Adonis Diaries

Who Assassinated Lebanon’s late ex PM Rafic Hariri? (May 26, 2009)

The German daily Der Spiegel reported excerpts from internet blogs posted by Syrian dissidents six months ago claiming that a special team of Hezbollah masterminded the assassination of late Lebanon Rafic Hariri PM. 

The timing of that report, which the International Tribunal denied any knowledge, was evidence that the real perpetrators were scared shit of the victory of the opposition in Lebanon at the next Parliamentary election on June 7.  It meant that the opposition is not about to let the assassination case linger any longer and will pursue its own investigation or force the International Tribunal to move swiftly and close the doors to further political manipulations of that case.

What exacerbated the political climate is that Lebanon has started dismantling systematically Israel’s spy webs and dangerous intelligence are accumulating relative to Israel involvement in many of the string of assassination cases in Lebanon since the murder of Rafic Hariri in 2005. 

The US Vice President Biden visited Lebanon for 6 hours before the publishing of the report and met with the leaders of the government alliances.  Lebanon has to expect the worst every time an US official pay us visit to give us orders.

Walid Jumblat, one of the principal allies to the government, quickly and adamantly lambasted this chimerical and fabricated report and proclaimed that the report was intended to draw Lebanon into another civil war between the Shiaa and the Sunni Moslem sects.  Saad Hariri (leader of the Future movement) and Seniora PM were forced into suspect silence; proof that they were aware of the plan that backfired on them, a plan that is backed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, and the USA.

Seymour Hirsh has pronounced that former Vice President Cheney had formed a secret cell with purposes to assassinate a few leaders, including Rafic Hariri.  Hassan Nasr Allah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, delivered a speech on May 25 warning the Lebanese of the seriousness of the planning to resume machinations for instigating civil war in Lebanon.  Sayyed Hassan recounted the well planned dissemination process of the report.  Al Arabiya news media started drawing comments on the report but the feedback was lukewarm and the session fell flat.  Then, Israel’s dailies picked up the report on their front pages and the Israeli Foreign Affairs and Defense ministers urged that Nasr Allah be apprehended and delivered to the International Tribunal.

This report is timed before Israel’s all out military maneuver on May 31 and lasting 5 days.  This is to be the largest and most exhaustive maneuver ever in the 61 years of the creation of the Zionist State; it should involve all Israel civil and military institutions and cover all the land.

 On March 7, 2005 I wrote an article with the same title “Who assassinated Rafic Hariri?”  The subsequent chapter is a copy of the article.

 “Since the assassination of former Prime Minister Hariri, thousands of citizens have been gathering, every day and night, in Downtown Beirut demanding to know who assassinated Hariri.  Not many believe that the government has enough credibility to investigate properly this political crime.  The UN has sent a team headed by a former Irish police officer and then later, the Lebanese government asked the help of several criminal experts and investigators from Switzerland and Denmark.

So far, how the blast occurred and what kind of explosive was used is still not conclusive and pretty much vague and divergent.  The government is claiming that it was a suicide car bombing done by Abu Abbass who sent a video to Al Jazira channel, one hour after the incident, claiming the responsibility of an unknown group. The government hinted that it analyzed genetically remnants of the perpetrator.  A political scientist, Dr. Nakash, believes that the video is real and that two similar simple terrorist techniques were successfully used in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Dr. Nakash produces documents published in the New York Times of many serious threats to King Fahd, owner of Al Arabiya channel and the main mentor of Hariri.  Apparently, Al Arabiya was muting news on Iraq that could damage the US presence there. Thus, Saudi Arabia bribed Alawi (Iraq’s prime minister) with two billion dollars to shut down the offices of Al Jazira channel and to crack down on the militia of Al Sadr in Najjaf.   Alawi executed the order effectively.  Hariri was for some time following the political premises of Saudi Arabia in Iraq but had a change of position lately: It was too late.

The Hariri’s deputies in the Parliament affirm that the detonating charge was planted underground and the material is so new that the labs have failed to determine its composition until now.  One of the surviving bodyguard claims that the street was clear and no visible obstructions was evident before the blast.

May be the people want to know but the powers to be, locally, regionally and internationally are not that excited to divulge the parties behind this barbaric crime. The rhetoric of President Bush, Chirac, and the European Union has already pointed the finger to Syria: an indication that any investigation is decided to be politically motivated.

It is hardly credible that any Lebanese political party is behind this assassination.

It seems that Syria has much to lose from the death of Hariri because of his wide range of connections and the many favors he enjoys with Saudi Arabia, the main financial backer of Syria and his stabilizing power within the Lebanese political system.

 I am leaning toward an Israeli/US connection for several reasons:

1) The next day to the assassination, Sharon dismissed or refused to extend the appointment of Yaalon as head of the army and appointed the head of Israel secret services to replace him. Was Yaalon against this assassination decision or was he not informed and expressed his position accordingly?

 2)  Hariri failed many Israeli attempts to internationally cast Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and he succeeded in Europe and in France.

 3)  Hariri was behind snubbing Israel for the failed May 17, 1983 peace treaty agreement with Lebanon.

 4)  Hariri was behind the April understandings in 1997 with the direct involvement of the USA on the procedures of conducting war between Hezbollah and Israel.  This agreement seriously hampered Israel in waging its devastating traditional attacks on civilians’ targets in south Lebanon and carrying out mass detentions.

 5)  Hariri had reversed his position on the issue of the return of the Palestinian refugees to Palestine and could certainly block any UN resolution to the contrary.  For many years Hariri on purpose heavily indebted the State of Lebanon; the plan was that the Lebanese would cow and accept the residency of the Palestinians in return of the cancellation of the international debt.  The pragmatic Hariri comprehended that his former plan was not feasible and agreed to reverse the indebtedness program.

 6)  The timing of the assassination was appropriate because Israel was under pressures to negotiate with Abu Abbass (The recently elected Palestinian prime minister).  Israel wanted a free hand to pressure Abu Abbass into a flexible understanding about the refugees’ problems and Hariri could very well exercise effective counter attacks when he returned as prime minister after the April election.

 7)  Israel has a history of eliminating every enemy to its plans for expansion and the timing was perfect because first, Hariri was no longer a prime minister; second, the political discourse within Lebanon was very heated for blaming Syria of the many current setbacks, especially for generating the UN resolution 1559.  The unfounded rumors that Hariri was behind this resolution could divert the guilt for the assassination to Syria for an extended period of time.

 8)  Since Israel never makes such serious decisions before receiving the green light from Washington, it is obvious that the USA government has an interest in eliminating Hariri at this junction.  Hariri was to be reelected in April and be appointed prime minister again.  With this international heavy weight and with his personal friendship with President Chirac of France it would be very difficult for the US to pass a resolution in the UN council to attack Syria in due time, especially after the State of Palestine is recognized internationally.

As newspapers in Israel rightly analyzed the situation, Syria is very probably not directly the guilty party in the crime, but Syria is certainly the party to pay the price and the consequences.  Bashar Assad, President of Syria, gave Israel the proper ammunition and the excellent timing for his inexperience and his hubris responses to international pressures.   I am certain that it is the Lebanese citizens who are and will pay the price for years to come.”

 This is going to be a lengthy article. On March 31, 2005, I wrote another article on the same subject entitled “Okay, let us Cut Out the Crap, Who Killed Rafic Hariri?”

 “If anyone is still waiting for the results of any kind of investigation into the assassination of Hariri, I suggest that he build himself a shack in Downtown Beirut and wait there for at least twenty years. If anyone did not get it that more than two great States are behind this assassination he better not stock up on Lebanese flags hoping for another big demonstration with the slogan of “We need the truth. Who killed our martyr Rafic?” 

If anyone is still wondering why a thousand kilograms of TNT explosives are needed to assassinate Hariri, or who can stock pile that amount of explosives, or how Hariri was killed by a moving truck, or a suicide bomber, or the detonation technique used or any kind of these stupid details he sure will no more hear any of that crap anymore.

Why Yasser Arafat, the symbol of the Palestinian resistance to Zionism, had to be assassinated, in the meanest possible alternatives, by slow poisoning when even the meanest British allowed Napoleon to dictate his memoirs before dying his slow death with arsenic poisoning?  Why Hariri had to be done with in pomp and in grandeur that left dozen killed, a hundred injured and part of Beirut destroyed?

Are the assassins sending an honorable farewell to the overbearing friend, the worthy enemy, the great leader who was much bigger than his tiny country?  Apparently the Western Powers have set up a style coding system for eliminating leaders whose time had come and are becoming huge liabilities.  I would hypothesize that the number of times the unfortunate bugger was invited officially to visit the leaders of the Western Powers and the frequency of friendship expressions are main factors for this pomp in the assassination; perhaps secondary factors such as the quality and number of citizenships he accumulated in the Western World and less probably the number of honorable degrees which were bestowed on him by universities.  

Hariri died on Valentine day.  What was his wife Nazek doing in Paris on that day?  Was she expecting Rafic to join her in Paris or was she to return that evening to Beirut, or was she held in Paris on purpose so that she might not be a member of the deadly motorcade?  Why Hariri was so happy in the morning of his death?  Did he receive the good news from Chirac that Syria will be soon be withdrawing its troops but failed to warn him that his hours were counted?

Does anyone still believe that Chirac, a President of a proud country, stayed more than six hours with the Hariri’s family to mourn such a great friend of his?  Or may be he is so guilt ridden that he had to shift attention somewhere else?  How come France was so chummy with Israel lately as if missing an old friend and cannot stop chatting and cuddling with?

How come the US Administration has been moving its butts in and out of Lebanon and shaking them much more than it did during its Iraq invasion?  How come the US Administration has been admonishing Israel to stop affirming the US agreement on its policies whether in Israel or in the Middle East?

I stated in a previous article that the USA and Israel are the culprits and provided the rationales. I stand a little corrected because I am adding a few more culprits. 

 The 1559 UN resolution that was sponsored by the USA and France was the tip of the iceberg of the package deal between these two States and one of the little secret in the agreement was to contract out Israel to eliminate Hariri with utmost prejudice within specific constraints on when and how.  Israel was overjoyed that the opportunity finally came to erase her enemy number one, off her black list.  Hariri not only attempted several times to undermine Israel plans in Lebanon and in the region but succeeded hands down in all his political counter offensives against Israel and was still capable of doing Israel great damage.

Chirac was relieved from an overbearing friend who kept reminding him of what were the right things to do toward Lebanon.  Chirac knew better that doing the right things is not necessarily the right political decisions at this crucial time.  Chirac was paying dearly from his prestige and France political positions by opposing the persistent pressures from the European Union and the USA to list Hezbollah as one of the terrorist organizations.  Hariri kept showing at the Elysee door and taking photos with Chirac that said “My dearest friend Chirac” as Egypt President Sadat used to say to Kissinger, the USA Secretary of State during Nixon, “My dear friend Henry”.

The USA and France had already agreed on plans for the Greater Middle East and time was of the essence.  These plans could not succeed for certain and on time as long as Hariri is still alive and active. France, for now, is winning big: it managed to reaffirm her protectorate rights over Syria and Lebanon like during the colonial times, secured her oil rights in Iraq and removed the American veto to selling military hardware to China.

The USA is succeeding in destabilizing Syria and weakening any resolve Syria might still have to counter the plans in the Greater Middle East.

The price for Hariri’s life was certainly worth any stupid friendship that reached the stage of no return on investment but was becoming a real liability in prestige for Chirac and France geopolitical interests. 

A practically weakening Lebanon President Emile Lahoud quickly agreed to an international investigating team without discussing the details of its composition or duration. Lebanon is going to be manhandled by the world community as President Lahoud, reluctantly, invited the wolves, through an international resolution, to come and freely investigate their own deeds and mischief. Lebanon will be welcoming an international team of investigators, about 60 of them and for 6 months automatically renewed for another 6 months. 

Citizens, what sort of political and economic stability do you expect for Lebanon in the coming year?  Another wave of immigration is taking place and no noble slogans can undo this trend.  If Syria was in cohort to this assassination plan it certainly was left to drown and take the heat alone.

Note: I had to re-post this article under a modified title.