Tale of Syria's Lover-Turned-Spymaster Accused of Engineering Hariri's Murder

Tale of Syria's Lover-Turned-Spymaster Accused of Engineering Hariri's Murder
Michael Slackman and Katherine Zoepf of The New York Times spent sometime lately in Damascus to dig up the love story that elevated an obscure army officer to the highest echelons of power in Syria and then landed him at the center of Rafik Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination in Beirut. Here is their narrative:"It was a love story that captured the imagination of many Syrians: A man and a woman defied her father, eloped and lived happily ever after. But for many people, it was not the romance that made the story compelling. It was how the tale spoke to power. "The woman was Bushra al-Assad, the daughter of former President Hafez al-Assad, and the man, Assef Shawkat, was to become Syria's head of military intelligence. "The former president and his oldest son, Basil, opposed Bushra's marrying Shawkat, a divorced father of five who was 10 years her senior. But after Basil died in a car crash and Bushra insisted, they eloped - and a decade later have emerged as one of the most powerful couples in Syria. "Anyone who could go into the home of Hafez Assad and take his daughter away without his permission has the power to do anything," said a television newscaster in Syria who has met Shawkat several times. The newscaster, who originally spoke on the record, called back later, agitated, and asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. "It is to a large degree because of Shawkat's position at the center of Syrian authority that the government finds itself backed into a corner by a United Nations investigation into the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri. "With Shawkat a prime suspect of the investigators, the question being debated here is whether current reigning president Bashar Assad would ever be willing or able to turn over his brother-in-law for trial if asked to. "If he did, many Syrians and diplomats said, it could lead to chaos in the intelligence services and the dilution of Assad's own grip on power by fracturing the unity of the Assad family itself. "It is unclear what role, if any, Shawkat played in the assassination. "The authorities here say that he and other Syrian officials are innocent and that they are hopeful that U.N. chief investigator Detlev Mehlis, a German prosecutor, does not recommend charges. "But tensions are high because the investigators have a witness saying that Shawkat helped plan the murder and held the final planning session in his home in Damascus. "A tall, broad-shouldered man often said to look like a young Saddam Hussein, Shawkat draws his strength from multiple sources. "As head of military intelligence, he has the loyalty and support of Syria's most powerful and feared institutions. "As an Alawite, he is a member of a religious minority that has guarded its monopoly on power for decades. His wife, Bushra, is a power in her own right, part of the small ruling circle that includes another of her brothers, Maher, who is head of the Presidential Guard. And Shawkat's brother-in-law is the president, who promoted him to his position at the helm of the intelligence hierarchy. "Shawkat became head of military intelligence in February, the day after the assassination, but by many accounts was effectively in charge long before. "After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, diplomats and Syrians said, Shawkat was one of the president's main liaisons to intelligence agencies in the United States and in Europe, and had helped set up an American intelligence operation in Syria, which has since been shut down as relations between the two countries have soured. "A month ago, when the pressure began to grow on Syria in connection with the Hariri investigation, diplomats and a political analyst close to the president said that Shawkat had been sent to France to try to cut a deal with the authorities there. "The analyst, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said that Shawkat went with two files, one with information that the government hoped would discredit a primary witness of the U.N. investigation, and another offering the French a lucrative oil and gas deal. The effort, details of which could not be independently confirmed, did not prove successful. "He is clever, charismatic and deep," the analyst said of Shawkat. "He is very dangerous, but he is very pragmatic." "Faced with a U.N. resolution that demands Syria's full cooperation in the investigation, the government may soon have to decide if it will send Shawkat abroad for interrogation and, perhaps, if the evidence warrants it, trial. Until this current crisis, Shawkat, with the support of his wife, was seen as one of the few people who had the ability to pull off a coup, though there was no evidence that anything of the sort was being planned. "Shawkat is well known around Damascus, where he is alternately feared and admired. "Among those who consider him a friend, some say it can be easier to ask for Shawkat's help in getting projects done than to go through formal channels. In a country where there are two sets of rules, one for those with power and connections, and one for everyone else, Shawkat is at the top of the food chain. "When the television presenter wanted to start a study-tour program for students, for example, she said she took her idea to Shawkat, not the Ministry of Education. "The fascination of such people is that we all know that, in one moment, they could give you everything you wish for, or they could kick you into an iron box," she said. "They have fists of steel and ropes of silk. They have all sorts of power." "Shawkat comes from the northern coastal city of Tartous. Those who know him said that he had a doctorate in history from Damascus University and that he had worked his way up through the ranks in the military. They said that he had simultaneously fashioned himself a military man and an intellectual. During the 1980s, people who know him said, he reached out to intellectuals and artists, hoping to build a network of friendships in those communities. "Shawkat's rise to the inner circle was far from smooth, and for a long time he was treated as an outsider. No one seems to know exactly when or how he met his wife, but it is common knowledge here that her oldest brother, Basil, who was being groomed to take over the leadership of the country, and her father were bitterly opposed to the marriage. "After Basil, the family enforcer, died in a car crash in 1994, the two eloped. Eventually, the father sanctioned the marriage, and Shawkat was welcomed in, where he has built a close and lasting relationship with one of the three surviving Assad brothers, Bashar. "End of NY Times story."

Beirut, Updated 08 Nov 05, 18:34