Friday, April 21, 2006

Sanyurah's Reception at the Four Seasons in DC. A source in DC sent me this post:
"He talked about they came to meet Bush and present to him the Lebanese cause and also the Arab cause. They want to liberate Shebaa Farms and extend Lebanese government control over all of Lebanon. I'm sure you've heard all this crap before. But what was interesting was what happened during the reception itself. One of the people that was with the delegation that met with Bush (they will remain anonymous) told me about how Bush might appear very stupid on TV, but in person he is quite charming. I took this with a grain of salt of course. Before the reception started, the Embassy staff checked people's names off the invitation list. There was a group of men (about 7-10) that came up to the table and shook hands with a few of the Embassy staff...perhaps they knew them. These men were unusual though because they weren't wearing the Hariri pins that the other guests were wearing. They wore Lebanese Forces pins! They were not invited and just walked past the table to go into the reception. The Embassy staff asked one of the diplomats if they were allowed to go in and he replied by saying, "We cannot turn anyone away." X told me later about how they would never have dared to come until Gaegea was released from prison. They used to be banned from setting foot in the embassy because they were wanted for crimes from the civil war. X told me that one of them in particular was wanted for his role in the assasination of Tony Franjieh,or so X thought. X couldn't quite remember if it was Tony or someone else. But a couple of weeks ago, one of them came in the embassy to do a power of attorney, and the diplomats told the staff to go ahead and do it.."