Ghazi Kanaan

Ghazi Kanaan was born in 1942 in Bhamra, near Qardaha, the home town of former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad.

This region, centered on the coastal town of Latakia, is in heartland Syria's Alawite minority, of which both men were part.

Kanaan was a member of the Kalbiyya tribe and a distant relative of Bashar's mother, Anisa Makhlouf.

Kanaan graduated from the Homs Military Academy in 1965.

Kanaan, as a young military officer, pledged allegiance to Hafez al-Assad, who seized power in 1970.

Kanaan participated in the fight against the Israelis on the Golan Heights in the 1970s.

During the 1980s, he developed collaborators with the predominantly Christian and previously Lebanese Forces – Executive Command (LFEC) militia which was run by Elie Hobeika, but it was only about 2,000 soldiers.

He also became a close confidant of Rafik Hariri.

He rose in rank to colonel and served as the director of intelligence in of Central Syria (Homs) from 1981 to 1982.

After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, parts of which were already under Syrian military domination, he was assigned to head the Syrian intelligence in Lebanon in 1982.

After the Taif agreement in 1989, it was Kanaan who determined fourteen electoral districts of Lebanon.

On behalf of Syrian government, he vetoed the anti-Syrian candidates, urged the political leaders to include pro-Syrian candidates in their candidate lists, and balanced the number of religious candidates with secular ones in some districts.

In addition, Syria exerted influence on security and judicial appointments in the country through Kanaan.

On the other hand, the head of Lebanon's Sureté Générale (General Security Directorate), Jamil Al Sayyed, reported directly to Kanaan, often bypassing the civilian leadership of the Lebanese government.

Kannan became the most feared man in the Lebanon during his term, since he had the power to order the arrest and indefinite detention of anyone.

Syria established an absolute power in Lebanese elections of 1992, 1996 and 2000 through Kanaan.

The company was awarded a ten-year contract in 1994.

Kanaan was married and had six children, four sons and two daughters.

One of his sons, Yaroob, is married to daughter of Jamil al-Assad.

Kanaan provided financial support to build the Jaafar Tayar mosque, established a library with seven computers and built a community center named for his father, Mohammed Ali in Bhamra.

In short, he provided personal funding for community projects in Bhamra and nearby region.

After Israel's withdrawal from its occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, Kanaan extended Syria's influence there, and backed the Hezbollah movement's takeover of the area.

In 2000, the widow and children of Ira Weinstein who was killed in a February 1996 Hamas suicide bombing, filed a lawsuit against him as the head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon and then Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass charging that they were responsible for providing the perpetrators with material resources and training.

His term lasted for twenty years until 2002.

After being an early backer of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad as a successor to his father, Kanaan was summoned back to Damascus in October 2002 to become the head of Syria's political security directorate, replacing Adnan Badr Hassan in the post.

He was succeeded in Lebanon by Rustum Ghazali, his deputy.

However, Kanaan did not leave Lebanon until a ceremony was held by then Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri at the prime ministry on 9 October 2003, and when Hariri symbolically gave him the key of the city of Beirut.

During his tenure in Lebanon, Kanaan gained a decisive Syrian influence over Lebanese affairs, and gradually subdued the warring Lebanese militias through a combination of diplomacy, bribery and force.

In 2004, after a string of bombings targeting leading Hamas members given sanctuary in Syria, claimed by Syria to have been the work of Israeli intelligence, Kanaan was assigned by president al-Assad to the cabinet post of interior minister in October 2004 in a cabinet rehuffle.

The cabinet was headed by Muhammad Naji al-Otari.

On the internal Syrian political scene, Kanaan was considered close to the president, although at the same time part of the "old guard" of Syrian politics.

Ghazi Kanaan (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 from 1982 to 2002.

Employing tactics such as endorsing pro-Syrian candidates and employing intimidation, Kanaan had a considerable influence over Lebanese politics, ensuring Lebanon is aligned with Syria's agenda.

Kanaan was questioned during the investigation into Rafic Hariri's assassination in 2005.

His violent death later that year, officially declared a suicide, was met with skepticism by some, drawing international attention.

On 30 June 2005, the United States, which had been pressuring Syria over the Hariri bombing and to end Syrian occupation, declared that it would freeze all assets belonging to Kanaan and Ghazali, due to their involvement with the occupation of Lebanon, and also due to suspicions of "corrupt activities".

Kanaan was not regarded as a member of Bashar al-Assad's inner circle.

He was known to have close links with the former vice president, Abdul Halim Khaddam who had resigned in the summer of 2005.

Some believed that they both might have developed a challenging powerbase within the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party against Bashar al-Assad in future.

Ghazi Kanaan was one of the shareholders of LibanCell, a cellular phone company.