The Syrian Ambassador to Washington Imad Moustapha has been missing in
action for months. So where did he go? As it turns out, he moved to China!
Moustapha, who is the subject of an FBI
investigation for his alleged role in intimidating Syrian-American protesters
and their families, is still listed as the Syria's ambassador to the United
States on the
Syrian embassy's website. But on his personal blog Feb. 8,
he suddenly announced he and his family had moved to China, in a post entitled
"A Fresh
Start from the Middle Kingdom."
"Now that we have moved to
China, I plan to resume blogging about my life, family and friends in China, as
well as writing on Chinese culture, history and art," he wrote in his
first post since August 2011. "I have a feeling that this is going to be a
wonderful journey of learning, exploring, and, most importantly,
serendipitously discovering one of the most remarkable world civilizations. I
hope you will enjoy my Chinese adventure."
Moustapha had been implicated in the
Justice Department's look into Syrian spying activities in Washington, an
investigation that resulted in the October arrest
of Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid, a Syrian-American living in Virginia. Soueid stands accused of working as an agent for the Syrian
intelligence service as part of a conspiracy to harass the Syrian-based
families of protesters and dissidents in the United States.
"Syrian
Ambassador to the U.S. Imad Mustafa is involved in activities that vary between
espionage, threatening Syrian dissidents, and lobbying and organizing rallies
in favor of Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad," wrote Hussain Abdul-Hussain, the Washington bureau chief of the Kuwaiti
newspaper Al-Rai, in June.
In July, it
was reported that the FBI and the State Department's
Diplomatic Security Bureau were investigating the Syrian embassy for using its
diplomatic staff to spy on Syrian-Americans in Washington for the purpose of
threatening their families back in Syria.
In August, the Wall
Street Journal reported
that the embassy's information was being used back in Syria to arrest and even
attack family members of protesters. Moustapha dismissed the allegations as
"slander and sheer lies." But he stopped blogging and disappeared from
Washington soon thereafter.
U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford returned
to Washington last week, not as a
diplomatic punishment to the Syrian regime, but because the streets surrounding
the American compound in Damascus became
too dangerous. But if Washington wants to
formally expel the Syrian ambassador to the United States, it will have to send
that notice to him in Beijing.
Or the
State Department can just leave a comment on his blog, since he seems to be
using it again.
Ironically,
Moustapha himself seemed to predict the currently unfolding events in Syria on
his blog last March, when he
wrote a post about the Egyptian
revolution and the fall of Hosni Mubarak.
"What
has happened in Egypt in the past month is something of great historic
significance," he wrote. "The ramifications of this revolution will continue to
unfold, and its impact will reverberate for years to come."
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