by Ghassan Kadi for The Saker blog
Over the last few years, and since the “War on Syria” started, we have heard many pro-Syria enthusiasts raving about how wonderful Syria was before the war. Some of them, mainly Westerners who had never been to Syria before the war, were invariably heard making statements about “perfect” Syria, how everyone lived peacefully and in harmony and in a law-abiding manner.
Whilst some of this is true to some extent, and whilst the Syrian culture endorses civilized behaviour and the so-called old-fashioned code of ethics, Syria was nowhere close to being perfect, and when Syrian patriots rose for her defence, they didn’t do so because they believed it was perfect, but rather to preserve its unity, independence, secularism and integrity.
In hindsight, the biggest problems that Syria had were a latent fundamentalist threat, a Kurdish question and corruption.
Everyone wanted to believe that the defeat suffered by the Jihadis at the hands of President Hafez Al Assad back in 1983 was going to be sufficient to muzzle them forever. A few cynics, including myself, felt that this was an optimistic outlook. Others of course vowed for revenge. Sadly, time proved that the cynics were right and the “revenge” was brutal. It is hoped that current President Bashar Al Assad will learn from his father’s experience in a manner that does not allow any such resurgence anytime in the foreseeable future.
And as the Syrian Government is taking steps towards negotiating with several Kurdish groups, and as those Kurdish groups are reciprocating positively, it is hoped that this will provide an opportunity to deal with the Kurdish issue once and for all, given that the subject was taboo before the war and no one wanted to open Pandora’s Box in peacetime. A few days ago, I was interviewed by Sputnik about this very subject, and since then, a few positive developments have eventuated on the ground. https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201808031066917418-syria-kurds-thaw/
This leaves us with corruption.
Early in the war, I read an Arabic article by an Iraqi scholar who is not a personal supporter of President Al Assad, neither was he a supporter of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. After having seen what happened to Saddam and Iraq, the author re-evaluated in his own mind his priorities and realised that he had taken the wrong stand towards his country by being anti-Saddam. The article was titled “Why Do I Defend Syria”. I was very moved by this article and decided to translate it into English. http://intibahwakeup.blogspot.com/2013/10/why-do-i-defend-syria-by-dr-omar-thaher.html With Sadness and realism, I felt his pain because it also articulated my own pain, especially when I read his narrative about how easy it is to smuggle a tank into the country if you give the customs officer(s) the right bribe which probably does not need to exceed a few dollars or hundred at the most.
Presidents Al Assad, father and son, never denied the endemic problem of corruption. The son President has gone to the extent to state recently that there is corruption even in the Presidential Palace. It is a huge, endemic problem and to shove it underneath the carpet and pretend it does not exist is almost tantamount to treason.
Realistically, as the “War on Syria” was taking form, the main attribute that needed to be canvassed was loyalty to the State and its Constitution. Pragmatically therefore, the focus on corruption had to take a backseat with the centre stage given to the war and how to win it. Given the events of today, and the fact that the war is almost over, the battle against corruption must commence, and commence as soon as possible.
Corruption in Syria today is taking a new unprecedented form. In the past it was mainly practiced by officials seeking bribes in order to facilitate certain transactions, licences or deals. This happened at different tiers of government, high and low, but it didn’t generally seem to pose a serious threat to national security; but now it does.
Wars generate poverty and need, and with the depreciation of the Syrian Lira, the standard of living has plummeted. In this atmosphere and diluted presence of the watchful eyes of the Government due to the conditions on the ground, corruption flourished within the corruptible. And whilst on one hand some would be recipients demanded bribes from other fellow Syrians, there is now a growing tier of corruption in the form of some Syrians accepting bribes from visiting Westerners.
During the Hafez years the entry of Westerners to Syria was highly regulated. Visas were only given to stringently vetted applicants and under very strict control, and for good reasons because Syria has been in a state of war for a long time. Those same regulations continued to be upheld during the early years of President Bashar’s Presidency. However, as the war began, and Syria grew desperate for foreign support, entry restrictions were somewhat more relaxed, and consequently many Westerners were able to enter Syria despite their colourful histories.
Many genuine, non-Syrian supporters of Syria were rightfully allowed into the country, but some others infiltrated, using corrupt locals to sponsor their visa applications.
The last few weeks and months have witnessed a new phase of Syrian – Israeli confrontation. Syria has been deploying her air defences and actually managed to shoot down an Israeli F-16. The use of more sophisticated weaponry on the part of Syria is giving a message to Israel about a new balance of power, and this would be sending the Israeli military into a frenzy of panic and anxiety, trying to maintain their technological upper hand if they can. On this front therefore, Syria has scored a victory tick.
On the other hand, Israel is giving Syria other subtle messages to demonstrate to the Syrian side other different advances it has made. A few weeks ago Mossad director, Yossi Cohen, announced that a watch belonging to Mossad agent Eli Cohen, who was captured and hanged in Syria in 1965, had been recovered from Syria. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-44736802 The question to ask here is how did the Mossad get its hands on this watch? Did corruption play a role? Given that there were no news reports about a military operation that ended up in retrieving this watch, we can possibly assume that there is a likelihood that corruption was involved and that some crooked official is now enjoying his spoils.
The watch as an object does not have a security tag attached to it, but the fact that it ended up where it did is the kind of symbolic message that PM Netanyahu is giving to President Al Assad.
What is more brazen and indeed serious is an assassination that was hardly reported in the Western media. https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Syrian-scientist-killing-is-a-message-to-Assad-and-Tehran-564180 Professor Aziz Isbir, a Syrian nuclear physicist, the director of the Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Centre in Mesyaf, was assassinated by detonating a bomb in his vehicle a few minutes after he left home, killing him and his driver. The fingers point to Israel, especially that Israeli war jets have targeted the research centre more than once, the last time which was on the 22nd of July this year, before being repelled by Syrian air defences. An assassination of a scientist of the calibre of Professor Isbir requires detailed preparation and inside information and help. Even the Jerusalem Post in reporting the incident is referring to the assassination as a message to Syria and Iran.
It does not take the work of a genius to conclude that the gist of the message is that “we have infiltrated you deeper that you can imagine and we can do more”.
The hallmarks of corruption are unmistakable to the experienced eye, and whether corruption is restricted to a bribe of a customs officer to turn a blind eye to a carton of Marlboro cigarettes and a bottle of Scotch or to smuggle in a tank, or assassinate an eminent scientist, the price paid for corruption, whether high or low, is always lapped up by cheap hungry ghosts who can be bought and who would sell anything to anyone at the right price.
No one likes to talk about corruption in his/her own country. It somehow seems to be perceived as an overarching stigma that soils the whole community. This would be a very unfair description, because Syrians are by-and-large patriotic and dignified people. But let us face it, without corruption, the terrorists would not have been able to bring into Syria such huge stashes of military hardware before the war began. I am not talking about what later on became the out-of-control open borders of Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon that allowed even convoys of tanks to roll in. I am talking about the peacetime period that preceded the war, when a certain amount of weapons and fighters, enough to start a fire, were infiltrated into the country.
Quite recently, it has been reported by some confirmed sources that Syria was going to put restrictions on the entry of non-Syrians. If true, this would be a minor step in the right direction, but given the level of infiltration that some Western elements have generated within Syria, it requires much more than putting restrictions on their re-entry and/or the entry of others of similar suspicious agendas.
Writing this article has been as heartbreaking for me as reading Omar Thaher’s article seven years ago or so, but ignoring the problem and pretending it does not exist neither helps eradicate it nor does it serve the truth. What makes this all more heartbreaking is that those tens of thousands of army personnel who perished, the hundreds of thousands of grieving family members and the millions behind them, are honest, proud people who even refuse to take help when offered to them, feeling it is undignified. It is always the bad minority that can inflict the damage, just like the Jihadis did. Unlike the Jihadis that brandish guns however, and can be identified by their paraphernalia, the corrupt ones do not stand out and can be lurking in any place, any government department, and any street corner, with their insidious nature no less dangerous than the arms brandishing terrorists that almost brought Syria to her knees and, there is no better time for Syria to do the clean-up than now.
I would not be surprised if some readers may see that this article is accusing the whole Syrian Government apparatus of being corrupt. For this reason only, I must emphasize if Syria did not have an overwhelming majority of honest and incorruptible men and women in government, the country would have been lost. We must stop here for a moment and give a special praise to the diplomatic missions who were offered high sums of money to re-bunk, but to no avail. This is not to forget the tens of thousands of soldiers who refused to leave the ranks of the SAA even though they were offered not only much higher salaries, but also positions in the new state if the war was to be won. This is needless to mention the hundreds of thousand, indeed millions who refused to leave their homes under the most dire of situations. It is those solid patriots, with the wise leadership behind them that won the war. Unfortunately however, it only takes a few bad apples to spoil the broth, and if a minister has just one single corrupt gate-keeper who controls the flow of information, he/she can be easily placed in the dark, and this can affect the good work of a whole Ministry.
It must be clearly said again therefore that without the corrupt element, the enemies of Syria wouldn’t have been able to send enough kindling fire into the country. It would therefore be unfathomable and unforgivable to turn a blind eye to corruption after the ground battles end, especially when we see acts like the retrieval of Cohen’s watch the assassination of Prof. Isbir.
If Syria wants to avoid more disasters and more serious incidences like that of Cohen’s watch and the assassination of Prof. Isbir, it must declare open season on corruption; the sooner the better.
Each country must deal with its own corruption; as must each individual look to his or her own conscience. As a Britisher, my worry is the horrific corruption at the highest level of the UK, the Anglo Sphere and the EU. The devastation that visited Syria did not arise from corruption in Syria but from the rampant corruption in the highest offices of the EUSA. What are we, ordinary men and women in the street, going to do about this disastrous problem now afflicting the whole of Western Europe from Athens in the South to Stockholm in the North?
It seems to me that it matters if we take notice of the corruption in our own country. In my country, Stockholm in the north, corruption is much more sophisticated than taking bribes. The idea if bribing Customs at Arlanda International is laughable. Corruption takes place at the multimillion level in cutting deals with contractors, board members giving themselves assignments and the charging exorbitant consulting fees for almost no work done.
Media here sense that there is growing discontent with the insight that this kind of corruption is prevalent in the upper echelons of our society. It threatens the fabric of our society’s able to cope with challenges we have to deal with in these uncertain times. What I mean that this discontent creates a market for investigative journalism which in turn creates a political pressure that wasn’t there before. And it all started with individuals that expressed concern about corruption.
Ghassan Khadi lists three problems for antebellum Syria, “a latent fundamentalist threat, a Kurdish question and corruption,” but doesn’t note that they are of two different types. The first two are structural challenges to the authority of the Syrian State; these groups want more autonomy or independence for themselves, and the fundamentalists may want to replace the state itself. The last simply wants to benefit itself at the expense of the state by betraying it in smaller doses with impunity–it is a parasite that wants the host to survive so it can continue leeching, but it has no loyalty to the state except as a source of exploitable benefits, and yields to the higher bidder. This third problem created a vulnerability that foreign powers exploited in conjunction with the first two structural challenges, leading to the imperial proxy war that is gradually coming to an end (liberating Syria north and east of the Euphrates remains the final challenge).
Continuing corruption creates similar vulnerabilities that the imperial powers, Israel foremost among them, will continue to exploit. If the Zionist tail has wagged the America/Saudi/Qatar dog, these vulnerabilities will continue to be exploited by well-known divide-and-conquer strategies. Syria’s military victory against its enemies is an ideal opportunity to root out corruption under the banner of genuine patriotism–but carefully. My understanding is that some of the initial high-ranking Syrian defectors were the very parasites threatened by some of Assad’s pre-war anti-corruption reforms.
@Michael Green: “My understanding is that some of the initial high-ranking Syrian defectors were the very parasites threatened by some of Assad’s pre-war anti-corruption reforms.”
Before the NATZO invasion of Syria I had no knowledge of President Assad except for the news that he was not destined to be President — he wanted only to be an eye doctor — which I must admit prejudiced me somewhat in his favour. Your contribution reinforces the favourable impression which I have formed from following Dr.Assad’s exemplary conduct in holding his country together against enormous odds.
My sincere wishes to First Lady Asmaa for a speedy and complete recovery. The frankness with which she has revealed the news, and the fact that she has obviously been undergoing regular screening for early detection (and hence favourable prognosis) will be an inducement to other young women to be open about regular cancer checks, one of the most helpful anti-cancer measures of the past 40 years.
Yes, corruption is an historic human condition, all civilizations, all systems.
What Syria must uproot is treason, traitors who sell a scientist for a payment.
There are traitors to uproot and then corrupt officials to reform.
As the economy comes back, reconstruction begins, there will be many civil means for hands to dip into dollars (yuans, most likely).
We all rejoice in the salvation of Syria as a nation.
Over the coming decade, we pray that Assad is blessed with wisdom to work compromises that calm the country and reunite all the people.
(Also, news came today of cancer striking Mrs. Assad. Pray for her that the breast cancer is local and excised and she returns to full health. She is a wonderful First Lady of Syria.)
Sorry to hear about Mrs. Assad illness, I had no idea, a cancer most probably provoked by this war´s suffering and stress….
Agree with you in that she is a wonderful lady who has been able to be to the heights of the circumstances…
may be you could enjoy an adressing and interchange she gave time ago at Paris Diplomatic Academy which gives the size of her humanity and love for Syrian country and culture….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySlT5un6Ddg
They’ll have at least one small advantage. The US and Wall Street and the UK and the City of London won’t be there. The most corrupt groups on earth where money is everything and a bit of corruption to add to one’s personal retirement account is just the way one gets ahead in a dog-eat-dog uber-capitalist world.
Whenever you think things can’t get any worse, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton can appear.
“I would not be surprised if some readers may see that this article is accusing the whole Syrian Government apparatus of being corrupt. For this reason only, I must emphasize if Syria did not have an overwhelming majority of honest and incorruptible men and women in government, the country would have been lost.”
Right or wrong, I too can only cling to the idea that humanity is mostly good, cooperative, empathic and willing to help others. Otherwise, the world population could not have doubled despite the never-ending wars and the never-ending corruption. Unless the great majority of people help each others and endeavored to make each others’ life better, the population would have started to decline long, long ago.
Hope is lost only when we start losing that perspective and… unfortunately, everything is done by MSM and alternative media to get us down and hopeless. George Carlin was right about our being given a ticket to the freak show at birth and Americans being given a front-row seat.
Then again, who says we have to only watch that show? Who says we even have to acknowledge that it exists and that it is the only reality there is?
Hence the need for all of us to take sabbaticals and go on spiritual retreats…
Fine article. But I think it misses one key point: To get rid of corruption, while it is important to eliminate impunity, it is at least as important to go after the conditions in which corruption thrives. Those would be desperation, inequality, unaccountable power, that sort of thing. Officials can extort the people when the people have no recourse. Officials will go for bribes if they are either too poor (so they have to) or too rich (so they get too big for their britches), so they should be paid a solid salary but the upper levels should not be in great luxury. There should be EFFECTIVE channels for complaint and whistleblowing, which is to say channels which both work and do not result in reprisals, so that people can get rid of or work around corrupt officials. No service should have too much power–here, in the Syrian case, I am specifically thinking of the security services, whose power to unaccountably screw people over undoubtedly allows them to do a lot of extortion.
(That also means that in the quest to get rid of corruption, the last thing you want is a witch hunt led by the very security services that most certainly hold a lot of it–that would just make things worse, as the most corrupt would buy their way out, the security services themselves would become more corrupt while the hunt itself gave them greater and more unaccountable power, and the innocent, being unable to pay, would be the most likely targets.)
In terms of social service provision, universality is best if you want to avoid corruption–it is hard to withhold a service that EVERYBODY gets, and so little need to bribe officials to get it.
Very sobering article, and thanks for posting this! Regarding the story of the “recovered watch”, I suppose the Israelis are busy congratulating themselves for this theft, unaware that the real symbolism is that Time has Run Out, in a very real way,for the counterfeit , antichrist state of Israel. Some time ago Gilad Atzmon , who is jewish, observed that a kilometer- high wall needs to be built around Israel not so much to “keep terrorists out” but to keep the Zionists in — perhaps saving our world in the process. Both my wife and I had ancestors who were jewish, — I am not being “anti-Semitic” for my honest disagreements. One of my prayers is Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, And for the whole world, and along with the many commentators on this remarkable site I wish a lasting peace for the people of Syria.
I have visited Syria prior to the civil war and visited Iraq during the Saddam Era and during the US occupation period several times.
My opinion is that the majority of people both inside and outside Syria and Iraq believe that the situation in these two countries is much worse in these recent years than prior to the Syrian Civil War and the US occupation of Iraq. I further think that no one in his right mind actually believes that the situation in these countries was worth the destruction, crimes and chaos that unfolded in these two countries.
I do not want to go into the nitty and gritty details of the bribes and corruption in these countries. However, after honestly and critically analyzing the depth and scale of the corruption and oppression in these two countries, I can conclude without a shadow of a doubt that the scale of this corruption and oppression are one of the main drivers that made Iraq and Syria easy targets for the Western-Zionist alliance.
Notice how I use the word “oppression” in combination with “corruption”. Because corruption, once it reaches a certain level, leads to oppression. The other way around is also true, oppression leads to corruption. In Syria and Iraq oppression and corruption was and is (still) both top-down as well as bottom-up. If you do not know the difference, I can advise you to google it.
I can almost guarantee that if for example Iran would have reached the level of corruption of Syria and Iraq (or Libya and Yemen for that matter), it would have met the same fate. Actually if God forbid Iran ever reaches that level of corruption, it could meet the same fate in the future.
No amount of ballistic missiles can save a nation’s society where corruption and oppression has reached unprecedented levels from internal and external threats. Especially if it is trying to follow and independent path from that of the Western-Zionist alliance.
We should support nations who are trying to “resist” the Western-Zionist alliance, but we should also recognize and learn from these nations when their corruption and oppression has made them extremely vulnerable to being attacked by the Western-Zionist alliance.
Being corrupt and oppressive should not be a “prerequisite” to resisting the Western-Zionist alliance. I hope that Russia, China and Iran can become models in this regard. These countries should approach the fighting corruption from both top-down and bottom-up. A strong, ethical and moral leadership and rule of law can trickle down to society, breeding a more just and less corrupt society.
Being independent from the most corrupt alliance on Earth does not mean you have to be oppressive, repressive and corrupt. I think it is possible to have a relatively just leadership and society while still being out of the influence of this evil alliance.
Being attacked and blackmailed by the alliance is a given….its a constant factor, nothing surprising or special !
You can blabber about it all day long, complain and pray to God for him to save you……..but if your house is rotting and you don’t get your act together….no amount of praying is going to help.
The corruption, weakness and social cohesion of a nation should be the the variable factor that should pushed and changed into a more positive position for the survival and success of a nation.
@Harry_Red(neck?). Is this Uncle $cam’s Latest Line? “The front door was rotting so don’t blame me for kicking it in”. Sounds to me like a certain A.SchikelGruber from my youth. Might end up the same way.
So because of my views on corruption in countries that are trying to counter the Western-Zionist alliance, you concider me a red-neck, something related to i am guessing Hitler and someone who is giving excuses to Western wars and atrocities against man kind in the Middle East ?
Did you even read what I wrote?
WATCH US, Israeli Rockets Reportedly Left Behind by Terrorists in Daraa, Syria
https://sputniknews.com/military/201808091067070722-us-israeli-missiles-syria/
“The Syrian army frequently finds Western and Israeli-made munitions, armaments and equipment in weapons depots abandoned by militants and terrorist groups.
Syria’s official news agency, SANA, has published a video showing recent findings by the Syrian army in the province of Daraa. While conducting mop up operations, it discovered several weapons caches left behind by militants and terrorists full of armaments and ammunition. Some of the bombs that were found were reportedly made in Israel.
Apart from that, a number of anti-personnel mines, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, machineguns, automatic rifles, chemical substances used to make bombs, as well as telecommunication devices were found in the caches.
This is not the first time that the Syrian army finds foreign-made weapons in caches and depots set up by militants. On August 8, Syrian authorities said that they had found sniper modifications of FAL rifles produced in unspecified Western countries and Israeli grenades left by terrorists in northern Homs. In July, militants from Daraa province handed over their weapons under a truce agreement. Some of the weapons, such as TOW launchers, were produced in the US.”
Syrian Authorities Discover Cache of Western, Israeli Weapons in Homs – Report
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201808081067046012-syria-western-weapons-cache/
“The Syrian army has on multiple occasions stumbled upon caches of weapons and ammunition made in western countries and Israel while performing sweeping operations in provinces, liberated from terrorist and militant groups.
While performing a mop up operation in the northern part of Homs, Syrian authorities discovered a weapons cache, which contained various weaponry and ammunition, Syrian news agency Sana reported. According to the media outlet, the cache was left behind by “terrorists” and contained 14.5mm machine guns, sniper modifications of FAL rifles produced in unspecified western countries, assault rifles, Israeli-made grenades and different types of ammunition.
This is not the first time Syrian authorities have found caches full of foreign-made weapons left behind by terrorists and militants. In July the Syrian Army reportedly found RPG launchers, shells, gasmasks, minesweepers, mortars, heavy machine gun emplacements and TOW launchers produced in the US among the weapons that fighters in Daraa province handed over under a reconciliation agreement. These weapons were reportedly supplied by the US to the Free Syrian Army.
Among the weapons handed over in May by terrorists from towns south of Damascus Syrian authorities found models produced in Israel. The Syrian Army also found NATO and Israeli-made weapons in former Daesh* depos discovered in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate.”
@vot tak. Explains why ISIS never attacked Israel; don’t bite the hand that feeds them.
Immediately, we have a useless concept: corruption. Corruption is not a problem. Corruption gets bridges built.
What the writer is speaking about is treason. It’s clear to me he’s been trained by some “”british institute of democracy and freedom and whatever,” thus making him incapable of properly diagnosing problems. I would say the urban Syrian’s love for london is one of the reasons for the hell brought to Syria. They could not see their friends as enemies. “someone being nice to us is our friend.” So childish. You can’t be that dumb and expect to survive.
Being a patriot doesn’t mean you love government. Government is an anti-patriotic institution. A patriot may or may not love the leader, just like a son may or may not love his dad. A dead-beat dad is hard to love, for example.
A patriot loves his land and the people part of it. I’m not sure urbanized people understand what this feeling is anymore. Cities are so big, everything is so dead in them. It’s all just stuff to collect and decorate with. Certainly, someone walking around looking at his cell phone has left reality and can’t love anything anymore.
Some patriots, thank God, were left and are left in Syria. Satan loses, again.
@Harry_Red. Yes, I read your posts. Your previous post on Iran quoted an obsolete MIT study to suggest Iran could not attack AZC assets in KSA. I replied Iran could and more. Your next post suggested that “if your house is rotting” that is practically an open invitation for Uncle $cam and his Coalition of the Killing — shifting the blame onto the victims Iraq, Libya and Syria. And “hoping” that Iran, Russia and China will fix their (alleged) corruption before they too get- invaded by The Man from Uncle. Both of your posts are calculated to “spread alarm and despondency” — Ah! Woe! We are weak (first post) and corrupt from Top Down to Bottom Up! (second post).
For those who do not remember WW2, “if your house is rotting” reminded me of Hitler’s boast, “If we kick the door open the whole rotting house will come tumbling down”. Poor old Adolph was talking about Russia. I guess poor old Obomba and Killary and their “Western Alliance” were talking about Syria in the same contemptuous terms. Until the real Russia and the real Syria reared up and bit all those self-righteous parties Bottom Up as well as Top Down.
So you see I not only read your posts in detail but reply to your replies. But I shall not read others.
Firstly, the outdated MIT article i refered to was to point out that the Americans are underestimating Iran’s capabilities. It was even followed by a question to the readers of this blog whether they think the Americans are underestimating Iranian capabilities…
…….so in this regard you did not understand at all my post.
And when i refered to house rotting, i was in no way refering to an open invitiation of Western criminal interventions or shifting the blame of Western atrocities onto the victims of Iraq and Syria.
But since you have never lived in Iraq, Syria or Iran for that matter, I do not expect you to understand how corruption and opression can erode national security and national cohesion. On this subject matter, I have more experience and authority then your entire life time since world war II (assuming you are that old and with all due respect to your age).