CommonCore = CommonCrap

Posted on November 17, 2014November 17, 2014 by Denise Simon

Much has been written about the CommonCore educational system being pushed on state education systems nationally. While more than 60% of states push back after really learning what the syllabus is about, it has been proven what the system is about but few are listening.

CommonCore was created by leaders of global corporations to indoctrinate students into a very narrow channel of choices when it came to what they could study for the sake only of the future of business enterprise.

But now we have even more companies vying for a slice of the money via no bid contracts as a result of studies, marketing and database analysis of student performance.

CommonCore is yet another platform for fraud, collusion and abuse where most sadly students and parents are the pawns. C’mon parents get involved for the sake of your children, for the sake of their education and for the sake of taxpayers and for the sake of a viable and sound future of America.

Fight Is On for Common Core Contracts

Testing Companies Jockey for a Growing Market, Protest States’ Bidding Process

Caroline Porter

The Wall Street Journal

CANCEL

Updated Nov. 12, 2014 12:30 a.m. ET

29 COMMENTS

As states race to implement the Common Core academic standards, companies are fighting for a slice of the accompanying testing market, expected to be worth billions of dollars in coming years.

That jockeying has brought allegations of bid-rigging in one large pricing agreement involving 11 states—the latest hiccup as the math and reading standards are rolled out—while in roughly three dozen others, education companies are battling for contracts state by state.

Mississippi’s education board in September approved an emergency $8 million contract to Pearson PLC for tests aligned with Common Core, sidestepping the state’s contract-review board, which had found the transaction illegal because it failed to meet state rules regarding a single-source bid.

When Maryland officials were considering a roughly $60 million proposal to develop computerized testing for Common Core that month, state Comptroller Peter Franchot also objected that Pearson was the only bidder. “How are we ever going to know if taxpayers are getting a good deal if there is no competition?” the elected Democrat asked, before being outvoted by a state board in approving the contract.

ENLARGE

Mississippi and Maryland are two of the states that banded together in 2010, intending to look for a testing-service provider together. The coalition of 11 states plus the District of Columbia hoped joining forces would result in a better product at a lower price, but observers elsewhere shared some of Mr. Franchot’s concerns.

The bidding process, which both states borrowed from a similar New Mexico contract, is now the subject of a lawsuit in that state by a Pearson competitor.

For decades, states essentially set their own academic standards, wrote their own curricula and designed their own tests. In a bid partly to help the U.S. education system keep up with overseas rivals, state leaders began working on shared benchmarks.

With financial and policy incentives from the Obama administration, 45 states and D.C. initially adopted Common Core. But the standards have faced pushback from some parents and conservatives who say they represent federal overreach. Two states have pulled out and are writing their own standards.

Still, most states are implementing Common Core and accompanying testing this year. The sheer size of that effort and this year’s deadline heighten the stakes and exacerbate the difficulty of hiring test suppliers.

“Winning the policy battle was not even half the battle,” said Michael McShane, a research fellow in education policy at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, who is skeptical about Common Core. “It was more like 10%, and 90% of the battle is implementation.”

The $2.46 billion-a-year U.S. testing market is seeing more competition beyond the three traditional powers of Pearson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co. and McGraw-Hill Education CTB, according to Simba Information, a market-research firm. While McGraw-Hill recently got a $72 million contract for assessment services with several states, meanwhile, midsize vendors such as AIR Assessment and Educational Testing Service are winning big states like Florida and California.

Amplify, the education subsidiary of News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal, also provides assessment products.

Some experts say legacy companies are best able to meet states’ demands and offer familiar relationships during this period of flux. At the same time, the move to new standards coincided with a switch to digital and online learning that has forced vendors to rethink their strategies.

Maryland’s contract with Pearson was built off the one in New Mexico, which took the lead in writing the bidding documents for a four-year, roughly $26 million contract that applied to that state. But other states in the coalition were meant to copy the contract and competition, meaning its full value could balloon to $1 billion.

In the spring, New Mexico field-tested new state exams. The state relied on Pearson for a piece of software that delivers the test. AIR Assessment, a rival company to Pearson, protested over the bidding process last year and filed a lawsuit in the Santa Fe First Judicial District this past spring alleging that only Pearson could fulfill the bid requirements.

This summer, Judge Sarah M. Singleton ruled that state administrators had to review AIR Assessment’s concerns. New Mexico officials subsequently found the concerns invalid.

AIR Assessment is appealing that finding and asking that New Mexico reopen the bidding process with new specifications for the next school year—potentially reopening the contracts in all 11 states and D.C. Judge Singleton could rule as soon as this month, according to Jon Cohen, president of AIR Assessment, a division of the American Institutes for Research, a not-for-profit organization.

“We just want a fair bid,” Mr. Cohen said, whose company recently won a $220 million contract to provide Common Core-related testing products over six years to Florida. A spokesman for New Mexico’s education department called AIR’s allegations “frivolous.” Pearson declined to comment on the suit.

“You’re seeing a whole ecosystem transform,” said Shilpi Niyogi, a Pearson official. “There’s new players and new innovation, and we’re constantly looking at the relationship between innovation and scale.”

Gruber-gate, the Gift that Keeps Giving

Posted on November 17, 2014November 17, 2014 by Denise Simon

Jonathon Gruber should not be the villain. He is an expert on how to finesse government and he made money doing it. The villains are ONLY the Democrat lawmakers and powerbrokers as it is exclusively the Democrats that forced the deal-making and cunning objective to pass the law known as the Affordable Care Act.

Several government agencies paid Gruber for his consulting, including the Department of Justice paying $1.7 million for his expert witness testimony. Then a handful of states paid Gruber for his services.

It is remarkable that it took so long for Gruber’s presentations and truths to bubble to the surface. The Democrats punked America and the costs into the hundreds of millions continue to be tabulated. Gruber WAS NOT the only one to profit in this historical and epic conspiracy.

Grubergate shines spotlight on Obamacare profiteers

Remember when Nancy Pelosi declared that Obamacare was a jobs bill? “It’s about jobs,” Pelosi said in 2011, during a news conference to mark the first anniversary of passage of the Affordable Care Act. “Does it create jobs? Health insurance reform creates 4 million jobs.”

Like many other promises about Obamacare, that hasn’t worked out. But there is no doubt that Obamacare created a lot of work for at least one American — MIT professor Jonathan Gruber. Gruber’s frank admissions that he and others deceived the public about Obamacare have drawn a lot of attention in recent days. But the money that Gruber made from Obamacare raises yet another issue about his involvement in the project. Throughout 2009 and 2010, he energetically advocated a bill from which he stood to profit. And when it became law, the money rolled in.

In 2009, as Obamacare was moving its way through Senate committees, Gruber, who had achieved a measure of fame as the architect of Romneycare in Massachusetts, was a paid consultant to the Department of Health and Human Services. In March of that year, he received a contract for $95,000 to work on the project, and in June he received a second contract to continue that work; it was worth $297,600. Together, they comprise the “nearly $400,000” that critics have said Gruber received to work on Obamacare.

But after the bill became law, Gruber made a good deal more from it. The Affordable Care Act provided for states to set up exchanges to sell taxpayer-subsidized insurance coverage. For those states that chose to do so, exchanges would have to be built from the ground up. Studies would have to be done. Contracts would be let.

In 2010, the state of Wisconsin, under Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, paid Gruber $400,000 to do a study of the impact of healthcare reform. By the time Gruber finished his report, Republican Scott Walker had been elected governor and wasn’t much interested in using Gruber’s study. “State officials did not invite Gruber to Wisconsin for the release of his study nor did they set up a conference call with him for reporters or even provide them with his contact information,” the Madison, Wis., Capital Times reported. “That is unusual for an important report like this, which cost $400,000.”

In the two years between March 2011 and March 2013, the state of Minnesota paid Gruber $329,000 to study how to make its exchange conform with Affordable Care Act requirements.

In 2012, the state of West Virginia signed a contract with Gruber to study its healthcare system. “The state will pay MIT professor Jonathan Gruber $121,500 to understand the states health insurance landscape and revisit key assumptions about state health care policy,” the Charleston Daily Mail reported in September of that year. “Gruber is a policy rock star of sorts. He’s advised more than a half dozen states on health care reform.”

In November 2011, the state of Vermont hired a consulting firm that used Gruber to study the state exchange. Gruber was paid at least $91,875 for his work.

In 2012, the state of Michigan included Gruber in a multi-firm, $481,050 contract to study its exchange system. It’s not clear how much of that went to Gruber himself.

The bottom line is that Obamacare has been very, very good to Jonathan Gruber. Now that he is in the news for other reasons, the public is also learning how much he profited from the bill he did so much to promote.

Of course others profited from Obamacare, too, and still are. Republican Mike Leavitt, a former governor of Utah and Mitt Romney adviser, has a consulting firm that has made millions off the exchanges. But Gruber’s recent admissions might put him in a special category. He is, by his own account, a man who intentionally deceived the public in order to pass a measure from which he stood to profit handsomely.

Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber has billed federal and state governments at least $5.9 million for advice, as more videos surface showing him undercutting the landmark law

Four U.S. states and the federal government have padded Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber’s wallet to the tune of $5.9 million since 2000, including millions connected to his work on the Affordable Care Act.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist has been pilloried for collecting $392,600 from the Obama administration’s Health and Human Services Department while the law was being written, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Gruber’s consulting contracts give states and the feds access to a proprietary formula that can determine how changes in a health care system’s structure will affect costs.

The ‘Gruber Microsimulation Model’ is what he sold to the White House. It helped Obama’s team anticipate what the influential Congressional Budget Office (CBO) would say about various features of the final plan – and whether their costs would officially be considered ‘taxes.’

You MUST read more here and videos of Gruber-gate are included.

November 24, Deal or no Deal for Iran and Kerry

Posted on November 16, 2014November 16, 2014 by Denise Simon

Tensions and meetings are mounting as the November 24 date approaches. If a deal is reached you can be the 114th session of the U.S. Congress will scrutinize every word as no one has trusted Barack Obama or John Kerry on this process. Allies have been sidelined in the process and betrayal is on the horizon if a deal is struck.

Meanwhile Iran demands that the West comply with their demands and such demands have not been spelled out or forthcoming. If no deal is reached the consequences are just as bad if not worse. This is a time to look cautiously at allies, territory, weapons, dates and sanctions.

Meanwhile there is Oman, a quiet and settled country that has been an interlocutor in the process.

US State Department spokeswoman Psaki said that the US remained “very focused” on making progress in talks with Iran and on signing an agreement by the November 24 deadline.

MOSCOW, November 10 (Sputnik) – The talks in Oman on Iran’s controversial nuclear program were “tough, direct and serious,” US Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday.

The talks involved EU diplomat Catherine Ashton, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Psaki said her country remained “very focused” on making progress in talks with the Islamic Republic and on signing the agreement by the November 24 deadline.

“There is still time to do so,” she told reporters.

The meeting between the three foreign policy chiefs wrapped up the second day of talks in the run-up to broader negotiations between Iran, EU’s Ashton and P5+1, which includes Russia, the United States, Britain, France, China, and Germany.

The trilateral meeting was called to address major differences that have been hindering a comprehensive agreement. On Sunday, the three envoys discussed Iran’s uranium enrichment program and the possibility of easing Western sanctions against Tehran.

The talks between Iran and the group of six powers will continue on Tuesday in the city of Muscat, Oman.

The West has accused Iran of attempting to build nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear program, while Tehran argues that its nuclear ambition is to meet the country’s growing energy needs and achieve other peaceful goals.

Last January the United States agreed to provide limited sanctions relief if Iran froze its nuclear program. Since then, Iran has halted production and opened the door to international inspectors.

In November 2013, during talks held in Geneva, the P5+1 group agreed to reach a deal with the Tehran delegation, guaranteeing the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program by July 2014. The deadline was later extended to November 24, 2014.

So what is in Oman’s future? One of my favorite analysts has published a soft alarm bell.

Could Oman be the Next Crisis?

by Michael Rubin Commentary November 14, 2014

http://www.michaelrubin.org/15656/oman-crisis

In 1970, with British help and support, Qaboos bin Sa’id overthrew his father and took the reins of powers in the Sultanate of Oman. Sultan Qaboos was an enlightened monarch, and firmly guided the xenophobic and isolationist state back into the modern world. Oman has since been a model of neutrality and tolerance, often acting as a bridge between regional adversaries (it is no coincidence that Oman served as the initial go-between for U.S.-Iran talks). Nevertheless, when push came to shove, Oman has done what is needed to combat terrorism. U.S. aircraft based in Oman launched some of the initial airstrikes against the Taliban during Operation Enduring Freedom.

Oman is also strategically important. For all Western policymakers fret about Iranian activities in the Strait of Hormuz, they often forget that Oman occupies one side of the important waterway. Should Iran gain a toehold on both sides of the Strait, the calculus of Persian Gulf security would change.

Alas, the status quo cannot last forever. Sultan Qaboos is aging. A “confirmed bachelor,” Qaboos has produced no offspring. Succession looms. And, perhaps never closer than now. ForeignPolicy.com today has an interesting piece speculating that Qaboos, who will turn 74 next week, may be on his deathbed. The Sultan has in recent weeks sought to dispel the rumors that he suffers from terminal colon cancer, but his frail appearance and his subsequent cancellation of his forthcoming national day appearance have added fuel to the fire.

In theory, when Qaboos dies, a new leader is supposed to be chosen by consensus among the leading factions of the royal elite. But if there is no consensus, then a letter that Qaboos will leave should help determine that successor. The problem is that surrounding countries have everything to gain and nothing to lose by disputing the authenticity of such a letter or by putting forward fraudulent copies favoring their own proxy. While it’s doubtful that Oman will make as radical a political shift as it did as a result of the last succession, the failure of the White House to adopt a proactive strategy toward the region does put its future in doubt. While Washington shouldn’t necessarily muck about in Omani royal politics, it is a vital interest to protect the integrity of the process and prevent Iran from doing so.

There are a few nightmare scenarios. One is that a pro-Iranian ruler will become Oman’s next leader. Another is an outbreak of fighting. This is farfetched, of course. Just as Saudi troops invaded Bahrain to prevent a Shi’ite triumph over the Khalifa ruling family, it would not sit idly while another friendly monarchy fell to what it considers hostile forces. Then again, Oman is neither Sunni nor Shi’ite, and so long as the monarchy isn’t threatened—and it won’t be—then Saudi Arabia might choose more subtle ways to interfere.

Herein lays another danger. Should both Iran and Saudi Arabia begin supporting proxy figures or movements, it might not be long before this undercut Omani stability in other ways. After all, Oman has been a pillar of stability for decades, but then again so was Syria; at least since Hafez al-Assad staged his 1970 coup. Oman could also face the resurgence of regional tension; it wasn’t too long ago in the scheme of things that it fought an insurgency against communist rebels in Dhofar.

Let us hope that Qaboos overcomes his current health crisis but, realistically, septuagenarian leaders do not last forever. The United States should hope for the best in Oman, but it’s long past time when U.S. officials should plan for the worst. Alas, planning for the worst case is something to which too often American strategists across administrations seem adverse. We should not be. Oman is too important to lose.

UAE Gets Aggressive on Terror Organizations

Posted on November 16, 2014November 16, 2014 by Denise Simon

In late August, UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan enacted federal law number 7, which mandated the list to be published and circulated by the media to further “transparency” and “increase awareness” of terrorist threats.

The move follows a similar step taken by Saudi Arabia in March.

The groups blacklisted by the UAE were as follows:

1- UAE’s Muslim Brotherhood called Al-Islah
2- UAE terrorist cells
3- Karama organization
4- Uma Parties in the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula
5- Al-Qaeda
6- Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
7- Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
8- Yemen’s Ansar al-Sharia
9- Muslim Brotherhood, both the organization and movement
10- Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiyya in Egypt
11- Bait al-Maqdis group in Egypt
12- Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt group)
13- Majlis Shura Al-Mujahedin Fi Aknaf Bayt Al-Maqdis (Mujahidin Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem, or MSC)
14- Yemen’s Houthi movement
15- Hezbollah party in Saudi Arabia’s Hijaz
16- Hezbollah in the Gulf region
17- Al-Qaeda in Iran
18- Badr organization in Iraq
19- Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, also known as the Khazali Network in Iraq
20- Fath al-Islam in Lebanon
21- Osbat Al-Ansar or Asbat an-Ansar (League of the Partisans) in Lebanon
22- Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)
23- Ansar Al-Sharia in Libya
24- Ansar Al-Sharia in Tunisia
25- Al-Shabab in Somalia
26- Boko Haram in Nigeria
27- Al-Murabitoon brigade in Mali
28- Ansar Al-Din movement in Mali
29- Haqani network in Pakistan
30- Lashkar Taiba in Pakistan
31- Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement headquartered in Pakistan
32- Mohammed Army in Pakistan
33- Mohammed Army in India
34- Indian mujahideen in India/Kashmir
35- The Caucasus Emirate by Chechen militants
36- Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)
37- Abu Sayyaf Islamist group in the Philippines
38- Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
39- Alleanza Islamic d’Italia or Islamic Alliance in Italy
40- Islamic Association in Finland
41- Islamic Association in Norway
42- Islamic Relief Organization in the UK
43- The Cordoba Foundation in Britain
44- International Islamic Relief Organization belonging to the international Muslim Brotherhood
45- Taliban movement in Pakistan
46- Abu Thur al-Fiqari battalion in Syria
47- Al-Tawheed and Iman battalion in Syria
48- The Green Battalion or Al-Khadraa battalion in Syria
49- Al-Tawhid Brigade in Syria
50- Abu Bakr brigade in Syria
51- Talha bin Ubaidallah in Syria
52- Al-Sarim Al-Batar brigade in Syria
53- Abdullah bin Mubarak brigade in Syria
54- Convoys of Martyrs brigade in Syria
55- Abu Omar brigade in Syria
56- Ahrar Shumar or Free Shumars brigade in Syria
57- Hezbollah brigades in Iraq
58- Brigade of Abu Al-Fadl al-Abbas in Syria
59- Brigades of Al-Yom Al-Mawood (Destined Day in Iraq)
60- Battalion of Omar bin Yasir in Syria
61- Ansar Al-Islam group in Iraq
62- Nusra Front in Syira
63- Harakat Ahrar ash-Sham Al Islami (Islamic Movement of the Free Men of the Levant) in Syria
64- Jaish Al-Islam (Islam Army) in Palestine
65- Abdullah Azzam Brigades
66- Kanvaz in Belgrade, Serbia
67- The Muslim American Society (MAS)
68- Union of Muslim Scholars
69- Union of Islamic Organizations in Europe
70- Union of Islamic Organizations of France
71- Muslim Association of Britain (MAB)
72- Islamic Society of Germany
73- Islamic Society in Denmark
74- Islamic Society in Belgium
75- Sariyat Al-Jabal brigade in Syria
76- Al-Shahbaa brigade in Syria
77- Al-Qa’Qaa’ in Syria
78- Sufian Al-Thawri (Revolutionary Sufian brigade) in Syria
79- Abdulraham brigade in Syria
80- Omar bin Al-Khatab brigade in Syria
81- Al-Shayma brigade in Syria
82- Al-Haq brigade in Syria

There still remains a Gulf Coalition that appears to remain aggressive on fighting terror. This coalition does include Qatar and the al Thani monarchy is pushing back hard on the pressure to be more aggressive on harboring terrorists and funding terror networks. So this weekend, the UAE delegation was led by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the Minister of Foreign Affairs was assembled to smooth out unique positions.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, and Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, the emir of Kuwait, also attended the meeting.

The visitors were greeted by Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince, Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and the GCC secretary general Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani.

The GCC leaders had been expected to hold a meeting before their annual summit next month in Doha in an effort to overcome internal differences between Qatar and the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, who withdrew their ambassadors from Doha in March.

A GCC foreign ministers’ meeting scheduled on November 10 to prepare for the summit was postponed.

Kuwait’s parliamentary parliament speaker Marzouq Al Ghanem voiced optimism on the efforts by Sheikh Sabah, who has been leading a mediation effort, to end the differences.

“We hope the Riyadh meeting comes to a happy ending that strengthens the GCC,” he said.

It appears some differences were worked out as recalled ambassadors were deployed back to their respective assignments.

DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on Sunday agreed to return their ambassadors to Qatar, the Gulf Cooperation Council said in a joint statement, signalling an end to a rift over Doha’s support for Islamist groups.

The announcement came after an emergency meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh to discuss the dispute, which began in March and was threatening an annual summit scheduled to be held in December in Doha.

The question is now what will be the additional result and objectives with regard to Daesh (Islamic State), funding and providing safe havens to terror organizations? An even bigger question is just what will the U.S. State Department take from this meeting and will they follow suit? The last question is of the list of 82 above, how many have visited the White House and are those visitor logs even available or will they be redacted?

Assad’s Bloody Regime, the World Ignores

Posted on November 15, 2014November 15, 2014 by Denise Simon

Just remember the U.S. and the Barack Obama coalition against Daesh is fighting against al Nusra and Khorason which are all al Qaeda, effectually aiding the Assad regime who has used chemical weapons countless times. It should also be mentioned again that Assad continues to get support from Iran, Kerry’s new Middle East ally and Russia as Putin commits deadly hostilities against Ukraine and is moving into the Baltic States. So in effect, the United States has no more enemies but what is below is being ignored by the world. Shameful. Look carefully and ask yourself where is the ubiquitous United Nations Human Rights Council? Where is anyone on this?

Syria’s ‘hospital’ of horrors

By Abd Doumany

A medic stitches the head of a wounded boy at a makeshift clinic after a mortar fired by Syrian government forces fell in the besieged rebel town of Douma, in the outskirts of Damascus, on November 11, 2014 (AFP Photo Abd Doumany)

DOUMA, Syria, November 12, 2014 – Douma, where I live, is a Syrian rebel bastion. A city of 200,000 just northeast of Damascus, it has been under siege for more than a year by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. We are hit practically every day by artillery fire and air and ground raids. It is also located in the Gouta area, which is held by the Free Syrian Army and which was attacked with chemical weapons by the regime in August 2013.
An injured girl is treated at a makeshift hospital in the besieged rebel bastion of Douma, northeast of the Syrian capital Damascus, on September 24, 2014, following reported airstrikes by government forces (AFP Photo / Abd Doumany)

September 24, 2014 (AFP Photo / Abd Doumany)

The “hospital” where I took these pictures is a makeshift clinic set up in the basement of a building, managed by the Unified Medical Office of Douma, which was created in 2013 to coordinate private medical care in the area. The hospital treats the war wounded from throughout Gouta and serves as something of a triage unit, with mild to serious cases handled on site and the worst injuries, including those requiring surgery, sent elsewhere.
An injured man waits to be treated at a makeshift hospital in the besieged rebel bastion of Douma on September 24, 2014 (AFP Photo / Abd Doumany)

September 24, 2014 (AFP Photo / Abd Doumany)

I head to the hospital each time an intense bombing or air raid hits Douma to document the attacks. At times when I arrive, it is as if I’ve entered a nightmare, with 50 or more injured crammed into the small clinic in an atmosphere of anger and fear. It is very difficult to take pictures at those times. Sometimes I stop. The scene before me is simply too awful.
A wounded Syrian reacts to the pain at a makeshift hospital in the besieged rebel bastion of Douma, northeast of the Syrian capital Damascus, on October 3, 2014 (AFP Photo / Abd Doumany)

October 3, 2014 (AFP Photo / Abd Doumany)

The hospital badly lacks medicine and equipment. Doctors and nurses push on against the odds, struggling to maintain a minimum standard of hygiene. They are constantly exhausted since the wounded never seem to stop arriving. During the bloodiest attacks, they can work 48 hours straight without sleeping.
A wounded Syrian boy sits at a makeshift clinic in the besieged rebel town of Douma on November 11, 2014 (AFP Photo Abd Doumany)

November 11, 2014 (AFP Photo / Abd Doumany)

Among all the victims I’ve photographed in recent months, the one who most stands out to me is Ahmad. He was 17 years old and arrived with a badly wounded hand. Doctors thought there was no option but to amputate his fingers, but he refused. He said he still had hope that his hand would heal and he would be able to use it again — that he would again be able to write. His hand has since been hit by gangrene, and amputation may indeed be inevitable.
A Syrian girl is treated at a make-shift hospital following a reported regime air raid on November 7, 2014, in Eastern al-Ghouta, Syria (AFP Photo / Abd Doumany)

November 7, 2014 (AFP Photo / Abd Doumany)

Each time I return to the hospital, I come away with different feelings. Sometimes fear predominates; sometimes it’s sadness. It is impossible to get used to seeing such scenes. The injured are brought in and they are often similar, but the shock of seeing them is always disturbing. There are times when I spend hours in silence after returning home, unable to speak to anyone. It depresses me, and the horrible images remain stuck in my head for hours.
A young Syrian volunteer treats a wounded man at a makeshift hospital in the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Douma following a reported air strike by government forces on November 11, 2014 (AFP Photo / Abd Doumany)

November 11, 2014 (AFP Photo / Abd Doumany)

What hits me hardest is seeing the pain of those who have lost loved ones. Usually I avoid photographing those scenes out of respect for them. I know exactly how they feel: I’ve lost one of my brothers in this war.

Abd Doumany is a freelance photographer and an occasional AFP contributor based in Douma, Syria.
A Syrian boy cries as he looks at his wounded father at a makeshift hospital in the rebel-held town of Douma near Damascus on September 9, 2014 (AFP Photo / Abd Doumany)

A Syrian boy cries as he looks at his wounded father on September 9, 2014 (AFP Photo / Abd Doumany)

Meanwhile,

The Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra: A Looming Grand Jihadi Alliance?

Posted by Aymenn Al-Tamimi on Friday, November 14th, 2014

By Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi

The international coalition- led by the U.S.- against the Islamic State [IS], with additional American airstrikes targeting the ‘Khorasan’ al-Qa’ida group in Syria (in reality just al-Qa’ida veterans from the Afghanistan-Pakistan embedded with Syria’s al-Qa’ida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra [JN])- has prompted media speculation of a wider truce, alliance or even merger between IS and JN. For example, on 28 September, Martin Chulov of The Guardian cited a “senior source” claiming “war planning meetings” held between JN and IS leaders.