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Antoun Saad-A Ruler in the Shadows

Birth and Marriage

Antoun Saad was born in Toula el-Jebbi, a small town in the Qada’a of Zgharta, in 1910. He grew up in a middle-class family and married Barsita Mikhael Saad (born 1926). They had 6 children: Bassam, a retired Brigadier General, Hanna, a Business Engineer, Elias, a Civil Engineer, Samer, passed away at a young age because of a Doctor's mistake, Noha, an Endocrinologist, Rita, passed away in her early 20s after losing a battle with Brain Cancer, and Fouad, an Industrial Engineer.

Education

Saad attended school in the neighboring towns and decided to become a monk at the age of 18. To this end, he moved into a monastery in the town of Shebbanieh in Mount Lebanon but fell out with the Abbot soon after his arrival and returned to Tripoli where he enrolled at the Collège des Frères.

Army

In 1930, he enlisted himself in the Lebanese Army and was stationed at the military barracks of Andaket in Akkar. He was promoted to the rank of ‘surgeon’ in 1934 when he enrolled in Aleppo’s Military Academy. Two years later, he graduated as a warrant officer and was raised to the rank of ‘lieutenant’ in 1937. During his military service, Saad moved across different sectors. From the First Sniper Regiment, he was shuffled to the Levantine Regiment – nucleus of the Lebanese Army. Between 1948 and 1950, he was appointed Commander of the Second Sniper Regiment.

Relationship with President Chehab

His encounter and friendship with Fouad Chehab was the portal that ushered Antoun Saad to a commanding role at the Deuxième Bureau. The two met for the first time in 1936 at Aleppo’s Military Academy when Saad passed a shooting test before a military panel of which the then Captain Fouad Chehab was a member. It is reported that Saad’s hometown, Toula, was too small and unheard of that he was embarrassed to mention it during the test.

Their second encounter occurred at the Marjeyoun barracks in South Lebanon following a clash between a Lebanese and a French soldier. Saad, who was in charge, settled the dispute by sending the former to prison and the latter to hospital. His discriminatory behavior infuriated Chehab who requested him to treat the two fairly and to put them both in the hospital, but Saad stood his ground with courage and showed Chehab that the French soldier was at fault, therefore, deserved to go to prison.This act of boldness put Saad in Chehab’s high regards.

The al-Malikiyah battle between the Lebanese and Israeli armies in 1948 provided a third opportunity for their meeting.

The Deuxième Bureau

Having known and befriended Saad, Chehab, who had become an Army Commander, decided to appoint him as head of the Deuxième Bureau by the end of February 1952.

During his tenure at the Deuxième Bureau, Saad was an active player in shaping or engaging in major events that were unfolding in the country. From 1954, he set out to devise a plan aimed at organizing Lebanon’s military intelligence service, seeking the opinion of learned French intelligence officers. To this end, he expanded his sources of information, which were no longer limited to input from his monthly paid personal informers but extended to include vital stakeholders operating in the country. Gradually, he built a large network of connections with prominent Lebanese politicians, high fliers, traders, industrialists, bankers and businessmen. His crucial position in power helped him attract such individuals who would disclose information to him in exchange for services and protection, particularly after he became known as the closest statesman to President Fouad Chehab. It was under Antoun Saad that the Deuxième Bureau started to assume its influential role.

Initially, the military intelligence personnel consisted of no more than 15 non-commissioned officers, some of whom would monitor the Palestinians camps while others would probe Israeli-sponsored espionage attempts. Administrative activity was limited to a number of operations supporting pro-Chehab politicians and working to increase their popularity.

But starting in 1959, Saad began to enlarge the intelligence personnel. He introduced new Deuxième Bureau branches in all five Mohafazas to gather information, a mission that was formerly delegated to the leaderships of the military regions, in collaboration with an officer stationed at the Deuxième Bureau and responsible for maintaining security. Soon afterwards, the branches were given vast prerogatives and they drew greater support from the social segments and the dignitaries, for they provided assistance and were flexible in granting licenses to carry weapons. Saad hired highly qualified officers at the intelligence bureau and entrusted them to run the branches of the Mohafazas.

After the failure of the coup d’état attempted by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party on the night of 30/31 December 1961, Antoun Saad plotted another coup.

The Head of the Deuxième Bureau decided to start a new chapter in its intelligence activity by tightening the army’s grip on public life and restructuring its apparatus to ensure higher levels of safety and internal stability, with greater access to financial resources.

His method was to bridge all the gaps marring the military and political classes and to empower military intelligence to stay abreast of the latest political news and the developments unfolding on Lebanese territory.

Hence, he created a transforming transition for the intelligence work, which until that time, had still been focusing on small and futile street news such as revealing who cursed the President of the Republic or criticized the Deuxième Bureau or complained about the ruling class. Saad altered the Bureau’s function into one concerned with investigation and collection of information. Nor was its mission limited solely to that: the Deuxième Bureau also became involved in analyzing the information, assessing its dimensions and anticipating developments in order to avoid potential implications. “Absolute security” was a central component of the slogan instigated by Antoun Saad. To him, this signified submitting all that was associated with the absolute character of security to close supervision, a generalization that could be interpreted in a manner that placed politics, economy, sociology and culture at the heart of the concept, requirements and terms of security. In this way intelligence tightened its grip on the state and the community, which in turn had major implications and caused adverse effects that were later translated into the prosecution of intelligence officers following the 1970 parliamentary elections, a measure that was slammed by many for exposing Lebanon to threats and contributing to the Lebanese Civil War.

Retirement

Antoun Saad remained at the head of the Deuxième Bureau until the expiry of President Chehab’s term of office. On August 27, 1964 he was appointed commander of the Mount Lebanon military region and his military service was extended by another year before his retirement on July 1, 1971.

Saad kept numerous secrets to himself after retirement. However, as the Civil War broke out and as his pneumonia deteriorated, he resorted to burning all the classified documents before his death on June 26, 1977 at the age of 67.

https://monthlymagazine.com/article-desc_1324_