Free Republic

American military intervention in Syria is likely to begin this week, and one thing we know amid the general confusion is that the objective is not to oust Bashar Assad: . .... How the Obama Administration plans to deal with Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons without challenging his grip on power is unclear, but then again, so is everything else about this misadventure. Epitomizing the muddle surrounding the likely attack on Syria was former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Blair is several months too late. Syria is already a breeding ground for “extremism.” The New York Times reported no...

Middle East: With the formal determination that Syria has used chemical weapons, the stage is set for U.S. intervention, with Hezbollah and Iran on the other side. How´s that Arab Spring working out, Mr. President? Following our less-than-stellar attempts at regime change in Egypt and Libya — aiding in the ouster of Egypt´s Hosni Mubarak and the overthrow and death of Moammar Gadhafi — the administration, even by its own elastic standards, has decided it can no longer afford to kick the Syrian can down the road. Perhaps it just needs a good war to grab the headlines

Mithal Al-Alusi, whose two sons were killed in a Baghdad ambush soon after he visited Israel, tells The Times of Israel he feels betrayed by the superpower which allowed him to return to his homeland Mithal Al-Alusi is angry. He is angry with Iran for supporting global terrorism. He is angry with Syrian President Bashar Assad for oppressing and killing his own people. He is angry with his own prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq, for colluding with the two. But most of all, he is angry with US President Barack Obama for allowing this all to happen. “Obama has...

Bashar al-Assad was killed by a bodyguard ... (Arab media) Update: According to Arab media www.eltira.org , Bashar al-Assad would have been seriously wounded by gunfire last night Saturday, March 23 by his bodyguard but Iran is not dead. He is currently hospitalized, between life and death, Shami Hospital in Damascus which the streets were closed. Proprietary information (in France): According to reports in the Arab press (and then republished in the Israeli press ), information that journalists say they have "verified" the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was killed this morning by one of his bodyguards. An important safety device...

Al-Arabiya is reporting that Syrian President Bashar Assad's mother has defected. She joined her daughter Bushra in the UAE, who had left the country last fall. President Bashar al-Assad's mother Anisa Makhlouf and other members of his inner circle have fled to the United Arab Emirates as the regime of the embattled president appeared to disintegrate, recent reports confirmed. Anisa has joined her daughter, Bushra, who had previously fled to Dubai, the London-based Asharq al-Awsat quoted Robert Ford, U.S. ambassador to Syria until the break of the relations between the two countries. Anisa, the widow of late president Hafez...

Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood has given King Abdullah II notice that he has until October to bow to their demand to transform the Hashemite Kingdom into a constitutional monarchy or face "Arab Spring" style street pressure for his abdication. Middle East sources report that Israeli and Saudi intelligence watchers are becoming increasingly concerned about the approaching climax of the conflict in Amman between Islamists and the throne. For Israel, an upheaval in Jordan bodes the tightening of the Islamist noose around its borders – Egypt and Libya to the south and Syria to the north, with unpredictable consequences with regard to...

War On Terror: As the regime of Bashar Assad disintegrates, the security of his chemical arsenal is in jeopardy. The No. 2 general in Saddam Hussein's air force says they were the WMDs we didn't find in Iraq. King Abdullah of neighboring Jordan warned that a disintegrating Syria on the verge of civil war puts Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons at risk of falling into the hands of al-Qaida. "One of the worst-case scenarios as we are obviously trying to look for a political solution would be if some of those chemical stockpiles were to fall into unfriendly hands," he...

Will Syria Use Chemical Weapons Against Israel?By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel --- July 17, 2012 ... Syrian President Bashar Assad never saw it coming. For a former London trained eye doctor, Assad has failed at being able to treat his own arrogant blindness. The Arab Spring swept upon the Middle East like a Hamsin or a windy, desert heat wave. Not even air conditioning could leave one untouched. From Libya and Egypt to Iran and Morocco, Arabs came out of their homes demanding democracy. In Syria, the government responded by murdering over 9,000 civilians. As Dale Carnegie would...

In the months after her exclusive interview last year with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Barbara Walters tried to intercede to get a television position for a former aide of his, who Ms. Walters acknowledged helped arrange the interview. Ms. Walters, the longtime ABC News correspondent, issued a statement Tuesday apologizing for reaching out to contacts to seek an internship with CNN and admission at Columbia University for Sheherazad Jaafari, who had been a media adviser for Mr. Assad. Ms. Jaafari, 22, is the daughter of the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations.

WASHINGTON — Nine years ago this week, our Fox News team accompanied U.S. Marines as they swept into Baghdad and then north up the Tigris River to seize Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. It took less than three weeks to drive the tyrant from power in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and it appeared then that the force of American arms could ensure a new era of tranquility in a part of the world where brutality and anti-American despots had ruled for too long. But it was not so. The Dec. 13, 2003, capture of the deposed dictator, dragged filthy and...

Will Tehran Throw Assad to the Wolves? For Assad’s Removal, Iran May Hook up with Saudi Arabia and Turkey Iran is finally ready to dump its leading ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad. This falling-out eluded every effort of US diplomacy for decades. The rift burst out into the open when Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi‘s scheduled visits to Syria and Lebanon were abruptly cancelled without explanation. The events leading up to the rupture are outlined by Iranian sources: Intensive deliberations at Iran’s National Security Council and private consultations between Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the council chairman Ali...

-Excerpt- The activists said the attack on Rastan and Talbiseh, in the central province of Homs, occurred after authorities cut all telecommunications with the area. They added that all roads leading to the two towns have been closed off by security forces and soldiers. "The towns are under siege," one of the activists said.

WADI KHALED, Lebanon – Using horses and mules to carry their possessions, Syrians crossed a shallow river Monday to reach safety in Lebanon with tales of a "catastrophic" scene back home: sectarian killings, gunmen carrying out execution-style slayings and the stench of decomposing bodies in the streets.

Bashar Assad has launched all-out war on his people. Tanks firing artillery, APCs, infantry units, commandoes and snipers were deployed for the first time at daybreak Monday, April 25 in cities across Syria for the most brutal assault on any Arab anti-government protest in the four-month uprising. In the first few hours, hundreds are estimated to have been massacred (over and above the 350 shot dead in the last three days) and thousands injured. Denied medical attention, they are left in the streets to die. The military offensive to break the back of the uprising is led by his younger...

US Politicians Duped By The Brotherhood In the United States, one individual maintained a pretense of "moderation" which would later embarrass the left and the right. According to the testimony of Dr. Michael Waller to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Abdurahman Alamoudi was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. A man born in Eritrea in 1951, he arrived in the US in 1979 and became a naturalized US citizen on May 23, 1996. From 1985 onwards he became involved in many Muslim groups. In 1990 he founded the Washington DC-based American Muslim Council (AMC), which Waller states "has...

Mideast: Israeli officials charge Syria with transferring ballistic missiles to the control of Iran's puppet militia, Hezbollah. It seems that another attempt to woo and appease a hostile power is not working. Last November we commented on reports in the Arab media in the Persian Gulf that Syria, apparently at the request of Iran, had turned about 300 long-range ballistic missiles over to Hezbollah control in Syrian territory. Hezbollah personnel were being trained to operate the Scuds. On Tuesday, Israeli President Shimon Peres confirmed these reports, publicly charging Syrian President Bashar Assad's government with transferring Scud missiles to the control...

Syrian President Bashar Assad's..visit was officially described as a goodwill trip to congratulate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his re-election as Iran's president. But what came out following Assad's meeting with Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was an idea for an unofficial quadripartite alliance between Syria and Iran, with Turkey and Iraq....Turkey has begun to accept the possibility that its European dreams are unlikely to materialize... Obama...appears determined to announce his Middle East peace plan next month in New York in the presence of both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas

'Come to Jerusalem to talk' was the message of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Syrian President Bashar Assad, in an historic interview to Saudi satellite station Al Arabiya, aired by Channel 10 Monday evening. In his first appearance on a major Arabic news station in over six years, Olmert, speaking in an office adorned with the blue and white Israeli flag, told his Hebrew-speaking interviewer: "Bashar Assad, you know … You know I am ready to hold direct negotiations with you and you also know that it's you who insists on speaking to the Americans. The American president says: 'I...

Support for the actions of the Dem leadership continues to flow in from America's enemies around the world.Last week, Al Qaeda's #2, Ayman al-Zawahri, said a Dem-sponsored bill calling for a troop withdrawal from Iraq was proof of America's defeat.Now, the leader of Syria's thugocracy has weighed in, defending House Speaker Nancy Pelosi [D-Ca.] against criticism of her recent tête-à-tête with him. NBC's Ann Curry has followed ABC's Diane Sawyer's footsteps to Damascus, interviewing Bashar Assad. An excerpt of the interview aired during the first half-hour of this morning's "Today." It included this exchange. NBC CORRESPONDENT ANN CURRY: The Bush...

Last Friday, Haaretz's military commentator Ze'ev Schiff accused the Barak and Sharon governments of responsibility for last summer's war. As Schiff put it, since the IDF withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000, "a threatening system [comprised of Hizbullah, Syria and Iran] arose [on Israel's northern border], which required a preemptive strike. The aversion to conducting such a strike eventually caused the war." Schiff's analysis is correct. But since it stops short of drawing lessons for the present dangers, it is largely useless. Today, due to the Olmert-Livni-Peretz government's failure in the last war, we stand at the brink of...