Bolton and UN investigator Detlev Mehlis of Germany worked closely to ensure that an interim and semi-final report on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri identified Syria as the culprit. However, intelligence sources in Europe maintain that the assassination of Hariri was never in Syria's interests and the assassination was carried out by a Pentagon special operations cell that relied on rogue Syrian intelligence agents opposed to Assad, right-wing Lebanese militias tied to neo-con Lebanese organizations in the United States, and an Israeli support network in Lebanon. The intention was to trigger the removal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and begin the process of putting pressure, including tough sanctions, on Syria. Mehlis, interestingly, said that it may take up to two years to complete the investigation of Syria.

Without a firm resolution of the matter, Bolton and his Lebanese allies are free to continue to ratchet up allegations about Syrian involvement and increase pressure on Damascus. Syrian UN ambassador Faysal Mekdad said of Bolton, "Ambassador Bolton has always been wrong . . . He was saying that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. He was wrong. Whatever he said was wrong."

Bolton has turned the US Mission to the UN in New York into a meeting place for neo-con operatives, including a number of right-wing Lebanese and Syrian activists linked to the Pentagon's former Office of Special Plans. On December 13, Bolton said, "We are looking for ways to make sure that the international pressure on Syria is unrelenting." On December 11, Bolton was given a thundering reception at a the annual dinner of the Zionist Organization of America in New York. Former Undersecretary of Defense for Plans and Policy Douglas Feith, an architect of the neo-con agenda for the Middle East and close friend of Bolton, has close links to ZOA. In addition, Feith's father, Dalck Feith, is a ZOA leader and one-time member of Betar, the Zionist youth movement founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the chief ideologist behind a political philosophy that blends Zionism and fascism -- an ideology today known generally as neo-conservatism.

Bolton and Mehlis: Working together with the neo-cons to destabilize Lebanon and Syria

The other neo-con strategy in the anti-Syrian operation is to blame Syria for permitting foreign fighters to enter Iraq. Although more jihadists enter Iraq from Saudi Arabia, Syria remains the focus of the Bush administration's wrath.

On December 12, anti-Syrian Lebanese parliamentarian Gebran Tueni was killed by a car bomb outside Beirut. This attack suspiciously occurred on the eve of the issuance of Mehlis's latest report. Similarly, since 2002, a number of other anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians have been the targets of car bombs erroneously blamed on the Syrian government. However, the US and its Security Council allies struck down a Russian and Algerian proposal to expand the Mehlis investigation to include other political assassinations in Lebanon, including those of Elie Hobeika in 2002, Lebanese Communist leader George Hawi this year, and others, including Tueni. The Russians and Algerians are aware that a broad investigation by the UN will expose U.S., Lebanese Phalangist, and Israeli involvement in the assassinations.

Intelligence sources report that the neo-cons will continue to target Lebanese politicians for assassination to incite Lebanese public opinion ("constructive chaos") and trigger military action by the United States against Syria. However, that strategy has not worked to date. Many Lebanese continue to rally around Hezbollah and the desired neo-con goal of anointing Aoun as a Lebanese strongman has been unsuccessful.