The French Connection...to Syria

In 1978, as protests against Shah Phalavi swept across Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was living in a cozy house in the Parisian suburb of Neauphle-le-Chateau, engineering an Islamic revolution that would soon shake the world.

Under the watchful eye of the French government, Khomeini met regularly with journalists and actively campaigned for the Shah’s overthrow. In fact, when Pahlavi finally fled Iran in 1979, Khomeini was provided with a chartered Air France flight to Tehran, where he presided over one of the world’s most repressive regimes until his death in 1989.

France’s generous hospitality toward Khomeini is interesting to note in light of the plight of Nizar Nayouf, a dissident Syrian journalist and human rights activist currently living, like Khomeini once did, as a political refugee in the suburbs of Paris.

In 1991, Nayouf became editor-in-chief of Sawt al-Democratiyya (Voice of Democracy), a newspaper critical of Syria’s Ba’athist regime, and also co-founded the Committee for the Defense of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights in Syria (CDF).

These ventures earned Nayouf a nine-year stay in a Syrian prison, which he barely survived. But in 2001, thanks to urging from former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, Nayouf was released and permitted to travel to France, where he received desperately needed medical attention. Following his recovery, Nayouf -- who was granted political asylum in France in 2002 -- resumed his pro-democracy activism with renewed vigor.

Recently, he revealed three potentially explosive documents that he says connect Syria, France and Iraq to episodes involving hidden Iraqi WMDs and election bribery. The documents, which Nayouf acquired from sources in the Middle East, have captured the attention of media outlets in the U.S. and abroad. They have also drawn the ire of the DST (French Federal Intelligence Agency), which has attempted to silence Nayouf by using tactics reminiscent of those employed by his former Syrian captors.

According to Nayouf, on January 30, he was brought in for questioning by DST officials, who interviewed him for several hours before releasing him. At the end of the interview, a French officer identified to Nayouf only as “Colonel Heprarb” informed him that he was to refrain from making any further public announcements surrounding the deposed Iraqi regime’s relations with Syria and Lebanon.

Nayouf was also told that his public declarations have caused diplomatic embarrassment to the French government, not only in its relations with Syria but also with other countries that Heprarb refused to mention. While Nayouf was left shaken by this experience, his dealings with the DST would soon take an even more troubling turn.

Nayouf contends that following the interview with the DST he returned home to the Parisian suburb of Malakhof only to find that his apartment had been broken into and three CD-ROMs containing sensitive documents had been stolen.

A map showing possible locations of Iraqi WMDs in Syria was purportedly among the documents taken, as well as information regarding two billion dollars that had been deposited by Saddam Hussein into a number of Syrian and Lebanese banks prior to the fall of his regime.

The CDs also allegedly contained information describing the establishment of a fund for the reelection of Jacques Chirac by the deposed Iraqi regime via the office of Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri, not to mention a list of dissidents and political organizations in Syria that received funds from the intelligence apparatus stationed in the Iraqi Embassy in Paris.

Colonel Heprarb, for his part, has categorically denied any DST involvement in the burglary. But clearly, as stated by Julien Dumond in Leparisian on February 5, the “burglary” seemed suspiciously like an intelligence-gathering mission.

Reached by phone to comment on the DST’s conduct regarding Nayouf, Heprarb quickly became agitated: “This affair is finished…because this is a very difficult issue to answer about…if you will call again I will never answer…I ask that you must not call here another time.” At that point, Heprarb ended the conversation.

Apparently, however, the matter was not finished. On February 3, the DST invited Nayouf to its offices for four more hours of questioning. Incredibly, Nayouf says that during this session DST officials asked for the password to his personal computer so that they could access his files directly (one wonders if Heprarb will deny DST involvement on that count as well). Nayouf maintains he did not provide the password.

Nayouf’s recent troubles with the DST coincide with the French government’s repeated refusal to provide him with the political refugee passport he was legally granted in 2002 (and is due to him by French law). This action has prevented Nayouf from traveling abroad and continuing his work with the Syrian Democratic Coalition, a fledgling pro-democracy group led by the Syrian-born Farid Ghadry.

On February 5, French Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous stated that, “no measures have been made” by the French government to limit Nayouf’s movements. Ladsous also claimed that Nayouf’s refusal to surrender his Syrian passport (a passport that, ironically, has not been in Nayouf’s possession for over a year) has caused the bureaucratic delay in issuing his travel documents.

However, according to French law, a refugee does not need such a passport to begin with; therefore, no legal basis exists for denying Nayouf valid travel documentation. So Nayouf remains under gag order in Paris, unsure if, or when, he will be extradited to Syria, where opponents of the Ba’ath Party invariably turn up dead or in prison.

“Nayouf represents the conscience of every Syrian who has suffered under the Ba'athist rule,” says Ghadry. “I believe he deserves the protection of the U.S. and the dignity accorded to people who have fought for human rights all their lives.”

For now, Nayouf can only wish for the same treatment the French government so graciously extended to Ayatollah Khomeini years ago.

This is shocking. If I were on the run from the law, I might previously have chosen France...

Ira Einhorn -- the famous Unicorn Killer
by Patrick Bellamy
On December 4th, the Philadelphia Daily News reported that Einhorn's lawyers had filed their appeal to the French Council of State. Just eight days later the lawyers received their decision, France’s highest legal body had rejected all of their arguments clearing the way for Einhorn’s extradition, pending the final appeal before the European Court of Rights.

After hearing the news, Einhorn allegedly cut his neck with a knife and was hospitalized. His wife later declared that this apparent act of desperation was in fact a "political act."

On July 19, 2001, the Philadelphia Enquirer reported that the European Court on Human Rights had announced it "did not oppose the return of Einhorn to the USA."

Finally, after twenty years on the run, Ira Einhorn had run out of options.
A Christmas Murder In Hollywood
by James Ridgway de Szigethy
With the new decade and millennium came Anthony Fox's lawsuit alleging that Johnny Depp had conspired to divert profits from The Viper Room. According to the Celebrity Justice section of the Warner Brothers.com website, the Judge in this case ruled earlier this year that: "Defendant Depp . . . breached his fiduciary duties to the corporation and to Fox as a minority shareholder. The facts establish persistent and pervasive fraud and mismanagement and abuse of authority."

While lawyers for both sides were battling it out over the lawsuit, two things happened; Johnny Depp moved to France and Anthony Fox disappeared. Fox, the single parent of a now 18 year old daughter to whom he was deeply devoted, seems an unlikely candidate to just vanish on his own, particularly given that it appeared he would win his legal battle with Depp. In Depp's case, he had met a woman with whom he wanted to start a family. Depp and his partner Vanessa Paradis settled into a new life in Paradis' home country, France, where Depp hangs with his pals Roman Polanski, who is Hollywood's favorite Oscar-winning pedophile, and Marilyn Manson, the Devil's Advocate.
Part Two: The Bizarre World of Club Culture
by James Ridgway de Szigethy
It has now been 4 years since the murder in Hollywood of Mafia reporter Susan Berman and two years since Johnny Depp's business partner Anthony Fox vanished without a trace... It can be assumed that after actor River Phoenix died outside the Viper Room on Halloween, 1993 that members of law enforcement launched their own investigations as to what was going on inside the club. However, no legal action has resulted in the numerous incidents that have taken place at the club over the years. Club Manager Sal Jenco, a recovering alcoholic, has gone public in noting the steps he has taken to keep his patrons safe and sober. Jenco and Johnny Depp were named in the lawsuit filed in 2000 by their partner Anthony Fox in which Fox alleged that profits that should have gone into Safe in Heaven Dead Productions, Inc. were instead diverted into a company owned solely by Jenco and Depp. A preliminary ruling by the Judge in this case earlier this year indicated Fox would prevail in the suit. Fox, however, vanished without a trace in Christmas, 2001.

Johnny Depp, in the meantime, cleaned up his act, his salvation coming in the births of his two children. He has continued with his career, appearing in the year 2000's 'From Hell,' a movie about serial killer Jack the Ripper. Depp escorted his pal Marilyn Manson to the movie's premiere. Since then, law enforcement officials in Switzerland have announced the possibility that they may file criminal charges against Marilyn Manson for allegedly inciting violence during a concert, this according to the Marilyn Manson website. The investigation into Manson was prompted by a complaint from the Swiss-based organization 'Christians for Truth.'

Depp's movie FROM HELL was followed by 'Pirates of the Caribbean,' which propelled Depp into the status of both movie star and respected actor. This was followed up with People Magazine naming Johnny Depp the 'Sexiest Man Alive' for 2003. While the People profile failed to mention Depp's missing business partner the magazine did note the Club Culture influence on Depp; the two human skull rings on his fingers, the Egyptian amulet he wears around his neck, in addition to a charm honoring the Communist drug dealer Che Guevara, and the 12 tattoos on his body. One Depp tattoo was originally 'Winona Forever,' a tribute to his then-fiancé Winona Ryder. It has now been altered to read "Wino Forever."

Depp now spends most of his time with his kids and their mother in France, where he has made anti-American statements that have enraged citizens here in the United States. Except for the People Magazine profile, the Media in the U. S. has been very hostile to Depp. For his part, Depp has apologized, expressing his love for his country, and indicating that he considers himself lucky to have survived his years of life in the drug and club culture.

The question that remains is this: Can the same be said for Johnny Depp's business partner Anthony Fox, co-owner of Safe in Heaven Dead?

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