It is clear from US government pronouncements since the beginning of the public demonstrations in Syria that the Obama Administration wants the leadership in Syria to survive.Thus begins a political assessment of the situation from the PR firm of Brown Lloyd James written for the Syrian government. It is in my latest major article on the politics surrounding the Syrian revolution, titled Barack Obama's Courtship with Bashar al-Assad and republished by The North Star, Linux Beach and uruknet.info.
This 16 thousand word paper took me a month to research and complete. It details the almost 3 year history of secret negotiations between the Obama administration and the Assad regime that started even before Obama took office, beginning just days after he was elected, and continuing even as Assad begin shooting protesters in the streets.
It is the first fruit of an investigative partnership I have entered into with WikiLeaks that has given me access to the 5 million unpublished emails of global intelligence firm Stratfor. As a result of this research another 26 documents from that collection were published by Wikileaks and made available to the public at the same time I published the article.
If you want to understand what motivates me, click for this tweet. The little girl with no head was alive not too long ago.
If you have been following my writings at the DailyKos, you know that my blog has become one the best sources of news on the struggles of the Syrian people and the extent of Assad's slaughter. This is news that has virtually disappeared from the mainstream media and is seriously under-reported in the left press.
Because I see brave Syrians dying everyday, I have continued reporting on, and supporting their struggle even though it has put my personal welfare in jeopardy.
I have also been reporting stories about the Libyan revolution that you won't see anywhere else. My more recent piece, Seven Libyans Injured Defending US Embassy, reports on the Libyans that attempted to defend the US consulate in Benghazi and paid dearly for it, and on the mass rallies across Libya that protested the attack on the US ambassador. This is another story that is missing from the mainstream media and even hard to find in the left press, as is the critical, but supportive commentary of my Women and the Libyan Revolution.
Although in the past year, my filmmaking has necessarily taken a back seat to my writing, I am still doing work in that area too. I have collected more that three hundred videos shot in Syria. Many of these are no longer available on YouTube or other Internet sites because the accounts have been "terminated." Last week I talked with David Zieger [Sir! No Sir!] about turning these into a documentary. Also last week, I volunteered for WestDoc so that I could seek funding and help in completing the sequel to Vietnam: American Holocaust[387,718 views on YouTube], Vietnam: People's Victory.
A few weeks ago Wikileaks opened the Syria Files, 3.5 million emails found in accounts of high-ranking Syrian officials, to me for research and publication, but as things stand now, I won't be able to do any work with these, or even continue my coverage of the of the Syrian and Libyan revolutions unless I receive support from you.
I am very much at the end of my rope now and as the end of the month looms, I don't have money to make the next rent payment and don't know how I'm going to earn it.
So now all my time must be consumed in looking for work and fund raising. I only hope that I haven't waited too long to start bailing.
Although I am obviously concerned for my own health and welfare, I know that I will somehow survive. I am more concerned that the work I am doing in support of these brave people fighting for their freedom, won't get done.
Since this work, the work that I have mainly been doing in the past year, is not work that anyone will pay me to do, I am reaching out to you to help me continue this work.
Any amount you can spare will be greatly appreciated, not only by me but by those in Libya and Syria that appreciate my work, some of which have been recently translated.
I am completely non-sectarian and accept all denominations. Checks can be made out to "Linux Beach." You may also make a donation via PayPal. Tax-deductable contributions towards the completion of Vietnam: People's Victory can be made through my financial sponsor "From the Heart"
Please help me carry on this work.
In Solidarity,
Clay Claiborne,
Linux Beach
116 Rose Ave #9
Venice, CA 90291
(310)581-1536
No comments:
Post a Comment