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From: Jeffrey Epstein <jeevacationggmail.com> 
To:IM 
Subject: Fwd: January 23 update 
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 18:25:19 +0000 
 
Forwarded message 
From: Office of Terje Rod-Larsen <
IIMI> 
Date: Thursday, January 23, 2014 
Subject: January 23 update 
To: 
23 January, 2014 
Article 1. 
The Washington Post 
On Syria, Obama administration is leading to failure 
Editorial 
Article 2. 
Los Angeles Times 
Fate of Bashar Assad is key in Syria talks 
Patrick J. McDonnell 
Article 3. 
Foreign Policy 
Supporting America's Greatest Ally in Need: Jordan 
Kori Schake 
Article 4. 
The Huffington Post 
America Is Not in Decline, Its Foreign Policy Is... But It 
Can (Still) Surprise the World 
Andras Simonyiand Erik Brattberg 
Article 5. 
The Washington Post 
An emerging market problem 
David Ignatius 
Article 6. 
The American Interest 
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Obama's Middle East Recessional Part 1: What Instability 
Really Looks Like 
Adam Garfinkle 
The Washington Post 
On Syria, Obama administration is leading 
to failure 
Editorial 
January 22, 2014 -- THE OUTSIDE world seems to have grown numb to 
reports of atrocities from Syria — "barrel bombs" dropped on schools, 
Scud missiles aimed at apartment houses, blockaded neighborhoods where 
children die of starvation. But a er port released Monday by a panel of 
international jurists ought to prick some consciences. Based on 55,000 
images smuggled out of the country, mostly by a defector from the military 
police, it reports the murder of some 11,000 men detained by the Syrian 
government between 2011 and last August. Many of the bodies in the 
photographs show signs of torture; some are missing eyes. More than 40 
percent of the bodies show signs of emaciation, indicating that the 
prisoners were systematically starved. 
On Wednesday, Secretary of State John F. Kerry opened the Geneva 2 
peace conference on Syria by referring to this "horrific" account of 
"s_ystematic torture and execution of thousands of prisoners." He called it 
"an appalling assault, not only on human lives but on human dignity and 
on every standard by which the international community tries to organize 
itself." The jurists, former war-crimes prosecutors commissioned by the 
government of Qatar, concluded that the "evidence would support findings 
of crimes against humanity against the current Syrian regime." 
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Yet the diplomatic initiative that Mr. Kerry launched offers no means to 
hold the regime of Bashar al-Assad accountable for these atrocities, or 
even to stop them. On the contrary: It may serve to prop up the Assad 
government by treating it as a legitimate party to negotiations about Syria's 
future. Mr. Kerry insists the talks will lead to a transitional government that 
excludes Mr. Assad, but the Syrian delegation flatly rejects this premise, 
and there is no indication that its allies Russia and Iran think otherwise. 
Some diplomats at the conference, such as United Nations mediator 
Lakhdar Brahimi, believe it could lead to palliative measures, such as local 
cease-fires and the opening of humanitarian corridors to besieged civilians. 
Mr. Brahimi's predecessor, Kofi Annan, was convinced of this as well and 
even obtained the Assad regime's formal agreement to a plan. But the 
Assad forces never respected their commitments; now they are using offers 
of humanitarian supplies as a means to force the surrender of rebel-held 
areas. 
President Obama demonstrated last year that the credible threat of force 
could change the regime's behavior. His promise of airstrikes caused Mr. 
Assad to surrender an arsenal of chemical weapons  . Yet the president 
seems not to have learned the lesson of that episode. Now he makes the 
defeatist argument that, as he put it to David Remnick of the New Yorker, 
"It is very difficult to imagine a scenario in which our involvement in Syria 
would have led to a better outcome, short of us being willing to undertake 
an effort in size and scope similar to what we did in Iraq." 
In fact, Mr. Obama probably could force the measures Mr. Brahimi is 
seeking by presenting Mr. Assad with the choice of accepting them or 
enduring U.S. airstrikes. That he refuses to consider options between Mr. 
Kerry's feckless diplomacy and an Iraq-style invasion only ensures that the 
Geneva 2 conference will fail and that the atrocities will continue. 
Article 2. 
Los Angeles Times 
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Fate of Bashar Assad is key in Syria talks 
Patrick J. McDonnell 
January 22, 2014 -- Montreux, Switzerland — At the core of the 
extraordinary diplomatic push launched Wednesday to end Syria's civil war 
is the fate of one man: Syrian President Bashar Assad. 
Assad has steadfastly maintained power during nearly three years of war 
and hints he may run for reelection this year. But the Obama administration 
and the U.S.-backed opposition have said Assad must step down in any 
peace deal. That strategy may have backfired, contributing to a protracted 
conflict, a radicalization of the armed opposition and a consolidation of 
Assad's support. 
While Assad is at the center of the debate about Syria, his future has 
significance far beyond the country's borders. 
Syria is one of the key pieces of a delicate reordering of the political map 
of the Middle East. The conflict has become a proxy war in the regional 
conflict between Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims. The U.S. effort to end 
decades of estrangement with Shiite Iran, starting with an interim deal to 
limit its nuclear program, has further angered longtime ally Saudi Arabia, 
Iran's Sunni archrival. The monarchy already was upset that Washington 
has not been more aggressive against Assad, Tehran's longtime ally. 
Few expect the peace negotiations, which move to Geneva on Friday for 
face-to-face meetings between the government and the opposition, to reach 
a swift resolution. 
Washington appeared to be doubling down on the demand that Assad must 
go. 
The "only thing standing" in the way of a political solution is "the stubborn 
clinging to power of one man, one family," Secretary of State John F. 
Kerry told the conference, adding: "One man and those who have 
supported him can no longer hold an entire nation and a region hostage." 
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Assad, who was not at the conference, showed no sign of backing down. 
Syrian officials and their Russian allies have indicated flexibility on a 
number of issues, including possible cease-fires, prisoner exchanges and 
bolstered humanitarian access to besieged areas. But Damascus says 
Assad's future is nonnegotiable. 
"Syrians alone have the right to choose their government, their parliament 
and their constitution," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told 
diplomats who had come to Montreux from more than 30 nations, most 
seemingly hostile to Assad. "Everything else is just talk and has no 
significance." 
Moallem said any deal brokered in Geneva is subject to a national 
referendum. Assad seems confident he could win an election — though 
balloting would be of questionable legitimacy amid a civil war. 
During the war, the radicalization of the opposition, including the growth 
of Al Qaeda and other militant Islamic elements, has bolstered Assad's 
support in some quarters. That is especially the case among Christians and 
other minorities and among many secular-minded Syrians appalled at the 
prospect of an Islamist takeover. 
Assad stands atop a dynastic power structure more than four decades in the 
making, set in place by former President Hafez Assad, the current leader's 
late father. In the 1980s, the elder Assad oversaw the military crushing of 
an Islamist uprising viewed by his son as an earlier incarnation of the 
current revolt. Bashar Assad is also the standard-bearer of Syria's Alawite 
minority, many of whose members view the revolt led by the Sunni 
Muslim majority as a matter of survival. 
U.S. officials are keen to avoid both direct military involvement in a 
potential quagmire and a complete collapse of Syria. Diplomats fear the 
kind of chaos that followed the U.S.-led ouster of Saddam Hussein in 
neighboring Iraq in 2003. 
Syria's major allies, Russia and Iran, have asserted that they are not tied to 
propping up Assad's rule. But many Western diplomats are skeptical. Syria 
is Russia's last major strategic bastion in the Middle East. And, for Tehran, 
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Assad's Syria is a central component of its "axis of resistance" partnership 
with Hezbollah, the Lebanese-based political and military group. 
President Obama stated publicly in August 2011 that Assad should step 
down from office. Expectations in Washington and other global capitals 
that Assad's trajectory would mirror the relatively quick exits of Egyptian 
and Tunisian strongmen caught in "Arab Spring" uprisings were off base. 
Unlike in Tunisia and Egypt, the Syrian military backed Assad and carried 
out his crackdown on dissent. 
Despite its oft-stated antipathy toward Assad, Washington has also shown a 
willingness to work with his government when necessary. The deal reached 
last year to avert U.S. airstrikes was contingent on Assad's willingness to 
renounce his chemical weapons stockpiles under international supervision. 
Some observers, notably Ryan Crocker, a former U.S. ambassador to a 
number of Mideast and South Asian countries, have said that Assad is 
unlikely to fall and it would be wise for Washington to engage his 
government as an alternative to Islamic radicals. But Kerry's comments in 
Montreux indicate that the Obama administration remains intent on Assad's 
departure. 
Kerry regularly cites the "Geneva communique," a kind of peace road map 
hammered out in June 2012 during a United Nations-organized summit. 
But the document does not explicitly call for Assad's ouster. The 
transitional administration "could include members of the present 
government and the opposition and other groups and shall be formed on 
the basis of mutual consent," the communique states. 
Syria says it is committed to implementing the terms of the Geneva 
communique "as a package, without singling out" any specific terms, 
Bashar Jaafari, Syria's delegate to the United Nations, told reporters 
Wednesday. 
In Damascus 
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