Mossad, the CIA and Lebanon

[norml]

WSWS : News & Analysis : Middle East

Mossad, the CIA and Lebanon
The assassination of Rafiq Hariri: who benefited?
By Bill Van Auken
17 February 2005
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The US media has responded predictably to the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, echoing the bellicose threats of the Bush administration against Syria and amplifying unsubstantiated charges that the regime in Damascus was the author of the killing.

Leading the pack was the Washington Post, which editorialized on Wednesday that “The despicable murder of Mr. Hariri benefits no one outside the rogue regime in Damascus—and the world should respond accordingly.”

The editorial acknowledged that the “crudeness of the killing and the denials by the government of Bashar Assad will cause some to wonder whether it has been framed for a crime it may have desired but did not commit.” But the Post hastened to assure its readers that the assassination was “the panicked act of a cornered tyrant,” terrified by the forced march to democracy which Washington has supposedly initiated in the Middle East with the recent elections in Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

“Crude” is the appropriate designation for the Post’s arguments, which amount to nothing more than war propaganda. The newspaper’s charges are both unsupported and nonsensical. Their transparent purpose—much like the stories about Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction”—is to promote the policy of aggression which the Bush administration is pursuing in the Middle East.



snip http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/feb2005/hari-f17.shtml

[Avalux]

1. Just read this over at the PNAC group - thanks

David Wurmser, Cheney's advisor is very pro-Israel and of course is aligned with the usual suspects. Here's a bio if you're interested. Notice he's a member of the U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon, a neocon group I posted about yesterday.

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/wurmser_d/wurmser-d.html

[norml]

3. I promised to post in the PNAC group.

I hope I'm finding relevant information. I'm searching Google news for the most recent developments.

[Avalux]

4. Me too

Anything you can add is relevant. I wish more people would take an interest - these truculent crazies are running the show and must be stopped. Making PNAC and their plan common knowledge is vital.

[RBHam]

2. Kick

"Fear not the path of truth for the lack of those on it..."

Robert F Kennedy

[Jack Rabbit]

5. I don't think so

This is my post from the I/P discussion of the assassination and the usual conspiracy theories that arise. It makes little or no sense to suspect Israel.

If the situation and victim were very different, for example if Lahoud had been the victim and he was just about the only Lebanese leader keeping Syrian troops in Lebanon, then it would make more sense to suspect the Israelis.

However, what happened was that a popular and powerful leader whose goals converged with Israel's was assassinated. Hariri isn't somebody the Israelis would want dead.

I suspect a Syrian or pro-Syrian Lebanese plot, although this would not necessary involve President Assad. Assad is a weakling who may not have known anything.

We'll probably never know.

[Avalux]

6. I know you wrote the assassination isn't Bushco's MO

but they're involved somehow. It's just way too convenient, and no one with any credibility has claimed responsibility yet. The unknown group who did could not be identified.

[Jack Rabbit]

8. I wasn't that convenient for them

Hariri, although he wasn't necessarily on anybody's payroll, was still friendly to the Bushies' goal of getting Syrian troops out of Lebanon. Having him out of the way doesn't convenience the Bushies.

As I said, it does little good to try to figure out what the neocons are up to by what makes sense. Instead, one must look at how they do things. So far, they haven't been into sacrificing potential allies just to blame somebody else for doing them in. If they want to invade Syria, they're more likely to make assert "facts" without any concern as to whether they are true or not.

This may give the Bushies just such a wrinkle. It isn't unreasonable to suspect a Syrian connection to this act. Watch for the Bushies to scream "the Syrians did it!" without providing on any details or really knowing any facts.

[RBHam]

7. "We'll probably never know."

That's what they say when the truth is too horrible to contemplate...

Definitely a Pentagon SSB hit...

The PNACers want a wider middle east conflict, this fits into THEIR plans perfectly...

This SCREWS OVER Sharon's halting attempts at making peace and EMBOLDENS the FAR RIGHT in Israel - who have been threatening to pull a "Yitzhak Rabin"-like rub out if Sharon pushed through on evacuating the settlers from Gaza -

Syria and Iran are SCARED TO DEATH of American pre-emption -

Lately, Syria has bent over backwards for the US War Of Terror - even torturing prisoners at the American's behest -

Syria is a Communist-style Baathist regime - they have NO common cause with CIA-created Terror Groups like Al Qaeda...or should I say, Al-CIA-duh...

They would NOT give the insane Bush Administration any justifiable reason for acting against them with broad international support -

This also keeps the US-friendly Arab dictatorships in the region more cover for repressing popular movements in THEIR countries...

The one question you need to ask yourself is this - if the neo-Cos are determined to start a major Middle eastern conflict to install enforced democracies - they're going to need a lot of new American cannon fodder...

They'll need a domestic terror event to justify an "emergency draft"...

Then ponde rthe REAL reasons that the Intel bosses are busily inculcating the CYA "not if, but when" terror scenario into the consciousness of the public...

"Hey, we WARNED you! Now report to the nearest recruiting office..."