Ex-PM: Hezbollah rally in Beirut a massive hoax (WorldNetDaiy)
The giant Hezbollah rally that drew nearly half a million purported supporters of Syria’s occupation of Lebanon actually was a staged hoax with non-Lebanese citizens, Syrian workers, students and municipal employees coerced into joining the protest, former Lebanese Prime Minister Michel Aoun told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview this morning. “Yesterday’s huge protest calling for Syria to stay made it look to the world like a large segment of the Lebanese population actually wants to live under Syrian occupation,” said Aoun, speaking to WND from Paris. “But the protest wasn’t what it appeared to be. It was an elaborately staged affair.”
[…]
Aoun told WND Hezbollah and Syrian officials used deceptive and coercive techniques to orchestrate the protest. “This was not a Lebanese showing, and many of those who actually were Lebanese were not there because they support Syria. We know that at least three Palestinian camps were present. And there are 700,000 Syrian workers inside Lebanon, many of whom are not even supposed to be there. They were urged by Syria to attend so it looks like many Lebanese are protesting. Plus Syria bused in their own citizens from Syria through the border into Lebanon to join the rally.”
via Memeorandum
That terrorist coercion and Syrian influence accounted for a significant portion of the crowd is almost a given. How much, though, is unclear.
