Reminder: UN Report On Hariri Assassination Whitewashed To Remove References To Syrian Bigs

It's time for regime change at the world's own Stasi on the East River:

THE United Nations withheld some of the most damaging allegations against Syria in its report on the murder of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, it emerged yesterday.

The names of the brother of Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and other members of his inner circle, were dropped from the report that was sent to the Security Council.

The confidential changes were revealed by an extraordinary computer gaffe because an electronic version distributed by UN officials on Thursday night allowed recipients to track editing changes.

The mistaken release of the unedited report added further support to the published conclusion that Syria was behind Mr Hariri’s assassination in a bomb blast on Valentine’s Day in Beirut. The murder of Mr Hariri touched off an international outcry and hastened Syria’s departure from Lebanon in April after a 29-year pervasive military presence.

...

It raised questions about political interference by Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary- General, who had promised not to make any changes in the report.

One crucial change, apparently made after the report was submitted to the UN chief, removed the name of President al-Assad’s brother, Maher, his brother-in-law, Assef al-Shawkat, and other high-ranking Syrian officials.

The final, edited version quoted a witness as saying that the plot to kill Mr Hariri was hostaed by unnamed “senior Lebanese and Syrian officials�. But the undoctored version named those officials as “Maher al-Assad, Assef Shawkat, Hassan Khalil, Bahjat Suleyman and Jamal al-Sayyed�.

The deleted names represent the inner core of the Syrian regime.

Has there ever been a more corrupt piece of shit than Kofi Annan? Where the fuck did they find this vermin?

Thanks to Doug. Link to full article at LGF (linked above).

Apologies to Dr. Reo Symes and all readers... as he already covered all this Saturday.

It's a big story, in my opinion, so I won't take it down; let's just call it a Howell Raines-like "flooding the zone" effort.

'Sides, weekends have depressed readership. Because if you're reading a blog on a weekend, you must be pretty depressed.

Here's a link to Dr. Reo Symes post, which is longer and more thoughtful than my cussing-out of Kofi Annan.

posted by Ace at 02:30 PM

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