Interpol issues warrants for Hariri killing suspects

Interpol has circulated arrest warrants for four suspects in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri, U.N.-backed tribunal said on Sunday.

"Interpol issued red notices against each of the accused who remain anonymous because the contents of the indictments remains confidential," he said.

It has not named the suspects but Lebanese officials said the accused are members of Hezbollah, including Mustafa Badreddine, a senior member of the movement and brother-in-law of slain Hezbollah commander Imad Moughniyeh, and three other members of the group.

This is going to get interesting, there may be an American connection.

Besides Mustafa Badreddine, the other three suspects are: Salim Ayyash, Hassan Aneissy AKA Hassan Issa, and Assad Sabra.

Badreddine AKA Sami Issa AKA Elias Saab, 50, is a cousin and brother-in-law of Imad Mughnieh. He sits on Hezbollah’s Shura council and heads its external operations and is closely connected to Lebanese Christians. He was arrested and imprisoned in Kuwait in 1983 a member of the "Kuwait 17", escaped in 1990, fled to Iran, then to Beirut. He is thought to have planned the operation.

Salim Ayyash AKA Abu Salim, 48, born in Harouf, is an American citizen. He is accused of being the assassination cell leader and may have been at the operation.

The assassination was a highly sophisticated remote detonation by cell phone. Somehow the convoy's cell phone jammer was disabled at the moment of detonation. Hariri was a very powerful Sunni leader and former Prime Minister.

Sorry for the late reply I was up in the mountains for the better part of this week visiting the tombs of a few Saints.

Well its been fairly quiet really..

The christians dont really care as they are enjoying the most power that they have had denied to them in a very long time by the sunnis, and are starting to work on new laws, infact because the hariri government did nothing in all those years they have a backlog of about 1500 laws up for discussion. The christians are also trying to abandon the taef accord which cut off all christian power in government and transfered it to the sunni prime minister. As much as the western media call it a hezbollah government, they have 2/30 ministers, agriculture and a minister of state representing shiites(each sect has a minister of state), and they have some 10 out of 128 in parliament (not too sure but roughly that amount).

The Hezbollah leader spoke a week ago and he mentioned that no one will ever find those people in the indictments, be it now or in 300 years. I would guess theyre most likely somewhere in Iran where no one can get to them and they will be tried in absentia.

To me it does seem like a Syrian/Hezbollah operation. I mean from the quick withdrawal of Syria from Lebanon and the rallies hezbollah did to thank syria for “helping” lebanon. Then the subsequent “suicide” of the former head of syrian intelligence, Ghazi Kanaan, on the same day he gave an interview denying any involvement. The assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the explosion of a truck filled with shiites which was explained as an “accident”. The assassination of the lebanese intelligence officer who discovered the initial evidence using the phone networks and found a mistake of one of the perpetrators because instead of dumping the phone used it to call his girlfriend. All these point to the tying up of loose ends.
What I do not see, however, is the motive that hezbollah would have had. I can see the Syrian motive, as Syria was in a dispute at the time with hariri over the extension of the mandate of then president emile lahoud, at the time and even till now hezbollah doesnt care about political power, even giving up a seat in the ministry to the sunni’s(which technically was unconstitutional) so that the government would be formed.
On the basis of motive, Syria and some would say israel are the top of the list. The arguments given on Israels motive, is to get syria out of lebanon as they would not be able to attack hezbollah while syria is in lebanon without creating a much larger conflict. The fact that lebanon has caught about 300 spies working for israel in the last few years, the majority in the telecoms sector, including some people in hezbollah which hezbollah left unnamed so as to not shame the families.

Thats as much of the whole story that I can say. My bet is hezbollah execution on behalf of syria, and I also think that after they are tried in absentia nothing will happen, the matter will die down eventually until the next major conflict. This is the UN afterall, and both sides in lebanon seem committed to not start infighting which could lead to civil war, that plus the fact that no one could match up to hezbollah, who even the israelis would admit are extremely seasoned fighters. When you think about it, their fighters have been at it constantly for 30 years now, which is alot of experience, continuous experience.

In the meantime the christians are surprisingly benefitting from this because theyre usually the only ones that get things done and are working on the whole backlog of issues that parliament has amassed.

The druze were the ones who broke the government last year by switching sides. They basically played the kingmaker. Its all Hariri’s fault, the whole situation, he should have never tried to deny the christians what was their right when general aoun returned from exile after the syrians left lebanon. General Aoun was out for revenge and wanted to audit the entire government and every government employee since the beginning of the occupation.
He gained alot of seats in parliament, roughly 1/3 of it which was the largest block as the parliament is very fragmented and even though he had such a large block, hariri as the prime minister did not give him even 1 minister when he formed the ministry positions. This led to aoun and his christian block to seek an understanding with hezbollah, and moreso the shiites in lebanon, which i believe culminates in the eventual disarmament of hezbollah.

It was basically a larger picture of the Sunnis trying to hide their corruption and hold onto power which they snatched from the christians via the Taef Accords. I dont envy the position of the christians in Lebanon at the moment, while they may be sitting pretty right now usually these muslim disputes will somehow end up with the targetting of christians.

NOTE The following text is a quote:

www.interpol.int/Public/ICPO/PressReleases/PR2011/PR062.asp

INTERPOL media release
13 July 2011

INTERPOL Red Notices issued for Hariri assassination suspects at request of Special Tribunal for Lebanon

LYON, France – At the request of the Special Tribunal of Lebanon (STL), INTERPOL has today issued Red Notices, or international wanted persons alerts, for individuals wanted in connection with the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Prime Minister of Lebanon.
The Red Notices, the first issued by INTERPOL on behalf of the STL, have been circulated to all 188 member countries and include essential identifying information such as photographs and fingerprints of the wanted persons.

In addition to being accessible via INTERPOL, the Red Notices can also be added to foreign law enforcement databases and border lookout systems to assist in the identification, arrest and transfer of the suspects to the STL. Many INTERPOL member countries view a Red Notice as the basis for the provisional arrest of a wanted person with a view to their extradition.

In accordance with the request by the UN-backed court, the Red Notices are currently restricted to law enforcement only and cannot be viewed by the public.

Ahead of today’s request for the issuance of Red Notices, details of the individuals were entered into INTERPOL’s global databases on Friday 8 July, following the issue of a STL international arrest warrant. All member countries were subsequently informed of the update to INTERPOL’s criminal records and requested to enforce the warrant.

“The two steps taken by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, firstly ensuring that these individuals were entered into INTERPOL’s databases and secondly their request for Red Notices will significantly restrict the ability of these people to cross international borders to try and avoid detection and is a powerful tool to help in their location and arrest,” said INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble.

“We have and will continue to closely cooperate with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in their efforts to identify and bring to justice those responsible for the assassination of Rafik Hariri,” added the head of the world police body.

Details of the Red Notice subjects remain under seal and any further enquiries relating to the investigation should be directed to the STL.

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