quote:

Op vrijdag 21 oktober 2005 09:59 schreef Hallulama het volgende:

---

Je reinste conspiracy theory, sinds wanneer doet de VN daaraan, en sinds wanneer bericht NOS Teletekst over dergelijke flauwekul zaken?

Schopje TRU maar?

quote:

Op vrijdag 21 oktober 2005 12:13 schreef Lonewolf2003 het volgende:

Sorry, maar wat doet jouw vermoeden dat het niet waar zou kunnen zijn? Als die onderzoekers zeggen dat Syrië hun hebben tegengewerkt vertrouw ik dat.
En niet alleen de NOS en Telegraaf berichten erover, alle grote (en kleine) kranten in de wereld doen dat. Dus zou het vast wel geen totale flauwekul zijn.

quote:

Op vrijdag 21 oktober 2005 12:25 schreef Hallulama het volgende:

[..]

Het zal vast wel waar zijn.

Maar ik probeer er wat humor in te mengen, de manier van berichtgeving is niet anders dan de manier van berichtgeving betreffende die duivelsche complottheorieën die altijd naar TRU worden doorverwezen, alleen NU wordt er in iedergeval meer onderzoek gepleegd, of opgeroepen tot meer onderzoek, en is het natuurlijk WEL de VN die er mee bezig is.

Maar om toch even conspiracy theory te gaan, heeft Israel toevallig nog baat bij chaos in Libanon?

quote:

News is what someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising -- former NBC news President Rubin Frank.

quote:

Militairen op straat in Libanon


(20-10) BEIROET (ANP) - In Beiroet en andere Libanese steden heeft het leger donderdag posities ingenomen een dag voor het openbaar worden van het VN-onderzoek naar de dood van oud-premier Rafik al-Hariri. De minister van Binnenlandse Zaken omschreef de toestand zelfs als een ,,officieuze staat van beleg''.

Secretaris-generaal Kofi Annan nam donderdag in New York het verslag van de Duitse officier van justitie Detlev Mehlis in onvangst. Het rapport wordt vrijdag aan de Veiligheidsraad en de Libanese regering gepresenteerd. Al-Hariri kwam in februari bij een bomaanslag om. Veel Libanezen verdenken pro-Syrische of Syrische krachten ervan achter de moord te zitten.

Het Syrische leger trok in 1976 Libanon binnen en moest het land uiteindelijk in april verlaten na massale volksprotesten. Damascus ontkent elke betrokkenheid bij de dood van al-Hariri. Volgens het Duitse weekblad Stern noemt Mehlis in zijn rapport Asef Shawkat, de zwager van de Syrische president Bashar al-Assad, als verdachte in de moord op al-Hariri.

Shawkat is de chef van de inlichtingendienst en een van de machtigste mannen van Syrië. Als het bericht in Stern klopt, kan dit grote gevolgen hebben voor het Syrische regime dat toch al onder zware druk van de Verenigde Staten staat, omdat Damascus onvoldoende zou optreden tegen rebellen die in Irak tegen de Amerikaanse bezettingsmacht vechten.

In Libanon zitten op aanwijzing van Mehlis al vier pro-Syrische generaals vast voor de moord op de oud-premier. Ook ondervroeg de Duitser een aantal hoge Syrische functionarissen. Een van hen was de minister van Binnenlandse Zaken Ghazi Kanaan. Die pleegde vorige week zelfmoord.

quote:

Syrian minister questioned by UN commits suicide

(Filed: 12/10/2005)

A Syrian government minister has committed suicide three weeks after being questioned by a United Nations team investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

Ghazi Kanaan, 63, the interior minister, was found dead in his office.

Hours before his death, Mr Kanaan spoke to a Lebanese radio station, denying reports that he showed the UN investigators cheques paid to him by Mr Hariri.

He told the radio station: "I think this is the last statement I might give."

Mr Kanaan, who was Syria's top official in Lebanon for two decades until 2002, had been interviewed by UN investigators over the killing of Mr Hariri.

Four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals have been arrested and charged in connection with Mr Hariri's murder. Many Lebanese say Syria ordered the killing but Damascus has repeatedly denied any links.

The UN's chief investigator is expected to issue his report on the murder to the Security Council next week.

Mr Kanaan was married with four sons and two daughters.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/12/usyria.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/10/12/ixportaltop.html

quote:

There are also strong indications that the Hariri assassination was carried out by the same rogue Syrian intelligence agents used in the 2002 car bombing assassination of Lebanese Christian leader Elie Hobeika, who was prepared to testify against Sharon in a Brussels human rights court.

quote:

Op vrijdag 21 oktober 2005 12:41 schreef Sebastral het volgende:
Lonewolf2003;
[..]

Zodra je wat verder kijkt dan de reguliere media kom je er al snel achter dat er weinig meer te vertrouwen valt.
[..]

En als er iemand zelfmoord pleegt moet je altijd even kijken wie daar van zou kunnen profiteren;
[..]

Je kan het aan je water voelen dat hier meer achter zit, dus twee hits later; Hariri reportedly assassinated to make way for large US air base in Lebanon
[..]

Dus dat report van de VN, dat enkel stelt dat het 'difficult to imagine' is dat Syrie er niet bij betrokken zou zijn, is niet eens een flauwekul maar zogenaamd 'ge-oogklept'

quote:

Op vrijdag 21 oktober 2005 12:41 schreef Sebastral het volgende:
Lonewolf2003;
[..]

Zodra je wat verder kijkt dan de reguliere media kom je er al snel achter dat er weinig meer te vertrouwen valt.
[..]

En als er iemand zelfmoord pleegt moet je altijd even kijken wie daar van zou kunnen profiteren;
[..]

Je kan het aan je water voelen dat hier meer achter zit, dus twee hits later; Hariri reportedly assassinated to make way for large US air base in Lebanon
[..]

Dus dat report van de VN, dat enkel stelt dat het 'difficult to imagine' is dat Syrie er niet bij betrokken zou zijn, is niet eens flauwekul maar zogenaamd 'ge-oogklept'

quote:

Op vrijdag 21 oktober 2005 13:13 schreef Lonewolf2003 het volgende:

[..]

Sorry maar ik neem , internationaal gerenomeenerde kranten als de International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, etc. nog steeds serieuser dan vage internet sites vol complot theorieën, die nergens ooit echt bewezen worden.

quote:

The circumstances surrounding Kanaan's death remain unclear. Damascus is reportedly concerned that the special UN investigation into the assassination of Hariri will link senior Syrian officials to Kanaan's gunshot death. There is also concern in Syria that the death of an official as senior as Kanaan (who was in charge of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon) will upset the regime's stability. Rumors have been rife in Syria recently that former Syrian vice-president Abd al Halim Khaddam and former chief of staff Hikmat Shihabi have been in touch with the U.S. administration about toppling the regime in Damascus. Both men deny the charge.

Kanaan was recently questioned by the panel working under Mehlis, and Arab pundits say his suicide raises the possibility that the Syrian regime would accuse him of personal involvement in Hariri's killing. The night before Kanaan died, a Lebanese television station reported that he had been questioned by the Mehlis commission, and that he had admitted receiving millions of dollars from Hariri. However, two hours before his death, Kanaan gave a telephone interview to the Voice of Lebanon radio station in which he denied the report.

The Israeli security establishment sees Kanaan's suicide as another serious complication for Syrian President Bashar Assad. Security sources said yesterday that the chain of events that brought about Hariri's assassination jeopardizes the Assad regime. Israel does not discount the possibility that Kanaan took his life after being pressured to do so as a scapegoat, deflecting any blame from Assad.

Israel is taking care not to become publicly involved in the probe of the Hariri assassination, although the UN did ask it to provide intelligence material. The security establishment and the government have been considering whether or not complications for Assad are necessarily good for Israel. U.S. pressure on Syria is good for Israel, some say, but others believe that the Syrian president's losing control would be a negative development for Israel - a weak regime in Damascus takes pressure off Israel to renew negotiations with the Syrians and makes it unnecessary for the Sharon government to offer concessions such as the return of the Golan Heights.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/634662.html

quote:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday called on Syria to cooperate fully with the United Nations investigation into the Hariri murder, but warned against trying to speculate on the probe's findings.

Speaking at a joint press conference with her French counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy, Rice said that chief investigator Mehlis was "rightly" keeping his findings to himself until they are presented to the United Nations.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/634568.html

quote:

Syria proposes Mideast free of WMD


UNITED NATIONS (CNN) --Syria introduced a resolution Wednesday in the U.N. Security Council that would declare the Middle East a region free of weapons of mass destruction.

"We believe such a draft resolution ... is a very important factor for the peace process," said Syria's U.N. ambassador, Mikhail Wehbe.

The resolution, backed by the 22-nation Arab Group, calls for a region free of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Arab diplomats said the resolution was aimed at Israel, a U.S. ally that has refused to confirm or deny the widespread belief it has nuclear weapons.

"We mean all nations without any exception, which means Israel of course," said the Arab League's U.N. representative, Yahya Mahmassani.

John Negroponte, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the United States supports a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.

"We have always said that the goal should be that the entire region be free of weapons of mass destruction and, yes, that includes every country in the region," Negroponte said.

http://cnn.worldnews.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=CNN.com+-+Syria+proposes+Mideast+free+of+WMD+-+Apr.+17%2C+2003&expire=-1&urlID=6024312&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2003%2FWORLD%2Fmeast%2F04%2F16%2Fsprj.irq.un.syria%2F&partnerID=2006

quote:

Op vrijdag 21 oktober 2005 13:42 schreef Sebastral het volgende:

[..]

Welke vage internet sites? Meestal zijn de feiten wel duidelijk, er wordt alleen een ander verhaaltje omheen geplakt. Lees dat bericht uit de Sunday Telegraph nog eens; 'Commits suicide' in de titel & "I think this is the last statement I might give.". Die gozer met z'n vier zonen en twee dochters wekt toch niet een beetje de indruk dat hij aanvoelde dat hij vermoord zou worden..

quote:

Ik weet een ding; de vs en israel bepalen wat er gebeurd en hebben niet de intentie om er iets moois van te maken

quote:

Op vrijdag 21 oktober 2005 13:56 schreef Sebastral het volgende:
Hier, je kunt de feiten gewoon van 'gerenomeerde' nieuwsbronnen halen;
[..]

Je moet alleen zelf even nadenken omdat niemand meer durft te zeggen waar het op slaat. Hier zeggen twee belangrijke mensen (Syria's U.N. ambassador & Arab League's U.N. representative) dat ze vrede in de regio willen. Als men vrede zou willen hadden ze deze mensen net zolang op iedere tv zender in de wereld laten verschijnen tot de UN hun resolutie aannam.

War = money, en het is misselijkmakend hoe diep de wereld daar in zit

quote:

UN report links Syria to Hariri killing
The Associated Press

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2005
UNITED NATIONS A U.N. probe implicated top Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officials in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, findings that drew the first official link between Damascus and the slaying of the popular opposition leader.

The exhaustive report into the Feb. 14 car bomb that killed Hariri and 20 others, issued to the U.N. Security Council late Thursday, will almost certainly stoke fears of violence and inflame tensions in the region. The council is likely to use it to put new pressure on Syria to ease its continued influence on Lebanon.

The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to discuss the report Tuesday and may consider sanctions against Syria. Late next week, it will also receive a report from Terje Roed-Larsen, the U.N. special envoy on Lebanon-Syria, about disarming Lebanese militias.

While the report from chief investigator Detlev Mehlis stopped short of fingering Syrian President Bashar Assad or his inner circle, it accused Syria of failing to cooperate and said the plot to kill Hariri must have had the blessing of Syrian security officials.

The decision to assassinate 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 report said.

The report includes a single reference to Assef Shawkat, Assad's brother-in-law and the Syrian intelligence chief. According to one witness, Shawkat forced a man to tape a claim of responsibility for Hariri's killing 15 days before it occurred.

That tape was aired on the al-Jazeera satellite channel the day of the blast but was discredited by Mehlis' investigators as an apparent attempt to divert attention from the real perpetrators. The man who made the tape, a Palestinian named Abu Adass, left his home Jan. 16 and was likely taken to Syria, where he disappeared.

Mehlis was careful not to assign blame but cites witness testimony that strongly implicates several officials as conspiring to assassinate Hariri. Lebanon has already arrested four of them, all Lebanese generals close to Syria.

The report also raised questions about Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, who received a phone call minutes before the blast from the brother of a prominent member of a pro-Syrian group, who also called one of the four arrested generals, Raymond Azar.

Those leads and many others still must be followed up before all the details of Hariri's killing will be known, Mehlis said. He asked for more time to work with Lebanese investigators, and in a letter accompanying the report, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he would extend Mehlis' investigation until Dec. 15.

In one of the most critical parts of the report, Mehlis said that Syria must cooperate if the continued investigation is to succeed. He accused Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa of having lied in a letter sent to Mehlis' commission, though he doesn't give details.

''If the investigation is to be completed, it is essential that the government of Syria fully cooperate with the investigating authorities, including by allowing interviews to be held outside Syria and for interviewees not to be accompanied by Syrian officials,'' Mehlis said.

There wasn't a single reference in the report to Syria's Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan, who had been questioned by Mehlis' team. Syria said he committed suicide last week, but many Lebanese have called the circumstances suspicious.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said shortly after the report's release that the United States has ''considered various contingencies'' but would decide what to do next only after it had read the report and consulted with ''other interested governments.''

''An initial reading of the report indicates some deeply troubling findings and clearly the report requires further discussion by the international community,'' U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Earlier this week, a U.S. official and two U.N. diplomats said the United States and France were preparing new Security Council resolutions critical of Syria over its alleged involvement in the assassination and alleged arms funneling to Lebanese militias.

Hariri's death led to demonstrations against Syria and magnified the international pressure on Damascus to withdraw its troops, which it eventually did. The Security Council approved a probe into Hariri's assassination on April 8.

In meticulous detail, the report documents how Hariri's movements and phone conversations had been monitored for months. It casts suspicion on a decision by one of the four arrested Lebanese generals, Ali Hajj, to reduce Hariri's state security detail from 40 to eight in November, 2004.

Mehlis draws attention to Sheik Ahmed Abdel-Al, a prominent figure in the pro-Syrian Al-Ahbash Sunni Muslim Orthodox group, whom he called a ''a key figure in an ongoing investigation.'' Abdel-Al had extensive contacts with top Lebanese security officials before and after the blast, and tried to hide information from investigators.

It was his brother who called Lahoud just before the blast.

The 53-page report goes on to outline Hariri's worsening relationship with Syrian officials and said the motive for his death appeared to have been political. Hariri had fallen out with Syria and eventually resigned in October, 2004, a month after a decision to change Lebanon's laws and extend Lahoud's term.

Pro-Syrian opponents had accused Hariri of being the driving force behind a U.N. resolution last September which unsuccessful attempted to stop Lebanon's parliament from extending the term of Lahoud, his longtime rival. The resolution also demanded the withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence operatives from Lebanon.

The report cites a witness as saying that Lebanese and Syrian officials had decided to assassinate Hariri about two weeks after the U.N. Security Council adopted the resolution.

One witness said that Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hamdan, another of the four generals under arrest, ended an October, 2004 conversation by saying: ''We are going to send him on a trip, bye, bye Hariri.''

Bron: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/21/africa/web.1021hariri.php

quote:

In het rapport wordt een Syriër aangehaald die zegt in Libanon voor de Syrische veiligheidsdienst te hebben gewerkt en die de namen noemt van functionarissen die de moord volgens hem hebben beraamd.

quote:

Op vrijdag 21 oktober 2005 15:42 schreef Sebastral het volgende:
Waarom zou de 'syrische geheime dienst' haar eigen regering in de rug schieten? Uit de telegraaf had Hallulama al aangekaart dat die 'witness' niet echt betrouwbaar overkomt.

quote:

[..]

In het artikel op truth seekers wordt aangekaard dat de VS syrische 'intelligence agents' gebruikt om informatie uit mensen te martelen. Een hitje op google geeft 'gerenomeerde' bronnen.
Buiten dat bush ons toch verzekerd had dat amerika zich aan dergelijke praktijken niet schuldig maakt pleit dat niet voor het VN verhaaltje. Het suggereert dat er infiltranten zijn die op bevel van 'White House officials' (Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliot Abrams) mensen koud maken.

Die getuige in het VN rapport is dan zo'n infiltrant.

quote:

The report cites a witness as saying that Lebanese and Syrian officials had decided to assassinate Hariri about two weeks after the U.N. Security Council adopted the resolution.

quote:

Dan nog de 'zelfmoord' van Kanaan. Kanaan wordt in het VN-rapport beschuldigd, ontkent net op tijd, zegt "I think this is the last statement I might give." en is dood. 1 en 1 is 2

quote:

Op vrijdag 21 oktober 2005 17:04 schreef Lonewolf2003 het volgende:

[..]

Bedoel je met "eigen regering" nu Kanaan of Hariri? Bij beide zijn er natuurlijk wel redenen te verzinnen.
[..]

Hoe kom je daarnu bij? Ik neem aan dat je het over deze getuige hebt.
[..]

Dat de VS zich schuldig maken aan het gebruik maken van andere landen om mensen te martelen, al kunnen ze dat zelf ook heel goed (is gebleken), kan ik best geloven. Maar de verbinding die jij maakt dat de getuige dus zo'n iemand is. Kan ik nergens terug vinden.

quote:

[..]

Kanaan wordt nergens van beschuldigd in heel het rapport. Stel dat de VS achter die moord zouden zitten, is het toch veel logischer dat ze Kanaan toch nog wel beschuldigd zouden hebben. Een dode kan zich moeilijk verdedigen.

quote:

De optie hij wel gewoon zelfmoord heeft gepleegd, is natuurlijk ook nog steeds gewoon mogelijk.

quote:

Damascus heeft de conclusies van het 53 pagina's tellende rapport vanochtend onmiddellijk van de hand gewezen als ,,partijdig''. Volgens minister van Informatie Mehdi Dakhlallah bevat het rapport ,,valse aantijgingen'', is het ,,100 procent gepolitiseerd'', bedoeld om Syrië in een kwaad daglicht te zetten en internationale sancties tegen het land uit te lokken.

quote:

VS eisen optreden tegen Syrië na Hariri-rapport


BEIROET (ANP) - De Verenigde Staten eisen een krachtig optreden tegen Syrië na het onderzoek van de Verenigde Naties naar de moord op de Libanese ex-premier al-Hariri. In het rapport staat dat de Syrische veiligheidsdienst en hoge Syrische functionarissen betrokken waren bij de aanslag in februari.

De ambassadeur van de Verenigde Staten bij de VN, John Bolton, zei vrijdag dat het rapport een ,,krachtig vervolg'' dient te krijgen in de Veiligheidsraad. De Amerikaanse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Condoleezza Rice noemde de resultaten van het onderzoek ,,diep verontrustend'' en zei dat de VS zullen proberen via de VN-Veiligheidsraad Syrië sancties op te leggen.

Het regime van de Syrische president Bashar al-Assad staat al onder zware druk van de Amerikaanse regering, omdat Damascus steun zou verlenen aan terroristen en Iraakse rebellen. De Veiligheidsraad buigt zich waarschijnlijk dinsdag over het rapport van Mehlis.

Annan

De leider van onderzoek, de Duitse officier van justitie Detlev Mehlis, overhandigde het rapport donderdag (plaatselijke tijd) in het VN-hoofdkwartier in New York aan secretaris-generaal Kofi Annan van de volkerenorganisatie.

Volgens Mehlis waren de moordenaars van Hariri goed georganiseerd en hadden zij het misdrijf maandenlang voorbereid. Het motief voor de moord was volgens het onderzoek 'politiek'. In het rapport wordt onder meer de naam genoemd van het hoofd van de Syrische militaire inlichtingendienst, Asef Shawkat, de zwager van de Syrische president.

Valse informatie

Ook beschuldigt Mehlis Syrische functionarissen ervan pogingen te hebben ondernomen zijn onderzoek te dwarsbomen. Onder anderen minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Faruq al-Shara heeft de VN-onderzoekers een brief gestuurd met ,,valse informatie''.

De Duitser ondervroeg ook een aantal andere Syrische hoogwaardigheidsbekleders. Een van hen was de voormalige minister van Binnenlandse Zaken Ghazi Kanaan. Hij pleegde vorige week zelfmoord.

quote:

Op zaterdag 22 oktober 2005 13:18 schreef multatuli het volgende:
Jack Straw (UK min. buitenland) stelt:
"You simply cannot tolerate a situation where one state decides to deal with problems of another state by assassinating the other state's leaders" en Bush vond het ook al 'deeply disturbing'' en belangrijk genoeg om op korte termijn de VN in actie te laten komen.

quote:

(19-10) U.S. forces have started fighting Syrians at Iraq's border. Can anybody say 'Cambodia'?

As I suspected six months ago, U.S. military and Bush administration civilian officials confirmed last week that U.S. forces have invaded Syria and engaged in combat with Syrian forces.

An unknown number of Syrians are acknowledged to have been killed; the number of Americans -- if any -- who have died in Syria so far has not yet been revealed by the U.S. sources, who by the way insist on remaining faceless and nameless. The parallel with the Vietnam War, where a Nixon administration deeply involved in a losing war expanded the conflict -- fruitlessly in the event -- to neighboring Cambodia, is obvious. The end result was not changed in Vietnam; Cambodia itself was plunged into dangerous chaos, which climaxed in the killing fields, where an estimated 1 million Cambodians died as a result of internal conflict.

[...]

The Bush administration would claim that it is expanding the war in Iraq into Syria to try to bring it to an end, the kind of screwy non-logic that kept us in Vietnam for a decade and cost 58,193 American lives in the end.

Others would see the attacks in Syria as a desperation political move on the part of an administration with its back against the wall, with a failed war, an economy plagued by inflation --1.2 percent in September, a 14.4 percent annual rate if it continues -- the weak response to Hurricane Katrina, grand jury and other investigatory attention to senior executive and legislative officials, and the bird flu flapping its wings toward us on the horizon. The idea, I suppose, is to distract us by an attack on Syria, now specifically targeted by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad.

[...]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05292/590727.stm

quote:

Bush increases pressure on Syria

US President George Bush has said using force against Syria would be a "last resort" in the dispute over its alleged role in the death of Rafik Hariri.

[...]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4373964.stm

quote:

"A military (option) is always the last choice of a president," Mr Bush told al-Arabiya television in an interview broadcast today. "I am hoping that they will cooperate. It is the last -- very last option... I’ve worked hard for diplomacy and will continue to work the diplomatic angle on this issue."

[...]

"In other words, there are some clear demands by the world. And this report, as I say, had serious implications for Syria, and the Syrian government must take the demands of the free world very seriously."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-1841783,00.html

quote:

(25-10) The Anti-Syria Scam

[...]

Why is Syria being demonized? Syrian troops were part of the US coalition organized by President George Herbert Walker Bush that liberated Kuwait in 1991 from Saddam Hussein. The current head of government in Syria is a mild mannered ophthalmologist who inherited the post five years ago when his older brother was killed in a car crash.

Syria has done nothing to the US and poses no threat to the US. The Syrian government is concerned about Syria becoming unhinged by schisms like the Sunni-Shi’ite schism set loose in Iraq by the incompetent Bush administration.

Why does Condi Rice think the Bush administration has the right to decide who heads the Syrian government? According to news reports, the Bush administration has asked the Israeli and Italian governments to nominate a replacement for the current president of Syria.

A country incapable of choosing a better president than George W. Bush has no business choosing a president for any other country. In place of aggressive interference in the internal affairs of other countries, the US needs to find a competent president for itself.

Maybe we should ask the Italians who they would recommend.

quote:

(10-11) Assad rept van complot tegen Syrië


DAMASCUS (ANP) - De Syrische president Bashir Al Assad is er vrijwel zeker van dat Syrië onschuldig is aan de moord op de Libanese ex-premier Hariri. Assad zei donderdag in een toespraak op de universiteit van hoofdstad Damascus dat de vijanden van Syrië het land in een chaos willen storten, zodat ze er voordeel kunnen uithalen.

,,Syrië weigert compromissen te sluiten over de eigen soevereiniteit en zal niet wijken onder de druk van de grote mogendheden'', aldus Assad. ,,We mogen de kop nu niet in het zand steken. De Syriërs moeten de strategie van de vijanden analyseren.'' Hij noemde de Libanese premier Fuad Siniora een ,,slaaf van zijn meesters''. De president doelde daarmee op de goede betrekkingen tussen Siniora en de westerse landen.

Assad reageerde donderdag op de bevindingen van een onderzoekscommissie van de Verenigde Naties onder leiding van de Duitser Detlev Mehlis. Die commissie concludeerde vorige maand dat de moord in februari op Hariri niet kan zijn gepleegd zonder instemming van de Syrische inlichtingendiensten. Assad zei dat er geen bewijs is voor de betrokkenheid van Syrië bij de moord.

Verder ging de president in op de verklaring van de VN-commissie dat de samenwerking van Syrië in het onderzoek naar de moord onder de maat is. Assad zei dat hij Mehlis had uitgenodigd naar Syrië te komen om over de Syrische medewerking aan het onderzoek mee te werken. Volgens de president legde Mehlis die uitnodiging naast zich neer.

Onderzoek

Assad herhaalde in zijn rede dat Syrië wel degelijk meewerkt aan het VN-onderzoek. Maar hij voegde daaraan toe dat de internationale gemeenschap hoe dan ook zal concluderen dat zijn land onvoldoende meewerkt. ,,We moeten realistisch zijn. Syrië is een doelwit''.

De Verenigde Staten noemden Assads uitlatingen donderdag ,,stuitend''. Volgens woordvoerder Adam Ereli van het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken kan de toespraak van de Syrische leider slechts worden uitgelegd als een teken van minachting voor de resoluties van de VN-Veiligheidsraad die Syrië aansporen mee te werken aan het onderzoek naar de moord op Hariri.

Hariri kwam om het leven door een bomaanslag in Beiroet. Daarbij vielen naast de ex-premier nog twintig doden. Hariri had zich tegen de Syrische aanwezigheid in Libanon gekeerd en was daarom volgens veel mensen doelwit van een door het buurland.

quote:

Syrian leader lashes out at Western criticism

Thursday, November 10, 2005; Posted: 4:50 p.m. EST (21:50 GMT)
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- A defiant President Bashar Assad said Thursday his government would cooperate with a U.N. investigation that implicated Syrian officials in the killing of a Lebanese leader, but he warned he would no longer "play their game" if Syria "is going to be harmed."

Hours later, President Jacques Chirac of France, a key member of the U.N. Security Council, warned of sanctions against Syria if Assad "persists in not wanting to listen or understand."

"It is not conceivable, admissible, acceptable for the international community ... that Syria refuses to cooperate," Chirac said in Paris.

In his hard-line speech at Damascus University, Assad also said the chief U.N. investigator into the killing of Rafik Hariri had rejected Syria's terms for interviewing six Syrian officials. He gave no hint of how the matter would be resolved, but the Security Council has warned Syria it must cooperate fully with the investigator, who has the right to determine the place and conditions of such interviews.

"We will play their game" and cooperate with the United Nations, Assad said. But that cooperation will "stop when Syria is going to be harmed."

'We bow only to almighty God'
Assad also attacked Prime Minister Fuad Saniora of Lebanon, a country which Syria dominated until it was forced in April to withdraw its troops in the outcry that followed Hariri's assassination. He said Saniora had failed to honor a pledge "not to allow Lebanon to be a passage for conspiracy against Syria."

Syria has come under intense pressure from the West and the United Nations since a truck bomb killed Hariri and 20 other people in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on February 14. A U.N. interim report into the killing found that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services were involved, and accused Syria of only limited cooperation with the inquiry.

Last week, the Security Council resolved that Syria must cooperate fully with U.N. investigators and upgraded their powers to summon and interview witnesses.

Assad made clear Thursday that Syria would not be cowed.

"President Bashar will not be the president who will bow to anyone in this world. We bow only to almighty God," Assad said, drawing applause from the auditorium and a chant of "With our soul, blood, we redeem you, oh Bashar!" from the crowd outside.

The president said the chief U.N. investigator, Detlev Mehlis, had rejected Syria's offer to allow its six officials to be questioned in the U.N. offices in Syria or at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. Assad did not say where Mehlis wanted them to be interviewed, but a Lebanese official close to the investigation has said the United Nations proposed a venue in Lebanon.

The names of the Syrian officials have not been released, but they reportedly include Assad's brother-in-law, Gen. Assef Shawkat, the military intelligence chief.

In Washington, the State Department dismissed Assad's offer. If Mehlis "wants something he should get it, and he should get it without delay and without complication and without obfuscation," deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said.

Arab media had expected Assad to take a conciliatory tone with the United Nations and possibly announce political reforms. Arab governments have called on Syria to cooperate and avoid further Security Council action.

But in his 80-minute speech, Assad repeated Syria's hard-line positions.

"Syria is innocent in the absolute sense" of Hariri's murder, Assad said. "Syria is not involved at the government level or at the individual level. The problem is merely a political one in the context of events."

Assad said Syria was facing a coordinated media campaign because of its support for the anti-Israeli Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, Palestinian militants and its opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

"Had there been a compromise (in Syria's position) ... there wouldn't have been a problem," he said.

He added that Israel stood to gain from the pressure on Syria and the unrest in the region.

"The Israeli factor was suspiciously present in all the events witnessed by the region, and the developments proved that Israel was the most prominent and the major benefactor from these events," Assad said.

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