Interviewed Yesterday on WHYY/NPR show "Fresh Air" was excellent and should be required listening for all here if you want to know what really going on with Syria/Lebanon/Middle East Democratization.
Flynt Leverett was one of the State Department diplomats who's advice (now known to wise) was totally dismised in the run up and hyping of the 2003 Iraq invasion, which came to a head with his resignation. His answers, to the questions Terry asked, are some of the most direct and unspun I've heard in a long time. His answers are long, and sort of Mono-tone, so you might have to listen to his answers twice to fully understand them, but it is facinating to hear them compaired to the other two guests interviewed on the same show.
Terry asked the same key questions to Leveret, and to current State Department representative, Elizabeth Dibble, Deputy Assistant Secretary- Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, and to former Editor-in-Chief for the Jordan Times newspaper, Journalist/columnist Rami Khouri. As you can imagine, Leverett and Khouri's answers are much closer than Dibble's who did answer some, but avoided others.
You can hear these interviews (by clicking on the red "listen" button or link) at the links below:
Full show:
Fresh Air from WHYYor individually at these links:
'Inheriting Syria' in the Modern AgeMarch 31, 2005
Flynt Leverett's 'Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s Trial By Fire'
Fresh Air from WHYY, March 31, 2005 · Flynt Leverett is a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. As Syria is prodded to withdraw its troops -- and influence -- from neighboring Lebanon, the region faces potentially drastic changes.
A veteran expert on Middle East policy -- from the National Security Council and the State Department to the CIA -- Leverett has also written a new book, Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s Trial By Fire, about Bashar al-Assad's rule of Syria after following his father as the country's leader. Middle East policy -- from the National Security Council and the State Department to the CIA -- Leverett has also written a new book, Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s Trial By Fire, about Bashar al-Assad's rule of Syria after following his father as the country's leader.
U.S. Policy on Syria: An Inside ViewFresh Air from WHYY, March 31, 2005 · State Department representative Elizabeth Dibble is the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Dibble addresses the question of the U.S. State Department policy toward Syria and Lebanon.
Journalist Rami KhouriFresh Air from WHYY, March 31, 2005 · Rami Khouri is Palestinian-Jordanian, with a U.S. citizenship. He is an internationally syndicated political columnist and the host of Encounter, a weekly current affairs talk show on Jordan Television. He also hosts a weekly radio program, and he spent the 2001 academic year at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow. He was editor-in-chief for the Jordan Times newspaper for seven years. He often comments on Middle East issues for the BBC, NPR and CNN.
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