Nancy Pelosi Embraces Terror State
NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Nancy Pelosi Embraces Terror State
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has come under criticism for her visit to Syria as Bush administration officials charge that the trip undermines U.S. efforts to isolate the hard-line Arab country.
The White House was also sharply critical of visits to Syria in December by Pelosi's fellow Democrats Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Christopher Dodd and Sen. Bill Nelson, as well as a trip by Republican Sen. Arlen Specter.
The fact is, Syria is a brutal dictatorship that actively supports terrorists – including Iraqi Sunni insurgents that operate from Syrian territory.
Pelosi says Syria and its leader Bashar Assad are interested in peace talks with Israel. But here is the real story about this rogue nation:
In 2002, then Undersecretary of State John Bolton added Syria to the "Axis of Evil," a group of nations that the U.S. charges with sponsoring terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction.
The U.S. accuses Syria of acting as a conduit for Iranian arms destined for Hezbollah terrorists. Both Hezbollah and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas have offices in Damascus, the Syrian capital.
Last year a former Iraqi military officials said Saddam Hussein had sent his weapons of mass destruction to Syria before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Syria has been in a self-proclaimed "state of emergency" since 1963, which it uses to justify arbitrary arrests and detentions without trial. The state restricts freedom of speech, the press and assembly and outlaws political opposition.
Amnesty International estimates that Syria currently holds about 600 political prisoners, but Human Rights Watch puts the number in the thousands.
Freedom House rates Syria a 7 on a scale that ranks countries from 1 to 7, with 1 being the "most free" and 7 the "least free."
An estimated 300,000 Syrian Kurds – about 10 percent of the population – are denied citizenship.
Ever since Bashar Assad's father seized power in 1970, the government has been under the control of the secretive Alawite sect, which comprises less than 10 percent of the population. The Alawites consider themselves Shiites, but both the Shiites and Sunnis do not recognize the Alawites as Muslims.
In 1982, Syria savagely put down an uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood, laying siege to the city of Hama and shelling it. More than 20,000 people were slaughtered, although some estimates put the number at 40,000.
Syrian troops occupied Lebanon in 1976 and launched a campaign of terror and assassination against anti-Syrian voices in the country.
In February 2005, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated by a car bomb in Beirut. A United Nations probe implicated Syria, and international pressure forced the Syrians to withdraw their troops from Lebanon in April 2005.
The assassinations did not end with the Syrian troop withdrawal. This past November, Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel was gunned down by Syrian assassins in Beirut.
Elias Bejjani, chairman of the Canadian Lebanese Coordinating Council, said in February that Syria, along with Iran, "carry out their anti-Lebanese, anti-peace, and anti-world destructive schemes in and via Lebanon." |
