State Dept. Dismisses Syria Offer

[allemand]

Thursday November 10, 2005 7:46 PM
By BARRY SCHWEID
AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Dismissing a qualified offer by Syrian President Bashar Assad to cooperate with a U.N. investigation into the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister, the State Department on Thursday ruled out setting conditions for the probe.

If investigator Detlev Mehlis ``wants something he should get it, and he should get it without delay and without complication and without obfuscation,'' the department's deputy spokesman, Adam Ereli, said. (...)

Assad responsed Thursday with an offer to cooperate, but warned it would cease if Syria was going to be harmed.

The Syrian president also said Mehlis had refused Syria's offer to have Syrian officials questioned on Syrian territory, even in U.N. offices there, or at the Arab League's office in Cairo.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5406654,00.html

I don't understand why Mehlis refused Syria's offer to hold the questioning of the Syrian officers in Cairo. He doesn't make much effort to appear unbiased.

[jsamuel]

1. The sad thing is all it takes is one Syrian officer to get paid under the

table by SOMEONE and they will say Syria did all kinds of things.

Maybe that is why he doesn't want officers going out by themselves. Just a thought.

[SteppingRazor]

2. Does that mean you think Syria had nothing to do with Hariri's death?

Because from everything I've read the evidence is already rather heavy.

[jsamuel]

3. I am just saying that being reluctant to fully cooperate doesn't mean that

they are guilty.

And the evidence I have seen says that the main witness to that evidence was possibly paid off. Germany was all over that story.

Again, that doesn't mean that they didn't do it either.

[SteppingRazor]

8. I think both sides are right here...

I think Syrian officials (not necessarily Assad, but certainly some in his government) were involved in the Hariri assassination.

But also, I think the U.S. certainly wants to push Syria into a corner diplomatically.

So, in this case, the neocons don't even need propaganda. Reality has played right into their hands.

[The Stranger]

4. It doesn't matter who killed Hariri - the Neocons want Syria, any pretense

will do.

Don't bother the Neocons with evidence. Remember Saddam's nuclear weapons ready to be launched within 45 minutes? Complete and utter fucking lies is all these people know.

[allemand]

7. Maybe, but it's reasonable for the questioning to take place outside Syria

, in my opinion. Cairo is outside Syria, Egypt is a longstanding ally of the US. So, why has it to be Beirut, Lebanon? It looks like Mehlis really wants to humiliate Syria.

[conscious]

5. GOP MEMO TOUTS NEW TERROR ATTACK AS WAY TO REVERSE PARTY'S DECLINE

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7639.shtml

[Eugene]

6. We went down this road on the way to Iraq.

The US is demanding a degree of submission that Assad
can't afford to give, but anything less will be another
"material breach" of UN mandates. John Bolton is already
trying to paint Syria as another UN sanctions scofflaw.

The Bushies want a regime change. They are not
really interested in a diplomatic solution.

[allemand]

9. Rice: Syria Failing to Cooperate With U.N. Probe

By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 10, 2005; 3:51 PM

SHANNON, Ireland, Nov. 10 -- Syria, in violation of a new United Nations resolution, is so far failing to cooperate with a U.N. investigation into the massive bombing that assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, the country's leading reformer, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday. (...)

"The U.N. couldn't have been clearer. The resolution couldn't have been clearer or more detailed about what was expected of the Syrians," Rice told reporters traveling with her to the Middle East. "They're expected to answer affirmatively, yes, to whatever Mehlis needs to complete his investigation. I do not believe the U.N. Security Council resolution contemplated negotiating how they would say yes." (...)

In nationally televised speech in Damascus today, Assad said Syria would not surrender its national interests in the process of working with the U.N. probe and suggested the international community had a broader agenda.

"No matter what we do and how much we cooperate, the result after a month will be that 'Syria did not cooperate' . . . but we have to do our duty," he said in a 75-minute speech at Damascus University.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/10/AR2005111001314.html?nav=rss_world

US slams Assad's 'appalling' remarks on Hariri slaying

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US State Department slammed as "appalling" and defiant Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's speech proclaiming his country's innocence in the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri.

"We saw the speech. We think it's appalling," said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.

In his hour-long speech, Assad had said: "I always said Syria is innocent. (...) But he added: "Whatever we do or say to cooperate, the response is just going to be in a month that Syria is not cooperating. We have to be realistic. Syria is being targeted."

Assad vowed, however, that Damascus, despite its distrust of the process, would fully cooperate with the UN probe into the February 14 murder of Hariri in a Beirut bomb blast.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051110/pl_afp/syrialebanonunassad_051110201441

[allemand]

10. Syria to Let UN Meet Hariri Suspects Outside Nation, Envoy Says

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Syria will allow the United Nations team investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri interview six senior government officials outside the country, Syria's envoy to the UN said.

Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad told reporters at the UN that the interviews could take place anywhere ``under a UN flag'' except for Beirut. Mekdad said German Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who heads the probe, should be ``sensitive'' to Syrian concerns about holding the interviews in Lebanon and not insist on that.

``There are no limits on our cooperation,'' Mekdad said. ``There will be no interference whatsoever. We would accept any place he finds suitable, under a UN flag, in a third country.''

Mekdad's remarks followed a speech by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in which he seemed to place limits on his government's cooperation with Mehlis, prompting France to renew the threat of international sanctions against Syria.

More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a.Adc7H9yDYw

[allemand]

11. Mehlis insists on Beirut as venue for the interrogations

This article was published before Assad's speech:

Mehlis Seen on Collision Course with Assad, Travels Before Dawn to Germany

November 10, 2005
Naharnet.com

U.N. chief investigator Detlev Mehlis left Beirut by plane to Germany before dawn Thursday amid reports that he has hardened his stance toward Syria, feeling the Assad regime was procrastinating over the summons of six Syrian intelligence officers to appear before the Berlin prosecutor at his Monteverde headquarters near Beirut for interrogation in connection with Rafik Hariri's assassination. (...)

Media reports in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Arab world say Mehlis is inclined to refuse an invitation by Syria's state prosecutor Ghada Murad to visit Damascus for negotiating and signing a protocol of cooperation that would lay down the guidelines for the interrogation of the six officers.

The Syrians reportedly want to know in advance whether the six would be cross-examined as suspects or witnesses and to ascertain whether the interrogation would be conducted within the framework of Syrian, Lebanese or international laws, which Mehlis sees as an official Syrian attempt at time-consuming procrastination. (...)

Mehlis is also said to be infuriated by suggestions that the interrogation of the six be conducted at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo or in Moscow. "A change of venue is out of the question," Mehlis was quoted as saying. "It's only Monteverde, take it or leave it."

More:
http://www.lebaneselobby.org/News__index/news%202005/11%2010%2005%20Mehlis%20Seen%20on%20Collision%20Course%20with%20Assad,%20Travels%20Before%20Dawn%20to%20Germany.htm

Not even Cyprus, it has to be Beirut. Mehlis is doing everything to look just like a US puppet.

[allemand]

12. Hersh: We're being totally manipulated by this administration about Syria

But speaking at the Middle East Institute, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh warned against any rush to judgment of Syria, saying the United States has an agenda in the region.

"I'm exceedingly skeptical, and I have been all along, of the point of view of what happened to Hariri," said Mr. Hersh. "The American point of view is that it was Syria with the aid of some people in Lebanon. Despite all the back and forth about how the American press corps was totally manipulated, to its embarrassment, about WMD, I would still argue, we're still being totally manipulated by this administration about Syria and Lebanese involvement."

Analysis: Syria's Leader Remains an Enigma
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-11-10-voa87.cfm

It's indeed a bit strange that the whole "secret" plot as it is described now in the Mehlis report was first outlined in an article which appeared just four days after the assassination in the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyassah:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1904132#1904853

[VegasWolf]

13. Shouldn't there be a U.N. Probe on Rice? nt