Independent Lebanese

Sayed Hassan You were Wrong

2006-08-14T02:25:00.000+03:00

Sayed Hassan with all due respect, YOU WERE WRONG

انهمرت دموع رئيس وزراء لبنان فؤاد السنيورة

2006-08-08T01:35:00.000+03:00

أَذا الرِّجالُ بَكَتْ ... قاَلت مَّا فِي الفُؤادِ
وربَّ دمعةٍ ذُرِفُتْ ... أَصابِتْ لبَّ الفؤادِ
كدمعةٍ مِن عينيكَ ... دولةَ الرئيسِ فُؤادِ

دَمٌ يُرَاقُ وَدَمْعَتِي ......... كَدَمِ عُرُوقِ فُؤادِ
وكلّ دَمْعَةٍ غَلَبَتْ ........ عَبَرَتْ حُدُودَ فُؤادِ
وأذا الدمعةُ رَدَّتْ ........... عَدُوّاً ذَادَ فُؤادِ

صُمُودِي دَمْعَةٌ صَدَّت ....... عدوَّ بِلادِ فُؤادِ

فَعَنْ بلادِي أَذُودُ ............. وَلَوْ دَمَعَ فُؤادِ

Arabic poetry above is by Ossama

We have all witnessed a historical and an emotional moment of PM Siniora's genuine love to his country and to his people. PM Siniora once again has proven how much Lebanon deeply means to him.Crying can be interpreted by many as a sign of weakness and despair but also weeping before the Arab ministers and the world can be a powerful message from a war torn and defendless country like ours.This event has taken me back to pay a tribute to a great leader, "our martyr Rafik Hariri", may God bless his soul and rest him in peace, Amen. Apparently, martyr Hariri's indisputable love to Lebanon has significantly rubbed off on PM Siniora.Despite our suffering and pain we will prevail, God willing.

Thanks, But..... we need your support

2006-08-05T16:26:00.001+03:00

Many thanks to all of you who asked about me and showed their support. I really appreciate it and need it to cope with all the destruction and death surrounding me. I need your support to stop the mass massacre that my people are facing as a result of the Israeli attacks on my country. My country is under attack with a level of aggression that I have not seen in my entire life. Barbaric acts against civilians, with no attention paid to the difference between children, women, elderly, and the handicapped on one hand, and fighters on the other. Everybody is a target for the bombs that are falling on us like black rain, like fire balls, from military planes that have not left our air since Wednesday July 12th, 2006. Their horrific noises have deafened our ears. Children's cries of horror are tearing our hearts. We asked for the international community's help to broker a cease fire. They did not care. All they care about are their regional interests.

The aggression is not only against people, but against infrastructure. All the bridges, tunnels, roads, electricity plants, fuel tanks, IT networks, water dams, and every other aspect of infrastructure has been or is being destroyed. Thousands of people have been displaced. We are currently helping people to settle in schools and other public facilities, and trying to supply them with minimum survival amenities.

We did not want war, but they did not ask us. We Lebanese people are tired of war, we want peace. Too many loved ones have died over 20 years of wars. I was born in war, grew up in war, lived through wars, through Israeli occupation, through assassinations, through horror, through displacements, and I had enough, we had enough, Lebanese people had enough, Lebanon had enough! Enough Destruction….enough!

Unfortunately, two Israeli hostages were taken and three were killed, an operation which I am deeply sorry that we could not stop. But does this justify a barbaric attack that has up until now killed at least 1,000 people, injured Thousands, displaced hunderds of thousands, and ruined an entire country? Israel bombed buses with 21 women and children fleeing from their village. Bombed a house killing more than 60 mostly children. Innocent people, running for their lives, not terrorists, not military people but women and children were burnt! The international community remains silent…

This summer was our summer. We were happy to show our beautiful small country to the entire world after we have been rebuilding it for 15 years. We invited friends, family, business people and promised them a lovely time. We were so proud of what we accomplished. In few days, Israel shattered our dreams in an unbalanced, crazy, sad, barbaric act of aggression; high-tech military planes high in the air bombing unarmed and defenseless people on the ground. In tghe first 4 days, Israel destroyed our country, killed our people… Blind Unjustified Aggression! Please help us spread the word. I and all the Lebanese need your support

Will Nasrallah be wise enough?

2005-11-26T17:00:00.000+02:00

Sayyed Hassan, I have always respected you because you are a man and you keep your word but it is too bad am starting to loose that respect and many others are as well.

Within your first interview after PM Hariri’s assassination, you made it clear that you will be the first to ask the punishment of those who killed Rafik Hariri, and no need to remind all what you said about that Man, and what you mentioned regarding what he tried to do and what he did for the resistance and Lebanon!

It is true that Syria yet isn’t proved guilty, but you and everyone knows that Syria is involved, as Syria was in control of everything on ground, and as Syria and its puppets from lahoud w jar, tried to vanish the evidence of the crime, and as neither Hizballah nor Syria or even Lahoud and his team, had accused Israel or any other outsiders!!! They thought, that this crime will be as their other crimes, and people will be sad, for couple of days and that’s it…

Back to the main point, in today’s speech nasrallah said that he doesn’t take orders neither from Syria nor from Iran, well this is pretty good, but how do you expect me to believe so when you are trying to cover the Syrian regime’s ass?

We are all with Syria the country and the people and we are all with the resistance against Israel, we all resisted Israel in Beirut and Saida and we respect Hizballah achievement and sacrifice. Defending Lebanon is something we all support, but till when Hizballah will stay in the grey zone regarding Syria and the Sheb3a Farms, what if Syria at the last moment said it is Syrian land and none Lebanese? Sayyed Hassan, I hope you & Hizballah won’t loose credit and I wish you will be aware not to be pulled into Syrian benefits and loose respects of Lebanese who respect and supported you!

We allied with Hizb in Beirut and Hizb stabbed us in the back and gave Wakim lot of votes, 2elna ma3leh ghalta, and Sayyed hassan said he will investigate this, w hayda khare2 kbir lal hizb, and it was just words in air, ma sifna shi.

Later in the south elections, we had no competition where Hariri and Sa3d, won by tazkiyi in Saida, and despite that we were asked to go and vote for the south as a sign of support toward Al-Mokawamee, and Saida gave hizb more than they ever took votes before from saida.

So I hope Sayyed Nasrallah yroo2 3layna, and be wise enough to stop loosing credits and respect, and act exactly as he said after Feb. 14! If Nasrallah thinks that the Syrian regime will be a true supporter than the Lebanese, then he would be making a Huge mistake!

by Wael

We Trust Mehlis

2005-11-09T18:03:00.000+02:00

here is a copy from Beirut Spring latest post,

PS: the link does not work with FireFox, use Internet Explorer.

The Petition

The "We Trust Mehlis" Petition is now available online. Everyone who believes that Detlev Mehlis is doing a good job should sign it. Tell your friends, your family, post it on your blog/website and encourage your readers to sign it. do whatever you can to let our opinion out. We cannot allow credibility of this man to be tarnished.

Perhaps this latest poll by Aljazeera will get you started:

This is the text of the Petition:

To: International and Arab Media Outlets
We, the undersigned, are noticing with increasing dismay the willingness of various media outlets to propagate the contemptible policy of discrediting Mr. Detlev Mehlis, the German Prosecutor in charge of finding the truth about the Hariri assassination.

We are listening with horror as different groups are trying to cast doubts on his impartiality and on his general integrity.

We have seen how Mr. Mehlis works and we trust that he’s doing a great job; we admire his professionalism and we sincerely thank him for his valuable time.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned
Please click here to sign it

Was Kanaan Mehllis's Secret Witness?

2005-10-12T20:38:00.000+03:00

Ok, these thoughts have been crossing my mind...

In the last interview he made he said clearly in Arabic (Bifteker) "I Think that" this is the last interview I Can make".
According to AP as posted by naharnet, "He left to go home then he came back after three quarters of an hour, took a gun from the drawer and fired a bullet into his mouth,"

Why did he use the words "think" and "can"? Why didn’t he confirm that this was his last interview?

Why did he go home, then went back to the office?
Why did he kill himself afterwards?
What happened that made him do the interview, then go home and back to the office?

My bet is the following:

Kanaan could have been the Secret witness of Mehllis
Mohamad Sadik was a hoax created by Mehllis to divert suspicions away from Kanaan
Syria found out, when he arrived to his office in the morning, they forced him to make the radio interview...
While doing the interview, he felt that it could be his last; hence he used the words “think” and “can”
Upon completion, officials gave him the choice of either being brutally killed along with his family or he commits suicide while giving him assurances that if he commits suicide, his family will be safe.
He chose the suicide scenario.
As a last wish, he asked to say farewell to his family, they accepted
He went home came back to the office after 45 minutes
He committed suicide

Update 13th October:

Almustaqbal news paper hinted to such a theory in its headlines
Walid Jumblat made a press conference in which he almost defended Kanaan, which might suggest my theory.

Update 16th October:
Assafir news paper mentioned:

Mehllis is asking for an autopsy of Kanaan's body,
Mehllis is also asking for an investigation that should determine the source of the information broadcasted by NTV (the TV station that broadcasted information related to the investigation that the Mehllis team did with Kanaan)

Here is the extract from Assafir:

توقف ميليس امام حادثة انتحار وزير الداخلية السورية اللواء غازي كنعان، وطلبه رسميا من سوريا السماح له بالتحقيق في الحادث بما في ذلك اعادة تشريح الجثة. وكذلك فتح تحقيق حول مصدر المعلومات التي اوردتها محطة <<نيو.تي.في>> حول مضمون التحقيق الذي اجرته اللجنة مع كنعان

Future Movement and Syrian Occupation / Presence

2005-10-04T13:28:00.000+03:00

There are different types of resistance:

Method One: Resistance in Exile
Is to Leave Lebanon and resist from outside (like what GMA and Raymond Edde did)

Method Two: Resistance from Inside
Is to stay in the country and resist politically from outside the cabinet, then either end up in Jail (ja3ja3) or get murdered (Ramzi Iranai)

Method Three: Resistance from Within
To resist from within
Try to make the country better, by fighting politically and try to have the country ready when the occupation is removed.. That is what Martyr Hariri did.

One of the virtues of Martyr Hariri (by testimony of many) was dialogue, he always tried every door, if the door closes he used to try another door...

In 1998, he felt that his method will not work, so he went out of the government and tried Method Two... Which led to false imprisonment of his guys.

In 2000, and despite the counter efforts, Martyr Hariri won the elections and went back to practice the third way, if you remember the first thing that he insisted on was the re-deployment of the Syrian troops; at that time Syrian troops left Beirut and other parts of Lebanon (but unfortunately the intelligence forces remained)..

Now coming in 2004, he again as in 1998 saw that all the doors are closed, he went back to Method Two which lead to his Martyrisim....

Now even if I consider the assumption that Martyr Hariri Was Pro-Syrian, he changed, he got murdered. While others are STILL Pro-Syrian..

SO I beg all of those who are saying nonsense to stop saying it.. If he was pro-Syrian he would still be Between us

If we take a different approach to this issue, I would like to ask those who criticizeize FM position during Martyr's Hariri era, the same question about their position from 1990 to 2000, regarding the Isareli occupation.

I am not here trying to say that they supported the Israelis for I deeply know that they didn't support them, but to understand the Non FPM and LF position regarding the Syrian PRESENCE, you have to search in FPM and LF position regarding Israel. If they deeply didn't care then we didn't care, If they were concerned but thought that they can do nothing, then the same applies to us. If they wished that they can do something but thought that the methods used were wrong then so we did.

All this to say that yes some people worked and wished that Syria will never leave, Some others didn't care, others were supportive in their way, Some would have loved to to resist but in their way, and some WERE with FPM on august 7th. and all this is now OVER for the most important now is not who and when started to resist Syria or Israel.

The most important now is to build a better future for our children, and together.

Infrared triggering mechanism might have caused Martyr’s Hariri assassination:

2005-09-30T21:20:00.000+03:00

Today Reuters reported : Sources close to the Investigators believe the truck bomb was detonated remotely, possibly by an infrared device to bypass jamming equipment in Hariri's motorcade, the source added.

That is the most plausible technical explanation I have heard in relation to the mode of triggering of the truck. As the Motorcade of Martyr Hariri was equipped with Radio Frequency Jamming Devices that spread over a wide spectrum of frequencies. Since Infrared is not a RF Signal, it is rather Energy (or as commonly known as heat) it can bypass all the RF jamming equipment the motorcade was equipped with.

For example, a person's body generate some sort of infrared energy in the surroundings, and the principle of alarm detection is based on detectors that detect this infrared energy emitted by the body or an external source and triggers an alarm.

Technically speaking this is plausible, as all what is needed is:

a) Line of sight

b) The assassin will be equipped with a High power infrared transmitter, such as a laser link (which can have a distance in Kilometers); or even something similar to the Military laser used to paint targets making them easy for airplanes to hit

c) A receiver to be mounted on the truck

d) The receiver connected to a relay and hence to a triggering device..

Once the motorcade of Martyr Hariri passed next to the truck, the assassin fired or pushed on a button causing the transmitter to send an infrared energy that is picked up by the receiver, and hence detonation.

To make it simple for non technical persons, I do not know if you watched Arnold Swazinger's movie "Predator", well the idea of the movie is that the alien sees the infrared energy transmitted by the person to locate his presence.. Now there is a device that generates high power infrared energy that travels through kilometers... And this is the sort of thing Reuters was referring to.

To make it more simpler, take the TV or Stereo remote control (which works on the Infra Red technolgy, with the receiver built in the TV set), it has a range of several meters. Think of a similar device but with hundreds of meters range, so a similar device could have been the trigger.

That is something I never thought off.... So as Jamil Sayed said, the assassin is either an Einstein or a jackass, I think what best describes him as Mikari said (A jackass who thought he was Einstein)

It Already Started, Hizballa defending Syria Against Mehlis Report..

2005-09-30T01:29:00.000+03:00

Hizballa has been refusing to issue any clear stand in regards to the Mehlis investigations; however, from time to time they said they want CONCRETE proof.. and by concrete proof they mean that only confession is accepted.

Well many have speculated on what will Hizballa's stand will be after the report is published, I think this stand is already starting to show, today Manar TV started the Anti-Report campaign by reporting that Melhis Report has no concrete proof implicating any one, and all what Mehlis managed to find out was the logistics on how the assassination occurred...

mmm, my bet is we are going to start seeing Hizballa defending Syria very very soon..

As a fried of mine said: I think Hizballah will accept a Syrian indictment... if there is a picture of Bashar with his finger on the button, and saying cheeeeeeeeeeeeese.

Update October 4th 2005

I couldn’t help but notice the figures that attended meetings held with Nasralla yesteday:

Omar Karami: a strong ally of Syria and Strong Anti FM

Abdel Rahim Mrad: Known for being Syrian Intelligence and a big promoter of Baathist Arabism and a strong ally of Syria

Weam Wahab: No need to mention his virtues.. but similar to Mrad; however, he has higher seniority than Mrad,

The question is, what is being cooked?

What information is beibg relayed between Syria and Nasralla?

I guess the answers to these questions will be apparent in the coming days.. but in my personal opinion it has to do with the plan they have to follow in discrediting Mehlis report

Update October 6
Things are getting clearer, reading the newspaper today, and based on the statement issued by Wahab after meeting with Karami my guess is that the meeting with Hasan Nasralla was to presuade him to join the Bka3 Sefreen gathering.. This Gathering incldues in it ALL the Pro-syrian so called politicians......

and according to the statements released by the members of this Gathering, this gathering is getting ready to discredit Mellis if the report accuses Syria.....

Thank you Mon General

2005-09-26T20:52:00.000+03:00

Thank you Mon General

At a time of crisis, we should unite together and work hand in hand to overcome it.

At this time of crisis we want national unity where we all should rise above our differences.

At this time of crises, ALL of us the Lebanese are targeted and not a group of us.

In the past day(s), the opposition making fun of the efforts made by the government is bringing the Lebanese further apart, they are NOT BRINGING them together.

So General Aoun. I appeal you not to mock the government as you are doing, you and all of us know that this is the intention of the bombers and you are helping them by your attitude.

No matter what your views are in this issue, KEEP THEM TO YOUR SELF, we must be UNITED and step above all the differences and portray ONE UNITED WORD.. I Hope you do get the picture

Other opportunities may come where you can Mock the cabinet, and you may mock the cabinet in many other issues, it is your right, But I do not accept that you mock it in this issue and prove to the enemies that they are succeeding in their scheme..

Well come to think of it, you do not care, you NEVER cared..
You want to increase the division..

All you ever cared about was the number of seats you could get, from parliamentary elections into Cabinet nominations and now into the presidency.

BRAVO MON GENERALLE..

MAY we Help?

2005-09-26T14:33:00.000+03:00

(From beirut Spring Blog)
There are some ways you could be of use:

Send May flowers or a letter of appreciation as indicated in the poster above.You can send flowers online from here, here, here or here
If you’re in Lebanon, you can join today’s demonstration in Freedom square
If you’re a Blogger or you manage a website, please use the above poster in your site.

Most importantly, let’s all stay calm, remain resolved, and be confident in a better future, Lebanon cannot be killed!

Kofi Anan : most of 1559 is done, sponsor countries are Happy

2005-09-16T12:51:00.000+03:00

Few Days ago, in a press conference *, Kofi Anan said that he and the sponsor countries was happy with the implementation of UNSCR 1559 and that the Syrian withdrawal accompanied by the free elections meant that the majority of the UNSCR 1559 is already executed.

He further said that disarming of the militias is being handled by the Lebanese government and again the countries who sponsored 1559 are happy by the way things are going.

From the above, I deduced that the sponsors are not in a hurry to see the full implementation of 1559, further more, they are happy with the way things are moving in Lebanon.

To me this is great news, as I do not see any international pressure for disarming of hizbala in the near future. This means that all the negativity that might have been caused by this demand on the internal front will cease to exist.

On another front, Lahoud's visit to New York was boycotted by almost every one; however, we see that MP Hariri and Sanyora are meeting many international leaders. PM Sanyora meetings are to discuss the various ways they can Help Lebanon.

Hariri and Sanoyora's meetings with major players show that the international community are not boycotting Lebanon, but are rather boycotting Syria's appointed president (Lahoud).

Putting all the above together further show that the expected international aid to Lebanon is not connected to the full implementation of 1559.

For Aoun Supporters, this is bad news as backing the full implementation of 1559 is not anymore a presidential pre-qualification.

* I heard the conference on CNN and couldn't trace a written document.

What transparency is required from Syria's past?

2005-09-14T13:14:00.000+03:00

Yesterday GW Bush Said that Syria is not cooperating, he mentioned this particular phrase "Syria is not transparent in what it DID in Lebanon"

Most of the Lebanese news papers and the TV news miss-translated that phrase, and they linked it to Bush is bashing Syria for the Syrian intelligence that is still in Lebanon...

Well if the was the case, then in my humble opinion, the phrase would have been said in this way: "Syria is not transparent in what it is Doing in Lebanon"

Now going back to the original phrase, first : It is clear Bush is referring to something that Syria DID in Lebanon and cooperation is being asked from her on TRANSPARENCY on what she DID what could it be?

Now linking both words transparency and DID lead to a conclusion that USA already believes that Syria assassinated Martyr Hariri, and USA are asking Syria to be transparent on this issue.

In what other issues is serious transparency required in something it DID???? And not is still doing?

The Truth is a demand an objective and Not a slogan

2005-09-11T03:43:00.000+03:00

I have been reading several anti-Future Movement (FM) sites, newspapers, and I even heard several MP’s all of those are saying that “The Truth” is a slogan used by FM as an excuse to rule the country.

To those I like to say that “The Truth” is a demand, an objective by MOST of the Lebanese, the demand for truth has outgrown FM to be the demand of MANY Lebanese, I say MANY as I do not include in the MANY those who criticize FM for asking for “The Truth”.

FM is not like others who are protecting the Presidency Position, using the “El Makam Reasi” as a SLOGAN to keep who ever is there until it is the right time/circumstances to put their General into that Position.

The slogan “El Makam el Reasi” is a joke created to keep Lahoud in place, coz the ones who created this slogan know that they do not have a chance to get their General to the presidency now.

This group of People does not mind if the country is in a standstill, if the country does not move forward, just because their General can not become the president.

They prefer to keep the country in this situation and to keep a suspected murderer in his position so that no one other than their General replaces him, again they do so by the SLOGAN “El Makam Al Reasi”

Mark my words, you will see them flip on this slogan when they feel that their General can become the President, at that time, they will Jump on the “El Makam Reasi” and start attacking it fierce fully… their MP’s will even vote to on the amendment of the constitution to shorten the renewal term of Lahoud.

I just wish that those people really practice what they preach, work for the wellbeing of Lebanon and not for the wellbeing of the all mighty General.

Are Hariri's comments about Assad Threating him recorded?

2005-08-30T19:37:00.000+03:00

I was reading the article about Assad's interview on naharnet (Full Article Here) when I noticed the following extracts:

Extract one:

Quote:

Originally Posted by naharnet

"Two main sources reported that Assad did threaten Hariri in the Damascus meeting because Hariri argued against the Lahoud extension. The first was Walid Jumblat, Hariri's closest political ally, "and Lara Marlow, the roving correspondent of Ireland's radio and television."

Exract two:

Quote:

Originally Posted by naharnet

Lara Marlow said Hariri told her of Assad's threat a week before he was assassinated in a massive bombing attack that shredded his motorcade on a seaside Beirut boulevard Feb. 14. He had then resigned office in protest against the Lahoud extension, which was dictated virtually at gunpoint on the Lebanese Parliament by Syria's military intelligence apparatus.

"Mr. Hariri asked me in my last interview with him not to report his revelation of the Assad threat unless something happens to him," Marlow reported. "Now that he is killed, I am duty bound to disclose that Assad had made a life threat to Hariri before his assassination. Mr. Hariri told me about it."

Knowing from the above that Lara was interviewing Martyr Hariri one week before his martyrisim , is it possible that she made a recording of his voice or a video?

And if it exists, why wasnt it made public?

Meliis’s report… Some will only be happy if Israel and US are blamed!!!

2005-08-22T17:31:00.000+03:00

The problem in Lebanon today, is almost every one is trying to forecast the investigation results.

To these guys I say that If we could have an idea on what Mellis will say, we wouldn't have asked for the international investigation. I guess the issue is much bigger than having a modest opinion about it, lacking too many parameters that can only be potentially discovered by Mellis or by other international intelligence services.

Now the interesting part is tht every day we hear different opinions springing up mostly from the same party trying to politicize Mellis’s report, by politicizing the report they are trying to pave the ground as a preventative measure.

The problem in my opinion is the speculations most of the Lebanese are playing with and is that they are trying to politicize his report to remove from it any future credibility, to claim that the information he is providing are political ones that were made by influence, influence by US and the west.

The theories springing in the country are:

If Mellis’s reports accuses Syria, then they will say that it is a politically enforced investigation led by the US to punish Syria and to enforce more sanctions on it.
If the report fingers Islamic fundamentalists (most probably residing in the Palestinian Camps), the same voices will claim that this is a US led politicized report that’s main intention is to disarm the Palestinians.
Now the same voices are also saying that if the report claims that the truck was rigged in Dahie, then this is again politicized report that will be used to disarm Hizbala.

Since those parties are trying to negate the above possibilities, I guess the only way they will be happy is if the report accuses Israel and US of the assassinations.

Abuse of Power

2005-08-17T18:02:00.000+03:00

In yesterday’s parliamentary meeting aldyar news paper reported that ex-minister of Interior Michelle el Murr confessed that his closing of MTV in 2000 was a self defense action. He further confessed that MTV being his electoral opponent in the Meten elections meant that MTV was an adversary and had to be closed.

This story makes me ask the following questions:

• Isn’t what MP Murr said a clear confession on his abuse of power?
• Why aren’t there procedures that allow us to sue any governmental official abusing his power?
• Till when will the politicians in Lebanon put their personal interests above that of the community?
• Till when will Lahoud and Murr and the like continue these hideous acts?

In the end, I believe that we are living in the virtual reality TV show “Alwady”, with a major difference, we have Lahoud instead of Haifa as the main attraction.

Customs duties on imported cars to be lower

2005-08-14T04:58:00.000+03:00

ChitChats have been circulating Beirut that the Sanyora Cabinet is planning to take certain actions to improve the economy, one of these actions will be lowering the already high custom duties on cars..

Even though this step benefits a faction of the Lebanese economy, I am sure it will be followed by other ones soon.

Thanks Rafik Hariri, you were a great politician too!

2005-08-14T01:31:00.000+03:00

As this is my first Blog, I want to quote a friend of mine (Abou Balad) who wrote this about Martyr Hariri in the www.futuremovement.org Forum.

I am not a Future Movement Member; however, I am one of the admirers of Martyr Rafik Hariri.. RIP.

I write this because I am not satisfied of the way the media is giving credit to former PM Rafik Hariri, God bless his soul. I think that they concentrate too much on the human activity and charity of that great man, but they are not giving him the credit he deserves as a politician. So I decided to share my thoughts with you, from the perspective of a humble Lebanese citizen, observing what Rafik Hariri achieved to my country. I think we need to understand this and to discuss it.

PM Rafik Hariri (RIP) was one of the rare men ever, who had a real program and a long-term vision for the country. He worked hard in a very hostile environment where he faced a horrible system that had an opposite program with a different way of thinking. Their program was to suck our blood on the image of our “neighbors”. The approach was to use a scale of 3 steps: “1-Warn, 2-Terrorize, 3-kill”. They used these steps with our Martyr, but he was so special in facing them that they needed to add a new element to their artillery: “systematic confrontation” or “Kaydieh”. They did whatever possible to stop his program, no matter if the result is to send the country to hell. For example, they made Paris-2 fail, and they went so far that they put the country out of electricity just to make people think it is his fault. But just as he said:

“il balad z3hir, ma fi shi byitkhabba. Koullil oumour btin3araf”!!

Our duty, his lovers, exceeds by far the simple repetition of this horrible story. FM is now entitled to continue the program, this is “Amana Fi A3nakena”. As I see it, this program is aiming to achieve the noble goals of democracy, national unity, independence and prosperity.

Despite the hostile activity, Hariri could achieve a lot of his program. Whatever the level of achievement, it is a FACT that today Lebanon is much better than at the day Rafik Hariri came in. Let me try to say the way I see it from a normal citizen point of view.

Independence, he was so near, and achieved it at his death. But the danger is that if we loose it again, it will be final. If we don’t show the world that we are capable of ruling ourselves, the international community will leave us to our destiny, this time for good!

National unity was his permanent occupation right on the top of his agenda, and he proved it with REAL ACTS. He had a clean national program that is above any sectarian consideration. It is a fact that many Hariri followers are Sunna, but it is a fact too that Hariri’s program was a national program with pure national visions and ambitions. He never had any sectarian shadow of thing among his political discourse, his program and his political activity. He has many followers from all Lebanese families, and he cared equally for all Lebanese families. Why Sunna followed him more than others? It is because the sectarian or confessional speech never had any significant success among the Lebanese Sunna community. The history proves that Sunna think “nation” not “sect”, and they will continue to do so. It is one of Hariri’s success stories that he could attract behind him a majority of his sect into a national non-sectarian discourse. Unfortunately, this is so rare in the modern Lebanese history.

Democracy, he always fought for it, and it was the bigger source of headache and issues with the hostile securitish system. He had many redlines, and he crossed them many times and had a big trouble. An example is when he invited Michel Aoun in 2001 to come back home, but the so named “justice” apparatus declared that the General would arrested. Hariri also opposed the closing of MTV and other stuff but unfortunately the justice and the security institutions are outside the constitutional authority of the Prime minister, and moreover they were hostages of the hostile system. Also Future TV building got missiles to terrorize him when he was trying hard to face the atrocities of that system.

Prosperity, that is the dream almost gone with Rafik Hariri. I swear to god that if this man could lead Lebanon for a while after the next elections, under the new independence and without the hold-up of that mafia, it wouldn’t take him more than 3 years to make Lebanon like Switzerland. However, what could Rafik Hariri achieve in the presence of that hostile system? Many people ask this question playing the blinds and saying that all they remember is that wrong number of “40B” debt. According to my numbers, the debt is 34B, of which only 20B where borrowed in the mandates of PM Hariri. Many have analyzed and explained where is the responsibility of this debt. They show clearly that PM Hariri was actually the victim of the corruption, and that his rebuilt project took no more than 6B to 7B, and the result is an extraordinary success story.

Want a witness? the United Nations that gave him the Price of Development in Madrid late 2004 for his "great success of rebuilding Lebanon so well and so fast"...

In my knowledge the growth of the debt increased this way:

Hrawi/Berri/Hariri 1992 -1998: Debt from 6B to 18 B. Yearly economic growth > 7%

Lahoud/Berri/Hoss 1998 -2000: Debt from 18B to 24B. Yearly economic growth <>I invite each one of you to help me complete my list, because I am sure I miss many important things despite its length.

1. Highways: North, South, Ehden, Mountain, Bekaa, internal roads in all cities and departments not only Beirut, and the renewal of the overall transport infrastructure

2. Electricity: the full infrastructure to operate electricity in all the country for 24 hours. Huge. It was achieved and operated perfectly in 1998, until the change of Gov and the hold-up of the mafia on the petroleum issues. The problems we have today with electricity is not due to the infrastructure, but to its operation by an anti-Hariri clan.

3. The Telecom infrastructure: a whole complete and modern infrastructure, based on fiber-optics and the best technologies of that time. But again, you know since 1998 this sector is hostage of Anti-Hariri clan (No3man then Mou3jiza-Korda7i) so they are unable to exploit it well and follow the e-business boom, hence our bad position in this competing economy sector.

4. The water infrastructure and network

5. The airport for 6M travelers. Ironically, many criticized at that time this “huge project” and invented the joke of “building the stone”. Now that the tourism flourished due to this and other efforts of PM Hariri, they are envisaging a further enlargement. But for sure, those criticizers will never change their minds about their jokes, or they will jump to new ones without any revision, they are just born to criticize destructively and they can’t do any better

6. The Beirut downtown, the JEWEL of Lebanon and the symbol of the reconciliation

7. Stabilization of the Lebanese Lira vs dollar at 1500 while it was 3000 and growing up with no limits. He restored the confidence in the national money.

8. Big increase in salaries: “typical” salary grew from $40 to $800.

9. The conference of Paris-2, where more than 100 countries met to help Lebanon overcome its economic difficulties. In one day they gave 5B of aids, more than USA could get for Afghanistan in 3 years! And they were ready to give as much each year according to the reforms progress, but the hostile clan combated the reforms..

10. Extraordinary success stories in the foreign policy: Tafahoum Nissan which was the diplomatic side of the victory against Israel. Arab and Farncophone summits and visits of top-level presidents (Pope, Chirac..). This helped restore the confidence.

11. The Lebanese university: the unified huge complex of Hadath, for which the people of the university dreamed and demonstrated for 4 decades. Another big complex in Fanar.

12. Public education. The number of students in the public university grew from 20.000 to 70.000, and its budget increased from $10M to $110M. The public schools increased in number, stuff and students. I don’t have numbers.

13. Huge improvement in healthcare and social services. Healthcare was drastically improved while it was almost ZERO in 1992.

14. Government hospitals, one in each region.

15. 4 Olympic stadiums that welcomed many very important sportive events including Asia-2000 (prepared at the previous mandate of Hariri)

16. Many developments in the private economic sectors, like hotels, services and modernization of the banking sector. The tourism flourished back in his days.

17. Rebuilt of the army and the “Security services”. This wasn’t Hariri’s job of course, that’s why we see the brilliant result now. However, the army and security costs, since 1992 to current, 2 billion dollars per year in each budget.

18. The parliament, the presidential palace, the speaker palace, the government palace, all official buildings…

19. Computerization of most ministries and administrations. The degree of success in each depends on the competence of the ministers that were named by different political forces…