Press Release 
New England Americans for Lebanon Boston, Massachusetts,
May 4, 2003
To the Dustbin of History!

"END SYRIAN OCCUPATION NOW", "SYRIA OUT NOW", "UN RESOLUTION 520"?

With these and many other banners, the young men and women of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) once again peacefully marched in Beirut yesterday to deliver the message of all the Lebanese people to visiting US Secretary of State Colin Powell: Syria get out now!

And once again, the Lebanese puppet regimešs security machinery, trained and infiltrated by the Syrian Mukhabarat Intelligence Services, exercised its knee-jerk reaction to peaceful assembly and public expression of opinion: brutal and violent repression. Fortunately, this is one of the last gasps of the jointed Syrian-Lebanese Stalinist monster, whose fate will be to disband like its clone in Iraq and be thrown in the dustbin of history.

With Secretary Powell in Beirut and Damascus this weekend to issue an ultimatum to the Syrian dictator to either comply with the American roadmap or face disastrous consequences, calls by French Minister Dominique de Villepin on Syria to "continue to withdraw" from Lebanon have yet again revealed Francešs duplicity in dealing with the Middle East. The sudden interest by Francešs Chirac in Lebanese sovereignty, only a few months after telling the Lebanese people that the Syrian occupation is a "Lebanese internal affair", is clearly intended to sideline the American initiative.

The Lebanese people are not dupes, and France will pay dearly for its unethical mismanagement of the Lebanese tragedy. The historical "friendship" between Lebanon and France has been irreversibly undermined by Francešs unprincipled support for the Syrian dictatorship at the expense of the freedom and sovereignty of Lebanon. Already the cultural and educational underpinnings of that "friendship" are on their way to the dustbin of history: Today, there is a preponderance of American-style English-speaking schools and universities in Lebanon. The Lebanese people now know who the decision-makers are and where the future is.

To our brothers and sisters in Lebanon who continue to courageously and peacefully confront the occupier and its lackeys, we pledge our full support. From this city that launched the American Revolution against British tyranny, we call on you to remain steadfast in your convictions. You are leaders of your generation and you carry the sacred promise of a better future for Lebanon.

New England Americans for Lebanon
Long Live Free Lebanon