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Syria's new intelligence chief is tied to Assad by marriage, blood and survival instinct Assaf Chawkat • Age: 55 • Task: Syrian military intelligence chief • Whereabouts: Damascus Assaf Chawkat has been given a mission: Prevent Syria from being expelled from Lebanon and save the regime of President Bashar Assad in Damascus. As Syria's new military intelligence chief, Chawkat's goal is to move stealthily but quickly to torpedo the Lebanese opposition and convince the West, particularly the United States that without Damascus, Lebanon will collapse. For Chawkat, this is more than a professional task; Chawkat is Assad's brother-in-law. Assad and Chawkat have embarked on a strategy that aims to meet U.S. demands to withdraw from Lebanon without actually doing anything. On March 5, Assad pledged to withdraw troops from central and northern Lebanon to the Bekaa Valley. At the same time, Chawkat was ordering the first attacks on Syria's opponents in Lebanon. Lebanese opposition sources said Syria has not demonstrated any intention of withdrawing either its troops or more than 1 million laborers from Lebanon. The sources said Syrian intelligence has increased its presence around Beirut and is preparing a campaign to undermine stability in the country following the fall of the pro-Syrian government in Lebanon. The Assad regime plans to use Hizbullah and Palestinian mercenaries to destabilize Lebanon, the sources said. They said Damascus is expected to order Hizbullah to launch fresh attacks against Israel in an effort to divert attention away from the anti-Syrian unrest. "Assad would rather see Lebanon destroyed than become independent," a Lebanese opposition leader said. "The next few weeks will see attacks meant to destabilize the country and frighten the people." Indeed, over the past week pro-Syrian forces have been preparing for a showdown in Lebanon. Hours after Lebanese Prime Minister Omar Karamah resigned on Feb. 28, his supporters engaged in gun battles with opposition forces in the northern city of Tripoli. Tripoli is the stronghold of Karamah, a veteran Sunni Muslim politician. Lebanese opposition sources also said Syrian intelligence has been recruiting people to battle opposition elements in Lebanon. The recruitment is taking place in Aleppo as well as in the Palestinian refugee camp in Neirab in Syria. This is where Chawkat comes in. He has already replaced the head of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon, Brig. Gen. Rustom Ghazali. Ghazali came under severe criticism in Damascus for his failure to halt Lebanese protests against Syria. Brig. Gen. Munir Jaloud has been appointed to replace Ghazali, Syrian sources said. Ghazali appeared to have been the fall guy for the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Feb. 14 in Beirut, a killing that galvanized the Lebanese opposition. Chawkat might not be blood, but he is clearly a product of the ruling Alawite sect in Syria. And he has shed blood for the ruling family. Born in the coastal city of Tartous in 1950, Chawkat, who came from a well-to-do family, moved to Damascus and studied law in the early 1970s. He paid an expert to write his dissertation at the University of Damascus. The dissertation topic was on the Syrian revolt in 1925. Pulling strings, Chawkat stayed in school and completed his dissertation in 1976. Unable to find work in law, around 1978 Chawkat joined the Syrian military. As an Alawite and member of the ruling Ba'ath Party, Chawkat was politically correct. He joined the Alawite elite in the Syrian army, spying on officers and soldiers and foiling any plots against the regime. By all accounts, Chawkat impressed his commanders with his ruthlessness. Still, by 1985, Chawkat was becoming impatient with the prospect of success. His opportunity came when he was introduced to Bushra, the daughter of President Hafez Assad. Bushra, 10 years younger than Chawkat, was bright, refined and studying pharmacy at the University of Damascus. Why Bushra chose Chawkat, then a junior officer, is unclear. Indeed, Bushra's brother and heir-apparent, Basel, objected to Chawkat and began to harass him. Chawkat was arrested four times by Basel's thugs in an effort to keep his sister from meeting her suitor. But Chawkat didn't back down. He had won the heart of the president's daughter and apparently what Bushra wanted, Bushra got. In 1994, Chawkat won out. Basel was killed in a mysterious car crash on his way to Damascus Airport. Chawkat, then 44 years old, was considering asking daddy for Bushra's hand. Chawkat, however, decided against it. In 1995, Bushra, over her father's objection, married Chawkat. Assad first tried to hold Chawkat under house arrest and keep the marriage secret. But the headstrong Bushra made sure everybody in the family and in the Alawite elite knew. Finally, the president gave in and decided to accept the marriage. Bushra and Chawkat were welcomed to Assad's palace and the president began to treat Chawkat as his son-in-law. Within a year, Assad promoted Chawkat to the rank of major general. Now, Chawkat moved to befriend Assad's heir-apparent, the second oldest son, Bashar. Bashar was an opthamologist in London who had no interest in Syrian politics. But with Basel dead, the ailing president needed to quickly groom a successor. Chawkat, with the president's encouragement, taught Bashar the ropes and gave him the confidence to consider becoming Syria's next president. By 1998, Chawkat was regarded as Bashar's Svengali. The president was accelerating his efforts to groom Bashar and it was clear that Chawkat would be part of the package. That year, Chawkat helped select Syria's chief of staff, Gen. Ali Aslan, who replaced the retiring Gen. Hikmat Shihabi. But Chawkat's dream nearly ended in 1999, months before the president died. The regime was being attacked from several quarters, including the president's brother, Rifat, who had been vice president during the 1980s but later exiled. Chawkat participated in an October 1999 meeting of the Assad family to determine a strategy for survival. Chawkat was harsh in his criticism of Rifat. This was too much for Bashar's younger brother, Maher. Maher told Chawkat to shut up and not intervene in what was clearly a family matter. Chawkat furiously objected and said he was part of the family. Maher remarked that he would not have been a family member were Basel still alive. That aroused Chawkat's anger even more. Maher, himself a senior officer, decided to settle things once and for all. He drew his gun and shot Chawkat. Struck in the stomach, Chawkat keeled over and was rushed to the hospital. He was then taken to Paris for treatment as rumors of the shooting spread throughout Damascus and eventually the Arab world. The president allowed Chawkat to return and was appointed deputy military intelligence chief. He was in power. In June 2000, Assad died and Bashar took over. Bashar chose Chawkat to extract Syria from its biggest crisis since the revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1980s. Lebanon is Syria's lifeline. More than 1 million Syrian laborers — unable to find jobs in their own country — work for relatively high wages in Lebanon and send money to their families. Syria's elite have stakes in many Lebanese projects. Assad's family gets a hefty kickback from any Lebanese government project. As a result, the prospect that Syria would be expelled from Lebanon clearly threatens the Assad regime. "The Syrian occupation of Lebanon is not only military but also economic," Israeli Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres said. "Twenty percent of Syria's income is derived from the Lebanese economy and 1 million Syrians are working there. These economic factors are the real reasons Syria does not want to leave." Assad has been cagey. He has neither announced a timetable for withdrawal nor clarified whether Syrian troops would return to their country. Since 2001, Syria has reduced its military presence in Lebanon from 40,000 to about 14,000 troops. Still, the pressure on the regime continues to build. Lebanese sources reported attacks on Syrian laborers and military installations in Lebanon. The sources said Lebanese troops have been stationed outside three Syrian military buildings in Beirut. These buildings came under threat of attack over the weekend. The headquarters of Syrian military intelligence in northern Lebanon was also attacked over the weekend. The attack in Kobeyate took place only hours after Assad's speech. In the eastern Lebanese town of Baalbek, a bomb was hurled toward a Syrian military outpost. Nobody was hurt. Chawkat has been under pressure to produce results quickly in Lebanon. If he fails, he could be in trouble. He does not have any power base of his own and does not come from a prominent Alawite family. Indeed, most of his rivals are Alawites. His political survival depends on his usefulness to Assad. Chawkat's job is to protect Assad from everything from the presidential family to the man on the street. Reform is not a word in Chawkat's lexicon. Over the last three days, pro-Syrian forces have been operating throughout Lebanon in defiance of the Lebanese Army. In Beirut, gunmen tried to massacre people in a Christian suburb, while in southern Beirut Hizbullah organized demonstrations in support of Bashar. Hizbullah also organized a pro-Syrian demonstration in Nabatiyeh in the south. The problem is that there are signs that Chawkat was the one who got Syria into this mess. Lebanese opposition sources believe Chawkat ordered the killing of Hariri. The prominent Kuwaiti daily A-Siyassa reported on Feb. 19 that Chawkat recruited such aides as Bahjat Suleiman, a Syrian intelligence officer involved in dirty operations, and Jamil Al Sayed, the head of Lebanese intelligence. Al Sayed has been regarded as Syria's chief thug in Lebanon. Two days after Hariri was killed, Assad appointed Chawkat head of Syrian military intelligence. The move is seen as the final knot in the murky relationship between the president and his Svengali. If Assad goes, then Chawkat's future is doomed. Assad's nightmare is that he will depart and leave his brother-in-law in power. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. 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