REPORT: The truth behind short threat messages sent to Lebanese MPs

Investigators at the scene of the assassination of Major General Wissam Hassan confirmed that one explosion was enough to execute the crime, causing several injuries and deaths and destroying Ibrahim Mounzer Street. They said that the car used for the detonation was a stolen Honda CRV.       

Detectives are checking the videos caught by surveillance cameras collected from the areas surrounding the crime scene in a bid to monitor the booby-trapped car and its passengers before the occurrence of the crime.     

On reports over the slain Major General’s secret apartment in Achrafieh, well-informed sources told LBCI that it was a secret office used by Hassan and other officers to hold their meetings. The sources pointed out that the ISF’s Information Division had many similar offices across Lebanese regions; something practiced by all intelligence services in the world.       

On the repercussions of Hassan’s assassination, reports emerged on short threat messages sent to MPs Hadi Hbeish, Khaled Daher, Ammar Houry and Ahmad Fatfat on their private cellphones. The first message was reportedly sent from a Syrian number a day before the assassination and read “In the name of Maura [Conelly], we swear that we will get you impure individuals”.       

"وحياة مورا أي السفيرة الأميركية في لبنان رح نجيبكن واحد واحد يا أنجاس"      

Hours after the assassination, the four MPs received two threat messages from the same Syrian number; the first read “Congratulations, the countdown has begun, 1 out of 10” while the second read “we will teach you the self-f****** policy” [in reference to the self-distancing policy adopted by the Lebanese government].        

"رح نعلمكن كيف بتكون سياسة "النكح" بالنفس"   

The LAF intelligence and the ISF’s Information Division launched investigations into the case.     

In this regard, MP Hadi Hbeish said that according to preliminary investigations, the SMS's were sent from a Syrian number and the sender was in Syria.   

Hbeish told LBCI that he tried to call the number but could not reach it, adding that he received a call from an anonymous number saying “Congratulations for your friend Wissam Hassan; you are next.”         

The assassination of Major General Wissam Hassan revived the list of targeted March 14 figures and past experiences show that such lists have a large margin of credibility.


For the full LBCI report, watch the video above [to be uploaded soon]