Syrian Minister: US Strike on Syria 'Would Benefit Al-Qaeda'

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

• Any US military action against Syria would amount to "support for al-Qaeda and its affiliates," Damascus has said.
• Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad also told the BBC that armed groups backed by America - not Syrian troops - had used chemical weapons.
• The US says it has evidence that Damascus used the nerve agent sarin in a deadly attack in August.
• President Barack Obama has vowed punitive action but wants Congress to vote on the issue first.

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Syrian Minister: US Strike on Syria 'Would Benefit Al-Qaeda'

A Troubling Call From Syria

The following excerpts are from AINA:

• Early this morning [August 26] I received a phone call from Mary, a friend in Sweden who was born in Syria. She wanted me to check my Facebook account. A young Syrian woman, Nour, wanted to become friends with me. I accepted the request. A minute later, Nour wrote me her first message. She had pictures from Tabqa, a town that was totally emptied of Christian Assyrians [AINA 8-2-2013, 8-4-2013, 8-9-2013]. Nour also had the contact information of victims of fundamentalist Islam. They, the victims, want the world to know what has happened to them. A group of non-Syrian Mujahedeen drove them out of their homes.The message from the perpetrators was "convert to Islam or leave". I called one of the victims, and heard horrifying stories about religious and ethnic cleansing.
• Christians in Syria are a vulnerable group. They comprise approximately 8 percent of the population. Tabqa used to be a modern city with cinemas, hairdressers, fashion boutiques and restaurants. Now it is driven by men in beards who no longer allow any of that.
• An hour after my interview with that refugee, US Secretary of State John Kerry declared "there must be accountability" on behalf of the victims of a chemical weapon attack. Considering all the evidence emerging from witnesses, from images, from human-rights groups and from medical information provided by Doctors Without Borders, Kerry said "these all strongly indicate" that "chemical weapsons were used in Syria," and that they were fired by the Syrian government.
• Doctors Without Borders didnt' appreciate its medical reports being used as a justification for possible military action. It issued a statement stressing that only "an independent investigation" can determine whether the hundreds of boides arriving at hospitals Aug. 21 were killed by chemical weapons, and that the organization has not placed blame anywhere.

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A Troubling Call From Syria

In Memoriam of Patrick W. Danahy

 Patrick W. Danahy Victim of 9/11

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Patrick W. Danahy was in his office on the 90th floor of Tower 2 in the World Trade Center. As he did every morning, Patrick called his home at 8:30AM, just before the attacks occurred, to tell his wife and girls that he loved them. It would be the last time any of them would hear his voice.

Patrick and his wife Mary, were expecting their third child, already having two girls at the time Alison 3, and Katie 2 . When they were discussing girls names for the third child, Mary had suggested Grace, although Patrick was somewhat hesitant. Mary explained that Our Lady of Grace was the patron saint of motorcyclists (which is true). "It'll have to be," he said. "She'll look out for me when I go out riding." Patrick loved motorcyles, cars (he had bought himself an old Porsche for his last birthday), and mountain bikes. He had participated in a couple of 100 mile bikeathons. He was a man who loved life, and especially his life with his girls.

Mary said that "his girls were his life. He'd do blocks and read books to them every night. He always had to rush home to his girls. He's outgoing, athletic, loved mountain biking, driving his Porsche and his motorcycle." His wife said, "he was the go-to guy. Friends from all over were always calling him, from London and upstate. He was a guy who everybody depended on to get things done."

Mary Danahy spoke to her husband by phone a few minutes before the attack began. She later spoke to a survivor who was with him that morning. "She attributed her being alive to him because he told her to get out quickly," she said.

Mary Danahy tries to help her girls cope. "My older one knows now, and is very angry and doesn't want me to leave her. She asked God for help. She said, 'We need our daddy.' "

Patrick Danahy grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson and in 1988 he graduated from Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y. He was vice president for investor services at Fiduciary Trust. His parents, Frank and Mary Anne Danahy, lived in Kingston for years before moving to Connecticut. On the morning of September 11, 2001, along with 2,996 other innocent victims, Patrick W. Danahy was taken from his family by an act of pure hatred. There was no little Grace to protect him.

One month to the day after a terrorist piloted a plane into the South Tower of The World Trade Center , on October 11, 2001, Mary Danahy gave birth to the couple's third child, Grace.

WE SHALL NEVER FORGET