In the Jerusalem Post, Jonathan Speyer of the GLORIA Center explains that the identification of the Fatah Islam group, which the Lebanese Army is fighting now in Tripoli, with Al-Qaeda may not tell the whole story.
While Syrian officials have been keen from the outset to describe al-Abssi and his group as operating "in favor of al-Qaida," Lebanese authorities suspect that the group may in fact be a client of the Syrian authorities themselves, established to act as an instrument of policy in Lebanon, fomenting disorder. The Assad regime has a long history of utilizing terrorist and paramilitary groups for such a purpose. Fatah-intifada itself was used by Hafez Assad in a power struggle with Yassir Arafat in the Lebanon refugee camps between 1985-88. The regime is known also to have engaged operatives of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party to carry out assassinations in Lebanon during the civil war period.Suspicions regarding Fatah al-Islam center on the fact that Shakir al-Abssi was sentenced in 2003 to three years in prison in Syria after being convicted of plotting attacks inside the country. This was an unusually lenient sentence. By comparison, for example, Syrians suspected of involvement in the Muslim Brotherhood are routinely given 12-year terms. Al-Abssi, after his release, turned up among pro-Syrian Fatah-intifada circles in Nahr al-Bared and shortly afterward emerged as the leader of the new group, Fatah al-Islam. These facts have led General Ashraf Rifi, head of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (FSI), to conclude that "this is a Syrian creation to sow chaos." Which raises the question, why might the Syrians wish to sow chaos in Lebanon, and why now?
A draft resolution for the unilateral establishment of an international tribunal on the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri was circulated in the UN Security Council by the US, France and Britain last week. It is known that the Syrian regime is determined to prevent this tribunal at all costs, since it is believed that senior Syrian officials may be found to have been involved in the Hariri killing. Could it be that the regime in Damascus might see an escalation of tension in Lebanon as currently helpful - as a tacit reminder to the international community of what Damascus is capable of when put in a corner? This is the view of senior officials in Lebanese government, and is in keeping with earlier practices of the Damascus regime.
File this one under:
Ya can't tell the players even with a scorecard
@topic...
They profited handsomely from occupying Lebanon for years...
They also controlled the entire quadrant that way...
Their own resistance movements are gaining steam, and many were asylumed in Lebanon...
They need to divert attention from their guilt with the Hariri murder...among others...
They lack an effective defensive front against Israel without it (no golan, no fortress)...
They're losing credibility at their iraq involvement...
They have little left to lose...
They need to quickly prep themselves for the upcoming war their islamicommie allies are planning, and they want the best possible position first...and that's just weeks off...
(see thread above this one)
Man, the list is almost endless...
(Yes, syrians have their hands all over this)
Syria want Lebanese land for their own...
apart from being that in de facto fashion past couple decades...
...if memory serves me right, it pretty much was a part until after WWII (back then I think they called it simply "lebanon-syria" & was a french colony).
Is it Syria? Or is it simply an escalation as we will see them in more and more countries with muslim populations?
Assad, needless to say, is drooling with anticipation as Lebanon tilts nearer a civil-war. Most of what I had to mention has already been stated.
At this moment, I ponder what the collaborationist, Pelosi must think of her buddy Assad, now; if she possesses the capacity to think at all.
"At this moment, I ponder what the collaborationist, Pelosi must think of her buddy Assad, now; if she possesses the capacity to think at all."
After a thourough review of all the facts, she can only reach one conclusion. . . .it's Bush's fault.
Hmmmm, lets see maybe because Bashar Assad and his mafioso buddies are scared shitless of being directly implicated in the murder of a foreign head of state. Not that they havent done it before ie Bashir Gemayal and Rene Mouawad. This time however, they got caught with their pants down since the US could no longer look the other way for national security reasons etc etc.
As much as i regret having to accept the US and to a lesser extent France as allies (after all it was the US and France that handed lebanon to the Syrians in 1990 for the right to use syrian territory to launch an invasion of Iraq) at this stage they are the better of two evils.
Shunkleash
I'm not buying your explanation for Fatah al-Islam. According to Seymour Hersch (seen on CNN) his investigations reveal that the USA and the Saudi's are behind Fatah al-Islam, which is part of our war against Shia Islam. This is all revealed in his upcoming New Yorker magazine article.
Even though the CNN anchor was not buying his argument, I believe it. What's not to believe about Seymour Hersch? He does great investigative journalism using all the lastest methods, including the internet and cell phones.
I'm so glad I don't have a subscription to The New Yorker anymore. (fyi I don't really think Hersch is right).
Personally, I think that Seymour Hersh is RIGHT for once in his life. I have no problem believing that Siniora and the US would support the Muslim Brotherhood or alligned Sunni terrorist groups to help "balance the power" with Iran. Hersh has an obvious pro-Iranian bias that he has shown in other articles, but I think he is right about the US allying with the Saudis, gulf states, Muslim Brotherhood, against the Iranians, Syrians, and Russians, just as the US allied itself with the KLA against the Serbs.
It is the same Cold War mentality that let the mujahideen into our country in the first place to pull of the first WTC attack. "That jihad stuff? Bah, it's just about the Russians, these guys love American and will be great citizens!" Now, Lebanon is getting a taste of its own form of blowback as those Al Qaeda allies who they thought would be so useful against Iran and Syria are now attacking them. And Hezbollah is SUPPORTING the Lebanese government as they know the Fatah group is Sunni.
And Condi Rice is going all over the place, believing promises from the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria and Egypt "get us in power and we will control the anti-American extremists, you can always trust a sunni!"
LOL
commie news network (CNN) may as well be pravda...
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1872
...birds of a feather, ya know.
You'll find hitlers body before you'll find credibility in that marxist masquerading as a journalist...
LOL
Hitlers body may be found in a large storage shed in a large military base in a large Russian country.
Or...some secure, undisclosed location.
Mohammads body is probably in an unknown location also. Supposedly he was buried under his bed. The building is most likely gone and Mo's grave is paved over, and is now the ka'aba parking lot. They used to park camels there, but now it's cars. Mohammad likes the cars better. Camels have too much leakage.
Shunkleash:
We suggest you read the book "EURABIA" by Bat Ye'or. It's an eye-opener and provides the real situation int he western world. The US actually looks good in comparison with any western European power and is not chained to the Middle East politically as Europe now is.
For all its many faults, US foreign policy has not really been in cahoots with Islam, at least not to the extent that other parts of the industrially developed nations became in the second half of the twentieth century. I don't think the USA will ever stoop to the level that France has (the French even helped the notorious, genocidal war criminal haj amin al-husseini escape!).
Lebanon as the world once knew it was almost completely destroyed by the PLO during the 1970s. In addition, Lebanon's Christian constituency has been close to extirpated. Lebanon today is a de facto part of the Islamic ummah and has been for years. By the 1990s, it was pretty much over for an independent, Christian Lebanon. The US and France in the 1990s arrived too late to inflict real damage at this point--the damage was already done.
The biggest culprit according to Israeli intelligence is PALESTINE and the ringleader was Yasser Arafat. There are plenty of Lebanese Christians in the US and I have yet to see any of them blaming America for what has happened to the place. Blame France and Germany for this!
To the best of my knowledge, the US's foreign policy, in effectual is it has usually been with regards to Islamic jihadism, has nevertheless been the most potently and consistently anti-jihadi foreign policy of any western democracy. If you can provide us with a better example among the western nations let us know. (But we all know her there's plenty of room for improvement with US foreign policy regarding anti-jihadism).
The Lebanese I am not feeling so sure on this! What it is. Maybe because of what happened with Israel and the soldiers! Plus, they are asking for lots of ammo! What happened to their support of hezboallah, ok other countries? Then why is it no one in the Palestinee camp ever said a dang thing about there was trouble brewing? They are all quilty! Some kind of set up? Deterent?!
I really liked al-Hariri! If they ever uncover what happened!
I meant I hope they uncover who plotted and killed al-Hariri!
al-Hariri had the humanity I speak of. You could see it in him! What a precious sole! A very good man! He did not have to do this for the people he had money! He chose to. His eyes shined and he had a kindered spirit. I saw all his landsite he was showing where he lived ect. He was so so good for the people! He was so good for all mankind! It was a very sad day that day! I thought what idiots!!
"Though universally recognized for more than two thousand years as a cohesive region, geographical Syria was not a polity. It never acquired political form as a single state containing only Syria and nothing else."
"The Greater Syrian nation never existed in the past, nor does it have the right to be created through the destruction of its neighbours."
Greater Syria: http://cedarland.org/syria.html
Lebanon always had control of its own destiny, and was never part of some center called Syria. It was foolish for anyone to have bought that line of a Greater Syria, because it helped our enemies greatly. Lebanon is like a lush forest, while Syria is like the barren Sahara Desert; although, there are signs of desertification in Lebanon (we all know why.)