Syria

Watching the Shadows

Bill Weinberg to speak on left-fascist convergence

CounterVortex editor and chief blogger Bill Weinberg will speak at the Left Forum in Brooklyn, New York, on Sunday, June 30, at the panel “Confronting the Resurgence of Authoritarianism, Right and ‘Left.'” Weinberg’s talk will be entitled “The Consensus Position of the American ‘Left’ is Now Pro-Fascist: What Do We Do About It?” Other panelists include Anne Jaclard and Andrew Kliman of the Marxist-Humanist Initiative, and Jason Stanley, author of How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. Attendees must register with the Left Forum.

Syria

New spasm of Syria chemwar denialism: don’t buy it

A sudden feeding-frenzy of revisionism about the April 2018 Douma chemical attack in Syria has broken out, with celebrities glomming on in unseemly manner. This time Susan Sarandon joins already proved Assad regime shill Roger Waters, their spewing avidly lapped up by Kremlin propaganda organ RT (of course). But also getting on this bandwagon—most disgracefully, because he purports to be a “journalist”—is Robert Fisk. This all hinges on a supposedly leaked document from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which purports to claim that the shells from the Douma attack did not fall from the air but were planted. The OPCW has not acknowledged the document as authentic, and it contradicts the findings of every bona fide investigation into the attack. The OPCW’s formal findings assigning blame for the attack have yet to be released. (Image: Syria Solidarity NYC)

Syria

Russia blocks UN statement against Idlib bombing

Russia blocked a UN Security Council statement of alarm about the killing of civilians in northwest Syria and the possibility of a humanitarian disaster. The bombing has accompanied a Russia-backed offensive by the Assad regime to recapture Idlib and neighboring Hama province. This last major opposition-held area is home to over 4 million people—about 20% of Syria’s surviving population. Over the past month, some 300 civilians have been killed in the bombardment, with hundreds more wounded. The number displaced in Idlib and Hama now totals more than 300,000. Almost 30 medical facilities have been destroyed or damaged in the bombing. Throughout the eight-year Syrian conflict, Russia has vetoed 12 Security Council resolutions to criticize or censure its ally, the Assad regime. (Photo: EA Worldview)

Syria

Syria: Idlib displaced march on Turkish border

Thousands of displaced residents of Syria’s northwest Idlib province—under Russian-backed bombardment by the Assad regime, which has killed some 300 over the past month and displaced more than 300,000—marched on the Turkish border, demanding entry or international action to stop the bombing. With more than 3.6 million refugees already in Turkey, Ankara has blocked any further entry. But the regime bombing campaign and ground offensive, that has shattered a so-called “demilitarized zone,” now threatens a “humanitarian catastrophe,” in the words of the United Nations. Protesters at the border wall assailed the international community for its inaction. One said, “If you cannot save us, we will break the border and come to Europe to find a safer place to live.” (Photo via EA Worldview)

Syria

Amnesty International: ‘crimes against humanity’ in Idlib

The Assad regime, supported by Russia, is carrying out a “deliberate and systematic assault” on hospitals and medical facilities in Syria’s northwestern provinces of Idlib and Hama, Amnesty International charges. With the UN Security Council set to discuss northwest Syria, Amnesty urged action, calling for Russia to be pressured over the deliberate targeting of 15 hospitals in Idlib and Hama over the past three weeks. “Bombing hospitals carrying out their medical functions is a war crime. These latest attacks have eliminated vital lifelines for civilians in desperate need of medical care. This is part of a well-established pattern targeting medical facilities to systematically attack the civilian population and it constitutes crimes against humanity,” said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty’s Middle East director. (Photo: EA Worldview)

Iran

Orwellian ironies of US Persian Gulf war moves

Amid alarmingly sketchy accounts of Iranian attacks on Saudi oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, Trump has dispacthed the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group to the Persian Gulf. An oil pipeline that runs across Saudi Arabia was also hit by drones, according to the kingdom’s energy ministry. Meanwhile, Iran-backed war crimes and “sectarian cleansing” in Syria and Iraq are safely invisible to the outside world. Well, oil matters; people do not. We already knew that. But adding to the Orwellian nature of it all—the US and Iran are on the same side in Syria and Iraq. De facto in the former (where the US has tilted to Assad, rhetoric notwithstanding), de jure in the latter (where Washington and Tehran alike openly back the Baghdad regime). Let’s hope that Trump’s mutuality of interest with the ayatollahs (however sinister) will compel both sides to retreat from the brink before they blunder into total disaster. As always, US war moves put the civil opposition in Iran in a more difficult position, making it easier for the regime to paint them as pawns of Washington. Any anti-war position must be clear on solidarity with the people of Iran, including in their democracy struggle—emphatically not with the regime. (Photo via Stars & Stripes)

Iraq

Shi’ite militia forces ‘sweep’ Iraq-Syria border

Baghdad’s irregular Hashd al-Shaabi militia has joined with the National Defense Forces, one of the Assad regime’s paramilitary militias, to conduct “sweeps” along the Iraqi-Syrian border for remnant ISIS cells. These are both sectarian Shi’ite formations backed by Iran. The use of such sectarian militias has been concomitant with widespread abuses of the Sunni population of the region. Human Rights Watch is now urging the Iraqi government to reject a plan for the indefinite detention of whole families with suspected ISIS affiliations. Under the plan, up to 300,000 could be interned in camps in the desert. (Photo: Defense Post)

Syria

Podcast: genocide, propaganda and the Idlib offensive

In Episode 33 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg compares coverage of the Idlib offensive from CNN and its Turkish counterpart TRT World, illustrating how the US corporate media uncritically echo the propaganda of the Assad regime. While TRT emphasizes civilian casualties, the CNN headline says “terrorists” are being killed—the propaganda technique of dehumanization and objectification of victims. Shamefully, “progressives” in the West are far more complicit with Assad’s genocide. The deplorable Amy Goodman has now repeatedlyallowed voices such as Phyllis Bennis and the inevitable Noam Chomsky to spew genocide-abetting propaganda on Democracy Now. Weinberg also discusses the contradictions facing the Rojava Kurds in the areas of Syria they control. He closes with a call for Syria Solidarity NYC and Rojava Solidarity NYC to hold a joint workshop at the NYC Anarchist Book Fair, to try to arrive at a unified pro-revolutionary position on Syria. Listen on SoundCloud , and support our podcast via Patreon. (Photo via Freedom)

Syria

Syrian Democratic Forces fire on Arab protesters

The final defeat of ISIS in Syria’s northeast has left many Arab-majority areas of the region under occupation by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)—a situation obviously fraught with risk. Over the past weeks, protests have mounted in Arab villages across Deir ez-Zor province against the SDF, with residents demanding better services, employment and a greater role in decision-making. Finally, SDF fighters opened fire on protesters in the village of Shheil, killing one person. The protest came after an overnight raid in the village, in which SDF fighters besieged a neighborhood and killed six people. (Image via Rudaw)

Syria

Assad, Russia launch Idlib offensive

The Assad regime and allied militias, backed by Russian air-strikes, this week launched the long-feared offensive on Idlib, the northwest Syrian province that is the last under rebel and opposition control. The offensive places at risk the lives of more than 4.5 million civilians. Just this month, a further 150,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Idlib, joining the ranks the displaced. The UN has previously warned that an assault on Idlib could cause “the worst humanitarian catastrophe the world has seen in the 21st century.” At particular risk are 350,000 people living in displacement camps, who have no protection from the bombs. The more recently displaced are now without any shelter on lands near the Turkish border, which Ankara has shut to prevent a refugee influx. (Photo: EA Worldview)

Syria

Syria: UN ‘betrayal’ of rebel zones feared

Aid organizations are protesting a UN decision to centralize coordination of Syria operations in Damascus—a move they say hands more power to the regime of Bashar Assad, and will make it harder to deliver aid to millions who live in rebel-held areas. UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock’s decision was announced at a closed-door meeting in early April to alter the system the UN has used for the past four years. That system was designed to ensure aid is delivered on the basis of need to both government and rebel-held territories—known as the “Whole of Syria” approach. Facing hunger and desperation, many in besieged rebel pockets are accepting “resettlement” offers from the regime. But they must undergo “security screening” at “transition centers” established for this purpose, where reports indicate men are being separated from their families and detained. The Assad regime has been accused of a mass extermination of detainees, possibly amounting to genocide. (Photo: The New Humanitarian)

Syria

Formation of Rojava Armenian brigade announced

On the 104th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, revolutionary forces in Rojava established the Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Armenian Battalion. The battalion is named after Armenian guerrilla Nubar Ozanyan, who fought in the ranks of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and later as a commander with the Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey (TİKKO) in Rojava, the autonomous zone of the revolutionary Kurds and their allies in northern Syria. Formation of the brigade was anounced April 24, Armenian Genocide Memorial Day, especially commemorated by Armenians within Syria, where much of the genocide actually took place. (Photo: Abolition Media Worldwide)