Free Republic

The moment the news came over the wires that Syria's interior minister had committed suicide in his office in Damascus, we found ourselves thinking of a wonderful movie that came out some years ago called "Colonel Redl," about an officer in the Hapsburg empire who got into trouble. It ends, as we recall it, with the colonel, played by Klaus Maria Brandauer, being visited in his office by one of his superiors, who leaves him a loaded pistol and departs. The next thing one hears is the shot with which Redl killed himself. It was the way things were done...

Kanaan (left) was Syria's top official in Lebanon for years Syria's Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan has committed suicide, the official news agency in Damascus says. He was reportedly questioned by a UN investigator last month over the murder of ex-Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri. For many years Kanaan was Syria's powerful intelligence chief in Lebanon, which was dominated by Syria until its military withdrawal earlier this year. Hours before his death, he gave what he called his "last" interview, saying he had served Lebanon with honesty. Mr Kanaan's chief aide said that he had shot himself in the mouth at...

DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria's interior minister, who ran Lebanon for many years and was one of several top officials caught up in the U.N. probe of the slaying of that nation's former prime minister, died Wednesday. The country's official news agency said he committed suicide in his office. The death of Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kenaan - just days before the final U.N. investigation report is due - was a new and startling sign of turmoil in Syria, whose authoritarian regime is girding for the chance that the U.N. report might implicate high-ranking officials in the assassination of former Lebanese premier...

A fascinating report from Syria. It seems that the Interior Minister, and former head of Syrian intelligence activities in Lebanon, which means Imperial Pro-Consul in Lebanon, has died suddenly. The Syrian government is calling it suicide. There are a number of possibilities. Perhaps Ghazi Kanaan (the minister) was about to be named as responsible for the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Raafik Hariri, and genuinely did commit suicide. Perhaps with encouragement. Perhaps, for the same reason of his potential embarrassment to the Assad regime, he was murdered. Perhaps, as I speculated recently, Bashar Assad is manoeuvring to switch direction...

Syria's interior minister, who was head of the country's military intelligence in neighboring Lebanon for nearly 20 years, has committed suicide, officials said. Ghazi Kanaan's death was reported Wednesday, days before the expected release of a United Nations report into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a prominent opponent of Syria's presence in Lebanon. The 63-year-old Baathist major general died in a Damascus hospital of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the interior ministry and other government ministers. The head of the intensive care unit at the hospital told CNN's Brent Sadler a small-caliber bullet...

Breaking news... CNN just ran this on the bottom of the TV screen...

Syria's interior minister Ghazi Kanaan has committed suicide, the official news agency in Damascus says. For many years Kanaan was Syria's powerful intelligence chief in Lebanon, which was dominated by Syria until its military withdrawal earlier this year. He returned to Damascus in 2002 to head the political intelligence agency and he joined the cabinet in 2004. The United States froze his assets there in July saying he had aided terrorism in Lebanon.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan's body was laid to rest in his northern home town in a low-key funeral on Thursday, and officials said a Lebanese "smear campaign" had pushed him to commit suicide. About 1,000 relatives and villagers walked behind the coffin, draped in a Syrian flag, in the village of Bhamra where black banners hung from some buildings, witnesses said. Kanaan was buried in a family cemetery. Kanaan killed himself on Wednesday, officials said, three weeks after he was questioned by U.N. investigators probing the assassination of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Damascus Attorney...