Syria makes overture to U.S.

Syria is reorganizing its foreign intelligence operations and sidelining officials with unsavory pasts in an effort by President Bashar al-Assad to consolidate control and improve Syria’s relations with the United States, Middle East specialists and former and current U.S. officials say.

Richard Norton, a Levant specialist at Boston University, former CIA counterterrorism chief Vincent Cannistraro and two serving U.S. intelligence officials who asked not to be named because they are not authorized to talk to the press told The Washington Times that the task of overseeing Syria’s foreign intelligence operations has been transferred from the heavy-handed military intelligence agency, known as the Mukhabarat, to Syria’s General Intelligence Agency (GI), which formerly handled domestic matters and now oversees relations with the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The GI is headed by Gen. Ali Mamluk, who is advised by Samir al Taqi, a former legislator, the sources said. Mr. al Taqi runs the Al-Sharq Center for International Relations in Damascus and is associated with the Center for Syrian Studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

The intelligence shakeup began in February and continues. Mr. Cannistraro said much of the pressure for the transfer “came from the Saudis,” who have been furious with Syria since the 2005 assassination in Lebanon of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a Saudi ally. Syria is suspected of involvement in the killing but has denied responsibility.

Mr. Norton added that the change was made by Syria to avoid “queering its current dialogue with the United States.”

In general, the functions of Syrian military intelligence appear to have narrowed to providing assistance to the U.N. special tribunal investigating the Hariri murder and seeking to shield the Assad regime from blame.

Gen. Assef Shawkat, Mr. Assad’s brother-in-law and the former head of Syrian military intelligence, who is rumored to have been involved in the Hariri killing, has been assigned to assist Maj. Gen. Arnine Charabi, chief of the Palestine section, who is working with British law firms to develop a scenario of the crime aimed at exonerating Syria from responsibility, according to the two serving U.S. intelligence officials.

There have been reports that Mr. Shawkat’s family, including Mr. Assad’s sister, Bushra, has been exiled to a Persian Gulf country and much of the familys property has been seized. However, one of the U.S. officials said this was disinformation.

Joshua Landis, a Syria specialist at the University of Oklahoma, said, “Shawkat is not out of the intelligence business.”

The shakeup appears to be an attempt by Mr. Assad to further consolidate his power internally.

“We’re talking about a changing of the guard, being done quite gradually in terms of political consistency,” said one of the serving U.S. officials. “It’s a transition of power - a slow process of putting people who are loyal to him, walking away from the old military elements of his father and relying on a civilian component instead.”

Mr. Norton agreed.

“What Bashar is doing is sidelining the old Ba’athist guard in military intelligence and replacing them with civilians loyal to himself,” Mr. Norton said.

Mr. Norton added that the changes are part of the president’s efforts to consolidate Syria’s key governing institutions under his direct control and that this was evidence that at least some of Mr. Assad’s inner circle consists of “reformist, smart, street-wise young technocrats” who want better relations with the West.

President Obama, who has assigned a high priority to advancing an Arab-Israeli peace agreement, has sought to improve relations with Syria in order to move the process forward.

Story Continues →