USA AIDING SYRIAN DISSIDENTS

MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE:

The United States has begun supporting Syrian dissidents in their drive to topple the regime of President Bashar Assad.The Bush administration has provided support to Syrian dissidents to organize into a credible pro-democracy opposition group. Officials said the dissidents have been encouraged to form an umbrella group similar to that established by Iraqi opposition activists before the U.S. war against Baghdad in 2003.

"We're working with a range of dissidents," an official said. "We're keeping all options open."

The State Department has been selected to help organize the pro-democracy Syrian opposition, currently based on Syrians who live in the United States. Dissidents have met several times for strategy sessions with State Department and White House officials.

We did this in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Lebanon. NOW, IT'S SYRIA'S TURN. Assad should be very worried. If he was smart, he'd try to make a deal for exile. SOON. The deal might not NEED to be on the table in a few weeks...