US to hit Syria with sanctions

[abu afak]

US to hit Syria with sanctions

Janine Zacharia Feb. 13, 2004

The US plans to impose sanctions on Syria in accordance with the Syria Accountability Act, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told a Senate panel on Thursday. During the hearing, Powell also placed the burden for moving peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on the Palestinians.

Asked whether the US intends to begin implementation of the Syria Accountability Act sometime in the near future, Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, "Yes. We're examining now what sections of the act we want to use."

That the administration has been reviewing which sanctions might be imposed within the next few months has been known in Washington.

But it was the first time a senior US official stated publicly that sanctions would definitely be imposed.

The president has the ability to waive sanctions if he deems it in US national security interests.

The act, signed in December by President George W. Bush, directs the president to ban US sales of weaponry and dual-use items – items that could be used for civilian or military purpose – unless Syria abandons its support for terrorism, removes its troops from Lebanon, stops the flow of terrorists into Iraq, and abandons its pursuit of nonconventional weapons.

It also calls on the president to impose two or more sanctions from a list of six: an export ban; ban on US businesses operating in Syria; restrictions on Syrian diplomats in the US; exclusion of Syrian-owned aircraft from US airspace; a reduction of diplomatic contacts with Syria; or freezing of Syrian assets in the US.

Powell said during the hearing that Syria had not yet closed the offices of Palestinian terrorist groups or expelled Palestinian terrorist leaders from Damascus as the US has demanded.

He also said he could not confirm or deny whether a Syrian plane had brought back weapons for Hizbullah from Iran after an earthquake-relief mission there.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer&cid=1076559707378

[Binyamin]

I don't understand why they are so slow and cautious about imposing sanctions. Iit is clear that there is no one to talk to in Syria, and there is no reason to think anything will change before there are sanctions. America should immediately impose full sanctions, because they have no reason to wait.

[Gilgamesh]

Originally posted by Binyamin
I don't understand why they are so slow and cautious about imposing sanctions. Iit is clear that there is no one to talk to in Syria, and there is no reason to think anything will change before there are sanctions. America should immediately impose full sanctions, because they have no reason to wait.

I fully Agree.

________________
Beni,

La'ma atta lo kotev she'ata me'Yehuda o Shomron? Ata Amiti o she'ata mit'haze?

[Binyamin]

Ata lo gilita yoter.

[abu afak]

Syria's Gulag

By Farid N. Ghadry and Nir T. Boms
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 9, 2004

Close to a hundred Kurds were killed during a series of riots that started in the soccer game in the city of Qamoshli last month. Over 1,200 Kurds were arrested for treason, espionage, incitement and the disruption of the public order. This is the story of one of them, a 14 year old boy we will call Ahmed, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We received this email from Syria yesterday. It was a private message but we felt compelled to have it translated and shared with the world. We are not in liberty to share the real names of the people who sent this email or who wrote the memory of that experience since they are very much afraid to be the next in line at the torture chamber. The irony in all of this is that Baschar al-Assad visited the Kurds in 2002 and promised them a better future. The ability of the Syrian government to bring about a better future to the Syrian people should be measured by the eyes of Ahmed and his friends. Democracy in Syria remains the only hope and the only answer.

“I saw with my own eyes what I used to see in horror and scary movies and I heard with my own ears what I used to hear in stories told to me about the various savaged ways of torture” Yes… Yes… Here in my own country, in my own nation Syria, the one that just entered the civilization of the 21st century.

He told me this crying. “oh uncle”, --he calls me uncle since he is my nephew, and he is almost 14-years old—“when they took me from the car near a hall with stairs going down, I was met by one agent after the other, counting all five of them, beating me on my back, on my stomach, on my arm, and every inch of my body. They forced me into a basement, then into a dark room full of people with a stench smell of feet and sweat and another smell that reminded me of a butcher shop. I stretched my leg to enter the dark room but instead I hit a body lying on the floor. He emitted a crying sound, so I tried to step away from the body and then I hit another one who sounded even worse than the first and then I froze. I started crying and fear gripped my whole body. I felt like I was in hell, all I could hear were the different sounds of pain coming from the different corners of the dark room. In about half an hour, the door to the room opened and finally I could see a bit of light. Only then, I realized that the room was no bigger than our modest kitchen at home with about 30 to 40 people in it. They were of different ages but the majorities were young, like me. I even recognized two of them who lived in our quarter.

A person shouted my name and I said “Present” as if I was in school. The man said ‘you are a Kurd, right? Come with me you son of a whore’. Upon exiting the room, trying hard not to bump into any body lying on the ground, I was, once again, met with punches from all sides to all parts of my body and my face. They were swearing and punching at the same time. I lifted my arms to protect myself only to have them brought down followed by more punches and more insults. Two or three held me and asked if my name is so and so, and when I said yes, they started again beating me with their fists coming from all sides and angles. Along the way, I remember them saying my mother became a whore for having had me and that my father was a dog. That is all I remember because the punches were making me weaker and I felt my feet buckle from under me. Several strong arms held me up and the punching continued accompanied by a crescendo of swearing, especially against my mother. They used terms against my sister and mother that I cannot repeat”

“Then they covered my eyes with a black cloth and continued the beating. But this time, I could not see where the punches were coming from. Again, I felt myself weak. I remember screaming and crying for help.

They stopped and started an interrogation. ‘What is your name? Which quarter do you come from? Why did you burn and throw stones?’ Why? Why? Why? A barrage of questions that I could not answer for lack of focus. Then they asked who else was there with me. ‘Give us names, names, names’. Why were you marching?’ I told them that I was not marching. Then someone called to bring me downstairs. I started crying again, uncontrollably. While still blindfolded, one asked to strip me down. They did. Then cold water hit me and I started shivering. The beating restarted but I slipped because of the water and they continued beating me with their feet while still on the ground. Someone stepped on my stomach hard, which I did not expect. All I remember next is that someone saying, place it in his mouth. It was my own feces.

Then they took me to another room, still naked, blindfolded and shivering. I felt them kneeling and attaching something to my toes, then to my fingers. Then, without any warning, I felt being electrocuted, yes uncle, electrocuted and I started crying again, not knowing what else to do. I was electrocuted twice while there for seven days. And each time, I cried like a baby, oh uncle, like a baby.

Each time, they asked do you confess. And each time I said I will confess. To what, I do not know. But I said yes, oh uncle, because I felt these were not humans, these people were not from our planet. While still blindfolded, they lifted my arm and placed my finger on a paper and told me that this was my confession.

They returned me to the room and took away the blindfold. I realized then all the people in that room were naked like me, naked, naked, and all crying and in pain. There were those with broken ribs; I could tell because when you bump into them, their scream is the loudest and it lifts them off the ground. Then, there were those whose blood has turned black and their bruises covered more areas of their body than their normal flesh. Some had salt sprinkled on their opened wounds and we were whispering to each other the pain they felt. One cried that they electrocuted him through his penis and testicles. He felt ashamed and could not stop crying. All young like me, oh uncle, all young like me.

Some had their finger nails removed. Another said that he was beaten with cables aimed at his penis as if it were a target. There was a young man, oh uncle, who stood all the time because he could not sit down or rest against the wall. We took turns, during these seven days, holding his head in our arms and body so that he could get some sleep. What I saw from these killers, I will never forget all my life, oh uncle; and I will never forgive them, never, ever forgive them. Never, oh uncle, Never”.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=12935

Farid Ghadry is the President of the Syrian Reform Party. Nir Boms is a fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the Council for Democracy and Tolerance.

[Oh Jerusalem]

A little warning never hurt:

Syria Urged to Do More in Iraq (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040419/ap_on_re_mi_ea/us_iraq_040418224121)
1 hour, 11 minutes ago

By JENNIFER C. KERR, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - After new violence that flared near the Iraqi border with Syria left five Marines dead, the U.S. military's top general urged Damascus to do more to cut the flow of foreign fighters entering Iraq (news - web sites).

The warning Sunday from Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, came as the U.S. effort in Iraq suffered a setback when the new Spanish prime minister, fulfilling a campaign pledge, said he would withdraw the 1,300-member Spanish military contingent as soon as possible.

The White House said it expected the move and hoped for Spain's continued help in the fight against terrorism, but lawmakers voiced concern.

"The military situation can accept this, but it will put pressure on the other coalition nations that have joined in this, I'm sure," said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites). "It's troublesome."

The battle Saturday on the Syrian-Iraqi border, in an area that had seen little fighting previously, left at least 25 Iraqis dead. Myers said the stability not only of Syria and Iraq, but also of the entire region is at stake.

"We know that the pathway into Iraq for many foreign fighters is through Syria. It's a fact. We know it. The Syrians know it," Myers told CNN's "Late Edition."

"The Syrians need to take this situation very seriously. They need to help us stop that infiltration of foreign fighters. It doesn't do their government any good."

Syria has rejected claims it is allowing militants into Iraq. It says it is responsible for official crossing points between it and Iraq but acknowledges it does not have full control over the long, porous border.

In Spain, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a socialist whose party scored an upset in elections last month, said he is withdrawing troops after deciding that the United Nations (news - web sites) was unprepared to take over the occupation of Iraq — his condition for keeping soldiers there.

Zapatero swept to victory three days after the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people. The militants who claimed responsibility for the attacks said they were in retaliation for Spain's role in Iraq.

"We will work with our coalition partners in Iraq and the Spanish government and expect they will implement their decision in a coordinated, responsible and orderly manner," White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (news - web sites), D-Conn., suggested that Spain send its troops to Afghanistan (news - web sites).

"If they are not willing to stay in Iraq, they could prove that they're still with us in the war on terrorism by sending those 1,300 Spanish troops to Afghanistan. We need their help there," he said.

By Sunday, the number of Americans killed in combat had reached 99 so far in April — the deadliest month since the invasion of Iraq more than a year ago. There also have been dozens of kidnappings of foreigners this month, including two Americans — a civilian and a soldier.

Asked about the possibility of a prisoner swap with insurgents holding the Americans, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) ruled it out.

"The worst thing the United States of America can do is to give an idea to terrorists and to people who want to intimidate that somehow their intimidation techniques are going to be rewarded," she told ABC's "This Week."

U.S. officials in Iraq are doing all they can to free the captives, she said.

Both Myers and Rice attributed the recent surge in violence to the June 30 date for the granting of sovereignty to the Iraqi people.

Rice said the violence might continue for some time before the transfer of power, but that the U.S. military presence will remain after it. "We will continue to work with Iraqis and the coalition partners to make the place secure," she said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

[abu afak]

TIME TO SLAP SYRIA

By PETER BROOKES


April 22, 2004 -- SYRIA is helping foreign fighters and terrorists - and their supplies - slither across the 600-mile border into Iraq. In other words, Damascus is supporting the killing of American and Coalition soldiers and civilians - like the five Marines lost along the border last Saturday.

We must make Syria pay a price for this - and make it stop.

Even Syria's defenders can only claim it's merely turning a blind eye to the bad guys. But U.S. military officials say that Damascus is, in fact, facilitating the thugs' movement and supplying them as well. Some believe that these foreign militants, including members of the deadly Shi'a terrorist group, Hezbollah, are instigating a lot of the troublemaking in Iraq right now.

Osama bin Laden has urged jihadists to travel to Iraq to fight the infidels, and as many as 3,000 foreign radicals may have already entered the country from as far away as Sudan and Chechnya. Up to 300 Syrians are in Coalition custody.

It's unclear whether Syrian President Bashar Assad has directed the aiding of the transiting terrorists. Assad says there's little he can do, because of strong cross-border tribal connections and the vastness of the Iraqi desert.

Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, isn't buying it: "We know that the pathway into Iraq for many foreign forces is through Syria," he said this week. "It's a fact. We know it. The Syrians know it."

Syria won't mend its ways on its own. Assad's rusting, socialist Ba'athist regime is scared to death of having a shiny, new democracy right next door. The Syrian economy is in terribly bad shape (20 percent unemployment) and young people, who are fed up with the lack of reform, are pressuring the regime.


A democratic Iraq could send a tidal wave of freedom crashing over Syrian borders, drowning the hapless regime. The Iranian mullahs, Iraq's eastern neighbor, are shaking in their boots as well. In fact, the Syrians and the Iranian have deepened their cooperation of late just because they fear the effects of a democracy in the neighborhood.

Even beyond its troublemaking in Iraq, Syria is a problem on other fronts:

* It's a major state sponsor of terrorism, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. These groups are blocking any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process through their acts of terror. All of them maintain offices, training camps and other facilities on Syrian soil. They also operate in parts of Lebanon occupied by the Syrian military and security forces and get funding and logistical support, including weapons, from Iran via Syria.

* Damascus has continuously occupied parts of Lebanon since 1976. Today, more than 20,000 Syrian troops are there, influencing the Lebanese government and undermining its political independence.

Many have called for Syria to completely pull out of Lebanon, but keeping troops on Israel's northern border is just too good for Damascus to pass up.

As a result, Israeli's northern border and much of southern Lebanon is crawling with Hezbollah, Iranian Revolutionary Guards and other terrorists.

* Syria is still developing biological and chemical weapons, including the nerve agent VX and sarin. It also has short- and medium-range ballistic missiles capable of striking Israel with these weapons. Damascus may also have nuclear aspirations. (Al Qaeda-linked terrorists were arrested in Jordan coming in from Syria last weekend with chemical-weapon bomb-making material.)

It's time to put some heat on Syria:

Implement the Syrian Accountability Act: The Syrian Accountability (and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration) Act, signed into law in December, lets President Bush impose sanctions on Syria, including prohibiting the sale of U.S. products and investment in Syria and restricting the travel of Syrian diplomats here.

Then increase the pressure: Call for Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in the Security Council. Keep the Syria-Iraq oil pipeline closed. Encourage other major trading partners such as Turkey and Italy to limit commerce. Put more Iraqi forces on the border to prevent terrorist infiltration.

If terrorist camps along the Syrian-Iraqi border can be identified, we should consider military strikes.

In the past, Syria has done the right thing. It supported the first Gulf War with 20,000 troops and did some good turns against al Qaeda in the early days after 9/11. But Syria is clearly bucking to replace Iraq in the Axis of Evil. It's time to remind Damascus of the fate of that Ba'athist regime.

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/brookes.htm

[Mediocrates]

If you paint "SANCTION" on the side of a neutron bomb and hit them with that, I'm with ya.

[golani]

Originally posted by Mediocrates
If you paint "SANCTION" on the side of a neutron bomb and hit them with that, I'm with ya.

:D They should insert a team of mistarvim like spec ops to get rid of Bashar and Tlass

[Oh Jerusalem]

All in one day. First this:

British minister calls for trade ties with Syria (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1086750590436&p=1078397702269)
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
DAMASCUS, Syria

Ignoring US economic sanctions on Syria, a senior British official called Wednesday for better trade relations with Damascus.

During a 90-minute meeting, British Foreign Office Minister Baroness Symons discussed Iraq and the Syria-EU relationship with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa. Afterward, she told reporters Britain wants to see an EU association agreement in the works since 1998 completed with Syria.

"We would like to have a better trading relationship with Syria," Symons said. "We want Syria to have access to the biggest single market in the world. ... We want to be able to work peacefully together for the stability and prosperity in the region and across the world."


And then this:

Syria Outlaws All "Unauthorized" Organizations (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=63770)
12:15 Jun 09, '04 / 20 Sivan 5764

(IsraelNN.com) Syria's dictator Bashar Al-Assad has decided to enforce the ban the activities of all "unlicensed" political parties and societies, reports Arabicnews.com.

All parties but the ruling Ba'ath party are outlawed in Syria, but the restrictions were mutually ignored by the activists and the authorities, until this past week.

According to the Syrian human rights activist Anwar al-Bunni, the "decision of the Syrian regional leadership to ban any party or political, cultural and media activities" targets "all parties and societies, and not only the Kurdish ones."

The sole permitted political associations were several parties of Nasserist, nationalist and communist variety, but these were only allowed to appear within the National Progressive Front - led by the Baath Party.


One gets the feeling that the EU misses Saddam so much that they need to substitute him with the next best thing still out there.

[Mediocrates]

At what point does the European Union admit that it stands for nothing?

http://flagspot.net/images/r/rel_nihi.gif

http://flagspot.net/images/a/ana-n.gif

[Oh Jerusalem]

Originally posted by Mediocrates
http://flagspot.net/images/a/ana-n.gif
That flag is missing the circle of gold stars. :p