(Update: Patrick from The News Buckit informs me that Halim Hardan was a student at Washington University in St. Louis and not St. Louis University as reported in the article.)
** Prairie Pundit sends the latest on the Gamayel Assassination in Lebanon and it leads right here to St. Louis!
CounterTerrorism Blog translated a recent article in the Lebanese Alsyassa newspaper on the arrests made in the Gemayel assassination investigation:
…Informed sources declared to al-Seyassah that, 15 days ago, the National Security in the United States investigated Halim Hardan, student at the University of St. Louis, son of current MP Assaad Hardan (pictured below), former minister and leading member of the Syrian Nationalist Party. The Canadian authorities, as well, carried out an investigation with one Khudor Awarka, an official with the Syrian National Party in Canada.
Furthermore, investigations took place in the United States and Canada with a number of the “Free National Current” followers which is led by MP Michel Aoun.
In the outcome of these investigations, information and confessions related to the case of the assassination of Minister Pierre Gemayel, has been extracted. The American and Canadian authorities passed this information to the Lebanese government who used it in the investigation of the assassination. This reached an important thread task and a decision was brought forward to give the orders to raid a number of houses and warehouses belonging to the elements in the Syrian National Party in the area of Koura in North Lebanon, yesterday.
It is not clear what US “security offiicals” may have talked to SLU student Halim Hardan about but here is one article from the student paper where Halim spoke out against the War in Iraq. Halim said the war brought instability to the region…
So does assassinating anti-Syrian Lebanese leaders!!
Halim Hardan had this to say about the Iraq War in the St. Louis University Student Life paper back in April 2005:
Although not happy with America’s policy on Iraq, students from the Middle East have some positive views of America. Hardan thinks that it is a great country, with a great democracy and a great economy, but he thinks the United States needs to restore its credibility in the world.
“The only way [the United States] can do that is by ending the current situation in Iraq and to stop interfering in other people’s business,” he says.
Maybe, so… But, it doesn’t help that his father Assaad, a Pro-Syrian Lebanese politician, was right away pegged as being behind the Gemayel assassination and taking orders from Syria and Iran.
Michael Totten has more on Hezbollah’s Christian allies.
