According to high-level Lebanese intelligence
sources�Christian and Muslim�former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was
reportedly assassinated in a sophisticated
explosion-by-wire bombing authorized by the Bush administration and Ariel
Sharon's Likud government in Israel.
There are also strong indications that the Hariri
assassination was carried out by the same rogue Syrian intelligence agents used
in the 2002 car bombing assassination of Lebanese Christian leader Elie
Hobeika, who was prepared to testify against Sharon in a Brussels human rights
court. That case involved the Israeli Prime Minister's role in the 1982
massacre by Israeli troops of Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Chatilla
camps in Beirut. The Hariri assasination used wire-bombing technology because
Hariri's security personnel used electronic countermeasures to fend off a
remote control bomb using wireless means. It has been revealed that the Bush
administration has used Syrian intelligence agents to torture al Qaeda
suspects through the program known as "extraordinary rendition."
Hariri, a pan-Arabist and Lebanese nationalist, was known to
adamantly oppose the construction of a major U.S. air base in the north of
Lebanon. The United States wants Syrian troops completely out of Lebanon before
construction of the base is initiated. Hariri's meetings with Hezbollah shortly
before his death also angered Washington and Jerusalem, according to the
Lebanese intelligence sources.
Washington and Jerusalem media experts spun Hariri's
assassination as being the work of Syrian intelligence on orders from President
Bashar Assad. However, a number of Middle East political observers in
Washington claim that Hariri's assassination was not in the interests of Assad,
but that the Bush and Sharon administrations had everything to gain from it,
including the popular Lebanese uprising against the Syrian occupation.
Lebanese intelligence sources report that even without a
formal agreement with Lebanon, the contract for the northern Lebanese
air base has been let by the Pentagon to Jacobs Engineering Group of
Pasadena, California. Other construction support will be provided by Bechtel
Corporation.
Jacobs Engineering and Jacobs Sverdrup are currently
contracted for work in Saudi Arabia for Aramco, Iraq for the U.S. occupation
authority, Bosnia, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Yemen, Oman, and the
United Arab Emirates.
The Lebanese air base is reportedly to be used as a transit
and logistics hub for U.S. forces in Iraq and as a rest and relaxation
location for U.S. troops in the region. In addition, the Lebanese base will be
used to protect U.S. oil pipelines in the region (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and
Mosul/Kirkuk-Ceyhan) as well as to destabilize the Assad government in
Syria. The size of the planned air base reportedly is on the scale of the
massive American Al Udeid air base in Qatar.
A number of intelligence sources have reported that
assassinations of foreign leaders like Hariri and Hobeika are ultimately
authorized by two key White House officials, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove
and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliot Abrams. In addition, Abrams is the
key liaison between the White House and Sharon's office for such covert
operations, including political assassinations.
"Abrams is the guy they [the Israelis] go to for a wink
and a nod for such ops," reported one key source.
� 2005
WayneMadsenReport.com. All Rights Reserved.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based
investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is author of the forthcoming book, �Jaded
Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops & Brass Plates.� He is the editor and
publisher of the Wayne Madsen
Report.