Syria: Thousands of Houses Unlawfully Razed | Human Rights Watch

 Mezzeh area, Damascus


Extensive demolition of dozens of high-rise residential and commercial buildings along the main road between Mezzeh Air Base and the neighborhood of Daraya. 

Satellite imagery, witness statements, and video and photographic evidence show that Syrian authorities deliberately and unlawfully demolished thousands of residential buildings in Damascus and Hama in 2012 and 2013, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 38-page report, “Razed to the Ground: Syria’s Unlawful Neighborhood Demolitions in 2012-2013,” documents seven cases of large-scale demolitions with explosives and bulldozers that violated the laws of war. The demolitions either served no necessary military purpose and appeared to intentionally punish the civilian population or caused disproportionate harm to civilians, Human Rights Watch found. 

“Wiping entire neighborhoods off the map is not a legitimate tactic of war,” said Ole Solvang, emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These unlawful demolitions are the latest additions to a long list of crimes committed by the Syrian government.” ................

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Syria: Thousands of Houses Unlawfully Razed | Human Rights Watch

SPIEGEL Reporting Supports Accounts of Torture and Execution in Syria - SPIEGEL ONLINE

By Christoph Reuter and Christoph Scheuermann

REUTERS

Photos released last week show that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad tortures, starves and murders its prisoners. The images provide grisly evidence to support what witnesses have been telling SPIEGEL for months.

He says he was never witness to executions, nor did he see torture taking place. That wasn't his job. His task was that of taking photos of the corpses afterwards. He would snap four or five images per body -- of the face and other parts of the person -- documenting the cause of death, insofar as it was possible to determine. He did so tens of thousands of times between March 2011 and August 2013 -- when he finally fled Syria, taking some 55,000 photos with him on a USB stick. The images are of starved, strangled and tortured men, primarily young and mostly naked. Some have no eyes. The defector, who has been cited under the alias "Caesar," worked for Syrian security, and says that he and his colleagues were called on up to 50 times a day to photograph corpses, each of which was given a number for documentation purposes....... (continued)


FULL ARTICLE HERE: SPIEGEL Reporting Supports Accounts of Torture and Execution in Syria - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Syrian Government, Opposition Meet in Geneva - YouTube

LINK: Syrian Government, Opposition Meet in Geneva - YouTube

▶ Human Rights Watch World Report 2014: Berlin Press Conference - YouTube

LINK: ▶ Human Rights Watch World Report 2014: Berlin Press Conference - YouTube

▶ ‫MIRACLE IN ALEPPO! WATCH! 22 / 1 / 2014‬‎ - YouTube

Syrians do the impossible after another horrific Assad regime Barrel Bomb attack on civilians.

LINK TO A MIRACLE IN ALEPPO:

▶ ‫إخراج طفلة حية من تحت الأنقاض في حي المعصرانية 22 / 1 / 2014‬‎ - YouTube

+18 Starved to death.. Assad's collective punishment in the besieged areas of Syria.. RIP - YouTube

NO THIS ISN'T AUSCHWITZ, THIS IS ASSAD'S SYRIA






LINK: +18 Starved to death.. Assad's collective punishment in the besieged areas of Syria.. RIP - YouTube

Human Rights Watch: SYRIA 2013 - YouTube

LINK: ▶ SYRIA 2013 - YouTube

Syria’s Polio Epidemic: The Suppressed Truth by Annie Sparrow | The New York Review of Books

byAnnie Sparrow

Hosam Katan/Reuters
A health worker talking with a family in Aleppo before administering polio vaccinations, January 2014

One way to measure the horrific suffering of Syria’s increasingly violent war is through the experience of Syrian children. More than one million children are now refugees. At least 11,500 have been killed because of the armed conflict, well over half of these because of the direct bombing of schools, homes, and health centers, and roughly 1,500 have been executed, shot by snipers or tortured to death. At least 128 were killed in the chemical massacre in August.............

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Syria’s Polio Epidemic: The Suppressed Truth by Annie Sparrow | The New York Review of Books

BBC News - US and UN express horror at Syria torture report

The US and UN have reacted with "horror" to allegations in a new report that Syria has systematically tortured and executed about 11,000 detainees since the start of the uprising.

The US said the reports underscored the need to remove the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

A Syrian spokesman said the report had no credibility as it was commissioned by Qatar, which funds rebel groups.

The report comes a day before peace talks are due to begin in Switzerland.

Delegations are now arriving for the talks, known as Geneva II, which open in Montreux on Wednesday, and continue in Geneva two days
later.

FULL ARTICLE W/VIDEO HERE: BBC News - US and UN express horror at Syria torture report

UN Live United Nations Web TV - - Voices from Syria - Special event

17 Jan 2014 - For the first time at the United Nations, the international community will have an opportunity to hear survivor accounts of the UN documented massacres that occurred on August 2012 in Darayya and August 2013 in Ghouta.

LINK: UN Live United Nations Web TV - - Voices from Syria - Special event

Starving Palestinians | HonestReporting

How many times have you seen a story in the major media claiming that Israel has turned Gaza into an “open-air prison?” How often does the media discuss seemingly arbitrary restrictions that Israel places on specific goods entering the Gaza Strip? Forget about the fact that convoys of trucks carrying humanitarian aid enter and leave the strip every day. Israel even transferred an emergency supply of gas for home heating during the recent winter storm.

No, the story of Israel blockading Palestinians is part of a narrative that many journalists are obsessed with, despite the lack of accuracy.

How much more useful these journalists would be if they reported on how Syria is starving Palestinians to death with a complete blockade on a refugee camp. But that is exactly what is happening. From The Media Line:  

More than 40 Palestinians have now died of starvation in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, say activists who are calling on the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) to intervene............

FULL ARTICLE HERE: 
Starving Palestinians | HonestReporting

Exclusive: With Muslim Brotherhood crushed, Egypt sets sights on Hamas | Reuters

Exclusive: With Muslim Brotherhood crushed, Egypt sets sights on Hamas

By Yasmine Saleh

 
CAIRO Tue Jan 14, 2014 1:51am EST

Palestinian members of the al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, stand guard as they wait for the arrival of Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip in this December 7, 2012 file photograph/Credit: Reuters/Mohammed Salem/Files 

(Reuters) - After crushing the Muslim Brotherhood at home, Egypt's military rulers plan to undermine the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which runs the neighboring Gaza Strip, senior Egyptian security officials told Reuters.

The aim, which the officials say could take years to pull off, includes working with Hamas's political rivals Fatah and supporting popular anti-Hamas activities in Gaza, four security and diplomatic officials said.......

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Exclusive: With Muslim Brotherhood crushed, Egypt sets sights on Hamas | Reuters

Emma Thompson and Colin Firth call on Cameron to offer safe haven to Syrian refugees | Mail Online

Emma Thompson and Colin Firth among British stars calling on Cameron to offer safe haven to refugees fleeing Syria

• Stars have signed Refugee Council letter pleading for refugees' entry
• Actors say they are 'ashamed' the UK has not offered resettlement places
• The United Nations has urged Western nations to take in 30,000 refugees

By Mail Foreign Service

British Hollywood stars Emma Thompson and Colin Firth have called on the Prime Minister to offer a safe haven to refugees fleeing the bloodshed in Syria.

Monty Python star Michael Palin and fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood have also signed a letter backing the Refugee Council’s plea for the UK to open its doors in response to an international effort to provide shelter for 30,000 of the most vulnerable Syrians fleeing the civil war.

The celebrities, including Firth’s wife Livia, artist Grayson Perry and actress Juliet Stevenson, say they are 'ashamed' that the UK has not pledged any resettlement places.

Actors Colin Firth and Emma Thompson are among the British stars calling on David Cameron to provide safe havens to Syrian refugees

FULL ARTICLE HERE:
Emma Thompson and Colin Firth call on Cameron to offer safe haven to Syrian refugees | Mail Online

‘Lone Survivor’ Review | Washington Free Beacon

AP

BY: Sonny Bunch
January 10, 2014 5:00 am

Director Peter Berg opens his latest film with a montage of real footage of Navy SEALs pushing their bodies to the limit. We see them go to the point of exhaustion and push through, limbs shaking, eyes glazing over, lungs screaming for air. The trainees aid each other, buoying the spirits of their brotherly band. Not everyone will make the final cut—the training is hellish and the body can only take so much—but no one wants anyone else to wash out.

These scenes are crucial to understanding what follows and a handy reminder that the quartet of heroes we follow for most of the film—Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg), Michael Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch), and Matt Axelson (Ben Foster)—are real people. Without those sequences we might have trouble believing these soldiers would have the fortitude to literally throw themselves down a mountain, bouncing off of boulders and crashing into trees, in order to keep fighting a horde of Taliban sadists......
FULL ARTICLE HERE: ‘Lone Survivor’ Review | Washington Free Beacon

JANUARY 11: Day of Solidarity with Syria - YouTube

LINK: ▶ Day of Solidarity with Syria - YouTube

Aaron Rodgers finds worthy cause in Raise Hope For Congo - ESPN

LINK: Aaron Rodgers finds worthy cause in Raise Hope For Congo - ESPN