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- <text id=91TT1165>
- <title>
- May 27, 1991: Syria's Footloose Black Sheep
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- May 27, 1991 Orlando
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- GRAPEVINE, Page 17
- Syria's Footloose Black Sheep
- </hdr><body>
- <p>By DAVID ELLIS/Reported by Sidney Urquhart
- </p>
- <p> Life in exile isn't so bad--just ask Rifaat Assad, the
- fiftysome thing brother of Syrian strong man Hafez Assad. Rifaat
- once ran a 20,000-man militia at home but was kicked out of the
- country in 1983 when Hafez Assad began to worry about his
- sibling's lust for power. Since then Rifaat has lived the lush
- life of a global businessman, managing millions of dollars'
- worth of investments in Europe and the Middle East. He visits
- the properties with an entourage of 20 that includes his two
- wives and several shapely female "secretaries," all traveling
- aboard two customized 727 airliners he owns. But he's not likely
- to visit old haunts in Damascus anytime soon. When asked about
- that destination, an aide shook his head and ominously drew a
- finger, knifelike, across his throat.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-