Why Der Speigel was wrong

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The Truth about Rafik Hariri

By Sami Moubayed

One week before his assassination in February 2005, former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, out of office at the time, told Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah: “I believe in this resistance. And I am telling you that if I become prime minister again I will not implement the [disarmament] article of [UN] Resolution 1559. I swear to you that the resistance and its weapons will remain until the day a comprehensive regional settlement is reached, not just until [the Israeli] withdrawal from the Sheba’a Farms.”

Hariri added, “On that day, when that agreement is reached, I will sit with you and say: ‘Sir, there is no further need for the resistance and its weapons.’ If we agree, that’s what will be. If we disagree, I swear to you and before God [he also swore by his deceased son Hussam] that I will not fight the resistance. I will resign and leave the country [before that happens].”

Hariri after all, was an Arab nationalist at heart and a one-time member of the Movement of Arab Nationalists, who was strongly bent on breaking Israel – only through economic strength, rather than military power.

This conversation came to mind while reading the sensational report published in the German magazine Der Speigel, which accused Hezbollah – without a shred of evidence – of having ordered Hariri’s killing. The magazine reported that these findings have been kept secret by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which opened in March in the Netherlands, adding, “investigators now believe Hezbollah was behind the Hariri murder.”

It adds that a “special force” from Hezbollah, “planned and executed the diabolical attack”. The magazine does not quote sources, nor does it support its argument with documents, simply firing off accusations that it expects readers to accept as fact.

Among other things, it said that cellular phone lines linked to the murder were the property of Hezbollah, and trace directly to a certain Hajj Salim (no last name), who the magazine describes as second-in-command of Hezbollah and head of a special operational unit. It adds that this was discovered when a Hezbollah commando used one of the hot lines to telephone his girlfriend.

It claims – again with no evidence – that Nasrallah felt threatened by Hariri’s popularity, because “the billionaire began to outstrip the revolutionary leader in terms of popularity”. Hariri was, in a sense, the alternative to Nasrallah”. Anybody familiar with Lebanese politics knows that this is untrue, since each man represented a different constituency.

Hariri, a smart man, never tried to penetrate the Shiite strongholds of Lebanon controlled by Hezbollah. Likewise, although many Sunnis supported Nasrallah, they never saw him as their champion. The conversation between the men, and a study of the Nasrallah-Hariri relationship in 1992-2005, is testimony that Hezbollah had no business eliminating a man who had supported its war during his different tenures as prime minister. It would have been like shooting itself in the foot.

The cellular phone story is grossly flawed, since the lines mentioned were bought by a Sunni group in Tripoli, and not by Hezbollah, a fact that was stated by the first Special Tribunal for Lebanon prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, and confirmed by all his successors, including the incumbent, Daniel Bellemare.

Let us keep in mind that if Hezbollah wanted to purchase the lines, it certainly would not have sent certified Hezbollah members to do the job. Simply put, the group is too smart to leave behind a smoking gun. Hezbollah does not perform reckless acts. It would certainly not allow one of its members to call a girlfriend from a phone number tied to an assassination of this magnitude.

The 62-year-old magazine has a long track record of misconduct and is often accused of sensationalising stories for the sake of sales. It became notorious in 1950, when the federal parliament launched an inquiry into the magazine’s accusations that bribes had been paid to members of parliament to ensure that Bonn, rather than Frankfurt, became the seat of the West German government.

In 1962, there was the so-called ‘Spiegel Scandal’, after the magazine published a report on the low state of readiness of the German armed forces – prompting authorities to launch an investigation, raid its offices and arrest its editors. Wolf Schneider, an eminent German journalist, has called the magazine “the biggest mangler of the German language”.

Many believe that the magazine’s latest accusations are linked directly to the upcoming Lebanese elections, and have been fabricated by a certain party to hurt Hezbollah’s chances. The organisation itself expects a landslide victory and several countries have already said that they are willing to deal with any elected Lebanese government. Many in Lebanon and Israel are not happy about this, and would go to great lengths to try to change perceptions about Hezbollah two weeks ahead of the election.

Hezbollah has called what was published in Der Spiegel lies and called on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to take action against the magazine.

As the story snowballed, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora yesterday downplayed the information published in Der Spiegel, while Druze leader Walid Junblatt added that Israel was behind the story, warning that it might trigger another civil war. The controversy will have a direct impact on the elections – in Nasrallah’s favour.

Sami Moubayed is editor-in-chief of Forward Magazine in Syria.