Talk:The Shabiha: Ghost Stories?

Shabiha Massacres
Inviting input before posting up-front: The alleged Alawite militias are credited with a number and variety of crimes, but nothing stirs the wrold's imagination or spurs our scrutiny like a reported Shabiha massacre of men, women, and children in the Syrian countryside. There have been so, so many of these it's heartbreaking to an exponentially compounded degree. The following is an extremely partial list of just some of these, in chronological order, starting with larger massacres and/or ones we have covered at ACLOS, eventually to include however many more we have the time to mention. Among those examined, there are in fact troubling similarities and patterns, including frequent suggestions that some mysterious rebel "black ops" are actually to blame. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:01, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Notes: "Reported" means rebel/activist reports, usually upon finding the bodies. "Children" seem to be defined as those aged 12 and under. "Killed" as first mentioned (rebel claim) means brutally executed, civilians, and almost almost universally of the Sunni sect. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:01, 30 March 2013 (UTC)


 * June, 2011: Jisr Al-Shughour massacre Not really a proper Shabiha massacre, mainly some few hundred Syrian soldiers were killed, with some reports of Shabiha involvement in killing them for defecting or whatever. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:15, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Feb. 2012: Khalidiya Massacre, Khalidiya district, Homs. (details or page forthcoming) --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:15, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
 * March 12, 2012: Karm el-Zeytoun massacre  45 reported killed, mostly women and children, in theKarm el-Zeytoun district of Homs
 * Most had their throats cut or had stab wounds, while others had reportedly been burned with heating oil and had their limbs broken. Opposition activists and human rights groups said they had been killed by pro-government militiamen, the shabiha, who had entered the area after heavy government shelling. Syrian state news blamed "armed terrorist gangs" for the killings, saying they had kidnapped residents of Homs, killed them and then filmed the bodies to discredit Syrian forces. BBC


 * May 25/26, 2012: The Houla massacre 108 killed, 49 children. Not all verified, but could be. Rebels fighters possibly included, although they won the battle preceding the massacre. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:15, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
 * June 6, 2012: Mazraat al-Qubeir massacre 78 reported killed and burned, rebel fighters maybe included, as they lost a battle there. Verified: at least 19 civilians, 3 women, 10 children at least. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:15, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Late June, 2012: Douma Massacre (early July) --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:15, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
 * July 12, 2012: Tremseh massacre Different hundreds of Sunnis civilians reportedly butchered, perhaps really "17 women, children and elderly, along with 30 bodies charred beyond recognition." Tremseh is generally accepted now as a rebel defeat after the army arrived, but with a smallish massacre still mixed in there, yet somehow ignored. That part seems to have happened before the army arrived. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:15, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
 * August 24-28, 2012: Daraya massacre Different hundreds, 400-1,200, people killed over a couple of days. Few are clear if fighters are included or not - they lost a huge battle for the town in those same days, and most bodies shown are fighting-age men. Civilians were apparently massacred, numbers unknown but probably pretty high (minimum women and children count not tallied). --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:15, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Late August, 2012: Harak Massacre --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:15, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
 * September 26, 2012: September 26, the Deadliest Day 40-107 in Al–Dhiyabia, 18 in Al-Bayada, Homs. Banyas: unclear, Bazreh: 19, etc. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:15, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
 * October 23, 2012 Douma Massacre (late October) --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:15, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
 * December 10/11, 2012: Aqrab Massacre 125-150 or up to 233 killed, women and children probably included, details unclear. They were Alawites. Those who escaped don't know what happened to the rest, but whatever it was, rebels did it. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:15, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Late December, 2012: Maan Massacre 23 reported killed, from the Sunni minority in a majority-Alawite town, following rebel incursions there. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:15, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
 * January 15/16, 2013: Haswiyeh Massacre 106 reported killed and burned, from families, but one list of 100 names was only 25% women and children. 75% male suggests most of the rest are rebel fighters. Locals say around 30 civilians were massacred by rebels in black before the army came and killed "many" of them. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:15, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
 * March 25, 2013: Abel massacre Up to 21 civilians killed and burned, 13 verified, just south of Baba Amr, Homs, the day after rebel forces were fully chased away from there. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:15, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

SyrPer on the term
SyrPer has an interesting take today - Ziad Fadel, professional Arabic<->English translator, first points out that the word doesn't exist in formal Arabic but has some connotations to "ghost", as we know, and then explains that the Ba'ath Party has a "Revolutionary Youth Movement" called "Shabeeba", which he compares to the boy scouts and some less friendly observers might liken to the Hitler Youth. He thinks "Shabiha" is a play-on-words propaganda term by some half-witted academic he suspects in Lebanon. I of course checked if he isn't bullshitting, and first found that Bahrain has a youth organization of that name, and it's a given name for girls, and after I searched with the word and "Baath" I found a couple of references which make clear that this organization indeed exists. Here's a 2002 German translation of a Svenska Dagbladet article which labels it as "Shabiba at-Thaura" and here's a text from a "Syrian Freedom Fighter" describing his youth and how he was forced to join the "Shabiba" youth organization. "Interesting" that none of the pre$$titudes writing about the spooky Alawite militia have figured that out. --CE (talk) 23:20, 22 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Saw it. Came here to comment, but see that you have already linked to it. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 21:35, 23 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Hm. According to G-translate (not a professional), ghost exists in Arabic as شبح, which is pronounced Shibah. That's about what he says. Then Al-Shabiba, Revolutionary Youth, where Shabbab means youth. I can buy that. So for a group that doesn't exist, somewhere between these two words and their suggestions, and adding the Alawi twist ... perfect. Ba'ath sectarian ghost brigades with a clever and catchy name that, yeah, someone should have pieced together by now. Incidentally, reading up on Alawism at Wikipedia, all its oddities the Sunni extremists hate have been steadily minimized over recent decades, reportedly:
 * According to author Theodore Padnos, who lived in Syria from 2007 to 2010, the Alawite religion evolved during the years under Hafez Al Assad's rule, so that Alawites became not Shi'ites, but effectively Sunnis. Public manifestation or "even mentioning of any Alawite religious activities" were banned, as were any Alawite religious organizations or "any formation of a unified religious council" or a higher Alawite religious authority. "Sunni-style" mosques were built in every Alawite village, and Alawites were encouraged to perform Hajj.

Then in 2011, his son revived the Alawi death cult, at least according to rebel blood libel stories, and set it loose on the mission simply hidden thus far - eradicating the Sunites, one remote village family at a time, with the ghost army. I suspect the reactionaries are reviving all the "Nusayri" "enemies of God" stuff they can, making it seem contemporary and exaggerated and needing smashed before the Alawites escape into the Sunni background as it seems they were well on their way to doing. --Caustic Logic (talk) 08:04, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Timeline of Shabiha References
Copying over what CE once said at the JREF forum.
 * Checked the Shabiha articles on wikipedia. The oldest one is the Arabic one, from late March 2011. The English one is from August 2011, the German one from December 2011. In Farsi and Turkish people haven't heard about it until early 2012.

The Wikipedia page. Indeed. The vast majority of articles are from June 2012, and none predate the uprising. They almost seem to have not existed before that. Also, as she noted, the famous muscle-bound Shabih shown around in June 2012 is from a million-plus view video posted in April, 2011. Anything predating the rebellion and a reasonable prior planning period anyone finds should be brought here. So far, it seems this ghost army has emerged to explain all the things the rebel forces must not acknowledge as their own work. --Caustic Logic (talk) 06:42, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

Study "The Alawite Dilemma in Homs"
Josh Landis linked this study which he calls "excellent". Published by German Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (Political Foundation of the Social-Democratic Party) in March 2013 and written (in English) by a certain Aziz Nakkash who apparently interviewed many "Shabiha" in Homs. Only skimmed it so far (20 pages). Seems to be not entirely propagandistic, although I saw some flaws already - he writes about them "replacing" the Ba'ath youth organizations, but doesn't seem to be aware of the very similar "Shabiba" name the latter fly as SyrPer taught us, yet comes up with another possible origin (in addition to "Ghosts"). It seems he's claiming that the term is also a self-description, although I hadn't have time to look close enough to be sure about that yet. P.S. There have been a couple of "Guru Meditation" hours. --CE (talk) 14:18, 8 April 2013 (UTC)
 * The term is also said to refer to a car with a big smuggler's trunk. Will be pulling these together sometime, and taking a look at that. Sounds bad, though. I meant to do a little something earlier but had that message instead. Glad it's back now and hope it stays. --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:12, 8 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Just jumping to sections 2.4 and 2.5, one can find interesting historical tidbits like "Ghandi eventually became a member of what is today known as the Shabiha." Different name from Gandhi, but it still hit me. New name origin possibility: "a more likely explanation is that the term shabiha is derived from shabaha, a verb meaning to rip apart an object or a person, almost to the point of dismemberment." In context, as rebel storytellers mean it, probably one of the reasons it was the perfect name. Baa'th youth/popular committee (Lijan Shaa'biya)/Mercedes Shabah smuggler's trunk (see right below)/dismembering ghost army. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:18, 9 April 2013 (UTC)


 * But there does seem to be a real popular paramilitary calling itself Shabiha (or perhaps Lijan Sha'abiya, fudged?). The interviews here seem plausible, at least in general (I wonder about his contacts and any screening, but the signs are mixed and subtle, and it could be 100% level). I think a could way to approach this is two version of the Shabiha, possibly but not certainly one and the same. One is what's described here, more-or-less, and maybe from others interviewed (screens and actors and all are possible for each case), painting something a little sketchy still but plausible and apparently true, to some degree. The other is the ghost killers of these rural massacres. Both versions require greater scrutiny, especially the latter, as well as correlation between them. The "Shabiha" are to Syria very much what "African mercenaries" were to Libya. It deserves the scrutiny we've started here, and then some. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:18, 9 April 2013 (UTC)


 * I searched for "Aziz Nakkash" and all one can find is directly connected to the study. Except that there is a Bollywood singer/actor of the name "Nakkash Aziz". I'd say it's likely a pseudonym. Which says nothing about the authenticity of the information, given the potential for violence from both sides triggered by painting a nuanced picture. Who am I to complain? ;o) --CE (talk) 12:59, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

Global Post/Toronto Star

 * Hugh Macleod and Annasofie Flamand Global Post, June 15, 2012: Inside Syria’s shabiha death squads
 * An interesting piece. It gives a name for the famous video guy - Areen Al-Assad. Relative? Also an interview in Lattakia with "Abu Jaafar," claiming to be a Shbaih, and giving "a frank and unique insight into the violent, disturbed world of the shabiha, a group that suffers from a dangerous cocktail of religious indoctrination, minority paranoia and smuggler roots." "Frank" and "insight" both suggest honesty. Strangely "candid," this man is. As for the roots, the Shabiha are "named either for the Arabic word for ghosts or the old Mercedes Shahab popular for its smuggling-sized trunk" --Caustic Logic (talk) 06:42, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
 * The massacres in northern Syria, which UN officials, eyewitnesses and Human Rights Watch all concluded were perpetrated mainly by shabiha triggered a wave of international revulsion, with many analysts describing militia as a “Frankenstein” now beyond the control of the president. The regime blamed both massacres on foreign terrorists.
 * “The regime has been spawning militias, as deep down it is a militia pretending to be a state,” said a leading Syria analyst based in Damascus, who asked for anonymity to speak freely. “The Frankenstein is now completely out of control.”
 * [...]
 * “Sunni women are giving birth to babies who will fight us in years to come, so we have the right to fight anyone who can hurt us in the future,” said the Allawite militiaman [...] With his massive, tattooed muscles, shaved head, bushy black beard and trademark white trainers, Abu Jaafar, 38, looks every bit the figure of terror that is now imprinted on the international conscience.
 * [...]
 * ''Though he has a wife and children, after a day lifting weights and drinking some local Arak, Jaafar spends most evenings in the nightclubs of Lattakia [...] “If I get a call from my boss then my whole day is changed,” he said. “When I leave the house, I don’t know when I will be back.”

Packing up the Kalashnikovs, pistols, machine guns and grenades he said were given to him “by the government,” Jaafar joins his gang of 100 shabiha [...] and sets off to crush Sunni Muslim protesters.''
 * [...]
 * Reportedly established by Namir al-Assad, President Hafez al-Assad’s cousin, and Rifaat al-Assad, the late president’s brother, each shabiha gang grew up owing allegiance to a particular member of the extended Assad family.
 * Syria experts say members of the shabiha would be carefully selected for their physical strength, lack of education and blind loyalty to the Allawite sect and the Assad family in particular.
 * By the mid 1990s, however, the shabiha were beginning to get out of control and Hafez al-Assad ordered his elder son and heir apparent Basel, famed for horsemanship and a furious temper, to bring the militias to heel. He did so, but soon after died in a car crash, catapulting his awkward younger brother Bashar into the presidency.
 * Following Basel’s crackdown, Jaafar said he left his gang and opened a liquor store. [...] "Last June, friends from the shabiha asked me to return to work with them,” Jaafar said. “They said we must defend President Assad and his family and keep the power for the Allawite sect.” Soon, Jaafar’s pay of about $20 for a day’s thuggery had risen to a steady monthly salary of about six times the average state wage.
 * “We started by facing the protesters, but when the opposition became armed we attacked them in their villages,” Jaafar said. “In addition to our salaries, we take whatever we can get during the attacks: TVs, video players, electronics.”

Oweis, Reuters, Feb 3

 * Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Reuters, Feb. 3, 2012: Uprising finally hits Syria's "Silk Road" city
 * Oweis puts the start of the uprising in Aleppo at this time (nearly a year in!), and says that the "Shabiha" here were Sunni, not Alawi.--Caustic Logic (talk) 06:42, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Assad loyalist militiamen, known as 'shabbiha', fired at random overnight in the Hananu neighborhood as the refrain "God is great" echoed from houses in defiance of security forces who deployed in the area after growing pro-democracy demonstrations this week.
 * [...]
 * ''Months of relative calm in Aleppo were shattered when shabbiha militiamen killed at least 10 people after pro-democracy demonstrations erupted last week in the city which, together with adjoining towns, has a population of several million people, activists said.

The killings, the deadliest in the city during the 11-month uprising, happened in the tribal Marjeh neighborhood after security forces fired at a rally demanding Assad's removal, they said.
 * ''[...]""
 * Bashar strived to prevent upheaval in the city [...] and was shown frequently on state media with Ahmad Hassoun, the state-appointed Mufti, whom authorities consider to be the highest Muslim religious authority. Hassoun is from Aleppo. His son was assassinated three months ago, with the authorities blaming "terrorists" for the killing. [...] "The difference between Aleppo and the rest of Syria is that Hassoun and the other clerics have remained quiet, and that the shabbiha the regime has recruited are actually Sunnis from the city, not Alawites," one businessman in the city said.

Some activists said those killed were all demonstrators while others said most were killed in clashes that followed the shooting on the protest.

Keller, Guardian
Peter Keller (a pseudonym for a journalist who has worked in Syria), The Guardian, May 31, 2012: Ghosts of Syria: diehard militias who kill in the name of Assad
 * This is a long and detailed article piecing together what activists said about the secret system and financing behind their boogeymen. Both Alawite and co-opted Sunni businessmen are involved, especially certain car dealers, and some with embarrassing links to foreign companies. The standard chronology is there -a smuggling gang in the 70s, suddenly repressing and slaughtering in 2011/12/13. Between is mentioned the 80s, when Hafez Al-Assad moved a lot of poor Alawites into cities in Lattakia, fed and bribed them, and the 2000s period of "half-baked attempts at economic renewal." Here. foreign companies got embarrassing links they can set right by helping the rebels. ("one Damascus opposition activist presented a Guardian journalist with a list of the main business benefactors of the shabiha") And in 2011 Bashar called in the return payment, shooting people at protests and funerals, unseen on rooftops of course. --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:01, 3 February 2013 (UTC)
 * But it was amid the chaos and sectarian tensions of revolutionary Homs that the shabiha really came into their thuggish own. Mohammed, a veteran and respected moderate opposition activist in the city whom the Guardian met in February, said the shabiha in Homs accompany the Syrian army on raids and at checkpoints, but appear to have their own leadership and command structure – and take orders from unknown officials elsewhere.


 * When soldiers storm a rebel area or move in to search it, the shabiha arrive with them, sometimes on buses, to terrorise and steal from the local, largely Sunni population.


 * "They dress in black, or alike in army khakis, but wear a yellow ribbon on their shoulder," Mohammed told the Guardian on Monday. On 13 May, according to Mohammed, the shabiha moved into his area of al-Shammas, formerly a relatively peaceable Homs neighbourhood, and perpetrated a massacre there; he doesn't know how many were killed.
 * [...]
 * As their numbers have grown and hundreds of thousands of Homs residents have fled the city, the growing ranks of shabiha have moved in to colonise whole neighbourhoods and steal goods and furniture from empty houses. "They're vultures," said Mohammed. "They leave nothing behind."


 * Rami named two mid-level businessmen, one an Alawite living in the al-Qosair area of Homs, the other a Sunni living in Damascus, who he believes sponsor all the work of the shabiha in Homs. They work in conjunction with the head of security intelligence in the city, he said, who hires out his own men as shabiha or procures unemployed locals for the job.


 * None of this information is possible to verify, and Syrians are convinced that every successful businessman must somehow have sold his soul to the regime.