This makes political influential number three after Rafik Hariri and Samir Kassir.

Former Community Party leader George Hawi was killed in a car-bomb blast in Beirut’s Wata Mosseitbeh middle-class neighborhood at midmorning Tuesday in the latest link of a chain of political assassinations that rocked the nation in connection with Syria’s expulsion from Lebanon. He was 65.
Police said the thunderous explosion went off as Hawi, an outspoken critic of Syria’s heavy-handed tutelage, climbed into his car, turned on the ignition and started the Mercedes-Benz rolling. Investigators have determined that the blast was detonated by remote control.

A worker at a nearby car dealership said he heard the blast and ran to the car. Hawi’s driver, slightly wounded, had gone round to the passenger door and the two men tried to take Hawi out.

“Hawi was still alive and told the two of us, ‘Help me, help me.’ His face was bloodied, his abdomen was badly injured. Then he died,” the worker said, refusing to be named for fear of trouble with the security services, The Associated Press reported.

The driver, Thabet Bezzi, was rushed to hospital suffering from shock. Another passerby also was hospitalized from the mid-morning explosion.

Police arrested five men believed to have watched the blast from a rooftop next to Hawi’s apartment.

Anti-Syrian forces have already blamed it on Syria, and in fact, there is already a suspect.

U.N. investigators, suspicious of Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hamdan, immediately searched his home and office, after the blast occurred and began questioning him, U.N. spokesman Najib Friji said.

Hamdan, the pro-Syrian head of Lebanon’s Presidential Guards brigade, is one of several pro-Syrian security chiefs accused by the opposition of involvement, or at least a cover up, in Hariri’s slaying.

Given the backing by both the United States and France, the UN has a pretty strong mandate here when it points the finger. On June 11, UN investigators delivered a joint message from the UN and the U.S. that if another assassination occurs in Lebanon, there will be a severe reckoning. Secretary Rice upped the rhetoric and just told them to knock if off.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice served a chilling warning on Syria Tuesday to “knock it off” and end destabilization activities in Lebanon, obviously referring to George Hawi’s assassination earlier in the day.
Rice said she did not know who was behind the assassination. But she added: “There is an atmosphere of instability (in Lebanon) as Syria’s activities are part of that context and part of that atmosphere, and they need to knock it off.”

Her remarks constituted one the U.S. administration’s most explicit accusations of Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs since Damascus pulled its remaining troops out of the country in April to end a 29-year presence.

“Yes, their military forces, their visible forces are gone but they are clearly still acting in Lebanon and are still a force that is not a stabilizing force there,” Rice told reporters.
…
U.S. ambassador Jeffrey Feltman also condemned “in the strongest terms” the bomb blast that killed Hawi.

“In our view, this attack, like that which killed An-Nahar journalist Samir Kassir on June 2, was not random,” Feltman said.

“This attack on an outspoken critic of Syria’s presence in Lebanon is once again an effort to silence Lebanese voices demanding freedom and sovereignty,” he said.

“Mr. Hawi was an opponent of the Syrian presence in Lebanon. He, like thousands upon thousands of Lebanese, joined his voice to those demanding an end to Syrian influence in Lebanese politics.

“Mr. Hawi was murdered by forces that placed no value on human life.

“We hope that the Lebanese authorities will be able to bring the perpetrators to justice. The United States stands ready to respond rapidly to any requests for assistance.”(AFP)

The United States isn’t going to be fooled by the clown carnival that was supposed to be a Ba’ath reform conference a couple weeks ago. In fact, Assad is digging himself an even deeper grave the more that he involves himself in the affairs of both Iraq and Lebanon. Not only does the United States have vested interests there, but now those very neighboring governments themselves are willing to strike back and interfere in Syria’s internal affairs. And who do you think will lose that ideological battle? The United States, Lebanon, and Iraq? Or Syria? It’s a countdown to Assad’s eventual international reckoning from here on out.