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Thursday, February 19, 2009

Ace, who was traveling with the group of journalists, describes "What Happened with Hitchens"

I wasn't there. I was there, however, for the immediate after-action report, and have heard it told ten times by now, including most of it from Hitchens. Although I didn't really bother asking much, as I'd already heard it.

Hitch and two others were out on some or such errand. One guy was just telling Hitchens that the Syrian Nazi party had little support in the country but was paid by Syria to kill people, and that he'd been told they're the one party you don't fuck with.

So five minutes later they come across the poster for the Syrian Nazi Party on an abandoned bagel shop -- abandoned, if I had this right, after Hezballah had attacked it last year due to the overly Jewish connotations of bagelry.

So Hitchens immediately takes out a pen and writes "No, no, Fuck You" on the poster. I don't know if he'd digested the story and decided to fuck with them anyway, or else he was just reacting to the modified swastika on the poster.

Now, the Syrian Nazis are not popular and neighborhoods have tried to get their posters taken down. But then they threaten people and cause problems.

So the state leaves them up. To avoid getting their posters defaced or torn down, they post a paid Nazi watcher to keep an eye on their posters.

Well, when this Syrian Nazi goon saw Hitch do this, he confronted him and kinda-sorta attacked him. I say kinda sorta attacked, because what his main intent was was to delay Hitchens from leaving -- until the ten Nazi goons he had just texted on his cell phone could arrive...

I first saw the SSNP's swastika-based flag when I was in Beirut photographing Hezbollah's rally in Dec. 2006. Since I had taken a picture of every other group and flag, I was going to take a picture of theirs too, but I stopped when I noticed how all the other Lebanese reacted to this group. They moved away from them, they glared at them - they hated them. The Christians in the neighborhood openly showed their hatred, but the were even, more subtly, treated as dangerous pariahs by their fellow Syria/Hezbollah supporters.

ssnp

It's generally assumed that they are responsible for the car bombings that terrorized most of Beirut and targeted Lebanese politicians and journalists. When police found explosives in one of their lairs, one SSNP member said "we are a resistance force, and we use different methods of resisting, among which is using explosives."

The group was banned for a while but unfortunately, Hezbollah and concurrent Syrian influence have gotten more powerful lately. The SSNP is coming out of the shadows. I was there last August and saw that their swastika emblems are painted all over West Beirut. Their flags are on display on the road to Baalbeck.

ssnp2

Although most Lebanese hate this group, they usually don't paint over the symbol or tear down these flags because they know how dangerous this group is. Since Hitchens knows the area, I assume he did too. Given the way they drive, I'd guess that many Lebanese admire this kind of crazy bravery. A lot of people would probably like to buy him a beer.

Allahpundit has more

Gene at Harry's Place says:

"Coincidentally or not, Hitchens's old nemesis, George Galloway, addressed a 2006 celebration in Canada commemorating the 74th anniversary of the founding of- yes- the Syrian Social Nationalist Party...So once again we gaze in bewilderment upon a world in which someone who confronted and physically fought fascists is routinely accused of selling out to the Right, while someone who celebrated with their Canadian fellow fascists is viewed by some as a hero of the Left.

Charles at LGF says:

Apparently it's not popular to say it, but I applaud Hitchens for flipping the bird to those creeps. If more people had the guts to do things like this (and a few drinks in them to loosen them up) skinhead punks like the SSNP might not have so much power.

I wrote about growing SSNP influence in Lebanon after my last visit, but the issue didn't get much attention. I should have started a fight -

18 Comments

Wait awhile. Some "progressive" will spring to the defense of this outfit and point out that the swastika is an old Hindu symbol.

Sigh.

It's amazing how the Nazi goon squads haven't changed their tactics since the 1930's. See the second quote.

while someone who celebrated with their Canadian fellow fascists is viewed by some as a hero of the Left.

But the fascists and the Left are one and the same thing.
Do a bit of reading. Mussolini really like Roosevelt's policies.

It's a meeting of like minded Socialists and National Socialists.

Like the hitler-Stalin pact of 1939.

#3 Cynic


But the fascists and the Left are one and the same thing.
Do a bit of reading. Mussolini really like[d] Roosevelt's policies.
Cf. Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, 2008.

The news that the left and fascists are the same 'thing' would be news to pro-Zionist anti-fascist Leftists like Norm Geras, or to the bloggers at "Harry's Place." Read their blogs for awhile. You'll find that there are a wide variety of leftists out there, from terrorist tolerating pacifists to middle of the road Obama democrats to pro-Israeli Marxists.

It's also worth noting that Israel is a pretty lefty place.

who the hell are you to judge the SSNP
i think you heard one side of the story
the side that killed other sects and terrified other religions
and for your information SSNP is not widely hated in lebanon, it actually have 5 MP's out of 120 mp parliment
that means they are not hated
you are right about one thing that leftist and SSNP share couple of characteristics
best of them is that
in a sectarian country where people are killing eachother for the sake of religion, you only see 2 parties that havent done that
SSNP and the lebanese communist party
these parties are collective they include both christians and muslims in defiance of the religious fanatics who usually hate this those 2 parties coz they drive people away from religious extortion which is widely spread here in lebanon

who the hell are you to judge the SSNP

Who the hell are you to speak to me that way?

best of them is that
in a sectarian country where people are killing eachother for the sake of religion, you only see 2 parties that havent done that
SSNP and the lebanese communist party

Your information is somewhat out of date. Years ago, sectarian Lebanese were equally aggressive, but in recent years, when Sunnis and Druze in Lebanon fought, they were mostly trying to defend themselves against Hezbollah's aggression.

And, of course, there's the issue of the car bombs. Most Lebanese assume that SSNP members were involved in these attacks.

Care to explain what the SSNP member meant when he said "we are a resistance force, and we use different methods of resisting, among which is using explosives."?

u know nothing
for your information the reason why ssnp and lcp didnt contribute to the secterian aggression is that they include members from all religions
the vast majority are christians and druze (the same 2 sects which have contributed alot of the civil war bloodshed to eachother) and if u r talking about sunnites and shites i would like to highlight a point which is the victims of the famous halba massacre which everyone can youtube it, were sunnites (members of the ssnp) murdured by other sunnites. I beg u to do more research before u publish anything on an international blog, u r misleading the readers who are reading ur story which i consider to be biast

for your information the reason why ssnp and lcp didnt contribute to the secterian aggression is that they include members from all religions
the vast majority are christians and druze

So, why did the SSNP member say "we are a resistance force, and we use different methods of resisting, among which is using explosives."?

Was he, for some reason, unaware of the peaceful, multi-culti, non violent nature of his own organization?

And, by the way, he was referring to explosives cache that were found in the homes of SSNP members. If the SSNP is, as you say, not involved in sectarian violence, why were the explosives there in the first place? What were these peaceful folks planning to do with 200 kg of TNT?

More information about the explosives found in the homes of SSNP members:

Lebanese authorities raided the homes of SSNP members on December 20, 2006, and confiscated large amounts of bomb making materials and weapons, including 200 kilograms of TNT, detonators, timers, mortars and anti-tank missiles.
The raids reportedly were part of an ongoing investigation into a series of assassination attempts in the country. Since the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005, there have been more than a dozen assassinations and assassination attempts in Lebanon against public figures that appose Syrian influence in the county, including the killing of cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel in November.

for your information again not all the arms in lebanon are for sectarian violence, SSNP is the same party which have used the same explosives against israeli army during their occupation, refer to sanaa mheidly and wajdi al sayegh, and khalid alwan the same guy who shot israeli officers in 1982 in the same crossection ur talking about in your article and thats why there's a sign board as a rememberance of this heroic resistance act.
u have t differenciate between resistance to occupation (SSNP and LCP) and secterian violence (Hizbullah, PSP, Future, Lebanese foreces)
so explosivs, TNT, anti tank missiles, machine guns everything can have no other reason but to fight israel, not secterian violence, like whom would they fight when they include members from all religions
if u put facts about raids and then add a note about assasination this doesnt mean that the two facts are linked, its another way you use to mislead readers because if it is true you should link those raid and tnts to the assasination, in facts details not just state two facts which have nothing to do with eachother, the lebanese army didnt say how these explosives are linked to assasination its just a conspiracy theory r trying to impose on readers

the lebanese army didnt say how these explosives are linked to assasination its just a conspiracy theory r trying to impose on readers

The Lebanese army also didn't say that these explosives were being used "against israeli army during their occupation"

Do you have any proof that these explosives were actually used for that purpose? That would show that the SSNP did not intend to use these explosives against Lebanese opponents of Syria.

I got the impression that the SSNP targets Lebanese because many Lebanese describe the way the SSNP menaces residents of tolerant neighborhoods like Hamra.

And there was the case of Omar Harqous, a Future TV reporter who was beaten up by SSNP thugs.

The SSNP is an Arab nationalist party, so it's not surprising that it would be made up of various Arab sectarian groups. But is it allied with any European groups? I doubt that.

we dont need the army to say whether these explosives were used against israel because the SSNP's history proves that this party has been fighting israel since 1948 this is the best proof we dont nead to mention the list of hundreds of SSNP martyr who died fighting israel, Im not saying that the SSNP presents the whole population of lebanon, you can always find people who have issues with SSNP and still you can find SSNP members who were mistreated by other militias for Future movement, i do not need to remind u that 2 days ao it was the annual memorial of Halba's massaacre, where 12 SSNP members were brutally killed, their bodies were torn into pieces on camera i've previously asked you to you tube it to see what the party which omar harqous belongs to did to the SSNP members long before omar harqous was beaten
If you read more about SSNP from what its founder and leaders have talked about u will see that their Ideology is not arab nationalism, its only the northern part of the middle east, including cyprus which is not an arab state, I have to remind you that if you look back to history you will find that SSNP also fought Nasser (the founder of modern arab nationalism) so they arent arab nationalists SSNP doesnt even recognize arabs as 1 nation.
I cant understand the standard which you're using european parties, relations with european parties arent the indicators neutrality or peacfulness. but if you want an example I'll give u one George Galloway he's a british MP as far as i remember,
and SSNP cannot have allies from any part of the world outside the region because obviously SSNP is a party that only has to do with this particular region of the world they share nothing

you can always find people who have issues with SSNP and still you can find SSNP members who were mistreated by other militias

If the SSNP is involved in intra-Lebanese sectarian violence, doesn't that prove that they're just as sectarian as the rest?

I cant understand the standard which you're using european parties, relations with european parties arent the indicators neutrality or peacfulness.

Relations with European (or Asian, or Jewish) groups would be proof that the SSNP is not a biased or sectarian group.

Unfortunately, relations with George Galloway prove nothing, since he has a history of being willing to sell himself to the highest bidder (see his appearance on "Celebrity Big Brother" for proof) If he's sold himself to the SSNP, that's only proof that the SSNP is well funded.

Secterian violence takes place between sects, religions, not political parties who's presidents have been christians and muslims, if you want me to name a jew i will name Naom Chompsky go back to the archives of his visit to lebanon and see how well he was treated and welcomed by SSNP, I It seems that you are the journalist who sold himself to the first bidder not the highest because if you were a journalist you would go to the streets of beirut to be sure that what you are writing is right and not based on one side of the story by the way Im a muslim and a the founder of the SSNP is a christian so if this doesnt prove to you how anti secterian SSNP is, stay stubborn as you are but at least first enrich your historical background

if you were a journalist you would go to the streets of beirut to be sure that what you are writing is right and not based on one side of the story

If you read the article (above), you would note that I have visited the streets of Beirut. I first saw the SSNP in 2006, when I photographed and wrote about Hezbollah's rally in Dec. 2006. I talked to people who were participating in that rally. No one expressed support for the SSNP.

I also visited Beirut in August 2008, and saw the SSNP's swastika symbols and recorded the Lebanese objections to those symbols. I didn't meet anyone who was willing to declare that he was a member of, or a supporter of the SSNP, but as far as I can tell, the SSNP is not very open about discussing their views or their goals.

From a 1987 article on the SSNP in Atlantic Monthly by Ehud Ya’ari:

These are the hallmarks of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), the oldest terrorist ‎organization in existence today and one of the most secret and deadly. Despite its long ‎history of violence, Western security organs were recently taken by surprise when they ‎learned that a well-camouflaged arm of the SSNP had succeeded in setting up a large ‎terror network in Western Europe-complete with safe houses, weapons caches, and ‎forged passports-and that it was the SSNP that had set off a series of deadly explosions in ‎the heart of Paris, to gain the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. The United States, ‎too, has felt the effects of the SSNP. The explosion aboard a TWA flight nearing Athens ‎in April of 1986, which cost the lives of four passengers-one of them an infant-has been ‎traced to May Mansur, of Tripoli, a veteran member of the SSNP, who debarked at a ‎previous stopover after placing a bomb under her seat.‎

The SSNP set up a "large ‎terror network in Western Europe" - yet you failed to mention that when I asked about associations with Western European groups.

In Canada, 2006 George Galloway spoke to members of the "Syrian Social Nationalist Movement" in Ottawa. Galloway & co. celebrated the 74th ‎anniversary of founding of the SSNP. You didn't mention the Ottawa group either.

If the SSNP is not willing to be open about its associations, how valuable would an interview with them be?

again ur listening to one side if its not israel's affiliates in lebanon, its Ehud Ya'ari a pro zionist, im sure if u went to the 2006 rally u would have seen wut u call a swastika because SSNP was a major contributer to this rally, and an allie of Hizbullah and if its true that they done have supporters how come they win in every single elections 6-9 mps, for your information ottawa group is just an assembly for ssnp members in ottawa, there's the same assembly in every single capital of the world wherever u can find ssnp members and if what Ehud Ya'ari is right how come ssnp assemblies keep operating all over europe and usa, im sure if they were terrorists they would have had assemblies in all those countries till now and again u r most welcomed to beirut if u wanna know the truth and not be baist
all what ssnp members beleive in you can find in a book called the 10 lectures and another book genesis of nations there's nothing more to be disclosed
i have nothing more to add here because if you read my posts again there are plenty of questions which if you have an answer to you would have apologized about what you have written ciao

Not sure if I concur but thank u for the information By the way, can I contact you about your blog?

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