Tues. 12 Apr. 2011

EURASIA REVIEW Syria Revolution Strikes Home: My Wife’s Cousin Lt.

Colonel Yasir Qash`ur Killed In Banyas ..by Joshua Landis....1HAARETZ

Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leader declares support for anti- Assad protests……………………………….……………….2

FOREIGN POLICY Syria's race against the clock …...By Peter Harling………....5

COUNCIL on FOREIGN RELATIONS Russia + Syria + Hizballah = Hamas …By Elliott Abrams….8

GUARDIAN If Assad falls, we will see all the region's alliances

unravel…..By Patrick Seale………………………………....9 Bahrain accuses human rights leader of faking pictures ...…12

DAILY TELEGRAPH Troops move into Syrian oil town torn by fighting ………...15

JERUSALEM POST Dominoes and Syrian winds ………………………………..17

TODAY’S ZAMAN Is the last Baath fortress finally collapsing? ..........................19

NYTIMES Syrian University Protests Violently Suppressed ………….25

INDEPENDENT No democracy should declare free speech an absolute right …27

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HOME PAGESyria Revolution Strikes Home: My Wife’s Cousin Killed In Banyas Joshua Landis,Eurasia Review,11 Apr. 2011,

The Syrian revolution struck home yesterday. My wife, Manar Qash`ur [Kachour], burst into tears last night as she read the Facebook page that has kept her updated on events in her hometown, Latakia. Lt. Colonel Yasir Qash`ur, who was Manar’s cousin and 40 years old, was shot in Banyas on Sunday. He was one of two Lt. Colonels and 10 military personnel killed – more were wounded. Yasir’s funeral was held in the village this morning – Monday. My brother-in-law, Firas, and father-in-law, Shaaban, both attended.

Yasir’s parents have a house in Manar’’s village, Beit al-Murj, where we spend summers. Yasir’s father, Ahmad Qash`ur is married to Yamna Qash`ur; they are first cousins; Yumna is the sister of my father-in-law. They live two doors down from our house in the village and are a leading family in the community. Yasir’s father, Ahmad, worked as a lawyer with the oil refinery in Banyas. Both Yasir’s brother and sister are dentists in Banyas. Their family house in the village, where they spend summers, always had the door open and tea boiling in the courtyard. Every time we drove into the village, we would stop to say hello and share a tea or would yell greetings out the window of the car as we drove by. Yasir had a great sense of humor and was easy going. He was handsome and known for his striking blue eyes and fair complexion. He married a girl from Banyas, Rudaynah, who works as a teacher in Banyas.

Manar remembers that when they were about 13 years old, Yasir was trying to learn to whistle. He was unable to make a sound despite hard work and constant effort. One night after coming home late and washing up in the bathroom, he managed to whistle. proudly, he whistled as loudly as he could. He woke every one in the house. His father came into the bathroom and slapped him for

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arousing the family from its happy sleep. Yasir’s whistling triumph was unappreciated except as village lore. The retelling always roused a hearty laugh from everyone at his expense.

Yasir has two children, Ahmad and Nur, 10 and 12 years of age. He just finished building his first apartment in Banyas after 20 years of serving in the military. He built it on top of his parents’ house. The shutters had yet to be hung; it was not painted and much of the internal trim had yet to be added. But it was enough to move in. Last summer, when Manar and the kids were in the village, Yasir’s father told Manar, “Finally Yasir has his own house. I don’t want anything else. Now I am very satisfied.”

My sons, Kendall Shaaban and Jonah (Yunis) Firas, played with his children in the village the last several summers.

My father-in-law said on the phone this morning that it seemed that supporters of ex-Vice President Khaddam, who was from Banyas, were behind the attack. It is said that they had set a trap for the military unit. All this is speculation, however. We know precious little about who is killing whom in Syria. Allegations are numerous. Real knowledge is scarce.

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Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leader declares support for anti- Assad protestsExiled Brotherhood leader Mohammad Riad Shaqfa denies allegations the Islamist movement, banned in Syria since 1980, is behind the protests, says the group is 'with the demands of the people.'Haaretz (original story is by Reuters),11 Apr. 2011,

The leader of Syria's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood declared his support for pro-democracy protesters challenging President Bashar Assad Monday, saying the harsh crackdown had further fuelled the unrest.

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In an interview with Reuters, Mohammad Riad Shaqfa said from exile in Saudi Arabia that the Brotherhood was not behind the weeks of protests in Syria but supported the demands of demonstrators for greater freedom.

Shaqfa's movement was crushed in Syria after challenging Assad's father Hafez Assad, who quashed an armed Brotherhood uprising in Hama in 1982, killing thousands. Membership remains punishable by death under a 1980 law.

"We are with the demands of the people. We do not have an organization in Syria because of the 1980 law, but we do have a large popular presence," said Shaqfa, whose movement ended an 18-month truce with Assad last year.

Vague promises of reform by the 45-year-old Assad are little more than "painkillers designed to break the consensus of the masses," the Islamist leader said. Shaqfa called for the lifting of emergency law, an end to the Baath Party monopoly on power, the release of thousands of political prisoners, free elections and freedom of speech and assembly.

The Brotherhood traces its roots to an Islamist ideology born in Egypt and is close to the Islamist movement Hamas, which is supported by Syria and Iran.

The Hamas link was key to the Brotherhood's decision to suspend opposition to the Baathist rule two years ago. Brotherhood officials said then the priority was resisting Israel rather than toppling Syria's rulers, avowed champions of Arab rights.

Civic and opposition figures inside Syria criticized the move as playing into Assad's hands, claiming he was biding his time before he struck a peace deal with Israel.

Shaqfa said the Brotherhood renewed its opposition role several months ago.

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Shaqfa denied allegations that the Brotherhood met with a senior Syrian secret police chief in Istanbul two weeks ago to strike a deal by which the movement could return to operate in Syria and the 1980 law banning membership would be repealed.

"These suggestions are baseless. The authorities had thought that killings and terror would scare the masses. The effect has been the opposite. Repression only fuelled the protests," he said.

More than 90 people have been reportedly killed by security forces, including dozens of unarmed protesters.

Unrest has spread across Syria despite Assad's attempts to defuse resentment by making gestures toward demands for an end to an emergency law and to appease minority Kurds and conservative Sunni Muslims.

Shaqfa also accused Assad of exploiting sectarian fears to remain in power and said the Brotherhood did not want Syria to become an Islamic state.

"All tyrants play the same game. They accuse their own people of serving an outside conspiracy while using violence and cunning to survive," he said.

Assad, a member of Syria's Alawite minority which comprises 10 percent of the population, has said the protests are part of a foreign conspiracy to sow sectarian strife.

Assad's father used similar language when he sent mostly Alawite forces to the city of Hama in 1982 to finish off the Muslim Brotherhood and its armed wing.

"Waving the bogey of sectarian strife will not help Bashar because the people are aware of this ploy. Syrians of all sects are taking part in the protests," Shaqfa said.

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Asked about the system the Brotherhood envisions if the tide of Arab revolutions sweeps Syria and its ruling hierarchy falls, Shaqfa said the Brotherhood is "seeking to build a civic society where citizens enjoy freedom without discrimination".

"We believe in pluralism and the ballot box. After reaching this stage we will submit a manifesto based on civic rule with Islam as a reference," he said, adding "it is then up to the people to choose."

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Syria's race against the clock Peter Harling Foreign Policy Magazine,Monday, April 11, 2011

The Syria we knew is no longer. Together with the rest of the region, it has entered an era of uncertainty and incessant flux. For now it has settled into a slow-motion revolution, as protests both fail to reach a critical mass and prod authorities to successfully respond to far-reaching demands. Two conflicting trends currently coexist. The regime has laid out a body of reforms which have the potential to win over enough popular support to ensure a peaceful way forward. But it has also failed to bring violence to an end, whether due to senseless scare tactics, well-ingrained habits of the security apparatus, possible provocations staged by the regime's many enemies (from dissident members of the ruling family to hostile parties abroad to home-grown die-hard Islamists) and the increasingly tense general atmosphere -- or a mix of all the above.

Although many view the present through the prism of the past, with memories still fresh of the ruthlessness with which the Muslim Brotherhood-led uprising of the early 1980s was crushed, it is doubtful that all-out repression today would put an end to protests that enjoy a much broader base -- even if they have taken on Islamist undertones in some places. Alternatively, quick-fixes, cosmetic changes and empty promises would only postpone an explosion.

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This leaves Syrians the choice between two perilous journeys: either radical reform or outright revolution. Neither offers easy answers to the deep-seated issues at stake, including preserving Syria's fragile secular model, addressing its severe economic predicament and maintaining its regional standing.

The authorities' initial crude and predictable response did much to push people toward the second option. The dynamics then changed somewhat after President Bashar al-Assad's speech on March 30. Anticipated as the pinnacle of a strategy blending fear of chaos, a spectacular (albeit partly orchestrated) demonstration of popular support for the regime on the streets, and a package of reforms, the address in fact was an anticlimax -- a show of self-confidence and a demoralizing flashback to the ways of yesteryear.

This flop nonetheless had a flip-side: it served as a useful eye-opener to all. On one hand, it dispelled the broadly-shared perception of Assad as a savior who somehow could side with the people against the regime. On the other hand, it convinced many regime insiders that they would have to do better than simply count on the president's popularity to magically erase the legacy of generalized mismanagement.

The regime thus appeared to adopt a more constructive approach. A variety of officials expressed their realization that deadly clashes, whoever provokes them, create more problems than they solve. They stressed dialogue as a key component of their strategy, and showed an unprecedented willingness to listen. And they figured that the pace of reforms must not only keep up with the speed at which protests spread throughout the country, but beat them in the race for public opinion. Indeed, the regime began acting much faster than announced by Assad during his speech.

And then more blood was spilled when protests picked up after prayers last Friday. Whatever positive trends were apparent lost much of their value. Striving to prove the regime's innocence --

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for example by broadcasting on live state television the misdeeds of so-called agents provocateurs that state security somehow fails to stop -- will only add insult to injury for the many Syrians who believe that authorities are at least partly to blame. Worse still, the regime may now attempt to stamp out the more Islamist strand within the protest movement, triggering a vicious cycle of violence in more parts of the country than it can control.

Even assuming violence is contained in the days to come, there are several missing ingredients to what could qualify as a positive dynamic. Authorities have spoken to the public's craving for dignity only with respect to Syria's regional interests and principles, but this was achieved at the expense of domestic issues that now need to be addressed. Dignity must also be at the heart of how this is done.

Forthcoming elections to a parliament that is viewed as shameful by the population may have to be put on hold, pending new legislation that ensures the institution is truly representative. The army of cronies singing the regime's praise in the media and plastering propaganda in the streets must be reined in. Tackling tough economic issues will take time, patience and self-sacrifice, which is hard to expect when the symbols of corruption remain untouched. Most importantly, families of the martyrs will need far more than material compensation; they will settle for nothing less than full accountability.

The regime, pressed for time and seeking to placate numerous constituencies, has yet to define a framework that could lend consistency to its various decisions, lest today's steps lay the basis for tomorrow's crises. Before raising expectations, it must ask itself how far it is genuinely prepared to go on the path to political reform. In particular, can Assad's term be renewed in 2014 through yet another landslide plebiscite? To what extent is the leadership prepared to jeopardize secularism for the sake of containing the Islamists? And what resources is it willing to spend without risking either bankruptcy or a costly dependence on foreign donors?

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Finally, the regime's efforts have been plagued by ill-communication on both sides. Authorities are struggling to identify reliable interlocutors within society even as the protesters are finding it hard to select credible interlocutors within the regime, given the depth of mistrust in its traditional representatives. Citizens currently express their deeply-felt frustrations in the most chaotic ways, and officials tend to respond in kind. There is an urgent need to base dialogue on a thorough and inclusive assessment of the specific grievances that have developed in each part of the country -- a legacy of negligence that is precisely what frustrated citizens want to see redressed above all.

Time is running out as every new casualty makes the clock tick faster. To open the space required for a radical reform agenda to take hold, the regime's top priority must be to ensure a period of relative calm. Prospects will look grim were the country to witness yet another bloody Friday.

Peter Harling is the Iraq-Syria-Lebanon project director with the International Crisis Group

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Russia + Syria + Hizballah = Hamas Posted on Monday, April 11, 2011Council on Foreign Relationsby Elliott Abrams

On April 6, Hamas terrorists fired a Russian Kornet laser-guided missile at a school bus in southern Israel. How did Hamas get such a missile?

It turns out that Russia does not license others to produce this missile; every single Kornet is manufactured in Russia at the KBP factory. The KBP web site helpfully touts all the wonderful qualities of this weapon.

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So how did Hamas get its hands on the Kornet it used to try to kill dozens of Israeli schoolchildren? Syria is the obvious guess, as Russia sells Kornets to Syria and Syria maintains close relations with Hamas and Hizballah. The United States has previously sanctioned the KBP plant for providing missiles to Syria that then reached Hizballah, as this Israeli news item notes. The only thing we don’t know is whether it was Hizballah or Syria who turned Kornets over to Hamas.

The ultimate culprit remains Russia, which is selling Syria missiles that it has every reason to know will be given to terrorist groups. Russia is of course a member of the Middle East Quartet, whose goal is supposed to be peace—not arms supplies to terrorists. If the scheduled Quartet meeting takes place this Friday, April 15, Sec. Clinton should lead off by telling Russia Foreign Minister Lavrov that this must stop. A discussion of how Russian arms get to terrorists who murder Israelis would be a great deal more useful than hours of debate over what tactics to use in the United Nations.

Meanwhile, the Asad regime’s cozy relations with terrorists groups provides yet another reason we should hope the people of Syria are successful in their efforts to rid themselves of the odious dictatorship under which they live.

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If Assad falls, we will see all the region's alliances unravel Syria's president is not the only one nervously monitoring the protests. Regime change there will reshape the Middle EastPatrick Seale,Guardian,11 Apr. 2011,

The Syrian regime, long a key player in the Middle East power play, has decided to fight back with full force. It seems determined to defeat the tidal wave of popular protest that smashed the

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regimes of Tunisia and Egypt, that is threatening rulers in Libya, Yemen and Bahrain, and is now challenging state power in a dozen Syrian cities.

If the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad fails to reassert its authority, and is instead brought down or merely enfeebled by a prolonged period of popular agitation, the geopolitical implications could be considerable. Syria's allies – the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Shia resistance movement Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Hamas government in Gaza – would all come under pressure. For all three, loss of Syrian support would be painful.

Israel would no doubt view such a development with great satisfaction. It has long sought to disrupt the Tehran-Damascus-Hezbollah-Hamas axis, which has challenged its regional supremacy – even acquiring a certain deterrent capability, intolerable in Israel's eyes. But Israel's feelings might be tempered by fear that Assad could be replaced by an Islamist regime, even more threatening to its interests and security.

For the moment, all that can be said is that the concessions and promises made so far by Assad have been too little, too late, and have failed to satisfy the protesters. The last few days have seen a renewed surge of demonstrations that, with their swelling numbers, fury and anti-regime slogans, are beginning to seem like an insurrection. The regime has replied with live fire, curfews, massive arrests and cordons thrown around towns and villages. Some 200 protesters must have been killed.

The gloves are now off. In a chilling warning, the Syrian ministry of interior declared at the weekend: "There is no more room for leniency or tolerance in enforcing the law, preserving the security of the country and citizens, and protecting public order."

By all accounts, hardliners inside the regime have now won the debate with reformers, if indeed debate there was. The protesters have in turn hardened their stance as a result of the regime's harsh response. Pointing a finger at key relatives of the president – his

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brother Maher al-Assad, commander of the Republican Guard, and his cousin Rami Makhlouf, an exorbitantly rich businessman – some are demanding not mere improvements to the way Syria is governed but a change of regime.

It seems clear that in his speech on 30 March – his only public intervention so far – the president missed a historic opportunity to assert his leadership and pull things back from the brink. Had he announced long overdue measures – such as lifting the state of emergency, freeing political prisoners and human rights activists, bringing to trial the regime's corruption bigwigs, curbing the security services' powers, allowing new political parties to challenge the Ba'th party's monopoly of the past half century – he might have been able to lead his country towards a democracy on the Turkish model, as his friend and ally Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, has advised.

He might yet save the day with a dramatic announcement of immediate reforms. But the powerful interests that depend on the regime may make such a radical change impossible. Instead, Syria may be condemned to a bruising contest between regime and opposition, fought out on the street with increasing violence. The regime's armed strength could make sure that it gained the upper hand, but at great cost to its already badly shaken legitimacy.

More broadly, the region is witnessing the unravelling of alliances formed in a critical period three decades ago that saw the Egypt-Israel peace treaty in 1979; the Iranian revolution of the same year; and Israel's devastating invasion of Lebanon in 1982, followed by its 18-year occupation of the south, which led to the emergence of Hezbollah. Having been Syria's ally in the 1973 war, Egypt changed sides and became Israel's partner in peace. Iran, Israel's ally under the shah, changed sides under the Islamic republic, becoming Syria's ally instead. Syria and Israel swapped partners.

These arrangements are now under threat. Post-Mubarak Egypt is likely to distance itself from Israel and rejoin the Arab camp,

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while Syria's alliance with Iran – unpopular with the Sunni- majority population, – could be endangered by any change of regime in Damascus. Other significant changes to the regional geopolitical map include the emergence of Turkey as a beneficent player, promoting trade and conflict resolution, and Iraq's slow recovery as a major Arab power from the devastation inflicted on it by Tony Blair, George Bush and America's pro-Israel neocons.

Are we then about to witness some reshuffling of alliances formed 30 years ago? Iraq and Iran, who fought a bitter war in the 1980s, could well draw closer now both are under Shia leadership. Together they will form a formidable power block. America's colossal investment in men and treasure in the Iraq war will seem vainer than ever.

Some things, however, could remain the same. Once the crisis abates, Turkey will continue to cultivate its friendship with Syria whatever the nature of its regime, because Syria will remain a key pivot of Turkey's ambitious Arab policy. Turkey may indeed come to replace Iran as Syria's main regional ally.

Nor is the crisis likely to reduce Syria's influence in Lebanon. No Syrian regime of any colour can tolerate a hostile government in Beirut. Its security – especially vis-a-vis Israel – is intimately tied to that of its Lebanese neighbour. The wave of protest engulfing the Arab world has pushed the Arab-Israeli conflict into second place. But that can only be temporary. Until it is resolved, the region will know no stability and little peace.

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Bahrain accuses human rights leader of faking pictures of beatingNabeel Rajab posted image on Twitter account showing bruises and gashes on man who died in custodyMark Tran,Guardian,11 Apr. 2011,

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Bahrain's most prominent human rights activist has been summoned for questioning by a military prosecutor, after being accused of tampering with photographs of a man who died in custody last week.

Nabeel Rajab, the head of the Bahrain centre for human rights was accused of posting a "fabricated image" of a detainee on his Twitter account, according to the interior ministry.

Rajab claims Ali Isa Saqer was beaten to death in custody. He told the Associated Press that the photo he posted on his Twitter account, showing Saqer's body covered with bruises and gashes, was genuine. Rajab said there is a campaign to prevent him from documenting human rights abuses in Bahrain.

"They want to do their crimes in secret," Rajab said. "I am one of the few human rights activists who has not yet been arrested and the government wants to silence me and prevent me from doing my work."

Bahrain has been cracking down on critics since the imposition of military rule last month after weeks of protests by the Shia majority – who say they are treated as second-class citizens – against the Sunni monarchy.

Human Rights Watch in New York last week called on Bahrain to release opposition activist Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja or charge him. Witnesses say Khawaja was badly beaten by riot police when they raided his daughter's home before dawn on Saturday.

Khawaja, 50, has worked for national and international human rights organisations, including the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and Front Line, a human rights group in Dublin.

"The brutal beating of rights activist Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja by police during a warrantless predawn raid adds cruelty on top of

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illegality," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "He should be released immediately."

According to Khawaja's daughter, Zainab al-Khawaja, about 15 masked men, armed and mostly in black uniforms, stormed into her fourth-floor apartment in the village of Muqsha, They seized Khawaja and two of his sons-in-law, Wafi al-Majid and Hussein Ahmed, to a third-floor landing where they beat and kicked them.

As for Rajab, the official Bahrain news agency and a newspaper close to the government accused him in September of being part of a "terrorist network" and of passing "false information" to international organisations for the purpose of "harming Bahrain's reputation. Later that month, he was prevented from travelling to Saudi Arabia. In December, Rajab's computer was confiscated as he was about to board a plane at Bahrain international airport. It was returned with the power on, indicating that information may have been downloaded or copied.

Meanwhile, Bahrain's public prosecutor has begun questioning three senior journalists sacked from the Gulf kingdom's only opposition newspaper over accusations that they falsified news about the government's treatment of protesters.

The paper, Al Wasat, was suspended on 2 April over charges that it had falsified news, but resumed publishing the next day after its editor-in-chief Mansoor al-Jamri, its British managing editor Walid Noueihed and head of local news Aqeel Mirza agreed to resign. On 4 April, two Iraqi journalists working for Al Wasat, Raheem al-Kaabi and Ali al-Sherify, were deported without trial.

Jamri, Noueihed and Mirza said they received a fax last week from the government's media arm, the information affairs authority, notifying them that they would be questioned by the public prosecutor over the alleged fabrication of news.

Jamri, who was questioned first, said he admitted to publishing six incorrect articles as accused. However, he argued that the false

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news was emailed to Al Wasat from the same IP address as part of an apparent campaign to plant disinformation.

He said this news slipped through the editing net as Al Wasat, whose printing press was attacked on 14 March and whose offices – inside the curfew zone imposed the same week – was operating on a skeleton staff.

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Troops move into Syrian oil town torn by fighting Syrian troops have moved into the oil town of Banias, in the latest effort to impose order after bitter fighting between dissidents and pro-regime militias which over the weekend claimed thirteen lives.Damien McElroy in CairoDaily Telegraph,11 Apr. 2011,

The military crackdown began early on Monday after more than 2,000 people defied a security cordon to attend the funeral of four people killed when a pro-government gunmen opened fire on a mosque occupied by protesters on Sunday.

The shooting set off a series of tit-for-tat attacks, and nine soldiers were killed in an ambush.

Protesters said authorities had responded to the funeral march by sealing off roads leading to Banias and shutting down large parts of the town.

"Electricity has been cut since yesterday. People are very afraid," said Anas al-Shughri, one of the protest leaders.

Nevertheless, some residents of the town seemed to welcome the army's presence, hoping it would provide some respite from attacks by the Shabiha, an underground organised crime cartel alleged to have ties with the regime.

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"The troops just came into the city to say they are with the people, not against them," a local resident said.

Shabiha gangs are reported to have been used to attack protesters in several cities, as the authorities have fought to suppress pro-democracy protests challenging the regime of Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president.

Human rights groups say more than 170 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in three weeks of protests against the ruling Ba'ath party. President al-Assad promised reforms last week, but it did little to still the protests.

Mourners in Banias chanted "Death is better than humiliation."

Elsewhere demonstrators have demolished statues of the Assad family and rallied behind the slogan, "God, Freedom and Syria, only."

Foreign Secretary William Hague, who visited Syria earlier this year, said Mr Assad must respect rights to demand change.

"We call upon the Syrian government to respect the right for free speech and peaceful protest," he said.

Mr Hague also called on Syria to put in place "meaningful reform, which is the only legitimate response to the demands from the Syrian people."

President Assad, however, has dismissed the protests as a foreign directed plot to ignite sectarian strife. Although Syria has a Sunni majority, the Assads are members of the Alawite sect, a Shia sect. Syria is one of the few countries in the Middle East where Christians live on equal terms with Muslims.

President Hafez al-Assad, Mr al-Assad's father and predecessor in office, brutally crushed leftist and Islamic revolts against his rule

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in the 1980s, killing thousands, but continues to have the support of many in Syria who see the regime as a defender of secularism.

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Dominoes and Syrian winds When the ground is ready to burn, a small spark might be enough to start a fire.Nir T. Boms,Jerusalem Post,11 Apr. 2011,

Dominoes, the game presented to Chinese emperor Hui Tsung in the 12th century, traveled slowly before it finally reached the Middle East. These days, however, it appears to be the game of the hour – starting in Tunisia and Egypt, cascading through Yemen, Libya and Bahrain, and now in Syria.

The Middle East’s reality, however, is not a game, but a struggle for survival. Like the old emperors of China, the remaining old guards – the voices of the past – are desperately fighting against their own people, who seek a different future. And the voices of the past appear clearly aligned. It was Syrian Air Force pilots who were flying some of the MiG fighter jets ordered to attack rebel-held towns in Libya. An official Syrian funeral for one of them, killed fulfilling his “duty,” took place in Damascus against the backdrop of the anti-Syrian demonstration there. Turkey recently stopped two Iranian planes for “routine inspection,” only to find rocket launchers, mortars and automatic rifles intended to rearm Assad’s security forces and his Hezbollah allies in Lebanon. Assad, according to opposition sources, has approved the deployment of hundreds of fighters to Libya, as well as air and anti-tank munitions to Gaddafi. There were reports that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has been seen working alongside the Syrian military to curtail the demonstrations. The Iranian assistance might have contributed to the increasing brutality of the Syrian security forces who managed to kill 50 more demonstrators this last weekend. But it did not stop the masses, about 500,000 of whom marched in about nine Syrian cities this past weekend.

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Over 200 people were killed and dozens wounded in a wave of demonstrations that began in the southern Syrian city of Deraa. Although Assad was quick to blame “foreign conspiracy,” it appears that his real enemies are loyal Syrians, including women and children like Mundhir Masalmi, an 11-year-old child who died in Deraa as a result of gas poisoning, or Moaamin Massalmeh, 14, who was shot there. Pictures and cellphone videos show brutal use of force that includes snipers and gas. One film shows a demonstrator shot in the leg, captured and later beaten by some 50 security guards. Another shows bodies on the floor with no medical help in sight. Syrian security forces did not even spare mosques in their pursuit of demonstrators.

Although Deraa was the focal point, other cities in Syria have recently joined the fracas, including Aleppo, Homs, Jassem, Latakia and Banias, where demonstrators shouted, “Down with Bashar.”

In Duma, a suburb of Damascus, police fired on about 20,000 people gathered in a major square chanting “freedom.” Demonstrators also gathered opposite the Interior Ministry building, demanding the release of political prisoners. Thousands of such prisoners are held in Syria, and more have been added during these latest demonstrations. Tal Mallohi might be the youngest one, arrested at 7 for blogging on human equality.

Hoping to ease tensions, Assad dismissed his government and indicated his readiness to lift the state of emergency that has been in place since 1963. But to the Syrian opposition, it will not be enough. “Deraa is Syria,” chanted protesters next to the Omayyed Mosque in the center of Damascus.

AS IN other places in the region, this was another affirmation that when the ground is ready to burn, a small spark might be enough to start a fire.

“It is not about dominoes,” Bassam Bitar, a former Syrian official who has been active in the opposition for over a decade, told me

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last week. The opposition planted the seeds for this moment and dreamt for years about this chance. Speaking from Damascus, Yassir tells me about tribal and civic society leaders who have mobilized to act. “Please tell our story,” he asks, knowing that some Western attention will help put some wind in the sails of hope of those who face an uneasy struggle against the gunships of gas and fear.

While Gaddafi, Ahmadinejad and Assad continue to cling to the past, Libyans, Iranians and Syrians are among those willing to risk their lives in the hope of a different future. Following years in which brutal violations of human rights received little more than Western lip service, the expulsion of Libya from the UN’s Human Rights Council and the intervention in Ivory Coast serves as an important precedent. Human rights may yet be taken seriously – but not if world leaders choose to remain silent as they have, starting with President Barack Obama, in the case of Syria. We should not underestimate the importance of words that carry the potential to add some wind to the sails of hope of those marching in Tehran, Sanaa, Manama, Tripoli and Damascus. Many have already lost their lives because dictators were given a free pass to brazenly disregard the rights and lives of citizens. The world should stand with the people of Syria and support their calls for freedom – and the US should be the first to speak out.

Dominoes sometimes need a push.

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Is the last Baath fortress finally collapsing? by Hajrudin Somun* Today's Zaman, 12 April 2011, Tuesday I will leave the political aspect of the ongoing uncertain developments in Syria to my colleagues, analysts who on these same pages of Today’s Zaman express their more or less pessimistic expectations.

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Among the more pessimistic is Do?u Ergil, who says Syria, in the event of regime change, “may go up in flames, lighting up the Middle East as well.” Among the less pessimistic, Oytun Orhan says the “possibility that the demonstrations result in a change of government is quite weak.” Instead, I have something to tell you that only alludes to these developments.

These days I tell my friends that if the Syrians had not joined other uprisings in the Arab world, I might die not disclosing a story I have been keeping for decades in my scattered notes, but mostly in my mind. It is about Syria’s ruling Baath Party and it deserves to be told, regardless of how long the party’s last musketeer, Bashar al-Assad, will stay in power.

He might endure a bit longer, but his chair is already shaking, particularly after demonstrators in the town of Deraa brought down a large statue of his father, Hafez al-Assad. I know how it is when they start with fathers. It just so happened that I was among the masses of Iranian protesters in Teheran in 1978 when the most courageous of them climbed onto a high pedestal, wrapped a cable around the huge statue of Reza Shah Pahlavi and brought it down, followed by a big thud and frenetic cheering. At that very moment his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was still in the Niavaran Palace, not aware that he would soon cease to be shahanshah, the emperor of emperors.

To my deep regret as a human, but good fortune as a journalist and diplomat, I have been witness to the many deeds and misdeeds of the Party of the Arab Renaissance. Meaning a renaissance and regeneration, but a resurrection as well, Baath has been ruling Iraq and Syria for two years short of half a century.

The ideological roots of Baath I started to reflect on the ideological roots Baath had been fed on very early, after an event that was etched into my memory. Baath came to power in Iraq for the first time in February 1963, through a military coup against Gen. Abd al-Karim Qasim, the country’s

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first president. It was called the “Ramadan 14 Revolution” because the month of fasting that year fell in those February days, though the Baathists were not very keen on fasting. Specializing in the Arabic language and literature at Baghdad University at the time, I was called to the Yugoslav Embassy to listen to the radio and translate the statements and orders of the new government. One instruction said an “ibadah” had to be carried out against all those who resist the so-called revolution. I was sure the word could have no relation to “ibadah,” meaning “worship” and pronounced with the guttural Arab sound “ayn.”

Not having a dictionary with me, I called an Iraqi friend, who explained that the term means annihilation, rooting out or simply liquidation. It was too much to be swallowed easily because others who did similar things, as was the case with the Nazi persecution of the Jews, did not call it by its real name. I became convinced of the meaning of “ibadah” after watching how men from the Baath Party liquidated their adversaries on the streets of Baghdad.

Searching further for ideological grounds of Baath’s policy, I was indirectly helped by Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, certainly the greatest Arab journalist of the 20th century, one of 14 people Gamal Abdel Nasser informed in advance about his decision to nationalize the Suez Canal. He was greatly amazed by a discovery he made during a visit to the Egyptian Embassy in Rome a few decades ago and later described it in his regular Friday commentary on a full page of the Al-Ahram daily. In the embassy’s old library, he opened an expensively bound but also dusty book of Benito Mussolini’s speeches. Hastily turning over its pages, and knowing some Italian, he found some thoughts very familiar to something he saw earlier. He noted them down and, upon returning to Cairo, opened Baath ideologist Michel Aflaq’s book. He easily found there the same thoughts, almost literally transcribed from that book of Mussolini, the Italian fascist leader.

I was still wondering how Mussolini’s book made it into the Egyptian Embassy in Rome when, after more than 20 years, the Italian ambassador in Kuala Lumpur told me what happened.

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There was, he said, the Villa Savoya of the last Italian king, Vittorio Emanuele III, who invited Mussolini in July 1943 to resign and stay in his residence. Duce, as Italians liked to call their dictator, was soon arrested, killed and hanged at Piazzale Loreto in Milan. And King Emanuele III, known for his short stature and fear of everything, got asylum in Egypt after a plebiscite in support of a republic in Italy in 1946. Before his abdication, he gave his Rome Villa Savoya, together with some old furniture and the library, as a gift to the Egyptian Embassy.

Regarding Heikal, he is still alive and just recently, in his late 80s, spoke on Egyptian TV about the uprising in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. I was glad about the discovery he made in the Egyptian Embassy because I already had presumptions about Baath’s theoretical and practical contiguity with Italian fascism and German national-socialism. There were few who made such an analogy, and even when someone did, such as George Kerevan, it was only in the frame of sympathies Arab nationalists had for Hitler and Mussolini before World War II. The most mentioned example in that regard was the coup Iraqi nationalist Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, helped by the German intelligence, carried out in 1941 in Baghdad, which British troops occupied a few months later.

Soon after World War II, Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar established the Baath Party. The first was the ideologist, the second a politician of practice. The first a Syrian Christian, the second a Muslim. However, the faith and the sect -- when later the Baath leadership in Damascus became mostly Alawite, and Sunni in Baghdad -- was not important for them because they were propagating a secular, almost Marxist attitude toward religion. They were, at the same time, wild anti-communists. Studying the French Revolution at the Sorbonne and witnessing the rise of European nationalism, Aflaq and al-Bitar wanted to apply those ideas to the Arab world. Similar to the Nazis in Germany, Baath formed secret party cells in almost all Arab countries, but succeeded to come to power only in Iraq and Syria. Once they settled in, Baathists could only be moved by force. The Americans did it in Iraq, and we have yet to see what will happen in Syria. In

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the beginning, Baath entered in alliances with other pan-Arab movements, and even with Egypt’s Nasser.

Baath’s main slogan is “Unity, freedom, socialism!” Many times I listened as the masses shouted “Wahda, hurriyya, ishtirakiyya!” but at the same time shuddered while thinking about what might lie under that slogan. Under the rule of that controversial Arab movement Iraq saw its largest economic development and rise in the standard of living, but also the most brutal dictatorship in its history. In both Iraq and Syria there was much racism, ethnic cleansing and cruelty in dealing with opponents. Ahead the Iran-Iraq war of 1980, all Iraqis of Iranian origin were expelled from the country. Modern Arab history also remembers the Hama massacre of 1982 in which the Syrian army killed at least 10,000 Sunni Muslims in that alleged Muslim Brotherhood stronghold. In the Halabja massacre of 1988, at least 5,000 people, most of them Kurds, met immediate death from poison gas scattered over the place by Iraqi planes.

Saddam’s own metamorphosis Whatever else was done by Saddam Hussein is well known, but it would be worthy to throw a glance at changes to the Iraqi flag before, during and after Baath rule. It shows Saddam’s own metamorphosis as well. A green, white, black field, which symbolizes the Arab revolt, there were always stars, but with different meaning. During the monarchy (1921-1958) there were two stars, one for the Arabs and the other for the Kurds. In the five years of Gen. Qasim’s rule the flag contained a Sumerian sun, drawn by the artist Jawad Salim. When Baath came to power in 1963, it introduced three stars, symbolizing a union between Iraq, Syria and Egypt. When it became obvious that such a union would never become reality, it was officially announced that the three stars on the flag denote “union, freedom and socialism.”

In fact, Saddam ordered this because it was not meaningful to remove one star representing Syria, but it couldn’t be kept either because the two Baath wings, one in Baghdad and the other in

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Damascus, split. The rift was so deep that both “national party commands” condemned each other to death.

When Saddam Hussein, afraid that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s revolution of 1979 might flow over the Tigris and Euphrates, started to pray, at least publicly, he ordered that the phrase “Allahu akbar” be added between the stars. The phrase was written in his own rough handwriting. After his fall, that “God is great” was left, but printed in the Kufi style of Arabic calligraphy.

Perhaps the founders of the Baath Party had good intentions in wanting to apply Western standards to the Arab world’s modernization. However, they chose the wrong models and disregarded conditions in the Middle East. They also neglected the role of religion in their societies. The last of the Baathist leaders, Bashar al-Assad, tried to slightly correct this practice of his predecessors and will hopefully not repeat what his father did in Hama. Such contemplation will lead us too far, but I can’t restrain myself from saying that the father-son succession as well as internal animosities once a party comes to power show by themselves how Baath, perhaps more than other Middle Eastern national movements, was not able to renounce the wrongs of its own history and tradition.

I found in Amin Maalouf’s book “The Crusades Through Arab Eyes” that the famous Salahuddin Ayyubi, better known as Saladin, was astonished that Muslims were fighting more fiercely among themselves than against the crusaders. And it happened that exactly nine centuries ago, in 1111, the qadi of Aleppo, Ibn al-Hashab, organized a rebellion against the caliph in Baghdad. He was killed later by the Assassins at the historic Citadel of Aleppo.

What will happen with the last Baath citadel in Damascus?

*Hajrudin Somun is the former ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Turkey and a lecturer of the history of diplomacy at Philip Noel-Baker International University in Sarajevo.

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Syrian University Protests Violently Suppressed By KATHERINE ZOEPFNYTIMES,11 Apr. 2011,

Pro-democracy protests in Syria spread for the first time to a university campus and were violently suppressed on Monday, a day after the government of President Bashar al-Assad acknowledged that it was using force against protesters.

The admission came in a statement from Syria’s Interior Ministry that was published Sunday by SANA, Syria’s official news agency.

Human rights advocates say nearly 200 protesters have been killed since demonstrations began against Mr. Assad’s authoritarian government in mid-March. Until the new statement, the Assad government had insisted that the deaths were caused by foreign infiltrators bent on destabilizing Syria.

“In recent weeks, groups of citizens gathered in demonstrations in several areas in Syria, particularly on Fridays, making a number of demands that were met with immediate response from the leadership,” the statement said.

Certain “spiteful individuals,” the statement continued, nevertheless burned government buildings, killed or wounded state security officers, and tried to sow distrust.

“The Syrian authorities, in order to preserve the security of the country, citizens and the governmental and services establishments, will confront these people and those behind them according to the law,” the statement read. “The Ministry of Interior affirms that there is no more room for leniency or

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tolerance in enforcing law, preserving security of country and citizens and protecting general order.”

Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian human rights activist who is a visiting scholar at George Washington University, said that the statement was an attempt to further intimidate protesters. Besides the protesters who have died, about 800 have been detained, according to figures compiled by him and other activists.

“I think the main reason behind this statement is to say that we are right now serious and we will not allow for any more protests in the street,” Mr. Ziadeh said in a telephone interview.

The protests began March 15 after a group of schoolboys were arrested for writing antigovernment graffiti. As they have spread to dozens of communities across Syria and become more violent, it has become more difficult for the government to maintain that the deaths of protesters were the work of foreign saboteurs trying to spread terror.

“The Syrian people are sensitive,” Mr. Ziadeh continued. “They don’t believe the conspiracy story anymore.”

Though the Monday protests at Damascus University’s science campus were relatively small, with student demonstrators numbering a few hundred, the fact that the movement has spread to a university campus is highly significant, Mr. Ziadeh said.

“Damascus University has more than 75,000 students, and this could spread quickly,” Mr. Ziadeh said. Witnesses at the university said that one student was killed as the protests were dispelled, but that could not be independently confirmed. “That’s why they have to react very forcefully. They have to send a message.” Meanwhile, four protesters who were killed on Sunday in demonstrations in the Syrian port town of Baniyas were buried Monday.

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George Jabbour, a former Syrian parliamentarian, said that he, like many Syrians, hoped that Mr. Assad’s appointment of a new parliament, expected shortly, would help to calm the protests.

“The government is working towards reform as seriously as it can,” Mr. Jabbour said. “I have no idea who is causing this bloodshed — I have not made up my mind.” He added, “But I hope that the new government will be in harmony of the thinking of the protesters and that things will go more peacefully.”

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No democracy should declare free speech an absolute right Should those people who set out to provoke unrest and anger – such as those who burn the Koran – be allowed to do so with impunity?Yasmin Alibhai-Brown,Independent,Monday, 11 April 2011

Too many states use brute force to quell and gag their people. In our western democracies, governments withhold information, stop legitimate protest, control speech and even thought. All wrong, must be resisted, agreed. Most of us, though, will not speak with one voice on the burning of the Koran by Sion Owens, a BNP candidate for the Welsh assembly. And what about the website that sells cheeky Jihadi, al-Qa'ida baby T-shirts and maternity clothes? Tory MP Robert Halfon is apoplectic and wants the site closed down. Are you with or against him? Do we teach children that words can wound or that their entitlement to speak trumps everything else?

Freedom of speech is endlessly discombobulating and testing. In the unspoiled meadows of ideals or unbound skies of philosophical postulations, it is easy to be unequivocal. Some in the real world, too, are enviable absolutists who believe the slightest tremor of concern is a concession and invitation to authoritarianism. Their God is Voltaire, who decreed that even

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when one hates what is being said by somebody, one must "fight to the death" for the right of that person to hold forth. (Noble rhetoric. Correct me if I am wrong, but I can't think of a single such martyr).

A protracted and violent struggle against mental tyranny was fought by Europeans and today in the Arab lands citizens are inspired by the same emancipatory, human impulses. However, Voltaire's spiritual children can be fundamentalist, thoughtless and irrational, blind and deaf, unresponsive to the complexities of modern life, of individual and group psychology, inequality and power. Freedom of expression is not black and white, but a thousand shades of grey. Its meaning and practice need to be unpacked. Each situation demands exhaustive and exhausting analysis before informed positions can be arrived at.

I was on a panel at the Oxford Literary Festival last week trying to do just that with journalist David Aaronovitch in the chair, and John Kampfner, chief executive of Index Against Censorship, and the blogger Guido Fawkes, who has (inexplicably) become an unaccountable and scary political force. For Fawkes anything goes. Easy, though not for those he picks on. Kampfner is an indefatigable campaigner against legal and official curtailments, the use of money by the rich to enforce censorship through the courts and unjust control. I agree with him most of the time.

When the powerful come down heavy on citizens or communities and vigilantes do the same, they must be resisted. It is intolerable that artists are inhibited, imprisoned or killed as just was Juliano Mer-Khamis, the exceptional Jewish, Israeli- Palestinian actor and founder of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin. Members of Hamas are allegedly behind this barbarism. And here our very own local religious hoodlums have threatened to kill Usama Hasan, a lecturer and London imam, because he refuses to reject evolution.

Come away from dramatic confrontations and the law to more intractable conflicts. Then it gets awfully complicated. The web is a wonderful liberator but also a nameless, shameless sniper.

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Professional blogger Lorraine Van Fossen rightly warns that when people express anything and everything, "... there are consequences, the right to react, that other freedom." That other freedom – disrespected by most libertarians. Saul Bellow complained much about the closing down of public discussion in the US: "We can't open our mouths without being denounced as racists, misogynists, supremacists, imperialists or fascists." He blamed the media. But those respondents were exercising their right to react, through verbal means. As I do, to the fury of many who would say they are righteous free speechers.

Frankie Boyle will, I expect, feel put upon by Ofcom, which lightly slapped his wrist for grotesque TV "jokes" about the disabled son of Katie Price. The FA is deciding what to do with Wayne Rooney, who swore horridly on TV. The footballer – who has apologised – must be crying into his champagne. I hope he gets his comeuppance. The public space is shared and most people watch what they say to make it less fraught and more liveable. We stop ourselves and our kids from saying rude and nasty things because we understand there have to be some social constraints on speech. And if you don't watch your mouth, you have to take what follows.

In 1919, the US Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes decreed that the only limits to freedom of speech were words that activate immediate danger, like a man shouting "fire!" in a crowded theatre. But what about when individuals set out calculatedly to provoke unrest and anger, which then happens? Like the burning of the Koran. Of course the offended should not rage and die for it – but that was the intention. The inciters are surely as culpable as the man in the theatre. They raise hatred, which eventually leads to violence. Jewish people, Tutsis, Bosnian Muslims, and millions of others were slain easily because words had taken away their humanity. The right-wing press has so demonised asylum seekers that today the UK Borders Agency presumes all applicants are liars unless they can prove otherwise. Words have institutionalised a grave injustice.

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Young people bullying others through social network sites don't want the victims to try kill themselves, but many do. It is not immediate, but still evil. Internet abusers never have to pay for the breakages they cause. Kierkegaard worried that newspapers, "a dreadful, disproportionate means of communication", could send "any error into circulation with no thought of responsibility." How much more wanton is new technology. Those protecting the wild web from "regulation" should attend to the severe restrictions on free speech imposed by libel laws, confidentiality agreements, injunctions, and litigious individuals. We are not as free as we think, and to argue as if we are is disingenuous.

Another thing to consider is that most of us are biased. We want some words to be free, and others not. Will the Koran burner be backed by libertarians, atheists and Muslim bashers? Or will he face the same opprobrium as those Muslims who burnt Salman Rushdie's book? I await Fay Weldon and Ian McEwan's beautifully expressed outrage.

Buddha said: "The wise fashion speech with their thought, sifting it as a grain is sifted through a sieve." We need to be wise to use and preserve our precious freedoms. Sadly, we are not wise.

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The Associated Press: 'Freedom of expression: Egyptian Military Court Sentences Blogger To 3 Years'..

LATIMES: 'Free speech and burning Korans'..

Washington Times: 'When Muslims burn Korans'..

Haaretz: 'U.S. postpones Quartet meet on Israel-Palestinian peace talks'..

Haaretz: 'Israel urges Europe to stop 'Freedom Flotilla 2' from sailing to Gaza'..

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Haaretz: 'Haaretz WikiLeaks exclusive / 'Egypt (in 2005) still views Israel as the enemy''.. NYTIMES: 'Outside Pressure on Syria Grows, 1 Dies in Protest'..

Yedioth Ahronoth: ‘Poll: 51% in US oppose unilateral creation of Palestinian state’..

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