Syria [Archive] - It's Happening Forums

Ono

03-04-2005, 12:48 PM

Syrian Leader Expected to Redeploy Troops

By SAM F. GHATTAS
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -

Syrian President Bashar Assad is expected to announce a pullback of troops to eastern Lebanon, near the Syrian border, but not a full withdrawal in an upcoming parliament speech, the Lebanese defense minister said Friday.

Such a step would fall short of intensifying U.S. and Arab demands for a complete removal of Syria's 15,000 forces from Lebanon, where Damascus has held sway for more than a decade.

President Bush said he wants all Syrian forces out by May, when Lebanon holds parliamentary elections - stepping up previous calls in which he set no deadline.

"I don't mean just the troops out of Lebanon, I mean all of them out of Lebanon, particularly the secret service out of Lebanon - the intelligence services," he told the New York Post in an interview published Friday.

"This is nonnegotiable. It is time to get out," he said. "I don't think you can have fair elections with Syrian troops there."

Lebanese Defense Minister Abdul-Rahim Murad suggested Syria wants to keep some troops in the country on a long-term basis, saying a complete removal of the troops would have to be negotiated between Syria and Lebanon's governments - as called for in an 1989 agreement.

Under the Taif Accord, he said, "the governments of Lebanon and Syria will meet to discuss the number of troops required to stay and outline the areas where they would be stationed until the (Arab-Israeli) issue is settled."

In the speech to the People's Assembly in Damascus, "we expect President Assad to announce a redeployment to the Bekaa region" in eastern Lebanon, Murad, a member of the pro-Syrian government in Beirut, told The Associated Press.

He answered "No" when asked whether the redeployment meant a full withdrawal.

It was not clear whether Assad would set a date for the pullback in the speech, announced by the Syrian state news agency. But a commitment from the president before the People's Assembly would strengthen promises by Syrian officials last month that Damascus would carry out the redeployment.

Syria has redeployed its troops toward the border several times since 2000, and each time some Syrian troops have left Lebanon completely. Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah said last month if there was a new redeployment, some troops would return to Syria.

But that may not be enough for Arab governments, which have grown increasingly impatient with Syrian reluctance to order a withdrawal outright.

Syria has so far resisted Arab pressure to withdraw, saying in behind-the-scenes diplomacy in recent days that it wants to keep 3,000 troops and early-warning stations in Lebanon, according to an Arab diplomat in Cairo, Egypt. The Syrian army already operates radar stations in Dahr el-Baidar, on mountain tops bordering Syria. Israeli warplanes have attacked the sites in the past.

Syria's ambassador to the United States said his nation's presence inside Lebanon is not likely to end suddenly.

"We are going to leave Lebanon. But we will not do this in a way that is chaotic. We will not create a vacuum," Imad Moustapha told The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer in an interview Thursday. Some people in Cleveland with Lebanese roots said they planned to protest Moustapha's remarks Friday.

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah told Assad in talks Thursday that his country wants Syria to start soon on a complete pullout from Lebanon and Saudi leaders warned the Syrian leader that, if not, their relations will suffer, a Saudi offical said on condition of anonymity. Assad replied only that he would consider a partial withdrawal in the coming weeks, the official said.

Syria's official news agency SANA on Friday dismissed the Saudi official's account of the meeting, saying it lacked credibility.

"The failure to mention the name of the Saudi official points to a lack of credibility of the report's content," SANA said. It noted an official Saudi statement saying the talks were "constructive and fruitful" and that the two countries discussed ways to expand bilateral cooperation. SANA also said late Thursday that "points of view were identical" in the talks.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also ruled out any Western military action against Syria but said there had been informal discussions in the United Nations Security Council about deploying peacekeeping forces in Lebanon to cover the withdrawal of Syrian troops.

"There are already some U.N. peacekeeping forces in the south of Lebanon. It is possible that as part of a phased withdrawal from the Lebanon by Syria - it would have to be swift, but obviously phased so you don't leave a mess - there could be some more peacekeeping troops," Straw said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

"I mean, that has been talked about but in an informal, not a formal, way" in the Security Council, Straw said.

Pressure on Syria to withdraw its troops has increased since the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a killing that plunged Lebanon into political turmoil and brought Syria widespread condemnation.

Domestic calls in Lebanon - thousands of people have demonstrated in recent days in Beirut against Syria and forced the pro-Syrian Lebanese government to step down, although it remains a caretaker government. International demands led by Bush, France's Jacques Chirac and even Russia, Syria's close friend, for Syria to leave Lebanon also have dramatically increased.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2005/mar/04/030400845.html

TomJones

03-05-2005, 10:16 PM

From Debka:

On Stepped up Iranian help, and possible sanctions (good read): http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=995

Petronas

03-18-2005, 01:17 AM

OPPOSITION REPORTS COUP IN DAMASCUS
Last Updated: 03/17/2005 11:56:54

NICOSIA [MENL] -- The regime of President Bashar Assad, said to have fled Damascus, has come under severe strain amid its military redeployment in Lebanon. Lebanese opposition sources said the Assad regime has been divided over the decision to withdraw thousands of troops from Lebanon. The sources said some elements of the military have refused to follow orders for the pullout of troops as well as intelligence agents from both central Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Syria's military was said to have increased deployment around Damascus amid tension within the regime. Opposition sources said the Syrian military has undergone a split, with a rebel faction having taken control over parts of the capital.

The rebel faction was said to be led by Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan and Firas Tlas, the son of former Defense Minister Mustapha Tlas. The sources said this group, which included Syrian intelligence chief in Lebanon, Maj. Gen. Rustom Ghazaleh and Maj. Gen. Ali Madi, has rebelled against Assad's decision to withdraw from Lebanon.

http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2005/march/03_18_1.html

Petronas

03-31-2005, 12:11 PM

Hamas Recruit Says He Was Trained in Militant Camp in Syria
Mar 29, 2005

ASHKELON, Israel (AP) - A 20-year-old Palestinian recruited from a mosque in Gaza by Hamas militants told The Associated Press in a jailhouse interview Tuesday that he received weeks of military training in a Hamas camp in Syria this year. The allegations by Osama Mattar, now in Israeli custody, mark the first time a Palestinian has spoken publicly about being trained in Syria, and contradict repeated Syrian denials.

The training base outside Damascus was far from secret and was once even inspected by Syrian intelligence agents, Mattar said. "They know very well about the presence of Hamas," he said. "What they may not have known about was the presence of a guy from Gaza coming to train at the training camp in Syria."

Israel has long accused Syria of allowing Palestinian militants to train there and offered up Mattar - arrested March 2 as he tried to cross back into Gaza - as proof. Israeli officials also said the timeframe of Mattar's five-week training, which ended in mid-February, proved Hamas was not serious about halting attacks on Israel. Mattar disagreed, saying his trip had been planned months before any talk of a cease-fire.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other militant groups have acknowledged they train Palestinians in Lebanon. Hamas officials declined public comment Tuesday, but said privately it made no sense to run training bases in Syria when it can use neighboring Lebanon, home to sprawling Palestinian refugee camps.

Syrian officials at the Foreign Ministry, who are usually slow to respond to such sensitive topics, were not available for comment Tuesday, despite repeated attempts by The Associated Press. With Western pressure on Syria mounting to curtail military activity, militant groups have been careful not to embarrass their hosts in Damascus. While many militant leaders remain in Syria, they issue most of their statements from Lebanon. Syria has repeatedly denied accusations it allows militants to train on its territory. The Syrian government says it once allowed militants to run media offices from Damascus, but those were closed after a visit by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell in May 2003.

On Oct. 5, 2003, Israel bombed what it said was an Islamic Jihad training camp in Syria after the group carried out a suicide bombing at a Haifa cafe that killed 19 Israelis. Syria said at the time the base had been long abandoned. With relations between Israel and the Palestinian leadership warming in recent months, Israel has stepped up its accusations against Syria. Israel blamed a Feb. 25 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed five people on Islamic Jihad militants following orders from their leaders in Damascus and said it held Syria responsible.

Israeli officials say Syria continues to be a hub for Palestinian militants. "There is ongoing intelligence information that the terrorist groups working out of Syria are directly responsible for suicide bombings in Israel and continue to function and operate with the facilitation of the government in Syria," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. "We see today a growing understanding in the international community of the Syrian regime's collaboration with terrorist groups."

During a more than two-hour interview, Mattar gave a detailed description of what he said was his training in Syria. His account could not be verified independently. Though he spoke in the presence of Israeli security officials at the Shikma prison in Ashkelon, Mattar appeared relaxed and seemed to be speaking freely. Occasionally, he glanced at a security official for permission to answer, which was often granted with a casual nod.

Security officials said Mattar has not been charged, and he has not been accused of carrying out attacks. Asked why he agreed to the interview, Mattar, who spoke mostly in Arabic, said in English, "I have no choice." When pressed, he said in Arabic he had not been forced to do the interview, but did not elaborate on his motive.

Mattar said he had been recruited by Hamas more than two years ago at his mosque in the Jebaliya refugee camp, a militant area in northern Gaza that has been the frequent target of Israeli raids over the past four years. Last year, he was asked to go to Syria for training, with the intention of training other militants in Gaza. Mattar left Gaza on Dec. 4, telling Israeli border guards he was going to study at Damascus University, which he had previously attended. He re-enrolled in the university to maintain his cover and waited 25 days for Hamas to contact him, he said. He then received five days of training in personal safety.

He was taught what car to drive - not a Subaru, known as the militants' preferred car. Where to live - not in an isolated house, which can easily be targeted by an Israeli missile. How to keep his cell phone secure - regularly change the phone, the phone number and even the battery, he said. After that, he was given a rendezvous point and driven to the Hamas training base 40 minutes outside the capital.

Nearly every day, he was taken to the base for five hours of training by nine instructors in everything from electronics to weapons. He gave only vague descriptions of the base, saying it was in a valley and appeared old and well-established. It contained a garage, several buildings, watchtowers and a tunnel, he said.

Mattar - who said he was the only militant being trained at the time - was taught to read maps and use a compass, to build an electric timer for a time bomb and how to use light weapons. He fired rocket-propelled grenades and threw hand grenades, he said.

One day, his trainers told him to hide, he said. "Syrian intelligence came in, took a look around and left," he said. No one else hid, and he assumed the militants did not want the Syrian government to know they were training a Palestinian from Gaza. In February, Mattar told his trainers he wanted to go home and they agreed.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBV85QNW6E.html

Alli

04-09-2005, 11:55 AM

Seized explosives heading to Syria (http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050409-050941-2185r.htm)
Beirut, Lebanon, Apr. 9 (UPI) -- The 110 pounds of explosives seized in a pick-up truck in Lebanon were en route to Syria, Lebanon's official news agency reported Saturday.

The government-run news agency said the truck carrying the TNT was seized Friday night in the eastern Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border and was "heading towards Syrian territories."

Authorities arrested five people in the case, but did not identify them.

Beirut's newspapers reported earlier the arrested people included both Lebanese and Palestinians.

Atlas

04-09-2005, 02:39 PM

Alli

04-12-2005, 08:14 AM

...I'm sure the US MSM will cover this as adamantly as the Abu Garib scandal...

Syrian security forces tortured 13 to death
Syrian security forces tortured to death 13 people last year, most of them Kurds, an independent human rights watchdog claimed yesterday.

The Association for Human Rights in Syria said that some of the alleged victims died in custody after unrest in the mainly Kurdish north-east in March last year.

"Five Kurds died under torture after the demonstrations in Qamishli," the group reported. "Six more Kurds died in suspicious circumstances while performing their national service and two [Arab] Syrians died in offices of the interior ministry's security branch."

The watchdog said the deaths were a very serious breach of the International Convention against Torture which Syria signed in July 2004.

It said it would release full details of alleged human rights violations in Syria in its annual report for 2004 to be published next week.

More than 2,000 political prisoners remain in detention in Syria, the watchdog said. Nearly 450 arbitrary arrests were reported last year.

• Villagers chopped off a Pakistani man's arms to punish him for appearing before a court as a murder trial witness, police said yesterday. Police were looking for four men after the attack.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/08/wsyria08.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/04/08/ixworld.html

Petronas

04-16-2005, 12:54 AM

DEBKAfile
Last Updated on April 15, 2005, 10:51 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile’s Islam-watchers report: Islamic website issues travel warning to Syrian fighters crossing into Iraq to fight with insurgents. Syrian regime said “up to its ears in work” for Americans, has set up checkpoints at Qameshli and Deir ez-Zor border zones and arrests all outsiders. Fighters advised not to display beards, long robes or pray at mosques. ...

http://www.debka.com/

NYC

04-18-2005, 09:36 AM

IRAN AND SYRIA RESUME CONSULTATIONS. Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal
Kharrazi is paying his second visit to Syria this month, and on 14
April he met with President Bashar al-Assad and Foreign Minister
Faruq al-Shara, Syria's SANA news agency reported. They reportedly
discussed Lebanese developments and an upcoming conference on Iraq in
the Turkish city of Istanbul. They reportedly also discussed
bilateral relations. Kharrazi told reporters when he arrived in
Damascus that the failure of Lebanese Prime Minister Omar Karami to
form a government is a matter of great concern, IRNA reported. "The
political vacuum in Lebanon does not serve the interest of Lebanon
and the entire region," he said. "The friendly states should find a
way out of the current situation." Kharrazi added that the current
meeting is meant to prevent Israel's "taking advantage of the current
situation in Lebanon," in IRNA's words. One day earlier, the
"Washington Post" cited anonymous "U.S. and European officials" who
said that most Iranian military personnel have left Lebanon. Those
who remain are military advisers and/or military attaches at the
Iranian Embassy. UN Resolution 1559 calls for the withdrawal of all
foreign forces from Lebanon.

Petronas

05-16-2005, 12:43 AM

Hundreds demand freedom outside feared Syrian security court
Monday, May 16, 2005

DAMASCUS (AFP) — Hundreds of demonstrators rallied outside Syria's feared state security court Sunday chanting for freedom and demanding an end to the 42-year-old state of emergency. “Long live liberty,” the protesters chanted in both Arabic and Kurdish as the trials of three Kurdish activists got under way. “We want democracy,” “End the emergency laws.” The authorities dispatched around 15 riot police to the courthouse but they did not intervene.

Placards brandished by the demonstrators demanded the release of political prisoners, many of them members of Syria's 1.5 million-strong Kurdish minority. Pictures of Kurdish cleric Sheikh Mohammed Mashuq Al Jaznawi figured prominently. The sheikh has not been seen since he left the Islamic Studies Centre in Damascus on Tuesday, said rights lawyer Anwar Bunni.

As the demonstration unfolded outside, the state security court jailed one Kurdish activist and adjourned the trials of two others. Abdul Rahman Mahmud Ali of the mainly Turkish-based Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was sentenced to two years for “membership of an underground organisation seeking to annex Syrian territory to another country,” Bunni told AFP. The PKK, which waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in Kurdish regions of southeastern Turkey from 1984 to 1999, once championed a state encompassing all Kurdish-inhabited territory, including northern Syria, although it has since moderated its line. The court adjourned until June 19 the trial of another Kurdish activist — Shevan Abdo — detained more than a year ago following clashes with security forces and Arab auxiliaries in March last year. The court adjourned until next Sunday the case of Mahmud Ali Mohammad, an official in the Kurdish Al Wahda Party who was also arrested last year.

http://www.jordantimes.com/mon/news/news8.htm

Alli

05-24-2005, 01:18 PM

How involved is Syria with Al Zarqawi's network in Iraq?
There are rumors that senior associates of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq -- and possibly al-Zarqawi himself -- met in Syria in April to plan new militant attacks against U.S. forces in Baghdad. American are concerned and upset about this. America has sent strong messages to Syria about stopping any overt or covert aid to Iraqi Al-Queda. Syrian officials denied May 19 that the country is aiding Iraqi insurgents, calling the accusations "baseless" and "part of a political pressure campaign." Syrian officials said Damascus "remains willing to cooperate" with Iraq on security issues. Officials also denied U.S. claims that Syria is disrupting efforts between Palestinians and Israelis to establish peace in the region, adding that Syria continues to support the Palestinian position.

But slowly evidences are mounting against the Syrian regime in aiding insurgency in Iraq. It is possible at some point of time the current Iraqi Government will declare war against Syria for creating security breakdown and terror related violence in Iraq. Bush Administration is also patiently waiting to see the Syrian reaction to operations near the Syrian border.
http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/2792.asp

Alli

05-26-2005, 09:07 AM

Syria Says It Nabs 1,200 Headed for Iraq
May 26, 7:54 AM EDT
By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Syria has arrested more than 1,200 people trying to cross the border into Iraq in recent weeks and sent many back to their home countries because of suspicions they were trying to join the insurgency, Syria's U.N. ambassador said.

Fayssal Mekdad also denied rumors that terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may be seeking shelter in Syria.

Mekdad said Syria suspected that those arrested - mostly foreigners - intended to carry out illegal activities in Iraq. They were sent back to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Libya and other countries, he said.

"We gave a lot of information to the United States on these issues, which prevented many attacks, but regrettably, the United States did not recognize such kind of help," he said in an interview.
Syria's ambassador to the United States, Imad Mustafa, said Tuesday that Syria had stopped security and military cooperation with the United States in the past few months after Washington failed to respond to repeated Syrian overtures. Mekdad said contacts continued "until a few weeks ago."
full story (http://ap.washingtontimes.com/dynamic/stories/U/UN_SYRIA?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME)

NYer

05-26-2005, 09:41 AM

Syrian army joined the fighting in Al-Qaim

A top source from the Iraqi Ministry of Defense told the Al-Watan Saudi newspaper yesterday that members from the Syrian army have joined the insurgents in Al-Qaiem against the US and Iraqi forces.

Al-Qaiem is on the border with Syria which is used as a cross safe heaven point for the Saudi and other Arab insurgents from Syria.

At least 35 among the Syrian army who were arrested during the fighting confessed about their ranks and their Syrian army units. They also confessed about their role in training the insurgents inside Iraq. Part of that training was professional including anti-aircraft missiles. The US army earlier mentioned that the type of training and weapons was different and well organized this time. This now has been confirmed that such professional training needs a well organized states army behind it.

Anti aircraft missiles and other sophisticated weapons have been found this time.

The Iraqi authorities informed the Syrian government and will submit the Syrian solders and officers for trials.

On the other hand many families in Riyadh and other parts of Saudi Arabia as well as some Kuwaitis haven informed that their sons were among the dead during their fight in the Al-Qaim. These Saudis were buried in the region of Al-Ramadi.

This is again showing very strong evidence of the involvement of Syria as a government and Saudi Arabia as Wahabi organizations in Iraq. There is no way of this is going to change unless a military buffer zone created inside the Syrian border and helping the Syrian Kurds and opposition to topple that regime.

www.hammorabi.blogspot.com

Petronas

05-31-2005, 12:54 AM

SAUDI ARABIA: SYRIA HANDS OVER SAUDI FIGHTERS TRYING TO REACH IRAQ
Riaydh, 30 May (AKI)

Syria has handed more than 30 Saudis caught trying to cross the border into Iraq back to Saudi Arabia, according to the Saudi interior minister Prince Naif. The Saudi newspaper Arab News reports that in the last few weeks Syria has arrested more than 300 Saudis it suspected of travelling to Iraq to join the insurgency there. Syria is under immense pressure to tighten up security along its "porous border" with Iraq. Saudi Arabia says it has no idea how many Saudis are in Iraq, but analysts believe hundreds, even thousands may have gone there since the US-led invasion two years ago, which brought down Saddam Hussein's regime. Earlier this month one influential Saudi cleric, Safar al-Hawali, said that while he supports the jihad against the US in Iraq, no-one outside Iraq has the right to participate in the fight. He also urged families to immediately contact the authorities if a male relative goes missing, so he can be stopped before he leaves the country.

Two Arab newspapers have recently run interviews with young Saudis who went to Iraq to fight the Jihad but changed their mind. One said he and his friend returned to Saudi Arabia on learning that their only contribution would be as a suicide car bomber, while another said he and his companions turned back before reaching the Syrian-Iraqi border on receiving a text message with a fatwa from a Saudi mufti, banning Saudis from taking part in the Jihad. He also said 300 young men had left to fight in Iraq from his region alone.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.172132506&par=0

Ethyl

09-15-2005, 12:26 AM

Asharq Al-Awsat Exclusive Interview with Iraqi Prime Minister Dr Ibrahim Jaafari
14/09/2005
London, Asharq Al-Awsat- During Iraqi Prime Minister Dr Ibrahim Jaafari's short visit while en route to the United States to deliver Iraq's speech at the UN General Assembly, he gave this exclusive interview to "Asharq al-Awsat" yesterday:

(Q) You visited Tal Afar town. What is happening there and in the border town of Al-Rutbah?

(A) Presently Tal Afar has entered the second phase. What is happening over there is military operations to defuse the problem. The problem in Tal Afar did not originate from the town or the people themselves but from a group of terrorists who infiltrated it. A lengthy discussion lasting more than two months was held with the people of Tal Afar to reach a peaceful solution before the military one. I sent a group led by a personal envoy and it met the Turkoman and Arab Sunni and Shiite citizens and they asked us to send our armed forces and they also sent me a memorandum bearing their signatures. The most noticeable point in that memorandum was their request to resort to the military solution to purge the town. We prepared a plan for the operation that has now entered the second stage. It was successful from the start until it ended and no person was killed during it other than two persons who were slightly injured. I was there today (yesterday) and saw with my own eyes what was happening in Tal Afar and met our military units and also spoke to the division commander and officers. They gave me detailed reports and I was briefed on the prevailing atmosphere. The operation will now enter the third stage, that of rebuilding the town, compensating the losses, and returning the population to their homes.

(Q) Were terrorists arrested there or did you find remnants of their presence in Tal Afar?

(A) We found booby-trapped vehicles, explosives and weapons hideouts, and workshops confirming that the terrorists held training courses in them to booby trap vehicles and prepare explosives. This means that Tal Afar would have become the incubator and base for instigating damage in other areas. At the same time, the terrorists undermined the civilized social infrastructure of the town's citizens that were established over time. The Sunni and Shiite Turkomans of Tal Afar have been brothers for a long time and we are making efforts to restore the situation back to normal.

(Q) Do you not think that the military interventions in Tal Afar and other areas in western Iraq are similar to what happened in Al-Fallujah and Al-Najaf?

(A) No. These operations are very different from what happened in Al-Fallujah and Al-Najaf. First, we did not start bombarding the town and we gave the people enough time to be evacuated. Secondly, we responded to the demands of the town's population. The operation was generally clean, totally clean. It is the first time that I read, before I saw, of a military operation carried out so precisely and of the forces entering their specific targets and arresting persons without any victims, thank God. The division and other commanders there explained to me today the reality on the ground.

(Q) Defense Minister Sadun al-Dulaymi accused Syria of encouraging the passage of Arab terrorists to Iraq. What is your opinion of this?

(A) There are accusations against more than one neighboring country. Syria denies having any connection with the terrorists' infiltration or says that as far as it concerns us, we are not allowing anyone to infiltrate into Iraq's territories. This is what they are saying. We had telephone contacts and I explained to them our suffering from the presence of armed elements that are operating freely in Syria. On their part, they are denying this. As far as we are concerned, terrorism is terrorism, whether it comes from this or that country, from outside or inside Iraq. Terrorism does not pose a real danger to our people only or just to Iraq but to the entire region and world. It has been proved that the stage for terrorism is anywhere there is a human. The Iraqis are confronting terrorism with its sophisticated methods on behalf of the entire humanity.

(Q) Are you still reproaching Arab diplomacy and the absence of its real representation in Iraq?

(A) The reproach is undoubtedly there. However, I am the type who considers reproach a way for opening doors widely, not closing them. I walked with my feet to the Arab countries when I was the first chairman of the Governing Council and entered the Arab League's halls. We do not know the reason for this delay in the presence of real Arab diplomatic representation and why Iraq is not getting a response. Yes, the reproach remains. Why, all the countries in the world sent representatives and ambassadors, the US President visited Iraq, the British prime minister visited Iraq, the Danish prime minister did the same, and foreign ministers from European countries and America visited Iraq. Ambassadors came from all parts of the world.

(Q) How do you assess the Iraqi internal situation, especially in the services and security issues?

(A) If we make a fair and transparent comparison between the internal situation as it was before and what we have now, we see that we have made considerable strides, specifically in the security situation. When we compare the number of booby-trapped vehicles that scattered the victims' limbs everywhere, we see that the situation now is totally different, especially in the governorates. There were two incidents in Basra and the perpetrators were apprehended. The number of booby-trapped vehicles in Baghdad went down and we arrested a large number of terrorists who confessed their crimes. The citizens are now reporting anyone who is suspicious and giving information. This is despite the difficulties we are facing, particularly in building the security apparatus. Yet I consider this to be level with our aspirations.

(Q) Was the case of the assassination of Abdul majid al-Khoi closed following the release of two persons involved in the crime?

(A) The case was not referred to us officially. We cannot decide on it even if it is referred because the case concerns the judicial authority. I am proud that we are personifying the separation of powers. We protect the powers from interference or having influence exerted on them. Right should be upheld, and wrong vanquished. The law in this state is above everything. As the prime minister, I do not exempt anyone in Iraq who comes under suspicion from the judiciary's right to question and investigate him, but in a civilized and correct way so that the evidence is gathered based on the principle that the defendant is innocent until proven guilty. I know there is a file for this case (al-Khoi's- assassination) and this is the prerogative of the judicial authority. I protect fair justice and the decisions the judiciary reaches must be applied in full. I will not allow anyone whatsoever to interfere in the judiciary's affairs and neither I nor any other person has the right to interfere in them.

http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=1706

Ethyl

09-15-2005, 12:29 AM

Families flee Tal Afar fighting
Tuesday, September 13, 2005 Posted: 0053 GMT (0853 HKT)

Iraqi soldiers try to unlock the front gate to a house in Tal Afar Sunday.
Image:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An estimated 6,600 families have fled the northern Iraq city of Tal Afar in recent months amid a rise in the insurgency there, a senior official with Iraq's Ministry of Displacement and Migration told CNN Monday.

An operation, called Operation Restore Rights, was launched in Tal Afar two weeks ago to try to drive out the insurgents.

"The rats know we are closing in on them," U.S. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said Sunday.

According to the Iraqi official, most of the displaced residents are living in the villages surrounding Tal Afar, although some have made it as far south as Karbala and Najaf.

The largest refugee camp, in the Al-Kal'aa area, is located about 3 miles (5 km) outside of the city and has 1,000 tents. It houses 600-700 families, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

There are another approximately 3,000 families living in various villages around Tal Afar -- with most families staying in deserted industrial buildings and schools, and a few in mosques.

There are a few families staying in a refugee camp close to the U.S. military base in the region.

A U.S. military spokeswoman in Baghdad said the camp was being secured by an emergency police battalion from Mosul and U.S. military civil affairs units.

There were about 70 families in Najaf and 130 in Karbala in southern Iraq, the Iraqi official said.

The official said nutritional aid and other supplies had reached most of the families and more was on its way to the more remote areas where families were scattered.

Iraqi Prime Minster Ibrahim Jafaari visited Iraqi troops in Tal Afar on Monday and toured the city.

The operation in the region has focused on the Serai neighborhood in southeast Tal Afar, where Lynch estimated 350 to 500 insurgents, many of them foreign fighters, had been cornered.

Lynch said at least 141 terrorists had been killed and 236 captured since the operation began on August 26.

Lynch said the operation was the result of four months work, including the establishment of "displacement camps" and humanitarian aid that allowed 12,000 residents to be evacuated from the neighborhood in advance of the fighting to minimize civilian casualties.

Tal Afar is 70 kilometers (40 miles) from the Syrian border and it is thought to be a hide-out and base for foreign fighters infiltrating the Iraqi-Syrian border. A part of the border was shut for security reasons on Sunday.

The Islamic Army in Iraq -- a terrorist group which has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks and kidnappings in Iraq -- on Sunday said it wanted to avenge the deaths of Sunnis in Iraq, including those killed in the ongoing Tal Afar operation.

Other developments

A Lebanese man -- accused by his captors of supplying alcohol to Iraq and to U.S. forces -- has been abducted, according to a video posted on the Internet by a previously unknown militant group. The video was posted Sunday by a group calling itself the the "Propagation of Virtue and Prohibition of Vice." On the tape, the man, identified by the Lebanese Foreign Ministry as Qurabet Shekerejian, pleads with his employers to stop doing business in Iraq or his captors will kill him.

Two diners died and 15 other people were wounded Monday night when a car bomb detonated outside a popular Baghdad restaurant, police said. The bomb was exploded remotely at 8:30 p.m. (12:30 p.m. ET) Monday outside the al-Sa'a Restaurant in the west Baghdad neighborhood of al-Mansoor, police said.

A British soldier was killed and three others were wounded Sunday in what a British military spokesman in Basra called a "hostile incident."

Violence took place elsewhere on Sunday, with a U.S. soldier killed near Samarra in a roadside bombing and six people killed in separate incidents over the last 24 hours in Baghdad.

The man credited with coordinating insurgent operations in the city of Mosul was shot dead Saturday as multi-national forces raided a terrorist safe hour in a town near Mosul, according to a statement from the Coalition Press Information Center.

In Kirkuk, Task Force Liberty soldiers and Iraqi police "detained eight individuals suspected of making and emplacing improvised explosive devices," the U.S. military said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/09/11/iraq.main/

Petronas

10-06-2005, 12:47 AM

Will Assad Save Himself by Going the Way of Qaddafi?
October 4, 2005, 10:20 AM (GMT+02:00)

How to save Syrian president Bashar Assad and his regime from toppling – or rather how to save him from himself? This was the main topic exercising Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah when they put their heads together in Riyadh Monday Oct. 3. They needed to talk urgently because the UN investigator of the Hariri assassination Detlev Mehlis reported to the UN secretary general Kofi Annan and the Security Council that he has finished his business in Damascus and would not be returning. He had gathered all the evidence he needs to indict two of Assad’s close kinsmen, his brother Maher, head of the presidential guard brigade, and brother-in-law, Assef Shawqat, who is married to his sister Bushra, for involvement in the assassination plot against the Lebanese leader.

The clincher was obtained, according to DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources, in a Lebanese security forces swoop on the MTC Touch mobile phone company in Beirut Sept. 27. (This network is owned by Kuwait-based Mobile Telecommunications Co.) The officers copied data from eight telephone lines and took several employes away for questioning. These lines were allegedly used by Maher Assad, Assef Shawqat and two Syrian strongmen, Syrian interior minister Gen. Ghazi Kenaan and director of Syrian Special Intelligence Gen. Rusoum Ghazaleh, and other Syrian intelligence officers for contacts with their Lebanese accomplices who staged the bombing-shooting attack in Beirut last February. These accomplices set up a headquarters in the Hamara district in two apartments. Four senior Lebanese security officers are also in detention over the crime.

In September, as the noose tightened around the neck of Assad’s nearest and dearest, Saudi king Abdullah and Mubarak rushed into rescue mode.

On September 23, DEBKA-Net-Weekly revealed:

The Saudi monarch is bidding for President George W. Bush to give the Syrian president another chance. He is offering a Saudi-Egyptian guarantee for Assad to live up to any obligations he may be persuaded to undertake.

The scheme as put before Bush is embryonic. Neither side has accepted it. The Saudi ruler proposes to permit the Syrian president to tread the same path as Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi in 2003, when he scrapped his weapons of mass destruction in return for admittance to Washington’s good graces.

The Assad version, if accepted, would consist of severing the links between the Damascus political and military elite and Iraqi Baathist insurgents and al Qaeda terrorists in Syria and Iraq. Top Saudi and Egyptian intelligence counter-terror experts would help the Damascus regime get rid of the terrorist elements which have struck root in Syria.

The banking systems of Syria and Lebanon will halt the flow of moneys from Saddam Hussein’s Baathists and al Qaeda accounts to bankroll the Iraqi insurgency. Like Libya, Syria would dismantle its chemical and biological weapons and its nuclear program, as well as its WMD-capable missiles.

Damascus would help America disband the Lebanese Hizballah terrorist organization, mainly by blocking Syrian arms supplies and providing Washington with intelligence on Hizballah’s arms caches. Damascus would also shut down the command centers, offices and the training facilities serving Palestinian terror groups in Syria for decades. This would entail the jihadist Hamas and Jihad Islami and the radical Palestinian “Fronts” losing their sanctuaries.

According to DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources, the Saudi ruler has assured US officials he will insist on Assad going public on these steps for the sake of his rehabilitation - although easing into them gradually.

The quid pro quo proposed by Riyadh and Cairo is a halt on US and international pressure on the Syrian regime to mend its ways, the suspension foAmerican economic sanctions and the resumption of economic assistance in the framework of a generous US-Saudi aid package to build a modern economy. Washington would have to lean hard on Ariel Sharon, or whoever succeeds him as Israeli prime minister, for peace talks culminating in the withdrawal from the Golan - on the same lines as the pull-back from Gaza and prospective evacuations of the West Bank.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s Washington and Middle East sources report that the Bush administration has gone no further than cautiously considering the Saudi-Egyptian blueprint and discussing it. All the same, some parties, especially Saudi and Egyptian officials, are pushing hard to present Washington’s U-turn on Damascus as an accomplished fact.

DEBKAfile adds: One of the parties keen on getting the Saudi-Egyptian plan off the ground leaked to the media Monday, the day Mubarak flew to Riyadh, that US officials had been testing Jerusalem’s preference for Assad’s successor. Israeli officials are reported to have said that Assad could stay - as long as he was “weakened.” This leak sounds like a ploy to convey the impression that the Egyptian-Saudi rescue blueprint is in the bag and has even found acceptance in Jerusalem. This is most improbable – especially since, according to our sources in Damascus, Assad is far from seizing the Qaddafi formula for changing his spots. There are serious obstacles to be overcome first.

1. He is still haggling on terms, guarantees for his regime’s durability and which cronies can be saved from prosecution by the UN Hariri inquiry.

2. Assad has developed more than one lifeline. In addition to the Saudi-Egyptian rescue plan, he is cozying up to Moscow and to Tehran for an escape or counter-gambit against the US-French drive to bring him down and the UN investigator’s findings. Some of the ideas floated between Damascus, Tehran and Moscow, might be of concern to Washington, US forces in Iraq and Israel. DEBKAfile will reveal these plans shortly.

3. The Syrian ruler’s fate hangs heavily on the final report Mehlis submits on the Hariri case. If he goes right to the top and assigns culpability to the president in person, not even the Saudi-Egyptian effort can save him. But if the finger of accusation stops at his close aides – such as his brother and brother-in-law, or lower echelons such as Generals Kenaan and Ghazale, Assad will hold the option of throwing them to the wolves and jumping aboard the rescue wagon.

4. He would have to be pretty nimble for this desperate ploy. The men he proposes to sacrifice might well have other plans, such as mounting a military coup to topple him to save themselves.

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1092

NYer

10-21-2005, 09:11 AM

Hariri murder probe implicates Syria

http://www.rantburg.com/images/surprise.jpg
From Rantburg

There is "converging evidence" of both Syrian and Lebanese involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, a UN investigation says.

Led by veteran German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, the probe into the 14 February killing of al-Hariri has established "that many leads point directly towards Syrian security officials as being involved with the assassination".

The report was handed over to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday morning, and Annan transmitted the report to the 15-nation Security Council and the Lebanese government on Thursday evening. The report said that it was well known that Syrian military intelligence had a pervasive presence in Lebanon at least until the withdrawal of Syrian forces in line with UN Security Council resolution 1559. "Given the infiltration of Lebanese institutions and society by the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services working in tandem, it would be difficult to envisage a scenario whereby such a complex assassination plot could have been carried out without their knowledge," the report said.

Because of this, it is now incumbent on Syria "to clarify a considerable part of the unresolved questions" facing investigators, the report said.

The Mehlis commission said its findings to date indicated that the truck bombing that killed al-Hariri and 20 others in the streets of Beirut was carried out by a group "with an extensive organisation and considerable resources and capabilities". The strongly worded report by Mehlis said the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services kept tabs on al-Hariri before his assassination by wiretapping his phone, and there was evidence a telecommunications antenna was jammed near the scene of the car bomb that killed him and 20 others on 14 February.

"The crime had been prepared over the course of several months," it said. The report also said that Syrian officials including Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara had sought to mislead its investigation.

"While the Syrian authorities, after initial hesitation, have cooperated to a limited degree…several interviewees tried to mislead the investigation," the commission said in its report. "The letter addressed to the Commission by the Foreign Minister of the Syrian Arab Republic proved to contain false information," it said.

The report said a Syrian witness living in Lebanon who claimed to have worked for Syrian intelligence in Lebanon told the commission that "senior Lebanese and Syrian officials decided to assassinate Rafiq al-Hariri" about two weeks after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution in September 2004 demanding the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon. The witness, who was not identified, claimed a senior Lebanese security official went to Syria several times to plan the crime. At the beginning of January 2005, a high-ranking Syrian officer posted in Lebanon told the witness that "Hariri was a big problem to Syria".

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F3ED92D8-EDA9-4C3A-895D-97E3B554FBB8.htm

NYer

11-09-2005, 07:02 AM

Annan, Bolton clash on Syrian cooperation with UN
Tue Nov 8, 2005 5:57 PM ET173

By Irwin Arieff

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. Ambassador John Bolton clashed with one another on Tuesday over whether Syria was cooperating with the U.N. Security Council in implementing recent resolutions.

http://www.rantburg.com/images/darthbolton.gif
From Rantburg

The question is key as the council a little over a week ago unanimously approved a new resolution ordering Syria to cooperate fully with a U.N. investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri or face possible unspecified "further action."

Following that October 31 vote, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the measure "made it clear that failure to comply with these demands will lead to serious consequences from the international community."

Tuesday's verbal clash began when Annan, in Cairo for a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, told reporters Damascus "has had a good record" in implementing Security Council resolutions.

Bolton, asked in New York about Annan's statement, said Syria's performance in carrying out council resolutions had ranged from "very lacking" to "substantially lacking."

Asked whether Annan's words were helpful to the council, Bolton responded: "I think I will not comment on his comment."

http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-11-08T225704Z_01_SCH882579_RTRUKOC_0_US-SYRIA-UN-USA.xml

Ono

11-25-2005, 08:24 PM

Syria let UN quiz officials

Fri Nov 25, 2005 12:38 PM ET
By Inal Ersan

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria agreed on Friday to allow U.N. investigators question five officials at the U.N. offices in Vienna in connection with the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, a top official said.

The Syrian move was designed to avert a showdown between Damascus and the U.N. Security Council after sources in Lebanon said chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis was close to giving up on Syrian cooperation over demands from Damascus for a legal deal before allowing the quizzing.

"The Syrian leadership has agreed to his (Mehlis) compromise proposal on holding the interviews of the five Syrian persons at the U.N. headquarters in Vienna," Deputy Foreign Ministry Walid al-Moualem told a news conference.

Moualem said a date for the questioning would be set after contacts with Mehlis.

A U.N. spokesman in New York confirmed the deal and said Mehlis has informed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan of the accord by telephone.

A Security Council resolution on October 31 demanded Syria cooperate fully with Mehlis or face unspecified further action.

Mehlis then summoned six top Syrian security officials, who according to Lebanese political sources include President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law, for questioning in Lebanon -- where he has power to arrest them.

Moualem said Syria has dropped its demands for a legal framework for cooperation before allowing the questioning after receiving guarantees on the right of the individuals, who will be accompanied by legal representatives, and on the respect of Syria's sovereignty.

"The Syrian leadership's decision today ... is an important step that eliminates any excuse for imposing economic sanctions on Syria," he said.

The official said the individuals, whose names were not released, would return to Damascus after the interviews, saying Mehlis had no power to arrest any suspects.

Moualem and the ministry's legal advisor, Riad al-Daoudi, who was present at the news conference, said they were aware that Mehlis wanted to interview only five Syrians, not six.

Moualem reiterated that Syria was not linked to the February 14 assassination of Hariri.

In an interim report last month, Mehlis said he had evidence of Syrian and Lebanese officials' involvement in Hariri's murder in a truck bombing that also killed 22 others.

Syria denies any role in the killing.

Lebanese sources had said the six included Assad's brother-in-law Major General Assef Shawkat, head of military intelligence.

The other five according to the sources were:

Major General Bahjat Suleiman, former head of the internal security branch at the general intelligence department; Lieutenant General Rustom Ghazali, former Syrian intelligence chief in Lebanon; Lieutenant General Thafer Youssef; Lieutenant General Abdul-Karim Abbas; and another officer, Jamea Jamea.

Jamea was an aide of Ghazali while both Youssef and Abbas were receiving training at a military academy in Beirut at the time of the assassination. Abbas is an officer in the military security body headed by Shawkat. The Lebanese sources said Youssef was believed to be a communications officer.

Lebanon has already charged four pro-Syrian security generals in connection with the assassination on Mehlis's recommendation.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-11-25T173758Z_01_SIB558561_RTRUKOC_0_US-SYRIA-UN.XML

Petronas

11-26-2005, 12:51 AM

Air-Dropped US Paratroops Clash with Camel-Riding Syrian Troops, 15 Casualties
Beirut, Updated 25 Nov 05, 11:30

The US army has staged a paratroop landing in Syria's Boukamal district close to the Iraqi border and ran into heavy gun battles with Syrian troops on camelback that left 15 casualties on both sides, An Nahar reported on Friday. It quoted Ammar Kirabi, spokesman for the Arab Human Rights Organization in Damascus, as saying warplanes dropped US paratroopers south of the Boukamal town on the Syrian-Iraqi border at dawn Thursday.

"The population and the Hajjanah (camel riders) troops of the Syrian army engaged the American parachutists in firearms clashes in which 12 Americans and three Syrians were either killed or wounded," Kirabi was quoted as saying. His statement said the US air force intervened to pull out the American casualties, "which resulted in the total destruction of the scene of the clashes." An Nahar quoted Kirabi as saying in an exclusive interview that the scene of the fighting was a spot south of the Boukamal township known as the Hiryeh and than "some of the people called to tell what was happening." The 'Syria News' website, however, quoted an unnamed senior security official as denying kirabi's statement altogether.

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&96188001731D0C28C22570C40033F919

Petronas

11-26-2005, 12:09 PM

American White Supremacist David Duke Addressing Damacus Demonstration in Support of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad: My Country Is Also Occupied by the Zionists
11/24/2005

Following are excerpts from a speech by American white supremacist David Duke, aired on Syrian TV on November 24, 2005.

David Duke: I come from the peace-loving people in America to the peace-loving people of Syria.
Crowd cheers.
Interpreter: If you please, no shouting.
Interpreter:I have come from the peace-loving American people to the peace-loving Syrian people.
David Duke: I come from the peace-loving people of America to your great peace-loving president of Syria.
Interpreter: I have come from the peace-loving American people to your peace-loving Syrian president.
Crowd: Our soul and our blood we will sacrifice for you, oh Bashar.
Our soul and our blood we will sacrifice for you, oh Bashar.
Our soul and our blood we will sacrifice for you, oh Bashar.
David Duke: It is only in America and around the world, it is only the Zionists who want war rather than peace.
Interpreter: All over the world... In America, and all over the world, it is only the Zionists who want war instead of peace.
David Duke: It hurts my heart to tell you that part of my country is occupied by Zionists, just as part of your country, the Golan Heights, is occupied by Zionists.
Interpreter: It saddens me and it hurts my heart to tell you that parts of my country are occupied, just as parts of your country, namely the occupied Golan, are occupied by the Zionists.
David Duke: The Zionists occupy must of the American media and now control much of American government.
Interpreter: The Zionists control most of the media outlets, and they also control the American government.
David Duke: It is not just the West Bank of Palestine, it is not just the Golan Heights that are occupied by the Zionists, but Washington DC, and New York, and London, and many other capitals in the world.
Interpreter: It is not just the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights that are occupied by the Zionists. Washington DC, New York, London, and other cities and capitals around the world are occupied by the Zionists.
David Duke: Your fight for freedom is the same as our fight for freedom.
Interpreter: Just as the Europeans are fighting for freedom, the Arabs are fighting for freedom.
David Duke: I bring you a message from many Americans, from many people in Britain, and around the Western world. We say in unison: No war for Israel.
Interpreter: I have brought you a message from most of the Western world, from America, from Britain. The message is: No to war, no to Israel.
Duke: No war for Israel!
Crowd chants along with David Duke
David Duke: No war for Israel, no war for Israel, no war for Israel, no war for Israel!
Interpreter: No to a war for the sake of Israel... No to a war for the sake of Israel... No to a war for the sake of Israel...

http://memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=938

Petronas

12-05-2005, 01:16 AM

Syria forces tackle 'terrorists'
4 December 2005, 21:54 GMT

At least five people have been injured in clashes between Syria's security forces and a "terrorist group", the official Sana news agency says. The clashes came after security forces followed a group intending to commit terrorist acts in the northern city of Aleppo, the agency said. Two "terrorists", two civilians and a security officer were injured and taken to hospital, Sana said. It also said two militants were killed in an unreported clash last week. That also took place in Aleppo, but was not reported at the time because of a continuing security operation, Sana said.

Sunday's incident occurred on the road leading to the airport in Aleppo, about 355km (220 miles) north of Damascus, residents told the Associated Press by telephone. Earlier reports suggesting that the gunmen were killed appear to have been incorrect.

A reporter for the Arabic TV station al-Jazeera in Aleppo said he had been told that security forces stopped a stolen car, whereupon the occupants opened fire on them. The car later caught fire as it was being towed away, he said. The official reports did not specify which militant group was involved. However the al-Jazeera reporter said the authorities had told him they were members of Jund al-Sham, a militant Islamist group Syria says is behind several recent clashes.

There have been a number of violent incidents this year in which either Syrian forces or militants have died. Syrian troops killed five Islamic militants in clashes in September in the central province of Hama, state media said. In April, two alleged militants, a policeman and a passer-by were killed in an explosion, followed by a gunfight, in the capital, Damascus. In May, the authorities launched a crackdown on Islamists with suspected ties to the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement, making dozens of arrests, according to human rights activists. More were arrested in October.

Syria blames Jund al-Sham for some of the incidents. Jund al-Sham means Soldiers of Syria and was reportedly formed in Afghanistan by Syrian, Palestinian and Jordanian militants with links to al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4497630.stm

Petronas

12-08-2005, 12:19 PM

Syria (Country threat level - 4): On 8 December 2005, local sources reported more clashes in northern Syria at a farm near the town of Maaret Naaman in Idib province, located approximately 200 mi/330 km north of Damascus. Eight members of a Sunni Muslim militant group were killed, including three alleged militants who blew themselves up. This was the latest in a string of reported incidents involving Islamic radicals clashing with Syrian authorities.

A day earlier, Syrian security forces reportedly found caches of arms and explosives in the northern province of Aleppo and in the suburbs of Damascus, and a laboratory for making explosives in the Aleppo province. The group involved in these activities has not been identified but Syrian authorities have attributed a number of clashes in recent months to the Jund al-Sham group, which Damascus labels as a terrorist organization, and have argued that the seized weapons came from Lebanon.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 12/8/2005

Petronas

12-14-2005, 11:50 PM

Asharq Al-Awsat: Syrian authorities arrest 12 members of terror organization
12/14/2005

A US official has told Asharq Al-Awsat that Damascus international airport remains one of the main points of entry for Arab insurgents on their way to Iraq. Syrian sources confirmed that Syrian authorities have arrested 12 members of a terrorist organization that targets US and European interests in the Middle East.

Syrian sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that among the detainees are two Iraqis, three Saudis, a Yemeni and two Kuwaitis, one of whom is a member of the Kuwaiti security forces. The source highlighted that the detainees were highly trained and were supported by a strong financial network in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries.

The Syrian source that spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat on condition of anonymity said that Syria allows all Arabs to enter due to the country's dependency on revenue gained from tourism. The source further highlighted that Arabs that enter the country are treated the same as Syrians and that it is not in the country's interest to change a policy that it has been following for 40 years.

The source referred to the increase in measures taken by the Syrian authorities on the Iraqi-Syrian border to curb those trying to infiltrate Iraq to carry out terrorist activities. It added that Syrian efforts have so far led to the arrest and deportation of 1325 people. This number includes 299 Jordanians, 86 Libyans, 163 Algerians, 155 Tunisians, 119 Yemenis, 60 Lebanese, 71 Sudanese, 263 Saudis, 35 Moroccans, 22 Egyptians, 8 Omanis, 5 Mauritanians, 3 Bahrainis, four UAE citizens, six Kuwaitis, nine Palestinians, one Somali, two Iraqis, two Turks, and two Pakistanis.

The source reported that approximately 4000 Syrians have unsuccessfully attempted to leave the country for Iraq that has led to their arrest and questioning. The source added that 764 fundamentalists are still held and that investigations have indicated that most are members of terrorist networks some of which intended to carry out terrorist attacks in France, Germany and the United States.

The US State Department confirmed to Asharq al-Awsat that this information has been received from Syrian authorities; however, it could not verify that arrests have been made.

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/051214/2005121408.html

Petronas

01-03-2006, 10:40 PM

Retired General Ali Duba, known as father of Syrian intelligence and loyal aide of Presidents Assad father and son has fled to London from Damascus
January 3, 2006, 10:04 PM (GMT+02:00)

This defection follows the blunt charges leveled against Bashar Assad by former Syrian vice president Khalam Haddam last Friday, and the UN inquiry commission’s demand that the Syrian president make himself available for questioning in the Hariri assassination.

http://www.debka.com/

NYer

01-25-2006, 01:23 PM

Mugniyah Alert - A Most- Wanted terrorist spotted in Syria (http://www.nysun.com/article/26427)

One of the American government's most wanted terrorists visited Syria late last week with Iran's President Ahmadinejad, according to a former Reagan administration national security official and Iran watchers on Capitol Hill.

The former official, Michael Ledeen, now an author and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, made the claim in an article published yesterday afternoon on the Web site of the conservative magazine National Review. Several American government officials refused to confirm that the Lebanese Hezbollah figure, Imad Mugniyah, was sighted at the meeting in Damascus last Thursday with Mr. Ahmadinejad and the Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad.

Petronas

01-29-2006, 01:19 PM

Iraq's WMD Secreted in Syria, Sada Says
January 26, 2006

The man who served as the no. 2 official in Saddam Hussein's air force says Iraq moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria before the war by loading the weapons into civilian aircraft in which the passenger seats were removed. The Iraqi general, Georges Sada, makes the charges in a new book, "Saddam's Secrets," released this week. He detailed the transfers in an interview yesterday with The New York Sun.

"There are weapons of mass destruction gone out from Iraq to Syria, and they must be found and returned to safe hands," Mr. Sada said. "I am confident they were taken over." Mr. Sada's comments come just more than a month after Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Moshe Yaalon, told the Sun that Saddam "transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria."

Democrats have made the absence of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq a theme in their criticism of the Bush administration's decision to go to war in 2003. And President Bush himself has conceded much of the point; in a televised prime-time address to Americans last month, he said, "It is true that many nations believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. But much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong." Said Mr. Bush, "We did not find those weapons."

The discovery of the weapons in Syria could alter the American political debate on the Iraq war. And even the accusations that they are there could step up international pressure on the government in Damascus. That government, led by Bashar Assad, is already facing a U.N. investigation over its alleged role in the assassination of a former prime minister of Lebanon. The Bush administration has criticized Syria for its support of terrorism and its failure to cooperate with the U.N. investigation.

The State Department recently granted visas for self-proclaimed opponents of Mr. Assad to attend a "Syrian National Council" meeting in Washington scheduled for this weekend, even though the attendees include communists, Baathists, and members of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group to the exclusion of other, more mainstream groups.

Mr. Sada, 65, told the Sun that the pilots of the two airliners that transported the weapons of mass destruction to Syria from Iraq approached him in the middle of 2004, after Saddam was captured by American troops. "I know them very well. They are very good friends of mine. We trust each other. We are friends as pilots," Mr. Sada said of the two pilots. He declined to disclose their names, saying they are concerned for their safety. But he said they are now employed by other airlines outside Iraq.

The pilots told Mr. Sada that two Iraqi Airways Boeings were converted to cargo planes by removing the seats, Mr. Sada said. Then Special Republican Guard brigades loaded materials onto the planes, he said, including "yellow barrels with skull and crossbones on each barrel." The pilots said there was also a ground convoy of trucks. The flights - 56 in total, Mr. Sada said - attracted little notice because they were thought to be civilian flights providing relief from Iraq to Syria, which had suffered a flood after a dam collapse in June of 2002.

"Saddam realized, this time, the Americans are coming," Mr. Sada said. "They handed over the weapons of mass destruction to the Syrians." Mr. Sada said that the Iraqi official responsible for transferring the weapons was a cousin of Saddam Hussein named Ali Hussein al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali." The Syrian official responsible for receiving them was a cousin of Bashar Assad who is known variously as General Abu Ali, Abu Himma, or Zulhimawe.

Short of discovering the weapons in Syria, those seeking to validate Mr. Sada's claim independently will face difficulty. His book contains a foreword by a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, David Eberly, who was a prisoner of war in Iraq during the first Gulf War and who vouches for Mr. Sada, who once held him captive, as "an honest and honorable man."

In his visit to the Sun yesterday, Mr. Sada was accompanied by Terry Law, the president of a Tulsa, Oklahoma based Christian humanitarian organization called World Compassion. Mr. Law said he has known Mr. Sada since 2002, lived in his house in Iraq and had Mr. Sada as a guest in his home in America. "Do I believe this man? Yes," Mr. Law said. "It's been solid down the line and everything checked out." Said Mr. Law, "This is not a publicity hound. This is a man who wants peace putting his family on the line."

Mr. Sada acknowledged that the disclosures about transfers of weapons of mass destruction are "a very delicate issue." He said he was afraid for his family. "I am sure the terrorists will not like it. The Saddamists will not like it," he said. He thanked the American troops. "They liberated the country and the nation. It is a liberation force. They did a great job," he said. "We have been freed." He said he had not shared his story until now with any American officials. "I kept everything secret in my heart," he said. But he is scheduled to meet next week in Washington with Senators Sessions and Inhofe, Republicans of, respectively, Alabama and Oklahoma. Both are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The book also says that on the eve of the first Gulf War, Saddam was planning to use his air force to launch a chemical weapons attack on Israel. When, during an interview with the Sun in April 2004, Vice President Cheney was asked whether he thought that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction had been moved to Syria, Mr. Cheney replied only that he had seen such reports.

An article in the Fall 2005 Middle East Quarterly reports that in an appearance on Israel's Channel 2 on December 23, 2002, Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, stated, "Chemical and biological weapons which Saddam is endeavoring to conceal have been moved from Iraq to Syria." The allegation was denied by the Syrian government at the time as "completely untrue," and it attracted scant American press attention, coming as it did on the eve of the Christmas holiday. The Syrian ruling party and Saddam Hussein had in common the ideology of Baathism, a mixture of Nazism and Marxism.

Syria is one of only eight countries that has not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty that obligates nations not to stockpile or use chemical weapons. Syria's chemical warfare program, apart from any weapons that may have been received from Iraq, has long been the source of concern to America, Israel, and Lebanon. In March 2004, the director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, saying, "Damascus has an active CW development and testing program that relies on foreign suppliers for key controlled chemicals suitable for producing CW."

The CIA's Iraq Survey Group acknowledged in its September 30, 2004, "Comprehensive Report," "we cannot express a firm view on the possibility that WMD elements were relocated out of Iraq prior to the war. Reports of such actions exist, but we have not yet been able to investigate this possibility thoroughly."

Mr. Sada is an unusual figure for an Iraqi general as he is a Christian and was not a member of the Baath Party. He now directs the Iraq operations of the Christian humanitarian organization, World Compassion.

http://www.nysun.com/article/26514

Petronas

02-05-2006, 05:12 PM

Embassies burn in cartoon protest
Saturday, 4 February 2006, 23:27 GMT

Syrians have set fire to the Norwegian and Danish embassies in Damascus in protest at the publication of newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Protesters scaled the Danish site amid chants of "God is great", before moving on to attack the Norwegian mission. Denmark and Norway condemned Syria for failing its international obligations and urged their citizens to leave.

The cartoons have sparked Muslim outrage across the world, following their publication in a Danish paper. One depicts Muhammad as a terrorist. Any images of the Prophet are banned under Islamic tradition. However, several European papers reprinted the cartoons, citing free speech. The publications have prompted diplomatic sanctions, boycotts and death threats in some Arab nations. ...

Syrians have been staging sit-ins outside the Danish embassy since the row intensified earlier this week, when Damascus recalled its ambassador. On Saturday, hundreds hurled stones and stormed the Danish site, before moving to the Norwegian embassy. "With our blood and souls we defend you, O Prophet of God," they chanted outside the Danish building, which also houses the Swedish and Chilean missions. Some removed the Danish flag and replaced it with another reading: "There is no god but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God." The embassy was closed, and no diplomats were reported to have been injured in either attack.

Outside the Norwegian embassy, police fired tear gas to try to disperse the protesters, but some broke in and set it ablaze. Demonstrators also tried to storm the French mission, but were stopped. ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4681294.stm

NYer

02-06-2006, 07:55 AM

Iraq's WMD Secreted in Syria, Sada Says
January 26, 2006

House reopens issue of Iraqi WMD (http://www.nysun.com/article/27000)

Nearly a year and a half after a final report from American weapons inspectors concluded they could not uncover evidence of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has reopened the question, launching an inquiry and asking the director of national intelligence to re-examine the issue.

NYer

03-10-2006, 06:48 AM

Feds Order US Banks To Sever Syria Ties. (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/03/09/national/w152022S14.DTL)

Acting to crack down on terrorist financing, the Treasury Department on Thursday ordered all commercial banks in the United States to end their relationships with two Syrian banks.

The order covers the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria and its subsidiary, the Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank.

The department said that all U.S. banks must close any accounts they have with the two banks.

"Today's action is aimed at protecting our financial system against abuse by this arm of a state-sponsor of terrorism," said Stuart Levy, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

"The Commercial Bank of Syria has been used by terrorists to move their money and it continues to afford direct opportunities for the Syrian government to facilitate international terrorist activity and money laundering," Levy said.

Petronas

03-11-2006, 12:20 AM

Syria (Country threat level - 4): On 9 March 2006, dozens of human rights activists, mainly from the Democratic National Rally coalition of five banned parties, reportedly demonstrated outside the main courthouse in Damascus against Syria's emergency laws, which permit the government to act in many areas in the name of security. Meanwhile, a large number of counter-demonstrators, carrying Syrian flags and portraits of President Bashar al-Assad, disrupted the opposition protest against the Syrian government. Several of the rights activists were reportedly "attacked, beaten and accused of treason and of conniving with the United States."

Similar incidents occurred in March 2005 when a protest took place against the emergency laws, which have been in force since 1963.

http://www.airsecurity.com/hotspots/HotSpots.asp

Jake

03-17-2006, 10:01 PM

House reopens issue of Iraqi WMD (http://www.nysun.com/article/27000)

Nearly a year and a half after a final report from American weapons inspectors concluded they could not uncover evidence of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has reopened the question, launching an inquiry and asking the director of national intelligence to re-examine the issue.

Interesting...

keith

06-04-2006, 12:45 PM

Five die as Syria thwarts attack

Four gunmen and a security guard have been killed in clashes between suspected militants and security forces in the Syrian capital, Damascus.
Officials said a "terrorist" attack on a building near the offices of Syrian state TV and radio had been halted.

Four militants were also arrested and were being interrogated. It was not clear why the building was a target.

Several international hotels, government buildings and the city university are located in the area.

"The security force dealt effectively with the group as shown from the number of casualties among its members," Fayez al-Sayegh, head of Syrian radio and television, told Reuters news agency.

Two years ago, gunmen clashed with security forces in the same location, close to Umayyad Square, after they again appeared to be targeting an empty building.

Syrian forces have clashed with Islamic militants a number of times in recent months, but official statements regarding Friday's incident have so far not made any references to Islamist groups.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5040558.stm

Petronas

07-15-2006, 08:45 PM

MIDDLE EAST: SYRIA DENIES REPORTS OF ISRAELI ATTACKS
Jul-15-06 16:19

Syria has denied reports that Israel on Saturday staged attacks on its territory. A Syrian information official told Reuters that "no Syrian installation, military or civilian, has been targeted in any part of the country." The denial followed reports by the Qatar-based satellite TV station al-Jazeera that Israeli warplanes had struck Syrian territory.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.321393464&par=0

Petronas

08-04-2006, 11:58 PM

Having such friends should be no source of pride for Europe.

Syria Will switch from Dollar to Euro
Tuesday, 11 July, 2006 @ 8:47 PM

Syria, accused by the U.S. of supporting terrorism, plans to end its currency peg to the dollar by December to reflect closer trade ties with Europe, central bank Governor Adib Mayaleh said. ...

http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2006/07/post_13.php

NYer

08-19-2006, 06:18 PM

I would think an ophthalmologist would be less myopic. (http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/007844.php)

One might expect the man who went into hiding after the Israeli Air Force buzzed his house after the Gilad Shalit kidnapping -- and didn't emerge for over a month -- would take care in tossing out accusations of insufficient masculinity. The accidental dictator apparently didn't think before berating other Arabs for a lack of testicular fortitude.

Petronas

09-12-2006, 04:12 PM

U.S. embassy attack foiled
Sep 12, 2006

Four men shouting Islamic slogans tried to blow up the U.S. embassy in Damascus on Tuesday but their car bomb failed to explode and Syrian security guards killed three of them in a shootout. No Americans were hurt. The United States, long at odds with Syria, voiced gratitude to Damascus for its swift response and suggested the two countries could turn a page in their troubled relationship.

"Syrian officials came to the aid of the Americans. The U.S. government is grateful for the assistance the Syrians provided in going after the attackers," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. "We are hoping they will become an ally and make the choice of fighting against terrorists." The United States lists Syria as a sponsor of terrorism.

The state news agency SANA said a Syrian guard was killed and two others were among 13 people wounded in the attack. Syrian state television said the attackers had tried but failed to detonate a car bomb. "I saw two men in plain clothes and armed with grenades and automatic weapons," said Ayman Abdel-Nour, a Syrian political commentator who was in the area. "They ran toward the compound shouting religious slogans while firing their automatic rifles."

Television footage of the scene showed a van packed with gas canisters and detonators taped to them, as well as bloodstains on the pavement and several damaged vehicles, including a white, bullet-riddled car that a truck was preparing to haul away.

The attack, one day after the fifth anniversary of al Qaeda's September 11 attacks on the United States, was the first such shooting and bombing assault on an embassy in Damascus. Interior Minister Bassam Abdel Majid said it was a "terrorist operation." U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it was too early to know who was behind the attack. She also praised Syrian actions and expressed condolences over the guard's death. "I do think that the Syrians reacted to this attack in a way that helped to secure our people, and we very much appreciate that," she told a news conference in Canada.

Syrian-U.S. relations have been tense for many years, mainly over Syria's role in Lebanon, the Middle East conflict and Iraq, as well as its support for militant groups in the region. A U.S. embassy statement said the Syrian government had pledged "full security cooperation" in meetings between U.S. diplomats and Syrian officials following the attack. The embassy confirmed there were no American casualties.

SANA said three assailants had been killed and a fourth wounded. Eleven bystanders were wounded, including an Iraqi couple and a senior Chinese diplomat. China's official Xinhua news agency said the diplomat was slightly wounded by shrapnel while he was standing on a garage within the Chinese embassy compound, near the U.S. embassy.

The Rawda district where the attack occurred is one of the most heavily guarded parts of the Syrian capital. It houses security installations and the homes of government officials. Hours later, the area remained sealed, with sharpshooters posted on rooftops and top security officials at the scene.

Security officials said the assailants' arsenal included rocket-propelled grenades. It was not known if they had fired them during the mid-morning firefight. Children at a school next to the embassy were rushed to safety after the violence.

Syria's secular Baathist government crushed an armed revolt led by the Muslim Brotherhood movement in the early 1980s. Syrian forces have clashed with Islamist militants several times in recent months, often during raids to arrest them. In June, four gunmen and a guard were killed when Syrian security forces said they had foiled an attack by Islamist militants near the premises of state-run television in Damascus.

The United States recalled its ambassador from Syria in February 2005, expressing outrage over the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister, Rafik al-Hariri, in Beirut, which Washington blames on Syria. Damascus denies involvement. The United States increased its criticism of Syria during Israel's 34-day war in July and August with Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas, who are supported by Syria and Iran. Syria, accused by Washington of helping insurgents in Iraq, backs Hizbollah and the Palestinian Hamas movement, but blames rising Islamist militancy on U.S. policy in the Middle East

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2424413

Petronas

11-26-2006, 11:53 PM

The NSC is clueless. The Muslim Brotherhood, the ideological cradle of Al Qaeda, is more dangerous than Assad's regime. If this 'coalition' ever came to power, the Muslim Brotherhood would eliminate its liberal and secular partners, just like the Communists eliminated their liberal partners in Eastern Europe in the years after WWII.

Syrian Opposition To Open Washington Office
October 20, 2006

A Syrian opposition coalition that includes the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood will open a Washington office in the coming months to lobby Congress, the press, and the Bush administration to help bring democracy to Damascus. The umbrella group, known as the National Salvation Front, already has the tacit approval of the National Security Council, whose officials met with some of the organization's unaffiliated and liberal representatives in August.

On November 7, Election Day for Americans, the Front will work out funding details for the new Washington office at a meeting in Brussels, Belgium. One member of its 11-member general secretariat, Husam al-Dairi, said yesterday that the Front is soliciting bids from public relations and lobbying firms. The decision to set up new digs in America's capital is significant for both the White House and the National Salvation Front.

While America has worked with both Baathists and Islamists in Iraq to quell the sectarian violence, as a general rule the Bush administration has backed away from working with Islamist groups like the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Indeed, after Hamas won parliamentary elections in Gaza and the West Bank in January, the Treasury Department began pressuring Arab banks to cut ties with the Palestinian Authority, creating financial turmoil.

The National Salvation Front also has been wary of working with the Americans. But in the past two months, the leader of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, Ali Sadreddine Bayanouni, has taken a series of steps aimed at casting himself in a more moderate light. In August, Mr. Bayanouni told Al-Jazeera that he would be open to negotiations with Israel over the return of the Golan Heights. Mr. Dairi said yesterday that Mr. Bayanouni would even be open to meeting with American officials.

"Mr. Bayanouni would not have a problem meeting with Americans. If he is invited, he will not refuse the invitation. He has told this to me personally, and I believe him," Mr. Dairi said.

Over the last six months, the Bush administration has expressed cautious interest in a coalition that includes the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, in part because of its frustration with the Assad regime, which the Brotherhood opposes. In March, for example, the assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, David Welch, noted that the State Department was interested in what the Front had to say. Those remarks came a few weeks after a summit between a former Syrian vice president who defected in 2005, Abdul Halim Khaddam, and Mr. Bayanouni, who agreed to work together toward the ouster of the Assad regime.

On August 24, a delegation from the National Salvation Front met with officials from the National Security Council for what one participant described as an exchange of issues, one of which was a future office in the capital. "We did discuss a Washington office," a founder of the Front and scholar at the Brookings Institution, Ammar Abdulhamid, told The New York Sun. "There was no problem. We not detect any hostility to this idea." Mr. Dairi gave a similar assessment of the meeting."There will be a Washington office. This has been decided," he added.

Another Syrian opposition organization, the Reform Party of Syria, has criticized the Front's plans to open an office in Washington. In a statement released this week, the party said the new space would effectively be an office of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. (The Brotherhood was responsible for a wave of terrorist attacks in Syria in the early 1980s that led President Hafez al-Assad to send his brother to the city of Hama and level it, killing at least 20,000 people.)

Yesterday, Mr. Abdulhamid refuted this characterization of his organization. He pointed out that the Front also includes several Kurdish and liberal dissidents. A fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and an authority on the Levant, Tony Badran, told the Sun that it is significant that the Front is opening a Washington office. "Americans have not said they have met with members of the Front openly, but at the same time they have not said they would not meet with them," he said. "It would be a significant move if indeed if the Front got over its problems with having anything to do with America and are now reaching out to America."

http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=42005

keith

12-08-2006, 03:57 AM

Suicide Bomber Strikes on the Syria-Lebanon Border

By Sami Moubayed

On November 28, Syria was hit by another terrorist attack. The story, as usual, is murky and not much information is available on the background of the man who blew himself up on the Syrian-Lebanese border (Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, November 28). The terrorist attack comes shortly after gunmen were killed after carrying out a military operation at the Ummayad Square in downtown Damascus in June, and another operation was carried out by Islamist terrorists at the U.S. Embassy in the Syrian capital in September (Terrorism Focus, June 27). Many, however, still refuse to believe that such stories are authentic, claiming that they are fabrications by the Syrian government to score points with the U.S. administration and show the Bush administration that Syria and the United States have the same enemy.

Yet in the three latest operations, there were ordinary Syrian citizens who witnessed the events and, in some cases, suffered property losses as a result of the fighting. Others died in the violence, such as the night watchman at Syrian Television, and a schoolteacher and policeman who happened to be near a shootout between terrorists and Syrian security back in April 2004. In the latest attack, at 1:45 PM a taxi cab drove up from the Syrian side of the Syrian-Lebanese border, a region known as Jdeidet Yabous. A 28-year-old man came out, with his daughter and wife, and approached passport control. His real name was Omar Abdullah but had documents with an alias name of Omar Hamra. Officials at the border checkpoint say that he quarreled with passport control over his daughter's identification papers, which apparently were forged as well. When the policeman on duty tried to snatch the documents, Abdullah ran away. Security followed, and he began firing at them from a small firearm (New TV [Beirut], November 28). When he was cornered, he detonated an explosive belt, killing himself instantly and wounding two security officials as well.

Syrian TV and the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported the story shortly afterwards, saying that Abdullah was commander of the military unit of the Tawhid and Jihad group, a terrorist faction of Jund al-Sham, loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist who headed the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda until he was killed by a U.S. airstrike earlier this summer. It was the first time that SANA mentioned Tawhid and Jihad. The official story, which was confirmed by officials at the border and taxi drivers who stop at the checkpoint daily, adds that nine IDs were found on the man, four being fake Syrian papers and the rest being Lebanese. Each carried a different alias. A reliable and also independent Syrian news source, called Syria-News, which was allowed to visit the premises of the attack, reported that it was "possible to see the suicide bomber's body, which had splintered across 100 meters."

The Syrian regime might have exaggerated the Islamic threat in the past to justify its clampdown on political Islam, but it cannot fabricate terrorist attacks of this kind for a variety of reasons. First, it would be devastating for tourism in Syria. Coinciding with the attack was an announcement from the Ministry of Tourism that its budget for 2007 will be around $5.5 million, aimed at encouraging tourists to come to Syria. Second, the Syrian regime places security at the top of its political, military and economic agenda. It slowly and very delicately built a reputation of being a country that has visible red lines when it comes to security. It does not tolerate any person or group meddling with national security. Damascus believes that failure in this hard-line policy would encourage other hostile, armed or radical Islamist groups to plan similar attacks.

Therefore, as was likely the case with the Ummayad Square attack and that of the one at the U.S. Embassy, this latest terrorist incident was real. After the Ummayad incident, it was said that one moderate cleric, Abu al-Qaqa, who has a strong powerbase in Aleppo, unknowingly inspired his supporters into action (Terrorism Focus, June 27). According to this notion, he injected them with radical Islam but never instructed them to use it against Western interests or their fellow countrymen. Like the Ummayad square attack, this latest incident shows that Islamist terrorism remains a threat to Syria.

http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2370228

NYer

12-19-2006, 04:37 PM

Syrian regime preparing exile to Iran? (http://counterterrorismblog.org/2006/12/syrian_regime_preparing_exile.php)

Olivier Guitta -

n fact, according to the very well informed Kuwaiti daily Al Seyassah, the Syrian regime is quite worried of the results of the international tribunal investigating the death of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri. Allegedly, Syrian top leaders have already transferred $3 billion to Iran on accounts owned by Iranian central bank. These accounts cannot be touched in case of UN sanctions. It makes sense that only Iran as the main Damascus's ally would accept hosting the Syrian leadership.

Petronas

12-23-2006, 02:54 PM

The Front includes the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that for decades supported the violent overthrow of the Syrian government, but now says it seeks peaceful, democratic reform. Once they win democratic elections the Muslim Brotherhood will establish Shari'a law under a regime not too different from that of the Taliban. Ayman al-Zawahiri came from the Muslim Brotherhood. They will dominate any coalition with Abdul Halim Khaddam or any other secular politician, just like Hitler dominated his coalition partners when he first came to power. A Muslim Brotherhod led government in Syria will be much worse for the United States that one led by Assad.

Syria in Bush's Cross Hairs
Posted Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2006

The Bush Administration has been quietly nurturing individuals and parties opposed to the Syrian government in an effort to undermine the regime of President Bashar Assad. Parts of the scheme are outlined in a classified, two-page document that says that the U.S. already is "supporting regular meetings of internal and diaspora Syrian activists" in Europe. The document bluntly expresses the hope that "these meetings will facilitate a more coherent strategy and plan of actions for all anti-Assad activists."

The document says that Syria's legislative elections, scheduled for March 2007, "provide a potentially galvanizing issue for... critics of the Assad regime." To capitalize on that opportunity, the document proposes a secret "election monitoring" scheme, in which "internet accessible materials will be available for printing and dissemination by activists inside the country [Syria] and neighboring countries." The proposal also calls for surreptitiously giving money to at least one Syrian politician who, according to the document, intends to run in the election. The effort would also include "voter education campaigns" and public opinion polling, with the first poll "tentatively scheduled in early 2007."

American officials say the U.S. government has had extensive contacts with a range of anti-Assad groups in Washington, Europe and inside Syria. To give momemtum to that opposition, the U.S. is giving serious consideration to the election-monitoring scheme proposed in the document, according to several officials. The proposal has not yet been approved, in part because of questions over whether the Syrian elections will be delayed or even cancelled. But one U.S. official familiar with the proposal said: "You are forced to wonder whether we are now trying to destabilize the Syrian government."

Some critics in Congress and the Administration say that such a plan, meant to secretly influence a foreign government, should be legally deemed a "covert action," which by law would then require that the White House inform the intelligence committees on Capitol Hill. Some in Congress would undoubtedly raise objections to this secret use of publicly appropriated funds to promote democracy.

The proposal says part of the effort would be run through a foundation operated by Amar Abdulhamid, a Washington-based member of a Syrian umbrella opposition group known as the National Salvation Front (NSF). The Front includes the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that for decades supported the violent overthrow of the Syrian government, but now says it seeks peaceful, democratic reform. (In Syria, however, membership in the Brotherhood is still punishable by death.) Another member of the NSF is Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former high-ranking Syrian official and Assad family loyalist who recently went into exile after a political clash with the regime. Representatives of the National Salvation Front, including Abdulhamid, were accorded at least two meetings earlier this year at the White House, which described the sessions as exploratory. Since then, the National Salvation Front has said it intends to open an office in Washington in the near future. ...

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1571751,00.htm

NYer

12-26-2006, 06:28 AM

Walid Jumblatt: "Syria is annexed to Iran." (http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDMyNmExNmUxMzMwZjcyOTVmYzMwYTk1ZTI3YWEzNzQ=)

"I will talk about an Arab axis and a Persian axis. Amr Musa represents Egypt and the Arabs. The main Arab forces are today in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. We hope Algeria and Morocco will join us against Persia; that is, Syria and Iran. Syria is annexed to Iran. … The ruler of Damascus bet his destiny and sold his Arabism for the sake of his existence."

NYer

12-26-2006, 04:08 PM

The Great Cauldron Bubbles (http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDIyNzVlNTQ3MzYzNGZjZGExMzk0ODBhNzJhMjBiYTA=)

The Reform Party of Syria, the good guys in that sad corner of the world, reported a few minutes ago that a wave of arrests is going on in the country's major cities. It seems a large number of military officers have been rounded up, along with the usual civilian suspects. RPS stresses that the targets do not seem to be Islamists (read: Muslim Brotherhood).

It's apparently a serious matter since tanks and armored personnel carriers were deployed in Aleppo, Hama, Idlib and Deir el-Zour.

Petronas

04-03-2007, 06:00 PM

Syria's Relationship With Al Qaeda
Posted GMT 4-2-2007 15:23:51
By Farid Ghadry
Reform Party of Syria

The Lebanese government recently accused the Syrian regime of backing the Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist group Fatah al-Islam, which investigators have linked to the twin bus bombings in Beirut last month that killed three and significantly raised tensions in a country already on edge. This takes place of course, amidst the controversial decision by the US State Department to partake in multilateral talks that included high level Syrian and Iranian representatives in Baghdad, ostensibly for the purposes of reaching a regional consensus by Iraq's neighbors on how to best tackle the twin problems of Al Qaeda backed Sunni insurgency and the Iranian supported Shiia militias.

And so, we have come full circle.

The Lebanese security services tell us that Syrian Military Intelligence runs a Palestinian front group Fatah al Intifada which in turn spun off a supposedly independent wing nominally re-titled Fatah al-Islam, which hence became active in the Palestinian refugee camps located in the predominantly Sunni populated areas in northern Lebanon. Fatah al-Islam is nominally run by Shakir Absi, who in an interview with the Arab media last year claimed that he was a Jordanian of Palestinian decent. However, informed sources have indicated that Absi, while indeed of Palestinian decent, in fact grew up in the Yarmuk refugee camp in Syria and eventually enlisted in the Syrian Air Force. While Absi did spend three years in Syrian jail, he was suddenly released with a group of other Islamists, some of whom came to form the core of the national Jund al-Sham, a group that many in Syria deride as a convenient cut-out used by Syrian security to peddle the notion that the regime is really cracking down on extremists. Absi simply would not have been released so expeditiously if a deal had not been reached with Syrian security elements; the minority ruling elite does not fear the rise of Islamist extremism if they believe they have the ability to steer and channel those terrorists eager to wreck havoc towards external adversaries of the regime itself.

Absi has made no qualms in announcing his agenda's affiliation with Al Qaeda and his proximity to the jihadist network in Iraq in interviews granted to Arabic media. Absi has filled the ranks of his terror group of hardened jihadi fighters returning from Iraq; many of whom had fought with the now deceased Abu Musab Zarqawi. Absi also maintains close contact and a collaborative relationship with Asbat al-Ansar--another Al Qaeda affiliated group that trains and sends foreign fighters to Iraq via Syria. Asbat al Ansar happens to be active in the same refugee camps in northern Lebanon where Absi's group, Fatah al-Islam, just became operational.

Knowledgeable sources in Lebanon, Jordan, and in the US defense community have been warning for some time that the burgeoning terror network in the Levant is becoming a very real and direct threat to both the US and European homeland. Many indicators exist that the terror network that has been fermenting for the past two years in the Palestinian refugee camps in northern Lebanon overseen by Syrian Military Intelligence and the Al Qaeda in Iraq Abu-Ghadiyah network which operates from Damascus and northern Syria are in the advanced planning stages for spectacular external attacks against civilian targets in Europe and the U.S.

So, as the allegations and recriminations fly back and forth from the Lebanese and Syrian governments regarding the direct complicity of Assad's regime in actively promoting terror attacks on Lebanese soil, a much broader picture is emerging of how the Syrian regime intends to yield its significant buy-in for the use of a multitude of terror groups to achieve its strategic goals in the region. By allowing such Al Qaeda affiliated terror networks to mature to the level that they currently are, Assad and his top lieutenants are signaling that they have found a winning formula-- one that buys them some measure of plausible deniability because after all the Ba'athi regime in Damascus is ostensibly secular in nature-- one that could very well hit right back in the US homeland and Europe.

Fighting Al Qaeda entails confronting Syrian regime's complicity with moving forward Al Qaeda's operations in the Levant. If it is indeed the fact that Syria cannot control this monster of its creation anymore, then can anyone really count on Syria to confront Al Qaeda sometime in the near future, as regime officials are so quick to claim to Western news outlets? Conditions for bi-lateral talks with the US and Europe are predicated upon this very basic idea; and if the Assad regime cannot deliver in rolling back the terror Frankenstein that all this recent activity indicate has burgeoned into not only a regional but international formidable terror threat, then we must come to a resolute conclusion of the innate illogic of perusing further talks that could only further embolden Assad and Syrian Military Intelligence commanders to up the ante of the terror threat.

Further compounding the Syrian regime's complicity with the Al Qaeda in Iraq network, high level meetings were held in late February between Muhammad Nasif Khayr-Bayk and former high ranking Ba'athist under Saddam, Mazhar Kharbit and other ranking Generals once loyal to Saddam Hussein. The meeting was held to coordinate insurgent activity in Iraq in conjunction with Harith al-Dhari, the head of the Islamist Association of Muslim Scholars and spiritual leader of the Sunni insurgency in Anbar province. The Ba'athi connection is not far removed from Al Qaeda activities in another manner: many of the rank and file as well as senior commanders of Al Qaeda cells in Anbar and Baghdad are former Ba'athi special operation officers intensely loyal to Saddam.

This grim reality brings home the full scope of the folly of separating the task of confronting Al Qaeda's designs both in Iraq and globally and continued talks of rapprochement with Syria. Serious examination is required of the Syrian regime's complicity in facilitating Al Qaeda's growth and global reach, lest the US and European friends one day find themselves dealing with the terrible consequences of allowing the Syrians free reign to help unleash the Shakir Absi's of the world.

http://www.aina.org/news/20070402102351.htm

Petronas

04-03-2007, 06:02 PM

Damascus airport has become the hub for thousands of Hizballah, Hamas, Jihad Islami fighters heading out to Iranian training camps
April 2, 2007, 6:05 PM (GMT+02:00)

According to DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources, in the last several weeks, Damascus international airport main has become the main transport hub for a stream of Lebanese and Palestinian terrorists heading for Revolutionary Guards installations in Iran. Hence Israel military intelligence chief’s pessimistic briefing to the Israeli cabinet Sunday, April 1. Damascus airport is also the transit point for returning terrorists to gather and pick up their assignment for various Middle East countries, as well as Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Syrian military intelligence and Iranian RG officers have set up a joint depot at the Syrian airport for directing the incoming and outgoing traffic - much of it ferried by Syrian Airways.

A high-ranking Western intelligence source in the Middle East told DEBKAfile that the number of such terrorist-trainees commuting between Damascus and Tehran has grown to more than three times the volume of Muslim and al Qaeda fighters heading out from Syria into Iraq. This source calculates Iran is running a crash program to prepare an army of trained terrorist strength to retaliate for a potential US attack on its nuclear installations. That will be the signal for these men to ignite a regional war of terror across Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and out to Sinai and Egypt.

Four Iranian command centers have been set up at home, in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, to coordinate the movements of fighting men and the arms consignments that are being shipped through marine smuggling routes to their various destinations.

According to our intelligence and military sources, new training methods are employed for the new intake of terrorists. They are no longer being trained at special facilities provided for them at the camps run by the Al Quds Brigades, the RGs international branch. From the beginning of 2007, they have been integrated in regular RG training facilities and are taking basic training along with Iranian recruits in line with a revised Iranian military doctrine. The entire Middle East is deemed henceforth a single integrated line designed to defend the ayatollahs’ regime in Tehran in case of American attack. This line will be manned entirely by units which underwent training in the same combat tactics and operate the same weapons systems and communications.

Syria’s high command and military intelligence are pivotal to the construction, administration and control of this new fighting-terrorist machine. The personal say-so of president Bashar Assad would have been necessary for this project. Damascus airport facilities are a pivotal link in the mechanism wiring Tehran to the terrorist groups and transporting them from training centers to operating bases ready to fight for the Islamic Republic. Without Damascus’ aid, the operation would have taken much longer.

Israel’s AMAN chief, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin views this burgeoning war-cum-terror machine as a dangerous element that could tip the region over into a full-blown conflict without prior warning. No one outside Iran, even seasoned military intelligence observers, can know for certain when, why or for which location, some high-up in the wildly-radical Revolutionary Guards will decide to push the button to activate it.

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=4006

Petronas

07-18-2007, 12:29 PM

Fatah al-Islam linked to Bashar Assad's Brother in Law
Beirut, 18 Jul 07, 17:07

An alleged leader of the Fatah al-Islam terrorist network has testified to interrogators that the group is linked to the head of Syria's intelligence apparatus Maj. Gen. Asef Shawkat, the brother in law of President Bashar Assad. Ahmed Merie, a Lebanese citizen arrested late in May at a Beirut hotel, also testified to military examining magistrate Rashid Mezher that four members of Fatah al-Islam gunned down legislator Pierre Gemayel on Nov. 21 in east Beirut's suburb of Jdaideh, according to the daily al-Moustaqbal.

Another pan Arab daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat, published a similar report. The report said Merie testified to Mezher during interrogation that he was the "liaison officer" between Fatah al-Islam's leader Shaker Abssi and Shawkat. Shawkat, according to Merie's alleged testimony, provided Fatah al-Islam with a "highly qualified explosives expert who trained members of the group on bob making." Shawkat also provided the group with "significant support," the nature of which was not reported.

Merie was also quoted as telling Mezher that he worked out the explosives expert's safe exit from the Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon and back to Syria before the clashes broke out between fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese Army on May 20.

The newspaper report quoted unidentified judicial sources as saying Merie identified four members of the Fatah al-Islam network who carried out the Gemayel murder. The sources, however, refused to disclose names of the suspects.

Nevertheless, the newspaper said the so-called Majd el-Dine Abboud, who also goes by the code name of Abu Yezen, was one of the suspects in the Gemayel murder. He was killed in confrontations with the Lebanese Army. It couldn't be determined whether Abboud was a Syrian or Palestinian citizen, the report noted.

Merie and his brother, Mohammed, also testified in separate sessions that Fatah al-Islam had planned to carry out bomb and booby-trapped car attacks against several targets in Lebanon, including two Beirut hotels frequented by personnel of the United Nations Interim, Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in addition to some embassies and U.N. offices, the report added.

It said Merie testified to playing a role in smuggling Iraqi, Tunisian and Saudi "jihadists" to Lebanon via Syria. Such Jihadists included Fatah al-Islam Financial backer, a Saudi named Abdul Rahman al-Yahya, who goes by the code name of Abu Talha. Merie, according to the report, rented an apartment for Yahya in the northern town of Tripoli and "received from him lots of money used to finance members of the group and for the purchase of a highly sophisticated machine used to forge passports … which was confiscated later at one of the squad's apartments in Tripoli."

Merie, the report added, moved to the Akkar province after outbreak of clashes at Nahr al-Bared and stayed for a couple of days with a relative. He then moved to the eastern Bekaa valley before settling at the hotel in Beirut's district of Ashrafiyeh where he was busted by police and arrested. "He maintained contact throughout that period with Abssi and his gang," the report concluded.

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&1928E602F2D4AEE4C225731C004D856F

Alli

07-24-2007, 12:12 PM

Tell all Book claims Assad (Secular Assad Greatest Arab Supporter of Radical Islam, Author Says) is the "biggest Arab supporter of radical Islam". Might be a good read.

NYer

07-26-2007, 05:24 PM

Deadly Blast at Syrian Arms Depot (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6916941.stm)

The explosion took place early in the morning at Musalmiya, about 10km (6 miles) north of the city of Aleppo.

"One hospital I went to was filled with injured personnel," a witness told the Reuters news agency.

Officials say the blast was caused by high summer temperatures, up to 50C, which set off explosive materials.

It was "not the result of sabotage", they said.

Global warming?

Petronas

09-06-2007, 08:14 PM

Syria 'fires on Israel warplanes'
Thursday, 6 September 2007, 16:25 GMT 17:25 UK

Syria has said its air defences opened fire on Israeli warplanes after they violated its airspace in the north of the country. Syrian officials said the defences forced the jets to drop ammunition over deserted areas and turn back, according to the official news agency, Sana.

Israel's military said it would not comment on the reports. ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6981674.stm

Petronas

09-20-2007, 10:14 AM

Syria (Country threat level - 4): On 18 September 2007 the U.S. Department of State issued the following Travel Warning: "This Travel Warning alerts U.S. citizens to the ongoing safety and security concerns in Syria. Travelers are advised to thoroughly consider the risks before travel to Syria and to take adequate precautions to ensure their safety if traveling to Syria. This supersedes the Travel Warning issued on 13 November 2006.

"On 12 September 2006, the U.S. Embassy in Damascus was attacked by assailants using improvised explosives, gunfire, and two vehicles laden with explosives. This attack underscores the danger posed by the continued presence of terrorist groups in Syria. The Embassy is working with the Syrian authorities to address these threats and the security issues raised by the attack on the Embassy. While the authorities have taken measures since then to crack down on local extremists, self-contained groups with no links to external terrorist organizations will remain inherently difficult to detect and disrupt.

"U.S. citizens who remain in or travel to Syria are encouraged to register at the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, and to obtain updated information on travel and security in Syria. Americans in Syria should exercise caution and take prudent measures to maintain their security. These measures include being aware of their surroundings, avoiding crowds and demonstrations, keeping a low profile, varying times and routes for all required travel, and ensuring travel documents are current. "

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

makeshiftpatriot

10-02-2007, 05:43 PM

It was confirmed today that on 6 Sept, Israeli attack aircraft struck a facility inside Syria. The Israeli government is reporting that this facility was being used for a secret weapons program in connection with the North Korean nuclear program, while the Syrians are reporting that this was an unmanned warehouse with no casualties from the attack.

While the Syrians have not yet retaliated for this strike, unconfirmed reports say that the Syrian government may be working with Hizbullah on creating a retaliatory strike using guerrilla warfare tactics to create a war similar to last summers war with Lebanon.

Source: Christian Science Monitor, Fox News

makeshiftpatriot

10-03-2007, 07:21 PM

Seems that a proxy war may be brewing between Israel and Syria. I have an unconfirmed report that Syria is starting and backing a new terror organization, the Committees for the Liberation of the Golan. They are tasked with starting a guerrilla war inside Israel. The strategy is similar to the Israeli-Lebanon war of last year.

Something to watch for in the days to come. I will post a link if this new information can be confirmed.

makeshiftpatriot

10-03-2007, 07:37 PM

Doing some additional research I found this group first mentioned back in Feb. by YNet, an Israeli based news site. Here is a link to the article.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3364826,00.html

makeshiftpatriot

10-07-2007, 05:53 PM

It appears that a new American technology was used on the Sept strike inside Syria. This new technology works by allowing operators in the theater taking over foreign radar and communication facilities, becoming Sys Ops and projecting doctored images on radar screens.

Israel may have tricked Syria radars to conceal raid

Israeli fighter planes reportedly may have managed to escape detection by Syrian radars during their September 6 raid by forcing the detection system to make a mistake.

US defense and industry officials believe Israeli F-15 and F-16 fighter jets may have been equipped with the US-developed "Suter" airborne network attack system, Aviation Week magazine said on its website.

The technology allows users to invade communications networks, see what enemy sensors see and even take over as systems administrator to manipulate sensors into positions to hide an approaching aircraft, the report said.

On Tuesday, Israeli military radio confirmed for the first time that a raid into Syria had taken place.

US and British media have reported that Israeli planes struck a suspected nuclear site, in which North Korean specialists may have been involved.

Source: AFP

Petronas

10-21-2007, 05:49 PM

Israeli ‘mole’ photographed Syrian N-facility
Sunday, October 21, 2007

Israel had obtained detailed pictures of a Syrian complex from an apparent mole, which supported an Israeli belief the facility was nuclear and led to an air strike on it last month, ABC News reported on Friday. ABC, citing a senior US official, said the person had provided several pictures of the complex from the ground, and Israel showed the images to the CIA. The US spy agency helped pinpoint “drop points” to assist in potential targeting, ABC said. Israel urged the United States to destroy the complex, but Washington hesitated because no fissionable material was found that would prove the site was nuclear, ABC said. The network quoted the official as saying the facility was of North Korean design and that Syria must have had “human” help from North Korea. The New York Times reported on Sunday that the targeted site was modelled on a facility North Korea used for stockpiling atomic bomb fuel. Syria has one declared, small research nuclear reactor under safeguard of the IAEA and has denied hiding any nuclear activity. The US had begun to consider ways to destroy the complex, such as a Special Forces raid using helicopters, ABC said. But it said the White House sent word the United States would not carry out a raid and urged Israel not to do it either.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\10\21\story_21-10-2007_pg4_10

American_Jihad

10-26-2007, 01:02 AM

Syria's Mysterious Cleanup
October 25, 2007

There is more news today on the mysterious goings-on at what is thought to be the site in Syria hit last month by a surprise Israeli airstrike. Earlier this week, David Albright, a former weapons inspector for the United Nations who heads the Institute for Science and International Security, identified on prebombing satellite images what may have been Israel's target: an apparent secret Syrian nuclear reactor under construction.

Now, with DigitalGlobe satellite images taken Wednesday, Albright and his colleagues at the Washington think tank are reporting that Syria has removed whatever was left at the site and has bulldozed the ground. It is not clear how close to completion Syria was at its secret nuclear reactor site—if it was that. Syria has issued denials, and the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is doing its own analysis of satellite imagery and other evidence.

"Dismantling and removing the building at such a rapid pace dramatically complicates any inspection of the facilities and suggests that Syria may be trying to hide what was there," says the new report.

The ISIS report raises the question of whether Syria has violated its obligations under agreements with the IAEA, which maintains so-called safeguards on Syria's one declared small research reactor. Syria has denied building a nuclear reactor.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/news-desk/2007/10/25/syrias-mysterious-cleanup.html

Petronas

12-03-2007, 12:42 AM

Israelis hit Syrian ‘nuclear bomb plant’
December 2, 2007

ISRAEL’S top-secret air raid on Syria in September destroyed a bomb factory assembling warheads fuelled by North Korean plutonium, a leading Israeli nuclear expert has told The Sunday Times.

Professor Uzi Even of Tel Aviv University was one of the founders of the Israeli nuclear reactor at Dimona, the source of the Jewish state’s undeclared nuclear arsenal. “I suspect that it was a plant for processing plutonium, namely, a factory for assembling the bomb,” he said. “I think the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] transferred to Syria weapons-grade plutonium in raw form, that is nuggets of easily transported metal in protective cans. I think the shaping and casting of the plutonium was supposed to be in Syria.”

All governments concerned - even the regime in Damascus - have tried to maintain complete secrecy about the raid. They apparently fear that forcing a confrontation on the issue could spark a war between Israel and Syria, end the Middle East peace talks and wreck America’s extremely complex negotiations to disarm North Korea of its nuclear weapons.

The political stakes could hardly be higher. Plutonium is the element which fuelled the American atomic bomb that destroyed the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Critics in the United States say proof that North Korea supplied such nuclear weapons material to Syria, a state technically at war with Israel, would shatter congressional confidence in the Bush administration’s diplomatic policy.

From beneath the veil of military censorship, western commentators have formed a consensus that the target was a nuclear reactor under construction. But Even said that purely from scientific observation, he had reached a different conclusion - that it was a nuclear bomb factory, posing a more immediate danger to Israel. He said that satellite photos of the site, taken before the Israeli strike on September 6, showed no sign of the cooling towers and chimneys characteristic of nuclear reactors.

Syria’s haste after the attack to bury the site under tons of soil suggested that hundreds of square yards were contaminated and there were fears of radiation, the professor added. Since then the Syrians have sealed up the location, levelled the site and diverted curious journalists to a place that had not been attacked by Israel.

The professor’s theory fits with authoritative technical evidence about North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme. The North Koreans are able to produce weapons-grade plutonium, which is electro-refined, alloyed and cast into shapes ready to be machined to fit into a warhead, according to a team of distinguished American nuclear weapons scientists who visited the country’s laboratories. One of those scientists, Siegfried Hecker, was allowed to hold a sample and was told that it was “good bomb grade plutonium”, because it had a very low content of plutonium 240, the isotope which reduces the overall quality of the material.

Assembly of a Nagasaki-type bomb involves mating a plutonium core with a uranium wrap and inserting a small quantity of polonium and beryllium to initiate the chain reaction.

“Plutonium is highly dangerous material,” explained the Israeli professor. “It is easily oxidised in air unless protective measures are taken. The oxide is easily dispersed as dust in air when machining plutonium to create the ‘pit’ [a hollow sphere in many nuclear weapons] and thus can be inhaled, causing a fatality in minute quantities. Plutonium pellets are handled and machined exclusively in a large array of ‘glove boxes’, to protect the technicians and their environment. That is why you need a relatively large containment building and cannot assemble a nuclear weapon in your garage - unless you are suicidal of course.”

The debris from a destructive raid on a weapons-building facility could therefore contain toxic radioactive waste. But the main danger for Syria would be the telltale exposure of the elements to surveillance and detection by America. This would explain the cover-up at the site.

North Korea, for its part, has more than enough plutonium to sell some of its stock to Syria. The same team of visiting US scientists estimated that by late 2006 the nation had made 40-50kg (88-100lb) of the material. Between six and eight kilograms are needed for a weapon.

For the US and its allies the Syrian connection raises the deeply worrying possibility that North Korea has succeeded in building what the US scientists called “a sophisticated design with smaller dimensions and mass so as to fit onto a . . . medium-range missile”.

That puzzle was complicated when North Korea announced that it had tested its first nuclear bomb on October 9 last year. The yield of the blast was small - less than a 20th of the Nagasaki bomb - suggesting to some scientists that the device was sophisticated and small while others believed the North Koreans had simply not made a very good bomb.

Professor Even believes the North Koreans have not yet perfected small warheads. “The mechanical dimensioning at this stage is extremely demanding (less than 0.01mm). So is the casting of the explosives around the plutonium core and the initiation of the implosion,” he said.

The question is under urgent study by nations who might one day be targets of a North Korean device sold to Syria or Iran. Iran is known to have financed missile and weapons deals between North Korea and Syria, causing concern to Israel and the US. One day after the Israeli attack, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, sent his nephew with a personal letter to Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian leader.

The professor’s theory of a clear and present danger that Damascus would get the bomb may be the only credible explanation why Israel carried out a military strike against Syria and risked an all-out conflict.

Indeed on September 6 Israel was ready for war with Syria. Israeli sources said its military chiefs assumed Syria would launch a retaliatory attack, but no reprisal came.

Meanwhile, President Bush has authorised his chief negotiator, Christopher Hill, to go on talking to North Korea in the search for a peaceful solution. Hill will visit Pyongyang this week to pursue negotiations after international technicians got to work on disabling the reactor at Yongbyon, the source of North Korea’s plutonium. The North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il is supposed to make a full declaration of his nuclear programmes by December 31. The US says that must include information on his weapons deals with Syria and Iran.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2983719.ece