WarSclerotic

Ahmadinjead allies arrested on suspicion of sorcery.

  Allies of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were arrested this week for being “magicians” and invoking spirits, Iranian website reported on Wednesday.

Ahmadinejad’s chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei as well as other people close to the Iranian president were accused of invoking djinns.

One of the arrested men, Abbas Ghaffari, was called “a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds,” Iranian news site Ayandeh reported.

Ahmadinejad has many critics on the right who accuse him of seeking more power for himself at the expense of other state bodies such as parliament.

Many conservative clerics have also criticized Rahim-Mashaie, his closest aide, for promoting an “Iranian school” of Islam, which they consider a dangerous nationalistic stance.

Ahmadinejad’s close relationship with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – the senior cleric who has the last word in the Islamic Republic’s affairs – was strained two weeks ago, according to some analysts, over the president’s attempt to sack his intelligence minister, a move vetoed by the supreme leader.

Since then Ahmadinejad has missed two cabinet meetings – something some foreign analysts said was akin to a boycott.

Ahmadinejad attended his first cabinet meeting for more than a week on Sunday, dismissing rumors of a damaging split with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, news agencies reported.

Speculation began to circulate that Ahmadinejad no longer enjoyed the unqualified support of Khamenei, something the government denied. Khamenei had endorsed his re-election in June 2009 in a vote the opposition said was rigged.

Ahead of Sunday’s cabinet meeting, the head of national broadcaster IRIB told news agencies that Ahmadinejad would express his allegiance to Khamenei.

The jostling for influence is happening less than one year before a parliamentary election set to be a battle among fellow conservatives. Leading reformist candidates are unlikely to be allowed to stand if they are deemed too close to the opposition “Green” movement, which the establishment considers to be part of a foreign-backed conspiracy to overthrow the Islamic system.

Opposition leaders deny any such thing.

Pakistan: US strike kills 8; protests erupt over bin Laden.

  ISLAMABAD – US drone aircraft fired missiles into a house in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region on Friday, killing at least eight suspected terrorists just as Islamists protested against the killing of Osama bin Laden.

It was the first drone strike since US special forces killed the al-Qaida leader on May 2 not far from Islamabad, further straining ties between the strategic allies.

About 1,500 Islamists demonstrated against bin Laden’s killing, saying more figures like him would arise to wage holy war against the United States.

Predominantly Muslim Pakistan has yet to see any major backlash after US forces killed bin Laden early on Monday in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad.

But his death has angered Islamists, with one major hardline political party calling on the government to end its support for the US war on terror.

“Jihad (holy war) against America will not stop with the death of Osama,” Fazal Mohammad Baraich, a cleric, said amid shouts of “Down with America” at a demonstration near the city of Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province in the southwest.

“Osama bin Laden is a shaheed (martyr). The blood of Osama will give birth to thousands of other Osamas.”

Some protesters burned American flags.

Anti-American sentiment runs high in Pakistan, despite billions of dollars in aid for the nuclear-armed, impoverished country.

Pakistan’s religious parties have not traditionally done well at the ballot box, but they wield considerable influence on the streets of a country where Islam is becoming more radicalized.

The Pakistani government said bin Laden’s death was a milestone in the fight against terror although it objected to the raid on him as a violation of its sovereignty.

Suspicion that some Pakistani security forces might have known bin Laden was hiding in the country has threatened to strain ties between the allies.

Pakistan has denied any knowledge of the al-Qaida leader’s whereabouts and the army threatened on Thursday to cut intelligence and military cooperation with the United States if it mounted more attacks.

Pakistani cooperation is seen as crucial for efforts to end the war in neighboring Afghanistan.

via Al-Qaida confirms death of Osama bin Laden – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

In an internet statement posted on militant websites, al-Qaida terrorist group says bin Laden’s blood ‘will not be wasted’ and that it will continue to attack Americans and their allies.

By The Associated Press

Al-Qaida has issued its first confirmation of Osama bin Laden’s death in an Internet statement posted on militant websites.

	Osama bin Laden during a 1998 press conference in Afghanistan.
	Photo by: AP

Friday’s statement by the terror network says bin Laden’s blood “will not be wasted” and it will continue attacking Americans and their allies.

Bin Laden was killed Monday by U.S. commandos during a raid on his hideout in Pakistan.

Also on Friday, U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles into a house in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region, killing at least eight suspected militants .

The Associated Press: Activist: 6 killed in Syria by security forces.

BEIRUT (AP) — A human rights activist says Syrian security forces have killed six people during widespread protests on Friday.

Thousands of protesters held rallies in major areas across the country, including the capital, Damascus, and its suburbs.

The activist said five people were killed Friday in the central city of Homs and one in Hama. He asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisals by the government. He is a senior member of a human rights group that compiles death toll figures in Syria.

The protesters turned out despite a bloody crackdown on the seven-week-old uprising against President Bashar Assad’s autocratic regime.

More than 565 civilians and 100 soldiers have been killed since thee uprising began in March, according to rights groups.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian security forces opened fire on hundreds of protesters on the outskirts of the capital Friday as thousands of people joined demonstrations across the country calling for an end to President Bashar Assad’s regime, witnesses and activists said.

It was not immediately clear if there were casualties.

Undaunted by a bloody crackdown on the seven-week-old uprising, protesters held rallies in major areas including the capital, Damascus, and its suburbs, the central city of Homs, Banias on the coast and Qamishli in the northeast.

“The people want to topple the regime!” protesters shouted, echoing the cries heard during the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.

Witnesses also reported some of the tightest security seen since the protests began in mid-March. In the Damascus suburb of Douma, scene of intense protests over recent weeks, security forces cordoned off the area to prevent anyone from entering or leaving.

A witness near Douma said he saw a train carrying about 15 army tanks heading north Thursday evening toward the central province of Homs, another site of recent violence.

Another activist in Damascus said hundreds of people marched in the central neighborhood of Midan. In the coastal town of Banias, witnesses said more than 5,000 people carrying olive branches and Syrian flags also were calling for regime change.

They were among several demonstrations and marches planned for Friday, the main day of protests in the Arab world, for what activists were calling a “Day of Defiance.”

More than 565 civilians and 100 soldiers have been killed since an anti-regime uprising, inspired by revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, began in March, according to rights groups.

The activists said security forces set up checkpoints and closed some areas that experienced protests in recent weeks.

In the southern city of Daraa, where the army announced the end to an 11-day military operation Thursday, residents said troops were still in the streets, causing some would-be demonstrators to be wary of taking part in a planned protest Friday.

“There’s a tank stationed at each corner in Daraa. There is no way people can hold a protest today,” a resident said by telephone. “It means more killing. Daraa is taking a break. We don’t want to see more killing or face tank guns.”

The activists spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said a medical team reached Daraa on Thursday with trucks carrying humanitarian goods and medical supplies. The ICRC’s head of delegation in Damascus, Marianne Gasser, said helping people in Daraa is a priority “because it is the city that has been hardest hit by the ongoing violence.”

The ICRC had appealed to Syrian authorities earlier in the week to allow it to access to Daraa after being unable to reach the city previously while it was under siege by security forces.

Assad is determined to crush the revolt that has now become the gravest challenge to his family’s 40-year dynasty. He has tried a combination of brute force, intimidation and promises of reform to quell the unrest, but his attempts have failed so far.

Security forces have repeatedly opened fire on protesters during rallies around the country in the past week and last Friday at least 65 people were killed, according to rights groups.

The mounting death toll — and the siege in Daraa — has only served to embolden protesters who are now demanding nothing less than the end of Assad’s regime. There also has been growing international condemnation of the government’s tactics.

Syria blames the unrest on a foreign conspiracy and “terrorist groups” that it says have taken advantage of protests.

The uprising in Syria was sparked by the arrest of teenagers who scrawled anti-regime graffiti on a wall in Daraa. Protests spread quickly across the nation of some 23 million people.

Assad inherited power from his father in 2000.

Where is Obama’s support of Syrian democracy? – Opinion – Al Jazeera English.

Despite Israel’s presence in the Golan Heights, the Obama administration still hopes that Assad will agree to a Syrian-Israeli peace deal [GALLO/GETTY]

As Bashar al-Assad reverts to his family pedigree and continues what has become a brutal, methodical, and systematic crackdown on unarmed pro-democracy protesters, it seems hard to account for the Obama administration’s rhetorical gentleness toward him.

Consider: The Syrian regime of Assad pere et fils has been an implacable enemy of Israel since its Baathist inception 40 years ago, and has long played host to an alphabet soup of anti-Israel Palestinian resistance groups branded as terrorists by the US. Indeed, the Assad regime has been a charter member of the US government’s small and exclusive list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1979. And even if many of the groups harboured by Syria have long since faded, the Syrian government has maintained its credentials by hosting, as it continues to do, the external leadership of Hamas.

As if that were not enough, Syria has long served as the critical logistical lynch-pin in what Washington sees as its unholy tri-partite alliance with Iran and Hezbollah, facilitating the movement of missiles and other weaponry from the former to the latter, and leveraging its relationship with the extremist Shia movement in order to exercise an “illegitimate” influence in Lebanon and to marginalise those Lebanese actors most favourable to the West.

When US troop losses in Iraq were at their height, Assad’s Syria was alternately accused of passively tolerating or actively facilitating the movement of the foreign extremists. These extremists were responsible for a disproportionate amount of al-Qaeda sponsored violence there, and perhaps a majority of the suicide bombers responsible for many thousands of Iraqi civilian casualties.

Nor is Washington’s perception of the Syrian threat limited to the conventional sphere. Having long warned of Syria’s efforts to develop chemical and biological weapons and the missile systems to deliver them, American concerns were heightened yet further. Indeed, in September 2007 Israel destroyed a mysterious site alleged to house a North Korean-supplied Syrian nuclear reactor.

With all of this as background and prologue, one asks, how is it that the Obama White House still treats Bashar al-Assad’s latest outrages with such equanimity? By contrast, though hardly eager at the outset to see Tunisia’s Ben Ali or Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak consigned to the dust-bin of history, the administration was comparatively quick to call for them to step down in the face of far less brutal repression than what we see now in Daraa, Banyas and Douma. No sooner had Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi begun to do what Bashar has been doing for some time than the Obama administration decreed him no longer legitimate, and openly demanded his ouster.

Those close to the American president have made no such pronouncements in the case of Assad. Yes, they have deplored his brutal tactics, but have neither openly questioned the legitimacy of his government, nor called upon him to step down. And under circumstances where the administration would be expected to quickly implement what few sanctions remain to be exercised against Syria, and to do so with an air of self-congratulation, the Americans, as of this writing, are still “exploring” such options. Indeed, it was only days ago that Secretary of State Clinton was combining cease-and-desist calls against Syrian repression with a public description of Assad as a “reformer”.

Obama’s reasoning

This is not to suggest that the US, alone or with others, can or should take the types of action in Syria which the international community has taken in Libya. Without putting too fine a point on it, both the military and regional political circumstances do not support such a course. But even absent doing anything truly effective, it’s not as though this administration is shy about making purely rhetorical pronouncements which it is transparently unable or unwilling to translate into action. Obama ultimately showed no such compunction in demanding an end to Israeli settlement construction. He also saw no contradiction in stating that Gaddafi’s downfall was an aim of US policy, while making clear that he did not feel it necessary for the US to take the concerted action necessary to achieve such a result.

In light of all this, the current US attitude toward Bashar al-Assad’s regime remains mystifying. It is a case of the dog which didn’t bark – which excites speculation as to why.

My personal theory is that the Obama administration’s almost pathetic effort to leave a door open to future dealings with a Syrian regime which may well, in the end, survive the current popular uprising is a mark of the political desperation with which it views its failed efforts to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

At the outset, this administration operated on the sensible notion that further demonising Syria would not be helpful in achieving administration goals in the region, and that relentless, implacable hostility should give way to some form of constructive engagement. The administration also reportedly believed that a Syrian-Israeli peace deal, in addition to its intrinsic merit, would serve to break up the entente with Iran and Hezbollah and, by weakening Hamas, would help to promote a settlement of the Palestinian question, as well.

Thus, as dubious as the administration’s aspirations for the Assad regime might have been previously, they are even more so now. It is hard to see how a shaky Syrian regime, having lost legitimacy both regionally and in the eyes of its own people can make a peace with Israel which would survive itself. And even to the extent it would still be both able and willing to do so now, it is harder still to see how this would usefully contribute to an Israeli-Palestinian deal – or, for that matter, to a reliable change in policy which would seriously address the US obsession with Hezbollah.

Syria-Israel peace deal

The only explanation appears to be that the Obama administration still holds out the hope, however unlikely, that Bashar al-Assad could yet agree to a Syrian-Israeli peace deal which would serve to compensate for its utter failure to achieve Israeli peace with the Palestinians.

But if this is the case, the Obama people should think again. For those in the region, justice for the Palestinians is the central concern vis-à-vis Israel – not recovery of the Golan. A just settlement of the Palestinian issue is the key to a broader regional peace, and to whatever hopes one might harbour for Israel’s long-term ability to establish an accepted place for itself in a region which may soon evolve along a path which would otherwise make it far more conducive to a constructive relationship with Israel than has been the case in decades past.

In 1988, Meron Benvenisti, the Israeli political scientist, politician, journalist and activist wrote a highly insightful article concerning the first intifada. In it, he pointed out that the uprising in the occupied territories had brought home a central reality which Israeli politicians had tried for decades to deny or to ignore. In attempting to reach peace deals with regional states and in thinking and speaking of an Arab-Israeli, rather than an Israeli-Palestinian dispute, he said, Israelis had attempted to deceive themselves about the essential nature of the problem.

Inescapably, he said, the core issue was the Palestinians. Absent agreement with them, peace with the surrounding states, even if it could be achieved, would serve the Israelis little. The nature of its future relations with the Palestinians, he said, was the central – indeed, the existential – question for Israel.

Thus, in the end, it matters little what rhetoric or what marginal policy tools the Obama administration employs with regard to the current uprising in Syria. But if their current actions betray an attempt to wilfully ignore the central issue of justice for Palestinians, they are making a big mistake.

Robert Grenier is a retired, 27-year veteran of the CIA’s Clandestine Service. He was Director of the CIA’s Counter-Terrorism Center from 2004 to 2006.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

Analysis: Syria to pursue crackdown undeterred by sanctions | Reuters.

(Reuters) – Seven weeks of protests in Syria. Seven weeks of bloody repression.

International criticism has mounted. The United States has tightened sanctions. The European Union may impose its own.

But President Bashar al-Assad is battling to maintain his family’s four-decade-old grip on power and will not let outside pressures deflect him from crushing Syrian demonstrators demanding freedom, like so many others across the Arab world.

“U.S. and EU sanctions have more a psychological effect than a tangible one,” said Murhaf Jouejati, Professor of Middle East Studies at George Washington University.

Senior Syrian officials whose assets have been frozen under new U.S. sanctions have none in the United States, and the EU, considering an arms embargo, does not sell weapons to Syria, he said, adding that travel bans have a bit more of a bite.

“Sanctions alone will not deter Syrian leaders from using deadly force against protesters as they feel the survival of the regime is at stake. The U.S. and the EU will have to do better if they want to rein in the Assad regime,” Jouejati said.

Failing U.N. action, he suggested extra measures such as a total freeze on the assets of Assad and his allies, a travel ban on senior Syrian officials, the withdrawal of ambassadors and reduced diplomatic relations. Syria should also be barred from seeking a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

At least 560 civilians have been killed in the protests that began on March 18, rights groups say. Syrian authorities put the death toll at 148, including 78 members of the security forces.

Assad, condemned by Western leaders for his handling of the unrest, has also received scoldings from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who had forged strong trade and political ties with its neighbor.

The Turkish leader has urged Assad to reform before it is too late and warned him against “another Hama” — referring to the Syrian city where Assad’s father crushed an armed Islamist revolt in 1982, killing many thousands of civilians.

LIP SERVICE

“Syria will pay lip service to the Turks, but Assad cannot usher in the sort of reforms that Erdoghan has brought to Turkey without ending his regime,” said Joshua Landis, associate professor of Middle East studies at Oklahoma University.

Although Assad has sent tanks into the city of Deraa and other protest flashpoints, he has found Russia, China and Lebanon still willing shield Syria from verbal rebuke by the United Nations Security Council, let alone sanctions.

“It will be interesting to see if resistance from Russia, China and Lebanon melts away in the face of increased death tolls,” said Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Other measures could include bringing the Assads to the International Criminal Court.”

Mindful of the pain inflicted on Iraqis by a 12-year U.N. embargo that failed to alter the behavior of then President Saddam Hussein, few world leaders are pushing for broad trade sanctions on Syria, another Baathist-ruled Arab country.

Two influential U.S. lawmakers urged the United States on Thursday to intensify unilateral sanctions on Syria, initiated in 2004 for various alleged offences, such as Syrian support for the Palestinian Hamas group and Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas.

But new measures seem unlikely to influence Assad and his inner circle, particularly during the immediate crisis.

“The pressure placed upon the Syrian government following the Hariri assassination was, in many ways, far more severe than the current package, and Assad managed to withstand it quite handily,” said Elias Muhanna, a Middle East scholar at Harvard.

Washington, Paris and Riyadh led an outcry over the 2005 killing of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri, in which Damascus denied any hand. Under pressure, Syria pulled its troops out of Lebanon in line with a Security Council resolution, but it has since worked assiduously to regain influence in its neighbor.

ARAB LEAGUE PARALYSED

Lebanon, occupying the Arab seat on the Security Council, is ill-placed to criticize Syria, even if the Arab League had any appetite for penalizing repressive Syrian measures akin to those many of its members are pursuing against their own dissenters.

The League has acted only against Libya, suspending its membership over Muammar Gaddafi’s handling of protests.

“The Arab League failed to criticize Syria because most of its component units are themselves authoritarian regimes,” said Jouejati.

Arab leaders treated Libya differently because most had no respect for Gaddafi or interests in his country.

Libya is also on the Arab world’s periphery, not right at its center like Syria, which sits on many of the Middle East’s conflict faultlines. Instability or the collapse of 48 years of Baathist rule in Damascus could reverberate far and wide.

“The Arab League worries that a power vacuum in Syria could be deeply destabilizing for the whole region,” Muhanna said.

“They fear that ethnic and sectarian conflicts, should they emerge in Syria, would metastasize over its borders into Lebanon, Iraq, and perhaps even Turkey. For this reason, they are treating the Syrian case with kid gloves.”

Landis, describing Syria as “too big to fail,” said: “If the revolution succeeds, Syria’s state institutions may well collapse as did both Lebanon’s and Iraq’s.”

A breakdown of order could trigger a surge of refugees, many of whom would head for Europe via Turkey, which has an 800 km (500 mile) border with Syria and no visa requirements.

“No one wants this. Europe is already choking on its Muslims. Syria’s neighbors fear a flood of refugees and chaos.”

‘Forces fire at protesters as unrest spreads in Syria’.

  Protests broke out across Syria on Friday, with thousands calling for freedom in the Kurdish east and dozens briefly marching in Damascus to demand the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad, activists and witnesses said.

But the army, which stormed the southern city of Deraa last month to crush resistance in the cradle of the seven-week uprising, deployed tanks in the central city of Homs and security forces quickly dispersed the Damascus protest.

Witnesses said security forces also opened fire at protesters in the town of Tel, just north of the capital, wounding demonstrators.

Activist Wissam Tarif said protests also took place in the southern town of Jassem, coastal Banias, and Amouda in the east.

Human rights campaigners say army, security forces and gunmen loyal to Assad had killed at least 560 civilians during pro-democracy demonstrations that started in March. Thousands have been arrested and beaten, including the elderly, women and children, they said.

Officials give a much lower death toll and say half the fatalities have been soldiers and police, and blame “armed terrorist groups” for the violence.

The United States, which called the army crackdown in Deraa “barbaric”, imposed further targeted sanctions last week against Syrian officials and Europe’s main powers have been pushing for similar European Union measures.

Is Iran revolution in cards? – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Op-ed: As Arab regimes are toppled, Iranian people will likely aim to do same soon

Avi Yesawich

One can only imagine how many Iranians feel as they watch Arab regimes in the region collapse.

Thus far, the people of Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen (ostensibly) have liberated themselves from their tyrannical and oppressive dictatorships. Libya is in the midst of a civil war, and protests in Syriaare currently in full throttle, propelled by Bashar Assad’s murderous and maniacal suppression of his own population. Demonstrations still linger in Bahrain as well.

Yet one prominent regional nation has been surprisingly silent, one that is certainly responsible, at least partially, for inspiring the Arab revolution with its own massive street protests two years ago: Iran.

The Iranian situation is startlingly ironic. On June 13, 2009 hundreds of thousands of Iranians flooded major population centers in Iran, displaying a sense of passion and fervor not witnessed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. These Iranians, of varied political, religious and ethnic orientations, were united in their demand for an answer to a meaningful question: “Where is my vote?”

However, the regime responded swiftly and brutally to repress what were largely peaceful, non-violent protests, resulting in dozens of deaths and hundreds of innocent casualties. Some 18 months after the initial demonstrations, Iranians watched as their repressed Arab neighbors initiated popular, largely successful revolts against authoritarian regimes.

During a recent discussion with an Iranian colleague, I asked how most Iranians felt about the ongoing Mideast turmoil. She said many Iranians were envious while watching their Arab neighbors securing unanticipated freedom and relief from years of cruelty and oppression. While her countrymen are joyful and supportive of the Arab nations’ successes, she said, Iranians continue to suffer under their theocratic regime’s iron grip.

“Of course we are upset,” she added, “the sense of irony is practically intolerable.”

My colleague also quipped that many Iranians can’t help but joke about the Iranian government’s overt hypocrisy in supporting the Arab revolutions while systematically crushing any such local attempts. Indeed, this bitter irony must be a heavy burden to endure. However, she assured me that the Iranian people are resilient, and their hope for change remains steadfast even in the face of enormous adversity.

Syria first, Iran next

Unlike Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen, where the military played a neutral or even active role in propagating regime downfall, in Iran and Syria the military apparatus has no qualms about executing diabolical orders. The political elite is conspicuously detached from the popular will of its citizenry and display zero hesitation in using force to massacre innocent men, women and children crying for freedom. Nevertheless, these protests have now reached the point of critical mass and are unlikely to dissipate until the desired outcomes are achieved.

The Syrian regime is possibly the most repressive in the Arab world, perhaps even more malicious than Iran. Until now, the Syrian army, comprising mostly Sunni recruits but dominated by the Alawite elite, has been consistent in following Assad’s orders, resorting to murder and violence at every possible opportunity. However, the cracks in Assad’s regime are widening, and will soon become impossible to seal.

Hundreds of Baath Party members and religious clerics recently resigned to protest the carnage in Syrian towns and the number of military defections is rising.

The fall of the Syrian regime would be a catastrophe for Iran, resulting in the loss of one of its most important allies in the region. This is confirmed by the numerous reports of Iranian and Hezbollah agents in Syria attempting to assist Assad in violently suppressing the demonstrations. In response, chants of “Neither Iran, nor Hezbollah” are being heard frequently on Syria’s streets.

Meanwhile, international condemnations are flowing in from all over the globe, and NGOs and human rights groups are screaming foul over the massive civil rights abuses on the streets of Deraa, Homs, Latakia, Aleppo and other municipalities.

Syria acts as Iran’s bridge to the Arab world, and Assad’s downfall could have powerful ramifications not just for Iran’s foreign policy, but for its domestic stability as well. Feelings of discontent and impatience towards the Tehran regime are festering and are liable to explode at any moment.

The Iranians are a cultured, diverse, intelligent and exceptionally proud nation. Some of the population is clearly disillusioned with the current government, perhaps now more than ever. As nearly every major Arab government around them falls to popular revolt, will the Iranian people stand by idly while the extraordinary opportunity to reclaim their freedom from tyranny passes them by?

The Arab spring may soon breathe life into the Green Movement, providing it with the inspiration to recapture the essence of the 2009 protests and finish the transition that began nearly two years ago. As prominent Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari stated, “In all but name, the Islamic Republic is long gone. Khamenei just doesn’t seem to know it yet.”

Avi Yesawich is currently studying to receive his MA in Conflict Resolution and Mediation at Tel Aviv University. He is a graduate of Cornell University, former IDF combat soldier, and contributor to IDF activism website http://www.friendasoldier.com.

For 1st time since 2006: IDF holds logistics drill – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Hanan Greenberg

For the first time since the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the IDF has deployed all the logistic equipment needed for battle on the northern front. Within the framework of an extensive military exercise, it established a stationary logistics center which is supposed to supply troops with all the equipment necessary – from food to ammunition.

The logistics center which was first used in battle during Operation Cast Lead is meant to prevent delays in transportation of equipment to combat regiments. The soldiers will be able to take equipment from the center to the front while the General Staff will be able to keep an eye on the inventory.

The goal is to enable the soldiers to do their duty at the front continuously without their ever lacking in anything,” Lieutenant Colonel Ronen Cohen deputy commander of the Northern Command logistics support unit told Ynet.

During the Second Lebanon War there was harsh criticism of the lack in logistical supplies. Food, ammunition, fuel and medical equipment failed to reach the troops in time if at all. In addition, various IDF units had to go through the different storage facilities throughout the country in order to get the necessary supplies.

Establishing the stationary logistics center in wartime allows the military to gather all the equipment in one place and shortens the transfer time from home front to battlefield.

Critical role

“Over the past few days we have carried out extensive exercises meant to give our reserve forces the tools to establish stationary logistics centers, operate it efficiently and even deal with the possibility that the center itself can come under threat,” Lieutenant Colonel Cohen said.

According to Cohen, in battle the regiment transfers an equipment list to the supervising headquarters and after receiving approval, representatives make their way to the center and take the necessary equipment straight to the troops at the front.

This is also the first time that the logistics center has operated a computerized system which keeps tabs on the inventory and registers information about the amount of equipment taken and those requesting it. Until now, all the information was saved in documents.

“Over the past few months we have developed a unique system that significantly shortens the waiting time for the units at the center,” said Lieutenant Colonel Aner Gottlieb, head of the Technological and Logistics Directorate.

“Logistics has a critical role in warfare and the stationary logistics center is a key stage in emergency situations,” Chief Logistics Officer Brigadier General Mofid Ganem noted.

“We have undergone logistics training programs on the subject, including the deployment of the stationary logistics centers in their final configuration and we all understand the importance of the situation.”

Tanks take up position throughout Syria ahead of protests.

  AMMAN – Security forces have moved into central Syria and coastal areas before Friday prayers in a test of will for demonstrators determined to maintain protests against the rule of President Bashar Assad.

In a show of force, tanks have taken up positions near the urban centers of Homs, Rastan and Banias in the past two days.

The Syrian activists were preparing to take to the streets in what they were calling a “day of defiance,” the BBC reported.

Last week, Assad ordered the army into Deraa, cradle of the uprising that began with demands for greater freedom and an end to corruption and is now pressing for his removal.

An ultra-loyalist division led by his brother Maher shelled and machine-gunned Deraa’s old quarter on Saturday, residents said. Syrian authorities said on Thursday the army had begun to leave Deraa, but residents described a city still under siege.

Troops were also deployed in the Damascus suburbs of Erbin, Saqba, Douma and in the town of Tel, north of the capital.

A senior diplomat said demonstrations after Friday prayers, the only chance Syrians have to gather legally, were expected to increase “incrementally, not massively” in numbers compared with a week ago when tens of thousands took to the streets.

Human rights campaigners say security forces killed at least 62 civilians, including 17 in Rastan alone, during those protests.

A doctor who planned to take part in Friday’s demonstrations said: “Indiscriminate killings and inhumane arrests have generated total disgust among the average Syrian.”

“Soldiers with rifles no longer deter people. The propaganda that this regime is the only guarantor of stability no longer washes,” he said.

The United States, which had joined a European drive to improve ties with Assad under the Obama administration, called the attack on Deraa “barbaric