It’s just totally unacceptable that the unedited version went out. This report is of major importance to the region, and the release of the unedited version will only lend ammunition to those who want to criticize the report. Mehlis should apologize.

Anon, it was actually the edited version that went out - but the edits were available as comments (an option in word). That is indeed unacceptable.

Apology or not, it is out.

I never send anything out in word. Always output as PDF and you are safe. Microsoft IS the evil empire :-)

Ramzi has an excellent explanation here . It’s probable that the leak was done on purpose (I heard that it was the British?).

BTW Mehlis encountered the Syrian ambassador on the plane! He said that it wasn’t planned! He also encountered Frangieh on the plane last week (also not planned…)

“I deleted the Syrian officials’ names after I learned the report will not be confidential,” Mehlis said. Asked why not delete other names for the same reason, he said, “probably, they should have been omitted too.”

While Mehlis can afford to take the report lightly, the Lebanese people cannot.

Forgot to mention the above is from the Daily Star by Adnan El-Ghoul.

This should serve to convince the Lebanese that they should start to build a country and forget about “help” from the West. At the end of the work day, Mehlis returns to Europe.

Ramzi,
This little incident should not be allowed to rob the report of its credibility. It is like finding a person guilty and acquitting him on a technicality.

I agree. But for those of us trying to defend the report it makes it that much more difficult.

I don’t think that the UN is dumb enough to leak a confidential report. If an unofficial version was leaked, it is to destabilize the Syrian regime. This is a typical judiciary tactic, you frighten your adversary and hope that he will make mistakes.

Mehlis gave Hamdane’s name in an interview with le Figaro in August. The UN speaker later said that it was a mistake. Are they really doing ‘mistakes’? Of course not, it was a brilliant move. More people will speak because of this leak because they know now that Syria is going to be incriminated. Everybody likes to be on the winner’s side.

I would say it is pure incompetence. These are not planned leeks. The UN does not operate in that manner.

The UN is a great forum for the world to settle its problems. But it is overly bureaucratic with a lot of incompetent personnel.

I’m fed up with all these self-proclaimed Lebanon “experts” avidly commenting excerpts from the Mehlis report as if it were some kind of exercise in exegesis.

OK: some Marxist/Syrian “Mukhabarât” thugs might have contributed to the killing of one of their former protégé… and, after all, so what?

Rafiq Hariri was a notorious Saudi-sponsored fraudster and embezzler who had stolen billions from the Lebanese government’s coffers with the complicity of resident Syrian Gen. Ghazi Canaan who skimmed his infamous “khamseen” percent commission for the big boys back in Damascus and Qardâha.

Faux “sheikh” Hariri was most likely killed in a settling of accounts between rival Syrian mafia gangs: that type of crime happens every now and then in Palermo and in the south side of Chicago without eliciting the appointment of a German special prosecutor or impromptu meetings of the UN’s Security Council!

Contrary to the tall tales peddled on Fox News, Future TV, Al-Nahar-al-Wahhabist and other Saudi and/or Hebrew controlled media outlets, “sheikh Rafiq” was no “disinterested defender of freedom”.

Actually, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Saddam’s Iraq and the French government were the only members of the international community who stood squarely on the side of Lebanon’s sovereignty while the country was being ripped/raped by Syria and Saudi Arabia: in those days, the White House courageously looked the other way while Syrian generals tortured at will from Beirut to Zahleh and “sheikh” Rafiq handed no-bid government contracts to his family’s construction firms and organized Oriental orgies cum crystal waterpipes and deluxe Lebanese sex slaves for his Saudi masters.

Eternally Yours in Liberty,

Dr Victorino de la Vega
Chair of the Thomas More Center for Middle East Studies
http://www.mideastmemo.blogspot.com/

victorina,

you are an intellectual dumbass
where do you come up with this stuff??

An “anonymous” ANALyst of the Spring Sprung Saudi Dupe persuasion said:
“You are an intellectual dumbass where do you come up with this stuff??” [sic]

Once again, I can’t let you get away with this recurring double standard of yours: why focus all your ire on the decrepit Damascus dictatorship while systematically closing your eyes on the malevolent acts of the Wahhabi terrorist kingdom and its Harirista collaborators??

You want hard facts dude?

Well in 1993, “sheikh” Rafiq Al-Hariri and his partner-in crime Syrian Gen. Ghazi Canaan (who would brutally turn on him 12 years later but that’s another story!) decided to bulldoze tens of beautiful houses built by Turkish, French and Italian architects in the late 19th/early 20th century, while several independent experts commissioned at the time had said most of these historic buildings could have been repaired and rehabilitated

While in government, Hariri and his cronies passed a series of anti-constitutional laws with the blessing of the sinister Syrian Mukhabarât- a well document FACT e.g. see many speeches and articles on that particular topic by Byblos MP Raymond Eddé: this allowed Hariri to expropriate “legally” hundreds of ethnic Lebanese residing downtown: they were given “compensations” worth a mere fraction of the real value of the land

The Saudi-appointed crook then founded SOLIDERE a tax-efficient “investment vehicle” that allowed him to transfer the proceeds of his state-sponsored real estate thefts to himself, his family, his Saudi masters…and resident Syrian General Ghazi Canaan

Hariri then proceeded to build a soulless Saudi-sponsored POTEMKIN VILLAGE full of deluxe condos, exclusive designer shops, snobbish cafes and “massage parlors” equipped with crystal waterpipes and deluxe Lebanese sex slaves to suit the expensive tastes of his Riyadh friends

At least Lord Potemkin, the famous 18th century Russian general turned politician acted in a despicable way only to please Queen Catherine the Great, a brilliant stateswoman that achieved a lot for her (adopted) nation

Rafic simply wanted to please his master King Fahed of Saudistan, a lousy desert despot who has done a lot to weaken the Arab world and funded the spread of a backward brand of fundamentalism from Bradford to Kandahar.

“OK: some Marxist/Syrian “Mukhabarât” thugs might have contributed to the killing of one of their former protégés… and, after all, so what?”

So what??? It was only a murder against the soon-to-be elected reprsentative of the Lebanese people and a terrorist attack that killed 20 civilians. ‘So what’? Your question shows the value that you give to democracy and human lives. You’re a true baathist man.

Victorino honey, you knew the truth from day 1, and you chose to lie about it because people like you can only express themselves through lies. You hoped that the report wouldn’t uncover the truth, and now that it’s done, you’re still trying to defend your beloved fascist regime next door.

I am not the anon above but I agree with him: you are an intellectual dumbass, a lier and a hypocrite.