Exclusive: Petraeus Wants to Go to Syria; Bush Administration Says No

[seemslikeadream]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=6148650&page=1

Petraeus Proposed Visiting Syria But Was Rejected By Bush Administration
By JONATHAN KARL
Oct. 30, 2008
Apparently Gen. David Petraeus does not agree with the Bush administration that the road to Damascus is a dead end.


A Syrian protester holds an anti-American placard during a demonstration against the last U.S. raid on a village near the Syrian-Iraqi border, in Damascus, Syria, today. ABC News has learned, Gen. Devid Petraeus proposed visiting Syria shortly after taking over as the top U.S. commander for the Middle East. The idea was swiftly rejected by Bush administration officials at the White House, State Department and Pentagon.
(AP Photos)ABC News has learned, Petraeus proposed visiting Syria shortly after taking over as the top U.S. commander for the Middle East.

The idea was swiftly rejected by Bush administration officials at the White House, State Department and the Pentagon.

Petraeus, who becomes the commander of U.S. Central Command (Centcom) Friday, had hoped to meet in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Petraeus proposed the trip, and senior officials objected, before the covert U.S. strike earlier this week on a target inside Syria's border with Iraq.

Officials familiar with Petraeus' thinking on the subject say he wants to engage Syria in part because he believes that U.S. diplomacy can be used to drive a wedge between Syria and Iran. He plans to continue pushing the idea.


http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ieCdSfcwxKHWJ8Gw8KrKnHRaEiOA
Syria deploys extra troops on east Lebanon border: army
3 hours ago

BEIRUT (AFP) — Syria has deployed extra troops on its border with eastern Lebanon to combat smuggling and arrest fugitives, a Lebanese army official said on Thursday.

"Syria is deploying soldiers along the length of the border of eastern Lebanon, as it did in September on the northern border," the official told AFP, asking not to be named.

"These reinforcements have been positioned for the same reasons which necessitated the deployment in the north, to combat smuggling and prevent wanted persons escaping across the Syrian-Lebanese border," he said.

"The Syrian troop movements have been coordinated between the heads of the Syrian and Lebanese armies," he said.

A local official, meanwhile, said almost 3,000 troops equipped with armoured vehicles and heavy weapons had been deployed in a region facing the eastern Lebanon village of Ersal.

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman, after contacts with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, earlier this month accepted that the troop movements along the border were aimed at tackling smuggling.

In September, the Lebanese army revealed the deployment of 10,000 Syrian special forces in the Abbudiya region along the northern border.

Members of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority in Lebanon, however, warned that Damascus could be setting the stage to return its forces to their country.

Syria, a longtime powerbroker in its smaller neighbour, withdrew its troops from Lebanon in 2005 after a deployment of three decades.


http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/31/stories/2008103155951700.htm

U.S. raid in Syria snowballs into crisis

Atul Aneja


Amercian Embassy to shut down; Damascus wants apology

EXPRESSING OUTRAGE: Syrians raise anti-U.S. slogans during a demonstration in Damascus on Thursday.

DUBAI: The raid by American troops inside Syrian territory is likely to sour diplomatic ties between Washington and Damascus, with the U.S. Embassy in the Syrian capital announcing its decision to shut down due to security concerns.

As of now, the embassy would remain closed only on Thursday.

However, diplomatic sources said the situation remained tense and uncertain.

On Monday, the Syrian government ordered closure of the American cultural centre and a school.

It has also lodged a protest with the U.N. Secretary-General and Security Council Chairman following the commando strike.

Besides, the government has demanded a formal apology for the commando strike, which, it said, had killed eight civilians near the village of Bou Kamal. The Syrian village is main point of transit into Iraq.

U.S. claims rejected


Syria has rejected U.S. reports that Abu Ghadiyah, the top operative of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, was killed during the attack. On Thursday, thousands of Syrians assembled at a prominent Damascus square to protest against the raid. The rally took place 1.6 km from the U.S. Embassy, where security had been visibly strengthened.

With tensions rising, the embassy remained concerned “about the continued threat of terrorist attacks, demonstrations and other violent actions against U.S. citizens.”

The strike is expected to undermine recent efforts to improve ties between the Americans and Syria.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7962136
Thousands protest in Damascus against U.S. military raid on Syrian village Full Story

DAMASCUS, Syria - Tens of thousands of Syrians have turned out for a massive anti-American demonstration in Damascus.

Less than two kilometres away, hundreds of Syrian riot police formed a protective ring around the closed U.S. Embassy. But the flag-waving crowds dispersed peacefully after a couple of hours, with students heading to school and others to work.




http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4334493&mesg_id=4334493

[seemslikeadream]

1. photos

4 hours ago: This image broadcast by the private Syrian television station Dunia, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2008, is said by them to show Syrian troops dismantling positions on the Iraqi border and leaving the area. An Iraqi government official said Syria had sent additional troops to their border region after Sunday's border raid and those troops withdrew from their positions Thursday.




4 hours ago: This image broadcast by the private Syrian television station Dunia, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2008, is said by them to show Syrian troops dismantling positions on the Iraqi border and leaving the area. An Iraqi government official said Syria had sent additional troops to their border region after Sunday's border raid and those troops withdrew from their positions Thursday.



10 hours ago: A Syrian protester, holds an anti-American placard during a demonstration against the last US raid at a village near the Syrian-Iraqi border, in Damascus, Syria, on Thursday Oct. 30, 2008. Hundreds of Syrian riot police ringed the shuttered and closed U.S. Embassy in Damascus on Thursday, as tens of thousands of Syrians converged on a central square for a government-orchestrated protest to denounce a deadly U.S. raid near the Iraqi border.




10 hours ago: Syrian protesters gather at Youssef al-Azmi square during a demonstration against the U.S. raid on a village near the Syrian-Iraqi border last Monday, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday Oct. 30, 2008. Hundreds of Syrian riot police ringed the shuttered and closed U.S. Embassy in Damascus on Thursday, as tens of thousands of Syrians converged on a central square for a government-orchestrated protest to denounce a deadly U.S. raid near the Iraqi border.




21 hours ago: A Syrian protester, reacts as other protesters hold an anti-American placard during a demonstration against the last US raid at a village near the Syrian-Iraqi border, in Damascus, Syria, on Thursday Oct. 30, 2008. Hundreds of Syrian riot police ringed the shuttered and closed U.S. Embassy in Damascus on Thursday, as tens of thousands of Syrians converged on a central square for a government-orchestrated protest to denounce a deadly U.S. raid near the Iraqi border. Placard reads No American tourism.

[malaise]

6. I would leave the border as well

Why the hell should Syria protect the border for the US when they're invading their sovereign territory.

[seemslikeadream]

2. But there is still an element of weirdness in the story.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-schweber/what-is-syria-up-to_b_138819.html

All perfectly plausible. But there is still an element of weirdness in the story. As recently as last month, Secretary of State Rice was saying nice things about the progress Syria was making in securing its borders, although she said that there remained much work to be done. The EU has been working to ease Syria's isolation. The U.S., for all our complaints about them, have been sending suspected terrorists to Syria to be tortured - er, questioned - for years, and may be continuing to do so. This month Syria opened official relations with an independent Lebanon. In other words, there were several reasons to think that relations between Damascus and Washington were beginning to thaw, which I have argued repeatedly would be a very good thing, if only to give Assad some alternative to an alliance with Teheran.

So the timing is a little odd. That can be explained, perhaps, by the unpredictable fact of actionable intelligence becoming available, but then there is the weirdness of the very moderate Syrian reaction. Bluster aside, the Syrian response has been . . . to close the American School in Damascus. Despite talks of "next time we will defend our territories" there are no reports of troop movements to the Iraqi border, unlike the movement of 10,000 Syrian troops to the Lebanese border in September. There was no talk of siccing Hezbollah on Israel; there was no mention of Israel, period. What's going on in Damascus?

Here's some possibly relevant background. In February of this year, Imad Mughniyah, a senior Hezbollah official, was mysteriously assassinated in Syria; one might plausibly assume that the Syrian government was involved. In September of this year, a car bomb in Damascus near the office of security killed 17 people. Assad may be deciding he has had just about enough of Iran's mujahadeen, and Al Qaeda, too. It's worth reminding ourselves that Syria has a secular government dominated by members of a minority Allawite sect and a predominantly Sunni population. Radical Islam is not likely to sit well with Assad's Baathist regime (any more than it sat well with Saddam Hussein).

More context. Israel is about to have elections, as is the United States. In the U.S., the mad neocon empire-builders are on their way out, but John "we are all Georgians" McCain - the only person in the U.S. or Iraq who does not accept the idea of a withdrawal of U.S. forceas - is not much of an improvement. In Israel, in the person of Bibi Netanyahu, the Bush-era neocon Weltgeist could be on its way back in. (This is not an idle analogy: Richard Perle and Douglas Feith worked for Netanyahu's government during the 1990s, producing the famous 1996 working paper describing a grand strategic vision that included a U.S. attack to get rid of Saddam Hussein; that kind of talk doesn't play well over here any more, but Netanyahu - who got 90% of his primary financing from outside Israel -- is still living the dream). In 2006, during the Lebanon War, neocons in the Bush administration were urging Israel to attack Syria directly. The Olmert government dismissed the idea as crazy, but a Netanyahu government might be a danger to itself and others. (There was a very odd moment during that conflict in which an Israeli government spokesman explained a troop build-up as aimed at Syria, which caused the Syrian military to go on high alert, but that appears to have been a comedy of errors; the Israeli spokesman preferred to make a provocative and potentially destabilizing statement rather than admit that the high command had lost control over the situation.) And never mind attacking Syria; if Israel launches a pre-emptive attack on Iran, what are Syria's choices for a course of action? The Israeli elections may present Assad with an opportunity, or a threat.



http://www.isria.info/RESTRICTED/D/2008/OCTOBER_30/diplo_28october2008_19.htm

Syria: Relatives of Abu Kamal Aggression Victims Refute US Allegations Justifying the Attack
Eyewitnesses and relatives of the innocent civilian victims killed during the US aggression against al-Sukkariah Farm in Abu Kamal recounted the details of the attack by US soldiers, refuting the allegations used by the US armed forces to justify this crime.

Souad al-Jassem, who miraculously survived the massacre after witnessing her husband's murder and seeing one of her children being injured, said "We were surprised at five in the evening when two helicopters landed near where we live. A number of American soldiers, some of which spoke Arabic, came out of the helicopters and entered the tent where I live with my children and husband, who works as groundkeeper for the building."

She pointed out that her children panicked and tried to run away when the soldiers entered, and as soon as she headed towards her children and tried to calm them down, the soldiers opened fire without provocation. The soldiers then opened fires on construction workers who were doing their job at the site, killing seven of them. The US forces left the site after firing on a fisherman outside the building.

Souad had fainted during the attack, waking up in the hospital where she learned that her husband died in the attack. Her husband worked as a groundskeeper in the building to support his family.

Relatives of some of the other victims affirmed that they worked in construction and that was the only reason for them being at that area, adding that the targeted site is in the middle of an agricultural area and part of a new farm under construction directly on the banks of River Euphrates. All areas near the site are agricultural lands.

Four US Army helicopters had violated the Syrian airspace over Abu Kamal area on Sunday evening, targeting a civilian building and killing eight civilians. Afterwards, the helicopters returned to Iraqi airspace.

Syria had condemned and denounced this act of aggression, holding the US forces responsible for it and all of its ramifications and demanding that the Iraqi government bear responsibility and investigate this immediately, in addition to demanding that the Iraqi lands never be used to attack Syria.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry summoned the Charge d 'Affairs at the US Embassy in Damascus, informing her of Syria's condemnation of this dangerous attack, holding the US administration fully responsible for it. The Iraqi Charge d'affaires was also summoned to the Foreign Ministry for the same purpose.

[DrDebug]

15. Indeed it could be related to the pan-Arab peace initiative

Even though it has been mainly unreported in the media, Carter's successful diplomacy earlier this year has reawakened the pan-Arab peace initiative which had been mothballed since 2002. That initiative has the backing of President Carter, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. Syria has recently embraced the initiative as well, started to repair their relations with Lebanon and even embarked on low level negotiations with Israel. The goal in the plan is peace between Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and even peace with Israel as well and a Palestinian state. That would of course leave Iraq as the only non-participant, so the neoconservatives are of course very hostile to the current developments in Syria.

Oct 22, 2008 15:30 | Updated Oct 22, 2008 16:01
Syrian envoy: Onus for peace on Israel

Syria sees peace with Israel coming about as part of the Arab Peace Initiative, Syrian Ambassador in Washington Imad Moustapha told the Syria Comment on Tuesday.

"It is important to understand that any Syrian approach to peace with Israel falls under its endorsement of the Pan Arab Peace Initiative. Therefore, any long-term relationship with Israel will ultimately fall within a broader Arab strategic plan," he was quoted as saying.

He added that it is up to Israel to determine its own role in the Middle East, and that it would be "unreasonable to expect the Arab states and nations to have warm, friendly relations with Israel while the latter continues to occupy Arab land and to humiliate the Palestinian people."

Speaking specifically of peace between his country and Israel, Moustapha again claimed that the onus was on the Israeli side to rectify the situation, adding that Israel had made the situation worse by "moving settlers onto the Golan , investing money there, annexing it, and by demonizing Syria."

(...)

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017594768&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[DemoTex]

3. Since when do war-hawk generals conduct diplomacy for the US?

Where is Condi's State Department? WTF is going on here?

:wtf:

[librechik]

4. Perhaps he didn't have his "preconditions" in a row

they seem to have a phobia about meeting anyone without those.

[Disturbed]

5. AFP: Iran-Syria sign defence pact

May 28, 2008 ... TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran and its close ally Syria have signed a new defence cooperation pact, Iranian media reported on Wednesday, ...

afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jvkKkWY-GqQi3KUw1bYoR4fBdrew

This is a dangerous situation.

[seemslikeadream]

8. I know and I'm disturbed also

[librechik]

10. yes indeed--

sorry about the joke--

this is just the sort of brinksmanship I expected from the Cowboy Diplomat Team.

[Octafish]

7. Peace! What is it good for?

Absolutely everything.

[seemslikeadream]

13. tens of thousands of Syrians converged on a central square for a government-orchestrated protest

13 hours ago: Syrian student protesters holds a placard against the United States President George W. Bush, as other one holds an Arabic placard reads:"The American and the Israeli are the new Nazis," during a demonstration against the U.S. raid on a village near the Syrian-Iraqi border, in Damascus, Syria, on Thursday Oct. 30, 2008. Hundreds of Syrian riot police ringed the shuttered and closed U.S. Embassy in Damascus on Thursday, as tens of thousands of Syrians converged on a central square for a government-orchestrated protest to denounce a deadly U.S. raid near the Iraqi border.




13 hours ago: Syrian students hold anti-U.S. placards as they shout pro-Syrian slogans, during a demonstration against the U.S. raid on a village near the Syrian-Iraqi border last Monday, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday Oct. 30, 2008. Hundreds of Syrian riot police ringed the shuttered and closed U.S. Embassy in Damascus on Thursday, as tens of thousands of Syrians converged on a central square for a government-orchestrated protest to denounce a deadly U.S. raid near the Iraqi border.




12 hours ago: Two Syrian protesters walks in front of Syrian riot policemen, as they hold anti-U.S. placard near the U.S embassy during a demonstration against a recent U.S. raid on a village near the Syrian-Iraqi border, in Damascus, Syria, on Thursday Oct. 30, 2008. Some hundreds of Syrian riot police ringed the shuttered and closed U.S. Embassy in Damascus on Thursday, as tens of thousands of Syrians converged on a central square for a government-orchestrated protest to denounce a deadly U.S. raid near the Iraqi border. The sign reads : We refuse and condemn this atrocious American act against our home and people.

[burythehatchet]

9. the Secretary of State was unavailable for comment

[DemoTex]

12. Conspicuously unavailable.

[bridgit]

11. It's that whole Bush 'we only listen to the commanders on the ground' Doctrine thing

that isn't working :thumbsdown:

[seemslikeadream]

14. Syria cuts diplomatic ties with Iraq over US raid

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3577478

Syria cuts diplomatic ties with Iraq over US raid
Posted by struggle4progress on Sat Nov-01-08 01:07 AM

Source: The Post (Pakistan)

DAMASCUS: Damascus has decided to cut off its diplomatic relations with Iraq in response to a deadly raid carried out by the U.S. on Syrian soil earlier this week.

Syria has also decided to reduce its troops on the border with Iraq, according to a report from Syrian television.

The Syrian government has demanded Washington apologize for the strike of the Abu Kamal border community and earlier this weeek threatened to cut off cooperation on Iraqi border security if there are more American raids on Syria territory ...

Read more: http://thepost.com.pk/ShortNewsT.aspx?shortid=7004&catid=1


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S. closes Damascus embassy
DAMASCUS, Syria, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- The United States closed its embassy in Damascus, Syria, amid rising tensions and an increased security risk, officials said Friday. The move was the latest step in the fallout over a U.S. air attack in northern Syria last Sunday in which eight Syrians died. U.S. military officials said the fight took place as soldiers looked for smugglers of fighter planes into Iraq ... http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/10/31/US_closes_Damascus_embassy/UPI-33521225470288 /


SYRIA: Still fuming over U.S. raid
... Syrian private media outlets are reporting that Syria may be withdrawing some of its military forces from the border ... Moreover, Syria has announced delaying a meeting on Nov. 11 between Syrian and Iraqi officials, which was supposed to lay the ground for a "historic" visit by the Syrian prime minister to Baghdad before the end of the year ... Syria announced it will close by the end of next week the American culture center and the American school in Damascus ... http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2008/10/syria.html