Oh President Assad you seem to be missing a few Generals.....

Four more high-ranking officers have defected from the Syrian armed forces and joined the year-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, two rebel groups said on Thursday.

The men fled over the past three days to a camp for Syrian army deserters in southern Turkey, according to Lieutenant Khaled al-Hamoud, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army (FSA). He told Reuters by telephone from Turkey the desertions bring to seven the number of brigadier generals who have defected.

The seven are the highest-ranking officers to abandon Assad, and the rank is the fifth highest in the Syrian armed forces. Mustafa Sheikh was the first brigadier general to announce his defection.

"We have six brigadier generals who are now in Turkey and another, who has stayed to lead some battalions inside Syria," Hamoud said. "We plan to form an advisory council to absorb these and any other high-ranking defections and this group will plan operations for the FSA."

A Paris-based spokesman for Sheikh's Supreme Syrian Military Council, Fahad al-Masri, said the four recent defectors were still under the observation of Turkish authorities and their names could not yet be released.

China is on Board...and now to Russia....

China backs international efforts to send humanitarian aid to Syria, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said, after Western powers proposed a United Nations resolution authorizing humanitarian aid. 

It was not clear whether Yang's remarks mean China will consider the proposed new U. N. Security Council resolution. China is one of the five permanent members of the Council which have the power to veto such resolutions. 

"The pressing task now is for all sides to cease violence in the Syrian conflict, and to launch as soon as possible inclusive political dialogue and together deliberate on a reform plan," Yang told Elaraby, who has previously said Beijing's veto lost it diplomatic credit in the Arab world. 

"The international community should create conditions for this, and extend humanitarian aid to Syria," added Yang.

Russia sells Syria weapons and has its only military base outside the former Soviet Union in the Syrian port of Tartus.

“The Russian government is not only unapologetically arming a government that is killing its own people, but also providing it with diplomatic cover,” Philippe Bolopion, UN director at Human Rights Watch in New York, said after the UN vote.

Russia’s alignment with Syria may put at stake the country’s relationship with oil-rich Gulf States led by Qatar that asked the Security Council to endorse their plan to convince Assad to delegate his powers to a deputy to pave way for elections.

“The Russians are doing this to help preserve their navy base in Tartus, their arms trade with Syria and their strategic position in the Eastern Mediterranean,” Sullivan said. “In the end Russia will lose its base. Russia has also in many ways lost the Arabs on this.”

al-Assad must go! NOW

The U.S. will “redouble efforts”and work with “partners outside the United Nations” to put“immense pressure” on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to end bloodshed and step down, after the U.N. Security Council failed to deliver global condemnation of Syria giving the regime room to continue its 11-month crackdown on protesters, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Sofia today.

Russia refuses to Condemn Syria with the rest of the UN Security Council

The battle over Syria moved to the United Nations on Tuesday with Western powers and much of the Arab world confronting Russia and its allies in the Security Council over their refusal to condemn the Syrian government for its violent suppression of popular protests.

As top diplomats gathered in the Council chamber for the showdown, the drumbeat of violence continued without pause in Syria, where government forces used heavy weapons and tanks to push rebels back from strongholds near Damascus. 

At the United Nations, the two sides skirmished over a draft Security Council resolution proposed by Morocco that calls for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to leave power as the first step of a transition toward democracy. 

But behind all the arguments lurked the ghost of Libya, with Russia determined to block any resolution that might be construed as a license for regime change. The Arabs and top Western diplomats argued that endorsing the demonstrators was the minimum step required to support popular demands for change that began with peaceful demonstrations and have evolved into an increasingly armed uprising. 

“The Syrian government failed to make any serious effort to cooperate with us,” Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, the prime minister of Qatar, told the Security Council about Arab League efforts to mediate the dispute. “The government killing machine continues effectively unabated.” 

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, joined by the foreign ministers of Britain, France and several other countries, argued that Libya was a “false analogy.” The plan for a gradual democratic transition “represents the best efforts of Syria’s neighbors to chart a way forward, and it deserves a chance to work,” she said.

The proposed resolution, which most likely would not be voted on before Friday, called for Mr. Assad to cede power to his vice president, who would help form a unity government that would prepare for elections. It is unlikely that Mr. Assad would heed the demands to step down, even if the resolution made it through the Council.

Russians' to fight for free and fair elections!

Russia's opposition, for all its efforts to remain peaceful, could be headed for a confrontation with authorities as the date of its next major demonstration draws near.

The Moscow municipal government rejected the opposition’s request to hold their protest march “For Honest Elections” as planned on Feb. 4, on the grounds that it would "disrupt the normal functioning of vital municipal services, create obstacles . . . for traffic, and violate the rights of citizens not taking part in the event,” according to a document published on an opposition Facebook page.  More than 22,000 people have signed up on Facebook to attend the march, despite a forecast temperature of 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

Opposition leaders are discussing the possibility of holding the march without a permit -- a move that may expose demonstrators to arrest and even violence. In his blog on the web site of the Ekho Moskvy radio station, the journalist Sergey Parkhomenko stated the grim truth: “Everything, of course, depends on the protestors themselves, on their courage, decisiveness, and sense of responsibility.

Meanwhile, the opposition and the government are taking measures to ensure that presidential elections, scheduled for March 4, are free and fair -- or at least perceived as such. Last Wednesday, reported the Moscow Times, 16 prominent cybernauts announced the foundation of the League of Voters, which, acting as “a coordinating and advisory body for activists,” will “use the Internet to connect activists nationwide who are agitating for fair elections.” Firebrand anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny “was barred from being a member because of his stated presidential ambitions,” the article said.

If not for Russia and Iran; Syrians would be FREE and rid of Assad.

The Arab League looks a bit toothless in Syria,” Paul Sullivan, a specialist in Middle East security at Georgetown University in Washington, said in an e-mail. “The Syrian regime has little time left. The clock is ticking. If it were not for Iranian and Russian help, Bashar would have been out already most likely.”
The Syrian government has “exacerbated” the situation by resorting to force, the Arab League said.

Syria said it was surprised by the Arab League decision after agreeing to allow the mission in the country for another month, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported yesterday, citing an unidentified government official.

Assad’s security forces have maintained their efforts to crush demonstrations even after the Cairo-based organization sent observers to Syria on Dec. 26. The monitors aimed at ensuring that Assad followed through on his pledge to withdraw security forces from cities, release political prisoners and allow anti-government demonstrations.

Arab League to send troops to topple Syrian government...meanwhile Mohamed El Baradei will not run for Egyptian President due to military interference

Arab troops should be sent to halt Syria’s violent crackdown on anti-government protesters, the emir of Qatar, Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, said in an interview to be broadcast tonight on the U.S. television network CBS.


Elsewhere in the region, attacks on demonstrators continued in Syria yesterday.

“Some troops should go to stop the killing” in Syria, the Qatari emir said in the interview with the program “60 Minutes,” according to the CBS website.

-----------------

Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei said he wouldn’t run for president of Egypt.

In Egypt, ElBaradei said his withdrawal as a candidate for president was to protest the continued military control of the country, according to The New York Times.

“My conscience does not permit me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless it is within a real democratic system,” he said, according to the Times.

ElBaradei won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for his work as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"SCENES OF HORROR" = Syria = Middle East

Scratch the surface of any Middle Eastern nation and you will find scenes of horror.  Syria is merely capturing our attention today.  But change comes by cutting one piece of cancer at a time from the body human...

The mission hit more trouble when one monitor accused Syria of war crimes, saying the mission was a "farce," a day after the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said a U.N. official had told the Security Council the killings had gathered pace since the monitors arrived.



The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four people had been killed in Kafr Nabouda, in Hama province, where troops staging raids fought army deserters. The British-based group put Tuesday's civilian death toll at 27, including 15 in the city of Deir al-Zor and 10 in Homs, plus four army defectors.


The Arab League monitor, Anwar Malek, said he had resigned because the mission was powerless to prevent what he said were the "scenes of horror" he had seen in the restive city of Homs.


"The mission was a farce and the observers have been fooled," the Algerian told Al Jazeera English television. "The regime orchestrated it and fabricated most of what we saw to stop the Arab League from taking action against the regime ...

"The regime isn't committing one war crime but a series of crimes against its people," he added.

Syria one step closer to civil war.

An Arab League advisory body called on Sunday for the immediate withdrawal of the organization's monitoring mission in Syria, saying it was allowing Damascus to cover up continued violence and abuses.



The Arab League has sent a small team to Syria to check whether President Bashar al-Assad is keeping his promise to end a crackdown on a nine-month uprising against his rule.

The observer mission has already stirred controversy. Rights groups have reported continued deaths in clashes and tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to show the observers the extent of their anger.


The Arab Parliament, an 88-member advisory committee of delegates from each of the League's member states, on Sunday said the violence was continuing to claim many victims.

"For this to happen in the presence of Arab monitors has roused the anger of Arab people and negates the purpose of sending a fact-finding mission," the organization's chairman Ali al-Salem al-Dekbas said.

"This is giving the Syrian regime an Arab cover for continuing its inhumane actions under the eyes and ears of the Arab League," he said.


The Arab Parliament was the first body to recommend freezing Syria's membership in the organization in response to Assad's crackdown.

Syria next unavoidable step = civil war...

Syria is at risk of civil war or foreign intervention if the mission can’t end the unrest, said Burhan Ghalioun, leader of the Syrian National Council, the umbrella opposition group that seeks to topple Assad. In Homs, 70,000 people rallied Dec. 26 and 50,000 marched in Duma yesterday, Merei said.

The delegation is getting the “needed cooperation” from all sides, including Syrian government, the Arab League said today in an e- mailed statement.

Syria: Assad must go!!! Now...

Bashar al-Assad of Syria has been using armoured columns against peaceful protests, tanks against hospitals, machine guns in mosques, and, reserving a special place for himself in hell, targeting children for torture and murder as a way of intimidating protesters.


The case of 13-year-old Hamza Ali al-Khatib, whose corpse was returned to his family smashed, burned, bullet-riddled and with his penis torn off, for the crime of having attended a protest march with his father, drew special revulsion in Syria and abroad.

But the people of Syria have shown a bravery and a fierce thirst for liberty that Assad could not have expected. An estimated 2000 people have been killed in the uprising to date. Protesters have started an ad hoc renaming of the streets of Syria's cities, with paper signs giving thoroughfares the names of "martyrs", demonstrators who have been killed by Assad's forces. There are many new street names appearing.

Violent repression is all Assad knows. He pretends to hold office through elections and, indeed, has won two of them with apparently remarkable support rates of 97 per cent of the vote. But he allows no one to run against him. He could never have won a real election. He is a member of the Alawite sect. This is an offshoot of Shia Islam, and a minority that makes up only about 7 per cent of the population. Three quarters of Syrians are Sunni Muslims.

Assad's father seized power in a coup in 1970. He was a ruthless dictator and is estimated to have killed some 20,000 Syrians in a bloodbath in the city of Hama when it resisted his rule. Bashar took over from his father in 2000 and is proving every bit as ruthless. But this time, it is not only one city rising up against the Assad dynasty. It is spreading to every city.

But as long as NATO was preoccupied with Gaddafi, Assad was able to operate with much less international scrutiny and pressure. That is about to change. "Assad has a very narrow window of time," wrote Jacques Neriah, former foreign policy adviser to Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. "This window is more or less equal to the time in which Muammar Gaddafi remains in power. The moment Gaddafi steps down, Syria will experience all the attention of the Western powers, especially if the turmoil and armed suppression persist."

Assad deserves a great deal more attention, and not only because of his criminal brutality. The fall of Assad would be a great strategic prize. Assad's Syria is the only country in the Middle East that is a close ally of Iran. As the power of the US has waned in the Middle East, Iran has risen, a theocratic power with nuclear ambitions and thoughts of regional hegemony.

Syria is crucial to Iran's ambitions. Under Assad, Syria has helped Iran project power. It supports Iran's international militant network, Hezbollah, and has helped it to intimidate and influence Lebanon, which has become a client.

When Lebanon's plucky prime minister Rafiq Hariri stood up to Syrian interference through Syria's proxy, the president, Emile Lahoud, Assad allegedly threatened Hariri: "Lahoud is me. If you want me out of Lebanon, I will break Lebanon." Four months later, a massive car bomb killed Hariri and 21 others in central Beirut.

And Syria under Assad also supports the militant Hamas, whose political wing controls the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip. Like Hezbollah, Hamas also operates a terrorist arm. Syria supplies military training, arms and money.

So even though Syria under Assad's Baath Party is a secular regime, it is nonetheless a linchpin of Shiite Islamist power and aggression throughout the Middle East.

To remove Assad would be to weaken Iran and to crimp its ambitions. It would also undermine its political and terrorist proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas.

It’s all about the money and the status quo!

Students and faculty have come together to speak out against Vanderbilt University’s negotiations to partner with the government of Abu Dhabi, an emirate of the United Arab Emirates, to create a new school of education.

“Abu Dhabi is notorious for workers’ rights violations”, sex trade, drug trafficking, money laundering, “its treatment of homosexuals and for spreading lies about the Holocaust. Why would Vanderbilt, one of them most prestigious universities in the world, want to do business with this country?” asked senior David Pasch, co-founder Students Against Vanderbilt in the Emirates (SAVE).

The first opposition to the proposed campus came in an op-ed published in Monday’s issue of The Hustler by Pasch and SAVE co-founder Theodore Samets. The op-ed highlighted human rights violations and concerns about academic freedom that exist within Abu Dhabi.

Emirati authorities arrested a professor at Sorbonne’s Abu Dhabi branch campus after he called for democratic reforms, according to Inside Higher Education. Unaware about the details of this case, McNamara would not comment and said that Vanderbilt has been assured the new school would have the same standards of academic freedom as Vanderbilt University.

The vast majority of faculty at Vanderbilt -Peabody are against the new school.

----------------------------------- more on the Guggenheim (Abu Dhabi) -------------------------

"This leading group of artists is making clear that they will not showcase their work in a museum built by abused workers, and that the steps taken to date by Guggenheim and TDIC are inadequate," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "If the Guggenheim and TDIC fail to address the artists' concerns, the museum may become better known for exhibiting labor violations than art."

------------------------------------more on blogger ------------------------------------------

The trial of Ahmed Mansoor, a blogger and human rights activist who has been held since April, is due to resume in Abu Dhabi on 18 July. Reporters Without Borders urges the authorities to drop the charges against this netizen and release him without delay.

More than 10 police officers took part in Mansoor’s arrest in April, seizing two laptops and several documents. His arrest, after signing a petition calling for democratic reforms in the United Arab Emirates, followed several weeks during which he was the target of intimidation attempts and a smear campaign, especially on the social networks Facebook and Twitter.

Mansoor was also pressured by his employer, a telecommunications company that suddenly decided to relocate to Pakistan in a move which, according to Mansoor’s blog, was motivated by political interests.

Four other pro-democracy activists are being tried with Mansoor. They are Farhad Salem, Nasser bin Ghaith, Hassan Ali Al-Khamis and Ahmed Abdul Khaleq. They are all charged with threatening state security, undermining public order and insulting the president, the vice president and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

They pleaded not-guilty when the first hearing was held on 14 June, just hours after the judge scheduled to preside the case was replaced. During the hearing, a pro-government demonstration took place outside, with members of the crowd chanting death threats against the defendants.

The trial would be adjourned again at next week’s hearing as the prosecution wants to bring new “witnesses” whose identity has not yet been revealed to the defence. Reporters Without Borders has learned that Mansoor is meanwhile suffering from a severe allergy but has been denied access to a dermatologist, despite repeated requests.

He seems to be the collateral victim of the increase in security measures and repression that Arab governments have adopted up in recent months because of the spread of protests. More arrests are taking place, online filtering and surveillance of Internet users have been stepped up and the authorities are still trying to get access to the BlackBerry smartphone’s encrypted communications – all disturbing signs in this troubled region.

The United Arab Emirates is listed as a “country under surveillance” in the “Enemies of the Internet” report that Reporters Without Borders released on 12 March.

--------------------------------- descent into the Middle Ages ----------------------------------------

While other countries in the Gulf have expedited reforms to appease citizens demanding more freedom, the UAE – despite having long-attempted to present itself as a model of progress – has taken a different tack, silencing any individuals or organisations questioning the status quo.

The surreptitious crackdown has affected all spheres – professional associations, non-governmental organisations, think-tanks, the blogosphere and even art exhibitions.

Five Emirati bloggers and academics who were rounded up in April are currently on trial for "opposing the government", threatening state security and insulting the country's leaders. The arrests have shocked the desert nation. Dr Nasser bin Ghaith, one of the accused, is an academic at the Abu Dhabi branch of the Sorbonne University.

Since the arrests, authorities have cast their net wider, dissolving the boards of several non-governmental organisations such as the Jurists' Association, a group active in the defence of human rights, and replacing them with government appointees. The Teachers' Association has received similar treatment. Rights groups have described the move as a "hostile takeover of civil society".

"What we are seeing is a collapse in democratic rights," said one activist, who, like many, now declines to have his name published for fear of reprisals. "We have gone back 30 years. They are afraid the revolutions will come to the UAE so they are scaring people into keeping silent."

The targeting of respected academic institutions has raised eyebrows as they are hardly revolutionary hotbeds. Last month the Gulf Research Centre, one of the UAE's few political think-tanks, said it was being forced to leave the country after "objections by the Dubai government to various aspects of GRC's work." The head of the Dubai School of Government has also resigned.

Amid an ever-growing state of paranoia, the chief of the Arab world's biggest art show, the Sharjah Biennale, has also been sacked for not sufficiently censoring the exhibition.

The government's attack on the country's pro-reform voices began after 133 prominent Emiratis signed a petition in March requesting the right of all citizens to vote for members of the country's Federal National Council. Currently a government-appointed electorate votes for half the members of the council, which wields virtually no legislative authority, leaving power in the hands of the al-Nayhan royal family, headed by President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed.

Signatories say they have since been threatened by security officials. "They come to us and say we will be the next in jail. They say we are trying to destroy our country," said one.

Before his arrest, Ahmed Mansoor, one of the five activists on trial and a prominent Dubai-based blogger who helped organise the petition, wrote a final dramatic blog post.

Entitled "They came to take me in at 3.50am", it described the moment his building's security guard knocked on his door to tell him three policemen outside wanted to speak to him about a problem with his car. "They make such tricks to and take you," Mr Mansoor wrote.

Mr Mansoor had long suspected that his blog would lead him into trouble with the authorities. "My family have mixed feelings; they think this might bring trouble not only for me, but for them too," he said in an interview with The Independent before his arrest. "On several occasions they've asked me not to talk about more sensitive topics."

There is concern that the trial, which resumes on 18 July, will result in heavy sentences. Professor Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a politics lecturer at UAE University who knows several of the detainees, described the charges as "heavy and loaded."

While outwardly trying to maintain the façade of a progressive haven for Western business and expatriate workers, in reality it has been increasing its grip on power.

The country's divided interests are evident in its diplomacy. Abu Dhabi's F-16s and Mirage jets are supporting the Libyan rebels fighting against Gaddafi's brutal regime. But the UAE remains one of the most visible supporters of the region's other embattled leaders, with the President sending messages of solidarity with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, and the Foreign Minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, visiting in a gesture of fraternity. He paid a similar visit to Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak shortly before he was ousted.

It remains to be seen whether the recent crackdown will silence the dissent, or help to galvanise the reform movement. For one of the petition's signatories the latter seemed more likely. "Emiratis can't accept this treatment: the people are angry," he said.

Then there are the reported lay-offs of hundreds of expatriates in the public sector as the UAE leaders scramble to bring down 14 per cent unemployment. With those expatriates who have been asked to leave said to have been given just weeks to go, the leadership's urgency in pacifying the country's disaffected youth is evident.

Justice, Law & Liberty

There is indeed, no uglier kind of state than one in which the richest men are thought to be the best, Marcus Tullius Cicero born 106 B.C.

If you read only two books, then let them be Cicero’s The Laws and The Republic.

In these two books, Cicero wanted to restore the republic to its uncorrupted and truest form. He intended to persuade good and honorable men to participate actively in public affairs. Politics, he argued, was the most honorable of all professions. His ideas were not new. He relied on Greek and Roman writings.

In The Laws, Cicero explored his concept of natural law. "Law is the highest reason," he wrote, "implanted in Nature, which commands what ought to be done and forbids the opposite." Thus, natural law is the guide for right and wrong in human affairs.

Without laws, Cicero reasoned, there can be no state or government. More important, he continued, there must be equality under the law with no special exceptions. This is essential, he said, for justice, which in turn is necessary for a successfully functioning government.

In The Republic, Cicero argued that laws are not enough for a just state. There also must be liberty. "But if liberty is not equally enjoyed by all the citizens," he declared, "it is not liberty at all." Therefore, liberty cannot exist unless "the people have the supreme power" in government.

Cicero looked into the ideal form of government for upholding natural law, establishing justice, and ensuring liberty. He started by examining three "good states" and their perverted forms, described earlier by the Greek historian Polybius.

Cicero believed the best of the good states was a monarchy, but the king could turn into a tyrant. Cicero also approved of an aristocracy, rule by the best men, but it was vulnerable to conspiracies by factions intent on grabbing power (an oligarchy). In Cicero's view, the worst of the good states was a democracy, where all the people participated directly in running the government. It eventually led to mob rule.

Cicero went a step further than Polybius to describe a cycle of government forms. "The government is thus bandied about like a ball," Cicero wrote, "tyrants receive it from kings; from tyrants it passes either to aristocrats or to the people; and from the people to oligarchs or tyrants." Therefore, he concluded that all three good states were flawed and unstable.

Even so, Cicero recognized each good state had its merits. A king could act quickly and decisively in an emergency. The people in a democracy enjoyed liberty with equal rights. The aristocrats possessed experience and wisdom.

Cicero proposed that the ideal government "is formed by an equal balancing and blending" of monarchy, democracy, and aristocracy. In this "mixed state," he argued, royalty, the best men, and the common people all should have a role.

Unlike many of the political philosophers before him, Cicero was an experienced politician and had a working model for his "mixed state." This was the Roman Republic, with its consuls (co-kings), Senate (aristocrats), and democratic assemblies (commoners).

To achieve his ideal government, Cicero argued that Romans only had to restore the republic to its previous perfect form. He proposed strengthening the aristocratic consuls and Senate at the expense of the democratic assemblies. But Cicero's reforms did little to address the mounting forces endangering the existence of the republic.

The greatest threat facing the Roman Republic was ambitious military men, especially the Triumvirate. When Crassus died in a disastrous war in the eastern empire, Pompey and Caesar each plotted to become master of Rome, and civil war erupted that led to the Fall of the Republic.

Let Cicero’s words echo throughout our planet:

On Justice

Justice is the crowning glory of the virtues.

Justice consists in doing no injury to men…

Justice is the set and constant purpose which gives every man his due.

The foundations of justice are that no one should suffer wrong; then, that the public good be promoted.

…justice must be observed even to the lowest.

Justice does not descend from its pinnacle.

Justice extorts no reward, no kind of price; she is sought…for her own sake.

Extreme justice is extreme injustice.

If our lives are endangered by plots or violence…any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.

On Law

True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application…

The welfare of the people is the ultimate law.

The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give everyone else his due.

According to the law of nature it is only fair that no one should become richer through damages and injuries suffered by another.

The strictest law often causes the most serious wrong.

The more laws, the less justice.

…the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled…

The administration of government, like a guardianship, ought to be directed to the good of those who confer, not of those who receive the trust.

When a government becomes powerful…it is an usurper which takes bread from innocent mouths and deprives honorable men of their substance for votes with which to perpetuate itself.

On Liberty

We are in bondage to the law so that we might be free.

The essence of liberty is to live as you choose.

Freedom is a man’s natural power of doing what he pleases, so far as he is not prevented by force or law.

Freedom is a possession of inestimable value.

What is so beneficial to the people as liberty…to be preferred to all things.

Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.

Freedom suppressed again, and again regained, bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered.

Only in states in which the power of the people is supreme has liberty any abode.

Peace is liberty in tranquility. Servitude is the worst of all evils, to be resisted not only by war, but even by death.

Cicero was among the most important influences behind the American Revolution. He was a symbol of dedication in opposing tyranny, and his ideas on justice, law and liberty are represented in our founding documents.

To the dissidents of the world -- those who call for Justice, Laws & Liberty; let the words of Cicero forge your steel during the unendurable times ahead: “the best men and women are especially motivated by glory.” You all deserve a representative form of government that you choose and that is not thrust upon you.

To my fellow Americans, let us not let slip what took 2,000 years to re-create.