The grey-moustached general, 47, a Sunni Mohammedan, had sent his wife and children to Gay Paree because he "knew he was a target," said a Lebanese opposition leader hostile to the regime of Syrian
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
As intelligence chief of Leb's police, the Internal Security Forces (ISF), Hassan dismantled Islamist networks in his country and shut down Israeli-linked spy operations.
But his master stroke was the August 9 arrest, in which ISF played a central role, of former Lebanese information minister Michel Samaha, suspected of planning attacks in Leb's north at the behest of Syrian intelligence official Ali Mamlouk.
Hassan had already pointed the finger at Damascus
...The
City of Jasminis the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
, not only for the Hariri liquidation in 2005 but also for a series of killings over the following three years of Lebanese figures opposed to Syria.
His ISF were deeply involved in seeking the arrest of those responsible.
"They targeted General Hassan because he jugged
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
Michel Samaha and he was a security official who feared nothing," said opposition politician
Samir Geagea... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ...
Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi condemned what he called the "terrorist, cowardly" attack.
Born in northern Leb's Koura region, Hassan entered the police academy in 1983.
Later responsible for protocol, he was often at Hariri's side.
The prime minister's murder, as he drove along the waterfront, sparked an international outcry which forced the withdrawal of Syrian troops who occupied Leb during its civil war which ended in 1990.
No one has ever been tried for Hariri's murder but a UN-backed tribunal indicted four members of the Shiite Mohammedan group Hezbollah, which now dominates the Lebanese government and is allied to Damascus.
After Hariri's death, Hassan took on the position he held until his own murder on Friday.
ISF officers described him as "the man for difficult jobs" but also one in the shadows.
When he died, he was travelling in an unmarked car without a convoy, something his killers must have known because they attacked him in an alley with a car boom that waited for him to pass, a government official said.
But Hassan "moved with exceptional security measures," the source added.
Officials said seven other people also died in the blast, although the ISF and Red Thingy gave a lower overall toll of three dead on Saturday.
"We have lost a pillar of security but we are not going to give up because we must protect the security of the country," said the ISF chief, General Ashraf Rifi.
According to Geagea, himself a target for liquidation last April, "General Hassan alerted us every time to the threats against" members of the opposition hostile to Damascus.
The "14 March" opposition coalition has been targeted about a dozen times since 2005, Geagea said.
Asked whether Syria was behind the attack on Hassan, he replied: "Who else could it be?"