BREAKING: Syrian Protesters Break Into The U.S. Embassy In Damascus

[Ian David]

Source: Business Insider

UPDATE, 9:35:

Witnesses told the AP that the protesters have smashed windows and raised a Syrian flag above the U.S. embassy compound.

Reuters reports that protesters loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad have broken into the U.S. embassy compound in Damascus, according to diplomats in the capital city.

Reuters reports that French Embassy guards have fired live ammunition on the protesters to stop the attack on the U.S. Embassy.

<snip>

According to the AP, pro-government demonstrators gathered outside of the embassy this weekend to protest Ambassador Robert Ford's recent visit to the besieged city of Hama, the site of the military's bloody crackdown against anti-regime protesters.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/breaking-syrian-protesters-break-into-the-us-embassy-in-damascus-2011-7

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Attackers leave U.S. Embassy complex in Damascus; Syrian authorities' response 'slow and insufficiant' embassy official says - Reuters
http://twitter.com/#!/BreakingNews/status/90414608971599872


Better link and updates pending.

Protesters in Syria gather at French, US embassies
By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press – 4 hours ago
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gC6VvsS48KRlqI7tndFpRWfm-WsQ?docId=b868b49a9bac4c6f965f8600f2ffc6f8

Also:

FRANCE24 FRANCE 24
#Syria : Al-Assad loyalists break into US and French embassies in #Damascus http://f24.my/9Eh7e7
http://twitter.com/#!/FRANCE24/status/90413081242505217

CBSNews CBS News
BREAKING: Witnesses say Syrian pro-government protesters have attacked the U.S. embassy compound in Damascus, causing damage.
http://twitter.com/#!/CBSNews/status/90413219922984961


Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/search/damascus

French TV live feed in English: http://www.france24.com/en/livefeed

[Bosonic]

1. Also

@mpoppel Michael van Poppel

REU: FRENCH EMBASSY GUARDS FIRE LIVE AMMUNITION TO REPULSE ATTACK BY CROWD LOYAL TO PRESIDENT ASSAD ON EMBASSY COMPOUND IN DAMASCUS

3 minutes ago

[Lars77]

2. During the Mohammed Cartoon outrate they burned down the Danish and Norweigan embassies. nt

[plumbob]

3. Is it Saigon yet?

nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. I see attacks of Freedom drones in their very near future.

[Shining Jack]

7. +1 n/t

[FreakinDJ]

5. protesters loyal to Syria's President = paid protesters / mercenaries

[David__77]

11. Oh please...

As if there are no Syrians who genuinely support their government...

Of course it is the responsibility of the Syrian state to protect foreign embassies, and if they failed in that, then it is a serious problem.

[FreakinDJ]

16. Normal people dont Storm Armed Marines for fun

and the story has been completely suppressed in US media while the EU is pushing War Crimes against Syrian leaders.

Frankly it doesn't pass the smell test

[Islandlife]

19. I think you are right

Storming a US Embassy could be construed as an act of war but the news seems unusually down played.

Hope no one gets hurt and that the Syrian government will pay some restitution for the attack. Not in the form of US drone attacks.

[frazzled]

6. Assad loyalists

Need we say more?

[krispos42]

8. Where were the damn Marines?

Or has our Syrian embassy security been outsourced to Blackwater mercenaries???

Dammit!

[pinboy3niner]

9. The French are calling it a premeditated attack

The raid on the French embassy in Damascus was a premeditated attack, French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told Reuters.

Valero said local security forces had failed to protect France's embassy in Damascus and consulate in Aleppo after French flags were burnt, objects thrown into the buildings and vehicles destroyed.

"It was definitely not the grocer from around the corner that came to demonstrate for or against France. These people didn't come by accident," he said, adding that it was Syria's responsibility to protect foreign diplomatic missions.

Valero also said that Syria's summoning of the French and US ambassadors over their visits to Hama last week contravened the Vienna Convention, which stipulates the freedom of diplomatic staff to move about in the country where they are accredited.

"It's in this framework that our ambassador travels around Syria, just like the Syrian ambassador in France does. It would be wrong to suggest the French ambassador had secret motives," he said.

US officials are not going that far, but they do accuse Syria of failing to protect the US embassy. They also plan to remind Syria of its responsibility under international agreements to protect foreign diplomats.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2011/jul/11/syria-egypt-middle-east-unrest-live#block-15

[Springer9]

10. America held Hostage: Day One

Think they'll bring back Ted Koppel?

[David__77]

12. More US double standard...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hYoE5qErJUlv5_oVV0iwbtts0nIQ?docId=CNG.5406100473257ecc189bb5f467cffd8c.651

The US sends its embassy staff to document Syrian civil protests, then criticizes Syrian embassy staff in the US for documenting protests here.

[pampango]

14. I think there is a Syrian double standard too. They complained about US documenting

Syrians protests while doing the same at protests in the US.

Sometimes I wonder is diplomats didn't have double standards they wouldn't have any standards at all.

I suppose it's better that each side is checking on the other's treatment of protesters rather (even though they both complain about the other side) than the ol' "You do whatever you want to your protesters and we'll do whatever we want to ours" method in which case there may be no one to expose mistreatment of protesters on either side.

[Fool Count]

21. There is another Syrian double standard in killing the protestors

demonstrating against their regime and not even firing at those demonstrating
against the US. Such lack of response was clearly "slow and insufficient".
Of course, there is also an American double standard in demanding a fast and
efficient response to stop violent protests near the US embassy, while condemning
the Syrian government for doing exactly that elsewhere. Double standards in
international politics is par for the course. Keeping the straight face while
doing it - that's what they call "diplomacy".

[On the Road]

20. The US is Not Looking to Identify American Protesters in Syria

so that the administration can retaliate against their families in the US. Geez.

[Uncle Joe]

13. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Ian David.

[David__77]

15. Some images of the anti-US embassy protesters.

One thing I am struck by is that in Syria, women often choose to appear in public unveiled, and do so without facing extreme harassment. You don't find this in the surrounding Arab countries. This does not mean that the Syrian government is a good one. But I can say I'd rather live in that system than in an "Islamic democracy."

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/N4gYmTS5rTu1bKdUgrI9Ng--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zNjI7cT04NTt3PTUxMg--/

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/FANN9pZg_51qqR4LRsUL5Q--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD02MTI7cT04NTt3PTQyNA--/

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/1hFPPJ0H4PnYdiUtCZ7pAA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zNzE7cT04NTt3PTUxMg--/

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/.8OCFxCF1IBYOysbnHhVYA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD02MTI7cT04NTt3PTQ5MA--/

[FreakinDJ]

17. Aribic speaking country with "Protest Signs in English"

Yep Okie Dokey

[David__77]

18. Eh, it's quite common. Like these anti-Syrian government protesters.

These women look a bit different from the women in the pro-government protests, I must say.



Did it occur to you perhaps that the protesters on all sides are trying to convey their message to English speakers abroad? And in the case of the embassy protest, I think this makes even MORE sense, since the message is aimed at the US government and its embassy staff across the street. Jeez...

[Ash_F]

23. Nothing strange about that. English is the diplomatic language of the day.

Like how Europe use to use French or how Mesopotamia used Aramaic.



Most countries teach it from high school through college. Also, I am sure there were plenty of Arabic signs but English-Speaking reporters are going to choose pics with English protest signs for their readers(who also mostly speak English).

[Ian David]

24. Their English is better than the teabaggers'. n/t

[pampango]

22. Juan Cole: it seems likely that the regime itself put the crowds up to the attacks, since

very little happens in Damascus that the Baath Party does not want to happen. This thesis is supported by the poor police response (to say the least) and the consequent need of US and French embassy troops to defend their buildings.

The US has ratcheted up financial sanctions on the Syrian elite, some members of which have seen bank accounts in Switzerland and elsewhere frozen, and has repeatedly called for al-Asad to meet his people’s demand to democratize.

Any background analysis must begin with the plain fact that the US overthrow of Saddam Hussein failed to produce an Iraq more favorable to Israel (indeed, the Shiite minions of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr are substantially more anti-Israel than had been Saddam). The general view in the Middle East had been that this failure convinced the Israeli security establishment that the al-Asad regime is preferable to a Sunni fundamentalist one. The latter is widely thought likely to come to power if al-Asad falls, though of course that prediction is speculative. Al-Hayat even ran a story to this effect in 2004 as I remember.

Clinton seemed to be warning al-Asad not to rely too much on US fear of the Muslim Brotherhood, and she signalled that Washington is increasingly complaisant about the possibility that the Baath will fall from power. Her remarks on Monday are the strongest ones yet directed at Damascus since the Obama administration came into power determined to improve relations with Syria (that is why there is a US ambassador in Damascus to attack– the Bush administration used to like to pretend that Syria did not actually exist).

http://www.juancole.com/2011/07/pro-regime-mobs-storm-damascus-embassies-of-us-france.html