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Source: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=121844
CBC Report Tarnishes Hizbullah Image Further
(Daily Star-Lebanon) Michael Bluhm - The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) report alleging Hizbullah's involvement in former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination has further tarnished the party's reputation, analysts said Wednesday. The Hizbullah response to the CBC documentary hinted that the group considers the accusation of some of its members as a fait accompli, said Habib Malik, who teaches history at the Lebanese American University. The group is angling to minimize the possible damage, Malik added. "They're getting ready, in a sense, to cut their losses." The CBC report serves to further chip away at Hizbullah's shaken reputation, said Hilal Khashan, who teaches political studies at the American University of Beirut. Since its military successes against Israel in the summer 2006 war, Hizbullah has seen its image sullied by the sit-in that emptied Beirut's Downtown from December 2006 and armed clashes in western Beirut in May 2008, Khashan added. Hizbullah gunmen seized swathes of western Beirut after the former Cabinet took steps that Hizbullah believed encroached on its prerogatives. "Hassan Nasrallah has resigned himself to the issuance of the indictment," he said. "Hizbullah's position in the Arab-Islamic world reached its peak right after the summer 2006 war. Since then its image in the Arab-Islamic world has been declining....Hizbullah is seen more as an instrument in Iran's hands rather than as an agent of anti-Israel liberation."