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Jun 25, 2025 03:24
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- Xandu
- Feb 19, 2006
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It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZOxJSuOPcE&feature
Big protest in Homs. Can anyone understand the chant at the beginning?
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Dec 27, 2011 17:52
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- Barry the Sprout
- Jan 12, 2001
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Hama, Deir Al-Zour, we're with you till the death.
There were also pro regime protests of roughly equal size in Homs today as well.
Edit for video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9KzZi6HurAA
Barry the Sprout fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Dec 27, 2011
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Dec 27, 2011 21:55
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- Barry the Sprout
- Jan 12, 2001
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X3YqAMbs0ww
People in Jableh mourning the dead from the Damascus car bombs.
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Dec 28, 2011 11:51
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- cloudchamber
- Aug 6, 2010
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You know what the Ukraine is? It's a sitting duck. A road apple, Newman. The Ukraine is weak. It's feeble. I think it's time to put the hurt on the Ukraine
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FP have an article about how the head of the Arab League observers in Syria might not be the best human rights observer:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/12/27/the_worlds_worst_human_rights_observer?page=0,0
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Dec 28, 2011 14:15
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- Herstory Begins Now
- Aug 5, 2003
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Brown Moses posted:
I think I may have been gazing into the abyss for too long.
If I have time I might start an all new thread for 2012, with a summary of everything that's happened in the past year.
I sure hope you do stuff to relax and/or give yourself a vacation for a few weeks at some point.
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Dec 28, 2011 15:01
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- Brown Moses
- Feb 22, 2002
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This article highlights a pretty major issue with the worthless Arab League visit:
quote:Syrians refuse to meet monitors in hotspot area: activists
Syrians in a flashpoint area of the city of Homs refused to meet Arab League monitors in the presence of a Syrian army officer, prompting the observers to withdraw from the area, activists said on Wednesday.
"The monitors left the Baba Amr neighborhood because they refused to enter the neighborhood without being escorted by Lieutenant Colonel Mudeen Neda from the Fourth Division," said Ahmed, a local activist and resident of Baba Amr.
"The families of the martyrs and the wounded refused to meet them in his presence, and the monitors left."
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Dec 28, 2011 15:09
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- J33uk
- Oct 24, 2005
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This whole Arab League trip is turning into such a shameful farce, even if we discount the charming record of al-Dabi.
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Dec 28, 2011 17:44
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- Xandu
- Feb 19, 2006
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It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.
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Somebody managed to find video (very poor quality, but still) of that suicide bombing in Benghazi back in March that enabled the rebels to take over the city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6pMbY872Bs (at around 14 minutes in)
The whole video's pretty well done.
One of the few activists, Basil al-Sayid, in Baba Amro, which has been attacked quite heavily over the past week, shot video of his own death. Can't see anything, but the audio track is quite sad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr7865hS8LM
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Dec 29, 2011 01:31
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- Xandu
- Feb 19, 2006
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It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.
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An account by an Egyptian army officer of the revolution. Very interesting perspective.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/28/egyptian-military-officers-diary posted:
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Most of the mid-ranking officers are completely uninterested in all the patriotic rhetoric. For them it's just stable employment with decent benefits; the majority are pretty naive and not very politically conscious, and the revolution took them by surprise. When 25 January [the outbreak of the revolution] began these officers were instinctively against the protests but once the regime began to crack they were appalled at the stories that emerged of corruption surrounding Mubarak and his cronies. Most became relatively pro-revolution but I think there was some bitterness over the fact that things had clearly been so rotten for so long and yet their generation had done so little about it. Now it was the younger kids who were forcing political change; the older guys felt confused and weren't sure what to believe.
After Mubarak fell and the rule of Scaf (Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) began, the top brass moved quickly to secure the loyalty of all mid-level and junior officers. Whenever a big Friday street demonstration or rally in Tahrir Square took place we would all receive a bonus of between 250 and 500 Egyptian pounds (£26-52), whether or not we had anything to do with policing the protests.
It's ridiculous; at the height of the unrest reserve officer salaries doubled and everyone was getting huge bonuses all the time (an average of 2,400 pounds – £254 – for me in January and February). Most full-time officers didn't really care what was happening politically on the streets, they were just happy with the extra money. Occasionally though you'd hear guilty jokes about how we were the only people who were benefiting from the revolution and the Egyptian people had been screwed over.
It was clear that the army desperately wanted to avoid any form of protest in the country once Mubarak was gone. The aim was to win over more of the Islamist population who might have traditionally been more hostile to the armed forces, as well as scaring the poo poo out of anyone else who might be thinking of holding a demonstration. Each confrontation with protesters was a test to measure the reaction of the general public and see what level of brutality and violence they could get away with.
That was especially obvious during the Maspero events [a protest by Coptic Christians and their supporters on 9 October which was attacked by the armed forces, leaving 27 dead]. The media, army and interior ministry have always worked hand in hand for their personal goals, and in this instance they worked to escalate the fitna [an Arabic word denoting chaos and division] between Muslims and Christians, and there was a great deal of ignorance and confusion within the ranks. The Christian minority are seen by many – inside the army and outside – as less important, so they were an easy target. You have to bear in mind that for the most part, officers only watch mainstream Egyptian television and so they never see the YouTube videos showing the darker side of Scaf. They're in denial.
But as the months went on, despite this ignorance and the generous bonus system, dissent against [Egypt's commander-in-chief and current head of Scaf, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein] Tantawi has grown. Most of the mid-level officers now think of him as Mubarak's right-hand man, and they hate the fact that Scaf's violence has tarnished the army's image in the eyes of the public. Many still disapprove of the current protests because they feel it's not the right time, and also because they're resentful that others can go and demonstrate on the streets when they themselves do not have such freedom. But that attitude is beginning to change, especially as independent TV channels have been airing video clips of the recent violence and the brutality of the security forces is being openly discussed by people like [prominent media personalities] Yosri Fouda and Ibrahim Eissa. More and more mid-level officers are turning against Scaf, and against Tantawi."
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Dec 29, 2011 02:22
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- Brown Moses
- Feb 22, 2002
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The last three paragraphs are very interesting, it confirms alot of what I thought about the current situation, the army attempting to see how far it can go before pissing off too many people, and trying to get the Islamist population on side with the army.
[edit] CNN also has some good footage from a cameraman who managed to sneak into Homs, here.
Brown Moses fucked around with this message at 10:13 on Dec 29, 2011
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Dec 29, 2011 09:59
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- Brown Moses
- Feb 22, 2002
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Al Qaeda in Iraq denies responsibility for the Damascus bombing
quote:The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an affiliate of al Qaeda in Iraq that operates throughout the Middle East, has denied all involvement in the recent suicide attack in the Syrian capital that killed 40 people. The terror group accused the Syrian government of attempting to deflect attention from its brutal crackdown on protesters that has killed more than 5,000 people.
The terror group denied its involvement in the twin suicide attacks in Damascus that targeted security headquarters on Dec. 23. More than 40 people were reported killed and scores more were wounded in the blasts. The Syrian government immediately blamed al Qaeda, but no group claimed credit for the attack.
In a statement released on jihadist websites on Dec. 27, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades denied responsibility for the suicide attacks. The statement was translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.
"The mujahideen, in all their groups, have no connection to these vicious bombings, and accusing them of it is falsehood and lies. The one truly responsible for them is he who is benefiting from them, and it is the regime of al Assad and his intelligence agencies," the statement said.
The terror group said that the "failure of the regime of the tyrant in the Levant, Bashar al Assad, in subduing the rebels by force, murder, and exaggeration of crimes" forced the government to respond "against the revolution with evil cunning by its intelligence agencies."
"Through these acts, it announces that it will not spare any trick to save itself from the disaster that is befalling it, and to get rid of the revolution," the statement said.
The terror group said that it would have announced the operation through one of its official channels had it carried it out.
"The mujahideen don't hide their actions and are not ashamed of them, because they do them with full conviction that is based on a perfect Shariah-perspective and a clear strategic vision," the statement said.
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Dec 29, 2011 11:00
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- Brown Moses
- Feb 22, 2002
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More SCAF tomfoolery:
quote:The Egyptian authorities have reportedly raided the headquarters of three NGOs, named on Twitter as the Arabic Center for Judiciary Independence, the International Republican Institute and the Egyptian Democratic Academy.
Few details at the moment but we'll keep you posted. The reports remain unconfirmed, but here's a selection of Tweets. The first two are from @Psypherize and the last two from human rights researcher @hebamorayef.
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Dec 29, 2011 13:57
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- pantslesswithwolves
- Oct 28, 2008
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by Fluffdaddy
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It's hilariously ironic when SCAF makes sweeping allegations of scary "foreign funding" while it's well known that they get at least a billion dollars a year from the USA.
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Dec 29, 2011 15:25
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- Brown Moses
- Feb 22, 2002
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La Figaro has a blog post about this video, which shows the same person pretending to be several different people in various interviews for Syrian State TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJLCQlXRaqA
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Dec 29, 2011 16:09
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- Brown Moses
- Feb 22, 2002
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Sounds like there was a big crackdown on NGO's in Egypt today
quote:It looks as though the Egyptian NGO raids were on a bigger scale than previously thought: the latest report says that 17 offices were raided.
quote:The official MENA news agency said 17 "civil society organisations" had been targeted as part of an investigation into foreign funding of such groups.
"The public prosecutor has searched 17 civil society organisations, local and foreign, as part of the foreign funding case," official news agency MENA cited the prosecutor's office as saying. "The search is based on evidence showing violation of Egyptian laws including not having permits."
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Dec 29, 2011 16:22
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- Brown Moses
- Feb 22, 2002
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SCAF are clearly celebrating National Piss Everyone Off Day
quote:Another development likely to fuel tension between Egypt's activists and ruling generals: a court has cleared five policemen of killing protesters during the anti-Mubarak revolution.
quote:In Cairo, an Egyptian court acquitted five policemen of charges of killing five protesters and wounding six others during the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak's longtime regime Feb. 11.
The court said three of the defendants were not at the site of the killings while the two others fired against protesters in self defense.
Meanwhile, state television is now reporting that at least 18 NGO offices were raided today. The number keeps on rising...
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Dec 29, 2011 16:48
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- J33uk
- Oct 24, 2005
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Brown Moses posted:
SCAF are clearly celebrating National Piss Everyone Off Day
Meanwhile, state television is now reporting that at least 18 NGO offices were raided today. The number keeps on rising...
The level of tone deafness from SCAF is pretty amazing.
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Dec 29, 2011 17:58
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- AllanGordon
- Jan 26, 2010
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by Shine
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etalian posted:
Especially since it will result with lots of unarmed protesters getting killed by Made in the USA military hardware.
That's actually not really ironic.
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Dec 29, 2011 23:46
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- Herstory Begins Now
- Aug 5, 2003
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etalian posted:
Especially since it will result with lots of unarmed protesters getting killed by Made in the USA military hardware.
Ironic would be if the protesters weren't getting killed by US hardware.
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Dec 30, 2011 02:41
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- Young Freud
- Nov 26, 2006
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The-Mole posted:
Ironic would be if the protesters weren't getting killed by US hardware.
No, irony would be if the protesters were killing soldiers with American-provided weapons and training with their own American-provided hardware.
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Dec 30, 2011 02:59
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- Xandu
- Feb 19, 2006
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It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.
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Xandu posted:
One of the few activists, Basil al-Sayid, in Baba Amro, which has been attacked quite heavily over the past week, shot video of his own death. Can't see anything, but the audio track is quite sad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr7865hS8LM
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/12/29/144448779/basil-al-sayed-who-chronicled-the-syrian-uprising-is-dead
Nice blog post on this guy.
quote:
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Jarrah said al-Sayed filmed security forces opening fire directly at protesters, and that put him at serious risk.
"He was documenting stuff that no one could actually get hold of," Jarrah said. "I don't want to say this was expected, but he was always in those situations where you could expect something would happen to him."
Jarrah said that al-Sayed's last video was taken at a checkpoint in the neighborhood of Bab Amr and uploaded to YouTube by fellow activists there.
"This video caused me to cry hard," blogger Ali Alhasan wrote, "because of his death and because this is going on until now with the world watching and still following the diplomatic methods to resolve the situation."
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Al-Sayed documented the uprising using a small Samsung camcorder that has a red body. He uploaded hundreds of hours of footage to YouTube. He has a brother and sister, and he was the youngest in his family. He worked at an aluminum plant in Homs.
In Bab Amr, the neighborhood that has come under a heavy attack by the security forces over the past few months, the role of al-Sayed was instrumental in relaying information and getting the word out, Jarrah added.
The video below, uploaded by activists to YouTube, reportedly shows Basil's mother and relatives weeping over the body of their son before he was laid to rest. She asks to take one last look at him and tries to touch his pale face. "For the love of God," she says as another man covers his face.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znRZNCU_rno
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Dec 30, 2011 03:59
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- Brown Moses
- Feb 22, 2002
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quote:US 'deeply concerned' after Egyptian forces raid NGO offices in Cairo
Relations between Egypt's military rulers and the United States threatened to hit a new low after Egyptian security forces launched unprecedented armed raids on a series of high profile human rights and pro-democracy organisations.
The raids included targeting the US-government funded National Democratic Institute – founded by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright – and the International Republican Institute, whose chairman is Republican senator John McCain. Both organisations are affiliated with the two major US political parties.
The orchestrated move by Egypt's generals, apparently keen to play up to anti-US and nationalist feelings in the country, will be seen as highly provocative in Washington, which underwrites military aid to Egypt to the sum of $1.3bn (£843m) annually.
"We are deeply concerned," a State Department official told the Guardian.
The raids prompted a stern response from the organisations targeted. The IRI immediately condemned the raids, claiming they were worse than took place under Egypt's former dictator Hosni Mubarak.
"IRI is dismayed and disappointed by these actions. IRI has been working with Egyptians since 2005; it is ironic that even during the Mubarak era IRI was not subjected to such aggressive action," the group said in a statement.
Meanwhile, NDI president Kenneth Wollack urged Egyptian authorities to allow the centre to reopen and to return any confiscated property. "Cracking down on organisations whose sole purpose is to support the democratic process during Egypt's historic transition sends a disturbing signal," Wollack said.
Security forces also raided the offices of Washington-based Freedom House.
During the raids riot police confined staff to their offices and forbade them from making phone calls. Seventeen Egyptian and international groups were targeted as part of a widespread investigation into foreign funding of Egyptian civic society groups.
The State Department official said US authorities had been in touch with senior Egyptian figures at "high levels" and that ambassador Anne Patterson had been in contact with the prime minister, Kamal al-Ganzouri.
"We call on the Egyptian government to resolve this issue immediately and to end harassment of NGO staff as well as return all property," the official said.
In recent months, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has accused local non-governmental organisations of receiving money from abroad, and has argued that the recent unrest in the country is by "foreign hands".
Hana el-Hattab, an NDI staffer trapped inside her office, tweeted: "We're literally locked in. I really have no idea why they are holding us inside and confiscating our personal laptops." In other tweets she wrote: "I was on the balcony, dude with machine gun came up and told us to go in and locked it … we asked if they had a search warrant, they said the person who issues warrants is in building & doesn't need to issue one for himself. They're even taking history books from people's bags."
The National Democratic Institute is supported in its work by the US State Department, USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy.
Heba Morayef, who works with Human Rights Watch in Egypt, said she had received a message from an NDI staffer confirming they had been confined inside their offices by riot police. Images posted on Twitter showed armed police in body armour stationed outside.
The Egyptian news agency Mena said the 17 "civil society organisations" had been targeted as part of an investigation into foreign funding of such groups.
"The public prosecutor has searched 17 civil society organisations, local and foreign, as part of the foreign funding case," Mena cited the prosecutor's office as saying. "The search is based on evidence showing violation of Egyptian laws including not having permits."
Security forces, both uniformed and plain-clothes, forced their way into the offices, where employees were informed that they were under investigation by the public prosecutor. According to witnesses, laptops and other documents were also seized during the raids.
The raids follow a far-reaching investigation into the foreign funding of human rights and civic advocacy groups launched under the aegis of the country's ruling generals earlier this year.
Ironically, the law being used to pursue the groups is one from the era of Mubarak, which the government had said it intended to repeal.
During the Mubarak era, groups such as NDI and IRI and others had existed in a grey area, unable to obtain permission to operate in full legal compliance.
Other groups reportedly raided, according to activists, include the Konrad Adenauer-Stiftung, which supports political dialogue, Freedom House, and the Egyptian Public Budget Observatory.
Morayef condemned the raids, and the investigation that led to them, as "entirely inappropriate", adding: "This is part of a wider crackdown on civil society groups in Egypt using Mubarak-era laws. They are using these pre-revolution laws as a broadbrush investigation that could result in wholesale shutting down of human rights and other groups that have been at the forefront of criticism of the army.
"This is very selective and really, really serious. It has huge potential implications for human rights in Egypt."
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies said: "The NDI, IRI and Freedom House have been previously investigated by the ministry of justice on charges of receiving foreign funding, while the Arab Centre for the Independence of Justice and Legal Professions has not been yet investigated."
The army has pledged to step aside by mid-2012. "In Mubarak's time the government never dared to do such a thing," said prominent human rights activists Negad el-Bourai on his Twitter account.
Political experts said the groups raided on Thursday have taken a neutral political stance, focusing on fostering democracy in Egypt by training members of nascent parties. "The National Democratic Institute has been training new parties … in how to participate in elections," a leading member of a liberal party said on condition of anonymity. This has been with the full knowledge of authorities and was not clandestine."
The NDI and IRI say they take a neutral political stance, fostering democracy in Egypt by training members of nascent parties in democratic processes.
No doubt they won't be concerned enough to cut military aid to Egypt.
Some better news from Libya
quote:Libya Rebels Sign Up For Government Jobs
Hundreds of former Libyan rebels who helped topple Moammar Gadhafi this year have started filling out applications for jobs with the new government.
Interior Minister Fawzy Abdul-Ali says it is the first step toward disarming the former rebels. They will be asked to turn in their weapons after training and working with the government.
He says former rebels will have until the end of January 2012 to apply for governments posts through local military councils distributing the applications.
On Wednesday, hundreds of former rebels in various cities began filling out the applications. They ask applicants what brigade they belong to, what their rank was during the uprising and the serial numbers of the weapons they possess.
Disarming former rebel forces is a major challenge facing Libya’s new rulers.
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Dec 30, 2011 11:51
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- Barry the Sprout
- Jan 12, 2001
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There was a shooting in Damascus University on Tuesday. One of the students shot five of his classmates, killing two.
quote:
Ammar Taysir Baloush, second-year student of Medical Engineering, had opened fire using a handgun during an exam for the students of his department killing Hussein Ghannam and wounding Sultan Radwan, George Farah, Pierre Lahham, and Khudir Khazem.
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Dec 30, 2011 11:54
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- Brown Moses
- Feb 22, 2002
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Could any Arabic speakers tell what people are shouting in this video, and if there's any indication it was filmed in Syria?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ2C2zDcWAs
I want to prove, if possible, it's not filmed in Lebanon, during the civil war.
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Dec 30, 2011 15:29
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- CeeJee
- Dec 4, 2001
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Oven Wrangler
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From the image quality it's clearly a digital camera which were not available in the Lebanese civil war.
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Dec 30, 2011 16:30
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- Brown Moses
- Feb 22, 2002
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That was my first thought as well, I'd like to see what all the graffiti says as well.
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Dec 30, 2011 16:32
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- Brown Moses
- Feb 22, 2002
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Pultizer Prize winning New York Times journalist CJ Chivers is going to publish a piece shortly based on Caro's adventure:
quote:Improvised Weapons: A Hidden Upside to Making Do.
This year we’ve covered improvised weapons from myriad perspectives in Afghanistan and Libya, often pointing to risks, flaws and outright dangers of jury-rigged systems, and sometimes pointing to how effective they can be. (I could post any number of links here to this blog and to At War, but time is tight today. One day I’ll make a proper index to this blog and readers will be able to find things quickly. One day.)
Back to the point: Soon on At War, via an unusual run of video by an unusual battlefield wanderer, we will have yet another post on the improvised weapons theme, and discuss how what would seem to have been an unwise design managed, in its way, to contain a drop of good news.
Hint: It has something to do with what you see in the photo, below.
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHS
Top, a Libyan rebel with a tomato-can grenade, on the road to Brega in the spring. (The fishing bomb, this time chosen for killing men.) Below, one of Libya’s springtime roadside sights was this man, who turned up at the front each day, including, on this day, with a SA-7 tube minus the SA-7. By the author. Libya, 2011.
[edit] I just realised Caro has probably killed more people than any non-military member of this forum.
Brown Moses fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Dec 30, 2011
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Dec 30, 2011 17:16
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- Brown Moses
- Feb 22, 2002
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For Some reason it only really struck me then. He's the only freedom fighter to post on the forums. CJ Chivers told me he'd been having email exchanges with him, asking him about his experiences. Apparently the ammo dump videos Caro made which I sent to him were of great interest to him.
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Dec 30, 2011 18:49
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- Adbot
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Jun 25, 2025 03:24
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Dec 27, 2011 15:58
footage of Gaddafi's convoy just after it had been bombed
It took you this long to realize that? Can he even be counted non-military since he basically joined up with the rebels?
