Bush's strangest Syrian bedfellow: At center of suspicion in Hezbollah leader's car bombing

A BOMBSHELL!

Wayne Madsen Report (entire) -

"February 13, 2008 -- Bush's strangest Syrian bedfellow: At center of suspicion in Hezbollah leader's car bombing: The head of Syrian military intelligence, Assef Shawkat, is no stranger to working with the CIA. Syria has, since 9/11, served as a host for the torture of "extraordinarily renditioned" prisoners captured by the CIA. Shawkat has been at the center of the CIA's program.

WMR has learned from reliable sources that the car bombing in Damascus of Hezbollah military commander Imad Mugniyah on February 12 was carried out by Shawkat with the active encouragement and support of Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams and Israel's Mossad. WMR has reported in the past that Abrams is the coordinator within the Bush White House of political assassinations, particularly those in the Middle East, and specifically, similar car bombing assassinations in Lebanon. WMR has also previously reported that many of the car bombings in Lebanon were the result of coordination between Israeli, American, and Syrian operatives, including "rogue" Syrians and Lebanese agents in the employ of Shawkat.

Mugniyah was wanted by the United States and Israel for a number of terrorist attacks in the 1980s and 1990s, including the 1983 bombings of the US Embassy and Marine Barracks in Beirut, the 1985 hijacking of an Athens-to-Rome TWA flight in which Navy diver Robert Stethem was murdered, and the kidnapping and murder of Beirut CIA station chief William Buckley in 1984 and Marine Corps Lt. Col. William Higgins in 1988.

Significantly, the Israeli Prime Minister's office has denied any role in Mugniyah's assassination. However, Israeli government and intelligence officials are happy that it occurred.

Mugniyah's car exploded at around 10:30 pm in the up-market Tantheem Kafer Souseh neighborhood of Damascus. WMR has learned that the car bombing of Mugniyah was to be timed with the February 9th birthday of President Ronald Reagan, a gesture by Shawkat to the Americans, but the specially designed Mitsubishi seats containing the bombs were installed late, resulting in the February 12 assassination.

In the Middle East, dates, particularly anniversaries, carry much weight. The assassination of Lebanese Member of Parliament Elie Hobeika on January 24th 2002, coincided with the birthday of Elliott Abrams, the then-National Security Council Middle East director. Hobeika's car bombing assassination in Beirut was also carried out by Shawkat's operatives, according to WMR's Middle East sources. The Hobeika assassination was the first in a series carried out by the CIA and Mossad with the assistance of Shawkat's intelligence operatives in Lebanon.

Shawkat, by delivering the goods on the assassination of America's "Most Wanted" Mugniyah, has ensured that he will now receive the protection of the Bush White House in the current UN investigation of car bombings in Lebanon, most notably that of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri."

Posted by Evelyn at Free Iraq

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A COMMENT:

There have been so many signals that Assad is moving back (if he ever left) to the USraeli camp:

- Attending Annapolis.
- Secret and not so secret negotiations with Israelis.
- Improved relations with Jordan.
- Improved relations with S.A.
- Next Arab summit is being held in Damascus.
- Helping the puppet Maliki government in Iraq.
- Handing over to the U.S. occupation some leaders of the Iraqi resistance who were in Syria.
- Cooperation with the occupation to seal the Syria-Iraq border.

And more.

It is no secret that the U.S.-Saudi plan has been to break the Iran-Syria "alliance." This will do it.