Anyone See The Pro Syrian Demononstrations In Lebenon?

[Don Rizzle]

Huge Beirut protest backs Syria 
 
Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in Lebanon's capital, Beirut, to applaud Syria's role in the country and reject Western "interference".

by the looks of things they dwarfed the opposition demonstations...

[Lincoln]

Word is Syria may have bussed many of those people in to make themselves look better.

[nibs]

people are saying that syria nudged hezbollah to put that demonstration together.  syria represents the status quo, there are always people that want to maintain status quo.

bussing people in isn't a big deal, unless they were bussing them in from syria.  any decent demonstration is going to have organized transport of some sort.

syria withdrawing is only part one of this.  syria still has security forces and hezbollah in lebanon so they still have a strong presence.  the u.n. wants hezbollah disbanded as well after syria pulls out, and i can't imagine that that would happen peacefully.

[ARYC]

"unless they were bussing them in from syria."

The "official estimated number" by the goverment is a MILLION AND A HALF DEMONSTRATORS(which is HUGELY exagerated)... there are 3 million Lebanese in Lebanon which means that 50% of the country was in Beiruth , yet the country was running as normal ....hmm....weird

there are more than a million Syrian workers in Lebanon , Assad's regime falls they have to pay taxes GOD FORBID!!!!
Plus the Shiites are pro Syrian and they also came in droves because if Hizzbullah dissapears all they have is "amal" as a top political party (and there pro-syrian so there power dissapears with Syria) , the Shiites are the most affected by 1559 so it makes sense for them to come (and they are about 40some % of the total population) PLUS there were buses coming from Syria.   
Also please consider the fact that there were no army checkpoints blocking them (which happened with the opposition's protest).

Yeah it was a huge protest of about 4 to 500 thousand people but there were a lot of factors that helped bulk up that number

[nibs]

another interesting insight that i've heard was that the anti-syrian protestors had to deal with both the check points as amin mentioned as well as the fear of repercussions and surveillance from the syrian security and intelligence forces.
there was no danger in supporting syria.

also, syria and the lebanese govt have not agreed to support 1559.  they are going by the taif treaty, which confines syrian troops to the biqa valley and calls for their eventual evacuation from lebanon, but does not speak to the intelligence forces or disbanding hezbollah.   it looks like syria is positioning itself for a standoff with the u.n. over the differences between 1559 and the taif treaty; and once they pull out their troops, we'll see what sort of resolve the u.n. has in absolving the differences.

[TraceOneInfinite]

Word is Syria may have bussed many of those people in to make themselves look better.

Who's word?  Fox News? 

[Lincoln]

Word is Syria may have bussed many of those people in to make themselves look better.

Who's word?  Fox News? 

I read it in a newspaper you wouldn't be familiar with.