Report: Rebels Responsible for Houla Massacre

by John Rosenthal, National Review

It was, in the words of U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan, the “tipping point” in the Syria conflict: a savage massacre of over 90 people, predominantly women and children, for which the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad was immediately blamed by virtually the entirety of the Western media. Within days of the first reports of the Houla massacre, the U.S., France, Great Britain, Germany, and several other Western countries announced that they were expelling Syria’s ambassadors in protest.

But according to a new report in Germany’s leading daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the Houla massacre was in fact committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants, and the bulk of the victims were member of the Alawi and Shia minorities, which have been largely supportive of Assad. For its account of the massacre, the report cites opponents of Assad, who, however, declined to have their names appear in print out of fear of reprisals from armed opposition groups.

According to the article’s sources, the massacre occurred after rebel forces attacked three army-controlled roadblocks outside of Houla. The roadblocks had been set up to protect nearby Alawi majority villages from attacks by Sunni militias. The rebel attacks provoked a call for reinforcements by the besieged army units. Syrian army and rebel forces are reported to have engaged in battle for some 90 minutes, during which time “dozens of soldiers and rebels” were killed.

“According to eyewitness accounts,” the FAZ report continues,

the massacre occurred during this time. Those killed were almost exclusively from families belonging to Houla’s Alawi and Shia minorities. Over 90% of Houla’s population are Sunnis. Several dozen members of a family were slaughtered, which had converted from Sunni to Shia Islam. Members of the Shomaliya, an Alawi family, were also killed, as was the family of a Sunni member of the Syrian parliament who is regarded as a collaborator. Immediately following the massacre, the perpetrators are supposed to have filmed their victims and then presented them as Sunni victims in videos posted on the internet.

The FAZ report echoes eyewitness accounts collected from refugees from the Houla region by members of the Monastery of St. James in Qara, Syria. According to monastery sources cited by the Dutch Middle East expert Martin Janssen, armed rebels murdered “entire Alawi families” in the village of Taldo in the Houla region.

[read the rest, here]

Germany against military intervention in Syria

(Russia, China, Iran, and now Germany all oppose a Libyan styled NATO attack on Syria to force regime change in the country.)

from Voltaire Network

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle reiterated Berlin’s opposition to a possible foreign military intervention in Syria, focusing on the fact that such measures might engulf the entire Middle East.

During a meeting in Doha on 4 June 2012 with the emir of Qatar, Mr. Westerwelle stated that Kofi Annan’s peace plan offers the best solution for the situation created in Syria. He also expressed Berlin’s disapproval of the position of some Western and Arab governments, including Qatar itself, promoting military intervention in Syria.

“We must avoid a conflagration that could set the whole region on fire. Considering the highly complex and dangerous situation in Syria, we must not create the wrong expectations, pretending that we could bring about a quick solution with a military intervention,” he said before his five-day tour of the Middle East.

[read the rest, here]

Little Entitled Randie Shows his True Colors… again

by Scott Creighton

Truth finally comes out

No Joy in Paulville Today

This is a pretty worthless article so it will be short.

Surprise! Rand Paul is an establishment hack.(not much of a surprise is it?)

His “libertarian” leanings are nothing more than ideological WMDs designed to make the rebel love the fascist ideology of his oppressors.

For years I have also been pointing out the MANY various “little betrayals” that Rand and Ron have been doing.

Flashback – Little Entitled Randie Wants YOU to Sacrifice While He Cashes Those Big Government Checks

NEWSFLASH – Rand Paul is just another corporatist sycophant looking to feather his nest while suckling up to the country’s financial masters. His “libertarian” ideology is the EXACT SAME THING as the neo-liberal economic shock therapy model used by the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds for decades in other countries across the globe. Only difference is, over there they resisted it, here, the Paulites call it “liberty”