Syra's Intel Network in Mideast Jeopardized

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

NICOSIA -- Syria's vast intelligence network in the Middle East could be jeopardized by a United Nations investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Western intelligence sources said the UN investigation headed by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis has sought to interrogate the chiefs of Syria's intelligence community. They said the interrogation could uncover Syria's vast network of insurgency and sleeper cells in such countries as Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Kuwait, the Palestinian Authority and Saudi Arabia.

On Oct. 12, Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan, a major target of the Mehlis investigation, committed suicide in Damascus. Kanaan, 63, headed Syria's military intelligence network in Lebanon from 1982 to 2002 and was said to have been one of the highest-ranking intelligence officers in the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Assad has denied any role in the death of Kanaan.

"If I was a CIA officer, I would certainly have the name Kanaan in my Rolodex," Joshua Landis, editor of Syria Comment, told an audience at the American University in Beirut on Thursday.

http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2005/october/10_16_2.html (subscription required for full story)

[Retired AF Dem]

1. Ghazi Kanaan committed suicide?

That was "convenient".

[allemand]

3. Perhaps he did really commit suicide:

Colette Khoury: Kanaan told me he was planning to commit suicide

Al Hayat, a privately owned pan-Arab newspaper, wrote on October 14 that writer Colette Khoury revealed to the newspaper that Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan told her many times that he was planning to commit suicide.

The newspaper reported that Khoury said that Kanaan mentioned his intention to commit suicide “in the presence of a number of leaders, including former Information Minister Mohammed Salman and former Popular Army Chief General Mohammed Ibrahim al-Ali.” The paper added: “Khoury said yesterday that when she told that suicide was a cowardly act, the late general replied that committing suicide was a courageous move when it involved one’s dignity.” - Al Hayat, United Kingdom

http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/Joshua.M.Landis-1/syriablog/2005/10/arab-press-clippings-october-10-14.htm

[bemildred]

2. Blah blah blah blah ....

Working really hard to spook Syria right now.

Babbling "diplomats", press fearmongering, border provocations,
and so on. I'm guessing the Harari investigation is coming
up dry, so an effort is being made to bluff little Assad.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

4. This is a news item....`

WTF is it doing here (in GD)? It's not opinion, not regional... It didn't even have anything to do with tasers...

I can't ask the mover because I don't know who it was.

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Other than that, the mods are great.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

5. PO Kick....

this is noteworthy to say the least.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

6. And another...