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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11May/08

A Dissident in Paris

Middle East, Syria, , ,

Jan. 17, 2004

By NIR BOMS & ERICK STAKELBECK

Nizar Nayouf has not only seen hell, he has even lived to tell about it. Barely.

Just 41 years old, Nayouf suffers from permanent spinal injuries, a failing left kidney, a bleeding gastric ulcer, and deteriorating eyesight. He also has paralysis in his lower extremities and unsightly disfigurements caused by cigarette burns that were anything but accidental.

The source of Nayouf’s ailments, and the scene of his own personal hell, was Syria’s Palestine Prison, which is run by the Syrian Intelligence Service or “Mukhabarat,” famous for its unrelenting cruelty.

His crime? Founding a human rights organization and speaking out against a Ba’athist regime that has held Syria in a totalitarian grip for four decades.

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