46% Of Israel's Jewish Citizens Support Ethnic Cleansing Of Palestinians:

Some 46 percent of Israel's Jewish citizens favor transferring Palestinians out of the territories, while 31 percent favor transferring Israeli Arabs out of the country- poll finds
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10522.htm

Is Israel planning Iran strike? :

Sharon presented Bush with satellite photos, said Israel would not wait forever before attacking
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10515.htm

U.S., Israel discuss Syria regime change – Report :

Senior American officials discussed with Israeli counterparts the prospects of a regime change in Syria and possible successors to President Bashar al-Assad, an Israeli newspaper reported
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10516.htm

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/632100.html

Top PLO official Farouk Kaddoumi ,right, and Hamas chief Khaled Mash'al holding a press conference in Damascus on Tuesday. (AP)


Hamas leader Khaled Meshal rejects Rice call to disarm

By Haaretz Service and Reuters

Senior Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, rejecting a strong call by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for the disarming of the powerful Islamic fundamentalist organization, declared that Hamas has the right to simultaneously pursue a policy of armed attacks against Israel and participation in Palestinian Authority elections.

Rice, going beyond past U.S. statements on the issue, said Friday that Hamas cannot remain an armed organization and also participate in the PA political process.

"Hamas is a terror organization and it has to be disbanded, both for the sake of peace and security in the Middle East and for the sake of the proper functioning of the Palestinian Authority. After all, under the road map, the Palestinian Authority has undertaken to disband militias and armed resistance groups," Rice said in an address.




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"Hamas," she continued, "stands for a one-state solution, not a two-state solution. Hamas therefore stands for the destruction of Israel. Hamas is an organization that asks Palestinian mothers and fathers to give their children up to make themselves suicide bombers. And it is a real detriment and block to further peace in the Middle East."

But Meshal, speaking at a joint news conference with hardline PLO leader Farouk Kaddoumi, said, "So long as our land is occupied it is the right of the Palestinian people and their factions to combine resistance and political activities. Resistance and its arms are directed against the occupation while political activity is part of re-arranging the Palestinian home."

Meshal and Kaddoumi took leading roles in a meeting of Palestinian factions including rivals Fatah and Hamas, which pledged on Tuesday to refrain from violence in settling Palestinian problems after a firefight between Hamas activists and Palestinian police left three dead.




According to Rice, "There are periods of time of transition in which one has to give some space to the participants, in this case the Palestinians, to begin to come to a new national compact. But I cannot imagine, in the final analysis, a new national compact that leaves an armed resistance group within the political space. You cannot simultaneously keep an option open on politics and an option on violence. There simply isn't a case that I can think of internationally where that's been permitted to happen."

The U.S. administration had previously avoided taking a clear stand against Hamas' participation in the PLC elections, giving rise to speculation that the U.S. had softened its stand on the organization; and Rice had other U.S. officials had been critical of Sharon's statements that Israel would disrupt elections in the West Bank if Hamas took part.

Comparing the situation with Northern Ireland, Rice noted, "In the Good Friday Agreement, it was understood that when Sinn Fein came into politics, eventually the IRA would disarm, and perhaps, hopefully, that process is now underway."

With regard to Afghanistan she said, "We did not permit the Afghan warlords to keep their weapons and participate as candidates in politics."

According to Rice, "It is absolutely the case that you cannot have armed groups ultimately participating in politics with no expectation that they're going to disarm.



Sharon brought up the matter of Hamas and the Palestinian elections with the new U.S. Ambassador, Dick Jones, in a get-acquainted meeting Thursday in Jerusalem. After the meeting, officials said they were under the impression that the United States opposed Hamas' participation in the elections.

Former minister Natan Sharansky met in Washington last week Rice, telling her that he was concerned that shoring up Abbas would be at the expense of internal freedom in the Palestinian Authority.

European Union officials dealing with the Middle East last week also discussed Hamas' participation in the PLC elections. No decisions were made, and France said the Palestinians had to decide for themselves whether Hamas should be in the government, and there should be no interference. Great Britain proposed that Abbas present "entry requirements" for Hamas.




Farouk Kaddoumi, a leader of Fatah -- the ruling faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the exiled leaders of Palestinian groups agreed in Damascus that dialogue should be the only way to solve their disputes.

Listing the decisions of their meetings, Kaddoumi said the leaders agreed to "call all Palestinian powers and factions to ban the use of weapons to solve internal differences."

Kaddoumi said the leaders also agreed to "refrain from all forms political and media provocations that can harm the interests of our people and their national unity".

Hamas politburo chief Meshal said "we refuse any inclination towards internal feuding because our fixed national principles set Palestinian blood as a taboo," he told reporters after the meeting that also comprised less senior leaders of key factions -- the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

On Sunday, a Palestinian police commander and two civilian bystanders were killed in firefights between policemen and Hamas gunmen. Fifty people were wounded when militants tried to storm a police station shortly afterwards, police said.

Palestinian police said Sunday's fighting began when a Gaza police patrol pulled over a carload of Hamas gunmen who were flouting a new ban on the public display of weapons agreed to by political leaders of the various militant factions.

Hamas has said the militants fought police on Sunday "solely in self-defense" and they also acted to protect homes of Hamas political leaders that came under gunfire from policemen.

Palestinian policemen stormed into Gaza's parliament building on Monday to demand a crackdown on militants, and deputies called on Abbas to sack the cabinet for failing to
stamp out chaos in the streets.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0401410_pf.html


washingtonpost.com
Talking Points Aside, Bush Stance on Palestinian State Is Not a First

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 5, 2005; A18



As Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes traveled through the Middle East last week seeking to burnish the U.S. image, one of her key talking points was that President Bush is the first president to call for a Palestinian state.

"The person I work for, President Bush, is the first president in the history of America to say we believe the Palestinians should have a state, living side by side in peace with Israel," Hughes told al-Jazeera satellite television. She repeated the statement two more times in the five-minute interview.

Hughes, a former White House official, told reporters traveling with her that she remembered intense administration debates at the time "about what a significant step this would be for United States policy" if he supported a Palestinian state.

But, oddly, when Bush announced in 2001 that he supported a Palestinian state, administration officials rushed to say that he was simply following a policy articulated by his predecessor, Bill Clinton. In fact, news reports at the time said Bush was merely the first Republican president to support an independent state for the Palestinians.

Bush first publicly called for a Palestinian state in October 2001, during a meeting with congressional leaders, saying that "the idea of a Palestinian state has always been part of a vision, so long as the right to Israel to exist is respected."

Then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell quickly told reporters there was "nothing new" about Bush's remarks.

"As the president said this morning, there has always been a vision in our thinking, as well as in previous administrations' thinking, that there would be a Palestinian state that would exist at the same time that the security of the state of Israel was also recognized, guaranteed and accepted by all parties," Powell said. "That vision is alive and well, and we hope that it will come about as a result of negotiations between the two sides. So, in that regard, there is nothing new."

After the president spoke, then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer also played down the notion that Bush was breaking new ground. "It's always been contemplated for the Middle East that a Palestinian state is part of that vision," he told reporters.

The president formally reiterated the idea in a speech before the U.N. General Assembly a month later, on Nov. 10, 2001, saying, "We are working toward the day when two states -- Israel and Palestine -- live peacefully together within secure and recognized borders." But Bush's statement attracted little notice in the U.S. news media at the time.

That is because Clinton already laid the groundwork in the last months of his presidency by trying to achieve a peace deal that would have resulted in a Palestinian state. In a speech on Jan. 7, 2001, two weeks before he left office, Clinton said he believed the conflict could not be resolved without creating "a sovereign, viable Palestinian state."

Clinton outlined the possible concessions each side could make, known today as the "Clinton parameters." For Palestinians, he said, a peace deal would mean "an independent and sovereign state with al Quds [East Jerusalem] as its capital, recognized by all. And for America, it means that we could have new flags flying over new embassies in both these capitals."

Challenged by reporters to explain the difference between the comments by Bush and Clinton, Hughes said: "President George W. Bush is the first president to make it a matter of United States policy that we support two states living side by side in peace and freedom" -- an important nuance that was left out of her repeated statements on her Middle East tour.

Shibley Telhami, a Middle East expert at the University of Maryland, agrees that Bush formally made creating a Palestinian state the goal of U.S. policy, largely to appeal to the Muslim world at a time when the United States had attacked Afghanistan.

The Clinton administration had been careful to say it would not prejudge "final status" issues, which included the establishment of a state. But the concept was not so radical by the time Bush assumed the presidency.

"Everyone assumed [the Clinton peace negotiations] would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state," Telhami said. "The U.S., in effect, was working on what would be a Palestinian state, but the articulated policy was less than a Palestinian state."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1091

Al Qaeda in Sinai Has Advanced to Striking Range of the Suez Canal, Israel and Jordan

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

October 3, 2005, 10:18 AM (GMT+02:00)



The emphatic advisory to Israeli travelers to stay clear of their favorite Sinai resorts for this year’s High Holidays reflects incoming intelligence on the broadening threat posed by al Qaeda today. Since the Taba attacks exactly a year ago, the Islamist terrorist organization has planted a daunting infrastructure amid the inaccessible peaks of the strategic desert peninsula. Egyptian attempts to access their strongholds have been thrown back.

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report the following developments.

Al Qaeda has established local terror networks in northern Sinai – centering on el Arish, as well as strongholds in the inaccessible central mountains of the peninsula around Jebel Hillal. In all, the jihadists control roughly one-fifth of Sinai total area (61,000sq. km or 23,500sq. miles). Egyptian forces of law and order have learned not to venture into these bastions or into the areas commanded by age-old smuggler clans who currently collaborate with al Qaeda. This leaves about half of the forbidding desert peninsula inaccessible to Egyptian security forces. Today, they can only claim to control the main roads routes fringing the vast desert expanse: from Ras Sudeir down to Sharm el Sheikh along the Suez Canal and Suez Gulf shores; from the Suez Canal east to El Arish along the Mediterranean shore and from the Sharm el-Sheikh resort center north along the Gulf of Aqaba to Taba and the Israeli port of Eilat.

The spectacular, biblical landscape conceals terrorist bomb traps and roadside devices. Gunmen armed with RPG and anti-tank weapons lurk behind huge rocks in wait for any Egyptian police or security unit daring to step off a main road into one of the dry valleys dissecting the forbidding peaks.

The danger increases with the altitude. Al Qaeda has joined up with rebellious Bedouin and Palestinians to recreate the Tora Bora of Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden’s fighters fought US and Afghan forces in November 2001.

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources describe al Qaeda’s Sinai 2005 bastion as better fortified than the original Tora Bora. It is peopled with more fighters and is even more impregnable. The paths leading up to peaks – some as tall as 7,500 ft - are barricaded by huge rocks under which explosive snares are concealed. Attempts to move the rocks would set off explosions and start an avalanche. Interspersed among the natural barriers are bomb traps and anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. The caves perforating the slopes are firing positions - some armed with mortars and heavy machine guns.

The Egyptian have tried large-scale assaults on the al Qaeda mountain fastnesses and failed. They were forced to retreat with heavy casualties.

According to DEBKAfile’s military experts, the only way for Egypt to wrest mastery of the Sinai heartland from the terrorists is by a combined aerial bombardment coupled with helicopter landings of at least two special forces brigades.

This in present circumstances is not feasible because -

1. The 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty demilitarizing Sinai precludes Egyptian air force operations. In theory, Cairo can approach Jerusalem for permission, but in practice this would expose the Mubarak government to widespread Muslim opprobrium for collaborating with the Jewish state in the war against Islamic terror.

2. Egyptian intelligence does not have an exact count of the anti-air missiles in al Qaeda’s hands. The passage of a quantity of these weapons from Sinai to the Gaza Strip leads Egyptian intelligence to deduce a fairly sizeable number – enough to cause havoc with a helicopter commando drop.

3. Al Qaeda’s smuggling routes crisscross Sinai day and night, freely plied by fighters, weapons, explosives and food. These routes exploit the peninsula’s exceptional geography to run between Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and of late the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptians despite every effort have not been able to close down a single smuggling route.

This fact ties in with the kidnap alert for Israeli travelers.

Should al Qaeda succeed in abducting an Israeli, it has the organization to conceal its victim for a long period in its Sinai mountain bastion or transport him or her to another Arab country, including Iraq.

4. That al Qaeda has established a presence in the Gaza Strip is no longer a matter of speculation. Today, Israeli military intelligence AMAN and the Shin Beit are taking the new manifestation of Al Qaeda-Palestine as an offshoot of Al Qaeda-Sinai with the utmost seriousness. Foreign terrorists have been detected entering the Gaza Strip, welcomed and integrated in to the logistical infrastructures of Hizballah, Hamas, Jihad Islami and the Popular Fronts.

This is not a one-way road. Elements of Hizballah, Hamas and Jihad Islami have been heading out of Gaza into Sinai and given the use of al Qaeda’s logistical facilities to strike unprotected Israeli holidaymakers at the Sinai resorts.

The DEBKAfile Exclusive Map attached to this article (first displaced in DEBKA-Net-Weekly) illustrates the broad strategic thinking behind al Qaeda’s Sinai deployment. It is not just there to nab Israeli vacationers refusing to heed warnings; its terrorist units are within striking distance of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Gulf of Aqaba, the Suez Canal and the Egyptian heartland, as well providing terrorist depth for wars in Iraq and Israel.

http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=4649


Tel Aviv's European Roots

By Leon T. Hadar | Thursday, October 06, 2005

In stark contrast to the ancient-biblical and oriental surroundings of Palestine at the time, Tel Aviv — founded in 1909 — took its character from the European immigrants who turned it into a modern cultural and economic center. Leon Hadar takes a journey through Tel Aviv's architectural renaissance — exploring the city’s revival in the past and present.

During the 1920s and early 1930s, a number of gifted architects — graduates of the best schools of architecture in Europe — settled in Tel Aviv.

The Bauhaus school seemed to be a perfect match for the radical Zionist project — which aimed at creating a modern Hebrew urban community in Tel Aviv.

These members of the Bauhaus school transformed the city into a test case for some of the most modern architectural styles.

They experimented in all aspects — ideology, design and texture — in a manner that was never expressed elsewhere.

They committed themselves to the implementation of revolutionary planning principles and new architectural language in Tel Aviv, creating and building a wealth of forms of high artistic quality, within modest means.

European trendsetters

The terms "Bauhaus" and "International Style" were used to define the new trends in modern architecture that were flourishing in Europe — in Germany in particular.

There, the progressive architects — many of them Jews — found it more and more difficult to pursue their profession under the rising shadow of the Nazis.

Architectural diaspora

These architects, fleeing the Nazis, arrived in British-ruled Palestine, where they joined local architects who had also studied in Europe.

Since the 1950s, the White City has fallen into neglect. The rent control laws, in particular, make it difficult for the owners to maintain their buildings.

And in Tel Aviv, they found a young city without an established building style.

"Nostalgic for home, they made a European city in the Levant," noted Linda Grant, a British writer and author of "When I Lived in Modern Times," set in Tel Aviv in 1946.

The members of the Bauhaus school, which had been established by Walter Gropius in 1919, argued that all arts — including architecture — should respond to the needs of society. This concept became the core of the architectural development of Tel Aviv.

A perfect match

Their progressive principles stressed the social responsibility of the architect towards the community. This went hand in hand with the ideology of the Zionist settlement in Palestine, in which liberal and socialist intellectuals who had emigrated from Europe were dominant.

In a way, the Bauhaus school, which wanted to establish a new society, seemed to be an almost perfect match for the radical Zionist project — which aimed at creating a modern Hebrew urban community in Tel Aviv.

Since the early 1930s through World War II, 100,000 inhabitants came to Tel Aviv and 4,000 buildings were constructed. A modern city arose north of Jaffa and "Little Tel Aviv."

A modern facelift

The new Tel Aviv was comprised of buildings of a uniform height of three to four floors, sun washed, with many balconies and gardens. The modernist structures were cubist, sculptural, economical and functional in their form.

Tel Aviv is only the second modern city to be recognized as a World Heritage Site, out of 754 sites in more than 120 countries.

It was a "garden city" of wide tree-lined boulevards. Within city blocks, small roads run toward smaller green spots, creating both a bustling urban exterior and a quiet local feeling inside.

Architects used concrete to create clean-lined, boxy buildings. Strong horizontal elements created patterns with very little ornamentation.

Local adaptations included long narrow windows and balconies to filter light and give shade from the sun. Curved balconies softened the stark austere lines of the buildings.

Keeping cool

In an effort to keep interiors cool in humid Tel Aviv, angled skylights and small windows were installed. All of this was then whitewashed to create a city that shimmered.

The bright colors of the building style — white, off-white, light yellow — prompted the renowned poet Natan Alterman to coin the term "The White City."

The world takes notice

But since construction of these buildings ended in the 1950s, they have fallen into neglect. The rent control laws, in particular, make it difficult for the owners to maintain them. The once gleaming city has been covered in grime and is in desperate need of renovations.

“As a city, Tel Aviv is Jerusalem's polar opposite,” writes Linda Grant. “What is to be found there is the life of urban Israel.”

But last year, the White City — a collection of 4,000 buildings in the boxy, minimalist Bauhaus style that make up the heart of Tel Aviv — won recognition by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a World Heritage Site.

Tel Aviv is only the second modern city to be recognized, out of 754 sites in more than 120 countries. The first modern city was Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, in 1987.

Return to grandeur

"Your city illustrates the treasure of modern heritage," said UNESCO President Michael Omolewa when he presented the certificate to Tel Aviv’s Mayor Ron Huldai in 2004.

Now hundreds of the city's 4,000 or so Bauhaus-style buildings are being restored — repaired, painted in gleaming whites and pastels and returned to their former glory.

Cosmopolitan ties

The city is offering unique incentives to the owners of the buildings to take on the expense of restoring their properties.

Hundreds of the city's 4,000 or so Bauhaus-style buildings are being restored — repaired, painted in gleaming whites and pastels and returned to their former glory.

In exchange for committing themselves to restoration, for example, owners can receive permission to add additional floors to the building as long as the floors are as "unseen" as possible, blending in with the original structure. Also, some real estate-related taxes can be reduced.

Jewish nationalists and religious fundamentalists continue to try to establish new settlements in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem as part of an effort to revive Zionism’s claim to the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria.

Secular Tel Avivians have another plan. They are trying to accentuate Zionism’s European and cosmopolitan roots from the early 20th century — symbolized, among other things, by reviving its international style.

Urban Israel

In a way, the influx of Jewish immigrants from Europe in the 1920s and 1930s and the rise of the White City has boosted Tel Aviv as a major city.

"As a city, Tel Aviv is Jerusalem's polar opposite," writes Linda Grant. "Little if anything spiritual is to be found there. No holy sites or ancient antiquities are there to tempt the tourist. What is to be found is the life of urban Israel."

And she adds that when it comes to Tel Aviv, "The sea is the constant, the only border that is uncontested."

Israeli Defence Minister: US 'aiming at Syria regime change':

"[The United States] will take actions against Syria, beginning with economic sanctions and moving on to others."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10526.htm

Evangelicals Get a Piece of the Promised Land :

After more than 30 years of organising testimonial dinners for right-wing Israeli politicians, handing out checks to Israeli charities, and forming alliances with conservative Jewish leaders and groups, evangelical Christians may finally be getting a chunk of the "Promised Land".
http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=30511

Palestinian Mother Bleeds to Death At IOF Checkpoint:

Westerners who get their news from headlines won't know that Haifaa' Daoud Mohammed Hindiya was shot from two meters away at a checkpoint by Israeli soldiers.
http://tinyurl.com/8kn3o


Palestine/Israel: No Two Easy Pieces:

Is it possible to conceive of a Two State solution? If we look at the current maps, we can see some very interesting evidence that demonstrates the likelihood that at the end of the conflict, if there is to be one, one single State is the only possible solution.
http://tinyurl.com/95uu4


The Left-Wing Gatekeepers of the American Anti-Israeli Occupation Movement :

After the invasion of Jenin, while the Left in America debated whether the Israeli Army had committed a "massacre" or just an ordinary war crime, I decided that I wanted to protest against the crimes committed by the "Jewish state."
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Farber1007.htm


Sixty Billion Dollars for Illegal Settlements:

According to Israeli prosecutor Talia Sasson, the Israeli government has systematically violated its own laws by financing settlements from foreign donations, the official state budget and secret military accounts. One global nonprofit, the World Zionist Organization, played a central role in coordinating illegal settlement activities.
http://www.irmep.org/tec.htm


Lebanon Palestinian camps encircled:

The Lebanese army has ordered its units deployed around Palestinian refugee camps to confront what the government said was a likely Israeli assault
http://tinyurl.com/7jymt

http://www.aljazeerah.info/8n/UN%20Express...Bal'een.htm

UN Expresses Concern Over Expansion of Israeli Settlements and UN Representative Visits Bal'een

GAZA, October 8, 2005 (IPC + Agencies) - -

The United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People said on Thursday that the Israeli decision to expand illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank despite its recent withdrawal from Gaza Strip and northern West Bank was most worrying.

The Committee has approved its draft annual report on Thursday, and would submit it to the currently held UN General Assembly's 60th session.

Committee Rapporteur Victor Camilleri expressed particular concern about Israel's settlement expansion plan, noting that it would separate the southern and northern parts of the West Bank and isolate East Jerusalem.

The committee asserted in its report that Israeli settlements and the Apartheid Wall being built by Israel on occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, were contrary to international humanitarian law, the provisions of the Road Map, and numerous resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council and the General Assembly since 1967.

Meanwhile, The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders, Hina Jilani, visited the village of Bal'een, west of Ramallah province, where she learned about the suffering of civilians there due to the construction of the Apartheid Wall.

The coordinator of the popular committee to resist the Apartheid Wall, Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, said the visit of the UN official came concurrent with the Israeli forces' attack on dozens of civilians and international peace activists, who demonstrated on Friday against the construction of the Wall.

On her part, Jilani pointed out that she would convey the image of oppression and aggression she had seen in Bal'een to the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and would ask him to take action against the construction of the Wall and the Israeli aggression on Palestinians.

Jilani expressed amazement of what she saw in the village of Bal'een, where Palestinians, Israeli and international peace activists were attacked for protesting Israeli soldiers' prevention of harvesting the olive crops in the village.

The UN special representative said she would hold a press conference in Jerusalem at the end of her visit to reveal the results of her trip and declare support for human rights defenders in Palestine and Israel

Interview: Syria's challenge
By Shinkichi Suzuki and Hind el Hallage
Special to World Peace Herald
Published October 7, 2005


CAIRO -- German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who heads the United Nations' probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, is on his way to uncover Syria's role in the killing. Therefore, the Middle East spotlight is now on Syria.

World Peace Herald interviewed Mahdy Mustafa, head of the political section of Egypt's Alahram Alarabi magazine, to discuss the current situation in Syria, especially in connection to developments related to Iraq and Lebanon.


Q: Despite the stepped up U.S. pressures on Syria to cease the cross-border flow of foreign fighters into Iraq, Syria appears unable or unwilling to comply. How do you see this?

A: First, Syria is responsible for patrolling just one side of the border. On the other side, U.S. troops are responsible for patrolling Iraq's border, since they are the occupying power.

The Iraqi-Syrian border is full of ditches and hidden passages; therefore, it is easy for anyone to get through. Moreover, there are about 135,000 U.S. troops in Iraq as well as 200,000 Iraqi soldiers, yet they cannot stop the flow of foreign fighters from Syria to Iraq.

Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and Turkey all border Iraq, yet the U.S. intention has been to stress only Syria's weak point.

Q: What is the true relationship between Syria and Hezbollah?

A: Hezbollah is a Lebanese organization, which has strong ties with Syria. Their alliance dates back to Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Throughout that period, Syria supported Hezbollah in Lebanon with weapons. Now, Hezbollah has turned into a semi-political organization. Its members have attained success in the Lebanese parliament. Hezbollah can deal secretly with the U.N. and the U.S. regarding its weapons. I think that it may disengage and abandon its weapons. After the assassination of a former Prime Minister Hariri, I think that Hezbollah will distance itself from Syria, as I do not think it needs more troubles regarding its relations with the U.N. and the U.S.

Q: What are the prospects for Syrian-Russian ties?

Both Syria and Russia suffered a loss of political influence on the international level. After Egypt signed the Camp David accords, Syria was left alone to face U.S. pressures. On the other hand, Russia's affairs went the same way after the Soviet's Union breakup, and it's struggle and defeat in Afghanistan. Therefore, Russia turned from a planned economy into a market system. In the meantime, Russia has developed strong relations with countries that were once classified as anti-Russian such as, Israel and the United States.

In the meantime, Syrian-Russian relations are limited to the framework of old ties and the exchange of weapons. Here and there, Russia shows backing for the Syrian cause, but still it is not all the time. After, the failure of the U.S. experiment in Iraq, both Syria and Russia felt relieved.

Q: Recently, the U.N. investigation team led by German prosecutor, Judge Detlev Mehlis began its probe to uncover Syrian involvement in the assassination of former Prime Minister Hariri. How has Syria been implicated?

A: In the 1970s Syria adopted a "covert plans and tactics" policy. In other words, Syrian policy decided to neither react towards any violation against its government, nor to declare its intentions regarding any issue.

Syria's government is comprised of many parts. These parts sometimes work independently without the censorship of the political leadership. Leaked information revealed that the Syrian government was involved in Hariri's assassination. German prosecutor Mehlis proved that cooperative planning included the Syrian government and its allies in the Lebanese security services. The Lebanese were thinking of reforming the country's assassinations policy, and this led to execution of the February 14 massive explosion.

Lebanon adopted an assassinations policy long ago. This policy is executed whenever a Lebanese political figure hinders Syria's project in Lebanon. Corrupt Lebanese security services meant that Lebanese pro-democracy groups, anti-Syrians or Christians were most often targeted by this policy.

This Syrian-Lebanese intelligence apparatus decided to assassinate former Prime Minister Hariri, because he was the one behind the passage of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 [supporting free and fair presidential elections in Lebanon]. These figures considered Hariri a big obstacle to their interests.

The probe unveiled the assassination's making. It is divided into two scenarios. The first involved Lebanese security planning. They captured four suspects: the former general security chief, former military intelligence chief, former internal security chief, and the head of the presidential guard. They are still holding investigations into Rustum Ghazala, the head of Syrian Military Intelligence in Lebanon, and others.

The other part of the scenario is Syria.

The main fallout from this assassination was to discredit Lahoud's pro-Syria policy and, under international pressure, force Syria's disengagement from Lebanon.

The biggest mistake of the intelligence apparatus was that they did not expect this outcome. They believed that assassination policy was still useful.

---

Mahdy Mustafa graduated from Cairo University, served as a Cairo-based magazine's editor in chief from 1987 to 2001, and joined Alahram Alarabi, a weekly magazine published by the Egyptian national newspaper, Alahram.

It should be stated that European Jews began to immegrate to Palestine in the early part of the 20th Century because of rampant anti-semitism in Europe. It should also be noted that they BOUGHT their land from the mostly Lebanese absentee landlords for CASH, some of which was their own and some of which was raised by the Jewish National Fund - a Zionist agency.

Also, it should be said the Tel Aviv, born in 1909, was a backwater, a swamp, unsuited for agriculture or much of anything for that matter. Yafo, to the south, was at least a seaport which had been used for millennia. Simply put, The Arabs were happy to sell swampland to the Jews, and the Jews were happy to buy it.

Lastly, it is interesting to see what European Jews have done with their swampland. Every time there is a CNN - worthy incident, we get to see talking heads from Israel and Palestine, matted by the backgrounds of their respective cities. When I see the skyline of Tel Aviv, it is as if I am looking at Chicago;

What are we to gather from seeing the background views of Ramallah, Jericho, Bethlehem, Nablus?

===
U.S. weighed military strikes in Syria, Newsweek reports:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice successfully opposed the idea at a meeting of senior American officials held on Oct 1, the magazine reported.
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=351697

===
Syria 'fed up' with US's public bashing :

Syria has expressed willingness to cooperate with the United States in matters of security and intelligence information sharing, if America stops its public tongue-lashing of Damascus.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200510101116.htm

===
Dangers in Damascus:

If the United States turns up the heat, it risks getting burned.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10576.htm

===
A toy called Assad :

Since the beginning of the war against Iraq, Assad has become Bush's toy - until he succeeded in building him up to an enemy on the scale of Saddam Hussein, or at least the president of Iran.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10577.htm

===
O'Reilly endorsed assassinating Syrian leader if he "doesn't help us out"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200510040005

===
Israeli soldiers kill three Palestinians:

Israeli soldiers have shot dead three Palestinians near the Israel-Gaza Strip frontier, Palestinian paramedics say, and internal violence in Gaza has intensified, with armed factions and security officers engaging in a gunfight.
http://tinyurl.com/av867

===
IOF Employs Lethal Force, Leave Youths to Bleed to Death:

Bassam Mohammed Suleiman Abu Gharaba, 15; Eissa Suleiman al-Omour, 17, and Mohammed Suleiman Mohammed Edwan, 20, were shot by Israeli Occupation Forces late Sunday night, and, as was Haifa Hedeiya on October 4, left to bleed to death.
http://tinyurl.com/aglon

===
Israel: Tougher rules okayed for security suspects :

The bill proposes to permit a noncitizens suspect to be held for 96 consecutive hours without being brought before a judge.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/633529.html

===
Israel won't hand over additional West Bank cities to PA :

The IDF and Shin Bet support lifting the closure on the Palestinian territories and letting a few thousand Palestinian laborers into Israel, some of them from the Gaza Strip.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10581.htm

===
Gideon Levy: The Beautiful Life Without Arafat:

It turns out that contrary to the promises, Arafat's death did not bequeath life to anyone.
http://www.counterpunch.com/levy10102005.html

US ‘seeks new Syrian leader' as pressure mounts:

As it steps up pressure on Damascus, the US is actively seeking an alternative who would take over from President Bashar al-Assad, according to sources close to the Bush administration.
http://tinyurl.com/8bkvo

Syrian Official Found Dead

By Alia Ibrahim

BEIRUT, Oct. 12 -- Syria's interior minister was found dead Wednesday in his office in the Syrian capital, Damascus, in what the government described as a suicide. The death of Maj. Gen. Ghazi Kanaan came just days before the planned release of a U.N. report on suspected Syrian involvement in the car-bomb assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister.

Kanaan, 63, who for two decades was Syria's top intelligence official here in neighboring Lebanon, fatally shot himself, according to a statement issued by SANA, the official Syrian news agency. The statement gave no further details, saying only that an official investigation had been launched.

"The Syrian government was shocked by this death," Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha said in Washington.

A U.N. investigator is to release a report as early as next week on the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister whose slaying in Beirut on Feb. 14 touched off a series of unprecedented anti-Syrian street protests in Lebanon and eventually led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country after a 29-year presence.

Lebanese opposition leaders and several foreign governments accused Syria, which had maintained thousands of troops and intelligence agents in Lebanon since 1976, of involvement in the bombing, and the U.N. report is widely expected to find top Syrian officials culpable.

Kanaan was one of several Syrians questioned in the U.N. probe headed by Detlev Mehlis, the German investigator expected to report to the Security Council before the Oct. 25 deadline.

Less then two hours before his body was found, Kanaan was interviewed on Voice of Lebanon radio and denied reports that he had told investigators of corrupt dealings with Hariri. He ended the interview by saying, "I hope this statement will be passed to all media outlets, because I believe it could be the last one I make."

As head of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon from 1982 to 2002, Kanaan orchestrated the myriad political and militant groups vying for control of the country amid the chaos of a lingering civil war. In 1983 he managed to scuttle a U.S.-brokered peace agreement between the Lebanese and Israeli governments, eventually forcing the pullout of a multinational force deployed in the wake of Israel's invasion of Lebanon. He also was known as the engineer of laws adopted in Lebanon's parliament that guaranteed seats for Syria's supporters.

Syrian officials and analysts said they believed Kanaan committed suicide because he had become frustrated by developments in Lebanon, including the public outcry that forced the Syrian troop withdrawal in April.

"Kanaan belonged to the category of egocentric political personalities who would rather commit suicide than see all that he has achieved falling apart," analyst Imad Shuaiby told al-Jazeera television. "I met him a couple of weeks ago, and he was depressed because of what's happening in Lebanon. He told me he felt Lebanon was heading toward partition and he was very bitter about it.

Former Syrian legislator Joe Jabour said in an interview with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. that Kanaan could not handle the pressure put on him lately by the news media.

Several Lebanese politicians, however, said they believed the Syrian government killed Kanaan to prevent him from implicating Syria in Hariri's assassination, even though he had already testified.

Gebran Tueni, a member of Lebanon's parliament, called Kanaan's death "proof of Syria's involvement in Hariri's murder."

"I can't believe that someone like Kanaan could commit suicide, and only days before Mehlis's report," Tueni said in a telephone interview from Paris. "I believe the Syrian regime is confused and felt it had to get rid of Kanaan because he might say more than what he already told the international committee."

Another Lebanese lawmaker, Fouad Saad, said that "what happened to Kanaan is definitely going to lead more people to accuse Syria of involvement in the murder of Hariri, as well as all the bombings and assassinations that have taken place in Lebanon over the last year. But I think it would be better to wait for Mehlis's report before we make any accusations."

Syria's government rejected accusations that it was responsible for Kanaan's death and repeated assertions that the U.N. report on Hariri's assassination would not point to involvement by Syria.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, in an interview with CNN before Kanaan's death was announced, rejected any possibility that Damascus had ordered Hariri's assassination. "This is against our principles and my principles, and I would never do such a thing in my life," Assad said. "What do we achieve? I think what happened targeted Syria."


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Background on Syria and the Rafiq Hariri Investigation

Compiled by Jefferson Morley

Why is Syria in the news?

U.N. investigator Detlef Mehlis is probing whether the Syrian government was behind the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri last February.

What happens next?

Mehlis is due to deliver his findings on Oct. 25, and people following the case think he may implicate senior Syrian officials in the government of President Bashir Assad. Syria's interior minister, who had been questioned by Mehlis, committed suicide on Oct. 12, according to the Syrian government.

Why would the Syrians kill a former Lebanese prime minister?

The Syrians had long dominated the political system of Lebanon. Assad's father, Hafez Assad, was a secular dictator who ruled Syria with an iron fist from 1971cq until his death in 2000cq. He intervened in Lebanon to end a vicious multisided civil war that killed thousands in the 1980s. Hariri, who had initially collaborated with the Syrians out of necessity, was leading his country to greater independence from Syrian when he was killed on a Beirut street by a sophisticated remote control bomb.

What was the reaction in Lebanon to Hariri's assassination?

The outraged Lebanese population suspected Syria was behind Hariri's death and staged massive demonstrations that ultimately forced the Syrians to withdraw their military forces from the country and to cooperate with the U.N. investigation.

What role is the United States playing?

The Bush administration has a complicated relationship with Syria. On the one hand, it has called for democratic reforms in the one-party governments of the Arab world and supported the Lebanese demonstrations that led to Syria's withdrawal from the country. On the other hand, the United States reportedly turned over suspected terrorists to the Syrian security forces for interrogation and torture after the Sept. 11 attacks. Meanwhile, the U.S. invasion of Iraq has little support in Syria and Washington has criticized Syria for not controlling its border with Iraq and for harboring anti-American insurgents.

What does the Syrian government say?

They deny involvement in Hariri's assassination. President Assad says that the liberalization of Syria's secular political system would empower Islamic fundamentalists.

What will be the impact of the U.N. report?

If Mehlis implicates senior Syrian government officials in Hariri's assassination, it is unclear what effect it would have on the Assad regime. Some believe such a finding could call into question Assad's legitimacy and his grip on power.


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http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B28...BB3EA0CA11A.htm

Syria leader denies link to assassination

Thursday 13 October 2005, 0:28 Makka Time, 21:28 GMT

Bashar al-Assad declined to speculate on a US invasion

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said his government did not order the assassination of ex-Lebanese premier Rafiq al-Hariri.


But the president on Wednesday vowed severe punishment if any national was found to have been involved.



In a rare interview with CNN, al-Assad called on America to stop blaming Syria for being unable to lock down its borders to insurgents entering Iraq.



He said the real problem was the "chaos" resulting from the resistance to the US-led occupation of that country.



Al-Assad, who spoke in English and Arabic in his first major interview in three years, said he did not order al-Hariri's killing or believe such a crime could have been carried out by a Syrian without his knowledge.



"We are more confident ... that Syria has nothing to do with this crime," al-Assad said days before the release of a UN report on a investigation into al-Hariri's 14 February assassination.



"So far there is no material evidence of Syrian involvement," al-Assad said in the interview conducted hours before Syrian authorities announced the suicide of Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan.



Suicide shock



Kanaan's death, which Syrian opponents suggested could be murder to cover up high-level involvement in the assassination, shocked Syrians, and the government felt compelled to stress that his death would not affect the country's political stability.



Asked whether he would hand over any Syrians implicated in the killing to an international tribunal, Assad said: "Yes. If implicated, they should be punished. International, or Syrian, whatever. If they're not punished internationally, they will be punished in Syria.

"If indeed there is a Syrian national implicated in it, he would be considered as a traitor and most severely punished"

Bashar al-Assad,
Syrian president




"If indeed there is a Syrian national implicated in it, he would be considered as a traitor and most severely punished," he added.



Principles



Syria had nothing to gain from killing al-Hariri, Assad said, and would instead put itself under great pressure if it did order his death.



"This is against our principles and my principles and I would never do such a thing in my life," al-Assad said. "What do we achieve? I think what happened targeted Syria ... I would never do it. It's impossible."



Al-Assad said Syria is cooperating with the UN investigation into the killing but was concerned the inquiry would be politicised.



UN investigator Detlev Mehlis began investigating al-Hariri's killing two months after the bombing.



Four Lebanese generals have been arrested and charged with murder. Mehlis has said he has no Syrian suspects, though his team has questioned at least seven Syrians as witnesses.



Syrian cooperation



The Syrian leader said he was ready to resume military and intelligence cooperation with the United States on Iraq
provided it goes through a third party.


Syria, under increased US pressure over Iraq, ended military and intelligence cooperation with Washington in May due
to "unfair" US accusations that Damascus was doing too little
to stop foreign fighters from entering neighbouring Iraq.


"There has been an attempt to resume cooperation, basically,
through mediation by some Arab and European states," al-Assad said.



"We said we have no objection, as long as it goes through a
third party. Now, those Arab and non-Arab parties went to say that to the US side, to say: 'What do you want from Syria'. So far, no response," al-Assad added.



He declined to speculate on whether the US military might attack Syria and whether Damascus would retaliate.



"We will deal with every situation if and when it happens," he said. "I cannot really go into hypothesis at this point. However there is no such safe haven or camp of the kind to be bombed."



The United States and Iraq argue that Syria could do more to close its borders to foreign fighters wanting to battle US-led forces in Iraq, but al-Assad says it is impossible for any country to fully safeguard its borders.


Agencies

Syria warns 'gates of hell will open' if U.S. attacks:

In the latest official Syrian comment on the increasing pressure on Damascus, Premier Naji Otari said "all the gates of hell will open on the U.S. if it attempts to attack Syria."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10604.htm

'Suicide' by Syrian interior minister:

Kanaan reportedly committed suicide in his Damascus office
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10601.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Assad denied he or anyone in Syria ordered the Hariri assassination

October 12, 2005, 5:24 PM (GMT+02:00)

In a CNN interview, the Syrian ruler Bashar Assad Wednesday Oct. 12 denied he or any Syrian national had taken a hand in the planning or execution of the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri last February. It is against my principles and my nature, he said. Asked if a Syrian official could have acted without his knowledge, Assad replied: If so, that would be treason and he would be severely punished.

The interview was to have been aired at 17:30 GMT, but portions were run earlier following the sudden suicide of Syrian minister of interior and regime linchpin Gen. Ghazi Kenaan earlier Wednesday.

Assad claimed he had heard about the Hariri murder “on the news like everyone else.”

Another question related to Hariri’ son, Saad, and other Lebanese figures who stay in Paris for fear of Syrian assassins, threatened directly by himself, the Syrian ruler responded: We have no assassination system in Syria. Anyway, it is not in my nature to threaten people, I am a quiet - not a threatening - person.”

The interviewer suggested that the president may not be in control of his country, or even outside the loop of decision-makers. Assad responded: “Some people say I’m a dictator, some that I am not in control, so let them make up their minds. I am neither one nor the other - I operate with the authority of the Syrian constitution.”

Asked to react to reports that Washington seeks to topple his regime and has recently begun looking for a replacement to himself, Assad replied that no one may change the regime and the president at its head but the Syrians themselves - no one else.

Assad in CNN interview: US should rethink Iraq

October 12, 2005, 5:25 PM (GMT+02:00)

He is also convinced that the chaos in Iraq is the consequence of a situation created there by the Americans, not anything happening in Syria or on the Syrian-Iraqi border. He stressed that nothing was achieved by the war in Iraq. What did they achieve economically, politically, fighting terrorism? When the interviewer suggested that Saddam Hussein has been removed, Assad replied: “Yes, but what did you lose as a return? The hope of the people, the stability, no better democracy, no better economy, no services, no stability in the region, more terrorism – so is that the prize you’ve won for getting rid of a dictator? That’s not a goal.”

From the portions aired in advance of the full interview, DEBKAfile’s sources see no sign of a new attitude on key issues at issue with Washington.

DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources reveal a background event: Assad’s uncle Rifat Assad was a much-honored guest of Saudi King Abdallah in Riyadh this week. Banished to Paris by his brother, former president Hafez Assad, for scheming against him, Rifat now offered to return to Damascus to save his nephew, overhaul his government and security and patch up his relations with Washington. He proposed creating a pan-Arab observer force to police Syria’s border with Iraq and stem the flow of anti-US guerrillas and terrorists across.

Syrian vice president Farouq a Shara arrived in Riyadh at the same time, but the Saudis were not able to arrange for the two to meet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4336810.stm
Syria probes minister's 'suicide'

Syrian authorities have begun investigating the death of Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan who reportedly committed suicide on Wednesday.
His death comes a week before the UN is to publish a report into the killing of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which has been blamed on Syria.

Damascus has condemned any suggestion of foul play in the death of Kanaan, its former security chief in Lebanon.

Kanaan is said to have shot himself at his Damascus office.

Washington described Kanaan as a "central figure in Syria's occupation of Lebanon for many years" but declined to comment on the circumstances of his death.

'Extraordinary timing'

"I don't believe it was a suicide," Dennis Ross, a former US Mid-East mediator, told the Associated Press news agency.


I wanted to exclusively give you this statement... for I believe this is the last statement I might make
Kanaan to Voice of Lebanon


If the UN report pointed to Syrian involvement in Hariri's death, he said, Kanaan was likely to be implicated because of his seniority and prominence.

"The timing is extraordinarily coincidental," Mr Ross added.

"It certainly would look as if someone was trying to create the impression the person responsible [for the Hariri murder] is dead."

Syrian lawmaker Mohammed Habash said Kanaan had looked relaxed at a cabinet session on Tuesday night and did not appear tense.

"Everything seemed normal," Mr Habash told Al-Arabiya TV.

"Certainly, the indications that came before it did not show he was under pressure here, or that his political situation was shaky."

'Upset and angry'

However, Syrian analyst Samir Taki suggested Hariri's murder, Syria's subsequent troop withdrawal from Lebanon and the UN probe might have "weighed heavily on his state of mind".


"The Lebanese situation was linked to his name personally," he told Reuters news agency.

Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah told Al-Jazeera TV that Kanaan had appeared "very upset and angry" over the anti-Syrian campaign in Lebanon following Hariri's assassination.

He said Kanaan's death would not destabilise the country and dismissed theories surrounding his death.

"Of course, the timing is sensitive," he said. "But I'm talking about facts and not suspicion and speculation."

Report looms

Kanaan, 63, was Syria's top security official in Beirut from 1982. He returned to Damascus in 2002 as political intelligence chief and went on to join the cabinet in 2004.

Correspondents say there has been little sympathy for the dead man in Lebanon which long felt the hand of his intelligence agents.

"This is a happy ending after he oppressed so many Lebanese," housewife Leila Ahmadieh told Reuters.

The UN report on Hariri's assassination is expected to be published before the end of October.

Correspondents say it is likely to implicate Syria's intelligence regime and its allies in Lebanon in the bombing, that killed 20 people in central Beirut in February.

Damascus has denied any involvement in the Hariri bombing, but it immediately came under heavy international pressure to relinquish its political and military control on Lebanon.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/midd...ast/4336810.stm

Published: 2005/10/13 03:38:10 GMT

© BBC MMV

Analysis: Is Assad's Regime Unraveling?
http://www.spacewar.com/news/syria-05a.html

Washington (UPI) Oct 12, 2005 - Is the apparent suicide of Syria's Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan the beginning of the end of Bashar Assad's regime? Did Kenaan thrown himself down on his sword to save embarrassment to the Syrian government, or was he pushed? These are questions to which there will most probably never be clear answers.

Israel army to fight human shield ban:

The Israeli army has signalled its intention to keep using Palestinian civilians as human shields in operations aimed at assassinating, arresting or kidnapping Palestinian political and resistance activists.
http://tinyurl.com/dc3ao



UN agency: 40 percent of people in West Bank, Gaza risk hunger :

Forty percent of the 3.6 million people living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip can't be sure of getting enough food, either because they can't get to it or because they can't afford it, the UN food agency said Thursday.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/634630.html

http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?Stor...19-123226-4003r

Analysis: U.N. report links Hariri killing to Syria
By Stefan Nicola
UPI Germany Correspondent
Published October 19, 2005


KEHL AM RHEIN, Germany -- Detlev Mehlis, the German investigator leading the U.N. inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, is convinced the bombing was plotted by a group of high-ranking Lebanese and Syrian intelligence personnel; his report, which he will hand over to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Friday, is set to reopen old wounds in Syria-Lebanon relations.

According to an article by the German newsmagazine Stern, which will hit the newsstands Thursday, Mehlis, 56, has launched investigations against key figures of the intelligence circles in Beirut and Damascus. United Press International has received the full text of the article ahead of publishing.


According to the piece, written by a journalist close to Mehlis and the investigation, the German and his U.N.-mandated, 100-strong staff heard from more than 400 witnesses about the Feb. 14 assassination of Hariri, the popular former Lebanese politician, who was killed along with 20 of his followers when a bomb exploded under his convoy in downtown Beirut.

While most of the witnesses are not suspected of being involved in the killing, some high-ranking Syrian officials are: Among them, according to Stern, Roustom Ghazalé, the former head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, and Asef Shawkat, the current security chief in Damascus. Mehlis questioned six more high-ranking Syrian intelligence officials, Stern said. Shawkat's involvement could prove especially damaging to Damascus, as he is the brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

In an interview with CNN, Assad denied any involvement in the killing and vowed to punish any Syrian proved to be involved in the affair.

The Syrian government has borne the brunt of Lebanese and international outrage at the killing, due to its extensive military and intelligence influence in Lebanon, as well as the public rift between Hariri and Damascus just before the prime minister's resignation. Mehlis' mission coincided with growing U.S. pressure on Damascus to control its 310-mile border with Iraq, stop supporting radical Palestinian groups, and end its interference in Lebanon where some say Syrian intelligence is still operating despite the withdrawal of all troops earlier this year.

The report will be made public just days after the death of Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan rattled Damascus. Kenaan, 63, was reported to have committed suicide in his office earlier this month. He served between 1982 and 2001 as the head of Syria's military intelligence service in Lebanon where Damascus maintained several thousand troops and an important contingent of intelligence personnel from 1975 until last April 26, when under international pressure Syria was forced to withdraw. Mehlis questioned Kenaan, but not as a suspect, Stern reported.

He did, however, grill Ghazale for five hours, after which the Syrian reportedly acted rather self-assured: "I love all Lebanese, and Hariri I have loved especially dearly," he said according to Stern.

But Mehlis confronted him with his own motif: Investigators had found $20 million on one of Ghazalé's Beirut bank accounts -- all that with his rather modest monthly salary of roughly $3,000. Mehlis asked the Syrian how he got so much money, to which Ghazale reportedly did not directly answer.

"What does the $20 million have to do with the murder?" he finally asked.

In Lebanon, Mehlis' investigation has led to deep insecurities. The government has beefed up security ahead of the report's publication to ease fears Beirut would slide into chaos. It had initially proclaimed the killing was done by an individual suicide bomber, but Mehlis and his team quickly found otherwise: At least eight people have been directly linked to the assassination, Mehlis found, with a total of 20 people overall involved in the case. Hariri's followers opt that the men responsible are tried before an international tribunal.

Four high-ranking members of the Lebanese intelligence have been arrested. In June, Mehlis' team had searched office and private apartment of Mustafa Hamdan, the pro-Syrian head of the presidential guard. Hamdan is accused of messing with evidence at the scene of the crime, as he ordered to fill up the crater left by the bomb, Stern said.

Prosecutors arrested three more Lebanese officials, including Jamil Sayyed, the country's former security chief. Sayyed has sworn innocence, and said to prove so he would "go to the end of the world."

Syria is under great international pressure from the United States and France over the killing. Washington is expected to increase pressure on the Assad regime if the assassination proves to lead to Damascus. Observers say Syrian involvement in the killing would be near political suicide: It would likely destroy Syria's international reputation and hand its opponents a reason to deliver the blow that could finally destabilize the Damascus regime, and even possibly bring it down. Washington considers Syria a state sponsor of terrorism, though it maintains diplomatic relations with it.

None of the big political killings in Lebanon were solved in recent years -- but Mehlis has a reputation of getting to the truth.

The 56-year-old German from Berlin has solved the "La Belle" case, the terrorist bombing of the Berlin discotheque in 1986, which killed two U.S. soldiers and a Turkish woman. Mehlis accused Libya of direct involvement in the bombing.

The importance of his new report and his own role might be compared to that of Hans Blix, the U.N. investigator who was deployed to Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction, which he did not.

The U.S. magazine Newsweek earlier this month reported that the U.S. government had discussed a possible military intervention in Syria. According to the article, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice convinced her colleagues to await Mehlis' report for a decision. The goal seems to be to "get [the regime] by the throat, and then really squeeze," Joshua Landis, a Fulbright scholar in Damascus who runs an influential blog called Syriacomment.com, told Newsweek.

So does Mehlis' report decide over war and peace? Or does it simply result in sanctions that might bring about the end of the Assad regime?

"I never wanted to be compared with Hans Blix," Mehlis told Stern. "But now I know how he must have felt."

A Vote for Hamas?

PRESIDENT BUSH and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will have a novel topic on their agenda when they meet today, in addition to more enduring issues such as Palestinian violence against Israelis and Israel's reluctance to ease a stranglehold on Palestinian territories. With Palestinian legislative elections planned for January, Mr. Bush will press Mr. Abbas on his plan to allow candidates from the extremist Islamic movement Hamas to run and maybe even join the government that will be formed afterward -- even though Hamas has refused to renounce violence as a means of establishing an Islamic state and extinguishing Israel.

There are big stakes in this discussion. Israel and its advocates in Washington have launched an aggressive campaign to convince the administration that Hamas must be banned unless it disarms and modifies its ideology. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has threatened to disrupt the January election if Hamas participates. The Israelis warn that an unreformed Hamas will use the election to ensure that its weapons and extreme agenda are not marginalized by Mr. Abbas's moderate, reformist movement. They point to Lebanon, where Hezbollah has used the political leverage it won in recent elections to protect its heavily armed militia, despite a United Nations resolution ordering its disarmament.

Mr. Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, agrees in principle that Hamas should abandon violence; he argues that he has pressured the Islamists into observing a cease-fire for most of this year. But his aides say that Palestinian security forces would probably lose if they challenged Hamas. Mr. Abbas's strategy is to do his best to defeat Hamas at the polls, then ask the new legislature to require all armed groups to disband. He hopes Palestinian public opinion will force the militants to comply. Recent polls show that up to 60 percent support Hamas's disarmament.

For the United States, the handling of Hamas is inseparable from a regional policy of democratization that, in its essence, is about channeling Islamic movements into electoral politics and away from terrorism. The strategy won't work if the Islamists refuse to give up terrorism, but it will also fail if, in countries such as Lebanon and Egypt as well as in the Palestinian territories, Islamic parties are prohibited from peaceful political competition. Perhaps that's why the administration so far has gingerly separated itself from Israel on this issue. Officials say Mr. Bush will press Mr. Abbas to pass and to apply the laws he plans before the elections and to exclude Hamas candidates linked to violence. But if the Palestinian leader persists in his strategy, the administration appears inclined reluctantly to go along rather than repudiate a moderate Palestinian leader or a potentially groundbreaking Middle East election.

That seems like the right choice for now. But if Mr. Bush is going to keep betting on Mr. Abbas, he should do more to help him succeed. Palestinian security forces cannot confront Hamas partly because they lack adequate training and weapons. Mr. Abbas also suffers politically from Mr. Sharon's foot-dragging in concluding agreements to allow the movement of goods and people from Gaza and from Israel's recent redoubling of West Bank roadblocks it promised to lift months ago. The United States can use its influence to ease those problems and to accelerate Palestinian economic reconstruction between now and January. Meanwhile, it can more clearly articulate, around the region, the principle that Islamic movements -- including those with fundamentalist ideologies -- must have a place in Muslim democracies, but that they must also check their guns at the door.


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Bush Tells Abbas Palestinians Must Confront Armed Militants Bloomberg
US President George W. Bush told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas he must confront armed militants in the Palestinian territories and renewed a call for Israel to dismantle settlement outposts in the West Bank. "The way forward must be by confronting the threat that armed gangs pose to a genuinely democratic Palestine,'' Bush said at a joint news conference with Abbas today at the White House. The U.S. president also urged Israel to help improve the daily lives of Palestinians and to "remove unauthorized outposts and stop settlement expansion.''
Bush to Israel: Stop settlement expansion Ynetnews
Bush, Abbas Discuss Upcoming Palestinian Elections Voice of America
Reuters - CBS News - Washington Post - BBC News - all 817 related »

NEWSMAKER-Elusive German prosecutor takes Lebanon by storm Reuters
German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis has been cast in a pivotal role in Lebanon's turbulent political drama as he prepares to deliver his report into the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
Syria's Opposition Unites Behind a Call for Democratic Changes New York Times
Politics & Policies: Syria under pressure United Press International
Expatica - Chosun Ilbo - Aljazeera.net - San Jose Mercury News - all 320 related »

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/commo...55E2703,00.html

US readies to challenge Syria
Correspondents in Washington
October 20, 2005
THE US and France are preparing new UN Security Council resolutions critical of Syria ahead of a UN report that is expected to show Syrian complicity in a political assassination in Lebanon.

The timing of the new resolutions - which officials described on condition of anonymity because negotiations are not final - is also intended to highlight recent claims that Syria is funnelling weapons and stirring up trouble in Palestinian camps in Lebanon.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed Syria and Lebanon during a meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday.

"It was a good opportunity for her to raise the issues surrounding the calendar," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Anti-Syrian politicians in Lebanon blame Syria for the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, a charge Damascus denies.









UN investigator Detlev Mehlis is to release his report by October 24.

Also on the way is a report on Syrian compliance with a joint US-French Security Council resolution last year that demanded the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, among other requirements.

Both reports are expected to be taken up by the Security Council next week.

Dr Rice shuttled between Paris, Moscow and London last week for discussions that included the Syria-Lebanon question six months after Damascus withdrew forces from its smaller neighbour.

Syria was the dominant military and political force in Lebanon for nearly three decades, and the Bush administration claims Syrian intelligence agents remain there.

Two measures are on the way, one of which recommends what to do with material compiled by Mr Mehlis about the February 14 assassination of Hariri in downtown Beirut.

The second concerns US allegations that Syria is supporting anti-Israeli militants in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Both UN measures would probably be sponsored by France, a former colonial power in Lebanon.

The US recalled its ambassador to Syria in protest over Hariri's killing. While Syria denies any role, UN investigators have named four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals as suspects and questioned seven Syrian officials, one of whom - interior minister Ghazi Kenaan - committed suicide last week.

The US is also at loggerheads with Syria over its alleged support for Iraqi insurgents, accusing Damascus of failing to do enough to stop fighters from crossing into Iraq.

Separately, a Lebanese judge has charged a former Syrian intelligence officer accused of lying to UN investigators in the Hariri case.

Hariri supporters have begun lobbying foreign embassies representing UN Security Council members to back their call to set up an international tribunal to try those accused of being responsible for his murder.

Egypt is trying to defuse tension between the US and Syria, Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said.

"The last thing Egypt wants is to see another point of tension in the region," he said before leaving for Moscow for talks with the Russian government, which has long been allied with Syria.

AP

Rice: Israeli settlements contravene U.S. policy :

Several hours ahead of her meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States delivered harsh messages to Israel over construction between Eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank town of Ma'aleh Adumim, which contravenes the Bush Administration policy in the Middle East.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/635762.html

U.N. Report Sees Syrian Involvement in Hariri's Death

By Robin Wright and Colum Lynch

A U.N. investigation has implicated senior Syrian and Lebanese officials in the assassination of Lebanon's leading reformer in a move that U.S. and European officials expect will generate new international pressure on the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad.

In blunt language, the report by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis concludes that the Valentine's Day bombing of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others "could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security officials and could not have been further organized without the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security forces."

The report faulted Damascus for failing to fully cooperate with the probe and cited several officials, including Foreign Minister Farouk Charaa for attempting to mislead the investigation by providing false or inaccurate statements. Nevertheless, Mehlis said many leads now point directly to Syrian security officials.

The findings have been eagerly awaited by U.S. and European officials. Along with a second U.N. report on Lebanon due in days, key members of the Security Council hope to use the findings to increase pressure on the Assad government to end years of meddling in Lebanon and to generally change its behavior both at home and throughout the region, including ending support for extremist groups.

Mehlis concluded that the complex assassination plot involved several months of preparation and was conducted by a sophisticated group with "considerable resources and capabilities." Although the primary motive was political, some of the perpetrators may have been motivated by issues involving fraud, corruption and money laundering, he added.

The slaying followed a "growing conflict" between Hariri and senior Syrian officials, including Assad, the report said. Tensions came to a head during a 10-to-15-minute meeting between the two men on Aug. 26, 2004. The Syrian leader informed Hariri that he wanted to extend for three years the term of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a close ally of Damascus, in defiance of the Lebanese constitution -- a move Hariri firmly opposed.

Syrian officials have repeatedly denied any role in the Hariri slaying. Earlier this week, Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha said, "We are absolutely categoric in saying we had nothing to do with Hariri." Messages to Syrian officials in Washington and at the United Nations were not returned last night.

Mehlis's report includes excerpts of interviews and statements about the meeting, including several by Hariri's close associates and his son recounting how the Syrian president threatened to get Hariri and his family if he did not support the plan. "This extension is to happen or else I will break Lebanon over your head," the son, Saad Hariri, told Mehlis's commission.

In a conversation tape recorded between Hariri and a Syrian deputy foreign minister on Feb. 1, the former prime minister recalled the meeting with Assad as "the worst day of my life." Hariri then told the Syrian official that Lebanon would no longer be ruled from Syria.

Walid Mouallem, the Syrian official and a former ambassador to Washington, warned Hariri that Syrian security services had him cornered and not to "take things lightly," according testimony given to the commission. Two weeks later, Hariri was dead.

When the commission tried to follow up these leads, Syria refused to provide substantive information, Mehlis reported. Assad refused to be interviewed. And interviews conducted last month produced "uniform answers" that contradicted the weight of evidence, he added.

The U.N. probe also said the Hariri murder needs to be evaluated in the context of the bombings that both preceded and followed the assassination, as the former prime minister's entourage drove across Beirut because there could be links between some, "if not all, of them."

Peppered with riveting details, the report said both Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officials wiretapped Hariri's phone. Some evidence also suggests that a telecommunications antenna was jammed near where the car bomb went off.

But the 54-page report said the full picture would require a more extensive investigation, and called for the international community to help Lebanese authorities continue the probe. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan announced late yesterday that he will extend the Mehlis mandate to Dec. 15.

The Bush administration said it would not immediately comment. "We intend to read and study it tonight very carefully and decide tomorrow in consultations with other interested governments what the next steps will be," said U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton. Diplomats expect the report to lead the Security Council to consider action, however.

A second U.N. report on Lebanon is expected next week. It will focus on the implementation of Resolution 1559, which calls for the end of Syria's meddling in Lebanon and the disbanding of armed groups that are tied to Syria.

To follow up on both reports, the United States and other nations have been discussing language for two resolutions that could be introduced as soon as next week to hold the perpetrators to account and add new pressure on the Syrian government, according to U.S. and U.N. officials. Under consideration are new sanctions on Syria.

Mehlis's probe included more than 400 interviews with witnesses and suspects and review of more than 16,000 pages of documents. Among those interviewed was Ghazi Kanaan, the former Syrian intelligence chief in Lebanon, who committed suicide last week.

Mehlis warned that many Lebanese fear that the international community may not follow through, leaving them vulnerable to the return of Syrian military and intelligence services and a revenge campaign. Recent bombings and assassinations have been carried out "with impunity," deterring potential witnesses from testifying before the Mehlis commission, he said.


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Politics & Policies: U.S. steps up pressure on Syria
By Claude Salhani
UPI International Editor
Published October 20, 2005


WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is taking new diplomatic steps against Syria, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington on Wednesday, indicating that regime change was not out of the question.

Rice said the United States was using diplomacy to urge change in Syria's behavior, but did not rule out military force.


"I'm not going to get into what the president's options might be," Rice said. "I don't think the president ever takes any of his options off the table concerning anything to do with military force."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Syria was "trending in the wrong direction from the rest of the Middle East."

Earlier this month, Newsweek magazine reported the U.S. government had discussed a possible military intervention in Syria. According to the article, Rice convinced her colleagues in the administration to await the release of Detlev Mehlis' report on his investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri before making a decision.

This was confirmed to United Press International by Western diplomatic sources who say they convinced the Bush administration to at least wait until the Mehlis report was published and its results were made known.

The goal seems to be to "get (the regime) by the throat, and then really squeeze," Joshua Landis, a Fulbright scholar in Damascus who runs an influential Web log, or online diary, called Syriacomment.com, told Newsweek.

Between the apparent suicide of Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan and pending the publication of the Mehlis report, analysts are asking just how stable is Bashar Assad's regime? Some believe Bashar is walking a tightrope without a safety net.

Indeed, after decades of relative political stability, never has the mood in Syria been so fraught with incertitude, say several observers who recently visited the Syrian capital. In a country where events traditionally moved at a snail's pace, where time almost stood still during the 30 years of Hafez Assad's rule, events have suddenly shifted into warp speed.

Hariri's assassination on Feb. 14 jolted Lebanon's silent majority out of their years of political stupor, driving them to the streets en masse, demanding the withdrawal of Syrian forces. With the tacit support of France and United States, the Cedar Revolution coerced Syria to pull its military and intelligence units out of Lebanon after almost three decades of occupation.

The pace suddenly picked up. Syrian troops withdrew and Damascus reported that it also pulled out its intelligence units. Then came the investigation into Hariri's killing by Mehlis, the unrelenting German U.N. investigator -- the Elliott Ness of the Middle East -- whose mission in Beirut and Damascus raised a political storm and left a climate of uncertainty as to what may come next.

Mehlis and his team of "Untouchables" questioned several high-ranking Syrian officials, including Roustom Ghazalé, the former head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, and Asef Shawkat, the current security chief in Damascus who is also the Syrian president's brother-in-law.

Mehlis questioned six more high-ranking Syrian intelligence officials, according to the German magazine Stern.

The Mehlis report also led to the arrest of four top Lebanese security officials. In June, Mehlis' team had searched the office and private apartment of Mustafa Hamdan, the pro-Syrian head of the Lebanese presidential guard. Hamdan is accused of messing with evidence at the scene of the crime, having ordered the crater left by the bomb to be filled in, Stern reported. Prosecutors arrested three more Lebanese officials, including Jamil Sayyed, the country's former security chief.

Then came the apparent suicide of Syria's Kenaan, though informed sources have told UPI that Kenaan did not commit suicide but was killed by someone very close to the Syrian president. This information, of course, could not be independently confirmed.

At the same time, pressure on Damascus from Washington is mounting more than ever before. Western diplomatic sources told UPI the Bush administration wants Damascus to:

a) Secure its border with Iraq to prevent jihadi fighters entering Iraq to help the insurgency.

Stop interfering in Lebanon.

c) Force the groups Washington considers as terrorist organizations to close their offices in Damascus. (One possibility is that they may relocate to Gaza.)

d) Establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon; something Syria has resisted until now claiming the two countries are too close to require the exchange of diplomatic missions.

Meanwhile, a key part of the U.N. investigation focused on the Lebanese and Syrian mobile phone networks, and call records in the days preceding Hariri's death. In late September, the Lebanese police raided the offices of mobile phone company MTC Touch. In Damascus, the investigators demanded data from Syriatel and Spacetel, the country's two mobile phone operators. What the investigators found was that the requested information was provided with the notable exception of data relating to one particular transmission station serving Lebanon.

Given those circumstances, commentators have speculated that Kenaan might have been killed as a sacrificial lamb to enable the regime to shirk responsibility for Hariri's killing, by portraying Kenaan as a loose cannon who had acted alone.

It is widely expected that the U.N. report will implicate Syria's intelligence apparatus in Hariri's death. This is raising fears in Damascus that the United States will use the report as justification for direct military intervention.

http://www.spacewar.com/news/iraq-05zzzzl.html

Outside View: Another Scapegoat?

'It is true foreign insurgents do infiltrate Iraq from Syria, as do many others from Iran. But how much longer will the administration continue to blame foreign insurgents for its failure to cope with the insurgency in Iraq when in fact, according to American intelligence reports, they constitute no more than 4 percent to 6 percent of total insurgents?'
By Alon Ben-Meir
Oustside View Commentator
New York (UPI) Oct 17, 2005
The increasing number of clashes between U.S. and Syrian forces raises serious questions about the Bush administration's intentions and the wisdom of its actions. It appears this escalation on the American side is dictated not entirely by the urgency over the infiltration of foreign insurgents from Syria into Iraq.
Rather, it is motivated by the administration's desire for regime change in Damascus. This preoccupation explains why instead of persuading Syria to support the administration's efforts in Iraq by offering it real incentives, the White House has chosen to bully yet another nation, at the tremendous risk of escalating the war in Iraq and engulfing not just Syria but other states in the region.

It is not difficult to present a complete dissertation on Syria's egregious past and present support of extremist groups committing acts of terror in Israel, Lebanon and Iraq. Syria can vehemently deny such a role, but any serious review of its conduct and the sanctuary that Damascus offers to these groups affirm that assertion. That said, Syria has in the post-Saddam period also cooperated with U.S. intelligence and has, by the CIA's own admission, proven to be of use.

And time and again, the Syrians have made overtures to the United States for the two nations to engage in meaningful dialogue, only to be rebuffed by an administration fixated on regime change in Syria. The administration's intentions coupled with persistent public criticism from Washington are what pushed Damascus a few months ago to end all security and intelligence cooperation between the two nations. Yet while the administration has made no secret of its goal of regime change, it turns to Syria for help in Iraq, though clearly, if the United States succeeds in Iraq, the Syrian government will be targeted next.

Although it is naive to assume any country will contribute to its own demise, this administration is not looking to offer either a logical approach or a sound rationale for its policies toward Syria. Having systematically misled the American public about the dismal reality in Iraq, now the administration finds itself in need to invent another international crisis to divert attention from the real nature of its plight, which is increasingly coming to light.

It is true foreign insurgents do infiltrate Iraq from Syria, as do many others from Iran. But how much longer will the administration continue to blame foreign insurgents for its failure to cope with the insurgency in Iraq when in fact, according to American intelligence reports, they constitute no more than 4 percent to 6 percent of total insurgents?

Although foreign fighters are more likely to become suicide bombers and thereby inflict disproportionate damage, as was suggested by a former senior intelligence officer, and recently reported by The New York Times, it is always easier to blame foreign fighters for the strength of the insurgency than to develop effective new counterinsurgency strategies.

As recently as Oct. 2, Gen. John Abizaid, commander of the U.S. Central Command, said on NBC's "Meet the Press," he recognized the need to "avoid hyping the foreign fighters' problem."

Indeed, the vast majority of insurgents are former Iraqi military personnel the administration disbanded immediately after the fall of Baghdad, thereby itself creating an instant deadly enemy. With their families, these soldiers and officers represent more than 2 million Iraqi Sunnis who have been abandoned with no jobs and no future: it is they who make up the core of the insurgency.

For these reasons, the administration must defuse the conflict with Syria by opening a dialogue with Damascus. Threats and intimidation will work with Syria only up to a point. President Bashar Assad would not last another day in power if he caved in to American pressure, especially after his surrender of Lebanon.

But if the intention of the administration remains to topple Assad, his demise will not provide the regime change it is hoping for. His successor is likely to be smarter, more experienced and certainly much bolder in securing his power base because only a strong leader can muster the support of the Syrian Baath party, which forms the country's military establishment.

Working with Syria's present government is hardly impossible. The administration continues to negotiate directly and indirectly with many unsavory regimes, including those of North Korea and Iran, and with dictatorships and theocracies. There is no reason to treat Syria differently, especially when Damascus can be extremely helpful to the United States. The administration's choices are not, as it would have people believe, limited to seeking diplomatic isolation of Syria, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice advocates, or using more coercive methods, as the Defense Department proposes.

Syria is eager to normalize relations with the United States, because the government there knows that much of the country's economic development and national security considerations, and certainly its hopes for recovering the Golan Heights, depend on U.S. willingness to help. Syria is eager to have an open-ended dialogue with the United States that will serve their mutual interests.

It should be noted in this regard that Syria's relations with these extremist groups, to which Damascus does not admit, is nothing more than a marriage of convenience. They are bargaining chips that Syria will happily trade for an offer of constructive relations with the United States with some security guarantees. Instead of resorting to coercive methods to force Damascus into submission, a policy that will certainly backfire, the administration must first abandon the idea of regime change and use incentives to persuade Syria to support its efforts in Iraq.

Emboldened by its success in Lebanon, the administration can make a tragic mistake in trying to push the Syrians to the breaking point by launching military strikes inside Syria as some administration officials speculate. The unintended consequences of a bloody conflict with Syria will be far more severe than this administration could imagine, if Iraq offers an example. Conflict with Syria could ignite a regional war engulfing Israel and Lebanon and shattering any remaining hope that the Middle East will see democracy and stability in the foreseeable future.

(Alon Ben-Meir is professor of international relations at the Center for Global Studies at NYU and is the Middle East Project Director at the World Policy Institute, New York. Alon@alonben-meir.com.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/635922.html
U.S. says it won't rule out military option against Syria

By News Agencies

The United States on Wednesday refused to rule out possible military action against Syria but said it had not exhausted diplomatic moves to get Damascus to change its ways over Iraq and Lebanon.

Addressing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said both Syria and Iran were allowing fighters and military assistance to reach insurgents in Iraq.

"Syria and Iran must decide whether they wish to side with the cause of war or with the cause of peace," Rice told a hearing called to discuss U.S. strategy in Iraq, where more than 150,000 U.S. troops are struggling to end an insurgency.

Pressed by senators over whether the Bush administration was planning military action against Syria in particular, Rice said the United States was still on a "diplomatic course" with Damascus but the military option remained open.

"The president never takes any option off the table and he shouldn't," said Rice when asked about a military option.

The Bush administration has accused Syria of doing too little to stop foreign fighters from entering neighboring Iraq. Syria, in turn, says the United States has not done enough to secure the border or deliver technical help it has promised.

Rice declined to say whether the president would present any plans to Congress before launching military action against Syria, saying she did not want to circumscribe his powers.

Her strong criticism of Syria comes before the United Nations is set to release a report on Friday on the assassination last February of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

The United States, France and others, say they believe Syria might have played a role in the killing of Hariri and 20 others in a massive truck blast in Beirut on Feb. 14 and are calling for strong action if that is the case.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said Syria was not involved in Hariri's death and he reiterated this in an interview with a German newspaper released on Wednesday, telling Die Zeit that Syria is "100 percent innocent."

"We are 100 percent innocent," Assad said in an interview in Die Zeit weekly newspaper released on Wednesday.

Chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis will hand over a copy of a report on the February killing of Lebanon's former prime minister to Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday and it will form the basis of a debate in the Security Council next week.

Lebanese political sources and diplomats expect it to charge Syrian and Lebanese officials with the murder, which led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Beirut after mass protests.

Assad told Die Zeit that Hariri's assassination was a crime which Syria did not understand.

"Also what has happened in Lebanon is not in Syria's interests. Quite the opposite. It damages us. Why should we support such acts?" Assad said, adding that Syria was fully cooperating with UN investigators.

Syria has grown increasingly nervous over Lebanese and international charges that is it linked to Hariri's death.

Syrian officials have blamed a Lebanese smear campaign for pushing Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan to commit suicide last week. Kanaan had been questioned by UN investigators in connection with the Hariri investigation.

German magazine Stern said on Tuesday the UN's investigator had named Syrian military intelligence chief Asef Shawkat, Assad's brother-in-law, as a suspect in the killing.

The United States and France are readying new United Nations Security Council resolutions critical of Syria ahead of a UN report expected to show Syrian complicity in the February 14 assassination, diplomats and U.S. officials say.

On Tuesday, a UN investigator named a brother-in-law of Assad as a suspect in Hariri's killing, a German report said.

The timing of the new resolutions is also intended to highlight recent allegations that Syria is funneling weapons and stirring up trouble in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that negotiations on the resolutions have not been completed.

Annan and Rice discuss Syria
Rice discussed Syria and Lebanon during an unannounced breakfast with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday.

"It was a good opportunity for her to raise the issues surrounding the calendar," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said afterward.

Anti-Syrian politicians in Lebanon blame Syria for the assassination of Hariri, a charge Syria denies. UN investigator Detlev Mehlis is to release a report on the matter by October 24.

Also in the works is a report on Syrian compliance with Security Council resolution 1559, which demands the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, among other requirements.

Both reports are expected to be taken up by the Security Council next week.

Rice shuttled among Paris, Moscow and London last week for discussions that included the Syria-Lebanon question six months after Syria withdrew forces from its much-smaller Western neighbor.

Syria was the dominant military and political force in Lebanon for nearly three decades, and the Bush administration charges that Syrian intelligence agents remain there.

Washington recalled its ambassador to Syria in protest over Hariri's murder and is at loggerheads with Damascus over its alleged support for Iraqi insurgents, accusing it of failing to do enough to stop fighters from crossing into Iraq.

Mehlis has named four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals as suspects and questioned seven Syrian officials, one of whom - Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan - committed suicide last week.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said U.S. officials want to discuss both reports with other council members, among other countries.

The goal, he said, is to review "what actions, what further steps, if any, might be warranted by what's contained in the reports. But we have to see what's in the reports first."

Separately Tuesday, a Lebanese judge charged a former Syrian intelligence officer with murder, accusing him of lying to UN investigators in the Hariri case.

Hariri supporters also began lobbying foreign embassies representing UN Security Council members to back their call to set up an international tribunal to try those responsible for his murder.

One of the new UN measures would seek an extension of Mehlis' mandate, a U.S. official said, perhaps to continue investigation or to refer his findings to some kind of court or tribunal.

Egypt is also trying to defuse tension between the United States and Syria, the Egyptian foreign minister said Tuesday.

"The last thing Egypt wants is to see another point of tension in the region," Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters before leaving for Moscow for talks with the Russian government, which has long been allied with Syria.

Another Egyptian diplomat said Cairo wants to avoid a situation like the U.S.-Iraq standoff, which culminated in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

The Lebanese government has asked to extend the Mehlis investigation, but a UN diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Lebanese officials are divided about whether to expand it to either the suicide of Syria's interior minister or the assassination and attempted assassination of journalists.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1021/p06s03-woiq.html
Specials > Iraq in Transition
from the October 21, 2005 edition

Does Iraq arrest signal Syrian turnabout?

Captured insurgent backer was deported by Syria.

By Dan Murphy and Rhonda Roumani

BAGHDAD AND DAMASCUS – Yasser Sabawi al-Tikriti's appearance at a rally demanding the release of Saddam Hussein in the former dictator's home town Tuesday, turned into a costly mistake that Iraqi officials quickly seized on.
"Basically he was found, and caught red-handed giving money to the demonstrators, who he was trying to incite to violence,'' says Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser. "We believe he was a major fundraiser and a major supporter of the terrorists."

But there are indications that help in Mr. Sabawi's arrest came from an unexpected corner: Syria.

The country Iraqi officials and the Bush administration accuse of aiding Iraq's raging insurgency recently deported Sabawi to Iraq, according to an official at the Defense Ministry, who asked not to be named. This was first reported by the Associated Press, citing two anonymous sources.

However, Mr. Rubaie said "there was no Syrian help" in Sabawi's arrest, saying it was a lucky break brought about by the man's own carelessness. Asked if he knew whether Sabawi had been expelled from Syria, he replied: "I don't have any comment on that."

Sabawi's arrest came on a day when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice maintained US pressure on the Syrian regime, alleging that it and Iran are funding and supporting insurgents inside Iraq. "Syria and Iran must decide whether they wish to side with the cause of war or with the cause of peace," Rice said. She added that President Bush had not taken the possible use of force "off the table" with regard to Syria.

Thursday, UN investigators were expected to submit a report in New York implicating members of the Bashar Assad's regime in Damascus of master-minding the assassination of Lebanese politician Rafik Hariri earlier this year. That report is expected to be used by the US in its ongoing campaign to isolate the regime.

Nevertheless, Mr. Assad's Syria, a secular regime that is confronted by Islamist militants, has been taking steps to relieve the pressure from the US. It also worries that fighters radicalized in Iraq could return home and cause trouble for the regime.

"In the last few months, Syria has been cracking down on Islamic insurgents and is trying to open up an intelligence dialogue with the US and show that they are cooperating,'' says Josh Landis, a history professor at the University of Oklahoma who runs the influential Syriacomment blog and currently lives in Damascus.

Mr. Landis says he doesn't know what aid, if any, Syria provided in apprehending Yasser Sabawi, but said it fits a recent pattern. "This [arrest] is Syria's way of saying that we're ready for a deal - of course, a backdoor deal.... They are not ready for public humiliation. They don't want to be completely humiliated in front of an international audience. And the US doesn't want to hear this kind of yes. The US is insisting that Syria [make] a clear break with the pas