The Timing of a Leak

SpiegelOnline/Freedom's Cost ^ | 05/24/2009 | Chaim

[chaimke]

Nobody doubts, by now, that Syria had a very strong motive for murdering their most powerful and popular foe in Lebanon, Rafik Hariri. But the UN’s International Tribunal may have uncovered something very different… Germany’s SpiegelOnline now has this report:

On February 14, 2005, Valentine’s Day, at 12:56 p.m., a massive bomb exploded in front of the Hotel St. Georges in Beirut, just as the motorcade of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri passed by. The explosives ripped a crater two meters deep into the street, and the blast destroyed the local branch of Britain’s HSBC Bank. Body parts were hurled as far as the roofs of surrounding buildings. Twenty-three people died in the explosion and ensuing inferno, including Hariri, his bodyguards and passersby.

The shock waves quickly spread across the Middle East. Why did Hariri have to die? Who carried out the attack and who was behind it? What did they hope to achieve politically?

[EQAndyBuzz]

So? Send a strongly worded message and be done with it already/

[Verginius Rufus]

The quote from Joe Biden about the rule of law is interesting—he connects it to growth and prosperity, but belongs to an administration that doesn’t believe in the rule of law. Another sign that Obama and Biden are not interested in the US having growth and prosperity (since other gorals are more important).

[G Larry]

Attempts to understand the web of treachery and double-cross in the Middle East are impossible.

The West needs to focus on what is good for America, Israel, and the free world, and execute it's policy accordingly.

Why Israel?
Is it wise to leave them with only the nuclear option in their self-defense interests?

[forkinsocket]

I don’t believe the alleged Hizbullah link. Sounds like a last-ditch attempt to influence the elections. I also don’t personally care who killed Hariri.