Re: ***SPAM*** YOUR ATTENTION

Sometimes it‘s worth to have a look at the daily‘s personal spam filter before deleting the wastebag of ,I-am-telling-you-this-stupid-story-to-bamboozle-you‘-mails. The commented example above is an actual case of serious audacity:

Attention,

My name is IDRIS MOSINY. (Anagram?)I am one of the close aides of former president of Egypt Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak. (This information best belongs to the Egyptian Criminal Court.)

Swiss Bank have seized more than 70 billion USD that belong to him (To HIM??).During the 18 days protest (OK, according to the writer the protests took only 18 days, well ..), Which brought his 

government down.I was able to get out from the country (What a pity!!) with 30 million USD,which is divided and deposited in 

different countries. (What countries? Cayman Islands? North Korea?)

The money is deposited as classified (!!!) materials with a security and finance company. (I don‘t like that kind of trial-and-error-questions. What company?)I do not want my name to be 

attached to this fund (.. aha .. comprehensible ..) and do not have any business experience,(So you don‘t mind if I like to gouge you ..) if you are ready to assist me invest this fund. (Invest in what? Hosni‘s plea?)

When replying, send your cell phone (How do you like sending my cell phone to you? Via DHL, UPS or Fedex?) and my agent will give you the detailed information on how to receive this fund. 

Reply and NOTE: this transaction is highly confidential (exactly, therefore it‘s addressed on ,undisclosed-recipients‘) because the government of Egypt will confiscate me if 

they found out.(I‘m damn sure they will!)  Please keep this to yourself alone and contact my agent on the email below. (Surely not.)

Email: XXXXXXXXXX

Yours Sincerely and Best Regards,

IDRIS MOSINY.

Looks like we have it to do with not only one possible crime at all: The typical content of attempted fraud combined with the confession of being a close relative to the one who has betrayed his own people. The top of unscrupulousnesses' rock.

The vigor of pictures vs the power of words

What is hardener to bear? Seeing graphic content in form of videos, hearing it or reading about it? That depends how detailed the reports about crime itself are written or reported. I've made the experience that it was even for me more difficult to listen to my own describing words than to watch a scene on the monitor. Even if I'm reading an extensive article I can switch my eyes in less than a second in another direction. But to have to listen to words you don't wanna hear is a bit more difficult to handle. Instead of turning around you have to close your ears what isn't as easy to handle as to close your eyes. Furthermore you can't tell the announcer that he has to speak in another direction. There's only one solution: he has to remain silent.

Apart from schools and universities lectures are traditionally given in court. The more precise the bill of indictment the harder it becomes for the plea's refutations. But it takes time to collect the pieces of evidence and to translate the seen into the written. Time which can be saved if the people especially in Syria and elsewhere start to record the seen, live or on video, as a detailed description. When on one certain day it comes to a trial against the party responsible all those written down testimonials will support the counsels of the prosecution.

The detailed description is also one of the effective tools against the three witches called apathy, lethargy and ignorance. What we have seen and declared as urgent and relevant should be written down and that - which may sound hard - with as less sentiment as possible. Sorry, better with no sentiment at all. We're still in court. To clarify the effectiveness of the detailed description let me give you an example describing one of the most shocking and disturbing videos of the last weeks:

A group of ten armed, not uniformed men waited on the street corner. Seven soldiers came with one arrested victim. Together they beat and kicked him lying on the ground. More uniformed guards arrived and used their approximated 50 centimeter long truncheons. Another victim was brought and the guards mistreated him in the same way than the first one. After half a minute continued beating and kicking the first victim was to be seen standing, the upper part of his shirt covered full of his blood. He slumped immediately down. Again he was beaten up with the truncheons. A third victim also beaten and kicked was brought together with the first victim to a limousine standing some meters behind the crime scene. The guards opened the rear trunk and stuffed the third victim in. The first victim was pushed aside in the direction of the second victim who was stuffed in the backseat. The first victim dragged himself away and warped on the third victim with intend to protect him. The guards beat him again until he slumped unconscious down. For one moment a blood-trenched truncheon was to be seen held up in the air. The rear trunk was two times heavily slammed before it shut. Some of the soldiers stood around the glazing first victim. The limousine started and the two other victims were brought away. The whole incident was recorded from an upper floor and took about 90 seconds.

It was no piece of cake to write down what I saw in the last half an hour again and again. And I guess it may be more exhausting to some others. But it's important. It's necessary. And it's a powerful document in our hands: reading it loud in front of silencers or the protectors of the system makes you not only raise your voice but fills your words with the content of facts, testimonials, eye-witnesses. They don't want to see it? Then they gonna hear it. As an example therefore I like to quote excerpts from a passionate address a Chilean woman hold directed to policemen:

'Why are you always with the governments? Is that you were born powerful? If you are here it's because you were born as poor as we were. And you are there to earn a meal. Meal that we all pay for! Why don't you think a little? People are angry. They are outraged! And you are sent here to crack down and to provoke so the stones come out. And it shows to the world. And you feel happy in the defense of this traitor governments! They have betrayed us. They promise us and then they deceive us and laugh. (..) Why don't you react? Why don't you think a little? You are being used in the same way they are using us. (..) The powerful are doing whatever they want. They take from us, they abuse us and they steal from us. We have to go out. And we want to go out by peaceful means but you, you are sent here to provoke us. (..) Political parties don't matter here. Colors and flags don't matter. What matters is that we are not conforming. (..) And you, you too, most of you were born as poor as I were and now, thanks to those uniforms that are paid by all of us because those uniforms and that, and this, all this gentlemen comes out of our taxes.'

All the images, recordings and pictures will be intensified by our own words and descriptions. Writing it down is the anew becoming aware of the experienced. A second manifestation of the witnessed event. Another way of fighting against the grievances.

The black book of political PR disasters

The world public witnessed in the first half-year of 2011 a massive increase of political misbehavior. Especially the rulers of the Maghreb, the East Mediterranean countries and the Arabian Peninsula disavowed themselves by their deeds and speeches, their silence or their inactivity:

Tunisia's Ben Ali registered too late the demands of his people. Instead of forcing a dialogue he sent his guards and troops around the country to intimidate the protesters. A classical shot in the foot. The citizens became not only angrier but also stronger after decades of silencing the regime's oppression. His last chance was to enter a plane direction Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile he's condemned in absence and will possibly never return to his homeland.

Hosni Mubarak tried to combat the uprising in Egypt with a lot more dirty tricks. Prisoners were released as pretense to reinstall law and order. But the brave people of Tahrir Square in Cairo don't let themselves dupe, not even from his announcements holding speeches to the nation which were a) delayed b) cancelled c) announced again and d) more than cryptic. Finally the former president appeared to misunderstand himself and decided to take a timeout at the Red Sea.

In Libya 'Colonel' Gaddafi is still playing the role of the unloved child. In case it wouldn't have such a tragical background with tens of thousands dead and injured Gaddafi could be the top nominee for the category 'bewildered comedian'. First he named his own people 'rats' - big mistake, nobody wants to be called like this. Than he spun a dubious conspiracy theory about Al Qaeda working together with the White House to eliminate him. His political and personal reputation vanished as a dust cloud in the desert and most people in and outside Libya want to see him joining the same destiny.

Ali Abdullah Saleh had a dream: to rule over Yemen until his last breath. This dream - which was more a nightmare for the Yemeni population - seems to be over now. One of his main arguments, that he is the only one who can hold the nation together, shattered on the rock-like resistance of hundreds of thousands peaceful protesters in Sanaa, Taiz and other cities. He tried to crush down the democratic movement with arms and tanks, he played cat and mouse with the negotiators and now he's still in Saudi Arabia for recovering his injuries caused by an assault on him and his followers. Nobody knows at that time about his real physical status and his opponents wish he may never come back from his rehab.

More sinister it looks in Syria where the Assad clan reigns as a bizarre combination of an Apartheid regime and the Mafia. President Bashar al-Assad, originally enthroned as sophisticated counterpart of his father, gambled in the last three months all his legitimacy away. While his security guards and soldiers terrorized the civil population he made himself some kind of mystery - three speeches in a quarter are doubtless not adequate for an academic in his position. Speech No.2 reminded the observers more on an inaugural address during a corporate group's symposium. Speech No.3 strengthened the public opinion that he and his regime are living in some kind of parallel universe and that the suffering people still are bearing all the brutal consequences.

It seems always easy to put the finger one someone straight out of a secure position. But a look around Europe's nations and their governments uncovers similar strategic faults - even if they don't have the same lethal consequences:

In Germany it looks like all seems to be about the nuclear question. Citizen rights movements and a growing number of the Green Party's supporters are shifting the political landscape into a far more ecological consciousness.  But that makes not forget the external blunders of the conservative-liberal administration. Examples? When it came to the voting on UN resolution No.1973 the German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle declared abstention on the demanded NATO mission in Libya. All Germany wanted was not to take part in military actions. But the intention of their decision appeared more like a veto - mainly because the abstention was shared with Russia and China - two nations not really famous for their understanding of democracy and human rights. The next lapse happened after the 'failed detention' of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. One of the first sentences of German Chancellor and mother figure Angela Merkel during her public announcement was 'I am glad that the killing of Osama Bin Laden succeeded.' That was too much even for christian conservatives who saw in the Al Qaeda leader the devil's assistant himself.

Belgium holds the official world record in not having a government. Since 262 days the political parties are not able to form a cabinet, all kinds of coalition negotiations failed. Pragmatically viewed someone could suggest: 'Where's no government there's no wrong decision.' But the political prestige loss of the trilingual country menaced through secessionist efforts above all from the Flemish side destabilizes the 180 years old union.

The advance of national right-winged political parties has reached its current climax in Hungary. With an absolute majority President Viktor Orbán's Fidesz has pushed the most rigid cutbacks concerning freedom of press. And the fascist movement of Jobbik - 'the better ones' - who are also represented in the parliament of Budapest could harass minorities like the Roma gipsies without fearing legal consequences.

It's not easy to be a Greek politician nowadays. The handling of the debt crisis is for Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou and his cabinet a walk on a tightrope. On the one hand the implementation of austerity measures seems to be inevitable to obtain further financial aids for Greece but on the other hand the bigger part of the Greek population does not accept that the same responsible persons are getting some billions of Euros who'd squandered it in the last years. That's in one - greek - word a: dilemma.

Last but not least a short look at the continent's boot. Italy's now since ten years - except Romano Prodi's two years term between 2006 and 2008 - in the hands of one of the most outrageous cleptocrats of the newer European history. To sum up all his knowing violations of law this post would enlarge to a dissertation. For everyone who's interested in a more detailed summary of Silvio Berlusconi I like to quote the outstanding writer Roberto Saviano, an expert for Italian politics and the Mafia.

The conclusion of all the listed facts is not to hesitate. Even though it seems that everywhere something goes wrong the people's consciousness is growing from day to day and we have to be aware that democracy means not the end of a long road to freedom. It's a continuing process to handle and it takes a lot of permanent hard work. It's a lifetime occupation.

Syria/Syrien

Documenting the thin line between hope and horror began on May 20th, when I saw the first video on YouTube channel: during an anti-government demonstration a puppet with the face of unloved ruler Bashar al-Assad was hanged up on a pole under the protesters' rejoicing and applause. On the same day another video was released showing young Syrians burning a Russian and an Iranian flag over a waste container. Unusual, because it has overthrown the popular belief of the solid connection between the three related countries. But more disturbing was the massive presence of armed security forces at the end of the street. One week later a regime-critical web newspaper posted an article origin released on Gulf News about a foreign journalist who was 'unwilling guest of the Syrian intelligence', known as the Mukhabarat. Unsparing he described his impressions during the four days interrogations (1). At that time Britain, France, Germany and Portugal sent a draft resolution to the UN Security Council demanding an immediate condemnation of the Syrian regime (2). Human rights organizations estimated that meanwhile up to 1,000 people were killed during the two month crackdown of the peaceful protests. The first online petitions were started, mostly from Syrians living in exile and human rights activists demanding Assad's and other senior officials' prosecution by the International Criminal Court at The Hague. The protests in one of the most rigid dictatorships of the world broadened, it was no longer Daraa in the south where the rallies had started after the imprisonment of some teenagers: in Douma, Izraa, Banyas, Zamalka, Talibseh, Homs, Jableh, Latakia and Hama - where Bashar's father Hafiz al-Assad caused a bloodbath in 1982 when some ten thousands lost their lives (3) - day for day the same pictures were to be seen, mass demonstrations, funerals of martyrs, unimaginable violence of the security forces. Beginning of June international news reports embedded the video documents in their coverage (4), open letters to President Bashar al-Assad were published accusing him to be responsible for all the dead, tortured and disappeared and demanding his resignation (5,6). The only reaction from the Damascus based regime was a reportedly paid storming of the demilitarized zone along the Golan Heights border as a diversionary tactic (7). Meanwhile the anti-government activists began to use the new media tools as non-violent weapons against the regime, inspired by the successful upheavals in Tunisia and Egypt (8). Bashar's brother Maher al-Assad is shown on a video taking pictures of bodies torn to pieces with not even the slightest touch of compassion in his face (9). On June 11 Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moualem warned UN chief Ban Ki-moon against the consequences of taking action for a resolution draft while first machine gun firings of helicopter gunships used on protest marches were reported (10). The Syrian regime was fastening the downward spiral of its' international reputation. The former ophtalmologist became among his own people the degrading title 'Bashar the Butcher' and the moving masses in the streets continued chanting 'al-shaab yurid isqat al-nizam' (people demand the removal of the regime), 'silmiye, silmiye' (peaceful, peaceful) and 'wahed, wahed, wahed, al-shaab is-souri wahed' (one, one, one, the Syrian people are one). The only answer of the regime was the continuing violence and brutality against every dissident: the next released videos showed arrested kicked in head and stomach, old people tortured and teenage boys shot to death. But not everyone of the Syrian security forces and military guards followed blind the given orders. Soldiers, even from the higher commanding levels, began to defect. A perilous decision, they knew they would be treated as traitors, hunted and killed (11). Possibly such a mass defection led to a gunfight in between an army brigade in the north of Syria nearby Jisr al-Shougur. State officials claimed thereupon that the Syrian army was attacked by 'terrorist gangs' and that 120 soldiers have lost their lives. A reason for them to start a massive military offensive near the Turkish border with the result of 10,000 fled civilians who stand until today in refugee camps where they‘re provided by volunteers and the Red Crescent. Climax of the Syrian regime's cynical rhetoric was the statement that they aren't refugees, they're only visiting their dependents in Turkey (12). The protest wave swashed now over the two big Syrian cities, Aleppo and Damascus. Assad's last speech dated meanwhile nearly two months back. Rumors became louder that he was running more and more out of power (13). The 'scorched earth policy' of the armed forces in the province of Idlib was continuing and the refugees in Turkey's Hatay province were reporting of senseless cruelty against everyone and everything (14,15). All at once last monday tweets were making the round Bashar al-Assad is announced to make a speech, his third since the outbreak of the uprising mid-march. In fact he presented himself at 11:00 MESZ to the public - not from the parliament but from Damascus university. Difficult to say but I had the impression the Syrian president had lost a bit of his presumptuous self-confidence. Nevertheless he used words like 'saboteurs' and 'germs' what enlarged the distance to his own people (16,17). The reactions on his address varied, but the general chorus remained sceptic (18,19,20,21). The government's officials tried since then everything to refurbish their more than damaged image: They organized pro-Assad rallies - it came out that they urged clerks to participate. They presented a 2,300 meter long Syrian banner - the regime critics countered with a longer one. Still videos are to be seen where security guards opened the fire on civilians or mistreated thirsty captives by only giving them a mouthful of water when they would praise the 'great president'. The future is uncertain but the internet forgets nothing as the Syrian people also won't. And the resistance is growing, no matter how dangerous it can be (22). The Syrians know their inner enemies and their different tactics: Maher al-Assad, the leader of the republican guards, known for his ruthlessness (23), Rami Makhlouf, cousin of the president and pseudo-benefactor (24) or Walid al-Moualem, foreign minister with a liability to conspiracy theories (25).

Ich begann, dem schmalen Grat zwischen Hoffnung und Alptraum zu folgen, als ich am 20.Mai ein YouTube-Video zu sehen bekommen hatte.Während einer Demonstration gegen das Regime wurde eine lebensgrosse Puppe mit dem Antlitz des ungeliebten Herrschers Bashar al-Assad unter grossem Beifall und Applaus an einem Mast aufgehängt. Noch am selben Tag kursierte ein zweites Video, das syrische Regimegegner beim Verbrennen einer russischen und einer iranischen Flagge über einem Müllcontainer zeigte. Ungewöhnlich, da es den allgemeinen Glauben an die brüderlichen Bande zu den beiden Nationen über den Haufen warf. Doch noch weitaus verstörender war die massive Präsenz bewaffneter Sicherheitskräfte am Ende der Strasse. Eine Woche später veröffentlichte eine regimekritische Internetzeitung den ursprünglich in den Gulf News erschienenen Artikel eines ausländischen Journalisten, der unfreiwilliger Gast des syrischen Geheimdienstes, bekannt als Mukhabarat, wurde. Schonungslos beschrieb er seine traumatisierenden Eindrücke während der viertägigen Verhöre (1). Inzwischen legten Grossbritannien, Frankreich, Deutschland und Portugal den Vereinten Nationen einen Resolutionsentwurf vor, der die sofortige und harsche Verurteilung der syrischen Regierung beinhaltete (2). Menschenrechtsorganisationen gingen indessen davon aus, dass während der seit zwei Monaten anhaltenden Niederschlagung der friedlichen Proteste bis zu 1.000 Zivilisten getötet wurden. Erste Online-Petitionen wurden von syrischen Exilanten und Menschenrechtsaktivisten ins Leben gerufen, die neben der Verurteilung der Gewalt eine Anklage Assads und weiterer hochrangiger Politiker vor dem Internationalen Strafgerichtshof in Den Haag forderten. Der Widerstand in einer der gnadenlosesten Diktaturen der Welt breitete sich rasch aus, schon längst war nicht mehr allein die Provinz Daraa im Süden des Landes, Ausgangspunkt der Proteste nach der willkürlichen Inhaftierung von Halbwüchsigen, betroffen: in Douma, Izraa, Banyas, Zamalka, Talibseh, Homs, Jableh, Latakia und Hama - der Stadt, in der Bashars Vater Hafiz al-Assad im Jahr 1982 mehrere zehntausend Menschen willkürlich ermorden liess (3) - waren fortan täglich dieselben Bilder zu sehen; Massendemonstrationen, Trauerzüge für die Getöteten, unbeschreibliche Gewalt der Sicherheitskräfte. Anfang Juni begannen internationale Nachrichtenagenturen damit, die Videos in ihre Reportagen einzubauen (4) und Statements wurden an Präsident Bashar al-Assad gerichtet veröffentlicht, die ihn für alle ermordeten, gefolterten und verschleppten Bürger des Landes verantwortlich machten und seinen unverzüglichen Rücktritt forderten (5,6). Die einzige Reaktion des in Damaskus beheimateten Regimes war eine finanzierte Erstürmung des entmilitarisierten Grenzbereichs zu Israel auf den Golanhöhen als Ablenkungsmanöver (7). Die Taktik ging jedoch nicht auf, der friedliche Widerstand organisierte sich mithilfe der neuen medialen Werkzeuge als gewaltlose Waffe im Kampf gegen das Regime, inspiriert von den erfolgreichen Aufständen in Tunesien und Ägypten (8). Bashars Bruder Maher al-Assad ist auf einer Aufnahme zu sehen, die dokumentiert, wie er Bilder von zerfetzten Körpern mit seinem Handy aufnimmt ohne die kleinste Regung in seinem Gesicht (9). Am 11.Juni warnte der syrische Aussenminister Walid al-Moualem den UN-Vorsitzenden Ban Ki-moon vor möglichen Konsequenzen einer gegen sein Land gerichteten Resolution, während erste Bilder und Berichte über den Einsatz von mit Maschinengewehrschützen bestückten Kampfhubschraubern gegen die Demonstrationsmärsche an die Weltöffentlichkeit drangen (10). Das syrische Regime beschleunigte von selbst die Abwärtsspirale seiner internationalen Reputation. Der ausgebildete Augenarzt bekam von seinem eigenen Volk den erniedrigenden Titel 'Bashar der Schlächter' verpasst und die Protestbewegung skandierten unentwegt 'al-shaab yurid isqat al-nizam' (das Volk verlangt die Beseitigung des Regimes), 'silmiye, silmiye' (friedlich, friedlich) und 'wahed, wahed, wahed, al-shaab is-souri wahed' (eins, eins, eins, das syrische Volk ist eins). Die einzige Antwort des Regimes war die Fortsetzung der mörderischen Gewalt gegen jeden Andersdenkenden. Filmaufnahmen wurden in den sozialen Netzwerken hochgeladen, auf denen zu sehen ist, wie Gefangene in Kopf und Bauch getreten, wie weinende alte Männer in quälender Langsamkeit misshandelt und wie Pubertierend erschossen werden. Doch nicht jedes Mitglied der syrischen Sicherheitskräfte folgte blindlings den Befehlen. Soldaten selbst höheren Ranges begannen zu desertieren. Eine gefährliche Entscheidung, sie wussten, dass sie als Verräter gejagt und getötet würden (11). Möglicherweise führte eine derartige Massendesertation zu einer Kampfhandlung innerhalb der Armeeeinheit, die zu diesem Zeitpunkt im Norden Syriens stationiert war. Das Regime behauptete auf einmal, dass die Armee ihrerseits von 'terroristischen Gruppierungen' angegriffen worden sei und dass dabei 120 regierungstreue Soldaten ihr Leben verloren hätten. Anlass für den Beginn einer massiven Militäroffensive in Jisr al-Shogur nahe der türkische Grenze, die eine Flüchtlingswelle zur Folge hatte: Nahezu 10.000 Menschen sind nach wie vor in Camps untergebracht und werden von Freiwilligen und dem Roten Halbmond versorgt. Höhepunkt der zynischen Rhetorik des Regimes war die Äusserung, dass es sich hierbei nicht um Flüchtlinge handelte, sondern dass die Bewohner der Region Idlib ihre Verwandten in der Türkei besuchen würden (12). Die Protestwelle schwappte nun auch immer mehr in die beiden grössten Städte des Landes, Aleppo und Damaskus. Assads letzte Ansprache lag mittlerweile gute zwei Monate zurück. Gerüchte um seine schwindende Autorität machten die Runde (13). Die 'Politik der verbrannten Erde' wurde unverändert von den Militäreinheiten fortgesetzt, die Flüchtlinge in der türkischen Provinz Hatay berichteten unterdessen von der sinnlosen Gewalt gegen alles und jeden (14,15). Am vergangenen Montag morgen machten auf einmal Tweets die Runde, dass Bashar al-Assad eine unmittelbare Rede angekündigt hatte, es wäre die dritte seit Beginn der Unruhen Mitte März. Tatsächlich präsentierte er sich um 11:00 MESZ der Öffentlichkeit - diesmal jedoch nicht aus dem Parlament, sondern aus der Universität von Damaskus. Schwer festzustellen, doch ich hatte den Eindruck, dass der syrische Präsident etwas von seinem überheblichen Selbstbewusstsein eingebüsst hatte. Nichtsdestotrotz verwendete er in seiner Ansprache Ausdrücke wie 'Saboteure' und 'Bazillen', was den Abstand zu seiner eigenen Bevölkerung vergrösserte (16,17). Die Reaktionen auf seinen Auftritt fielen unterschiedlich aus, doch der allgemeine Ton blieb skeptisch (18,19,20,21). Die staatlichen Stellen versuchten seitdem alles, um die Unterstützung des Regimes als tonangebend darzustellen: sie organisierten Pro-Assad-Demonstrationen - wie sich herausstellte, hatten sie Staatsbeamte gezwungen, für sie auf die Strasse zu gehen. Sie liessen eine 2.300 Meter lange syrische Fahne über den Köpfen der 'Anhänger' schweben - die Oppositionsbewegung präsentierte daraufhin eine noch grössere. Immer wieder sind auf den im Netz kursierenden Videos Soldaten zu sehen, die gezielt auf Zivilisten schiessen oder die durstige Gefangene quälen, indem sie ihnen erst einen Schluck Wasser verabreichen, wenn sie laut vernehmbar den Präsidenten hochleben lassen. Noch ist die künftige Entwicklung nicht abzusehen, doch das Internet vergisst nichts, genauso wenig wie das syrische Volk. Und der Widerstand wächst, egal wie gefährlich es werden kann (22). Die Syrer wissen um ihre Gegner und ihre jeweiligen Taktiken Bescheid: Maher al-Assad, Befehlshaber der republikanischen Garden, berüchtigt für seine Unbarmherzigkeit (23), Rami Makhlouf, Cousin des Präsidenten und Pseudowohltäter (24) oder Walid al-Moualem, Aussenminister mit einem ausgeprägten Sinn für Verschwörungstheorien (25).

(1)  Inside Syria (http://www.syrianemerencytaskforce.org) 'Inside Syria's security apparatus (Gulf News) posted on May 28, 2011 by SyrianETF National

(2)  TMCnet world news (http://topnews360.tmcnet.com) 'Europeans seek UN condemnation of Syria' (by Associated Press) released May 29, 2011

(3)  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hama_massacre)

(4)  CNN (http://edition.cnn.com) 'Report: Syrian abuses could be 'crimes against humanity' (by the CNN wire staff) released June 2, 2011

(5)  Inside Syria (http://www.syrianemerencytaskforce.org) 'An Open Letter to Bashar al- Assad' posted on June 2, 2011 by SyrianETF National

(6)  Freedom House (http://freedomhouse.org) Press release 'Freedom House Condemns Latest Attacks on Protesters, Shutdown of Internet in Syria' dd. June 3, 2011

(7)  National Review Online (http://nationalreview.com) 'The Desperate Moves of Assad's Dying Regime' by Benjamin Weinthal released June 6, 2011

(8)  (http://behindthewallsyria.crowdmap.com), (http://www.lccsyria.org/373)

(9)  (http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-579702) !GRAPHIC!

(10) Al Arabiya News (http://english.alarabiya.net) 'Syria warns European UN draft would aid 'extremists and terrorists' (by Sara Ghasemilee) released June 11, 2011

(11) Aljazeera (http://english.aljazeera.net) 'Syrian army 'cracking' amid crackdown' (by Hugh Macleod and Annasofie Flamand) released June 11, 2011

(12) The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk) 'They shot people who were trying to get away' (by Kim Sengupta and Justin Vela) released June 14, 2011

(13) Reuters (http://www.reuters.com) 'Analysis: Syria's Assad loses his grip to hardliners' (by Samia Nakhoul) released June 16, 2011

(14) Haaretz (http://www.haaretz.com) 'Just want to be home' (by Anshel Pfeffer) released June 17, 2011

(15) NPR (http://www.npr.org) 'Syrian Refugee Gives Vivid Description of Torture' (by Peter Kenyon) released June 20, 2011

(16) Aljazeera (http://english.aljazeera.net) 'Assad gives mixed signals in his speech' (source: Aljazeera and agencies) released June 20, 2011

(17) BBC News (http://bbc.co.uk) 'Syria: Damascus reaction to Assad speech' (by Lina Sinjab) released June 20, 2011

(18) The Arabist (http://www.arabist.net) 'What strikes me most about Assad's third speech' (by Issandr El Amrani) released June 20, 2011

(19) The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com) 'Is Syria's Assad Cracking?' (by Max Fisher) released June 20, 2011

(20) The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk) 'Robert Fisk: 'No wonder they were rioting in Damascus. This was insulting both to the living and to the dead.' released June 21, 2011

(21) Spiegel online (http://www.spiegel.de) 'Assad's Speech Won't Be Enough to Save His Regime' (by David Knight) released June 21, 2011

(22) BBC newsnight (http://news.bbc.co.uk) 'In hiding with Syrian protesters on the road in Damascus' (by Sue Lloyd-Roberts) released June 21, 2011)

(23) Deutsche Welle (http://dw-world.de) 'Syrian president's brother lead the regime's fight for survival' (author: Nick Amies editor: Rob Mudge) released June 21, 2011

(24) Huffpost (http://www.huffingtonpost.com) 'Tik Root: Where Is Rami Makhlouf's Money Really Going?' released June 21, 2011

(25) Al Arabiya News (http://english.alarabiya.net) 'Syria's Moualem single-handedly wipes Europe 'off the map,' and also blames Al Qaeda for domestic violence' (by Dina Al Shibeeb) released June 22, 2011