Mind the Dead Pols on the Road to Damascus
Ah, the good old days in Syria. The lotus flowers were in bloom. The contiguous neighbors were a lot friendlier. You could leave your door unlocked because the police were so effective, they were usually already inside waiting for you when you got home.
Things are bad now. They'd have to be if Baathist interior ministers are too impatient to wait to be assassinated like everyone else that they're offing themselves:
"Interior Minister Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kenaan committed suicide in his office before noon," the Syrian Arab News Agency reported. "Authorities are carrying out the necessary investigation into the incident."
The news agency did not mention the U.N. investigation, which is due to issue its report by Oct. 25.
Whoever said that after 9/11 bombs not subpoenas were the way to govern the world obviously never met Detlev Mehlis. Tucked away in his little Nabokovian pleasure dome in the mountains of Beirut, the U.N.'s newest prosecutor is so take-no-prisoners, he's gothis ownfucking witnesses reaching for the revolver.--MICHAEL WEISS
Syria: Interior Minister Commits Suicide [WaPo]
Detlev Mehlis [UN Press Release]
Lebanon on tenterhooks as Hariri probe nears completion [FT]