Estádio-Arena Corinthians ,Maio 2013

Arena Corinthians, que avançou 75,24%. Um dos destaques é a montagem das estruturas metálicas do telhado do prédio oeste, serviço que deverá ser encerrado na próxima semana, com a instalação do décimo módulo. As estruturas do lado leste já estão prontas para receber a manta sintética. Na área do campo de jogo, estão em curso os trabalhos de montagem do sistema de drenagem e resfriamento da grama, que começa a ser plantada em junho. Há concentração ainda na execução das estruturas metálicas das grandes paredes de vidro das fachadas oeste e leste e na montagem das instalações internas dos sistemas de ar condicionado, elétrico, eletrônico e de água e esgoto. Trabalham hoje na obra mais de 1.420 profissionais.

"Syrian opposition" is entirely run by Al Qaeda .

 In an astounding admission, the New York Times confirms that the so-called "Syrian opposition" is entirely run by Al Qaeda and literally states:


Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.

From the beginning, it was clear to geopolitical analysts that the conflict in Syria was not "pro-democracy" protesters rising up, but rather the fruition of a well-documented conspiracy between the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia to arm and direct sectarian extremists affiliated with Al Qaeda against the Syrian government.

This was documented as early as 2007 - a full 4 years before the 2011 "Arab Spring" would begin - by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in his New Yorker article titled, ""The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?" which stated specifically (emphasis added):

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has cooperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

For the past two years the US, UK, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Turkey have sent billions of dollars and thousands of tons of weapons into Syria along side known-terrorists from Libya, Chechnya, neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. In the Telegraph's article titled, "US and Europe in 'major airlift of arms to Syrian rebels through Zagreb'," it is reported:

It claimed 3,000 tons of weapons dating back to the former Yugoslavia have been sent in 75 planeloads from Zagreb airport to the rebels, largely via Jordan since November.

The story confirmed the origins of ex-Yugoslav weapons seen in growing numbers in rebel hands in online videos, as described last month by The Daily Telegraph and other newspapers, but suggests far bigger quantities than previously suspected.

The shipments were allegedly paid for by Saudi Arabia at the bidding of the United States, with assistance on supplying the weapons organized through Turkey and Jordan, Syria's neighbors. But the report added that as well as from Croatia, weapons came "from several other European countries including Britain", without specifying if they were British-supplied or British-procured arms.

British military advisers however are known to be operating in countries bordering Syria alongside French and Americans, offering training to rebel leaders and former Syrian army officers. The Americans are also believed to be providing training on securing chemical weapons sites inside Syria.

Additionally, The New York Times in its article, "Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With C.I.A. Aid," admits that:

With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders.

The airlift, which began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanded into a steady and much heavier flow late last year, the data shows. It has grown to include more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari military-style cargo planes landing at Esenboga Airport near Ankara, and, to a lesser degree, at other Turkish and Jordanian airports.

And more recently the US State Department had announced hundreds of millions of dollars more in aid, equipment and even armored vehicles to militants operating in Syria, along with demands of its allies to "match" the funding to reach a goal of over a billion dollars. The NYT would report in their article, "Kerry Says U.S. Will Double Aid to Rebels in Syria," that:

With the pledge of fresh aid, the total amount of nonlethal assistance from the United States to the coalition and civic groups inside the country is $250 million. During the meeting here, Mr. Kerry urged other nations to step up their assistance, with the objective of providing $1 billion in international aid.

And as this astronomical torrent of cash, weapons, and equipment was overtly sent by the West into Syria, the US State Department since the very beginning of the violence has known that the most prominent fighting group operating inside Syria was Al Qaeda, more specifically, the al Nusra front. The US State Department's official press statement titled, "Terrorist Designations of the al-Nusrah Front as an Alias for al-Qa'ida in Iraq," stated explicitly that:

Since November 2011, al-Nusrah Front has claimed nearly 600 attacks - ranging from more than 40 suicide attacks to small arms and improvised explosive device operations - in major city centers including Damascus, Aleppo, Hamah, Dara, Homs, Idlib, and Dayr al-Zawr. During these attacks numerous innocent Syrians have been killed.

The State Department admits that from the very beginning, Al Qaeda has been carrying out hundreds of attacks in every major city in Syria. Clearly for those who read the 2007 Hersh piece in the New Yorker, and then witnessed the rise of Al Qaeda in Syria, the explanation is quite simple - the West intentionally and systematically funded and armed Al Qaeda to gain a foothold in Syria, then overthrow the Syrian government in an unprecedented sectarian bloodbath and subsequent humanitarian catastrophe, just as was planned years ago.

However, now, according to Western leaders, the public is expected to believe that despite the US, UK, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Turkey flooding Syria with billion in cash, and thousands of tons of weapons, all sent exclusively to "secular moderates," somehow, Al Qaeda has still managed to gain preeminence amongst the "opposition."

How can this be? If a 7-nation axis is arraying the summation of its resources in the region behind "secular moderates," who then is arraying even more resources behind Al Qaeda? The answer is simple. There never were any "secular moderates," a fact the New York Times has now fully admitted.

In its article titled, "Islamist Rebels Create Dilemma on Syria Policy," the New York Times admits:

Across Syria, rebel-held areas are dotted with Islamic courts staffed by lawyers and clerics, and by fighting brigades led by extremists. Even the Supreme Military Council, the umbrella rebel organization whose formation the West had hoped would sideline radical groups, is stocked with commanders who want to infuse Islamic law into a future Syrian government.

Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.

However, in an explanation that defies reason, the article states:

The Islamist character of the opposition reflects the main constituency of the rebellion, which has been led since its start by Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority, mostly in conservative, marginalized areas. The descent into brutal civil war has hardened sectarian differences, and the failure of more mainstream rebel groups to secure regular arms supplies has allowed Islamists to fill the void and win supporters.

To "secure regular arms supplies" from whom? According to the West, they have been supplying "mainstream rebel groups" with billions in cash, and thousands of tons of weaponry - and now according to the BBC, training as well.Where if not intentionally and directly into the hands of al-Nusra, did all of this cash, these weapons, and training go?

The NYT also admits (emphasis added):

Of most concern to the United States is the Nusra Front, whose leader recently confirmed that the group cooperated with Al Qaeda in Iraq and pledged fealty to Al Qaeda’s top leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s longtime deputy. Nusra has claimed responsibility for a number of suicide bombings and is the group of choice for the foreign jihadis pouring into Syria.

Not only is the Syrian government fighting now openly admitted Al Qaeda terrorists, but terrorists that are not even of Syrian origin.

More outrageous still, is that the New York Times fully admits that the very oil fields the European Union has lifted sanctions on and is now buying oil from in Syria (see BBC's "EU eases Syria oil embargo to help opposition"), are completely controlled by Al Qaeda - meaning the European Union is now intentionally exchanging cash with known international terrorists guilty of horrific atrocities, in exchange for oil. The NYT reports:

Elsewhere, they [al-Nusra] have seized government oil fields, put employees back to work and now profit from the crude they produce.

And:

In the oil-rich provinces of Deir al-Zour and Hasaka, Nusra fighters have seized government oil fields, putting some under the control of tribal militias and running others themselves.

The Times continues by admitting (emphasis added):

Nusra’s hand is felt most strongly in Aleppo, where the group has set up camp in a former children’s hospital and has worked with other rebel groups to establish a Shariah Commission in the eye hospital next door to govern the city’s rebel-held neighborhoods. The commission runs a police force and an Islamic court that hands down sentences that have included lashings, though not amputations or executions as some Shariah courts in other countries have done.

Nusra fighters also control the power plant and distribute flour to keep the city’s bakeries running.

This last point, "and distribute flour to keep the city's bakeries running," is of extreme importance, because that "flour" they are "distributing" comes admittedly, directly from the United State of America.

In the Washington Post's article, "U.S. feeds Syrians, but secretly," it is claimed that:

In the heart of rebel-held territory in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, a small group of intrepid Westerners is undertaking a mission of great stealth. Living anonymously in a small rural community, they travel daily in unmarked cars, braving airstrikes, shelling and the threat of kidnapping to deliver food and other aid to needy Syrians - all of it paid for by the U.S. government.

The Washington Post then claims that most Syrians credit Al Qaeda's al-Nusra with providing the aid:

“America has done nothing for us. Nothing at all,” said Mohammed Fouad Waisi, 50, spitting out the words for emphasis in his small Aleppo grocery store, which adjoins a bakery where he buys bread every day. The bakery is fully supplied with flour paid for by the United States. But Waisi credited Jabhat al-Nusra - a rebel group the United States has designated a terrorist organization because of its ties to al-Qaeda - with providing flour to the region, though he admitted he wasn’t sure where it comes from.

Clearly, the puzzle is now complete. Indeed Mr. Mohammed Fouad Waisi was correct, Jabhat al-Nusra, a listed terrorist organization by the US State Department, is supplying the people with flour, flour it receives by the ton directly and intentionally from the United States in direct contradiction to its own anti-terror laws, international laws, and the US State Department's own frequent denials that it is bolstering terrorists inside of Syria.

Clearly the US and its allies are propping up terrorism, and more alarming is that the "aid" they have been providing the Syrian people, appears to have been used as a political weapon by Al Qaeda, allowing them to take, hold, and permanently subjugate territory inside Syria. It should be noted again, that the New York Times itself admits that the ranks of al-Nusra are filled with foreign, not Syrian, fighters.

Revealed is a conspiracy so insidious, so outrageous, and a web of lies so tangled, that Western governments perhaps count on their populations to disbelieve their tax money is being used to intentionally fund and arm savage terrorism while purposefully fueling a sectarian bloodbath whose death toll is sounded daily by the very people driving it up to astronomical heights. The cards are down - the US has been exposed as openly funding, arming, and supplying Al Qaeda in Syria for two years and in turn, is directly responsible for the death, atrocities, and humanitarian disasters within and along Syria's borders that have resulted.

While the US attempts to sell military intervention on behalf of Al Qaeda in Syria, using the flimsy, yet familiar pretext of "chemical weapons," it appears that before even one American boot officially touches Syrian soil, an already horrific crime against humanity of historic proportions has been committed by the US and its allies against the Syrian people.

Aço Negro , Aço Sírio

Estádio-Arena Corinthians , Abril 2013

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Arena Corinthians

Obras chegam a mais de 70%

Serviços de escavação do campo foram finalizados

A Arena Corinthians, na zona leste da cidade de São Paulo, terá capacidade para 48 mil torcedores.

Para sediar a abertura da Copa de 2014 no Brasil, a Fifa prevê 65 mil lugares. Com a exigência, serão adicionados 20 mil assentos removíveis, ficando um total de 68 mil.

Os assentos excedentes serão retirados após o encerramento da Copa.

O estádio próprio viabilizará um sonho de longa data do Clube. Odebrecht e Corinthians iniciaram em 2004 os primeiros contatos para a construção e, em 2010, como parte das comemorações do centenário corintiano, foi firmado um primeiro acordo entre as duas partes.

Em julho de 2011, o novo estádio ficou orçado em R$ 820 milhões.

Neste valor, já estão incluídos os serviços iniciais de terraplenagem e preparação do terreno do estádio, cujas obras estão sendo executadas desde 30 de maio.

O projeto da futura Arena Corinthians, de autoria do arquiteto Anibal Coutinho, prevê que ele tenha instalações para receber 32 Chefes de Estado, representantes dos países que irão disputar a Copa no Brasil.

Também haverá estrutura para o trabalho simultâneo de cinco mil jornalistas de todas as partes do mundo.

As obras da Arena Corinthians registraram avanço de 70,12% e contam com o apoio de mais de 1.230 trabalhadores.

O superguindaste com capacidade de 1,5 mil toneladas já assentou quatro dos dez módulos que vão compor a estrutura principal da cobertura oeste.

Iniciou-se também a colocação dos vidros na fachada externa do prédio leste, que terá quase 170 m de comprimento por 20 m de largura.

Os serviços de escavação da área em que ficará o campo já foram finalizados. O terreno está agora sendo preparado para o início da montagem das tubulações dos sistemas de drenagem e resfriamento da grama.

Hiroo Onoda

Segundo Tenente Hiroo Onoda (Onoda Hirō; nascido em 19 de março de 1922) é um oficial japonês da inteligência do exército que estava posicionado em Lubang nas Filipinas durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial.


 Estava lá quando a ilha foi recuperada pelos aliados em fevereiro de 1945, ao final da guerra. A maioria das tropas japonesas morreu ou foi capturada por forças americanas. Onoda e diversos outros homens, entretanto, esconderam-se na selva densa.

Soldado de guerra desde os 20 anos, Hiroo Onoda lutou com tanta devoção que não percebeu quando a guerra acabou e continuou lutando.



Em dezembro de 1944, Onoda foi enviado às Filipinas. Sua missão, descrita em nota por Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, era a de manter-se vivo. Um trecho da nota, em uma tradução livre, diz que “Isso pode levar três anos, pode levar cinco, mas aconteça o que acontecer, nós vamos voltar até você.”


Onoda continuou sua campanha, vivendo inicialmente nas montanhas com os três soldados. Um de seus camaradas rendeu-se às forças Filipinas, e os outros dois foram mortos em batalhas com as forças locais - em 1954 e em 1972 - deixando Onoda sozinho nas montanhas.


Por 29 anos, recusou render-se, negando cada tentativa de convencê-lo de que a guerra tinha acabado com a rendição do Imperador. Em 1960, Onoda foi declarado legalmente morto no Japão.

Encontrado por um estudante japonês, Norio Suzuki, Onoda recusou-se ainda a aceitar que a guerra tinha acabado a menos que recebesse ordens para baixar armas diretamente de seu oficial superior.

 Suzuki se prontificou a ajudar e retornou ao Japão com as fotografias de si mesmo e de Onoda como a prova de seu encontro. Em 1974, o governo do japonês encontrou o oficial comandante de Onoda, Taniguchi, que havia se tornado um livreiro.
Taniguchi foi para Lubang e informou a Onoda da derrota do Japão na segunda Guerra e ordenou-lhe a depor armas. Assim, o tenente Onoda emergiu da selva 29 anos após o fim da segunda guerra mundial, e aceitou a ordem do oficial comandante da rendição vestindo seu uniforme e espada, com seu rifle Arisaka ainda em condições operacionais, com 500 cartuchos de munição e diversas granadas de mão.

Embora tivesse matado aproximadamente trinta habitantes Filipinos locais e engajado diversos tiroteios com a polícia, as circunstâncias destes eventos foram levadas em consideração da situação, e Onoda recebeu o perdão do presidente filipino Ferdinand Marcos.

 Onoda ficou visivelmente revoltado ao analisar toda a situação e pensar no tempo que perdeu, escondendo-se de inimigos que nem mesmo existiam. Em nota, ele disse que se sentiu um tolo, que tudo à sua volta estava negro, como em uma tempestade.

 

De volta ao Japão, Onoda virou herói pela dedicação que demonstrou ter com o seu país. Ele também recebeu o pagamento relativo aos 30 anos de trabalho. Com o dinheiro, mudou-se para o Brasil, onde comprou uma chácara e se casou. Ele também escreveu um livro a respeito dos seus 30 anos de guerra.



Em 1984, Onoda voltou ao Japão, onde criou uma escola para ensinar técnicas de sobrevivência e independência aos jovens de seu país. Em 1996, ele retornou às Filipinas e doou US$ 10.000 para escolas locais. Em uma de suas frases mais famosas, Onoda diz: “Os homens nunca deveriam desistir. Eu nunca desisto. Eu odiaria perder.”

Onoda recebeu em 6 de Dezembro de 2006, a medalha de mérito Santos-Dumont da Força Aérea Brasileira. Em Fevereiro de 2010, a Assembléia Legislativa de Mato Grosso do Sul conferiu-lhe o título de "Cidadão Sul-Matogrossense".

Encontram-se no Brasil ainda familiares de Hiroo. Um de seus irmãos Tadao Onoda faleceu no ano de 1991, em São Paulo, porém seus filhos ainda vivem e deixam netos que ainda carregam o sobrenome.

Gaviões da Fiel contrata a advogada Maristela Basso.

 

A Gaviões da Fiel vai apelar à Corte Interamericana dos Direitos Humanos pela liberdade dos 12 torcedores presos na Bolívia desde o dia 20 de fevereiro. O grupo é acusado pela morte do torcedor Kevin Espada, atingido por um sinalizador lançado pela torcida brasileira em Oruro, durante a estreia do Corinthians na Libertadores.


Para isso, a torcida organizada contratou a advogada Maristela Basso, professora de Direito Internacional pela USP, para abrir uma nova frente na defesa dos presos.

Maristela Basso é uma advogada brasileira, professora livre-docente de Direito Internacional da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de São Paulo  e professora na academia da Organização Mundial da Propriedade Intelectual (OMPI).

Em contato com o escritório, a secretária da advogada  disse que, por ora, Maristela está impedida de dar detalhes sobre o caso.

A corte, com sede na Costa Rica, é ligada à OEA (Organização dos Estados Americanos) e integra o Sistema Interamericano de Proteção aos Direitos Humanos.
Segundo o advogado da Gaviões da Fiel, Ricardo Cabral, o trabalho de Maristela não impedirá que a defesa continue a trabalhar em outras frentes. "Estamos em outras instâncias, pedimos habeas corpus na corte de Oruro e agora vamos buscar os direitos internacionais."

Os 12 torcedores já tiveram negado pela Corte Superior de Justiça da Bolívia o pedido de liberdade provisória.
"Contratamos uma advogada renomada na área internacional para recorrer à Corte Interamericana e buscar uma solução para essa arbitrariedade", disse Cabral.
O presidente da comissão de Relações Exteriores do Senado, Ricardo Ferraço (PMDB-ES), encontrou-se com os 12 torcedores e disse que teme pela vida dos brasileiros. "Condições precárias."
Segundo o advogado, os honorários de Maristela serão pagos pela própria Gaviões. "Não há nenhuma participação do Corinthians."
Nesta semana, o clube, pela primeira vez, pronunciou-se sobre o caso. O presidente Mário Gobbi terá um encontro com Antonio Patriota, ministro das Relações Exteriores.
 

Na quarta-feira, o Corinthians publicou entrevista sobre o imbróglio com uma advogada. O clube informou que não participará nem custeará a defesa dos 12 torcedores.

Irmãos  Corinthianos , vamos  colaborar  para  pagar  as  despesas , a Doutora  trabalha  a  nivel  internacional  certo ,  ai  Irmão  não é  barato ,  então  vamos colaborar . Vamos dar  alguma  coisa ,  procure  a  Gaviões .  Este  tal  Patrióta  ai  é  um  inutil , o  Gobbi não  tá  nem  ai  ,  vamos  nós  Irmãos  recuperar  os  nóssos  Irmãos .

Maristela Basso, professora de Direito Internacional pela USP, esta  é  a  Patrona  da  nóssa  causa .

 Professora Maristela Basso é Advogada, Doutora em Direito Internacional (Ph.D) e Livre-Docente (Pós-Doutora-Post-Ph.D) em Direito Internacional pela Universidade de São Paulo. Inscrita desde 1983 na OAB/RS, OAB/SP, OAB/RJ e OAB/DF, 

a advogada possui experiência nos Estados Unidos, Itália, México e Alemanha. Em São Paulo, foi consultora de Luis Olavo Baptista Advogados e sócia de Tozzini Freire Advogados. Integra a Lista de Árbitros Brasileiros do Sistema de Solução de Controvérsias do MERCOSUL e a lista de Painelistas especialistas em propriedade intelectual do Sistema de Solução de Controvérsias da Organização Mundial do Comércio OMC. Integra também várias instituições e câmaras arbitrais no Brasil e no exterior.

É também especialista em Estudos da Integração Européia com título conferido pela Comissão Européia e Colégio do México. Professora-visitante convidada em Universidades na Itália, Estados Unidos, México e no the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, Munique. Possui inúmeros artigos e livros publicados no Brasil e no exterior.


Professora livre-docente de Direito Internacional da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de São Paulo (Largo São Francisco), ministrando as disciplinas de Direito Internacional Privado, Direito do Comércio Internacional e Contratos Internacionais, no Curso de Graduação. 

É responsável pela disciplina Fundamentos do Direito Internacional da Propriedade Intelectual nos cursos de Pós-Graduação (Mestrado e Doutorado). A advogada também é Professora/Tutora da Academia Mundial da Organização Mundial da Propriedade Intelectual - OMPI Genebra. 

Membro Maior da "Inter American Bar Association", da "The American Society of International Law", do Instituto de Direito Comparado Luso-Brasileiro, da International Law Association . Professora Maristela Basso tem seu nome como referência no "Who´s Who in the World", 2008, 2009,2010 e 2012, no "Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Centure" 2008 – 2009 e no "Great lives on the 21st Century" – 2008 e no "The Cambridge Blue Book" - 2008/09. Recentemente recebeu do “American Biographical Institute” a “Golden Medal – 2010” - Passion, Courage, Commitment, Success, excellence, Virtue, Spirit”.
 

Em 2011 foi indicada no “Who´s Who Legal”, publicação internacional: “The first of Brazil´s leading practitioners in the field of Patents – Intellectual Property”

Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas Brigades - لواء ابو الفضل

 Shiite fighters from Iraq and Lebanon have joined fellow Shiite Syrian gunmen to defend a shrine south of Damascus which they fear is threatened by Sunni rebels battling President Bashar Assad.

The presence of Shiite combatants from some neighboring states – confirmed by sources in Iraq and Syria and highlighted in videos glorifying their mission – underlines how Syria’s conflict is inflaming sectarian feelings in the region.

Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas brigade, named after a seventh century martyr son of Imam Ali who is considered the father of Shiite Islam, was formed several months ago and fights mainly around the shrine of Sayyida Zeinab on the southern outskirts of the Syrian capital, a source close to the brigade said.

Abbas’ sister Zeinab is buried in the gold-domed mausoleum, intricately decorated with blue ceramic tiles and surrounded by a white marble courtyard which used to fill with pilgrims before the uprising against Assad erupted and grew into a civil war.

The source said the brigade was set up in response to the perceived danger to the shrine and mosque from Sunni fighters who desecrated other places of worship for Shiites, who are a minority in Syria.

“They are there for one purpose and that is to defend the shrine,” the source said, adding they were operating independently of Assad’s forces around the capital.

He said Iraqi fighters at Sayyida Zeinab were motivated partly by the desire to prevent a repeat of the wholesale sectarian violence that followed the 2006 attack on the Iraq’s Shiite Imam al-Askari Mosque, blamed on Al-Qaeda, which cost thousands of lives, both Sunni and Shiite.

Syria’s conflict has already attracted hard-line Sunni fighters some from Afghanistan, Libya and Chechnya, many of whom consider Shiites infidels and their shrines as non-Islamic symbols of paganism which should be torn down.

A video posted online two months ago showed Sunni rebels burning a husseiniya – a Shiite religious site – in Syria’s northern Idlib province, one of several recent attacks against properties associated with religious minorities.

An Iraqi Shiite official said Iraqi Shiites – some of whom had lived in southern Damascus since fleeing Iraq’s own violence – started to mobilize last summer in response to rebels in the area he described as “hard-liners and Salafis,” referring to the ultraconservative school of Sunni Islam.

Rebels “wanted to destroy the Sayyida Zeinab shrine and hundreds of Iraqi Shiites who were already living in Syria stood up to them and fought back,” he told Reuters from Iraq.

“Now they are more organized, under the Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas Brigade,” he said. Sources close to the brigade say it is divided into smaller groups named after the 12 Shiite imams and is mainly composed of Iraqi, Lebanese and Syrian Shiites.

The brigade is still made up mainly of Iraqis, the official said, though he said they came to Damascus individually and not under the auspices of the state or any organization.

Rebels accuse Lebanon’s Hezbollah, an ally of Assad, of fighting alongside his forces. The group denies the accusations and says only that its loyalists are fighting in border villages to defend Shiites there.

The brigade has put out two videos that play heavily on the historical feud between Sunnis and Shiites. The first, called “O Zeinab,” shows the shrine damaged with a chandelier on the floor. “We will cut off the hands of the perpetrators,” says a chant on the soundtrack.

The videos mix recent footage of the current conflict around Sayyida Zeinab with scenes from a drama portraying Abbas’ death in 680 A.D. at the hands of the Damascus-based Umayyad Caliph Yezid’s army at the battle of Karbala, in modern-day Iraq.

Those images reinforce the sense of a conflict that transcends state borders. While Shiites form barely 2 percent of the population in Syria, they are a majority in Iraq and Iran and a strong force in neighboring Lebanon – countries where sympathy for Syria’s Shiite and Alawite minorities runs deep.

“The Umayyad descendents are back with their injustice, O Zeinab,” chants an Iraqi-accented voice in the first video, released in December.

Fighters in camouflage uniform, their faces blanked out, fire rocket-propelled grenades and shoot automatic rifles during apparent street battles. Some take up sniper positions, and all of them seem well-trained. Destruction and piles of rubble can be seen in front of closed shops.

It ends with a black-clad Zeinab addressing Yezid. “You will not succeed in erasing our memory,” she says.

In the second video released this month the chanter says: “We will not allow [Zeinab] to be captive twice,” a reference to her capture after the battle of Karbala.

One of the fighters filmed in the first video is shown in the second, this time with his face uncovered – because he has been killed in battle, becoming “a martyr defending Zeinab.”

At least six fighters are seen shooting from a roof while others are seen praying inside the shrine. The tone of the video is more defiant, the “enemy” now mentioned by name.

“If we receive the order ... we will turn things upside down and burn Damascus,” it says. “You Free Army [the rebel army name] get ready. We are coming, we are coming.”

The anger on display is mirrored on social media by Sunni fighters and reflects the deepening rifts across Syria between majority Sunnis, Alawites and Shiites who are being driven further and further apart by the violence.

In a video posted on YouTube last July a Sunni commander warns residents of the northern village of Binnish not to deal with Shiites in neighboring villages, warning that even trading bread or other goods with them is punishable by death.

“The people of Foa [village] are Shiites and they are our enemy across the globe. Understand this. Whoever deals with them even if it is a grain, a single grain of wheat, his punishment will be the same,” the rebel commander says, to the chants of Allahu Akbar [God is greatest].

“I swear, I swear, I swear – if it is proven that a man from this village is dealing with them I will kill him at the door of the mosque,” he said.


.


An unprecedented and slickly-produced video is being circulated around Shiite areas of Lebanon showing alleged Shiite combatants fighting in Syria. The video's production and open dissemination highlight how fighters outside Syria are jumping into the country's ongoing civil war – and growing more bold about it.

According to Lebanese sources close to the militant Shiite Hezbollah, the combatants seen in the video are a mix of Hezbollah members and Iraqi Shiites, but the video was produced in Iraq.

Hezbollah’s leadership has played down persistent reports that its fighters are helping defend the beleaguered regime of President Bashar al-Assad. But the video, which was clearly made with the consent of the combatants, appears to reflect the growing conviction within Shiite circles in Lebanon that the war in Syria is no longer one between an embattled autocratic regime and a grassroots opposition but a sectarian confrontation against the emerging and increasingly influential Salafi Jihadist groups that view Shiites as heretics and Hezbollah as an enemy.

“I don’t feel that Hezbollah is defending the regime. They are defending themselves because once the regime goes, they are next,” says Ali, a glazier and staunch Hezbollah supporter from southern Beirut.

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The conflict in neighboring Syria presents Hezbollah and its Iranian patron with a strategic dilemma. Assad’s Syria represents the geopolitical lynchpin that binds Hezbollah to Iran and is a core component in the “Jabhat al-Muqawama” or “Axis of Resistance,” the pan-regional alliance challenging Israel and Western ambitions in the Middle East. If Assad falls and is replaced by a moderate Sunni regime that turns away from Iran and towards Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Hezbollah could become isolated on the Mediterranean coast and potentially threatened by a Sunni resurgence in the Levant.

Sources in the Syrian opposition, the rebel Free Syrian Army, and Western embassies concur that Hezbollah is participating in some fighting and also training regular Syrian troops in urban warfare tactics and turning the pro-regime Shabiha militia into an effective paramilitary force.

In October, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah admitted that some members of the party were fighting to defend a string of villages just inside Syria that are populated by Lebanese Shiites.

Initially, there was some unease among Hezbollah supporters over the party directly assisting the Assad regime in its brutal suppression of a popular uprising. Some fretted that Hezbollah’s image as a champion of the oppressed would be tarnished and that fighting in Syria would distract its attention from the struggle against Israel.
Hezbollah involvement debated

In October, Fawwaz Traboulsi, a Lebanese political scientist and author, called on Hezbollah to withdraw its forces from Syria.

“I appeal to them for the sake of Palestine; for the sake of preserving the credibility of the party and the role of the Islamic Resistance [the party’s military wing] in the Arab-Israeli struggle; for the sake of preserving the honor of the weapons of the resistance, so that they may continue waging their jihad against the Israeli enemy only,” he wrote in an opinion piece published by Lebanon’s daily As-Safir newspaper.

However, as the conflict in Syria has intensified, atrocities reportedly committed by the rebels combined with the rise of extremist Sunni groups appear to have diminished misgivings previously felt by some Lebanese Shiites at Hezbollah’s presence in Syria. Radical Salafi jihadist groups, such as Jabhat al-Nusra, the largest and militarily the most successful of the rebel groups in Syria, are regarded by Hezbollah as a potent threat because of their Takfiri ideology which treats Shiites as heretics.

“It’s not a secret anymore [about Hezbollah in Syria]. Hezbollah may not be talking about it openly but everyone knows they are going over there,” said a Lebanese Shiite who lives in the Hezbollah stronghold of southern Beirut but asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject.

Still, Hezbollah fighters are not the only Lebanese playing combat roles in Syria. Several hundred Lebanese Sunnis have joined various rebel Free Syrian Army units, and clandestine logistical support networks for the rebel forces have been established in parts of north and northeast Lebanon.
Key Shiite tomb

The video shows fighters in the Sayyida Zeinab quarter of southern Damascus, a key battlefront in the struggle for the Syrian capital. Sayyida Zeinab is the site of the tomb of Zeinab, the Prophet Mohammed’s granddaughter and daughter of Imam Ali, the founder of the Shiite sect. The golden-domed tomb is a major pilgrimage site for Shiites.

The rousing combat video carries in the corner of the screen a logo of a furled green banner and the name “the Abu Fadl al-Abbas Brigades,” which could refer to a small Iran-backed faction that launched sniper and roadside bomb attacks against US and coalition troops in Iraq between 2005 and 2008. The Abu Fadl al-Abbas Brigades subsequently became part of Kataeb Hezbollah, one of a handful of Iran-supported factions described by the US as “Special Groups.” US officials have accused Iran and Hezbollah of training the Iraqi Special Groups, and Kataeb Hezbollah was designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organization in 2009.

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah referred to the Abu Fadl al-Abbas Brigades in a speech in 2007 as one of several groups that “confirm the existence of vast strong and effective resistance on the Shiite level” in Iraq.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television station was the first to broadcast many of the Iraqi group’s combat videos. The Iraqi origins of the Sayyida Zeinab video are also illustrated by a fighter gazing reverently at a poster of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, father of current prominent Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, who was murdered by the regime of Saddam Hussein in 1999.

An almost identical version of the video circulating in Lebanon was uploaded to YouTube on Dec. 30, 2012 by “Saydanas,” who appears from previous uploaded material to be an Iraqi Shiite who follows the Sadrist line.

The 4 minute 5 second video carries footage of fighters in combat stances, firing AK-47 rifles, sniper rifles, and rocket-propelled grenades, interspersed with iconic Shiite images. The film is set to a backdrop of a stirring martial song “O Zeinab.”

One shot shows five uniformed fighters armed with an assortment of weapons sitting on a street with a caption reading “the resting place of the fighters who are defending the holy site of Zeinab.” The film concludes with the caption “produced and directed by the unknown soldier.”
Evidence of Hezbollah

There is no mention of Hezbollah in the film and it is not possible to confirm that the militants shown are from the Lebanese organization. But there are small clues suggesting that the fighters belong to Hezbollah, or at least have received training from the organization. For example, most of the fighters featured hold the AK-47 by the magazine when firing rather than the wooden grip beneath the barrel, a Hezbollah method that is supposed to allow them to swing the weapon more quickly. Another hint is that the fighters fire their AK-47s in semi-automatic mode rather than fully automatic, a technique taught to Hezbollah combatants to improve accuracy and save ammunition.

Although the faces are blurred out to prevent identification (another Hezbollah trait), they appear to range in age from late 20s to mid 30s, conforming to reports that most of the Hezbollah men deployed to Syria are combat veterans rather than raw recruits.

Sayyida Zeinab has become an important battleground in the ongoing struggle for Damascus. It represents a wedge of regime-controlled territory in southern Damascus where rebel forces are attempting to form a homogenous opposition belt extending through the northern, eastern, and southern suburbs. Sayyida Zeinab also holds a significant emotional appeal for Shiites given the presence of the shrine which served as the inspiration for the stirring combat video.

“I think Sayyida Zeinab is really important to Iran, even beyond the current fight,” says Joseph Holliday, a senior research analyst at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. “Certainly it has huge operational significance right now … the neighbourhood is an island of regime control in Damascus' southeast.”

A Western diplomat with contacts within the regime and opposition confirmed that Hezbollah militants were fighting in south Damascus. He added that if Sayyida Zeinab were to fall, “the FSA would be one big step closer to having jumping off positions for an attack on the city center.” The diplomat adds: “It could be quite a crucial battle with all those Hezbollah around."