SYRIA & THE STATE DEPARTMENT
Shawn Phillips
By Jack B. Dweck, President, American Friends of Likud
The euphoria of the Clinton administration, State Department and the world
media
over Syria's agreement to re-convene negotiations with Israel has resulted
in
instantly redeeming the Assad government. All too quickly have been
forgotten
Damascus' history and record as an outlaw regime that has been a leading
force
and champion of international terror. While the hasty calls from Syrian
allies
in the United States and Europe to implement full economic ties with this
brutal
Arab dictatorship are being sounded, it is very important for American
citizens
to understand that any swift forgiveness of the crimes of the Assad
government
will send a dangerous message to terrorist groups at the wrong time.
Syria was one of the original states to be placed on the United States State
Department list of terror sponsoring nations when it was adopted in 1979.
The
criteria for a country being designated by the State Department as such, is
"whether the nation provides terrorist sanctuary from extradition or
prosecution; arms, explosives and other lethal substances; logistical
support;
safe houses or headquarters; planning, training or other assistance for
terrorist activities, and direct or indirect financial backing." The Assad
regime, shortly after seizing control of Syria initiated its policy of
surrogate terror. Attacks attributed to Syrian backed terror groups range
from
the 1970 bombing of Swissair flight to Israel which killed everyone on
board to
the assassination of the French Ambassador in Beirut in 1981, to the attack
at
the Rome airport in 1985 which left 13, including 5 Americans dead, to the
wave
of car bombings that left hundreds dead in Israel in recent years.
Damascus has permitted dozens of anti-Israel terrorist groups to be
headquartered in Syria. These include the Popular Front for the Liberation
of
Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the
Islamic
Jihad, all of which have engaged in ceaseless terror attacks inside of
Israel
and have targeted Jews worldwide. In areas of Lebanon under Syrian control
Hizbollah (the Party of God) is encouraged to continue its guerilla war and
rocket attacks against northern Israeli cities. Similarly, Syria supports
and
facilitates Hamas training bases in the Bekaa Valley. From these Hamas
camps
terror attacks inside of Israel, including bus bombings and driuve-by
shootings,
are planned and carried out. Virtually, every group rejecting peace with
Israel
has been befriended by Assad.
But it is not only Israel which has been menaced by the terrorist
organizations
that are based in Damascus. A virtual alphabet soup of international
terror
groups are also headquartered in the Syrian capital. The Kurdistan Workers'
Party, known as the PKK have utilized Syrian government support and bases to
carry out attacks against Turkey. Turkey, a member of NATO and an important
American ally in the region, accuses the PKK of responsibility for the
death of
more than 30,000 of its citizens. The PKK has planted car bombs in Turkish
cities and assassinated officials in scores of attacks across that country.
In
addition, the Japanese Red Army Faction, which seeks the overthrow of the
Japanese government, is similarly supported by the Assad regime.
Syria makes no apologies for its efforts at destabilizing other nations.
Assad
has labeled these terrorist groups "resistance movements" and "freedom
fighters," and defends their activities as the legitimate "right to seek the
liberation of their homelands." Syria has ignored calls from all western
nations to expel these groups from its territories. Instead, Syria has
brazenly
continued its program of utilizing surrogate terrorism to advance its skewed
political policies and sow international strife.
Accordingly, Syrian support for terrorism has not been confined to American
allies such as Israel, Turkey and Japan. Syria has been implicated in the
bombing in 1987 of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland which
resulted in
the deaths of 270 individuals including dozens of United States citizens.
The
bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Lebanon which left 241 dead in 1983
by
Hezbollah can now also be traced to Syria. In an interview in 1997 with
the El
Bayane newspaper, Syrian Minister of Defense General Mustapha Tlass revealed
that he brought together the heads of "Lebanese Resistance" in 1982 and
authorized them to attack all United States and British peacekeeping
forces.
The 241 deaths of United States Marines were carried out by Syrian supported
terrorist.
Moreover, for decades it has been suspected that Syria has permitted Nazi
war
criminals to find refuge inside of its borders. The Simon Weisenthal
Center
and other international organizations have positively identified
international
fugitive Alois Brunner as living in Damascus. The Austrian born, Brunner
served
as personal secretary to Adolph Eichmann and was responsible for the deaths
of
128,000 Jews in Greece, Austria, and France and Slovakia. In August 1944,
in
the days before Paris' liberation, Brunner ordered that 300 French children
be
sent to gas chambers. Assad has provided Brunner sanctuary from arrest and
a
government owned apartment as appreciation for his murder of Jews during the
Holocaust.
Syria has shown in the past that it is fully able to control the terrorist
groups it provides support to. At times that it has been politically
expedient
it has reined in Hizbollah activities against Israel. Damascus has ordered
terror groups not to launch attacks from inside of Syria so that it will not
be
directly implicated and has even, on occasion, expelled certain Palestinian
organizations when international opinion was incited against it. When
Turkey
threatened military force against Syria and began to mass troops along
their
common border, Assad bent to the pressure and exiled the PKK leadership
including Abdullah Ocalan, who was then captured by Turkey. Clearly, Syria
always could influence these guerilla forces.
Syria's motivations for entering into negotiations with Israel at this time
are
well understood. In addition to the return of the strategic Golan Heights
and
precious water sources, Assad seeks to bolster Syria's international
standing as
the aged despot turns over leadership to his son Bashar Assad.Assad
recognizes
that the continued stability of his Ba'ath regime, with its outdated army,
can
only come about by advancing economic ties with the United States and
Europe.
Syria's sole intent in sitting down with Israel is not to have an open
borders
with the Jewish state, but rather, to garner the American support which can
assure his government's survival in the years ahead.
As such, it would be reckless and immoral to play so quickly into Syria's
hands. The crimes of the past decades, the international strife and the
blood
of the countless innocents murdered by Assad's surrogate terror clients all
call out for Damascus to be punished for its actions. At a time when the
United
States is enacting policies to get tough with terrorist worldwide, the white
washing of this terrorist sponsoring nation conveys the dangerous message
that
their political crime do indeed ultimately pay. Syria should remain on the
State Department's watch list for years to come.
Jack B. Dweck is President of American Friends of Likud.
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