ASSAD REGIME COLLAPSING ACCORDING TO DEFECTING SYRIAN PRIME MINISTER............

The persecution against the Syrian people by the military forces of President Bashar al Assad, which has resulted in outright violence throughout much of the country as the Assad Government contends with an insurgency of Syrians fighting for control of the country which has intensified in recent months, led this month to the defection of the sitting Prime Minister over to the insurgents.  In his first public appearance following his defection, the former Prime Minister Riad Hijab, claims the Assad forces now control only 30% of the country after struggling against the rebels for the past seventeen months of their revolt against Assad.  Hijab, who was only in office for two months did not expound on how he knows the Assad's army holds less than a third of Syria especially since the military has retaken  parts of Damascus from the rebels, as they try to hold the city of Aleppo, the business center and largest city of Syria, against the brimming insurgency.  Hijab is a Sunni Muslim, who compromise 70% of Syria's population.  Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, which is a spin-off of Shiite Islam.  How close to collapse President Assad is, remains uncertain as does how much of the country is not currently under his control; however, the President is increasingly dependent on the  military and his own Alawite security to keep him in power.  With many of the towns along the country's backbone from north to south, and at the Syrian eastern and northern borders, the deadly struggle to retain control, or achieve  overthrow continue.  Some Americans on the neo-conservative right, are arguing for us to intervene and news reports last week indicated President Obama has signed a covert order, an intelligence finding - that allows for technical and communications assistance to the rebels, from federal agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency.  This report follows the Obama Administration;s public response to the failure of the United Nations Security Council in July, to impose steeper, more stringent, sanctions on the Assad regime, due to the unwillingness of China and Russia to support them.  There are also news reports today stating an Irish source is declaring that veterans of the Libyan rebellion and overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi  are now involved in training and organizing the Syrian rebels.  Any further intervention militarily by the United States at this time with Iraq still in transition after our involvement in its civil war; and our continuing participation in the Afghanistan War bogged down in an unending conflict after more than a decade of battling the Taliban, is growing increasingly unpopular with the American public, even with a 2014 American withdrawal scheduled; now is not the time for direct American military involvement in Syria.  American and Worldwide support for the right of the Syrian people to be governed with freedom from tyranny and violence inflicted upon them by any force, especially their nation's beleaguered President, who clings to ruling Syria............Fr.  Troy