Syrian Insurgents Establish Private Mukharbarat

“The people who lived here were killed by democracy.”

— Writing on the wall of a house in Haditha, Iraq, after the massacre of 24 people by US Marines, November 2005.

Having reduced Iraq to a state of terror, shambles, years of near pogrom, and, as the tenth anniversary of possibly modern history’s most illegal invasion approaches, with car bombs and resultant body parts still a near routine nightmare, it seems the democracy bringing US-EU-NATO axis is about to score another own goal in Syria.

Their pet insurgents – in the nation where capitol city Damascus is believed the longest continually inhabited city on earth, is mentioned 67 times in the bible and where the language of Jesus, Aramaic, is still spoken in some areas – are torturing, killing, beheading and destroying history itself. Now, it seems, the Western liberty bringers, plus alleged factory plundering pal Turkey, are party to establishing their very own Mukharbarat.

This secret security force in Middle East countries is a name usually spoken in whispers with a furtive glance over the shoulder by people of fortitude for whom fear is mostly a foreign language.

Now reports state that the murderous “mutineers” (pictured being paid in US $s) have set up their very own Mukharbarat to “protect the revolution”, and to gather information to plan attacks on forces of a sovereign government.

Underlining further the chaotic, blind folly (as Iraq, Libya) of their Western backers, the Report states of the Mukharbarat backers:

The organization  appears to operate independently from the main opposition Syrian National Coalition and the Free Syrian Army, effectively answering to itself.

The Arab world’s secret services are undisputedly a bi-word for ruthlessness (however, given Abu Ghraib, Bagram, Guantanamo, rendition flights, secret trials, torture, waterboarding etc., there is no high moral ground.)  But the words of “Haj”, one self styled rebel, might yet make the Arab world’s worst excesses look mild, as the US and UK did Saddam’s:

“We are watching everybody. We have gathered information about every violation that happened in the revolt”, he said.  “Those we cannot punish now will be punished after toppling Assad. Nothing will be ignored. We have our members among all the working brigades. They are not known to be intelligence and they operate quietly.”

His agents, Haj said, worked undercover as activists, citizen journalists or fighters. “Nothing will be ignored” he warned darkly.

Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist with special knowledge of Iraq. Author, with Nikki van der Gaag, of Baghdad in the Great City series for World Almanac books, she has also been Senior Researcher for two Award winning documentaries on Iraq, John Pilger's Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq and Denis Halliday Returns for RTE (Ireland.) Read other articles by Felicity.