“Secretary Clinton and the Obama Administration need to abandon this naïve and subservient political tactic of giving Syrian President Bashar Assad another opportunity to redeem himself. It is incumbent on the United States as the leader of the Free World to state unequivocally that Assad must go. Secretary Clinton’s statement that Assad’s legitimacy is “nearly run out” is a direct slap in the face to those that have sacrificed their lives on the streets of Dara’a, Baniyas and other towns throughout Syria in order to have a glimmer of hope at ever realizing a free Syria.

Tallies of the dead and tortured have steadily increased over the past two months. It is unconscionable that President Obama has been weak in stating that a despot like Assad must be relegated to the dustbin of history. Hopefully President Obama is able to summon the moral courage and fortitude to defend the people of Syria against their oppressors. The United States may be able to reclaim a semblance of credibility with the Syrian people if we act now.

As Human Rights Watch made clear in a June 1 report, Bashar Assad’s security forces have committed atrocities that should be considered crimes against humanity. Specifically the report states that “We’ve never seen such horror” when referring to atrocities in Dara’a. How can anyone legitimately believe that Bashar Assad could “take meaningful steps to start a process of reform” as Secretary Clinton urged Assad to do?

There may not be unanimity on the Security Council, but we cannot allow hesitation by the Russians and the Chinese to dictate our position in standing up for the people of Syria. While we float trial resolutions people are being killed for asserting their inalienable human right to free speech.

The world needs steadfast leadership and moral clarity. We must condemn the evil that is being perpetrated on the people of Syria and do all within our power to remove the forces of evil that are perpetrating crimes against humanity on the people of Syria and stand up for their liberty. Anything less is un-American.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PHOENIX (May 18, 2011) -Dr. Zuhdi Jasser from Save Syria Now!, released the following statement in support of President Obama’s long overdue decision to sanction Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“We applaud the long overdue decision of President Obama to impose sanctions on the despotic and morally corrupt regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. This decision brings much needed attention to the plight of the Syrian people and will hopefully embolden other nations to abandon any belief that the Assad regime is anything other than thugs and criminals. Assad’s brutalization of the Syrian people can not be allowed to stand. The unfolding daily humanitarian disaster in the towns and on the streets of Syria with the Syrian military and police shooting democracy activists in cold blood, cutting off towns from the outside world and the complete isolation of Syria from foreign media have created an unconscionable situation for the Syrian people. Any verbiage from the Assad regime about “negotiations” or “reform” are all pure and simple lies.

As Americans of Syrian descent we now ask President Obama to demand that President Bashar Assad and his ruling family of thugs go. The Assad regime has proven time and again that it cares little for the Syrian people and that it has no fear of retribution for its daily immoral and barbaric acts against its own people. As Syrians who enjoy the freedoms of America we demand our governments do everything possible to fulfill our moral obligations to stand for freedom in Syria against the brutality of the Assad regime.

We implore the administration and our western allies to levy the heaviest sanctions available including:

1- Immediate removal from Damascus of our U.S. Ambassador to Syria.

2- Immediate dismissal of all Syrian diplomats on American soil. Our Syrian American contacts tell us that the intelligence operations against Syrian American families and their families in Syria by Syrian government sympathizers on American soil have been ratcheted up to the highest level in recent history as they collect names and impose a culture of fear upon Syrian Americans and their families in Syria. This protects them and sends a clear message about with whom we will maintain diplomatic relations.

3- Economic sanctions against the Syrian government and its henchmen. The seizure and freezing of assets connected to the leading elite of the Assad government (political, military, and security forces).

4- Demand that military vehicles, tanks, and personnel leave the streets of Syria (not just air activity as done with Libya) and permit the free open assembly of Syrian citizens. Humanitarian disasters are continuing in towns like Dara’a and Baniyas that have been under complete siege by Assad’s tanks and military personnel. Food, water, electricity, and health care has been completely cut off from the people of Dara’a, Baniyas and other towns rising to demonstrate against the Assad regime. A mass grave of democracy activists was recently found in Dara’a.

5- Demand the opening of Syria and its streets to international media and human rights organizations.

6- Pass Senate Resolution introduced by Senators Lieberman, Rubio and Kyl condemning the Assad Regime and urge the House to also act now to passthe strongest language possible against the Assad regime.

7- Push the U.N to support and reach out actively and openly to the heroic groups on the ground protesting against the despotism of Assad’s regime.

8- An urgent press conference by leading elected officials in DC on Syria to demonstrate the seriousness and level of attention necessary.

The Syrian people are calling for freedom and are paying the ultimate price for their courage. As a country based in the concepts of “Liberty for All” we must support the efforts of the Syrian people to lift the yoke of oppression and step out from the boot of the Assad regime.”

About Save Syria Now!

Save Syria Now! is a group of Americans of Syrian descent organizing to put pressure on the United States to call for immediate action to be taken against the regime of Bashar Assad of Syria and to bring true liberty to the people of Syria. We stand with the Syrians protesting in the streets to end the tyranny of the Assad family. For more information please visit our website at http://www.savesyrianow.org/.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Gregg Edgar, Gordon C. James Public Relations, gedgar@gcjpr.com 602-690-7977

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

STATEMENT

PHOENIX (May 1, 2011) – Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and the president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) issued the following statement regarding President Obama’s announcement that the United States had killed Osama Bin Laden:

“This evening’s announcement by President Obama that the United States had carried out an operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan that resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden is a victory for the United States of America against the face of Islamist terror and the man who perpetrated war crimes against our nation on September 11, 2001. Most importantly this will allow the American people and especially the 9/11 families to begin to get a degree of closure.

This operation is a testament to the dedication and steadfastness of the United States military, our homeland security, and intelligence community. There is no finer force than the men and women of the United States military who defend and secure our freedom every day.

The death of Osama Bin Laden is significant because it closes a chapter in our war against Islamist extremists. But make no mistake this war is far from over. Bin Laden was but one head on the Hydra that is the Islamist movement. It is our hope that Bin Laden’s death will serve as a means to transition this war from a reactionary approach to quell violence to a proactive war of ideas against the ideology that breeds the extremism.

We will not be free of terror until we openly confront the ideology of political Islam which is the underlying fuel for the militant Islamism of groups like Al Qaeda. To deliver true national security we must demonstrate the same dedication and steadfastness in creating a liberty narrative within the Muslim conscience as we did in hunting Bin Laden.”

About the American Islamic Forum for Democracy

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. AIFD’s mission advocates for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. For more information on AIFD, please visit our website at http://www.aifdemocracy.org/.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Save Syria Now! pleads for President Obama to rally international community against Bashar Assad

PHOENIX (April 27, 2011) – A leading group of Americans of Syrian descent have joined together today to form Save Syria Now! These Syrian American leaders sent a letter today calling for President Obama to unite the international community into action against Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria. The group of patriotic Americans expressed their outrage and horror at the ongoing brutality of the Assad regime against the Syrian people of their motherland and the group demanded that the international community act now to stop the violence that is being perpetrated on the Syrian people.

The group demanded that the United States do all in its power to help the Syrian people to remove the Assad regime once and for all. The public letter from Save Syria Now! sent to the President and copied to Members of Congress, the Secretary of State, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations is in full below:

We are asking all of our supporters to do the following:

1- Spread the message below and the homepage link to our website featuring the letter at www.savesyrianow.com

2- Direct all of your contacts to our ONLINE PETITION with our letter and ask them to sign and get everyone they know to sign on! http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-syria-now/

3- Please join our campaign on FACEBOOK and friend/Like our SAVE SYRIA NOW! Facebook page to keep close to our progress and action items.

4- Watch for us on Twitter in the next day or two.

M. Zuhdi Jasser, Save Syria Now!

April 27, 2011

President Barack Obama

1600 Pennsylvania Ave

Washington, DC 20500

RE: Americans of Syrian Descent Demand International Action to Protect and Liberate the Syrian People

Dear President Barack Obama:

As deeply concerned Americans of Syrian descent, we come together to plead that you instruct Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, to do everything in their power to recruit the international community to stop the Assad regime from continuing to brutalize its own people.

Today there are more Syrians living outside Syria than in Syria after almost half a century of the ruthless and barbaric oppression of the Ba’ath Party and the Assad dynasty. The recent uprisings in Syria are on behalf of generations of abused and oppressed Syrians everywhere who have been slaves to the Ba’ath and the ruling Assad despots. So far, in just the past few weeks, hundreds of courageous Syrians have given their lives for a chance to change the miserable condition of their existence.

The protests across Syria in the streets of Dara’a, Homs, Hama, Latakia, Isra, parts of Damascus, Banias, Duma and other cities against the Syrian despots will only continue until the Assad regime is finally ousted.

This is about the long overdue liberation of the Syrian people from their oppressors, some of the worst the history of humanity has ever seen.

Since Hafez Assad took over in a coup in 1970, the Assads have overseen an authoritarian, barbaric rule of epic inhuman proportions. For decades hundreds of thousands to millions have suffered the brutality of a totalitarian regime that rather than being held accountable for crimes against humanity has been tragically immune to world attention, opinion, and pressures.

From Tadmur to Hama to the thousands of Syrian citizens who disappear annually because of the thuggery of the Syrian Intelligence services, the time for an international accounting has finally come. If not now, when? We can no longer stay silent.

Nothing, not one reassurance uttered from the lips of the Assad regimes has ever been or will ever be true. No self-respecting Syrian will ever believe anything that the Syrian government tells them or promises them. The Assad regime speaks about reforms, removal of emergency laws, and new ministers only as facades to pacify the Syrian people so that they can return to their pogroms against those who dare to speak out.

Syria is a “republic of fear” that has finally at long last with the courage of its people and its dissenters in the streets now begun to breach the divide of its own government’s terror.

They desperately need the support of every humanitarian in the world in order to push back against the evil that is the Assad regime.

As innocent civilians now are being murdered in cold blood in the streets of virtually every town in Syria for simply assembling, protesting, or even attending funerals of their dead, the world can finally plainly see what the Assad regime is. The Syrians have long been suffering at the hands of Assad’s henchmen for over 40 years. Now, they are finally saying, for the entire world to hear: “it must stop, now!” And we, in the lap of freedom cannot, and we will not, fail them!

While the revolts in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have been brave and courageous, none of those Arab nation’s despots and nations match the barbarism and rampant fear that characterizes life in Syria under the evil that was Hafez and is now Bashar Assad.

The United States, the United Nations, and the Free world must acknowledge publicly that if the protesters were to return to their homes now, a return back to the “normalcy” of the past 40 years is another death sentence for every Syrian and their family who uttered a critical word.

As Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) stated on April 24, 2011,

“We should use the diplomatic weight and authority of the United States to undermine the Syrian dictatorship. I think we are witnessing the slow end of the Assad dictatorship, and we should stand with the people of Syria.”

The International Committee of Jurists (ICJ) also stated on Easter weekend,

“Those ordering and carrying out these attacks, including those firing live rounds into crowds, must be held criminally accountable, for crimes against humanity.”

We must acknowledge that any American lip service or weakness against Assad empowers him to continue to willfully commit crimes against his own people while distancing the people of Syria from trusting America. The recent divergence of our U.S. policy against the actions of the Syrian regime from our policy in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya is incomprehensible. Of all these nations, Syria’s Assad is the greatest violator of the human rights of his own people equaled in the world only by North Korea.

No Arab nation’s move toward democracy would be more significant to American interests than Syria.

A democratic change in Syria could create one of the greatest obstacles to the continuing dangerous ascendancy of Iran, Hezbullah, and other pan-Islamist interests in the Middle East. The deep diversity of Syria with its Sunni, Christian, Druze, and Alawite populations has been a significant reason for its predominantly secular history. With democracy, Syria can then become a bulwark against Iranian and Islamist hegemony in the region.

As the United States stays incredulously at “arms length”, apathetic and indifferent, more and more innocent Syrian citizens fighting for a voice will die and disappear in the coming days.

As we write this letter, the protests are now on the verge of being met with mass murder and annihilation by evil henchmen of the Assad regime. In just the last week hundreds have died viciously in the streets.

The United States is duty bound to lead the United Nations and the international community into moral action in order to protect the human rights of Syrians against Assad, the enemy of his own citizens and the enemy of America.

We demand:

· The United States insist that Syria begin a transparent, humanitarian, genuine process of reform.

· Immediate economic sanctions to cripple the regime’s ability to inflict harm upon her people.

· Full unfettered access of international media to every street in Syria with full reporting about the truth of the murders, abuse, and massacres happening on the streets of Syria.

· All political prisoners of conscience need to be released immediately.

· The police state culture of fear and intimidation must end immediately.

· The entire Syrian government leadership must resign and welcome U.N. observers to oversee a transition of the current regime out of power with a clear roadmap toward democracy and civilian control of government and military institutions.

· A new opportunity for all Syrian citizens to have access to government and society.

This will happen organically if the yoke of the violent oppression from Assad’s henchmen disappears.

There is nothing more closely wedded to American and Syrian interests than the ouster of Assad and his thugs and a new spring for Syria.

Throughout the recent monumental changes in the Middle East we have seen that pressure from the international community has had significant impact on the decisions of these tyrants to finally vacate their seats of power. Mubarak in Egypt left office after it was clear the United States was no longer going to support his regime. NATO’s current intervention in Libya on behalf of the rebel forces while chaotic seems to be presenting an opportunity for Libyans to see a world without Qad
affi.

The Syrians deserve the same support and the same opportunity.

We call on all people of conscience to support the courageous demonstrators in Syria who risk everything they have for a better life for their families and countrymen by visiting our website SaveSyriaNow.com and signing our petition.

We are a group of concerned American citizens of Syrian descent who are calling upon our government, the United Nations, and free countries and peoples throughout the world to denounce the actions of the Assad regime.

Help Syria to step away from the shadow of Assad and into the light of liberty! Give her people the protection that can only come from international scrutiny.

Help Syria build the institutions that will secure the freedom of her people!

Freedom loving people cannot stand idly by and watch the brutality of Assad’s regime continue to unfold. It is incumbent upon us, if we cherish liberty, to do all that we can to eliminate the oppression that is taking place.

Please stand with us for Syria! Stand with us for Liberty! Engage for the freedom of the Syrian people!

Save Syria Now!!

Sincerely,

Americans of Syrian Descent

CC: Congressman John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives

Senator Harry Reid, Majority leader

Senator Mitch McConnell, Minority leader

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader

Ambassador Susan Rice, United Nations

About Save Syria Now!

Save Syria Now! is a group of Americans of Syrian descent organizing to put pressure on the United States to call for immediate action to be taken against the regime of Bashar Assad of Syria and to bring true liberty to the people of Syria. We stand with the Syrians protestors in the streets to end the tyranny of the Assad family. For more information please visit our website at http://www.savesyrianow.org/.

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