Articles
Hizballah Terrorist Samir Kuntar Basks in Freedom While Syria Tortures Innocent Lebanese
By Andrew Cochran - CTB
Jul 19, 2008 - 8:53:30 AM

As the number one star in the Hizballah “Divine Victory” lineup, Samir Kuntar has been the flaming sword that Hizballah holds aloft to show the Lebanese and the world that Nasrallah is in charge. Promising to strike Israel again, Kuntar said, “I return today from Palestine, but believe me, I return to Lebanon only in order to return to Palestine.” Kuntar went beyond just attacking the “Little Satan” (Israel), and moved onto criticizing the “Great Satan” (the United States of America). While attending a ceremony honoring the recently assassinated Hizballah terrorist-extraordinaire, Imad Mughnieh, Kuntar let his true feelings be known. "We swear to God...to continue on [Mughnieh’s] same path and not to retreat until we achieve the same stature that Allah bestowed on you." Mughnieh was implicated or accused of organizing operations such as the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, the Beirut Marine Barracks bombing, and the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut.

The prisoner swap also had broader repercussions on internal Lebanese politics. Riding the wave of Hizballah’s victory, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), largely discredited in many Christian circles for standing by their Hizballah ally during the May fighting, has started justifying their choice in having pro-Syrian allies. Lebanon’s telecommunications minister Jibran Bassil (a senior FPM member), stated that following the prisoner exchange, Israel would randomly harass Lebanese, “The phone would ring, the person would answer and they would hear a message saying, "This is from the state of Israel. Abandon Hizbullah or there will be another war, like there was in 2006.'" Funny, considering many in March 14th were saying (publically and privately) that if the FPM didn’t abandon their Hizballah ally that it could embolden Hizballah into another 2006 style war.

While Lebanon was shut down for celebrations yesterday, how did the new Lebanese president treat the newly arrived Kuntar? Other than congratulating and praising Samir Kuntar, he did refer to Lebanese prisoners abroad, albeit, in a pro-Syrian political posture. He deliberately neglected to inform the audience which state these prisoners were held: Syria. In reference to these prisoners, President Sulieman used the ambiguous term, “al-mafkoud”or, “the lost”. Where were these people “lost” and why? A friend in Lebanon quipped, “what was he referring to? [Sulieman makes it sound as if] A Lebanese was going for a hike and [just] got lost in a place like Canada or Panama.”

The real knock-out punch didn’t just come from Lebanon’s new president’s cowering to Syria. Unbelievably, the number two official in the Lebanese Forces, the smiling George Adwan, was in attendance at the “welcome home” celebrations for Kuntar. This is a far cry from Adwan’s statements during the funeral for assassinated anti-Syrian journalist Gibran Tueni in 2006, “hold on to Gebran's dream and don't go for half solutions or compromises.” Interestingly the LF’s leader, Samir Geagea did offer his criticism of the Kuntar affair, saying, “[only] when prisoners are freed from Syrian jails and when those who sought refuge in Israel return to their homes,” can Lebanon can be truly celebrate.

While the conditions for Lebanese prisoners in Syria are a taboo discussion point in Lebanon, what were Kuntar’s conditions in the Israeli prison system? For the record, all Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails committed crimes and essentially invaded sovereign Israeli territory (note: all Lebanese prisoners and their dead compatriots were released in the prisoner exchange). Even with a heinous record, Kuntar was afforded a university education, and eventually achieved a bachelors degree from the Open University of Tel Aviv. According to a McClatchy-run story, “he even took a course on the Holocaust.” Needless to say, it didn’t teach Kuntar much. While in prison Kuntar married an Israeli Arab, and was allowed to have, “conjugal visits from his wife.”Moreover, “As the wife of a prisoner...[She received] a monthly stipend from the government.”

The conditions of Lebanese prisoners in secret Syrian prisons is a uncomparable to that of Israel’s. Almost all Lebanese prisoners in Syria were illegally taken (as opposed to arrested while invading and/or killing) from Lebanon, and then brought to Syria. Can these new and old inmates get a university education, married, or for that matter have conjugal visits? The answer is quite clear: No. One Lebanese described his conditions inside the infamous Mazzeh prison,

“They pulled out my fingernails and my toenails.
They beat me on my genitals and impaled me with sharp instruments.
They applied electric shocks to my nose, my ears and my throat.
They burned me with cigars and cigarettes.
They sat me on the German chair [a device used for inducing greater amounts of pain].
They hanged me on a wheel.
They hanged me for nine days by a ‘ghost’ winch with the black bag over my head.”

Out of all of this, it is assured that neither Hizballah, nor her sister militias will not be launching a “deep penetration” operation to release Lebanese journalists, political leaders and/or former anti-Syrian fighters from Tadmour Prison. Moreover, as Nasrallah makes more pronouncements to “liberate Shebba Farms”, he will again ignore the Syrian military presence occupying almost 180km of Lebanese territory.