Category Archives: Middle East

11May/08

Another Syrian Round of Applause

Middle East, Syria, ,

by Nir Boms

“We are neither a great power nor a weak country, we are not a country without cards or foundations” said Syrian president Basher Assad in a recent interview as he planned to pull another card from his sleeve. “We are not a country that can be passed over with respect to the issues.” He continued with words, which may have been corroborated by Secretary of State Colin Powell that made Damascus one of his first stops after the fall of Baghdad, in spite of Pentagon opposition. Six months later, our “ally in the war against terrorism” remains a primary source and a transit point for the foreign terrorists working to destabilize Iraq. The failed Yemeni truck bomber detained last week in Baghdad holding a Syrian passport is not the first of his kind by a long shot. 

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11May/08

Assad Under Siege

Middle East, Syria, ,

By Nir Boms/ Daveed Gartenstein-Ross
Published May 15, 2006

“Iran and Syria are in the same boat,” said former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani during a visit to Damascus on April 12. In likening the two countries’ predicaments, Mr. Rafsanjani continued, “The enemies of Syria are trying to increase the pressure, but the resistance of the Syrian people will continue.” He is right: The Syrian people are resisting more than ever before. But the new wave of resistance isn’t what Mr. Rafsanjani had in mind. 

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11May/08

A Syrian Alternative

Middle East, Syria, , ,

By Nir Boms
FrontPageMagazine.com | September 6, 2005

The “pursuit of peace and stability in the Middle East” – a stated American foreign policy objective in the region – appears more remote these days after another wave of terrorist attacks in Iraq, continuing terror threats in Europe, and the recent launch of an Al-Qaida cell in the Gaza strip. It is clear that this war is far from over and much of the threat remains hidden from view. Terrorists themselves cannot operate without institutional support and without state sponsored funds. This is one more reason why Syria has been the focal point of attention: according to Major General David Rodriguez, commander of U.S. forces in northwestern Iraq, the U.S. forces have killed or captured 170 foreign fighters in his area in the past three months alone, most of whom are believed to have infiltrated the country from Syria.

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11May/08

A Sheikh Speaks

Middle East, Syria,

By NIR BOMS
August 9, 2006

When Sheikh Abdullah Algharib Alhamad Altamimee, a Syrian Sufi scholar who has been teaching Islam for 13 years, decided to speak against the Assad regime, he broke with a thousand years of Sufi tradition. When he decided to travel to Washington last month and officially join the ranks of opposition, he told his wife that his life was no longer in his hands. His call for change could not have come at a more difficult time, in the midst of another bloody chapter in the Middle East. Yet perhaps now is when his words are needed most.

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