Mon. 28 Mar. 2011 MORNING CALL Syrians in USA back president amid unrest ………………...1 HAARETZ Let Syria take care of itself ………………………………….3 Assad's fall could deliver Lebanon to Iran and Hezbollah …..4 JERUSALEM POST Erdogan: Assad is working on reforms in Syria …………….6 The truth about Syria ………………………………….……..7 LATIMES In Syria, a test for Bashar Assad …………………………...10 SKY NEWS Where is Assad?. .................................. .................................13 DAILY TELEGRAPH Syria in the balance ………………………..……………….15 TIME MAGAZINE Is Syria About to Jettison Its Emergency Law? ....................16
Transcript
Mon. 28 Mar. 2011
MORNING CALL Syrians in USA back president amid unrest ………………...1
HAARETZ Let Syria take care of itself ………………………………….3 Assad's fall could deliver Lebanon to Iran and Hezbollah …..4
JERUSALEM POST Erdogan: Assad is working on reforms in Syria …………….6 The truth about Syria ………………………………….……..7
LATIMES In Syria, a test for Bashar Assad …………………………...10
SKY NEWS Where is Assad?. ...................................................................13
DAILY TELEGRAPH Syria in the balance ………………………..……………….15
TIME MAGAZINE Is Syria About to Jettison Its Emergency Law? ....................16
YEDIOTH AHRONOTH Open letter to Assad ……………….……………………….19
ARUTZ SHEVA Clinton Calls Assad 'Reformer' as Video Shows Massacre ..22
INDEPENDENT Desperate Assad tries to blunt uprising with new promises of
reform………………………………………………………23BEFORE IT’S NEWS
The Ongoing Plot To Create "Greater Israel" …...…………27
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HOME PAGELocal Syrians back president amid unrest Patrick Lester, Dan Hartzell and Eugene Tauber, The Morning Call (American newspaper website publishes from Allentown, Pennsylvania)March 27, 2011
Syrians in the Lehigh Valley are voicing support for the president of their homeland and decrying media portrayals of the crisis there amid reports of dozens of deaths in pro-democracy protests.
Some characterized the unrest as "minor" and isolated, blaming the uprising on a small group of extremists trying to alter the political landscape and mimic revolutions in Libya and Egypt.
"It is really a great surprise, not only to me, but to all the community," said Ayoub Jarrouj, longtime president of the Syrian-Arab American Charity Association in Allentown. "It's a shock to see what's going on."
Ali Nastah, 18, who came to the Lehigh Valley from Syria 13 years ago, said relatives in Syria have told him "everything is normal" back home. News reports have exaggerated the severity of the situation, he said.
"Watching the news and seeing the false propaganda…it really got me very annoyed," the Whitehall Township college student said.
Others echoed Nastah's comments Sunday in Lehigh County, which the U.S. Census Bureau says has the state's largest population of residents with Syrian ancestry. They praised President Bashar al-Assad as an asset to their country. Jarrouj said the vast majority of Syrian Americans in the Lehigh Valley support the Assad government.
"The president is well-liked," said Nasser Sabbagh, 53, of Allentown, who came to the United States from Syria's Christian Valley in 1979. "There are a lot of demonstrations in support of the president.
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The unrest is "very, very minor compared to what's going on" in other countries.
Not everyone shares that opinion. The White House issued a statement over the weekend condemning the Syrian government, saying civilians are being killed at the hands of security forces. "We are also deeply troubled by the arbitrary arrests of human rights activists and others," the statement read.
Dozens reportedly have died in pro-democracy protests in the southern city of Deraa and nearby Sanamein, Latakia, Damascus and other towns in recent days. The government blames armed groups for setting off the bloodshed. Human Rights Watch said 61 people have died in Deraa, where army checkpoints were beefed up.
Assad, facing the gravest crisis in his 11-year rule, recently deployed his army for the first time in nearly two weeks of protests after 12 people were killed in the northwest port of Latakia.
The unrest came to a head after police detained more than a dozen schoolchildren for scrawling graffiti inspired by pro-democracy protests across the Arab world. People marched, chanting: "The people want the downfall of the regime," according to reports.
Syria's establishment is dominated by members of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam to which the Assads belong, a fact that causes resentment among Sunni Muslims who make up some three-quarters of the population.
Sabbagh and others believe it all started with opinions expressed on Facebook and YouTube.
Nastah is using Facebook to organize what he described as a peaceful rally in Allentown. By Sunday evening, nearly 170
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people expressed interest in attending. He is hoping to attract 800 to 1,000, but still has to discuss his plans with Allentown officials.
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Let Syria take care of itself Israel needs to avoid any open or covert involvement in these events to the north, whether verbal or in terms of action.Haaretz Editorial 28 Mar. 2011,
Syrian President Bashar Assad is fighting for the survival of his regime against a wave of protests that began in Daraa, and on the weekend reached the outskirts of Damascus and Latakia. On the one hand, Assad is using force against the protesters - dozens have been killed by security forces - but on the other hand, he is scattering promises of reforms that are supposed to calm people down and save his regime.
The uprising in Syria presents a challenge for Israel. For the first time since the revolutionary awakening began in the Arab world, the protests have reached a neighboring party to the Arab-Israeli conflict that has tense deterrent relations with Israel and a substantial military force. Both the current Syrian president and his father, Hafez Assad, sought a "strategic balance" with Israel during their rule. In the past 20 years they conducted sporadic peace talks with Israel, intended to restore the Golan Heights to Syria and to establish new security-related and civilian relations between the two countries.
The weakening of the regime in Damascus illustrates how an opportunity was squandered because of the failure of talks with Syria. Israel now has no direct channel of communication with that country, as it has with Egypt and Jordan. There is also no peace treaty which Israel can demand to have honored, as it did after the uprising in Cairo.
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The crisis in Syria will have important implications for Israel's strategic situation. There will be risks, for example, if Syria's store of chemical weapons falls into dangerous hands, if the collapsing regime tries to survive by ratcheting up the conflict with Israel, or if Assad's successors exploit the conflict to gain domestic legitimacy. There also could be opportunities, however, if instead of Assad, a democratic regime arises that distances itself from Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.
Israel needs to avoid any open or covert involvement in these events to the north, whether verbal or in terms of action. It must ensure observance of the separation of forces agreement that has kept things quiet along the border with the Golan Heights, and demand that any future Syrian leader maintain that agreement. Moreover, Israel should also declare that it will enter into negotiations with any Syrian government that achieves legitimacy and recognition.
Meanwhile, the Syrians must and should solve their problems themselves.
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Assad's fall could deliver Lebanon to Iran and Hezbollah Washington, Israel, Turkey and Iran all have great reasons to want Assad to remain at the helm - he's seen as a safety valve against an attack by Hezbollah on Israel or against its physical takeover of Lebanon.By Zvi Bar'el Haaretz,28 Mar. 2011,
There's one voice suddenly missing in all the tumult surrounding the Syrian protests - that of Hassan Nasrallah. The man who encouraged the "Arab people" to rebel against their corrupt leaders and wished them success, the man who gloated when his enemy Mubarak - a leader who dared detain Hezbollah activists - was ousted from his post and later when protests began against
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Gadhafi, the main suspect in the disappearance of Imam Mussa Al-Sadr in 1978, is now silent. He is silent just as flames begin to lick the palace of Bashar Assad. That's because Nasrallah, who managed to stage a political revolution within Lebanon, risks finding himself without a political patron and perhaps disconnected from his geographic links to Iran.
Paradoxically, the threat facing Hezbollah is also Assad's defensive shield. When Hillary Clinton said Sunday that the United States would not intervene in Syria militarily, she cited lack of international consensus. But Washington, Israel, Turkey and Iran all have great reasons to want Assad to remain at the helm. The Syrian president has grown closer to the United States in recent years, earning his reward in the form of the return of an American ambassador to Damascus after a six-year hiatus. He is seen as a safety valve against a violent attack by Hezbollah on Israel or against its physical takeover of Lebanon. He has also made known his disagreements with Iran following the controversial visit of Ahmadinejad to Lebanon.
Assad's fall may open a path for Iran into Lebanon, without it having to consider Syria's position any longer.
Turkey, which has assumed the role of the appeaser and aspires to have as little trouble with its neighbors as possible, is just as concerned. Assad's fall may bring about an unknown new regime, which could view Turkey as an unworthy ally because of its links to Assad or could enable Iran to broaden its influence in Lebanon. The Turkish prime minister and foreign minister spent the weekend urging Assad to launch a series of reforms, but Turkey is also aware of what became of other leaders who recently tried offering reforms instead of real change.
All this worries Washington, which, at this point in time, does not share Hezbollah's fears and assumes that in any realistic scenario, the organization's bonds to Iran will strengthen, not weaken. It is, therefore, willing to agree to Assad's continued rule in exchange
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for some compromises with the protesters, or even their suppression with a "reasonable" amount of force.
Meanwhile, Assad is trying the formula that failed Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt and Saleh in Yemen - buying time by dismissing his cabinet, a move scheduled to take place tomorrow, and promising some cosmetic reforms.
Abolishing the supremacy of the Baath Party and the emergency regime that has been in place since 1963 will do little to reduce his and his family's grip on the military and economic resources of the state. At the same time, he is trying to recreate the regime of fear that his father imposed in 1982 and which has given Bashar 11 years of quiet. He shoots and kills civilians, arrests hundreds, and mainly relies on the military, which, unlike its Egyptian counterpart, risks losing many of the benefits it enjoys because of its loyalty to the regime.
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Erdogan: Assad is working on reforms in Syria Statement comes after Assad uses army against protesters; rebels use Facebook to call for demonstrations and list demands. Jerusalem Post,28 Mar. 2011,
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for reforms in Syria at a press conference on Monday.
Erdogan said he spoke to Syrian President Bashar Assad, telling him to answer the public's calls and adopt a reformist approach. He added that Assad is working on lifting emergency rule and restrictions on political parties.
Syrian activists continued to call for protests on Monday on their Facebook page, "The Syrian Revolution 2011."
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"We call for daily demonstrations and will not announce a place for protesters to gather, because the police will turn these areas into military zones," the page reads.
Another Syrian Facebook page, "The Syrian Days of Rage," says its "main goal...is the freedom in Syria," and listed the rebels' demands:
"1. Suspend all the emergency laws in Syria. And convert the nation to a modern civilian country. 2. A modulation in the main constitution that guarantees a transition to a pluralistic democratic country. 3. Immediate cancellation of the theory of one-governing-party. 4. A formation of a national government that reflects the different shades to achieve all the demands of our people. 5. Make a free and fair elections to the parliament in which includes all the races of the Syrian people. 6. Prosecute who done all of the massacres against the Syrian people in the past. 7. General amnesty for all the prisoners of conscience and political views. 8. The eradication of poverty and unemployment in the Syrian community. 9. Lifting the ban on all media types and the Internet. To allow all the partisan and political forums to express their views freely."
On Sunday, Assad deployed his army after nearly two weeks of protests. Dozens of protesters have died in pro-democracy protests in the southern city of Deraa and nearby towns over the last week in violence the government had blamed on armed groups.
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The truth about Syria Editorial,Jerosalem Post,27 Mar. 2011,
The precise number of protesters killed to date in Syria in unknown. Amnesty International has estimated 55 dead in the past week in and around the southern town of Deraa alone.
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Syrian activists have posted graphic videos on YouTube documenting brutal murders at the hands of Bashar al- Assad’s security forces in additional cities, such as Sanamayn.
One eyewitness told Al-Jazeera that more than 20 protesters had been shot dead there. One or more fatalities have also been reported in the coastal city of Latakia.
The sketchiness of the reports debunk the assumption that we all now live in a global village. A regime with the requisite wherewithal can, evidently, keep a fairly serious stranglehold on news, at least temporarily. American and European news anchors, so prominent in Libya these days, will not be heading to Damascus anytime soon. So long as Assad runs Syria, they simply won’t be allowed in.
Not only has Damascus managed to keep tight control over the goings on within its borders, and to maintain a “fear regime” that had deterred even the bravest malcontents from taking to the streets until very recently, it has even managed to win positive PR. USA Today featured a somewhat bizarre Syria supplement last month. But that was nothing compared to the puff piece carried by the fashion magazine Vogue, profiling Assad’s wife, entitled “Asma al-Assad: A Rose in the Desert.”
The “breezy, conspiratorial and fun” wife of the autocrat admits to readers that “it’s a tough neighborhood” she lives in. But not to worry. We are informed that the 35-year-old first lady’s “central mission” is to change the “mind-set” of six million Syrians under eighteen and encourage them to engage in “active citizenship.”
Demonstrations denigrating hubby as a “traitor who kills his people” seem active enough, though probably not the sort of thing the “glamorous, young, and very chic” Asma had in mind.
YET WHAT one French journalist has called the Vogue article’s “surrealism” is, unfortunately, a symptom of the kind of misguided mind-set that has led the US and Europeans to pursue
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what has become euphemistically known as “constructive engagement” with Damascus. This meant that as long as the Syrians made the most rudimentary ostensible gestures toward peace, consecutive US administrations, with strong European encouragement, were willing to overlook its many vices.
In the summer of 2005, just over a month after Syria was forced out of Lebanon by the Cedar Revolution following 29 years of occupation, Damascus renewed its campaign against Lebanese democracy, launching a series of assassinations that targeted civil society activists, government ministers, parliamentarians and journalists. Washington issued various condemnations but did nothing.
In the winter of 2007, former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, a strong advocate of “engagement,” was in Damascus to meet with Assad while, on the other side of town, Imad Mughniyeh, a Hezbollah commander responsible for the killings of some 250 American soldiers in the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, was killed.
That Mughniyeh had traveled freely to Damascus made it obvious that Syria was providing shelter to various terrorists – from insurgents making their way to Iraq to fight US troops, to Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, to members of Al Qaida and global jihad. And this “hosting” was being done under the nose of a visiting American dignitary.
In recent weeks, while the West has taken military action against Muammar Gaddafi, Syria has reportedly been helping the embattled despot. Libyan rebels last week brought down two Syrian fighter pilots; the Weekly Standard’s Lee Smith quoted sources stating that Syria had sent two dozen fighter jets to aid Gaddafi. Meanwhile, in the coming weeks, the special UN tribunal looking into the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri is slated to present findings which are expected to implicate both Hezbollah and Syria in the killing. Yet, inexplicably, as Damascus continues to strengthen its ties with
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terrorists, including Iran, the US recently reinstated its ambassador, who had been removed in 2005 after Hariri’s assassination. And on Sunday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear that presently America has no intention of intervening militarily in Syria.
WHILE THERE is reason to be acutely concerned that whoever or whatever replaces the Assad regime is liable to be still more hostile to the West and to Israel, it is surely long overdue to scrap the decades-old policy of “constructive engagement” with a leadership that showed a particular ruthlessness in mowing down tens of thousands of its own people on the last occasion that they dared mount a challenge to the Assad dynasty, in 1982.
The only thing “constructive engagement” seems to have achieved is to encourage a brutal regime to believe that it can continue to rule through murder and intimidation, while giving that regime the leeway to gain positive international PR. The effort to depict Assad’s Syria as some kind of enlightened, humane, reform-minded regime has rarely looked as imbecilic as it does today, with the president’s security forces doing his bidding and gunning down his people, just as they did in his father’s time.
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In Syria, a test for Bashar Assad The beleaguered president sends troops to protest areas and promises to repeal a controversial law. But there are signs that the unrest is a strain on his regime.By Garrett Therolf and Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles TimesMarch 28, 2011
Reporting from CairoSyrian President Bashar Assad tried to retain control of his protest-roiled nation on Sunday, sending troops to the site of recent clashes and promising through subordinates to remove a
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controversial emergency law used to detain dissidents without trial.
But there were signs that the unrest continued to test the political skill of Assad, who came to power in 2000 after his father's 29-year rule. Political analysts pondered the regional implications of the stress being placed on his regime.
A presidential advisor told reporters Sunday that Assad would address the nation on state television "within 24 to 48 hours." The president has largely remained out of view since his forces first fired on unarmed protesters in the southern city of Dara on March 18. The death toll from such clashes has climbed past 60.
Assad's remarks were expected to detail his pledge to remove the 1963 emergency law, which strictly limits Syrians' ability to assemble or voice opposition to the regime. The government first signaled a willingness to relax the law on Thursday, but it did not give a timetable or scope for the pullback, and the pledge failed to stem widespread protests.
Army troops were sent Sunday to the small coastal city of Latakia, the site of the latest clashes with protesters. Government officials blamed "armed gangs" for violence there. News reports said six people have died and more than 100 have been injured.
Witnesses said the violence began when protesters set fire to a building housing the ruling Baath Party on Saturday, an event that was especially brazen because the Assad family's political and business connections run deep in the city.
Damascus, the capital, was skittish Sunday. Citizens received text messages from the government warning them not to go to Umaweyeen Square where security forces apparently fretted protesters would reemerge. The city buzzed with reports about detained foreigners, including Muhammad Bakr Radwan, a dual U.S.-Egyptian citizen who was accused of selling photographs to international outlets.
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By dusk, witnesses said, an extremely heavy security presence descended on the area. White vans with tinted windows and decals showing Assad wearing aviator sunglasses were seen in the roundabout. Passersby noted that such vans often ferry people who are arrested.
Some protest leaders said their movement was using the day to regroup after protests in the west Damascus suburbs took on a sectarian overtone as Sunni Muslims battled with Alawites, a Shiite offshoot group that includes the Assad family.
State media seemed to stoke fears of further sectarian violence, saying foreigners had entered Syria to threaten the people's "coexistence" and political analysts spoke of a plot by the United States to send the country back to the Stone Age.
"Everybody wants to contain the problem before it gets bigger," said Maen Akl, a resident of Damascus. "People are so worried about a sectarian conflict, and they are chasing those who made some trouble yesterday."
Christians and other minority groups have taken solace over the years in the fact that Assad is an Alawite, believing he was a counterbalance against the Sunni majority.
"If there is really a change of regime in Syria, that would mean a change from Alawite rule to Sunni rule," said Marina Ottaway, director of the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
That would not just portend changes in the internal power structure, but would also probably strain relations with the country's closest ally, Shiite-dominated Iran.
"I think Iran is very worried right now about that, as [the Iranians] are about a lot of things in the region," Ottaway said.
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Damascus has for years manipulated sectarian tensions in Lebanon and been a constant irritant to Israel and to U.S. policy in the region. Its ties to the radical groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip mean that a successful Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement would probably require the endorsement of Assad's government.
The Syrian regime also has long frustrated regional powers such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. With Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak overthrown and Saudi King Abdullah in frail health, there were suggestions that Damascus would exploit the rapidly changing politics across the region.
The regime's adeptness at international maneuverings, however, has been eclipsed by its own internal upheaval as outraged citizens demand political freedom and better opportunities from one of the world's most entrenched police states.
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Where is Assad? Dominic Waghorn,Sky News,28 Mar. 2011,
Syria has been convulsed with unprecedented unrest for a fortnight and its leader Bashar al-Assad is nowhere to be seen. Just as Hosni Mubarak did before him the president is shying away from the cameras while protests rage across his country.
Assad was expected to appear on television on Sunday night but failed to materialise. Instead we have seen his feisty adviser Boutheina Shaaban trying to launch a robust defence of the way protests have been handled.
Dr. Shaaban, who begin political life as interpreter to the president’s late father Hafez al Assad, hinted that political reforms were in the offing. The government was considering lifting
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emergency laws, she said, which allow Syrian security forces to suppress any protest and arrest and imprison people at will.
Expectations were raised, a dangerous move in the current climate. The president was expected to announce political reforms during his televised address.
Syria is still waiting.
Just like the Egyptian and Tunisian regimes the Assad government appears to be dithering over how much to concede. On the one hand it wants to assuage popular discontent. But it knows concessions in Egypt and Tunisia emboldened opposition movements there and were seen as signs of weakness.
For some, Assad seems caught in headlights, unsure how to handle the worst unrest in his eleven years in power. For others his response is classic Baathist carrot and stick tactics. On the one hand his government promises reforms, which will never materialise, on the other it is shooting protestors in cold blood.
The regime’s explanations for a mounting death toll come from a different era as if YouTube and Facebook did not exist. Protestors were shot because armed gangs attacked the army according to its spokesmen while videos posted on the internet show the truth in gruesome clarity. The bleeding bodies of unarmed people lie in the streets after sustained gunfire is heard, levelled against crowds of unarmed protestors.
The leaders of Egypt and Tunisia and Libya also blamed foreign agents for spreading subversion and the foreign media for distorting the truth. Cosseted in their palaces, they may well have believed the lies of their own advisers before understanding the reality too late. The same may become true for Bashar al-Assad.
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Syria in the balance Telegraph View: By comparison to Syria, Libya is a side show.Telegraph View,Daily Telegraph,28 Mar. 2011,
As its planes and submarines destroy Col Muammar Gaddafi's ability to kill his own people, Britain is naturally preoccupied with Libya. But a much more significant struggle is taking place in Syria, where about 60 anti-government demonstrators have been shot dead over the past 10 days. Situated between Israel and Iran, Syria is at the core of conflict in the Middle East. By comparison, Libya is a side show.
The unrest understandably worries Western governments. Will President Bashar al-Assad and his fellow Alawites cling grimly to power, possibly seeking to divert attention from domestic affairs by picking a fight with Israel? If they fall, will the Sunni majority take fearful revenge on a Shia sect that has dominated the country for the past 41 years? And what might be the complexion of a Sunni-led administration – moderate and willing to seek peace with Israel, or rejecting its very existence, like Iran? Given such uncertainty, the argument "better the devil you know" appeals.
It is best countered by looking at the record of the Syrian government over the past 10 years. As is the case in most Arab countries, it has failed dismally to create jobs for an overwhelmingly youthful population and has squashed any signs of political dissent. In addition, it has sought to acquire nuclear weapons. Abroad, it has continued to support groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizbollah, thus remaining on the State Department's list of regimes that sponsor terrorism. It has undermined the government of Saad Hariri in Lebanon, to the advantage of Hizbollah, and, despite appeals from Washington, has moved closer to Iran. That is no recipe for stability, either at home or abroad. Uncertainty is worrying. But we know enough about the Assad dynasty not to shed any tears over its demise.
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Is Syria About to Jettison Its Emergency Law? By Rania Abouzeid Time Magazine,Monday, Mar. 28, 2011
Syria's emergency law enshrines the autocratic nature of the Assad dynasty's rule. It restricts public gatherings and the free movement of individuals, it allows government agents to arrest "suspects or people who threaten security," it authorizes the monitoring of personal communications and it legalizes media censorship. It has been in place since the 1963 coup d'état that brought the Baath Party to power. That plot was instigated in part by Hafez al-Assad, the previous President and father of the current one. Indeed, as some observers have noted, the emergency law is older than President Bashar al-Assad himself.
But, suddenly, as Syria experiences the onslaught of the Arab Spring, the emergency law is becoming the regime's sacrificial lamb. Just days after announcing that a committee would be formed to study lifting the nearly half-century-old law, Syria's presidential adviser Buthaina Shaaban told several foreign journalists on Sunday that the measure would "absolutely" be repealed. She did not, however, say when that would happen.
The lightning decision appears to have been made without benefit of committee or recommendations — the regime's usual apparatus for watering down or ultimately rejecting reforms. Indeed, a proposal to review the emergency law that was put almost routinely forward just a month ago was unanimously rejected by Syria's rubber-stamp parliament, according to Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian dissident based in Washington, D.C., and visiting scholar at the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University.
All this takes place as the emergency law appears to have lost some of its teeth. On Friday, people in at least a dozen cities staged mass demonstrations demanding freedoms and reform,
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prompting a brutal security crackdown that left dozens of protesters dead. The demonstrations took place despite the emergency law's prohibition of such gatherings — and may indicate that, at least for now, large sections of the populace no longer feel cowed by the law. Perhaps to ameliorate public rancor, the regime also reportedly released some 260 political prisoners on Friday night from Saydnaya prison. Most had served the majority of their sentences.
The imminent repeal of the emergency law was welcomed by Ziadeh and other dissidents contacted by TIME. They nonetheless cautioned that in practical terms it may not mean real change. In theory, repealing the law will activate "about 40 items in the constitution which were frozen because of it, like freedom of speech and the right to demonstrate," says Ayman Abdel-Nour, a former Baathist and longtime friend of Assad's, who now lives in self-imposed exile in Dubai, where he edits the independent website All4syria.org. But in practice, he fears that just as the old law is discarded it will be replaced by a new, tougher one, enacted so that, in essence, Assad "will take with one hand what he gave with the other."
In addition, security forces are likely to continue to enjoy immunity from prosecution, a condition that affords them huge amounts of power. A separate act, Legislative Decree 14, issued in 1969, says that "no legal action may be taken against any employee of General Intelligence [the dreaded Mukhabarat] for crimes committed while carrying out their designated duties, except by an order issued by the director." No such order has ever been issued. In 2008, President Bashar al-Assad extended this immunity to members of other security forces through Legislative Decree 69.
There are other laws that inhibit freedom without the government having to turn to the emergency law. Apart from the wide-ranging powers still afforded to the security forces by virtue of their immunity from prosecution, membership in the Muslim
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Brotherhood, for example, will remain a capital offense under Law 49 (1980).
"All the people know that lifting the emergency law doesn't mean anything on the ground without resolving all of these issues that are tied to it," Ziadeh says. Nevertheless, lifting the state of emergency imposed by the law will renew many personal freedoms inscribed in Syria's constitution. "Lifting it will give a big boost to the protesters, it will encourage them to continue, even though it doesn't really mean anything different on the ground," Ziadeh says.
In addition, Ziadeh says, the quick concessions may suggest that the regime is struggling to figure out how to stave off further turmoil. "It's a big weakness: they're taking steps back and aren't sure what to do," he says. "There is soft discourse from the regime but on the ground the security forces are shooting protesters with live bullets." Several dissident websites have posted reports of a split between Bashar and his younger brother Maher, who heads the Presidential Guard. That is impossible to verify. What appears more apparent is a fracture between the powerful Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa and the security forces. Sharaa hails from Dara'a, the city in southern Syria that has been the focal point of the unrest. The army beefed up its presence there on Sunday, as well as deploying in the northern port city of Lattakia, which has also seen bloody unrest. But Dara'a has been battered the hardest, with claims of double-digit death tolls reportedly at the hands of security forces.
According to a report in Syria's al-Watan daily last week, the Vice President traveled to Dara'a soon after protests started in order to assure demonstrators that they would not be targeted with live fire by security forces, especially in the vicinity of the town's central al-Omari Mosque. Despite his pledge, they were fired upon. That action by the security forces allegedly infuriated the Vice President, who has maintained an uncharacteristically low profile since.
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The regime has also resorted to blaming "foreign hands," an old standby, for the turmoil, parading an Egyptian American on state-run television who claimed that he had been paid by a Colombian to "transmit images and videos about Syria" and that he had recently traveled to Israel, a state Syria remains technically at war with. The country's Grand Mufti, Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, also suggested foreign "instigation against Syria" emanated from Damascus' anti-Israeli foreign policy and support for militant groups including Hamas in Gaza and Hizballah in Lebanon.
Syrians have been expecting President Assad to address the nation for days. He is likely to announce further reforms, or at the minimum, speak of his openness to them. The Syrian regime, though just as autocratic and brutal as the now overthrown regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, could always boast that its young President, who was trained as a physician, was more attuned to the needs of his people. Even U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has indicated that Assad has a reformist bent, though she demanded that his regime cease killing its own citizens. She did say, however, that the Syrian leadership is unlikely to receive the same treatment as Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, who also threatened his people with violence. That's one thing that the Syrian President doesn't have to worry about. Now he just has to hope he can say the right things.
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Open letter to Assad People no longer fear regime, blaming protests on Mossad won’t save Syrian leader Smadar Peri,Yedioth Ahronoth,27 Mar. 2011,
You must have figured out that we are following the situation. Indeed, you are making an effort to ensure that no information makes it to the outside, while enlisting your security arms’ fists of steel to the cause of shutting out the media and erasing the images.
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However, the phones are still working, and your people learned to use Lebanon-based addresses to post online. Also don’t forget that foreign diplomats in Damascus are providing reports around the clock. They are recounting, for example, what your security people are doing in order to portray Deraa as the only trouble spot, where “thugs,” “Mossad agents” and “terrorist gangs” are working against you.
Indeed, according to what we are told, the demonstrators do not yet dare to chant that they want you out. Yet should you continue to hide, you can trust them to say that too. Both you and I know that the fear obstacle had been broken. If it’s important for you to stay in power, immediately convene a press conference. Give the cameras a friendly stare, speak to your people, and convince them that the leader finally intends to deliver on the pledges he made in recent days.
True, you dispatched thousands of soldiers, yet the protestors – who have almost nothing to lose – tricked you: You sent your security forces to the squares, yet they appeared from the remotest alleyways. The first night, we received rather difficult images of oppression in the most unexpected places. Even in your own stronghold, Latakia.
The fact you sent Buthaina Shaaban to speak on your behalf is very bad. When one’s situation is shaky, nobody will buy into the pledges made by an advisor. It’s also futile to order the newspapers to write about “parades” and publish images of “supporters.” Your people are not dumb, and these are not parades, but rather, protests against you. For the time being they’re only chanting “freedom,” but soon you’ll hear them yelling “the people want to bring down the regime.” Should we remind you of what happened in Tunisia? And where’s Mubarak now?
No friends left The young generation, who’s heading to the streets at this time, was born into a state of emergency. From your time in London
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you must have learned that there is no enlightened state that adheres to emergency laws for 48 years. You need to give the people hope. They are already realizing that the security arms knock on the doors of protestors and throw them into prison. They say you’re holding 4,000 political prisoners in jail.
I know one of them, a Palestinian woman from the territories who went through hell in the women’s prison. One day she’ll speak out against you. Soon you’ll discover that even the prison guards are rebelling against you.
Let’s take stock of who your friends are now, those who will come to your aid once the uprising spirals out of control: The US Administration has a score to settle with you over the mercenaries you smuggled into Iraq, to kill Americans. They believe nothing you say and tie our hands every time someone talks in favor of peace with Syria. The French despise you because of the Hariri assassination. They also heard from your former deputy, Abdul Halim Khaddam, horror stories about your late father’s conduct, and also about you. The Saudi royal family hasn’t spoken to you for years. Turkey? Come on.
So who’s left? That’s right, the ayatollahs in Tehran. Trust me, they already earmarked a successor for you.
Last month, you boasted that there will be no riots in Syria, because you did not infuriate your people via a peace treaty with Israel. You must agree with me that it’s a rather pathetic argument. Now you’re accusing Mossad of organizing the protests against you. What a great excuse. Listen, Bashar, the ground is shaking, you woke up late, and you’re offering too little. Make an appearance immediately and don’t stutter. If it’s important for you to stay (we don’t care, we got used to you…) declare a real war on corruption, call off the emergency state, free prisoners, fire the security chiefs who make decisions without consulting you, and mostly listen to your people. If you promise them a dignified life, they’ll let you stay.
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Clinton Calls Assad 'Reformer' as Video Shows Massacre Gil RonenArutz Sheva,28 Mar. 2011,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday that the U.S. would not intervene militarily in Syria as it is doing in Libya, and drew a distinction between Libya's Muammar Qaddafi and Syria's Bashar Assad. The latter, she explained, is seen by congressmen from both parties as “a reformer.” “What’s been happening there the last few weeks is deeply concerning," she told CBS's Face the Nation regarding Syria, "but there’s a difference between calling out aircraft and indiscriminately strafing and bombing your own cities," as Qaddafi has done, and the violence by the Assad regime, which merely amounted to "police actions which, frankly, have exceeded the use of force that any of us would want to see.” Clinton said that the circumstances that preceded the intervention in Libya -- international condemnation, and resolutions by the Arab League and United Nations Security Council -- are “not going to happen” regarding Damascus. Even as Clinton explained the fine differences between Qaddafi and Assad, videos from Al-Sanamayan, near Daraa, appeared to document a massacre of civilians as it occurred. The first video shows protesters running away from a loud hair of gunfire, the source of which is not clearly visible. The shooting goes on for over a minute as the crowd becomes frenzied and casualties are carried away. The second video shows people grieving over bodies lined up in a makeshift morgue.
Daraa itself was reported to be relatively quiet after a week of bloodshed.
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The New York Times quoted analysts who said the events in Syria "could dash any remaining hopes for a Middle East peace agreement." Administration officials told the newspaper that the uprising appeared to be widespread, and included Sunni Muslims who have usually been loyal to Assad. Some analysts said the Obama administration is concerned that Assad's minority Alawite government would be replaced by a Sunni-led government that will turn out to be more radical and Islamist. However, Assad had "probably disqualified himself as a peace partner for Israel," an administration official said. “You can’t have a comprehensive peace without Syria. It’s definitely in our interest to pursue an agreement, but you can’t do it with a government that has no credibility with its population.” Last June, the State Department organized a delegation from hi-tech leaders Microsoft, Dell and Cisco Systems to visit Assad and tell him he could attract more investment if he stopped censoring Facebook and Twitter. The current events appear to indicate that the Syrian dictator was right in assuming that the increased openness created by the social networks would threaten his regime.
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Desperate Assad tries to blunt uprising with new promises of reformSyrian leader faces greatest challenge to his family's rule since his father took power 40 years ago. Patrick Cockburn reportsPatrick Cockburn,Independent,28 Mar. 2011,
President Bashar al-Assad is facing the greatest challenge to his family's rule over Syria since his father took power 40 years ago, as protests sweep through the country.
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Yesterday the government deployed the army for the first time, in the main port of Latakia. Authorities admitted that 12 people had been killed and 200 wounded over a two-day period in the north-western city, but said all who died had been members of the security forces or their attackers.
Speculation was growing last night that President Assad would announce widespread political reforms in a bid to bring the disturbances under control. His adviser, Bouthaina Shaaban, told Al Jazeera that the emergency law in existence since 1963 and hated by Syrian reformists for the far-reaching powers it gives to security services would be lifted, but did not give a timetable.
In another bid to placate protesters, authorities released political activist Diana Jawabra and 15 others. They had been arrested for taking part in a silent protest demanding the release of a dozen schoolchildren, detained for writing anti-regime graffiti.
While Mr Assad may offer concessions such ending emergency law, releasing prisoners, giving the press greater freedom and legalising political parties other than the ruling Baath party, such changes are unlikely to be seen as credible as long as the same people run the army and the security forces. And the ever-creeping death toll is increasing calls for an end to the regime.
The crisis that is threatening to overturn the Syrian government has erupted suddenly over the past week, initially provoked by the security forces in the southern city of Deraa arresting the graffiti-scrawling children. Their detention provoked demonstrations that were met with live fire, and the funerals of the dead turned into vast political rallies.
Human Rights Watch says 61 people have been killed in Deraa and surrounding towns and villages.
The threat to Mr Assad is the greatest the Baathist regime has ever experienced, and it has in the past always responded to dissent
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with repression. During the Muslim Brotherhood guerrilla war in 1976-82 Mr Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, crushed the rebellion in the city of Hama by killing an estimated 10,000 people.
Baath party veterans may consider their best hope of staying in power at this time is to avoid making concessions, which, they believe, will only be interpreted as weakness and lead to additional demands.
Mr Assad, a British-educated eye doctor, is widely respected in Syria but his popularity is likely to slump as he fails to speak or respond adequately to the present crisis.
His spokesmen have made contradictory statements on the release of prisoners and other issues, putting in doubt the regime's seriousness in making reforms.
They have also released unlikely explanations of the killing of protesters, claiming that demonstrators opened fire first or were foreign infiltrators. These are often directly contradicted by videos taken by mobile phone and shown on YouTube or by satellite TV stations like al-Jazeera whose correspondents entered Deraa.
In the capital, Damascus, pro-government rallies, with supporter waving Syrian flags and posters of Mr Assad, have taken over main squares and threatened to storm the al-Jazeera offices.
The anti-government protests are fuelled by the demand for political and civil liberty but Syrians, who spend half their income on food according to UN figures, are also suffering from high prices, unemployment and corruption.
Some 30 per cent of the 22 million population are below the poverty line. The government is short of money because of declining oil revenues but has tried to reduce economic discontent by cutting duties and taxes on food and other staples.
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The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, yesterday drew a clear distinction between Syria and Libya, ruling out involvement in Damascus' affairs.
"Each of these situations is unique," she told CBS News. "Certainly we deplore the violence in Syria... What's been happening there the last few weeks is deeply concerning, but there's a difference between calling out aircraft and indiscriminately strafing and bombing your own cities (as in Libya), than police actions which frankly have exceeded the use of force that any of us would want to see."
In Latakia, the state news agency said "armed elements roamed the streets, occupied the rooftops of some buildings and opened fire randomly, terrorising people". Troops have now moved into the city, which is majority Sunni Muslim but its hinterland is largely populated by Allawites, the Shia Muslim sect to which much of Syria's ruling elite belongs.
The London-born first lady * "The household is run on wildly democratic principles. We all vote on what we want and where," explained the Syrian First Lady Asma al-Assad in a gushing Vogue profile published this month. Critics might argue that it's one rule for home and one rule for the country after her husband sent in the army to quell pro-democracy protests this weekend.
The 35-year-old was born in London to Syrian parents. She grew up in Ealing; went to King's College, where she studied computer science; and then forged a career in banking, working at JP Morgan. But her life took a different trajectory when she began dating Bashar al-Assad, 10 years her senior and the second son of the-then Syrian president.
As First Lady, her glamorous and fashion-conscious persona has attracted the fawning of the glossies. Paris Match called her "the element of light in a country full of shadow zones". Vogue
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headlined its profile piece "A Rose in the Desert", lauding her as "the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies".
Mrs al-Assad said her priority was to get Syria's large youth population involved in "active citizenship". "It's about everyone taking shared responsibility in moving this country forward, about empowerment in a civil society," she told Vogue. The words ring hollow when Syrian authorities are detaining children, inspired by protests across the Arab world, for scrawling graffiti.
As the Calgary Herald put it: "Ever wonder what a Marie Antoinette profile might have looked like if Vogue published in 1788? Wonder no more."
"Maybe it takes a fashion dictator to know a fashionable dictator," The Wall Street Journal sniped at Anna Wintour after the weekend's events in Syria.
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The Ongoing Plot To Create "Greater Israel" Before it’s News,Wednesday, March 23, 2011
"Greater Israel"--from the Nile to the Euphrates--from the Bible, of course..
"Our task consists of preparing the Israeli army for the new war approaching in order to achieve our ultimate goal, the creation of
an Israeli empire." -Moshe Dayan, 1952, Israeli Defense (War) Ministerby Zen Gardner
Yes, this U.S.-hosted parasitic pagan creation of the Illuminati called Is-ra-el (read Is=Isis, Ra=sun god, El=Saturn deity) is working to metastasize in order to so-called "fulfill a promise given to Abraham", their purported ancestor.Hebrew scholar Levnoch Osman said when defining the aims of Zionism:"In our eternal Book of Books (the Torah), the lofty ethical teachings of which are cherished by all mankind [give me a break-Z], the land of Israel is described not as a long, narrow strip of land with wavy, crooked borders, but as a state with broad natural borders. God has promised to Patriarch Abraham the following:"I give unto them the land where they have sown their seed, from the river of Egypt unto the great river of Euphrates’ (Genesis 15:18). And so, in order to realize the words of this prophecy, the Israeli state had to continue, not in the borders it has today but within its broad historical boundaries."Right. Might start to have an argument if you were "Abraham's seed", if you even believe the origins of that "promise".
Who are these people that claim to be so special?
Future IDF Chief of Staff, Moshe Dayan, as a 'Noter' and wearing a metal emblem of the 'Ghaffir' (early
Zionist police force) on his Slavic kolpak hat. Clear Turkish and East European derivation.Let's look at some true history you'll never get in school today.The vast majority of people who call themselves Jews today are Ashkenazi Jews. Unlike the Sephardim, who are Jews descended by blood through Abraham, the Ashkenazim are actually a Turkic people descended from Khazars who had converted to Judaism in the Middle Ages, prior to their westward migrations centuries later into eastern and central Europe and eventually on to Palestine. This, in a nutshell, is the main theme of Arthur Koestler's book The Thirteenth Tribe.
The Turkic roots of the Ashkenazim undermine their claims of entitlement in the Holy Land according to scriptures in the Holy Bible. And so the very idea that most modern day "Israelis" are not even of the blood of Abraham is considered a national security threat to the Zionist state because their pretensions of being racial heirs of the Almighty's promises and blessings to Abraham have been annihilated by an extensive historical record.Looks like we're back to square one, as their answer to this and any challenge on any level is always ultimately the same old accusatory mantra that's been deliberately burned into the human psyche and sends the sheeple running for cover:"ANTI-SEMITE!"
In spite of all this screaming, Zionists are the true anti-semites, murdering their truly Semitic Palestinian population for decades. They even persecute their own minority of true Sephardic Jews of Israel, many of whom are anti-Zionist. Remember, there's a difference between a Jew and a Zionist. Many Zionists are not Jews, and many Jews are not Zionists. They use their "Jewishness" for a cover, to the serious detriment of the very ethnic group they supposedly champion, the sly devils.So too, the term "anti-semitism" is rendered void of meaning and useless, at least insofar as it is employed by the Turkic Ashkenazim as propaganda. Ironically, their Palestinian Arab victims are real Semites along with the Sephardic Jews, Arabs in general and a few other groups, all of the blood of Abraham. At best, the Turkic Khazar-derived Ashkenazim are very long lost cousins of the Semitic folk, and have limited commonality with them in their genes along with the common house-fly and a host of other creatures of the Almighty's vast creation. (source)
Israel Born and Bathed in Blood
Israel's history, both old and new, is bathed in blood. More insidious, Zionist Talmudic teachings and doctrines tell its adherents that they are superior to all others, and that killing the inferior "goyim" is completely justified and nothing to feel any compunction about.They will do anything, commit any atrocity, and all in the name of Zionism. But no, no. To question them is to commit the most heinous act of treason against humanity.Talk about reversing the truth. And all this has been engineered by decades of propaganda.“The goal of modern propaganda is no longer to transform opinion but to arouse an active and mythical belief” -Jacques Ellui
The Plot Towards 'Greater Israel'
The author of the following point wrote about these things in 1968. Since then, to make things worse, warring Israel has amassed billions of dollars of US-supplied state of the art weaponry including a huge nuclear arsenal--all while screaming about its neighbors being the threat. Typical.
By guile, treachery and bloodletting, the Zionists plot to annex all of Jordan, virtually all of Syria, half of Iraq and a large part of Saudi Arabia and all of the rich cotton lands of the Nile Valley. It would be a simpler matter then to grab Yemen, Aden, Muscat, Qatar and Oman with their rich oil development. Israel is already well advanced in the development of its first nuclear warhead. Source
Enter Egypt and Libya
Let's look at this map of "greater Israel". Remember, Libya just west of Egypt is considered the gateway to Egypt throughout history, while Egypt is considered the heart of the Arab world.Here's Libya's very strategic position. I wonder why the NWO is invading? Gain, or neutralize with "friendly governments", these territories and the rest will follow.
The U.S. is already occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia is an American/Zionist puppet, as is Jordan. Lebanon's been neutered and Syria surrounded.All while well-armed, American-backed and UN sanctioned Israel is smack in the middle causing all the problems.Now let's see where the U.S. air and military bases are...
Looks like their imaginary boundaries are moving even farther east...
Over 50 U.S. airbases...insane...and this was in 2008! Remember, the U.S. is Israeli Zionism's puppet so you can pretty much count that Israeli territory in the making in a sense. The US and Israel have become one and the same. Just ask a fundamentalist Zionist Christian who's proud to send American youth to die for this mythical cause.How bamboozled can you get.
Iran clearly in the way
Let's see how the U.S. was positioned even then to wage war on Iran. The days are counting down.
U.S. military bases circa 2008. Imagine now, plus the US Fleet
Is "Greater Israel" just another smokescreen justification?
Perhaps the Zionists are using this "Greater Israel" concept as an interim step of some sort. It certainly works the same old religious guilt justification synapses that rallies Zionist Jews and brain-washed conservative Christians alike. Hell, "God told me do it. Expand, dammit!" (Isn't that was mass murderers often say? Just ask the Jesuits--same wicked credo as Mossad.)Nothing like a "Holy Crusade" to get the blood flowing.As is the case with all of these manufactured myths and ideologies such as the "chosen people", the idea of a "greater Israel" is in effect nothing new. It's really just another excuse to keep striking out, another Zionist religious smokescreen to justify anything and everything Zionist.And they'll stop at nothing, including staged terrorist events which they've done for decades, their greatest feat to date being 9/11. But we're not done yet.(And no, they don't need to inhabit these lands for them to be Israeli, any more than Romans had to populate the lands ruled by Caesar.)
But it does add to the justification to keep arming themselves to the teeth. Much like the U.S. fake "cold war" threat to arm themselves for this world-wide takeover, and now the phony war on terror to justify the NWO militarization and clampdown on their real enemy--the world population.
Epilogue
The U.S. is the main military arm of the NWO, at least for now. They answer to the globalist cabal of which Zionism is an integral part, for occult, satanic reasons. A nasty bloodline runs strong among the Khazarian Ashkenazis, but it is not the only powerful bloodline lineage, such as that of the European so-called royals running through history right on down to today's monarchies, premiers and American presidents.The march towards global domination by these elites is on. It is accelerating, and we're seeing the outcropping of these powerful forces at work in the Middle East, concurrent to a manipulated global financial meltdown, drastic earth changes, and a worldwide societal awakening happening in parallel.But don't hand me this BS that these are God's Chosen people. These wicked Zionists don't even believe in a true creator God...they believe in lust, power, hate and greed. Many well intentioned people, Jews and non-Jews, are deceived by this ploy.But don't you be deceived-- these full blown Zionist manipulators advancing this phony cause are Satan's own spawn with nothing but the worst of intentions for humanity.
Case in point: Horrific "anti-personnel" weapons being unleashed on defenseless Palestinians
They will reap what they sow. The law of karma cannot be escaped.Please do your part to help expose them and the NWO agenda and bring the light of Truth to the world.-Zenwww.zengardner.com
NTS Notes: I have never been entirely sold on this "New World Order" stuff, because when you dig deep enough, you find Satanic Zionist Jews are at its core.
The facts here show clearly that the ultimate aim for their dream of a "Greater Israel" is to remove all so called "threats" in the region, and one cannot help but look at the maps where all of the buildup of the American forces are encircling Iran. It is so obvious that the ultimate aim is to unleash all of these forces on a major attack on Iran itself.
Again, these are indeed dangerous times for us all. There has been much rhetoric that the road to Iran goes through Libya, and from what we are seeing that truly may be the case. Spread the word,readers!
