BEIRUT, 7 October 2005 — The government announced plans yesterday to abolish its state security department as part of a shake-up of the security services after former powerbroker Syria’s troop pullout from Lebanon after a 29-year presence.
The move came as officials aimed to fill the intelligence vacuum left when Lebanon’s three ex-security chiefs and the presidential guard chief were charged in a UN probe into the February killing of former premier Rafiq Hariri.
Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said that Gen. Elias Keikati had been named as interim head of state security and would serve until the department was eliminated, but gave no further details.
Aridi had said earlier in the week that a new head of state security would be named.
The aides to President Emile Lahoud arrested in September were his guard chief Mustafa Hamdan, ex-internal security head Ali Al-Hage, former army intelligence director Raymond Azar and general security chief Jamil Al-Sayed.
They were pivotal elements of the security apparatus installed by Syria, which in April ended its military presence in its smaller neighbor amid local and international outcry over Hariri’s assassination.
Damascus has consistently denied any involvement in a series of bomb blasts that have targeted prominent anti-Syrian politicians and journalists since Hariri’s death.
The Lebanese government is hoping to stop the wave of killings with a reorganized security establishment.
Lebanon named a new general security director, army chief of staff and head of the superior justice council following an extraordinary Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
The government also decided at its meeting yesterday to set up a new department at the Labor Ministry for Syrian workers in Lebanon, the information minister told reporters.
“It’s only a measure to organize the stay of the Syrian workers so to provide them with better security,” Aridi said.
Damascus has demanded compensation from Beirut for workers it says were targeted in Lebanon, alleging that a number of its workers were attacked and forced to flee after Hariri was killed.
Before Syria’s army pullout, between 300,000 and 400,000 Syrian laborers were employed in Lebanon, mostly in construction and agriculture, but the figure has since dropped sharply.
In parliamentary debate on Wednesday night, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora defended his government’s decision to seek US and French assistance in the hunt for Hariri’s killers.
