Blast Kills Lebanon's Anti-Terror Officer

A car bomb exploded in east Beirut today killing Lebanon's top anti-terror policeman as he was returning from a meeting with the International Tribunal investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri:

The country's national police chief, Brig. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, confirmed that the car bomb killed Capt. Wissam Eid, who handled police intelligence investigations including "all those having to do with the terrorist bombings" in Lebanon, Rifi said. Eid had survived two previous assassination attempts, including a bomb targeting his house and a raid in the northern port city of Tripoli, Interior Minister Hassan Sabei told LBC television.

Lebanon's sports minister, Ahmed Fatfat, said the officer was on his way home from a meeting at the headquarters of the U.N. commission investigating the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. The commission's office is in a hilltop village about a 15-minute drive from the site of the explosion.

Looks like President Assad of Syria is sending a double message; don't mess with Syria and don't cooperate with the Tribunal.

It appears that Eid had been too successful for his own good:

Police sources told Naharnet Eid was instrumental in the ongoing investigations into the serial killings that targeted anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon as well as the spate of bombings that targeted civilians in the past two years. The sources said Eid, a communications and computer engineer, played a "vital role" in dismantling terrorist networks involved in the Feb. 13 2007 twin bus bombings in Ein Alaq, east of Beirut, as well as the Fatah al-Islam terrorist network that fought the Lebanese Army in the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared.

"He was a prime target for the terrorists and forces behind them," one ranking security source told Naharnet, noting that Eid survived a hand grenade attack at his residence in south Beirut in Feb. 2006 and was wounded in north Lebanon while chasing terrorists last summer.

No word yet from Syrian apologists like Robert Fisk and Seymour Hersh. They believe that many of these bombings are actually carried out by agents of the Lebanese government to get the country riled up against Syria.

What they don't explain is why in the world the government would kill someone as valuable to security as Eid. Do they think that the government wishes to commit suicide? Apparently yes.

These bombings are carried out by agents of Syria. Assad can call on a host of actors in this regard including Hezb'allah (although their role would be very well hidden) and some of the radical Palestinian terrorist groups that have training camps within the border of Syria. There are also thousands of pro-Syrian Lebanese who could participate in such a plot along with Syrian intelligence itself.

Assad will continue his campaign of intimidation and murder until he gets what he wants; an end to Lebanese independence with Syria pulling the strings of a puppet state.