Special to The Daily Star
The Syrian regime did not have to find itself in the precarious position it is in today, maligned by all for its behavior. It did not have to find itself facing sanctions imposed by the United States. It did not have to face United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559, calling for a Syrian pullout from Lebanon. And it did not have to face the outrage expressed after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The main source of income, after oil, for our “leaders,” the cash flow that fill their coffers, is, as many people should know by now, drugs: hasheesh and opium to be specific. Since the main center of production for these “crops” is located in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, how can this regime ever be expected to pull out of that beleaguered country? Continue reading “Heretical Ramblings!”
The New York Times Magazine – Encounter
By LEE SMITH
When I first met Ammar Abdulhamid in Washington in the fall, the 38-year-old Syrian novelist, poet and liberal dissident had Damascus on his mind. He had received word from his wife back in Syria that the political situation at home was becoming more precarious for rights activists like himself. As a fellow at the Brookings Institution, he’d been meeting with leading figures in the Bush administration and writing articles in the Arab and Western presses that were sharply critical of the Syrian government; he simply didn’t know what to expect on his return. Now, sitting here in a Damascus coffeehouse in late January a week after his return, he is telling me that he had found reason for optimism about the country’s future in the least likely of places. Continue reading “A Liberal in Damascus”
Special to The Daily Star
Despite the current mood of optimism prevailing in Syria due to the success of President Bashar Assad’s recent visit to Moscow, the country continues to face a very serious situation because of its poor relations with the United States and the international community. The Bush administration still denounces Damascus for what it says is Syrian meddling in Iraq; and the international community as a whole continues to deride Syria’s overt and well-documented interference in Lebanese affairs.
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 