| Hussein Assi | |
Mustafa Hamdan to Al-Manar Website:
In an exclusive interview with Al-Manar Website, Hamdan said that whoever stands behind the so-called Special Tribunal for Lebanon was in need for the indictment to pave the way for a Sunni-Shiite sedition that was entitled to include the whole region, from Egypt to Bahrain and Lebanon. He noted that to achieve this objective, the indictment would state that “a number of Shiite individuals have killed the Sunni Prime Minister.”  While ruling out the possibility that any internal side would carry a stupid act on ground to serve the political verdict, and expressing belief that the Lebanese army was ready to confront any act that threatens the country’s high interests, Hamdan undermined the value of any arrest warrant that could be issued by the tribunal, and said that international arrest warrants have proven to be baseless and valueless.Hamdan called on the Lebanese government to demand the United Nations to inquire the four years of investigations in Hariri’s assassination. He also urged the government to demand the formation of a Lebanese-international committee that supervises the expenditures of the STL, which was mostly financed by Lebanese taxpayers’ money; however, those appointed by the court spent most of this money on carnivals and events that do not serve the goal. The retired general, meanwhile, described the US embassy in Beirut as a den of intelligence that transferred from the state of collecting data to execution. He said that the Israelis and Americans were two faces of the same coin, and noted that those who resemble former PM Fouad Saniora who confessed that he serves the U.S. should be the embarrassed ones. INDICTMENT IMMINENT… Brigadier General Mustafa Hamdan told Al-Manar Website that the indictment in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was believed to be imminent. He reiterated that the so-called Special Tribunal for Lebanon was politicized. He said that whoever stands behind the tribunal needed to use it as a tool to serve his plot to create sedition not only in Lebanon, but in the whole region. Yet, he noted that this indictment’s level of destruction diminished in light of the recent developments in the region. “There was a plot to create sedition throughout the region, from Beirut to Cairo and Bahrain,” he said. While noting that the possibility of making use of the indictment, even in the local political scene, was very low, he stressed that the American administration was the one who specifies for the STL President Antonio Cassesse and STL Prosecutor Judge Daniel Bellemare the time to release the indictment. He also noted that releasing it at this stage was aimed at raising the morale of those he called “the US embassy bloc” as well as pressuring the new Lebanese government, headed by PM Najib Miqati and determined to face the American-Israeli project in the region. WE WILL FACE INDICTMENT WITH ALL POSSIBLE TOOLS Asked whether there was any plan to face this indictment, General Hamdan asserted that the new majority forces would face the indictment through all possible means. He said that such confrontation requires first of all national unity and commitment to basic principles and values. He stressed the need to keep away from provocations that might be adopted by the US embassy group. Hamdan stressed the need to face the indictment at the level of the new government, especially if it was released conform to prior rumors and leaks. He said that the indictment would not name the Resistance as a suspect in Hariri’s assassination. Rather, it would claim that a number of Shiite extremist individuals have killed the Sunni PM, serving therefore the sedition scheme in the region, Hamdan emphasized. Hamdan called the Lebanese government to ask the United Nations to launch an inquiry over the progress of the investigations throughout the four years that followed the assassination of the former premier. He said that such an act could not be considered as a confrontation with the international community but an attempt to restore justice. He recalled that the former head of the investigating committee into Hariri’s assassination German Judge Detlev Mehlis has issued his own indictment when he accused Syria, President Emile Lahoud and the four officers, including Hamdan himself, of involvement in the crime. “Then, we saw former PM Saad Hariri saying that these were all mere lies. Afterwards, we discovered that Hariri himself was a partner in the false witnesses’ conspiracy,\" he said, referring to the audio recordings that showed Hariri chatting with the so-called king witness, Mohamad Zuhair Siddiq. WHERE DID OUR MONEY GO? Hamdan pointed to another issue that should be taken into consideration by the government when dealing with the tribunal, its financing process. He noted that millions of dollars were spent since the tribunal’s creation, and said that the Lebanese people had an important contribution in it. He wondered whther rumors about corruption within the STL were true, and pointed to the suspicious phenomenon of recurrent resignations whithin the tribunal, which seemed to be abnormal. He also pointed to the “carnavals” organized by the tribunal, in contradiction with its mission. He urged the STL officials to complete their real mission and find out the truth in Harri’s assassination case instead of holding workshops and organizing carnavals here and there. In a related development, Hamdan said he did not understand how the members of the policy statement’s drafting committee could disagree over the STL stance. He said that all Lebanese agree that they want truth and justice in this cause. However, he noted that this so-called international justice has proven to be ambiguous and unfair. “That’s why the government should take a precise stance in this regard and call for the formation of an investigative committee,” he said. IDIOCY NOT ALLOWED Asked wheter he fears the reactions that could be adopted by the ‘other bloc’ in case the indictment was released, Hamdan said that current local circumstances in addition to the region’s political map don’t allow any idiocy from this kind, in the service of an indictment believed to be politicized. Yet, he expressed belief in the abilities of the Lebanese national army, and said it was ready to face all acts undermining stability and threatening the nation’s higher interests. He also undermined the value of any arrest warrants, saying that international arrest warrants proved to have no value at all, and that they were trash, nothing more. He said the arrest warrants were silly, like the whole tribunal. “Not only arrest warrants were released against us. We were also unfairly detained. Then, we were freed and they were obliged to apologize from us. We don’t want this scenario to repeat itself.” DID US EMBASSY TURN TO BE RELIGIOUS SITE? The Murabitoun leader, meanwhile, described the US embassy in Beirut to be a ‘den of intelligence’ that turned from the stage of collecting data to execution. While confirming that diplomats in the embassy were involved in a number of security incidents in the country, he found strange how some Lebanese rushed to defend the embassy following the latest speech of Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, even before its spokesman “spy Ryan Cliha”. He wondered whether the embassy turned to be a religious site, in light of the defensive remarks. Hamdan told Al-Manar Website that he knows, in detail, how the US embassy officials sought to put Lebanese journalists and journalists in their service. He recalled of the CIA officials who were in the embassy and how they used to move and with whom. Hamdan stressed that what happened proved that the Americans and Israelis were absolutely the same. He said that those who should be embarrassed are the ones who previously confessed in one sense or another of being US spies, such as former PM Fouad Saniora and former minister Mohamad Chatah. He also recalled how some politicians used to claim that they like the Americans and hate the Israelis, which seemed to be impossibe as Barack Obama was Israeli before the AIPAC and Benjamin Netanyahu turned to be American in front of the Congress. ISRAELI THREATS… INTERNAL MESSAGE To end, Hamdan commented on the recent Israeli threat of attacking south Lebanon in case the situation in the region ‘deteriorates.’ He said that all what the Israelis say nowadays was in fact addressed to their own scared and concerned society. He pointed out that 90% of the Israeli statements and messages only concern the Israelis themselves. While noting that the Resistance takes them into consideration, he said that all drills and threats actually reflect the Israeli state of confusion and alertness. Hamdan said that Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah offered in his latest speech a comprehensive and clear vision of the conflict in the region, and specified the Resistance factions from Iran to Gaza, passing through Syria and Lebanon. |
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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