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- 13 nov 2010
UN chief warns of rising tension in Lebanon
Ban Ki-moon, in report to UN Security Council, says that "confrontation" over Hariri tribunal "has led to deterioration in the political consensus."
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday warned that political tensions in Lebanon have increased markedly ahead of expected indictments by the UN-backed tribunal set up to prosecute the assassins of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
In a report to the UN Security Council circulated Friday, Ban said that "confrontation" over the tribunal "has led to a deterioration in the political consensus that had prevailed" since Lebanon's national unity government was formed in 2009.
There has been increasing anger and suspicion in Lebanon about the tribunal's work, and mounting fears that indictments could re-ignite hostilities between rival Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims, particularly if Hizbullah Shi'ite militants who are part of the unity government are targeted. The tribunal president, Judge Antonio Cassese, said last week he hopes prosecutors will issue an indictment by December in the 2005 truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others on Beirut's Mediterranean waterfront.
The secretary-general reported "no progress" in disarming Hizbullah and Palestinian militias, as called for in the Security Council resolution that ended the Israeli-Hizbullah war in the summer of 2006.
"Hizbullah, which remains the most significant armed group in Lebanon, continues to maintain substantial military capabilities outside the control of the state" and its leaders "do not deny" the organization has substantially upgraded and expanded its arsenal, Ban said.
The UN chief said Israel continues to allege that Hizbullah now possesses more than 55,000 missiles and rockets, and is seeking to acquire even more advanced weapons. Israel also claims that weapons are being shipped across the border from Syria to Lebanon in violation of a UN arms embargo, he said.
"Although the United Nations takes these allegations seriously, it is not in a position to verify this information independently," Ban said.
The secretary-general said armed Palestinian groups operating outside refugee camps also continue to challenge the Lebanese government's authority. He noted a statement on Aug. 31 by Ahmad Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, "to the effect that his organization would not hand over its weapons to the Lebanese authorities."
Ban reiterated his call for armed groups to be disarmed "through a Lebanese-led political process" that would bring all weapons under government control. He welcomed the continuation of a national dialogue and urged participants "to make further progress towards the establishment of a national defense strategy that would address armed groups operating outside the control of the state."
Since his last report to the Security Council in July, Ban said events "suggest a deterioration in the situation in Lebanon."
Ban pointed to the first deadly clashes between Israeli and Lebanese forces since the 2006 war on August 3 that left an Israeli officer, two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist dead.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=195128
4 mar 2012, 12:27 , Respect -
Maria 15 nov 2010
IDF chief predicts Hezbollah takeover in Lebanon after probe
Ashkenazi tells Canadian hosts Nasrallah may seize power in Lebanon following publication of Hariri probe findings; says current PM, Jumblatt in survival mode.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi expressed concerns over the possible ramifications of the UN investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Ashkenazi, who is visiting Canada, told his hosts Monday that the publication of the probe's findings may result in Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah seizing power in Lebanon.
The IDF chief said a small group within the Lebanese Army is assisting the Shiite group, adding that recent visits by Lebanese PM Saad Hariri and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt to Syria for talks with President Bashar Assad were aimed an ensuring their "survival."
Last week Nasrallah threatened his opposition in Lebanon and the International Court of Justice in The Hague, claiming Israel was behind attempts to charge his group for assassinating Hariri.
Nasrallah also issued a veiled threat against the current Lebanese PM and accused him of assisting the US in hurting Hezbollah.
In a televised speech in honor of the so-called Martyr Day and with rising tensions ahead of the completion of a UN investigation in the backdrop, Nasrallah stressed that "Those who imagine that we will allow the arrest or detention of any of our fighters are mistaken."
"We will cut off the hand that reaches out for any one of them. Those who think that the resistance will not defend itself and its dignity against any accusation are mistaken," he said.
Ashkenazi said the "radical axis" in the Middle East is gaining strength, and praised Canada for training Palestinian security forces in the West Bank.
On Monday the IDF chief is expected to observe a training exercise of Canada's special forces. He is due to arrive in the US later in the week for talks with his American counterpart and senior Obama administration officials.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985075,00.html
4 mar 2012, 12:27 , Respect -
Maria 16 nov 2010
Nasrallah: We'll hurt regime if charged with Hariri murder
Hezbollah chief threatens 'major political change' in Lebanon if international tribunal implicates Shiite group members.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah threatened to hurt the regime in Beirut if an international tribunal accuses members of his organization of assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the Al-Akhbar daily reported Tuesday.
Speaking at a closed gathering of Hezbollah operatives, Nasrallah said in case the Shiite group is charged with killing Hariri, "Our options are anywhere between doing nothing and causing a major political change."
Israel's army chief warned that the Shiite group could stage a coup in Lebanon if an international court targets its members over the murder of Hariri.
"There is a real possibility that Hezbollah will take over Lebanon," Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi said during a visit Monday to Canada.
Ashkenazi's comments came after Nasrallah warned last week that the Shiite group would "cut off the hand" of anyone who tried to arrest its members over Hariri's 2005 assassination.
The Hezbollah chief claimed Israel was behind attempts to charge his group for assassinating Hariri.
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), a UN-backed investigation into the Hariri murder, is reportedly set to issue an indictment soon that will implicate high-ranking members of the Iranian-and Syrian-backed group.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985715,00.html
Lebanese President in Syria amid debate on UN tribunal witnesses
DAMASCUS, Syria (DPA) -- Lebanese President Michel Suleiman arrived in Damascus Tuesday to hold talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to sources from both sides.
Sources told the German Press Agency DPA that the two would discuss regional issues, as well as domestic Lebanese affairs.
The meeting comes on the heels of a proposal by Suleiman to form a parliamentary inquiry committee to look into matters relating to allegations about the reliability of some witnesses that have testified in the UN Tribunal for Lebanon.
The tribunal was set up to look into the death of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, who was killed by a car bomb in 2005, prompting international outrage and suspicions that Syria was complicit in the attack. Syria has rejected the accusations.
An initial UN inquiry had led to charges against four pro-Syrian officials in Lebanon, but they were released due to lack of evidence after serving four years in jail.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333932
Israel discusses Syrian support for terrorism at UNSC
Waxman tells the Council that Damascus hosts headquarters of several terror organizations; finances, supports and trains them on its soil.
NEW YORK Israeli Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Haim Waxman told the Security Council Monday that Syria is a prime sanctuary for terrorism.
Stating that we in Israel know firsthand the devastation caused by terrorism, Waxman noted for the Council, engaged in a debate on counter-terrorism, that every day, at least one [UN] member state suffers some form of a terrorist attack.
Hamas and Hizbullah are among the most dangerous terrorist organizations worldwide, threatening not just Israel's security but also the stability of the entire region, Waxman told the Security Council, adding that a growing arsenal of missiles and rockets, along with weapons smuggling by Iran and Syria constitute an imminent threat.
Waxman said Syria hosts the headquarters of several terror organizations in Damascus, and finances, supports and trains terror organizations on its soil. Facilitating the transfer of ammunition and weapons through its borders, Waxman said, is in clear violation of Security Council Resolutions 1373, 1624 and 1701, among others.
Several member states have granted safe haven to terrorists who seek to attack Israel by any means, Waxman told the Council.
In his speech, Waxman stated that Israel is committed to cooperating with the UN to combat terrorism around the world. Israel's counter-terrorism agencies cooperate with numerous regional organizations, Waxman said, and Israel has and will continue to host conferences on the subject.
We believe that it is critical to continue to develop international standards against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and dual use items, Waxman said. The international community must continue to seek and implement measures that keep the world's most dangerous weapons out of the hands of the world's most dangerous individuals, especially in our region.
Reiterating Israel's support for resolution 1540, which established binding obligations on member states to enforce measures against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Waxman concluded saying that the struggle against terrorism requires our joint will, effort and action.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=195582
Hezbollah cast doubt on Hariri tribunal
Senior Hezbollah official Ammar Moussawi
Hezbollah says a US-backed tribunal probing the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri is aimed at creating divisions among Lebanese factions.
The resistance movement's international relations officer on Monday noted that the anticipated indictment by the US-sponsored Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) was seeking to divide the Lebanese "so that half of them become murderers and the other half victims."
"Amidst the mounting Sunni-Shia and inter-Lebanese tensions, would it take more than a small incident for things to explode? Why does anyone want to subject Lebanon to such an experience again?" Naharnet quoted Ammar Moussawi as saying.
Moussawi also questioned Washington's support for STL, saying, "The US administration has never been enthusiastic for anything more than its enthusiasm to administer justice in Lebanon."
"They want to establish justice in Lebanon and nobody is allowed to object," he said. "Why is the debate on the STL forbidden and why is there no way for the Lebanese to sit with each other and agree on the demand for justice?
Lebanon's pro-Western factions, including Prime Minister Saad Hariri's al-Mustaqbal party, accuse Hezbollah and the Syrian government of involvement in Rafiq Hariri's murder.
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, however, admitted early in September that the allegations about his father's death were erroneous and politically motivated, raising further questions about those who had testified against Hezbollah and Syrian officials.
"We want the justice that is based on technical aspects rather than on speculations, hypotheses, suspicions, guesses, or false witnesses," Moussawi went on to say.
He also attributed the silence and inactions by Lebanese officials regarding the issue of false witnesses to the involvement of senior officials and leaders among those false witnesses.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/151199.html
4 mar 2012, 12:27 , Respect -
Maria 4 mar 2012, 12:27 , Respect -
Maria 20 nov 2010
Hezbollah: Arms needed to resist Israel
Israeli decision to withdraw from northern border village won't end Hezbollah's armed struggle against Jewish state, senior group member says; 'Resistance and its weapons still a national need,' Hussein Khalil says.
A senior Hezbollah official says despite Israel's decision "in principle" to pull out of a disputed border village, the group's weapons are still necessary.
The comments of Hussein Khalil, the political adviser to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, come three days after Israel announced its decision to withdraw from the northern half of Ghajar.
Khalil said Saturday that Israel is still occupying the disputed Shebaa Farms and Kfar Chouba Hills captured from Syria four decades ago.
"The resistance and its weapons are still a national need to liberate remaining occupied Lebanese territories especially Shebaa Farms and Kfar Chouba Hills," Khalil told reporters after meeting Christian leader Michel Aoun, a strong ally of Hezbollah.
The Security Cabinet approved on Wednesday a plan to withdraw Israeli forces from the northern part of Ghajar, an Arab village which straddles the Lebanese border.
No date has been set yet for the withdrawal from the northern section of the village, which has been under Israeli rule since the state's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.
According to the ministers' decision Wednesday, the IDF will withdraw from the northern part of the village and leave it under the UN's authority, redeploying forces on the southern side of the border.
However, Ghajar residents continued to express fervent opposition to the move, holding a protest earlier this week attended by some 400 people who vowed to prevent UN forces from entering the village.
"The entrance of UN forces to the northern part of Ghajar means effectively splitting the village in two," said council spokesman Najib Khatib.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3987235,00.html
4 mar 2012, 12:50 , Respect -
Maria 22 nov 2010
Report: Hezbollah linked to Hariri murder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szv9D2ymfPY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gw5ff9lApM
Canadian Broadcasting Corp says Lebanese police officer and UN investigators unearthed extensive circumstantial evidence implicating Syrian-backed movement in February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister. UN faulted for misplacing vital piece of evidence.
WASHINGTON - Hezbollah is responsible for the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. This conclusion, based on circumstantial evidence, has been unearthed by United Nations investigators and a Lebanese officer, who was assassinated following the revelations, according to an investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
According to the report, the UN International Independent Investigation Commission's findings are based on an elaborate examination of Lebanese phone records. They suggest that Hezbollah men communicated with the owners of cell phones allegedly used to coordinate the detonation that killed Hariri and 22 others in Beirut on February 14, 2005.
The Lebanese and UN phone analysis was obtained by CBC and shared with The Washington Post. According to the Washington Post, the revelations are likely to add to speculation that a UN prosecutor plans to indict members of Hezbollah by the end of the year.
The Head of the UN tribunal, Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare, declined a request to comment and told CBC that the investigation's findings would be presented at the international court.
According to the Washington Post, the latest findings mark a major development in an investigation. CBC uncovered an internal UN document indicating that a top Lebanese intelligence official, Colonel Wissam al-Hassan, was considered by some UN sleuths as a potential suspect in Hariri's murder.
Suspect not investigated
Hezbollah leader Nasrallah. Evidence leads to him
Hassan, who serves as Lebanon's key liaison with the UN investigators, oversaw security for Hariri at the time of the assassination but had taken the day off to take an examination at a university.
An internal UN memo, dated March 10, 2008, said Hassan's "alibi is weak and inconsistent" and recommended that he be "investigated quietly" to determine whether he played a role in Hariri's killing. The CBC report states that the recommendation was not implemented and that Hassan was not questioned.
The report obtained by the Canadian network faults the UN for misplacing a vital piece of evidence - a complex analysis of Lebanese phone records that allegedly pinpointed the phones used by Hariri's killers - in the early months of the investigation.
The UN commission is also criticized for failing to provide sufficient security for a key Lebanese officer, Colonel Wissam Eid, who was killed after helping the UN unravel the crime mystery.
Eid, a former student of computer engineering, had conducted a review of the call records of all cell phones that had been used in the vicinity of the Hotel St. George, where Hariri's convoy was bombed, the Washington Post reported.
He quickly established a network of "red" phones that had been used by the hit squad, established links with other small phone networks he suspected of being involved in planning the operation, and traced all the networks back to a landline at Hezbollah's Great Prophet Hospital in South Beirut, and a handful of government-issued cell phones set aside for Hezbollah.
"The Eid report was entered into the UN's database by someone who either didn't understand it or didn't care enough to bring it forward. It disappeared," CBC said.
According to the report, it would be another year and a half before a team of British investigators, working for the UN, discovered Eid's paper and contacted him. Eight days later, he was killed in a car bomb.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3988036,00.html
OTV: Wissam Al-Hassan behind Hariri's Assassination ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVAN-Tdm-P4 -
Maria 23 nov 2010
Hezbollah accuses Israel of infiltrating its mobile network
BEIRUT (AFP) -- Israel bugged the mobile phones of members of Lebanon's Hezbollah, allowing it to send false text messages and to track the phones' movements, a senior Hezbollah MP and a government expert said on Tuesday.
"The enemy [Israel] has succeeded in planting secret lines ... in the mobile phones of some members of the resistance," Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said in reference to his Shiite party at a press conference with Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas.
"After a lengthy, complex investigation ... it was revealed that three resistance members were using local mobile phones which had been deliberately sold to them after being implanted with secret Israeli lines" by a Lebanese spying for Israel, he said.
Fadlallah, chairman of parliament's media and telecommunications committee, said the Shiite movement had cracked the case in coordination with military intelligence after police zeroed in on the three Hezbollah members as possible Israeli agents.
It turned that the three suspected agents were in fact the victims of the Israeli bugging, Fadlallah said.
A ministry expert at the news conference confirmed that the infiltration meant Israel could send out text messages and other information from the phones.
They could also track the movements of the phones and listen in on any conversations wherever they were, he said.
Fadlallah, who reiterated Hezbollah's belief that Israel had control over Lebanon's telecommunications, spoke following unconfirmed reports that three high-ranking members of the Shiite militant group were implicated in the 2005 murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.
His comments also came a day after the release of a report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp that cited extensive telecom evidence linking Hezbollah to the murder.
But Fadlallah denied that the revelation came in reaction to any of the reports, saying the press conference had been scheduled weeks ago.
Tensions are brewing in Lebanon as the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is reportedly set in the coming months to issue an indictment over the 2005 killing of Hariri and 22 others in a Beirut bombing.
Hezbollah has said it expects some of its members to be indicted and warned it would not stand by idly should it be accused, sparking fears of renewed violence in the troubled eastern Mediterranean country.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the slain Rafiq, has vowed to see the investigation through.
More than 100 people in Lebanon have been arrested on suspicion of espionage for Israel since April 2009, including telecoms employees.
Lebanon has filed a complaint to the United Nations over the alleged Israeli spy networks.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=335400
Hariri: Media leaks about tribunal do not serve justice
BEIRUT (DPA) -- Lebanese Premier Saad Hariri said Wednesday that media leaks about the UN tribunal probing his father's assassination do not serve the course of Justice.
He was commenting on a documentary broadcast Monday by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation about the investigation of the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri.
The CBC report, titled "Getting Away with Murder," directly accused the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah of being behind the assassination. Hezbollah declined to comment.
"In general, we do not comment on anything that has not been issued formally by the International Tribunal for Lebanon or by one of its offices, but I personally think that the media leaks do not serve the course of justice," Hariri told reporters.
A months-long investigation conducted by CBC - relying on interviews with multiple sources from inside the UN inquiry and some of the commission's own records - found examples "of timidity, bureaucratic inertia and incompetence bordering on gross negligence."
CBC's reported it uncovered an internal UN document indicating the head of the Lebanese police intelligence bureau, Colonel Wissam al- Hasan, a close ally of current premier Saad Hariri, was considered by some UN secret investigators as a "potential suspect."
Hasan was in charge of the late Hariri's security at the time of the murder.
Referring to the suspicion against Al-Hasan, Saad Hariri said: "Colonel Wissam Al-Hasan has our full confidence. He had it and still has it."
Tension has been mounting in Lebanon amid reports the tribune will soon issue indictments and will accuse some eight Hezbollah members of carrying out the assassination.
The office of the UN Tribunal in Beirut refused to comment on the report.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=335313
Lebanon response to scandal over Hariri probe may be war against Israel
Wissam Eid
Wave of arrests among officials in Lebanese mobile phone operators - all on suspicions of spying for Israel - also reflects just how close cooperation has become between Lebanese intelligence and Hezbollah.
An investigation by the Canadian broadcaster CBC released Sunday found Hezbollah to have been directly involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The network's findings, however, are not likely to quell the political firestorm that has engulfed Lebanon over the last few months. On the contrary.
Lebanon's decision-makers (if any other than Hezbollah are worthy of the title ), media and public are all speculating over Hezbollah's next move should the International Court of Justice in The Hague ultimately choose to release its indictment against the organization's members for involvement in the former prime minister's 2005 death in Beirut.
Instead, the CBC news item will likely only exacerbate the dire political situation in which Hezbollah finds itself, with criticism of the group pouring in from all corners of the country. Hassan Nasrallah's objective of portraying himself as a protector of the entire country is fading amid the flurry of testimony pointing to the involvement of his own people in the Hariri hit.
The most compelling evidence uncovered thus far is the registration numbers of mobile phones carried by eight people, all Hezbollah operatives, present at the time and place of the strike.
One course that Hezbollah may choose to calm the waters is a kind of admission of its members' presence at the murder scene, qualified by the pretext of "national security" considerations such as monitoring a suspected Mossad agent. At this stage, however, it seems even that kind of explanation won't help the group clear its name.
Wissam Hassan
If the majority of Lebanese already believe Nasrallah to be an Iranian agent who killed their former premier, should Hezbollah choose now to take control of Lebanon through violence that might actually be in the Shi'ite group's best interest.
In the meantime, Lebanon's current prime minister - and son of the slain leader - Saad Hariri may be losing sleep over the identity of one of those believed to have been involved. The suspect is Wissam Hassan, the Lebanese intelligence chief who was Hariri's chief of protocol at the time of the bombing. Records of Hassan's extensive phone conversations with Nasrallah adviser Hussein Khalil (279 times over 15 months ) seem as solid evidence as any of growing ties between Lebanese security forces and Hezbollah.
The revelation that Hassan is a prime suspect in the hit raises the question of whether military aid granted by Western countries - chiefly the United States - is indirectly benefiting Hezbollah.
The wave of arrests among officials in Lebanese mobile phone operators - all on suspicions of spying for Israel - also reflects just how close cooperation has become between Lebanese intelligence and Hezbollah.
There is one point in this whole affair, however, that can serve as consolation for Israelis, namely that this country may not be the only bungler on the block.
A low-level Hezbollah operative who only wanted to speak with his fiancee for free is apparently the suspect who led to the exposure of his entire strike team. That exposure won't necessarily lead to an indictment against the movement, as investigators continue looking for a "smoking gun" to prove that mobile devices were indeed in the hands of the Hezbollah operatives, not merely on their persons, at the time of the assassination.
Still, Israel should not forget that the organization finding itself in trouble in the Lebanese political arena could well opt to wage an entirely different response - the opening of another front against Israel.
http://bit.ly/e2zTPT
Hariri defends Hezbollah over murder
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has rejected the involvement of Hezbollah and Lebanon's head of police intelligence in the murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri.
"I personally think that the media leaks do not serve the course of justice," Hariri told reporters on Tuesday.
He made the remarks after the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) linked Hezbollah and Colonel Wissam Hassan to Hariri's assassination in 2005.
Hassan was in charge of the late Hariri's security in the Lebanese capital, Beirut at the time of the incident.
Referring to the suspicion against Hassan, the Lebanese premier said, "Colonel Wissam Hassan has always had our full trust and continues to have our full trust."
The US-sponsored Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) was set up after the bombing that killed Hariri and more than 20 other people in February 2005.
The court is expected to announce its findings by the end of 2010.
Earlier in the year, reports said that the court plans to issue an indictment against members of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.
Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah rejected the allegation and warned that the plot was part of "a dangerous project that is targeting the resistance."
Political analysts have warned that such indictments are meant to sow discord in Lebanon.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/152198.html
4 mar 2012, 12:50 , Respect -
Maria 24 nov 2010
Erdogan in Lebanon over Hariri crisis
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and his Lebanese counterpart Saad al-Hariri
The Turkish prime minister has arrived in Beirut to discuss the political crisis in Lebanon over a US-backed probe into the killing of the former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday urged rival political factions in Lebanon to unite, calling it the only way to overcome the possible national crisis linked to the probe.
"The premier stressed the importance of stability in Lebanon and the need for all parties to come together and find solutions to all matters related to the international tribunal," said a statement issued by the Lebanese presidential office following a meeting between Erdogan and President Michel Sleiman.
The Turkish premier's two-day visit comes as Lebanon is on a knife-edge amid mounting tension over a US-backed probe into the murder of Rafiq Hariri who was killed in a massive car bomb explosion on February 14, 2005. Twenty-two others also lost their lives in the explosion.
According to unconfirmed reports, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) plans to charge some members of Lebanon's resistance movement Hezbollah in connection with the assassination.
Hezbollah, which has vehemently denied any role in the killing, has dismissed the US-backed tribunal as an "Israeli project" aimed at undermining the resistance movement and creating division in the country.
The court is expected to announce its findings by the end of 2010.
The Turkish prime minister also attended a public gathering in the Turkmen village of Kwashra in the northern Lebanese region of Akkar, where he called on Israel to remedy its mistakes and apologize to people in the region.
Israel "must realize that if there is peace and security in the region, it will also benefit," Erdogan told a cheering crowd of hundreds gathered in the village of Kwashra.
"But in the event of war, the citizens of Israel will also be losers. We will raise our voices in order to recover our rights as concerns Gaza and al-Quds (Jerusalem)."
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/152459.html
Hezbollah official hints at group involvement in Hariri murder
Amid rising political tensions and fears of civil war, MP Walid Sakaria says: Even if Hezbollah did kill former PM, we must not let it destroy Lebanon.
A senior Hezbollah official on Wednesday hinted at the militant group's involvement in the 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the first indication of the sort expressed by a member of the organization.
"Even if the organization did murder Hariri, that's no reason to destroy Lebanon," the London-based daily A-Sharq al-Awsat quoted Lebanese MP Walid Sakaria as saying.
Political tensions have mounted in Lebanon as an international tribunal investigating the assassination prepares to release its findings. An investigation by the Canadian broadcaster CBC released Sunday found Hezbollah to have been directly involved in the assassination and some of its members are likely to be indicted.
The militant Shiite group has said it will not accept any accusation against any of its members, and warned of the repercussions of such an outcome.
The CBC report, which was based on United Nations evidence, named one of the suspects fingered by the UN commission investigating the murder: Wissam Hassan, today Lebanon's intelligence chief, who at the time was Hariri's chief of protocol.
The documents obtained by CBC indicate that Hassan has very close ties with senior Hezbollah officials, including Hussein Khalil, one of Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah's top aides.
The report said the UN probe had evidence pointing to Hezbollah's involvement as early as 2006, but initially failed to pursue it. This evidence was supplied by a Lebanese police officer, Capt. Wissam Eid, who was himself assassinated in 2008.
The findings and the imminent release of the UN report have sparked fears of a renewed civil war in Lebanon.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Beirut on Wednesday for a two-day visit that would include talks on the tense political situation in Lebanon, in an effort to keep the row from spiraling out of control.
Erdogan is to meet Lebanese government officials and lawmakers from Hezbollah, according to a government source.
The Turkish premier, in remarks published Wednesday in the Lebanese daily As Safir, said his country would not allow Lebanon to deteriorate into a civil war.
Erdogan said that Turkey would "do the necessary to fight signs of a civil war in Lebanon."
"Now is the time for unity in Lebanon," he said.
http://bit.ly/eLCjSi
Lebanon Druze leader demands govt reject Hariri tribunal
BEIRUT (AFP) - Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt on Wednesday accused a UN-backed probe into the murder of the country's ex-premier of being politically motivated and urged the cabinet to unanimously reject it.
"This tribunal is aimed at destabilising Lebanon rather than rendering justice," Jumblatt told AFP.
"It would be appropriate at this time for the cabinet to meet and unanimously denounce the tribunal and its [upcoming] verdict."
His comments press reports implicating the militant group Hezbollah in the murder of Sunni ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, who was killed in 2005 along with 22 others in a massive seaside bombing.
According to unconfirmed reports, high-ranking Hezbollah members stand to be accused by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon for the murder.
The militant party has warned against such an outcome, sparking fears of a sectarian conflict between supporters of current Lebanese premier Saad Hariri -- son of the slain ex-premier -- and the Shiite Hezbollah.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired a documentary Monday citing unidentified sources saying UN investigators had evidence that "points overwhelmingly" to the involvement of members of the Shiite militant group.
The prosecutor of the STL, Daniel Bellemare, on Tuesday criticized the CBC report and warned it could endanger lives.
"The most serious impact of the CBC reports is that their broadcast may put people%u2019s lives in jeopardy," Bellemare said in a statement.
He was "extremely disappointed" by the broadcast, he said.
Jumblatt said the rumors and press reports surrounding the STL probe and its findings had become "a dangerous soap opera" that threatened Lebanon's stability.
"It is clear that this probe is being used for political purposes," he said. "It is clear that the investigators are leaking information and are working for countries that have accounts to settle."
He added that Lebanon's politicians would do better to address mounting extremism in certain regions of the country rather than focus on the Hariri tribunal.
"The real danger facing Lebanon is the rise of extremist groups and the political class should stop being distracted by these endless arguments over the tribunal and face the real danger," Jumblatt said.
The hereditary chieftain of Lebanon's Druze minority pulled a political about-face last August from the Hariri-led coalition he helped create in order to move closer to the Hezbollah-led opposition supported by Syria and Iran.
He defended his move as necessary to preserve peace and avoid sectarian bloodshed.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=335578
4 mar 2012, 12:50 , Respect -
Maria 4 mar 2012, 12:50 , Respect -
Maria 26 nov 2010
'Israel aided US-backed Hariri tribunal'
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says Tel Aviv has contributed to a US-sponsored tribunal probing the murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri, a report says.
Lieberman has recently acknowledged Israel's "cooperation" with Hariri's tribunal, also known as the US-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), and said that Tel Aviv has been transparent and open to the investigation, Lebanon's al-Akhbar newspaper reported Friday.
Hariri was killed alongside more than 20 other people in a massive car bombing in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on February 14, 2005.
The US-sponsored STL was subsequently set up by the UN and the Lebanese government in May 2007 to investigate the murder. The court is expected to announce its findings by the end of 2010.
Meanwhile, the Israeli foreign minister accused Lebanon's resistance movement of Hezbollah of trying to undermine the tribunal.
The accusation has been made despite Secretary General of Hezbollah Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah's repeated rejection of the allegations and warnings against Isreali plots.
In an August speech, the resistance leader presented evidence proving that Israel masterminded the assassination. In his televised address Nasrallah presented footage captured by Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), as well as recorded confessions by Israeli fifth columnists, substantiating that Tel Aviv had been behind the killing.
Nasrallah also pointed out that the investigators had been infiltrating deep into Lebanon and channeling date outwards even before the tribunal took its current form.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/152719.html
4 mar 2012, 12:51 , Respect -
Maria 28 nov 2010
'STL turns blind eye to murderous Israel'
Hezbollah's Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maFIeEbSHII
Hezbollah has accused the US-backed UN tribunal, investigating the assassination of the country's former premier, of disregard for Israel's role in the murder.
On Sunday, the Lebanese resistance movement's Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered a speech, accusing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon of using faulty procedures, including issuing convictions in absentia and hiding witness identities.
"In international tribunals, we never have sentences made in absentia. Indictments are made, but they never hold a trial until the accused comes [and is] present in front of the judge," he said.
Withholding the identity of the witnesses, Nasrallah said, means "those who are accused can never question the witness. They can never ask the witness "where did you see me? What are accusing me [of]? Based upon what?"
The former Lebanese leader Rafiq Hariri was killed alongside more than 20 other people in a massive car bombing in the Lebanese capital, Beirut on February 14, 2005.
Nasrallah said in July, 2010 that he had been informed by the slain leader's son and successor, Saad Hariri, that STL "will accuse some undisciplined [Hezbollah] members." Nasrallah has rejected the allegation, warning that the plot was part of "a dangerous project that is targeting the resistance."
During his speech, the resistance leader questioned the neutrality of the court, saying the United Nations Security Council is an instrument in the hands of Washington.
In an August speech, he presented evidence proving that Israel had masterminded Hariri's assassination. The televised address featured a video captured by Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as recorded confessions by Israeli fifth columnists, substantiating that Tel Aviv had been behind the killing.
On Monday, leading Lebanese newspaper As-Safir also warned of the "intensive" pressure, Washington is applying under the slogan of "no discussions before indictment is issued."
Political analysts have warned that such indictments are meant to sow discord in Lebanon.
Hezbollah would accept the indictment issued by the tribunal only if it is supported by credible evidence, Nasrallah said.
He further broached the issue of Tel Aviv's spying on Beirut.
Nasrallah confirmed the news about Israeli-waged intelligence warfare against the country, which aims to incriminate members of the resistance movement in espionage.
He recounted how Tel Aviv would "implant" phone lines in the telephone devices used by Hezbollah members.
Aided by technical experts and the Lebanese Army Intelligence, the movement carried out "a comprehensive investigation" into the matter.
"We discovered that there are two phone lines in the telephone. One, which belongs to the individual and another, which was planted by the Israelis," Nasrallah said.
"And in your telephones, they can plant numbers, which you have no idea about and they can make phone calls by these numbers. The Israelis can make phone calls to these numbers and hence they can make it look like you're a spy."
A Friday report by the leading Lebanese daily As-Safir showed that Israeli infiltrators used duplicated numbers to contact the telephone devices.
The newspaper warned that the application of the numbers, which appeared to be coming in from Austria, marked "serious chapters" of Israel's ability to control Lebanon's telecommunications sector.
The report, however, hailed that members of Hezbollah's security service, the Army Intelligence bureau and a number of employees at the country's Telecommunications Ministry had been able to cope with Tel Aviv's techniques and advanced software.
The act of domestic defense, it added, was enabled through several tests and tryouts.
On Tuesday, Hassan Fadlallah, a parliamentarian representing the resistance said Israel had arranged for the sale of doctored phones to some Hezbollah members, enabling wiretapping of their communications and dispatch of Tel Aviv-desired texts, Lebanese portal Naharnet reported.
"After a lengthy, complex investigation ... it was revealed that three resistance members were using local mobile phones which had been deliberately sold to them after being implanted with secret Israeli lines" by a Tel Aviv-hired Lebanese, said Fadlallah, who also chairs the parliament's media and telecommunications committee.
Also on Tuesday, Lebanon's Minister of Telecommunications Charbel Nahas said Beirut had found new evidence confirming the infiltration of Israeli espionage apparatuses into the telecommunications sector.
The resistance leader similarly spoke of the infiltration, adding that Tel Aviv was using wiretapping against all Lebanese people.
Lebanon has arrested more than 100 people, including members of the country's security forces and telecommunications personnel, since April 2009 on suspicion of spying for Israel.
Beirut has also filed a complaint to the United Nations over Israel's espionage activities within the country, expressing concerns that Israeli agents have gone as far as spying on the Lebanese President Michel Sleiman and other top officials.
The letter bewailed that the spy networks "constitute an aggression on Lebanon and on its sovereignty in a clear violation of international resolutions, particularly [the United Nations Security Council] resolution 1701."
The resolution ended Tel Aviv's 2006 war on Lebanon that killed about 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians.
Israeli agents had been responsible for targeted killings, the letter said.
A number of the suspected Israeli operatives, captured in Lebanon, have admitted to their roles in helping Israel identify targets inside Lebanon, mostly belonging to Hezbollah.
Nasrallah further criticized some Lebanese official for remaining silent on Israeli espionage activities in Lebanon.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/153015.html
Analysis Of Sayyed Nasrallah's Speech On November 28, 2010 (STL, Israeli Espionage)
(5:27) Analysis Of Sayyed Nasrallah's Speech On November 28, 2010 (STL, Israeli Espionage)
Analysis of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's Speech With Press TV's Beirut Correspondent Ali Rizk.
Recorded at 1500gmt on November 28, 2010
'Israel spies waging war on Hezbollah'
Hezbollah says Israeli-waged intelligence warfare is aimed at incriminating members of the Lebanese resistance movement in espionage.
On Sunday, the movement's Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah recounted how Tel Aviv would "implant" phone lines in the telephone devices used by Hezbollah members.
Aided by technical experts and the Lebanese Army Intelligence, the movement carried out "a comprehensive investigation" into the matter.
"We discovered that there are two phone lines in the telephone. One, which belongs to the individual and another, which was planted by the Israelis," Nasrallah said.
"And in your telephones, they can plant numbers, which you have no idea about and they can make phone calls by these numbers. The Israelis can make phone calls to these numbers and hence they can make it look like you're a spy...."
'Israel spies waging war on Hezbollah'
Frame grab shows Hezbollah's Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah
Hezbollah says Israeli-waged intelligence warfare is aimed at incriminating members of the Lebanese resistance movement in espionage.
On Sunday, the movement's Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah recounted how Tel Aviv would "implant" phone lines in the telephone devices used by Hezbollah members.
Aided by technical experts and the Lebanese Army Intelligence, the movement carried out "a comprehensive investigation" into the matter.
"We discovered that there are two phone lines in the telephone. One, which belongs to the individual and another, which was planted by the Israelis," Nasrallah said.
"And in your telephones, they can plant numbers, which you have no idea about and they can make phone calls by these numbers. The Israelis can make phone calls to these numbers and hence they can make it look like you're a spy%u2026."
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/153015.html 4 mar 2012, 12:51 , Respect -
Maria 29 nov 2010
Erdogan: Hezbollah didn't murder Hariri
As-Safir newpaper reports Turkish prime minister defends Hezbollah which is likely to be charged with former Lebanese PM's murder. Meanwhile, Iranian supreme leader hosts Saad Hariri, says 'Any division in Lebanon serves Israeli interests'.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Hezbollah was not involved in the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, Lebanese newspaper As-Safir reported.
According to the report, Erdogan made the statements in a press conference after returning to Turkey from Lebanon.
Erdogan reportedly mentioned his meeting with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and their discussion on the Hariri murder case. "Hezbollah says it%u2019s the spirit of resistance in Lebanon and even uses the expression 'Hariri's shahid.' No can suspect it of being involved in this. The organization even supports the Syrian-Saudi initiative to diffuse the tensions," he said.
Last week, Al Jazeera reported that during his visit to Lebanon, Erdogan presented a proposal to postpone by a year the filing of the indictments in the Hariri case. According to the proposal, Arab and regional elements will use this time to tighten relations between Iran and Arab countries in order to maintain stability in Lebanon and promote a dialogue between Fatah and Hamas.
Meanwhile, a senior French source told London-based newspaper al-Hayat that the Hariri indictments will be filed even "if Hezbollah tries to take the government down." The source noted that the existing budget is sufficient to file an indictment.
'Resistance must stop Zionists'
Also this week, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei met with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Tehran and welcomed the tightening of ties between Hariri and Nasrallah.
"As long as the Zionists continue to exist, Lebanon needs the forces of resistance led by Hezbollah which is supported by Iran," he said.
"If it could, the Zionist regime would have moved towards Beirut and Tripoli to encircle Syria. Resistance is the only means to stop the Zionist regime." Khamenei also stressed that internal divisions in Lebanon serve Israel's interests.
During their meeting, Hariri said Lebanon will not endorse sanctions on Iran and stated that Beirut supports Tehran's right to maintain nuclear technology for civilian purposes.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3991494,00.html
Khamenei urges Hariri to 'consolidate ties with Nasrallah'
TEHRAN (AFP) -- Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday that the premier should "consolidate relations" with the Shiite group Hezbollah.
The website of Khamenei's office said he was pleased that Hariri and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah currently had good ties, adding "these relations must be more consolidated."
"As long as the occupying Zionist regime exists, Lebanon needs resistance," Khamenei said in reference to archfoe Israel.
"The only element of deterrence against the occupying Zionist regime is the element of resistance," he was quoted as saying.
Hariri is on the third and final day of an official visit to Iran, a staunch backer of Hezbollah.
He had been told on Sunday by Iran's Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi that Tehran was prepared to help the Lebanese army.
Khamenei echoed comments made by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a meeting with Hariri, during which Iranian leader called for the Beirut government and Hezbollah to work together against Israel.
"If the government and the resistance form part of the same front, this country will follow the path of greatness and development, and the Zionist regime will not be able to do it the least harm," he said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=337035
4 mar 2012, 12:51 , Respect -
Maria 29 nov 2010
NEW REVELATIONS ON RAFIK HARIRI'S ASSASSINATION
When we asked a number of military experts what kind of explosives would be capable of generating such damage, they mentioned a new type of weapon.
The combination of nuclear and nonotechnology science can trigger an explosion the exact strength of which can be regulated and controlled. The weapon is set up to destroy everything within a given perimeter, down to the nearest centimeter. The weapon is shaped like a small missile, a few tens of centimeters long. It must be fired from a drone. Actually, several witnesses assured they had heard an aircraft flying over the scene of the crime.
by: Thierry Meyssan
While western media have announced that indictments against Hezbollah will be issued shortly by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Russian magazine Odnako challenges the entire UN investigation. Thierry Meyssan posits that the weapon used to assassinate former Prime Minister Rafik Hairiri was supplied by Germany. Former German prosecutor and first commissioner in charge of the UN probe, Detlev Mehlis, seemingly doctored evidence to cover up his country's involvement. These revelations embarrass the Tribunal and reverse the tide in Lebanon.
All the conflicts rocking the Middle East today crystallize around the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). Peace hinges on it, and so does war. For some, the STL should bring about the dissolution of the Hezbollah, quell the Resistance and establish a Pax Americana. Others consider that the STL is flouting the law and subverting the truth to ensure the takeover of a new colonial order in the region.
The Tribunal was created on 30 May 2007, pursuant to UN Security Council resolution 1757, to prosecute the alleged sponsors of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination. In the political context at that time, this implied nothing more and nothing less than bringing to trial serving Presidents Bashar el-Assad of Syria and Emile Lahoud of Lebanon, not exactly favourites of the neo-conservatives. However, the charges were not pursued since they were based on flimsy evidence planted by false witnesses. With no accused left, the Tribunal could easily have disappeared in the meanders of bureaucracy were it not for a turn of events that catapulted it back into the epicenter of the turbulent Middle East political scene.
On 23 May 2009, Atlanticist journalist Erick Follath disclosed on Der Spiegel Online that the prosecutor was poised to indict new suspects: certain Hezbollah military leaders. For the past 18 months, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's secretary-general, has been proclaiming his party's innocence. He maintains that the real aim of the proceedings is to decapitate the Resistance and clear the region for the Israeli army. For its part, the U.S. administration in a sudden surge of righteousness pledged that no one would be allowed to shun international Justice.
In any event, the indictment which all believe to be imminent against Shia leaders for the assassination of a Sunni leader is of such a nature as to spark off a fitna, namely a Muslim civil war, plummeting the region into new depths of bloodshed and violence.
During his 15 and 16 November official visit to Moscow, Saad Hariri current Lebanese Prime Minister and son of the deceased reiterated that the political exploitation of the Tribunal exposes his country to the risk of a new conflagration. President Medvedev retorted that Russia wants Justice to be served and reproves any attempt to discredit, weaken or delay the Tribunal's proceedings. This position of principle arises from the confidence that the Kremlin decided to place in the STL. But it risks being severely eroded by Odnako's revelations.
Indeed, we deemed it desirable to delve into the circumstances of Rafik Hariri's assassination. The data we unearthed has opened a new avenue, making one wonder why it had never been explored until now. In the course of our lengthy investigation, we encountered a great number of actors, too many no doubt, so that the news of our work spread quickly, alarming those for whom the assassination trail implicating the armed Lebanese Resistance represents a real godsent. Aiming to intimidate us, the Jerusalem Post on 18 October launched a preventive attack through a piece referring to our work. In a purely libelous vein, it accuses the author of this article of having received 1 million dollars from Iran to exonerate Hezbollah.
Getting down to facts, Rafik Hariri's convoy was attacked in Beirut on 14 February 2005. Twenty-three people were killed and one hundred injured. A preliminary report commissioned by the Security Council calls attention to the unprofessional conduct of the Lebanese magistrates and police. To redress the situation, the SC assigned its own investigators, providing them with the important means that Lebanon was unable to offer. From the outset of the investigation, it was generally accepted that the attack had been perpetrated by a suicide bomber driving a van packed with explosives.
Having been established to compensate for the Lebanese lack of professionalism, one would have expected the United Nations mission to scrupulously observe the classical criminal procedures. Not so! The crime scene on the basis of the topography still intact as well as the photos and video footage shot on that day was not examined in detail. The victims were not exhumed and no autopsies were performed. For a long time, no attempt was made to ascertain the modus operandi. After discarding the hypothesis of a bomb buried in the ground, the investigators espoused the one involving the van withough bothering to verify it.
And yet, this version is implausible: looking at the crime scene, anyone can easily observe the very large and deep crater that a surface explosion could not have dug out. Faced with the adamancy of the Swiss experts who refused to endorse the official version, on 19 October the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) recreated the crime scene behind closed doors. It didn't take place in Lebanon, nor in the Netherlands which is the seat of the STL, but in France, one of the countries funding the Tribunal. The buildings surrounding the crime scene were reconstructed and earth was brought in from Beirut. The convoy was reconstituted, including the armoured vehicle. The aim was to demonstrate that the height of the concrete buildings had confined the explosion, making it possible for the blast to produce the crater. The results of this costly experiment have never been divulged.
When looking at the photos and videos taken immediately after the attack, the first most striking feature is the blaze. Car parts and various types of objects are burning all around. Then, the bodies of the victims: they are charred on one side and intact on the other. An astonishing phenomenon which bears no resemblance to what is normally caused by conventional explosives. The theory that the van was transporting a mix of RDX, PETN and TNT does not account for the damages occurred.
What is more, from the photos showing Rafik Hariri's corpse one can observe that his solid gold wristwatch has melted, whereas the collar of his luxury shirt still hugs his neck in pristine condition.
So, what really happened?
The explosion generated a blast of an exceptionally intense heat and exceptionally brief duration. Thus, the flesh exposed to the blast was instantly carbonized, while the body underneath was not burnt.
High-density objects (such as the gold watch) absorbed the heat and were destroyed. Conversely, low-density objects (like the delicate fabric of Hariri's shirtcollar) didn't have enough time to absorb the heat and were unaffected.
Moreover, the videos show that a number of limbs were severed by the explosion. Oddly, the cuts are clean, as if made on clay statues. There is no sign of shattered or jutting bones, nor of any torn flesh. The reason is that the explosion sucked up all the oxygen and dehydrated the bodies, rendering them friable. In the hours that followed, several on-the-spot witnesses complained of breathing ailments. Wrongfully, the authorities interpreted them as a psychosomatic reaction following their psychological trauma.
Such observations constitute the abc of any criminal inquiry. They should have been the starting point, yet they do not figure in any of the reports submitted by the professional experts to the Security Council.
When we asked a number of military experts what kind of explosives would be capable of generating such damage, they mentioned a new type of weapon which has been developed over several decades and is featured in reports appearing in scientific journals. The combination of nuclear and nonotechnology science can trigger an explosion the exact strength of which can be regulated and controlled. The weapon is set up to destroy everything within a given perimeter, down to the nearest centimeter.
Always according to the same military specialists, this weapon can also produce other types of effects: it exerts a very strong pressure on the area of the explosion. The minute it stops, the heaviest objects are propelled upwards. Accordingly, cars were sent flying through the air.
There is one unequivocal fact: this weapon is equipped with a nano-quantity of enriched uranium, emanating radiations which are quantifiable. Now, it just so happens that one of the passengers in Rafik Hariri's armoured car survived the explosion. Former Minister Bassel Fleyhan was taken to a topnotch French military hospital for treatment. The doctors were astounded to discover that he had been in contact with enriched uranium. But no one linked this to the attack.
Technically speaking, the weapon is shaped like a small missile, a few tens of centimeters long. It must be fired from a drone. Actually, several witnesses assured they had heard an aircraft flying over the scene of the crime. The investigators asked the United States and Israel, whose surveillance satellites are permanently switched on, to provide them with the pertinent images. On the day of the attack, the United States had deployed AWACS aircraft over Lebanon. The live feeds could help to establish the presence of a drone and even to determine its flight path. But Washington and Tel Aviv which indefatigably urge all parties to cooperate with the STL turned down the request.
At a press conference held on 10 August 2010, Hassan Nasrallah showed a video which, according to him, was shot by Israeli military drones and intercepted by his organisation. All of Rafik Hariri's movements had been registered for months, until the final day when all the surveillance converged on the bend in the road where the attack was staged. Thus, Tel-Aviv had been surveying the area prior to the assassination. Which is not to say, as Mr Nasrallah himself points out, that they were the authors of the crime.
So, who fired the missile?
This is where things get complicated. According to the military experts, in 2005, Germany was the only country which had a handle on this new technology. It is, therefore, Berlin which supplied and set up the crime weapon.
Hence, it is easy to understand why former Berlin Attorney General Detlev Mehlis a very controversial figure within his own profession was eager to preside the UN Investigation Commission. He is, in fact, notoriously linked to the German and U.S. secret services. Assigned in 1986 to shed light on the attack against the La Belle disco in Berlin, he diligently covered up all Israeli and U.S. fingerprints to falsely accuse Libya and justify the bombing of Mouammar Khadafi's palace by the U.S. Air Force. In the early 2000s, Mr Mehlis was lavishly paid for his stint as researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (think-tank linked to AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby) and at the Rand Corporation (think-tank attached to the U.S. military industrial complex). All elements which cast a shadow over his impartiality in the Rafik Hariri affair and should have sufficed to have him taken off the case.
Mehlis was seconded by Commissioner Gerhard Lehmann, who is also a well-known German and U.S. secret services agent. He was formally identified by a witness as having taken part in the programme run by the Bush Administration in Europe, involving the abduction, detention and torture of prisoners in black holes. His name is mentioned in the ad hoc Report by the Council of Europe. Notwithstanding, he managed to dodge all judicial proceedings on the strength of a strong though unlikely alibi provided by his colleagues in the German police.
Mehlis and Lehmann propagated the theory of the explosives-laden suicide van to deflect the investigation from the German weapon that was used to commit the crime.
Various earth samples were taken from the scene of the crime. They were first mixed, then divided into three jars that were sent to three different laboratories. In the first two no trace of explosives was found. The third jar was kept by Mehlis and Lehmann, who personally sent it to the third laboratory. Here, remnants of explosives were detected. In principle, if the decision is made to resort to three judiciary experts, in case of disagreement it is the majority opinion that prevails. No way! Mehlis and Lehmann violated the protocols. They deemed that theirs was the only reliable sample and embarked the Security Council on a false trail.
The profoundly flawed character of the Mehlis-Lehmann investigations has amply been proven. Their successors acknowledged as much sotto voce and declared entire sections of proceedings nul and void.
Amidst their manipulations, the most famous one relates to the false witnesses. Five individuals purported to have seen the preparations for the attack and incriminated Presidents Bashar el-Assad and Emile Lahoud. While these allegations were fueling the drums of war, their lawyers exposed the lies and the prosecution backed down.
Based on these false testimonies, Detlev Mehlis arrested in the name of the international community four Lebanese generals and had them incarcerated for four years. Pushing his way with his cow-boys into private homes, without a warrant from the Lebanese authorities, he also detained for questioning members of their entourage. With his assistants who spoke Hebrew to each other he manipulated the families. Thus, on behalf of the international community, he showed the wife of one of the generals a doctored picture to prove that her husband had not only obscured his implication in the murder, but was also two-timing her.
Concurrently, he tried the same maneuver on the son of the suspect, but in this case to convince him that his mother was a woman of loose morals, a situation which had plunged his desperate father into a murderous folly. The aim was to induce a family crime of honour, thereby tarnishing the image of respected and respectable people.
Even more incredible is Lehmann's proposition to libertate one of the four imprisoned generals in exchange for his false testimony against a Syrian leader.
Moreover, German journalist Jürgen Cain Külbel highlighted a disturbing detail: it would have been impossible to trigger the explosion by remote control or by marking the target without first disactivating the powerful interference system built into Rafik Hariri's convoy. A system among the most sophisticated in the world, manufactured in Israel.
Detlev Mehlis, President of the UN Investigation Commission violated all the rules of the criminal procedure, fabricated evidence and used false witnesses to exonerate Germany and accuse Syria.
Külbel was approached by a well-known pro-Palestinian advocate, Professor Said Dudin, to promote his book. However, the outrageous declarations frequently made by Dudin served to torpedo it instead. Külbel, a former East German criminal police officer, was quick to find out that Dudin had a long-standing reputation for being a CIA mole within the German left-wing. The journalist published a number of old East-German reports attesting to this fact and was sentenced and briefly imprisoned for illicit dissemination of documents; meantime, Dudin was settling into the German Embassy in Beirut for the purpose of infiltrating the families of the four generals.
Overlooked in the Middle East, Germany's role in this region is worth spotlighting. After Israel's war of aggression against Lebanon in the Summer of 2006, Chancellor Angela Merkel deployed a very large contingent to join the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The 2 400 soldiers from Germany control the maritime infrastructure to prevent arms supplies from reaching the Resistance via the Mediterranean. On that occasion, Ms Merkel declared that the mission of the German army was to protect Israel. A wind of rebellion arose among the officers. By the hundreds, they sent letters to remind her that they had enlisted to defend their homeland not a foreign country, be it an ally.
An unprecedented development took place on 17 March 2008 and 18 January 2010, when the German and Israeli governments held a joint Council of Ministers meeting where various programmes were adopted, especially in the defense sector. At this stage, there shouldn't be too many secrets left between the Tsahal and the Bundeswehr.
The investigation conducted by Detlev Mehlis is both steeped in ridicule as regards the false witnesses, and tainted with the illegal detention of the four generals. To the extent that the UN Human Rights Council's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention formally and firmly condemned this excess of power.
This being said, the opprobrium that befalls Mr Mehlis work should not reflect on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon which is in no way responsible for his manipulations. But here, again, things get complicated. The credibility of the STL rests on its ability to curb, in the first place, all those who attempted to mask the truth and falsely accused Presidents Bachar el-Assad and Emile Lahoud, with the intention of provoking a war.
Now, it transpires that the Tribunal refuses to try the false witnesses, giving the impression that it is covering up the manipulations under Mehlis watch and is in fact pursuing the similar political objectifs (this time against the Hezbollah, and perhaps against others in future). Even worse, the Tribunal will not hand over to Jamil Sayyed (one of the four generals illegally detained) the minutes of his accusers hearings, thereby barring him from requesting compensation and making it look as if it condones four years of arbitrary detention.
In more prosaic terms, the Tribunal is shirking its responsabilities. On the one hand, it must judge the false witnesses to thwart further manipulations and to make plain its impartiality; on the other hand it refuses to undertake a clean-up operation which might force it to arrest Prosecutor Mehlis. However, Odnako's revelations on the German lead render this posture untenable. All the more since it's already too late: General Jamil Sayyed filed a complaint in Syria and a Syrian examining magistrate has already indicted Detlev Mehlis, Commissioner Gerahrd Lehmann plus the five false witnesses. One can imagine the commotion at the STL should Syria decide to call on Interpol to have them arrested.
Just as the Mehlis commission was supposed to compensate for the lack of professionalism on the part of the Lebanese forces of law and order, the STL should equally have ensured the impartiality that the Lebanese courts may have been short of. But things are far off target, which raises the question of the Tribunal's legitimacy.
Kofi Annan didn't want the Lebanon Tribunal to exert international jurisdiction, but to function as a national Lebanese tribunal with an international character. It would have been subjected to Lebanese law while half of its members would have been nationals of other countries. The plan did not materialize because the negotiations came to a sudden end. More precisely, an agreement was reached with the Lebanese government presided at the time by Fouad Siniora, the former authorised representative of the Hariri estate, but it was never ratified either by Parliament or by the president of the Republic. Hence, the agreement was endorsed unilaterally by the UN Security Council (Resolution 1757 of 30 May 2007). The end result is a hybrid and fragile entity.
As pointed out by Kofi Annan, this Tribunal is not analogous to any other so far been created within the purview of the United Nations. It is neither a subsidiary organ of the UN, nor a component of the Lebanese judiciary system; it is simply a conventional organ sitting between the executive authority of the Lebanese government and the UN. Judging by the international rule of separation of powers and independence of the judiciary, the STL cannot be regarded as a genuine tribunal, but rather as a joint disciplinary commission within the executive frameworks of the UN and the Lebanese Government. Whatever decision it may make will inevitably be coated with suspicion.
According to the President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Antonio Cassese, the armed resistance in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan should be tried for "terrorism".
Worse still, any Lebanese government can terminate it since, not having been ratified, the related agreement was binding only on the previous government. As a result, the present Lebanese coalition government has become a battlefield between partisans and foes of the Tribunal. In an attempt to maintain governmental stability, week after week Lebanese President Michel Sleimane has been dissuading the Council of Ministers from taking a vote on any issue linked with the STL. This embargo cannot hold out forever.
Bad news coming in pairs, suspicions have now extended to the President of the STL, Antonio Cassese. This reputable international jurist was President of the International Criminal Tribunal For the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He happens to be a ardent supporter of the Jewish colonialisation of Palestine. A personal friend of Elie Wiesel, Cassese received and accepted an honorary award, presented by Wiesel himself. He should normally have withdrawn and resigned when Hassan Nasrallah disclosed that Israeli drones had been reconnoitering the crime scene as well as the victim's movements for months.
Worst of all, Judge Cassesse personifies an interpretation of international law that causes division in the Middle East. Although his official curriculum vitae obscures it, he took part in the 2005 negotiations between member states of the European Union and those bordering the Mediterranean Sea (Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean). His definition of terrorism blocked the discussions. According to him, terrorism is exclusively the act of individuals or private groups, never states. It follows that a struggle against an occupying army would not be considered as resistance but as terrorism. In the local context, this juridical view is consistent with a colonial framework and disqualifies the STL.
The methods of the Special Tribunal do not differ from those applied by the Mehlis Commission. STL investigators collected mass files on Lebanese students, social security recipients and subscribers of public utility services. On 27 October, in the absence of the Lebanese judges, they even tried to snatch medical records from a gynecological clinic frequented by the wives of Hezbollah members. It is obvious that these probes have no link whatsoever with the Rafik Hariri assassination. Everything leads the Lebanese to believe that the information is actually earmarked for Israel, of which, in their eyes, the TSL is merely an offshoot.
All these problems had clearly been foreseen by President Putin when, in 2007, he had vainly made a pitch for a different wording of the STL founding resolution. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin had denounced the juridical loopholes of the system. He deplored that the Security Council should threaten to resort to force (Chapter VII) to achieve unilaterally the creation of this conventional organ. He had emphasised that while the Tribunal should be working towards the reconciliation of the Lebanese people, it was devised in such a way as to divide them even more. Finally, Russia as China refused to endorse Resolution 1757.
The truth ultimately seeps through. The Israeli drone videos released by the Hezbollah expose Israel's involvement in the crime preparations. The facts revealed by Odnako point to the use of a sophisticated German weapon. The puzzle is nearly complete.
http://bit.ly/eN5nOH
4 mar 2012, 12:51 , Respect -
Maria 4 mar 2012, 12:51 , Respect -
Maria 3 dec 2010
US: Hariri justice will not destabilize Lebanon
MANAMA (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that the UN Special Tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri will not destabilize Lebanon.
"The Special Tribunal represents a statement by the world that the era of political assassination with impunity in Lebanon must end," Clinton said at a major security conference in Manama.
"To those who claim that the tribunal will destabilize Lebanon, I would answer: justice is not a threat to Lebanon's stability. The attempts to subvert justice by undermining the tribunal are the threat."
Her remarks come amid high tensions in Lebanon over impending indictments by the UN-backed probe into the Hariri assassination.
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon is reportedly set to implicate high-ranking members of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah in the killing, a move the party has repeatedly warned against
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=338600