September 24, 2003 Contact: (212) 481-1500 Attn: NEWS EDITOR

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SYRIA'S TIES TO AL QAEDA AND OTHER TERRORIST GROUPS

I. Introduction

Syria's links to terrorist groups have received widespread public attention
in recent weeks.

The New York Times revealed on September 24, 2003, that a U.S. Air Force
translator has been indicted for providing Syria with information about the
Guantanamo Bay prison for Al Qaeda terrorists, and a Muslim chaplain in the
U.S. Army has been detained on similar charges.

Undersecretary of State John Bolton, testifying before Congress on September
16, 2003, acknowledged that Syria "offers physical sanctuary and political
protection to groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic
Jihad, whose terrorist operations have killed hundreds of innocent people,
including Americans." (Hezbollah, which is based in Syrian-occupied Lebanon,
carried out the 1983 car-bomb massacre of 241 U.S. Marines in Lebanon, among
other attacks.)

President Bush said in his Mideast policy speech on June 24, 2002, that
Syria must choose the right side in the war n terror by closing terrorist
camps and expelling terrorist organizational Although Syria has clearly
chosen the wrong side, and has not shut down terror camps or expelled terror
groups, Undersecretary . Bolton did not indicate any steps that the Bush
administration will be taking in response to Syria's actions.

Moreover, the State Department earlier this year attempted to delegitimize
and humiliate critics of the Bush administration's soft-on-Syria policy. In
April 2003, former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich
suggested that Secretary of State Colin Powell should delay visiting Syrian
dictator Bashar Assad until Assad stops harboring terrorist groups and Iraqi
war criminals. Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage publicly
questioned Gingrich's mental stability, asserting that Gingrich is "off his
meds and out of therapy." Assistant Secretary of State A. Elizabeth Jones,
likewise tried to delegitimize and publicly humiliate Gingrich, by telling
an interviewer that Gingrich "is an idiot and you can publish that."
(Washington Post, April 28, 2003)

II. Syria's Support for Al Qaeda

* The 2001 edition of the State Department's annual report, Patterns of
Global Terrorism, revealed that in Syrian-occupied Lebanon, "a variety of
terrorist groups--including Hizballah, Usama Bin Ladin's (UBT) al-Qaida
network, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine-General Command, Asbat al-Ansar, and several local
Sunni extremist organizations--continued to operate with varying degrees of
impunity, conducting training and other operational activities ... UBL's
al-Qaida network maintained a presence in Lebanon."

*General Aharon Zeevi Farkash, chief of Israeli Military Intelligence, told
the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee 'that members of Al Qaada
who fled Afghanistan have taken shelter in Syria and Lebanon over the past
few days," according to the Israeli daily Ma'ariv. (Jan. 22, 2002)

III. Syrian Support for Iraqi Terrorists

Undersecretary of State John Bolton, testifying before Congress on September
16, 2003, said "Syria permitted volunteers to pass into Iraq to attack and
kill our service members during the war, and is still doing so."

IV. Syrian Support for Palestinian Arab Terrorists

Secretary of State Colin Powell said in July 2003 that, despite U.S. demands
that Syria shut down and expel terror groups from Damascus, the Syrian
government had only taken "minor steps." Powell said that the U.S. wants
Syria "not only to close offices, 'but to expel from Damascus members of
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad." Instead, "They seem to have told the
terrorist groups to keep their heads down," a senior administration official
said. But that is not a serious change. Syria is not cooperating."
(Jerusalem Post, July 20, 2003)

The 2002 edition of the State Department's annual report, Patterns of Global
Terrorism reports; "The Syrian Government has continued to provide political
and limited material support to a number of Palestinian groups, including
allowing them to maintain headquarters or offices in Damascus. Some of these
groups have committed terrorist acts, but the Syrian Government insists that
their Damascus offices undertake only political and informational
activities. The most notable Palestinian rejectionist groups in Syria are
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Popular Front
for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), the Palestine
Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS)."

*Syria continues to shelter Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, who was indicted by
the U.S. earlier this year, along with other Islamic Jihad terrorists, for
his role in a terror cell that carried out numerous attacks, including the
murders of American citizens Alisa Flatow and Shoshana Ben-Yishaii. (New
York Sun, Feb. 25, 2003)

*Would-be suicide bombers from the West Bank and around the Arab
world--including two men who planned a mega-attack on Israel's tallest
buildings, the Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv--are being trained at camps in
Syria and Lebanon,- the Jerusalem Report revealed (Dec. 2, 2002). After
arriving in Syria, the two men "were vetted by a senior Syrian intelligence
officer in Damascus, and taken to the headquarters of the PFLP-GC in the
City, [and then] sent to the 'September 17' training camp outside Damascus
... In the second hall of last year alone, Israeli authorities arrested in
the territories over 20 non-Palestinians recruited by Hamas from lands as
distant as Yemen and Sudan--mostly students recruited at university and then
sent [to Syria] for the training."

V.Syria Support for Hezbollah

The 2001 edition of the State Department's annual report, Patterns of Global
Terrorism, reported; "Syria granted a variety of terrorist groups--including
Hamas, the PFLP-GC, and the PIJ--basing privileges or refuge in areas of
Lebanon's Bekaa Valley under Syrian control ... Syria did not act to stop
Hizballah and Palestinian projectionist groups from carrying out
anti-Israeli attacks. Damascus also served as the primary transit point for
terrorist operatives traveling to Lebanon and for the resupply of weapons to
Hizballah."

The 2002 edition of Patterns of Global Terrorism, reported: "Syria also
continued to permit Iranian resupply, via Damascus, of Hizballah in Lebanon.
The report notes that Hezbollah operates in the southern suburbs of Beirut,
the Bekaa Valley, and southern Lebanon--i.e., Syrian-occupied territory--
and "receives financial, training, weapons, explosives, political,
diplomatic, and organizational aid from Iran and diplomatic, political, and
logistic support from Syria."

Here is how the report describes Hezbollah: "Known or suspected to have been
involved in numerous anti-US and anti-Israeli terrorist attacks, including
the suicide truck bombings of the US Embassy and US Marine barracks in
Beirut in October 1993 and the US Embassy annex in Beirut in September 1984.
Three members of Hizballah, 'Imad Mughniyah, Hasan Izz-al-Din, and Ali Atwa,
are on the FBI's list of 22 Most Wanted Terrorists for the hijacking in 1985
of TWA Flight 847 during which a US Navy diver was murdered. Elements of the
group were responsible for the kidnapping and detention of US and other
Westerners in Lebanon in the 1980s. Hizballah also attacked the Israeli
Embassy in Argentina in 1992 And the Israeli cultural center in Buenos Aires
in 1994. In fall 2000, it captured three Israeli soldiers in the Shab'a
Farms and kidnapped an Israeli noncombatant whom it may have lured to
Lebanon under false pretenses."

VI. Hezbollah's Links to Al Qaeda

*The U.S. bill of indictment against Bin Laden terrorists who went on trial
in New York in 2001, stated that Bin Laden's Al Qaeda, "forged alliances
with the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with representatives of the
government of Iran, and its associated terrorist group Hizballah, for the
purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the
West, particularly the United States." (pp.7-8)

*Ali Mohamed, a member of Bin Laden's Ai Qaeda terrorist group who pleaded
guilty to involvement in the 1998 attacks on American embassies in Africa,
stated in his guilty plea (in U.S. district court on Oct 20, 2000) that
"Hezbollah provided explosives training for Al Qaeda." (Middle East
Newsline, Oct. 23, 2000)

*U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) said after a briefing by senior law
enforcement officials that those officials believe Al Qaeda is "very much
involved with Hezbollah, Fatah, and other terrorist organizations."
(Associated Press, Sept. 13, 2001)
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