Posted on 01/27/2008 6:21:32 AM PST by nuconvert
Lebanon's Struggle with Terror
January 27, 2008
The Post and Courier
Lebanon has suffered another in a string of political assassinations clearly meant to replace the rule of law with a shadowy rule of terror. The perpetrators of these killings remain unknown, but the clear beneficiaries are forces aligned with Syria and Iran against Lebanon's democratic political majority.
While most of the victims have been democratic politicians opposed to Syrian influence in Lebanon, the two most recent killings targeted prominent members of Lebanon's apolitical security forces, in apparent reaction to their activities.
The most recent victim was a senior police intelligence official, Capt. Wissam Eid. He led the official investigation into previous political assassinations, including that of Rafik Hariri, a former prime minister whose death by car bomb in February 2005 led to a popular uprising against Syrian intervention and a United Nations investigation. Capt. Eid took over the investigation after his predecessor was wounded in a roadside bomb attack, and had survived an earlier grenade attack on his home, the BBC reported.
This time his assassins took no chances, detonating a powerful bomb in a parked car as his motorcade passed. The explosion, heard throughout central Beirut, killed at least three others and wounded 38. It was reminiscent of the powerful explosion that killed Mr. Hariri.
In December a car bomb killed the man expected to be the next chief of staff of the Lebanese army, General Francois el-Hajj. The chief of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces, Ashraf Rifi, said the assassination of Capt. Eid "is a message to the Internal Security Forces, following the message sent to the army in December."
The leader of democratic forces in Lebanon, Rafik Hariri's son Saad Hariri, said, "This attack is a clear message to all Arabs that the future of Lebanon will remain under the stranglehold of crimes and terrorism." He called on Syria to stop its "interference" and "score-settling".
The Syrian government, whose credibility has been deeply damaged by its lack of cooperation into the Hariri investigation, deplored the killing, saying it "targeted Lebanon's security and stability." But it is hard to see who benefited more than the Damascus regime.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's presidential election has been postponed again, until Feb. 11, in a constitutional crisis initiated last spring by Syria's and Iran's proxy in Lebanon, the armed Hezbollah movement.
It isn't possible to disassociate these assaults on Lebanon's democratic government from President Bush's efforts to bring about a settlement between Israel and moderate Palestinians led by the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
The settlement is strongly opposed by Syria, Iran and Hezbollah. The Lebanese killings are a reminder that these forces will attempt to prevent a Middle East settlement by any violent means at their disposal, and will sacrifice fellow Arabs and Muslims who stand in their way to achieve their goal of continued warfare in the Levant.
Now Lebanon is a country which REALLY has issues....
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