who dunnit ?

large breasted "pretty-girl demonstrator" --as they have been called by western media , in beruit wearing ,"i love mehlis" t-shirt-- in english--obviously for western media consumption--ala "orange revolution" ala "rose revolution" that toppled regimes in former soviet republics that the west wanted replaced http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Revolution




rafik hariri at his armored mercedes



last saturday i read the report by detlev mehlis summarizing the investigation commissioned by the Un into the assassination of former lebanese prime minister rafik hariri .

mehlis concluded that further investigation was needed ,but it appeared that all roads lead to damascus.

among other things , the investigation turned up cell phone records that led directly to syrian military intelligence officers and a syrian government official had recently committed 'suicide' , which led to speculation of syrian involvement in hariri's assassination going all the way up to syrian leader bashar al assad .

as said , we read the report ,which was online and consisted of about 60 or so pages of pretty damming information as far as syria was concerned--we could not help but think that --plainly speaking -- a clearer trail to assad's syria could not have existed if someone had deliberately planned it that way --and that is exactly how it seems .

these are syrian "intelligence officers" who are planning and carrying out the murder of a billionaire , very popular at home and internationally well-liked and well respected , recent head of state--a murder syrian intelligence will be immediately connected to and condemned for by the world--and especially by france whose leader was a personal friend of hariri --yet these syrian "intelligence officers" not only authorize for purposes of logistics and coordination of the murder, the purchase and use of phone calling cards that can be easily traced to someone connected to them---they also have the suspected assassins call them on their personal cell phones immediately after the explosion from near the site of the bomb blast to confirm that the nefarious deed has been done.

ok --makes sense--i guess ... while planning this complicated operation that had to thwart billionaire hariri's very sophisticated security measures--security measures that experts say were so sophisticated that they could only be breached by the resources and technology of an even more advanced , more sophisticated intel-agency of a national government --the assassins must have somehow forgotten about cellphone records and that these cellphone records would lead right back to them --ok makes sense to me--but i'm sometimes the gullible type.

but then soon after the bomb blast , an obscure , mysterious "terrorist" group supposedly based in syria--and of course with tendrils connected to --yup you guessed it --iraq , that no one in the region had heard much about before claimed responsibility for the hariri killing.

but get this , the "spokesman" for the mysterious group called in to the local offices of al jazeera to claim responsibility for the hariri bomb blast and made the phone call from a phonebooth located next to the building that headquartered syrian intelligence in lebanon --ok the intel boys were tired after a long morning of preparing and overseeing the blowing up of former prime minister's automobile entourage--they were hungry and it was past time for their lunch break --so these "intelligence" agents did what any one of us in their shoes would do--you're on the boss's clock so save time and make the mandatory , all-important , diversionary phonecall throwing blame for the crime onto some obscure, shadowy "terrorist" group from the nearest phonebooth --how about the one right next to your office building ? ---why not?

it's only an assassinated billionaire former prime minister-- no one will ever check to see where the call came from ---besides it's lunch time--gotta beat those crowds rushing out for cous cous, falafel , lamb kebabs ,tea and oranges--right? makes perfect sense to me .

then of course if you are a bunch of generals in syrian military intelligence ,naturally , you further implicate yourselves before the assassination , by making jokes in front of eyewitnesses that "rafik hariri is soon going bye bye " --so these same eyewitnesses can later testify against you to the international commission sure to be sent to investigate the murder of so internationally prominent an individual.

then as the 'piece d'resistance' or 'coup d'grace'-- however you want to look at it---allow there to be another eyewitness who claims to have personally seen in a syrian military camp , the now infamous white mitsubishi van being loaded with the 1000 kgs of explosives that investigators claim was the truck bomb that supposedly killed hariri and 20 others .

allow the person who claims to have driven the now infamous white van from the military base to the staging area not only to live --but to live to testify against you before the international investigative commission that is certain to arrive following the assassination in broad daylight of a billionaire former head of state--who is a personal friend of the leader of france --ok that makes sense too--i guess it does--some where...

and then allow that same explosive-laden , highly visible, attention grabbing ,easily remembered, white mitsibishi van --originally stolen from japan-- btw , to be photographed by bank surveillance cameras at the crime scene only minutes before the assassination ---driving five times slower than normal traffic--making absolutely certain that it gets picked up on that surveillance camera and recorded on film for posterity --and of course recorded permanently in the mind's eyes of any survivors at the blast scene (as in , "did you notice anything unusual before the explosion ,sir ? was there anything out of the ordinary that you remember before the bomb went off ma'm ? " )

then there's the blast site itself--photos show a huge, enormous crater---large jagged chunks of asphalt blown out and the dirt under the street revealed --photos that led many to believe that the bomb had to have been planted underground and detonated by wire--hariri's security included expensive electronic jamming devices to thwart an iraqi styled cellphone-triggered roadside bomb.


a shape charge could have been planted underground and detonated by wire or by laser

hariri's sophisticated electronic protection gear plus the the damage to the street led many to believe that the bomb had to have been planted underground and detonated by wire--it led some to believe that a shape charge had been planted there because the force of the blast has to be focussed in order to do that type of damage to the street and leave that deep a crater as a result. from photographs , the estimates of the depth of the hariri bomb crater were 12 to 14 feet deep and 32 feet in diameter

note that in this quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Bali_terrorist_bombing a similar 1000kg bomb ,also left in a white mitsubishi van btw, in the infamous 2002 bali bombing , resulted in only a 3 foot crater

At 23:05 (15:05 UTC) on 12 October 2002, an electronically triggered bomb hidden in a backpack ripped through Paddy's Bar. The device was small and crude, but killed the backpack owner, likely a suicide operative. The injured immediately fled into the street. Approximately ten to fifteen seconds later, a second much more powerful car bomb of close to 1,000 kg, concealed in a white Mitsubishi van was detonated by remote control in front of the Sari Club. Windows throughout the town were blown out. The explosion left a three feet deep crater [1]. There were scenes of horror and panic inside and outside the bars. The local hospital was unable to cope with the number of injured, particularly burn victims. Many of the wounded, of all nationalities, were flown by the Royal Australian Air Force to hospitals in Darwin and other Australian cities.

Almost simultaneously, a third bomb detonated in the street in front of the American consulate in Bali. This bomb caused no injuries, and only modest damage.

yet in hariri's assassination in beruit , despite this huge crater that was reportedly so deep that the grey material seen at the bottom of it was said to actually have been flotsam carried in by seawater seeping in from below -- irish , italian and german bomb experts told detlev mehlis' Un commission that the hariri blast was caused by an above ground explosion

click for larger version

'Truck bomb' killed Rafik Hariri
Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed by a truck filled with explosives, say UN investigators.

The head of the team, Detlev Mehlis, told reporters this contradicted widespread speculation that the explosives were buried under the road.

Some Lebanese believed recent road works near the attack site suggested officials may have been involved in a plot to assassinate Hariri.

His death led to protests calling for the withdrawal of Syria from Lebanon.

Syrian troops withdrew last month following a wave of opposition protests blaming Damascus for the assassination.

Correspondents say the investigators' report opens up the field of possible suspects to beyond Lebanon or Syria.

Investigation continues

It is still not clear whether the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber, Mr Mehlis said.

"The explosion was beyond any reasonable doubt above ground," he said. "There was no indication of an underground explosion."

Mr Mehlis, whose team arrived in Lebanon at the end of May, said he would question officials in charge at the time of the attack - including Syrians.

"We will of course investigate everyone who was in one way or another responsible for security in Lebanon at the time of the crime," he said.

Mr Hariri was killed in the bomb attack in Beirut on 14 February, along with 19 other people. Syria denies any involvement.

The investigation continues as Lebanon holds staggered parliamentary elections over four Sundays with the last round being held this weekend.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4103374.stm

Published: 2005/06/17 12:21:22 GMT

© BBC

before the mehlis report , observers believed because of the size and depth of the hariri bomb crater that it had to be a planted bomb and possibly a shape charge which could be detonated by remote control device like a laserbeam which unlike cellphone signals , would not be stopped by hariri's security's electronic jamming devices --such bombs are the forte along with traceless poisons , of israeli mossad .

despite 20 years of israeli military occupation in southern lebanon and the open cooperation and collaboration of the lebanese phalangist parties and militias with ariel sharon and the israeli military during the decades of israeli occupation, and despite a bloody history of direct israeli interference in lebanese political affairs before , during and after lebanon's 15 year civil war-- the mehlis report seems to overlook the possibility of mossad still operating in lebanon carrying out tel aviv's and likud's right wing interventionist agenda and turns its full investigative focus on syrian and lebanese intelligence --focusses on truck bombs rather than below ground planted explosives and suicide truck-bombers rather than more sophisticated wire or laser detonation .



bashar al assad


syrian intel organizations these past decades have been characterized as cautious and meticulous --not prone to bold or foolhearty moves--like the cautious and meticulous bashar assad--syrian leader the past five years and his father the late hafez al assad , who ruled for decades before him .

the killing of hariri was a very bold move --the assads have always seemed cautious men --and as the younger assad himself and several other observers have pointed out ---killing hariri would not gain syria anything--in fact it would , and has, cost them much locally and internationally .

because of recent events forcing syria out of lebanon , hezbollah stands alone if israel decides to return to lebanon to extend israeli regional influence (google "greater israel"), to gain access to lebanese drinking water--water is almost as valuable as oil in the middle east --or to avenge the israeli's earlier defeat in lebanon at the hands of hezbollah , iran , the plo and syria , or to aid the neo-cons in placing a bush-friendly regime in power in beruit that would permit Us air and naval access to the country's ports and air-space making "unreliable" turkey much more of an obsolete ally in Us military planning for future operations in the middle east /western asia region.


as the cries for economic sanctions against syria along with the cries for regime change echo louder from washington , tel aviv , london and possibly paris , the question again must be asked who REALLY killed rafik hariri ?

and also the question must be asked , why would a cautious syrian regime that was bending over backwards to appease the americans --cooperating significantly with the bush administration in the "war on terror" and trying to cooperate in the "war in iraq" , risk everything--including its own existence, in a bold and equally foolish gamble to kill the popular hariri who was well-liked not only in the region but well-liked in the west--and then after killing this former head of state --leave a trail a blindman could follow right up to their own doorstep in damascus ?

again the most important question is still left unanswered --"who benefits?"