Epstein Secrets

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

. Then they point out that on March 7 Saudi Arabia made its big announcement declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, alongside Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and demanded the immediate return of any Saudi citizen fighting abroad in Syria. To those followin

tion!" And I say: Don't bet on it. Look at Syria. Assad has massacred 200,000 of his own people - with ta

adherence to the goal. • We're talking about ALQ, Jabhat al- Nusra in Syria, Lashkar-e-Taiba in India, the Hout

something really grave happens (Iran for example) - the US will not stand by. The world will take action!" And I say: Don't bet on it. Look at Syria. Assad has massacred 200,000 of his own people - with tanks, artillery, fighter jets, even chemical weapons - and the world did not lift a finger. And the o

nterviews with Syrians I met in Jordan or who talked with me from inside Syria by phone. My Syrian contacts described a bitter stalemate: President Bashar al-Assad holds on to power, but he has lost control of major parts of the country. The rebels fight bravely, but they lack the organization and heavy weapon

al-Qaeda extremists fester in the shadows. The opposition remains so fragmented that some rebels frankly admit they aren't ready to govern, even if Assad should fall. EFTA00718098 "We still need to find a leader," conceded one rebel commander. "We are headless inside the country." Rebel fighters s

ied command-and-control structure. Second, Muslim extremists are gaining a foothold in the south, just as they did two years ago in northern Syria. Jabhat al-Nusra, linked with al-Qaeda, has set up checkpoints on some roads just north of the Jordanian border. Finally, Assad's forces have regained control of ma

l settlement in Syria has vanished. The United States needs an alternate strategy for strengthening Syrian moderates who can resist both the brutal Bashar al-Assad regime and al- Qaeda extremists. A new Syrian opposition leader who may help get the balance right is Jamal Maarouf. He heads a group called the S

rategy that sounded more pragmatic than anything I've heard from the opposition in recent months. Maarouf says his forces must simultaneously fight Assad's army and the fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islami tat of Iraq and Syria, two jihadist groups with al-Qaeda roots. That's easier said tha

han anything I've heard from the opposition in recent months. Maarouf says his forces must simultaneously fight Assad's army and the fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islami tat of Iraq and Syria, two jihadist groups with al-Qaeda roots. That's easier said than done, but Maarouf has actually accomplished

people have died from starvation since last July; the inevitable outcome of a military blockade imposed on the camp by Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad. The purpose of the siege is to root out foreign Sunni jihadist militias, e.g. Jabhat al-Nusra, who now occupy the camp. These militants have set u

e camp, and have been able to recruit new fighters from within the vulnerable Palestinian population in order to further their goal of toppling the Assad regime. Rumors of people resorting to eating grass and stray cats and dogs while trying to avoid being killed by sniper fire or Assad's crude yet l

e imposed on the camp by Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad. The purpose of the siege is to root out foreign Sunni jihadist militias, e.g. Jabhat al-Nusra, who now occupy the camp. These militants have set up bases within the camp, and have been able to recruit new fighters from within the vulnerable

ed when I heard a week ago Thursda= evening that the US military launched 59 tomahawk missiles against a Syrian airfield to punish Syria's President Bashar Assad for allegedly usi=g chemical weapons to attack his own citizens. This act was a dramatic reversal from Trump's pledges to limit U.S. invo=vement in

g Syria's neighbors and =he Europeans to sort out the mess. For years President Obama had resisted growing calls to intervene militarily against the Assad regime. President Barack Obama's decision to refrain from engagement in 2013 was crit=cized as feckless at the time and is cited now as one of the r

m, with the hope of making it harder for foreign backers to support them. In January 2012 Al Qaeda forms = new branch in Syria calling themselves — Jabhat al-Nusra. AIs= around that time, Syrian Kurdish groups take up arms and informally secede from Assad's rule in the North. 4) =br> And that sum=er is when

e past five years. And Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda in Iraq's front group in Syria. is attempting to hijack the secular resistance to Syrian President Bashar al•Assad. These developments threaten not only to unravel the gains made since Page I 1 of 2 EFTA_R1_01956110 EFTA02674570 2007, but also to energize the

secular resistance to Syrian President Bashar al•Assad. These developments threaten not only to unravel

Al-Qaeda in Iraq has already begun to reestablish itself in areas that Iraqi and U.S. forces cleared at enormous cost over the past five years. And Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda in Iraq's front group in Syria. is attempting to hijack the secular resistance to Syrian President Bashar al•Assad. These developments thr

e moral bankruptcy of its foreign policy, has reaped a harvest of consistency and single-mindedness. It has entirely and unwaveringly supported the Bashar Al-Assad regime, used its status as a permanent United Nations Security Council member to veto any opposing resolution, and has provided superior weaponry t

onal feebleness in response to the Iranian nuclear program. But the takeaway message on Syria is that in all of the circumstances, awful though the Assads were and disreputable and unacceptably motivated though their Iranian and Russian sponsors are, it is not clear that an objectively preferable alte

0 part-time fighters, seems one of the stronger and more coherent entities and seeks an Islamic state with shariah law. Al-Qaeda's local affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, is a more disciplined but smaller organization, and has been more careful than most about collateral damage. EFTA00684007 In regional terms, th

tion!" And I say: Don't bet on it. Look at Syria. Assad has massacred 200,000 of his own people - with ta

something really grave happens (Iran for example) - the US will not stand by. The world will take action!" And I say: Don't bet on it. Look at Syria. Assad has massacred 200,000 of his own people - with tanks, artillery, fighter jets, even chemical weapons - and the world did not lift a finger. HOUSE _OV

rictly restricted resources - and demonstrates operational flexibility, survivability and a fanatic adherence to the goal. • We're talking about ALQ, Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria, Lashkar-e- Taiba in India, the Houthis in Yemen, the Shabab in Sumali, Boko Haram in Nigeria and many more - all across the Muslim strip, f