Primer: Syria MJT Michael Totten Interviews Barry Rubin

Primer: Syria MJT Michael Totten Interviews Barry Rubin

http://www.michaeltotten.com/

Some selected quotes.

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June 06, 2007vvvThe Truth About Syria
By Michael J. Totten

"Syria is not a radical regime because it has been mistreated by the West or Israel but because the regime needs radicalism to survive. It is a minority dictatorship of a small non-Muslim minority and it offers neither freedoms nor material benefit."

"MJT: Do you think the Syrians are behind the war of the camps raging in Lebanon now, or does this conflict match the timing of the UN tribunal coincidentally?

Rubin: I definitely think the Syrians are behind it."

>Organize and order a shadowy group of terrorists, called Fatah al-Islam, to disrupt Lebanon."

"Fatah al-Islam, is merely part of an older group, Fatah al-Intifada which has been a Syrian front group for almost 25 years."

"The leader of this group is a man by the name of Colonel Abu Khaled al-Amleh. And he lives and operates out of Damascus, Syria. "

"The field commander of the group is a man named Shaker al-Absi. He has been working as a Syrian agent since 1983."

"In Iraq, Absi worked with Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaida—Usama bin Ladin’s group—there."

"Mr. Absi was involved in the murder of a U.S. diplomat, Lawrence Foley, in Jordan on October 28, 2003."

"MJT: Some foreign policy hands hope they can "flip" Syria from its alliance with Iran. Do you think this is possible in the long term if not in the short term?

Rubin: This is absurd and I discuss it at length in my new book, The Truth About Syria."

"How does a basically atheistic regime run by non-Muslims reinvent itself as Islamist? "

The Truth About Syria, By Barry Rubin, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2007

Barry Rubin is the director of the Global Research for International Affairs Center of the Interdisciplinary Center in Hertzliya, Israel. He is the author of 16 books, including The Truth About Syria, and is the editor of Middle East Review of International Affairs.

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