Hariri assassination linked to US airbase production - Madsen Article

[kypper]

Hariri reportedly assassinated to make way for large US air base in Lebanon
By Wayne Madsen

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March 11, 2005—According to high-level Lebanese intelligence sources—Christian and Muslim—former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was reportedly assassinated in a sophisticated explosion-by-wire bombing authorized by the Bush administration and Ariel Sharon's Likud government in Israel.
-snip-
The Lebanese air base is reportedly to be used as a transit and logistics hub for U.S. forces in Iraq and as a rest and relaxation location for U.S. troops in the region. In addition, the Lebanese base will be used to protect U.S. oil pipelines in the region (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Mosul/Kirkuk-Ceyhan) as well as to destabilize the Assad government in Syria. The size of the planned air base reportedly is on the scale of the massive American Al Udeid air base in Qatar.

A number of intelligence sources have reported that assassinations of foreign leaders like Hariri and Hobeika are ultimately authorized by two key White House officials, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliot Abrams. In addition, Abrams is the key liaison between the White House and Sharon's office for such covert operations, including political assassinations.

"Abrams is the guy they go to for a wink and a nod for such ops," reported one key source.

[whistle]

1. Jesus Christ, if this is true and can in fact be proved, we have....

...our basis for not only impeaching George Bush, but virtually the entire republican hierarchy as well as sending them to the Hague, Belgium for war crime trials!

[rkc3]

2. Sounds too good to be true.

[kypper]

4. It'll never be proved

Plus Israel has a 'Get out of jail free' voucher. Why else would anyone deal with Sharon?

[JDPriestly]

3. What is the evidence for this theory?

True or false, that anyone would even accuse the Bush administration of responsibility for the Hariri assassination shows you how low the administration has fallen in the esteem of the world. People are willing to ascribe any horrible act to the Bush gang. I guess people think that, if the Bush administration kills Iraqis without bothering to count the dead, it is capable of any abomination.

There are lots of reasons why other factions such as Hezbollah or the Syrians themselves might have killed Hariri. Madsen had better have good evidence for his theory because this is an extremely serious accusation. Making unfounded accusations, however believable, is irresponsible because it hurts the credibility of liberals.

[kypper]

5. Evidence is always nice

But even with a video of Rove authorizing it, it would be disproven by the machine. Madsen's been fairly on the ball, albeit he sounds a bit conspiratorial at times.

I figure he's just generating thought. This could never be proven.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. I have yet to hear one good reason why syria

would want to give us an excuse to start meddling around in lebanon. But please be the first to do so.

[JDPriestly]

10. Because they wanted to get rid of Hariri

Hezbollah may have done it without asking Syria for approval. Some faction of Hezbollah could have done it. Some faction in the center with Hariri could have done it. In fact, anyone with a presence in the area could have done it. Motive is just one factor you consider in solving a crime, not the only factor. I don't see anything in the article giving any ground to think the Americans did this other than that they have a motive.

[Warren Stupidity]

15. You are confusing motive with opportunity.

First: 'because they wanted to get rid of Hariri' is not exactly informative when answering the question 'why would they want to get rid of Hariri', right?

Second, yes lots of groups in Lebanon have the means to commit this sort of act. Here is my list: Israel, US, Syria, Hezbollah, al qaeda associated groups, and probably several other groups. Opportunity wasn't the question, the question was motive.

Syria was already in a precarious position, why would they want to give the US a opening like this? Same for Hezbollah, why would they want to destabilize Lebanon and give the US the issue they need to justify an attack?

On the other hand the US and Israel have clear motives. I would agree that al qaeda might also view drawing the US into an invasion of Syria as something they would like to see happen, so had you said 'al qaeda has motive' I would have replied, 'yes they do', but you didn't. Instead you ran a tautology out as an argument, and then attempted to avoid the entire question of motive by shifting over to opportunity.


So I'll ask again: 'why would Syria want to assassinate Hariri?'

[JDPriestly]

11. Why would Syria want to get rid of Hariri?

Because Hariri was a centrist, close to the French government who may have been successfully agitating for pressure to get Syria out of Lebanon. That seems obvious to me.

[Warren Stupidity]

16. OK

So the motive for blowing him up was to consolidate Syria's position in Lebanon, is that your position?

One would have to also conclude that the Syrians were too stupid to realize that blowing up Hariri would hand the US a crisis pretext that they could exploit to force Syria out of Lebanon. It wasn't as if the US was already beating the war drums against Syria or anything prior to the assasination. Do you really think the Syrians are that stupid? They acted to hand the US a pretext for war, in order to eliminate the former prime minister of Lebanon, who might have been softening his position of support for Syria? Are you sure?

Try reading a non MSM view of this, here's one: http://207.44.245.159/article8107.htm

[JDPriestly]

18. Mind you,

as I said, I don't think there is enough evidence to draw any conclusions on this yet. I don't know what to think. I appreciate getting different points of view. The verdict is just not in on this yet. It will become clear with time, I feel sure.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. none of it becomes clear with time

think back on the level of bullshit we have seen since the selection of 2000. This piece of the puzzle will fade with all the rest. Our unwillingness to accept the obvious conclusion is understandable. We let it all fade, we keep hoping that there is some other explanation.

[kypper]

His position is fair

Jumping to conclusions without trying to get multiple pieces of the puzzle tends to make others think your information is biased or conspiratorial, which like attacking religion, makes most people plug their ears and chant to drown you out, no matter how right you may be. The media may drop the puzzle... that doesn't mean you shouldn't consolidate the pieces you've found. Save articles then write one long conclusion.

[Warren Stupidity]

21. but we've already jumped to conclusions

The MSM has already polluted the issue with the 'syria did it' meme. When those of us tinfoil types say 'wait one second here', perhaps Syria didn't do it, we are required to prove it. No such burden of proof is placed on the MSM or on those who simply regurgitate the party line. In both this case and the related airport road shooting, the 'current wisdom' is accepted and us sceptics are relegated to tinfoil land because we don't have proof.

I object.

When it comes to covert operations the first rule is always 'who benefits'? Everything else is pretty much bullshit as generally other than the immediate effects of the operation (a big hole in a beirut street and a bunch of dead people including Mr. Hariri,) there are no other facts.

[kypper]

23. I agree with you fully

I'm just saying that automatically accusing Bush and Isreal isn't necessarily a legitimate course of action.

I think the public just call bullshit on the MSM, then force an investigation.

[kypper]

20. Repeat

<nt>

[TexasLawyer]

7. Assassination of Lebanese Christian leader Elie Hobeika

I wonder what the "strong indications" are.


"There are also strong indications that the Hariri assassination was carried out by the same rogue Syrian intelligence agents used in the 2002 car bombing assassination of Lebanese Christian leader Elie Hobeika, who was prepared to testify against Sharon in a Brussels human rights court. That case involved the Israeli Prime Minister's role in the 1982 massacre by Israeli troops of Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Chatilla camps in Beirut. The Hariri assasination used wire-bombing technology because Hariri's security personnel used electronic countermeasures to fend off a remote control bomb using wireless means. It has been revealed that the Bush administration has used Syrian intelligence agents to torture al Qaeda suspects through the program known as "extraordinary rendition.""

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

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[Warren Stupidity]

9. What accurate information do you have

that indicates that Syria was involved?

And as a followup: exactly how much accurate information do you expect from a government (any government) sponsored intelligence operation?

Does the phrase "who benefits" ring a bell?

[Imajika]

12. Sure Wayne...

Why anyone takes this guy seriously is beyond me. It's been pretty clear for quite some time that Madsen is just making this stuff up. This one has to be one of his most ridiculous articles yet - though his March 9th article where he claimed he was a 3rd generation Nazi hunter and that Ehrlich was a neo-nazi was pretty goofy. Yes, Ehrlich is a completely out of touch Republican who is wrong on virtually every issue, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend would have made a far better governor for the great state of Maryland - but Ehrlich is not a neo-Nazi.

I especially liked in "Time for Nuremberg II" where Madsen writes

"the people who brutally murdered, execution-style, the 89-year old mother and 64-year old husband (an Episcopal lay leader) of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow in her Chicago home are assuredly linked to the Nazi followers of jailed white supremacist Matthew Hale"

Assuredly linked Wayne? I wonder if the news that a DNA match difinitively linking Bart Ross, who - surprise, turns out not to be linked to Nazi's, to the Lefkow family murders might give some of Madsen's readers a bit of pause before even considering believing his drivel.

Hey Wayne, thought you had the goods on the election fraud? What happened to all your sources and evidence?

"A number of intelligence sources have reported that assassinations of foreign leaders like Hariri and Hobeika are ultimately authorized by two key White House officials, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliot Abrams."

LOL. Ah, the tried and true "Karl Rove is behind it" angle. Surely enough people will wish this were true enough that they'll continue reading the stupidest of articles. Nevermind that no evidence will ever be produced to prove any of this. Just make up an accusation, claim Karl Rove is behind it, and the gullible will keep a' coming back for more.

Rove is a pretty decent political strategist with a knack for running campaigns and exploiting opponents weaknesses. He is an enemy of Democrats, progressives, liberals, leftists, socialists, etc - but he ain't some evil genius hatching bizarre plots behind every rock and tree.

It's really quite sad, but unfortunantly, some people will indeed believe anything. I guess it allows Wayne Madsen to earn a living.

Imajika

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

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[Imajika]

14. What I'm saying is pretty simple...

Wayne Madsen cranks out article after article of pure nonsense. It is just a mystery to me why anyone at all takes him seriously in the least little bit.

"Certainly the circumstances were pretty damning for the white supremacists at first. To my mind, the fact that the perpetrator was apprehended doesn't exonerate anybody, at least until more facts are uncovered."

Um, yeah, it looked like that might be it...at first. But the murders were never "most assuredly" linked to the Nazi followers of jailed white supremacist Matthew Hale as Madsen claimed. This is a typical case of Madsen taking a current event and either turning it into a bizarre conspiracy theory or incorporating it into some other conspiracy theory.

"The personal foibles of Mr. Madsen do nothing to reduce the horror that this crime instills in me. Are you saying I should embrace white supremacism because Wayne Madsen made a bad call? What are you saying?"

Huh? The horror of the crime is certainly not reduced, and all white supremacists are filth - but that has nothing to do with my point. My point was that Madsen was writing fantasy again and was demonstrably wrong on an obvious point.

"This is a journey I'll regret if at the end I can't turn to someone and share a smile. And possibly a big, fat drink. And a cigar. And a baby to dandle on my knee."

Okay :-)

Imajika

[Name removed]

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[OKNancy]

22. This from the same guy

who said Plame indictments would be down in July 2004, who predictied massive vote fraud -- in CALIFORNIA, and many many more crackpot articles. Google his name--- see how often he has ever been right.

Notice the use of these techniques: using unnamed sources or phrases such as; some say, it may be that, it has been heard around...etc.