As the Arab League mission faces [NYT] heavy criticism over its shockingly blase attitude toward the violence, Josh Rogin reports on US plans for helping the opposition outside the Arab League mission:
After several weeks of having no top-level administration meetings to discuss the Syria crisis, the National Security Council (NSC) has begun an informal, quiet interagency process to create and collect options for aiding the Syrian opposition, two administration officials confirmed to The Cable. … The options that are under consideration include establishing a humanitarian corridor or safe zone for civilians in Syria along the Turkish border, extending humanitarian aid to the Syrian rebels, providing medical aid to Syrian clinics, engaging more with the external and internal opposition, forming an international contact group, or appointing a special coordinator for working with the Syrian opposition (as was done in Libya)…
Philip Gourevitch worries the international community won't be willing to get on board with tougher anti-Assad steps. Paul Wood writes a harrowing dispatch about his visit to Syria:
"Dignity" was a word I heard a great deal from Syrians explaining the revolution. Here, he was talking about Dera'a, the small southern town where the uprising had begun. In March, 15 school children were arrested for spraying anti-regime graffiti on a wall. Desperate families went to the local security headquarters. According to the widely circulated stories, the officer told them to forget about their children and that his men would rape the mothers to give them more. Two weeks later, the children were released. Some had had their fingernails pulled out. Neither the injuries, nor the insult, were forgotten.
Jordanian blogger Chubby writes a eulogy for Basel Sayed, a Homs resident who has been responsible for a number of videos from the beseiged Baba Amr neighborhood. Sayed filmed his own last moments – they're not graphic but still quite disturbing. In his honor, here's a video of a big protest in Homs:
These Homsis loudly boo Iran and Hezbollah during their protest:
These incredibly brave protestors in Idlib continue stand and, indeed, mass while being fired on by Assad's security forces:
The Dish 