Syrian Defections ... The More the Merrier!

Syrian army soldiers hold the Syrian revolution flags as they stand in front their armored personnel carrier shortly after they defected and joined the rebels at Khaldiyeh neighborhood, in Homs province, central Syria, Saturday, May 12, 2012. (AP / Fadi Zaidan)

Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20120622/syria-defections-aleppo-120622/#ixzz1yYAHCjzu

Reports have surfaced that high-ranking military officials of Assad's regime are preparing to defect. Hallelujah! This is a significant development because although many members of the Syrian regime have defected, most of them are low-ranking officials whose positions can be easily replaced. When higher-ranking officials defect, their actions have the ability to seriously cripple the Syrian regime, (here's hoping...).


Today The Telegraph is reporting, "Members of Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle are secretly making plans to defect to the opposition should the Syrian regime become critically threatened by the rebellion, US officials have told The Daily Telegraph.


Senior military figures are understood to be laying down “exit strategies” and establishing lines of communication with the rebels to discuss how they would be received if they deserted.
On Thursday a Syrian air force colonel became the first senior officer to defect in an aircraft after he abandoned a mission to attack the city of Dera’a and landed his MiG 21 fighter jet in Jordan.

The Daily Telegraph also reports that the pilots of three other MiGs on the mission also considered defecting, but were worried about being turned away.

Mr Assad is under intense pressure over the 15-month uprising, with world leaders considering offering the Syrian president an immunity deal to ensure he relinquishes power."

Another report from CBS News is claiming that a Syrian activist group said that four senior army officers have defected and joined the opposition.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights provided a video Friday purporting to show two brigadier generals and two colonels. They declared they were defecting. Watch the video above (it's in Arabic btw). 

Fun Fact: The Syrian flag behind them has been altered with the word "freedom" in Arabic on the top green portion. 

Elections Under Siege

In this photo taken during a government-organized tour, Syrian campaign workers wait outside a polling station during the parliamentary elections, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, May 7, 2012. Syrians cast ballots Monday in parliamentary elections billed by the regime as key to President Bashar Assad's political reforms, but the opposition dismissed the vote as a sham meant to preserve his autocratic rule. (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman)

Elections in Syria were held on May 7, 2012, amidst the continual barrage of bullets and tanks. The Syrian opposition had boycotted these elections, especially since the areas with the strongest opposition to Assad's regime, such as Dar'a, Homs and Hama, are under siege. U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday that balloting in the current atmosphere in Syria "borders on ludicrous." 

The Syrian government, on the other hand, hailed the multiparty elections, Syria's first, as marking a historic step toward comprehensive political reform in a country that has been ruled by the same family and political party for more than four decades.

In February, Syrians voted for a new constitution that abolished the one-party system long controlled by the Baath Party. That election was also boycotted by the opposition, which said it did not offer real reforms and came after President Bashar Assad's crackdown on dissent had already resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians. 

The video below illustrates how many Syrians feel about the current elections. It's a spoof of the supposed "free and fair" elections the Syrian regimie claims to be holding:

However, State media on Monday showed Syrians eagerly voting at polling stations and, in interviews on the street, extolling the importance of casting a ballot. Judicial supervision "ensures fairness, freedom and democracy for the electorate in choosing their representatives," the Syrian Arab News Agency reported. 

An activist in Damascus countered the state media reports, saying that residents were boycotting the polls. In addition, activists were calling on businesses to remain shuttered for the day.

"No one is in the streets, and no one is coming or going," the activist said. "It's all empty talk."

The National Development Party registered earlier this year, saying its goal was to establish a democratic society in Syria through political and legal means. Yet it did not participate in the election. Mohammad Samman, one of its founders, said his party didn't have enough time to select candidates.

It was not clear if any other political parties besides the Baath Party placed candidates on the ballot.

Another activist in Aleppo said there was some voting in a few neighborhoods but that many of those at the polls were government workers forced to participate, or supporters of the regime.

Omar Hamzah, an activist from the Damascus suburbs, said in a Skype interview that there were several instances of people having their ID cards confiscated at a checkpoint and being forced to go to election centers to cast their votes before getting their IDs back. 

In some Syrian cities, activists staged protests. Others used cyberspace to mock the polling: In the video above, said to have been shot in Idlib, activists staged a skit about the elections, depicting voters getting money from pro-government thugs as they enter a polling station, then being given ballots already filled out with the names to vote for. (The state media video did not appear to have been uploaded to the Internet).

Another video, seen below, made fun of the rhetoric used on Syrian state television, extolling the "great participation" in the elections over footage of chickens pecking at feed:

Occupy the World

The Occupy Wall Street protests have inspired other "Occupy (insert location here)" protests in countries all over the world. Recent reports state that the Occupy movement has spread to 82 countries so far.

Occupy protests have taken place in London, Rome, Chile, Tokyo, Madrid and Berlin, to name a few. The world's spirit of revolution was awakened in 2011. Starting with the protests in the Arab world that turned in to the Arab Spring to the protests in New York City that spread everywhere; we are the 99% and we have had enough.

The protests in Rome attracted more media attention than any other city. This was due to the protest's violent nature. The protest organized by the Occupy movement was peaceful until anarchists (known as the "Black Block") appeared and began tearing up pieces of cobblestone from the street to hurl at buildings and the police, reports TIME. Furthermore, the anarchists burned several buildings and cars with Molotov cocktails. Occupy protesters were forced to barricade themselves in side streets or run for cover.

Aside from the unfortunate incident in Rome, the other protests across the world were largely peaceful. I found some photographs of several of the protests that took place yesterday, October 15, 2011 the Global "Day of Rage".

Rome, Italy

Rome, Italy

Berlin, Germany

Berlin, Germany

Frankfurt, Germany

Julian Assange of Wikileaks in London, England

Brussels, Belgium

Madrid, Spain

Madrid, Spain

Vancouver, Canada

Tokyo, Japan

Santiago, Chile

NYC

Occupy Wall Street

Los Angeles, CA

Seattle, WA

Egyptian Army Violently Disperses Coptic Protesters

In #Maspero, Cairo a group comprising mostly of Coptic Christians and some Muslims were protesting against the persecution of Egyptian Coptic Christians, they were then attacked by the Egyptian Army. The death toll is reported at 24 with 200 injured.  The video below shows the Egyptian Army attacking unarmed protesters.

Twitter has been erupting with images and videos of the attacks on the protesters in Maspero. Some of the pictures are below, follow the hashtags #Maspero, #EgyArmy, #SCAF or my personal fave, #FuckSCAF for live information.

Incredible Video of Protesters in Syria

It's graphic, yet inspirational but it's only inspirational once you get to the end of the video. If you stop halfway through its just straight up depressing. The video is in Arabic without subtitles but trust me, their actions speak louder (and clearer) than their words.

Massacre in Hama, Syria

On the night before Ramadan 2011, the Syrian regime demonstrated their moral bankruptcy and sheer desperation by massacring a staggering amount of people, mostly in the central Syrian city of Hama. Reports claim that at least 80-100 civilians were massacred in Hama alone, with several others killed in other Syrian cities. 


The massacre today has even caught the attention of President Obama; "The reports out of Hama are horrifying and demonstrate the true character of the Syrian regime," Obama said in a statement released by the White House.


News agency Al-Arabiya tweeted, "The Syrian army in Kiswa prevents people from performing Ramadan Tarawih night prayers #HamaMassacre #Assad."


For Tweets from the ground in Syria, some Tweeps to follow are @SyrianProtests & @MalathAumran 

Morocco's Protests in Pictures

Big banner reads: No to the joining between power and wealth

Sign reads: "The people want a new Morocco"

Egyptian Police Kill 14 Year-Old Boy

Reports are surfacing on Twitter that a 14 year-old boy was killed by an Egyptian officer in Abu Qarn area. The officer was from Manyal police department and today the family and neighbors of the young victim and some protesters went the Police station. Another report from Twitter claimed (in Arabic) "a 14 year-old boy was shot with a bullet in the head and his corpse is still in the street and the army and CSF (Central Security Forces) are protecting the police department." Another report from Twitter claims that tear gas is being used to disperse the crowd.

This is only a recent report of the police brutality in Egypt that has been going on for decades. We must not forget that the Egyptian revolution was started because of the outrage caused from the torture of Khalid Said by the Egyptian police.

Below is a video of another peaceful youth being gunned down by police for no apparent reason.

Some hashtags to follow for this story are #Manyal #14yob

Palestinians Revolt Through Art

Many people are used to seeing Palestinians throwing stones at Israeli tanks as a symbolic form of resistance. What may be a less familiar image of a Palestinian, is one of the Palestinian artist using his or her art as a form of peaceful resistance.

Several creative Palestinians have used their own interpretation of art as a means of expressing their identity in a land where they have been robbed of an 'official' identity.

Khaled Jarrar, a Palestinian artist, has come up with an original way to express his identity. He created a passport stamp for Palestine and he offers to stamp the passports of people visiting the West Bank. Watch the video below to see Khaled in action.

Khaled Jarrar's Palestinian passport stamps

Instead of passport stamps, a young group of Palestinian guys have found another way to express themselves; Parkour. Parkour or Free Running is about physically overcoming obstacles in your own way, something Palestinians can definitely relate to. Watch the videos below to see Gaza Parkour in action.

The video below (which is also about Gaza Parkour) totally made me cry (happy tears). 

You have been warned.

In other Palestinian art news, a Picasso painting has been sent to a Palestinian art museum for the first time ever!

Palestinian security guards keep close to the "Buste De Femme" by Pablo Picasso.
It's on loan from a museum in the Netherlands.

More Cartoons of the Arab Spring

The Arab Spring marks a change, this change causes several things to happen.

1.) The Arab Spring marks the end of the past season.

2.) The Arab Spring gives some people allergies.

3.) The Arab Spring is a time for cleaning and gardening.

In Pictures: Women of the Arab Spring

Tunisian Women

Egyptian Women

Graffiti reads: "Freedom is practiced daily."

Bahraini Women

Libyan Women

Yemeni Women

Syrian Women

Saudi Women

Lebanese Woman