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Subscribe to RSSSome say the Arab League observers' mission has been a failure. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.
Editor's note: Cairo-based NBC News correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin is reporting from Syria this week. Follow his updates on Twitter @Aymanm
Update at 5:20 p.m. ET Wednesday: Arab League monitor in Idleb described monitoring mission there as terrifying, repeatedly coming under attack and receiving threats.
Update at 8:18 a.m. ET Wednesday: Police in #damascus have let us go after about an hour and deleting our video of long petrol lines #syria
Update at 8 a.m. ET Wednesday: Ayman Mohyeldin says in a message on Twitter that he was "Taken to police station in #damascus. Despite having permits we were forced to delete video of people waiting in line."
Published at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday: Inside Syria, Day 1
DAMASCUS -- To say that Damascus suffers from a cult of personality is an understatement. Arriving in Damascus airport, there is no mistaking who runs Syria: "Doctor Bashar al-Assad."
In the short walk from the airplane to the car, I counted more than 200 posters plastered on the walls, columns, doors and pretty much everywhere my eye turned. All I could see were pictures carrying the image of Assad. From planting olive trees to donning full military dress, Assad is everywhere. Even customs officials processing our paperwork were humming pro-Assad songs.
A few hours later, at a dinner with old and new friends in a Damascus restaurant, I am told it's not just the president's image that is ubiquitous, it’s the entire security apparatus that's keeping a watchful eye on what is happening in Damascus. "Be careful what you say and when you say it," a friend tells me. "Never speak freely with a taxi driver or start a random conversation about what is going on," I am advised.
Syrian President Bassar Al-Assad vowed to crack down against those he blamed for trying to topple his regime. His forces shot at protestors and in a speech, he attacked the Arab League who've sent monitors into Syria. ITN's John Ray reports.
But despite the warning, there is a certain ease by which the current crisis comes to the surface of any discussion. Criticism of the government is rampant at one restaurant where conversations flow from table to table. An occasional silence interrupts the chats as diners peek over the shoulders to ensure no one is paying attention too closely. "It's OK, don’t worry, the regime has bigger problems right now than to worry what is being said on every table. We know everyone here," my friend says, nudging me to keep on eating.
Over the course of the next several hours, I hear about "Syria's uprising" from those living it daily, including its pitfalls, its weaknesses, its strengths. Lessons learned and gains made. In the background, a TV plays Arab music songs, and then a red ticker on the screen flashes a breaking news bulletin. In unison, heads across the restaurant turn: An explosion has been reported in the Damascus neighborhood of Nahr El Aisha. People turn back to their meals.
Damascus is a city on edge. There is an uneasy nervousness in the city. Yes, shops are open, and restaurants and cafés bustle with patrons. But that’s up to a certain time, and for those who know Damascus, it’s a few hours less than normal, and a few hours less than what it was just a few months ago. There is an unofficial curfew, imposed by residents who are weary of a different city after dark. There are parts of the city where the risks of travel are too dangerous at night. As we drive around one roundabout in the city, we veer on to a side street. "This side of the circle is safe. If you drive a kilometer in the other side, there are tensions between the residents and the security," my friend tells me.
Sana/Handout / EPA
An image of President Bashir al-Assad watches over the scene of a pro-government rally at Sabe Bahrat square in Damascus in December.
The government says "armed gangs" have inched closer to the capital, frequently attacking security checkpoints at night. Several attacks have already happened in the heart of the capital. And even government employees concede certain routes in and out of the city have become too dangerous to traverse. Anti-government activists say momentum is on their side as pressure mounts on the government, with political and military defections increasing. When night falls, security forces crack down on neighborhoods close to the capital where anti-government sentiment runs high.
Along one of the capital's main streets, one side of the street is well lit. The other is dark. Local residents tell me power outages are becoming more frequent across the city. There are rolling blackouts and increasing shortages of fuel and gas. Factories are shutting down, exports are halting. The value of the Syrian currency is plummeting and inflation is skyrocketing as a result of international and Arab sanctions that are aimed at punishing Assad's government. But the sanctions are clearly taking a toll on the daily lives of Syrians.
But their daily lives go on, it seems for now, as routine as they can be in the middle of a 10-month uprising against the rule of the man seen everywhere in Damascus.
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I hope that the general public here in the U.S. can become a little more sympathetic to the people of Syria (as well as the other countries who have been part of the "Arab Spring". I hope that we start to see more that these governments don't represent everybody. That not everybody in the Arab world is a terrorist or a terror group sympathizer. (Most are not.)
We could just as well have been born there to face the trials they are facing. We have been blessed to have been born into freedom. Let us not mock those who are in situations as vulnerable as our forefathers. Having an opinion over whether we should get involved is one thing (though it is notable that others got involved and gave our country that we would not have made it without). I just hope more people will hold their tongues when writing the Arab world off as a bunch of crazy people that we should hope would destroy each other. On the contrary, most of the Arabs I know are beautiful people.
We are living in the time of Revalations. The scales of time are being are held in the hand of one of the Four Horseman. In his other hand is a rope that is tied into a noose.
On one side of the scales of time is the "Age of Enlightenment" where the truth shall live and the lies will die.
On the other side of the scales of time is the "Age of Enslavement" where the llies will live and the truth shall die.
Jenasus Trinity Parks
It's "Revelations", with an "E". The only thing worse than a quack is an illiterate quack. And while were at it, since there are four of them, it would be Four HorsemEn, also with an "E". Maybe your keyboard is just broken, and you are getting by without a full complement of vowels? I'm guessing it's a family trait, since they named you Genesis, but couldn't spell that either?
Oh what damage religion does to the mind.
classic joke. lmao. thanks a lot the freight train for delighting us.
The World is revolving into a Revolution in 2012
If RoSe'S are ReD and ViOLeTTe'S are BLuE than I will give my LOVE to YOU.
Jenasus
The Aliens are coming to Syria from the star cluster Cyrus.
umm lol what was that all about?
Jeffrey is one of those who believes in UFOs
Amen brother, amen. I think that when they gave out brains, he thought they said trains and told them he already had a set.
NewEnglander - You are very mis-informed if you think that participants in the "Arab Spring" are all just innocent victims. The Muslim Brotherhood overthrowing the long-time rulers will very likely be more radical and extreme than the regime they toppled.
JK,
Careful. I never said they are all innocent victims. I never said they didn't include extremist. I never said there were not some straight up evil people involved in these movements - and masses of them. I am focusing my comments on the majority of those people. There are over 200 million people in the Middle East alone. Even if just 5% of those were people involved in extremist activity, that would be a dangerous and toxic 10 million.
I'm not saying the percent is that low. I have no idea what it is. I just know that there are a number of victims - yes victims - who we should at least have compassion for rather to write them off as worthless roaches. They are beautiful people.
Look again to our forefathers. There were plenty of people here during the revolutionary war who still supported King George that would have, and did, put the proverbial knife in the backs of their neighbors ratting them out to the British Army. They were not representative of all Americans. What if France had just written us off and said that because we were filthy low lives, they weren't going to give us weapons, supplies, and money? We wouldn't be the United States of America.
I have to protect myself from being called "very uninformed" again. Yes, I know France was helping us based on their own interests, and I won't make a guess of whether or not they had compassion for us. That's not really the point. The point is that you could not just throw the loyalist and the colonist all in the same category. No matter how dirty and underhanded some of them were. If you were living here at all, you had to live here. There was no escape. You may have wanted to be in the fight or you may have wished that you could transplant yourself to another place in the world. Either way, you were not here by choice. We can't assume there is any difference with the Middle East.
Jeffrey,
You should have some obstacle in place to keep you from being able to post, send email, etc. when you are THAT high.
Not mentioned by thus bias article (To say that Damascus suffers from a cult of personality is an understatement): The leaders of North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Venezuela, etc, are doing the very same thing.
The higher they go...the harder they fall.
Noone but his assorted knob-polishers, robe-kissers and other sycophants who are too self-obsessed to tell him he's in real trouble are yet willing to do the "smart thing"....
They will all become "history" in 2012.
Sounds like the Syrian people are inching closer to overthrowing Assad. I wonder what their post-Assad plans are. So far in this Arab Spring the choices for the aftermath have come down to the military in charge, the Muslim Brotherhood, with full democracy placing a distant third. The Arabs just don't get it.
This is a perfect example of why we should follow the "Golden Rule".
When beliefs are forced, or overbearing help is offered, it becomes difficult for the people directly involved to fight for themselves and realize the value for which they fight.
America needs to become the envy once again. Other countries should be able to look at our Statue of Liberty and know what it means. They should decide their own fate, just as we should decide our own.
We have enough problems here at home. It is time that we come together and address them, and rebuild what used to be the greatest country in the history of the earth.
Ron Paul 2012!
Those guys are to light skinned to be Arabs. Something funny is going on here!
His own personal version of 1984?
1984 is a reality.With all the information given,personal and public
as well as these comments, every thing is recorded.Cameras on the streets
telescopes in space.Big brother is watching.And he isnt allway a good big brother.
It is hard to believe this is the same Damascus that Jesus went to. Where its people gladly listened to Jesus without a government looking over their shoulders. It goes to show how things have changed over the centuries. However, I know there will be wars and rumors of wars. That is in the Bible.
Back in the United States, if we don't pick a leader that can lead and be unbiased to everyone and our culture, we will end up like those in the Middle East.
GOD loves everyone, but not everyone loves GOD. For them, GOD is to complicated to understand. But then, people think Satan is easier to understand, because it allows them to justify what they do is right even if deep down they know it is wrong.
People can't live under a dictatorship. GOD allows for us to make our own decisions. That is one of the things those who run the Middle East need to be aware of. They need to quit living for Satan and start living for GOD.
Benjoh, when hasn't there been wars and rumors of wars? Violence among humans and between nations has waxed and waned since the earliest records of civilization.
Looks like American issues in a few years...Dictator rule, Big Brother government. Our government reeks of it already. We feel obligated to all the nations of the world to help, but we can't fix our own country. We have over 16% poverty in our own country and we turn away to help countries that spit in our face! Our government plays politics with our money and our lives. We are just a tool for our government use, not to protect and not to represent. Our government is an embarrassment and a waste of our money and support. How's that deficit coming along boys??? Maybe we could just sell off half the country to China, just so long as they don't take those cushy Senate policies and benefits!!!!
Of loving money and roots of evil:
As long as the love of money, power, and greed are the driving force of any nation or it's leadership, one can expect to see the people suffer. This goes for Syria or anywhere else!
The story is as old as time and sanctions mean little to the man on the hill who pulls the strings, living like a king regardless of the hardships of others. Assad will not change until the heartache of poverty or despair hits home.
Intervention of other nations will accomplish little in the long run with band-aide solutions and short term cures that fade when the big thumb is called elsewhere to stamp out another fire. The US should concentrate on keeping our own nation healthy first, we can not be the world's police force in part or in the whole. If threatened or attacked directly we should deal with that issue and move on, the attitude of our currenty leadership as well as those in recent times has led us into a quagmire of debt and death and things will not improve until we realize we need to clean up our own house first.
There's just no end to the madness as history bears witness. Sadly Syria is not the only example of the "Big Brother" syndrome with technology making the world smaller and smaller each day. Alies can turn to enemies very quickly and we should be careful about making friends with rattlesnakes.
On the other hand, NewEnglander is somewhat correct in noting we should not blame the people as a whole, we need to consider that like most others the "average Joe" in Syria or any place else would just like to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without the threat of big government or organized religious persecution. Here again it's all about a handful of individuals that aren't satisfied with their fair share wanting someone else's piece of the pie as well. As long as the final authority is corrupt, things will never change.
The problem with man is man, the best of which are men at best. Good luck with expecting big changes anytime soon in this all-about-me world we live in.
Will someone blow that moron's a#$#$ to kingdom come? Some insider. Some suicide bomber with a plane? Send the doctor to the morgue.
It is no coincidence that fresh from NATO’s conquest of and regime change in Libya, the focus has quickly shifted to Syria – a key regional ally of Iran.The conquest of Iran's oil riches is the driving force behind America's and British military agenda.
I wish what you've said was just some far-fetched conspiratorial theme with no basis, but I'm afraid oil riches do indeed play a role behind some of our nation's aggression abroad. I guess things like greed will never change. It would be a fine thing for the U.S. if something like closing the straits of Hormuz was of no consequence to our nation, and for that matter, the rest of the world.
To Ayman Mohyeldin,Perhaps you should read the Guardian instead!
An article published Tuesday on the Guardian by the paper’s former
international affairs columnist Jonathan Steele stated that the Western media and Aljzzerra
have been ignoring information and polls that reveal the Syrian people’s support
to President Bashar Al-Assad.“When coverage of an unfolding drama ceases to be fair and turns into
a propaganda weapon, inconvenient facts get suppressed,” Steele said, indicating
that a recent poll revealed that “while most Arabs outside Syria feel the
president should resign, attitudes in the country are different. Some 55% of
Syrians want Assad to stay.”
The author further considered that the “biased media coverage also continues
to distort the Arab League's observer mission in Syria.”
With all their security, I don't think these guys, Arab dictators, fully understand the power of the net, tweet, .... Can't hide like they use to, there are two many ways for " stuff" to leak out. Being said, I think ole Asshead in Syria is F----d. He is going to end up on the wrong end of a rope if he does not get his ass out of town.
Emil