Epstein Secrets

confirmed by intelligence. But what of the President's other Syria `marker'—his August 18, 2011 declaration that "the time has come for President Assad to step aside"? That declaration, although repeated as recently as October 14 by Secretary Kerry, shows no sign of being pursued, EFTA00707181 mu

tary tools of influence that would offer a credible prospect of rescuing what remains of Syria's largely defenseless population from the ravages of Bashar al-Assad's conventional forces. With well over 110,000 killed and an estimated seven million displaced, one third of them overflowing refugee camps in neighbo

orcement powers? Not only that — the fact that even if it had enforcement powers, it would only remove the chemical weapons. But [Syrian President] Bashar al- Assad can continue to kill his people using aircraft, artillery, Scud missiles and other lethal means. This also followed the Chinese and Russia

ndreds of people and led to the arrests and imprisonment of thousands more. Mr. Kerry also misfired on the tone and content of his talks with Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, the country's strongman and ringleader of the coup. The Morsi trial never came up. And they undercut whatever cautionary message President Obama h

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

a year, Mr. Youssef ridiculed President Mohamed Morsi. After the ouster of Mr. Morsi, Mr. Youssef turned his attention to Egypt's new ruler, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi (now a field marshal). In so doing, he incurred the ire of those who accused him of offending the dignity of the army. Yet millions of admirers and

stance itself to some extent from Washington. In some areas, notably in calls for the international community to offer substantive aid to the anti- Assad opposition in Syria, the Morsi government found itself in partial agreement with U.S. policy preferences. However, there were also troubling signs

this point, a prolonged stalemate is the only outcome that would not be damaging to American interests. Indeed, it would be disastrous if President Bashar al-Assad's regime were to emerge victorious after fully suppressing the EFTA_R1_00441201 EFTA01964453 rebellion and restoring its control over the entire c

rities are acting with a sense of impunity exceeding even the period before the 2011 revolt against Hosni Mubarak. The government installed by Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi has renewed the Mubarak-era state of emergency removing all rights to due process or protections against police abuse. And police officials have p