The UN report on Hariri's assassination

I am in the middle of page ten of the report, and I am already veering around to the view that it will neither be very conclusive in its findings, nor will it lead to any major upheaval or changes in the way things work in that part of the world. Two choice bits:

Despite the human, technical and financial capacities mobilized for the purpose of the investigation, and although considerable progress has been made and significant results achieved in the time allotted, the investigation of such a terrorist act with multifaceted international dimensions and their ramifications normally needs months (if not years) to be completed so as to be able to establish firm ground for a potential trial of any accused individuals.

and

Until the investigation is completed, all new leads and evidence are fully analyzed, and an independent and impartial prosecution mechanism is set up, one cannot know the complete story of what happened, how it happened and who is responsible for the assassination of Rafik Hariri and the murder of 22 other innocent people.

Another interesting tidbit:

However, although resolution 1595 called on all States to provide the Commission with any relevant information pertaining to the Hariri case, it is to be regretted that no Member State relayed useable information to the Commission.

Everyone paid lip service to the UN, but when push came to shove, national interest trumped international justice; they decided not to share any really valuable information.

Update: Looks like I was wrong. The report pretty much nails certain individuals. The part about the phone records is the clincher. But even so, only mid- and low-level figures are named; the mastermind(s) still appear to be likely to go scot-free.

On a side note, considering all this, George Galloway's chumming up with Basher Assad is making him (Galloway) look less and less of a knight in shining armour.

Update 2: Mehlis appears to have made last-second alterations to the report, removing references to Assad's brother and brother-in-law, apparently at the insistence of Kofi Annan.

DEBKAFile reveals the identities of the other individuals whose names were excised from the report:

• Gen. Roustum Ghazali, head of special external intelligence and former Syrian military intelligence chief in Lebanon


• Gen. Hassan Khalil, liaison between the various Syrian intelligence bodies


• Col. Mohsein Hamoud, a former military intelligence officer who served in Lebanon (Hamoud is the colonel who drove the Mitsubishi Canter bomb car from Syria to Lebanon on Jan. 21)