Posted By Josh Rogin
Monday, August 29, 2011 - 4:21 PM
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A video has emerged of U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford being assaulted by a pro-regime demonstrator on the streets of Damascus last week.
The assault took place before Ford's unapproved trip to the city of Jassem on Aug 23. Ford was present at a gathering of demonstrators who support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad outside the Cham Palace Hotel in Damascus when one demonstrator ran up to Ford and tried to wrap him in a poster that featured Assad's face.
Ford's security intervened quickly and rushed Ford to his car. The incident was then replayed in a highly produced segment on a Syrian television station owned by Mohamed Hamsho, a businessman who is the brother-in-law of the president's brother, Maher al-Assad. Hamsho was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department earlier this month for siding with the Assad regime during its brutal crackdown on protesters.
Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian activist opposed to Assad and who lives in Maryland, said the TV report accuses Ford of trying to lead a protest in Damascus and even features an out-of-context quote from Edward Peck, the former U.S. diplomat who is now a strong critic of U.S. policy in the Middle East and who took a ride on the May 2010 flotilla that tried to break the Gaza blockade and was attacked by the Israel Defense Forces.
"The reporting is of course stupid" Abdulhamid wrote. "The plain facts are: as Ambassador Ford observed a loyalist demonstration, some of the demonstrators jumped at him when they recognized him and tried to wrap a poster of Bashar Al-Assad around him, but the Ambassador's security details managed to rush him safely into his car. There was no anti-Assad demonstration at the time, security in that area is simply too tight."
A State Department official told The Cable today that the video was "a weak, banal, laughable attempt by the Syrian thugs to have the international community focus on anything but the real story, which is the government's continuing campaign of terror on its own people through torture, murder, and illegal imprisonment."
Andrew Tabler, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and author of a new book about the U.S.-Syria relationship, In the Lion's Den, said that the Assad regime has been harassing Ford for weeks with stunts like this.
For example, the same TV station recently showed a video of fireworks in downtown Damascus, after which the anchor said Ford must have been "shitting his pants with diarrhea," Tabler recounted.
After Ford visited anti-regime protests in the city of Hama in July, the regime encouraged supporters to pelt the U.S. Embassy with rocks and eggs. The protesters smashed embassy windows and wrote graffiti on the walls calling Ford a "dog."
"It's annoying and shows you the base nature of that regime," said Tabler. "This regime hates to be in the spotlight. Robert Ford's actions there place those kinds of things in the spotlight and that's why they are harassing him."
Of course, it's possible that Ford is actually trying to get himself kicked out of Syria by the Assad regime. That would allow the Obama administration to spotlight Assad's intolerance and allow the State Department to avoid a fight over Ford's Senate confirmation.
Until that happens, Ford is going to continue to do his job and try to interact with the Syrian people, said Tabler. But, he added, "the way things are going, it's probably a matter of time" before Ford gets booted.
View the video here:
UPDATE: A State Department official writes in to say that Ford was not attending a pro-regime demonstration. He was watching an anti-government sit-in by some lawyers at the Syrian Bar Association. He was assaulted while standing outside the bar association, waiting to see whether the pro-government thugs assembled outside would assault the protesting lawyers when they came out. The thugs didn't like that he was watching.
EXPLORE:FLASH POINTS, ARAB WORLD, BUSH ADMINISTRATION, DIPLOMACY, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, STATE DEPARTMENT, SYRIA, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY 
The lying Syrian b*st*ards were of course trying to kill the ambassador, not wrap a poster around him. It would have been better had his security forces taken down the demonstrators. The same response should be given whenever they attack the US Embassy.
Ambassadors aren't supposed to stick their noses in internal affairs of the country they live in. Google the Vienna convention on diplomatic relkations and read article 41.
The lying Syrian b*st*ards as you put it are the host country of the b*st*ard American Ambassador, who gets his nose in internal issues of the host country in contradiction to the Geneva Convention governing the relation between the host and embassies.
The nosy b*st*ard ambassador is very lucky that he was only wrapped with a photo, while the NATO secretary was painted with ink all over, at least Syrians are much more friendly than westerns especially when they are hosting someone and even if that someone is as a b*st*ard as RF.
Do you know what are the nicknames of RF in the hosting country Syria? Take these:
* Delivery Boy: Since his visit to Hama was proved to be to deliver high tech communication devices that avoid the official network in addition to large sums of monies in US Dollars as well as Syrian Pounds which most of it was counterfeit.
* Prince of Jihad: During his infamous visit to Hama RF met Al Qaeda associates whom were smuggled from nearby Lebanon & Iraq & gave them the plan for further days.
* Pit Bull: Despite a restrain imposed on RF not to travel more than 25Kms without pre-approval from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the b*st*ard ambassador went over 60kms to a city close to Jordanian borders to instigate terrorists & local smugglers to start riots against the govt & security.
That is the b*st*ard ambassador no country on Earth would like to have, yet, the Syrian govt still didn't expel him keeping the last line with the American Administration although many analysts think the Syrian govt is using RF as a bait, wherever he goes the govt was able to arrest foreign terrorists and confiscate heavy & medium weapons not used by Syrian troops along with communication devices. Such acts put your b*st*ard ambassador as a SPY.
The U.S. can't afford to pretend to be the world's sheriff anymore. If we want to communicate with Syria, send them an e-mail, fax, letter, tweet, or use Iran as a go-between. Close the U.S. embassy there, and bring them all back. We'd no longer suffer the indignation of our ambassador getting beaten up and save a lot of money as well.
These other nations (eg. Iran, Syria) are laughing at us, and we're too dumb to even realize it. They all see our government is totally dysfunctional, our military flailing in Afghanistan (and to a lesser degree, Iraq), and our economy pales in comparison to China's. Time to focus on fixing our own problems and to stop minding everyone else's business.
The more I hear about this ambassador trying to get involved with the conflict between the government and the opposition the more I feel that he wants to create an international diplomatic incident.
Ambassadors are bound by the Vienna Convention Protocols on diplomatic relations which (article 41) clearly stipulate that all diplomats are prohibited from interfering in internal affairs of the host state.
I can just imagine what the Obama administration would have done if say the Chinese ambassdor visited the health care protests of last year and declared support to the Tea Party or the anti government militias in the US.
This is why we need RON PAUL in 2012
Apparently the Syrians know that the US has funded this "popular uprising" through the 2009 "Alliance for Youth" meeting in NYC. The State Dept, alphabet agencies and their proxies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo taught these "youth" how to do their bidding by bringing down their autocratic governments via a false, contrived, populist movement. This is nothing more than Anglo-American destabilization-for-profit that our rouge government has been practicing since 1898 with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. It's a sad day when poor, uneducated Syrians are better informed than the citizens...strike that..."slaves"...of the US fascist corptocracy.
I had no idea.
No, Assad isn't considering a move to Maryland. I've reworded it to "a Syrian
activist opposed to Assad and who lives in Maryland."
--FP copy chief
EOM
I said long ago Time to take out the trash of the middle east! These animals posing as a civilized society fight against Chritian, Jew, Budahist & other muslium s they fight Israel, America, Britain or any other foreign interest. AND whne these subhuman animals arent doing that they are fighting w/each other. What has the muslium culture given us? Not much that they havent been lead to! These animals still live in the stone age
Dude, you've got to get over the left vs. right paradigm. Both parties are controlled by their bankster overlords. It's not about left vs. right, it's about right vs. wrong. "Subhuman"!? You have bought into the "hate the muslims" line brought to you by the neo-cons and their complicit minions of the left and their MSM mouthpieces. What have muslims done to you personally? Contrast that with what the gubment has done to you with organs such as the TSA.
Live and let live should be our mantra much as it was for the first 100 years of the US history. A Confederate soldier was asked when captured (late in the war of northern aggression when their cause was all but lost) why he continues to fight. His response was simple, "because you are down here". When we take that lesson to heart, peace can be achieved.
Ahhhh... the Smell of Arab spring is in the air.
This is the Arab Spring the Radical Left Wing in this country thinks we need a lot more of....
Watch closely and remember well, the biggest part of any battle is recognizing your enemies for who they really are.
Deception is the new art form in the M.E. !
RF or Robert Ford aka Radio Frequency - is no doubt the new Americana art form in the Middle East which was left to take shape on its own. Meaning that the preferred State Dept. method, or I should say art form , of the Administration has elected to utilize - deception. The deception or use of art to form its policy in the Middle East ( M.E.) will then lend itself to absolute deniability if anything comes from it. That is why they sent R.F. to sniff out what's really happening in Syria sence the Sat. pictures really can't pick up the audio in the streets.
Can't U see its always better to deceive almost everyone in order to deny what's coming next?? Now what did U think u saw when u saw R.F. in the streets ? Was it real?? Could it have been a Holigram???
Let us see what the Admin has up their sleeves next ! Or does the U.N. have to step in to protect the people in the Syrian streets next? Anybody see what Putin was doing lately ? I heard he was riding a Harley in Damascus while Rome was on fire... Just kidding - maybe!
uh...where's the "attack"? I just see a bunch of normal dudes getting in the face of a man who really has no business in the internal affairs of their country. The State Dept. Security agents acted perfectly, there was no violence, no one was hurt...what's the big deal here? am I missing something?
Addounia TV, its shareholders and their links to European business:
http://thetim.es/qCXnjX
and
http://bit.ly/nKV9Tl (Ar)
Ambassadors are bound by the Vienna Convention Protocols on diplomatic relations which (article 41) clearly stipulate that all diplomats home projects are prohibited from interfering in internal affairs of the host state.
John Hudson reports on national security and foreign policy from the Pentagon to Foggy Bottom, the White House to Embassy Row, for The Cable.
May/June 2013
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