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US man accused of working for Syrian intelligence Dual US-Syrian national is accused of monitoring anti-Assad demonstrations in the US on behalf of Syrian Mukhabarat
A Syrian-born, naturalised US citizen has been indicted on charges of spying on US activists opposed to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and providing audio and video recordings to Syria's intelligence agents. According to an indictment unsealed Wednesday, Mohamad Soueid of Leesburg, Virginia, was arrested Tuesday and charged with conspiring to act in the US as an agent of a foreign government. Soueid was scheduled to make an initial appearance in a US District Court in Alexandria on Wednesday afternoon. According to the indictment, Soueid sent 20 recordings between April and June to Syria's intelligence agency. They depict protests in this country against the Syrian regime, which has cracked down ruthlessly on anti-government protesters in Syria. The indictment also alleges that he travelled to Syria in June to meet with Al-Assad personally. Soueid, 47, also tried to recruit others to monitor anti-Al-Assad rallies and protests in the US, according to the indictment. Soueid is also charged with making false statements about his activities for the Mukhabarat, Syria's intelligence agency, when interviewed by the FBI in August. "The ability to assemble and protest is a cherished right in the United States, and it's troubling that a US citizen from Leesburg is accused of working with the Syrian government to identify and intimidate those who exercise that right," said US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil MacBride, whose office is prosecuting the case. "Spying for another country is a serious threat to our national security, especially when it threatens the ability of US citizens to engage in political speech within our own borders." Soueid, who also goes by the names Alex Soueid and Anas Alswaid, was sued, along with Al-Assad and others in the Syrian government, earlier this year in a US District Court in the District of Columbia by a group of Syrian-Americans who say they were victimised by the regime. The lawsuit alleges that, through Soueid's efforts, "the (Al-Assad) regime learns the identities of Syrians based in the United States who are trying to assist in efforts to counteract the tactics of the (Al-Assad) regime. He transmits such information to Damascus to initiate criminal conduct against the families of the identified Syrians." http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/23991.aspx
