Western officials continue to cite Friday’s Houla massacre as they move to diplomatically isolate Syria, and France’s new president is following in the footsteps of his predecessor in pushing for a UN-backed war.
But what exactly happened in Houla? The UN’s new report is adding even more questions than it answers, and is once again throwing the rebels’ version of the event, which has been reported unaltered by US officials, into serious doubt.
The rebel version of the story of the Houla massacre is that Syrian tanks and artillery surrounded the tiny town and started shelling indiscriminately, massacring well over 100 innocent civilians for no apparent reason. Though the death toll seems roughly correct, the UN report revealed that the shelling killed less than 20 people, with the vast majority executed by gunfire at close range.
This of course makes no sense, since the rebel reports from Friday didn’t even have troops entering the town, claiming that rebel forces had chased them away after artillery fire on a protest.
The regime’s account doesn’t make sense either. It claimed that rebel troops had killed all of the civilians with small arms fire, and while such weapons do seem to have killed a large number of people, it insisted that there was no shelling, despite clear evidence of regime shells hitting the town.
In the end we may never know what really happened in Houla, as both sides seem determined to spin patently false versions that lionize their side while demonizing their opponent. Since these narratives have trickled into the rhetoric of the international backers on both sides of this proxy war, there seems little interest in getting at the truth.
Could it be that the rebels used these civilians as human shields?
Is anyone here at antiwar.com even asking that question? Come on guys, you are supposed to be the antidote to the lies in the mainstream media. Do your job.
Ridiculous… and on this topic, sadly, antiwar.com is more like the mouthpiece for Russian propaganda
"antiwar.com is more like the mouthpiece for Russian propaganda"
Thank G-d if true………… 10s of 1000s of talking heads and commenters reading bogus news from nearly 99.999% of available outlets with the MSM pro war pro empire anti Muslim screed…… and if TWO sites give the Syrian Gov. side…. Good … Ho-rah…. Me, I'm neutral……… Assad was one of America's top torture sub contractors after 911…. so I hate them……….. but Assad & Syria support Hesbolah…… the TRUE defender of Lebanon…. And they support the Palestinians iun their sriuggle to cast off Israeli apartheid and the not always so softcore genocide they endure…. No/Yes I don't care one way or the other about the Assad Regime………………
What has Assad done for the Palestinians?
Houla massacre is not a lone case of lies from so called "international community" regarding so called tipping point in carefully prepared conflict in some country where this "international community" desires a regime change.
I would try to start a list of such carefully prepared lies in last 20 years or so – at least the ones I can still remember:
1. Pictures which fouled the word – In 1992, ITN, the British news station, sent a film team to Bosnia. They came back with a film and photos of "Serbian death camp". They lied but their story was used before they had to retract it by "international community" to put some harsh sanctions on Serbs.
2. Bread line attack – in this attack on a market Bosnain Islamists killed a score of their own people so they could then blame evil Serbs.
3. Racak incident – KLA fighters killed in a firefight with Yugoslavia's forces were neatly arranged for impressive photos for the press of "international community". This fake massacre was used as a tipping point and few days after this "international community" attacked Yugoslavia.
Rachak rings the bell! A month ago Syrian militants visited Kosovo for advice — naturally all former KLA militants are now the government. Many have then correctly concluded that there was going to be a staged massacre.
I am a bit disappointed in this article. Even if some people are killed by gunfire, nobody has determined if this was done at close range. In Rachak "massacre", it was not well after the hostilities ended that an international group of forensic experts determined that the victims were killed at close range — hence not by Government artilery. In case of Houla, the story is even more ridiculous. Many people were killed by blunt objects, axes and knives. Now, who was killing the civilians at the same time that Government was shelling the area?
Since Houla was under the control of militants, it is rather clear who killed them. A new story blames mysterious "government militia:, that killed them in silence, and then slipped out of the village unnotieced.
Sitting on the fence — as is the case of this article — comes from the fact that the "truth makers' in Western capitals have their story coordinated — and are sticking to it.
One thing is for sure, it was not the Syrian government who armed these “rebeles” and it was not the Syrian government who started this war, at the same time, these “rebels” as in Libya have been laying from day one and they are doing the same here. Having said that, if these “rebels” were interested in peace, if these “rebels" are for the Syrian people they would have followed the path of peace starting with negotiating and making their cause visible to the Syrian people were ultimately it is them who would decide the political future of Syria and for the Syrian people. Not the French, Not the English, Not the US nor Saudis or UAE or Turkish government have any right interfering, unless there is a demon behind all this and for that reason there is no peace in Syria and for these “rebels” refusing to come to the table and start answering questions why Syrian government is bad and Saudis are good, what is it that they want and what is it that is missing in Syria but exist in Saudi Arabia. In Syria, women have the right to vote and drive cars, women's have the right to work and all religious are free in Syria, there is no such basics democracy exist in Saudi Arabia, when there is a Church built in Saudi Arabia then there is a basic democracy, when women’s have their freedom to vote and drive cars then the basics in democracy is accomplished in Saudi Arabia, when a government voted by the people, then there is a basic democracy in Saudi Arabia, when corruption from and by the Kingdom family, the true tyrants in the region, making their cousins the head of this or that department, or picking a government and Etc, then there is a basic democracy in Saudi Arabia, until then the voice of majority of Syrian people is based on God, Syria and Bashir.
Mr. Holland dosen’t understand because he is not a socialist, he is a social democrats, like Obama with a twist in French term, after all the new version, or if you will the modernized colonialism is based on what countries as French, England and US had before in time, now they are back with their militarism regimes in action wanting to renew their colonialism even if it takes them helping MeK to Shah of Iran to Al Queda, Jihadist from Saudi Arabia or UAE, using people against people in achieving their colonial glory time calling it democracy.
This smells of "directed history"' . A staged event to achieve the goals of a hidden agenda (regime change?). The rash of expulsions of Syrian diplomats by "outraged" Western regimes seems more than a little scripted. Every nation condemning the massacre by way of expulsions sounds nearly identical to the other. Why not wait to find out what really happened? Oh wait ….that might reveal the truth.
The US et al are considering how to become involved in another war in the Middle East. Civil wars are ugly and innocents are killed. Presently, the enemies of the al-Asad regime are numerous. Some have directly helped by aiding armed rebels like Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Others have provided the rebels with means to broadcast their side of the story, like the US and Lebanon. Still others allow foreign nationals an opportunity to use their territory for clandestine actions like Jordan. Bashar al-Asad's time is nearly up. Whether or not the rebels can over through him or not will make little difference for the long-term prospects for his rule. The clamor about unverified stories from the rebels had more to do with direct US military intervention than with the plight of the Salafist rebellion in Syria. The US should mind its own business, and let the story play out. Aid either direct from the GCC or Turkey or indirect from the US, Britain and France should be enough. Vietnam to Iraq, we have been dragged into wars of our own making. Just as the Gulf of Tonkin and the WMDs proved false so has making the world safe for democracy. If democracy is to thrive from the Syrian catastrophe, then it must come from within and not imposed from without.
The rebels are mostly army defectors for not wanting
To kill their own, they mostly belong to the towns that
Has being bombed and lots of the defectors has being
Killed while trying to defect, now why would any body
Defect and go kill his own people when he have a license
To kill as a member of a regular army, it doesn't make since.
The father Assad killed over twenty five thousand of his
Own people, sorry the opposite sect, now why cant we
Believe the saying, like father like son, this Assad is
Willing to start ww3 for the sake of his presidency .
For get about the media and their lies, you want the
Truth, just come to Jordan or turkey or Lebanon and
Get the truth from the horses mouth, get it from the people
Who left comfort of their homes and all their belongings
To live in tents if they're lucky, I read yesterday that some
Of the Syrian families in Jordan living like animals in
Deserted homes with no utilities what so ever, you want
The truth it's there for the truth seekers like I stated from
The horses mouth.
or the horses ass…….!!!!!
Could the opposition have secured some artillery and tanks (or even just some shells for them) to provide "evidence" of the government's "perfidy". After all the UN was reporting that while the government was winding down it's operation, the opposition were becoming more aggressive in contravention of the Annan peace plan. Being criticized by the UN for aggression would make it harder for the opposition to receive aid from the so-called "Friends of Syria" which consists of little more than a few failing or ex-imperial powers and their theocratic, despotic paymasters in the Gulf.
What mr. Ditz says it's absolutely false. Since the 1st moment the syrian opposition said most of the Houla martyrs were slaughtered by Shabiha (al-Assad regime 's armed militias ). At least 12 hours before the UN "observers" went to Houla , the oppostion stated that <<This barbaric act was preceded by the regime’s mortar shelling in the town. The campaign ended when the armed militias slaughtered entire families in cold blood.>> http://www.lccsyria.org/8607 . Therefore the UN report actually CONFIRMS "the rebel accounts".
That's what I heard, too. Antiwar.com takes the Russian line, though – but even the Russians seem to be realizing how horribly the Assad government is behaving…
It's sad that the commenters here seem to not even be moved by the deaths of so many civilians and even children…
oooops : for antiwar staff: i made a mistake & replied to the wrong person : can you be so kind to delete the comment i submitted a few minutes ago? thanks ! @ummadulla: all the western anti-war & leftist people (even if antiwar,com is not a leftist website ) basically support al-assad &- and in far worse way than anti-war does. At least antiwar.com does not support al-assad : it "opposes the opposition". Sadly it seems that many people don't care at all about facts.
Paolo,
Please write me at Akeaton@antiwar.com so I know which one to delete.
Peace,
Angela
everybody is free to think what she/he wants, and i weel know there isn't any evidence that could persuade most of people on this thread that al-Assad is really a fascist neo-liberist mass murderer & not an anti-imperialist hero . And i didn't put in doubt Jason Ditz's good faith : probably he simply doesn't know the syrian opposition's statement (his source is a reuters article that quotes a certain Ahmed Kassem [?] ).. I've only said that it false the <<UN Report on Houla Massacre Conflicts With Rebel Accounts>>: it doesn' t conflict at all and i've posted the proof (LCCSy statement issued & published 12 hours before the UN observers went to Houla ). Also the syrian Muslim brotherhood immediately reported that many victims had been killed when the shabiha raided homes, stabbing & shooting civilians Then one can always believe the "rebels" slaughterd the kids (and maybe some parents stabbed their own children ) and then issued the statement , even if all the Houla people testimony it was al-assad shabiha. (videos ) . I've lernt long ago that many people believe what they want to believe.
Ditz concludes: "In the end we may never know what really happened in Houla, as both sides seem determined to spin patently false versions that lionize their side while demonizing their opponent. Since these narratives have trickled into the rhetoric of the international backers on both sides of this proxy war, there seems little interest in getting at the truth."
But there is an equivalence in this statement between the "backers" on each side -on one side, the US and the Western neocolonial powers on a roll rampaging through the Middle East and Central Asia bent on controlling all the resources there and bringing to heel or simply destroying any nation that incurs the wrath of the apartheid state of Israel and furtheiring the encirclement of Iran and Russia and China, and on the other Iran and Russia, and even China, who have decided to draw a line in tha sand in Syria.
Does the usually insightful Jason Ditz mean to imply an equivalence between aggressor and defender? Proxy war is it? Or is it the unconquered nations of Asia standing up to the ravenous West before its rampage goes any farther. Putin is no fool. He watched the West wreck the economy of Russia when the inebriated Yeltsin was in power and NATO reach his doorstep and provoke a war in Georgia. He is not likely to let the same sort of thing happen again if it is in his power – and let us hope for the sake of the world that it is.
It still cannot be denied that the so-called “rebels” are none other than Al-Qaeda terrorists who are armed and supported by the reactionary Arab regimes as well as the US/NATO puppet Turkey, not to mention the Big Satan itself.
Rebels enter the town, shooting indiscriminately at civilians, killing most at short range with small-arms fire.
Government forces shell the town to force the rebels out, killing some of the civilians in the process.
Rebels point to the entire episode as the work of Assad.
The Western media accepts the rebels' account at face value and voila! Syrian troops are labeled as baby-killing thugs, which (wonder of wonders) dovetails nicely with the agenda of the West.
While the real warmongers as Madeline Albright prized at the WH, while the parents of 200.000 children in Sweden have problem feeding them and therefore they are malnourished, while the poverty in Europe and US is sky high and increasing, while the alder people in Greece and elsewhere in EU killing themselves for not having anything to eat, while the EU money problem is staged to demolish the EU currency which would create a momentum for Dollar and its vulture capitalism to continue and lead the world economy, while US and EU committing all kind of atrocities toward mankind.., it is not surprising that these self-proclaimed democracy or social democrats as Mr. Holland or Obama still would carry on with their rhetoric about democracy greeting personality as Madeline Albright which created the expansion of NATO and pave the way to present militarism and all that wars world is facing. Look, Madeline Albright is one of those rightwing, warmongering “democrats” as Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton dominating the US democratic party, for these people the war is a playing game, for these people humanity, democracy and social political or the social economic – reality have no meaning, their interests is based on the principals of the democratic party which for years has been about wars with other nations wanting to dominate the world economic by dominating the world natural resources and for that they need to militarize the world and occupying it.
Syria is one of those scenarios and planed by people like Madeline Albright and Paul Wolfowitz implemented by a Democratic presidents from Eu to US.., there is no plan in any way about democracy or the freedom of the Syrian people, the principals of democracy is already exist in Syria and is expended to a new level, all it is is about militarizing the entire middle east making sure that Saudis feudal and their whabbis brutal regime is comfortable making deals with English – Swedish and other monarchism in Europe or for that matter Bush family in US.
" the principals of democracy is already exist in Syria"
You're joking, right?
If you never been to Syria, or if you never heard about democracy, or if you don't know anything about democracy then your own, if you are, which I am certain that you are, one of those whom would salut your militarism regime thinking is the only democracy in this world then you would think that I am joking, in the other hand racism and neo fascism within the US and EU democracy think the same as you do.
You've made a lot of ridiculous assumptions about me, and they're all wrong. I have been to Syria and have Syrian friends; it's the people who swallow the Syrian/Russian government propaganda – hook, line and sinker – that have never been to Syria and know nothing about it.
Saluting my militarism regime…? You know nothing about me, and after asserting lies about me and saying you're certain of them, your credibility is zero – but that will make you popular here.
"Rachak rings the bell! A month ago Syrian militants visited Kosovo for advice — naturally all former KLA militants are now the government.."
So it is.
And as with that there is the "outrage" by Western politicians.
And its use for eitherthetakeover of the victim territory or war.
But they are not the front-runner, only the puppets and organ grinders monkey – it is the Western governments who are responsible.
Someone somewhere with high level contacts is driving the political and media war against Syria.
Who organized the concerted expulsion of Syrian diplomats from western countries and where no diplomats were present then statements by foreign ministers in support of the expulsions.
There is only one entity with that power and ability. An entity which has always tried its best to sow discord in Arab nations. Thats the start in tracking down the instigator.
It's not Russian TV, so this will get a lot of thumbs down, but this is how the massacre has been reported all along: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18233…
But according to activists and eyewitnesses interviewed by the BBC, other media and human rights groups, army shelling paved the way for a concerted ground attack by the Alawite-dominated pro-government militia, the shabiha.
Their reports suggest that men from the shabiha entered people's houses in army fatigues and either cut their throats or shot them in the head from approximately 16:00 to 01:00 on Saturday morning.
One opposition activist from the area, Hamza Omar, told the BBC: "The shabiha militias attacked the houses. They had no mercy. We took pictures of children, under 10 years [old] their hands tied, and shot at close range."
If that is the case, it is possible the killers were drawn from a string of largely Alawite villages to the south of Houla region. Fearing reprisals, some residents there have apparently been donating blood to help the approximately 300 injured.
Still amazed that for most of you, there's not a shred of sympathy or any feeling at all for the people killed that day, and every other day in Syria…. Only sympathy for Assad's regime and scrambling to defend them… Sad, and doesn't say much for antiwar people, to the extent that this forum represents them.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18240…
Eyewitness testimony that describes the shabiha coming from a nearby Alawite village and entering people's homes and shooting them at close range. This was all reported well before Jason Ditz wrote this. You can believe the eyewitnesses or not, but Jason's whole point is that they claimed the killings were all by artillery from the Syrian Army, but the fact is that and these people weren't saying that.
(And for those of you who aren't familiar with Arabic names, many of those names mentioned as being killed are female.)
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/05/26/150266/abou…
Ground forces entered the town after the shelling to finish off the victims, the opposition alleged.
(May 26 – they're not saying that everyone was killed by artillery.)
Haven't we seen massive evidence that the Assad regime is perfectly willing and capable of sending a murder squad to teach some rebellious villagers a lesson. It is entirely consistent with the serial atrocities we have seen from this regime for the past 15 months. The message to the rebels was: "If you dare to oppose this government, we will not hesitate to kill your wives and children in the most horrific way imaginable."
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/05/…
"Activists from the region said government forces hammered Houla with mortars following a large anti-government protest on Friday.
"After the bombardment, pro-government thugs, known as shabiha, raided the villages, killing men on the streets and stabbing women and children in their houses, activists said."
This report is dated May 27, yet Jason Ditz seems to have missed all these reports and writes on May 29:
"The rebel version of the story of the Houla massacre is that Syrian tanks and artillery surrounded the tiny town and started shelling indiscriminately, massacring well over 100 innocent civilians for no apparent reason. Though the death toll seems roughly correct, the UN report revealed that the shelling killed less than 20 people, with the vast majority executed by gunfire at close range…"
He uses a link to a very short, preliminary report (it says that the massacre was going on at the time, and that 50 people were killed, when the total turned out to be more like 100) – and even at that, he misrepresents what the report says.