(New York Times Magazine) Ronen Bergman - On Feb. 14, 2005, an explosion in front of the St. Georges Hotel in downtown Beirut destroyed a convoy of vehicles carrying Lebanon's former and probably next prime minister, Rafik Hariri, killing him along with eight members of his entourage and 13 bystanders. Wissam Eid, a police captain who studied computer engineering before enlisting in the Lebanese Internal Security Forces, led the local investigation. He found that in October 2004, just after Hariri resigned, a certain cluster of cellphones began following him and his motorcade wherever they went. On the day of the bombing, nearly all 63 phones in the group immediately went dark. Eid had evidence linking the phone network to senior members of Hizbullah. On Jan. 25, 2008, as Eid and his bodyguard were driving on a freeway in East Lebanon, a car bomb exploded, killing them. In the long term, Hizbullah's standing inside Lebanon has been compromised by the allegations. The group has depicted itself as caring for the welfare of all Lebanese. But now the UN tribunal is producing overwhelming, albeit circumstantial, evidence that Hizbullah murdered the most important politician Lebanon had ever produced, and indiscriminately slaughtered many others in the process.
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