Top Romney Adviser Tied to Militia That Massacred

Mother Jones ^ | Oct. 27, 2011 | Adam Serwer

[sevinufnine]

Walid Phares, the recently announced co-chair of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Middle East advisory group, has a long résumé. College professor. Author. Political pundit. Counterterrorism expert. But there's one chapter of his life that you won't find on his CV: He was a high ranking political official in a sectarian religious militia responsible for massacres during Lebanon's brutal, 15-year civil war.

During the 1980s, Phares, a Maronite Christian, trained Lebanese militants in ideological beliefs justifying the war against Lebanon's Muslim and Druze factions, according to former colleagues. Phares, they say, advocated the hard-line view that Lebanon's Christians should work toward creating a separate, independent Christian enclave. A photo obtained by Mother Jones shows him conducting a press conference in 1986 for the Lebanese Forces, an umbrella group of Christian militias that has been accused of committing atrocities. He was also a close adviser to Samir Geagea, a Lebanese warlord who rose from leading hit squads to running the Lebanese Forces.

[sevinufnine]

[PGR88]

Never heard of this guy or the allegations against him, but it is 100% certain that Hezbollah, Iran and Syria are working hard every day to completely eliminate Christians from Lebanon.

Don’t be surprised if at least a few people fight back.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

Sounds heroic to me.

[eeevil conservative]

Romney disgusts me...

Walid has always impressed me....

Mother Jones is not a source..it is a hate-filled rag....

[knarf]

Onward Christian Soldier

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

He’s a regular contributor on FOX.

[ontap]

During the 1980s, Phares, a Maronite Christian, trained Lebanese militants in ideological beliefs justifying the war against Lebanon's Muslim and Druze factions, according to former colleagues. Phares, they say, advocated the hard-line view that Lebanon's Christians should work toward creating a separate, independent Christian enclave

It pains me to defend Romney by defending one of his supporters but this is absolutely ridiculas. Christians should absolutely do this....it's called survival!!!!

[wolfman23601]

I was thinking the same thing. I’m not voting for Romney, but this isn’t a blemish.

[bigfootbob]

Oh, the humanity. Imagine, teaching Christians how to survive in a Muslim Hellhole. This is getting as bad as Herman Cain’s women “problem”.

This is sickening and I’m not nowhere near a Romney supporter.

[sevinufnine]

Honestly? Just thought it would be interesting to put something out there that is as insane as the charges being levied against Cain. I’d LOVE to hear Romney have something to have to deal with and get him to stop drooling over Cain’s woes.

[tcrlaf]

The Maronites were being preyed on, and MURDERED by the Syrian-backed foreign fighters of the PLO.

Should they have just sat back and waited to be slaughtered?

[SandRat]

No matter what the cause de jour is, when I hear the phrase ... creating a separate, independent XXXXX enclave, I think of the Warsaw ghetto of WWII that the NAZIs created then butchered all within it,

[sevinufnine]

What I’ve noticed about stories such as these is the media is UNinterested in coming out against Romney. Only Cain because he’s a threat.

I agree...anyone trying to radicate Christianity should be fought with all means possible. Next time I’ll go after some real, meat story to post instead of fodder :)

[sageb1]

This->

“Romney disgusts me...

Walid has always impressed me....

Mother Jones is not a source..it is a hate-filled rag....”

[bwc2221]

Finally ... something to like about Mitt.

[Truth29]

This might actually provide a reason to give Romney a second look. Phares biggest fault appears to be that he was on the losing side

[americanophile]

Well, that’s one plus for Romney, even around here.

[omega4412]

Phares sounds like a premature anti-Islamofascist. Like some of the Serbs.

[Texas Fossil]

No one knows Muslims better than a Lebanese Christian. I have known a number of them. Admired them all.

—

Better source:

“Walid Phares Under Attack”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/11/walid_phares_under_attack.html

“I feel that the way in which they attacked Dr. Phares amounts to an attack on Lebanon’s Christian community as a whole, and perhaps against all minorities and liberal Muslims in the Middle East. They explicitly attacked Dr. Phares on the misleading basis of guilt by association without even considering either the political context in which the Lebanese Christians operated or the collective angst of the Christian community. In fact, I neither met nor heard of Dr. Phares while I was in Lebanon, including during the horrible episode of the Sabra and Shatila massacre in September 1982. Everybody in Beirut knew the leadership of the Phalange and Lebanese Forces, and Dr. Phares was not one of them during the early 1980s. I later learned about Dr. Phares through his book Pluralism in Lebanon, in which he argues for democratic principles and respect of human rights as the basis for a national multiethnic coexistence in Lebanon.

[Trod Upon]

Lebanese Christians know the score on the cancer that is Muslim immigration; it cost them their country. If anything, I see this as a plus for Romney. At least he isn’t surrounding himself with blithering idiots such as our current POSSOS, Hillary “Islam is compatible with democracy” Clinton.