FARID GHADRY: Writer Farid Ghadry on Assad's brutality in Syria.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBmO7HHi0ac (Why is Syrian Reform Party based in US?)
Syrian opposition chief slams Assad's so-called peace overtu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yvvqmKB6wY
http://reformsyria.org/hot-topic/obama-moving-towards-regime-change-in-syria
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Obama Moving Towards Regime Change in Syria
Thursday, 12 May 2011 09:01 Ryan Mauro Hot topic 
Yes, you read that title correctly. According to the Associated Press, the Obama administration is close to changing course on Syria and supporting the removal of Bashar Assad from power.
Yes, you read that title correctly. According to the Associated Press, the Obama administration is close to changing course on Syria and supporting the removal of Bashar Assad from power.The decision has not yet been made — and this is likely a calculated leak meant to deliver a last warning to Assad — but this is nonetheless a huge change in policy. An official has told the AP: “we are getting close” to demanding the Syrian dictator’s resignation. Apparently the language is already being crafted, with the report stating: “The first step would be to say for the first time that President Bashar Assad has forfeited his legitimacy to rule.” This will be coupled with language supporting a transition towards democracy — a softer way of saying two words the Obama administration is so reluctant to utter: “regime change.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13391828
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13 May 2011 Last updated at 18:29 ET
Syria protests: 'Six killed' in Homs after prayers
At least six people have been killed as thousands attended anti-government protests across Syria after Friday prayers, human rights activists say.
Two were killed in a northern suburb of the capital, Damascus, and another died in a village near Deraa in the south.
Earlier, an opposition leader said President Bashar al-Assad had promised troops would not fire on protesters.
Why We Must Invade Iraq Right Now (animation)
http://www.markfiore.com/animation/corrections.html
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Farid_N._Ghadry
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Farid N. Ghadry (also Farid al-Ghadry and Frank Ghadry) is co-founder and current president of the Reform Party of Syria (RPS), a "'US-based opposition party' of pro-democracy Syrians" [1][2], and the president of the Syrian Democratic Coalition. [3]
Ghadry was born in Syria and, in 1964, at the age of 8, emigrated to Lebanon with his family. Ghadry came to the United States in 1975. [4]
Described as a "discredited businessman from Virginia" who is "Syria’s version of Ahmad Chalabi" by Robert Dreyfuss April 17, 2006, in The American Prospect, Ghadry is "a secular, pro-democracy Sunni from a majority-Sunni country. He is charming and articulate, enjoys driving his kids to soccer practice, and favors a Syrian peace with Israel," Elizabeth Eaves wrote February 7, 2005, in Slate. When Eaves asked Ghadry "why he started the Reform Party of Syria, he said that he and his wife had reached a comfortable point in their lives, with their children nearly grown, and decided that they wanted to give something back. Who wouldn't find such a philanthropic impulse appealing? She joined the board of a children's hospital, and he decided to overthrow a government."
Ghadry is a member of AIPAC. [5] On May 15, 2003, Eli J. Lake wrote in The National Review: "His organization is only now getting off the ground," and "a Syrian who belongs to one of Israel's main lobbying groups is not exactly a strong political candidate in a country that remains one of the most rabidly anti-Israel in the region. As Ghadry himself admits, 'The Syrians are not ready for someone who wants to make peace with Israel.'"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farid_Ghadry
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Farid al-Ghadry (Arabic: فريد الغادري) (born on June 18, 1954) is the Syrian-born co-founder and current president of the United States-based Reform Party of Syria, a party of Syrians who wish to see regime change in Syria. Ghadry has functioned as an American defense contractor and businessman, "Frank Ghadry," who represents himself as being born in Lebanon.[1] Ghadry is a member of AIPAC, Israel's main lobbying group in the U.S.,[2] and has strongly supported all of Israel's recent wars in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.[3]
Ghadry was born in Aleppo, Syria, but in 1964 his family emigrated to Beirut, Lebanon because of political turmoil. There he attended the Maristes Brothers School (Champville - Deek-el-Mehdi). In 1975 the Ghadry family, once again, emigrated to the U.S. and settled in the suburbs of Washington DC. Mr. Ghadry graduated from the American University in Washington DC in 1979 with a degree in Finance and Marketing.
He worked at EG&G Intertech Inc., a subsidiary of EG&G Inc., a Fortune 500 U.S. defense contractor, for two years before starting his own business, International TechGroup Inc., in 1983. This company was Washington-based and produced software for the U.S. Navy to digitize paperwork on aircraft carriers.[4] He sold this business in 1989 and has been involved in many entrepreneurial operations since. In 1990, he began buying antiquated Soviet computers and striping them for gold plating. Reportedly, Ghadry left Russia when his business came to the attention of "unsavory types."[5] Other businesses have included Hannibal's Coffee Company, a chain of coffee shops that went bankrupt in 1996.
Ghadry, because of his father's work, was granted Saudi citizenship. In September 2007 Ghadry's Syrian citizenship was revoked by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad after Ghadry appeared before Israel's Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.[6]
Farid Ghadry has four children. He is also known in the U.S. as "Frank Ghadry." He has served on the Board of Trustees of Norwood School in Bethesda, MD and headed the Capital Campaign for Crew at St. Albans and National Cathedral Schools.[7]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_Party_of_Syria
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The Reform Party of Syria (Arabic: حزب الاصلاح السوري Hizb al-Islah al-Suriy), or RPS is a political party committed to democracy and reform in Syria. It is based in the United States because the present Syrian government does not allow opposition political parties to form without permission. The party is made up of Syrians living in America, Western Europe, and elsewhere. The party's leader, Farid Ghadry, was born in Aleppo, Syria and comes from a well-known Syrian family of civil servants and politicians.
The RPS supported the candidacy of Nicolas Sarkozy in France's 2007 presidential election.[1]
Actually, during the 2011 Syrian uprising the Reform Party of Syria, as a political party of the Syrian opposition in exile, is preparing a series of demonstrations and protests in cities of the Unites States and Western Europe
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=1489816&page=3
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'The Chalabi of Syria' Analysts also warn that the U.S. experience in Iraq is adversely affecting U.S.-based Syrian exiles considered too close to Washington neoconservative circles.
This includes Farid Ghadry, Washington-based president of the Reform Party of Syria.
"Ghadry wants to be the Chalabi of Syria," said Perthes, referring to Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi's use of the United States to bring regime change in Iraq. "Chalabi is a role model for Ghadry."
But it's the very role model that makes Ghadry a suspicious opposition figure for his European and Islamic counterparts. Given what is widely seen in the Middle East and Europe as the U.S. debacle in Iraq, opposition figures -- including Khaddam -- are at pains to stress their distance from Washington.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8479208/Syria-200-Baath-officials-quit-in-protest-against-regime.html
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Syria: 200 Ba'ath officials quit in protest against regime
More than 200 members of Syria's ruling Ba'ath party have resigned over President Bashar al-Assad's violent repression of pro-democracy protests, the first public sign of serious dissent within the governing ranks.
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad Photo: REUTERS
Resigning from the Ba'ath party, which has ruled Syria since taking power in a 1963 coup, was unthinkable before pro-democracy protests erupted in the southern city of Deraa on March 18.
The violence is thought to have killed more than 450 people, and international criticism sharpened after 100 people were killed on Friday and security forces began an attack on the southern city of Deraa on Monday.
Two hundred party members from Deraa province and surrounding regions said they had resigned in protest against the attack, in which security forces killed at least 35 people.
"In view of the negative stance taken by the leadership of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath party towards the events in Syria and in Deraa, and after the death of hundreds and the wounding of thousands at the hands of the various security forces, we submit our collective resignation," they said in a declaration.
Another 28 Ba'athists in the coastal city of Banias also resigned on Wednesday in protest at the "practices of the security forces against honourable citizens ... and torture and murder they committed".
http://reformsyria.org/hot-topic/wikileaks-us-funded-syrian-liberal-moderate-islamists
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In an effort to undermine the Assad regime, the State Department gave millions of dollars to what they define as "liberal and moderate" Islamist groups.
According to internal government documents obtained by Wikileaks, the U.S. has sought to undermine the Assad dictatorship and promote democracy by secretly financing the Movement for Justice and Development — an opposition group described in a diplomatic cable as “liberal, moderate Islamists.”
At least $6 million was given to Syrian opposition groups, though one cable indicates the total was $12 million between 2005 and 2010, with financing earmarked as late as September of last year. The money came from the State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative through the Democracy Council based in Los Angeles. Major funding was provided for the Movement for Justice and Development (MJD), a group which the cables say is made up of former Muslim Brotherhood members seeking regime change in Syria and consists of “liberal, moderate Islamists.” The U.S. was especially interested in sponsoring Barada TV, whose chief editor, Malik al-Abdeh, is also a co-founder of MJD. The chairman of MJD is Anas al-Abdeh, his brother.
http://reformsyria.org/hot-topic/wikileaks-us-funded-syrian-liberal-moderate-islamists
Excerpt:
Wikileaks: U.S. Funded Syrian ‘Liberal, Moderate’ Islamists
In an effort to undermine the Assad regime, the State Department gave millions of dollars to what they define as "liberal and moderate" Islamist groups.According to internal government documents obtained by Wikileaks, the U.S. has sought to undermine the Assad dictatorship and promote democracy by secretly financing the Movement for Justice and Development — an opposition group described in a diplomatic cable as “liberal, moderate Islamists.”
At least $6 million was given to Syrian opposition groups, though one cable indicates the total was $12 million between 2005 and 2010, with financing earmarked as late as September of last year. The money came from the State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative through the Democracy Council based in Los Angeles. Major funding was provided for the Movement for Justice and Development (MJD), a group which the cables say is made up of former Muslim Brotherhood members seeking regime change in Syria and consists of “liberal, moderate Islamists.” The U.S. was especially interested in sponsoring Barada TV, whose chief editor, Malik al-Abdeh, is also a co-founder of MJD. The chairman of MJD is Anas al-Abdeh, his brother.
http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/linkthing/
Excerpt:
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