Marwan Hamadah in the Hariri court in the Hague

So for days, Marwan Hamadi (a loyal Hariri tool) testified about his heroism against the Syrian regime and his struggle with Rafiq Hariri (one of the key tools of Syrian regime in Lebanon for over a decade) to rid Lebanon of Syrian regime influence.  So today, the lousy defense team (I have never seen a weaker more incompetent defense) asked him meekly and timidly about his past statement in praise of the Syrian regime, and he said: I am an Arab nationalist. I kid you not.  In the next few weeks, his brother, the An-Nahar journalist, `Ali Hamadi will testify about his own struggle against the Syrian regime in Lebanon.  I met this `Ali once in my life (per his request).  In that meeting (a few years prior to Hariri assassination) he asked me whether I knew anyone in Syrian intelligence.  I said: of course, not. I don't know anyone.  He then said: that is a mistake. You have a blanket unfavorable image of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon and that they are not all the same and that some of them are rather good and he named one of them and said: he is an intellectual.   He urged me to get to know people of the Syrian intelligence.  I said: no, I don't need to.  I remember I went afterwards and reported the conversation to the then editor of As-Safir, Joseph Samahah.  He smiled and shook his head.