Lebanon Bows to the Empire

https://www.mintpressnews.com/butcher-khiam-trump-notorious-war-criminal-amer-fakhoury/265942/

A strange story in some respects, it's surprising that Beirut allowed Fakhoury to be released given Hezbollah's influential role in the government. Fakhoury was certainly a villain, a member of the Israeli-proxy SLA and a participant in the atrocities committed by the IDF in the wake of its 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Perhaps what is even more surprising was that he chose to return to Beirut at all. Apparently life in the United States wasn't quite cutting it for him and while he had friends in Israel, he had no desire to live there.

And yet despite all this and despite the fact that Israel pulled out of South Lebanon back in 2000 and Israel bombed the prison in 2006 (destroying any remaining evidence), he was deemed important enough to rescue by the United States. Does he have friends in very high places? Is he a security threat? Was he still involved or does he know too many secrets about the Israeli occupation?

There's been a lot of behind-the-scenes 'funny business' over the years between Washington and Iran and even Israel and Iran. Are there stories that he's privy to that no one wanted told?

We just don't know but it's interesting that the Trump administration exerted this much effort for someone that is seemingly not that important. I was reminded of Roxana Saberi and her imprisonment in Iran back in 2009. In that case the government didn't make that much public noise about her imprisonment but the media certainly did and she was eventually released. In this case the Trump administration pursued this aggressively and yet the media has remained mostly silent. Of course it's easier for Washington to flex its muscles when it comes to Lebanon than with Iran. The statements regarding care for US citizens is more than somewhat disingenuous. The US is happy to ignore its citizens when it's convenient to do so. Obviously Fakhoury was deemed as rather important by certain sectors within the state.

More than anything Washington wants to send a message to the world that you can't detain or harm Americans. This is not for the likes of Saberi or some average Joe, but rather for the many Americans working overseas in business and the many who are in fact intelligence agents working in business or diplomacy.

There's a fear of the international community turning against Washington and not holding its citizens to a different elevated standard of impunity. The Pentagon has its host countries sign SOFA documents (Status of Forces Agreements) that protect US personnel from local prosecution. One is also reminded of the US diplomat whisked out of the UK to avoid a vehicular manslaughter charge. American soldiers are frequently removed from South Korea and Okinawa to avoid similar charges and worse. Recently Secretary of State Pompeo threatened members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as it suggested US citizens could be tried in the The Hague. The US refused to sign the treaty even as it worked to create the court and use it for its own purposes but Washington refuses to even entertain the thought that a US citizen could stand trial. Pompeo was so angry that he even threatened the families of ICC staff-members... a significant international headline that was largely ignored by our so-called 'liberal' media.

The United States is truly a rogue state and often behaves in mafia-esque fashion. The rest of the world knows this but much of the domestic public remains ignorant of this reality and again this is in no small part due to the Establishment media. The liberal label and the notion that the liberal media hates America doesn't seem to apply in this case does it?

These Wall Street entities protect the Establishment and America and continue to promote the lie that it stands for liberal democracy and human rights. The truth is it only stands for these things when it's convenient to do so. In 1980's and 1990's Lebanon it was not convenient and thus Washington (with Tel Aviv) was happy to support the likes of Fakhoury. Apparently under threat he stayed loyal and the mafia dons, the Praetorians running the show decided it was better to rescue him than liquidate (and thus silence) him. That's the story in its ugly simplicity.