Syria Break the Wall of Silence #2

Syria

Break the wall of silence

A Bulletin by ARCHumankind

There are Syrians Who Deserve to be Heard January 2015 The second issue

Gas Attack on Deir Ezzor

UAE

United Arab Emirates sets the way to combat terrorism

Iran in Syria From an Ally of the Regime to an Occupying Force

Winter is not welcome in Syrian refugee camps

Syria Break the wall of silence !

A Syrian German children NGO

Syrian regime gas attack on Deir Ezzor Paulo Casaca

Syrian economic disaster: Regime disinformation campaign in full gear!

Paulo Casaca

Who are the officers who trained ISIS ‘special units?’

Wael Essam - Antakia Omar al-Jubouri - Mosul

A new strategy to combat Jihadism in the Arab heartland Paulo Casaca

Shifts in the Syrian opposition movement Mohamed Sayed Rasas

United Arab Emirates sets the way to combat terrorism Paulo Casaca

Iran in Syria

From an Ally of the Regime to an Occupying Force Iman Ibrahim

Art Of Resilience, Syrian Artists Aley - Lebanon (With Video) Maan Alhasbane

“Jalila” documentary about Syrian woman By: Adnan Jetto

“Niroz” Kurdish Girl in refugee camp Video with English Subtitle

The children of Syria Have their own fears of Halloween (Video)

Jasmine Baladi A Syrian German children NGO (With video) A Syrian German children NGO

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Note of the Director Hacking did not silence us, here we are again!

After managing to reinstall the inaugural issue of “Syria: Break the wall of silence” after being viciously attacked by the hacking tutors of the Iranian regime, we have the pleasure to present you now the second issue.

We start by highlighting the main recent developments of the Syrian crisis that have been silenced or seriously distorted in the public opinion. The first is the continued and now openly tolerated use of chemical weapons by the Damascus authorities. The issue here is not so much that the supposed agreement of the Syrian authorities to dismantle its chemical stock is a farce, but that in less than two years the West has radically changed its position and is now openly ignoring this enormous crime against humanity. The second is the dubious World Bank report that supposedly gave good marks to the Syrian authorities’ economic management, which was nothing but a hoax that still fooled a good part of the Syrian public opinion. The third is a first class report by a civil society multinational organisation that correctly evaluates the present situation of the country as a colonial occupation by the theocratic regime of Tehran and exhorts the international community to act in conformity.

Two major global events with a great impact on Syria are also highlighted: the first is the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who was appointed in November that correctly identified the necessity to have a political strategy in the region and not only a military one and pointed out the need to combat equally the terrorist forces from both the Sunni-Shia sectarian divide. The second major shift is birth of the United Arab Emirates’ terrorist list that neither spares the plethora of terrorist organisations maintained by Tehran nor the terrorist front organisations established in Western countries.

ARCHumankind pays its respects to the courageous heroines of Kobani Jian Tolheldan, special envoy of the Kurdish defence forces in Kobani and Paulo Casaca, director of ARCHumankind, in the picture are visiting a cave of the Yezidi main temple in Lalish, honouring this martyred community. The visit took place i n t h e a f t e r m a t h of t h e international conference in E r b i l promoted by the International Association for Human Values for peace and reconciliation that was followed by a visit to Lalish and several Yezidi refugee camps around Dohuk (Iraqi Kurdistan).

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Syrian regime gas attack on Deir Ezzor

In one of his most famous quotations, Albert

Einstein reportedly said (sources differ on the exact wording and date, either 1948 or 1949): I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth — rocks!

The German forces initiated chemical war with chlorine gas during its offensive in the second battle of Ypres (1915) causing many thousands of victims. Forbidden by international conventions, it would nevertheless reappear in the Second World War when Nazis used prussic acid to exterminate Jews and other people considered undesirable.

Still, chemical weapons reappeared in the IranIraq war during the 1980’s, and after this war, as the Iraqi Baathist regime continued to use it for its genocidal war against the Kurds.

Since the start of the war against the Syrian people, Assad’s forces have been using chemical weapons repeatedly killing hundreds if not thousands of civilians. This crime against humanity led the international community directed by the US to force Assad to join the Chemical Weapons Convention in August 2013 and to agree to the destruction of its entire arsenal.

According to the Times of Israel in the beginning of May 2014 quoting a high Israel Defence Forces sources, there already had been 30 chemical attacks since the supposed end of its use, all of them with civilian casualties.

The international community, however, duly ignored the continuation of Assad’s chemical war.

On December 6, 2014, the London based Syrian observatory for human rights reported: "Regime forces use Chlorine gas to stop ISIS advances in Der-Ezzor military airport."

This story received nearly no attention in the international press and those who mentioned it – like the Belgian French speaking official radio I occasionally heard – just made a short reference to ISIS being “chlorinated” after the apparent big news, that the Syrian regime was wining the battle at the Deir Ezzor airport.

So the international community is simply covering up the continued use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime, and now apparently has manufactured the perfect excuse: “these weapons are targeting the monsters of the Islamic State."

Ironically, this blatant breach of international law, Western commitments and human rights principles was overshadowed by the release of a report by the still Democratic Party controlled US Senate on the CIA use of torture against Jihadists during the Bush Administration.

Old infringements against human rights by political opponents are used to cover up present infringements which are more serious than the old ones. Can anyone doubt that “chlorinating” opponents is no better than using waterboarding or sleep deprivation torture?

Worse still is the fact that the very same Obama administration that is turning a blind eye on "Chemical Assad" is also paving the way to a Nuclear Iran and went to the point of praising the inhumane Iranian aviation bombardments in Iraq that have used barrel bombing in Sunni Arab majority cities.

Eleven years after the disastrous invasion of Iraq, the US administration and the West in general do not understand that the Iranian regime is not the solution to combat Jihadism; quite on the contrary, directly and indirectly it has been the main promoter of Jihadism, and any cooperation with it can only insure the problem to grow bigger.

Saint Quentin, 2014-12-14 Paulo Casaca 4

Syria Break the wall of silence !

Syrian economic disaster: Regime disinformation campaign in full gear!

T

he Syrian authorities have disseminated through a plethora of their disinformation mechanisms (see for instance http://www.heritageforpeace.org/ syria-country-information/economy/) a story according to which the World Bank would have had made a report on Syria painting a rosy scenario of the country. For instance, according to the above mentioned site: “Syria’s GDP was $73.67 billion in 2012 (World Bank) and rose enormous over the last few years. The GDP growth (annual percentage) was 3.2 in 2010, and 5.0 in 2010 (projection)” For those of us who are accustomed to spot the working methods of the Iranian secret services (VEVAK) disinformation department, it is easy to detect the infamous Iranian agency fingerprints in this story.

Using terms and names which are the exact opposite of their own political agenda (“human rights” “peace” “ democracy” “ heritage”) a bizarre mix of inconsequential facts or real figures are cooked up with fantasy. The mix will come in different recipes, in different languages and from different locations, the objectives not always being what they look like.

In this case the objective is not so much the one of

And this objective seems to have been achieved, at least among a vast array of the Syrian opposition public opinion that have produced inflamed criticisms of the World Bank supposed report that would have praised the economic achievements of the Syrian authorities. See for instance http://enabbaladi.org/archives/21129; http://sadaalshaam.net/addons/News/views/Default/Home/web/ 4820; http://www.almodon.com/print/3f92bc01-fe51-4be0-a318fbbce8eb2c32/32ff7982-1842-4c08-8d56-5906f9977f6b https://sy.aliqtisadi.com/466962-‫"ﺔ‬#‫ﺳﻮ‬-‫ﻓﻲ‬-‫ﻟﺒﻄﺎﻟﺔ‬,--‫ﻟﻔﻘﺮ‬,-1‫ﻣﻌﺪﻻ‬-‫ﺟﻊ‬,‫ﺗﺮ‬/ http://www.alaraby.co.uk/economy/ad53ef23-4a52-4d34-9f7bba1fc06a8ce0; http://www.raialyoum.com/?p=165522; http://nasaem-syria.fm/moduls/pageitems/ecopage.aspx?

ProdId=631#.

We have contacted the World Bank in Washington DC that confirmed what we suspected in the first place. In 2014, the World Bank neither elaborated a report on Syria nor had any sort of engagement with the Syrian authorities.

The World Bank Syria team relies on figures from external sources such as EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit) and the Syrian Center for Policy Research.

The existing GDP forecasts existing on Syria are from the Global Economic Prospects (GEP) which is a World Bank Global report that is published twice a year (Jan and June) by the World Bank Development Economics team. http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/ global-economic-prospects” And so, if we consult this work we will see the following table:

convincing the international public opinion and even less the Syrians of something so contrary to reality and common sense as “an enormous growth” of the Syrian economy, but to propagate the idea that Syrian authorities have a good relation with such important international bodies as the World Bank.

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So it is absolutely false that the World Bank has issued a report on Syria, or for that matter, that it has any sort of relation with the Syrian authorities. Furthermore, what the existing regular global publication of the World Bank is saying on Syria is broadly the same we can read in any serious source of information: the Syrian economy has been performing disastrously!

Still, as to the long-run projections published in June, prospects are unfortunately very dim, only in 2016 – when hopefully the Syrian people will be free of the present regime – will the economy stop to flounder, projection that obviously does not allow any special political reading.

So the war of disinformation against the Syrian people continues relentlessly. This is the most dangerous way to keep the wall of silence on Syria.

Paulo Casaca, 2014-12-10

Who are the officers who trained ISIS ‘special units?’

Among the officers who are training ISIS units is a colonel from Muqdadiyah, Diyala, who was exposed to several assassination attempts by Shiite militias, forcing him to live in Mosul.

A son of another officer not present at the time told us: “My father was a major general in the Special Forces and worked as a coach at the Military College in the former regime times. He belonged to the Islamic State seven years ago. We are from the city of Mosul and my father was not religious like the rest of his fellow officers who trained ISIS, but when Saddam's regime fell, he dedicated himself to reading religious books and going to the mosque. We were all shocked by the sectarian practices of the security services and my father changed from a secular nationalist to a fundamentalist salafi. Some of his friends had previously joined ISIS, which encouraged him to do so.”

T

he reason why of the military capabilities of the Islamic State has been puzzling many observers. We decided therefore to shed some light on IS’s power and who is behind it. We managed to meet Iraqi officers who trained IS’s fighters. A high ranking officer of the former Iraqi army told us that he and a number of his colleagues have trained special combatant units for Islamic state in Mosul for months.

Some officers who were not religious or did not have Salafi tendencies were members of the Baath Party. In addition to providing the so-called ‘innocence of the Baath Party,’ many of them say that their ideological relationship also ended with the secular party, after growing religious tendencies following the fall of Baghdad and the growing influence of Shiite parties.

After their Shiite and Baathist colleagues in the former regime joined the opponents of the Party in the government army forces and Shiite militias, they had no choice but to join extremist Islamic Sunni armed groups that considered the Baath Party ‘blasphemous’.

One of these units participated in the latest attack on Ramadi (22/11/2014) and this attack was done with professional tactics in a new style. Among the officers who spoke to Quds al-Arabi were: a former colonel in the army who belongs to the al-Obeidi family in Hawija, Kirkuk; a dean from Dour, Salah al-Din who was in the commandos of the Republican Guard; a paratrooper major general from Al Ameriya in Baghdad; a colonel from Zammar who worked at the Mosul Training Centre; and a lieutenant colonel from Samarra who was in the Republican Guard, expelled from the army because of his Salafi faith, which was banned by President Saddam Hussein's regime.

Sunni former officers joining ISIS is not new. Many leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq were officers with Salafi tendencies and were expelled or prosecuted by the security services of the former Iraqi regime either in the army or in the Baath Party.

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A new strategy to combat Jihadism in the Arab heartland

One instructor of the former regime Special Forces, who joined al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2003, is a cousin of a member of the Baath Party Country Leadership, who belongs to the Ammash family, known for Baath partisan deep-rootedness. He was arrested by the former regime despite his family's history and military rank.

The most prominent founder (in 2003) of one of the most famous special units of al-Qaeda, ‘Storming Detachment,’ is Abul Abbas Qaraghuli, arrested two years ago and detained in one Nasiriyah prison. He led the storming of the Abu Ghraib prison, he was involved in the Jalal Mount Lebanon hotel (17/03/2004) bombings as well as the assassination of Ezzedine Salim, a leader of the Shiite Dawa Party (17/05/2004). Qaraghuli shares the same background relationship with the former regime as his colleague, Colonel Thamer al-Rishawi, in terms of membership in the security or military services, both of them being expelled because of their Salafi affiliations.

It has become familiar to the people of Mosul to see elements of ISIS performing special and arduous exercises, climbing tall buildings and descending ropes from bridges.

A soldier belonging to the above mentioned unit attacking Ramadi called Sarim Battar said. “Former officers and sports coaches train us. Affiliation with this unit is subject to special selection. One should be huge-bodied, strong-willed and fast-moving. The instructors subject us to a very difficult training that not everyone can stand. Among the exercises there is climbing buildings and bridges and then going down by ropes or umbrellas, diving into the water for no less than a minute and perform unarmed combat. We also have to run 7 kilometers per day and walk 500 meters while holding a bag weighing 50 kilograms. Of course, we also train with all kinds of light and medium weapons.”

“A part of this unit infiltrated the city of Ramadi from the East. Within minutes, the attack started by the engagement with government forces from several directions as well as shelling with mortars and guns.

This confused the Shiite militias and the Awakenings (al-Sahawat). We were able to capture a number of their leaders and killed many of them.”

Z

eid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) addressing the Security Council on November the 18th announced a fact-finding mission to Iraq and made the case for a new strategy to combat Jihadism in the region.

His call is based on two fundamental points. The first is to stress that we are facing an ideological struggle rather than a security related problem. In this context, he showed how the actions of the fanatic groups are not in line with Muslim religion rulings. The second is that while denouncing ISIS as an especially horrendous jihadist group, one should not forget the impact and capacities of ISIS rival Shi’a armed groups such as Asayib Ahl al-Haq. Targeting ISIS (Daesh) in tactical collusion with the terrorist groups supported by the Syrian or Iraqi authorities and masterminded by Tehran is a great disservice to the fight against jihadism.

In other words, the international community cannot see this war as an issue to be sorted out mainly by air strikes and it must condemn Jihadism across the Shia-Sunni divide.

A five day trip across Kurdistan supported by “Luftbrücke Iraq” – a German based association that fights to free Yezidis from captivity – leads me to fully subscribe to the qualification of genocide made by OHCHR to the crimes of Daesh.

OHCHR estimations of a minimum number of 1500 of Yezidi women and children enslaved by jihadists are underestimates. “Luftbrücke Iraq” has already compiled over 5000 documented cases.

Furthermore, and coming back to the issue of the methods to be used in combatting Daesh, we should keep in mind that while a large numbers of captives were sold or otherwise taken away from the front line to big cities in both Iraq and Syria, a large number remains or was returned to villages in the Sinjar region, which were transformed into concentration camps. A concentrated military effort across the front line in the region could result in the immediate liberation of many of these slaves, thus inflicting a serious blow to the Jihadists.

On the ideological front line – the fundamental one, as High Commissioner Al Hussein stresses – it is important to note that a large number of clerics firmly condemn the jihadists religious interpretations and stress that the forced conversions of Yezidis should be considered nonvalid. But this might not be enough.

Wael Essam and Omar al-Jubouri, Antakia- Mosul 24/11/2014 http://orient-news.net Translation by Iman Ibrahim & Angela Al Shoufi

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Syria Break the wall of silence !

would certainly get in trouble; second because this move from Iraq would not cover crimes already committed and thirdly because it is impossible to distinguish Iraq and Syria territorial jurisdiction in these crimes.

The only viable alternative is to constitute a special tribunal to judge Jihadist genocide crimes in Syria and Iraq, as it was done prior to the existence of ICC, for Nuremberg, for instance, or more recently for Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Yugoslavia; Cambodia or Bangladesh.

The constitution of all the special courts created up to today was possible only after the defeat of the human rights violations perpetrators. However, now, while we are considering instituting special courts, the culprits of the violations remain in power.

This means that the new judicial instrument would develop its action side by side with military operations on the ground. International justice would serve not only as a deterrent to new cases of human rights violations but also as a deterrent to ongoing human rights violations.

Paulo Casaca with Yezidi refugees

The United Arab Emirates not only labelled the jihadi organisations producing violence on the front line as terrorists, but the jihadi ideologues operating legally, sometimes even supported by the state, in countries like the US and the UK. I believe this bold attitude of the UAE authorities should be fully supported by OHCHR. How can we defeat jihadists, when we bomb them in Iraq and Syria but protect their ideologues back home?

And after setting the principles, we should then proceed to evaluate the actions proposed. High Commissioner Al Hussein repeatedly makes the case for Iraq to accept the International Criminal Court (ICC), and no one could contest the importance of this invitation. However, this does not lead to a realist strategy to deal with the issue.

First, because if Iraq would accept the ICC, the terrorist gangs operating with the benediction of the authorities

Some US lawmakers who are targeting Assad’s crimes have been very vocal in advancing this proposal. It would most likely need serious legal work to become implementable, but it is the only realistic option we have in front of us.

Jihadist major crimes against humanity from both the Sunni-Shia spectrum divide have been continuous in Iraq since 2003 and in Syria since 2011.

We should wait no longer. This is a challenge I leave here for the consideration of High Commissioner Al Hussein.

Erbil, 2014-11-24 Paulo Casaca

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D

In the autumn of 2011 the Muslim Brotherhood took the decision to initiate organised armed action and all forces of the ‘Istanbul Council’ (SNC) followed them.

Similarly to the Libyan situation, opposition violence was intended to be complemented by external military intervention. The SNC and its successor, the ‘Coalition of Revolution and Opposition Forces’ established on November 11, 2012, bet and lost.

uring the three years and eight months since the

beginning of the Syrian revolution (Daraa, March 18, 2011) there have been significant shifts in the Syrian opposition movement, which should be reviewed in order to understand the current situation.

The opposition movement during 2011-2012

The Syrian crisis, afterwards, mounted to the so-called “bleeding phase”, that is a conflict where no internal force can win or find a settlement. Although it was a local crisis, it was dominated by regional and international powers.

During the first three months of the crisis, and faced with a spontaneous mass movement, the organised opposition political forces, which had experienced prison and detention, working in secret and exile, had taken the initiative. They did so by establishing on one side the ‘National Coordinating Body’ or NCB (June 25, 2011), a combination of Marxist, left-wing Pan Arabist and Kurdish forces, and on the other, the ‘Syrian National Council’ or SNC (October 2, 2011), dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and the liberal People's Party.

The opposition movement during 2013 The dreams of a foreign military intervention vanished, as well as the hopes of toppling the regime by the armed opposition. That led, gradually, to the regression of the Muslim Brotherhood and their liberal allies’ role, as well as the Turkish- Qatari influence – which was the strongest under Washington’s patronage between 2011 and 2012.

In the two opposition coalitions, parties had prevailed over youth forces and independents despite the major role of ‘youth’ and ‘spontaneous street demonstrations’ in the former uprisings that accompanied the fall of Ben Ali and Mubarak. In both cases slogans promoted

by TV channels, especially Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera, called for ‘the death of parties and ideologies’.

Since the expansion of the Coalition on 31 May 2013 (the total of its members became 114) the Saudi influence on it rose. This was also the case on the opposition military battalions to which support was provided by Washington and Riyadh since the late 2012.

Obama asked the Syrian President to step down on August 18, 2011, shortly before the fall of Gaddafi in Bab al-Azizia (August 23). As the two processes seemed so close, the SNC’s representatives in Istanbul suggested a Syrian version of what happened in Libya with an external military intervention. Turkey was supposed to assume in Syria the role France carried out in Libya. The SNC was inspired in Mustafa Abdul Jalil’s council (National Transitional Council), through a similar composition dominated by Islamists and liberals, since the Syrian opposition movement would not be able to simulate the Tunisian and Egyptian cases. Therefore, the SNC gained popularity among many opponents at the time desiring to repeat the Libyan scenario through a council which would including the forces that h a d a l r e a d y d o m i n a t e d t h e ‘ D a m a s c u s Declaration’ (2005), who wanted to bet on the Western wind that toppled Saddam Hussein (in 2003) and then spread to Beirut (in the spring of 2005).

The absence of solutions to the Syrian crisis diminished the power of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Coalition and disintegrated the Staff as well as all opposition military formations. This gave strength to the Salafi jihadists, including al-Nusra Front, ISIS and Ahrar al-Sham. They became not only the strongest opposition military factions, but also the political force with the most powerful social influence among the circles that had been under the specific influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, or the SNC/Coalition as a whole between the autumns of 2011 and 2012.

The opposition movement during 2014 With the paralysis of the Syrian crisis and the high cost in terms of lives, property, increased cost of living and frustrated expectations for an end to the conflict, tendencies toward a settlement and compromise rose and those who supported a settlement became the majority in the Syrian society.

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However, the initiative of Sheikh Maaz al-Khatib, in February 2013, was ignored by both the government and the opposition and was received with little enthusiasm by the civil society.

The Syrian Coalition, therefore, lost the support of its grass roots as it wasn’t able to abandon its previous ambitions in toppling the regime, and failed in fostering an acceptable arrangement. Simultaneously, rampant corruption, as well as dictatorial and bad social practices of all the armed opposition factions in areas under their control, led to great unpopularity.

All this made the NCB, with its ‘three noes’ (no to external military intervention, no to violence, no to sectarianism), look stronger in the Syrian society. In addition, the regional-international trend towards a settlement, first through the Geneva 1 and Geneva 2 conferences (stopped by the Ukrainian crisis) and then Geneva 3, with indicators suggesting that ISIS would turn the crisis into a major regional/international one, made the NCB more internationally acceptable than the Coalition.

Recently the power of the fundamentalist Syrian Muslim Brotherhood eroded still further.

Mohamed Sayed Rasas, Syrian writer

November 25, 2014

The removal of the Hama triple (Riad el-Shakfeh, Farouk Tayfur and Mohammed Hatem Tabashi) from the leadership and the consequent election of a new leadership on November 6, was an indication of the failure of the Muslim Brotherhood in the period 2011-2014, equivalent to their previous failure of 1979-1982.

Syrian liberals sank alongside the Muslim Brotherhood’s boat, a boat they both boarded onto in 2005 and in 2011.

There is a decision from the international community to eradicate Salafi jihadism in its three expressions: ISIS, al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham.

Now an intermediate pro-settlement bloc, which has become the strongest in the current Syrian opposition movement, is being formed. It is composed of the NCB, those who left the Coalition (such as Maaz al-Khatib and Walid al-Bunni), the Kurdish Democratic Union, the Kurdish Council, the pro-Moscow Popular Front for Change and Liberation and the Cordoba Conference Group. It is likely that this bloc is the largest player among the opposition delegation to the anticipated Geneva 3 conference. http://www.al-akhbar.com Translation by Iman Ibrahim & Angela Al Shoufi

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United Arab Emirates sets the way to combat terrorism

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he public designation by the UAE authorities of 83 organisations as terrorists is a landmark decision in the global fight against the fanatic grey pest that threats humanity.

The very comprehensive list while including Sunni Jihadi organisations already designated by most Western authorities makes three dramatic breaks with Western misguided practices: 1. It does not spare the Jihadi front organisations acting on Western soil. The West has spared and sometimes even engaged with Western based Jihadi organisations that promote the same ideology and often run the logistics of the armed wings of the organisations that devastate the Muslim World. Although the West often covers this attitude with a legalistic reasoning, this policy rather reflects an appeasement strategy that intends to buy a non-belligerent attitude of the organisations on their own turf. This duplicity of the West is quite detrimental to the fight against terrorism; 2. It does not spare the Jihadi organisations acting under the thumb of the Iranian authorities. The West for the purpose of appeasing the Iranian clerical regime has not listed them. Organisations linked to both Iraqi and Syrian governments under Iranian clerical influence such as Abu Dhar al-Ghifari Battalion in Syria, The Badr Organisation in Iraq, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq in Iraq (The Leagues of the Righteous) or Iraqi Hezbollah are listed by UAE. The Sunni jihadi terrorist network operating with the support of the Iranian authorities – Al Qaeda in Iran – is not spared either. However, neither the Iranian Revolutionary Guards nor the Lebanese Hezbollah are listed, in spite of being by far the most powerful terrorist organisations within the Iranian clerical sphere, and most likely at the World level. This might mean that the tiny UAE boldness has its limits and UAE does not want to confront directly the head of the monster.

3. The list does not include organisations that the West had listed to appease authoritarian regimes.

Western government’s appeasement policy has reached the point where not only the sponsors of terrorism are excluded, but, on the contrary, those who resisted terrorism were blacklisted. This despicable appeasement policy was only reversed by successive Judicial Court orders in the case of the main Iranian opposition organisation.

The attitude of the UAE authorities has a tremendous impact on the global fight against jihadism.

To start with, Western islamophobia and bigotry receives a severe punch. An Islamic state – and quite an orthodox Islamic state – had the courage to set a clear policy to combat the abuse of the Muslim religion by those who want to exert a totalitarian power under its banner. So, the idea that all Muslims are alike, that Jihadism is a consequence of the Quran or other misguided popular ideas in the West, all receive a tremendous blow.

Secondly, those Jihadists who have covered their criminal ideology under the name of Islam and have falsely accused those who oppose their criminal intentions as “Islamophobes” receive an equivalent blow. To claim that the UAE is Islamophobe, as stated by some Jihadi apologists lobbying for Jihadi front organisations in the West, is just laughable.

Thirdly, the Western appeasement policy is put under high pressure. European citizens will now raise ever more the question: why are Western governments protecting – and sometimes even financing – organisations that were identified by moderate Muslim states as terrorists? Why does the West cooperate with terrorist organisations such as the Badr brigades in Iraq, that now control the Ministry of the Interior of this country?

I believe that the West should act in a less arrogant way and should learn the lesson given by UAE. Terrorism that is now devastating the Middle East will eventually come to the core of the Western World if it succeeds there. The Western appeasement policy towards religious fanaticism is a delaying tactic that endangers Western security in the long run.

Paulo Casaca

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Brussels, 2014-11-18

Syria Break the wall of silence !

Iran in Syria From an Ally of the Regime to an Occupying Force Commander Qassem Soleimani

I

One of the first steps in this Iranian effort was the creation of the Syrian National Defence Forces (NDF), which was modeled on the Iranian Basij force and its experience in suppressing Iran’s own dissident movements, particularly the 2009 pro-democracy protests known as the Green Movement. The NDF, which is commonly known among Syrians as the shabbiha, was thus charged with doing the ‘dirty work’ of the regime by suppressing the anti-regime protests instead of the regular armed forces, just like in Iran. Indeed, this chapter shows that the Iranian role in creating the shabbiha was not confined to advice but included training, arming and funding this notorious militia.

As the revolution was pushed towards militarization and opposition armed forces started to achieve military advances on the ground around mid-2012, the Iranian regime made a strategic decision to send some of its loyal militias in Lebanon and Iraq to fight in Syria alongside, and even on behalf of, the Syrian regime forces.

The chapter tracks the gradual development of the role of these militias from supporting Syrian regime forces to assuming a leading role in all major strategic battles (alQusayr, Homs, Yabroud, etc.). The chapter looks in detail at the role of Hezbollah Lebanon, Iraqi Shia militias, Afghan and other Shia fighters trained, armed and directed by Sepah Pasdaran. The leading role in these keys battles would be assigned to Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed militias, who were seen as more reliable and better organized than the regular Syrian army.

n September 2014, the Naame Shaam campaign (a group of Iranian, Syrian and Lebanese activists that focuses on uncovering the role of the Iranian regime in Syria) released a report which was the result of a year of work. It draws largely on information gathered from monitoring Syrian, Iranian and the international media’s coverage of events in Syria.

The core argument of this report is that the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad would have collapsed a long time ago, if it were not for the enormous military and economic support provided to it by the Iranian regime since March 2011, following the outbreak of the Syrian revolution.

One result of this heavy Iranian involvement in the war in Syria has been a qualitative change in the nature of the relationship between the Syrian and the Iranian regimes.

From being historically mutually beneficial allies, the Iranian regime is now effectively an occupying force in the regime-held areas of Syria, and the Syrian regime is little more than a puppet in the hands of Sepah Pasdaran (the Iranian Revolution Guards) and its foreign operations, arm Sepah Qods. The latter’s commanderin-chief, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, is the de facto ruler of ‘Iranian-occupied Syria’.

Moreover, the authors argue that the Iranian regime’s influence in Syria is likely to continue even after the fall of the Assad regime because it is now exercised primarily through Iranian-backed and controlled militias fighting in Syria on behalf of the Syrian regime. Many of these militias, both local and foreign, are likely to outlive Bashar al-Assad and his inner circle.

The report provides numerous examples of human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria by all these Iranian-controlled militias and forces, highlighting possible lawsuits against the Iranian regime, due to sufficient, for complicity in many of these crimes at various levels, ranging from ‘inciting’ and ‘endorsing and adopting’ specific acts to ‘aiding and abetting’ war crimes and crimes against humanity. One of the examples included in the chapter, and perhaps the most significant, is the Ghouta chemical massacre near Damascus in August 2013. The case study details three types of evidence that strongly indicate a possible role for Sepah Pasdaran in this and other chemical massacres

The Iranian Regime in Syria The first chapter of the report tracks the Iranian regime’s military involvement in the current war in Syria which grew gradually. In early 2011, Sepah Qods as well as several Iranian intelligence agencies, formed a top-level ‘advisory mission’ to assist the Syrian regime in its ‘crisis’ following the start of the revolution. The mission was said to be headed by the former commander of Sepah Pasdaran’s Greater Tehran unit, Brigadier-General Hossein Hamedani, and the commander-in-chief of Sepah Qods, Gen. Qassem Soleimani. They reportedly dispatched Sepah Pasdaran commanders skilled in urban and guerrilla warfare to supervise and direct military operations in Syria.

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committed in Syria in 2013 and 2014.

Finally, it examines the role of Iranian fighters and weapons sent to Syria, and tracks their journey – like other aspects of the Iranian military involvement in Syria – from initial denial by Iranian officials, through intermittent admissions, and gradual emergence of undeniable evidence.

Recognizing the war in Syria as an international conflict that involves a foreign occupation and a people struggling for liberation, may also provide a powerful ‘legal weapon’ against the Iranian regime, namely that it is committing “grave breaches” of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which are considered even more serious war crimes than the ones outlined in chapter I. Based on this new narrative, the authors also propose a new set of demands addressed to the European Union, the US and their allies in the Friends of Syria group, as well as the UN and other international bodies.

Syria Under Military Occupation Chapter II builds on these details and presents a case for treating the war in Syria as an international conflict that involves a foreign occupation (by the Iranian regime) and a liberation struggle by Syrian people against this foreign occupation.

It is the view of the authors that, unless the Syrian opposition is united in pushing for the war in Syria to be recognized as an international conflict, the US and other Western powers are likely to continue with their ‘slow bleeding’ policy towards Iran and not publicly admit that the war in Syria is one against the Iranian regime, so as to avoid being pressured into taking concrete steps to end the bloodshed in Syria and the wider region.

This chapter starts with a legal discussion of what constitutes a military occupation, as defined by the 1907 Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, and whether the Iranian regime’s presence in Syria can be defined as a military occupation.

Iran’s Vietnam The third and last chapter sheds light on main aspects of what is described as ‘Iran’s Vietnam’ in Syria, namely the economic and human costs to Iran of the war in Syria and what sort of impact it has on the Iranian economy and ordinary Iranians.

The authors propose that the Syrian case is treated as what is sometimes called ‘occupation with an indigenous government in post’. They suggest invoking Article 1 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which provides that conflicts shall be qualified as international when they occur between a state and an authority representing a people “fighting against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist regimes in the exercise of their right of selfdetermination.”

In order to prove that the Iranian presence in Syria is a real occupation, the authors reveal information relayed to them by a high-ranking and reliable source in the Syrian opposition, quoting Western intelligence officials, as well as various pieces of circumstantial evidence, the authors conclude that the high-profile operation had nothing to do with the Free Syrian Army or other opposition armed groups, as media reports claimed at the time. It was, rather, carried out by Sepah Pasdaran, possibly with direct orders from Gen. Qassem Soleimani himself.

The high-ranking and reliable source in the Syrian opposition told Naame Shaam that some members in the “crisis cell” had been opening communications channels with Arab Gulf states and the US to make a deal behind Iran’s back. The Pasdaran struck to prevent such a deal and, since then, to fully control President Assad who de facto became their hostage.

One indicator of this enormous burden on the Iranian economy is the inflation rate, which has more than tripled between 2009 and 2014, and has increased by about 10 percent since the start of the war in Syria in 2011. As a result, almost a third of all families in Iran (31 percent) live below the poverty line in 2014.

While the Iranian regime has made a choice to ‘go for it’ in Syria at any cost, this ‘Syrian Vietnam’ is not just a consequence of this choice. It is also a policy by the US administration and its allies, which the authors describe as the strategy of ‘slowly bleeding Iran in Syria.’

As the authors put it, it may be true that Syria has become ‘Iran’s Vietnam’ and that Iran is ‘bleeding’ in Syria. But the Iranian regime may be capable of bleeding for a long time to come, much longer than the Syrian people can endure.

Iman Ibrahim

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!Art!Of!Resilience Syrian!Artists,!Aley2Lebanon!

R

aghad Mardini is the director of Art Residence Aley (ARA), which she founded in 2012, a NGO that supports Syrian artists and curates exhibitions and performances worldwide. Born in Syria, she studied and taught engineering and design in Damascus University. Furthermore, she designed, supervised, and restored many houses in Damascus, rented and restored an old horse stable in Aley (Mount Lebanon) that was turned it into an art residence which hosts artists on a monthly basis and provides them with space and freedom to express themselves through art.

Raghad holds a Masters in Structural Engineering and BSS in Civil engineering from Damascus University.

Raghad Mardini

“I have always been involved in the art scene in Damascus. After the situation in Syria deteriorated, around October 2011, thousands of Syrians fled to Lebanon, among them many young emerging artists.

With the difficult conditions and emotional trauma, artists had to take available jobs in construction and in restaurants instead of creating art. Given the situation and my belief in the importance of art in times of war, the idea of the Art Residence in Aley (ARA) arose”.

Watch the video

Through a rapidly growing spotlight in the press, the artists obtained worldwide publicity and visibility.

Most importantly, ARA is used as a tool to clear misconceptions about Syria and strengthen the artists to assume their role as a social factor in post-conflict Syria to be an effective civil part in the peace building process.

Since May 2012, ARA began to host artists in recently renovated historic stables in Aley, providing full- board accommodation, work materials, and stipend, for two young artists each month to share the space. The project offers a sense of security, freedom of expression, and inspiration, which help artists to experiment and establish grounds for growth. The works produced at the project of various contemporary techniques – such as painting, sculpture, art performance, video art, etching and photography - have been showcased at many exhibitions both in Lebanon and abroad, and are available on our website: www.artresidencealey.com As a result, ARA acts like a cultural safety net. Syria is losing its history, structures and beauty. This is our attempt to preserve the Syrian culture and steadily mark the value of art as a factor of change while widening the social and cultural scope in times of war through art.

Since May 2012, ARA has hosted 50 artists from different backgrounds and artistic measures; each bringing forth their unique experience in its distinctive form of articulation. Participants apply through an ongoing Open Call on the website, and the selection process takes form based on age, conflict zone and artistic level. The jury is composed of art professors and established artists.

At the time being, ARA is expecting to host more artists in the near future and is in the process of releasing a campaign to gather funds to buy an etching press to establish a studio for graphics.

ARA aims to maintain a dynamic space to bolster the resilience of Syrian artists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Bb73lWuoM Email: info@artresidencealey.com Maan Alhasbane

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Jalila Documentary by Adnan Jetto

Watch the video

It could be just another film about a woman, or a film about “the woman”, like the ones we would see in our everyday lives.

Jalila goes beyond depicting Syrian women involved in the uprising. She brings a different perspective on women in a crisis or in a war situation.

Jalila is not about a comrade fighting on the frontline, nor about a woman grieving over her martyr son, it’s about women standing against injustice. It's about a woman who overcame rape and rose up to prevent it from happening to others.

A woman who is dauntless and powerful but yet tender and beautiful.

This preserved identity of being a woman in everything she does, whether smelling a flower or fighting in a battle field, is what the film about. Jalila is not a character in the film, Jalila is every woman in the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydN_a5F3eE8

Niroz Watch the video

Niroz Kurdish Girl in Domiz refugee camp Domiz camp Kurdistan was buillt in 2012 to hold 20,000 refugees fleeing the war in Syria. With over 600 people arriving everyday it's now home to over 60.000 refugees. Most of them are children. Niroz is a ten years old girl. Smart, beautiful, ambitious! She did not stop to dream of becoming a heart surgeon in spite of all the difficulties experienced in the camp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T73btqWT-Y

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The children of Syria have their own fears of Halloween

Watch the video

Halloween… a day of horror… a day of fear… some people around the world celebrate it… they might not know that others experience horror on a daily basis… Can you imagine leaving home and not expecting to come back? Can you imagine hearing the sound of rockets flying through the air without knowing whether they are going to kill you or someone you love? Can you imagine seeing fear in children’s eyes and not being able to do something to soothe their fears? This is what we go through every day and every minute in Syria! It’s Assad’s daily Halloween. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8grBttQYuEQ&feature=youtu.be

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Jasmine Baladi boys) were officially registered to participate in the Studio’s activities. The lack of schools in Reyhanli and their inability to support the children from a psychological and social point of view are the main reasons that a large number of children are not attending school. Jasmine Baladi Studio is a safe alternative to protect children from spending their time in the streets even more so after years of difficulties, problems, homelessness and living in a war scenario. These children come to the studio to participate in many types of activities led by Jasmine Baladi’s team. Children receive psychosocial support and have the space to express themselves in a surrounding that allows them to be creative and express themselves without constraints.

The Studio also offers small educational support, as, for example, the Syrian library, and a coach who is always available.

A Syrian German children NGO

J

asmine Baladi is a Syrian-German organization founded in 2012 and that operates as a licensed non-profit organization registered in Germany since the beginning of 2014.

Jasmine Baladi chose Reyhanli in Turkey as the headquarters for its activities. Reyhanli is a small town very close to the Syrian border crossing “Bab al-Hawa”. Since 2012, Reyhanli has received a large number of refugees escaping from northern Syria and seeking safety for themselves and their children. In Reyhanli there are thousands of children with a wide range of financial and social background.

What are the Vision, Mission and Aim of Jasmine Baladi?

Our Vision: Childhood without suffering.

Our Mission: Researching and implementing projects that adopt tools and methods along with a well-trained professional staff to help children rebalance their daily lives.

Children, in particular Syrian Children, are the main beneficiaries of Jasmine Baladi’s work, children who were exposed to the toughest situations that led to the daily and gradual loss of their fundamental rights. We focus on lifting children’s morale and helping them to overcome the fears they face. We work on improving the psychological status of the Syrian children by offering them the quality leisure time for them to amuse themselves, which they did not have in the past due to the war. Therefore, we help the children who suffer from some behavioral and psychological disturbances by helping them without letting them realize that they are under treatment; these methods of treatment are applied through playing, dialogues, and entertainment.

Can you give us an idea about what Jasmine Baladi Studio is and what are its activities?

Jasmine Baladi Studio opened in Reyhanli in November 2013 to receive Syrian children who are 4 – 14 years old in order to allow them to enjoy their childhood through playing, acting, drawing and watching movies in the studio. During the first 3 weeks, they received approximately 2000 Syrian and Turkish children, and by the beginning of the second month, about 300 childrens (girls and

On what bases do you plan your projects?

In Jasmine Baladi Studio, we plan the projects strategically after assessing the basic needs of the children and its surroundings. We implement our project through special programs that help improve gradually the child’s psychological status. Based on our previous experiences in Beirut (Lebanon) and Bab al-Hawa camp (Syria), we found that a child’s basic need is to have a safe haven to express and vent the negative emotions associated with events that took place in the past as well as ongoing difficulties. Our current work in Reyhanli allows for a positive interaction between the Studio, the parents and children and in particular increasingly positive behavior of the children as well as improved human values. Jasmine Baladi focuses on strengthening moral principles and human values by making the children apply these principles and values in their daily activities to ensure their ability to build their future in a healthy manner.

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How do you measure the results of your projects?

In the past, we have measured our results in two ways: 1-Measuring the results of short-term goals: We submit logical short-term goals that built up from one level to the other having zero as a starting point. Through implementing the right methods, having into consideration the circumstances of Syrian families and our area in general, we try to gradually reach these goals one by one. As we achieve a certain percentage of these goals, we can measure our success considering which ones have been accomplished.

2-Random continuous surveys: these surveys are directed to the children as well as the parents who are attending and following up on our work. Based on the results of the surveys we distribute during the projects, we can adjust our plan in order to adapt during the ongoing projects and to allows us to have a feedback before the end of the projects.

When the projects are over we conduct another type of surveys to see what changes the project / program has achieved.

What are the main criteria you follow in your projects?

- Age: Children between 4 and 14 years old.

- Social background: This isn't a criteria since children from all social backgrounds have been affected by the war.

- Location: Syrian children living in Reyhanli.

- Health situation: Since we are operating in an enclosed area, we prefer not to accept physically sick children until they get better in order not to contaminate the other children; nonetheless, we offer advice to their parents on how to treat and look after them.

- We accept children with all types of physical and mental disabilities as well as behavioral problems since we have a specialist who is able to provide assistance in dealing with their specific needs.

What projects have you undertaken so far?

In addition to our temporary projects in Syria and abroad, the following projects and activities are the main ones being undertaken by Jasmine Baladi: - The Intensive Care workshop in Beirut- Lebanon, 2012 - Happiness Tent in Bab Al Hawa camp – Syria, 2013 - Jasmine Baladi’s Sport Academy in Reyhanli – Turkey, 2013 - Present - Entertainment activities in the Syrian schools in Reyhanli- Turkey, 2013 - 2014 - Jasmine Baladi Studio in Reyhanli, 2013 - Present - Zinat Al Hayat, which is an independent project in cooperation with Jasmine Baladi. It aims to take care of children with special needs in Reyhanli, 2014 - Present

info.jasmine.b@gmail.com http://www.jasmine-baladi.com https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jasmine-BaladiStudio/426680914064964 Interview By Maan Alhasbane

Jasmine Baladi

Watch the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJy0NWQ18VU 18

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Marwan Alhasbane Martyr of Freedom ‌ Martyr of Syria

Peaceful Syrian activist who attended the Syrian revolution since its inception He was arrested by Syrian intelligence in Damascus 17/02/2014 He was tortured to death 12/03/2014

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www.archumankind.com Maan Alhasbane Media Director Editor of Syria Break the wall of Silence OďŹƒce: +3228084208 Avenue des Arts 19 B-1210 Brussels-Belgium maan@archumankind.com

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