Guess what the US military is doing with crucial information that could save countless lives in Syria? Absolutely nothing.
The US has access to radar information over Syrian airspace. Right now, someone is sitting in a US military control center watching regime aircraft packed with barrel bombs head towards schools, hospitals and homes while doing nothing to warn Syrians of incoming attacks.
The UN Security Council banned barrel bombs exactly a year ago. Since then the barrels have killed nearly 2,000 children. If the international community won’t stop the bombs the least they can do is warn Syrian rescue workers - like the White Helmets - that the barrels are coming. It’s information that will save lives.
Sign the petition on the right and tell the US to release radar information to Syrian rescue workers who can use it to warn neighbourhoods of incoming attacks.
The regime’s barrel bombs are the biggest killer of civilians in Syria today.[1] These rusty old barrels packed with explosives and scrap metal are dropped deep into non-regime areas where they can destroy an area of up to 10 buildings.
These bombs play no strategic role in the fighting. They are dropped far away from the frontlines on the neighbourhoods of civilians who want no part in the violence.[2]
It was from one of these barrel-bombed buildings that Khaled Farrah and his teammates from the White Helmets rescued a crying two-week old baby - buried under three stories of rubble.[3]
The White Helmets now operate a basic warning system for many of these neighbourhoods. Using binoculars and World War II-style air-raid sirens, they try to warn civilians to get to safety before the bombs drop. Often it’s too late.
It’s enraging to learn that the US-led coalition is sitting on information that could help these rescue workers save more lives.
One man who holds the key to releasing this information is Robert Malley, a recent advisor to Barack Obama and senior director on the National Security Council. Malley is deeply trusted by the president but is a behind-the-scenes kind of guy who is not used to public pressure. The more of us who call on him to make this information available as an early warning to civilians, the more likely it’ll happen.
Sign the petition on the right and tell Obama’s key advisor Robert Malley to release life-saving radar information about barrel bombs to Syrian rescue workers.
We need to build public pressure to stop all the bombs - with a 'no-fly zone' if necessary. As we build momentum for that let's help warn civilians of the bombs being dropped today.
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/world/middleeast/arab-world-unites-in-anger-after-burning-of-jordanian-pilot.html?_r=1
[2] http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/02/24/syria-new-spate-barrel-bomb-attacks
[3] https://www.whitehelmets.org/