File talk:Assad Files 11-9-2011.png

Presentation
"In September, the public attorney in Deir Ezzor sent three faxes—later retrieved by the CIJA’s investigators—to the governor, the Syrian minister of justice, and the head of the province’s joint investigation committee, urging them to stop violating Syrian law. In one, he wrote, “Parents and relatives of the arrested persons are asking daily about the fates of sons, fathers, and brothers. You ought to listen to what they have to say. The hospital refrigerator is full of unidentified corpses that have disintegrated, since they have been there for a long period of time.”
 * Ben Taub, the New Yorker, 2016

Of these three faxes, one is quoted there, and the same one is also shown, in Channel 4's first Dispatches program, at 22:35, as shared here. The CIJA's lead investigator Bill Wiley reads out pretty much the same translated lines, seeming to find it extremely telling. The other two faxes in the series are apparently not as valuable as evidence. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:52, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

Translation
Syrian Arab Republic

Ministry of Justice

(not clear)

Deir Al Zour

No. 1401 / p

Mr. Head of Criminal Security Branch

Mr. Chairman of the Joint Commission of Inquiry Committee

Confirmation of our book No. 1396, dated 9/9/2011 and included

We request you to provide us with a list of nominal ( اسمية ) you have the right ( لديكم اقيف ) ... and to continue the reviews ( اجعات ) every day to us by people and relatives of the people to know about the fate of their children and their parents and brothers ..... and hear their words ... And the presence of a number of bodies in the hospital fridge, unknown identity ( مجهولة الهوية ) broken/partial/decaying remains held a long time? ( تفسخت مضى عليها مدة زمنية طويلة )

It is necessary to provide us with what is required, and if possible today, Also a statement of detention places we can visit and expedite the completion of investigations. Otherwise we will be obliged by law to immediately suspend all authorizations and the extension granted for the purpose for which it was granted.

And the judicial control of all its members have our investigations and duly and according to the jurisdiction specified by the decree Decree 55 Date 21/4/2011 Secretary

Deir al-Zour 11/9/2011 Head of the control

K / H

a copy to:

Mr. Minister of Justice (white writing) Please be informed

Mr. Chairman, Judicial Inspection Department Please see

Mr. Chairman of the Security Committee Deir Al-Zour

(unclear)

Arabic text

الجمهورية العربية السورية

وزارة العدل

(not clear) دير الزور

الرقم 1401/ص

السيد رئيس فرع الأمن الجنائي

السيد رئيس لجنة لجنة التحقيق المشتركة

تأكيدا لكتابنا رقم 1396 ص تاريخ 9/9/2011 و المتضمن

الطلب بموافاتنا بلائحة اسمية للمواقيف لديكم... و لاستمرار المراجعات اليومية إلينا من قبل ذوي و أقرباء المواقيف للتعرف عن مصير أبنائهم وآبائهم و إخوانهم..... وسماع أقوالهم..... ولوجود عدد من الجثث في براد المشفى مجهولة الهوية.تفسخت مضى عليها مدة زمنية طويلة..

يقتضي موافاتنا بالمطلوب وخلال هذا اليوم إن أمكن..و بيان محال التوقيف لزيارتها من قبلنا و الإسراع بإنجاز التحقيقات ولكي لا نضطر وبحكم القانون إلى الوقف الفوري لكامل التفويضات و التمديد الممنوح لخروجه عن الغاية التي منح من أجلها و الذي قد يرتب المسؤليةز وتولى الضابطة العدلية بجميع أعضائها لدينا التحقيقات و حسب الأصول وتبعا لاختصاصها المحدد بالمرسوم بالمرسوم 55 تاريخ 21/4/2011  أمين التعاون

دير الزور 11/9/2011 رئيس الضابطة

ك/ح

نسخة إلى:

(السيد وزير العدل this is the white writing) يرجى التكرم بالإطلاع

السيد رئيس إدارة التفتيش القضائي يرجى الإطلاع

السيد رئيس اللجنة الأمنية بدير الزور

(unclear)

--Caustic Logic (talk) 10:52, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

Analysis/discussion
It should be one of the stronger points in these documents, the way it's highlighted. It was one the first few papers to be cited in Ben Taub's 2016 New Yorker article, and the first one to be shown, in a later channel 4 program, with the same excerpts read by the CIJA's Bill Wiley.

The memo is dated September 11, 2011 - this is ten years after the terrorist attacks in New York, and the same day US ambassador Christopher Stephens was being killed by US-enabled Islamists in Benghazi. But neither mentions the date, just "September." That's not directly relevant, just color for the story. But it might happen to be the right shade...

The shared parts didn't seem clear, possibly incomplete or mistranslated. But on review, it seems completely and properly translated enough, and was a sort of unclear memo to begin with. For example the opening has those ellipses (…) in the original, with sentences seemingly left incomplete and unclear. "A list of nominal you have the right" is probably not the best reading - but it sounds like a challenge: maybe "send us a list naming your rights/reasons?" But for what isn't specified.

The part with " urging them to stop violating Syrian law" might be this passage: "we will be obliged by law to immediately suspend all authorizations and the extension granted for the purpose for which it was granted …" for arrests, presumably. The laws in question seem to relate to detaining people, and there's doubt over the validity of the reasons. "Also," they want to know where these people are held and if it can be inspected. this person might think the missing were all arrested by the government, and held somewhere he wants to know, before more get killed … and put in the hospital morgue?

The CIJA's efforts to link the missing with those unknown bodies remains is ill-advised, as they combine poorly. These are two possibly related but distinct problems: 1. people are asking after missing relatives, either disappeared detainees, or just disappeared 2 a lot of bodies have been, apparently, found with no details, held as "bodies, unknown identity." , gone unclaimed, and left rotting.

But they were strung together as a singular "localized problem" the Syrian Minister of justice was informed of, as CIJA's Bill Wiley notes (Channel 4). But nothing better on his knowledge, like any order from him to institute such abuses. And why should we presume, as Wiley apparently does, the wording for those bodies is some code for "prisoners we pretend are bodies we just found?"

Maybe the two problems do connect but in a different way; authorities have no answers, are not holding the people missing, except sometimes as decaying bodies they found. That might be after someone else held them, killed them, and dumped the evidence. the missing people wind up dead, apparently outside the prison system where IDs are known. That would suggest the common thread will lead to armed opposition (terrorist) groups.

Here, few bodies are identified and claimed, so the missing people getting asked after should be others. Their case details are unclear, and the lodged stories may be true or untrue. This public attorney might be challenging real crimes, as alleged. But he also misled by false or confused tales, or just overwhelmed with the frustration of others. He might even be a rebellion sympathizer, trying to use his post to frustrate security operations. His demand for possibly fictional detention centers "if possible today" smacks of demanding the impossible, on top of that legal challenge and implied accusations of secret detention.

But nothing is clear enough to say just what motivated this odd-seeming memo. Maybe he had the situation explained after this, hearing

1. We never arrested those people. 2. yes, we need to try harder to get these bodies identified and claimed, or store them in dirt after, say, a week.

Eventually, in Damascus anyway, they seem to have enacted a policy of holding bodies about a week before burying them (seen with two mid-2013 cases - a June 2 death ordered buried June 9, and a July 31 death ordered buried on August 6.). Here in late 2011, bodies were still held a long time, but that issue would be solved easily enough.

But at any rate, this memo does little to illustrate any specific government crimes, like every other shared example so far. It shows there were concerns of unclear validity floating around on a couple of loosely-related issues arising from the burgeoning conflict. It's also a bit unclear (prone to misreading/), and also has lurid details that sort-of set the stage for linking government illegality with those "Caesar photos" … that also seem to show bodies of "unknown identity." It's relatively good for the CIJA's case, making their top 5 or so amazingly damning documents out of the 750,000 they claim to have spent a few years now combing through. The reader can decide for themselves how weak a testament that is. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:36, 24 October 2018 (UTC)