Arlen Specter meets Syrian President Bashar al-Asad in Damascus (Reuters)

    Night-vision goggles are an awesome high-tech military tool enabling soldiers to fight in the dark as effectively as they do in the sunlight.
    The U.S. government discovered that Syria gave night-vision goggles to Saddam's troops before the the 2003 war and to Iraqi insurgents thereafter.
    Israel's military captured  night-vision goggles that Syria supplied to Hizballah. After the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war European officials went to Syria and asked it to block arms smuggling to Hizballah, despite the fact that the regime itself was the main smuggler.
    We'd love to help, said Syrian officials, but we lack the proper equipment to be effective.  Can you supply us with night-vision goggles?
    The Italian foreign minister seemed eager to fill this supposed gap in Syria's arsnel.
    It is quite conceivable that Syria may be given military equipment to be used in order to stop arms smuggling to Hizballah, which it then gives to Hizballah.  In other words, Syria deflected criticism and pressure and won praise by promising to stop itself from helping Hizballah while daily announcing in Arabic that it would continue to arm Hizballah and facilitate more smuggling.
    As for English, Bashar later told the visiting U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, who seemed to think him sincere, "If I know of one Syrian who is transferring arms to Hizballah, I will make sure to stop it."