Be sure to click article - last two paragraphs detail the ongoing fights between State and the Hawks on Syria.http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3990021/The timing was hardly coincidental. On Sept. 10, 2002, one day before the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, police near Hamburg, Germany, staged a dramatic raid on a Syrian-owned company suspected of terrorist ties. The German government was sending a signal to the United States: we're doing our part in the war on terror. But the raid was more than a publicity stunt. For years, authorities had been keeping close watch on the company, a textile business called Tatex. According to German police reports shown to NEWSWEEK, some of the firm's past employees appeared to have Qaeda connections. One was close to Osama bin Laden's personal secretary. Another, Mohammed Haydar Zammar, was believed to have recruited Muhammad Atta and the other September 11 hijackers in Hamburg—then sent them to Afghanistan, where they planned the attacks with bin Laden.
German prosecutors began preparing their case. The United States considered freezing Tatex's bank accounts, as it had done to dozens of other companies suspected of financing terrorism. Then something strange happened: nothing. Last summer the German government quietly closed the investigation and decided against prosecuting the company. The United States never touched its assets. Case closed.
George W. Bush has said the United States will relentlessly hunt terrorists and anyone who helps them. So why did the Germans and Americans give up the trail of a company that, according to their own investigators, may have been harboring jihadis? The answer provides a telling glimpse inside the touchy world of post-9/11 diplomacy. Some U.S. and German officials suggest that both countries decided not to proceed with legal action against Tatex to avoid antagonizing the government of Syria.
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Behind closed doors, the hardest of the hard-liners—sticking to their goal of eventually transforming the entire Middle East region—have argued for "regime change" in Syria. But for now, cooler heads at the State Department and White House seem to be winning the argument. Their case is a twist on the old saw about keeping your friends close and your adversaries closer. In a part of the world where America has few friends, Syria may be more useful, and less threatening, as a distasteful ally than as an outright enemy.
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