Posted on 12/30/2007 5:35:00 PM PST by RDTF
Two visiting US Congressmen announced after talks with Syrian leaders on Sunday that they had secured a pledge that jailed dissidents would be freed and said they saw scope for progress in the peace process with Israel.
The upbeat note contrasted with that of US President George W. Bush earlier this month who ruled out direct talks with Damascus, saying: "My patience ran out on President (Bashar) al-Assad a long time ago."
Senator Arlen Specter, a member of Bush's Republican Party, and Congressman Patrick Kennedy, a Democrat, held talks with both Assad and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.
Kennedy said that he had secured Assad's undertaking that seven secular dissidents in jail for criticising the Damascus regime and its policy towards neighbouring Lebanon would all be freed.
"The president said that they would be released," Kennedy told reporters.
"(He named) Akram Bunni, Walid Bunni, Jaber Shufi, Ali Abdullah, Fidaa Horani, Mohammad Yasser Aiti and Ahmed Tohmeh. The president assured me personally that they were (to be) released."
The seven opposition figures had signed a "Damascus Declaration" calling for radical change that united communist, nationalist, liberal and Kurdish parties and formed a National Council to press for its implementation.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Patches Kennedy? WTF?
also from article:
Specter also sounded an upbeat note about the prospects for movement on the peace process between Syria and Israel which has been frozen since 2000, saying it was now generally accepted that Israel would have to return the Golan Heights which it seized in 1967 and unilaterally annexed in 1981.
“Syrians and Israelis are in a position to proceed to have a peace treaty,” the senator said.
Another tax payer vacation...
“(He named) Akram Bunni, Walid Bunni, Jaber Shufi, Ali Abdullah, Fidaa Horani, Mohammad Yasser Aiti and Ahmed Tohmeh. The president assured me personally that they were (to be) released.”
Between the Ambien and the beer, how can he be sure of anything that anyone says to him?
Syria doesnt mind releasing these prisoners now that they’ve tortured them to near death everyday they’ve been in jail.
And people wonder why some of us wonder if we might just need a new system in this country! You know, these two clowns are a prime example of why the survival of the fittest theory is bunk. There’s no way they should have reached maturity without having been eaten by a bear or something. ‘Course, there’s still time for some Mohammedan to eat them, I suppose.
Sounds like “peace in our time” again by two more idiots.
it was now generally accepted that Israel would have to return the Golan Heights which it seized in 1967 and unilaterally annexed in 1981.
There is a reason that the Executive Branch runs foriegn policy, not the legislature. You’d think Lawyer Arlen would understand that.
Specter is a Republican? More’s the pity!
RINO
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