The assassination of a Lebanese journalist served to only intensify his colleagues' defiance. Rasha Saad reads into the uproar triggered by the brutal murder The front page of Lebanon's daily An-Nahar online had Samir Kassir smiling to his readers. Clicking on the photo, some of Kassir's most recent articles published in his weekly column roll out one after the other. Kassir's smiling face and his articles, which his colleagues and admirers say cost him his life, has unmistakable significance and sends a message to his assassins: Kassir may be dead but his thoughts and beliefs will survive. The news of Kassir's assassination last week Thursday made headlines in nearly all the newspapers. Lebanese writers were particularly shocked and outraged and saw in the incident a recurrence of the killing of outspoken intellectuals and writers critical of the regime. Articles swung between obituaries, messages behind the assassination, a challenging future for Lebanon and accusations of complicity between Syria and the Lebanese government. In one article in An-Nahar, where Kassir has been writing since 1998, his fellow colleague Jihad Al- Zein wrote that while his assassination and that of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri might have been carried out by one perpetrator, the assassination of Al-Hariri was committed "in an era that was fading while Kassir's assassination was in a new era." Al-Zein, recalling his long discussions with Kassir on every major event in Lebanon, imagined how would Kassir analyse and interpret his own assassination. "Your opinion would be that your assassination is a normal consequence following that of Al-Hariri. You would regard it as another round in the same phase. You would say that no one can stop them." Al-Zein, as well as other commentators, implied that the assassins -- referred to almost always as "they" -- were part of the Syrian regime and its supporters in the Lebanese government whom Kassir was highly critical of. Al-Zein also believed that Kassir's assassination was a message for An-Nahar and all fellow political writers. "Kassir sacrificed his life for each and every one of us. When they targeted him it was a message for An-Nahar but they chose him personally. They were also delivering a message to all the Lebanese press but again they singled him out." Attempting to discover who killed Kassir, Ali Hamada in An-Nahar pointed a finger at Syria without naming names. In "They are killing free souls," Hamada wrote that the assassins are well known to all Lebanese people. "They are those who kill free souls and it will not benefit them to issue statements refuting their involvement. They were upset by the writings of the martyr. "The terrorist system that killed Kassir is the same which killed other Lebanese intellectuals," Hamada wrote. Every free journalist, intellectual and fighter is liable "to be terrorised by terrorists whom we should face with our relentless fight for our freedom and most importantly that of thought. "We have raised our pens beneath the photo of Kassir, martyr of the Intifada for independence, as a message to his assassins that we will not stop going after you with our pens." Faisal Salman wrote in the Lebanese As-Safir that despite intensive media coverage and denouncements from political powers inside and out of Lebanon, reaction over Kassir's assassination was far below what was anticipated and not enough to intimidate its perpetrators. This fact highlights what Salman describes as a dilemma facing opposition powers "as they fall one after the other". According to Salman, there are two opposing groups: "a security apparatus and unarmed opposition political powers. In the conflict between both sides martyrs are falling from the latter." Also in As-Safir Joseph Samaha wrote that a day without Kassir is the poorest day in Lebanese history. He wondered "what was Kassir preparing for us in his column that we missed. "We are sure we were going to read an explanatory analytical piece that surpasses all what others would write. This is what we have lost and what cannot be compensated. We have lost this unique voice, the complex voice which is shaped by different streams." Samir Sabagh described Kassir as a man free of fear. "We admit that we envied him because he always dared to write his thoughts with unique courage and frankness which many of his fellow writers would not dare do," Sabagh wrote in As-Safir. Sabagh saw in Kassir a fighter using the pen and word who never feared bullets and weapons. "Kassir never feared the power of the ruler and his hangers- on who hunted for him "until they were able to get him in their recognised cowardly way". Kassir's assassination, according to Sabagh, tells the Lebanese people that the road is still long and that offering their blood as a price will continue so long as the country is living an equation in which the defeated has not given up yet and the winners have not yet attained victory. "Lebanon will not live safely until the policy of repression is totally defeated and those people who aspire to freedom and democracy and seek to get rid of a rule that lost its popular and constitutional legitimacy attain total victory." Sate' Noureddin wrote also in As-Safir that if Kassir was daring, those who killed him are much more daring. Noureddin said Kassir had challenged a limited political system that nonetheless succeeded in getting rid of him. "Kassir was killed in broad daylight in a very accurate operation that indicates the confidence of its perpetrators who ignored what reaction their crime would have, giving the impression that they are not afraid." The killing, at a time an international committee is still looking into Al-Hariri's assassination, and whose head is in Beirut where the assassination was carried out, means that those behind it want the sounds of explosions in the capital to be loud and clear to get their message across. In its editorial the Syrian daily Tishreen wrote that the Syrians are no longer surprised when they are accused of any crime or terrorist attack anywhere in the world. The editorial described Syria as a victim "of a bunch of lies and allegations directed by American supporters in the Middle East who target Syria and are harming its interests and policies." The reason, according to the newspaper, is so that the US realises its greater Middle East initiative. The paper, which rejects claims that Syria is involved in assassinations, urged its accusers "to think for a moment about who is the party which will benefit from the ongoing violence in the region. They will then know the real perpetrator."
