WAYNE MADSEN REPORT - THE NEWS

March 8, 2007 -- In a story that may not be totally unrelated to the above piece, German journalist Jürgen Cain Külbel wrote a book titled "Mordakte Hariri," a German-language book (also published in Arabic) that strongly suggests that the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was not carried out by Syria but by neo-con elements hoping to foment a Lebanese civil war to the benefit of the Israelis and their Lebanese Phalangist allies.

Planned English and French editions of the book were scuttled after it came under attack by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the neocon-funded U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon (USCFL), and various groups linked to the Israel Lobby in the United States, Britain, Israel, and Germany.

The neocon propaganda efforts against Western journalists are conductedby a numberof on-line entities, including blogs. These includeGIYUS (Give Israel Your United Support), a project funded by the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS). More importantly, however, a pro-Bush/Cheney and Likud network has been uncovered operating within the German mainstream media, including Der Spiegel, Die Welt, the NTV network (an news affiliate of CNN), and others. Members of the network have been caught in coordinated smear campaigns against Elfriede Jelinek (a Nobel laureate for literature), the actor Sir Peter Ustinov, and singer Cat Stevens.