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| Target ... the Australian embassy in Beiruit. |
Posted on 09/26/2004 5:56:33 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi
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The latest revelations follow the announcement last week by the Italian Government that a large-scale attack on its Beirut embassy had been thwarted.
Italian Defence Minister Antonio Martino, whose Government is one of the strongest participants in the US-led occupation of Iraq, made no mention of the Australian connection as he first recounted the plot.
It was purportedly centred on a plan to drive a car laden with 100kg of explosives at the Italian embassy, a building that faces the Lebanese parliament in Nijmeh Square, a well-defended zone blocked off from all traffic.
But Lebanese Interior Minister Elias Murr and State Prosecutor Adnan Addoum announced on Friday that the British and Australian embassies, which are near each other in a special guard-ringed diplomatic quarter, had also been probable targets.
One of the suspects in the terror network rounded up last week was a woman who had been "in charge of monitoring the British and Australian Embassies," Addoum said, according to reports carried in the Daily Star newspaper.
But a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said last night it had not been able to establish "any evidence to support the claim that the Australian embassy in Beirut has been targeted".
Embassy officials in Beirut have been unable to establish the source of the information released by the Minister.
Experts surveying the information made public believe a terror plot of some description may well in fact have been under way, although the political timing of the report is fantastically convenient for the Lebanese Government, keen as it is to present itself as a foe of terror.
Lebanon has been the subject of close international attention in recent weeks because of the continued presence of some 20,000 Syrian troops on its soil.
It is also the host country for Hezbollah, an Iranian-sponsored and Syrian-backed Shia organisation which has 12 MPs in the Lebanese parliament, patrols the southern border regions and routinely stages attacks on Israel.
The suspects have been linked to two separate cells: one is led by Ahmed Salim Mikati, a fugitive already sentenced to jail in his absence after an anti-terror crack-down a year ago. The other is tied to Ismail Mohammed Khatib, who is described as being from the Western Bekaa region of Lebanon and is thought to be a recruiter for militant activity inside Iraq.
To add to the murk, a purported statement by al-Qaeda was published over the weekend in the Beirut newspaper Al-Balad denying that the arrested suspects had any links to al-Qaeda.
The arrests reflect, and fan, a growing sense of tension and insecurity in Lebanon as Syria's presence in the country comes under the spotlight.
They put attack in scare quotes? No bias here.
The media really sucks right now...
1) If something bad happens... It is the fault of the war on terror.
2) If something bad doesn't happen... It is not the fault of the war on terror.
3) If something bad is averted... It is downplayed and the fact that an attack was planned, it is as bad as something bad happening... because of the war on terror.
"1) If something bad happens... It is the fault of the war on terror.
2) If something bad doesn't happen... It is not the fault of the war on terror.
3) If something bad is averted... It is downplayed and the fact that an attack was planned, it is as bad as something bad happening... because of the war on terror."
ROFL- and ALL of the above- lest we forget- is George Bush's fault.
Ping
And when Mt. St. Helens blows again, that will be Bush's fault too.
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