Syria UN mission headed by spy? (Op-Ed)

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Published time: June 19, 2012 12:13
Edited time: June 19, 2012 16:13

A Jordanian UN observer in Syria says the head of the United Nations Surveillance Mission (UNSMIS) in the country is a spy. The monitor claims General Robert Mood is gathering critical coordinates and visiting military bases for his own purposes.

­The claims have appeared in Syrian state media, indicating that security circles have signaled their consent to publication in Damascus.

Sources say Norwegian General Mood took his convoy to the city of Tartus last Friday, where no violence was reported. The group visited no less than four military installations of the Syrian Army there without any sanction through the General’s UNSMIS mandate.

Moreover, the same Friday the convoy went to the Rastan area, where it did not drive close to the fighting zone, but went straight to the Syrian Army’s military installation, again without any apparent connection to Mood’s mandate.

Syrians suspect that geographical data is being collected for purposes not related to UNSMIS – perhaps collateral data to already existing files. Syrian officials suspect furthermore that Mood might be looking for locations where Syrian authorities are keeping prisoners of war.

All in all, many analysts are recalling questionable UN observer behavior in the times of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

 As to prisoners of foreign origin in official Syrian custody, UN observers are trying to find and supply exact coordinates.

It seems all the German prisoners are German citizens, including foreign-born German citizens. All are employed by a German private security company based in Stuttgart.

The Germans were deployed to Libya five months ago and captured north of the Syrian port of Tartus around two weeks ago. They were offloading weapons and ammunition from a commercial vessel waiting in international waters using two speed boats. Syrian analysts are convinced that the German government did not pursue this operation on its own, but was acting on behalf of Washington – and that the German opposition would have done the same, had they been under that kind of pressure.

­Christoph R. Hörstel for RT

­Сhristoph R. Hörstel is managing director at Hörstel Networks, Government & Business Consulting. http://syria-help.blogspot.de/

­The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.