SYRIA VP SHARA FINGERED FOR LEAK OF POTUS LETTER

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 DAMASCUS 000562

NOFORN
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/FO, NEA/ELA
NSC FOR SHAPIRO/MCDERMOTT
PARIS FOR MILLER
LONDON FOR LORD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/08/2029
TAGS: PGOV PREL LE SY
SUBJECT: SYRIA VP SHARA FINGERED FOR LEAK OF POTUS LETTER
TO ASAD

DAMASCUS 00000562 001.4 OF 002


Classified By: CDA Charles Hunter, Reasons 1.4 b and d.


1. (S/NF) Summary: Well-connected media contacts suggest
that Syrian VP Farouk Shara leaked word of the President's
July letter to Asad during an August 5 meeting with Wiam
Wahhab, Druze leader of the Lebanese Tawheed party. Wahhab,
ostensibly in Damascus to discuss a renewal of relations
between the SARG and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid
Jumblatt, then reportedly shared the information with
al-Akbar, a Lebanese daily close to the March 8 coalition and
Damascus. Lebanese and other regional media picked up
Al-Akbar's August 7 article reporting the POTUS letter to
Asad, but Syrian press remained virtually silent on the
subject, suggesting a concerted SARG effort to avoid further
coverage. End Summary.


2. (S/NF) Al Hayat Bureau Chief Ibrahim Hamidi (strictly
protect) told us August 7 the editor of pro-March 8 Lebanese
daily al-Akbar had informed him in Damascus on August 5 of
plans to run a report on the POTUS letter to President Asad.
Hamidi said he was unsure about the source of the
information. Hamidi added al-Akbar had few details on the
letter's contents, but Hamidi had heard separately the letter
discussed Lebanon, Palestinian issues, Hizballah, and Iraq.
The al-Akbar editor told Hamidi he believed the letter had
been delivered after Senator Mitchell's visit to Damascus.


3. (S/NF) Hamidi said he closely covered Special Envoy
Mitchell's July 26 visit to Damascus and heard no mention of
a letter from President Obama to Asad. In fact, Hamidi
noted, Asad's staff told him in late July the Syrian
President had shown "deep concern" over the Syrian Arab News
Agency's (SANA) publication of the U.S. President's reply to
Asad's congratulatory July 4 national day message. Though
the SANA article was not embarrassing, the message to Syrian
journalists, Hamidi explained, was that Asad himself wanted
to avoid news articles on the exchange of correspondence
between the American and Syrian presidents. A week or two
after Mitchell's visit, Hamidi continued, he had picked up
"rumors" regarding the existence of a POTUS letter to Asad,
but Syrian officials were making it "abundantly clear" Asad
wanted no press coverage. As a result, no Syrian journalist
who might suspect the existence of such a letter "would dare
to touch the story."


4. (S/NF) Separately, Wadah abd Rabo (strictly protect),
editor-in-chief of Syrian daily al-Watan, told us August 8
that SARG officials were privately furious about the leak of
the POTUS letter. According to abd Rabo, Shara met August 5
with Lebanese Druze Tawheed leader Wiam Wahhab and shared
knowledge of the President's letter to Asad. Wahhab, in
turn, reportedly conveyed the information to the editor of
al-Akbar, which ran the story on August 7. According to abd
Rabo, the President's inner circle had avoided discussion
with the media about the existence of a letter. Those Syrian
journalists who had heard about the letter's existence
understood there was to be no reporting on the subject.
Shara, abd Rabo indicated, may not have been initially
briefed on the POTUS letter and possibly learned about it
later. No one could be sure about Shara's motives for
leaking, abd Rabo said. But senior SARG officials were now
privately fingering him as the source of a story that
President Asad wanted to keep out of the press.


5. (S/NF) Comment: It is possible Hamidi and abd Rabo
could be spinning the SARG's leak of the letter as part of an
effort to minimize damage to U.S.-Syrian relations or to fish
for more details. On the other hand, had the SARG really
wanted to exploit the POTUS letter for propaganda purposes,
it surely would have revealed more of the letter's substance
and the possibility of closer personal relations between the
two leaders. It seems equally if not more plausible that
Shara leaked the story on his own. Shara has become
increasingly marginalized and, according to a Embassy

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contacts, often complains that Bashar fails to brief him and
heed his advice. Given Shara's past opposition to
U.S.-Syrian rapproachment, he may have leaked the story as a
form of protest or to undermine the process. Perhaps the
best indicator of SARG intentions comes from the behavior of
Hamidi and abd Rabo. Both have reported reliably to us in
the past and are well-connected journalists capable of
scooping a headline like the existence of a confidential
POTUS letter to Asad. The fact that they (and, with one
on-line news-site exception, the rest of the Syrian media)
are not running a story that is already in the public sphere
suggests a concerted SARG effort to tamp down any further
publicity.
HUNTER