Crouching Tiger, Duplicitous Lion!

The story of the Little Tiger, Numair al-Assad, ad his gang of bank robbers illustrates well the kind of family politics that is involved in the Assad clan these days.

Here is a man in his early thirties who was caught red-handed on camera leading his gang of thugs and cut-throats on a little heist where a little less than 1 million USD were stolen, a man who was clearly identified, captured by the authorities in full daylight, in an event that was reported even in Syrian media, a man who, despite his relation to the President (a first cousin and all that) was actually put in prison, a man who, therefore, and no matter how inadvertently, could have cleaned up the ashen image of the President by just staying in prison and getting the royal treatment. Instead, the man escapes from prison, with the duplicity of his jailers of course, and not to some far away country, but to his home-turf in the coastal city of Lattakia where he currently roams free, unmolested by anyone and still leading his gang on various heists. Continue reading “Crouching Tiger, Duplicitous Lion!” →

The Return of Rifaat!

Will the evil uncle reconcile with the foolish nephew? If we are to go by the proliferating reports out there, something along these lines is indeed in the works. But then, something along these lines have always been in the works, and nothing has so far materialized. Why?

Because the reconciliation process will only consecrate the Alawite nature of the regime, and will signify a complete break with the Sunnis in the country, as they absolutely loathe the man. And for what? Not all Alawites will be happy with the return of this “fearless leader.” In fact, many Alawites will see in such a move a further consolidation of power in the hands of the Assad-Makhlouf clan, and they will not be happy with that. Not at all. Continue reading “The Return of Rifaat!” →

Lions on Probation!

Yes, even if the ongoing inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese PM, Rafic Hariri, should end up exonerating Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from duplicity in the ordering and planning thereof, the young lion and his regime should still be put on a certain probationary period before their relations with the rest of the world are normalized. Continue reading →

The Case for Regime Change in Syria (4)

A point was raised in the Comments Section below to the effect that for every corrupt Alawite in the regime there is at least five corrupt Sunnis. I don’t dispute the veracity of this statement. For indeed it comes as a natural reflection of two facts: 1) demographics, that is, there are simply much more Sunnis in the country than Alawites, and 2) the politics of appeasement and co-optation, that is, if we you want to keep the Sunnis elite on the quiet side and ignore the abnormal fact of Alawite dominance of the military and the decision-making process, you have to ensure that they are corrupt. Continue reading →