U.N. DOUBLE-STANDARD ON SYRIA, HARIRI & JENIN MASSACRE *PIC*

I can hear the faint sound of war drums once again, which makes this article worth the read. Source: http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=80820 U.N. DOUBLE-STANDARD ON SYRIA, HARIRI & JENIN MASSACRE *PIC* Posted By: ChristopherBollyn Date: Wednesday, 26 October 2005, 4:43 a.m. The U.N. investigation of the assassination of Rafik Hariri and the strongly-worded resolutions that seek to punish Syria for its alleged role in his murder reveal the glaring double-standard the Bush administration and the United Nations employ to protect Israel and defend it from criticism or international sanctions. The U.N. report produced by Detlev Mehlis contains a great deal of speculation and allegations from un-named witnesses but provides no solid evidence that Syria had anything to do with the murder of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. The Mehlis report says: "Until the investigation is completed, all new leads and evidence are fully analyzed, and an independent and impartial prosecution mechanism is set up, one cannot know the complete story of what happened, how it happened and who is responsible for the assassination of Rafik Hariri and the murder of 22 other innocent people. Therefore, the presumption of innocence stands." The U.N. report, which only began 4 months after the murder and then took 4 months, concludes with these words: "The Commission is of course of the view that all people, including those charged with serious crimes should be considered innocent until proven guilty following a fair trial." Are the U.S. and the UN willing to consider the Syrian officials innocent until proven guilty in a fair trial? It does not look like the global oligarchs take these words seriously but are rather seeking to use the conjecture and speculation contained in the inconclusive Mehlis report to try to punish Syria and launch a new war of aggression on a small Middle Eastern state. Whose interest is being served by this aggressive diplomacy and sabre rattling? Israel is the only clear beneficiary. The 60-page Mehlis report did not even consider the possibility that the Hariri assassination was a "targeted killing" carried out by a precision-guided missile, which is what the evidence at the crime scene strongly indicates. This is the very method perfected and long-used by Israel to kill its enemies on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, only a few miles to the south of Beirut. The Israelis even killed Sheikh Yassin of Hamas with a precision-guided missile while he was being pushed in his wheel chair in Gaza! Certainly the satellite images and air traffic data from the Beirut area would provide evidence the Mehlis commission should have looked at - but it didn't. It apparently didn't even ask for it. "Although resolution 1595 called on all States to provide the Commission with any relevant information pertaining to the Hariri case, it is to be regretted that no Member State relayed useable information to the Commission," the report said. "Personnel from Military Intelligence (mainly specialists in the field of explosives) visited the crime scene and conducted their part of the examination. They confirmed that the type of explosives used were TNT and the estimated amount to be some 300 kilograms," it said. A Swiss forensic group, however, could not even determine if the Hariri explosion had occurred above or below ground: "After interpretation and analysis of the dispersion of fragments, we can’t give clear evidence whether there was an explosion above or under ground," the Swiss team concluded. "Our analysis and research concerning the shape and form of the crater also gives no clear evidence whether there was an explosion above or under ground." What? A Swiss government team can't even determine how the crater was formed? "On the other hand, the form and shape of the crater gives some information about the possible amount of the charge (above or under ground)," they said. "As mentioned in our report it is expected that an amount of about 1000 kg above ground will create a crater like the one on the scene." This is pure nonsense. Russian data on surface blasts indicate that an explosive charge of at least 5 to 10 tons of TNT would be necessary to create a crater the size of that found in the road where Hariri's convoy was hit - no less than 5 tons of TNT! But there is solid evidence that it was not a car bomb with 5 to 10 tons of TNT that killed Hariri. First, there is the photograph of the crater. It shows that the detonation occurred below the street level and blew the sand and pavement up and out of the crater. The pipe that is seen thrust upwards from the crater suggests that the detonation occurred below the pipe, well beneath the road - not above it. Massive surface explosions tend to indent or depress the surface - not excavate the underlying sand and soil to a depth of 10 feet. Such craters are caused by bombs that do not detonate on impact but have delayed fusing that allows the bomb to penetrate the media for a few milliseconds before detonating. Secondly, there is a vehicle that is clearly seen immediately behind the crater, virtually at its edge. If the blast had been a surface blast of the strength required to excavate the huge crater, it would have blown that car far away from the crater. That car would not be standing there. No way. The fact that the car is still standing at the edge of the crater indicates that the thrust of the explosion was upwards, as I said earlier, not sideways. This car was apparently only hit by a glancing blow from the explosion - not by its full force. And lastly, there is the plume of smoke that rose from the explosion. The color of the plume is first a light sand color, which indicates that the explosion occurred in the sand below the street of the corniche of Beirut. See: http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?noframes;read=65370 The Mehlis report does not deal with any of this evidence and fails to even consider that Hariri may have been killed by an air-launched missile, a theory which I have written about since the assassination occured on February 14, 2005. See: http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?noframes;read=65258 Compare the tough position taken by the Bush administration and the U.N. against Syria with their meek response to Israel's refusal to cooperate with a similar U.N. investigation of the Israeli army massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in occupied Palestine. An untold number of innocent Palestinians were killed and bulldozed in their homes by the Israeli Defense Forces in April 2002. At the end of April 2002, the Israeli government simply refused to cooperate with a UN fact-finding mission charged with visiting the devastated Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin, and warned it would try to block any visit by the team. What did the UN and US do when Ariel Sharon refused to cooperate with the "international community?" Did they call for sanctions, freezing assets, and preventing international flights from Israel? Did they discuss Israel's lack of cooperation in the Security Council? No. The UN team, which had assembled in Geneva, cancelled its scheduled flight departure, and went home. They wrote their report on the massacre of Jenin from the safety of their offices in Switzerland and New York. See: http://www.un.org/peace/jenin/ Photo: Note the upthrust pipe and car standing beside the crater. This evidence strongly suggests that a precision-guided missile hit the Hariri convoy and detonated below the street.