Syrian tanks attack in Homs, world outrage grows

[Trajan]

I said, world outrage is growing!!!! outrage!! don't you all get that!!!

now, get out there and get outraged....



*buzzzz* oops, time for our afternoon drink at the Plowshare lounge ( The UN's rooftop bar, the views are spectacular btw)....


outrage noted, thx for coming.

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian tanks pushed into a rebel stronghold in the battered city of Homs on Thursday and U.N. investigators accused President Bashar al-Assad's government of crimes against humanity.

Rockets, shells and mortar rounds rained on the Baba Amro district, where armed insurgents are holed up with terrified civilians, for the 20th day in a row, activists said. The Sunni Muslim quarters of Inshaat and Khalidiya also came under fire.

Homs-based activist Abu Imad said tanks had entered the Jobar area in the south of Baba Amro.

Syrian tanks attack in Homs, world outrage grows - Yahoo! News




I guess that Vogue follow up article is tabled for now?

Syria's Assad No Longer in Vogue | Foreign Affairs

Vogue took the article off their site.......thats your ole lefty convictions for ya.....churn'em and burn'em....

http://www.vogue.com/404/


found it...The Only Remaining Online Copy of Vogue's Asma al-Assad Profile - Max Fisher - International - The Atlantic

"the rose of the desert"....as told by useful idiots, volume four thousand, three hundred and ninety six....

in 1982, his daddy Hafez, fresh off a NY Times Sunday supplement ' People of Power' article massacred over 20k in Hama ( some say closer to 40k)......

 

[High_Gravity]

I doubt Assad's goons will lose any sleep over our outrage.

 

[zzzz]

I doubt Assad's goons will lose any sleep over our outrage.

I think Assad feels pretty well safe at the present time. There are 3 important reasons for this feeling.

1. The Euro's brief support with military forces in Libya kinda stunted their enthusiasm for other foreign adventures. I believe the cost of conducting war in this day and age has almost made it obsolete except for those very rich nations. With the other financial obstacles the EU is facing I cannot see how they can justify to their populace spending money to bomb Syria.

2. Also everyone is keeping a wary eye on Iran and the Gulf. If something jumps off here NATO will be have to commit forces to the theater of Operations. Yes they already have ships in the area but to open the straits and keep it open will take more resources.

3. Israel does not want Assad overthrown. They are comfortable with the known enemy to the north. With the threat of Iran and an unstable Egypt the last thing Israel needs is a mess in Syria and the resulting chaos that would surely spread to Lebanon.

So for all the public display of outrageous indignation, nothing will happen except a few sanctions and maybe some war crime indictments that will never be served.

 

[High_Gravity]

I doubt Assad's goons will lose any sleep over our outrage.

I think Assad feels pretty well safe at the present time. There are 3 important reasons for this feeling.

1. The Euro's brief support with military forces in Libya kinda stunted their enthusiasm for other foreign adventures. I believe the cost of conducting war in this day and age has almost made it obsolete except for those very rich nations. With the other financial obstacles the EU is facing I cannot see how they can justify to their populace spending money to bomb Syria.

2. Also everyone is keeping a wary eye on Iran and the Gulf. If something jumps off here NATO will be have to commit forces to the theater of Operations. Yes they already have ships in the area but to open the straits and keep it open will take more resources.

3. Israel does not want Assad overthrown. They are comfortable with the known enemy to the north. With the threat of Iran and an unstable Egypt the last thing Israel needs is a mess in Syria and the resulting chaos that would surely spread to Lebanon.

So for all the public display of outrageous indignation, nothing will happen except a few sanctions and maybe some war crime indictments that will never be served.

Assad feels pretty secure because China and Russia are vetoeing everything then UN Puts together and they are getting arms and money from Russia, China and Iran, and the only thing the Syrian rebels are recieving from the west is sympathy and empathy.

 

[Pilar]

Islamofascistic Iran and Hezbollah are butchering the Syrians as well.

 

[Jos]

Islamofascistic Iran and Hezbollah are butchering the Syrians as well.

Link or just an opinion?


To weaken Iran start with Syria

Sadly, the opportunities presented by Syria’s meltdown seem to be eluding Israeli leaders. Last week, Israel’s military intelligence chief spoke of the 200,000 missiles and rockets in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria that could reach all of Israel’s population centers. And there is a growing risk that advanced Syrian weapons might fall into the hands of terrorist groups. Iran’s presence in Damascus is vital to maintaining these threats.

At this stage, there is no turning back; Mr. Assad must step down. For Israel, the crucial question is not whether he falls but whether the Iranian presence in Syria will outlive his government. Getting Iran booted out of Syria is essential for Israel’s security.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/opinion/to-weaken-iran-start-with-syria.html

 

[waltky]

US, Europe Prepare For Syria Intervention...

US, France, UK, Turkey, Italy prepare for military intervention in Syria
February 23, 2012, Despite public denials, military preparations for intervention in the horrendous Syrian crisis are quietly afoot in Washington, Paris, Rome, London and Ankara.

President Barack Obama is poised for a final decision after the Pentagon submits operational plans for protecting Syrian rebels and beleaguered populations from the brutal assaults of Bashar Assad’s army, debkafile’s Washington sources disclose. This process is also underway in allied capitals which joined the US in the Libyan operation that ended Muammar Qaddafi’s rule in August, 2011. They are waiting for a White House decision before going forward.

In Libya, foreign intervention began as an operation to protect the Libyan population against its ruler’s outrageous crackdown on dissent. It was mandated by UN Security Council. There is no chance of this in the Syrian case because it will be blocked by a Russian veto. Therefore, Western countries are planning military action of limited scope outside the purview of the world body, possibly on behalf of “Friends of Syria,” a group of 80 world nations which meets for the first time in Tunis Friday, Feb. 24, to hammer out practical steps for terminating the bloodbath pursued by the Assad regime.

The foreign ministers and senior officials – Russia has excluded itself – will certainly be further galvanized into action by the tragic deaths of two notable journalists Wednesday, Feb. 22, on the 19th day of the shelling of Homs. Preparations for the event are taking place at the Foreign Office in London. Wednesday, Foreign Secretary William Hague said: Governments around the world have the responsibility to act…and to redouble our efforts to stop the Assad regime’s despicable campaign of terror.”

Hague pointedly said nothing about removing the Syrian ruler. Nor did he spell out the efforts need to stop the campaign of terror. debkafile’s military sources note that he left these issues open because a decision by President Obama about if and how the US will act is pending until the Pentagon submits operational plans to Commander-in-Chief Obama. The US president is also waiting for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s report on the mood at the Tunis conference. He wants to know in particular if Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and the UAR will support US-led Western intervention in Syria, both politically and financially.

More DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security

See also:

U.S.: 'Humanitarian disaster' in Syria
Feb. 24,`12 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking Friday in Tunisia, applauded the selection of Kofi Annan as U.N.-Arab League special envoy for Syria.

"We are all here because the Assad regime's escalating violence in Syria is an affront to the international community, a threat to regional security and a grave violation of universal human rights," Clinton said at the international Friends of Syria conference in Tunis. "The Assad regime has ignored every warning, squandered every opportunity and broken every agreement," she said. "Faced with determined protesters demanding their rights and their dignity, the regime is creating an appalling humanitarian disaster." Clinton said the United States strongly supports the Arab League's demand that Syrian forces "immediately halt all attacks against civilians" and called for a "negotiated political solution to the crisis."

The Tunis meeting came as the United Nations named top international diplomat Kofi Annan, a former U.N. secretary-general, as an envoy to Syria and targeted top Syrian officials for "gross human-rights violations." Annan -- secretary-general from 1997 to 2006, and a Nobel Peace laureate with the United Nations in 2001 -- was named a special U.N.-Arab League envoy, with a mandate to try to end the bloodshed and arrange a political transition, the world body said. Annan, from the West African country of Ghana, is said to have kept good lines of communications with the Syrian regime, The Wall Street Journal reported.

U.S. President Barack Obama, meeting with Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt in Washington, said: "All of us who have been seeing the terrible pictures coming out of Syria and Homs recently recognize it is absolutely imperative for the international community to rally and send a clear message to President Assad that it is time for a transition. It is time for that regime to move on and it is time to stop the killing of Syrian citizens by their own government. … "It is important that we not be bystanders during these extraordinary events," he said.

The Red Cross said Friday it has begun evacuating injured women and children from Homs, Syria, after weeks of shelling by the regime of President Bashar Assad. Homs has been bombarded by government forces for weeks, causing death, destruction and shortages of much-needed food and medicine, even as Assad denies his troops are targeting civilians, CNN reported. Syrian Arab Red Crescent ambulances began removing the sick and injured from the hard-hit suburb of Baba Amr after negotiating with the government, the BBC said.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-N...er-in-Syria/UPI-75931330068600/#ixzz1nMXCsLc6

 

[waltky]

'Friends of Syria' meet in Tunisia...

The Emergency Session on Syria: That's What Friends Are For?
Friday, Feb. 24, 2012 - It's unlikely that Syrian President Bashar Assad will lose sleep over Friday's "Friends of Syria" gathering in Tunisia. The group of more than 60 nations reiterated demands that Assad immediately cease escalating violence and allow humanitarian aid to areas his security forces have relentlessly pummeled. But there was no credible threat of force issued by the conference. The "or else" clause, such as it was, was relatively mild; increased international isolation and — more significantly — further sanctions on Syrian exports and members of Assad's inner circle.

The final communique also called on the United Nations to plan for a civilian peacekeeping mission in a country that is not at peace. Burhan Ghalioun, leader of the Syrian National Council (SNC), the fragmented de facto opposition group, said the meeting fell short "of the aspirations of the Syrian people."

It was a view shared by many on the Twittersphere and on Arabic satellite channel talk shows. "While the suits have been meeting, 93 people were killed around #Syria today. 93," one commentator on Twitter said. "Suggestion 2Friends of #Syria: Just give us the cost of all ur conferences we can buy the tools 2liberate ourselves. Thanks 4ur time!" said another. The official line was just as pessimistic if worded much more politely. "Don't expect things to change 180 degrees because we held this conference," Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem said at the press conference concluding the meeting.

After 11 months of violence that have left thousands dead, that's not good enough for Syrian anti-government commentators and countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the loudest advocate of action to stop the bloodshed. The kingdom's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal walked out of the conference, the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya satellite channel reported, citing its "inactivity." Instead, arming Assad's opponents was "an excellent idea," he said in remarks that suggest that even if others refuse to consider the military option, the kingdom may funnel funds and arms to Syrian rebels.

"We did not talk about weapons," Tunisia's Abdessalem said, rejecting the notion of both foreign military intervention and arming Assad's opponents. "We have had enough failed military excursions in the region," he said. "We do not want to use military force or weapons. We want a peaceful transition."

But the Syrian president isn't willing to let that happen. He has made it clear that he's not going anywhere and that he retains significant support inside Syria, especially among the country's sizable minority communities. Assad has opted for a so-called "security solution" to the country's troubles, by shelling and choking residential rebel areas by cutting power, water and basic supplies to them. Besides, he also has his own powerful friends, namely Russia and China, who both declined invitations to attend Friday's conference and whose vetoes saved Assad from censure at the U.N Security Council. And then of course, there's Iran, Syria's resolute partner in the region.

Read more: The Emergency Session on Syria: That's What Friends Are For? - TIME

See also:

Clinton blunt with Russia, China over Syria
February 25, 2012 - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in North Africa, where she used her strongest language yet to condemn Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at a conference in Tunis at a conference of world leaders known as "The Friends of Syria."

The conference was a global gathering of outrage. The result was a new set of demands, the first one being that Assad permit immediate shipments of food water and medicine, or face a world much more angry than it already is. "If the Assad regime refuses to allow this life-saving aid to reach people in need," Clinton told the conference, "it will have even more blood on its hands. And so, too, will those nations that continue to protect and arm the regime."

She was unusually harsh on the Russians and Chinese, blaming them for a share of the violence for their veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have condemned Assad. The secretary called that veto "despicable," and asked rhetorically, "Whose side are they on"? Clinton predicted the conference would put new pressure on Assad, but the Saudi foreign minister seemed to issue a pointblank threat. Asked if it was time to arm the Syrian rebels, he replied, "I think it is an excellent (idea) ... because they have to protect themselves."

The conference also marked the debut of the Syrian National Council, a dissident group of exiles asked to form a transitional government. The leader of the group, Burhan Ghalioun, also warned Assad to give up power peacefully -- or else, saying in Arabic, "The defenders of the people getting more and more arms. ... We are trying to negotiate a solutions, but if that fails, syria will fall into an armed struggle."

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[Katzndogz]

The problem in Syria is a civil war. It is none of our business. The "rebels" in Syria could end it today if they wished.

 

[waltky]

Gonna sit on our hands like we did with Rwanda...

Panetta: Intervening in Syria risky
7 Mar.`12 WASHINGTON (AP) – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pushed back on Wednesday against fresh demands for U.S. military involvement in Syria to end President Bashar Assad's deadly crackdown on his people.

"What doesn't make sense is to take unilateral action right now," Panetta told the Senate Armed Services Committee about advising President Obama to dispatch U.S. forces. "I've got to make very sure we know what the mission is … achieving that mission at what price." The panel's top Republican, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said the estimated 7,500 dead and the bloodshed calls for U.S. leadership that a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, displayed during the Bosnian war in the 1990s and that Obama eventually showed on Libya last year. "In past situations, America has led. We're not leading, Mr. Secretary," McCain told Panetta.

The Pentagon chief later added that the United States is not holding back and is leading in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and the war on terrorism. Testifying before the committee, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey and Panetta offered a cautionary note to the call by McCain to launch U.S. airstrikes against Assad's regime. "This terrible situation has no simple answers," Panetta told the panel.

Obama has resisted calls to step into the turmoil in Syria to stop Assad's crackdown on protesters. He told a news conference Tuesday that the international community has not been able to muster a campaign against Syria like the one in Libya that ousted Moammar Gadhafi last year. "For us to take military action unilaterally, as some have suggested, or to think that somehow there is some simple solution, I think is a mistake," Obama said. "What happened in Libya was we mobilized the international community, had a U.N. Security Council mandate, had the full cooperation of the region, Arab states, and we knew that we could execute very effectively in a relatively short period of time. This is a much more complicated situation."

Obama's strategy has been to use sanctions and international diplomatic isolation to pressure Assad into handing over power. The Pentagon chief said the United States is currently focused on isolating the Assad regime diplomatically and politically, arguing that it has lost all legitimacy for killing its own people. He left open the possibility of military action, saying the Obama administration continues to assess the situation and would adjust its strategy as necessary. Dempsey said among the military options are enforcement of a no-fly zone and humanitarian relief. He said a long-term, sustained air campaign would pose a challenge because Syria's air defenses are five times more sophisticated than Libya's. He said Syria's chemical and biological weapons stockpile is 100 times larger than Libya's.

MORE

 

[rhodescholar]

I said, world outrage is growing!!!! outrage!! don't you all get that!!!

Are there jews involved? No, so the world media, leftist scumbag groups, fake "human rights" groups, and jew-hating filth won't bother themselves to utter a peep.

 

[waltky]

Kofi comes back empty-handed...

UN's Annan Leaves Syria Empty-Handed
March 11, 2012 : U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has left Damascus without securing a deal to end Syria's nearly yearlong conflict. Meanwhile, President Bashar al-Assad's troops continued to pound opposition areas, clashing with rebels throughout the country.

The former U.N. secretary-general said Sunday he left several proposals with Syrian officials and that he remains "optimistic" about the possibility of a resolution after a second round of talks with Mr. Assad. But he said ending the violence will be "tough." Annan said he called for an immediate halt to the killings and that he urged the Syrian government to "embrace change and reform" as part of a political solution to its deadly crackdown on an opposition uprising. He appealed to Mr. Assad to heed an old African proverb that says: "You cannot turn the wind, so turn the sail."

Syrian state media said Mr. Assad told Annan that a political solution is impossible as long as "terrorist groups" threaten the country. Identical comments were reported after the two met Saturday. Syria's main exiled opposition group also rejected talks with the government. The Syrian National Council said negotiations can never take place between a "victim and torturer," and it demanded that Mr. Assad and his aides step down before a dialogue can begin.

Annan flew to Qatar Sunday to meet that country's emir, a leading critic of the Syrian government who has called for arming the rebels. As their talks took place in Damascus, Syria's military continued an offensive on rebel strongholds in the north. Activists reported that several areas were attacked, including in and around Idlib, Hama and Homs, as well as Daraa in the south. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says fighting Sunday killed at least 25 civilians and five soldiers. Activists said at least 90 people were killed in nationwide unrest a day earlier, many of them in Idlib.

Also Sunday, Syria's state news agency said gunmen killed local boxing champion Gheyath Tayfour in the northern city of Aleppo. Opposition fighters associated with the rebel Free Syrian Army have claimed responsibility for some of the assassinations that have become more frequent in the city, including those of prominent businessmen they say support Mr. Assad. International rifts have paralyzed action on Syria. Russia and China blocked two U.N. Security Council resolutions on the Syrian crisis in recent months, saying they were biased against the Assad government.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in New York Monday when the Security Council holds a special meeting on Arab revolts, with Syria likely to be in focus. Washington is pressing the Council to adopt a resolution calling on Syria to let aid workers reach civilians affected by the government crackdown. The United Nations says Mr. Assad's forces have killed more than 7,500 people since the crackdown on protesters and insurgents began last year. Authorities say rebels have killed 2,000 soldiers during that time.

Source