Syrian intelligence is reported to run their own "Al Qaida" cells for just such purposes. On other occasions they are said to turn these cells in to the US to create the impression that they are an ally in the War on Terror™ The current understanding is that the suicide bomber who killed Hariri was a pawn in someone else's game.

Posted by: Al Haganah at February 19, 2005 9:22 PM

As tensions mount in Lebanon, Syria (its political boss) and Iran (Damascus’ key accomplice since the early 1980s and the patron of Hezbollah) have forged a “common front”, in order, primarily, to FOIL the much-required Mideast peace-plans of the USA, its allies and associates.

A measure of international heat’s on Syria and Iran (for the moment anyway): France’s lately joined with the USA in the UN, demanding the withdrawal of the Syrian forces from Lebanon, while Germany, France, Britain and the feckless IAEA are engaged in (unavailing) diplomacy to halt the Islamic Republic’s clandestine nuclear weapons schemes.

Whether the former Lebanese PM, Rafiq Hariri (a one-time accessory of Syria and an old crony of the Saudis and the French), was assassinated last week directly by some el-Qaeda proxy or by the Syrians - possibly manipulating a Jihadist ring in a “false flag” operation - Lebanon itself may be headed back into bloody CIVIL WAR, further greatly destabilizing an already highly volatile region (which definitely needs no such added affliction).

The Lebanese Opposition parties’ve called for a non-violent confrontation to oust the Damascus-dominated Government of Lebanon, like the recent, positive, pro-Democracy campaigns of Georgia and the Ukraine. - Whether a non-violent approach can work in an Arab country, though, must be highly debatable.

However, if the friction’s not properly defused, this turmoil could brew up pretty rapidly. The Government will be supported at once by the approximately 15,000 Syrian regulars (on top of the roughly 10,000 Syrian police and “security & intelligence” men and many thousands of freshly-armed Syrian "guest-workers") stationed there.

As well, the terrorist-groups Hezbollah, Hamas, “Palestinian” Islamic Jihad, the PFLP and DFLP (with their Lebanese Eastern-rite Christian confederates), the el-Qaeda affiliates in Lebanon, plus the cadres of several thousand Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the scene, could soon be battling the Lebanese Sunnites, the Druse and some chiefly-Western Christian elements. (Most of the country’s civilian Christians, though, are liable to again flee the nation in droves).

Sunnis constitute a minority in Lebanon, like in Iraq. Round half the Lebanese population today are Shi’ites; in Iraq, they’re about 60% of the citizenry. But in Lebanon, the Sunnis (who, in Iraq, whether Jihadis or Baathists, are the main enemies of the US) would be AGAINST Syria and Iran, America’s antagonists in the Mideast - and possibly requesting Washington’s assistance.

Of major interest would have to be how the “Palestinians” will align themselves in this looming conflict.

Will they succumb to the spirit of their history and their instinct and back Syria, etc, or put themselves behind the Sunnis, Druse, et al? Or will they murderously SPLIT into their Militant versus Opportunist factions (possibly kicking off their own civil war in “Palestine”) or, paralyzed, will they bid to DEFAULT to total neutrality, fundamentally unable to choose a side?

Posted by: HGII at February 20, 2005 1:05 AM

since resigning myself to expect anything from these people this comes as no surprise.

until we declare war against islam these things will continue.

Posted by: hadithher2 at February 20, 2005 5:15 AM

since resigning myself to expect anything from these people this comes as no surprise.

until we declare war against islam these things will continue.

Posted by: hadithher2 at February 20, 2005 5:16 AM

Winds of Jihad:

Sheik Yer'mami rides again:

http://www.terrorists-suck.org/fight/winds_of_jihad.html

Posted by: Terminator at February 20, 2005 5:56 AM

The Fascist regime in Damascus, perhaps in mounting panic, but fully cognisant of its grave risk of losing State Power if Lebanon’s removed from Syria’s predatory orbit, could indeed well have hazarded the Beirut assassination of former PM Rafiq Hariri last week.

Assiduously trained for years by Soviet experts, itself among the Masters of Terrorism for many decades, the Syrian ruling clique (in order to furnish itself with “plausible deniability”) might easily’ve utilized a band of Jihadis, mercenaries or gangsters - one of the plethora of each today infesting Syria and its satellite, Lebanon, mostly in transit to and from the “Holy War” in Iraq - to do its “wet work” (possibly without this squad even knowing for whom they were striking).

Polls were showing that M. Hariri enjoyed a pretty good chance of regaining the leadership of Lebanon, on a mildly anti-Syrian platform - clothed in strong “anti-corruption” policies - in the national elections slated for May... and which both the USA and France had publicly proposed, in the UN, to ensure would be on schedule and democratic.

Damascus can ill afford to watch Lebanon, its cash-cow and key geostrategic perch, slip from its exploitative control. Nor does Iran look forward at all to it being loosed from the domination of Tehran’s faithful, old regional partner, Syria, which exerted heavy pressure, on the Ayatollahs’ behalf, upon Saddam during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War - and has pivotally collaborated in the development of Iran’s bio-chem arsenal and rocketry, from that period forth.

In addition, the Syrian Baathists possess a lengthy record of facilitating Iran’s sponsorship of Hezbollah in Lebanon, while encouraging the Islamic Republic to maintain large cadres of its Revolutionary Guard there, plus in procuring Beirut’s apt services as a conduit for a host of its sundry terrorist operations, assorted rackets and some of its WMD-proliferation smuggling.

Equally, Osama bin-Laden doubtless has a major interest in stirring up bloody strife in any place that’s available to his malign ministrations: unhappy Lebanon’s contemporary, sore, political problems’ve readily opened it up to el-Qaeda’s sinister, brutal interference - it’s always seeking vulnerable spots to spread virulent anarchy, the soil in which it best thrives.

Igniting a renewed Lebanese civil war’d hand Osama a hefty monkey-wrench to throw into the delicate and complex works, which are valiantly striving to pacify/stabilize the volatile Middle East (which the US is nobly leading… and several other country’s are now venally impeding).

On top, the outbreak of fratricide in Lebanon, particularly, would promptly give to el-Qaeda the “bonus” of the onset of clashes there being virtually certain to provoke several local, regional and international spin-offs (not the least, in “Palestine”), delivering the “Great Sheikh” further chaos, in which to expand his nefarious, cruel, fanatically nihilistic activities.

However, it ought to be borne in mind that, by this juncture in the “War on Terror”, in spite of occasional dialectical differences, there looks to exist a definite, practical nexus - usually tactical &/or logistical - between all the facets of modern-day Islamofascism; el-Qaeda with its Jihadi surrogates, the mullahs’ Iran, the fascist pan-Arabs, the “Arab nationalists” and motley Islamic “separatists” are all gradually, busily merging the “Terrorist International” with “Jihad Inc.”.

Should Lebanon blow as a result of Hariri’s murder, who specifically carried out his killing could become immaterial overnight, reduced to a moot point in the face of emergent, concretely confederated Islamofascism, aggressively engaged in ferocious, offensive mode against America, the West and their associates, wherever they’re unprotected - uniting and redoubling the wild, megacidal hostilities driving its individually crazed components.

(As well, so severe are liable to be the daily massacres and devastation in Beirut - if it goes up - that they’ll totally prevent any proper inquiries anyhow. Conversely, if the pro-Syrian Lebanese Govt manages to retain the city, any investigation there could never remotely be classed as credible.)

Posted by: HGII at February 20, 2005 6:22 PM