KEY SYRIAN ISLAMOFASCIST JUMPS-SHIP AND POINTS FINGER

BBC: A senior Syrian official has said President Bashar al-Assad threatened former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri only months before his death. Syria's former Vice-President, Abdul Halim Khaddam, said "Hariri received many threats". ... The BBC's Kim Ghattas in Beirut says ... Khaddam may be positioning himself as an alternative to the Syrian president.

ABC: Khaddam became a Syrian vice president in 1984 and resigned in June. He was the nominal leader in Syria for a short period after Assad's father, Hafez Assad, died in June 2000. In the interview, Khaddam was bitterly critical of the current Assad government, saying the ruling Baath Party and other popular organizations had been reduced to vindicating "decisions made by the president." ... He quoted the Syrian president as telling Hariri, months before he was killed: "You want to bring a (new) president in Lebanon. … I will not allow that. I will crush whoever attempts to overturn our decision."

FT: Abdel-Halim Khaddam, Syria's former vice-president, said yesterday he had "full confidence" in the United Nations investigation into the assassination. The UN-team, recently led by the German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, has implicated senior Lebanese and Syrian officials. Speaking in Paris Mr Khaddam announced a break with his country's leadership. He blamed President Bashar al-Assad for a deterioration in Syria's international position and said if Syria had killed Mr Hariri, it could not have happened without Mr Assad's knowledge.

KHADDAM MADE THESE STATEMENTS IN AN INTEVIEW SHOWN ON AL ARABIYA TV! So, it seems obvious to me this man is positioning himself to be the next president of Syria (after Assad is squeezed out/overthrown/arrested for murder. It sounds like he'd cooperate with the UN and the USA and serve as president of Syria - on an interim basis, that is: Until the "Rose Revolution" and a democratic election!

UPDATE (via PRAIRIE PUNDIT) - "Reuters": Syrian lawmakers demanded on Saturday that former Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam be tried for treason and corruption after he publicly broke with President Bashar al-Assad. Speaking from Paris, where he moved after resigning as vice-president in June, Khaddam launched an unprecedented attack on Assad, saying he had threatened Rafik al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister who was assassinated in February. He also accused the government of making political blunders in Lebanon and of failing to deliver economic and political reforms at home, leaving millions of Syrians to go hungry.

Khaddam must be a real threat or the Assad regime would just ignore him. STAY TUNED...