Lara Jakes – Reuters
A chemical weapons attack in Syria last summer that the U.S. says killed more than 1,400 people was the world’s worst human rights violation of 2013, the Obama administration concluded Thursday. The report by the State Department also foreshadowed the unrest in Ukraine that just toppled its government. The survey singled out some countries that appear regularly in this annual roundup of abuses: Iran, for manipulation of elections and civil liberties restrictions; North Korea, for rampant reports of extrajudicial killings, detentions, and torture; and Belarus, for beatings of protesters and lack of checks and balances by the authoritarian government. But the department it said the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack on the Damascus suburbs in Syria was “one of many horrors in a civil war filled with countless crimes against humanity,” including the torture and murder of prisoners, and the targeting of civilians with barrel bombs and Scud missiles. “The tragedy that has befallen the Syrian people stands apart in its scope and human cost,” according to the report. More than 100,000 people have been killed in the Syrian civil war. The chemical weapons attack, which Washington blames on the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, killed at least 1,429 people, including more than 400 children, according to the U.S.
Syria Militants Claim Christians Agreed To Pay Tax
Zeina Karam – THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Militant fighters should not impose an Islamic tax on Christians in Syria, a radical Jordanian preacher facing terrorism charges said Thursday, days after an al-Qaida breakaway group in Syria claimed Christian leaders under its control agreed to pay the tax in return for protection. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant said in a document that its first “Aqed al-Thima,” Arabic for protection pact, was reached in a meeting last Thursday with 20 Christian leaders in the northern province of Raqqa, a bastion for the Islamic State. The authenticity of the two-page document circulating online since Wednesday could not be independently verified, but such issues have stoked fears in Syria’s Christian minority community that they are being targeted by extremists among the fighters seeking to oust President Bashar Assad. Abu Qatada, the radical Jordanian preacher deported from Britain who is on trial for terrorism charges at home, said Syria’s militants should not collect the tax. “They can’t promise full protection to Christians because they are in a state of war and not in full control of the areas they are in,” he said. “Therefore, the conditions for them to pay for a Muslim state is not fulfilled and any agreement based on that is null and void.” The 52-year-old cleric, who is described as a senior al-Qaida figure in Europe with ties to the late Osama bin Laden, made the comments to reporters during a break in his trial on Thursday.
U.S. singles out Syria in rights report
Oren Dorell – USA TODAY
The United States on Thursday singled out Syria, Russia, China and Egypt for using restrictive laws to suppress political opposition, minorities and journalists seeking to expose abuses, according to the State Department’s 2014 Human Rights Report. Those singled out for praise included Ukraine’s protest movement, which U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said comprised people “calling for government accountability” and that illustrated the “power of people to determine how they are governed.” “This is not some high minded exercise, this is about accountability,” Kerry said. “This is about ending impunity..” “Places where we see security challenges today are also places where governments have denied human rights to their people,” Kerry said. “It is no coincidence,” he said, that a recent report by the United Nations Human Rights Commission found massive crimes against humanity in North Korea.
Kerry won’t call what is happening in Syria ‘genocide’
BY JENNIFER RUBIN – WaPo
Secretary of State John F. Kerry, following the pattern of administration spokespeople, refuses to say whether the slaughter of more than 130,000 Syrians by Bashar al-Assad is “genocide.” Why all the hemming and hawing, and isn’t this in fact genocide? So now to the question as to why Kerry and the rest of the administration is vacillating so much. We can only conclude that the moral and geopolitical position of doing nothing would be harder to maintain in their eyes (they are all about international law, don’t you know) if what they were ignoring was “genocide.” All of this simply goes to the utterly hypocritical posturing by the Obama administration. President Obama and his advisers bristle at the notion they are doing nothing on Syria. The president set up an Atrocities Prevention Board (what they possibly do, I can’t imagine) and yet he takes no serious steps over three years to halt the bloodbath. He proclaims himself “frustrated,” which roughly translates to “I’m very upset and am getting pestered that I can’t get this to stop by doing nothing effective.”
Some Foreign Fighters Are Fleeing Syria — But Where Do They Go Next?
Mike Giglio – Buzzfeed
For months, an employee at an internet café not far from the Turkish-Syrian border spent much of his time making fake IDs for the Islamic extremists pouring in from abroad. Some came with little more than the clothes on their backs; others sauntered into the unassuming shop like wealthy tourists, sporting brand new military boots. The employee gave them fake Syrian passports or ID cards that made them into doctors or aid workers, happy to help the jihadis make their way across the border to join the fight against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. One opposition coordinator who channels military support to rebel groups claimed that hundreds of foreign fighters had left Syria since early January. Hundreds more, he said, were stuck in Syria with no good way to leave. Some had brought wives from abroad or married Syrians and were concerned about their families, he said. Others had surrendered their passports to their commanders — and all were wary of being arrested even if they did find a way to get home. “They have no place to go,” he said. Many foreign fighters have landed themselves on terror watch lists — and countries from Belgium and the U.K. to Tunisia have been aggressive in arresting those they catch returning from Syria’s war. Western officials, meanwhile, have increasingly warned that these fighters pose a global threat. In his January testimony, Clapper said that some foreign fighters in Syria were being trained to carry out terrorist attacks at home. He compared the country to the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan that al-Qaeda’s key leadership has long used as a base.
