Press Release From The Canadian Coalition For Democracy
For Immediate Release

UN names Assad accessory to murder. Will Canada's support for Syrian dictator change?
Toronto, Canada – Tuesday, 25 October, 2005 – A report prepared by Detlev Mehlis, a German prosecutor for the UN Security Council, suggests that Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and members of his inner circle were responsible for the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
"The report is particularly damaging to Prime Minister Paul Martin and Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew who have supported Assad and his puppet regime," said Francois Hachem, Director, Canadian Coalition for Democracies.
A few days before Hariri’s murder in February 2005, Foreign Affairs Minister Pettigrew visited Lebanon and Syria, bestowing official recognition on the Assad regime and their Lebanese puppets, while ignoring the Lebanese opposition. Prime Minister Paul Martin went further, publicly declaring that the Syrians were in Lebanon "to keep the peace".
At that time, CCD urged the Minister to avoid lending “credibility to the Syrian regime.” CCD stressed “Syria has been listed many times over as state promoter of terrorism in Israel, Lebanon, Iraq and across the Middle East” and urged that “Minister Pettigrew must send a strong message that Canada does not support Syria's promotion of terrorism and its occupation of Lebanon." The Minister ignored the warning and chose to befriend the Syrian dictator and delegitimize former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the democratic Lebanese opposition. For his support of the Syrian regime, Prime Minister Martin was praised by Mohamed Elmasry, President of the Canadian Islamic Congress.
Lebanese Canadians, disappointed by Canada’s description of Assad and his puppet regime in Lebanon as “peacekeepers” are now demanding that our government take concrete steps to make amends for their support of Assad.
“Now that the report is in, Canada must take action against the Assad regime,” said Francois Hachem, CCD director. “The Prime Minister must start by recalling Canada’s Ambassador from Damascus; ending all political, military and strategic support for the Assad regime; and leading the international effort to ensure that Assad and his advisors are charged by the International Criminal Court for the murder of Prime Minister Hariri.
“The time is now for Canada to show leadership in Middle East affairs.”

For more information, contact
Francois Hachem
Director
Canadian Coalition for Democracies
PO Box 72602
345 Bloor Street East
Toronto, ON M4W 3J0 Canada

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Best of the Web Today - October 24, 2005
Wall Street Journal
By JAMES TARANTO
Deleting a Dictator
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-1837848,00.html
Bashar al-Assad may become the first dictator to fall from power because U.N. functionaries are incompetent with computers, suggests a report in the Times of London:
The United Nations withheld some of the most damaging allegations against Syria in its report on the murder of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, it emerged [Friday].
The names of the brother of Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and other members of his inner circle, were dropped from the report that was sent to the Security Council.
The confidential changes were revealed by an extraordinary computer gaffe because an electronic version distributed by UN officials on Thursday night allowed recipients to track editing changes.
The original Microsoft Word document is here ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/syria/mehlis.report.doc ), and MidEastWeb.org ( http://www.mideastweb.org/mehlis_report.htm ) has rendered it in HTML form. Here's the key passage, rendered to look like redlined Microsoft Word text (note that this will not appear properly if you're reading this column as a text e-mail):
One witness of Syrian origin but resident in Lebanon, who claims to have worked for the Syrian intelligence services in Lebanon, has stated that approximately two weeks after the adoption of Security Council resolution 1559, Maher Assad, Assef Shawkat, Hassan Khalil, Bahjat Suleyman and Jamil Al-Sayyed senior Lebanese and Syrian officials decided to assassinate Rafik Hariri. He claimed that Sayyed a senior Lebanese security official went several times to Syria to plan the crime, meeting once at the Meridian Hotel in Damascus and several times at the Presidential Place and the office of Shawkat a senior Syrian security official. The last meeting was held in the house of Shawkat the same senior Syrian security official approximately seven to 10 days before the assassination and included Mustapha Hamdan another senior Lebanese security official. The witness had close contact with high ranked Syrian officers posted in Lebanon.
According to the Times, "Mr Annan had pledged repeatedly through his chief spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, that he would not change a word of the report by Detlev Mehlis, a German prosecutor":
But computer tracking showed that the final edit began at about 11.38am on Thursday--a minute after Herr Mehlis began a meeting with Mr Annan to present his report. The names of Maher al-Assad, General Shawkat and the others were apparently removed at 11.55am, after the meeting ended.
Last week we noted ( http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110007422#annan ) an Associated Press report that Secretary-General Kofi Annan had said that "he is determined to keep an upcoming report into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri from fanning tensions between Syria and Lebanon." Thanks to Bill Gates, now we know how far Annan was willing to go to protect the Syrian dictatorship.