News Agencies: December 13, 2007- A powerful car bomb killed one of Lebanon's top generals and his bodyguard in a suburb of Beirut on Wednesday, striking an unexpected blow at the country's most widely respected institution and further undermining Lebanon's precarious stability. The army officer, Brig. Gen. François al-Hajj, was killed when a bomb under a parked blue BMW sedan exploded as he drove past on his way to work at the Defense Ministry.


General Hajj, 54, was a top contender to succeed Gen. Michel Suleiman, the army chief who is poised to become the country's next president. He was also the operational commander during the three-month battle over the summer against Islamic militants holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.


Whether it was intended as a political message or as revenge, the blast underscored the persistence of the bitter political confrontation that has crippled the government during the past year. The crisis has deepened since November 23, when Émile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his term as president without any agreement on a successor.


With sorrow and pain the Lebanese Canadian Coordinating Council (LCCC) condemned the assassination of General Francois Hajj. This crime, in fact, targeted all the Lebanese people in their safety, security and the

The paramount goals of the Iranian-Syrian plot against Lebanon have been overtly and shamelessly declared.

stability of their nation, as well as their common lives and the future of their young ones. It can't be seen or understood except in the context of the Syrian-Iranian axis of evil and its ongoing scheme against Lebanon and its democracy. All previous and current major events indicate plainly that the assassins were Syrian-Iranian agents.


The paramount goals of the Iranian-Syrian plot against Lebanon have been overtly and shamelessly declared by the top leaders of these two countries, as well as by their Lebanese armed militias, mercenaries and Trojans - especially by Hizbullah's leadership. The evil anti-Lebanese goals are clear even to children and the naïve. They aim to dismantle the Lebanese institutions, annihilate and shatter its democratic free regime of coexistence, slaughter its leaders, destroy its civilian, judicial and military infrastructure - all in a bid to force the Lebanese people into a state of despair, intimidation and subordination.


The scheme aims to impose, through the conduit of Lebanese and Palestinian terrorist instruments made in Damascus and Tehran, a status quo of chaos, insecurity, institutional vacuum, terror, poverty, isolation and population exodus. The ultimate goal is to replace the Lebanese constitutional, civilized and peaceful system - which is based on multiculturalism, consensual democracy, freedoms, common living and coexistence - with a fundamentalist state replicating the Iranian mullahs' (Welayet al-Faqeh) religious republic.


We strongly oppose any compromises by the Cedars' Revolution leadership over the constants of sovereignty, freedom and independence with the so-called Lebanese opposition, spearheaded by Hizbullah, Iran's army in Lebanon. No matter how small they are, such compromises will be comprehended by the Axis of Evil and its instruments of fundamentalism and terror in Lebanon as a defeat of the state, entity and identity of Lebanon, its constitution and UN resolutions, and a victory for their satanic plans.


In light of declared schemes, ongoing hostility, refusal to dismantle the Hizbullah's armed cantons, the ultimate military confrontation with this evil axis and its local Lebanese-Palestinian instruments, first and foremost of them being Hizbullah, is unavoidable. We therefore would like to bring to the attention of the sovereign Lebanese and the nations of the free world the following points.


The extremely dangerous security condition in Lebanon is due to the spread and infiltration of Syrian-Iranian agents throughout the country's civil and governmental institutions. This ailment cannot be cured or contained with pain killers, whether with toothless international resolutions, verbal warnings and diplomatic advice, or other shy, peaceful and civilized means. Rather, it is of utmost urgency for the Security Council to immediately and quickly place Lebanon and all its territory under Chapter Seven of its charter and declare it a nation unable to govern itself, constituting a menace to regional and global peace.


Then, proceed to deploy international forces throughout the cedars nation, and specifically on the Syrian-Lebanese borders. This could be enacted as a new international resolution authorizing the expansion of the UN forces mission and placing the Lebanese army under their command.


In case the international order is unable to perform this dangerous and expensive mission through the security

Military confrontation with this evil axis and its local Lebanese-Palestinian instruments... is unavoidable.

council, then it is imperative that NATO takes the initiative. With its own military forces, it must immediately settle the conflict before the Axis of Evil spreads to Europe, America and the rest of the world.


The leaders of the Axis of Evil, as proven by all facts and practices since 1975, only understand the language of firmness and force. They are detached from reality and rationality, and from all that is human civilization, values and laws. They therefore build all their plans on illusions and deviated religious beliefs, totally insensitive to the consequences of their actions no matter how destructive they are.


These leaders do not take in account their own capabilities nor the capabilities of those they are declaring wars against. They live in a world of fantasies and illusions. Accordingly, only deterrent militarily aggressive means can bring them back to their senses and to reality.


Let the free world - countries, leaders, people and institutions - know without a shred of doubt that leaving Lebanon as easy prey for the Syrian-Iranian terror dragon will not eliminate, by any means, the dragon's threat to the region and to other states, regardless of how strong these other countries are. Be certain that the fall of Lebanon means the beginning of the fall of all free and democratic regimes in the world.