Recently in Syria Category

The aim of jihad in all of its forms is the imposition of Islamic law, and Zawahiri knows that the success of the Syrian rebels will not bring about a Western-style liberal democracy in Damascus, but an Islamic regime controlled by Sunnis. "Al Qaeda leader backs Syrian revolt against Assad," by Martina Fuchs for Reuters, February 12:

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, in a video recording posted on the Internet on Sunday, urged Syrians not to rely on the West or Arab governments in their uprising to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

In the eight-minute video, entitled "Onwards, Lions of Syria" and posted on an Islamist website, the Egyptian-born Zawahri also urged Muslims in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan to come to the aid of Syrian rebels confronting Assad's forces.

"Wounded Syria still bleeds day after day, while the butcher, son of the butcher Bashar bin Hafiz (Hafez al-Assad), is not deterred to stop," Zawahri, wearing his white turban and seated against a green curtain, said.

"But the resistance of our people in Syria despite all the pain, sacrifice and bloodshed escalates and grows," he added.

Zawahri took command of al Qaeda after Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces in a raid in Pakistan last May.

A Muslim should help "his brothers in Syria with all that he can, with his life, money, opinion, as well as information," Zawahri says....

More: "Jihadists, weapons 'moving from Iraq to Syria'," by Ammar Karim and Sammy Ketz for Agence France-Presse, February 11:

Jihadists are moving from Iraq to Syria and arms are also sent across the border to opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, Iraq's deputy interior minister said in an interview with AFP on Saturday. [...]

"We have intelligence information that a number of Iraqi jihadists went to Syria," Assadi said, adding that "weapons smuggling is still ongoing" from Iraq into Syria.

Since March last year, Assad's regime has carried out a bloody crackdown on an uprising in which more than 6,000 people have been killed.

While there are still regular civilian protests that turn deadly in Syria, the focus has now also shifted to armed conflict with regime forces.

"The weapons are transported from Baghdad to Nineveh (province), and the prices of weapons in Mosul (the province's capital) are higher now because they are being sent to the opposition in Syria," Assadi said.

He said that the price of a Kalashnikov assault rifle has risen from between $100 and $200 to between $1,000 and $1,500.

"The weapons are being smuggled from Mosul through the Rabia crossing to Syria, as members of the same families live on both sides of the border," he said.

And "there is some smuggling through a crossing near Abu Kamal," Assadi said, referring to a Syrian city.

There are large numbers of weapons in Iraq after three decades marked by multiple wars and a violent insurgency following the 2003 overthrow of now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein.

Assadi said some Arab jihadists have returned to their home countries to take part in revolutions there.

"In the past, Syrians were fighting in Iraq, and now they are fighting in Syria, and also the Egyptians are fighting in Egypt, the Yemenis in Yemen, and the Libyans in Libya."

"Violence in Iraq is less now because Al-Qaeda has so many places to fight," Assadi said.
Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak "used to send jihadists to Iraq and financed them to fight in Iraq, and (ousted Libyan leader Moamer) Kadhafi used to have many organisations fighting in Iraq," he said....

Unfortunately, all they need to do is look all around them, to Iraq, where the Christian population has been decimated, and to Egypt, where many who can flee are also doing so. There is every reason to believe that Syria's case would follow the same pattern. "Syrian Christians Fear Genocide if al-Assad Falls to Muslim Extremists," by Bruce Walker for the New American, February 10 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Catholic bishops are warning that if the Bashar al-Assad (left) regime in Syria falls to Islamists, there may well be a mass genocide of Christians, such as seen in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Though Christians cannot support the brutality of the Assad dictatorship, few believe that rule by Muslim extremists will be any better.

Syria — home to Damascus, one of the most important cities of the ancient world and of special religious significance to Christians — has long had a tolerant attitude toward religious minorities. Syria's Christians — estimated to be about 10 percent of the population, or 2.5 million — cherish this tradition of non-religious government. The Ba'athist Party of Syria had a counterpart in the Ba'athist Party of Iraq, whose last leader was Saddam Hussein. The party was actually founded by Michael Aflaq, a Syrian Christian, and although there are many objectionable features to its politics (it is, for example, overtly socialist), people of all faiths were able to live in relative safety even in a Syria in which the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants are Muslims.

Ignatius Joseph III, Patriarch of the Syrian Catholic Church, explained the plight of the Syrian Christians:

"The Christians in Syria face a dilemma. They are morally obligated to support the protestors, but if Assad falls, sectarian strife could ravage the country and Islamic terrorists will target Christians as they have in Iraq and Egypt. If they support Assad and he falls they could be targets for revenge. That is why the Christian community in Syria is largely silent, not knowing what to do."

Gwendolyn Cates, a filmmaker who has produced documentaries on religious minorities in the Middle East, agrees that Assad's is “a very repressive regime,” but also notes that Syria has been open to religious refugees who flooded the country after the rise of the Islamic regime in Iraq. She has interviewed Christians who have left Syria, and relates that the situation of those still in the country is grim.

David Wood, a Christian activist who focuses on radical Islam, notes:

"Assad is brutal, but he’s equally brutal towards everyone, Muslim and non-Muslim. If Islamists take over the country, and they most certainly will if the secular regime falls, they will be every bit as brutal as Assad, but they will not treat people equally. Christians will be in quite a bit of trouble."

A church leader in Syria who fears to make his identity known, spoke of the peril to Christians:

"Look at what happened in Egypt and Iraq. Christians want to peacefully go out and ask for certain changes, but Islamist groups are sneaking in with their goal, which is not to make Syria better but to take over the country with their agenda. Christians will be the first to pay if this happens."

Others have predicted the dangerous position for the few Christians who might remain if there is a general exodus of Christians. The more who flee, the smaller the Christian vote in any democratic process as well as the smaller the Christian presence in community life, where many of the Christians in Syria have deep and ancient roots in their homeland.

Disturbingly, the U.S. government has been vocally supporting “democratic movements” in Syria, as it has in Egypt and Libya.

The message to the West is, "there's more where this came from." It could backfire to some extent, however, as al-Qaeda is certainly no friend of Assad's Alawite establishment, and would like nothing better than to see it replaced by a Sunni-controlled Islamic regime. "Syria releases the 7/7 'mastermind’," by Jason Lewis for the Telegraph, February 5:

Abu Musab al-Suri had been held in Syria for six years after being captured by the CIA in 2005 and transported to the country of his birth under its controversial extraordinary rendition programme.

But he is now said to have been released as a warning to the US and Britain about the consequences of turning their backs on President al-Assad’s regime as it tries to contain the uprising in the country.

Al-Suri, also known as Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, was al-Qaeda’s operations chief in Europe and has been accused of planning the London bombings, in which four British-born terrorists detonated three bombs on the Underground and another on a bus, killing 52 people and injuring more than 700 others in 2005.

In a statement released after the attacks, al-Suri said: “[In my teachings] I have mentioned vital and legitimate targets to be hit in the enemy’s countries … Among those targets that I specifically mentioned as examples was the London Underground. [Targeting this] was and still is the aim.”

A mechanical engineer, he is also wanted in Spain in connection with the Madrid train bombings in 2004, which left 191 dead, and for links to an attack on the Paris Metro in 1995.

A judge has also ordered his arrest with other members of a Spanish terror cell that helped prepare the way for the September 11 attacks in 2001 on New York and Washington.

With his red hair, green eyes, pale features and trimmed beard, Syrian-born al-Suri was able to easily pass as a European and plot some of al-Qaeda’s worse atrocities.

Married to a Spanish woman, he spent three years in London in the 1990s, before moving to Afghanistan to run two of Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist training camps where he began experimenting with chemical weapons and set up sleeper cells in Europe.

While in this role, he conceived the plan to attack the London transport system and may have met some of the British-born suicide bombers led by Mohammad Sidique Khan when they are believed to have visited terrorist train camps in Pakistan. [...]

With the uprising continuing and heavy fighting on the streets of the capital Damascus, European and Arab countries last week drafted a UN resolution calling for the president to stand down, only for it to be blocked by the Russians who said they would veto the strong wording.

But if al-Suri is now a free man, it will be a blow to the attempts to dismantle al-Qaeda’s leadership and undermine its ability to launch terrorist attacks following the death of Osama Bin Laden last May and the death of Anwar al-Awlaki in a US drone attack in Yemen last September.

Before al-Suri’s capture, he was seen as a possible successor to Bin Laden, though the pair had been bitter rivals.

Christians are identified with the relatively secular Alawite Assad regime; if it falls to an Islamic supremacist regime, life for the Christian community in Syria will get very hard. Iran wants to keep its client regime in place, but now the Saudis are agitating for the U.S. to aid the protesters, as this will lead to a Sunni Islamic supremacist regime and keep the Shi'ites from gaining too much power in the region. So we will soon see whether Barack Obama is more interested in kowtowing to the Saudis rather than the Iranians, but so far, in holding back from supporting the Syrian protesters, he has been firmly in the mullahs' camp.

"Christians in Syria targeted in series of kidnappings and killings; 100 dead," from Barnabas Aid via the Pakistan Christian Post, January 19:

Damascus: January 19, 2012. (Barnabas Aid) The Christian community in Syria has been hit by a series of kidnappings and brutal murders; 100 Christians have now been killed since the anti-government unrest began.

A reliable source in the country, who cannot be identified for their own safety, told Barnabas Aid that children were being especially targeted by the kidnappers, who, if they do not receive the ransom demanded, kill the victim.

And the source provided detailed information ¨some of which cannot be made public for security reasons¨ about incidents that have taken place since Christmas. Two Christian men, one aged 28, the other a 37-year-old father with a pregnant wife, were kidnapped by the rebels in separate incidents and later found dead; the first was found hanged with numerous injuries, the second was cut into pieces and thrown in a river. Four more have been abducted, and their captors are threatening to kill them too.

Two Christians were killed on January 15 as they waited for bread at a bakery. Another Christian, aged 40 with two young children, was shot dead by three armed attackers while he was driving a vehicle.

These latest reports are reminiscent of the anti-Christian attacks that have become commonplace in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion, and heighten concerns about the future for Christians in Syria as the anti-government protests there continue....

A Western-backed military campaign in alliance with the Syrian rebels against the Assad regime is looking increasingly likely, and this could be devastating for the Church in Syria. Christians in Syria have enjoyed a considerable measure of freedom and protection under President Assad; if he falls, there could be a repeat of the tragic near-extermination of the Church in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.

On January 6, 2012, the Council of Evangelical Churches in Baghdad was dissolved, signaling another nail in the coffin for Christianity in Iraq. The once sizeable Christian minority there has been reduced to no more than a few hundred thousand today....

UPDATE: The Brotherhood now denies making this claim, and says it was false information planted by the regime.

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Remember, the Brotherhood is "moderate." "Extremists" would have killed 88.

More on this story. "Syria's Muslim Brotherhood claims responsibilty for deadly blasts," from AFP, December 25 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

SYRIA'S Muslim Brotherhood has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in Damascus that killed 44 people, saying they were the first step in liberating the capital and that more attacks were to come.

The claim on Saturday contradicted assertions by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad that the blasts, which also wounded 166 people, were the work of al-Qa'ida and of the opposition Syrian National Council that the regime carried them out.

''One of our victorious Sunni brigades was able to target the state security building in Kfar Suseh in the heart of the ... capital Damascus in a successful operation carried out by four of our kamikazes drawn from the best of our glorious men, leaving many dead and wounded from the ranks of the Assad gangs,'' it said on its official website.

''We as defenders of the Syrian people and the sanctity of this nation send a message to Assad's gangs: This is the beginning of the liberation of Damascus and the tip of the iceberg,'' the statement added.

''Hence we warn our fellow citizens and advise them not to approach government centres or security branches ... because our martyrdom brigades are in a state of maximum readiness to carry out quality operations in Aleppo, Damascus, and the blessed land of Syria in the next 10 days.''

The statement was signed by the ''Muslim Brotherhood's media committee inside Syria''.

The bombings, the first against the powerful security services in central Damascus since an uprising against Assad began in March, came a day after the arrival of an advance group of Arab League monitors who are to oversee a deal to end the bloodshed.

After the attacks, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Meqdad said ''this is the gift we get from the terrorists and al-Qa'ida, but we are going to do all we can to facilitate the Arab League mission''....

State media blames al-Qaeda, and while anything from Syrian state media ought to be taken with a grain of salt, the methodology is indeed al-Qaeda's. "Suicide bombers kill 40 in Damascus, Syria says," by Erika Solomon for Reuters, December 23:

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Suicide car bombers struck Damacus on Friday, officials said, killing 40 people, gutting buildings and sending human limbs flying in the bloodiest violence to hit Syria's capital in a nine-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

The attacks, which state media blamed on al Qaeda, targeted two Syrian security sites and came a day after the arrival of Arab League officials to prepare for a monitoring team that will check whether Assad is implementing a plan to end the bloodshed.

Assad has deployed tanks and troops to try to crush a wave of protest against his rule inspired by other Arab revolts this year. Mainly peaceful rallies are now increasingly eclipsed by an armed insurgency against his military and security apparatus.

But Friday's blasts in central Damascus signaled a dramatic new escalation in violence, which Syrian authorities blame on armed groups they say have killed 2,000 soldiers and security force members since popular unrest broke out in March.

State television said over 150 people were wounded by the explosions. It broadcast footage of mangled bodies being carried in blankets and stretchers into ambulances with sirens wailing.

Television footage also showed bloodied streets littered with human remains, blackened car wrecks and other debris, as well as a row of corpses wrapped in sheets laid along a street.

State television said the attackers zeroed in on a state security administration building and a local security branch.

Syria has generally barred foreign media from the country, making it hard to verify accounts of events from either side....

The Great Libyan Jihadist Garage Sale ships long-distance. "Libya’s new rulers offer weapons to Syrian rebels," by Ruth Shurlock for the Telegraph, November 25:

Syrian rebels held secret talks with Libya's new authorities on Friday, aiming to secure weapons and money for their insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

At the meeting, which was held in Istanbul and included Turkish officials, the Syrians requested "assistance" from the Libyan representatives and were offered arms, and potentially volunteers.

"There is something being planned to send weapons and even Libyan fighters to Syria," said a Libyan source, speaking on condition of anonymity. "There is a military intervention on the way. Within a few weeks you will see."

The Telegraph has also learned that preliminary discussions about arms supplies took place when members of the Syrian National Council [SNC] – the country's main opposition movement – visited Libya earlier this month.

"The Libyans are offering money, training and weapons to the Syrian National Council," added Wisam Taris, a human rights campaigner with links to the SNC.

The disclosure came as rebels raided an air force base outside the city of Homs and killed six pilots, according to a statement by the country's military.

Last month, Libya's interim government became the first in the world to recognise Syria's opposition movement as the country's "legitimate authority".

Large shipments of weapons have not yet been sent, said activists, mainly because of logistical difficulties. But proposals for a "buffer zone" inside Syria, monitored by the Arab League, or the likely emergence of an area inside the country controlled entirely by rebels could solve this problem.

"The [Libyan] council's offer is serious," said Mr Taris. Turkey, which has denounced President Assad's regime, is already sheltering about 7,000 Syrian opposition activists, including the leader of the Free Syrian Army, the nascent rebel movement, in a "safe zone" along Turkey's border with Syria.

Sources in the Libyan town of Misurata suggested that some weapons may already have been sent. Some smugglers were caught selling small arms to Syrian buyers in Misurata, said a man who trafficked guns to Libya's rebels during the country's civil war.

Post-conflict Libya is awash with arms, many of them taken from the vast military stores maintained by Col Mummar Gaddafi's regime. Kalashnikov assault rifles, modern missiles and even tanks found their way into Libya.

Libyans feel closely aligned to the Syrian cause, said Hameda al-Mageri, from the Tripoli Military Council. "Bashar sent Gaddafi weapons when he was fighting us. There are hundreds of people who want to go to fight in Syria, or help in other ways if they can."

But Libyan officials deny the claims. "This is what you hear in the street," said Ramadan Zarmoh, the leader of the Misurata military council. "Officially there is none of this. I would never send any fighters to fight outside the country."....

Why did the "Arab Spring" Islamic uprisings succeed in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, but fail in Syria? They were brutally put down, of course, but they were in Libya as well. The main reason is that the Islamic Republic of Iran essentially controls Syria as a client state, and was determined not to let it fall, in part for the reasons made clear by the news article below. Also, of course, NATO helped out the protesters in Libya, but not in Syria: consistent with Obama's ongoing warm and positive attitude toward the Iranian mullahcracy, and refusal in 2009 to do or say anything to support the demonstrators within Iran.

"Iran threatens Israel invasion," from UPI, November 11 (thanks to Kenneth):

TEHRAN, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Iran is threatening an attack on Israel in response to reports of a possible Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities, an Iranian news agency says.

The Iranian Fars news agency, which is associated with the Revolutionary Guards, said some 30,000 Syrians and Palestinians have been training to infiltrate Israel via the Syrian border to carry out suicide missions, Ynetnews reported Friday.

Fars said the men have sent a petition to the Syrian government expressing their willingness to help it through "any crisis" that may arise with Israel.

"They have asked the Syrian government for authorization to infiltrate occupied Palestinian land and carry out suicide missions against Israeli soldiers," the Fars report said....

Obama's top Muslim adviser, in cooperation with the Muslim Brotherhood, whose prominent role in Syria is described below, blocked the Maronite Catholic patriarch's access to the White House because he simply pointed out the obvious. Another bishop wrote:

"Patriarch Rai’s warning about the future of Christians in Syria is not taboo. Christians are in a state of peril in the same way that Christians of Iraq were a few years ago when two-thirds of them migrated out… A new day is dawning in the Middle East. The Arab Spring is happening with little vision for the summer that will ensue."

That is not in keeping with the tidy -- but fictional -- script for events in the Muslim world that driving U.S. policy, but it is what is happening. Meanwhile, Washington wants its Hollywood ending, content to worry about the fallout in the sequel.

"Syria's Choice: Murderous Secular Regime or Islamic Fundamentalists," by Khaled Abu Toameh for Hudson NY:

As Syrian dictator Bashar Assad continues to slaughter his people, there are growing indications that the Islamists are increasing their efforts to replace his regime.

What started as a secular Facebook revolution against the Assad regime is now beginning to look more like a jihad [holy war] led by Muslim fundamentalists.

The Muslim Brotherhood is clearly seeking to hijack the anti-Assad protests, in both the political and military fields.

In the past few months, there have been many signs of a "return to Islam" in Syrian society. Large banners urging women to wear the hijab have appeared in Damascus and other main cities and many restaurants and hotels have stopped serving alcohol in keeping with Islamic law. This is in addition to the fact that many of the daily anti-Assad demonstrations are being launched from mosques, especially after Friday prayers.

The Muslim Brotherhood is by no means a "moderate" organization. Its motto leaves no room for questions about its true intentions: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Koran is our law. Jihad [holy war] is our way. Dying for the sake of Allah is our highest hope." Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader, Sheikh Yusef al-Qaradawi, has come out in favor of suicide bombings, which he cslled "evidence of God's justice;" the death penalty for homosexuals; the beating of women; a genocidal a hatred of Jews: "O Allah, do not spare a single one of them….kill them down to the very last one," as he put on al-Jazeera on January 9, 2009 [www.MEMRI.org]; and, as he said on April 14, 2004, boycotts of America and Israel: "Our duty is to make them as weak as we can."

According to reports in the Arab media, Islamic fundamentalist groups have been smuggling weapons into Syria from Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.

Most of these weapons have fallen into the hands of Muslim fundamentalists, who are now waging a guerrilla warfare against Assad's security forces, the reports say.

Syria's fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood organization, which was banned by the Syrian dictator's father, Hafez Assad, decades ago, has come back to life thanks to the uprising that was initially launched by secular forces.

"We have a desire to coordinate the position of the opposition," declared Zuhair Salim, a spokesman for Syria's Muslim Brotherhood. "We are supporters and not creators."

As has been the case in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya, Syria's Islamists did not show their faces in public at the beginning of the anti-Assad uprising. Instead, they preferred to wait in the shadows to see where the uprising was headed.

Muslim Brotherhood officials have already found their place in the main opposition group, the Syrian National Council, which was formed in Istanbul last September with support from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and the US State Department.

Although the Muslim Brotherhood has not joined the council officially, it has many representatives there.

Out of the 19 members of the council's general secretariat, four belong to the Muslim Brotherhood and six are "independent" Islamists.

The participation of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Syrian National Council is seen in the context of the Islamists' hitherto successful bid to hijack the Arab Spring.

What is disturbing is that while the US and many European governments have endorsed the Islamist-dominated opposition council, they have also turned their backs on secular groups that are opposed to the creation of a Sharia state in Damascus.

Last week Assad hinted at the possibility that his country could fall into the hands of Islamists when he warned that Syria would become "another Afghanistan" if the West intervened in favor of his enemies.

Support from Washington for Ikhwan elements threatens to smother whatever secular voices are left, leaving two so-called "choices" between one form of tyranny and another:

For many Syrians, the only choice today is between a murderous secular regime led by Assad and Muslim fundamentalists seeking to turn their country into an Islamic state. Assad's brutal crackdown on his opponents, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 3,000 Syrians, as well as his failure to implement major political reforms, is driving more people into the open arms of the Islamists.

The recent victory of the Islamists in the Tunisian elections is serving as a catalyst for the Muslim Brotherhood to double its efforts to replace the Assad regime.

It is bad enough that the Assad regime has this program going, with other suspicious facilities still under scrutiny. It will be even worse in the hands of the regime most likely to replace his. More on this story.

"AP Exclusive: New signs of Syria-Pakistan nuke tie," by George Jahn for the Associated Press, November 1:

WASHINGTON — U.N. investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that bolsters suspicions that the Syrian government worked with A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, to acquire technology that could make nuclear arms.

The buildings in northwest Syria closely match the design of a uranium enrichment plant provided to Libya when Moammar Gadhafi was trying to build nuclear weapons under Khan's guidance, officials told The Associated Press.

The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency also has obtained correspondence between Khan and a Syrian government official, Muhidin Issa, who proposed scientific cooperation and a visit to Khan's laboratories following Pakistan's successful nuclear test in 1998.

The complex, in the city of Al-Hasakah, now appears to be a cotton-spinning plant, and investigators have found no sign that it was ever used for nuclear production. But given that Israeli warplanes destroyed a suspected plutonium production reactor in Syria in 2007, the unlikely coincidence in design suggests Syria may have been pursuing two routes to an atomic bomb: uranium as well as plutonium.

Details of the Syria-Khan connection were provided to the AP by a senior diplomat with knowledge of IAEA investigations and a former U.N. investigator. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The Syrian government did not respond to a request for comment. It has repeatedly denied pursuing nuclear weapons but also has stymied an investigation into the site bombed by Israel. It has not responded to an IAEA request to visit the Al-Hasakah complex, the officials said.

IAEA officials contacted Tuesday also declined to comment.

The IAEA's examination of Syria's programs has slowed as world powers focus on a popular uprising in the country and the government's violent crackdown.

Syria never has been seen as being close to development of a nuclear bomb. There also is no indication that Damascus continues to work on a secret nuclear program. If the facility in Al-Hasakah was indeed intended for uranium production, those plans appear to have been abandoned and the path to plutonium ended with the Israeli bombing.

But Mark Hibbs, an analyst at the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who has spoken to IAEA officials about the Al-Hasakah complex, said it is important to learn more details about the buildings.

"What is at stake here is the nuclear history of that facility," Hibbs said. "People want to know what did they intend to do there, and Syria has provided no information."...

For all his many faults, Assad doesn't rule strictly by Sharia. Thus Christians, although they do not have equal rights, live better than they do in Sharia regimes. "Fearing Change, Many Christians in Syria Back Assad," from the New York Times, September 27 (thanks to Roland Shirk):

SAYDNAYA, Syria — Abu Elias sat beneath the towering stairs leading from the Convent of Our Lady of Saydnaya, a church high up in the mountains outside Damascus, where Christians have worshiped for 1,400 years. “We are all scared of what will come next,” he said, turning to a man seated beside him, Robert, an Iraqi refugee who escaped the sectarian strife in his homeland.

“He fled Iraq and came here,” said Abu Elias, looking at his friend, who arrived just a year earlier. “Soon, we might find ourselves doing the same.”

Syria plunges deeper into unrest by the day. On Tuesday, government troops attacked the rebellious town of Rastan with tanks and machine guns, wounding at least 20 people. With the chaos growing, Christians visiting Saydnaya on a recent Sunday said they feared that a change of power could usher in a tyranny of the Sunni Muslim majority, depriving them of the semblance of protection the Assad family has provided for four decades....

They fear that in the event the president falls, they may be subjected to reprisals at the hands of a conservative Sunni leadership for what it sees as Christian support of the Assad family. They worry that the struggle to dislodge Mr. Assad could turn into a civil war, unleashing sectarian bloodshed in a country where minorities, ethnic and religious, have found a way to coexist for the most part.

The anxiety is so deep that many ignore the opposition’s counterpoint: The government has actually made those divisions worse as part of a strategy to ensure the rule of the Assad family, which itself springs from a Muslim minority, the Alawites.

“I am intrigued by your calls for freedom and for overthrowing the regime,” wrote a Syrian Christian woman on her Facebook page, addressing Christian female protesters. “What does freedom mean? Every one of you does what she wants and is free to say what she wants. Do you think if the regime falls (God forbid) you will gain freedom? Then, each one of you will be locked in her house, lamenting those days.”

The fate of minorities in a region more diverse than many recognize is among the most pressing questions facing an Arab world in turmoil. With its mosaic of Christians and Muslim sects, Syria has posed the question in its starkest terms: Does it take a strongman to protect the community from the more dangerous, more intolerant currents in society?

The plight of Christians in Syria has resonated among religious minorities across the Middle East, many of whom see themselves as facing a shared destiny. In Iraq, the number of Christians has dwindled to insignificance since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, driven away by bloodshed and chauvinism. Christians in Egypt worry about the ascent of Islamists. Christians in Lebanon, representing the largest minority by proportion in the Arab world, worry about their own future, in a country where they emerged as the distinct losers of a 15-year civil war.

This month, Lebanon’s Maronite Catholic patriarch urged Maronites, the largest community of Christians in the country, to offer Mr. Assad another chance and to give him enough time to carry out a long list of reforms that he has promised but never enacted.

The comments by the patriarch, Bishara Boutros al-Rai, prompted a heated debate in Lebanon, which lived under Syrian hegemony for 29 years. A prominent Syrian (and Christian) opposition figure offered a rebuttal from Damascus. But Patriarch Rai, who described Mr. Assad as “a poor man who cannot work miracles,” defended his remarks, warning that the fall of the government in Syria threatened Christians across the Middle East.

“We endured the rule of the Syrian regime. I have not forgotten that,” Patriarch Rai said. “We do not stand by the regime, but we fear the transition that could follow. We must defend the Christian community. We, too, must resist.”...

But while the promise of the Arab revolts is a new order, shorn of repression and inequality, worries linger that Islamists, the single most organized force in the region, will gain greater influence and that societies will become more conservative and perhaps intolerant.

Note how the New York Times calls pro-Sharia Islamic supremacists "conservatives," and those who oppose them "conservatives."

“Fear is spreading among us and anyone who is different,” said Abu Elias, as he greeted worshipers walking the hundreds of stone steps worn smooth over the centuries. “Today, we are here. Tomorrow, who knows where we will be?”

It's so reassuring to know that there are all those "moderates" out there. "Syria: Anti-Assad Sheikh Threatens To 'Tear Christians Apart,'" from ANSAmed, September 16 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

(ANSAmed) - ROME, SEPTEMBER 16 - A Syrian sheikh who has been exiled to Saudi Arabia and has become one of the voices of the uprising against Assad, urges his followers, in television sermons that have been broadcast in Syria as well, to ''tear apart, chop up and feed'' the meat of all supporters of the current regime ''to the dogs,'' including all Christians. The fundamentalist turn part of the Syrian opposition is taking is denounced on the website Terrasanta.net, of the Franciscan Custody.

Many Syrian Christians, the website reads, are terrorised; in some cities, like Homs, they are even afraid to leave their houses. Some churches have already been burned down. These appeals to hate were made in this context by sheikh Adnan al Aroor, who is described in a profile of television network Al Arabia as a 'moderate Sunni', a 'symbolic figure' for the anti-Assad activists, a man who invites people to 'peaceful and non-violent' rebellion. The sheikh broadcasts on the Islamic satellite channel al Safa, which has its headquarters in Saudi Arabia. The channel is very popular in Syria. In one of the sheik's sermons that have been examined by the editorial staff of 'Terrasanta', al Aroor explains that Syrians can be divided into three groups: ''the first includes people who are for the revolution and against Assad. When the President falls, the winners will look with favour on this group. The second group consists of people who are not for nor against the revolution. They can expect no privileges from the new regime. The third group opposes the revolution and backs Assad. The meat of these people - in the words of Al Aroor - will be ''torn apart, chopped up and fed to the dogs.'' This is an explicit threat to Christians, who have always been considered to be protected by the current regime. ''Each Friday'', Terrasanta.net writes, ''crowds called by the peaceful call of the social networks fill the squares. But there are also those, and that is a cause for concern, who come after being urged by unscrupulous preachers. They all come to challenge a government that is unable to show evidence of real reforms. Whoever wins, the future of Syria remains unclear." (ANSAmed).

The U.S. and NATO have already been trying to secure Gadhafi's arsenal, which includes mustard gas, through the Libyan rebels. The fall of Gadhafi's and Assad's regimes could both make for one hellish garage sale for jihadist bargain-hunters. "Mideast Expert: Syria's WMD Could Fall to Islamists," by Brett Sandala for NewsMax, August 22:

Israel is "very concerned" over the potential fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, according to Yaakov Katz, Israeli military expert and defense correspondent for the Jerusalem Post.

"All of this extensive, advanced weaponry that Assad has manufactured and hoarded over the past decade will find itself in the hands of people who might even be more radical than Assad, and who don't have the political calculations that he had."

In an exclusive Newsmax interview, Katz also suggests a more positive scenario: "If Assad will fall, the supply line to Hezbollah will be cut off and Iran will find itself more isolated without the friend it used to have in Syria. That could be a very good outcome for Israel. At the same time though, Israel is very concerned [that] no one in the world can say who will be the potential successor in Syria.

"[Assad] has an extensive chemical weapons program, and thousands of SCUD missiles . . . that could do a lot of damage against Israel," Katz says, reasoning that western powers were able to militarily intervene in Libya because, "There was basically no place for Libya to respond to. On the other hand, If the United States or NATO starts to bomb Syria, Assad could fire SCUD missiles into Israel.

"It's an extremely dangerous time, mostly characterized by uncertainty . . . a level of which hasn't been seen for years. Israel could find itself as not only the only democracy in the Middle East, but the only country that's not run by radical Islamists.

"Since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel hasn't faced enemies on its northern and southern fronts," says Katz, regarding the tense situation on Israel's border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, where a Palestinian terror attack last week killed eight Israelis and ignited a round of fighting between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

"Sinai has turned into a lawless Wild West of sorts. The Egyptians have completely lost the Sinai and are now trying to restore law and order, and Israel is allowing Egypt to deploy forces inside of the Sinai."

Per the peace treaty signed between Israel and Egypt in 1979, the peninsula was to remain demilitarized. "Israel is bending the peace treaty to allow them to insert those troops," Katz explains.

After striking targets in Gaza through the weekend, Israel agreed to a ceasefire on Monday for two reasons, according to Katz: "What happens in Gaza affects Israel's ties with Egypt. An Israeli onslaught against Gaza today is something the Egyptians refuse to accept."

Also, "Israel restrained itself to some extent because of the potential diplomatic and international fallout it would face ahead of September," when the Palestinians plan to ask the United Nations General Assembly to grant statehood to Palestine.

"Gaza today is linked to what's happening in Egypt, and that's due to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood is a growing force in Egypt, particularly on the political level . . . [and] is the founding fathers of Hamas."

The Muslim Brotherhood aren't the only players behind the scenes, according to Katz: "It's all under the umbrella of the Islamic regime of Iran."

"The weaponry comes from Iran, some are produced in Gaza with Iranian tech and knowhow. The model of the most recent attack [against Israel] was very similar to some IDF officers who are familiar with fighting in Lebanon against Hezbollah . . . It's almost like they come off the assembly line straight out of Iran."

Presumably, then, Qaradawi and these other scholars think that the regime that follows Assad is likely to be less "heretical" and more Islamic. "Fatwa in the Gulf, Signed by Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Syrian Regime Is 'Heretical'; Sever Ties with It," from MEMRI, August 22:

[...] "In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful,

"A fatwa by the religious scholars of Kuwait...

"Allah the Supreme said: Your guardian can be only Allah; and His messenger and those who believe' [Koran 5:55]. What has befallen our Muslim brothers in Syria compels the scholars to state the truth and deny the lies [regarding] the revolution [of the Syrian people]. This includes:

"1. It is a duty to assist the Syrian people with words and actions, since this is part of the alliance [among the] believers, and a tenet of the faith. Allah the Supreme said: 'And if they seek help of you for the religion, then you must help...' [Koran 8:72]

"2. It is a duty to condemn the murders, torture, and imprisonments carried out by the Syrian regime, and to rule that the Ba'th regime is heretical for its words and actions. Allah the Supreme said: 'But whoever kills a believer intentionally – his recompense is Hell, wherein he will abide eternally, and Allah has become angry with him and has cursed him and has prepared for him a great punishment.' [Koran 4:93]

"3. It is forbidden to collude with the Syrian regime or to support its actions. He who does [so is] aiding the oppressor, and is an oppressor himself. Allah the Supreme said: 'Do not cooperate in sin and aggression.' [Koran 5:2]

"4. Every ambassador of the Syrian regime must resign his position. He cannot continue [to be a part] of this oppressive regime.

"5. Arab countries, and the Islamic countries in particular [sic], should assist the Syrian people and meet its financial, nutritional, and medical needs. This is considered financial jihad for the sake of Allah.

"6. It is a duty to sever [all] official ties – political, financial, cultural, and in the domain of media – with the Syrian regime.

"We call on the religious scholars in Syria to disassociate themselves from the regime and speak the truth, in order to help the Syrians, who know more than anyone about the corruption of the regime. Allah the Supreme said: 'And do not conceal testimony, for whoever conceals it – his heart is indeed sinful...' [Koran 2:283]

"The fatwa has been sent to, and approved by, the head and the secretary-general of the International Union of Muslim Scholars:

"Secretary-General – Dr. 'Ali Al-Fardaqi.

"Head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars – Dr. Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi.

"The International Union of Muslim Scholars has endorsed [the fatwa] and it is currently being sent to scholars for approval.

"Signed: 'Ujail Al-Nashmi, Ahafi Al-'Ajami, 'Abd Al-Rahman 'Abd Al-Khalek, Jassem Muhalhal Al-Yasin, Hamed Al-'Ali, 'Othman Al-Khamis, 'Abd Al-Muhsan, Zain Al-Mutairi."

Ignoring Benjamin Franklin's admonition, they apparently prefer to sell out liberty for temporary security, all the while wallowing in wishful thinking about the Brotherhood's intentions. They will indeed wind up with neither liberty nor security in Syria. "Report: U.S. Favors Muslim Brotherhood Over Pro-democracy Syrian Opposition," from the World Tribune, August 17:

WASHINGTON -- The administration of President Barack Obama has selected the Muslim Brotherhood over the pro-democracy opposition to lead Syria after the expected ouster of President Bashar Assad, a report said.

The Hudson Institute, a leading consultant to the Defense Department, asserted that the administration has decided to work with Turkey and the Brotherhood in Syria for a post-Assad government. In a report by Herbert London, the institute said Obama has dismissed the pro-democracy opposition as an alternative.

"It would seem far more desirable to back the democratic influences -- the political organizations that require cultivation and support -- despite their relative weakness at this moment," the report, titled "U.S. Betrays Syria's Opposition," said. "It is these religious and secular groups that represent the real hope for the future and the counterweight to the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood."

London, president of Hudson until 2011, said the State Department has ignored non-Brotherhood opposition groups. In July, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton invited Brotherhood operatives and urged them to work with Turkey to help oust Assad.

"Missing from the invitations are Kurdish leaders, Sunni liberals, Assyrians and Christian spokesmen," the report said. "According to various reports the State Department made a deal with Turkey and Muslim Brotherhood representatives either to share power with Assad to stabilize the government, or replace him if this effort fails."

Hudson cited the Syrian Democracy Council, which contains a range of ethnic and religious minorities, including Alawites and Christians. SDC was not invited to the State Department.

"From the standpoint of Foggy Bottom [State Department] it is far better to promote stability even if this means aligning oneself with the goals of presumptive enemies," the report said. "This, however, is a dangerous game that not only holds U.S. interests hostage to the Muslim Brotherhood, but also suggests that the withdrawal of American forces from the region affords the U.S. very few policy options."

Officials confirmed the State Department invitation to Brotherhood-aligned opposition groups. They said the Brotherhood has often boycotted U.S.-sponsored sessions that included organizations opposed by the Islamist movement.

London said the U.S. ban on SDC represented an insult to pro-democracy forces in Syria. He cited reports that the Brotherhood was playing a major role in attacks on Syrian security forces in a campaign supported by Iran, Jordan and Turkey.

"At the very least Secretary Clinton should hear the SDC argument," the report said. "Leaving this body out of the Syrian conversation is an insult to what America purports to care about. Assad should see that his opponents are not merely those complicit in stabilizing a murderous regime, but those with genuine democratic impulses and who represent a significant portion of the Syrian people."

Not that Assad is a friend of Israel, by any stretch of the imagination. He's just not moving quickly enough for those who want a full-blown military jihad now, though one wonders if Damascus would get an "E" for "Effort" from al-Qaeda on the Dair Alzour nuclear plant.

Al-Qaeda's former second banana is also eager to see the end of the Alawite dominance of Syrian politics, and clearly likes the odds of its being replaced with a Sunni Islamic regime more overtly hostile to Israel. "Al-Qaida's Zawahri tells Syrians to also fight US, Israel," from Reuters, July 28:

DUBAI - Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri urged Syrian protesters to direct their movement also against Washington and Israel, denouncing the United States as insincere in showing solidarity with them, according to an Internet video issued on Wednesday.

"America, which cooperated with (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad during his whole regime, claims today that it stands with you when it saw him floored by the earthquake caused by your fury," he said in the video posted on Islamist websites often used by al-Qaida.

The video carried the date of the Islamic month corresponding to June, when Zawahri was named by the Islamist group to succeed Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US forces in Pakistan in May after a nearly 10-year worldwide hunt.

"You are standing with your bare chests facing tank and artillery shells and helicopters," Zawahri said of the Syrians demonstrating against Assad, whom he denounced as "America's partner in the war on Islam in the name of fighting terror".

"Tell both America and (US President Barack) Obama: ... our powerful uprising will not stop until we raise the victorious banner of jihad (holy war) ... over Jerusalem," said Zawahri, wearing a white turban and robe and seated next to an assault rifle....

China, an ally of Damascus, says it sees no point in pursuing this issue because the plant is not there anymore -- only because Israel did the world a favor. Otherwise, the UN's interaction with the Syrian nuclear program would be following the Iranian playbook to the letter: alternately paying lip service to cooperation and stonewalling outright, getting a scolding in a U.N. resolution and perhaps some incrementally more restrictive sanctions, and continuing to work on the bomb the entire time.

Even with the plant gone, some of those tactics appear in the report below. There are also at least three other facilities in Syria currently of interest to investigators. It would be dangerous to assume Assad put all his radioactive eggs in one basket at the now-destroyed plant.

An update on this story. "U.N. Nuclear Agency Brings Syria to Security Council," by Patrick Warsnip and Megan Davies for Reuters, July 15:

(Reuters) -- The U.N. nuclear watchdog brought allegations of covert atomic work by Syria before the Security Council on Thursday, but the 15-nation body took no immediate action amid divisions among key powers.

The International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors voted in June to report Syria to the council, rebuking it for stonewalling an agency probe into the Dair Alzour complex, bombed by Israel in 2007.

Western countries said Thursday's closed-door briefing by Neville Whiting, head of the IAEA safeguards department dealing with Syria and Iran, had made clear that Syria had a secret nuclear plant. They said the council should pursue the issue, but suggested it might not discuss it again before September.

Russia and China, allies of Damascus who can veto any council action, queried whether the council should be involved, as the Syrian complex no longer exists.

U.S. intelligence reports have said the complex was a nascent, North Korean-designed reactor intended to produce plutonium for atomic weaponry, before Israeli warplanes reduced it to rubble. Syria has said it was a non-nuclear military facility.

British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told reporters Whiting had given a "devastating briefing ... from which you could only draw one conclusion -- that Syria did have at Dair Alzour a clandestine nuclear plant."

Damascus had "tried to conceal the purpose of that plant ... misled the IAEA about what the purpose was and ... failed to cooperate effectively with the IAEA in following up the questions that the IAEA put to them," he said.

Key word: "effectively."

Both Lyall Grant and German Ambassador Peter Wittig noted that the IAEA was due to produce a new report on Syria for its board of governors in September. "And then we take it from there," Wittig said.

But Chinese envoy Wang Min said Beijing was "not very happy" about the council's involvement. "We should not talk about something that does not exist. There are a lot of things that happened in the past -- should we discuss all of them?" he asked.

After the discussion about Syria, there would be plenty to talk about regarding China at the Security Council.

Russian envoy Alexander Pankin, asked what he had learned from Thursday's briefing, said "not much."

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said the meeting "didn't come to any conclusion because the Security Council considers only matters related to threats to peace and security, not to prefabricated, unfounded accusations against a member state of the United Nations."

"The point is that there is no case for the Security Council to consider in its deliberations," he said.

Diplomats have said council members could strive for language urging Syria to cooperate with the IAEA but that Damascus is unlikely to face U.N. sanctions over the issue.

Syria pledged on May 26 to cooperate with the IAEA and provide access to sites and information related to the probe, but Lyall Grant quoted the nuclear watchdog as saying cooperation had not improved since then.

In a statement, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice called on Syria to fulfill its pledge and that Damascus's "positive and prompt cooperation with the IAEA would be the best way to resolve outstanding questions about its nuclear program."

That is, at least until it can put them to use against Israel. Hizballah, now a stronger armed force in Lebanon than the Lebanese Army, is the only group from the Lebanese civil war that failed to disarm. This activity yet again renders U.N. Resolution 1559, a 2004 document demanding the disarmament of all Lebanese militia groups including Hizballah, not worth the paper it was printed on until it is fully enforced.

The reward for Beirut's longstanding inaction toward the parallel, parasitic pseudo-state growing within it is that Lebanon has become a hostage state in a Syrian-Iranian proxy jihad via Hizballah, and the hostage quite often seems to have Stockholm Syndrome.

"Syria steps up Hezbollah armament," from YNet News, July 16:

Damascus has accelerated its supply of weapons to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, Ynet learned Saturday.

According to intelligence sources in the West and the Middle East, Syria's arms shipments to the Shiite organization have remained steady despite the unrest sweeping across the country, and they include advanced ballistic missiles.

Syria is said to be employing the help of experts from Iran and North Korea to press ahead with its development of sophisticated missiles at a secret site, believed to be built into Jabal Taqsis, a mountain near the opposition stronghold of Hama.

The missile program is allegedly run by the Scientific Studies and Research Centre in Damascus, an organization that is already on the United States' sanctions list.

With financial and political support from Iran, Damascus has also stepped up its military assistance to Hezbollah.

Sources close to Hezbollah said that the flow of weapons entering the Bekaa Valley from Syria had accelerated since March, when protests erupted against the Assad regime.

The scale of arms shipments is said to be so great that Hezbollah "doesn’t know where to put it all." Another source said that the shipments were simply contingency measures and that "We can send it all back when things calm down in Syria."

Latest weapon deliveries to the Lebanon-based militant group include, according to The Australian, advanced Scud D surface-to-surface missiles, which can carry a one-ton warhead and have a range of 700km – placing all of Israel, Jordan and a large part of Turkey within Hezbollah's range and therefore at risk.

Hezbollah has also reportedly been given M600 surface-to-surface missiles, which have a range of 250km and are based on Iranian technology.

According to The Times, M600 missiles are considered "strategic weapons" and "This is the first time that a terror organization has obtained a missile of this type."

Scud missiles are based on North Korean expertise.

Dear Leader must have liked the floral basket.

"North Korea has transitioned from selling full missile systems to licensed production and assembly of missiles (in third countries)," said Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies non-proliferation and disarmament program.

Israeli military intelligence also confirmed that Hezbollah has been engaged in a serious arms build-up....

I tried to tell you. "Arab spring could become an Islamist winter," by Prem Shankar Jha in Tehelka, June 26:

[...] But what is most important is that there is an abundance of evidence that while the Assad regime is authoritarian and rife with cronyism, it is not unpopular. The Bush administration was the first to learn this. In January 2005, President George Bush withdrew the US ambassador from Damascus, imposed a number of unilateral sanctions and started a $5 million programme to activate opposition groups within Syria. But a year later, the US embassy was forced to report, in a cable posted by WikiLeaks this year, that it had found no “legitimate groups” within Syria that were prepared to take the money.

Undeterred, it shifted money to exile groups outside Syria. In 2007, the State Department gave $6.3 million through a series of dummy foundations to a London-based expatriate Syrian organisation called the Movement for Justice and Development (MJD). This, in turn, set up a TV station called Barada TV (after Damascus’ fabled river), which began beaming anti-Assad programmes to Syria in April 2009, and is now a principal source of ‘information’ on the current uprising.

What the Bush administration chose to overlook was that few of these exiles were externed democrats. According to a US embassy cable hacked by WikiLeaks, they were “moderate members of the Muslim Brotherhood”. To Indians, the wording should have a familiar ring, for it is identical to that used by the State Department to justify military aid to Pakistan.

The US continued to fund the MJD and Barada TV even after Barack Obama was elected and reversed Bush’s policy towards Syria. In all, it has spent an estimated $30 million on the project. This is the money and moral support that the Muslim Brotherhood uses in its attempt to stage a comeback in Syria.

IS THE uprising in Syria a Salafi plot? Or are the bearded Muslim men and hijab-covered women visible in the cell phone videos being aired by YouTube and other websites part of a much more broad-based protest against autocratic rule? A day-by-day analysis of the Syrian uprising suggests that while a demand for democratic reform is still embedded within the protests, it has been overwhelmed by a carefully programmed Islamist upsurge that is led by the Muslim Brotherhood, but almost certainly includes Salafi elements. Indeed their hand is visible in the uprising from its earliest sprouting.

First, Anas al-Abdeh, the head of the MJD, and many of its directors, are what a State Department cable called “liberal, moderate Islamists who are former members of the Muslim Brotherhood”. Second, Malik, the news director of Barada TV, is Anas’ brother and presumably also a sympathiser, if not supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. Third, the administrator of the Facebook site, The Syrian Revolution 2011, which is the undisputed leader of the Internet campaign against Assad, is the head of the Swedish chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood.

With the onset of the Arab Spring at the end of January, it would have been surprising if these and other Islamists had not concluded that their moment had at last arrived. As in Egypt, the Islamists hid their agenda behind the veil of democracy. They felt that with five droughts in succession, rampant youth unemployment and a 100 percent rise in the price of wheat in the previous year, conditions in Syria were no different from those in Egypt. Therefore, they gave their first online call for a protest demonstration in Damascus before the Parliament building in mid-February.

Another page out of the Iranian playbook. "'Syria's nuclear plant linked to 3 other facilities'," from the Jerusalem Post, June 12:

The suspected Syrian nuclear facility in Deir al-Zor was linked to three other facilities in the country, London-based Al-Hayat reported quoting excerpts from an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report released Sunday.

The report did not give details on the facilities or on their locations.

It was also claimed in the report that Syrian authorities' excuse to import large amounts of equipment meant for "nuclear activities" between 2002 and 2006 was that the equipment was to intended for "civil purposes."

Syria undertook extensive measures to hide the suspected nuclear facility at Deir al-Zor so that it would stay out of the public eye, the report added.

Syrian authorities, according to the report, further contended that uranium residue found near the facility came from "Israeli missiles" that tried to destroy it....

If not for Israeli intervention, we would be seeing a nearly exact repeat of the process that has gone on between Iran and the United Nations over the years: alternately pay lip service to cooperation (as Syria has already done) and stonewall outright, get a scolding in a U.N. resolution and some incrementally more restrictive sanctions, and keep working on the bomb.

Still, there are other sites of concern in Syria aside from the nearly completed, secret North Korean-designed reactor that Israeli planes subjected to a bout of constructive deconstruction. Between those and the investigation over the former reactor site, there is ample room for Syria to keep following the Iranian playbook. "State Department: 'Very Real Concerns' About Syria's Nuclear Program," from FoxNews, June 8:

Vienna – The State Department said Wednesday that the international community has "very real concerns" about Syria's nuclear program, as the United States and its allies try to formally report the country's nuclear "noncompliance" to the U.N. Security Council.

The push to raise a red flag over Syria's nuclear program coincides with a campaign by Britain, France, Germany and Portugal to condemn the country in front of the U.N. over Syria's crackdown on protesters.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the nuclear threat and the crackdown speak to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime's "ability to snub the rest of the world."

"We've got two problems with Syria on two fronts," Toner said.

Though Iran usually attracts the most international outrage over safeguarding of its nuclear developments, Toner said Syria has done "very little, if nothing at all" to address global concerns about its program.

Despite opposition from China and Russia, the U.S. and its allies are pushing ahead with efforts to bring Syria before the Security Council for failure to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency. A draft resolution would find Syria in "non-compliance with its obligations" with IAEA requirements to allow inspectors access to all nuclear facilities to ensure they are not being used for military purposes.

Just like big brother Iran.

The draft criticizes Syria's lack of cooperation with "repeated requests for access" by the U.N. nuclear agency to information about a facility at Dair Alzour that appears to have been a nuclear reactor capable of producing plutonium, which is used to arm nuclear weapons. The site was destroyed in 2007.

The draft was circulated Wednesday to the 35 ministers who serve on the IAEA's board of governors. It needs majority approval from the board before it can be sent to the Security Council.

Toner said the draft resolution has 14 other cosponsors.

The IAEA has tried in vain since 2008 to follow up on strong evidence that the Dair Alzour site, bombed in 2007 by Israeli warplanes, was a nearly finished reactor built with North Korea's help.

Drawing on a May 24 report by IAEA chief Yukiya Amano, the resolution expresses "serious concern" over what it calls "Syria's lack of cooperation with the IAEA Director General's repeated requests for access to additional information and locations as well as Syria's refusal to engage substantively with the Agency on the nature of the Dair Alzour site."

Some nations have expressed misgivings about bringing Syria before the Security Council over an unresolved nuclear issue while there is a nationwide crackdown on a revolt against Assad, but diplomats have indicated that a majority should be possible.

It is as urgent as ever, given this question: what kind of regime will inherit whatever Syria has in the works when and if Assad is deposed? It may not get any easier to assess the extent of Syria's nuclear program.

But without China and Russia, the question remains whether a majority is enough, given the power of those nations to veto any measures that come before the Security Council.

They were apparently Druze, and so could not be induced to participate in these violent protests by the prospect of striking terror into the hearts (Qur'an 8:60) of the worst enemies of the Muslims, the Jews (Qur'an 5:82). More on this story: "Syrian opposition: Anti-Israel rioters paid $1,000," from Ynet News, June 6 (thanks to Block Ness):

Protestors for hire? Demonstrators along the Syria-Israel border were paid thousands of dollars by President Bashar Assad's regime to take part in Sunday's riots, Syrian opposition activists charge.

Israeli officials later reinforced the claims, accusing the Syrian regime of encouraging protests along the northern border.

Sunday’s riots were an attempt "to divert attention away from the massacre in Syria,” one official charged. "The Syrians will be held accountable for these events.”

Late Sunday, Syrian officials claimed that 23 people were killed and 350 were wounded after the IDF fired at protestors aiming to rush the border fence earlier in the day. However, the army dismissed the figures, claiming that they were inflated.

Washington-based members of the Reform Party of Syria said intelligence sources close to the Syrian government in Lebanon informed them that the protesters on the Syrian side of the Druze community of Majdal Shams were in fact poverty-stricken farmers paid by the Assad regime.

According to the sources, the farmers migrated over the last few years from drought-stricken northeast Syria to the south. They reached the Israel-Syria border on Sunday in the aims of reenact "Nakba Day" events, the sources said.

The Syrian opposition group claimed that each farmer was promised $1,000 for showing up at the rally and $10,000 to their families if they are killed by IDF fire....

Jihadist groups and Israel's hostile neighbors may see in this trend an opportunity to outsource some of the dirty work of the jihad to freelancers, and thus to reap all of the propaganda material with less effort and liability. They can trumpet to a credulous global press that Israel fired on "protesters," as many a headline today emphasized.

Syria seems to have crossed several lines, however, in its level of sponsorship of these latest rampages. They will have a difficult time spinning these attempted invasions as being simply "spontaneous" or "grassroots" action. More on this story. "IDF rebuffs ‘Naksa’ rioters trying to cross Syrian border," by Yaakov Lappin and Herb Keinon for the Jerusalem Post, June 6:

Hundreds of Palestinian rioters repeatedly tried to infiltrate Israel throughout Sunday in two locations on the Syrian border, but were rebuffed by an IDF determined to prevent a repeat of the “Nakba Day” scenes in which activists spilled into Israeli territory.

Syrian television claimed 20 activists were killed, and 225 were wounded, in the clashes to commemorate the Palestinian “Naksa,” or “setback” in Six Day War, although the numbers could not be verified.

Sunday was the anniversary of the first day of the 1967 war, in which Israel expanded its territory to include east Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and Sinai.

“The responsibility for the incidents and the casualties falls on those carrying out these provocations, and on all those who encouraged them to act in this way,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.

Israeli officials would not confirm the casualties numbers being reported from Syria. “Damascus has a track record of not being precise with its data,” one government official said.

The official added that it was clear the Syrian government gave the green light for the protesters to move toward the border, and contrasted this with the situation on Sunday in Lebanon, where the border was quiet.

“One can only suppose that there was a decision taken in Syria to exploit the situation to change the subject from what is going on inside Syria,” the official said. The official also asked whether the Palestinians feel comfortable “being used as a propaganda tool by an authoritative government butchering its own people.”

They hate Israel more.

As night fell, an unknown number of rioters encamped near Kuneitra, raising the possibility of a drawn-out confrontation that could last days.

Early on Sunday morning, Palestinians from the suburbs of Damascus had been bused to area across from Majdal Shams, and to the abandoned Syrian-border town of Kuneitra.

They massed at the border without interference from Syrian troops, in what the IDF described as a provocation by President Basher Assad that was designed to distract world attention away from the ongoing slaughter of protesters in Syria by Assad’s troops.

Soon after arriving in the Majdal Shams area, some 150 activists broke away from their fellows and descended a steep hill on the Syrian side, advancing toward the Israeli border. [...]

Meanwhile, at Kuneitra to the south, a second infiltration attempt was under way.

Between 200 and 300 demonstrators gathered in Kuneitra, and climbed on the roof of an abandoned cinema, from where they began throwing rocks at Israeli security personnel.

Four land mines exploded on the Syrian side of the border, after the rioters threw gasoline bombs, which exploded in a field, starting a fire that then set off the mines.

They really didn't think that one through.

The IDF did not know how many infiltrators were hurt by the explosions.

Throughout the pitched battles, paramedics on the Syrian side of the border asked that the IDF grant them cease-fires to clear the wounded. The army agreed to the request, but then saw activists exploiting the quiet to try and cut the border fence, bringing the truce to an end.....

Why the apparent change of heart? "Syria's sudden readiness to cooperate seems to be an attempt at derailing U.S.-led attempts to have Damascus referred to the U.N. Security Council." They will do what they have to in order to take the pressure off in the short term, but will otherwise most likely follow the playbook of big-brother Iran's years of shell games and stonewalling, which has been met with little more than the threat of another U.N. resolution, and therefore rewarded.

An update on this story. "AP Exclusive: Syria to end nuclear secrecy," by George Jahn for the Associated Press, May 29 (thanks to JCB):

NEW YORK – In a major turnaround, Syria is pledging full cooperation with U.N. attempts to probe strong evidence that it secretly built a reactor that could have been used to make nuclear arms, according to a confidential document shared with The Associated Press on Sunday.

If Syria fulfills its promise, the move would end three years of stonewalling by Damascus of the International Atomic Energy. Since 2008, the agency has tried in vain to follow up on strong evidence that a target bombed in 2007 by Israeli warplanes was a nearly built nuclear reactor that would have produced plutonium once active.

Syria's sudden readiness to cooperate seems to be an attempt at derailing U.S.-led attempts to have Damascus referred to the U.N. Security Council amid already strong international pressure on the Syrian leadership to end its crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.

An IAEA report last week said the Vienna-based agency "assesses that the building destroyed ... was a nuclear reactor" — the finding sought by Washington and its allies to push to have Syria reported to the council by a 35-nation IAEA board meeting next month.

That, in turn, apparently triggered Syria's decision to compromise.

In confidential note sent Friday to board members, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano cites top Syrian nuclear agency officials as saying "we are ready to fully cooperate with the agency" on its probe of the suspect site. Amano said the pledge was contained in a letter dated Thursday — two days after his agency delivered its assessment.

But Washington is continuing its push. It has put forward a restricted draft of a resolution to be voted on at the 35-nation IAEA board meeting beginning June 6 that — if passed — would report Syria to the U.N. Security Council for violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The draft, which also was made available to the AP on Sunday, notes "with serious concern" Syria's refusal to allow IAEA inspectors follow-up visits to the bombed site after the one they made in 2008. As a consequence, the board "decides to report ... Syria's noncompliance" with its NPT commitments," says the document.

Syria's maneuvering will complicate Western attempts to bring its nuclear secrecy to the attention of the Security Council. Still, Washington said it remained committed to trying.

"We are aware that the Syrian government has sent a letter to the IAEA regarding the agency's long-standing requests for full Syrian cooperation," says a letter dated Friday from the U.S. mission that was sent to board members with a copy of the draft resolution.

"Such cooperation would indeed be welcome but would not have any bearing on the finding of noncompliance" by Syria of its NPT obligations, says the letter, which urges "board action" on the draft. [...]

Syria has denied hiding a nuclear program. But it has refused to allow IAEA inspectors to revisit the bombed site after an initial mission found traces of uranium and other materials that strengthened suspicion that the site was nuclear.

The Syrian pledge of cooperation will allow it to lobby uncommitted nations to vote against any IAEA resolution on U.N. Security Council involvement. Western nations fear that it is a tactic meant to allow Damascus to draw out the issue even further and destroy any remaining evidence of nuclear activity at the site.

If Syria is reported, the council has options ranging from doing nothing to passing its own resolutions demanding compliance with the IAEA, followed by sanctions to enforce such demands — as has been the scenario for Iran.[...]

But diplomats say that beyond sending a signal to Syria that defying the IAEA carries a price tag, reporting it to the U.N. Security Council also would be a rehearsal for more action against Iran. They said that after more than four years of gridlock in IAEA attempts to investigate Iran's alleged nuclear weapons-related experiments, Amano, the IAEA chief, also is planning to draw up an assessment — perhaps by the end of the year — saying that such experiments were likely conducted.

That, in turn, would open the path for renewed IAEA referral of Iran to the Security Council and lead to potential tightening of existing sanctions or a new set of U.N. penalties, the diplomats said.

Along with Iran, Syria denies allegations that it is — or was — interested in developing nuclear arms. But its refusal to allow IAEA inspectors new access to the bombed desert site has heightened suspicions that it had something to hide, along with its decision to level the structure that was destroyed by Israel and later to build over it.

Drawing on the 2008 visit to Syria by its inspectors, the IAEA determined that the destroyed building's size and structure fit specifications that a reactor would have had. It also found graphite and natural uranium particles that could be linked to nuclear use of the structure....

Syria claims the site was an "unused military facility under construction." After all, "War is deceit." And Israel did the world a favor by halting the project in its tracks in 2007: where would that "construction" (wink-wink) be now? "IAEA: Syria site bombed by Israel 'was likely nuclear'," from BBC News, May 25:

A Syrian site bombed by Israeli jets in 2007 was "very likely" a nuclear reactor, the UN's atomic watchdog says.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has been investigating US claims that Syria was building a secret nuclear reactor with North Korean help.

The strongest IAEA report yet on Syria came after several years of blocked investigations, and is likely to increase the pressure on Damascus.

Israel bombed the remote desert site of the alleged reactor in September 2007.

Syria says the site - near Deir Alzour in the country's remote north-east - was an unused military facility under construction. It also denied having any nuclear links to North Korea, which has itself denied transferring nuclear technology to Syria.

But the confidential IAEA report, obtained by the BBC, says the bombed building was similar in type and size to a reactor and that samples taken from the site indicated a connection with nuclear activities.

The report's conclusions are likely to raise international pressure on Damascus, says the BBC's Bethany Bell in Vienna.

It opens the door for Western powers to push for Syria to be referred to the UN Security council, an action last taken against Iran in 2006. That step could come at the next meeting of the IAEA's board of governors in June.

Not that said action has slowed Iran down much, which is all the more reason Israel could not abide this project on its doorstep while waiting for the UN to act.

Syria is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which gives it the right to enrich its own fuel for civil nuclear power, under inspection from the IAEA.

But it has also signed a safeguards agreement with the IAEA under which it is obliged to notify the UN's nuclear watchdog of any plans to construct a new nuclear facility.

"War is deceit."

“You were born free so don’t let a tyrant enslave you.” Yes. Instead, let Sharia enslave you.

"Muslim Brotherhood Behind Syria‘s New ’Day of Rage,’" by Jonathon M. Seidl for AP, April 29 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

BEIRUT (AP) — The banned Muslim Brotherhood urged Syrians to take to the streets on Friday as activists called for a “Day of Rage” against President Bashar Assad’s regime, which has stepped up its deadly crackdown on protesters by unleashing the army along with snipers and tanks.

The government warned against holding any demonstrations. Syrian state television said the Interior Ministry has not approved any “march, demonstration or sit-in” and that such rallies seek only to harm Syria’s security and stability.

Activists in Syria are planning nationwide protests following Muslim prayers in solidarity with more than 50 people killed in the last week alone in Daraa, a southern city at the heart of the revolt.

Since the uprising in Syria began in mid-March, inspired by revolts across the Arab world, more than 450 people have been killed nationwide, activists say.

Friday’s statement by the Muslim Brotherhood was the first time the outlawed group has openly encouraged the protests in Syria. The Brotherhood was crushed by Assad’s father, Hafez, after staging an uprising against his regime in 1982.

“You were born free so don’t let a tyrant enslave you,” said the statement, issued by the Brotherhood’s exiled leadership....

An editorial in the Washington Examiner, "Libya, Syria expose Obama's foreign policy incoherence," April 24 (thanks to David), accuses Barack Obama of inconsistency:

Teddy Roosevelt famously talked softly but carried a big stick. President Obama does the opposite: He talks big but carries a stick that is steadily getting softer. And sometimes he doesn't say or do anything at all, which is the worst possible situation. Consider Obama's declaration that Libya's Moammar Gadhafi "must go." But after making a clear statement of aggressive intent, Obama refused to apply sufficient U.S. military power to make the dictator's departure a reality. [...]

Meanwhile, the situation in Syria has become a nightmare, with the security forces of dictator Bashar al-Assad slaughtering protesters in the streets. Nearly 300 protestors have now been killed, with a flood of grisly amateur videos of the clashes exhibiting the horrendous lethality of modern sniper weaponry. Obama's response has been virtual silence and inaction. Yes, he condemned the shooting of protestors, but, as the Washington Post pointed out in calling his response "shameful," none of the usual diplomatic actions have been taken to put pressure on Assad. Since Syria is Iran's closest ally, Obama's silence on the Syrian crisis chillingly recalls his utter lack of interest in aiding Iran's democratic protesters two years ago. [...]

And that's the key to understanding why Obama is not being inconsistent. The Assad regime in Syria has for years been essentially a client state of Iran, and Hamas and Hizballah have headquarters in Damascus. So here we see the golden thread. Obama has favored the protesters where what would follow would be an Islamic state, but has been much less enthusiastic when the protesters are acting against the interests of an Islamic state; specifically, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

How odd. Islamic scholars such as Salam al-Marayati, M. Cherif Bassiouni, and Ali Eteraz assure us that Islam has no death penalty for apostasy, despite Muhammad's words, "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him." Misunderstanders of this Islamic tolerance of apostasy appear to be so numerous that Maher El-Gohary is seeking asylum in France, as he is not safe in Egypt or Syria.

"Egyptian Convert Flees Potential Dangers in Syria," from Compass Direct News, April 21:

ISTANBUL, April 21 (CDN) — A father and daughter who fled Egypt to Syria after spending two and a half years in hiding for becoming Christians have arrived in France and yesterday applied for asylum there, human rights advocates said.

Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary, 58, had become the target of Islamic ill will in Egypt after he tried to change the religious affiliation on his national identification card from Muslim to Christian. He and his daughter, 17-year-old Dina Mo’otahssem, arrived in Paris from Syria on March 30 after having fled to Damascus on Feb. 22 in the wake of the revolution in Egypt that deposed then-President Hosni Mubarak.

The Jan. 25-Feb. 11 protests in Egypt also weakened the Ministry of the Interior, an agency that had harassed El-Gohary and prevented him from leaving the country.

El-Gohary had fled to Syria because it was both the fastest and the easiest way to get out of Egypt, but he said he also feared Islamic opposition to converts in Syria and growing political unrest in Damascus.

“When we got to the French embassy in Syria, we were so scared because of what was happening in Syria at the time,” he said....

Christians "do not feel safe." "Easter cancelled in Syria," by Richard Spencer in the Telegraph, April 21 (thanks to AINA):

Good Friday and other Easter processions and festivals have been cancelled across Syria as street unrest boils over into violence.

The country's Christian population has been forced to abandon its usually colourful and exuberant commemorations because of the number of "martyrs" who have died and the "bad situation", a senior church official told The Daily Telegraph.

The whole country is braced for a wave of protests on Friday, despite an announcement that President Bashir al-Assad had signed a decree lifting the 48-year state of emergency, a key demand.

Government promises of reform combined with violence by armed plain-clothes security forces have only served to bolster the opposition, who are planning more demonstrations after regular Muslim Friday prayers.

But today these will clash with Good Friday services, which would normally see processions and public gatherings by Syria's Christian minority, estimated at between 1-2 million, or around five per cent of the population.

"We are not receiving official congratulations," Bishop Philoxenos Mattias, Assistant to the Syriac Orthodox Church Patriarchate in Damascus, the country's biggest Christian denomination, said.

"All of the Syrian churches have decided this together because of the bad situation and because of the martyrs who have died in recent days, out of respect for them."

He said services would still take place inside the churches, but all street processions and public music performances had been cancelled. "We decided to postpone them till next year," he added.

Normally streets in the Christian quarters of Damascus and other cities would see parades by uniformed marching bands and choirboys and even re-enactments of the Crucifixion.

One nun, speaking from her monastery but asking not to be identified, said Christians were afraid even to come to church.

"They do not feel safe," she said. "There aren't going to be any celebrations, but just prayers inside church. On Palm Sunday we cancelled the celebrations too."...

An ominous sign of the continued turning of Turkey away from the West and toward the Islamic world. "Syria, Turkey sign security agreement focused," from IKJNews, April 14 (thanks to Joshua):

Syria and Turkey have approved a counter-insurgency accord. Officials said the CI agreement would enhance security cooperation between Ankara and Damascus. They said the accord would focus on the Kurdish Workers Party, which operates in Iraq, Syria and Turkey. "This will formalize procedures that have already been taking place between our two countries," a Turkish official said.

Officials said the CI agreement would pave the way for the extradition of PKK members to either Syria and Turkey. They said several of the Kurdish insurgents captured by Turkey over the last year were identified as Syrian citizens or residents.

Another element of the accord was the establishment of a so-called hotline between the security establishments of Damascus and Ankara. They said one hotline has already been operating between the offices of the military chiefs of both countries....

On one hand, of course, everything is a Zionist plot. But on the other hand, let's stop and think about that for a moment, Bashar. Why would Israel plot to potentially have an even more unstable and hostile regime next door?

But that's the handy thing about conspiracy paranoia: it doesn't have to make sense. "Defiant Assad blames country’s turmoil on ‘Israeli plot’," by Oren Kessler for the Jerusalem Post, March 31:

Addressing his people for the first time since popular unrest erupted nearly two weeks ago, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday blamed a foreign conspiracy for the unrest and made no substantive pledges on implementing much-awaited reform.

“Our enemies work every day in an organized and public fashion to hurt Syria,” he told parliament. “Our enemies’ aim was to divide Syria as a country and force an Israeli agenda onto it, and they will continue to try and try again.”

Assad said Deraa, a southern city near the Golan Heights, where some of the bloodiest clashes with protesters have taken place, “is in the forefront in confronting the Israeli enemy and defending the nation.”

After the speech, hundreds took to the streets of the coastal city of Latakia – another hotbed of revolt in recent weeks – chanting “Freedom!” Several residents said they heard gunfire as security forces clashed with demonstrators.

Assad said he supported the principle of reform, but offered no specifics on changing Syria’s repressive one-party system.

“Implementing reforms is not a fad. When it’s just a reflection of a wave that the region is living, it is destructive,” he said.

“Syria today is being subjected to a big conspiracy, whose threads extend from countries near and far,” Assad added, without naming any countries. [...]

In Israel, analysts tried to envision the shape Syria might take in a post-Assad era.

“The idea that these regimes will be replaced by liberal democracies is too good to be true,” Moshe Maoz, a Syria expert at Hebrew University told Reuters. “If he stays he might prove more pragmatic.

He wants the Golan Heights from Israel. His father lost it... and the prestige involved is very important to him.”

“Any new regime is not going to be able to compromise its legitimacy by reaching any agreement with Israel,” said Gabriel Ben-Dor, of Haifa University....

Assad too will discover the appeasement only emboldens those who see the world only in terms of strength and weakness. "Mourners burn building in Syria," from Reuters, March 27:

DAMASCUS - Thousands of mourners at a funeral for a Syrian killed in anti-government protests burned a ruling Baath party building and a police station on Saturday as authorities freed 260 prisoners in a bid to placate reformists.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was facing the deepest crisis of his 11 years in power after security forces fired on protesters on Friday in the city of Deraa, adding to a death toll that rights groups have said now numbers in the dozens.

Hundreds gathered in the southern city’s main square on Saturday chanting for freedom. Three young men climbed on the rubble of a statue of late President Hafez al-Assad which protesters had pulled down on Friday in a scene that recalled the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Iraq in 2003 by U.S. troops.

The men had cardboard signs reading “the people want the downfall of the regime”, a witness said.

In nearby Tafas, mourners in the funeral procession of Kamal Baradan, who was killed on Friday in Deraa, set fire to the Baath party building and the police station, residents said.

A human rights lawyer said that 260 prisoners, mostly Islamists, were freed after completing at least three-quarters of their sentences. Protesters have been demanding the freeing of political prisoners and the lifting of emergency law....

At the behest of Hassan Nasrallah himself. "The Syrian intelligence head was reportedly eager to help."

"'Syrian embassy aided Hezbollah prisoner's escape,'" from the Jerusalem Post, February 17:

The Syrian embassy in Cairo aided Egyptian Hezbollah president Mohammed Yousef Mansour, known as Sami Chehab, in leaving Egypt by issuing him a false passport, a Syrian source told Kuwaiti Arabic-language daily Al-Seyasseh Wednesday.

Chehab, exploiting the chaos that had erupted in Egypt during demonstrations that called for president Hosni Mubarak's ouster, had escaped the prison where he was serving a 15-year sentence for planning terrorist activities on Egyptian soil. Following his escape, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah sent an adviser to Syria's intelligence head in order to request that Syria provide Chehab with a false Syrian passport and documents, the source told Al-Seyasseh. The Syrian intelligence head was reportedly eager to help.

The Syrian embassy then issued Chehab a new passport - replacing one that "was lost" - which he used to travel from Egypt to Khartoum where members of the Sudanese Hezbollah cell helped usher him to the international airport. From there, Chehab flew to Syria, and crossed over into Lebanon.

Chehab appeared in a Beirut rally Wednesday, waving Hezbollah flags and raising his hands in a V-victory sign....

"The riots ended when Syria 'felt that "the message had been delivered"'" -- and that message was that the West must curb the freedom of speech regarding Islam and jihad, or else. "Syria helped orchestrate 2006 Mohammed cartoon riots, WikiLeaks cables reveal," from DPA, December 27 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The government of Syria was active in organizing the 2006 riots that erupted across the Arab world following the publication of controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, Oslo daily Aftenposten reported Monday, quoting US diplomatic cables released by website WikiLeaks.

"The Prophet Mohammed." DPA, like all mainstream media news outlets, has decided that we're all Muslims now.

The cartoons were originally published in neighboring Denmark in 2005. Their publication resulted in violent protests, including attacks on several embassies in Damascus in early February 2006. Embassies targeted included those of Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

A US diplomatic cable published by Aftenposten said the Syrian premier had, "several days before the demonstrations, instructed the Grand Mufti Sheikh Hassoun to issue a strongly worded directive to the imams delivering Friday sermons in the mosques of Damascus."

The riots ended when Syria "felt that 'the message had been delivered'," the cable said, quoting a Sunni sheikh whose name was blacked out....

Hmmm. What country might Syria want to target with nuclear weapons? "Possible Syrian nuke facility identified by satellite," by Yaakov Katz in the Jerusalem Post, December 3:

A compound in western Syria with buildings and hundreds of missile-shaped items has been identified as functionally related to a nuclear reactor Israel destroyed northeast of Damascus in 2007.

Satellite footage of the site in Masyaf was obtained by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security and shows a compound built in a ravine and surrounded by what appears to be a line of trenches....

ISIS head David Albright, who analyzed the satellite footage, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that the site at Masyaf could be a military storage facility. Hundreds of items seen stored in rows out in the open could be missiles or truck beds, he said.

"We have identified one site and learned the approximate locations of three other sites as well," Albright said.

On Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency's governing board convened in Vienna to discuss Syria's continued refusal to allow inspectors to visit the site of the al-Kibar reactor, in Syria's Deir Alzour region, that was destroyed by Israel in September 2007, or other sites, like the one near Masyaf that are suspected of being functionally related to the reactor. When the IAF bombed the reactor it was two-to-three weeks away from becoming operational and it would have been capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons.

IAEA director-general Yukiya Amano told the board on Thursday that he recently sent a letter to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem urging him to grant inspectors access to the sites.

"Syria has not cooperated with the agency since June 2008 in connection with the unresolved issues related to the Deir Alzour site and some other locations," Amano said. "As a consequence, the agency has not been able to make progress towards resolving the outstanding issues related to those sites."

Albright said that he commissioned the satellite photos of the suspected site near Masyaf to raise awareness of Syria's continued violations ahead of the IAEA meeting.

"The issue needs more attention and there needs to be a special inspection by the IAEA at al-Kibar and other sites that are relevant," he said. "The issue is not getting enough attention and Syria can destroy evidence and can get away with it by stonewalling the IAEA."

Sure. It has happened before.

The Iranian playbook at work again, on Israel's doorstep. "Syria's nuclear stonewalling deepens: IAEA report," by Sylvia Westall and Fredrik Dahl for Reuters, November 23:

VIENNA (Reuters) - Syria is refusing U.N. nuclear inspectors access to multiple suspect sites and has provided scant or inconsistent information about its atomic activities, an International Atomic Energy Agency report showed.

For over two years Syria has blocked IAEA access to the remains of a desert site which U.S. intelligence reports say was a nascent North Korean-designed nuclear reactor to produce bomb fuel.

The site, known as either al-Kibar or Dair Alzour, was bombed to rubble by Israel in 2007. Syria, an ally of Iran, denies ever having an atom bomb program.

Earlier this year the IAEA gave some weight to suspicions of illicit atomic work at the site by saying that uranium traces found in a 2008 visit by inspectors pointed to nuclear-related activity.

"With the passage of time, some of the information concerning the Dair Alzour site is further deteriorating or has been lost entirely," IAEA chief Yukiya Amano wrote in a confidential report obtained by Reuters, adding that it was "critical" that Syria cooperated without delay. The agency wants to re-examine the site so it can take samples from rubble removed immediately after the air strike.

Washington has said the IAEA may need to consider invoking its "special inspection" mechanism to give it the authority to look anywhere necessary in Syria at short notice.

The agency last resorted to special inspection powers in 1993 in North Korea, which still withheld access and later developed nuclear bomb capacity in secret. The IAEA lacks legal means to get Syria to open up because the country's basic safeguards treaty with the U.N. nuclear watchdog covers only its one declared atomic facility, an old research reactor. [...]

The report also showed Syria had refused an IAEA request for access to a pilot plant used for acid purification. The agency wanted to make checks on a by-product of the plant, uranium ore, which if further processed can be used as nuclear fuel.

Syria said it needed more information from the IAEA before allowing a visit.

Amano also repeated a call for IAEA access to three other Syrian sites under military control whose appearance was altered by landscaping after inspectors asked to visit.

Syria has allowed inspectors to visit the research reactor in Damascus where they have been checking whether there is a link with the Dair Alzour site after discovering unexplained particles of processed uranium at both.

Some analysts say the uranium traces raise the question of whether Syria used some natural uranium intended for a reactor at Dair Alzour in tests that could help it to learn how to separate bomb-grade plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, like North Korea.

The report showed Syria dodging agency questions about nuclear material at the Damascus site, failing to keep to an inspection and monitoring plan agreed earlier this year and giving inconsistent information in letters to the IAEA.

"These (letters) did not clarify the issues identified (by the IAEA) and the plan of action. In addition, the letters appear to have added further inconsistencies concerning the preparation of the uranyl nitrate and subsequent irradiation activities." Amano wrote.

It seems doubtful that the cries of "Islamophobia" will be as shrill against Syria as they have been against Europe. "Syria bans face veils at universities," by Albert Aji for Associated Press, July 19 (thanks to Choi):

DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria has banned the face-covering Islamic veil from the country's universities to prevent what it sees as a threat to its secular identity, as similar moves in Europe spark cries of discrimination against Muslims.

The Education Ministry issued the ban Sunday, according to a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly.

The ban, which affects public and private universities, is only against the niqab -- a full Islamic veil that reveals only a woman's eyes -- not headscarves, which are far more commonly worn by Syrian women.

The billowing black robe known as a niqab is not widespread in Syria, although it has become more common recently -- a move that has not gone unnoticed in a country governed by a secular, authoritarian regime.

"We have given directives to all universities to ban niqab-wearing women from registering," the government official told The Associated Press on Monday.

The niqab "contradicts university ethics," he added, saying the government was seeking to protect its secular identity....

Opponents say such bans violate freedom of religion and will stigmatize all Muslims.

Duaa, a 19-year-old university student in Damascus, said she hopes to continue wearing her niqab to classes when the next term begins in the fall despite the ban.

Otherwise, she said, she will not be able to study.

"The niqab is a religious obligation," said Duaa, who asked that her surname not be used because she was not comfortable speaking publicly on the issue. "I cannot go without it."

And not only did the Obama rep stay silent: "American taxpayers will pay 22 percent of the cost for this speech to be permanently posted on the UN website, translated, and broadcast around the world."

"Syrian Rep Promotes Blood Libel at UN Human Rights Council: And the U.S. stays silent," by Anne Bayefsky in The Weekly Standard, June 8 (thanks to Israel Matzav):

Meeting today in Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council heard the following statement from the Syrian representative, First Secretary Rania Al Rifaiy: "Israel...is a state that is built on hatred...Let me quote a song that a group of children on a school bus in Israel sing merrily as they go to school and I quote 'With my teeth I will rip your flesh. With my mouth I will suck your blood.'" The Obama administration chose to join this Council, the UN's lead human rights body, and its representative was present. But they said nothing after hearing this blood libel.

On the contrary, rather than expose the Council and its anti-Jewish agenda, one of President Obama's first foreign policy moves was a decision to pay for it. Hence, American taxpayers will pay 22 percent of the cost for this speech to be permanently posted on the UN website, translated, and broadcast around the world. [...]

There are no more excuses for President Obama to pretend that there is a greater good in lending American credibility to an international vehicle for anti-Semitism. It is time to leave the UN Human Rights Council and to ensure that not a single U.S. dollar is used to encourage its sickening agenda.

Yes.

A incident provoked by genocide-minded jihadists gains traction among those anxious to demonize Israel and see those jihadists as victims. "Mideast: Flotilla; Israel's Crimes Could Lead To War, Syria," from ANSAmed, May 31 (thanks to Insubria):

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, MAY 31 - In its first official statement on the Israeli attack on the humanitarian flotilla headed for Gaza, Syria called the operation a "barbaric" move. Quoted by Lebanese press agency Nna, President Bashar al Assad and Lebanese Premier Saad Hariri harshly condemned the "crime committed by Israel with this barbaric attack on defenceless civilians". The joint statement quoted by Nna continues that Syria and Lebanon "invite the international community to take measures as soon as possible to end Israel's crimes, which could lead to war in the Middle East with repercussions far beyond the regional borders".(ANSAmed).

The good news: He failed, and he's been expelled from the country. "Sweden expels Syrian diplomat, tried to kidnap his daughter," from the Associated Press, May 14:

STOCKHOLM -- A prosecutor says Sweden has expelled a Syrian diplomat in an alleged plot to abduct his daughter and bring her out of the Scandinavian country.

Prosecutor Katarina Lenter says the diplomat left Sweden earlier this week after the Foreign Ministry declared him persona non-grata. She says the motive for the suspected kidnapping plot was that he didn't approve of his daughter's boyfriend in Sweden.

Lenter told AP on Friday the man could not be prosecuted because of his diplomatic immunity but an alleged accomplice, who is not a diplomat, is being held in jail pending possible charges.

Swedish news agency TT reported the daughter was 18 and living in a secret location.