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Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Dark Plots in Byzatine Beirut
Conn Hallinan
Prelude to a Conflagration
According to the U.S. mainstream media and the Bush Administration, the fighting in Lebanon between Fatah al Islam and the Lebanese Army is really a proxy battle between the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora over efforts by Syria to destabilize Lebanon and snuff a UN investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.
"Fatah Al-Islam is a terrorist organization that has been imported into Lebanon," said Saad al-Hariri, a leader of the Sunni Future Movement, a supporter of the current government, and son of Rafik Hariri. "The side that stands behind it is known, and its aims are known."
White House spokesman Tony Snow said, "We will not tolerate attempts by Syria, terrorist groups or any others to delay or derail Lebanon's efforts to solidify its sovereignty or to see justice in the Hariri case."
But writing in the Cairo-based, English language weekly Al Ahram, Beirut journalist Lucy Fielder says that Fatah al-Islam's anti-Shiite ideology caused it to break from the Syrian-backed Fatah al-Intifada last November.
Prelude to a Conflagration
According to the U.S. mainstream media and the Bush Administration, the fighting in Lebanon between Fatah al Islam and the Lebanese Army is really a proxy battle between the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora over efforts by Syria to destabilize Lebanon and snuff a UN investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.
"Fatah Al-Islam is a terrorist organization that has been imported into Lebanon," said Saad al-Hariri, a leader of the Sunni Future Movement, a supporter of the current government, and son of Rafik Hariri. "The side that stands behind it is known, and its aims are known."
White House spokesman Tony Snow said, "We will not tolerate attempts by Syria, terrorist groups or any others to delay or derail Lebanon's efforts to solidify its sovereignty or to see justice in the Hariri case."
But writing in the Cairo-based, English language weekly Al Ahram, Beirut journalist Lucy Fielder says that Fatah al-Islam's anti-Shiite ideology caused it to break from the Syrian-backed Fatah al-Intifada last November.
Comments on this journal
"The dangers of a conflagration that could spread across the country are serious," Professor Charles Harb of American University of Beirut wrote in the Guardian. "The U.S. once nurtured the mujahideen in Afghanistan, only to pay the price much later. In the dangerous game of sectarian conflict, everyone stands to lose."
- Source: counterpunch.org; 9-10/6/2007.
Well, yes and no. The U.S. vetoed rockets for Lebanese Army's Gazelle helicopters and Belgium Leopard tanks because of concerns that the weapons might be used against Israel in the future.
The flood of military hardware may well mean that when the Lebanese Army finishes off Fatah al-Islam it will turn its weapons on Hezbollah, possibly in conjunction with a new attack by Israel. The latter is openly being talked about in Israeli circles, and Gush Shalom founder Uri Avnery warns that a third Lebanon war is a real possibility.
According to Fisk, if the Israelis do attack, the results would be a "far fiercer war than the 34-day conflict last June and July." Hezbollah has apparently been building a network of roads and bunkers north of Lebanon's Litani River in preparation for just such an attack.
According to Robert Fisk of the Independent, Hezbollah has assured the French, Italian and Spanish governments that their soldiers stationed as peacekeepers in the South of Lebanon will be safe from attacks by Fatah al-Islam. The fact that Syria's closest ally in the region has agreed to protect EU troops from the Sunni extremists in Tripoli suggests that Nasrallah and Damascus are on the same page in the current fighting. It is highly unlikely that Syria would sponsor a group from whom Hezbollah has agreed to shelter EU soldiers.
While the fighting has been situated in a Palestinian refugee camp, the Palestinians have kept at arm's distance from Fatah al-Islam. "This is a gang, and only 3 or 4 percent of its members are Palestinians," according to Sultan Abul Ainain, head of the Lebanese Fatah movement. "What they've done is an attempt to create a rift between the Palestinians and the Lebanese government."
Hersh's sources include current and former Bush Administration officials, and a "senior member" of the House Appropriations Committee.
Just prior to the outbreak of fighting in Lebanon, Cheney made an "off the radar" visit-no press-to Saudi Arabia.
In an interview with Democracy Now host Amy Goodman, Hersh called the U.S. charge of Syrian involvement in the current fighting "beyond belief."
After a May 21 visit to Beirut, European Union (EU) Foreign Minster Javier Solana also said that he saw no evidence of Syrian involvement in the recent fighting.
Hersh interviewed Alastair Crooke, a veteran of almost three decades in the British intelligence service, MI6. Crooke told Hersh, "The Lebanese government is opening space for these people to come in. It could be very dangerous." According to Crooke, when Fatah al-Islam showed up at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli, the scene of the recent fighting, "within twenty four hours they were being offered weapons and money by people presenting themselves as representatives of the Lebanese government's interests-presumably to take on Hezbollah."
According to Ahmed Moussalli, an expert on Islamic movements at the American University at Beirut, Fatah al-Islam's rise is a direct outgrowth of the split between Siniora's Sunni-dominated government and the Shiia organization, Hezbollah. The latter is closely aligned with Syria, which withdrew its troops from Lebanon shortly after Hariri's assassination.
On May 29, the UN Security Council voted to set up an international court to try those suspected of involvement in Hariri's death.
"In Lebanon in the last few months," according to Moussalli, "it seems the Hariri group has been channeling funds and allowing weaponry to enter in order to create a Sunni militiato bargain with Hezbollah."