Leo, remember that Jesus loves you,even if everybody else thinks you are a idiot.

In my case, as you see:
I assume that the Syrian regime is behind the Hariri murder (and the other murders of Lebanese politicians) - although, being against antiSyrian action I should claim that Syria is likely to be innocent.
You see: I can accept information I do not like.
Different to you.

I stand solidly with Rick Moran and the story of the testimony. I calmly await PROOF of any alternative claims.

As for Syria and the Hariri murder: In a previous post I wrote, that it is likely for me, too, that Syria was behind the assissination.
As for the other murders of prominent Lebanese opponents I also assume that Syria is responsible for them.

I think the Syrian regime is (1) reckless enough to act like this, it is (2) in a favourable position to do so due to the repercussions of the Iraq occupation war, and I think (3) the regime might interpret their interests in a way that killing some prominent Anti-Syrians of Lebanon helps them to increase Syrian standing in Lebanon on the medium run.

But our MERIE DISPUTE was not about who killed Hariri. It was about Fatah al-Islam.

YOU DID NOT ADDRESS THAT, Rick Moran!

You identify me with a position I definitely do not hold - and in an earlier post on a different thread I have mentioned my assumption already that Syria was likely behind the Hariri murder!
Ok, you may not have read it - I have to pardon that.
But what made you assume reading the post above that I do not attribute the Hariri murder to Syria? - I wrote about Fatah al-Islam!!

That Fatah al-Islam is sponsored by Syria is nothing but a propaganda claim by the Siniora-coalition, by Israel, by the USA. They all want to put more pressure on Syria - a legitimate aim, sure - but I am not writing here as a politician; I am an observer interested in truth, and I don’t like to be fooled. I write here as a German citizen. I am neither a pro-Syrian nor an anti-Syrian propagandist.

It is simply not likely that Syria is behind Fatah al-Islam, for the reasons I stated in the previous post.

AND YOU SHOULD ADDRESS THESE REASONS, Rick Moran - as you claim these my reflections are stupid and ignorant. (Your words!!)

Now come on! You have to show your quality as a right wing macho blogger who can hit hard on liberal idiots like me!
So, tell me
AND YOUR AUDIENCE !!
your arguments about Fatah al-Islam = why I cannot be right with my interpretation, and why to assess the case in my way is simply ignorant and stupid.

Finally:
It is obvious from what you wrote that Merie’s testimony was coerced:
“Ahmed Merie, a Lebanese citizen, testified before a military magistrate that he was a “liaison” between the terrorist group’s leader Shaker Abssi and Syria’s head of intelligence, General Asef Shawkat. …
Merie was arrested in a a Beirut hotel along with his brother Mohammad several weeks ago. …”

Such a man, arrested by his enemy, will just present the truth and nothing but the truth about everything of this case?? - We are not in an American movie, Rick Moran!

Come on, you know that in such cases any convenient testimony is coerced and therefore has to be dismissed out of hand. We all know the methods how to make people tell us exactly what we want them to tell us …

Of course Merie’s interrogators will not tell us that they have tortured the man to get this convenient testimony. And with my use of the word “coerced” I left it open how exactly Merie was made to say the things he said.

In this issue, too, Rick Moran, I do not think that my view is simply ignorant or stupid. It may be disputed, ok, but you did not really try to argue, you just yelled. And commented with insults:

” .. calling you an idiot and ignorant is less than you deserve. It’s not name calling if it fits.”

Whenever you point with such a nasty digital finger on me, you should realize that three of your fingers are pointing on YOU …
You see these three fingers of yours, Rick Moran?

That’s idiotic. And does the UN investigator Serge Brammertz count when he says Syria is responsible for Hariri’s killings as well as the other political murders there.

Gee. He only has 40,000 pages of evidence and dozens of witnesses. Did he torture those people? Did he coerce them?

Merie is simply confirming what everyone in the world (except Syrian apologists like you) believe: that Assad is murdering his opponents in Lebanon and stirring up trouble so that he can move back in and milk the country for all its worth.

Time for a reality check. And calling you an idiot and ignorant is less than you deserve. It’s not name calling if it fits.

You call me ignorant and stupid. Well …
I suppose I know about as much as you concerning Lebanon.
We see things from different angles, but that should result in interesting debate, not in ignoring each other.

So, come on, show us your superior knowledge and your informed interpretation of events in Lebanon - and tell your audience why my view of Lebanese politics is so “ignorant” adn “stupid”.
(And do you really believe that coerced confessions are reliable and should be taken by the word, as in the case of Merie?)

A blogger must not cut and run when there approaches a real challenge.
You disappoint your own fans, Rick Moran, when you prove to be incapable of refuting my arguments.

A military jury convicted a U.S. Marine of conspiring to murder an Iraqi man in a bungled attempt to…

I think I’ll just let it go and let others marvel at your ignorance.

Isn’t it likely that they just tortured him to produce convenient “intelligence”?

It is a general rule for sober observers not to believe such coerced witnesses and their coerced testimonies, Rick Moran.

Indeed, it is not likely that Syria is behind Fatah al-Islam.

Fatah al-Islam represents a Sunni extremism that does not dwell well with the Syrian Baathist and secular rulers.
And it’s Fatah al-Islam’s Salafi ideology that will render them unwilling and incapable to accept Syrian (= heretic) backing, even if it were offered.

Would it be possible today (!) that the USA starts to cooperate with AlQaida to fight Iran? “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” - that rule does often, but not always apply.
Seen with Iranian eyes, f.e., USA and AlQaida do cooperate …
Silly, for sure - as silly as to assume an alliance of AlQaida and Syria or AlQaida and Iran.

As for the (!): You all know that the USA (Reagan administration) supported a certain Osama binLaden at the beginning of his career …
I believe US Conservatives are right and authentic when they claim today (!): We can rule out such a cooperation for now or the future.

They will always merge their enemies into ONE, but any psychology of transforming an enemy like AlQaida into a friend … is not viable.
And that also applies to AlQaida and AlQaida-like groups: They will never ally with the USA, or Israel.

Although, I think, in Iraq, in this desperate Sunni fight for existence against a huge Shiite majority empowered by the Americans and Iranians, there may be quite some cooperation between Baathist and Salafi resistance fighters. Both are Sunni.

In Lebanon’s lethal mosaic, it is more likely that Fatah al-Islam got, at first, some support by the Siniora government –until it ran amok. The Sunnites in Lebanon may have liked the idea of a counterforce against Shiite Hesbollah. But they may have miscalculated, and Fatah al-Islam began to play their own murderous and self-destructive game.

That is speculation, I admit. But more likely than the Syria Connection.