In the Lion's Den_ An Eyewitness Account of Washington's Battle With Syria - Andrew Tabler [32]
Down in the incubator, however, rumors ran wild regarding some kind of problem between Rola and the first lady. At first, Leila heard someone saying that the first lady was angry with Rola for running the NGO badly, while someone else said that the first lady was just keeping everyone at arm’s length because US sanctions were being put in place. Some of the rumors were coming from Dunya; others were coming from known Rola supporters.
With the fate of the Syria Today project uncertain, I turned my attention to writing for Beirut’s English-language broadsheet, the Daily Star. I tackled Syria’s recent announcement to cut taxes, the implications of US sanctions on Syrian business and its oil industry, and, while I visited home in Pennsylvania, the impact that spiraling US casualties in Iraq was having on local politics.
In April, Leila and I assisted a team from the World Bank to evaluate Syria’s investment climate. The group was led by Joseph Battat, a Lebanese American and well-known China expert. A few days after their arrival, Joe asked me to a dinner at Arabesque, at that time the best restaurant in Damascus’s Old City. Between entrées, our conversation quickly moved on from Syria to me.
“I’ve been watching you,” Joe said, looking intently at me. My spine immediately stiffened, thinking for sure that this was a pitch to work for a foreign-intelligence agency.
Seemingly reading my mind, he said, “No, no, it’s not CIA stuff. I know what it’s like to be you—a rare person in a strange place. I was one of the only foreigners allowed to be in China after Mao died, during the Gang of Four time. I worked with the State Council, the country’s highest decision-making body, to reform China.”
As he continued, I relaxed. “During that time, I was a fellow with the Institute of Current World Affairs, an old American fellowship that supports writers willing to go deeply into a subject. If you had two years of your life to investigate a topic thoroughly, what would it be?”
Without hesitating, I said, “I would look at how these pressures and threats from the United States and the West impact Syrian society.”
“I’m now the chairman of ICWA,” he said, “but the decision is not up to me. The institute’s website explains the selection process, which is rigorous. I suggest you apply.”
After dinner I dropped Joe off at his hotel and headed home. As I lay in bed, I began to realize that I had a great story unfolding in front of me and that it might be worth staying in Syria after all.
On May 11, 2004, President Bush implemented US sanctions on Syria. In a statement to Congress, Bush chose the ban on US exports to Syria and a ban on Syrian flights to the United States. Regime newspapers and pundits immediately declared the sanctions unjust and unjustified.4 As I made the rounds to the various pundits around Damascus, they all dismissed sanctions as lacking any substance. After all, they reasoned, Syria’s trade with the United States was only a few hundred million dollars per year, and the state carrier, Syrian Arab Airlines, didn’t fly to the United States anyway.
Nevertheless, a closer look at the Bush administration’s implementation of the sanctions, as well as the SAA’s implementation, gave hints of how the White House was likely to pressure the Assad regime in the years to come. The order implementing the SAA, Executive Order 13338, first declared a “state of emergency” regarding Syria, and declared it a threat to US national security.5 This allowed Bush not only to implement the SAA, but to apply other legislation designed to fight the war on terror to Syria. First, Bush announced