By: Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sayyed Nasrallah, you are wrong, very very wrong to call for the support of a criminal repressive regime of Bashar el-Assad. Too bad you have joined many of the so-called “Arab nationalists” who not only failed to speak up against the Syrian regime and its killing fields but also remained silent. I wished you had remained silent.

It seems Sayyed Nasrallah never heard of the 1964 hit song by the band Four Season later released as a single by the Tremeloes of England. Yes, Sayyed Nasrallah, Silence is Golden. You should have remained silent.

As some one who championed the rights of freedom and liberty and spoke against oppression, you seem to forget these commitments and principals in favor of political expediency and short-term benefits. You remained silent while the Iranian regime of Khamenie-Ahmadinejad was waging a war of terror on peaceful demonstrators in Tehran calling for reforms and freedoms. Perhaps you should have remained silence and did not speak up in favor and support of Bashar el-Assad.

You of all people should know the regime very well. It is a regime that is well established and well rooted in terrorizing the population engaging in wars against its own people as we witnessed in Hama in 1982 when Bashar’s uncle Refa’at waged his war against the people of Hama using tanks against the city and killing not less than 35,000. It seems his nephew Maher is following in the same footsteps of his uncle.

Not so sure if you watch television and saw the millions of Syrians out on the streets demanding only reforms and more freedoms and less corruption by the ruling family and less “mokhabarat”. Of course Bashar el-Assad and his police state could not hear any of this, and accused the people of being outside saboteurs and insurgents financed by “foreign” entities such as the US and Israel. Lies do not sell lies.

Buthayna Sha’aban the elegant and articulate “liar of the regime” came out promising change and lifting of “emergency powers”. Too bad with the lifting of the “emergency rules” the regime let lose of its criminal thugs within the army, military intelligence and “mokhabarat” terrorizing people and deploying tanks putting siege to cities all over Syria cutting off water, electricity and communications. I am sure Sayyed Nasrallah this should have reminded you of the same ruthless tactics of your enemy Israel.

Thousands of innocent civilians were killed and murdered in cold blood, and tens of thousands arrested, detained and tortured by the same torturers who were subcontractors to the CIA in its war on terror.

It seems you did not hear of the 13 years old boy Hamza Alkhatib, arrested for being part of the demonstration, tortured and mutilated to death cutting off his genitals and using his body as target practice, delivering his body to his family who were wondering what ever happened to their son. The family was put under a gag order.

For over 50 years the Arabs have heard the same old story, the same old lies over and over again. Repressive and “nationalist” regime using Israel as an excuse to have a strangle hold on the people suppressing freedoms and liberties in favor of dictatorial regimes that over the years turned into dynasties of horrors. Nasser/Sadat/Mubarak, Hafez Assad, Ali Saleh, Muamar Gaddafi, Houari Boumediene, Saddam Hussein and Omar el-Bashir, all of these dictators used Israel as an excuse to perpetuate a corrupt, dictatorial and failing regimes. The people are not buying lies any more and you as an intelligent man should not buy the lies of Bashar el-Assad of “resistance and steadfastness”.

This “resistance regime” you are marketing did not resist the Israeli/Jewish Occupation but resisted reforms where citizens can feel and practice the rights of citizenship like free elections, free associations, free speech, accountable governments, multi-party political system, transparent economic system without strangle hold from the ruling families. Have you Sayyed Nasrallah ever wondered how the “Syrian Parliament” that did not meet in decades met on a 30 minutes notice, change the constitution to allow Bashar to succeed his father and in all these years failed to convene and implement promised changes that you and your buddy Bashar talks about.

If it took the “Syrian Parliament” 30 minutes to change the constitution. I am sure if Bashar and his family wanted reforms they could have implemented reforms in the 11 years since Bashar took over from his father. Promise of reforms is nothing more than buying time for a dying regime.

More than 40 years of the same ruling family, the same ruling “Ba’athist Party” a rule not of law but a rule of “mokhabarat” and more mokhabarat” where opening a ‘falafel place” will require a “security clearance”. And then the big lies come. Bashar and his” liar in chief” Buthayna Sha’ban claims that “outside insurgent” with weapons and guns came into the country to incite insurrection. How could believe these lies in a country where intelligence services monitor every single person, every single home and every single telephone conversation. One has to wonder how a regime built around a police state and “mokhabarat” could have failed in detecting the arrival of these armed insurgents and saboteurs.

Too bad Sayyed Nassrallah, you have lost so many of your admirers and supporters when you failed to speak up for the rights of the Syrian people. You had your chance to speak up when the Iranian people were demanding freedom and reforms and you remained silent and you got away with it. Not this time, you not only failed to remain silent, but you spoke up in support of a criminal regime that kills its citizen. I wish you had remained silent. Yes, Sayyed Nasrallah,”Silence is Golden”.

Palestine note