³A U.N. investigation said the assassination could not have been carried out without the knowledge of Syrian security officials.² What they actually found is that the assassination had the earmarks of an intelligence agency. Since they were unwilling to consider the CIA or Mossad as perps, they simply named Syria as the 'only possibility'. When propaganda is so shallow one wonders how it can be so successful. rkm -------------------------------------------------------- Original source URL: http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060928/3/2qkjq.html Thursday September 28, 8:45 PM Syria shrugs off U.S. sanctions threat DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria will keep supporting Hamas and Hizbollah despite U.S. threats to impose more sanctions on the country, a government newspaper said on Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week threatened to toughen sanctions Washington imposed on Syria in 2004, mainly for its support of the two Arab Muslim movements, which Washington regards as "terrorist organisations", and ask other countries to join in. "Syria is more determined to stand by the resistance until the land is liberated and Israel is defeated," an editorial in the Baath newspaper said. "If the U.S. administration is serious about combating terrorism then it should play a constructive role in pushing forward the peace process on the basis of U.N. resolutions 242 and 338," the newspaper said. The UN resolutions, passed decades ago, emphasise the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war, call on Israel to withdraw from Arab land it has occupied since 1967 and negotiations to reach a "just and durable peace" in the Middle East. "Absolute U.S. support for Israel is one of the main causes behind regional instability. The United States has helped Israel in the United Nations stand against any proposal for a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict," the newspaper said. Rice said the United States was going "to have to look at tougher measures if Syria continues to be on the path that it's on." Relations between the United States, Israel's chief ally, and Syria have been deteriorating for years, especially after last year's assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was friendly with Washington. A U.N. investigation said the assassination could not have been carried out without the knowledge of Syrian security officials. Damascus denies involvement. Diplomats in Damascus say Washington has been angered by the Syrian response to an attack carried out by Muslim militants on the U.S embassy in Damascus on September 12. Syrian security forces foiled the attack, but Syrian officials later said U.S. policies in the region and support for Israel invited it. In May 2004, Washington banned a number of U.S. exports to Syria, severed banking relations with the country's largest bank and barred Syrian flights to and from the United States. Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited. -- -------------------------------------------------------- Escaping the Matrix website http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website http://cyberjournal.org subscribe cyberjournal list mailto:•••@••.••• Posting archives http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/ Blogs: cyberjournal forum http://cyberjournal-rkm.blogspot.com/ Achieving real democracy http://harmonization.blogspot.com/ for readers of ETM http://matrixreaders.blogspot.com/ Community Empowerment http://empowermentinitiatives.blogspot.com/ Blogger made easy http://quaylargo.com/help/ezblogger.html