Epstein Secrets

oratory, you couldn't have done much better. Syria presents a profoundly different situation. U.S. policy has always been driven by the hope that the Assads would change and the fear of what might replace them if they fell. Three additional realities ensured a U.S. response quite different from the one fo

ounterterrorism is king, interests trumped values. You didn't hear Obama make any "Qaddafi must go"- style speeches directed against Bahrain's ruling Khalifa family or Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030073 --- PAGE BREAK --- 15 The contradictions and anomalies of U.S. foreign policy

ng different. There simply is no reform option, and there never was. Genuine reform means dislodging the bricks holding up Assad- Makhlouf authority. Bashar Assad's open-ended presidency, the crony capitalism practiced by his cousin and other members of Syria's elite, the abuse practiced by the all-powerful secur

regimes lying between the Atlas Mountains and the Persian Gulf. Yet unlike the Muslim Brotherhood's rebellion in Hama, which shook the government of Bashar al-Assad's father Hafez in 1982, the Facebook rebellion seems curiously faceless. There are some signs of opposition violence with "plausible reports of securit

ddam Hussein and Muammar el-Qaddafi and Hafez al-Assad in Syria and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia.

ek after three months of convalescence in the United States and Morocco, one of the first meetings he took was with his ally King Hamad bin Isa al- Khalifa of Bahrain to discuss the turmoil in his tiny nation. Sunni- ruled Bahrain, less than 20 miles from Saudi Arabia's oil- and Shiite- rich Eastern Prov

their kinsmen instead. In some other cases, residents spoke of infighting among the security forces. International pressure is increasing against Assad's regime. The Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood has escalated its rhetoric against the regime, calling the ongoing events a "crime against

icipate in the talks. The Wefaq wants a member of the ruling family, preferably the Crown Prince, to take charge as they believe no one outside the Khalifa family can deliver. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently appealed to the King of Bahrain for the release of his friend Hassan al- Saha

ddam Hussein and Muammar el-Qaddafi and Hafez al-Assad in Syria and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia.

ek after three months of convalescence in the United States and Morocco, one of the first meetings he took was with his ally King Hamad bin Isa al- Khalifa of Bahrain to discuss the turmoil in his tiny nation. Sunni- ruled Bahrain, less than 20 miles from Saudi Arabia's oil- and Shiite- rich Eastern Prov