Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

-Great Cultural Revolution

Meet the Harvard Students Supporting Hamas' Invasion of Israel

2023-10-11

[TOWNHALL] In the wake of Hamas’ brutal surprise attack against Israel, 34 Harvard student organizations recently signed a joint statement blaming Israel for the attack and expressing support for Palestine.

“We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” the letter read.

“The apartheid regime is the only one to blame. Israeli violence has structured every aspect of Palestinian existence for 75 years.”

To date, the Hamas invasion has killed over 900 Israeli citizens, and at least 11 American citizens. Reports of Hamas raping Israeli women, and videos of militants holding Israeli children in cages, have flooded social media. In one violent spectacle, Hamas militants paraded the naked, dead body of a German woman through the streets of Gaza in the back of a vehicle.

In some cases, Hamas terrorists even uploaded images or videos of their victims on the victims’ own social media accounts.

Despite such horrific brutality, the Harvard student groups offered Hamas their public support and blamed Israel for the murder and rape of its own citizens.

Townhall has identified the student leaders of several of those groups. Their names are listed below.

GRADUATE STUDENT LEADERS WHOSE GROUPS SUPPORT THE HAMAS INVASION

Harvard Muslim Law School Association

Hussain Awan ’25 (Co-President)

Hussain Awan is a second-year student at Harvard Law School. This past July, Awan worked as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Pakistan, under Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah.

Before that, Awan worked in Tunisia as a legal intern for the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). IDEA is an “intergovernmental organization (IGO) with a mandate to support sustainable democracy worldwide.” IDEA also received $320,000 from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation between 2016 and 2017.

Reema Doleh ’25 (Co-President)

Reema Doleh is a second-year student at Harvard Law School. This past summer, Doleh worked as a legal intern for Legal Services NYC. Before that, she worked as a paralegal in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office from January 2022 to July 2022.

Ariq Hatibie ’24 (Executive Board Member)

Ariq Hatibie is a third-year student at Harvard Law School. Hatibie is currently the Editor in Chief of the Harvard Human Rights Journal.

This past summer, Hatibie worked as a summer associate at White & Case LLP. The previous summer, Hatibie worked as a legal intern for TRIAL International, a Soros-funded legal group which claims to fight against “impunity for international crimes and supporting victims in their quest for justice.”

Additionally, Hatibie works as a research assistant for Harvard Law Professor Salma Waheedi. In 2022, Waheedi signed a letter with Harvard faculty expressing “solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom and self-determination.”

In the letter, Waheedi and her colleagues claim “Unwavering US financial, military, and political support has fueled an apartheid system that institutionalizes the domination and repression of Palestinians.”

Waheedi currently teaches a course on “Law, Human Rights, and Social Justice in Israel-Palestine.”

Saeed Ahmad ’24 (Executive Board Member)

Saeed Ahmad is third-year student at Harvard Law School. He currently works as a Research Assistant to Professor Intisar Rabb, in Harvard’s Program in Islamic Law.

This past summer, Ahmad worked as a Summer Law Clerk at the Supreme Court of Pakistan, under Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah. After graduation, Ahmad will work as an associate for the prestigious law firm Sidley Austin LLP, according to his LinkedIn.

Saeed is also a member of the Harvard South Asian Law Students Association, another student group that signed the statement supporting Hamas.

Hejir Rashidzadeh ’25 (Executive Board Member)

Hejir Rashidzadeh is a second-year student at Harvard Law School. This past summer, Rashidzadeh worked as an associate at Alston & Bird, a prestigious law firm known for its intellectual property work.

Hurya Ahmed ’25 (Vice President of Communications)

Hurya Ahmed is a second-year student at Harvard Law School. This past summer, Ahmed interned with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission from June 2023 to August 2023.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT LEADERS WHOSE GROUPS SUPPORT THE HAMAS INVASION

African American Resistance Organization

Leadership

Kojo Acheampong ’26 (Co-Founder)
Kiersten B. Hash ’25 (Co-Founder)
Amari M. Butler ’25 (Co-Founder)
Clyve Lawrence ’25 (Co-Founder)
Prince A. Williams ’25 (Co-Founder)

Harvard Islamic Society

Leadership

Maryam Tourk ‘25 (Co-President)

Harvard Undergraduate Ghungroo

Leadership

Hana Rehman '25 (Director)
Jasleen Kaur ’25 (Director)
Karina Mahida ‘25 (Director)

Harvard Undergraduate Nepali Students Association

Leadership

Anusha Adhikari ’26 (Co-President)
Ishan Tiwari ‘25 (Co-President)
Samaga Pokharel ‘26 (Communications VP)
Kashish Bastola ’26 (Advocacy VP)
Aashish Palikhey ‘26 (Finance VP)

Link

Europe

Assad's uncle, 'butcher of Hama,' hired Israeli lawyers - report

2020-07-20

When it comes to lawyers, always hire the best you can afford.

[Jpost] Rifaat, now 82 years old, was convicted of embezzling Syrian state funds by a Gay Paree court on Thursday and sentenced to four years in prison.

Rifaat Assad, uncle of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Terror of Aleppo ...
, hired Israeli lawyers as advisers after he was charged with embezzlement in La Belle France, according to Ynet.

Assad's uncle, also known as the "butcher of Hama," was a high-ranking commander in the Syrian military and led a brutal campaign to suppress opposition to the Assad regime in Hama in 1982, killing tens of thousands. Rifaat later attempted a coup himself against his brother, Hafez, and escaped to Europa
Europa

...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
after the coup failed.

Rifaat, now 82 years old, was convicted of embezzling Syrian state funds by a Gay Paree court on Thursday and sentenced to four years in prison. According to the court ruling, his assets in Gay Paree and London will be seized. Rifaat denies any wrongdoing and plans to appeal, according to the BBC.

The former Syrian official hired the legal services of a number of Israeli attorneys, including Mordechai Tzivin and Gilles-William Goldnadel, a French-Israeli attorney. He also received legal advice from a former MK from the Likud Party, a former bigwig in a government office in Jerusalem, a German Jewish entrepreneur, a Spanish Jewish businessman and two well-known French attorneys, according to Ynet.

A few years ago, a number of Rifaat's legal advisers introduced him to a former Mossad official in Gay Paree. The official has since passed away and was not serving in any official position when he met with Rifaat.

Rifaat's legal battle began in 2014, when legal NGO Sherpa filed a complaint against him, claiming that his property empire was far more valuable than his known income.

In 2019, it was decided that Rifaat should stand trial for crimes allegedly committed between 1984 and 2016, including organized money laundering, aggravated tax fraud and misappropriation of Syrian state funds, according to the BBC.

Rifaat claims that he received the money as gifts by the Saudi royal family. His property in La Belle France and London, worth about €90 million, includes two Gay Paree townhouses, a stud farm, a chateau and 7,300 square meters of office space in Lyon.

In 2017, his portfolio of 507 properties in Spain worth about €695 million was seized by Spanish authorities as part of an investigation into alleged money-laundering by Rifaat and 13 other people.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syria Opposition Commemorates Hama Massacre

2012-02-03

[An Nahar] Syria's opposition called protests Thursday to mark the 30th anniversary of the Hama massacre, as the United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
moved closer to agreement on action to halt a deadly regime crackdown on dissent.

Demonstrations were planned in various cities in memory of the estimated 10,000 to 40,000 people who perished in February 1982 when then president Hafez Assad, father of the current president Bashar, launched a fierce assault on the central town to crush an Islamist revolt.

The anniversary was taking place as the regime in Damascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
battles to crush an unprecedented revolt that has left more than 6,000 people dead since mid-March, according to estimates of human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
groups.

The city of Hama defiantly painted roads in red and staged a general strike on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"Several roads have been painted red and the waterwheels marked 'Hafez is dead while Hama has not disappeared''," it said, in reference to the famous landmark of the city on the Orontes river.

The number of dead has mounted in recent weeks with the central cities of Homs and Hama suffering heavy losses.

Activists said the 1982 massacre of Hama, which went largely unnoticed by the international community when it took place, had now come back to haunt the Assad clan.

"On this 30th anniversary, another massacre is taking place today but on a larger scale and led by the son of Hafez Assad," the Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella opposition group said.

The group called for activists to release red balloons in memory of those who died in what many describe as the worst atrocity in Syria's modern history.

It urged demonstrators to burn portraits of Hafez Assad and his younger brother Rifaat, who supervised the assault and aerial bombing on Hama. Rifaat Assad now lives in exile in London.

The opposition also called for "the trial of the regimes of Hafez and Bashir al-Assad for massacres against humanity committed against the Syrian people."

"The silence of the Arab and international community in the face of the crimes committed by Hafez Assad and his cronies 30 years ago is largely responsible for the continuation of daily crimes and atrocities committed by Bashar," it said in a statement.

Meanwhile,
...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase...
a Syrian dissident was killed by security forces before his body was thrown off the rooftop of his home in front of his wife and children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday.

The Britannia-based monitoring group said the incident took place on Wednesday in the town of al-Maadamiyeh, located on the outskirts of Damascus.

"Security forces launched a raid on the home of myrmidon Nasser Mohammed Said Sghayer, 30," it said in a statement. "Fearing arrest, he sought refuge on the roof of his house and security forces threatened to arrest his two children if he did not surrender."

It added that when he failed to heed their call, troops rushed to the roof and opened fire, killing him on the spot.

"They then threw his body from the roof in front of his wife and children," the Observatory said.

It said Sghayer had served four months in prison and had been released last week. His father has been behind bars for seven months.

The Observatory called for an independent inquiry into his death.

Link

Europe

Rifaat Assad faces corruption probe in Spain

2006-04-20

MADRID: A judge in the southern Spanish resort of Marbella has ordered police to bring in Rifaat Assad, uncle of Syrian President Bashar Assad, for questioning as part of investigations into corruption at the town hall, El Mundo newspaper reported on Thursday. The daily said Rifaat Assad, who has a home in Marbella, was "in charge of a syndicate of luxury property owners at nearby Puerto Banus which could have received preferential treatment from the town hall."

In recent weeks, a swathe of officials have been arrested on corruption-related charges following the discovery of a massive corruption network centered on the town hall planning department. El Mundo reported that Assad had failed to appear for a Wednesday morning hearing to answer a complaint against him brought by an alleged arms dealer, Syrian-Argentine national Monzer al-Kassar, who has lived in Marbella for 10 years. Last week, Assad failed to answer a previous summons on the grounds that he was away on holiday.

Judge Francisco Javier de Urquia told police to haul in Assad "given that there have been several unfruitful summonses" already, El Mundo said, quoting documents it had obtained on the investigation.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Report: Assad relative's office besieged

2005-11-03

According to initial reports, army forces besieged Wednesday evening the offices of Syrian President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law, Asef Shawkat, in Damascus. Shawkat serves as the Syrian army intelligence chief and is considered to be Assad's closest aide.

And the chief suspect

The story was reported by the ANN network, owned by Rifaat Assad, the Syrian president's uncle and rival, who is in exile.

Which makes the story somewhat suspect, but interesting

According to the report, the Syrian forces demanded that Shawkat to give himself in, but he refused.

"Come on out, Asef! We just want to take you for a ride."

In the meantime, there has been no confirmation or reference to the report by any other source.

If nothing else, a propaganda war by Rifaat Assad may be starting

Another link, same source: Syrian army forces have surrounded the offices of Aâsif Shawkat, the brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar Al-Asad and head of Syriaâs Military Intelligence service. According to a report from the ANN network, run by a Syrian exile, Syrian forces demanded Shawkat surrender but he refused. The report has not been confirmed by other sources.
Shawkat, as well as Bashar Al-Asadâs brother, Mahir Al-Asad, are both suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri. Shawkat is said to be a close aide of the president, but analysts say the president fears him because of his strong influence.

Another: Unconfirmed reports in the past 24 hours spoke about military movements around the Damascus houses of senior Syrian officials mentioned by U.N. chief investigator Detlev Mehlis in connection with the assassination former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The Beirut-based An Nahar reported on its Thursday's front-page that "These reports have raised questions on whether these movements were precautionary measures or for other purposes."
This story came after a TV network, owned by Rifaat Assad, the Syrian president's uncle and rival, who is in exile, reported that Syrian forces besieged Wednesday evening the offices of Syrian President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law, Asef Shawkat, in Damascus. Shawkat heads the Syrian army intelligence and is considered to be Assad's closest aide. Shawkat is suspected of being involved in Hariri's assassination.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

An Exiled Assad Plans a Return to Syria

2005-09-29

WASHINGTON - Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of Syria's current leader, is putting himself forward as a possible successor to his nephew, prevailing upon friends in Saudi Arabia and Iraq's transitional assembly to press his case to a wary Washington.

Earlier this month, Rifaat, who is the exiled brother of Syria's former strongman, Hafez al-Assad, told some Lebanese papers that he was planning on making a triumphant return to Syria. His brother kicked him out of the country shortly after letting him return to Damascus for his mother's funeral in 1992. In August and September, Rifaat met with members of the political party of Iraqi politician Ayad Allawi in an effort to gain an audience with a high-ranking Bush administration official. Rifaat al-Assad is also said to have helped procure a witness, former intelligence officer Mohammed Saddiq, in the United Nations investigation into the murder of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafiq Hariri. Mr. Saddiq, who the Syrians claim is a fraud, fled to France earlier this year.

Interesting. Cut the legs out from under his nephew, then ride in to take his place

On Monday, the former director of the congressional task force on terrorism and unconventional warfare, Yossef Bodansky, virtually announced Rifaat's candidacy to head Syria. Sitting across from Rifaat at a Paris restaurant, Mr. Bodansky said on the John Batchelor program on ABC Radio that his dinner companion enjoyed support from America and Saudi Arabia as the heir apparent to the crumbling Baathist regime in Damascus.

Yossef also wrote the report on the upcoming "Great Ramadan Offensive", for what it's worth.

Yesterday two American officials denied these claims. "We have no interest in a dialogue with Rifaat al-Assad," one American official said. But nonetheless, the search for a replacement for Bashar al-Assad is clearly on the minds of top policymakers in Washington and Riyadh. Saudi diplomats have quietly already told their Gulf counterparts that they would support the conclusions of the United Nations report due next month, wherever it leads. This is code, one diplomatic source said, for supporting the policy of isolation that helped pressure Syrian troops to exit Lebanon earlier this year.

Meanwhile, in Washington over the weekend Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick told an audience at an off-the-record retreat for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy that America was indifferent to the fate of Syria's rulers. "The United States is interested in behavior change, but if regime change would occur, so be it," he said, according to three people in the room for his comment.

Rifaat al-Assad has been angling for a way to take over Syria since 1983, when his brother first exiled him after he amassed a militia in the streets of Damascus with rumors circulating that the leader was deathly ill. Over the years, the Assad family's black sheep has had intermittent meetings with Western and Arab intelligence services and claimed, according to one former CIA official, that he could foment a military coup with his contacts in the military and security services in Syria. The deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Patrick Clawson, said yesterday, "Rifaat at various times in the last decade has tried to propose himself as a more reasonable alternative to other members of his family."

Don't you just love Middle Eastern politics? It's so medieval

One of Rifaat's possible selling points to the Americans is also one of his liabilities. In 1982, he led the military campaign that crushed the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood in Hama, a massacre that claimed as many as 40,000 lives. In this respect, he can claim experience that will serve him in putting down the jihadist movement in Syria at war with Iraq's first representative government. Yet at the same time, because he is both an Assad and a Baathist with blood on his hands, support for him would severely undermine America's public case that it is supporting the transition to democracy in the Arab world.

It would give him credibility for those in Syria who think Bashar al-Assad is a wimp and long for the good old days.

One democratic opposition leader, Farid Ghadry, who has been quietly meeting with opposition groups in Europe for the past two months and has had some meetings with American policy-makers, says that he is wary of any efforts to supplant Bashar al-Assad with another dictator. "If Rifaat Assad wants to help Syria and wants to be part of a democratic process then let him say so," Mr. Ghadry, who is the leader of the Reform Party of Syria, said Tuesday. "The solution to all of our problems is democracy, not another dictator or someone to use violence to stop violence."

Salameh Nematt, the Washington bureau chief for al-Hayat, an Arabic newspaper, said yesterday, "Americans and Saudi leaders want to see a smooth transition in Syria from those tainted with the murders in Lebanon to people who can look at a new page. Rifaat is universally seen as not acceptable for the job nor supported by the majority of the Syrian people, but he is clearly promoting himself to the Americans and Syria's neighbors."

A political science professor at Florida Atlantic University and an expert on Syrian politics, Robert Rabil, said flatly, "Rifaat is not going to work in Syria." He said that Rifaat al-Assad has too many enemies in the country ranging from the Muslim Brotherhood to loyalists to his brother. "He has a terrible past and is accused of corruption throughout Syria," he said.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Rifaat Assad to return to Syria

2005-05-21

Rifaat Assad, the younger brother of former Syrian President Hafez Assad and uncle of President Bashar Assad, announced his decision to return to Syria after 20 years in exile to pursue his "national and political role." In a statement issued in Nicosia, spokesman Harith al-Khayer said that the 67-year-old Rifaat's decision to return to Syria aimed at "fulfilling his political responsibilities and the will of the Syrians to build a society of justice, freedom and peace."

He said Rifaat will announce the date of his return shortly. The spokesman stressed that Rifaat will not present himself as a substitute for the current President Bashar Assad, but that he views the situation in Syria as grave and that efforts ought to be made to re-instate national unity. On Monday, Rifaat had said in a statement that "what is happening in Syria is a real farce and an unconstitutional piece of theater which is a real violation of the law and the Constitution."

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Intelligence Online Briefs

2005-04-08

(IO is a subscription service, but they have some tantalizing teasers.)

American intelligence has reportedly established fruitful contacts with Rifaat Assad, uncle of the Syrian president, who lives in exile in Marbella...

France's business intelligence companies will shortly find themselves under direct government control...

The U.S. Treasury Department is intent on becoming a fully-fledged member of the American intelligence community but is finding it hard to get started...

Running counter to its policy of out-sourcing operations to the private sector, the Pentagon plans to regain complete control of its telephone communications...

The British security group ArmorGroup has hired a former Raytheon executive to open an office in Washington and has hitched up with the Shi'ite Kubba clan in Iraq...

Fierce internal rivalry between political leaders in France has begun to weigh on the day-to-day operations of the intelligence agencies...

Briefly considered for the job of secretary for Homeland Security, Joe Albaugh, former chief-of-staff to George W. Bush, now finds himself working for Halliburton...

In response to the "anti-secession" bill adopted by China's parliament, Taiwan's secret service has asked the U.S. for help in detecting "fish on the seabed..."

The United States wants opposition forces in Syria to march under the Moslem Brotherhood banner...

Link

Israel-Palestine

Arafat Aides Resume Talks With Israel, Fight Over His Fortune

2004-11-01

As Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat waited for results of tests conducted on him by French doctors, his senior aides have resumed contact with Israel to revive the US-backed road map for peace. Senior Palestinian and Israeli leaders held separate meetings yesterday to plan a path forward in Arafat's absence. Palestinian officials have been convening a series of top meetings in recent days to show that their institutions continue to function, while Israeli officials scrambled to plan for the possibility that the West Bank and Gaza could erupt into chaos if Arafat dies. At the same time sources close to the Palestinian leadership said a bitter fight had broken over who should control the ailing leader's fortune estimated to be between $4.2 billion and $6.5 billion.

Now I see what I did wrong with my life. I shoulda been a revolutionary. That's where the money is!

Sources said Arafat has written a will transferring control of his assets to members of his wife's family. Some of his aides, including former Premier Mahmoud Abbas who has stepped in as interim leader, however, believe the fortune belongs to the "beit al-mal" (public treasury), and should be transferred to the Palestinian Authority. The controversy started last week when Suha, Arafat's wife, asked Muhammad Rashid, Arafat's confidant and adviser, to prepare a list of the ailing leader's fortune. According to Palestinian sources Rashid has said he would furnish the list only to the Palestinian Authority.

Identifying Arafat's personal fortune and separating it from numerous secret bank accounts that he maintains in the name of the Palestine Liberation Orgaization and Al-Fatah is no easy task. According to Jean-Claude Robard, a Swiss investment adviser, Arafat opened his first secret bank account in 1965 with a $50,000 check from the emir of Kuwait. Since then he has set up other accounts in Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands. Arafat also owns a number of hotels and holiday resorts in Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, and Austria. He is the main shareholder in two cellular telephone companies operating in Tunisia and Algeria. Some of Arafat's businesses are in partnership with Arab politicians, former officials and entrepreneurs, including Rifaat Assad, a brother of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad, and Barzan Al-Takriti, a half-brother of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Al-Takriti is now under arrest in Baghdad.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said yesterday that Yasser Arafat's condition had improved markedly since Friday, when the Palestinian leader was rushed to a French hospital after being ill for two weeks. Doctors were trying to determine whether Arafat has a viral infection or some form of cancer after ruling out leukemia as the cause of his health problems, aides said. According to French sources, one possibility was that Arafat might have been poisoned. But Palestinian sources denied an American television report that Arafat may have been the victim of an assassination attempt, through slow poisoning, by Mossad, the Israeli secret service.

In Israel, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday that Arafat would not be allowed burial in Jerusalem. Arafat has said he wants to be buried at the Jerusalem holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Haram As-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary. But Sharon said that would not be allowed. "As long as I am prime minister, Arafat won't be buried in Jerusalem," he told a Cabinet meeting, according to participants. Israel has marked a burial site for Arafat in the Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis, security officials said. Though hard-line ministers at the meeting asked Sharon to refuse to allow Arafat back into the West Bank, the premier said he was sticking by the commitment to allow Arafat to return from France after treatment.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

DEBKA: Assad Purges Armed Forces

2004-06-22

On June 1, DEBKA-Net-Weekly exclusive military sources uncovered the largest single purge in the annals of Syriaâs armed forces that was carried out on the orders of President Bashar Assad.

Ok, it's DEBKA reporting, but this is the kind of thing they're good at.

Forty percent of the staff officers with the general command in Damascus were dismissed or forced into retirement; half the Syrian divisional commanders in Syria and Lebanon relieved of their duties â laid off or assigned to minor staff positions in Damascus and elsewhere. The top level of the Syrian air force has been peeled off and replaced with younger men â except for the top commander and the head of its intelligence branch.

Assad getting tired of those Israeli flybyes?

Hundreds of officers were swept away in the purge - according to our sources, on the advice of General Ali Aslan, the late Hafez Assadâs most trusted military adviser. Aslan, now retired, advised Basharâs father for years on how to keep his minority Allawi sect firmly in control of the regime and the opposition from raising its head. Assad Seniorâs agents were planted deep inside in Muslim and Palestinian groups In the 1970s and 1980s in obedience to one of Aslan tactics.

Ah, the Grand Vizier, advising the young prince from the shadows. How very Arab.

Assad juniorâs purge appears to be aimed primarily at cutting military spending by slashing its largest budget, namely wages. But he also needs to solidify his grip on the military. Last month, Mustafa Tlas, who at 72 is still regarded as Syriaâs strongman, retired as defense minister. Aslan warned the president against further direct moves against Tlas, but rather to take advantage of his exit to cut him off from his power bases in the armed forces.

I'll wager the people who got sacked were Mustafa's favorites. Could be a dangerous move, being out of work gives them more time to plot.

DEBKA-Net-Weeklyâs military experts do not see the purge leading to radical changes in the Syrian army command structure, the deployment of Syrian divisions or the firepower available to its antiquated military. At best, Syriaâs warplanes and navigation systems date back to the mid-1980s. The navyâs missile boats are in such bad shape that no competent task force can be mustered. Quite simply, Assad is short of the cash to modernize his military. The only fully functional segment of Syriaâs defense system are the military industries and military intelligence.
Large funded by Iranian money, Syrian factories turn out short-to-medium-range Scud C and D surface-to-surface missiles, various types of weaponized chemical substances and some biological warfare items. Our military sources note that, for the relatively modest investment of $45 million to $60 million a year, Iran has acquired control over the most sophisticated sectors of Syriaâs military industries. They are available as Tehranâs backdoor suppliers of missiles, non-conventional weapons and ammunition for any contingency, such as the Iranian armed forces or a surrogate, like the Hizballah, being called upon to fight in a part of the Middle East that is far from the Islamic Republicâs borders.

Like Israel, perhaps? The Iranians would be happy to fight to the last Syrian.

DEBKAfileâs military analysts note that while the Syrian army is not directly mixed up in US-insurgent warfare in Iraq, its military intelligence remains a separate and potent instrument of the Assad regimeâs strategic policies. This entity is currently proactive on four fronts:

1. Iraq. Syrian military intelligence supports the Baathist guerrilla campaign by recruiting, training and dispatching combatants to Iraq from among the terrorist groups Assad sponsors such as the Lebanese Hizballah and such radical Palestinian organizations as the Jihad Islami and Jibrilâs Popular Front â General Command. Recruiting also takes place in Syrian city slum districts and among Palestinian refugee camp inmates with Syrian citizenship.

2. Palestinian front. Syrian military intelligence engages in smuggling on this border too â arranging for Hizballah and radical Palestinian combatants, arms and money to infiltrate the West Bank via the Golan Heights.

3. Hizballah. The military and intelligence alignment between Syria and the Hizballah is as close as ever. As we reported last week, the sporadic attacks the Lebanese Shiite group has been carrying out against northern Israel were at the behest of President Assad who demanded an escalation of war tension.

4. Al Qaeda. Damascus persists in disavowing involvement in al Qaedaâs operations and its adherentsâ participation in the Iraq war. Nonetheless, Syria is still the main highway taken by Osama bin Ladenâs followers and other anti-US combatants for entering Iraq.

Yes, we've noticed.

Assad appeared to step briefly out of character last month when he ordered arrests of volunteers for the Iraq war, including al Qaeda members. The aberration did not stem from penitence but was the outcome of an in-family Assad episode that came to a head in the purported April 27 terrorist attack in the Maza diplomatic quarter of Damascus. The strike was carried out with the familiar terrorist weapons of a car bomb, machine guns, grenades and rockets; the (empty) UN offices were set on fire and the Canadian embassy targeted. The only odd feature was its location in the state capital of a prime terrorist sponsor. A thick blanket of secrecy was quickly drawn over the episode. Initially, DEBKAfile and DEBKA-Net-Weekly identified the perpetrators as Syrian al Qaeda members back from fighting in Fallujah. Since then, our sources discovered that, although al Qaeda members were involved, this was not an authentic terror attack.

Ah ha, just as we speculated. It was a phoney attack.

European-based Rifaat Assad, Basharâs uncle has a running dispute with the owners of a building and parcel of land in the al Maza quarter. Claiming they cheated him out of the property, he hired al Qaeda heavies living in Damascus as hit-men to blow up his opponentâs family home and make it look like a terror attack. The president, once he caught on to his uncleâs game, scrambled to hush it up before the full extent of al Qaeda operatives sheltering in Damascus was discovered.

It was a real estate deal gone bad? You know, it's so far out, it has to be true. They do tend to overreact to things like this.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-10 More