Hariri Reportedly Assassinated To Make Way For Large US Air Base In Lebanon

By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
3-12-5

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.

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."

Hariri, a pan-Arabist and Lebanese nationalist, was known to
adamantly oppose the construction of a major U.S. air base in the
north of Lebanon. The United States wants Syrian troops completely
out of Lebanon before construction of the base is initiated. Hariri's
meetings with Hezbollah shortly before his death also angered
Washington and Jerusalem, according to the Lebanese intelligence
sources.

Washington and Jerusalem media experts spun Hariri's assassination as
being the work of Syrian intelligence on orders from President Bashar
Assad. However, a number of Middle East political observers in
Washington claim that Hariri's assassination was not in the interests
of Assad, but that the Bush and Sharon administrations had everything
to gain from it, including the popular Lebanese uprising against the
Syrian occupation.

Lebanese intelligence sources report that even without a formal
agreement with Lebanon, the contract for the northern Lebanese air
base has been let by the Pentagon to Jacobs Engineering Group of
Pasadena, California. Other construction support will be provided by
Bechtel Corporation.

Jacobs Engineering and Jacobs Sverdrup are currently contracted for
work in Saudi Arabia for Aramco, Iraq for the U.S. occupation
authority, Bosnia, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Yemen,
Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.

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 [the Israelis] go to for a wink and a nod for
such ops," reported one key source.

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based journalist and columnist and
the co-author of "America's Nightmare: The Presidency of George
Bush II."