The following piece on Syria has been provided by Bill Beeman is an athropologist and linguist at the University of Minnesota , who is recognized and respected as a leader among American specialists on the Middle East.

Bill’s recent book on Iran is titled: The "Great Satan" vs. the "Mad Mullahs": How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other.- wisass.org

Syrian “Nuclear Facility”: Credible?

Regarding the bombing of the Syrian nuclear facility, I have received correspondence from a colleague with a U.S. security clearance who wishes not to post these observations under this colleague's own name. Nevertheless, these observations are not privileged, but invite readers to inspect the evidence that has been presented to the press and public and consider the following:

In the recent imbroglio over Barack Obama's comments at a fundraiser in San Francisco on Friday, where he had the audacity to point out the truth, that people in the rustbelt are bitter, and after decades of given political platitudes as jibs are sipped out of the country, education has crumbled for their kids, and affordable healthcare has become a mirage, don't you think it is a good idea to step back a moment as ask what the real ugliness of condescension is here?

I had the opportunity to meet with Oregon's Speaker of the House, Jeff Merkley, who is running to be the Democratic candidate to replace Gordon Smith as Oregon's junior Senator in the United States Senate this November, on back to back nights last week. While both events on Wednesday and Thursday evenings were to audiences who were either were already supporters or predisposed to being receptive to his message, seeing him twice in a row threw into sharp relief just how lucky we are in Oregon to have him in elected office in the State Legislature, and just what a great Senator he would make in United States Senate.

As picked up by Eric Kleefeld over at Talking Points Memo, John McCain, whom Oregon Senator Gordon Smith has endorsed in his floundering bid for President, commented to a crowd today in Davenport Iowa on Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize with negative spin, saying that there were more worthy people out there to whom the prize could have been awarded.

"I would have liked to see that prize go to the Buddhist monks who are suffering and dying in Burma," McCain is quoted as saying.

While most of the world is deeply troubled and opposes the military junta's crack-down on the Burmese monks in their struggle for human rights and democratic reforms, McCain's carping flies in the face of a couple of facts.

Today an ad went live on Barack Obama's website in which retired four-star Air Force General Merrill "Tony" McPeak endorses Obama for President. Gen. McPeak, who is from Grants Pass Oregon and now lives in Lake Oswego served in the Air Force for 35 years. Earlier in his military career he was a combat pilot and went on to lead the Air Force during the first war in Iraq (Operation Desert Storm). He was also a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

During the presidential election of 2000 McPeak endorsed George W. Bush and served as co-chairman of Oregon Veterans for Bush something he would later call an enormous mistake. So in the 2004 race, the retired McPeak openly campaigned for Howard Dean's nomination, and when Dean withdrew, acted as an adviser for the John Kerry campaign on military matters, though from conversations we at wiseass.org are aware of, that relationship was a rather strained one.

McPeak was also one of twenty-seven signatories to the statement of the "Committee of Diplomats & Commanders for Change" calling the Bush Administration a failure at "preserving national security" and calling for Bush not to be re-elected.

Earlier this year McPeak said he won't work for Obama as a paid adviser, and he'll join the campaign only if he meets Obama and likes him. McPeak says his mistake in 2000 was backing Bush before he met him.

During a press briefing on, Thursday October 2, 2007 Dana Perino, the current White House Press Secretary, was asked about whether junta leaders would meet with the U.N. Envoy in efforts to resolve the violent crackdown on the peaceful demonstrations calling for reform in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). Her reply?

Well, unfortunately, intimidation and force can chill peaceful demonstrations. And reports about very innocent people being thrown into detention, where they could be held for years without any representation or charges, is distressing; and we understand that some of the monasteries have been sealed. Now, obviously, this has, again, a chilling effect on protesters, but we would ask that everyone show restraint and allow those who want to express themselves to be able to do so in Burma.

(emphasis mine)

What she said was not in and of itself bad, most people in the world would want a peaceful resolution to the confrontations occurring in that troubled, resource-rich nation of 50 million people, but the statement uttered from the podium of this particular administration about the actions of throwing people into detention where they can be held for years without representation or charges is dripping with unintentional irony.

The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.

Those words were given in a time of fear, of injustice, of inhumanity. For those words, and the struggle behind them to bring a more human face to a nation that had become a police state, a price would have to be paid. On the way to an organizing rally for a people under the heal of a jackboot police-state, to cry out the radical notion that those in power are only human not superior to those they control, and likewise those beaten down must be made to realize that they are also human, not inferior that a terrible toll would be exacted. For those words, and the thoughts behind them, a man was stopped by homeland security at a check-point and arrested on August 21st, under the Terrorism Act No 83.

The activist, refusing to bow to the notion that he was less than those who oppressed him, was detained, interrogated and tortured four times between his arrest in August and the end of his ordeal. He was taken from his police holding cell for interrogation at the security police headquarters on September 7th. He was beaten again and this time sustained a head injury, after which he acted strangely and became unresponsive. The doctors who examined him (naked, lying on a mat and manacled to a metal grille) initially disregarded the overt signs of neurological injury.

The Portland chapter of Drinking Liberally, a nationwide network holding informal, inclusive progressive social gatherings, hosted a face-to-face meeting this past Thursday night (September 6th) at the Lucky Labrador Brew Pub in SE Portland with Oregon House Speaker and Democratic candidate for US Senate Jeff Merkley.

In the meet-and-greet Merkley was engaged in both informal "working the room" style face time with voters, and gave a 10 min. or so speech outlining why Gordon Smith-R OR needs to be replaced with a solid progressive Senator, to effectively end the canceling out effect Smith has on Senator Ron Wyden, thereby effectively giving Oregon no voice in the U.S. Senate.

It was however during the substantive and lengthy Q & A following his brief speech where people got a good sense of the candidate and where Merkley, when asked about investigations and impeachment of members of the Bush administration (up to and including Bush himself) broke some new (at least within this century) ground. After making humorous note of how Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation as U.S. Attorney General within a week of Merkley publicly calling for his impeachment if Bush would not fire him over his incontrovertible dishonesty under oath to Congress, Merkley in his response stated at the outset that he firmly believes that "impeachment should never be off the table" regardless of who is president.