al-Assad must go! NOW

The U.S. will “redouble efforts”and work with “partners outside the United Nations” to put“immense pressure” on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to end bloodshed and step down, after the U.N. Security Council failed to deliver global condemnation of Syria giving the regime room to continue its 11-month crackdown on protesters, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Sofia today.

Russia refuses to Condemn Syria with the rest of the UN Security Council

The battle over Syria moved to the United Nations on Tuesday with Western powers and much of the Arab world confronting Russia and its allies in the Security Council over their refusal to condemn the Syrian government for its violent suppression of popular protests.

As top diplomats gathered in the Council chamber for the showdown, the drumbeat of violence continued without pause in Syria, where government forces used heavy weapons and tanks to push rebels back from strongholds near Damascus. 

At the United Nations, the two sides skirmished over a draft Security Council resolution proposed by Morocco that calls for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to leave power as the first step of a transition toward democracy. 

But behind all the arguments lurked the ghost of Libya, with Russia determined to block any resolution that might be construed as a license for regime change. The Arabs and top Western diplomats argued that endorsing the demonstrators was the minimum step required to support popular demands for change that began with peaceful demonstrations and have evolved into an increasingly armed uprising. 

“The Syrian government failed to make any serious effort to cooperate with us,” Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, the prime minister of Qatar, told the Security Council about Arab League efforts to mediate the dispute. “The government killing machine continues effectively unabated.” 

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, joined by the foreign ministers of Britain, France and several other countries, argued that Libya was a “false analogy.” The plan for a gradual democratic transition “represents the best efforts of Syria’s neighbors to chart a way forward, and it deserves a chance to work,” she said.

The proposed resolution, which most likely would not be voted on before Friday, called for Mr. Assad to cede power to his vice president, who would help form a unity government that would prepare for elections. It is unlikely that Mr. Assad would heed the demands to step down, even if the resolution made it through the Council.

Arab League to send troops to topple Syrian government...meanwhile Mohamed El Baradei will not run for Egyptian President due to military interference

Arab troops should be sent to halt Syria’s violent crackdown on anti-government protesters, the emir of Qatar, Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, said in an interview to be broadcast tonight on the U.S. television network CBS.


Elsewhere in the region, attacks on demonstrators continued in Syria yesterday.

“Some troops should go to stop the killing” in Syria, the Qatari emir said in the interview with the program “60 Minutes,” according to the CBS website.

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Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei said he wouldn’t run for president of Egypt.

In Egypt, ElBaradei said his withdrawal as a candidate for president was to protest the continued military control of the country, according to The New York Times.

“My conscience does not permit me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless it is within a real democratic system,” he said, according to the Times.

ElBaradei won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for his work as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"SCENES OF HORROR" = Syria = Middle East

Scratch the surface of any Middle Eastern nation and you will find scenes of horror.  Syria is merely capturing our attention today.  But change comes by cutting one piece of cancer at a time from the body human...

The mission hit more trouble when one monitor accused Syria of war crimes, saying the mission was a "farce," a day after the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said a U.N. official had told the Security Council the killings had gathered pace since the monitors arrived.



The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four people had been killed in Kafr Nabouda, in Hama province, where troops staging raids fought army deserters. The British-based group put Tuesday's civilian death toll at 27, including 15 in the city of Deir al-Zor and 10 in Homs, plus four army defectors.


The Arab League monitor, Anwar Malek, said he had resigned because the mission was powerless to prevent what he said were the "scenes of horror" he had seen in the restive city of Homs.


"The mission was a farce and the observers have been fooled," the Algerian told Al Jazeera English television. "The regime orchestrated it and fabricated most of what we saw to stop the Arab League from taking action against the regime ...

"The regime isn't committing one war crime but a series of crimes against its people," he added.

Syria one step closer to civil war.

An Arab League advisory body called on Sunday for the immediate withdrawal of the organization's monitoring mission in Syria, saying it was allowing Damascus to cover up continued violence and abuses.



The Arab League has sent a small team to Syria to check whether President Bashar al-Assad is keeping his promise to end a crackdown on a nine-month uprising against his rule.

The observer mission has already stirred controversy. Rights groups have reported continued deaths in clashes and tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to show the observers the extent of their anger.


The Arab Parliament, an 88-member advisory committee of delegates from each of the League's member states, on Sunday said the violence was continuing to claim many victims.

"For this to happen in the presence of Arab monitors has roused the anger of Arab people and negates the purpose of sending a fact-finding mission," the organization's chairman Ali al-Salem al-Dekbas said.

"This is giving the Syrian regime an Arab cover for continuing its inhumane actions under the eyes and ears of the Arab League," he said.


The Arab Parliament was the first body to recommend freezing Syria's membership in the organization in response to Assad's crackdown.

Syria next unavoidable step = civil war...

Syria is at risk of civil war or foreign intervention if the mission can’t end the unrest, said Burhan Ghalioun, leader of the Syrian National Council, the umbrella opposition group that seeks to topple Assad. In Homs, 70,000 people rallied Dec. 26 and 50,000 marched in Duma yesterday, Merei said.

The delegation is getting the “needed cooperation” from all sides, including Syrian government, the Arab League said today in an e- mailed statement.

Repression + Dictatorships + Human Rights Abuses = Lower Investment + Higher Insurance Costs

Arab states have suffered a slump in foreign direct investment of as much as 24 percent this year as political unrest sweeps the region, according to the group that insures such funding against non-commercial risks.

Foreign financing will shrink to between $50 billion and $55 billion in 2011 from $66.2 billion the previous year, the Arab Investment & Export Credit Guarantee Corp., known as Dhaman, said in an e-mailed response to questions.

The total value of insurance operations concluded by Dhaman in the first eight months was about $780 million, “a significant increase” versus last year, indicating heightened concern, Fahad al-Ibrahim, its director-general, said in the e-mail.


Egypt is worst affected, with foreign direct investment dropping an estimated 92 percent to $500 million, according to a report issued by Dhaman in October. Tunisia, where the so-called Arab Spring began, is estimated to have drawn $1.2 billion in funding this year, a decline of 20 percent, the report said.


Kuwait-based Dhaman’s figures, which have not been verified by individual governments, suggest Libya received about $500 million, down 87 percent, and Syria $484 million, where unrest continues, a decline of 65 percent. Bahrain, which witnessed anti-government protests by the majority Shiite population, may have suffered a 36 percent drop to $100 million.

Let’s spin the wheel …..next on the movement towards Democracy…Syria, Saudi, Iran?

Let’s take of look at the dictatorships in your neighborhood (if you’re in the MENA region)….

SYRIA - DICTATORSHIP, ARAB LEAGUE MEMBER

State Sponsor of Terrorism - Tyranny -Discrimination of Women

WMD - Largest chemical weapons capability in the Middle East

Transit for Drugs Bound for Western Markets

Tens of thousands of Arab Syrian victims when regime ravaged Syrian Hama including the Grand Mosque

Muslim Turkey mobilized in 1998 the army for war against Arab Syria

Syrian official maps fake that the Turkish province Hatay is inside Syria

Invaded Israel in 1948 with the declared intent of destroying her

Invaded Arab Jordan (Black September 1970)

Occupied in 1948-1967 former Mandate for Palestine land (Himmah area)

Occupies Arab Jordanian land since 1970

Occupied Arab Lebanon from 1976 - 2005

Arab Jordan occupies land belonging to Arab Syria

The Golan Heights were transferred from the British Mandate of Palestine to the French Mandate of Syria in 1923, and are ruled by Israel since 1967

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IRAN - DICTATORSHIP, ORG. OF THE ISLAMIC CONFERENCE MEMBER

State Sponsor of Terrorism - Nuclear Ambitions - World Domination Ideology

Used Chemical Weapons During War With Muslim Iraq

Iraq-Iran War 1980 - 1988 Caused Over 1 Million Dead

Iranian President Calls for the Destruction of Israel

State Sponsored Anti-Semitism

State Sponsored Cult of Martyrdom and Blood

Religious Persecution - Public Stoning to Death and Other Cruel Executions

Discrimination of Women - "Ten Minute Marriages"

________________________________________

SAUDI ARABIA - DICTATORSHIP, ARAB LEAGUE MEMBER

Homeland of arch terrorist Osama Bin Laden and most 9/11 terrorists

Refuge of cannibal, sadist and mass murderer Idi Amin of Uganda

Saudi royals paid Osama Bin Laden and Taliban £200m "protection money"

Saudi religious leader calls for slavery's legalization

Middle Age type of theocracy - Religious police - Charges of witchcraft

Transfer and ethnic mutilation

Apartheid against non-Muslims - Death for adultery & apostasy from Islam

Two major cities (Mecca & Medina) forbid entrance of non-Muslims

Churches of other religious denominations than Moslem do not exist

World's only state where cinemas are banned

World's only state where it is illegal for women to drive

Without written permission from a male guardian, women may not travel, get an education or work. Regardless of permissions, they are not allowed to drive, mix with men in public or leave home without covering themselves with black cloaks, called abayas.

Punishment by hand amputation, flogging & public beheading

Muslims worldwide indoctrinated by preachers funded from Saudi Arabia

Religious police prevents male firemen from rescuing girls burning to death

Despot King Fahd in Forbes Report 2003 "The World's Richest People"

________________________________________

MOROCCO - DICTATORSHIP, ARAB LEAGUE MEMBER

Arab Morocco Occupies Saharawi Arab Republic

Claims EU (Spanish) areas: Canary Islands, Isla Perejil, Ceuta and Melilla

Women Can't Marry Without Male Guardian Consent

Illicit Drug Producer Bound for Western Markets

Built 2000-km separation wall to keep Saharawi guerilla out of occupied West Sahara

Saharawi Arabs Languish for Decades in World's Worst Refugee Camps

________________________________________

OMAN - DICTATORSHIP, ARAB LEAGUE MEMBER

No Political Parties - No Freedom of Speech - Judges at the Government's Pleasure - No Workers’ Rights - Discrimination Against Women

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UAE - DICTATORSHIP, ARAB LEAGUE MEMBER

Imprisonment and Flogging for Marriage Across Faiths

No Democratically Elected Institutions or Political Parties

Judiciary's Decisions Subject to Review by Political Leadership

Law Specifically Prohibits Criticism of Government,

Ruling Families and Friendly Governments Under Penalty of Imprisonment

________________________________________

BAHRAIN - DICTATORSHIP, ARAB LEAGUE MEMBER


Hereditary Autocracy - No Political Parties - No Freedom of Speech - Judges at the Government's Pleasure - No Workers’ Rights - Women Discrimination

________________________________________

ALGERIA - DICTATORSHIP, ARAB LEAGUE MEMBER


World Leader in Forced Disappearances

100,000 Persons Killed

Forced Arabization of Amazigh Culture

________________________________________

YEMEN - DICTATORSHIP, ARAB LEAGUE MEMBER

About 100,000 Deaths in Civil War

Death for Apostasy - Women Can't Marry Without Guardian Consent

Most Females Genitally Mutilated During Childhood

________________________________________

Delegitimizing Gadhafi regime...like we needed to!

The U.S. and more than 30 other nations including the Arab League on Friday formally recognized Libya's main opposition group as the country's legitimate government, giving the rebel movement a major boost.
The decision, which declared Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime no longer legitimate, gives his foes greater credibility and will potentially free up billions in cash that the rebels fighting Libyan forces urgently need.

Rebels, backed by NATO's air force bombings, control much of the country's east and pockets in the west.

Foreign ministers and other representatives of the organization known as the Contact Group on Libya said in a statement Friday that the "Gadhafi regime no longer has any legitimate authority in Libya." They said the Libyan strongman and certain members of his family must go.

"The Contact Group has sent an unequivocal message to Gadhafi: that he has no legitimacy and there is no future for Libya with him in power. He must go and go now," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

The nations said they would deal with Libya's main opposition group -- the National Transitional Council, or NTC -- as "the legitimate governing authority in Libya" until an interim authority is in place that will organize free and fair elections.

Contact Group representatives broke into spontaneous applause when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced her nation's recognition of the NTC, according to U.S. officials.

Meanwhile, the council's oil minister said Libya could be exporting 1 million barrels of oil a day within three to four months of Gadhafi's departure. He said the opposition hopes to hold elections within a year and resume oil exports very soon, saying the damage to oil facilities has been minimal and repaired. Allied multinational oil and service companies will expedite repairs and increase capacity.

And another Dictator soon to bite the dust!!!