February 20, 2005 - Rafiq Harari, the Billionaire former Prime Minister of Lebanon and his family have much in common with the Bin Laden clan. The Elder Bin Laden emigrated from Yemen with his family. He found his way to Riyadh; into the construction business; into favor with the Saudi Royal favor and made a fortune building what the Saudi’s wanted built. With that foundation the Bin Laden clan built an international financial empire while one son built a more clandestine one.

Harari was born in Sidon and emigrated from Lebanon at an early age. He, too, found his way to Riyadh; into the construction business; into favor with the Saudi Royal favor and made a fortune building what the Saudi’s wanted built supplanting the Bin Ladens in the royal favor. He, too, parlayed the fortune he made in Saudi Arabia into an international financial empire. He became a Trustee of Boston University; Premier of his native Lebanon and leader of the Anti-Syrian opposition in his native country. All the while he retained his ties with the Saudi royal family, his Saudi citizenship, and his Saudi construction company. When he was killed in Beirut a shadowy group connected to Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda claimed credit tying the assassination to Harari’s Saudi connections.

The United States ignored that little detail and the immediate denunciation of the attack by President Assad. Secretary of State Rice recalled the Ambassador from Damascus for “urgent consultations”. A diplomatic offensive was immediately launched to fasten the blame for the killing on Syria and demand withdrawal of Syrian troops occupying Lebanon. Damascus steadfastly denies any connection with the terrorist assassins.

There is an old rule when you are looking for the guilty party. One of the first questions you ask is not “who?” but “why?”. You look for the motive. You figure out what each suspect gains. What would Damascus gain by hatching the plot? Syria was already being accused of supporting Iranian terrorism toward Israel; of supporting the resistance in Iraq. It was no secret that Syria was squarely in the sights of the Neo-Con snipers. The Assad regime has not survived for nearly half a century by being stupid. Handing the US a dramatic excuse to go to war isn’t the kind of mistake that Damascus was ready to make.

In the Byzantine world of Arabic politics family, finance, and fanaticism are tightly intertwined. With one blow a pro-American politician was removed, the vulnerability of people close to the Saudi royals and America was demonstrated and a measure of revenge for having replaced the family in the rarified circle of favored Saudi businesses has been taken.

So why is it that the Bush Administration is so quick to blame Syria? All you have to do is to look at the map for the answer. With Iran holding the Hormuz Strait any ground operation against Iran needs a land supply line to our Iraqi based forces. With Lebanon and Syria occupied the US controls the supply to the insurgents and opens a US supply line to the Mediterranean. Al Qaeda could not have given a more valuable present to the President than an excuse to take out the Assad regime to lay the predicate to move on Iran.

Who killed Harari is not important at all. No one in Washington cares that it is most probably a family affair.