Yet another revelation from WikiLeaks — and one that could have an impact on how other nation’s view the United States: the United States was helping fund some Syrian opposition groups at the same time it was seemingly trying to work with the Syrian government:
Newly released WikiLeaks cables reveal that the US State Department has been secretly financing Syrian opposition groups and other opposition projects for at least five years, The Washington Post reports.
That aid continued going into the hands of the Syrian government opposition even after the US began its reengagement policy with Syria under President Barack Obama in 2009, the Post reports. In January, the US posted its first ambassador to the country since the Bush administration withdrew the US ambassador in 2005 over concerns about Syria’s involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
The Christian Science Monitor goes on:
The Obama administration has been trying to draw Syria away from its key ally Iran and closer to the US and its regional allies. The effort seems to have been largely unsuccessful so far, and antigovernment protests sweeping the country have complicated the issue. The US is struggling to determine how to support Syria’s democratic protesters while not alienating the Assad government, which has cracked down brutally on demonstrations and blamed them on “foreign saboteurs,” as The Christian Science Monitor reported last week.
That is a dilemma that concerned the US government even before the protests began. The author of an April 2009 cable expressed concern that some of the projects being funded by the US, if discovered by the Syrian government, would be perceived as “an attempt to undermine the Asad [sic] regime, as opposed to encouraging behavior reform.”
The Post reported that much of the money – as much as $6 million since 2006 – has been funneled through a group of Syrian exiles in London, known as the Movement for Justice and Development. The group is connected to a London-based satellite television station that is broadcast in Syria, known as Barada TV, which has recently expanded its coverage to include the mass protests.
This latest news comes against the backdrop of continued unrest in Syria:
Thousands of Syrians have attended the funerals for protesters killed in the central city of Homs, chanting slogans demanding the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, the country’s president.
Rights activists say security forces killed at least 25 pro-democracy protesters in Homs on Sunday night as anti-government demonstrations flared across the country, claiming up to 30 lives.
“From alleyway to alleyway, from house to house, we want to overthrow you, Bashar,” the mourners chanted, according to a witness at the mass funeral held for eight of the dead on Monday.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent Rula Amin, in Damascus, reported that the situation in Homs was very tense.
“People are complaining that many of the wounded are not going to the hospital, they fear that the security forces will pick them up from their hospital bed,” she said.
“There is also a shortage of blood according to the people we have been talking to.
“People are concerned that clashes might erupt following the [funeral] processions.”
Syrian security forces killed as many as 19 people over the past two days in areas where anti-government protests have been under way, opposition sources said.
Eleven people were killed in Talbisa and 21 were wounded, an opposition source said Monday. Some of the victims were killed when security forces opened fire on mourners at a funeral Sunday; forces also raided homes and shot people on the streets, the source said.Five people were killed in the city of Latakia and 40 were injured, the opposition source said. Many of the wounded were then kidnapped from a hospital and taken to a military base in Latakia, the source said.
In the city of Homs, near Talbisa, there were conflicting reports on the number of people killed. Three people were killed, a second opposition source said Sunday. A third opposition source said two people were killed in Homs.
AND:
Syrian state-run news agency SANA carried a story Monday saying that a policeman “was martyred and 11 police and security personnel were injured on Sunday when a group of armed criminals opened fire on them in the town of Talbisa near Homs.”
“An official source at the Ministry of Interior said the armed group opened fire randomly, terrorizing citizens and cutting off public roads, noting that the police forces were unarmed and were keeping order.”
The “armed criminal groups” cut off a major roadway, and a military unit was mobilized “to put an end to the armed groups’ crime spree and prevent them from cutting off the highway again,” the SANA report said.
“Upon the unit’s approach, the armed criminal groups’ members who were situated in buildings near the highway opened fire on the military unit, which returned fire and killed 3 members of the armed groups and wounded 15, while 5 army personnel were wounded.”
Here’s a video that appears to show a Syrian government water cannon truck driving into a crowd of protestors:
Syria’s President is promising to lift Syria’s emergency laws soon:
The protests have been spreading as people have been clamoring for regime change versus reform:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.