Earlier this month, I traveled with seven other westerners to Syria where we joined with thirty plus activists, journalists and politicians from Asia, Africa and South America to observe the Syria Presidential election. Bashar. Assad won 88% of the vote. Though some people in opposition areas boycotted the election, and others could not get to a polling station, […]
Read moreMonth: June 2014
Shifting the Ground
A couple of weeks ago, I went to Damascus as an Election Observer with 4 other Americans and 3 Canadians, and a host of people from South America, Asia and Africa. Before I arrived, US Secretary of State John Kerry had declared the Syrian election ‘a fraud’ and the United States and her ‘democratic’ western allies in Europe, along with […]
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Syrian Refugees in Turkey
Syrian women are not downtrodden and voiceless in general. The west portrays Arab women as lacking rights or oppressed compared to American women. There are differences, but in some cases the Syrian women have more rights. For example: the Syrian civil code, or law, is based on the FRENCH civil code, which I suppose goes back to the period of […]
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UN Press Briefing on Syria (Updated)
I was one of the speakers at a UN Press Briefing on Syria with Syrian Ambassador to the UN, Dr. Bashar Ja’fari. I was glad to say something positive about the Syrian Election as were the other Election Observers who spoke at this conference. Initially we each made a 2 minute statement which was also in a program distributed in […]
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Al Ba’ath Election Cartoon
I almost forgot this great cartoon that I noticed in Al Ba’ath paper the day after the election in Syria.
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Hands Off Syria Teach-In
This event was sponsored by the Syrian American Forum and the International Action Center. It was my honor to participate as a Syrian Election Observer. Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr, Bashar Ja’fari and Ramsey Clark both participated as well. Here is Part 1:: And Part 2: Please remember that everything you read in the U.S. News about Syria […]
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A Voice from Kassab
I was with a group of 5 Americans, 3 Canadians and an Irishman who went to observe the Syrian election, but there were other observers from Asia, Africa and South America. On the way there, I thought about having a particular angle to report from, and I decided that since there weren’t many women observers that I would talk to […]
Read moreSyrian Voters in Banias
I took quite a few photos while I was moving around the countryside observing voters at voting stations. Here are the full size images of the pictures I took in Banias. Notice that the people are very happy to be voting. People brought their children to learn about being a voter. Also, I was surprised at how comfortably the soldiers […]
Read moreSyrians in Homs Celebrating their Election
Eva Bartlett, the author of this video, is a reporter for IPS. We met her in Beirut on our way into Syria. She was staying at our hotel where she had been waiting a month for a Journalist’s Visa from Syria. She hoped to get in in time to cover the elections and it looks like she succeeded. Nice work, […]
Read moreRemarks of Co-Delegate on Press TV
Co-delegate Joe Iosbaker had a couple of interviews on Press TV. He is very articulate but I want to say that I visited 6 or 7 polling sites around Tartous, a northern province along the Mediterranean, and had the same impression. and
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