vrijdag 6 september 2013

Syria 219

http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/09/04/multimedia/100000002421361/closer-look.html

Stripped, bound, shot in the back of the head and dumped in a well: Horrific fate of Assad's troops executed on camera by Syrian rebels

syria
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. Just before they are killed, the ring-leader - known as 'The Uncle' - recites a poem before he fires the first bullet. The horrific scene filmed in April was documented in a video smuggled out of Syria a few days ago by a former rebel who says he had become horrified by the brutality of the tactics his one-time comrades are using. It has emerged as G20 leaders meet in Russia to debate the dire situation in the war-torn country and will add fuel to the view that the rest of the world cannot actively support rebels who are carrying out atrocities equally as brutal as the troops deployed by President Assad.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2412700/Horrifying-fate-Assads-soldiers-executed-camera-Syrian-rebels.html



Liam Stack
Watching Syria’s War on Thursday examines video posted to YouTube by accounts associated with both Islamist rebels and the Free Syrian Army, which shows the Qaeda-linked Nusra Front working with other rebels to attack government positions in an ancient town northeast of Damascus. Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ, is still used in the town, Malula. The video was posted by the Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, which the cameraman said coordinated the attack with the Nusra Front. The video suggests cooperation between the Western-backed Free Syrian Army and groups linked to Al Qaeda.

Ashley Parker
WASHINGTON — As lawmakers continued to struggle with their coming vote on whether to authorize the use of force in Syria, there was at least one thing that both Democrats and Republicans seemed to agree on: Back home, their constituents were opposed to any intervention.
“What I’m hearing back home is about 100 percent no,” said Representative Carol Shea-Porter, Democrat of New Hampshire. “The letters that I’m getting, the e-mails, and the phone calls are full of anguish and full of concern, but they sure seem to have their facts right.”
Representative Alan Grayson, a Florida Democrat who has been trying to rally his fellow Democrats to vote against the resolution, said that he thought the sentiment in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives was hardening against any military action, in part because of what members are hearing in their districts.
“It’s completely against this resolution, it always has been against this resolution,” he said. “Listen, people here listen to their constituents. First of all, public opinion is entirely against it; secondly, public opinion is vehemently against it.”
Representative Frank A. LoBiondo, Republican of New Jersey, said his constituents had been “overwhelmingly against” any intervention in Syria.
“I’ve never had an issue they’ve been this overwhelmingly against,” he said.

Ashley Parker
WASHINGTON — As the Obama administration continued to press its case with lawmakers to authorize the use of force in Syria, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, said Thursday that members of Congress would receive a DVD produced by the Central Intelligence Agency that contains specific evidence of the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
The DVD, produced at her request, she said, largely contains footage of Syrian victims, in order to show lawmakers the effects of a chemical attack. It shows “what pinpointed eyes mean,” she said, “what the convulsions mean, a number of aspects.”
Ms. Feinstein, Democrat of California, added, “We received that this morning and it’s horrendous.”
Ms. Feinstein said that every senator and possibly members of the House would receive a copy of the DVD, “so that they can at their leisure go through it.”
She said that between the footage on the DVD and the classified briefings she has attended this week on Capitol Hill, she feels confident voting to authorize military strikes on Syria. “Yes,” she said, “it’s enough for me.”
Ms. Feinstein said that while she was not necessarily actively lobbying her colleagues to support the resolution, she was making sure they had all the necessary information to make an informed decision.
“They can certainly be undecided up to the vote,” Ms. Feinstein said “but, you know, there’s a moment of truth in all of this.”
She also said that while her constituents in California largely oppose any intervention in Syria — “It weighs on me, no question,” she said, “because I’m very constituent-oriented” — she was persuaded by some of the classified evidence she saw in the briefings to support strikes on Syria.
“But you see, then they don’t know what I know, they haven’t heard what I’ve heard,” she said. “And I like to believe now, that after 20 years, I have some skill in separating the wheat from the chaff.”


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