Syrian Naval Bombardment

BLUF

Now the Navy is getting involved. Not that I find the Syrian navy to be threatening, I just find it deeply disturbing that a national leader is committing genocide, Assad is Shia and the populace is mainly Sunni, with the assistance of another Shia global worry (Iran) and NOBODY is doing anything about it. Obama is a lap dog to the UN and OIC. Until the OIC tells the UN that it is time to stop Assad, Obama will remain quiet and so will his media machine and 2 year old little girls will continue to die at the hands of Assad the murderous.

Syrian Naval Bombardment

At least 25 people have been killed and many others injured after Syrian warships and tanks opened fire on the port city of Latakia, activists said.

A resident in al-Ramel, one of the neighbourhoods which came under attack on Sunday, said at least three gunboats were taking part in the offensive.

"Many homes have been destroyed and the shabiha have broken into shops and businesses," he said, referring to pro-government gangs.

Security forces also appeared to be intent on crushing dissent in the neighbourhood, which has seen large anti-government protests since the Syrian uprising began in mid-March.

The National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria (NOHRS) provided a list of 26 victims, including two Palestinian men from the Ramel refugee camp in southern Latakia.

A spokesman for the UN refugee agency UNRWA, Chris Gunness, said reports from the Ramel camp spoke of "fire from tanks which have encircled the area as well as fire from ships at sea".

"Poor communications make it impossible to confirm numbers of those killed and injured," Gunness said in a statement.

Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said one of the dead was a two-year-old girl who was in a car with her father when security forces at a checkpoint opened fire.

The assault on Latakia began on Saturday, when tanks and armoured personnel carriers rolled into al-Ramel amid intense gunfire. Five people were reportedly killed in the offensive. 

'Pursuing gunmen'

State-run news agency SANA said troops were pursuing "gunmen using machine guns, hand grenades and bombs who have been terrorising residents in al-Ramel district".

The agency denied reports the area was being targeted from the sea. It quoted a health official in Latakia as saying two law enforcement officials were killed.

Elsewhere in the country, NOHRS said two people had been killed in Homs, one in Hama and one in Idlib.

Around the capital, Damascus, "security forces entered Saqba and Hamriya in great numbers and launched a campaign of arrests," according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Canada said on Saturday that it had expanded sanctions on Syria to protest against the government's brutal crackdown on demonstrations.

The new sanctions include travel bans on four officials and freezing the assets of the state-run Commercial Bank of Syria, and Syriatel, the country's largest mobile phone company.

The US imposed sanctions on the two firms earlier in the week, and has joined European allies in sanctioning top officials close to President Bashar al-Assad.

'Violence must end'

Canada's sanctions came after US President Barack Obama spoke with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the UK and all three called for an immediate end to the Syrian government's crackdown on protests.

Obama and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah "expressed their shared, deep concerns about the Syrian government's use of violence against its citizens," the White House said in a statement.

"They agreed that the Syrian regime's brutal campaign of violence against the Syrian people must end immediately, and to continue close consultations about the situation in the days ahead."

Similar language was used in a statement after a separate Obama conversation with David Cameron, the British prime minister.

Tens of thousands of people rallied in cities across the country on Friday in protest against the government and at least 17 people were reported killed.

The protests have grown dramatically over the past five months, driven in part by anger over the government's bloody crackdown in which rights groups say at least 2,000 civilians have been killed across the country.

The government has justified its crackdown by saying it is dealing with terrorist gangs and criminals who are fomenting unrest.

A Latakia resident speaking to Al Jazeera on Saturday rejected the government's claims. "There are no armed gangs here," he said. "We have been demonstrating peacefully for the last three months."

Syrian authorities have expelled most independent journalists since the five-month-old uprising against Assad began, making it difficult to verify reports from both sides

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/08/201181475734965763.html

Islam Does Not Set a Minimum Age for Marriage

Saudi Cleric Muhammad Al-'Arifi: Islam Does Not Set a Minimum Age for Marriage

Muhammad Al-'Arifi: "There is no agreed-upon minimum age for the marriage of a boy or a girl. It depends upon their maturity. Let's assume that someone wants to marry your 20-year-old daughter. But your daughter's mentality and capabilities… She wouldn't know how to handle it. You feel that her marriage is bound to fail, because she has no understanding of how she is supposed to behave. You think that this girl is not ready to get married. It would be best to wait two or three years. 

"We don't want to marry her off, and then have her husband divorce her after 2-3 weeks, saying: 'What is this?! This girl doesn't know what to do, she has no appreciation of marital life. She knows nothing.' In such a case, it is better to delay marrying her off.   

"In the days of Prophet Muhammad and his companions, people would get married at a younger age. For example, how old was 'Aisha when the Prophet Muhammad married her? I will give you a hint." 

Member of panel of Saudi youth: "She was seven years old."   

Muhammad Al-'Arifi: "And how old was she when he had sex with her?"  

Member of panel: "Fourteen."  

Muhammad Al-'Arifi: "Fourteen?! No way, she was nine. You are getting married tonight and you still can't count…   

"She was nine years old. People might think it is strange that he married such a young girl. But this was the age at which they used to get married. The proof is that when the Prophet told Abu Bakr that he wanted to marry 'Aisha – what did Abu Bakr say? He said: 'You are more than welcome, oh Messenger of Allah, but my daughter is already married.' At seven years old she was already married. […]  

"If a girl's physical and mental build allows her to get married, it is okay for her to get married. There is no minimum age for a girl's marriage set by Islam." […]

Saudi Columnist: Obama – Get Out!

The following are some paragraphs from a new column in Saudi ARabia. I think it is quite clear how the Saudi cleric feels about Obama

"All last month, I kept my eyes out for Mr. Obama, who appeared so often at the outset of the 'Arab Spring' and suddenly disappeared, leaving the tyrants' armored vehicles to wreak havoc in the land. I sought 'Abu Hussein' [i.e. Obama] everywhere [and] wondered where he was hiding – this man whose [face] did not leave the TV screen throughout the Egyptian revolution, and who had asked [Egyptian president Hosni] Mubarak to step down, appearing every five minutes to say to his erstwhile ally: 'Get out today, not tomorrow!'

"Obama got lost in the old neighborhoods of Damascus. He 'dissolved like a lump of salt,' as our brothers in Egypt say. [He did so] even though, [in contrast to] the U.S.'s [close] ties with Hosni Mubarak's regime, U.S. relations with the Syrian regime [are weak], and even though the number of victims in the protests of the Egyptian revolution [was far smaller] than the number of victims in the protests now sweeping Syria's cities.

"In Egypt, 'mother America' pressured Hosni Mubarak to step down immediately, while in Syria, 'mother America' has pressured the opposition to engage in dialogue with the regime.

"How is one to interpret this? Who supports whom, and who is against whom? What is Obama thinking? And why did 'mother America' become so hard of hearing the minute the cries broke out in Der'a, Hama, Homs, and Aleppo?

"Obama is not the only one who uses a double standard [vis-à-vis the revolutions in Egypt and in Syria]. The Arabs as a whole are toeing his line. The press, the intellectuals, and the revolutionary parties all tried to coordinate [their positions] with the cries of the revolution of Egypt's youth, raising Cain throughout the world when [Libyan ruler Mu'ammar] Al-Qadhafi began to oppress his people, and demanding that the president of Yemen step down when the revolution broke out there. [But] less than an hour after the bloody events began in Syria, they all fell silent, as if a raven were sitting on their heads and pecked at the bodies of the innocent.

"When [Hizbullah leader] Hassan Nasrallah praised the revolution of Egypt's youth and then became an enemy of the youth in Syria, by asking them to adhere to their regime – it was not difficult to understand [his motives], nor was [it difficult to understand Iranian Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei's stance. But the position of the U.S., which is not very different from that of Iran in both cases – the Egyptian and the Syrian – is difficult to understand. Where is Obama hiding?

"We do not want him to say a thing. This time, we want to say to him: Obama – get out!"

Endnotes:

[1] 'Okaz (Saudi Arabia), July 12, 2011.

IRGC to Lead OPEC

Iran revolutionary guards' commander set to become president of OPEC

The IRGC is an arm of the Iranian military. The oil war is about to go to the next unpleasant level.

Rostam Ghasemi, who is blacklisted by western powers, could have major role in determining global oil price

Appointment of Rostam Ghasemi as Iran's oil minister and head of Opec would give him and the revolutionary guards access to an influential international platform. Photograph: Alireza Sotakbar/AFP/Getty Images

A senior commander of Iran's revolutionary guards, who is subject to comprehensive international sanctions, has been nominated as the country's oil minister, a position that currently includes the presidency of Opec.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, sent a list of four ministers, including Rostam Ghasemi, commander of the revolutionary guards' Khatam al-Anbia military and industrial base, to the parliament for approval, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Should the parliament confirm Ghasemi's nomination next week, the commander, who is targeted by US, EU and Australian sanctions, will be automatically appointed as head of Opec, giving the revolutionary guards access to an influential international platform.
Under Iran's constitution the president is in charge of appointing cabinet ministers, who take office after the approval of parliament.

Iran took the Opec presidency in October last year, its first time at the head of the oil exporters' cartel since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Unrest in the Middle East, especially the ongoing war in Libya, has given Opec a crucial role in determining the current oil price. Iran is the second-largest crude oil exporter in Opec.

The nomination follows an extraordinary power struggle between Ahmadinejad and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ahmadinejad attempted to take over the oil ministry as its temporary head in May but his move was blocked by parliament. He then appointed Mohammad Aliabadi, a close ally, as a caretaker.

By involving the revolutionary guards – who are under the control of Khamenei – in his cabinet, Ahmadinejad might be trying to alleviate the tensions with those of Khamenei's supporters who have been threatening the president with impeachment.

The revolutionary guards have won significant economic power since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005. The organisation has signed contracts with the government in fields such as oil, gas and telecommunications. Khatam al-Anbia's involvement in the country's gas field developments exceeds $7bn (£4.3bn), according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.
In an interview with Fars on Wednesday, Ghasemi said the revolutionary guards would also work as a contractor with the oil ministry if his nomination were approved by parliament. "We have strong and skilful people working for Khatam al-Anbia who are capable of taking up oil-related projects and I don't have any concerns over the activities of the base," he was quoted by Fars as saying after the news of his nomination broke out.
Khatam al-Anbia, the construction arm of the revolutionary guards which is already in control of some of the country's most important recent oil and gas contracts, was mentioned in a list of Iranian institutions targeted by UN sanctions.
Revolutionary guards' assets, including those personally owned by Ghasemi and dozens of his colleagues, have been blacklisted by the US Treasury and western powers.
Other officials in Ahmadinejad's cabinet have been also subject to international sanctions including the foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, the defence minister, Ahmad Vahidi, and the vice-president, Fereidoun Abbasi Davani.
In a letter addressed to the parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, Ahmadinejad also nominated Mohsen Abadi as the minister for sports and youth, Abdolreza Sheikholeslami as the minister for co-operative, labour and social welfare, and Mehdi Gazanfari as the minister of industries, mines and trade.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/27/iran-revolutionary-guards-opec-rostam-ghasemi