Six Syrian Officers Summoned in Hariri Probe

[cal04]

The chief U.N. investigator into the assassination of a former Lebanese premier, armed with new powers from the Security Council, has summoned six senior Syrian intelligence officers for questioning, a Lebanese official said Saturday.
The officers include Syrian President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law.

The official, close to the U.N. team investigating former Premier Rafik Hariri's killing, said chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis sent the summons to the Syrian government via the United Nations on Wednesday. Mehlis has sent a letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan demanding to question at least six Syrian officials, the official told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media about this sensitive issue.

There was no immediate Syrian comment due to the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
The London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat reported Saturday that Mehlis wanted to question six senior Syrian officers at the U.N. commission's headquarters at the hilltop Monteverde Hotel east of Beirut, and not in Syria.

Despite its declared readiness to cooperate with the U.N. probe into Hariri's killing, the Syrian government, citing the country's sovereignty, reportedly opposes allowing Syrian witnesses or suspects to be questioned by U.N. investigators outside Syria. It is particularly sensitive about Syrians being questioned in Lebanon because of concerns for their safety.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB42SVTOFE.html

[DemInDistress]

1. I just dont buy into Syria being behind the hariri murder

it has the smell of the Bush Crime family.PNAC requires a pro-western
government from Lebanon Syria Iraq Iran Afghanistan Pakistan to the door step of China...Something smells here

[sirjohn]

2. It was the UN report that concluded that Syria

was part of it.

[DemInDistress]

3. and tom kean concluded no one did it and everyone did it

if thats possible.Where there's trouble I see the bush crime family
somehow directly or indirectly involved.Who stood to gain? I doubt the
Syrians since they held carte blanche fopr 15 yrs. but the crime family needed Syria or at least a pro american government..I'm sure
more will come..

[texpatriot2004]

4. The UN report is wrong. It's a trumped up, full of half lies...

It wasn't Syria.

[allemand]

5. Incredibly stupid Syrians

Rafik Hariri was assassinated on 14 February 2005 at approximately 1250 hrs. The Syrian plot was so secret that already 4 hours later DEBKAfile pointed the finger at General Ghazali:

Syrian Military Intelligence Eliminates Hariri and Reform Hopes for Lebanon
February 14, 2005, 4:59 PM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis (...)

According to DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources, the assassination was staged by Syrian military intelligence headed by General Rostum Ghazala.
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=983

A few days later there was "solid evidence" of Syrian involvement, according to DEBKAfile:

February 19, 2005, 11:24 PM (GMT+02:00)

Our sources report that US, French and Israeli intelligence have already gathered solid evidence that General Rostum Ghazallah of Syrian military intelligence orchestrated the murder on orders from Damascus with the aid of Lebanese general intelligence and its chief General Jamil al-Sayad.
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=986

And the central conclusions of the Mehlis report were first published just four days after the assassination (!) by the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyassah:

Report: Syria planned Hariri murder

Jerusalem Post
Feb. 18, 2005 17:17
BEIRUT, Lebanon

Officials at the highest levels in Syria and Lebanon organized the
assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri,
according to the Kuwaiti newspaper a-Siasa.

The report revealed that two high-ranking Syrian generals “including
Syrian president Bashar Assad's brother-in-law, Brig. Gen. Asef
Shawkat, whom he appointed Friday to head military intelligence“ and
a Lebanese general. (sic)

The newspaper did not reveal the sources of the report.

http://www.newsbackup.com/about591497.html

Syria's historic blunder
Feb. 22, 2005 11:50 AM

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting that a Kuwaiti newspaper, Al Sayassah, believes that the assassination was planned by Assef Shawkat, Assad's brother-in-law. A plot thought possibly planned out of anger over the role Hariri played in the recent U.N resolutions telling Syria to pull out of Lebanon.

http://www.buzztracker.org/2005/02/22/cache/472709.html

The editor of al-Seyassah, Ahmad Al-Jarallah, is known for editorials like "The New Iraq Will Be 'the Beacon of Freedom, Democracy", "Syria’s Secret Service is Behind the ’Iraqi Resistance" and "Arab Regimes Must Understand the U.S. Administration Supports The Freedom and Rights of the Arabs". Al-Seyassah often quotes anonymous sources.

Another stupidity: the brother of one chief suspect has to call the mobile phone of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud just minutes before the blast (Mehlis Report, p.52, (200.)).
Certainly, nobody else would listen in to the calls of the Lebanese president...



If Western intelligence agencies knew so much so quickly about the assassination of Hariri, why did they nothing to stop it?

[allemand]

6. Al-Seyassah article published on February 19, but quoted on February 18?

I found a blog entry with links to the original al-Seyassah article in Arabic which was published on February 19, 2005. The article in the Jerusalem Post which refers to the al-Seyassah article appeared on February 18.

"Here is the Al-Seyassah article (...) that named Bahjat, Assef and Lebanese Jamil al-Sayyed as the culprits. According to the article, Assef was appointed head of military intelligence 30 minutes after the blast that killed Hariri (...)

An unnamed American official told the paper that Shawkat is part of a gang of 12 who are the de-facto rulers of Syria and who are involved in terrorist operations in Iraq and elsewhere.
http://beirutbeltway.blogspot.com/2005/10/mehlis-to-name-five-syrian-officials.html
(my emphasis)

The original article in Arabic:
http://www.alseyassah.com/alseyassah/PDF/05/Feb/19/01.pdf
http://www.alseyassah.com/alseyassah/PDF/05/Feb/19/34.pdf

Another brief summary of the article:

The Kuwaiti daily Al-Seyassah ran a fiery front page (Arabic) today with a provocative headline: "Three Officers Organized Hariri's Assassination: Asef Shawkat and Bahjat Sleiman of the Syrian intelligence, and Jamil As-Sayyed of the Lebanese Sureté Générale." The story goes on to claim that the decision to execute the hit was taken at the highest echelons of power in Damascus right before the Eid al-Adha. Unfortunately, the story doesn't name any sources.
http://beirut2bayside.blogspot.com/2005/02/family-affair.html

[enigma000]

7. Lebanon was occupied by Syria

I'm not sure if any Western intelligence agency could do anything for Hariri other than warn him. Hariri, being a billionaire, had the best security private money can buy.

John Kerry visited Assad a month before the assassination. I wondered at the time what the purpose of his visit was. Could he have delivered a warning to Assad on behalf of the Bush administration?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6802243

[allemand]

8. 10 Syrian officials to be questioned in Cyprus?/ The Saddiq saga continues

Other sources close to the UN team said the number of Syrian officials to be questioned was actually 10. (...)

According to pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, Mehlis wants to question the officials over their connection to Mohammad Siddiq, a Syrian suspect in Hariri's murder arrested in Paris last month.

Siddiq reportedly played a political role in Lebanon during the 1990s through his contacts with Syrian officials. The UN team and Lebanese judicial authorities are investigating reports suggesting Siddiq also tried to interfere in the 1996 parliamentary polls, mainly to support the candidacy of politicians running against Druze leader and Chouf MP Walid Jumblatt. (...)

The sources also said two of the Lebanese generals accused in Hariri's killing are likely to be transferred to Cyprus to face Syrian officials who have denied involvement in the killing.

More:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=19840

Al-Saddiq/al-Siddiq happens to be married to the niece of a Druze politician:

A few years ago Sadik, who had dropped out of a training program to become a practitioner of alternative medicine and was working odd jobs, became acquainted with the family of a Lebanese politician. He married one of the politician's nieces and moved to Beirut.
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,381321-2,00.html

He married into a Druze family:

La version syrienne des faits ajoute qu’Al-Saddiq, marié à une Druze libanaise, aurait été introduit dans la Commission par une personnalité politique libanaise anti-syrienne.
http://www.realites.com.tn/index1.php?a=detail1&art=13715

According to this article, after his "defection" al-Saddiq first approached Marouan Hamadé, a confidant of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who brought him together with the Saudis and Rifaat al-Assad. Mehlis first met with al-Saddq in Rifaat al-Assad's house in Marbella.

Lorsqu'il a fait défection à Beyrouth, il s'est adressé d'abord à Marouan Hamadé, proche du chef druze Walid Joumblatt qui a pris la tête du front antisyrien. Il a ensuite été exfiltré à Riyad, où la famille royale saoudienne a décidé de le confier à Rifaat el-Assad, frère du défunt Hafez el-Assad et oncle de Bachar, en guerre depuis des années contre le régime syrien. Ayant toujours ses entrées à Paris, Rifaat l'a fait venir dans la capitale française.
http://www.tayyar.org/tayyar/articles.php?article_id=7134&type=press_news

This is the background of his new claim that he "tried to interfere in the 1996 parliamentary polls" against none other than... Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.