Cheney Daughter Rages Against Syria (Jim Lobe)

[laststeamtrain]

Cheney Daughter Rages Against Syria
Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr 12 (IPS) - Just a week after Vice President Dick Cheney accused Congress' senior Democrat and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi of "bad behaviour" for visiting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, his daughter and former senior State Department official, Elizabeth Cheney, called Thursday for a global diplomatic embargo against Damascus.

Writing in the Washington Post, the younger Cheney, who served as number two in the State Department's bureau of Near Eastern Affairs as recently as 10 months ago, accused Assad's government of a string of assassinations in Lebanon, adding that any diplomacy with his regime was "not only irresponsible, it is shameful."

"Talking to the Syrians emboldens and rewards them at the expense of America and our allies in the Middle East. It hasn't and won't change their behaviour. They are an outlaw regime and should be isolated," according to Cheney who, while at the State Department, reportedly worked closely with her father's office in promoting Syrian exiles opposed to Assad.

"Members of Congress and State Department officials should stop visiting Damascus. Arab leaders should stop receiving Bashar al-Assad," she went on in what appeared to be a harsh and thinly veiled rebuke of both her former boss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Saudi Arabia's monarch, King Abdullah, who held two private meetings with Assad during last month's Arab League summit in Riyadh.

Cheney, who left the State Department on maternity leave in the spring of 2006, is known to be politically very close to her father and to some of the neo-conservatives, notably the vice president's national security adviser, John Hannah, and senior Middle East aide, David Wurmser, in his office.

That she should issue such a sweeping call for Syria's diplomatic isolation and the adoption of both bilateral and multilateral sanctions against Damascus at this moment evoked considerable speculation here, particularly about the current power balance between hawks led by the vice president and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, on the one hand, and "realists" led by the State Department, on the other, within the administration of President George W. Bush.

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http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37335

[hobbit709]

1. The family that lies and spins together

is the family that avoids jail time.

[acmavm]

2. Wonder when the world will get tired of this family and bundle

their asses up neat and tidy and ship them all to the Hague.

They should be declared international war criminals.

[Botany]

3. Elizabeth Cheney should shut the hell up.

Elizabeth Cheney was in charge of helping rebuild Iraq after the war
a job that she was not qualified for and was overpaid for too.

As a previous poster noted, "Can we pack up this family and ship up em to the Hague?"

[donheld]

4. The Hague or Guantanamo

Either one will do.

[Demeter]

6. Guantanamo Then: Keep US Jobs Here!

And.... no habeus corpus!

[YDogg]

5. Yawn

[susu369]

7. Why doesn't she use her married name?

Elizabeth is married to Philip Perry. Guess she is just too proud (gag) of that powerful Cheney name to give it up.

[bobthedrummer]

8. "Elizabeth CHENEY was also a 'colleague' of Wolfowitz's partner Shaha Ali Riza"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x548152#651509

[laststeamtrain]

9. Thanks for the link. A lot of good info there. n/t