حزب الإصلاح السوري

Washington DC, December 7, 2004 /RPS News/ - The Assad regime, in a gesture of reconciliation towards the Islamic Brotherhood in Syria, released 112 prisoners. The move signals a new "open and tolerant policy" as described by SANA, the official news agency of Syria.

The Assad regime has clashed with the Muslim Brotherhood since the early eighties, which culminated in the killing of between 30,000 to 40,000 innocent civilians in the city of Hama in 1982. One third of the city was destroyed by Hafez al-Assad and his brother Rifaat.

This move is seen by analysts as a gesture to neutralize the Muslim Brotherhood in times of international pressure on Syria.

The head of the Syria's Human Rights Association, Haitham al-Maleh, welcomed the move. He asked the Assad regime to free all political detainees.

"It is not acceptable that a person should be detained for his opinions," al-Maleh said. Syria still holds 600 political prisoners the most famous are Riad Seif, Ma'amun al-Homsi, and Aref Daliliah. The formers are parliamentarians who were imprisoned for uncovering corrupt practices by the Assad family in Syria.

Anwar al-Bunni, a lawyer and human rights activist, said: "There are people who are sentenced to jail terms on charges that might not be seen as political by the authorities but there are hundreds of prisoners yet to be released," Mr. al-Bunni was referring to Prisoners of Conscience.

Washington DC, December 7, 2004 /RPS News/ - While praise is showered on Syria's latest release of prisoners who have suffered inhumanly, some for more than 10 years for no reason than stating an opinion or writing an article, Amnesty International today slammed Syria's inconsistent policies.

Ina report entitled "End persecution of human rights defenders and human rights activists", Amnesty published information that showed clearly that the propaganda machine of the Assad regime is involved in a revolving door policy where they release some prisoners and get the maximum attention for it and then quietly arrest more people, condemn others to long terms in prison, or continue holding other prisoners of conscience.

Such is the case of 'Abd al-Karim Dha'oun, a trustee of the Committee for the Defence of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights (CDDLHR). He was arrested on 12 September in connection with a report he had written as a health inspector, on conditions inside Hama Prison. Furthermore, CDDLHR President, human rights lawyer Aktham Noaisse remains on trial before the Supreme State Security Court (SSSC) on charges which could carry a sentence of up to 15 years' imprisonment. His sentencing date is January 16, 2004.

Amnesty adds that on 23 November, two human rights defenders from the Arab Organization of Human Rights - Syria (AOHR-S) were prevented from traveling to a human rights conference in Cairo, Egypt. AOHR-S President, human rights lawyer Mohammad Ra'dun and his colleague Dr Mahmoud al-'Aryan, were stopped at Damascus Airport. Human rights defenders are frequently prevented from travel outside the country and Amnesty International has previously called upon the Syrian authorities to lift travel restrictions imposed on human rights defenders and lawyers Haytham al-Maleh, Anwar al-Bunni and Razan Zaytouneh.

Also on 23 November, just 2 weeks prior to this release, Amnesty International learnt that the family of prisoner of conscience 'Abdel Rahman al-Shaghouri was denied access to visit him at Sednaya Prison, having already received permission from Military Intelligence to do so. He has not been allowed any visits from his family, or from his lawyer, since his arrest in February 2003. On 20 June 2004 he was sentenced to two and a half years' imprisonment for e-mailing to friends and relatives articles, mainly from the Akhbar al-Sharq internet site, on human rights and politics in Syria.

Also on 23 November, Amnesty International received information confirming serious health concerns for two of the six prisoners of conscience held since the summer of 2001. Lawyer Habib 'Isa, 62, is suffering from chronic back pain and is in need of a hernia operation. Dr. 'Aref Dalilah, 64, has developed a serious heart condition which requires an operation, possibly to fit a pacemaker. It came to light in September that Habib 'Isa was beaten severely by guards in May 2002, the same month, it was already known, that Dr. 'Aref Dalilah had also been beaten. They were arrested in 2001 and sentenced to five and ten years' imprisonment respectively for their involvement in the short-lived pro-democracy and human rights movement known as the "Damascus Spring". All six men remain in prolonged, solitary detention.

Syria's selective prisoner release is nothing more than a propaganda machine.

Washington DC, December 8, 2004 /The Washington Post - Thomas E. Ricks/ - U.S. military intelligence officials have concluded that the Iraqi insurgency is being directed to a greater degree than previously recognized from Syria, where they said former Saddam Hussein loyalists have found sanctuary and are channeling money and other support to those fighting the established government.

Based on information gathered during the recent fighting in Fallujah, Baghdad and elsewhere in the Sunni Triangle, the officials said that a handful of senior Iraqi Baathists operating in Syria are collecting money from private sources in Saudi Arabia and Europe and turning it over to the insurgency.

In some cases, evidence suggests that these Baathists are managing operations in Iraq from a distance, the officials said. A U.S. military summary of operations in Fallujah noted recently that troops discovered a global positioning signal receiver in a bomb factory in the western part of the city that "contained waypoints originating in western Syria."

Concerns about Syria's role in Iraq were also expressed in interviews The Washington Post conducted yesterday with Jordan's King Abdullah and Iraqi President Ghazi Yawar. "There are people in Syria who are bad guys, who are fugitives of the law and who are Saddam remnants who are trying to bring the vicious dictatorship of Saddam back," Yawar said. "They are not minding their business or living a private life. They are . . . disturbing or undermining our political process."

Abdullah noted that the governments of both the United States and Iraq believe that "foreign fighters are coming across the Syrian border that have been trained in Syria."

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials have previously complained about Syria's role in Iraq, but officials said the latest intelligence has given impetus to new efforts aimed at curbing the activities of the Hussein loyalists there. The U.S. government recently gave the government of Syria a list of those officials, with a request that they be arrested or expelled, a State Department official said yesterday.

"We're bringing quite a bit of pressure to bear on them, and I think some of it is working," said another official, who works in federal counterterrorism efforts. Like other officials interviewed for this article, he declined to be identified by name or position because of the sensitivity of his specialty.

One briefing slide in a classified summary of new intelligence data also says that new diplomatic initiatives are being used to encourage the Syrian government to detain or expel the Iraqi Baathists. "The Syrians appear to have done a little bit to stem extremist infiltration into Iraq at the border, but clearly have not helped with regards to Baathists infiltrating back and forth," said a senior U.S. military officer in the region. "We still have serious challenges there, and Syria needs to be doing a lot more."

The Syrian ambassador to the United States emphatically rejected the accusations as unfounded. "There is a sinister campaign to create an atmosphere of hostility against Syria," said Imad Moustapha, the envoy. He said his government "categorically" denies that Iraqi Baathists are taking refuge in his country. "We don't allow this to happen," he said. "Iraqi officials were never welcome."

As described by defense officials, new intelligence on the insurgency suggests some other emerging problems, such as how extensively U.S. operations in Iraq have been penetrated by members of the insurgency and by people sympathetic to it.

The Green Zone in central Baghdad, home of the U.S. Embassy and the offices of the interim Iraqi government, is especially "overrun with agents," said one Defense Department official who recently returned from Iraq. One activity that has been noticed is that when major convoys leave the zone, Iraqi cell phone calls from the zone seem to increase, he said. An additional concern is that the insurgency seems to be using some Iraqi companies to get into U.S. bases, he said.

Jeffrey White, a former Middle Eastern analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the Syrian role is part of what many intelligence officials believe are the increasingly organized attacks on U.S. forces. "In the last two months or so, this notion that this is a Baathist insurgency has gained dominance in the [intelligence] community," he said. Coupled with that, he said, "there is an increasing view that Syria is at the center of the problem."

Not everyone with first-hand knowledge of the intelligence is convinced that the United States really has a strong grasp of the nature of the insurgency, especially the idea that the insurgency is being directed from the top down. Some Special Forces officers contend that many of the small-scale roadside attacks with bombs or rocket-propelled grenades are mounted not on orders of a hierarchical organization, but rather by Iraqis working more or less alone who feel they have been humiliated by U.S. soldiers, or who simply dislike the occupation.

"I just don't have the sense that we're getting to where we need to be," said one Defense Department official. "We don't know where the enemy is."

The argument over the nature of the insurgency has also provoked some infighting over a classified briefing given late last month to Rumsfeld about steps U.S. forces could take in Iraq to put down the militants. One of the slides in the briefing, delivered by Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, deputy director for Middle Eastern affairs on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recommended actions that would "intimidate the intimidators."

Some U.S. officials in Baghdad resented the briefing, which they saw not only as a form of long-distance micromanagement but also as misguided in its recommendations. For example, some fear that it could lead to a resumption of the tough tactics used sometimes last year as the insurgency emerged, such as taking families hostage to compel an insurgent leader to turn himself in. Subsequent internal Army reviews have criticized such tactics as counterproductive.

One person familiar with the situation said that Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top U.S. general in the region, was sent a copy of the briefing and responded by sending a classified cable politely dismissing it and stating that he believes that U.S. commanders on the ground in Iraq have the situation in hand. A spokesman at Abizaid's headquarters, the U.S. Central Command, declined to comment on that exchange.

Neither Lawrence T. Di Rita, the chief Pentagon spokesman, nor Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, the spokesman for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had any comment for this article

Washington DC, December 8, 2004 /RPS News/ - The Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) asked the Syrian authorities to publish the names of the political detainees who had been set free yesterday 12/07/2004 and last month as it was mentioned in the official Syrian News Agency SANA.

It is believed that the news published by SANA (Syrian Arab News Agency) of the release of 112 prisoners may not be accurate and may be part of a propaganda by the Ba'athists in Damascus.

An SHRC speaker said that publishing of the names will end any dispute surrounding the public announcement of yesterday citing that the world will then be informed of those released and who have been acknowledged for the first time as political detainees by the Syrian authorities. Last July, in a previous presidential amnesty that included 250 political detainees was only partially implemented when some security services returned 120 detainees to Sednaya Prison.

The speaker of SHRC renewed his call to the Syrian authorities to publish the names of all political detainees and prisoners of conscience and to immediately release them from Syrian prisons, detentions and centers of interrogation, no matter when they have been arrested, belonging to any political and ethnic backgrounds.

The speaker called for an immediate cease of political arrests and detention in Syria and to put an end to all unfair trials before the exceptional State Security Court that lacks the minimum standards of justice.

Washington DC, December 9, 2004 /RPS News/ - According to news published by the Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC), the Syrian Security authorities denied access to al-Shahbandar Square to dozens of previous political detainees, human rights activists and many other sympathizers who planned to gather to demand the release of all political, opinion and conscience detainees in the Syrian prisons, whose numbers as estimated by SHRC surpass 800 citizens.

Eyewitnesses said that scores of security and intelligence elements spread out before the assigned time to picket to prevent passers-by to get to Al-Shabander Square which is only 100 meters from the Cabinet. According to SHRC, at least four citizens were arrested. 

Last month, human rights activists called for solidarity with political detainees and requested their release before December 10th which coincides with the annual World Day of Human Rights.

Some political detainees in Syria have been in prison for a quarter of a century, others had been arrested in early 1990s, whilst late the 1990s witnessed another campaign of arrests with the victims still in prison.

The Syrian authorities are still holding many political prisoners beyond the expiry of their terms.

In the early 2000s, Damascus spring and civil society activists were arrested in addition to those who returned from Iraq whilst four of Darayya group are still languishing in prison. A number of students who protested to get their rights were also cast in prison whilst some deportees who returned to Syria with assurances from the security authorities that misled them.

Furthermore, many Kurdish activists who took part in peaceful marches were arrested. In recent weeks, some Assyrians were arrested without any reason. They still languish in jail.
 

Washington DC, December 9, 2004 /RPS News/ - RPS has learned from sources inside Syria that many of the Fallujah fighters who escaped during the US house-to-house fighting have been sighted in a small Syrian town on the Syrian-Iraqi borders.

The source said that small teams of fighters are meeting in Abu Kamal, located about 10Km from the Iraqi borders in eastern Syria, using Syrian Ba'athists' controlled homes to regroup and plan their next attacks across into Iraq. Abu Kamal is less than 100 Km from the Syrian city of Deir el-Zour where Ibrahim Ezzat al-Douri has been sighted entering a hospital for blood transfusion because of Leukemia.

Today's attacks in Western Iraq on US convoys have been planned in Abu Kamal.

The source also said that the Syrian military intelligence services are fully aware of their presence and that Baschar al-Assad has asked his cousin, Gen. Zul Helma Al-Shalish, to support them more quietly that has been the case. The US intelligence services have known all along that Syrian support for the Fallujah fighters was emanating from Syria.

Gen. Al-Shalish, in documents discovered in Iraq, has shipped arms to Saddam up to 2 weeks prior to the war in Iraq.

This coincides with the fact that out of 12,000 insurgents estimated by the US military to be active, only 1,200 or 10% have been killed in Fallujah. The remainder have either been deployed elsewhere or in this instance returned to Syria to regroup and plan for more attacks.

Abu Kamal is the largest town on the Syrian-Iraqi borders and is situated about 35 Km from Al-Qaim, an Iraqi town which has seen much activity against the US military in the last 6 months.

Washington DC, December 10, 2004 /DEBKAfile/ - Every time Syria has been caught out aiding, backing or harboring Iraqi Baath guerrilla commanders by allowing them to smuggle weapons, cash and fighting men into Iraq, the Bush administration has considered military action.

Top-level discussions have turned on whether to launch a broad military campaign or strike select military targets inside Syria that would inflict enough pain on Bashar Assad and his regime to prompt them to rein in the anti-US forces operating from their soil. The two leading opponents of military action were outgoing secretary of state Colin Powell and ex-CIA director George Tenet. They argued that a military offensive against a second Arab nation so soon after the Iraq invasion would finally topple all of Washington’s political and intelligence positions in the Arab world.

Washington therefore preferred to serve Assad with one ultimatum after another. He just as consistently flouted each one.

On September 24, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 174 carried the first disclosure of a

US-Syrian military cooperation agreement for curbing the two way traffic of smuggled guerrillas, terrorists, arms and money through the Syrian-Iraqi border.

This was Washington’s first experiment in working with Assad instead of against him.

The accord was concluded in Damascus between a visiting American delegation made up of Peter Rodman, US assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, and Brigadier General Mark Kimmit, former US military spokesman in Iraq, and the Syrian chief of staff General Ali Habib. US Major General Peter Chiarelli, commander of the Baghdad-based 1st Cavalry Division had previously prepared a nine-point plan that was ready to go.

The main difficulty pinpointed at the time was the Arab smuggler-tribes who for time immemorial have ruled the border regions and were liable to fiercely resist any attempt to bring them under control.

And indeed, on October 1, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 175 revealed Damascus’s first breach of its brand-new accord with Washington.

Back to square one on the Syrian-Iraqi border

Less than a week after it was signed, Syrian vice president Halim Khadam was discovered at the Syrian-Iraqi border town of Abu Kamal in a secret huddle with the chiefs of those very tribes.

Two months later, the Assad regime’s conduct on this issue can be summed up by six points:

1. Damascus has opted out of its military accord with the Americans on the tired old pretext that the 400-mile frontier is too long and too full of holes to be sealed and, anyway, Syria lacks the manpower to control the smuggler-tribes.

2. The volume of fighting forces and war materiel crossing from Syria to Iraq has increased rather than diminished.

3. Armed bands of tribesmen, among whom Iraqi insurgents, al Qaeda and Hizballah terrorists mingle, have expanded their control of broad regions on the Iraqi side of the border and aggressively attack any American force or vehicle venturing on their turf.

4. Just before the Fallujah campaign last month, interim Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi announced the closure of the Iranian and Syrian borders with Iraq. This was a paper exercise. The border with Syria remained open and outside Iraqi or American control.

5. The Anaza tribe and branches of the Shamar dominate the border region. They receive a handsome weekly fee from Iraqi Baath headquarters in Damascus to exercise control of the border. The Damascus center is the hub of the 4,000 ex-party leaders and army chiefs living in Syria. It awards the tribes a bonus for every attack they mount against American or Iraqi forces in the border vicinity, as well as a rake-off for every illegal transfer of weapons or explosives.

6. Also on the take of these deals are Syrian regime high-ups, top military brass and officers stationed on the border.

In these circumstances, there is not the slightest chance of sealing the Syrian-Iraqi border to illicit traffic or of “starving” the Iraqi insurgency by winding down its supply of fighting personnel.

The tale of Syria’s hostile actions dates back to before the conquest of Baghdad. But US forces have not been altogether idle.

On March 19, 2003, US fighter craft fired missiles at a bus carrying

Hizballah fighters to Baghdad when it was still in Syria. They had come from Lebanon and been trained in Damascus as a group to fight against the Americans in Iraq. At least 10 were killed in the burning bus.

On June 18, 2003, there was a fierce battle on the Syrian side of the border opposite al Qaim between American troops who had crossed over to stop large concentrations of armed guerrillas from entering Iraq. Syrian soldiers joined the fray. American forces took some of their wounded prisoner.

On September 14, 2003, straight after US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Iraq, the 101st Airborne Division launched a series of operations against the Arab tribes roaming the border districts between Syria and Iraq. A special raider force took prisoner the chief of the Anaza tribe, Sheikh Ibrahim Hanjari with his aides.

These Bedouin tribal chiefs enjoy a special status in the Arab world and no one dares infringe their immunity. The Saudi royal family boasts of its tribal origins.

But the unconventional action paid off.

In the Anaza encampments, the American raiders discovered huge quantities of weapons, ammunition, mines, recoilless grenade launchers and explosives – all carefully packed for delivery to their destinations in Iraq. They also found dozens of locked metal suitcases containing millions of dollars in cash. In one, they counted $1.6 million dollars in 100 dollars bills. In one group of tents, 80 Saudi and 48 Syrian, Yemeni, Egyptian, Pakistani, Indian, Sudanese and Palestinian combatants were hiding.

Limited US military action has gone full course

In 22 months, American units have operated quietly in similar fashion to hold down to some extent the flow of guerrilla reinforcements into Iraq. Their efforts have petered out because of a single contrary factor: the Syrian president’s refusal to rein in the Syrians and Iraqis who from Damascus and the border towns of al-Qamishli and Az-Sawr keep the smuggler-tribes fully employed with illicit human and military transfers.

But now, the chief opponents of direct military action, Powell and Tenet, are either going or gone. Bush is moreover safely embarked on his second White House term and has less to fear from ebbing Arab support. The military option has again risen to the surface.

Another pressing reason for considering offensive action against Syria is the very real danger of the gains from the Fallujah campaign draining away. Two weeks ago, shortly after the fighting died down, the Americans noticed that many of the Sunni guerrillas who fled the embattled town towards the Syrian border found sanctuary with the Anaza tribes, were awarded new identities, money and arms and returned to Fallujah among the returning refugees. These infiltrators now threaten to reverse the US purge of Fallujah as the central base of insurgents and terrorists.

The Bush administration and the US military in Iraq are in no mood to let this happen. On the other hand, DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military sources see four key factors that complicate any clear decision:

A. Air or ground strikes against limited targets in Syria will not destroy the various smuggling networks operating on the Iraqi border. Whether or not the Assad regime comes to harm is of little concern to them. The Baathist exiles based in Syria will not be impressed either. They may even count the expansion of the Iraq war into Syria a success. Above all, such attacks are unlikely to persuade Assad to take action against the tribes with whom he and his clan have maintained ties for generations.

B. Late December and early January are inappropriate for a military operation against Syria. The Palestinians go to the polls on January 9; the Iraqis on January 30. Both might be adversely affected.

C. Such action would deeply antagonize Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, whose diplomatic and financial backing the Bush administration is seeking at the moment to further its plans for an accommodation between Egypt, Israel and the Palestinians.

D. Some of the Syrian targets on US war planners’ drawing board have an Iranian component – whether in the form of a financial investment or the presence of Iranian military or civilian liaison personnel. Tehran, which fears an US-Israel strike against its nuclear plants, will be watching closely to gauge how far the Americans are willing to go in their military punishment of Syria. This will teach the Iranians, first, the limits of American patience with them, and, second, how to prepare for a possible American strike against nuclear targets in Iran.

Reform Party of Syria