For the historical record, the man who brought Elias Hobeika to the attention of Damascus was Michel El-Murr of Bteghrine, Lebanon. [Hobeika, assassinated in 2002, was a former member of Lebanon's parliament, commander of the Phalange militia forces in Sabra and Shatilla, and widely regarded as a Syrian collaborator against his own countrymen. - ed.] Murr was an old financial crook who had complexes of political inferiority when it came to the Gemayel family.



Murr used to wait on President Bashir Gemayel at his door during the Lebanese war and became the most important political recruiter for Damascus. He is the one that opened all doors in Damascus for most Lebanese traitors, paved the way for Emile Lahoud to reach the presidency, and married his son Elias El-Murr, the current minister of defense, off to Karine Lahoud, President Lahoud's daughter. That same Michel El-Murr was the godfather who, with Syria's support, placed Lebanese Forces' Samir Geagea in jail.



Murr also closed the deal with Syria for the recent return of the "Charles de Gaul" of Lebanon, General Michel Aoun, from his mansion in Paris to his villa in Rabieh, Lebanon. The deal was on condition that Aoun supported the Murr-Lahoud, Syrian-backed political dynasty in Lebanon.



The day we learned from Paris, prior to his departure to Beirut, that General Aoun was collecting names and sending them to the pro-Syrian regime for clearance at Beirut airport, we understood that Aoun had switched sides. His return, facilitated from Syria, was to help and consolidate the pro-Syrian regime of Emile Lahoud. He was to help Lahoud stay in power temporarily in order to return to the Syrian-backed "police state system" in Lebanon.



Referring to the car-bomb assassination in Beirut this month of former Communist party leader George Hawi, Gen. Aoun said, "Hawi may have probably been assassinated for political reasons," and "Who can imagine that President Emile Lahoud says 'Come and let's see who we will assassinate today?'" The General also said it was disgraceful to "hold Baabda [the Lebanese Presidential Palace] responsible every time someone is slapped." He blamed Hawi's assassination on Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa's dereliction of duty.



Those who collaborate with the Syrian regime for Damascus' survival in Lebanon cannot denounce George Hawi's assassination, as they share in the responsibility.



Aoun's political organization overseas, ironically, "strongly denounced" the heinous assassination of Mr. Hawi. But since George Hawi was assassinated in Beirut by the same group General Aoun is supporting politically in Lebanon, how could Aoun denounce this crime? General Aoun's political mechanism cannot have it both ways:



1. Aoun's group cannot condemn politically the murder of George Hawi when the that group is allied to the Syrian regime - which masterminded this crime.



2. The group cannot claim to be supporting Congressman Elliot Engle and the Syrian Accountability Act while Syrian Intelligence is supporting General Aoun's election list in Northern Lebanon, and Syria's crony in Lebanon, President Emile Lahoud, was supporting him in the Mount Lebanon elections against the opposition.



3. It cannot claim to want to open the files of financial and political corruption while General Aoun, whom many believe is one of the largest thieves in Lebanon, diverted over 100 million dollars to his private funds. Today, he is happy to have joined the club of the financially corrupt in Lebanon, with President Emile Lahoud and the other thief, Michel El-Murr.



4. It cannot claim to be the driving force behind UN Resolution 1559 that stipulates the withdrawal of Syria's army, intelligence services and criminal influence from Lebanon, and at the same time support a puppet government, installed by Syria to intimidate Lebanon's opposition and cover up Syrian crimes on Lebanon's streets.



5. It cannot support, on the one hand, the disarmament of Lebanese and non-Lebanese armed vigilante groups, along with the deployment of the Lebanese Army in South Lebanon to assume its legitimate role in patrolling the Lebanese border, while at the same time, General Aoun is allied and supported directly by a regime in Damascus that keeps the Sheba'a Farms on the Israeli border an active military front, linked to the resolution of the fate of the Golan.



6. Aoun cannot criticize and condemn the Syrian role in Lebanon, while that same Syrian interference is the instrument that returned the General to Lebanon.



7. He cannot collaborate with the occupation's instruments in Lebanon and claim Lebanon's liberation. That is hypocrisy.



8. General Aoun's people cannot start a "war of liberation" against Syria, be responsible for the death of hundreds of Lebanese soldiers and innocents, dozens missing in Syrian jails, and then take a picture with former Prime Minister Selim El-Hoss. From the very beginning, Aoun should have framed this historical picture with Selim El-Hoss and saved Lebanon from the resulting destruction and casualties.



9. Those 500 brave Lebanese Army soldiers shot with their hands tied behind their backs by the Syrian army, in Dahr El-Wahch on the 13th of October 1990, are turning in their grave seeing what his Excellency, General Aoun, is doing today.



Enough of Aoun misleading the public!