Tape shows truck that may have been involved in Hariri's death

[allemand]

Last Updated Sun, 27 Mar 2005 20:55:39 EST
CBC News

BEIRUT - An Arab TV channel has broadcast a tape showing a truck which a UN investigation says may be linked to the death of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri on Feb. 14.

The tape broadcast Sunday by Al-Arabiya TV was taken by a bank security camera. It shows a white pickup truck entering the area of the blast, followed by Hariri's convoy. Within seconds, the camera shows clouds of dust from the explosion.

Last week's UN report, prepared by senior Irish police officer Peter Fitzgerald, said it was a "credible theory" that the truck was involved, and the question should have been investigated. (...)

The report blamed both Syrian and Lebanese security forces. Syria has intelligence agents and soldiers in Lebanon.

More:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/03/27/lebanon-truck050327.html?ref=rss

I still think that a moving truck and a suicide bomber make a Syrian involvement the bombing less likely. Still possible, but less likely. The Saudi branch of al Qaeda has already proven on many occasions that they know how to make car bombs, contrary to what the UN report suggests. And it was the Iraqi branch of al Qaeda which denied involvement, not the Saudi branch.

Juan Cole also thinks that Saudi al-Qaeda may be responsible:

Hariri and al-Qaeda? Really?
http://www.juancole.com/2005/03/hariri-and-al-qaeda-really-i-dont-have.html

[allemand]

1. Are 69 seconds enough to escape the blast?

"The U.N. team said it thought the blast may have been caused by the explosion of about 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of TNT carried in a 1995 or 1996 Mitsubishi truck.

A U.N. spokesman confirmed that the video shown by the network was the same one the investigative team has taken back to U.N. headquarters in New York. The report says that the vehicle would have reached the site of where the detonation occurred 69 seconds before the Hariri convoy reached the same location."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/03/27/hariri.tape/index.html

So the driver had 69 seconds to escape, but as the Hariri convoy was equipped with sophisticated jamming devices this would still raise the question of how the bomb was detonated.

[allemand]

2. UN report believes the truck was involved, but also seriously doubts it??

The U.N. team said it thought the blast may have been caused by the explosion of about 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of TNT carried in a 1995 or 1996 Mitsubishi truck.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/03/27/hariri.tape/index.html

The UN reports expresses the belief that a Lebanese security official planted "parts of a truck" in the crater after the bombing, creating "serious suspicion about the actual involvement of this truck in the assassination and seriously damaging the credibility of the main line of the investigation".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4387109.stm

This report raises more questions than it answers.

[allemand]

3. Straight from The Onion?

Hariri bomb theory in doubt
Nicolas Rothwell, Beirut
March 29, 2005

THE crucial closed-circuit TV footage showing the moment when former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri died has at last been made public, casting increasing doubt on the official version of the assassination.

The pictures, screened on the al-Arabiya satellite network and recorded 40 days ago, show a white truck, presumed to be the vehicle used by Hariri's killers, driving from the scene just as his motorcade approaches.

Even as the truck pulls out of range, the screen goes white from the explosion of the 1000kg bomb that devastated central Beirut.

The images indicate that the first account of the assassination, which traced it to a suicide car bomb, was almost certainly false, and that the explosives that killed Hariri and 19 others in his party were buried in advance under the road. (sic!)
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12686465%255E2703,00.html

Unbelievable...

[daleo]

4. Maybe I am just imagining things...

But I think I can make out "BFEE Moving Co." on the side of that truck.