US drones flying over Syria
Zvi Bar’el, Haaretz, Feb 19 2012
The US is flying unmanned reconnaissance planes over Syria, US defense officials told NBC television on Saturday. The drones are being used to gather intelligence that can be used to “make a case for a widespread international response,” NBC quoted the unnamed officials as saying. Russia continues to come to the aid of the Assad regime with weapons shipments, and on Friday two Iranian warships passed through the Suez Canal on the way to Tartus port in Syria. A diplomatic crisis erupted between Turkey and Syria when more than 40 Turkish intelligence officers were captured by the Syrian army. Over the past week, Turkey has been conducting intensive negotiations with Syria in order to secure their freedom, and Syria insists that their release will be conditioned on the extradition of Syrian officers and soldiers who defected and are currently in Turkey. Syria conditioned the continuation of the negotiations on Turkey’s blockade of weapons transfers and passage of the Free Syria Army through its territory. It also demanded that Iran sponsor the negotiations on releasing the Turkish officers. Turkey, which mediated several weeks ago between the Free Syria Army and Iran to secure the release of several Iranian citizens who were captured by the rebels, rejects Syria’s demands. Syria has recently published “confessions” that it allegedly gathered from the Turkish officers that they were trained by Israel’s Mossad, and were given instructions to carry out bombings to undermine the country’s security. According to the Syrians, one of the Turkish officers said that the Mossad also trains soldiers from the Free Syria Army, and that Mossad agents came to Jordan in order to train al-Qaida operatives to send to Syria to carry out attacks.
Turkey denies claims of intelligence officers’ capture in Syria
Zaman, Feb 20 2012
Turkish intelligence officials and the Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that claims reported in Haaretz on Saturday that more than 40 Turkish intelligence officers have been captured by the Syrian army are incorrect. The Israeli report comes days after it was revealed in Turkey that at least one National Intelligence Organization (MİT) agent was involved in the abduction of two Syrian defectors, Mustafa Kassum and Col Hussein Harmush, and their transfer to Syrian authorities. The Adana state prosecutor has formally charged the MİT agent and four other individuals for their alleged role in the handing over of Harmush and Kassum to Syrian security forces. Harmush fled to Turkey last June but was returned to Syria under unclear circumstances in September. Later that month, the colonel “confessed” to crimes against the Syrian government in a tape aired on Syrian national television. Earlier reports said the MİT officer and four other suspects had accepted a bribe of $100,000 from Syrian intelligence services to repatriate Harmush, while subsequent reports suggested the local MİT chief, and even MİT Undersecretary Hakan Fidan, knew about the case. The Radikal daily reported on Monday that some of the MİT officials were brought to MİT headquarters in Ankara to escape an arrest warrant issued by Adana prosecutors. The daily claimed that the MİT personnel were waiting until proposed legislative amendments which require prosecutors to receive permission from the prime minister when taking legal action against or questioning intelligence officials were accepted by Pres Gül. On Jan 30, the Syrian League for Human Rights reported that the regime’s security forces had executed Harmus.
