Suicide in Syria?

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun
NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

The moment the news came over the wires that Syria’s interior minister had committed suicide in his office in Damascus, we found ourselves thinking of a wonderful movie that came out some years ago called “Colonel Redl,” about an officer in the Hapsburg empire who got into trouble. It ends, as we recall it, with the colonel, played by Klaus Maria Brandauer, being visited in his office by one of his superiors, who leaves him a loaded pistol and departs. The next thing one hears is the shot with which Redl killed himself. It was the way things were done in the old days.


In the case of Syria the question is whether it was murder or suicide and, beyond that, how much longer can President Assad hold onto power? For whatever the cause of Brigadier General Ghazi Kenaan’s death, it can be only a serious blow to the dictatorship. He was one of Mr. Assad’s most trusted henchmen. Before he was appointed interior minister in 2003, he ruled Lebanon for about 20 years as Syria’s security chief there. Why would one of the most powerful men in Syria suddenly take his own life?


The death was greeted with speculation that it was tied to the coming U.N. report on the assassination of Prime Minister Hariri, who in February was slain in Beirut, along with 20 others, by a bomb attack on his convoy. Blame was immediately placed on the Assad regime in Damascus, as Hariri had become the leader of the opposition to Syria’s occupation of Lebanon. As interior minister and one-time ruler of Lebanon, Kenaan was recently questioned by the German prosecutor, Detlev Mehlis, charged by the United Nations with investigating Hariri’s murder.


Mr. Mehlis’s report is due by October 25, and it’s not hard to imagine Damascus wanting to transfer any blame it receives to Kenaan. He won’t be available to defend himself, and Mr. Assad can conveniently try to wash his hands of the affair. It is also possible that Kenaan believed he would be blamed by Mr. Mehlis – if Syria was behind the murder, Kenaan is the prime suspect in the hunt for the architect – and so took his own life to avoid the possibility that Mr. Assad would hand him over to save his own skin. Danielle Pletka, vice president of the American Enterprise Institute, told The New York Sun that it’s “hard to believe that a person with a track record of murder, drug trafficking, and unspeakable things, would suddenly feel guilt” and take his own life.


An alternative theory for Kenaan’s death, and rumors have been circulating to this effect, is that he was murdered by Mr. Assad for speaking to America and becoming hostile to the Assad regime. The Associated Press reported yesterday that hours before he died Kenaan told a Lebanese radio station that “I believe this is the last statement that I can make.” He told the station that while he had been speaking to U.N. investigators, he had not been informing them of corrupt Syrian officials.


Syria claims it had nothing to do with Hariri’s murder. Nibras Kazimi wrote last month on these pages that the style of the Hariri murder has led him to believe that Sunni Islam fanatics were behind the murder rather than Syria. It would be somewhat ironical if Mr. Mehlis’s report fingers Mr. Assad, with Syria facing international condemnation and sanctions, for the one murder that he didn’t commit, though there is, of course, enough blood on Mr. Assad’s hands to justify any actions against him.


There is no need to wait for a U.N. report to take action against the Assad regime. Syria is on the state department’s list of terror sponsoring states. It aids Hezbollah, the Iranian-funded terrorist organization that occupies the south of Lebanon. The Bush administration has said that arms, terrorists, and suicide bombers, have been entering Iraq through Syria. The regime’s intelligence agents remain in Lebanon and are believed to be behind a run of bombings targeting critics of Syria.


Sanctions and international isolation are the options being mulled for the United Nations if the Mehlis report concludes that Syria is to blame for Hariri’s assassination. But as was seen in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, isolation and sanctions have a way of leaving a the country’s leaders sitting pretty. Sanctions also prevent democracy movements in the country from communicating with, and learning ideas from, those outside the country.


The better option, short of a military operation, would be all-out support for democratic opponents of the regime. The conventional wisdom is that the only alternative to an Assad or similar dictatorship is fundamentalist Sunni Islam rule by the Muslim Brotherhood. That’s not true. There are alternatives, such as the Foreign Party of Syria, an opposition group headed by Farid Ghadry.


Whatever Mr. Mehlis concludes, and whatever action, if any, the United Nations takes, Kenaan’s death may be a signal of the kind of change ahead that would help those who wish to see Syria’s people liberated. The regime looks weak and unstable, and the Alawites, who have held onto power by sticking together, are discredited. Others in the regime will now be speculating whether they’ll be next. Already isolated by former allies for the Hariri murder, the Assad-regime will only get weaker and weaker. All the free world needs to do now is help those who want to give it the final push.

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


The New York Sun

© 2025 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  Create a free account

or
By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use