…from PressTV, Tehran
[ Editor’s Note: This investigation took fifteen years and cost a billion dollars, a fact that should launch an investigation into the crime of milking this investigation as a cash cow.
The question arises, what is the point of having any UN investigation, when this case shows it does not have the capacity to do one in any reasonable amount of time?
This makes news today because no evidence of Syrian involvement was found, but it will probably not change anyone’s mind if they have already formed an opinion. Passions replace memories in events like this.
Then again, if someone wanted bury an event, I cannot think of a better way to do so than with a 2600 page report.
What did the report cost to write up? Was it $100 million maybe? What else could that money be put to use in Lebanon with far great positive reward to their people?
Bottom line. This is too little, too late, at too high a price. It is quite an irony that this is released so soon after an attack on Lebanon, where its initial fertilizer bomb cover story lies in ashes all over the city, with data points indicating the detonation of a tactical nuclear weapon with a very short list of suspects.
VT enjoyed plowing through the information garbage strewn about by the mass media, which invests the least amount of analysis for the most clicks possible, it seems.
VT has the call out now in Lebanon to send us original HD video that can be screened at 30 frames per second from 1:30 before the first bomb hit until after the last device. The Lebanese are distracted now, but we will hope for the best… Jim W. Dean ]
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– First published … August 18, 2020 –
An UN-backed tribunal says it has not been able to establish any link between a 2005 blast in Beirut that killed Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafiq Hariri and the Hezbollah resistance movement or the Syrian government.
The so-called Special Tribunal for Lebanon (SDL) read out a summary of the 2,600-page verdict at The Hague on Tuesday after trying for 15 years and spending some $1 billion to prove allegations of association between the explosion and the Lebanese resistance movement or Damascus.
“There is no evidence that the Hezbollah leadership had any involvement in Mr. Hariri’s murder and there is no direct evidence of Syrian involvement,” said Judge David Re.
Lebanon’s an-Nahar daily ran the headline, “International Justice Defeats Intimidation” even before the decision was announced, referring to extensive attempts by certain parties within and outside the country to implicate the resistance group in the crime.
Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah had also said on Friday that he was not concerned about the proceedings and that if any members of the resistance movement were claimed to be guilty, Hezbollah would stand by their innocence.
The tribunal, however, did not stop short of echoing those who have been trying to make the unfounded allegations against the resistance group and Damascus.
“The trial chamber is of the view that Syria and Hezbollah may have had motives to eliminate Mr. Hariri and his political allies,” the judge said.
Observers said the latter part of the verdict showed that the countries that forced the United Nations Security Council into forming the tribunal in the first place — based on unproven hypotheses, without any legal basis, and in violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty — were still influencing the verdicts that it issues.
Hezbollah — which has rejected the jurisdiction and independence of the court — has denied any link to or interest in the atrocity.
The group has invariably proven itself as a unifying factor in the country, including by forcing Israel into retreat in the occupying regime’s 2000 and 2006 wars on the country.
Israel’s Channel 1 once alleged an association between four people with alleged links to Hezbollah and the 2005 explosion.
The tribunal considered the allegations worthy of its consideration and convicted one of the four, whom it identified as “the main defendant.”
Even with regard to the four, lawyers appointed by the tribunal itself said there was no physical evidence linking them to the crime and that they had to be acquitted.
Hezbollah has condemned the tribunal for serving as an opportunity for Tel Aviv to achieve its “unachieved” goals in Lebanon.
Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus. He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews. He now writes and posts periodically for VT.
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So Hezbollah and Syria weren’t involved in the assasination so who did it then? I’m just going our on a limb here and guessing who else in the immediate region has the motive, will power and resources to carry out an attack and then lay the blame on someone else. They were hoping to pin it on another group to hopefully draw the ire of the people and have them turn against that group. Who hates Hezbollah and Syria the most in that region? Can everyone say out loud “Israel”? Thank you. Case closed.
This Special Tribunal for Lebanon is a PURE FRAUD ! F-I-F-T-E-E-N years of investigation is the proof of its incompetence.
Furthermore, they managed to reconstitute in an *undisclosed* place the WHOLE scene of the deed : buildings, convoy and even brought earth from the crime scene in order to try to prove that the buildings could have deflected the explosion blast into making the on scene explosion crater here :
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/08/07/world/07hariri2/merlin_175381473_a6263c94-9fa7-4b84-9434-e88ab2bbd0cf-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp
https://www.thenational.ae/image/policy:1.978844:1596612613/000_NIC2005021469436.jpg?$p=30d2d01&w=1136&$w=ec52ab9
What a stupidity ! Even a child could tell that this is impossible… No wonder the cost of the STL went of into 1 billion dollars !!!
This whole plan was meant to prolong the trial in order to make the memory of this assassination fall into oblivion and prevent to tell the real cause of the assassination, that is : a missile strike or a buried mine of some sort…
And so concludes another sickening chapter in “The Mid-East” A Tragicomedy of death, dispossion and suffering. The Beirut blast and it’s inevitable probe can be a fitting rerun of the Hirrari ineptness. Perhaps the perpetrators this time were the same as before. Even the device has many striking similarities.
Shiet site Debka.com espouses the opposite of this articles evidence & findings…. lame, not that i really thought they could give us truthes. I just look at the site to see what they want me to “know.” Anyhoo, VT is literally the only good place for news & editor’s notes before the articles are great as well. I really appreciate all you folks do. Thanks again for helping us stay informed. May we have justice
Will someone at VT kindly explain why these words appear above my recent comment:
“Your comment is awaiting moderation”
PM me if you like. You have my eMail address. Honestly, I’d be flattered.
Thank you for your kind attention,
Ed Welch
WordPress hates you
no, as they don’t have micronukes.
https://www.voltairenet.org/article167553.html
You are correct with one minor problem, Israel received, according to Hanke, its first small nukes in 78. Maybe the assassination was before that and it was kept secret. Let us know if this helps.
Macron comes in with his Likud handlers to stir the pot, blame Hezb for the bomb, but unsuccessful he decides instead to close an old case and score points for Tel Aviv.
It’s truly appalling to think that the Kosher Nostra now controls DC, City of London, Vatican City, the EU while pervading every aspect of global criminal activity. Adolf tried to warn us but Sir Winston followed his jew masters’ instructions because he’d been bought-off early in his political career when over-extending his finances and his country estate was facing foreclosure.
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