http://www.hrw.org/en/node/86735/section/4
[28]See “Syria’s Intelligence Services: A Primer,” Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, July 1, 2000, http://www.intelpage.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=588 (accessed October 1, 2009); and Human Rights Watch, Syria Unmasked, pp. 48-51. The Air Force Intelligence Directorate is only nominally tied to the air force. Its role as a powerful and feared intelligence agency in Syria comes from the fact that the late President Hafez al-Asad was once air force commander, and later turned the air force intelligence service into his personal action bureau.