[LCM Articles] Fisk: "UN Finds Evidence of Official Cover-Up in Hariri Assassination"

[jad mezher]

I think that any party would/should be willing to lay down it's arms for the future of lebanon, and that includes Hizballah.
 
They wanted to play with majority, well the majority replied.

Nader Shaar <nshaar at MIT.EDU> wrote:
For the sake of clarifying things, this articles can be found for free at "http://www.selvesandothers.org/article9202.html", and it was published in English news paper "The Independent" http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp?story=619657 (as indicated at the very end of the article), however, according to the 8:00 pm news of LBCI, the white house declared that it is not true that President Bush is/was planning to make any kind of statements regarding this issue on Wednesday, and the US strategy is to wait until the investigation is over and act according to its results.

On the other hand, someone "close" to the Hariri family, "who asked to stay anonymous", said that Hariri's two sons left the country for security reasons; WAIT, there is more; Fouad Sanyoura later declared that they were away from their businesses for more than 1 month and they had to go back to take care of business.

Ok, i take back the "clarifying" word from the first sentence; but this is just to say that the article might be "exaggerating things" - after all, it is for sale on the news paper's website for 1 Pound. Everyone has to decide on his/her own on how much of that article to believe.

Aside from that, and since i finally decided to write, I have been reading the emails exchanged and wanted to comment on two points - only two because they are fact-based rather than opinion-based, I keep my opinion to myself. Someone mentioned that the pro-syrians do not ask for the truth behind Hariri's death - i have to object to that statement (unless i misunderstood); maybe some don't, but the majority do (unless I misunderstand them LOL). Another point was that Hizbullah should hand its weapons to the Lebanese army; well I believe that if any other party were in their shoes they wouldn't, so i don't expect them too; however, it was good to hear G. Aoun stating that this issue would be solved by the Lebanese amongst themselves through dialogue, and that he expected "excellent results" ( or at least this is what the translation said - I am English educated)

Thanks.
Nader

At 11:40 PM 3/14/2005 -0500, Loai Naamani wrote:

UN finds evidence of official cover-up in Hariri assassination
Published: Monday, 14 March, 2005, 

By Robert Fisk 

BEIRUT: As the UNs Irish-led special investigation team here prepares to report that the Lebanese authorities have covered up the evidence of the February 14 murder of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, the murdered statesmans two sons have fled Lebanon after hearing that they, too, may be assassinated in the coming week. 

Hariris elder son, Bahar, has flown to Geneva and his brother, Saad, has left hurriedly for Riyadh in Saudi Arabia after warnings that they could be the next targets of their fathers assassins.

US President George W Bush is expected to announce this week that Syrian and perhaps Lebanese military intelligence officers were involved in Hariris killing; the bombing took the lives of 18 other civilians. 

The UNs Irish, Egyptian and Moroccan investigation team has now been joined by three Swiss bomb experts following the discovery that many of the smashed vehicles in Hariris convoy were moved from the scene of the massacre only hours after the bombing and before any time for an independent investigation. 

Yesterday, frogmen were sent into the sea off the Beirut Corniche to recover the wreckage of the one car in the Hariri convoy that was not taken away by the authorities because it was blasted over a hotel wall into the Mediterranean by the force of the explosion. If they successfully recover parts of the vehicle, they may be able to discover the nature of the explosives. 

First reports that Hariri was killed by a car bomb are now being challenged by evidence that the explosives estimated at 600 kilos could have been buried beneath the seafront avenue.

A unique photograph handed to The Independent in Beirut, which is now also in the hands of the UN investigators, was taken scarcely 36 hours before the bombing, on the afternoon of February 12. It shows a drain cover in the road at the exact spot where the explosion was to tear a 30-foot crater in the highway, instantly killing Hariri and many of his bodyguards, two days later. 

The section of roadway is marked off by no parkingsigns which have been left there innocently by staff of the nearby HSBC bank. But a mysterious object can be seen on the left edge of the drain cover. Both the metal cover and an extensive area of roadway around it were atomised by the bomb.

The picture also shows two buildings which the UN police officers are investigating as possible locations of the bomber who detonated the explosives: one is on top of the circular building in the centre of the photo which houses a Beirut hotel as well as a Lebanese army retirement fund office and the other is on top of the civil war-damaged Holiday Inn, which has been empty for more than a decade. A balloon to the right of the photograph regularly takes tourists aloft over Beirut.

Some members of the Hariri family have been told that the report of the UN enquiry team will be so devastating that it will force a full international investigation of the murder of Mr Lebanonand his entourage. 

Hariri opposed the continued Syrian military presence in Lebanon and many Lebanese have blamed the Syrians for his murder. The UN investigators have become convinced that there was a cover-up of evidence.

President Bushs expected remarks on Wednesday will follow two extraordinary days of public demonstrations in Beirut. In the first, today, opposition politicians will try to gather a million followers to protest against the failure of the government to resign and to reveal the truth about Hariris murder as well as to dwarf last Tuesdays half-million strong Hezbollah rally in support of Syria. 

The second, by pro-Syrian demonstrators, is planned to march to the US embassy in the Aukar suburb of east Beirut.

All this is being organised while virulent rumours sweep Beirut. One says that the Syrians have been handing out weapons to pro-Syrian Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Beirut and Ein el-Helwe in Sidon. Investigations by The Independent strongly suggest that this is untrue; the Palestinians have quite enough weapons without being re-supplied, and many of them would like to be disarmed to end lethal inter-Palestinian factional fighting. 

But on Saturday night in the Sabra camp, someone knifed to death an elderly Syrian fruit-seller in what was an obvious attempt to provoke violence. The Independent
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