|| -----Original Message-----
|| From: Peter K.
|| >This assassination isn't just about Sharon, it's about Israel's
|| occupation
|| >of Lebanon. So nobody has as strong a motive a Israel to
|| eliminate Hobeika,
|| >nobody would risk the Phalangist backlash and civil war just for
|| >account-settling, and nobody else could pull off something like
|| this in
|| >Phalangist west Beirut.
|| >
|| >So please get real and stop sticking your head in the sand.
|| >
|| >Hakki
||
|| Oh give us a break, Hakki. Hobeika had switched sides, yet
|| again,
|| and was backed by the Syrians. Some want the Syrians out of
|| Lebanon.
|| However, the professionalism of the hit does point to Israel.
||
Better luck next time, Peter. You think you can pull off a hit against the Syrians and get away with it? Hobeika's "political career" was over: No more assassinations and massacres, no need for a Hobeika. He had become a "businessman". He wasn't a player any more, but he wasn't a pushover either. No Lebanese would think of taking him out unless he had a death wish.
The Times reports "there is speculation that the Syrians could be behind" it bec Hobeika's testimony would "open up a can of worms" for them too. Who's speculating, I wonder. Let me speculate: Mossad? And what terrible secret crimes have the Syrians committed in Lebanon that could be any worse than what we know already? The 1976 Tel el Zaatar massacre by the Phalange was exactly what Israel pretends Sabra and Chatila was: The PLO attacked the Phalange and the Phalange levelled the camp while the Syrians watched. Fisk wrote that the reason behind the PLO attack was bec Arafat needed martyrs. The Syrians never had to intervene and get blood on their hands, unlike Israel in 1982. Tshahal trucked the Phalangists to the camps, gave them radios, provided illumination so they could continue killing at night, received some of the Palestinians rounded up by the Phalangists and interrogated them, and then "disappeared" them.
Syria was still on the State Department's list of state-sponsored terrorism in April 2001 and as such is subject to US sanctions. It's hoping to finally get off that list and wouldn't risk blowing up its chances just bec some disreputable lowlife is going to mention Syria in a Belgian court.
We'll likely see more planted stories in the media and possibly even a "revenge bombing" to prove it was a Lebanese job.
Hakki