This comment was published in al-Hayat on 23/11/2010
The report carried by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) yesterday takes the investigation in to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri back to square one.
The information published by CBC (which the Washington Post said it had access to prior to publication), provides insight into the atmosphere surrounding the international committee investigating the Hariri assassination. On par with a film noir movie that revolves around mobsters and gangs, suspicions begin to emerge regarding names that were hitherto above reproach, and regarding the liquidation of key participants in the investigations and the mishandling of evidence.
If only a fraction of what was published is true – all parties concerned declined to comment on this –, then we are facing a broad infiltration of the international investigation committee. There is no doubt that multiple parties are involved in this breach, as it can be inferred from the names that were mentioned. The report also adds weight to the suspicions raised by Hezbollah and its allies in what regards the leaks of investigation information. However, Hezbollah’s suspicions regarding the information leaks to Israel are absent as an issue in the report, which instead mentions in clear terms that several sides are manipulating evidence and eliminating, through physical liquidation, those who made progress towards revealing the truth, as happened with Captain Wissam Eid.
The direct implication of these facts (again, if the Canadian report is indeed correct), is that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is facing fierce resistance from both within and without, targeting the investigation progress, and its impartiality and neutrality. The other implication is that those who are impeding the progress of the STL possess the means and capabilities to gain access to detailed information such as those submitted by Captain Eid.
Based on this, one may infer that the most important task of the STL, namely to stop the assassinations and put an end to them as a method to shape political and public life in Lebanon, is exactly what is being tested in the harshest possible manner. Also, the extent of the powers seeking to disrupt the work of the STL does not boil down to individuals or small groups of extremists. Instead, what we are facing are organized security services that are highly proficient in the field intelligence work.
Therefore, the Canadian report shows another bitter fact about the work of the STL: That those who carried out the assassinations between 2004 and 2008, have not stopped for fear of exposure and punishment by international justice, but because of the fact that the circumstances that drove them to adopt assassinations as a method of political action had changed.
What is worse is that there is no guarantee -with or without the investigation committee and the STL- that political discourse in Lebanon will move beyond assassinations and threats of assassinations, to one that is based on semantics, no matter how bellicose they may be. It also goes without saying that abandoning assassinations is a first step toward building bridges among the various belligerents in the intense civil conflict.
In this context, the name of the accused, the infiltrators and the instigators is not important. These may be acquitted by the court for lack of evidence. What matters instead is that the culture that is hostile to law and that feels comfortable violating it, is actually common to all the Lebanese (and other Arabs, naturally). There is no authority above that of violence – it seems - in resolving any problems, be they minor or major. The only resort for both individuals and groups in our country thus remains that of the use of arms, assassinations and revenge.
The report of the CBC demonstrates then, that all hopes that were pinned on an end of assassinations and politically motivated killings are still delusions. And the Lebanese, even when they do not need a report from distant lands to remind them of the hopelessness and horrors of their situation, appear, with this report, to be more powerless than ever in changing things for the better.
The report carried by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) yesterday takes the investigation in to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri back to square one.
The information published by CBC (which the Washington Post said it had access to prior to publication), provides insight into the atmosphere surrounding the international committee investigating the Hariri assassination. On par with a film noir movie that revolves around mobsters and gangs, suspicions begin to emerge regarding names that were hitherto above reproach, and regarding the liquidation of key participants in the investigations and the mishandling of evidence.
If only a fraction of what was published is true – all parties concerned declined to comment on this –, then we are facing a broad infiltration of the international investigation committee. There is no doubt that multiple parties are involved in this breach, as it can be inferred from the names that were mentioned. The report also adds weight to the suspicions raised by Hezbollah and its allies in what regards the leaks of investigation information. However, Hezbollah’s suspicions regarding the information leaks to Israel are absent as an issue in the report, which instead mentions in clear terms that several sides are manipulating evidence and eliminating, through physical liquidation, those who made progress towards revealing the truth, as happened with Captain Wissam Eid.
The direct implication of these facts (again, if the Canadian report is indeed correct), is that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is facing fierce resistance from both within and without, targeting the investigation progress, and its impartiality and neutrality. The other implication is that those who are impeding the progress of the STL possess the means and capabilities to gain access to detailed information such as those submitted by Captain Eid.
Based on this, one may infer that the most important task of the STL, namely to stop the assassinations and put an end to them as a method to shape political and public life in Lebanon, is exactly what is being tested in the harshest possible manner. Also, the extent of the powers seeking to disrupt the work of the STL does not boil down to individuals or small groups of extremists. Instead, what we are facing are organized security services that are highly proficient in the field intelligence work.
Therefore, the Canadian report shows another bitter fact about the work of the STL: That those who carried out the assassinations between 2004 and 2008, have not stopped for fear of exposure and punishment by international justice, but because of the fact that the circumstances that drove them to adopt assassinations as a method of political action had changed.
What is worse is that there is no guarantee -with or without the investigation committee and the STL- that political discourse in Lebanon will move beyond assassinations and threats of assassinations, to one that is based on semantics, no matter how bellicose they may be. It also goes without saying that abandoning assassinations is a first step toward building bridges among the various belligerents in the intense civil conflict.
In this context, the name of the accused, the infiltrators and the instigators is not important. These may be acquitted by the court for lack of evidence. What matters instead is that the culture that is hostile to law and that feels comfortable violating it, is actually common to all the Lebanese (and other Arabs, naturally). There is no authority above that of violence – it seems - in resolving any problems, be they minor or major. The only resort for both individuals and groups in our country thus remains that of the use of arms, assassinations and revenge.
The report of the CBC demonstrates then, that all hopes that were pinned on an end of assassinations and politically motivated killings are still delusions. And the Lebanese, even when they do not need a report from distant lands to remind them of the hopelessness and horrors of their situation, appear, with this report, to be more powerless than ever in changing things for the better.
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