by Patrick Lang
Walid Moallim, the former Syrian ambassador in Washington, says that he did not “threaten” Rafik Hariri a couple of weeks before Hariri was killed. He says that he had known and “worked with” Hariri for many years and thought of him as a friend.
His CV and blog are linked below the fold.
That could be since Rafik Hariri was variously a “friend” to Saudi Arabia, the CIA and the Baathist government in Damascus.
He was also a friend to the Lebanese clique of his”friends” who together hold 75% of the country’s national debt, “a gift that keeps on giving.”
His many friends also included the Sunni zealots on behalf of whom Rafik spoke from the minbar of mosques in Lebanon claiming that he stood between the Sunni population and victimization by the rest of the Lebanese.
Learning who it was who killed Hariri is a daunting task for a serious investigator. There are so many candidates for the blame.
Nevertheless, Fox News Sunday (FNS) has already “moved on” from assumption of official Syrian government guilt in this matter to beating the war drums along the Potomac in a “riff” identical to that played as overture to the opera now “on the boards” in Iraq.
Today, 23 October, 2005. Brit Hume and Bill Kristol substantially made the following statements on FNS:
- Syria’s government is that of a band of “Gangsters.” (arguably true)
- Syria’s government must be fragile and could easily be brought down.
- Syria’s government must have no popular support.
- There is a well organized and numerous Syrian exile opposition who could easily “take over.” (Kristol says he has met the man. That’s interesting in itself)
- The destruction of the regime in syria would be the key to a general societal revolution whtroughout the Middle East.
What part of this does not sound familiar?
I will give it as my considered opinion that an attempt to install an internationally “inspired” government in Damascus would lead to internal unrest throughout that country. Syria is made up of similar ethno-religious factions to the ones that have bedeviled our actions in Iraq.
I will also forecast that the introduction of foreign troops into Lebanon or Syria would result in widespread guerrilla and terrorist resistance on the bases of outraged nationalism and Islamic perception of another “crusade.”
The Jacobin neocons have learned nothing from the pain of the American people and therefore will be forced to repeat the Iraq disaster if they are allowed to have their wishes fulfilled.
Sources: I-CIAS and SJ Mercury News
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“Drinking the Kool-Aid,” Middle East Policy Council Journal, Vol. XI, Summer 2004, No. 2
Pat Lang
for the intended beneficiaries, generating very impressive revenues for them, and little significant domestic opposition, especially on principle.
Washington should stay on the message that Hariri was killed by evildoers who hate freedom, and regularly remind Americans that 3000 people died in the World Trade Center, and they can reasonably expect that Operation Syrian Liberation will be enjoy comparable popularity to that enjoyed by the Iraq crusade, with the US public, the region, and with the target population.
I don’t believe as big a segment of the US public will support an overt assault on Syria like they did with Iraq.
This doesn’t mean the bush regime won’t do it anyway, but they’ll do it with far less public support than previously.
Additionally, sadly too, in one sense, the increased opposition to new war will be based more on money issues than on the “right or wrong” of it. For many, dead Syrians are no different than dead Iraqis, yet if making them dead is ultimately too expensive this will bother them.
(I live in South Florida and I actually know people who think like this.)
The PNAC plan calls for just this kind of widespread chaos throughout the Middle East. Keeps China, Russia, India, Brazil, and others from making deals we cannot make. Our economic standing cannot compete.
We can only take the oil, not buy it.
Unfortunately, our pirate nation cannot actually get that oil without removing the indigenous population at some future point.
That’s the unspoken commitment the neocons’ PNAC plan contains. Get the Saudis out of Saudi Arabia, the Iraqis out of Iraq, the Iranians out of Iran. Keep the oil, kill or cleanse the population.
That’s what lies down this road.
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U.S. Middle East policy touching Israel —
ISRAEL! :: read Haaretz News
Pax Americana for a stable Middle East
WH and U.S. Congress preparation in comparison with EU cooperation with Syria
A Country Study: Syria
After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington, the Bush administration adopted a policy called “extraordinary rendition” that permitted the transfer of a small number of terrorist suspects to nations that employed brutal interrogation methods illegal in the U.S.
In recent years, the government’s “rendition” policy has greatly expanded, with estimates placing the number of U.S.-held prisoners transferred to nations employing torture at 150. Those who have been subject to the policy include Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was detained in New York City and then sent to Syria, where he suffered months of torture before being released without charge.
Another prisoner, Mamdouh Habib, accused of training several of the 9/11 hijackers, was held in the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention facility and later transferred to Egypt where he claims he was beaten and burned.
With all reserve this following link …
Israel, Iran, Mossad and a Nuclear False Flag Attack
◊ by R Leland Lehrman
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
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Starting a war with Syria worries me almost as much as starting a war with Iran, but for different reasons. I fear war with Iran because Iran will win — and not just through a drawn-out guerilla war of attrition. Syria would just be an explosive mess.
There is no doubt in my mind that even in its current sorry state, the US military could shred the Syrian military in a matter of weeks. If Dubya wants Assad’s head on a sharpened stick, it’s doable.
But then what? Syria would unquestionably bog down into an interminable guerilla war, and with a much better grade of resistance fighters than we are seeing in Iraq. Moreover, we would almost certainly be up against Hizbollah whose competency as a paramilitary organization far outstrips the mere terrorists in al Qaeda. Even if Lebanon doesn’t immediately spiral into civil war, we would certainly be forced to enter Lebanon in response to Hizbollah attacks. And so might Israel, presenting us with the spectre of American and Israeli forces conducting a joint invasion, confirming every paranoid fear the Arab world has.
If Bush thinks starting a war with Syria is a good idea, then the man plainly wouldn’t know a quagmire if one bit him on the ass.
Indeed. If we are seriously contemplating such action, I would prefer we first occupy the Saudi oil fields and shed any pretense of our imperial intentions.
We cannot be serious about democratizing the Middle East until we overthrow the House of Saud anyway. So, if they want to make this a real war, let’s go after the biggest problem, secure the West and Far East’s oil supplies, and tell China they can forget about us repaying our debts.
I’m sure the Saudis are well aware that eventually the US will have to attack them too, as the oil becomes more and more scarce.
And I’m sure they also understand that the whole idea of “democratization” being propagated by the Bush regime is a complete crock of shit.
No doubt the royal family and their favorite subjects have a pretty sophisticated exit strategy for getting themselves and their wealth out of Saudi Arabia in time to escape the US onslaught in a decade or two.
It’s terribly, terribly sad.
Forgive me if I’m repeating something I’ve already posted — i forget if i’ve posted this elsewehre here — but before the Iraq war, CNN did a live report from a main street in downtown Damascus. It was such an elegant, lively, vibrant looking city and its people looked fascinating – their thoughts on the prospect of war against Iraq were very thoughtful. So, now, everytime I hear about attacking Syria, I think of those lovely people and that vibrant city, and it breaks my heart.
And listening to Seymour Hersh talk about — oh god — the name of the town just left me — the utter devastation wrought on that town near the Syrian border by bombing missions. he’s on again at 7pm PT, CSPAN-2.
Over and over, Hersh talked about the Jihadists that WE ARE creating with these bombings.
Tal Afar.
That’s much the same feeling I have about Iraq and Iran, having known quite a few Iraqi and Iranian expats living in the US. Iraqis, certainly, were much better off under Saddam, as bad as he was, than they are under US occupation and the “democratic” government we have installed in his place.
Iran, contrary to the popular conception of the place, is a sophisticated and worthy inheritor of the ancient Persian civilization and certainly deserves better than what the neocons would do to it. Moreover, the government they have now is the direct result of our meddling in their affairs in the first place.
I remember watching President Khatami on TV on several occasions, wishing we had leaders as intelligent and thoughtful as the reformists in Iran.
.
«« click on pic for article
New Precision MLRS Helps In BattleFor Tal Afar - Guided Multiple Launch Rocket
System (GMLRS) was first test-fired outside of
the U.S. earlier this summer near Tikrit, Iraq.
Tal Afar and U.S. destruction of cities, villages and bridges
near Syrian border in Euphrates river valley ::
Sat Oct 8th, 2005 at 01:17:23 AM PSTSat Oct 1st, 2005 at 05:18:27 AM PSTWed Sep 28th, 2005 at 02:53:24 AM PSTWed Sep 14th, 2005 at 05:58:10 AM PSTA grab from video footage released on Sept. 20, showsweapons which Iraqi police confiscated from two undercover
British soldiers (SAS) after their arrest in Basra, southern Iraq.
Support allegiance to Moqtada Al Sadr spreads to Basra —
UK pressured, Blair links unrest to Iran ::
Sat Sep 24th, 2005 at 01:55:16 PM PSTWed Sep 21st, 2005 at 02:25:47 PM PSTMon Sep 19th, 2005 at 06:56:10 AM PST“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
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of those who will receive a benefit. All you say is true, in fact, my speculation for months has been that US would deploy its Israeli assets to Syria, but I think now that you are probably closer to the plan, and they will be assigned to the Lebanon theatre, to expedite natural expansion of settlements.
And to the victims, and to a small segment of the US population none of these things are desirable events, to say the least, but in the halls of Raytheon, Halliburton, Bechtel, General Dynamics, Blackwater et investors, your projections cause eye to sparkle and moneypouch to twitch in delighted anticipation.
Unilateral US action would bring a firestorm of international and domestic protest that might be the straw that brings down an administration weakened by Fitzgerald indictments.
Syria is a pathetically poor, weak nation that is no threat to the US.
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Flogging the Simian
Well the UN investigator Detlev Mehlis has just released a preliminary report on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister on February 14 of this year. It’s an interesting document and it can be read in its entirety here.
I’ve written about Rafik al-Hariri’s assassination before but it’s worth a look at the facts. First, Rafik al-Hariri was not anywhere close to being a saint. He was a political crony, long-time ally of Syria (esp under its brutal dictator Hafez al-Assad, father of the current Syrian president) and a corrupt businessman of the highest order. Rafik al-Hariri and his family helped drive Lebanon into bankruptcy and debt in order to become extraordinarily rich – Hariri’s personal wealth was estimated at 3.8 billion dollars in 2003.
Secondly, 23 other people died in the event which killed Hariri, including the former Economic Minister. And last but not least, there have been many other deaths by explosion both before the one which killed Hariri and afterwards, including after Syria completely withdrew from Lebanon.
I’ve never worked a major terrorist incident but I’ve investigated murders before and the UN report is extraordinarily incomplete. All it can say with certainty is that the incident of February 14 took a lot of planning and therefore Lebanese and Syrian intelligence/police forces had to have known about it or participated in it. That’s it. Don’t believe any other hype about it from media articles.
[…]
Here’s the final kicker from the British Foreign Secretary. I haven’t seen the video clip of this but I cannot imagine how he could say it with a straight face:
“This report is very disturbing,” British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said during a visit to Alabama with Rice. “It is further evidence of the extraordinary view that the Syrian elite have held that the Lebanon is a kind of fiefdom…. It is an unpleasant story which the international community will take very seriously indeed.”
Considering that the entire Middle East was the European powers’ private fiefdom just 50 years ago and largely the source of so much of the region’s troubles is beyond Mr. Straw’s ability to grasp I guess…
The BBC’s fairly even-handed (and much briefer) analysis of the report can be found here.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw demanded “a firm response from the international community” to a UN report which implicated senior Syrian officials in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
The two appeared Sunday in a joint interview with BBC Television and charged Syria with “at the very least… not co-operating” with the investigation by chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis.
Rice said the report indicated a cover-up by Syrian officials and called it “very disturbing”. The U.S. is calling for an immediate high-level UN Security Council meeting to formulate a response to the findings.
Straw says action needed on Syria
BBC NEWS: VIDEO AND AUDIO
Syria ‘not co-operating’ says Rice
US secretary of state says Syria is ‘not co-operating’ in the
wake of a report on the death of Lebanese ex-PM Rafik Hariri.
23/10/2005
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
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