As unspeakable and aoeu note, two diaries in the last 5 months relating to Syria have made the Rec. List. However, I'm leaving the title so the comments make sense - DHG
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As Assad's military surrounds the town of Hama with tanks and cuts phone and electricity to its reeling population, I am stunned that not only are we are not amplifying what's occurring now, we have never done so as a community in the five months Syria's population has bravely risen up against their brutal regime.
This from the AP (emphasis mine):
Tanks took over a main square in the besieged Syrian city of Hama and electricity and telephone phone lines were cut off Wednesday as President Bashar Assad's regime showed no signs of halting the intense military assault against an uprising now in its fifth month, activists said.
At least three tanks took up position in Hama's central Assi square, which had been thronged by hundreds of thousands of anti-regime protesters in the weeks before the latest crackdown in some the largest demonstrations against Assad's rule.
For the past four days, Syrian troops have tightened their siege on Hama, sending residents fleeing for their lives. The death toll since Sunday has reached around 100 people, but the exact figure is difficult to verify, according to activists.
Twitter has been afire with people desperately trying to let the world know what is happening there right now. Here is Dima Khatib, a bureau chief for Al Jazeera, tweeting about the massacres on July 31 that have continued:
And here is video just posted by Al Jazeera English:
According to Al Jazeera English's live blog on Syria:
Syrian tanks occupied the main in central Hama after heavy shelling of the city, residents said.
"All communications have been cut off. The regime is using the media focus on the Hosni Mubarak trial to finish off Hama," one of the residents told Reuters by satellite phone from the city, adding that shelling concentrated on al-Hader district, large parts of which were was razed during a 1982 military assault on Hama that killed thousands.
Notice the photo is from Ankara. Journalists have been expelled from Syria, which leaves dissemination of this information largely up to us.
As the intense repression and violence continued in Hama today, residents in Jableh – a town shuttered due to general strikes against Assad's government – buried a local citizen killed by the military:
Video posted by Al Jazeera.
As Syria continued to try and create a media blackout of what is occurring, it is incumbent upon us, as a community, to amplify what is happening as a way not only of getting the truth out, but to help the people in Syria by expanding as far as possible the numbers in our body politic who understand what is happening.
And please, in the comments, add to our understanding of what is occurring.
Author's Note 1: I just want to acknowledge that, in the time Assad's regime has engaged in brutal violence and massacres in order to put down the popular protests going on in Syria, I have been just as much to blame for the communal silence as anyone.
Author's Note 2: AZ Independent pointed out that Magnifico authored a diary yesterday entitled "Where is the 'Humanitarian Crisis' Outrage Over Syria?" Like many of you, I didn't see it. Which is precisely one of the points this diary hopes to make.
Author's Note 3: The White House is stepping up it's rhetoric today, calling the Assad regime "grotesque."