SAVAGERY

HOW A 13-YEAR-OLD BOY BECAME THE FACE OF THE SYRIAN UPRISING





The death of Hamza al-Khatib at the hands of the Syrian security forces has had a huge impact on a country already wracked by months of violent anti-government protest.

Abducted by the State security forces, the 13-year-old was returned to the family home in a body bag, horrifically mutilated and distorted.

Captured on an anti-government activist's mobile phone, footage of Hamza's battered and bullet-ridden corpse has been broadcast around the world, despite the horrific injuries it shows. His family had scattered the body with rose petals as a burial ritual, making the image of the maimed flesh beneath all the more jarring.

His body was covered in bruises, and his hands smashed. His eyes were swollen and black, and his neck was broken. His genitals had been severed, and he had scars on his body that suggested whipping with a cable and electric shocks.






His body was covered in bruises, his hands smashed, eyes swollen and black, and the neck was broken. His genitals had been severed, and he had scars on his body that suggested whipping with a cable and electric shocks.

In the ensuing furore, the government insisted that the body had simply decomposed, and wheeled out a coroner to deny that the boy had been tortured.

It did nothing to calm public fury; last week's demonstrations were among the largest seen so far. The killing of children has caused outrage. An 11-year-old girl was reportedly killed in a military operation in the town of Hirak last week. One of the coordinators of the protests in Deraa said that a young female cousin of Hamza's was killed on Friday in Al-Raftan after being fired on by security forces.

"Security forces opened fire on this group and many children were injured, but the girl from the Khatib family died," he said.

Hamza's death has given protesters a figurehead for their anger. A Facebook page in his memory, "We are all Hamza al-Khatib" – echoing that of Mr Saeed – already has 15,000 followers.






A BAD READ OF THE TEA LEAVES

Libya is nothing more than a mineral-rich swath of desert, not even as strategically significant as the Gulf States - the casus belli to our interference was to stop the killings. If we had done nothing the killing would have ceased; instead they have continued for over two months, the modern-day Caligula is still in power, and we have failed to capture a single city.

Egypt is considered by Arabs to be the stomping ground of conquerors; practically under the influence of foreigners. Indeed, this time we sided with mobs run by the internationalist Muslim Brotherhood - who are al Qaeda sympathizers, if not the same thing - against trusted ally Hosni Mubarak, whose reward for delivering three decades of peace with Israel is kangaroo court for himself and members of his family.

A long-time foe of Israel and the West, Syria is the true center of gravity for Arab culture and civilization. Mentioned in the Bible, Damascus is the oldest continually-populated city in the world. A rare opportunity presents itself as the Syrian people struggle for freedom.

Consider: we have established a precedent for intervention with the Libya nonsense, and have witnessed the folly of sitting back and doing nothing like we did in Egypt. At present we have huge garrisons of troops in neighboring Iraq - funneling arms and military advisers across the Syrian border to sponsor an insurgency would be a cakewalk - and so far we have failed to lift so much as a finger to aid them.




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WORLD COMING APART

AFRICA: After Nigeria Elects Christian President, Muslims Torch 40 Churches, Kill 100 Christians




The daily slaughter continues.


(All Voices) — Muslim rioters in Nigeria protesting the just concluded presidential elections have killed more than 100 Christians and burned down more than 40 churches in an attack that began yesterday.

This revelation is contained in a report by the Regional Manager for Africa, International Christian Concern (ICC), Jonathan Racho noting that this latest demonstration is in response to the election of Jonathan Goodluck, a Christian, as president of Nigeria.

He pointed out that the rioters even destroyed the homes of many Muslims who supported President Jonathan Goodluck adding that the Muslim attackers allege that the election was rigged and General Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim presidential candidate, is the rightful winner.

He said that the Commonwealth observers’ report judged that election as “this election the fairest in decades. The elections for the National Assembly and the Presidency were both credible and creditable and reflected the will of the Nigerian people.”

According Racho, it is difficult to know the full extent of the damage. The casualties could be much higher as the attacks took place over many of the 12 Muslim majority states in northern Nigeria.


Read more HERE



We may have already past the point in history for Africa to save itself from barbarism and savagery - S.L.



WORLD COMING APART: MIDDLE EAST


Syria's Bloodiest Day: 80 Dead as Security Forces Fire on Demonstrators





Damascus -- A strong military presence remained in place around Damascus on Saturday in the wake of the country’s bloodiest day in five weeks of growing unrest. Large turnouts are expected to mourn the scores of victims, which activists say has now reached more than 100.

Security forces fired on protesters, seeking to quell demonstrations following Friday prayers in Latakia, Homs, Hama, Damascus and the southern village of Isra’a. Tens of thousands took to the streets on Friday in defiance of earlier government warnings that any further displays of unrest would not be tolerated.

In Moadniyah, a small town roughly 10km south of Damascus, a massive cordon of troops encircled the town. Soldiers also positioned themselves on rooftops and outside mosques, while others peered out from behind barricades of sandbags and giant tires.

The town hosted sizeable unrest Friday, 15 March when thousands of residents marched towards Damascus but were forced back by security forces firing tear gas.

Late in the afternoon on Friday reports circulated claiming either the army or security forces had opened fire on demonstrators in the town.

"People are being taken to hospital in cars," said one demonstrator who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal.




Basher Assad is a pig and a butcher, just like his father before him and just like the pig he's standing next to in this photo.

President Bashar al-Assad maintains absolute power in the country he inherited from his father, Hafez, in 2000. Recently however, some analysts suggest internal rifts are forming within the Assad family.

"There are demonstrations in all the cities and villages around Syria," said Mr Maleh, a human rights lawyer in Damascus. "People want the regime to fall."

In a concession to demonstrators last Friday, Assad announced intentions to lift the much-despised emergency laws, in place for 48 years since the Baath Party seized power in a coup.

A law was passed this week to scrap the decades-old measure. Many activists, however, believe the move is not enough to quell the ever-growing tide of anti-government feeling now sweeping the country.

"I went to protest for the first time because I want freedom and dignity," said one young man in his twenties who sat on a bedroom floor sipping his glass of coke. "I want this country to be a good country."


More HERE


"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."

- Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States



NORTH AMERICA: Brutal Mexican Drug Gang Crosses into U.S.





SPREADING TERROR: A woman sees a relative lying dead on the ground after he was killed by gunmen in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in December.(Associated Press)


“Those of us who live and work along the border know they’re already here,” said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr., whose Texas county lies on the Rio Grande 50 miles southeast of the Zetas’ stronghold of Nuevo Laredo. “There’s already been killings and many residents here are living in fear.”

Sheriff Gonzalez, whose Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition sought help from the federal government to control growing violence along the border, said the rising brutality of Mexican drug gangs, particularly the Zetas, “never stops shocking me.”

Trained as an elite band of Mexican anti-drug commandos, the Zetas evolved into mercenaries for the infamous Gulf Cartel, bringing a new wave of brutality to Mexico’s escalating drug wars. Bolstered by an influx of assassins, bandits, thieves, thugs and corrupt federal, state and local police officers, the Zetas have since evolved into a well-financed and heavily armed drug smuggling force of their own.




Mexican federal police and army soldiers guard a U.S. Embassy vehicle after it came under attack by gunmen on a highway between Mexico City and Monterrey in February. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was killed and another wounded in the attack. Many of Zetas' targets have been Mexican military and police personnel, but in recent years, U.S. law enforcement authorities also have come under attack. (Associated Press)


Known for mounting the severed heads of their rivals on poles or hanging their dismembered bodies from bridges in cities throughout Mexico, the Zetas have easily become the most feared criminal gang in Mexico — where 35,000 people have been killed in a continuing drug war. Everyone is a potential victim: men, women and children.

“The Zetas are determined to gain the reputation of being the most sadistic, cruel and beastly organization that ever existed,” said George W. Grayson, professor of government at the College of William & Mary and an expert on Mexican drug gangs. “Many of Mexico’s existing drug cartels will kill their enemies, but not go out of their way to do it. The Zetas look forward to inflicting fear on their targets.

“They won’t just cut off your ear, they’ll cut off your head and think nothing of it.”


Sooner or later we have to start treating the border like a military situation - in the meantime, expect this kind of savagery to continue moving northward - S.L.



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DEAD RUSSIAN SPY

A mysterious accident in which one of Russia's most powerful spies was found dead on a Turkish beach has provoked speculation that the deputy head of the country's foreign military intelligence service had been murdered.

The badly decomposed body of Yuri Ivanov washed up last month on the shore of the Mediterranean, and was discovered by Turkish villagers in the province of Hatay, Turkish newspapers reported today. Reports suggest that he was quietly buried in Moscow over the weekend.

Ivanov was the second in command at Russia's foreign military intelligence unit, the GRU. The general had last been deployed to review military installations in Syria, amid Kremlin attempts to reassert its influence in the Middle East, reports suggested.

The general was last seen visiting the building site for a new Russian military base in the Syrian coastal city of Tartus, which is being expanded as a base for Russia's Black Sea fleet.

After his visit, he left for a meeting with Syrian intelligence agents. He then went missing, the Turkish newspaper Vatan reported today.

Read the entire story here.


The GRU is Russia's largest foreign intelligence agency [1]. In 1997 it deployed six times as many agents in foreign countries as the SVR, which is the KGB intelligence successor. It also commanded 25,000 Spetsnaz troops in 1997.


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