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Since 2013, Professor Franklin P. Lamb has traveled extensively throughout Syria. His primary focus has been to document, photograph, research and hopefully help preserve the vast and irreplaceable archaeological sites and artifacts in Syria.
Like Iraq, Syria is the cradle of civilization, and as such it has been a rich source of our shared global culture and historic heritage. Already endangered from illegal excavation, looting, international trafficking and iconoclasm; the theft and destruction of these sites has greatly increased as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.
Many of the endangered archeological sites and artifacts are over 7,000 years old. The oldest remains found in Syria are from the Paleolithic era (c. 800,000 BCE). The most endangered artifacts and archaeological sites currently are in Tell Halaf, the north of Syria near the Turkish border with Syria. These archaeological sites date as far back as 5,500 BCE. They include archeological sites and artifacts of the Babylonian, Sumerian, Egyptian, Assyrian, Phoenician, Aramaic, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, Ayyubid and Ottoman civilizations and empires.
Professor Franklin Lamb has also been working, sometimes under dangerous circumstances, to record and photograph the war damage done to religious icons, images, monuments, and ancient structures that span pre-Roman civilizations, and structures such as Islamic mosques, Christian churches and Jewish synagogues.
Professor Lamb is working tirelessly to record and photograph these sites and artifacts because they are in danger of complete destruction for religious, political and illegal trafficking reasons, especially due to the ongoing wars in the Middle East.
Professor Franklin Lamb's website and his latest book, "Syria's Endangered Heritage, an International Responsibility to Preserve and Protect" presents exclusive and never published before photographs, records, data, articles, and interviews from across the whole of Syria. His book can be purchased at his website http://www.syrian-heritage.com/.
In addition to Dr. Lamb's urgent archaeological work he is also deeply committed to rescuing and aiding refugee children in Syria. He is a volunteer with the Lebanon, France, and USA based "Meals for Syrian Refugee Children, Lebanon (MSRCL)", which seeks to provide hot nutritional meals to Syrian and other refugee children.
Lamb says that the goal of MSRCL is to be able to provide one meal a day to 500 children. More donors are needed in order for him to reach that goal. At $2.25 per meal x 500 children per day ($1,225), the budget for a month (30 days) requires approximately $36,000. Over 95% of each donation goes directly towards the cost of each meal. The MSCRL volunteer teams give their time, energy and even their own money to help the refugee children so that they will not become part of the "lost generation" of Syria.
Lamb's books and publications include "Pollution as a Problem of International Law"; "International Legal Responsibility for the Sabra Shatila Massacre"; "Israel's 1982 War in Lebanon: Eyewitness Chronicles of the Invasion and Occupation", "The Price We Pay: A Quarter Century of Israel's Use of American Weapons against Civilians in Lebanon in addition to the three volume set, "Palestine, Lebanon & Syria Palestine, Lebanon & Syria (Commentary and Analysis 2006-2016)." Due out during Fall 2016, in English and Arabic, is "The Case for Palestinian Civil Rights in Lebanon: Why the Resistance Sleeps."
Dr. Lamb's most recent book is "Syria's Endangered Heritage: An International Responsibility to Preserve and Protect". www.Syrian-heritage.com
Lamb's Academic Credentials include: BA, and Law Degrees from Boston University, Master of Law (LLM) Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy from the London School of Economics (LSE); Diploma in International Air & Space Law from the University College of London; Post-Doctoral Studies at Harvard University Law School of East Asian Legal Studies Center, specializing in Chinese Law; International Legal Studies at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Studied Public International Law at The Hague Academy of international Law, at the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, Netherlands.
Lamb's Professional and Political Activities include Assistant Professor of International Law, Northwestern College of Law, Portland, Oregon and Assistant Counsel to the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, During the Administration of President Jimmy Carter, Lamb was elected for a four year term to the Democratic National Committee, representing the state of Oregon. Lamb served on the Democratic National Committee Judicial Council with California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi as well as the Platform Committee on East-West Relations. Professor Lamb served on the presidential campaign staff for Presidential Candidate Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.
(9 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 21, 2016 Will proxy politics bring death for Madaya siblings Manal and Mohammed-Kamal?
But I do think that NGO, MSRCL noted above, can meet our required burden of proof that Manal and Mohammad-Kamal's is a "humanitarian case." Those with the final say for who gets on the evacuation lists, Syria, Russia and Iran, must be strongly and constructively encouraged to apply the same standard to all four villages when the evacuations continue, today in all likelihood. And that standard is "humanitarian cases".
(4 comments) SHARE Sunday, December 11, 2016 Aleppo Update: What is becoming of Syrian families fleeing East Aleppo?
A major urgent need is Education facilities for approximately 15,000 lovely children, between the ages of 3-17 years who survived the siege of their neighborhoods in East Aleppo risked their lives fleeing to West Aleppo. West Aleppo public schools cannot accommodate any of these 15,000 arrivals as they are already overcrowded according to local officials.
(11 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 7, 2016 Has the battle for Aleppo birthed Foreign Legions preparing a Sunni-Shia endgame?
Aleppo. Syrian government forces & their Russian and Shia allies from Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere have now captured 75% of East Aleppo and will soon unite all of Aleppo, which eastern part rebels have held since 2012.
Having captured two days ago Tariq al-Bab. This morning, 12/7/2016, government troops and their militia allies are massively bombing rebel-held parts of the Old City
SHARE Tuesday, December 6, 2016 Aleppo Update: An inspiring return to the oft-bombed National Museum
DGAM launched an immediate and massive rescue operation across the country soon after the conflict began here and within months emptied the museums of all portable artifacts. Today virtually all remain packed, protected, and hidden in secure guarded sites, most deeply underground.
SHARE Wednesday, November 16, 2016 R2P Palestinian Children: Proposals to combat Drug dealers targeting Lebanon's camps
Each of us is obliged to help organize, join and work with, and to assure the success of the proposed R2P (Responsibility to Protect and Rescue) Palestinian children from drug dealers Movement. We as adults owe this to vulnerable Palestinian as well as to all other youth in Lebanon.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 10, 2016 Palestinian Social Fabric Frays in Lebanon's camps as Drug Dealers target Children
The past few years have witnessed an alarming increase in drug distribution in several of Lebanon's 12 Palestinian camps, as dealers reportedly target children and teenagers, becoming increasingly brazen in pushing their narcotics.
(18 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 20, 2016 US-led sanctions targeting Syria risk adjudication as War Crimes
The clear effects of the US-led sanctions targeting the civilian population of Syria which are being studied today in Syria by this observer and others, as well as noted in the OCHA) study noted above, are increasingly seen as constituting War Crimes requiring indictment.
(51 comments) SHARE Friday, October 14, 2016 Political Defamation campaign targets Rescue Workers in Syria
"Attacking hospitals and medical workers is a non-negotiable red line. As such, it must be set out -- in clear and simple terms - in all military manuals, rules of engagement and standard operating procedures. Too often, unverified intelligence, or opaque claims that a hospital is a quote "command and control center," is justification enough for an attack.
(11 comments) SHARE Friday, October 7, 2016 The day after the fall of Aleppo will International Humanitarian Law still be Relevant?
Global demands to stop the bloodshed in Aleppo and across Syria have reached a crescendo unseen since the days of the 2003 U.S. non-UN sanctioned invasion of Iraq. UN Resolution 2139 recently demanded access to besieged areas in Syria and compliance with International Humanitarian Law including safe passage for civilians from conflict zones and the unimpeded passage for aid workers into those zones.
SHARE Friday, September 23, 2016 The 34th Commemoration of the Sabra-Shatila Massacre...
The Israelis communicated with the Phalange terrorists and blocked the Palestinian refugees from fleeing Shatila camp, while at the same time they ushered in reinforcements of Phalange forces who then committed more carnage.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 15, 2016 Syrian Twins Condemned to Death
One-month old conjoined twins Narwas and Mou'az Al-Hashash died needlessly this month in a Damascus hospital because they were the innocent victims of what International Humanitarian Law defines as War Crimes.
(13 comments) SHARE Friday, September 9, 2016 SYRIA: Can Government-Rebel Reconciliation End the Bloodshed?
September 8, 2016
Franklin Lamb reporting from on the ground in Syria.
Al-Moaddamiyeh, Damascus Countryside, Syria.
... a long hot tense day at the border-crossing at al-Moaddamiyeh, at town roughly ten kilometers southwest of Damascus.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 7, 2016 SYRIA: New Panic From Outbreak of Meningitis in Madaya "Death Town"
Here is Damascus the evidence is found in hospitals such as Al-Mouwasat and others, of the consequence of the fact that children are suffering not as a result of an accident of war, but rather as the foreseeable consequence of an intentional tactic -- surrender or starve. And that tactic is directly contrary to the law of war and subject to individual criminal responsibility for the perpetrators.
SHARE Monday, September 5, 2016 Syria: A Children's Story, September 5, 2016
All donations to Meals for Syrian Refugee Childre will be immediately receipted and our accountant will regularly issue financial status reports. We are committed to complete transparency.
SHARE Saturday, September 3, 2016 Syria: A Children's Story, Part 1 (Updated)
[Franklin Lamb emailed an updated version of his article from Syria "How Two Sisters, Ten Year Old Ghina and 8 Year Old Nagham, Survived Three Sniper Bullets in Syria"]
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 1, 2016 How Two Sisters,Ten Year Old Ghina and 8 Year Old Nagham, Survived Three Sniper Bullets in Syria
Ghina and Nagham were very lucky to survive the sniper's bullets last month and are today out of harm's way. But this is not the case for the 40,000 entrapped residents of Madaya who remain imprisoned by the war in Syria, as do nearly one million other besieged civilians across Syria today.
SHARE Saturday, August 13, 2016 As our cultural heritage in Syria hemorrhages, Villagers work to restore it
The people of Syria do not need nor do they seek the arrival of western "Democracy projects" asserting a Kiplingesque 'White man's burden" obligation. Nor will they accept rebranded Sykes or Picot or Balfour wannebees. Nor revanchists suffering delusional fantasies of another Persian, Ottoman, Soviet, or American-led Western hegemonic project. No more so than Syrians I have become friends would accept a Caliphate of any sort.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, August 6, 2016 Team Clinton focusing on demise of Hezbollah
Israel has made clear via its new Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman , leader of the fascist Yisrael Beiteinu party, that Israel will not return one centimeter of its recently occupied Syrian territory "until we sign a peace agreement with the new government of Syria. All Muslims must know that we Israelis are their friends and that we are on the right side of this Syrian war."