Washington Bureau

              Barakat: Bush's executive order helps Lebanon against Terror

Commenting on President George Bush's executive order on freezing the assets of elements threatening security and democracy in Lebanon, Colonel Charbel Barakat, Terrorism Advisor to the World Council on the Cedars Revolution said "this is the best decision against Terrorism taken internationally regarding Lebanon so far."

Barakat, speaking with Cedars Revolution News (CRN) said: "What President Bush's executive order has done was to clarify that Terrorist organizations and individuals are threatening a democratically elected Government in Lebanon and that Lebanon's civil society needs to be protected." Barakat, who has testified in the past to the US Senate and writes with the Phoenicia News in Canada, said "it is no secret that the Syrian and Iranian intelligence services and Hezbollah have devised a plan to sink Lebanon in blood and reverse the democratic order by year end, if they can. As of July 2005, these forces have launched a terror campaign which has led to assassinations of politicians, journalists and legislators, urban insurrections, explosions and killing of innocents, as well as a war across the southern international border. Most recently, the axis has sent Fatah al Islam into battle assassinating Lebanese soldiers and officers. And while this terror war is bleeding Lebanon, members of Terrorist organizations and those allies and facilitating for them have been traveling to the West and to the United States unchecked."

"It is logical and long overdue," said Barakat that the US Government which is waging a war on Terror would freeze the assets of Hizbollah, Syrian intelligence, and other Lebanese organizations and individuals who are the allies of Hizbollah. It was time that the operatives of Terrorism in Lebanon  would be identified in the US and stopped from using America as a fundraiser launching pad and intelligence gathering on Lebanese exiles. President Bush has delivered a strike to Lebanon-based terrorism and made the United States safer by releasing that order. We thank him and hope other Western leaders in Canada, Europe and Australia follow the example. Lebanese around the world and in America are happy to see the leader of the free world leading the efforts to protect democracy in Lebanon and confront Terrorism internationally."  

Ret. Colonel Charbel Barakat