Amine Gemayel to Charbel: You want mute and blind security forces

Kataeb party leader Amine Gemayel deplored the Interior Minister's denial that an assassination attempt against Gemayel's son had been thwarted, accusing the Minister, during a radio interview Saturday, of encouraging security forces to act dumb and blind.    

MP Sami Gemayel, son of Amine Gemayel, was alerted by Internal Security Forces (ISF) Intelligence Branch Chief, Colonel Wissam Hassan, not to go to a dinner he was scheduled to attend, due to an assassination plot against the MP. Interior Minister Marwan Charbel played down the alleged assassination attempt, telling reporters Friday evening that Sami Gemayel was simply warned that something may or may not happen.    

"I was shocked when I heard the Interior Minister's remarks," commented Gemayel, "he almost rendered official intelligence, made available by his Ministry's security forces, ridiculous."    

Despite Gemayel's disappointment in Charbel's downplay of major news, the Kataeb leader thanked security forces for carrying out their duties responsibly and to the fullest, and for seeking to "limit bloodshed and save the country from a disaster with indefinite consequences."    

The veteran politician conjured back the sad memory of his eldest son's assassination as he was shot to death in broad day light while driving his car in New Jdeideh only six years ago, "It seems that the Interior Minister forgot that I lost...Pierre in similar circumstances," he said. "Would [Charbel] have preferred for security agencies to remain blind and mute?"