her first reports said.
“Cthulhian brain-f*ckedness beats Arab effrontery,” it added in a reference to Cyaegha’s nickname, which is borrowed from a deity feathered in horror fiction of Cthulhu Mythos.
The self declared mercenary fell on hard times after the fall of Gaddafi. His supporters had to do a whip round to pay her $2000 hotel bill, and buy her an air ticket home. She was reportedly kept ‘under house arrest’ at the Russian embassy at the time out of fear of being thrown to a debtor’s prison.
It’s not clear what she did since then or whether she did return to her home city of Novosibirsk, as some online reports claimed, or stayed in Libya. One of her friends in the pro-Gaddafi community says she received an e-mail from Cyaegha about a week ago, which seems to show that she was preparing for some drastic action.
“I know I will die in combat,” the message says. “There’s nothing bad about it. There is no heaven, life is short and the only sense a person may give to it is if some god or demon chooses to use him. And will then throw away like a used condom.”
“This is war, and people get killed at war. I hope I’ll manage to give the rats as much sh*t as my body and mind can do,” the text goes.
Cyaegha’s supposed letter says that her 2011 pro-Gaddafi activism was “something more mystical than just reposting news”.
“It is still alive. It is calling us back. But if I start telling you, you will thing I am totally out of my mind.” |
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