Friday, September 2, 2011 at 1:41 | Ali Yenidunya in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran This entry has been re-titled, "Israel-Gaza-Turkey Special: Taking Apart the UN Report on the Attack on the Freedom Flotilla", and moved.
Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 20:33 | James Miller in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran A massive anti-Assad protest in Douma, an important Damascus suburb, during the funeral of Yusef Al-Toukhi.
Just two weeks ago, I was beginning to think that the protests were losing steam. Every passing day, since the fall of Tripoli, we see larger and larger protests in Syria. Protests in some locations were becoming smaller. In other places, the activists who were protesting seemed almost defeated. Reports from contacts in the country hinted that the spirit of the protesters was very low. At least 473 people had been killed by the Assad military since the beginning of Ramadan, according to rights groups. The bloody month had proven that the protests were not going away, the genie of Arab Spring would never be returned to the bottle in Syria, but it had also proven that the violence had taken its toll.
Some activists in Syria had even begun to question whether a peaceful revolution would be successful
All of that has changed in the last two weeks.
What we are seeing is protests in locations where there were not protests before, which has in turn caused the Syrian military to kill in those locations, intensifying protests in those locations. While Aleppo and central Damascus still seem elusive targets for widespread protests, the areas around these cities are seeing larger and more widespread protest. Eventually, these protests may very well push into the centers of the last two holdouts of dissent.
Below we're collecting just a sample of videos of the day. We'll add to the list as the day goes on:
8. Protests in A'zaz, Aleppo (MAP). Earlier we noted daytime protests in Tall Rifat, halfway between A'zaz and downtown Aleppo, and there are also protests there this evening.
7. A puzzling yet impressive video. This clip claims to have been taken by soldiers during the siege of Daraa, and has apparently been set to (what we would assume is) victorious music, by the soldiers themselves. Smoke can be seen rising from the city, and smiling soldiers take up sniper positions on the rooftop.
Aleppo, Arab Spring, Damascus, Hama, Homs, Libya, Ramadan Massacre, Syria, protests, video Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 15:41 | James Miller in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
There are fresh allegations that Libya's opposition fighters have rounded up black Africans and placed them in detention camps, on the suspicion that they are former Qaddafi mercenaries, just on the basis of their skin color. As other reports of chaos surface after the fall of Qaddafi's government in Tripoli, we ask two questions:
Are these abuses systematically executed by Libya's new government, and when will law and order be restored to Libya?
Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 14:01 | James Miller in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran The defection of such a high-ranking and well respected member of the regime, Adnan Bakour, is already sending shockwaves around Syria, and the globe. But perhaps just as important are the astonishing claims that Mr. Bakour makes, new rights abuse allegations that surpassed the scale of anything we've reported so far.
Among the claims: 72 prisoners have died in Hama's central prison (nearly matching Amnesty International's total of 88, a number that will surely rise). 420 people lie in a single mass grave, and Bakour was asked to testify that they had been killed by "armed gangs." 320 people have been tortured by security personnel, 17 of whom died. 10,000 peaceful protesters have been imprisoned in Hama alone.
These claims, if verified, will dramatically raise the death toll in Syria, and Hama, as they are not included in the number, 2200 according to the UN, of people who have died so far, most of them on the streets, not in the prisons. But Bakour's claims also send another shiver through those covering this story...
If these are only the numbers from Hama, how bad are things in Deir Ez Zor, occupied for weeks, or any of the other cities in Syria?
Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 13:21 | James Miller in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 2003 GMT: We have posted a separate video entry, Syria Video Special: A Protest Movement Renewed.
1927 GMT: There have been massive protests in Maree (Aleppo), Idlib City, Homs, Daraa, Douma (Damascus), Ugarit, and other locations across Syria. We will post a video special in short order, but once again large scale protests have covered many areas of the country today.
1921 GMT: A large protest at another funeral in Maree, 35 km north of Aleppo:
1914 GMT: We've received two videos from activists in Al Hoole, Homs. This first is fairly standard, a large armored anti-aircraft machine gun, a dangerous anti-personnel weapon, positioned in a residential neighborhood. The second video, however, appears to show snipers building defenses on rooftops in the same neighborhood.
1907 GMT: Amnesty International has released new accusations of human rights abuses leveled against followers of Muammar Qaddafi:
Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 6:31 | James Miller in EA Iran, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 1445 GMT: Environment Watch. Hojatoleslam Gholamreza Hassani, the Friday Prayer leader of Orumiyeh, has suddenly taken notice of the crisis of Lake Orumiyeh: he warned in his Eid ul-Fitr address that the lake will dry up in four years and that people's demands to deal with the situation are leagal and righteous.
An EA Correspondent notes sharply, "I guess Hassani got orders from the Supreme Leader's office to calm down the situation."
1435 GMT: Cartoon of Day. Maya Neyestani presents his vision of the drying-up of Iran's largest lake, Lake Orumiyeh, turning to salt because of drought, dams, misguided irrigation, and development:
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 15:55 | James Miller in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Heavy security presence at a checkpoint today in Idlib:
In Hama, soldiers can be seen outside a shop. The camera man describes them as looting, though if that is so it happens out of the frame. Gunfire can be heard in the distance.
The dramatic part comes at the end of the video. Right before the video ends, a soldier levels his AK-47 to shoot at the camera man:
Eid al-Fitr, Feat of Martyrs, Ramadan, Syria, protests, video Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 14:36 | James Miller in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 2024 GMT: Activists are reporting protests, and gunfire, in Aleppo. Here is one account:
Aleppo: Security opened fire at the protesters in Izaz, while another two demonstrations were happening in Ikteren and Andan
2018 GMT: Al Jazeera reports on another high-profile defection from the Syrian regime, but this one much closer to the security apparatus:
The attorney general in Hama, Adnan al-Bakkour, has resigned his post in protest over repression exercised by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Speaking in a video footage posted on the Internet by activists, al-Bakkour has accused the Syrian government of killing 72 prisoners who were held in custody at Hama central prison.
1935 GMT: According to multiple Twitter accounts, Said Qaddafi is conducting a phone interview right now. So far, the best quote:
Also, someone quotes Saif and then asks a relevant question:Saif: NTC's head jaleel is a liar, they did not take Bab Azizia, it was bombed many times by NATO and was opened to visitors.
"we are drinking tea and coffee, am asking everyone to attack the rats." Why not stop drinking and attack them yourself?
1919 GMT: EXTREMELY IMPORTANT VIDEO: Protesters shout anti-regime slogans into the face of soldiers in Angel, Daraa. On a more careful watching, however, the soldiers also appear to be chanting their support for the protesters, though the roadblock is maintained.
Protesters can also be seen waving olive branches at the soldiers.Hana Qaddafi, Libya, Russia, Saadi Qaddafi, Sirte, Syria, human rights abuses Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 6:11 | James Miller in EA Iran, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 1842 GMT: An EA Correspondent has this assessment of the Supreme Leader's approach to the upcoming Majilis elections.
:Farrokh Negahdar, a Fedayeen member who always defends the IR, commented on Kham's statement on Radio Farda today: apparently the SL prefers "secure" Majlis elections to a massive outcome of voters, i.e. high security measures will be taken to guarantee a fluid "election" for appearances' sake. To me this news is the most obvious evidence for the fact that he has lost all hope in attracting the masses via pro-regime "reformists".
1840 GMT: Al Jazeera English is reporting that Mehdi Karroubi has resided in solitary isolation inside an Iranian prison for the last several weeks. However, they have not provided the source of their report.
1700 GMT: According to Fars News, Abbas Mottahari, the Revolutionary Guards commander in Garmsar, has stated:
"the final goal of the new structure of the Basij is to make 70% of the people in the neighborhood Basij members, 50% participants in group prayer, and 20% participants in Friday prayer."
1441 GMT: "TV Makes Kids Satan" Alert - IRNA is reporting that Ayatollah Mazaheri said today that satellite dishes are far more dangerous than the atomic bomb, because TV is making the youth turn towards moral corruption and prostitution.
1335 GMT: Never Work with Children, Animals, or Honest Experts. The danger of live television, as an Iran News Network anchorman found in this interview with an analyst on Afghanistan....
The trouble began when the analyst, instead of keeping focus on the problems and errors of the US, said, "Countries in the region, including Pakistan and Iran, don't want a democracy to exist in Afghanistan,... [Iran and Pakistan] have carried out damaging interference in Afghanistan in the past 10 years,"
Suppose you want to send mail to your brother. But an enemy somehow manages to get credentials of a postman and bribes or coerces his way into becoming the postman that takes your mail to your brother and brings his reply back. Now when you put mail in the mailbox, he will discard your mail and instead, write a mail himself and take that to your brother as if you had written it. Then, when your brother writes a reply to your mail, the postman picks that one up, discards it and writes a totally different reply and brings it back to you.
The result is that neither you nor your brother are able to communicate what you wish to communicate to each other if the enemy wishes to alter your message. Worse, even if he doesn’t, any secret that you sent, including your addresses and passwords are now the property of the enemy. Now imagine the government of Iran or another government being that postman, reading every message you send over Google…
