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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Mystery Military Moves in Damascus |
| 2005-11-04 |
| Reports made the rounds in the past 24 hours about military movements around the Damascus houses of Syrian officials mentioned by U.N. chief investigator Detlev Mehlis in connection with the assassination of 5-time Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, An Nahar reported on Thursday. "These reports have raised questions on whether these movements were precautionary measures or for other purposes," said the terse report of 44 words on An Nahar's page-one. The report was carried under this headline: "Reports of Movements in Damascus the Nature of Which Could Not Be Determined." The story coincided with leaks that German Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis and his team were deliberating at their Monteverde headquarters northeast of Beirut the list of Syrian intelligence chiefs that they want to interrogate next week. The commission reportedly prefers to conduct the interrogations at Monteverde but President Assad's regime has a right to have a say on the interrogation venue but not to object to anyone in Syria the commission demands to question under Security Council Resolution 1636. There is no doubt that the Mehlis commission is bent on interrogating Assad's younger brother Maher, who is the commander of the presidential guard brigade, and brother-in-law Gen. Assef Shawkat, who heads Syria's military intelligence service. Another officer marked for interrogation is Brig. Gen. Rustom Ghazaleh, who headed Syria's military intelligence apparatus in Lebanon when Hariri was killed Feb. 14. The assets of a Lebanese woman suspected of being Ghazaleh's wife, Lubna Oweidat, have been frozen at instructions from the Mehlis commission along with the accounts of four additional Lebanese army officers, Saad Hariri's Al Mustaqbal newspaper reported on Thursday. Among the officers targeted by the financial crackdown is air force pilot Wassef Serhal, who is in charge of foreign relations at the presidential palace and is reported to have resigned his post and his membership of the presidential guard brigade over the arrest of the brigade's commander Gen. Mustafa Hamdan as a primary suspect in Hariri's assassination, Al Mustaqbal said. The other three officers were identified by Al Mustaqbal as Col. Elias Sassin, commander of the special squads of the presidential guard brigade, Col. Mohammed Mossin, President Lahoud's personal aide de camp and Brig. Gen. Faisal al Rashid, former commander of the regional department of the state security service |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #14 They're just hanging around for the suicides, the many, many suicides. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2005-11-04 11:10 |
| #13 ...President Assad's regime has a right to have a say on the interrogation venue but not to object to anyone in Syria the commission demands to question under Security Council Resolution 1636. Given the troop movements, I'd guess that 'objecting' is what will occur. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2005-11-04 11:05 |
| #12 My prediction that Assad will be dead as the proverbial Dodo by midnight on december 31, 2005 still stands, but I could tolerate some slippage for the right outcome. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-11-04 08:18 |
| #11 Dang...Red on Red!!!! Go teams go!!! Go teams go!!! Maybe we can have a tailgate party? |
| Posted by: anymouse 2005-11-04 07:37 |
| #10 Interesting... The force protecting him today can easily become the force that topples him tomorrow. For the right price at the right time, all asshats become vulnerable... It's not like they obey him for the good of the nation... He's been in power for almost 4.5 years, and he hasn't handled it all that well, has he? Just musing aloud... |
| Posted by: .com 2005-11-04 06:59 |
| #9 but President Assad's regime has a right to have a say on the interrogation venue yikes. Hope Mehlis has a good team of bomb sniffing dogs! |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-11-04 05:56 |
| #8 |
| Posted by: Huposing Thiger5407 2005-11-04 04:33 |
| #7 Anti-commando forces to keep any 'criminals' from being plucked up and taken to place outside of Syrian control by "outside forces." |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom 2005-11-04 02:37 |
| #6 Kcin, my crystal ball sez no coup in Syria in a foreseeable future (meaning about 4 weeks time). Ass-sad grip on power is quite firm and he has a few hand-picked scape-goats if necessary. After that, there may be other dices in play. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2005-11-04 01:54 |
| #5 A |
| Posted by: Regnad Kcin 2005-11-04 01:19 |
| #4 This may be to prevent a coup by those folks about to be arrested. It's possible that Bashir al Assad had nothing to do with the assassination. Saddam owned the Iraqi state. I don't think Bashir has the same authority his dad, Hafez, did. Hafez took power the old-fashioned way, by killing his way to the top. Bashir merely inherited it. |
| Posted by: Elmenter Snineque1852 2005-11-04 01:15 |
| #3 Kcin, I think it is just a mysterious activity for foreign consumption: "We are so upset by this Hariri affair and we'll get to the bottom of it" from Ass-sad bag'o'tricks. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2005-11-04 00:49 |
| #2 A coup is a-comin'. |
| Posted by: Regnad Kcin 2005-11-04 00:42 |
| #1 Mystery Military Moves in Damascus-- reminds me of Soddy "surrounding" type of activity. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2005-11-04 00:38 |