Some 55% of Syrian respondents do not believe President Assad should resign, whereas it was found that it was the vast majority of respondents across the region, 81%, who want him to do so. Of the total respondents, 46% wanted President Assad to remain in power to prevent Syria becoming another Iraq, and half of the total (50%) think that the protests [in Syria] are part of a conspiracy by the US and the West. Almost a third, 32%, of respondents from the Levant region believe that President Assad is the best president for Syria (the figure for Syria alone is not given). Two thirds, 64%, of total respondents believe that the protests represent the view of the majority of Syrians, whereas in Syria, 52% of respondents believe that the news about the protests are exaggerated. According to Phillip Giraldi, writing for The American Conservative, Nato is “already clandestinely engaged in the Syrian conflict with Turkey taking the lead as US proxy” and “unmarked NATO warplanes are arriving at Turkish military bases close to Iskenderum on the Syrian border, delivering weapons from the late Muammar Gaddafi’s arsenals as well as volunteers from the Libyan Transitional Council.” In addition, French and British special forces trainers are on the ground, “assisting the Syrian rebels, while the CIA and US Spec Ops are providing communications equipment and intelligence.” There appears little doubt that atrocities are being committed against unarmed protesters in Syria but the extent is unknown with the numbers hugely exaggerated by vested interests. No one knows the exact figure; the UN says it is 5,000 unarmed civilians, but they have not been able to corroborate the number; they have not published how many armed protesters have been killed and how many unarmed civilians have been killed by the armed militants. The Syrian Government says 2,000 security personnel have been killed. “What we are seeing in Syria is a deliberate and calculated campaign to bring down the Assad Government so as to replace it with a regime ‘more compatible’ with US interests in the region” argues Aisling Byrne who is Projects Co-ordinator with Conflicts Forum in Beirut. “The majority of Western mainstream media outlets, along with the media of the US’s allies in the region, particularly [Qatar owned] al-Jazeera and the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV channels, are effectively collaborating with the “regime change” narrative and agenda with a near-complete lack of questioning or investigation of statistics and information put out by organizations and media outlets that are either funded or owned by the US/European/Gulf alliance - the very same countries instigating the regime change project in the first place,” writes Byrne in Asia Times. “The US and its allies, particularly Britain and France, have funded and helped “shape” the opposition from the outset - building both on attempts started by the US in 2006 to construct a unified front against the Assad government, and the perceived “success” of the Libyan Transitional National Council model,” she says. The Muslim News received information on the attacks by armed militants on ordinary people not involved in the uprising. However, they were of a different Islamic school of thought, Shi’a (not Allawi). According to Rashid (not his real name), the problems started about 8 months ago in Homs. “Yesterday [December 22] they kidnapped my brother’s son in Homs in Abasyia district; alhamdu lillah (with God’s help) the negotiation with the terrorists ended with his release. He’s currently in a state hospital recovering from his injuries.” Over a hundred Shi’as have been killed in Homs. “Limbs have been amputated – there have been horrific cases where people’s arms, fingers and ears have been amputated; we have never seen anything like it.” Wives of those who were killed “were raped – the women were stripped and made to wonder the streets naked.”
muslimnews.co.uk...