Epstein Secrets

ead to problem solving. There may be cases where an actor is so bad and incorrigible that the only useful step is to isolate them (think Mugabe in Zimbabwe or apartheid South Africa.). But it is almost never an either/or proposition: Iran and North Korea both show how sanctions and diplomacy can be emp

wakening, the current administration has taken successive positions on Egypt—all to little effect. And when the president of the United States says Assad "must go," but has no idea how to achieve this (and later does nothing when Assad crosses the chemical-weapons red line)—well, it does not inspire

s more valuable than the cash was the public show that Obama couldn't keep his allies in line and happy. Not Russia— EFTA00678196 Putin would back Bashar al-Assad till the very end which, given American impotence, virtually guaranteed Assad's survival. By the time Putin offered Obama a joint initiative to rid

nd the next day Saudi Arabia responded with a statement condemning Russia and stating, "[Vladimir] Putin has lost Arab hearts with his support for [Bashar al-]Assad." The fight spilled over into the Saudi Twittersphere the moment Russia moved into Crimea, with Saudi hashtags accusing Russia of moving

. That things were changing because of the wishes of their people, and because of machinations of the imperialists." —Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, June 2011 "It is hardly likely that the US will admit to manipulating (Hong Kong's) 'Occupy Central' movement, just as it will not admit to manip

In addition, various political figures and commentators have praised or come to the defense of despotic rulers including Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Bashar al-Assad. 6. Modem authoritarians can be expected to dou- ble down on their drive to neuter civil society as an incubator of reformist ideas and political

o defend embattled allies like Syria's 8ashar al-Assad. There is also growing replica- tion of what migh

The twenty-first century began with a fraudulent Presidential election. And this is in the luckiest of nations. Elsewhere—in Russia, in Hungary, in Zimbabwe—the fragility of democratic aspiration is a brutal fact of history. To revisit the Arab Spring, one year later, is to celebrate popular awakening

on and the realization of democratic institutions. In Egypt, autocratic military officers vie for power with varying shades of Islamists. In Syria, Bashar al-Assad has responded to the demands of his people by slaughtering them, many hundreds each week. In the Persian Gulf, sultans and emirs stifle potential p

varying shades of Islamists. In Syria, Bashar al-Assad has responded to the demands of his people by sl

Gangs, Other Powerful Forces • Kenya Hits Pause on Police Deployment to Haiti • Top Navalny Aide Attacked With Hammer Outside Home in Lithuania • Zimbabwe, After Expelling U.S. Officials, Accuses Them of Promoting 'Regime Change' OTHER WASHINGTON NEWS • High-Stakes Rematch Is Set as Biden, Trump Clinc

can State • Switzerland to Try Syria's Rifaat Al-Assad for War Crimes • Gaza Airdrops Take Huge Effort

-- Article 2. The New York Post The storm in Syria Amir Taheri April 16, 2011 -- Yesterday was supposed to be the first day of what Syrian despot Ba shar al-Assad had dubbed "social calm"; he hoped his mixture of promises and repressive measures would silence the pro-democracy uprising that has shaken the Ba'at

t regime. Instead, the opposition mounted a "Friday of Resolution," with fresh nationwide marches against tyranny. In addition to other empty moves, Assad had ordered the release of protesters arrested in the past four weeks provided they had not done "anything that might undermine the interests of the

a more efficient use of aid resources to cut development aid entirely and to work only for political change. This is, in effect, what has happened to Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe, but the country had to sink very far before anyone considered pulling the aid plug. Huntington got a number of things wrong. Th

ns like the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Organization of American States, and to defend embattled allies like Syria's Bashar al-Assad. There is also growing replica- tion of what might be called authoritarian best practices, vividly on display in the new Chinese law on nongovernment

ead. That things were changing because of the wishes of their people, and because of machinations of the imperialists.” —Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, June 2011 “It is hardly likely that the US will admit to manipulating [Hong Kong's] ‘Occupy Central’ movement, just as it will not admit to manip-