Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview Shmuel Bar ...

Bashar’s Syria 425covered clients in the Far East and Europe. In 1998, she joined the investment banking division of JPMorgan, London. She specialized in mergers and acquisitions for biotechnology and pharmaceuticalcompanies. During the three years she spent at JP Morgan, she was sent to their Paris office fornine months and to the New York office for 18 months, where she advised and executed four largemerger transactions for both European and American clients. Asma speaks English, Arabic, Frenchand Spanish. http://www.syrianembassy.us/first lady of syria.htm60. These include: rural development (establishment of the Fund for Integrated Rural Developmentof Syria—FIRDOS); promoting women in the Arab world (the “Women and Education Forum”the “Syrian Business Women’s Committee,” the “Women in Business Conference”); children’s charities(National Children’s Book Fair; various charities for disadvantaged children); and IT (foundingof the Mobile Information Center, a mobile computer classroom that travels through Syria’s remotevillages to conduct IT literacy programs).61. Eyad Akhras completed a MSc in history of international relations at LSE with athesis on the British reaction to the July 1958 Iraqi revolution. He has worked since 2004 atBell Pottinger Public Relations, London, and before that at FIRDOS (the Syrian NGO foundedby Asma) and at the Arab Finance Corporation (AFC) in Beirut. http://www.learn4good.com/jobs/language/english/search resumes/consultancy/uk england/cv/11817/62. These include: Mohammad Nassif Kheir Bek, head of internal security at GID, retired1999, later advisor to President Hafez al-Asad; his brother Issam Nassif (former aid to Mustafa Tlas),Mu’ein Nassif Kheir Bek (linked to Rifa’at al–Asad), Fouad Kheir Bek (formerly the chief of thetechnical branch in Military Intelligence and now Head of Internal Security in the GID, ‘Ali KheirBek, (former head of external security); Younes Suleiman Nassif, MP; Maj. Gen. Sakhr Kheir Bek,Deputy Minister of Interior. Salim Kheir Bek (Vice President of the Syrian Human Rights Associationand a major opposition figure, was imprisoned for 13 years.63. “Nahhas Enterprises Group” is involved in: travel & tourism; representations of cars trademarksand spare parts agencies; engineering and contracting; computers (hardware and software);duty free zone operations and ventures; trading and machinery; transportation and Rent-a-car; industry(agroindustry, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and foodstuff); general tenders and projects in thefields of power, oil and gas, water treatment, and others; hotels and hotel projects, and joint venturesin general.64. Those who were honorably discharged in the period leading up to Bashar’s appointmentand since then include: Hafez al-Asad’s closest comrades, ‘Abd al-Halim Khadam and MustafaTlas, former Chief of Staff ‘Ali Aslan and his deputies ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sayyad, Faruq Ibrahim‘Isa, Shafiq Fayyad and Ahmad ‘Abd al-Nabi, the head of the political security branch of GeneralSecurity ‘Adnan Badr Hasan, former head of military intelligence Hasan al-Khalil, and former Headof DGI Hisham Ikhtiyar and former head of political security Bahjat Suleiman. In the category ofthose who were disgraced one may include Mohammad Khouli (Air Force intelligence), Ali Duba,‘Adnan Makhlouf, former Chief of Staff Hikmat Shihabi and former prime minister Zu’bi, who later“committed suicide” after he was accused of corruption.65. Asef Shawkat is said to have been at odds with Bahjat Suleiman and Ghazi Kana’an onalmost every issue.66. According to one Syrian source, he is dubbed “la vache qui rit” (the laughing cow—thename of a French cheese).67. See his interview to the TV station al-‘Arabiya: http://www.alarabiya.net/Articles/2005/12/31/19936.htm. Syrian bloggers claim that he purchased a house that belonged to Onassis(on Blvd. General Fauche) and that the purchases were organized by Sa’ad al-Hariri, the son ofthe murdered Lebanese Prime Minister.68. Such as the current Commander of the Republican Guard ‘Ali Hassan, the Chief of Staff‘Ali Habib and the heads of Intelligence, ‘Ali Mamluk, Fouad Nassif Kheir-Bek, and MohammadMansoura.69. These include people like Iyad Ghazal (former aid in the Presidential Palace who becameclose to Bashar), Haytham Satayhi (senior aid in the Presidential Palace), Buthayna Sha’aban (formerinterpreter to Hafez al-Asad and Minister of Expatriate affairs), Ayman ‘Abd al-Nur (published an