Today, the Lebanese Government accepted a UN investigation commission request to have a number of former security chiefs brought in for interrogation in the Hariri assassination. The three directors detained were: Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, the former chief of General Security; Maj. Gen. Ali Hajj, the former director general of the Internal Security Forces; and Brig. Gen. Raymond Azar, the former director general of military intelligence. The commander of the Presidential Guards, Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hamdan, also appeared before the U.N. investigation in response to a summons. The Commission ordered former pro-Syrian MP Nasser Kandil to appear as well. But according to official sources, he has taken refuge in the Syrian capital. The four former security officials are considered as the strategic arm of the Lebanese regime and the umbrella that protected Hizbollah under Syrian Baathist supervision. Jamil Sayyed, according to well-informed Lebanese sources was the highest Syrian Mukhabarat “man” inside the Lebanese apparatus since the early 1990s. Mustafa Hamdan, commander of the Harass al Jamhuri, Lebanon’s version of the “Republican Guards,” is accused of masterminding many assassinations, and potentially part of the conspiracy to kill Hariri. Sources in Lebanon believe that the UN investigation may well link the Lebanese regime, Assad’s agencies and Hizbollah to the assassination.
Today, the Lebanese Government accepted a UN investigation commission request to have a number of former security chiefs brought in for interrogation in the Hariri assassination. The three directors detained were: Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, the former chief of General Security; Maj. Gen. Ali Hajj, the former director general of the Internal Security Forces; and Brig. Gen. Raymond Azar, the former director general of military intelligence. The commander of the Presidential Guards, Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hamdan, also appeared before the U.N. investigation in response to a summons. The Commission ordered former pro-Syrian MP Nasser Kandil to appear as well. But according to official sources, he has taken refuge in the Syrian capital. The four former security officials are considered as the strategic arm of the Lebanese regime and the umbrella that protected Hizbollah under Syrian Baathist supervision. Jamil Sayyed, according to well-informed Lebanese sources was the highest Syrian Mukhabarat “man” inside the Lebanese apparatus since the early 1990s. Mustafa Hamdan, commander of the Harass al Jamhuri, Lebanon’s version of the “Republican Guards,” is accused of masterminding many assassinations, and potentially part of the conspiracy to kill Hariri. Sources in Lebanon believe that the UN investigation may well link the Lebanese regime, Assad’s agencies and Hizbollah to the assassination. If this is established the latter axis will be confronted by the international community. In short, the amount of information the former intelligence chiefs, have about not only the assassination but also about a large segment of international Terrorism, is beyond imagination. Former MP Nasser Kandil (with whom I have faced off on Arab TV this year) is known as the unofficial spokesperson of the Syrian-Lebanese-Hizbollah ideological and political agenda. Some believe he is among the policy planners behind the strategic decisions regarding “enemy leaders.”
Meanwhile, a number of Lebanese MPs, including Jubran Tueni, Saad Hariri and Walid Jumblat, have traveled to Paris “fearing assassination attempts.” Tueni, the director of the daily al nahar told an American-Lebanese leader lately, that: “Syrian intelligence and Hizbollah may act very dangerously now that the UN Commission is closing in.”
In another development, American-Lebanese leaders are investigating an “attempt by Hizbollah and pro-Syrian politicians to infiltrate the Lebanese Diaspora, including the Lebanese community in the US.” According to these American Lebanese leaders, a so-called “émigré Convention” was organized in Beirut by Haitham Jumaa, an Amal Movement former militia commander, now in charge of the émigré office at the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Invited officially by Lebanese letters issued by the Foreign Ministry, a number of individuals from many countries –including the United States- attended the meeting and were assigned “positions.” The American-Lebanese Diaspora officials fear Hizbollah and Syrian intelligence could use these “appointees” against US Homeland Security and Western democracies. (Reports will follow soon)
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