Bush Administration Probes Syria's Future With Assad's Opposition

The Bush administration is reaching out to the Syrian opposition because of growing concerns that unrest in Lebanon could spill over and suddenly destabilize Syria, which borders four countries pivotal to U.S. Middle East policy -- Israel, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey, U.S. and Syrian sources said.

In an interview, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the United States is talking to "as many people as we possibly can" about the situation in Syria, as well as in Lebanon, to ensure that Washington is prepared in the event of yet another abrupt political upheaval.

"What we're trying to do is to assess the situation so that nobody is blindsided, because events are moving so fast and in such unpredictable directions that it is only prudent at this point to know what's going on," Rice told Washington Post editors and reporters, citing "the possibility for what I often call discontinuous events, meaning that you were expecting them to go along like this and all of a sudden they go off in this direction, in periods of change like this. So we're going to look at all the possibilities and talk to as many people as we possibly can."

A meeting Thursday, hosted by new State Department "democracy czar" Elizabeth Cheney, brought together senior administration officials from Vice President Cheney's office, the National Security Council and the Pentagon and about a dozen prominent Syrian Americans, including political activists, community leaders, academics and an opposition group, a senior State Department official said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2028-2005Mar25.html

nt

what? things ain't goin according to the whiteboard :shrug:


http://images.globalfreepress.com

peace

Do these people even think about their metaphors?

Do they realize what the real Czars were like?

Not just the fact that it is Elizabeth Cheney, Dick's daughter.

jesus christ that`s all we need ...who do you think funds alot of the "terror" in europe and the middle east? these guys were killed by the thousands by assad`s father.these guys are the only other political power in syria.

"What we're trying to do is to assess the situation so that nobody is blindsided, because events are moving so fast and in such unpredictable directions that it is only prudent at this point to know what's going on"

Which translates roughly to something like: "we looking for anything
or anybody that we can use to instigate internal destabilization of
Syria".

FWIW, I take this to mean we aren't going to invade anytime soon, we're
thinking more in terms of instigating "regime change" from within,
after all it's worked so well elsewhere, and we don't have the troops
anyway.