Who Sponsors Fights in Lebanon?
Annals of Short Memory:
Published on March 5, 2007 Seymour Hersh wrote:
American, European, and Arab officials I spoke to told me that the Siniora government and its allies had allowed some aid to end up in the hands of emerging Sunni radical groups in northern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and around Palestinian refugee camps in the south.
[...]
Alastair Crooke, who spent nearly thirty years in MI6, [..] Crooke said that one Sunni extremist group, Fatah al-Islam, had splintered from its pro-Syrian parent group, Fatah al-Intifada, in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, in northern Lebanon. Its membership at the time was less than two hundred. “I was told that within twenty-four hours they were being offered weapons and money by people presenting themselves as representatives of the Lebanese government’s interests—presumably to take on Hezbollah,” Crooke said.
Now some unnamed Lebanon media see Syria behind violence
The Lebanese media are in no doubt that Syria is to blame for clashes between security forces and Fatah al-Islam militants
Obviously this is a Siniora minority government and U.S. financed operation that gave birth to another "Al Qaeda" organization.
Just in case you ask who sponsors such deadly "intelligence" efforts this screenshot taken some minutes ago might tell you something:
Posted by b on May 21, 2007 at 20:33 UTC | Permalink
the great game was never pretty
but it is getting very very ugly indeed
there is clearly some instrumentalisation going on here & wouldn't see the sourdce of that in either damascus or tehran - washington & tel aviv are the short term beneficiaries
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 21 2007 23:03 utc | 2
Gulf News:
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Lebanon/10126815.html
“Soldiers and police [were] at the site of an explosion in the eastern area of Ashrafieh in Beirut, Lebanon, on Sunday night.”
…
”A woman was killed when an explosive device detonated near a shopping mall in Ashrafieh in the Christian sector of the Lebanese capital, on Sunday, a security source said.”
Al Jezeera:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/69F5E632-0CBE-45C5-A3D7-7BBAF7EC5966.htm
“A device has gone off in a busy car park in the west of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.”
…
“The explosion on Monday night came 24 hours after a similar attack in the Christian east of the city.”
…
”The area, Verdun, is a crowded commercial and mostly Sunni Muslim district.”
These media stories sure let the readers know what people live in what district. Sunday night a car explosion in a Christian sector, Monday night it was in a Muslim district.
Posted by: Rick | May 21 2007 23:29 utc | 3
& washington & tel avi are practiced in the work of instrumentalisation. they are the only ones that benefit from this chaos.
syria would be beibg suicidal & assad is far from that, iran is playing a longer game & would hardly support a sunni gang whose provenance is far from clear & whose roots are again in cia/saudi financed hoods in afghanistan
the palestinians, least of all because they are the ones who suffer directly, have vocied their opposition to this group & have called them from the beginning - which as far as i can see as a 'formation' - was about 6-8 months ago - & have called them everything from foreign stooges to cia gangsters. both hamas & fatah have opposed them openly & late last year it seem as if elements of hamas & hezbollah would liquidate them
as a formation - they function as 'terrorists' - aq in absence of aq - they are made for tv - & for an extremely small group they have destabilised what was already wrecked
i think so badly of israel these days - & seeing that they mirror exactly what south africa did - it seems to me like the way the south african state instrumentalised the zulus especially in the final days. they also resemble - the groups created by the cia in the fifties for the coup in persia who did exactly the same thing
as marat says in peter weiss's marat/sade - "what kind of world is this"
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 22 2007 1:27 utc | 5
Really good post.
The empire never rests. Losing here, let's go on the offensive there.
WECWK = Where else can we kill (in the service of perpetuating global inequality and suffering to our benefit).
Posted by: BobM | May 22 2007 2:31 utc | 6
This from today’s Wayne Madsen Reports:
May 21, 2007
With "Al Qaeda" activity in northern Lebanon, US poised to take control of Kleiaat airbase.
Last month, WMR reported, "Our Lebanese sources as well as the Lebanese daily newspaper Aldiyar now report that a NATO base is to be built soon on the grounds of the largely abandoned airbase at Klieaat in northern Lebanon. The base will serve as the headquarters of a NATO rapid deployment force, helicopter squadrons, and Special Forces units although the cover story prepared by the Lebanese and US governments is that the base will provide training for the Lebanese army and security forces. The base was pushed by elements in the office of the US Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Bush administration had recently warned Lebanon about the presence of "Al Qaeda" teams in northern Lebanon."
Just as if acting on cue from the Bush White House, a new "terrorist group" called Fath al-Islam commenced operations in the vicinity of the Kleiaat airbase (also spelled Qlei-at) during the evening of May 20. Fath al-Islam laid road traps to prevent Lebanese army units from Tripoli from reaching the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp on the outskirts of Tripoli, the scene of fighting between the Lebanese army and Fath al-Islam that resulted in the killing and wounding of tens of Lebanese troops.
Fath al-Islam was reportedly started with funding and other support from the CIA and Lebanese Phalangist forces to act as a counterweight to Hezbollah. In reality, Fath al-Islam is designed to give the Bush administration, NATO, and the Fouad Siniora government a pretext for granting the U.S. military and NATO access to northern Lebanon and the Kleiaat airbase. Fath al-Islam's activities are already being blamed on "Al Qaeda" units operating in the north of the country.
Posted by: Rick | May 22 2007 2:56 utc | 7
And with the Guardian today publishing the usual "US govt officials" on the offensive about Iran's "secret summer offensive" in Iraq, looks like it's going to be a long, hot few months...
Posted by: Dismal Science | May 22 2007 12:00 utc | 8
sy hersh on democracynow 05.24
Seymour Hersh: U.S. Indirectly Backed Islamist Militants Fighting Lebanese Army
And what is the laugh riot and the reason I’m actually talking to you guys about this -- I usually don’t like to do interviews unless I have a story in The New Yorker -- the reason I’m talking about it is because the American government keeps on putting out this story that Syria is behind the Fatah group, which is just beyond belief.
something else that hersh draws attention to, which i haven't heard anyone else point out
I do know that within the last month, maybe four, four-and-a-half weeks ago, they made a decision that because of the totally dwindling support for the war in Iraq, we go back to the al-Qaeda card, and we start talking about al-Qaeda. And the next thing you know, right after that, Bush went to the Southern Command -- this was a month ago -- and talked, mentioned al-Qaeda twenty-seven times in his speech. He did so just the other day this week -- al-Qaeda this, al-Qaeda that.
i'm also seeing this in statements recently by u.s. officials wrt situations in several african nations.
Posted by: b real | May 24 2007 16:34 utc | 9
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Round 1 in a Summer of Hell in Lebanon. Great post b, and from here:
I wonder which side of the Lebanese Army is battling this Sunni group. I expect escalation and Sarkozy to do something.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | May 21 2007 20:53 utc | 1