Syria’s serial exporters of instability

July 08, 2006 12:00 AM / Ammar Abdulhamid

What do the Assads of Syria think they are doing? Hardly a day goes by in the country without another activist being arrested, banned from traveling abroad, or sentenced to a long prison term. Occasionally, particularly in the case of alleged members of the Muslim Brotherhood, they are handed down a symbolic death sentence – symbolic because these are almost immediately commuted to imprisonment. Continue reading “Syria’s serial exporters of instability” →

Shutting Down Guantanamo

First posted on my short-lived blog Tharwalizations.

Guantanamo is a disgrace. No one can deny that, and the recent ruling to the effect that the Bush administration had violated both American military law and the Geneva Convention in ordering the military tribunals comes as an official endorsement of point of view. Indeed, and due to the fact that such a glaring abuse of human rights is being perpetrated by the very administration that is supposed to champion the cause of democracy and human rights around the world should naturally be noted and condemned by people from around the world. Continue reading “Shutting Down Guantanamo” →

The Fodder & the Flock!

What’s really happening with Islamist groups in Syria? Are they finally turning against the very regime that for long sponsored them, in the belief that a chaotic situation in Syria will better serve their interests at this stage? Is the Faustian deal that has for years united the two radically opposed camps, the Alawite regime and the Sunni extremists, and according to the which the latter camp was granted safe haven in Syria in exchange for reserving their violence to other people and countries and in accordance with some of the regime’s most notorious policies, finally falling apart? Or, have the Assads of Syria decided that turning against their unlikely allies at this stage will bolster their image both with regard to the domestic scene and the international one? Continue reading “The Fodder & the Flock!” →

Cockamamifications!

As the Assads try frantically to maneuver public opinion back into an 80s frame of mind, with some degree of success one has to admit (albeit the knack of Islamists terrorist cells allegedly working in the country toattack empty buildings is stretching the boundaries of credulity of even the most naïve observer), they are also helping create an environment where all sorts of sensationalist and cockamamie rumors tend to flourish, both in Syria and beyond. Just check out his latest piece of stupidity pointed out by Joshua (please note the two telling “maybes” in the above paragraph): Continue reading →