Antoine Ghanem

Strong Reaction from the Lebanese Forces, The only way to Stop a killings is to bring Justice to the Killers and their Supporters. 

Tempers run high as Phalangists react to blast
By Michael Bluhm
Daily Star staff
Thursday, September 20, 2007

BEIRUT: Phalange Party members struck an angry, defiant tone after the killing of MP Antoine Ghanem and six others in a car bombing Wednesday, with most rejecting dialogue with the opposition to find a consensus president in the wake of the latest assassination.

At party headquarters in Beirut's Saifi district, two men with assault rifles stood watch with about 10 others at the building's entrance, with emotions running so high that one of the sentries broke the guardhouse door during a high-decibel disagreement.

Inside, party member Dany Abi Rached said the ruling majority should strike back to put an end to Lebanon's seemingly endless chain of political killings.

"We should act by force," he said. "We should stop it right here, right now, or they will continue. They will continue to kill, to kill, to kill. We can't continue like that ... It's a long line of martyrs."

Ghanem became the 14th political figure targeted since February 14, 2005, when a massive bomb blast that killed Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others triggered popular demonstrations that forced the exit of Syrian armed forces from Lebanon after 29 years. Ghanem's slaying also left the ruling March 14 coalition with 68 seats in the 128-seat Parliament, which is scheduled to convene on September 25 for the presidential election.

The Phalangists tied Ghanem's assassination directly to the upcoming vote, saying it aimed to deprive the March 14 Forces of their majority.

"It's for sure related to the presidential election," said party member Nadim Yazbek. "They are trying to kill us off one by one. They killed [MP] Gebran Tueni for the same reason. They killed [late Industry Minister and Phalangist MP] Pierre Gemayel for the same reason - to kill the independence of Lebanon. Why are all the martyrs from March 14? It's just to kill the spirit of March 14."

Abi Rached and one of his relatives, Maroun Abi Rached, refused unequivocally to negotiate with the Hizbullah-led opposition to arrive at a consensus candidate to replace President Emile Lahoud, whose term expires on November 24.

The government and the opposition have squabbled for weeks over whether the president - who must be a Maronite under the Constitution - can or should be elected by a simple majority, and Dany Abi Rached said majority deputies should assemble "tomorrow" to choose a president instead of waiting for the planned Parliament session or talks with the opposition.

Ghanem's assassins "have six days - they can kill a lot of deputies," he said.

But political analyst Simon Haddad said the March 14 coalition's position could well change once passions subside.

"They always react like this first, and then they change and call for reaching a compromise and reducing tensions for the sake of the country," Haddad told The Daily Star. "I see it both ways. It could be an instigator to pressure all the parties to reach a consensus."

Haddad cited as an example the November 21, 2006, assassination of Gemayel, which did not provoke the anti-Syrian majority to abandon the possibility of dialogue with the opposition despite Gemayel's standing as a scion of the party's leading family and the son of former President Amin Gemayel.

Haddad concurred that the presidential vote was the motive behind Ghanem's killing.

"I think there is sort of a list," he said. "Whoever they can reach from March 14 - any name on the list - is being killed at random . There are many objectives, but the name is not important."

The Phalange Party followers did not hesitate to name Syria as the culprit in Ghanem's assassination. Abi Rached said Syria was "100-percent" behind the killing and the series of political assassinations, as the victims "are all known to be against the Syrian occupation of Lebanon."

Even if Lebanon's feuding political camps agree on a consensus president, the Phalangists made clear that they would not soon forget their martyrs or their deep misgivings about the opposition.

"Our people are dying and they are against Lebanon," Maroun Abi Rached said. "Hizbullah has arms. Last year it declared war by itself. Why should I be with them to elect a president?"

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=85426

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/printable.asp?art_ID=85426&cat_ID=2

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Antoine Ghanem (7) 2007-09-19 - Dr. Samir Geagea Call in to LBC

Antoine Ghanem (7) 2007-09-19 - MP Majority Bloc Leader Saad Hariri

Antoine Ghanem (8) 2007-09-19 - Kataeb Party Reaction

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

International community deplores 'contemptible act'
By The Daily Star
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Thursday, September 20, 2007

The United States led a global chorus of outrage Wednesday at the slaying of a Lebanese MP in Beirut and pointedly tied the attack to Damascus' role in its smaller neighbor.

Britain, France, Italy, Russia and the UN Security Council also sharply denounced the car bombing that killed Antoine Ghanem, while plunging deeply divided Lebanon into further chaos days ahead of the date set for a crucial presidential election in Parliament. Syria, too, deplored the attack.

The European Union also condemned the killing as a "contemptible act," but urged the Lebanese government to go ahead with the hotly contested September 25 contest.

"These attacks should by no means obstruct the process of electing the new president and the process of reform that lies ahead of Lebanon," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino charged that Ghanem, 64, had been "viciously murdered" and linked the blast to a spate of "cowardly attacks" since October 2004 against those trying to curb Syrian sway.

"It is no coincidence that this attack comes as Lebanon prepares to elect a new president. The United States will continue to stand by those Lebanese who continue to courageously stand up for democracy and independence," she said.

"Obviously there's going to have to be an investigation ... I'm not prepared to assign blame to anybody at this point," she added, but "there's been a pattern, and this would seem to fit into the pattern." 

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband condemned what it saw as a "ruthless attempt to destabilize Lebanon" before the election to pick a successor to President Emile Lahoud.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France - which, with the US, has led international efforts to reduced Syrian influence in Lebanon - expressed "sadness and anger" at what he described as a "targeted attack." 

"All light must be shed on the circumstances of this heinous crime and its perpetrators must be brought to justice," said Sarkozy, who, like Washington, linked it to other high-profile assassinations of anti-Syrian Lebanese leaders.

Ghanem, a member of the right-wing Christian Phalange Party of former President Amin Gemayel, was the eighth member of the ruling majority to be assassinated since the 2005 murder of billionaire former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Ghanem's death has reduced the anti-Syrian majority to 68 members out of the now 127-member House, amid a near-complete deadlock between the Western-backed ruling majority and the opposition.

In Rome, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo d'Alema denounced what he called a "terrorist attack" and a "barbaric act" aimed at "destabilizing Lebanese political life at a particularly delicate time."

After speaking by telephone to Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, d'Alema said in a statement that he hoped the attack would "reinforce everyone's will to isolate extremists and encourage political players to find a national consensus through a peaceful and democratic dialogue."

Members of the ruling majority in Lebanon accused Syria of being behind the powerful car bomb that claimed Ghanem's life.

The leader of the parliamentary majority, MP Saad Hariri, and the head of the pro-American Democratic Gathering, Walid Jumblatt, accused Syria of plotting the assassination.

"Antoine Ghanem's assassination is Syria's reply to Israeli violations of its airspace last week," Hariri said in a televised address after the assassination.

Jumblatt is expected to hold a news conference at 11 a.m. on Thursday "to talk about everything and uncover the truth," a statement issued by his press office late Wednesday said. 

Syria's government condemned the attack as a "criminal act" aimed at undermining Lebanese-Syrian relations.

"This criminal act targeted the attempts and efforts made by Syria and others to achieve Lebanese national understanding," the official Syrian Arab News Agency said.

Democratic Gathering MP Antoine Andraos accused the regime in Damascus and its "Lebanese agents" of killing Ghanem in the latest attack against prominent critics of Lebanon's neighbor and former power-broker, Syria.

MP Elias Atallah, from the Democratic Left, said "the hands of the Syrian regime, the hands of the killing mafia, are behind the assassination."

The Phalange Party held an emergency meeting at its headquarters in the Beirut neighborhood of Saifi on Wednesday, and said the assassination "was an attempt to decrease the number of the ruling coalition and spread chaos across the country."

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri expressed sorrow at Ghanem's assassination, and telephoned both Gemayel and Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir to pay his respects.

"The crime is yet another demonstration of the terrorist wave currently hitting Lebanon," the speaker said in a  statement after the killing.  

Butros Harb, an MP and presidential candidate, said it was clear Ghanem's killing was aimed at scuttling the parliamentary vote to choose a successor to Lahoud and plunging the country into further chaos.

"This is an attack aimed at sabotaging all efforts to reach a solution to the current political crisis," Harb said. "You cannot separate this killing from the presidential election." - With agencies

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=85423

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/printable.asp?art_ID=85423&cat_ID=2

--------------------------------------------------------------------

MP Antoine Ghanem assassinated
At least seven others killed, 56 wounded as ruling coalition fingers damascus
By Rym Ghazal
Daily Star staff
Thursday, September 20, 2007

BEIRUT: A car bomb killed a pro-government MP and at least seven others in Beirut on Wednesday, just days before the Lebanese Parliament is due to elect a new president for the country, with many fingering Syria as the culprit.

Alongside one of the busiest roads in Beirut, a booby-trapped car shook the densely populated and mostly Christian neighborhood of Horsh Tabet in Sin al-Fil - killing MP Antoine Ghanem and six others.

Ghanem, 64, was a low-key legislator from the Christian Phalange Party. He was the eighth prominent anti-Syrian figure assassinated since 2005, and the fourth lawmaker from the ruling coalition to be killed, reducing the ruling majority's voting weight in Parliament - with pro-government lawmakers holding 68 of Parliament's 128 seats, compared to the opposition's 59.

"Syria is back and is killing off more of our anti-Syrian politicians!" cried a bloodied Emile Abou Hamad, whose car-rental business near the site of the blast sustained heavy damage, echoing similar angry accusations by pro-government officials.

After a respite of three months since the last assassination - that of another pro-government MP, Walid Eido, - Lebanese tuned into familiar television images of shattered glass, burning cars, and rescue teams recovering mangled corpses.

Security sources estimated that the device contained 20-30 kilograms of TNT and was detonated by remote control as Ghanem's car passed by, wounding 56 people in the process.

Pro-government officials tied the slaying of Ghanem directly to the upcoming parliamentary vote, saying the killing aimed to deprive the ruling coalition of its majority.

The upcoming presidential election has exacerbated the already deep political divide between the majority and opposition forces, with looming fears of two governments if the two sides don't agree before President Emile Lahoud's term expires on November 24.

Sharp condemnations of the latest assassination poured in from the US, Britain, Russia, France, Italy, EU and the UN Security Council, as well as Syria.

Unlike the last assassination, Damascus was quick to condemn the killing of Ghanem, describing it as a "criminal act" aimed at undermining Syrian efforts at patching up relations with Lebanon.

Lebanon has witnessed a string of assassinations and explosions in the last couple of years that claimed the lives of many politicians and civilians. Most of these explosions were blamed on Syria, including the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005.

After the assassination of Eido in June, Ghanem and other 40 other pro-government March 14 MPs traveled abroad for their safety and returned to Lebanon just two ago to stay at rented rooms at the upscale Phoenicia InterContinental Hotel under strict security measures.

This procedure was undertaken by the state to protect the MPs during the 60-day presidential election process, which begins on September 25 and ends on November 24.

Ghanem's security concerns were clearly illustrated by the fact that he was driving through the capital in a car with regular license plates, his blue parliamentary - No. 133 - hidden in the trunk of the car.

In the first few minutes after the blast, the identities of the others killed were not immediately known, and when the name "Ghanem" was declared, many onlookers took it to mean another MP, Robert Ghanem, one of the majority's three officially declared candidates for the presidency .

The other majority candidates are MP Butros Harb and the head of the Democratic Renewal Movement, former MP Nassib Lahoud. The only opposition candidate thus far is MP Michel Aoun, who heads the  Free Patriotic Movement.

Later in the evening, TV broadcasts showed fistfights erupting in other parts of the capital, with fears of violence erupting between pro-government and opposition supporters.

Thursday  was declared an official day of mourning, with the Beirut Merchants Association joining the Phalange in calling for all businesses to remain closed. The Education Ministry  announced that all school and university classes were cancelled on Thursday and Friday, when the funeral is to take place.

Speaker Nabih Berri has called for a two-thirds quorum of members of Parliament from the 128-seat House to be present on September 25. To garner the necessary quorum for electing a president, a compromise must be reached by the feuding parties. The opposition has threatened to boycott the vote and deny Parliament its required two-thirds quorum, thereby blocking the process.

In turn, the majority has threatened to go ahead and choose a president from its own ranks with a simple majority.

Berri has called for both sides to agree to a consensus president, but there are no plans for the opposing sides to meet.

At the same time, the incumbent, Emile Lahoud, has said he would appoint an interim government headed by the army commander, General Michel Suleiman, if rival factions cannot agree on a new head of a state.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=85421

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/printable.asp?art_ID=85421&cat_ID=2