Since the time of Al-Hassan’s death, Syrian Military Intelligence used its muscles to change the way entry-points were manned.  Instead of ordinary customs officials and “just as corrupt” infantrymen being posted to sensitive sites like Tal-Kalakh,  SMI insisted that all officers of Syria’s Border Police and Customs Bureau be shadowed by either agents of Political Security or Military Intelligence.  For this reason, as our readers can probably tell, the smuggling of arms from Lebanon’s north began to dry up just as the infiltration of terrorists also shrunk.   

However, weapons smuggling in a mountainous area like Lebanon cannot be done by hiking across rocky mountains.  You need roads to ferry machine guns which sometimes weigh more than the person carrying them.  Lebanon’s rats persisted in sending ammunition and new machine guns across the very tense road between Wadi Khalid and Tal Kalakh.  Often, the drivers of vans would be selected for their maturity and coolness.  Older men had a better chance of getting across the border without a thorough search.

It was also common  knowledge that certain Lebanese and Syrian officers were available for a bribe in order to avoid a search.  Those days are over with the death of Wissam Al-Hassan, the outing of Uqab Saqr and evolution of a more coherent security strategy.  

This is the crossing at Wadi Khalid.  Not so easy any more thanks to the demise of March 14 and the criminal investigation into the weapons trafficking racket run by Uqab Saqr.   

The weapons discovered by Lebanon’s Internal Security Bureau were Rocket Propelled Grenades which the rats used to fight off Syria’s armor and light rifles with ammunition.  According to our sources, this is what the terrorists ordered during a conversation monitored by S.M.I.  It is obvious that the rats are running out of ammo. Wael says they are also running out of food because they have infested areas already destroyed and pillaged.  “Unless they get out soon, we expect a large number to surrender just because they’re starving”, says Wael.

Lebanese security had a problem when Wissam Al-Hassan was directing operations.  He was purposely coordinating with Uqab Saqr and his patron, Sa’ad Hariri, in Paris, the transportation of weapons into Syria. The fact that these acts could trigger a wider war in Lebanon itself was not a concern to these men, since the CIA, and especially, French Intelligence, had been directing their activities to such an extent that sixteen French spies were permitted to set up an electronic base in Akkar Province to control and handle operations by the FSA and the Jabhat Al-Nusra.  The French spies, as we reported last summer, came in swaggering and loaded with specialized equipment into Beirut airport.  This was the legacy of that weasel, Wissam Al-Hassan.

Just yesterday, Lebanese security sources shocked the world with a declaration that “certain suspicious foreign agencies had set up shop in Lebanon.”  My God!  We are shocked. Now the question is what they are going to do about it?