U.S. Urges Continuation Of U.N. Probe (Bolton knew that key witness lied!)

[allemand]

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 1 -- The Bush administration on Thursday appealed to Secretary General Kofi Annan to use his influence to persuade a U.N. investigator to continue his probe into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri through next year or begin an immediate search for a replacement. (...)

"Commissioner Mehlis continues to provide exceptional service as head of the commission," U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton said Thursday in a letter to Annan. "Should the government of Lebanon request the extension of the commission, our strong preference would be that Mr. Mehlis continue in his current capacity."

Bolton said he is "concerned that a wholesale change in the leadership of the commission would be exploited by the Syrian government to forestall their full and complete cooperation" with the investigation. He urged Annan to move quickly to determine whether Mehlis can be persuaded to stay. If not, Bolton pressed Annan to immediately begin looking for a successor to ensure continuity.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/01/AR2005120101625.html

And this could explain why Bolton is so fond of Mehlis:

- Mehlis knew the main witness quoted in his report was lying (!)

- Bolton knew that the witness was lying because the CIA had come to that conclusion (!)

According to an article in Le Figaro, the CIA, the Saudis and French interrogators all knew that a key witness quoted at length in the Mehlis report on the Hariri assassination was not credible:

"The second article, more interesting, is entitled “Le clan Hariri aurait manipulé un témoin clé de l'enquête » (The Hariri Family could have manipulated a key witness in the inquiry). This article has been written by George Maibrunot, the journalist who was taken hostage in Iraq along with another of his colleagues, Christian Chesnot. The article includes some interesting comments, and questions the reason the French secret services continued to play along with both Saddiq and Hussam although the CIA and the Saudi’s and even the French interrogators themselves discredited both witnesses. The reply as quoted by an unnamed diplomat was that the “highest spheres of French politics wanted to help out (i.e. Chirac himself wanting to help the Hariris)."
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/Joshua.M.Landis-1/syriablog/2005/12/are-french-and-americans-putting-on.htm

Here are some quotes from the French article:

Le Figaro, no. 19074
Le Figaro, mercredi 30 novembre 2005, p. 3
INTERNATIONAL

Le clan Hariri aurait manipulé un témoin clé de l'enquête
Le seul témoin nommément cité dans l'enquête sur l'assassinat de l'ancien premier ministre libanais n'était pas fiable.

Georges MALBRUNOT (...)

Circonspect, Detlev Mehlis n'ignore-t-il pas les conclusions des premiers debriefings effectués par les services de renseignements saoudiens puis américains ? « A une forte probabilité, l'homme est un affabulateur », écrit alors la CIA, qui lâche volontiers la piste al-Sadiq. (...)

Pour l'équipe Hariri, même douteux, l'homme est utile. « On s'en est probablement servi pour lui faire endosser des informations recueillies par ailleurs », reconnaît un membre de l'entourage de Saad Hariri. En échange vraisemblablement d'une importante somme d'argent, Sadiq accepte de recycler des renseignements qui, espère-t-on, pourraient faire avancer l'enquête. Il ne se cache guère. Fin août, hilare, Sadiq appelle son frère Imad pour lui annoncer qu'il est devenu « millionnaire », rapporte l'hebdomadaire allemand Der Spiegel. Pour que son témoignage paraisse crédible, Sadiq s'accuse carrément d'avoir participé au meurtre d'Hariri. (...)

« Quand Sadiq parle, Mehlis n'a pratiquement rien », constate un diplomate français, qui suit l'affaire. Le procureur va utiliser les aveux de Sadiq comme une arme psychologique pour tenter un coup de bluff. Le 30 août, Mehlis demande à la justice libanaise l'arrestation de quatre responsables prosyriens des services de sécurité (Jamil al-Sayyed, Raymond Azar, Ali Hajj et Moustapha Hamdane). « Mehlis pensait que les quatre hommes allaient commencer à se déballonner », explique le diplomate. (...)

Sur place, l'enquête montre que ses dires ne sont corroborés par aucun indice matériel (type empreinte digitale) retrouvé dans son appartement. Dans ces conditions, pourquoi la DGSE a-t-elle « traité » Sadiq, alors qu'elle avait reçu des notes de la CIA le disqualifiant ? « L'ordre est certainement venu d'en haut », affirme le diplomate. Sous-entendu : de Jacques Chirac lui-même, qui veut aider la famille Hariri à découvrir la vérité sur l'assassinat de son ami.

The complete article is available in the archive of Le Figaro.

The main points:

- Mehlis himself didn't believe Sadiq in the beginning

- the CIA called him a "fabulist"

- nevertheless Mehlis used his testimony in a "bluff" to order the detention of the four Lebanese generals; he hoped that they would incriminate themselves.

- the investigation couldn't find any material evidence to support the claims made by Sadiq

- a "member of the entourage of Saad Hariri" is quoted as saying that Sadiq was used to convey information that came from "elsewhere". Sadiq received a large sum of money for his testimony.

- the French intelligence agency DGSE was aware of the CIA reports that questioned Sadiq's credibility, but they received an order from "higher up" (probably from Jacques Chirac himself) to ignore them


No wonder that Bolton wants Mehlis to continue.

[ShockediSay]

1. Nothing like cooking middle east intel n/t

[allemand]

2. DGSE: Second "witness had been forced to implicate a high Syrian official"

The Mehlis report trips over false testimony

Georges Malbrunot/Le Figaro
<01 décembre 2005> (...)

If presumptions are converging in the direction of Damascus, the weakness of the evidence is indeed the main Achilles heel of the inquiry, which continues until 15 December. Damascus has begun to step into the breach. On Monday <28 November>, the Alawite government presented a Syrian Kurd, Husam Tahir Husam, who acknowledged having given false testimony, under threat, before the commission. There, he had accused two close relatives of PresidentBashar al-Asad, his brother Mahir and Asif Shawkat, of being behind the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister. For its part, the commission declared that the man had come to it of his own free will on 1 September.

However, Tahir Husam sending them on the wrong track does not surprise the intelligence services, the French DGSE -General Directorate for External Security- in the lead, which were informed during the summer that an anonymous witness in the Mehlis report had been forced to implicate a high Syrian official during a colourful interrogation. This undoubtedly referred to Tahir Husam.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/english/20051201.FIG0247.html?124957

(my emphasis)

[allemand]

3. Bolton: "The best person for the job would be a clone of Mehlis."

US lobbies to keep German prosecutor on Hariri case
Fri Dec 2, 2005 2:27 PM ET (...)

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told reporters, "we understand he (Mehlis) has extended his tenure once and he's in dangerous personal circumstances there," he said in reference to threats made against the prosecutor.

But Bolton said the United States had asked Annan to keep Mehlis in his post. If he does not agree, the United Nations should quickly name a successor. The best person for the job, Bolton quipped, would be "a clone of Mehlis."

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2005-12-02T192646Z_01_YUE269263_RTRUKOC_0_US-LEBANON-SYRIA-MEHLIS.xml

[allemand]

4. Link to complete articles (in French)

http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/Joshua.M.Landis-1/syriablog/2005/12/are-french-and-americans-putting-on.htm#c113355890186948384

[allemand]

5. Translation: UN probe used manipulated evidence against Syria

Here is a full translation of the Le Figaro article:

Roles in the Investigation, Hariri Clan, Chirac, Money, Etc
George Malbrunot
Le Figaro
12/04/2005
(...)

From Saudi Arabia, where he found refuge, Mohamad Zuheir al-Sidiq calls on the Mehlis Commission in June. At first the German prosecutor gives little credit to someone presenting himself as an important member of the Syrian Intelligence Services in Lebanon and who claims he has information on the assassination of Rafiq Hariri of 14 February in Beirut. Prudent as he is, how can Detlev Mehlis disregard the first debriefings done by the Saudi and then the CIA? The CIA later writes “a big probability that this person is an inveterate liar” and disregards quickly his proposed track.
(...)

A questionable but useful witness.

In August, “the DGSE moves Sadiq from Marbella to Marseille on his way to Paris” tells a French police officer close to the inquiry. Sadiq is interrogated by agents who in turn find him little credible. Then Sadiq is transferred to the DST that also questions him only to reach the same conclusion. Then Sadiq stays in Meudon, next to Paris, under police protection.

For the Hariri group this man is useful even if he is no reliable. “We have probably used him to endorse information we gathered elsewhere” claims a member of Saad Hariri’s circle. By accepting a large sum of money Sadiq accepts to adopt a set of claims that were hoped to advance the investigation. He does not hide it! At the end of August Sadiq calls joyfully his brother Imad to announce to him that he has become “Millionaire” as per the German weekly Der Spiegel. To give credibility to his story Sadiq claims to have even participated in the assassination of Hariri. (...)

“When Sadiq spoke, Mehlis had almost nothing” notes a French diplomat who is following the case. The prosecutor was going to use the confession of Sadiq as a psychological weapon attempting a bluff. On August 30th, Mehlis asks the Lebanese judiciary to arrest four pro-Syrian security officers (Jamil al-Sayyed, Raymond Azar, Ali Hajj and Moustapha Hamdane). “Mehlis thought that the four men were going to chicken out” explains the diplomat.

More:
http://www.cggl.org/scripts/new.asp?id=450

[bemildred]

6. Dolton seems to have the fecal touch too.

Like Bush, everything he touches turns to shit. I've been trying to think of something he's been part of that has made progress of worked out like it's supposed to, and I can't think of a thing.