Syria: A series of embarrassing failures

US prosecutors yesterday indicted a Syrian-born man living in the US on charges of spying for the al-Assad regime in Damascus. If this accusation is proven, and the defendant found guilty, then this would represent one failure after another for the al-Assad regime. One might ask: why is that? The reason for this is very simple, for this Syrian-born man is facing accusations of espionage not because he tried to breach the secrets of the US State Department or the Pentagon, or because he tried to obtain classified information about the US missile defense system or other technological secrets or even – shall we say – the colonel's secret recipe! Rather, he is accused of spying on al-Assad regime opponents in the US, as part of a conspiracy to intimidate and possibly even harm them or their families in Syria! What an embarrassment, particularly if the defendant is found guilty! The spy wars in America never end, particularly with regards to China, Russia, and even Israel. However for the Damascus regime to send or use one spy to monitor the movements of al-Assad regime opponents in America…that is a true failure! Since one thing reminds us of another, observers can only feel surprise at the US officials’ demands that the al-Assad regime stop defaming the reputation of US Ambassador to Damascus, Robert Ford, who Washington recently withdrew from Syria amidst security concerns. As a result of this, an organized media campaign in Damascus was launched to defame the reputation of the ambassador who had announced his support of the Syrian revolutionaries, and even encouraged them in the media. The reason for our surprise, in this instance, is that Washington is asking a regime whose media – and the people speaking on behalf of the al-Assad regime are many – have defamed and denigrated the people of Syria themselves, to stop defaming the reputation of the US ambassador to Syria! The al-Assad regime has not hesitated in describing its opponents with various false labels; sometimes as Salafists, others times as [foreign] infiltrators, as well as members of terrorist groups or religious fundamentalists, even if some of these protesters are Christian., which begs the question: how can somebody be a Salafist and a Christian at the same time? This is not to mention the talk that they, the Syrian revolutionaries, are “germs” and agents of Israel or the West, and other ready-made accusations. So if the al-Assad regime does not hesitate to defame a broad section of its own people, not to mention spy on them and intimidate them, even abroad – as can be seen in the case that is currently being tried in the US courts, as well as in claims made by Syrian dissidents who have fled to Lebanon – then why would it have any problem with defaming the reputation of the US ambassador? The Syrian dissidents who fled to Lebanon have claimed that they were tracked [by Syrian security apparatus], whilst numerous media reports have been published claiming that Syrian forces infiltrated Lebanese territory; this is not to mention the cases of the disappearances [of Syrian dissidents] and other stories. Therefore the only response to a regime that exposes itself to every danger, such as conducting espionage operations in the US, merely in order to intimidate its opponents, rather than to obtain nuclear secrets or technological secrets – as such espionage merits – along the lines of what China, Russia, and even Israel does from time to time, is: what a failure!