Xandu posted:

What's with his Abd al Rahman callout?

Ultras Lazio posted:

....what about that thing about Omar Abdel-Rahman as well?

Spakstik posted:

From al-Jazeera: "On the other hand, in a remark sure to worry Western leaders, Morsi also promised to work to free Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian cleric currently serving a life sentence in the United States for planning the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. His pledge was most likely a sop to the Salafi groups which have made Abdel Rahman's release a prominent issue."

Brown Moses posted:

I've just done a follow up to my earlier post on the FSA's equipment, The Even More Increasingly Well Armed Free Syrian Army.

Spakstik posted:

From al-Jazeera: "On the other hand, in a remark sure to worry Western leaders, Morsi also promised to work to free Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian cleric currently serving a life sentence in the United States for planning the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. His pledge was most likely a sop to the Salafi groups which have made Abdel Rahman's release a prominent issue."

quote:

Before the officers leave they habitually offload videos from their mobiles, which are downloaded by a computer-savvy member of the FSA and soon uploaded to the opposition network of thousands of videos that have chronicled the horrors of the past 16 months.

One video dropped off last month depicted a scene of unimaginable horror. A man in military uniform stood above two bound men with a chainsaw. He taunted them about their imminent death and said their only God was Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Then he put the chainsaw to work, decapitating one man in a series of strokes, his blood splattering the traumatised man next to him as he waited his fate.

"They are criminals, monsters," said one of the rebels in the room as the video was played. "How can anyone do that to another human being?"

Brown Moses posted:

I'm loving the latest Guardian live blog update

Spakstik posted:

From al-Jazeera: "On the other hand, in a remark sure to worry Western leaders, Morsi also promised to work to free Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian cleric currently serving a life sentence in the United States for planning the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. His pledge was most likely a sop to the Salafi groups which have made Abdel Rahman's release a prominent issue."

Evil Fluffy posted:

When this is all over you should post a graph of visits-per-day to your blog before-during-after the conflict.

gfanikf posted:

Yeah, it's not going to go over well in the West and especially the US.

Ultras Lazio posted:

He is a deluded con. Nothing but a MB figleaf. A tool that only the naive can believe in.

The cleric will do 100 years and the Salafis can gently caress off.
Now and forever.

Evil Fluffy posted:

Even Obama winning reelection and being a lame duck isn't going to make this happen. If there's a short list of people the US would never show mercy to I would imagine this guy will be on it.

quote:

U.S. intelligence indicates that a Turkish warplane shot down by Syrian forces was most likely hit by shore-based antiaircraft guns while it was inside Syrian airspace, American officials said, a finding in tune with Syria's account and at odds with Turkey.

The Turkish government, which moved tanks to the Syrian border after the June 22 incident, says the debris fell in Syrian waters, but maintains its fighter was shot down without warning in international airspace. Ankara also has said the jet was hit too far from Syrian territory to have been engaged by an antiaircraft gun.
Damascus has said it shot down the plane with an antiaircraft battery with an effective range of about 1.5 miles.

"We see no indication that it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile" as Turkey says, said a senior defense official. Officials declined to specify the sources of their information. The senior U.S. defense official cautioned that much remains unknown about the incident.

A Turkish official said he wasn't aware of the American doubts, and reiterated the government's position that a Syrian missile downed the plane in international airspace.

The Turkish government has scheduled a special meeting for Saturday morning on Syria. A spokesman for the prime minister said the U.S. intelligence on the incident would likely be discussed.

The downing of the jet spurred fears of a widening regional conflict and led the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, following a presentation on Tuesday by Turkey, to condemn Syria's action.

The use of antiaircraft fire would suggest the Turkish plane was flying low to the ground, and slowly, U.S. officials said—though Syria said the jet was traveling at 480 miles an hour.

If hit by antiaircraft fire, the jet likely came closer to the Syrian shoreline than Turkey says, U.S. officials said.

The plane's pilots haven't been found, and the Turkish Navy has continued to search for them. U.S. officials say they believe the pilots perished.

Some current and former American officials believe Ankara has been testing Syrian defenses. The version of the Turkish F-4 Phantom that was shot down typically carries surveillance equipment, according to U.S. defense officials.

A former senior U.S. official who worked closely with Turkey said he believed the flight's course was meant to test Syria's response. "You think that the airplane was there by mistake?" the former official said.

"These countries are all testing how fast they get picked up and how fast someone responds," said a senior U.S. official. "It's part of training."

The Turkish official said the plane wasn't on a surveillance mission. "All NATO members have condemned the Syrian hostile act and have supported Turkey," the official said.

The emerging discrepancies could prove embarrassing to Ankara and strain continuing discussions between the U.S. and Turkey, a NATO ally that shares a long border with Syria.

Turkey occupies a critical role in the U.S. and Western strategy for dealing with the Syrian crisis. American officials and defense analysts say the U.S. approach depends largely on Turkey's willingness to keep pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

NATO officials said Turkey's presentation on the incident on Tuesday was very detailed, but diplomats didn't closely question the Turks on their version of events. The U.S. backed Turkey and, American officials said, pushed NATO to issue a statement sharply condemning Syria.

The incident has put NATO in a tough spot. Alliance members are eager to back Ankara, but don't want to be dragged into a military conflict in Syria.

If the plane had been struck by a missile, a senior military official said, it would be an indication that Damascus had authorized the action. But the use of antiaircraft fire may mean a local commander decided on his own initiative to fire at the Turkish plane, according to officials and analysts.

U.S. defense officials said they weren't alarmed by Turkey's movement of forces to its border with Syria. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, praised Turkey's "very measured" approach. "I've asked them, and they are not seeking to be provocative," Gen. Dempsey said.

The U.S.-Turkish relationship is unlikely to be affected by the apparent discrepancies in accounts of the downing of the jet. Cooperation between Ankara and Washington has grown closer in recent months, after a period of significant strain in 2009 and 2010.

That marks a turnaround for Turkey, which 18 months ago moved to cultivate relations and trade with neighboring Muslim regimes, including Mr. Assad's, while downgrading ties with former ally Israel, raising concerns in Washington.

The revolutions of the Arab Spring, however, upended that policy. In a major change, Turkey agreed last fall to house a NATO missile-defense system, which was designed by the U.S. to contain Iran.

Turkish analysts said the debate in Turkey is now focused on the escalating tensions along the country's 565-mile border with Syria.

"What's important for most Turks is that the government has been seen to respond by boosting troop capacity on the border, which will further pressure Assad," said Atilla Yesilada, a partner at Istanbul-based political risk consultancy Istanbul Analytics.

SexyBlindfold posted:

Any chance of getting a run-down of how things are developing in each of the 14 Syrian governorates? From what I gather, most of the conflict is focused in western Syria (for obvious reasons), with Idlib, Hama and Homs bearing the brunt of the fighting, but I'm not sure what's the deal with the other provinces. I mean some months ago there was this thing about Aleppo being derided by the rest of the opposition as a bunch of accommodating jerks who wouldn't lift a finger against the regime, more out of indifference than out of loyalty, but apparently that's no longer A Thing?

gfanikf posted:

So when do we expect people to start getting access to Syria's Chemical weapons, because we know Syria has sizable amounts.

Section 31 posted:

It is said to be protest in the Palestinian Yarmouk camp in Damascus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypWbD3ao9v0

I think the stashes are kept and locked away somewhere and neither side (Assadists or FSA) are willing to use them. The repercussions of using them can be fatal and erode any support for the side that use them. There are "rumours" about chemical weapons being used before, but so far those seems to remain nothing more than rumours.

gfanikf posted:

I don't think intentional use on the Assad side as it becomes suicide to them, however I could see accidental use by rebels no knowing what they were using or from an attack on a facility releasing things.

It does beg the question where is it being kept and who has the keys besides Assad?

Section 31 posted:

Section 31 posted:

It is said to be protest in the Palestinian Yarmouk camp in Damascus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypWbD3ao9v0

I think the stashes are kept and locked away somewhere and neither side (Assadists or FSA) are willing to use them. The repercussions of using them can be fatal and erode any support for the side that use them. There are "rumours" about chemical weapons being used before, but so far those seems to remain nothing more than rumours.

gfanikf posted:

I don't think intentional use on the Assad side as it becomes suicide to them, however I could see accidental use by rebels no knowing what they were using or from an attack on a facility releasing things.

It does beg the question where is it being kept and who has the keys besides Assad?

Section 31 posted:

Xandu posted:

What's the context here?

Nenonen posted:

It's really unlikely that anyone would accidentally use them, it's about as likely as you breaking into a chemical warehouse and accidentally drinking a bottle of deadly poison thinking that it was water.

The biggest threat would come from some faction like Al Qaida stealing some and using it for terror attacks in Syria or elsewhere, or some enterprising people putting them for sale. Not that that would bring forth a Tom Clancyesque armageddon, though. Using chemical weapons isn't that straight forward, you should have some kind of delivery method like helicopters or artillery or something, some idea of the winds etc. It's just so much easier to do it the old fashioned way.

Uncle Jam posted:

I think they could be accidentally opened, anyway. They could just be stored in metal canisters which get out of the warehouse, lost track of, and end up in the hands of a scrap metal dealer. This is pretty much what happens every so often with radiation sources from hospitals and a bunch of people get radiation sickness or die.

Redgrendel2001 posted:

FYI Brown Moses there's a thread on Metafilter all about you and your work.

Xandu posted:

What's the context here?

az jan jananam posted:

Sudan. The Sudanese opposition were nicknamed "elbowlickers" for the futility of opposing Bashir and they're reclaiming it.

Section 31 posted:

Yes, Sudan. Omar al-Bashir supposedly said that it's easier to "lick your elbow" than to overthrow him, hence the photo.

Brown Moses posted:

My wife certainly hopes so. Metafilter seems to have finally attracted people who actually make comments on my post, even if it's to tell me who wrong I am.

Nenonen posted:

We should be grateful that he didn't use some other hard-to-lick analogy.

Nenonen posted:

It's really unlikely that anyone would accidentally use them, it's about as likely as you breaking into a chemical warehouse and accidentally drinking a bottle of deadly poison thinking that it was water.

Zedsdeadbaby posted:

Why does the military in Egypt want to run the place anyway? Are they not happy enough just doing their supposed job, or is it purely just out of greed?