Syria Special: Who is Observing What, and What Will Happen When They Finish?

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I don't need to sugar coat this: there are a lot of people who have no faith in the Arab League mission in Syria. For starters, we already know what they will find. International observers, though limited in both numbers and opportunities to investigate independently, have given us conclusions. According to US Ambassador Robert Ford, or the UN delegation that visited in August, or the few reporters brave enough to smuggle themselves into Syria, President Assad is killing a lot of people and torturing many. And there is only one way to end this mess, with Assad giving up power.

Few of these facts are in question. Much of the counter-narrative provided by the Syrian regime has either been proven false or is a weak defense --- "some individuals are guilty of crimes" --- for the scale of the regime's carnage. If only half the claims of the activists are true, then the number of people who have died from violence in Syria this year is four times greater than in Egypt.

So why are there observers present, who are they, what will they see, and what will they do about it? Let's work backwards.

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Afghanistan: Secret Report on US Commander of Kill Team "Let's Kill Those M*****F*****s" (Der Spiegel)

According to a statement by one witness, Colonel Tunnell himself had spoken about "small kill teams," who were supposed to ruthlessly hunt down the Taliban. He gave speeches where he outlined his preferred "counterguerrilla" strategy, which was based on creating "targets of opportunity" and carrying out missions to "search and destroy" Taliban fighters. One soldier quoted in the report summed it up in the following way: "If I were to paraphrase the speech and my impressions about the speech in a single sentence, the phrase would be: 'Let's kill those motherfuckers.'"

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Afghanistan Video and Report: The US Military's "Kill Team"

The "Kill Team" documentary from Der Speigel --- Warning: Graphic Content
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John Horne writes for EA:

Over the last two weeks, and days before violent protests erupted in Afghanistan, the US magazine Rolling Stone and Germany's Der Speigel have presented investigations --- including graphic photographs --- of atrocities committed by US troops. Soldiers belonging to a platoon stationed in Kahdahar Province murdered local Afghans, took pictures of themselves posing with the bodies, planted weapons, and even removed body parts to keep as trophies.

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Egypt Video: El Baradei Intervenes After the Elections "The Regime's Last Chance"

Last week, Mohammad el Baradei --- the former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a key actor in the National Alliance for Change --- issued a video response to the Parliamentary elections that gave more than 90% of the seats to the ruling National Democratic Party: "We do not have real industry , we do not have real agriculture, we laugh at ourselves and the world laughs at us.... You are not investing in your future, you are investing in the end of what you have, in destroying Egypt and in destroying the future generations."

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Lebanon Special: Justice or A Death Blow for Beirut? (Narwani)

This Tribunal is no longer about justice. To weigh one man's death against the lives of four million Lebanese and countless other millions who could be caught up in a regional conflagration is sheer madness.

Imagine the trauma of this Levantine nation as the trial draws out, day after day, week after week, month after month - creating divisions, frictions, suspicions to the detriment of Lebanon's fledgling government which has made admirable strides in maintaining its equilibrium and learning the art of compromise this past year.

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