Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Syrian witness stunt part of smear campaign
In another effort to discredit the investigation, the Syrian regime, still stuck at Mehlis’ interim report, has been waging a crusade to undermine the witnesses mentioned in the report. Unfortunately for the regime, the investigation has moved beyond the interim report and this latest stunt will not derail it. The suspects are on the way to Vienna and we still have a long way to go.
Having said that, here’s another examination of Husam Husam’s contribution to the campaign to discredit the UN investigation and all Lebanese opposed to Syria.
Marketing the retraction
For someone so patriotic and concerned about his country, Husam, who says he works for Syrian intelligence, had plenty of opportunities to flee or publicly expose the Hariri family for their alleged forgeries. But he didn’t. He didn’t because he didn’t want to. Real patriotic agents do not talk like Husam did. They serve their country and sacrifice their lives for it. They do not crack after a few injections and minor threats (Do you call that torture?). He would have been more useful to Syria if he had actually gained the confidence of those he claims pressured him: the Hariris and their supporters. A true Syrian hero would have served Syria differently if he truly had that kind of access.
He recanted after he discovered he is better off running back to his original masters than milking a dead cow. Husam was broke. Like many Syrian agents in Lebanon, he got used to an opulent lifestyle (in the press conference, he was by far the best dressed person in the room). When the Mehlis report came out, he realized his mistake. He was destined for poverty. Like the agents before him, he thought he could go to Hariri and get some money. But Rafik is no longer giving out payments. And Saad is not his father. Husam naturally tried al-Mustaqbal, but they were under strict orders not to interfere. The Hariri family stood to lose big time if word got out they manipulated witnesses. His identity was probably leaked to the Syrians, who are out to discredit Mehlis’ witnesses.
His about-face was late but suited the Syrian regime, which still had to figure out how to present his retraction without stupidly re-incriminating itself. What they did made the witness sound credible to them and their sympathizers, but many Lebanese who are used to the regime’s ways saw right through this laughable attempt.
In order to make his story seem believable, Lebanon was painted to look like its oppressed neighbor: A family is controlling its affairs, and journalists act as advisors to the rulers and government propagandists. For Husam’s story to work and sound credible, Fares Khashan had to be elevated to the status of premier advisor to the son who betrayed his father, assisted by a group of foreign intelligence figures and local ministers who take orders from a corrupt Godfather-like Saad Hariri. There is nothing new here that the Syrian newspapers haven’t already claimed about Hariri and his media. I wonder if Husam had managed to feed them those incredibly similar details about how Saad killed his father while in alleged captivity, in between interviews and forced testimonies!
People who view things through the Syrian prism will find Husam’s accusations credible. Unfortunately for them, Lebanon does not work that way, and if the Hariri family was that powerful, the country would not be where it is now. The new Lebanese government does not operate in the same way the pro-Syrian one did. They are not perfect, but making Saad appear like a Ghazali-type figure only serves to make Husam’s retraction credible in the eyes of those willing to believe in anti-Syrian conspiracies. And you can say whatever you want about the international investigation, but you cannot accuse it of not being professional. Everybody, including the Syrians and the Lebanese who were questioned by it, testified to its professionalism. The claim that Khashan was in the room controlling the recording device is an outright lie. Do you really think the United Nations will copy the Syrian intelligence interrogation methods? This is what Husam and Assef Shawkat want us to believe. We won’t.
The testimony
I think it's important to examine the importance of this testimony to the investigation and whether recanting it will damage its progress. The following is from the Mehlis report.
Again, Mehlis did not exclusively rely on the above information to reach his conclusion. He did not confuse Husam with God. The testimony does not sound unbelievable though the details would need to corroborated.
For that, the UN team has always maintained that it needs Syrian cooperation to clarify the exact role of the Syrian officials. Let’s review this very important paragraph from the report:
In short, what the Syrian regime did was discredit a witness, but ironically not his original story, and certainly not the investigation. This whole episode is nothing but another chapter in the smear campaign against Lebanon. Mehlis has his leads and he is following them. Don’t expect this stunt to derail the investigation. Mehlis is not a rookie, and he does not work by Syrian intelligence rules.
Update: See Khashan's response in al-Mustaqbal (Arabic). Fares said he met Husam two months ago after the latter left a message with the Future TV operator requesting a meeting with the reporter regarding an "important matter that has to do with the masked witness." Husam asked for two things: a television interview and a meeting with Saad Hariri. His reason for the first was to have something on tape in case he is harmed by the Syrian intelligence. Future TV turned him down. The second request he made during the "few visits" he made to Khashan's office. “I used to laugh at the request and he would respond saying he didn’t want any money and that he only wanted a picture with Saad to show his fiancée.” Khashan said he first heard the name of the Syrian officers from Husam, adding that he “will not repeat what he told me about them to spare him their wrath”. Khashan said he will provide the UN team, the Lebanese authorities and the Syrian commission with all the documented evidence he has regarding this matter.
Having said that, here’s another examination of Husam Husam’s contribution to the campaign to discredit the UN investigation and all Lebanese opposed to Syria.
Marketing the retraction
For someone so patriotic and concerned about his country, Husam, who says he works for Syrian intelligence, had plenty of opportunities to flee or publicly expose the Hariri family for their alleged forgeries. But he didn’t. He didn’t because he didn’t want to. Real patriotic agents do not talk like Husam did. They serve their country and sacrifice their lives for it. They do not crack after a few injections and minor threats (Do you call that torture?). He would have been more useful to Syria if he had actually gained the confidence of those he claims pressured him: the Hariris and their supporters. A true Syrian hero would have served Syria differently if he truly had that kind of access.
He recanted after he discovered he is better off running back to his original masters than milking a dead cow. Husam was broke. Like many Syrian agents in Lebanon, he got used to an opulent lifestyle (in the press conference, he was by far the best dressed person in the room). When the Mehlis report came out, he realized his mistake. He was destined for poverty. Like the agents before him, he thought he could go to Hariri and get some money. But Rafik is no longer giving out payments. And Saad is not his father. Husam naturally tried al-Mustaqbal, but they were under strict orders not to interfere. The Hariri family stood to lose big time if word got out they manipulated witnesses. His identity was probably leaked to the Syrians, who are out to discredit Mehlis’ witnesses.
His about-face was late but suited the Syrian regime, which still had to figure out how to present his retraction without stupidly re-incriminating itself. What they did made the witness sound credible to them and their sympathizers, but many Lebanese who are used to the regime’s ways saw right through this laughable attempt.
In order to make his story seem believable, Lebanon was painted to look like its oppressed neighbor: A family is controlling its affairs, and journalists act as advisors to the rulers and government propagandists. For Husam’s story to work and sound credible, Fares Khashan had to be elevated to the status of premier advisor to the son who betrayed his father, assisted by a group of foreign intelligence figures and local ministers who take orders from a corrupt Godfather-like Saad Hariri. There is nothing new here that the Syrian newspapers haven’t already claimed about Hariri and his media. I wonder if Husam had managed to feed them those incredibly similar details about how Saad killed his father while in alleged captivity, in between interviews and forced testimonies!
People who view things through the Syrian prism will find Husam’s accusations credible. Unfortunately for them, Lebanon does not work that way, and if the Hariri family was that powerful, the country would not be where it is now. The new Lebanese government does not operate in the same way the pro-Syrian one did. They are not perfect, but making Saad appear like a Ghazali-type figure only serves to make Husam’s retraction credible in the eyes of those willing to believe in anti-Syrian conspiracies. And you can say whatever you want about the international investigation, but you cannot accuse it of not being professional. Everybody, including the Syrians and the Lebanese who were questioned by it, testified to its professionalism. The claim that Khashan was in the room controlling the recording device is an outright lie. Do you really think the United Nations will copy the Syrian intelligence interrogation methods? This is what Husam and Assef Shawkat want us to believe. We won’t.
The testimony
I think it's important to examine the importance of this testimony to the investigation and whether recanting it will damage its progress. The following is from the Mehlis report.
One witness of Syrian origin but resident in Lebanon, who claims to have worked for the Syrian intelligence services in Lebanon, has stated that approximately two weeks after the adoption of Security Council resolution 1559, senior Lebanese and Syrian officials decided to assassinate Rafik Hariri. He claimed that a senior Lebanese security official went several times to Syria to plan the crime, meeting once at the Meridian Hotel in Damascus and several times at the Presidential Place and the office of a senior Syrian security official. The last meeting was held in the house of the same senior Syrian security official approximately seven to 10 days before the assassination and included another senior Lebanese security official. The witness had close contact with high ranked Syrian officers posted in Lebanon.How did Mehlis use the above information? Here’s the conclusion to this part of the report, which is based on the above plus numerous other elements from other testimonies and phone records.
There is probable cause to believe that the decision to assassinate former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security official and could not have been further organized without the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security services.Mehlis did not say “the decision was taken at the Meridien Hotel in Damascus.” He said the decision to kill Hariri needed the approval of Syria. Nothing here suggests that if you deleted that part of the testimony, you could not conclude the same based on other findings in the report.
At the beginning of January 2005, one of the high ranked officers told the witness that Rafik Hariri was a big problem to Syria. Approximately a month later the officer told the witness that there soon would be an “earthquake” that would re-write the history of Lebanon.Nothing exclusive here either. It was practically common knowledge that the Syrians viewed Hariri as a big problem.
The witness visited several Syrian military bases in Lebanon. At one such base, in Hammana, he observed a white Mitsubishi van, with a white tarpaulin over the flatbed. The observations were made on 11, 12 and 13 February 2005. The Mitsubishi left the Military base in Hammana on the morning of 14 February 2005. The Mitsubishi Canter van, which was used as the bomb carrier, entered Lebanon from Syria through the Bekaa border and a military hot lane on 21 January 2005, at 1320 hrs. It was driven by a Syrian Colonel from the Army Tenth Division.The details about the van used in the explosion seem logical, considering it was stolen in Japan and had no other way of entering Lebanon unrecorded except through a military hot lane or one of the smuggling routes on the Syrian border. All points to Syria anyway.
On 13 February 2005, the witness drove one of the Syrian officers to the St. George area in Beirut on a reconnaissance exercise, as he subsequently understood it to have been after the assassination took place.Considering Sayyed had to be reminded by al-Jazeera to send someone to pick up the tape a day after the explosion, I find this information believable. The telephone records and the later attempt by the pro-Syrian Lebanese officials to tamper with evidence lead us to believe that the above is passable information. The Abu Adass stuff is not incredible to believe either. The report established elsewhere and independently of Husam’s testimony that “much of the information surrounding Mr. Abu Adass and his disappearance points to Syria."
Regarding Mr. Abu Adass, the witness has stated that he played no role in the crime except as a decoy. He was detained in Syria and forced at gunpoint to record the video tape. Subsequently, he was killed in Syria. The videotape was sent to Beirut on the morning of 14 February 2005, and handed over to Jamil Al Sayyed. A civilian with a criminal record and an officer from the Sûreté Générale were tasked with putting the tape somewhere in Hamra and then calling Ghassan Ben Jeddo, an Al-Jazeera TV reporter.
General Jamil Al-Sayyed, according to the witness, cooperated closely with General Mustapha Hamdan and General Raymond Azar in the preparation of the assassination of Mr. Hariri. He also coordinated with General Ghazali (and, among others, people from Mr. Ahmad Jibreel in Lebanon). General Hamdan and General Azar provided logistical support, providing money, telephones, cars, walkie-talkies, pagers, weapons, ID-cards etc. Those who knew of the crime in advance were among others, Nasser Kandil and General Ali Al-Hajj.
Again, Mehlis did not exclusively rely on the above information to reach his conclusion. He did not confuse Husam with God. The testimony does not sound unbelievable though the details would need to corroborated.
For that, the UN team has always maintained that it needs Syrian cooperation to clarify the exact role of the Syrian officials. Let’s review this very important paragraph from the report:
It is the Commission’s conclusion that, after having interviewed witnesses and suspects in the Syrian Arab Republic and establishing that many leads point directly towards Syrian security officials as being involved with the assassination, it is incumbent upon Syria to clarify a considerable part of the unresolved questions. While the Syrian authorities, after initial hesitation, have cooperated to a limited degree with the Commission, several interviewees tried to mislead the investigation by giving false or inaccurate statements. The letter addressed to the Commission by the Foreign Minister of the Syrian Arab Republic proved to contain false information. The full picture of the assassination can only be reached through an extensive and credible investigation that would be conducted in an open and transparent manner to the full satisfaction of international scrutiny.Who is providing false information here? Who is trying to mislead the investigation? The ball has been in Syria’s court to prove its innocence and clarify the nature of its involvement for a long time now. Instead of presenting that evidence, they set up a committee to investigate not the murder, but the work of an international commission with a mandate from the UNSC. That they chose to do that and resort to a silly and unbelievable retraction makes them look more guilty.
In short, what the Syrian regime did was discredit a witness, but ironically not his original story, and certainly not the investigation. This whole episode is nothing but another chapter in the smear campaign against Lebanon. Mehlis has his leads and he is following them. Don’t expect this stunt to derail the investigation. Mehlis is not a rookie, and he does not work by Syrian intelligence rules.
Update: See Khashan's response in al-Mustaqbal (Arabic). Fares said he met Husam two months ago after the latter left a message with the Future TV operator requesting a meeting with the reporter regarding an "important matter that has to do with the masked witness." Husam asked for two things: a television interview and a meeting with Saad Hariri. His reason for the first was to have something on tape in case he is harmed by the Syrian intelligence. Future TV turned him down. The second request he made during the "few visits" he made to Khashan's office. “I used to laugh at the request and he would respond saying he didn’t want any money and that he only wanted a picture with Saad to show his fiancée.” Khashan said he first heard the name of the Syrian officers from Husam, adding that he “will not repeat what he told me about them to spare him their wrath”. Khashan said he will provide the UN team, the Lebanese authorities and the Syrian commission with all the documented evidence he has regarding this matter.
Comments:
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Excellent work!
You could tell that Mehlis wasn't fully trusting this witness
"One witness of Syrian origin but resident in Lebanon, who claims to have worked for the Syrian intelligence services in Lebanon"
He says that it's one witness, and that what he says are just claims.
This guy was far from being the only source of information.
By trying to infiltrate and mislead the inquiry, Syria has proven that it had something to hide.
You could tell that Mehlis wasn't fully trusting this witness
"One witness of Syrian origin but resident in Lebanon, who claims to have worked for the Syrian intelligence services in Lebanon"
He says that it's one witness, and that what he says are just claims.
This guy was far from being the only source of information.
By trying to infiltrate and mislead the inquiry, Syria has proven that it had something to hide.
# posted by 
: 6:34 PM
: 6:34 PM
I hope that other non-Lebanense like myself are reading your take on this, because I have seen some American press reporting that seems as if this Syrian propaganda is having some effect. Overall, though, the Lebanese blogosphere reaction to this whole charade is very determined yet level-headed. I am certainly impressed.
# posted by : 8:10 PM
: 8:10 PM
"Analysis"? You just distort the truth to fit your coherent little story about the big bad wolf who blew the nice little pigs' house down. In the process, you waste your time trying to prove that Husam's TV testimony is false (Duh!) rather than actually think:
(1) If you read the Mehlis report carefully, you will find that the only thing pointing at the Syrian suspects is Husam's testimony (it is where all the names are quoted). The other testimonies are speculative and the phone records are impressive investigative work, but the only real human being they link to is Abd el-Al.
(2) Mehlis himself said that the "masked witness" is a prime witness. Remember: after Siddiq escaped, Mehlis shrugged it off with the assertion that the main witness has a lot more to say. But considering your smug tone, I would not be surprised if you claim to know more about the investigation than Mehlis himself.
(3) The investigation committee acknowledged the witness, but before that, Hariri Jr. & company managed to call Husam a 'fictional character'. Now, why would Hariri lie about something like this? Or did he not know who the main witness was?
(4) This is the second person to claim he was bribed in this investigation. The first (Siddiq) was not even planted by the Syrians. Are you telling me these things do not happen in Lebanon? And I do not buy this new government vs. old pro-Syrian government argument. They mostly the same people.
(5) For someone who is so critical of the "Syrian prism", you will be surprised to know that you are sounding more and more like "them" with the passing of each day. Your narrative is the mirror image of the Syrian narrative. Who said occupation does not corrupt the occupied?
Preemtive action: Don't give me that "your are a baathist" crap that you give other dissenters. Not everyone who disagrees with you is a Baathist (Trivia: in Syria, everyone who disagrees with you is an Islamist).
(1) If you read the Mehlis report carefully, you will find that the only thing pointing at the Syrian suspects is Husam's testimony (it is where all the names are quoted). The other testimonies are speculative and the phone records are impressive investigative work, but the only real human being they link to is Abd el-Al.
(2) Mehlis himself said that the "masked witness" is a prime witness. Remember: after Siddiq escaped, Mehlis shrugged it off with the assertion that the main witness has a lot more to say. But considering your smug tone, I would not be surprised if you claim to know more about the investigation than Mehlis himself.
(3) The investigation committee acknowledged the witness, but before that, Hariri Jr. & company managed to call Husam a 'fictional character'. Now, why would Hariri lie about something like this? Or did he not know who the main witness was?
(4) This is the second person to claim he was bribed in this investigation. The first (Siddiq) was not even planted by the Syrians. Are you telling me these things do not happen in Lebanon? And I do not buy this new government vs. old pro-Syrian government argument. They mostly the same people.
(5) For someone who is so critical of the "Syrian prism", you will be surprised to know that you are sounding more and more like "them" with the passing of each day. Your narrative is the mirror image of the Syrian narrative. Who said occupation does not corrupt the occupied?
Preemtive action: Don't give me that "your are a baathist" crap that you give other dissenters. Not everyone who disagrees with you is a Baathist (Trivia: in Syria, everyone who disagrees with you is an Islamist).
My dear Suha-
Talk about distortion.
If you read the Mehlis report carefully, you will find that the only thing pointing at the Syrian suspects is Husam's testimony. Why don't you read my post carefully. Mehlis did not accuse anybody by name, and his conclusion was that the assassination must have been carried out with Syrian knowledge. Mehlis is saying he wants the Syrians to cooperate to kill all speculation. They didn't until last Friday.
2. Mehlis himself said that the "masked witness" is a prime witness. He did? where? Not in his report he didn't.
3. Huh?
4. This is the second person to claim he was bribed in this investigation. The first (Siddiq) was not even planted by the Syrians. Siddiq did not claim he was bribed. His brother in jail claimed that. You remember when the prisoners in Syria went on hunger strike and the camera happened to be inside one jail where Siddiq's brother had been held up for over 3 years on drug-related charges? Very convincing.
Also, are you saying that the Syrians "planted" Husam? That would be a very dumb thing to do considering the account and the names he volunteered!
5. Yes, you got me, I sound just like "them". But wait, you are defending "them" and their narrative, no? So am I bad or good?
Finally, I never called anybody a Baathist. Where did you get that? I don't even call people stupid, although the temptation is sometimes strong.
cheers.
Talk about distortion.
If you read the Mehlis report carefully, you will find that the only thing pointing at the Syrian suspects is Husam's testimony. Why don't you read my post carefully. Mehlis did not accuse anybody by name, and his conclusion was that the assassination must have been carried out with Syrian knowledge. Mehlis is saying he wants the Syrians to cooperate to kill all speculation. They didn't until last Friday.
2. Mehlis himself said that the "masked witness" is a prime witness. He did? where? Not in his report he didn't.
3. Huh?
4. This is the second person to claim he was bribed in this investigation. The first (Siddiq) was not even planted by the Syrians. Siddiq did not claim he was bribed. His brother in jail claimed that. You remember when the prisoners in Syria went on hunger strike and the camera happened to be inside one jail where Siddiq's brother had been held up for over 3 years on drug-related charges? Very convincing.
Also, are you saying that the Syrians "planted" Husam? That would be a very dumb thing to do considering the account and the names he volunteered!
5. Yes, you got me, I sound just like "them". But wait, you are defending "them" and their narrative, no? So am I bad or good?
Finally, I never called anybody a Baathist. Where did you get that? I don't even call people stupid, although the temptation is sometimes strong.
cheers.
Suha--
Maybe you should get your head out of your ass and read the Mehlis report. IN FULL.
And how do you go on to insult Kais for his analysis--when you then accuse him of sounding like "them", those in the Syrian prism? So which is it then--are you insulting him or defending him now?
Also, can you please publish your top ten reasons for why Syria should be so righteously defended, so we can all have a laugh.
Aimei
Maybe you should get your head out of your ass and read the Mehlis report. IN FULL.
And how do you go on to insult Kais for his analysis--when you then accuse him of sounding like "them", those in the Syrian prism? So which is it then--are you insulting him or defending him now?
Also, can you please publish your top ten reasons for why Syria should be so righteously defended, so we can all have a laugh.
Aimei
# posted by : 11:09 PM
: 11:09 PM
Okay, I see that Suha is too shy, so I will give it a shot.
Top Ten Reasons Syria Should Be So Righteously Defended:
10. Because Basmatwatan needs more material.
9. Because any enemy of George W. Bush is a friend of mine, and that's all that matters right now.
8. Because a family that slays together, stays together.
7. If something as stupid as break-dancing can make a comeback, I am sure that pan-Arabism eventually will.
6. Because of Bashar's bold and courageous plan to encourage kleptocracy throughout the Middle East.
5. … [Number five has been recanted in an attempt to discredit this top ten list] …
4. Because most of Lebanon's money and automobiles are already there.
3. Because the road to Jerusalem really runs through Damascus!
2. Because those Bashar stickers are awfully difficult to scrape off the rear windscreen of a Renault.
And the number one reason that Syria should be so righteously defended is:
1. Because that protest by the lobotomy patients was pretty damn convincing.
Top Ten Reasons Syria Should Be So Righteously Defended:
10. Because Basmatwatan needs more material.
9. Because any enemy of George W. Bush is a friend of mine, and that's all that matters right now.
8. Because a family that slays together, stays together.
7. If something as stupid as break-dancing can make a comeback, I am sure that pan-Arabism eventually will.
6. Because of Bashar's bold and courageous plan to encourage kleptocracy throughout the Middle East.
5. … [Number five has been recanted in an attempt to discredit this top ten list] …
4. Because most of Lebanon's money and automobiles are already there.
3. Because the road to Jerusalem really runs through Damascus!
2. Because those Bashar stickers are awfully difficult to scrape off the rear windscreen of a Renault.
And the number one reason that Syria should be so righteously defended is:
1. Because that protest by the lobotomy patients was pretty damn convincing.
# posted by : 12:45 AM
: 12:45 AM
Karl Rove's White House " Murder Inc. ".
Ariel Sharon's & Karl Rove's White House " Assassinations Inc. " !!!
Neocon's IPO.
"The significance of this masterpiece is not only the divulsion of facts,
but the focus it's made on the covert cooperation between the parties who
are playing enemies.... "
http://www.abcnorio.org/pcgi-bin/boards/housing/robboard.cgi?action=display&num=71
Special Investigation.
DEC., 2005- On September 15, 2001, just four days after the 9-11 attacks,
CIA Director George Tenet provided President [sic] Bush with a Top Secret
"Worldwide Attack Matrix"-a virtual license to kill targets deemed to be a
threat to the United States in some 80 countries around the world. The Tenet
plan, which was subsequently approved by Bush, essentially reversed the
executive orders of four previous U.S. administrations that expressly
prohibited political assassinations.
According to high level European intelligence officials, Bush's counselor,
Karl Rove, used the new presidential authority to silence a popular Lebanese
Christian politician who was planning to offer irrefutable evidence that
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon authorized the massacre of hundreds of
Palestinian men, women, and children in the Beirut refugee camps of Sabra
and Shatilla in 1982. In addition, Sharon provided the Lebanese forces who
carried out the grisly task. At the time of the massacres, Elie Hobeika was
intelligence chief of Lebanese Christian forces in Lebanon who were battling
Palestinians and other Muslim groups in a bloody civil war. He was also the
chief liaison to Israeli Defense Force (IDF) personnel in Lebanon. An
official Israeli inquiry into the massacre at the camps, the Kahan
Commission, merely found Sharon "indirectly" responsible for the slaughter
and fingered Hobeika as the chief instigator.
The Kahan Commission never called on Hobeika to offer testimony in his
defense. However, in response to charges brought against Sharon before a
special war crimes court in Belgium, Hobeika was urged to testify against
Sharon, according to well-informed Lebanese sources. Hobeika was prepared to
offer a different version of events than what was contained in the Kahan
report. A 1993 Belgian law permitting human rights prosecutions was unusual
in that non-Belgians could be tried for violations against other
non-Belgians in a Belgian court. Under pressure from the Bush
administration, the law was severely amended and the extra territoriality
provisions were curtailed.
Hobeika headed the Lebanese forces intelligence agency since the mid- 1970s
and he soon developed close ties to the CIA. He was a frequent visitor to
the CIA's headquarters at Langley, Virginia. After the Syrian invasion of
Lebanon in 1990, Hobeika held a number of cabinet positions in the Lebanese
government, a proxy for the Syrian occupation authorities. He also served in
the parliament. In July 2001, Hobeika called a press conference and
announced he was prepared to testify against Sharon in Belgium and revealed
that he had evidence of what actually occurred in Sabra and Shatilla.
Hobeika also indicated that Israel had flown members of the South Lebanon
Army (SLA) into Beirut International Airport in an Israeli Air Force C130
transport plane, in full view of dozens of witnesses, including members of
the Lebanese army and others. SLA troops under the command of Major Saad
Haddad were slipped into the camps to commit the massacres. The SLA troops
were under the direct command of Ariel Sharon and an Israeli Mossad agent
provocateur named Rafi Eitan. Hobeika offered evidence that a former U.S.
ambassador to Lebanon was aware of the Israeli plot. In addition, the IDF
had placed a camera in a strategic position to film the Sabra and Shatilla
massacres. Hobeika was going to ask that the footage be released as part of
the investigation of Sharon.
After announcing he was willing to testify against Sharon, Hobeika became
fearful for his safety and began moves to leave Lebanon. Hobeika was not
aware that his threats to testify against Sharon had triggered a series of
fateful events that reached well into the White House and Sharon's office.
On January 24, 2002, Hobeika's car was blown up by a remote controlled bomb
placed in a parked Mercedes along a street in the Hazmieh section of Beirut.
The bomb exploded when Hobeika and his three associates, Fares Souweidan,
Mitri Ajram, and Waleed Zein, were driving their Range Rover past the
TNT-laden Mercedes at 9:40 am Beirut time. The Range Rover's four passengers
were killed in the explosion. In case Hobeika's car had taken another route
through the neighborhood, two additional parked cars, located at two other
choke points, were also rigged with TNT. The powerful bomb wounded a number
of other people on the street. Other parked cars were destroyed and
buildings and homes were damaged. The Lebanese president, prime minister,
and interior minister all claimed that Israeli agents were behind the
attack.
It is noteworthy that the State Department's list of global terrorist
incidents for 2002 worldwide failed to list the car bombing attack on
Hobeika and his party. The White House wanted to ensure the attack was
censored from the report. The reason was simple: the attack ultimately had
Washington's fingerprints on it.
High level European intelligence sources now report that Karl Rove
personally coordinated Hobeika's assassination. The hit on Hobeika employed
Syrian intelligence agents. Syrian President Bashar Assad was trying to
curry favor with the Bush administration in the aftermath of 9-11 and was
more than willing to help the White House. In addition, Assad's father,
Hafez Assad, had been an ally of Bush's father during Desert Storm, a period
that saw Washington give a "wink and a nod" to Syria's occupation of
Lebanon. Rove wanted to help Sharon avoid any political embarrassment from
an in absentia trial in Brussels where Hobeika would be a star witness. Rove
and Sharon agreed on the plan to use Syrian Military Intelligence agents to
assassinate Hobeika. Rove saw Sharon as an indispensable ally of Bush in
ensuring the loyalty of the Christian evangelical and Jewish voting blocs in
the United States. Sharon saw the plan to have the United States coordinate
the hit as a way to mask all connections to Jerusalem.
The Syrian hit team was ordered by Assef Shawkat, the number two man in
Syrian military intelligence and a good friend and brother in law of Syrian
President Bashar Assad. Assad's intelligence services had already cooperated
with U.S. intelligence in resorting to unconventional methods to extract
information from al Qaeda detainees deported to Syria from the United States
and other countries in the wake of 9-11. The order to take out Hobeika was
transmitted by Shawkat to Roustom Ghazali, the head of Syrian military
intelligence in Beirut. Ghazali arranged for the three remote controlled
cars to be parked along Hobeika's route in Hazmieh; only few hundred yards
from the Barracks of Syrian Special Forces which are stationed in the area
near the Presidential palace , the ministry of Defense and various
Government and officers quarters . This particular area is covered 24/7 by a
very sophisticated USA multi-agency surveillance system to monitor Syrian
and Lebanese security activities and is a " Choice " area to live in for its
perceived high security, [Courtesy of the Special Collections Services.]
SCS...; CIA & NSA & DIA....etc.
The plan to kill Hobeika had all the necessary caveats and built-in denial
mechanisms. If the Syrians were discovered beforehand or afterwards, Karl
Rove and his associates in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans would be
ensured plausible deniability.
Hobeika's CIA intermediary in Beirut, a man only referred to as "Jason" by
Hobeika, was a frequent companion of the Lebanese politician during official
and off-duty hours. During Hobeika's election campaigns for his
parliamentary seat, Jason was often in Hobeika's office offering support and
advice. After Hobeika's assassination, Jason became despondent over the
death of his colleague. Eventually, Jason disappeared abruptly from Lebanon
and reportedly later emerged in Pakistan.
Karl Rove's involvement in the assassination of Hobeika may not have been
the last "hit" he ordered to help out Sharon. In March 2002, a few months
after Hobeika's assassination, another Lebanese Christian with knowledge of
Sharon's involvement in the Sabra and Shatilla massacres was gunned down
along with his wife in Sao Paulo, Brazil. A bullet fired at Michael Nassar's
car flattened one of his tires. Nassar pulled into a gasoline station for
repairs. A professional assassin, firing a gun with a silencer, shot Nassar
and his wife in the head, killing them both instantly. The assailant fled
and was never captured. Nassar was also involved with the Phalange militia
at Sabra and Shatilla. Nassar was also reportedly willing to testify against
Sharon in Belgium and, as a nephew of SLA Commander General Antoine Lahd,
may have had important evidence to bolster Hobeika's charge that Sharon
ordered SLA forces into the camps to wipe out the Palestinians.
Based on what European intelligence claims is concrete intelligence on
Rove's involvement in the assassination of Hobeika, the Bush administration
can now add political assassination to its laundry list of other misdeeds,
from lying about the reasons to go to war to the torture tactics in
violation of the Geneva Conventions that have been employed by the Pentagon
and "third country" nationals at prisons in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.
This is some of the evidence for you and for the World ....
*******************************************************************************
~encrypted/logs/access ====>> INTELLIGENCE Agencies Servers footprints.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Not to mention hundreds of private companies and governments........!
...See Below :
*******************************************************************************
Lines 10-36 of my logfiles show a lot of interest in this article:
# grep sid=1052 /encrypted/logs/access_log|awk '{print$1,$7}'|sed-n'10,36p'.
spb-213-33-248-190.sovintel.ru /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Soviet/Russian Intelligence services...
ext1.shape.nato.int /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
NATO Intel.
server1.namsa.nato.int /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Nato Intel.
ns1.saclantc.nato.int /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Strategic Air Command US Intel.
bxlproxyb.europarl.eu.int /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
European Parliament Intel. Unit
wdcsun18.usdoj.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
USA Department of Justice...
wdcsun21.usdoj.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
USA Department of Justice...
tcs-gateway11.treas.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
USA Treasury Department
tcs-gateway13.treas.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
USA Treasury Department
relay1.ucia.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
CIA Langley
relay2.cia.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
CIA Langley
relay2.ucia.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
CIA Langley
n021.dhs.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
USA Department of Homeland security Intel.
legion.dera.gov.uk /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
British Intel.
gateway-fincen.uscg.mil /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Pentagon US.
crawler2.googlebot.com /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Intel....
crawler1.googlebot.com /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Intel.....
gateway101.gsi.gov.uk /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
British Intel.
gate11-quantico.nmci.usmc.mil /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
USA Marine Corps Quantico Virginia Intel.
gate13-quantico.nmci.usmc.mil /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
USA Marine Corps Quantico Virginia Intel.
fw1-a.osis.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
US Intel SIS.
crawler13.googlebot.com /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Intel....
fw1-b.osis.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
US Intel. OSIS.
bouncer.nics.gov.uk /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
British Intel.
beluha.ssu.gov.ua /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Ukrainian Intelligence.
zukprxpro02.zreo.compaq.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052....
Intel....
"The significance of this masterpiece is not only the divulsion of facts,
but the focus it's made on the covert cooperation between the parties who
are playing enemies.... " At the very Least in Lebanon since the 1970s...!!!
Ariel Sharon's & Karl Rove's White House " Assassinations Inc. " !!!
Neocon's IPO.
"The significance of this masterpiece is not only the divulsion of facts,
but the focus it's made on the covert cooperation between the parties who
are playing enemies.... "
http://www.abcnorio.org/pcgi-bin/boards/housing/robboard.cgi?action=display&num=71
Special Investigation.
DEC., 2005- On September 15, 2001, just four days after the 9-11 attacks,
CIA Director George Tenet provided President [sic] Bush with a Top Secret
"Worldwide Attack Matrix"-a virtual license to kill targets deemed to be a
threat to the United States in some 80 countries around the world. The Tenet
plan, which was subsequently approved by Bush, essentially reversed the
executive orders of four previous U.S. administrations that expressly
prohibited political assassinations.
According to high level European intelligence officials, Bush's counselor,
Karl Rove, used the new presidential authority to silence a popular Lebanese
Christian politician who was planning to offer irrefutable evidence that
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon authorized the massacre of hundreds of
Palestinian men, women, and children in the Beirut refugee camps of Sabra
and Shatilla in 1982. In addition, Sharon provided the Lebanese forces who
carried out the grisly task. At the time of the massacres, Elie Hobeika was
intelligence chief of Lebanese Christian forces in Lebanon who were battling
Palestinians and other Muslim groups in a bloody civil war. He was also the
chief liaison to Israeli Defense Force (IDF) personnel in Lebanon. An
official Israeli inquiry into the massacre at the camps, the Kahan
Commission, merely found Sharon "indirectly" responsible for the slaughter
and fingered Hobeika as the chief instigator.
The Kahan Commission never called on Hobeika to offer testimony in his
defense. However, in response to charges brought against Sharon before a
special war crimes court in Belgium, Hobeika was urged to testify against
Sharon, according to well-informed Lebanese sources. Hobeika was prepared to
offer a different version of events than what was contained in the Kahan
report. A 1993 Belgian law permitting human rights prosecutions was unusual
in that non-Belgians could be tried for violations against other
non-Belgians in a Belgian court. Under pressure from the Bush
administration, the law was severely amended and the extra territoriality
provisions were curtailed.
Hobeika headed the Lebanese forces intelligence agency since the mid- 1970s
and he soon developed close ties to the CIA. He was a frequent visitor to
the CIA's headquarters at Langley, Virginia. After the Syrian invasion of
Lebanon in 1990, Hobeika held a number of cabinet positions in the Lebanese
government, a proxy for the Syrian occupation authorities. He also served in
the parliament. In July 2001, Hobeika called a press conference and
announced he was prepared to testify against Sharon in Belgium and revealed
that he had evidence of what actually occurred in Sabra and Shatilla.
Hobeika also indicated that Israel had flown members of the South Lebanon
Army (SLA) into Beirut International Airport in an Israeli Air Force C130
transport plane, in full view of dozens of witnesses, including members of
the Lebanese army and others. SLA troops under the command of Major Saad
Haddad were slipped into the camps to commit the massacres. The SLA troops
were under the direct command of Ariel Sharon and an Israeli Mossad agent
provocateur named Rafi Eitan. Hobeika offered evidence that a former U.S.
ambassador to Lebanon was aware of the Israeli plot. In addition, the IDF
had placed a camera in a strategic position to film the Sabra and Shatilla
massacres. Hobeika was going to ask that the footage be released as part of
the investigation of Sharon.
After announcing he was willing to testify against Sharon, Hobeika became
fearful for his safety and began moves to leave Lebanon. Hobeika was not
aware that his threats to testify against Sharon had triggered a series of
fateful events that reached well into the White House and Sharon's office.
On January 24, 2002, Hobeika's car was blown up by a remote controlled bomb
placed in a parked Mercedes along a street in the Hazmieh section of Beirut.
The bomb exploded when Hobeika and his three associates, Fares Souweidan,
Mitri Ajram, and Waleed Zein, were driving their Range Rover past the
TNT-laden Mercedes at 9:40 am Beirut time. The Range Rover's four passengers
were killed in the explosion. In case Hobeika's car had taken another route
through the neighborhood, two additional parked cars, located at two other
choke points, were also rigged with TNT. The powerful bomb wounded a number
of other people on the street. Other parked cars were destroyed and
buildings and homes were damaged. The Lebanese president, prime minister,
and interior minister all claimed that Israeli agents were behind the
attack.
It is noteworthy that the State Department's list of global terrorist
incidents for 2002 worldwide failed to list the car bombing attack on
Hobeika and his party. The White House wanted to ensure the attack was
censored from the report. The reason was simple: the attack ultimately had
Washington's fingerprints on it.
High level European intelligence sources now report that Karl Rove
personally coordinated Hobeika's assassination. The hit on Hobeika employed
Syrian intelligence agents. Syrian President Bashar Assad was trying to
curry favor with the Bush administration in the aftermath of 9-11 and was
more than willing to help the White House. In addition, Assad's father,
Hafez Assad, had been an ally of Bush's father during Desert Storm, a period
that saw Washington give a "wink and a nod" to Syria's occupation of
Lebanon. Rove wanted to help Sharon avoid any political embarrassment from
an in absentia trial in Brussels where Hobeika would be a star witness. Rove
and Sharon agreed on the plan to use Syrian Military Intelligence agents to
assassinate Hobeika. Rove saw Sharon as an indispensable ally of Bush in
ensuring the loyalty of the Christian evangelical and Jewish voting blocs in
the United States. Sharon saw the plan to have the United States coordinate
the hit as a way to mask all connections to Jerusalem.
The Syrian hit team was ordered by Assef Shawkat, the number two man in
Syrian military intelligence and a good friend and brother in law of Syrian
President Bashar Assad. Assad's intelligence services had already cooperated
with U.S. intelligence in resorting to unconventional methods to extract
information from al Qaeda detainees deported to Syria from the United States
and other countries in the wake of 9-11. The order to take out Hobeika was
transmitted by Shawkat to Roustom Ghazali, the head of Syrian military
intelligence in Beirut. Ghazali arranged for the three remote controlled
cars to be parked along Hobeika's route in Hazmieh; only few hundred yards
from the Barracks of Syrian Special Forces which are stationed in the area
near the Presidential palace , the ministry of Defense and various
Government and officers quarters . This particular area is covered 24/7 by a
very sophisticated USA multi-agency surveillance system to monitor Syrian
and Lebanese security activities and is a " Choice " area to live in for its
perceived high security, [Courtesy of the Special Collections Services.]
SCS...; CIA & NSA & DIA....etc.
The plan to kill Hobeika had all the necessary caveats and built-in denial
mechanisms. If the Syrians were discovered beforehand or afterwards, Karl
Rove and his associates in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans would be
ensured plausible deniability.
Hobeika's CIA intermediary in Beirut, a man only referred to as "Jason" by
Hobeika, was a frequent companion of the Lebanese politician during official
and off-duty hours. During Hobeika's election campaigns for his
parliamentary seat, Jason was often in Hobeika's office offering support and
advice. After Hobeika's assassination, Jason became despondent over the
death of his colleague. Eventually, Jason disappeared abruptly from Lebanon
and reportedly later emerged in Pakistan.
Karl Rove's involvement in the assassination of Hobeika may not have been
the last "hit" he ordered to help out Sharon. In March 2002, a few months
after Hobeika's assassination, another Lebanese Christian with knowledge of
Sharon's involvement in the Sabra and Shatilla massacres was gunned down
along with his wife in Sao Paulo, Brazil. A bullet fired at Michael Nassar's
car flattened one of his tires. Nassar pulled into a gasoline station for
repairs. A professional assassin, firing a gun with a silencer, shot Nassar
and his wife in the head, killing them both instantly. The assailant fled
and was never captured. Nassar was also involved with the Phalange militia
at Sabra and Shatilla. Nassar was also reportedly willing to testify against
Sharon in Belgium and, as a nephew of SLA Commander General Antoine Lahd,
may have had important evidence to bolster Hobeika's charge that Sharon
ordered SLA forces into the camps to wipe out the Palestinians.
Based on what European intelligence claims is concrete intelligence on
Rove's involvement in the assassination of Hobeika, the Bush administration
can now add political assassination to its laundry list of other misdeeds,
from lying about the reasons to go to war to the torture tactics in
violation of the Geneva Conventions that have been employed by the Pentagon
and "third country" nationals at prisons in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.
This is some of the evidence for you and for the World ....
*******************************************************************************
~encrypted/logs/access ====>> INTELLIGENCE Agencies Servers footprints.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Not to mention hundreds of private companies and governments........!
...See Below :
*******************************************************************************
Lines 10-36 of my logfiles show a lot of interest in this article:
# grep sid=1052 /encrypted/logs/access_log|awk '{print$1,$7}'|sed-n'10,36p'.
spb-213-33-248-190.sovintel.ru /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Soviet/Russian Intelligence services...
ext1.shape.nato.int /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
NATO Intel.
server1.namsa.nato.int /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Nato Intel.
ns1.saclantc.nato.int /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Strategic Air Command US Intel.
bxlproxyb.europarl.eu.int /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
European Parliament Intel. Unit
wdcsun18.usdoj.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
USA Department of Justice...
wdcsun21.usdoj.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
USA Department of Justice...
tcs-gateway11.treas.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
USA Treasury Department
tcs-gateway13.treas.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
USA Treasury Department
relay1.ucia.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
CIA Langley
relay2.cia.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
CIA Langley
relay2.ucia.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
CIA Langley
n021.dhs.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
USA Department of Homeland security Intel.
legion.dera.gov.uk /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
British Intel.
gateway-fincen.uscg.mil /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Pentagon US.
crawler2.googlebot.com /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Intel....
crawler1.googlebot.com /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Intel.....
gateway101.gsi.gov.uk /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
British Intel.
gate11-quantico.nmci.usmc.mil /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
USA Marine Corps Quantico Virginia Intel.
gate13-quantico.nmci.usmc.mil /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
USA Marine Corps Quantico Virginia Intel.
fw1-a.osis.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
US Intel SIS.
crawler13.googlebot.com /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Intel....
fw1-b.osis.gov /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
US Intel. OSIS.
bouncer.nics.gov.uk /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
British Intel.
beluha.ssu.gov.ua /modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052
Ukrainian Intelligence.
zukprxpro02.zreo.compaq.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1052....
Intel....
"The significance of this masterpiece is not only the divulsion of facts,
but the focus it's made on the covert cooperation between the parties who
are playing enemies.... " At the very Least in Lebanon since the 1970s...!!!
# posted by : 4:36 AM
: 4:36 AM
Thanks Caveman!
You forgot to add how cute Bashar looks when standing on his dictator podium, dismissing Siniora, declaring war on Lebanon, and the usual dictator chatter. THAT alone, is reason to defend Syria!
Aimei
Post a Comment
You forgot to add how cute Bashar looks when standing on his dictator podium, dismissing Siniora, declaring war on Lebanon, and the usual dictator chatter. THAT alone, is reason to defend Syria!
Aimei
# posted by : 6:39 AM
: 6:39 AM << Home
