 The Syrian media continued its attack against Lebanese politicians on Monday, accusing MP Saad Hariri of "manufacturing false witnesses" in the assassination of his father and describing organizers of the March 14 independence demonstrations as "liars and mercenaries."
| Winning friends and influencing people right and left, aren't they? |
Fayez Sader, the director-general of radio and television in Syria, in a statement criticized "Hariri Junior" as the agent of France.
| "I, myself, have many times seen him Apache dancing!" |
"Hariri Junior creates nicknames for witnesses he manufactures and masks to undermine Syria (..) and for every witness and mask more than $200,000 in cash is delivered directly or through mediators who collect commission," he said.
| Yo! Over here! I'm a witness! I seen it! |
Sader added that former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri had succeeded in building up Lebanon's politics and economy, "but failed to build men." In an interview with Arab satellite network Al-Arabiyya on Thursday, Hariri had lashed out against Syria, accusing it of being a "terrorist regime" seeking to "change the democratic regime in Lebanon."
The Baath newspaper published a letter written by Salah Mansour to the "lying and hireling March 14 chorus." Mansour described Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt as "the socialist feudalist with moods changing like the four seasons, who received Syrian protection the day it rained bullets above his head in Mukhtara." Telecoms Minister Marwan Hamade, whose car was hit by a bomb on October 1, 2004, was dubbed "a rancorous man whose car tires were worn out coming back and forth to Damascus with poems of praise to the Syrian regime." And his scathing description of Nayla Mouawad, MP and widow of the slain President Rene, was said to be an "old lady acting like a young girl who knocked on every Syrian door in search of a ministry and a parliamentary seat here and there."
The paper also criticized MPs Akram Chehayeb, Ahmad Fatfat, Walid Eido, Atef Majdalani and other "minor liars" for stealing public funds and damaging the Syrian presence in Lebanon with ingratitude on orders from the U.S. Embassy.
| He also condemned by name all the residents of Sidon, the Mormon Tabernacle Chorale, and Ohio State University — "liars and thieves, the lot of them!" |
In response, a PSP statement said such campaigns were no longer effective and reminded the Syrian regime "Lebanon provided the stage for its quarrel with Israel, not the Golan." It called on Syrian papers to focus on Syria's "achievements in democracy, freedom, the building of a state, prisons and cellars." The PSP also asked them to end the "ridiculous sequence" produced and directed at Damascus' intelligence offices. |