Via Gateway (who has more) The Washington Post:
No Results in Damascus
Having finished hosting U.S. politicians, Syria’s dictator has returned to jailing dissidents and sponsoring terrorism.THE CONGRESSIONAL leaders who visited Damascus this month to meet Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad gave a practical test to the oft-stated theory that “engaging” his regime is more likely to produce results than the Bush administration’s policy of isolating it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was particularly unstinting in her goodwill, declaring that she had come to see Mr. Assad “in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace.” In a statement, her delegation reported that it had talked to Mr. Assad about stopping the flow of foreign terrorists to Iraq and about obtaining the release of kidnapped Israeli soldiers. It also said it had “conveyed our strong interest in the cases of [Syrian] democracy activists,” such as imprisoned human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni.
Three weeks have passed, so it’s fair to ask: Has there been any positive change in Syrian behavior — any return gesture of goodwill, however slight?
Mr. al-Bunni might offer the best answer — if he could. On Tuesday, one of Mr. Assad’s judges sentenced him to five years in prison. His “crimes” were to speak out about the torture and persecution of regime opponents, to found the Syrian Human Rights Association and to sign the “Damascus Declaration,” a pro-democracy manifesto.
…What of the other items on the U.S. congressional agenda? Well, there has been a major surge in suicide bombings in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq this month, in what U.S. commanders describe as an attempt by al-Qaeda to defeat the new security operation in the capital. According to U.S. and Iraqi officials, almost all suicide bombers in Iraq are foreigners, and some 80 percent of them pass through Syria. The border remains as porous as ever…
You might visit the Reform Party of Syria while you are at it.
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[tags] Nancy Pelosi, Syria, Bashar Al-Assad, Anwar al-Bunni, democracy, Iraq [/tags]
The Pelosi trip to Syria had more to do with sticking her finger in Bush’s eye than the middle east. The message, “in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace.†was not for Syria’s el-Assad but George Bush. It meant ‘We won and we are taking over’