Douma Civil Defense on Facebook, 2012 in Review

April 1-2, 2019

Before there were the "White Helmets" there was already an Islamist-oriented, militant-linked imposter "Civil Defense" network operating in the "rebel-held" parts of Syria. In the Damascus suburb of Douma, this existed in at least two prior forms, one of which ran an account on Facebook from 4 September, 2012 up to a last post on 2 February, 2014. It was, I think, not long after this that such "civil defense" units were re-conceived and re-branded on a grand scale.

https://www.facebook.com/Civil.Defense.douma
The General/Public Authority for Civil Defense in Douma and its Surroundings
( الهيئة العامة للدفاع المدني في مدينة دوما وما حولها )
"Page created - September 4, 2012"

CDD logo from Sept. 2012

Slick, professional logo above posted Sept. 13 but the first content posts were a week after creation, on Sept 11, 2012. One has a sort of utopian logo-picture, another seems to explain their public mission (auto-translation):

In the name of God
To our people who are always the bride of the Syrian revolution....
After this regime has been did and increased in the tyranny that it is in the land and many wounded and water, we need to unite efforts to spread a smile on the faces and help the people during their plight.
For the sake of this, the civil defense battalion has been established in the city of Douma
After her work on earth has been proven for months now, thanks to Allah, he has been restructured and organized under the name ((the general authority for civil defense in the city of Douma and its surroundings)) and this page has been established on Facebook to communicate With all its supporters and lovers, this page on behalf of the general authority for civil defense is the main in the city of Douma and around and others are void from the time they broadcast it, they are the main color of the work department. On Earth,, stay tuned to us hand in hand to bandage the wounded surgeon, hand in hand to fire the fire that devour green and Japanese, hand in hand to remove the rubble from above those who are trapped under the rubble, hand in hand to make a smile on the lips of our children and Our Women, our elders and our loved ones, and let's all be blessed by Allah (and cooperate on the land and the piety and do not forgive the sinner and the aggression).
On this occasion, I salute all the workers with us in this sector of doctors, paramedics, fire teams, activists, activists and unknown workers behind the scenes that do not only pay for the pay, the extended, the tender and the victory of God.
Syria lived free and fair
General Supervisor: Mohammed Abu Khalid

Timeline Context  
Douma and its surroundings is even more specific than Eastern Ghouta to describe the area as I'm considering it now. From the bits I've picked up, the Douma-based extremists of Liwa Al-Islam started exerting control in Douma and then all around, from sometime in 2011 to mid-2012, when they claimed a major bombing assassination of Syrian military officials in July and took on public prominence.

Shortly before that, late June, 2012, the Army had allegedly shelled and raided Douma, and massacred many people, including at Hamdan Hospital, and caused the rest to flee. The government claimed terrorists wrecked the hospital and terrorized the town, causing everyone to flee, suggesting any massacre that occurred was also by them. Both sides painted the government as in control of a largely vacant Douma, but in some areas, rotting bodies were left uncollected for a week or more, where opposition activists at least could get video... (ACLOS)

And within months, in late October, the government would lose control again to such a degree they considered it out of their reach, where it stayed for years, up until re-conquest in 2018.

This Civil Defense emerged ... prior to the June massacre? It's said to be for "months" before being reorganized, just prior to a Sept. 4 re-launch - which was just weeks before the end of the militant re-conquest (agreed by Damascus Oct. 23), so launched probably about the same time as the offensive?

During this ambiguous period, and just before the CDD re-org came the mid-August massacre of "Douma Youths" by the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Capitol Shield Brigade from Harasta (the victims were actually soldiers and policemen the brigade had captured). So the new Facebook page would be a few weeks too late to have to weigh in on that issue, lucky for them as they would be on the wrong side of history there for sure.
http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:Douma_Hostage_Massacre

Urgent Priority: Chemical Weapons!
Early statement, Sept. 15 described as "information about dealing with chemical weapons." Out the gate, on day 5, this is an urgent topic for them why? Obama had just declared his red line threat on 20 August, 2012. That would be based on whatever intel or rumors the Syrian opposition will know of, or will have seeded or invented...

But only the vaguest, scattered gas attacks reported prior to mid-late November, and they were deadly from the start - first two in the Douma area 11-17 and 11-23 (one child killed in each), about two months after this, then in Daraya, 11-30 (3 men killed) and then again on 12-6 (a baby killed - considered here next to the next one in Daraya on 12-22 that killed 7 men of the Syrian army)

What got CDD just a bit ahead of the curve like that?

Translation via Amin2511 rendering copyable text, me plugging it in (imperfect) - attached to its posting at ACLOS. The signs and instructions seem fairly reasonable, if not ideal (e.g. advice given for any/all rather than by kind of chemical) and presume either nerve agent or blister agent will be used. They don't say much about what sparked the worry, except for this in the closing:

Note: We do not say that the criminal regime will use the chemical (singular), but we must take all precautions because this Nusayri system does not have anything that is haraam (forbidden)

The first try I got "Nasserite system." But that didn't sound right, so I checked. Yep, النصيري = nusayri, derogatory for Alawite/Alawi - followers of whatsisname Nusseir, the founder of Alawism. It's the Alawite nature of the system that makes them prone to any kind of evil, according not just to Liwa Al-Islam and its founder Zahran Alloush, but also to the pre-White Helmets guys in Douma. Huh.

Add April 14: At the ACLOS file talk page, I've assembled some further points by William Vanwagenen on how this lines up with the creation in Turkey, of the precursor to the Chemical Violations Documentation Center, in October 2012, and increased Western concern over CW use and stockpiles in early December, Obama's second mention of the "red line" on Dec. 3, and first news-making CW attack claim on Dec. 6, in Daraya. And here's an annotated version of the CDD bulletin  from so early in that sequence.

General Misery Documentation
9-20-12 mangled legs photoset The martyr Jamal Yasin Taha, traces of a mortar round in the neighborhood.

9-24-2012 Massacre: Civil Defense shocking with this propaganda revenge poster showing 8 men executed, likely by terrorist allies of theirs

A lot of injuries and amputation videos in Oct. (Assad shelling)…

Liberating Martyrs
As of October 23, the government said, their forces had lost control of Douma in the face of a resurgence by the "terrorists" of Liwa Al-Islam, who used their newest access to civilians to commit a massacre of 25. Activists reported the massacre of at least 20, by Assad's men, on October 24. They say "shabiha" (regime thugs, usually Alawite and genocidal) "were at a checkpoint and then stormed into a residential building nearby" and killed 20+ civilians. (Reuters). This event's still-sparse ACLOS page contains info from the Civil Defense Douma page and others to relate 28 civilians killed, and three"FSA" fighters killed in some battle to "liberate" a "martyr's checkpoint." That must be after the "Shabiha" launched their massacre from there? Were they killed trying to stop that? Was this at some other checkpoint in a coincidence?

This is how Douma was freed from government control. This is very much like what happened at Al-Houla, Taldou, back on May 25. There they lost about six fighters, but overran 4 or 5 security posts, and massacred around 100 civilians. See "How Terrorists were Given Al-Houla in Response to Their Massacre There"

https://taldoutruth.blogspot.com/2018/06/how-terrorists-were-given-al-houla-in.html

Just before this massacre was launched, by Shabiha, the recently re-organized CDD suffered a string of bad luck, losing at least 2 members. Presumably, they would have played along even with this turn of strategy, but they didn't get a chance to find out...

10-22 CDD photo of an armed "hero martyr Hassan Ali, a member of the Civil Defence Authority." which links the national authority with "activist on the ground," and he was sworn defender of Douma, its people and honor, etc. until his death.
name البطل حسن علي
VDC: Hasan Ali al-Mou'az, "Abu Ali," from Douma, field medic, killed 10-22 by shooting.
CDD post links to video of The hero martyr Hassan Ali Al-Ma'iz
text: الشهيد البطل حسن علي المعاز
Oddly, his face is a mix of yellow and purple, with eye swelling no more purple, and he has some foam from the mouth, poss. lip burns or crusted blood, but no other fluids visible. Both images below.

And the CDD Fire Marshall had to be killed right then as well.
10-23, 2:22 PM CDD post, no text, just the link to a video by Alais Doumany (as most of these CDD videos are)  2012 10 23 الشهيد حاتم راعودة أبو صطيف مسوؤل الاطفاء في الهيئة العامة للدفاع المدني

The martyr Hatem Ra'ouda Abu Satif, the fire marshal of the General Civil Defence Authority.

no further explanation, no notes - only face visible, but all cloth around the neck is red.

The VDC entry adds to his name with Moustafa Hatem Raouda from Douma. Occupation blank, no notes. Some video links. A still, with bloody face. Below, pre and post cleanup images together. Note how after old blood is washed off, some blood still drips on the floor, and the cloth around his neck is still staining red.

Embracing the Spirit of the Times

Following on that horrible Shabiha massacre, the CDD became bolder in boosting militant "defense" of "liberated" Douma and its growing surroundings, posting these images in November, 2012 (the one at right, already used on October 28)

Not to say they're pro-Islamist militants … until I can say what groups those are … just Muslims who support others take up arms against injustice, and also take up arms themselves maybe, and who are pretty religious (below: posted October 30) ... and they would keep on running this page from Douma without the extremists of Liwa Al-Islam / Jaish Al-Islam shutting them down. (unless that's what happened with their last posts in early 2014?)

Who is "sheikh Mohammed?" Civil Defense Douma showed this picture and wished for God's protection over him on November 5.

Pulling People: from the rubble, APART?
This post was far more interesting when it included some things I split off (see below) and when I had a dramatic and terrible closing for 2012 and the start of 2013. There was a post there that made me wonder if Civil Defense Douma helped pass off the deliberate 4-limb dismemberment of a toddler girl (as I've heard it called, "drawn and quartered" - the pulling apart kind). I decided not to go there, but on review … I'm going to give it more review. Maybe I'm just too attached to parallels, and this exact thing is something I think we did (barely) see happen in Douma, in 2015, to a young teenage boy... (available for re-seeing here, graphic but managed)

Other Stuff, 2013
That's 2012 and the first few months of this group that would go on, as they put it, being Volunteers Doing their Best (July 20, 2013 ). From there I only gathered materials related to these subjects with their own posts (forthcoming):

- "Chemical Barrier" Massacre 1-28-13

- Douma morgue photos