Ex-PM: Hezbollah Rally a Massive Hoax
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James Joyner | Wednesday, March 9, 2005 |
Ex-PM: Hezbollah rally in Beirut a massive hoax (WorldNetDaiy)
The giant Hezbollah rally that drew nearly half a million purported supporters of Syria’s occupation of Lebanon actually was a staged hoax with non-Lebanese citizens, Syrian workers, students and municipal employees coerced into joining the protest, former Lebanese Prime Minister Michel Aoun told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview this morning. “Yesterday’s huge protest calling for Syria to stay made it look to the world like a large segment of the Lebanese population actually wants to live under Syrian occupation,” said Aoun, speaking to WND from Paris. “But the protest wasn’t what it appeared to be. It was an elaborately staged affair.”
[...]
Aoun told WND Hezbollah and Syrian officials used deceptive and coercive techniques to orchestrate the protest. “This was not a Lebanese showing, and many of those who actually were Lebanese were not there because they support Syria. We know that at least three Palestinian camps were present. And there are 700,000 Syrian workers inside Lebanon, many of whom are not even supposed to be there. They were urged by Syria to attend so it looks like many Lebanese are protesting. Plus Syria bused in their own citizens from Syria through the border into Lebanon to join the rally.”
via Memeorandum
That terrorist coercion and Syrian influence accounted for a significant portion of the crowd is almost a given. How much, though, is unclear.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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An exclusive interview with Worldnet Daily by a party with a stake in the issue? That settles it as far as I'm concerned!
Well, all parties have a stake in the issue. Certainly, the idea that Hezbollah uses violence to get what it wants is a given; it's a terrorist group, after all. That Syria would manupulate the counter-demonstrations, too, is Tyranny in the Media Age 101.
If only the US would post satellite imagery of the caravans of Syrians heading to and from Beirut for the rally.
Or the Israelis.
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