A New Phase in the Syrian Civil War

I'm going to utilize the term civil war in regards to the situation in Syria. Rebel forces are holding territory in the country despite an onslaught from Bashar al Assad's loyal militias and military forces. The rebels are not only fighting, but gaining territory despite the horrible atrocities inflicted by the regime against those that dare oppose them.

The new from the besieged city of Haffa is grim - the stench of death is everywhere, but there's no way to know the number of casualties as fighting was still ongoing and bodies were apparently policed:

The UN Supervisory Mission in Syria said observers in the town reported finding it all but deserted with a strong stench of dead bodies and almost all government institutions gutted from the inside.

Sky's foreign affairs editor Tim Marshall, who is in Syria, said the observers had also found many cars burned, including police cars.

The observers were escorted into the town by government forces.

The news comes a day after Syrian authorities said the area had been "cleansed" of rebel fighters.

On Wednesday, rebels were said to have withdrawn from the besieged town and nearby villages that had been under intense regime shelling for eight days.

The UN statement said: "A strong stench of dead bodies was in the air and there appeared to be pockets in the town were fighting is still ongoing."
It added: "Most government institutions, including the post office, were set on fire from inside.

"Archives were burnt, stores were looted and set on fire, residential homes appeared rummaged and the doors were open."

It said the number of casualties was still unclear.

The war appears heading into a new phase as France is contemplating providing communications equipment to the rebel forces. That's a significant step and shouldn't be discounted considering just how Assad's regime has fought the insurrection by limiting communications between opposition groups.

New communications equipment would allow the rebels greater coordination in defying the Assad regime, as well as getting their messages out to the rest of the world.

At the same time, Russia is sending a small contingent of combat troops to guard its port facilities in Tartus, Syria. That further complicates the diplomatic efforts and puts Russian troops on the ground in Syria at a time when the West is looking to find ways to oust Assad. US officials also clarified that the Russians were sending replacement parts for Russian-made helicopters, not sending new helicopters, though the outcome is still that Assad can use those helicopters and the replacement parts as part of his ongoing war against the rebel forces.

Having the Russian troops on the ground reduces the chances of an operation to oust Assad and greatly increases the risks for any kind of military operation. It's the most concrete example to date of Russian support for Assad, despite countless examples of crimes against humanity and war crimes. Those crimes include using sexual assaults and rape to further the regime's goals.

The EU has banned luxury goods from being shipped to Syria, but it will be some time before the effects of that ban take its toll on the regime.

The conflict in Syria has repercussions for Israel as well. There, the concern is what happens to Syria's WMD program, particularly chemical weapons that the Syrians are known to possess.

srael’s concern focuses on two stark possibilities.

The first is that the weapons will fall into rogue hands – either al-Qaida or Hezbollah, which is believed to already be working to move some of the advanced military systems it has been storing in Syria to Lebanon out of fear that they will be captured by rebel forces. The takeover earlier this week of an air defense base in Syria by rebels underscores that fear.

The second option – considered more unlikely – is that Assad will use the weapons against Israel if he starts to think that his end is near. This way, he will try to divert attention away from the massacres his military forces have been perpetrating throughout Syria and instead have his people rally behind him in a war against Israel.

Syria’s chemical weapons program began in the mid 1970s. According to Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yehoshua Saguy, who served as head of Military Intelligence from 1979 to 1983, Egypt assisted the Syrians in starting the program.

“It was after the Yom Kippur War which they ultimately lost, and there were rumors about Israel’s purported nuclear capability,” Saguy recalled this week. “It was a totalitarian regime so they just diverted funds, purchased some basic capabilities from Egypt and later, with the help of experts from the former Soviet Union, began to build their own independent infrastructure.”

It took only a few years for the program to take off, and in 1982 the world witnessed what a dictator with chemical weapons was capable of doing. Hafez Assad ordered his military to quell Muslim Brotherhood protests in Hama. In addition to heavy shelling, the forces also used poisonous gas to kill the protesters.

Those concerns were amplified following reports that a Syrian military base was overrun by rebel forces. Israeli officials also believe that Hizbullah may be trying to get their advanced weapons out of Syria and into Lebanon before everything completely goes crazy in Syria.

Skyscrapers Are Back In The NYC Skyline

Following the devastating 9/11 attacks and the destruction of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center, there was a sentiment expressed that the attacks meant the end of the skyscraper, particularly here in the United States and New York City in particular.

While supertall buildings have gone up in the Middle East and South Asia, there's no lack of skyscraper construction in New York City. There's two dozen new buildings that are underway, including the four skyscrapers at the World Trade Center (1, 2, 3, and 4WTC).

Among the new buildings are several luxury rental/condominum projects, combination hotel/residences, and office towers. Most are focused in Manhattan, but a few are in Brooklyn.

That doesn't include those towers that were built and occupied since 9/11, including 7WTC, the Goldman Sachs building, the Frank Gehry's 8 Spruce, and several towers in and around Times Square including the New York Times headquarters.

It's a pretty heady times for skyscraper construction, and while some are arguing that there's a lack of style among the latest American skyscrapers, I think that the new towers are following the mantra - form follows function while working within the confines of a New York City aesthetic.

That isn't to say that a few of the new buildings aren't working to blow away that aesthetic, including the Pyramid proposed for the far West Side (Hells Kitchen).

Get Thee To A Screening

Recent news reports have called for changes in how frequently people should go for cancer screenings and that's raised all kinds of debate over what's truly appropriate and how the screenings affect health care costs, effectiveness, and life-expectancy.

Having a healthy debate over the issues is all well and good, but early detection is a major factor in getting good outcomes in any number of forms of cancer. That means regular screenings. You should absolutely talk with your doctors about screenings and how frequently you should go by looking at your family history, risk factors, and environmental factors.

Without a doubt, that means if you're a woman, that means going for regular mammograms.
For men, it means prostate and testicular cancer screenings (a federal panel of doctors found that regular screening for prostate cancer may not be worth the risks). It also means that if you find your body changing - are more fatigued or notice other physical changes that aren't easily explained to go see a doctor.

For everyone, that means regularly checking for skin cancer (which is the most common cancer there is with more than 2 million cases diagnosed annually but which has very high cure/remission rate). Skin cancer cases exceed the number of pretty much every other form of cancer combined.

Skin cancer screening is fairly simple - if you see something on your skin that doesn't look right (a mole that changes color, size, bleeds, etc.) you should go get it checked out.

It's a pain in the ass to go for regular screenings, but you know what's a bigger pain in the ass - waiting too long and finding out that you not only have a cancer, but that the docs have limited or no options. Early diagnoses can vastly increase chances of remission. The treatments might suck - and those are much improved from just a few years ago - but they're better than being dead (and leaving friends and families without their loved one).

Assad Continues Crackdown While World Watches

Bashar al Assad continues to put his own spin on his father's Hama rules guide to dealing with insurrection. Assad continues murdering those opposed to his regime at a frightening pace, but it's a slow bleed. A dozen here, a dozen there every few days, with larger massacres interspersed. That compares with his father, who killed tens of thousands in a brutal burst when eliminating the Muslim Brotherhood's presence in the city of Hama.

Hama, both the city and province, continue to be a thorn in Assad the younger's side, as it remains a center of opposition to Assad's regime.

While the world can do little but issue sternly worded letters and UN observers can't intercede and their own safety is put at risk by both sides to the conflict, the US has started to increase its rhetoric against Assad's patron in Russia. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that Syria was receiving helicopters from Russia, but what wasn't stated is that those helicopters were getting maintenance and refurbishment - they weren't exactly new to Syria's fleet.

What Mrs. Clinton did not say, however, was whether the aircraft were new shipments or, as administration officials say is more likely, helicopters that Syria had sent to Russia a few months ago for routine repairs and refurbishing, and which were now about to be returned.

“She put a little spin on it to put the Russians in a difficult position,” said one senior Defense Department official.

Mrs. Clinton’s claim about the helicopters, administration officials said, is part of a calculated effort to raise the pressure on Russia to abandon President Bashar al-Assad, its main ally in the Middle East. Russia has so far stuck by Mr. Assad’s government, worried that if he were ousted, Moscow would lose its influence in the region.

In response to Mrs. Clinton’s allegations, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, accused the United States of hypocrisy on Wednesday, saying it had supplied weapons that could be used against demonstrators in other countries in the region. Mr. Lavrov, during a visit to Iran, repeated Russia’s claim that it is not supplying Damascus with any weapons that could be used in a civil war.

It's still a bad situation and the optics don't look good for Russia considering that Assad has been using those helicopters in going after the rebel forces.

Lavrov's criticism is accurate; the US has provided weapons to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and Egypt over the years and they were utilized in the crackdowns and suppression of dissent during the course of the Arab Spring.

Yet, the level of violence perpetrated by Assad is on a different scale, and the US wasn't providing those weapons shipments in the middle of what even the UN concedes is a civil war. Amnesty International has reported once again that Assad's forces are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The London-based rights group called for an international response after claiming it had fresh evidence that victims, including children, had been dragged from their homes and shot dead by soldiers, who in some cases then set the remains on fire.

“This disturbing new evidence of an organised pattern of grave abuses highlights the pressing need for decisive international action,” said Amnesty’s Donatella Rovera on the release of the 70-page report entitled Deadly Reprisals.

The advocacy group interviewed people in 23 towns and villages across Syria and concluded that government forces and militias were guilty of “grave human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes.”

UN observers finally reached one of the towns under fire, Haffeh, only to find it battered and deserted.

The diplomatic situation is further complicated by the fact that China is also thwarting actions at the UN alongside Russia.

It's a disturbing pattern of behavior by Assad's backers/patrons, all while the Syrians continue to suffer at the hands of his regime.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 164

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be visiting the World Trade Center site this afternoon to view progress at the site as part of a trip to New York City that includes two fundraisers for the 2012 campaign.

The trip will disrupt the commutes of tens of thousands of people who use the PATH station at the WTC (myself included), but the President needs to do more than just view the progress all while meeting with steel workers and the governors of New York and New Jersey along with Port Authority officials and Mayor Mike Bloomberg. He needs to get the Port Authority to quit its inane demands on the WTC Memorial Foundation and push ahead with completing its work on the museum and PATH Transit Hub, both of which are years behind schedule. The Museum opening keeps getting pushed back with each passing day and the earliest it may open is towards the 3rd quarter of 2013. It was supposed to be open this September.

Ferreting out who wants what has been harder than cracking the National Security Agency. Eventually, we sifted the misinformation to discover that the PA, which controls the Ground Zero site and is building the museum for the foundation, is behaving very, very badly.

Samson and Foye must, first, get through their heads that they are cutting a deal with a nonprofit foundation set up to construct proper 9/11 remembrances and not with, say, the developer of a retail mall.

Banished from the talks must be thought of asking the foundation for a percentage of revenues from museum admissions or gift shop sales. The concept is so preposterous as to defy belief that anyone could have raised it seriously — instead of as a throwaway bargaining tactic. Get rid of it.

Also to be dropped is any idea that the Port Authority will muscle out the foundation to take greater command of the memorial and museum. The PA must keep hands off.

It is a political agency that has no business presiding over sensitive issues such as how aspects of the 9/11 story will be told. Just as bad, the authority would succumb to the temptation to open the property to speechifying by elected officials.

The Port Authority, which operates at the behest of Governors Chris Christie (R-NJ) and Andrew Cuomo (D-NY), has been fighting with the memorial foundation, which is headed by Mayor Mike Bloomberg, over costs and the work has groaned to a standstill for months.

While 1WTC (Freedom Tower) and 4WTC continue rising skywards, and the Fiterman Hall project nears completion, the Port Authority's work on the transit hub, vehicle security center, and the museum are crawling along as costs pile up.

North Dakota Voters Kill Property Tax Repeal; Religious Measures

North Dakota voters decided against repealing the state's property tax, much to the relief of the state's politicians, unions, chambers of commerce, and school districts upon which the property tax is the primary or significant source of funding. The measure lost badly, with most taxpayers realizing that the funding is critical to education.

If approved, it would have been the first time a state repealed a major tax since Alaska abolished the personal income tax in 1980.

At the same time, the state's voters rejected Measure 3, which would have caused all kinds of legal problems and would have likely raised 1st Amendment issues over restricting government actions on religious grounds.

The language of Measure 3 stated that a person has the right to act or to refuse to act in a manner due to a deeply-held religious belief. It would then be up to the government to prove that it has a compelling government interest in infringing on one’s right to act or not act. The measure’s proponents said that it was needed in order to strengthen people’s religious liberty.

North Dakotans Against Measure Three, the main group opposed to Measure 3, had argued that the wording of Measure 3 was vague. One example of vague language noted by opponents was that the government must prove it has a “compelling government interest” in infringing on a person’s religious actions. Another example was over government having to use the “least restrictive means” to further its interest.

Opponents said Measure 3 could’ve opened the door for people to use religious beliefs as a defense in breaking laws protecting against abuse, domestic violence and discrimination. Measure 3 proponents consistently denied this claim, saying that other states with similar laws in place haven’t had such issues.

Christopher Dodson with the North Dakota Catholic Conference said he was disappointed by Measure 3’s rejection by voters. Dodson said in a statement that efforts will continue to strengthen religious protections for North Dakotans.

“We will not rest until religious freedom in North Dakota is protected in the law as a fundamental human right,” Dodson said.

If Measure 3 had passed, North Dakota would’ve joined 12 states that already have passed religious liberty laws: Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Alabama is the lone state to have added a law to its state constitution.

Two other measures were considered yesterday in North Dakota. The voters approved a measure to override the Legislature's decision to keep the University of North Dakota's mascot - dropping the Fighting Sioux nickname. Measure 1 was also approved, and allows legislators to be appointed to full-time appointive state offices.

Charles Barron Has No Business Being In Congress

Firebrand New York City Councilmember Charles Barron is running for Congress in the newly created NY8 district that includes parts of Southern Brooklyn. He's running against Hakeem Jeffries, and it's turning into a nailbiter of a primary race.

That's despite the fact that Barron has no business being in office. He's a racist and anti-Jewish at that. His new district has a significant Jewish population and I'm sure they'd be thrilled to know that Barron doesn't think highly of them at all.

The primary race is causing great consternation among local Democrats. More than a few aren't exactly thrilled about Barron's chances. In fact, a ton of money is being thrown at his opponent, Hakeem Jeffries. Jeffries has support of local politicians including Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Ed Koch, Dov Hikind, and local papers have come out in opposition, including the Daily News. DC-37, former Congressman Ed Towns and the Amsterdam News have thrown their support to Barron.

The UFT is refusing to back either Jeffries or Barron.

Jeffries is getting backing from several law firms, firms representing charter schools (one of the reasons that DC 37 is backing Barron and UFT is sitting on the sidelines).

Considering that many of the residents in the new NY 8 are Jewish, Barron's potential primary win is a huge affront considering his anti-Jewish views (to say nothing of his other inanities that he regularly spews from the steps of City Hall as a Councilmember).

Barron has no business being in Congress for other reasons too. He's got a truly distorted worldview in which he praises the likes of Mumar Khadafi and Robert Mugabe and slams Israel. Jeffries capitalized on that in a recent debate.

Nonvoting "Obama Girl" Declines To Support Obama

Media outlets have decided to catch up with Amber Lee Ettinger, who seems more about self-promotion than anything else. They've reported that Ettinger (aka Obama Girl for the video she put out back in 2008) has declined to support Obama in 2012.

In an interview with the Daily Caller, Ettinger said she was “not as excited as I was the last time, that’s for sure.” That's not incredibly surprising considering her 2007 YouTube hit, "Crush on Obama," was a breathless video worship of the then-candidate that has been viewed over 100 million times. But Ettinger also declined to give any support to the president.

“At this point I’m keeping that to myself,” she told the Daily Caller. “If I’m not making videos, I’m not sure it’s anyone’s business who I’m voting for this time around.”

Ettinger has spoken about her tepid feelings toward the president before. Earlier this year, she expressed concern that her label as "Obama Girl" was holding back her career. She also gave Obama some credit, but said that he hadn't necessarily done enough to win her vote yet.

Why does this woman's opinion even matter.

YouTube hits aren't a measure of importance. After all, LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem has hundreds of millions of hits (and the noxious Justin Beiber is closing in on a billion hits).

It's not like she bothered to vote for him back in 2008. She didn't vote in the primary election in 2008. At the time, she was living in New York, and she didn't vote there because she wasn't registered in the state. However, as a New Jersey resident, she could have voted in that primary but didn't. She was too busy with self-promotion to bother with the goal of voting and truly showing her support.

This news item is interesting in that someone who isn't particularly engaged in politics isn't going to vote for the President. Conservatives will make hay claiming that this former hard-core supporter no longer is supporting the president, but that's not entirely accurate.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 163

The problems with completing the WTC Museum continue. The earliest that the museum will be open is mid 2013, and that's growing increasingly unlikely considering that the money issues between the Memorial Foundation and the Port Authority remain unresolved. Hundreds of millions of dollars are at issue, and each side blames the other for delays and costs that should inure to the other.

Meanwhile, a group of 9/11 families has again raised the suggestion that the National Park Service should take over the memorial and museum. I can't think of a better suggestion, though it would have to address shifting the fundraising proceeds to the Park Service.

The Parks Service already runs a number of memorials, including the one in Shanksville, Penn., where hijacked Flight 93 crashed. The group, 9/11 Parents and Families of Firefighters and WTC Victims, has been harshly critical of the private non profit which runs the memorial now.

The group points out that instead of collecting $300 million owed by the memorial/museum, the Port Authority agreed to take just $50 million over a number of years. "What happened to the remaining $250 million? Why are taxpayers being expected to pick up the tab for the cost overruns by a private foundation," the group asks.

The group is also critical of bills in Congress that would contribute $20 million annually to the museum "with no strings attached."

The NPS has been down this road before. They know how to manage national parks and protect the assets they've been given on a limited budget.

There has been serious mismanagement with the memorial and museum, and the Port Authority has seen costs skyrocket with every phase of construction, including for its portion of the memorial and museum (as well as the PATH transit hub, the costs of which have more than doubled and delays have pushed completion well beyond what was originally anticipated).

The Port Authority is responsible for much of the delays and cost overruns, but the memorial foundation isn't blameless either. They have done a miserable job of containing costs and the administrative costs aren't in line with the job they're doing and the functions involved.

Putting the memorial and museum in the hands of the National Park Service would eliminate much of the costs and overhead, and qualified people at the National Park Service would make sure that the site is treated with the respect and solemnity it deserves. The money raised by the foundation would be able to serve as an endowment for preservation, maintenance, and operations, and instead of charging access fees to the museum, it could impose a fee on tour operators for bus access to the site - paying for mitigation and bus security as well as funding the museum's operating budget. That makes far more sense than imposing access/entry fees to cover the cost of going and learning about the 9/11 attacks, what precipitated the attacks, and the aftermath. The museum is a learning center - and that access should be unfettered by entrance fees.

UPDATE:
President Obama will be in Lower Manhattan on Thursday to attend a pre-topping out event at 1WTC. 4WTC will be topping out in July, but without the same kind of fanfare. I'm not quite in agreement with the author of this piece that 4WTC blends into the skyline more than 1WTC; both use reflective glass as part of the design, but 1WTC is unmistakable from afar because of its size and heft. 4WTC doesn't reach the same heights, and its orientation for the upper floors means that it has a reduced presence. However, both are imposing structures from street level (and from my window at the office). (HT: Curbed)

Photo of the Day

 

Montour Falls, located in Montour Falls, New York.

Taken with a Canon 60D with Tamron 28-300 XR Di VR lens.