Lebanon should become one single electoral district instead of keeping the old divisions where you can vote only in your birth section. Then one person one vote should be allowed. The parliament representation would then reflect the true sectarian weights of the various communities. It is clear that some fanatic communities in Lebanon have hopelessly tied their fate to that of foreign powers. The foreign powers are withering away and they like the Kurds are going to be left without any support in a region that has long memories and is growing ever more impatient with any Western influence. I know some on this blog dream of castles in the air and secular ME even though there is increasing ebvidence that in the birth place of separation of church and state here in the US the church and religion are making a full come back.

I know for a fact for I saw it myself that the Kataeb had produced a moral boosting film about the role of the maronite community as the dagger that is aimed and used against the Muslims since the crusades. If they think that they can count on Israel or others to keep them in power they are the most stupid people on earth.

Bellemare: “Selon nos informations, le kamikaze, lui, serait saoudien.”

I rest my case…

Assassinat de Rafic Hariri : les pièges d’une enquête à tiroirs

Par Georges Malbrunot

(…)

Les seuls à livrer des informations sont les membres du camp Hariri. Une proximité se crée entre le numéro deux de la commission, l’Allemand Greg Leman (Gerhard Lehmann; t_d), et Wissam al-Hassan, le responsable de la sécurité d’Hariri, curieusement absent du convoi le jour du drame.
(…)

Mais Brammertz ne veut plus entendre parler du duo de «manipulateurs» Leman-al-Hassan.
(…)

Brammertz écarte toute coopération avec les FSI. Ceux-ci vont profiter de la venue à Beyrouth en juin 2006 de Jean-Louis Bruguière, qui enquêtait sur l’assassinat un an plus tôt du journaliste libano-français Samir Kassir, pour lui «vendre» cette piste chiite. Mais le juge français ne plaidera que mollement la cause des FSI auprès de Brammertz, et il faudra l’intervention d’une ambassade occidentale à Beyrouth pour que la commission d’enquête la prenne en compte. «Mais seulement à partir de mai 2007», nous affirme un de ses membres, «lorsqu’une équipe de Scotland Yard, qui nous avait rejoints avec un logiciel E2 ultraperformant, va faire progresser l’investigation». Les portables du «réseau rouge», comme l’ont baptisé les enquêteurs, étaient en contact avec une vingtaine d’autres téléphones appartenant au «bras opérationnel» du Hezbollah, révèle l’hebdomadaire allemand Spiegel en mai 2009.
(…)

«On avance», répète alors Bellemare aux diplomates français qu’il rencontre. La Mitsubishi a été achetée en contrebande au Japon, puis acheminée par bateau à Dubaï avant d’être de nouveau embarquée jusqu’au port de Tripoli, au Liban-Nord, pour être assemblée, vraisemblablement dans la banlieue sud de Beyrouth, fief du Hezbollah. Selon nos informations, le kamikaze, lui, serait saoudien. Il aurait vécu en Syrie avant de rentrer au Liban, quelques semaines avant l’attentat. Une douzaine d’autres petites mains djihadistes se seraient mêlées à cette phase préparatoire.

La commission continue d’interroger des témoins, en particulier un défecteur iranien, le général Ali Asghari, qui a rejoint la CIA en 2007. «Nous disposions d’un programme de protection des sources très élaboré, explique le membre de la commission. On proposait de les emmener dans un pays nordique, de leur refaire une identité et de leur verser beaucoup d’argent.» Mais très peu auraient accepté de déposer, preuves à l’appui. Malgré ces lacunes, une «image fidèle» du crime se dessine. Teinté d’un habillage djihadiste, il s’appuie vraisemblablement sur un État – la Syrie? l’Iran? – qui instrumente un acteur local, en l’occurrence le Hezbollah. Deux complicités – une salafiste sunnite, l’autre chiite – théoriquement ennemies (sic!). Et entre elles, de solides coupe-feu qui empêchent de remonter jusqu’aux commanditaires. Pour tuer Hariri, ceux-ci ont utilisé toutes leurs factions amies au Liban, selon un enquêteur: «la garde présidentielle pour le nettoyage de la scène de crime, les renseignements militaires pour les écoutes, et un groupe au sein du Hezbollah pour l’opérationnel. Chacun avait une part du travail, sans se connaître, voire sans connaître quelle allait être la cible». (sic!)(…)
Le Figaro, 03/12/2010

(Note that this selection is not a good summary of the article. It contains only new information.)

T desco
Je nais pa Francais,please explain in english,or Arabic

Full Elias Murr cable wikileak:

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/216464

T_desco

“Teinté d’un habillage djihadiste, il s’appuie vraisemblablement sur un État – la Syrie? l’Iran? – qui instrumente un acteur local, en l’occurrence le Hezbollah.”

Why not Israel in the list of state of possible commanditaire?
While none of the mentioned countries have ever organize such a ambitious and “perfect plan”, Israel’s Mossad has done many, the latest being the murder of the Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, of course denied by Israel.
If such a huge plot was going on, is it possible that the Israeli spies in Lebanon ignored it while they had penetrated the wireless telecommunication system of Lebanon.
If they knew, Israel could be at least accused of letting the murder happen.

Apparently the IAEA has no right except to monitor one old nuclear research plant , what do you think? ,

»Syria tells U.N. atom body: focus on Israel, not us
2:18pm EST
By Sylvia Westall and Fredrik Dahl

VIENNA (Reuters) – Syria dismissed on Friday calls to grant U.N. nuclear inspectors prompt access to the remains of a suspected nuclear site bombed to rubble by Israel, saying they should focus their investigation on the Jewish state instead.

Damascus’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Washington’s suggestion that the IAEA could seek broader inspection powers to enable it to examine sites in Syria was “nonsense” and he did not believe it was likely.

“I think it is an agenda which some countries are pursuing,” Bassam Al-Sabbagh told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation board. “It is the time for dialogue and cooperation which is going on between Syria and the agency.”

For more than two years Syria has blocked IAEA access to the remains of a facility in the desert which U.S. intelligence reports say was a nascent North Korean-designed nuclear reactor intended to produce bomb fuel.

The site, known as either al-Kibar or Dair Alzour, was bombed to pieces by Israel in 2007. Syria, an ally of Iran, denies ever having had an atom bomb program.

The IAEA visited it in 2008 but wants follow-up access to take samples from the remains which could help its probe.

Washington hinted again on Friday that the IAEA may need to consider invoking its “special inspection” mechanism to give it authority to look anywhere necessary in Syria at short notice if Damascus did not cooperate with the agency’s requests.

“Absent that cooperation, the United States believes the (IAEA) board will have little choice but to consider appropriate action,” U.S. envoy Glyn Davies said. He said countries needed to take steps in the coming months to “preserve the credibility of the IAEA and the international safeguards regime.”

SPECIAL INSPECTION?

Earlier this year the IAEA gave some weight to suspicions of illicit nuclear work at Dair Alzour, saying that uranium traces found during the last visit pointed to nuclear-related activity.

In a report last month IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said Syria was not allowing inspectors to visit numerous suspect sites and had provided scant or inconsistent information about its atomic activities.

Amano said on Thursday he had urged Syria in a letter to provide his inspectors with prompt access to Dair Alzour, which Damascus says is a non-nuclear military site.

But Al-Sabbagh said the IAEA should turn its attention to Israeli sites. Syria has suggested the uranium traces came with Israeli munitions used in the attack.

The IAEA says it is unlikely that they were of a type of uranium sometimes used in munitions as a hardening agent.

“I think it is time now for the agency to visit the Israeli sites which were used for preparations for the attack … it is time for the agency to move on the Israeli side,” he said, when asked if Syria would grant the IAEA’s request for access.

Arab states as well as Iran say Israel poses a threat to regional stability, with its presumed atomic arsenal — the only Middle East country to have such arms. Israel neither confirms nor denies it has nuclear weapons.

Highlighting growing Western frustration, the European Union told the IAEA meeting it had “deep concern” over Syria’s stance.

The IAEA has struggled to get Syria to open up because the country’s basic safeguards treaty with the agency covers only its one declared atomic facility, an old research reactor.

Diplomats and analysts believe the IAEA will avoid escalating the dispute at a time of rising tension with Iran, which the West suspects of seeking nuclear weapons.

The agency last resorted to special inspection powers in 1993 in North Korea, which still withheld access and later developed a nuclear bomb capacity in secret.

T_desco

Is there a deadline for the TSL? I read somewhere that the Chapter 7 terminates by end year.
I also read that Bellemare is going on vacation from 20 Dec to 10 january. Will the accusation be delayed again?
This is what L’Orient-Le jour (pro 14 March) think will happen. One journalist believes that with the Wikileaks leaking of a blunt request by Bellemare for intelligence help from the then US ambassador in Lebanon and the revelations about Israel having infiltrated Lebanon telecommucation, any accusation based exclusively on the telephones evidence will not have enough credibility to be accepted by any concerned country.
Yet another delay will make the world wonder about the efficiency of that tribunal and its credibility
What do you think?

I see what the Iranian ambassador said in a different way , i see it as a warning to the Saudi allied Lebanese that you should accept the Saudi/Syrian deal or you will have to face a Hezbollah /Iranian deal forced on them ,

Syria’s presence in Lebanon does not need the confirmation of the Iranian Ambassador ,

That is the clear message they should take,

This seems to confirm what i said,

Published on San Francisco Examiner (http://www.sfexaminer.com)

Home > A Resurgent Syria Alarms U.S., Israel (Beirut)

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A Resurgent Syria Alarms U.S., Israel (Beirut)
Comments (0)
(c) 2010, The Washington Post

BEIRUT – Syria’s fresh interference in Lebanon and its increasingly sophisticated weapons shipments to Hezbollah have alarmed American officials and prompted Israel’s military to consider a strike against a Syrian weapons depot that supplies the Lebanese militia group, U.S. and Israeli officials say.

The evidence of a resurgence by Syria and its deepening influence across the region has frustrated U.S. officials who sought to change Syrian behavior. But the Obama administration has so far failed through its policy of engagement to persuade the country to abandon its support for Hezbollah and sever its alliance with Iran.

“Syria’s behavior has not met our hopes and expectations over the past 20 months, and Syria’s actions have not met its international obligations,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the Lebanese daily an-Nahar on Nov. 10. “Syria can still choose another path and we hope that it does.”

Israel has complained to the United Nations about long-range missiles and shorter-range rockets that are flowing freely from camps inside Syria to a transit site along the Syrian border with Lebanon and on to Hezbollah. But Israel has so far hesitated to take military action out of concern that such a strike could touch off a conflict even bloodier than the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, said an Israeli military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

In the past, U.S. interest in Syria was mostly limited to coaxing it to make peace with Israel and to end its rule in Lebanon. But now it is increasingly clear that Syria – with its pivotal alliance with Iran and its strategic borders with Israel, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq – has the ability to shape regional developments on a broader scale.

The Obama administration’s efforts at dialogue with Syria have done little to stop the flow of weapons, end Syria’s practice of sheltering Palestinian leaders of militant groups, or counter Syria’s interference in Lebanon, which has undermined the U.S. effort to promote Lebanese independence from external actors.

Although President Barack Obama has named a new ambassador to Syria, his appointment is being held up on Capitol Hill by senators who say they do not want to send a new envoy to Damascus until the U.S. better articulates how having an ambassador there would help achieve U.S. goals.

Without a permanent top diplomat in the Syrian capital, U.S. envoys including Middle East peace mediator George Mitchell; the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., have flown to Damascus to try to persuade Syrian leaders to take steps to improve relations with the United States, which hit a low point in 2005.

That year, President George W. Bush, in the wake of Saddam Hussein’s ouster in Iraq, warned Syria to stop the flow of foreign fighters across its border into Iraq, prompting fears in Damascus of a U.S. effort to topple Syria’s leadership. Massive anti-Syrian demonstrations in Beirut forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon. Syria’s relations with regional allies soured.

Today, there are clear signs that the country has emerged stronger than before.

While the United States maintains sanctions against Syria, American allies such as India and Turkey have inked trade deals with Damascus in recent months that undercut the American effort to change Syrian behavior through economic pressure.

Syria is playing a role in Iraq. In September, a parade of Iraqi politicians flocked to Damascus seeking advice on forming a government.

And Syria’s highly valued alliance with Iran remains strong, to the dismay of U.S. officials who, as the WikiLeaks cables show, have hoped to drive a wedge between Syria and Iran, in part to stop the flow of weapons to Hezbollah.

Nevertheless, Syria’s support of Hezbollah remains robust.

But it is in Lebanon that Syria’s regional resurgence has been felt most profoundly. And Lebanon is also where U.S. officials worry most that its pro-democracy allies are losing ground to pro-Syrian and Iranian elements.

Hadi Mahfouz, a Lebanese government official and writer, says Syria is more effectively managing Lebanese affairs from afar than when it had 15,000 troops inside the country. “It is immune from mistakes,” he said.

Wiam Wahab, a pro-Syrian Druze politician and former Lebanese cabinet minister, says Washington must resolve its differences with Syria if the United States wants to stymie Iran’s influence in Lebanon. “Does the U.S. prefer Syria or Iran” to be running affairs in Lebanon, he asked.

Many Lebanese, especially those in the Christian and Sunni communities, still oppose any Syrian role in Lebanese affairs.

Lebanon’s top security positions – the head of military intelligence and director of general security – are controlled by Syrian-approved appointees. The government can’t make many major decisions without first consulting with Damascus. Lebanon’s top leaders, including Prime Minister Saad Hariri, toe a pro-Syrian line.

But the clearest example of Syria’s restored influence may be Walid Jumblatt. Five years ago, Jumblatt, a well-known Druze politician whose party holds swing votes in Lebanon’s coalition government, marched with the pro-democracy March 14 movement against Syria’s occupation. He now describes that period as a momentary lapse of sanity.

“I feel much more comfortable now. I’m back to my roots,” Jumblatt said in an interview last month.

Jumblatt expresses gratitude that Syria re-established order at the end of the Lebanese civil war and suggests that Syria’s military may need to take over the country again if Hezbollah is indicted by an international tribunal investigating the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri and the country deteriorates into sectarian strife.

“It seems that, well, we cannot govern ourselves by ourselves,” Jumblatt said. “Lebanon is not a nation. It’s a bunch of tribes.”

News World Congress Politics Diplomacy Government and politics International relations AP

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Source URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/news/2010/12/resurgent-syria-alarms-us-israel-beirut

ALTERNATIVE ADDRESSES TO CABLEGATE
You will not be able from now on to access wikileaks by simple address. The US Domain registrar yanked the domain name from the primary DNS. For now, the best way to connect to wikileaks may have to be directly through IP addresses. I tried it and it works like a charm.

Here it is try any of these two IPs

http://213.251.145.96/
http://88.80.13.160/

for more info visit antiwar.com or go to this link

http://news.antiwar.com/2010/12/03/wikileaks-registrar-problems-leave-site-difficult-to-reach/

Mounif,

Mounif,
They are , they seem to forget that Syria was the country that saved their neck ,

it is not enough to fight superior Israel , HA has to keep looking at his back from traitors , what a shame ,

Helen Thomas said
“I can call a president of the United States anything in the book, but I can’t touch Israel,
She is absolutely right

Assassinat de Rafic Hariri: l’acte d’accusation est rédigé

Le procureur général Daniel Bellemare a terminé de rédiger l’acte d’accusation dans l’enquête sur l’assassinat de Rafic Hariri, qu’il a transmis au juge chargé de mise en état, Daniel Fransen, nous a assuré une source proche du Tribunal spécial pour le Liban (TSL) à La Haye.

Il appartient désormais au magistrat Daniel Fransen d’apprécier de la recevabilité de l’acte d’accusation qui vient de lui être tansmis et de statuer sur des demandes d’arrestations de personnes mises en cause. « Cela peut prendre une semaine, comme plusieurs semaines », ajoute cette source, qui précise que le juge Fransen dispose du temps qu’il veut pour rendre publiques les inculpations, tant redoutées au Liban.

« Fransen peut être sensible au fait qu’un compromis est en train d’être cherché entre différentes parties, afin d’éviter le recours à la violence par ceux qui risquent d’être mis en cause, c’est-à-dire le Hezbollah », ajoute cet expert. (…)
Georges Malbrunot, 5 décembre 2010

WHY-DISCUSS, this answers at least one of your questions.
MAJEDKHALDOON, I will try to post later, but you could try Google Translate in the meantime.

Interesting world at the end of 2010. The mezmerizing investigation of who killed Hariri is becoming a soap opera. Regardless of who is found “guilty” by a group of Europeans with already decidedly bias will change nada.

While the ultra zionist members of Congress are insulting Brazil and its President and to wit:- US lawmakers condemned Brazil’s “severely misguided” and “regrettable” decision Friday to recognize a Palestinian state on borders pre-dating Israel’s seizure of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967.

Brazil’s decision “is regrettable and will only serve to undermine peace and security in the Middle East,” charged Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Ros-Lehtinen, set to chair the panel come January, said “responsible nations” would wait to take such a step until Palestinians return to direct talks with Israel and recognize its “right to exist as a Jewish state.”

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced the decision Friday in a public letter addressed to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and published on the website of Brazil’s foreign ministry.

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is a (jewish) Cuban emigre to Florida and prides herself on being the first Cuban – American in Congress.

Correction:

My headline is wrong, it should read:

Malbrunot: “Selon nos informations, le kamikaze, lui, serait saoudien.”

I thought that Bellemare was supposed to be the source of that information, but that seems unlikely, given that he didn’t even share such details with the Americans.

MAJEDKHALDOON, the main point is, in my view, that the suicide bomber was Saudi and that Salafi extremists played a direct role in the assassination. Malbrunot then goes on to paint the picture of a wild conspiracy, also involving Hizbullah, the Presidential Guard etc…

I am currently suffering from contradiction overload, probably the result of too much sloppy journalism…

There are some perles, however, e.g. Jean-Pierre Perrin’s confident assertion:

“Le 27 octobre, deux enquêteurs de l’ONU ont été attaqués par un groupe de femmes à la sortie d’une clinique contrôlée par le mouvement où, semble-t-il, téléphonait Ghamlouch, (…).”
(“Pour “Libération”, toutes les pistes mènent au Hezbollah”, L’Orient-Le Jour, 05/12/2010)

Makes you wonder what kind of ailment he would have been concerned about… I think that either Perrin or his source made that up (the article is riddled with silly errors).

T_Desco

Thanks for the update. It does look than it may take several weeks before the ‘imminent’ accusation is published, with the holidays approaching.

This is why I was wondering about the Chapter 7 validity deadline, if any. I read somewhere it was ending by end december 2010.

This article seems to contradict the timeline given by Macdonald/CBC (and it eliminates the third of my ‘three possibilities’):

Rifi alleged Ghamloush linked to Kassir, Hawi killings – cable
ISF chief told US ambassador suspect fled to Syria to live under protection of Syrian authorities
By Patrick Galey and Richard Hall

An alleged Hizbullah operative linked by recent media reports to the death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was named in 2006 as the prime suspect in the assassinations of journalist Samir Kassir and politician George Hawi, according to leaked diplomatic documents seen by The Daily Star.

In a 2006 meeting with US representatives in Beirut, Internal Security Forces (ISF) chief Ashraf Rifi said Abdel-Majid Ghamloush killed Kassir and Hawi before fleeing Lebanon to live in Syria under Syrian protection. Ghamloush was also accused of the attempted killing of ISF deputy intelligence chief Samir Shehadeh.

“General Rifi is convinced that Syrian authorities are directly responsible for all three crimes,” said a cable classified by US Secretary of State Jeremy Feltman and seen exclusively by The Daily Star. “Rifi said the investigation conclusively concluded that [Abdel-] Majid Ghamloush, a Lebanese citizen from the Shiite community in south Lebanon was responsible for the Hawi and Kassir assassinations.

“General Rifi believes the successful identification of a culprit was the motive for the assassination attempt on the life of ISF’s Deputy Chief of Intelligence Samir Shehadeh on September 5, 2006 just outside of [Sidon],” Feltman wrote. “Before the suspect could be apprehended, however, he successfully fled to Syria and is currently believed to be living there under the protection of the Syrian regime.”

Kassir and Hawi, both outspoken critics of Syria’s influence in Lebanon, were assassinated in separate June 2005 car bomb attacks in Beirut as part of the wave of political killings that shook the country beginning in 2004.

The ISF chief indicated that Hizbullah knew that both attacks were coming.

“Rifi also stated that some of the evidence indicated ‘several’ of the acts of political violence that were committed in late 2004 and throughout 2005 are connected. The general did not mince words when he stated that Syrian and Iranian involvement is a given,” Feltman wrote. “He did not directly implicate Hizbullah, but said the fact that a radicalized member of the Shia community from south Lebanon committed the crime indicates Hizbullah should have at least been aware of the plan.”
(…)

The STL, as well as the initial United Nations International Independent Investigation Committee (UNIIIC) probe, is mentioned on numerous occasions in cables seen by The Daily Star.

Some will fuel claims that the STL is politicized. In a cable dated July 6, 2007, Minister of Justice Charles Rizk appeared to ask Feltman to pass on Lebanon’s preferred choice of tribunal judges.

“Rizk would like us to whisper quietly to UN officials which four are Lebanon’s preferred choices out of the twelve judicial nominations,” it read.

Rizk reportedly told Feltman that he was trying to delay the release of the four Lebanese generals held in connection with the assassination, due to the “devastating impact their release would have on March 14 morale.”

In a cable dated June 20, 2006, UNIIIC Commissioner Serge Bremmertz reportedly expressed concerns that evidence against the jailed generals was not strong enough to justify their continued detention. It also alleged that the attorney of Jamil Sayyed planned to approach a host of party leaders with the offer that if Sayyed was released from prison, he would leave Lebanon within 24 hours.
The Daily Star, December 04, 2010

(m.emph.)

I am not sure, what to make of this article by Al-Akhbar (partially translated here). Did Brammertz not fire all Mehlis investigators? And how would the investigator then know all those details?

This caught my eye, of course:

“S’agissant des téléphones mobiles repérés, ils étaient selon lui tous connectés à celui d’un imam d’une mosquée, fréquenté par Ahmad Abou Adass (…). Cet imam serait selon lui le responsable d’une organisation de secours dépendante du Hezbollah.”

Does anybody know who the imam of Al-Houri mosque was at that time?

T_DESCO

Was Ghamloush a technician, a small fish, an efficient operative or an “idiot”, or all of that?

“Eid was apparently able to penetrate the secret network thanks to the gross mistake of a small fish in the operation: electronics expert Abd al Majid al Ghamloush, who worked for Hezbollah. Ghamloush, identified by the investigators as”an idiot”, was responsible for destroying the mobiles of the logistics team, but he used one of the phone to call his girlfriend.”
The technician’s error allowed Eid, according to CBC, to point to brothers Hussein and Mouin Khreis, both Hezbollah militants, who were allegedly at the scene of the assassination on 14 February 2005.