Statement by Sarmin Civil Defense Official on Use of Chlorine Gas by Syrian President Assad - In English

The following is a statement regarding Syrian President Bashar al Assad's use of concentrated chloride gas as a weapon against civilians in the city of Sarmin and surrounding areas. It is very powerful and is directed at the United Nations Security Council which on March 6, 2015 passed Security Council Resolution 2209 which demanded all parties in Syria stop using chlorine as a weapon. The most recent attacks occurred on March 16 - 24.

The gentleman speaking is with the Civil Defense organization working on behalf of the wounded in the area. He has first hand knowledge of the attacks and resulting casualties. 

It is imperative that the United Nations Security Council demand access to samples that are available in the area. 

(Full written transcript below video.)

Statement by a Representative of the Civilian Defense Team of Sarmin, Syria on the Suspected Use of Chloride Gas by the Syrian Arab Republic as a Weapon Against Civilians

March 25, 2015 – (Sarmin, Syria ) To the friends of the Syrian people in both the United Nations Security Council and in its member Nations, I am Laith Faris. I am the head of the Civil Defense emergency operations in the city of Sarakeb, Idleb, Syria and on stand-by for the surrounding cities of Sarmin and Bannish.

I respectfully make the following urgent appeal:

The people of the towns of Sarmin, Binnish and Kminas have been under repeated air attack and barrel bomb raids by the government of Syria since March 16th. Just yesterday, the regime bombarded several area cities wounding many and killing at least 10 civilians, including 4 children. 

Unlike attacks of the past, those beginning on March 16th have included barrel bombs containing chemical weapons – what medical personnel say appears to be concentrated chlorine gas. 

On the evening of March 16th at approximately 9:00 pm and 10:45 pm local time, the Air Force of Syrian President Bashar al Assad flew two helicopters over a residential area of the city and released four barrel bombs. 

Over 150 civilians suffered the clear symptoms associated with Chloride gas; burning in the eyes, cough, difficulty breathing, and dizziness, followed in the severe with unconsciousness, convulsion, discoloration of the skin due to lack of oxygen, followed by death. 

The smell of bleach spread in the town as experienced by countless witnesses. Official tests of tissue samples and the material dropped by the helicopters can verify this, but such labs are unavailable in the city. I have some of these samples laying before me now. 

Six people died from this attack including three siblings - a 3 year old girl named Sarah, her sister, a 2 year old girl named Aisha and her brother, a 1 year old boy named Mohammed. 

For the past week we have desperately tried to get tissue samples into the hands of United Nations personnel so that the agent used could be confirmed, but due to border closings we have been unsuccessful. The samples, however, remain intact but we are concerned the evidence will be lost the longer the samples do not get analyzed. 

On March 22rd, President Assad ordered a second attack using the same chemical agent. Thankfully there have been no reported fatalities from this unwarranted attack on civilians. 

On March 24th, as many as 9 helicopters flew multiple barrel bomb raids on the cities. At the time of this statement I do not know the number of casualties. 

As you know, on March 6, 2015, only ten days prior to the first attack, the Security Council voted overwhelmingly in favor of resolution 2209. This resolution explicitly forbade the Assad regime from using chlorine gas as a chemical weapon and it invoked the enforcement power of Article VII of the UN Charter which allows for both economic and military response. 

In addition, it expressly supported the work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and its fact-finding mission to study all available information relating to allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria. It stressed that those responsible for use of chemical weapons — including chlorine — must be held accountable. In addition, the Council called on all parties to fully cooperate with the mission. 

The civilians of Sarmin, Binnish and Kminas respectfully, but with near desperation, ask that the United Nations Security Council immediately demand open transit to the area and access to all samples that would verify the use of Chloride gas. This action would be in direct support of the mission of the OPCW and in keeping with resolution 2209. 

If it is shown that Chlorine has been used as a weapon, we ask that you put your words into action. 

We ask that you use all means necessary and authorized under Article VII to put a stop to this inhumane and barbaric attempt by President Assad to cower and kill – to kill a people whose only crime has been to seek freedom. 

Please know, the resolutions you pass in support of Syrian civilians are read, are heard and are appreciated – in fact, they have served as life-lines that keep us from drowning. We read and hear your words and believe them and tell our children, it will be OK. 

It is clear that President Assad is mocking you and your resolve – but even more he is intent on killing the children and other civilians of my beloved city. 

He will claim he is fighting terrorist. Sarah, Aisha and little Mohammed were not terrorists and they are not “collateral.” They were dearly loved young people who suffocated to death because of their president’s intentional actions. 

I have held other young lives as they gasp for breath and I, not as a director of a civil defense group, but as a human being, a father, a Syrian beg you to please, please stand by your words and bring an end to this madness. 

On behalf of every Syrian who longs for freedom and who seeks a peaceful and democratic future, we thank you. You are our hope. May God bless you and your families – and may God grant a free and peaceful Syria. 

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The Syrian Crisis - Interview with Dean Rice

The following is a link to a YouTube video of an interview I recently gave on a local television station regarding the Syrian Crisis.
A discussion on the Syrian crisis - Interview with Dean Rice

The Jigsaw Puzzle that is Syria

It is always difficult to digest the reality of a violent foreign conflict. This is especially true when those in conflict come from a culture not particularly familiar in language, sectarian customs or religion. We may relate to images of a suffering people, but while these images put a human face on the conflict, they often also further solidify the perception that those in conflict are “there” and we are “here.”

The current crisis in Syria demonstrates this very clearly. For over three years the American people have heard occasional news reports about what has been termed a “civil war” in Syria. These reports have increased since the U.S. and allies have undertaken the offensive against ISIS, but the scope and context of the conflict remain ill-defined and unclear.

Foreign conflicts, including the Syrian crisis, can be compared to a jigsaw puzzle.

The Truth of Assad’s Lie

Note: Parts of this post contain graphic descriptions of physical abuse.

Since March 2011, when protesters took to the streets of Syria demanding reform, demanding freedom from the tyrannical reign of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the world has watched a nation slide into the throes of a civil war where an ideological kaleidoscope of oppositional factions battle a regime desperate to cling to its illegitimate power, willing to use any form of  tyranny and disinformation to do so.

Add to this the fact that the regime has encouraged the birth and growth of radical jihadist groups that are ostensibly focused on the regime’s demise, but that are in actuality serving the regime’s interests by confusing the battlefield and paralyzing already war-timid western nations who might otherwise support Syrian reform, add these together and one is left with what appears to be a Middle East morass that has a thousand paths in and no clear path out.

This of course serves the interests of President Assad very well as is evidenced by his ability for the past three years to kill over 250,000 civilians (15,000 of which are children under 15 years of age), displace over 10 million and leave much of the country in rubble and still remain in power facing only the occasional rhetorical western threats or non-credible “red line” ultimatums.

The Video Turns out to be Fake but Not the Determination of the Syrian People

On Tuesday of this week I published a post entitled “A Hero Outside Damascus.” It set up a 1:06 minute video of what appeared to be a young Syrian boy risking his life in a tremendous show of heroism in order to rescue a young girl from what was assumed to be Syrian regime snipers. The video offered a glimpse of what I told one person was the true Syrian spirit of determination.

We learned tonight that the video was a farce. It was filmed in Malta by a Norwegian film crew and posted to their YouTube page with the intention of deceiving viewers. This viewer clearly was deceived. (Read BBC Trending article here)

A Hero Outside Damascus

Every war has its victims and every conflict its horrors. The civil war raging in Syria is not an exception. The statistics stagger – 200,000 + civilians killed by the Assad regime with more than 10,000 of these being children. Nine million Syrians have been displaced inside and outside Syria leaving entire towns destroyed. 

Images of death and carnage - of hospitals lying in rubble and of refugee camps torn and tattered by Assad's bombs sweep through social media with such unrelenting force that many viewers in the west have become numb and even repulsed. Words cannot fully define the helplessness and hopelessness felt by those men and women who so desperately long not simply for an end to the fighting, but also for the freedom from tyranny for which they fight. 

Every war also has its heroes, and the war in Syria is again not an exception.

As we celebrate Veterans Day here in the United States, we pay tribute to those who have taken the oath to defend and protect. We give our utmost respect to the men and women who have gone into harm’s way, so that those of us who do not serve may remain safe at home. This is an exceptional thing and every American should celebrate and be grateful.

It is also fitting I believe to take this day to share one story of a hero who is not American, who did not take an oath or wear a uniform, who simply acted without regard to his own life to save another. The following one minute video is not graphic but it is violent. Watch to the end and you will be inspired. His is a story that the world needs to know. 

(The snipers are serving at the orders of Syrian President Bashar al Assad outside Damascus, It should also be noted that the voices heard are not those of the snipers but of people secretly filming using a telephoto lens to document Assad’s crimes against humanity.)

A hero outside Damascus

Finally, I am not Muslim, but this young man's actions reminded me of the verse from the Koran, “And whoever saves one life - it is as if he had saved mankind entirely.” Surat 5:32 It should be everyone’s hope and prayer that the world saves his life and the lives of all those left standing in that war-torn nation by demanding an end to Assad’s inhuman assault on the innocent.

We are losing our fight against ISIS

We are losing our fight against ISIS. Regardless of a successful strike here, or a temporarily retreating foe there, we are losing ground each day in the hearts and minds of the Syrian people.

We are losing, not because we cannot win and not because the fight is not worth fighting. The truth is, we can win and for the sake of our long term national security and economic stability, as well as, our ability to project the same around the globe victory is worth the fight. We are losing because the promises and statements of President Obama are disconnected from his administration’s actual policies and actions.

Clearly the challenges and dangers of seeking to destroy our stated enemy, the Islamic State, are great and real. Add to this that the battlefield has been shaped by a three-year civil war - a civil war in which multiple opposition factions from a kaleidoscope of ideological leanings battle a desperate and malevolent dictator who continues to survive by way of funds and weapons from Russia and fighters from Iran, the complexity of prudent and effective action becomes almost confounding – almost.