WikiLeaks: Rifi Questioned Loyalty of Security Officials Charged with Monitoring Shipments to Lebanon

Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi questioned the loyalty of the security officials charged with monitoring shipments into Lebanon, saying that ten Shiite officers should be replaced, revealed a leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in Al-Akhbar on Thursday.

Rifi made his statements during a meeting with then U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffery Feltman, which took place after he met with then Prime Minister Fouad Saniora and then acting Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat over changes needed at Beirut’s international airport.

According to the WikiLeaks cable, Feltman and Rifi discussed at length the new security appointments at the airport aimed at preventing the smuggling of arms.

The ISF chief said that then head of airport security Wafiq Shqeir did not object to his marginalized role at airport “because the security forces know everything about him” regarding his alcoholism and past smuggling activity.

Rifi also demanded that the security forces be provided with 10,000 Kalashnikov rifles, noting that the only problem he has with recruiting Lebanese youths lies in the insufficient number of Christian recruits.