{"id":1222,"date":"2005-10-18T23:43:25","date_gmt":"2005-10-18T23:43:25","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-10-01T20:26:50","modified_gmt":"2010-10-01T20:26:50","slug":"obituary-ghazi-kanaan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/obituary-ghazi-kanaan\/","title":{"rendered":"Obituary: Ghazi Kanaan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ghazi Kanaan was appointed interior minister in a major cabinet reshuffle in October 2004.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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<\/span>Before joining the government, he was head of Syrian intelligence in <\/span><\/font><\/span>Lebanon<\/span><\/span><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. <\/span><\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/font> <\/div>\n

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The 63-year-old brigadier-general was born in the coastal governorate of Lattakia in 1942. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

He graduated from military college in 1965 and rose to become head of intelligence for the central region. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

He became a close aide to the late president, Hafez al-Assad, in the early 1970s. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Like his predecessor at the Interior Ministry, Ali Hammoud, Mr Kanaan had a long career at the top of the Syrian intelligence in neighbouring Lebanon. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Between 1982 and 2002 he headed the security and intelligence branch in Beirut. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Analysts say that made him the most powerful figure in Lebanon, to whom the country’s military and political leaders reported directly on all major issues. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

In 2002 he returned to Damascus to head the Political Security Branch, where he remained until his cabinet appointment. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

‘Reliable pair of hands’<\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

His appointment, four months ahead of his expected retirement, was said to be a confirmation of his "principal role" in the Syrian decision-making process. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

However, some observers say Mr Kanaan was appointed in response to a number of unprecedented security incidents in 2004, including the killing of a Hamas leader in a car bombing in Damascus that September, and clashes with the Kurdish minority in the northeast of the country. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Lebanon’s main English language newspaper, the Daily Star, described Kanaan is a "capable and reliable pair of hands". <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Although he left Lebanon three years previously, he was thought to have maintained his influence in the country until Syria completed the withdrawal of its forces in May 2005. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

The pullout came after mass protests by Lebanese people and international pressure sparked by the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Assets frozen<\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

The US froze his financial assets in July, saying they aided terrorism in Lebanon, and banned American firms from doing business with him. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

The US Treasury Department alleged that during his time as intelligence chief he made certain that Syrian military intelligence officers played an active role Lebanese politics and supported the anti-Israeli resistance group Hezbollah. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

"In 2002, three rockets in a convoy allegedly escorted by Kanaan were personally delivered across the Syrian-Lebanese border to Hezbollah in Lebanon," the department said in a statement. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Kanaan was married with four sons and two daughters. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>BBC NEWS<\/strong><\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ghazi Kanaan was appointed interior minister in a major cabinet reshuffle in October 2004.   Before joining the government, he was head of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon.   The 63-year-old brigadier-general was born in the coastal governorate of Lattakia in 1942. He graduated from military college in 1965 and rose to become head of intelligence …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-syria"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2009\/06\/_40901098_kanaanafp203body.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}