Let’s try unravelling the knot. According to some intelligence sources, Quirico could have been kidnapped by Hezbollah combatants, Party of God militias supporting Assad’s regime. In such a case, it wouldn't be implausible presuming that Quirico could have been consigned to Syrian secret services. So, is Quirico Assad’s prisoner? A similar question has been addressed directly to Assad by Marcelo Cantelmi, reporter for Argentinian newspaper Clarin. Actually, Cantelmi’s question concerned also James Foley; US reporter for the Global Post, l’Agence France-Presse (and others) vanished more than six month ago while he was in Syria monitoring the civil war course. Anyhow, Assad’s answer was quite non-responding since he just declared there was no information about any «journalist entered illegally» in the Syria even if he assured that their country would have been already informed otherwise.

Doubts are more likely to arise than assurances from such an answer. Shifting the blame to the rebel groups would have made greater sense, since international community attention would have been relieved from him. Apparently the figures don't add up. Assuming that the journalists had come into possession of troublesome information for the regime, Assad would totally gain from keeping things unclear. And if we add Foley’s family suspects about Syrian secret services keeping him as a prisoner, relying on Assad’s words it would be more and more difficult. 

© All rights reserved