Appeal for Protected Zones in Syria

In a letter published in today’s Washington Post, 12 diplomats, former State Department officials, judges, professors, journalists and ambassadors appeal to U.S. President Barack Obama to establish Protected Zones in northern and southern Syria.

But is “a negotiated settlement between [Syrian President Bashar] Assad and the moderate opposition” possible or indeed what the opposition is seeking?

They write:

* * * *

To the President and Leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives:

We urge you to establish Protected Zones in northern and southern Syria that are safe from attacks by the Assad regime and ISIL. Establishing Protected Zones would alleviate the severity of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis by:

• Ending the killing of innocent civilians in these regions;
• Curtailing egregious human rights abuses;
• Enabling humanitarian organizations supported and funded by the Administration and Congress to deliver emergency assistance in safety;
• Allowing refugees to begin returning from neighboring Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon;
• Facilitating reconstruction projects in protected towns; and
• Encouraging opposition-led democratic governance to grow deeper roots.

Protected Zones can be integrated with the Administration’s air campaign against ISIL to tip the military balance away from Assad, giving him an incentive to reach a negotiated settlement with the moderate opposition.

Protected Zones should be established in three provinces: Aleppo -- which includes Syria’s largest city of Aleppo -- and Idlib in the north along the Turkish border; and Deraa province bordering Jordan. No U.S. ground forces would be involved. U.S. air power already engaged in the ­fight against ISIL and partnered with Free Syrian Army ground forces would provide necessary security in the Protected Zones.

The goal would be to help create and defend the three designated Protected Zones, not oust the regime by direct U.S. force.

Once established, Protected Zones would provide a secure base for the Free Syrian Army to take the offensive against ISIL while moderate opposition leaders negotiate with Assad on a transitional government.

U.S. leadership to provide air cover for Free Syrian Army defenders of designated Protected Zones could produce a humanitarian breakthrough for large numbers of Syrians, put ISIL on the defensive, and make a negotiated settlement between Assad and the moderate opposition possible.

Ambassador (ret.) Mort Abramowitz

Nina Bang-Jensen

Professor Cherif Bassiouni

Judge (ret.) Thomas Buergenthal

Honorable Lee H. Hamilton

 James Hooper

Robert Kagan

Peter Kovler

Aryeh Neier

Ambassador (ret.) Tom Pickering

Hon. Anne-Marie Slaughter

Dr. Paul R. Williams

Kerry beats the drums of war on Assad

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaking Monday night

“Anyone who could claim that an attack of this staggering scale could be contrived or fabricated needs to check their conscience and their own moral compass,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a seven-minute statement on Monday night.

He was referring to the chemical attack by Syrian President Bashar Assad regime forces in the Damascus region on August 21.

Rockets with chemical agents hit three Damascus suburbs while residents were still sleeping. Some 1,300 people were killed in the dawn strike.

“Moreover, we know that the Syrian regime maintains custody of these chemical weapons. We know that the Syrian regime has the capacity to do this with rockets. We know that the regime has been determined to clear the opposition from those very places where the attacks took place. And with our own eyes, we have all of us become witnesses,” he said,

“We have additional information about this attack, and that information is being compiled and reviewed together with our partners, and we will provide that information in the days ahead,” Kerry added.

Following is the full text of Secretary Kerry’s statement. He did not take questions.

* * * * *

Well, for the last several days President Obama and his entire national security team have been reviewing the situation in Syria. And today I want to provide an update on our efforts as we consider our response to the use of chemical weapons.

What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. It defies any code of morality. Let me be clear. The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable. And despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured, it is undeniable.

The meaning of this attack goes beyond the conflict on Syria itself. And that conflict has already brought so much terrible suffering. This is about the large-scale indiscriminate use of weapons that the civilized world long ago decided must never be used at all, a conviction shared even by countries that agree on little else.

There is a clear reason that the world has banned entirely the use of chemical weapons. There is a reason the international community has set a clear standard and why many countries have taken major steps to eradicate these weapons. There is a reason why President Obama has made it such a priority to stop the proliferation of these weapons, and lock them down where they do exist. There is a reason why President Obama has made clear to the Assad regime that this international norm cannot be violated without consequences. And there is a reason why no matter what you believe about Syria, all peoples and all nations who believe in the cause of our common humanity must stand up to assure that there is accountability for the use of chemical weapons so that it never happens again.

Last night, after speaking with foreign ministers from around the world about the gravity of this situation, I went back and I watched the videos -- the videos that anybody can watch in the social media, and I watched them one more gut-wrenching time. It is really hard to express in words the human suffering that they lay out before us.

As a father, I can’t get the image out of my head of a man who held up his dead child, wailing while chaos swirled around him, the images of entire families dead in their beds without a drop of blood or even a visible wound, bodies contorting in spasms, human suffering that we can never ignore or forget. Anyone who could claim that an attack of this staggering scale could be contrived or fabricated needs to check their conscience and their own moral compass.

What is before us today is real, and it is compelling.

So I also want to underscore that while investigators are gathering additional evidence on the ground, our understanding of what has already happened in Syria is grounded in facts, informed by conscience and guided by common sense. The reported number of victims, the reported symptoms of those who were killed or injured, the firsthand accounts from humanitarian organizations on the ground, like Doctors Without Borders and the Syria Human Rights Commission -- these all strongly indicate that everything these images are already screaming at us is real, that chemical weapons were used in Syria.

Moreover, we know that the Syrian regime maintains custody of these chemical weapons. We know that the Syrian regime has the capacity to do this with rockets. We know that the regime has been determined to clear the opposition from those very places where the attacks took place. And with our own eyes, we have all of us become witnesses.

We have additional information about this attack, and that information is being compiled and reviewed together with our partners, and we will provide that information in the days ahead.

Our sense of basic humanity is offended not only by this cowardly crime but also by the cynical attempt to cover it up. At every turn, the Syrian regime has failed to cooperate with the U.N. investigation, using it only to stall and to stymie the important effort to bring to light what happened in Damascus in the dead of night. And as Ban Ki-moon said last week, the U.N. investigation will not determine who used these chemical weapons, only whether such weapons were used, a judgment that is already clear to the world.

I spoke on Thursday with Syrian Foreign Minister Muallem, and I made it very clear to him that if the regime, as he argued, had nothing to hide, then their response should be immediate: immediate transparency, immediate access, not shelling. Their response needed to be unrestricted and immediate access. Failure to permit that, I told him, would tell its own story.

Instead, for five days the Syrian regime refused to allow the U.N. investigators access to the site of the attack that would allegedly exonerate them. Instead, it attacked the area further, shelling it and systematically destroying evidence. That is not the behavior of a government that has nothing to hide. That is not the action of a regime eager to prove to the world that it had not used chemical weapons. In fact, the regime’s belated decision to allow access is too late and is too late to be credible.

Today’s reports of an attack on the U.N. investigators, together with the continued shelling of these very neighborhoods, only further weakens the regime’s credibility. At President Obama’s direction, I’ve spent many hours over the last few days on the phone with foreign ministers and other leaders. The administration is actively consulting with members of Congress, and we will continue to have these conversations in the days ahead. President Obama has also been in close touch with the leaders of our key allies, and the president will be making an informed decision about how to respond to this indiscriminate use of chemical weapons.

But make no mistake: President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people. Nothing today is more serious, and nothing is receiving more serious scrutiny.

Thank you.

Syria: Mass exposure to a neurotoxic agent says MSF

Photo via yalibnan.com

All eyes are on the international community, mainly the United States, to see whether a chemical attack by Syrian President Bashar Assad regime forces in the Damascus region on August 21 will go unpunished.

Rockets with chemical agents hit the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar at dawn last Wednesday as residents were still sleeping. Some 1,300 were killed in the rocket strike, most of them women and children.

With unforgettable horror images still emerging, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported Saturday (August 24) that three hospitals in Syria's Damascus governorate that are supported MSF have reported to MSF they received approximately 3,600 patients displaying neurotoxic symptoms in less than three hours on the morning of Wednesday, August 21, 2013. Of those patients, 355 reportedly died.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron are "gravely concerned" by "increasing signs this was a significant chemical weapons attack carried out by the Syrian regime."

A Downing Street spokesperson said Cameron and Obama discussed the situation in Syria by telephone Saturday afternoon:

“They are both gravely concerned by the attack that took place in Damascus on Wednesday and the increasing signs that this was a significant chemical weapons attack carried out by the Syrian regime against its own people. The UN Security Council has called for immediate access for UN investigators on the ground in Damascus. The fact that President Assad has failed to cooperate with the UN suggests that the regime has something to hide.

“They reiterated that significant use of chemical weapons would merit a serious response from the international community and both have tasked officials to examine all the options. They agreed that it is vital that the world upholds the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons and deters further outrages. They agreed to keep in close contact on the issue.”

Médecins Sans Frontières

In a statement released in Brussels and New York on Saturday, MSF, the Nobel Peace Prize winner (1999), says that since 2012 it has built a strong and reliable collaboration with medical networks, hospitals and medical points in the Damascus governorate, and has been providing them with drugs, medical equipment and technical support. Due to significant security risks, MSF staff members have not been able to access the facilities.

“Medical staff working in these facilities provided detailed information to MSF doctors regarding large numbers of patients arriving with symptoms including convulsions, excess saliva, pinpoint pupils, blurred vision and respiratory distress,” said Dr. Bart Janssens, MSF director of operations.

Patients were treated using MSF-supplied atropine, a drug used to treat neurotoxic symptoms. MSF is now trying to replenish the facilities’ empty stocks and provide additional medical supplies and guidance.

“MSF can neither scientifically confirm the cause of these symptoms nor establish who is responsible for the attack,” said Dr. Janssens. “However, the reported symptoms of the patients, in addition to the epidemiological pattern of the events -- characterized by the massive influx of patients in a short period of time, the origin of the patients and the contamination of medical and first aid workers -- strongly indicate mass exposure to a neurotoxic agent. This would constitute a violation of international humanitarian law, which absolutely prohibits the use of chemical and biological weapons.”

In addition to 1,600 vials of atropine supplied over recent months, MSF has now dispatched 7,000 additional vials to facilities in the area. Treatment of neurotoxic patients is now being fully integrated into MSF’s medical strategies in all its programs in Syria, the statement added.

“MSF hopes that independent investigators will be given immediate access to shed light on what happened,” said Christopher Stokes, MSF general director. “This latest attack and subsequent massive medical need come on top of an already catastrophic humanitarian situation, characterized by extreme violence, displacement, and deliberate destruction of medical facilities. In the case of such extreme violations of humanitarian law, humanitarian assistance cannot respond effectively and becomes meaningless itself.”

MSF, created in France in 1971, says it provides medical assistance in Syria through two different approaches. MSF international and national staff operate six hospitals and four health centers in structures fully under the organization’s direct control in the north of Syria. In areas where MSF cannot send its own teams because of insecurity or lack of access, the organization has expanded a program begun two years ago of supporting Syrian medical networks, hospitals and medical posts, by providing drugs, medical equipment, and technical advice and support. Through the latter program, MSF has been supporting 27 hospitals and 56 medical posts throughout Syria.

From Angels to Amazons to Assad-esses

Assad's Lionesses

Charlie had “Angles,” the late Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi “Amazons” and now Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “Lionesses” (a play on his name, Assad means lion in Arabic).

The new brigade of women is said to be recruited to man checkpoints and carry out security operations and are part of a new paramilitary force.

The “Lionesses for National Defense” have already been deployed in Homs, where they have been spotted guarding areas where residents still largely support Assad’s regime.

“The Amazonian Guard” was the unofficial name to Gaddafi’s all-female elite cadre of bodyguards also known as “The Revolutionary Nuns,” and “The Green Nuns.”

Gaddafi's Amazons

The group was formed in the early 1980s, after Gaddafi's official resignation as Libyan head of state in favor of the title of "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya."

In the 1970s, American crime drama television series “Charlie’s Angels,” the never-seen Charlie recruits three women to work for his private investigation agency. It was one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men.

Charlie's Angels

“Charlie’s Angels” was broadcast in the United States on the ABC Television Network from 1976 to 1981 and was one of the most successful series of the 1970s. In 2000, it was turned into an action comedy film and followed with the 2003 sequel, “Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.”

But back to Assad’s Lionesses, I wonder how they reacted when they heard or read that rape was a significant feature of their government’s war on its own citizens.

What will the Lionesses do when they see elderly Syrians and Syrian women and children being killed?

What will the Lionesses do when they witness warplanes dropping barrel and cluster bombs on their compatriots’ homes and bread lines?

Will the Lionesses’ security duties be to kill more Syrians?

Back to you Lionesses -- we are watching.

Reform U-turn irks Syria ally

Guest post by Middle East publisher F. Najia

A prominent supporter of Bashar Assad is disenchanted with the Syrian president’s stance on reform. He is Lebanon’s Talal Salman, publisher of the pro-Syrian Beirut daily Assafir.

Here is the gist of what he writes today in his leader on the paper’s front-page:

Talal Salman

The speech of President Bashar Assad to the People’s Assembly on March 30 was “bitterly disappointing” to his supporters and critics.

Dr. Assad succeeded at a time in posing as “a young reformist aware of goings-on in the world.” He later realized “a few successes, some of them surprising.” He soothed the West’s boycott of Syria and “started building special relations with Turkey to top up his alliance with Iran. He burst through the wall of isolation that existed with Europe, opening a skylight with France. At the same time, he resumed boosting ties with Russia, Ukraine and several other parts of the now-defunct Soviet Union. He burst into Latin America, where he established some bilateral relations that proved rewarding economically and politically.”

But success outside the country lacked concurrent reform of the regime at home, a regime that President Assad earlier described as “outdated.”

Syrians waited for a longtime to see their president deliver his promises on reform, often seeing him hesitate then stop. Some believed he was holding back because the cost of reform was bound to undermine pillars of the regime. Others thought he discovered the regime was so obsolete that it could not withstand reform.

President Assad continued for a longtime to meet with opinion shapers, hearing their positive criticisms and well-intentioned demands. He not only agreed with them, but often went further. He used to admit the “regime’s joints” simply “calcified” and societal corruption mushroomed in the last years of his father’s rule.

He also used to say the (ruling Baath) party had turned into a prop for parasites and opportunists and could no longer play the role of a “vanguard” party.

He regularly said the Syrian people were entitled to a decent life commensurate with their national sacrifices.

That’s probably why the Syrians, the Lebanese and Syria’s friends and opponents across the world, were surprised by the absence of serious reform decisions in the Syrian president’s speech. They were taken aback by resurrection of the Baath Party Command as the headspring of decision-making.

They were bewildered by the decrees that sacrificed the government of Najia Otari and named a former cabinet minister, Adel Safar, to head a new government. The only credentials of would-be ministers whose names are now being bandied about are that they are all “homegrown.” But the prespeech promise was of root changes liable to overhaul the regime completely...

Syria: The full reform menu

Guest post by Middle East publisher F. Najia

The tide of demands for political and economic reforms in the Arab world having whipped Syria, President Bashar Assad is about to address the issue in a televised speech to the nation.

The big question on everyone's mind is: Will he go far enough to quell growing unrest in the country?

Ibrahim al-Amin, board chairman and chief editor of Lebanon's pro-Syrian daily al-Akhbar, this week prescribed the following reform menu to the Syrian leader in an opinion piece titled, "Syria: The race between sedition and reform."

Amin’s panacea:

• Lift the state of emergency and issue a new emergency law to be invoked only in a state of war or in cases of natural disasters

• Release all political prisoners and detainees under a general amnesty

• Suspend forthwith Article 8 of the Constitution and set up an all-inclusive national committee to draw a new constitution inside six months

• Draft a new electoral for parliamentary and local elections and sanction the establishment of political parties through a simple “legal notice” procedure. Follow-on, by year’s end, with parliamentary elections under full judicial supervision

• Endeavor to reform the judiciary and uphold its independence by making all its branches, including the attorney general, accountable to the supreme judicial council

• Sever all dealings by civilian and military security services with citizens and create a solitary security service to deal with national security matters only

"New PM Farouk al-Sharaa?"

• Dismiss the current council of ministers and the entire economic team, and then bring in a consensual figure – such as Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa -- to form a new government

• Disband the National Progressive Front and sanction new alliances in or outside parliament

• Keep hands off the media sector and cease its funding. Lift media censorship and abolish state monopoly over print, broadcasting and digital media publishing

• Start the ball rolling to kill off the “parallel (or black) economy,” which has been the root cause of corruption in all sectors

• Nationalize the two cellular telecommunications companies, and freeze the assets of leading business figures pending investigation by an independent judicial body

• Close the file of missing persons with full transparency and issue passports to all Syrian citizens except in cases of high treason.