Elusive Truth Behind the Hariri Hit

By Robert Parry

January 4, 2006

The conventional wisdom solidifying around the Feb. 14, 2005, assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is that Syrian intelligence agencies did it. But the sad reality is that the chief United Nations investigator so rushed to judgment that the truth may now be lost forever in a maze of geopolitics.

Chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis is withdrawing from the investigation, but not before submitting a second report on Dec. 10, 2005, that sought to salvage the tattered reputation of his earlier report that had relied heavily on two dubious witnesses to implicate senior officials of the Syrian government.