Daily Al Mustaqbal drew comparisons with the forced suicide of field Marshal Erwin Rommel in 1944 and Ghazi Kanaan’s suicide story coming out of Syria, showing how Syria’s regime benefited from the interior minister’s death just days before the UN report on Rafik Hariri’s murder is submitted.

“Rommel was given the chance to commit suicide and forever be hailed as a national hero or face the wrath of Adolf Hitler against his family, so he took the pill,” the daily adding, “there is no better scenario depicting what happened with Kanaan as this one, if you replace the pill with a Smith and Wesson gun.”

The daily said that no one will accept the assumptions made by Foreign minister Farouk Sharaa as saying that Kanaan committed suicide because of the allegations made by the Lebanese media since, the daily argues, many Syrian officials would have by now committed suicide.

“If pride was at issue, then Kanaan would have committed suicide the moment he was relieved of his duties and replaced by Rustom Ghazaleh,” the daily said, adding “the allegations made by New TV about Kanaan receiving millions of dollars in payoffs by the late Hariri are not new.”

“These were made by President Emile Lahoud himself when he failed to beat Rafik Hariri and Walid Jumblat in the 1996 parliamentary elections and again in 2000 with the adoption of the Muhafaza (single district) electoral law, which Lahoud’s circles called the 'Ghazi Kanaan law'.”

The daily said Kanaan was a very strong man, known for his risk taking and for facing danger head on, “thus the idea that pride led to his demise is impossible to fathom.”

The daily said that as soon as evidence was piling up against the Syrian regime in the Hariri probe, Kanaan defended the Syria security apparatus, “which acted only in defense of the Cedars land”, a theme repeated by Syrian officials, knowing that any other testimony would have dire consequences on the minister’s family.

The daily said that Syria is under pressure to reveal sensitive information in connection with the Hariri murder, “information Mehlis was going to require in his UN report from Syrian officials for their lack of cooperation.”
“This would have necessitated that Syrian officers and regime symbols would be led to a safe haven away from the watchful eyes and ears of the Syrian leadership, and since Kanaan had a lot to say, he was primed for elimination.”

Two months prior to Hariri’s murder, Kanaan held the former premier responsible for UN 1559, which called on Syrian forces to leave the country, the daily said. “Also Kanaan and Ghazaleh were present during the humiliating meeting that Assad called for where he informed Hariri in 2004 that he would no longer remain prime minister, while also delivering a message to Kanaan about Ghazaleh’s assuming his command.”

Kanaan, the daily analyzed, could have easily refuted Assad’s recent CNN claims that Syria did not have a history of political assassinations, or that Syria did not have a problem with Hariri, with facts and figures pretty documented in his memory. “Kanaan is no longer a witness, however this does not mean that Syria’s regime, which is desperately trying to keep its head above water at any cost, is out of the hot water yet,” the daily concluded.

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