The day of reckoning is nigh

The wail-and-moan communications strategy of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad exploits the grey area in Detlev Mehlis's report into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri - the absence of a "smoking gun" and the presence of an unedited version (which fingered his brother and brother-in-law-to prove that an insidious political (aka American) campaign is underway to undermine the Syrian regime.

Clearly, you've been conned. Or is it that you dislike and distrust President George W. Bush's cabal more than you do Al Assad's?

Now that, I must confess, is a tough call.

But one thing I do know: Bush did not orchestrate the murder of Hariri. How do I know this?

Have you ever spoken with someone from South America, where CIA-sponsored political killings were once all too commonplace? That's right, we're actually not very good at covering it up.

Mehlis is asking questions in Damascus instead of Washington not because he is a puppet of the Bush Administration, but because a trail of evidence points in that direction. It's really that simple.

Still don't believe me? Read up on the case of another independent prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald is due to deliver his findings after a two-year investigation of "Plame-gate", the outing of a covert operative who just so happened to be the wife of the Administration's pre-Iraq war nemesis, former US Ambassador and outspoken critic Joe Wilson.

In the US, undermining critics isn't a felony; deliberately outing a covert operative certainly is. Bush's most trusted advisor Karl Rove may face criminal prosecution for his role.

Vice-President Dick Cheney's chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby is also likely to suffer legal consequences for orchestrating a campaign to discredit Wilson.

Cheney told Libby that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA. The plan was quite straightforward. Gossip with reporters and hint that Wilson only got to go on a trip because of his wife's influence.

No one bothered to stop and consider that if she could gin up a trip for her husband, she might have a bit of "wasta" herself.

Ah, but why delay? There's a war to be justified. Critics to be muted. WMD to be found. Democracy to be instilled. Terrorism to be fomented. I mean fought.

Anyway, much like the Damascus cabal, the one in Washington is already at work spinning a serious crime into an annoying technicality. Perhaps someone in the presidential palace should take notes.

According to loyal Bush supporter and veteran Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, "An indictment of any kind is not a guilty verdict, and I do think we have in this country the right to go to court and have due process and be innocent until proven guilty".

Amen. Certainly Al Assad will use just that strategy when he appeals to UN Security Council members, particularly China and Russia, to forgo sanctions until Mehlis concludes his report.

Of course, Mehlis can't do that without more robust - to say the least - Syrian cooperation and full disclosure from key witnesses.

The Assads are innocent, right? So they'll comply fully, right?

Sure, I'll play along. But let's say that there may be some shreds of evidence that haven't been incinerated or murdered (suicide, or otherwise) and these point to some sort of Syrian involvement in Hariri's assassination. No problem.

‘Perjury technicality'

The Texas lawmaker goes on to say, "And secondly, I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn't indict on the crime and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars".

Wasn't the Monica Lewinsky affair much-ado about a "perjury technicality"? I can't seem to remember a single Republican, not even the fiscal conservatives, bemoaning the waste of hard-earned money when former President Bill Clinton was facing off against independent prosecutor Ken Starr.

The palace can breathe a bit easier now.

If certain Syrian senior officials become unavailable for questioning and Mehlis recovers no other corroborating evidence by December 15, there will not be enough evidence to indict the regime.

The fact the regime is guilty as sin won't prevent them from loudly proclaiming their innocence. At least Rove and Libby have the good sense not to say anything at all.

But I digress. Despite all the technological advances, the satellites and computer gadgetry, the wiretaps and intercepts, no American leader is omniscient. Mistakes are made. Often. Case in point: the war in Iraq.

Do you really believe that with over 2,000 American fatalities, tens of thousands of injured soldiers and well over 30,000 Iraqi civilian casualties and no end in sight, this debacle was the anticipated outcome?

Has Bush tipped the scales towards Israel? Absolutely. But Bush's misdeeds should never mitigate Al Assad's. There is room for two bad actors, three if you count Ariel Sharon; four, if you include the un-rehabilitated Muammar Gaddafi. The list could go on and on.

Let each one suffer the consequences of his actions. Let no one escape judgment. In the end, no one will.

Maggie Mitchell Salem is a political and communications consultant based in Washington, D.C. Previously, she was director of communications at the Middle East Institute and a special assistant to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.