Syrian rebels fire at, miss Assad's palace

"(Reuters) - Syrian rebels fired mortars at President Bashar al-Assad's palace in Damascus on Wednesday but missed, in an attack underlining the growing boldness of forces fighting to end his family's 42 years in power.

Residents told Reuters the heavy-caliber shells hit a neighboring residential district that is home to members of Assad's Alawite sect. State-run media said at least three people were killed and seven wounded in what it described as a "terrorist attack"......"

Syria Live Update

The Guardian

".......
The rapid disintegration of Syria is now out of control, according to a particularly gloomy blogpost by Syria watcher Joshua Landis. 

The rich are fleeing in every greater numbers in order not to become targets of the poor. Everyone has a price-tag on his head ... The cousin of a friend just went down stairs in Aleppo this morning to find, “You are next. Allahu Akbar,” written on the windshield of his car ... The meltdown is well on its way and has a dynamic all its own. There is no stopping it now. Syria is unleashed. Guns rule and the strong will eat the weak. Brahimi speaks of Syria turning into Somalia and a “big catastrophe.” If that happens, it will become a prime target for American and Israeli drones, which will troll the skies in hunting aL-Qaida and those with a long beards, as is the case in Pakistan and Yemen......."

The Gulf protection racket is corrupt and dangerous folly

Sooner or later the Arab despots David Cameron is selling arms to will fall, and the states that backed them will pay the price

Seumas Milne

The Guardian, Tuesday 6 November 2012

"On the nauseating political doublespeak scale, David Cameron's claim to "support the Arab spring" on a trip to sell weapons to Gulf dictators this week hit a new low. No stern demands for free elections from the autocrats of Arabia – or calls for respect for human rights routinely dished out even to major powers like Russia and China.

As the kings and emirs crack down on democratic protest, the prime minister assured them of his "respect and friendship". Different countries, he explained soothingly in Abu Dhabi, needed "different paths, different timetables" on the road to reform: countries that were western allies, spent billions on British arms and sat on some of the world's largest oil reserves in particular, he might have added by way of explanation.....

But even if morality and corruption are dismissed as side issues, the likelihood is that, sooner or later, these autocrats will fall – as did the Shah's regime in Iran, on which so many British and US arms contracts depended at the time. Without western support, they would have certainly been toppled already. As Rached Ghannouchi, the Tunisian leader whose democratic Islamist movement was swept to power in elections last year, predicted: "Next year it will be the turn of monarchies." When that happens, the western world risks a new backlash from its leaders' corrupt folly."

Al-Jazeera Video: ما وراء الخبر -واقع الفلسطينيين على ضوء الصراع بسوريا

"ناقش الحلقة واقع الفلسطينيين في المخيمات على ضوء الصراع في سوريا، خاصة بعد قرار النظام السوري اغلاق مكاتب حماس في سوريا. وتطرح السؤال التالي: هل من الممكن أن ينئى الفلسطينيين بأنفسهم عن الصراع في المشهد الشوري؟
"

The Butcher of Damascus Dropping Explosive Barrels on Civilian Areas in Syria, by Emad Hajjaj

Seven Syrian generals flee to Turkey

The Guardian

"....

Seven more Syrian generals have fled to Turkey, according to the Turkish news agency Anadolou.

They asked for refugee status at the border town of Reyhanli, it said.

The Turkish daily Zaman reckons 42 Syrian generals have now fled to Turkey since the uprising began.......
Oil pipeline explosion near Homs

An explosion hit the main oil pipeline feeding a refinery on the western edge of the Syrian city of Homs during fighting between rebels and army forces in the area, Reuters reports citing activists.

Video footage, which could not be independently verified, showed thick smoke rising from the pipeline which links eastern oil fields with the Homs refinery, one of two in the country.
"The pipeline exploded overnight when fighting broke out after the Free Syrian Army launched concerted attacks against army roadblocks in the area," Nader al-Husseini, an opposition campaigner, said from Homs.
The pipeline, located in a farmland area called al-Basatin, has been hit several times before, with both sides accusing the other of sabotaging it....."

Guardian Video: 5 Broken Cameras: 'The camera is a very strong weapon'

"Israeli director Guy Davidi and Palestinian Emad Burnat discuss their documentary 5 Broken Cameras, which spans five years following the Israeli military's attempts to build a separation barrier in Emad's village, Bil'in. Over five years and through five cameras smashed during protests, Emad filmed his village's struggle against the separation, alongside footage of his son growing up."

Racism in the Arab world against South east Asians : another example

Arabs are some of the worlds most racist people. The way arab treat migrant workers : African, Indian, Indonesian ...etc from Dubai to Beirut is disgusting. This video shows a saudi beating up an indian or bengali garbage man. He is laughing and enjoying the humiliation while the female filming is encouraging him to continue to beat up the poor man.

Crimes of Bashar Al-Assad the Zionist son of a Zionist

US Election, 2012 by Emad Hajjaj

Statement on the Political Representation of the Syrian Revolution

by ‎لجان التنسيق المحلية في سوريا‎ on Sunday, November 4, 2012 at 10:56pm

"Do not lose sight on what we have reached with our great revolution on a political level, which has established confidence and respect for the Syrian people and the Syrian revolution, despite the the absence of serious representation. The international community has wasted precious time and caused the revolution to miss opportunities to regroup and unite. It has led to scattered efforts and opened the doors of intervention from all directions, leaving the opportunity of blame to fall on the revolution and the people for not taking serious action against the Syrian regime before the international community. This has caused immense frustration among the Syrian revolutionaries. Today our revolution enters its toughest stages and the cruelty of the regime against our people is proven limitless. In the lack of military support for our Free Syrian Army to protect civilians and guarantee the scale in favor of the revolution and in the light of the international community's defeatist attitude based on allegations of mistakes and missteps of the political opposition, we emphasize the following:

 • It is no longer acceptable, under any pretext, to continue with the absence of a unified and effective political leadership for the revolution. 

• All political parties must come together as quickly as possible to reach the proper political representation of the revolution. 

• Political representation is the right of our revolution and is based on clear and definite principles, embodied in documents Cairo, to overthrow the regime fully and to reject any form of dialogue with him, except that in the form of details of the departure of the regime. 

• Independence of the national decision is not ensured through treasonous slogans and campaigns used by some of its opponents based on similar language and techniques as the regime's approach, but rather through hard work to break the impasse that has the political leadership and performance tottering. 

• Any formation of a new political entity must aim to represent the revolution and prioritize securing organized military support for the rebels and for relief efforts, despite personal loyalties and interests. In addition, the political entity must learn from past experiences and ensure the revolutionary mobility as a significant presence and an effective contribution to decision-making and implementation, without the domination of one party over another.  

• We clearly announce that interventions in the affairs of our revolution, as stated in Hilary Clinton's remarks, are unwelcome. It is on the international community to reconsider its defeatist policy against supporting the Syrian people and the rebels, which has lengthened the age of the regime and has extended the time for Syrians to be killed, increasing the complexity of the crisis and ultimately leading to extremism as a reaction. Finally, it calls on all the Local Coordination Committees of the Syrian opposition parties to assume their responsibilities and unite in accomplishing their projects promptly. In respect to the blood of the martyrs and in recognition of the great struggle of the Syrian people. Local Coordination Committees in Syria Monday 5 - 11 - 2012 ."

Clinton’s Effort to Build a Syrian Government in Exile Seems Doomed

by Joshua Landis, Nov. 3, 2012, Syria Comment

".....Washington’s Plan A, which was to create the SNC, went down in dust. By all accounts, Clinton cannot even stand to hear the name, SNC, uttered any longer.

Plan B was to set up the US office in Istanbul to meet and take the measure of Syrian militia leaders and local coordinating committee directors. The militia leaders scared Washington and the CIA. The word got out that they were “penetrated” by al-Qaida and Salafi types.

Plan C is now in the making. It is to return to the educated Syrians in the hope of doing a little shake-and-bake. Clinton is reconstituting some sort of US-friendly leadership drawn from elements of the old SNC with generous add-mixtures of Coordinating Committee types, some government defectors, and others who will join. It sounds as if the SNC is boycotting. Michel Kilo has said he will not join. Others are also taking a wait-and-see attitude.

The object of this exercise seems to be to glue some sort of US-friendly educated elite onto the military effort that looks too Islamist for Washington’s taste and not very human-rights observant.
But can this last minute fix possibly work?

This effort is almost identical to US and British efforts of the 1950s to stop Syria from slipping into the hands of the USSR, Nasser and the leftist Baathists......


Today, Washington is again trying to rally the pro-Western elites of Syria into putting their shoulders to a common wheel with America. In 1957, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iraq cooperated in Washington’s efforts for regime change. Today Qatar replaces Iraq, but the line up of states helping the US in its “struggle for Syria” has hardly changed. Other aspects that have not changed are the infighting among Syria’s elites and the general resentment and distrust that Syrians share toward the US . It is hard to be optimistic."

Bashar al-Assad wants war not peace reveals Syria's former prime minister Riyad Hijab

The Telegraph

"In his first full interview with a Western newspaper since he fled to Jordan in August, Riyad Hijab, the former prime minister, told The Daily Telegraph that he and other senior regime figures pleaded with Mr Assad to negotiate with the Syrian opposition.

One week before his defection, Mr Hijab, the vice-president, the parliamentary speaker and the deputy head of the Baath party together held a private meeting with Mr Assad.

"We told Bashar he needed to find a political solution to the crisis," he said. "We said, 'These are our people that we are killing.'

"We suggested that we work with Friends of Syria group, but he categorically refused to stop the operations or to negotiate."

Mr Hijab referred to the war waged against the Muslim Brotherhood by Mr Assad's father, Hafez, which led to the deaths of up to 10,000 people in an assault on the city of Hama.

"Bashar really thinks that he can settle this militarily," he said.
"He is trying to replicate his father's fight in the 1980s."......" 

النائبة زعبي: تصريحات عباس فائضة إسرائيليا وخارجة عن الشرعية فلسطينيا

عــ48ـرب

"في تعقيبها على تصريحات رئيس السلطة الفلسطينية، محمود عباس، الأخيرة، والتي اعتبرت تنازلا منه عن حق عودة اللاجئين، للصفة الرسمية التي يتمتع بها، واعتباره أن فلسطين هي الأراضي الواقع ضمن حدود 1967، والباقي فهو إسرائيل، قالت النائبة حنين زعبي إن تنازلات عباس تجعله فائضا عن الحاجة إسرائيليا، وخارجا عن الشرعية الفلسطينية. فإسرائيل تعرف أنه فائض عن الحاجة كونه لا يمثل شعبه، وكون تنازلاته لا تعكس أي رغبة فلسطينية حقيقية، مما يجعل المجتمع والسلطة في إسرائيل تستخف في دوره وفي قدرته على التوصل لأي حل اكثر من أي وقت مضى.

وأضافت، في لقاء مع "فلسطين اليوم"، إن تصريحات عباس تدل على انقطاعه المطلق ليس فقط عن شعبه الفلسطيني بل عن خصمه الإسرائيلي، فهو غير مدرك لذهنية وعقلية المجتمع الاسرائيلي الذي تزيد مثل هذه التنازلات من عنصريته ويمينيته وتعززها، في الوقت الذي يظن فيه عباس أنها تلينه وتجعله أكثر تقبلا لنضال الفلسطينيين ولحقوقهم.

وقالت أيضا إن مثل تلك التصريحات تضع النضال الفلسطيني في خانة التطرف والإرهاب كونها ترسم سقفا آخر للنضال هو القبول بالشروط والخطاب الإسرائيلي.

وأنهت زعبي تصريحاتها  بالقول إنه مع هكذا سلطة سيدوم الاحتلال ويقوى، وبانه لم يعد بالإمكان القفز عن دور السلطة للنضال ضد الاحتلال، بل أصبح التخلص من دورها السياسي شرطا من شروط النضال ضد الاحتلال.

"

Syria rebels 'capture oilfield'

Activists say Syrian rebels have taken control of the al-Ward oilfield, which supplied fuel for the Assad regime's tanks

(Click on map to enlarge)

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 4 November 2012

"Syrian rebels captured an oilfield in the east of the country on Sunday after three days of fierce fighting with government troops protecting the facility, activists said.

The head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said rebels overran the al-Ward oilfield in the province of Deir el-Zour near the border with Iraq. About 40 soldiers were guarding the facility that the rebels had been pounding for the past three days, he said, adding that opposition fighters also captured several regime troops.

Oil was a major source of revenue for the cash-strapped regime of President Bashar Assad before the and US imposed an embargo on Syria's crude exports last year to punish the government for its crackdown on protesters early on in the uprising.

"This field used to supply the regime with fuel for its tanks and our aim was to stop these supplies," Omar Abu Leila, an activist in Deir el-Zour, told the Associated Press by telephone. He said there had been heavy fighting recently near the oil facility just east of the city of Mayadin......"

Mahmoud Abbas outrages Palestinian refugees by waiving his right to return

Images of Abbas burned by refugees who say he has conceded on one of the most visceral issues on Palestinian agenda

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
The Guardian, Sunday 4 November 2012

"The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, is facing widespread condemnation and anger in the Palestinian territories and abroad after he publicly waived his right to return to live in the town from which his family was forced to flee in 1948, a repudiation of huge significance for Palestinian refugees.

After his image was burned in refugee camps in Gaza, Abbas rejected accusations that he had conceded one of the most emotional and visceral issues on the Palestinian agenda, the demand by millions of refugees to return to their former homes in what is now Israel......

The president told Channel 2 he accepted he had no right to live in Safed, the town of his birth, from which his family was forced to flee in 1948 when Abbas was 13 years old.
"I visited Safed before once, he said. "But I want to see Safed. It's my right to see it, but not to live there.".....

The comments sparked protests in Gaza, where protesters in refugee camps burned images of the Palestinian president. Abbas was denounced on Twitter by pro-Palestinian activists.......

Following the broadcast of the interview, Israel's president, Shimon Peres, said Abbas's comments were a "brave and important public declaration".......

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Syria - The changing face of Syria's opposition

"As the Syrian National Council regroups in Doha, we ask if the US is dictating who should lead the opposition? Teymoor Nabili speaks to Rim Turkmani, Flynt Leverett & Osama Kadi."

Real News Video (with Transcript): Obama's or Romney's Foreign Policy: Does it Matter Who Wins ?

Larry Wilkerson: All US administrations have similar foreign policy, but the neo-con group around Bush/Cheney was more dangerous and many of the same characters are advising Romney 

There’s nothing new in Mahmoud Abbas’ and the PLO’s renunciation of Palestinian refugee rights

By Ali Abunimah

"Israeli- and US-backed Palestinian Authority leader and nominal PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas caused renewed consternation among Palestinians last week with his renunciation, on Israeli television, of the right of Palestinian refugees to return to the homes from which they were ethnically cleansed by invading Zionist gangs during and after 1948, and his redefinition of Palestine to include only the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In a “clarification” on the Egyptian TV channel Al-Hayyat, Abbas resorted to his usual tactic of blaming the media for somehow distorting words that everyone could hear come out of his mouth and claimed his words had been misinterpreted and that he was speaking only personally and not representing policy..

But he is lying. Abbas’ words demonstrably represent long-standing Palestinian Authority and PLO policy of giving up refugee rights....."

Guardian Video: Syria: 'The internet has been central to the revolution'

                   
                   
                                   

"Dlshad Othman is a Syrian digital security expert and human rights activist living in the Republic of Ireland. From a small village outside of Dublin, Dlashad works to ensure the safety of activists and journalists on the digital frontline of the Syrian uprising against President Bashar al-Assad."