[ Editor’s note: The UK Telegraph has published a story today about a coup in Damascus that has Syrian officials reeling in disbelief.
Sources next to President Assad have responded to the story in today’s UK Telegraph reporting the arrest of Ali Mamlouk. They deny it entirely. Mamlouk’s friends and family members are shocked at the report citing Syria’s security chief as plotting with Al Nusra against President Assad.
Telegraph correspondent Ruth Sherlock is identified as an MI6 asset and longtime associate of Franklin Lamb. Staff at the Dama Rose hotel still talk about her, ” a bitch on wheels” or the Arabic equivalent. Sherlock is said to act as an intermediary between British intelligence and Al Nusra/Al Qaeda militants, according to sources in Damascus. From the Israeli Haaretz website:
Ruth Sherlock is a freelance journalist and an intern for Haaretz.com
Highest level sources in Syria are disturbed at the Telegraph story. The UK Telegraph has recently applied for offices in Damascus and are likely to be met with some resistance. We have solid confirmations that the Telegraph is wrong in their story — that Mamlouk is at his job today and that there was no coup attempt.
VT spoke with a family friend and coworkers of Mamlouk this morning, and they were very disturbed at the story, which they see as a plant by Turkish intelligence. Syrian sources also point out other flaws in the article involving not only the relationship with Iran, but the fate of Rustum Ghazaleh who died of complications related to diabetes… Gordon Duff ]
From the UK Telegraph: Bashar al-Assad’s spy chief arrested over Syria coup plot