Lebanese Judge: Assassins of Hariri Came from Iraq

[allemand]

Al Bawaba
2005-02-21 10:42:36

Assassins of Rafic Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, came from Iraq through Syria to carry out the attack, according to the Beirut judge leading the inquiry into the bombing.

Rachid Mezher, the senior investigator for the Lebanese military tribunal, was quoted as saying Sunday by the Telegraph paper that the organizers had been recruited from Islamist groups linked to Syria and operating against the US-led occupation in Iraq.

No firm ties with the Syrian regime have been established, according to Mezher. (...) Abu Adas, 23, a Palestinian Lebanese believed to have fled the country, attended two Beirut mosques known to be recruiting grounds for the Ansar al-Islam group, linked to the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Investigators suspect that the mosques have links to Sheikh Abderrazak, a Damascus cleric who has helped fighters travel through Syria to Iraq.

"We know that Adas had Saudi Arabian nationality and used his passport to travel to Iraq and Syria," said Judge Mezher. "The man converted to strict Muslim beliefs two years ago and returned to Lebanon only recently."
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=5136

However, "al-Qaeda in Iraq" has denied any involvement in the killing of Hariri:

Tanzeem Qaedat al-Jihad Fi Bilad al-Rafidayn Denies Media Accusations that it Claimed Responsibility for the Hariri Assassination

By SITE Institute
February 17, 2005

In a statement posted to a leading al-Qaeda-frequented Jihadist message board on February 16, 2005, by Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, official spokesperson of “Tanzeem Qaedat al-Jihad Fi Bilad al-Rafidayn” , headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the group denies media statements that it claimed responsibility for the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri, stating clearly:

“We never spoke a word about him.”

http://siteinstitute.org/bin/articles.cgi?ID=publications20405&Category=publications&Subcategory=0

[allemand]

1. Original Telegraph article is openly discriminatory against Alawites

I could hardly believe my eyes when I read the following passage:

"The Syrian president is a member of the Alawite religious sect, feared throughout medieval Europe as the Assassins. When its leader wanted an opponent killed, he handed a follower a dagger and his wishes were carried out. Many Lebanese believe that Mr Hariri's death was commissioned in similar fashion by Syria's Mukhabarat intelligence service."

Hariri's killers 'recruited from Syrian-linked group in Iraq'
By Damien McElroy in Beirut
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/20/wleb20.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/02/20/ixworld.html


Alawites have nothing to do with the Assassins, and as far as I know they even come from different branches of Shia Islam. How is it possible that a Western journalist based in Beirut is not able to get even the most basic facts about Islam right?

Of course, he tries to spin it that the Syrian government was behind the attack, although this was not what Mezher said:

"Although no firm ties with the Syrian regime have been established, his comments suggest strong circumstantial evidence of a connection."

However, later in the article McElroy is forced to acknowledge that the Syria based group has in fact links to al-Qaeda:

"Abu Adas, 23, a Palestinian Lebanese believed to have fled the country, attended two Beirut mosques known to be recruiting grounds for the Ansar al-Islam group, linked to the Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Investigators suspect that the mosques have ties to Sheikh Abderrazak, a Damascus cleric who has helped fighters travel through Syria to Iraq. The Beirut attack bore similarities to suicide bombings carried out in Iraq by al-Zarqawi, who has increasingly strong ties to al-Qaeda."

[allemand]

2. I wonder if this is the "Sheikh Abderrazak" in question:

BBC, Friday, 19 March, 2004,

Germany extradites terror suspect

Germany has extradited to Italy an Algerian man accused of recruiting suicide bombers for Iraq.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3550647.stm

He is an Algerian and currently sits in an Italian prison. It's unclear how this qualifies him as "a Damascus cleric"...

On edit:
In March 2003, Abderrazak was arrested in Damascus while trying to get into Iraq and sent back to Germany:

"He points out that authorities knew full well on March 20 that six Islamists, including Abderrazak M., were boarding a flight to go and fight the Americans in Iraq, but were powerless to do anything about it. This group didn't make it to Iraq because they were arrested in Damascus. It seems to me that the fact that Bittner knows they were arrested in Damascus means that German authorities also knew. Nevertheless, Abderrazak M. has again been free and roaming the streets of Hamburg since May."
http://www.billspricht.net/2003_12_21_archive.html

[Igel]

3. A fairly quick Google research expedition didn't help me in

understanding the Alawites very much.

Apparently they (aka Nusairis, if the source I'm going by isn't inflammatory), the Naziri/assassins, and a few other groups are termed Isma'ilis. Assassins and Nusairis are from the same general area--I always thought the Assassins were in a different area, not Syria, but it turns out I was wrong. They may well have been closely related. I can't find anything showing lineal continuity between the two, nor can I find anything saying they're distinct. (Odds are there was cross-fertilization between the various groups, and the divisions so well delineated today were less so before.)

Apparently there's a range of exclusion in the Sunni sources: some condemn all Shi'ism, others tend to group the Assassins, Alawites (aka "seveners"), twelvers, and other Shi'a offshoots together as infidels (kafir), while others allow for the twelvers to be sufficiently orthodox.

[happyslug]

7. You might have been right

The assassins were in the mountains of Iran before the Mongol Invasion. The Mongols made an effort to wipe them out. Afterwards the Hospitalers in Palestine protected them and the Assassins survived the Mongol onslaught.

On the Assassins:
http://i-cias.com/e.o/assassins.htm

On the Alawites:
http://i-cias.com/e.o/index.htm

On the Shiites:
http://i-cias.com/e.o/shii.htm

[allemand]

8. According to your source, Alawites and Assassins have one thing in common:

they were driven out of the same city, Aleppo, but with a difference of 100 years, the Alawites in 1004 and the Assassins in 1113.

1004: The Hamdanid dynasty falls, and the Alawites are driven out of Aleppo, and centuries of hardship begins.
http://i-cias.com/e.o/index.htm

1113: Following the death of Aleppo's ruler, Ridwan, the Assassins are driven out of the city by the the troops of Ibn al-Khashab.
http://i-cias.com/e.o/assassins.htm

Also, the current Wikipedia article differentiates between Alawites and Ismailis:
"In the 10th century, Alawites were established during the Hamdanid dynasty of Aleppo but they were driven out when the dynasty fell in 1004. In 1097 Crusaders initially attacked them but later allied with them against the Ismailis. In 1120 the Alawites were defeated by the Ismailis and Kurds but three years later they fought the Kurds successfully. In 1297 Ismailis and Alawites tried to negotiate a merger, but it came to nothing."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alawite

[Igel]

9. That's what I was thinking.

The Ismaili offshoots seem spread around pretty well, though.

It merits further investigation.

[Tempest]

4. Did the assassins come from Iraq via the Green Zone?

I'm willing to bet Negroponte had something to do with it.

[lovuian]

5. Well here it comes Syria killed him!!! Then its lets invade Syria

its all part of the plan!!!

[Az_lefty]

6. I guess Kinda-sleezy needs to apologize to Syria.....