The Dangerously Incomplete Hariri Report
By- Robert Parry
October 23, 2005

A new United Nations report implicates the Syrian government in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, giving a lift to George W. Bush's demand for "Regime Change" in Damascus. But the investigation has many holes, including failure to follow up on a mysterious Van connected to the Feb. 14 bombing.

While the identity of the bomber remains a mystery, a Japanese forensic team matched 44 of 69 pieces of the Van's wreckage to Canter parts manufactured by Mitsubishi Fuso Corp. and even identified the specific Vehicle. The chain of possession for that Van thus would seem to be a crucial lead in identifying the killers.

But on that central point, the UN investigation made little headway, devoting only a few paragraphs to how the Van ended up in Beirut. On page 42 the UN report states that the Japanese forensic team reported that the Van was traced back to Sagamihara City, Japan, where on Oct. 12, 2004 it was stolen.

The UN report contains no details about the Japanese investigation of the theft, nor does it indicate what Japanese Police may have discovered about the identity of the thieves or how they may have shipped the Van from a Suburb of Tokyo to the Middle East in the four months before the Hariri Attack.

Though the investigation of a Vehicle theft may have attracted little Japanese Police attention a year ago, the Van's apparent role in a major act of international terrorism would seem to justify a redoubling of those efforts now.

At minimum, the UN investigation might have insisted on including details such as the name of the original owner, the circumstances surrounding the theft, and the identities of car-theft rings in the Sagamihara area. Plus, investigators could have checked on shipments of White Mitsubishi Canter Vans out of Japan to Middle East.

Instead, the UN investigation concentrated on far flimsier and more circumstantial pieces of evidence, such as phone records showing communications between various security officials near the route of Hariri's trip.

In reaching it's tentative conclusions fingering Syria, the UN probe also relies heavily on two witnesses of uncertain credibility who implicated Syrian security officials, although with accounts that are partially contradictory.

One of the problems with such "Witnesses" is that they can be unreliable for a variety of reasons, including the possibility they are paid or otherwise induced to present false stories to help achieve a result favored by powerful political figures or countries.

The United States-and the New York Times- learned this lesson during the run-up to War in Iraq when Iraqi exile groups arranged for supposed witnesses to approach US officials and journalists with information about Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, claims that turned out to be fabricated.

This risk of investigators accepting questionable testimony from dubious sources is highest when the allegations are directed against Countries or political leaders already held in disdain-as was the case with Iraq and is now the case with Syria. With almost everyone ready to believe the worst, few investigators or journalists are willing to endanger their reputations and careers by demanding a high level of proof. It's easier to go with the flow.

In the Hariri case, the Chief UN investigator, German Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, found himself under intense international pressur that some observers compared to the demands on UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix in early 2003.

Unable to find Iraqi WMD but facing US insistence that the WMD was there, Blix tried to steer a middle course to avert a head on confrontation with the Bush administration, which nevertheless brushed aside his muted objections and invaded Iraq in March 2003.

After the UN report was released on Oct 20, Bush immediately termed it's allegations "Very Disturbing" and called for the UN to take action against Syria.

The bitter Iraq experience might justify at least the running down of obvious leads that could either strengthen or disprove the case, like the mystery of the White Mitsubishi Canter Van.

Source:
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=PAR20051023&articleId=1133