U.S., Britain Urge Action Against Syria

[cal04]

The U.S. and Britain jointly criticized Syria on Sunday and called for international action to be taken over a U.N. investigation that implicated Syrian officials in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice didn't discuss any specific actions that the United States might push for when the U.N. Security Council considers the investigator's report Tuesday, but said the matter ''really has to be dealt with.''

''These are very serious charges and they have to be debated at the level of foreign minister,'' Rice told British Broadcasting Corp. in an interview during a tour of her home state of Alabama with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

Straw pointed to testimony about ''false testimony being given by senior people'' in Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime. ''The report indicated that people of a high level of this Syrian regime were implicated,'' Straw said. The comments came as Syria's deputy foreign minister denied the U.N. report's statement that he threatened Hariri 13 days before the Feb. 14 assassination.

Diplomats at the United Nations and in Washington say U.S. and French officials have been talking with Russia and other nations about anti-Syria resolutions to put before the Security Council, including the possibility of punitive economic sanctions.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Lebanon-Hariri.html
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2005-10-23T130923Z_01_DIT142465_RTRUKOC_0_US-HARIRI.xml

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Call me surprised!

Did they also say the sky is blue? I mean I need to check if the sky is blue... becasue I don't believe them

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. Go for it! But send the kids of RWingers ONLY, this time.

That will stop that silly talk.

[IChing]

3. Straw pointed to testimony about ''false testimony being given by senior

" people'' :spank: :spank: :spank: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Gregorian]

4. You mean, they've already made up their minds. Now they need justification

Just another war. Just another crime for the BFEE.

[AintIgreat]

WE NEED TO DRAFT THE YOUNG REPUBLICANS AND PUT THEM ON THE FRONT LINES

No air-support nothing. Just hand to hand combat

[MarsThe Cat]

5. Here we GO!!!!!

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

[electron_blue]

6. After we already invaded?

Is anyone paying attention out there?

[tridim]

7. So the US military now works for Lebanon?

Maybe I'm simplifying things a bit too much, but shouldn't Lebanon deal with Syria?

[fooj]

8. Ok. All of you young repubs...line up behind the chickenhawks!

Time to rally around YOUR leader.

Peace.

[Gregorian]

9. Join in the fun- Guess the pr phrase.

Weapons of assasination.

Operation Syrian Liberation (By all means avoid the acronym SLA)

Action to Save Syria.

Operation Ignore what Isreal is doing to Palestine.

Shock and Save Smirks Ass.

My little Roveaway.

Lebanese Liberation (Of course.)

Don't look at Libby. Over there! Lebanon. (I doubt that one will be effective.)

Lebanon! Not Libby.

Operation Oil/Pipeline/Now justify it.

[IndianaGreen]

10. The report did nothing of the sort, Bush and his poodle want another war

in order to take our attention away from the mess in Iraq and the Plamegate indictments.

Russia has already spoken in favor of Syria.

Read the Mehlis report:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/21_10_05_mehlisreport.pdf

[malaise]

11. Will those two ever learn

maybe when both are in chains at the Hague.
Sp.

[allemand]

12. "Syria is being Set Up to Fail: A Leaked Letter from Washington"

Here is a most extraordinary letter from Syria's Ambassador in Washington Imad Mustapha to Congresswoman Sue Kelly, which has come into my possession. It explains how the American Administration has been stonewalling Syrian cooperation on a host of issues. It explains how Syria is being set up to fail so that the US can isolate it and carry out a process of regime-change at the expense of Iraqi stability and the lives of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians. It explains how the US administration's policy of forcing regime change in Syria is trumping the need to save lives in Iraq. (...)

For over a year Syria has been trying to cooperate with the West on the Iraq border, on the issue of terrorism finance, on the issue of stopping Jihadists from getting into Syria, on intelligence sharing, and on stabilizing Iraq.

Washington has consistently refused to take "Yes" as an answer. Why? The only credible reason is because Washington wants regime change in Syria. The US administration is sacrificing American soldiers in Iraq in order to carry out its program of "reforming the Greater Middle East." Two US policies are clashing head to head - the one is stabilizing Iraq and the other is the reform of the greater Middle East. President Bush is placing his democracy policy over his Iraq policy. This is costing American and Iraqi lives.

The world press has failed to get this story, although it has been staring them in the face for months. Human rights activists in Syria have documented for a long time how Syria is arresting Islamists, cracking down on Syrians who go to Iraq to fight by arresting their family members and jailing the fighters when they return from Iraq. Read Razan Zeitouneh's story about Syria's "Preemptive War" against Islamists here. The Syrian secret police have been terrorizing would be terrorists in Syria for many months now. The US has cut off all intelligence sharing with Syria despite repeated Syrian attempts to cooperate on this most important issue. Rumsfeld refused a Syria delegation of top border officials permission to meet with their Iraq and American counterparts just two months ago.

More:
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/Joshua.M.Landis-1/syriablog/2005/10/syria-is-being-set-up-to-fail-leaked.htm

[bemildred]

13. Very like our Cuba policy, if you think about it.

Or any other regimes we want "changed", but Syria
seems to be front and center right now. The thing
I find interesting about the Syria policy is that,
like in Iraq, they have no real idea what they are
going to replace Assad with, it's more a matter or
punishing the present regime, again as with Cuba,
than pursuit of any coherent, positive policy goal.
Disobedient "inferiors" must be punished, no matter
what.

[leesa]

14. "False testimony being given by senior people" Now THAT'S a hoot!

The question is why we even give two shits about the Lebanese PM. We don't, of course, and probably would have killed him ourselves if there was a benefit...or wait, was there a benefit?

These are really sick MoFos. Straw should be in jail.

[cal04]

15. Pressure mounts on Syria over Hariri murder

The US is already trying to arrange a quick, high-level UN Security Council meeting to consider a response to the inquiry.

Lebanon's Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, a prominent critic of Syria, has urged Mr Assad to cooperate with the inquiry.

UN chief Kofi Annan has already extended the probe, which suggests no strong action will be taken until it ends on December 15.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1488718.htm

US and Britain at it again. How many more and when does someone mention PNAC

[Orrin_73]

16. Here we go again

another war another tragedy.

[allemand]

17. "NSC Chief Hadley asked Italy for a Bashar Replacement"

I have it on good authority that Steven Hadley, the director of the US National Security Council, called the President of the Italian senate to asked if he had a candidate to replace Bashar al-Asad as President of Syria. The Italians were horrified. Italy is one of Syria’s biggest trading partners so it seemed a reasonable place to ask! This is what Washington has been up to.

Bashar cannot possibly do what Washington is demanding of it -- give family members to an international court. My guess is that the regime will stick together on this.

On 25 Oct, the UN will announce that Syria must cooperate or serious action will ensue. Syria will pretend to cooperate, but ultimately stonewall. Then the UN will have to place sanctions on Syria. If Europe balks at this, the US will threaten unilateral action as it did in Iraq. It will not invade, but will start small cross-border raids and perhaps strategic bombings in Syria. The threat of doing this will probably be enough to pressure Europe into going along with fairly tough sanctions. I do not think military action or the treat of military action will force Syria into regime change on its own. Syria will reach out to the West as it has been doing all along, but only too little too late. (...)

The Syrian regime will not come apart as Washington is hoping. That is what I believe. The Mehlis situation is a big transformation of US-Syrian relations and puts the two in a whole different territory. A court of law is no where to carry out diplomacy. Deals cannot be made and compromises cannot be reached once the court is assembled. And for all intents and purposes the court has been assembled. The world has been promised that the perpetrators of the Hariri murder will be punished. President Asad has not been directly implicated, but the rest of his family has been. Trying to separate him from them will require fratricide. He won't do it. He cannot do it.

More:
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/Joshua.M.Landis-1/syriablog/2005/10/nsc-chief-hadley-asked-italy-for.htm