New York Times January 5, 2005 VIEW FROM WASHINGTON U.S. Said to Weigh Sanctions on Syria Over Iraqi Network By DOUGLAS JEHL
WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 - The Bush administration is considering imposing new sanctions on Syria to prod it to crack down on Iraqis there who are providing financial and logistical support to insurgents in Iraq, senior American counterterrorism officials said Tuesday. The Syrian government has not taken action against the network of Iraqis, the officials said, despite months of quiet protests from the United States. Among the steps being considered is a Treasury Department action that could essentially isolate the Syrian banking system. The network includes former officials of Saddam Hussein's government, American officials have said, adding that intelligence gathered in recent months from informants, captives and intercepted communications suggested that the network's role in providing support to insurgents in Iraq was more extensive than previously suspected. While the anti-American insurgency would continue to thrive even without help from Syria, the American officials say, Iraqis in Syria are playing a significant role in coordinating the flows of money, weapons and combatants inside Iraq. Syrian officials have sought to rebut the American criticism by saying the United States has yet to provide them with sufficient accurate information to prompt action against the individual Iraqis who the Americans say are in the network. "We have told the Americans to please give us any information you have regarding this subject, but some of the information has not been credible," said Ammar Alarsan, a spokesman for the Syrian Embassy in Washington. Among Iraqis believed to be living at least part time in Syria and playing an active role in the insurgency are several of Mr. Hussein's close relatives. In addition, Izzat Ibrahim, the No. 2 official in Iraq under Mr. Hussein and now the most-wanted Iraqi still sought by the United States, has traveled to and from Syria in the past 18 months, American officials say. In recent weeks the interim Iraqi government and its American backers have become increasingly outspoken in calling attention to what it describes as a regional command in exile in Syria. The American officials would speak about Syria only on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want their comments to overshadow recent public remarks by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top American commander in Iraq, Richard L. Armitage, the deputy secretary of state, and others. The officials interviewed represented several government agencies involved in counterterrorism policy, including those favoring a more patient approach toward Syria and those urging a harder line. General Casey said publicly last month that the United States had "fairly good information" that some senior former officials of the Iraqi Baath Party had established a high command that was "operating out of Syria with impunity and providing direction and financing for the insurgency in Iraq." "That needs to stop," General Casey said in a Dec. 16 briefing at the Pentagon. On a visit to Syria over the weekend, Mr. Armitage delivered what one American official described as a "stern warning" to the Damascus government. Adam Ereli, the department's deputy spokesman, said Monday that Mr. Armitage had emphasized "that there's still a problem with former regime elements using Syria to help the insurgency and that it was very important to have that stopped." American and Syrian officials have held high-level meetings in recent months to address their differences, and Syria has said repeatedly that it is committed to working with the United States toward a peaceful, unified Iraq. In recent days Mr. Armitage and other American officials have gone out of their way to praise Syria for taking steps to secure its border with Iraq and prevent foreign fighters from crossing the border to reinforce the insurgency. But a senior American counterterrorism official said the steps taken by Syria so far were unsatisfactory. "More and more, we're seeing groups funded and supported by former regime elements, and they are operating out of and with the support of the Syrian government," the official said. He said that he was not accusing the Syrian government of providing direct support to the insurgency, but that "we haven't yet seen them take appropriate action to prevent the funding and the transport of weapons." Among the relatives of Mr. Hussein who have spent time in Syria and are believed to have played a leading role in financing the insurgency is Fatiq Suleiman al-Majid, a cousin of Mr. Hussein and a former officer in Iraq's Special Security Organization. Syria has long been subject to limited economic sanctions by the United States because of its designation by the State Department as a sponsor of terrorism. Under pressure from Congress, the Bush administration imposed additional measures last spring that prohibit exports to Syria of most goods, excluding food and medicine, and prohibit commercial flights between the United States and Syria by Syrian-owned aircraft. The main additional tool being weighed by the administration for possible further sanctions, the counterterrorism officials said, is authority wielded by the Treasury Department, which in May labeled the Commercial Bank of Syria a financial institution of "primary money laundering concern." The designation was a response to what the department called the role played by the Syrian bank in laundering money illegally diverted by Mr. Hussein's government from the United Nations-administered oil-for-food program. Further steps by the Treasury are possible, the most severe of which would be to prohibit any American bank, broker or mutual fund from dealing with the Syrian bank, the country's single government-owned financial institution that specializes in foreign exchange transactions. One American counterterrorism official said the threat of further action had already served to focus Syrian attention on the problem. The official said Treasury officials had met several times in recent months with their Syrian counterparts to discuss the issue. A second counterterrorism official said there remained "a wide range of views" within the administration about taking further action against Syria, with the State Department most opposed. The official said the Pentagon in particular was pressing for a more aggressive approach. "This is not the Ho Chi Minh trail that's keeping the insurgency alive," the official said. "But if Syria were to take action, it would have an impact."
