Syria

NOVANEWS   The Obama administration is drafting an executive order to freeze the assets of senior Syrian officials and bar them from engaging in any business dealings with the United States, says a Wall Street Journal report. Haaretz The Obama administration may level sanctions against Syria as punishment for President Bashar Assad’s government’s violent crackdown on protesters, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The U.S. is currently drafting an executive order that will empower President Obama to freeze the assets of senior Syrian officials and bar them from engaging in any business dealings with the United States, the report said, citing officials briefed on the matter. Protestors gather during a demonstration in the Syrian port city of Banias April 22, 2011. ...

NOVANEWS by crescentandcross   By Tony Cartalucci   Imagine you are an embattled regime fighting against a rising tide of foreign-funded protesters. The entire world is watching, one nation is already under creeping foreign invasion for “waging war against his own people,” your nation has been warned that it is next and has been on a 20 year waiting list for regime change, and your opposition is gathering to bury dead protesters from a recent clash with security forces. What do you do? Stage concealed snipers in multiple buildings and randomly shoot at mourners ensuring a very public, internationally sensationalized bloodbath that will unequivocally escalate both the protests and international pressure? Bashar al-Assad’s regime hasn’t ruled Syria for so long because they were...

NOVANEWS by crescentandcross   CAIRO – When Syria’s president visited Iran late last year, he received a heroes’ medal and spoke about unbreakable bonds in a ceremony broadcast on national television. Now, a nervous leadership in Iran has imposed a media blackout on Bashar Assad’s struggle against a swelling Syrian uprising and Tehran faces the unsettling prospect of losing its most stalwart ally in the region. The Islamic Republic managed to choke off its homegrown “Green Revolution” after the disputed June 2009 presidential election. But now it is being dragged into the uprisings sweeping across the Middle East and stirring unrest in Syria, and unfriendly neighbour Bahrain. On the deadliest day of the Syrian rebellion Friday — when more than 100 people were killed by authorities...

NOVANEWS   The Lincoln Tribune   U.S. senators of both major political parties are urging greater support for Syria’s embattled  opposition short of direct military intervention. After days of bloody attacks and raids by Syrian security forces on civilians,  American legislators say the United States should provide greater backing for those opposed to President Bashar al-Assad. Republican Senator Mark Kirk of  Illinois appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” television program. “We should use the diplomatic weight and authority of the United States to undermine the Syrian dictatorship. I think we are witnessing the slow end of the Assad dictatorship, and we should stand with the people of Syria.” Kirk was asked if he envisions a U.S. military role in Syria similar to ongoing U.S. e...

NOVANEWS President Bashar al-Assad faces indictment by the International Criminal Court as Western leaders were told on Sunday that the Syrian leader could be held to account for the deaths of 120 anti-government protesters. Telegraph.co.uk Many Western officials have been reluctant to criticise Mr Assad too harshly, even though his regime has long been treated as a near pariah Photo: PAUL GROVER An influential body of international judges and lawyers called for Mr Assad and his lieutenants to be held to account for Easter weekend attacks in which troops and militamen fire on civilians. “Those ordering and carrying out these attacks, including those firing live rounds into crowds, must be held criminally accountable,” the International Committee of Jurists (IC...

NOVANEWS by crescentandcross Propagandists seeking US intervention, shift blame on puppet Obama. by Tony Cartlucci Bangkok, Thailand April 23, 2011 – It is no secret that Syria has been marked for regime change for at least two decades. In a 2007 speech given by General Wesley Clark regarding what he called a US “policy coup,” he relayed a 1991 conversation between himself and then Under Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. Wolfowitz indicated that America had 5-10 years to clean up old Soviet “client regimes,” namely Syria, Iran, and Iraq, before the next super power rose up to challenge western hegemony. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Clark was again passed plans drawn to implement regime change throughout the Middle East, specifically to attack and destroy the govern...

NOVANEWS   Who Supports the Regime and Why a New Party Law Will Not Include Eliminating the Supremacy of the Baath Party by Ehsani2 for Syria Comment Nearly 23 million Syrians are mesmerized by the recent events engulfing their country.  The seemingly boring, predictable and stable Syrian political scene has suddenly suffered its black swan moment.  Once the lid was removed, stability suddenly turned into an explosion. It is not easy to think of something intelligent to say which has not already been covered by others.  This forum has been one of the many venues where people’s frustrations, passions, fears and beliefs have boiled to the surface. I believe that all of us Syrians are richer for it.  The objective of this note is to summarize where we stand today. I think that there are...

NOVANEWS   The Syrian government has drawn a line in the sand. Now that it has made concessions — canceled the special National Security Court, lifted the emergency law, fired governors of Banyas and Deraa governates, named a new Prime Minister and cabinet and promised a new party law — the president has stated that there is no longer reason to demonstrate. He has called the on-going uprising a rebellion. The Baath Party has stated that there will be no tolerance with “terrorists” in the Arab country. The organizers of the revolution vowed to turn out their largest numbers yet on what protesters have begun to call “Great Friday.” Many are determined to bring down the regime and understand that this is their chance. Friday will be a day of reckoning. If the opposition can keep up it...

NOVANEWS Maydan in 1840 Over 80 dead are reported in the government crackdown on Friday April 22. The government is struggling to contain the demonstrations. Some think that they would not grow indefinitely were the government to permit them to go ahead. Who knows? Clearly the government is not prepared to find out. Many Syrians fear chaos and are staying inside. It is hard to figure out how many are coming out to demonstrate; the numbers continue to grow. The Maydan district at the heart of traditional Damascus was the site of several killings. [Correction the day after - Reuters: "In Damascus, security forces fired teargas to disperse 2,000 protesters in the district of Maydan." No deaths are reported today in the Maydan and only small numbers of demonstrators. This can be read as "go...

NOVANEWS   At least 88 protesters were killed Friday in the bloodiest day in a month of escalating demonstrations against Syrian President Bashar Assad. Haaretz U.S. President Barack Obama called on the Syrian government on Friday to stop using “outrageous” violence against demonstrators and accused President Bashar Assad of seeking help from Iran. “This outrageous use of violence to quell protests must come to an end now,” Obama said in a statement. In this citizen journalism image made on a mobile phone and acquired by the AP, a Syrian boy carries a banner during an anti-government demonstration in Syria, April 22, 2011. Photo by: AP “Instead of listening to their own people, President Assad is blaming outsiders while seeking Iranian assistance in repressing Syria...