How U.S. can help stop bloodshed in Syria

By Ammar Abdulhamid and Ken Ballen, Special to CNN

Editor’s note: Ammar Abdulhamid is a Syrian activist, author of the daily blog Syrian Revolution Digest and a fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Ken Ballen, author of the book “Terrorists in Love” (Free Press, 2011), is president of Terror Free Tomorrow, a nonprofit institute that researches attitudes toward extremism, including in Syria.

(CNN) — After more than six months of silence, Syria’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, spoke last week for only the fourth time since the beginning of the country’s widespread uprising in March. His words show that he is as delusional now as when the protests began. Continue reading “How U.S. can help stop bloodshed in Syria” →

Syrian Americans anxiously monitor uprising

By Tara Bahrampour, Published: January 8, 2012, The Washington Post

Every night, as most of her neighbors in Silver Spring are going to bed, Khawla Yusuf opens her laptop and plunges into a revolution.

Using Skype or Facebook, she connects with Syrians who have been trying for 10 months to change their government. She watches footage, recorded on shaky cellphones, of protests in distant towns and listens to her countrymen describe the surreal daily life of a nation under siege. Continue reading “Syrian Americans anxiously monitor uprising” →

Ideology, Power, and Alliances in a Changing Middle East

Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Washington Forum 2011

The Syrian Factor: The Middle East With and Without the Assad Dynasty: https://youtu.be/Frwr3BSWjWE

Continue reading “Ideology, Power, and Alliances in a Changing Middle East” →

Jordan’s king calls for Assad to step down

A brief mention in the Globe and Mail:

The accumulating criticism of Syria in the Arab world is “a moral boost to the protest movement in the country and the opposition groups outside,” said Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian human-rights activist at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracy in Washington. “But it will have no direct practical effect unless it is coupled with greater support to the Free Syrian Army, the establishment of safe zones inside Syrian territories and the imposition of a no-fly/no-go zone.” “The Assads are committed wholeheartedly to the ongoing militarized crackdown,” Mr. Abdulhamid said, “and they will not be moved and removed by mere symbolic gestures and diplomatic pressures.”