Abu Salim Trauma Hospital {Masterlist}

April 17, 2012

The Tripoli Massacres

Early posts that will become redundant eventually:
Abu Salim Trauma "Hospital"
Urgent Appeal: Major Unnoticed Rebel Abuse in Plain Sight (summary)
video: A Massacre at Abu Salim Trauma Hospital Plus info on the outside victims
Women and Children Dead at Abu Salim Trauma Hospital

ASTH Report: Research

Libyan Observatory for Human Rights

July 14, 2013

There's the famous Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, with at one point two competing versions, which are interesting sources to follow for versions of events you can compare with other evidence. In Libya, not that I knew or noticed it while actively researching, has its own answer. Later I stumbled across the Libyan Observatory for Human Rights ( المرصد الليبى لحقوق الإنسان ) official Facebook page, all Arabic
, as well as a different page claiming the same name (I thought, maybe it was just similar) but with different and intriguing content. I saw that one just a few days ago but it disappeared before I got around to this post. The original url ended /moummer698 but it just re-directs to home now. It had continued into 2013, several posts in January. These show some of the militia crimes committed against decent Libyans - mangled fingernails, horrifically lashed backs, and skin-peeled legs, from later last year I think. Also, some posts had pictures of the Gaddafis, and it seemed in a positive context (however the translation of text was confusing). I took heart for my negligence of Libyan suffering to focus on Syria that even this dedicated site paused for months, with only a single post just appearing in July, discussing Syria. I didn't save any of it.

One of these Facebook pages had run some valuable new photos of the shed massacre un-burnt victims earlier last year. Probably the one just pulled, which inspired this post that now feels barely worth it (I did save those photos, however.

There's also a competing NTC-sponsored Libyan Observatory for Democracy and Human Rights, in Denmark at least (video, inaugurated April 2011) The Observatory less about democracy was cited in this July 2012 IPS article on worsening human rights after the war, which included some info on founder Nasser al-Hawary, an Islamist who's now upset at the militia crimes against Gaddafi loyalists, random blacks, etc. He might be genuine in that. On June 22, 2012, the BBC reported, the observatory implicated the NTC in the assassination of a judge investigating the assassination of Mustafa Abdel-Jalil a year earlier.

The more boring but existent Facebook page is pretty active. What's this on June 10? Is that Bashir al-Sadeq/Omar/whatever? And yet more injected strangers? Yep... "documenting" now a "Holocaust Yarmouk..." Wow, better get someone to really tell you on video what happened there.

Alright, well I was going to say the field is partly covered, and point readers to that, feeling better for my absence. But fucking Facebook just pulled it. I guess impostering, if that was it, was not the best strategy. It's not really covered, not by this observatory anyway.

- C.L.
Question for readers: Who is critically covering ongoing abuses, who's launching protests and efforts to change things, etc.? Please leave comments below directing people to useful links, or thoughts of your own.

Video Study: Al Baida Snipers

August 24, 2011
last update March 31, 2013
and 12-2-2017 (restoring images)

Update, March 31, 2013: Thanks to Petri, I finally noticed a comment left here recently by someone in Libya, phone number included, who claims he filmed one of the three videos examined here (not sure which one - See comments below, scroll waaaay down.) How do you respond to that? I ventured a guess, right below that.

Note, Sept. 9:
For those who've read this post before when it was boring, please check it out again. It took me two weeks, but I finally finished my analysis and it went better even than I thought. The introduction is optional context information. The actual analysis below that is what matters, with the videos themselves best for double-checking me.

Note, Sept. 18:
For those not inclined to read, I have a video explanation up now,embedded at the post's bottom.

---
Protesters Shot in al Baida
The UN Human Right Council report of June 1 [PDF link] found the following about the Libyan government's firing on demonstrators in the eastern city of al-Baida:

[M]embers of Al-Bayda Internal Security Agency fired live ammunition at a demonstration in Al-Salhi Square and the Commission has verified that several demonstrators had been killed. On 17 February, according to information received by the Commission from forensic and prosecutorial authorities, security forces of Khamis Katiba were deployed in Al-Bayda where they shot at demonstrators without prior warning, resulting in the deaths of 11 other demonstrators. Other witnesses spoke specifically of actions of the ISA and Revolutionary Committees in shooting at persons during demonstrations.

This is similar to what they found, mostly from just accepting what "protesters" told them, in several other Libyan cities. The main difference is that with al Baida, there is also at least some video evidence to support people being killed while only protesting.

Aside from the very few flukes like this, the Libyan government's explanation seems to fit the video record much better than the charges of the protesters and, pretty much, the world. Rather than peaceful protesters mowed down for speaking up, what the evidence (and lack of it) suggests is they were generally killed trying to storm army bases to secure their starter weapons for a military takeover. Few countries in the world would tolerate that without at least trying some deadly force to prevent it. (See the detailed article on this big question here).

A while back a Youtube friend tipped me off to an interesting angle about some videos I was already aware of but hadn't posted on yet. I already aware of two of the three videos he linked me to, listed and shown below. These were both the only videos I recall seeing where apparently unarmed protester types are shot dead right on camera while not clearly attacking a government facility. I only noticed seeing them together they were from nowhere but al Baida. Looking closer yet (again, below), I see they're apparently from nowhere but the intersection of Sharia Omar al-Muktar and Souq al-Hoot in al Baida.

I knew one of the videos below (the third) was from there, and didn't even know of the first one's existence. But they're all from that town of around 200,000 between Benghazi and al Qaeda central, Dernah. Al Baida's youth and Islamists were among the first to violently revolt; along with Benghazi and Az Zintan, al Baida witnessed violent protests and the torching of police stations on the 15th and daily from there. People were dying there, in small numbers and on both sides, from the very outset, unlike even in Benghazi. On the 18th, two policemen (internal security, I presume) were hanged by protesters there, perhaps angry about something that happened on the 17th.

Al Baida also fell before Benghazi, at an uncertain time between Feb 18 the Feb 20. The rebels there or perhaps from Dernah - Libya's nearby al Qaeda central - were able to spread out and take nearby Shahet military base, early on the 19th, and Labraq airbase right after that (before the 21st). The weapons seized from Shahet apparently assisted the final taking of the "Katiba" barracks in Benghazi the following day, marking the effective conquest of their new capitol city.

And by the time of the al Baida massacre, where 22 government soldiers were executed and blamed on the regime, there were some strange people working that town. One bearded, possibly be-robed man with a walking stick and questions about Emirs passed judgment, on video, upon the condemned men some evening around Feb 19-22. They deserved their fate, he said, for daring to shoot back at the rebels as they took Labraq airbase (see here for the transcript).

On the days the videos below were filmed, who was working that town?

The videos
1) Protests in Al Bayda East Libya on the 17th Feb facing live fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2f2dA_zoYc
Posted by Libyanm, Jun 10, but dated on-screen Feb 17, day 3 of fighting.

2) "Qaddafi's men open fire on a funeral procession and kill mourners, Al BaiDa'"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmaI2FeYB9s
Posted by LibyanSolidarity, March 2.
On-screen text has, in "Indian numbers," 17, suggesting again Feb 17. The day or the group? Dunno.

3) "VERY GRAPHIC_ BOY KILLED BY GADDAFI MEN IN BAYDA LIBYA"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqUHTsJBVqE
Posted by apologiiiize, Feb 20. Description gives this as the date of the incident. Could be earlier.

Analysis
First, Video 3
Only the date, February 20, and its view from ground level sets video 3 apart. Otherwise it seems all three videos seem to show either the same encounter or the same exact type of encounter happening repeatedly at the same spot. Video 3 is unique in showing it from ground level, as the crowd stops moving forward, holding a position near a row of dark blue blobs that seem to be internal security police. The quality is just atrocious. I've wondered if the resolution was lowered to obscure some detail. Like, for example, which way are the police's weapons pointing, up or forward?

A shot is fired, then we see a man down, a young guy, unconscious it seems, a pool of blood under the back of his head. Other quickly pick him up by the hands and feet and run him back the direction they came, blood just pouring from his head all the way. Barring an elaborate special effects job by the protesters (not impossible), it seems there's little doubt this kid was shot in the head right there, ten feet in front of this camera person, and was dead soon after.

We're to presume the shot was from the security men just fifty feet away at the intersection. But that's not what we're doing.

The Scene and the Sides

Videos 1 and 2 I'll focus on more. They are filmed from different low rooftops or mid-level balconies near each other, I've decided. For starters, I have a probable location within al Baida for the incident(s) shown in these three videos. The image below gives the best view from video one for comparison. The intersection, the buildings west of it, and the parking lot in particular perfectly match, and all else is consistent at least, for blocks down the street. Im 90% sure this is the spot.

What we're seeing is a funeral procession, in part, for what seems to be exactly one white-shrouded victim of some previous violence. The crowd moves east on Omar al Mukhtar way, perhaps after taking the body out of al Bayda hospital, abut six blocks distant. They're headed towards “Civil Defense of Al Jabal al Akhdar.”

The police line is quite near that presumed security center. The battle-scarred pavement around them seems to be from some previous violence. The white smears are I think from large rocks native to the area, breaking into chalky dust (al Baida means “the white,” by the way). The black smears are apparently from Molotov cocktails or some such, like the rocks, hurled towards the police line. In this video, both sides are hurling things at each other.

The security men run around in their area, with more coming from the north, but don't advance or retreat. Some hold rifle-shaped weapons for firing something - bullets, tear gas, I'm not sure. The sound of shots combined with no one running suggests they are shooting mostly in the air and everyone here knows that. 

But video one's subtitles disagree, saying they're clearly firing bullets at the crowd. To be fair, at least twice security men are shown pointing their guns - of whatever type (I'm no expert) - in the direction of the approaching crowd (see right). Neither of these lines up with the actual shooting captured. The subtitles call the man at left, kneeling and apparently aiming his weapon, a "sniper." This a little bit ironic, as we'll see below.

The Fallen
The first two videos show two separate shootings, at two different intersections. I'm pretty sure video 3 shows the same killing as video 1, from a position just a couple of people behind the victim.

Video 1 has the shot come at 1:26. The victim is visible writhing around (or being adjusted?) on the pavement. There’s no ambulance; some of the protesters carry him off, back towards the hospital, within a matter of seconds. A pool and trail of blood are left, as happened with the victim in video 3. I think it's the same.

Video 2, the poor quality one, has a shot fired at 0:09. It takes a moment to zoom in, to see a vertical blob is now horizontal, and a crowd has gathered around. A yellow ambulance comes in quickly to help, but a gray pickup truck pulled up to retrieve them just a moment before, blocking their path. The video cuts there, and we don’t see what happened next.




At left are what I think are the camera person locations and the spots where the two martyrs fell, established by comparing cross-streets, building heights, and so on. By this, the video 2 victim was sniped quite a ways from the police line. It's possible as far as I know, but a long shot. The victim shown in Videos 1 and 3, however, is in a great spot to be told "no further" with a bullet to the head. There's no denying that. However...

My Theory: A False Flag Op by Terrorist Snipers
In video 2, the ambulance comes in from the side of the police line. We’re to presume the shooting did too, but I'm not so sure. My theory, which is looking better the more I look, is that rooftop snipers along the route, provocateurs hoping to demonize the regime and enrage the masses below, are doing the shooting here.

The camera just before the shooting.
Just left of the sniper position?

Video 2 has an unusual start, giving me my first clue. The camera starts out watching the procession, then cuts. Whatever happened in the interim, it isn't long, and cuts back to a view from behind a corrugated metal wall, a great sniper nest if there were a hole in it. The camera emerges from behind this wall to again watch the crowd below. In a possible coincidence, the shot is fired just then, as soon as the targets are being recorded again. I can totally envision the camera guy cutting to ask the sniper next to him "we're ready? They're getting close." Getting the yes, he rolls again, then gets in position, and with a signal that he's recording - bang. Gaddafi crime on video, ready for prime time worldwide.

Video one briefly shows people on the roof that I think video 2 was filmed from. The red blob is definitely a person, moving a bit and with a pink arm across the ledge, filming I presume. The purple is likely another person, perhaps kneeling, and there might be a third, in blue-gray, sitting. The longish black thing leaned inert against the wall might be a rifle. (The tin wall isn't visible, but that would be off-frame, on the opposite side of the roof.)

If the first team shot both the victim and the video from their rooftop, they’re apparently not shooting now. But a person was just shot beneath them once the other camera had a view. Was it really the police this time, or another sniper yet next to this camera person? Twice in a row, a demonstrator was shot down just as they came into a cemera's line of view.

I'm not sure yet how to analyze the audio aspect of the videos, but unless it's been doctored, a shot from the police zone down the street should sound very different from a gun right there next to the camera. But just from the visuals, I think we have a compelling, if not conclusive, case that these rare protester deaths were part of a coordinated false flag operation by extremely sinister elements within the Libyan uprising.  


Note Sept. 11: One more odd bit - the gray truck in video 2, that has the victim loaded in its bed instead of in the government ambulance, was parked right there waiting. It pulls up just before the shooting in fact at 0:05, before the first cut (perhaps being the signal to double check everyone's readiness?). All it does is park there. Then comes the brief edit, the gunshot, enough time for the death and reaction to filmed for a moment passes. Then the truck rolls forward just in time to keep the evidence from the authorities, we presume. A group of people loads the victim, and in a matter of seconds, the truck drives through the crowd towards the hospital or wherever. I think what happened next is the crowd blocked the ambulance until it gave up, but again, that part wasn't shown. Why there was no truck ready the second time, I do not know.

Video Version and One More Clue

And one more thing, as I included in the video but not above, there is a possible clue from camera 3. Numerous gunshots happen with little effect on his filming. But for some reason, the one that killed the protester in front of him has the camera panning around differently, focusing briefly on only one spot - up, ahead, and to the left, in the direction of the building top where I think the shot came from and where video one was recorded. At left is the only view I know of of that building (the taller one with white lights at the top).

More on the Victims, Date, and Location
Comments (see below) submitted by astute reader Felix alerts me to A report on the website of AlKarama 4 March 2011. AlKamarais a Switzerland-based organization, he says, and the report "mentions that the evidence for 59 deaths in Al Baida is based solely on death certificates issued by the hospital, all for bullet wounds (allegedly). These are assumed to be demonstrators." Indeed, that was their basis for proving a government order worthy of investigation and sanctions. As this study shows, that was a leap of faith (unrecognized?) that seems unwarranted.

The report also mentions "a 10 year old girl, Rokaya Mabrouk, shot dead in Al Baida on 18 February 2011 and a 14 year old boy, Saad Al Yamani, killed in front of the security forces' headquarters on 16 February 2011," Felix says. Sounds like deft provocateur work, just like the videos examined above. Felix also reasons that these videos might be from the 16th instead of the 17th, citing exactly two protesters killed in front of the main security HQ that day - Mr.Yamani and a 21-year-old named Khaled Naji Khanfar. Other than one in Ajdabiya, and a few in front of al Abraq airpot, the rest of the death locales are given as just "Al Baida." Quite a few are listed as going down that day, any of them perhaps at the same place, just not specified.

I could go with either day at this point, and I don't suppose it much matters. But the location is a match. One site I found gives "Al Jabal al Akhdar" as one of Libya's 25 municipal adminstrative divisions. Many cities have a district of their own name, but not al Baida. So the civil defense station of that name these protesters were shot near would seem to be the main one for that city, as cited for those two shot guys.

"Rumblings" Ahead of Feb. 15

By Adam Larson
February 11, 2013
last update Feb. 12

"Rumblings"
As we draw quite near to the two-year anniversary of the engineered uprising in Libya, there have been concerns of a planned "correction" of the 2011 "revolution." Which way it goes remains to be seen. Will the operative people here pull things even further in the direction of militant Salafism, or towards a greater neo-liberalism and pro-West privatization of industry? Or will it aim to actually start a process, by the long-suppressed Green masses, of reclaiming what was lost in the last two years?

Whichever of these prevails, the direction is sure to be mixed, with things being pulled in different directions at once.

I did not conduct an in-depth search for information here, but a widely re-posted AFP report by Youssef Ba is adequate to create this starting pont.
Google News
Dawn.com

Faced with growing rumblings in the street, the authorities have put security forces on high alert ahead of the protests as well as celebrations two days later marking the second anniversary of the “Feb 17 Revolution” that led to Qadhafi’s ouster and being killed in October 2011.

Demands by opposition groups range from a ban on officials of the former regime from holding public office to the disbandment of armed militias and a reform of the higher education system. Chants at protests are increasingly resembling those staged during the uprising against Qadhafi: “The people demand the fall of the (new) regime.” A leaflet circulated in Tripoli calls for a “popular revolt” and a civil disobedience movement to bring down the regime. It encourages Libyans to stock up with food and fuel in anticipation of what it says will be a complete shutdown of the country following the Feb 15 protests.

It is unclear who is behind the leaflet and the calls for protests but Libyan officials and several organisations, including Islamic groups, accuse remnants of the former regime of fomenting protests to “sow disorder and instability”.

No one can doubt that Libyans have much to protest, and the anniversary of the start of this awkward process can hardly be passed up as the best time to voice those concerns in whatever big way.

However, the exact date for the “popular revolt” against “the regime” is significant. Libya’s opposition and rebel fighters always trumpet Feb. 17 as the signature date of their “revolution,” the planned start date, marking the anniversary of extremist protests the government suppressed in 2006. The choice two days earlier instead marks the date when treasonous violence masquerading as protest actually began, with the arrest of provocateur Fathi Terbil and a military armory raided by rebels in Dernah the following day. There are signs of scheming in the days even before that. Suggesting much broader plans, over the following days emerged possible French commandoes and high-level defectors, on-script and pulling tricks at the UN.

Different people from different factions might find reason to commemorate the 15th, but whoever it is, the attitude it implies is troubling to anyone wanting to preserve the post-rape status quo.

In Benghazi and Cyrenaica, where that rebellion first took hold, the recurring federalist issue is one of the cornerstones of protester concerns, according to Ba’s AFP report. Longtime rebel activist Mohamed al-Mufti evidenced no concern with militias and public safety (that’s more an issue for Tripoli and other areas “liberated” only with more force and policing). But he told Ba “the calls to demonstrate are justified,” citing economic issues alone as bolstering the “politically motivated” campaign with legitimate “demands for federalism.”

Libya’s grand mufti (not the activist Al-Mufti), as well as a wide sector of civil society activist types have stressed publicly that all protests must be peaceful and focused on “correcting the process of revolution” and not threatening “legitimate institutions,” which “there is no reason to dispute.”

One man at least spoke to challenged that: “Sixteen months after the fall of Qadhafi, there is no change and (the new) government has failed to establish security or restore the authority of the state,” He’s surely not alone in this feeling that the existing regime might lack legitimacy and be a more than fair target for a more thoroughgoing correction.

Unsolicited Advice / Potentially Useful Thoughts

I have advice to Libyans at this juncture. It may be nothing but clever-sounding delusion, and might even be a very bad suggestion. The people who live there will know the ground reality better, but I ask that they give this a moment’s thought anyway.

Don’t count on this particular day to really start anything continuous. Do make a strong, silent, and controlled showing. Shut the country down - for an afternoon - to the extent possible. Establish the choke-hold, then let go with only a few breaths missed. A green giant can be merciful, and in no big rush. It can even compromise its color to appeal to as many as possible, even among those who previously betrayed the nation. It can take advantage of the forced opportunity to reinvent something like the Jamahiriya but better, freed from any nagging flaws of the old system.

Do not start killing soldiers, or even militiamen, and calling them defectors. It won’t work for you like it did for the enabled regime-changers two years ago. Document and expose all false-flag provocations you quite likely will be saddled with and blamed for. The "authorities" and/or the real muscle of extremist militias will try to arrest and crush the movement away on any pretext, even invented. This is likely to happen, and it may be intensely unpleasant for some brave souls. But the green giant is no single person, and they cannot stop it by plucking off even a few thousand of its leaves.

Also, changing the plans at the last minute, to strike on the 14th instead, might throw the false-flaggers off and give them too little time to re-adjust. That might give you a cleaner day that actually inspires the world with the depth of humanity they just saw shine in this darkened place, and leave no green activity for them to tack it onto the following day. It's a thought. 

Nails and Chaos: Related Big-Picture Thoughts  
The US State Department is not convinced the demands for peace will hold; its diplomatic security bureau urges all citizens to avoid Libya at this time if possible. Somewhere they had learned “even events intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence.” And of course the protests that start violent, like they did in Libya on February 15, 2011, can screw a country up for years – if they get enough air support and other outside help. As testament to that fact and its effects, the warning notes “because of ongoing instability and violence, the Department of State’s ability to provide consular services to U.S. citizens in these regions of Libya is extremely limited.”

Eastern Libya especially is marred now by “a general backdrop of political violence, assassinations, targeting former regime officials, lawlessness, and an overarching absence of central government authority.” This is according to a report by the Accountability Review Board investigating the Benghazi embassy attack of last September 11. That still-mysterious intelligence failure - around a CIA operation thinly disguised as a part of the State Dep’t – is explored in a recent article by Ronda Hauben: “The Benghazi Affair: Uncovering the Mystery of the Benghazi CIA Annex” That operation was closed down afterwards. As quoted there, a Wall Street Journal article decried the loss of “a critical intelligence unit” from “a hotbed of Islamism,” harming “U.S. standing in the region and the ability to fight terrorist groups” which the U.S. itself had enabled to create their hotbed there.

That acutely-symbolic event might be the nail holding one of the first-assembled corners on the framework of a massive and ominous new mythology. With the best of intentions, we may later decide, we (the civilized world) tried to free the Libyan people, only to unleash the worst aspects of their flawed Islamic culture. Sadly, the contagion ruled there, spread to Mali and metastasized across North Africa. It took root is Egypt’s upheaval and beyond, and was actively fostered by Arab/Sunni Muslim leaders in Syria, plunging that nation - and likely Lebanon with it - into years of sectarian chaos and awful bloodshed. Too late, we may finally recognize how blinded we were by our "own pure motives," and that the hated leaders overthrown were rational pragmatists who had carefully managed balance in their nations. It will seem a mistake that they and their brands of sanity were crushed under lies and replaced with the new global Islamic threat we'll know all too well by then. "Oops." World War will be upon us.

The nail of the Benghazi attack was driven into the wood of "post-Gaddafi Libya," as the invention is called. Hypothetically at least, that wood can reject the nail, and turn itself from stale plank back into a green and living tree again. This possibility should be encouraged to grow in likelihood in every way possible.

Syrian Opposition: We Are All Terrorists

January 21, 2013

As we reflect on Dr. King's non-violent dream of social change...

2011-2012: Syrian government represses and kills peaceful protesters, calling them "terrorists." They start fighting back, but also keep protesting, and insist:

WE ARE NOT TERRORISTS. They only want the terrorist regime to go away. (photo in context here, AFP credit)

They keep fighting and get better armed. The Turks and Saudis and "Free Libyans" help them expand greatly in arms, men, and resources, with Western approval and other support. Horrible things start happening, blamed on "the regime" and on Alawites, who implicitly must pay. They keep happening more often as the rebellion gets more capable. The aftermath of their May 25, 2012 conquest of Al-Houla is scary, with its shaken dead babies (who weren't terrorists!) pointed at Kofi Annan. That event, like no other, galvanized "the world community" further yet to demand that the Syrian government stop fighting "terrorists" and surrender themselves and all their people to the non-terrorist "people of Syria." (the above photo seems to be from the days after the Houla massacre.)

For months before that and for months since, Jabhat Al-Nusra, aka Al-Nusra Front, rose along with the defector-based Free-Syrian Army, to the forefront of the conflict with terrorist tactics that proved deadly effective. Car bombings, TV station and hospital attacks, destroying electrical stations, blocking/stealing food aid shipments, plane shoot-downs, soldier executions, other abductions and executions, forcing a child to (try and) behead a Syrian soldier, possibly the bombing of Aleppo university, and the same day, perhaps the Haswiyeh massacre, etc.... all in the service of a Sunni-purified Salafist Syria and/or a global Caliphate. Allahu Akbar! (at left, from Busatin Al-Haswiyeh: a man in mourning runs his fingers across his throat, while explaining to ITV news what happened when other black-clad men - Al-Nusrah or other rebel Islamo-nihilists - passed through in mid-January, 2013)

On December 11, Al-Nusrah Front were listed by the US State Dept. as a terrorist group, just for being a direct offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq and engaging in the same kind of things in Syria. It would be surprisong if the problem hadn't been glaringly obvious for moths already by then. It's unlikely to have much effect this late in the game they own. The opposition and all its allies protested that listing and seem intent on ignoring it. (FSA-Al-Nusra-supporting Turkey took a particularly Twilight Zone approach to the freedom-fighter/terrorist problem with their actions and words on Jan. 17/18).

Earlier, non-violent protest organizers who would never themselves slash a child and blame "the Alawite regime" cast their lot with the Islamo-nihilists too. A New York Times report, just pre-dating the listing, mentioned this:

In keeping with a tradition throughout the uprising of choosing themes for Friday protests, the biggest day for demonstrations because it coincides with Friday Prayer, many called for this Friday’s title to be “No to American intervention — we are all Jabhet al-Nusra.”

Now that we see how little dishonesty is involved (apparently that wasn't the chosen theme), let's just insert that back into the photo above (with some other artsy touches) to see how it would have looked.

December (2012) Digs at Yarmouk

January 14, 2013

This is just too strange. Libya Herald: No bodies found at Yarmouk camp: official Dec. 12, 2012.

Reports that unidentified bodies and money have been found at the Yarmouk camp in Tripoli have been denied by an interior ministry official, Fawzi Falaq.
He said that no bodies nor any money had been found when security agencies started excavating the site in response to such reports.

A local had reported digging at the Yarmouk camp, saying bodies were exhumed on each of several occasions. Somehow, money was also suspected, along with these unidentified bodies. But by the time authorities dug to check, there were no bodies, just bloody blankets and scraps of clothing. So that means ... what?