Canada’s Crappy Crime Bill, Crazy Weather in US, Black Libyans Force-Fed Flags (PN Blast #4)
by Amir Alwani
Potent News
March 4, 2012
Links to the articles and videos discussed in the video above:
China offers diplomatic solution to Syria and along with India rules out foreign intervention
by Madison Ruppert
Editor of End the Lie
March 4, 2012
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Image credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China)
China is now offering a proposal which they say could end all of the violence in Syria by calling for an immediate end to all violence on both sides and talks by all the parties.
However, they continue to stand strong in their opposition to foreign intervention like what we witnessed in Libya.
The proposal was released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry and is part of Beijing’s new effort to take an active diplomatic role in the Syrian crisis.
China has previously come under fire from the West for their veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution they said could open the door to a dangerous intervention.
Their new proposal reflects this concern, which is a very rational one. Instead of calling for foreign intervention like so many in the West and among the opposition have done (which would very likely become quite bloody, just like in Libya), the proposal opts to call for a multilateral cease-fire.
In addition to a total cease-fire, they are calling for negotiations to be mediated by the United Nations and the Arab League, which I seriously doubt would be productive.
China is also calling for humanitarian relief to be brought into Syria, something which I doubt many people would disagree on.
The proposal is clearly against outside interference which would attempt to oust Assad and replace him, according to the Associated Press.
The glaring issue with this proposal is that the opposition has repeatedly stated that they are completely and totally unwilling to engage in peaceful talks with the Assad government.
This kind of all-or-nothing approach taken by the rebels is nothing short of dangerous and clearly it is in no way conducive to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
The question of how to deal with Syria has been one which is highly controversial and there is very little agreement outside of the Western powers who want to see Assad ousted post-haste.
India and the Arab League have recently been engaging in in-depth discussions on Syria, but they have not been able to come to an agreement on a common approach to end the crisis with India saying that it should be up to Syrians to internally decide how they want to resolve their own domestic problems.
This seems like a quite rational conclusion which not only respects the rights of Syrians to decide how their country is governed but also respects Syria’s national sovereignty.
The Arab League, on the other hand, has called for Assad to step down and give power to the Vice President and a national unity government. Who exactly would be involved in such a government and how they would be chosen is anyone’s guess.
However, if recent history is any indication, it is likely the case that they would seek to place individuals in power (undemocratically, of course) who are little more than Western puppets or individuals who will otherwise play along, unlike Assad.
India has said that foreign intervention of any kind is unnecessary and unhelpful, adding that it is not their decision whether Assad should stay or go.
For some reason, many nations are completely ignoring Syria’s sovereignty and demanding regime change, which they have absolutely no right to do.
Hopefully some of the Western powers will take note of these comments from China and India and thus start respecting Syrian sovereignty, the right of the Syrian people to decide their own domestic affairs and hopefully avoid what could become an even bloodier conflict with foreign intervention.
Did I miss anything? Would you like to tip me off to a story, share your analysis or submit some writing of your own? Email me at Admin@EndtheLie.com
Related posts:
- Gulf Arabs push diplomatic assault on Syria
- Russia and China block UN resolution on Syria amidst fears it could mean another Libya-style intervention
- Friends of Syria: Peaceful resolution vs. intervention
- Foreign Syrian intervention and the Russian-Chinese opposition
- Obama vetoed military intervention in Syria?
Short URL: http://EndtheLie.com/?p=39863
Libyan Revolution Update: Enjoying “Freedom” [video included]
Or, a look into Syria’s potential future after UN/NATO operations.
by Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer Report
March 4, 2012
Here we see Libyans enjoying their NATO-granted “freedom” – putting black men from the purged city of Tawergha in a zoo-like enclosure and feeding them green Libyan flags. The city of Tawergha was literally emptied out by Libya’s NATO-backed “revolutionaries” who vowed never to allow its residents to return to their property, claiming they had forfeited it by supporting Qaddafi during the 2011 NATO operation. Refugee camps containing the tens of thousands of exiled residents have been regularly attacked (another report can be found here, in The Globe & Mail).
Defenders of the degenerate foreign-backed revolution are quick to accuse any persecuted, tortured, or imprisoned man with a dark countenance as being “hired mercenaries,” but in the above video the men can be heard calling the imprisoned, humiliated men “Tawergian,” as in residents of the Libyan city of Tawergha – not foreign mercenaries.
This video comes amid reports, including those from Amnesty International, that Libya’s “freedom fighters” have predictably turned out to be the genocidal racists geopolitical analysts, including Dr. Webster Tarpley, had warned about since the onset of unrest in Libya over a year ago.
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[hat tip: Activist Post]
Horrors of Homs: ‘Killing, bloodshed, bodies on the streets’ [video]
Russia Today
February 3, 2012
Over a hundred foreign mercenaries have reportedly been captured by Syrian government troops after regaining control of rebel-held areas in the city of Homs.
Sources say the majority of them are French, with the rest from several Arab countries.
Syrian authorities claim that life in the city that’s been under siege for almost a month is getting back to normal, but, as RT’s Maria Finoshina reports, there are serious fears the fighting is far from over.
Residents of Homs and eyewitness say horrific scenes of carnage have become a part of everyday life there.
RT spoke to a Russian woman who spent over a week in the embattled city – who says the picture painted by the media does not always match the reality.
RT on Twitter http://twitter.com/RT_com
RT on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/RTnews
‘Media ignored rebels blocked Homs journo’s ambulances’ [video]
Russia Today
February 21, 2012
Syrian government forces have allowed an aid convoy to enter the city of Homs, after capturing the rebel stronghold of Baba Amr. This follows a call from the UN Security Council to allow immediate humanitarian access to the worst affected areas – a motion supported by Russia and China.
RT talks to Aisling Byrne, project co-ordinator for the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum. She says the mainstream media is still failing to balance their reports of atrocities committed in Syria.
RT on Twitter http://twitter.com/RT_com
RT on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/RTnews
Back Homs: Rebels flee, French troops captured by army [video]
Russia Today
March 1, 2012
Syrian opposition forces say they’ve withdrawn from a key neighborhood in the embattled city of Homs. Government forces have been trying to take over the area, saying it’s used as a base by armed militants. All this while the country waits for the arrival of Kofi Annan, the new UN and Arab League envoy, who’s vowed to stop the killing and start dialogue.
RT’s Maria Finoshina reports from from in Damascus.
Camil Otrakji, a contributing editor with online magazine Syria Comment , says the desire of some foreign states to push for President Assad’s departure could hamper Kofi Annan’s mediating mission.
RT on Twitter http://twitter.com/RT_com
RT on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/RTnews
Deaths in Syria: Counting Them (Politically) “Correctly” [video included]
Global Research
February 27, 2012
RT
2012-02-09
Victims who were killed in shelling on the residential district of Khalidiya in the central Syrian city of Homs late on February 3, 2012 (AFP Photo / HO / Syrian Revolution)
High casualty numbers in Syria are reported daily by the media, even though a blackout makes them unverifiable. Things became murkier after a human rights site, which enjoyed frequent citations, split in two and began giving conflicting reports.
The British-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) is one of the most widely-quoted sources of Syrian casualty figures. However the group is currently experiencing an ownership row, which has left media outlets wondering how reliable this source is.
Currently there are two sites, each claiming to be the official Observatory. The original one is in Arabic with an English version on Facebook. The splinter site was launched in December, with most posts in English. Both call each other impostors.
They give different casualty reports – and a very different perspective of the crisis. The original site’s latest figures show just over 5,100 civilian deaths against almost 2,000 military casualties. The rival site claims well over 6,500 civilians have been killed and barely 600 troops.
The numbers are not the only thing the two SOHR groups differ on though. Politics seems to be at the core of the split.
The man behind the new site is Mousab Azzawi. He launched a smear campaign against the original Observatory co-founder Rami Abdulrahman. Azzawi revealed Abdulrahman’s real name and said his rival was linked to the Assad family, is unprofessional and barely related to the Observatory. He also accused the rival of hijacking the original site by changing all logins and passwords.
The original Observatory says Mousab Azzawi used to translate for them, but then was fired after he falsely claimed to be an official spokesman for the group and called for foreign intervention into Syria.
RT’s Ivor Bennet spoke to Hivin Kako, who is spokesperson of the original SOHR. “Azzawi group tried to pass some political view like calling for a no-fly zone and international intervention. We made it clear that we are against an intervention; we are against a no-fly zone. All we need is to stop the bloodshed that is going on in Syria,” she said.
Azzawi refused to speak on camera, stating, “I cannot waste my time talking about this at the moment whilst people are dying in Homs. They are my priority right now.”
He did refer RT to another opposition group based in London, the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution. They too refused to comment on the ownership row over the Observatory. But the allies of Azzawi’s site did confirm that reporting the deaths of the Syrian government loyalists was not in their interest.
Freelance journalist Diana Nemeh described the conflicting information coming out of the city of Homsto RT. Following activists’ claims of heavy shelling from the government forces, officials made a statement refuting these allegations to her.
“…they have not used any heavy bombs on the city; in fact they said some RBG’s were launched from the neighborhood of Bagal Amar to a surrounding area in the city of Homs,” she said.
Miss Nemeh also spoke to a member of the National Coordination Council, who “stated that they are going to put forward a plan of negotiations asking the regime to cease fire on their side, maybe to allow some time for the regime to pull out the bodies from the city and regions affected.”
Bitter divorce over politics
Abdulrahman says the whole conflict stems from an internal dispute in the Syrian opposition, reports the Al-Akhbar news website. He and his group have been attacked by those in the anti-Assad activists, who want NATO to invade the country, similar to what happened in Libya. They also want the SOHR not to report the deaths of government loyalists to make the case for an intervention.
But Abdulrahman’s site is not free from criticism either. It says it relies on a network of informants to provide casualty reports, but since the country is closed to foreign media, those are impossible to verify independently.
In August 2011 it circulated a report that newborn babies in a Hama hospital had been deliberately killed after their incubators were switched off by regime forces during a military crackdown on the city. The report was branded a hoax by critics, who were quick to point out its striking resemblance of a similar story told about Saddam Hussein’s invasion in Kuwait. As it later turned out, the tale originated as false testimony by the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the US, which was used by politicians to justify military action against Iraq.
Critics say both brands of the SOHR are ultimately propaganda vehicles of the opposition.
“Frankly I don’t think the people even using these figures have any objectivity. They have an agenda, a clear agenda. It’s to justify, by any means possible, that Assad’s regime is a brutal massacring regime and it needs to fall as soon as possible. And we can see at the UN when that human rights strategy for regime change doesn’t work how annoyed Western governments have got,” freelance journalist Sukant Chandan told RT.
The UN used the Observatory numbers in their count of the victims of the Syrian riots. However it said recently it stopped counting claiming it is too difficult to verify. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said 5,000 civilian deaths should be enough to provoke international action. However there is no quick an assured way to make peace in the country, where too many interests clash and too many grudges are held by the combating parties.
PN 