Why Syria Is in America's Gunsights
Robert Fisk, The Independent


So now Syria is in America's gunsights.

First it's Iraq, Israel's most powerful enemy, possessor of weapons of mass
destruction - none of which have been found. Now it's Syria, Israel's
second most powerful enemy, possessor of weapons of mass destruction, or so
President George Bush Junior tells us.

No word of that possessor of real weapons of mass destruction, Israel - the
number of its nuclear warheads in the Negev are now accurately listed -
whose Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has long been complaining that Damascus
is the "center of world terror."

But Syria is a target all right.

First came the US claim that Damascus was sending gas masks to the Iraqi
Army. The Syrians denied it - but what if it's true? Why shouldn't an Arab
neighbor offer Iraqi soldiers protective clothing during an American
invasion which has no international legitimacy. Then Syria was accused of
sending - or allowing - Arab "volunteers" to cross into Iraq to fight the
Americans.

This is much harder for the Syrians to deny. I've met a few of them here in
Baghdad, most anxious to return to their homes in Homs and Damascus,
others - from Algeria and Morocco - telling me that they will be safe if
they can reach the Syrian border because "there will be no trouble from
there."

But here, too, there's a whiff of hypocrisy. Whenever Israel goes to war,
there are always hundreds of "volunteers" from the United States rushing to
Tel Aviv to join the Israel Defense Force, and America never complains.

But then comes the nastiest accusation: That members of the Iraqi regime
have fled to Syria for safety.

Given Syria's increasingly warmer relations with Saddam's Iraq in recent
years, and the joint nature of their Baathist past - the Syrian Christian
Michel Aflaq was a founder of the Baath in the days when it was a creature
of both nations - it's difficult to believe that the Tariq
Azizes and Taha Yassin Ramadans could not seek refuge in Syria.

Needless to say, the capture of Saddam's half-brother near the Syrian
border has provoked the usual rash of stories. Tariq Aziz is living in
Lebanon with the ladies of Saddam's family.

Untrue. The Arabic television satellite channel interviewed the ex-Iraqi
Information Minister Mohamed Al-Sahaf in Damascus. Totally untrue. And also
embarrassing for the Americans.

For just as they failed to capture the most brutal of the Bosnian Serb
murderers, Messers Karadjic and Mladic, so they failed to find Osama Bin
Laden - or even Mulla Omar - and, given the failure of American
intelligence in Baghdad, it wouldn't be that surprising if the whole of the
Iraqi Cabinet managed to pass safely through an American checkpoint
in an orange panteknikon.

But it's Syria that is being lined up for attack next, not the Saddam
Cabinet.

And the signs were clear long ago.

Take the article in the New York Times by Larry Collins - joint author with
Dominique Lapierre of "O Jerusalem" - which last month announced that the
Syrian-supported Hezballah resistance in Lebanon had 10,000 new missiles
that could fly to Tel Aviv and "leave in their wake devastation more
terrible than anything Israel has ever known." The missiles are a
myth - I travel the roads of southern Lebanon every two weeks and there are
no such missiles, as the UN force there will confirm - but this doesn't
matter.

Collins even stated that the "thinkers" (anonymous) at Bar Ilan University
in Tel Aviv believed that it was "Syria, not Iraq, that possessed the most
sophisticated chemical and biological weaponry in the Middle East." Quite
so. And then it will be Libya who has the most
sophisticated C-B weapons.

Or Saudi Arabia.

Or anyone else Israel wants attacked.

But this still leaves the question: Could Saddam and his sons and Tariq
Aziz and Ramadan and the rest have passed through Syria? Not impossible.
But the idea that they would be allowed to stay there seems incredible. If
President Bashar Assad really allowed Saddam to be a guest, it would be
akin to inviting a Cruise missile to his presidential palace. After all, it
was only a few months ago - under pressure from Turkey - that Syria
deported the Kurdish leftist leader Abdullah Ocalan to Russia, whence he
arrived in Africa and was handed over in Kenya to the Turks. But Syria just
might have provided a transit station for the Baath Party officials from
Iraq.

To where? My own favorite is Belarus - because its capital, Minsk, is awash
in facilities, corruption and damp apartments (the first two of which would
appeal to most Iraqi Baathists). Indeed, I promoted this idea to collagues
with enthusiasm before America's invasion of Iraq. But then, just seven
weeks ago, I read a paragraph in the Lebanese newspaper "As-Safir" which
reported that President Lukashenko, an old friend of ex-Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic, had invited Saddam's son, Uday, to a chess championship
in Minsk.

And ever since, I have been imagining the whole Baathist crew wandering the
forests of Belarus - Saddam "et fils", Tariq Aziz, Ramadan, the Iraqi
defense minister, even Sahaf, wandering the forests of Belarus as state
guests.

Vladimir Putin, of course, would be asked to help to retrieve them and hand
them over to Washington. And he would have a price, no doubt, a price
involving oil concessions and Russia's already signed oil contracts in
Baghdad.

Features 15 April 2003

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~