Kassir has continually criticized Syria and the pro-Syrian Lebanese government and intelligence apparatus.

In 2001 the Syrian-backed security services harassed Kassir, seized his passport and threatened him with arrest at Beirut airport. He was said to have received several death threats.

In his last column in An-Nahar on Friday, Kassir criticized the Syrian government for their unwillingness to enact rapid change.

Members of Lebanon's opposition believe they have the answer, Walid Jumblatt said that the blame falls on the shoulders of "remnants of Lebanese security services affiliated to Syria under the direct sponsorship of President Lahoud."

Kassir's widow, Giselle Khoury (center of picture above) demanded a legitimate international investigation. Specialists from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation were present on Friday, and experts from France are expected on the site on Saturday.

Robert Fisk is a journalist who has devoted a large part of his life to Lebanon, and like Kassir, Fisk shares a similar brave passion for exposing the truth. In his latest article, Fisk investigates the murder.

Syria's troops have gone. So who killed Samir, Lebanon's fearless journalist?

Excerpts from Fisk's article:

Samir Kassir was the best known columnist on An Nahar, a valued member of the opposition, newly married and - like so many of us in Beirut - living on the happy assumption that with Syria's troops and intelligence officers withdrawn from Lebanon, he had nothing to fear.

This was a shock that no one in Beirut expected - except, of course, the assassins ... We all thought that Lebanon's assassins were in their rabbit holes, fearful of arrest.

Just before he resigned this year, the pro-Syrian head of Lebanon's General Security Service, Jamil Sayyed, hysterically offered to arrest himself if he was blamed for Hariri's murder. Mr Kassir had written a brutal article the next day, pointing out that it was good to see those who had threatened journalists and who had censored journalists now showing their own fear of justice. Rustum Ghazaleh, who was head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, screamed abuse at the journalist.

In 2001, after a series of articles excoriating the Syrians and pro-Syrian Lebanese intelligence operatives, airport security confiscated his passport on his return from Amman, claiming they wanted to "verify the conditions upon which it was obtained".

Nassib Lahoud, who was last night attending a meeting of opposition leaders in Beirut - among them was the Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, who was a close friend of Mr Kassir - had no doubts about the reasons for the murder. "Criminal hands did not target Samir because he was a brilliant journalist," he said. "They did not target Samir because he was a brilliant intellectual. They have targeted Samir for being one of the leaders of Lebanon's spring, because he was part and parcel of the opposition. So the battle with the intelligence apparatus is not over. This assassination is meant to tell us that Lebanon's march towards democracy should not be an easy ride."

This week, An Nahar picked up a story that had been running in its rival paper, Mr Hariri's daily Al-Mustaqbal, and named three prominent Syrian intelligence officers who it claimed had - in defiance of UN Security Council resolution 1559 - returned to Lebanon to interfere in elections.

Syria denied the men were here. Mr Kassir's last column - on Friday last week - was an attack on the Syrian Baath party, headlined "Mistake after mistake".

So who murdered Samir Kassir?

Sources: Selves and Others, Ya Libnan

Full coverage from Ya Libnan:
* So who murdered Samir Kassir?
* Lebanon protests another murder: Pictures from Martyrs' Square
* Lebanese Journalists pay tribute to murdered colleague
* Lebanon's murdered journalist: An open letter to the Lebanese
* Vigil held to honor slain journalist in Beirut
* France & Lebanon outraged for assassination of Lebanese Journalist
* Tragedy strikes again in Beirut
* Journalist targeted and killed in Beirut explosion
* Opposition blames Lahoud and Syria for latest assassination
* Anti-Syrian journalist murdered in Beirut
* Photographs of Samir Kassir's tragic crime scene