The Arab League's observer mission in Syria is deteriorating
pretty quickly, as the six member states that make up the Gulf
Cooperation Council withdrew their people as the Syrian foreign
minister pledged to continue the state's crackdown on anti-
government protesters. Tuesday's announcement that the GCC
states would follow the lead of Saudi Arabia, which pulled out
Sunday, doesn't mean a hard stop to the observer mission, but it
signals a huge lack of confidence.  It's not only member-states
that are losing confidence in the mission. According to the BBC,
"Syria's foreign minister [Walid Muallem, pictured at left] said
some Arab states had joined a foreign conspiracy to destabilize
the country." On Monday, Syria rejected an Arab League peace
plan that called for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, his
vice president to take his place, and a unity government to form
around a new constitution. The Syrian government rejected that
as an infringement on its sovereignty and evidence of a
"conspiratorial scheme