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العربية – Syrian sheikh close to the regime issues ‘rape fatwa’
– Syrian regime’s ‘electronic army’ hacks Skype
– Turkey building another wall on Syrian border
SYRIAN SHEIKH CLOSE TO THE REGIME ISSUES ‘RAPE FATWA’
The second deputy of the Syrian mufti, the country’s highest religious authority, has issued a fatwa permitting members of the Syrian army to have sexual intercourse with the wives, sisters, mothers and daughters of the “armed gangs” fighting against the army without a marriage contract (in other words, rape any woman associated with the opposition) as “a punishment for their silence on the crimes committed by these terrorists,” as he put it during an interview on Sham FM last week. Abdul-Rahman Ali Al-Dhili’ is known in his home town near Idlib for his close ties with the regime’s intelligence services, where he had reportedly informed on many people, including some of his friends and family members.
Source: Zaman Al-Wasl, http://www.zamanalwsl.net/news/45021.html
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SYRIAN REGIME’S ‘ELECTRONIC ARMY’ HACKS SKYPE
The so-called Syrian Electronic Army hacked Skype’s social media accounts on New Year’s Day. Messages posted on the official blog, Twitter and Facebook pages of the internet telephony company, which is owned by Microsoft, warned the company’s customers: “Don’t use Microsoft emails (hotmail, outlook). They are monitoring your accounts and selling the data to the governments.” Skype acknowledged the cyber attack but said no user information was compromised.
The Syrian Electronic Army is a shadowy group of hackers who support the Syrian regime and has frequently attacked the latter’s ‘enemies’, such as Syrian opposition websites and social media accounts, as well as international media outlets reporting the regime’s crimes, such as the New York Times and the BBC.
The hacking message left on Skype’s social media refers to recent revelations by the whistleblower Edward Snowden that the company is collaborating with the US National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor citizens’ private communication.
Source: Reuters
COMMENT FROM NAAME SHAAM’S SYRIAN SOCIAL MEDIA MONITOR:
A number of Syrian commentators commented that the Syrian regime’s hackers’ linking their attack on Skype to the internationally sensitive issue of state surveillance was a “clever but cheap move” to win the sympathy of the international community and pretend that they (the Syrian regime supporters) and normal people around the world are “on the same side.”
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TURKEY BUILDING ANOTHER WALL ON SYRIAN BORDER
Turkey is building a four-meter-high wall along parts of its border with Syria in the south-eastern province of Gaziantep, with the aim of stopping Syrian refugees fleeing the war in Syria from “illegally crossing into Turkey.” The construction will take “a while” to be completed, according to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet.
Last October, a proposal to construct another wall between Nusaybin and Qamishli, further east, led to widespread protests on both sides of the border and prompted the mayor of the Şırnak district to start a hunger strike in protest.
Source: Hurriyet
COMMENT FROM NAAME SHAAM’S SOUTH TURKEY CORRESPONDENT:
Turkey had so far been boasting about its “open door” policy towards Syrians fleeing the country, and has indeed hosted many of them or condoned their entry and stay in the country. Is that changing now or is this wall about something else other than the refugees? Could it be about fears of Kurdish or Islamist fighters entering Turkey? About having more control over the movement of Syrians, money, weapons and so on?
COMMENT FROM THE EDITOR:
According to Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone fleeing persecution has the right to seek and be granted asylum in another country, regardless of how they leave their home country or how they enter this other country. The construction of such walls will certainly hinder the exercise of this supposedly universal right.
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