Where are they now ? Serge Brammertz the Hariri killing investigator

The UN Security Council met on June 14th for it's 5458th Meeting (AM), the meeting began at 10:07 a.m. and ended at 10:42 a.m.

Serge Brammertz, head of the International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others gave his 4th report on progress a day before his mandate was due to expire.

The Lebanese Government has requested to the UN Secretary-General for an extension of the Commission’s mandate for a further period of one year, saying that such an extension would provide a sense of continuity and stability, and guarantee steady operations and planning.

That is something that appears to have missed the MSM press / TV who a year ago were screaming for Syrian blood etc., Google News returns virtually zero on the subject.

Now the boring Belgian Brammertz reveals that critical forensic evidence had revealed that former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others were killed by a massive, above-ground explosive device placed in a truck and detonated 14 February at precisely 12:55:05 as their convoy passed by. Well, that's a start.

“The crime must be considered a targeted assassination”, he said. You don't say !

“In light of the results, the Commission does not believe the claim of responsibility expressed in the videotape delivered to Reuters and Al Jazeera immediately after the attack establishes the identity of this individual”, he said, adding that, in fact, DNA analysis of human remains recovered from the crime scene suggested there was no evidence that Ahmed Abu Adass, the individual claiming responsibility, had detonated the improvised explosive device.

He said the probe was developing a working hypothesis regarding those who had commissioned the crime, the Commission was investigating a number of different motives, including political motivations, personal vendettas, financial circumstances and extremist ideologies, or any combination of those motivations.

The report acknowledged that Syrian cooperation had been satisfactory and that Syria had, in fact, cooperated with the Commission from the beginning.

The Council heard from Boutros Assaker, Secretary-General in Lebanon’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, who said that the former premier’s assassination was an unusual crime that continued to produce a resounding effect in Lebanon blah, blah , blah

Fayssal Mekdad, Syria’s Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, noted the report’s positive references to Syria’s efforts to cooperate with the Commission blah, blah , blah,

Which is all very curious .. remember last October when the corrupt German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis reported that there was "converging evidence" of Lebanese and Syrian involvement in assassination. Prompting Jack Straw (hoofing it up at the time in Alabama with Cuntileezza Rice) to say ""You simply cannot tolerate a situation where one state decides to deal with problems of another state by assassinating the other state's leaders."

The US State Department also issued a release at the same time stating, "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has described as "deeply troubling" a United Nations investigation that implicates Syrian officials in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and finds the Syrian government to be obstructing the inquiry....

...... Asked what form a prosecution might take, Rice said there have been "numerous meetings and discussions about what kind of mechanism might be used to bring people to justice."

Curious how these urgent matters seem to run silently into the sand.

POSTSCRIPT

Lebanese MP Saad Hariri, Rafik Hariri's son was in Paris today 24th June, having an amiable chat with President Chirac (the only foreign leader to attend Hariri's funeral) and said "It will be possible to establish diplomatic ties between Lebanon and Syria."

Concerning internal Lebanese matters, Hariri said that Chirac supported dialogue among leaders as the only way to resolve pending issues.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Thursday that it was too early to establish diplomatic ties with Lebanon because of the assertion by members of the Lebanese cabinet that Damascus was behind Rafiq Hariri's assassination.