Italian Journalist:America Is the First Provoker of Violence in Syria http://www.rohama.org/en/pages/?cid=6240

Alessia Lai, an Italian Journalist, voiced astonishment over the recent statements by the U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner as not to be surprised by the ''fact that the opposition uses violence against the Syrian military''.Lai wrote in her article, published yesterday by the Italian Rinascita Daily, that ''In Washington, they think they can say and do. To be able to ingest the internal affairs of countries that do not correspond to their idea - distorted - of "democracy." They climb into the chair and justify violence when necessary to achieve their goals, inventing, instead, if it is useful in justifying international condemnation.''

''The premise could be applied to each of the countries that in recent years, was bombed by the coalition of the willing led by the United States, The last in order of time is Libya, and the same technique is now being applied to Syria,'' added Lai. ''Such a statement, made by any official of any country "unaligned", would have sparked international outrage, would have been considered an incitement to violence. Even worse if it had been made on the same day that the armed groups killed 80 men in military, civilian and intelligence agents.''

The distinguished Italian journalist noted that western media fail to ''report the fact that weapons entering Syria illegally through the border with Iraq - which is likely to benefit groups of fundamentalists who want to transform the Syrian Republic into emirate - are American weapons,'' Lai cited some names of the Syrian intellectuals and officers killed by these weapons last week including Hassan Eid Sunday, surgeon of the hospital of Homs; Monday Aqil Mohammad Ali, a professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Baath, and Nael General Dakhil, Director of the Military School of petrochemicals; Wednesday morning Aous Abdel Karim Khalil , a nuclear engineer and teacher at the University Al-Baath.

Lai added that the western media do not even talk about the U.S. funding - unveiled a few weeks ago by the cables made available by Wikileaks - the anti-government activities in Syria and elsewhere. ''Faced with such and such dis-information, and the protests of the population of Damascus yesterday against the aggression of the U.S. Ambassador Ford become "faithful regime "against the diplomat, who had gone to visit a Syrian lawyer, member of the opposition (who obviously - because it was in his office - is a free citizen and has not been locked up in prison or tortured or assaulted by the" police regime,'' Lai wrote.

''During the summer the Ambassador Ford had already made the protagonist, along with the French, at least a gesture of provocation: a visit to the city of Hama to express U.S. support to those manifested in those days against the government. Hama was then hit by gangs which have attacked hospitals, barracks, houses, causing dozens of casualties. In Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, U.S. diplomats have carefully refrained from attending the riots in the streets, bringing their support to the protesters really affected by the repression,'' Lai underscored.

In response to the U.S. provocation, the Syrian Foreign Ministry has issued a statement in which it stated that "The statements of American leaders are striking evidence of the fact that the U.S. encourage armed groups to use violence against the Syrian Arab army, "and that" the allegations of the State Department spokesman Mark Toner, who called these natural acts of terrorism, are irresponsible and are intended to serve foreign interests opposed to those of the Syrian people.'' Alessia Lai concluded.