Monday, August 20, 2007

Shutting Down Terrorists' Transit Hub   [J. Peter Pham]

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed today, Sen. Joseph Lieberman argues that "the United States is at last making significant progress against al Qaeda in Iraq—but the road to victory now requires cutting off al Qaeda's road to Iraq through Damascus," noting that "recently declassified American intelligence reveals just how much al Qaeda in Iraq is dependent for its survival on the support it receives from the broader, global al Qaeda network, and how most of that support flows into Iraq through one country—Syria." The senator goes on to observe:

This is not the first use of the Damascus airport by terrorists. It has long been the central transit point for Iranian weapons en route to Hezbollah, in violation of United Nations Security Council sanctions, as well as for al Qaeda operatives moving into and out of Lebanon. Now the Damascus airport is the point of entry into Iraq for most of the suicide bombers who are killing innocent Iraqi citizens and American soldiers, and trying to break America's will in this war. It is therefore time to demand that the Syrian regime stop playing travel agent for al Qaeda in Iraq.

Lieberman concludes that "the U.S. government should also begin developing a range of options to consider taking against Damascus International, unless the Syrian government takes appropriate action, and soon." Although the senator does not mention it, somehow I don't think this agenda item made it into Speaker Nancy Pelosi's notes for her tour of Damascus earlier this year.

08/20 08:17 AMShare