[Excerpt: Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat said US officials who attended the meeting on Thursday included Elizabeth Cheney, deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and John Hanna, an official in the office of her father, Vice President Dick Cheney....The paper said Elizabeth Cheney�s office confirmed the meeting, which was also attended by Pentagon and National Security Council officials, and comes at a time when the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is under mounting US pressure to end its grip over neighbouring Lebanon....Cheney�s office, however, refused to give details....Participants on the Syrian side included Farid al-Ghadri, a US-based businessman who heads the Reform Party of Syria, Zuhdi al-Jasser, Mohammad Khawam, Muwaffak Bunni al-Marjeh, Hussam al-Dairi, Salma al-Dairi and writer Bassam Darwish....Asharq Al-Awsat said the dissidents lobbied for a policy of regime change in Syria, whereas the administration officials focused on ways of weakening Assad�s government.]
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2005/March/middleeast_March729.xml§ion=middleeast US discusses 'weakening Syrian regime' with dissidents: report (AFP) 26 March 2005 DUBAI - US officials held an �unpublicised� meeting with exiled Syrian dissidents in Washington to discuss ways of �weakening the Syrian regime,� a pan-Arab newspaper reported on Saturday. Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat said US officials who attended the meeting on Thursday included Elizabeth Cheney, deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and John Hanna, an official in the office of her father, Vice President Dick Cheney. The paper said Elizabeth Cheney�s office confirmed the meeting, which was also attended by Pentagon and National Security Council officials, and comes at a time when the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is under mounting US pressure to end its grip over neighbouring Lebanon. Cheney�s office, however, refused to give details. Participants on the Syrian side included Farid al-Ghadri, a US-based businessman who heads the Reform Party of Syria, Zuhdi al-Jasser, Mohammad Khawam, Muwaffak Bunni al-Marjeh, Hussam al-Dairi, Salma al-Dairi and writer Bassam Darwish. Asharq Al-Awsat said the dissidents lobbied for a policy of regime change in Syria, whereas the administration officials focused on ways of weakening Assad�s government. The two sides also discussed the possibility of �holding to account� current and former Syrian officials for �committing crimes against the Syrian people.� Ghadri �did not deny� attending the meeting but declined to give details, the paper reported. However, he pledged to �continue our political activities whether at the party level or at the level of the Syrian Democratic Aliance, which groups more than 15 political parties and social institutions.� �We will continue to work with the US government and the European Union,� Ghadri was quoted as saying. He added that he had received an invitation from the European Parliament to talk about a proposed Syrian-EU association agreement in Brussels later this month. Syria has started pulling its soldiers out of Lebanon as a result of heavy international pressure, chiefly US and French, following the February 14 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri in a massive bomb blast in Beirut. The attack, blamed by the Lebanese opposition on Syria despite denials in Damascus, inflamed public opinion and galvanized momentum to end the near 30-year Syrian military presence in Lebanon. The meeting in Washington coincided with release of a UN report, which accused Syria of creating a climate of political tension in Lebanon in which the assassination occurred and demanded an international inquiry into the killing. enditem UNRESTRICTED ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. Bring education to life by funding a specific classroom project. http://us.click.yahoo.com/FHLuJD/_WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
