Posted on 09/03/2002 5:36:37 AM PDT by MadIvan
Israel accused Syria yesterday of allowing up to 200 militants linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda network to settle in southern Lebanon.
The newspaper Ha'aretz, quoting "various intelligence services", said Syria had also provided sanctuary for bin Laden's son, Omar, before and after the September 11 attacks in America.
The leader of the September 11 hijackers, Mohamed Atta, visited Syria two or three times, the newspaper said.
The information was published amid rising tension between Israel and Syria, following the death of an Israeli soldier in a raid by Syrian-backed Hizbollah guerrillas across the Lebanese border.
Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, the Israeli defence minister, has warned Syria that it is "playing with fire" if it allows cross-border raids to continue.
David Satterfield, a senior American diplomat, said after talks in Damascus yesterday that all sides "should do everything possible to ensure that calm prevails, to avoid those provocations and escalations".
The intelligence information fits in with Israeli military assessments that Syria and its ally Iran are a more serious long-term threat to Israel than Iraq, where Washington is determined to remove Saddam Hussein as leader. Syria maintains troops in Lebanon and controls the movement of armed men into the south of the country.
The presence of a small number of bin Laden supporters in the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon is no secret. A group of 10 to 15, who are wanted by the Lebanese police and have taken refuge there, clashed with Palestinian militiamen last month.
Syria has been co-operating with the American security services and has provided information on al-Qa'eda cells in Germany.
But Israeli intelligence believes that the co-operation is only partial, and that key information has not been volunteered to the Americans.
Regards, Ivan
Interesting.
At one point we thought Assad could be persuaded to behave because he has a British educated wife. Apparently not.
Too bad you didn't listen to your better half, old fellow. Now it's time to pay the penalty.
Regards, Ivan
We had better pray we kill off Saddam's regime before his sons can assume power - they are supposedly even more barmy than the old man. Imagine if he left nukes as part of their inheritance?
Regards, Ivan
Uday: Feared son turns politician
BBC News - 28 March, 2000
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday, has met with success in his first foray into politics, receiving 99.99% backing in parliamentary elections in his Baghdad constituency.Uday's candidacy is seen as a move to take on a more prominent public profile but until now he has been best known for his playboy image, unrivalled trading and media empire and fearsome reputation for brutality.
The 35-year-old has accumulated a host of roles, most notably ownership of the leading Iraqi daily newspaper Babel, and chairmanship of the country's Olympic Committee, football association and journalists' union.
He also heads TV and radio stations, is chairman of the board of seven weekly newspapers and owns a night-club. Uday's personal income is estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Iraqi opposition groups allege that his ventures include oil smuggling on a massive scale.
For many years, Uday acted as the de facto prime minister of Iraq. He was his father's favourite son and considered his heir.
But five years ago, he was sidelined after provoking a bloody family rift that led to the defection of Saddam's two sons-in-law to Jordan.
Assassination attempt
He partially redeemed himself when he lured the defectors back to Baghdad and personally took part in their execution.
A year later, would-be assassins sprayed Uday's white Mercedes with bullets while he was on his way to a party in Mansur, a fashionable district of Baghdad.
The injuries to his legs and spine appeared to leave him partially paralysed.
It is believed the attack was carried out by ordinary Iraqis seeking revenge for Uday's legendary depredations, in particular his notorious pursuit of women.
Later, a member of the group which said it had carried out the attack told a British newspaper that, although they had failed to kill Uday, they believed they had eliminated him as a political leader.
'Violent rages'
In the aftermath of that assassination attempt, Iraqi opposition groups said Uday's younger brother, Qusay was given increasing power.
He took charge of the Fedayeen unit (Arabic for fighters who will sacrifice themselves), which was founded by the older son.
This was interpreted as a sign that Uday had become too frail to be considered the heir apparent any longer.
After his discharge from hospital in June 1997, there were reports that he was suffering severe depression and was subject to violent rages.
A month after his release, he shot dead a young bodyguard, and a week later was reported to have killed a woman he had brought to the presidential palace to seduce.
Uday acquired a fearsome reputation as a young man.
Football allegations
As a 15-year-old, he was rumoured to have taken part in a massacre of cabinet ministers that consolidated his father's grip on power.
Other stories have been told of his fleet of sports cars and of the women he abducted at gunpoint.
In 1988, he is alleged to have beaten to death one of Saddam's aides, accusing him of playing the intermediary between a woman and his father.
He was sent into exile in Geneva, but returned to take direct charge of the Iraqi football team's attempt to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
But there were reports that Uday had football players humiliated, beaten and tortured for playing badly or after losing critical matches.
Fifa, international football's governing body, launched an investigation, and said later it had found no evidence of torture.
But last year, one of the country's star players, Sharar Haydar Mohaad al Hadithi, told the Sunday Times newspaper that he had undergone torture ordered by Uday.
Nowadays, Uday is more "reflective and mature", according to his aides.
Footage has repeatedly been shown on Iraqi television of him receiving foreign dignitaries and awarding medals to the fedayeen, the paramilitary group he has taken charge of again.
And two years ago, he published his 300-page political science doctorate as a supplement inside Babel. It dealt with the effect of post-Cold War conditions on America's superpower status,.
Public proof of Uday's physical rehabilitation came last December when Iraqi television showed him swimming in the Tigris river.
We do not want this man getting nukes, I would submit.
Regards, Ivan
It wasn't me. I can't fault the enthusiasm, but really...
Regards, Ivan
He does have sufficient support to succeed his father I think. The problem is that he apparently is prone to fits of madness, and God knows where that would lead.
Regards, Ivan
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