Syria’s Bashar al-Assad condemns Friday’s attack:

[ucrdem]

41m ago - 05:17

Syria’s Bashar al-Assad is the latest to condemn Friday’s attacks in Paris.

He told Lebanese TV station al Mayadeen:

What France suffered from savage terror is what the Syrian people have been enduring for over five years.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/nov/14/paris-terror-attacks-attackers-dead-mass-killing-live-updates

[malaise]

1. What France suffered from savage terror is what the Syrian people have been enduring for over five

years.
^...THIS...^

And there is no condemnation from the West - oh wait, it's the West bombing Syria with impunity.

Thanks warmongers all!!

[polly7]

2. You're right ..

as it was silence on suffering for the people of Libya. All the horror surrounding those killed, maimed or displaced in that particular regime change was never heard in the western media either.


The detritus of regime change in Libya

By Vijay Prashad
Source: al-Araby
November 1, 2015

.......In Iraq, parts of the deposed army and some Baath Party members linked up with al-Qaeda in Iraq, and then later the Islamic State of Iraq. It was these motivated and trained men that formed the backbone of the IS advance on Fallujah and Ramadi in 2014.

Much the same story is being repeated with the emergence of IS in Libya. Adversaries of Gaddafi in the 1990s took refuge in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group; one of whose strongholds was the town of Derna.

These fighters fled the country to join the Jihad International in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq, Yemen and Syria.

It had become a familiar matter to meet an al-Libi in the redoubts of the jihadis. Studies show that Libya provided per capita the highest number of jihadis to this global campaign.


The lesson of Iraq was not learned. It was repeated in Libya. Both countries still hang by a thread. Their people suffer painfully. They have been sacrificed to a theory that is arrogant and erroneous. It deserves a place only in the dustbin of history.

https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/the-detritus-of-regime-change-in-libya/

[oberliner]

3. Much of that terror has been at the hands of Assad himself

His regime is responsible for atrocities against the Syrian people.

For instance:

‘They were torturing to kill’: inside Syria’s death machine

For two years, between 2011 and 2013, the former Syrian military photographer known only as Caesar used a police computer in Damascus to copy thousands of photographs of detainees who were tortured to death in Bashar al-Assad’s jails. The media have run numerous stories about the man who managed to smuggle astonishing evidence of crimes against humanity out of the country – at great risk to himself and his family – but he had never been interviewed.

Month after month, for two years, this man, who has remained anonymous, took photographs of tortured, starved and burnt bodies. His orders were to photograph the bodies in order to document prisoners’ deaths. He then secretly made copies and transferred them on to USB keys so that he could smuggle them out of his office, hidden in his shoes or his belt, and pass them to a friend who could get them out of the country.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/01/they-were-torturing-to-kill-inside-syrias-death-machine-caesar

And also:

100,000 civilians killed by Assad forces since 2011: report

More than 133,000 people were killed, the majority of which civilians, in attacks by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against areas held by opposition forces since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011, according to a London-based rights group.

The Syrian government forces killed no less than 133,586 people; including 109,347 civilian (88% of the total) among them 15,149 children and 13,695 women. In addition, 4892 person were killed under torture, said the latest report of the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).

"The majority of those killed (in the conflict) were civilians and most of them were killed as a result of indiscriminate regime shelling," Fadel Abdulghani, director of SNHR, told MEE.

"The figures show that the regime's barrel bombs and scud missiles have been the main cause of civilian deaths in the Syrian conflict," he added.

In SNHR's report, one child was killed every two hours, one woman was killed every three hours and around 100 people were killed every day in Syria by pro-Assad forces

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/100000-civilians-killed-assad-forces-2011-report-590203858#sthash.l675azCh.dpuf

[malaise]

4. Over a million Iraqis were killed

Palestinians are slaughtered with impunity and I'm still waiting for your outrage -either all lives matter or no lives matter. This planet is sick, depraved. When Hollande says this is an act of war, what is Iraq, Libya, Syria, Gaza, Yemen and now > What are the drones?

What is our 'collateral damage' but their dead relatives. You expect them to give a flying fuck about our children, our relatives while we bomb them into submission.

Humanity hasn't learned very much.

[CJCRANE]

5. How should the French react to the terrorist attacks in France? nt

[joshcryer]

6. They shouldn't raze the Arab quarters...

...put them under lockdown, and shell them from outside the city gates.

That's for damn fucking sure.

[CJCRANE]

7. What should they do to the terrorists in Syria? nt

[joshcryer]

11. Let Russia do its thing.

Which is what will likely happen.

[karynnj]

15. the west is bombing the areas held by ISIS

And they are deconflicting with Assad. Though this is subtly different than coordinating, it does mean that Syria is ok with the targets

[AngryAmish]

8. A lot of the one hand typing crowd advocated getting rid of Assad

Make no mistake, Assad is a butcher. But his enemies may be worse.

[SoCalDem]

9. kettle...meet pot..

Ole Barrel Bomber has sympathy ?? I doubt it.

[riderinthestorm]

10. These attacks in France strengthen Assad

He's said all along he's been battling terrorists instead of rebels. The attack in Paris will inevitably make people think Assad's position more credible.

(Regardless of what's true or not about the dynamics of the war in Syria)

[Donald Ian Rankin]

12. As the man responsible for much of it, he should know. N.T.

[Bad Thoughts]

13. I missed the part where Assad condemned himself for supporting Hezbollah and al-Qaeda

He built a network within his own country designed to transport terrorism to other countries. It's his own damn fault.

[leveymg]

14. What's your source for Syrian state support for al-Qaeda, like ISIS, a Saudi-sponsored group?

I missed that part.

[Bad Thoughts]

16. Shawkat's coordination with Abu Quadiya's AQI. eom.

[leveymg]

17. As usual, Damascus was playing both sides of the Iraq War, and suffered the consequences

Recall that the Bush Administration shortly before was also using Syria as a place to deposit early batches of AQ detainees for "enhanced interrogation" before the CIA brought that sort of thing in-house.

Anyway, you are right that it was reported that Assad's assassinated brother, then the head of military intelligence, was permitting AQ to transit Syria into Iraq: http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/10/01/the-generals-gambit/

The point was underscored by U.S. intelligence assessments, which noted that the route the would-be jihadists took to the war was also their way out. Foreign fighters "who gained operational experience while fighting in Iraq return to their source countries through Syria," one such report observed. "These experienced fighters returning from jihad pose a threat to the Syrian regime. Although Syria currently is mainly a transit point for AQI, Syria will be an AQI target in the future. AQI ultimately intends to conduct attacks in Syria."