The Mehlis Report

A DISCLOSURE in which the editors collaborate with an artist The Crime Beirut, Feb. 14, 2005 - Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others are killed when an explosion detonates near their convoy travelling through downtown Beirut. AI Jazeera Receives four telephone calls leading to a video in to commission a newsroom graphic designer to visually render- The Calls the report of the International Independent Investigation Phone calls which Adass takes credit for the bombing. Tracking and tracing of telephone SIM cards and the calls they placed forms a Commission Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1595 (otherwise known as the Mehlis Report). web that leads from the calls made to news organizations in the hours after the blast to..... The Criminals The Mehlis report jumps from unidentifed callers and SIM cards to the realm of the Lebanese political elite and religous power players. The implications go straight to the top. Feb. 14, 2005 12:30 p.m. Turn the page On February 14, 2005, explosives equivalent to 1000 kg of TNT were detonated as a motorcade Ahmad Abu Adass Never to be seen again Call to Reuters day of Blast 2:11 p.m. made its way past the posh St. George Hotel on the Beirut corniche, just steps away from the Mediterra- nean. The motorcade bekonged to Rafik Hariri, a selt-made billionaire who had served as his country's prime minister from 1992 to 1998, and again from 200 until his resignation in October 2004. Harini, along with 21 others including his way, and place the blame solely on the shoulders of the politioo, Tarek Esmat Fakhreddine. There is no shortage of connections to be made here. As such, (no post cards from AI Jazeera Feb. 14 Syrian dungeon) and as seasoned residents of Lebanon and Syria anticipated, the investigation has been reduced to signitiers that can easily become the anchors of any The convoy day of blast Frequency jammers Beirut weapons depot 3:27 p.m. number of politkcal stories. were all killed. In the hours and days following the assassination, there was no dearth of rumors circulating as to possible culprits, motives, final- bodyguards and the former Minister of Economy. What we come to know and how we come to know anything trom Mehlis or from this published graphic remains a generative question. This is not *** 1,000 kg of TNT in a Mitsubishi Jan, 30. 2005 2:19 p.m. to restate the obvious, namely that this on-going UN A mysterious SIM card Ahmad Abdel-AI leader in Al-Ahbash minute scenarios. For some hours after Harin's death, the BBC speculated that the US or Israel may have in fact investigation was never about the truth but, rather, Some other phone Feb. 4, and 26, 2005 Abdel-AI about politics. Surely, anyone who has scratched at the center of the web. the surface of this assassination and its subsequent 5:04 p.m. Raed Fakhreddin Bought 10 prepaid cards Dec. 30, 2004, These cards only made contact with each other and have been innactive since blast. been to blame for the assassination. The Syrian foreign ministry echoed these sentiments. On July 4, 2006, the United Nations Security Council adopted investigations has long ago concluded that juridical Jamea Jamea Syrian intelligence Younis Abdel-AI Abdel-Al Walid prosecution has taken a back seat to political Mahmoud Ahmad Abu Adass Suicide bomber/ patsy prosecution. We need not revisit the interests of the Resplution international investigation of the former prime 10:07 p.m. 1595, establishing an independent major players (the United States, France, Iran, Syria, as well ĐAY OF BLAST as proxy players in Lebanon such as Hezbollah, and the March 14 forces) as they have been jockeying for the past months in the LIN for minister's death, The team, headed by a German coincidence of all these individuals being linked to, the most honorable and just position with regards to judge named Detlev Mehlis, presented its intial for example, the prepaid card identified as COS25162 uncoering all of the facts related to the assassina- O00000000 report to the Security Council on October 20, 2005. (section 200, page 58). In accepting this task, the tion, and to bringing all of those responsible for this Emile Lahoud Lebanese The Mehlis report implicated top Syrian and designer was recreating the very act that takes crime to justice. It was clear then, and has become Lebanese officials, with special regard for Syria's place in newarooms across the world, every day: more dear since, that this investigation is one more Rafik Hariri Lebanese Prime Minister Among top 100 richest men on the globe military intelligence chief, Assef Shawkat, as well as Feb. 8. 2006 President upholds the conclusions from the first report. On January 11, 2008, Mehlis was replaced by the arrested. that of reducing a complex set of facts and relation- negotiating card in the hands of the US and Europe Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law. ships into a consumable graphic form. We assume in the on-going and far more present need to A second report, submitted Deoember 10, 2005, that the relationships charted here also formed the address Iran's nuclear program, as well as Iran and basis on which some players were ultimately Syria's support of insurgents in Iraq. Given the General Faysal Rasheed 14, 2005 Dee Jen. Feb. Merch v of blast Belgian Serge Brammertz limited investigative arsenal we can deploy to, for And perhaps it had to be this way, the resulting example, try to find out whether a particular SIM investigation with great interest, arxiously awaiting an artist or a designer somewhere would eventually opt out of this game, lest we find ourselves in the the release of every UN report. We read the visually map the information reported in the report. face of a false choice: support an impartial investi- reports with a mixture of ambivalence, pleasure, How could they not, given the currency of gation or politicize all tindings and thus render any and surprise. We responded, intrigued by their information-mapping in contemporary art, graphic inquiry meaningless. Tarek Fakhreddin Associate of P.M. Omar Karame, Feb. 14. 2005 p.m. Lebanese genera ls Yotelligence Branch A surveillance network • • of cellular phones is ০ Feb. 14, 2005 day of blast Uncle of Raed curious form, for these reports read like mystery design, financial, news, and meteorological report- thrillers uncovered that tracked the P.M.s movement in the months leading up Mediterranean Sea ISR. 6 o.m. LEB. On the eve of the Lebanese govemment published here has been drafted numerous times, us into the kind of game we are not equipped to consenting to send the assassination to an intema- tional tribunal for further investigation, the editors readers of the report across the globe who sought his or her juridical innocence and guilt cannot be ing. In more ways than one, the visual map move away trom this diagram, for it can only draw in pencil and ink, on napkins and notebooks, by In this Part I, we chose to come ciose but also to K General Galazi to and including the day of the assassination. play. The defense of this or that poltical player, of to make sense of the facts, players, and connec- our sole nor primary area of concem. This is not referenced above commissioned a graphic designer from a major mainstream intena- tions listed in Mehis (as the report came to be the urgent question par-excellence here. Or rather, tional newspaper to engage with the Mehlis report, known in Beirut). Indeed, it seems as if the report's to take on its presentation of time a Albert Karam nd place-with a focus on the chapter relating to the use of prepaid formal play evident in this seemingly-complete-yet- telephone calls made in the days and hours before clearly-lacking diagram. This formal play parallels clear by publishing this text along this fraught, the assassination (pages 57-58; sections 199-203). the kind of political play surrounding the entire incriminating map. Needless to say, we only hope In the this is not the urgent question par excellence for us. published informmation encouragss the kind of As such, and with this first, we have figured out K Chief of Beirut The Aftermath Within 24 hours of the assassination, the destroyed vehicles are removed and stored. Meanwhile, bodies are left to rot in some cases for weeks in the vicinity. An examination of where the orders to dismantle the evidence came from leads to two generals . ..... .... what we do not want to pursue, a position we make Gen. Raymond Azar become the basis for linking almost every Nations. single one of the suspected players, Some Inks are you may blame the Syrian regime. Connect them long-term endeavor that will in part depend on the twice-removed. What is perhaps remarkable is the President Emile Lahoud. Connect them yet another PIopala phone cards the dots Head of Military s in a particular way, and thought, produced, written, and st Intelligence SYR. whar ou is a Gen. Mustapha Hamdam Commander of Presidential Guard Gen. Ali Al-Haj Head of Lebanese internal security JOR.