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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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October 30th,
2008 - As if on Cue, Syrians Protest U.S. Incursion on Their Soil |
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As if on Cue, Syrians
Protest U.S. Incursion on Their Soil By Graham Bowley New York Times October 30, 2008 Thousands of people
demonstrated Thursday in the Syrian capital, Damascus, in a protest,
apparently stage-managed by the government, against the American military
raid across the Iraqi border into Syrian territory on Sunday. Accounts of the
demonstration were carried by SANA, Syria’s official news agency. It would be
highly unusual for a spontaneous demonstration to arise in Damascus, where
political speech is often punished and political protests are not tolerated. Judging by other news
accounts and images shown on television, it seemed likely that the government
had orchestrated the protest, which looked precisely timed and organized. The BBC showed scenes of
crowds of protesters massing in central Damascus, carrying Syrian flags and
pictures of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. According to The
Associated Press, which reported from Damascus, Syrian riot police officers
formed a protective ring around the United States Embassy, a mile from the
demonstrations. The embassy was closed for the protests, and the crowds
dispersed peacefully after two hours, The A.P. said. Syria has said eight
civilians were killed in the raid on Sunday, and has described the attack as
“terrorist aggression” by the United States. But American officials said the
raid, by American helicopter-borne forces, killed an Iraqi militant
responsible for running weapons, money and foreign fighters across the border
into Iraq. The American officials said that all the people killed in the
assault were militants. Earlier this week, in its
first reprisal to the raid, the Syrian cabinet said it had decided to order
the closing of the American School and an American cultural center in
Damascus. The strike into Syria was by
far the boldest by American commandos in the five years since the United
States invaded Iraq and began to condemn Syria’s role in stoking the Iraqi
insurgency. In justifying the attack,
American officials said the United States was determined to halt the flow of
militants and weapons across the border to the insurgency. They confirmed the death in
a raid of the man suspected of leading an insurgent cell, an Iraqi known as
Abu Ghadiya. In the raid, about two dozen American commandos in specially
equipped Black Hawk helicopters swooped into the village of Sukkariyah, six
miles from the Iraqi border, just before 5 p.m. Sunday, and fought a brief
gun battle with Abu Ghadiya and several members of his cell, the officials
said. It was unclear whether Abu
Ghadiya died near his tent on the battlefield or after he was taken into
American custody, one senior American official said. External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/world/middleeast/31syria.html |