Saturday, December 31, 2005

Another Bombshell

Yesterday Abdel-Halim Khaddam, Syria's former vice-president all but pointed the finger at Bashar Assad for the murder of Rafik Hariri. He stated in an interview last night on Al-Arabiya television that Assad and his intelligence officers had "openly & repeatedly threatened to crush" former Prime Minister Hariri well before his February 14th assassination.
When asked if a Syrian security unit could have been behind the murder without Assad's knowledge, Khaddam replied "Impossible in
Syria - Assad is an absolute authoritarian."

Khaddam ain't no angel despite the urge to see him as an ally after this bloodletting. Even though he claims that he advised Hariri that "the Damascene mood was unfavourable and that he should resign the premiership and leave
Lebanon" Khaddam is anti-Assad, not pro-Lebanon. What a guy. He goes on to say that Lahoud and his inner circle poisoned Assad's mind against Hariri with disinformation.
He seems to be positioning himself to be a candidate for the top Syrian seat when it becomes available. Just remember that "I was only following orders" has been refuted as an excuse since
Nuremberg.

Nice to see the regime start to collapse one strut at a time. Maybe all the inner circle, current and former, would tell the truth if they lived in luxury in
Paris.

Now is a good time for President Lahoud to make an executive decision popular with everyone and step down. Just how far removed from reality is he if he can't (or won't) even gauge an overwhelming public opinion?

(Cue Star Wars' theme and......fade).

4 comments:

Mustapha said...

Oh,
So you missed the Al-jazeera poll where 57% of readers decided that Lahhoud should stay as Lebanese President until his tenure ends ?

desmond said...

Mustapha,

I went here to have a look at that poll on al-Jazeera but wasn't able to find it on their list.
However, amongst others, I did find a poll that says that 48% of people believe that Hezbollah is capable of protecting Lebanon if given the political authority, and only 42% disagree.

Other interesting polls asked "Do you think Syria is involved in Hariri's assassination?". Only 55% thought so.

Will the UN-led probe into Hariri's assassination be credible? Only 44% said yes, 43% said no.

Yet another al-Jazeera poll asked who we thought was behind the current unrest in Lebanon and only gave 3 choices:
The United States
The Lebanese Opposition
Others
(33%, 41%, 26% respectively)

So, forgive me if anonymous online polls hold little sway with me.

Mustapha said...

Desmond,

My reference to Aljazeera's poll was pure sarcasm, Never thought you'd take it that seriously :)

desmond said...

Neither did I...must be an end of the year thing. My apologies, Mustapha...!!