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| Syria's Bashar al-Assad and al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri |
Three of them specifically delve into the liaison
today as:
- the state-run Syrian news network Champress releases the names and nationalities of what it claims to be 26 “terrorists” – 20 of them al-Qaeda operatives -- captured by government authorities, and
- a statement by the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) requested a UN-mandated commission of inquiry to determine who stands behind Thursday’s twin bombings in Damascus and why. The statement denied the FSA was behind the blasts, accusing the regime instead of carrying them out to discredit the opposition.
Of the 26 “terrorists” named in the Champress document, 20 are Tunisian, two
are Lebanese, one is Lebanese-Palestinian, and the remaining three are one each
from Libya, Egypt and Jordan.
Champress says the official document with the full names, personal
details, particulars and date of arrest of each of the 20 al-Qaeda and six other
“terrorists” was submitted by Syria’s permanent UN representative Bashar
at-Jaafari to the UN Security Council.
The document shows most of the “terrorists” had
infiltrated into Syria through Turkey and were captured in March.
The FSA statement, for its part, said, “The illegitimate Syrian
regime continues to kill and target unarmed civilians through bombings in
Damascus and other cities. (Thursday’s twin) bombings in Qazaz are another
desperate attempt by the regime to support its claims regarding the existence
of ‘terrorists’ and ‘armed gangs’.
“It has been conclusively proven these
bombings are perpetrated by the illegitimate regime, and we request the
following to be taken into consideration:
- “The bombings followed Kofi Annan’s recent statements, which suggested the Syrian regime may not be adhering to the six-point peace plan...
- “The FSA does not possess the necessary capability to conduct such bombings
- “A car containing bodies of detainees was found on the site… and it was later discovered it was brought to the affected area
- “The speed with which state-run news agencies showed up at the scene to provide live coverage
- "The FSA is incapable of reaching the site of the explosions, as it is a heavily guarded security complex
- “The summoning of UNSMIS mission chief, Gen. Robert Mood, to the site of the explosions for him to give statements that may serve the Syrian regime’s claims
- “FSA members defected from regime forces to protect civilians, not to harm them.
“Therefore, we condemn this cowardly
terrorist act and hold the regime fully responsible for it. We ask the UN to set
up a team of international experts to investigate these bombings, and urge Mr.
Annan to declare the failure of his peace plan, and to hold the regime
accountable for the failure. We also call for the arming of the Free Syrian
Army and request an emergency UN Security Council meeting, so it can pass a
resolution under Chapter 7 facilitating the protection of Syrian civilians.”
Ali
Hamade, political analyst for the independent Beirut daily an-Nahar, focuses today on what he calls
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s “love story” with al-Qaeda.
Few people, he writes believed the Syrian
regime’s narrative about the twin-bombings in Damascus, opposite the infamous
“Palestine Military Branch” where regime opponents are interrogated and tortured.
“Few expressed their condolences to Assad.
Few believed the regime’s innocence of a crime that harmed ordinary civilians
more than it hurt the regime’s shabiha
militia or its Palestine Military Branch criminals.
“Few believe the regime was not al-Qaeda’s
partner for several years in Iraq’s dance of death as well as al-Qaeda’s death
dancing partner for four decades in Lebanon.”
More recently, Hamade notes, didn’t Syria
also manufacture “Fatah
al-Islam” in Lebanon? It is an open secret, he says, that today’s al-Qaeda
is “a gun for hire” – much as the Carlos terrorist group
of the Seventies.
Hamade says the February 2005 assassination
of Lebanon’s Rafik Hariri
marked the pinnacle of four-way cooperation linking Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and
al-Qaeda.
According to Tariq Alhomayed,
editor-in-chief of Saudi Arabia’s leading daily Asharq Alawsat, “Thursday’s Damascus bombings show the Assad
regime’s ruse paying off this time… The regime succeeded in hard-pressing all sides
– the Syrian opposition as well the international community… When the Assad
regime decries the death of 55 Syrians in the Damascus bombings, why does no
one ask him about the 12,000 Syrians his regime killed over the past year?”
The head of Saudi-owned Alarabiya television news channel Abdul
Rahman al-Rashed, also writing of Asharq
Alawsat, says Damascus was heartened and couldn’t believe its ears on
hearing US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta tell
reporters late on Thursday that intelligence indicates there is an
"al-Qaeda presence in Syria… Frankly we need to continue to do everything
we can to determine what kind of influence they're trying to exert there."
Rashed says, “The
Syrian government wants to convince the world that it is fighting terrorists,
al-Qaeda and the forces of darkness, not a popular uprising standing up to a brutal
regime. That’s what Damascus is desperate to make Western public opinion
believe.”
The regime is a maestro
at concocting terror scenarios to serve its own ends. It proved it in Lebanon by
simultaneously assassinating Rafik Hariri and concocting the storyline of “Abu-Adass.” It
confirmed in Lebanon again in 2007, when it planted Fatah al-Islam in Nahr al-Bared. It also
proved it by gathering al-Qaeda volunteers from across the region before
ensuring their safe passage to Iraq. It is now frantically trying to persuade
the world to choose between Bashar al-Assad and Ayman al-Zawahiri.
