Meanwhile....in Syria.

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Protests across Syria after foiled Damascus rally

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent ... rally.aspx


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNeFs0nQXo0&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFmM2o5OrwQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Syrian protesters charged with "weakening morale"
* Activists protested on behalf of political prisoners

* Relatives of political prisoner Kamal Labwani on trial

* Lawyer says show trial expected


Syrian authorities have charged 33 activists who mounted a silent protest for the release of political prisoners with "weakening national morale and compromising the state", defence lawyers said.

The defendants were brought on Thursday before an investigative judge in the capital Damascus who asked them if they had participated in a demonstration on Wednesday "to compromise the state".

All entered pleas of not guilty, their lawyers said, and a pregnant woman whom a defence lawyer said was only a passerby was released without charge.

"The arrests were arbitrary and it is difficult to imagine that the trial will be any different," a defence lawyer said.

The non-violent demonstration by 150 people was the most serious public challenge to Syria's ruling hierarchy since uprisings deposed the autocratic rulers of Tunisia and Egypt and swept across the Arab Middle East.

Syria, a country of 20 million people, has been ruled since 1963 by the Baath Party, which banned opposition and imposed an emergency law that is still in force.

Demonstrations not organised by the state are unheard of, but on Wednesday the 150 protesters displayed pictures of political prisoners in front of the interior ministry.

Secret police attacked them with batons, wounding several and dragging away female protesters by the hair, witnesses said.

Almost 40 people were arrested at the scene. Six were released without charge.

The 33 facing trial include a man who had a fresh wound above his right eye, the lawyers said. They were brought in front of investigative judge Ahmad al-Sayyed at the Palace of Justice, 400 m (yards) from the protest site.

Among the defendants are political activist Suhair al-Atassi and rights lawyer Serene al-Khoury. Five relatives of prominent political prisoner Kamal al-Labwani, a physician serving 15-year terms for weakening national morale, also were on trial.

Labwani's relatives included his sister, a physician, and his son, a medical student.

There was no comment from the Syrian authorities. Officials have said political prisoners have violated the constitution, which was amended in the 1970s to include a clause terming the Baath Party as "leader of the state and society".

Syria has an estimated 3,000-4,000 political prisoners, most held without trial. They include Kurds, Islamists and secular figures who have been demanding a democratic system to replace the Baath Party's five-decade monopoly of power.

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/syri ... ing-morale

http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/ ... 0nNuAaM%3D

^ The banner:
"The revolution of 15"

"calls the free men to participate in the "Dignity gathering" " - 18 March after the Friday praying.

"Your participation means the achievement of freedom in Syria soon"




another banner:



^ " revolution 15 march"

"The revolution is ongoing

in all Syrian provinces
2011-3-15"

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTK_TfitZV0&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

The inevitable has happened.


The silence in Syria has been broken:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12794882

thank you for the update, it really seems the political climate is changing dramatically in the middle east.

Looks like the Empire is parlaying protests against its destructive and injust Procrustean neoliberalism into deepening it and expanding it to more countries.

^It sounds so stupid every time I read your conspiracy theories. This has nothing to do with "the west".

Oh, if they make Syria and Libya into full-fledged clients that makes a net gain of two. Neoliberal economics will be forced down their throats and in all likelihood pressure will be successfully used to keep Tunisia and Egypt on that path. The people will be betrayed yet again and they won't forget.

Syrian protests spread after troops kill at least five
Hundreds of Syrian protesters turn out in Deraa as anger at the heavy-handed tactics used by security forces intensifies

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/ ... CD20110321



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC55uPBKYqU[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACokPxz9_Vg[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTQ5zZ-53JA[/youtube]

When Serbia was subject to regime change they were forced into neoliberal economics under which they sold off their steel industry for pennies on the dollar to an American concern. If they ever wanted to buy it back they'd have to pay top dollar, that's for sure. Yet more proof of the evil of neoliberal economics and the regime change that serves to plunder such countries. Syria would be wise to avoid such a fate.

No, Western intelligence agencies are creating trouble, as the patterns indicate their handiwork... their favoured alliances are with organised crime, as usual. For example, they helped organ harvesters seize power in Kosovo.

The US is not some kind of GOD that can control the motives of the people.

xenon13 , your extremist-leftist slogans , views and Russian-inspired conspiracies and empathy with the dictator rulers have no place in the Arab world anymore , those are rotten views that caused a lot of despair to the Arab people over the years, justifying all the actions taken by the dictators.

And I , unlike you, was always against ALL dictators including Mubarak and Ben Ali and even the king of KSA.

But that doesn't matter, nor the leftists like you nor the extremist rightists in US who think that the Mideast people are not mature enough to have democratic systems are gonna change the bandwagon effect of this revolution , and the Islamism power's myth was debunked in Egypt and Tunis , and it WILL be debunked in most Arab countries.

I said it before in another thread, and I am gonna say it again: Al Qaeda and their affiliations are used by those regimes for multiple roles (the scarecrow and the merc) , without them they are much weaker.

All dictators in the mideast will fall one after another, whether you like it or not. Whether they are your gov's puppets or enemies, they will fall.