In October 1987, Maronite Patriarch Sfayr visited France. He met with then prime minister, Chirac. Chirac (discussing Lebanese presidential politics with Sfayr), asked: "What do you think of Gen. (Johny) `Abdu? [Sfayr:] I hear that he is a good man, intelligent and educated; and that he is of Palestinian descent. His father came to Lebanon [from Palestine]..." Chirac sunk into noticeable silence and stared intently at Patriarch Sfayr...as if the answer of Sfayr did not appeal to him." From Sa`d, Antoine, The Seventy Six, (Beirut: Jabalna, 2006), vol. 1, p. 121. This biography of Sfayr is authorized, and he made available to Sa`d his detailed, hand-written notes of all his meetings, and his diary. (He did not give him his hat collection though). `Abdu hosted in his own house meetings with Ariel Sharon during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, and was quoted in some Israeli accounts as urging more massive bombing of Lebanon in 1982. He was hired by Hariri from the 1980s, and was a favorite presidential candidate for Rafiq Hariri, as Muhammad Hasanayn Hakal reported on AlJazeera. Notice in the funeral of his son in Paris two days ago, the entire Hariri family showed up to offer condolences. `Abdu's resume includes sending car bombs into West Beirut during the administration of Ilyas Sarkis.