Syrian 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
has warned that Syria has become the target of a foreign conspiracy.
In an address to the new parliament in Damascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
on Sunday, Assad said Syria was facing a real war from outside.
"We are not facing a political problem but a project to destroy the country," Assad said.
He added that the government has made every attempt to end the months-long unrest and implemented the promised reforms.
The Syrian president insisted that the reforms have managed to fend off part of the regional and international attacks on the country.
Assad also criticized opposition parties for boycotting the May 7 parliamentary elections, saying they have in fact boycotted the people not the government.
He called for a national dialog to end the violence and invited all parties to put aside their differences for the interest of the country.
Syria has been the scene of unrest since mid-March 2011. Many people, including security forces, have bit the dust in the violence.
The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing the protesters. But Damascus blames ''outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups'' for the unrest, stating that it is being orchestrated from abroad.
The Syrian president also described last week's Houla massacre as an "ugly crime."
On May 25, deadly festivities broke out between Syrian forces and gangs in Houla, leaving 108 people killed, including 49 children and 34 women.
Meanwhile,
...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow...
a Syrian government investigation into the massacre states that anti-Damascus gangs were responsible for the massacre.
The head of the inquiry, Brigadier General Qassem Jamal Suleiman, said on Thursday that between 600 and 800 armed hard boyz used heavy machinery to carry out the attacks.
Suleiman also said that there was no evidence to indicate that artillery bombing by Syrian forces had led to the bloodshed, and blamed the gangs for the massive loss of life as part of a plan to "eliminate the presence of the government [in the area] totally and turn it into a region out of government control."