More Fuel For Operation Syrian Freedom

Yesterday came the underreported revelation that Syrian troops engaged U.S. and Iraqi forces along the Iraq-Syria border during last week's Operation Matador. Now today comes the news that a Syrian spook has been captured right smack in the middle of Baghdad conducting suicide bombing operations.

A Syrian intelligence officer detained in Baghdad has admitted to launching the missile attack on the late premier Rafik Hariri's Future Television in June 2003, according to Al-Rai al-Aam Kuwaiti newspaper. In an article published on Wednesday, the newspaper said Hussein Ahmad Tah, 32, was arrested by Iraqi police when he was attempting to assassinate employees in an Iraqi public institution. Following his arrest, Tah decided to admit to his previous crimes, among which is the Future TV bombing.

Tah said he worked for Syrian intelligence services, adding that he worked for a long time in Lebanon where he perpetrated several attacks. He then moved to Iraq, where he committed several attacks against mosques and Iraqi civilians. Security sources in Iraq said that Tah recounted the details of the attack on Future TV. The television station, situated near Raouche in Beirut, was attacked on June 15, 2003, resulting in the destruction of one of the newsrooms. No casualties were reported. The attack was considered as a message to then-owner of the station, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Sources said the car used to perpetrate the crime was stolen in 1997 and hidden in a garage until the date of the attack. A previously unknown group called Jamaat Ansar Allah had held itself responsible for the attack in a statement issued the next day. However, Tah told Iraqi police that the group did not exist and that he had written and issued the statement.

Although a little too reticently for my tastes, Ed Morrissey does end up drawing the proper conclusion:

If this can be substantiated - and that may be a tall order - it would corroborate our intelligence that Syria has at least assisted in the insurgency that has gripped the Sunni Triangle in Iraq since the end of the war. Once substantiated, then we need to take some action against the Syrian dictator that will push him from power.

This latest discovery is one more brick in the Great China Wall of evidence of the "Terror Masters'" assymmetrical war against the Coalition in Iraq - a war that it is far past time to convert to our own brand of military assymmetry.