Whoops. One shouldn't expect much in the way of apologies from the Syrian media or Foreign Ministry for the rush to judgment.
An update on this story. "Syria says radical Islam behind Damascus blast," by Ali Waked for YNet News, September 29:
An initial investigation into Saturday's fatal attack in Damascus revealed that a radical Islamic organization was responsible for the car bomb which killed 17 people.
The government newspaper Tishrin reported Monday that Syrian security officials believe the booby-trapped car was brought into Syrian territory a day before the attack through the country's border with a neighboring Arab state. The paper did not mention the name of the other country.
According to the report, one person was driving the vehicle, and efforts are now being made to complete his identification through DNA tests.
A number of radical Islam activists were arrested after the explosion. The Tishrin report indicates that Islamic elements outside Syria were behind the attack which shocked the country and followed a series of assassinations on Syrian soil.
Syrian papers on Sunday hinted at foreign involvement in the car bombing. So far, no organization has claimed responsibility for the attack and the Syrian government has refrained from clearly pointing the finger at anyone.
Saturday's 200 kilogram car bomb near a Syrian security complex on the southern outskirts of the capital was the biggest – and deadliest – attack to occur in the country since the 1980s when authorities fought an uprising by Muslim militants.
The government-owned daily al-Thawra claimed in an editorial Sunday that recent attacks in Syria were planned outside the country, but did not mention any names.
However, the comment came a week after Syria massed thousands of troops north of its borders with neighboring Lebanon. Syria says the deployment is meant to curb smuggling, but President Bashar Assad has warned recently that "extremist forces" were operating in northern Lebanon and destabilizing his country....
But when a nominally Shi'ite government does it on behalf of Iran, well, that's completely different.
"A number of radical Islam activists were arrested after the explosion."
The operative word here is "after".
This sentence completely describes pre-9/11 attitudes, and the present attitude of those who still don't believe in the Islamic threat from within and without.
I hope we don't end up electing another US President with this attitude in roughly 30 days.
Issa akbar.
From article: An initial investigation into Saturday's fatal attack in Damascus revealed that a radical Islamic organization was responsible for the car bomb which killed 17 people.
Really? Radical Islam? And I thought all these guys were buds.
I bet it wont be long till they figure out the Joos did it.
Squaring the circle:
Islam is a Zionist plot!
Allah spreads the death amongst the Muslims...Allah really loves the Muslims...(not really).
Attention! The Keystone Kops are alive and well in Syria.
OT -
A brief editorial in the NYT - "libel tourism" vs. Free Speech, concerning a Mohammedan in Britain:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/opinion/30tue3.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
No More Ham, Ed: Issa is the Jesus of the Koran. Yasu'a is the Jesus of the Bible. Yasu'a, huwa ar rabb is the better way to say it (Jesus is Lord)
It is getting tougher every day trying to figure out who is on top of the who hates who more pile. It must be a manifestation of Multiculturalism dogma. Where everyone is so equal that nobody ever has to play second fiddle.
"Syria says the deployment is meant to curb smuggling, but President Bashar Assad has warned recently that "extremist forces" were operating in northern Lebanon and destabilizing his country...."
-- from the article above
Assad is no doubt referring to the Sunni-Alawite clashes in Tripoli, which have died down, but can falre up at any moment. The Syrian government would like the world to believe that it believes that the trouble is not between ordinary Sunnis (who in Tripoli greatly outnumber the Alawites, seen as stand-ins for Syria), but between Al-Qaeda "extremists" and the Alawites. There are some, a few, of those Al-Qaeda people, but most of the Sunnis in Tripoli are simply suspicious of the Alawites because of their assumed support for Syria, and therefore for Syria's support in Lebanon of those -- Hezbollah -- who threaten the country's Sunnis as they do the Druse and the Christians.
That post of yours, Hugh, is a perfect example of the murky, tangled threads of the Middle East.
The Israelis used to be good at taking advantage of such threads, knotting where necessary. Let's hope they will be, again.
A number of radical Islam activists were arrested after the explosion. The Tishrin report indicates that Islamic elements outside Syria were behind the attack which shocked the country and followed a series of assassinations on Syrian soil.
But it was the Zionists who MADE them do it!
/sarc
But it was the Zionists who MADE them do it!
three cheers for the zionists!
Bashar Hassad does not have the whole story . It is just the beginning of years of patience and good work . It is not only the radical islamist from Lebanon, it is all those who left the country years ago are getting organised in different foreign countries, Hassad offered peace to them and granted them visas to come back to Syria for visit...... he forgot that their dream is to make Syria an islamic state.Bashar is a doctor not a politician and he tried to do good and be more open than his dad.