Article

2005-11-12 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Assad speech sparks angry reaction in Lebanon

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Posted by lotp 2005-11-12 07:17|| || Front Page|| [6 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Detlev Mehlis, the chief UN investigator, is seeking to interview several Syrian officials including Assef Shawkat, Mr Assad's brother-in-law and head of military intelligence.

Assad, that chinless and spineless wonder, has apparently managed to get his brother off Mehlis' list of those he wants to question as suspects in Hariri's killing.

I wonder what deals were made behind the scenes to achieve that.

Posted by Bryan">Bryan 2005-11-12 11:29|| 2005-11-12 11:29|| Front Page Top

#2 I had another thought - it happens sometimes:
Maybe the brother-in-law is going to be the fall guy.

Reminds me of Saddam's sons-in-law who fled to Jordan but were lured back by promises that all was forgiven and then killed.

You can't make this stuff up.

Posted by Bryan">Bryan 2005-11-12 11:34|| 2005-11-12 11:34|| Front Page Top

#3 Maybe the brother-in-law is going to be the fall guy.

That was my thought.

Posted by 2b 2005-11-12 12:04|| 2005-11-12 12:04|| Front Page Top

#4 The chinless Assad seems cowardly to me, and not ruthless enough to order Hariri's murder. He's not about to take the rap for a brother-in-law who probably is involved, as well as a rival uncle, so he has to divert attention or he'll suddenly fall ill. I don't hear much about Hariri's business dealings but I'd bet he's not an innocent victim. With ties to the Saudi Royals, Chirac, and the UN, as well as being one of the wealthiest men in the world, must have financed most of the Muslim "merchants" and their "conspiracies", but deemed an apostate infidel by Wahabi's. Sending Mehlis to investigate was like sending a fox to look in on the henhouse, so maybe there is some truth to Assad's contentions. No one is right, no one can be trusted, so sorting out the truth is confusing!

Posted by Danielle 2005-11-12 18:58|| 2005-11-12 18:58|| Front Page Top

#5 And add to all that the curious fact of Mehlis' report being given to the media with the 'track changes' function enabled - which revealed the names of the Syrian and Lebanese security officials suspected of involvement in Hariri's murder.

Mehlis claimed that he removed the names, but a careful look at how the document was edited reveals that he's almost certainly being economical with the truth. The beginning of the editing coincided with the start of his meeting with Annan and the names were removed around the time that he left the meeting.

That meeting lasted about 45 minutes and the editing continued for about another three hours, mostly mundane stuff, like corrections to grammar which reads like it was written by someone whose mother tongue is not English. But there is also politically correct editing - the smoothing over of phrases which were evidently a little rough for bland UN tastes - and also the removal of the name of a bank, officials of which Mehlis suspects of involvement in the assassination.

Posted by Bryan">Bryan 2005-11-12 23:39|| 2005-11-12 23:39|| Front Page Top

#6 I notice these comments are next to the Google ad 'See the Real Syria'.

That would take some doing.

Posted by Bryan">Bryan 2005-11-12 23:50|| 2005-11-12 23:50|| Front Page Top

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