Posted on 08/08/2005 9:36:11 PM PDT by FreedomNeocon
The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad received $3 billion from illegal oil and arms deals with the former Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq.
The House International Relations Committee released documents outlining the huge profits accumulated by Syria in serving as a way station for illegal Iraqi oil exports and arms imports. The documents, supplied by the Internal Revenue Service, pointed to revenues earned by then-Syrian Defense Minister Moustapha Tlas for enabling weapons sales to Iraq in the years that led up to the U.S.-led war against Baghdad in 2003.
At a House hearing on July 27, officials warned that the Bush administration would impose additional sanctions on Damascus unless it returned $262 million to Baghdad. Syria has so far refused to do this.
"Despite Syrian steps to improve its anti-money laundering and terrorist finance controls, the Section 311 sanctions could be triggered if Syria does not follow through with the transfer of this remaining amount to the DFI [Development Fund for Iraq]," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Dibble said.
In all, the Iraqi-Syrian trade amounted to $3 billion between June 2000 and March 2003, officials said. The Commercial Bank of Syria, or CBS, received funds via oil sales.
Officials said Syria was the most helpful of Iraq's neighbors with much of the Iraqi funds transferred to banks in Beirut.
"It was in the Syrian regime that Saddam found perhaps his most favored and profitable collaborator," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), chairwoman of the House subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia.
In most cases, Iraq received payment for smuggled oil through Syrian supplies of Soviet-origin weapons, including main battle tank and aircraft components, anti-aircraft and night-vision systems and anti-tank rockets. The IRS documents asserted that 60 percent of Syrian payments to Iraq consisted of weapons deliveries. The rest was paid in cash.
"Under the Syrian protocols, the former Hussein regime was required to use the money in the trade account to purchase goods from vendors and businesses in Syria," said Dwight Sparlin, operations director for the IRS's Criminal Investigation Division.
"The Iraqi government would negotiate contracts with Syrian companies to provide merchandise. Once the merchandise was received in Iraq and verified, SOMO [the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization] would direct the CBS by letter to pay a specific amount to a Syrian supplier from the trade account."
The documents asserted that Tlas received payments for facilitating weapons deals in violation of United Nations Security Council sanctions.
Tlas's son, Firas, arranged weapons deals for Iraq from Europe.
Assad's cousin, Thualhima Shaleesh, was also said to have served as an intermediary for Iraqi weapons imports. Shaleesh was chief of the presidential guard corps.
The majority of Iraqi trade with Syria went through another cousin of Assad, Asef Shaleesh. Shaleesh headed a company called SES, which received $187 million in defense and security contracts from the Saddam regime.
"While Syria acted as Iraq's banker, some of its highest officials brokered military deals for Iraq and profited from them as well," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), chairman of the Joint Oversight and Investigations subcommittee. "One source suggests that former Syrian Defense Minister Moustapha Tlas received a regular 'tribute payment' for his role in the deals between the two countries. Anything shipped had to receive his approval in order to be allowed through Syrian Customs."
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. . . And continues to serve as primary way-station for insurgency in Iraq . . .
Despite increased U.S. operations and diplomatic pressure, Syria continues to serve as the main way station for insurgents and weaponry destined for Iraq. The U.S. military has determined that Syria continues to serve as the preferred route for insurgents ordered to undermine the pro-U.S. government in Baghdad. Sunni insurgents linked to Al Qaida smuggle fighters, explosives as well as a range of equipment for attacks against coalition and Iraqi troops.
Aleppo, officials said, has served as the launching point for Sunni insurgents. Fighters from such North African countries as Algeria and Sudan arrive in Syria and make their way to the northern city.
In Aleppo, the foreign fighters search the mosques of the old city quarter for liaisons with the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, usually mosque preachers or their aides.
"We still consider that Syria is probably the most porous border of those that border Iraq," said Lt. Gen. James Conway, director of operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The U.S. military has completed what officials termed the first long-term base near the Syrian border close to Saudi Arabia. The base, about 5 kilometers from Rawah, currently has 2,000 U.S. Marines and Army personnel, and would facilitate regular operations to block the flow of insurgents and weapons from Syria.
Syria has repeatedly pledged to enhance security along the border with Iraq and Syrian border police and troops have captured some suspected insurgents and blocked some shipments.
The regime of President Bashar Assad has also constructed a wall of several kilometers along the border with Iraq to block infiltration. Officials said the wall, construction of which began in March 2005, has been completed in several sections along the Iraqi border.
Nevertheless, officials said the lion's share of insurgency equipment still manages to enter Iraq. In some cases smugglers and infiltrators have simply moved south along the Syrian border to where there are no physical barriers.
In other cases, officials said, the wall has been breached and smuggling has resumed. Syrian border authorities have turned a blind eye as smugglers established lookout points along the wall, they said.
"They [Syria] have done some improvement on the physical berm that exists between the two countries," Conway told a Defense Department briefing on July 26. "So I would say we're encouraged but we would still like to see more."
So we have this, and we have shaped charges for IEDs interdicted at the Iraq-Iran Border. The Axis of Evil ...
This helps explain why so many of the MSM's "insurgents" that are in Iraq killing people are from Syria. Money, money, money.
The irony of the Iraqi and Syrian Baath parties is in Iraq, the minority Sunnis have dominated the majority Shiias, whereas in Syria, the minority Shiias have dominated the majority Sunnis.
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