LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
November 01/09

Bible Reading of the day
Matthew 13/36-43 Then Jesus sent the multitudes away, and went into the house. His disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the darnel weeds of the field.” He answered them, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom; and the darnel weeds are the children of the evil one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. As therefore the darnel weeds are gathered up and burned with fire; so will it be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Report: Iran Seeks to Increase Influence in Lebanon as Syria Asks for Gains/Naharnet/October 31/09
National Geographic vs. the Syrian regime/By: Hussain Abdul-Hussain/October 31/09
Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan blast/The Canadian Press/October 31/09
Israeli violations of 1701/Al-Ahram Weekly/October 31/09
Syria's cold feet/Al-Ahram Weekly/October 31/09
Canada Deplores Iran’s Rassam Sentence/October 31/09

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for October 31/09
Hizbullah Condemns Statement of U.S. Destroyer 'Higgins' Commander/Naharnet
Sfeir Opinion on Arms Voiced 'Fearing Others May Start Arming'/Naharnet
Geagea: Those Who Want a Cabinet Should be Ready for Dialogue/Naharnet
Suleiman Hopes for Comprehensive Reform After Cabinet Formation/Naharnet
Jumblat Praises Hariri's Bilateral Negotiations Approach/Naharnet
Marouni says Sfeir’s “accurate” rhetoric serves Lebanon’s best interest/Now Lebanon
Mitri says swapping ministries not custom, “give-and-take” negotiations will ultimately end impasse/Now Lebanon
'Hefty Catch' Seized by Army Intelligence in Ain el-Hilweh /Naharnet
Jumblat Praises Hariri's Bilateral Negotiations Approach /Naharnet
Report: Hariri Will Not Make Any Further Concessions /Naharnet
Bouziane: Situation in the South is Normal, We are Following up Shebaa Blasts /Naharnet
Qassem Snaps Back at Sfeir, Says Resistance is Lebanon's Strength /Naharnet
Hariri: Cabinet Formation Facing Difficulties, Not Negativities /Naharnet
Williams Meets Hizbullah Official, Says South Lebanon Incidents Increase Risk of Conflict /Naharnet
Barak Cancels Spain Visit over UNIFIL Command Dispute /Naharnet
Bassil Urges Judiciary to Act Against Employees Inside His Ministry /Naharnet
Qabalan Lashes Out at Sfeir, Says those who Shed Blood Deserve Loyalty Honors /Naharnet
Hariri declines to set cabinet time-table/Daily Star
Judicial source denies Egypt calls to try Nasrallah/Daily Star
Sfeir remarks on Hizbullah draw Shiite furor/Daily Star
Israeli minister cancels Spain visit amid UNIFIL row/AFP
Christian-share distribution final cabinet obstacle/Daily Star
US: Further security breaches can reignite Lebanon-Israel hostilities/Daily Star
New York murder victim's brother, lawyer visit Najjar/Daily Star
Bassil: OGERO chief hindering work of Telecom Ministry/Daily Star
Lebanon's growth to average 6.5 percent in 2009-2010/Daily Star
ISF cracks down on law-breaking motorcyclists/Daily Star
Over half of Lebanese graduates further careers through emigration/Daily Star
Canadian group tapped to help improve health care/Daily Star
General Security to replace lost Palestinian IDs/Daily Star
Preparations under way to launch broadband auction/Daily Star
Suspect evades pursuit after clashes with LAF/Daily Star
Three students killed as fox causes car crash in south/Daily Star
Official urge calm at schools amid swine-flu hysteria/Daily Star
Cheap tobacco driving youth to become smokers/Daily Star
Top Saudi cleric warns against politicizing hajj/Now Lebanon

Canada's Afghan strategy tested with death of Sapper Steven Marshall
Fri Oct 30, 11:52 PM
By Jonathan Montpetit, The Canadian Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canada's new counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan will be put to the test after an IED blast Friday killed Sapper Steven Marshall near one of its showcase model villages, the second Canadian death in three days. Marshall, 24, of 11 Field Squadron 1 Combat Engineer Regiment based in Edmonton, Alta., was struck while on a late-afternoon patrol through Panjwaii district, 10 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city. There were no other casualties. The military said he was conducting a foot patrol when the incident happened. His death contributes to a rough start for the current rotation of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, with whom Marshall deployed less than a week ago. Fellow Princess Pat Lieut. Justin Boyes, 26, was killed by an IED on Wednesday morning, only 10 days into his mission. "At the time of his death, Steven was working toward securing the Panjwaii district in order to provide a more stable environment for the Afghan population living there," Task Force Commander Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance said Friday.
"A stable environment is the best defence against insurgents, because they have no way to counter the positive effects that soldiers like Steven bring to bear." A Canadian Press reporter who was at a platoon house in Belanday heard the explosion more than a kilometre away, which was followed by a brief burst of small-arms fire. There were conflicting reports about whether the gunfire was directed at the base. Griffon attack helicopters and infantry teams were dispatched to secure the area while Marshall was taken by helicopter to the military hospital at Kandahar Airfield.
He is the 133rd Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since the mission began in 2002. "Know that his death will also sadden the Afghan community where he worked to bring them a better life," said Vance, who described Marshall as a popular member of his unit thanks in part to his sense of humour and "contagious grin." Belanday's village elder, or malik, paid a visit to the platoon house late Friday night to hold a meeting with military officials. Belanday, and the five-kilometre area around it, are among a series of villages in Dand district where the Canadian military has been experimenting with a population-centric counter-insurgency strategy. Marshall's company is based in Belandey, though he was posted to a nearby platoon house responsible for patrolling parts of neighbouring Panjwaii, where Boyes was killed Wednesday. The army hopes to expand these model villages further west into Panjwaii, but have met still opposition from the Taliban. Canadian troops have maintained a continuous presence around Belanday since July, when they moved into a run-down school compound after clearing the area of insurgents. Their presence was originally intended to provide a buffer zone to the original model village of Deh-e-Bagh, southwest of Kandahar city. But the Van Doos battle group opted to keep a platoon stationed in Belanday to mentor Afghan police and prevent insurgents from returning by offering work projects to locals.
The outgoing company commander, Cpt. Jean Vachon, says they eventually earned the trust of locals, to the point where soldiers on patrol walked hand-in-hand with children and received repeated tip-offs about IEDs.
"When we arrived it was a ghost village, there was no one who wanted to speak with us; they were scared," he told The Canadian Press hours before Marshall was killed.
"But soon the village streets filled up, even with women who were walking around without their faces covered." But there had been worrying signs of late that insurgents were keen on reasserting their presence the area. On Sept. 13, Canadian soldier Pte. Patrick Lormand, 21, was killed in an IED explosion. Several days later two young girls were killed in a similar blast.
Marshall's death shows that months of progress made by the Van Doos are now being seriously threatened by the resurgent Taliban.
"It means there are still insurgents out there living among the population," said Lieut. Jeremie Verville, who headed a platoon based in Belandey for the past three months.
"There is still some work (to) do." Other Van Doos pointed out that their recently arrived replacements might be inclined to treat the population with suspicion and hostility in reaction to the death, which he said would strain the trust it took them months to build. There was also speculation within the platoon house that insurgents were seeking to exploit the troop replacement process. Soldiers themselves acknowledge they become less aware as they near the end of their tours, while new arrivals can lack experience in the field.

Canada Deplores Iran’s Rassam Sentence
http://www.international.gc.ca/media/aff/news-communiques/2009/325.aspx
(No. 325 - October 30, 2009 - 2 p.m. EDT) The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today made the following statement regarding the sentencing of Hossein Rassam, an Iranian employee of the British embassy in Tehran:
“Canada deplores the four-year jail sentence an Iranian court handed down to Hossein Rassam on October 28. Canada believes that such actions against one embassy constitute an attack on the entire diplomatic community.
“Canada calls upon Iran to overturn this harsh sentence without delay. We further call on Iran to ensure that due process is respected for all Iranian and foreign nationals currently detained.
“The Government of Canada expresses its solidarity with the Government of the United Kingdom and the entire diplomatic community in Iran. Our thoughts are with Mr. Rassam’s family during this troubling and difficult time.
“Canada will continue to follow the case closely and will continue to reiterate its call for the Iranian government to overturn this sentence.”
- 30 -
For further information, media representatives may contact:
Natalie Sarafian/Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs
613-995-1851
Foreign Affairs Media Relations Office
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
613-995-1874

Sfeir remarks on Hizbullah draw Shiite furor
/Daily Star staff/Saturday, October 31, 2009
BEIRUT: Shiite religious figures hit back on Friday to accusations made by Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir that Hizbullah was serving Iran’s interests over Lebanon’s, saying their weapons helped liberate the south from Israeli occupation. Sheikh Afif Naboulsi, the head of the south Lebanon Ulama Association, stressed on Friday that Hizbullah’s weapons liberated Lebanese rather than Iranian territories that were under Israeli occupation. “Are the lands liberated by Hizbullah, Lebanese or Iranian territories?” Naboulsi asked. “[Does] the patriarch consider that most of the land being liberated by the party is Iranian territory and does not belong to the Lebanese people or state? “Weapons and democracy can’t coexist, nor can the majority and the minority meet in one government,” Sfeir said in remarks to be published by the weekly al-Massira magazine on Saturday. The patriarch said some domestic parties were relying on foreign powers to make parliamentary and ministerial gains, adding that Hizbullah served the interests of Iran’s more than those of Lebanon. Similarly, Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan said on Friday, in response to Sfeir but without naming him, that Hizbullah fighters deserve medals of honor for serving Lebanon. “Those who talk about a majority that rules and a minority that opposes and make accusations against Hizbullah should be aware that those who shed blood for Lebanon’s honor and the dignity of the Lebanese deserve medals of belonging and loyalty,” Qabalan said. Also, Baalbek-Hermel MP Marwan Fares said Sfeir had adopted Washington’s outlook and taken sides with the March 14 coalition. – The Daily Star

Judicial source denies Egypt calls to try Nasrallah
Daily Star staff/Saturday, October 31, 2009
BEIRUT: A high-ranking judicial source denied on Friday that Lebanese authorities had received any Egyptian request demanding that Hizbullah’s secretary general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, join the 26 suspects being trialed by the Egyptian Supreme Court of Emergency State Security. Twenty-six suspects, including two Lebanese, five Palestinians, one Sudanese and 16 Egyptians, are being trialed for charges of planning terrorist attacks against Egypt. Meanwhile, Hizbullah’s media adviser Ibrahim Musawi told The Daily Star on Friday that the party would not comment on the issue, adding that media outlets reported the news in a “comic” way. Reports that surfaced Friday said prosecution lawyers Abdel-Monem al-Damanhuri and Tareq Metwalli demanded to add Nasrallah’s name as a prime suspect in the Hizbullah cell being trialed. Prosecutors said 18 of the suspects provided Hizbullah with information about Suez Canal security details as well as information about tourist destinations in the Sinai Peninsula. Accusing the court of being biased, defense lawyers withdrew Wednesday from court.
Egyptian judicial officials said the lawyers abandoned their task after the chief judge rejected demands for the case to be reviewed by another court. Defense lawyer Montazar al-Zayyat said “we had our doubts about the court and now they proved right.”However, defense lawyer Abdel-Monaem Abdel-Maksoud said that defense lawyers would attend the next court session, as he stressed that the defense committee still holds on to its demands. The court was adjourned to November 21. – The Daily Star

Report: Iran Seeks to Increase Influence in Lebanon as Syria Asks for Gains
Naharnet/Arab diplomatic sources told al-Liwaa newspaper that the formation of the Lebanese cabinet goes behind the distribution of portfolios or negotiations among officials.
The sources said regional countries and direct contacts with Washington are influencing the formation of the new government. Tehran, according to the sources, is playing the "trade-off game" through its allies in the opposition, including Hizbullah and MP Michel Aoun. The sources said Iran wants to reach an understanding with the West over its role in the region, all the way from Iraq, to Lebanon, to the Palestinian issue. Furthermore, Tehran wants regional and Arab support in its negotiations with the major powers on its nuclear program. Meanwhile, al-Liwaa said that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman has informed Damascus that it would not put the Syrian-Israeli track on the agenda of peace negotiations if it does not provide tangible assistance in Lebanese cabinet formation. The diplomatic sources didn't provide further information on the grace period given to Damascus to prove its goodwill intention towards formation of the government as the deadline set for such a move ends on Saturday. The sources expressed fear that disagreement between the U.S. and Syria would be renewed particularly that Damascus has said PM-designate Saad Hariri should pay the price for the Assad regime's interference to facilitate the formation of the Lebanese cabinet. Beirut, 31 Oct 09, 09:12

Jumblat Praises Hariri's Bilateral Negotiations Approach
Naharnet/Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat lauded PM-designate Saad Hariri's moves to hold bilateral negotiations as part of efforts to form the government.
"The PM-designate should be left to finish what he's doing … However, it has become important and urgent to reach a solution," Jumblat told As Safir newspaper in remarks published Saturday. "The people are sick" of this situation. As Safir quoted well-informed sources as saying that the meeting held in Clemenceau between Jumblat and Hariri in the presence of Democratic Gathering MPs on Thursday was "friendly" and included an assessment of the stage that followed the June parliamentary elections. The newspaper said the two men held a private meeting on the sidelines of the talks in Clemenceau on Thursday. Jumblat denied that he had discussed cabinet portfolios with Hariri. Beirut, 31 Oct 09, 08:30

'Hefty Catch' Seized by Army Intelligence in Ain el-Hilweh
Naharnet/The Lebanese army intelligence has reportedly arrested a top Fatah al-Islam official after luring him outside the southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh.As Safir and al-Liwaa dailies said Saturday that Fadi Ghassan Ibrahim, known as Sikamo, was arrested at dawn the day before. They said the man is very close to Fatah al-Islam leader Abdel Rahman Awad who has been out of sight since October 2008. Both newspapers described Ibrahim as a "hefty catch." Al-Liwaa daily quoted informed sources as saying that Ibrahim, 34, has been linked to several bombings and plots prepared by Fatah al-Islam, the latest of which was entrusting the terrorist group's members at Bourj al-Shamali camp with observing Lebanese army and UNIFIL posts in the south in order to carry out attacks against them. Ibrahim, who is a Palestinian and was given the Lebanese citizenship in 1994, is also linked to the blast that targeted the patrol of the Irish contingent in Rmaileh, north of Sidon on January 8, 2008. Furthermore, the militant was involved in the attack on the Tanzanian unit at al-Qasmiyeh bridge north of Tyre in July 2007, according to al-Liwaa. The newspaper also said that the army intelligence arrested Hassan Ahmed Merhi, 18, who is in charge of the Fatah al-Islam cell at Bourj al-Shamali. The man confessed that he was receiving instructions from Ibrahim and had received ammunition from him to carry out terrorist activities. Beirut, 31 Oct 09, 07:52

Bouziane: Situation in the South is Normal, We are Following up Shebaa Blasts
Naharnet/UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane has said that the situation on both sides of the border is normal except for the increase in joint Lebanese army and UNIFIL patrols following the firing of rockets into northern Israel several days ago. Bouziane denied in remarks published by pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that peacekeepers and the Lebanese army went on alert after several explosions were heard inside the Israeli-occupied Shebaa farms area. She said UNIFIL was following up the issue. She told Asharq al-Awsat that latest contacts made by UNIFIL commander Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano with Lebanese officials were part of his mission. Graziano is in continuous contact with all sides involved in the security situation in the region south of the Litani river, Bouziane added. Beirut, 31 Oct 09, 09:51

Qassem Snaps Back at Sfeir, Says Resistance is Lebanon's Strength
Naharnet/Hizbullah's Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem lashed out at Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir without naming him, saying "the Resistance is Lebanon's strength and we will not renounce it … let the screamers scream as they want, we will preserve a strong Lebanon and we will not accept a weak Lebanon anymore". During his sponsorship of an educational ceremony in Haret Horeik on Friday, Qassem said: "The Resistance accomplished a liberation in 2002 and a victory in 2006, where would Lebanon be without its resistance, army, and people, who stood shoulder by shoulder to combat Israel bravely and sternly?" Qassem added that "the Resistance is national and not sectarian because it liberated the land, and did not liberate a geographical spot for narrow aims". Hizbullah's number two considered that Hizbullah's resistance is not part of the political game nor a part of the "regional and international bazaar". On the other hand, Qassem said that all doors were open to form a national unity government, stressing that there was no other option after the formation had been put on the right track, 15-10-5 formula had been agreed on, and the coming of the green light from regional and international powers. Qassem denounced the "noise that erupts after any transient incident in the South, in the same time that Israel violates the (Lebanese) airspace so many times and aggresses against Lebanon". Beirut, 30 Oct 09, 21:34

Hariri: Cabinet Formation Facing Difficulties, Not Negativities
Naharnet/Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri stressed that the cabinet formation negotiations are facing some difficulties, but he added that those difficulties should not be considered as negativities given that all parties are submitting solutions to facilitate the formation. After meeting with President Michel Suleiman in Baabda Palace on Friday, Hariri said that he informed the president about the discussions he had conducted with leaders in both majority and opposition. Hariri clarified that the dialogue does not only tackle portfolios and names but it tackles also the issues discussed in the Parliament, the thing that leads to rebuilding trust among the rival parties. The PM-designate stressed that he will cooperate with the president in forming the cabinet, refusing to give a specific date for its birth. "We are heading toward the formation of a national unity government, and there is no need to discuss further formulas," said Hariri, hoping for that to happen soon. Earlier on Friday, President Suleiman said that the stage after the formation of a new cabinet is the stage of administrative, economic and political reform.
Suleiman also said that administrative decentralization should be the main issue because it plays a developmental role in all regions. Several draft laws are being prepared in this purpose by the interior ministry, he added. The president's comment came during a meeting with Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud who also informed Suleiman about the security situation in the country. U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams was also among the visitors to Baabda palace on Friday. On Thursday, Hariri has reportedly concluded in reaching an agreement that the Progressive Socialist Party retains the public works ministry in the new government. Following talks at his Beirut residence in Clemenceau, MP Jumblat hinted that the PSP was holding onto the public works and transportation portfolio. He said PSP official and Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi "succeeded at the ministry and he should pursue his work," Jumblat said. Beirut, 30 Oct 09, 15:05

Williams Meets Hizbullah Official, Says South Lebanon Incidents Increase Risk of Conflict
Naharnet/U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams said that the rising number of security breaches in southern Lebanon increased the risk of renewed conflict in the area.
"For three years now, south Lebanon has witnessed its longest period of calm in decades," said Williams after meeting Hizbullah international relations chief Ammar Moussawi on Friday.
He was referring to the end of a devastating 2006 war in Lebanon between Israel and Hizbullah, which largely controls Lebanon's south. "However, there is concern that recent incidents could easily destabilize the situation in the area and increase the threat of potential conflict," Williams added. On Thursday, Williams voiced his concern regarding the delay in forming a Cabinet in Lebanon hoping that all the Lebanese parties will offer the necessary compromises to go forth in the formation. Williams who was meeting with the leader of the Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea, welcomed the open dialogue policy amongst the Lebanese wishing that it will help find a solution soon. The U.N. official let Geagea in on the report regarding resolution 1701 and the discussions that will be held in the Security Council on the tenth of November. Williams will be heading to New York in 10 days for this purpose. As to the tension taking place in south Lebanon, Williams manifested his concern saying "we had a rocket attack two days ago, we had rocket attacks on September 11, [and] in July, we had the incident in Khirbet Selm, then some sort of incident in Tyre five months ago. This is too much, and with every incident, there is the risk, the danger, that … the tension could rise dramatically." "It's more than three years since the war and so far, the cessation of hostilities has held very well, but incidents like this put the cessation of hostilities at risk, and we cannot afford it," Williams added.(AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 30 Oct 09, 19:25

Barak Cancels Spain Visit over UNIFIL Command Dispute
Naharnet/Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak has cancelled a visit to Spain next week amid alleged disagreements between the two nations over the command of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Barak was scheduled to meet Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and Defense Minister Carme Chacon during his two-day visit which had been scheduled to begin on Wednesday. The visit will no longer take place due to "agenda reasons", a Spanish foreign ministry spokesman told AFP on Friday. The Israeli embassy in Spain said in a statement that Barak had cancelled his visit "due to an unexpected trip" that he must make to the United States "in the coming days." This change in his schedule "has no relation with the reports in various media on the change of command at the head of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon," it added. Israel has asked Italy to try to remain at the head of the 13,000-strong UNIFIL force for at least another six months rather than handing over to Spain as planned, a senior Israeli official told AFP in Israel on Thursday. "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week called (Italian) Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and asked him to try to keep the current commander of UNIFIL Claudio Graziano in his post," the official said. Graziano's term is due to end in a few weeks, with Spain slated to take over. Israel's Haaretz newspaper said Netanyahu's move turned into a serious diplomatic incident. Spain will hold the rotating presidency of the European Union during the first half of 2010 and analysts say it wants to take control of UNIFIL in order to raise its Middle East profile during this time. Asked about the affair on Friday, Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega denied there was any dispute with Israel and she referred journalists to the "clarifying press release" issued by the Israeli embassy. She said Barak told Moratinos in a telephone conversation that Israel was "very pleased with the work of Spanish forces" that are taking part in UNIFIL and would be "very happy" to see them take charge of the forces. About 1,000 Spanish soldiers are deployed with UNIFIL, making it the third largest troop contingent in the force after those from Italy and France. UNIFIL was set up in 1978 to monitor the border between Israel and southern Lebanon. It was considerably beefed up in the wake of the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah.(AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 30 Oct 09, 17:26

Majority Doesn't See Cabinet Deal before Solution to Iran's Nuclear Program
Naharnet/The majority March 14 coalition expressed pessimism over an imminent formation of a government and believed a Cabinet deal is not possible unless Iran's and Syria's demands at the regional level were met. "The majority rules out that Iran would let go of the Lebanese government before a deal on its nuclear file has matured," one source told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat. Meanwhile, no breakthrough has been reported in Cabinet talks as the key obstacle continued to revolve around the telecoms ministry. Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun will soon hold a meeting to "remove the obstacles preventing the birth of the government," FPM MP Salim Salhab told the Voice of Lebanon radio station Friday. Beirut, 30 Oct 09, 12:52

Syria's cold feet
By: Bassel Oudat
Al-Ahram Weekly
For the past four years Syria has been begging for a partnership with the EU. Now the EU agrees, Syria says it'll think about it, Bassel Oudat reports from Damascus
On 8 October, the EU said it was ready to sign a Syrian- European Partnership Agreement. It asked Syria's foreign minister to sign the agreement in Luxembourg on 26 October. Syria has been asking Europe for the agreement for the past four years. So you'd think that the reaction in Damascus would be one of joy. Well, it wasn't. Damascus ignored the offer for a few days.
Then Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallim said the agreement is unlikely to be signed on the designated date. "The European decision to sign the agreement has come as a surprise to us," he said. Apparently, Syria needs more time to think it over. Syrian officials now say they hope to finish scrutinising the agreement before the end of the year, or perhaps sometime next year.
Syria has officially asked for the signing to be postponed to an unspecified date. Damascus said it needed time to read the agreement and assess its impact on the Syrian economy. As the agreement involves the abrogation of custom duties on European merchandise, some sectors of the Syrian economy may be affected, the Syrians said.
The EU answered the Syrians calmly. The Syrian need to "think things over" was understandable, EU officials said. A new date for the signing would be set once Damascus had finished going over the agreement.
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad last week tried to soften his country's surprise reaction to the partnership agreement. During a joint news conference with Finnish President Tarja Halonen in Damascus, the Syrian leader said that he was always in favour of partnership with Europe. "But the signing of the agreement is a technical matter, and we need to look once again at the partnership agreement," he said.
Syrian officials gave no reason for the move, apart from the refrain that "we need more time to look into it." It is worth noting that a draft agreement springs from a meeting held in Damascus in December 2008. Back then, Syria approved all articles of the agreement and asked for no change whatsoever.
Syria and the EU first initialled an earlier version of the agreement in autumn of 2004, following years of negotiations. The agreement was shelved after the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri in 2005. Subsequently, the EU called on Syria to pull out its troops from Lebanon and introduce reforms. Damascus, the EU said, should liberalise its politics and economy and improve its human rights record. No such conditions have been imposed on other countries that signed partnership agreements with the EU in the past.
Syria has since met the economic conditions set, and even changed its foreign policy to some extent. It has launched a plan for economic transformation aimed at creating what it calls a "social market economy". It has liberalised trade, reduced customs duties, and removed subsidies on several basic commodities. It also opened the door to foreign investment. In addition, Damascus made extensive preparations for the partnership agreement, setting up several administrative bodies to manage the partnership, including the Higher Council on Partnership that includes most government ministers. Syria also named a consultative team to guide domestic agencies with the partnership process.
Analysts think that Damascus is paying the Europeans back for their reluctance to move on with the agreement in the past. Damascus may be under the impression that making the EU wait a bit makes it all look a bit better. The partnership agreement allows Syria to receive more assistance from EU countries. European officials hope the arrangement would entice the Syrians to be a "constructive" voice in the region.
Syria is the only country of the signatories of the Barcelona Declaration that hasn't signed a partnership agreement with the EU. Partnerships agreements with the EU are designed to create a free trade zone encompassing Mediterranean and European countries by 2010.
Syria is said to be alarmed by a 1,500-page political declaration that the EU intends to append to the agreement. The declaration is bound to reiterate calls for political pluralism, media freedom, and human rights. Syrian authorities, which make a habit of arresting opponents and restricting freedoms, balk at the prospect.
According to well-informed European sources, Syria doesn't want to sign a document that no other Arab country has been asked to sign under similar circumstances in the past. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a European diplomat told Al-Ahram Weekly that, "Europe cannot justify signing the partnership agreement unless there is an improvement in human rights in Syria, a country with a very poor reputation in Europe on that account."
Several European countries have voiced opposition to the agreement. One of those, the Netherlands, vetoed the deal more than once. Dutch officials are alarmed by Syria's human rights situation, including the considerable number of political detainees languishing in Syrian prisons. The Netherlands wants the agreement suspended until human rights abuses in Syria end.
Other European countries argue that signing the partnership agreement will reinforce the position of "reformists" within the Syrian government. Sweden and France tried to offer a compromise wording of the political declaration. France suggested a non-binding provision on reforms. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner recently postponed a visit to Damascus. The visit, scheduled for 22 October, was put off "for organisational reasons", the French said.
European sources say that the French minister postponed the visit because of his frustration with Syrian authorities for arresting a key human rights activist. Haitham Al-Maleh, 78, is a key opponent of the Syria regime. He has been awarded the Dutch Geuzen medal in 2006 for his efforts in defending freedom and democracy. A few days ago, he was arrested and charged of disseminating "false news", a crime punishable by 3-15 years in prison.
Syrian officials say that the Netherlands, which voted against the Goldstone Report at the Human Rights Council, is double-dealing. Syrian officials maintain that there is no need to hurry about the agreement. Their government, they add, is busy implementing a battery of administrative, economic, and legislative reforms.
According to government officials, much economic and social change has taken place between 2004 and 2009. They speak of the need to re-examine the terms of the agreement, especially with regard to the reform of the tax system and the liberalisation of trade and investment laws. They add that time is needed to assess the impact of the EU's acceptance of other countries, such as Romania and Bulgaria, as members.
Damascus doesn't expect economic and political relations with Europe to be affected by the postponement.
Observers say that Syria is unwilling at present to make any political concessions in return for having a partnership agreement with Europe. Now that Damascus has forged close links with Turkey and Iran, it believes that time is in its favour.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved

Israeli violations of 1701
By: Omayma Abdel-Latif
Al-Ahram Weekly
Israel's decision to continue its intelligence operations in Lebanon is a serious violation of UN Resolution 1701, Omayma Abdel-Latif writes in Beirut
Israeli intelligence operations in Lebanon are hardly new, and so the Israeli decision to continue business as usual in Lebanon this week in response to a UN enquiry about an Israeli espionage device found near the southern village of Hola will have surprised few people.
The Lebanese army and Hizbullah have accused Israel of planting the device to target Hizbullah's communications network. Israeli sources initially hinted that the device had been planted in 2006, but Hizbullah and Lebanese army sources say otherwise. When Israeli planes subsequently destroyed the device, it caused a huge blast.
The incident was the latest in a long list of Israeli violations of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which was designed to end the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. It comes just two weeks before the holding of a Security Council meeting on 10 November to assess the UN secretary-general's 10th report on the implementation of Resolution 1701.
Both Israel and Hizbullah have exchanged accusations of the other violating the UN Resolution. Israel claims that Hizbullah has been stockpiling weapons in the area south of Litani River, which, according to 1701, should be an arms-free zone, while the period between the release of the ninth UN report in March and the 10th report in June witnessed 388 Israeli airspace violations, 48 territorial violations and 77 sea violations.
Lebanese observers say that Israel's continued violations of Lebanese territory, sea and airspace have now rendered the UN Resolution irrelevant, with Hizbullah officials claiming that the secretary-general's reports are "biased towards Israel".
Hizbullah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qasim has accused the UN of "turning a blind eye to Israel's violations of the Resolution", while focussing on the resistance movement's actions. "To the UN, Israel's violations do not exist. For them, it is only Hizbullah that is violating the resolution," Qasim said.
While there is nothing new in Israeli intelligence activities in Lebanon, what was most significant about Israel's announcement this week is that it has for the first time abandoned its policy of silence regarding its activities in Lebanon and particularly against Hizbullah targets.
While the Israeli military representative attending a meeting held at UNIFIL headquarters in Naquora, south Lebanon, last Wednesday to discuss the spying device refused either to confirm or deny that the device belonged to Israel, he nevertheless said that "Israel will continue to employ its intelligence capabilities in Lebanon," in order to meet what he claimed was the threat posed by Hizbullah.
The termination of Israeli air violations was conditional on what he described as "the Lebanese government's ability to impose its control on the south." Until that happens, he said, "Israel will continue to defend itself by any means necessary."
Among other activities, Israel's intelligence warfare in Lebanon against Hizbullah has included running several espionage networks in the country. However, last May Israel's secret spying activities were dealt what may turn out to be a fatal blow when Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF), undoubtedly with Hizbullah's assistance, succeeded in uncovering 11 such networks made up of 15 suspects involved in espionage activities for Israel.
The recently found hi-tech Israeli espionage device, together with the previous uncovering of Israeli espionage networks in Lebanon, suggests that Israel is desperate to achieve a major security strike against Hizbullah.
During the past few months, a spate of security incidents has escalated tension on Lebanon's southern borders. Last week, an explosion went off in a building in the village of Tyre Filsay near the city of Tyre. The Lebanese army and Hizbullah both refrained from commenting on the incident.
Last July, a similar explosion took place in an abandoned building in another southern village of Kherbet Selem, Israel claiming on this occasion that the building had been used as a secret Hizbullah arms depot. Hizbullah responded by saying that the building housed ammunition left over from the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, but neither explosion can be divorced from the ongoing intelligence warfare between Hizbullah and Israel.
Peace in the south of the country has been interrupted by rocket launches from the south into Israeli occupied territory. Hizbullah has repeatedly said that it is not responsible for the attacks, and Salafist groups are reported to have carried them out, though no specific group has declared responsibility.
The UN Security Council is due to hold another session assessing the implementation of Resolution 1701 next month. The most important issue on the agenda will be that while the resolution may have ended the war in 2006, it may not be capable of preventing a future one.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved

Marouni says Sfeir’s “accurate” rhetoric serves Lebanon’s best interest
October 31, 2009 /Now Lebanon/Tourism Minister Elie Marouni told Future News television on Saturday that Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir’s position “emanates from his patriotic feeling,” stressing that his “accurate” rhetoric serves the country’s best interest. He added that the patriarch is the “nation and the Christian’s conscience” and that he is entitled to express his opinion. Marouni touched on the cabinet formation saying that the “remaining obstacles, which represent only 10% of the entire process, result from Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun, who is supported by his allies,” adding that “every time an obstacle is resolved, another comes up.”The minister called for national dialogue in order to resolve disputes between all Lebanese. -NOW Lebanon

Mitri says swapping ministries not custom, “give-and-take” negotiations will ultimately end impasse
October 31, 2009 /Now Lebanon/Information Minister Tarek Mitri told the Voice of Lebanon radio station on Saturday there is no custom pertaining to swapping ministerial portfolios, adding that ultimately, the ongoing “give-and-take” negotiations that are currently delaying the cabinet formation will not necessarily lead to a “dead end,” because forming a conciliatory cabinet that guarantees representation of all sects is essential. He added that “some” are adamant about creating political dispute “despite [Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s] efforts and the real progress in the government formation,” whose dispute he said, was local although its foreign aspect is “not hidden.”Mitri said that considering “impossible demands” as “rights,” a possible reference to Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun’s demands complicates matters and delays the cabinet’s finalization. He also said it is “unlikely” that forming a Lebanese government is a “dangerous card” in the ongoing Iranian nuclear talks with the international community, saying, however, that the issue is “of interest” to the Islamic Republic. Mitri touched on the US-Syrian dialogue, stressing its progress and that both countries have different sets of priorities. -NOW Lebanon

National Geographic vs. the Syrian regime
Hussain Abdul-Hussain , October 31, 2009
In its November issue, National Geographic magazine ran a feature story on Syria, calling it the “shadowland” and challenging suggestions that the ruling regime can ever raise the country out of its dark past.
The portrait of Syria, past and present, sketched by the author, Don Belt, is indeed dark. Belt describes a nation stifled by a succession of autocrats who have prevented political, economic and social growth. The late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad was involved in a massacre in Hama, the article notes, while his son and successor, Bashar, is suspected of complicity in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Bashar, like his father, remains feared inside Syria for his regime’s notorious intelligence network that has kept the Assad family in power for decades.
Given this context, it is not surprising that the author of the article makes the Godfather analogy, with Bashar Assad filling the role of Michael Corleone, the son of Don, who rises to leadership of “the family” upon the unexpected death of his hothead brother Sonny, which in Bashar’s case would be his late brother Basil.
Whatever the merits of the 3,900-word National Geographic piece, it managed to provoke a 4,250-word rebuttal from the Syrian Ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustapha.
In the typical manner of the Syrian regime, Moustapha tried first to undermine the credibility of the writer by linking him to former President George Bush, the neocons and Israel. “Reminiscent of the neoconservative literature that was prevalent during President Bush’s era,” Moustapha’s writes in his letter, which goes on to deploy the neoconservative label some seven times, four of which with the word Israeli thrown in for good measure.
Along with hurling unsubstantiated accusations, Moustapha threatens the writer and the magazine, a step also typical of the Syrian regime. “I believe that many other countries in our region will reconsider their working relationship with your organization when they are made aware of this incident,” Moustapha writes, imagining an Arab boycott of the National Geographic in solidarity with the Syrian autocracy.
But Moustapha’s letter doesn’t just attack and intimidate, it also seeks to do the impossible: prove the popular legitimacy of President Assad. As one might suspect, the very attempt ends up undermining his argument.
“[T]he University of Maryland, along with the Zogby International Polling, conducted an opinion poll in six Arab countries earlier this year (all US allies), Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Lebanon, and the UAE, which showed that President Assad was the most popular figure amongst Arab leaders,” Moustapha writes.
The fact that the evidence of popular legitimacy Moustapha chooses to cite comes from a US pollster — one whose methodology is questionable due to its small sample sizes, and which at any rate suggests at most Assad’s popularity in several Arab countries, but not the one he rules — rather than Syria’s own joke elections in 2000 and 2007 says much about Assad’s true legitimacy.
Having thus accused Belt of being part of a neo-conservative-Israeli conspiracy, warned that displeasing the Syrian regime has negative consequences around the region for the writer and his magazine, and “proved” that Assad is a popular pan-Arab hero, Moustapha now expresses surprise at how any one so fortunate to meet Assad could write such an unfavorable piece.
But how could an unknown journalist, in Moustapha’s words, meet Assad?
Bringing western journalists and academics to Damascus to meet with Assad has become a staple of the regime’s propaganda. Syrian ambassadors, like Moustapha, often meet these “opinion shapers” in person, and generously wave the visa fee while offering all manner of help for the scheduled trip – including a possible meeting with Assad.
Most of these Westerners end up meeting Assad’s wife, who clearly impresses visitors with her cordial manners and Western education. The effect is that many such visitors later become Assad’s defenders.
The New Yorker’s Seymor Hersh was granted such close access that he later reported that he was next to Assad when news broke that Hariri had been murdered. Eric Follath, the author of Der Spiegel’s controversial piece on alleging that Hezbollah was involved in the Hariri assassination, meanwhile, publicly boasted about his ties to Assad. For Academic David Lesch, his meetings with Assad led to his book, The Lion of Damascus. Rob Malley, of the International Crisis Group, often mentions this or that meeting with the Syrian president.
Almost all of Assad’s visitors have become his admirers. But Belt, surprisingly to Moustapha, broke the rule.
Moustapha’s original expectations of Belt could be easily gleaned from the rebuttal: “He should have discussed the mosques and churches… He should have described the over 120 boutique restaurants… he would note that Syria is actually ‘cozying up’ to Turkey… He [did] not interview someone from, say the Syrian Young Entrepreneurs Association.”
When Moustapha received Belt in his office in Washington to give him a visa, he probably “suggested” people to be interviewed, all of whom are the regime’s protégés, in addition to Assad himself. Even though Belt was unknown to Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador probably reasoned that Damascus can always benefit from a pre-planned piece in the National Geographic, at the time the Syrian regime is fighting nail and tooth to win some of the US administration’s attention.
When Belt’s article described Syria and its dictatorship more accurately than Moustapha had expected, the Syrian ambassador received a stern scolding from Damascus and had to rectify the situation by writing a rebuttal that was more incriminating to the Syrian regime than vindicating.
And for all those who could not finish the seemingly endless Moustapha response, rest assured that the Syrian ambassador never refuted Belt’s accusations that the Syrian dictatorship had further tightened its grip by censoring Facebook, YouTube and a dozen other websites. Nor did Moustapha deign to answer the questions about the fate of the activists of the Damascus Spring.
After all, there are limits to how much tyranny an eloquent and intellectual Syrian ambassador can cover in one written document.

Shadowland
Poised to play a pivotal new role in the Middle East, Syria struggles to escape its dark past.
By Don Belt/National Geographic
Published: November 2009
There's a passage in The Godfather in which a young Michael Corleone, living abroad, realizes that with his older brother suddenly and violently deceased, he now stands anointed—doomed is more like it—to take over the Mafia empire his aging father has built from scratch. "Tell my father to get me home," he says to his host, resigned to the role he is now fated to play. "Tell my father I wish to be his son."
If there was a moment like that for Bashar al Assad, the current president of Syria, it came sometime after 7 a.m. on January 21, 1994, when the phone rang in his rented apartment in London. A tall, scholarly ophthalmologist, Bashar, then 28, was doing a residency at Western Eye Hospital, part of St. Mary's Hospital system in Britain. Answering the phone, he learned that his older brother, Basil, while racing to the Damascus airport in heavy fog that morning, had driven his Mercedes at high speed through a roundabout. Basil, a dashing and charismatic figure who'd been groomed to succeed their father as president, died instantly in the crash. And now he, Bashar, was being called home.
Fast-forward to June 2000 and the death of the father, Hafez al Assad, of heart failure at age 69. Shortly after the funeral, Bashar entered his father's office for only the second time in his life. He has a vivid memory of his first visit, at age seven, running excitedly to tell his father about his first French lesson. Bashar remembers seeing a big bottle of cologne on a cabinet next to his father's desk. He was amazed to find it still there 27 years later, practically untouched. That detail, the stale cologne, said a lot about Syria's closed and stagnant government, an old-fashioned dictatorship that Bashar, trained in healing the human eye, felt ill-equipped to lead.
"My father never talked to me about politics," Bashar told me. "He was a very warm and caring father, but even after I came home in 1994, everything I learned about his decision-making came from reading the notes he made during meetings, or by talking to his colleagues." One of those lessons was that, unlike performing eye surgery, running a country like Syria requires a certain comfort with ambiguity. Bashar, an avid photographer, compares it with a black-and-white photograph. "There's never pure black or pure white, all bad or all good," he said. "There are only shades of gray."
Syria is an ancient place, shaped by thousands of years of trade and human migration. But if every nation is a photograph, a thousand shades of gray, then Syria, for all its antiquity, is actually a picture developing slowly before our eyes. It's the kind of place where you can sit in a crowded Damascus café listening to a 75-year-old storyteller in a fez conjure up the Crusades and the Ottoman Empire as if they were childhood memories, waving his sword around so wildly that the audience dives for cover—then stroll next door to the magnificent Omayyad Mosque, circa A.D. 715, and join street kids playing soccer on its doorstep, oblivious to the crowds of Iranian pilgrims pouring in for evening prayers or the families wandering by with ice cream. It's also a place where you can dine out with friends at a trendy café, and then, while waiting for a night bus, hear blood-chilling screams coming from a second-floor window of the Bab Touma police station. In the street, Syrians cast each other knowing glances, but no one says a word. Someone might be listening.
The Assad regime hasn't stayed in power for nearly 40 years by playing nice. It has survived a tough neighborhood—bordered by Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey—by a combination of guile and cozying up to more powerful countries, first the Soviet Union and now Iran. In a state of war with Israel since 1948, Syria provides material support to the Islamist groups of Hezbollah and Hamas; it's also determined to reclaim the Golan Heights, a Syrian plateau captured by Israel in 1967. Relations with the United States, rarely good, turned particularly dire after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, when George W. Bush, citing Syria's opposition to the war and support for Iraqi insurgents, threatened regime change in Damascus and demonized Syria's young president as a Middle Eastern prince of darkness.
It's been nearly a decade since Bashar took office, and it's fair to ask what, if anything, has changed. It's also a good time to take stock, as Syria—responding to overtures from a new U.S. administration hungry for success in the Middle East—seems poised to resume a pivotal role in regional affairs. Henry Kissinger famously said you can't make war without Egypt or peace without Syria, and he's probably right. Like it or not, the road to Middle East peace runs right through Damascus. Yet even Bashar acknowledges that it will be hard for Syria to move forward without tending to its crippling internal disrepair.
Outside the ancient Hamadiya market in Damascus, a photograph of Hafez al Assad as tall as a three-story building once stood. Marked by a high forehead and poker player's eyes, the president's giant head peered out over his traffic-choked capital of four million people, as it did from billboards and posters all over Syria. Modeled on the totalitarian cults of the Soviet imperium, this Big Brother iconography always gave Syria the feel of being sealed in amber, trapped in an era when dictators were really dictators, the days of Stalin and Mao. This is the Syria that Hafez left behind.
In its place today, flanked by the city's Roman-era walls, is a large white billboard with a photograph of Syria's first postmodern president, waving. Bashar is shown with a buoyant grin on his catlike face, squinting over his whiskers into a bright sun. "I believe in Syria," the billboard says reassuringly. But it will take more than a smile and a slogan to reinvent his country, and he knows it. "What Syria needs now," Bashar told me, "is a change in the mentality."
The home village of the Assad family, Al Qardahah, sits on a mountainside facing west, sheltered and aloof as hill towns often are, yet so close to the Mediterranean that on a clear day you can see the fishing boats of Latakia, Syria's largest port, and the seabirds circling like confetti in the western sky. A modern, four-lane expressway rises like a ramp from the coast and delivers supplicants to the remote mountain village, where the streets are paved, houses upscale, and off-duty regime officials—large men in their 50s and 60s who carry themselves like Mafia dons on vacation—pad around town in their pajamas.
Hundreds of years ago Al Qardahah was an enclave of destitute Shiites who followed the Prophet's son-in-law and successor, Ali, so fervently that centuries before they'd been declared heretics by other Muslims and driven into the mountains of northwest Syria, where they came to be known as Alawis. Then in 1939, one of their own—a whip-smart, nine-year-old boy named Hafez—was sent down the mountain to get an education. He lived in Latakia while attending schools run by the French, who had taken over this part of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, in the great carving up of historic Syria (which included present-day Israel, Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, western Iraq, and southern Turkey) that Britain and France had plotted in the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916.
Quiet and tall for his age, Hafez was driven to succeed and ultimately to rule. After Syria gained its independence from France in 1946, he joined the Baath Party, a secular Arab nationalist movement that would seize control of Syria in 1963. Hafez rose through the ranks of the air force and was eventually appointed defense minister. From that position, in 1970, he mounted a bloodless coup with a trusted coterie of military officers, many of them fellow Alawis. Since then, followers of this tiny Shiite sect have managed to hang on to power in this complex, ethnically volatile nation of 20 million people, 76 percent of whom are Sunni—a scenario that one diplomat likens to the Beverly Hillbillies taking charge of California.
Hafez al Assad survived by becoming a world-class manipulator of geopolitical events, playing the weak hand he was dealt so cleverly that Bill Clinton called him the smartest Middle Eastern leader he'd ever met. Inside Syria, Hafez was a master at downplaying the country's potentially explosive religious identities and building an adamantly secular regime. He discouraged the use of the term Alawi in public and changed the name of his home region to the Western mountains; it is still considered impolite to ask about a Syrian's religion today. He also went out of his way to protect other religious minorities—Christians, Ismailis, Druze—because he needed them as a counterweight to the Sunnis.
Hafez was ruthless toward his enemies, especially the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist movement eager to remove the apostate Alawis from power and make Syria an Islamic state. To counter them, he built an elaborate internal security apparatus modeled after the communist police states of Eastern Europe. When the Brotherhood launched a series of attacks in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hafez sent his air force to bomb densely populated neighborhoods in the group's stronghold in Hama. His army bulldozed the smoking remains. Between 10,000 and 40,000 people were killed, and thousands more were jailed, tortured, and left to languish in prison. Despite criticism from human rights organizations, the regime soon unleashed its internal police on all political opponents.
When Hafez al Assad died in 2000, his body was returned to Al Qardahah and placed near that of his firstborn son, Basil, whose adrenaline-charged exploits on horseback, in uniform, and behind the wheel set him apart from his studious younger brother, a soft-spoken health nut whose musical taste runs to Yanni and the Electric Light Orchestra. Yet any suggestion that Bashar is a pushover is an illusion, says Ryan Crocker, who served as U.S. Ambassador in Damascus during the transition from father to son. "Bashar is so personable that it's easy to underestimate him," Crocker says. "But rest assured: He is his father's son."
A young man in an imitation black leather jacket was drawing in my notebook, launching a sailboat on a choppy sea with careful strokes of a blue pen. We were at a café overlooking the stony hills of northern Syria, watching cloud shadows play across a landscape of red soil and silver-green olive trees. Freedom, the man was saying. That's what we need.
"I'm not talking about political freedom," he said, glancing over his shoulder to be sure there were no mukhabarat, or secret police, about. "I mean the freedom to do things," he went on, "without getting strangled in rope by bureaucrats. In Syria, for guys like me, there's no incentive to try anything new, to create something. No way. You could never get approval from the government, or even the permits to think about it. Here it all comes down to who you know, what clan or village you're from, how much Vitamin Wow is in your pocket."
"Vitamin Wow?" I said, recalling that there is an Arabic letter pronounced "wow."
"Wasta!" he said, laughing. Money! Bribes!
"Where is your sailboat going?" I asked, nodding at his sketch.
"Nowhere," he said, grinning. "I've got no Vitamin Wow!"
Shortly after Bashar returned from London, he diagnosed Syria as suffering from an overdose of Vitamin Wow. After taking office in 2000, he launched a tough anticorruption campaign, firing a number of ministers and bureaucrats and vowing to replace old, wasta-loving ways with the "new mentality" he was seeking to instill. Swept up in the spirit of reform, he went on to release hundreds of political prisoners and eased the restrictions on political dissent—a so-called Damascus Spring that quickly spread from living rooms to a growing subculture of Internet cafés. It was Bashar himself who had made this last trend possible, working with like-minded technocrats to computerize Syria even before he became president. Over the objections of the country's powerful military-intelligence complex, Bashar had persuaded his father to connect Syria to the World Wide Web in 1998.
He also took steps to reboot Syria's stagnant economy. "Forty years of socialism—this is what we're up against," said Abdallah Dardari, 46, a London-educated economist who serves as deputy prime minister for economic affairs. Bashar has recruited Syria's best and brightest expatriates to return home. The new team has privatized the banking system, created duty-free industrial parks, and opened a Damascus stock exchange to encourage more of the private and foreign investment that has quickened the pulse of the capital and launched dozens of upscale nightclubs and restaurants.
"My job is to deliver for the people of Syria," said Bashar, who is known for occasionally dropping by a restaurant, leaving the bodyguards outside, to share a meal with other diners. In his push to modernize, Bashar's most potent ally is his wife, the former Asma al-Akhras, a stylish, Western-educated business executive who has launched a number of government-sponsored programs for literacy and economic empowerment. Daughter of a prominent Syrian heart specialist, Asma was born and raised in London. She and Bashar have three children, whom they're fond of taking on picnics and bicycle rides in the hills around the capital—a marked contrast to Hafez al Assad, who was rarely seen in public. "You only know what people need if you come in contact with them," Bashar said. "We refuse to live inside a bubble. I think that's why people trust us."
For more than 4,000 years, the city of Aleppo in northern Syria has been a crossroads for trade moving along the Fertile Crescent from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean. Guarded by a towering hilltop Citadel, Aleppo's 900-acre Old City has remained essentially intact since the Middle Ages. Today, entering its covered suq, the largest in the Arab world, is like stepping across some cobblestone threshold into the 15th century—a medieval mosh pit of shopkeepers, food vendors, gold merchants, donkey carts, craftsmen, trinket peddlers, beggars, and hustlers of all stripes, moving in a great colorful clanking parade of goat bells and sandaled feet. If Aleppo bureaucrats had gotten their way, much of this would be gone.
During the 1950s, urban planners in Aleppo began implementing a modern development plan, dissecting the Old City with wide, Western-style streets. In 1977, local residents, led by an Old City architect named Adli Qudsi, fought back and eventually got the government to change its plan. Today the Old City has been preserved and its infrastructure overhauled, with funds from both government and philanthropic sources. Once considered a crumbling relic, old Aleppo is now cited by Bashar as a prime example of the new mentality he's seeking, a model for how Syria's past, its greatest asset, can be retooled and made into a future.
"Syria has been a trading nation for millennia, so what we're trying to do is return the country to its entrepreneurial roots," said Dardari. "But it's not going to be easy: 25 percent of the Syrian workforce still draws a government paycheck. We've inherited an economy that runs on patronage and government money, and we can't keep it up."
To see what Dardari and the modernizers are up against, I toured a government cotton-processing plant in Aleppo reminiscent of factories in the Soviet Union, vast and crumbling monuments to rusty machinery. The plant manager rambled on like a good apparatchik about the aging factory's production figures and impeccable safety record—unaware that a group of workers had just told me about the lost fingers, crushed feet, and lung damage they had suffered. When I asked if the factory made a profit, he looked at me as if I were speaking in tongues.
By allowing private investment in state-run industries, starting with cement and oil processing, Bashar and his reformers hope to modernize their operations and run them more efficiently. Many jobs have been lost in the process, and prices, no longer subsidized, have soared. But so many Syrians depend on government-supplied incomes from the cotton industry—a primary source of export revenue—that it remains mostly state run.
In many respects, the Syria that Bashar inherited bears all the signs of an antique enterprise, ready for the wrecking ball. Built by the Syrian Baath Party in the 1960s, the system of state enterprises and government jobs raised living standards and brought education and health care to rural villages, but its foundation resembles the corrupt and moribund Eastern-bloc socialism that collapsed under its own weight in the early 1990s. The Syrian bureaucracy is even older, having been erected from the fallen timbers of Ottoman and French colonial rule.
Education reform is also on Bashar's drawing board, and not a moment too soon. Syrian schoolchildren are taught by rote memorization from aging textbooks, and judged, even at the university level, by the number of facts they know. In Damascus, once revered as an intellectual capital of the eastern world, it's hard to find a bookstore that isn't stocked with communist-era treatises penned by Baath Party ideologues.
"My 11-year-old daughter is so confused," said Dardari. "She hears from me at home about free markets and the way the world works, and then she goes to school and learns from textbooks written in the 1970s that preach Marxism and the triumph of the proletariat. She comes home with this look on her face and says, 'Daddy, I feel like a Ping-Pong ball!' "
When a son goes into the family business, the old way of doing things can be very hard to change. And even though the eldest son, Basil, was considered more like his father, Bashar has ended up following in his footsteps—in more ways than one. A year into his presidency, planes hit the World Trade Center in New York City, and suddenly the threat to secular, "non-Muslim" regimes like Syria's from al Qaeda and its cousins in the Muslim Brotherhood appeared stronger than ever. The U.S. invasion of Iraq—and subsequent saber rattling toward Damascus—inflamed Syria's Islamists even further, while swamping the country with some 1.4 million Iraqi refugees, most of whom never returned home. Some believe that Bashar, in a move reminiscent of his father, diverted the widespread rage in Syria away from his vulnerable regime toward the Americans across the border in Iraq, allowing jihadists to use Syria as a staging area and transit point.
Even before 9/11, Bashar had backtracked on political reform and freedom of expression. His anticorruption drive had stalled, undermined by the shady business dealings of his own extended family. Investigations into the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut led to Syria's doorstep; shortly thereafter Bashar rearrested many of the political prisoners he'd released just a few years earlier. And last year, in an ironic twist for a self-confessed computer nerd who brought the Internet to Syria, Bashar's government banned a long list of websites, ranging from Arabic news sites to YouTube and Facebook. In all this, some see Bashar as the victim of reactionary elements within the regime—the youthful idealist dragged down by forces he is powerless to resist. Others see a young godfather learning to flex his muscles.
Bashar blames the U.S. invasion of Iraq for pushing the region, and Syria, into a dark corner and defends his tough internal security measures as vital weapons in the struggle to survive. Whether he's talking about the survival of Syria, or his regime, is unclear. "We're in a state of war with Israel," he said. "We've had conflicts with the Muslim Brotherhood since the 1950s. But now we have a much worse danger from al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is a state of mind. It's a CD, it's a booklet. And it's very hard to detect. This is why we need a strong internal security."
Members of the opposition, nearly all of them underground or in jail, don't buy that argument, having heard it used for 30 years to smother any spark of dissent. While acknowledging that today's repression is administered with a lighter touch, the activists I talked to consider the differences between Bashar's regime and his father's to be cosmetic. "Bashar seems like a pretty nice guy, but the government is more than one person," said a young human rights activist I met secretly with in a tiny, book-lined apartment on the outskirts of the capital. He'd been interrogated a half dozen times by various agencies of state security. "Living here is something like a phobia," he went on, smoking a cigarette, dark circles under his eyes. "You always feel like someone's watching. You look around and there's no one there. So you think, I shouldn't have this feeling, but I do. I must be crazy. This is what they want."
Whatever its purpose, Syria's shadow of fear, the cloud that blocks its sun, is pervasive. To protect my sources for this article, I've left a number of people unnamed, fearing that they'd be arrested once it's published. An academician I met in Aleppo, for example, was harshly interrogated after attending a conference where Israeli scientists were present. After trying to browbeat him into informing on others, the interrogators let him go with a warning not to breathe a word or his file would be reopened. In Idlib, an Islamic fundamentalist hotbed south of Aleppo, a merchant compared living in Syria, with its internal security apparatus, to "walking sideways with a ladder, always having to think ahead and watch every little move you make."
One morning in Damascus, I was talking to a group of day laborers in a park, scruffy guys in their late teens and early twenties who were looking for work. Most were from southern Syria around Dara, and we were debating what kind of city Dara is. They were bad-mouthing it as a dry and dirty hellhole; I was defending it, having passed through a number of times on my way to Jordan. While we were bantering, a bullish, middle-aged man in a green polo shirt and wraparound sunglasses drifted over and listened in. As the workers became aware of him, our discussion murmured to a halt.
"Dara is a truly great city," the newcomer finally said, with an air of steely finality. The others moved away, suddenly afraid of this man. To see what he would do, I told him I was scheduled to see the president and asked if he'd like me to convey a message. He stared at me for a long moment, then went over and sat on a bench, scribbling in a notebook. I figured he was writing a report on me, or perhaps issuing some kind of ticket. A few minutes later, he was back.
"Please pass this to the president," he said, handing me a slip of paper folded so many times it was the size of a spitball. Then he turned and walked away. On it he had scrawled his name and phone number and a message in rough Arabic: "Salute, Dr. President Bashar, the respected. This paper is from a national Syrian young man from Al Hasakah who needs very much a job in the field of public office, and thank you."
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