Nasrallah charges Israel with being behind Hariri assassination

The leader of Lebanese Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah, has charged that contrary to an expected UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon report that will blame Hezbollah for the February 14, 2005 bomb assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, he has Israeli spy plane evidence that shows the Israelis were closely monitoring Hariri's route on the day he was killed in Beirut.

WMR has previously reported that it was Mossad, along with CIA contract operatives in Lebanon, that carried out the assassination of Hariri.

A recent Israeli Lobby-backed campaign against former CNN Middle East editor Octavia Nasr for tweeting that she regretted the death of the late Lebanese Shi'a cleric Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, who died last month, was likely an attempt by the Israeli-influenced U.S. media, including CNN -- which employs former American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spokesman Wolf Blitzer as its Washington bureau chief -- to paint Fadlallah as a pro-Hezbollah militant prior to the issuance of the UN report blaming Hezbollah for Hariri's assassination. The same cabal of Israeli apologists in the media also recently attacked CNN's Middle East correspondent Ben Wedeman for his views on Israel.

AIPAC and its friends who overly-populate the senior editorial and production positions in America's news media wanted to put all the attention on Nasr and her admiration for Fadllallah to take attention off of what happened to Fadlallah on March 4, 1985.

In the Beirut suburb of Bir-al-Abid, a massive car bomb was detonated in an attempt to assassinate Fadlallah. Although Fadlallah escaped, the bomb, detonated by remote control, leveled several city blocks, killed 8 innocent bystanders, and injured more than 300 people. The perpetrators were the CIA aided by Mossad. The people of Lebanon have long memories and recall how the CIA and Mossad conspired to try to kill Fadllalah. In fact, the bombing attack on Fadlallah bore similarities to the car bombing assassinations of Hariri, Lebanese parliamentarian Elie Hobeika, and other leading Lebanese politicians during the past eight years.

None other than former CIA director Stansfield Turner spilled the beans on the CIA being behind the assassination attempt on Fadlallah on June 1, 1986, when, in an interview, he revealed that the United States had tried to kill Fadlallah with a car bomb.

The CIA, using its own case officers and Lebanese operatives, planned the assassination of Fadlallah with Mossad agents inside Lebanon. It is with this background of joint CIA-Mossad assassination teams active in Lebanon that Nasrallah bases his contention that it was not Hezbollah, but the Israelis, who assassinated Hariri. Nasrallah, for the time being, is not alleging U.S. involvement but based on what the UN Report contains, that may change.

Contrary to the propaganda organs of Israel's Lobby in the United states, particularly the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), a Mossad contrivance, Fadlallah was generally an informed voice of reason in the Muslim world in the Middle East. The pro-Israel at any cost camp is entitled to their opinions, all of which are deeply flawed and racist in nature, but they are not entitled to their own facts. The facts are that Fadlallah, targeted for assassination by the CIA, Mossad, and Lebanese Christian right-wingers, supported women's rights, religious dialog and scholarship, anti-colonialism, peace for Jews in the Middle East, and opposed turning Lebanon into an Islamic republic. Compare Fadllalah's beliefs to those of Israeli racists like Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and their anti-Arab and anti-black mole inside the Obama White House, Rahm Emanuel, and Fadlallah does come off sounding like a Middle Eastern version of Nelson Mandela.

The CIA under William Casey began tilting the agency in the direction of cooperating with Mossad and eclipsing the "Arabists" in the agency. The 1981 appointment by Casey of his friend Max Hugel, a pro-Israeli who was later enmeshed in improper stock transactions and problematic links to Israeli intelligence, as deputy director for operations at Langley, allowed for the promotion of officials who were biased toward Israel.

A formerly Secret Director of Central Intelligence memorandum, dated June 24, 1982, for Casey, prepared by an obviously pro-Israeli National Intelligence Officer (NIO) in the Near Eastern/South Asia Division for a briefing on June 25 for Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and Deputy Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, took a swipe at the CIA's "Arabists."

At the time, Lebanon was mired in civil war and there were demands that Israel withdraw its forces from Beirut and their replacement by international and Lebanese forces. The NIO was looking for a "token" Israeli pullback to allow for "Arab regimes" to claim they influenced the United States in bringing it about. The memo indicates that the major regime to benefit from the duplicity of a token Israeli pullback was Saudi Arabia.

The NIO then writes of West Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah: "A move on West Beirut by the Israelis is obviously not in our wider interests. I personally feel it would not be totally cataclysmic, but many Arabists [emphasis added] disagree. If it occurs, it may not initially be the all-out bloody advance being discussed, but rather: -- Isolation of the Shi'a areas from attack, and pressure on Shia leaders to police their own area. The content of recent Shia/Phalange contacts seem to indicate this may be possible."

But then in a reference to Palestinian refugee camps in the Beirut region that would, three months later, between September 16 and 18 September, be the sites of a bloody massacre of as many as 3500 Palestinian men, women, and children by Israeli-supervised Lebanese Christian militia members at the camps of Sabra and Chatilla.

The CIA NIO/NESA memo states that a move by Israelis into West Beirut could lead to an "attack on the Palestinian camps (largely denuded of civilians) and advance to the Mazra' artea on the edge of the Beirut city center." Three months later, the "largely denuded" camps of civilian Palestinians would see as many as 3500 murdered by a joint Lebanese Christian-Israeli force. Evn the Israeli Kahan Commission charged the Israeli Defense Forces under then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon with "indirect" responsibility for the Sabra and Chatilla massacres. The goal of an Israeli move into West Beirut, as seen by the NIO/NESA, was "further compression of Palestinian/Leftist/regional Syrian elements into the remaining area of West Beirut." This would be followed by a token Israeli pullback to serve "our interests as well." The NIO/NESA hope was that Palestinian leaders (Arafat, Khalaf, and others) would exit the area clandestinely and not become "martyrs."

The memo also reports that President Reagan had an "acrimonious" meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin over the issue of Palestinian autonomy. The NIO/NESA said that Reagan pressured Begin "hard on a wider scenario for Palestinian autonomy than he now envisages." The NIO/NESA reports he discussed the stormy Reagan-Begin meeting with "the local Mossad representative" and was told the written autonomy plan Begin left, was "pretty much the same restricted autonomy scheme already discussed by the Israelis."

Some thirty years later, the Israeli "scheme" continues to emphasize a "restricted autonomy" plan for the Palestinians. And, unlike Reagan, Barack Obama has not lifted one finger to pressure the Israelis and insists on keeping a chief Mossad asset as his chief of staff.

SPECIAL REPORT. Israelis engaged in LEBANON pre-election PSYOP campaign

WMR's well-placed Middle East sources have reported that Israel's extreme right-wing government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is waging a major psychological operations (PSYOPS) campaign ahead of Lebanon's June 7 parliamentary election, in which Hezbollah (Party of God) is expected to increase its seats in parliament from the current 12. The Israeli PSYOP campaign is also intended to influence Iran's June 12 presidential election, in which President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is running for re-election against reformist former Prime Minister Mir-Hussein Mousavi and two other candidates.

Israel and Mossad assets in the Western media have changed tack and are now suggesting that it was not Syria that was behind the February 14, 2005, car bomb assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, but it was Hezbollah that conspired to engineer the assassination. A May 23 article in Spiegel of Germany is reporting a "breakthrough" in the United Nations Special Tribunal in the Hariri assassination that began its work in Leidschendam in the Netherlands on March 1 under Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare. The "breakthrough" is based on tribunal sources and leaked documents that pin Hariri's assassination on Hezbollah and Hezbollah agents trained in Iran. The timing of the "breakthrough" just before the Lebanese and Iranian elections is highly suspicious, according to WMR's sources in Lebanon and Europe.

After Bellemare's two predecessors, German Detlev Mehlis, known to be friendly to neocon and Israeli causes, and Belgian Serge Brammertz could not find any evidence linking the Hariri assassination to Syria, four Lebanese generals, considered to be close to the Syrians and who were arrested three years ago for suspicions of being involved in the assassination, were released from a Lebanese jail and cleared in March by Bellemare.

WMR's sources claim that Mossad has timed the article charging Hezbollah with the Hariri assassination to wreak havoc in the forthcoming Lebanese election and adversely affect Hezbollah's chances of success at the polls. Hezbollah has never before been implicated in the assassination of Hariri. In 2005, even Mehlis rejected the notion of Hezbollah's involvement in the Hariri assassination, although he did link it to Syrian President Bashar Assad's inner circle. However, the Syrian connection was later rejected by the UN. Without Damascus to blame, the Israeli propagandists and agents provocateurshad no choice but to pin blame on Hezbollah. Without Hezbollah, the only culprits left would be the Israelis and their Lebanese intelligence network, many of whose members are now being rounded up by Lebanese intelligence. In order to cast attention off itself, the Israelis concocted the story that Hezollah was involved in killing of Hariri.

Nasrallah was known to have met with Hariri before the assassination. It was reported by WMR that they were both opposed to the establishment of a U.S. air base in northern Lebanon. After his assassination, thousands of Hezbollah members gathered at Hariri's tomb in Beirut to pay respects to the fallen former Prime Minister. Hezbollah members carried portraits of Hariri and Nasrallah.

Spiegel's "sources," likely Israeli agents of influence, are referring to a crack in the case arising from penetration of two networks of cell phones used by Hezbollah allegedly used in planning the assassination. The cell phone networks are described as the "first circle of hell" and the "second circle of hell." The description is reminiscent of previous Israeli/neocon jargon, for example, "axis of evil" and "evil doers," regurgitated from Israeli-dominated neocon think tanks in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Washington, DC.

Not surprisingly, Lieberman, after the publication of the Spiegel piece, called for an international arrest warrant to be issued for Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah. Saudi-funded Al Arabiya television has also been playing up the Spiegel story.

The Spiegel story comes after wide Middle Eastern and Russian media attention was given to WMR's report that Hariri was assassinated by a unit of Vice President Dick Cheney's assassination squads that were already active in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries. The Israeli media PSYOP campaign is also designed to focus attention away from a growing Israeli espionage scandal in Lebanon. Some twenty Mossad cells, involving more than 30 people, have been identified by Lebanese authorities with spying for Israel. WMR has learned that some of these Mossad cells have been linked to the assassinations of Hariri, Member of Parliament Elie Hobeika, former Lebanese Communist Party chief George Hawi, and other Lebanese leaders. Although WMR previously reported that Mossad and its American allies used rogue Syrian intelligence agents and Palestinian and Druze functionaries in these attacks, the operations were designed to give plausible deniability to both the Israelis and the American units who reported to Cheney.

On October 24, 2006, WMR reported: "A senior French DGSE -- Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure-- intelligence officer has told WMR that Lebanon's ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a car bombing arranged by Israel's Mossad.The revelation from French intelligence is significant as the French government of Jacques Chirac joined the Bush administration and the neo-con policy establishments in Washington and Israel in blaming Syria for the attack. According to the DGSE officer, Israel and its American backers wanted to blame Syria for the assassination of the popular Lebanese leader in order to blame Syria for the attack thus forcing the popular Lebanese revolt that saw the withdrawal of Syrian forces. That left Lebanon defenseless for the 'Clean Break' attack launched by Israel, with US support, against Hezbollah and Lebanon's infrastructure. WMR was one of the first to report Israeli and American involvement in the assassination of Hariri, as well as those of Elie Hobeika, George Hawi, and other Lebanese politicians."

On March 28, 2008, WMR reported: "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."

On November 1, 2005, WMR reported: "WMR has obtained the Confidential version of the Mehlis Report on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Mehlis is the Senior Public Prosecutor in the Attorney General's Office in Berlin. He was named Commissioner of the UN International Independent Investigation Commission into the Hariri assassination. Mehlis is a darling of neocons who served in the Reagan administration. It was his investigation of the 1982 La Belle Discotheque bombing in West Berlin that was used as justification by Reagan to launch a 1986 bombing attack on Libya. Mehlis concluded that Libya was behind the attack conveniently at the same time that pro-Israelis in the Reagan administration, including Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, Paul Wolfowitz, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Scooter Libby, and others were calling for an attack on Muammar Qaddafi. The Mehlis Report, dated October 19, 2005, states the Commission 'focused on the crime scene, technical aspects of the crime, analysis of telephone intercepts, the testimony of more than 500 witnesses and sources, as well as the institutional context in which the crime took place.' The confidential copy indicates that certain information, all of which implicates Syria and pro-Syrian Lebanese officials, was added just before the report was issued."

On May 2, 2009, Nasrallah, in a televised address, called on UN investigators to consider Israel in its investigation. He said the Israelis had "the motive" and "the capability" to carry out the massive car bombing that took Hariri's life and 22 others and injured more than 100. The attack mirrored a number of other false flag operations carried about by Mossad with a little-known group calling itself "Victory and Jihad in Greater Syria" claiming responsibility for the attack.

The Saudi connection to Hariri's assassination is also noteworthy. On November 19, 2005, WMR reported:

"Was Rafik Hariri a threat to the Bin Laden monopoly? A classified but undated French intelligence report points to the fact that the assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was considered a potential monopoly-busting building construction competitor by the Bin Laden cartel, which is described as having a "monopoly" on construction contracts involving Islamic Holy sites in Saudi Arabia.

The operative paragraph from the French report states:

The Bin Laden family monopoly wields itself on work on the Islamic Holy Places (it is required that all the important companies such as Oger, Dar Al-Handasa, Mabani, or CCI must sub-contract with the monopoly) and the links which bind the family to the the Saudi dynasty over numerous years has resulted in a considerable financial cache, it is difficult to quantify but is twenty times than that amassed by Rafik Hariri.

Note: Oger, or Saudi Oger, is the company formed by Hariri in 1971, which became a major Saudi contractor under King Fahd.

The United States, using the United Nations as a proxy, is pressuring Syria over the assassination of Rafik Hariri. With evidence that Hariri was viewed as a potential threat to the Bin Laden monopoly, which is tied closely to the Saudi Royal Family, the Saudis may be as culpable in the assassination as is the Likud government of Israel and the Bush administration."

Related Articles:

• November 23-25, 2007 -- Hariri targeted by US/Israeli circles beginning in 1996
• February 13, 2008 -- Bush's strangest Syrian bedfellow: At center of suspicion in Hezbollah leader's car bombing
• May 4, 2009 -- New evidence that Hariri assassination was ordered in Washington and Jerusalem
• November 1, 2005 -- BEIRUT, BERLIN AND WASHINGTON -- WMR has obtained the Confidential version of the Mehlis Report on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri
• March 28-30, 2008 -- UN panel says Hariri killed by "criminal network"

New evidence that Hariri assassination was ordered in Washington and Jerusalem

On April 29, 2009, UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon pre-trial Judge Daniel Fransen ordered the release from prison of four Lebanese generals who had been implicated in the 2005 car bombing assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The special tribunal convened on March 1 of this year and the UN took over the case against the four generals from the Lebanese government.

The four generals, who are considered pro-Syrian, were thought by the initial UN investigators and the Lebanese government to have been involved in a conspiracy hatched by Damascus to kill Hariri. However, as WMR previously reported, the evidence against Syria in the assassinations of Hariri and other leading Lebanese politicians was always flimsy. In fact, the assassinations of Lebanese leaders was cooked up by the Bush administration neo-conservatives and their allies in Jerusalem to force the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon.

In 2005, under pressure from the Bush administration, a UN investigative committee charged that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence were behind Hariri's assassination. Prior to the release of the four generals, Mohammad Zuhair al-Siddiq, a former Syrian intelligence officer, was arrested in the United Arab Emirates as a suspect in Hariri's assassination.

The four Lebanese generals released were Jamil Sayyad, the chief of Lebanese General Security under the Syrian occupation; Ali al-Hajj, the former chief of the Internal Security Forces; Raymond Azar, the former head of Lebanese Army intelligence; and Mustafa Hamdan, the chief of the Presidential Guard under then-President Emile Lahoud. They were held for four years in prison without charges being brought or even being questioned by prosecutors.

Chief UN prosecutor Daniel Bellemare asked Fransen to drop the case against the "four generals" because a key witness against them retracted his testimony, causing the case to collapse.

Lebanon's Hezbollah welcomed the release of the four generals.

In December 2008, the UN Special Tribunal in a report to the UN Security Council, stated: "Those responsible for the attacks were professional and took extensive measures to cover their tracks and hide their identity. Much of the Commission's activity at this point . . . focuses on piercing this smokescreen to get at the truth."

On October 24, 2006, WMR reported: "A senior French DGSE -- Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure-- intelligence officer has told WMR that Lebanon's ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a car bombing arranged by Israel's Mossad. The revelation from French intelligence is significant as the French government of Jacques Chirac joined the Bush administration and the neo-con policy establishments in Washington and Israel in blaming Syria for the attack. According to the DGSE officer, Israel and its American backers wanted to blame Syria for the assassination of the popular Lebanese leader in order to blame Syria for the attack thus forcing the popular Lebanese revolt that saw the withdrawal of Syrian forces. That left Lebanon defenseless for the 'Clean Break' attack launched by Israel, with US support, against Hezbollah and Lebanon's infrastructure. WMR was one of the first to report Israeli and American involvement in the assassination of Hariri, as well as those of Elie Hobeika, George Hawi, and other Lebanese politicians."

On March 28, 2008, WMR reported: "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."

It is not yet known whether al-Siddiq, the former Syrian intelligence agent arrested in the UAE, is thought to be a member of the criminal network, described by the UN, that killed Hariri.

On March 28, 2008, WMR also stated: "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."

On November 1, 2005, WMR reported: "WMR has obtained the Confidential version of the Mehlis Report on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Mehlis is the Senior Public Prosecutor in the Attorney General's Office in Berlin. He was named Commissioner of the UN International Independent Investigation Commission into the Hariri assassination. Mehlis is a darling of neocons who served in the Reagan administration. It was his investigation of the 1982 La Belle Discotheque bombing in West Berlin that was used as justification by Reagan to launch a 1986 bombing attack on Libya. Mehlis concluded that Libya was behind the attack conveniently at the same time that pro-Israelis in the Reagan administration, including Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, Paul Wolfowitz, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Scooter Libby, and others were calling for an attack on Muammar Qaddafi. The Mehlis Report, dated October 19, 2005, states the Commission 'focused on the crime scene, technical aspects of the crime, analysis of telephone intercepts, the testimony of more than 500 witnesses and sources, as well as the institutional context in which the crime took place.' The confidential copy indicates that certain information, all of which implicates Syria and pro-Syrian Lebanese officials, was added just before the report was issued."

The dropping of all charges against the four generals is yet additional proof that the Mehlis Report was a neocon fraud aimed at destabilizing Lebanon in 2005, forcing the withdrawal of the Syrians from the country, sending Syria a warning to close its border with Iraq to prevent fighters from entering Iraq to fight U.S. occupation troops, and leaving Lebanon wide open for a brutal Israeli attack in 2006. WMR's November 1, 2005 report concluded: "Given all the bogus intelligence emanating from the neo cons and their Israeli, British, Italian, and Iraqi allies prior to the invasion of Iraq, the 'intelligence' contained in the Mehlis Report, which may have been placed therein by unconfirmed US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton and his staff, makes the charges against Syria highly dubious."

The dropping of the charges against the four generals is seen as a boost the electoral chances for Hezbollah in June elections. Currently, Lebanon is governed by a pro-U.S. and anti-Syrian government led by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. The nationalistic and anti-Israeli opposition primarily consists of the Shi'a-dominated Hezbollah and an influential Christian faction led by retired General Michel Aoun.

On April 1, 2005, the a U.S. State Department neocon propaganda unit, referring to this editor as a "self-described journalist," attacked the reports about Hariri being assassinated by U.S. and Israeli interests. The Obama administration continues to maintain the Bush-era State Department propaganda website that attacks journalists who cite American crimes and malfeasance in other countries.