Following a complaint filed by Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, the state security apparatus raided on Monday the Lebanese Foreign Ministry headquarters in Beirut to investigate leaked diplomatic cables.
In a statement Monday, the Ministry said: “Based on a complaint by the Foreign Minister, Beirut Judge Ziad Abou Haidar tasked the state security apparatus to carry out the needed investigations regarding the leaks.”
Accordingly, a team from the security agency arrived at the ministry in the district of Asharfieh to carry out the order.
Informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Bassil asked all ambassadors to leave their offices and head to the ministry’s ground floor to meet with him, in the presence of a high-ranking state security official and a judge.
The ambassadors were informed that an investigation would be conducted with each of them to uncover the person responsible for illegally leaking the diplomatic cables to a media outlet.
One cable covered correspondence between acting United States Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, David Satterfield and a Lebanese parliamentary delegation that was visiting Washington. It included MPs Yassine Jaber and Ibrahim Kanaan. Another cable covered correspondence between deputy Prime Minister Ghassan Hasbani and Marshall Billingslea, the assistant secretary for terrorist financing at the US Treasury.
The cables included information that should have remained classified.
The security raid was unprecedented since the Ministry’s establishment in 1941.
The sources said that shortly after the security team arrived, Bassil left the premises, while the ambassadors and administrative employees headed to a large hall, where they waited their turn for interrogation.
Ambassadors and employees were upset about the procedure, while sources said that security officers were even accompanying ambassadors to the bathroom.
“This is a humiliating,” several ambassadors said when describing the way security officers treated them.
In case a leak is detected, standard procedure demands that the foreign minister task an administrative committee to investigate the issue. The normal procedures do not call for the security forces to intervene, said more than one envoy.
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