You can Never Ever trust a Dictator on anything… Assad will continue to kill his own people until he is taken out by what ever means it takes… The people of Syria are in for a long and painful battle with their government..

I’m sure the US Ambassador to Syria is being objective in regards to his support for the “rebels”. I’m sure he’ll send pictures of the CIA and MI6 operatives that are assisting with the destabilization of the country, as well as the “foreign fighters” from Libya. There have been reports that Assad’s regime is willing to have talks with the Syrian National Council, but apparently the Western supported SNC declined. Kind of echoes the Libyan fiasco. I guess because Hillary “The Hawk” Clinton and Barack Obama have decided that Assad should relinquish power, he should obey them. After all, the USA is the “King of the World” and knows what is best for the rest of the sovereign nations. This has already been framed as a “humanitarian relief” situation, which is the “lubricant for war”. Is Kissinger involved?

Assad is only doing what Obama would do if there were an armed uprising in the U.S.

Hey eCHAN here is link to an article about the BEE die off Very informative and makes a lot of sense… Big Chemical again affecting life at it’s basics… Without your/our little pollinators and we all will starve as plants never get pollinated..

Sorry for the off topic D-Day…

In our unending mission to “look forward” and ignore the past, did we forget the CIA orchestrated coup that removed the democratically elected President of Syria, Shukri al-Kuwatli, in 1949? I think so. Perhaps someone could ask Jean Bertrand Aristide about the US sponsored coup that removed him as President of Haiti in 2004.

Isn’t Obama’s DHS already using police brutality to preempt the possibility of the “armed” part of the uprising by attacking the Occupy movement?

Thanks for the link.

Neonics have long been suspected. The two books I read on the subject were written by reporters, not scientists.

There were only 20 hives in the Harvard study. That does not count as evidence in my book.

Chris thinks that monoculture is another stressor.

Meanwhile my girls are doing fabulously. Chris came yesterday and one of the hives is getting ready to swarm, a full month early. He’ll try to come back to split the hive next week.

I’m doing a bee update on 4/21 PUAC.

I was going to mention that O uses the same tactics as Assad against peaceful demonstrators, but I didn’t want to get into that morass on this thread.

Just tired of the high dudgeon against Assad when U.S. rulers are no diff. And U.S., Israel, Saudis are arming the ‘dissidents’ in Syria, which would really be intolerable in U.S.

I’m no fan of Assad either, but let’s not get carried away.

Waiting with bated breath…

There is something so life affirming about honeybees that doesn’t come across as much with other insects, animals.

I also like plants & flowers a lot (talk to them too), and the change of seasons, esp spring when trees blossom, but nothing is quite so pleasing as watching the girls hard at work buzzing in & out of the hives with their little cargo pants full of pollen.

We see many Bees here in our yard… We have both a Lemon and an Orange tree (which is just starting to blossom) and the bees are swarming, they also just love my Rosemary plants.. Hard to walk by without disturbing them as they collect their pollen and nectar.. Of course it is nigh time I got the veggie garden planted but my bout with the crud has made me wait longer than usual… Beans and peas will be planted this week… Then it will be time for the tomatoes… Cant’ wait…
Sure hope your Bees do well and give you another hive to share with your friends…

I like the climate I live in, but there is one thing I’m really jealous about warmer climates: not being able to have citrus trees in the back yard.

Ford is a hero, your kidding right? You need to look up fords back ground the fords of Amerikas state department are the problem not the solution.

Book Salon up with James K. Galbraith’s Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis hosted by Max Fraad Wolff

Syria is not going the U.S.’s way, with the added insult that Iraq is squarely on the side of Syria and Iran. So Operation Iraqi Freedom paid off — for Iran. The coming U.S. failure in Syria will magnify the failure of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

I agree and I’m no fan of Assad. I just don’t expect to come to FDL and see posts that catapult US propaganda, especially considering the objectivity that David’s posts usually display.

Unfortunately, that won’t stop the US from trying to export its neocon/neoliberal policies under the guise of “spreading democracy”.

I’ve been disappointed with Dday’s Syria coverage of late…! 8-(

Q: Where was Ban Ki-Moon when Iraqis were suffering?
A: He was under America’s thumb, as he is now.

Aug 23, 2007
Number of internal refugees soars in Iraq
BAGHDAD (NYTimes) — The number of Iraqis who have fled their homes and become refugees within their own country has soared since the American troop increase began in February, according to new data collected in Iraq by two major humanitarian groups.

The rapidly accelerating dislocation of Iraqi citizens has taken place despite the troop increase, and in some cases as a direct result of it, surveys with thousands of the Iraqis have shown.

Statistics collected by one of the two groups, the Iraqi Red Crescent Organization, indicate that the number of internally displaced Iraqis has more than doubled, from 499,000 to 1.1 million, since the start of the troop “surge.”

Sep 4, 2008
Obama Says Iraq Surge Success Beyond `Wildest Dreams’
Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) — Barack Obama said the surge of American forces in Iraq has “succeeded beyond our wildest dreams,” though Iraqis still haven’t done enough to take responsibility for their country.

“The surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated,” Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, said in a recorded interview broadcast tonight on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor” program.

Don’t forget, the U.S. brings “stability” and “peacekeeping” also — Newspeak at its finest.

DDayen:

Usually, reports like this come with the caveat that they cannot be independently verified. But in this case, the activists are getting some powerful backup from the US Ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford

I feel better now — the US ambassador “independently verified” the latest U.S. anti-Syria propaganda photos. I guess that if he had not done so, he would be an ex-ambassador so how independent is that?

Wow. I don’t know where to begin.

Reminds me a bit of Judith Miller. Did not expect that at firedoglake.

Has Dayan forgotten about the 1990 satellite images?

Or that the role of a journalist is to question whether an administration is being truthful, or using bloggers and journalists to tell a story that may or may not correspond to what is actually occurring?

At Moon of Alabama: The NYT – A U.S. Government Propaganda Outlet

U.S. Sees Iran in Bids to Stir Unrest in Afghanistan

… according to American officials. … American officials have closely studied the episodes … according to interviews with more than a dozen government officials … One United States government official described … American officials say … Afghan and American officials said … but American officials see a pattern … American officials say … one United States official said. Intelligence analysts emphasize … prompted American and other intelligence agencies to renew … American officials say … according to American officials … One American intelligence analyst noted …

There is not a word in the piece on why the U.S. government may have an interest in badmouthing Iran or on how these allegations fit the facts. Obviously the piece was simply dictated by officials and written down by some lobotomized robots.

How those writers are still able to look into a mirror and to call themselves journalists is beyond me.

Glen Greenwald caught the same trust me, I am from the US Government spiel
here: State-dominated media and Iran

To see how news is being manufactured, check this out for yourself:

How Avaaz Is Sponsoring Fake War Propaganda From Syria

Yes, the US values stability(autocracy) over democracy, except when natural resources or the desires of our “allies” take precedence.

So disappointed in this post. Hoping that David Dayan will read this comments and put a bit more effort into basing his understanding of Syria on other than his U.S. Government heroes.

Here is Wm. Blum*s take
Putting Syria into some perspective

…according to a US embassy cable, revealed by Wikileaks, since at least 2006 the United States has been funding political opposition groups in Syria as well as the London-based satellite TV channel, Barada TV, run by Syrian exiles, that beams anti-government programming into the country. The cable further stated that Syrian authorities *would undoubtedly view any U.S. funds going to illegal political groups as tantamount to supporting regime change.*

At the minimum I would hope that David would report on who the *Friends of Syria* are, and the evidence that he has that these consist of more than US (and Saudi Arabia, Quatar, et al) financed and trained proxies.

In Thursday’s State presser, State’s spokesman doesn’t know what State is doing.

QUESTION: Can you say anything about the U.S. assistance, the non-lethal assistance?
MR. TONER: You’re talking about the –
QUESTION: The status of that. Right.
MR. TONER: – the humanitarian assistance or –
QUESTION: Is it being delivered? The assistance that you couldn’t say what it was?
MR. TONER: Oh. I don’t have any updates for you. I’ll try to get it. You’re talking about the – to the Syrian opposition.
QUESTION: Mm-hmm.
MR. TONER: Yeah. No, I don’t have any updates for you on that. I’ll take the question.

And the future isn’t too clear either, except for more consultation.

QUESTION: Mark, I just want to make sure I got this right. You said that if Assad doesn’t comply by the April 10th deadline, the U.S. – you guys and your allies are going to consult –
MR. TONER: We’re going to consult on next steps, yeah.
QUESTION: I’m sure he’s shaking in his boots. That’s really what the “or else” is? You do this or else we’re going to consult?
MR. TONER: Matt, our approach to Syria is on several fronts. We have the Friends of Syria group that, as you saw over the weekend, took additional steps to provide support to the opposition, as well as increase humanitarian assistance to people in need in Syria. We’ve got this sanctions group that’s look at how to more effectively implement sanctions against Assad. We’re – this is something we’re working on multiple fronts. We’re going to continue to use the UN where we believe it’s going to be effective. We’re going to go back and consult on next steps. . .(break)
QUESTION: Why is not an accurate assessment – because I’m sure you’ll say it’s not an accurate assessment – that there is no reward for compliance and there’s no punishment for non-compliance? How does that work?
MR. TONER: Punishment for noncompliance – the punishment for non-compliance –
QUESTION: Yes. The punishment is that you’re going to consult.
MR. TONER: The punishment for noncompliance is going to be increased pressure on Assad, on his regime, and a clear message to those around him that they’re on the wrong side of history.

Syria is on the wrong side of history as it successfully fights an insurgency aided by the United States, a country which has been mired in losing wars?

How War Reporting in Syria Makes a Larger Conflict Inevitable
By Russ Baker on Apr 2, 2012

[ Who Bill Moyer turns to to tell him what he doesn*t know]

Me too. Someone should tell DDay to check out Angry Arab blog for example, which exposes the lamestream media propaganda.

David Dayen says they haven’t withdrawn at all.

The satellite images are devastating. They show that the Assad regime merely shifted around their tanks and heavy artillery rather than pulling them back.

That’s not what ddays own sources say:

U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford said the Syrian government appears to have pulled back some of its forces from towns and cities but in other places has kept in place or simply shifted around troops and armored vehicles.

dday:

It was pretty obvious from the spectacle of refugees streaming over the border into Turkey and reports of the continued presence of troops, checkpoints and snipers that Assad wasn’t honoring the cease-fire in any meaningful way.

As per the cease-fire deadline, from your own CNN link, it hasn’t started yet:

The Syrian government and the opposition agreed to pull their forces from cities by Tuesday as part of an agreement brokered by Kofi Annan, the former U.N. secretary-general who now serves as the U.N. and Arab League special envoy on the Syrian crisis.
But in the letters, Syria complained that “terrorist acts committed by the armed terrorist groups in Syria haveincreased during the last few days, particularly after reaching an understanding on Kofi Annan’s plan,” according to SANA’s report.

This agreement goes two ways.
Syria wants this agreement to include– in writing that the militants will pull back and that the Gulf states wont arm them.

I guess you can do objective journalism, or you help out Jay Carney and be a patriot. These are your own sources..

Exactly what makes Frank Burns a hero?
Moon of Alabama proved he provided false satellite photos of syria.

Moon of Alabama and Jim White also proved that the state department and David Albright were misrepresenting satellite photos in Iran on CNN and he had to walk back his statements.

Alkhawaja may die in Bahrain to the disregard of Western media
He’s one of the most well know human rights activists in Bahrain and was arrested at the beginning of the protests.
He’s been given a life sentence for his trouble and has been on a hunger strike for 59 days. He’s a dual Dutch-Bahraini citizen. Now is daughter is too. She’s been arrested outside the gates of the jail after being refused to see her father and has joined him in a hunger strike.

Let’s see if we hear a peep out of Frank Burns. He might consider putting the palestinians issue on his concern card too, if he’s not too busy with speeches at WINEP or JINSA.

Dec 19, 2011
Stratfor Challenges Narratives on Syria

According to the Texas-based geopolitical risk analysis group Stratfor which released an eyebrow-raising piece on Syrian opposition propaganda efforts last week, “most of the opposition’s more serious claims have turned out to be grossly exaggerated or simply untrue, thereby revealing more about the opposition’s weaknesses than the level of instability inside the Syrian regime.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sharmine-narwani/stratfor-challenges-narra_b_1158710.html

The two million plus Syrian Christians are concerned about the possible conversion of Syria to an Islamic state like Egypt, Libya and Iraq.

Apr 8, 2012
DAMASCUS, (SANA) – His Beatitude Patriarch Gregorios III Laham, Patriarch of Antioch, All the East, Alexandria and Jerusalem for the Melkite Greek Catholic, on Saturday stressed that Syrians are united in the face of the plot targeting their country, and that Syrians are renowned for their pluralism, coexistence and commitment to their Syrian Arab identity.

In an interview with the Syrian TV on occasion of Easter, Patriarch Laham said that Syria’s enemies failed to sow division among Syrians who will remain steadfast against the plot targeting their country, affirming that it’s the Syrian state’s right to defend its citizens from the crimes of terrorists.
http://www.sana.sy/eng/21/2012/04/08/411219.htm

Christians used as human shields in Homs

“Some Christians who tried to escape a week ago were stopped from leaving by the rebels and were instead forced to go to a mosque to act as shields,” he said. “They thought that, because Christians support Assad, the government would not attack them.”

Reminds me more of William Randolph Hearst’s yellow journalism, pushing for invasion of cuba to save the savages who were working on Bacardi sugar plantations. I think Judy thought she was getting a real scoop.