The Assassination Of A Top Syrian General Is Spawning A Number Of Theories

Syrian Test Reactor Before Being Destroyed By Israeli Jets

From Debka:

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report that Gen. Muhammad Suleiman, whom a sniper shot dead in the Syrian port town of Tartus early Saturday, Aug. 2, was a shadowy figure who acted for Bashar Assad in the regime’s four most sensitive and confidential spheres:

1. He was the president’s liaison man with the North Korean government. On his frequent trips to Pyongyang, Gen. Suleiman organized the consignment of components for the plutonium reactor in northern Syria, which Israeli demolished last September, and the security of the North Korean scientists and technicians who accompanied them.

2. Muhammad Suleiman was also the president’s private channel of communication with Iranian military and intelligence chiefs; in this capacity, he most probably facilitated the Syrian-Iranian-North Korean connection. The Syrian reactor was designed to produce nuclear fuel for the Iranian program and radioactive weapons for Syria.

3. The late general also acted as the president’s contact man with Hizballah’s leaders. He worked directly with Imad Mughniyeh, head of Hizballah’s security apparatus, who was killed in Damascus last February.

4. His key function was the management of Assad’s personal interaction with the Syrian chief of staff, generals and heads of military intelligence. There was no state secret from the powerful general. He was to have accompanied the Syrian president on his state visit to Tehran Saturday; instead he was laid to rest in his home village of Driekesh in the north.

Damascus has done its utmost to keep the general’s death under wraps, but word has spread and theories abound: Speculation ranges from an outside hand, or a jealous rival to an internal element who felt the concentration of so much power in one hand was a threat to the regime.

My Comment: As President Assad's personal assistant, he had knowledge and access to all the information that Assad has. By killing the General, the people who are responsible for this action are telling President Assad that they can also kill him.

The repercussions from this assassination will profoundly affect the ruling class in Syria. The Syrian President is the one who is clearly being targeted ..... the pressure to find the people responsible for this act will be intense. Expect people to disappear or flee the country in the next few weeks/months.