What's Really Happening in Syria?

Questions we should ask ourselves regarding events in Syria in particular, and the MENA (Middle East & North Africa) in general to understand what's really happening:


1) Who are those appearing in foreign media as taking to the streets protesting against Syrian Govt?
2) Where are these protests taking place in Syria?
3) What are they calling for?
4) What are their means when protesting?
5) Who supports them?
6) Why they have an unchallenged priority in coverage above other could be more important news?


First we need to know that Syria is a very diversitified society that has a minority of every ethnic or religious sect known to the wider region, we should also keep in mind that the Syrians have seen most of the aggressors during history and managed to get their independence hence they became ulta-sensitive towards any foreign intervention in their internal matters, they'll simply regather, forget their differences and fight the foreign intervention.


Let's try to answer these questions.


1) Who are those appearing in foreign media as taking to the streets protesting against Syrian Govt? 
Daily so many news channels show footage of large numbers of crowds protesting in several cities in Syria against the govt, many of these news channels took on its shoulders to keep posting these protests all day, all week and rebroadcast it several times, and in many times keep the 'Live' symbol appearing to give an illusion that these are live endless protests. 


By the look at the protesters, most of them will not show faces, recording their protests from behind, or from a distance, but in case we believe that these protesters are Syrians and are actually in Syria, who are they?


Based on the narrations while broadcasting these protests it hints that it covers most of the Syrian territories making it appear like a mass popular movement. Obviously those participating in the protests are from poor and poorest areas based on their looks, cloth and neighborhoods. So these are poor people protesting, and not educated elite or organized political parties or unions.


2) Where are these protests taking place in Syria?
As in our above answer (1), we hinted that it meant to show that it covers all over Syria, but does it? For the past 5 months, ie after the famous Hama 900,000 protesters (number refuted by logic and many media analysts since the entire population doesn't exceed 2 million all over the province) we stopped seeing mass protests in known cities, or centers of provinces. The only reported protests are taking place in remote villages with names like: Kafr Nibl (كفر نبل), Ibtaa (ابطع), Bayyada (بياضة), Dael (داعل).. Now thanks to Google and their revolutionary product: Google Maps, I invite the readers to locate these protest hotbeds on the map.


As we see, remote villages, mostly near borders with other countries, with extremely low populations -not exceeding 5,000 in most cases- are seeing protests demanding the change of the regime!


In a 'Democracy' that's absurd, because they don't stand a chance in a country of 23 million population, in a 'Republic' their rights will be respected, their voices will not be heard. 


3) What are they calling for?
What are these 'protests' demanding? To take to the streets against an 'oppressing brutal regime' there should be grieve demands to allow undesirable consequences that pushes people to protest, so in this case their demands should be very much life touching to take the chance of losing life for?!


At the beginning of protests in March, when events in Syria started unfolding, people were asking for the replacement of the governor and a security chief in Daraa city to the south of Syria, near Jordanian borders. The governor was replaced, the security chief was replaced, but protests turned violent, the court house after replacing the governor was attacked, torched, public and security buildings attacked, rioters used sniper rifles and pump-actions to attack army & security posts in the city, demands increased and the ousting of the president started to be heard with the infamous slogan: "The People Demand the Downfall of the Regime" "الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام".. the same slogan used all over the 'Arab Spring' affected countries from Egypt to Tunisia to Libya to Yemen..


To demand the downfall of the 'regime' requires grave reasons and mass protests and not to start with small local issues and tiny protests accompanied with violent riots.


If we add over 9 million Syrians rallying in support of the president during the month November in the main cities of Syria, to add that many cities never witnessed a single protest, not even with a 100 person protesting, something is wrong about labeling it popular protests. We should know that Damascus, Aleppo, Latakia, Tartous, Al Rigga, Hasaka Suwaida, Qunaitra didn't witness any anti-govt protest, that's a huge indication justifying the doubtful reasons behind 'anti-govt protests'. Keep in mind that Damascus and Aleppo by themselves have about half of the population of the whole of Syria.


Yet, president Assad took brave and very substantial steps towards reforming the entire political system in Syria, starting with dismissing the previous government, forming a new one, forming committees that introduced new laws governing Media, Parties, Constitution, Elections, Local Administration.. etc. Most finished their work and the progress in others is admirable.


So what do these people really want, protesting in small numbers in remote cities, mostly close to the borders? Should their demands of the downfall of the entire 'regime' be taking seriously? Name a country that does so, and we'll look into their experience.


4) What are their means when protesting? 
A protest is known to be peaceful, but when weapons from kitchen knives to AK47 rifles and more, that is called violent riots and their participants could be referred to as armed gangs.


Placards calling for better politics/ life enhancing slogans can be found in a peaceful protest, placards calling for the hanging of the president of a country, is a provocative criminal call.


Marching in a number throughout a road in a city calling for demands can be called a peaceful protest, not mentioning the requirement of a license from authorities, while gathering in groups then attacking an army base, a public building, destroying properties, killing police officers cannot be seen as a 'peaceful protest', it should be called: A Terrorist Act, or in a softer note: An armed mafia attack.


5) Who supports them?
As we said earlier above, Syrians are ultra sensitive to foreigners meddling with their internal country matters, think of an enemy state supporting riots in Syria?!


Whatever the cause of protests can be understood, but when it comes to be supported by weapons, money and covered in media by enemy states, especially in Syria that's seen as a terrorist plot, conspiracy theories will come on mind, because it is not thought of a Syrian taking aide from an enemy state to topple his own regime for whatsoever reason, except under the perspective of a conspiracy plot to invade his country.


The United States of America is not considered a friendly country in Syria keeping in mind its decades long support of israel that occupies Syrian land among other Arab lands, and oppress Syrians among oppressing other Arabs in its apartheid policies. Thus any support by the USA to any group or individuals in Syria is looked upon with suspicion of spying to helping in invading. Syrians also saw what the USA has down for 8 years after invading Iraq to devastating the entire country, killing a million Iraqi and displacing over 4 millions, they also saw what happened when USA and friends in NATO protected Libyans by securing their way to heavens in a genocide. 


6) Why they have an unchallenged priority in coverage above other could be more important news? 
Syria is a very important geopolitical country, its stance against israel, thus imperialism, makes it the most important part of a chain of countries that still stands out of the USA hegemony. Destroying Syria is to USA as destroying Nazi Germany to the Allies during WWII.


Al Jazeera was chosen to be a mouthpiece for NATO backed 'revolutions' in the Arab World, dubbed the 'Arab Spring', for its built up credibility over 11 years, and its acceptance by most of the Arabs as a trustworthy news source, add to it the proclaimed role it had in anti-Mubarak of Egypt protests and others. The role of Al Jazeera was essential to continue the chain of countries split and visited by the 'Arab Spring'. Its role was defaced by Syrians and namely a private-owned satellite channel in Syria 'Addounia' that also was subject to an unprecedented sanction by the EU to block its satellite broadcasting on the European Satellites just because it was able to deface the Al Jazeera and show the warmongering and propaganda it was spreading in order to achieve the biggest goal, 'The New Middle East' by a "creative chaos" that will lead to the New World Order, eventually.


Foreign and other Arab based media started quoting Al Jazeera for news, which Al Jazeera was quoting vague unknown 'Activist' mostly based in Europe telling events and 'brutality' of the Syrian government and security forces 'oppressing' the 'peaceful protesters'. So much of credibility falls when you just follow the line of reporting. Some news houses had to apologize for misinformation and wrong reporting more than once, then they were forced to just follow the leader 'Al Jazeera' which also follows its leaders in the US Secretary of State Near East Office under the official Jefferey Feltman. Among those news houses complicit we can find: Reuters (and what it represents in the media world), CNN, FoxNews (of course), Washington Post, LA Times, NY Post and many others. Al Arabiya pan Arab news channel is just a smaller clone of Al Jazeera.


Same could be applied to tools used by the US Administration that it can have access to.


From all of the above, we come to the concluding question: Is what's happening in Syria peaceful protests against demanding better political contribution against a brutal regime? Or if we look down from an upper level, it is a plot to destroy and slice those countries not fully under the US hegemony and replace their existing governments with ones that are puppets used by the US administrations? 

I'll leave the answer to you.

Our Reply on 'Flower of Syria' Article - LA Times Warmongering

Aren't you sick of your own warmongering & propaganda? Do you remember the famous 'Gay Girl in Damascus'?

Zaynab became a high profile not by govt but by Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group tried to mobilize the crowds against the secular govt based on such a lie like this. To add inslut to your injury in this case, the 'body mutilated and burnt' was a mannequine cut and burnt and filmed to be a human body, but a closer look will show you the metal joint under the armpit.. silly, but that's mere proapaganda.

Such stories are good for foreigners and expats but not for Syrians inside or experts on warfare and propaganda.. That's a totally different level.

Sedition is exactly what NATO agents were trying their best to raise using a number of Gulf Based Clerics followers of an offshoot of an Islamic extremist group called Salafis, same found in Qandahar, Afghanistan throwing acid on the faces of young girls going to school, to drug lords having their trade flourish during unrests, to weapon dealers and their ability to smuggle weapons paid in cash abroad.. etc.

There'll be no civil war along sectarian lines in Syria, the country offered a safe haven to each sect that faced annihilation & massacres in their own countries which explains the number of sects inside this country.

Just for your info, the president's religion is Muslim with no extras as he declares himself.

The above comment in reply to what LA Times article titled: 'Flower of Syria' http://discussions.latimes.com/20/lanews/la-fg-syria-zaynab-20111111/10

LA Times Blogs Again in Their Beirut Based Reporting & Our Reply

Of course when you report from Beirut you will only count 'Thousands' but if you watch the State media (TV, Newspapers, Official News Agency) and Addounia TV channel which all broad-casted live and took panoramic photos of the entire events you'll count them in about 1.4 million people, not 'Thousands', unless you want to say: 1,400 'Thousands' or as per your second paragraph you say: 140s of Tens of Thousands attending a pro govt rally in the Syrian second city Aleppo.


It's not a 'repeat of Damascus rally', it's a totally another rally with different participants where Aleppo is about 310 Kilometers (193 Miles) to the north of Damascus, and obviously you cannot carry the million plus Damascus rally participants to Aleppo city!! If you have a reasonable way to do so please inform us how we can apply it to moving cities populations in the face of potential natural disasters.


You are directly participating in the NATO war propaganda and its very clear for any follower of your 'blogs' and reports about Arab countries on the US Hit-list, this will only make you accomplice in crimes against citizens of these countries.


'Activists' are meant to be described by you and other Mainstream Media (the NATO countries' ones) as people with a humanitarian relief, aide, refuge or law assistance backgrounds, majors and activities, while these 'Activists' in regards of the Arab countries are much more of informants, agents and spies of different NATO countries' intelligent services reporting from cities in these countries about events overseas in countries on the NATO hit-list, appeared in big numbers out of nowhere, creating and building information based on personal interests or motivated interests rather than fact-finding initiatives.. If you claim to be a responsible news outlet then I demand you to make reports about these 'Activists' you base your reports on, I demand to see proofs of their education, background, activities, their offices, their methodology of collecting information, their practices in verifying these information, their scientific methods in documenting these information and most importantly: Their Source of Funding..!


Unless you can do so, reporting their information makes you accomplice in crimes against our people by participating in a war propaganda especially after the so many evidences of fake reporting and fake information you as well as all other NATO countries' news outlets have reported, like the infamous case of a 'Gay Girl in Damascus' who turned out to be a US Male Citizen reporting from UK; the infamous story of alleged arresting, killing and butchering of Zainab Al Hosny who appeared in flesh before Syrian TV after 10 days of your allegations; the infamous story of Syrian Navy alleged shelling the port city of Lattakia which never found any trace inside the city; the infamous alleged story of shelling the city of Hama by Syrian army tanks and leveling the Horani Hospital which proved totally false; the infamous alleged stories of Syrian army tanks shelling the cities of Daraa, Der Ezzor, Idleb and Bu Kamal all proved false; the infamous story of airborne shelling of the border town of Tal Kalakh using a video re-uploaded to YouTube of 2 officers in an army helicopter where the same video was taken over a year ago and uploaded to YouTube in a normal training mission that didn't involve a single bullet firing..!; the infamous allegations that the riots in Syria were all done by 'Peaceful Protesters' where the authorities are confiscating on daily basis caches of weapons from personal pistols to heavy machine guns to grenades to RPG's and even 4x4 cars equipped with anti-airplanes machine guns alike the ones used by the Libyan NATO supported rebels we see all over the news, and many stories uncovered daily by real and true Syrian Activists.


If you are a part of a NATO war campaign targeting countries on the US hit-list please ignore all my previous requests, if not, show us what you can do to prove your credibility.


Above reply and the article-blog can be found here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/10/syria-bashar-assad-rally-killings.html

Why USA So Eager to Place EU Sanctions on Syria?!

We thought the whole fuss was to protect people of countries under oppressive regimes, now it's obvious that companies' interests are far more important than protecting people!

Let's draw some lines: USA wants its allies to impose further sanctions because simply US companies do not deal in Syria thus US companies will not lose, but wants European companies to lose.

Turkey maintains a $2 Bln trade with Syria but economy is something and political drama is something else.

Chinese companies and others might step in to cover the gap so EU companies shouldn't pull out fast.

Ok, we got it, it's oil and business and not Human Rights and oppressions, that point is clear, but why Syria? The fast answer comes: Why not if we can?!

But, Syria is positioned in a very strategic location for God sake, it borders israel, the missing dot in the US foreign policies when it comes to the MENA area. If israel's interests are protected that's enough to keep the US president in office, if israel's interests are endangered that's a big sign for the US president on the way out of office, who else pays presidential campaigns and have the highest hands? AIPAC, and it is the israeli lobby in USA.

Stop lying and say you need to destroy Syria not because there is unproved oppression which is mentioned only by some vague activists, it's because business and israel.

Good Day Americans & enjoy Democracy.

Above comments appears on LA Times article titled "EU sanctions on Syria oil and gas industry comes with loopholes": 

http://discussions.latimes.com/20/lanews/la-fg-us-syria-sanctions-20110915/10

LA Times Reporter in Beirut Tells How Aleppo Mufti Died, The Way She Deemed Sutiable

In Syria we should pray to God to delay the deaths planned for the time being until the unrest in the remote suburbs is over, otherwise whoever dies would raise a doubt that the Bashar himself has killed him!


The 77 years old, yes SEVENTY SEVEN years old mufti after delivering his Friday sermon went home then felt some chest ache, he was taken to the hospital and underwent a surgical operation and died a couple of days afterwards, does that sound strange?


Now to the schizophrenic reporting: "Plainclothes pro-government security forces attacked mourners, and mourners and activists calling for an end to President Bashar Assad's regime."? Say what?


First of all how did the Beirut based reporter know that those wearing plaincloth are security forces? Then pro-government security forces? Since the beginning of the riots in Syria in March we never heard of anti-govt security forces to have pro-govt security forces, the reporter went wild in the imagination here. Mourners and activists calling for an end to President Bashar Assad's regime, during the burial procedures? of a Mufti? Excuse me, I never heard a burial ceremony protesting against the regime, the family of the dead person would definitely not want to turn the respected burial ceremony into a circus.. Unless again some weak personalities want to take advantage of any gathering even if it was a burial.


The reporting in Beirut tries to imply that the mufti was afraid of a visit of security forces personnel because of his sermon, well just some inquiries:
- Source of the visit news? Local Coordinators of Chaos? I wouldn't believe rioters as reliable information source.
- Were the security personnel who visited the mufti wearing plain cloth or uniformed?
- As we know that the mufti is the one responsible of other mosques in his jurisdiction, would he fear consequences of his own sermon?
- The mufti had previous much harsh criticism to almost everything wrong in the Syrian life, from holes in the streets, to people spitting on the streets, to criticizing the regime during his 40 plus years of public service, he never feared a couple of visiting security officers.. very unlikely.


Aniseh doubts that the govt had something to do with his death, wait a second.. Who is Aniseh? oh yes, you said, she's a 45 years old mother of 5, and she's a credible source, because Aniseh is well known in the Aleppo society of 6 million not to lie before. 


Shall I continue? Why not, today Wednesday evening Addounia TV aired 2 interviews with 2 of the late mufti brothers, whom both in their late something and both individually confirmed the story of admitting to hospital, having a cardiology failure with similar nature to their father's cause of death.


So what? He was a critic to the regime, even if he dies of natural cause the regime is behind his death.. Because the reporter is of a known anti-Syrian stance linked to the "Fourteenies" the ousted Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri bloc, who lost his inherited Premiership in a civilized democratic way but can't get over it.


If late Salkini can stir more unrest in Aleppo, he could have done that in the past 6 months and not after things are calming now in general and the pockets left have switched to armed gangs which is denounced by Islamic Sharia in general and in particular.


The rest of the blog is speculations and general news of a copy and paste nature from other news articles. 


Link to our above comment and the article posted on LA Times Blog: 
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/09/syria-aleppo-sunni-cleric.html

LA Times Reporter in Lebanon Plays its Role in the Media Game Against Syria

It's either your reporter stationed in neighboring country Lebanon is going dumb or considering your readers as dumb: Do you imagine that a uniformed Syrian soldier would show his face to the camera while abusing detainees and he knows he might face court martial for that?

'Activists' reported, 'Activists' said, 'Activists' mentioned: that's becoming an old and very sick way of reporting news, your so called 'Activists' based in London, UQ (formerly UK but since there's no king) or Stockholm, or Cairo and none in Syria itself; such 'Activists' report news from inside Syria while they are thousands of miles away, I doubt they can give a single piece of reliable news, we've seen examples in Libya like when one of Gaddafi sons reported killed 3 times and 2 others including Saiful Islam was reported detained and same was confirmed by International Criminal Court then they appeared to be false news.

We've seen such reports of 'Activists' of WMDs in Iraq and the US army is still looking for it after more than 8 years.

If you can't report news from inside Syria because the govt blocked you that's not an excuse to copy opposition sources especially when most of those figures are wanted fugitives in major crimes in Syria itself.. So there goes their credibility.

Shootings happening, but how can you confirm it's the govt shooting protesters? What's your methodology in proving that? 'Activists' said?

If govt's security is shooting at the protesters in a random and a heavy way how come a large number of security themselves being killed and by who? Who are those long bearded armed gangs in large numbers appearing in many of the videos using US made weapons not used by Syrian army or security or even by known criminals in Syria? Who is arming, financing, training & smuggling them? Who has access to Afghanistan, many of those groups look like Afghanis, and who has good relations to Taliban and AlQaeda? Well, the conflict in Libya showed us nobody has better relations with AlQaeda than the CIA of the USA itself.

Wake up world, media war is one part of a campaign against a sovereignty of an independent state.


Link to the article and our comment on it: 
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/09/syria-activists-report-at-least-14-dead-as-hunt-for-defected-attorney-general-continues.html

LA Times Outdoes Itself Once Again re Syria Riots

Honestly, if you want to do good to humanity, hand over the contact details of the criminal you dubbed Abu Zeid to the Syrian authorities to save further lives, and by the way, where is his 8 years old son? You didn't tell us, after pointing the gun to the stomach of the kid, what exactly happened?

This is yet another lame story by another lame reporter trying to paint the lame Libyan image over Syria.
People killed, of course, when in the very early days members of the terrorist group called Muslims Brotherhood (based in UK and supported by it) started killing people and security officers in Daraa, nobody believed the govt account because nobody wanted to believe it, believing what the govt says doesn't lead to drama news articles like the lame one above, blood does.
Congratulations on instigating further crimes, you are just a partner in the crimes in Syria as you are in the killings of over 50,000 civilians the NATO protected and secured their path to havens, over a 1 million Iraqi, but this time the coalition of the willing secured and protected their path to havens, thousands in Afghanistan also took that protected and secured way, now Syrian blood is added.
Things on the ground are totally different than your imaginary Hollywood style drama above, but who cares, you didn't care about others, why care now, you need money, money comes from oil, invade countries that have oil and solve your economy crisis.. Syria doesn't have that much oil, but it borders israel, and israel AIPAC finances and lobbies for US presidents and administration campaigns, although it takes its monies from US Tax payers in the form of aid, but it pays it again to destroy israel's enemies even on the account of innocent civilians and criminalizing innocent others.


Our comments on the article titled Some Syrians despair, consider armed confrontation on LA Times: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/08/syria.html

Our Comments Analyzing an LA Times Article Today

Did anybody even bother to edit this BS article before posting it here? Or the Arabic lady who wrote it lacks basics of English language? Let’s see what she wrote in Basic English & comment on the content as well:

Obviously Mr. Erdogan of Turkey after being grilled by his own opposition 2 major parties in Turkey for the arrogant way addressing the southern neighbor with over 800 kms shared borders wanted to appear as a hero claiming credit for the removal of tanks from streets in Hama, Central Syria, the story the writer failed to point out while Mr. Erdogan himself stated, also, seems that the writer, obviously motivated by her political view of Syria alike the Hariri bloc in Lebanon, has also missed the harsh respond Mr. Erdogan’s firm message statement from Syrian officials, after the Prime Minister of Turkey stated that he’ll be dispatching his Foreign Minister Davut Uglo to Syria to deliver a ‘firm message’, received an instant reply from an aide of president Assad, Mrs. Shaaban: “If the Turkish envoy is coming to deliver a firm message, he will hear a more firm message from Syrian leadership condemning Turkey’s ignorance of facts”.

Mr. Uglo was received with frown faces as it was totally obvious in the footage the media displayed from all Syrian delegates in the meeting, President Mr. Assad, the Syrian FM Mr. Moallem, President’s Aide Mrs. Shaaban, and the 4^th delegate to the right of Mr. Assad, which explains that the Syrian leadership didn’t bend to Turkish pressure as claimed which also explains what the reporter mentioned of continuous security operations throughout the country with an exception of pulling armored vehicles from Hama after completing their tasks!

In her efforts to show that the regime in Syria as a bunch of criminals facing civilized communities within the country, the writer uses a very twisted language, she says: “According to the activists, 10,000 soldiers with 32 tanks entered the border area, broke into homes, looted personal belongings and arrested 25 youths” Now in this one sentence the reporter outdone herself in previous articles, or maybe it’s the experience she gained in writing in the same manner each time describing the Syrian Government Forces, how? Let’s take a closer look:

“According to activists”: Since the beginning of events in Syria we started to hear of activists covering the news for foreign media which was expelled due to intended bad conduct of reporting news exactly same like this article, what kind of activists is she referring to? If they are Human Rights Activists, then those HR activists should be recognized and accredited from known agencies, they should be following scientific practices in collecting the data which means they should have a presence in the country, conducting interviews, surveying, filling data forms, cross examining information and then reporting through an organizational method, while what everybody has noticed in the Syrian case, the so called activists are all of ‘one man show’ kiosk offices based abroad Syria, with no presence whatsoever on the ground, so how could they gather, analyze and cross examine the news before distributing their findings? How could so called activists, each leading a Human Rights Organization by himself with no other staff, all based outside the country, all comprised of opposition figures of the ruling government in Syria, and yet they can still from their offices abroad count 10,000 soldiers and 32 tanks! Unless these Activists are not of a Human Rights nature and could be of the same nature of ‘London Rioters’ if we can call them ‘London Activists’.

‘According to activists, 10,000 soldiers with 32 tanks entered the border area’: let’s accept that 10,000 soldiers were counted with their 32 tanks, although I don’t know how you can fit 10,000 soldiers in 32 tanks!! But let’s say they were counted, what does the reporter mean by border area? Is it an area outside the sovereignty of Syrian Government? Or within? If it’s outside then it entered another sovereign country’s land, in other words: invaded another country and in this case that other country is Turkey, as we all know there isn’t a no man zone between the two countries Syria & Turkey; and in case they were within the sovereign borders of Syria, what’s wrong with moving a national army within a country? Especially a country that is facing terrifying terrorist events from killing protesters and security forces at the same time by snipers to provoke a revolution and incite hatred between both, chopping and mutilating dead bodies of security officers and their families, in one case a brigadier in the army was attacked while he was shopping with his family, kidnapped with his 3 children, killed, chopped and all 4 of them sent in plastic bags to their family, such a country facing armed groups that entered from bordering countries attacking public and private properties, torching & looting it and erecting blockades in remote country sides, what would such a country do when these armed groups are armed with similar heavy weapons that the CIA usually provide to gangs it creates to destabilize countries opposing USA policies? Should the government in Damascus accept parts of the country under such threats? Would any country accept that? In UK, almost a 1000 teenagers were arrested, 4 killed and were all called rioters, gangs, mobs… and they weren’t even armed.

“broke into homes, looted personal belongings and arrested 25 youths”: This is remarkable, when a government body assigned a security preserving task they don’t “loot personal belongings” they confiscate suspicious materials. It’s good she used the word “arrested” as some of her colleagues use “kidnap” instead, and then we have “25 youths”: How on Earth did the reporter get the number and ages of those arrested? Activists? It would make more sense to arrest the activist reporting this story whose name is Oday Al Sayyed instead of letting him report this story if he is in the country in addition to those arrested, then how do you define youths? If Mr. Cameron Prime Minister of UK said: “if those committing the riots are capable of committing crimes then they are capable of facing justice” nothing different here.

“I think expanding their offensive along the border is a clear response – even more a challenge – to Turkey,” Al Sayyed said: Now our ‘activist’ has turned into a political analyst with a purpose of provoking a conflict between the two countries. If he does exist which we doubt, then he’s definitely not an HR activist and could be one of those committing crimes with the armed gangs in Syria, unless the writer have created this figure to serve her political alliance in neighboring country Lebanon, as she is also not in Syria.

The rest of the article is self-explained in contrary with the preceding of it, but it goes without saying that most people reading news they skim and mostly satisfied with the beginning part of the news article and do not continue to the end.


The article and our comment can be found here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/08/syria-regime-appears-to-shrug-off-turkish-guidance.html