Linux Beach: Assad asylum offers pour in as he is reported loading sarin gas into bombs

Lethal air raids. Bombings of starving people in front of bakeries. The world waited and watched. #ChemicalDeath #Syria
— Thaer Almani ? † (@enum68) December 6, 2012

The situation in Syria really seems to be coming to a head quickly now. The situation is being driven by the facts on the ground created by the recent successes of the Free Syria Army. Their growing strength and change in tactics has been bearing fruit. Several months ago, they changed their focus from the defensive struggle of trying to protect opposition communities from Assad's attacks to the offensive tactic of going after Assad's bases and his supply lines.

They have captured base after base and with each installation, an arms cache was captured as well. Many of the captured soldiers joined the FSA as well.

There is still no solid indication that the FSA has received MANPADS from NATO, Qatar or Saudi Arabia, but they definitely have gotten them from Assad. They have posted the videos to prove it. First videos of the attacks on the bases, then videos of the MANPADS captured, and now at long last, videos of Assad's jet bombers and attack helicopters being swatted out of the skies the modern way.

While they have been growing in strength and capturing supplies, they have had good success in troubling Assad's lines of communications. Recently the FSA has been able to hold key roads supplying Aleppo.

They hold most of the border crossings with Turkey, and together with the Jordanian forces, all of the border crossings to Jordan.

But the most telling battle is happening in Damascus were the opposition in now in control of about half of the capital and has been threating the airport to the point that most air traffic has been halted.

It is clear that Assad is losing control and losing it fast at this point. This is in spite his stepped up murderous attacks on the people of Syria.

For example, Assad is now reported to be using a new weapon in Syria that rolls into one weapon, two of the most criminal and genocidal weapons used against the Vietnamese by the United States, a weapon so terrible, I didn't even know it existed before he used it. Assad is dropping cluster bombs that contain napalm on his own people!

In this climate, the fear that Assad will resort to chemical weapons in a last ditch effort to destroy the revolution is real.

I now think the two day Internet and communications blackout I reported on last week may have been a test run to see just how successful he could be in turning out the lights and just what the world would do if this mass murderer closed the door to carry out his grisly work in secret. It's back up now, but not without a new batch of malware targeting activists.

The world did nothing. The focus was on Gaza because 170 Palestinians were killed that week. That many Syrians are killed every day.

Now the world leaders are playing the stick and carrot game in an effort to get Assad to go quietly, with some warning him that there'll be the devil to pay if he uses chemical weapons and others offering him political asylum if he leaves without using them.

This just in:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet international Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi in Dublin on Thursday to try to put a U.N. peace process for Syria back on track, diplomatic sources said.

A few days ago Obama moved his "red line" from what he might do if Assad used "a whole bunch of chemical weapons" in August to a much more definitive statement that any use would be unacceptable and would definitely provoke a military response. Other administration sources have reported that intelligence reports say that Assad has been moving this chemical stores around.

NATO has also issued a warning and is sending Patriot missiles to Turkey to be placed along the Syrian border.

It is being reported that Obama has sent troops and an aircraft carrier task force off the coast of Syria to backup those words and France is also preparing an invasion force.

Wednesday evening NBC broke the news that Assad had already put sarin nerve gas into bombs but hasn't put those bombs into planes yet.

While the threat that Assad may use chemical weapons is well founded, I believe the real fear of Obama and the NATO allies is that the Syria opposition will win without their help and they will have no leverage in shaping the new Syria.

They are rushing in now so they don't look like the ignoble son of the emperor in Gladiator who rode in after the fight was over saying "Father, Father, have I missed the battle?" and they have to hear "NATO, you have missed the war."

And since Syria is not Libya, in their minds some backwater North African country with little choice but to sell that light sweet crude at world market prices no matter what else they do internally. Syria is much bigger stakes. Syria is at the heart of the Middle East and revolutionary democracy in both Syria and Egypt will put an end to Israel's hegemony in the region.

For these reasons they really haven't done much to help the Syrian people overthrow Assad. No air support for you!

The Syrian people have been forced to walk this road alone. What foreign help they have received has been from a few thousand Libyans and jihadists, together with some weapons and money from the Gulf states and more money from the US. A pittance really, as the deaths from exposure in the refugee camps will testify this winter.

Most military experts are saying that it is too late to stop Assad from staging a chemical attack if he decides to go that route. But if stopping mass slaughter was their true purpose they would have acted long before this.

I suspect they may intervene now even if he doesn't use them, using the protection of chemical weapons as the excuse. But the real purpose will to get some "boots on the ground" to give them leverage in shaping the post-Assad Syria.

This must be opposed. Syria is for Syrians now.

The destruction of whole neighborhoods. Power cuts. Interruption of food supply chains. The world waited and watched. #ChemicalDeath #Syria
— Thaer Almani ? † (@enum68) December 6, 2012

A Massacre took place in Albahdaleye,committed by Assad's. Assad's thugs arrested , brutally tortured and then executed 25 Syrians.

Crimes against humanity. The world waited and watched. #ChemicalDeath #Syria
— Thaer Almani ? † (@enum68) December 6, 2012

The Associated Press is reporting:

US aware of Assad asylum offers
By MATTHEW LEE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration said Wednesday that several countries in the Middle East and elsewhere have informally offered to grant asylum to Syrian President Bashar Assad and his family if they leave Syria.

Administration officials also said they were continuing to encourage those close to Assad to defect and said they believed that Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi, who disappeared this week, is currently in London.

The State Department said it couldn't vouch for the sincerity of the Assad asylum offers and noted that they raise serious questions of accountability for abuses committed by his government. But spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. is convinced that Assad must leave and cannot play any role in Syria's future.

"We do understand that some countries both in the region and elsewhere have offered to host Assad and his family should they choose to leave Syria," Toner told reporters. He would not name the countries. More...

Slaughtering of civilians, women, children. The world waited and watched. #ChemicalDeath #Syria
— Thaer Almani ? † (@enum68) December 6, 2012

NBC reports:

Syrian leader prepares to use chemical weapons
9:42 pm on 12/05/2012
U.S. officials told NBC News that as soon as Syrian President Bashar Assad gives the order, the country’s military will use chemical weapons against its own people.

Yesterday there seemed to be no firm evidence that the Syrians were mixing the “precursor” chemicals for the nerve gas sarin. The chemical weapon could be loaded into bombs that would be dropped from Syrian Air Force fighter-bombers. But on Wednesday, NBC News said, American officials came to believe the bombs had indeed been readied with the lethal agent. The sarin bombs were not yet loaded onto the fighter planes, however, and Assad has not issued the “go” order.
Secretary of State warned President Assad once again that he would be crossing “a red line” if he used nerve gas against the country’s rebels. But “there’s little the outside world can do to stop it,” one official told NBC News. Secretary Clinton, in NATO headquarters in Brussels, said the Assad government was “increasingly desperate” and on the verge of collapse. The 21-month civil war has cost 40,000 lives already.

“We believe their fall is inevitable,” Clinton said. “It is just a question of how many people have to die before that occurs.” More...

Random massacres to intimidate the population. The world waited and watched. #ChemicalDeath #Syria
— Thaer Almani ? † (@enum68) December 6, 2012

NATO has also weigh in with a warning to Assad:

NATO warns Syria against chemical weapons use
Secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen says any use of such arms will draw 'immediate reaction' from world community.
Last Modified: 04 Dec 2012 20:06
Any use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the ongoing uprising to overthrow his government will draw "an immediate reaction" from the world community, NATO's chief has said.

Secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen's warning on Tuesday came as Syrian forces continued to hit rebel districts near Damascus, while state media reported that rebel forces had hit a school, killing dozens of children.

"The possible use of chemical weapons would be completely unacceptable for the whole international community and if anybody resorts to these terrible weapons, I would expect an immediate reaction from the international community," Rasmussen told reporters at the start of a meeting of alliance foreign ministers in Brussels. More...

Bloody crackdown measures. The world waited and watched. #ChemicalDeath #Syria
— Thaer Almani ? † (@enum68) December 6, 2012

Haaretz said today:

The signs that the Syrian army is losing control of the country are growing fast, so too are growing the chances of a foreign military intervention.
By Anshel Pfeffer | Dec.06, 2012 | 4:10 AM |
...
The signs that the Syrian army is losing control of the country are growing fast, so too are growing the chances of a foreign military intervention. Fighting took place in dozens of locations across Syria, including near chemical weapons stores.

#syria FSA say they have taken all the Syrian border stations along with Jordan.
— Alex Crawford (@AlexCrawfordSky) December 6, 2012

And RT is saying:

Thousands of US troops arrive near Syrian shore on USS Eisenhower
Published: 06 December, 2012, 00:04
The USS Eisenhower, an American aircraft carrier that holds eight fighter bomber squadrons and 8,000 men, arrived at the Syrian coast yesterday in the midst of a heavy storm, indicating US preparation for a potential ground intervention.

While the Obama administration has not announced any sort of American-led military intervention in the war-torn country, the US is now ready to launch such action “within days” if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad decides to use chemical weapons against the opposition, the Times reports.

Some have suggested that the Assad regime may use chemical weapons against the opposition fighters in the coming days or weeks.

The arrival of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of the 11 US Navy aircraft carriers that has the capacity to hold thousands of men, is now stationed at the coast of Syria, DEBKAfile reports. The aircraft carrier joined the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which holds about 2,500 Marines.

“We have (US) special operations forces at the right posture, they don’t have to be sent,” an unnamed US official told The Australian, which suggested that US military troops are already near Syria and ready to intervene in the conflict, if necessary. More...

According to the Australian:

Allies weigh Syria no-fly zone and special forces
Michael Evans and Deborah Haynes
December 06, 2012 12:00AM
A NO-FLY zone, ground troops and special forces form the main planks of British-US contingency plans drawn up over recent months in anticipation of a Syrian chemical attack.

If a political decision is made to intervene, a limited no-fly zone could be imposed to stop the Syrian Air Force dropping bombs with chemical warheads.
More$$$

TNT barrels dropped from helicopters on residential areas. The world waited and watched. #ChemicalDeath #Syria
— Thaer Almani ? † (@enum68) December 6, 2012

Meanwhile Al Jazeera Live Blog is reporting that Russia is now attempting to distance itself from the Assad regime and will be working with Turkey on a future Syria sans Assad:

Russian and Turkish diplomats will soon start working on new ideas for ending the conflict in Syria which emerged in talks between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Tayyip Ardogan, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

Putin and Erdogan agreed to differ on Syria at Monday's talks in Istanbul but Russia has distanced itself from President Bashar al-Assad and tried to position itself for his potential exit from power.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed diplomats would discuss what Putin said were "some new, fresh ideas" but gave no details.

"It was agreed that these ideas will be discussed in more detail by our diplomats in the very near future, in order to understand how viable they are and how great their potential to resolve (the Syrian crisis)," Peskov said. More...

After all we had to witness in the meantime #ChemicalDeath might be the next dark chapter in this ongoing nightmare. #Syria
— Thaer Almani ? † (@enum68) December 6, 2012

From one day's carnage in Syria | 4 December 2012

Don't ever say you didn't know what was going on.
Just say what you were doing while it was going on.
The number of people murdered in Syria had reached 184 by the end of Tuesday, and includes 1 woman and 33 children. Here are some of them.

Damascus Suburbs, Jesrin: Child Martyr Mohammad Darwish

Child Ahmad Meshhadani, Shab’a, killed by systematic shelling.

Unknown child martyr, Shab’a, killed by systematic shelling.

Jasreen of Damascus, Child Martyr

Child Martyr After Shelling in Abada, Damascus Suburbs

Martyr Mohamad Ibrahim Maatouq in Mouadamiya, Damascus Suburbs

Martyr Rami AlJadomi in Sayeda Zainab, Damascus Suburbs

The Martyr Mahmoud Mohamed Ali in Al-Moadamieh, Damascus Suburbs

Douma | Damascus |Martyr Yaseen Khalil Al-Hanash

Douma, Unknown martyr, killed by systematic shelling

Mohammad Shikhah, Hotaitat Al-Turkman, killed by systematic shelling in Sha’ba.

Abdulrahman Fayez Al-Qoatli, Saqba, killed by systematic shelling.

Unknown martyr, Al-Meleha, killed by a sniper shot

Unknown martyr, Shab’a, killed by systematic shelling.

Anas Abdulrazzaq Al-Naqqab, Moadamit Al-Sham, killed by systematic shelling.

Yaseen Abdulrazzaq Al-Naqqab, Moadamit Al-Sham, killed by systematic shelling.

Hazza, kid wounded by Assad's shelling

Martyrs and wounded in the massacre of Bustan Al-Qasser, Aleppo

Charred Body in Maysaloun Neighborhood, Aleppo

Aleppo- Meselmiyeh Village : 4 years old Ahmad al- Hasan

Aqrab: Many people die and more get injured due to the indiscriminate shelling

Qusayr, Homs: a civilian killed by Regime shelling

Al-Houle | Homs | Martyr AbdelHaleen Al-Rashwaani

Martyr Zikra Ateeh in Dara Katbeereh, Homs

Martyr Ahmad Dali in Aqrab, Homs

Al-Qusayr | Homs: People race screaming, to find any form of shelter from heavy regime shelling. A child and a man lay injured as they receive help

Maarba: A child dies after been hit by the regime cluster bombs.

Martyr Malek Abduljalil in Maaraba, Daraa

Three martyrs due to the shelling on Howieqa neighborhood, Deir Ezzor

Howaiqa: Regime airstrike leaves many people wounded

Martyr Mohamad Ahmad Barakat in Maaret Al-Numan, Idlib

Idlib, Ma’arran al-Numan: Martyr rebel fighter Zaher Naous

Anti-interventionists, is this still "just like Iraq?"

URGENT | PLEASE SHARE | The #Assad regime firing missiles at the city of Basr Il Hareer in #Deraa #Syria. This... fb.me/1VbBOyPco
— Victory is Near (@IbnOmar2005) December 5, 2012

Said it before and I'll say it again: #Syria Deserves Better ... From all of us ... #OneHumanFamily
— Omar Offendum (@Offendum) December 6, 2012

On sun fuel cost 85 syrian pounds...on tues it went up to 125...today 150...& we're hearing that tomorrow its going up to 200 #aleppo #syria
— Arwa Damon (@arwaCNN) December 6, 2012

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Assad asylum offers pour in as he is reported loading sarin gas into bombs

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