Posted on 10/04/2004 1:38:49 PM PDT by 11th_VA
WASHINGTON -- A secret Syrian and Iraqi smuggling network that made billions of dollars busting U.N. sanctions during Saddam Hussein's regime is now involved in organizing and financing violent anti-U.S. guerrillas in Iraq, The Post has learned.
According to U.S. intelligence officials and Syrian exiles, the network, once involved in oil and arms smuggling as well as scamming the U.N. oil-for-food program before the war, has morphed into an increasingly organized command and control structure to coordinate much of the terrorist campaign in Iraq.
The officials said the shadowy structure, with bases of operation in Syria, is made up of Saddam's cousins, clansmen and ex-aides who are actively supported by some family members of Syria's ruling elite and at least two powerful Syrian generals.
"It is part of a pattern of relationships that started in the 1990s for strategic and commercial purposes. It involved a lot of very powerful families from both countries who made millions of dollars together," said Farid Jhadry of the Reform Party of Syria, an exile group with close contacts at the Pentagon and State Department.
Last week, after months of pressure from the United States, the State Department announced that Syrian President Bashar Assad had agreed to take "specific steps" to stop the flow of arms and fighters across Syria's border with Iraq.
But there are doubts about whether Assad is willing or able to shut down the network.
"There has been a great deal of fragmentation of the power center after the death of Assad's father [former Syrian President Hafez Assad]. There are branches of the security services and even some ministries that basically act independently," said Ammar Abdulhamid, a prominent Syrian political and social analyst.
At the head of this network, U.S. intelligence officials say, is Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, Saddam's deputy military commander.
Duri, who has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, has been holding meetings with other Iraqi Ba'athists and members of Saddam's Tikrit and al-Majid clans inside Syria to coordinate movement of weapons, fighters and money for Iraqi terrorist groups, according to intelligence reports.
A group of Saddam's cousins, who are co-coordinating the financing of the rebel campaign, also operate in the network, U.S. intelligence officials say.
The group reportedly has access to up to $4 billion that Saddam looted from Iraq's treasury and scammed from the oil-for-food program. U.S. intelligence officials also say the ring includes wealthy relatives of Syrian government officials.
Time for a little "accident" in Syria.
PING - VERY ENLIGHTENING!!!
tick, tock, tick, tock...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.