Witness to a Syrian Execution: “I Saw a Scene of Utter Cruelty”

[cali]

<snip>

Because of the danger in reporting inside Syria, it was not possible to confirm the identity or political affiliation of the victim. Nor are we certain about the motivation of his killers. One eyewitness who lives in the area and was contacted by TIME a week after the beheadings said that the executioners were from ISIS, an Al-Qaeda franchise operating in Syria and Iraq.

TIME obtained the images exclusively from a photographer who was recently in Syria. This decapitation was the last of four executions he documented that day. TIME has agreed not to publish the photographer’s name, to protect him from repercussions when he returns to Syria. What follows is an edited account of his experience:

The man was brought in to the square. His eyes were blindfolded. I began shooting pictures, one after the other. It was to be the fourth execution that day I would photograph. I was feeling awful; several times I had been on the verge of throwing up. But I kept it under control because as a journalist I knew I had to document this, as I had the three previous beheadings I had photographed that day, in three other locations outside Aleppo.

The crowd began cheering. Everyone was happy. I knew that if I tried to intervene I would be taken away, and that the executions would go ahead. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to change what was happening and I might put myself in danger.


Read more: http://lightbox.time.com/2013/09/12/witness-to-a-syrian-execution-i-saw-a-scene-of-utter-cruelty/#ixzz2emI5bRLs

[leftynyc]

1. "The crowd began cheering"

One of the most depressing sentences in the story for me. I'm getting to the point where I simply don't see answer for this. These are not people who can be reasoned with, bombing the crap wont work, leaving it be and letting the Syrians deal with it means turning away from all the civilian deaths - I just don't know what the answer is.

[deutsey]

3. Same here

[TheKentuckian]

2. Want a destabilized region and even more death and sectarian violence? See what happens

if these religious fanatics, stone agers, and terrorists take over. Let the genocide really begin!

We need to partner with Russia to maintain Assad, at least in the near term, doing so would increase our influence over him.

I fear the "good guys" are probably even worse on average than "the Butcher of Damascus" and those wanting him out will have even more horror, cruelty, intolerance, and death on tap than before even if the methods are more traditional.

I think they are likely to find that they have been led around by the nose by the Saudis and the PNAC type crowd down the line too.

[cali]

4. I don't know. I just don't. the only thing I do know is that the U.S.

shouldn't launch a military strike.

the opposition isn't monolithic though- just want to point that out.

[TheKentuckian]

5. No, but there is no shortage of radicals and highly regressive types and those usually come to

the forefront in such scenarios and the "moderates" (however that is defined circumstantially) seem to either be pushed far to the side or have become radicalized themselves. I tend to suspect "moderates" is a mostly a euphemism for those under heavy Saudi influence but utilizing democratic and secular leaning folks from the beginning of the civil war that are no longer anything like a guiding force now and are very unlikely to be so in the future as a figleaf.

We are way out of our fucking element, it is time to admit it.