Middle East Thread of Despair: More Broken Than Syria

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dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Are people still being killed/shelled in Syira and in Homs? I haven't heard much about what's going on there save for some scattered violence. As lovely as the ceasefire is, it's the last best hope right now.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2012 22:26

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 21:35

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

This is absolutely horrifying. Seeing some of those videos and pictures I'm just absolutely gutted. How could someone fire an artillery shell on loving children like that? Jesus Christ.

When are the Egyptian and Libyan election results official? Hopefully some mildly good news will come out of one of them.

# ¿ May 26, 2012 17:23

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

big things happening in Palestine today mang.... Palestinians are rioting against the PA and burning PA flags, lots of protests planned for tomorrow....

My buddy who's a photojournalist living and working in the area had this to say:

quote:

Palestinian protesters clashed with the PA police in Nablus and Hebron today (and probably in some other places), looks like it also started in Ramallah tonight - in the Al Amari refugee camp (next to where I live) they already blocked the
main (Ramalah-Jerusalem) road and burned things two days ago, but the PA didn't intervene so there were no clashes.

Tomorrow several protests are planned in Ramallah!

Been taking a lot of photos since the whole thing started a week ago, I will try to publish something in the next few days...

also dis video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB2BLQhBbv4

and dis picture:

https://twitter.com/BeesanRam/status/245184206093836288/photo/1

No articles yet from any kind of news source, as far as I can tell.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2012 22:51

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Finally caught up on this thread after a few months of reading.

What's the deal with this Caro fellow? Is he still in Syria?

# ¿ Oct 20, 2012 17:13

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

So does Assad have chemical weapons or not? Is there solid, credible evidence he has them and plans to use them? What does he have and how does he plan on delivering it? Sorry, the fiasco with Iraq and their WMDs has left me scarred for life, and now with the US moving carriers around, I'm really, really worried. Chemical weapons are a worst-case scenario for the entire world, basically.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2012 06:44

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Just read this article in Foreign Policy magazine today:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/12/11/the_land_of_topless_minarets_and_headless_little_girls

It is probably the best article about Syria that I have ever read, and also the most depressing. I am posting the article in it's entirety here because seriously, just read it. It's basically a Syrian writing a eulogy for his own country.

quote:

"In Italo Calvino's novel, Invisible Cities, a world traveler named Marco Polo describes the cities of a vast but crumbling empire to its ruler, Kublai Khan. Over time, the intricate descriptions of the cities begin to overlap until the khan slowly realizes that his appointed traveler has been describing the same city, an imagined city, over and over, in fragments -- each vignette exposing another perspective, unveiling yet another city, where death mirrors life and cities are named after Italian women. Each city is suspended between reality and imagination, structured on a set of absurd rules, reminding the reader that a city can only be absorbed through short glances, each glance anchored to an object, a story, or a memory.

I've been reading and rereading Invisible Cities for over a decade. Before the Syrian revolution, Calvino's poetics were safely rooted in the realm of fiction. When I recently picked it up to look for a quote, I began to read it once more -- this time sneaking a few pages at a time between my daily intake of endless streams of gruesome images emerging from our all-too-real Syrian cities. For the first time, Calvino's words detached from fantasy; Syria's cities became embedded within the lines of the Invisible Cities. I listened, along with Kublai Khan, to Marco Polo's narrations and tried to understand how cities become invisible.

Watching death has become a pastime of the revolution. There is much to learn from it. Death is sudden; it is shorter than a short YouTube clip. Death is a man wrapped in his shroud, bloodied gauze strips tied around his head, cotton stuffed in his nostrils, and the bluish-gray tinge of his skin. Death is the camera panning over mass graves where children's bodies are arranged in long, perfect lines, then covered with rust-colored dirt. The death of Syrians accumulated so fast it seems impossible to comprehend over 40,000 lives lost in less than two years.

But the death of a city is different. It is slow -- each neighborhood's death is documented bomb by bomb, shell by shell, stone by fallen stone. Witnessing the deaths of your cities is unbearable. Unlike the news of dead people -- which arrives too late, always after the fact -- the death of a city seems as if it can be halted, that the city can be saved from the clutches of destruction. But it is an illusion: The once-vibrant cities cannot be saved, so you watch, helpless, as they become ruins.

Ruins are sold to us as romantic and poetic. As tourists wandering ancient sites, cameras dangling from our necks and guidebooks in hand, we seek beauty in the swirling dust over the remains of a dead civilization. We imagine what is was like then, before empires decayed and living objects became historical artifacts. But that kind of romanticism is only afforded with the distance of time and geography. In war, ruins-in-the-making are not beautiful, not vessels of meaningful lessons, not a fanciful setting for philosophical contemplations on the follies of men. When you witness it live, when it is real, and when it happens to your city, it becomes another story altogether.

It is the desperate moment when we discover that this empire, which had seemed to us the sum of all wonders, is an endless, formless ruin, that corruption's gangrene has spread too far to be healed by our scepter, that the triumph over enemy sovereigns has made us the heirs of their long undoing.

Being from Aleppo is unlike being from anywhere else in the world. We walked on history so deep, we did not understand it -- we simply learned to call this place, older than all others, home. We grew up knowing that our insignificant existence was the thinnest layer of dust on the thick geological strata of empires, kingdoms, and generations, which lived within our stone walls. We knew without doubt, from an early age, that we were nothing but a blink of our city's eye.

When you are from Aleppo, you are plagued with a predicament: Nothing here will ever change. For some people, living in the city that never changes becomes too difficult. The city's permanence and your inability to make a mark on it push you to eventually leave Aleppo, trading comfort for change. After you leave, no matter where you are in the world, you know that Aleppo is there, waiting exactly as you left it. Instead, it is you who returns in a reinvented form each time you come home -- a university graduate, a bride, a mother, each time proudly carrying your new ideas and identity to your patiently waiting city.

In Aleppo, you grow up worrying if your legacy will ever be worthy of your city's. But you never worry about your city's legacy -- which we thoughtlessly leaned on -- for how could we, ever, change Aleppo's legacy?

Aleppo is Calvino's city of Lalage, a city of minarets on which the moon "rest[s] now on one, now on another." It is a city of churches, temples, relics, and graves of revered mystics. It is a city where the spices of Armenia meld with the tastes of Turkey. It is a city where Arabic, Kurdish, and Armenian tongues speak parallel to each other, with an occasional French word mixed in here or there. It is a city of trade and industry, where men are constantly bargaining and negotiating in the same souks as their fathers before them. It is a city where girls walking down the streets in tight jeans and high heels pass by women in long black coats and white veils pinned under their chins. And they know they all belong right here, to Aleppo.

A man who is not from Aleppo recently told me, "When you travel to Aleppo, you don't see it until you arrive." I had never noticed that. Perhaps, because I was always inside it, I never searched for it when we returned. I never doubted that it would always be there, exactly as I left it, untouched, unchanged. But he was right; Aleppo is an inward-looking city; it sees the world reflected in itself. And because we've lived here for generations, we became like that too.

The Citadel sits on an oval hill in the heart of Aleppo. This is where you bring every visitor. You guide them up the steep stone steps in the summer heat, always promising the tourists trailing behind you that inside will be much cooler. And it is. You take them through the fortress's massive gates and winding interior, which once protected it from attack. You lead them out once more into the bright hot sun, wincing as your eyes adjust from the darkness to the harsh Aleppine light. You continue climbing up, pointing out the Citadel's mosque to your left and the amphitheater to your right. You buy a bottle of water at the cafe because by now, the heat has melted you as well. Then you are at the very top, and as always the breeze from the west surprises you all.

You extend your arm toward the majestic view, as the city of stone and minarets unfolds in front of the guests, like magic. It is the moment you've waited for, to turn to them and say with pride and certainty, "This is where I'm from. This is my city." The cameras click in applause. The city, I imagined, was amused at its children's performance.

Today, the Citadel is no longer a stage for impressing visitors. It is no longer a protected UNESCO World Heritage site. It has reclaimed its original purpose -- a fortress in an active battle between Syrian sons, a site to be occupied and captured once more. The ancient nails and iron horseshoes that once adorned the indestructible doors are now twisted and the wooden planks are broken. The castle's narrow slits, once used for archers, now hide sniper nests. The limestone, untouched for centuries, is riddled with fresh bullet holes, and the newly repaved street below is bloodied with fallen victims, corpses that sometimes rot for days before they can be reclaimed. As activist Sami from Aleppo says, "We are watching remains become remains."

Misplaced pride has proved us unworthy of this history that we could not protect. The Old City, the Citadel, and the souks were not just a stage for us to perform upon in front of others -- they were the heart of every Aleppian. Being from Aleppo is in our blood, and this blood now flows down the cobblestone streets. The broken city is no longer amused at the pastimes of its children.

Syria has become the land of topless minarets and headless little girls. It seems in every video there is always something missing, something broken, something that can never be mended. You learn about things when they are broken -- friendships, love, people, and even cities. I learned from watching the revolution that when things are broken, they take up more space.

Whole objects are compact and efficient. A child's long intestines coil perfectly, unseen inside her flat stomach, unlike the sheer mass of tangled pink flesh that spills out next to her slaughtered body. The sharp edge of a broken skull penetrates another child's forehead as if it had been a concealed knife all along, posing as a smooth, white, curved shield. A minaret is sleek and graceful standing in the sky -- but when it falls, it breaks into mountains of rocks in the street, its top tiers taking down a face of a building along with it. Even Syria itself, a once quiet country that seemed not to take up any space at all before the revolution, is now a regional crisis, clogging newspaper headlines, international political discussions, and social media forums with millions of words and images.

Things take on new, unimaginable forms when they are destroyed. Concrete floors fold into overlapping vertical sheets along the walls of buildings. Charred bodies become smaller, forever frozen in their tortured positions. Metal doors of shops crumple like tin, separating from their frames. Even pleasant memories are twisted with destruction: The crackling sound of burning wood will never comfort me again, as it will always remind me of the crackling wooden doors of Aleppo's historical shops when they were set ablaze.

When things are destroyed, you realize, too late, how fragile it all once was: bones, stones, walls, buildings, cities.

Comprehension of destruction and the change it brings comes in waves -- like grasping that your family is in exile or understanding that places from your childhood have disappeared forever. The dark spaces of the city begin to match the dark places in your mind.

A childhood friend laments, "When we went to the Old City, we never took pictures. Who would ever take pictures in Aleppo?" And it's true; my photographs of Aleppo are all with visitors. They increased in number over the years, when I became a visitor myself. Now we excavate what we can find, using our photographs as references for the city that we mistakenly treated as an unchanging background in the composition. Who would ever have thought that we would stay and she would burn?

The people of Aleppo have been divided about the revolution since its birth. Unlike other cities like Daraa, Homs, and Hama, they did not join it willingly. Some resent the armed opposition fighters who they claim entered the city unprepared to fight the regime. They blame the destruction and devastation of Aleppo on the opposition fighters and conveniently forget the violence the Assad regime inflicted on their city for over four decades.

When Hafez al-Assad fought the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1980s, he crushed the city of Hama -- killing tens of thousands in February 1982 and leveling an entire historical neighborhood -- in what became known infamously as the "events." But people forget what had happened before, the earlier "events," when Aleppo lost thousands of sons -- disappeared in Assad's notorious jails to be tortured, executed, and eventually erased from memory.

But Hafez al-Assad never forgot Aleppo's rebellious side. He ruled it with an iron grip, crippling the city's economy and stunting its development. The entire neighborhood of Bab al-Jneen in the Old City was razed and replaced with a series of concrete government eyesores that obnoxiously towered over the historical urban fabric. The lot in front of the area remained empty for two decades. We used to study the map of the Old City and visually connect the narrow streets across the large gaping hole, imagining what had been erased from our history.

People forget that the reason Aleppo was the best-preserved historic Islamic city in the Middle East was a result of neglect rather than care. Later in the 1990s, when the regime discovered the benefits of trendy buzzwords like "restoration" and "preservation," millions of dollars poured into Assad's coffers from abroad to renovate the Old City. But everyone forgot that Bashar, like his father, never cared for the city of the north. Not for its buildings, its history, or even its people. What had been painstakingly rebuilt stone by stone, refurbished, reclaimed, and reinvented, is now destroyed in minutes. Nothing was deemed sacred, not the Great Umayyad Mosque, not the old souks, not the Christian quarters of al-Jdeideh, and not even the symbol of the city, the Citadel.

The people of Aleppo resemble the people in so many of Calvino's cities in their amnesia. They forget that silence and fear have lost their currency in the post-revolution market. They forget that Assad's shells do not discriminate between a silent citizen and a brave one.

Our country is a landscape of urban and rural rape by the Assad dynasty. They leave the land, like the Mongols did before them, covered in smoke, rubble, and blood. The regime redefines barbarianism for the new millennium -- cynically cloaking the country in false modernity for decades, funneling international resources for personal gain and glory, then bombing the country to pieces. In a final insult, they blame it all on a conspiracy.

We hear rumors of our antiquities disappearing through the open seams of our country -- our objects excavated and looted, snatched up and traded for weapons to kill more Syrians. Our artifacts leave Syria to live in other homes, where people will tell their children tales about an ancient place that once was, before it was invisible. Before it died.
***

Aleppo, like Calvino's cities, is a woman. Her complete name, Halab al-Shahba, refers to the milk of the prophet Ibrahim's ashen cow. It is no surprise that Aleppo's name would hold meanings both holy and earthly, of sacredness and sustenance. It is a city of milk and marble -- nothing nourishes Aleppo's spirit more than its stone and cuisine. Now, Aleppo is a city of ash and blood. Now the milky limestone has turned gray and black, with veins of red. The white has disappeared, except for the traces of salty tears on our ashen faces.

During war, we learn to look at our cities in fragments, each scene uncovering a part of ourselves we did not know, or pretended not to know. Every day we are forced to confront the ugly parts of ourselves that we naively thought belonged only to other people. For only other people would kill each other; only other people would bomb buildings occupied by innocent families; only other people would loot and rape; and only other people would slaughter a child. These actions, we believed, did not define us. We were not like that.

People who are not Syrian ask me the most painful question, "Why do your people kill each other?" I usually give long-winded explanations, gesturing with my hands but without eye contact, offering historical and logical precedents of tyranny and oppression and revolution and freedom. But I don't tell them what I should, not out of kindness, but out of pity and because it scares me to admit how hardened I've become over the last 20 months: Don't you dare, even for one second, believe that your people and your cities are immune to what happened to my country, my friend. None of you are.

For those who pass it without entering, the city is one thing; it is another for those who are trapped by it and never leave. There is the city where you arrive for the first time; and another city which you leave to never return.

Aleppo is Calvino's Almema, the city of the dead, where "you reach a moment in life when, among the people you have known, the dead outnumber the living." In Syria, we are living aberrations to life itself. We have seen what no one is supposed to see, the insides of children and the primal sins of men. We have watched with horror as our air force's planes drop barrels of explosives onto sleeping villages. We have defied the laws of nature. Just as no parent should ever have to bury their children, no citizen should have to bury her own city.

Tectonic shifts in a city like Aleppo simply do not happen in one's lifetime. It is no longer a given that my city will outlive me.

Our home is sick, and we are homesick. My mother tells me she is a stranger in other people's home, as strangers live in our home. My father talks about locking up and leaving, the key in his pocket, thinking he will return -- but now return is an impossible dream.

We were supposed to live and die in an Aleppo unchanged, just as our grandfathers had before us, but instead we broke the laws of nature and pass on what we had inherited intact to the few survivors, in ruins.

No one, wise Kublai, knows better than you that the city must never be confused with the words that describe it. Yet between the one and the other there is a connection.

At some point, trust breaks between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. Storyteller and listener separate into worlds independent of each other. Kublai Khan eventually doubts his narrator and accuses Marco Polo of weaving fantasies out of nothing. Do these cities even exist, he asks, or did you make them up?

Cities are both real and imagined. In peace, they are a backdrop, quietly absorbing your ego, waiting to be noticed when someone visits and sees her anew, while we drag our heels, unappreciative, along the pavements. You dream of leaving this place that never changes, leaving behind the burden of history where you will never amount to even a speck of dust in its never-ending tale. You dream of a place outside this place where the possibility to escape the past and become someone else seems easier. You never imagined that one day, the city will be the one that is exposed, unprotected, and vulnerable -- you never imagined that one day, your city, not you, will be the one that needs to be saved. In war, the city becomes precious, each inch mourned, each stone remembered. The city's sights, smells, and tastes haunt you. You cling to every memory of every place you had ever been to and remember that this is what it was like. Before.

But memories are deceptive. You weave them into images, and the images into a story to tell your child about a city you once knew, named Aleppo. A city of monuments and milk, of sweets and spices, a city so perfect and so beautiful it was named after a prophet's ashen cow. Its minarets once changed shape from square to round to thin spindles, and every call to prayer was a symphony of voices across the neighborhoods echoing each other, as if in constant dialogue. You continue the tale, skipping certain details: the fleeing people, the smoke, the ashes, the fallen minarets and the silenced athans, the blood in the bread lines, and the relentless stench of death. Unlike Calvino, you gloss over the dark underbellies of society, overlooking the evils of men, the betrayals of people -- in fact, you ignore the people altogether because you have become convinced that without the people, a city can remain innocent.

Never mind; those details don't belong here; what matters is holding on to what once was. And you speak faster, describing the homes of grandparents and great-grandparents, pretending they are not empty. You speak of ancient neighborhoods of great-great-grandfathers, rebuilding them with your words in perfect form and not as they are now -- the centuries-old gate a smoldering heap of crushed stone, the jasmine vines broken and dead, the tiled courtyard fountain dried up and covered with dirt. All of this you skip in the narrative, trying to keep the nightmare separate from the dream, for you have not completely learned from Calvino's wisdom: Cities exist in their dualities.

And the child will ask you, because children always do, Mama, does it really exist? Or are you making it up? And you will not know what to say, for the story is both a falsehood and the truth. At once it is real and in the next moment it is intangible, even as you hold the photograph in your hand and the memories in your mind. Despite all your efforts, or perhaps in spite of them, it changed.

And with my words, both said and unsaid, I had finally rendered my city, invisible.

Also of note is the author's Twitter, which is a good resource for Syria-based things.

https://twitter.com/AmalHanano

I fear the situation in Syria has still not bottomed out. Things could always get worse

# ¿ Dec 12, 2012 21:34

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Xandu posted:

On Cairo lawlessness

Where did this appear originally? Do you have a link back to the article?

# ¿ Mar 24, 2013 18:09

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Brown Moses posted:

Here's the Bombing of Al-Bara by Olly Lambert, well worth a watch, fairly harrowing stuff though

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

Jesus loving Christ. I don't even know what to say. You'd think that after so many videos of innocent people being blown to bits they wouldn't get to you anymore, but goddamn. That is an amazing individual right there, and he epitomizes what it means to be a photojournalist in every sense of the word. That was absolutely horrifying, though.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2013 08:45

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

kik2dagroin posted:

This was a very informative Frontline episode but I found the uncut footage from al-Bara much more engrossing. They did a pretty good job of getting most of the intense emotional bits in there, but watching the bombing unfold linearly is an incredibly depressing experience. I can only imagine the daily stress innocent people fleeing Assad have to endure every day

Or the Alawites fleeing the rebels.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2013 18:20

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Brown Moses posted:

Also doing the rounds to do is this EXTREMELY and video of a group of Syrian soldiers torturing a captured rebel by repeatedly stabbing him the back.

At first when I started watching this I was like "oh, well at least he's dead" and then I saw his legs move and hated the world and humanity again because of something I saw in this thread for the millionth time. I don't even know what to say anymore.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2013 22:11

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

poo poo is still hosed up and bullshit in Bahrain:

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE93J07V20130420?irpc=932

quote:

Bahraini protesters clashed with police into Saturday's early hours a day ahead of a Formula One race that the island kingdom's opposition hopes will draw attention to its campaign for democracy.

Young men blocked roads, burned tires and threw rocks at security forces who fired teargas in several villages around the capital Manama on Friday night, human rights activists and witnesses said.

Such skirmishes have occurred almost nightly in Bahrain for the last two years, and the opposition has called for more protests in the run-up to the Grand Prix, which many in the Shi'ite-majority country accuse the Sunni-led government of using to disguise political dysfunction and human rights abuses.

On Saturday morning, much of Manama and the surrounding area appeared quiet, with police stationed along major highways.

The government denies it carries out human rights abuses and says any reports of wrongdoing by its security forces are investigated.

Bahrain's Information Minister Samira Rajab said the overnight clashes were "the normal sort" and opposition reports about them sought to inflate their significance.

"They are trying to exaggerate for the media before the Formula One race. They are working very hard to show a bad image of Bahrain," she told Reuters.

Sayed Yousif al-Muhafda from the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights said he believed protests and clashes broke out in nearly 20 villages on Friday evening and night.

In several, such as Karranah and Abu Saiba, protesters scuffled with security forces, who fired teargas and bird shot to disperse them, he said.

"The riot police came and attacked them with teargas and shotguns and rubber bullets," Muhafda said. He estimated about eight protesters were injured, one with bird shot and another with a teargas canister.

NIGHTLY UNREST

A Reuters witness said clashes also broke out along the Budaiya highway, where the Shi'ite-led opposition staged a rally on Friday afternoon that drew thousands of protesters demanding democratic reforms.

Young men threw stones and blocked the roads with burning tires, the witness said. The smell of teargas hung in the air.

The tiny nation - only about a quarter the size of Luxembourg - has been hit by unrest since pro-democracy protests started in February 2011. The Formula One race was canceled that year amid the violence.

A government-commissioned report said 35 people died during the uprising. The opposition puts the death toll much higher.

Bahrain pays an estimated $40 million a year to host the Formula One race, which Justice Minister Khalid al-Khalifa said last week should not be "politicized."

Throughout the unrest, the United States has voiced support for its ally, which hosts its navy's Fifth Fleet and which it sees as a key ally in the regional struggle between Sunni power Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran.

The Bahraini government denies it discriminates against Shi'ites or abuses detainees and says it arrests suspects in accordance with the rule of law.

Anyone have any more information on the situation there? Any Bahrainis wanna step in with their personal experience? I'd highly appreciate it. It's been quite some time since this spell of unrest actually broke out, and it's kind of hard to find the latest news and catalysts for the opposition to be out in the streets.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2013 16:04

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Arglebargle III posted:

Hey as this thread nears 1000 pages is there any chance we could get a new thread so that people (i.e. me) could get a What the gently caress is Going On post/OP? Seems like poo poo has really hit the fan in terms of international escalation but there are no other middle east threads and, well, 969 pages is a lot to wade through.

http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/bahrain

Human Rights Watch has their annual world reports for each country and those are basically a lengthy summation of every human rights violation and ongoing conflict from the year prior, those are extremely well researched and thorough, and a good launching point for more information. I just linked the Bahrain one as an example.

# ¿ May 5, 2013 21:20

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Brown Moses posted:

I've put together a playlist of videos of the attack here, lots of dead and dying kids, so be warned.

Each of these videos is the worst thing I've ever seen. Nobody deserves to die like this. As someone else said, if the world doesn't take notice after this, I basically give up on humanity.

Thank you putting these videos in one place. You're doing amazing work as usual. I've spread this around through my social networks and I'll try to get people to watch this. What's astonishing is even BBC World News is only playing the same 2 or 3 videos over and over as they cover this. Way to be ahead of the curve, mate.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2013 12:34

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Sergg posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP012gncXbo

Here's a father reunited with his infant son after the chemical attack

This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Does anyone have the original playlist of the aftermath videos from the gas attack? It seriously blows my mind and devastates my faith in humanity that more people are paying attention to goddamn cat videos and Miley Cyrus' rear end right now than the murder of their fellow man in Syria, and the insane course of events over the past few days. Especially when something as magical and impacting as the reunion of this father and son is a thing that happened there.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2013 10:24

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Sergg posted:

http://syrianobserver.com/Features/Features/Razan+Zeitouneh+Recounts+the+Horrors+in+Eastern+Ghouta

Fascinating human interest story.

I think this link is dead. Anyone else having this problem?

edit: nevermind

dorkasaurus_rex fucked around with this message at 10:43 on Aug 27, 2013

# ¿ Aug 27, 2013 10:29

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

1913 posted:

What about motive? Why would Assad use CW a few days after UN WMD inspectors arrive in the country? Why do that when it's exactly what Obama said would cause the US to take action?

However the rebels obviously have a huge incentive to frame Assad for using CW.

He doesn't loving care anymore. He's daring them to intervene at this point. He thinks he's untouchable. The man is completely unhinged, and probably not listening to anyone outside of his inner circle of advisers, and it's a zero sum game for him. Either he completely and ruthlessly crushes the rebellion into dust or he leaves the country in a negotiated settlement on a private jet or in a matchbox.

He's trying to goad them into a response because he literally thinks he's God, and indeed, some people literally replace "Allah" with "Basher al-Assad" in prayers in certain parts of Syria now (if I'm not mistaken)

# ¿ Aug 27, 2013 12:27

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Paper Mac posted:

That sounds pretty polemical.

I believe they covered this in BBC's A History of Syria:

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

Also, I'm not sure if this got posted but they have a follow up video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZYjhEQ96_s

dorkasaurus_rex fucked around with this message at 13:07 on Aug 27, 2013

# ¿ Aug 27, 2013 12:55

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Anyone able to confirm these reports?

quote:

http://preview.reuters.com/2013/8/27/syrian-opposition-says-assads-forces-drop-1

Syria's opposition coalition said on Tuesday President Bashar al-Assad's forces had dropped phosphorus bombs and napalm on civilians in rural Aleppo on Monday, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens.

The alleged attack occurred as the United States and its European and Middle Eastern partners honed plans to punish Assad for a major poison gas attack last week on the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, that killed hundreds of civilians.

Video footage uploaded on the Internet, apparently of Monday's attack, showed doctors frantically smearing white cream on the reddened skin of several screaming people, many of them young boys.
"Assad's military aircraft have hit populated areas with the internationally prohibited phosphorus bombs and napalm," the opposition coalition said in a statement.

It was not possible to independently confirm the report. There have been previous unconfirmed reports of the use of phosphorus bombs by Assad's forces during Syria's conflict, now in its third year.

I have my doubts, but honestly now that he's already done gas, why not everything else? If anyone could find the video they're referring to, I'd really appreciate it.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2013 19:23

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Brown Moses posted:

I've seen videos from this, lots of badly burnt people and charred corpses, probably one of the many incendiary bombs they were using for months when no-one gave a gently caress about Syria.

I'm a Capricorn, won't say more than that for lunatic on the internet reasons.

Do you have a link to these videos? Been searching for them myself to no avail.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2013 09:08

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Brown Moses, just wanna say you deserve a goddamn Pulitzer for this story:

http://brown-moses.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/claims-of-opposition-diy-weapons-used.html

I've already encountered *so* many people claiming that the rebels perpetrated the Damascus suburbs gas attacks that I've pretty much had this link perma-copied to my clipboard. Seriously multiple times a day. I loving hate conspiracy theories.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2013 09:34

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Brown Moses posted:

Thanks, I get the feeling I'll be doing more posts like that in the coming weeks.

I'm actually arguing with multiple people across Facebook and Twitter at the moment that the rebels simply lack the capacity to launch the munitions used in the gas attacks, being met with varying shades of resistance. I'm not really pro or anti US intervention apart from the feeling, really, that something should be, or should have been done, by someone, somewhere, to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people and I'm certainly not of the opinion that cruise missiles will make an opinion, but for some reason it appears that to a lot of people insisting that the rebels simply could not have launched the munitions used in the gas attacks seems to mean that you want America to be the world police, and I sincerely do not.

It's amazing how offended people will get when you simply ask them for the evidence for their position.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2013 10:00

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Probably the best analysis I've read of why the regime would decide to use chemical weapons now, of all times:

atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/the-regime-s-chemical-warfare-calculus

quote:

In all likelihood, the Syrian regime used chemical weapons on a large-scale last week, killing hundreds and prompting many observers to ask: With a United Nations team deployed in Damascus specifically to investigate alleged chemical weapons use, why would Bashar al-Assad�s regime so brazenly provoke a serious international backlash and possible military intervention? The confusion is understandable, but the question reveals a misunderstanding of the Syrian regime, its priorities, and its calculations.

Firstly, the Syrian regime is fighting a war for its survival, and its actions usually follow a military logic. If chemical weapons were indeed used, there was likely an important tactical consideration. Security forces had been struggling to retake rebel-held territory in Ghoutat Dimashq, east of Damascus, where the alleged attacks took place. After retaking the town of al-Qusayr in June with Hezbollah�s help, the regime was emboldened and appeared confident it had broken the rebellion�s momentum and initiative.

To its dismay, however, the insurgency adapted, improving its anti-armor capability, launching attacks in the regime heartland of northwest Syria, making gains around Damascus, and inflicting heavy regime losses in the process. With all other options exhausted�including inviting a foreign militia to fight its war�the rebel resurgence fueled the regime�s frustration and desperation. Employed effectively, chemical weapons can certainly clear areas of stubborn defenders ill-equipped for chemical warfare. The regime may have simply seen chemical warfare as a military necessity, so long as this did not provoke decisive foreign military action.

So then, what comprises the Assad regime�s foreign policy calculus? Thus far, it has gotten away with killing tens of thousands of its own citizens, including civilians, using methods just as gruesome as chemical warfare. From the door-to-door murder of families by hired thugs in the early days of the uprising, to the now-rampant throat-slitting, torture, executions, and ballistic missile strikes on densely populated civilian areas, the regime has become steeped in a culture of gratuitous violence. This has been encouraged by its allies and ignored by its most powerful enemies.

Arms and funding for rebels from Gulf Arab states cannot match Iran�s sophisticated militant proxy capability or Russia�s commitment to a regime victory. The United States has pledged to provide military assistance to rebels of its choosing, but by rebel accounts none has been received. The White House statement on the chemical weapons reports (by the Principal Deputy Press Secretary, no less) condemned the use of chemical weapons and claimed perpetrators �must� be held accountable, but this seemed to indicate a wish rather than a commitment to action. Of course, President Barack Obama had already failed to respond meaningfully to the regime�s use of chemical weapons months ago. In light of all this evidence, was the Syrian regime truly foolish to assume it would go unpunished after these latest attacks?

The Syrian regime�s conduct of the war is not informed by calculation about the actions of the international community, because it correctly realizes that the concept is a fiction. There is not a community but various nations with different interests, not all of whom are relevant actors in Syria�s brutal civil war. Of the more relevant ones, namely Russia and the United States: the former fully backs the regime, while the other lacks a strategy or appetite for the Syrian conflict, and has made this clear.

It is, therefore, not at all unfathomable that the Syrian regime would conduct such a brazen attack in the presence of UN investigators. In fact, their presence may have encouraged the large-scale use of chemical weapons. If the Assad regime can get away with it under such circumstances, then it will have clearly exposed President Obama�s chemical weapons �red-line� as a bluff and free it to conduct a war of annihilation against the rebels and civilians who support them or merely get in the way. Viewed thus, the alleged chemical weapons attack is an intelligent way to expose US policy in Syria as toothless.

The assertion that the Assad regime is constrained by the risk of US military action overestimates the credibility of US threats and fails to grasp the logic of violence in Syria. The Syrian regime is fighting an existential war and will use any means of its disposal to win. If it has calculated that chemical weapons warfare is a viable tool, the United States has only itself to blame and a shrinking opportunity to change this terrible calculus.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2013 11:32

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Sergg posted:

http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/post/50495350134/does-this-not-outrage-you

Found the motherlode of all the videos of people being brutally tortured and killed in the Syrian conflict by regime forces. Happened upon it while I was going through some BM related twitter feeds. I believe that Brown Moses you are going through these to collect evidence of war crimes? Be careful clicking on this because there's like 40 videos on this website and wow, they are gruesome.

All the videos and picture I've seen from Syria will probably traumatize me for life. But I can't stop looking. People need to see this and know that this is what's really going on. These are evidence, and we are witnesses. It's kind of hosed up that I've already seen a bunch of those videos. I will never understand how man can be so unfathomably cruel to his fellow man.

It's also seriously hosed up that after years and years of this grueling conflict (is there an actual proper beginning date?), all the people I've been bombarding with news for months and months only now start to care and ask questions about the conflict that we're threatening to bomb it. Maybe we should threaten to bomb some other, lesser known conflicts and see if that stokes some interest as well.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2013 03:33

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

News roundup for y'all:

http://gawker.com/did-assads-son-write-a-facebook-post-daring-americans-1225087105

quote:

Early Wednesday morning, someone claiming to be Hafez Assad, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's 11-year-old son, wrote a Facebook post daring Americans to attack Syria. "I just want them to attack sooo much, because I want them to make this huge mistake of beginning something that they don't know the end of it,� part of the post reads. But is the profile real? There's strong evidence that it is.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...d814_story.html

quote:

�There�s a broad naivete in the political class about America�s obligations in foreign policy issues, and scary simplicity about the effects that employing American military power can achieve,� said retired Lt. Gen. Gregory S. Newbold, who served as director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the run-up to the Iraq war, noting that many of his contemporaries are alarmed by the plan.

New cycle of attacks?

Marine Lt. Col. Gordon Miller, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, warned this week of �potentially devastating consequences, including a fresh round of chemical weapons attacks and a military response by Israel.�

�If President Asadwere to absorb the strikes and use chemical weapons again, this would be a significant blow to the United States� credibility and it would be compelled to escalate the assault on Syria to achieve the original objectives,� Miller wrote in a commentary for the think tank.

�It has branded in me the idea that the use of military power must be part of an overall strategic solution that includes international partners and a whole of government,� he said in the Aug. 4 interview. �The application of force rarely produces and, in fact, maybe never produces the outcome we seek.�

The recently retired head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. James Mattis, said last month at a security conference that the United States has �no moral obligation to do the impossible� in Syria. �If Americans take ownership of this, this is going to be a full-throated, very, very serious war,� said Mattis, who as Centcom chief oversaw planning for a range of U.S. military responses in Syria.

The potential consequences of a U.S. strike include a retaliatory attack by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah � which supports Assad � on Israel, as well as cyberattacks on U.S. targets and infrastructure, U.S. military officials said.

�What is the political end state we�re trying to achieve?� said a retired senior officer involved in Middle East operational planning who said his concerns are widely shared by active-duty military leaders. �I don�t know what it is. We say it�s not regime change. If it�s punishment, there are other ways to punish.� The former senior officer said that those who are expressing alarm at the risks inherent in the plan �are not being heard other than in a pro-forma manner.�

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/29/obama-refused-to-send-gas-masks-to-syria-opposition-for-over-a-year.html

quote:

Following the harrowing attack that left more than 1,300 dead and more than 3,000 injured in East Ghouta and other Damascus suburbs, the Obama administration is contemplating a strike on the regime of Bashar al-Assad. But Syrian civilians are still trying to cope with the tragedy and treat the wounded, who include scores of children caught sleeping when the gas was dispersed. The attack zone has a fatal shortage of gas masks, chemical-weapons protection gear, and the nerve agent antidote atropine; civilians and activists have been forced to resort to crafting makeshift masks out of everyday household items.

More chemical-weapons attacks could come, and there is now an urgent demand in rebel-held areas for gas masks and other gear. But there is also anger and frustration among opposition leaders that despite more than a year of requests to the U.S. government, the Obama administration did not send any gas masks or chemical-weapons protection gear to opposition-controlled areas.

�Almost three months ago, we received intelligence information that the regime forces may use chemical weapons in Homs,� said Abo Saleem, the directing commission secretary of the Council of Homs Province and a member of the political bureau of the Revolutionary Council of Homs, in an interview with The Daily Beast. �I forward the information to the State Department telling them we are afraid of the use of chemical weapons by the regime and we need gas masks and some training to prepare for such an attack. I got no response. Two weeks after that, the regime used chemical weapons in the old city of Homs, as we were expecting. We sent the State Department reports, but nothing happened.�

# ¿ Aug 30, 2013 14:35

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I'm looking for a certain article on Syria that I've not been able to track down. Basically it was from a year or so ago, and it was a Syrian from Aleppo reflecting on the destruction of his city and country, I believe it was in Foreign Policy magazine but I'm not certain. He stressed the importance of Aleppo as a cultural and historical center and lamented the loss of the historical marketplace in particular iirc. I know that's vague but it was one of the most impactful, personal, and heart-wrenching stories I've read from Syria throughout the entire history of this conflict. It was almost poetry. Anyone know which article I'm referencing?

# ¿ Aug 30, 2013 17:44

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Joementum posted:

Kerry laid down an on Britain, noting that France is the US's "oldest ally".

Technically not true.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2013 18:18

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

So I spent the better part of today doing a massive writeup trying to explain as much as I could of the recent conflict, the history that predicated it, and what the causes were/are.

http://thehowardbealeshow.tumblr.com/post/59787605249/a-beginners-guide-to-the-conflict-in-and-country-of

Do let me know if you find anything helpful, inaccurate, or in any way noteworthy or mentionable.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2013 02:34

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Toplowtech posted:

According to Le Journal du Dimanche, the French government is going to release a 4 pages synthese of the Syrian chemical arsenal made by the french intelligence services during the next few days. Apparently the DGSE and the MRI claim that Syria owned a few hundred tons of Sarin, several dozen tons of VX and several hundred tons of sulfur mustard before the attack.

Where's this link? I'd love to read that.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2013 18:24

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Toplowtech posted:

Here.

Weird how it's just a promise of a future article.

Le Monde claims to have a firsthand account of the chemical attacks that supports a regime-led attack as well.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2013 18:31

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Brown Moses posted:

I've just put together an exhaustive summary of the munitions linked to the alleged chemical attack in Damascus. I've also taken it as an opportunity to dispel some of the myths that keep cropping up
http://brown-moses.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/a-detailed-summary-of-evidence-on.html

One thing I'm very happy with is I think I've found a video of one being launched, check out the profile of the munition, it seems to clearly match it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ddlAXHmfLQ

Bravo, Brown Moses. You've outdone yourself this time.

Are there any concrete details on what sort of strike is being planned? It's all but inevitable that a strike is coming at this point, perhaps after the G20, but what is likely to be targeted and how? We know that cruise missiles are a likely mechanism, but are they coming from boats or submarines or what?

Any sort of further chemical attacks coming in the next week or so would be really, really bad and would definitely get more people involved on the side of the US. I'm not sure where things are headed and I'm worried, as has been the case for the past 2 or so years of following Syrian news.

# ¿ Sep 2, 2013 15:08

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

At least one significant member of the GOP seems to be on board:

http://majorityleader.gov/blog/2013/09/leader-cantor-statement-on-syria-and-regional-conflict.html

quote:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor today released the following statement on Syria and the regional conflict following his meeting with President Obama at the White House:

"I intend to vote to provide the President of the United States the option to use military force in Syria. While the authorizing language will likely change, the underlying reality will not. America has a compelling national security interest to prevent and respond to the use of weapons of mass destruction, especially by a terrorist state such as Syria, and to prevent further instability in a region of vital interest to the United States.

�Understanding that there are differing opinions on both sides of the aisle, it is up to President Obama to make the case to Congress and to the American people that this is the right course of action, and I hope he is successful in that endeavor.

�Bashar Assad's Syria, a state sponsor of terrorism, is the epitome of a rogue state, and it has long posed a direct threat to American interests and to our partners. The ongoing civil war in Syria has enlarged this threat.

�The Syrian conflict is not merely a civil war; it is a sectarian proxy war that is exacerbating tensions throughout the Muslim world. It is clear Iran is a principal combatant in this conflict, and its direct involvement is an integral part of Iran�s bid to establish regional hegemony. Were Assad and his Iranian patrons to come out on top it would be a strategic victory for Iran, embolden Hizballah, and convince our allies that we cannot be trusted.

�Furthermore, sectarian tensions and extremist terrorism are already spilling over beyond Syria's borders, with terrorist attacks and assassinations on the rise in neighboring countries. It is not just an abstract theory that the Syrian conflict threatens the stability of key American partners in the region. It is a reality.

�Beyond the obvious regional interests, a failure to adequately respond to the use of chemical weapons and compel the end of this conflict on terms beneficial to America and our partners only increases the likelihood of future WMD use by the regime, transfer to Hizballah, or acquisition by Al Qaeda. No one wants to be asking why we failed to act if the next time Sarin is used it is in the Paris or New York subway.

�The United States� broader policy goal, as articulated by the President, is that Assad should go, and President Obama's redline is consistent with that goal and with the goal of deterring the use of weapons of mass destruction. It is the type of redline virtually any American President would draw. Now America's credibility is on the line. A failure to act when acting is in America's interests and when a red line has been so clearly crossed will only weaken our ability to use diplomacy, economic pressure, and other non-lethal tools to remove Assad and deter Iran and other aggressors.

�There are no easy solutions and a one-off military strike is not by itself an adequate strategy, but I am convinced that the risks of inaction outweigh the risks of a limited intervention. And a well-designed and well executed strike that both deters the use of chemical weapons and diminishes the capacity of the Assad regime can contribute to the achievement of a clear and attainable goal: the ultimate displacement of the Assad regime by moderate elements within the opposition. That is why it is imperative that the Administration continue to identify and support those moderate elements who are battling both Assad and Al Qaeda.

�Should the Commander-in-Chief decide to use military force, I hope he will do so judiciously and with close and continuing consultation with the Congress."

# ¿ Sep 3, 2013 16:42

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

http://www.gouvernement.fr/sites/default/files/fichiers_joints/syrie_synthese_nationale_de_renseignement_declassifie_02_09_2013.pdf

The French released this today. A brief, possibly poorly translated quote courtesy of my French:

quote:

""The competent French authorities have recovered biomedical samples
(blood, urine), environmental (soil) and materials (ammunition), taken from
victims or on the sites of attacks Saraqeb, April 29, 2013, and Jobar to
mid-April 2013. The analyzes carried out have confirmed the use of sarin."

Merde.

# ¿ Sep 4, 2013 20:27

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Brown Moses posted:

Me? Well groups are one things, there's 2-4000 groups that have been formed in the conflict, I'm actually starting a consultancy soon with an organisations that's been tracking that, so I'll have a better idea, but it is something that's hugely complex. One rather cool thing that came out of the Google Ideas' summit is I met people from Palantir, who offered me use of it for free any time I wanted it, and this new consultancy will involve working with Palantir, so it's the ideal time to learn how to use it.

As for weapons, I'm pretty sure I've blogged about pretty much every weapon used in the conflict that's bigger than a machine gun, so I've got a very good idea of what's being used. It's like with the Croatia weapons story I immediately knew something was up because I knew the weapons being shown hadn't been used in the conflict before.

Here's a graphic for today's attack in Iran someone produced:

No sources on that graph. It's pretty but useless.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2013 23:52

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Volkerball posted:

There's an article that goes along with it. Both were made by al-Arabiya. It's not presenting new information. It's combining what we know into an easy format.

The URL should be on the image itself, then.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2013 18:00

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Brown Moses posted:

Father of the year right here

A Moroccan family from Tangiers, now fighting in Syria.

Moroccans are getting involved now?

# ¿ Dec 3, 2013 16:14

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Mans posted:

The fact that they found a military attire that fits into a kid is disturbing enough.

Considering the amount of arms etc. they're getting via North Korea, it's not that crazy to think there's some extra XS-sized military gear floating around.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2013 01:22

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

An explosion killed a bunch of people in Yemen, and it wasn't from an American drone.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/12/05/yemen-defense-ministry-explosion/3876643/

quote:

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car Thursday at Yemen's Defense Ministry, killing 18 soldiers and wounding at least 40 in an attack underlining the persistent threat to the stability and security of the impoverished Arab nation, military and hospital officials said.

Officials said as many as 12 gunmen also were killed in a firefight between troops and a carload of attackers who arrived minutes after the early morning blast, apparently in a bid to take over the complex in downtown Sanaa, Yemen's capital.

They said the gunmen were armed with assault rifles, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades. They wore Yemeni army uniforms, the officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda, whose chapter in Yemen is considered among the world's most active.

The Defense Ministry issued a brief statement saying "most" of the gunmen had been killed, but did not say how many there were or give any other details. Yemen's defense minister was in Washington on Thursday for talks with U.S. officials.

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi later arrived at the scene of the attack and met with military commanders inside the complex. He also ordered an investigation into the incident, the military officials said.

The officials said the blast badly damaged a hospital inside the complex, started a fire and blew out windows and the doors of homes and offices in the immediate vicinity. The blast and the subsequent gunfight destroyed an armored vehicle belonging to the army and reduced three civilian cars outside the complex to charred skeletons, witnesses said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

Associated Press video shot shortly after the attack showed its chaotic aftermath: a vehicle engulfed in flames as soldiers and ambulances arrived as the ministry. Gunfire echoed in the streets as sirens wailed.

Military helicopters hovered over the site after the blast and state television aired calls for blood donations.

Al-Qaeda militants are concentrated in the southern and eastern parts of Yemen, but they occasionally strike in the capital. They took advantage of the tenuous security prevailing in 2011 and 2012 during an uprising against then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh by seizing territory in the south. The government has since recaptured al-Qaeda-held areas.

Yemen is strategically located at the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia, two of Washington's closest Arab allies. Yemen has a shoreline on the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea close to the vital shipping lines carrying oil from the energy-rich Gulf region to the West.

The United States has been helping Yemen combat the threat of al-Qaeda, training Yemeni special forces, supplying them with arms and exchanging intelligence with the Sanaa government.

U.S. drones and airstrikes against al-Qaeda hideouts in Yemen are common. They also target suspected members of the terror network.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2013 17:41

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Volkerball posted:

Depends where in Libya and where in Egypt. The militias have been driven out of Tripoli, and as the Libyan army gets more training from the West, the militias will likely continue to lose influence. I'd rather live there than Cairo, especially as an American.

Didn't an American just get killed there?

# ¿ Dec 8, 2013 06:18

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Y-Hat posted:

This is what I meant when I proposed Erdogan going for absolute power, sort of like a coup that they've had before but done by someone elected instead of by the military. I should have made that more clear. Nonetheless, I'm not optimistic about him stepping down, for reasons highlighted in this post.

Every time you hear someone outraged about Benghazi, show them this. It doesn't specify dead Americans, but 60 is a pretty damning number regardless of nationality.

Why doesn't this image have sources listed??

# ¿ Dec 24, 2013 16:18

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 21:35

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

Brown Moses posted:

An ISIS kids event in Aleppo, with kids apparently singing about killing Alawites, etc.

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

Do you have more info on this? It's kind of nuts.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2013 16:40

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Middle East Thread of Despair: More Broken Than Syria

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