Free Republic

Twelve years after 9/11, the U.S. has changed sides. The Long War Journal reported on June 29 that the Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, which is “al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria,” has “cooperated with Free Syrian Army units to establish sharia, or Islamic law, in Aleppo and in eastern Syria.” What is the Free Syrian Army? The "moderates" whom we are training and to whom we are giving weapons: “the US government is backing the Free Syrian Army despite the group’s known ties to the Al Nusrah Front.” "Training of Syrian insurgents steps up in Saudi...

With the end of the conflict nowhere in sight, a British report points to new levels of depravity as part of the battles tearing Syria apart—bored snipers have begun taking practice shots at pregnant women, specifically aiming for their unborn fetuses. The testimony of a British doctor who spoke with ITV claims that snipers have been engaging in a “death game” in which they target specific body parts of innocent civilians as target practice. … According to the Daily Mail, as part of the sniper games, snipers receive a cigarette for every such hit. …

Tim Montgomerie has a horrifying story in the London Times about women and children being targeted in Syria: David Nott, who has just spent five weeks volunteering in a Syrian hospital, said that he and his despairing colleagues started to notice a disturbing pattern among the women and children who were being shot as they ran the daily gauntlet across a divided zone to buy food and supplies in a major city. “One day it would be shots to the groin. The next, it would only be the left chest. The day after, we would see no chest wounds; they...

Syria’s civil war has become so dire that some Islamic clerics are telling starving Syrians to eat cats and dogs. A bad humanitarian situation has turned worse as Syrian President Bashar Assad has escalated a war against rebels, including some with ties to al Qaeda, even as progress has been made on the destruction of the regime’s stockpiles of chemical weapons. Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/16/clerics-permit-hungry-syrians-eat-dogs-and-cats/#ixzz2i6IaE1Rg

Earlier the Saudi foreign ministry said it had turned down the non-permanent seat, accusing the world body of "double standards". The ministry said the UN needs to be reformed first. It said the Security Council had failed in its duties towards Syria as well as in other world conflicts. Mr Ban refused to say whether he would be speaking to the Saudi king about the matter. "I understand that some member states, particularly some concerned group of member states, are discussing [this] among themselves," Mr Ban said. The reaction among diplomats to this unprecedented decision has been one of shock...

Experts: Biological pathogens, weaponized agents in al Qaeda’s hands a ‘clear and present danger’ U.S. Soldiers from the 457th Chemical Battalion sponge off their level A protective suits / AP Al Qaeda-aligned militants operating in Syria could already have access to “biological pathogens or weaponized agents,” according to terrorism and biological warfare experts studying the region.The possible acquisition by al Qaeda of these highly dangerous toxins has prompted bio-warfare experts to label the threat a “clear and present danger.”Extremist militants and other fighters tied to the terror group al Qaeda have continued to gain a foothold in key sections of...

Bombs have been planted in the confessional box of one of the world's oldest churches in a Syrian town hailed as the country's last remaining centre of religious tolerance, Syria's most senior Christian leader has disclosed. On a visit to London to highlight the persecution of Christians in the civil war, Patriarch Gregorios III said the two devices were found at the Cathedral of Constantine and Helen in the rebel-held town of Yabroud. Not only is the church one of the oldest in the world, but it lies in a town where Christians and Sunni Muslims have so far resisted...

Saudi Arabia, in an unprecedented show of anger at the failure of the international community to end the war in Syria and act on other Middle East issues, said on Friday it would not take up its seat on the United Nations Security Council. The kingdom condemned what it called international double standards on the Middle East and demanded reforms in the Security Council. Riyadh's frustration is mostly directed at Washington, its oldest international ally, which has pursued policies since the Arab Spring that Saudi rulers have bitterly opposed and which have severely damaged relations with the United States, Saudi...

Pakistan: Musharraf update. Pervez Musharraf was arrested one day after having been granted bail. "We have put General Musharraf under house arrest in a case involving a military operation on an Islamabad mosque," Muhammad Rizwan, a senior official of the Islamabad police told reporters. "We will present him before a court on Friday." Comment: The latest charges stem from a prolonged violent standoff in 2006 and 2007 that was centered on the Red Mosque in Islamabad. Two extreme imams who were brothers, their armed militant supporters and students at the collocated school complex defied the government and called repeatedly for...

News emerged a few weeks ago in Arabic media that yet another fatwa had called on practicing Muslim women to travel to Syria and offer their sexual services to the jihadis fighting to overthrow the secularist Assad government and install Islamic law. Reports attribute the fatwa to Saudi sheikh Muhammad al-’Arifi, who, along with other Muslim clerics earlier permitted jihadis to rape Syrian women. Muslim women prostituting themselves in this case is being considered a legitimate jihad because such women are making sacrifices—their chastity, their dignity—in order to help apparently sexually-frustrated jihadis better focus on the war to empower Islam...

On Tuesday, 13 prominent Syrian rebel factions declared their unification under the banner of an "Islamic Alliance." Their statement, which consisted of four main points, largely expressed their boiling frustration with and official rejection of the Western-backed Syrian National Council, the opposition's political leadership-in-exile. The statement also affirmed that Shariah law should be the "sole source of legislation" in Syria—unsurprising given that most of the signatories already advocate the implementation of Islamic law, albeit according to their own interpretations. While rebel alliances in Syria are often short-lived, the creation of the Islamic Alliance has the potential to make anti-Assad moderates...

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — The stream of U.S. weapons heading to moderate rebel groups in Syria is being offset by a fresh torrent of cash for Islamist extremists, much of it from small networks of Arab donors who see the Syrian conflict as a step toward a broader Islamist uprising across the region, U.S. and Middle Eastern officials say. The private donors, who use Twitter and other social media to collect millions of dollars from sympathetic Muslims, are providing crucial backing for Islamist militias that appear to be gaining ground in northern and eastern Syria, even as fighting stalls elsewhere, the...

President Obama has formally authorized American shipments to Syria of non-lethal equipment and supplies specifically aimed at countering the threat of Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons as the world waits for them to be neutralized. In a signed order, Obama today waived prohibitions of such shipments by the Arms Export Control Act, determining that the assistance is “essential to the national security interests of the United States.” The materials — including chemical weapons-related personal protective gear and medical supplies — will be sent to “vetted” members of the Syrian opposition, international aid groups inside Syria, and any other organizations working to...

Syrian warplanes struck rebel-held suburbs of the capital on Saturday and government forces clashed with insurgents on the frontlines, residents and opposition activists said. "The warplanes are very busy this morning," said a journalist working in central Damascus who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons. Activists said the strikes were focused on Berze, a northeastern part of central Damascus, where rebels have been on the offensive to push further into the city.

"He is known to be a merciless butcher," said Mohammed al-Tayeb, an opposition activist speaking by Skype from the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Douma, among the areas pounded by the 4th Division's assaults. Within President Bashar Assad's circle of trust, Maher Assad has advocated an uncompromising response throughout the uprising. "From the beginning, Maher was convinced that the uprising must be put down before any talks take place," said Fawaz A. Gerges, director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics. "The life of the regime depends on Maher's ability to prevent the rebels from infiltrating Damascus...

The Syrian army is battling small groups of rebels who remain in the ancient Christian village of Maaloula. Opposition fighters linked to Al-Qaeda have been in control of the area for almost a week - reportedly looting religious sites and forcing residents to convert to Islam at gunpoint. RT's Maria Finoshina made it to the village following reports that government troops have re-captured it - but found pockets of resistance remain.

A great report by BBC News on how the Syrian Army are fighting the Islamist rebels to take back Maaloula:

Syrian rebels claim that the army of President Bashar Assad again used poison gas in an attack on rebel forces in the Damascus area Thursday, an Israel Radio report said. The report was based on rebel sources, who said the attack took place in the Jobar neighborhood of the capital. The rebel sources said they could not tell what kind of chemical weaponry had been used, but that it was a poison gas of some kind, and was causing injuries, including breathing difficulties.

The French love their food, and being French they claim almost anything appetizing as their own. Such as croissants. But croissants are Austrian, and while we don’t know the precise origins of the pastry, one of the most likely explanations is that they were invented in 1683 to commemorate the Catholic victory over the Turks who were trying, in their “peaceful” way, to take Vienna, destroy the churches, forcibly convert the people to Islam, rape the women, and so forth. Allegedly, the city’s bakers had stayed up all night at work and so heard the Muslims trying to tunnel their...

Don’t worry.  I’m sure these weapons will be going to the really nice rebels that John McCain assures us we can distinguish from all the naughty ones: The CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria, ending months of delay in lethal aid that had been promised by the Obama administration, according to U.S. officials and Syrian figures. The shipments began streaming into the country over the past two weeks, along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles and other gear — a flow of material that marks a major escalation of the U.S. role in Syria’s civil...