Bellemare still believes ‘political’ issues spurred Hariri killing

By Michael Bluhm
Daily Star staff
Wednesday, April 09, 2008

BEIRUT: The UN commission investigating the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri still believes “political motivation” spurred his killing, and investigators have recently unearthed “evidence” of the network that carried out his assassination, said commission chief Daniel Bellemare in his report to the UN Security Council Tuesday.

Bellemare, who took over the investigation on January 1, said he wanted to “clarify” new developments in the case, after the commission’s March 28 report said a “criminal network” stood behind Hariri’s killing, a phrase which provoked rampant speculation that the investigation’s direction had changed.

“The direction of the investigation has NOT changed, and the commission is still investigating crimes that are politically motivated,” Bellemare wrote in his report to the UN Security Council, the first by the Canadian prosecutor since replacing Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz as head of the Independent International Investigation Commission. “While previous reports have referred to the hypothesis of a network, what is new this time is that we now have the evidence of the existence of such a network and of its links.”

Former commission head Detlev Mehlis had made comments implicating Syria in the February 2005 car bombing on Beirut’s seafront that killed Hariri and 22 others, while Damascus has long denied any involvement in the assassination and has said Syria would not allow its citizens to appear before the prospective UN tribunal to try suspects in the crime. Hariri’s assassination sparked mass protests in Lebanon which led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon after 29 years.

Bellemare also said the commission would stand up to any attempts to exert political influence over the investigation, one week after Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said the tribunal – where Bellemare will serve as prosecutor – had been used as a political tool against Damascus. Moallem told ANB television on March 31 that Syria had received and rejected “bargain offers” to terminate the court in exchange for expediting a presidential election in Lebanon.

“The commission will yield to no pressure, political or otherwise, and the identification of suspects will be based on sound legal standards supported by concrete evidence,” the probe-commission chief said.

Bellemare also addressed the length of the investigation, requesting that the Security Council extend the commission’s mandate beyond its June 15 term. He did not specify when he would submit indictments to the nascent tribunal, saying only that the indictments should not lag behind the establishment of the tribunal. UN chief Ban Ki-moon, meanwhile, has said that the tribunal will not officially come into being until the investigation makes “sufficient headway,” while Mehlis in an interview earlier this year questioned how much progress Brammertz had made in his two years at the helm of the commission.

“I will only state that the filing of eventual indictments will not be immediate after the establishment of the tribunal,” Bellemare said. “No one can predict or dictate how long this process will take … Ideally, the time between the establishment of the operations of the tribunal and the eventual filing of indictments should be as short as possible.

“Any illusion of immediacy must be dispelled. Our progress is neither slow nor immediate: It is deliberate.”

The commission’s next steps will be to continue to collect more evidence on the network behind Hariri’s killing, Bellemare added. The investigation has gathered evidence that the “criminal network” existed before Hariri’s killing, conducted surveillance of the former five-time premier, was operative on the day of the assassination and that parts of the network continued to function after the crime, Bellemare said.

The commission had previously established that a suicide bomber had set off the nearly 1 ton of explosives that killed Hariri. Bellemare did not mention witnesses, but France said Tuesday that Syrian national Mohammad Zuhair Siddiq, apparently a key witness, had “disappeared” while under close watch in France.

“I’m sorry for that, and I don’t know the conditions for his disappearance,” French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.

Bellemare also did not evaluate the cooperation the commission has received from nations outside Lebanon, saying only that countries could contact investigators and did not need to wait for requests for assistance. Meanwhile on Tuesday, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad was quoted in Syria’s Al-Thawra newspaper as saying Damascus “has cooperated in a positive manner with the international investigation.”

In his report to the Security Council, Bellemare did prod the Lebanese authorities to ask more quickly for help in their investigations into political violence. In addition to the Hariri killing, the commission is also participating in looking into 19 other assassinations and incidents of violence believed to be politically motivated.

“The commission would like to note, however, that the sooner its assistance is requested [by the Lebanese], the more likely this technical assistance can be meaningful,” Bellemare said.

He noted that the commission’s workload continues to increase as the assassinations plaguing Lebanon fail to subside, but he said the investigators were determined to resolve the crimes and end the cycle of political violence. The commission has taken on the recent assassinations of Lebanese Armed Forces operations head General Francois al-Hajj on December 13, 2007, and terrorism investigator and Internal Security Forces Major Wissam Eid on January 25 of this year.

“Each attack increases the resolve of the men and women of the more than 60 countries that have answered the call for help and who are fully committed to bringing an end to impunity in Lebanon,” Bellemare said. “Any unnecessary delay in finding the truth and bringing the perpetrators to justice must be avoided.

“With the continued assistance of [UN] member states and the ongoing support of the Lebanese authorities, I can assure you that no effort will be spared to expedite the process as much as is humanly possible.”

Report: Jimmy Carter to Meet With Hamas Leader in Syria

Tuesday , April 08, 2008
By Joseph Abrams

FC1

NEW YORK CITY —
Former President Jimmy Carter is reportedly preparing an unprecedented meeting with the leader of Hamas, an organization that the U.S. government considers one of the leading terrorist threats in the world.

The Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat reported Tuesday that Carter was planning a trip to Syria for mid-April, during which he would meet with Khaled Meshal, the exiled head of the Palestinian terror group Hamas, on April 18.

Deanna Congileo, Carter’s press secretary, confirmed in an e-mail to FOXNews.com that Carter will be in the Mideast in April. Pressed for comment, Congileo did not deny that the former president is considering visiting Meshal.

“President Carter is planning a trip to the Mideast next week; however, we are still confirming details of the trip and will issue a press release by the end of this week,” wrote Congileo. “I cannot confirm any specific meetings at this point in time.”

Meshal, who lives in Syria to avoid being arrested by the Israeli government, leads Hamas from his seat in Damascus, where he is a guest of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The State Department has designated Hamas a “foreign terrorist organization,” and some groups hold Meshal personally responsible for ordering the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack once said of the prospect of meeting with Meshal, “That’s not something that we could possibly conceive of.”

Some Carter critics called the latest reports typical of the ex-president.

“It’s about par for the course from President Carter, demonstrating a lack of judgment typical of what he does,” said John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. “To go to Syria to visit Hamas at this point is just an ill-timed, ill-advised decision on his part.”

“I’m not surprised that Carter would do this, as he has been supporting Palestinian extremism for many years,” said Steve Emerson, director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, a watchdog group.

Carter would be the first Western leader of his stature to meet with the Hamas chief. Though Meshal met with Clinton officials in the 1990s, the Bush administration has sought to isolate Hamas, enforcing rigid sanctions on its government in Gaza and refusing to meet with its leaders unless it recognizes Israel and abandons terror.

“I think this [visit] undermines the U.S. policy of isolating Hamas,” said Emerson. “I think this encourages Europeans to further dilute their sanctions against the Hamas government.”

“When you put the prestige of a former president of the United States in a meeting with one of its terrorist leaders, you’re giving it a legitimacy and currency it never had,” said Bolton.

But Ibrahim Hooper, communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a non-profit advocacy group, said Carter’s efforts demonstrate he’s a true partner in peace.

“I think if true, this report would indicate that President Carter is willing to travel any road in search of peace,” he said. “I think President Carter would only undertake such a mission if he believed that something could be achieved in terms of peace and reconciliation in the region.”

Hooper added that because of Carter’s reputation among Palestinians he might be able to bring some pressure to bear.

“Obviously President Carter has a great amount of credibility in the region because of his past efforts seeking peace internationally, ” Hooper said.

The Al-Hayat report stated that Carter would be traveling in his capacity as head of the Carter Center, and not in his capacity as a former president.

“That’s a distinction that’s absurd,” said Emerson.

“Maybe he’ll give up his pension, but he’s always a former president,” said Bolton.

http://al-akhbar.com/ar/node/69858

سوريا في الواجهة: كيف صمد بشّار الأسد؟ (1)

إبراهيم الأمين
عندما قام فؤاد بطرس بوساطته الشهيرة، قابل الرئيس السوري مرات عدة. تحفظ كثيراً عما دار في المناقشات، لكنه قال إنه ذكر أمام الرئيس الشاب جملة عدّها مفتاحاً للتغيير والحل: لتنجح، عليك تنفيذ انقلاب على والدك. هل تقدر على ذلك؟
لم يكن كثيرون يتوقّعون أن ينجح بشار الأسد في البقاء رئيساً لسوريا أكثر من عام أو عامين، في سوريا، كما في لبنان وعواصم أخرى. تحدثوا كثيراً في المجالس المغلقة عن التجربة الهشة وعن الخبرة المحدودة وعن الفارق الهائل بينه وبين أبيه. ثم أكثروا من تعداد المشكلات التي تواجه هذه الدولة، وعن صعوبة إحداث تغيير جدي من دون انقلاب كامل. الكل أفاض في توقع انهيار تدريجي، إن لم يكن سريعاً، وما إن يرفع الغرب راية التغيير في سوريا، حتى تكون نهاية بشار. وعندما وصلت الدبابات الأميركية إلى مشارف بغداد، كان خصوم بشار يعدّون العدّة لاحتلال القصر والمقارّ.
ها قد مرّت سنوات ثمان، والرجل يبدو قابضاً على الأمور. التغيير لم يحصل كما أراده هو، أو كما يريده السوريون، لكن بالتأكيد لم تحصل التغييرات التي يريدها الغرب أو عرب أميركا. حتى خصوم الرجل الداخليون، تفاوتت مواقفهم، بين فكرة فترة السماح التي سرعان ما تخلّوا عنها، والاعتراض الكامل لأنّه ابن أبيه.
الآن، وبعد السنوات التي مرت، يمكن ملاحظة مئات الكوادر الفاعلين في إدارات الدولة ومؤسساتها، من أبناء جيله. عملية التسلم والتسليم تجري ببطء. لكنها تحصل، وبعد سنوات قليلة، سوف يكون طاقم الحكم في كل مراكز العمل الرسمية من الجيل الذي تعرف إليه بشار رئيساً، لا ابن رئيس ولا مراقباً.
والسؤال عمّا يمكن توقعه في الفترة المقبلة، يشبه في تعقيده السؤال عمّا يمكن توقعه للمنطقة برمّتها. لكن الأكيد أن نمط الاعتراض على السياسات العامة لحكومة بشار الأسد، يتصل بأمور موجودة في كل دول المنطقة، حيث النفوذ القوي لأجهزة الأمن، وحيث الأفضلية لرجالات الحزب الحاكم في المناصب الأساسية، وحيث البيروقراطية في الإدارات العامة، وحيث الفساد يتحكم ببعض المفاصل، إلى جانب المشكلات الناجمة عن الأزمة الاقتصادية. لكن الصورة هي نفسها في مصر المسالمة، والعراق المحرر، وحتى السعودية الغنية بالمال وبسماحة الإسلام وعطفه. إلا أن ذلك لا يلغي النقاش القائم في هذا البلد الذي يجيد أهله أن يقيموا حداً بين موقفهم من أزمة المنطقة، ومشاكلهم الداخلية. وثمة سؤال يحتاج إلى تفسير من خارج سوريا أو من خصومها، عن سبب تعاظم مكانة الرئيس الشاب عند شعبه.
في هذه الفترة، تعرّض بشّار لاختبارات عدّة. واجه أزمة داخلية مع فريق من الحرس القديم، أولئك الذين رفضوا تولّيه المسؤولية، وعملوا منذ ما قبل وصوله إلى منع الأمر. وكان واضحاً أن مشكلة عبد الحليم خدام مع الرجل بدأت قبل وقت بعيد. وإذا كان هناك من يفترض أنها قامت لمجرد وصول بشار، فإن وقائع كثيرة تظهر العكس. لقد كلّف الأسد الأب نجليه وآخرين متابعة أمور كثيرة داخل الدولة، وفي ما يخص ملف لبنان. وكان واضحاً، للّبنانيين على الأقل، الاختلاف بين بشار وخدام على أمور كثيرة. لم يكن الابن بالتأكيد مخالفاً لتوجهات والده، وما كان اتخذ مساراً متناقضاً مع مسار خدام لو لم يكن الأسد الأب راضياً. ربما كانت هذه الطريقة وسيلة تعبير عن اختلافه مع رفاق دربه، مثل خدام وحكمت الشهابي وآخرين، في طريقة إدارة ملف لبنان.
كذلك تعرّض بشار لاختبار العلاقة القاسية مع المحيط. كان كثيرون من الزعماء العرب يريدون منه الولاء مقابل الدعم. حدّثه حسني مبارك وولي العهد السعودي (آنذاك) عبد الله وقادة آخرون من الخليج ومن المغرب العربي عن علاقتهم بوالده، قالوا له أشياء كثيرة تصب عملياً في خانة: تعالَ وانضمّ إلينا، نحمِك ونوفر لك الشرعية. وكان عليه اختبار الموقف لناحية تثبيت سياسة والده في ما خص الصراع العربي ــ الإسرائيلي، وكان عليه تأكيد موقف بلاده غير الحيادي من القضية الفلسطينية، وكان عليه إقناع العرب بإمكان التغيير دون الانفجار.
ثم برز أمامه مسلسل الاختبارات المفتوحة من الغرب كله، الولايات المتحدة تتحدث عن فرصة له لتغيير ما كان سائداً، وحمل الأوروبيون الكلام نفسه. وبينما كان الحديث العلني يدور حول الديموقراطية وحقوق الإنسان، كان جوهر المطلوب يتصل بلبنان والصراع مع إسرائيل ودعم سوريا للمقاومة في لبنان وفلسطين. وكلما ثبّت هو علاقته بهذا المحور، أُعطي علامات سلبية من الغرب وجماعته.
ثم جاءه اختبار لبنان الأقسى، ليست وراثة ما سبق من تجربة مليئة بالأسئلة والأخطاء والأحلام والأتعاب هي الأصعب، بل إدارة ما بقي من سيطرة بدت غير متماسكة يوم انفجرت المشكلة داخل الفريق اللبناني الحليف لسوريا. سرعان ما ظهر أن رفيق الحريري ووليد جنبلاط لا يختلفان مع استراتيجية الكنيسة بقيادة البطريرك الماروني نصر الله صفير في رسم إطار آخر للعلاقات اللبنانية ــ السورية. جرى تحميل الأسد الابن مسؤولية كل ما سبق. ليس هو أو نظامه مُعفىً من المراجعة أو المسؤولية عما جرى، لكن الأمر لم يكن يستهدف مراجعة يمكن أن تنتج حلولاً من النوع القابل للحياة. كان على بشار أن يدفع الثمن مضاعفاً، أن يدفع فاتورة مستحقة على غيره، وفاتورة كدفع مسبق عما يريد أن يقوم به في الوقت اللاحق.
وأكثر من كل هذه المهام، كان على بشار التعامل بواقعية مع مجريات الصراع مع إسرائيل. تعرّف قبل وصوله إلى القصر إلى واقع جيش بلاده، وتعرّف في هذه الأثناء إلى تجربة المقاومة في لبنان، وكان عليه المباشرة بخطة عمل لا تزال مفتوحة حتى الآن. وكانت للأسد الشاب تجربة خاصة يوم حرب تموز التي جرت في صيف عام 2006. ثمّة الكثير من الكلام الذي لم يُبَح به حتّى اليوم، وثمّة دورٌ لهذا الرجل الذي أقنعه حسن نصر الله بأنّ الوضع لا يتطلّب منه الضغط على الزناد!

What do you suppose would happen if they started selling “Who Killed Bibi Netanyahu?” T-shirts?
Is this a Pulsa Denura foreshadowing? But it is not hate-speech or incitement to violence?

Israeli designs ‘Who killed Barack Obama?’ T-shirts
ynet.com april 7, 2008

Israeli fashion designer shakes up New York with T-Shirts, hoodies bearing this controversial message. Shirts are a hit, but designer receives death threats
Yaniv Halily

NEW YORK – The American political system sees its fair share of mudslinging, accusation and incendiary statements—especially during a presidential election campaign. An Israeli fashion designer residing in New York has, however, managed to stir up heated controversy in the city even in the midst of a hotly contested presidential campaign.

The brouhaha began several weeks ago, when the American press began to examine the possibility that Senator Barack Obama might be a target for assassination should he win the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency. Obama is believed to have a real chance at becoming the first African-American US president, but many Americans are less than thrilled by this likely scenario.

Doron Braunshtein, an Israeli fashion designer and owner of the Apollo Braun fashion boutique in New York, decided to capitalize on this sensational Obama story by creating his own line of T-shirts bearing the logo “Who killed Obama?”

In creating this controversial clothing line, the designer had hoped to wed the political and fashion scenes, and comment on various societal phenomenon surrounding the heated election campaign. The “who shot Obama?” slogan is a throw back to popular 80’s TV show, Dallas, which featured the immortal line “who shot J.R.?”

What was supposed to be a limited clothing line for New York’s youth soon caught fire, however, and became a fashion phenomenon all throughout the United States. With success came fierce debate and public scrutiny, as millions of Americans saw the shirts as blatant incitement against Obama and as a call for his assassination.

The story received massive media coverage on TV, internet websites and in the US press. Photographers swooped on Braunshtein’s store hoping for a shot of the damning shirts and hoodies. [A BLATANT lie. NOT ONE MSM outlet covered this T-shirt story. Google confirms it. There are only 121 total entries on this subject]

Since everyone truly has their 15 minutes of fame, suffice it to say that all the Obama shirts very quickly sold out. Braunshtein had to quickly produce fresh stocks of the coveted T-shirts, sported by youngsters all throughout New York.

Not all has been rosy for Braunshtein, however. Ironically, the shirts have lead to numerous death threats against the designer and a multitude of angry phone calls to his store and home. Braunshtein’s boutique window has also been spray painted and vandalized by people enraged by his clothing line. Conversely, many see these shirts as a defiant statement decrying American preoccupation with skin color as part of the presidential campaign, as well as the looming threats on Senator Obama’s life.

One owner of the Obama T-shirt, Amy Weinstein, stated that she had purchased the shirt in order to “‘challenge those who are wholly preoccupied with Obama’s color, which has zero relevance to the election campaign, and to awaken the American public to this very ugly reality.”
—–But this meets with the usual anti-semitic/racist charges:

Obama Hosts Anti-Israel Blogger
4 Nissan 5768, 09 April 08 11:05by (IsraelNN.com) United States Presidential candidate Barack Obama is hosting leftist blogger Tony Wicher on his official website. Wicher’s blog is promoted as “A forum for a new foreign policy based on peace, democracy, and human rights instead of hegemony and war, with particular attention to the Israel/Palestine conflict as the key to a new Middle East policy.”

Wicher repeatedly refers to Israel as an apartheid state, and in fact claims that Israel’s treatment of Palestinian Authority Arabs is “worse than apartheid.” He also refers to the Likud party as “right-wing jingoists,” and insists that “Zionism means ethnic cleansing.”

Israel’s current government, Wicher says, “is faithfully carrying out the Zionist policy, by relentlessly persecuting the Arabs until they give up and go to Jordan or whatever.” He dismisses any who call his claims of Israeli “apartheid” anti-Semitic as members of the “Zionist thought police.”

The best commentary on yesterday’s Senate hearings came, as usual, from the inimitable Maureen Dowd in her column in today’ NYT:

[…]

Many words hovered Tuesday in the Senate — including some pointed ones by the woman and two men vying to be commander in chief. But the words seemed trapped in a labyrinth leading nowhere.

The Surge Twins were back, but the daylong testimony of David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker before two committees seemed more depressing this time. As the Bard writes in “Macbeth”: “From that spring whence comfort seemed to come, discomfort swells.”

They arrived on the heels of the Maliki debacle in Basra, which made it stunningly clear — after a cease-fire was brokered in Iran — that we’re spending $3 trillion as our own economy goes off a cliff so that Iran can have a dysfunctional little friend.

[…]

You know you’re in trouble when Barbara Boxer is the voice of reason.

“Why is it,” she asked, “after all we have given — 4,024 American lives, gone; more than half-a-trillion dollars spent; all this for the Iraqi people, but it’s the Iranian president who is greeted with kisses and flowers?”

She warmed to: “He got a red-carpet treatment, and we are losing our sons and daughters every single day for the Iraqis to be free. It is irritating is my point.”

Ambassador Crocker dryly assured the senator from California that he believed that Dick Cheney had also gotten kissed on his visit to Iraq.