When agents working for the Assad regime’s various intelligence agencies turned up at his office door, the mukhtar – the local authority in this Damascus neighbourhood – had 10 rules for how to deal with them.
First, he’d enthusiastically say “habibi, how are you?” and kiss them on each cheek, “even if they hadn’t had a shower for a very long time”.
Next would come the coffee; then food: foul or hummus or fatteh, to “relax” them. Then tea. “Five, six, seven, eight is more or less the same,” he said with a rueful smile.
Intelligence agents were “hungry people, they always want more. Even if [one] had breakfast 10 times he wouldn’t say no if you offered them breakfast. They want to suck everything from you,” he said.
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Only after that would the mukhtar ask why they had come to him.
“Who are you going to ask for today? What are you looking for?”
The mukhtar agreed to speak to The Irish Times on the condition that he was not identified, because he does not have permission from Syria’s new authorities to talk to the media. But he said he feels it is important to understand life under the previous regime – which saw the Assad family rule Syria with an iron fist for more than half a century. He does not want the same mistakes to be repeated.
When first asked whether he would be willing to talk about his interactions with intelligence agents, he responded: “oh my God, where would you like me to begin?”
While much of his normal role is a civil job – signing birth and death certificates, registering residents, assisting with identification applications and ensuring that services are available in the neighbourhood – dealing with the “mukhabarat” was an unavoidable part of his work, he said.
The mukhtar “knows everybody ... every house and building, how many mosques, how many schools, how many churches”. So, agents would regularly call, message or come to him, particularly to ask for “studies”, or reports, on specific individuals, including information such as their political background.
“It’s natural” that he was frightened of the agents, and he was not able to refuse, he said.
“The role of the mukhtar is to give an opinion about this person: whether he is a good guy, quiet, a drug addict, politically involved, a criminal, etc. The mayor’s opinion is very important in this process. Because of my opinion he could be put in prison or he could avoid it.”
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The mukhtar said that, unlike other neighbourhood leaders, he feels confident that his information was not used to further abuse people – a reason he was able to stay in his position after the regime’s fall.
“My record is very clean ... I avoided writing reports that caused problems ... I tried to remain as neutral as possible.”
He said that if someone was in trouble he would say they had a “big mouth”, or they were “poor”. If it seemed like they were certain to be arrested he would attempt to negotiate a bribe they could pay to avoid it. He knew that often if someone was taken to an intelligence branch “this means it’s the end, they will never come back.”
He himself was jailed for one week at a certain period. “It was a mafia, a gang ... they dominated us because we are very kind people, and slowly, slowly they controlled everything,” he said about the regime. “Have you watched Dracula?”
When the regime fell, he took a hammer and smashed down a booth that intelligence agencies used close to his office. He was not able to destroy another nearby, and regrets it now: it has been taken over by the new security forces.
A leaked cache of documents have shed light on the scale of surveillance in Bashar al-Assad’s Syria. They were leaked to German broadcaster NDR, who shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, of which The Irish Times is a partner. NDR said they span a period from the mid 1990s to the end of 2024, and came from three main sources: the Air Force Intelligence, the General Intelligence Directorate and the Internal Security Department. Journalists believe they are also in the possession of the Syrian authorities.
The documents back up what was said for years by Syrians who fled abroad about the ongoing risk to their families back home, including if they spoke out, were interviewed in the media or became involved with opposition efforts.
They show how “studies” or “opinions” on Syrian civilians were regularly commissioned through intelligence branches, examining and including details not just about the target, but their relatives and friends.
These studies could be requested when it came to being employed or dismissed from public service jobs or the military; retiring or attempts at resignation (including when suffering health problems); or transferring to a new job or a new location (including for medical reasons or to escape conflict zones); being allowed to travel abroad for a conference, training, holiday or to visit a close family member; the granting of a new security clearance; or the termination of pension rights.
Under the Assad regime, more than eight million people – or about a third of Syria’s population – were wanted by security branches and intelligence for “political reasons”, according to the new government. Close to five million people have been removed from travel bans since the regime fell, it says.
The studies could include someone’s address; education level; the name of their parents, spouses and children; and where their spouses and children worked or whether they went to university.
The studies could evaluate if a person had “good discipline”, “morals” and “good behaviour”; whether they were committed to the objectives of Assad’s Baath Party; if they were a “supporter of the country and leadership”; or their “attitude to the current events”, seemingly meaning the revolution and subsequent brutal crackdown by regime forces. It might detail whether they had direct relatives abroad, whether friends or family members had been arrested, and whether relatives were involved with opposition groups.
“The reputation of the family in general is good,” one read.
The mukhtar said many “security studies” began with his opinion, but after that they were out of his hands. He was asked if a person had paid their rent or electricity bill, or “stolen water from the state”. One common reason someone could be considered suspicious was having family members abroad, he said. Even communicating with relatives outside Syria put someone at risk.
“The regime thought [anyone] who communicated with [people] abroad were sleeping cells and at a certain point they would rise up.” Phones were monitored, as was social media, he said.
This is backed up by the leaked intelligence records. The captured logs include personal phone messages sent in the months before the regime fell.
When senior soldiers retired, a decision could be made about whether they should be monitored afterwards. In one case, where it was decided that monitoring wasn’t needed, the retired colonel was described as someone “whose faith in the objectives of the party is good ... well disciplined, is keen on the public interest ... social, generous, calm.”
Others were not so positive.
One retired army official was described as “unreliable, emotional, stubborn”. Another was “easily criticised – crooked, vulgar, evasive of responsibility – a coward”.
There was a man described as a “religious fanatic, a sectarian”, and a person said to “consider Saddam Hussein better than the regime in Syria”. There were “no doubts” about another, but “the family situation is unstable because his wife filed a lawsuit against him for divorce”.
Constant surveillance enforced a climate of fear.
“At that time we didn’t permit ourselves to think,” explained one man who lived in Syria throughout the regime. He said he would have been frightened to even whisper to his wife, in case it was found out. He said he knew his family was in their hands and any loved one could be abused to put pressure on him.
He said beggars, street sellers and taxi drivers were all known to work for intelligence services. “Ninety per cent of people in a cafe like this” could be “mukhabarat” or informers, he said, gesturing at people drinking coffee and smoking shisha, in a cafe in Damascus’s old city.
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It is uncertain what will happen to all of the documents created by security forces under the Assad regime, which ruled Syria for more than half a century.
One Syrian, with a close family member who was arrested and died in prison, said that if the documents are published without redactions “it will become like a jungle here, everyone will take revenge”, but others said they want to know who was responsible for reporting their loved ones, and are hoping for accountability.
