"Lebanese Christian Politician Killed"

Tuesday, November 21, 2006
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/11/21/lebanon.shooting/index.html

Lebanese Cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel -- a key member of the anti-Syrian
majority in the Lebanese parliament -- has been shot dead in an assassination
that raises tensions between opponents and allies of Syria.

Pierre Gemayal was killed in a Christian Lebanese neighborhood on Tuesday. Gemayal was an important member of the anti-Syrian majority in the Lebanese Parliament. While President Bush extends his condolences and concerns by denouncing the murder, he has not yet pointed his finger to blame Syria for this deadly act. He acknowledged “that Syria and Iran were trying to undermine the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.” Both Gemayal’s father (a former Lebanese President) and the current Lebanese Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, referred to Gemayal as a martyr for freedom in Lebanon. Truly, Pierre Gemayal was a martyr for his country. He had to have known there were risks involved with the position he held on Syria. The Syrians do not want the government of Lebanon to approve a United Nations tribunal to prosecute those responsible for former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination. If you are guilty, you obviously do not want to be tried. The Syrians are doing everything they can to gain more power and control, even if it means taking the life of someone else. This is never right. There have been too many innocent lives already taken by these Syrians who want more control and a solution needs to be created for this horrible problem.