[Atlantic Monthly] Joshua Hammer - The investigation into the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri is nearing its end and a trial in international court looms. Insiders say the trail of evidence leads, ultimately, to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But the investigators now fear that Western concerns about regional stability will prevent the naming of the biggest names. The bomb that killed Hariri killed 21 people and injured 220 more. It set dozens of cars on fire and knocked down several buildings. A report to the UN about the assassination revealed that three months before Hariri's death, his security detail had been mysteriously reduced from 40 to eight; that six anonymously purchased mobile phones were used on the day of the attack to keep the bomber informed of Hariri's movements and to provide intelligence on the three possible routes that Hariri could take from the parliament building to his home; that the suicide truck moved into position one minute and 49 seconds before Hariri's convoy passed by; and that the truck itself had been stolen in 2004 in Sagamihara City, Japan. The killers appeared to be sophisticated, politically connected, and well-funded: clearly this was not the work of a lone extremist or a fringe group. It bore the hallmarks of a government-sponsored assassination.
2009-02-06 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive