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| Syria-Lebanon | |
| ’King of clubs’ being sheltered by Syrian army; more light on passport provision | |
| 2003-05-11 | |
| The king of clubs from America's card deck of most wanted Iraqis is being sheltered at a military base in the Syrian capital Damascus, according to a Gulf diplomat. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former vice-president of Iraq and one of Saddam Hussein's closest henchmen, is said to be under the protection of Syria's Republican Guard in the decrepit military base near the airport. Izzat had been put in charge of defending northern Iraq but in the absence of a northern front, he decided to flee. Diplomats in Damascus said that before President George W Bush threatened Syria with severe consequences if its border remained open, Iraqi officials were granted one-month visas on request. Izzat is effectively at the Syrians' mercy should they wish to appease America and hand him over. "A substantial sum of money was paid to cross the border on an unmarked route used by shepherds. Although he is being treated well, now that he is here there's nowhere for him to go. He cannot just slip away. Luckily for him, the Syrians have not yet responded to queries about turning him over." Rassem Raslan, a former Syrian ambassador to Paris, said that Izzat had been a regular visitor to Damascus in the past two years. "There were many opportunities for officials from Baghdad to come here and build relations," he said. "People who were involved in improving trade ties and putting the oil pipeline into operation have been able to use their connections to get in." Many other Iraqis are making plans to move on from Syria. Last week, American intelligence officials accused France of providing passports to fleeing regime officials who want to come to western Europe. The French government denied the charges, but a Syrian employee of the French embassy in Damascus claimed that eight Iraqi officials from the oil and finance ministries had been given passports in the middle of April. He claimed that Paris also ordered that a passport issued for Tahir Jalil al-Habbush, a former head of Iraq's Mukhabarat intelligence service who is on America's wanted list, should be cancelled soon after it had arrived. It remains unclear whether al-Habbush is in Syria.
Must've been quite a rush on blonde wigs that day too, I guess. Jewellers reported that trade had boomed as Iraqis turned their cash into easily portable gold necklaces before leaving the country. Adil Fowal, a jeweller in Sayeed Zainab, the Iraqi quarter of Damascus, showed off receipts for tens of thousands of pounds worth of business. "On my best day I earned more than $50,000 from sales to Iraqi Sunnis," he said. "The war was good for my business because the Iraqis were coming here worried about Syria's foreign exchange restrictions. A gold necklace can be worn through the airport but a large amount of cash could be taken away if it was discovered. Some of them were travelling overland through Russia and were worrying about getting robbed on the way." Pity the poor fleeing Ba'athist. All fat and weighted with gold. | |
| Posted by:Bulldog |
| #2 To keep current, it sounds like our guys need some Predator practice in Syria. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-05-11 14:35:32 |
| #1 Is the Syrian Republican Guard elite too, or are they just a regular Republican Guard? Do they all have shoes? |
| Posted by: Matt 2003-05-11 11:03:16 |