Major General Ali Mamlouk was born in 1945 in Damascus and is one of the most mysterious Syrian security figures. Today, President Basahr Assad appointed him as head of the bureau of national security with the rank of minister, to replace Hisham Bekhtyar who died from wounds inflicted in Wednesday's bombing.        
The bureau of national security is in charge of overseeing all the state’s security apparatuses. In virtue of the new constitution, Mamlouk reports directly to President Assad.  

Mamlouk has been head of the state security since 2005, as the successor of Maj. Gen. Hisham Bekhtyar, and for over 25 years, assumed highly critical tasks in the Syrian Aerial Intelligence.       

Mamlouk was among the first officers who founded this apparatus in the 1970s despite being young.

On May 1st 2011, Washington included in the list of sanctions imposed on the Syrian regime, the names of the head of Syrian intelligence Ali Mamlouk, along with Maher Assad, brother of Assad as well as Atef Najib, former head of Deraa’s Political Security Directorate.        

On July 20, 2002, the National Council for Truth and Justice and Reconciliation that included the Syrian opposition published a list including 76 names of Syrian intelligence officers annexed to crimes they were allegedly involved in whether in Syria or Lebanon. At the time, the council called for bringing them to international justice.


For the full LBCI report please watch the video above