© Reuters/SANANew U.S. ambassador Robert Ford (R) talks with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad after presenting his credentials to Assad, in Damascus January 27, 2011
Ambassador Robert Ford returned to Washington this weekend after the U.S. received "credible threats against his personal safety in Syria," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday. Ford has been the subject of several incidents of intimidation by pro-government thugs, and enraged Syrian authorities with his forceful defense of peaceful protests and harsh critique of a government crackdown that has now claimed more than 3,000 lives.
"We hope that the Syrian regime will end its incitement campaign against Ambassador Ford," Toner said. "At this point, we can't say when he will return to Syria."
Toner said the U.S. embassy will remain open in Damascus and that the threats were specifically directed toward Ford. His return is conditional on a U.S. "assessment of Syrian regime-led incitement and the security situation on the ground," Toner said.
Comment: The next item up for bid in the US empire's planetary restructuring scheme: Syria?
Syria doesn't have a Syrian Government, it only has a regime? Note how 'regime' was repeated like a mantra because the Western governments and their puppet media understand the word 'regime' to mean 'less than government'. Regime or constitutional government? Who's oppressing whom? In Western culture it's hard to say, especially when we are only given one side of the story. For all we know, the protestors who are being shot are being sent into Syria to cause havoc and make the Syrian 'regime' look evil, corrupt and heartless, so it can be reported in articles such as the above.