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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Assad’s brother-in-law Assef Shawkat buried, report

2012-05-23

According to anti-Syrian regime activists, President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law Assef Shawkat who was Syria’s deputy defense minister was buried on Wednesday in his hometown, which they identified as Madhale, near the Mediterranean coastal city of Tartous. Several activists quoted by Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television said black flags were flying in Madhale in mourning. On their Syrian Revolution Facebook page, online anti-regime activists wrote that: “Assef Shawkat is being buried right now in his home town Madhale God curse him. He was poisoned.” They said Shawkat’s body was transported to a hospital near his hometown that was emptied of patients on Tuesday evening. Speculation over Shawkat’s fate first emerged on May 20 when Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya television broadcast an amateur video showing a man claiming responsibility on behalf of a rebel group for killing six regime stalwarts. They included Shawkat, Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar, Defence Minister Daoud Rajha, national security chief Hisham Bakhtiar and Hassan Turkmeni, assistant to the vice president. Turkmeni appeared on state television this week to dismiss the reports, while Shaar denied them in a telephone interview, accusing Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya of “lies and slander.” But Shawkat has not made any public appearance or personally denied the reports, though he rarely makes public statements. Abdul Halim Khaddam , the former vice president of Syria confirmed that Assef Shawkat was been killed on 19 May, 2012

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syria jugs Hareth al-Dhari's kid

2011-05-27

[Iran Press TV] Syrian authorities have placed in durance vile the son of a senior Sunni holy man and Iraqi tribal leader on charges of involvement in terrorist activities in Iraq and Syria and having ties with the Israeli regime. Informed sources said on Thursday that Muthanna al-Dhari, son of the Chairman for the Association of Mohammedan Scholars Sheikh Harith Sulayman al-Dhari, has been placed in durance vile for terror activities and links to the Tel Aviv regime. Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... charged al-Dhari with involvement in provocative campaigns as well as cooperation with Israeli agents in their terrorist attacks. The suspect, who has set up a base in Jordan, had reportedly met with a representative of exiled former Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam in Jordan and traveled to Syria a day later. Muthanna, whose father leads Iraqi Sunni Mohammedan tribe of 'Zoba', was also accused of contacts with beturbanned goon Salafi figures before his arrest. Israeli media outlets have repeatedly reported Muthanna al-Dhari's meetings with Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv while Israeli Channel 2 has broadcast a number of interviews with Khaddam.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Sayyed: Syrian Judiciary Has Issued 33 Arrest Warrants in Absentia in False Witnesses Case

2010-10-05

[An Nahar] Former head of General Security Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed has been informed by his lawyer in Syria that "the first investigating judge in Damascus has issued 33 arrest warrants in absentia in the false witnesses case for judges, officers, politicians, journalists and individuals of Lebanese, Arab and foreign nationalities," Sayyed's press office announced Sunday. Detlev Mehlis, former head of the U.N. commission investigating ex-PM Rafik Hariri's murder, and his aide Gerhard Lehmann are among the 33 people named by the Syrian warrants, Sayyed's press office noted. Leb's state-run National News Agency reported that the individuals whom arrest warrants have been issued for are: MP Marwan Hamade, ex-minister Charles Rizk; ex-MPs Bassem Sabaa and Elias Atallah; State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza; Judges Elias Eid and Saqr Saqr; Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi; Head of ISF's Intelligence Bureau Col. Wissam al-Hasan; Premier Saad Hariri's advisor Hani Hammoud; Col. Hussam al-Tannoukhi; Lt. Col. Samir Shehadeh; ambassador Johnny Abdou; former Syrian vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam; retired Col. Mohammed Farshoukh; Adnan al-Baba; Khaled Hammoud; journalists Hasan Sabra, Fares Khashan, Nuhad al-Ghaderi (Syrian), Abdul Salam Moussa, Ayman Sharrouf, Omar Harqous, Ahmed Jarallah (Kuwaiti), Zahra Badran, Nadim al-Munla, Hamid al-Gheriafi; former head of the U.N. commission investigating ex-PM Rafik Hariri's murder, Detlev Mehlis, and his aide Gerhard Lehmann; and witnesses Ibrahim Michel Jarjoura, Akram Shakib Murad, Mohammed Zuheir Siddiq and Abdul Baset Bani Audeh. On September 25, the Lebanese daily Ad Diyar reported that the Syrian judiciary was waiting for the appropriate time to send the warrants to its Lebanese counterpart. "If the Lebanese judiciary does not comply with the Syrian demand, then Syria will take the appropriate measures to have Interpol issue arrest warrants for those individuals," the newspaper added. Sayyed has accused international powers of standing behind claims that Hizbullah murdered ex-PM Rafik Hariri. "The game is bigger than (Premier) Saad Hariri. It is related to international schemes, starting from the new Middle East, which used Rafik Hariri's blood to strike Syria," Sayyed said in remarks published Sunday by the Syrian daily al-Watan. "But today, after failure of the plot, they moved to accuse the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... seeking a new scheme based on creating a Sunni-Shiite strife to divert attention from the struggle against the Israeli enemy and transfer this conflict to one between Arabs and Mohammedans themselves instead of having Israel as their common enemy. " Sayyed said "some" surrounding Hariri from Leb and "a large portion" from outside the country convinced the prime minister that Syria and its allies in Leb are the ones who killed his father. "This is why he (Hariri) allowed, contributed to, turned a blind eye and supported a political, media, judicial and security structure of his advisers who chose Syrian false witnesses picked from Lebanese prisons, and provided them with temptations, particularly Zuhair Siddiq, Hussam Hussam and others, to accuse Syria and the four Lebanese officers (Sayyed one of them)," said the former detainee who was jailed for nearly four years in Leb for alleged involvement in Hariri's killing. "But soon after our release and the fall of the hypothesis that Syria is behind the killing, they shifted their accusation within a month from Syria to Hizbullah, and this is no coincidence, of course, where police intelligence under Col. Wissam al-Hasan began arresting Israeli spy networks immediately after the release of the four generals in April 2009." Sayyed said the Government of national unity agreed to finance the Special Tribunal for Leb "because we thought we were paying for justice and truth, not for an international tribunal looking for politics." "But we found out four years later that the international law used the money to hit Syria and a portion of Lebanese through the false witnesses," he said. Describing Druze leader Walid Jumblat as "unstable," Sayyed said he has no faith in the Progressive Socialist Party chief. "I don't believe everything Walid Jumblat says, whether he is with us or against us, because he changes his positions from one moment to another," Sayyed said.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Siddiq Claims He Has Documents Proving Hizbullah Involvement in Hariri's Murder

2010-09-16

[An Nahar] Mohammed Zuheir Siddiq, a former witness in the inquiry into the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri, said Ghazi Kanaan -- long-time head of Syria's security apparatus in Leb -- handed him documents that prove Hizbullah's involvement in Hariri's Murder. Kanaan was Syria's Interior Minister from 2004 to 2005. His violent death during an investigation into Hariris' murder drew international attention. Kanaan died in his office, by a gunshot (some say three shots) through the mouth, in Damascus on October 12, 2005. After a one-day examination, Syrian authorities closed the case, Prosecutor Mohammed al-Luaji stating: "Examination of the body and fingerprints as well as testimony from employees, including senior aide General Walid Abaza, indicated that it was a suicide by gunshot." Siddiq said Kanaan "handed me documents written in his own hand that prove Hizbullah's involvement in Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination." "After the disclosure of their content 'in time' Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and all his allies in Leb will not be able to raise their heads," Siddiq said in an interview published Wednesday by the Kuwaiti newspaper Assyiassa. He denied press reports that said Siddiq was subject to an assassination attempt or that he had sought political asylum in France. Siqqid accused the late Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh of crimes such as Hariri's murder and Mufti Hasan Khaled as well as other Paleostinian symbols living in Leb, in addition to Ramzi Irani. Siddiq said Mughniyeh was also behind the 1988 hijacking of a Kuwaiti jet and an attempt to nail Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam during his time in power. He said Hariri's assassination was blessed by Hizbullah, adding that Syrian officers were in Beirut's southern suburbs prior to the crime. Siddiq pointed out that Hizbullah initially denied the officers' presence in the southern suburbs, but then withdrew its denial when the officers testified before the U.N.-backed investigation committee. He announced that he gave Hizbullah names to the international committee. Siddiq questioned about Hizbullah's knowledge of the presence of "Israeli spy" Ghassan al-Jidd at the crime scene. "How did Hizbullah know that Jidd was at the crime site if it did not have elements watching Hariri's movements?" Siddiq asked. Siddiq confirmed that he is a suspect and not a witness. He admitted that he "carried out orders before and after the crime," including the transport of Maj. Gen. Bahjat Suleiman from the crime scene to Aley, adding that he did not know that the target was Hariri.(photo courtesy of Assiyassa)

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Were Syrian officers involved in Mugniyah killing?

2008-04-13

Hizbullah's top military commander Imad Mugniyah, mysteriously killed in a blast two months ago, has been the subject of lively discussion in the Arab press in recent days. Lebanon's Al-Shiraa magazine reported Saturday that two weeks ago Syrian intelligence broke into the houses of two Syrian officers in Damascus and executed them with shots to the head, apparently due to their involvement in Mugniyah's assasination. That's a little sloppy. I'd have waited until they came in to work and arranged for them to fall down the stairs. I think they wanted to send a message, and 'shot in the head at home in bed' does that better than 'tripped and fell down the stairs elebenteen times at the coppe shoppe' ... The officers' families were reportedly warned not to inform anyone of what had happened. You don't leave witnesses behind The story came in the wake of a barrage of recent reports involving the Head of Syrian Military Intelligence, Assaf Shawkat. Former Syrian Vice President, Abdul Halim Khaddam claimed that Shawkat, President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law, was placed under house arrest after revealing information about the circumstances of Mugniyah's death. This I've heard elsewere Other reports claimed that Shawkat's wife fled the country along with Assad's sister in order to seek political asylum in France or one of the Arab countries. French officials denied the country's involvement in the issue. Al-Shiraa further reported that intelligence officers this week opened fire on a military vehicle driven by an officer who was reportedly in league with Shawkat. The officer was not injured. More sloppy work. Perhaps they've run out of field operatives. Or the pros are staying out of it. On Sunday Syria was scheduled to release for publication the conclusions of the investigation into Mugniyah's death, but officials said the statement was delayed due to the large-scale home front drill that took place in Israel. The officials did not provide a new date for the report's release.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Assad scheming to 'provoke internal strife, torpedo tribunal'

2007-11-07

Former Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of seeking to hamper Lebanese presidential elections to torpedo the international tribunal that would try suspects in the 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik Hariri and related crimes. Khaddam said Assad's scheme was also designed to provoke internal civil strife and create a power vacuum. "The Lebanon crisis is not one among the Lebanese, neither it is due to disputes over the presidential candidate," Khaddam said in remarks published on Tuesday. "The major reason for the crisis comes from outside Lebanon, from the alliance between the Iranian and Syrian regimes. This alliance wants a president (for Lebanon) that would serve their strategies from one side and helps torpedo the international court." He said Assad uses his allies as well as secret agents to hamper the Lebanese election.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Former Syrian VP: 'Assad is a joke'

2007-09-21

"The Syrian regime cannot respond to what Israel did and is incapable of defending Syria," former Syrian vice president and current opposition member Abdul Halim Khaddam said in an interview published Thursday in the Nazareth-based A-Sinara. When asked about the recent praise Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave Syrian President Bashar Assad, Khaddam said that "Olmert's words are an insult to Assad's intelligence. [Olmert] tells him, 'I respect you and your policy,' and at the same time uses force against [Assad's] country. Is this the great respect? This is mockery, and why is Assad so silent in his turn?" Khaddam went on to say that Assad was "a kid and a joke, and [the Israelis] want to laugh at him." He added that Assad was incapable of responding: "He is incapable of anything except oppressing the Syrian people." Khaddam, living in exile since the summer of 2005, heads the Front for Saving the Nation, an exiled Syrian opposition movement. In the interview, given in Berlin on the sidelines of a conference of Syrian opposition members, Khaddam said the alleged Israeli action was an act of aggression against Syria. "The Syrians are worrying more and more, because the regime does not supply the means to protect Syria in air, sea and land," he said. Khaddam claimed the Syrian decision to avoid responding was not a consequence of military weakness, but a political decision in line with past decisions to overlook Israeli breaches of Syria's sovereignty. "The regime has the ability to respond, but not the will to respond ... and it is avoiding making a decision to respond and protect the motherland," he said. According to Khaddam, Syria could have responded if it had had a democratic government, but "when the regime shakes up national unity and is not dealing with economic crises, the factors that make up the ability to respond to aggression are not there."

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

'Former VP plotting to overthrow govt'

2006-04-10

A military court has charged former Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam, who defected last year, with inciting a foreign attack against Syria and plotting to take power, an official close to the court told The Associated Press on Sunday. A top member of Syria's ruling elite for nearly 30 years, Khaddam — who lives in France — provoked an outcry in December when he alleged that Syrian President Bashar Assad threatened former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri months before Hariri's assassination in February 2005. From France, Khaddam has also called for the overthrow of the Syrian regime. The court issued seven charges against Khaddam, including inciting a foreign country "to launch a direct aggression against Syria", a charge that carries life imprisonment at hard labour, the official said. Another charge was "conspiring to seize political and civil power", which also entails a possible life prison sentence, the official said. I'd guess the more likely penalty would be having his car blow up some Sunday morning.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Shake-up in Syrian cabinet

2006-02-12

Faruq al-Shara, Syria's long-serving foreign minister, has been named as vice president, state news agency Sana reported, replacing Abdul Halim Khaddam, branded a traitor by Damascus. Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, replaced Shara with Walid Muallem, currently deputy foreign minister, in a cabinet shake-up that left the key posts of prime minister and defence minister unchanged. Bassam Abdelmajid was named interior minister. He replaces Ghazi Kanaan, the former Syrian intelligence chief in neighbouring Lebanon, who committed suicide in October. Wonder if Bassam will fall or be pushed? Shara, 68, has been foreign minister since 1984 and has been a fierce critic of Israel and its occupation of the Golan Heights. Khaddam, a hardline Baath party member, quit last year and has since accused Damascus of involvement in the murder a year ago of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. Syria's official daily Ath-Thawra said in January that Khaddam, now in exile in Paris, would be tried for high treason. He would also be investigated for corruption and his assets seized. Al-Shara is seen as a pragmatic but tough negotiator.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Concern About Possible Coup In Syria

2006-02-06

Tehran, 6 Feb. (AKI) - The Iranian Republican Guard has reportedly been put on alert to forestall a coup in ally Syria by military figures loyal to former vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam, currently in exile in France. In a reportage from Damascus, the Iranian website Saztab - close to the Republican Guard (Pasdaran) - announced the Pasdaran are examining the backgrounds of many army and airforce officers considered close to the former vice president. Ah, I love the smell of a purge in the morning Late last year, in an interview with the al-Arabiya network, Khaddam denounced the government of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad, saying it had committed many mistakes during its domination of neighbouring Lebanon. Khaddam, a veteran aide to Syria’s late President Hafez al-Assad, stepped down in June 2005, almost five months after the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. According to Baztab, Abdolhalim Khaddam who several weeks ago announced he wanted to create a government in exile, is mobilising discontented officers to overthrow the regime of presdent Bashar al-Assad. The former vice president, according to the site, can count on the support of France, the US and Israel in effecting 'regime change'.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

France in talks on Khaddam asylum

2006-01-14

Aljazeera's correspondent in Paris has learned that an official French delegation travelled to Saudi Arabia to discuss the possibility of Abdul Halim Khaddam, the former Syrian vice president, obtaining asylum in the kingdom. Khaddam, who moved to Paris after resigning in June, has said in interviews since December that Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, had threatened al-Hariri shortly before he was killed in a car bombing on 14 February. Al-Assad has denied the allegation. Sources told Aljazeera on Friday the Saudis rejected the idea of hosting Khaddam, upon which the French delegation left for the United Arab Emirates to discuss the asylum issue with government officials there. The French team has yet to get a final word from the UAE, the sources said. In December, Khaddam told Al Arabiya television that the killing of al-Hariri could not have been carried out by Syrian agents without al-Assad's involvement. Asked if he thought that the Syrian president was directly responsible for al-Hariri's killing in Beirut last February, Khaddam told Britain's Sky News on Thursday: "In my belief, yes, my personal belief is that he ordered it. But at the end of the day there is an investigation. They must give the final decision."

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-Short Attention Span Theater-

RegimeChangeIran: Iran has totally between eight to 12 nuclear devices from the Soviet era

2006-01-08

Alan Peters: Special Report Analysts watching Iran on a daily basis were not taken by surprise by the Islamic Regime not showing up at the International Atomic Energy Agency on January 05, 2006, since reports out of Tehran have for the past weeks been mentioning President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad's office privately leaking to the Tehran newspapers that Iran already has four nuclear weapons obtained from the Ukraine. READ MORE Back in 1991/1992 three nuclear weapon devices the Mullahs had obtained from Kazakhstan were verified on ground in Iran and intelligence further estimates that Iran has totally between eight to 12 nuclear devices from the Soviet era. The press leaks pointed to Iran possibly not proceeding with negotiations, reassuring internal supporters and preparing to confront the West. The final decision to disdain the European meeting was apparently made with the sudden incapacitation of Israel's Ariel Sharon. Concurrently, Iran has suddenly moved a significant number of tanks toward its southern border near Basra, Iraq; has started repositioning naval assets and intercepts show military communications have become very atypical. Is Iran expecting an attack now that the more pragmatic Sharon is out of the picture or has U.S and Coalition information leaked to them of an impending strike to put an end to nuclear weapons falling into the hands of someone like Ahmadi-Nejad. The new regime in Iran has certainly tried to provoke the USA and Israel beyond the point of endurance. Brigadier-General Mohammad Kossari, head of the Security Bureau of the IRGC has long stated, "Iran intends to become a superpower and will drive all foreign forces out of our region". What was previously sheer hyperbole now has a basis in serious executive policy and planning. Alternatively, is Iran planning to set up a reactive retaliation in the Middle East by the USA from an attack through surrogates like the Hezbollah? The huge one-day increase in fatalities in Iraq appears to be an effort to distract the Coalition Forces, while the Islamic Regime sets up its pieces on the war map. Part of this involves backing up an increasingly under pressure Syria and trying to take advantage of the power vacuum in Israel. Palestinian confrontation at the Gaza border with Egyptian forces on January 4th, 2006, which drove the Egyptians back a good mile, allowed Iran supported and financed Hezbollah to bring in substantial quantities of high-end weaponry through the gap they had bulldozed in the concrete slab border. Iran, Syria and the Hezbollah can now create havoc in Israel. Either as a starter for a regional conflict or in retaliation for an Israeli strike on the Mullah's nuclear facilities. In addition, perhaps help ward off pressures by Saudi Arabia and Egypt on Syria that would not favor Iranian interests. Working in Iran's favor is the disagreement between the Saudi desire for a Sunni take over in Syria and Egypt's decades of fighting the Moslem Brotherhood, who would enter the picture if the ruling Alawites of President Bashar al-Assad were overthrown. Cairo has been trying to lobby the French government to give al-Assad another chance despite the latter recently offering asylum to al-Assad's defecting deputy, Abdul Halim Khaddam, who can lay bare all Syria's secrets. Potentially including the location of WMDs that Syria accepted from Iraq both just prior and during U.S. and Coalition Forces invading. Plus, about stockpiles moved to the Beqa'a Valley in Lebanon in anticipation of the invasion and currently guarded by the Hezbollah. Meanwhile, back home, Ahmadi-Nejad and his spiritual mentor Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi – both fanatical adherents of the apocalyptic Hojatieh - which promotes Armageddon, pain, suffering, oppression and misery to entice their religious icon, the 12th Imam to return sooner - based on a sufficient quantity of all these for him to bother, now move into the next phase of their power grab. From the day after he was sworn in as President in mid-August, Ahmadi-Nejad has replaced every key position – down to mid and lower levels, with his military Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) colleagues and their supporters. Despite a few hiccups with his crony choices of amazingly useless candidates for the position of Oil Minister and a couple of other posts, which the Majliss (parliament) refused to ratify, he now has his people deep inside all parts of the power structure. Interestingly enough, the rejection of one person as Oil Minister was because the former deputy minister of Defense was independently rich and therefore unacceptable. The story behind that story was that he had confiscated enormous tracts of property and goods, ostensibly for the benefit of the country, then kept it all himself. The internecine struggle and fissure between the old guard Mullahs and the fundamental, neo-Islamic government of Ahmadi-Nejad has also reached boiling point with him and his mentor Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi fanning the flames. Realizing that the new President controls most strings of government, on paper at least - and also the IRGC – as opposed to the less effective standing army, Mesbah Yazdi has approached the Council of Experts to elect him as Supreme Ruler to replace Ali Khamenei. Ironically, Mesbah Yazdi and the Iraqi born Minister of Justice, Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroodi, were the only two who supported designating Khamenei as a Grand Ayatollah, nobody else would, which was a prerequisite to his being elected Supreme Ruler to replace Khomeini. Incidentally, sabotaging the original Ayatollah whom Khomeini had previously selected as his religious heir. Now Mesbah Yazdi has apparently recanted and asks the Council to elect him instead. (Khomeini found Mesbah Yazdi's lunatic fringe Hojatieh version of Islam so appalling he eventually drove it underground by refusing to acknowledge or support it). Should this power putsch succeed, Iran will not only have an incredibly strange President but also an even weirder new Supreme Ruler. As if all this were not enough, Western financial analysts have reluctantly come to accept and write about Iran's neo-Islamic leadership, with its propensity for death and destruction built into its philosophy, to potentially cause a melt down of the world economy. Iran has already threatened to stop oil shipments if Europe goes along with any referral to the UN Security Council and deals its oil in Euros rather than dollars. (For more on the Hojatieh, Ahmadi-Nejad and the oil crisis he can bring about, read my article posted here. or this and other articles can be read here. The name “Alan Peters” is a nom de plume for a writer who was for many years involved in intelligence and security matters in Iran. He had significant access inside Iran at high levels during the rule of the Shah, until early 1979. © Copyright 2006 Alan Peters If his sources are correct and Ahmadinejad is leaking that Iran has nuclear weapons, it would appear he is intent on creating a crisis now! Many believe Ahmadinejad is setting a trap for the west because western military action at this time would likely be of a limited nature since the west is unprepared for a full scale occupation of Iran. Such a confrontation would likely end in a negotiated settlement leaving the regime in power, but would also likely include internationally agreed to security arrangements with the regime, a very dangerous proposition indeed.

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