The UN released its report on the murder of Lebanese political leader Rafik Hariri and as suspected, it points right to Syria.
the report paints a detailed portrait of involvement by senior members of Syria's security and political apparatus and will give weight to efforts by Washington, Paris and London to sanction Syria in the U.N. Security Council.
And more specifically, to close associates of President Bashar al-Assad.
The probe led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis named as suspects in the February 14 killing members in the inner circle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including his brother-in-law
The problem is, there are still many Syrian agents in Lebanon ready to stir up trouble.
Many Lebanese fear a revenge campaign by Syrian soldiers or loyalists.
"Given the infiltration of Lebanese institutions and society by the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services 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," wrote Detlev Mehlis, a German criminal investigator and head of the U.N. panel.
His team of investigators interviewed more than 400 witnesses and reviewed 60,000 pages of documents.
In another part of Lebanon, lies another problem, Palestinian Terrorists, specifically Hezbollah. UN Resolution 1559 not only called for Syria to withdraw, but for Hezbollah to disarm. While the former has occurred, at least nominally, the latter has not. And the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon are throughly infiltrated. So much so that even Palestinian President Abbas has spoken about the issue in his meeting with President Bush. Of course,, Abbas has enough trouble keeping oder within his borders let alone outside them.
But it looks like France may help
Lebanese prime minister Fouad Sinioura on Tuesday in Paris won strong support from France and from the chairman of the Palestinian authority Mahmoud Abbas over dismantling of the weapons of the Palestinian groups in Lebanon.
Both Syria and Hizbolla, though have something in common: Iran.
And Iran has common cause with al Qaeda as well
I'm aware of new evidence that Iran played a direct role in 9/11 and sponsoring Al-Qaeda and this is not contradictory. In fact, documents brought to light by Ken Timmerman show that Imad Mughniyah of Hezbollah, high-level Iranian officials, high-level Iraqi intelligence officials and high-level Al-Qaeda operatives met in Iran in October 2001. So Bin Laden relied on several avenues of support, which made sense, as this meant he couldn't be held down by one state's interests.
If there is a hidden hand moving the pieces for Islamists in Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and the West, that hand belongs to Iran.
To me, Iran is the linchpin.
And we need to take them out of the game.
