Feras Kalani
Appearances
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
It's the most important institution of the Assad regime, both father and the son. And the headquarters I visited is the most important one in Damascus to intervene in anything, whether it's internal or overseas.
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
I don't like to personalize it, but I am one of the wanted by this service, the Mukhabarat in Syria, because of my experience. role at the BBC or the way I cover the news in Syria. So literally, I was thinking about this to find my file there.
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
And then I found millions of documents about everything, about the situation in the country, in each corner in the country, what was going on even a few days, just a few days before the militants reached Damascus, the capital. Lots of files about the neighboring country, mainly like Lebanon, Jordan, spying and everything.
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
Every single politician in Lebanon, for example, put away what they were doing here in Syria. They have files about every single person in the country.
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
Not in the Mukhabarat one. It's what we used to call the security square. So there is a nearby, another building where they were arresting the people and interrogating them for sometimes four weeks, sometimes four months. It means that they use all the possible ways to torture them in a crazy way, in an unbelievable way.
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
and then put them in cells just two metres by one, without any light, without anything, and lots of them died in these cells because of the torture and the hunger. They were starved to death in these cells.
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
I think we're talking about between 200,000 and 250,000 persons who used to work in these departments. It's a huge number. We're talking just about Damascus, by the way. Yes, they melted away. But I think from what I hear, the information I managed to collect, that a huge number of them are in their houses hiding. They cannot even leave to buy any food or anything.
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
Those who managed to escape quickly, they did to their villages or towns. mainly to the coastal area where the Alawite sect live, which is Bashar Assad's sect, as you know. So others, if they managed to go to Lebanon the same night, it was possible still they did, but the rest of them, they're still here in the city, but they cannot leave their houses.