No longer the pariah President - Bashar al-Assad - profile/Peter Beaumont

No longer the pariah President
Peter Beaumont
guardian.co.uk, Sunday November 16 2008
The Observer, Sunday November 16 2008

David Miliband’s visit to Damascus this week indicates the new thaw in the West’s relationship with Syria. But while the leader’s charming wife boosts his carefully managed image, doubts remain about a much darker side.

Bashar Assad, President of Syria, is good at the people stuff. He pops his head around the door during an interview with his wife, then, all arms and legs, ushers you away, unexpectedly, for an informal chat. He talks smartly and engagingly. He talks about the prospects for peace with Israel. The dangers of the ‘War on Terror’. Relations with an increasingly bellicose US.

That was five years ago. Since then others have visited and drunk his coffee out of tiny bone-china cups in a palace largely used for ceremonial meetings, and got the same treatment. By and large they have emerged charmed by the gawky Assad and by his English-born wife Asma. And not a little baffled.

Forty-three-year-old Bashar Assad gives good interview. In such encounters over the years he has emerged as self-deprecating, thoughtful and concerned. Which leaves the conundrum over Bashar Assad and his Syria: which is how to square this carefully managed image, designed for media and diplomats, with the allegations that have been levelled against the police state he rules?

Since coming to power on the promise of reforming the paranoid state overseen by his father, Bashar Assad’s regime has been blamed for the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a car bomb - which he denies. He has allowed al-Qaeda in Iraq to set up bases on his territory for fighters heading across the border, resulting in last month’s cross-border raid into Syria to attack one such safe house - also denied, but increasingly less plausibly. Syria has been charged, too, with assisting the re-arming of Hizbollah after the 2006 Israeli war against Lebanon - which it does not dispute - and accused of setting up a joint project with North Korea to construct a secret nuclear reactor, subsequently bombed by Israel, which it still does.

It is a moot point, however, just how clumsy Syria has been - despite its designation in 2002 as being one of the second wave of Axis of Evil states, a powerful irritant for Bashar. For amid a sudden thawing of relations with Syria that will see Foreign Secretary David Miliband meet Bashar in Damascus this week - having already been courted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy - Syria will argue that far from having to move in its positions, what it always predicted has come true. As the ‘War on Terror’ has faltered, and the George W Bush era wound down, the world has been forced to turn back to Syria - and not vice versa. Back to a country where secret policeman follow you or stand watching at the street corners; and where as recently as last month the regime sentenced a dozen democracy activists to two and a half years in prison.

Yet the disconnect between the two Bashars remains, demanding an answer to the question - who is the real Bashar? Is he the accessible and visible President with his pretty young wife, who goes to the theatre, opera and cinema, in contrast with a father rarely seen outside of official events? Who dines in the restaurants of Damascus with his family and likes music and would like, as he once said, to improve his people’s lives with ‘the tool of democracy’? Or is he his father’s son: a leader surrounded by a tiny circle of family advisers - including his brother-in-law Asef Shawkat, husband of his elder sister Bushra - who is ruthless and astute, a great dissimulator capable of playing, and winning, a long game?

The reality is that there are no easy answers in a state that remains so secretive, and where the centre of power is so remote for most, confined to a handful of people. The result is that the majority of efforts at assessing the character of Bashar Assad - and his country’s trajectory - have devolved into a kind of Syrian-style ‘Kremlinology’, as much based on inference as hard facts based on a solid knowledge of the man. Emerging from this fog have been theories - one of which claims that Bushra and Asef Shawkat are the real powers in Damascus.

‘I think if you look at Bashar’s situation, he has inherited a lot of baggage from his father, Hafez,’ says one person who has worked with the family since not long after Bashar came to power, who is sympathetic to Bashar ‘irrespective of the dark recesses’. ‘I believe that what he has been trying to do is legitimise his presidency, not simply rely on what his father put in motion. I think he is playing a long game - and I do believe he can conceive of a future where he is no longer in power.’

But to what end? ‘If you look at what the First Lady is trying to do [in her social activism],’ he adds, ’she makes it clear that it is in pursuit of the President’s vision. The problem is that no one knows precisely what that vision is.’

So it is most often to his father that Bashar is inevitably compared in attempting to understand the paradox of his rule. Thirty years in power, Hafez Assad built up a cult of personality around his rule that stood atop layers of loyalties constructed in the state’s rival centres of power. Brutal when it was required - not least in the slaughter of up to 20,000 during the Islamist uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1982 in the city of Hama - Hafez was also capable of a far more nuanced authoritarianism than neighbouring Iraq under Saddam, carefully sidelining threats to his rule.

With the death of his brother Basil in 1994, it was Bashar - who had trained to be an opthamologist in London, where he perfected his excellent English - who became his father’s political heir. What followed Hafez’s death in 2000 was a seamless transition that has been described as marking the emergence of the ‘first Arab republican hereditary regime’. The Damascus Spring that came after his confirmation as President by referendum was a short-lived experiment, the highpoint of which was the shutting down of Mezze prison and the release of hundreds of political prisoners. All that remains from those days is his request that the media not call him ‘immortal leader’.

But whether or not Bashar was serious in talking of liberalising Syria, the circumstances of his coming to power - shortly before 9/11 and the start of the ‘War on Terror’ - has been defining his rule so far. It was a conflict, he accurately predicted to The Observer a few months before the invasion of Iraq, that would lead to a quick victory in the first instance but subsequent chaos. Even Bashar could not have predicted the huge flow of Iraqi refugees that would head for his country, fleeing the consequences of the US war with the insurgency and sectarian violence. Since then Bashar has charted an oddly seesawing relationship with the US. He made Syria’s prisons available for torture of terrorist suspects at America’s behest - until the invasion of Iraq, that is - then with that war, flip-flopped.

The explanation is as much about how Syria sees itself as it is about Bashar. Despite its history of impoverishment, it conceives itself as an important regional player. It hosts Hamas and other anti-Israeli groups’ offices as much to remind the world that peace with Israel is impossible while Syria is ignored. Its own history of long being interfered in by its Arab neighbours, prior to Hafez’s rise, has resulted in a policy of interference in its neighbours’ affairs - including allegations that jihadis returning from the war in Iraq are targeted by Syria’s intelligence services as assets, before being allowed to return.

Syria also - encouraged by Bashar - sees itself as the ‘capital of Arab resistance’. According to Abdel Halim Khaddam, Syria’s former Vice President, now involved with the opposition National Salvation Front, who was recently interviewed in Brussels for the New Republic, it is an issue of national cohesion. ‘Fighting the Americans in Iraq is very dangerous. But it also makes Bashar popular. Under the banner of resistance, anything is popular.’

The necessity of such a policy - as well as the equally popular financial and logistical support for Hizbollah in the Israeli-Lebanon war of 2006 - is the existence of a fundamental contradiction in Bashar’s expressed but little acted on desires for an economically and politically reformed Syria, a consequence of which some believe would be the collapse of his regime, dominated as it is by the minority Alawite Shia sub-sect.

Reem Alaf, an associate fellow at Chatham House - and Syrian herself - believes that the result of the latest diplomacy to engage with Syria has been that Assad’s strategy has been shown to have worked in the long run. And while she believes that many Syrians are unhappy because Bashar Assad did not turn out to be more like King Abdullah of Jordan or President Mubarak of Egypt, Bashar is able to tap into a popularity born from a coincidence of agendas. ‘Syria is unique because both the regime and the people are concerned with the same issues: they agree over the Arab-Israeli conflict; they agree in supporting the Palestinians; they agree over the Anglo-US invasion of Iraq. I don’t know how you measure popularity, but in that sense he is supported.’

She is dubious, too, about the claims that others are more powerful than Bashar. ‘He runs everything, although there is not one person in charge for everything within his circle. It is one for all. There is no weak link.’

The Assad Lowdown

Born: Bashar Assad, 11 September 1965, in Damascus.

Best of times: Marriage to Asma (Emma) Akhras and birth of his three children. He has made a point of building up his wife’s social projects - particularly with the young - as a foil for criticism of the regime, with her role modelled on those of the First Ladies of Jordan and Morocco.

Worst of times: The assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005, in which his circle was accused of complicity. Bashar Assad himself twice refused to be interviewed in the subsequent UN investigation before finally complying, and has denied involvement. The murder led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops and agents from neighbouring Lebanon, following international pressure.

What he says: ‘When our interests have matched, the Americans have been good to us. When the interests have differed, they wanted us to mould ourselves to them, which we refused.’

What others say: ‘If we do not talk with [Bashar] Assad, there will not be peace in the Middle East.’ President Nicolas Sarkozy to President Shimon Peres during a visit to Israel.

The Times (GB): Barack Obama links Israel peace plan to 1967…
2008-11-16 05:23:17.340 GMT

……Peres was loudly applauded for telling King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who was behind the original initiative: “I wish that your voice will become the prevailing voice of the whole region, of all people.”

A bipartisan group of senior foreign policy advisers urged Obama to give the Arab plan top priority immediately after his election victory. They included Lee Hamilton, the former co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, and Zbigniew Brzezinski, a Democrat former national security adviser. Brzezinski will give an address tomorrow at Chatham House, the international relations think tank, in London.

Brent Scowcroft, a Republican former national security adviser, joined in the appeal. He said last week that the Middle East was the most troublesome area in the world and that an early start to the Palestinian peace process was “a way to psychologically change the mood of the region”.

Advisers believe the diplomatic climate favours a deal as Arab League countries are under pressure from radical Islamic movements and a potentially nuclear Iran. Polls show that Palestinians and Israelis are in a mood to compromise.

The advisers have told Obama he should lose no time in pursuing the policy in the first six to 12 months in office while he enjoys maximum goodwill.

Obama is also looking to break a diplomatic deadlock over Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons technology. A possible way forward, suggested last spring by Dennis Ross, a senior Obama adviser and former Middle East envoy, would be to persuade Russia to join in tough economic sanctions against Iran by offering to modify the US plan for a “missile shield” in eastern Europe.

President Dmitry Medvedev signalled that Russia could cancel a tit-for-tat deployment of missiles close to the Polish border if America gave up its proposed missile defences in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Ross argued in a paper on How to Talk to Iran that “if the Iranian threat goes away, so does the principal need to deploy these [antimissile] forces. [Vladimir] Putin [the Russian prime minister] has made this such a symbolic issue that this trade-off could be portrayed as a great victory for him”.

Ross and Daniel Kurtzer, a former American ambassador to Israel, accompanied Obama on a visit to Israel last July. They also travelled to Ramallah, where Obama questioned Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, about the prospects for the Arab plan.

According to a Washington source Obama told Abbas: “The Israelis would be crazy not to accept this initiative. It would give them peace with the Muslim world from Indonesia to Morocco.”

Kurtzer submitted a paper to Obama on the question before this month’s presidential elections. He argued that trying to reach bilateral peace agreements between Israel and individual countries in the Middle East, was a recipe for failure as the record of Bill Clinton and George W Bush showed. In contrast, the broader Arab plan “had a lot of appeal”. A leading Democratic expert on the Middle East said: “There’s not a lot of meat on the bones yet, but it offers recognition of Israel across the Arab world.”

Livni, the leader of Kadima, which favours the plan, is the front-runner in Israeli elections due in February. Her rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Likud, is adamantly against withdrawing to borders that predate the Six Day war in 1967.

Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, last week expressed his support for Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank Golan and east Jerusalem.

Iraq assures Syria on US raids
Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:30:12 GMT

Syria’s Ambassador to the UN Bashar Ja’afari
Damascus has said that Baghdad in a message has assured Syria that US forces will not use Iraqi soil to carry out attacks into Syrian territory.

Syria’s Ambassador to the UN Bashar Ja’afari said on Friday that Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari delivered the message to Syrian President Bashar Assad at a meeting in Damascus this week.

Ja’afari said that Syria is still not satisfied by the “American promise that this aggression will not be repeated.”

On the 26 of October, US commandoes in four helicopters attacked the Syrian village of al-Sukkariya some eight kilometers from the Iraqi border at about 5:45 pm local time (1445 GMT). The assault, which was carried out from inside Iraq, took nine civilian lives and inflicted injuries upon 14 others.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also expressed in a report to the Security Council this week his “deep regret over the loss of civilian lives” because of the US attack on a house in the Syrian village of al- Sukkariya.

by Gooffey, Damascus after a rain, found on flickr

Dispatch from Damascus 9 (15/11/2008)
Ali Khan

Before going to Lebanon I went shopping with some friends. We went to the up market area of Damascus, Shalaan, where all the branded clothes are sold. My Syrian friend Rami, wanted to buy a new sweater and had singled out a few places to go and find one. We went out of the old city. If one spends a long time within the confines of the old city, walking out of the Souk al-Hamidiyya is like stepping out of one Damascus and going into another. The traffic, the lights, the wide roads and the modern architecture all manage to surprise me every time. We went out of the old city, past the citadel and the statue of Salahuddin. The statue is quite big and depicts, as Tim Mackintosh-Smith astutely observed, Salahuddin on a horse with its’ tail slightly lifted as if it were about to defecate on the crusader underneath it.’ We crossed over the busy road, trying to dodge the traffic and also trying to ignore the maniacal servees drivers and the hail of abuse that is inevitable if you enter their field of vision. We reached the other side safely despite a shout of ‘you ass, you one eyed father of a beast!’ Someone had the bright idea of putting an over bridge on the next road and so we used it to get to Yusuf al-Azmeh Square. The Commercial Bank of Syria with its forbidding exterior stands opposite the famous Lebanese Audi Bank with its gleaming glass façade. We went past the famous Cham Palace hotel. Whoever named the hotel using the French sound of ‘ch’ as in Charlotte had evidently forgotten in his enthusiasm that in English the name would mean something entirely different and might even attract the wrong kinds of customers. Sham Palace would have been a wise choice. Sham is the Arabic name for Damascus and this whole area was once known as Bilaad al-Sham, the country of Sham.

The area where we went to was packed with shops. Each shop tried to outdo the next with bigger and brighter neon signs. I cannot remember the first store’s name but I do remember staring at the DJ who had set up an turntables, a huge subwoofer and 4 large speakers outside the shop. He was blasting cheesy pop songs and I heard Spice Girls for the first time in four or five years. Around him were a group of young men and women, all in leather jackets of various shades, smoking cigarettes. I was half expecting to see them leap into a choreographed performance to ‘If you wanna be my lover.’ Coloured lights illuminated the exterior of the shop and the owner had put two spotlights outside, which traced a path on the wall opposite the store and then beamed into the sky. The people living in the flats above must be extremely patient because the lights seemed more appropriate for a World War II film than the facade of a clothes shop. The second shop we went to was called Stefanel. The shop looked like a clone of Zara in Europe or any other chain store that tries to combine affordable prices with replicas of Karl Lagerfield’s clothes. We went in and climbed the lift to the first floor, though the see through lift did tempt me just a little bit. From what I have observed, young people in Syria prefer Western clothes to traditional Arab clothes a bit like their counterparts in India. I sat down on a comfortable stool while my friend tried on a number of different sweaters and then finally settled on a blue one with some subtle stripes. We paid and left and I noticed that the conversation between him and the cashier was conducted mostly in English. Earlier, Rami had told me to only speak to him in English in the shop. It is so unfortunate that people in our part of the world think that having the ability to talk in English automatically implies that the speaker is more cultivated and refined. Before we left, I managed to get a peek at the label of one of the jackets and it said: “Made in the Syrian Arab Republic, Idea made in Italy.” The second part was written in a bolder red font.

It seems that the Syrians too, like their other Mediterranean brothers, have a penchant for tight fitting clothes. Even the women wear outrageously fitted clothes and often women and girls wearing the hijab will wear a fitted shiny velvet overcoat or a tight sweater with boot cut jeans that seem to defeat the whole point of the hijab. As we walked out of the store and went towards Abu Shakir’s juice shop, which incidentally has the best fawakay, mixed fruit juice, in Damascus, my friend turned casually said to me that the area we were in was mostly frequented by the ‘Westernised’ upper classes of Syrian society. He then went on to tell me how he was ashamed that people wanted to wear Western clothes, listen to Western music and generally copy what he called ‘MTV’ culture. The irony of the fact that he had just bought something that said ‘Idea made in Italy’ seemed to escape him and not wanting to get into a prolonged discussion I quietly nodded and sipped my fawakay.

It is interesting talking to young people here. Often many of them seem to be torn between an aspiration to be ‘cool’ and therefore Western, in dress and habits and many also harbour a parallel desire to be Arab and to be rooted in their culture. What is even more interesting is that most of them cannot see how the two culture can co-habit in the same person and regard Arabness and Westerness as not only different but also conflicting. Wandering around Shalaan and Sahiliyya it is hard for me to imagine anyone from the throngs of shoppers, as the rabidly anti-Western people that are often depicted in certain Western media outfits. In fact even in the poorer areas like Seyyida Zeinab there seems to be an ever-present tension between the desire for Western clothes, music and food and the urge to reject all this and take pride in their Arab heritage. On the street that leads up to the shrine of Seyyida Zeinab it is common to find people selling jeans, T-shirts and bad copies of Puma and Adidas tracksuits. The other type of shop that can be found in every area of Damascus are lingerie shops. Despite all the proscriptions for immodest and revealing clothes it is inevitable that while walking somewhere, one will pass a store with red lace bras, purple velvet nighties and other equally revealing underclothes displayed prominently in the window. I still cannot understand how, in an area where so much emphasis is placed on a woman’s modesty, people can display such risqué clothes in their shop fronts. There is a whole area of the souk next to the Hamidiyya where one can walk for at least ten minutes without seeing anything other than ‘bridal’ and ‘lingerie’ shops. The variety of styles and colours of items on display makes Victoria Secret seem conservative. Some of the clothes women wear over their undergarments are often equally shocking! On my way to university I often see girls wearing fitted leopard print overcoats with shiny red trousers or jeans that seem to be two sizes too small accompanied with a pink frilly t-shirt that says ‘hot’ and a white hijab! The older ladies too seem to be under the illusion that they can pull off clothes that even Cindy Crawford would think twice about wearing. Of course most older women still wear loose black, brown or light coloured coats with a hijab but I have even seen them linger outside the raunchy lingerie shops. The other day at an Internet café, I saw two young women in conservative dress huddled over a computer looking at the Stefanel website, prodding each other gleefully when they particularly liked something.

Another friend of mine illustrates my point about the tension between choosing Western habits or Arab ones. Mustapha is from a village outside Damascus and is taking classes in the city. He spends a lot of time here. He is sensitive, kind and generous. Once when I mentioned that I liked the Oud, he came back the next day with a CD and gave it to me. Sometimes he talks about the various Western girls that he has liked or had a crush on. He even went to the extent of showing me a picture of him with his arm around a friend of his from Europe. One evening I was walking with him, on the way to meet an Italian friend of mine. We met her at the Roman Arch, halfway down the Street that is Straight and I introduced him to her. She offered her hand but he just smiled and put his hand on his heart. This did not particularly surprise me and I did not even think about it when it happened. However, later when I dwelt on it for a while longer, I did wonder why someone would do this. I suppose it might be the result of personal insecurities as much as it might be the need to portray his culture as distinct from that of the Italian. Rami, with whom I went shopping earlier, is also from outside Damascus and is from the Hanbali school of Sunni thought. This particular school of thought was founded Ahmad ibn Hanbal and some people regard it as the ideological progenitor for modern day Wahabism. Therefore people tend to be think of Hanbalis as slightly stricter than the other Sunni schools of thought but I have seen Rami shake a girls hand though he made it a point to say ‘goodbye sister.’

Mustapha has just arrived and is calling me down to the courtyard. He has bought me yet another CD. This one, an old compilation of Munir Bashir, an oud player, is apparently not easy to find. I am still overwhelmed by the genuine generosity of people here. A few days ago I invited some of the UN Peacekeepers over for tea. They bought Shrimp and all kinds of Indian spices and we cooked up feast. However, unfortunately the next day out of laziness I went to eat a shawarma with a friend. Yesterday I was woken up by a text message from the him. It said: “Has the shawarma shabbabed you yet?” It most certainly had. Shabaab is the Arabic word for young men but a few weeks ago when we were getting agitated that the same word in Arabic could have more than thirty different meanings we decided that we would use the verb ‘to shabaab’ in English to mean virtually anything. You can guess what it means in that text message. I am feeling better today. Until next week Ma’as Salaama!!

P.S I have changed the names of my friends in this

The following two articles are from Forward, a magazine published by Abdulsalam Haykal and edited by Sami Moubayed in Damascus.

Murder in Abou Kamal  
By Ambassador Imad Moustapha
Reprinted with permission of Sami Moubayed of Forward
November 14, 2008

The journalist from the Foreign Affairs monthly fidgeted in his seat as he sat in front of me. After all, he came to ask me the tough questions; it was I who was supposed to be in the hot seat. Our roles would abruptly switch, leaving him to ponder over a question even simpler than the one he posed. ”Why are you not securing your border with Iraq?” he asked. 

“You think we can secure it?” I responded.

“Sure.”

“If we can secure it, then you surely believe that it is a securable border?”

“Of course,” he said, still sounding resolute. 

“Does the border not have two sides? If one expects minimally resourced Syria to solely secure the border, surely the US with its massive resources and superior armed forces can single-handedly accomplish the task, and with far better results, right? Now if you agree with me on this, then I want you to explain to me the following: why wouldn’t he US use its superior military resources to secure these borders from the Iraqi side and end this story once and for all? How come the US allows these borders to be a gateway for insurgents who freely cross these borders to harm their service men and women, when it is bound by duty to protect them? Instead, the US leaves this task to the Syrian state while criticizing Syria for ‘not doing enough.’ I need an explanation for this before you start interviewing me.” The answer I got was a complete silence. 

This was a telling reflection of the complaisance and naiveté with which the American public and media continue to handle issues pertaining to American foreign policy.  When discussing the Syrian-Iraqi border, no one asks the American administration, “what have YOU done lately?” No one poses the “tough” questions. Issues that require diligent and firm questioning of policy are continually rendered unchallenged.  Bafflingly, the lessons from the lies leading to the Iraq War have yet to register with the American mass media.   

The bottom line is that the Syrian-Iraqi border was never a priority for US troops.  They understood the struggle came from within Iraq, from Iraqis fighting what they perceived an occupation of their land. This border, and the issue of foreign fighters have always been a mere distraction and diversion mechanism to provide explanations of violence when all else fails. The bloody massacre on October 26 that killed eight innocent Syrian civilians was yet another example. However, this will prove as one of the Americans’ more costly tactics. 

Syria never amassed its troops at the Iraqi border in heed to American demands or to protect their soldiers. Syria did so first and foremost based on our national interest. As American policies fueled terrorism across our region, Syria was stuck between the hot-bed of religious extremism in Northern Lebanon and the post-occupation presence of al-Qaeda in Iraq. With the contagious characteristic of insecurity and instability, achieving stability in our neighborhood was a matter of paramount national interest. For this reason, we exerted all our efforts to end the political stalemate in Lebanon, and worked closely with the Iraqis in an attempt to help stabilize Iraq.   

Second, we secured the border for the sake of the Iraqis, whom we consider our Arab brothers and sisters with a long history of common heritage and strong ties. We would not allow anyone seeking to wreak more mayhem and cause more bloodshed in Iraq to come through Syria.   

In another miscalculated, belligerent act, the US undermined all our efforts aimed at achieving reconciliation and stability in Iraq. We have tolerated and ignored the baseless, constant American criticism of our efforts on the border for five years, due to our conviction in the necessity of securing these borders for Syria’s sake, and for Iraq’s. However, while we became accustomed to the long list of US lies pertaining to the Syrian-Iraqi borders we never expected that the burning desire of this administration to influence the presidential elections, and scare the US electorate, will translate itself to a criminal terrorist attack against defenseless innocent civilians. The US administration has thought that by portraying Iraq as a place in which the fight against al-Qaeda and neighboring rogue states is still a critical national security mater that needs the firm hand of a certain candidate, it will help tilt the US public opinion in his favor. 

If the Bush administration has undergone this atrocity to create a side show for the elections, and to help sway voters, then they very well might end up losing both the elections and Syria’s goodwill to help secure the Syrian-Iraqi borders. 

Imad Moustapha is Syria’s Ambassador to the United States

Twenty orphans and widows
BY Yaacoub Qadduri

Ali, aged 22, woke up early on October 26, 2008. It was a long day for his big family in the Sukariyya village in the town of Abu Kamal, near the Syrian-Iraqi border. His family included, in addition to his father, a total of 12 borthers and sisters. The day ended leaving Ali with only 7. The rest were killed by a US air raid on Abu Kamal. On the day of the funeral-one day after the attack-Ali seemed a broken man, grieved by the loss of his father and brothers. He watched the coffins collectively passing by, with undescribable sorrow and pain in his eyes. On the second day, however, he seemed stronger, surrounded by family and friends, who all grieved for his loss. He still could not speak about what happened, however, and his uncle Utawi Abdullah, offered to speak to us instead.

On the day of the raid, Dawoud (50) woke up early to go to work with his sons Faisal (34), Ibrahim (24), Olayan (18) and Suleiman (16). Ibrahim had one child-with another on the way-while Faisal had eight, making Dawoud the proud grandfather of many children. All of them left home with Dawoud, in the company of a family neighbor named Ahmad Khalifeh (20) at 7 am, driving a small truck for their routine job as construction workers. That was the only profession any of them ever had.

At the construction site on the Euphrates River, there was much work to be done. Construction for the home they were building-with two rooms-had only began three days earlier. Four US choppers came in shortly after the family had finished work in the early evening, flying on low elevation over the Euphrates. They opened fire on the construction site, and two planes landed, killing the entire family. US soldiers disembarked and walked through the pile of dead bodies, shooting them at close range with guns, to make double-sure that everybody was dead. Utawi recalled no less than 10 bullets were found in each corpse, after the Americans left the scene.

When asked if any member of his family was a member of al-Qaeda, as the Americans implied, or outlaws, as the Iraqi government said, Utawi shook his head angrily: “All of them were illterate. The only one among them who had received any kind of schooling had not reached past 4^th grade! They worked in construction and none of them had ever left Syria with the exception of Dawoud, who had tried working in Kuwait 10-years ago, with no luck. He returned to his job as a construction worker in Syria.” He further explained, “We are laborers; we know nothing of al-Qaeda. They house they were building was intended to be a small residence, not a military site to threaten the security of the United States!” A man listening to Utawi at the condolence service where we were interviewing him added, “If there was terrorism in our area it would have surfaced a long time ago. The Americans get frightened from any kind of construction activity in our district. Frightened people do stupid things!”

Dawoud left behind young children-orphans-and the widows of his sons, who all add up to 20. His eldest grandson-the son of Faisal-is only 12. He is blind and so is his sister. Ibrahim’s wife is preganent with a child who will never see his father or grandfather. Overnight the survivor Ali has become the oldest in the family; the bread provider for all the 20 women and children, thanks to the United States. 

News Summary follows

How US claims about Syria became media facts
By Sharif Nashashibi
The Guardian, 14 November 2008

In any conflict, warring parties strive to convince the public that justice is on their side. The most effective way of doing this is through the media. It is imperative that journalists cast a critical eye on information they receive to avoid becoming unwitting tools in the propaganda war. In particular, they should not report claims as facts.

There were several fundamental failings in the British press coverage of the recent US raid into Syria. For example, Richard White in the Sun and the Independent correspondent Patrick Cockburn both reported as fact that the raid killed Abu Ghadiya, an alleged al-Qaida figure who smuggled fighters into Iraq.

Similarly, the Times diplomatic correspondent Catherine Philp reported as fact that American commandos entered Syria and fought “a brief gun battle with Abu Ghadiyah and members of his cell”.

Such news justifies the raid to readers because the target was important enough to violate the sovereignty of another country. However, Abu Ghadiya’s death, and the fight against him, were uncorroborated US claims. The news was not identified by the reporters as coming from American sources…

West queries IAEA aid for Syria during atomic probe
By Mark Heinrich
Reuters, 14 November 2008

Western powers have questioned an International Atomic Energy Agency offer to help Syria look into building a nuclear power plant while it is under investigation for alleged covert atomic activity, diplomats said on Friday.

But they said that whether the United States and close allies act to bar the “technical cooperation” project at an IAEA governors meeting in two weeks — a rare and politically divisive step — will depend on the findings of the agency’s first investigative report on Syria due next week….

Turkish-Syrian relations: The Erdoğan legacy (This is an excellent historical overview)
Today’s Zaman, 14 November 2008
By Sami Moubayed

The rise to power of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan marks a new era in positive Turkish-Syrian relations. The new Syrian attitude towards Turkey represents a break from past: Syria considers Turkey a reliable partner for brokering a peace deal between Syria and Israel, and Turkey offers opportunities for political and economic cooperation for improving the welfare and security of two countries.

The Syrian administration considers Turkey’s partnership to be a key factor in its attempts to achieve integration into the international community, a solution of the problems with Israel, and the securing of territorial unity in Iraq.

…. Intensive diplomacy over the last six months has been aimed at getting the Americans to endorse the talks in Turkey. One method was to cuddle up to the Russians last August, at the height of the war in South Ossetia. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad went to Russia and made strong remarks in favor of the Russian war with Georgia, and more recently, sent a senior military delegation to Moscow to discuss military cooperation with the Russian Army. The aim was to tell the Americans, “Syria still has all its options open. It is in both America and Israel’s interest to invest in Syria’s readiness for peace at this stage, otherwise, if the wrong buttons continue to be pushed, the Syrians always have the Russian option on the table.” That message was badly received in Washington; rather than scaring the Americans into becoming proactive, it gave ammunition to the Bush Administration to further distance itself from the talks, claiming that the Syrians were not ready for peace.

Then came the Syrian effort at bringing the French to the negotiating table in Turkey. During his July 2008 visit to Paris, President Assad invited Nicolas Sarkozy to co-sponsor the talks with Israel. This September, Erdoğan met with Assad in Damascus, at a summit with Sheikh Hamad Bin Khailfa al-Thani and President Sarkozy. The Syrians and Israelis were willing to enter into direct talks, under both American and French sponsorship of the talks, along with Turkey….

Policy recommendations

The priorities of the Syrian government shifted after a terrorist bomb struck in the middle of Damascus on September 27, 2008, showing just how dangerous the situation is in neighboring north Lebanon and Iraq. All related parties should pay attention to the fact that the new priority on the Syrian agenda is internal security and combating trans-national terror networks operating in neighboring countries.

The Turkish government needs to invest in Syria’s desire for peace at this stage, which has arguably never been so strong since 2001, and which perhaps will not remain as strong …

The Syrians are uninterested in a rapprochement with the Bush White House, despite the latest meeting between Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. They also need a US Administration that publicly and actively supports the indirect talks currently underway in Turkey, hoping that they can become direct talks after progress is achieved. Turkey should play a role in getting the new US administration more actively involved in Syrian-Israeli peace.

Both countries have a strong mutual interest in preventing the annexation of Kirkuk to Iraqi Kurdistan, because this would enflame the ambitions of Kurds in both Syria and Turkey. Turkey, Syria and Iraq should be persistent enough to support a strong central government in Baghdad, making current Prime Minister Nuri al-Maleki less reliant on his Kurdish allies in Parliament. The more he feels isolated within the Iraqi political system, the more he will lean on the Kurds and appease them through implementation of Article 140 of the Constitution, vis-à-vis the future of Kirkuk.

The Syrians believed Erdoğan, when he promised to work with them, “to extract milk, even from the male goat!” Sustainability of cooperation is what matters now in bilateral relations between Syria and Turkey. Investment in the Syrian market, along with continued support for Syria in the peace process, are what the Syrians are looking for to keep the honeymoon going between Damascus and Ankara.

Vladimir Putin ‘wanted to hang Georgian President Saakashvili by the balls’ (thanks to FLC)
By Charles Bremner
The London Times, 14 November 2008

With Russian tanks only 30 miles from Tbilisi on August 12, Mr Sarkozy told Mr Putin that the world would not accept the overthrow of Georgia’s Government. According to Mr Levitte, the Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. “I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls,” Mr Putin declared.

Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. “Hang him?” — he asked. “Why not?” Mr Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?” Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah — you have scored a point there…”

Archaeologists unearth 8th century church in Syria
By ALBERT AJI
AP, 13 November 2008

Archaeologists in central Syria have unearthed the remnants of an 8th century church, an antiquities official said Thursday. A Syrian-Polish archaeological team recently discovered the church in the ancient city of Palmyra, said Walid al-Assaad, the head of the Palmyra Antiquities and Museums Department. He did not say specifically when the church was discovered or the exact date the church was built.

He said the church is the fourth and largest discovered so far in Palmyra — an ancient trade center that is now an archaeological treasure trove.

The church’s base measures 51-by-30 yards, and archaeologists estimate its columns stood 20 feet tall and its wooden ceiling would have been about 50 feet high, al-Assaad said.

A small amphitheater also was found in the church’s courtyard where experts believe Christian rituals were practiced, al-Assaad said.

“In the northern and southern parts of the church there are two rooms that are believed to have been used for baptisms, religious ceremonies, prayers and other rituals,” he said.

Ancient Palmyra, located some 150 miles northeast of Damascus, was the center of an Arab servant state to the Roman empire and thrived on caravan trades across the desert to Mesopotamia and Persia.

Under the 3rd century Syrian Queen Zenobia, the city rebelled against Roman rule and briefly carved out an independent desert Arab kingdom before being reconquered and razed by the Romans.

Assad and Obama: a new beginning
By Elias Samo
The Daily Star, 14 November 2008

Like many countries, Syria is pleased with the passing of the Bush administration and the victory of the “globalist” Barack Obama. For Syria, which has been on the receiving end of President George W. Bush’s misconceived policies, the outcome of the elections was a blessing. For the past eight years - a dark period in Syrian-American relations - Washington used every conceivable means to break or bend the Syrian system, including economic embargo and political pressure. President Bashar Assad extended his hand in friendship to Washington, but President Bush chose to ignore the positive signs and increased the pressure and demands, actually dictates, on Damascus.

The problem was largely caused by Bush and the “old guard” around him who invoked their personal animosity toward Assad. This did not serve American interests. However, despite all the American threats, political pressure and economic embargo, the leadership in Damascus is confident and secure, surrounded by a sea of instability, thanks partly to Washington. To the east, the Americans are bogged down in a fragmented Iraq, to the west is a chaotic Lebanon and to the south the divided Palestinians and the contentious Israelis are deadlocked. Syria has a finger in each of these pies and Damascus can be either peacemaker or spoiler. Additionally, relations with Europe are improving: Damascus can barely keep up with the stream of official European visitors…

Israeli Bombs Are Source of Uranium at Shelled Site, Syria Says
By Massoud A. Derhally
Bloomberg, 14 November 2008

Israeli missiles are the source of traces of uranium that diplomats at the International Atomic Energy Agency say were found at a suspected nuclear site in Syria, according to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.

“The basis of American complaint and allegations, presented to the IAEA seven months after the Israeli raid, is that a reactor was under construction, not operating, so where did the uranium particles come from?” al-Moallem said late yesterday, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency. “Why has nobody asked about the content and type of Israeli shells used in destroying this building, in light of the U.S. and Israel’s use of uranium in their shells?”

IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said Sept. 22 that United Nations inspectors, on a visit in June, hadn’t found any traces of nuclear material at the site in al-Kibar that was bombed by Israel in September 2007. U.S. intelligence officials, who suspected Syria of having a covert nuclear program in the 1990s, said they were certain the government in Damascus was building a secret facility with North Korean help in early 2007, according to Congressional testimony in April.

The IAEA will present findings on its investigation into the Syrian site to the UN agency’s 35-member board of directors before their next meeting on Nov. 27, ElBaradei said in Prague this week.

“I regret very much the fact that we were not allowed to investigate the issue before the facility was destroyed,” ElBaradei said Nov. 11 in a Prague press briefing. “The job has become much more complicated for us.”

Syria, which is a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has denied the U.S. allegations. Israel’s government has declined to comment on the issue.

Al-Moallem said “leaks of information by some Western diplomats is a clear indication that the goal is to put pressure on Syria, particularly as the campaign came before ElBaradei reports to the board of governors. This means that the subject is not technical but political.”

Miliband lauds Syrian-Lebanese ties, but March 14 not so sure
The Daily Star, 14 November 2008

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is expected to visit Lebanon next week, praised Damascus on Thursday for having opened diplomatic relations with Lebanon. “I think that in a significant way there has been important change in the approach of the Syrian government, notably the historic decision to exchange ambassadors with Lebanon,” Miliband told a news conference on Thursday.

Syrian President Bashar Assad issued a decree last month to establish diplomatic ties with Lebanon for the first time since the two states won independence from France in the 1940s.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet will convene on Saturday at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, with 32 items on its agenda.The Cabinet’s secretariat general received a request from Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud to discuss the outcome of his talks in Damascus earlier this week…