Lebanese Minister Assassinated

[Curiosity]

http://voanews.com/english/2006-11-21-voa29.cfm

Anti-Syrian Lebanese Cabinet Minister Gemayel Shot and KilledBy VOA News
21 November 2006

Pierre Gemayel (File photo)Lebanese Cabinet minister and Christian leader Pierre Gemayel was assassinated in a suburb of Beirut Tuesday.
Witnesses say the gunmen rammed their car into Gemayel's vehicle in a Christian neighborhood, and then riddled the minister's car with bullets. The 34-year-old minister was taken to a hospital, where he later died.

Gemayel is the latest in a number of anti-Syrian politicians who have been assassinated in Lebanon over the past two years.
A United Nations inquiry has implicated Syrian officials in one of those killings - the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri last year in Beirut.
Syria has condemned Gemayel's assassination in a message carried on the official Syrian news agency SANA.
In Washington, U.S. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns denounced the attack as an act of terrorism. He reiterated U.S. support for the government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
Earlier this month, six pro-Syrian Cabinet members resigned to back the Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah's demand for veto power. Hezbollah has called for an end to Mr. Siniora's government.
Gemayel is from a family of prominent politicians that include his father, former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, and his uncle, Bashir Gemayel, who was assassinated in 1982.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.

 

[thomaska]

I'm sure that the CIA and Mossad are involved..

 

[CDNBear]

I'm sure that the CIA and Mossad are involved..

Wait, gopher will be here soon to tell us. Or perhaps his new side kick, logic7 will be.

 

[Sassylassie]

It's not hard to figure out that Syria is behind yet another killing in Lebanon


Article:
Minister: Damascus bent on destabilising Lebanon

Reuters

Beirut: Syria is bent on destabilising Lebanon, whose security forces are not yet strong enough to prevent more possible assassination attempts, Lebanese acting Interior Minister Ahmad Fatfat said.
Fatfat said in an interview on Saturday that he had recently received a message from someone close to the Syrians, telling him and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to 'take care'.
The message had said the Syrians were 'more angry than before February 14, 2005', the date of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination, Fatfat said.
He did not spell out what had riled Damascus, but tensions have risen in recent weeks amid Syrian criticism of Siniora's government as unrepresentative and as serving Israel's interest.
Fatfat, a Sunni member of the anti-Syrian Future Movement led by Hariri's son Sa'ad, said he was sure Syria still had informants in Lebanon, despite its troop pullout last year.
Political message
"The [Lebanese] security services are more powerful now, but not enough to control everything," he added.
He said last month's attempted assassination of a senior Interior Ministry intelligence officer was likely to have been 'a political message related to the [Hariri] investigation'.
Asked if Syria sought to destabilise Lebanon, Fatfat said: "Yes...they are doing it so clearly, it is not camouflaged." Fatfat cited what he said were demands by Syrian President Bashar Al Assad for a change of government in Beirut.
"He's the president of another country, what does he have to do with it?" Fatfat asked, asserting that Syria still refused to open diplomatic relations or demarcate its border with Lebanon.
"We are not looking for a change of regime in Syria, it is not our business," the soft-spoken minister said. "Our business is to push Syria to accept Lebanon as a country, not more."

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[Curiosity]

The consensus on some of the political forums I don't belong to but read.... is....

That Syria and Iran are fully behind any destabilization they can manage in Lebanon. These are two very powerful nations and if one digs more deeply than we seem to be doing - we will find these two influencing
the Shiites in Iraq to overthrow the "democratic" government in place.

It's called a wear down war.... so many enemies like rats scurring out of a hole in a wall....and they don't wear uniforms for identification.