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WikiLeaks: Lebanon Defense Chief Worked with U.S. Against Hizbullah

(Los Angeles Times) Borzou Daragahi and Meris Lutz - U.S. officials collaborated with Lebanon's defense minister to spy on Hizbullah and allow Israel to potentially attack Hizbullah in the weeks that preceded a violent May 2008 military confrontation in Beirut that consolidated that group's power in the country, leaked diplomatic cables suggest. The American military flew planes over Lebanon in 2008 to identify Hizbullah positions and provide the information to friendly elements within the Lebanese government, specifically the Ministry of Defense. In a separate American cable, Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr is described as giving American diplomats advice to pass on to Israel for any Israeli attack on Hizbullah and vowing that the Lebanese army would stay out of such a fight. A cable depicts Murr as saying that the Lebanese army's "strategic objective was to survive a three-week war 'completely intact' and able to take over once Hizbullah's militia has been destroyed." Murr, a member of Lebanon's Christian community, told the Americans that Israel should avoid conducting attacks in southern Lebanon now patrolled by thousands of international troops and not "bomb bridges and infrastructure in the Christian areas."
2010-12-03 07:53:35
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