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Bulletins and News Discussion from December 16th to December 22nd, 2024 - Assad's Apology

Image is of Assad's presidential palace in 2013. There's more images of it in this article, though the words in it aren't worth reading.

Here is Assad's version of events. I like to imagine he's making one of those Youtuber apology videos where they sigh at the start and talk in a chastised yet somewhat defensive tone of voice.

As terrorism spread across Syria and ultimately reached Damascus on the evening of Saturday 7th December 2024, questions arose about the president's fate and whereabouts. This occurred amidst a flood of misinformation and narratives far removed from the truth, aimed at recasting international terrorism as a liberation revolution for Syria.

At such a critical juncture in the nation’s history, where truth must take precedence, it is essential to address these distortions. Unfortunately, the prevailing circumstances at the time, including a total communication blackout for security reasons, delayed the release of this statement. This does not replace a detailed account of the events that unfolded, which will be provided when the opportunity allows.

First, my departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles, as some have claimed. On the contrary, I remained in Damascus, carrying out my duties until the early hours of Sunday 8th December 2024. As terrorist forces infiltrated Damascus, I moved to Latakia in co-ordination with our Russian allies to oversee combat operations. Upon arrival at the Hmeimim airbase that morning, it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen. As the field situation in the area continued to deteriorate, the Russian military base itself came under intensified attack by drone strikes.

With no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the base’s command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday 8th December. This took place a day after the fall of Damascus following the collapse of the final military positions and the resulting paralysis of all remaining state institutions.

At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual or party. The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.

I reaffirm that the person who, from the very first day of the war, refused to barter the salvation of his nation for personal gain, or to compromise his people in exchange for numerous offers and enticements is the same person who stood alongside the officers and soldiers of the army on the front lines, just metres from terrorists in the most dangerous and intense battlefields. He is the same person who, during the darkest years of the war, did not leave but remained with his family alongside his people, confronting terrorism under bombardment and the recurring threats of terrorist incursions into the capital over 14 years of war. Furthermore, the person who has never abandoned the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, nor betrayed his allies who stood by him, cannot possibly be the same person who would forsake his own people or betray the army and nation to which he belongs.

I have never sought positions for personal gain but have always considered myself as a custodian of a national project, supported by the faith of the Syrian people, who believed in its vision. I have carried an unwavering conviction in their will and ability to protect the state, defend its institutions, and uphold their choices to the very last moment.

When the state falls into the hands of terrorism and the ability to make a meaningful contribution is lost, any position becomes void of purpose, rendering its occupation meaningless. This does not, in any way, diminish my profound sense of belonging to Syria and her people – a bond that remains unshaken by any position or circumstance. It is a belonging filled with hope that Syria will once again be free and independent.

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906 comments

  • It seems like the newsmega has a lot fewer of the regulars recently. I miss the input from the users who are actually proximate to the conflict in Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon. Their input was extremely valuable.

    • In one way I'm glad some of them aren't on here to see this and having to deal with our stupid arguments, the last few weeks have just been really bad. They're probably feeling the same emotions we are feeling times a hundred, and way more complicated and nuanced, as they actually live there and have a personal attachment to their country. Imagine commenting on and correctly predicting the downfall of you and/or your loved ones' country, for example. And then seeing people, maybe even someone you know being freed from prisions. And then the country gets bombed by a powerful adversary. In another scenario, imagine returning to your homeland after months of bombings, after a ceasefire agreement gets singed (no matter how bad the terms, a ceasefire is a ceasefire). That's extremely emotional. Being on the internet and arguing with a bunch of people (mostly westerners) who didn't even know what the SAA, 1974 agreement, the blue line, South Litani area, HTS, SNA, SDF, etc, were until a few weeks ago is probably not the best course of action in such a scenario.

      I'll keep on reporting until the end, no matter how bad it gets, someone has to do it after all. Or good, never give up hope comrades, even in the worst hours, we have to be resilient, there is no other choice.

      • That shit made me so angry. You literally had some deranged freak gave him death threats (I remember the death threats were pretty graphic too like slitting his family's throats graphic), admins sitting on their asses not doing the barest minimum of defedding from the lemmy instance (they only did it after I requested it), admins constantly changing their story about who was behind it going from blaming some other pariah ex-Hexbear account to "well, it was a total stranger I guess there's nothing we can do," no issuing an apology to him or HelltakerHomosexual (yeah, she sucked, but she was also unfairly dogpiled. Part of basic threshold of maturity is being fair towards people you personally don't like lol). And to top it off, people were strangely dogpiling him for some bizarre reason in that thread. So not only did the aggrieved party not get anything close to some form of restoration, but he got even more shit for daring to not wanting to see comments about his family's throats being slit while they're asleep. The admins turned their backs at him, and even some of the users turned their backs at him. At a certain point, it's time to call it quits.

        We lost such a good user.

      • Ok I see my app (I use Boost for Lemmy and it sent me a bunch of notifications) has had some notifications with regards to this, I don't have time to respond to all messages or individual comments, so all I'm going to say is: I'm doing fine, don't worry about me, I just don't feel comfortable posting under this given the situation, which I don't want to re-ignite. From what I've seen on my brief browse, there are accounts and users attempting to do the same thing I did in the news megathread and elevate it, so the information is still getting out there and that is what is most important. Hold them to a high standard, as you did to me. Lots of new developments. Love you all and stay safe.

      • And Awoo got banned for no good reason. The megathread is the last thing I'm willing to regularly use on this site but the mods are doing their best to ban some of the decent posters and let more be chased off by death threats or debatebros

      • I miss @aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net

  • A new virus with pandemic potential is rapidly spreading around American farms. I hear this one is from a weird American meat selling market where animals in the facility are kept trapped in small cages around feces all day, and sometimes even fed feces in some cases? Apparently the Americans believe this helps the animals grow faster and taste better? So barbaric

  • Attack kills head of Russia's nuclear and chemical weapons defenses in Moscow.

    A bomb implanted in a scooter and detonated from a distance killed General Igor Kirillov on Tuesday (17). Ukraine's security agency, which accuses Kirillov of using banned chemical weapons in the war, told Reuters that the country was behind the attack.

  • Macron visited the French department of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean, which was devastated by Cyclone Chido, the worst in 90 years. But he went berserk with the island's natives and cursed a lot into the microphone, saying that without France they would be even more in the shit.

    When confronted by the population without water, electricity and food, Macron goes berserk and spouts colonialist pearls such as “you must be happy with France”, “you can't be French and criticize the Metropolis”, “we give you everything”, and other hits from the century before last.

  • Idk where else to put this but our local Amazon plant is striking. I work nearby for a subcompany so I drive by every day to work and this morning I saw like 12-20 people out front with signs. I'm reaching out to my local org to see what I can do to help even though my branch isn't fully established yet.

  • Why would the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser "USS Gettysburg (CG-64)" switch their allegiance to Hamas and shoot down one F/A-18?

    Clearly this act of betrayal cannot go unpunished. I hope the US Navy sinks the rebellious cruiser.

  • If you want to see what happens when Government doesn't do stuff, look at Greece.

    These countries (Portugal, Greece) are literally examples of what happens when the Government isn't there to constrain capitalism and private debt is allowed to explode without control.

  • I used to be naive and think that even though my country's only left-ish party, the Red-Greens, are absolutely dogshit when it comes to antiimperialism, militancy and the like, at least they were good on social issues. That is supposed to be the deal with the western left, they get to go all in on the "woke" stuff in return for being useless on everything to do with economy and geopolitics.

    I am smarter now. Recently, 70 percent of the delegates at an extraordinary party congress voted to expel the Red Left faction for being too radical and too supportive of Palestinian resistance. That is bad enough as it is. But the purge prompted some Red-Green guy who sits in a municipal council to write a really depressing piece in Arbejderen. I thought we could at least be spared from the culture war bullshit, but alas no. He started out by saying how good it was that everyone in the party was now agreeing to support "democracy".

    Then he went on to say that now the baddies had been purged it was important to have freeze peach inside the party. He had been silenced, you see. What was he silenced for? You guessed it, transphobia. Apparently admins in party group chats had removed his posts about "defining gender biologically". He then went on to complain about trans women footballers and how unfair it was to cis women footballers that they were playing, consistently misgendering the trans players throughout the piece. And the guy calls himself a leftist and holds elected office for a presumably "revolutionary socialist" party.

    Judging from his complaints he is at least being "silenced" by other party members but it is deeply fucked that he can even think that transphobia is a legitimate belief inside a leftist party.

  • Feels like a lot of shit has happened and the vibes are completely off, but I think a lot of folks here and elsewhere have kind of forgotten that the American imperial machine is still in a state of rapid unraveling and no "wins" in the Middle East are going to stop it. Compared to 2015, for instance, the world is entirely different. So many more regions can afford to effectively ignore the United States and pursue their own interests, for good or ill. The civil war in Sudan is case and point; the US can't do shit to stop it, and has no real influence there at all. Fucking Ukraine is doing more on the ground to shape Sudan that the United States, let alone actors like the UAE. India has shown complete disregard for the American imperial project to the point of assassinating enemies of the Indian state in Canada of all places. The Sahel has been able to entirely pursue its own interests, and there's nothing the West can do about it. They can't even stop Yemen from closing down the Red Sea. There's a shit ton of dooming here, but I think it's important to not lose sight of the fact that the world has irrevocably changed in the last decade, that the space for maneuver is far wider than its been in decades, and there's virtually nothing the United States or its pawns can do to change this continuing shift.

  • It looks like the twitter account of the suspect in the latest terrorist attack in Germany has been found. The suspect appears to be an ex Muslim atheist man who left Saudi Arabia for Germany in 2006, and believed that the German government was persecuting ex Muslim and women Saudi refugees, along with trying to spread radical Islamic ideology across Europe? Saudi Arabia apparently wanted to extradite him, and Germany refused, and that appears to be related to his work in helping apostates, mostly women, to escape Saudi Arabia for refugee status in Germany, which was interpreted as participation in human trafficking, again of mainly women. The details are unknown at this time, this is all speculation with regards to that. In some of his tweets, he says that Germans are complicit in the persecution he faces as an ex Muslim and that he wants to take violent action against German citizens. He also appears to be a Zionist. Also went on an unhinged rant about how women social media influencers and models leaving Islam would lead to the collapse of the religion. It appears that he has a fixation with regards to ex Muslim women.

    Content warning for his twitter account: Islamophobia, condoning terrorist acts, sexism, Zionism, and everything in between.

    Twitter link

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    Nitter mirror

  • 🇲🇱Biggest Lithium plant in Africa, unveiled in Mali:
    https://xcancel.com/cecild84/status/1868657869702201691

    Yesterday, Mali Inaugurated , the largest lithium production mine in Africa, and the fifth in the world, the new "Lithium Mali SA" plant opened its doors in Goulamina, in the Bougouni region, Mali. The ceremony took place under the chairmanship of the President of the Transition, Army General Assimi GOÏTA, accompanied by members of the government, the president of the National Transitional Council (CNT), and in the presence of local and traditional authorities. The Chinese Ambassador to Mali, CHEN Zhihong, as well as the Chairman and CEO of the Ganfing company, Wang Xiao SHEN, also attended this event.

    In his speech, the President of the Transition, HE General Assimi Goïta, stressed the importance of this new infrastructure for Mali, emphasizing that this project, the result of profound reforms in the mining sector, constitutes a major step forward in the exploitation of the country's natural resources. The Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces expressed his satisfaction to see this project, eagerly awaited by Malians, particularly those in Bougouni and its surroundings, come to fruition. Concerning the expected economic benefits, the General announced an initial turnover of 680 billion FCFA, which will stimulate the national economy. The dividends from the mine, estimated at 71 billion FCFA, will be shared between the State (30%) and the private sector (5%). An investment of 25 billion FCFA is also planned for community projects, such as roads, health centers, schools and energy infrastructure. This project will create thousands of jobs, thus contributing to a significant reduction in unemployment and better employability of young people. The President of the Transition praised the "strategic and sincere" cooperation between Mali and China, thanking the Chinese company Ganfing for its commitment to respect Malian laws and support the socio-economic development of local communities.

    This project required an investment of more than 300 billion FCFA and should generate more than 150 billion FCFA each year for the Malian state.

  • A really somber "Tankie Therapy" episode from The East is a Podcast on the fall of Syria. I was personally waiting for the crew to give their views because they know how important revolutionary optimism is for how we as leftists should think about the world, but they also keep it grounded in material reality. The way they manage to resist slipping into either forms of delusional optimistic idealism or some doom-and-gloom self-flagellation, especially in completely uncertain times like this, and are able to give a broad and pragmatic perspective is something I really admire.

  • The leader of Yemen's Ansarallah, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi: 'Egypt is also under threat. The situation in Egypt may deteriorate quickly and the Zionist regime will seek to destroy all the capabilities and powers of the Egyptian army, like they did in Syria. The Zionist regime is seeking to implement this plan to overthrow the regime in Egypt'

  • Jordan Peterson moves to US

    In a recent episode of The Mikhaila Peterson Podcast, hosted by his daughter, Peterson cited his feud with the College of Psychologists of Ontario and concerns about a contentious bill targeting hate speech as among the key reasons for his decision to leave Canada.

    "The issue with the College of Psychologists is very annoying, to say the least, and the new legislation that the Liberals are attempting to push through, Bill C-63, we'd all be living in a totalitarian hellhole if it passes," Peterson said.

    What's C-63, you may ask?

    The Minister of Justice has examined Bill C-63, An Act to enact the Online Harms Act, to amend the Criminal Code, the Canadian Human Rights Act and An Act respecting the mandatory reporting of Internet child pornography by persons who provide an Internet service

    oh

  • Statement from Ansarallah on last night's operations against the US Navy.

    Statement implies that the US shot down their own aircraft while trying to intercept cruise missiles and drones. Impressive military operation by the Yemeni Armed Forces. I wondered why they didn't fire any ballistic missiles last night, this seems to be the reason why, they wanted to confuse the US Navy with targets that can appear similar to an aircraft. Maybe even shadowing one? Either way, they succeeded in causing a chaotic situation that lead to the downing of a US F/A-18F aircraft. That is impressive. May Ansarallah continue in their operations to dissuade the imperialists and defend Palestine.

    Twitter source

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    Just going to add a tweet that Mohammed Ali al-Houthi made on the 8th March 2024, I think it fits in nicely given the current situation:

    The heroes in the [Yemeni] armed forces know about the loopholes that can be exploited by synchronizing the take-off or landing of American aircraft on the battleships.
    I advise the American and their ally to issue a decision not to take off at all.

    It seems as if the "loophole" was used. The Americans were warned, they were told what would happen months in advance, and it happened. 1 F/A-18F down.

    Mohammed Ali al-Houthi tweet

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906 comments