Proven Liar, VP Dick Cheney Still Holds Foreign Policy Reins Regarding Syria
In the waning days of the criminal Bush regime, Dick Cheney still holds the reins of stubborn, erroneous, dangerous neocon foreign policy. Nothing has changed, with Bush's polls stuck in the 27% approval ratings and sneering, snide Cheney polling even worse.
As the Bush puppet master, he runs the executive branch, and his ruinous policies are Bush's policies.
Given this backgroud, Jim Lobe at IPS News explains the latest maneuvers between the US and Syria
"A series of meetings between U.S. and Syrian diplomats, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her counterpart, Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, at the United Nations over the past week is stirring speculation that Washington may at last be moving toward engaging Damascus.
"Instead of focusing on specific issues of special interest to the U.S. -- mainly Washington's demands that Syria crack down hard against the infiltration of Sunni extremists into Iraq and stop supplying Hezbollah in Lebanon -- the discussions also reportedly covered other topics as well, notably Damascus's appeals for Washington to involve directly itself in a burgeoning peace process between Syria and Israel.
"Both Damascus and Tel Aviv have called for U.S. engagement as a way of furthering year-old indirect talks that have been mediated by the Turkish government. While Rice has publicly blessed the process, hawks within the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, particularly Vice President Dick Cheney's office and a deputy national security adviser in charge of the Middle East, Elliott Abrams, have opposed any additional involvement."
"Both Damascus and Tel Aviv have called for U.S. engagement as a way of furthering year-old indirect talks that have been mediated by the Turkish government. While Rice has publicly blessed the process, hawks within the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, particularly Vice President Dick Cheney's office and a deputy national security adviser in charge of the Middle East, Elliott Abrams, have opposed any additional involvement."
(Elliot Abrams was one of the lawbreaking Reagan officials in the Iran-Contra crime, charged with many felony counts but not indicted because he copped a plea for a couple of misdemeanors instead...ain't that always the way in Republican administrations....for which he escaped serving any time in prison that he so richly deserved. Abams was pardoned by another member of the Reagan regime crime cabal, George H. W. Bush.)
"Nothing is a breakthrough, and I'm not sure that there will be," Rice, who met with Moallem on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York Friday, told Bloomberg TV Monday. "But it's time to talk about some of the changes that are taking place in the Middle East."
"Nothing is a breakthrough, and I'm not sure that there will be," Rice, who met with Moallem on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York Friday, told Bloomberg TV Monday. "But it's time to talk about some of the changes that are taking place in the Middle East."
(Condi has been the worst head of the NSA and Secretary of State which is par for the course in this worst administration in modern US history.)
"...Bush himself had referred to Syria as a ''sponsor of terrorism'' in his speech to the General Assembly just last week.
"As with Iran and North Korea, the split between administration hawks and realists over Syria is a familiar one...
"As with Iran and North Korea, the split between administration hawks and realists over Syria is a familiar one...
"Amid charges that Syria was facilitating the smuggling of Sunni extremists into Iraq, Washington's hostility toward Damascus grew steadily after the invasion and climaxed after the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri which the U.S. blamed on Syria.
"Saturday's car-bombing that killed some 17 people in Damascus itself could bolster the Pentagon's longstanding case that greater intelligence cooperation with Syria could serve the interests of both countries. Most analysts have pointed to Sunni extremists, possibly tied to al Qaeda, as the most likely perpetrators.
" 'With its Lebanon policy a shambles and its efforts to isolate Syria defied by France, Turkey, and Israel itself, it really doesn't make sense for the White House to continue stiffing the Syrians," said Landis, [a Syria specialist at the University of Oklahoma who publishes the widely read www.syriacomment.com blog] 'It's really just pure stubbornness at this point.' "
" 'With its Lebanon policy a shambles and its efforts to isolate Syria defied by France, Turkey, and Israel itself, it really doesn't make sense for the White House to continue stiffing the Syrians," said Landis, [a Syria specialist at the University of Oklahoma who publishes the widely read www.syriacomment.com blog] 'It's really just pure stubbornness at this point.' "
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