Kanaan Speaks from the Grave? & Syria in Iraq

Mideastwire.com has translated a few stories of interest. The first is the al-Seyassah story reporting that Ghazi Kanaan, the Minister of interior and long time intelligence chief and master of Lebanon who committed suicide last fall at the time of the UN's release of its first interim report on the Hariri investigation, recorded all he knew about the Hariri murder. Although plausible, this sounds like black propaganda timed to build suspense before the release of the final UN report, which is due. The source was a "Gulf diplomat," who also described how Kanaan was murdered and where he was shot. How he could know this information, which was surely not included on a pre-recorded video by Kanaan, is a mystery and hard to figure. Sounds like gory detail thrown in for a little extra sensation, but which ultimately is unbelievable. Here is the article.“Ghazi Kanaan in videotape before his assassination reveals names...”

In its September 4 edition, Al Seyassah, an independent daily, reported that: “According to diplomatic information at the UN in New York, there was ‘a possibility that a dramatic surprise might emerge in the investigations into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Al-Hariri, which might give the Syrian regime in Damascus a deadly blow’, in light of the increasing talk about ‘finding the most truthful evidence which proves that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad himself, along with a few members of his family and close aides, have supervised, minute by minute, the course of the assassination operation since its early stages and months before it occurred, in terms of planning, preparation and execution, in collaboration with Lebanese political, military and security leaders, as well as groups affiliated to a number of parties, factions and Salafi groups’. “A Gulf diplomat at the UN headquarters in New York, stated that the information – the source of which he preferred to keep out of the spotlight for the time being – pointed out that ‘this mind-blowing surprise was due to the possible existence of a videotape, recorded in picture and sound, by the head of the Syrian military intelligence and former minister of interior…, Major General Ghazi Kanaan, a few weeks before his suspicious ‘suicide’’. “[The diplomat continued:] ‘In this tape, he revealed the plot to assassinate Al-Hariri from A to Z, with names, dates and the details of the crime from its planning stages until its execution in February 2005, in addition to the reasons which made the head of the Syrian regime make such a move, the most prominent of which is the fact he received false information which claimed that Al-Hariri was planning with foreign and Arab sides to overthrow the Ba’thist regime in Damascus, and that these plans had reached very advanced stages since the issuance of resolution 1559, which called on Syria to withdraw from Lebanon’. “The Gulf diplomat added in a phone conversation with Al Seyassah in Paris, that ‘the intelligence bodies of Major General Asef Shawkat, Al-Assad’s brother-in-law and the second men in the state today, had information according to which Ghazi Kanaan was planning to leave the regime and resort to the US with all the documents and information regarding the assassination of Al-Hariri, as well as the assassination and attempted assassination plans which preceded and followed it in the ranks of Lebanese politicians and journalists’. “Also, according to the information of the Gulf diplomat, ‘the Syrian minister of interior (Kanaan), had been placed along with his family members, his aides and followers outside of the security circle of the Ba’th party politicians and businessmen, and under strict observation… He realized that his plans to leave the regime and resort to the US were uncovered, and he was determined to elude [them] sooner. However, everything got out of his control’. “According to the information, ‘on October 12 2005, and as he had just arrived to his office at the Ministry of Interior, he might have received a phone call or a warning from one of his close aides, regarding the fact that Asef Shawkat and his people were heading personally to confront him with the information they had about his plan to escape and his relations with the Americans. He realized that it was all over, which would justify why he left his office and went home for 45 minutes then came back to the Ministry: he smuggled out the videotape and surrendered it to someone that is not necessarily a member of his family…’ “According to the information of the Gulf diplomat: ‘The regime of Bashar Al-Assad and his brother-in-law, Asef Shawkat, might not know about the existence of Ghazi Kanaan videotape…’ The diplomat expressed his belief that Kanaan might have resisted Shawkat and his people when they confronted him in his office with the information they had about ‘his betrayal of the party and the president’ and that after he realized what was going to happen to him following his arrest, he desperately attempted to use his personal weapon. However, they beat him by shooting him all over his body, then gave him a mercy bullet in the head…” - Al Seyassah, Kuwait“Riyadh whispers to Damascus: this is the end between us”
Elaph, a pan Arab website, reported in its September 5 issue about the diplomatic differences between Saudi Arabia and Syria. The website reported: “It seems that the silent crisis between Riyadh and Damascus is on its way towards escalation after the servant of the two holy shrines, king Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz, refused to receive one of Al-Assad’s delegates who came to Jeddah last week in an attempt to explain his president’s speech which aroused the anger of the Saudi government according to what Arab sources told Elaph. This practically marks the end of the time of ‘low voices’ in what relates to conflicts inside the Arab house. In an indirect reply to the criticisms that came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan against Hezbollah for capturing two Israeli soldiers which led to the war in Lebanon, the Syrian president announced: ‘If the resistors are adventurers then do we say that Sultan Basha Al-Atrash and Ibrahim Hananu (Syrian indepen! dence heroes) and Sa’d Zaghloul (Egyptian patriotic leader during British colonization) were adventurers’. The Saudi government was the side that described Hezbollah’s operation as an ‘uncalculated adventure’.”Iraq