Trish Schuh: Beirut: Israeli Mossad's playpen, or, Who killed Hariri -- and many others?

http://www.arabamericannews.com/newsarticle.php?articleid=7641

Using the Salvador Option in Beirut


By: Trish Schuh

"The only prospect that holds hope for us is the carving up of Syria... It
is our task to prepare for that prospect. All else is a purposeless waste of
time." Zionist militant Zeév Jabotinsky, From "We and Turkey," in "Di
Tribune," November 30, 1915

"We should prepare to go over to the offensive. Our aim is to smash Lebanon,
Trans-Jordan, and Syria. The weak point is Lebanon, for the Muslim regime is
artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall establish a Christian
state there, and then we will smash the Arab Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan,
and Syria will fall to us." -David Ben-Gurion, From "Ben-Gurion, A
Biography," by Michael Ben-Zohar, May 1948



"It is obvious that the above military assumptions, and the whole plan too,
depend also on the Arabs continuing to be even more divided than they are
now, and on the lack of any truly mass movement among them... Every kind of
inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten
the way to the more important aim of breaking Iraq up into denominations as
in Syria and Lebanon... Syria will fall apart." -Oded Yinon, 1982. From "The
Zionist Plan for the Middle East."



"Regime change is, of course, our goal both in Lebanon and Syria. We wrote
long ago that there are three ways to achieve it - the dictator chooses to
change; he falls before his own unhappy people; or if he poses a threat to
the outside, the outside takes him out..." -Jewish Institute for National
Security Affairs (JINSA), from strategy paper #474: "Priorities in Lebanon &
Syria", March 2, 2005



From mission statement to mission accomplished, the slam dunk cakewalks
continue. But from Baghdad to Beirut, the forgery looks the same. Unlike
Iraq, there is no 'weapons of mass destruction threat' to facilitate
toppling the Syrian regime. This time a United Nations tribunal could
provide the means, deploying Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri's murder
as the weapon. But like the U.S. show-trial to convict Saddam Hussein, the
show-trial to convict Syria for Hariri's murder, built by the United
Nation's International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC), has a
history of problems.

Several of the UNIIIC's prime witnesses have admitted to perjury, accusing
the U.S./Israeli-backed Lebanese government of bribery and foul play.
Witness Hussam Taher Hussam claimed Future Movement MP Saad Hariri (son of
the former Prime Minister) offered him $1.3 million to incriminate top
Syrian officials. Witness Ibrahim Michel Jarjoura said he was assaulted and
forced to lie by Lebanese Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamade. Star
witness Zuhir Ibn Mohamed Said Saddik, who had accused Lebanese President
Emile Lahoud and Syrian President Bashar Assad of ordering Hariri's murder,
bragged of earning millions by falsely testifying to the U.N. Commission.
Though much of their discredited testimony is still included as evidence,
both UNIIIC prosecutors Brammertz and Mehlis said that the use of lie
detector tests was not an option.

In his country, Mehlis has been rebuked for unethical and unprofessional
practices. According to Germany's "Junge Welt" magazine, the former U.N.
investigator received a $10 million slush fund to rig the UNIIIC outcome
against Syria. An inquiry by German public TV Zweites Deutsche Fernsehen
found that Mehlis had relied on CIA, MI6 and Mossad intelligence in prior
investigations, namely the Berlin Disco bombing of the 1980s where Mehlis
knowingly used testimony supplied by Arab Mossad agent Mohammad Al Amayra in
his case against Libya. Mehlis also relied on NSA intercepts of fake
telephone calls that former Mossad officer Victor Ostrovsky revealed were
made by Mossad agents, posing as Arab terrorists. The phone calls proved
Libyan guilt and justified America's bombing of Libya.

In the Hariri case, German critics claimed "the choice of Mehlis was done
because of his links to the German, American, French and Israeli
intelligence agencies." Lebanese news source libnen.com and "Le Figaro"
confirmed that the British MI6 and Mossad have been supplying much of the
U.N. Commission's intelligence.

When Mehlis resigned in disgrace, the U.N. hired Belgian prosecutor Serge
Brammertz at Mehlis' recommendation. But Brammertz could also be vulnerable
to U.S. pressure if he assembles a verdict not to America's liking. Under
Belgium's Universal Competence Law, Belgian legislators charged U.S. Centcom
General Tommy Franks, President George W Bush, VP Dick Cheney and Secretary
of State Colin Powell with war crimes in Iraq. In 2003, Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld threatened to pull NATO headquarters out of Belgium if the
prosecutions commenced. Shortly after, the Universal Competence Law was
dropped. At the U.N., Brammertz told me questions about similar U.S.
retaliation against his country regarding an unapproved Hariri outcome were
not relevant and were "unhelpful."

But much of the questionable case built by Mehlis has been retained by
Brammertz. Though Brammertz's secretive style preempts most outside
debunking of questionable evidence, it is clear that fundamental issues
remain unresolved. Brammertz's latest U.N. report estimates that TNT and RDX
explosives were used. But military experts and vehicle manufacturers claimed
that blast damage to Hariri's heavily armored Mercedes had the distinctive
'melting signature' incurred by high density DU munitions. Israel's recent
attack on Lebanon destroyed that evidence, by contaminating the crime scene
with American DU-tipped GBU-28 bunker buster bomb residue.

It is also not certain where the explosion that killed Hariri was detonated.
French experts assessed it was underground because the blast had cracked the
foundations of adjacent buildings, manhole covers on the street had blown
off, and asphalt was propelled onto nearby rooftops. After it was found that
an underground explosion would not implicate Syria — but rather the
pro-U.S./Israeli figures in the Lebanese government who had supervised road
work in the days before Hariri died — the focus shifted to an above-ground
blast via suicide bomber.

Then in a psyops set-up reminiscent of the Pentagon's Al Qaeda cutout Abu
Musab Al Zarqawi, (who terrorized the length and breadth of Iraq with a
wooden leg), several U.N. reports feature a 'Zarqawi-inspired' suicide car
bomber, Ahmed Abu Adass, as the killer. 'Martyr' Adass's video confession
debuted on Al Jazeera Bin Laden-style, with all the requisite hoopla. But
according to Reuters and ABC News, the "Syrian-coerced" car bomber had never
learned how to drive. (3/4/05)

America's United Nations Ambassador at the time, John Bolton, who usually
criticized the United Nations as "irrelevant," praised Mehlis, Brammertz and
the UNIIIC investigation's "great work," saying "the substantial evidence
speaks for itself."

But the irrelevant evidence Brammertz refuses to speak of could prove far
more substantial. Last June, the Lebanese Army discovered several networks
of Arab mercenaries sponsored by Israel's Mossad conducting terrorist
attacks and car bombings connected to the Hariri assassination.

Israel National News' "Arutz Sheva" reported that Lebanese Foreign Minister
Fawzi Salloukh was ignored when he protested to the U.N. about the
discoveries. (6/25/06) The U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, Jeffrey Feltman, who
helped manufacture the Cedar Revolution through the American Embassy in
Beirut, then threatened Lebanon with very "grave consequences" and a boycott
of foreign aid if Salloukh filed a formal U.N. complaint about the findings.

Despite Feltman's ultimatums, Lebanese Military Investigating Magistrate
Adnan Bolbol was to begin questioning witnesses over the Mossad
assassinations in mid-July. On July 11, the Lebanese opposition publicized
its demand for a United Nations Security Council Resolution against Israel,
as well as a full inquiry into the Mossad's Arab-camouflaged spy killings.
Responding within hours on July 12, Israel hastily retaliated with a full
scale attack on Lebanon using the Hizbullah border kidnapping as pretext.

Did the war on Lebanon cover up exposure of a "Salvador-style" slaying of
Rafiq Hariri and the other assassinations blamed on Syria?

Using the Salvador Option against Syria had first been raised by "Newsweek"
and the "London Times" in January, 2005. After Hariri's death on February
14, Hariri's long-time personal advisor Mustafa Al Naser said: "the
assassination of Hariri is the Israeli Mossad's job, aimed at creating
political tension in Lebanon." ("Asia Times" 2/17/05) The "Sunday Herald" of
Scotland hinted at a U.S. role. "With controversial diplomat John Negroponte
installed as the all-powerful Director of National Intelligence, is the U.S.
about to switch from invasions to covert operations and dirty tricks? The
assassination of the former Lebanese PM has aroused suspicions." ("Sunday
Herald," 2/20/05)

Fred Burton, vice president of counter-terrorism at Stratfor, was also
suspicious. Burton, who spent over 20 years as a counter-terrorism expert at
the U.S. State Department and the Secret Service, has investigated most
terror attacks against U.S. embassies abroad, as well as the first World
Trade Center bombing, and the murder of Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin. Stratfor's
Burton also specialized in Syrian terror operations and methods. He rejected
both Syria and Hizbullah as the perpetrators behind the Hariri killing.
"Syria lacks the finesse," and the "complex nature" of the remote-control
technology needed to implement "the surgical nature of the charge" are
beyond their capacity, he insisted. "This is not their style... and
Hizbullah would not have this capability." (UPI 6/27/05)

According to United Press International, Stratfor's report on the Hariri
crime concluded that the Lebanese assassinations were "so sophisticated that
few in the world could have done it." Burton told UPI that only five nations
had such advanced resources — Israel, the U.S., Britain, France and Russia.
"This type of technology is only available to government agencies." Burton
then asked: "Suppose that these bombings were 'merely collateral'? That the
true target in the plot is the Syrian regime itself? If Damascus were being
framed, who then would be the likely suspect?"

"Israeli intelligence is standing behind this crime," claimed German
criminologist Juergen Cain Kuelbel. In his book "Hariri's Assassination:
Hiding Evidence in Lebanon" he wrote: "Syria is innocent and has nothing to
do with that crime or the other assassinations." Kuelbel discovered that the
jamming system used to disable the Hariri convoy's electronic shield was
manufactured by Netline Technologies Ltd of Tel Aviv, an Israeli company
co-developed with the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli law enforcement
agencies, and sold through European outlets. The UNIIIC dismissed Kuelbel's
findings as "ridiculous" and irrelevant.

But two months after the Hariri convoy was destroyed, Israeli-manufactured
weapons began to appear near the homes and neighborhoods of politicians in
Lebanon. On April 14, 2005 UPI reported that Lebanese security forces had
discovered six Hebrew-inscribed mortar shells manufactured by Israel on a
deserted beach near the the southern Lebanese village of Ghaziyeh.

Similar missiles and dynamite were also found along a road frequented by
Hizbullah officials, and on December 10, 2005 four anti-tank rockets
attached to wires ready for detonation were found planted on the road
leading to MP Walid Jumblatt's Muktara Palace.

In February, 2006 Lebanon's "Daily Star" and "An Nahar" reported that
Hebrew-marked 55mm, 60mm and 81mm rockets were discovered close to MP Saad
Hariri's Qoreitem estate. Similar rockets had also been uncovered near the
Majdelyoun home of Saad's aunt, legislator Bahia Hariri near Sidon.

While the pro-U.S./Israeli 'March 14' government automatically blamed Syria
for the findings, one of several Israeli spy rings was captured trying to
assassinate Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. AFP cited nine
"well-trained, professional" paramilitaries who were intercepted with an
arsenal of B-7 rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles, pump action shotguns,
hand grenades, AK 47 rifles, revolvers, silencers, computers and CDs.

Then in June 2006, Mahmoud Rafea, a mercenary from the South Lebanon Army,
(created by Israel during the civil war with $10,000 bonuses), was caught on
camera after car bombing two members of Islamic Jihad, the Majzoub brothers.
Israel's ynet.com reported that Rafea confessed to committing the Majzoub
slayings for Israel's Mossad, as well as to a number of other high level
assassinations.

Israeli website DEBKAfiles said that Rafea had assisted "two Israeli agents
[who] flew into Beirut International Airport aboard a commercial flight on
false passports three days before the Majzoub brothers were assassinated."
They "replaced a door of the brothers' car with a booby-trapped facsimile"
and left the country after an Israeli airplane "detonated the planted
explosives with an electronic beam." ("Daily Star," 6/20/06)

Mahmoud Rafea, who was trained in Israel, also confessed to distributing
bombs and ordnance to various locations around Lebanon to destabilize the
country. A raid of Rafea's home yielded high-tech Israeli surveillance gear,
fake passports, IDs, and appliances and baggage with secret compartments,
and detailed maps of Lebanon.

But Rafea's network was only one among several. Lebanese Internal Security
Forces are still searching for a different spy ring led by another Arab
Mossad agent, Hussein Khattab. The "Times of London" wrote: "In a bizarre
twist, Hussein Khattab, a Palestinian member of the spy ring, who is still
at large, is the brother of Sheikh Jamal Khattab, an Islamic cleric who
allegedly recruited Arab fighters for Al Qaeda in Iraq". (6/15/06)

Equally strange, Hussein Khattab's brother Jamal and his colleague Sheikh
Obeida (mentioned in the UNIIIC report as head of Al Qaeda's Jund Al Sham)
frequently met with the Zarqawi-inspired Hariri suicide car bomber Ahmed Abu
Adass in the Ein Hilweh refugee camp of Lebanon. (Like Israel and the U.S.,
Zarqawi had demanded that Hizbullah be disarmed.) "Arutz Sheva" (12/10/06)
later wrote that "the U.S. has been talking with Al Qaeda-sponsored
terrorist groups in Syria in an all-out effort to topple the regime of
President Bashar Assad".

In early January 2007, AP and the UK "Telegraph" reported that the CIA had
begun covert operations in Lebanon using Arab proxies. During the riots in
Beirut on January 20-22, a U.S. proxy, the Progressive Socialist Party,
distributed U.S. weapons to fighters dressed as opposition Hizbullah/Amal
supporters. The riots were then blamed on the opposition.

Comparing the Hariri car bombing to the mysterious car bombings in Iraq,
"Asia Times" said: "What remains is the evidence of Baghdad in Beirut... The
iron-clad certainty, on both sides [Sunni and Shi'a resistance in Iraq], is
that these have been perpetrated not by "terrorists" as the U.S. claims, but
rather by Israeli black ops or CIA-connected American mercenaries, with the
intent of fueling tensions and advancing the prospect of civil war. Now if
only someone would come up with a Beirut smoking gun."

"The Gun" — as Meir Dagan is nicknamed — could be it.

The Israeli website DEBKAfiles wrote that the above-named South Lebanon Army
mercenary Mahmoud Rafea, had been assassinating/spying in Lebanon for Israel
since 1989 when he was recruited by current Mossad director Meir Dagan.

In 2002, Meir Dagan was reappointed by Ariel Sharon to reprise the Mossad's
covert operations in Lebanon, notably targeted killings abroad. Coinciding
with Dagan's appointment, official Israeli policy was expanded to allow
assassinations in friendly ally nations (including the U.S.) using Kidon
death squads from the Metsada Division. It was a job for which Dagan had
ample experience. ("The Australian," 9/24/04 & UPI 1/15/03)

Under Ariel Sharon in 1970, Dagan commanded a secret assassination unit of
the Israeli Security Agency called Sayaret Rimon that eliminated over 750
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. In 1982, he helped command Israel's invasion
of Lebanon. His main assignment was to manage undercover infiltrators and to
train Lebanese collaborators for the pro-Israel South Lebanon Army.

Dagan commanded the Lebanon Liaison Unit (Yakal or Yaagal Border Unit) which
was notorious for its cross-border raids into Lebanon to kidnap opponents,
as well as its secret prison Camp 1391, where detainees were tortured and
disappeared. "Haaretz" alleged Camp 1391 was the prototype for America's
Guantanamo facility.

Dagan also operated the IDF Military Intelligence Unit 504, whose expertise
was assassination, sabotage and spy running in Lebanon. The Israel Defense
Forces call such spy saboteurs "mista'aravim"— "soldiers disguised as
Arabs." Used for clandestine reconnaissance and to frame enemies in false
flag operations, these IDF soldiers impersonating Arabs and their proxies
are "trained to act and think like Arabs", and to blend in to the target
population with appropriate manners and language. (In 2002, this writer
encountered at least one such Israeli 'student' who claimed to be in Beirut
"learning to think like 'the enemy'".)

One mista'aravim specialty is the donning of Arab garb. In 1973, Israel's
"Spring of Youth Operation" conducted by the IDF Sayaret Matkal in Beirut
included future Prime Minister Ehud Barak dressed as an Arab woman while
conducting death squad hits. Mista'aravim provocateurs camouflaged as
Palestinians are still used in the West Bank and Iraq. "Jane's Foreign
Report" said Mossad's Dagan had advised U.S. officials in September 2002 on
how Israeli special ops could help the U.S. war effort in Iraq. Mista'aravim
methods were exemplified in Basra where British SAS troops dressed as Arabs
in a vehicle loaded with explosives were seized before detonating a car
bomb. According to Israeli intelligence expert Ephraim Kahana, Sayaret
Matkal is modeled on Britain's SAS.

Mista'aravim also specialize in close quarter urban combat using micro-Uzis,
short-barreled M-16s and sniper rifles. Due to fluid street and residential
changes, these teams rely on satellite photos and real-time drone imaging —
like the complex technique used in the killing of the Majzoub brothers,
where overhead drones monitored ground activity via cameras mounted on
nearby objects — a level of capability not possessed by Syria.

Concerning the 2006 Lebanon War, DEBKAfiles boasted of other Israeli
mista'aravim successes: "two spy rings of Lebanese agents which the Israeli
Mossad" operated had "planted bugs and surveillance equipment at Hizbullah
command posts before and during the war. They also sprinkled special
phosphorus powder outside buildings housing Hizbullah's war commands and
rocket launchers as markers for air strikes. Well before the war, the Beirut
ring had penetrated the inner circles of Hizbullah and was reporting on
their activities and movements to Israeli controllers... Run by veterans of
the South Lebanese Army (the force Israel created during its occupation),
its job was to "paint" targets for the Israeli Air Force and artillery.."
DEBKAfiles claimed that Lebanon was "heavily penetrated by agents working
for Israel intelligence."

One Lebanese in particular, General Adnan Daoud, even appeared on Israeli
television smiling and drinking tea with IDF soldiers while taking them on a
four hour tour of his military base in Marjayoun. An hour after the Israeli
soldiers' departure, IDF bombed the Marjayoun site. (AP/"Jerusalem Post,"
8/7/06)

Regarding yet other Mossad agents DEBKAfiles wrote: "Hizbullah's security
officials detained two non-Lebanese Arabs wandering around the ruined Dahya
district, taking photos and drawing maps. Several forged passports were in
their possession..."

All factions concerned with the Hariri killing — the UNIIIC, Stratfor,
Hizbullah, Syria, the U.S., Israel and the Lebanese 'March 14' movement,
agree on one thing — the Hariri perpetrator also carried out the other 22
assassinations, and possibly more. Lebanon's "Daily Star" quoted the FBI:
"the same explosive was used in Hawi, Kassir and Hamade crimes" as that used
against Hariri. On May 27, 2006 the "Daily Star" revealed that the killers
of Hariri and the Majzoub brothers could be the same: "Internal Security
Forces, forensics experts, judiciary police and members of Hizbullah's
security apparatus inspected the blast site shortly after the bomb
detonated. The shrapnel and iron balls found extensively around the
explosion indicate the bomb was a specialized mine to assassinate
individuals, and it is similar to Hawi and Kassir's explosives."

Sources in Lebanon and at the UNIIIC in New York concluded that the same
party responsible for Hariri's death and the other Lebanese assassinations
also committed the Majzoub killings. In June, Mossad agent Mahmoud Rafea
admitted killing the Majzoub brothers for Israel.

But such "irrelevant" evidence has been deliberately ignored by the U.N.
International Independent Investigation Commission. At the United Nations,
this writer questioned various officials over a period of months about a
possible U.S.-Israeli role in Hariri's murder, and if it was being
investigated by the UNIIIC. Prosecutor Serge Brammertz stated that because
the issue wasn't raised by the U.S./Israeli-backed Lebanese government, that
line of enquiry would not be pursued. It seems only facts supporting a
guilty verdict against Syria will be considered.

"As far as Israel is concerned, it would be difficult to imagine a more
convenient scenario. Its stubborn enemies, Iran and Syria, are now being
accused by the international community, one for its nuclear program, the
other for its behavior in Lebanon. Israel has hoped for this outcome since
the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States in 2001. Immediately after the
collapse of the Twin Towers, Israeli officials began to speak about the
anticipated change, and expressed a hope that the United States would bring
order to the region, and would deal with Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, and not
only Iraq." —Aluf Benn, "Haaretz," October 25, 2005

From Baghdad to Beirut, the democracy dominoes keep falling. After Syria, an
Iranian "Shah and Awe" forgery is the next imminent threat.

Trish Schuh is a co-founder of the Military Families Support Network and is
a member of Military Reporters and Editors. She has lived and studied in
Lebanon and Syria.