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Players Begin Savage Moves for Post-Assad Power Grab

(RadicalIslam.org) Clare Lopez - The forces that will savage one another to succeed Bashar al-Assad in Damascus are beginning to make moves that are calculated to improve their position in the immediate post-Assad period. Key players are being either removed from the chess board or strategically placed on it. For example, on March 19, 2013, the Turkey-based Syrian National Council (SNC) elected Ghassan Hitto, a senior member of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, as head of an interim opposition government for Syria. The Free Syrian Army rejected Hitto's election, asserting that they do not recognize the Qatar-backed Muslim Brother as the legitimate choice of the anti-Assad coalition. In another example, a massive explosion inside a Damascus mosque on March 21 killed at least 42 people, including one of the most important remaining Sunni clerical figures still supporting the Assad regime, Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramada al-Bouti, 84. In yet another case, somebody also tried to assassinate Col. Riad al-Assad, one of the top leaders of the Free Syrian Army, on March 24. The grenade attack on al-Assad's car did not kill him, but he lost a leg. The writer served for 20 years as an operations officer with the CIA.
2013-03-29 00:00:00
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