[LCM Articles] Tribute to Assassinated Lebanese Journalist Samir Qasir: A Political Profile

[Walid Georges Chamoun]

Special Dispatch - Lebanon/Syria/Reform Project
June 17, 2005
No. 924

A Tribute to Assassinated Lebanese Journalist Samir Qasir: A Brief 
Political Profile

To view this Special Dispatch in HTML, visit 
http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD92405


On June 2, 2005, Lebanese journalist Samir Qasir was killed(1) when a bomb 
exploded in his car. Qasir, who was born in 1960 and held dual Lebanese and 
French citizenship, had a doctorate in contemporary history of the Middle 
East from the Sorbonne, and had published many essays. He was one of the 
founders of Lebanon's Democratic Left movement and a member of its 
executive council. Qasir was also a lecturer in political science at the 
University of St. Joseph in Beirut.

Qasir wrote for numerous newspapers, among them France's Le Monde 
Diplomatique, and was a former editor of that paper's Arabic-language 
edition. Since 1988, Qasir had written a regular column for the Lebanese 
daily Al-Nahar. In 2001, the Lebanese security apparatuses confiscated his 
passport as a penalty for writing critically of the Lebanese military and 
intelligence apparatuses.(2)

In his columns, Qasir set out his political positions; he became one of the 
most prominent opponents of Syria's control of Lebanon and one of the 
harshest critics of President Bashar Al-Assad's regime in Syria.

This political brief includes representative excerpts from Qasir's writings 
over the past year.


A Call for Syrian Forces to Leave Lebanon and Implement U.N.S.C. Resolution 
1559

Qasir frequently criticized Syria's control of Lebanon and called for the 
implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559. In a November 5, 
2004 interview with the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa, Qasir said: "If 
Resolution 1559 is a drawn sword, it is a sword drawn against Syria, not 
Lebanon. All we, as Lebanese, can do is to support this resolution, because 
we want sovereignty and independence for our country. If the Americans want 
to exploit this for other aims, that's their problem. We, as Lebanese, 
cannot be against this resolution, and we cannot be repelled by it, because 
all its sections intersect with previous U.N. and Arab League resolutions, 
and are compatible with the Taif Agreement. This resolution has come to be 
part of the international legitimacy that has been the refuge of Lebanon, 
Syria, and other countries."(3)

In his columns, Qasir protested against the extension of Lebanese President 
Emil Lahoud's term of office, which, he said, typified the Syrian regime's 
irrationality. On October 22, 2004 he wrote: "The world remains the same 
since the extension of [President Lahoud's] term. Some think that he 
[Lahoud] has made a tremendous achievement by not vacating his seat; this 
is the problem, and, moreover, this is the tragedy.

"But even though it is awful, this is a small tragedy in comparison with 
[the tragedy] whose reverberations are reaching us from Damascus - since it 
is clear that an atmosphere of irrationality that has no comparison in 
modern Syrian history prevails there...

"How did the Syrian regime that inherited the principles of political 
realism come to such recklessness? Of course, when Syria's foreign minister 
reaches the point of [attributing] such little value to the Security 
Council, one can no longer be amazed at the loss of direction... However, 
Minister Farouq Al-Shara' is not everything in Syria - or at least, so it 
is to be hoped - and the search should continue for the reasons why the 
Ba'th regime is persisting in not dealing realistically and pragmatically 
with the new international reality ...

"The Syrian regime's tardiness in adapting to the reality that is renewing 
itself all around it reflects a structural flaw. Therefore, it is logical 
for the Syrian leadership to ignore Resolution 1559, and to violate it less 
than 24 hours after it was passed, by extending the term of the Lebanese 
president.... Enough time has passed to realize that Damascus will not 
change its ways, and that it persists in marching confidently toward the 
abyss."(4)

In his January 3, 2005 column, Qasir argued that Syria's insistence on 
extending Lahoud's term was a tactical mistake that contributed more to 
Lebanon's freedom than the Lebanese opposition's activity did: "The 
regime's mistake, which was handed down by Hafez Al-Assad [to his son 
Bashar], of insisting on extending the concluding term of the Lebanese 
president, did more for Lebanon's freedom than what many opposition 
demonstrations have done... Of course, this doesn't mean that the 
opposition's efforts were meaningless. On the contrary: at the end of the 
year, the opposition can congratulate itself on how it functioned in the 
battle that the Ba'th wanted to be the battle of the 'breaking of bones [of 
the opposition],' but in the end, [the Ba'th] was forced to break all the 
rules of the game...

"Although the remaining Ba'thists and their supporters in Lebanon do not 
notice it, they are at the end of their days. Everything around us - the 
international policy, the opposition that is passing test after test, the 
public debate on what will happen to Lebanon after the end of the Syrian 
guardianship - attests that in the months to come there will be a 
significant change in Lebanese national life."(5)

In a September 10, 2004 column, Qasir called on Arab League Secretary Amr 
Moussa to resign because of his opposition to the implementation of 
Resolution 1559: "When a respected diplomat such as Amr Moussa reaches the 
point where he expresses his 'amazement' at the Security Council's call to 
respect Lebanese sovereignty and to withdraw non-Lebanese troops from its 
land, he abandons diplomacy for political propaganda. When the owner of a 
Egyptian school for diplomacy [alluding to Amr Moussa] expresses amazement 
at Security Council intervention in Lebanon's and Syria's affairs, while 
saying nothing about the daily Syrian intervention in Lebanese affairs in 
general, nor about the fact that this intervention reached its height in 
forcing an extension of President [Lahoud's] term, he has abandoned all 
reason - not to mention his Egyptian leadership perception, which we 
thought he was acting to promote... The secretary should either resign or 
be silent..."(6)

In another column following the assassination of former Lebanese prime 
minister Rafiq Al-Hariri, Qasir stated that the concept of Lebanon and 
Syria sharing a single destiny was a lie: "The pan-Arab problem lies today 
in being rid of the terrorist and revolutionary regimes and in the 
restoration of the people's freedom, as a prelude to the new Arab revival. 
Thousands of free residents walked at Rafiq Al-Hariri's funeral, while at 
the funeral of Hafez Al-Assad, a few years earlier, there were only convoys 
[of people] bussed in by the sole party [the Ba'th] and its intelligence 
apparatus... This is the clearest proof of the end of the lie regarding the 
'unity in path and destiny' [of Lebanon and Syria] - the lie that says that 
tyranny is the armor of Arabism."(7)


Syria is Responsible for Al-Hariri's Assassination

In his columns, Qasir stated that Syria was responsible for Al-Hariri's 
assassination. On February 25, 2005 he wrote that all attempts to prove 
that the Ba'th regime in Damascus is innocent of Rafiq Al-Hariri's blood 
are futile.(8)

One month later he wrote: "It has become certain that the Ba'th regime's 
control of Lebanese politics is a thing of the past. Even if we assume that 
the Syrian regime has managed to convince the world that it is clean of 
Rafiq Al-Hariri's blood, the vocal popular protest against [this] crime 
makes it possible to blame the remaining Ba'thists for suppressing public 
freedoms in Lebanon, and for leaving political life and the lives of 
politicians under constant threat of the guillotine - [the threat] that 
began with the assassination of Kamal Jumblatt, through the arrest of Samir 
Ga'ga', the murder of Salim Al-Louzi, Sheikh Hassan Khaled, Mahdi 'Amel, 
Hussein Muruwa, and many others."(9)


Bashar Al-Assad is a Dictator; His Regime Represses Freedom of Speech and 
Thwarts Reform

Qasir also criticized how Bashar Al-Assad ruled Syria. In an April 8, 2005 
article, he censured statements made by Al-Assad in a Turkish TV interview: 
"Bashar Al-Assad said... that he doesn't care if the Americans call him a 
dictator, and that he isn't bothered by such an accusation unless it comes 
from the Syrian people. Perhaps 'the Internet fan' [i.e. Bashar Al-Assad] 
hasn't been paying attention to the Syrian websites, which might have told 
him that the Syrian people has been under house arrest and emergency law 
for over 40 years.

"He also said that he did not come to power via a military coup. True. He 
did not carry out a military coup. He settled for inheriting the regime of 
a coup... [In the interview, Assad also said]: 'Had it not been for 
external interventions, we would be making greater strides in the reform 
process.' The truth is that the response to a claim like this can only be 
the 'model' of Lebanese reform, which [could] only make strides in its 
process [of reform]... via 'external intervention,' with its call to 
implement Resolution 1559, and [with the help of] internal pressures. This 
story has a continuation - in Syria."(10)

In his final column, Qasir argued that the Syrian security apparatuses were 
repressing freedom of speech and thwarting the reform process [in Syria]: 
"The foreign journalists who stream to Damascus in advance of the Ba'th 
Party convention will certainly find that many things have changed in Syria 
in comparison to the era of Hafez Al-Assad - particularly in the area of 
freedom of expression...

"But after all the years [since Bashar Al-Assad came to power], it does not 
interest anyone who has been following the news from Syria that the number 
of political detainees is much lower than a decade ago. Halfway through 
2005, it interests him that this number is again rising because this is 
willed by the present rulers, headed Bashar Al-Assad, who refuses to begin 
a national dialogue with the opposition, and to reconcile with [Syrian] 
society.

"Note how Bashar Al-Assad's regime shut down the Jamal Al-Atassi forum, and 
arrested its chairman and board.... This forum is the only forum left from 
among those that were flourishing in 2000 and were closed down, one by one, 
by the security apparatuses... The recent arrests indicate that as far as 
the Ba'thists are concerned, reforms do not include accepting the opinions 
of opposition members."(11)

Qasir made similar observations in another column: "If the news is true 
that Nabras Fadel, one of the presidential advisors whose name is 
associated with reforms, left Syria out of fear for his life, it means that 
the end has not yet come for Syrian exile..."(12)

Qasir even expressed support for demonstrators at a March 8, 2004 
demonstration organized by opposition groups in Syria. In response to 
statements by the current Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah, at 
the time editor of the Syrian government daily Al-Ba'th, that only 30 
people attended the demonstration, Qasir wrote: "This demonstration, which 
was not a mass [demonstration], will nevertheless remain an important 
event. The 30 [participants] whom [Dakhlallah] disparages - and who 
apparently numbered around 100 - seem to pose a difficult and unusual 
problem for the regime in Damascus.

"If the Syrian regime does nothing, the Syrian street will emerge from its 
sense of fear, and the gates of the strikes and demonstrations will slowly 
open... If, [on the other hand,] the regime attacks this fresh move with 
repression, arrests, and defamation, it will  [by doing so] announce to the 
entire world that it has no plans to change anything in how it rules, and 
it will expose itself to subsequent external pressure."(13)


The Syrian Regime Encourages Volunteers to Fight the U.S. In Iraq

In an October 1, 2004 column, Qasir claimed that the Syrian regime was 
reaching out to Islamists in Syria and Lebanon so as to encourage the 
fighting in Iraq: "[We will not] mention again the tremendous paradox of 
the Syrian regime, which fought the Muslim Brotherhood group with an 
aggression that reached its height with the destruction of entire 
neighborhoods in the city of Hama in 1982, and which, two decades later, 
seeks to reach out to Syrian and Lebanese Islamists...  in order to spend 
time uselessly in Iraq...

"The preachers of Sunni Islam should be ashamed..."(14)


The U.S. Supported Syria's Control of Lebanon for 28 Years

In his columns, Qasir also criticized the U.S. for backing the Syrian 
regime for over two decades: "The Syrian military intervention [in Lebanon] 
would not have taken place in 1976 had it not been for the green light from 
Washington during the era of the Kissinger policy. That green light was 
given again several times later, including in 1990 during the era of George 
Bush Sr. and his Secretary of State, James Baker. The U.S. backing 
continued for 28 years - except for two years during the era of Ronald 
Reagan - and it was only one of the supports of the Syrian regime in 
Lebanon. The other support was, and remains, a large part of Lebanon's 
political echelon."(15)


Hizbullah's Khomeinism is No Less Dark than Bin Laden's Wahhabism

Qasir was harshly critical of Hizbullah in his columns following a 
statement by Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah about the Baghdad 
and Karbala suicide attacks that were carried out during the Ashura day in 
2004. After Nasrallah called the perpetrators of the attacks "a fanatical, 
dark, fossilized group that lives in the Middle Ages," Qasir wrote: "With 
regard to darkness, fossilization, and living in the Middle Ages, [it 
should be stressed that] anyone condemning this phenomenon must be willing 
to reexamine in depth his own party's path and ideology.

"When you meet someone whose darkness is greater than yours, it does not in 
any way mean that you have [suddenly] become a symbol of enlightened 
thought. The truth is that the source of the authority on which Nasrallah 
and his party rely are no less dark, no less fossilized, and cling no less 
to the Middle Ages. Perhaps Khomeini was a little more pragmatic than bin 
Laden, but he was without a doubt no less dark, and no less fossilized, 
than the Wahhabism on which the Al-Qa'ida organization and similar streams 
are based.

"Moreover, it can be said that despite all the jurisprudent and factional 
disagreement between Khomeinism and Wahhabism, they have many more 
ideological points in common than differences...

"It is true that years ago, under Nasrallah's leadership, Hizbullah 
abandoned the method of suicide operations. But he is connected to the 
first ideological-political milieu in modern Arab history to employ the 
suicide method, even if its pretext at the time was resistance against the 
U.S., France, or [the legitimacy of] resistance to Israel.

"Similarly, Hizbullah is still closely connected to two groups - Hamas and 
Islamic Jihad - that have made suicide the symbol of their activity, and it 
broadcasts propaganda in their favor every day on its Al-Manar TV 
channel...

"[This] is the culture of violence that has begun to take over the way of 
the struggle, and Hizbullah was and remains the greatest influence in 
spreading it."(16)

Endnotes:
(1) The London daily Al-Hayat has a page paying "Homage to Samir Kassir." 
To read the series of articles, visit 
http://english.daralhayat.com/arab_news/06-2005/Article-20050611-6b06f5a3-c0a8-10ed-00d4-1f0581cd0352/story.html .
(2) Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), June 3, 2005.
(3) Al-Siyassa (Kuwait), November 5, 2004.
(4) Al-Nahar (Lebanon), October 22, 2004.
(5) Al-Nahar (Lebanon), December 31, 2004.
(6) Al-Nahar (Lebanon), September 10, 2004.
(7) Al-Nahar (Lebanon), February 18, 2005.
(8) Al-Nahar (Lebanon), February 25, 2005.
(9) Al-Nahar (Lebanon), March 25, 2005.
(10) Al-Nahar (Lebanon), April 8, 2005.
(11) Al-Nahar (Lebanon), May 27, 2005.
(12) Al-Nahar (Lebanon), April 22, 2005.
(13) Al-Nahar (Lebanon), March 12, 2004.
(14) Al-Nahar (Lebanon), October 1, 2004.
(15) Al-Nahar (Lebanon), December 12, 2004.
(16) Al-Nahar (Lebanon), March 5, 2005.



*********************
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, 
non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the 
Middle East.  Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background 
information, are available on request.

MEMRI holds copyrights on all translations. Materials may only be used with 
proper attribution.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837
Phone: (202) 955-9070
Fax: (202) 955-9077
E-Mail: memri at memri.org
www.memri.org

If you no longer wish to receive this publication via email, please reply 
and enter only the word "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject line.