Christianity Oasis Forum

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Greetings all,

I won't write much here, because I wish to link to an article which may provide a bit of hope, and a relevant theme for ongoing prayer.

It's written by Robert Fisk of The Independent (from Britain). As far as mainstream media sources go, this newspaper is generally different to others in that it seems to have at least some interest in attempting to provide a balanced, perhaps even fair kind of reporting.

Fisk himself is different to the average western journalist in that he appears to actually have a brain and an own opinion, perhaps even a bit of 'journalistic principle'. Wow, a western journalist who perhaps has some kind of 'principle', even intelligence. Hard to comprehend such a possibility (sorry to generalize, as I am well aware that there are some good journalists out there, it's just that we don't see them around very often).

Anyway, as previously pointed out, at least half of the western-backed 'rebels' are genocidal, blood-lusting jihadists who are stunningly cruel and barbaric. However, not all of them are like this. A minority of them, perhaps even a sizeable minority, are (generally sunni muslim) army defectors who are perhaps not happy at the sectarian, genocidal jihadist direction that their own 'rebel' side has taken.

There is now evidence that thousands of these 'secular' rebels have now started to realize that the majority of their own side is much worse than the Syrian government, and so they are now interested in going back to the government side. I have read from several credible sources that there have been meetings between government representatives and representatives from these unhappy 'secular' rebels.

In some regions there have even been ceasefires between the two groups, and now there is discussion about the possibility of these unhappy rebels, who maybe don't have so much blood on their hands, being accepted back into the fold by the government.

While at the moment still only a tentative possibility, this would be a great result. It would strengthen the government and its supporters (including Christians), and somewhat weaken the 'rebel' side which, as we know, is generally dominated by evil murderous people.

If anyone could spare the time and has the inclination to pray on this matter, I encourage you to pray that this tentative idea might become a firm agreement. There is no doubt that, while not bringing the war to a complete halt, it would at least result in a significant alteration that would be a very positive step in the direction of a just peace for the land of Syria.

Article link is below.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/com ... 47615.html

[Dora]

praying for Gods will.

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Here is another update on the general situation in Syria,

Infighting among the rebels is intensifying. In all, there are approximately 100,000 'rebels' fighting against the Syrian government. Interestingly, they are far from unitied, and there are approximately 1,000 different 'rebel' groups, although at least half of the total number of rebels are united by their extremist al-queda style ideology.

Still, infighting amongst rebel groups is getting out of control. In one single example of this infighting, it has been confirmed from several sources that at least 50 rebel fighters from two different rebel groups in the city of Aleppo have been killed over the last few days in 'rebel-on-rebel' gunbattles.

Meanwhile, the 'war-within-a-war' in northern Syria, between Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters, continues. The Kurds continue to defend their traditional Kurdish areas with determination and capability, and they continue to force back the western-backed rebels from Kurdish areas, and inflict heavy casualties on them.

There are rumours that the elite Lebanese shiite militia 'Hezbollah', who joined the war last year on the side of the Syrian government, are scaling back their forces in Syria and bringing some of their fighters back home to Lebanon. They have been instrumental in helping the Syrian government gain the advantage over the 'rebel forces'. This hardcore Lebanese militia has wreaked havoc on rebel forces and inflicted terror and large losses upon the western-backed rebels. The militia still appears to have fighting forces in Syria, but there is evidence that at least some of its forces have returned to Lebanon.

There is also more and more evidence that Iran, the closest ally of the Syrian government, has taken overall control of the war effort against the western-backed rebels. There is evidence that a general named 'Major-General Qassem Suleimani' from its 'Revolutionary Guard' forces is the main man in control in Damascus.

Moreover, this man and his assistants allegedly command the operations of the Syrian defence forces in the ongoing war, as well as pro-government paramilitary militias and a large, ever-expanding shiite 'foreign legion' force of fighters from shiite nations such as Iraq, Lebanon, Iran itself and also Yemen. Iran has also played the central role in the formation and ongoing funding of these domestic and foreign pro-Syrian government militias.

The massacre of the alawaite civilians commited by western-backed rebels, mentioned in previous posts, has even been admitted by mainstream media organizations and given some coverage by these.

Also, a recent study by a group calling itself the Public Accountability Initiative (PAI) has indicated that most of the 'talking heads' in the west who recently pushed for war against Syria were actually people on the payroll of defence companies and military contractors in the west. The immorality of this is sadly unsurprising.

There are also rumours circulating at the moment that the chemical attack of late August in Damascus was actually the work of Saudi intelligence agents or black ops personnel, who wanted to stage a false flag attack which would be blamed on the Syrian government, in order to provoke a western bombardment of the Syrian government and its forces. The Saudi regime is obviously hideous and has been staunch in its ongoing support of extremist rebel groups in Syria. However, it continues to be hard to know for sure who exactly was behind the chemical attacks in Damascus.

I think that will do it for the summary today. I believe that the Syrian tragedy demands our ongoing prayer to The Lord that His will, and not the will of anyone else, be done in Syria as soon as possible, and that some form of peace be brought to that land some time soon.

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

This post will be about a slightly different topic regarding the Syrian civil war,

A lot of this thread has focussed on the immoral role of the west in starting and continuing this terrible war through arming, training and financing its proxy jihadist 'rebel' forces on the ground in Syria, who have been responsible for most of the atrocities.

A lot of this thread has also concentrated on the terrible, worse-than-useless mainstream media, which has deliberately misreported the war from the beginning with dishonest one-sided propaganda that has generally painted the rebels as the 'good guys' and the Syrian government and its allies as the 'bad guys'.

Today I'd like to tell you a little bit about two of the other real villains of the Syrian civil war, who have got as much blood on their hands as the western countries and mainstream media. I am talking about Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Turkey is a new world order country and it has played a key role in the bloodshed in Syria. It has a long border with Syria (Syria's northern border) and there has been volumes of evidence that the Turkish nation has given the western-backed 'rebels' absolutley everything they need, and then more, to wage their war on Syria.

The Turkish government runs operational bases for the 'rebels' in southern Turkey, it provides them with abundant weapons, training, intelligence, money, and also recruits fighters for them. It also houses them in hotels, and provides them with refuge when they need to flee Syrian government actions in northern Syria.

Turkish border personnel deliberately turn a blind eye at border crossings when rebel/al-queda convoys are crossing from Turkish territory into Syria to wage their jihad against the Syrian people. Also, Turkish military officers and intelligence agents have been often killed fighting on the rebel side against Syrian government forces.

In recent posts I mentioned a terrible massacre of alawite civilians in the Latakia province of north-western Syria. The western-backed 'rebels' slaughtered about 200 civilians, sawing a woman in two with a sawmill, beheading a baby and hanging the head from a tree, while also beheading and slaughtering many other civilians with knives.

The 'rebel' group that carried out this stunning atrocity launched its attack from Turkish territory, and this is plain fact. In recent posts I also mentioned a massacre of up to a thousand kurdish civilians in northern Syria. It was carried out by western-backed 'rebels' who were furious about their battlefield losses to Kurdish militia forces. Rebel attacks on Kurdish areas are also directed from Turkish territory, and there is plenty of evidence of close co-operation between Turkish intelligence personnel and al-queda forces.

I recently read of Turkey becoming increasingly concerned about the jihadist presence on its border with Syria, and there have recently been exchanges of fire between Turkish border personnel and al-queda jihadists in northern Syria, the same al-queda jihadists that Turkey played a major role in putting into Syria in the first place.

Turkey is playing with fire and at the moment it is the Syrian people who are being burnt. But the potential for Turkey to be burnt is very real. I must note here that this is generally not the fault of the Turkish people, who are mostly against the murderous actions of their criminal government.

Just as bad as the Turkish government is the political establishment in Saudi Arabia, which is truly shocking. This is perhaps the most totalitarian, extremist nation-state in the whole world where minorities are put to death. The death penalty in Saudi Arabia is carried out in any manner of ways ranging from beheading to crucifiction.

Saudi Arabia has right from the start of the Syrian war, and even before it, been funding, arming and financing the most extremist 'rebel' groups in Syria. They also have military and intelligence personnel on the ground in Syria, fighting on the 'rebel' side, and many Saudis have been killed fighting against the Syrian government forces.

In one instance, the Saudi government provided an amnesty for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of its hardest prisoners languishing on death row in Saudi prisons. There was only one condition for the amnesty; the released prisoners had to go to Syria to wage jihad on the Syrian government and its supporters.

Time after time, I have read of survivors or witnesses of 'rebel' atrocities in Syria reporting afterward that the perpetrators of the atrocities were rebels who spoke with a Saudi accent (some of the other worst offendors include Libyans and Chechens).

And as mentioned in the previous post, there is the possibility that the chemical attacks in Damascus that happened in August might have been carried out by Saudi black ops personnel, who wanted the attacks to be blamed on the Syrian government, thus leading the west to directly enter the war and destroy the Syrian government.

Another interesting point is that a high-up Saudi intelligence official recently visited Moscow and attempted to bribe President Putin with over 15-billion dollars of deals that would be great for the Russian economy. There was only one condition attached to the deal- Putin had to drop his support for the Syrian government. Thankfully, Putin quickly rejected the bribe.

Lastly, I will close this post with a footnote. The Saudi government has long been lobbying to gain a seat on the UN security council. Finally, their wish was granted after Pakistan vacated the 'Asian seat' on the council. Saudi Arabia could finally fill this void, and gain the position it had wanted.

The twist to this story is that it refused to accept it, apparently out of protest at the west's softening line on Iran, and the west's apparent reluctance to directly enter the war against Syria. All along the Saudis have been talking about their wish to bring 'democracy and human rights' to Syria, justifying their interference and immoral involvement in Syria in this manner.

The thousands of innocent Syrians who have been slaughtered, beheaded, bombed, blown up, burned and so on by Saudi Arabia's proxies in Syria are the victims of this 'democracy' and these 'human rights'.

P.S. I have a link to an interesting article which touches on what was raised in this post, as well as other recent posts in this thread. The news source is 'debkafile', an Israeli intelligence site, which is a good read and tends to be generally accurate with most of its articles.

http://debka.com/article/23374/Syrian-r ... a-assault-

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

There are initial reports that jihadist 'rebels' have attacked an ancient Christian town roughly 100km north of Damascus. I don't have much information about this attack at the moment, and I am unsure whether the Syrian government forces were able to repel the attack.

It might be a good idea to pray for the success of the Syrian government forces against the jihadist attackers, as it is clear what would happen if the 'rebels' were able to take control of the town.

There would almost certainly be beheadings and slit throats galore, and another stunning massacre to add to the volumes of western-backed crimes that the 'rebels' have commited over the last 2-and-a-half years.

Link is below;

http://www.nanaimodailynews.com/news/na ... n-1.667629

Update: The fighting in the Christian town of Sadad, as of the writing of this update, is in its 5th day. There are reports that the jihadists have taken control of the western part of the town.

An Archbishop by the name of Silwanos Al-Nemeh (I don't know where this man is from) has expressed grave concern for approximately 3,000 civilians trapped in the town, describing their situation as 'dire' and expressing fears that a large-scale massacre will be carried out by the western-backed rebels if they take control over the entire town.

New update: It's hard to know exactly what's happening in the Christian town of Sadad, which is currently under sustained attack by western-backed jihadists. Some of the town is apparently under jihadist control, while the rest is still under Syrian government control. What is clear is that many innocent people in the town are dieing due to the jihadist assault. Below is a link to a recent article about the current situation in the town:

http://www.kfvs.com/story/23799491/acti ... yrian-town

Meanwhile, the situation in Syria, particularly for religious minorities including Christians, is becoming all the more horrific. The persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters in Syria at the hands of the western-backed rebels is nothing short of a systematic genocide which is deliberately ignored and unreported by the western political establishment and mainstream corporate media.

Below is a link to a recent article on this subject, with some stunning details (but no confronting images, so you can click on the link without fear of being confronted with snuff images):

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atla ... nline.html

My latest reading on the Syrian civil war is that it is stuck in a stalemate. The mass killing goes on; the Syrian government and its allies are inflicting massive casualties on the rebels, but the rebels are apparently able to quickly replace their losses with new jihadist recruits (this is largely due to the help given them by western intelligence groups such as the CIA, as well as the criminal regimes in Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the 'rebel' groups continue to be flooded with not only recruits, but money and arms).

As mentioned in a previous post, the minority of 'moderate' Syrian rebels left (estimated by some to be no more than ten-thousand out of the roughly 100,000 'rebels') are trickling back to the Syrian government. The reality is that 'moderate' rebels on the opposition side are a small minority, and they are disappearing fast.

This means that when you hear a politician or the media talk about 'moderate' Syrian' rebels, what they are really talking about is santa claus, or the tooth fairy, or the man on the moon. The brutal reality is that if there are any 'moderate' rebels left, they are a dieing breed and it could already be said that they virtually don't exist.

Lastly, while the situation between the Syrian government and its allies against the internatonal jihadist 'rebels' looks more and more like a bloody slalemate, there is increasing evidence that a clear winner is emerging in this war; the Kurds. They are having increasing battlefield successes against the western-backed jihadists. They are clearing them from more and more Kuridish areas, and from all reports the Kurds are treating all people well in areas that are under their control.

They are inflicting large daily casualties on the jihadists, and garnering a lot of support in the process. They really do seem to be a freedom-oriented movement, unlike the so-called 'rebels'.

I'll leave it there for today. I'll be back some time soon when there is more news.

Update; There are now uncomfirmed reports coming in that the Syrian government forces have completely retaken the town of Sadad after finally repelling the jihadist attack on the town. I will comment more on this if and when it is confirmed.

Of course, it would be a big positive if confirmed, but the flip side of the coin is that after the jihadists have been expelled from an area, the horrific truth begins to emerge about what they did before they were expelled.

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

It seems to have been confirmed that the aforementioned town has been completely retaken by the Syrian government forces. Initial reports suggest that about 2-dozen bodies of innocent civilians have been found in the town after the jihadists were expelled. At this point there are no more details about exactly how they were killed.

In other news, there is a pro-Syrian government organization that calls itself the 'Syrian Electronic Army'. It is a cyber warfare unit that regularly hacks into new world order institutions, such as mainstream media newspapers (including the New York times) and American government websites.

The latest targets were the facebook and twitter pages of none other than the current president of America. But what's most interesting is the wholesale dishonest reporting of this incident by the mainstream media.

The result of the hacking into these accounts meant that the tens of millions of people who follow these pages would have been diverted to a link to an almost 25-minute long video which shows atrocities being committed by western-backed rebels in Syria.

However, virtually all mainstream media ignored this fact when they 'reported' on the incident, instead just talking of the hacking in very general, vague and non-confronting terms. Of course, the mainstream media would still like us to believe that the genocidal western-backed jihadists in Syria are really actually just nice freedom fighters, so for this reason we only ever hear tiny snippets about bad stuff that the 'rebels' actually do.

Alternatively, we often hear about how 'bad' the Syrian governent is. Some of this is probably true, but most of it is hardcore propaganda. And this is why the mainstream media has zero credibility- even pathological liars sometimes tell the truth by accident, but how can we ever know when this is the case at any given time?

Here is a recent example of what appears to be hardcore propaganda coming out of the western media; there were recently rumours that pro-government snipers were deliberately targetting pregnant woman- not the women themselves, but the unborn babies inside them. Some alleged British doctor in Syria claimed that he had recently treated a number of women whose unborn babies had been shot.

He spoke of rumours that pro-government snipers were targetting women and their unborn babies this way, and rumours that those who scored a 'direct hit' were rewarded by their units with extra cigarettes.

Please note that even in the articles themselves, it admitted that these were only 'rumours'. It also admitted that it's often hard to know what side a sniper is on, be it government or rebel, when civilians are being targetted. The front lines in a civil war, after all, are very blurry.

It's also worth noting that there is every possibility that the 'doctor' quoted in the article doesn't actually exist. The new world order owns the mainstream media, after all, and it is no secret that agencies like the CIA are often responsible for planting 'stories' like this in the media.

As a footnote, the article also features an x-ray picture of an alleged unborn baby, an alleged victim of one of the alleged snipers, with a bullet lodged neatly in its forehead.

I read an analysis of the x-ray by a person with knowledge of ballistics. He said bullets lose their shape, break up and so on upon impact. The expert said it was highly unusual that the bullet in the x-ray image had perfectly maintained its shape, even though it was apparently lodged in the head of the unborn baby in the image. The expert also pointed out one or two other unusual aspects about the picture, which made its authenticity very questionable.

It's hard to know the truth about what's going on in Syria, but never doubt the depths that the new world order will plummet to in order to further their evil agenda.

UPDATE: I'm afraid I have some terrible news. At the start of this post I mentioned that roughly 25 bodies of civilians had been found in the Christian town of Sadad after the Syrian government forces had expelled the western-backed jihadists from the town.

Many civilians are still missing, and bodies are still turning up. At last count (according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a generally anti-Syrian government organization) 45 civilians, 15 of which were women, are now confirmed as dead.

Most recently, the bullet-ridden bodies of a married pair and their 3 young children (in addition to another woman) were found down a well in the town of Sadad.

Please note that even though the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights is anti-Syrian government, it still sometimes reports on the crimes of the western-backed rebels, and it has openly admitted that it was the rebels who committed this massacre in the Christian town of Sadad.

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

A hard-hitting article on the recent massacre of dozens of Syrian Christians in the town of Sadad, commited by western-backed 'rebels', and largely (and deliberately) covered up by the western government-media complex.

There are apparently even links in the article to graphic images of the victims.

http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2013/ ... -the-west/

Each is entitled to their own opinions and feelings regarding patriotism and the like. For what it's worth, as a westerner I feel only shame, complete and total shame, about our western political and media establishment.

As an aside, I plan to update this post in the coming days with military developments in the Syrian civil war.

UPDATE: So, here is a general update on the Syrian civil war. I will start with a bizarre little story. We all know that the hardcore al-queda style jihadists have a sick demonic fetish with cutting off people's heads, usually with knives in order to prolong the terror and agony of the victim, and often filmed and then posted on the internet.

Beheading was virtually unknown in Syria prior to the civil war. But since the start of the crisis, many hundreds of innocent Syrians have suffered this hideous fate at the hands of the western-backed rebels.

To get to the point, the 'rebels' recently decapitated a wounded fighter in Aleppo, presuming him to be a pro-government fighter. They later found out that, due to a misunderstanding, the fighter was actually one of their own. One armchair commentator made the ironic observation that there have been plenty of cases of 'friendly fire' before, but this is the first case of 'friendly decapitation.'

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/14/world ... index.html

Meanwhile, the persecution of the Christians in Syria continues. Most recently, western-backed rebels abducted 6 bus drivers in the area of Meboroka (northern Syria). The victims, 3 Kurds and 3 Christians, were all murdered in cold blood shortly after they were abducted.

In central Damascus, a Christian school (named St.John of Damascus) was hit by a mortar shell, resulting in the deaths of 4 young students and an adult. The school is in a firmly pro-government area and the attack was carried out by western-backed rebels. Moreover, it fits an ongoing pattern of mortar, bomb and rocket attacks commited by the 'rebels' on Christian institutions across Syria.

Militarily, middle-eastern experts predict that the next major battle will take part in a district named Qalamoun, a mountainous area between Damascus and Lebanon. It has been suggested that Hizbollah could lead the fight against the 'rebels' on behalf of Assad, as it did in its successful battle for Al-Qusayr earlier in the year, not to mention other examples. For more information on this, read the link below:

http://world.time.com/2013/11/07/taking ... ds-behalf/

In north-eastern Syria, the Kurdish militias continue to inflict heavy casualties on the western-backed jihadists. The Kurds continue to win battles, and conquer areas from the jihadists. The Kurds are a massive thorn in the side of the western-backed 'rebels', and they tend to not only have the support of the Kurdish people, but also Arab and Christian minorities who live in Kurdish majority areas.

There is a very simple reason for this support; the Kurds generally treat all civilians well, whereas the western-backed 'rebels' prefer to brutally murder everyone who is not the same as them, including other 'rebels'.

For more information, read the link below:

http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?o ... Itemid=251

Remember, there is not one major 'rebel' group, or one umbrella. It has been estimated that there are up to 1,000 different rebel groups. The 'rebels', furthermore, have 3 major enemies who they are fighting; the Syrian government and its allies, the Kurdish forces, and themselves. Yes, themselves. Really.

Every day there is rebel-on-rebel violence, resulting in casualties. In some cases dozens of rebels have been killed in gunfights against other rebels. It is ongoing, and it is bloody.

This 'infighting' has led to some of the defences in rebel areas becoming weakened, recently allowing Syrian government forces and their allies to reconquer rebel area with relative ease.

In particular, the Syrian government and its allies have recently had a number of significant military successes in the countryside of southern Damascus, the province of Homs and around the northern city of Aleppo, re-capturing numerous areas that had been under rebel control for a year or more.

For more information on this, read the link below:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/ ... me=topNews

That's about it for now. We can only continue to pray to The Lord that His will be ultimately done in Syria. I am also going to pray one step further, that The Lord bring His love, healing and special care to His people in Syria and the wider middle-east.

I also ask The Lord to extend this love to other people, religions, sects, groups of people, etc, in the area who are allied with His people, or who are at least not against them. And may there be an explosion of non-Christians in the middle-east finding Jesus when they most need Him.

When it comes to the evil ones in Syria and the wider area; the beheaders, the murderers, the criminals, the Christian killers, the persecutors, the killers of other minorites, etc- as well as the powerful, evil suit-wearing men and dress-wearing women in western countries who support these murderous jihadists in Syria and the middle-east, I simply ask The Lord to thwart their evil plans and desires, and to grant them defeat.

God bless you all, and please pray for Syria.

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Here is a little article detailing the obvious fact that the western political-media complex is deliberately ignoring the mass murder of Christians in the middle-east, because it is western-backed rebels who are doing this murdering and we are supposed to believe that the west is good, and anyone who the west supports must be good.

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/11/2 ... est-media/

Meanwhile, I hate to say it, but there is now more terrible news coming out of Syria. Western-backed 'rebels' in Syria have attacked and taken over a town named Deir A'tiya in Syria. It is a town of roughly 15,000 inhabitants, and the majority of them are Christians.

The Syrian government forces may well attack the western-backed rebels in the town and liberate it from them in the coming days and weeks, but until that happens the fact is that there are now thousands of Christians and other people in that town currently at the 'mercy' of al-queda jihadists who are backed by the west.

I pray to The Lord for a miracle, that the town's residents somehow be spared from a massacre, but the reality is that we are probably going to start hearing horror stories coming out of that town in the coming days.

The 'rebels' have commited so many ghastly atrocities that it's impossible to keep a list of them, and it would appear a near certainty that a massacre of Christians and others is going to take place in that town in the coming hours and days, if it hasn't started already.

UPDATE: I am writing this update several days after the initial post. Still no word about what is happening in the aforementioned town, but there are apparently skirmishes going on near the edges of the town between the western-baked jihadists occupying the town, and Syrian government forces and their allies who are wanting to liberate it.

There are also reports that the Syrian army is deploying reinforcements near the town in anticipation of an offensive to take the town back. I pray to The Lord that He bless the Syrian government forces and their allies with success and minimal losses.

I also pray to The Lord that He bless and protect all civilians in Syria, regardless of their allegiances, and bring their suffering to an end as soon as possible.

[Timothy]

> I also pray to The Lord that He bless and protect all civilians in Syria, regardless of their allegiances, and bring their suffering to an end as soon as possible. <

Praying in agreement!

Timothy

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Thanks Timothy. Good to hear from you. Keep up the prayers.

The Syrian town of Deir A'tiya (population of 15,000, with over a third of these being Christian), mentioned in a previous post, has now apparently been liberated by the Syrian army and allies from the western-backed jihadists. There are still said to be pockets of jihadists in the town who continue to fight, while the Syrian military is completing mopping up operations in the town.

I haven't heard much yet of what was suffered by the town's residents during the week or so that the town was occupied by the western-backed al-queda 'rebels'.

I hope that the citizens of that town were largely spared from evil acts of brutality, and I therefore hope that there is not much for me to tell you about this subject in the coming days.

Unfortunately, there are already emerging reports that the western-backed rebels murdered between 9 and 12 medical personnel, including doctors and nurses, inside of the town's hospital.

If I hear more, and I hope and pray that I don't, I will let you know. I also intend in the coming days to provide a general summary of the current situation in Syria.

God bless.

UPDATE: In this thread I mentioned reports that about a dozen medical workers were murdered in the town of Deir A'tiya by western-backed rebels before the Syrian government liberated the town.

This report has been confirmed, but I am now starting to come across some very disturbing unconfirmed reports that the victims were Christians. Moreover, these still unconfirmed details suggest that the 'rebels' raided the hospital and sort out Christians within the building, murdered them in cold blood (at least one report uses the word 'slaughter') then left the town and headed for the mountains.

I will provide more details when I come across them.

ANOTHER UPDATE: I have more bad news regarding our Christian brothers and sisters in Syria. A little while ago in this thread I documented the jihadist-rebel invasion of the Christian town of Maaloula (this is how it is pronounced, though correct spelling can vary) near Damascus.

It was an absolute architectural and cultural treasure. For example, many of the town's residents spoke Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus all those years ago.

Anyway, to summarize what happened a couple of months back, the western-backed 'rebels' entered the town and committed a massacre of the town's residents, and desecrated and destroyed many of the town's Christian churches and other buildings.

After some tough fighting, the Syrian government forces managed to take the town back from the jihadists after a week or two although, by that time, most of the residents who had survived the massacre had already fled to Damascus for sanctuary.

The bad news is that the western-backed 'rebels' have re-invaded the town, and fighting is again underway there between Syrian government forces and western-backed jihadists. I will document more details when they become available.

EXTRA UPDATE: Not good news from the town of Maaloula. The western-backed rebels have moved back into the centre of the town, and taken over a convent with about 40 nuns and orphans. These 'rebels' are from the same groups that have beheaded babies and women, and done all other kinds of things that they like to do. This is very disturbing stuff.

More bad news regarding 'rebel' persecution of Christians in Syria. I will now copy and paste from the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a self-admitted pro-rebel organization that nonetheless reports on some of the atrocities carried out by western-backed rebels. The ISIS group mentioned is one of the most prominent al-queda rebel groups:

'Raqqah province: SOHR members and several other activists in Raqqah city have confirmed that the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has converted the Church of Armenian Martyrs into an ISIS proselytising office. The banner of the ISIS has been hoisted on top of the church, as well as its slogans and indication that it is now a missionary office painted on the outer walls.

It is crucial to note that the ISIS's tunisian fighters forcibly took over the holy site on 25/9/2013 and destroyed the crosses and other religious artefacts in them. They also did the same to the al-Bishara church on the same day.'

UPDATE: I will make a new post in the coming days, but first I wanted to conclude this particular post with a recent news article about the latest developments in the town of Maaloula.

http://rt.com/news/islamists-syria-christian-town-613/

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

It has now been all but confirmed that the western-backed 'rebels' have abducted a dozen nuns from the ton of Maaloula and forcibly taken them back to territory that is firmly under rebel control.

Here is an article about it. This abduction has even gotten the pope's attention.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/wor ... e15758164/

Please note that in the article there are pro-rebel groups who are claiming the nuns are okay, and being treated well.

The optimistic part of me hopes this is somehow true, but the realistic part of me asks the question, 'Well, why were they abducted in the first place, then?'

I am also aware that pro-rebel groups engage in propaganda to cover up their own evil activities. Of course they would say that the captives are being treated well, because anything else would make their own side look bad.

This means that if the captives were tortured and murdered, for example, and then buried ( essentially 'disappeared'), the pro-rebel groups could then claim that the captives are being 'treated well', because there will never be any actual hard evidence to disprove their lies (as long as the murders weren't filmed and posted online, of course). And slowly, the story fades away and disappears.

Trust me, I have spent many hours researching how these things can happen, and what I have just described is standard operating procedure for various groups and exactly this kind of thing has happened many times before (of course, I usually don't learn exact details of what happened to the people who have completely disappeared after being abducted, but one doesn't have to be too bright to figure it out).

Alternatively, rebel groups in Syria have also been known to abduct civilians, then demand ransom from the families of the victims. Once the ransom is paid, the hostage is usually murdered anyway, sometimes on film.

There is an abduction epidemic going on in Syria at the moment, and it doesn't often end well for the innocent victims.

I just pray that it works out differently for the nuns. I will post more when I hear it.

UPDATE: There is apparently a sign of life from the abducted nuns. According to several articles, including one I will post here, they appeared in a video in which they spoke and appeared relaxed.

Remember, it is important to strike a good balance between optimism and realism. I pray to The Lord that everything really is as it seemed in the video. It would be fantastic if everything is, and will be okay with them.

The realistic part of me is well aware that such videos have been made in the past under duress, in which the person abducted has to act like everything is okay while the camea is filming them, even though this is not the reality. In some cases people are forced to act like everything is okay even as offscreen people are pointing guns at them.

The truth is so hard to know. Only God knows the truth in all cases. I just pray that He comfort these nuns, no matter what the situation is, and allow them to be granted mercy.

http://www.mymotherlode.com/news/world/ ... video.html

UPDATE; While the situation with the nuns remain murky, more terrible stories of persecution emerge from Syria. During the takeover of the town of Maaloula, in which the dozen or so nuns were taken hostage, western-backed rebels executed 3 Christians who refused to recant their faith.

The western-backed 'rebels', as they have done so many times to other Christians before, ordered the 3 men to convert to salafist islam on the spot, or face immediate death. The men stayed true to Christ even under this threat, and apparently paid with their lives.

Article with information about this tragedy is below:

http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/3-christians ... o-convert/

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Hi all,

Although I try my best to prove and verify atrocites commited by western-backed 'rebels' without subjecting myself to gruesome visuals, sometimes I accidentally catch a glimpse of an image before I can really choose if I want to see it or not.

That just happened. What I saw was a close-up picture of a dead man, blood everywhere around his head, laid out on the ground. Half of his head was blown away, brain matter also clearly visible.

I read about who he was. It was from the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a pro-rebel source that nontheless admits and documents some of the atrocities commited by the rebels.

According to the SOHR, the victim was named Ibrahim Qassoum. He was a petrol vendor who was officially classified as mentally handicapped.

He was executed by members of a rebel group who had initially bought petrol from him. They went back to complain that it wasn't clean, and he apparently responded with something mild like, 'I'm not the master of petrol!'

Though I don't know any Arabic, the SOHR site says that the word 'master' can have a dual-meaning, 'master' in some cases but 'lord' in other cases.

To cut a long story short, the rebels chose to interpret it in the second way, which then allowed them to accuse him of 'blasphemy'.

He was then murdered in cold blood for this 'crime'.

I have also read a report about the town of Maaloula, which was recently reconquered by the western-backed rebels (as mentioned in previous posts). It was initially attacked and conquered by western-backed rebels in September, before it was taken back by Syrian government forces in the following weeks.

There were unclear reports of a massacre of the town's Christians by the 'rebels' when they initially attacked it in September. Definite information is of course hard to come by, but according to the article linked below, the massacre during the initial attack indeed took place, and dozens of Christian residents of the town were beheaded by the 'rebels'.

http://watchmen-news.com/2013/09/10/al- ... -damascus/

Meanwhile, the fighting and killing goes on, with scores of foreigners entering the conflict. On the one side, tens of thousands of extremist jihadists are either already in Syria fighting on the 'rebel' side, or are in preparation to invade the country. These are people whose main delight in life is beheading, throat slitting, shooting, massacring, bombing and the like.

Many countries are to blame for this, but the criminal Saudi and Turkish regimes are the two major backers of these so-called 'rebels'.

On the side of the government there are many thousands of mainly shiite-islam foreign fighters, most from Hezbollah or Iraqi militias, but also from places like Yemen and Afghanistan, where there are sizeable shiite minorities. The wheels within wheels in this war are staggering, and too numerous to even get into in this thread.

And the persecution of Syria's Christians, virtually 100 per cent the domain of the Syrian (and foreign) 'rebels' continues unabated, and very deliberately. See link below for an insight into the systematic nature of it:

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atla ... ools-.html

Of course, there are other minorities suffering just as badly, too. And I would be dishonest if I said Assad's forces were perfect humantarians, too. Though they don't appear to target civilians deliberately, despite allegations of this in the propaganda disseminating mainstream media, many people are dieing indiscrimately from government bombs and artillery, not to mention sieges of rebel-controlled areas in which food and other necessities are partially deprived from targeted areas.

Of course, there is no such thing as a 'humantarian military'. Such a notion would only be conceived of for the uses of propaganda. I am no expert, but I don't need to be an expert to know that war is dirty and inhumane, despite the fact that many of a country's bravest and best indeed serve in the military.

Enough musings from me for now. There is a so-called 'peace conference' for this war coming up in January, to be held in Geneva.

It is possible that this is all only smoke and mirrors and is only something superficial. But I think it would be a good idea to come to The Lord in prayer and ask for a miracle to happen.

There are promising signs that relations between major players such as the USA on one side, and Iran and Russia on the other, could be thawing. Such a potential thawing of relations between traditional foes such as these could help them come together and do some serious talking about how to de-escalate the fighting and killing in Syria.

I have already read from at least one source that representatives from both the USA and Iran are already in high-level talks about co-operating in Syria and partitioning the country of Syria into government-held zones and rebel-held zones in order to de-escalate the fighting.

Iran (along with Russia and Hezbollah, among others) would effectively have control of the government-held zones, while the USA and its allies would move in on some of the rebel-controlled areas and take control of them.

It doesn't sound pretty, or very easy to do, but maybe, just maybe, this apparent co-operation between these traditional foes could enable there to be some real progress on the possibility of de-escalating the fighting, if not halting it.

Realistically, however, it might simply not be possible given that over half of the 'rebels' are hardcore sadisitic jihadists of the al-queda variety. There's optimism, but then there's realism. What a mess.