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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.

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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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