Detlev Mehlis on Hariri Investigation: I Forgot to Pay My Taxes?
October 21, 2005, 5:28 pm |
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Apparently, the UN investigation into the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri found that complicity reached family members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But this fact was left out of the final report:
But the UN investigator who wrote the report has had to defend his decision to remove the names of five top Syrians from one section of the final draft.
The names included those of the brother and brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - Maher al-Assad and Asef Shawkat.
German Detlev Mehlis insisted at a hastily-arranged news conference that the names had been removed only to maintain their “presumption of innocence”, once he learned that his confidential report was to be made public.
In the removed section, a witness names the presidents’ relatives as being among five senior Syrians who decided in 2004 to kill Mr Hariri.
There goes the UN again, trying to protect one of its dictatorial members states — kind of like when it appointed Libya and Cuba to seats on its Human Rights Commission.
Poor Syria, it:
…finds itself almost completely isolated, with little support from other Arab nations, and faces the prospect of crippling UN sanctions…
It is about time. Syria, “with one of the world’s worst human rights records,” its sponsorship of terrorism, building of weapons of mass destruction, and brutal occupation of Lebanon for 30 years, is due for some change.
Related: Syria
November 9th, 2005 at 7:25 pm
[…] What precisely is nuanced about Bashar Assad’s brutal dictatorship? The Assad family’s minority Alawite stranglehold over power? The ruling clan’s involvement in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri? Nuanced? Syria has “one of the world’s worst human rights records”. It has long sponsored terrorism, is building weapons of mass destruction, and brutally occupied Lebanon for 30 years. Nuanced? […]
November 20th, 2005 at 9:15 am
You filthy ZIONIST suckers>>>get off Syria’s back !
November 28th, 2005 at 3:17 am
Please restrain yourself form using such language on this site.
As to Syria, we’ll never get off its back until it becomes a member of the civilized world and embraces democracy. Syria, “with one of the world’s worst human rights records,” its sponsorship of terrorism, building of weapons of mass destruction, and brutal occupation of Lebanon for 30 years, is due for some change.
Remember that under papa-Assad, “after a group of 200 Islamists staged an insurrection in Hama, Syria’s fifth largest city, Hafez al-Assad called on his brother Rifaat to put down the revolt. Using the paramilitary Saraya ad-Difa’a (Defense Platoons), with air force and infantry support, the Syrian government retook the city, indiscriminately killing between 10,000 and 20,000 civilians including children, women, and the elderly.”
Even the UN now believes that the Assad family had direct involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
How do you condone the Assad family’s minority Allawite rule over the country? Syria’s government is a cleptocracy, a dictatorship, and is nepotistic — all strategies meant to keep the Syrian people forced to live without basic freedoms.
My question to you: Why would you support such a dictatorship?
And what does Syria’s creepy internal problems have to do with “ZIONISM?”
December 4th, 2005 at 11:25 am
[…] For years, the only “occupied” territories you heard about were Gaza and the West Bank. Syria’s brutal occupation of Lebanon was swept under the rug. But the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri — done with the involvement of Syrian officials at the highest levels — began a long overdue awakening. Evidence of Syria’s crimes against the Lebanese people was unearthed (literally) yesterday: The remains of at least 20 bodies have been found in a grave in east Lebanon, near the former headquarters of the Syrian army intelligence, police say. … […]