Friday, March 28, 2008

UN: Former Lebanon PM Hariri killed by criminal network

"Former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated by a "criminal network," according to a report filed Friday by the head of a United Nations team charged with investigating the killing.

Daniel Bellemare said in his first report to the UN Security Council on Friday that evidence indicates the so-called Hariri Network existed before his assassination on Feb. 14, 2005.

Syrian intelligence was often accused of being behind the murder, and while Damascus denied the charges, the attack nonetheless prompted Syria to end its long-time military presence in the country.

Bellemare said the evidence also indicates it conducted surveillance of the former premier, and that at least part of the network continued to operate after he was killed along with 22 others in a bombing in Beirut.

The former Canadian prosecutor said the commission investigating Hariri's
assassination "can now confirm, on the basis of available evidence, that a network of individuals acted in concert to carry out the assassination of Rafik Hariri."

The UN team found that the criminal network was also involved in the assassinations of other high-profile Lebanese figures. "

Also, posted by Evelyn:

"Wayne Madsen Report (entire) -

March 28-30, 2008 -- UN panel says Hariri killed by "criminal network": A UN panel headed by former Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare has concluded that former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated by a "criminal networK" and not by either Syrian and Lebanese intelligence or Lebanese Hezbollah as proffered by the neocon propaganda mill operating out of Washington, DC and Jerusalem.

The UN panel said that a "Hariri Network" had the ex-Prime Minister under surveillance before the Beirut massive car bombing that killed Hariri and 22 other people in November 2005.

WMR previously reported that the "criminal network" was composed of Lebanese and rogue Syrian intelligence agents connected to Israel's Mossad and a White House operation run by National Security Council senior staff member Elliott Abrams, the formerly convicted Iran-contra figure.

Although for political reasons the UN refrained from identifying the members of the "criminal element," WMR has reported it included rogue Syrians, Druze, and Palestinian intelligence operatives in Lebanon, as well as mercenaries linked to now jailed international arms smuggler Viktor Bout and members of the Russian-Israeli "organizatsiya" criminal syndicate.

WMR was criticized by the neocon press when it first reported on the actual elements behind Hariri's assassination and charges of "anti-Semitism" were the rule rather than the exception.

The UN revelations about Hariri's assassination removes a large predicate being pushed by the neocons for a military attack on Syria."

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