Saturday, March 25, 2006

Brammertz versus(?) Mehlis. I have not commented on the last UN Hariri Investigation (Brammertz) report, not that you have asked. But reading it, you reach the following conclusion. He is not as stupid as Mehlis. Mehlis was so clumsy and so eager that he may have hurt his case, even if he had a solid case. This one is more cautious and more sensitive to the legal-judicial process. But that could be part of deliberate dissimulation. He could be more cautious to gain the confidence of the Syrian regime, to obtain more evidence, and to make a stronger case. And the Syrian government, which has a long record of foolishness and stupidity--not to mention gross human rights violation--, is easily duped. And then there is the possibility that the investigation is getting nowhere: there are signs in this very report: about new lines of investigation or about Al-Madinah Bank, etc. I think that the absence of new arrests is not a sign of progress. I was skeptical early on whether the killers of Hariri will really be found and apprehended--not that I am losing sleep over the matter. Please. I am much more interested in finding the culprits of the killers of Syrian workers in Lebanon. Those are the invisible victims--those who die with no private jets behind them. Those victims did not make cash donations to the campaigns of European presidents, and Kofi Annan does not care about their plight, just as he did not care about the plight of the victims of Rwanda.