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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | |
| Syria's spies leave Beirut | |
| 2005-03-17 | |
Almost all their intelligence offices in north Lebanon and the mountains east of Beirut were abandoned, and 150 to 200 agents moved to the eastern Beka'a valley, witnesses and security sources said. At the main intelligence building in Beirut a bulldozer demolished two guard posts and trucks loaded with office equipment drove away. Lebanese security forces stood guard outside the building. A woman who was allowed in described 10 cells in the basement. "They had been freshly painted in a baby-blue colour and the doors had been taken off," she said. "The cells had tiled floors and tiny windows. I saw the word 'freedom' written in Arabic in one place. "The offices had been stripped bare, apart from a ceiling fan and a desk." The remaining pictures of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and his late father had gone from the area around the building. Where one giant portrait had stood, protesters put up smaller posters of Rafik Hariri, the Lebanese former prime minister assassinated last month. "I'm happy that it has gone," said Moussa, a taxi driver. "Foreigners used to ask me: 'Is that your president?' and I had to tell them: 'No, it's not'." | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 Syria's spies leave Beirut Don't count on it. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-03-17 10:25:02 AM |