Announcement Forthcoming From Syria's Bashar al- Assad As Crackdown Continues

Bashar Assad's thugs are busy cracking down against opposition protests who have taken to the streets in various cities around Syria, and they're using the methods honed by Assad's father. But Hafez Assad didn't have to rely on outside assistance to engage in the crackdown.

Bashar has apparently obtained the support of Hizbullah and Iran in cracking down. There are reports that the thugs cracking skulls in the protests are speaking Farsi, which is an indication that Iran is wielding expanded power in Syria and assisting in propping up the Assad regime. Bashar's father had no such issues - he was able to use the army to crush opposition in Hama (giving rise to the Hama Rules for dealing with opposition).

That isn't to say that the Syrians aren't deploying the army to deal with the protests; they are. It would appear that Assad considers this a most serious threat and isn't beyond getting help from Iran and Hizbullah to quell the protests.

At the same time, the Assad regime is preparing to make some kind of a statement in the next 48 hours, but I doubt it would be the kind of announcement that opposition groups are hoping for. It would likely be an ultimatum for them to cease and desist all while giving lip service to any kind of political or social liberalization/changes that opposition groups are demanding.

The Syrians are also attempting to keep the lid on the reporting of protests - trying to keep events from spiraling out of control. To that end, they're again harassing journalists, stripped the press accreditation of a third reporter. All three are from Reuters.

Two journalists from the Reuters news agency are missing and two U.S. citizens have been detained during the unprecedented nationwide mass protests that have posed the greatest challenge to President Bashar Assad since he came to power 11 years ago, media reports say.

Producer Ayat Basma and cameraman Ezzat Baltaji, both Lebanese nationals based in Beirut, disappeared Saturday night as they were expected to be making their way back to Lebanon, according to Reuters.

The last contact Reuters had with the duo was about 5:30 p.m. Saturday when Baltaji sent a text message to a colleague in Beirut saying, "We will leave now."

Since then, the journalists have been unreachable on their phones.

Syrian state TV has blamed recent protests and unrest on foreigners, among others.

For the moment, the US is not planning on any no-fly zones or other military actions with respect to Syria.

One group that is paying close attention to the ongoing situation in Syria are the Druze, who are frequently caught in the middle of the conflicts and are waiting to see which way the wind blows.

Reuters Cropping Photos From Israeli Flotilla Raid

Media outlets are slowly releasing photos that were taken at various stages during the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara that led to nine activists on board being killed by Israeli commandos trying to recover the Israeli troops that had been severely beaten and seriously wounded by "activists" on board.

Yet, it seems that Reuters opted not to release one particular photo in its original form. It cropped key details.

 The image shows a wounded Israeli soldier that had been dragged below decks. By itself, you have no idea what happened to the soldier.

That's the uncropped photo, and you see someone holding a knife at the bottom right corner.

Reuters opted to crop the photo, and by doing so it appears to have violated its
code of principals. Moreover, it may be a violation of the Reuters Guide to Standards and Photoshop.

While cropping is permitted by Reuters, this particular instance fundamentally changes the nature of the photo and the story being conveyed and I think it would violate those terms. The guide does permit cropping, but does not permit adding or removing details. Here, the cropped photo does just that - it removes details.

Reuters officials need to explain how and why they opted to crop the photo in this fashion - and why they did not follow their own guidelines.

UPDATE:
And this isn't the only photo either - there is another photo sequence that shows someone on board brandishing a military style knife, but Reuters opted to edit out that detail.

Memo to Reuters: Hamas Does Not Shun Israel

Reuters reported today that Israeli forces repelled a Palestinian attack, killing two Palestinian terrorists. It's the first major incident between Israelis and Hamas since a truce was brokered in January, ending Operation Cast Lead. The problem is that Reuters characterizes Hamas' position regarding Israel as merely shunning:

Hamas shuns Israel but has signaled interest in a long-term truce. Egypt and Germany are trying to broker Hamas's release of an Israeli soldier seized in a 2006 border raid, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israel's jails.

The gunmen killed Tuesday had been deployed in night-lookout positions east of the town of Jabalya, close to the Israeli border, Hamas said. Medical officials said their bodies bore injuries from heavy ordnance.

Sorry to break it to Reuters, but Hamas does not shun Israel.

Hamas seeks Israel's destruction. Its leaders call for the annihilation of Israel on a regular basis. Its leaders indoctrinate fellow Gazans into hating Israel's very existence. They treat Israel's independence day as a day of mourning and the Naqba - because Israel exists. Their maps do not show Israel alongside a Palestinian state. In Hamas (and Fatah's view), Israel doesn't exist except as a map for coordinating attacks against civilian targets. These groups will not accept any mention even remotely mentioning Israel and Jewish claims to the region, on grounds that it would "Judaize" the education of the Palestinians. Moreover, any territory evacuated by Israel in favor of Palestinians will become Jewish-free - ethnic cleansing of a sort that the world seems to have no problem with, even though there has been a Jewish presence for thousands of years in the land between the Jordan River and the Med - a fact that Palestinian and Arab commentators repeatedly try to disavow at every opportunity.

Meanwhile, Hamas maintains and operates smuggling tunnels through which it gains access to weapons shipments, including one such shipment that was caught by the Egyptians in Sinai. Hamas gets a piece of the action on everything that goes on in Gaza. The terrorists also don't like it when other terror groups encroach on their iron grip in Gaza, and target them for attack, just as they did with al Qaeda affiliated Jund Ansar Allah three weeks ago.

But media mendacity isn't solely confined to Reuters.

UPDATE:
Dave at Israellycool notes that the Hamas terrorists killed along the Gaza fence were killed when the explosives they were placing along the security fence went off. Israeli forces had nothing to do with the incident.

Moreover, he notes that Reuters didn't seem to notice that Hamas and the Gazans had been busy violating the ceasefire several times in the past month, but Israeli reprisal counts as a violation. Curious.