This page is a narrow-focus warblog. In fact, it's a blog of a war that is only verbal, so far. The content consists primarily of pronouncements by various government officials in the US, Syria and around the world, as well as analysis and commentary from media outlets.

Archive

Sources (non-exhaustive)

AFP -- France
Al Bawaba -- Jordon, UK
Al Jazeera -- Qatar
Arab News -- Saudi Arabia
Arabic News
Asia Times -- Hong Kong
Associated Press (AP) -- USA
BBC -- UK
CNN -- USA
The Daily Star -- Lebanon
Financial Times -- UK
Forward -- USA
The Guardian -- UK
--- The Observer
Google News
Ha'aretz -- Israel
.......... Ha'aretz vs. haaretz.com
The Hindu -- India
IRNA -- Iran
IslamOnline -- Qatar
Maariv -- now in English -- Israel
Monday Morning -- Lebanon
New York Post -- USA
New York Times -- USA
Reuters -- UK
Scoop -- New Zealand
United Press International (UPI) -- USA
US DoD Defense Link
US Dept. of State Int'l Information Programs
US White House, Press Briefing Archive
Washington Post

Cast of Characters

Syria
.......... CIA Factbook
.......... Global Security, Syria Special Weapons News Archive
.......... BBC, profile
Bashar al-Assad, President
.......... BBC, profile
.......... Slate, profile
.......... Arabic News, biography
.......... Forward, profile
Farouk al-Shara, Foreign Minister
Imad Moustapha, Deputy Syrian Ambassador to the US
.......... Boston Globe, profile
.......... personal page?
.......... Greta's Fox News show, photo

USA
George W. Bush
.......... US White House, biography
.......... A&E, biography
.......... Iraqi News, biography
.......... Realchange.org, Skeletons
.......... awolbush.com
.......... bushwatch.com
.......... whitehouse.org, biography, may contain satire
.......... bartcop, profile of Bush's military career
Ari Fleischer, Press Secretary
.......... A & E, biography
.......... The New Republic, profile
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
.......... US DoD, biography
.......... Wikipedia, biography
.......... ABC News, profile
Colin Powell, Secretary of State
.......... US White House, biography
.......... Behind Colin Powell's Legend
Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense
.......... US DoD, biography
.......... US DoD, transcripts
.......... American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, biography
.......... Slate, profile
.......... Foreign Policy in Focus, track record in Asia
.......... The Australian, profile
Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor
.......... US White House, biography
.......... Hoover Institution, profile
.......... BBC, profile
John R. Bolton, Under Secretary of State, Arms Control and International Security
.......... US Dept. of State, biography
.......... Foreign Policy in Focus, profile
Douglas Feith, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy
.......... US DoD, biography
.......... Middle East Infromation Center, profile
.......... American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, biography
Richard Perle, Defense Advisory Board
.......... AEI, biography
.......... Center for Cooperative Research, biography -- scroll down
.......... Slate, profile
Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State

NGOs
AEI
AIPAC
PNAC
.......... PNAC's website
.......... pnac.info

UK
Tony Blair, Prime Minister
.......... 10 Downing St., biography
Jack Straw, Foreign Minister
.......... 10 Downing St., biography


Israel
Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister
.......... Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, biography
.......... Electronic Intifada, biography
Shaul Mofaz, Defense Minister
Silvan Shalom, Foreign Minister
Dov Weisglass, Sharon's chief of staff
Ephriam Halevy, National Security Adviser

Palestine
Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen)
.......... Middle East Information Center, profile
Hamas
.......... UPI, background on Hamas/Israel connection
.......... Terrorism Research Center, profile

Lebanon
.......... CIA, profile
.......... Dept. of State, profile
Emile Lahoud, President
.......... Lebanese Embassy to the US, biography
.......... American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, profile
Rafiq Hariri, Prime Minister
.......... Lebanese Embassy to the US, biography
.......... BBC, profile
.......... The Estimate profile
Nabih Berri, Speaker of the Parliament
.......... Lebanese Embassy to the US, biography
.......... Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, biography
.......... Encyclopedia of the Orient, biography
Jean Obeid, Foreign Minister
Hizbullah
.......... Hizbullah's website
.......... US Dept. of State, profile
.......... Momkey Media Report, Hezbollah links
.......... Yellow Times The History of Hizbullah

Multi-national Organizations
United Nations
European Union
Gulf Cooperation Council
Arab League

Reciprocity

::: wood s lot :::
Providence Journal
random walks
blogs against war
The Memory Hole


War (of Words) with Syria

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...more recent posts

Sunday, Oct 12, 2003

Israel plans to invade Syria: Mahathir
AFP via Khaleej Times and Al Jazeerah -- October 11, 2003


PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia - Israel plans to invade Syria and drag the United States into the war, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Saturday.

“Israel has been urging America to invade Syria, but America seems to be reluctant. So, in order to force the hands of America, Israel is going to invade Syria,” Mahathir was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

- mark 10-12-2003 10:14 am [link]

Syria, Israel Engaged In War Of Words
IslamOnline -- October 11, 2003


DAMASCUS (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Syria and Israel were engaged in a war of words Saturday, October 11, with Damascus saying it reserves the right to retaliate Israeli attacks and Tel Aviv arguing that countries "harboring terrorist organizations" are legitimate targets.
- mark 10-12-2003 10:07 am [link]

Sharon Acts Tough, Sensing U.S. Assent
New York Times -- October 12, 2003



- mark 10-12-2003 10:02 am [link]

Chill in U.S.-Syria Ties Helps Clear Way for Israeli Raid on Terror Camp
Syrian Reverse On Intelligence Hardens U.S.
Forward -- October 10, 2003


By ORI NIR
WASHINGTON — Syria has in recent weeks stopped supplying Washington with valuable intelligence, which in the past was helping the United States in fighting Al Qaeda and terrorism in Iraq, congressional, diplomatic and intelligence sources told the Forward.

The Syrian reversal appears to have played a major role in the Bush administration's sympathetic response to the Israeli bombing last Sunday of a deserted terrorist training camp in Syria, following the suicide bombing at a Haifa restaurant the day before in which 19 Israelis were killed.

The deterioration of American-Syrian relations also seems to have played an important role in Israel's decision to retaliate to the suicide bombing by launching an air raid against the site, about 10 miles northwest of Damascus. It was the first time in three decades that Israel attacked targets in Syria.

"Several administration officials have made it clear" that while the administration may have been soft on Syria until now because of its intelligence cooperation, "that is not the situation now — the Syrians stopped cooperating," said Matthew Levitt, a former FBI terrorism analyst who is now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a pro-Israel think tank

- mark 10-12-2003 9:50 am [link]

[Nice analysis by the Guardian.]

Israel deploys nuclear arms in submarines
The Observer -- October 12, 2003


Peter Beaumont in London and Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem
Israeli and American officials have admitted collaborating to deploy US-supplied Harpoon cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads in Israel's fleet of Dolphin-class submarines, giving the Middle East's only nuclear power the ability to strike at any of its Arab neighbours.

- mark 10-12-2003 9:34 am [link]

Saturday, Oct 11, 2003

[The hawk in question is John "screw the UN" Bolton.]

US Hawk Warns Iran Threat Must Be Eliminated
Guardian via Common Dreams -- October 10, 2003


by Richard Norton-Taylor
An American official warned yesterday that the potential threat posed by Iran's nuclear program had to be "eliminated" and predicted Tehran would try to "throw sand" in the eyes of the world to avoid a confrontation at the UN.

- mark 10-12-2003 3:09 am [link]

Israel ready to launch preemptive strike on nuclear sites in Iran: report
AFP via SpaceWar -- October 11, 2003


BERLIN
Israel's spy agency Mossad has drawn up preemptive attack plans on six sites in Iran it suspects are being used to prepare nuclear weapons, Der Spiegel magazine says in its Monday edition, citing Israeli security officials

- mark 10-12-2003 3:05 am [link]

Report: Mossad, IAF have plan for Iran nuke sites
Jerusalem Post -- October 11, 2003


By JPOST.COM STAFF
The German newspaper Der Spiegel reported Saturday that Israel has prepared plans for a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities in order to halt Iran's progress towards attaining nuclear weapons.

Der Spiegel reported that a special unit of the Mossad received an order two months ago to prepare a detailed plan to destroy Iran's nuclear sites. According to the paper, the Mossad's plan is ready and has been delivered to the Israeli Air Force, which will carry out the strike

- mark 10-12-2003 1:00 am [link]

[Is this related to the leak regarding Israel's submarine nukes? Curious timing.]

Israel plant Angriff auf iranische Atomanlagen
Spiegel Online -- October 11, 2003


Translation by altavista ...
The Israeli government under Prime Minister Ariel Scharon is obviously ready to switch off with purposeful military strikes Teherans nuclear program. A special-purpose force of the secret service Mossad received the order two months ago ago to prepare appropriate plans of attack.

- mark 10-12-2003 12:49 am [link]

Nasrallah warns Israel of further attacks on Syria, Lebanon
Al Bawaba -- October 11, 2003


Further Israeli attacks on Syria or Lebanon would lead to a tough response from Hizbullah against Israel, the Lebanon-based movement's chief warned Friday.
- mark 10-11-2003 11:41 pm [link]