EXCLUSIVE: Gruesome Syria photos may prove torture by Assad regime

EXCLUSIVE: Gruesome Syria photos may prove torture by Assad regime – CNN.com.

David Crane has been working tirelessly on behalf of the Syrian people since the early days of the revolution. With the help of his students and colleagues, he has been documenting on a daily basis each reported violation and war crime that has taken place in Syria as a result of Assad’s campaign of terror – his genocide in fact. We all owe a debt of gratitude to David Crane, irrespective of how the politics of this conflict pan out. I am honored to call him friend.

Evidence of ‘industrial-scale killing’ by Syria spurs call for war crimes charges

Evidence of ‘industrial-scale killing’ by Syria spurs call for war crimes charges | World news | The Guardian.

Yes, it’s genocide. Yes, there are concentration camps. Indeed, war tribunals are needed, and Assad and his top officials should end up there. You can blame the opposition for their bungling and fear the extremists, those who were borne out of the ashes and those exported to and imported into our land, as much as you want, but the methodical genocidal venture unleashed by the Assad using the vestiges and institutions of the State, and with Iranian and Russian backing, is unparalleled. The two main sides of this conflict are not on the same moral plane. As for Al-Qaeda, it’s a third party that has inserted itself into the situation by manipulating the two main parties in pursuit of her own agenda. She is neither an ally of the rebels nor of the regime. She is in it for herself. And if she is maintaining its own detention camps and carrying out executions, the main victims in this case are often the rebels, the pro-democracy activists and their families as well. Assad is a carrying out a large-scale genocide in his turf, Al-Qaeda is attempting to do the same on a much smaller scale in theirs, and rebels and activists are fighting for their survival in both the regime-held areas and in the so-called “liberated” territories.

U.N. Reports Mass Executions in Northern Syria

U.N. Reports Mass Executions in Northern Syria – NYTimes.com.

Caught between the Assad Regime and Al-Qaeda, moderation loses its significance, the international community its legitimacy, and hope its usefulness. If we soldier on at this stage, it’s more out of spite than hope. Who know? Perhaps the victories that are often attributed to hope owe more to tenacity and spite. Be that as it may, the one certainty I still have is that this fire is bound to burn us all. No one is immune, irrespective of what some believe, or like to believe.

A Genocide Hidden In Plain Sight

By reporting on a civil war, a sectarian war, and a proxy war, by focusing on the extremist groups taking advantage of the breakdown of the state and international indifference while ignoring the links between the Assad regime and these groups, by focusing on the concerns of minority communities in the country and the removal of chemical weapons, and by providing continuous coverage of a political process in Geneva that is unlikely to produce serious results, the reality of what is taking place in Syria, namely the genocide that is being perpetrated against the majority Sunni Arab population is being hidden in plain sight: the war is visible, the genocide is not. The very word is seldom used even as stories of concentration camps and starvation campaigns break out.

Continue reading “A Genocide Hidden In Plain Sight”