BBC: New Hariri report 'blames Syria'

BBC ^ | Sunday, 11 December 2005, 23:03 GMT | staff

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

New Hariri report 'blames Syria'

Rafik Hariri was known for his anti-Syrian stance

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has received the second report into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The report is said to detail Syria's alleged role in the murder.

It comes days after United Nations investigator Detlev Mehlis's team questioned five Syrian officials.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad vowed again on Sunday that he would punish any Syrian involved in the murder plot.

Damascus has strongly denied involvement in the car bomb which killed Hariri in February.

But an interim UN report in December has already implicated Syrian officials.

Anxious wait

Most Lebanese and Syrians are now waiting anxiously to see what evidence Mr Mehlis will reveal in his second report.

The chief UN investigator has indicated it will confirm the findings of the first extensive report, but it will also include more concrete evidence.

Mr Mehlis said his investigation was not affected by the retractions of a Syrian witness two weeks ago and none of his conclusions presented to the UN Security Council in October need to be altered.

INTERIM UN FINDINGS Assassins had considerable resources and capabilities Evidence suggests both Syria and Lebanon were involved Crime was prepared over several months Hariri's movements and itineraries were monitored Highly unlikely Syrian or Lebanese intelligence were not aware of assassination plot UN report in full (488K) Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Download the reader here

The Lebanese media have also reported that Mr Mehlis is likely to say he did not get full co-operation from Syria.

The UN has threatened unspecified action in this case and the Security Council is due to discuss the report on Tuesday. But Syrian officials insist they have co-operated fully.

"If there is a person who is involved then he must be held accountable, but at the same time to say that a Syrian person is guilty there must be evidence," Syria's President Assad said in an interview with Russia's Channel 2 television station.

And the UN investigation is by no means over, says the BBC's Kim Ghattas in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Lebanon has urged Mr Annan to extend Mr Mehlis's investigation by six months.

The mandate of the probe is likely to be extended for another three months, our correspondent says, even though Mr Mehlis himself will no longer lead the investigation beyond 15 December.

Hariri's murder led to widespread protests in Lebanon and extensive international pressure on Syria, forcing it to end its 29-year-old military presence in Lebanon in April.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Syria struggles with new realities

By Gerald Butt
Middle East analyst

Syria is not the country it used to be: buttoned up and oblivious to changes in the world at large.

Under intense international pressure since the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri last February, cracks are starting to appear in the once solid shell around the regime in Damascus.

The Syrian leadership seems rattled.

The apparent suicide of the Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan will not have helped matters.

In his post as interior minister, Kanaan symbolized the awesome power of Syria's security and intelligence apparatus. His untimely death demonstrates a previously unimaginable vulnerability in that apparatus

Whatever the circumstances of his death, the extra international attention that it has focused on a regime that for years has preferred to conduct its business behind closed doors will be unwelcome.

Even the way that the minister died is arousing further speculation about Syria's possible role in the assassination of Hariri - involvement that the government in Damascus has strenuously denied.

Syrian officials insist that Kanaan killed himself in an act of patriotic honour because of the slur on his reputation and that of his country.

Suspicions

Some sceptics, on the other hand, are suggesting that the interior minister decided to end his life because he knew he would be implicated when the results of the inquiry into Mr Hariri's death were published later this month.

Critics and opponents of the Syrian government go even further.

Mr Kanaan was killed, they say, in order that the blame for the assassination of the Lebanese prime minister could be pinned on him alone.

President Assad faces a monumental challenge in keeping his regime together under these various pressures - and in the unwelcome spotlight of international attention

They back their argument by pointing out the manner in which the news was released - the time, place and circumstances of his death, encapsulated in an uncharacteristically speedy and informative bulletin from the state news agency.

In the end, it matters little which version one chooses to believe.

The real damage is the fact that a very senior member of the Damascus regime, a man who for two decades orchestrated Syria's policies in Lebanon, has gone.

In his post as interior minister, Kanaan symbolized the awesome power of Syria's security and intelligence apparatus.

His untimely death demonstrates a previously unimaginable vulnerability in that apparatus.

Syrian 'drifting'

But even before Kanaan's death, there were signs that Syria, under the leadership of its young and relatively inexperienced president, Bashar al-Assad, was losing its way.

For example, Mr Assad's promises of political reform have largely evaporated after facing stiff opposition from leading members of the ruling clique in Damascus.

On the regional and international stage, too, Syria seems to be drifting - managing neither to live up to its previous image of the leading Arab state confronting Israel, nor to follow the path of many of its neighbours in liberalising its economy and developing closer links with the West.

The withdrawal of Syrian troops and security services from Lebanon after Mr Hariri's assassination was a further setback - coming against the background of strong American criticism of Damascus' alleged role in failing to support the war on international terrorism and in allowing insurgents to cross into Iraq.

Syria's persistent rejection of these allegations has done nothing to stop them.

Leadership must adapt

President Assad faces a monumental challenge in keeping his regime together under these various pressures - and in the unwelcome spotlight of international attention.

Those pressures, of course, will intensify if - as is being widely speculated - the UN report into Hariri's assassination implicates senior figures in Damascus.

Having said all this, it would be wrong to suggest that the long-entrenched regime in Syria is in a state of collapse.

But if the country is to ride out the storm, then the Damascus leadership will need to adapt to new realities.

Keeping the country buttoned up and oblivious to the world - a policy that served President Assad's father so well for decades - is today no longer an option.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/4337252.stm

Published: 2005/10/13 08:49:35 GMT

[Valin]

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad vowed again on Sunday that he would punish any Syrian involved in the murder plot.

Except they say no Syrian was involved. And as we all know they would never lie about something like this.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Things are going downhill for Assad.....

[Valin]

More bodies found in Lebanese mass grave
Lebanon-Syria, Politics, 12/7/2005

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/051207/2005120707.html

Replying to a question on information which attributed the mass graves recently found in Anjar, Bekaa, belong to the period of the civil war in Lebanon in 1990 when the forces of Michel Aawn and Samir Jaajaa clashed, the leader of the opposition trend Michael Aawn told al-Jazeera satellite TV that "this is an irresponsible statement," noting that Anjar was far away from the battle fields.

In the same context the Lebanese prime minister Foaud Siniora vowed to continue investigations in order to disclose the facts of the mass graves found in the site close to the former headquarters of the Syrian intelligence leadership in Lebanon. He said, he asked for the help of the ICRC (Red Cross) in this case.

Worthy mentioning that the search operations in the graves resulted on Saturday and Sunday in finding 30 bodies in two mass graves in Anjar village, adjoining the Syrian borders.

The Lebanese attorney general judge Saeed Mirza said that part of the remains which surfaced after the unearthing operations by bulldozers is for "women and children." For its part, the Amnesty International on Tuesday called on the Lebanese authorities to take immediate necessary measures in order to make sure of preserving all evidence in the site of the mass grave in order to find out who the remains belong to so as to bring sides responsible for these crimes to the judiciary.

Amnesty International criticized methods used to unearthed the mass graves and called for "making the investigations later in compliance with international standards, especially the UN norms.

---

FreeRepublic Keyword: Anjar

[Proud_USA_Republican]

who's going to hurt him? THe UN? Puhleaze.

The leadership of Syria is like an organized crime family.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

We could redeploy our troops there.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Ok everyone ? who wants to make any new years prediction in whether Syria or Iran's government will fall this year ?
What will it be,,, Syria ? or Iran ? which one will be first in this new year ?

[Valin]

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to happen. I do have a feeling that Bashar is going to have an "accident"

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Syria is much weaker.....

[knews_hound]

I suspect you are indeed correct.

The boy doctor is not his father.

He is as ruthless but far less cunning.  If his Father were still in charge, he would have already done a Libya and made the best of it.

As it is, he is on the losing side and I suspect he is not long for power.

Then all eyes will turn to Iran.....

Cheers,

knews hound

Latest Article "The Rope a Dope Gambit"

[M. Espinola]

It looks like the 'Doctor Death of Damascus' is at it again:

BBC NEWS: Monday, December 12th, 2005.

'Car bomb' rocks eastern Beirut

"A car bomb has exploded in a Christian-dominated suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut, say reports.

At least three people are believed to have been killed and several injured in the blast in the Mekallis area, according to unconfirmed reports.

One local resident told the French news agency AFP they thought a passing official convoy was the target.

Several cars were reportedly set alight and nearby shops and buildings damaged by the explosion."

BBC

[nopardons]

bttt

[SunkenCiv]

Apparently this BBC story was a bit of a scoop. The news is all over that Detlev Mehlis is "certain" Syria was behind the killing. I guess all those Lebanese protestors are humiliated by their own rush to judgment in which they blamed Syria and demanded they get out. Oh, wait...

I'm waiting with 'bated breath for Hizbollah's reaction. Anyway, here's the news search:

Google

[SunkenCiv]

Freep this al-Jazeera Poll
(Syria guilty of Lebanon explosions? Syrians are voting!)
Al Jazeera | 12/16/2005 | Al Jazeera
Posted on 12/16/2005 8:10:13 AM PST by winner3000
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1541760/posts