Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Here is the Wikileaks Cable where it was revealed that the United Nations Top Judge in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), Daniel Bellemare, was quoted as saying that he "has no case" against Syria.

I am only posting this one part, the whole cable is interesting and NOT long

CONTINUED IMPORTANCE OF UNIIIC
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¶9. (C) Jumblatt said the Special Tribunal was “not enough” to intimidate Syria. Rizk chimed in to acknowledge that work on the Special Tribunal was “frightening to Syria until recently.” Both agreed that Syrian President Bashar Assad won’t care about the Tribunal in a year’s time. Rizk repeated his concerns that UNIIIC Commissioner Daniel Bellemare had stated to some that he “has no case.” Rizk said the U.S. can help by directing Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad to ask the UN SYG to impress upon Bellemare the importance of his role as prosecutor for the Tribunal.

¶10. (C) Rizk pointed out that Bellemare should not be disassociating UNIIIC from the detention of the four generals suspected of involvement in Rafiq Hariri’s assassination because the blame then falls squarely on XXXXXXXXXXXX

¶11. (C) The GOL had not yet formally agreed to send a letter to the UNSC requesting a six-month extension of UNIIIC’s mandate, Rizk reported, because the cabinet lacked the necessary quorum at its April 29 meeting. He said he had no doubt that the letter would be approved by the GOL, adding that Siniora had only made one edit to the letter (changing “as soon as possible” to “soon”). Rizk expressed his optimism about the letter’s success at the UNSC because he changed the language to state that the GOL “welcomes” Bellemare as prosecutor, instead of making a request; it’s a letter you can’t say no to, Rizk affirmed.

http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2008/05/08BEIRUT586.html