"Hence, it is not a far stretch to say that by pressing Syria

"Hence, it is not a far stretch to say that by pressing Syria to permit the UN to question the six staff being referred to, Mehlis was endeavoring to acquire Syria's refusal, instead of its acknowledgement, of the proposed set of terms." 

Completely genuine. By and by, the Mehlis-Damascus debate has indicated to the popular supposition and to the world's chiefs that Syria is not collaborating, notwithstanding the irritating talk. At one point, Shareh egotistically asserted that it was Mehlis who wasn't chipping in with Syria, in spite of the way that the 1636 determination plainly says that Syria's participation must be unlimited. 

Mehlis has set a trap and, by not coordinating, the Syrian pioneers were effectively controled (which is not astounding whatsoever, considering their crudeness). 

Setting the post-Mehlis elements 

One month back, Michael Young said the accompanying in a fabulous publication distributed in Slate : 

This was barely news to numerous Lebanese, who had since quite a while ago accepted Syria was behind Hariri's homicide. Anyway Mehlis accomplished more than simply point a finger: His examination, made by U.n. Security Council Resolution 1595, was intended to brace a Lebanese legal investigation into the death, coming full circle in a trial. That is the reason a vital part of the report was Mehlis' call for a "supported exertion from the global group to make a support and participation stage together with the Lebanese commanding voices in the field of security and equity." 

Mehlis' due date was stretched out until mid-December, however he made it clear in his report that much more of an opportunity was required, specifically to question Syrian authorities outside Syria, far from the scaring eye of the brainpower administrations. Viably, Mehlis tried to organize an all the more long haul legal exertion that, in principle, could keep going for a considerable length of time. 

Syria's resistance may lead the UN to expand Mehlis' order for the second time, however this command won't be expanded for eternity. Sometime, a Lebanese court or a global tribunal will need to assume control over the case. By questioning the suspects in Lebanon, Mehlis was possibly attempting to enable the Lebanese legal. Had Syria consented to chip in by sending the suspected officers in Lebanon, it would have set a point of reference that would have permitted the Lebanese equity to convene Syrian suspects in Lebanon and to hold a trial in Lebanon. 

Taking the Hariri case to an universal court is a bad dream for Syria. 

1) A Lebanese tribunal might be controled through Lahoud and his equity clergyman 

2) A global tribunal is named by the worldwide group and therefore has more power to implement its choices 

3) The decisions made by a global tribunal have more authenticity than a Lebanese tribunal. Syria could challenge the decisions made by the Lebanese legal framework by saying that they are politically roused. It's harder to do with an UN-selected tribunal that may incorporate Arab judges. Bashar will guarantee that the entire planet is plotting against him, however even common Syrians will discover this hard to accept.

John Henry Den

An Ohio native, Boalt graduated from Amherst College in 1857 before going to Germany to study law and mining. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he went back to Ohio for military service and was commissioned a First Lieutenant in Company D of the 11th Ohio Cavalry. He later on also served with the Union Signal Corps. After the war he went to Nevada in search of the Comstock Lode. Admitted to the bar in 1867, he was appointed Judge of the Sixth Judicial District of Nevada from 1869 until 1870. In 1871 he moved to San Francisco where he joined Morris Estee to form the law firm of Estee & Boalt, a partnership that lasted until 1879, and later practiced law in the firm of Garber, Boalt & Bishop from 1889 until 1895. Following his demise, his widow donated the funds for the construction of the University of California Berkeley's law school building. Opened in 1911, it was firstly named the Boalt Hall School of Law in his honor.

Den

Den is the name of two identical planetary romance fictional characters created by Richard Corben. The first appeared in the 1968 animated short film Never where. The second has been appearing in the medium of comics since 1973, and in short stories that have been collected for the most part in trade paperbacks. The second Den also appeared in the animated film Heavy Metal.

VOX

VOX is a Norwegian television channel that started broadcasting 23 January 2012 . It is a sister channel to TVNorge .

Program content is aimed initially at the adult population in the target group 30 +. VOX show series, crime , talk shows , comedy and films .

The channel had a market share of 0.7% in the first quarter of 2012.

All Fall apart

An excellent post by Michael Young on Reason.com

In Iraq, we're witnessing the consequences of this daily. In Syria, Alawites can no longer purport to be as one with Sunnis under the great Baathist tent, since the levers of power are not only in Alawite hands, but actually in the hands of the Assad family. In Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Shiites remain second-class citizens, despite halting efforts to give them some rights. In fact, in many parts of the Arab world the nation-state format offers few convincing solutions to the myriad social and political cleavages.

Lebanon alone, while suffering from the same problems as elsewhere, acknowledged this reality by creating a sectarian system. Though much maligned by Arab nationalists and their cheerleaders, it may be a way for the future.



As Tony funnily but rightfully said on Accross the Bay:

One could add the recent clashes in Syria between Alawis and Ismailis. No wonder Buthaina Shaaban's been screaming Arab nationalism like there's no tomorrow.



Now that's a model Aflak did not think of!


Arab society is divided by nature, along tribal or sectarian lines. It has been that way since always, even before Muhammad's times. The only way to take the path of development is to acknowledge that fact and go for some kind of federal system. Panarabists fail to see that simple evidence. A whole generation was build an this absurdity and they simply cannot see that the facts oppose their utopia.

Moral superiority?

A lot of people are debating about the handling of the SLA (see here and here). I am definitely for an amnesty law. It’s mandatory for a genuine inter-Lebanese reconciliation.

Anyway this amnesty should only apply to common SLA soldiers. Those who were involved in Khiam tortures and in serious human rights violations should be excluded. Amnesty is for fighters, not war criminals.

My point of view is that what happened in the North wasn’t better than what happened in the South. I am not saying that the Israeli behaviour is excusable but since people who collaborated with Syria are free, so should be the people who collaborated with Israel. I posted the following point of view on many blog.

Israel invaded and occupied Lebanon? Syria did the same and for much longer. Israel did a blockade on west Beirut in 83? Syria did a blockade on the bigger Aoun-controlled regions for a longer time. Israel bombed west-Beirut? Syria bombed east-Beirut even more. Israel abducted Lebanese citizens? Syria abducted more from all sects (have you ever read Solida or Amnesty reports? Horrible). You could continue this list forever.

I was (predictably) replied that it wasn’t the same thing because pan-Arab ideology was morally superior to which I (predictably) replied the following

Let us talk about the morally superior Baathist ideology. Beside the fact that this ideology justifies dictatorship, it advocates the use of force to unite the 'Arab nation'. Michel Aflak wrote that if some Arabs (= Maronites which I am not to answer your next question) deny their Arabism, they must be brought back to the motherland through all meanings, including brutal force (well that's hot news).

Anyway who are we kidding? Do you think that Jumblat was a socialist interested by the people's welfare? The guy was so secular socialist that even the Christian members of the PSP were not spared during the 83 Shouf cleansing. It was the Baath who dismantled the United Arab Republic in 1961 – which was a total failure BTW. It was Hafez el Assad the 'secular' pan-Arabist who isolated Syria from the Arab world, banned all travels to the only other country controlled by the Baath and built an Alawite-controlled security apparatus in order to control Syria's Sunnis. How secular and pan-Arab of him. Guess how much different his Iraqi carbon copy was?

They fought for a better ideology? Who are you joking?

The amnesty should apply on everybody or the same crime should be punished in the same way. This remind me of some communists who pretend that their killings are more excusable than the Nazi genocide because the underlying ideology is more acceptable (or so they say). Pan-Arab ideology may be a positive ideology for you but I only see a form of pseudo-nationalistic fascism. Let’s not even talk about the superior Islamic ideology of Hezbollah who never had any moral problem in blowing hundreds of foreign peacekeepers to resist against… democracy. Your moral superiority is a highly subjective point of view.

To conclude, let us quote the great founder of the Baath who brought so much happiness to the world:

"In this struggle we retain our love for all. When we are cruel to others, we know that our cruelty is in order to bring them back to their true selves, of which they are ignorant. Their potential will, which has not been clarified yet, is with us, even when their swords are drawn against us."

[Each Arab] "is forced to return to himself, to sink into his depths, to discover himself anew after experience and pain. At that point the true unity will be realized, and this is a new kind of unity different from political unity; it creates the unity of spirit among the individuals of the nation."
Michel Aflaq

American strikes against Syria?

Will the USA retaliate against Syria after the UN commision headed by Mehlis releases its conclusions?

In May 2005, Iraqi guerrilla leaders held a meeting in the city of Hasaka (Syrian Kurdistan), see article below. But these were no ordinary leaders. These were the top-3 baath leaders and a representative of Zarqawi. The aim of the meeting was to reorganize the guerrilla and to coordinate the anti-American actions. Needless to say that this did not improve the relation between Syria and the USA. According to a testimony on Joshua Landis’ blog, there is a consensus in the pentagon that something must be done about Syria. The generals are pushing for military actions, probably air/missile strikes since we are not talking about regime change righ now.

Won't he get the message?

The final decision belongs to the White-House, not to the generals. But the current administration is increasingly irritated by the continuous flow of Syrian provocations. First there is Lebanon: the country is facing a Syrian blockade and it is widely believed that Damascus is behind the terror campaign in Beirut (or most of it). Moreover, Damascus is continuing its support to terror organization such as Hezbollah or Hamas. But the main problem for Washington is that Syria is harbouring Iraqi rebels who are doing a lot of harm to Iraq’s stability and killing American soldiers.

The United States have been careful with Syria because of one simple reason: nobody knows what will come up if the regime was to fall. The standard opinion in Washington is that there's enough work in Iraq right now. On the other hand, Washington cannot remain passive while Syria is destabilizing the region. Bachar assumes that he cannot be removed because it would create too much instability in his country. However, the same was true for Saddam’s Iraq and this did not prevent the US from ousting him. An air strike would be a perfect compromise between these two conflicting objectives (stopping Sryia without destabilizing it). It will send to Bachar the following message “you are expandable”, “stop your games”. Moreover, Bachar controls the security apparatus now. It is rumoured that the remaining old guard representatives (Chareh and Kanaan) will be leaving very soon. Rifaat, Khaddam, Tlass and Bahjat Suleiman are out of the game. He cannot hide behind the 'old guard' excuse anymore.

When?
And the winner is...

The ideal timeline would be to attack after the UN inquiry commission on Harris’s murder headed by Detlev Mehlis turns in its report around September 15th. If the UN formally accuses Syria of the assassination, it would give a perfect pretext to strike against Damascus. Few would contest a strike against a state which killed the prime minister of another country. If the United Nations were to incriminate Syria, no Arab country would stand behind Bachar.

Intelligence Online June 3, 2005
Kurdish officials say the insurgency found renewed strength in northern Iraq in May, after the Baath Party held a meeting in the Syrian town of Hasaka.The party reorganized itself, expelling more than half the membership, or anyone who had dealings with the United States, the Iraqi government or even humanitarian aid groups. The new Baath leaders are Mohammad Younis al-Ahmad and Ibrahim Sabawi, Hussein's half-brother and the former head of Iraq's general security directorate.

In addition, American intelligence discovered that followers of the Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Mussa Al Zarqawi -- including the "hero" of the battle of Fallujah, Omar Hadid -- held a meeting in the Syrian city of Hasaka in mid-May to coordinate operations with three leaders of the Ba'ath insurgency. The trio were highest on the Americans' wanted list in Iraq: Ezzat Ibrahim al Duri, who issued an "appeal to the Ba'athist and Islamic resistance" for the first time on May 26; Mohamed Younes al Ahmed, a former Ba'ath party leader; and Ahmed Hassan al Obeidi, ex chief of the General Intelligence Service in the Kurkuk region. In response to the meeting, the American military issued a warning to Syrian officers at a gathering on May 17 at the border post of Al Walid which was attended by the American military attaché in Damascus and his three deputies. The Americans came away empty-handed from the meeting. Still, the Syrians have since assigned some of their troops returning from Lebanon to patrol duty along the Iraqi frontier. The U.S. has bolstered its positions at Al Qaim, Tel Affar and Husaybah.