Rafik Hariri Cont'd.

Fire of Liberty

The clouds of doom are gathering more and more over the House of Asad while Liberty's light emerges in Lebanon. Based on this article in The Daily Telegraph (London), Syria's fingerprints are showing up all over the place. According to Judge Richard Mezher, a lead investigator for the Lebanese military tribunal, the assassins were recruited by a terrorist group with Syrian connections. Based on the report, the likely assassin was Abu Adas a twenty-three year old Palestinian Lebanese who attended several mosques that are associated with a Syrian cleric named Sheikh Abderrazak (Has a history of helping fighters travel through Syria to Iraq) and are known recruiting stations for Ansar al-Islam. Based on Judge Mezher, Adas used a Saudi passport to travel into Iraq then onto Syria where he then moved onto Beirut where he drove a car laden with 600lbs of explosives in Hariri's convoy. While the investigation hasn't pointed a direct finger to Syria, the evidence seems to be piling up in their favor. One can imagine the pressure Syria will receive from the US and Europe if Syria is implicated.

Their seems to be a moving shift against the House of Asad in the Bush administration. I think the President has grown tired of Syria's active support of terrorism (Hezbollah) and their continued occupation of Lebanon. Another group to agree with the White House is Hariri's opposition party lead by Walid Jumblatt. Under Jumblatt, Hariri's dream of removing Syria from Lebanon could become reality. Jumblatt has also been pointing a finger towards Syria in their involvement with the assassination. According to Jimblatt, "Syria is responsible. Who else? We don't want to open war with Syria, but they must go out." If this movement is as strong as it looks, Syria's 20,000 soldiers could be taking their own road Damascus.

One thing that I've learned, is that when liberty and freedom is restrained by chains people will eventually have enough and break these chains. It happened in Eastern Europe and South America and it can occur once again in Lebanon. I bid the opposition good fortune and hope the cagey dictator doesn't revert to his usual ways, which is death and destruction. The people of Lebanon are well aware of this and The Daily Telegraph seems to as well, look what they said about the "good" Dr. Asad:

The Syrian president is a member of the Alawite religious sect, feared throughout medieval Europe as the Assassins. When its leader wanted an opponent killed, he handed a follower a dagger and his wishes were carried out. Many Lebanese believe that Mr Hariri's death was commissioned in similar fashion by Syria's Mukhabarat intelligence service.

We'll see how things go. I'm confident the US will stand behind the opposition and rally support in Europe for UN resolution 1559 this week. If not, then I suggest unilateral sanctions.