Hamadeh Describes to STL Syria-Hariri Race for Power
MP Marwan Hamadeh told the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Thursday that during the months that preceded ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination in Feb. 2005, Syria sought to grant former President Emile Lahoud “all powers” at a time when Hariri worked on forming an anti-Damascus opposition in hopes of winning the general elections.
“Lebanon was a parliamentary system, which was being shifted by Syria into a presidential system, whereby Lahoud - a Syrian candidate and a Syrian representative - was grabbing all powers,” Hamadeh told the STL Trial Chamber.
“All other actors in Lebanon's political system were becoming secondary actors … All other institutions were reduced to stooges,” the lawmaker stated on his fourth day of testimony at the court that is trying five Hizbullah members in absentia in Hariri's killing.
Hamadeh, who resigned from the cabinet along with three other ministers following the extension of Lahoud's term in September 2004, said his resignation was in compliance with an agreement reached with Hariri.
The ministers were Fares Boueiz, and Hamadeh, Ghazi Aridi and Abdullah Farhat -from the Democratic Gathering bloc of Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat.
Hamadeh's resignation letter along with the other members of the bloc included a statement that it was “impossible to participate in bearing the responsibility to what had happened.”
Hariri and the parliamentary majority voted for the extension of Lahoud's term until November 2007 after Syrian President Bashar Assad threatened he would “smash Lebanon” over his head.
The former president, who had been the army commander, was first elected for a six-year term in 1998.
Hamadeh said that after the appointment of interim minsters following the resignations, Hariri was eager to “appease” the Syrian feelings, telling ambassadors that U.N. Security Council resolution 1559 should not provoke further Lebanese divisions.
The resolution was adopted in September 2004. It called on "foreign forces" to withdraw from Lebanon and non-Lebanese militias to disband.
Pro-Syria officials at the time said there was a direct link between the extension of Lahoud's term and its adoption.
The lawmaker revealed that Hariri and his allies then “worked on forming a popular and parliamentary opposition” to the extension and the continued “Syrian occupation of Lebanon” that was aimed at “imposing major political decisions on Lebanon.”
“We also tried to put a platform to the (parliamentary) elections which were planned for the spring of 2005 … We tried to change things,” said Hamadeh.
Hariri used to call the pro-Assad MPs, who were the parliamentary majority back then, “Syrian submarines,” said the lawmaker.
Hamadeh said there was heavy influence by Damascus in the election of lawmakers during the Syrian hegemony over Lebanon.
He added that Syria had repeatedly asked Hariri and Jumblat to add to their electoral lists pro-Syrian candidates to guarantee a majority of lawmakers allied with Damascus.
The forced extension and the Syrian dictates prompted Hariri to begin putting long-term plans for the spring elections in hopes of clinching the majority in parliament.
He sought hard to form a “moderate cabinet” that represented most parties in Lebanon, said Hamadeh. The former premier wanted a government that would be able to “limit tension” and guarantee his personal safety.
Hamadeh said his assassination attempt forced an end to Hariri's efforts to find an “acceptable balance” in a new cabinet.
The car bomb blast that targeted the lawmaker in October 2004 was considered to be the start of a series of killings and murder attempts of anti-Syria Lebanese politicians and journalists.
But Hamadeh said that the alliance formed by Hariri and known at the time as the “Bristol Gathering” began to grow when other anti-Syrian officials, including the so-called Cornet Shahwan gathering of Christian figures, joined the fight against Damascus' role in Lebanon.
It was a time of “democratic uprising” and an “era of the battle of the opposition until the assassination of Prime Minister Hariri,” he said.
G.K.
M.T.
10 years
yes, it's about time they start getting some concrete evidence, we didnt spend hundreds of millions of dollars on that tribunal to get hamadeh's gossip.
10 years
Mowaten, concrete evidence there is in ample quantity, but must we forget that there is concrete Resistance?
10 years
no phoenix, there is no concrete evidence. everybody seems to want to think there is, but there isn't, it's a myth. don't take my word for it, take the prosecution's own declarations and see for yourself.
10 years
God bless all those who were the victim and help those who are still being victimized by the same entities with orders from the same source assasinated by people known to all whatever you call the benificiary is the ayatollah in Kom. Mastermind of all this started to show his ability long before Hariri was killed. You know what I am talking about. Iranian Rev. Guards ...
10 years
the beneficiary of all this is the one who gains from creating a rift between sunnis and shias in lebanon. the whole assassinations campaign and that joke of a tribunal have one goal: to create internal strife in lebanon
10 years
gee anonyme you're such a mess with your random statements and the nonsensical links you make between unrelated thing. (what has hezbollah fighting takfiris in syria got to do with anything here? is that your "proof" that they killed hariri? lol)
10 years
what a liar... Aoun and the overall Christian parties were opposing Syrians since 1992... and they did not even considered Kornet Shahwan which started back in 1997..
They were pro syrians until they could not make more money from the syrians.
Hamadeh is trying to change history ? Lek he voted again for Berri back in 2006...LIAR
10 years
Nice try FT Quornet Shahwan was created to oppose the Syrians by the patriarch, most of it's members including members of parliament were always anti Syrian. Hamadeh ie Jumblat's block turned anti Syrian after 2000 when they realized the Syrian army was not going to withdraw after the Israelis left. All this is in the public domain and anyone can check it regardless of Alakhbar and otv's attempts to rewrite history, one great source is tayyar's own archives.
10 years
George... Aoun had, has, and always will have his own agenda. He will ally with the devil himself if it would bring him to power. Actually... he did!
10 years
They voted for Berri because there was no other alternative. Shias imposed Berri, he is the highest representative of a sect that represents 30-40% of this country. What were they supposed to do? Elect a M14 Shiaa??
10 years
FT... nobody pays me for nothing. And I don't spend my life on this forum like yourself. Not everyone is on the payroll you paranoid thug!
10 years
Aoun in 1992?
He was in Paris living of the French welfare system.
10 years
<== Souviens toi, remember, تذكر
10 years
All this doesn't make sense and it doesn't matter anyways. Jumblat hamadeh hariri etc were all syrian puppets in lebanon. As if some people still believe that hariri was a good guy. No politician is a good guy, that's why they are called politicians. I guess they became anti-syrian cause they weren't able to steal as much as they did from 94 to 04. If Bachir was still alive, non of these thieves would have exist, and I mean on the lebanese political scene. I would really appreciate if Naharnet would consider posting my comments. Thank you
10 years
Lebanese have this cult of martyrdom which I can't explain! Not because someone gets killed he becomes a martyr and mother Theresa. Please let's not forget how hariri was perceived by a big chunk of the population back then before he was killed. While we should all condemn the crime and its perpetrators, his death doesn't make him a better person. It is dangerous to have revisionist versions of the victim, and allow our emotions take over. Politicians will always play on emotions in favor of their agendas, it is up to us to rationalize and avoid falling victims of their games. Just food for thought...
10 years
I see a barrel as your he hiad ... ni breans inside explos ivs ibstead. Dropped by exclusively on one sect ...... ask yourself who was it beside Assed!
10 years
Now we have the caporal who is the best khadim and agent to Syria
10 years
I love it when a shiite hezballite repeats tishreens recently prepackaged editorials and pretends to know all about aoun's struggles for the cause, because only a few short years ago shiite hezballites were taught to repeat the classic utilitarian 'aoun "served Israel's interest" '. Poor aoun has to rely on shiite hezballites to speak for him after most veteran aounists left and he's stuck with a few family members, some old disgruntled Lfers and kataeb, easy to manipulate youth and the ex baath, ssnp and commis men at arms who block his access to the outside world
10 years
2012: Aoun was against the Orthodox law then switched and was for it.
1989: EVERYONE but Aoun supported Ta'ef. That includes Geagea, Hobeiqa, Gemayel and others.
And spare me the "destroys" Christian seat argument. Suleiman Franjieh was president and was still a Syrian puppet, he kept his Marada militia even while he was president and let Syria into the country... Amine Gemayel was a horrible president...
1994: Geagea visits Damascus?? So what?? Aoun visited Damascus in 2009...
2005: Geagea was still in jail when the Ouwwet had a brief alliance with Amal and Hezbollah
2005: Aoun said Syria killed Hariri. After allying with Hezbollah: he said it was Fatah al-Islam...
Please stop spreading lies and propaganda. You hate Geagea for the very same thing Aoun is doing today. You ridicule Geagea for being a Syrian puppet 30 years ago, so you think it's okay for Aoun to take his turn now... You have a very selective memory Flamey
10 years
1994: geagea visits Damascus for bassel's funeral (flame actually it was for condolences not the funeral, your syrian moukhabarat handler should have told you that why didn't he, humm..)
2014: a delegation headed by the tawhid movement leader wiiam wahhab visits bsharre for farid geagea's condolences..
my god nooooo flame, the tawhid movement and their leader wiiam wahhab as now part of the lebanese forces what more proof do you need hahahahaha
10 years
Please STOOOOOOOPPPP writing insanities...
10 years
first let them show us the slightest credible proof, then if we dont accept it you can say that. for now all we heard was gossip and conjectures based on telecom data that was under israeli control for years
10 years
Please show us one shred of evidence that telecom date was "under israeli control" for years.
Please show us one shred of evidence that israel manipulated even one phone call data.
I don't claim israel never did any harm, but your dismissal of the telecom data because someone on israeli payroll may have worked in a telecom department does not mean the telecom data was compromised.
There is no evidence the telecom data is not accurate. Quite to the contrary, the STL will show that the telecom information is accurate and corroborated by multiple data inputs. Falsely manipulated telecom data can be verified through analysis, and no such manipulation has been found.
Besides, this topic will be subject to review by the STL. Telecom experts much smarter than you can make their argument before the court. Your argument is only offered by people who are ignorant of the telecom system, and have no clue about how such a system works.
10 years
Exactly right Tex. Also, many of the israeli spies were caught with telecom data during the same period when momo says israel had "full control" over telecom data.
Telecom data is one of the primary tools of finding suspects for crimes. After suspects are identified, they are then taken in for questioning to determine their guilt.... except when the suspects are Hezbollah, in which case the suspects can never be questioned!
10 years
you must be joking people-power, right?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle+east-10651074
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Business/Lebanon/2010/Oct-25/59199-itu-decries-israeli-breaches-of-lebanese-telecom-sector.ashx
http://911blogger.com/news/2010-07-15/lebanon-second-telecom-spy-far-more-dangerous-first
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/lebanon-arrests-third-telecom-spy-20100716-10e1v.html
10 years
and more details here on what they were able to do thanks to those spies:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/11/201111295498547664.html
""Once one has physical access to the system, it's relatively trivial to break into many of these systems," he continued. "One can both renumber systems as well as change the records of call details once you have access to these databases; likewise you can check and change affiliations of phone numbers, such as change the names associated with numbers, change the numbers associated with IMEIs [unique identification codes that verifies a mobile device].""
10 years
"Quite to the contrary, the STL will show that the telecom information is accurate and corroborated by multiple data inputs. Falsely manipulated telecom data can be verified through analysis, and no such manipulation has been found."
lol gotta love how you take your fantasies for realities.
10 years
"Methods of infiltration include the tampering of BTS towers, either physically or remotely; using firewall equipment manufactured by Israeli companies, which allows Israel to install backdoors and access for remote log-ins."
10 years
During the 2006 war, engineers at Alfa noticed unusual activity in their servers; the log, which records who logged into the system, both remotely and locally, would restart itself on a daily basis, without any command ordering it to do so. Furthermore, the log would reboot itself before registering where the command originated from.
According to Illeik, "the engineers in Alfa were seeing this happen in front of their eyes, and couldn’t do anything to stop it".
"If [the spies] gave the root passwords to the Israelis, all bets are off. This would allow the Israelis to log onto the computer systems controlling the networks as administrators," explained Taher. "At that level of control, they can access and modify data, install software programmes, shut down or re-set the different systems, as well as modify or erase any audit logs that would record their actions."
10 years
yes terrorist, you're right. now go play with somebody of your mental age. bye.
10 years
all you show us mooowaten are "ifs".... not evidence... so your theories are just hezbi wishful thinking and fantasies ...
if israel wanted to spead chaos they would have killed MPs and politicians from both sides... not only M14 opposed to your syrian masters....
syria and hezbollah both had interests in all those killings....
stop your propaganda it will spare you from being ridicule each time you log on here....
10 years
typical M8 answer... when out of any sensible arguments they get scared and insult.... the weapon of the weak and coward...
no further comment needed....
10 years
peace you're irrelevant. anybody reading the article posted above would know better than you with your naive blindess.
10 years
then i am sure that the lawyers of hezbollah will bring all the evidence indicting israel... no doubt they will, ma hek?
the tribunal should summon the countries that refused to give satellite pics and videos so we get the truth quickly with less time and money for Lebanese
god bless the truth and democracy