Syria's 'Hit List' Seen Marking 17 More Prominent Lebanese for Assassination

A renowned journalist is considering moving abroad and a wealthy cabinet minister is in the market for a state-of-the-art bomb detector, as fears of a "hit list" do the rounds in Beirut following a spate of assassinations linked to Syria's secret service. Rumors buzz through Beirut's newsrooms and coffee shops about who is next marked for elimination from among the prominent anti-Syria Lebanese politicians or journalists after three politicians and a journalist were killed in unclaimed attacks since February. Lebanese opposition leaders have pointed a finger at the Assad regime in Damascus and President Lahoud's affiliated regime in Beirut for the murders. They contend the assassinations are plotted and executed by Syrian intelligence operatives with affiliates from Lahoud's still unbroken security services doing the cover-up. Some sources speak of 17 politicians and prominent journalists remain on Syria's 'hit list,' including Druze leader Walid Jumblat, Saad Rafik Hariri and jailed Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea as well as Elias Atallah, leader of the Democratic Left Movement and Fares Soeid of Qornet Shahwan. "I know that a list of men to assassinate is circulating ... I don't know which names are on the list," said Atallah, whom the AFP described as dyed-in-the-wool anti-Syrian politician and new Member of Parliament. Atallah had joined the March 14 opposition uprising that forced Syria to end its 29-year reign on terror in Lebanon last April, in the aftermath of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination. "I don't know if mine is written on it, but it would be an honor for me to be one of the likely targets for enemies of democracy," the 59-year-old Atallah said. He is not the only one who is convinced that a list of people "to eliminate" is circulating somewhere. Nabil Hawi, brother of Communist leader George Hawi who was killed earlier in a car-bombing attack in Beirut earlier in the week, told a radio reporter that "George had in his possession a list of political figures to eliminate but he did not divulge it." Hawi was pro-Syrian during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war but became outspoken against Damascus after Hariri's murder. The anti-Syrian movement lost another of its advocates on June 2 when journalist and author Samir Kassir, of An Nahar, was killed in a car bomb explosion outside his Beirut home in the same method employed in Hawi's murder. The killings have led the United States to increase pressure on Syria, with administration officials saying they suspect Syrian intelligence operatives are still in Lebanon. Jumblat has publicly ascertained that he is on Syria's 'death list,' calling on the population of the Druze Hinterland to stay "sensible and calm" if he is assassinated. "This is my last will and testament," he said, warning the Druze community against repeating the blood bath of 1977, when some 200 Christian villagers were cut-throated in the aftermath of the assassination of Walid's father, Kamal Jumblat. Jumblat urged to be given a public funeral similar to the million-strong procession that carried Rafik Hariri to his downtown Beirut grave. (Naharnet-AFP- AP photo shows mourners waving red flags in support of the Communist party during the funeral procession of slain former Lebanese Communist party leader George Hawi in Beirut)

U.N. Commission Questions President's Son in Hariri's Murder

A consensus has been reached by the Saad Hariri-led majority of the new parliament to put President Lahoud's expulsion drive on the back burner, pending the outcome of the ongoing Beirut investigation by an international Commission of Inquiry into Rafik Hariri's assassination, the Beirut daily As Safir reported on Monday. The commission, which is headed by Berlin Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, has lately been focusing the probe on people within President Lahoud's orbit. It questioned Lahoud's son-in-law, outgoing Defense Minister Elias Murr, and then subjected the president's Aide-de-Camp, Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hamdan, to a 10-hour interrogation session last week and searched his office at the Baabda palace as commander of the Presidential Guards Brigade. As Safir said Monday that the commission had later questioned the President's son, Ralf Lahoud, and Hamdan's brother, Majed, who co-own the private security firm responsible for the Saint George area where Hariri was assassinated by a truck-bomb that also killed his economic advisor Bassel Fleihan and 20 other Lebanese, including six bodyguards. The paper gave no further details about the interrogation of Ralf Lahoud and Majed Hamdan. But it noted that Lebanon's examining magistrate Emile Eid had questioned on his own former Internal Security Forces Commander Ali Hajj about post-assassination attempts to remove all traces from the crime scene, including the lifting of all cars of Hariri's devastated motorcade. The interrogation focused, too, on the mysterious disappearance of a BMW car from the assassination location. The president has in the meantime escalated his counter-offensive against widespread demands for his resignation, vowing in an interview with CNN's White House correspondent Wolf Blitzer to stay on in power throughout the Syrian-dictated 3-year extension of his term through Nov. 24, 2007. "I shall stay on to the end of my mandate. The extension has been willed by Lebanese parliament members," Lahoud said on the third straight day of public assertion that also sought to exonerate Syria from guilt in the Hariri assassination and the subsequent murders of An Nahar's columnist Samir Kassir and Communist Party leader George Hawi. Lahoud repeated his contention that either Israel or Islamic extremists were behind these murders.

Hawi's Family Berates Gen. Aoun

George Hawi's family has issued a harsh statement against Gen. Aoun for his reaction to the Communist Leader's assassination, particularly a remark that the victim was 'involved' in several controversial events.
"There are no words capable of describing the irresponsible statements by a person who tried to market himself as part of the democratic salvation process and part of the opposition's struggle for change and then became part of the campaign to muzzle voices and circulate the horror lists (of assassinations)." the statement said.

"We never thought that Gen. Aoun, for whose return to the homeland our beloved martyr spared no effort to bring about, would gloat over his assassination and seek to cover up the assassins which could encourage further assassinations…" the statement added.

Aoun has sought to exonerate President Lahoud's Syrian-tailored regime from guilt in any of the assassinations that rocked Lebanon over the past five months, which were all blamed by the opposition on Syria's intelligence service and its affiliates from the Lebanese security apparatuses that were long shielded by the president

U.S. Moves from 'Suspicion' to 'Certainty' on Syrian Saboteurs in Lebanon

The United States is certain that Syrian intelligence agents remain in Lebanon and are exerting a destabilizing influence, a senior U.S. state department official said Thursday in London. The official, who asked not to be named, said the United States was extremely concerned about the situation in Lebanon after two political assassinations this month and three since February, when former prime minister Rafik Hariri was killed along with his economic advisor Bassel Fleihan and 20 others, including 6 bodyguards. Syria withdrew the last of its troops in April to end a 29-year presence. But the official said: "There is no question that Syrian military intelligence agents have stayed behind and are asserting a very negative influence." U.S. officials had previously said that they suspected Syrian intelligence agents had remained in Lebanon after the military pull-out. But the official said Thursday "we are now certain of it." He declined to give more specifics. He said no other country had disputed the U.S. contention that Syrian agents were still operating in Lebanon, but the United Nations -- which has sent a verification team to the country -- has left open the question. The official spoke to a small group of reporters after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with her French counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy ahead of a meeting in London later in the day of Group of Eight foreign ministers. Both Rice and Douste-Blazy reiterated a call for Syria to respect U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 which France and the United States promoted last year. It called for a full withdrawal of all Syrian forces from Lebanon and an end to foreign interference in the country. Douste-Blazy urged the international community to be firm in dealing with Syria, saying the country had to respect resolution 1559 in full. "Resolution 1559 must be respected and the firmness of the international community must be expressed in the coming days vis-a-vis Syria," he said, following the London meeting with Rice.(AFP)

Jumblat Pleads with Druze to 'Stay Sensible if I am Assassinated'

Walid Jumblat has appealed to the population of the Druze hinterland to "remain sensible and calm" if he is assassinated next on the hit list that claimed the lives of ex-Premier Hariri, his economic advisor Bassel Fleihan, An Nahar's Journalist Samir Kassir and Communist ideologue George Hawi in the last five months. "This is my last will and testament," Jumblat said in an interview aired by Beirut's NBN TV network late night Wednesday, grabbing newspaper page-one banner-lines Thursday morning. "No to agitation and no to what happened on March 16, 1977." This was a reference to the throat-slitting bloodbath in which some 200 Lebanese Christian villagers perished after the assassinations of Walid's father Kamal Jumblat in the aftermath of Syria's military intervention in Lebanon to halt the civil war. Walid has squarely accused Syria's Baathist regime of engineering his father's assassination. Jumblat, who has been confirmed by the May 29-June 19 parliamentary elections as the standard-bearer of Lebanon's Druze community, said he wanted his funeral, if he is murdered like his father, to be like the million-strong farewell given to Rafik Hariri Feb. 15 and will be given to George Hawi on Friday June 24. The local media expressed alarm over what it called 'Jumblat's moving plea,' which reflected a conviction that Syria's secret service assassins would keep after the Lebanese political leaders who forced the Assad regime to terminate a 29-year reign of terror in Lebanon.

Anti-Syrian politician assassinated in Beirut

BEIRUT (Reuters) - An anti-Syrian politician was killed in Lebanon on Tuesday when a bomb ripped through his car, two days after parliamentary elections brought victory for an alliance opposed to Damascus' role in the country.

George Hawi, a former leader of the Lebanese Communist Party, died instantly in the blast in the Wata Musaitbi neighborhood of Beirut, witnesses and security sources.

"After the explosion, the car kept going and then I saw the driver screaming and he jumped out of the window. We rushed to the car and saw Hawi in the passenger seat with his guts out," Rami Abu Dargham, who owns a sandwich shop nearby, told Reuters.

The 400-gram (one pound) charge was under the passenger seat of Hawi's Mercedes and detonated by remote control, judicial sources said. His driver apparently escaped serious injury.

It was the second killing of an anti-Syrian figure in Beirut this month. Newspaper columnist Samir Kassir was killed on June 2 when a similar explosion destroyed his car outside his home.

The United States said after Kassir's killing it had information about a Syrian hit-list targeting Lebanese leaders. Damascus has denied the claim and denounced Hawi's killing.

Syria bowed to global pressure to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in April after anti-Syrian protests swept the country when former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri was assassinated in a truck bombing in February.

A U.N. team that visited Lebanon certified that Syria had ended its 29-year military presence. But U.N. chief Kofi Annan ordered the team back after Kassir's killing amid claims by Lebanese anti-Syrian opposition figures that Syrian intelligence agents were still running free in the country.

U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis questioned the head of Lebanon's presidential guard as part of an international probe into Hariri's killing, a U.N. official said.

Syria's critics in Lebanon have urged Colonel Mustafa Hamdan, the most senior of Lebanon's pro-Syrian security chiefs to remain in power since Hariri's murder, to step down.

Next: Berri Remains Speaker, Geagea is Out, Lahoud's Fate Uncertain

Naharnet

Premier Mikati has said his government would be constitutionally out of office as of midnight Monday-Tuesday, when the mandate of Lebanon's outgoing parliament comes to an end. "As of then, I will be a caretaker prime minister," Mikati said in a new conference he held at his hometown of Tripoli as the curtain was lowered on the May-June elections. The premier said the President Pro Tempore of the new parliament, jurist Edmond Naim of Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces, will in his capacity as the eldest elected legislator convene the new legislature later this week to elect a new Speaker and Vice Speaker. An Nahar has said the session would probably be held June 26. Once the Speaker and his deputy are installed, President Lahoud will automatically begin consultations with parliament's new blocs to designate a prime minister. Mikati is widely tipped as the front-runner with Saad's consent. Mikati has proven himself capable of handling Gen. Lahoud while inexperienced Saad Hariri is bound to clash with the president who has taken more power into his hands than the Taif constitution allows. "I am not a premiership aspirant and I do not plan to return to the Grand Serail. But if the majority in parliament wants me, I will not shy away," said Mikati. He stressed that among the top priorities of the upcoming government and the new parliament is the economic reforms that have to be legislated in order to get the international community to extend economic and financial assistance to navigate Lebanon out of its fiscal straits, Mikati added. Spokesmen for Hariri and Jumblat say Geagea's parole is their top immediate priority followed by the question of removing or retaining Lahoud as president. A new electoral law also is a senior priority of the opposition once it takes power, they added

Lebanon enters final, fierce stage of election

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The final stage of Lebanese parliamentary elections on Sunday will either give a Muslim-led anti-Syrian coalition a firm grip on the reins of power or start a frantic round of horse-trading.

Voting moves north in the fourth round of the first elections in three decades without Syrian troops in Lebanon.

The anti-Syrian bloc of the son of slain Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, Saad al-Hariri, which swept Beirut three weeks ago, squares up to pro-Syrian figures backed by an erstwhile sowrn enemy of Damascus, former army general Michel Aoun.

Aoun's victory in the Christian Maronite heartlands in last week's polls, five weeks after he returned from exile, stunned the disparate movement whose street protests focused anger on neighbouring Syria after Hariri's killing in February.

Aoun's triumph also hit Saad al-Hariri's predictions that his movement would take two thirds of parliament's 128 seats.

"This is not the final stage of the election, for you and for us it is the last chance to save Lebanon, to reclaim Lebanon and to end tutelage for good," Hariri said this week.

His alliance of Sunni Muslims, Christians and Druze will need 21 of the 28 seats still up for grabs to win the majority needed to rise above Lebanon's sectarian, tribal politics and shape policies away from Syria.

Such a majority would make for the first assembly dominated by anti-Syrian figures since the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.

UNLIKELY ALLIANCES

Hariri is likely to fare well among fellow Sunni Muslims, who form more than half of the northerners.

About 45 percent are Christians, but Shi'ite groups will stay out of Sunday's poll as hardly any Shi'ite Muslims live in the north.

If Hariri falls short of a national majority, parliament will be split into three main groups -- his anti-Syrian movement, the pro-Syrian group dominated by Shi'ite Muslim groups Hizbollah and Amal, and Aoun and his followers.

That would likely result in bargaining and shifting alliances as the blocs jostle for the main say over policy.

Aoun shocked many Lebanese with his decision to back the pro-Syrians standing on Sunday, after falling out with his fellow anti-Syrians who were unprepared to give him many seats.

The Christian former general was exiled to France after his "war of liberation" against Syrian forces was crushed in 1990. But he says his opposition to the Syrians ended when Damascus pulled its troops out of its small neighbour in April.

The pro-Syrian list includes former interior minister Suleiman Franjieh, a Maronite Christian with strong clan links there.

Guerrilla group Hizbollah and its allies have 35 seats in parliament after sweeping the mainly Shi'ite south and winning 10 seats in last week's vote in the east.

Aoun and his pro-syrian allies, Fight 'Dirty Linen' War with Opposition Leaders on Elections Eve

Electioneering fever has flared into a full blown 'war of dirty linen' as Gen. Aoun and his pro-Syrian allies traded propaganda barrages with Christian opposition leaders aligned with Saad Hariri and Walid Jumblat on the eve of the third stage of the May-June elections in Mount Lebanon.
"It's a free for all dirty linen flare-up," roared an 8-column banner-line across An Nahar's front page on Saturday, deploring the war of words that broke out on local TV screens on the eve of the so-called mother-of-all-election-battles in the Baabda-Aley district, the Kesrouan-Jbeil constituency and the Metn.

There were duels pitting Aoun against Nassib Lahoud, Carlos Edde against Aoun, Aoun against Saad Hariri, Dory Chamoun against Aoun, and Gebran Tueni against Aoun, challenging the General to accept a live TV debate with Qornet Shahwan legislator Fares Soaid.

Even President Lahoud has jumped into the fray, accusing Jumblat without mentioning him by name of setting Beirut aflame, burning the Mountain and plundering state funds earmarked for the repatriation of Christians Who were forced to flee their homes in the Chouf Mountains during the 1975-1990 civil war.

The government has taken extra security precautions to guard against violence in Sunday's elections in Mt. Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. Riot police patrols are already reported on the move in major population centers in the two hotly contested regions.

U.S. accuses Syria of 'intimidation, interference' in Lebanon

WASHINGTON – Syria has not fully withdrawn its intelligence forces from neighboring Lebanon and is interfering with elections there, perhaps even organizing political assassinations, the Bush administration alleged Friday.
U.S. officials stopped short, however, of accusing the Syrians of carrying out either of two recent political killings.
"There are reports that we have been hearing about for some time about Syrian hit lists, targeting key Lebanese public figures of various political and religious persuasion, for assassination," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
A senior State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because sensitive intelligence was involved said the United States thinks reports of a hit list are credible.
The Bush administration offered no specifics, but said Syria has continued a pattern of intimidation born of nearly two decades of de facto political and military control in Lebanon. The salvo appeared aimed at asserting international disapproval of Syrian influence as Lebanese elections continue this weekend.
"We do see a pattern of the use of threat and violence to create an atmosphere of intimidation inside Lebanon," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "And we believe that that pattern of threat and intimidation is designed to try to influence the Lebanese people, as they continue their voting."
Syria's ambassador to the United Nations accused Washington of a smear campaign and repeated his country's contention that all its forces left Lebanon weeks ago, in compliance with a United Nations demand.
Lebanese are voting in phased parliamentary elections this month that the anti-Syrian opposition hopes will end Damascus' control of the legislature. Politicians opposed to Syrian influence won big in the first phase in Lebanon's capital, Beirut, but Syrian-allied Hezbollah won in the second round in southern Lebanon. The process runs for another two Sundays.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is sending inspectors back to Lebanon to check reports that Syrian intelligence officials may still be operating in the country, a U.N. official said Friday.
A U.N. team monitoring Syria's compliance on May 23 said all locations formerly used by Syria's military intelligence apparatus were empty, and concluded that "no Syrian military intelligence personnel remain in Lebanon in known locations or in military uniform."
But Lebanese opposition leader Walid Jumblatt said Thursday that Syrian intelligence officials had been spotted in the eastern Bekaa Valley and central Lebanon.
The United States had been pressing for the U.N. team's return.
"It's important for the international community to send a clear message to Syria that it must stop meddling in Lebanon," McClellan said. "I think the world is watching Lebanon closely."
The United States pulled its ambassador to Syria back to Washington to protest the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February, and there are no plans for her return to Damascus.
Hariri's murder in an bomb blast in downtown Beirut led to street demonstrations and emboldened anti-Syrian political groups in Lebanon. It also put new energy into a U.N. effort, sponsored jointly by the United States and France, to oust Syrian forces.
After ignoring the U.N. demand for months, Syria began to remove its 15,000 troops in March, ending a heavy-handed military presence that began as a peacekeeping operation in 1976. When Lebanon's long civil war ended, Syrian troops stayed on.
It was never clear whether all the separate, often shadowy intelligence forces departed as well. Syria says it removed everyone by the end of April.
In recent weeks, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other U.S. officials have suggested that intelligence forces may have stayed behind, but the administration made the charge more explicit Friday.
"What we do know is, and we have great concerns about, the continuing presence of Syrian intelligence operatives inside Lebanon," McCormack said.
In New York, Syrian U.N. Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad said the U.S. accusations reflect displeasure at the results of the latest round of voting. The United States, he said, wants "to deepen differences between different Lebanese forces, and to create problems for a constructive relationship between Syria and Lebanon."

Source: Associated Press 

Saad and Sitrida Take Akkar by Storm, Aoun Rattles Byblos

Saad Rafik Hariri has braved assassination threats to make his first foray into northern Lebanon and announce a coalition ticket with Sitrida Samir Geagea for all 12 seats of the Dinniyeh-Akkar-Besharri constituency as Gen. Aoun announced his list for the Kesrouan-Jbeil district on platform of "change and reform." Both Hariri and the General made their announcements from behind bullet-proof glass curtains set up on makeshift podiums in Akkar and Byblos townships, introducing a head-on collision for supremacy in Lebanon's first free-from-Syria parliament. Hariri, whose Beirut bandwagon is now rolling fast across the north and the Western Bekaa Valley, is fiercely allied with Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces, Walid Jumblat's Progressive Socialist Party and all groups banding in the Qornet Shahwan coalition of center-right Christian politicians under Patriarch Sfeir's wing. Aoun aligned his Free Patriotic Movement with Talal Arslan's Lebanese Democratic Party in the Druze hinterland, Suleiman Franjieh in north Lebanon, Elie Skaff in Zahleh and formed his own personal axis in Kesrouan-Jbeil of Lebanon's Christian heartland. The General reiterated his determination to bring all officials of the post-civil war era in the past 15 years for corrupting the administration and plundering state funds within Syrian-sponsored 'mafias.' The entire political class that reigned over the last 15 years, including presidents, premiers, speakers, cabinet ministers and parliament members should be subjected to accountability, the General said. Hariri, in turn, noted that he was fulfilling his father's dream of visiting the north, which was long declared off limits for him by Syria's now defunct hegemony. "We are now transiting the crucial interregnum between external trusteeship over our decision-making and the assumption of the decision-making process by ourselves," the young Hariri said. His northern thrust despite security threats cemented the Hariri family emergence as the undisputed standard-bearer of Lebanon's Sunni community, which is the nation's biggest voting bloc. Interior ministry official figures show that there are 200,000 Sunni eligible voters more than the Shiite community, which is Lebanon's largest single sect population-wise. Saad was flanked by Sitrida Geagea and Tayyar Al Mustaqbal's legislator Ahmed Fatfat, when he read out to some 50,000 cheering crowds the names of the coalition ticket with the LF. He then brought Mrs. Geagea to a face-to-face reconciliation with the prominent Sunni clerics in Akkar to head off the threat of a fundamentalist Sunni backlash in the June 19 polls against Samir Geagea's wife and the second LF candidate for Besharri seats, Elie Kairouz.

U.S. Senator Asserts Syria Assassinated Hariri

A senior U.S. senator has squarely accused Syria of engineering ex-Premier Hariri's assassination, saying he has seen enough evidence during a recent trip to Beirut and Damascus to pin the crime on the Assad regime.
"I have seen enough of the evidence on Hariri to know that they were behind it," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, after a meeting with U.N. chief Kofi Annan at his New York office on Monday. The charge was trumpeted by the Beirut media Tuesday.

"I don't think there is a single person in Lebanon and probably no one in Syria who doesn't believe they (Syrians) were behind it," Leahy told reporters. "There is no question -- no question in my mind -- that they were behind the assassination," he said, disputing Syria's persistent denial of any involvement.

Leahy said he agreed with the Bush administration on pursuing the assassination in Beirut last week of An Nahar's anti-Syria journalist Samir Kassir, but that he had seen no evidence on Syria's involvement.(Naharnet-VOA)

Lebanon's Elections Turn Violent, Bomb Explodes Ahead of Saad's Trip North

Lebanon's elections are turning ugly. A grenade blast terrorized the population of Seir Al Dinnieh near Tripoli last night Monday ahead of a planned visit by Saad Hariri, while Hizbullah motorcyclists clashed with residents of Beirut's Christian residential neighborhood of Ashrafiyeh, leaving one man injured and a motorcycle burned. An Nahar said some 40 Hizbullah motorcyclists crisscrossed Ashrafiyeh's Sassin Square, brandishing Hizbullah and Amal flags to celebrate the sweeping victory of the two allied groups in south Lebanon's elections on Sunday. "This sparked a shouting match that developed into a battle with sticks with Ashrafiyeh's young men. One man was injured and a motorcycle burned before army troops raced in to disengage the combatants," An Nahar said. In the north, a grenade was tossed at a field in the Bkarsouna village abutting Seir el Dinniyeh at 9:40 p.m. Monday night, causing panic among residents but no casualties, An Nahar reported. Police cordoned off the scene and set up checkpoints in the area. Hariri is scheduled to lunch with Tayyar Al Mustaqbal's legislator Ahmed Fatfat at his Seir el Dinnyeh house on Tuesday and then drive to Akkar to announce the Hariri election list in north Lebanon's first constituency in a coalition with Samir Geagea's Lebanese forces. The list includes Geagea's wife, Sitrida. "Saad's trip may be postponed or even cancelled in light of information received by Koreitem from local and external sources about a dangerous security action in the works," As Safir said. "Saad's political and security aides have been engaged in overnight emergency consultations to decide on the prospects of the northern foray." The elections in Mount Lebanon and the Bekaa on June 12 and in northern Lebanon June 19 have shaped up into a make-or-brake confrontation between Gen. Aoun and the opposition coalition of Qornet Shahwan, Geagea's LF, Hariri and Walid Jumblat, who jetted to Paris on a private visit on Monday.

U.N. Moves to Stop Syria from Cheating on Lebanon's Evacuation

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has instructed his personal U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen to leave quickly for Damascus to see President Assad and make certain Syria was not cheating on its evacuation of Lebanon. Officials at the U.N. headquarters in New York refused to disclose the reason for Roed-Larsen's urgent mission. But diplomatic sources said Annan's move was prompted by Lebanese opposition charges that the Assad regime had left behind plenty of secret intelligence cells that staged a spate of bombings in Lebanon's Christian heartland in the past two months and assassinated An Nahar's journalist Samir Kassir, a fierce critic of Syria, in Beirut last week. The official U.N. announcement said Roed-Larsen was asked to travel to Damascus "as soon as possible" to see President Assad in connection with Security Council Resolution 1559, which demands that Syria should withdraw its army and intelligence service from Lebanon completely, saying also Hizbullah must disarm. The announcement came three days after the United States said it would like the U.N. Security Council to expand an international investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri to include the killing of journalist Kassir. Roed-Larsen stepped down as Annan's top U.N. Middle East envoy last year but agreed to become his special envoy for implementation of Resolution 1559. A U.N. military team verified the pullout of all Syrian troops from Lebanon on May 23 but said it could not be certain that all intelligence operatives have left the country. The Beirut media said Tuesday the team might be ordered back to Lebanon if Roed-Larsen's talks with Assad were unsatisfactory. Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said: "certainly we have several outstanding issues, and at the top the list is the full implementation of Resolution 1559." U.N. associate spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced Roed-Larsen's trip, saying "the Secretary-General expects that the United Nations and the government of Syria will continue to work closely together to ensure the full implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559." Pressed on the urgency of the trip, he said implementation of the resolution is continuing "and there are bound to be regular contacts between the U.N. and the Syrian leadership on this, but I have no further details on their specific agenda."(AP-Naharnet)

Opposition Sacks Aoun, Vows 'Unto Death' Crusade to Depose Lahoud

A national schism has developed in the aftermath of writer Samir Kassir's assassination as the Pan-Lebanon opposition front sacked Gen. Aoun from its ranks and vowed 'unto death' campaign to overthrow President Lahoud, while the Gen. rushed to Lahoud's defense, holding the opposition indirectly responsible for Kassir's death. "Yes, definitely we have expelled Gen. Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement," Marwan Hamadeh said over slain ex-Premier Hariri's Future TV network hard on the heels of an opposition declaration that formally proclaimed the General a renegade, citing his electoral coalition pacts with "the lingering symbols of Syria's tutelage over Lebanon." "The situation must henceforth be crystal clear. Ambiguities are no longer permissible," Said Hamadeh, who miraculously survived a car-bomb assassination attempt near his Beirut house Oct. 1. "The General has to either quit his election pacts with the lingering symbols of Syria's trusteeship or face a head-on confrontation with the united opposition front." Hamadeh also hinted that the opposition might stage a million-strong demonstration to march from Beirut's downtown Martyrs Square to the Presidential palace in Baabda to force Lahoud to resign. An Nahar's General Manager Gebran Tueni, in turn, made a fervent appeal to Gen. Aoun to return to the opposition fold for a united, collective drive to wipe out "the last traces and the last vestiges of Syria's hegemony over Lebanon." Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement representative Jubran Bassil attended the opening part of the opposition meeting at the Bristol hotel, but walked out in a huff minutes later, saying the opposition, which holds the interior and justice ministries, "should do better and act faster" in coping with security blowups. The 2-hour Bristol meeting issued a statement read to the press by Leader of the Democratic Left Movement Elias Attallah, which called for : 1- Continuation of the Independence Uprising. 2- Demanding the resignation of the President of the Republic in his capacity as the actual leader of the police regime, security and intelligence-wise. 3- Asserting the persistence of the parliamentary election as a public referendum. 4- Pleading with the U.N. Secretary-General to send back the international verification commission to ascertain that all Syrian secret services have been withdrawn from Lebanon. 5- A call for a general strike on Friday. Expediting on Aoun's expulsion, Walid Jumblat told reporters after the meeting "those who view the crime of Samir Kassir's assassination a security rather than a political case have taken themselves completely out of the opposition." As for Lahoud's ouster, Jumblat said "there are no halfway solutions. The regime should be deposed in its entirety. We will accept no compromise as part of the opposition had done to return from abroad as a Trojan Horse. There is no way of compromise with the police state. With this regime, you're either dead or alive, victor or vanquished."

Giselle Demands French Role in Investigating Samir's Murder

Police investigators were split Friday over the method with which Samir Kassir was assassinated the day before as his widow, prominent media star Giselle Khoury, demanded an in-depth investigation with France's participation to bring the assassins to justice.
Two theories have been advanced by police: 1-an explosive charge was rigged into Kassir's car engine that went off as he turned on the ignition, 2-a bomb was planted under the driver's seat and was detonated by remote control. There were also varying estimates of the deadly charge, ranging from 5 to 7.5 kilograms.

Investigators found no clue yet as to the identity or motive of the killers. They are still examining the car wreckage for possible latent fingerprints or any other traces that could help the probe.

Spokesmen for various opposition groups, however, have squarely blamed the crime on Syrian intelligence operatives left behind after the April evacuation along with Lebanese affiliates from President Lahoud's regime.

Kassir's widow is on her way back from the U.S. via Paris to Beirut. Her plane is expected to land at Beirut airport at mid-afternoon. She will put the final touches on the public funeral for which the opposition plans to field tens of thousands of mourners to walk behind the coffin.

Al Arabiya, the satellite network where Giselle Khoury works, said Friday she was insisting on France's participation in the investigation into her husband's assassination because he carried French nationality in addition to his Lebanese citizenship.

Blast kills anti-Syria journalist in Beirut

A prominent anti-Syria journalist was killed on Thursday when a bomb destroyed his car as he started the engine in a Christian district of Beirut, security sources said.

They said Samir Qaseer of An-Nahar newspaper died instantly in the blast outside his home in the Ashrafiyeh neighborhood. A woman was wounded.

Qaseer is a front page columnist at Lebanon's leading daily who has for years called for an end to Syria's role in Lebanon. Syria ended its 29-year military presence in Lebanon in April under international and Lebanese popular pressure.

The blast came four days after the start of the country's parliamentary elections, staggered over four Sundays from May 29-June 19.

Source: Reuters