Secret “Proof” Against Syria
22/06/2007 Beirut
The Lebanese government has “proof” of Syria’s involvement in clashes at the Nahr al Barad refugee camp but has decided not to make it public.
The secretary-general of the Arab League, Amr Musa, asked Lebanon’s acting foreign minister, Tarek Mitri, to avoid inflaming an exceptional meeting of Arab foreign ministers on June 16 in Cairo. That meant not unveiling “proof” he had in hand concerning the true backers of the Palestinian Fatah al Islam movement.
Indeed, if Mitri had decided to air the evidence in public Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al Mouallem, would have denounced them as “unfounded allegations,” with backing from the minister from Qatar, Hamad bin Jassem al Thani. As a result, Mitri limited himself to acting behind the scenes to hand out copies of documents he held to ministers from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Morocco and Algeria.
Lebanon’s “proof” was based on confessions of 42 members of Fatah al Islam who were collared by the army and specially the revelations of two top members of the movement: Omar Abu Marsa, the personal doctor of the organization’s leader, the Palestinian Shaker al Abssi; and the spiritual leader of the group, sheikh Haissam al Saadi.
The two, who surrendered without a fight, said Fatah al Islam was little short of a front for hundreds of fighters from two Palestinian organisations operating out of Syria and that it had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. These were Fatah Intifada, a breakaway wing of Fatah backed by Damascus since 1983, and the PFLP-General Command founded by Ahmed Jibril. According to the two, Assef Shawkat, chief of Syrian military intelligence, was behind the creation of Fatah al Islam.
The Lebanese government also has American satellite pictures showing large numbers of the two pro-Syrian groups around the Qussaya and Heloue areas in the Bekaa valley.
INTELLIGENCE ONLINE N° 549
