Houla Massacre, Syria: What If?

I recently got an e-mail from Ronda Hauben (we're in touch). She's got an article up on General Mood's missing report on Houla, as we discussed a few pages back. I think these excerpts are about the meat of it. I didn't realize there was already an article on that she cites, by John Rosenthal who keeps getting right on these issues.

The UN and General Mood’s Missing Report on Conflicting Accounts of Houla Massacre
von Ronda Hauben
http://blogs.taz.de/netizenblog/2012/09/10/unsmis-report-houla-massacre/
In the article “General Mood: ‘Two Versions’ of the Houla Massacre,” John Rosenthal writes, “At the June 15 press conference General Mood went on to say that the mission had assembled a report about the massacre, including the details of witness interviews and that this report had been submitted to UN headquarters in New York. This raises an obvious question,” writes Rosenthal, “Why has this report not been rendered public?”(3) Rosenthal does a service pointing to General Mood’s June 15 press conference in Damascus. The press conference is online only in a video format. I have transcribed the part of the press conference where General Mood talks about the report on the Houla massacre that he says was given to UN headquarters.(4)
Describing the investigation by UNSMIS into the Houla massacre and the report UNSMIS submitted to UN headquarters, General Mood tells journalists:
“The statement we issued after el Houla is still valid.
Which means we have been there with an investigating team.
We have interviews, interviewed locals with one story, and we have interviewed locals that has [sic] another story.
The circumstances leading up to el Houla and the detailed circumstances, the facts related to the incident itself, still remains unclear to us.
We have put this together, the facts that we (can) could establish by what we saw on the ground. We have put together the statements, the witness interviews and we have sent that as a report to UN headquarters, New York.
And then the assessment on what’s the way forward. Will there be a different investigation? (This-ed) is a matter for headquarters in this context. But if we are asked, obviously we are on the ground, and could help facilitate that.”
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Then in August the Security Council, without being able to review the UNSMIS report or to consider the need for the additional investigation that General Mood said was possible in order to determine who was responsible for the Houla massacre, allowed the mandate authorizing UNSMIS to expire. Though there was an effort by some on the Council to introduce a resolution to extend UNSMIS, others on the Council refused to do so unless Syria was penalized, even though the issue of who was responsible for the violence against civilians, as had happened at Houla, had not been determined by the Security Council nor by any other UN body through an UNSMIS facilitated and impartial investigation.

Commenting on the Security Council action withdrawing UNSMIS from Syria, Archbishop Mario Zenari, the Vatican Nuncio to Syria, said that the withdrawal of UN forces from Syria was “a sad blow. Three or four months ago, there was a good bit of hope for their mission, and now their departure plunges us back into this reality….”(8)
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Excellent article. I was aware that Mood made a statement mentioning their investigation, but at one point tried to locate it and failed. And I wasn't aware of how clear that statement was.

Also crucial:

Ronda Hauben said:
[...] in August, the Human Rights Council issued a report blaming the Syrian government for the violence in Syria, with no effort to reconcile the conflicting facts or interviews submitted by UNSMIS to the UN, nor any effort to take up the offer made by General Mood that UNSMIS would provide on the ground assistance to do the needed investigation. The report of the Human Rights Council inaccurately claimed that(7):

“The lack of access significantly hampered the commission’s ability to fulfill its mandate. Its access to Government officials and to members of the armed and security forces was negligible. Importantly, victims and witnesses inside the country could not be interviewed in person.”
​
Such a statement by the Human Rights Council misrepresented the fact that indeed the UN had had observers on the ground in Syria, and that those observers not only gave a report to the UN, but also said that they could facilitate a more thorough investigation if the UN desired to do so. Hence the claims of the Human Rights Council that the UN was unable to conduct an investigation are contrary to General Mood’s statement to the press. [...]
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Another excuse less for that they came up with something more amateurish than us little "netizen journalists" were able to put together without getting payed big UN bucks.

"Skeptics", why hide something if there isn't something to hide?
 
I made an edit of the Mood video, just the relevant part, with boosted audio, and uploaded it for reference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ViUVJYGT_8

Also a video I missed before, from the UN monitors' May 26 visit to Taldou, posted by UNSMIS on May 27:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1QOKoDkds

The main monitor guy is Deputy Head of UN Mission in Syria Martin Grifith. The main rebel guy talking with them at the beginning looks/acts quite a bit like defector Major Jihad Raslan. Might not be him - different hair and uniform seen in his later Spiegel interview. He and other still wear the Syrian Arab Army uniform, but the mosque and the scene in general are clearly under rebel/defector control. They also help remove some bodies from a house; "The observers helped recover 6 bodies from a house at the edge of the town near a Syrian Army position."
 
Griffith to Red Crescent guy, on the road out of town: "did you feel okay about being asked to go in?" Answer not shown. Wonder what that was about?
 
Caustic Logic said:
The main rebel guy talking with them at the beginning looks/acts quite a bit like defector Major Jihad Raslan. Might not be him - different hair and uniform seen in his later Spiegel interview.
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Guy comes in at 0:30 in the vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1QOKoDkds4

Spiegel interview to compare: http://www.spiegel.de/flash/flash-29263.html

I'd say it's very likely him. Prominent nose 'n stuff. Good catch.

The well english-speaking guy at 2:01 could be Alex Thomson's "guide". Added the three vids to the "investigation" page.

Kind of creepy to see the place in HQ video.

btw, some items start popping up on documents.sy et al about Houla/Ar Rastan/Talbisah in the last days ... gangs arrested, terrorists killed, shelling ... maybe more news soon.
 
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A quick thought on major Raslan. If that's him greeting the monitors on the 26th, hm... Doesn't his Spiegel account suggest he defected only after the massacre? He wasn't protesting, just 'on leave,' normal soldier, didn't believe the government would massacre until he saw it himself, right by his house he was just chillin' in.

Alright, good... so he defects that night and suddenly, in the morning, he's apparently the main defector running things at the mosque? About 12 hours into his new life?

Also, I think he's an Air Force defector.
Yep. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/02/massacre-children-syrian-officer
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/glob...itary-officer-witnessed-houla-massacre/53086/
And the guy greeting them has a pin with wings on it. He was active with the rebels at least a day earlier than he suggests...
 
Raslan Spiegel
Raslan May 26

Martin Chulov calls Major Raslan's account "among the most important of the testimonies to have emerged since the massacre." Indeed, he was loyal until then, he said.
"A senior Syrian military officer has described how he defected to opposition forces after witnessing [the massacre]” Chulov even specifies “Raslan served until last Saturday [May 26] in the Syrian Air Force in the strategically vital port city of Tartous.” But his home was in Houla, Taldo, Saad road, almost next door to a family massacred that day he was home on leave.

In the UNSMIS video, he shows an ID card, unreadable, and his shoulderlapels bear three stars. Is that correctfor an Air Force major? The three star rank page on wikipedia suggests no.
Typically, three-star officers would hold the rank of vice admiral, lieutenant general or in the case of those air forces with a separate rank structure, air marshal.
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Anyone?
 
Hmm, directly compared in the screens, i'm not so sure that those are showing the same person. The eyebrows of the SPIEGEL Raslan are much closer to each other, the forehead is shorter, the hair not only slightly graying but also curlier, temples different as well...

Pity that our skeptic friends went so utterly silent.
 
Childlike Empress said:
Hmm, directly compared in the screens, i'm not so sure that those are showing the same person. The eyebrows of the SPIEGEL Raslan are much closer to each other, the forehead is shorter, the hair not only slightly graying but also curlier, temples different as well...

Pity that our skeptic friends went so utterly silent.
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It's not 100%, but I've found that video, lighting etc. can make a huge difference in how the same person appears - the whole character can seem totally different, yet it's the same guy.

Here, as with Dr. Salem in Libya, nothing structurally rules out a match, mostly it's, as you note, the eyebrows and hair. It seems a bit thin on the 26th and fuller and more cocky later. Consider compared closer yet. A little hair treatment could do that. I think I can see the wall behind that thin blow-forward. In fact, I think that's part of the 'gray' you refer to. (ETA: then, maybe not...)

Eyebrows - almost would take makeup to do that. Temples, again, apparently, more hair at that point, but about the same point... I started a page, as you probably saw. I'll probably edit it a little, but I still think it's worth running with. We have a local defector with wings, some command, some knowledge of the massacre, Raslan's demeanor, and looking quite similar.
 
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He's definitely worth his own page, also because he allegedly found some of the victims (Abdul Razzaks?), but I think the match should clearly be described as not definitive (which you kind of already did) and not used as main reason to cast general doubt on the man. Looking forward to what the testimony comparison shows.
 
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Childlike Empress said:
He's definitely worth his own page, also because he allegedly found some of the victims (Abdul Razzaks?), but I think the match should clearly be described as not definitive (which you kind of already did) and not used as main reason to cast general doubt on the man. Looking forward to what the testimony comparison shows.
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I was just working on further edits when - guess what - Wikinet is unavailable again. Does this usually happen almost daily, or only since our site got so prominent?
 
Was slow but reachable for me the last days. Daraya article had ~80 views in the last 12 hours (dropped the link somewhere countering propaganda :)). Banned another spammer.

Found a bunch of new videos from Houla, dated September 12. Taldou seems to be a ghost town right now. This one is directly at the "Qaws" arch, should show the Al-Sayed crime scene somewhere:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_-4a_OtiCo

This one is showing the "occupied" National Hospital a bit south down the road:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAYDGGMLpZ8

There are more from the same uploader but unclear if from Taldou. They have a strange habit i've noticed before of uploading videos which show the content twice, first with audio and then again without audio.
 
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Now look at that, just found in the related videos:


It's our Sister Agnès de la Croix-Mariam, talking about the refugee statements and saying that she had (additionally) been in phone contact with people in Taldou. She claims that the "rebels" took dead bodies from the Hospital and brought them to the mosque to "enhance" the massacre. This is a scenario which fits with something I had thought about already... hmm. Later. Added it to the wiki.
 
Childlike Empress said:
Now look at that, just found in the related videos:


It's our Sister Agnès de la Croix-Mariam, talking about the refugee statements and saying that she had (additionally) been in phone contact with people in Taldou. She claims that the "rebels" took dead bodies from the Hospital and brought them to the mosque to "enhance" the massacre. This is a scenario which fits with something I had thought about already... hmm. Later. Added it to the wiki.
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Good find. That's the signature claim of "Ahmed" and/or anonymous (still I think likely the same guy, but maybe two who've talked together and blended a common story). There are supposed to be national hospital marked blankets somewhere in the imagery.

There can't have been many in the hospital if so. Between bodies from there, dead rebels, dead soldiers, (?) some killed in cross-fire, and massacred families, including over 60 AbdulRazaqs, and only 108 dead? I still marvel that the number is so small given all these different things that have been reported.
 
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Childlike Empress said:
Was slow but reachable for me the last days. Daraya article had ~80 views in the last 12 hours (dropped the link somewhere countering propaganda :)). Banned another spammer.

Found a bunch of new videos from Houla, dated September 12. Taldou seems to be a ghost town right now. This one is directly at the "Qaws" arch, should show the Al-Sayed crime scene somewhere:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_-4a_OtiCo

This one is showing the "occupied" National Hospital a bit south down the road:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAYDGGMLpZ8

There are more from the same uploader but unclear if from Taldou. They have a strange habit i've noticed before of uploading videos which show the content twice, first with audio and then again without audio.
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Turdwedge wasn't a research friend, just a slow spammer? I'm so shocked.

We're having a Houla revival, thanks to no new (huge) massacres. I'll have a look soon at all these videos. You might notice I just got a grip on the arches-Al-Sayed house-hospital span, adding stitched views from the UNSMIS videos to Scene. Odd thing about that, bodies in situ removed only on the 26th, loaded in a dark truck. Next visit, following day, another truck is loaded with more bodies yet at the same spot. ?? Is the weeping man doing the loading legit? I suspect not. Rocket-attacked and burned buildings on both sides of the main road, north and south of the arches. Some kind of insignia perhaps, that once graced the arches has been torn down, I notice. The rebel flag that was there, ripped away by the Shabiha? Lots of scribbled out graffiti, probably declaring rebel control, death to Alawites, etc. and covered up just before the monitors got there. (frames of those closer views actually not posted yet)
 
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Nice additions on the Scene page. We've been really slacking a bit with video allocation ... found another version of that video of Rasha and her mother ... with French instead of Spanish subtitles and a bit longer, with an older woman and a little girl in the end. Haven't dissected the content - do we know for sure that those are the "Abdul Razak's" from the BBC article or did we deduce it from their testimonies?

And I found Alex Thomson reporting for Channel 4 - we only went by his articles so far. Nothing really new, but some interesting shots from the town - clock tower and roundabout with dead horse n stuff ... interviews a guy who speaks broken English, but that can't be the "guide" as Thomson writes that they didn't film him to protect his identity.

Added the vids and a screen of Alex (and the nun).

 
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More Thomson with the army at the crime scene at the arches - shot at (edit: IIRC Thomson's visit was on Sunday (27th), so the ongoing fighting could explain more bodies being removed that day):

 
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