Lebanon response to scandal over Hariri probe may be war against Israel
Wave of arrests among officials in Lebanese mobile phone operators - all on suspicions of spying for Israel - also reflects just how close cooperation has become between Lebanese intelligence and Hezbollah.
By Avi IssacharoffAn investigation by the Canadian broadcaster CBC released Sunday found Hezbollah to have been directly involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The network's findings, however, are not likely to quell the political firestorm that has engulfed Lebanon over the last few months. On the contrary.
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Wissam Eid |
| Photo by: Reuters |
Lebanon's decision-makers (if any other than Hezbollah are worthy of the title ), media and public are all speculating over Hezbollah's next move should the International Court of Justice in The Hague ultimately choose to release its indictment against the organization's members for involvement in the former prime minister's 2005 death in Beirut.
Instead, the CBC news item will likely only exacerbate the dire political situation in which Hezbollah finds itself, with criticism of the group pouring in from all corners of the country. Hassan Nasrallah's objective of portraying himself as a protector of the entire country is fading amid the flurry of testimony pointing to the involvement of his own people in the Hariri hit.
The most compelling evidence uncovered thus far is the registration numbers of mobile phones carried by eight people, all Hezbollah operatives, present at the time and place of the strike.
One course that Hezbollah may choose to calm the waters is a kind of admission of its members' presence at the murder scene, qualified by the pretext of "national security" considerations such as monitoring a suspected Mossad agent. At this stage, however, it seems even that kind of explanation won't help the group clear its name.
If the majority of Lebanese already believe Nasrallah to be an Iranian agent who killed their former premier, should Hezbollah choose now to take control of Lebanon through violence that might actually be in the Shi'ite group's best interest.
In the meantime, Lebanon's current prime minister - and son of the slain leader - Saad Hariri may be losing sleep over the identity of one of those believed to have been involved. The suspect is Wissam Hassan, the Lebanese intelligence chief who was Hariri's chief of protocol at the time of the bombing. Records of Hassan's extensive phone conversations with Nasrallah adviser Hussein Khalil (279 times over 15 months ) seem as solid evidence as any of growing ties between Lebanese security forces and Hezbollah.
The revelation that Hassan is a prime suspect in the hit raises the question of whether military aid granted by Western countries - chiefly the United States - is indirectly benefiting Hezbollah.
The wave of arrests among officials in Lebanese mobile phone operators - all on suspicions of spying for Israel - also reflects just how close cooperation has become between Lebanese intelligence and Hezbollah.
There is one point in this whole affair, however, that can serve as consolation for Israelis, namely that this country may not be the only bungler on the block.
A low-level Hezbollah operative who only wanted to speak with his fiancee for free is apparently the suspect who led to the exposure of his entire strike team. That exposure won't necessarily lead to an indictment against the movement, as investigators continue looking for a "smoking gun" to prove that mobile devices were indeed in the hands of the Hezbollah operatives, not merely on their persons, at the time of the assassination.
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Wissam Hassan |
| Photo by: Reuters |
Still, Israel should not forget that the organization finding itself in trouble in the Lebanese political arena could well opt to wage an entirely different response - the opening of another front against Israel.
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I'm having real difficulty seeing how any of the "usual suspects" had something to gain by Hariri's assassination. Any organisation with an ear to the ground would have anticipated the massive popular outrage. Would Syria or Hezbollah have such a tin ear? We should perhaps ask ourselves who stood most to profit by that outrage. Either that or Hariri posed such a threat to somebody that it would be worth the ignominy to eliminate him. Which states would prefer a fractured Lebanon to a united Lebanon able to vigorously defend itself? There's quite a number of powerful actors with the capability of tailoring evidence seeking to stick somebody else with the blame.
There were plenty of powerful Syrian government officials who wanted a piece of the Hariri's financial empire and a cut from the profitable business deals he was making with his Saudi partners.
Israel killed Hariri and the majority of Lebanese know that Israel did it.. What about the telecommunication that was totally run by israel through its spies in lebanon u forgot to mention it?!!
What a MESS. Lebanon is not on the verge of attacking Israel. Nor is Hisbollah the only political force in Lebanon. This story does seem as if it intends to prepare Israelis for an attack on Lebanon. There have been a number of such stories in recent weeks though this may be a coincidence.
"Lebanon" is dead and has been for years. Hezbolah is a division of the Syrian military and fully controls the province. Everything else is just myth and storytelling!
When the UN passed the resolution on establishing the special criminal court for the Hariri assassination, it was believed that Syria was responsible. Without this belief, who would have established an international court for the killing of a Former PM, especially in a land where politicians are assassinated right and left?? Unfortunately, it appears now to have been an internal Lebanese job and the result of the investigation may spark a civil war in Lebanon, which nobody needs. My advice to the UN: Just abolish the special Court, announce the result of the investigation, and cross your fingers. As long as Hizballah can maintain deniability, things will not boil over. May Hariri rest in peace, and may Allah take care of the murderers as He has been doing in Lebanon for a long time now. Amen.
can they afford such a war. This time targets would be less restrictive and their government would be held accountable. They would be occupied by Israel to the Litani River and there would be no ceasefire until Hezbollah was destroyed or run out. Syria would also suffer devastating military and economic setbacks and lose even more land. A naval blockade would also cost Lebanon dearly. It would take them 20 years to rebuild and that is an optomistic estimate. Their people of this generation would never recover.
and they may order Hezbollah to stage a major provocation against Israel. In any case, Israel should be ready for this kind of emergency.
"Wave of arrests among officials in Lebanese mobile phone operators - all on suspicions of spying for Israel - also reflects just how close cooperation has become between Lebanese intelligence and Hezbollah. " Not to mention that this ALSO indicates that any "evidence" gleaned from the phone records of such a company is going to be rather suspect.....
The inability to face the truth is the main reason why they're still stuck in the medieval times.
If Nasrallah thinks another conflict with Israel will deflect criticism and culpability of Hariri,s assassination by Hezbollah he is sadly delusional but how will the inept ineffective LAF cope with Hezbollah violence and intimidatiion after the handing down of the special tribunal on Lebanon,s indictment ,so another civil war is heading Lebanon,s way with the cowardly Druze ,Christians and Sunni communities expecting the national armed forces to keep the peace ,how delusional the Lebanese and the UN are ?
So we are supposed to believe that Israel could write a piece of software (Stuxnet) that penetrated and attacked sophisticated computers at Iran's nuclear research centers, and yet that it could not write a simpler piece of software that added a few phone combinations to the database of the cell company they had several spies infiltrated in, with technical capabilities and proper access to the computers? It is also interesting that the previous report was "misplaced" and then "reappeared" later. Same one or a doctored version to take into account the changes added to the database?
Part of Bambi's currying favors with Syria.
Hezbollah look rather guilty to me and they don't seem to have found any alternative convincing candidate for the assassins. Having said that, Mossad, CIA and assorted other intelligence agencies, including the Saudis would love to finger Hezbollah for the murder and are, you have to assume, probably capable of tampering with computer phone records. But ultimately, in all the confusion, the only question that really counts is what do the Lebanese themselves make of all this? Which parts of the population think Hezbollah are guilty? Which parts of the population care if Hezbollah are guilty? And, of course, what happens next?
in Lebanon with death and suspicion behind every corner
Two chances Obama is stupid or Obama is a Traitor anyway he is endangering Israeli security selling weaponry to the Lebanese army. Regarding Lebanon is always the same history they want to start a war against Israel in order to de-legitimize it s right to defend.
A traitor for who?
Freedom and democracy but of course if Hezbollah were "Democratize Elected" like Hamas they have all the rights. '67 war was a preemptive one but all the rest has always been started by Arabic countries with the clear purpose of wiping out Jewish from the only one little piece of soil they own. Obama sold weaponry to several Arabic countries and sooner or later US, EU,Israel etc..... soldiers would be killed.
The USA has always been a close ally to Israel! Now adays the USA is selling weapons to Israels enemies. Traitor is a harsh word but it looks more and more apropriate!
Israel has sold and given intelligence data to American enemies, what dose that make Israeli leaders according to your logic Vlad or doesn't it apply to Israeli leaders? And anyway how can you be a traitor to a country that your not a citizen of, the only way to be a traitor is to help another country in a way that is detrimental to the country that you're a citizen of, Israel firsters anyone eg pollard.
It seems that you misunderstand the definition of traitor. Obama would be considered a traitor if he intentionally harmed the interests of the country that he presides i.e. the USA. No matter how close an ally the USA is, it pursues its own interests, not Israel's interests. So in order to Obama become a traitor he should be either be an Israeli citizen (which he isn't), or that Israel become an American state.
If we review his actions and who he is bowing down to he is a traitor to the US
"The wave of arrests among officials in Lebanese mobile phone operators - all on suspicions of spying for Israel - also reflects just how close cooperation has become between Lebanese intelligence and Hezbollah." No, it shows that Israel has something to do with all this fishy affair.
it shows that Hezballa knew that the phone records were their achillies heel and then starting arresting people in the phone company to try to cover their tracks and shift the blame to Israel.
Which action Israel would take if Israeli mobile oprators are spying for Lebanon?? Therefore be careful with your jugdements.
Cmon, why do you think they left Ghajar unilateraly and so suddenly? Israel is the king of political assasins.
They occupied it for four year after the withdrawal from everywhere else in Lebanon. They only announced the withdrawal recently and it hasn't even been completed yet. How is any of that sudden? What you meant to say was "Blah blah blah, Israel is responsible for everything bad that happens in Arab countries."
Threatening with war is his admission of guilt. Assasin is an Arabic word
No. But you can say "Israel is responsible for everything that happens in Arab countries and that is good for Israel"
also algebra is an arabic word....
note that israel has spied inside the telecom, they fabricated evidence.
The term "Assassin" is strictly a western invention that is a corruption of the Arabic word "Asa_si_een" meaning fundamentalists, which is derived from the word "Asas" meaning "foundation" which correlate with the Arabic word "Qaida" as in Al-Qaida meaning once again (foundation , equation, base and or basic fundamental principle ). Also, in the Arabic language you will find the word assassination " Igh_ti_yal" but not the noun assassin . conclusion : in Arabic there are assassinations but there are no assassins, enjoy.
no one could have guessed that Hariri's assasination would lead to the "Cedar Revolution" and eventual Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. It was far more reasonable to beleive that Hariri's murder would send a clear message to Syria and Hizballa's enemies not to mess with them.
the Arab world introduced the modern version of a unique 10 digit number system which revolutionized math, accounting and everything else. Interestingly, Jews were instrumental in introducing the arab system of numbers to Christian Europe.
Just one extra bit of info, the 'Arabic number' originated in India. They are also known as Hindu-Arabic numerals for that reason.