Did Al-Akhbar Just Do The Future Movement A Favor?

The newspaper today (the official site is still down, but you get to read a pdf of today’s issue in the temporary site) has a detailed expose on page 4 of the confessions of Fayez Karam, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) bigwig who was arrested for spying for Israel.

The Karam arrest had gotten the FPM waging a vicious campaign to discredit the Lebanese Internal Security Force (ISF) — led by a Future Movement loyalist — dissing the affair as a nefarious political plot by another Future Movement security chief, Colonel Wissam Al Hassan, intended to hurt the Aounist camp and its alliance with Hezbollah.

By publishing Mr. Karam’s detailed confessions of an attempt by an Israeli officer to enlist his services in Paris (more in tomorrow’s issue), Al-Akhbar — a leftist daily with Hezbollah sympathies — effectively undermines the FPM’s campaign and lends legitimacy to Mr. Karam’s arrest.