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Published on The Weekly Standard(http://www.weeklystandard.com)

Who Are the Shabbiha?

Tony Badran

April 12, 2011 5:16 PM

Reporters covering the ongoing popular revolt in Syria were recently introduced to a new term from the sociopolitical

lexicon of the Levantthe shabbiha.

The shabbiharefers to a phenomenon originating in the coastal region of northwest Syria where the ruling Alawite clan is

from and describes gangs of young thugs working for members of the Assad family, but in no official capacity. In recent

days, these unofficial regime affiliates have played a central role in attacking opposition demonstrators in the coastal citiesof Latakia, Banias, Tartous and Jable. And that is how the shabbihaappeared on the radar of reporters, Arab and Western

alike, who scrambled to properly understand and explain its exact meaning.

The Saudi satellite station Al Arabiya led the way with a short segment introducing the shabbihato its broader Arab

viewers, most of whom are equally unfamiliar with this Levantine term and the specifically Syrian phenomenon it describes.The Al Arabiya reporter defined them as gangs who consider themselves to be above the law, and who impose their

authority by force and musclea fairly accurate, but generic definition.

Attempting to dig deeper into the etymology of the term, the reporter speculated that the root of the term conjured theArabic word for ghost (shabah), intimating the stealth with which these gangs appeared to wreak havoc at any particular

moment. This false etymology was adopted by some Western reporters, but in reality, the etymology likely signifiessomeone with a long reachthat is to say, a license to pillage with impunity, with few constraints and little fear of legalrepercussion. To them, all criminal activity is permissible, everything is there for the taking, and the shabbihaare entitled to

it all.

As the Al Arabiya report explained: members of these gangs derive this power from the absolute support they receivefrom powerful figures, especially those who are not visible at the political forefront of the country.

The powerful figures in question belong to the extended Assad clan. During the days of Bashars father, Hafez Assad, one

of the most notorious shabbihagangs belonged to his brother, Jamil, and his sons, Munzir and Fawwaz. Nikolaos Van

Dam notes in his excellent book on Syria how they were armed through the military units commanded by Hafezs otherbrother, Rifaat, who in turn maintained his own gang, including among the small Alawite community in northern Lebanon.

They, and other shabbihaworking for other members of the Assad clan, wreaked havoc in towns such as Latakia, the main

city in an area where the Alawites are heavily concentrated, where they had free reign, treating it as their own personalpatrimony.

Their criminal exploits were marked by typical mobster behavior, including extortion, assault, flaunting weapons and stolen

cars, and private use of public property and roads, to name but a few. Their crime of choice was smuggling, especiallyLebanese goods which they resold in Syria. During the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, the shabbihaoperated particularly

in the border region of the Bekaa, where they enjoyed the protection of the Syrian intelligence apparatuses, and thepatronage of whatever Assad family member or regime big shot they worked for.

Various Alawite barons and their shabbihafought over smuggling routes and rightsturf wars that continue to play out

today. Often the sporadic crackdowns and arrests that the regime sells as part of Bashars reform program are nothing but

evidence of how the regime f ights over racketeering privileges and delineates the power hierarchy. For instance, in the late1990s, as Bashar was paving the way for his inheritance of power, he began to curb the activity of his small time cousinsand their shabbiha.

However, his cousins continue to exercise their perceived right to ransack at will. In 2006, an infamous security

camera video emerged on YouTube showing one of Bashars second cousins, Numayr, as he robbed a currency

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exchange off ice at gunpoint and in broad daylight. He was briefly arrested, but broke out shortly thereafter and is now saidto be living openly in Latakia. This is what the Assads are all about: a mob family operating at state level.

Today, the shabbiharealize that if they want to maintain their privilege, its time to serve the larger interests of the

regimeas paramilitary mercenaries terrorizing peaceful protesters. Their unofficial status offers the regime a useful

instrumentthe shabbihacan kill and intimidate while Assad still has plausible deniability. Moreover, insofar as the

shabbihas indiscriminate, drive-by-shooting-style violence is likely responsible for the deaths of policemen and soldiers

(as Syrian activist Ammar Abdulhamid notes), the regime has used the confusion to label the protestors as theperpetrators of violence. Accordingly, shabbihabloodshed, now attributed to the opposition, has become the Assad

regimes pretext for the full-blown military crackdown now underway in towns such as Banias, besieged by army tanks.

(For videos highlighting the shabbiha, see Ammar Abdulhamids post over at the Syrian Revolution Digest, here. See

also the videos on the Syrian Revolution site, here.)

Tony Badran is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

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