Blacked Out In Hell

Assad Guarantees No Syrians Will See This Post
(Part of The Darkness Visible series)

(Internet Shut off at 10:30am Across Syria) 

With the war in Syria grinding its way through the 20th consecutive month the Assad dictatorship has apparently become desperate to stop the uprising from having access to its lifeblood... the outside world. In a move that has drawn harsh criticism Bashar al-Assad has shut down the Internet within Syria. It is not clear if the services will return under foreign pressure. But it is clear to human rights observers as to why Assad has taken this dramatic action in his attempt to smash his opposition.

Media blackouts have been common when it comes to Assad and his massacres. Before the last two massacres there were minor interruptions in communications with the outside world. In the last pogrom Assad interrupted the Internet surrounding Houla in an attempt to black out any videos arising from the area. These attempts to stifle the truth from flowing out of Syria failed. So now we must ask if this new nationwide black out is a smoke screen like it had been back in Houla?

We do know now that Assad is fighting fierce battles in and around Damascus. The war for Aleppo was lost to a stale mate for Assad's forces. Now the war is coming with even more ferocity to the capital city. Car bombs rack the Syrian army every time they try to rush off to a new guerrilla street fight. Planes that had ruled the air around Aleppo are now being brought down by Free Syrian Army surface to air missiles. And yet the fighting seems to still be stuck in grid lock as Russia and China continue to poor money into Assad's reserves. 

With Russia printing Assad's money for him the dictator can continue to pay off Iranian mercenaries and Shabiha thugs. The flow of cash means that Assad can continue to pay for his secret prisons and purchase new tools with which to torture his own citizens. These billions of dollars means that Assad can use his own money, thus keeping Russia's hands clean, to purchase more Iranian weapons and Chinese ammunition. It also means that Assad has the money to fund an all out push for wide spread atrocities across the country.

In addition to cutting Internet services Assad also cut cellphone services in the country. This makes it appear that the dictator has admitted that cellphone pictures have been the leading source of "eyewitness testimony" against his war crimes. After all, it was the cellphone videos uploaded to YouTube that first alerted the West to the horrific war crimes committed by the Shabiha in Houla. It was the images of children having been bound and executed by Assad's thugs that first raised concern amongst governments in Europe and the Americas. So once again we must pose the question of whether or not Assad is preparing to launch an all out push against his opposition across the country? And how far will Assad take the country before the lights come back on? 

Some outside sources have suggested that the cutting of communications was an overreaction to the car bomb attacks that rocked suburbs of Damascus earlier this morning. Around 50 people were killed in the attacks. Yet it is hard for Alder's Ledge to buy into this excuse since the car bombs were set off in Christian and Druze neighborhoods. A fact that rules out any sympathies an Alawite Islamic leader might have for the dead. In addition the very leader that cut the communications is the same leader that began targeting Christian and Druze Syrians shortly after the uprising began. 

(Syrian Neighborhood Rocked By Explosions This Morning)

We do know that Assad had already made plans to make a push somewhere around the international airport where rebels had been attacking for days. And shortly after cutting communications Assad did in fact start such a push against the Free Syrian Army. And in an effort to get planes back in the air and landing at the airport Assad has begun shelling civilian areas nearby. In this assault to reopen the airport Assad has sent the bulk of his forces into the villages of Babila and Hujaira to the south and Harran al-Awamid to the east. These are also areas where the cellular communications were slashed ahead of the military's arrival. 

If this is a new push to kill off as many "rebels" as the Assad regime can dig up or gather from the civilian population the West may never know. The fact is the lines of communication with the rebel militias are now cut. Outside of the foreign governments supporting the uprising, the rest of us will have to wait till information leaks out over the border into Turkey or Lebanon. What little news reporters are on the ground will also find it hard to get their reports out of the country. 

When the next massacre occurs we will have to wait to hear about it. When the next batch of children are sent off to an alleyway to be gunned down we will never be able to bear witness. When the next wave of Shabiha enter Syrian homes in the middle of the night the world will not hear their screams. This is precisely what Assad wants. The genocidal regime he has led now has all it has ever needed. A vacuum in which to operate. 

It is time for the world to wake up and take action. The darkness that has been covering Syria for nearly two years has now descended into pitch black. The monster in power now has the ability to operate without impediment. The people of Syria are now at risk of suffering far worse than they already have.

Source Document 

World Magazine

 http://www.worldmag.com/2012/11/deadly_twin_car_bombs_explode_in_a_christian_and_druze_suburb_in_syria

Forbes 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2012/11/29/syria-shuts-off-internet-but-can-they-really-block-information-flow/

Voice Of America 

http://www.voanews.com/content/syria-pushing-back-as-rebels-advance/1555248.html

BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20547799

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20493687

(note that not all documents used are listed)

Ukraine Pogroms

-
January 11Th...
-


-
The sun had not yet come up when the "Berkut" began it's dirty business. Ukrainian shock troops beat down the doors of Romani homes. Like the jackboots that ravaged the Ukraine decades before, these crack troops used racial prejudice to justify their terror.
-
Like rabid dogs the Ukrainian police attacked their prey. Beating men and women alike the savages shouted racist slurs and death threats. Romani children watched on in horror as the people who are supposed to protect them beat their parents nearly to death.
-
The Ukrainian state claims nothing happened. Yet word and evidence of the attacks keeps slipping out of the Ukraine. Roma groups and Human Rights organizations keep reporting the facts that the racist government and police of the Ukraine try to hide.
-
So far one Roma man has died. He had been suffering from tuberculosis. After being attacked he died. Others have been in and out of hospitals as a direct result of the beatings the police gave them.
-

Complacent Reaper

-
Spontaneous Hell
-


-
A Brief History of Pogroms and Genocide
-
"Armenians in Baku"
-

-
If you have read this blog at least once or twice in the past you should be at least familiar with the Armenian Genocide in the old Ottoman Empire. And for most of us that is the one and only genocidal act the Armenians have had to deal with. But for me, the events in Baku, Azerbaijan constitute a pogrom at least... if not a small scale genocide at best.
-
In 1990 the local population in Baku was whipped into a frenzy over most everything there was to be angry about. However, the Armenian population seemed to invoke a special level of hatred from their neighbors... particularly the Azeris neighbors.
-
Soviet authorities did little or nothing to stem the violence once it began. Police and military officials were far more complacent than they had been in previous decades. Some accounts even indicate that the police were helping local citizens round up Armenians. The attacks were therefore not "spontaneous" as the Soviets claimed seeing as how the attacker's had been provided with list of victims names and addresses.
-
Like in Rwanda, the 100,000 victims were beaten to death or stabbed to death. No gunshot wounds were recorded. This was yet once again, a genocide in which the "gas chambers" were not the icons of death.
-
So how did it happen? And why?
-
Well the question of why is impossible to answer seeing as how the human mind is impossible to accurately dissect. But the political gains that resulted from the killings show that the Azerbaijan Popular Front was politically motivated in its participation.
-
As with most pogroms, these attacks were planned from the beginning. And just as with most others, the group responsible did not come right out with the truth about what they had planned. Instead the attacks were ramped up over a relatively short period of time. The political backing had simply accelerated the attacks into a full blown "devouring" of the Armenian population.
-
This sort of political backing however is never simply political in nature. The group that forms the political base for such a party usually already harbors such animosities. And it is from this base of hatred that the Azerbaijan Popular Front got its start.
-
But how does a far flung group of race baiters get their start?
-
History has shown us that in times of economic uncertainty the far right and far left of society swell in numbers. Despite debate among the two sides, both are fanatical in their aims and goals. And it is in this phenomena that the rise of racist fascism gets its leg up in the world.
-
In Baku the organization of the attacks also shows intense planning by the "grass roots" base. "The Party" knew who its targets were but the low ranking party followers did not. So to speed up the attacks, the names and addresses were printed out and passed around. That would have still allowed for "interference" in some manner. So the attackers were broken up into organized "mobs".
-
Some "mobs" began to set up blockades both in front of military and police stations and then in the main roadways in and out of the city. The blockades in front of the military and police stations were simply meant to exert "The Party"'s power and authority. They also gave the military and police excuses for not stopping the attacks.
-
As for the blockading of roadways... this is a trademark of modern pogroms. Mobs are set in place to keep the targets in place. The blockades were meant to stop any "flocking" of victims out of the targeted area. It also allows the "roaming mobs" to herd their targets into the "slaughter houses".
-
Victims that fought back in Baku were almost always killed before they could be herded into the designated killing fields. That is the goal of these "havoc" filled pogroms. The main aim is to cut the victim off from their two main responses... fight or flight.
-
In one aspect it seems easy to understand pogroms. They seem so simple in hindsight and yet they seem impossible to spot till they are already past. We know the signs and yet we seem incapable of stopping them.
-
The following is an account I read before writing this article. I hope you read it through and continue reading future post on this subject. It is important that we learn from our past so that we do not have to repeat it.
-

-
I was born on October 28, 1978 in the city of Baku. My family had two apartments- one in the 8Th district, the second one in Razino – Kirov str. 7, apt. 48. I still remember the postal code (370040) and the telephone number -25-10-75. We had a multinational neighborhood, with Azeris, Armenians (nearly all of them managed to escape on time), Germans, Russian, Jews, Lezghins, etc living around. In a word, it was a multinational city. Before the Sumgait events I didn’t know what nationality I belonged to. The nationality did not matter then. Nothing portended these events; my family believed in the Party up to the last minute. I’m not going to speak about the prerequisites; they are well known.
Everything started for my family on December 1, 1989 when my father got fired due to his being Armenian. He left for Russia searching for a job with family hostel for us. Unfortunately, he didn’t find anything and came back the same month.
-
On Saturday, January 13, 1990 I was at school. We had then classes on Saturdays. Life went on normally. That day my Azeri classmate (I don’t remember his name) told me that the next day (January 14) the war between the Armenian and Azeris would break out. I didn’t understand what he meant; several hours later I realized everything.
-
About 10 PM, January 13, 1990 (A Georgian movie “Donki Khod” was being broadcast on TV at that moment). Some strangers knocked at our door saying they wanted to buy our apartment. We explained that the house was not for sale. They kept demanding that we open the door. We did not. And then everything began; they started breaking our door. As ill luck would have it, we had a brazier in the corridor, and they used it. Fortunately, our door was armored. They had cut the telephone cable beforehand. Somehow, shouting, we called the police. None of our neighbors interfered. I don’t remember what the police told us then, they just came, spent there some time and left. After they left my father took my sister and me across the balcony to our Russian neighbors with the help of an ironing board. Since then I vaguely remember what was going on. My parents told me they tried to break our door twice, and twice the police were arriving. My father moved the coach up to the door - our door was opening inside. The Azeris said, “You’ll see tomorrow what we’ll do to you”. At night an Azeri neighbor of ours came to our apartment (to my parents) with a knife, sort of to protect us. (He didn’t bear ill will to anybody, he was a 35-year-old hashish-addict, had spent some time in prison). My parents deposited with him some valuable books and some other things. I don’t know what happened next, but my father came to us on January 14 morning, we left the house quickly and went to the road. The only thing I noticed was our broken window. The cab was waiting for us. We were going to the center of Baku, where my mother’s friend, a Jewish woman was living. As far as I understood the cab had come to our house twice. The first time it took out Grandmother with our living essentials, and then us. The taxi-driver was a Lezghin, and treated us normally. He also took offence at the Azeris.
-
January 14 we spent at my mother’s Jewish friend. At 2 o’clock in the afternoon everything started, mass pogroms of Armenians began. My mother’s friend was in the city, she told that Armenians were being killed in the streets. We sat very silently so that the neighbors didn’t inform against us. The horror began next day.
-
On January 15 we went to the station to leave the city. There were no trains. Our family consisted of five people. I don’t remember how we got to the station; we had a few packs with the necessities. My father and I were carrying our bags from a nearby square to the station. We couldn’t “flock”, that could arouse suspicions. My mother and sister stayed at the station, my father and I went to find my Grandmother, but failed to. My mother told my father to stay with my sister, and I went to search for my grandmother with my mother. Male Armenians were being killed. We couldn’t find my grandmother. (Later we learned that Azeris had taken her to “Shafag” cinema where Armenians were being driven together. They took away all valuable things that Granny had with, even pulled out her teeth with golden crowns, and then took her to the ferry berth). Upon arriving at the station we didn’t find my father and sister. The police told us they were catching Armenians and taking them to the ferry berth. They took us to the station square; a bus was waiting there (a village-type “Gaz” bus). Azeri builders and Russian soldiers were setting us in the bus. I remember them curtaining the windows. I saw horrible scene on the way.
Beaten Armenians were being taken out on lorries from the yards, and Azeris were standing around and shouting things. We didn’t find either my grandmother or father and sister on the ferry berth. Mom decided they could have returned to her Jewish friend. We got somehow to her place; they were not there. (Later we learned that they were at the same Armenian-collector cinema, grandmother was taken to Krasnovodsk on the ferry on January 15, and my father and sister – on January 16). My mother called to her Azeri deputy director (she worked at a musical school) to ask for some money. We had only two kopecks around.
-
We met on January 16. I remember Azeris checking documents of all men. The deputy director gave us some money and took us to another place Armenians were being taken to. (Afterwards we learned that Azeris killed him). I guess that was an officer house, there were Russian military and a gun. Later a bus took us to the ferry berth. It was horrible – beaten Armenians, mainly children, elderly and women. Male Armenians were being killed. The last thing I saw in Baku was the Government House and the monument to 26 Baku commissioners. We were kept inside the bus for a few hours, and then taken to the berth. It was the first time I saw soldiers in black uniform with shields; that was amazing to me. The evening was cold, we were kept at the berth till morning, a cool wind was blowing. I remember in the evening Azeris brought a wagon with bread. They gave everybody buns and water. Early in the morning the ferry arrived. The soldiers circled the berth. People were striving to get on the ferry; Azeris were shouting something. I was standing facing a soldier’s shield. Then they let us on the ferry. We were lucky to get to the saloon; some people were in the engine-room. They told us Azeris drowned the first ferry - fortunately it was empty. Azeris wanted to drown the ferry my father and sister were in, but a plane or a helicopter from Krasnovodsk drowned the Azeri boat. I remember we went out to the deck; I was scared. A storm broke out, or maybe that just seemed to me - that was the fist time I appeared in the open sea. There was volleyball net on the ferry. I don’t remember how long we sailed.
-
It seems to me we arrived in Krasnovodsk on January 18 morning. They took us to a house; a crowd was standing there. They gave us a “Refugee leaflet”; I keep it up to now. I can’t figure out when they managed to print them. Then Turkmen gave us some rice to eat and then separated us. Those wishing to get to Moscow were leaving by train, and those who wished to leave for Yerevan were taken to the airport. I fell asleep as soon as I appeared in the plane, and then woke up at the landing.
This is the story of my life. We were fortunate to find each other. My father was waiting for us at “Zvartnots” airport; we had buns and tea there. We all stayed with our relatives. Thus I became a refugee. Naturally, I don’t remember all the details; maybe I’m lucky to. It’s a pity few people talk about these events.
-
Karen Harutyunyan
-

-
It is a pity that more people do not talk about those events. That is why we here at Alder's Ledge will continue to post such accounts and study such events. The next post will once again turn back toward the United States as we study the relations between our Government and the native peoples we have so often neglected.

We Wish To Inform You...

That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families
-


-
A Brief History of Pogroms and Organized Chaos
-

-
American Style
-


-
The very word Pogrom means to literally "wreak havoc". It is a relatively new Russian word with ancient roots in human history. And in most incidents it is used to describe organized killings of Jewish communities in highly antisemitic cultures. Yet for the most part these sorts of attempts to "demolish violently" in part or in whole have been used against any minority.
-
In the United States we have witnessed these sorts of "state sponsored terrorism" in our recent past... we far to often ignore them and hide them. Under General Custer's dirty flag of freedom we marched into the West with one goal... "to demolish violently" the native way of life. Like the Spanish Conquistadors that came before us, we introduced a way of thinking not to different from the natives. The only difference was that we had the "human waves" to back our hatred and annihilate the peoples of the plains.
-
If you talk to very many average blue color working Americans you will find that the "Arab" is our new Native American. Among the liberal "upper crust" the Muslim is a novelty to be admired from afar... still not to be fully embraced. Among the conservative "working class" Islam is a foreign invader ready to rape and pillage... in much the same way they painted the Native American. And yet we hide away our animosity in much the same manner as our forefathers did; silently waiting for the opportunity to launch our assault.
-
The Hispanic community has gotten even less respect in recent history. But that is even more taboo to bring up than the "Arab". Yet here I go...
-
With a broad brush we often paint with fabricated numbers and bloated statistics the entire Latin community as "illegal aliens". When we feel generous we give them the titles of "immigrant", "migrant workers", or simply "illegals". But for the most part the goal is segregation. We seem to willfully forget that if you go back far enough even the Native American is an immigrant to this continent.
-
Forget about how we treated the blacks, gypsies, Japanese, Chinese, gays, or Jews. The cases for the Native Americans, Muslims, and Hispanics most clearly make my case for why we here at home are far from exempt from the hatred that feeds widespread "havoc". After all, we have made our own concentration camps... we have organized government to slaughter the weak... and we have washed our hands of innocent blood.
-
So how do pogroms get started?
-
"Where one or more are gathered..." evil will always be lingering close behind. After all, we are a species born to sin and to sin we so often turn. This just happens to be the worse form of sin we far too often take to. With our prejudice always at the front of our arsenals we take up arms when the world offers us "change".
-
With the harsh introduction of "radical Islam" we took up arms for good reasons against foreign foes. But for those left behind to fight upon the home front... we needed a face to a foe who dared not raise its head in public. For this we painted all Muslims as al-Quada or "radicals". For some, this meant that we were not at war with any particular sect of Islam but rather with Islam itself.
-
No greater lie has been spread since that fateful September.
-
Now we face a sect of Westerners that have "radicalized" as once again the world they knew changed... and abruptly at that. The conservative values of even liberal Muslims are now subjected to Western prejudice while Mormons are allowed to abuse their children. Lies about Islam are born and bread by people who have not even once read the Koran. Let alone the fact that most of us here in the United States know absolutely nothing about the Muslim's traditions or even their religion.
-
But this is a potential pogrom in the making. We don't have a government these days that will allow the masses to arm themselves and thus descend upon the Muslim community to "wreak havoc". Thank God.
-
We do however have a government that will not, mainly due to conservative fears, more aggressively identify "hate groups". Therefore the government can not nor will not prosecute hate group members for hate crimes when they do in fact happen. And for this reason the rise of violence against Muslims and their mosque continues.
-
A true pogrom against the Muslims in America would and could happen if the far right were allowed to organize a political party without public condemnation. Like the "brown shirts" in Washington during World War Two, this party would rise upon the growing prejudice against "common foes" such as the Muslims or Latinos. Ascending in power the group would need to quench the thirst of hatred amongst it members. So like other public figures, this group would allow publicly or in party memos the organized chaos that would follow. Like Krystalnaucht, the violence would be backed by the politician yet carried out by the people. Attacks would break out with true "havoc" being achieved almost over night. Only due to opposition by the Left, hopefully, the violence would end with the targeted community bloodied and in hiding.
-
I know that most reading this are probably upset that I am using America as my example while Europe is currently in the midst of government backed pogroms... but we must never forget just how vulnerable to Hitler's lures we truly are.
-
We have in our past raised hidden camps in isolated places in attempts to demoralize and destroy targeted communities. Like it or not, we have proven time and time again that we as Americans are far more than capable of uniting as the Nazis did in our hatred.
-
Indiana was once the site of a Osama like figure. Tecumseh, the military side of "radicalized" native society, led a "holy war" against the invading whites. Relentless in his attempts to destroy or at least demoralize the white Americans, Tecumseh launched, at times suicidal, attacks on much larger foes. His prejudice were of course formed out of his realization that the world as he knew it was changing... shrinking.
-
In my opinion, Islam has only radicalized due to... in part, the shrinking of the world the Middle Eastern Muslims once knew. The other factors are of course the many promises the West has made and broken (another link in my mind to Tecumseh). Then you have the exploitation of the Middle Easterners' resources (again Tecumseh). And finally the fact that Western ideals are being and have been forced upon the Arab world for decades now (most of which are incompatible with Islam itself).
-
Attacking Pigeon Roost, a band of natives linked to Tecumseh, massacred the local citizens without resistance. The fact that they then sliced the gut of a white women who was pregnant to make certain her baby was dead only galvanized the white Americans' hatred. So in response, orders were given to the Indiana Rangers to take no prisoners and spare nothing... woman, child, or animal.
-
The war from this point was one of burning abhorrence for the enemy on both sides. And in each camp the orders were interpreted to include the use of "pogroms" to strip the enemy of its will to fight.
-
Tecumseh would go on to target white settlements he knew to be unarmed and without young men to protect them. White men we here in Indiana hail as heroes made names for themselves by slaughtering Native American women and children while the "braves" were away. In both camps these were known as "targets of opportunity".
-
Pogroms are often carried out against "targets of opportunity". They are carried out by people who are either well armed or just plain better armed than their targets (in Rwanda the pogroms that grew into genocide were often carried out with machetes). In every case the targets most harassed are women, children, and old men. Young men that can fight back are mainly attacked when they are severely out numbered or unarmed. These tactics are almost universal in both pogroms carried out under the fog of war and pogroms that are carried out ahead of war or genocide.
-
At Wounded Knee the American cavalry and light infantry used the fog of war to cover up their genocidal acts. Knowing that the "enemy" or "target of opportunity" was vulnerable in the dead of winter the American Army attacked. In the same fashion of Hitler's Blitz, the Army made certain to shoot every woman and child they could find (in my opinion this was to force the tribe's men to fight since their families were now dead). It was then recorded that American soldiers walked among the dead with pistols in hand. Shooting those who survived the initial blitz... these SS like warriors finished the job.
-
The goal of a pogrom is simple. The perpetrators want one of two things. They either want the targeted community to leave the claimed territory or to gather in designated community areas. In the second of these two the goal is to form ghettos. Next, once ghettos are formed, the pogroms intensify and the genocide officially begins.
-
To better understand what the Roma in Europe are going through I decided before writing this brief history and introduction into "pogroms" that we should first understand how they work. I fully believe that we should be aware of this and understand that in no way are we here at home immune to such acts.
-
I will be writing more this month on clear cut cases of "pogroms" and genocide due to the Roma in Eastern Europe who are undergoing a clear cut case of "government backed pogroms". I hope you understand that I am not targeting America or Americans for any undue criticism. I believe that as Americans we should recognize both the great wonderful things we have accomplished and the nightmares we have wrought upon others. In this belief, I therefore believe other nations and peoples should do the same... i.e. Turkey and the Europeans at large.
-
My next example will be the Armenian Pogrom in Baku during January 1990. This will be an example of a pogrom being used to "expel the undesirables". And it will be only a temporary break from my look at American pogroms and genocides.
-
Please keep reading and please have an open mind when it comes to this rather unpleasent part of our history. After all, if we do not learn from our past we are damned to repeat it.
-


-
You can read brief updates and follow future post on our Facebook group page by searching Alder's Ledge on Facebook. Make sure to click on the group page and feel free to click "like" on our information page as well.
-