The Syrian Conflict Thread

The image John Kerry WON'T want you to see: U.S. Secretary of State pictured dining with Assad and his wife at Damascus restaurant before war broke out in Syria

-Kerry pictured around a small table with his wife and the Assads in 2009
-Assad and Kerry lean in towards each other, deep in conversation
-Picture taken in February 2009 when Kerry led a delegation to Syria
-Kerry yesterday compared Assad to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein

This astonishing photograph shows U.S Secretary of State John Kerry having a cosy and intimate dinner with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Kerry - who compared Assad to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein yesterday - is pictured around a small table with his wife and the Assads in 2009.

Assad and Kerry - who was then a senator for Massachusetts - lean in towards each other and appear deep in conversation as their wives look on.

A waiter is pictured at their side with a tray of green drinks - which are believed to be lemon and crushed mint.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/09/02/article-2408805-1B94E57D000005DC-279_634x575.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/09/02/article-2408805-1B94E57D000005DC-620_634x428.jpg

The picture is believed to have been taken in February 2009 in the Naranj restaurant in Damascus when Kerry led a delegation to Syria to discuss ideas and talk about the way forward for peace in the region.

Despite President Barack Obama taking a step back from his threat to launch an attack by putting a vote in Congress, his Secretary of State has been outspoken about the dangers posed by the Syrian regime.

He said that Assad ‘has now joined the list of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein’ in deploying chemical weapons against his population.

He said on Sunday that the U.S. now has evidence that sarin nerve gas was used in Syria and that ‘the case gets stronger by the day’ for a military attack.

During a passionate speech in Washington last Friday, he also called Assad a ‘thug and murderer’ and urged the world to act as he warned 'history would judge us all extraordinarily harshly if we turned a blind eye to a dictator'.

The U.S. administration put the Syrian chemical weapons death toll on the outskirts of Damascus at 1,429 people - far more than previous estimates - including more than 400 children.

Kerry has said he is confident that Congress will give Obama its backing for an attack against Syria, but the former Massachusetts senator also said the president has authority to act on his own if Congress doesn't give its approval.

While Kerry stopped short of saying Obama was committed to such a course even if lawmakers refuse to authorise force, he did say that ‘we are not going to lose this vote.’

Kerry said Obama has the right to take action against Syria, with or without Congress' approval. But he stopped short of saying Obama was committed to such a course even if lawmakers refuse to authorize force.

Congress is scheduled to return from a summer break on September 9.

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CeeBee said:

yaa, its a difficult thing i guess. personally, not that my op matters, i'd say let them sort themselves out, either fix your own problems, or exterminate one another. the rest of the world will be better off either way.
we have similar problem in our own country... the same people you try to help today, may come tomorrow to p1ss on your world.

same as in Zim... the people themselves have the power to accept a tyrant ruler, or to take him out.

still, i figured it would just be a few well placed cruise missiles, not actual soldiers sent in to do ground fighting? i suppose it may not end there.

another option? like US have done with other areas... empower the inocents with the means to fight, while staying out of it?

strange to me though, is why Russia is supporting the Syrian gov?! without their vote, the UN will not OK a strike, and US will look like the baddies

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Garyvdh said:

Syria's opposition National Coalition had earlier pleaded with the ministers to back a US-led strike, while Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said failure to do so would bolster Assad's forces to "pursue its crimes."

But Assad, whose regime has faced an uprising since March 2011 that a watchdog says has cost 110,000 lives, came out swinging.

"Syria... is capable of facing up to any external aggression just as it faces up to internal aggression every day, in the form of terrorist groups and those that support them," SANA news agency quoted him as saying.

Assad's comments were his first since Obama's move Saturday.

On the streets of Damascus, residents were scornful of the president's decision to back down from immediate action.

"He who talks a lot doesn't act," said Souad, mocking the US leader as a "coward" for delaying the decision.

"Obama is a coward. He didn't strike because he knows that our President Bashar (al-Assad) is all-powerful," said the employee of nationality electricity firm Ferdaws, in the northeast of the capital.

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The “sporadic basis” and the relatively small number of victims—three thousand—as a result of about a hundred cases of the use of chemical agents in the period under discussion tend to support Fraile’s suggestion that the Soviet Union had used Afghanistan as a guinea pig for its experiments with chemical warfare.

http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpress...h&chunk.id=s1.14.5&toc.id=ch014&brand=ucpress

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snoopdoggydog said:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...wife-Damascus-restaurant-war-broke-Syria.html

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At least three chemical attacks were staged in Syria between April and August, a declassified French intelligence report claims, while President Bashar Assad said it was “illogical” for the government to launch a chemical weapons strike.

The declassified nine-page French intelligence report, issued by the country’s external and military services, suggests government forces loyal to President Assad were behind the attack, which took place on August 21 in eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus.
The report alleges the strikes were directed from government-controlled areas to the east and west of Damascus and targeted rebel zones; the intelligence also describes "massive use of chemical agents" involved in the attack.
“Unlike previous attacks that used small amounts of chemicals and were aimed at terrorizing people, this attack was tactical and aimed at regaining territory," government sources commented to Reuters.

The source added that since then Assad’s forces had subsequently bombed the areas to erase evidence of strikes.
Moreover, the report alleges the Syrian government staged at least three chemical attacks since April, according to AFP, including those in the towns of Saraqib and Jobar in April. Those attacks appeared to have killed about 280 people.
The report was published on the websites of the French presidency, the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry at 5 pm Paris time (7 pm GMT).
"We are going to give the MPs everything we have – classified until now – to enable every one of them to take on board the reality of the unacceptable attack," French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Monday.

French President Francois Hollande has backed a call from US President Barack Obama for a military strike against the Syrian government as a punitive response to the Aug. 21 chemical attack. However, after Obama requested an authorization from the Congress, France said they do not intend to act alone and intends to create a coalition for intervention in Syria.
"It's not for France to act alone. The president is continuing his work of persuasion to bring together a coalition without delay. This act cannot be left without a response," PM Ayrault reiterated after presenting an intelligence report on Syria to lawmakers, his defense and foreign ministers, intelligence and security officials.
"France is determined to penalize the use of chemical weapons by Assad's regime and to dissuade [further attacks] with a forceful and firm response," Ayrault said. "The objective is neither to topple the regime nor to liberate the country," he said, adding that only a political solution in Syria was possible.
Ayrault also said no vote was scheduled for Wednesday’s parliamentary debate on the Syrian conflict. The French constitution doesn't require a vote for the president to be able to authorize military action, Ayrault added.

Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar Assad has derided allegations from the West that his government was behind alleged chemical attacks in the country. He challenged the world to provide “the slightest proof” he had used chemical weapons against his own people, and questioned the logic behind such accusations.
“Supposing that our army wants to use weapons of mass destruction… Is it possible that it does so in an area that it is itself in, and where soldiers are wounded by these weapons, which UN inspectors noted while visiting hospitals in which they were treated. Where is the logic?” the Syrian leader said.
“We have challenged the United States and France to come up with a single piece of proof,” he told Le Figaro. “Obama and Hollande have been incapable of doing so.”
“Anybody who contributes to the financial and military reinforcement of terrorists is the enemy of the Syrian people. If the policies of the French state are hostile to the Syrian people, the state will be their enemy,” Assad said, adding that the French people themselves were not enemies, but the French government’s policies were regarded as hostile.
“There will be repercussions, negative ones obviously, on French interests,” he concluded.
Assad said that any military action from the country would spark negative repercussions on French interests, calling the region a “powder keg.”
“The whole world will lose control of the situation. Chaos and extremism will spread. The risk of a regional war exists,” he said. Assad’s comments came before the French intelligence report was published.

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snoopdoggydog said:

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ghoti said:

You come across as dodgy when you post a picture like that intentionally out of context.

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Garyvdh said:

Just ignore him. He has been on a fishing expedition for some time now.

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killadoob said:

Can you or anyone explain why the information the US has is such a secret? Why can't they go show it to the UN security council.

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killadoob said:

Secret information cannot be the basis for a war with assad, they don't have enough evidence i believe to prove anything

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killadoob said:

and they cannot put on horror show live on tv

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killadoob said:

Remember colin trying to explain his evidence to the UN. OMG funny, nothing will beat benjamin and his bomb picture live on tv .
That is a classic.

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“We have challenged the United States and France to come up with a single piece of proof,” he told Le Figaro. “Obama and Hollande have been incapable of doing so.”
.
Assad’s comments came before the French intelligence report was published.

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killadoob said:

Honestly in the age of technology he surely could have done something with a wow factor to it. Surely it was not intended to make people laugh at him.

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Redeemed said:

View attachment 68557

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killadoob said:

O boy that is absolute classic, where can i find a high res copy for my wallpaper. That sums up the situation so well. Brilliant as usual.

I think that should be emailed to everyone in congress hahaha.

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killadoob said:

O boy that is absolute classic, where can i find a high res copy for my wallpaper. That sums up the situation so well. Brilliant as usual.

I think that should be emailed to everyone in congress hahaha.

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