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Friday
Aug192011

Syria Feature: Anderson Cooper Smacks Down Assad's Ambassador

Anderson Cooper of CNN takes the Syria ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Ja'afari, to task over the videos posted that show human rights abuses. Ja'afari responded by calling for "objectivism", insisting that there were some civilian casualties but most of the violence was at the hands of "armed terrorist groups," Salafists, and Takfiris who are the "the outcome of the British and American invasion of Iraq".

The invasion of Iraq was over 7 years ago, so Cooper asks, why did these events happen now? And if the Syrian regime is telling the truth, then all these other reports are lies? Is Assad history's biggest victim?


Friday
Aug192011

Syria Video: The "Tell Bashar to Go" Protests --- Set 2

Daraa in south

Homs --- Snipers on roof of building in Khalidiya

Homs --- Protesters Wave Good-bye to President Assad with Their Shoes

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Friday
Aug192011

The Latest from Iran (19 August): "A Lonely Purgatory"

1940 GMT: Fashion Watch. The hijab controversy (see 1330 GMT) showed up in the Friday Prayer of Ayatollah Alamolhoda in Mashhad, as he took direct aim at the special issue of the pro-Ahmadinejad Iran, "Black chador was approved by the Prophet and not Qajar kings!"

Iran had featured an interview with a former senior advisor to President Ahmadinejad, who allegedly said that 19th-century Shah had brought the chador to Iran after seeing women dressed in black for evening parties in Europe.

Alamolhoda said that those responsible for the "Khatoon" special issue must be judged in court.

1500 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Zoleykha Mousavi, the mother of detained Hossein Ronaghi Maleki (Babak Khorramdin), has said that she has been warned by authorities, "If you continue to give interviews, we will arrest your daughters too."

Mousavi said earlier this week that Maleki had been beaten in prison.

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Friday
Aug192011

Syria Video: The "Tell Bashar to Go" Protests

Security forces try to stop protest in Aleppo

Qaddam section of Damascus:

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Friday
Aug192011

Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Pressure Outside, More Pressure Within

In a separate entry, we had posted 2 exclusive videos. One video showed what may be the remains of the now infamous bodies that were dumped in a Hama river.

But the video at the top of the entry shows something very interesting, soldiers beating protesters while they are detained in a bus, forcing them to shout pro-Assad chants. Al Jazeera now has an interesting piece of analysis, that the soldiers in the video have beards, and beards are not allowed in the regular army.

1814 GMT: The LCCS has released a statement entitled "Indications of Victory:"

This Friday was one of the most important during the course of the protest movement in Syria. For weeks, the security forces and the military, through their operations, have prevented mass demonstrations. However, in a remarkable step and due to increasing international support for the protest movement and the subsequent morale boost, many protesters have managed to overcome the security and military barriers and begin taking the steps necessary to de-legitimize the government. Despite the Syrian president’s promises to withdraw his troops and end military operations across the country, armored vehicles and tanks have continued to be stationed in city centers. In fact, security backups have been called to quell protests such as the one that occurred in Hirak and Ankhal in the Daraa Governorate, where they have resumed gunfire using both light and heavy machine guns. Today alone, security forces killed at least 22 protesters, including children who were not part of the demonstrations.

In the besieged city of Homs, all neighborhoods, including Khaldieh, Bab Sbaa, and Baba Amr demonstrated in thousands, despite gunfire yesterday and today, and despite the violent military operations in the city for the past week, which take lives on a daily basis. Deir Ezzor is in the same condition, but demonstrations approached large numbers before the military invasion.

The statement also said that there were renewed protests in the embattled regions of Idlib, its suburbs, and Hama, where security once again fired on demonstrators. In Lattakia and in Jableh, the most recent scenes of the military crackdown, protesters also began retaking the streets.

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Friday
Aug192011

Great Moments in US-China Relations (Video): Basketball Game Ends in Mass Brawl on Thursday

In 1971, when a US table tennis team visited China, its "ping-pong" diplomacy opened the way for the detente between Washington and Beijing.

Forty years, in the continuation of this sporting relationship, Georgetown University sent its basketball team --- one of the best in the US --- to China for a series of five exhibition matches.

The cultural diplomacy did not quite go as planned.

With less than 10 minutes remaining in a game tied at 64-64 with Bayi Beijing, a brawl broke out after a scuffle on the court. Georgetown guard Jason Clark was kicked by multiple Bayi players and a member the Bayi training/coaching staff and Georgetown center Henry Sims was struck by a chair. Georgetwon forward Moses Ayegba, unable to play with an ankle injury, carried a chair onto the court, claiming self-defense.

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Friday
Aug192011

Afghanistan Latest: 12 Dead in Suicide Attacks on British Council (Pajhwok and BBC))

Twelve people, including four suicide bombers, were killed and as many others wounded after multiple suicide bombers stormed the Cultural Centre of the British Consulate Friday, officials said....

It was a three-phase attack: First, a suicide attacker detonated his explosive vest at a main square in western Kabul where police were guarding a key intersection shortly after 05:30 (01:30 GMT).

Ten minutes later, a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle outside the front gate of the British Council.

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Friday
Aug192011

Israel-Gaza Latest: Airstrikes Kill 6+ Palestinians, 2 Egypt Soldiers after Border Attack Slays 8 Israelis (Al Jazeera English)

UPDATE 1025 GMT: Israeli officials say one person has been seriously injured and others hurt in the Israeli town of Ashdod by a rocket, one of 12 fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.

Israeli reports said rockets were fired at Ashkelon, Beersheva, Kiryat Gat, and Ashdod.

Al Jazeera English summarises a deadly Thursday:

Israeli aircraft have struck Hamas security installations in Gaza, killing at least six Palestinians, in further retaliation for attacks along the Egyptian border in which eight Israelis died.

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Friday
Aug192011

Syria Special: Torture, Intimidation Used to Deter Protests

Syrian soldiers appear to be beating prisoners in a bus. We haven't received a full translation yet, but it appears that the soldiers are forcing these people to chant pro-Assad slogans:

UPDATE: 2011-08-19, 1900 GMT: Al Jazeera posts this translation with additional details:

Activists say the prisoners on the bus were arrested in Hama on July 29, just two days before the military assault on the city.

Men believed to be shabiha thugs dressed in military uniforms beat the prisoners, slamming their heads down and pulling their hair while screaming, "God, Syria, Bashar only!" and "With our blood and souls we sacrifice to you Bashar!" The men’s beards suggest they are not regular soldiers, as beards are banned in Syria’s military.


NPR Reports that the tactics of the Syrian regime have become even more extreme. According to the report, Assad's forces are now torturing some detainees to death (audio of the full report):

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Thursday
Aug182011

The Latest from Iran (18 August): The Watermelons of Sedition

http://bit.ly/cAqF5b/1810 GMT: Unity Watch. Hassan Ghafourifard, the head of Iran's House of Parties, has warned that if the Islamic Constancy Front --- led by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi --- does not participate in the unity front meetings of the "7+8" conservative/principlist committee, it can easily be replaced.

The Constancy Front has reportedly threatened to pull out of the 15-member committee because of the presence of representatives of Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani and Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf (see Thursday's LiveBlog).

1800 GMT: Literature Watch. Presenting a sharp contrast to this week's injunctions of the Supreme Leader's about poetry needing to serve the Republic (see 0755 GMT), famous poet Simin Behbahani has harshly attacked the regime's censorship of classics and contemporary fiction: "You cannot castrate the Persian language."

Click to read more ...