At
a time when the British press was still "reporting the truth",
London's Guardian (27 September 2003) published a detailed report of a 1957
Anglo-American assassination plot directed against the Syrian president, with a
view to implementing "regime change". The similarity to today's war
on Syria is striking.
What
is revealing is that the political assassination of the Syrian president has
been on the Anglo-American drawing board for over half a century.
The
article, which reviews the text of the leaked 'Secret Document", confirms
that British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and President Dwight D. Eisenhower
had ordered the assassination of the Syrian Head of State.
"Macmillan
backed Syria assassination plot
Documents
show White House and No 10 conspired over oil-fuelled invasion plan"
The
stated objective of this Secret Plan, entrusted to Britain's Secret
Intelligence Service (SIS) [today's MI6] and the CIA, consisted in
assassinating the Syrian president together with key political and military
figures. "Mr Macmillan and President Eisenhower were left in no doubt
about the need to assassinate the top men in Damascus."
"In order to facilitate the action of
liberating forces, reduce the capabilities of the Syrian regime to organise and
direct its military actions, to hold losses and destruction to a minimum, and
to bring about desired results in the shortest possible time, a special effort
should be made to eliminate certain key individuals. Their removal should be
accomplished early in the course of the uprising and intervention and in the
light of circumstances existing at the time." (The Guardian, 27 September 2003)
The
stated pretext of the Macmillan-Eisenhower plan was that Syria was
"spreading terrorism" and "preventing the West's access to
Middle East oil" Déjà Vu
The
secret 1957 Plan called for the funding of a so-called "Free Syria
Committee" equivalent to today's Syrian National Council (SNC). It also involved "the arming of "political factions
with paramilitary or other actionist capabilities" within Syria. Under the
plan, the CIA together with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)
"would instigate internal uprisings".
"Internal
disturbances" in Syria would be triggered through covert operations. The
"CIA is prepared, and SIS [MI6] will attempt, to mount minor sabotage and
coup de main incidents [sic] within Syria, working through contacts with
individuals."
An
all-out invasion plan had also been envisaged.
What
was lacking from the 1957 plan, formulated at the height of the Cold War, was
the "humanitarian" R2P envelope.
Moreover,
in contrast to today's Free Syrian Army (FSA) (i.e. the foot soldiers of the
Western military alliance), the 1957 Anglo-American plan did not contemplate
the recruitment of foreign mercenaries to wage their war:
[in
1957] Britain and America sought a secretive "regime change" in
another Arab country they accused of spreading terror and threatening the
west's oil supplies, by planning the invasion of Syria and the assassination of
leading figures.
Newly
discovered documents show how in 1957 Harold Macmillan and President Dwight
Eisenhower approved a CIA-MI6 plan to stage fake border incidents as an excuse
for an invasion by Syria's pro-western neighbours, and then to
"eliminate" the most influential triumvirate in Damascus. (The
Guardian, 27 September 2003)
...
The
insidious plan was known to key political figures in the British government. It
was made public 46 years later in 2003:
Although
historians know that intelligence services had sought to topple the Syrian
regime in the autumn of 1957, this is the first time any document has been
found showing that the assassination of three leading figures was at the heart
of the scheme. In the document drawn up by a top secret and high-level working
group that met in Washington in September 1957, Mr Macmillan and President
Eisenhower were left in no doubt about the need to assassinate the top men in
Damascus.
Part
of the "preferred plan" reads: "In order to facilitate the
action of liberating forces, reduce the capabilities of the Syrian regime to
organise and direct its military actions, to hold losses and destruction to a
minimum, and to bring about desired results in the shortest possible time, a
special effort should be made to eliminate certain key individuals. Their
removal should be accomplished early in the course of the uprising and
intervention and in the light of circumstances existing at the time."
The
document, approved by London and Washington, named three men: Abd al-Hamid
Sarraj, head of Syrian military intelligence; Afif al-Bizri, chief of the
Syrian general staff; and Khalid Bakdash, leader of the Syrian Communist party.
For
a prime minister who had largely come to power on the back of Anthony Eden's
disastrous antics in Suez just a year before, Mr Macmillan was remarkably
bellicose. He described it in his diary as "a most formidable
report". Secrecy was so great, Mr Macmillan ordered the plan withheld even
from British chiefs of staff, because of their tendency "to chatter".
...
Driving
the call for action was the CIA's Middle East chief Kermit Roosevelt, grandson
of former president Theodore Roosevelt. He identified Colonel Sarraj, General
al-Bizri and Mr Bakdash as the real power behind a figurehead president. ...
The
"preferred plan" adds: "Once a political decision is reached to
proceed with internal disturbances in Syria, CIA is prepared, and SIS [MI6]
will attempt, to mount minor sabotage and coup de main incidents within Syria,
working through contacts with individuals.
"The
two services should consult, as appropriate, to avoid any overlapping or
interference with each other's activities... Incidents should not be
concentrated in Damascus; the operation should not be overdone; and to the
extent possible care should be taken to avoid causing key leaders of the Syrian
regime to take additional personal protection measures."
The
report said that once the necessary degree of fear had been created, frontier
incidents and border clashes would be staged to provide a pretext for Iraqi and
Jordanian military intervention. Syria had to be "made to appear as the
sponsor of plots, sabotage and violence directed against neighbouring
governments," the report says. "CIA and SIS should use their
capabilities in both the psychological and action fields to augment
tension." That meant operations in Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon, taking the
form of "sabotage, national conspiracies and various strong-arm
activities" to be blamed on Damascus.
The
plan called for funding of a "Free Syria Committee", and the arming
of "political factions with paramilitary or other actionist
capabilities" within Syria. The CIA and MI6 would instigate internal
uprisings, for instance by the Druze in the south, help to free political
prisoners held in the Mezze prison, and stir up the Muslim Brotherhood in
Damascus.
The
planners envisaged replacing the Ba'ath/Communist regime with one that was
firmly anti-Soviet, but they conceded that this would not be popular and
"would probably need to rely first upon repressive measures and arbitrary
exercise of power". (Ben Fenton, The Guardian, 27 September 2003, emphasis
added)
In
contrast to the 2011-2012 Plan, which is supported by the Arab League, with the
participation of Saudi Arabia and Qatar in covert ops., the 1957 Eisenhower
Macmillan Plan was not carried due to lack of support by neighbouring Arab
countries: "The plan was never used, chiefly because Syria's Arab
neighbours could not be persuaded to take action and an attack from Turkey
alone was thought to be unacceptable. (Ben Fenton, The Guardian, 27 September
2003, emphasis added)
The
ongoing US-NATO aggression directed against Syria has been planned for several
years.
An
invasion of Syria was contemplated in the immediate wake of the 2003 Iraq
invasion by US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
"Regime
change" in Damascus was again put forth by the Bush administration in the
immediate wake of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri. The assassination was casully blamed, without evidence, on Damascus.
President
George W. Bush “denounced Syria and its ally, Iran, as 'outlaw regimes... Syria
and Iran deserve no patience from the victims of terror,'" The British
media confirmed in October 2005 that Washington was "looking for apro-western replacement for Mr Assad."
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