[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 55 (Thursday, April 14, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2491-S2492]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 SYRIA

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. I thank the Chair. Madam President, it is 
coincidental, but my remarks follow in a logical path from those of my 
colleague and friend from Texas, particularly with regard to the 
thoughtful questions he raised about Syria.
  I have come to the floor to speak about the historic and 
extraordinary events that are taking place in Syria where, for the past 
3 weeks, the Syrian people have been peacefully and courageously taking 
to the streets of their cities. I wish to talk particularly about what 
may happen in Syria over the next 24 hours.
  What is happening, of course, in Syria is part of a broader story 
that is unfolding across the Middle East--a democratic awakening in 
which millions of ordinary people are rising up against corrupt 
autocratic regimes that have ruled the region and suppressed these 
people for decades. But the strategic stakes in Syria are among the 
highest anywhere in the region. In fact, I would say what happens in 
Syria in the coming days will have far-reaching consequences for the 
future of the Middle East and for our national security here in the 
United States.
  The uprising in Syria began, like those in Tunisia and Egypt, 
spontaneously and unexpectedly. It rose from the people, not from 
outside. It began in the city of Dara'a, in southern Syria near the 
Jordanian border, after the Assad regime arrested a group of 
schoolchildren there. When the citizens of Dara'a began peacefully 
assembling to protest this absurd act of repression, the police 
responded by firing live ammunition into the crowd. Rather than being 
intimidated by this violence, however, the protest movement persisted 
and spread.
  Although the Assad regime was trying desperately to prevent accurate 
information about what is happening inside Syria from reaching the rest 
of the world, it is clear that people in many cities around the country 
are now in open revolt against the Assad regime.

[[Page S2492]]

From Latakia, to Aleppo, and from the Kurdish northeast to the villages 
along the Mediterranean coastline, more and more Syrians from diverse 
backgrounds are rising up and demanding their freedom.
  What exactly are they asking for? It is the same basic demands we 
hear throughout the region, and they are very familiar--they should 
be--to the American people, because they are the very demands that 
energized and motivated our rebellion and the American Revolution and 
the founding documents of our country. The people of Syria want greater 
political freedom and they want economic opportunity. They want into 
the modern world. They want to be treated with respect by their 
government, and they want an end to the culture of corruption and 
impunity that surrounds the Assad regime.
  How has Bashar al Assad reacted to these legitimate grievances? The 
answer is he has responded not by offering reform but by unleashing 
what President Obama has rightly characterized as abhorrent violence 
and repression against the Syrian people. He has responded with thugs 
and militias who have attacked peaceful protestors. He has responded by 
spouting conspiracy theories rather than loosening his autocratic grip. 
And as we know now, he has responded by calling on his allies, his 
patrons in Teheran, to help him crush the demonstrations by the Syrian 
people, just as the Iranian regime--the fanatical, extremist, 
expansionist regime in Teheran, stamped out the protests that took 
place in Teheran after the June 2009 election.
  It is now clear what path Bashar al Assad is on. Rather than pursuing 
reform, he is taking a page from the Qadhafi model. He is betting that 
he can beat his people into submission through force and that the world 
will let him get away with slaughter.
  Let's be very clear what it means if Bashar succeeds. It will send a 
most perverse but unmistakable message that leaders such as Mubarak and 
Ben Ali in Egypt and Tunisia respectively and who are allied with the 
United States get overthrown, but leaders such as Assad, who are allied 
with Iran, survive. Is that a message we want to send?
  What about tomorrow? Why do I focus on the next 24 hours? Tomorrow is 
likely to be a critical day for the future of Syria as protestors come 
together after Friday's prayers. There is a significant danger that it 
will also become a very bloody day if Assad continues on the path of 
violence and brutality against his own people.
  This is, therefore, an urgent moment for American leadership, at 
least for America's voice to be heard. It is important for President 
Assad in Damascus to know today, before the protests that are likely to 
take place throughout Syria tomorrow, that his regime will be held 
accountable for its actions.
  I hope we will be prepared to act quickly together with the world 
community if Assad fails to heed the will of the Syrian people and 
tries to hang on to power through repression and murder.
  What can we do? Well, to begin with, we can impose tough and targeted 
sanctions on the Syrian officials responsible for the human rights 
abuses that are being perpetrated against their own people. We can also 
work with our allies to summon a special session of the U.N. Human 
Rights Council in Geneva, just as we did in the case of Libya, and we 
can refer Assad's regime to the international criminal court, just as 
we did with Qadhafi.
  We should also embrace the Syrian opposition, the freedom fighters. I 
hope senior American officials will meet with prominent Syrian 
dissidents who are here in Washington now. I also urge the 
administration to speak out clearly in support of the Syrian people who 
deserve praise for their courage as they risk their lives for freedom 
and human rights. They must know that the United States, still the 
beacon of liberty in the world, stands on their side. In the face of 
attacks by the Syrian regime, Syrian protesters have remained 
remarkably peaceful, as the protesters in Tunisia and Egypt before them 
did. In the face of sectarian provocations by Assad, the people of 
Syria who are protesting have remained together, unified, giving a 
message of national unity.
  I know some have suggested that we should hesitate before throwing 
our support to the Syrian opposition, to the Syrian people as they rise 
up, and this argument goes like this: Bashar al Assad is the devil we 
know. We don't know what might replace him if he fails. But we know 
enough about Bashar al Assad to know, and we know enough about the 
opposition to know that it cannot be worse than Assad and will be much 
better.
  The arguments that we should wait and see are, in my opinion, moral 
and strategic nonsense when we look at the record of Assad. He is 
Iran's most important Arab ally and, in some senses, Iran's only real 
ally and the strategic linchpin between Iran and its terrorist proxies, 
Hamas and Hezbollah, whom he sustains with financial and military 
support. Assad is responsible for a terrible campaign, long standing, 
of intimidation and destabilization of Lebanon, and the blood of 
Lebanese leaders--too many of them--is on his hands, including that of 
the great Lebanese leader Rafik Hariri.
  As Senator Cornyn said, Assad also has the blood of countless 
American soldiers on his hands, having allowed Syria to be used for 
years by foreign extremist fighters affiliated with al-Qaida and their 
ilk to head to Iraq to attack and kill Americans and Iraqis.
  Finally, let's not forget Syria's illegal nuclear activities. This is 
a regime that tried to build a secret nuclear reactor. They did so with 
help from North Korea. This is a regime that continues to refuse to 
cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency in its 
investigation of Syria's illegal nuclear activities.
  The plain fact is that Bashar al Assad is not a reformer, he is a 
dictator. He runs a totalitarian regime that has long been one of the 
worst in the Middle East.
  This is a regime that has repressed, intimidated, and, in fact, 
tortured and slaughtered Syrian people. It is a regime that is deeply 
corrupt, and it is a regime that has been a menace to its neighbors and 
to the cause of peace throughout the region.
  We now have an opportunity--and I say a responsibility--to support 
freedom for the Syrian people as they seek a better future for 
themselves. It would be a shame if they and we lost this opportunity 
for the Arab spring to come to Syria. I hope, together with our allies, 
we will seize this moment and stand in solidarity with the people in 
Syria who are fighting for the fundamental values on which our own 
country was built: freedom and opportunity.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant editor of the Daily Digest proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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