A mention in Asia Times:
Syrian activist Ammar Abdulhamid notes in his impressions from a recent trip that while pro-regime forces initiated this process, the opposition has started to repay in kind. He writes, Continue reading
A mention in Asia Times:
Syrian activist Ammar Abdulhamid notes in his impressions from a recent trip that while pro-regime forces initiated this process, the opposition has started to repay in kind. He writes, Continue reading
Quoted in the Christian Science Monitor
Meanwhile, exiled activist Ammar Abdulhamid interpreted the attack in a very different way:
Assad’s grip over Damascus has become tenuous at best. Rebels are able to conduct bombings and attacks even in the most secured areas aided by informants embedded within Assad’s own security establishment. The battle of Damascus is set to begin at earnest soon, in what promises to be a very bloody development.
The transcript can be found at this link (Google Translations can give a good idea of the gist). The video is below. The interview was conducted during my three-weeks trip to Turkey in August but was aired only on September 18.
Last week President Obama did say that his “calculus” about “military engagement” would change if the regime began using or deploying its stocks of chemical weapons. But as the Syrian blogger Ammar Abdulhamid has written, the drawing of that red line may have emboldened the regime to conclude that anything short of using weapons of mass destruction will be tolerated by Washington.
Mr. Abdulhamid wonders “why slaughter would be deemed tolerable if it happened one way and not another.” It’s a good question — and one for which the administration’s morally bankrupt policy has no answer.
A quote in the Guardian:
In his latest blog post, exiled Syrian activist Ammar Abdulhamid takes issue with President Obama’s “coldly articulated red line regarding the use of chemical weapons” which he says “might just translate into a green light for more frenzied killing sprees by Assad and his militias”.
A quote in the Wall Street Journal:
The dissidents added that the Assad government uses cigarettes as a form of payment for the irregular military forces and militias, known as the shabeeha, who have had a central role in its violent crackdown. “Cigarettes are a favorite form of payment for the shabeeha,” said Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian dissident and human-rights activist based in Washington.