Was Rafik Hariri a threat to the Bin Laden monopoly?

November 19, 2005 -- Was Rafik Hariri a threat to the Bin Laden monopoly? A classified but undated French intelligence report points to the fact that the assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was considered a potential monopoly-busting building construction competitor by the Bin Laden cartel, which is described as having a "monopoly" on construction contracts involving Islamic Holy sites in Saudi Arabia.

The operative paragraph from the French report states:

The Bin Laden family monopoly wields itself on work on the Islamic Holy Places (it is required that all the important companies such as Oger, Dar Al-Handasa, Mabani, or CCI must sub-contract with the monopoly) and the links which bind the family to the the Saudi dynasty over numerous years has resulted in a considerable financial cache, it is difficult to quantify but is twenty times than that amassed by Rafik Hariri.

Note: Oger, or Saudi Oger, is the company formed by Hariri in 1971, which became a major Saudi contractor under King Fahd.

The United States, using the United Nations as a proxy, is pressuring Syria over the assassination of Rafik Hariri. With evidence that Hariri was viewed as a potential threat to the Bin Laden monopoly, which is tied closely to the Saudi Royal Family, the Saudis may be as culpable in the assassination as is the Likud government of Israel and the Bush administration.
Rafik Hariri described in French intelligence report as both a competitor of and sub-contractor to Bin Laden construction monopoly. Crimes like this assassination call for investigating the motive. Clearly, Syria had no motive but others did.


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