Through its continued occupation of Lebanon, Syria further complicates the extraordinarily difficult Middle East peace process. In May 1989, Hafiz Assad told me personally he believed that Lebanon was a part of Syria because the people were one and the same. To enforce this distortion of brotherhood between the two nations, the Syrians maintain an army of about 40,000 troops inside Lebanon. Lebanon also provides Syria with much needed infusions of hard currency from its drug trafficking operations. The State Department has estimated that 49 metric tons of opium came from the Syrian controlled Bekaa Valley in Lebanon last year.
Terrorism is another nefarious international activity in which Syria continues to be involved.
At times Syrian drug trafficking and support for terrorism appear to run hand in hand. According to an April 27 Time magazine article, it was Monzer al-Kassar, a Syrian drug dealer, who planted the bomb on Pan Am flight 103 which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. Time's assertions have been supported by Vincent Cannistraro, the former head of the CIA's investigation of the bombing. He was quoted in a New York Times article as saying it was outrageous that Libya could have been fully responsible for the bombing. If this report is true, it is not the first time that Syria has been responsible for the loss of American life.