An exclusive report in by Ha'aretz military
correspondent Ze'ev Schiff claims that hundreds of al-Qaida
militants who fled Afghanistan have moved into Palestinian
refugee camp Ein Hilwe near Sidon in Lebanon. The group
reportedly includes senior commanders, and is organizing to
seize control of that camp, which is in any case outside of
the control of Lebanon and its army. An outbreak of fighting
about a month ago that left three dead is said to have been
related to conflicts initiated by the al-Qaida group to
consolidate their control.
The fighters arrived from Afghanistan through Damascus, Iran
and directly to Lebanon. Syria has allowed them to come and
to settle. The story was picked up by the Associated Press
and was attributed to Israeli and Western intelligence
sources.
Ra'anan Gissin, a senior aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,
id not confirm the report but said, "It was only a matter of
time before al-Qaida found a comfortable refuge in Damascus
like other organizations."
The news could have significant policy implications for the
United States as President Bush has publicly said he is
committed to pursuing al-Qaida terrorists wherever they go.
It casts a new light on Syria which has sought publicly to
cooperate in the war against terrorism while continuing
privately to pursue terror in southern Lebanon and
elsewhere.
Among the new details made known: Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaida
leader who flew the first plane into the Twin Towers last
September 11, visited Syria at least twice and possibly three
times. The full details of his visit are not known, but it is
known that he was in Aleppo. Though they have been
cooperating so some extent in intelligence efforts against al-
Qaida, the Syrians did not give that information to the
Americans.
Also, Omar bin Laden, Osama's son, left Syria together with
his mother Nagwa, three weeks before the attack on the Twin
Towers. The son returned to Syria after 9-11, and has since
visited twice more. Bin Laden's wife and son lived in the
Alawite stronghold in Latakiya in an arrangement that gave
refuge to bin Laden's close relatives. The two are not now in
Syria.
Intelligence services also found information about contacts
between one of the leading Hizbullah military figures, Imad
Mourghniyeh, and a Qaida operative in Sudan.
Much evidence now shows that before 9-11, Syria was
considered a place where al-Qaida operatives could move
around in relative freedom. They were able to operate with
relatively few of the restrictions that other Arab countries,
like Egypt, put on them.
After 9-11, the Syrians initially believed there would be no
significant change in the geopolitical developments. But
soon, as the American attack on the Taliban in Afghanistan
began, the Syrians suddenly said they were ready for
intelligence cooperation with the U.S. about Qaida. There are
now clear indications that such cooperation was only
partial.
Syria was willing to share what it knew about Qaida cells in
other countries but not what Qaida was doing in Syria.
Important information came from Syria, for example, on Qaida
cells in Germany. That apparently is what kept Syria off
President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" list.
Most of the Syrian information about Qaida activities in
Germany came from the interrogation of a German citizen of
Syrian descent, Mohammed Haider Zemer. He was questioned by
Syrian intelligence before 9-11, and the Syrians were ready
to hand him over to the Germans, who were not interested at
the time.
But the Germans changed their minds after 9- 11, after the
Americans gave them the information provided by the Syrians,
which led to information about Qaida operatives in Hamburg
and elsewhere in Germany, including information about
Mohammed Atta.
The Germans then asked the Syrians to extradite Zemer so they
could continue questioning him and put him on trial, but the
Syrians refused, and refuse to do so to this day. Meanwhile,
Zemer's passport was found in an apartment in Afghanistan
that belonged to a senior Qaida commander.
Another link between Qaida and Syria can be found in the
arrest in Spain of three Syrians. One says that Mohammed Atta
met with one of the three in Spain. The three were found with
videotapes of various possible targets in America, and they
apparently served as an intelligence gathering cell for Atta
before 9-11.
After the defeat of the Taliban, Qaida operatives began
fleeing Afghanistan. Chechnyans, for example, used Turkey as
a way station on their way home. Palestinians, Jordanians and
Jordanians of Palestinian descent, as well as a few Lebanese,
headed back to Lebanon. The Syrians arrested some of them for
interrogation. The Qaida operatives who came to Syria and
Lebanon wound up in Ein Hilwe.
The Ein Hilwe battles last month were initiated by the Qaida
men there, with three of them killed in the fighting. The
fight for control over the camp is not over. Meanwhile, the
Qaida there, led by commanders from Afghanistan, is
establishing a local infrastructure.
Local commentators complained about all the enclaves created
by the Palestinian camps from south to north, through the
Bekaa and Beirut. One cited a danger that those enclaves
could connect to one another and threaten the integrity of
Lebanon.
