HAMAS LEADER REJECTS US INDICTMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L DAMASCUS 005065


E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/25/2014
TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER SY
SUBJECT: HAMAS LEADER REJECTS US INDICTMENT

Classified By: Ambassador Margaret Scobey for reasons 1.4b/d.


1. (C) In an August 21 interview with the Associated Press,
Moussa Abu Marzouk, Deputy Chairman of Hamas' politbureau,
responded to the announcement of his indictment by US
Attorney General John Ashcroft for conspiring to fund terror
attacks against Israel by saying that he would turn himself
in to US authorities if he were assured access to "fair and
evenhanded justice." He went on to add that this seemed
unlikely to him since "American justice is absent now." He
also denied that Hamas is a terrorist group and dismissed the
possibility of Syria extraditing him since, "No one in the
region, including Syria, considers Hamas or the Palestinian
struggle (against Israel) as terrorist." The Damascus AP
correspondent Albert Aji (protect) told poloff that he
interviewed Marzouk in person in Damascus and that Marzouk
had told him "there is no justice for Arabs in the US after
9/11". Marzouk also told the AP correspondent that this is
an "old story" from 1989 and the Justice Department reopened
the case as a public relations move to bolster the Bush
administration's reelection campaign. (Note: Marzouk, who
lived for 15 years in US and completed a PHD in industrial
engineering, was expelled to Jordan 1995. He currently lives
between Syria and Lebanon. End Note.)


2. (U) The advisor to the Syrian Information Minister Haj Ali
told the Saudi media outlet Al Riyad that Syria would not
hand over Marzouk. "Syria does not accept dictates or
condition and does not accept others issuing prior conditions
and saying you have to do this and that." He added that
Syria has enough strength to "refuse any subjugation to the
will and conditions of others." Haj Ali said he believes the
US will escalate the situation but that escalation will not
lead to any results and added that the US should adopt
dialogue with Syria. He also said that the US issuance of
the arrest warrant at this time and through representative
institutions, i.e. through the Attorney General, was
deliberate and aimed at exerting pressure on Syria on the
basis that Abu Marzouk resides there. The advisor to the
Information Minister also said that the resistance in
Palestine and Iraq was legitimate. He denied that
Palestinian groups in Damascus were participating in the
resistance against Israel and asserted that Palestinian
groups in Damascus had normal offices that had no ties to the
Palestinian domestic arena and did not have the means to
carry our operations as the US claimed.


SCOBEY