Syrian Bloggers Unite at Syria Planet

Syria Bloggers Unite: 111 Syrian blogs in both Arabic and English are now aggregated on Syria Planet. It is a great way to get introduced to, or updated on, the many wonderful Syria blogs. Ayman Hourieh is largely responsible for the aggregation, but others, such as Sinan, Ayman, and Yazan have also put their shoulders to the wheel. If you have a Syria blog and aren't signed up already, you can add it on Syria Planet.

al-Jazeera will air a program on Political Prisoners today - Tuesday March 14 - at 11:05. Yassin Hajj Salih, Ghassan Jaba`i, and Faraj Bayrakdar will be highlighted. It should be interesting.

الأصدقاء الأعزاء
يوم الثلاثاء الحادية عشرة وخمس دقائق سيعرض فيلم في قناة الجزيرة ضمن برنامج أدب السجون يشارك فيه غسان جباعي وفرج بيرقدار وياسين الحاج صالح ومن إخراج هالة محمد
مل أن تجدوا فيه ما يفيد
ياسين

Syria blocked award winner Haytem Maleh
Bette Dam
March 12, 2006

Syria refuses lawyer and human rights activist Haytem Maleh to travel to The Netherlands on March 12th to get the prestigious award the Geuzenmedal. Maleh is awarded - according to the organization Geuzenverzet 1940-1945 that commemorates the resistance the Dutch ‘Geuzen’ made in the second world war against the enemy- because of his ‘brave initiatives for defending human rights’. According to the organization, Maleh should get more international media attention for his ‘courage in face Syrian repression by talking about human rights, the emergency law and the death penalties members of the Muslim Brotherhood can get in Syria’. Other award winners were former president of Tsjech Vaclav Havel and Ingrid Bentancourt, the Columbian politician who has been in hostage for years now.

Maleh is not allowed to leave Syria after he criticized the emergency law, three years ago. Despite heavy pressure from the United Nations and the Dutch foreign affairs department, Syria refused to make an exception for Maleh to travel to The Netherlands. What is more, Maleh is expected before the military court in Damascus for insulting the Syrian president and the military staff. The first trial was in March but the case was postponed until April 6th.

Maleh wants to express his apologies to the Dutch Geuzenpenning-organization for his absence, he said in an interview by telephone. “I am honored to be awarded this prize and I was really ready to leave Syria for this price,” Maleh said. Last week the 74- year old lawyer and the organization in Holland spend a lot of time getting information about the travel status of Maleh. Often, they contacted each other to get the latest news about the decisions the Syrian government would take. Maleh postponed his travel date but in the end - when he arrived on the airport on Thursday night - he was not on the list of those to be granted exit-visas and had to return home.

The Dutch minister of Foreign Affairs Ben Bot will now present the award to Maleh’s sons Anas and Iyas – who will represent their father in Holland. Maleh hasn’t seen his suns ‘for years’ because they are not allowed to travel to Syria. Anas and Iyas live in Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Members of the radical wing of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood played an important role in the 9-11 bombings. Syria role in helping the West to track them down was "comprehensive and without reservation," according to Western security agents.

Germany says Sept. 11 hijackers called Syria, Saudi Arabia
BY JOHN CREWDSON, Chicago Tribune

Within hours of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, German agencies learned that, during their student days, Atta and his co-conspirators had been in close touch with al-Qaida's principal representatives in Hamburg, Mamoun Darkazanli and Mohammed Zammar, both Syrian expatriates who became German citizens.

Spanish authorities later prosecuted several other expatriate Syrians in Madrid with links to Darkazanli and Zammar, most of them members of the Syrian wing of the radical Muslim Brotherhood. One, Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, was sentenced last year to 27 years in a Spanish prison for providing the hijackers logistical assistance.

The German report submitted last week notes that in the days after Sept. 11, Syria and its intelligence service offered their cooperation to the United States and West European nations, "comprehensively and without any reservation."

Syria to Issue a Law on Antitrust
Tuesday, March 07, 2006 - 08:15 PM, SANA

Cabinet on Tuesday discussed a draft law on competition and antitrust as well as the establishment of an independent commission called “Commission of Competition and Antitrust.” The move comes in the framework of the Syrian government efforts to reform economy and shift to the social market economy.

Syria Abolishes Organization Formed to Include Hatay
By Cihan News Agency, Istanbul
Published: Monday, March 13, 2006
zaman.com

"Iskanderun Salvation Organization," which was formed to include Hatay in its territory by Syrian intelligence, Al-Mukhabarat, was abolished upon the order of the Damascus administration.

The process was confirmed by Turkish intelligence when it was understood that organization staff were being reassigned.

Reportedly, the winding up of operations started after the deportation of the terrorist organization Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1998 with the Adana Agreement signed between Syria and Turkey.

Syria, one of the target countries in campaigns to combat terrorism, initiated by the United States in the aftermath of September 11, accelerated the process to remove its image as a "terrorism supporting country." This attempt was assessed as Damascus abandoning its rights on Hatay.

The Baath regime that claimed Hatay was invaded by Turkey had demanded the city be returned. In this frame, the then Syrian President, Hafiz Asad ordered Syrian intelligence to establish the "Iskenderun Liberation Organization" in 1989.

The organization aimed to conduct operations in Turkey using Nusayris, who live in Hatay, and trained about 1,500-2,000 Turkish citizens militarily and politically.

The organization that was observed closely by Turkish intelligence due to the increase in violent operations in the region by 1990 was seriously damaged in the operations of the security units.

According to intelligence sources, the chief of the organization was Turkish citizen, Fuat I., who fled to the United States after he was identified and later died there.

The Washington Post's Al Kamen wrote a little send up of Jumblatt
Is U.S. Eating Jumblatt's Bitter Words?

The enemy of my enemy, as the saying goes, is a truly wonderful chap -- even if he had also been my enemy.

Back in 2003, after insurgent rockets missed then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz in Baghdad, Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt famously said: "We hope that next time the rockets will be more accurate and effective in getting rid of this virus and his like, who wreak corruption in Arab lands."

In early 2004, he noted: "We are all happy when U.S. soldiers are killed [in Iraq] week in and week out. The killing of U.S. soldiers in Iraq is legitimate and obligatory." He said he felt "great joy" at the 2002 space shuttle disaster because an Israeli astronaut died in it.

He has also said that the real axis of evil is one of "oil and Jews," and called President Bush a "mad emperor."

"The oil axis is present in most of the U.S. administration, beginning with its president, vice president, and top advisers, including [Condoleezza] Rice . . . . while the axis of Jews is present with Paul Wolfowitz ," he continued.

Jumblatt had been denied a visa a couple years ago on the grounds that he endorsed terrorism.

But he's coming to town next week to meet his pals. Such as? Well, Rice -- who visited him at his home in Lebanon last week -- national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley and, yes, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz.

On the Hill, Jumblatt, who's a member of the Lebanese parliament, is visiting with Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) and John E. Sununu (R-N.H.) and others.

How did this happen? Simple. Jumblatt became anti-Syrian and even joined the mighty Coalition of the Willing in 2005.

"It's strange for me to say it," he told Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, "but this process of change" to democracy "has started because of the American invasion of Iraq. I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world. The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it."

Jumblatt. A guy you can count on.