-Caveat Lector-
"From Israel To Damascus The painful road of Blood, Betrayal and Deception"
By Robert M. Hatem http://www.israeltodamascus.com/
[ end of chapter 7 ]
On Tuesday September 14, 1982, at precisely 4:10 P.M, an explosion
destroyed the three-story building that housed the main East Beirut branch
of
the Kataeb Party. Bashir Gemayel was inside the building for one last
meeting
with the party members and supporters. Bashir, the 34-year-old
president-elect, nine days before he was due to take office for his
six-year
term, had grown careless in the prevalent euphoria of his newly acquired
power and position. Oversight on Bashir Gemayel�s part and his new
antagonism towards the Israelis, allowed his enemies to successfully attack
and kill him. Bashir was careless. The Special Security Unit conducted by Elie
Wazzen, alias �Abbas�, who coordinated with H.K supplied Wazzen with
information. Elie Wazzen profited during the year he commanded the unit,
because he orchestrated all arms deals. The least he could do was to take
good care of his �master� when the need arose!
The explosion was reported a few minutes after it took place. Elie Hobeika
dispatched me to inspect the premises. I was accompanied by the Israeli
Liaison officer called �Mandy�. As we struggled through the rubble, we saw
bits of arms, legs, heads and shoulders strewn among the collapsed pillars. A
gray-black cloud of dust and smoke billowed through the neighborhood. The
street in front of the collapsed building was crammed with hysterical people
crying and bellowing. Sheikh Bashir�s wife, Solange, arrived a few minutes
after us. Karim Pakradouni, Gemayel�s close political adviser shuttled in his
Range Rover between the explosion site, Rizk Hospital and Hotel Dieu before
identifying the President -elect�s obliterated body.
By 6:00 p.m., the tension had become unbearable. The rescue workers were
trying to clear the rubble under arc lights. I was there with �Mandy� who
could not keep from crying. A wave of hallucinations seemed to take hold of
the crowd. Everybody, even the most noted international pressmen, dreamed
they had seen an ambulance carrying Bashir away, an ambulance which, in
fact, never existed except in their ravaged minds.
Later, a helicopter flew overhead and was driven off by the random
shooting.
Rumors started circulating like a flash in the pan, when somebody in the
panic-stricken and angry crowd shouted that it was an Israeli helicopter sent
to take Bashir to a hospital in Israel. But none of this was true and we knew
it.
The Israelis had the confirmation of Bashir�s death long before the Lebanese
forces did. They had the firm certitude at 8.30 p.m. while the Lebanese
Forces command waited until Gemayel�s body was removed at 10:00 p.m.
and carried by a Red Cross ambulance to the Hotel-Dieu.
Collective hallucination mixed with mass hysteria and chaos blurred common
sense. There, clamped down in front of the battered building, stood aghast
rescue workers, family members, mentors, Kataeb party officials, members,
supporters, friends, medical teams, military and militiamen.
Instead of six years in office, Bashir, had only 23 days, but 23 days during
which a myth was born. A myth that would soon become a stumbling block
and an element of strife and conflict within the Christian ranks: Christian
decision-makers, Lebanese forces, clans, Presidency.
The assassination of Bashir Gemayel pushed his tough, ruthless and
bloodthirsty lieutenants, and the Israelis into a hysterical rage and enraged
them to vow vengeance. Sharon and Begin panicked. It is true that Bashir had
disappointed them by turning down their peace treaty proposal, but they knew
he would restore peace, law and order and shake off the Palestinian and
Syrian tutelage. He was likely to bend in the end because with him they
secured, at least a friendly Christian-dominated regime in Lebanon.
In the meantime, Gemayel�s political adviser Karim Pakradouni, and the
Lebanese Forces commander Fady Frem had in the meantime agreed to
contain the militiamen. Shooting was prohibited. Meetings at the highest levels
were held through the night. Beirut Radio, Kataeb Party�s Radio Voice of
Lebanon, Bashir�s Radio Free Lebanon interrupted their usual programs and
broadcast classical music without one single comment.
The assassination of Bashir Gemayel destroyed the Christians ultimate dream.
It sullied Israel�s honor, undermined American credibility and above all,
ushered to an era of bloody inter-Christian feuds, treason and battles that
led
to the collapse of the power of the Lebanese Christian people who were burnt
down by the leaders who took over.
CHAPTER 8
On the morning of Wednesday, September 15, 1982, the Lebanese forces
met at the Gemayel house in Bickfaya. The house was crammed with
mourners, and the attendees decided to run Amin, Bashir�s brother, for the
president. While all of Lebanon�s religious, political, military and
civilian
leaders and Minister Sharon and the Head of the Mossad passed through the
room where condolences were extended, an invasion of West Beirut was
being planned. It went off 12 hours later.
In the afternoon of Wednesday September 15, 1982, Bashir�s military and
Intelligence lieutenants met with the Israeli chief of Staff Lieutenant
General
Rafael Eitan, and Major General Amir Drori, in charge of the Lebanese
operation.
I was later told by Hobeika that there were about 2,000 PLO �terrorists� still
hiding in the Sabra and Chatilla camps. Hobeika advised me that he was in
charge of the organization of an operation to clear them out. He also
disclosed that the Israeli forces had taken up positions in West Beirut and
expected us to supervise the evacuation of the Palestinians from the camp.
We were to sort out the armed terrorists and hand them over to the Israeli
troops at the Cite Sportive, Al Madina Al Ryadieh, cleaned up and fixed to
serve as a rally point. Meanwhile, the whole country stood breathless and
at a standstill, half of it drowned in deep despair, and the other half
paralyzed with fear. So ominous was the tragedy.
Hobeika had 24 hours to prepare his elite key force composed of 200 men.
The men were allotted in several units respectively under the command of
Joseph Asmar, Michel Zouein, G. Melco, and Maroun Mashaalani. General
Sharon besieged the camps and the Cite Sportive.
By noon on Thursday, September 16, 1982, the �Shababs� started advancing
through the Beirut Airport Road. By 4:30 p.m., the Lebanese Forces had
crossed the Israeli lines surrounding the camps. Sharon had given strict
orders
to Hobeika to guard against any desperate move, should his men run amuck.
They were to behave like a real dignified, regular army not like �chocolate
soldiers� and coordinate with the Israeli command. Their mission was to
exert
pressure an the Palestinians to drive them all out of the camp, and pick
out the
PLO agents left behind after the evacuation of the Palestinians in August,
1982. They were rallied at the Cite Sportive and held prisoners. After
inspection the civilians would be sent back to their homes. However,
Hobeika
gave his own instructions to his men: �Total extermination ... camps wiped
out.�
It was Maroun Mashaalani�s men, undaunted by their regular and immoderate
use of heroine and cocaine who perpetrated the most ghastly slaughters in
the
camp bordering Ghaza Hospital at the entrance of Sabra. That is where
foreign nurses and doctors were shot down in cold blood. The minute General
Ariel Sharon had been informed that something odd and unwanted was going
on, he summoned his commanding officers and Hobeika.
At 7:30 p.m. on September 16, 1982, Hobeika and I arrived at General Ariel
Sharon�s Headquarters. We climbed up to the terrace of the tall building
next
to the Kuweity Embassy. From there we could plunge right into the camp and
have an overhead view. Besides the Israeli officers, Assaad Shaftari, Michel
Zouein, Elie Hobeika �H.K.� and myself were poised and ready.
The Israeli officers were jealous and filled with rage, blaming Hobeika for
actually ordering the massacre of Palestinian civilians. Hobeika coldly
retorted that it was because of the darkness he could not tell who they were.
General Sharon, being too fat to climb up the flight of stairs, waited on the
second floor
to see Hobeika and have it out with him personally. The minute he saw him he
roared out: �You were not supposed to do this. I didn�t ask you to commit
massacres. If I wanted, I would have done so with my tanks. You�ll pay
dearly for this blunder!� Hobeika replied that he would handle it with his
men. Hobeika and I went back on the terrace. Hobeika got a walkie talkie
message from a guy called �Paul� saying, �There are women and children,
what should we do?� Hobeika answered, �It�s your lookout and don�t call
me back again, you shit.�
Hobeika, Zouein, Shaftari and I ran back down to the second story where an
Israeli officer drew a map of the site with a piece of chalk on the floor,
pointing to where the massacres were taking place. That is when we had
confirmation that it was Maroun Machaalani�s unit which was involved at the
entrance of Sabra Camp.
Hobeika went back to report to General Sharon his account of events.
General Sharon ordered his men to fire flares from that moment on until 4:00
a.m. to avoid a further blunder. It was too late. The harm was done. All
the victims were civilians killed with grenades, hatchets, assault rifles,
knives. Some of the corpses were even boobie-trapped.
At around 6:00 a.m., the Lebanese Forces, arrived to inspect the butchery.
Fadi Frem, Fuad Abou Nader, Steve Nakkour, Elie Hobeika and I inspected
the premises. Hobeika instructed Nakkour, who was in charge of Logistics,
to send tractors to clean up the camps and leave no traces of the massacres,
wiping out incriminating evidence.
The Israeli officers prevented the Lebanese Forces from getting into the
camps with their chiefs. At 9:00 a.m., artillery fighting broke out between
Maroun Mashaalani�s men and gunmen from Moslem shia Mekdad family
members. The Mekdad families came to inquire about their relatives who
were among the camp inhabitants. A Lebanese army officer ordered
Mashaalani to get off to stop the skirmish. He complied.
By now, news accounts of the massacres had leaked out. The reports
became amplified, confused, and mixed-up. Some witnesses claimed that it
was actually Major Saad Haddad�s men who had perpetrated the slaughter
because of the South Lebanon accent. Not one single man from Saad
Haddad�s Free Lebanon Army took part in the operation. The Christian militia
was unchained and blinded by rage after the assassination of their Chief,
President and martyr.
Once again, the mastermind, Hobeika had toyed with the lives of young
patriots, committing them to carry out reprehensible actions which could
serve only Syria�s interests! It was the Syrians not the PLO who had never
accepted Bashir�s election. It was later discovered and proven that Bashir�s
actual assassin, Habib Tanios Shartuni, was a secret member of the
pro-Syrian, anti-Kataeb Party, Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SNSP). The
SNSP was represented by Assaad Hardane via Nabil Al Allam Chief of
Intelligence and Security of the SNSP. Syrian Army Intelligence �conducted�
by Ali Douba assisted Shartuni in providing and stashing the bomb. How
could Hobeika claim that he had received orders to massacre the Palestinians
from the Israelis? I did not know where his two ultra secret meetings with
Abdul Halim Khaddam during the first half of 1982 fit in.
I was Hobeika�s field man always present on the premises with my chief
wherever he went. I can state under oath, that General Sharon would never
have lit up the area the way he did had he planned for any butchery. He would
not have cleaned up the Cite Sportive to house all the Palestinians pending
their return to their homes after verification. He would not have placed his
tanks and armored cars all around the camps to capture the remaining armed
Palestinian agents. One thing was certain, the Syrians had their men within
the ranks of Lebanese Forces leaders.
Reflecting back on the events of my life, all the facts led me to believe
that Hobeika was the man, who in 1982, provoked the Sabra and Chatilla
massacres. This is my own assumption of what was behind it because there
are no real facts to support my claim. After killing Bashir Gemayel, in
secret coordination with the SNSP and Syria, I also suspected Hobeika was
instrumental in the fall of the Likoud Government. Prime Minister Begin
and General Sharon resigned, allowing the Labor Party in Israel to come to
power. This rise reversed the process and destroyed everything the Likoud
Government had worked to establish with the Lebanese Christians.
Bashir�s death and the massacres were pivotal in the fall of the Likoud
Government. It is alleged that Hobeika contributed to the destruction of
the
Likoud Government plan for Israel and Lebanon because of his participation
in the events. While Syria was working for a new consensus with the United
States, Hobeika became a pro-Syrian and a Hafez Assad hero. Hafez Assad
personally placed a protective umbrella over Hobeika�s head to avert any
assassination attempts on Hobeika�s life following the massacres of the
Sabra and Chatilla camps.
The assassination of Bashir and the attacks on Sabra and Chatilla also led
to the fall of power for General Sharon and Prime Minister Begin. Hobeika�s
actions changed the course of events. Israel lost power and Syria gained
it.
It was the same mechanism that destroyed the courageous Israeli Government�s
plan to save Lebanon and restore peace through a solid and strong Christian
state. Following Bashir�s death and the failed Likoud/Israeli plan, the
United States then entered the Middle-East conflict with a new consensus and
perspective different from the original Israeli perspective. The Labor
Party took control of the Israel government and compromised the Lebanese
Christians with Syria. Rabin stated many times, he would not mind for Syria
to stay in Lebanon should Syria sign the peace treaty with Israel. When
Netanyahu took office, the whole middle eastern peace plan changed.
Five years after Hafez Assad kidnapped the American and western hostages
through the Hizballah in Beirut, and released them later in Damascus. He did
so to gain the blessings of the United States political power. The United
States attempted to a deal with the Labor Party, headed by Rabin in Israel,
Assad released 5,000 Syrians Jews from Damascus and authorized them to
leave Syria and travel to the United States. The United States was blessing a
naive peace between Rabin�s Israel and Syria. The Labor Party leaders
believed this naive peace with Syria. Rabin backed by United States support
sought a peaceful resolution to the Middle-East conflicts. What Hafez Assad
and Syria wanted was the return of the Golan and Lebanon and to be in a
position of strength in the balance of power in the Middle East.
Assad was loosing time. The United States Secretary of State, Warren
Christopher, traveled numerous times to the bargaining table to resolve the
terms of the agreement, but was unsuccessful in his diplomatic attempts.
He failed because Syria never believed in Israel. Assad was counting on a
change
that might occur with the New World Order, perhaps a new revolution with
Russia that would topple the pro-United States regime and establish the Old
Soviet Union, thus returning to the Cold War. Assad could then take a power
position in the Arab-Israeli conflict. This never happened. The Labor Party
failed to understand the ideology that prevailed in Damascus, a denial of
Israel
to �exist� as a Nation in the Middle-East. Therefore, the only peace that
could dominate in the region was the peace through strength. Hobeika
succeeded in playing Syria�s political game and Syria was fooling the United
States of signing a peace treaty with Israel. The political perception of
President Reagan for the Middle East was the best. Peace through strength.
What Syria really wanted to do was waste time and swallow Lebanon for its
own. By doing so, Syria gained economic and political strength in the region.
On October 2, 1982, 17 days after the assassination of President Bashir
Gemayel, the Kataeb Party Radio Voice of Lebanon announced that the man
who perpetrated the outrage, the assassin, Habib Tanios Shartuni, age 26,
was captured. Strange coincidence indeed, Shartuni, his sister and
grandparents occupied the top floor of the small three-story building which
accommodated the Kataeb Party�s Ashrafieh headquarters. A friend of mine,
then in West Beirut, overheard two SNSP party leaders commenting that one
of the greatest assets Hobeika gave to the Syrians was the Bashir story.
One can only infer that Hobeika was behind Bashir�s assassination.
Speculation of Hobeika�s participation in Bashir�s assassination was wide
spread. Hobeika had been Syria�s man inside the Lebanese Forces. Hobeika
had travel numerous times with Bashir. Hobeika made many contacts there,
but it was speculated that he was secretly working for the Syrian interests.
The last trip Bashir made to discuss the treaty, Bashir got into a verbal
conflict
with Prime Minister Begin. What followed was the Syrian leader�s plan to
assassinate Bashir with the help of the SNSP. After the success of the
operation, the leaders then devised a cover for the operation. It is reported
that the Syrian Moukhabarat began circulating news that the Israelis had
killed
Bashir because he had gotten into a conflict with the Prime Minister Begin
during their last visit in Naharia. The plan was to remove suspicion from
the Syrians and color the Israelis with the crime.
Many in Lebanon do not understand why Israel would kill a man they had
devoted and invested so much time and energy into gaining peace for their
country. The whole Israeli project was built on Bashir. When Syria
succeeded in eliminating Bashir, the whole Israel plan for Lebanon was lost.
There was no leader to fill Bashir�s place. Hobeika took advantage of the
situation by averting the attention from the Bashir assassination to the
massacres at Sabra and Chatilla. Everyone forgot the crime against Bashir
and focused their attention on the camp massacres. It was well planned and
successfully carried out. Following these events, the Likoud Government
collapsed, Prime Minister Begin and General Sharon resigned. Alexander
Haig, now the United States Secretary of State, was the man who gave his
blessing to the �Peace Accord�, who went home without any success.
Everything in Israel collapsed and Syria was getting out of the game
victorious following Bashir�s death.
If Bashir had continued forward with his plans in Israel, Lebanon would have
been the second State in the Middle East to sign the peace treaty with Israel
after Egypt. This move would have ensured a friendly government to Israel
in Lebanon. The Lebanese Forces were considered the Israeli mechanism in
Lebanon, with the tripartite agreement and the Intifadas, Hobeika sliced the
Lebanese Forces into two pieces and took the half of it to the Syrian side
when he went to Zahleh. He converted them working for the Moukhabarat
Sourieh sending car bombs and executing assassinations in the Christian
enclave for Syria�s interest. Assad himself placed a protective umbrella
over Hobeika because the Palestinians wanted to kill him and gave him a
residence in Damascus and protection for the �favors� he did for Syria.
======================================
Sabra and Chatilla.
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 02:41:08 +0100
From: "INTELINK" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
VERY RIGHT !!!
SYRIA WAS BEHIND KILLINGS AT SABRA AND CHATILLA
This operation was mounted by the SECOND DESK of syrian secret services and
the "MAKTAB el-KHAS", who are attached to the ministry of interior. They
where, and they still, specialy mounted and trained for psycological
operations and underground killing activities.
Ali Dhadha WAS the boss of 2nd DESK and still now in the Syrian head of
Secret Service.
He was the brain of this operation to destabilize ISRAEL.
THIS IS THE TRUE !!!!
SHARON was NEVER implicated in those masacres.
Jean-Paul NEY
Journalist / Autor
Webmaster of intelink.fr.st
-------------------------------
Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Site: http://www.intelink.fr.st
Intelink.fr.st, tout sur le monde
de l'espionnage, du renseignement,
de la d�fense et du contre-terrorisme
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Special Dispatch - Palestinians
June 22, 2001
No. 232
Saleh Al-Na'ami, a senior political commentator for the
Hamas weekly, Al-Risala, related in its latest issue to the
BBC/Panorama program about Sharon. Contrary to the
consensus in the Arab media, Al-Na'ami states that the
demand to prosecute Israeli PM Sharon as a war criminal is
hypocritical and that Syria and the heads of the Christian
Lebanese forces are the ones responsible for the massacre
at Sabra and Shatila. Following are excerpts from his
column:
"The documentary aired by the BBC's first channel has
provoked the interest of the entire world... Naturally,
many Arab intellectuals were enthusiastic about prosecuting
Sharon, and the BBC deserves full credit for its objective
handling of the issue..."
"However, with all honesty, there is a certain degree of
hypocrisy in the Arab coverage of the Sabra and Shatila
massacres!!!!! It is true that Sharon bears responsibility
for these massacres, but the people who committed these war
crimes with their own hands, were never tried."
"Moreover, Eli Hbeika who was head of security in the
Lebanese Forces when they committed these massacres and who
supervised the mass-killings and the rapes, boasted in the
[BBC] film itself that he was never, nor will he ever be
tried, and that he lives completely free. The same goes for
Fadi Afram, the commander of the Lebanese Forces, who had
an actual role in committing the massacres."
"We ask once again the question we have been asking always:
Who is protecting Eli Hbeika now, when nobody disputes his
responsibility for these massacres? The answer is: The
Syrian government who rewarded him two years after the
massacre, by appointing him as a minister in the Lebanese
government. The Syrian rulers, and first and foremost
Bashar Al-Assad, should prove their commitment to the
Palestinian cause before they fill the air with their
slogans about it."
"Indeed, it is hypocritical to attack Sharon for his part
in the Sabra and Shatila massacre, without demanding from
Syria and from the Lebanese government to demonstrate
minimal commitment towards the Palestinian people and allow
the prosecution of the real war criminals - Hbeika and the
gang of lowlifes that surrounded him at the time."
"Israel has established an investigation committee headed
by a judge in order to investigate the Sabra and Shatila
massacres. This committee forced the Begin government to
fire Sharon from the Ministry of Defense. Israel has also
discharged many of its army commanders. However, we have
not seen the Lebanese government doing [what Israel did]
even though one would expect them to do it."
"When such a committee was, finally, established by the
Lebanese government, it acquitted Hbeika of any
responsibility for committing the massacres and unloaded
all the responsibility on Israel, even though, the court
established that it was Hbeika's soldiers who committed the
massacres."
"As'ad Jamuswho headed the Lebanese investigation
committee, gave the strangest possible reasoning for his
committee's decision: He leveled the responsibility on
Israel because the Lebanese Forces were Israel's allies
when they committed the massacre!!"
"Syria, hence, has not only turned a blind eye to Hbeika's
responsibility for the massacre [when it appointed him a
minister], it has also turned a blind eye to the fact that
it was publicly declared [by the investigation committee]
that Hbeika served as an Israeli agent. Furthermore, in
1981, Israeli TV aired a report showing Hbeika, accompanied
by a group of Jews, visiting the Golan Heights and calling
upon Israel to keep the Golan Heights."
"In all honesty, the regime in Syria has not found any flaw
in its relations with Hbeika, despite his crimes against
Palestinians and Lebanese alike, because this regime has
lost the sensitivity to the lives of its own people."
"Someone who murdered tens of thousands in Hamma, cannot be
expected to find any flaw in the murder of two thousands
Palestinians by Hbeika."(1)
Endnote
(1) Al-Risala (PA), June 21, 2001.
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