Debkafile

CRNews doesn't find any evidence to support  

Washington DC, CRNews, Editor, Thursday October 25, 2007

For the third week in a row, an Israeli-based web site continues to assert that the US and the Lebanese Government have concluded an agreement on creating US bases in Northern Lebanon and on a program to train the Lebanese Army. These reports have been picked up by Lebanese media, including the LBCI but also Hezbollah’s owned al Manar TV. In reaction to these reports, Hezbollah leaders, including Naim Qassem, threatened to attack the future American presence in the country and to transform Lebanon into another Iraq.

CR News investigated the initial report, posted by Debka File last week (Link) and check it wth both Lebanese and US authorities, which dismissed the information. In addition, US ambassador to Lebanon also rejected the report (Link). Strangely, Debka File issues another report this week (Link) insisting that such an agreement was in place. Furthermore Debka File quotes a pro-Syrian Lebanese daily as Safir to confirm its own reporting. Then the Debka File projects bloodshed in Lebanon as in Iraq citing its own sources inside Hezbollah. CR News checked with Senior Terrorism expert with the World Council of the Cedars Revolution, Ret Col. Charbel Barakat on this issue. Barakat, who has testified to the US Senate and participated in NGO delegations to the United Nations over the past few years said: "We doubt such agreements exist already because both the US and the current Lebanese Governments are democratic institutions and these types of projects will have to go through a process in both countries. However said Barakat, posting such reports -without foundations- can only exacerbate the situation, already tense in Lebanon. For a web site to certify that US bases will be established in Lebanon and for pro-Syrian as Safir to confirm the report afterward, then followed by Hezbollah's threat, mean that there is a silly game going on here. The site posts reports, the Terrorists in Lebanon use them to issue their threats against Lebanon and the US, and then the site uses the Terror threats to confirm that it was right in its original reporting." Barakat said: "either there is coordination between those who issue the reports and those who use them, and that is a very dangerous development, or those original reporting are irresponsible." In both cases, concluded Barakat, this game is not helping the war on terror, just the opposite." 

In Sydney, the President of the World Council of the Cedars Revolution (WCCR) said "providing Hezbollah with alibis to attack the Lebanese Government and US interests, as the situation in the region is explosive, is irresponsible. The United States is assisting the Lebanese people with all it can and within the realm of Lebanese Government requests. Issuing such reports will only damage the real cooperation between Beirut and Washington and harm the implementation of UNSCR resolutions. We hope the editors of these web sites, which we value when they are right and professional, would correct their reporting and refrain from assisting Hezbollah in their campaign against Lebanon's Government and the strategic support by the United States." Baini added, "if US bases are needed, the Lebanese Government will make that request, but as long as that hasn't happened, insisting on the opposite and claiming confirmation by citing the terrorist sources, is a shame."

CR News has just posted a story this week regarding another strange development when Israeli media cited a Syrian Mukhabarat web site (Champress) as their basis for a news report stating that Lebanese leader Walid Jumblat has met Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak in Washington. Rapidly discredited by CR News (Link) and by a leading expert on the Counter Terrorism Blog (Link), the original Syrian intelligence report and the Israeli media rush to quote it, fell off the debate. But CR News investigators are now looking at the possibility of an intoxication campaign waged by the Iranian intelligence PsyOp unit, to prepare for attacks against US interests in the region. The missing link, according to the investigators is why are Syrian and Iranian incitement reports being picked up by Israeli media. Have the penetration by these intelligence networks gone that deep or is just media recklessness?