A bomb has killed 5 UN peacekeepers near the Israeli border.

3 of the victims were Colombian, 2 were Spanish.

Fateh Al Islam have been threatening to target UN troops, and the Lebanese government says members who have been arrested have confessed to a plan to kill peacekeepers.

It happened in the south, in a clear attempt to frame Hizbollah - arch enemies of Fateh Al Islam. It comes just days after rockets were fired from south Lebanon into Israel - a Hizbollah tactic in last summer's war. But Israel and Hizbollah both say a Palestinian group was behind this attack.

Fateh Al Islam was created last year, after breaking away from a pro-Syrian group. It was funded by Hariri to act as a counterbalance to Hizbollah.

Labels: Fateh Al Islam, Hariri Militia, Hizbollah, Israel, UN

It's reassuring to see Lebanon can still mourn.



I thought they'd lost that ability, after seeing the cheering for the Army's slaughter of dozens of Palestinians in Nahr Al Bared.

But at least the Lebanese Police have found Eido's killers: they rounded up a bunch of Syrians (remember when the same Lebanese Police ordered all the Syrians in one apartment block OUTSIDE Beirut to surrender themselves, blaming them for setting fire to the Danish Embassy in Beirut WHILE the Embassy burning was still taking place):



"The status of Syrians and Palestinians in Lebanon is comparable to the status of African-Americans in the deep south in the 1920s. Yesterday, they rounded up all those Syrian workers just because Walid `Idu was assassinated. As if Lebanese are not capable of murder." via Asad.

Meanwhile, Hariri thugs have set fire to tents belonging to poor Syrian workers in two different places in Lebanon.

And Siniora says he will expel all Palestinians from Nahr Al Bared (didn't Israel also expel them 60 years ago?).

Labels: Hariri Militia, Lebanon

Last year, the Saudi government ordered Britain to drop its Serious Fraud Office investigation.

The SFO was days away from revealing that the Saudi government and a senior member of the Lebanese government had received bribes of $240 million every year.

Now, the BBC has done the work the Saudi government thought it had killed.

Hariri thought he could keep it quiet. Just like he thought he could keep his funding of militant groups like Fateh Al Islam quiet.

But when you play with fire, it often comes back to burn you.

Labels: Hariri Militia, Saudi

One person has been killed by a car bomb in an industrial area of Beirut.

It happened in the industrial area of Zouk Mosbeh, 20km north of Beirut - 3 others were injured, and police say it would've been higher if it happened in the daytime.

It comes just days after Hariri-funded militant group Fateh Al Islam vowed to spread its fight across Lebanon.

Fateh Al Islam is currently battling the Lebanese Army in Nahr Al Bared in the north of Lebanon. A related group, Jund Ash Sham - which is responsible for dozens of attacks inside Syria - began fighting soldiers in the south of Lebanon this week.

Four bombs have exploded since the civil fighting began.

Labels: Fateh Al Islam, Hariri Militia

EDB in Beirut, writes about the arrest of a suspect in the Beirut bus bombing:

"Suddenly a commotion ensued, as four plain clothes men handcuffed a young man-- perhaps twenty-years old-- and escorted him to a white civilian car with Saida license plates. They shoved him into the backseat and closed the door. He sat in the backseat, straining his neck to peer out of the rearview window, terrified. A group of 10 to 12 men stood around the car. Occasionally they opened the door of the car and said something to him. I walked over and asked one of the younger men, who was wearing a T-shirt with "Jesus Soldiers" blazoned across the back, why they arrested the young man. He declined to respond, but his friend replied, matter-of-factly, "Because he's Syrian.""

Labels: Hariri Militia, Lebanon

Labels: Hariri Militia, Lebanon

French President Jacques Chirac leaves the Elysees Palace this morning, and moves into a two-storey flat on the Left Bank in one of the most expensive residential areas in the world, the Quai de Voltaire, directly opposite the Louvre.

He will be living there rent-free. It is owned by Sa'ad Al-Hariri. Sa'ad has 'loaned' him the flat to live in for as long as he wants.

It's a very very expensive thank you present. Thank you for what?

Labels: France, Hariri Militia

UN investigators looking into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri are focussing on a suspect in Turkey.

The man's name is Louai Sakka, a Syrian who worked closely with Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. It was Zarqawi followers who have been behind bombings in Syria in recent years, and they are also blamed by Lebanese and Syrian officials for smuggling weapons from Lebanon into Syria.

Sakka has been given life in prison in Turkey for masterminding attacks in Istanbul which killed 63 people in 2003.

In 2005, Sakka's lawyer said that unidentified men tried to force Sakka to testify against Syria in relation to the Hariri killing. He was threatened with death if he didn't comply.

We have seen similar death threats from Hariri thugs before. In 2006, they allegedly threatened to kill a key witness in the UN investigation unless he testified against Syria. That witness was later discredited.

UN chief investigator Serge Brammertz has praised Syria's full-cooperation, but hit out at a number of other countries for obstructing him.

Labels: Hariri inquiry, Hariri Militia, Lebanon, Turkey, UN

Lebanese Interior Minister Hassan As-Sabaa yesterday blamed Syria for the bus bombing which killed three people: "it's not secret that Fateh al-Islam is linked to Fateh al-Intifada which is part of the Syrian security and intelligence apparatus and cooperation between them is very strong."

Yesterday, I revealed that our friend Mr As-Sabaa doesn't know what he's talking about because the two groups split.

NOW, some very interesting detail from As'ad: "The founding declaration of Fath-Al-Islam when it split off from Fath-Al-Intifadah in fact criticized the corruption and links with "intelligence services", in clear reference to the Syrian control of Fath-Al-Intifadah. At the time, when the Syrian government arrested Abu Khalid Al-`Amlah and accused him of leading the schism, it accused Hariri Inc of funding Fath-Al-Islam."

Not only does the group being blamed for the bus bombing have NO links to Syria. It appears that they are linked to Hariri.

Ouch. it's coming back to bite you now isn't it.

Labels: Hariri Militia, Lebanon

A very interesting survey by Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar shows that more people agree with the opposition than the government.

The survey asks, do you blame the US for the crisis in Lebanon - that's the opposition's view - 50% say yes.

It asks, do you blame Syria and Iran for the crisis in Lebanon - that's the government's view - 35% say yes.

(So we've obviously got 15% which don't support either group)


The survey also shows that differences between the sects are as strong as ever.

It also shows that the Druze are at one end of the spectrum, with the Shia at the other end. The Druze are overwhelmingly pro-US, anti-Syria and the Shia are overwhelmingly the other way. What is interesting is the size of these percentages. So while there is some disagreement within the Sunni and Christian camps, the Druze and Shia are standing by their leaders to almost unbelievable extents.

The US is to blame for the political deadlock in Lebanon:

95% of Shia say yes

37% of Sunnis say yes

37% of Christians say yes

and amazingly, just 5% of Druze say yes


We see a similar breakdown when we ask...are Syria and Iran to blame for the crisis:

just 2% of Shia say yes

33% of Christians say yes

59% of Sunnis say yes

and 79% of Druze say yes

Full details here.

Labels: Hariri Militia, Hizbollah, Lebanese Forces, Lebanon, Media

Seymour Hersh, campaigning investigative journalist, says America is funding extremist groups inside Syria to carry out terrorist attacks.

Don't underestimate the weight of these statements. Hersh is one of the world's most successful investigative journalists. He made his name by breaking a story about a massacre during the Veitnam War. More recently, he was the man who uncovered the Abu Ghraib scandal.

He says the US has put together a plan to extensively attack Iran (but importantly NOT Syria) with just 24 hours notice.

And he says the US is funding Lebanese Sunni fundamentalist groups VIA THE SINIORA GOVERNMENT. Groups which, Hersh claims, are aligned with Al Qaeda. These fighters are based in the Bekka Valley, and have received billions, he says.

Not so sweet and fluffy now, are we Mr Hariri.

The full, remarkable story, is here.

Labels: Hariri Militia, Iran, Lebanon, Terrorism, US

One of the most important articles I have ever read about Lebanon.

Sect Symbols
Annia Ciezadlo
The Nation

For most Westerners, the words "downtown Beirut" conjure up two distinct images: a farrago of bullet-scarred buildings, car bombs and machine-gun-toting militiamen, and a glitzy, picturesque pedestrian mall. Nobody remembers Wadi Abu Jamil, the old Jewish quarter of downtown Beirut, a warren of winding alleys, antique Ottoman and French Mandate houses, and a lonely crumbling synagogue. By the mid-1990s, it was home to everything the Lebanese government would rather forget. Most of those who lived there were Shiites from the south of Lebanon, routed from their homes by the Israeli occupation and shunted into the neglected neighborhood by a city that didn't want them.

But somebody wanted Wadi Abu Jamil. Solidere, the private company that had the contract to rebuild the city center, was determined to raze the old downtown by any means necessary. So when the Ayad family refused to leave their home in February 1996, Solidere dispatched a crew of Syrian and Egyptian guest workers to begin tearing down the four-story building--with the family still inside. As the laborers began to dismantle the building, not surprisingly it collapsed. Seven workmen and six of the Ayads, including a 2-year-old boy and a 3-month-old baby, were crushed to death by the march of reconstruction.

Rafik Hariri, the billionaire prime minister who founded Solidere, expressed his "sorrow" while attending a banquet at a five-star Beirut hotel.

...

Instead of letting the rebuilding founder amid the factional infighting and corruption that curse the Lebanese state to this day, Hariri proposed an alternative: A private company, not subject to civil-service hiring requirements, would use the authority of the state to seize several hundred acres of privately owned land. Freed from the shackles of bureaucracy, this new company would revitalize the shellshocked old city center. And if the 20,000 or so souls who lived or owned land downtown were upset at being forced to render it up, the company had a plan for them: The value of their claims would be determined by special committees--paid for, indirectly, by Solidere--that would award them compensation in the form of Solidere stock. If Kenneth Lay had been governor of Texas and granted Enron sweeping powers to seize Texans' homes and land, giving the homeowners nothing but Enron stock in return, it would have been something like Solidere.

...

The deal was negotiated between Hariri's company, Hariri's government and one of Hariri's former employees, who was head of Lebanon's reconstruction authority.

Labels: Beirut, Hariri Militia, Social issues, Solidere

When will Western journalists realise that March 14 is Saudi backed?

Let's join up the dots in Jim Muir's report.

"For many Lebanese, the most worrying confrontation was between Shia and Sunni Muslims, respectively opponents and supporters of the Western-backed Beirut government."

"On one side of that battle, the United States and its strategic ally Israel, with a certain measure of wider Western support; on the other, Iran, and its strategic ally, Syria."

"Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as the custodian of Sunni Islam, has seen the dangers. It has been talking intensively to the Iranians, and that dialogue is partly credited with persuading the factions in Lebanon to draw back from the brink."

Ahhhhhhh, so THAT'S how Saudi Arabia had control over the Sunni militias in Lebanon: because it is the custodian of Sunni Islam. Ahhhhhh.

And the custodian of Hariri's power.

Labels: Hariri Militia, Hizbollah, Iran, Lebanon, Saudi

Four Shia died (including two students at the Beirut Arab University), killed by Hariri gunmen. 35 injured. The army caught...no-one.

Three Lebanese soldiers injured by gunmen. A gunman belonging to Walid Jumblatt's progressive Socialist Party has been arrested.

SSNP (Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party) offices burned down.

Welcome to civil conflict, brought to you courtesy of $48 billion of Hariri/Saudi/French/US debt.

Labels: Beirut, Hariri Militia, Walid Jumblatt

Beirut has been put under curfew for the first time since the civil war ended in 1990.

It comes a day after brutal sectarian fights led to four deaths and dozens of injuries.

Witnesses reported the Lebanese Forces militia, Hariri militia and Amal militia taking part in most of the violence at Beirut's Arab University.

But on a positive note, Lebanon has another $7 billion of debt to add to its world record $41 billion debt. Lebanon likes world records. Here's another one: Lebanon spends two-thirds of everything it earns paying interest on its debt. TWO-THIRDS.

Labels: Beirut, Hariri Militia, Lebanese Forces