Gaga Over Geagea

By Ken Silverstein

As previously noted here, the Bush Administration has welcomed a host of controversial foreign rulers and officials to the White House . The latest: Samir Geagea (pronounced Jaja) of the right-wing Lebanese Forces, who is in Washington this week and has reportedly met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Advisor Steven Hadley, among others.

A former warlord during Lebanon’s bloody civil war, he was widely accused of involvement in attacks on civilians. Here’s a bit of his biography, courtesy of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: “He was arrested in April 1994 and his group was banned, after a church bombing killed 10 people. He was later acquitted in the bombing but sentenced to three life terms on several other murder counts, including the killing of pro-Syrian Prime Minister Rashid Karami. Geagea served 11 years in prison before he was released in July 2005.”