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February 16, 2005
Syria Attacked

Whoever killed Rafik Hariri, the Syrian government most probably did not. The killing of Hariri is seen as an invitation to slam Syria and drive it out of Lebanon. This was obvious to forsee and there is no reason to believe the Syrian government would be stupit enough to invite what will come down now.

So who else could be interested?

  • The folks who have lots of experience in blowing up cars in foreign countries?
  • Rumsfelds under-cover special operation forces?
  • Some Lebanese-mafia business organization?

I do not know. But sticking this on Syria is obviously wrong and U.S. officials seem to agree.

As the New York times wrote yesterday under the crude headline
U.S. Seems Sure of the Hand of Syria, Hinting at Penalties

The Bush administration, condemning the assassination of the former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, in Lebanon, suggested Monday that Syria was to blame..

…

Mr. McClellan and other administration spokesmen said they had no concrete evidence of Syria’s involvement in the killing of Mr. Hariri,..

NYT cites "No evidence" but headlines "seems sure"?

"We’re going to turn up the heat on Syria, that’s for sure," said a senior State Department official. ".. Even though there’s no evidence to link it to Syria, Syria has, by negligence or design, allowed Lebanon to become destabilized."

Syria is guilty, the State Department says, because they allowed Lebanon to "become destabilized"? Hey, why didn´t they just put in more troops and stabilized that country?

In the same manner the Washington Post editorial writers just do not care who did it.

WHO ENGINEERED the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri on Monday may never be known. But these facts are clear enough: Mr. Hariri, a self-made billionaire who orchestrated Lebanon’s reconstruction in the 1990s after years of civil war, had emerged as a leading opponent of Syria’s continued domination of his country.

…

The despicable murder of Mr. Hariri benefits no one outside the rogue regime in Damascus — and the world should respond accordingly.

Would Israel NOT benefit when Syrian troops leave Lebanon and the heat on Damascus is turned higher?

Would U.S. plans for Middle East manipulation NOT benefit from a destabilization in Syria regime?

And how about some business connections?

Hariri was a thug who bribed his way to a top position to rob the country for his personal wealth and grandstanding. In 2001 an anti-Syrian US pressure group wrote a dossier on  Rafiq Hariri:

Hariri approached this daunting task [as prime minister] in much the same manner as he conducted his private business affairs. Several key business associates of the prime minister were given high-ranking positions in the new government. Fouad Siniora, the chief financial officer for Hariri’s business empire, was appointed finance minister. One of his company’s lawyers, Bahij Tabbara, became justice minister. Riad Salameh, who had handled Hariri’s account at Merrill Lynch, was appointed head of the Central Bank. The new governor of Mount Lebanon, Suhail Yamut, had previously been in charge of the prime minister’s business interests in Brazil. Farid Makari, the vice president of Saudi Oger, later joined Hariri’s cabinet as information minister.

The Company for the Development and Reconstruction of Beirut’s Central District (commonly known by its French acronym Solidère), in which Hariri is the primary shareholder, expropriated most property in the central business district of Beirut, compensating each owner with shares in the company (which, in some cases, were worth as little as 15% of the property’s value). That Hariri and his business associates profited immensely from this project was an open secret.

…
By 1998, however, the Lebanese economy was on the verge of catastrophe and the Syrians began to see Hariri as a liability. As a result of Hariri’s freewheeling public spending and rampant government corruption, Lebanon’s national debt had soared from $2.5 billion to $18.3 billion, the largest per capita public debt of any emerging market (debt servicing accounted for 40% of the government budget). Economic growth slowed from 8% in 1994 to under 2% in 1998.

Hariri simply robbed the country. Also of interest may be this tidbit:

Hariri is reported to have channeled an estimated 3.2 billion francs to the political campaigns of French President Jacques Chirac and his allies

Many interested parties and many possibilities are involved.

My instinct says Rumsfeld’s storm troopers. But whoever it was, I do doubt that the results of this will be a better life for the Lebanese and the Syrian people.

For context:

Joshua M. Landis’ Syria Comment

Soj’s paxblog

Helena Cobban’s Just World News

Posted by b on February 16, 2005 at 21:33 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Thanks for the post jerome.my guess would be rumsfeld also. possibly via israel. it just makes sense. hersh uped the pace of the press’s drumbeat on iran, who knows when that cat would have been let out of the bag, and syria’s next. why else the interest in lebanon in the recent congressional hearings. they have 4 years. that’s lots of instability and very little time. this is a warm up.

Posted by: annie | Feb 16 2005 22:16 utc | 2

darker by the day more horrible by the hour
the thousand year reich

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 16 2005 22:38 utc | 3

I’m not sure who killed Hariri; he doubtless had a lot of enemies, and this may well have been business rather than politics. What I am struck by are two things: (1) the speed and vigor with which the US government blamed Syria, even as it admitted that there was no evidence that Syria had actually done anything, and (2) the degree to which the American press, and especially Pravda on the Potomac (formerly known as the Washington Post)dutifully echoed the Administration’s threats. If there is any doubt that the American press has been totally cowed and coopted, this should remove it.
What’s the US’s game in Syria? I have no idea. The frightening thought is that the Administration thinks the elections in Iraq really did solve the situation, that Iraq was a victory, and that the United States can now spread democracy and human rights to other benighted countries in the region, or at least the ones who aren’t our allies.
RGiap, I respect you enormously, but I think you’re too pessimistic. A thousand year Reich demands a level of competence far beyond anything the buffoons two blocks from here can imagine, much less achieve. It is going to get very ugly, though, when their incompetence finally blows up in their — and our — faces.

Posted by: Aigin | Feb 16 2005 22:55 utc | 4

aigin
want to to believe what you say to be true – but since 2000 have seen & been witness to events that have little parallel. events that have been told by an idiot & their idiocy seems to have no limits – on the contrary – events each day – in fact every day of these last four years bring news of happenings that shock me – really – & i presumed that i was a hardened anti imperialist used to the thuggery of nations – but there are many days that i can neither beleive any of my senses
i rarely go to the watering wells of the internernational press anymore – such is their art of mimicry & reproduction whether it is in french english or italian – they say much the same things – i did not use the internet really before this time – other than for emails & the most urgent business – now it is the source or at least the filter for me for a great deal of information
i am strengthened by the community here & elsewhere – where i hear real voices, like yours, making real sense – talking through that hardiest of instruments, the heart.
if anything these last four years have taught me to trust that instrument & its cousins, the instincts – much more than i ever had – like any marxist i had depended too much on my noggin & even my compassion had its roots in my cerebral cortex – but today i place that motor, the heart, at the centre of my investigations & i listen to other hearts here who are no less inteliigent for using that heart
but like others here – i am frightened by the madness that i see & by the articulation of that madness & the almost magisterial neglect that the cheney bush junta is capable of & i worry not only for myself but for the communities that have taught me so much & made me the man that culture did not want me to be
tho i think attacks on syria & iran are quite possible maybe inevitable tho they would lead us into hells none of us wants to imagine

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 16 2005 23:17 utc | 5

Everyone knows a 1.000 years Reich lasts 12 years. Start counting, people.
Hariri: As I said, it can be pretty much everyone, though I doubt it would be business/mafia. They should know it would bring chaos into regional politics, and that would be very bad for business.
I’ve wondered if the explosives came from Iraq, if it was some salafist organisation, if it was planned by Mossad, by Negroponte or Rumsfeld, by Syria. Too hard to tell so far.
But one thing is sure to me: if the US didn’t do it, they’re acting stupidly because jumping to conclusions and coming close to call openly for regime change in Syria right after that will only lead Arabs to suspect they and Israel are behind the bombing – even if it weren’t the case.
Oh, and from a friend who was there during Hariri’s office, yep, that was pretty corrupt and the economy was going down. The estate business was quite screwed.
But Hariri paying 2 *billions* to Chirca? Isn’t that too much, a typo for 2 mio, which would already be a decent sum for campaigns, or even 20 mio? Because if Chirac’s party got 2 bio, people would surely have noticed…

Posted by: Clueless Joe | Feb 16 2005 23:43 utc | 6

My take.
After reading this on Cole’s blog:

‘ Overall, the poll has exposed and sharpened the sectarian and ethnic fault lines in Iraqi society. At the same time, bolstered by a popular mandate, the new government seems set on a collision course with the American occupiers regarding the presence of foreign troops in Iraq. Each of the three major communities has come to nurture a different scenario for the post-Saddam era. Shorn of their long-held power and yet not reconciled to powerlessness, Sunni leaders are still in disarray, focusing merely on expelling the Americans from their country. For minority Kurds, ethnically and linguistically set apart from Arabs, post-Saddam Iraq holds the promise of a sovereign state of Kurdistan with the oil-rich city of Kirkuk as its capital. ‘

It’s the pipelines. New Amsterdam beckons.

Posted by: Friendly Fire | Feb 16 2005 23:57 utc | 7

I have such a very bad feeling about where this is heading. I could hardly stand it today, listening to excerpts of Condi Rice’s testimony before Congress. Regarding Syria, she had the nerve to say with a straight face that Syria “had foreign troops in Lebanon”, that Syria’s presence “was allowing terrorist attacks like this to happen” and that Syria was “a destabilizing force”!!! And apparently no one else at the hearing cracked a smile either. Incredible. Truly the blind leading the blind in this country.

Posted by: maxcrat | Feb 17 2005 0:35 utc | 8

maxcrat: Seems like any old excuse will do, eh? While no one yet has ANY idea who orchestrated the bombing, that certainly hasn’t stopped the Busheviks from greasing the skids for war ad nauseum.
Meanwhile, Bush lackey Porter Goss is beating the “terror drum” in Congress, reminding them that al Qaeda (or Iran, or whoever) is gunning for us, “possibly even with a nuke”. Sound familiar? Deja vu?
The scripting is becoming obnoxiously obvious. Besides, Spring is almost here, and that always a “good time” for resolving “unexpected” Middle East “crises”. Heil!
Bernhard: I think you probably have some of the best guesses going. Consider the amount of carefully coordinated backlash from this rogue (Bush) regime, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to discover that the US (or Israel) played a direct role in the assassination, just to “get the ball rolling”.
Phase II, I assume, will be the oh-so-convenient “terrorist attack” in the States, which will allow the administration to once again bamboozle the vast majority of brain-dead Americans into supporting mock revenge.

Posted by: JMF | Feb 17 2005 1:47 utc | 9

Excellent, RGaip.

Posted by: stoy | Feb 17 2005 4:33 utc | 10

Quick Unca Karl how can we get that Gayboy Prostitute, aka journalist, in the Family Values WH story outta the news quickly?

Posted by: jj | Feb 17 2005 5:27 utc | 11

My post from last week at LeSpeakeasy, has some relevance.

Posted by: stoy | Feb 17 2005 5:40 utc | 12

Stoy: Indeed, this is quite a sure and proven fact. A kind of Operation Northwoods to keep Europe in line. There even were attacks in Belgium and Italy, by these groups (including the bloody Bologna bombing). Then, it’s widely believed that most extremist leftist groups were infiltrated and manipulated by the CIA, too.
Though I’m not sure if the most ominous is that they planned attacks to frighten the locals so that they would stick with right-wing governments, or if it was the planned guerrilla warfare if a leftist govt won elections – even if not in league with Moscow.
So, I think it’s quite fitting that Saddam planned something similar and the US now gets a taste of its own medicine in Iraq, with the army disappearing during the invasion and now being partly turned into a nasty and deadly guerrilla.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Feb 17 2005 9:17 utc | 13

> Everyone knows a 1.000 years Reich lasts 12 years. Start counting, people.
at least somebody is able to laugh while irresponsible people are playing with the nuclear matches.
lets see the record …
– screw the economoy at home and become the laughing stock of everybody. solution ? fly airplanes into several buildings and start two wars against brown people unable to protect themselves from the abuse and who have nothing to do with it.
– screw the economy even more and have everybody and his dog apalled at your hamfisted bumbling in southern asia. solution ? make the aghani economy flourish with a record production of poppies opium and heroin, ship lots of brown people to tropical paradises and treat them like shit, have the CIA bring torture airlines into existence.
– screw the economy even more, give lots of jobs away to sweatshops in india and the govt-run gulags of china, loose the iraq war bitwise against an army of paupers, torture lots of brown people and have the pics spread all over the world, everybody at home and abroad plain pissed at your antics. solution ? justify the torture but at the same time deny anybody is being tortured, accuse ‘failed states’ of torture but at the same time make same ‘failed states’ destinations for torture airlines.
– continue screwing the economy, continue looking like a looser against the iraqi guerillas, steal the 3rd consecutive election and look like shit to the world. solution ? torture more brown people, destroy a city of 300K, loose control over supply lines so bad that air transport becomes necessary, then look like shit because the guerilla continuously shoots planes down.
– f*ck the economy even more, continue handing jobs to the dwellers of gulags and sweatshops worldwide, continue loosing the iraq war, give the word ‘presstitute’ a new meaning, piss off the iranians royally on israels say-so, throw money sackwise at corrupt war profiteers and traitors. solution ? assassinate the ex-president of a small country on israels say-so, shout WAR in direction of another country which happens to be so shitty because the dictator was installed by the CIA in first place, let a cheap cocksucker make you and all your working colleagues and subalternes the laughing stock of everybody not yet apalled beyond shock, initiate actions to steal health care and retirements from everybody at home, send medical personnel from walter reed to the front because the guerilla is probably beating the shit out of the “most powerful army of the world” so bad that first-line medical support is overwhelmed.
– ad nauseam …
oh shit i’m so sick of this. if the thing with the 1000-year reich lasts 12 years, we still have about 8 years to go 🙁

Posted by: Anonymous | Feb 17 2005 10:15 utc | 14

tho i think attacks on syria & iran are quite possible maybe inevitable tho they would lead us into hells none of us wants to imagine
The horrible thought dawned on me last night that perhaps the Hariri assassination is our equivalent of that of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and will be “the bullet” that starts a new world war. (But maybe it is just because I’m reading Barbara Tuchman.)

Posted by: Ineluctable | Feb 17 2005 11:21 utc | 15

she had the nerve to say with a straight face that Syria “had foreign troops in Lebanon”,
I very nearly threw something at the TV when I heard her say that. They really do make their own reality.

Posted by: dan of steele | Feb 17 2005 11:23 utc | 16

Here comes the latest extortion attempt and war propaganda from the Bush Reichsführers — “Visions of Mushroom Clouds, Part 2.” (Of course, the alleged “threat” *could* always be real, but whether it actually arises from *abroad* is another question entirely.)
This *is* from “Approved Propaganda” — take it with a grain of salt. (For instance, “top U.S. intelligence and military officials”, from the context, may mean nothing more than the named Bush lackeys, Goss and Rumsfeld.)
Rumsfeld, others urge OK for budget
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Speaking with one voice, top U.S. intelligence and military officials said terrorists are regrouping for possible strikes against the United States. The best course, they said, was for Congress to approve the president’s military and antiterrorism budget.
Offering few specifics on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the government could reasonably predict attacks would come from terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and other means. New CIA Director Porter Goss said the Iraq war was giving terrorists experience and contacts. …
Administration officials appearing at congressional hearings Wednesday described a Muslim extremist threat that’s become more diffuse, encompassing Al Qaeda and like-minded associates.
“It may be only a matter of time before Al Qaeda or other groups attempt to use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons,” Goss said at the Senate Intelligence Committee’s annual hearing on threats. …

Posted by: JMF | Feb 17 2005 16:56 utc | 17

Here comes the latest extortion attempt and war propaganda from the Bush Reichsführers — “Visions of Mushroom Clouds, Part 2.” (Of course, the alleged “threat” *could* always be real, but whether it actually arises from *abroad* is another question entirely.)
This *is* from “Approved Propaganda” — take it with a grain of salt. (For instance, “top U.S. intelligence and military officials”, from the context, may mean nothing more than the named Bush lackeys, Goss and Rumsfeld.)
Rumsfeld, others urge OK for budget
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Speaking with one voice, top U.S. intelligence and military officials said terrorists are regrouping for possible strikes against the United States. The best course, they said, was for Congress to approve the president’s military and antiterrorism budget.
Offering few specifics on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the government could reasonably predict attacks would come from terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and other means. New CIA Director Porter Goss said the Iraq war was giving terrorists experience and contacts. …
Administration officials appearing at congressional hearings Wednesday described a Muslim extremist threat that’s become more diffuse, encompassing Al Qaeda and like-minded associates.
“It may be only a matter of time before Al Qaeda or other groups attempt to use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons,” Goss said at the Senate Intelligence Committee’s annual hearing on threats. …

Posted by: JMF | Feb 17 2005 16:56 utc | 18

Oops! — Not my fault, the above duplication. Apparently the “Gremlins: are still occasionally at play here.

Posted by: JMF | Feb 17 2005 16:59 utc | 19

Oops! — Not my fault, the above duplication. Apparently the “Gremlins: are still occasionally at play here.

Posted by: JMF | Feb 17 2005 16:59 utc | 20

BTW, Kerry obediently endorsed BushCo’s military budget request. Hell, even Republicans were objecting to it. But not Kerryboy.

Posted by: DeAnander | Feb 17 2005 19:03 utc | 21

The amazing thing is that these guys almost always leave a thin line of truth through their lies so they can pass the lie-stink test.
“It may be only a matter of time before Al Qaeda or other groups attempt to use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons,” Goss said…
hmmmm… now who might those “other groups” be? Nobody we know, right?

Posted by: Citizen | Feb 17 2005 19:05 utc | 22

I’m not reading Barbara Tuchman, but I wish I could say I thght. @Ineluctable is way off the mark.
Domestically, it would serve the ends of reactionaries in xUS & Israel. Bu$hMob mad to destroy Soc. Sec., but their plan going nowhere. If they start another conflict, they could justify just stealing it all – Nat’l Sec., ya know! For Israel, it’d be a bone to throw to the Fundies & right in the military pissed @Gaza withdrawal – also distract everyone everywhere…..
But best discussion of the few rational elements in all that madness, are in an interview Amy Goodman had this am w/former Iranian UN Ambass – now ex-pat. teaching @Bennington.
His opening remarks:
“The latest incident symbolizes that the nature of the confrontation between United States, and Iran as well as the United States and Syria, as entirely two different objectives. The first of the United States’s putting pressure on Syria is to force them to withdraw their troops from Lebanon, and perhaps control the borders with Iraq more effectively. With respect to Iran, it is an intimidation to create a crisis, and therefore, force Iranians to submit to the demands of the International Atomic Energy Agency or the three European countries negotiating with Iran concerning the abandonment of enrichment uranium.”
Entire Interview

Posted by: jj | Feb 17 2005 21:26 utc | 23

the more i think about it , the more convenient the timing of this assasination and how it syncs w/ the administrations plans in europe. from wapo
“Syria as a Big Topic
Of course Syria could become a major focus of the trip.
Bush this morning said Syria is “out of step” with other nations in the Middle East and must be pressured to remove its troops from Lebanon.
He said he did not know if Syria was involved in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
But, he said: “Hopefully by the time I get overseas, we’ll have a clearer understanding of who killed Mr. Hariri, and it’ll be an opportune time to talk with our friends to determine what to do about it.”
Robin Wright and Peter Baker write in The Washington Post: “The United States . . . is working closely with French President Jacques Chirac, who made a surprise trip to Beirut yesterday to convey condolences to the Hariri family. What to do about Syria is ‘rapidly climbing up the agenda’ of a meeting on Monday between President Bush and Chirac, said a senior administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity. ‘We’re on the same page. . . . The entire international community wants to see something happen.'”
european trip scheduled for bush beginning of 2nd term
jan 26 a resolution introduced in the house”Expressing the grave concern of Congress regarding the occupation of the Republic of Lebanon by the Syrian Arab Republic.”
feb 14 Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri assasinated
week of feb 21 syria becomes major focus of bush trip (maybe)
i admit, i am suspicious, but it feels like a lube job

Posted by: annie | Feb 18 2005 1:31 utc | 24

DeA:
Unfortunately, it’s not just Kerry.
“Democrats are hopeful we are successful” in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Steny Hoyer, House Democratic whip, explaining his plan to support Mr Bush’s request for extra funding.”
The only upside to any of this is that maybe rank and file Dems will finally wake up and realize their party offers no real alternative; Dem leadership is just vying to replace Bushco as the elite’s ministers.

Posted by: lonesomeG | Feb 18 2005 23:07 utc | 25

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