Bashar al-Assad | The Weekly Standard

You are here: Archives / Bashar al-Assad

Bashar al-Assad

Syria’s dictator’s, and the rest of the Iranian-led resistance bloc’s, well-placed advocates in Washington.

3:01 PM, Jan 10, 2013 • By LEE SMITH

In December, the Obama administration acted on intelligence showing that Bashar al-Assad was preparing to use chemical weapons against his own people. Obama publicly warned the Syrian president and, according to the New York Times, “private messages sent to Assad and his military commanders through Russia and others… stopped the chemical mixing and the bomb preparation.” As one senior defense official told the Times, “I think the Russians understood this is the one thing that could get us to intervene in the war.”

12:26 PM, Dec 21, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

John Kerry, who is expected to be nominated as secretary of state later this afternoon, has made frequent visits to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Assad is now under fire for mass murdering his own civilians, as he fights an internal war to keep his position of power. Even Obama has called for Assad to go.

Syria

6:51 PM, Dec 12, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

The State Department announced today that it had increased aid to help with humanitarian situation in Syria. Today's announcement stated that an additional $14 million of aid would be given, pushing the grand total of aid to Syria to $210 million.

12:23 PM, Dec 12, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

The New York Times reports that Syria has fired scud missiles at rebel fighters:

8:02 AM, Nov 30, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

Steve Hayes, with A.B. Stoddard and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:

Bashar al-Assad

Internet, landlines, and cell phones are affected.

2:00 PM, Nov 29, 2012 • By LEE SMITH

Two technology firms that monitor global Internet traffic report that Syria has been cut off from the Internet. Regular landline phone and cell phones services have been affected as well, Syrian opposition activist Ammar Abdulhamid told me. “Therefore, the possibility of accidental damage can be discounted,” said Abdulhamid. “This is something done intentionally by the regime, and reflects growing desperation on account of the recent advances made by rebels, especially in Damascus.”

Wissam al-Hassan

Leading from the front against Assad, Hezbollah, and Iran, Wissam al-Hassan was an American ally.

4:32 PM, Oct 20, 2012 • By LEE SMITH

Yesterday a car bomb in Beirut killed a senior Lebanese security chief along with seven others, while wounding hundreds in Ashrafiyeh, a busy neighborhood in Christian-majority East Beirut. The target, Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, was close to former prime minister Saad Hariri and his late father, Rafik Hariri. Yesterday evening, Hariri supporters, mostly Sunnis, closed down roads and burned tires in protest against the assassins, almost certainly tied to the Syrian regime and their Lebanese ally Hezbollah.

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

2:29 PM, Oct 12, 2012 • By LEE SMITH

After almost a week of exchanging fire with Syrian troops across its southern border, Turkey finds itself embroiled on another, albeit related, international front. Wednesday the Turkish air force scrambled two jets to intercept a Syrian passenger jet flying from Moscow to Damascus.

11:02 AM, Oct 8, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

Later this morning, in remarks at the Virginia Military Institute, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will say:

Tawhid Brigade fighters

A report from the front lines of the Syrian civil war

Oct 8, 2012, Vol. 18, No. 04 • By JONATHAN SPYER

Aleppo, Syria

Tawhid Brigade fighters

A report from the front lines of the Syrian civil war

Oct 8, 2012, Vol. 18, No. 04 • By JONATHAN SPYER

Aleppo, Syria

syria protests

3:15 PM, Aug 17, 2012 • By LEE SMITH

In Beirut last week, former Lebanese MP and cabinet member Michel Samaha was arrested and later confessed to “planning terrorist attacks in Lebanon at Syrian orders.”

What goes around.

7:34 AM, Aug 10, 2012 • By DAVID SCHENKER

Earlier this month, 48 Iranian Shiite “pilgrims” were abducted in Damascus. The Free Syrian Army claims they were members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, who have been dispatched to Syria to protect one of Tehran’s vital interests, Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

7:23 AM, Aug 8, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

Bill Kristol, with Juan Williams and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:

Bashar al-Assad

10:43 AM, Jul 24, 2012 • By THOMAS JOSCELYN

On Wednesday, July 18, a bomb killed at least three top officials from Bashar al Assad’s crumbling regime. Among them was Assef Shawkat, the deputy defense minister and former head of Syrian military intelligence.

‹‹ More Recent