Eddie: Robert Fisk is a voice I'd like to see noted. Like Dahr Jamail, he's an unembedded journalist and his reporting has an authenticity missing in most reporting. When I see his byline online, I always stop and read. And if I know he's going to be on Democracy Now!, I always watch. That might mean a few days later or even on the weekend because I don't have a lot of spare time, but I always make a point to watch him.
There is a website that houses his writings: A Collection of Articles & Reports by Mr. Robert Fisk.
We'll note again that Fisk is on Democracy Now! today "Robert Fisk on the Beirut Bombing, U.S.-Syrian Relations and the Iraqi Elections." From that segment:
AMY GOODMAN: Robert Fisk, what about President Bush recalling the U.S. ambassador in Syria following the killing of the former Lebanese prime minister, and condemning the foreign occupation of Lebanon?
ROBERT FISK: Well, Bush is lining up Syria in his sites. You know, at this moment of all moments, America probably -- the United States probably needs an ambassador in Syria. They still have got the embassy open. He hasn't closed -- he hasn't broken off diplomatic relations. It's all in Syria, because obviously, America is lining up Syria as the culprit, the person who -- which killed Hariri. Many Lebanese would believe that, as I have said many times since this crime occurred. That might be a bit simplistic. I'm not saying that the Syrians were not involved. The Syrians know everything that goes on in Lebanon. Therefore, did they not know that this huge bombing was going to take place? Important question. But my experience with Lebanon is that when the leading figures like President Moawad back in the 1980s was assassinated, it's not that someone stands up like, you know, the British king, the English king and says, "Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?" Thomas Becket, in that case. It's that there comes an awareness that various groups of people, be they the Syrians, be they political opponents of Hariri, be they economic opponents of Hariri, etc., all feel angry. And when a certain temperature is reached, someone -- some dark person -- will step forward from the shadows and say to all of the world, gentlemen, can I be of assistance? In other words, there's a kind of unwritten alliance of opponents of enemies of a person which needs to exist before events like yesterday take place in Lebanon. The idea that in some Hollywood way, a dictator or an autocrat says, "kill this man," this is -- this may be CNN or ABC's version of events, but it's not real. The real event is actually much more dramatic and rather more chilling, but I think Hariri had a lot of enemies, as well as a lot of friends. Enemies in the business world. He was a huge property owner, property buyer. He was always buying huge areas of Beirut. I remember once saying to him, is it true that you bought Raoucheh, up the hill from my home. He said, I think so, I can't remember. Quite a few businessmen were bitterly, bitterly hostile towards him, because they believed that their own property and wealth had been diminished to the point of zero by the extraordinary tornado of Hariri's business acumen. Now, these are Lebanese, not Syrian. But you can see how in a small country, where you have a very big man, not just physically, but politically, and particularly financially, you can have various nodules, if you like to use an old academic cliche, various groups of people, who don't like him. And then add to that a political dislike within Lebanon, or add to that factions in a foreign country, let's say Syria, and you can see that you reach a point where the oven gets white hot, at which point there's a detonation. Now maybe that’s what happened yesterday.
[Note: This post has been corrected for font and bold print. In addition, please note that some of Robert Fisk's articles appear at CounterPunch.]
