Tape Two from New TV: Hariri Gives His Side of the Story

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

Saad Hariri, in a 2007 recording in English, describes the atmosphere and events leading up to his father’s assassination and right after. He describes the Syrian threats that many Lebanese officials close to Hariri described following the assassination; Jamil al-Sayyid who was in the pocket of the Syrians; Bashar al-Assad, who Hariri claims “said one thing and did another;” how Rafiq al-Hariri paid off Rustum Ghazali and other Syrians and Newspaper owners who blackmailed him. He explains that his father trusted Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbullah, and believed he was someone he could make deals with and do business with. He has a particular animus against Asef Shawkat, the head of Syrian intelligence at the time and brother-in-law of Assad, who he explains bragged to Pakistani ISI about how he had tortured people. Mustapha Tlass, the ex-Syrian defense minister, warned Hariri about Shawkat and said, “may God save Syria from this man.” Clearly relations were terrible between Rafiq Hariri and the Syrians, as well as between Hariri and the Lebanese opposition. There is a lot of hearsay and little that we didn’t already know, although the overall picture is depressing.

See www.Trella.org for an Arabic transcription of the recording.

See Qifa Nabki on Nasrallah’s speech tonight.

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Comments (8)

Jihad said:

Saad (formerly Eddine) Hariri appeared dumb in the first tape. He outdid himself in the second one by appearing dumber. Talal Salman, editor of Assafir, nailed mini Hariri a big stick on his emtpy head in Monday’s editorial:
http://www.assafir.com/Article.aspx?EditionId=1747&ChannelId=40975&ArticleId=1598&Author=????%20?????
Those tapes say a lot not only about Saad Hariri but also about those supposedly educated people trying to polish his dumbness. Among them is Elias Muhanna of the Qifa Nabki blog who has been trying hard for the last few months. Working overtime nowadays.

January 16th, 2011, 9:11 pm

Milli Schmidt said:

Hello,

I was told in an interview that 75% of Syria’s national budget was spent on the military – surely this is extremely exaggerated. I was wondering if anyone had a source for more accurate figures on Syrian defence (internal and external) spending, does this appear in the IMF reports?

January 17th, 2011, 10:01 am

Ghat Albird said:

MILLI SCHMIDT #2.

Are you serious? Does the IMF publish figures on who owns the “source” and the projected Turkmenistan – Afghanistan – Pakistan pipeline?

January 17th, 2011, 10:45 am

Milli Schmidt said:

Thanks Norman. This is World Bank data, says that Syria spends 4.2 % on military (same table states that Israel spends 6.9% by the way…).

January 17th, 2011, 4:36 pm

aron said:

Milli Schmidt — That’s as a % of GDP, though, not of the budget.

January 17th, 2011, 5:02 pm

Innocent Criminal said:

I honestly don’t understand why have these tapes been leaked by March 8 at this time. if anything they are reconfirming the accusation that Syria ordered the assassination.

January 18th, 2011, 2:55 am

MONTAGNARD said:

The Hariri Jr tapes show the extent of Jr’s incompetence. He is absolutely unqualified to lead the country.
We can only assume that the evidence collected and all the investigative efforts supporting the STL reports and indictments are based on mediocre and unprofessional standards and procedures reflected in the tapes.
The STL is a circus with a bunch of clowns pretending to be a Court of Justice where due process is a charade.
If anyone has any doubts about the STL being politicized and a witch hunt, take a good look at the tapes.

January 18th, 2011, 2:49 pm