Another anti-Syrian Lebanese Christian politician is assassinated in Beirut. A massive bomb killed Antoine Ghanem outside of his home in a Christian neighborhood on the outskirts of Beirut. He was the seventh anti-Syrian politician assassinated in the last two and a half years in Lebanon.
This week there was news that dozens of Syrians and Iranians were killed in chemical explosion near Halab, Syria. The Jerusalem Post claimed that, "The joint Syrian-Iranian team was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a Scud missile when the explosion occurred, spreading lethal chemical agents, including sarin nerve gas."
In another report this week, the Times of London claimed that Israeli commandos secretly seized samples of nuclear material and took them back to Israel for examination before Israel later blew up the nuke site in Syria.
These were the headlines.
And, it just happened that the news this week did not include stories about Arab suicide bombers making their way into Iraq through Syria or car bombs from Syria blowing up in Baghdad.
All of these stories have one thing in common.
They were coordinated by the evil regime in control of Syria.
Author Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research for International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, recently published The Truth About Syria on one of the most dangerous and influential countries in the Middle East. Rubin describes Syria as a 72,000 mile time bomb waiting to go off.
Barry Rubin describes the the history behind this "powderkeg" of the Middle East. He also talks about the rise of the unassuming ophthalmologist, Bashar Assad. Rubin also discusses the role of Syria in current Middle Eastern terrorism and violence.As any ordinary observer can see, the Middle East is a very unstable and has been for some time. No country encapsulates the dysfunction of the Middle East more than Syria. Barry Rubin does a great job of pointing this out and then in discussing the many facets of Syria that make it a central player in Middle East turmoil. Rubin has an in depth knowledge of Syria and the role it plays in the Middle East. In his book The Truth About Syria, it becomes clear that this little country has done more to create confusion, poverty and murder in the Middle East than any country its size. After reading the book, how can not marvel at the ignorance of the current Speaker of the House for visiting this regime earlier in the year? This Middle Eastern country is truly one of the greatest threats to Israel and the United States today.
You can purchase The Truth About Syria at Amazon.com.
My brother Joe contributed to this review.
Syria is, perhaps, the deadliest Nation in the Middle East: it played the USSR for fools, being able to be both a 'client state' and yet not do over much for the USSR to warrant any largesse sent their way by same, and then Syria to Iranian influence once the USSR realized it was getting little from Syria and that some of its chemical weapons expertise was being used by Syria. From that meager start, Syria would play its hand with the Iranians, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, North Korea, Europe and even the US to continue its aim of getting the full suite of WMDs and long range missile technology.
ReplyDeleteDuring that time and even prior to it, the Kassar family has controlled the Bekaa valley narcotics trade and inter-married with the Assad family, so that by the 1970's, that familial power was being augmented by Syria. That allowed the most dangerous person Syria has produced to start his work which would famously see a warrant out for the eldest son of the family, Monzer al-Kassar, in France and then Hezbollah would take its first hostages who were... yes, French. Monzer al-Kassar would walk the streets of Paris unapprehended and become the necessary 'intermediary' between Hezbollah and Iran for bargaining for hostages. Ollie North's 'good idea' of dealing arms for hostages for the Contras would also use the one man who only had ill-will towards the US: Monzer al-Kassar. With that Monzer al-Kassar would use his Eastern Bloc contacts in Poland to ship arms to the Contras, and had met North, Secord and Hakim to work out further arms transfer deals. Those shipments to Honduras gave the Kassar family entree to Latin America under US auspices and would lead to him getting to know an up-and-coming politician from Argentina, son of Syrian ex-pats, Carlos Menem.
Kassar would then serve as an intermediary for Menem, so that Menem would have a meeting with Hafez al-Assad on his very first trip to Syria, and he had not even run for office yet. The deal for advanced IRBM and nuclear technology for cold, hard cash was cemented and millions of dollars went Menem's way to fill his election coffers. Also would come Kassar extending his own network of contacts to the Cali and Medellin drug cartels and forming the first large scale underworld narcotics trade, that would see heroin and cocaine traded and cross-utilization of dealer networks on a global basis. That network in Argentina would include the individuals in charge of overall import policy for Argentina, as well as high level customs offices at airports in Argentina that would be controlled by Kassar. Iran would move its own agents in to Argentina and, when Menem acceeded to US demands to stop the missile and nukes deal, Kassar would use his influence to get in arms, explosives and agents to attack the Israeli Embassy and AMIA Jewish centers. The prime man he brought in was Imad Mugniyah, responsible for the Beirut US Embassy bombings and Marine barracks bombings. Menem would have much of the archives of his work destroyed as his hold on power faltered, and the judge who first investigated these bombings admitted that *he* was part of that, also.
Meanwhile Kassar's agents used their Argentine contacts to ship arms to Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo and Somalia, while Kassar worked his own Easten European contacts (now free Nations) to do the same not only overland but by sea. One route he used was via the Sicilian Mafia that ran a number of toxic waste disposal companies, who did the fine work of shipping arms inside barrels of waste. Kassar also did his own work with mid-oceanic transfer to Somali ships, somehow magically turning fruit into AK-47s, RPGs, explosives and mortars. Also involved was a man by the name of Lasnaud who worked the heavy equipment side of arms deals, not only for the Balkans but for FARC. Together Kassar and Lasnaud would work the trade of narcotics, money laundering and arms to FARC and give the first high level contacts with Hezbollah to that organization. Lasnaud is from that well known terrorist haven of: Florida.
Meanwhile Kassar had moved to Spain, and there was a warrant for his arrest there on the Achille Lauro hijacking and the Abu Nidal organization. Luckily one witness was assassinated while imprisoned in South America, another would recant his testominy from inside prison in Spain and the third would just by bad luck go on a roaring drunk in his apartment and fall off of his balcony to his death in the town that Kassar lived in. Such mere happenstance for him! Also, during this time, Kassar's family in Syria would be working the supernote trade with North Korea and Syria would also go on a NoDong II purchasing spree, along with other purchases from North Korea. Hezbollah, through all of this, would grow as a threat to Israel, destabilize Lebanon, and inculcate the belief that their sponsorship by Syria and Iran somehow made them *valid* in Lebanon.
Also during all of this are the less than well known dealings that the Kassar family had with the BNL and BCCI scandals, and shifting money and arms to Iraq. Some vital technology, like the Cardoen cluster bombs, originating from the US, going through South America would somehow wind up in Saddam's arsenals. Further the banks involved in Switzerland would be bought out by a technology group in Turkey and then vanish without a trace into a conglomerate there. Apparently the Kassar and Assad families had investments and partial control of the Kukorova group during that transaction or at least held sway for it.
The Kassar family's control of the Bekaa would also allow *other* terrorist organizations of all stripes (Red Army factions from Japan and Germany, Indian Nationalist, Tamil Tigers, to name a few) to train in the Bekaa with Hezbollah.
And that doesn't even get us up to 2000, with Kassar working for the Imperial Group in the UK to get an Argentine gold mine via a Bahamian front company, his work with Osama bin Laden which he then turned and pinned on the Imperial Group, and expansions of Hezbollah into Albania, Algeria, Chechnya, Paraguay, Brazil, Venezuela... or the Imad Mugniyah network in North America. Or the ongoing nuclear work in Syria. Or the sudden stop of the pharma industry it was standing up, with half-completed factories... and some equipment just gone missing.
Yeah, Syria is a threat that no one wants to recognize, and then some. Anyone can play the Four Degrees of Monzer al-Kassar game, and I was startled to realize that he is only three connections from *me*. Remember, now, the Kassar family narcotics and black market network has been around in the US since the 1950's (at least) and Monzer has been able to reach inside prison systems around the globe to stifle those that would speak out against him. He is under warrant to be brought to the US in the FARC sting operation. We should try him for piracy for the death of Leon Klinghoffer... that is if any witnesses are *left* by the time he gets here. Somehow the folks at Dept. of Justice just don't seem to get it with him and Syria. My guess is that he can successfully fight extradition in Spain... if not, expect a body count to start in the case.
A US body count.