Israel assassinated Palestinian Novelist Kanafani and other figures

Translated by, Saed Bannoura - IMEMC - Tuesday, 04 October 2005

For the first time, and in an official statement, Israel admitted that its Mossad agents assassinated Palestinian novelist, short-story writer, and dramatist Ghassan Kanafani in 1973 by placing explosives in his car.

Kanafani was not the only one who was assassinated in an operation which targeted several Palestinian and Arab figures.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published a report by Eitan Haber, which revealed information on the assassination carried out by Israel against Kanafani and other operations it carried out in Arab countries,
after Israeli Athletes were killed at München Airport during the Olympic Games in München - Germany, in 1972.

Haber, who served as the spokesperson of the slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and the man who wrote Rabin's speeches, along with Michael Bar Zohar, published a book, titled "The Pursuit of the Red Prince".

Yedioth Ahronoth reported that after a Palestinian group abducted 11 Israeli athletes who participated in München Olympics, the German police killed some of the Palestinians and all of the Israeli athletes.

Haber said that the Germans, encouraged by Israel, did not intend to free the abductees.

"German Policemen waited at the airport and opened fired at the Palestinian group and their hostages", Haber wrote, "two years after the incident took place it was revealed that all of the killed were by German snipers in spite of the fact that everyone believed that the Palestinians killed them".

"Yet, Israeli Prime Minister, at that time, Golda Meir issued an order to
form a ministerial committee in order to assassinate Palestinian figures,
and take revenge", Haber added.

The committee was formed, and composed of the following Israeli figures; Moshe Dayyan, who served as the Israeli Minister of Demesne, minister of foreign affairs Yig'al Alon, minister without portfolio, Yesrael Galilee,
Chief of the Mossad Zfika Zamir, Meir's intelligence advisors Aharon Yarif, and Rahba'am Zeevi who was assassinated by a Palestinian group in 2001 while he was at Hayat Hotel in Jerusalem.

According to Haber, Israel decided to assassinate Palestinian figures in Europe, but the Mossad did not have "enough agents" there, and was not capable of infiltrating the Arab communities in Europe.

The Mossad, which is responsible for Israel's operations abroad, decided to recruit all Israeli security organisations, including the Shabak and a special military group known as Unit 504, and appointed figures known for their advanced intelligence abilities such as Shmoel Goren, Baroch Kohen, Tzadoq Ophir, Rafi Seeton, Eliezer Tsfarir, Mike Harary, and Nahoum Edmoni, who was responsible for the Israeli intelligence relations with foreign intelligence agencies.

German snipers, waiting at the airport in München (Munich), opened fire and killed the Israeli athletes and the five Palestinians, three other Palestinians were arrested, Haber said.

Several months later, the three Palestinians were freed after a group hijacked a German plane.

"In 1974, it was revealed that all of the persons killed in the operation, were shot by German snipers, in spite of the world believing that the hostages were killed by the kidnappers", Haber said.

Following the incident, Golda Meir decided to take revenge, and formed a ministerial committee to "issue the assassination orders".

Yet, more than 30 years after Israel started its "revenge" operations, much information is still classified, Haber said.

The first Palestinian assassinated by Israel was a man known as the Currant man. The man, who was a member of the Black September group, remained unidentified.

According to Haber, the Currant man intended to send a currant shipment which included two tons of explosives, from Athens to Haifa port.

The shipment never left the harbor, after the Israeli security received tips about it, and sent its agents to Athens, and assassinated the “Currant Man".

During the hunt for the Currant man, Israeli agents uncovered the identity of Fateh leader in Athens and attempted to assassinate him.

"The agents wired the home of the Fateh leader, and planted explosives and a microphone in his apartment, but when he came home, the agents discovered that there was someone else at home, his girlfriend, and called the
operation off".

Also, Yedioth Ahronoth revealed that Mossad agents killed Mohammad Bodia', an Algerian novelist by wiring his car in Paris.

Israel claims that Bodia' dispatched three French women to Israel (Evelyn Barj, Nadia and Marline Bradley) and two old men in order to carry suicide bombings there but the Mossad arrested them at Al Lud Airport.

Haber also said that the Mossad assassinated a person, suspected to be a member of Black September organization, by wiring his bed.

The Mossad also arrested members of a cell in Nairobi - Kenya, after claming that they planned to fire a missile at an Israeli plane, and that they received training at a camp which belongs to the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine.

Members of the cell which included two Germans were transferred to Israel and spent five years in secret custody; the report did not mention what happened with them later on.

Haber added that several persons were killed "by mistake" in spite of the fact that they had no relation with the München incident, and had no relationship with any group.

The Mossad said that in spite of several persons being "accidentally" killed, the operation managed to spread fear among the Palestinian community in Europe.

One of the main figures assassinated by Israel was Ghassan Kanafani, the Palestinian novelist, short-story writer, and dramatist.

Kanafani was assassinated after Mossad agents wired his car in 1973.

Israel also admits it assassinated Ahmad Al Hamshary, the representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, in France.

Agents wired the home of Al Hamshary in Paris.

Another Palestinian who was assassinated in spite of not having any relation with the München incdent was professor Basel Al Kabeesy, who was shot and killed in Paris, March 1973.

Mossad agent Baroch Cohen was killed in Paris by a Palestinian who assassinated him in retaliation for the assassinations the Mossad was carrying out.

Cohen was replaced by Gideon Ezra, the current Israeli minister of Internal Security.

Haber reported that an American Movie director, Steven Spielberg, intends to announce his new movie which documents the Israeli operations with the figures he believes are behind the München events.

Haber added that Israel fears that the movie which will be broadcasted in November 2005, will falsify the Israeli claims that all of the assassinated persons were involved in the München hijack, and that Israel assassinated
Palestinian leaders "in order to deliver a message of the Israeli capacity".

Read more!

دمشق تسلم رستم غزالة وميليس يرد: لا يكفي

كتب حسن صبرا

مثلما يستدرج رئيس لجنة التحقيق الدولي في جريمة اغتيال الرئيس الشهيد رفيق الحريري الارهابية القاضي الالماني ديتليف ميليس النظام السوري الى كمائنه وهو الخبير بأسلوب عمل الاستخبارات السورية التي تربت في احضان الاستخبارات الالمانية الشرقية التي اصبحت اوراقها وملفاتها وأساليبها بأدق تفاصيلها في يد ميليس بعد ان حقق في جريمة تفجير ملهى ((لابال)) في برلين وتوصل الى أدق تفاصيل عمل الاستخبارات الليـبية (زميلة السورية) التي كانت وراء هذه الجريمة، فإنه بدهائه ايضاً يستجيب وفي الاطار القانوني للطلب الدولي (كوفي عنان) الفرنسي (جاك شيراك) لتأجيل نشر اسماء اركان النظام السوري الامنيين تحديداً وداخل دمشق في فرصة للعاصمة السورية مرتبطة زمنياً بالمدة التي طلبها ميليس عبر الحكومة اللبنانية حتى 15/12/2005 للاستمرار بالتحقيق في الجريمة الارهابية.العقلانية في دمشق كما كانت سابقاً في بغداد

وهذا ما استدعاه لعقد مؤتمر صحافي غداة تقديمه تقريره المهني الجدي حول نتائج تحقيقاته في العمل الارهابي ليواجه الاسئلة التي وصلت الى حد الاتهام بأنه يخفي الحقائق خاصة في واقعة شطب اسماء قادة الامن السوريين اللواء آصف شوكت، والعقيد ماهر الاسد ود. بهجت سليمان وشطب واقعة لقاء هؤلاء وعدد من قادة الامن اللبنانيين الموقوفين الآن في سجن رومية بتهمة اخفاء حقائق وشبهة التخطيط للجريمة المروعة.

ميليس يملك 450 دليلاً على مشاركة اركان النظام الامني السوري الحاكم في لبنان خلال 15 سنة وتابعه اللبناني في جريمة قتل الحريري.. قدم بعضها في تقريره العلني واحتفظ بالباقي الى حين تشكيل المحكمة الدولية بمشاركة قضاة لبنانيين على الارجح، ومن ضمن الادلة التي لم يعلنها ما يؤكد ان الامنيين الذين قتلوا الحريري تلقوا تعليماتهم من قادتهم في سوريا.

ميليس يملك دليلاً من شاهد سوري على اجتماع عقد في قصر المهاجرين في دمشق اورده في تقريره الرسمي لمجلس الامن ورفض تسريبه الى الاعلام، لأنه حسب رده في المؤتمر الصحافي نفسه انه خص به مجلس الامن ولم يكن ((يعتقد)) انه سيتم تسريبه الى الاعلام.

وعلى هذا المنوال تأتي الادلة الاخرى.

وعلى هذا الاسلوب سيتم اعطاء الفرص (القانونية) لفرنسا كي تفتح الباب امام مخرج لسوريا لتتعاون مع لجنة التحقيق الدولية حتى لا تظهر كأنها تعاند المجتمع الدولي الداعم لهذه اللجنة.

وكان الرئيس بشار الاسد اوحى من خلال توقيت حديثه مع شبكة (سي.ان.ان) الاميركية قبل صدور التقرير بـ 24 ساعة، وفي مضمون حديثه بأنه سيعتبر كل مسؤول سوري شارك بجريمة قتل الحريري ورفاقه خائناً، انه سيتعاون مع هذه اللجنة.

ميليس قدم ادلة عديدة من الـ 450 وأبقى الكثير ليقدمه في المحكمة الدولية التي سيشكلها مجلس الامن، ومن ضمن الادلة التي لم يكشفها حتى الآن فضلاً عن الاجتماع الاساسي في قصر المهاجرين استناداً الى شاهد سوري مهم ادلة زودته بها الاستخبارات البريطانية عن الاتصالات الهاتفية التي جرت قبل وغداة وقوع الجريمة في 14/2/2005.

فالاستخبارات البريطانية تسلمت من قاعدتها في (اكروتيري) في قبرص آلاف الاتصالات الهاتفية جرى تحليلها جميعاً عبر احدث الاجهزة لتثبت اسماء الشخصيات اللبنانية والسورية التي اجرتها وطبيعة مواقفها وعناوين محادثاتها الامنية والسياسية والاجرائية، وهو ما دفع وزير خارجية بريطانيا ليكون اول من يعلن رسمياً وجهاراً ان الاستخبارات السورية ضالعة في ارتكاب الجريمة وبعد عدة اسابيع على وقوعها.

ويملك ميليس ايضاً دليلاً على رقم الهاتف الذي تحدث عبره مسؤول الاحباش احمد عبدالعال وشقيقه محمود عبدالعال مع هاتف خاص برئيس الجمهورية في لبنان اميل لحود وهو 999777/03، وهذا الرقم يؤكد ميليس انه خاص بإميل لحود وهو الرقم الذي يحدثه عليه عبدالعال مع التذكير بأن شقيق احمد ومحمود عبدالعال هو المقدم وليد عبدالعال وهو المرافق العسكري الخاص للسيدة اندريه لحود وهو المساعد الاول لقائد الحرس الجمهوري الموقوف العميد مصطفى حمدان.

شهادة تيري رود لارسن

اما ابرز الادلة التي يخفيها ميليس عن الاعلام وستظهر امام مجلس الامن ومن ثم امام المحكمة الدولية فهي شهادة مبعوث الامين العام للامم المتحدة لتطبيق القرار 1559 تيري رود لارسن وهي الاطول بين الشهادات الاخرى والادسم من ناحية المعلومات التي قدمها سياسياً وأمنياً وواقعياً.

شهد لارسن امام ميليس ان اللواء جميل السيد قال له بالحرف بعد صدور القرار 1559: انكم ما زلتم تراهنون على ان الحريري سيعود رئيساً للوزراء في لبنان وانا اقول لك ان الحريري لن يرى رئاسة الوزراء بعد الآن.. في حياته.

وشهد لارسن امام ميليس عن واقعة لقائه الاول مع الرئيس السوري بشار الاسد بعد صدور القرار الدولي نفسه وقوله له ان المطلوب من سوريا ان تسحب جندياً سورياً واحداً من لبنان شرط ان يكون رستم غزالة لكي تنتهي مشكلة سوريا مع المجتمع الدولي وكي يفهم العالم ان دمشق بصدد التعامل الايجابي مع القرار الدولي. وان الاسد رد عليه بحسم قائلاً:

((مستر لارسن: انت تطلب مني اتخاذ اصعب قرار في حياتي، فهذا الضابط السوري هو رجلي الاول في لبنان وهو يتلقى تعليماته مني شخصياً)).

رود لارسن – الاسد

اللقاء الثاني

ويكمل رود لارسن شهادته امام ميليس عن لقائه الثاني مع الرئيس الاسد ليشرحه مطولاً قائلاً:
((حدد السوريون موعداً لي مع الرئيس بشار الاسد في دمشق قبل عدة ايام من اغتيال الحريري أي يوم الثلاثاء في 8/2/ 2005، ذهبت الى هناك والتقيت وزير الخارجية فاروق الشرع لأسمع منه تساؤلاً بغضب.. لقد سمعنا انك ذاهب يوم الخميس لمقابلة الرئيس جاك شيراك في باريس، وانا اريد ان اسألك وما هي علاقة شيراك بلبنان وسوريا حتى تذهب لمقابلته بعد لقاءاتك معنا.. انت مبعوث دولي ولست مبعوثاً لشيراك.. فيرد رود لارسن: معالي الوزير لقد اتيت الى دمشق لتسليم الرئيس بشار الأسد رسالة من الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة كوفي عنان وسأبحث معه القضايا التي جئت من أجلها، فيرد الشرع وكأنه ينهي الاجتماع.. عليك أن تعرف ان السيد الرئيس لن يراك وإذا كان معك رسالة له فسأتسلمها منك الآن.. ينتهي الاجتماع ولا يسلم المبعوث الدولي أي شيء للشرع ويتوجه إلى مقر إقامته في فندق ((شيراتون دمشق)) ليجري اتصالاً مع السفير الفرنسي في العاصمة السورية فيأتي السفير إلى الفندق ليسأله عن موعده مع الرئيس شيراك فيخرج السفير الفرنسي إلى سيارته في موقف فندق ((شيراتون دمشق)) ويجري اتصالاً مع باريس ويعود ليؤكد لرود لارسن وبعد دقائق ان الرئيس شيراك سيستقبله في أي وقت كان حتى لو كان يوم سبت أو أحد وهما يوما العطلة الرسمية في فرنسا.

هنا يتهم السوريون الرئيس الشهيد رفيق الحريري بأنه هو الذي رتب موعد المبعوث الدولي مع شيراك، فيفاجأ رود لارسن بعد لقائه مع السفير الفرنسي في دمشق بمن يتصل به من القصر الجمهوري السوري ليبلغه ان الرئيس الأسد سيقابله يوم الخميس أي في الموعد الأول الذي كان شيراك سيستقبله فيه.

ماذا حصل في اللقاء؟

رود لارسن ركز في هذا اللقاء على تطبيق القرار الدولي 1559 والرئيس الأسد تحدث مطولاً عن العلاقات التاريخية التي تربط لبنان بسوريا.. حتى يصل الحديث إلى الرئيس الشهيد رفيق الحريري فيستمع رود لارسن من بشار إلى كلمات قاسية جداً منه بحق رفيق الحريري.. منها ان هذا الرجل يلعب أدواراً قذرة جداً ضدنا، وانه يريد إخراجنا من لبنان ليجيء بأصحابه الفرنسيين والأميركان (الخميس في 10/2/2005).

الحديث بين الأسد ورود لارسن وصل إلى جاك شيراك في باريس بعد خروج المبعوث الدولي من دمشق، ووصل إلى الرئيس رفيق الحريري بعد ساعات ومن عدة مصادر لبنانية وعربية ودولية وكلها تحذر من ان الغضب السوري وصل إلى أعلى المستويات منه ومن أعلى المستويات في سوريا فكان رده العلني: لا أظن ان السوريين يمكن أن يقدموا على شيء ضدي فأنا لدي حصانة كبيرة، والسوريون ليسوا مجانين كي يقدموا على قتلي.

آصف شوكت

ومساء السبت في 12/2/2005 يقاطع الحريري المعلومات التي تتجمع ضده، وهو لا يبالي، فيجيئه اتصال من شخصية عربية كبيرة تتردد على لبنان كثيراً تطلب منه موعداً عاجلاً فتجيء الشخصية لتبلغه انها التقت رئيس جهاز الاستخبارات السورية اللواء آصف شوكت في دمشق بعد الظهر وان الرجل يقول انك تتآمر على سوريا وانك تريد أن تحل الفرنسيين والأميركان محل السوريين، وانهم يتصلون بك للمجيء إلى دمشق للتفاهم وانك ترفض الرد.

يبتسم الحريري ويرد.. هم الذين لا يريدونني ويقولون عني انني خائن وقد أبلغت مسؤولين عرباً كباراً على صلة بالرئيس بشار الأسد المعلومات التي تتقاطع عندي حول تهديدات منهم وطمأنوني بعد فترة اتصلوا خلالها بالأسد بأن لا شيء ضدي.

ويتابع الحريري: لقد أرسلت للأسد وها أنا أقول لك، قل له أو لآصف شوكت لو ان الحريري جمع أكثر من مئة نائب في البرلمان في الانتخابات المقبلة (أيار/مايو 2005) فإن الحريري لن يشكل حكومة في لبنان إلا بموافقة بشار الأسد.

تخرج الشخصية العربية من عند الحريري ليلاً لتجري اتصالاً مع اللواء شوكت في دمشق لتنقل له قول الحريري، فيكتفي المسؤول الأمني السوري بالاستماع دون أي تعليق.

يملك ميليس 450 دليلاً على مشاركة النظام الأمني السوري وتابعه اللبناني بالجريمة ويملك أدلّة ظهر رأس جبل الجليد منها على أوامر من دمشق على أعلى المستويات بالأمر والتخطيط لارتكاب الجريمة وهو يحفظها لمواجهة المحكمة الدولية بها: أدلّة وشهوداً.

تداعيات الأدلة

أفرزت أدلة ميليس وشهوده تداعيات تظهر تراجعاً في الموقف السوري الفعلي على تقريره يتم تداولها في الكواليس الدولية والعربية أهمها:

ان دمشق على استعداد لتسليم رئيس جهاز الاستخبارات السورية في لبنان رستم غزالة للقضاء الدولي كأرفع مسؤول سوري تستطيع سوريا تحمل تسليمه كمشتبه به في جريمة اغتيال الحريري وبالتالي تستطيع دمشق تحمل من دونه رتبة وفي لبنان خاصة في بيروت لكنها لا تستطيع تحمل تسليم من هو أعلى منه رتبة في دمشق وتحديداً الرئيس المباشر لرستم وهو اللواء آصف شوكت.

لكن القاضي الألماني ميليس يرد على هذا التداول بالقول ان هذا غير كافٍ.. فأنا أعرف من خلال تحقيقاتي ومن خلال الشهود ومن خلال طبيعة الوصاية السورية على لبنان ومن خلال فهمي لطبيعة عمل الاستخبارات السورية (نسخة طبق الأصل عن الاستخبارات الألمانية الشرقية التي نظمت استخبارات دمشق) ان غزالة هو مجرد أداة تنفذ ما يطلب منها في دمشق تماماً مثلما ينفذ الضباط اللبنانيون الأوامر التي تأتيهم من عنجر.

ميليس يقوم بواجبه كقاضي تحقيق وهو سيحول ملفه إلى المدعي العام كي يدعي على المشتبه بهم الذين وردت أسماؤهم في القرار الظني الذي قدمه، وهو سيذهب إلى المحكمة الدولية كي يقول كل شيء، أما في المداولات السياسية الخاصة بالموقف من سوريا فهذا أمر آخر لا شأن لميليس به.

لا رأي لميليس مثلاً بما تريده أميركا وبريطانيا وما ترد عليه فرنسا.

أميركا تريد فرض عقوبات على سوريا وفقاً للبند السادس من ميثاق الأمم المتحدة تمهيداً لفرض تطبيق البند السابع بالعمل المسلح ضد دمشق، لأن أميركا تراهن على ان عقلية النظام السوري هي كعقلية النظام العراقي السابق أي الرهان على المجهول وضرب الرأس في الحائط واستخدام سلوك شمشون عليّ وعلى أعدائي يا رب.

أما فرنسا فهي تريد منع دمشق من الانتحار وتريد اعطاءها فرصة حتى 15/12/2005 تاريخ انتهاء لجنة التحقيق الدولية من مهمتها وتسليم تقريرها الحاسم لمجلس الأمن.. وهنا أيضاً تراهن باريس على عقلانية ما في مكان ما في سوريا تستوعب ما يجري حولها لتنقذ سوريا أولاً وحتى لتنقذ النظام نفسه بإقناعه بتسليم الضباط السوريين المتورطين في جريمة اغتيال الحريري مهما علت رتبهم ومواقعهم وقربهم من بشار الأسد نفسه.

دمشق حتى الآن تقول خذوا رستم غزالة واتركوا الباقين، وميليس يقول كل المتورطين إلى المحكمة.. وهو قال قبل ذلك أخرجوهم من سوريا إلى أي مكان تختارونه للتحقيق معهم.. فلدي الأدلة ولدي الشهود فإن كانوا أبرياء فخذوهم وان كانوا مشتبهاً بهم فإلى التوقيف الحقيقي.

حتى الآن قدمت سوريا عرضاً واحداً هو تسليم رستم غزالة ومن دونه رتبة أو موقعاً في لبنان وميليس يرد هذا لا يكفي، فترد دمشق بتظاهرات منددة بميليس ومواقف رافضة.. وباريس لم تفقد الأمل لكن أميركا بالمرصاد مراهنة على غياب العقلانية في دمشق كما كانت سابقاً في بغداد

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Could Syria have been so stupid?

Yes, says Brian Whitaker, and full cooperation with the UN following its investigation into the assassination of Rafik Hariri may be the only way the Assad regime can survive.

Tens of thousands of Syrians took to the streets of Damascus and Aleppo yesterday protesting against the UN report that implicated Syria in the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Children arriving at school were informed that classes had been cancelled and instead they would be taking part in a "spontaneous" demonstration.

All subscribers to Syriatel, the mobile phone company owned by the president's cousin, received text messages urging them to take part, according to the New York Times.

Since the report by Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor in charge of the UN investigation, was published at the end of last week, Syria has sought to portray it as biased, untrue and politically motivated.

The report - which can be read in full on the UN's website - presented a mass of evidence pointing to Syrian involvement in the assassination. Claiming that this is just the latest episode in an American-Israeli conspiracy against Syria, as the Damascus regime is now doing, helps to mobilise local opinion and removes any need to respond in detail to the content of the report.

Quite apart from the assassination of Rafik Hariri, Syria certainly has reasons for feeling that it has been unfairly targeted.

Some of Syria's fears can be traced back to 1996 and the now-infamous "Clean Break" document, produced by an Israeli thinktank, which proposed reshaping the Middle East in order to secure Israel's "strategic environment", starting with Iraq.

The document viewed removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq "as a means of foiling Syria's regional ambitions" and talked of "weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria".

Although the document was originally intended as a blueprint for the Israeli government of Binyamin Netanyahu, several of its authors went on to play an influential role in the Bush administration. Among them, Richard Perle and Douglas Feith were key figures promoting the invasion of Iraq.

More recently, the anti-Syrian lobby in the US succeeded in getting Congress to pass the Syria Accountability Act, which in May last year resulted in Washington imposing somewhat half-hearted sanctions against Damascus.

Up to that point, campaigning against the Syrian regime was mainly a fringe activity among the American, Israeli and Lebanese-Christian right. It would never have gained broader international support but for a series of blunders by Damascus.

The initial blunder was Syria's decision to extend the presidency of its Lebanese stooge, Emile Lahoud, and to browbeat the Lebanese parliament into approving it. After years of pragmatic coexistence with his masters in Damascus, this was what finally turned Hariri against Syria and led to him stepping down as Lebanese prime minister and joining the opposition.

The extension of Lahoud's presidential term also had the accidental effect of rallying international support for Lebanon and against Syria. France, which had opposed the US over the invasion of Iraq, suddenly joined the Americans as co-sponsor of security council resolution 1559 which, in effect, called for the ending of Syrian influence in Lebanon.

What lay behind the French interest is not entirely clear, though France has its own history of influence in Lebanon - the country was under French mandate until independence in 1943 - and President Jacques Chirac had long been chummy with Hariri. There had even been claims in the French press - subsequently denied - that the billionaire Hariri had helped Chirac with his election funds.

Despite its approval by the security council in September last year, resolution 1559 - and its demand for all foreign (ie Syrian) troops to leave Lebanon - would probably have gathered dust in the UN's vast collection of unimplemented resolutions had it not been for the assassination of Hariri in February. This finally brought about the international consensus that anti-Syria campaigners had previously only dreamed of.

Killing Hariri was a blunder of the first order and, with the benefit of hindsight, even the Syrian president has said so, in support of his claim that Syria was not involved. Despite protestations of innocence, however, Syria's approach to the UN investigation has not been that of a wrongly accused party seeking to clear its name; if anything, its behaviour has been self-incriminating. Its cooperation with the inquiry has been reluctant and half-hearted ("in form, not substance" according to the Mehlis report), its foreign minister and other officials are accused of lying to investigators, and President Assad has so far refused to give any account of the meeting where he is alleged to have threatened Hariri.

Many people still question whether Syria could really have been so stupid as to assassinate Hariri. What did it hope to gain? How on earth did it expect to get away with it?

There are several possible explanations. One is that it was a standard knee-jerk reaction from an old-style intelligence apparatus. With Hariri in opposition Syria saw its influence in Lebanon slipping away and thought it could call a halt by eliminating him and sending a warning to others. There may also have been an element of retribution, since Hariri was perceived - perhaps correctly - as the instigator, via his French pals, of resolution 1559.

According to Mehlis, whoever killed Hariri also went to the trouble of setting up a fake culprit - creating an imaginary Islamist group to claim responsibility, abducting a devout young Lebanese man to be framed as the suicide bomber and selecting a type of explosives favoured by militants in Iraq.

At the time, of course, the Syrians and their Lebanese security allies were still in control and would have had no reason to expect that independent investigators would challenge their account or trace their phone calls.

Their main miscalculation was to underestimate the international response to the assassination, and the protests inside Lebanon. Looking back, it seems obvious there would be an outcry, but perhaps it was not so obvious to the perpetrators at the time.

There had been so many political assassinations in Lebanon that people had got used to them and tended to shrug them off. That, more or less, was the initial reaction among many of Hariri's Sunni Muslim supporters after his death. It was only when the Christians spotted an opportunity to start agitating that the Sunnis joined in and the protests took off.

Syria is not by any means the first country to have meddled in another country's affairs or to have been accused of assassinating a political opponent. It may feel it has been singled out for punishment but that is really no excuse. Complaining of victimisation may sound good in Ba'ath party meetings but in the real world outside it doesn't help.

Syria's failure to cooperate fully with the UN investigators places it in breach of security council resolution 1959, which requires all countries to provide "any relevant information they may possess". If the Damascus regime does not comply, it is ultimately doomed. It may also be doomed if it does comply, but at least it has a chance to buy more time.

There is no easy way out but Syria's best option is to cooperate as actively as possible, even if that means handing over Rustom Ghazaleh, its former intelligence chief in Lebanon, and Asef Shawkat, the president's brother-in-law who is also named in the Mehlis report, for questioning and possible arrest.

Syria may be tempted to procrastinate (as it usually does), but that is only likely to make things worse. In principle, both the US and Israel would like to see the Assad regime gone but both have other things on their plate and are not particularly eager to strike a fatal blow just at the moment. If President Assad is able to break old habits and play his cards right for once, that - perhaps - is his best hope for survival.

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Syria implicated in plot to kill Lebanon leader

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 21 (Reuters) - A U.N. investigation accusing senior Syrian and Lebanese officials of an intricate plot to kill former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was expected to prompt calls for action against Damascus.

The 53-page report by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis and his 30 investigators, said the probe was still incomplete. In an accompanying letter to the report, released late on Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan extended the team's work until Dec. 15.

Hariri and 20 others were killed last Feb. 14 by a bomb blast in Beirut that Mehlis said "could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security officials and could not have been further organized without the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security forces."

One witness quoted in the report said Gen. Assef Shawkat, the brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, set up an Islamic militant, Ahmed Abu Adass, as a decoy to claim responsibility for the plot.

Shawkat, Syria's military intelligence chief, allegedly forced Adass to confess on a videotape two weeks before the assassination. But the suicide bomber was probably an Iraqi who thought he was killing Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a visitor in Beirut shortly before the bombing, the report said.

LEBANESE PRESIDENT GOT A CALL

Mehlis' report was the first official document to link Syria to the killing and was bound to heighten tensions in the region. Two anti-Syrian members of the Lebanese parliament immediately called for Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud to resign.

Lahoud, an ally of Syria, received a phone call minutes before the blast from the brother of a key figure in the plot, Ahmad Abdel-Al, who had phoned "all the important figures in this investigation." Abdel-Al is a leader of a pro-Syrian Lebanese charity group.

The United States has been talking to France and Britain on possible U.N. Security Council resolutions critical of Syria over its alleged involvement in the killing and other meddling in Lebanon, despite the withdrawal of its troops last April.

After the report's release, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Washington would decide what to do in a few days but "obviously" had "considered various contingencies."

But Syria's Assad insisted last week that his country was "100 percent innocent" in the assassination.

However, Mehlis concluded the sophisticated plot took months of preparation and the motive was primarily political because of Hariri's opposition to Syrian domination of Lebanon. But it said some of the participants may have been motivated by "fraud, corruption, and money-laundering."

"Given the infiltration of Lebanese institutions and society by the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence working in tandem, it would be difficult to envisage a scenario whereby such a complex assassination plot could have been carried out without their knowledge," Mehlis wrote..

He said several Syrians interviewed had given false or inaccurate statements, including Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara and his deputy, Walid al-Mualem.

According to one witness, a senior Lebanese security official went several times to Syria to plan the crime, meeting once at the Meridian Hotel in Damascus and several times at the Presidential Place and the office of a senior Syrian security official. The last meeting was held 7-10 days before the assassination, the report said.

The report presented damning evidence on the four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals arrested and charged earlier in connection with Hariri's killing, on Mehlis' recommendation.

One witness approached investigators to say he had met one of the four, Gen. Mustapha Hamdan, commander of the Republican Guard Brigade, in October 2004.

'BYE, BYE HARIRI'

Hamdan talked very negatively about Hariri, accusing him of being pro-Israeli, the witness said. The general then ended the conversation by stating, "We are going to send him on a trip -- bye, bye Hariri," the report said.

The Mehlis commission interviewed more than 400 people, reviewed 60,000 documents, identified several suspects and established numerous important leads in its first four months.

Other figures that unidentified witnesses had linked to the assassination plot included Gen. Rustom Ghazali, head of the Syrian military intelligence service in Lebanon and Brig. Gen. Jamil al-Sayyed, head of a Lebanese security force.

The report did not, however, mention Gen, Ghazi Kanaan, the former head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, who Syrian officials said committed suicide on Oct. 12.

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Syrians bury minister, blame Lebanon "smear campaign"

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan's body was laid to rest in his northern home town in a low-key funeral on Thursday, and officials said a Lebanese "smear campaign" had pushed him to commit suicide.

About 1,000 relatives and villagers walked behind the coffin, draped in a Syrian flag, in the village of Bhamra where black banners hung from some buildings, witnesses said. Kanaan was buried in a family cemetery.

Kanaan killed himself on Wednesday, officials said, three weeks after he was questioned by U.N. investigators probing the assassination of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

Damascus Attorney General Mohammed al-Loji said forensic examination and a probe of his office concluded that Kanaan shot himself in the mouth with his own revolver.

He said Kanaan's assistant heard a faint shot and called the office manager who entered to find him lying on the floor behind his desk, still breathing, with his pistol in his hand.

The 63-year-old major-general died in hospital.

Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara, speaking to reporters from a Damascus hospital from where Kanaan's body was taken for burial, said a "media smear campaign," not the government, pushed Kanaan over the edge.

"When the media uses words, it's like using bullets," he said, hinting at an anti-Syrian campaign by Lebanese media.

The death of Kanaan,
Syria's top official in neighboring Lebanon for 20 years until 2002, occurred just over a week before U.N. investigators are due to present their findings on Hariri's killing in a truck bomb blast in Beirut in February.

Already under pressure from the United States, which accuses it of allowing fighters to enter
Iraq, Syria has grown increasingly nervous over Lebanese and international charges that it is linked to Hariri's death.

President Bashar al-Assad said in a CNN interview conducted shortly before the apparent suicide that Syria was not involved in Hariri's death and that he could never have ordered it.

However, if the
United Nations concluded Syrians were involved, they would be "traitors" who would face an international court or the Syrian judicial process, he added.

FINAL RESPECTS

An ambulance adorned with flowers had taken Kanaan's body from the Shami hospital in Damascus to his birthplace of Bhamra, in northern Syria.

Senior military and security officials, with Prime Minister Naji al-Otari and Shara, paid their respects before the body left in a convoy of cars for its final resting place.

In Muslim tradition, suicide victims get low-key funerals.

Many of the villagers at the funeral blamed the Lebanese media for his death, saying a smear campaign against him led to his suicide. "We blame the Lebanese press for his death. They exerted moral pressure on him," said Marina Rashed, a relative.

About an hour before he died, Kanaan called Voice of Lebanon radio apparently to give his last testimony, denying a news report that he had shown investigators photocopies of checks signed to him by Hariri and defending Syria's role in Lebanon, where it kept troops for 29 years until April.

Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi rebuffed the charges, saying Lebanon was a country where the media was free.

"This continued accusation of the Lebanese media ... is something we cannot accept," he told reporters in Beirut.

But at Kanaan's grave it was difficult to miss the strong ties that once linked Kanaan to Lebanon.

On his tombstone there were medals he had received from the Lebanese army, witnesses said. An old rifle that had insignia showing it was a gift from the Hizbollah guerrilla group was also placed there.

The village of about 2,000 inhabitants lies in the mountain heartland of the Alawite sect, 330 km (200 miles) from Damascus, and 4 km from Qordaha, home town of the ruling Assad family.

Syria was the main power broker in Lebanon after the end of its 1975-1990 civil war. It was forced to relinquish its grip amid an international and local uproar over Hariri's killing.

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