A British newspaper has claimed to have found "clear evidence" that Syria assassinated ex-premier Rafik Hariri in an attack that has plunged Lebanon into political chaos.
Two days before the popular politician was killed in a huge bomb blast on February 14, Hariri invited Druze leader Walid Jumblat to his Koreitem mansion where he had a warning for his old friend, The Times reported.
"He told me that in the next two weeks it was either going to be me or him," Jumblat told the newspaper. "Clearly he thought something was going to happen," he said.
Hariri did not have to wait long. But the explosion that killed him and 18 other people has continued to shake Lebanon over the past month and left Syria increasingly squeezed by the United States and its European allies to abandon Lebanon.
Damascus has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attack, but The Times said it had unearthed "clear evidence that Syria assassinated Rafik Hariri" after interviewing at least a dozen Western, Lebanese and Syrian officials.
Hariri had angered the Syrian government by inspiring U.N. Security Council resolution 1559
http://www.lgic.org/en/help_1559.php demanding that Syria stop interfering in Lebanon, the newspaper said, noting that U.S. and U.N. officials had warned Damascus not to harm him.
The Lebanese government withdrew Hariri's 70-strong security detail under pressure from Syria and immediately after his death the scene of the bombing was swept to remove any evidence of Syrian complicity, The Times claimed.
"There does seem to be no other scenario," it quoted an anonymous, senior Western diplomat as saying.
Just four days before Hariri's murder, U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen met Syrian President Assad in Damascus, where he tried to persuade him to meet Hariri in a bid to resolve their differences, according to The Times.
"Larsen knew if there was no dialogue, it would end badly," an unnamed U.N. source told the newspaper.
That same night, Larsen met Hariri for dinner in Beirut and was told that the Lebanese politician was ready to talk to the Syrian leader.
"Two days later Mr. Hariri met Mr. Jumblat at his home, and correctly predicted his own death," The Times said.
The daily added that it had interviewed three Syrian ministers, all of whom denied that Damascus had any part in the killing.
"But none put forward a convincing alternative theory, even though Syria has a vast intelligence network in Lebanon that should by now have been able to trace the origin of the assassination team," it concluded.(AFP)
"He told me that in the next two weeks it was either going to be me or him," Jumblat told the newspaper. "Clearly he thought something was going to happen," he said.
Hariri did not have to wait long. But the explosion that killed him and 18 other people has continued to shake Lebanon over the past month and left Syria increasingly squeezed by the United States and its European allies to abandon Lebanon.
Damascus has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attack, but The Times said it had unearthed "clear evidence that Syria assassinated Rafik Hariri" after interviewing at least a dozen Western, Lebanese and Syrian officials.
Hariri had angered the Syrian government by inspiring U.N. Security Council resolution 1559
http://www.lgic.org/en/help_1559.php demanding that Syria stop interfering in Lebanon, the newspaper said, noting that U.S. and U.N. officials had warned Damascus not to harm him. The Lebanese government withdrew Hariri's 70-strong security detail under pressure from Syria and immediately after his death the scene of the bombing was swept to remove any evidence of Syrian complicity, The Times claimed.
"There does seem to be no other scenario," it quoted an anonymous, senior Western diplomat as saying.
Just four days before Hariri's murder, U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen met Syrian President Assad in Damascus, where he tried to persuade him to meet Hariri in a bid to resolve their differences, according to The Times.
"Larsen knew if there was no dialogue, it would end badly," an unnamed U.N. source told the newspaper.
That same night, Larsen met Hariri for dinner in Beirut and was told that the Lebanese politician was ready to talk to the Syrian leader.
"Two days later Mr. Hariri met Mr. Jumblat at his home, and correctly predicted his own death," The Times said.
The daily added that it had interviewed three Syrian ministers, all of whom denied that Damascus had any part in the killing.
"But none put forward a convincing alternative theory, even though Syria has a vast intelligence network in Lebanon that should by now have been able to trace the origin of the assassination team," it concluded.(AFP)
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the london times
18.03.2005 18:07
try this for more interesting reading:
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More Neocon propaganda
18.03.2005 19:08
On a mission to get you to support the Likudnik 5th Column in Washington.
Aunty Beeb
I wonder if the sheeple would be prepared to dress up in ORANGE
18.03.2005 20:32
when organized by yankkkeees
Willem van Orange
ah, the sheeple
18.03.2005 23:38
a million people in Lebanon led by the noses by the Amerikkkkkkans
clever chappies, these, Amerikkkkkkans, to organise a million people so quickly.
the trouble is that the sheeple don't deserve us, do they?
Let's get rid of them and get some new sheeple.
sceptic
Wow! Clear EVIDENCE!
19.03.2005 07:07
2) An "anonymous, senior Western diplomat" (what you and I would call a CIA officer) announces "There does seem to be no other scenario."
3) "an unnamed U.N. source" (my my, there seem to be a lot of these about at the moment, briefing the Times) thinks that "if there was no dialogue it would end badly", whatever that means.
4) The Times journo doesn't think the three Syrian ministers he interviewed have "put forward a convincing alternative theory" yet.
Gosh! What a lot of "clear evidence" we've got here!
More of sceptic's famously flexible standards of evidence again, I see. :)
Mark Dameli is a Lebanese exile in the US, who spams IMCs around the world with neocon propaganda. Why is this "news" article still up?
David
Remember RTS and their bunkers of weapons story?
19.03.2005 15:30
Krop
Syrian Terrorism Against Lebanese
19.03.2005 20:27
They started a civil war in Lebanon that led to a larger Syrian involvement in Lebanon. On October 13, 1990 the Syrian army completely occupied Lebanon capturing the Capital Beirut and the Presidential palace after air raids.
The Syrian forces have been committing all types of terrorism against the Lebanese people assassinating their leaders and massacring civilians for the past three decades. Syrians have formed, trained and sponsored terrorist groups that carried terrorist attacks against the Lebanese people, other Arab countries and Western interests in Lebanon and abroad.
maya
Homepage:
http://www.2la.org/lebanon/ee/terrorlb.htm
Not really so clever, just loaded .
20.03.2005 21:12
manage to get I million people out onto the streets in Lebanon.
Exploiting the deep divides that split the Lebanese is pretty much routine for them, last time i was in Lebabnon around 1996, for a series of shows, our hosts , all christians were only to pleased to show us boxes of rocket propelled grenades and all sorts of small arms, they also described how they used to fire there weapons at residential areas, their boasting made me glad to get on the plane out of there.
At the time the Christian parts were being rebuilt and everyone had big cars and looked like just another bunch or euro yuppies. across the the divide things were not so rosy.
With aid from the other great satan it would not take a particularly big CIA operation to set this one off.
perhaps they would ship in a few experts from err Central America, where the U.S foreign policy has been bringing down elected leaders and installing puppet dictators for as long as anyone can remember.
Although they could shop in "experts" from just about any where in the world.
Who can say how many Gladio's are up and running around the world , that was set up in the 1950's to keep the so called Italian communists out but it only came out 30 years later . I wonder if there is anyone left alive on the planet
in 30 years time , perhaps the truth about what happened in Lebabanon will come out then.
Not that it makes the slightest bit of difference, the sheeple have almost forgotten the slaughter of the Iraqie people and they will forgetting the up coming slaughter of the Iranians just as quickly.
Perhaps Sceptic should move the telly over by the window and get a better view of the world outside .. or wot ?
antisceptic
oh, get real
21.03.2005 00:44
In fact, I can imagine that a thousand Yankkkkkkies going thru the city trying to get people to turn out might actually be counterproductive - like - what business is it of yours? Oh, you're going to shoot my family? Right. Yeah, the yankkkkkkies will really shoot a million people ....
Well, next fall back position is perhaps these people were paid. A hundred doolars each? One hundred million suddenly turns up in the economy and no one notices? ANd just because someone's given you money doesn't mean you turn up. After all, no one's going to do a roll call in a crowd of a million people, are they?
Why do you have difficulty in accepting that the people turned out ... because they wanted to?
sceptic
Oh, get real
06.04.2005 18:18
Why do you have difficulty in accepting that there is more than one point of view in Lebanon?
sceptical of sceptic's bogus scepticism
The is Why they Protested in millions
30.09.2005 00:08
If you go back and check the photos of the Pro-syrian Demo, you will see in upclose pictures that most of the people are syrian workers. The rest are the militant of hizbollah and Amal extimated about 80,000.
PLUS, if yuo look at the Banners, in the pro-syrian protest you can not but to notice that there was only 2 or 3 prototypes and were given to every body.
On the other hand inthe Orange protest the ONE MILLION protest. you can see the diversity and the creativity. Because people came on their own and made their own banners.
For those who don;t know what was happening in Lebanon before that. One day before the Syrian Completely occupied Lebanon on the 13th of October 1990, there were more than 500,000 Person protesting in Support of the Prime Minister at the time General Aoun in the War of Liberation and Againt the Taif Agreement ( because it gives complete control of syria over lebanon).
This area was the only free area where people could express their opinions.
With all the pressure on Syria to go out of Lebanon ( Syria accountability ACT and Later UN 1559 resolution) and All the protests by the students since the 1990 (
And they went into the streets to express their decision to Live free.
1 million went into the streets out of 3.5 million population that is 29% of the population!
It is Equivalent to 80 Million! people going to the roads in the USA.
Joe