Terrorist Reasoning

"The assassination ... could not in any sense be considered to be a threat to international peace and security".  Statement by Antoine Korkmaz, representing Mustafa Badreddine, one of four Hezbollah assailants implicated in the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 other people.

"In this case, the UN Security Council replaced a national authority, which violates the principle of sovereignty under the UN's charter."  Statement by Emile Aoun, defence lawyer for Salim Ayyash, wanted, like Mustafa Badreddine and two other Hezbollah terrorists for that same explosion and assassination.

It may be incomprehensible to anyone else, but those who are steeped in the aggravated hatred of those precisely like them in every conceivable respect, with the sole exception of their brand of religious authenticity, have a truly distorted sense of reason.  The conception of honour, of moral and ethical fundamentals all seemed reversed and completely out of whack with reality.

Those who excel as predators upon others, seeking to manipulate and control and who resort to the most extreme excesses of violent action, feel entitled because they have assumed the power to proceed in this manner, propelled by their religious conviction.  A conviction that recognizes no excesses since the effort is carried through solely for the propagation of Islamic rituals of faith and surrender.

These lawyers for the defence of several of the four Hezbollah militant/terrorists wanted by the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon, established through a Security Council resolution in May 2007 to establish the truth about the 2005 assassination in Lebanon of its former prime minister and 22 other people, are attempting to thwart justice by claiming that there is no legal authority vested in the special tribunal to investigate the incident.

"The UN Security Council abused its own powers under its Charter" with the setting up the tribunal is the argument set out by these lawyers representing the interests of two of the accused in the murder.  According to their reckoning, the Security Council illegally set itself the task on adopting the resolution to establish the tribunal when it had no authority to do so.

The lawyers compared the assassination and the Security Council's interest in it, to their disinterest in the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war when the various factions warred against one another and 145,000 died.  "Despite this, the international community did not pay any attention in wanting to establish justice.  The STL was unlawfully and illegally established, and therefore we want to ask the court to rule that it does not have the competency to judge."


Rather, the court should relinquish its 'self-assigned' role in this investigation and the resulting charges of murder, along with attempts to bring the four accused to justice before the court itself.  Former prime Minister Hariri's assassination should, on their recommendation, therefore, be turned over to the competence and juridical expertise of the Lebanese courts.


Where intimidation and threats and more death would work their way into the system and guarantee a more palatable outcome for Hezbollah.  The terrorist group which heeds its instructions from Iran and Syria to ensure that Lebanon is kept in thrall to them both.  The struggle by the Lebanese to free themselves of the malign influence and control of Hezbollah has been hugely unsuccessful.


And by this further manipulation it is abundantly clear that Hezbollah has no intention of letting Lebanon slip back into its proudly sovereign, peaceful mode where there was little sectarian unrest, where its large Christian population felt secure, its Druze and Sunni and Shia made an effort to see one another as equally endowed and to be respected.


In response the Special Tribunal for Lebanon's chief prosecutor, Canadian Norman Farrell, referenced the assassination as a terrorist act.  "Clearly terrorist acts fall within the type of acts that constitute a threat to international security."