"Allo? Saad Hariri is not sleeping, he is mad as hell!"

Harakiri by any other name...  While the strategically autistic rulers of Saudi Arabia & Qatar are cozy at home, dispensing checks & death in Syria, they send their 'boys minions' to do their dirty work for them: Results? Death for Syrians & sleepless nights in Jeddah, Paris & Istanbul!

[al Akhbar] "... Mokdad (Manicured FSA spokesman) asks if the man on the other line was Saad Hariri; Sakr tells him that the latter is “going mad”, and that he had wanted to end the battle.. (This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition)

___________________________________________________________________

Louai al-Mokdad: ‘Allo

Okab Sakr: ‘Allo 

LM: Yes, Okab.. 

OS: Yes, Louai, stay with me for a minute. Stay with me for a minute. 

OS: [Speaking to someone else on the phone] Hello, yes. No. No. It will be resolved...It will be resolved...It will be resolved. We are following it up...I know you did not sleep. I did not sleep.That too...We are following it up...I know, I know. And in Saudi. They are all following.No. It will be settled, God willing. This one will be settled...Definitely...Okay, okay, we will talk...Yeah, yeah, I will inform you moment by moment. 

OS: [Back to Louai] Hello. Hello. Yes, Louai. 

LM: Yes, dear. What’s going on?OS: It’s a mess. It’s a complete mess. 

LM: Who was that? Sheik Saad [Hariri]? 

OS: Hariri is mad as hell. He wants to settle it, in any way possible. 

LM: Oh man, today I... 

OS: You spoke to them? What did they tell you? 

LM: They called me today more than ten times. The same needs. The smallest thing they want is medium-caliber ammunition, that is. 

OS: Medium-caliber ammunition? 

LM: At least. Did you put Sheikh Hariri in the picture? 

OS: I did. Believe me, he is not sleeping. He is following up moment by moment and second by second. And he wants to settle it in any way. He was saying, this has to be resolved specifically, and there is no space for failure. 

LM: Okab, there is a problem they are facing. Man, the region is falling and if it falls, there will be a domino effect. All the surrounding regions will fall. You know? 

OS: Man, I know it is. But I told you. I spoke to his excellency and he said we had to resolve it. We did not go into the details and we will not go into the details. We have a cause we need to resolve and get it over with.

Okab Sakr: " “without Syria the cabinet would not been formed.”

"In an interview with OTV on Sunday, Lebanon First Bloc MP Okab Sakr stated that although PM Hariri’s visit to Syria will be one of the most crucial visit abroad, adding that, “without Syria who has its allies in Lebanon, the cabinet would not been formed.”

Sakr said that the national unity cabinet has brought together the contradictions of the Lebanese community and created a new stage in the country’s politics.

Discussing the progress in drafting the Ministerial Statement, he said that the issue of national economy was overall sufficiently handled. However he stated that the issue of Hezbollah’s arms needs further discussion..."

Sakr went on to say that he suspects an Israeli-Al Qaeda link in Rafic Hariri's assassination..."

Najib Miqati's "politics of dissociation"

Not doing very well ...

"... The situation is compounded by Qatar’s man — a major who defected from Assad’s army, who has not yet responded to TIME’s request for comment. The Qataris want to focus on aiding the regional military councils, FSA groupings within Syria set up earlier this year partly in order to get around the favoritism of the representatives. (There are at least 10 military councils scattered throughout the country.) Goods would be delivered to a council and then distributed to the brigades under its umbrella. In practice, it wasn’t quite as easy or smooth. “We were given lists by brigade leaders of their men, but we stopped believing the numbers,” says a member of the Istanbul room from Syria’s Idlib province. However, the Saudis, via Okab Sakr, appear to want to support only certain groups within the councils and not others.“We felt that the sides giving us support weren’t on the same page,” says the control-room member from eastern Syria. “They started having side meetings with some groups.” Still, he says, “what is most important is that the guys receive weapons. Whether that is via an operations room or directly, we don’t care. Nobody knows the truth from the talk,” he says. “We have been lied to [by the international community], and we have lied to the guys inside, saying weapons would arrive in a week, in 10 days, and months have passed and some areas haven’t received supplies. So unless I see it, and see it distributed, even I don’t believe it.”....
Colonel Afif Suleiman, the head of the Idlib Military Council, a grouping of 16 military units from across the vast province, is unhappy with the support he gets from the control room. He is angry with Sakr, who, he says, “got involved in the issue of weapons to split our ranks, to divide the revolutionaries.” Sakr, he says, recently “chose three people on our council and supported them. I won’t name them. They are not the largest units. There is one big group, but the others are just regular ones,” Suleiman tells TIME. “He formed a rift within the council, and we are working to heal this rift. We clarified the issue to our Saudi brothers about Okab. They promised that there will be no support, either military or financial, except via the councils. This is what they recently promised us.”
To complicate things further, the Qataris reportedly have strong ties to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, while the Saudis “don’t want any ties to anything called Muslim Brothers,” says Ahmad Zeidan, the nom de guerre of a member of the Idlib military council. According to several sources, the large group in the Idlib military council that Sakr supported — to the aggravation of Suleiman — is Jamal Maarouf’s Martyrs of Syria Battalion, because it “has a more neutral view of the Brothers,” a U.S.-based activist says...."

"Saudi Arabia’s man in the Istanbul control center is a Lebanese politician named Okab Sakr"

"The Saudis are more interested in form than in substance," 

(Johnny Abdo, a Hariri mentor) 

"... As TIME reports here, disorder and distrust plague two of the rebels’ international patrons — Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The two Gulf powerhouses are no longer on the same page when it comes to who among the plethora of mushrooming Syrian rebel groups should be armed. The rift surfaced in August with the alleged Saudi and Qatari representatives in charge of funneling free weaponry to the rebels clearly backing different factions ... The middlemen of the two countries operate out of Turkey,....  (The FSA is nominally headed by the Turkey-based Riad al-As’aad. Both As’aad and his chief FSA rival General Mustafa Sheikh are not party to the Istanbul control room which supplies and arms rebels who operate under the FSA banner. The two men each have their own sources of funding, and are independently distributing money and weapons to selected FSA units.)
According to sources who have dealt with him, Saudi Arabia’s man in the Istanbul control center is a Lebanese politician named Okab Sakr. He belongs to the Future Movement, the organization of former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri. The party has not made Sakr available to TIME, denies his involvement in any weapons deals and insists that Sakr is in Belgium “on leave” from his political duties.
However, Sakr appears to have been in the southern Turkish city of Antakya in late August. A TIME inquiry with an Antakya hotel confirms Sakr was in the area at the time. According to rebel sources who dealt with him, theLebanese politician was there overseeing the distribution of batches of supplies — small consignments of 50,000 Kalashnikov bullets and several dozen rocket-propelled grenades – to at least four different FSA groups in Idlib province as well as larger consignments to other areas including Homs. The FSA sources also say he met with some commanders but not others – a selectivity that led to much chagrin.
That kind of favoritism has caused problems on the ground in many ways... (Continue, here)"

The US asks Lebanese authorities to arrest him, while Hariri & gang work for his release!

al Qaeda's Abdullah A. (aka. the 'Wolf'), was arrested in Lebanon after the US tipped Lebanon's 'General Security'. He was nabbed along with others, including Qataris & Lebanese nationals ...
FUTURE (Hariri) movement' MP, Okab Sakr said that he is working on a deal to release the 'Wolf' along with other inmates from Lebanon in exchange for the 11 Lebanese Nationals kidnapped since July.

Wikileaks: Jumblatt to Sison: "Saad's 15,000 Sunni-strong militia is a bad idea ... Ashraf Rifi is advising Hariri to establish this militia ..."

S E C R E T  BEIRUT 000490

3. (C) Charge Sison, accompanied by Pol/Econ Chief, met with Druze leader Walid Jumblatt at his home in Clemenceau on April 8. Jumblatt was pleased to hear from the Charge that March 14 leader Saad Hariri would return to Lebanon before the April 17-18 visit of NEA A/S Welch. He agreed that Saad's prolonged absence was "not good," especially if it was for purely business reasons, and that the jokes circulating about Saad abiding by the Saudi warning to its citizens to leave Lebanon were a "bad sign.".................. he noted, the Saudis had yet to follow through with their promised $1 billion deposit for Lebanon's Central Bank, he noted, which indicated they were "not serious."..... 

8. (S) The second issue Jumblatt raised was Saad's reported training of Sunni militias in Lebanon (allegedly 15,000 members in Beirut and more in Tripoli). In establishing his own "security agencies" in Beirut and Tripoli, Saad was being badly advised by "some people," Jumblatt said, such as ISF General Ashraf Rifi. In his meeting with Jumblatt, Hassan admitted having knowledge that members of Saad's Future Movement were being trained. Hassan reportedly opposed such training, but "people around Saad" (i.e., Rifi) were telling him to go ahead. (Note: The Jordanians have refused to train Internal Security Forces (ISF) members hand-picked and vetted by the Embassy to participate in a DA/ATA-funded Terrorism Crime Scene Investigation program, reportedly because they don't want to be involved in training "Saad's militia." (His concerns about Sunni militias areunderstandable, given that in the past such militias were used against his own Druze forces. End note.) Jumblatt said Saad's militia would cause significant damage to March 14, especially because Geagea's Lebanese Forces and Suleiman Franjieh's Marada were in line to train their own forces..... 13. (C) Never one to mince words, Jumblatt called Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) Commander Michel Sleiman's recent announcement that he planned to retire August 21, three months before the end of his commission, "stupid." Jumblatt interpreted the announcement as a warning to both the majority and opposition to hurry up with the election. It's as if he's asking us to beg him to stay, Jumblatt said, adding, "He's a nice guy, but not too bright." ... Jumblatt said Saad had received money from the Saudis for cultivating both Sunnis and Shia, which he was distributing through Future MPs Okab Saqr and Bassem Saba'. He agreed with the Charge, however, that it was not possible to "buy" Shia support and that more effort was needed. He encouraged the Charge to talk directly to Saad about it or to Saudi Ambassador Khoja, and said he would do the same. Some Shia might prefer to deal directly with the Saudis, he explained. But they also need to have their own independent identity, he added. 18. (C) As for his own Shia contacts, Jumblatt, noting that he was having lunch with Ibrahim Shamsaddine later that day, said he also dealt with the Mufti of Tyre, Sayyed Ali al-Amin, whom he labeled "acceptable." He also cited Riad Assad and Youssef Khalil as other good Shia interlocutors, though he dismissed former Ambassador Khalil al-Khalil, recalling his "special militias with the Israelis" during Lebanon's civil war.... 19. (C) Note: Shemsaddine, son of Higher Shia Council leader Mohammad Mehdi Shemsaddine, is frequently mentioned as a possible Shia minister in an expanded Siniora cabinet. Ambassador al-Khalil was one of the few Shia who attended the recent March 14 convention, as well as a March 13 dinner hosted by the Charge for independent Shia (Refs C and B). Al-Khalil's distant cousin Youssef, who also attended the Charge's dinner, is a close Embassy contact who has a reputation as an impressive and well-respected Central Bank official. Riad Assad also is a well-known and respected contact and a rival of Ahmad Assad, who earned a scant 700 votes compared to Riad's 55,000 in the 2005 parliamentary elections. End note...."

Saudi Arabia's man in 'weapons-delivery' as per a Syrian rebel': "Sakr got involved in the issue of weapons to split our ranks, to divide the revolutionaries!"

Some folks at angry with each other!

"...Colonel Afif Suleiman, the head of the Idlib Military Council, a grouping of 16 military units from across the vast province, is unhappy with the support he gets from the control room. He is angry with Sakr, who, he says, “got involved in the issue of weapons to split our ranks, to divide the revolutionaries.” Sakr, he says, recently “chose three people on our council and supported them. I won’t name them. They are not the largest units. There is one big group, but the others are just regular ones,” Suleiman tells TIME. “He formed a rift within the council, and we are working to heal this rift. We clarified the issue to our Saudi brothers about Okab ..."

Saudis & Qataris: 'Let's hurry Assad's demise otherwise the whole thing will come back to haunt us!'

[NYTimes] "RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — For months, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been funneling money and small arms to Syria’s rebels but have refused to provide heavier weapons, like shoulder-fired missiles, that could allow opposition fighters to bring down government aircraft, take out armored vehicles and turn the war’s tide.
While they have publicly called for arming the rebels, they have held back, officials in both countries said, in part because they have been discouraged by the United States, which fears the heavier weapons could end up in the hands of terrorists.
As a result, the rebels have just enough weapons to maintain a stalemate, the war grinds on and more jihadist militants join the fray every month.
“You can give the rebels AKs, but you can’t stop the Syrian regime’s military with AKs,” said Khalid al-Attiyah (arrested in Lebanon and whisked out by Hariri official lackeys) , a state minister for foreign affairs in Qatar. Providing the rebels with heavier weapons “has to happen,” he added. “But first we need the backing of the United States, and preferably the U.N.”
Saudi officials here said the United States was not barring them from providing shoulder-fired missiles, but warning about the risks. The Saudis and Qataris said they hoped to convince their allies that those risks could be overcome. “We are looking at ways to put in place practices to prevent this type of weapon from falling into the wrong hands,” one Arab official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with diplomatic protocol.
American support for such weapons transfers is unlikely to materialize any time soon. The Obama administration has made clear that it has no desire to deepen its efforts, mostly providing logistical support for the rebels.
Administration officials would not comment on what they are telling their Persian Gulf allies about arming the rebels. “We are doing what we feel is appropriate to help the unarmed opposition to be more effective and working closely with the opposition to prepare for a transition,” the State Department said in response to a question on the subject.
Backing from the United Nations Security Council, where any intervention is blocked by the firm vetoes of Russia and China, seems even less likely. Nor is the call for an Arab-led military action in Syria, voiced two weeks ago by the emir of Qatar at the United Nations General Assembly, expected to bear fruit.
Many Saudi and Qatari officials now fear that the fighting in Syria is awakening deep sectarian animosities and, barring such intervention, could turn into an uncontrollable popular jihad with consequences far more threatening to Arab governments than the Afghan war of the 1980s......... there are signs of an uptick in the number of young men crossing illegally into Syria from Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries, and of private fund-raising efforts across the gulf to help the rebels acquire heavier weapons.... the prospect of an increasingly sectarian civil war in Syria is deeply troubling to many here, where the Afghan jihad spawned a generation of battle-tested zealots who returned home and waged a bloody insurgency that was brought under control only recently.
“The government really doesn’t want to repeat the experience we had with the guys who went to Afghanistan and Iraq,” said Mshari al-Zaydi, a Saudi columnist and an expert on jihadi movements. “The damage from Al Qaeda was worse in Saudi Arabia than it was in the U.S.A.”...
Already, regional Islamist funding networks are being built up, Mr. Gasim said. “These are private channels with people in Kuwait and Qatar, and you cannot control them — there are deep business relationships in the gulf,” he said. “And the majority of them are within the Islamic movement, because the more nationalist or secular movements in Syria have no relationship with Saudi society.”
To some extent, the Saudi and Qatari governments have themselves to blame, because the major pan-Arab satellite TV stations they control — Al Arabia and Al Jazeera, respectively — have done more than any other outlets to stoke anger against Syria’s government and urge sympathy with the rebels. Both stations have been accused of being little more than rebel mouthpieces, and they have played on sectarian fears and hatreds. In one recent and much-repeated teaser on Al Arabia for a news segment about Syria, a man with an anguished face clutches a wounded child and shouts into the camera: “Our children are dying because of Iranian fatwas!”
The Saudi government has not officially acknowledged providing arms to the rebels, and the public face of its aid has been charitable support, including a much publicized donation campaign for Syrian refugees during the holy month of Ramadan in July and August. The government is also paying the salaries of many defected Syrian officers, and financing medical assistance to Syrian refugees.
But at the Turkish border town of Antakya late last month, Syrian rebels spoke openly of the Saudi and Qatari intermediaries who dole out weapons on behalf of their governments. The chief Saudi supplier is said to be a Lebanese figure named Okab Saqr, who belongs to the political coalition of Saudi Arabia’s chief ally in Lebanon, Saad Hariri.
“The amounts are not that much,” said Maysara, 40, a lean rebel commander from the northern town of Saraqib, who withheld his last name for safety reasons. “They deliver weapons once every few weeks.” In one recent shipment, he said, a 200-man fighting brigade received six Russian-made AS Val assault rifles, and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Maysara added that Mr. Saqr seemed to struggle with supply issues; he once saw Mr. Saqr asking rebels for the name and contacts of a weapons dealer from the former Yugoslavia that he was hoping to meet. The logistics of acquiring and distributing weapons in such a chaotic environment are daunting, and the rebels are anxious about infiltration by the Syrian government’s notorious intelligence agents.
The Saudi government appears to be trying to finance more secular rebel groups, Maysara said, while the Qataris appear to be closer to the Muslim Brotherhood. But these distinctions are slippery, in part because rebel groups adapt their identities to gain money and weapons. One group, in an almost comical bid for support, named itself the Rafik Hariri brigade, after the former Lebanese prime minister and Saudi ally who is believed to have been assassinated by the Syrians, and whose son Saad is influential in doling out Saudi support to the rebels.
Mr. Awda, the Saudi cleric, said reports of the chaotic situation at the Turkey-Syria border had become a staple of popular complaint in Saudi Arabia.
“People are repeating rumors that people inside Syria receive almost nothing of what is being given,” he said, “and that those who are arranging it do not have the experience to deal with this.” Those reports, he added, augment the desire of many Saudis to take matters into their own hands and set up new channels to the rebels.'"