The Syrian child refugee whose photo hit a nerve online #Syria

It is an everyday occurrence at border crossings out of Syria, but for four-year-old Marwan, it must have been terrifying.

After being temporarily separated from his family at the remote Hagallat crossing on Sunday, he was found by staff from the UN's refugee agency.

Andrew Harper, the head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Jordan, took the picture and posted it on Twitter, where it hit a nerve with many users.

It was widely reposted online.

But however heartbreaking the picture was, Mr Harper said, it was not unusual in the "chaos and confusion" of refugee border crossings.

Most refugee groups were headed by mothers bringing several children and all their possessions out of Syria, he said.

When the gates open, there is a crush as desperate refugees surge forward. Every day, children get lost.

With UNHCR staff searching for them when the surge abates, they typically do not spend too long on their own.

Mr Harper said Marwan was taken across and reunited with his mother about 10 minutes after this picture was taken.

On Tuesday, he posted another photo on Twitter that shows Marwan was at the back of a group of refugees when he was met by UNHCR staff.

.

The inset image shows Marwan was not far behind his family when met by UNHCR staff

"He is separated - he is not alone," Mr Harper added.

Crossing the border is a nervous time for the children and their families - one more trauma in the hellish journey from destroyed lives in Syria to an uncertain future as refugees in a foreign land.

Most of the refugees crossing at Hagallat - which lacks even a proper road - came from Homs and al-Quaryatayn, and it was likely Marwan was from there too, said Mr Harper.

He was just one of about 1,000 people who crossed into Jordan on that day alone.

There are now 600,000 Syrian refugees registered with the UNHCR in Jordan, part of an estimated 2.4 million across the region as a whole.

A short distance inside Jordan, the mood of the children improved

Malala Yousafzai visited the border as part of her campaign for children's education

It is not clear what the future holds for young Marwan.

But with the mood of other refugee children one of relief once they cross the border, it is hoped that he, too, might look forward to a brighter future.

Malala Yousafzai, the teenager who survived a Taliban assassination attempt in Pakistan and has become a global campaigner for children's education, was also at the border on Sunday.

She witnessed emotional scenes at the border and, with her father, helped several refugees cross the no-man's land that separates the two nations.

The Malala Fund is teaming up with local Jordanian and Syrian organisations to help Syrian children get an education.

#Egypt Cuts Diplomatic Ties to #Syria #Morsi

The Egyptian government has announced it’s severing all ties to the Syrian government and backing the rebel fight seeking to oust Bashar al-Assad. On Saturday, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi told supporters he’s closing the Syrian embassy in Cairo and recalling his government’s envoy from Damascus.

--> Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi: "The Syrian people are facing a campaign of extermination and planned ethnic cleansing, fed by regional and international states who do not care for the Syrian citizen. The people of Egypt support the struggle of the Syrian people, materially and morally. And Egypt — its nation, leadership and army — will not abandon the Syrian people until it achieves its rights and dignity."

In his comments, Morsi also

 called on the international community to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria and urged all Hezbollah members fighting alongside Assad’s forces to return to Lebanon. In response, the Syrian government said Morsi has joined the "conspiracy and incitement led by the United States and Israel against Syria." The U.S. has denied pressuring Egypt on Syria.

العاهل السعودي يقطع إجازته بالمغرب بسبب تطورات المنطقة #السعودية

العاهل السعودي يقطع إجازته بالمغرب بسبب تطورات المنطقة

لم أفهم ولم يفهم غيري من ملايين العرب ماذا يعني هذا الخبر الذي تصدر النشرات ألإخبارية الخليجية وألذي جاء على الصفحات ألأولى وتصدر عناوين الصحف والمجلات والقنوات الإخبارية وجاء على رأس عناوين ألأخبار في ألصفحة ألألكترونية لقناة ألعربية. فلماذا قطع إجازته وعاد من المغرب وما الدور الذي سيلعبه ألآن في المؤامرة التي أشعل فتيلها في سوريا؟ 

هل سيقود جحافل الجيوش ألإسلامية والتي سيتقدمها أمراء وأميرات آل سعود وبقية حكام ألخليج ألذين لم يخوضوا حربا طوال حياتهم. أم سيجلس في قصره مستمتعا بما لذ وطاب من ألأكل والشراب والحسان بينما الشعب السوري يذبح عن بكرة ابيه بتمويل من حكومته وتوجيه من اسرائيل وامريكا؟ هل يعرف أحد منكم ألجواب أفيدونا أفادكم ألله. ماذا سيفعل هذا الحاكم حيال الوضع في سوريا؟ هل سيسلح المعارضة والتي هي أصلا مسلحة ومدربة ومجهزة من أموال آل سعود ولم يبقى أي نوع من السلاح الا وأرسل الي عصابات ألتكفير وألتهجير والقتل والتدمير؟ لم يبق أسلوب خسيس الا واتبعه هو واسياده حتى بلغت ألأمور ما بلغته هناك من أوضاع مزرية يندى لها الجبين. فلقد لفقت قنواته الأخبار وفبركت القصص والحكايات عن جرائم وهمية ارتكبها النظام السوري مدعوما بجيشه البطل. وعرض تحريضي لجرائم نسبت الى الجيش السوري ليتضح لاحقا ان منفذيها لم يكونوا سوى افراد العصابات الوهابية والإجرامية والتكفيرية والتي ارسلت إلى سوريا للقضاء على آخر معاقل الرجولة والشهامة والبطولة خدمة لأعداء العرب والمسلمين

 إذن ما هو ألأمر ألخطير ألذي أستدعى أن يعود عبد الله من المغرب ويعود على عجالة؟ ربما يكون الوضع السوري أحد هذه الأسباب مع أنني أشك في هذا. وأغلب الظن ان هناك مؤامرة ضده تنظم داخل عائلة آل سعود للإنقلاب عليه وإستلام مقاليد الحكم. فقبل أن يذهب لقضاء إجازته كان الوضع في سوريا أكثر تأزما ومع ذلك لم يأبه هادم الحرمين بكل ذلك وشد الرحال الى المغرب ولا أدري لماذا المغرب مع أن أمراء وأميرات عائلته لا يحلو لهم الإستجمام والسياحة والتسوق إلاّ في بلاد العم سام والدول الغربية

 ألمهم أن ألرجل عاد على عجالة من أمره ليتابع مشهد آخر من مشاهد التدمير والذي أعد له جيدا على مدى سنوات ليبلغ هذا المنحنى من الحرب المدمرة. أمريكا لا تلعب ولا تمزح وهي مصممة على إكمال هذه المهزلة من المبررات الوهمية لتدخلها العسكري في سوريا. تماما كما فعلت في العراق وليبيا. ونحن كعرب نصفق ونهلل بل وحتى نطالب وبقوة ان تتدخل امريكا وبأسرع وقت ممكن لتقضي على آخر معاقل ألصمود في وجه ألغطرسة ألصهيونية وألإمبريالية. نطالبها أن تسلح ألمعارضة بأسلحة فتاكة ومدمرة ونسينا ان هذه الدولة هي نفسها التي ترفض حتى ان تبيع لنا أسلحة دفاعية لمواجهة إسرائيل. ما ألذي لم شمل ألشامي على المغربي كما يقول ألمثل؟ لماذا هذا الحرص من قبل ألإدارة ألأمريكية على المضي قدما وألإستمرار في تدمير سوريا

 إذا تدخلت أمريكا وعربان ألخليج في هذه الحرب فستفتح كل أبواب جهنم على المنطقة ولن تنعم المنطقة لا بالأمن ولا بالسلآم لمئات ألسنين ألقادمة. فاذا كانت حرب العراق والتي حظيت بتاييد غالبية دول ألعالم لا زالت لحد ألآن لم تهدأ ولن تهدأ، فكيف للحرب ألسورية والتي ينقسم ألعالم حول أهدافها ومبرراتها أن تنتهي حسب خيال هؤلاء المغامرين. نعود إلى أسد ألأسود عبد الله بن عبد ألعزيز آل سعود ونسأله ما ألذي انت فاعله يا بطل ألإسلام يا من تحرص دائما على منع سفك نقطة دمِ واحدة من أي مسلم مهما كان مذهبه وطائفته. وتحرص دائما على عدم إزهاق روح أي مسلم إلاّ من أمر ربي. تاريخكم يشهد لكم على عدلكم وديموقراطيتكم

 لإن العدل عندكم هو أساس ألملك. وكل مواطن أو مقيم على أرض الجزيرة العربية يتمتع بكامل حقوق المواطنة ويحظى برعاية طبية وإجتماعية لا مثيل لها. طبعا هذه الممارسات التي ذكرتها هي بالأحلام. فعبد الله لا يعرف بالظبط ما يدور من إجراءآت تعسفية على أرض مملكته لم يمر مثلها على مدى التاريخ. فالإنسان المقيم هناك لا يشعر بفرق بينه وبين البهائم. فهو محروم من كل شيء بما فيه حرية ألتعبير والإفصاح عن رأيه بصراحة وبدون خوف عن أي موقف سياسي لا يتماشى مع سياسة آل سعود. فجأة اصبحت السعودية واحة للديموقراطية واراد ملكها نقل النموذج ألسعودي ألتعسفي الى باقي الدول ألعربية بما في ذلك سوريا طبعا. يريد أن يوهمنا هذا الخرف بأن ما يفعله هو خدمة للشعب السوري كي يحرره من قبضة النظام العلوي والذي كفرّه هو وعلماؤه. إكتملت ألإستعدادات للمرحلة الثانية من ألحرب الممنهجة والمخطط لها جيدا من أمريكا وحلفائها. تدريبات ألأسد ألمتأهب في ألأردن والتي شاركت بها أكثر من تسعة عشرة دولة بما فيها دولة آل سعود طبعا. ونشر صواريخ الباتريوت في كل من تركيا وألأردن قد اكتمل

 وإسرائيل انهت أجراء مناوراتها الداخلية. ماذا بقي إذن؟ أن يعطي عبد الله شارة بدء ألحرب لتندلع على كل الجبهات ويكون له شرف المساهمة في تدمير بلد عربي آخر يضاف الى قائمة ألدول ألتي ساهمت بلاده في تدميرها. ألتردد الحاصل حاليا لبدء هذه الحرب له ما يبرره. فلا أحد يعرف إذا ما ابتدأت كيف ستنتهي. ولا أحد يعرف حجم ألخسائر ألبشرية وألمادية التي قد تتسبب بها هذه الحرب. ولا أحد يعرف الى أين ستمتد نيران هذه الحرب إن ابتدأت

 من ألمؤكد أن كل هذه الأفكار وغيرها تتبادر إلى أذهان مروجي هذه ألحرب باستثناء قادة دول الخليج والذين لا يعنيهم لا من قريب ولا من بعيد حجم ألخسائر ألتي ستتسبب بها هذه ألحرب. فهم يملكون المال والذي يوفر لهم الحماية ويمنع عنهم الشر والضرر. هم واهمون بأن المال سيمنحهم الحماية ويبعد عنهم الجماهير الغاضبة التي ضاقت ذرعا بممارساتهم التعسفية والإستبدادية والسلطوية. ألحرب ان اندلعت فستطول، ولن يكون هناك رابح أو خاسر. فمؤيدي النظام السوري لن يسمحوا بسقوطه بينما معارضيه لا يهمهم هذا الموضوع فهدفهم هو تدمير سوريا بمنجزاتها وحضارتها وقوتها خدمة للعدو ألإسرائيلي وألذي يريد جاراً له منزوع ألأظافر ومنزوع ألسلاح لا يسبب له الإزعاج ويحافظ على أمن كيانه من عبث ألعابثين وتهديداتهم، تماما كما تفعل بقية الدول العربية المحيطة بالكيان الإسرائيلي مثل ألأردن ومصر ولبنان ألرسمي

 لننتظر لنرَ ما ألذي دفع ألعاهل ألسعودي إلى قطع إجازته والعودة بسرعة الى بلاده. وإن غدا لناظره قريب. ويبدو اننا لن ننتظر طويلا فها هو عميلً آخر وضيع قد أنضم الى جوقة العملاء ضد العروبة والإسلام هو رئيس مصر المنتخب والذي أعلن الليلة الفائتة قطع علاقاته مع سوريا وقرر طرد السفير السوري من مصر مع أنه وعد هو وحزب الإخوان بطرد السفير ألإسرائيلي إذا إستلم ألحكم، ولكن يبدو أن ألأمور قد تداخلت على بعض ولم يعد يميز بين إسرائيل وسوريا. وطالب أيضا بتطبيق منطقة ألحظر ألجوي على شمال سوريا. فلماذا هذا التسارع الغريب لتصعيد التوتر في سوريا علما بانه كان هناك إستعدادات تجري لعقد مؤتمر جنيف 2 لحل المشكلة في سوريا بشكل سلمي. كل هذه الدول لا تريد حلاّ سلميا للمشكلة ألسورية، تريثد فقط شحن ألأجواء وصب المزيد من البنزين عل نارها لتزداد لهيبا وانتشارا.

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Syria’s lung-eating rebel explains himself

 

The shocking video of a Syrian rebel eating the lung of a pro-Assad fighter spread like wildfire across the Internet earlier this week. The rebel, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, has filmed a YouTube video explaining his actions. 

"I am willing to face trial for my actions if Bashar and his shabeeha [militiamen] stand trial for their atrocities," he says. "My message to the world is if the bloodshed in Syria doesn't stop, all of Syria will become like Abu Sakkar."

The Syrian rebel, whose real name is Khalid al-Hamad, goes on to explain that he did what he did because of atrocities committed by pro-Assad fighters. He said that evidence taken from their cell phones showed how they raped women, killed children, and tortured men. In an article published this week by TIME magazine, the rebel fighter explained that he had a sectarian hatred of Alawites, and that he had made another video where he cuts up a pro-Assad fighter's body with a saw.

Abu Sakkar's actions not only created controversy among observers of the conflict, but also prompted the Syrian rebel leadership to take action. The Free Syrian Army's Military Council released a statement condemning Abu Sakkar's "monstrous act," and instructed field commanders to being an investigation "in which the perpetrator will be brought to justice."

So far, however, Abu Sakkar appears to still be on the battlefield. At the end of the video, the cameraman asks him whether he will continue fighting after this controversy. "Victory or martyrdom, I will fight to the death," he replies, then walks off down the road. 

Posted By David Kenner

Hackgate - The IPCC and Surrey's "Collective Amnesia"

Hackgate - The IPCC and Surrey's "Collective Amnesia" 

 

Published in late April '13, the Independent Police Complaints Commision (IPCC) Commissioner’s Report entitled 'IPCC independent investigation into Surrey Police’s knowledge of the alleged illegal accessing of Amanda (Milly) Dowler’s mobile phone in 2002' runs to just 6 scathing pages.  Its key observation is that

former senior officers at Surrey Police were 'afflicted by a form of collective amnesia' in relation to the force’s failure to investigate an allegation in 2002 that the voicemail of Amanda (Milly) Dowler had been hacked by the News of the World (NOTW).

The relevant documents in the public domain consist of a letter from Surrey Police to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee (CMS) on Surrey's own investigation (Operation Baronet), evidence read-in to the Leveson Inquiry from the Metropolitan Police Service (MET), as well as that IPCC Commissioner's Report.  The latter specifically focused on the referrals of Maria Woodall and Craig Denholm for potential recordable conduct.

MARIA WOODALL

Then: In 2002, Maria Woodall was Detective Sergeant and Action Team Manager of Surrey Police's investigation Operation Ruby into the abduction of missing teenager Millie Dowler. She appears to have been frank with the IPCC that the hacking of Millie's mobile phone by NOTW was known by several on the investigation team - for example, DC John Lyndon's 23rd April '02 log entry (p14)

...in light of the News of the World revelation that they or a third party has accessed the voicemail it is possible that the messages had previously been listened to by unknown persons and deleted.

Millie's mother Sally recounted to the Leveson Inquiry (p14) her own suspicions that NOTW had intercepted family phones to get a particularly intrusive story for publication ('The Longest Walk').

Woodall's referral to the IPCC  however was not about 2002. She was investigated for allegedly failing to pass on knowledge of NOTW's hacking later during the investigation which led to the convictions of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire (p4):  

The case against her rested on her actions and knowledge in 2007, when the first phone hacking convictions took place. It is clear that at that point she accessed the HOLMES system to view documents from 2002 associated with phone hacking.

Though the IPCC investigation "concluded that there was no case to answer for misconduct."  From 2006, Operation Ruby's Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) was Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Rowley. It is not known if Woodall informed him of her HOLMES searches.

Now: Temporary Detective Superintendent Woodall is about to leave Surrey for a new job with the City of London Police.

STUART GIBSON

Then: Detective Chief Inspector Gibson was the initial appointed Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) when Millie Dowler disappeared in March 2002.  It has been alleged that Gibson was one of the Surrey officers who met with NOTW senior journalists and were told of the hacking. (here)

Documented evidence of his meeting(s) with NOTW are missing.  Within a few weeks, Gibson was removed from Operation Ruby. The conclusions from a progress review by Sussex Police undertaken in the summer of 2002 are here.

At the same time, there was adverse criticism from the press - one "describing the investigation under DCI Gibson as 'rudderless' and this media coverage has since been described by (then Deputy Chief Constable) Peter Fahy as 'a factor in replacing the SIO for [the investigation]".  (p9)

Now: Stuart Gibson is retired.

The IPCC Investigation also states that amongst senior officers interviewed were those at Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) level.

CRAIG DENHOLM  (ACPO level)

Surrey Police's evidence to the CMS Committee and the Leveson Inquiry came from Assistant Chief Constable Jerry Kirkby. Normally, both might have warranted the attention of the force Chief Constable.  However, Surrey's Chief Constable Mark Rowley had just left for a new post with the MET and Temporary Chief Constable Craig Denholm was himself implicated as the focus of Operation Baronet.

Then: In 2002, Detective Chief Superintendent Denholm (Head of Crime) was Overall Officer in Charge (OOC) of Operation Ruby - the immediate superior officer to SIO Stuart Gibson.

The case against Denholm "rested on his claim to have had no knowledge about the alleged hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone before this was revealed publicly in 2011. Given the extent of knowledge within the investigation team, and Surrey Police as a whole, and the fact that this was referred to in documents which he is known to have received, the investigation found it hard to understand how he, the officer in charge, could not have been aware of the alleged hacking. But despite detailed examination of all extant documents and interviews with all relevant witnesses, the investigation was unable to find any witness or documentary evidence that contradicted Mr Denholm’s own repeated assertions to the IPCC that he did not know, and had not made the relevant connections. In view of that...there was insufficient evidence to support a finding of a case to answer for gross misconduct."

Now: Denholm has just been appointed Deputy Chief Constable of Hampshire Police. Its Chief Constable Andy Marsh said: "Craig is an experienced and very capable DCC with a good track record of leadership and delivery of excellent policing services to the public."

MARK ROWLEY (ACPO level)

Then: Rowley joined Surrey in 2002 as Chief Superintendent to command West Surrey Basic Command Unit.  Previously (Guardian)

as a detective superintendent at the National Criminal Intelligence Service, he 'led on the national deployment of covert techniques to combat organised crime such as telephone interception' 

Rowley became Surrey Assistant Chief Constable from November 2003 and assumed the role of OOC for Operation Ruby in 2006.  He was appointed Chief Constable in 2009. Following the conviction of Levi Bellfield in 2011 for Millie Dowler's murder, Rowley iniated Operation Baronet under AC Jerry Kirkby.

Now:  Rowley is Assistant Commissioner at the MET. For some time he was direct superior officer of DAC Sue Akers command of Operations Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta.  Responsibility for these investigations was subsequently transferred to AC Cressida Dick.


PETER FAHY  (ACPO level)

Then: Throughout 2002, Fahy was Deputy Chief Constable of Surrey Police under Chief Constable Denis O'Connor. Fahy left Surrey in Dec '02 to become Chief Constable of Cheshire Police.

Now: Knighted in 2012, Sir Peter Fahy is currently Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police.

DENIS O'CONNOR  (ACPO level)

Then: In 2002, O'Connor was Chief Constable of Surrey Police. In all available evidence, O'Connor has been very keen to distance himself from the NOTW phone hacking in 2002.  Instead, he has consistently emphasized his heavy reliance on Peter Fahy's responsibility to have informed him:

You will understand that as a discipline authority, not everything reaches the Chief Constable, who must sit in judgment of things. So I may have been partially safe from it, but I would have expected and, you know,my sort of --my concern with the mission of policing and its credibility, that people would have drawn -- my senior staff, my professional standards department -- if there was anything significant, they would have told me... Particularly my Deputy Chief Constable at the present (sic) time, Peter Fahy, I had absolute faith in his integrity. I thought he would make the right judgments

Lord Justice Leveson did however challenge O'Connor on this strategy of continuing, unsighted insulation (pp 98-100).  His witness statement added (1st witness statement, p7):

I am not fully sighted on the details of the alleged contact between the News of the World and my staff during the Amanda Dowler investigation (I have deliberately limited my contact with Surrey Police pending current investigations) so cannot comment on the specifics of this issue.

Now:  Knighted in 2010, Sir Denis O'Connor is currently Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary.

And STILL there are inconsistencies emerging on the hacking of Millie Dowler. Note the investigation of Maria Woodall "rested on her actions and knowledge in 2007, when the first phone hacking convictions took place. It is clear that at that point she accessed the HOLMES system to view documents from 2002 associated with phone hacking."

Yet it is debatable just how much documentation was on the second generation HOLMES (Home Office Large Major Enquiry System) in 2002... or even in 2007. The - redacted - Sussex Review of September 2002 made Operational Recommendations:

Recommendation 56
That Surrey Police in general ensure that sufficient analysts are trained on the HOLMES 2 system.
Recommendation 57
That Surrey Police formulate an appropriate policy regarding the typing of at least the most significant 'other documents' onto HOLMES 2 during any enquiry.

Were those Sussex Police recommendations ignored? Or if significant 2002 Dowler phone hacking documents were in the HOLMES system, were they still there when Woodall looked in 2007? Had some disappeared by the time of the 2012 Operation Baronet?  Given that one of the aims of HOLMES is to facilitate crucial information access across force boundaries, was cross-force access to HOLMES 2002 documents volunteered by Surrey to Operation Caryatid (the MET 2005-6 investigation into Goodman and Mulcaire)? If not, why not?  Alternatively - following the high profile convictions of Goodman and Mulcaire in 2007 - Woodall may have tried to access cross-force MET HOLMES databases on NOTW phone hacking.

There were none. The MET did not enter details of the key Mulcaire Archive into HOLMES during the Operation Caryatid investigation in 2005. Or 2006. Or post-conviction in 2007.  It was only in July 2009, following intense criticism, that the MET's John Yates ordered the phone hacking data entry into HOLMES to enable victim notification. It was costly, protracted, and poorly executed.

The IPCC confirms "widespread knowledge uncovered in this investigation, we consider that it is scarcely credible that no one connected to the Milly Dowler investigation recognised the relevance and importance of the knowledge that Surrey Police had in 2002...There is no doubt, from our investigation and the evidence gathered by Operation Baronet, that Surrey Police knew in 2002 of the allegation that Milly Dowler’s phone had been hacked by the News of the World. It is apparent from the evidence that there was knowledge of this at all levels within the investigation team  ...former senior officers in particular appear to have been afflicted by a form of collective amnesia about this"

All this is highly reminiscent of the (contagious?) 'omerta' culture at the News of the World. Surrey Police seem to have demonstrated the self-same collective amnesia and willful blindness of NOTW senior executives, the plausible deniability of Andy Coulson, the trusting reliance on subordinates of Rupert Murdoch, the inability to read a log/email chain of James Murdoch, the document preservation abilities of News International's Datapool 3 team, and the reputational management skills of Colin Myler.

To date, six have been charged with conspiracy to intercept the voicemail messages of Millie Dowler in April 2002 - Rebekah Brooks, Andrew Coulson, Stuart Kuttner, Greg Miskiw, Neville Thurlbeck and Glenn Mulcaire.  Unless all six defendants plead guilty, these charges will have to be defended in open court. So there is much more evidence yet to emerge on the Dowler hacking, including the potential for former senior officers of Surrey Police being called as prosecution witnesses.

The short IPCC Commissioner's Report is a much-truncated and redacted version. The full IPCC formal Investigation Report "contains full details of the evidence supporting the findings and conclusions and the report into this case is not being published at this time at the request of the Crown Prosecution Service, in view of ongoing criminal proceedings."

This sorry Surrey saga is not over yet.

How the #Muslim_Brotherhood Hijacked #Syria Revolution

No one in Syria expected the anti-regime uprising to last this long or be this deadly, but after around 70,000 dead, 1 million refugees, and two years of unrest, there is still no end in sight. While President Bashar al-Assad's brutal response is mostly to blame, the opposition's chronic failure to form a viable front against the regime has also allowed the conflict to drag on. And there's one anti-Assad group that is largely responsible for this dismal state of affairs: Syria's Muslim Brotherhood.

Throughout the Syrian uprising, I have had discussions with opposition figures, activists, and foreign diplomats about how the Brotherhood has built influence within the emerging opposition forces. It has been a dizzying rise for the Islamist movement. It was massacred out of existence in the 1980s after the Baathist regime put down a Brotherhood-led uprising in Hama. Since then, membership in the Brotherhood has been an offense punishable by death in Syria, and the group saw its presence on the ground wither to almost nothing. But since the uprising erupted on March 15, 2011, the Brotherhood has moved adroitly to seize the reins of power of the opposition's political and military factions.

According to a figure present at the first conference to organize Syria's political opposition, held in Antalya, Turkey, in May 2011, the Brotherhood was initially hesitant to join an anti-Assad political body. The group had officially suspended its opposition to the Baathist regime in the wake of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza in 2009, and it pulled out of an alliance with Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian vice president who defected in 2005.

The Brotherhood nonetheless sent members to participate in the conference, including Molhem Droubi, who became a member of the conference's executive bureau. Meanwhile, it took steps to form fighting groups inside Syria, recruiting potential fighters and calling on its relatively meager contacts on the ground in Homs, Hama, Idlib, and Aleppo.

As the idea of a unified opposition group to lead the popular revolt gained momentum, the Brotherhood became more involved. A month after the meeting in Antalya, it organized a conference in Brussels, attended by 200 people, mostly Islamists -- one of the first obvious fractures in the unity of the opposition. The Brotherhood subsequently organized several conferences that formed opposition groups to serve as fronts for the movement, allowing it to beef up its presence in political bodies.

After the conference in Brussels, at least three groups were formed "to support the Syrian revolution." The organizations continued to hatch, and a few months after the first conference they were present in opposition bodies that later formed the core of the Syrian National Council (SNC), an umbrella group that ostensibly represented all anti-Assad forces. The council set aside seats for both the Brotherhood and members of the Damascus Declaration, a group of Syrian reformists established in 2005 -- but the Brotherhood already had a significant presence within the Damascus Declaration group.

Lessons from #Syria

There are two parts to this brilliant article by Beesaan el Shaikh in Al Hayat (Arabic) which I believe is an imperative read for anyone interested in the Arab uprising.

The first part of the article uses the tragedies generated by the revolution as a very compelling argument NOT to support it. The second part, near the end, turns the argument around making a simple but slam-dunk case for the revolution.

I want to use the first part to rephrase a position I expressed in the very beginning of this revolution, days before the first Assad speech and the subsequent violent turn of the uprising: I expressed then my hope that Assad would do the wise thing and grab the opportunity to reform the regime by himself, because that was the only transition that would avoid destroying Syria, or handing it to Islamic extremists.

I was naïve in my hopes, obviously. But I believe that hope is a moral imperative. I knew then, like all those who lived through Lebanon's civil war, that no matter where it happens on this earth, or why, or how legitimate, when an uprising turns into an armed rebellion, there is absolutely no controlling of the damage it can make to the structure of society and its ability to recuperate post conflict (think Iraq, Lebanon, but also Salvador, Tchetchnia, or Sri Lanka more globally).

The unspeakable price of civil violence in terms of social dismantling (even more so than the toll on human life and heritage), is why I still believe that any people who has regime change in progress (i.e Tunisia, Egypt) - or in perspective (i.e Jordan, Morocco, or the Gulf in the coming 5 to 15 years) - must bend itself backwards twice, maybe thrice, before engaging in violent struggle, or violent ‘defense of the achieved revolution’ – as opposed to radically peaceful rebellion or political compromise.

One of the reasons I respect Moaz el Khatib so deeply is his awareness of this fact, and his courage to remain constantly open to compromise with the regime for the sake of ending violence – because he knows that no matter how high the price of such compromise is, it will always be lower than the one of sustained violence.

Don’t get me wrong, just like Beesaan el Sheikh says in her article, I believe that there is no choice BUT to support the Syrian revolution because it is the only legitimate and humanly acceptable path forward. But I certainly hope that idealists learn the lesson and understand that wars are, under all circumstances, unwinnable: because even by winning them, we destroy the basic social infrastructure that makes that victory worth anything.

This might sound obvious to some, but the consequence is less so: only a slower transition, or a stubbornly peaceful uprising can come at a lower cost.

I want to end by drawing a relevance to Tunisia and Egypt: compromise is a high price you might need to pay to avoid the higher price of a torn society. And if compromise is impossible (and it should take a lot before you get to this conclusion), than maintain your struggle peaceful at all cost (i.e no military repression of ‘medieval forces’). The alternative is worse than you can ever imagine or calculate.