It's on

The situation in France seems to have started as unplanned riots but Pundita has a problem with coincidences during war. By coincidence the rioting escalated from spontaneous expressions of rage to well coordinated attacks last Thursday, which was the day after the Mehlis Commission issued a summons to six Syrian intelligence officers to appear for questioning outside Syria.

So as you can see, things have moved quickly; it was only last Monday that UN Resolution 1636 passed by unanimous vote in the UN Security Council. The resolution gives the Syrian government virtually no stalling time to produce witnesses in the Mehlis Commission investigation and the witness list could, in theory, extend to Syria's President Bashar Assad.

A Washington Post/Associated Press article notes that the resolution has given the commission sweeping powers. Six Syrian intelligence officers have been summoned outside Syria for questioning along with a Lebanese official.

The resolution gives Mehlis the power to question "any Syrian at a location and under conditions of his choosing."

Translation: the parties can be questioned without Syrian government "minders" present, and they and the investigators now have a fighting chance of avoiding assassination enroute to the interrogation locations.

Yet whatever the wording of the powers conferred by the resolution, enforcement will require that the EU3 (Britain, France and Germany) continue to hang tough.

And dang if it didn't happen that around the same time poverty stricken rioters commandeering attack squads of motor scooters, and using cell phone and Internet networks, pulled off surprisingly well-coordinated attacks, according to French police. And also managed in their grief to throw together a firebomb making factory.(1)

For readers who keep track of such things, here are the intel officers named so far that Mehlis has called for questioning.

> General Assef Shawkat, chief of Syria's military intelligence service (President Assad's brother-in-law).

> Maj. General Bahjat Suleiman, former chief of Syria's internal intelligence service.

> Brig. General Rustum Ghazale, Syrian intelligence chief in Lebanon when ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated.

According to the AP story the other three senior officers listed in the summons did not include President Assad's brother, Maher, whose name was mentioned in Mehlis' report.

Now what should happen if the three generals on the list suddenly find themselves in need of triple bypass surgery and die on the operating table before Mehlis can interview them?

Pundita doesn't know. However, those three generals are probably very hard to catch napping; after all, they surived the Assad regime this long. So I sense it's more likely that Assad will stall while he tries to whip up support at the Arab League for thumbing his nose at Mehlis' demand. And while he phones Jacques Chirac to extend his sympathies about the troubles across France.

1) From a MSNBC News Services report 8:28 p.m. ET Nov. 6 (H/T World Net Daily): Police find Molotov cocktail factory in Paris; marauders attack in central Paris; and in Grigny (south of Paris) 10 police were injured from shotgun blasts fired by marauders. (Let's stop calling them rioters, shall we?)