Report Says Nearly 650,000 Besieged in Syria

Assyrian Christians fleeing advancing Islamic State jihadists in the Syrian province of Hasakeh
(Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

Nearly 650,000 Syrians are living in besieged communities in the country's civil war, more than three times the UN estimate, according to a new report that gives a graphic account of hundreds of deaths in areas the world has struggled for years to reach.

The report says Syria's government is responsible for the siege tactics that have led to deaths by starvation, dehydration and the lack of medical care. The document does not look at what it calls the short-term siege tactics used by Islamic State, which has beheaded and massacred its opponents in the area straddling the Syria-Iraq border currently under its control.

The "Slow Death" report, obtained in advance by Associated Press, is by the Syrian American Medical Society, which supports medical workers in besieged areas. The organisation presented its findings on Thursday to UN officials and to a closed-door meeting sponsored by the United States, Britain, France and other states and organised by Qatar.

The UN estimates that 212,000 Syrians live in besieged areas beyond the reach of humanitarian aid. But the new report, to be released next week, says the UN is too narrowly defining "besieged" and is inadvertently underplaying the crisis. It says more than 640,200 people are besieged. It also echoes claims by an increasing number of aid groups that the international response to the overall conflict, particularly by the deeply divided UN Security Council, has failed.

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Report Says Nearly 650,000 Besieged in Syria

UN Proposal Would Punish Iraq and Syria Militants

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Britain has proposed a draft U.N. resolution aimed at punishing recruitment and financing of foreign fighters for the Islamic State militant group now controlling a swath of Syria and Iraq, and all other terrorist groups associated with al-Qaida.

The early draft, obtained Monday by The Associated Press, calls on all countries to take measures to suppress the flow of foreign fighters to these groups and demands the immediate withdrawal of those already in Iraq and Syria.

It also demands that all militants from the Islamic State group, Jabhat al-Nusra, and other al-Qaida linked groups "cease all atrocities and terrorist acts."

The proposed resolution expresses the Security Council's readiness to impose sanctions on those recruiting, supporting and fighting for terrorist groups, and says a list of individuals will be added to the resolution before its adoption.

Council experts met again Monday to go over the text and several diplomats said they hope the resolution can be adopted as soon as the end of this week.

The draft deplores "in the strongest terms" the terrorist acts and "violent extremist ideology" of the Islamic State group and stresses that "widespread or systematic attacks directed against any civilian populations because of their ethnic background, religion or belief may constitute a crime against humanity."

It cites atrocities by the group including mass executions and the killing of Iraqi soldiers, the deliberate targeting of individuals based on their religion or belief, the kidnapping of civilians, forced displacement of minorities, unlawful use of child soldiers, rape, arbitrary detention and destruction of places of worship.

A council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations are closed, said the United States wants to add a sentence from a press statement adopted by the council last Thursday that singles out the Islamic State group's attacks that forced hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, many from the vulnerable Yazidi and Christian communities, to flee.

The draft resolution urges all countries to meet their obligation under a 2001 resolution adopted immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States to cooperate in bringing the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of terrorist acts to justice.

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UN Proposal Would Punish Iraq and Syria Militants

Syria's Rich Archaeological Treasures Imperiled By Civil War

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

• The Romans occupied modern-day Syria, and before them, the Assyrians, Persians and Akkadians built empires there.
• The country is home to ancient Paleolithic fossils, some of the earliest evidence of agriculture and one of the largest troves of cuneiform tablets ever discovered.
• "It's probably one of the oldest occupied areas of the Earth," said Emma Cunliffe, an archaeology researcher at Durham University in England, who has published a report documenting archeological damage in Syria. "It's been continuously occupied since before modern man even existed."
• Yet hundreds of archaeological sites are imperiled by civil war in Syria; bombing and looting have ravaged some of the richest of these sites; government and rebel forces have occupied ancient castles and bulldozed archaeological mounds created over thousands of years of human occupation. All six of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the country have been damaged, Cunliffe said.

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Syria's Rich Archaeological Treasures Imperiled By Civil War

China Argues Against US Action Against Syria

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

• China on Monday urged the U.S. not to take unilateral action against Syria in response to last month's chemical weapons attack against civilians.
• Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Washington had briefed Beijing over the matter and China was highly concerned about any use of chemical weapons.
• But he said China opposed the U.S. acting alone and believed any response must conform to the U.N. Charter and the basic principles underlying international relations.

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China Argues Against US Action Against Syria

UN's Syria Samples to Undergo Meticulous Scrutiny

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

• They've endured repeated delays, unrelenting scrutiny and even snipers' bullets in Damascus. Now U.N. inspectors, who have been gathering evidence of a possible chemical weapons attack in Syria, are poised to return to the Netherlands in coming days, setting in motion a meticulous process of analyzing samples at specially accredited laboratories.
• According to the team's U.N. mandate, the analysis will establish if a chemical attack took place, but not who was responsible for a deadly Aug. 21 attack that Doctors Without Borders says killed 355 people and included the use of toxic gas. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that Washington knows, based on intelligence, that the Syrian regime carefully prepared for days to launch a chemical weapons attack.
• U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to get an initial briefing on the U.N. team's work this weekend from disarmament chief Angela Kane. The team is expected to leave Syria on Saturday, but it remains unclear exactly how long the process of examining samples will take.

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UN's Syria Samples to Undergo Meticulous Scrutiny

Liberal Hypocrisy in Iraq and Syria

The following excerpts are from AINA:

• In a response with clear echoes to the beginnings of the Iraq War, Obama has refused Syria's offer to open its chemical weapons sites to United Nations inspectors as coming too late to be credible.
• For the worst half of a decade, liberals were either urging us to give the UN inspectors more time in Iraq or demanding to know "Where are the WMDs?" once the war had begun.
• The common consensus was Syria; a fellow Baathist regime that also served as the pipeline for the majority of suicide bombers aimed at American soldiers. But that answer was met with ridicule and contempt from the questioners.
• Liberals had found their killer talking point and they were not about to let it go. Not until now.

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Liberal Hypocrisy in Iraq and Syria

The European Union and the United States Sign a Suicide Pact - Michael Youssef - Townhall Conservative

The following excerpt is from the article "The European Union and the United States Sign a Suicide Pact" by Townhall columnist Michael Youssef. All emphases are mine:

What the United States did in hosting the Istanbul Process was unprecedented since the founding of the United Nations. Namely, they gave the OIC political legitimacy in its desire to silence any voice, including the voice of good Muslim scholars, from criticizing Islam or its tenets. Now Europe is chomping at the bit to host the next convention.

Make no mistake about it. What the OIC is aspiring to accomplish both in Europe and in America is to muzzle the few brave politicians and diplomats who are objecting to the Islamic refusal to integrate into both continents. Indeed, they are asking for Muslims and Islam to be given a privileged position.

As a boy attending government schools in Egypt, we were taught openly and unequivocally, by Muslim teachers, that Islam spreads throughout the world by the sword. However, Islamic expansion could also be fueled in other ways—as indeed we see today.

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The European Union and the United States Sign a Suicide Pact - Michael Youssef - Townhall Conservative

Cult of Global Warming Is Losing Influence - Michael Barone - Townhall Conservative

TownHall.com colunist Michael Barone has written an article entitled “Cult of Global Warming Is Losing Influence”. Below are some excerpts from that article:

• All the trappings of religion are there. Original sin: Mankind is responsible for these prophesied disasters, especially those slobs who live on suburban cul-de-sacs and drive their SUVs to strip malls and tacky chain restaurants.

• The need for atonement and repentance: We must impose a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system, which will increase the cost of everything and stunt economic growth.

• Ritual, from the annual Earth Day to weekly recycling.

• Indulgences, like those Martin Luther railed against: private jet-fliers like Al Gore and sitcom heiress Laurie David can buy carbon offsets to compensate for their carbon-emitting sins.

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Cult of Global Warming Is Losing Influence - Michael Barone - Townhall Conservative

A Time to Act: Defending Israel and Doing What is Just - Adam Hasner - Townhall Conservative

 The following are excerpts from Adam Hasner's article, "A Time to Act: Defending Israel and Doing What is Just". The emphases are mine.

• For decades, the world knew America would stand beside its allies.
• In World Wars, and Cold Wars, in good times and bad, an alliance with America meant that even at the cost of blood and treasure, our allies could count on this nation to honor its commitments.  Now, President Obama has again put that hard-won reputation at risk by failing to fight a vote in the United Nations that threatens the very existence of Israel, our most faithful ally in the region and the one nation in the Middle East that shares our values.
• If America is truly Israel’s greatest ally, we should not be asking it to put its citizens and future at risk by forcing the establishment of a hostile Palestinian state as the only option. Israel is vital to America’s strategic interests and we should be fighting to defend its sovereignty and security, and immediately move to slash funding to the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations.

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A Time to Act: Defending Israel and Doing What is Just - Adam Hasner - Townhall Conservative

If Israel Disappears - Cal Thomas - Townhall Conservative

 The following are a couple of excerpts from Cal Thomas' article "If Israel Disappears":

• Israel -- like the Jewish people for centuries -- has become the fall guy for people who prefer their anti-Semitism cloaked in diplomatic niceties. The Palestinians could have peace any time they wish and probably a state, too, if they acknowledged Israel's right to exist and practiced verbal, religious and military disarmament. One has a right to question the veracity of a people who claim they want peace, while remaining active in ideological, theological and military warfare aimed at its publicly stated objective: the eradication of the Jewish state.
  
  The UN can't handle the truth and few member states will like hearing it. The blood of the Jewish people will be on their hands if they continue to empower individuals and nations whose goal is to create Holocaust II and a "Palestine" without Jews.

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If Israel Disappears - Cal Thomas - Townhall Conservative