Asma and Bashar al-Assad -- a match made in hell

Fox News

www.theguardian.com

By Dr. Keith Ablow

Since their marriage in 2000, Asma al-Assad, stylish wife of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has stood by his side through thick and thin.  This, despite the fact that  her husband Bashar presides over a government which Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch insist routinely tortures, imprisons and kills its political opponents. Most recently, of course, his government is accused of killing over a thousand Syrian men, women and children using chemical weapons.

Asma, who is pretty and fit, is also smart. She was an investment banker at J.P. Morgan when she met the Syrian president, who was then training in London to be an eye surgeon.  

Now, people around the world wonder how a woman born in the United Kingdom, with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and French literature, could have stood by as her husband amassed a fortune over $1 billion while serving in public office. And how she could post Instagram photographs of her charity work while presumably hearing that her husband’s regime has used chemical gas to asphyxiate children.

The answer is simple:  Being pretty is no antidote to being greedy nor corrupt nor lacking empathy, even though people instinctively think it ought to be.  

Bashar and Asma are a match made in hell because they feed one another’s needs to keep reality at bay.  

Being smart and educated is no antidote to being an accomplice, to being an accessory to organized crime (whether as a mafia don’s wife or a dictator’s wife).  

And having children is no antidote to malignant narcissism.

You can be slim and wear stylish clothes and have an above-average IQ and still have such deep questions about whether you are worth anything at all, presumably because no one ever loved you for real.  

And then you can go about trying to fill yourself up with money, power and the adulation of others, no matter what it takes—including killing people.  

In fact, it is an expected result of running from one’s own self-loathing, cloaked in finery and fakery and fraud, that the real and decent people who interact with you will end up emptied out, of their money or their life force, by being in contact with you -- let alone having you as their “first lady.”

Bashar al-Assad may have turned out to be a decent eye surgeon if he had indulged the healer inside him, instead of being commandeered by his dictator father into dictatorship.  

And Asma al-Assad may have turned out to be a teacher of French literature had she not been raised in an environment that made her famished for finery and fame, such that she traded in her humanity for a palace, which only means she never grew up in anything like a home.

Bashar and Asma are a match made in hell because they feed one another’s needs to keep reality at bay.  

They are a dynamic duo of destruction because they were, at some point, for all intents and purposes, destroyed in their humanness. 

Now they are in league to distance themselves from that reality, whatever it takes—even killing kids, which is only a stark physical representation of what must have happened to them, psychologically.

Add to this the fact that a large segment of the world community has endorsed their brand of tyranny to keep another malignancy at bay -- radical Islam -- and all the ingredients for chemical weapons were stirring in the cauldron for years.  

Because there’s one thing about monsters that is confounding:  They are sometimes ruthless at tearing down other monsters.  

All marriages make psychological sense, even the ones that make for mass murder.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/09/06/asma-and-bashar-al-assad-match-made-in-hell/#ixzz2e89Hk1JZ

Assad: West will pay for backing al Qaeda in Syria

worldnews

SANA via Reuters

Syria's President Bashar Assad, right, attends an interview with Syrian television channel al-Ikhbariya in Damascus, in this handout photograph distributed by Syria's national news agency SANA on April 17.

By Mariam Karouny and Dominic Evans, Reuters

President Bashar Assad accused the West on Wednesday of supporting al Qaeda militants in Syria's civil war and warned they would turn against their backers and strike "in the heart of Europe and the United States."

Assad also launched his strongest criticism yet of neighboring Jordan for allowing thousands of fighters to cross the border to join a conflict he insisted his forces would win and save Syria from destruction.

"We have no choice but victory. If we don't win, Syria will be finished and I don't think this is a choice for any citizen in Syria," the defiant president said in a television interview.

Assad's forces have been fighting back across the country against rebels who have taken control of much of rural Syria and seized a provincial capital in March for the first time in two years of fighting.

The conflict started with mainly peaceful demonstrations but descended into a civil war in which the United Nations says at least 70,000 people have been killed. Islamist militants have emerged as the most potent of the anti-Assad rebels.

Drawing parallels with Western support for anti-Soviet fighters in Afghanistan in the 1980s, some of whom later formed the al Qaeda organization which attacked the United States in September 2011, Assad said Washington and Europe would regret supporting rebels in Syria.

"The West paid heavily for funding al Qaeda in its early stages in Afghanistan. Today it is supporting it in Syria, Libya and other places, and will pay a heavy price later in the heart of Europe and the United States," he told al-Ikhbariya channel.

"The truth is, what is happening is that we are mainly facing extremist forces," Assad added.

He was speaking a week after Syria's rebel al-Nusra Front, one of the most effective rebel forces battling his troops, formally pledged allegiance to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

The United States has designated the Nusra Front a terrorist organization and has sought to bolster rival rebel forces to counter the influence of the Islamists, training fighters in neighboring Jordan and allowing arms shipments to them.

In some of his toughest comments against Jordan, Assad said Syria's southern neighbor had allowed thousands of fighters with military gear to cross into Syria to join the fight, and warned that the conflict could spread to Jordanian territory.

"The fire will not stop at our border and everybody knows that Jordan is exposed as Syria is," he said.

He said Syria had sent a security envoy to Amman in recent weeks to inquire about the fighters and reports of rebel training camps but he was met with "complete denial" of any Jordanian role in either issue.

The United States will send 200 troops to Jordan in the coming weeks to help the kingdom boost its defenses in the face of a "deteriorating situation" in Syria, Jordanian Minister of State for Information Mohammad al-Momani told Reuters.

Rebels say U.S. officers in Jordan have been training groups of anti-Assad fighters from Damascus and the southern province of Deraa - where fighting has intensified in recent weeks and rebels have made gains.

"It's not possible to believe that thousands enter Syria with their gear (from Jordan) when Jordan is able to stop or arrest a single person carrying a simple weapon for resistance in Palestine," Assad said.

From Dallas to Damascus: The Texas 'straight shooter' who could replace Syria's Assad

World News

Ozan Kose / AFP - Getty Images

Ghassan Hitto, speaking to reporters after his March 18 election as Syria's interim prime minister.

By Ayman Mohyeldin and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

He is a “straight shooter” from Texas who worked as a telecoms executive until November. But Ghassan Hitto now finds himself the presumptive caretaker-leader of Syria as world powers plot the end of Bashar Assad’s crumbling regime.

The American citizen, born in Syria, is the new prime minister of the opposition’s interim government – the apparatus that the international community hopes will seal the end of Assad’s rule.

Friends describe Hitto, 50, as “sincere” and “practical,” but the charismatic technocrat will need all the charm he can muster to unify Syria’s fragmented opposition.

His rapid rise has prompted questions about how the deadly conflict should end and has cast a light on infighting, fueled by regional countries purportedly supporting certain opposition figures.

The Free Syrian Army, one of the key rebel groups fighting Assad’s forces on the ground inside Syria, responded to Hitto’s appointment in Istanbul on March 18 by refusing to recognize his authority.

“The situation there is so dire, I’m afraid for him,” said Mustafa Carroll, who worked alongside Hitto in Texas as a volunteer at Muslim advocacy groups. “It’s a big responsibility and it’s very complicated.”

“He’s a straight shooter, very sincere, very well-regarded and a very active community person,” said Carroll, who is director of the Houston chapter of the Council for American-Islamic Relations.

Seen as Muslim Brotherhood's pickHitto, a father of four, lived in the U.S. for three decades, most recently on the outskirts of Dallas working as director of operations for telecoms supplier Inovar, where co-worker Arshad Syed remembers him as "honest" and "personable."

He left Syria in the early 1980s and received an MBA at Indiana Wesleyan University on top of a degree in computer science and mathematics from Purdue University in Indianapolis.

Strongly active in community groups, he was a member of the board of directors at the private Islamic school Bright Horizons Academy, in Garland, Texas, where his wife Suzanne still teaches English.

In November, he made the decision to get involved in the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces -- the international grouping that seeks to end Syria’s civil war on the condition that Assad is removed from power.

“Like a lot of people living away, he just wanted to help his homeland,” said Carroll.

Hitto’s wife did not return calls, but the academy issued a statement describing him as “a practical man with great management experience.”

It said: “He was always open minded and open to debate. He conducted himself with the highest honesty and integrity. His talent for bringing people together for the common good will be missed in our community.”

Hitto, a respected technocrat but an inexperienced politician, won the overwhelming number of votes from those who cast a ballot -- other possible candidates that included a former Syrian regime official -- but some members of the Coalition boycotted the vote in protest at the process.

Not everyone was convinced the opposition needed an interim government, seeing it as yet another organization that could compete for control of a post-Assad Syria.

Official spokesman Walid al-Bunni walked out of the vote in protest and Moaz al-Khatib, president of the Coalition, resigned and had to be persuaded back on board just in time for the Arab Summit in Doha, which began Tuesday.

“Hitto’s whole role has been undermined from the start,” said Christopher Phillips, associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at U.K. think tank, Chatham House.

“He’s very much the Muslim Brotherhood’s man, and is seen as such. There was a lot of pressure to get an interim opposition leader in place ahead of the Doha talks, but the way in which it was done, and the choice of very much the man that Qatar and Turkey wanted, has infuriated and alienated just about every key player in the process.”

Represents 'the some of the some'Salman Shaik, director of the Brookings Center in Doha, said many Syrians "still regard the appointment of Hitto with suspicion." Even if Assad is toppled from power, Hitto is by no means certain of the authority he needs to implement free and fair elections.

“The huge elephant in the room is that there is no guarantee that, if and when the Assad regime falls, that any of the groups fighting in Syria will gather around this official opposition,” said Phillips. “There are huge uncertainties in all of this.”

Abdulrahman al-Rashed, commentator and general manager of the Al Arabiya news channel, wrote: “I am confident that Mr. Hitto is a respectable person and that he cares about Syria. But during this difficult time, we want a person who represents everyone and not only some Syrians. Some members of the Syrian coalition decided to choose Hitto but the coalition itself only represents some Syrians. Therefore, Hitto represents the some of the some!”

Yasser Tabarra, the Chicago-based legal adviser to the Coalition, says the interim government will focus on managing the 60 to 70 percent of the country that is liberated and controlled by opposition rebels.

The government would coordinate local management efforts, including establishing law and order, and delivering basic goods and services, Tabarra said.

Two key stumbling blocks remain: whether the Coalition should enter into any form of negotiations with the regime while Assad is still in power, and whether Hitto, an ethnic Kurd viewed as the Muslim Brotherhood's favored candidate, can unite the ideological differences between its liberal and Islamist members.

In his task, Hitto at least has the backing of the U.S.

“This is an individual who, out of concern for the Syrian people, left a very successful life in Texas to go and work on humanitarian relief for the people of his home country,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland after Hitto’s election.

“We’re very hopeful that his election will foster unity and cohesion among the opposition.”

NBC News' Becky Bratu contributed to this report.

Obama Administration To Extend Direct Aid To Syrian Rebels

patdollard

Excerpted from THE HILL: The White House is considering plans to extend direct aid to Syrian rebels seeking the ouster of President Bashar Assad, according to a report.
The move, first reported by The Washington Post on Wednesday, would be a major policy shift for the administration, which has been reluctant to provide any military assistance to the Syrian opposition.

According to the report, the White House is weighing a number of proposals that could include providing equipment such as body armor and armored vehicles or military training. The administration is also considering sending humanitarian aid directly to the rebel groups. But White House officials still remain opposed to providing the opposition with weapons, according to the Post.
The Obama administration has faced pressure from many lawmakers to do more to help forces battling Assad, but the White House has expressed fears that military hardware could fall into the hands of Islamist insurgents.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) earlier this month called Syria one of the “most shameful chapters” in U.S. diplomatic history and said it was “disgraceful” that Obama was not doing more to aid the insurrection.
The contentious issue has also led to splits within the administration, with former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta telling lawmakers during a hearing that he and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had backed providing arms to rebels last year. That push, though, was overruled by the president.

The report also comes as Secretary of State John Kerry is in Europe this week, where he will attend a summit with members of the Syrian opposition to discuss efforts to bring a peaceful end to the civil war.
Syrian opposition leaders had threatened to boycott this week’s summit, expressing frustration that Western powers were not doing enough to aid their fight. But the leaders agreed to sit down for multilateral talks after Kerry made public and private pleas asking them to join multilateral talks.
The Syrian regime on Monday also said that they would be open to peace talk with the rebels, but the Obama administration has questioned their sincerity and insisted that any agreement must be preconditioned on Assad leaving power.

“That future cannot include Bashar al-Assad, who has long since forsaken any opportunity he might have had to participate in Syria’s future,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Monday. “He has so much blood on his hands. He has been engaging in a prolonged assault on his own people that has cost tens of thousands of lives, of innocent civilian lives.”

Canciller ruso: La marcha de Assad como precondición para el diálogo es imposible

Assad mobbed by exultant supporters after rare speech

RussiaToday

Assad gives defiant speech as Syrian rebels edge closer to Damascus

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Al Assad estudiaría pedir asilo en Cuba, Ecuador o Venezuela

EUROPA PRESS/

abc.es

   El presidente sirio, Bashar al Assad, está estudiando la posibilidad de pedir asilo político para él, su familia y su círculo más cercano en Cuba, Ecuador o Venezuela, en caso de que finalmente se vea obligado a abandonar Damasco, según informa este miércoles el diario israelí 'Haaretz'.

   La semana pasada, el viceministro de Exteriores sirio, Faisal al Miqdad, mantuvo encuentros en estos tres países iberoamericanos y llevó consigo cartas personales clasificadas de Al Assad a los presidentes de estos países.

   Desde el Ministerio de Exteriores venezolano han confirmado al diario 'El Universal' que Al Miqdad entregó una carta para el presidente del país, Hugo Chávez, que éste recibió antes de viajar a Cuba el miércoles pasado para recibir tratamiento.

   Un portavoz oficial venezolano ha confirmado a 'Haaretz' que el mensaje de Al Assad se refería a la "relación personal entre los dos presidentes" y que la visita del viceministro demuestra la estrecha relación entre los dos países.

   El embajador sirio en Venezuela, Ghassan Abbas, también ha confirmado al diario que Al Miqdad mantuvo contactos con responsables venezolanos en Caracas, pero ha asegurado no tener conocimiento sobre el contenido de la misiva de Al Assad.

   Desde que empezó el conflicto en Siria, Chávez ha expresado abiertamente su respaldo a Al Assad y Venezuela ha enviado petróleo y combustible al país asiático en varias ocasiones, recuerda el rotativo israelí.

   Según 'Haaretz', que no cita fuentes, el viceministro de Exteriores sirio mantuvo reuniones similares la semana pasada en La Habana y en Quito.