Who did NOT kill Elie Hobeika ?
This is the question to ask when it comes to investigating Elie Hobeika’s assasination.
Elie Hobeika was a threat to so many local and foreign political parties, to so many countries and governments and most importantly to secret services.
On the 24th of January 2002, at 9:42 am, Elie Hobeika, known as HK, was driving his his blue Range Rover from his home in Hazmieh,with his three bodyguards, Dmitri Ajram, Walid Zein and Faris Suedan, when a white Mercedes 280, parked in a basement garage level with the road, blew up. An estimated 10 kilos of explosives (TNT or C4 not confirmed) blasted Hobeika’s vehicle across the narrow highway, killing all four men instantly.
His 4th year memorial mass took place last week on the 24th of January 2007 in Badaro after a small prayer took place on the murder scene in Hazmieh.
history of HK:
Hobeika was born in Kleiat, Lebanon in 1956, he finished his studies at 22 and joined the Kataeb (Lebanese Phalange) party and started climbing the ranks until he was promoted in 1979 to security chief of the Lebanese Forces as head of Intelligence[…]
HK joined Hakim in 1985 in the first intifada to force the resignation of the commander of the Lebanese Forces back then, Fouad Abu Nader, considered too close to Amine Gemayel who disliked the LF and wanted to rejoin it to the Kataeb (Phalange party).
HK then pronounced himself head of the executive committe in the LF and signed the unfamous Tripartite Accord with Nabih Berri and Walid Jumblatt under Syria’s blessing.
Samir Geagea later on removed HK from the LF command in 1986, ironically assisted by Amine Gemayel, and assumed the leadership of the LF till today. Hakim ( Samir Geagea) spared Elie Hobeika’s life back then after several calls from Syrian officials were done with Lebanese officials, mainly Michel Aoun head of the army back then , Pakradoni and Michel el Murr whose son was stuck in the same building with HK when the LF troops loyal to Samir Geagea surrounded them.
Since then, Elie Hobeika shaded from politics and ran away to Syria for a while before trying to reclaim the LF leadership assisted by Syrians, but failed miserably. He then took over few ministries(Displaced, Social Affairs & Handicapped, Energy) till 2000 when he lost his parliament seat.
Assasination of HK:
Most of the analysis and articles written on his assasination conclude that several external parties were involved directly or indirectly in his assasination, and some even go as far as saying that HK was on the list of targetted people by the US administration after the 9-11 terrorist acts in 2001.
Here is a very interesting approach i read entitled:
Elie Hobeika # 1 Victim of Illegal Assassinations of the US Administration of GWB & CIA
DEC. , 2006- On September 15, 2001, just four days after the 9-11 attacks, CIA Director George Tenet provided President [sic] Bush with a Top Secret “Worldwide Attack Matrix”-a virtual license to kill targets deemed to be a threat to the United States in some 80 countries around the world. The Tenet plan, which was subsequently approved by Bush, essentially reversed the executive orders of four previous U.S. administrations that expressly prohibited political assassinations. Mr. Elie Hobeika will be the first target of the US administration, to pave the way for its Iraq Invasion[..]
Hobeika headed the Lebanese forces intelligence agency since the mid- 1970s and he soon developed close ties to the CIA. He was a frequent visitor to the CIA’s headquarters at Langley, Virginia. After the Syrian invasion of Lebanon in 1990, Hobeika held a number of cabinet positions in the Lebanese government, a proxy for the Syrian occupation authorities. He also served in the parliament. In July 2001, Hobeika called a press conference and announced he was prepared to testify against Sharon in Belgium and revealed that he had evidence of what actually occurred in Sabra and Shatilla. Hobeika also indicated that Israel had flown members of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) into Beirut International Airport in an Israeli Air Force C130 transport plane, in full view of dozens of witnesses, including members of the Lebanese army and others. SLA troops under the command of Major Saad Haddad were slipped into the camps to commit the massacres. The SLA troops were under the direct command of Ariel Sharon and an Israeli Mossad agent provocateur named Rafi Eitan. Hobeika offered evidence that a former U.S. ambassador to Lebanon was aware of the Israeli plot. In addition, the IDF had placed a camera in a strategic position to film the Sabra and Shatilla massacres. Hobeika was going to ask that the footage be released as part of the investigation of Sharon.[..]
If you read the full report, you will conclude that Sharon had a hand in his assasination given the fact that HK was killed within few hours of a hearing before a Belgian appeals court, dealing with the Sabra & Shatilla massacre whereas Hobeika was the prime witness against Sharon.
But back in 2002, Israelies could not have possibly executed such an operation without the Syrian ‘approval’ or at least knowledge, without forgetting the undeclared ties between Damascus and Israel forged during the rule of Hafez El Assad.
As for the CIA, HK was know to be a frequent visitor of the CIA headquarters and had strong ties with them. He announced in 2001 that he was ready to testify against Sharon and that he had proof that the SLA troops were involved in the massacre of Sabra & Chatilla and that a former U.S ambassador knew about the plot.
Syria was involved throught Bahjat Suleiman who had ties with the American intelligence and through its agents in Lebanon, mainly Jamil el Sayyed who was in charge of executing such assasinations and Ghazi Kanaan, Syria’s coordinator in Lebanon .
In an interesting approach from the MEIB Intelligence Report, the author points out that after 9/11, Hobeika attempted to win American support by contacting the CIA to offer his help in locating and capturing Imad Mughniyah, the former head of special overseas operations for Hezbollah who is listed on the Bush administration’s most wanted terrorist list.
It appears that the Syrians, who maintain close ties with Mughniyah, discovered Hobeika’s attempts to contact the CIA[..]
Who would have opposed this murder on the local level ?
Hobeika was ‘feared’ by most of the political leaders in Lebanon and was hated by many cause of his practices in the past ( his bodyguard Robert Hatem ‘Cobra’ who is still hiding till today in France wrote 2 books on him already, unavailable in the Lebanese bookstores though).
HK’s machievalian acts turned everyone against him and few tears were shed when he was murdered. No one except his wife, Gina Hobeika, and head of the Waad party that HK founded, keeps asking for the truth on her husband’s murder.
This year, the billboards showed the blown car that killed Hobeika with a title : The truth starts from here ( 24/01/2002) refering to the date Hobeika was murdered at.
Few days before his assasination, during the funeral of a close ally and confidante, former MP Jean Ghanem, who died on January 14 from injuries sustained in a car crash in Hazmieh, Hobeika was quoted saying (in Al-Sharq al-Awsat(London)) “that the latter’s death was not accidental.”
In his article entitled ‘Elie Hobeika: lady-killer and blood-soaked war criminal’, Robert Fisk ends by saying:
“My last message from Elie was that bottle of champagne: a magnum of Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame Rosé 1988. I never drank it. I felt it was contaminated. It lay in my fridge here in Beirut last night. I know many in Lebanon would like to drink it in celebration. But I suspect that, if I uncorked it, blood would spurt out.”
Finally,
Who killed Hobeika ? Will we ever know the truth behind his assasination ?
The truth is everyone wanted him dead.
That was an interesting read, i really enjoyed this post.
January 31st, 2007 | #
i enjoyed it too.
When he died, so many unanswered questions died with him
January 31st, 2007 | #
Well, I tried to say my thoughts.. but maybe my post was too long or off the wall.. but in short: THANK YOU FOR POSTING this very interesting article.
January 31st, 2007 | #
He sounds like Michel Aoun, except Hobeika had balls. Like Aoun, he is only loyal to himself. Nabih Berri has some disturbingly similar features too
January 31st, 2007 | #
i thought (if im not mistaken) that right after his assasination, that the investigation pointed in the direction of the shin beit. because he was going to spill the beans about sharon and what happened with the sabra/shatila massacres and therefore he had to be silenced. if my memory serves me correct, it was the serial number on the car that had the explosives in it that traced it to the culprits.
i have to say, there were not many people that were too upset that he was killed, if only we had answers first.
if my info is incorrect, let me know.
January 31st, 2007 | #
Brigham and Women’s Hospital is trying to replenish its cardiology staff, after outside recruiters raided the department last year. The Brigham, which particularly needs a strong cardiology department as it prepares to open a $350 million cardiovascular wing next year, lost six, or 10 percent, of its 50 cardiologists last year.
They were lured away by private medical companies and by Case Western Reserve University Medical School and its affiliated University Hospitals of Cleveland, which are trying to compete with the Cleveland Clinic — world renowned for its heart care and research.
In response, Brigham executives have gone on their own head-hunting spree, hiring three cardiologists who will start their new jobs in the next few months.
The Brigham hired two doctors from Caritas St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center — Dr. Frederick Welt, director of St. Elizabeth’s cardiac catheterization lab, and Dr. Pinak Shah — and Dr. Judy Mangion from Hartford Hospital in Connecticut.
Caritas fired back, hiring away Dr. Jeffrey Popma, director of interventional cardiology at the Brigham.
Brigham executives say they don’t need to replace all the doctors who left, because the new physicians will spend more of their time seeing patients, and a little less on research, and because of a slight slowdown in cardiac catheterization cases.
Case Western last year recruited Dr. Daniel Simon as its new chief of cardiology. Dr. Mukesh Jain and Dr. James Fang also signed on for high-level positions, and three Brigham cardiology fellows headed west as well.
At Case Western, the Harvard doctors have made a big splash. Overnight patients in the hospitals’ cardiac services have jumped 25 percent, Simon said. The Brigham doctors also brought a significant amount of research funding with them — about $4.5 million — most of which they brought from the Brigham.
Simon said he left the Brigham not because of dissatisfaction with his employer, but because of the tremendous opportunity offered by Case Western’s new medical school dean and the hospital system’s new chief executive, who promised $20 million to hire doctors and researchers for a new cardiovascular institute.
January 31st, 2007 | #
no offense liz…but what does this have to do with elie hobeika? just curious. i live about 2 hours away from case western. very good school.
February 1st, 2007 | #
lol buckeye ,
Liz reply is probably spam
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