Who Killed Samir
Kassir?
By Robert Fisk
03 June, 2005
The
Independent
The
bloody hand has reached out to Lebanon once more, striking down one
of its most prominent journalists and one of the most vociferous and
bravest critics of the Syrian regime.
Samir Kassir was
the best known columnist on An Nahar, a valued member of the opposition,
newly married and - like so many of us in Beirut - living on the happy
assumption that with Syrias troops and intelligence officers withdrawn
from Lebanon, he had nothing to fear.
So who murdered
Samir Kassir?
"He always
left home at 10.30am and I saw him walking across the street,"
a female neighbour told me yesterday. "He always left home at the
same time. He opened the door of his car, sat inside and started the
engine. Then the car blew up."
Close inspection
of Mr Kassirs Alfa-Romeo, registration number 165670, showed clearly
the blast came from beneath the drivers seat. It tore open the
roof, blasted out the drivers door, smashed the steering column
and hurled Mr Kassir on to the passenger seat. The ignition seems to
have detonated the bomb.
This was a shock
that no one in Beirut expected - except, of course, the assassins. Germanys
top detective, Detlev Mehlis, is already here with his team to investigate
the murder of the former prime minister Rafik Hariri in February. We
all thought that Lebanons assassins were in their rabbit holes,
fearful of arrest.
But no, they are
still on operational duty, still in killing mode. Nassib Lahoud, the
opposition MP and friend of Kassir - he may be the next Lebanese president
- was in tears when I spoke to him beside Mr Kassirs wrecked car.
He talked about "criminal hands", about the "intelligence
apparatus" who he blamed for the assassination. The only word he
didnt use was "Syria".
So who murdered
Samir Kassir?
Just before he resigned
this year, the pro-Syrian head of Lebanons General Security Service,
Jamil Sayed, hysterically offered to arrest himself if he was blamed
for Hariris murder. Mr Kassir had written a brutal article the
next day, pointing out that it was good to see those who had threatened
journalists and who had censored journalists now showing their own fear
of justice. Rustum Ghazaleh, who was head of Syrian military intelligence
in Lebanon, screamed abuse at the journalist.
So who murdered
Samir Kassir?
In 2001, after a
series of articles excoriating the Syrians and pro-Syrian Lebanese intelligence
operatives, airport security confiscated his passport on his return
from Amman, claiming they wanted to "verify the conditions upon
which it was obtained".
Mr Kassir was of
Palestinian origin but had travelled on his legally-issued Lebanese
passport on 14 recent occasions. In 2001, he complained he was under
surveillance and his neighbours claimed they were interrogated by intelligence
officers.
So who murdered
Samir Kassir?
Nassib Lahoud, who
was last night attending a meeting of opposition leaders in Beirut -
among them was the Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, who was a close friend
of Mr Kassir - had no doubts about the reasons for the murder. "Criminal
hands did not target Samir because he was a brilliant journalist,"
he said. "They did not target Samir because he was a brilliant
intellectual. They have targeted Samir for being one of the leaders
of Lebanons spring, because he was part and parcel of the opposition.
So the battle with the intelligence apparatus is not over. This assassination
is meant to tell us that Lebanons march towards democracy should
not be an easy ride."
Mr Kassir, who had
two children from a previous marriage, had only recently married Giselle
Khoury, a journalist on the Arabiya satellite channel. "Why dont
they leave us alone now?" one of their young neighbours asked me
yesterday. "Why must they go on using this methodology of murder?
We have to stop this. Are they trying to drive all the young people
out of Lebanon?"
This week, An Nahar
picked up a story that had been running in its rival paper, Mr Hariris
daily Al-Mustaqbal, and named three prominent Syrian intelligence officers
who it claimed had - in defiance of UN Security Council resolution 1559
- returned to Lebanon to interfere in elections.
Identifying Syrias
spooks is not a healthy thing to do. Their names were given as: Brigadier
General Mohamed Khallouf - who was the senior Syrian intelligence officer
in Beirut until last April - Nabil Hishmeh and Khalil Zogheib, who used
to run Syrias secret services in Tripoli. Syria denied the men
were here. Mr Kassirs last column - on Friday last week - was
an attack on the Syrian Baath party, headlined "Mistake after mistake".
So who murdered
Samir Kassir?
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