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Middle East mega thread (WARNING CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES.)

Discussion in 'News And Current Events' started by iraniam, Nov 11, 2011.

Page 31 of 35

iraniam Member

UN Chief Requests Swift Probe Into Alleged Syrian Chemical Attack

http://www.rferl.org/content/syria-government-bombard-areas-/25082822.html

iraniam, Aug 22, 2013

#1201
iraniam Member

With a million forced to flee, Syria is world's 'worst crisis for children', says UN

As Wednesday's apparent chemical weapons attack sent yet more people fleeing from the embattled suburbs of Damascus, the UN said three million children had been forced to leave their homes. Two million had moved to other parts of the country, where some were forced into militias despite being under age, with the remainder pouring into camps in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and other Arab states.

"What is at stake is nothing less than the survival and well-being of a generation of innocents," Antonio Guterres, the UN high commissioner for refugees, said on Friday.

"The youth of Syria are losing their homes, their family members and their futures. Even after they have crossed a border to safety, they are traumatised, depressed and in need of a reason for hope."

The escalation of the Syrian crisis has been dramatic in the second year of the war, which began with largely peaceful protests in March and April 2011. This time a year ago, there were 70,000 refugee children abroad, the UN said.

Many now are packed into refugee camps along the borders, most notably Zaatari in northern Jordan, a home in the desert to more than 130,000 people, leading some to describe it as the country's fourth biggest city.
Their existence is often squalid. The heat can be intense in the summer, while attempts to keep warm in the freezing winters have led to people been killed by out-of-control fires.

Just as significantly, the sheer numbers are affecting the demographic and political nature of host countries. Jordan, divided between native residents and a majority Palestinian refugee population, fears the arrival of a third force, as well as the spillover from the civil war to its own politics, in which King Abdullah is often at loggerheads with Islamist politicians.

In Lebanon, the refugees are both victims of discrimination and triggers for sectarian conflict between its Sunni, Shia and Alawite communities. In Turkey there have been outbursts of anti-Syrian feeling, with the government's pro-rebel policies unpopular with many people in border areas.
"This is becoming a structural problem for the economies and societies of the neighbouring countries," Mr Guterres said.

Each new front in the war, now being fought by several different factions besides the Free Syrian Army and the regime, leads to a new surge. Most recently, thousands of Syrian Kurds have fled fighting between Kurdish militias and militant Islamist groups in the north-east, as well as regime attacks, heading into Iraqi Kurdistan.

Doctors without Borders yesterday said that outflow had reached 42,300 people in the last week, since the border crossing at Peshkabour was reopened. New camps have been set up in the largest cities in the area, Erbil and Suleimania.

With many diplomats suggesting that Syria might now formally break up along sectarian lines, with the Sunni north and Kurdish east breaking away from the Alawite coastal area, leaving a rump state between Damascus and Homs, there is no clear end in sight to the refugees' plight.
It is a region already struggling to cope with large refugee populations. festering conflict between Israel and the Palestinians means the number of Palestinian refugees has grown since 1948 from 700,000 to five million, many of whom six decades on still live in camps and lack citizenship in their host countries.

Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN envoy to Syria, said he hoped that the apparent chemical attack would speed progress towards peace negotiations.
But Mr Guterres said there was little end in sight for the refugees.
"Very probably this war will go on and on and on and on," he said.
"And the humanitarian impact is becoming more and more devastating."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...worlds-worst-crisis-for-children-says-UN.html

iraniam, Aug 23, 2013

#1202
iraniam Member

'Generation of innocents’ at risk in Syrian war, says UN

A young Syrian refugee boy sits outside his tent in a camp in northern Iraq Photo: THAIER AL-SUDANI/REUTERS
This milestone coincided with President Barack Obama’s first public response to the alleged gas attacks that are said to have claimed hundreds of lives in Damascus on Wednesday.

Half of all Syrian refugees in surrounding countries are under the age of 18. “What is at stake is … the survival … of a generation of innocents,” said António Guterres, the High Commissioner for Refugees. “The youth of Syria are losing their homes, their family members and their futures.”

Another two million children have been displaced inside Syria, according to UN estimates. Approximately 7,000 are known to have been killed in the war. Scores of children, including babies, died in Wednesday’s attacks.

Mr Obama described these incidents as “troublesome” and “of grave concern”, but he said the US should avoid being “drawn into very expensive, difficult, costly interventions that … breed more resentment in the region.”

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, bluntly accused the Assad regime of a “chemical attack” on a “large scale”. However, Mr Obama did not point the finger of blame, telling CNN that the situation was “heartbreaking”.
He added: “What I think the American people also expect me to do as president is to think through what we do from the perspective of, what is in our long-term national interests?”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-innocents-at-risk-in-Syrian-war-says-UN.html

iraniam, Aug 23, 2013

#1203
iraniam Member

Obama Weighing Options on Syria

WHITE HOUSE — Russia and China are joining international calls for an investigation into an alleged poison gas attack in a suburb of Syria's capital, as U.S. President Barack Obama said the reported incident is of "grave concern."

Russia's foreign ministry Friday said claims by Syria's opposition that hundreds died in a poisonous gas attack this week should undergo an objective investigation and it called on Syria to cooperate.

Moscow also called on rebel forces to guarantee safe passage for United Nations investigators who are already in the country looking into previous allegations of chemical use. The ministry released the statement following a call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

China's foreign ministry Friday also backed calls for a U.N. investigation, with a spokesman telling the state-run Xinhua news agency that China "resolutely opposes" the use of chemical weapons no matter which side is responsible.

The United States has been pushing for a U.N.-led investigation. Obama told CNN that officials are still gathering information but called the reported attack a matter of "grave concern."

Obama also acknowledged many people around the world are looking to the U.S. to take action. But he said, "the notion that the U.S. can somehow solve what is a sectarian, complex problem inside of Syria sometimes is overstated."
President Barack Obama says Syria’s alleged use of chemical weapons against its own people has accelerated his process of deciding on a U.S. response. The president faces a narrow range of options.

In an interview Thursday with CNN, the president described the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government as a big event of grave concern.

“We are still gathering information about this particular event, but it is very troublesome," said President Obama.

Obama said the situation requires the attention of the United States and the international community.

But he said the U.S. needs to “think through” its response, warning that “jumping into stuff…does not turn out well.”

“We have to think through strategically what is going to be in our long-term national interest," said Obama.

Obama said he would seek international support before taking major action.The president has been criticized for not acting more decisively after saying that Syria’s use of chemical weapons would cross a “red line.”

Obama recently pledged U.S. aid to Syrian opposition groups, but has not sent much assistance so far.

Leila Hilal, director of the Middle East Task Force at Washington’s New America Foundation, says backing the opposition could be helpful in fighting the government. But she says that would do nothing to stop the use of chemical weapons.

Hilal says another military option would be to launch missile strikes from outside Syria. She says that, too, carries risks.

“While you can hit chemical deposits and factories and storage units, the question is whether or not that would end up hurting more than helping, given the potential for civilian casualties," said Hilal.

Hilal says the best of the few options available may be to rekindle prospects for a political solution. She believes Syria’s supporters, such as Iran, could be helpful in moving the government toward negotiations.

“The Assad regime clearly sees an advantage in continuing to fight on the ground, and it is not thinking right now that there is an advantage to a political process. But that does not mean that the people supporting him do not think that there could be an advantage to a political process," she said.

Russia, which backs the Assad government, joined the United Nations Friday in urging Syria to grant access to U.N. inspectors.

The Syrian government denies that it has used chemical weapons.

http://www.voanews.com/content/russ...ria-need-objective-investigation/1735385.html

iraniam, Aug 23, 2013

#1204
laughingsock Member

I'm really asking, is it true that Coptic's homes were marked with red and then targeted later,burned down?

laughingsock, Aug 23, 2013

#1205
iraniam Member

Aid group tallies 355 dead after Syria attack

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-08-24-12-04-47

iraniam, Aug 24, 2013

#1206
Cancer pant

iraniam said: ↑

Aid group tallies 355 dead after Syria attack

Over 3000 taken to hospital suffering from exposure.
First responders also affected by exposure to victims.
Syrian gov say they found chemical weapons in rebel tunnel
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/24/syrian-chemical-weapons-rebel

Cancer pant, Aug 24, 2013

#1207
Rockyj Member

Sorry if this has already been posted but it needs to be posted again:

Rockyj, Aug 25, 2013

#1208
Rockyj Member

Rockyj, Aug 25, 2013

#1209
iraniam Member

Russia says it won’t be drawn into war over Syria

Russia has no plans to be drawn into war over Syria if Western powers launch a military attack on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.

“We have no plans to go to war with anyone,” Lavrov said on Monday, according to Reuters.

Lavrov added that an armed intervention would not end the Middle Eastern country’s civil war.

“If anybody thinks that bombing and destroying the Syrian military infrastructure, and leaving the battlefield for the opponents of the regime to win, would end everything - that is an illusion,” Lavrov said.

He also warned the West against intervening militarily in the Syrian conflict without the approval of the U.N. Security Council, saying such action would violate international law.

“Using force without the approval of the U.N. Security Council is a very grave violation of international law,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters, adding that the West was currently moving towards “a very dangerous path, a very slippery path.”

Calls for military action against the Syrian regime have intensified after the reported use of chemical weapons civilians in the district of Ghouta near Damascus. More than 1,000 people, including many children were killed in the attack.

The United States previously said that using chemical weapons in Syria is a “red line.” The United Nations has sent a team of inspectors to probe claims of the weapons use.

Russia is a main supporter of the Syrian regime and used its veto power in the United Nations to block several measures against Syria. Russia is also major supplier of weapons for the Assad’s regime.

Russia has warned that Western plans in Syria are part of attempts to change the geopolitical map of the region. Syria is a main ally of Iran and Hezbollah and the fall of the Assad’s regime there is likely to weaken Iran and hinder the transfer of Iranian weapons to Hezbollah, a main guerrilla enemy of Israel.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...gainst-Syria-attack-without-U-N-approval.html

iraniam, Aug 26, 2013

#1210
iraniam Member

U.N. chemical inspectors suspend mission after sniper attack

The United States is increasingly convinced that the Syrian regime was behind a major chemical weapons attack and the U.S. is considering military action, an official said Monday.

“There are strong signs pointing in the direction of chemical weapons use” by the Syrian regime, the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters travelling with U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

Unidentified snipers shot at U.N. experts on Monday, forcing them to suspend their attempt to investigate claims that chemical weapons had been used near Damascus, a U.N. spokesman said, according to AFP.

"The first vehicle of the chemical weapons investigation team was deliberately shot at multiple times by unidentified snipers," said U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky. No injuries were reported.

U.N. weapons investigators were due on Monday to inspect the site of a suspected chemical attack which killed at least 1,300 people last week in Damascus suburbs.

The move follows Syria agreeing on Sunday to allow the inspectors to visit the site, although an American official told reporters the move was “too late to be credible.”

Earlier today, Washington was still weighing how to respond but there was very little doubt that the Syrian government had used a chemical weapon against civilians, the senior U.S. official said, Reuters news agency reported.

“Based on the reported number of victims, reported symptoms of those who were killed or injured, witness accounts and other facts gathered by open sources, the U.S. intelligence community, and international partners, there is very little doubt at this point that a chemical weapon was used by the Syrian regime against civilians in this incident,” the official added.

“At this juncture, any belated decision by the regime to grant access to the U.N. team would be considered too late to be credible, including because the evidence available has been significantly corrupted as a result of the regime’s persistent shelling and other intentional actions over the last five days.”

Syria’s opposition says more than 1,300 people died when regime forces unleashed chemical weapons against rebel-held towns east and southwest of Damascus Wednesday, while Doctors Without Borders said 355 people had died of “neurotoxic” symptoms.

The Syrian government has strongly denied it carried out such an attack, instead blaming opposition fighters.

If the U.N. team obtains independent evidence, it could be easier to build an international diplomatic case for intervention, according to Reuters.

The team has been waiting in a Damascus luxury hotel a few miles from the site.

Meanwhile, U.N. chief Ban Ki-Moon said Monday there was no time to waste in investigating the alleged chemical attack.

“Every hour counts. We cannot afford any more delays,” Ban told reporters in Seoul, AFP news agency reported.

“The world is watching Syria,” the secretary general said, stressing once again that the U.N. experts must be allowed to conduct a “full, thorough and unimpeded” investigation.

“We cannot allow impunity in what appears to be a grave crime against humanity,” said Ban who was wrapping up a five-day visit to his homeland, South Korea.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...-in-Syria-to-visit-chemical-attack-site-.html

iraniam, Aug 26, 2013

#1211
Cancer pants

John kerry is about to make a live statement
http://www.theguardian.com/world/mi...ary-action-un-inspectors-vist-chemical-attack

Cancer pants, Aug 26, 2013

#1212
Cancer pamts

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23844643
US Secretary of State John Kerry has condemned what he termed the "moral obscenity" of the Syrian government's use of chemical weapons against its own people.

Cancer pamts, Aug 26, 2013

#1213
iraniam Member

Punitive strikes ineffective, even counterproductive, analysts say

WASHINGTON — The type of limited, punitive military campaign now being contemplated against Syria has failed to deter U.S. adversaries in the past, and at times emboldened them, military analysts say.

In two major episodes in 1998, the U.S. government unleashed a combination of bombs and cruise missiles against its foes — Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq. In a more distant third case, in 1986, the U.S. bombed Moammar Kadafi's Libya.
The bombs and missiles mostly hit their targets, and the U.S. military at the time declared the attacks successful. But in the end, they achieved little.

Two years after the U.S. bombed Tripoli, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 passengers and crew. Investigators later concluded that the U.S. attack was a primary motive for Kadafi to support the Lockerbie bombing.

Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people in attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Hussein kicked out international weapons inspectors and survived despite sanctions until a U.S.-led invasion deposed him in 2003. The benefit to the U.S. of that costly war and the occupation that followed remains in dispute.

In a paper reviewing the 1998 attack on Iraq, Mark Conversino, associate dean of the U.S. Air War College, cited the unease of some military experts about the use of air power within tight constraints.
"Many air power theorists had long cautioned against using air power in penny packets or in hyper-constrained political environments," he wrote in the 2005 paper.

Yet presidents confronting limited options continue to consider such action. President Obama is said to be contemplating a limited series of cruise missile strikes in response to the apparent chemical weapons attack last week on civilians by the Syrian government of Bashar Assad.
Military analysts are warning about the limits of such an approach.

"If the U.S. does something and Assad is left standing at the end of it without having suffered real serious, painful enough damage, the U.S. looks weak and foolish," said Eliot Cohen, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a former State Department official in the Bush administration, who has long been skeptical about reliance on air power.

"Can you do damage with cruise missiles? Yes," said Anthony Cordesman, military analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "Can you stop them from having chemical weapons capability? I would think the answer would be no. Should you limit yourself to just a kind of incremental retaliation? That doesn't serve any strategic purpose. It doesn't protect the Syrian people, it doesn't push Assad out."

Previous such punitive attacks were aimed at countries that had targeted or threatened American personnel or facilities. If Obama authorizes action against Syria, he would be striking a country that has posed no clear threat to the United States.
However, Obama did authorize U.S. participation in a U.N.-approved mission to protect civilians in 2011 that ultimately led to the fall of Kadafi's government. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, in a toughly worded statement Monday, cited what he called "the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians" in the attack last week in Syria.

In 1986, after officials concluded that Kadafi had ordered a bombing that killed two U.S. service members in a Berlin disco, President Reagan authorized an airstrike of 60 tons of munitions in 12 minutes on targets in Tripoli. Among the targets was Kadafi's residential compound, but he had fled after having been warned.

In August 1998, days after Al Qaeda bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, President Clinton signed off on plans to target Bin Laden with cruise missiles, and the U.S. fired 75 of them into terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
Clinton's operation also targeted a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan that U.S. officials thought was making chemical weapons. Later evidence cast doubt on that claim.

Bin Laden canceled a planned meeting at one of the bombing sites, and he and many of his top lieutenants escaped unharmed. Documents declassified in 2008 suggested the strikes may have brought Al Qaeda and the Taliban closer politically and ideologically. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan after the 2001 attacks when the Taliban refused to hand over Bin Laden.

A few months later, in December 1998, Clinton ordered an operation designed to "strike military targets in Iraq that contributed to its ability to produce, store, maintain and deliver weapons of mass destruction," according to a Pentagon history.

Later evidence showed Hussein had shelved his banned weapons programs by then, but the attacks were at the time considered a military success, having inflicted serious damage on Iraq's missile development program.

However, Hussein's government survived, and he ended United Nations weapons inspections. The attacks also weakened the international sanctions against him, analysts say, because some countries in the coalition were opposed to the operation and became less committed to the penalties afterward.
ken.dilanian@latimes.com

Copyright © 2013, Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-punitive-strikes-20130827,0,5176333.story

iraniam, Aug 27, 2013

#1214
Cancer pants

iraniam said: ↑

Punitive strikes ineffective, even counterproductive, analysts say

http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-punitive-strikes-20130827,0,5176333.story

Really they don't know if military intervention will work or not.
Clearly so far all the peace talks have failed and it's the population that suffers.
Are these upcoming strikes intended to bring Assad to the table for talks or to damage his government/military so the fsa wins?
The danager is it will widen the conflict further.

Cancer pants, Aug 27, 2013

#1215
oq3wirhgj

Someone should have Queen Rania of Jordan talk to Bashar Assad's wife.

The sad truth is that shit will get worse.
They will continuously do harm to one another - muslim to muslim, because of stupid religious reasons which have not evolved since the middle ages. Terrible.

oq3wirhgj, Aug 27, 2013

#1216
oq3wirhgj

Is Amnesty International and the UN calling out the immorality of this intentional Genocide to civilians in Syria?

oq3wirhgj, Aug 27, 2013

#1217
Cuntcer Punts

i am curious to know where all the bleeding heart liberals who bash Israel on a continuous basis are in terms of their loudly vocal moral outrage about the conditions of various countries in the middle east such as Syria and Egypt...for starters. Over a thousand civilians have been slaughtered due to the intentional use of chemical weapons. To quell dissent? I am not even sure that one side has any upper hand over the other. A lot of completely senseless violence from both parties, with any rationality completely out the window. They are all acting like uneducated neanderthals, and tragically, women and children are getting killed in the crosshairs of this insanity.

Here is Bashar Al Assad's wife.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/despots-housewives-the-lavish-lives-of-the-dictators-763192
see this lady? She does not give a shit. She gets to go shopping at Harrods and visit the spa for a mani pedi, and hair styling after an expensive lunch and another Chanel handbag.

Is Al Jazeera going to cry about this? Saudi Arabia, the country that sponsors that propogandistic and primarily anti western news network is so backwards that they, until this day do not even allow women to drive cars. Remember the equal rights movement that was very positive and influential here in the much more humane and civil United States? Well, when they begin to address some of their own issues, within their own country as well as the surrounding predominantly Arab countries, I might take their criticism into account. Dubai? They built a Las Vegas out there with some of the most expensive and fancy architectural development ever seen. Know who built those fancy buildings? Slave labour from Indonesia, mostly. Aside from having their passports taken from them upon arrival, and after deceitfully attracting workers with all sorts of lies about how wonderful an opportunity it was to find some good work, the working conditions were so horrific and extreme, that many men died. Those Indonesian workers were housed in tent camps in the unbearably hot desert, barely fed decently. it is disgusting. They want westerners to invest and come there for holiday, but they are so ass backwards, religiously, that if you even give your own wife a tiny kiss in public, you could be harassed by police. dox? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates

Cuntcer Punts, Aug 28, 2013

#1218
Cuntcer Punts
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/feb/15/queens-arab-middle-east

Ice queens of the Arab world

As protests hot up across the Middle East, the lavish lives of aloof Arab royal wives are in the spotlight

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Nesrine Malik

theguardian.com,Tuesday 15 February 2011 06.12 EST

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Jordan's King Abdullah II with his wife Queen Rania. Photograph: Yousef Allan/AP
It started with Leila Trabelsi, the wife of President Ben Ali – the Arab world's answer to Imelda Marcos, the Lady Macbeth of Tunisia, who allegedly made off with copious amounts of gold after the uprising that ousted her husband.
Attention then shifted to Suzanne Mubarak, Egypt's ex-first lady, who shares her husband's estimated $70bn fortune.
In the wake of King Abdullah's dismissal of the government in Jordan this month, the latest Arab Wag in the spotlight is Queen Rania. Last week she was the subject of an unprecedented attack by a group of Jordanian tribal figures complaining about the ruling family and widespread corruption. According to the statement, the queen and "her sycophants and the power centres that surround her" are dividing Jordanians and "stealing from the country and the people".
As the wave of dissent sweeping the region puts Arab presidents and monarchs under the spotlight, their wives are also being scrutinised for their lavish lifestyles and "interference" in politics.
Queen Rania in particular, a regular "frow" (front row) fixture at fashion shows in Paris and Milan and Giorgio Armani's "muse" is well known for her fashion credentials and her Tatler-like lifestyle. Feted in the west, Rania is queen of one of the poorest countries in the region.
Most first ladies in the Arab countries are western educated (Suzanne Mubarak is half British) and thus are more comfortable in western circles of diplomacy and royalty. While they may be beautiful, articulate and impeccably styled ambassadors, on their home turf they often appear out of touch with the concerns of citizens.
In the oil-rich Gulf states, due to generally high living standards, the indulgences of first ladies (often more than one per monarch) do not particularly grate. In addition, the conservative monarchies of the Gulf are generally more low profile and it is inconceivable that any of the Saudi king's wives would tweet a picture of herself watching football in Barcelona.
When Gulf Wags do make a rare outing, they are mostly noted for their style. Sheikha Moza of Qatar caused a frenzy last year with her icicle-heeled Chanel boots on a state visit to the UK.
The latest royal spouse to make an outing is Princess Amira, wife of the unconventional Saudi multi-billionaire, Prince Waleed bin Talal. Rarely seen in the obligatory Saudi abaya, she recently accompanied her husband to the opening of the refurbished Savoy Hotel in London. She has commented that she is "ready to drive" in Saudi Arabia and is often photographed meeting her husband's charity causes in the kingdom in jeans and T-shirts.
While there is nothing uncommon about the wives of political leaders coming under scrutiny for their appearance (Michelle Obama's choices of dress and designer are in the headlines almost as often as her husband's policy making), Arab first ladies are even more celebrated in the west for their exotic take on western styles.
While it is understandable that Queen Rania's international jetsetting, along with her large palace office and entourage, might be provocative to some Jordanians, the local criticisms of her are not devoid of prejudice. The queen is of Palestinian origin, part of a Palestinian emigre community in Jordan that has an often tense relationship with native Jordanians. Old-fashioned misogyny also creeps into the discourse: a youthful, tweeting, Armani-clad, charity-sponsoring queen does not go down well with the traditional tribal leaders who wield considerable power in the country.
Since public criticism of the king and the institution of monarchy is taboo in Jordan (and carries a penalty of three years' imprisonment), the queen also provides a softer target. Those who criticised her last week were actually firing a warning salvo aimed at the king.
Queen Rania talks eloquently about change and women's rights on Oprah, yet Jordan's human rights record under the stewardship of her husband has been poor. Most tragically, Jordan still has the highest incidence of honour killings in the Arab world and, according to Amnesty International's 2010 report on Jordan, "perpetrators of such killings continued to benefit from inappropriately lenient sentences".
Irrespective of whether the attack on Queen Rania is fair, it is increasingly clear that the wives of kings and presidents across the Arab world are being seen and treated as an extension of the unaccountable regimes presided over by their husbands.
Cuntcer Punts, Aug 28, 2013

#1219
Cuntcer Punts
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/1931/dictators-wives

Bashar Al-Assad's wife, Asma, in Syria has been recently been crowned with a controversial article in Vogue magazine as an outstanding "glamorous, young and chic" woman. Notwithstanding her trendy status, she never showed any uneasiness about being the wife of a dictator who succeeded his father power in 2000, and is responsible for the torture and death of countless political opponents.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...veal-lavish-lifestyle-jokes-about-reform.html

Leaked Al-Assad Emails Reveal Lavish Lifestyle, Jokes About Reform

Mar 15, 2012 6:53 AM EDT
Three thousand leaked emails between the Syrian dictator and his wife and aides provide surprising insight into the al-Assads' private life amid a brutal crackdown by his regime. From his iTunes habits to his mocking of Arab League monitors, what the emails expose.

Al-Assad and Wife Asma Live in a Gilded Bubble
As protests raged around them and Syria’s military killed thousands of civilians, President Bashar al-Assad and his British-born wife were seemingly living in a diamond-encrusted bubble. The emails—spanning June 2011 to early February 2012, intercepted by members of the opposition, and published in The Guardian—reveal that Asma al-Assad spent tens of thousands of dollars shopping on the Internet, ordering chandeliers, curtains, and art from London boutiques that were shipped to the Middle East. Emails from July document jewelry and more than $10,000 worth of décor ordered from Paris. With the exception of friends and family, suppliers didn’t know they were doing business with the wife of a brutal dictator. Meanwhile, said brutal dictator kept busy online as well, buying music and games for his iPad on iTunes under a disguised account, sidestepping U.S. sanctions against him in doing so. While she delighted in designer shoes and jewels, he got his jollies from watching YouTube clips, including one from America’s Got Talent, which he emailed to his wife along with cheesy song lyrics.
Iran Gave Advice on al-Assad Speech
In preparation for a speech al-Assad delivered in January, an aide sought advice in consultations with “a good number of people in addition to the media and political adviser for the Iranian ambassador.” Drawing on these exchanges, he encouraged al-Assad to use “powerful and violent” language and to warn both foreign influence and dissenting citizens of the country’s “military capability.”

Syrian Arab Republic President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma al-Assad at Zarzuela Palace on July 4, 2010 in Madrid, Spain. (Fotonoticias / Getty Images)
President, First Lady Monitor Social Media
Given how much time they spent online, it’s no surprise al-Assad and his wife were plugged into the world of social media. Several emails between “ak” (Asma) and “Sam” (Bashar) reveal a plan with one of al-Assad’s aides to delete imposter Twitter accounts, including @firstladyasma, @bashiralassad and @FirstLadySyria. The aide, who identified himself as the “Director of Projects and Initiatives” in the Syrian first lady’s office, wrote an email to Twitter asking that the accounts be deleted because they were “clearly intended to mislead people via impersonation rather than act as spoof/humorous accounts.” An email from another aide indicates the al-Assads were also wary of dissenters on Facebook and tried to delete “offensive” Facebook pages.
Al-Assad Joked With His Wife About Reforms
In most of the emails, al-Assad and his wife communicate in English rather than Arabic, including one in which al-Assad makes a sarcastic remark about several of his promised reforms. In response to casual a message from his wife about returning home from a meeting at 5 p.m., al-Assad responds with flippant enthusiasm: “This is the best reform any country can that you told me where you will be, we are going to adopt it instead of the rubbish laws of parties, elections, and media ...”
Al-Assad Mocked Arab League Monitors
On Dec. 29, after Arab League monitors arrived in Syria in response to activist-released footage of army tanks in Homs, al-Assad shared a YouTube video with his media adviser mocking the monitors’ inability to find the Syrian military’s tanks. “Check out this video on YouTube,” al-Assad wrote, sending a video seemingly produced by an Assad supporter that shows a car toy posing as a tank and a plastic figurine posing as an Arab League monitor. A voiceover describes the scene: “Now, as the Arab monitor comes back to check whether the Syrian regime has complied with the Arab initiatives or not ... He does not know what is going on.” In the adviser’s emailed response (“Hahahahahahaha, OMG!!!”), she declares the video “amazing” and laughs at Burhan Ghalion, the leader of the opposition Syrian National Council, who reported that the regime hid tanks during the Arab League’s visit.
Emir’s Daughter Offered Assads Exile in Qatar
Not even close friends could convince the Assads to step down. In an email written on Dec. 11 to Asma, the Qatar emir’s daughter, Mayassa al-Thani, gently nudges Asma and Bashar to consider “reflection and coming out of the state of denial.” Asma and Mayassa had emailed regularly throughout 2011, but the exchanges appear to have ceased early in 2012, after Mayassa sent another message offering them exile and referencing the dire fates of other fallen leaders in the Middle East. “Just been following the latest developments in Syria … in all honesty—looking at the tide of history and the escalation of recent events—we’ve seen two results—leaders stepping down and getting political asylum or leaders being brutally attacked. I honestly think this is a good opportunity to leave and restart a normal life. I only pray that you will convince the president to take this an opportunity to exit without having to face charges … I am sure you have many places to turn to, including Doha.”
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Cuntcer Punts, Aug 28, 2013

#1220
Cuntcer Punts
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112899/syrias-asma-al-assad-perfect-dicators-wife

SYRIA APRIL 25, 2013
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Let Them Eat Kebabs Why Asma Al Assad is the perfect dictator’s wife for the twenty-first century

BY T.A. FRANK

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When choosing a spouse, a dictator must take care. Eva Perón proved a great asset; Eva Braun, less so. Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, educated at Wellesley, got grown men to weep when she spoke before a joint session of Congress in 1943 (good), but behind the scenes she was notably high-maintenance, insisting, for example, on silk sheets that had to be changed daily, or twice daily, if she had an afternoon nap (bad). Imelda Marcos started strong (good singer) and went downhill.
When she first became known to the world, Asma Al Assad, first lady of Syria, stood out for her efforts to put a twenty-first-century gloss on Middle Eastern dictatorship, a profession widely seen as hidebound and heavily mustachioed. She grew up in the London suburb of Acton and attended a ritzy all-girls school in town, with classmates like Imogen Lloyd Webber, daughter of Andrew. In the late ’90s, she put in a few years at Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan. When she married newly minted dictator Bashar Al Assad in 2001, she’d spent only her family vacations in Syria. Here was a 25-year-old pre-MBA banking analyst moving to Damascus, by choice, to be co-dictator.
For all we know, Asma might have left England with a reverence for parliamentary procedure, just like Kim Jong Un might have left Swiss boarding school with a reverence for the Enlightenment. But she always seemed more impressed by M&A pitch books. “It’s about finding the right balance between creating opportunity and managing risk,” Asma told The New York Times in 2005. “And that’s for me what Syria is about today, and that’s the transition process we’re going through.”
She spoke like this, with a London accent that sounded upscale but just short of posh, and she dressed in tasteful Chanel suits and Louboutin heels. Her handlers, notably the p.r. firm Brown Lloyd James, which also counted Muammar Qaddafi among its clients, seemed to feel it was media gold. Inevitably, Asma launched several Syrian “NGOs” (placing serious strain on the letters NG in that acronym) devoted to promoting “sustainable development,” “civil society,” and, yes, “microcredit.” Can’t forget microcredit.
As Asma told Vogue writer Joan Juliet Buck in what would become a much-derided, but still revealing, profile, Syria just needed to retool itself for tomorrow—albeit with an appreciation for the country’s customs and historical artifacts. “The artifacts are the hardware,” she told Buck. “But the software makes all the difference, the customs and the spirit of openness. We have to make sure that we don’t lose that—you have to excuse me, but I’m a banker—that brand essence.”
Of course, these days, Syria’s brand essence has experienced some brand erosion, leaving it a rung or two below kidney brokerage or Fukushima produce. But it wasn’t great to begin with. Asma had to see that. Or she had to pretend she didn’t. That was always the mystery.

Asma put a gloss on Middle Eastern dictatorship, a profession widely seen as hidebound and heavily mustachioed.

A decade ago, when I had a job inspecting factories as a “corporate social responsibility” consultant—Asma would have appreciated the term—I got to spend five days in Syria. It was a bustling, exciting place, and I loved the narrow streets and shops and vines of the Old City.
But you couldn’t miss that you were in a police state. Enormous portraits of Hafez and Bashar, father and son, hung on buildings all over, and the pair of them stared down at me from a building across from my window at Le Meridien Hotel. At one factory I visited, the lobby featured a bust of Hafez Al Assad that was nearly as tall as I was. At another, on the wall, hung a Bashar Al Assad–themed clock, with a large Bashar looking contemplatively into the distance.
Having lived for a year in China in the ’90s, I’d gotten a glimpse into life under a heavy-handed state with minimal rule of law, but Syria felt far more primitive. China was a place of cruelty and corruption but also vision, a place where personal greed could coexist with at least some plan for national progress. In Syria, the infrastructure was old and decrepit. Internet access was crummy and heavily censored. (I couldn’t get my Yahoo! e-mail.) The feeling in the air was one of stupid, backward-looking repression for no purpose other than to shut everyone up. I have forgotten what precisely prompted him to say it, but I remember my young translator whispering to me with intensity, “This government eats everything.”
This is what Asma had to close her eyes to. She must have realized early on that her dreams of bringing “transferable skills” (her words) from banking in Knightsbridge to governance in Mordor were unrealistic. So she kept up the business jargon and took solace in the minor power of royalty over commoner. When she drove with Buck for the Vogue article, she did it aggressively enough to get herself pulled over, so that, when she rolled down the window to smile at the cop, Buck could see his “eyes go from slits to saucers.” When visiting the Massar music center for kids, Asma got peeved by the lame “debate” put on by the children for her benefit and announced that the center was closing altogether, before telling the disconsolate gathering, “That wasn’t true. I just wanted to see how much you care about Massar.”
Today, with some 70,000 people killed in Syria’s civil war, many of them civilians targeted by the regime, even Asma’s loveliest paeans to “empowerment” and “human capital” won’t impress anyone anymore. Those who had said nice things about her now know to keep their distance. Her p.r. firm withdrew its services sometime in the summer of 2011, not long after coming up with a crisis-communications memo with the following advice: “In our view, the President needs to communicate more often and with more finely-tuned messaging and the First Lady needs to get in the game.” Now, here’s our bill.

Illustration by Jim Stoten
Asma, for her part, went shopping. A year ago, when the fighting started to get really bad, a trove of Assad household e-mails got leaked to the public, revealing Asma’s arrangements to purchase a vase from Harrod’s and a fondue set from Amazon.
Let’s briefly consider her position, though. When you’re fearing for your life, shopping for mundane household goods like vases and fondue sets is a pretty natural form of escapism. And I have to admit, when I read Asma’s e-mails about a pair of non-matching nightstands, I shared vicariously in her irritation. Non-matching nightstands shipped across several time zones? Come on, Baker Furniture! Double check!
It’s easy to forget that Asma got to make one big choice in life, and she made it at age 25. After that, there was no turning back. It’s also easy to forget how much Asma was a child of her—our—age of foundations and “idea festivals.” She didn’t need to construct a worldview to justify her actions; she merely needed to plug into it.
The twentieth century was full of big ideas put into bad practice. Now, our elites have determined that this century will be one of small ideas put into best practices. Our salvation lies in micro-initiatives. ("Cash for Carrots Could Save Lives", is one of the headlines on the World Economic Forum home page.)
In the real world, grand ideologies still matter, and crooks cause a lot of problems. But in the world of idea festivals, grand ideologies are passé, and crooks don’t exist. Haiti’s problem is insufficient “capacity-building for public-sector performance,” not Haitian officials robbing the bejesus out of people. Master the jargon of business and nonprofits, and you don’t really have to do anything. We’re just happy to hear you’ve got a handle on it. No wonder Asma increasingly spoke and thought in Davosisms.
In one of her earliest interviews, Asma brushed off questions about her efforts to improve Syria. “Let the actions speak for themselves,” she said. A good thought. But words are easier.
T. A. Frank is editor of Zócalo Public Square in Los Angeles.
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Cuntcer Punts, Aug 28, 2013

#1221
Cuntcer Punts
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...ctator-confesses-horror-having-near-them.html

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Wednesday, Aug 28 2013 12AM 66°F 3AM 68°F 5-Day Forecast

Writer of embarrassing Vogue article that praised wife of Syrian dictator confesses 'horror' at having been near them

By Victoria Wellman
PUBLISHED: 10:44 EST, 26 April 2012 | UPDATED: 09:31 EST, 30 April 2012
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When writer Joan Juliet Buck embarked on her feature piece about Asma al-Assad for U.S. Vogue, she did so with the intention of describing a chic, educated and glamourous First Lady, one who the magazine had long been trying to chase down for an interview.
But when the article coincided so hauntingly with the beginning of the President's despotic crackdown on his people, it was quickly pulled from the magazine's website while Mrs al-Assad's character and her role within the regime became a shadowy question mark.
Now Ms Buck has expressed regret that she was ever exposed to the Assads and despite coming under fire for having penned such a glowing review of the First Lady, says she was horrified by what she saw during her time there.

Loyal? Asma al-Assad, the wife of Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad, has been called upon to help stop 'being a bystander' to her husband's violence, a year after a glowing article about her was pulled from Vogue's website
In an interview withNPR, the former French Vogue Editor defended herself for the article entitled 'A Rose in the Desert' that was published in the March 2011 edition of Vogue before suddenly vanishing from the internet.

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Asked whether that was not in fact her headline she responded: 'Of course not. No.'
The article, that according to The Washington Post described the Assads as 'wildly democratic', portrayed a progressive, intelligent, secular family who embraced all things American and cared for the safety of their people, disappeared from the web weeks after it came out.

A rose in the desert? Vogue's Joan Juliet Buck wrote a gushing feature about the Syrian First Lady that was published just as the president began his brutal crackdown, and weeks later the article vanished from the web

Oops! The page that appears if you try and search the controversial article on Vogue's website now
These days, a search for the story will direct you to a page holder that reads: 'Oops. The page you’re looking for can not be found.'
That Ms Buck chose to detail Mrs Assad, a British-born ex-banker, as 'glamorous, young, and very chic - the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies... a thin, long-limbed beauty with a trained analytic mind,' is indeed unfortunate given the atrocities committed by her husband's regime over the last year.
Last week, this apparently 'breezy, conspiratorial, and fun,' woman was called upon by the wives of the British and German Ambassadors to the United Nations by way of a videoed missive, to help end the violence in Syria.
The video juxtaposes glamourous images of the fashionable Asma al-Assad to heartbreaking footage of Syrian women whose families are brutally killed everyday in her country and asks: 'What happened to you, Asma?'
The question most likely refers to what was described in Ms Buck's article as Mrs Assad's 'central mission' to 'change the mind-set of six million Syrians under eighteen, encourage them to engage in what she calls "active citizenship."'

So proud: The Syrian First Lady smiles while listening to a speech by her husband just this past January, despite over 9000 people having been killed by his regime

Glamour: Ms Buck wrote about Asma al-Assad as chic, intelligent, fun and breezy and called the couple 'wildly democratic', an image that has troubled and outraged many
But shining the spotlight on the First Lady's lack of response to her country's abhorrent situation once again highlights the disparity between Ms Buck's portrayal and the current reality.
It also perhaps brings up questions that only she can answer given that she is one of few journalists who have spoken firsthand with Asma al-Assad.
Although over the past year, roughly 9000 Syrians have been killed at the hand of Bashar al-Assad's troops, the writer confessed her doubts that the video will have any impact on the First Lady's conscience.
'One of the most affecting things in the last couple of months is the communications that she got from the young woman from the ruling family in Qatar who said: "For the sake of your children, leave now." And she refused to even answer the woman,' Ms Buck lamented.
'You know, they are pretending that nothing is happening there. It's disgusting. Is a little video going to make a difference? No.'
Probed as to her feelings now about the story she originally wrote, her thoughts barely reflect the praise with which she showered upon her subject whose husband Barbara Walters referred to as 'a dictator by accident, a mild-manner ophthalmologist.'

In vogue: The Mach 2011 of the fashion glossy in which the scrubbed article written by Joan Juliet Buck (right) appeared
'Asma Assad called the ancient culture of the country its hardware,' she admitted. 'She speaks like a banker with a degree in computer science. She said what interested her were the people. They were the software.
'The software has been getting killed every day for 13 months by her husband's forces, and they're pretending nothing is happening.
'It is horrifying to have been near people like that.'
She also implied that the Assad children were not the same ones that appeared in the final article and that they were most likely posing in their place for security purposes.
One person who does not agree with Ms Buck's recent condemnation however is Mohamed Abdo al-Ibrahim who hosts the only website to have retained a copy of the web version of the article.
PresidentAssad.net is a fan page to the Syrian dictator.

Read more:

NPR.org: A Look Into The World Of Syria's First Lady : NPR
Cuntcer Punts, Aug 28, 2013

#1222
Cuntcer Punts

And in Quatar, we have this "lovely" lady:
http://alt-world-watch.blogspot.com/2010/12/desperate-dictator-wives-qatars-sheikha.html

18 December 2010

Desperate Dictator Housewives - Qatar's Sheikha Mozad

For the past few years, the eyes of the fashion world have been firmly focused on one particularly stylish and truly glamorous spouse of a head of state. No, I'm not talking about France's Carla Bruni, Spain's former talk-show host now queen-to-be Princess Leticia, the veggie-growing Michelle Obama or any of the gals previously mentioned on this blog. Take a look at the impeccable style of Qatar's Sheikha Mozad bint Nasser Al-Missned. Consistently voted one of the best dressed women in the world. Check out some of her haute couture...

Now, having seen her, let me tell you that she is 51 years old and, shocking as this may be considering her to-die-for figure, she has given birth to 7 children and is a grandmother! Yes, that's right, 7 kids have come out of that body. Amazing! She is the Jackie O of our age.

So who is Sheikha Mozad? Her highness was born in 1959 - her father being a minor royal. She met the future Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, while at university studying Sociology and married him at the age of 18. Unlike many of the other 'Desperate Dictator Housewives' already featured, there is no major age gap - only 7 years. Unlike most other wives of Arab monarchs, she has taken a very public role, involving herself in charity, promoting education and women's rights and chairing the Arab Democracy Foundation. She was also the public face of Qatar's successful bid to host the 2022 Football World Cup. But she sure knows how to dress. Oh, she's adorable, and so does the world think the same.

OK, let's see things here in perspective, shall we? Did I tell you that she is the second wife (out of three) for the Emir of Qatar? OK, before we apply any modern Western baggage here, it must be pointed out that unlike what opponents to gay marriage would like us to believe, 'marriage' until recently in most societies was not the independent union of a man and a woman under the grace of God but a strategic business agreement between two families. There was no 'love' - marriages were (and in many societies, still are) arranged. In the Emir of Qatar's case, considering his first and third wives are first cousins in a region where arrangements to marry relatives like these is common, I would say that this was arranged too in the interests of royal family internal politics and tradition (though the latter is a very vague concept that can be used to justify anything). However, I really don't wish to speculate here. What is for certain is that these cousin wives are not seen in public. In Sheikha Mozad's case, the relationship with the Emir is more in line with Western standards and notions of marriage, hence her public image, which in turn bolsters the modern and liberal cred for Qatar. Sheikha Mozad is the one that turns up at official functions with Emir and her alone, giving the Western-acceptable image that she is the only wife.

Qatar likes to convey the image of itself as a liberal country in a very conservative region. This plus its relentless campaign betraying an insecurity of identity to increase Qatar's worldwide stature far above its size has been part of the Emirate's investment of high earnings from its 250+ year supply of natural gas into developing business ventures, a successful international airline and the hosting of international sporting events. The icing of the cake was controversily winning the right to host the 2022 World Cup, even though Qatar as a country does not meet FIFA charter requirements for a host country with regard to human rights and discrimination, never has previously qualified for a World Cup, and proposed staging the event during the summer when temperatures reach 50C. Interestingly, FIFA is now pushing Qatar to move the event to the cooler winter. Hey FIFA, if this was a concern, then why award it to Qatar in the first place?

Qatar is also synonymous for being the base for Al-Jazeera, the Arabic, and now international, news station which revolutionised news reporting in the Arab world. In providing an 'Arab perspective' to news events, it also helped cultivate the image of Qatar as an open and civil society. However, a US State Department cable from 2009 claims that Qatar is using Al-Jazeera as a bargaining tool trading in positive reporting for concessions. This is hardly the action of a country promoting freedom of expression. Al-Jazeera English has also given air time to people claiming that WikiLeaks is a Mossad plot.

But is Qatar as liberal as its image? Actually, no. Despite Sheikha Mozad chairing a foundation spearheading democracy in the Arab world and hosting Al-Jazeera, Qatar itself is not a democracy. OK, much is made that it was the first place in the Gulf region to allow women to vote (in 1999 - hardly a leader as Lebanon granted the vote to women in 1952, with Israel before that) but only Qatari citizens (who make up a small percentage of the country's population) are allowed to vote, and no political activity or parties are allowed to function. It talks of 'making moves towards' becoming a constitutional monarchy, however there have been no tangible indications of such. Opponents to the Emir have been routinely arrested and a whole Qatari clan who opposed Al-Thani family rule were even stripped of citizenship on part of an alleged coup attempt. And even though Al-Jazeera is groundbreaking in providing non-censored and critical reports about other Arab governments, one of the conditions for its continued funding and base in Qatar is that there be no news critical of the Qatari government. Now that's blatant double standards and hardly the call sign of a liberal and democratic society.

As mentioned, despite going against its much vaunted principles, FIFA's decision to award Qatar the 2022 was controversial in that organisations such as Amnesty International have brought to the attention human rights abuses in the country. Women, homosexuals and foreigners have limited or no rights, without much recourse to justice by an independent judicial system. Sepp Blatter, FIFA chairman, hardly made things better when he 'joked' that gay football fans should 'refrain from sexual activities' while at the cup, in reference to homosexual acts being illegal in Qatar.

FIFA justified awarding the World Cup to Qatar, despite its small size and population, as a way of promoting football in the Middle East. So, in a way, it's not Qatar that is hosting the World Cup, but the Arab World. This perception is flawed as most Arabs don't look fondly towards the mega-rich Gulf state sell-outs whose autocratic rule and the lavish lifestyles of their ruling families contravene the most basic of Islamic morals they claim to uphold.

Qatar, like the other Gulf states, is also blatantly hypocritical in its foreign policy. While it maintains important and pragmatic relations with Israel, when it needs to appeal to Arab public sentiment, in true flashy Gulf state style, it has pulled what best can be described as media stunts, such as very publicly donating $50 million to HAMAS in 2006 or naming a brand new Qatar Airways B777 after Gaza (in response to El Al naming one of its B777s after the HAMAS-besieged town of Sderot). Furthermore, as one of the first WikiLeaks-published US State Department cables reported, the Gulf states were secretly urging the United States to attack Iran - grand hypocrisy.

In the end, Qatar gets away with gross human rights violations and a complete lack of democracy and civil society thanks to its huge gas and money reserves. And again we see the US government howling complaints that countries like Australia and Canada ' are 'kow-towing' to Cuba and ignoring human rights in the hope of gaining business deals when itself does the same thing to countries that are far more undemocratic and are greater human rights violators like Qatar.

But we are easily fooled and blinded when we see an elegant woman dressed in haute couture - elegance couldn't possibly arise from an autocratic society! We are suckers to a woman in a nice frock. Superficial. This should not distract us that the country she represents would not meet Western standards of human rights and civil society under other circumstances. To be taken seriously, there must be consistency - frankly, the treatment of nations based on the rather fluid notion and selective application of human rights and civil society is not.
Posted by Nick at 10:44 AM
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Labels: Arab World, Desperate Dictator Housewives, Fashion, Qatar, WikiLeaks, World Cup
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1 comment:

anonymous November 29, 2011 at 9:33 PM
I found your article very interesting to read and your statements are unfortunately 100% true. Leaders (or should I say 'dictators') of the mostly undemocratic states located in the Arab region often tend to use these 'trophy wives' in order to portray a democratical, modern Western image to the outside world, while the truth often looks very different. Unfortunately, as you also mentioned, most people buy it. We are easily distracted by the elegant and fashionable ladies, most of whom have had a good education at British or American top colleges, which of course, strengthens this image even more. Unfortunately we always have to consider that in Arab countries, the royal family mostly marries among each other, in order to keep the money and the power in the family. This means, that these women only have these backgrounds because they already come from wealth. The citizens of the countries who are not part of the royal family, especially the women, don't have the same rights and chances. Mihriban Aliyeva, Sheikha Mozad and Queen Rania are only a few examples. Whilst promoting so called islamic values in their countries, the lavish lifestyles of members of the ruling family couldn't be more 'anti-islamic' and hypocritical. The promotion of islamic values is their main tool in order to maintain their status. We assume that we live in a modern, developed 21st century world, but unfortunately these monarchies exist in the exact same shape as they used to hundreds of years ago, only that there has been a geographical shift from Europe to the middle east.
Reply

Cuntcer Punts, Aug 28, 2013

#1223
Cuntcer Punts

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-14/five-depressing-thoughts-about-arming-syria-s-rebels.html

Five Depressing Thoughts About Arming Syria’s Rebels
By Jeffrey Goldberg 2013-06-14T17:13:45Z

Here are five observations, most of them depressing, about the Syrian civil war, formulated in light of the announcement by the White House that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has, in fact, used chemical weapons and that, in response, the U.S. will supply small arms and ammunition to the Syrian rebels.
1. This move is possibly not too late, but it is certainly too little if the goal is to defeat Assad. The battle for Aleppo, the center of rebel strength, appears to be upon us. If Aleppo falls to the combined forces of Assad and the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, many thousands of people will be killed and the uprising will, in all likelihood, come to an end. Civil unrest will continue, but the back of the rebellion will have been broken.
The rebels haven’t been doing well lately -- they’ve been making headlines mainly for YouTube videos showing atrocities committed by some in their ranks, rather than for military victories -- and small arms won’t alter the balance. Even if handguns and rifles are all that the rebels would need for victory, delivering such weapons isn’t simply a matter of driving trucks into Aleppo. It will take time to build a proper pipeline to “vetted” rebels, which is to say, rebels who promise not to one day kill Americans with these weapons. Anti-tank weapons may be of help, but at the moment these don’t appear to be forthcoming, and portable surface-to-air missiles will most definitely not be forthcoming.
2. That’s because we don’t actually know who we’ll be helping. Will these small arms find their way to al-Qaeda-associated groups, like the Nusra Front? We don’t even know who owns guns in the U.S. -- how are we going to know for sure who owns our taxpayer-supplied firearms in Syria? Recent history in Afghanistan is very much on President Barack Obama’s mind: The weapons the U.S. supplied to mujahedeen fighters there to battle the Soviets three decades ago eventually were used against the U.S. and its allies. It would be best, from the president’s perspective, if this did not happen again.
3. From the president’s perspective, in fact, it would be best not to get involved at all. But the pressure on him this week became too much to bear. Former President Bill Clinton essentially called Obama a dithering coward because of his unwillingness to enter the Syrian conflict, and the intelligence community found evidence that Assad’s regime has definitively crossed the chemical weapons “red line” the president had spoken of -- surely to his everlasting regret -- last year.
Obama sees no clean way out, and no clear rationale for deepening U.S. involvement. He also sees a rebel coalition that is both dysfunctional and radicalized, and he knows that there is an outcome to this war that is worse than the continuation of Assad’s rule: the dissolution of the Syrian state and its replacement, in some locations, with al-Qaeda havens. Even an all-in move by Obama to make the rebels’ cause his own probably wouldn’t prevent the country’s collapse (it has, in fact, already collapsed as a unitary state). And he knows that if terrorist groups establish footholds in Syria -- geographically close to our crucial allies, Jordan and Israel -- he will have to act against them.
4. Many commentators (including, at times, this one) have argued that Obama’s irresolute approach to Syria is emboldening Iran, making it more likely that its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will hasten his pursuit of nuclear weapons. A hesitant Obama on Syria equals a hesitant Obama on Iran, or so the thinking goes. But there are two assumptions built into this analysis that I hadn’t fully considered before. One is that Khamenei -- who this week said, for the thousandth or so time, that America should go to hell -- wasn’t already intent on bringing his country to the nuclear threshold. No one has explained why Khamenei would halt his quest for nuclear weapons if his allies were defeated in Syria. Couldn’t this instead lead him to think that he’s surrounded and friendless and so needs nukes more than ever?
The second assumption is that Obama is a comprehensively vacillating president. I won’t rule this out, particularly because if he hadn’t vacillated early on support for Syria’s rebels (who weren’t always this radicalized), we might be facing a slightly different situation today. But Obama’s overriding concern in the Middle East has always been Iran’s nuclear program; he has never wavered from his position that the U.S. will stop Iran by any means necessary, and it’s not unreasonable to think that he’s keeping his eye on this ball and this ball alone. He knows that, apart from Senator John McCain (and now, apparently, Clinton) there are very few Americans who want to see the U.S. inject itself into the Syrian civil war, especially now that it is shaping up in some ways to be a battle between Hezbollah and al-Qaeda.
5. Humanitarian interventionists argue that Obama may inadvertently be presiding over another Rwanda. Clinton’s great regret, he says, was allowing the Rwandan genocide to take place without making a more aggressive effort to stop it. Obama, the thinking goes, doesn’t want to be burdened with the knowledge that he failed to stop a genocide. However, Syria is not Rwanda. The death toll in Syria is horrendous, topping 90,000 now, but it isn’t genocide -- it’s a civil war.

Cuntcer Punts, Aug 28, 2013

#1224
iraniam Member

Ghosts of Iraq war force Britain to delay push for Syria strike

Protestors listen to speeches during a rally against the proposed attack on Syria in central London August 28, 2013. REUTERS/Olivia Harris
LONDON - Prime Minister David Cameron's plans for joining a looming military strike on Syria were in disarray on Thursday after a revolt by lawmakers warning him to heed the "lessons of Iraq".

After imploring the world not to stand idly by over Syria's suspected use of chemical weapons, Cameron was forced into an awkward climbdown on Wednesday when the opposition Labour party as well as lawmakers in his own Conservative party said they wanted more evidence before voting for military action.

On Thursday, Cameron's government published legal advice it had been given which it said showed it was legally entitled to take military action against Syria even if the United Nations Security Council did not approve such action.

It also published intelligence material on the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in Syria's civil war, saying there was no doubt that it had occurred and that it was "highly likely" Syrian government forces were responsible. The nerve gas attack killed hundreds of civilians in an embattled suburb of Damascus.

It was unclear how Cameron's failure to master domestic British politics could affect U.S. and French plans for a swift cruise missile strike against Syria - whose government has denied using chemical weapons against its citizens - or what the impact would be on Cameron's standing in Washington.
Aides said he had not spoken to U.S. President Barack Obama since suffering the parliamentary reversal, but that there had been regular contacts at other levels.

Dogging Cameron's steps is the memory of events a decade ago, when Britain helped the United States to invade Iraq after asserting - wrongly, as it later turned out - that President Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.
"I am deeply mindful of the lessons of previous conflicts, and in particular the deep concerns in the country caused by what went wrong with the Iraq conflict in 2003," Cameron told parliament on Thursday during a debate on Syria.

"One thing is indisputable: the well of public opinion was well and truly poisoned by the Iraq episode and we need to understand the public scepticism."
Already embroiled in Afghanistan, Britain was then sucked into a second quagmire in Iraq, losing 179 soldiers in eight years of militant attacks and sectarian conflict following the 2003 U.S.-British invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

POISONOUS IRAQ LEGACY
It was the defining moment of Tony Blair's 1997-2007 premiership, provoking huge protests, divisions within his Labour Party and accusations that his government misled the public by manufacturing the case for war.
Obama has set out the case for a limited military strike on Syria, but some U.S. lawmakers say they have not been properly consulted.
British Conservative officials were furious at the delay, accusing Labour leader Ed Miliband of opportunism.

"Ed Miliband is playing politics when he should be thinking about the national interest and global security," a Conservative source told Reuters. "He keeps changing his position, not out of principle but to achieve political advantage."
A senior Conservative source added: "A lot of the arguments over this could give succour to the (Syrian) regime".

Miliband replied: "We have got to learn the lessons of Iraq because people remember the mistakes that were made ... I am not willing to make those mistakes again." He advised lawmakers not to rush to judgment "on a political timetable set elsewhere".
Domestically, Cameron's authority looks dented. Part of his problem is that he governs as part of a two-party coalition because his Conservatives lack an absolute majority in parliament, exposing him to such impromptu revolts.

After hours of negotiations between Cameron's political managers and the opposition, his office agreed that the U.N. Security Council should see findings from chemical weapons inspectors before it responded militarily and that parliament should hold two votes on military action.
That meant that parliament would vote later on Thursday on a government motion cautioning Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and authorising military action in principle only.

It will need to vote again to authorise any direct military action. Labour said it would vote against the government on Thursday, while Syria wrote letters to British lawmakers urging them to avoid reckless action.
A YouGov poll published on Thursday showed opposition to a Syria action hardening, with 51 percent of the British public opposing a missile strike, and just 22 percent in favour of it. Opponents say Britain has neither the money nor the evidence to justify further military action in the Middle East.

(Additional reporting by William James, Belinda Goldsmith and Costas Pitas in London and Michele Kambas in Cyprus; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

http://preview.reuters.com/2013/8/29/ghosts-of-iraq-war-force-britain-to-delay-1

iraniam, Aug 29, 2013

#1225
Anonymous Member

Am amused that the Middle East is apparently going to hell in a handbasket because dictators there are married to women who lunch.

Anonymous, Aug 29, 2013

#1226
iraniam Member

Obama makes case for punishing Syria, delay looks likely

WASHINGTON/AMMAN - President Barack Obama told Americans a military strike against Syria is in their interest, although there were signs on Thursday that any action will be delayed at least several days while the case is laid out to U.S. and British lawmakers.
Senior Obama administration officials are expected to brief congressional leaders on Thursday, with lawmakers complaining they have not been properly consulted about plans to respond to what Washington says was the gassing of civilians.

The United Nations said chemical weapons inspectors investigating the attacks will leave Syria on Saturday and then report on their findings to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
In Britain - the closest U.S. ally and a key player in any air assault on Syria - parliament cut short its summer break for a debate on Thursday on Syria likely to reveal deep misgivings stemming from the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Britain said on Wednesday it would not act until it receives the findings of the U.N. inspectors, after which parliament will be given a chance for a decisive vote.

Increasing expectations of a delay ended a three-day sell off on world share markets on Thursday, but investors were still on edge over future turmoil in the Middle East.
Obama sought to win over a war-weary American public by saying intervention in Syria, where more than 100,000 people have been killed in two and a half years of civil war, would serve U.S. national security interests.

"If we are saying in a clear and decisive but very limited way, we send a shot across the bow saying, 'Stop doing this,' this can have a positive impact on our national security over the long term," he told "PBS Newshour" in a televised interview.
While saying he had not yet made a decision on military action, Obama left little doubt the choice was not whether but when to punish Syria for the gas attacks, which killed hundreds of people in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus.

"We have concluded that the Syrian government in fact carried these out," he said on Wednesday evening.
Syria denies blame for the gas attacks and says they were perpetrated by rebels. Washington and its allies say the denial is not credible.

INSPECTORS
The United Nations weapons inspectors were already in Syria before last week's attack and have been carrying out on-site investigations. Secretary-General Ban has urged countries to let the team get on with their work.
Britain, which had earlier declined to say whether it would wait for the inspectors to report before launching military action, changed its stance on Wednesday, saying the U.N. Security Council should first see the findings.

Assad's ally Moscow is seen as certain to veto any call for intervention in the U.N. Security Council. A report from Moscow that Russia plans to send two warships to the eastern Mediterranean underscored the complications surrounding even a limited military strike.
Western leaders are expected in Russia next Thursday for a meeting of the Group of 20 big economies, an event that could influence the timing of any strikes. Host President Vladimir Putin has made clear his view that Western leaders are using human rights as a pretext to impose their will on other sovereign states.

Some financial industry analysts now say leaders may wait until after the summit before acting.
"A delay in a probable US military strike against Syria - with or without France and the UK - now looks likely until, we think, after the 5/6 September G20 summit," Nomura Global Markets research said in a note.
A spokesman for the main Syrian opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Coalition, said the opposition was confident Western leaders were prepared to act.

The spokesman said SNC leader Ahmed Jarba and French President Francois Hollande had discussed a two-wave intervention to first target installations used to launch chemical weapons and then hit other government bases in Syria.
"We are very happy. France and its partners are quite decided to punish the Syrian regime," SNC envoy Monzer Makhous told Reuters after the talks. "Then there will be military aid to help the opposition to change the balance of power."
Hollande urged Jarba to create a credible military force in the talks on Thursday, highlighting Western concern that the mainstream opposition is unable to control al-Qaeda linked militias on the ground in Syria.

In Damascus, residents and opposition forces said President Bashar al-Assad's forces appeared to have evacuated most personnel from army and security command headquarters in the centre in preparation for Western military action.
Arguing for measured intervention after long resisting deeper involvement in Syria, Obama insisted that while Assad's government must be punished, he intended to avoid repeating U.S. errors from the Iraq war.

"I have no interest in any open-ended conflict in Syria, but we do have to make sure that when countries break international norms on weapons like chemical weapons that could threaten us, that they are held accountable," Obama said.
Despite opinion polls showing most Americans oppose deeper involvement in the Syrian conflict, Obama has been under pressure to enforce a "red line" against chemical weapons use, which he declared just over a year ago.

The likeliest option, U.S. officials say, would be to launch cruise missiles from U.S. ships in the Mediterranean in a campaign that would last days.
Obama cited chemical weapons dangers to U.S. Middle Eastern allies Israel, Turkey and Jordan and U.S. bases in the region, and said America's national interests could be at risk if Syrian chemical arms fell into the wrong hands.

COMPLAINTS FROM LAWMAKERS
Although decisive action against Syria is strongly backed by many in the U.S. Congress, there have been growing calls for Obama to seek congressional authorisation before ordering the use of force, something he is considered unlikely to do. Wrangling over the issue could complicate any attack timetable.

In Damascus on Wednesday, people left homes close to potential targets as U.S. officials sketched out plans for multi-national air strikes.
Assad said Syria would "defend itself" in the face of any aggression, without giving details.
Syrian officials say the West is playing into the hands of its al Qaeda enemies. The presence of Islamist militants among the rebels has deterred Western powers from arming Assad's foes. But the West says it must now act to stop the use of poison gas.
Diplomats from Russia, China, Britain, France and the United States met at the United Nations on Wednesday to discuss a British resolution for "necessary measures" to protect Syrian civilians. Moscow said the measure was premature.

The United States and its allies say a U.N. veto will not stop them. Western diplomats called the proposed resolution a manoeuvre to isolate Moscow and rally a coalition behind air strikes.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington, Erika Solomon and Oliver Holmes, Catherine Bremer in Paris and Andrew Osborn and Peter Apps in London; Writing by Philippa Fletcher; Editing by Peter Graff)

http://preview.reuters.com/2013/8/27/exclusive-syria-strike-due-in-days-west-tells

iraniam, Aug 29, 2013

#1227
yourgay

Anonymous said: ↑

Am amused that the Middle East is apparently going to hell in a handbasket because dictators there are married to women who lunch.

your gay and obviously have no clue about what is going on in that part of the world.

here's the cliff notes version -

Most of the Arab world, almost all 26 countries are governed by corrupt dictators who are very inhumane to their own populace within their own respective countries.
To beg for the west to come in and assist them in the fuckfests that they contribute to, and then turn back and blame the west for their issues and abject incivility is over the top hypocrisy.

did i make that clear enough for you?
too bad you are to lazy to read a bit and think independently.
but, it is plain as day.

yourgay, Aug 29, 2013

#1228
yourgay

yourgay, Aug 29, 2013

#1229
Cancer pants

Emmmm.bacon.

Shock defeat for Uk government over syria intervention.
The uk won't be taking part.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23877247

Cancer pants, Aug 29, 2013

#1230
iraniam Member

Push for Military Action on Syria Appears to Slow

http://www.voanews.com/content/opposition-to-syria-strike-rises-amid-military-buildup/1739713.html

iraniam, Aug 29, 2013

#1231
iraniam Member

Hands Off Syria - Take action against U.S. intervention!

Call to Action for actions the day of/after U.S. military action begins

Washington is on the march toward yet another war of aggression in the Middle East, this time targeting Syria. In the event of U.S. military strikes against Syria, the ANSWER Coalition is calling on organizations and individuals to take to the streets in opposition to what would be a destructive and criminal war by the U.S. government.
Make plans now to hold a demonstration in your city on the day of or the day after U.S. military action begins. See a list of demonstrations around the country and fill out our Event Listing form so we can help spread the word!

Despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of the American people are clearly opposed to U.S. intervention, the signs all point to war. In a recent Reuters poll, only 9 percent favored direct U.S. military intervention, and 89 percent opposed arming the Syrian opposition. But the tiny elite clique who really run the country are completely discounting the will of the people, making a mockery of their so-called “democracy.”
The U.S. 6th Fleet has deployed war ships to the eastern Mediterranean and is threatening to launch missile and air strikes against Syria. Not only are the White House and Pentagon openly threatening direct intervention, they are also moving to further arm the Syrian opposition. A U.S./NATO attack on Syria could well lead to a wider, regional war with grave and unpredictable consequences.

A staged provocation: a pretext for war
The pretext for attacking Syria is the allegation that the Syrian government used chemical weapons last week in the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, just after a UN team had arrived in the country to investigate an earlier alleged use of chemical weapons. President Obama declared over a year ago that the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government would cross a “red line,” triggering U.S. military action.
The idea that the Syrian government would launch a chemical weapons attack exactly at the moment when the UN team was in the country investigating chemical weapons defies all logic.

In a sign of their total disregard for the truth, the United States government has declared, in advance of any actual investigation, that the Syrian government is guilty of using chemical weapons. U.S. officials have stated that the United Nations weapons inspection team, which is today at the site near Damascus where hundreds of people died last week, is “too late.” In other words, the United States, along with Britain and France – the former colonizers of the region – have decided to use chemical weapons as an excuse to go to war.
We must remember the Iraq War in 2003, where “overwhelming evidence of weapons of mass destruction” was used as the pretext for a war that killed hundreds of thousands and tore Iraq apart. No such weapons were ever found.

If in fact chemical weapons were used in Syria last week, the far greater likelihood is that it was a staged provocation by the opposition to invite U.S./NATO intervention in order to save their weakening military position in the conflict. We have no reason to trust the U.S. government’s version of what happened. This is the same government that has routinely lied and deceived the American people on many issues, as was recently revealed by Edward Snowden’s leaks related to NSA spying.

U.S. foreign policy is not one of benign humanitarian concern, but one of Empire. Washington’s goal is control of the entire oil-rich and strategic Middle East region. To achieve this aim, U.S. leaders – Democrats and Republicans alike – have worked to destroy independent governments and popular movements in the region for more than six decades.

For the people of the United States, fighting against a U.S. intervention in Syria is of paramount importance to prevent the spread of war and destruction. The ANSWER Coalition is calling on all those opposed to this brutal war drive to take action against any U.S. attack on Syria! A broad coalition of organizations worked together in June and July 2013 for days of action opposing the U.S. role in Syria. We expect that the actions in the coming days and weeks will be of a similar unified character.
Plan a demonstration in your city on the day of or the day after U.S. military action begins. Fill out our Event Listing form so we can help spread the word!
Initial list of actions:
ALABAMA
Huntsville, AL
Saturday, August 31
Corner of Whitesburg Drive and Airport Road
Initiated by Occupy Huntsville
Contact: annnonm@gmail.com
CALIFORNIA
Costa Mesa, CA
Day of
Gather from 5:00PM - 7:00PM
at 3300 Bristol
Initiated by Orange County Peace & Freedom Party
Contact: 714-956-5037
Los Angeles, CA
Day of
Gather at 5:30PM
at LA City Hall (West Steps): 200 N. Spring St.
Contact ANSWER in LA at 323-394-3611 or answerla@answerla.org
Sacramento, CA
Day after
Gather at 5:30PM
in front of the Sacramento Federal Building
at the corner of 5th and I Sts. in downtown
Contact ANSWER in Sacramento at sac@answercoalition.org
San Francisco, CA
Day of or day after depending on the time
Gather at 5:00PM (weekday) or 12:00PM (weekend)
at Powell & Market Sts.
Contact ANSWER in SF at 415-821-6545 or answer@answersf.org
San Francisco, CA
Thursday, August 29
Gather at 5:00PM
at Powell & Market Sts.
Contact ANSWER in SF at 415-821-6545 or answer@answersf.org
San Jose, CA
Friday, August 30
Gather at 5:00PM
at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library
Corner of San Fernando and Fourth Streets
Initiated by San José Peace and Justice Center
Contact coordinator@sanjosepeace.org

San Jose / Santa Clara, CA
Saturday, August 31
Gather at 11:30 AM
at Stevens Creek and Winchester Boulevards
Initiated by San José Peace and Justice Center
Contact coordinator@sanjosepeace.org

San Jose, CA
Monday, September 2
Gather at 5:00PM
at corner of Market & San Carlos Streets, south end of César Chávez Plaza
Initiated by San José Peace and Justice Center
Contact coordinator@sanjosepeace.org
Santa Cruz, CA
Saturday, August 31
Gather at 11:00AM
at Ocean and Water Streets
Initiated by Peace and Freedom Party Santa Cruz, ANSWER Coaliton, and others.
Contact 831-688-8692 or 831-334-3368
COLORADO

Colorado Springs, CO
Sunday, September 1
Gather at 6:00PM
at Acacia Park, 201 N. Tejon St.
Initiated by Occupy Colorado Springs
Contact 719-243-5238 or 719-460-2836
CONNECTICUT

New Haven, CT
Day of - if before 12 noon / Day after - if after 12 noon
Gather at 5:30PM
at 141 Church St.
Contact ANSWER in New Haven at 203-903-4480 or ct@answercoalition.org
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Washington, D.C.
Thursday, August 29
Gather at 6:30PM
at the White House
Initiated by the ANSWER Coalition
Contact ANSWER in DC at 202-265-1948 or dc@answercoalition.org
FLORIDA
Miami, FLThursday, August 29
Gather at 6:00PM
at Torch of Friendship
Biscayne Blvd. between N.E. 3rd & 4th streets
Initiated by POWIR, Veterans for Peace
Join the Facebook event

Saint Petersburg/Tampa, FL
Saturday, August 31
Gather at 6:00PM
at Gandy Blvd. and Dale Mabry Hwy.
Near MacDill AFB (CENTCOM), Tampa, FL
Initiated by St. Pete for Peace
Contact http://stpeteforpeace.org
Join the Facebook event

Tallahassee, FL
Thursday, August 28
Gather at 4:00PM
in front of the Old Capitol, 400 S Monroe St
Initiated by Tallahassee ANSWER Coalition and Tallahassee Veterans for Peace
Contact tallahassee@answercoalition.org
ILLINOIS
Chicago, IL
Day of if before 12 noon / Day after if after 12 noon
Gather at 5:00PM
at Federal Plaza
The ANSWER Coalition is initiating this action with partners, including the Anti-war Committee - Chicago and the Albany Park, North Park, Mayfair Neighbors for Peace and Justice
Contact ANSWER in Chicago at 773-463-0311 or answer@chicagoanswer.net
Chicago, IL
Thursday, August 29
Gather at 5:00PM
at Federal Plaza
The ANSWER Coalition is participating in this action.
Contact ANSWER in Chicago at 773-463-0311 or answer@chicagoanswer.net
INDIANA
Indianapolis, IN
Friday, August 30
Gather at 7:00PM
at High steps of Monument Circle
Initiated by Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center
Contact carlrisingmoore@gmail.com
LOUISIANA

New Orleans, LA
Saturday, August 31
Gather at 2:00PM
at Washington Square, 500 Elysian Fields Avenue
Contact aiglefort@hotmail.com
MASSACHUSETTS

Boston, MA
Saturday, August 31
Rally at 1:00 PM
Park St. T station Entrance - Park & Tremont Streets
Initiated by United for Justice with Peace and supported by ANSWER Boston
Contact ANSWER in Boston at 857-334-5084 or boston@answercoalition.org

Boston, MA
Day of - if before 12 noon / Day after - if after 12 noon
Gather at 5:00 PM
Park St. T station Entrance - Park & Tremont Streets
Initiated by United for Justice with Peace and supported by ANSWER Boston
Contact ANSWER in Boston at 857-334-5084 or boston@answercoalition.org
NEW JERSEY

Cherry Hill, NJ
Saturday, August 31
Gather at 12:00PM
at Route 38 and Cherry Hill Mall Drive (near the Red Lobster Restaurant)
Initiated by South Jersey Campaign for Peace and Justice
Contact sjcpeaceandjustice@yahoo.com
OHIO
Columbus, OH
Sunday, September 1
Gather at 5:00PM
at 15th and High Streets at the Main Entrance of the OSU Columbus Campus
Initiated by Sunday Night Peace Action Group
Contact markstansbery@gmail.com or cmhammond11@att.net
NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque, NM
Day of
Gather at 5:00 PM
at UNM Bookstore (Central & Cornell)
Initiated by the ANSWER Coalition
Contact ANSWER in Albuquerque at 505-268-2488 or abq@answercoalition.org
NEW YORK
New York City, NY
Thursday, Aug. 29
Gather at 6:00PM
at Times Square, 43rd Street and 7th Ave
Contact ANSWER in NYC at 212-694-8720 or nyc@answercoalition.org
Rochester, NY
Thursday, August 29
Gather at 7:00PM
at the Liberty Pole, corner of Main St and East Ave
Contact 585-943-8148
Syracuse, NY
Friday, August 30
Gather at 12:30PM
at Syracuse University main quad
Initiated by Youth and Student ANSWER Coalition - SU chapter
Contact syracuse@answercoalition.org
NORTH CAROLINA
Asheville, NC
Thursday, September 12
Gather at 4:00PM
at Vance monument
Contact asheville@defendwomensrights.org
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia, PA
Day after
Gather at 4:30PM
on the Northwest corner of 15th and Market Sts.
Co-sponsored by the ANSWER Coalition and Philly Against War
Contact ANSWER in Philly at 267-281-3859 or philly@answercoalition.org
SOUTH CAROLINA
Hilton Head, SC
Day after
Gather at 4:00 PM
at Rt. 278 & Beach City Rd. (park in HH Library lot)
Initiated by Hilton Head for Peace
Contact fintaylor@hargray.com
TENNESSEE

Nashville, TN
Friday, August 30
Gather at 4:00PM
at 3322 West End Avenue
Initiated by Nashville Veterans for Peace and Nashville Peace Coalition
Join the Facebook event
TEXAS

Austin, TX
Thursday, August 29
Gather at 5:00PM
at West side of the state Capitol building emptying into Congress Avenue at 11th Street
Initiated by Occupy Austin
Contact 504-239-2764
VERMONT

Burlington, VT
Day of or day after depending on the time
Gather at 6:00PM
at top of Church St. by Unitarian Church
Initiated by Ad Hoc Committee Against US War in Middle East
Contact ronj1955@gmail.com
VIRGINIA

Richmond, VA
Day of
Gather at 5:00PM
at Richmond Federal Courthouse
Initiated by the Defenders For Justice and Equality
Join the Facebook event
WASHINGTON
Seattle, WA
Day after attack
Gather at 5:00PM
at Westlake and Pine
Initiated by the ANSWER Coalition
Contact 206-568-1661 to confirm
WISCONSIN

Jefferson, WI
Thursday, August 29
Gather at 6:00PM
at State Street side of the Capitol
(Lady Forward at corner of State Street and Mifflin Street)
Initiated by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice and others.
Contact 608-250-9240 or diane@wnpj.org
Join the Facebook event

Milwaukee, WI
Saturday, August 31
Gather at 12:00PM
at the intersection of Water Street and Wisconsin Ave
Initiated by Peace Action Wisconsin
Contact 414-964-5158 or website@peaceactionwi.org[/QUOTE]
http://www.answercoalition.org/national/news/hands-off-syria-take-action.html#cities

iraniam, Aug 29, 2013

#1232
- Like x 1
Cuntcer Punts
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/revealed--world-s-arab-billionaires-449482.html

Revealed: The world’s Arab billionaires

By Daniel Shane

Monday, 12 March 2012 10:51 AM

Alwaleed's fortune is US$21.3bn, according to his private office.
Saudi royal Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has been ranked as the Arab world’s wealthiest billionaire, according to a report published in US-based Forbes magazine.
According to figures verified by his private office Alwaleed’s fortune is estimated at US$21.3bn, making him the richest individual in the Middle East.
Click here to see a gallery of the Middle East’s richest individuals.
Alwaleed, chairman of Riyadh-based Kingdom Holdings, holds assets including stakes in Apple, Citigroup and the Four Seasons Hotels chain.

Other notable entries in the Forbes list hailing from the Middle East included oil and construction tycoon Mohammed Al Amoudi, valued at US$12.5bn and Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber, at US$7bn who a line of luxury and budget hotels in Europe and Egypt via JJW Hotels & Resorts.
The global list was topped by Mexican telecoms giant Carlos Slim and his family, whose wealth was valued by the magazine at US$69bn. Second and third place were taken by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway boss Warren Buffet, whose assets were valued at US$61bn and US$44bn, respectively.
Click here to see a gallery of the Middle East’s richest individuals.
* Forbes magazine had originally published a different figure for Prince Alwaleed's estimated wealth, but Arabian Business has chosen to run the valuation provided by Prince Alwaleed's private office.
Cuntcer Punts, Aug 29, 2013

#1233
Cuntcer Punts

Cuntcer Punts, Aug 29, 2013

#1234
Cuntcer Punts

Cuntcer Punts, Aug 29, 2013

#1235
Cuntcer Punts

Cuntcer Punts, Aug 29, 2013

#1236
Cuntcer Punts

Cuntcer Punts, Aug 29, 2013

#1237
Cuntcer Punts

Cuntcer Punts, Aug 29, 2013

#1238
Cuntcer Punts

Cuntcer Punts, Aug 29, 2013

#1239
Cuntcer Punts

Cuntcer Punts, Aug 29, 2013

#1240

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