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May 29, 2009
Exclusive: Tribunal Leak Blackens Hezbollah's Eye
In less than two weeks, Lebanon will be holding tightly contested elections pitting the pro-freedom March 14 Alliance and the Hezbollah-led March 8 Alliance against each other. While some analysts fear a shift to Hezbollah, new information leaked from the UN tribunal investigation of the Rafik Hariri assassination could cause a shift in the polls – the Lebanese equivalent of an “October surprise.”
On May 23, Erich Follath wrote in the German magazine Der Spiegel that internal documents provided by sources close to the investigation directly link Hezbollah to the 2005 Valentine's Day Massacre which killed Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 23 others in Beirut. According to Der Spiegel's source, the tribunal has been aware of this information for a month, but has been holding back the information.
According to Follath, the late Captain Wissam Eid, formerly an intelligence expert with the Lebanese Internal Security Forces, and his team of investigators tracked down a network of eight cell phones that were in the vicinity of the attack. Captain Eid was killed by a car bomb along with his bodyguard and three bystanders in 2008. There is evidence linking Hezbollah to Eid's assassination as well.
The article says the phones – dubbed the “first circle of Hell” – were all purchased on the same day in the northern Lebanese town of Tripoli, activated six weeks before the attack, and (with the exception of one phone) were not used after the attack. That phone was used by a Hezbollah member – believed to be Abd al-Majid Ghamlush – to call his girlfriend. Ghamlush was identified as the person who purchased the phones. As a result of the phone call, investigators were able to link the Hariri bombing to Hezbollah's military commander Hajj Salim. These eight phones are considered to be those used by the assassins.
Then, another network of 20 phones – the “second circle of Hell” – was apparently discovered to be in the same proximity of the eight phones “noticeably often.” All of the 20 are believed to have belonged to members of Hezbollah's “operational arm.”
Evidence also has been discovered identifying the Hezbollah member who purchased the Mitsubishi truck used in the Hariri bombing. In addition, the origins of the thousand-plus pounds of explosives have been traced.
The tribunal press office has said that they “do not address speculation. The only information that is reliable is provided by the prosecutor himself.”
Hezbollah, who has quite the track record of kidnappings and assassinations of those they oppose, denied any connection to the massacre and said in a statement that the revelation was “a pure fabrication aimed at influencing the election campaign.” Hezbollah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah called the report an “American-Israeli scheme” intended to ignite sectarian conflict. The terrorist group also claims that Der Spiegel is a Zionist-funded entity that serves Israeli interests.
Lebanese politicians also provided their own criticism of the report: Lebanese president Michel Suleiman called the report “suspicious” and said it was damaging to the UN tribunal. Lebanese foreign minister Walid al-Moallem dismissed it as “trash.”
Several publications have turned out as well to criticize Follath and marginalize Hezbollah's motivations to eliminate Hariri. Follath has since told the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper that he is not surprised by the article's backlash, and that the reaction to his story has further emboldened him. As the old firehouse cliché goes, “Where there's smoke, there's fire.”
While these revelations may not create any dramatic shift in the polls – it is believed that most Shiites will still vote for Hezbollah's March 8 Alliance – this “May Surprise” has surely blackened the eye of the already dark terrorist group.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Chris Carter hosts the talk radio program Unto the Breach, which covers international terrorism and issues of national security. He is a research analyst at the Counterterrorism Research Center of the Family Security Foundation. He also serves on the information committee of the 2010 Medal of Honor Convention project. Visit him online at http://www.crushingchris.com/.
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