Epstein Secrets

si, Mohamed Saeed Raslan, Talaat Zahran, Abu Bakr Maher bin Attiya, Gamal Abdel-Rahman, Ali Hasheesh and

recommend the imposition of a no-fly zone that would deprive Assad of the use of helicopter gunships and fighter aircraft to bomb neighborhoods of Aleppo and other cities? I asked his campaign and was told no — not a no-fly zone. So did Romney mean providing the Syrian rebels with anti-tank or anti-

still said to be on Assad's agenda. EFTA00708200 The Assad clan also has military power that could obstruct Bashar's reformist moves. His brother Maher, for example, commands a tough unit of Syrian special forces, and his brother-in-law Assaf Shaukat has been a senior intelligence official. It's an

s unusual maneuver. Assad dismissed his cabinet ministers Tuesday, and his backers encouraged massive public demonstrations of support in Damascus, Aleppo and other Syrian cities. Photographs showed huge crowds; a Syrian source claimed that 2 million Assad supporters had assembled in Damascus and I mil

ng all protests, not long after Kerry proclaimed that "the road map" to democracy "is being carried out to the best of our perception." On Dec. 22, Maher, Adel and Douma were sentenced to three years of imprisonment. Their real crime is known to everyone in Egypt: They were the prime intellectual au

to persuade Assad to allow more goods into beleaguered areas. Assad has recently offered Moscow to allow goods into some encircled areas including Aleppo but only if there is a ceasefire. The rebels have looked with justifiable suspicion at the government's behavior on this score. Even if Geneva pro

March 2009. A political and economic alliance was forged with Turkey (and visas abolished), which allowed trade to grow along that border, benefiting Aleppo. The Old City of Damascus was revitalised, ancient courtyard houses restored and hotels and restaurants opened to cater for the growing number of tou

eady have lost authority to men like his brother, Maher al-Assad, commander of the regime’s Republican Gu

She doubtless needed a green light to go ahead with the interview, one that required some measure of approval by Makhlouf and Assad's younger brother Maher, both of whom have taken an eradication approach to the protests. Makhlouf, in turn, needed no authorization whatsoever. What Shaaban said was likely

nto the city's southern outskirts, paramilitary groups were said to have massed in Alawi-populated northern suburbs. The city centers of Damascus and Aleppo, however, remained relatively quiet, as the government appeared to be organizing rallies of its own supporters, with activists claiming that efforts