Opinion (Christopher Dickey): The Syria Gambit

Syrian President Bashar Assad met with U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd in Damascus on Wednesday

Dec. 25, 2006 - Jan. 1, 2007 issue - Holed up in the grand Serail, the center of government in the heart of Beirut, five surviving members of Lebanon's cabinet have been living in fear. Just last year they were leaders of a mass movement that forced Syrian troops out of the country and seemed to open the way for a thriving democracy. But those memories now seem as old and fragile as shards of Phoenician glass. One by one, brutally and spectacularly, Syria's high-profile opponents in Lebanon have been eliminated. The most recent: Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, the son of a former president, gunned down in November. Since then, no minister has been sure if, or when, he'll be next.

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