http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=542126&contrassID=1&su bContrassID=8&sbSubContr assID=0&listSrc=Y Report: Syrian officers planned killing of Lebanon's Hariri Last Update: 19/02/2005 20:50 By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent and AP Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Seyassah reported Saturday that the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri was planned in the highest echelons of the Syrian military. According to the report, two Syrian generals, one of whom is the brother-in-law of President Bashar Assad, and one Lebanese general were behind the decision to assassinate Hariri. Assad had recently appointed one of the officers allegedly involved in the assassination, Brigadier General Asef Shawkat, 54, to the position of military intelligence chief. The other Syrian officer is security chief Jamal Sa'id. The Kuwaiti newspaper reports that the senior-ranking officers had blamed Hariri for a United Nations resolution calling on Syria to pull out of Lebanon, and had given the order to kill him. Erdan asks AG to probe Tibi's Beirut visit Likud MK Gilad Erdan said Saturday that he plans to ask Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to launch an investigation into Hadash-Ta'al MK Ahmed Tibi's trip to Beirut. Tibi traveled to Lebanon on Saturday for a consolation visit with Hariri's grieving family without attaining the Interior Ministry's permission, as the law requires in all such cases. "How long will Israel allow its elected officials to be paid by the public, when they are cooperating with the enemies of the state?" Erdan said, during an interview with Army Radio. Tibi had said earlier in a radio interview from Beirut that the visit was a spontaneous and human act and thus he didn't seek permission. Opposition in Lebanon demands 'independence uprising' Opposition figures urged the Lebanese to join an "independence uprising" against Syria's grip on their country on Friday, escalating a war of words following Hariri's assassination. Hariri's killing in Beirut on Monday sparked anti-Syrian fury among many Lebanese and renewed world pressure on Damascus to loosen its political grip and remove its troops from Lebanon. Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh warned Friday that the government would not tolerate any public disturbances. "The state will not stand idly by," he warned. Tourism Minister Farid al-Khazen resigned in a further sign of political turbulence and Syria named a new military intelligence chief. Khazen, a Maronite Christian, became the first minister to quit because of the assassination and said he had done so because the Syrian-backed government was unable to "remedy the dangerous situation in the country. "There is no substitute for national dialogue on the basis of the Taif agreement," he said, referring to the deal that ended the 1975-1990 civil war and committed Syria to moving the troops it keeps in Lebanon to the eastern Bekaa Valley. Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and figures from the disparate opposition movement blamed the government and its Syrian backers for Hariri's death and called for its resignation. After meeting on Friday, they urged Lebanese to back a peaceful "independence uprising" - the first time they had used the term. Parliament must also suspend all debate unrelated to the assassination, they told a news conference, until the truth about who killed Hariri emerged. "This isn't just the opposition," Jumblatt earlier told reporters. "All the Lebanese are with Hariri, a free Lebanon and Syrian withdrawal." Hariri moved towards a similar position in the months before his death. It was not immediately clear what form of protest the uprising would take. Protesters set fire to the tents of Syrian farm workers near the northern town of Tripoli, the latest attack on Syrians in Lebanon. No injuries were reported. UN to send team led by top Irish police officer to probe killing Secretary-General Kofi Annan is sending a team led by Ireland's deputy police commissioner to Beirut in the next few days to investigate the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the UN spokesman announced Friday. Annan's decision to send the team is in response to a request from the UN Security Council that he urgently report on "the circumstances, causes and consequences" of Hariri's killing, the spokesman's statement said. "The team will make contact with Lebanese officials and others to gather such information as necessary for the secretary-general to the council in a timely manner," the statement said. Peter Fitzgerald, the team leader, has been a deputy Irish police commissioner since 1998 and has worked in UN peacekeeping operations in Namibia and Cambodia and was police commissioner in Bosnia until February 1997. He also served as a member of the independent team that investigated security at UN headquarters in Baghdad before the Aug. 19 bombing that killed 22 people and injured over 160. Assad replaces chief of military intelligence Syrian President Bashar Assad replaced the chief of military intelligence with his brother-in-law on Friday, a Syrian official said. The new chief is the former deputy head of military intelligence, Brig. Gen. Asef Shawkat, 54. The official said the change was a "natural" succession within the military. It seems that the appointment was made as part Syria's changing diplomatic policies, following the assassination of Hariri. The chief of military intelligence oversees all of Syria's domestic and foreign intelligence operations, including activities in Lebanon where Syria has some 15,000 Syrian troops and many intelligence agents. The outgoing chief, Gen. Hassan Khalil, 65, had passed retirement age and his retirement had been previously postponed more than once, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Shawkat is married to Assad's sister, Bushra. Shawkat is close to Assad and recently emerged as a top presidential adviser on security matters. Assad's move indicates that he is consolidating his hold on the security services. It is likely that Shawkat's appointment is intended to relay the message that Assad plans to tighten his control on what goes on in Lebanon, and not allow a further deterioration in the country's political situation. The killing of Hariri in a massive bomb blast in central Beirut on Monday provoked an unprecedented level of criticism against Syria's presence in Lebanon. Senior Lebanese opposition figures accused Syria of responsibility - a charge that Syria flatly rejected. Thousands marched in Hariri's funeral on Wednesday behind banners that said: "Syria Out." The United States withdrew its ambassador to Damascus, giving the assassination as the immediate cause, and the UN Security Council passed a resolution reminding Syria that it was obliged to implement a previous council resolution that called for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Lebanon. On Thursday, U.S. President George W. Bush said he will work with his European allies to put pressure on Syria to pull out from Lebanon, saying Syria "is out of step" with progress being made in the Middle East. Earlier this month, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz questioned whether Assad was fully in control of Syria, four years after he assumed power on the death of his father, President Hafez Assad. Since Bashar Assad came to power in 2000, his government has touted a range of political and economic reforms. But he has also been pressured by the old guard in the ruling Baath Party, holdovers from the three decades of iron rule under his father. Syria has dominated Lebanon with its army and intelligence forces since Syrian troops first entered the country in the second year of the civil war of 1975-90. Lebanese demonstrators holding anti-Syrian banners during a demonstration in front of the Lebanese Parliament building in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Friday. (AP) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. Bring education to life by funding a specific classroom project. http://us.click.yahoo.com/FHLuJD/_WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
