How Syria fooled U.S. on terror cooperation

Assad trained operatives for 'al-Qaida'
to attack America, then turned them in

Posted: February 14, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

� 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON � In international relations, things are not always what they seem to be.

For instance, back in 2003, Syrian President Bashar Assad came up with what he thought was a great idea to curry favor with the U.S. and stave off threats of sanctions and even invasion for its support of international terrorism, including in neighboring Iraq.

Syrian intelligence chief Ghazi Kanaan came to the dictator with a plan to run an operation against U.S. intelligence, according a to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by WND's founder.


The plan called for Syria to recruit and train some mujhadeen to work on behalf of Osama bin Laden in an attack on the U.S. The Syrian intelligence officials easily found two willing participants, who never understood they were actually being used as pawns by Damascus.

The pair was trained for three months in weapons, explosives, engineering (for bringing down bridges, buildings, etc.) and other espionage activities, in addition to setting up a number of accounts, credit cards, and how to use discard cell phones so they could not be traced.

The Syrians launched the players into action, ordering them to go to the U.S. through Athens.

Then Syria double-crossed their dupes, tipping off the Greeks and the Israelis, informing them two al-Qaida operatives were on their way to the U.S. Syria also tipped off the chief of mission in Damascus.

Of course, the Central Intelligence Agency gets tips from three different sources � Syria, Greece and Israel. The CIA assumed the information was golden. The FBI was alerted that these operatives were en route.

Eventually, the two betrayed mujahadeen were nabbed in Heathrow Airport in London and interrogated vigorously by the British. They cracked and told everything they knew � that they had been trained by al-Qaida for a mission against the U.S., because that's what they believed.

The CIA congratulated itself. The FBI congratulated itself. The congressional intelligence subcommittee congratulated itself. An announcement was made that an al-Qaida plot against the U.S. has been foiled.

And, shortly aferward, Colin Powell traveled to the Middle East to meet with Assad, thank him for his help and to press him for more concessions � such as closing down the offices of Palestinian terrorist groups in Damascus. Of course, Assad pledged continuing support.

Powell announced Syria was now cooperating in the war on terror.

Powell went on to say that Assad listened carefully to his concerns for three hours "and in every instance the president said he wished to consider the point of view I presented."

In exchange for his "cooperation," Powell offered Assad something he wanted � a commitment by the White House to seek a "comprehensive" Middle East peace settlement that would include negotiations on the return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.

It was at least the second time Assad had betrayed � and fooled � the U.S. and the former secretary of state. In 2001, Assad promised to close an oil pipeline from Iraq to Syria that Saddam Hussein was using to evade United Nations sanctions. The illegal oil, which accounted for as much as 20 percent of Syria's foreign-trade revenue, continued to flow until 2003 when U.S. forces shut it off.