Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers
COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating
Amid the celebrations, looting, and horror stories that follow the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, a powerful force could emerge from the chaos – if it hasn’t already been destroyed. If Assad preserved his files, and left them behind when he fled Syria, the documents could play a significant role in reshaping the country’s future.
Commencing on November 27, the rebel offensive in Syria shocked the world with how fast and effectively it unfolded. Within two days, the rebels breached Syria’s largest city, Aleppo. One by one over the course of a few days, they toppled major cities. Less than two weeks later, they ousted Assad.
Reports soon emerged that the dictator and his family had fled to Moscow, and were granted asylum by their patrons in Russia. For a strongman who once claimed he would “live and die in Syria,” the story of his flight was its own indictment.
READ MORE from Susan Katz Keating: Assad Granted Asylum in Russia
Throughout the day on Sunday, images of joyous triumph appeared from Damascus, including the central Umayyad Square.
Previously a stage for Assad’s choreographed displays of power, the square became a stark symbol of the vacuum left in his absence. Crowds converged there to wave flags, ride atop fallen statues, and film the spectacle with smartphones, documenting history in real time.
Prisoners were released from captivity.
By Monday, the aftershocks brought sickening revelations on what the captives endured. Starvation. Torture. Rape. The captives had been held in conditions that only could be the work of depraved minds. One humanitarian group, The White Helmets, brought in K9 teams to search for people who might still be trapped inside the notorious Sednaya Prison.
But revolutions don’t end with fireworks and emancipation. The joy of liberation may give way to power vacuums and political infighting. While people in Damascus and elsewhere celebrated Assad’s ouster, Turkish-backed armed groups launched an attack Sunday on a town controlled by Kurdish-led forces. Clashes were reported in eastern Aleppo province, in Manbij.
With so many moving parts and competing aims, governance, as always, will be a more complicated process than conquest.
READ MORE from Susan Katz Keating: Is the US Headed to Civil War?
This brings us back to the records — not just as relics of the past, but also as leverage. If Assad’s regime preserved even partial records, the documents hold power.
Somewhere, there must be lists of military conscripts. These will be useful for enforcing a new edict. The rebels already have granted amnesty to those who were pressed into service under Assad, according to private messaging channels that report on Syria.
Documents also have the potential to spark tribunals, or to bolster division among Syria’s rebel factions. Perhaps they contain material that could pressure Moscow into delivering Assad to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.
For the United States, records could hold a particular urgency. They could reveal key details of the connections between Syria and its patrons; and also provide answers to one of the most haunting questions of the last decade: What happened to Austin Tice?
The American journalist disappeared in Syria on August 13, 2012, while reporting on the war. If there’s a folder in some Syrian file cabinet marked with Tice’s name, its contents could bring long-sought answers to his family and the broader world.
The Tice case is more than a personal tragedy. It’s also a symbol of the larger brutality that defined Assad’s rule.
The group that toppled the dictator was led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist outfit that is listed as a terrorist organization in the U.S. and European Union. What will their own governance look like?
For now, Damascus celebrates. Soon, the new chapter unfolds.
Susan Katz Keating is the publisher and editor in chief at Soldier of Fortune.
