{"id":3146,"date":"2009-05-23T18:52:49","date_gmt":"2009-05-23T18:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=3146"},"modified":"2009-05-23T19:28:01","modified_gmt":"2009-05-23T19:28:01","slug":"spiegel-article-probably-a-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/spiegel-article-probably-a-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiegel article Probably a Plant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.1fish.co.uk\/picsgen\/hoax-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"269\" height=\"202\" \/>The Der Spiegel article is suspicious for many reasons. Here are a few put forward by SC readers:<\/p>\n<p>1. The timing suggests that the story was released to provide maximum damage to Hizbullah&#8217;s and Aoun&#8217;s likely success in the elections.<\/p>\n<p>2. The most recent UN investigative teams (in contradistinction to Mehlis) have been excellent at not politicizing or leaking evidence from the case.<\/p>\n<p>3. Nasrallah has no record of assassinating Lebanese political figures that stand in his way.<\/p>\n<p>4. The accusations against Syria in 2005 and 2006 turned out to be based on false\u00a0witness, why should we trust this bombshell?<\/p>\n<p>5. There are accusations that Der Spiegel and Israeli intelligence are in close\u00a0cahoots.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>6. Ehsani notes that the article\u00a0claims that investigation reached surprising \u201cnew\u201d conclusions a month ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Are we to believe\u00a0that the court was set up on march 1, 2009 without a formal and concrete case at the time, and that somehow this case took a new turn very recently?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>7. Alex writes:\u00a0This article is the ultimate manifestation of the on-going politicization of the Hariri tribunal.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>All the evidence in this article is twisted, starting with the 8 cell phones, which for your information, belonged to a Sunni group in Trablus, not to any one in Hizbullah. And this is a confirmed fact even during the Mehlis phase of the investigation<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>8. T.desco alerts us to the similarities between the Spiegel article and the Le Figaro article of 2006.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I think you should also post the Figaro article, because it\u2019s more fun:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Der Spiegel 2009:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe pace of\u00a0<em>the investigation stalled under Mehlis\u2019s Belgian successor, Serge Brammertz<\/em>. (\u2026)<\/p>\n<p>But\u00a0<em>now<\/em>\u00a0there are signs that the investigation has yielded new and explosive results. (\u2026)<\/p>\n<p>Tribunal chief Bellemare and his fellow judges apparently want to hold back this information,\u00a0<em>of which they been aware for about a month<\/em>.\u201d (!)\u00a0(<em>my emphasis<\/em>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Le Figaro 2006:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cLES ENQU\u00caTEURS libanais, en charge de l\u2019assassinat de Rafic Hariri, travaillent depuis quelques mois sur une nouvelle piste, qui conduit au Hezbollah.\u00a0<em>\u00abL\u2019enqu\u00eate internationale dirig\u00e9e par le juge Serge Brammertz s\u2019oriente \u00e9galement dans cette direction\u00bb<\/em>, confirme, au Figaro, un proche de Saad Hariri (\u2026).\u201d\u00a0(<em>my emphasis<\/em>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Der Spiegel 2009:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cDamascus\u2019s view of the situation could be more mixed. Although the Syrian government is not being declared free of the suspicion of involvement, at least President Assad is no longer in the line of fire.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Le Figaro 2006:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cElle ne modifie pas l\u2019orientation g\u00e9n\u00e9rale de l\u2019enqu\u00eate : la Syrie reste point\u00e9e du doigt. \u00abLes Syriens ont cloisonn\u00e9 l\u2019op\u00e9ration, en confiant \u00e0 leurs diff\u00e9rents alli\u00e9s au Liban le soin de pr\u00e9parer cet attentat, sans que l\u2019un sache ce que l\u2019autre avait \u00e0 faire\u00bb, estime un sp\u00e9cialiste des questions de s\u00e9curit\u00e9.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ehsani Writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The story goes out of its way to highlight the fact that \u201calthough the Syrian government is not being declared free of the suspicion of involvement, at least President Assad is no longer in the line of fire. There is hardly anything to indicate he was aware of the murder plot\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Presumably, the release of the four Lebanese Security Chiefs has put to rest the theory that Damascus was to blame.<\/p>\n<p>With Syria out of the picture, the story goes on to shift the blame to Iran and HA. Here are the key parts:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSPIEGEL has learned from sources close to the tribunal and verified by examining internal documents, that the Hariri case is about to take a sensational turn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Is it the source that examined the internal documents or is it spiegel that examined these documents. If it is the latter, was the source able to take these documents outside the tight security building? Surely, the investigation should be able to track this so-called source?<\/p>\n<p>The article claims too much\u00a0knowledge:\u00a0\u201cHe is believed to be Abd al-Majid Ghamlush, from the town of Rumin, a Hezbollah member who had completed training course in Iran. Ghamlush was also identified as the buyer of the mobile phones. He has since disappeared, and perhaps is no longer alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>How did they know that he completed training in Iran? Did they see him board a flight to Tehran and followed his bus ride to a training camp?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSalim has largely assumed the duties of his notorious predecessor, with Mughniyah\u2019s brother-in-law, Mustafa Badr al-Din, serving as his deputy. The two men report only to their superior, and to General Kassim Sulaimani, their contact in Tehran.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>How did the investigators identify General Kassim Sulaimani in Iran? Did he have a caller ID? Was this general dialing in from his Tehran office into salim\u2019s cell phone? Also, how does the reporter know the secret chain of\u00a0command\u00a0at the top ranks of Hizbullah?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Der Spiegel article is suspicious for many reasons. Here are a few put forward by SC readers: 1. The timing suggests that the story was released to provide maximum damage to Hizbullah&#8217;s and Aoun&#8217;s likely success in the elections. 2. The most recent UN investigative teams (in contradistinction to Mehlis) have been excellent at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Spiegel article Probably a Plant - Syria Comment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/spiegel-article-probably-a-plant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spiegel article Probably a Plant - Syria Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Der Spiegel article is suspicious for many reasons. 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