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John Kerry, Secretary of Gaffes
April 25, 2013 | 9 comments
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Rand Paul and Marco Rubio at CPAC
March 14, 2013 | 0 comments
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SEQUESTER: The Dumbest Weight-Loss Plan Ever
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Israel’s Hard-Right Turn That Wasn’t
January 22, 2013 | 1 comment
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Deep Space Nine, Twenty Years Later
January 3, 2013 | 23 comments
The Spectacle Blog
As part of the Obama Administration’s ongoing campaign to appease enemies and alienate allies, the President has decided to send an ambassador to Damascus for the first time since 2005. Laura Rozen’s Politico report this week on the battle in the Senate over the confirmation of career diplomat Robert Ford to the post led Michael Rubin to observe how weak the argument in favor of sending an ambassador is. “The simple fact is that restoring an ambassador legitimizes Syria and its stonewalling into the investigation surrounding Rafik Hariri’s assassination as well as its support for Hezbollah,” argues Rubin.
I would add that it has the potential to send a terrible message to dissidents in Syria, which is why the ambassadorship issue was the subject of some angst amongst protestors at the Syrian Embassy in Washington today.
About 50 people showed up for the protest. In between chants of “Down with dictatorship,” “Down with terrorism,” “Down with Bashar Assad” and “Enough silence” in both English and Arabic, the crowd listened to speeches (about half in English, half in Arabic) by activists with first-hand knowledge of the Assad regime’s brutality.
Mohammad al-Abdallah, along with his father Ali, was imprisoned for six months for the crime of “criticizing the state of emergency laws” by the Assad regime. (The “state of emergency” under which the Syrian government justifies its human rights abuses has been officially in place since 1963. Hell of an emergency, huh?) He is pictured above holding an image of his brother Omar, who remains in prison in Syria, serving a five year sentence for things he wrote on his blog. He described how political prisoners are mixed with ordinary criminals, who enjoy harrassing and beating the political prisoners regularly; the prison guards have no interest in stopping this. (Political prisoners are often forced to sleep on the floor while criminals get cots.) Abdallah said he is “not against engagement,” but that it must be “conditional engagement” and human rights must be on the agenda.
Ammar Abdulhamid, the Executive Director of the pro-democracy Tharwa Foundation, was much more critical of the Obama Administration’s policy (as well as that of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who recently visited Syria). “Nothing can be gained from engaging tyrants,” he said. Abdulhamid noted that the regime that Western governments are attempting to engage does not speak for the Syrian people, saying “the true leaders of Syria are in prison.”
“Peace and stability cannot happen at the expense of our freedom,” Abdulhamid insisted. He’s right of course. I fear that the Obama Administration is determined to learn this lesson the hard way.
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More Blog Posts by John Tabin
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/04/17/down-with-dictatorship
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Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 4.17.10 @ 7:24PM
"The "state of emergency" under which the Syrian government justifies its human rights abuses has been officially in place since 1963. Hell of an emergency, huh?"
Have you ever been to one of these "wonderful" Islamic Countries? You'd swear they just had an earthquake a few weeks back, but it turns out, they didn't. They just don't spend money on fixing anything, ever!! And they always like referring to their Holy Cities, the Holy City of this, the Holy City of that. And every City is a Holy City of course, but when you get to see these Cities, you understand why they say that? Because your first reaction upon seeing them is, Holy Shit!! I'm sure there's one Islamic Country out there, that has a nice City somewhere in it, but 99.9% of these Countries and the Cities within, haven't put a dollar into their Country since Islam converted them by the sword. And you expect them to treat their people with respect? People, Smeople!! I'm sure the top 10 Countries in the World, on the list of Human Rights Abusers are all Islamic Countries. Their book, the Koran is full of hate, from page one, till the last page, so they don't understand anything but hate. Hell they don't even like dogs, and who doesn't like dogs? Just saying!! Oof, oof!!
Monitor This| 4.19.10 @ 7:49AM
A Lot of the "Hate" in the Koran comes from the Talmud and the Old Testament of the Bible...
For someone who cares about Democracy and Human Rights, I see no mention of Israeli mistreatment of Palestinians and their ruthless occupation, nor any reference to these Settlers Thugs who believe non Jews Should have no rights in the Land of Jesus.
Alan Brooks| 4.17.10 @ 11:58PM
We don't have the reach we had in the late '40s & all throughout the 1950s; is the CIA on top of things as before?: don't answer that please.
martin j smith| 4.18.10 @ 7:49AM
It is interesting to look at thstyle of the BHO administration parallel with his foreign policy.
BHO fancies himself not as president of the United States ( that may be his title but it does not fit his behavior ) but rather "Director in Chief .He lies easily and has been an ideologue in his policies. his ideology is a mixture Socialism and Fascism. His demonizing and thug tactics thru surrogates towards opposition is telling. So is it no wonder we have a man who cares little for Freedom and Human Rights ? There should be no surprise here.
Mike Rogers| 4.18.10 @ 9:35AM
Just remember, Fascism is Socialism - both are creatures of the left - large paternal state and a tendency to devolve into tyranny.
(See Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism".)
mikle| 4.18.10 @ 10:20PM
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mbt changa | 4.19.10 @ 11:56AM
thank you for your sharing
Don Carlson| 4.19.10 @ 12:26PM
The lesson that peace and stability cannot be had at the expense of freedom holds no interest for Mr. Obama or the now dominant left-wing of the Democratic Party, both of whom came long ago to believe that the passionate protection of freedom is a manifestation of human selfishness and an obstacle to stability and peace. And that is a lesson that should interest Americans before it is too late.
amina khalid| 4.19.10 @ 1:29PM
down Assad