Syria and al-Qaeda: A love-hate relationship

Syria's Bashar al-Assad and al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri

The love-hate relationship between Syria and al-Qaeda enthralls Arab political analysts.

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.

Assad wins first round technical knockout

(Photo from foreignpolicy.com)

This is the major part of a remarkably candid opinion of diplomatic endeavors to solve the Syria crisis. It appears in Arabic in today’s edition of the leading Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat. The author is Abdul Rahman al-Rashed, managing director of Alarabiya TV:

I am not happy to acknowledge, but truth is Assad’s regime foiled all Arab and international moves against it and turned the tables on its adversaries in three months. So much so that all sides’ demands dwindled to the mere brokering of a process of reconciliation, hopefully acceptable to President Bashar al-Assad.

He succeeded in fragmenting international positions – a scenario he used after his assassination of Lebanon’s late Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005. He also succeeded in making foreign countries – including his stalwart opponents such as Europe and the United States -- believe if they brought him down they would get Ayman al-Zawahiri instead and empower extremists to rule a multi-sectarian country.

The defeat became public yesterday, when Arab efforts suffered a setback. Proof is Arab countries openly supportive of the Syrian people caved in to the call for a conciliatory solution. The Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saudi al-Faisal, the two hawks in the diplomatic campaign against Damascus, accepted the decision to defer the Arab League solution to the Security Council. This is in spite of the loopholes the Arab League had incorporated in the solution to bail out the regime – such as negotiating reconciliation.

Of course, some would make a point of yesterday’s Arab statement deeming the Baba Amr massacre committed by Syrian military and security forces as a crime against humanity. But that’s a moral declaration, no more.

Whereas Assad’s reign was precarious six months ago and the international community was ready to draft a resolution mandating intervention and burial of his regime, Assad today is in a stronger position on the Arab and international stages. The drubbing (of Assad’s opponents) could be blamed on failure to unify the Syrian opposition groups and on the Damascus government changing its diplomatic strategy and going on the offensive.

Anyway, this is one round of many. I don’t know how Assad can escape the bloodbath he caused in the country… His diplomatic success on the external front does not mirror his routs on the home front. All he’s done so far is inflate the Syrian people’s hatred of his regime…

Al-Qaeda taxis are lined up for hire

Ayman al-Zawahiri (photo from ken-welch.com) 

I was taken aback last December, when Lebanese Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn, who represents the pro-Syrian Marada Movement in the Hezbollah-led government of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, made the surprise remark that al-Qaeda operatives, pretending to be Syrian oppositionists, were smuggling arms into Syria from north Lebanon’s town of Ersal.

Since Ghosn made the claim, Syria blamed two suicide bombings in each of Damascus and Aleppo on al-Qaeda.

On February 11, an audiotape from Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian exile presumably based in Pakistan who runs what’s left of “al-Qaeda Central,” called for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Five days later, top U.S. intelligence officials pointed to al-Qaeda in Iraq as the likely culprit behind the four suicide bombings in Syria.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Congress the blasts “bore the earmarks” of al- Qaeda in Iraq, which “is extending its reach into Syria” – possibly with Iran’s help -- by infiltrating Syrian opposition groups, likely without their knowledge.

"It does raise concerns for us that al-Qaeda is trying to assert a presence there," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said at the Pentagon. "As to just what their role is and how extensive their role is, I think that still remains to be seen."

Shedding light on that role obliquely this week is veteran Iraqi journalist Ibrahim al-Zubaidi.

His piece for the London-based Arabic-language online newspaper Elaph revolves around his conversation with a “friend from Iraq’s province of Salahuddin.”

Zubaidi writes:

It occurred to me to touch on politics and asked my friend, “Are there still gangs going around killing policemen, servicemen and day laborers gathering to look for work in the name of resistance and struggle against the occupation now that we’ve seen the last of the occupiers?”

My friend sighed briefly and said, “Yes, we continue receiving ‘gifts’ from the mujahedeen and insurgents…”

“I don’t deny,” added my friend from the province of Salahuddin, “that among them are nationalists and well-intentioned people. But many of them are either totally ignorant of true religion, racists or religious bigots. They are well-disposed to be exploited by al-Qaeda, the Baath Party or others who do not wish this country well.”

I asked my friend, “Is there really al-Qaeda in Salahuddin – I mean the al-Qaeda of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri?”

My friend replied with a wry smile on his face: “We have several al-Qaedas, not a lone al-Qaeda. The al-Qaedas we had in the past, we have today and might be having for years to come are disjoined armed groups. Doctrine, thought, funding, planning or exile does not tie them.

“They very much resemble day laborer gatherings on specific road intersection tracking the ebb and flow of employers and hoping to be picked up for work. They also look like the concrete mixer trucks that are used by real estate developers. Moreover, you can say our al-Qaedas are taxi cabs ready to ferry whoever is willing to pay them their fare…”

What triggered this chat with my friend was a report I read on Sky.com about al-Qaeda and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This is part of what I read:

“Sky News’ intelligence sources have said Iran has been supplying al-Qaeda with training in the use of advanced explosives, ‘some funding and a safe haven,’ as part of a deal worked out in 2009 which has now led to ‘operational capacity.’”

Sky News revealed in its report that “Iran and al-Qaeda’s core leadership under Ayman al-Zawahiri have established an ‘operational relationship’ amid fears the terror group is planning a spectacular attack against the West.”

This intelligence information surfaced when a video message from Zawahiri was rallying al-Qaeda support for the Syrian uprising. Recent remarks by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, by Hezbollah chieftain Hassan Nasrallah and by Iraqi ruling party spokespersons are meant to convey the impression that al-Qaeda is a key partner in the Syrian revolution. A concerted and desperate campaign is underway to save Assad’s regime.

Iran wants to replicate (in Syria) the template it used with great success in Iraq – a template that allowed all its proxies to eventually assume all key government positions in post-war Iraq on grounds that they are diehard enemies of al-Qaeda when in truth some were al-Qaeda operatives who had been living safely with their families in Iran.

My friend from Salahuddin is right. The love cab is parked on the taxi rank waiting for any customer willing to pay the fare for a delightful journey.

May God help our Syrian, Iraqi and other Arab brothers!