Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Hariri court indictment

I just read the official indictment by the Hariri--I almost said kangaroo--court.  I am not a lawyer and expect to her criticisms and comments from lawyers out there.  But I have to say this: I have done consulting work for law firms around the US and Canada on cases related to Middle East issues, including high profile terrorist cases (like the first terrorist case in Michigan following Sep. 11).  I have read indictments before and they tend to be through and exhaustively researched while this one reads like a journalist reports in Daily Telegraph or Der Spiegel.  But I ask that you read this one and send me your comments.  Article 3 talks about the fact the case is built entirely on circumstantial evidence but then says that circumstantial evidence is "often more reliable than direct evidence".  It then goes on the technical details about the phone systems (all of which were published in the press before--so much for the secrecy of the court) but provides no source or documentation of the methods involved.  In other words, we are told to trust the court and take its claims at face value.  In fact, I feel this indictment was rushed and purely for political reasons but that will hurt its case and not further it.  Then article 35 days that "Oneissi and Sabra were responsible for locating a suitable stranger who would be used to make a false claim of responsibility, on a video, for the attack against Hariri."  We don't know how they reached that conclusion: all we know is that they base what they say on phone movements and they tell us that those individuals were the people they identify.  You know that this indictment was written by an American or an Israeli official when you read the official language of Israeli/US terrorism reports (see Article 59, for example).  Having said all that and read the report, I dont know who killed Hariri and don't really care.  And I don't necessarily buy Hizbullah's story about Israeli responsibility, although Israel should always be accused and investigated given its hefty record of murder, assassinations, bombings, and conspiracies in our region.  But I do believe that Hariri was good for Israel.