[LCM Articles] Intelligence on Hawi Assasination

[Marwan Chaar]

Also visit: http://www.stratfor.com/

U.S. intelligence firm says bomb that killed Lebanese politician Hawi
unlikely to have come from Syria

By Kristin Dailey
Daily Star staff
Wednesday, June 29, 2005

A leading U.S. private intelligence firm said in a recent report the bomb
that killed former Lebanese anti-Syrian politician George Hawi this month
is unlikely to have emanated from Damascus. Texas-based Statfor, which
specializes in intelligence and counterterrorism analysis, believes the
blast was "so sophisticated that few in the world could have done it."

It adds the "complex nature" of the remote-control technology used in the
attack narrows the list of suspects considerably.

In an interview last week with press agency UPI, Fred Burton, vice president
of Statfor and author of the report, said: "This type of technology is only
available to government agencies."

Burton, who served as a special agent in counterterrorism for both the U.S.
State Department and the U.S. Secret Service, has investigated almost every
bombing against U.S. embassies over the past two decades. Burton also
investigated the first World Trade Center bombing in New York, the killing
of Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin and numerous other terrorist attacks.

Burton said the technology used to kill Hawi was probably also used in the
killing of opposition journalist Samir Kassir, another critic of Syria who
wrote for An-Nahar newspaper, and was killed earlier this month.

The Lebanese opposition blamed Damascus for both bombings and Washington
also issued stern warnings to Syria in the wake of both assassinations.

But Burton, who has investigated a number of Syrian attacks, insists Syria
"lacks the finesse" to orchestrate such assassinations.

"Whoever did this needed to have the capability to access Hawi's schedule.
This is not your run-off-the-mill terrorist," Burton told UPI.

The Stratfor report also suggested another possible suspect, "someone closer
to Damascus with a motive, and cloaked within the Assad name."

The report said: "The case remains open and the list of suspects is a long
one. Rifaat Assad's name cannot yet be crossed off the suspect list just
yet."

President Bashar Assad's uncle, Rifaat Assad, who has been exiled from Syria
by his brother, former President Hafez Assad, has recently been trying for a
comeback to Syrian politics.

In so doing, he has initiated talks with Syrian opposition groups, including
the Muslim Brotherhood.