What's Assad Up To?

Up to his neck in alligators, it sounds like:

The state's spin doctors continue to grind out a meal of "business as usual," offering up a diet of evidence that Bashar Assad's regime is far more benign than his father's. Indeed, even
Syria's opposition credits the 39-year-old leader with opening the country up to Internet and cell-phone coverage – allowing those who don't parrot government talk the chance to communicate and read about the rest of the world.

Government spokesmen insist "the president is just as popular as ever. This will not change anything, it will just soften the blow for the regime."

Abdel Hamid noted that Syria might now work to frighten Lebanon into submission by raising the specter of a rising Hizbullah. "Syria will ensure that Hizbullah will be a major power-broker, if not the major power-broker, once it leaves," he said.

However, Syria's opposition, said one diplomat here, "cannot organize its way out of a paper bag." In the words of one of its own, Syria's opposition leader Yassin Haj Saleh, "We are weak, we are feeble, but we must keep on."

The bottom line is Porter Goss had better be working overtime finding ways to help the Lebanese resistance. And some high-resolution targeting photos of Syrian assets might be nice too.