HIGH STAKES

If you track hydrocarbons you'll usually find the trail leads to more than just some information about oil and gas reserves.

Forget the Bourne Identity or Bond. Truth is far more intriguing than fiction.

US special forces have been training Syrian rebels for some time now. That's not news. What is news is the US government's sudden efforts to get the story out and to make it look as if it's a leak.

Unlike some of its neighbors Syria is not landlocked, a key point. This is about more than helping to remove a government regime viewed as unfriendly to the West. This is about gas, lots of it and who controls it.

Recall the story involving Attorney General Eric Holder and those weapons that allegedly found their way into the wrong hands, agents of Mexico's infamous drug cartel. Well, Syria holds a similar time bomb for the administration: Just who are the American forces in Syria training, true independents or jihadist who have infiltrated the movement?

As Jen Alic for Oilprice.com notes, reports from the area state the Free Syrian Army, the people the US is supposedly training, have been heavily infiltrated by jihadists. Officials in Washington claim American special forces there are training Jordanians in Jordan, not members of the Free Syrian Army.

Last week the Associated Press, citing several un-named officials, began "leaking" the story. Whoever the US is training, Jordanians or otherwise, reports say that information is being passed across the border to Syrians where the the fighting between the Free Syrian Army and government forces rages. CIA operatives hover nearby.

Enter Ghassan Hitto, a former resident of Murphy, Texas, who was born in Damascus, United Arab Republic (now Syria) in 1963 and migrated to the US in 1980. Educated here Hitto holds degrees in mathematics and computer science, he worked in technology and was one of the founding members after 911 of the Muslim Legal Fund of America to give legal aid to Muslims. He is Kurdish.

Late last year he suddenly moved to Turkey and got involved with the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces. In mid-March he was elected prime minister of an interim government in a split election that was boycotted by some members of the Coalition, including some of the Free Syrian Army, one of the major groups aligned against Assad's troops.

The truth is the Eastern Mediterranean is gas rich, a fact of more than passing interest to any number of players, not the least of which include: Russia, Europe, Turkey and the US. Hitto is the US's man in waiting. Some say he's also Turkey's choice.

The US itself is a surrogate man in waiting. A lot remains at stake here. More than many would imagine. Different countries are backing the various so-called freedom fighters for different reasons.

Cyprus is just a tiny part of a story that could easily rival most spy thrillers. Noble, a Houston-based oil company, is set soon to start drilling for gas in a block in the Mediterranean owned by Cyprus. They're looking for oil and gas, not something endearing them to Turkey.

Cyprus is two-thirds controlled by Greek-Cypriates, the other by those with ethnic Turkish ties. Turkey just severed an agreement with Italian oil company, Eni, presumably because the Italian firm recently started operations off the Cyprus coast.

When in 2004 the tiny island was accepted into the EU it was only the Greek-Cypriot two-thirds, the Greek-Cypriot Republic of Cyprus, that joined the union. Turkey only recognizes the northern third.

Turkey's press release about its actions against Eni cited concerns about Cyprus' Turkish population getting its fair share of the possible proceeds coming from Cyprus-owned Mediterranean oil and gas blocks.

 The timing of the announcement, many observers believe, coming just days ahead of scheduled biddings for more Cyprus oil and gas licenses, sends a subtle message: drill offshore in Cyprus, miss out in Turkey.

Russia now supplies Europe with a major portion of it natural gas. New supplies from the eastern Mediterranean, depending on who controls them, could threaten that hold. Here are some links about what's at stake from a report way before the Cyprus story hit the international media.

As we said big players, high stakes and lots of intrigue.

http://carnegieendowment.org/2013/02/08/battle-for-syria/f6t6

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Recent-Oil-Discovery-off-Lebanese-Coast-Draws-Naval-Powers-to-East-Med.html