 |
|
 |
| |
| The White House to Receive a Convicted War Criminal |
The George W. Bush Administration is set for an official meeting in March 2008 with a convicted Lebanese warlord, widely recognized for planning, ordering and committing war crimes that left permanent scars on the minds and bodies of thousands of Lebanese citizens. Mr. Samir Geagea was the leader of the "Lebanese Forces militia" during the Lebanese war that lasted from 1975 to 1990.
His bloody history against the people and the national army of Lebanon has shaped Lebanon's modern history, leaving behind thousands of widows, orphans, handicapped and displaced people, as well as destroyed public and private property. If for any reason Samir Geagea should be in the United States, it should be to stand trial for his war crimes against the families and friends of many Lebanese-Americans who either lived or witnessed the Lebanese war.
|
Samir Geagea, photo from Lebanese Forces Militia archive |
As of 1994, Geagea was tried and convicted for four crimes – only a small portion of his long list of war crimes. He was convicted for:
1. The assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Mr. Rachid Karami
2. The assassination of a former leading figure in the Lebanese Forces militia, Elias Zayek
3. The assassination of Christian leader Dany Chamoun with his wife and two young children (ages 5 and 7)
4. The assassination attempt against Deputy Prime Minister/Minister of the Interior Michel Murr
Zayek was a Christian leader who posed a threat to Geagea's dreams of the militia leadership. Dany Chamoun, son of late Lebanese President Camille Chamoun, was one of the most active and independent Christian leaders during the Syrian invasion of 1990, and was also a threat to Geagea's ambition of being the sole Christian leader. In 1990, Geagea commenced his collaboration with the brutal Syrian regime at the expense of the Lebanese people.
Although he was not convicted, Geagea was suspected of bombing the Maronite Catholic church of Saydet Najat in Jounieh, in which tens of worshipers were killed in 1994. The judges could not convict him "for insufficient evidence" as per the official verdict. Geagea was sentenced to death for his assassination crimes, and the sentence was later reduced to lifetime in prison.
Geagea only spent 11 years in jail, and was pardoned in a special bill passed by the Lebanese parliament on July 18, 2005. An interesting condition about this "special pardon" is that it not only included Geagea, but also included a score of Al Qaeda-inspired extremists who were captured after conducting terrorist attacks against the Lebanese army and civilians in 2001. Geagea's release is perceived by many people as a cover up and distraction for the release of these Islamist extremists.
A leader of a relatively insignificant political party, Geagea holds no public official or representative status. This criminal and insignificant party leader holds no official title or position in the Lebanese government to be received by the Bush Administration or the Republican Party.
To grant a US entry visa to a convicted war criminal such as Samir Geagea, and to permit him to defile the land of the free is not only against US law, but is also an unacceptable deed, and a great insult to the American people and to the values inherent in the American Constitution* . Criminals such as Geagea should not set foot on the soil of the United States, not to mention that of the White House or the Capitol Building. The eyes that enjoyed gazing coldly at the grief of hundreds of thousands of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, grandfathers and grandmothers from all over the world, should never be allowed to look toward the home of the brave.
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
.
|
|
|
|
|
No single record can summarize Samir Geagea's crimes against humanity. There is no way to include all the crimes against civilians; the raping, the destruction of houses over their residents, the beheading of civilians and throwing their bodies under bridges, throwing people alive in valleys from bridges, sinking people with concrete blocks in their feet, and destroying houses of worship on their attendees. There is no way to compile a record of all Geagea's crimes, but for a small sample of his crimes, please see list below: |
|
| |
June 13, 1978 - Samir Geagea led an attack against Tony Farngieh, a prominent Christian leader of North Lebanon at his summer family house. Franjieh was killed along with dozens of supporters.
September, 1982 – Lebanese Forces militia, of which Geagea was a rising member at that point, participated in massacres against Palestinian refugees in camps in Beirut leaving more than a thousand casualties.
1984 – Assassination of Ghaith Khoury, a potential threat to his command position, outside a beach resort in the Byblos area. Khoury's wife was injured and hospitalized. The wife was later shot on the operation table in the hospital.
March 11, 1985 - Geagea led a bloody coup within his militia in collaboration with Elie Houbeika, which resulted in Houbeika assuming the leadership of the Lebanese Forces Militia.
January 15, 1986 - Geagea led a bloody coup to claim leadership of the Lebanese Forces militia from Houbeika, leaving 600 dead of his own militia in one day. (more: Click for list of crimes)
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
Brief Background:
The Lebanese Forces militia was originally formed by merging several Christian groups at the end of the1970's to counter the rising Syrian and Palestinian power. However, Samir Geagea who led several battles before and after he assumed its full leadership turned his militia into an uncontrolled power, occupying a small Christian region of Lebanon and forcing its residents to submit to his authority. He turned against any Christian leader who opposed his authority, and led a series of destructive wars causing the displacement of 200,000 citizens until this very day.
Geagea's atrocities included murder, village destruction, displacing villagers, execution of arrested citizens, massacring families, drug and weapon dealing, money laundering, and finally burying nuclear wastes in the mountains of his controlled region in exchange for cash. His crimes did not spare Muslims, Christians or Druze.
On October 13, 1990, Samir Geagea's militia supported with artillery bombing the Syrian invasion of Beirut, which led to the fall of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense and the Lebanese Presidential Palace. Along with the massacres committed against the Lebanese Armed Forces and civilians that day, Geagea's militia celebrated with gun shots and fireworks the defeat of the Lebanese Armed Forces and subsequent Syrian control of Lebanon. A few days later, Geagea assassinated his main political opponent Dany Chamoun and his family.
-
Contact us
geagea_crimes@yahoo.com
copyrights 2008 www.2la.org/warlords
|
