As printed in the 'Newsline' paper on 24th December 2012

Our lives are being made hell by the armed groups. We are all wearing coats in the house. We are freezing in the winter. There is no fuel. There is no bread.

Yet, every western government is pretending to be speaking for the Syrian people. In fact, they are completely ignoring what the Syrian people want. The Syrian people want peace, security and return to normal life.

The Syrian people have had enough with the unscrupulous world powers playing with the plight of the Syrian people and causing us more suffering while they reside in palaces and hotels, travel with bodyguards and worry about feeling too full at the dinner tables.

They don't worry about the million Syrian people who are shivering in their beds either out of fear, cold or hunger. We tell them, please stop meddling under the pretext of helping the Syrian people....

All we want is a return to life when we could walk in the street without fear of being kidnapped, sniped at or shot.

We want to return to life when people celebrate Ramadan, Eid al-Adha, Christmas, New Year and Easter without mourning the death of beloved ones.

We want to return to normal life where asking a stranger for directions does not scare you. Where you could get into a taxi or go into a shop without fearing for your life.

Return to normal life where you go into your own home and do not fear the cold and the chill of the winter.

Return to normal life where you do not have to fear not being able to get medicine, milk or bread for your kids tomorrow.

Return to normal life where we are not fearing for the lives of our children if they leave the house or attend school.

Return to normal life where we are proud of the achievements of Syrian kids at school and not, as seen now on the media, beheading their fellow Syrians on the orders of the foreigners.

Return to normal life where everyone is saluting the other and not fearing them.

Return to normal life where we are proud to be Syrians.

H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the four-star Army general who led allied forces to a stunningly quick and decisive victory over Saddam Hussein's Iraqi military in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and who became the most celebrated U.S. military hero of his generation, died Thursday in Tampa. He was 78.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta confirmed the death in a statement. Gen. Schwarzkopf's sister, Ruth Barenbaum, told the Associated Press he had complications from pneumonia.

Little known outside the U.S. military before Hussein's Republican Guard invaded Kuwait in early August 1990, Gen. Schwarzkopf planned and led one of the most lopsided victories in modern military history.

Even before the rapid victory, the general was known as "Stormin' Norman" for his sometimes volcanic temper.

The campaign, designed to expel Hussein's forces and liberate Kuwait, commenced in January 1990 with a 43-day high-tech air assault on Iraq before a massive armored assault force launched a 100-hour ground offensive that inflicted swift and heavy losses on the Iraqis. Gen. Schwarzkopf commanded more than 540,000 U.S. troops and an allied force of more than 200,000 from 28 countries, plus hundreds of ships and thousands of aircraft, armored vehicles and tanks during the war.

Broadcast to the nation nonstop on CNN, the war gave the nation and the world its first look at a new American military strategy that used precision-guided bombs dropped from hundreds of aircraft and Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from ships. Both Gen. Schwarzkopf and his boss at the Pentagon, Army Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were Vietnam War veterans who had helped rebuild this force.

Accusations that forces backing Syrian President Assad allegedly used chemical weapons against the opposition is a provocation aimed at making an excuse for foreign military intervention, says the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Another goal of such reports is to stir up panic among Syrians and foreigners who remain in the country, the ministry's spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich told the media on Thursday.

The use of weapon of mass destruction is unacceptable, the diplomat stressed. The Syrian government repeatedly assured Russia, as well as Western partners and the UN that it would not use chemical weapons. Moscow is keeping a close watch on the situation and has no information that the Syrian government plans to use chemical arms.

As the South-East Asian nation of Malaysia prepares for general elections, distrust of the political opposition and accusations of foreign interference have been major talking points in the political frequencies emanating from Kuala Lumpur.

­The United Malays National Organization (UMNO) leads the country's ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, and has maintained power since Malaysian independence in 1957.

One of Malaysia's most recognizable figures is former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who has been credited with ushering in large-scale economic growth and overseeing the nation's transition from an exporter of palm oil, tin, and other raw materials, into an industrialized economy that manufactures automobiles and electronic goods.

The opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, is headed by Anwar Ibrahim, who once held the post of Deputy Prime Minister in Mahathir's administration, but was sacked over major disagreements on how to steer Malaysia's economy during the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

Today, the political climate in Malaysia is highly polarized and a sense of unpredictability looms over the nation. Malaysia's current leader, Prime Minister Najib Razak, has pursued a reform-minded agenda by repealing authoritarian legislation of the past and dramatically loosening controls on expression and political pluralism introduced under Mahathir's tenure.

Najib has rolled back Malaysia's Internal Security Act, which allowed for indefinite detention without trial, and has liberalized rules regarding the publication of books and newspapers. During Malaysia's 2008 general elections, the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition experienced its worst result in decades, with the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition winning 82 parliamentary seats. For the first time, the ruling party was deprived of its two-thirds parliamentary majority, which is required to pass amendments to Malaysia's Federal Constitution.

In the run-up to elections scheduled to take place before an April 2013 deadline, figures from all sides of the political spectrum are asking questions about the opposition's links to foreign-funders in Washington.

Palestinian authorities are considering taking legal action against Israel over hundreds of Palestinian children being detained, with some reportedly maltreated.

As a result of the United Nations General Assembly voting to upgrade the Palestinians' diplomatic status to a "non-member observer state," they now have chance to access UN agencies and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"We need to use the newly gained state status to take measures against Israel for its crimes, especially the arrest, detention, and abuse of Palestinian children, let alone trying them before military courts," Eissa Karakea, Palestinian Minister of Detainees' Affairs told Al Arabiya news channel.

According to a report issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees Affairs, 900 Palestinian children were arrested by Israeli authorities in 2012 - a significant surge from the 700 arrested in 2011. The report suggests that the children are often mistreated during interrogations and beaten in detention.

This week will likely entail light posting, but here are several items worthy of note:

(1) I can't recall any one news article that so effectively conveys both the gross immorality and the strategic stupidity of Obama's drone attacks as this one from Monday's Washington Post by Sudarsan Raghavan. It details how the US-supported Yemeni dictatorship lies to its public each time the US kills Yemeni civilians with a drone attack, and how these civilian-killing attacks are relentlessly (and predictably) driving Yemenis to support al-Qaida and devote themselves to anti-American militancy:

"Since the attack, militants in the tribal areas surrounding Radda have gained more recruits and supporters in their war against the Yemeni government and its key backer, the United States. The two survivors and relatives of six victims, interviewed separately and speaking to a Western journalist about the incident for the first time, expressed willingness to support or even fight alongside AQAP, as the al-Qaeda group is known.

"'Our entire village is angry at the government and the Americans,' Mohammed said. 'If the Americans are responsible, I would have no choice but to sympathize with al-Qaeda because al-Qaeda is fighting America.'

"Public outrage is also growing as calls for accountability, transparency and compensation go unanswered amid allegations by human rights activists and lawmakers that the government is trying to cover up the attack to protect its relationship with Washington. Even senior Yemeni officials said they fear that the backlash could undermine their authority.

"'If we are ignored and neglected, I would try to take my revenge. I would even hijack an army pickup, drive it back to my village and hold the soldiers in it hostages,' said Nasser Mabkhoot Mohammed al-Sabooly, the truck's driver, 45, who suffered burns and bruises. 'I would fight along al-Qaeda's side against whoever was behind this attack.'"

Once-secret documents reveal the FBI monitored Occupy Wall Street from its earliest days and treated the nonviolent movement as a potential terrorist threat. Internal government records show Occupy was treated as a potential threat when organizing first began in August of 2011. Counterterrorism agents were used to track Occupy activities, despite the internal acknowledgment that the movement opposed violent tactics. The monitoring expanded across the country as Occupy grew into a national movement, with FBI agents sharing information with businesses, local police agencies and universities. We're joined by Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, which obtained the FBI documents through the Freedom of Information Act. "We can see, decade after decade, with each social justice movement, that the FBI conducts itself in the same role over and over again, which is to act really as the secret police of the establishment against the people," Verheyden-Hilliard says. [

Abby Martin takes a look back at philosopher Plato's the 'Allegory of the Cave' and its application to today's society.

President Obama's potential nomination of Chuck Hagel, a former two-term Republican senator from Nebraska, to be his next Secretary of Defense is now being dubbed "flailing" before it was even confirmed.

Much of the discussion, and the principal source of Mr. Hagel's vulnerability, revolves around remarks he made, some dating back several years, on US policy toward Israel, Iran, and Hamas. Some critics are wondering aloud whether he is sufficiently supportive of Israel, while others are even going so far as to suggest he is anti-Semitic, a charge that Hagel's defenders, and even some of his detractors, have branded as outrageous.

At issue in particular is Hagel's use, in a 2006 interview, of the descriptor "Jewish lobby" to refer to the pro-Israel lobby in Washington, which includes US Christians, too, and which Hagel accused of "intimidating a lot of people."


These comments, along with Hagel's support of dialogue with Iran and Hamas, both sworn enemies of Israel, prompted an unnamed Republican Senate aid, quoted in the conservative Weekly Standard, to promise of the potential nominee, "Send us Hagel and we will make sure every American knows he is an anti-Semite."

On Wednesday these charges were met by a published letter from four former US national security advisers, who wrote to "strongly object, as a matter of substance and as a matter of principle, to the attacks on the character" of Hagel, noting that such treatment will "only discourage future prospective nominees from public service when our country badly needs quality leadership in government."

"Abuses Of Power Always - Always - Expand Beyond Their Original Application"

Constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald writes:

Documents just obtained from the FBI by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund reveal, as the New York Times put it, that "the [FBI] used read here, reveal numerous instances of the FBI collaborating with local police forces and private corporations to monitor and anticipate the acts of the protest movement.

As obviously disturbing as it is, none of this should be surprising. Virtually every seized power justified over the last decade in the name of "terrorism" has been applied to a wide range of domestic dissent. The most significant civil liberties trend of the last decade, in my view, is the importation of War on Terror tactics onto US soil, applied to US citizens - from the sprawling Surveillance State and powers of indefinite detention to the para-militarization of domestic police forces and the rapidly emerging fleet of drones now being deployed in countless ways. As I've argued previously, the true purpose of this endless expansion of state power in the name of "terrorism" is control over anticipated domestic protest and unrest.

It should be anything but surprising that the FBI - drowning in counter-terrorism money, power and other resources - will apply the term "terrorism" to any group it dislikes and wants to control and suppress (thus ushering in all of the powers institutionalized against "terrorists"). Those who supported (or acquiesced to) this expansion of unaccountable government power because they assumed it would only be used against Those Muslims not only embraced a morally warped premise (I care about injustices only if they directly affect me), but also a factually false one, since abuses of power always - always - expand beyond their original application.

Mr. Greenwald is correct.