Lebanese Canadian Coordinating Council (LCCC)
April
15/2011
Interesting Editorial & Reports worth
reading
Compiled by LCCC/
Advocating for Assad/By: Tony
Badran/April
14/11
First panic in Assad
regime: High Syrian officials evacuate families/DEBKAfile/April
14/11
'Secret Syria document' posted on Facebook
details brutal tactics against protesters/Haaretz
Has collapse of Lebanon
government weakened Iran and Hezbollah influence?/By Zvi Bar'el /Haaretz/April
13/11
If you have no shame, be an Iranian
official/By
Tariq Alhomayed/April
13/11
Syria after Assad/By:
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/April
13/11
Leaders across the Mideast
are looking to escape Mubarak's fate/By
Zvi Bar'el/April
13/11
Syrian revolt spreads to ruling
Alawite tribes. Cities sealed. Executions in army/DEBKAfile/April
13/11
Hezbollah intends to attack Western
targets ahead of Hariri killing indictments/By Avi Issacharoff & Haaretz
Service/April 13/11
Prisoner of Damascus/Yassin Al Haj
Saleh/April
11/11
The Arabs and the
conspiracy complex/By
Dr. Aaidh al-Qarni/April
11/11
First panic in Assad regime: High Syrian officials evacuate families
http://www.debka.com/article/20840/
DEBKAfile Exclusive
Report April 14, 2011, Damascus was alive with rumors Thursday, April 14 that
President Bashar Assad and his family were preparing to flee to Saudi Arabia.
They were, sparked by the discovery that several high-ranking Syrian officials
and army officers were evacuating their families from the capital to Persian
Gulf emirates.
US intelligence officials also disclosed that Iran was secretly helping Assad
crack down on his own people, providing gear to suppress crowds and assistance
in blocking and monitoring protesters' Internet and cell phones.
Those officials did not refer to the Iran-backed Hizballah's active aid in the
government crackdown. However, as the anti-government demonstrations pervade
dozens of Syrian towns, even the second largest Aleppo, Assad is relying for
survival less on the army and police and increasingly on the 10,000-strong armed
Shabbiha gangs drawn from the Assad tribe of the minority Alawite community and
trained in urban combat by Hizballah and Iran. In normal times, the Shabbiha are
regularly employed by the Iran-Hizballah arms and drug smuggling rings.
debkafile's sources report increasing signs of desperation at the center of the
Assad regime. One was a new allegation claiming that the Saad Hariri, who was
ousted as Lebanese prime minister by Hizballah, was deploying armed gangs in
Syrian cities to increase the bloodshed by shooting at anti-Assad protesters and
security forces alike. Hariri makes an improbable scapegoat; he has neither the
ability nor manpower to operate on any scale in Syria.
But the Syrian ruler is clearly at his wits' end for means to stem the onrushing
threat to his regime after live ammunition failed to deter the protesters and
halt the spread of their uprising.
Wednesday night, the government banned demonstrations of any kind in the
country, but no one expects the decree to be obeyed. For now, Syrian authorities
and opposition are bracing for Friday, April 15, when they stage their next
major test of strength on the streets of dozens of cities. Bashar Assad's grip
on power is clearly loosening under the constant battering of protest.
Wednesday, April 13, debkafile reported: The popular uprising against Syrian
President Bashar Assad is still spreading. Tuesday, April 12, one of the Assad
family's own Alawite tribes and the key Sunni city of Aleppo joined the movement
demanding the president and his kin's removal. Assad fought back against the
expanding threat to his survival by mobilizing all his military and security
resources, including the loyal young thugs of the shabbiha gangs. They have
orders to shoot to kill and not permit ambulances to collect the wounded. Tanks
seal the most restive towns of Teraa, Bania,s Latakia and Hama.
Alawite unrest centers on the impoverished Knaan tribe centered in the village
of Bhamra in the mountains of northern Syria. A second immediate danger to the
regime comes from Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub, where for the first time more
than 10,000 protesters marched. The Druze mountain inhabitants are up in arms.
So too are the Kurdish towns of the north such as Kamishli and the Shammar
tribes of southeastern Syria around the border town of Abu Kamal.
Damascus University has been under siege for four days, although security forces
have not been able to breach it.
A grave humanitarian crisis is spreading with the unrest. Army outposts and
roadblocks have cut off main roads linking the north to southern and central
Syria, as well as telephone and internet services and even food deliveries in
many places. Mass arrests of thousands take place nightly including, according
to debkafile's sources, members of the Syrian ruling establishment for the crime
of appealing to Assad to abandon his violent methods of repression and meet some
of the protesters demands for reforms. Some are journalists who support the
regime but who wrote articles to this effect. They were not published.
For the first time, debkafile's sources report that the protesters began
returning the fire against security forces on Monday, April 11, in a number of
places, especially Deraa in the south and Banias in the north. A well-laid
ambush was laid on the main coastal road linking Latakia and Banias and nine
Syrian officers and troops killed.
debkafile's Middle East and intelligence sources report a three-way shooting war
currently in progress in Syria, in which the army and security forces, the
protesters, and the shabbiha gangs are taking part. The and bloody mayhem is
such that the number of casualties is almost impossible to assess.
The troops open fire at protesters as soon as a few people gather in the street
without waiting for a demonstration to form. The wounded are denied medical care
and allowed to die in the streets as a deterrent to protesters. Tuesday night,
the White House finally issued a harsh denunciation of the Syrian "government."
The statement read: "We are deeply concerned by reports that Syrians who have
been wounded by their government are being denied access to medical care. The
escalating repression by the Syrian government is outrageous, and the United
States strongly condemns the continued efforts to suppress peaceful protesters.
President Assad and the Syrian government must respect the universal rights of
the Syrian people, who are rightly demanding the basic freedoms that they have
been denied."
debkafile's sources in Washington say that the language used in this statement
from the Obama administration continues to skirt the protesters' most pressing
demand for the Syrian president to step down, because of the still unresolved
internal debate on how to handle Assad.
Despite the mounting brutality of the Syrian ruler's methods to crush the revolt
against his regime, some White House circles in Washington are warning that
Assad's fall would open the door for radical Muslim elements to take over, even
suggesting that this would put Israel in "mortal danger."
This argument was never heard in Washington when Hosni Mubarak was toppled in
Egypt. And it by no means relates to the Assad regime's eight-year long record
as primary accomplice and abettor of radical Muslim organizations such as Al
Qaeda, the Lebanese Hizballah and Palestinian Hamas. Starting from the US
invasion of Iraq in 2003, Damascus gave sanctuary and launching-pads for Muslim
groups to strike American forces fighting in Iraq, including training camps and
logistical aid for smuggling weapons and explosives for that purpose. Syria also
facilitates the passage of arms and other support to the Hizballah radicals.
The extreme measures to which Assad has resorted as the revolt against him
enters its fourth week have led to firefights within the army. Many cases are
now reported of Syrian officers opening fire on other Syrian officers, killing
them when they refuse to shoot protesters. There have been incidents of Shabbiha
gangs shooting two ways – on demonstrators and at times on army forces. In one
such incident in Ras al-Naba'a, a quarter of Banias – the irregulars appeared to
be goading the soldiers into using more force to disperse the protesters. In
others, these pro-Assad street gangs appear to be shooting from demonstrations
to make it look as though the protesters were killing the soldiers.
Contrary to the image the Assads have always presented that "the Alawites are
the ruling class in Syria," it is worth pointing out that they in fact rule
Damascus, while the rest of those minority tribes, which number 1.4 million (8
percent of the 26 million population) live in abject poverty with no electricity
or running water in their villages and no ties to the Assads. The paradox is
that though lacking influence in the capital, their revolt against the regime
could be the last straw for Asad.
These villages are now rising up for fear of being stigmatized, however
unjustly, by the Sunni majority of collaboration with the Assads and targeted
for revenge. In any case, they are so penurious and neglected that they have
little to lose by the regime's fall.
The Shabbiha: This well-armed, roughly organized group derives most of its
9-11,000 members from Assad clans within the Alawite community and its allies.
Their fighting skills were imparted by the Lebanese Hizballah or Iranian
Revolutionary Guards instructors, but their loyalty to the Assad family is
undivided. As smugglers, their strongholds are mostly along the coastal region,
some of whose communities rely on the Shabbiha for their livelihood.
'Secret Syria
document' posted on Facebook details brutal tactics against protesters
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/secret-syria-document-posted-on-facebook-details-brutal-tactics-against-protesters-1.355944
Opposition figures say the list of agreement points from a meeting of top Syrian
officials is proof of the government's crafty cruelty.
By Haaretz Service /Syrian opposition figures on Wednesday circulated copies of
a plan hatched at a meeting supposedly attended by Syrian President Bashar
Assad's top security adviser, which detailed instructions to kill pro-democracy
protesters, MSNBC reports. The document was initially posted on the Syrian
Revolution 2011 Facebook page.
Beirut, April 12, 2011.The plan was allegedly hatched in order to preserve the
existing political order, but instructed to limit the amount of opposition
figures killed to only 20 at a time.
The document's authenticity has not yet been independently verified, but if its
authorship can be proven, it would provide the most convincing evidence of the
Syrian government's intentions to brutally crush the country's anti-government
protest movement using underhanded tactics, including blaming Israel for street
riots. Thousands of Syrians have taken to city streets across the country to
protest the rule of President Bashar Assad, inspired by popular revolutions in
the Arab world. The demonstrations in Syria have thus far been significantly
smaller than the protests in the North African states of Tunisia, Egypt and
Libya. The circulated document instructs government agent to spread
disinformation and blame the protests on "Zionists". In his first public
appearance after popular protests broke out in Syria in March, President Assad
said that the objective of the conspirators, who make up a minority, was to
"enforce an Israeli agenda." An English translation of the document of protocols
provided by MSNBC laid out a plan in which Syrian government agents would
infiltrate protester groups in online forums and in street crowds, in order to
spread disunity among the demonstrators. One of the most scandalous tactics
discussed in the document is the permission granted to secret government agents
who are infiltrating groups of demonstrators to shoot army officers, in order to
provoke the ire of police against the protesters. The document prescribes meting
out carefully measured violence so as not to trigger material support from
sympathetic internationals. "The number of people killed must not exceed twenty
each time, because it would let them be more easily noticed and exposed, which
may lead to situations of foreign intervention," the document read.
Advocating for
Assad
By: Tony Badran,
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=261543
April 14, 2011
Bashar al-Assad has denied the scale or significance of the uprisings in his
country, something many Syria analysts have echoed. (AFP/HO/SANA)
As the Syrian popular uprising unfolded over the last month, one of the more
remarkable things to witness has been the trends in the commentary of the
majority of professional Syria watchers. Aside from the spectacle of concerned,
if unsolicited, public relations advice to the Syrian dictator from these
analysts, most remarkable has been their uncritical integration and seamless
reproduction of official Syrian talking points.
For whatever reason – whether out of desire to preserve access to the regime or
whether out of true identification with it – the implicit thrust and often
explicit objective of these Syria watchers’ commentary is to shelter the Assad
regime from the storm blowing around it, while also shaping perceptions and
attitudes in Washington, especially at the State Department, and advocating
sticking with Assad as the best option for both Syria and the US.
To this effect, tracking the progression of this commentary from right before
the outbreak of the popular uprising in Syria, throughout its various turning
points up to the present moment, reveals a striking pattern of pronouncements
that not only repeatedly proved wrong, but also, more importantly, conformed
closely, if not verbatim, to the official Syrian line, or key aspects thereof.
Right from the outset, as turmoil swept through Tunisia and Egypt, the tone was
set by Assad’s now-famous interview in The Wall Street Journal in which he
smugly dismissed any possibility of revolution in Syria – an immunity, in
Assad’s view, deriving from his regime’s ideological position in opposition to
the US and Israel. This talking point immediately became the consensus view
among the commentariat as they explained why Syria was unlikely to experience
the regional wave of protests: Assad was a popular leader, especially among the
young.
This recycled official line imploded as protests erupted in the southern city of
Daraa, where the protesters’ calls quickly escalated to demands for the toppling
of Assad. The guild of Syria specialists was taken aback at first, as their
earlier assertion came crashing down. However, they quickly rebounded to
reaffirm confidence, reflecting the regime’s own dismissal of what was happening
as a temporary nuisance. Academic Joshua Landis sounded this view. After
remarking how the rallies were confined to Daraa, he predicted that “The winds
of change that have been sweeping the Arab world will stall in Syria.”
Needless to say, this ex cathedra declaration went up in smoke as the rallies
continued to spread all over the country. But no matter, as another regime
talking point was being recycled for the next turning point: Assad’s speech.
In the lead-up to Assad’s public address, when the Syrian president’s absence
was raising eyebrows among the professional Syria watchers, the regime tried to
shape perceptions by disseminating that Assad would announce overdue reforms
that would pacify the demonstrators. The way this was presented was by placing
Assad on the side of the region-wide wave of popular demand for reform. This was
intended to stay in line with the carefully designed and marketed official image
of Assad as a “reformer” – and the most devoted salesman of this official
product has been Assad enthusiast, academic David Lesch. David Ignatius, having
talked to Syrian officials (probably the Syrian ambassador in DC), regurgitated
and revamped the old talking point that Assad might stage a coup against his own
regime. That line came straight from Damascus, as evident from how one of the
regime’s reliable English-language publicists, Sami Moubayed, also wrote that
Assad would be leading a “corrective movement.” Proof that this was indeed the
script from Damascus came when one of Assad’s Lebanese clients, Parliament
Speaker Nabih Berri, hailed Assad’s speech as (what else?) “The second
corrective movement.”
The Syria specialist at the International Crisis Group, Peter Harling, was smart
enough to wait before making use of the official line, writing in disappointment
after the speech that “Assad’s master card was to lead a revolution against his
own entourage.”
The separation of Assad remains an important sales pitch for the Syrian regime,
especially in Washington. That is why the comment by his advisor, Bouthaina
Shaaban, that the president had asked that not one shot be fired was swallowed
whole and repeated verbatim, without the slightest critical evaluation, by
writers like Landis, Alastair Crooke, and, in variant form, Harling, who
contended, with zero evidence, that Assad had “pushed back” against those who
wanted all-out repression, echoing the thrust of Shaaban’s point.
After the disappointing speech, the talking point shifted again, as analysts
like Landis sought to downplay the reach and momentum of the protests, claiming
that “quiet had returned” to Syria, and that the demonstrations had failed to
spread to major cities. Similarly, Crooke reassured readers that Assad would
emerge stronger from this ordeal (curiously echoing an alleged Syrian
intelligence document). If anything, this smacked of exasperation and concern at
the regime’s seeming inability to quell the demonstrations.
Meanwhile, Landis’ performance ended up evoking Baghdad Bob, as protests
proceeded to spread to Assad’s own backyard in the coastal cities of Latakia,
Tartous and Banias, where they continue to take root and where the regime has
deployed tanks and brute force to try and quell them.
Obviously, there has been no self-criticism or admission of error, even when the
analysis has clearly been tailored to fit the political preferences and agendas
of these professional Syria watchers.
In all, this is an indictment of the Syria-watching community. While it is true
that in the end their significance is minuscule, their case is symptomatic of a
larger problem in Middle East expertise in the US. Regional regimes’ judicious
use of visas, access, endowments and research grants has extracted an obvious
toll on quality, objectivity and independence in analysis. In the Syrian case,
the analysis oftentimes has been little more than an uncritical vehicle for
carrying the Assad regime’s water.
**Tony Badran is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Latest developments in Arab political unrest
stretching from North Africa to Persian Gulf
By The Associated Press
EGYPT
Ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his two sons are detained for investigation
of corruption, abuse of power and killings of protesters, bringing cheers of
victory from activists who hope it marks a turning point in Egypt's turbulent
transition to democracy.
LIBYA
NATO launches new airstrikes on targets held by Moammar Gadhafi as the rebel
movement urged a stronger air campaign that will allow them to advance on
Gadhafi's territory. In Tripoli, Gadhafi's finance minister angrily denounces
proposals by rebel leaders that they be given some of the regime's assets that
were frozen as part of international sanctions.
SYRIA
Women, children and students take to the streets in Syria, lending their voices
to a monthlong uprising that President Bashar Assad insists is the work of a
foreign conspiracy. In an apparent attempt to calm the women's demonstration,
authorities release about 100 detainees and parade them in front of the
protesters, prompting cheers and cries of triumph, a witness says.
YEMEN
Gunmen loyal to the government attack the forces of the Yemeni president's chief
rival, killing one person and raising fears that Yemen's weeks of popular unrest
could evolve into pitched battles between factions of the divided military.
BAHRAIN
Bahrain's Shiite opposition party says another one of its supporters, the fourth
to date, has died in police custody. Haji Karim Fakhrawi died in "mysterious
circumstances," according to Al Wefaq, Bahrain's main opposition party in the
Sunni-ruled Gulf country. His relatives pointed to a body covered in bruises,
saying he had died of torture.
Copyright © 2011 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Has
collapse of Lebanon government weakened Iran and Hezbollah influence?
Hezbollah and Iran's guiding hand is still looking for a grip in Beirut, but
rather than strengthening the Shiites, the collapse of the government and ouster
of Saad Hariri has weakened their influence.
By Zvi Bar'el /Haaretz/13.04.11
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/has-collapse-of-lebanon-government-weakened-iran-and-hezbollah-influence-1.355651
The joint statement by Lebanon and Bahrain stating that the two countries will
not participate this year in the Venice Biennale "because of the events in the
Middle East" is an almost natural continuation of the special cooperation the
two have recently created. But both countries have a problem that is slightly
more menacing than the Biennale: a Shiite majority serving as a lever for
Iranian intervention and the mutual fear of the benefits that Iran could gain
from developments there.
Last week it was the turn of Saad Hariri, who is still serving as prime minister
of the transition government, to attack Tehran.
Saad Hariri, left, Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, center, and Najib Mikati.
"We don't want Lebanon to be a protege of Iran," he said, "Just as we don't want
our brothers in Bahrain, Kuwait or any other Arab country to be under Iranian
patronage. We belong to this nation which rests on its Arabism in the past,
present and future, and we'll prove that we don't need any other nationality."
Hariri made his statement at a convention of Saudi and Lebanese businessmen in
Beirut. "One of the major challenges that the Arab societies are facing is the
political, military and economic intervention of Iran," he added, saying that it
damaged "the social fabric of the region."
Hariri, who had to step down from his post as prime minister last January when
President Michel Suleiman turned to the billionaire Najib Mikati to form a new
government, has apparently freed himself from the shackles of political
correctness vis-a-vis Hezbollah and Iran.
In November 2010, when he asked Tehran to assist him in maintaining stability in
Lebanon, the Iranian newspapers reported that "Hariri's visit to Tehran is an
example of the closeness between Iran and Lebanon and a sign of the failure of
the policies of the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel that were aimed at
creating tension in the region."
The visit, they said, symbolized a new era in the ties between the two
countries.
This new era was shattered last week as Iran and Hezbollah responded to Hariri's
new tack by saying he was serving the interests of the U.S. and Israel.
"Hariri's accusations against Iran were meant to cover up the American
intervention in Libya and other countries," they said.
The exchange of barbs between Hariri and Hezbollah and Iran are not being made
in a vacuum, but rather against the backdrop of a deeply divided country that
has been without a government for three months.
The establishment of a new government was supposed to mark the apex of political
success for Iran and Hezbollah's Hassan Nassrallah, who considered Hariri's
ouster a major step toward stymieing the international tribunal into Rafik
Hariri's assassination. With Hezbollah in power, the group could protect its
members from prosecution and push through a new election law and a change in the
ethnic balance of power in Lebanon.
Hezbollah's agreement to the appointment of Najib Mikati was supposed to put an
end to the endless argument over the status of the weapons that Hezbollah has in
its possession, especially after Hariri's unusual call last month for the group
to disarm.
However, beyond that, the new government is supposed to be based on
representation of ethnic groups and political streams so that it will have
legitimacy in the eyes of the public and not appear as a Hezbollah and Iran
puppet.
Mikati, the head of a giant business conglomerate and an excellent negotiator,
is now facing an especially difficult task. He understands that setting up a
government in Lebanon is a great deal more complicated than appointing a board
of directors. One sticking point is the appointment of the interior minister, a
post coveted by all camps. Hezbollah wants the position in order to control
internal security, decide on moves vis-a-vis the international tribunal, and to
shape a new election law to right what they see as an injustice done to Shiites.
Now Mikati also has Iran in the mix, after Hariri placed it on his table and
decided on Lebanon's attitude toward Tehran. Mikati has explained that
"expressing positions about Iran that do not reflect Lebanon's position is not
effective," in other words, it would be best for Hariri to keep quiet. The
self-imposed silence by Suleiman, though, who has so far not responded to the
exchanges between Hariri and Iran, is making it difficult for Mikati to decide
on Lebanon's foreign policy.
Meanwhile pressure is mounting on Mikati to set up a government posthaste.
Hezbollah's Christian partner, Gen. Michel Aoun, who heads the Free Patriotic
Movement, has called on Mikati "to establish a government immediately or to
resign from the job."
Aoun, who is demanding 12 of the 30 cabinet posts for his movement, has already
proven in the past that he is not willing to make compromises on portfolios with
political or economic influence. This crisis, together with the violent
crackdown in Syria, has put Hezbollah in an uncomfortable political position;
when there is no government, there is no one on whom to exert pressure, there is
no one from whom to "demand a price," and there is no way to promote its
political interests. Hezbollah, which long ago transformed from a loose
collective into a political party, needs a country which is functioning in order
to strengthen its status, but it itself is holding up that very process
If you have no shame, be an Iranian official!
13/04/2011
By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=24856
At a time when Syrian President [Bashar al-Assad] described some of the victims
of state violence against demonstrations in Syria as martyrs, an Iranian Foreign
Ministry spokesman came out to say that what is happening in Syria is a Western
conspiracy!
In a press conference, Iranian spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said that the
protests in Syria are taking place within the framework of a western conspiracy
to destabilize a government which supports "the resistance" in the Middle East.
He said that "what is happening in Syria is a mischievous act of Westerners,
particularly Americans and Zionists" adding that the conspirators "want to
avenge some countries like Iran and Syria, which support the resistance, by
facilitating small [opposition] groups." Worse still, the Iranian spokesman said
that the conspirators are trying, with the aid of the western media, to "tell
the world that these people [the demonstrators] are the majority of the society,
and this is the biggest lie and distortion." Can you believe this audacity?
The Iranian official said that the Syrians' demands were nothing more than
foreign treachery; however everyone knows that the demands of the Syrian people
are genuine, in a state with the longest-running repressive emergency law in the
Middle East. The state lacks all kinds of freedoms, and even the Syrian
president himself is considering reform, so why would he talk about reform if
these were the demands of foreign agents? Why would the government decide to
increase salaries, and why would the president grant the status of martyrdom to
the protest victims – which is a remarkable story in itself in a secular state –
if the protestors were foreign agents?
The other issue is that Iran falsely claimed that the protestors in Syria are a
small group. Is this conceivable considering that demonstrations have taken
place in seven cities in Syria over the past three weeks, with the death toll
standing at over two hundred? The demonstrations have reached the mosques, and
the University of Damascus, and so is it conceivable to believe that the
demonstrators themselves are only a small group, a minority? Although the Sunnis
are the overwhelming majority in Syria, there is no sectarian undercurrent, but
rather the demonstrations consist of most components of Syrian society. The
demonstrations have even spread to rural areas, specifically Deraa, a key ally
in the balance of power in Syria. Thus the Iranian assessment is certainly
incorrect.
As for the Iranian spokesman's talk of resistance, this is ironic, for it
appears that Tehran and its allies did not pay attention after the Arab citizens
grew tired of such fake slogans and lies. All demands in the Arab world today
are national and internal, so where is this resistance that the Iranians talk
about? Syria has not even killed so much as a pigeon in its resistance battle
over the past three decades. It did not even react to Israeli attacks on its
territory; instead it always reserves the right to respond, without actually
responding. [As for resistance elsewhere] Hezbollah has now rounded on the
Lebanese, specifically the Sunnis of Beirut, and terrorized all other factions,
and Hassan Nasrallah is now unofficially responsible for appointing the Sunni
Prime Minister! Even Hamas has begun to suppress demonstrations held against it
in Gaza, although the media has not focused on this as it has been preoccupied
with the open theater that is the Arab world. As for Iran itself, we have not
seen them support the resistance, there have been no shots fired in defense of
Arab blood, and we all remember that [Grand Ayatollah] Khamenei forbade the
Iranians from going to Gaza during the last war!
Thus we are right to say if you have no shame, become an Iranian official!
Syria
after Assad
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=261197
Hussain Abdul-Hussain, April 13, 2011
Those involved in the Syrian uprising, whether on the ground or in cyberspace,
might have noticed that, contrary to the Assad regime's propaganda and the
international community’s fears, there are few traces of radical Islamism in
Syria. While such an absence could be tactical, evidence indicates that should
Bashar al-Assad fall, the chances of Syria turning into an Islamic state are
almost nil.
Drawing parallels between Arab unrest and the Iranian Revolution was done in
Egypt, where the regime, Western analysts and many Israeli writers warned of the
consequences of President Hosni Mubarak's fall. The Muslim Brotherhood would
turn Egypt into an Islamic state that facilitates terrorism, they argued.
The same argument is now being used in Syria, and this scare tactic is proving
to be the lifeline for Assad and his regime.
When anti-Shah Iranians took to the streets in 1977, Ruhollah Khomeini had
already been an opposition star. In fact, Iran's early protests took place
partially as a memorial for the death of Khomieni's son Mustafa. Khomeini
wielded immense influence through the religious establishment: a network of
mosques, religious study rings and scores of moqallideen (followers of Shia
marjaas).
Secular Marxists, socialists and nationalists were also part of Iran's
revolutionary mix, and it took Khomeini until 1982 to consolidate his power and
monopolize leadership.
If Egypt is like Iran, then where is its Khomeini? Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood
has a small share in the state's corrupt machine and wields little influence
outside the clientele network built around its lawmakers and senior civil
servants. Egypt's Islamists in 2011 are nowhere close to Iran's Islamist
revolutionaries of 1979. Syria's Islamic movement is even further away.
There are only a handful of Syrian Al-Qaeda members. These include Abu-Mosaab
al-Souri (aka Mustafa Sit-Maryam), an Osama Bin Laden lieutenant believed to be
behind the Madrid and London bombings. Souri has been detained since 2005 in an
unknown location.
Born in Aleppo in 1958, Souri joined the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood's militant
wing, the Fighting Vanguard, under Marwan Hadidi, and was forced to flee Syria
in 1980. He was not radicalized until he joined the fight in Afghanistan, after
which he moved to Spain and later back to Afghanistan.
Abu-Basira al-Tartousi (aka Abdul-Monim Halimeh) of Tartous was born in 1959.
The fact that he had to flee Syria in 1980 suggests that he was another Muslim
Brotherhood militant. Despite his popularity with Al-Qaeda on the internet, the
man lives in London and argues against suicide bombing.
Tartousi's internet sermons reveal a man with little knowledge of today's Syria.
His Facebook page, The Islamic Opposition to the Syrian Regime, has attracted
around 400 members, compared to the Syrian Revolution page's more than 110,000
members. Tartousi is opposed to democracy and believes that after deposing
Assad, the Syrians should create an Islamic state.Like Tartousi, the exiled
Syrian Muslim Brotherhood’s Facebook page has barely reached 400 members. But
unlike Tartousi, the group's leader, Mohamed Riyad Shaqfeh, told Reuters that
his party "strives to build a civil state where all citizens enjoy freedom and
full citizenship rights" and that it believes in "a multiparty system, with
peaceful succession of power.”
The ongoing Syrian revolution is all but Islamic. Like Lebanon, Syria's
Islamists are few in number, perhaps due to societal factors that set the Levant
apart from the Gulf or North Africa.
The Islamists of the 1980s were radicalized across the board, whether Syria's
Muslim Brotherhood or Iraq's Islamic Daawa Party, whose former militants are now
members of Iraq's multiparty democracy. Like the Iraqi Daawa, Syria's Muslim
Brotherhood has evolved from believers in change through violence to supporters
of democracy.
For his part, Assad, like Mubarak, has used radical Islam as a scarecrow,
especially with the West. Assad went as far as fostering controlled Islamist
violence and using it against his rivals, while later seemingly putting an end
to it and winning favor with the world.
The world should not fear Syria after Assad, for the country will not become a
monstrous Islamic state. The world should rather endorse and encourage change in
Syria.
**Hussain Abdul-Hussain is the Washington Bureau Chief of Al-Rai newspaper
Leaders across the Mideast are looking to escape Mubarak's fate
http://www.haaretz.com/news/mideast-in-turmoil/leaders-across-the-mideast-are-looking-to-escape-mubarak-s-fate-1.355705
Mubarak's investigation, as well as that of two of his sons, is one of the most
important measures undertaken by the new regime to calm an anxious Egyptian
public.
By Zvi Bar'el /Haaretz
Three leaders, Muammar Gadhafi, Bashar Assad, and Ali Abdullah Saleh, are
certain they can still escape the fate of Hosni Mubarak and Zine El Abidine Ben
Ali. Each of them decided to violently repress popular unrest; all of them are
promising reforms without committing to a timetable; and each and every one of
them has decided to ignore both international pressure and Arab attempts at
compromise. The most intense battle is being waged in Libya, where 300 people
have reportedly been killed in the city of Misrata alone, with gunfights also
reported in the rebel-controlled city of Ajdabiya. Despite the persistence of
clashes, NATO forces have cut back on their attacks on ground targets, thus
taking away much of the military backing they provided to the rebels, who have
subsequently been forced to withdraw from their western advance.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak receiving Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad in
Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, Nov. 30, 2004.Meanwhile, Mubarak
continues to provide the top story coming out of Egypt, after collapsing on
Tuesday during questioning and rushed to a Sharm El-Sheikh hospital. The
investigation of Mubarak and his two sons, Gamal and Alaa, centering on
allegations of embezzlement and killing protesters, is one of the most important
measures undertaken by the new regime to calm the public, some of which has
begun to express frustration at what looks like foot-dragging en route to
political and economical reform.
But, by the evening hours Egyptian television stations were already reporting
developments in Mubarak's medical condition, citing estimates he had a heart
attack, and adding that his investigation has been continuating even in the
hospital. As such, the controversy surrounding political reform is replaced with
the question of should or not shouldn't Mubarak be allowed out of the country
for medical treatment.
Defecting Libya Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, who also ran the country's
intelligence for a while, said in London that Libya could turn into a new
Somalia if a decisive military victory was not achieved. Koussa was travelling
to Qatar on Tuesday, a fact that drew scathing criticism against the U.K. for
allowing the man suspected of planning the 1988 Lockerbie bombing out of the
country. However, his warning did not seem to impress the United States.
Washington, for now, has decided to object to continued ground strikes in Libya,
saying it would stick to preventing attacks targeting civilians by the Libyan
air force. The U.S. decision has developed into a full-blown dispute between
France and Britain, who support continued ground attacks and even in sending
ground troops, and other NATO states, led by Turkey, who opposed such a move.
All the while, proposals for a diplomatic compromise, like those submitted by
Turkey and the African Union, were rejected by both Gadhafi and the rebels, who
are unwilling to accept any deal that does not explicitly mandate the ouster of
Gadhafi and his family.
And so, as Western countries argue over the modes of military attack, Gadhafi
can continue his violent struggle, one which could turn into a draw-out war of
attrition.
Assad is better off than Gadhafi for several reasons. He isn't facing armed
forces such as the Libya rebel groups, there are no reports of defecting
military of Baath party officials, and mostly because the Western pressure on
Assad isn't close to the kind of international involvement seen in Libya.
Washington may condemn the violent repression, but it has yet to demand Assad's
ouster. And so, the Syrian president can surround the city of Banias with his
tanks, shoot at the residents of Bayda, lay strict curfews against Daraa, cut
power lines and internet service, and arrest hundreds of activists and
protesters, creating the impression that the Syrian agenda will not be set in
the street but in the presidential palace.
Unlike Libya, Tunisia, or Egypt, the Syrian army is inseparable from the
country's regime, who also "owns" the country's economy. The possible fall of
Assad's regime would mean, thus, much more than the loss financial benefits
enjoyed by the regime and the president's family. The military itself could
become a target of public wrath, as would the Baath party. So theoretically, if
Assad would be willing to enact far-reaching changes, he would encounter stiff
resistance from the army and from the owners of the country's economical
monopolies. In Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh is willing to test the
ability of his opposition to topple him, as he leans on some of the tribal
leaders which continue to support his rule, or on those accepting the compromise
according to which a gradual leadership change would take place through new
elections. These proposals and others are rejected by those who demand Saleh's
immediate ouster as a condition for any compromise. Even here it seems that
Yemen could fall into a war of attrition, perhaps not as violent that taking
place in Libya, but still one that disrupts and poses a danger to everyday life.
Syrian revolt spreads to ruling Alawite tribes. Cities sealed. Executions in
army
http://www.debka.com/article/20840/
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 13, 2011,
.The popular uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad is still spreading.
Tuesday, April 12, one of the Assad family's own Alawite tribes and the key
Sunni city of Aleppo joined the movement demanding the president and his kin's
removal. Assad fought back against the expanding threat to his survival by
mobilizing all his military and security resources, including the loyal young
thugs of the shabbiha gangs. They have orders to shoot to kill and not permit
ambulances to collect the wounded. Tanks seal the most restive towns of Teraa,
Bania,s Latakia and Hama. Alawite unrest centers on the impoverished Knaan tribe
centered in the village of Bhamra in the mountains of northern Syria. A second
immediate danger to the regime comes from Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub, where
for the first time more than 10,000 protesters marched. The Druze mountain
inhabitants are up in arms. So too are the Kurdish towns of the north such as
Kamishli and the Shammar tribes of southeastern Syria around the border town of
Abu Kamal.
Damascus University has been under siege for four days, although security forces
have not been able to breach it.
A grave humanitarian crisis is spreading with the unrest. Army outposts and
roadblocks have cut off main roads linking the north to southern and central
Syria, as well as telephone and internet services and even food deliveries in
many places. Mass arrests of thousands take place nightly including, according
to debkafile's sources, members of the Syrian ruling establishment for the crime
of appealing to Assad to abandon his violent methods of repression and meet some
of the protesters demands for reforms. Some are journalists who support the
regime but who wrote articles to this effect. They were not published.
For the first time, debkafile's sources report that the protesters began
returning the fire against security forces on Monday, April 11, in a number of
places, especially Deraa in the south and Banias in the north. A well-laid
ambush was laid on the main coastal road linking Latakia and Banias and nine
Syrian officers and troops killed.
debkafile's Middle East and intelligence sources report a three-way shooting war
currently in progress in Syria, in which the army and security forces, the
protesters, and the shabbiha gangs are taking part. The and bloody mayhem is
such that the number of casualties is almost impossible to assess.
The troops open fire at protesters as soon as a few people gather in the street
without waiting for a demonstration to form. The wounded are denied medical care
and allowed to die in the streets as a deterrent to protesters. Tuesday night,
the White House finally issued a harsh denunciation of the Syrian "government."
The statement read: "We are deeply concerned by reports that Syrians who have
been wounded by their government are being denied access to medical care. The
escalating repression by the Syrian government is outrageous, and the United
States strongly condemns the continued efforts to suppress peaceful protesters.
President Assad and the Syrian government must respect the universal rights of
the Syrian people, who are rightly demanding the basic freedoms that they have
been denied."
debkafile's sources in Washington say that the language used in this statement
from the Obama administration continues to skirt the protesters' most pressing
demand for the Syrian president to step down, because of the still unresolved
internal debate on how to handle Assad.
Despite the mounting brutality of the Syrian ruler's methods to crush the revolt
against his regime, some White House circles in Washington are warning that
Assad's fall would open the door for radical Muslim elements to take over, even
suggesting that this would put Israel in "mortal danger."
This argument was never heard in Washington when Hosni Mubarak was toppled in
Egypt. And it by no means relates to the Assad regime's eight-year long record
as primary accomplice and abettor of radical Muslim organizations such as Al
Qaeda, the Lebanese Hizballah and Palestinian Hamas. Starting from the US
invasion of Iraq in 2003, Damascus gave sanctuary and launching-pads for Muslim
groups to strike American forces fighting in Iraq, including training camps and
logistical aid for smuggling weapons and explosives for that purpose. Syria also
facilitates the passage of arms and other support to the Hizballah radicals.
The extreme measures to which Assad has resorted as the revolt against him
enters its fourth week have led to firefights within the army. Many cases are
now reported of Syrian officers opening fire on other Syrian officers, killing
them when they refuse to shoot protesters. There have been incidents of Shabbiha
gangs shooting two ways – on demonstrators and at times on army forces. In one
such incident in Ras al-Naba'a, a quarter of Banias – the irregulars appeared to
be goading the soldiers into using more force to disperse the protesters. In
others, these pro-Assad street gangs appear to be shooting from demonstrations
to make it look as though the protesters were killing the soldiers.
Contrary to the image the Assads have always presented that "the Alawites are
the ruling class in Syria," it is worth pointing out that they in fact rule
Damascus, while the rest of those minority tribes, which number 1.4 million (8
percent of the 26 million population) live in abject poverty with no electricity
or running water in their villages and no ties to the Assads. The paradox is
that though lacking influence in the capital, their revolt against the regime
could be the last straw for Asad.
These villages are now rising up for fear of being stigmatized, however
unjustly, by the Sunni majority of collaboration with the Assads and targeted
for revenge. In any case, they are so penurious and neglected that they have
little to lose by the regime's fall. The Shabbiha: This well-armed, roughly
organized group derives most of its 9-11,000 members from Assad clans within the
Alawite community and its allies. Their fighting skills were imparted by the
Lebanese Hizballah or Iranian Revolutionary Guards instructors, but their
loyalty to the Assad family is undivided. As smugglers, their strongholds are
mostly along the coastal region, some of whose communities rely on the Shabbiha
for their livelihood.
'Hezbollah intends to attack Western targets ahead of Hariri killing
indictments'
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hezbollah-intends-to-attack-western-targets-ahead-of-hariri-killing-indictments-1.355698
Beirut Observer news websites cites Western intelligence report claiming unusual
Hezbollah, Iranian Revolutionary Guards maneuvers are geared toward an upcoming
strike.
By Avi Issacharoff and Haaretz Service
Published 09:33 13.
Hezbollah is planning an attack on Western targets, a Lebanese news website
reported on Tuesday, basing its claims on information intercepted by a Western
intelligence agency.
According to the Beirut Observer article published Tuesday, Western intelligence
officials believe Hezbollah intends to strike Western targets, citing the
unusual movement of suspected Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards
operatives. Hezbollah fighters parade during the inauguration of a cemetery for
fighters who died while fighting Israel, in southern Beirut on Nov. 12, 2010.The
report said the intention of such an attack is to divert global public opinion
from the indictments expected to be issued by a special United Nations tribunal
dealing with the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri. Lebanese
officials and Western diplomats expect the court to accuse Hezbollah members of
involvement in the assassination, a prospect Lebanese politicians fear could
fuel further tensions. The Lebanon tribunal, the world's first international
court with jurisdiction over the crime of terrorism, was set up to try those
accused over the 2005 bombing that killed Lebanese ex-prime minister Hariri and
22 others. The prosecutor's original indictment filed in January, the contents
of which are still secret, set off a political crisis in Lebanon, where
Hezbollah and its allies toppled the government of Hariri's son, Saad Hariri.
Hezbollah, has said it believes some of its members may be named, and has warned
the case could spark renewed bloodshed in Lebanon. Wednesday's Beirut Observer
report came after earlier this week Israel's counter terrorism bureau warned
that terrorists intended to carry out attacks against Israelis and Jewish
targets abroad, specifying the Far East, Greece and Turkey as areas where an
attack could occur.
The warning comes just a few days before the Jewish holiday of Passover, a time
during which many Israelis go on vacation. "Due to what is happening in the Gaza
Strip, terrorists intend to carry out attacks against Israelis and against
Jewish targets abroad during the Passover holiday," the bureau's notice said.
Along with Greece and Turkey, India and Thailand are also thought to be
countries where an attack could take place.Israeli traveling abroad must stay
especially alert at tourist spots and entertainment venues and hotels, the
bureau advised. They also advised against going to places where large groups of
Israelis are known to be.
Last week, the counter terrorism bureau warned against traveling to Sinai and
called on Israelis who were in Sinai to return to Israel immediately.
Prisoner
of Damascus
By YASSIN AL-HAJ SALEH
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/opinion/11saleh.html
Published: April 10, 2011
IN all my 50 years, I have never held a passport. Other than visiting Lebanon,
I’d never left Syria when, in the fall of 2004, I was barred from leaving the
country. I tried many times afterward to get a passport, but to no avail.
I spent 16 years of my youth in my country’s prisons, incarcerated for being a
member of a communist pro-democracy group. During the recent protests, many more
friends have been detained — most of them young — under the government’s
catch-all emergency laws.
The state of emergency, under which Syria has lived for 48 years, has extended
the ruling elite’s authority into all spheres of Syrians’ public and private
lives, and there is nothing to stop the regime from using this power to abuse
the Syrian population. Today, promises follow one after the other that these
all-pervasive restrictions will be lifted. But one must ask, will it be possible
for the Baath Party to rule Syria without the state of emergency that has for so
long sustained it?
The official pretext for the emergency laws is the country’s state of war with
Israel. However, restricting Syrians’ freedoms did no good in the 1967 war,
which ended with the occupation of the Golan Heights, nor did it help in any
other confrontations with the Jewish state, nor in any true emergencies. Because
in the government’s eyes everything has been an emergency for the last
half-century, nothing is an emergency.
Syria’s struggle against an aggressive Israel has encouraged the militarization
of political life — a development that has been particularly favorable to
single-party rule. And the suspension of the rule of law has created an
environment conducive to the growth of a new ruling elite.
In 2005, the Baath Party decided, without any serious public discussion, to move
toward what was dubbed a “social market economy.” It was supposed to combine
competition and private initiative with a good measure of traditional socialism.
In reality, as the state retreated, new monopolies arose and the quality of
goods and services declined. Because local courts are corrupt and lack
independence, grievances could not be fairly heard. Add to that a venal and idle
bureaucracy, and the supposed economic reforms became a justification for the
appropriation of economic power for the benefit of the rich and powerful.
Economic liberalization was in no way linked to political liberalization. After
a half-century of “socialist” rule, a new aristocratic class has risen in Syria
that does not accept the principles of equality, accountability or the rule of
law. It was no accident that protesters in the cities of Dara’a and Latakia went
after the property of this feared and hated aristocracy, most notably that of
President Bashar al-Assad’s cousin Rami Makhlouf, a businessman who controls the
country’s cellphone network and, more than anyone else, represents the
intertwining of power and wealth in Syria.
Today’s ruling class has undeservedly accumulated alarming material and
political power. Its members are fundamentally disengaged from the everyday
realities of the majority of Syrians and no longer hear their muffled voices. In
recent years, a culture of contempt for the public has developed among them.
Although some argue that the demonstrations are religiously motivated, there is
no indication that Islamists have played a major role in the recent protests,
though many began in mosques. Believers praying in mosques are the only
“gatherings” the government cannot disperse, and religious texts are the only
“opinions” the government cannot suppress. Rather than Islamist slogans, the
most prominent chant raised in the Rifai Mosque in Damascus on April 1 was “One,
one, one, the Syrian people are one!” Syrians want freedom, and they are fully
aware that it cannot be sown in the soil of fear, which Montesquieu deemed the
fount of all tyranny. We know this better than anyone else.
A search for equality, justice, dignity and freedom — not religion — is what
compels Syrians to engage in protests today. It has spurred many of them to
overcome their fear of the government and is putting the regime on the
defensive. The Syrian regime enjoys broader support than did Hosni Mubarak in
Egypt or Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. This is a source of strength, and
one that Mr. Assad appears not to consider when he relies on the security forces
to quell protests. If the regime is to keep any of its deeply damaged
legitimacy, it will have to answer the protesters’ demands and recognize the
popular longing for freedom and equality. Whatever the outcome of the protests,
Syria has a difficult road ahead. Between the pains of oppression and the
hardships of liberation, I of course prefer the latter. Personally, I want to
live nowhere but in Syria, although I am looking forward to acquiring a passport
to visit my brothers in Europe, whom I have not seen for 10 years. I also want,
finally, to feel safe.
**Yassin al-Haj Saleh is a writer and political activist. This essay was
translated from the Arabic.
The Arabs
and the conspiracy complex
11/04/2011
By Dr. Aaidh al-Qarni/Asharqalawasat
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=24826
Colonel Gaddafi said that the world was conspiring against Libya, out of envy
for what the Libyan people enjoy. Then he recited the Holy Quranic Verse "From
the evil of the envious when he envies." [Surat al-Falaq, Verse 5] The Syrian
official media said that Syria was being exposed to a foreign conspiracy against
its heroic struggle for resistance, resilience, survival and opposition. At this
point, let me note that the Golan Heights have been under occupation for nearly
half a century. The official Yemeni media stated that Yemen had been "targeted"
because the country represents the cultural depth of the Arabs, and has a
pan-national strategic dimension, along with further raving, irrational
rhetoric. The official media in Jordan spoke of a foreign conspiracy hatched by
covert forces to destabilize the country.
I would say: When will the Arabs abandon this conspiracy complex and stop
denying mistakes and searching for scapegoats? When will you stop performing
this farce, accusing foreign powers of conspiring against you, and blaming
others for your faults? Who are you, to have the world conspire against you? Who
are you to have the world's superpowers preoccupied with you? Why would the
world target you, and what would it envy you for? Your wealth? Whilst your
peoples feel the bitter taste of hunger, shame, ignorance, disease and
underdevelopment? Or would the world target you for your giant industries,
large-scale production, research centers, energy sources, bountiful knowledge,
arsenals, destroyers, battleships, and aircraft carriers, when you can't even
construct a car? Frankly, you are bottom of the global list in terms of
industry, agriculture, education, development and production.
The annual budget of one Western multi-national corporation is far greater than
the collective budget of the aforementioned Arab countries. Their peoples have
taken to the streets to organize peaceful demonstrations for food, medicine,
clean air, clean water, electricity, freedom and dignity. Those countries have
failed to meet the basic necessities of their citizens, and so they have accused
the world of conspiring against them. How much do these Arab "locusts" really
believe their stock is worth? I would liken these Arab countries, who accuse the
outside world of targeting them, to a mosquito alighting from a palm tree. When
this mosquito decides to take off, it would say to the palm tree: Hold on tight,
I am about to fly. The palm tree would reply: By God, I felt nothing when you
landed, and most probably I won't feel anything when you fly away.
The US, Europe, China, Japan, Canada and Russia are busy with their factories,
laboratories, nuclear industries and energy production. They are immersed in
making discoveries and designing inventions, and thus they might think isn't it
high time we, the Arabs, focused on our own flaws, corrected our errors,
reconsidered our behavior, and rid ourselves of the conspiracy complex, which
has become nothing more than a silly joke and an old ploy.
My good friend Abu Tayeb al-Mutanabbi once described an acquaintance of his, who
hoped al-Mutanabbi would praise him publicly, or at least ridicule him, so that
he could become famous. Al-Mutanabbi replied by saying:
"[You are] too insignificant to be praised, so I thought I had better ridicule
you, but you are too trivial to be ridiculed."
The Holy Quran attributed the defeat of the Muslim army in the Battle of Ahud to
a disagreement which had arisen between the Companions of the Prophet. In that
respect, Almighty God said "Say: It is from yourselves; surely Allah has power
over all things." [Surat Al-Imran, Verse 165] People ought to be held
accountable for their errors and transgressions. Almighty God said "Corruption
has appeared in the land and the sea on account of what the hands of men have
wrought, that He may make them taste a part of that which they have done, so
that they may return." [Surat al-Room, Verse 41] Therefore to blame others for
your faults and use the world as a rack for hanging your mistakes on, that is an
embodiment of the lack of mental perception and the corruption of opinion.
A sick person can never recover unless they first admit that they are suffering
from a particular illness, and that they will not get better unless they take
medicine. It is no use trying to run or hide in the dark. The truth comes with
real courage, the nerve to admit to being wrong and the desire to change for the
better. Almighty God says: "Allah does not change a people's lot unless they
change what is in their hearts." [Surat al-Rad, Verse 11]