Syria captures Saddam's half brother and hands him over to Iraq

CBC News ^ | 2/27/05 | PATRICK QUINN

[SunkenCiv]

ping-thanks

[Happy2BMe]

I don't think it will go that easy for him (or Saddam for that matter).

[MeekOneGOP]

:^D

[Southack]

"The MSM can try and spin all they want but the fact remains GWB won reelection with the most votes in history and the war effort was the main theme of the entire election. And the MSM did everything possible to spin, lie and degrade our successes within the WOT during the whole election cycle .....and they still lost to boot."

Most pollsters who follow such things claim that the Old Media influences about 10% of the vote to Democrats; 10% that wouldn't be voting for Democrats if not for the daily reinforcement of liberal propaganda (e.g. Iraqi "quagmire").

That 10%, however, is no longer enough to put Democrats over the top in national elections. But like crack addicts, the Democrats are addicted to that 10% bump.

For Democrats, the problem is that like crack, that daily reinforcement of liberal propaganda is a little less effective each day.

So the longer that the Democrats and the Old Media conspire to push liberal propaganda, the *weaker* that the Left becomes in the long run.

They are paying a long-term price in power for a short-term gain in popularity.

And when viewed over the long-term, the Democrats and Corrupt Old Media are doing the Right an enormous favor. Daily reinforcement of their tired old liberal propaganda is no longer enough to sway elections in their favor, so even in the short term we are seeing only limited harm to our side from their behavior...and over the long term we are certainly steamrolling them due to their sellout for their addiction.

The longer that they keep up their propaganda, the weaker they become (mitigated by a short-term boost in their popularity).

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"France???"

Certainly. Think about it: Chirac tells Bush that further war is not necessary. Bush says prove it. Calls are made--France is cuddlesome with Syria--and presto! this guy gets served up.

I don't believe in coincidences.

[SevenMinusOne]

Most pollsters who follow such things claim that the Old Media influences about 10% of the vote to Democrats; 10% that wouldn't be voting for Democrats if not for the daily reinforcement of liberal propaganda (e.g. Iraqi "quagmire"). That 10%, however, is no longer enough to put Democrats over the top in national elections. But like crack addicts, the Democrats are addicted to that 10% bump. For Democrats, the problem is that like crack, that daily reinforcement of liberal propaganda is a little less effective each day. So the longer that the Democrats and the Old Media conspire to push liberal propaganda, the *weaker* that the Left becomes in the long run. They are paying a long-term price in power for a short-term gain in popularity. And when viewed over the long-term, the Democrats and Corrupt Old Media are doing the Right an enormous favor. Daily reinforcement of their tired old liberal propaganda is no longer enough to sway elections in their favor, so even in the short term we are seeing only limited harm to our side from their behavior...and over the long term we are certainly steamrolling them due to their sellout for their addiction. The longer that they keep up their propaganda, the weaker they become (mitigated by a short-term boost in their popularity).

Very well said and I agree completely.

[TexKat]

Newsview: Syria May Be Bowing to Pressure

By SALAH NASRAWI ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -

Syria, long blamed for Middle East mayhem, seems to be bowing to U.S.-led international pressure to shed its image as a sponsor of regional instability.

Iraqi authorities say Syria - accused among other things of aiding anti-Israeli extremists and fanning the insurgency in Iraq - handed over Saddam Hussein's feared half brother, Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan. The decision came as an apparent goodwill gesture to ease tensions with the United States, which has demanded Damascus stop aiding Mideast militants and withdraw its 15,000 soldiers from neighboring Lebanon.

The handover of al-Hassan, who was No. 36 on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis compiled by U.S. authorities after the ouster of Saddam in April 2003, follows two recent deadly bombings in the Middle East that have escalated regional tensions and led some to point to possible Syrian involvement.

The Feb. 14 bomb that killed former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri and 16 others in Beirut set off huge protests by Lebanese who blamed Syria and Lebanon's pro-Damascus government for the attack.

The United States and France used the assassination to renew calls on Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution passed in September. Washington also withdrew its ambassador to Damascus.

Responsibility for Friday's suicide bombing of a Tel Aviv nightclub that killed four Israelis was claimed by Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group that has some officials based in Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday charged that Syria was behind the suicide bombing, saying Islamic Jihad carried out the bombing on orders from its leaders in that country.

Israel did not immediately threaten retaliation, but the possibility was clear, considering Israeli warplanes bombed an Islamic Jihad base in Syria in 2003 after a suicide bombing at a restaurant in Haifa that killed 19 people.

Syria has denied involvement in the Hariri and Tel Aviv bombings, but al-Hassan's handover and apparent improvements in Syrian safeguards on its long, porous border with Iraq indicate that embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad is showing signs of complying with increasing demands to support U.S.-backed efforts to stabilize the volatile Middle East.

In Cairo on Sunday, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shaara indicated his government would gradually withdraw its troops from Lebanon, which - along with ending its support for Palestinian and Lebanese extremist groups - is a key U.S. demand.

Handing over wanted Iraqi fugitives and complying with demands on Lebanon could ease Syria's tense relations with the Bush administration. Many in this region fear Damascus could be next on America's hit list.

The U.S. State Department, which withdrew its ambassador to Syria after Hariri's assassination, had no immediate reaction, although spokesman Steve Pike said there was no change in the status of Ambassador Margaret Scobey.

The French ambassador to Washington, Jean-David Levitte, told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" that al-Hassan's handover "would be certainly a positive development, and that's exactly what we expect from Syria."

President Bush has said he does not know if Syria was involved in Hariri's killing, but has accused Damascus of being "out of step with the progress being made in the greater Middle East." The ambassador's withdrawal, he noted, indicated "the relationship is not moving forward."

Iraqi officials say al-Hassan and 29 other members of Saddam's former Baathist regime were rounded up in the northeastern Syrian town of Hasakah and handed over at the nearby Iraqi border to authorities there.

The catch is an important one as al-Hassan is widely believed to have been a leading figure in financing and orchestrating the ongoing anti-U.S. insurgency in Iraq. The United States had offered $1 million for his capture.

Saturday's Baghdad newspaper Al-Mada reported that Syria provided information that led Iraqi authorities to breaking up 35 insurgent cells in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and arresting some 750 suspected militants.

The Syrians have a record of complying under pressure.

Under threats of invasion from Turkey, Syria expelled Turkish Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan in October 1998 after he had operated from Damascus for years.

In February 1999, Ocalan, head of the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, was snatched in a Turkish commando raid in Kenya and faced trial in Turkey. He is serving a life sentence for leading a deadly insurgency in favor of autonomy for Kurds in southeastern Turkey.

In 2000, Damascus handed over Egypt's most wanted terrorist, Rifaa Taha. Taha led the notorious al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, which was responsible for a decade long bloody rebellion to overthrow the secular government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. In return Mubarak convinced then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to resume peace talks with Syria, but the talks collapsed that year.

In recent years, U.S. officials have praised the assistance they have received from Syria in tracking and nabbing members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network.

[E Rocc]

The Israelis claim to have evidence that the Syrians were behind the suicide bombing outside a Tel Aviv club the other night, an attack clearly designed to derail the peace process. They may be trying to divert their way out of that.

-Eric

[jriemer]

Will Syria become a helpful hand like Libya?

I seriously doubt that. Syria is trying to keep up the act like they're still a powerbroker in the region by reinforcing their relations with Russia and Iran. Their token "goodwill" act of turning over Saddam's half brother is only in response to the geopolitical flogging they have received from their association with the bombings in Lebanon and Israel. If Syria thought that surrendering this guy would "make do" for those two events and decades of Syrian occupation of Lebanon and support of terrorist attacks on Israel, they take us for bigger fools than the Democrats.

[jriemer]

if the Syrians really, really want to make a gesture of goodwill, how about some info on Saddam's WMDs?

The Syrians have a rather sizable WMD program before any influx from Saddam's Iraq that not many people talk about and they've used it on their own people as well:

[snip] The residents of a Syrian city named Hama had been more persistent in their criticisms of the dictator than other towns. For that reason, Hafez Assad decided that Hama would be the staging point of the example he was to make to the Syrian people. In the twilight hours of February the 2nd, 1982, the city of Hama was awakened by loud explosions. The Syrian air force had began to drop their bombs from the dark sky.

The initial bombing run cost the city few casualties. It's main purpose had been to disable the roads so that no-one could escape. Earlier in the night, Syrian tanks and artillery systems had surrounded Hama. With the conclusion of the air bombing run, the tanks and artillery began their relentless shelling of the town....The final attack on Hama was the most gruesome. To make sure that no person was left alive in the rubble and buildings, the Syrian army brought in poison gas generators. Cyanide gas filled the air of Hama. Bulldozers were later used to turn the city into a giant flat area. The Syrian government death count was place at around 20,000 people dead ... but the Syrian Human Rights Committee estimates it to be much higher, at somewhere between 30,000 to 40,000 civilians dead or missing. [snip]
Source - The Hama Massacre of 1982

===

Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East

Go to the Regional Map.
Go to Syria's Scuds and Chemical Weapons.

Syria

Weapons of Mass Destruction Capabilities and Programs¹

Nuclear2	No evidence of a nuclear weapons program. Nuclear technological development remains at the research stage. One research reactor in Damascus, under IAEA safeguards. Ratified the NPT on 9/24/69; has not signed the CTBT.
Chemical3	Largest and most advanced CW capability in the Middle East. Reported to have chemical warheads for Scud ballistic missiles, and chemical gravity bombs for delivery by aircraft. Estimated CW stockpile in hundreds of tons. Agents believed to include Sarin, VX, and mustard gas. Major production facilities near Damascus and Homs, with hundreds of tons of agents produced annually. Program remains dependent on foreign chemicals and equipment. Not a signatory of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Biological4	Weapons research program, but no evidence of production capability. Signed the BTWC on 4/14/72, but has not ratified the convention.
Ballistic missiles5	60-120 Scud-C with 500km range and 500kg payload. Up to 200 Scud-B missiles with 300km range and 985kg payload. 200 SS-21 Scarab with 70km range and 480kg payload. Developing indigenous production capability for accurate M-9 [CSS-6 or DF-15] missiles with 600km range and 500kg payload.
Cruise missiles6	SS-N-3b Sepal with 450km range and 1,000kg payload. SS-N-2c Styx with 80km range and 513kg payload. Tupolev Tu-243 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with 360km range and unknown payload. Malachite UAV with 120km range and 130kg payload.
Other delivery systems7	Fighter and ground-attack aircraft include: 20 Su-24, 90 Su-22, 20 MiG-29, 30 MiG-25, 44 MiG-23BN, 90 MiG-23, and 160 MiG-21. Ground systems include field artillery and rocket launchers, notably 90+ FROG-7 artillery rockets with 18+ launchers, which have a 70km range and a 435kg payload.

Sources:

1. This chart summarizes data available from public sources. Precise assessment of a state's capabilities is difficult becauuse most weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs remain secret and cannot be verified independently.

2. Michael Eisenstadt, "Syria's Strategic Weapons," Jane's Intelligence Review 5/93, p. 169. "Syria: Objectives, Strategies and Resources," Proliferation: Threat and Response, Office of the Secretary of Defense, (Washington, DC: US Department of Defense, 1997), p. 18. [Online] http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/. Anthony H. Cordesman, "Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East: National Efforts, War Fighting Capabilities, Weapons Lethality, Terrorism and Arms Control Implications" (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2/98), p. 22.

3. Eisenstadt, p. 170. Office of the Secretary of Defense, pp. 18-19. Cordesman, p. 21. "Devil's Brews Briefings: Syria," Centre for Defence and International Security Studies (CDISS), 1996 [Online] http:://www.cdiss.org/cbwnb5.htm. Ahmed S. Hashim, Chemical and Biological Weapons and Deterrence Case Study 1: Syria (Alexandria, VA: Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute, 1998), p. 5. Uzi Mahnaimi, "Syria Builds Nerve Gas Arsenal," Sunday Times, 11/17/96, [Online] http://personal.the-times.co.uk:80. Paul Beaver, "Syria To Make Chemical Bomblets For 'Scud Cs," Jane's Defence Weekly, 9/3/97, p. 3.

4. Eisenstadt, p. 170. Office of the Secretary of Defense, pp. 19-20. Cordesman, p. 22. Hashim, p. 10.

5. "Missile and Space Launch Capabilties of Selected Countries," The Nonproliferation Review, forthcoming 1998. Duncan Lennox, ed., "Country Inventory – In Service," and "Scud B/C Variants," Jane's Strategic Weapons Systems Issue 24, 5/97. Eisenstadt, pp. 170-171. Office of the Secretary of Defense, p. 20. Cordesman, p. 21. "Syria," Federation of American Scientists, 3/17/97, [Online] http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/missile/syria.htm. 

6. Eisenstadt, p. 172. Office of the Secretary of Defense, p. 20. Cordesman, p. 21.  IDR Dispatches, "Russian UAV Available for Export," 9/95, p. 3.  Charles Bickers, "Russia Renews its UAV Developments, " Jane's Defence Weekly 7/23/94, p. 24.

7. Office of the Secretary of Defense, p. 20. Cordesman, p. 21. CDISS. The Military Balance 1997/98 (London: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1997), p. 147. 

Prepared by Michael Barletta and Erik Jorgensen,
© Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies. May 1998

Go to the Regional Map.
Go to Syria's Scuds and Chemical Weapons.

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Center for Nonproliferation Studies
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Copyright © 2002 Monterey Institute of International Studies. All rights reserved.

[Lee'sGhost]

Hey, Tex, I heard the sub for Rush last week talkin about how the Muslims in the tsunami area were now negotiating truce talks after seeing the military might of the US brought in to help the victims. Know of any articles on this?

[jriemer]

"France???"

Certainly. Think about it: Chirac tells Bush that further war is not necessary. Bush says prove it. Calls are made--France is cuddlesome with Syria--and presto! this guy gets served up.

France also "owned" Syria and Lebanon as a protectorate until 1945. France are a non-trivial trading partner with both countries and you can fly daily Air France (the government-owned airline) service to Beruit and Damascus.

The bottom line is we are still cleaning up France's colonial messes.

[conservativecorner]

Captured? Syria treats terrorists the way Disney World treats families staying at the Floridian. Ultimatum time for handling them all over Syria!

[TexKat]

I just got to a point where I can respond to you Lee'sGhost. I will have to check on that, however I believe that I did hear something about that in the past weeks, but I will see if I can find article/s regarding the matter.

[TexKat]

Lebanon's pro-Syrian government resigns

Posted on Mon, Feb. 28, 2005

By LEENA SAIDI and SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON

Knight Ridder Newspapers

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's entire pro-Syrian government resigned Monday night, two weeks after senior opposition leader Rafik Hariri was killed in a bomb blast widely suspected of being the work of Syrian agents.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered outside Parliament cheered as Prime Minister Omar Karami announced his resignation and that of his Cabinet.

Parliament had spent much of the day debating how the investigation into Hariri's killing was being handled, and a vote of no confidence in the government was expected soon.

"I am keen that the government will not be a hurdle in front of those who want the good for this country. I declare the resignation of the government that I had the honor to head," Karami said.

In Washington, the White House welcomed Karami's resignation and said it would allow new elections free of interference from Syria.

Karami replaced Hariri in October after Hariri resigned along with three other ministers to protest the extension of pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's term in office.

The resignation of the government was a stunning development in an unfolding crisis that's given new life to opponents of Syria's continued involvement in Lebanon, but it's also unsettled a country where a 15-year civil war once made its name synonymous with political bloodshed.

Hariri, who had been named prime minister three times since 1990, was expected to lead opposition forces in May elections to challenge Lahoud before a powerful car bomb blew up the sport-utility vehicle he was traveling in. His funeral two days later became a chaotic anti-Syria demonstration.

Syria's and Lebanon's governments have denied involvement in the assassination, but the United States recalled its ambassador from Damascus to protest the killing and has renewed its calls for Syria to withdraw the 15,000 troops it has stationed in the country.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets here, demanding an end to Syrian domination of their political affairs and the removal of the troops.

In Damascus, demonstrators made it clear that Karami's resignation wouldn't end their protests.

"Lahoud, your turn is coming!" protestors outside Parliament chanted Monday night.

Opposition leaders urged the crowd to keep up the pressure.

"This is a victory, but this is not our ultimate goal," Parliament member Bassem al-Sabeh told the crowd. "So we have to continue our protests."

Members of the crowd waved bright red and white Lebanese flags. Some wore flags as scarves. The crowd included professionals, businessmen, housewives and students, many of whom slipped past police cordons to join the protest.

Observers predicted more protests.

"This is not a resignation over political or economic issues. This is a battle for the independence of Lebanon," said Farid el Khazen, chairman of the political studies department at the American University of Beirut. "The taboo (of not speaking against Syria) has been broken."

The outgoing government will remain in office until Lahoud, in consultation with Parliament, names an interim Cabinet.

(Special correspondent Saidi reported from Beirut. Nelson reported from Jerusalem.)

[Lee'sGhost]

Thanks. The guy who was talking about it made the point that the media has totally missed it. But he got the info somehow so SOMEBODY must have covered it.

[shirgall]

The paragraph in blue, while quoted in my blog, is clearly marked in my blog as having come from the Wall Street Journal article "Syria's Dead Hand." I don't want anyone to think I'm claiming to have written that.

[TexKat]

Thank you shirgall.