Epstein Secrets

imes The Syrian President I Know Op-ed by DAVID W. LESCH March 29, 2011 San Antonio, Tex. WHERE h

l about 10 days ago, when thousands of protesters in the southern city of Deraa took to the streets to protest the killings of several youths there. Deraa is a tribal city, and the clans united in their anger against the provincial governor, Faisal Kalthoum, and his chief of security. Security forces

on. Syria had been relatively stable compared with its Arab neighbors until about 10 days ago, when thousands of protesters in the southern city of Deraa took to the streets to protest the killings of several youths there. Deraa is a tribal city, and the clans united in their anger against the provinc

the "shadow army," as Syrians call it, seems to be planning more spectacular operations. On Monday, the FSA claimed an attack on an army convoy near Deraa, the southwestern town where the revolution started. Official accounts reported at least 34 soldiers killed. Yesterday, the FSA attacked the headquar

to congressional opposition over where to house the remaining prisoners. Obama has put a halt to the "enhanced interrogation techniques" employed by George W. Bush's administration but has enraged some civil liberties advocates by authorizing the extrajudicial killing of alleged al Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki,

table and effective democratic institutions, and responsible regional leadership." Other issues: Although he once described himself as a George H. W. Bush-school realist, in the past year Obama has learned to embrace humanitarian intervention, both in Libya and in central Africa, where military advisors

bia, are also not at all sure that Syria without Assad would be better than with him. Second, for most U.S. presidents -- Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush being the exceptions -- Syria has served as a kind of unholy diplomatic grail. Since Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, U.S. policymakers had viewed

t, slim chance for a peaceful way forward. Over seven hundred people have been killed so far, more than a hundred of them in the southwestern city of Deraa, near the Jordanian border, where the Omari mosquea center of resistance-has been closed to worshipers after being shelled by tanks and taken over by