The EU continues to pursue its strategy of pressure on the Syrian regime to force it out of power. Foreign ministers have agreed to impose a travel ban and asset freeze on the British-born wife of the country’s leader. Asma al-Assad is among 12 officials or family members to be added to a number of figures, including the president, who are already subject to sanctions.
Washington has also threatened to tighten the screws on the Syrian government and isolate it even more if President Assad doesn’t comply with the UN statement appealing for a ceasefire. With violence still raging in the country, the opposition has dismissed international calls on both sides to implement Kofi Annan’s peace plan – as not meeting the needs of the people.
Government consultant Christoph Hoerstel, who’s recently returned from Syria, says he’s deeply concerned that the sanctions may have been a response to recently leaked emails between the Assad family.
Thousands have taken to the streets of the Syrian capital Damascus to support the country’s embattled leader Bashar al-Assad. The demonstration comes on the year anniversary of the anti-Assad uprising that has left scores dead and injured.
The pro-Assad rally is taking place under the slogan of protesting a ‘one-year conspiracy’ to overthrow the regime. The opposition said that Assad has forced people to attend the Damascus demonstration in order to overshadow the opposition rallies marking the beginning of the popular uprising in Syria a year ago, AP reports.
Video footage, however, shows people of different ages, including children, dancing and waving Syrian flags. Others had the national flag painted on their faces.
With opposition rallies planned all over Syria and abroad, local activists report the increased presence of the Syrian army in opposition strongholds.
The Popular uprising in Syria against the current regime started in mid-March last year. According to the UN, 7,500 people have been killed in the conflict.
While western states urge President Assad to leave his post, he claims the foreign-directed opposition is filled with terrorists and gangsters seeking to destroy Syria.
Political analyst Christoph Horstel, who was at the rally in Damascus, told RT that those who are still choosing violence over dialogue aren’t really interested in a Syrian democracy.
“It is very clear that anybody who is now picking up arms against this government, which obviously has indulged in honest reform and election, these people are not serious about constructive internal dialogue in Syria, that is quite clear. They are not part of a process, they are just killers”, Horstel said.
‘Opposition losing supporters’
There are many circumstances serving to increase Assad’s popularity while weakening the opposition, says Middle East expert Ali Rizk. He believes there is no choice for Assad’s international opponents but to resort to some kind of political solution to the crisis.
“Because of the procedures, because of the practices which some of the opposition resorted to, they have lost a lot of their supporters,” Rizk said. “When you see Syrian opposition figures speaking about for example cutting off ties, or decreasing their ties with Iran, cutting Syria off what we refer to as ‘a resistance axis,’ I think all that does, it gives more popularity to the Syrian regime.”
“The Syrian people are known to be people who very much support the anti-Israeli approach, a political stance which Assad has used,” he added. “And I think that is the main source of his popularity.”
Assad still has enough support not only in Damascus but in the rest of the country as well, and that will allow him to stay in power, at least for some time, political analyst Ahmed Badawi told RT.
“Assad seems to still have considerable support everywhere, except of course in the places that have come under heavy fire from his military,” he said. “The whole legitimacy question of course is a big dilemma for the regime, but it seems so far that the regime has managed to keep a lot of its legitimacy intact.”
Michel Chossudovsky, director of the Centre for Research on Globalization, believes that members of the Free Syrian Army are being trained by special forces from NATO countries .
“MI6 and CIA operatives are there,” he stated during an interview with RT. “This is from their own sources, incidentally, it’s not hearsay, it is actual fact. British special forces have met up with members of the Free Syrian Army and they are training members of the Free Syrian Army from a base in Turkey. British MI6 operatives have reportedly been training the rebels in urban warfare.”
With a billion dollar price tag, the 2010 Toronto G20 was one of the most expensive security operations in history. As part of that operation, police services and government officials conspired to lie to the public about supposed powers to violate citizens’ guaranteed rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As a result, thousands of people were subjected to illegal searches, seizures and arrests. Now Nicholas Wright, a Toronto lawyer and the President of Geopoliticalmonitor.com is suing the police for his unlawful arrest.
Find out more about Wright’s experience suing the police in this week’s GRTV Feature Interview:
As US troops deploy to the Mexican border to deal with the fallout of Fast and Furious, details continue to emerge about this flagrantly illegal operation to arm Mexican drug lords in a supposed sting operation.
But as veteran investigative journalist Bill Conroy points out, operations like this were going on years prior to Fast and Furious and this latest scandal is just another example of a drug war that is not what it is believed to be.
This is the GRTV Feature interview with your host James Corbett and our special guest, Bill Conroy.
video description: Over the past 4 years, the Canadian people have paid $137.4 billion in interest on money borrowed from private banks whereas the Bank of Canada could legally print the public’s money into existence rather than borrowing it at interest. “They’ve paid out this huge sum because our government has failed to abide by the law.” Abram, a retired high school teacher and activist on Vancouver Island, B.C., explicates the trick of fractional reserve banking
We are all on our way to having electronic medical records n North America. In Quebec, we just got the notice that all our medical information will be going into a system accessible to all doctors- unless we send in the forms to opt out. To me, this is just another step n the process toward what the UN calls ‘e-government’. If you are not in favor of Big Brother-style e-government, take action now while you still can, and say no!
If you live in Quebec, go here to get the opt-out form: http://dossierdesante.gouv.qc.ca http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan028607.pdf http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/219400954
