HEALTHY RAGE:

Anti-Syria Rage Rises in Beirut: Emotions spill over as Lebanese turn out to bury Gibran Tueni, a publisher and legislator known for outspoken criticism of Damascus. (Megan K. Stack, December 15, 2005, LA Times)

Weeping, and cursing Syria, tens of thousands of Lebanese spilled into the streets of Beirut on Wednesday as a funeral march for publisher and politician Gibran Tueni turned into a livid political protest.

Tueni, 48, was assassinated Monday morning in a bombing as he was being driven to work. In his columns, the newspaper magnate and lawmaker served up scathing criticisms of Syrian involvement in Lebanese affairs back in the days when many here tiptoed around the taboo of speaking out against Damascus. Tueni is the fourth major anti-Syria figure to be killed this year.

"I call on this occasion not for revenge or hatred but for us to bury with Gibran all our hatreds," Ghassan Tueni, the slain man's father and also a journalist, told reporters at the Greek Orthodox church where his son was buried. "To call on all Lebanese, Muslims and Christians, to unite in the service of the great Lebanon."

Tueni's death provoked a fresh wave of revulsion and despair in Lebanon, along with a growing sense of helplessness against the killings and bombings.

Easy enough to help them feel powerful again--do Assad.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 15, 2005 8:37 AM