Syria Rebels Block Rescue of Western Journalists

[David__77]

From AFP/NEWSCORE:

...

The evacuation of wounded journalists from the Syrian flashpoint city of Homs will most likely take place on Monday because it is "dangerous" to pull them out Sunday night, the Red Cross said.

...

A Western journalist involved in Saturday's negotiations said ambulances twice entered Baba Amr, the district in the flashpoint central city that has been pounded by Syrian troops for more than three weeks.

But each time they were blocked by members of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA).

The journalist, requesting anonymity, said the FSA refused to allow the evacuations, alleging that the regime had arrested nine people who were evacuated on Friday. But the ICRC investigated those claims and described them as "totally false."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/wounded_journalists_likely_cross_bJLY5PLHmcSINimVQQxBCN#ixzz1nXJgaR9I

[I wonder if the opposition wants to hold them as a bargaining chip, or to attempt to encourage Western intervention militarily to "rescue" them, even though the road is clear for them to leave.]

[Fool Count]

1. Why is the journalist "requesting anonymity"? Is it not, like, totally against his journalistic

duty not to report truthfully on the events under his own byline? Is he afraid of his employer's reaction
if he reported the truth?

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. For the sake of negotiations and all that

this is why.

It has nothing to do with being a journalist. This shit can be very delicate...

[David__77]

5. If he's involved in negotiations, that could undermine his role.

But, moreover, it doesn't fit in with the narrative that "rebels = good."

[riverwalker]

8. not "rebels" just civilians

but then for some, the mere act of being alive is considered "rebellious".

[David__77]

10. "revolutionaries" are combatants...

This is an insurgency...

[riverwalker]

11. they are civilians

the people being slaughtered are civilians. A week old baby is not a "combatant", and the artillery does not discriminate. It may have begun as an insurgency, that's not what it has become.

[Fool Count]

12. So? Give Assad "smart" bombs that he could discriminate better? Or should we just assume that

any insurgency is entitled to victory, because it's "killing its own people" to oppose it?

[David__77]

13. In 1974, so were the Khmer rouge...

So?

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Read the story, the negotiations are with FSA personnel

by International law definitions, even if you do not agree, they are combatants.

The negotiations are not done with babies.

[David__77]

2. Marie Colvin and company refused ambulance rescue from Syrian bombardment

France and Britain were trying desperately to rescue injured media personnel from Homs and recover the bodies of Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik, after it emerged the survivors may have refused an earlier rescue by a Syrian Red Crescent ambulance.

An attempt by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to rescue Paul Conroy, a photographer for The (London) Sunday Times, and Edith Bouvier, a French journalist suffering from multiple leg fractures, appeared to have failed due to a lack of trust during a cease-fire, AFP and the Sunday Times reported.

A Syrian Red Crescent ambulance arrived to transport the injured, the Sunday Times reported, but they refused to go amid fears they would be arrested after entering the country illegally. They wanted the ICRC to transport them with a diplomat present, which could not be arranged.

The Red Crescent told British and French representatives, "We did everything you asked, but your guys did not want to come. The Red Crescent saw your guys face to face and they were told no.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/marie-colvin-died-trying-to-retrieve-her-shoes/story-e6frev00-1226281813311

[So Syria facilitated an attempt to remove them from the battle area, and facilitated the Red Crescent ambulances, that were refused by the journalists. Now the rebels won't even allow the ambulances to enter.]

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Ok let me get this straight

the Red Crescent was not trusted to keep their neutrality?

This is the undercurrent of the story....

I will keep my thoughts to myself, but that is not good.

[David__77]

6. Yes, they do not trust the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

SARC has not adopted a pro-opposition standpoint, but that should go without saying. Red Cross/Crescent doesn't do this.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. As I said, they are neutral

and if they were not trusted, that means that EITHER... they have evidence that patients have been taken from ambulances... or an El Salvador Situation where it is still murky... whether they were forced to, or they did it willingly, transport army troops during the civil war.

That led to a revolt from the rank and file, but that is a whole different matter.

[JNathanK]

9. hmm. and they're supposed to be potential allies?

Are these Syrian rebel groups just another bunch of vandals that will create a regime more oppressive than the previous if NATO decides to aide them with weapons? Will we have another repeat of Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden if the US decides to back them, simply because they're the enemy of the current regime? Oh, well they have "Free" in their name, so they must be good guys.