Friday, October 19, 2007

Lebanese reporter, Fida' `Itani, has been writing a series of articles in Al-Akhbar dealing with the interrogation of Salafi activists in Lebanon, and they deal with the assassination plot against Rafiq Hariri. The series were ignored by the Lebanese and Arabic press--not to mention the American press busy with Paris Hilton updates--and the "Democratically-elected" government of Fu'ad Sanyurah took immediate action to prosecute Al-Akhbar for daring to publish. Here is an account from Mideast wire (no link):
"Fida’a Ittani of Al Akhbar, an independent pro-opposition newspaper, wrote on October 9: “How was the assassination of Al-Hariri planned and who equipped the alleged suicide bomber Ahmad Abu Adas who carried out the attack? Who handled the monitoring? And where was the truck used in the explosion rigged with explosives? And who is the real suicide bomber? A force of the elite division of the internal security forces enters Roumieh prison and starts beating up some of the detainees in the prison accused of belonging to the Fatah Al-Islam organization and to a logistical support group for the Iraqi resistance known as the Hassan Naba’h group or the group of 13. Despite many reports about the discovery and foiling of an attempt to escape from the prison which were denied by the interior minister Hassan Al-Sab’a, the reports about cooperation of one of the prison guards with the Islamic extremists and the discovery of communications from inside the prison to outside of it were accurate. “But the attack on the detainees who suffered from beatings, searches, and insults that reached the extent of tearing apart Qur’ans and insulting their religious beliefs, returned the matter to a critical point in the relations that were managed indirectly between the detainees and active political factions in the country and posed new questions about the identity of this group and the charges against it. The group that was interrogated in batches includes members from many nationalities: Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. The interrogation was carried out in the centers of the internal security forces and the confessions were signed by the head of the information branch in the internal security forces. This group was also interrogated by non-Lebanese security forces, including American and Saudi factions without the detainees learning who they were being interrogated by." (thanks Nicholas)