United
Nations -- U.N. investigators have implicated both
Lebanese and Syrian high-ranking officials in the assassination
of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
"There
is probably cause to believe that the decision to assassinate
former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri could not have been
taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security
officials and could not have been further organized without
the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security
services," the investigators said in a report given
to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan October 20.
The
report has been turned over to the Security Council, which
will meet with German Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, head of
the investigation, and discuss the report on October 25.
REPORT
CALLED “SERIOUS” AND “DISTURBING”
"This
is a very serious and deeply disturbing report,"
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs
David Welch said at a briefing in Washington October 21.
"There is converging evidence pointing at both Lebanese
and Syrian involvement in this terrorist act.
"We
stand with the Lebanese people and the families of victims
and the international community in calling for accountability
for this terrible act. The people of Lebanon must also
know that they will be free from executions, assassinations,
and threats and that the international community will
not tolerate such tools of oppression and intimidation,"
Welch said.
He
said the U.S. government will begin immediate consultations
in the U.N. Security Council and in the region about the
next steps that should be taken by the international community.
The United States, Welch said, wants the full truth about
the assassination and wants the guilty parties brought
to justice.
President
Bush on October 21 also called the report “deeply
disturbing,” and said, it “strongly suggests
that the politically motivated assassination could not
have taken place without Syrian involvement.” The
president said he has asked Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice to call for a U.N. session on the matter.
The
U.N. International Independent Investigation Commission
concluded that a growing conflict between Hariri, Syrian
President Bashar Al-Assad and senior Syrian officials
led to the February 14 assassination. It pointed to a
brief August 26, 2004, meeting between Hariri and Al-Assad
about extending the expiring mandate of Lebanese President
Emile Lahoud as bringing the conflict to a head.
Witnesses
associated with Hariri told the commission that the prime
minister said Al-Assad threatened to "break Lebanon
over your [Hariri's] head and Walid Jumblat's [Progressive
Socialist Party leader] " if the two did not agree
to the extension.
The
investigators said one witness told them that Al-Assad's
brother-in law, Major General Asef Shawkat, possibly could
have been involved in setting up the plot involving a
decoy suicide bomber.
Another
witness recalled that General Mustapha Hamdan, commander
of Lebanon’s Republican Guard Brigade, said in October
2004, "we are going to send him on a trip, ‘bye,
bye Hariri.’"
The
witnesses’ names were omitted from the report for
their personal safety.
"The
commission's investigation has confirmed what many in
Lebanon have long asserted, the senior Syrian intelligence
officials had a powerful day-to-day and overall strategic
influence on the governance of Lebanon," the report
said.
MULTINATIONAL
PARTICIPATION IN INVESTIGATION
The
53-page report meticulously details the complex investigations
carried out by both the Lebanese authorities and the commission
itself, including forensic analysis by German, Dutch,
British, French, Swiss and Japanese experts; 30 investigators
from 17 nations participated overall. Its findings were
based on interviews with 450 witnesses and suspects, forensic
investigations by several international teams and review
of more than 16,000 pages of documents.
Mehlis
said that, through constant wire-tapping of Hariri, Syrian
and Lebanese security and intelligence agencies knew the
prime minister's movements and contacts, so it would not
have been difficult for individuals outside of Hariri's
"inner circle" to predict the route his convoy
would follow on February 14.
The
initial investigation carried out by Lebanese security
forces was mishandled, Mehlis charged. He noted that a
few hours after the explosion in front of the St. George
Hotel took place, "major evidence was removed from
the crime scene." The cars in the late prime minister’s
motorcade were transferred to Helou Barracks "under
the pretext of preserving them,” the road was cleared
and the area reopened to traffic the following day.
The
commission said that Lebanese judicial and security authorities
should continue the investigation with international assistance
and support.
"The
investigation of such a terrorist act with multifaceted
international dimensions needs months if not years to
be completed to establish firm evidence for trial,”
the commission said. "It is of the utmost importance
to continue to pursue the trail both within and outside
Lebanon" for some time to come, the report said.
So far, six people have been arrested in connection with
the assassination.
COMMISSION
EXTENDED UNTIL DECEMBER
Lebanese
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has asked the United Nations
to extend the commission's mandate; the secretary-general
has agreed to the extension until December 15. The Security
Council provided for such an extension when it established
the commission on April 7.
One
of the most important leads that must be pursued thoroughly
in the months ahead is the use of prepaid telephone cards.
There appears to be a correlation between their location
and Hariri's movements. Some of the cards have been traced
to Raed Fakhreddin, a nephew of Tarek Ismat Fakhreddin,
a prominent businessman and consultant to former Lebanese
Prime Minister Omar Karami.
Finding
the user or users of one prepaid card on 14 February "is
a priority for the investigation," Mehlis said. The
user received a call one minute after the blast from a
telephone booth in Tripoli near a building housing Syrian
Intelligence Services. It also was one of the cards used
to call Al-Jazeera television, which received four calls
regarding responsibility for the bombing.
Ahmad
Abdel-Al, a prominent figure in the Al-Ahbash, (the Association
of Islamic Philanthropic Projects) with strong ties to
Syria, is "a key figure" for the ongoing investigation
because of his links to Hamdan and the Republican Guard,
his telephone calls and involvement with Ahmed Abu Adass,
who claimed responsibility for the assassination in a
video broadcast on Al-Jazeera, Mehlis said.
The
possibility that there was interference with a telecommunication
antenna at the time of the bombing also needs to be investigated
thoroughly, he said.
Mehlis
said that Syria's "lack of substantive cooperation"
has impeded the investigation and "made it difficult
to follow leads."
"If
the investigation is to be completed, it is essential
that the government of Syria fully cooperate with the
investigating authorities, including allowing for interviews
to be held outside Syria and for interviewees not to be
accompanied by Syrian officials," the report said.
EVIDENCE
POINTS TO UNIDENTIFIED SUICIDE BOMBER
Mehlis
said that as far as investigators could determine, the
explosive device -- most likely 1,000 kilograms of TNT
-- was detonated by a suicide bomber driving a Mitsubishi
Canter van rather than a remote device. The commission
is not convinced that Abu Adass, who claimed to be the
suicide bomber belonging to the group Al-Nasr wel-Jihad
fi Bilad al-Sham (Victory and Jihad in the Levant), actually
was the driver. He could have been a decoy used by Syrian
intelligence.
"The
evidence does show that it is likely that Mr. Abu Adass
left his home on 16 January 2005 and was taken, voluntarily
or not, to Syria, where he has since disappeared,"
the report said.
One
unnamed witness of Syrian origin but living in Lebanon
told the investigators that about two weeks after the
Security Council adopted Resolution 1559 in September
2004 (demanding complete Syrian military withdrawal from
Lebanon), senior Lebanese and Syrian officials decided
to assassinate Hariri. He claimed that Lebanese security
officials went to Syria several times to plan the crime
with some meetings taking place at the Presidential Palace.
The
witness said that at one Syrian military base in Lebanon
he saw a white Mitsubishi van being modified to carry
explosives and that the van, driven by a Syrian colonel,
entered Lebanon from Syria through the Bekaa border. He
said that he also drove one Syrian officer to the St.
George Hotel area on a reconnaissance exercise.
Zuhir
Ibn Mohamed Said Saddik, who has been arrested in connection
with the crime, also gave detailed information to the
commission implicating Syrian officials and said that
the planning meetings started in his apartment in Khaldeh,
south of Beirut.
On
August 30, Lebanese authorities arrested General Jameel
Al-Sayyed, former director general of the Surete Generale;
General Ali Al-Hajj, former head of the Internal Security
Forces; General Raymond Azar, former head of military
intelligence; and General Mustapha Hamdan, commander of
the Republican Guard Brigade, in connection with the case.
21 Oct 2005
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