Epstein Secrets

forces desecrating mosques, firing at EFTA_R1_00234074 EFTA01845128 worshipers, and ordering hapless captives to proclaim, "There is no God but Bashar," has written its own regional banishment. Hafez committed cruelties of his own, but he always managed to remain within the Arab fold. Bashar is di

t outgrew the Arabian Peninsula and before it slipped out of the hands of the Arabs into those of the Persians and the Turks. Yet decades earlier, Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez -- a man of supreme cunning and political skill -- had ridden the military and the Baath Party to absolute power, creating a regime i

ns a chance. The Egyptian rulers had said that their country was not Tunisia. Qaddafi said that his republic was not Tunisia or Egypt. Eventually, Assad was saying that Syria was not Tunisia, Egypt, or Libya. Assad was young, not old; his regime had more legitimacy because it had confronted Israel r

the French political scientist Fabrice Balanche has shown, based in the territories and urban quarters of the country's Sunni Arabs. It erupted in Dara'a, a remote provincial EFTA_R1_00234072 EFTA01845126 town in the south, then spread to Hamah, Homs, Jisr al- Shughour, Rastan, Idlib, and Dayr az Z

ary 29, 2012 -- A popular Washington illusion once held that the right combination of incentives and punishments might "peel off" Syria's President Bashar al-Assad from Iran's "Axis of Resistance," but nobody would have predicted that the weak link in Iran's alliance of radicals would turn out to be the Pales

, democracy and reform." Iran, Hamas knows, is not amused. But that appears to be a diminishing concern for the movement. Hamas' relationship with Assad, Tehran's key Arab ally, began to sour last year when the Palestinian group resisted pressure to stage pro-regime events in refugee camps in Syria.

setting has been to push society to the brink. As soon as protests started ... state media showed staged footage of arms being found in a mosque in Dara'a, the southern city where protests first broke out, and warned that a sit-in in Horns ... was an attempt to erect a mini-caliphate. This manipulati

e opposition in Syria began as a largely peaceful, grass- roots, pan-Syrian movement for democratic change. But it was deliberately met by President Bashar al-Assad with murder and sectarian venom. He wanted to make the conflict about his Alawite minority versus the country's Sunni Muslim majority as a way of d

m, democracy and reform." Iran, Hamas knows, is not amused. But that appears to be a diminishing concern for the movement. Hamas' relationship with Assad, Tehran's key Arab ally, began to sour last year when the Palestinian group resisted pressure to stage pro- regime events in refugee camps in Syria.

setting has been to push society to the brink. As soon as protests started ... state media showed staged footage of arms being found in a mosque in Dara'a, the southern city where protests first broke out, and warned that a sit-in in Homs ... was an attempt to erect a mini-caliphate. This manipulation

found at the site on March 27. Syria Appears to be Preparing Attack on Rebels Reports from Syria appear to indicate that forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Asad are preparing to mount an offensive against rebels based in the coastal town of Banias. Farther south, in Dara'a, eyewitnesses report bodies remain

forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Asad are preparing to mount an offensive against rebels based in the coastal town of Banias. Farther south, in Dara'a, eyewitnesses report bodies remaining in the streets uncollected since being killed by Al-Asad's troops. The sound of gunfire is still heard while