Syrian intelligence officials, with the direct knowledge and support of
President Bashar Assad, are actively recruiting holy warriors and providing
them safe passage into Iraq to fight against U.S.-led forces, Joseph Farah's
G2 Bulletin reports.

Plainclothes Syrian intelligence officials accompanied by a small number of
Hezbollah security personnel and members of Lebanon's intelligence
apparatus, the Second Bureau, have formed a joint unit stationed along the
official land border crossings between Syria and Lebanon. This unit was
established a few weeks ago to augment the regular security system. Its main
goal is to screen ''free volunteers'' arriving from all corners of the
Muslim world to join the Iraqifada. The goal of these volunteers is to reach
the Syrian-Iraqi border, to cross it and join the jihad campaign against the
U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

Syria prefers to allow the volunteers, mostly young men in their 20s and
early 30s, to reach Iraq via Lebanon, instead of allowing them in through
Syria's main ports and the Damascus International Airport.

The inclusion of Hezbollah representatives serves two purposes, according to
G2 Bulletin sources. The first is to assure eager Lebanese Hezbollah
fighters do not leave their bases in the south to fight in what they believe
is the battlefield against the U.S. The other task of Hezbollah's security
is to accompany Iraqis, or Iraqi Baath supporters sneaking into Syria, to
arrive safely in Hezbollah's safe havens in the south or the Bekaa Valley.

Some are sent to small Hezbollah training centers where they are instructed
in all forms of guerrilla warfare, including cold sabotage such as damaging
water lines, clogging sewage pipes, sabotaging telephone and electricity
lines and damaging vehicles. The Bekaa is the place selected by the Syrians
for this purpose.

Assad himself ordered the establishment of these training and assembling
centers. The clear purpose of this policy is to avoid accusations Syria is
directly supporting the Iraqifada. Syrian intelligence's goal is not to
allow volunteers to stay in Syrian territory more than the minimal time
needed to reach the border with Iraq or the al-Hasakah refugee camp in
Syria, known to be a recruitment station for Arab and Muslim terrorists.

A reliable source told G2 Bulletin the overall recruitment system for
so-called foreign volunteers destined for Iraq is based on disseminating
rumors in thousands of madrassas and mosques scattered all over the world.
This system is already nicknamed the ''Minaret Network.'' The network is
loosely organized, and the role of the local preacher-recruiter is basically
to identify willing candidates, incite them and to provide them with enough
funds collected from Zakat charities so they can reach Lebanon and Syria.

Another means of recruitment is through the Internet, mainly through Islamic
and Arab language chat rooms and forums. The same source said a number of
intelligence services are aware of this situation. They describe a network
of Muslim taxi drivers scattered in and around Beirut, especially around the
sea and airport areas, but also near mosques, where the drivers locate
newcomers and drive them to the border. Another fleet of taxis is busy on
the Syrian side, moving volunteers and their belongings either to designated
crossing points into Iraq, or to al-Hasakah.

Those who are interviewed by Syrian intelligence and found to be
''talented'' are sent to Damascus, where their recruitment is processed and
they are briefed by the Iraqi branch of the Syrian intelligence. If selected
to become agents, they are sent to the army complex of camps near Qatana.
This elite group is designed to be Syria's eyes and ears among the so-called
Baghdadi Mujahedeen. A few of the chosen are also trained as internal
security agents to keep an eye on other recruits who are destined to become
actual fighters.

In the first years following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, hordes of
ayatollahs and their disciples, hoping to fight Israel, arrived in Lebanon's
Bekaa Valley via Syria. At that time, Syrian intelligence allowed them to
join various Palestine Liberation Organization groups. Many became
instrumental in the process of forming Hezbollah in the years to come.

Parallel to their new activity in the Bekaa, the Syrians also strengthened
their control system over the Hezbollah in south Lebanon. This was done to
prevent Hezbollah from indiscriminately opening fire on Israel and Syria's
concern it might create a severe Israeli retaliation engulfing Lebanon.