Syria's and the pattern of murder in Lebanon

Wall Street Journal Editorial:

There's a fearsome consistency to the assassinations that have bedeviled Lebanon for the past three years. The victims are invariably killed by remotely controlled car bombs. Invariably, too, they are opponents, or obstacles, to Syria's designs in the colony it supposedly surrendered nearly three years ago.

Yesterday marked another such murder, this time of Captain Wissam Mahmoud Eid, a terrorism investigator who had already survived one assassination attempt in 2006. Eid had been involved in the forensic investigation following the February 2005 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri, and later in the Lebanese government's battle with Fatah al-Islam, a Sunni terrorist group based in a refugee camp north of Beirut. Neither role could have endeared him to Damascus, which is generally believed to have played the main part both in Hariri's death and Fatah al-Islam's uprising.

Eid's murder ought to be a powerful reminder that Syria's purposes in the region remain intractable and malign. Yet as Detlev Mehlis, the German investigator who formerly led the U.N. inquiry into Hariri's murder, makes clear in the "Weekend Interview," the willingness to prosecute the case to a just conclusion seems to be petering out.

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The Journal believes that Pelosi's pandering to Assad has hurt the momentum in prosecuting the murder case of Hariri. While it is easy to understand why that might make Syria think they can get away with murder, it should not impede the investigation and I don't think even Pelosi would obstruct justice in any direct way. This latest murder will probably produce more clues to who was behind the Hariri murder. It should certainly raise suspicion that he was getting close to naming the killers.

The Washington Post reports that both Syria and Hezballah condemned the killing. Someone should call their bluff and ask for cooperation in the investigation of this latest murder.