Trying to Understand Syria

On Monday, August 1, 2016 I was privileged to have an in depth conversation with a Syrian doctor who has lived in the US for the past 27 years, to get his personal analysis of the political situation in Syria. I had approached him with many questions due to what appeared to me to be a near complete disconnect between Islamic vs Leftist, or US vs Russian news reports. I would like to resolve this gap in mutual understanding to move to the next level of problem solving.

Sam said in order to understand, we have to go back in history. His father was a member of the socialist, nationalist Baathist party, which was one of many post-colonial movements, and came to power in Syria in 1963. He said his father was a “true leftist” and a high-ranking military officer. In 1970, Hafiz al-Assad, the defense minister, staged a coup against the party to take power. He claimed his intention was to get the Baath party on the right track after it had become corrupted. Assad’s “corrective movement” purged half or more of the party’s leaders, including Sam’s father.

Leftists in Syria believe that Hafiz al-Assad’s coup was staged by the West in order to dismantle the socialist movement. The US at that time was propping up several governments in South America, Southeast Asia and Africa where policy decisions were made by one person. These governments, including the newly installed Assad regime, were less than socialist and more like a dictatorship. Under Assad, the political rhetoric remained leftist but in actuality, Assad tortured and wiped out all the Communists in Syria, which had been around 10% of the population.

King Hussein of Jordan had previously kicked the Palestinians out of Jordan and sent them to Lebanon. Under Hafiz Assad, Syria occupied Lebanon and purged both leftists and Palestinians. He sent the PLO and Arafat out of Lebanon and forced them to live in Tunisia. Eventually, they were able to return to the West Bank after Arafat’s peace treaty with Israel.

The Syrian regime has always been pro-Western and pro-Israel but using leftist rhetoric because of popular sentiment. Assad depended heavily on his Alawite sect, the elite of which became a mafia ruling the country and dominating the military and intelligence agencies. Assad ruled by force of intimidation and torture. His dictatorship was run by the Alawite minority using socialist slogans. Syria was not anti-American/pro-Russia as many western leftists believed. The Syrian regime, similarly to the Iranian, would use slogans such as “resistance and steadfastness” and “Death to America!” which caused the gullible to believe these regimes were anti-imperialist. However, Iran has helped the US greatly in both Afghanistan and Iraq. The US then basically handed the power to Iran in Iraq after removing Saddam Hussein at great cost.

Syria was also no anti-imperialist. The Golan Heights never had a more secure Israeli border until after Assad. Rather than pushing against Israel, Assad was busy fighting Palestinians in Lebanon. If Assad had pushed against Israel, Israel would not have swallowed the West Bank.

The US didn’t mind him saying anti-American things. He still sent his kids to college in the US and came to the US for medical treatment. His and his junta’s assets were secured in Western banks. Assad regime was not anti-US nor anti-Israel.

The Syrian Revolution came in spite of the Americans, it was not instigated by the US. They said at first they would support the “moderates” but they didn’t deliver on their promise. The US could have helped Syrians overthrow the regime but the fighters didn’t get the anti-aircraft missiles they needed, (and were crucial to win) except what they captured from the regime. The US did give FSA a few anti-tank missiles but the revolution could not survive without anti-aircraft missiles, which the US gave out 2 or 3 at a time. The short supply was secured by the US government, which could deactivate the anti-aircraft missiles at will. The technology was constantly monitored as to its whereabouts by the US, and only one person was allowed to use it, using their thumbprint. Then whenever the US decided they could cut him off. So this American help was not help. There was no trust.

Had the US supported moderate rebels, they would have overthrown Assad long ago. US is working with the regime. Their goal is not to allow any side to win, and not ending anything.

Chemical weapons were used, and nothing happened despite American declared red lines. There was a point when the regime was weak but the US did not intervene to tip the balance towards the rebels. After a few planes had been shot down, Assad would have been forced to come to the negotiating table. But the US is working with the Russians.

The US gave limited amounts of weapons to FSA -  the Syrian army members that defected because they refused to fire upon their own people and have now joined the people’s struggle. The FSA received no practical help from the US. The Islamists have more support. They are rumored to receive weapons from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and even from Iran and the regime!

Why? Because the Syrian regime wants to be seen as “fighting Islamic extremists.” The world would see the moderate democratic rights activists as a viable option to replace Assad. But the world will never accept an Islamic government. Therefore in 2012, the regime actually released thousands of Islamic movement prisoners, who became the leaders of the Islamic resistance, which soon overpowered the secular Free Syria movement. Most Syrians do not want an Islamic government and many even prefer the regime, but the world powers promoted the Islamists in order to get rid of the potential acceptance of a popular Syrian movement for democracy.

The regime is acting in concert with the West’s policies. They got rid of any acceptable replacement to their government. The initial revolution was wiped out and their struggle for freedom was replaced by a struggle between the regime and Islamist forces.

Since the 1940’s, there existed the Muslim Brotherhood, who wanted to work within the system and use elections to promote their political platform, but there was no big Islamic movement in Syria. The moderate Muslim Brotherhood was outlawed and their members would be executed.

ISIS could not survive without outside support. They have regular military parades displaying their weaponry but nobody bombs them. Nobody touches the ISIS convoys with their many many vehicles. They are supposedly opposed by Russia, the West, and all other countries but even the US bombing is not effective. It serves no purpose except to justify continued military presence in the area.

The US support to the Kurds is very open, and serves to demonstrate the difference between Kurdish areas and other areas in Syria. Any time a Kurdish town is about to fall, the US will actively intervene effectively. The Kurds have a defacto alliance with the Syrian regime, who does not bomb them, and with Israel, who used them to fight against Saddam Hussein.

Nobody really knows who arms ISIS. They are heavily armed, made up of foreign fighters, and they are fighting the Syrian regime’s foes. The regime gave up land to ISIS without a fight. There was a regime prison notorious for torture. ISIS blew up the prison, destroying all evidence.

Sam said the US preferred Assad and stability for their geopolitical ambitions. Assad helped Israel neutralize Egypt in Sinai. He told me to look up Henry Kissinger’s 1973 pact between Assad and Israel.

Regardless of what the US wants, the Assad regime is no longer acceptable to govern because of what he has done. Assad has to be replaced; could be with a similar regime with a new name but that he needs to be replaced is a fact. It doesn’t mean that the US desires it but they have to work with the situation. The US has not supported the uprising against Assad. But at this point there is no choice for the world powers. Once they desire to solve the problem, replacement of Assad is a must. This is not a victory for the revolution. Perhaps some of the people’s demands will be addressed.

Boston Muslim Shot and Killed & then Convicted by the Media

June 7, 2015
http://www.newtrendmag.org/ntma1605.htm


At 7am on Tuesday, June 2, a black Muslim man, Usaama Rahim, 26, was shot by Boston FBI and police in front of the CVS in Roslindale, a relatively nice area of Boston. His brother, Ibrahim Rahim, who is an imam in California, stated that Usaama was waiting for the bus to go to work when police and FBI approached him for "questioning." The police claim he wielded a knife, which left them no choice but to shoot him dead.

Not a single community organization in Boston from the Green Rainbow Party to the Muslims have made any kind of immediate attempt at organizing a demonstration or making a statement as one would expect. The news reports that the man was "under investigation" (as we all are). This alone is enough for them to say the authorities killed a "terrorism suspect." There are some reports the man had made some statements online supporting the Islamic Caliphate. He had been trailed by government agents for the past 6 days 24/7 and was said to be visibly nervous.

This event is even more alarming than your average police shooting because, like the case of Ibrahim Todashev, who was killed by Boston police and FBI in his Florida home in 2013, the murder appears to be premeditated. Todashev is also said to have lunged at officers, which somehow resulted in him being hit in every major organ and a final kill shot to the back of the head.

"CNN already has the black Muslim killed by Boston police convicted as "part of terror network" - a "source" said so!" opined Glenn Greenwald that day. "1) Police kill a black US Muslim on the street; 2) anonymously claim he follows ISIS on social media; 3) case closed."

Local clergy were invited to view the videotape of the event. Imam Farooq Abdullah, who is a highly respected local African American leader, stated that the footage was very distant and inconclusive as to whether or not the man had brandished a knife but it was true that the police backed up several yards before shooting him in the chest. He was not, as his brother Ibrahim was told by their father, shot in the back, nor was he talking on a cell phone at that moment.

Nevertheless, there was no need to kill him. The story about him planning to behead a police officer sounds far-fetched, though if true, would indicate that he was either mentally unstable or just making a joke about smoking pigs. If the authorities actually had any evidence of this plot, they could have easily obtained a warrant for his arrest. Approaching him in the street to intimidate him was certainly not the appropriate way to deal with either a dangerous terrorist or a mentally ill person. They could have left their card at his house or called him.

The most worrying aspect of this entire story is the complete silence of the usual activist crowd.

What is the matter with this town? They stopped traffic when police killed a black man elsewhere, but when it happens here at home they don't care? Why, because he is Muslim? I posted a comment expressing concern on Mayor Walsh's Facebook page and was deluged by hateful comments, mostly from Irish people, who are convinced the police must have been justified in killing a terrorist and that by killing him, they saved a lot of taxpayer's money.

Most likely, public sentiment against Muslims has been stoked by the Boston Marathon Bombing trials, which are all winding down this month. On Tuesday, June 2, Dias Kadyrbayev, the Kazakh friend who threw away the backpack, was sentenced to 6 years by Judge Woodlock after agreeing to plead guilty. Azamat Tazhayakov of Kazakhstan and Robel Phillipos of Ethiopian heritage, who both plead innocent but were found guilty, and Khairullozhon Matanov of Kyrgyzstan, who agreed to plead guilty because he knew he would not get a fair trial in Boston, will be sentenced within the week. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's official sentencing is scheduled for June 24. Dias, Azamat and Khairullozhon are expected to be deported after serving out their sentences. Stephen Silva, who sold Dzhokhar the gun, got 7 years. Silva is being held in general population and Robel is under house arrest while the Asian kids are all in solitary confinement. After sentencing they will be moved to other prisons. I pray they will be safe.

FSA Making Strides Despite Russian Bombing

My primary access to information in the English language, other than New Trend, is from youtube videos forwarded by Syrian Americans of live war footage as well as Arabic news shows that have subtitles or at least give a summary of what is going on in the video. So I lack military knowledge, but I have grown up around the Arabs of Michigan.

My intuitive analysis is that the mainstream attitude of Syrian-American youth is represented by support for the Free Syrian Army. Al-Nusra's approach to politics represents the mainstream point of view of the Sunni religious conservative elders. ISIS represents or draws from the glorious End Times Prophecies, including the Return of Jesus (pbuh), that are described in some Islamic hadith and are very often quoted by South Asians. Some Muslims base a large part of their faith upon these prophecies while others view these hadith as weak and suspect that they were planted by the British Illuminati. Either way, these hadith are very important to understanding why people would leave their homes to go fight for an Islamic State as opposed to mere political freedom for the Syrians.

About one month ago, American journalist Bilal Abdul Kareem interviewed Shaykh Abu Firas [ YouTube.com/watch?v=0RIsR9LXiWU ] , member of Jabha Nusra's Majlis Ashura, regarding his group's stance concerning ISIS

Abu Firas stated that ISIS offered to join forces with al-Nusra, which is often called an offshoot of al-Qaeda. The US State department considers them as Islamic moderates affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The old bearded man said that they do want to establish Islam as the law of the land, that is their goal. However, al-Nusra is not comfortable with ISIS's approach, in particular their decision to declare the Free Syrian Army (FSA) as kuffar or infidels. ISIS leaders told al-Nusra that they would only be willing to work with them if al-Nusra would fight against FSA.

The Shaykh said they could not agree to this because the FSA represents the vast majority of the local Syrian militia groups, most of whom are guarding their own town. FSA is a wide spectrum of people whose common goal is to topple Assad and to defend their homeland. Some of the fighters are sincerely religious Muslims who want to establish Islam as a way of life, while other fighters have a more secular mindset. Many even have family members living in the US. Al-Nusra refused to reject the FSA as allies or to declare them kuffar. This is why the two main Islamic fighting groups are not working together.

October 7, 2015 was a historic day for the FSA. "Let today be the day that it is recorded... The Assad regime with Iranian boots, Hezbollah mercenaries, sectarian militias, and the cover of Russian aerial bombardments.... Could NOT.... advance on the Free Syrian Army in Hama's suburbs....AND....That our freedom fighters were able to destroy 26 tanks (and others).... Seize two tanks a spoils... Take some POW's.... And much more...." was the news circulating on facebook. Other accounts place the number of tanks destroyed at closer to 15.

The Orient News [ YouTube.com/watch?v=wQFJFrx6Sys ] showed very exciting footage of FSA fighters shooting rockets at advancing tanks. One shot, and the tank is completely obliterated. They didn't just topple the tank over. BOOM! The tank is gone. The marksmanship of the fighters is impressively accurate despite the apparent clumsiness of the launching apparatus, while the weapons themselves must be very advanced, to cause such total damage. This is no homemade device. I am told the rockets are supplied by Libya or UAE.

"On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin's fighter jets rocketed an ammunition storehouse, destroying artillery, armored personnel carriers and even tanks belonging to Liwa Suqour al-Jabal, or The Mountain Eagles, a U.S.-backed brigade of the Free Syrian Army," writes Michael Weiss in the Daily Beast.

A video uploaded by the brigade to YouTube shows the burning wreckage of the Russian airstrike, in Mansoura, in the western suburbs of Aleppo, as the local commander known as Abu Mohammed taunts his enemy: "Thank God, we are all fine," says Abu Mohammed. "We don't fear Russia or anyone helping the Russians. Bashar, we will remain resistant fighting you even without any ammunition or bullets. We will fight you with knives. We don't need ammunition, Allahu Akhbar."

Weiss reports also that while the Russian airplanes were targeting Suqour al-Jabal's weapon depots in Aleppo and ISIS attacked the bases with explosives at the same time.

"In the last week, less than 10 percent of all Russian missiles (and now ship-borne cruise missiles) have struck ISIS or al-Qaeda-affiliated targets, according to the U.S. State Department. What is a consensus view among analysts is that ISIS clearly is not Putin's quarry in Syria, at least not yet, because he's too busy killing the anti-Assad rebels supported and armed by the Central Intelligence Agency. U.S. officials have acknowledged as much."

Further complicating things, Russian propaganda is stating that they are bombing ISIS targets when in fact they are bombing areas that are held by FSA. On October 5, 2015 Bilal Abdul Kareem reported [ YouTube.com/watch?v=tXy5vkPKw9g ] on site very close to the Turkish border. His interviewee, a fighter for FSA, said the Russian planes trespassed over Turkish airspace, flying over from the Turkish side before bombing.

Due to smart phones, the front lines of war are being filmed in action and watched online. Lighter videos involve fighters showing off their weapons and their prowess. The darkest documentaries show piles of dead children and total desolation. It remains to be seen if our ability to literally watch a war as it unfolds on the ground will result in anything but personal horror, or if there will be some ability for people to influence events due to their ability to communicate directly with the people involved in wars.

[New Trend comment: Daily Beast is a known anti-Islam publication. The editor of New Trend was subjected to slanderous attacks by the Daily Beast. The attacks were then picked up by all the Zionist media from the New York Times to the Washington Post. Secondly, the claim that some hadith were planted by the "British illuminati" is simply too ridiculous to require a response. Thirdly:The viewpoint of al-Nusra would be acceptable if ISIS' viewpoint were placed next to it. ISIS has set up a Caliphate and the debate should be within that context. Fourthly the FSA's viewpoint that the war is for secularist values must be rejected. Perhaps the conflict originally began for democracy and justice but Bashar Assad drowned the unarmed protests in blood and torture. It is now Jihad all the way. The Islamic resistance is the key to the struggle against Assad.]

http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1623.htm

UK: Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill receives “Royal Assent” to seize passports, assets, and children of Muslim citizens

Even before the UK’s draconian new Counter-Terrorism bill has been passed into law, the British government has started taking Muslim children away from their parents in order to “prevent radicalization.” The Prime Minister also announced an additional £130 million which will be made available over the next two years to strengthen counter-terrorism capabilities.

This new policy has a lot of problems, starting with an extremely vague definition of “extremism,” which has already been used to target people with strong opinions, social justice activists, people returning from non-violent activities overseas, and even those who went to Syria or Iraq to join a resistance movement but then decided against it and came home. None of these people are seriously considered to be planning attacks on British soil. Rather, their advocation of Islamic ideology is being touted as a threat to “British values.”

“We must be firm to the point of ruthlessness in opposing behaviour that undermines our values. Paedophilia, FGM, Islamic radicalisation – to some extent, at some stage, we have tiptoed round them all for fear of offending this or that minority,” wrote London mayor Boris Johnson in the Telegraph, claiming that “Radicalisation is a form of child abuse” and that Muslim children who risk radicalisation by their parents should be taken into foster care.

An essential weakness of the mayor’s argument is that paedophilia and Female Genital Mutilation are both tangible crimes, while “Islamic radicalisation” is a term so vague that it could include anyone merely philosophically opposed to British participation in foreign wars.

Another serious flaw with the soon-to-be law is that non-Muslim extremists are unlikely to be targeted under the new terrorism law, even if they clearly present a danger to society.

British soldier Ryan McGee, a supporter of the far right English Defence League (EDL), only got a two-year sentence after it was discovered that he had made nail bombs filled with 187 pieces of shrapnel to maximize damage. McGee was also found in possession of knives, axes and imitation guns. He had watched videos of victims being beheaded and shot in the head under a Nazi swastika flag. He had an EDL "No Surrender" flag in his room. He was prosecuted and convicted under the Explosive Substances Act (1883). Instead of being prosecuted as a terrorist, the government prosecutor himself argued that McGee was just an immature teenager.

“Yet paradoxically, the police, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the government seek to portray Muslim returnees from Syria as the greatest threat this country has ever faced, charging them and seeking convictions for terrorism offences not connected to Britain in any way,” wrote Moazzam Begg, who argued that “the UK's terrorism legislation is not being applied evenly and should be scrapped in favour of a more common sense approach.”

Another serious double standard, is that no arrests have been made of “British mercenaries (non-Muslims of course) who have joined Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga units who fight alongside  banned terrorist organisations like the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and Iraqi militias who fight next to the Assad regime alongside proscribed terrorist group Hezbollah.”

The most emotionally disturbing part of the government’s assault on its largest religious minority is that day care centers and schools are now being told they have to report any evidence of “Islamic radicalization” to a government social worker, whose decision making power is almost absolute.

“The nurseries should insure proper training of their staff to... challenge extremist ideas which can be used to legitimize terrorism and are shared by terrorist groups,” the government document tagged “Prevent” stated.

There is no due process to determine the veracity or context of any such accusation. The government simply takes the children by force. Domestic violence organizations and other groups that should provide free legal help to mothers in such cases, have been instructed not to provide attorneys to mothers reported to the government as being suspiciously passionate about Islamic causes or religious practices.

“As a parent I may have to prove many things in order to get my child back, my question is why does a social worker and Channel officer have to prove absolutely NOTHING in order to remove her in the first place. I can’t disprove something that hasn’t ever made it to anyones sight!” protested a British mother, whose 7 year old was taken away after her twitter name raised eyebrows. The government questioned her about her plan to attend an Islamic Unity conference, her letters to Tarek Mehanna, and a passing comment she made online more than a year ago, regarding the Lee Rigby incident. She had just mentioned “that soldiers aren’t innocent fighting in a heavily opposed and morally deplorable war.”

In an earlier case last December the Daily Mail reported, “Two toddlers were snatched by the British police from their mother who had returned from war-torn Syria with them, via Turkey.

The UK’s large Muslim population is being screened for Islamic "Jihadi" style influences as “the British government tries to find effective ways to deal with the threat posed by ISIS.”

In fact, ISIS poses no direct threat to Britain. It would be wise to dig deeper into which groups would lobby England’s elected officials to enact such laws, which essentially prohibit Muslim citizens from enjoying equal rights at home and inhibit them from travelling internationally.

Syria: Let Us Be Steered Towards Mercy

February 2 marked the 33rd anniversary of the Hama Massacre, which took place in the city of Hama, Syria in 1982. A year earlier, in April 1981, Syrian security forces randomly executed 350 residents of the city, who were chosen among the male population over the age of 14. This event caused the majority of people in this area to turn against the Ba’athist, socialist government.

“Back then, the city of Hama was the stronghold of Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood and the center of an anti-regime uprising that had been targeting government buildings and minority Alawite military officers for years,” wrote Azmat Khan for PBS.

“In 1982, the regime basically said, ‘That’s it. That’s enough. We have to deal with this once and for all. We have to show that we’re in control,'” David Lesch told FRONTLINE.

Hafez al Assad, then president of Syria, sent the army to lay siege upon the population for 27 days, during which 45,000 people were killed. About 1,000 Syrian soldiers were also killed during the operation. Large parts of the old city were destroyed.

“Assad's troops pounded Hama with artillery fire for several days and, with the city in ruins, his bulldozers moved in and flattened neighbourhoods,” reported the Guardian. Syrian forces, flown in by helicopter, searched the rubble in order to kill any remaining rebels.

This was one of "the single deadliest acts by any Arab government against its own people in the modern Middle East."

My friend described the situation there in the 80s, which was very similar to what is going on today. The people were demonstrating against the Assad regime and the Syrian government opened fire on them. As a result, some people started firing back. Secret police came to his home looking for his brother, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Finding him not at home, they killed two brothers and a sister. They shot his sister in the stomach so many times that her body was in two pieces. I am a moderate person by nature and I try to see all sides. I understand some people’s fear of Islamism due to its predictable excesses and even the desire for secularism. However, if this government represents them, then I cannot agree. Because any government that comes into someone’s home and shoots a family down is pure evil.

A Syrian ex-patriot gave Voice of America many gruesome examples of atrocities.

A wealthy old woman lived in a beautiful mansion with her son. “After the soldiers looted the house they poured gasoline on both of them and burned the house.”

“And in the same neighborhood, two buildings down the street, a family owned a place for wood chipping. They took the whole family down and they shot them all.  About 25 of them.”

Another woman had “many gold bracelets on her wrists, so they cut off both of her hands and let her bleed to die.”

She quickly followed up with another story about a father who was pleading with a  soldier.

“I have a 14-month-old baby,” the man said. “Please don’t make him an orphan.”

The officer said, “Oh, you don’t want him to be an orphan?

“Now your son won’t be an orphan,” the officer said.  Then he shot dead the child, the father and the rest of his family.

She said she learned about what happened to this family from a soldier, who defected from the army. He said, “I’m not going to be with an army like that.”

In a suburb of the city called New Hama, soldiers stood in the street while an officer used a bullhorn to call residents out of their homes.

“You all come down to the street.  Women, children, everybody,” the voice announced… And after that they went and raided the homes and whoever stayed in there they took them out and they dug a big ditch and shot them and threw them in the big ditch. They say in the neighborhood about 1500 people got shot.”

This actually reminds me of Dachau, Germany, where I took a tour of the concentration camp. While the “gas chambers” story never happened, at least not in Dachau, unwanted persons were told to dig a ditch, then lined up and shot. The Hollywood version of the Holocaust is a fabrication, but the behavior of socialist governments, whether of the Nazis or Assad’s tyranny, draws many parallels.

The problem resides in the ego-based concept of “unwanted persons.” Once a person becomes “unwanted,” almost anything can be justified against him, even in the name of religion. Those of us who desire to attain spiritual excellence need to learn to temper this particular passion. Like all passions, this destructive desire serves only to swerve away from the Middle Path towards the gutter. Whatever we do in life, we need to ask our Creator for personal permission first. Even when we eat a meal involving an animal who gave its life, we say grace first.

There was a moment when Hazrat Ali (ra) was dueling with an opponent, and he had got him beat to the ground. However the man spit at Ali. It was such an offensive moment that Ali let the man go free because if he had killed him now, which he could have easily done, it would have been committed in an act of anger, which Ali knew could send himself straight to the hellfire.

Muslims need to know that even in war, every act of mercy could go recorded for generations. Laura Ingalls, author of “Little House on the Prairie,” married a farmer named Almanzo. His name dates back to the Crusades, when his ancestor’s life was spared by a man who was in the position to kill him, named Al-Mansour. The Wilder family thenceforth dedicated one male in each generation to be named after this true Muslim. Laura and Almanzo’s daughter Rose Wilder later wrote some of the most beautiful statements about Islamic culture that have ever been written.

Unraveling Syria: Many Citizen Militias Fighting Against Assad

Many good people sincerely believe that the Syrian revolution is a CIA-Mossad plot against Bashar Assad, who they think is against Israel. Other well-meaning people are convinced that that ISIS is a CIA-Mossad plot to undermine the legitimacy of the Free Syrian Army.

“95% of ISIS weapons are from Russia who are likewise arming Assad and therefore Russia profits both sides of the engineered conflict,” insisted an FSA supporter. “If FSA was supported by USA - then Assad would be gone, tried and sentenced to death for his war crimes against all of Syria 4 years ago and ISIS would not exist.”

In order to try and clarify the mystery of who’s who in the Syrian war, I talked to Ahmed, a Syrian-American opponent of the regime, whose family members recently fled the country. His family has suffered brutally under the Assad regime for decades.

He wanted me to be aware that the Syrian uprising began after 40 years of oppression. Spontaneously in 2011 some young kids in the south of Syria in the city of Dara wrote “Freedom! Freedom” on a wall. They were arrested by the secret police. One kid’s body was returned to his family after being tortured to death. The other kid was returned alive with his fingers chopped off.

Protests against the government spread throughout the country over the next month. Law enforcement shot live ammunition at demonstrators. Townspeople started gathering to defend the demonstrators with personal arms such as AK-47.

Within six months, low rank Sunni army personnel started mass defections from the military, because they did not want to shoot their own people. The high ranking officers are all Alawite. The ex-military Sunnis turned freedom fighters started gathering and made connections in border areas in Turkey and Jordan. The Syrian border with Turkey is mountainous and there are many villages, which makes it easy to escape. But the border with Iraq is desert and it is very difficult.

There was no Islamic movement the first year of the uprisings. Only small arms were used on both sides. The second year, 2012,  the Assad regime became increasingly unstable and started sending in tanks and doing aerial bombardment of civilian populations. At this point, humanitarian volunteers from Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq started pouring in for emotional and religious reasons. The local population welcomed them on an individual basis. There was no official organization. The people started grouping and making connections in nearby countries where they could travel and visit.

As the movement got bigger, the original freedom fighters who defected from the army went to retire in nearby countries for a number of reasons: There was no financial support for their families, and they were not people of high ideology who want to die for the sake of Islam. Neighboring countries hosted 2000 high ranking Syrian ex-officers to keep as assets to use for future influence, when it appeared the regime would fall. However, these officers cannot leave. They are kept in some kind of camps or living quarters..

Then, the Syrian government asked for help from Iran and Lebanon’s Hizbollah to fight for the Shia. The Syrian government is not Shia. Shia is a sect of Islam. They are Muslims. The Alawite are not Muslims. Historically, France declared Alawites as Shia. But Syria is not Shia.

Many people mistakenly believe that Syria is defending Al-Aqsa, even though on the Israel/Syria border, nobody ever tried to attack Israel. This is Israel’s most stable border, protected by Assad. Iraq is under the influence of Iran. Iran doesn’t want Syria to be Sunni.

At this point, there are hundreds of fighting groups, said Ahmed, who says he truly believes that ISIS was started by foreign agents but lost control “just like the Taliban.” The majority of the leaders of ISIS are high-ranking Iraqi ex-army officials, who used to work for Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi army was the 4th largest army in the world. They are now working with foreign intelligence and serving in ISIS and getting income from foreign countries, plus plunder.

Ahmed said that the majority Syrian population does not want a conservative Islamic state. They are Islamic liberals. They like to have fun. They have no interest in fundamentalism or “radical Islam.” Western injustice and aggression leads to IS politics, he said.

I asked, “When there is no government and everything is destroyed, wouldn’t it be natural for the town to meet at the mosque, and if there is no law, it would be easiest to use Islamic law?”

“People will go back to their natural religion when there is no infrastructure other than the madrasa,” stated Ahmed, who has spent significant time in Afghanistan. However, he did not feel that Syria was anything like Afghanistan. 

In the 1970’s, Wahhabis from Saudi Arabia came to indoctrinate Syrians but people argued against them. Nevertheless, like Bosnia, Syrians will welcome those who help to control Syria and establish order and peace.

Ahmed said the west is pushing Syria to the point where they will say, “Please bring anyone, even another Alawite, to get rid of Assad” to stabilize the region. No matter what, it will take 25-50 years to rebuild the country to what it was.

Regarding the Free Syrian Army, he said there are three kinds: those who gave up and left the country, those who will fight for whoever pays more, and those who are controlled by third parties. He had a higher opinion of al-Nusra, whom he said number in the thousands, not hundreds. The majority of al-Nusra are Syrians not foreign fighters. They have the best fighters. They have good individual support but also have influence with high rank people. Both Saudi Arabia and Jordan try to send their infiltrators to get high ranks to try and get influence or reward.

The “sincere fighters” don’t belong to any big party or private agenda. The majority of Syrian fighters belong to loose small groups. Around Homs and Damascus, in the revolution areas, there could be 15-20 small groups of 100, 200 or 300 militia men for every local area. Some groups make Islamic council and unify with groups like al-Nusra or Ahrar al Sham.

I mentioned the news that Iranian General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Syria along with six Hizbollah fighters in the Golan Heights. Ahmed said that on that same day, the Syrian opposition shot down a small plane that was filled with high ranking Iranian, Jordanian and Hizbollah officials. He theorized that the media gave Israel credit for the killing in order to downplay the powerful news of the Syrian resistance.

Regarding foreign funding, he mentioned a few weeks back there was a local militia named Hazen that took money from America but then gave it to al-Nusra.

Web of Chaos in Syria

TMO 

Shocking photos have been leaked of the Syrian regime’s 215 Intelligence Branch in Damascus, where detainees are sent to die. Many are summarily executed without any formal charges or military trial.

The Violation Documentation Center in Syria has published satellite photography of the regime’s detention centers near Damascus, documenting the growth of cemeteries and “irregular digging.” The report states that “many of the locals testified about the burying operations that required bulldozers and about the arrival of big refrigerated lorries (fruits and vegetables refrigerator trucks).” This led to the VDC’s confirmation of mass graves.

According to VDC collected eyewitness statements on Assad’s detention centers, “most of the death cases happen almost exclusively in the first ten days of the detention.”

A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman denounced the Iranian regime for siding with Assad, saying, “Iran should remain silent out of shame over its support for Damascus which is the true terrorism,” according to the Anatolia News Agency.

Assad forces and Shiite militias fiercely attacked the al-Waer neighborhood in Homs, in order to control the city last week. Al-Waer neighborhood is currently a haven to more than three hundred thousand civilians. The neighborhood, which is crowded with displaced persons who fled there to escape fighting in other neighborhoods of Homs, is experiencing ongoing fierce shelling after the violent attack a week ago. Al-Waer has become a daily target for the missiles, artillery and explosive barrel bombs from Assad forces and allied sectarian militias. Within 3 days last week, more than 24 civilians were killed, most of them women and children.

The western media is focusing only on “Kobanî,” a Syrian town near the Turkish border where armed Kurds, including many women fighters, are battling against ISIS.

“US air strikes have hit ISIS targets near the town in recent days but do not appear to have stopped the militants’ advance,” reports the Independent.

The Free Syrian Army, which reportedly represents 90% of the rebels against the regime, is also present in Kobani. The FSA is at odds with ISIS as well as the Kurds, who are using this situation to split off and form an independent Kurdistan, while the FSA wants to keep Syria as one nation.

However, activists in Homs, condemning the silence of the international community, insist that “people’s lives in Al-Waer are as precious as those of Kobanî.” The residents of Al-Waer have been suffering under siege for more than a year. The activists insisted that the international community should intervene to save civilians regardless of their race or origins.
TMO interviewed 22 year old Mahmoud Allouz in Homs about the situation. The young man, who identifies with the Free Syrian Army, said that “Homs is the capital of the Syrian revolution.”
He explained that the first neighborhood in Homs to be destroyed in 2011 by Assad was Baba Amr. The military campaign continued for months in the southern countryside. The violent battles were “dominated by the help of the Lebanese Hezbollah after [Baba Amr] was destroyed,” stated Allouz. “They want to serve their project [of] sectarian Shiite fighting. They brutally destroy and commit crimes. There are fighters from Iran who are also taking part in the ranks of the Assad regime.”

Although anti-government rebels fought long and valiantly, as of May 2014, the city of Homs is now completely under control of the government, whose snipers continue to shoot civilians including children in a sadistic manner. For example, some video footage was recently released of a dead or dying person, who was just laying in full view on the road, but because of all the sniper shooting, no one could go collect him. Assad’s soldiers take these videos as trophies to brag about their accomplishments.

Al Waer neighborhood “gets the daily massacres,” said Allouz. However, “The countryside north of Homs is still under the control of the rebels,” he explained.

When asked about the rumored opium fields, Allouz stated that they are located mostly in the middle of Syria and are now under the control of ISIS.

“Who do you think ISIS are?” TMO inquired.

Allouz stated that they are a “takfiri criminal gang” whose murders are “working in favor of the Assad regime.” He observed that ISIS is more interested in fighting other rebels than against the regime. “More [ISIS] battles were against the FSA, trying to control the positions held by FSA and the oil fields and assaults on civilians… They are battling the Free Syrian Army, and slaughtering Syrian civilians as does the Assad regime.”

I asked him, “Do you think ISIS is a local movement or are they foreign employees?”

He answered that the gang is not being paid by any country but is “self-financing” through seizure of oil fields, theft of territory and stealing money. They are “trying to lure poor people with money to join them, placing ideas in their mind” about committing “criminality and murder.”

Al Jazeera however put ISIS into context, reporting this week that Mexican drug cartels have murdered exponentially more people than ISIS including 57 journalists and almost 300 Americans visiting Mexico. They have beheaded hundreds of people and displayed mutilated corpses in public squares and on social media in order to intimidate detractors. It is truly astonishing how Americans are more concerned about criminal gangs in Syria than violence happening next door.