The Financial Times is reporting that the Syrian government has arrested scores of people after Syrian Kurds staged some of the country’s first public protests in 40 years. In northeastern Syria, at least 19 people were killed and 150 were injured. Unrest spread to the capital of Damascas where Kurdish leaders say hundreds of Kurds were arrested. The unrest began at a soccer game when a group of Syrian Kurds began waving a Kurdish flag and signs praising President Bush. They were chanting “We will sacrifice our lives for Bush.” Last week Syrian officials detained 25 people staging a protest in Damascas. One of those detained at the protest was a junior diplomat from the American Embassy. The State Department said he was monitoring the protest. Writing on the TomPaine.com website, longtime investigative journalist Robert Dreyfuss questions if the US may be behind the rare public demonstrations. He writes ” it strains credulity to think that the Kurdish unrest in Syria is spontaneous.... What’s happening in Syria has all the hallmarks of a classic, 1950s-era, Cold War-style CIA coup d’etat.”