By Barry Schweid, Associated Press | October 22, 2005 WASHINGTON — President Bush yesterday said the UN should deal quickly and seriously with a report implicating Syria in the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister, a killing that led to protests and the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon after nearly 30 years as overlord.”The report strongly suggests that the politically motivated assassination could not have taken place without Syrian involvement," Bush said.In Damascus, Syrian leaders dismissed the findings and the government of President Bashar Assad prepared to fight growing Western sentiment to punish it with economic sanctions.Imad Moustapha, Syrian ambassador to the United States, said the report was baseless and the Bush administration was motivated by Syria’s opposition to the war in Iraq.He said of the report, in Washington, ”It will only help fuel anti-American sentiment around the world."The report was likely to worsen the divisions between Lebanon’s pro- and anti-Syrian groups. Syria’s opponents in Lebanon welcomed the findings as the long-awaited truth about the assassination and about Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs. Pro-Syrian politicians vigorously criticized the findings.The United Nations investigative report, which Bush called ”deeply disturbing," made a link between high-ranking Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in the car bombing that killed Rafik Hariri and 20 others in February.
UNITED NATIONS Oct 20, 2005
By CLAUDE SALHANI UPI International Editor WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (UPI) — Quite unlike the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. Marines in Lebanon came in peace — and at the request of the Lebanese government. This Sunday, Oct. 23, will mark the 22nd anniversary of the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut where 241 U.S. servicemen, mostly Marines, lost their lives. At approximately 6:22 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 23, 1983, a lone terrorist driving a yellow Mercedes-Benz stake-bed truck loaded with explosives accelerated through the public parking lot south of the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit Battalion Landing Team headquarters building, detonating about 12,000 pounds of hexogen. According to the official Department of Defense commission report, the force of the explosion ripped the building from its foundation. The building then imploded upon itself and almost all of the occupants were crushed or trapped inside the wreckage.
THE United States and France plan to introduce two UN resolutions next week aimed at holding Syria to account for meddling in Lebanon and for its alleged links to the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.The moves
By Nadim Ladki BEIRUT (Reuters) – The leaders of Syria and Lebanon could be fighting for political survival if, as many expect, a U.N. inquiry blames Syrian and pro-Syrian Lebanese officials for the killing of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Analysts and diplomats say they expect a cycle of bombings and killings to continue or intensify in Lebanon, where Syrian influence remains strong and where pro-Syrians will challenge any such U.N. findings as politically motivated. Chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis presents his report to Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday over the February 14 assassination of Hariri and 20 others in a truck bomb in Beirut.Diplomats and Lebanese political sources have told Reuters they expect Mehlis to name some Syrian officials in his report, as well as several pro-Syrian Lebanese officials and others.It was not clear whether the suspects would include members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle.
BEIRUT, 13 October (IRIN) – People who know they are HIV positive in Lebanon keep very quiet about the matter to avoid becoming social outcasts. AIDS is taboo. Anyone suspected of having the disease risks total rejection by their friends, family and colleagues at work. Sara, a 40-year-old office worker in Beirut, knows all about that.
Oct 12 (Reuters) – Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan, said by Syria’s state news agency to have committed suicide on Wednesday, long served as the top enforcer of his country’s policies in Lebanon. Kanaan was interviewed last month by a U.N. team probing the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis is expected to submit his report to Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Oct. 21. 


