The Special Tribunal for Lebanon will turn its eye on Damascus following the release of the four generals, European sources said, as former chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis said his recommendation to arrest the former security chiefs was based on the testimony of king witness Zuhair Siddiq as well as others.
Mehlis said the U.N. commission investigating ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's murder had recommended the arrest of the four generals and it would have retracted its order had it been mistaken.
Mehlis told al-Mustaqbal daily that when he quit as head of the commission, the provisional arrest of the generals was legal under Lebanese, German and French law.
He stressed that at that time he thought the probe would need only one more year. He told al-Mustaqbal that he would have sent the file to the court if he had enough evidence and if not, he would have announced that finding the truth is impossible.
"Had the investigation been on the right track, it would have been over long time ago," the former head of the U.N. panel said.
He told the newspaper that his recommendation to arrest the four generals wasn't only based on the testimony of witness Mohammed Zuhair Siddiq.
Mehlis said he recommended the arrests after hearing the testimonies of several witnesses including Gen. H. and another person to whom one of the released officers, Gen. Mustafa Hamdan, had said there is an intention to send Hariri on a "trip."
Mehlis said that the commission had asked Syria for information on a possible Israeli involvement in Hariri's assassination but Damascus did not cooperate on the matter.
The panel, according to Mehlis, also ruled out the involvement of fundamentalists in the former premier's murder.
Sources involved in the investigation into Hariri's assassination informed official Western and European parties that the court will continue its work because the commission investigating the former premier's killing has enough evidence and information to find the truth.
The sources stressed that the tribunal's judges are committed to the Lebanese and the international community to hold accountable and punish the culprits.
An Nahar quoted the Western and European officials as saying the release of the generals will support international efforts to push Syrian President Bashar Assad to cooperate with the tribunal and comply with its demands, including the interrogation of Syrian witnesses or accused persons when needed.
Well-informed diplomatic sources in Paris said "the next strike by the court after the release of the generals will be in Damascus because the Hariri case is of significance to Syria more than any other country outside Lebanon."
Meanwhile, Lebanese authorities informed pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen that they are implementing his decision to protect the generals, including taking security measures and putting guards to protect them and their property.
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[Iran Press TV Latest] A 12-year-old Iranian boy, Kourosh Mozouni, has registered for the upcoming presidential election with a campaign promise of his own.
Speaking to reporters at the Interior Ministry's election headquarters in Tehran on Friday, Mozouni said he would ban computer games and raise wages of male parents so that mothers do not have to work.
"Mothers, children and young adults will vote for me," said the 12-year-old whose bid for presidency was rejected by Iran's Interior Ministry.
Mozouni has also promised to pass a law that lets women have jobs only if they have had babies for at least five years. He said he would also negotiate with US President Barack Obama to buy Hawaii Islands and move Israelis there so that Palestinians can live peacefully in their lands.
When asked if he knew what yellow cake -- a substance used for nuclear fuel -- was, Mozouni said, "A president does not have to know everything."
The question came up as Iran's president would have to deal with a heated international debate regarding Iran's nuclear program. "You all have refrigerators at home but do you know the different parts of it? All Iranians believe nuclear energy to be their legitimate right, but this does not mean that they should know everything about it," the 12-year-old explained.
He also said he would seek to stop the killing of the world's oppressed children, including Gazans, if he elected as president.
According to Iran's Interior Ministry, over one thousand candidates have so far registered for the country's June presidential election. Following the official registration, the Guardians Council will evaluate the candidates and announce individuals meeting the council's approval on May 20th and 21st.
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[Al Arabiya Latest] A former head of the elite Revolutionary Guards on Friday became the most prominent figure so far to register as a candidate in Iran's June presidential election just hours before incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, registered.
Mohsen Rezaie, a conservative who is now secretary of the powerful Expediency Council arbitration body, said the economy of the world's fifth-largest oil exporter needed "fundamental change" and advocated a broad based government of experts.
Even though he is well-known in Iran after a long career as Guards commander, analysts don't expect him to be among the frontrunners in the June 12 vote, in which Ahmadinejad will seek a second four-year term.
Moderate politician Mirhossein Mousavi, a former prime minister, is expected to be the incumbent's main challenger but was yet to officially register as a candidate at the Interior Ministry registration center in Tehran.
Candidates have until Saturday to register, after which they will be vetted by the Guardian Council, which has strict moral and other criteria, requiring them to be established statesmen. In the last vote in 2005, only about 10 were cleared.
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#1
Rezaie sounds like he's Ayatollah Khameni's shot across Ahmadinejad's bow.
Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader MP Saad Hariri on Thursday responded to charges made by his political opponents that his movement had accused Syria of the assassination of his father ex-premier Rafik Hariri, saying: "The people of Lebanon made the accusation when the crime took place."
"I am the son of Rafik Hariri and I say the accusation made against the Syrian regime is political," Hariri told a huge electoral rally in the area where MP Walid Eido and his son were assassinated in a car bomb in 2007.
Addressing the crowd, Hariri said: "You were the first to know that the accusation did not come from nowhere. You also know that Rafik Hariri, prior to his assassination, was threatened by well-known people at the top of the pyramid of the previous regime under (Syrian) tutelage."
Hariri reiterated his political stance regarding the 2005 assassination crime that killed his father saying: "If Israel was the one that assassinated my father, then why the attempts to hinder the Special Tribunal? Israel assassinated Palestine, gentlemen it assassinated Palestine."
"We shall never fall into the trap of arms, sedition and civil war. We shall maintain our path -- that of the legitimate state, justice, moderation and education," Hariri said.
He was referring to events last year on the same day when Beirut was overrun with violence.
"Today is the first anniversary when madness believed it could overrun Beirut, but the city overran madness with its patriotism," he said.
Hariri added, "The only weapon my father provided for young people is the weapon of education and progress. When Lebanon was under tutelage, when all Lebanese were desperate to have a state and an army, Rafik Hariri drafted the plan for state institutions," Hariri said.
He accused his political opponents of attempting to carry the country outside the Taef accords. "The Special Tribunal for Lebanon is established and justice is coming. Criminals won't escape justice," Hariri charged.
He announced Al-Mustaqbal Beirut 3 district list which includes Tamam Salam, Imad al-Hout, Ghazi Aridi, Atef Majdalani, Ammar Houry, Nabil de Freij, Ghazi Youssef, Bassem al-Shab and Mohammed Qabbani.
Earlier, Jamaa Islamia parliamentary candidate Imad al-Hout said: "We don't want any sectarian clashes. We shall proof that May 7 events are behind us."
Beirut 3 parliamentary candidate Culture Minister Tamam Salam added: "I am honored to be with Hariri on a single list. We want a strong Arab Lebanon far removed from any axis."
Transportation and Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi addressed rally supporters saying: "Beirut knows how to overcome hardships. This is the capital that has vanquished every injustice."
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
