Assad sacked Ghazali two years before his tragic death: Intelligence archive

Who could have neglected the mention of al-Ghazali when talking about the assassination of Rafik Hariri and “Citibank”, and other secret operations, as a “repository” of them, and who could have ignored him when talking about the Syrian regime, which is one of its most important pillars.

Ghazali had a reputation of tyranny, cruelty, influence and power, however, all that had gone with a decision from al-Assad and made him a dismissed-officer two years prior to his killing. 

However the Syrian regime kept cheating others and introduced Ghazali as the Head of Political Intelligence.

Ghazali was announced dead in April 2015 and described by the Syrian regime as a senior officer and the head of the Political intelligence Division. But in fact he was officially dismissed in 2013.

According to the Intelligence archive, Gen. Maj. Rustom Ghazali, son of Abdeh and Fatima born in 1953, was banned from traveling under two notices from the Military Intelligence and Intelligence Division.

Zaman Al Wasl has obtained about 1,700,000 leaked documents and warrants issued by the Syrian regime's security services by the end of 2014, including 524,416 arrest orders against citizens from 153 states across the world.

The warrants had been issued by most intelligence branches, including Air Force Intelligence, Military Intelligence, Political Security, Interior Ministry, Defense Ministry, Military Court, Military Police and other security services.

The most prominent piece of information extracted from the notices was that Ghazali was referred to as “dismissed Officer”. He was under close supervision by many major intelligence divisions and might've been imprisoned or placed under house-arrest, at the same time the Syrian regime introduced him as the head of the Political intelligence Division.

“Division of the Political Intelligence" is a very strong and active Division in all towns and villages of Syria, and effective in most places where other intelligence divisions like military, air forces and other intelligence are not persist, so it is considered the most important tools and devices to access information. It follows the Ministry of Interior, therefore it exists wherever police forces are.

In general, the head of such an intelligence division like political intelligence should be most trusted and close to al-Assad, either the father or the son, “Hafez or Bashar”. Moreover, Ghazali was very important link to many regime’s serious secrets and mysteries in Lebanon especially the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the subsequent and preceding dozens of assassinations of major figures in Lebanon, as well as the mysteries of political and financial corruption, fabrication of the electoral lists, building alliances and creation of blocs and parties, money laundering, City Bank issue crushers, and other issues made news about Ghazali’s very important for people to know and follow.

Despite the importance of Ghazali and his activities by most international intelligence, the Syrian regime was able to deceive all and convinced them that he was the head of the Political Intelligence Division till his death. There was a travel ban against him, in which it was mentioned that he was a dismissed officer besides a travel ban against his brother Omar Abdeh Ghazali, DOB 1975.

Moreover, the travel ban against his two sons and his wife confirmed the dismissal of Ghazali, because it was mentioned in the two boys’ travel bans that travel should not be allowed without a permission of the Head of the political intelligence. If at the time Ghazali was the head of intelligence, why should his 5 and 7 years old boys take a permission from him officially as the Head of intelligence, if they have to get a permission from him by law as a father if they wanted to travel.

More evidence on Ghazali’s dismissal Zaman al-Wasl had drawn from an archive of 1.7 million documents and arrest warranties. The most important fact was that of 42 arrest warrants against Ghazali’s relatives from Karfa town in Daraa countryside including many women after the outbreak of the Syrian revolution, most of them had two arresting notices, one from the military intelligence and another from the intelligence division.

In general, the total number of notices against members of Ghazali family were 576 one, most of them from Daraa, 239 of them were arrest warrants, 208 notices were for people from Karfa town, the hometown of Ghazali.

The explanation of that large number of notices against Ghazali’s relatives, in a relatively small town, gives an indication that the Syrian regime was planning to humiliate Ghazali and minimize his power, and show his inability to protect his people.

In case the notices were issued after Ghazali’s dismissal, it might be a punishment to him and his hometown.

It was noticed that most warrants were issued by the military intelligence, which reflects the fact of disagreement and tension between Ghazali and Maj. Gen. Rafiq Shehadeh, the Head of military intelligence who insisted on humiliating Ghazali and degrading him.

Countless explanations can be drawn from the archive of million notices, it is confirmed that Rustom Ghazali was dismissed 2 years prior to his death. The most important evidence was the travel ban against his two sons and his wife, and not allowing them to travel without the head of the Division's permission. Besides 208 notices against his relatives, 42 of them were arrest warrants.