"$220 million to date" given to Syrian refugees.4:19 PM, Jan 25, 2013 • By DANIEL HALPERThe United States has given another $10 million in aid to help Syrians, the State Department announced today.
Read more... Jan 28, 2013, Vol. 18, No. 19 • By LEE SMITHLast week, we learned of a secret State Department assessment that forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad had recently used chemical weapons. The State Department cable, signed by the U.S.
Read more... 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 SMITHIn 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.”
Read more... 12:26 PM, Dec 21, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPERJohn 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.
Read more... Is Hezbollah up to its old tricks again in kidnapping Western journalists?2:01 PM, Dec 19, 2012 • By LEE SMITHNBC’s Middle East correspondent Richard Engel was released yesterday after being held for five days in Syria. When his kidnappers came to a rebel checkpoint, they were engaged in a firefight with a Free Syrian Army unit that allowed Engel and his colleagues to go free. NBC’s statement said he was taken by an “unknown group,” but Engel himself said he has a “very good idea” that the kidnappers are members of the shabbiha.
Read more... 1:53 PM, Dec 17, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPERThe State Department released a statement today expressing deep concern for Syrian airstrikes targeting Palestinians.
Read more... 12:00 AM, Dec 14, 2012 • By THOMAS JOSCELYNEarlier this week, the State Department designated the al Nusrah Front in Syria as an “alias” for al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). The head of AQI, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi al Husseini al Qurshi (a.k.a. Abu Du'a), “is in control of both AQI and al Nusrah.” The designation says a lot about our knowledge, or lack thereof, of al Qaeda’s clandestine international network.
Read more... 6:51 PM, Dec 12, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPERThe 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.
Read more... Dec 17, 2012, Vol. 18, No. 14 • By THOMAS DONNELLY
The flurry of excitement over Syria’s “moving” of chemical weapons highlights yet again the paralysis gripping U.S. Middle East strategy. “We’re kind of boxed in,” an administration official confessed to the New York Times. “There’s an issue of presidential credibility here, but our options are quite limited.”
Read more... 9:37 AM, Dec 4, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPERSteve Hayes, with Jeff Zeleny and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:
Read more... 8:02 AM, Nov 30, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPERSteve Hayes, with A.B. Stoddard and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:
Read more... Internet, landlines, and cell phones are affected.2:00 PM, Nov 29, 2012 • By LEE SMITHTwo 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.”
Read more... 12:54 PM, Nov 19, 2012 • By ILANA DECKERAfter a year and a half of conflict, and despite some 40,000 deaths, the world still stands impotent to end the bloodshed in Syria.
Read more... For Syria, Obama’s reelection promises little change and less hope.Nov 26, 2012, Vol. 18, No. 11 • By LEE SMITHFor almost a year, America’s allies in the Middle East and Western Europe have believed it was only Obama’s reelection campaign that held the president back from employing more forceful means to topple Bashar al-Assad. After all, ending the bloodshed that has killed over 40,000 people has been the Obama administration’s stated objective since the American president demanded that the Syrian dictator step down in August 2011.
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