Israel Matzav: 'A prime example of our dysfunctional Syria policy'

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

'A prime example of our dysfunctional Syria policy'

Maybe the State Department couldn't figure out who's in charge....

The US State Department granted a visa to a new Syrian ambassador to the United States who was sent by the Assad regime. Then, reports Josh Rogin, while the diplomat was on his way to the US, the visa was revoked.

“I cannot comment on an individual visa case beyond confirming that Ali Daghman’s visa has been revoked,” a State Department official told The Daily Beast Tuesday, referring to the incoming Syrian diplomat. “As a matter of policy and given the Syrian regime’s continuing assault on its own people, we have taken steps to further restrict entry of even the few remaining Syrian officials staffing the Embassy in Washington.”

Sources told The Daily Beast that Daghman’s visa was not revoked until after Daghman had already departed for D.C. and after Congressional offices and Syria opposition groups protested to the State Department, urging them not to let a regime loyalist diplomat into the country. The State Department was also considering approving the visas for two more diplomats being sent to Washington by the regime, but those visa applications have not been granted or denied and sit in bureaucratic limbo, these sources said.

As for Daghman, he made it all the way to Dulles International Airport, where he still sits in the custody of Customs and Border Patrol, awaiting deportation back to Syria, according to two sources close to the issue. CBP spokesman Robert Hunt told The Daily Beast he could not comment on the status of any individual traveler due to privacy laws.

“This is a prime example of our dysfunctional Syria policy,” said one senior staffer, who added that there was outrage on Capitol Hill that the State Department granted Daghman a visa in the first place and confusion over why they finally decided to revoke it. “We're supposedly arming the opposition to overthrow Assad yet we are granting visas to regime loyalists to come to Washington? This makes the U.S. look at best incompetent and at worst incoherent.”

That last sentence sure sums up the Obama administration, doesn't it? Although I would go further and call it malicious.

“Regardless of the reason why they gave the new diplomat a visa, it sends a message to Assad that the U.S. is not serious when they say the Assad regime is no longer legitimate,” said Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian American Task Force, an NGO that works closely with the Syrian opposition. “It says there is still a relationship. That is the most destructive thing.”

The Syrian embassy in Washington DC has been a source of controversy ever since the Syrian revolution began over two years ago. Technically, the embassy is run by Ambassador Imad Moustapha, but he absconded secretly to Beijing in early 2012, as the FBI was investigating the embassy’s role in spying on Syrian Americans on behalf of the regime in order to intimidate and harass their family members back in Syria.

Obama is fond of being the anti-Bush. George Bush famously told the world after 9/11 'either you're with us or you're with the terrorists.' Obama can't figure out whom he's with or whom he wants to be with 'us.'

What could go wrong?

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Bashar al-Assad, Syria, US State Department