SYRIAN EMBASSIES AROUND THE WORLD ARE SUBVERTING SUPPORT EFFORTS FOR THE SYRIAN REBELS

On June 20, 2011, Asharq al-Awsat, the London-based pan-Arab daily, as told by The Weekly Standard reported on the role of “Syrian embassies abroad in sabotaging and subverting any movement or activity aiming at expressing solidarity with the Syrian people, and at taking a stand condemning the regime’s repressive actions.”

In Berlin, the Syrian embassy kept one Syrian opposition figure, Burhan Ghalyoun, from participating in a conference of Arab intellectuals. According to Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury, the organizers of the event received direct threats from Syrian diplomatic officials as well as Palestinian figures allied with the Assad regime.

This appears to be part of a larger Syrian campaign against opposition figures around the world.

According to a Turkish report Syrian intelligence has teamed with Iran to track Syrian dissidents and stage “joint operations targeting the Anti-Assad movement outside of the country.”

Syrian subterfuge has also struck in the U.S. Two weeks ago, as Politico reported, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee dropped the German-born Syrian composer and pianist Malek Jandali from its program when he refused to reconsider his choice of songs. There was speculation that the song he intended to sing, “I am my homeland,” “might have troubled the Syrian government.”