Two planeloads of Basij militia reportedly arrive in Syria. Protesters opposing Iran and Hezbollah as well as Assad regime.

Elder of Ziyon relays reports that Iran is sending their brutal secret police force to put down Syrian anti-government protests. He also reports that YouTube has video of mourners at a funeral for a slain Daraa protester chanting "Neither Iran nor Hezbollah ... only to be a Muslim who is afraid of God."

read here: Elder of Ziyon: Report: Two planeloads of Basij militia arrived in Syria on Saturday

A commenter has complained that the sources for this report are weak, or as he puts it "the story is complete crap".  Although it has been reported by the Beirut Observer and by Kol Israel's Arabic edition, with details including the airlines and airport used, flight numbers and the times of arrival, both articles rely on anonymous sources.  I'll keep an open mind with respect to information contradicting these articles, but feel that they're worth reporting here with a grain-of-salt alert based on the anonymous sources and lack of corroborating reports from other media outlets.

(Thanks to the commenter.)


UPDATE (3/25/2011 7PM):  According to a report on Ynet (read here):

Deraa's Mukhtar (village chief) Muhammad al-Mehamid claimed that protestors in the city captured an Iranian sniper brought into the area to fire at protestors. "What's happening in Deraa is a great embarrassment to President Assad," he said in a TV interview. "Images of weapons which Syrian TV said came from Deraa are baseless. The Syrian intelligence cooked it up. The fire came from one source only – the Syrian's regime."

According to al-Mehamid "we have captured a man and we're waiting for the media to publish the truth. See that the man caught is a bearded Iranian who can't speak Arabic and has come to shoot us. We ask the international media – come see the truth."

Syrian Ambassador: Lieberman Assured Me McCain Would Talk With Syria

from Think Progress:

In a new interview with Foreign Policy magazine, Syrian ambassador Imad Moustapha said that Syria is “doing everything possible within our means” to stop insurgents from crossing into Iraq, and decried the recent U.S. strike into Syria as a “terrorist, criminal act.” Most interestingly, Moutapha said that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) personally assured him that a McCain presidency would open up a dialogue with Syria:

FP: U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama says that he would be willing to sit down with states that are now considered enemies of the United States. Is that encouraging to you?

IM: I have reason to believe that even if [Senator John] McCain becomes president of the United States, he will also be inclined to sit and talk with Syria. I can tell you this on the record: Senator Joe Lieberman, who is supposed to be very close to McCain, has said this explicitly and very clearly to me personally.

I don't believe Ambassador Moustapha with respect to Syria's commitment to stopping insurgents from entering Iraq, but one aspect of his story rings true. Whichever candidate is elected, the U.S. will talk with Syria.

Zbigniew Brzezinski Is In Damascus

from Marty Peretz' blog at THE NEW REPUBLIC:

Zbigniew Brzezinski Is In Damascus to See Bashar Assad; I Believe He's There to Meet With Khaled Mashal

It's no surprise that Zbig Brzezinski is visiting Damascus. First of all, Bashar Assad would be delighted to see him, as he has seen other marginal players in U.S. foreign policy. Secondly, Zbig is a fan of Assad's, as is the ex-president for whom he pondered heavy matters, Jimmy Carter, a really big fan. Visiting America's enemies is, in any case, a good way to get attention at home. (Jesse Jackson made nearly a full-time profession of visiting our for years. Soneone should ask him what he thinks of President Chavez now.) The visitors may say they are pushing along the "getting to yes" process. But what they're usually doing is fomenting mischief.

Now, Zbig published a new book in 2007, Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of Superpower. This is a book you need not feel bad about passing up, as almost everyone did. The only one of his books I've read -- for my sins, several of them -- that is important is The Permanent Purge, published in 1956, when he was 28. He is now 80 and is a danger to no one, except Barack Obama whose foreign policy advisory board he co-chairs. Zbig went to Damascus without thinking that, in these circumstances, his travels to Assad's palace might affect the fortunes of his candidate. Or maybe he just said to himself, "fuck it." He didn't tell anybody in the Barack circle, and the campaign knew nothing about his tourism until Eli Lake of the New York Sun raised questions about its adviser's travels. And reported the telling story.

Brzezinski grades the last three presidents in Second Chance. To George H.W. Bush he gives a solid B; to Bill Clinton an uneven C; to the burning Bush a "failed F." The fact is that you'd also need to give Zbig and his former boss something worse than an F for their bright idea that the Ayatollah Khomeini could be an instrument of American foreign policy against the Russians and, what's more, to get the Muslims of the U.S.S.R. to rise up against the Kremlin. What idiots, actually! Did Zbig even know that the ayatollah, being a Shi'a, would have little sway with Sunnis which most of old Moscow's Muslims were.

I wonder who advised my candidate Barack Obama to choose Zbig as one of his advisers. And it's not as if all the other advisers are so good. Take two, just as instances: Tony Lake with his shabby record on Bosnia and Susan Rice who was responsible (along with Jesse Jackson) for the Clinton administration's systematic aversion to seeing what blood was being shed in Sierra Leone and Liberia over "blood diamonds."

In any case, I don't believe that Zbig is visiting just Assad. I believe -- in fact, I think I know -- that he is going to meet with Khaled Maashal, the most vicious of the Hamas leaders, who has been headquartered in Damascus for years. Here "tea with Assad" is just a cover for a pernicious encounter.

Syria Linked to Terror Groups

The Prime Minister of Lebanon and the Secretary General of the U.N are pointing fingers at Syria for supporting Fatah al-Islam and running weapons to Hezbollah. Here's the under-reported story:

By BENNY AVNI

from The New York Sun:

A report by Secretary General Ban links an Al Qaeda-affiliated group in Lebanon to Syrian intelligence.

The information, included in a report released today, is based largely on a letter to Mr. Ban written by Prime Minister Siniora of Lebanon. The letter draws upon information gathered during the interrogation of captured leaders of a group known as Fatah al-Islam, and from data found in a Palestinian Arab refugee camp in northern Lebanon, Nahr al Bared, where the group mounted a rebellion against Lebanon's government during the summer.

"Direct contact between some of Fatah al-Islam's leaders and some senior Syrian intelligence officers, which were revealed in the interrogations, are consistent with the suspicion that Syrian intelligence has used Fatah al-Islam to serve its political and security objectives in Lebanon," Mr. Siniora wrote, according to Mr. Ban's report to the Security Council.

To substantiate his allegation Mr. Siniora cited, among other facts, the release from prison in Syria of Fatah al-Islam's leader, Shaker Yousef al-Abssi, shortly before the riots in the Palestinian Arab camp began.

The fighting in Nahr al Bared lasted 105 days and ended September 2, when Lebanon's army declared victory over the group. Some168 Lebanese army soldiers and about 222 militants were killed in the fighting, according to Mr. Ban's report, while thousands of the camp's residents were displaced.

Over 200 members of the terrorist group, which allies Al Qaeda, were arrested, but the report notes that the Lebanese victory may be incomplete, as Mr. al-Abssi was not captured. The report also accuses Syria of continuing illegal weapons deliveries to Hezbollah. Syria denied the allegations in a letter to Mr. Ban.

lgf: Did Israel Strike Syrian Nuke Facilities?

Very good question.

from little green footballs:

Those Israeli airstrikes inside Syria have been confirmed, and the New York Times has a bit of tossed-off information that really should be bigger news: U.S. Confirms Israeli Strikes Hit Syrian Target Last Week.

One Bush administration official said Israel had recently carried out reconnaissance flights over Syria, taking pictures of possible nuclear installations that Israeli officials believed might have been supplied with material from North Korea. The administration official said Israeli officials believed that North Korea might be unloading some of its nuclear material on Syria.

“The Israelis think North Korea is selling to Iran and Syria what little they have left,” the official said. He said it was unclear whether the Israeli strike had produced any evidence that might validate that belief.

Ynet has a report that the target was a Syrian-Iranian missile base, citing an Israeli Arab source.

Meanwhile on Wednesday the Nazareth-based Israeli Arab newspaper The Assennara cited anonymous Israeli sources as saying that Israeli jets “bombed a Syrian-Iranian missile base in northern Syria that was financed by Iran... It appears that the base was completely destroyed.”

Syrian human rights activist Anwar al-Bunni sentenced to 5 more years in prison

BBC NEWS: Syria jails human rights activist Anwar al-Bunni

A Syrian human rights activist has been jailed for five years for spreading hostile information and joining an illegal political group, lawyers say.

Anwar al-Bunni, a prominent advocate for democratic reform in Syria, has been in detention since May 2006.

Correspondents say the heavy sentence sends a strong warning to the opposition and shows Syria has turned its back on Western pressure to reform.