Bush gone Geagea

Franklin Lamb writes in Counterpunch on the love-in between George Bush and Samir Geagea, the madman who leads the ultra-right Lebanese Forces:

Following successful visits by Druze leader Walid Jumblatt over the winter, the Bush administration is currently hosting and vetting long-shot candidate for president Dr. Samir Farid Geagea.

He is the leader of the Lebanese Forces (the successor to Bashir Gemayel's Kataib Phalange Militia founded by warlord Pierre Gemayel following his Berlin 'fascist epiphany' and declaration that "Lebanon needs some order like in Germany.")

[US official in charge of Lebanon] David Welch, who met with Geagea on March 12, and other administration officials, have reportedly given up on Lebanese army chief Michel Suleiman, not due so much to the now 16th postponement of his presidential election but because Suleiman is becoming 'shop worn' plus an increasing 'buyers remorse'.

The Welch Club (a number of US neocons, Cheney, Saudi Arabia, Jordan) has lost confidence in him, according to Hill sources, and they no longer trust the general to do their bidding.

Among Geagea's crimes [excluding those against ordinary people]:

• the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Mr. Rachid Karami
• assassination of a former leading figure in the Lebanese Forces militia, Elias Zayek
• assassination of Christian leader Dany Chamoun with his wife and two young children (ages 5 and 7)
• assassination attempt against Deputy Prime Minister/Minister of the Interior Michel Murr