U.S. sending FBI team to help Lebanon probe blast

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The United States will send a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team to help Lebanon probe the Beirut car bombing that killed the country’s internal security chief, officials said Monday.

Lebanese troops deployed in Sunni areas of the capital as more sectarian violence erupted, stoking fresh fears after a top security official was killed in a bombing blamed on neighboring Syria.

But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed Washington’s support for Lebanon’s sovereignty, in a phone call with Prime Minister Najib Mikati, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

“There is going to be an FBI team headed to Lebanon to help them with their investigation. But we’ll certainly wait for the results of that investigation” before deciding any further response, he told reporters, according to AFP.

Describing Clinton’s conversation with Mikati, he said “she was very, very clear in stressing our support for Lebanon’s sovereignty” and also “stressed the importance of all political leaders working together.”

He did not say whether the FBI team had already arrived in Lebanon, where there have been violent protests since Friday, when police intelligence chief General Wissam al-Hassan died in the Beirut bombing.

“It’s a very sensitive time,” he added, saying: “There’s an investigation under way, and we’re going to look to the results of that investigation. And we also would urge calm.”

On Friday, the United States condemned the blast as a terrorist strike. And on Sunday, Clinton underscored “the United States’ firm commitment to Lebanon’s stability, independence, sovereignty and security.”

Hassan’s funeral on Sunday had been billed as a protest against Syrian meddling in Lebanon, but quickly turned into anger at Mikati, whose government is dominated by pro-Syria parties.

Despite calls for him to quit, Mikati said he would stay on at President Michel Suleiman’s request to avoid a “political vacuum” in volatile Lebanon.

The opposition has widely blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for Friday’s attack, as it did in 2005 when former premier Rafiq Hariri was killed in a huge Beirut blast.

The army said it was determined to restore order, but the northern port of Tripoli was also shaken Monday by fighting between partisans and opponents of Assad that killed seven people.

On Monday afternoon personnel carriers entered Beirut’s Sunni district of Tariq Jdideh, which had been a hotspot all day. Soldiers took up position on streets leading into the district to keep them open, a military spokesman said.

Six people were wounded when the army made a pre-dawn sweep of Tariq Jdideh in pursuit of armed men, and automatic weapons and anti-tank rocket fire could be heard.

Later, soldiers responded after being fired on as they tried to clear a road into the district, a stronghold of opposition leader Saad Hariri. His supporters had blocked it despite calls by the former premier to stay off the streets.

The army spokesman said a 20-year-old Palestinian, Ahmed Quaider, was shot after firing at an army patrol.

In Tripoli, a Sunni bastion where opposition to Assad is strong, seven people were killed and 12 wounded during clashes between Sunnis and Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which the Syrian president belongs, security sources said.

Two Alawites and five Sunnis died.

The same sources reported snipers in the city late on Monday.

Clashes have erupted regularly in Tripoli as tensions spill over the border from Syria, where a 19-month-old anti-regime revolt has left more than 34,000 people dead.

A statement from the army high command said it was “committed to its role of stopping security breaches and maintaining civil order.”

The statement acknowledged that the country was “going through a critical time,” but said the army would act to prevent the assassination of Hassan being exploited as an “opportunity to murder the nation as a whole.”

Lebanon is a multi-faith country in which Christians, Shiite and Sunni Muslims each make up about one-third of the population.

Under a complex but unwritten arrangement, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the premier a Sunni and the speaker of parliament a Shiite.

Sunnis are furious over what they call the Syrian assassination of Hassan, also a Sunni, who was noted for pursuing alleged Syrian crimes in Lebanon including the 2005 assassination of Hariri’s father, Rafiq.

Clashes between Sunni and Shiite gunmen in Beirut in 2008 brought Lebanon close to a new civil war and there are fears it will be further destabilized by the conflict in Syria.

Lebanon is still haunted by its 1975-1990 civil war, which made Beirut a byword for carnage and wrecked large parts of the city.

Since then it has undergone an ambitious reconstruction program and enjoyed periods of economic prosperity due to its role as a trading, financial and tourist center. All that is now threatened.

The crisis underscores local and international concern that the uprising against Assad is dragging in Syria’s neighbors, which include Turkey and Jordan as well as Lebanon.

Ambassadors from the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France met Suleiman on Monday and appealed to Lebanese leaders to resolve the situation peacefully.

One Western diplomat, asked if he thought the Mikati government would survive, told Reuters: “I think it looks more likely today than yesterday that he will come through in the short term. It will take time to form a consensus on an alternative and in the meantime the security situation needs time to recover.”

Al Arabiya

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20 responses to “U.S. sending FBI team to help Lebanon probe blast”

  1. Hannibal Avatar

    Now we’re talking… Soon we shall know the name of the criminal…

  2. Hannibal Avatar

    Now we’re talking… Soon we shall know the name of the criminal…

  3. salizubri Avatar

    Beautiful, the US is coming to inject more poison. That should make 5th, Hannibal and the rest of the other clowns happy.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      Well Sali … if ‘they’ (whoever) keep killing people who do honest and fair investigating and actually arrest traitors and speak the truth, and ‘the people’ – like you – who WANT the truth to be known … (assuming) … then it will be necessary to accept any investigation offered, and then accept it’s findings … unless of course you are happy with the continuous rounds of hundreds being maimed and injured just for the sake of killing the one guy who spoke the truth.
      So … who would be YOUR preference as the investigator? (Remembering that every Lebanese policeman who did an honest job before this also died early.)

  4. salizubri Avatar

    Beautiful, the US is coming to inject more poison. That should make 5th, Hannibal and the rest of the other clowns happy.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      Well Sali … if ‘they’ (whoever) keep killing people who do honest and fair investigating and actually arrest traitors and speak the truth, and ‘the people’ – like you – who WANT the truth to be known … (assuming) … then it will be necessary to accept any investigation offered, and then accept it’s findings … unless of course you are happy with the continuous rounds of hundreds being maimed and injured just for the sake of killing the one guy who spoke the truth.
      So … who would be YOUR preference as the investigator? 

  5. werwefds Avatar

    I’m going to ask a serious question here. Let’s say the FBI conducts an honest investigation and it turns out that Israel is the culprit, do you think the US will come out and say this? I personally don’t think so.

    Even if the culprit is Saudi Arabia, Turkey, France, Great Britain or any other US ally of that calibre, do you think the FBI will risk making this revelation? I also don’t think so.

    The only possible outcomes from this investigation are (1) The FBI saying they have found nothing or (2) The FBI accusing Hezbollah/Syria/Iran.

    If you are really interested in finding out the truth, you will see the conflict of interest in the FBI conducting this investigation.

    1. And if they conducted an honest investigation and found out that it was Hezbollah/Syria/Iran, you think those 3 will admit that? Of course not! They will deny it. So same thing.

      1. salizubri Avatar

        The difference is Hezbollah, Syria and Iran are not full of shit like the US. Any investigation by the US will be floored.    

        1. That is your opinion but not a valid argument. I can also say that any investigation by the other team is also not true and full of…..Every side will always think they are right and the other is wrong and no amount of proof or anything else will change their minds.

        2. 5thDrawer Avatar

          You must be kidding on that one.

      2. salizubri Avatar

        That’s crap Mazen and you know it. Name me one thing that the US has put their hand on in terms of an investigation and hasn’t turned into a disaster. The US’s foundation is built on lies. This is not an argument Mazen, Only facts. Big difference  

        1. Like I said before, I’m not going to prove anything or name anything about the U.S or it’s investigation because you will not agree no matter what I say, so no point. And I’m not going to ask you to prove anything either or attack your side because it will lead to nothing. The only thing I am sure about is that both sides are sometimes wrong and sometimes right.

          Also, the U.S foundation is not built on lies. That doesn’t mean that they are never wrong but I’ve been in the U.S for 20 years and I know that is not true. Believe me, the Arab foundation is not that great either:)

  6. werwefds Avatar

    I’m going to ask a serious question here. Let’s say the FBI conducts an honest investigation and it turns out that Israel is the culprit, do you think the US will come out and say this? I personally don’t think so.

    Even if the culprit is Saudi Arabia, Turkey, France, Great Britain or any other US ally of that calibre, do you think the FBI will risk making this revelation? I also don’t think so.

    The only possible outcomes from this investigation are (1) The FBI saying they have found nothing or (2) The FBI accusing Hezbollah/Syria/Iran.

    If you are really interested in finding out the truth, you will see the conflict of interest in the FBI conducting this investigation.

    1. And if they conducted an honest investigation and found out that it was Hezbollah/Syria/Iran, you think those 3 will admit that? Of course not! They will deny it. So same thing.

      1. salizubri Avatar

        The difference is Hezbollah, Syria and Iran are not full of shit like the US. Any investigation by the US will be floored.    

        1. That is your opinion but not a valid argument. I can also say that any investigation by the other team is also not true and full of…..Every side will always think they are right and the other is wrong and no amount of proof or anything else will change their minds.

        2. 5thDrawer Avatar

          You must be kidding on that one.

      2. salizubri Avatar

        That’s crap Mazen and you know it. Name me one thing that the US has put their hand on in terms of an investigation and hasn’t turned into a disaster. The US’s foundation is built on lies. This is not an argument Mazen, Only facts. Big difference  

        1. Like I said before, I’m not going to prove anything or name anything about the U.S or it’s investigation because you will not agree no matter what I say, so no point. And I’m not going to ask you to prove anything either or attack your side because it will lead to nothing. The only thing I am sure about is that both sides are sometimes wrong and sometimes right.

          Also, the U.S foundation is not built on lies. That doesn’t mean that they are never wrong but I’ve been in the U.S for 20 years and I know that is not true. Believe me, the Arab foundation is not that great either:)

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