Syria's Man in Lebanon Arrested: Three Reasons to Pay Attention
Lebanon's former Information Minister Michel Samaha was unceremoniously arrested in his home early Thursday and allegedly confessed to participating in a plan to transfer explosives from Syria to Lebanon, writes Elias Muhanna. While the facts are still murky, this doesn't happen in Lebanon, raising eyebrows about what's really going on behind the scenes.
What to make of today’s arrest of former Lebanese minister Michel Samaha?
The silver-tongued politician, well-known for his close ties to the Syrian government and its allies in Lebanon, was arrested Thursday morning at his home in a Beirut neighborhood. A group of police officers reportedly stormed the apartment at dawn, while the couple was still in their pajamas, “armed as though they were going to go liberate something,” said Samaha’s wife, Gladys.
Within a few hours, a Lebanese TV station was reporting that Samaha had confessed under interrogation that he had participated in a plan to transfer “explosives from Syria to Lebanon in order to carry out bombings in North Lebanon, particularly in the area of Akkar, with Syria’s knowledge.”
As of the time this post went to press, no official word had come out regarding the reasons for Samaha’s detainment or his alleged confession.
