Ali Issa Ibrahim Duba ( ar, علي عيسى ابراهيم دوبا, born 1933), also known as ''Ali Douba'', is a former head of the Syrian

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

and was a close adviser to the Syrian president Hafez al-Assad. The military intelligence under Douba was the single most important security agency in Syria, handling security within the army, but also dealing with the general safeguarding of the regime.

Early life

Douba was born to a small landowning family from the Alawite tribe of Matawira, in the village of

Qurfays Qurfays ( ar, قرفيص, also spelled Qurfeis or Korfeis) is a village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Jableh District in the Latakia Governorate, located south of Latakia. Nearby localities include Arab al-Mulk to the wes ...

in the

Jableh District Jableh District ( ar-at, منطقة جبلة, manṭiqat Jablah) is a district of the Latakia Governorate in northwestern Syria. Administrative centre is the city of Jableh. At the 2004 census, the district had a population of 196,171. Agricult ...

south of Latakia. He joined the Ba'ath Party in the early 1950s while studying at the Holy Land Secondary School in Latakia.

Career

Douba joined the Syrian Army in 1955 and became the deputy head of internal security at the Damascus branch of the General Intelligence Directorate five years later. He served as military attaché at the Syrian embassy in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

between 1964 and 1966, and in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

between 1967 and 1968. He returned to Syria and became the head of military intelligence for the Latakia region. In November 1970, he was appointed the head of military intelligence for the city of Damascus, where he supported Hafez al-Assad's coup d'état. In 1971, he was made deputy head of military intelligence, under

Hikmat al-Shihabi Hikmat al-Shihabi ( ar, حكمت الشهابي; 8 January 1931 – 5 March 2013), also known as ''Hikmat Shihabi'', was a Syrian career military officer, who served as the chief of staff of the Syrian Army between 1974 and 1998. As a Sunni, he ...

. Three years later he was made head of this department. He was elected to the Central Committee of the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in 1978, and promoted to general in 1981. Douba took part in suppressing the Muslim Brotherhood revolt in Hama during February 1982. In December 1983, when President Hafez al-Assad was ill, Duba was a member of the committee responsible for governing the state in the interim. In 1985, the Syrian president put him in charge of the Lebanon dossier, along with al-Shihabi and

Ghazi Kanaan Ghazi Kanaan ( ar, غازي كنعان; 1942 – 12 October 2005), also known as Abu Yo'roub, was Syria's interior minister from 2004 to 2005, and long-time head of Syria's security apparatus in Lebanon. His violent death during an investigati ...

. Douba was promoted to

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

and appointed deputy chief of the General Staff in January 1993, in addition to his role as head of the military intelligence. In 1999 he was pushed aside by Bashar al-Assad over fears that he could be a rival for the presidency, and was made to retire in February 2000. He is still living in Syria. EU

Council Regulation A regulation is a legal act of the European Union that becomes immediately enforceable as law in all member states simultaneously. Regulations can be distinguished from directives which, at least in principle, need to be transposed into natio ...

36/2012 places him on a list of persons whose funds are frozen.http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2012:016:0001:0032:EN:PDF

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duba, Ali 1933 births Syrian military personnel Syrian Alawites Living people Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region politicians People from Latakia Governorate People of the Islamic uprising in Syria Syrian individuals subject to the European Union sanctions