June 02, 2006

Now There's A Shocker

Muslims rioting?

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Thousands of Shiite Muslims enraged by a TV comedy that mocked the leader of Hezbollah took to the streets of southern Beirut on Thursday night, burning car tires and blocking roads, police and witneses said.

The trouble began after an actor spoofed Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, wearing the Hezbollah leader's trademark black turban and sporting a similar beard and spectacles on a TV show on Lebanese Broadcasting Corp, a privately-owned Christian channel.

Weird. I don't recall anything like that happening before. Just one of those isolated incidents.

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October 12, 2005

Syrian Minister 'Commits Suicide', Foul Play Suspected

general_ghazi_kanaan.gifSyria's Interior Minister has reportedly 'committed suicide', Syrian state controlled media reports today. The story is fishy enough that many mainstream news outlets are making sure to put quotes around "committed suicide".

General Ghazi Kanaan was the former head of Syria's military intelligence in occupied Lebanon. Syrian intelligence agents or their proxies are suspected in the car-bombing assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. Kanaan's 'suicide' comes just prior to the official release of a UN report which is said to implicate Syria. Kanaan has long been a leading suspect in the assassination.

The U.S. has also frozen Kanaan's assets because of his role in helping Syria support known terrorist groups.

As Wunderkraut rightly points out, Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad told CNN that if a Syrian was behind Hariri's assassination, that person would be deemed 'a traitor':

But, he said, if the U.N. probe concluded that Syrians were involved, then they would be regarded as traitors and should be charged with treason and face punishment, either through the Syrian judicial process or by an international court.
An international court? Right. We all know what happens to traitors in Syria.

DEBKA, of course, finds Kanaan's death a little too coincidental for their tastes:

Its occurrence hours before Assad was to go on the air for a landmark CNN interview suggests the president may have been preparing to sacrifice close aides to mute WashingtonÂ’s pressure on his own policies.
So, even if this was a 'suicide', it is possible that this was a preventative move on Kanaan's part. It is far better to go quickly at your own hands, then undergo the humiliation of a Baathist show trial the end of which is certain.

Ya Libnan, an online Lebanese news site says of a radio interview with Kanaan yesterday:

The interview sounded more like a speech than a question and answer session. He sounded as if he was reading all what he was saying . His last sentence was: I will not call any other channel with this information and named all the Lebanese channels. He went on to say " this is the last you will hear from me" I will not be calling again.

The news about his suicide will be a big blow to the UN investigating commission, since he must have know a lot about what went on in Lebanon and who is behind Hariri's assassination. Some political analysts are speculating that Kannan was killed to use him as the scapegoat and to hide the truth about who really killed Hariri.

The article cites local TV as their source of information. This is raising more than a few eyebrows in Lebanon. more...

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April 15, 2005

Iran Pulls Troops out of Lebanon

Interesting article. But the more important question is will Iran stop funding armed militias and terrorists in Lebanon? WaPo:

Iran has pulled out the vast majority of its Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon after two decades as a major player among the country's Shiite population, most notably as the impetus for the creation of Hezbollah, according to U.S. and European officials.

At one point, Iran was estimated to have as many as 2,000 of its elite troops inside Lebanon. But today Tehran is reported to have from 12 to 50 military personnel in the country -- and probably on the lower end of that range, the officials said.

Hat tip Rev. Jim Sutter.

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Lebanon Needs Your Help

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The Cedar Revolution is incomplete. Support Spirit of America's efforts at helping the Lebanese take their country back from Syria and Iran. Every dollar helps.

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