"French authorities have been interrogating a Syrian Syrian defector who claims to have been a Syrian army officer and the secretary to the former Syrian Intelligence Chief ... . The defector has asked for political asylum in France because he claims he is afraid of being killed, eliminated by Syrian intelligence," Elaph, electronic newspaper, reported on August 28. The International Investigation Committee has also interrogated the Syrian defector, since he claims he has detailed information about the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The Syrian officer claims that Syria tried to kill Hariri many times, but the various attempts failed for a variety of reasons. "The officer revealed that after UN Resolution 1559 was issued, Syrian intelligence started receiving 'disclosures' from various Lebanese officials and Members of Parliament, accusing Hariri and Marwan Hamade were behind the resolution," Elaph reported.

Regarding how the assassination took place, the Syrian officer said there was a team responsible for the whole plan. They collected information about Hariri's daily movements and convoy, as well as his security apparatus. On the day of assassination, Hariri's convoy was followed as soon as it started to move from the Parliament. There was another team that was responsible for the electronic issues, such as jamming Hariri's electronic bomb detectors and scrambler systems. The Syrian officer claims that Syrian intelligence used suicide bombers to kill Hariri. The first suicide bomber, Abu Adas, who had claimed responsibility for the assassination in a taped interview, was a Lebanese who was on his way to Iraq to join resistance fighters there when he was intercepted by Syrian officers. They convinced him to do the video by telling him that Hariri was a US-Zionist agent who deserved to be killed. After recording the video tape, Syrian agents were said to kill Abu Adas, placing him in the truck with the explosives. Another Iraqi suicide bomber, a man named Noureddine, who was also fighting in Iraq, drove the truck. According to the former Syrian agent, Syrian intelligence convinced the driver that Hariri was an ally of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, and this was reason enough to kill Hariri.