MGLE01: DAILY "AN-NAHAR" REELING FROM PUBLISHER'S ASSASSINATION, IN-HOUSE FEUDING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 BEIRUT 000305 SIPDIS SIPDIS NSC FOR ABRAMS/DORAN/WERNER/SINGH DEPT FOR NEA/ELA, NEA/PPD, R E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2016 TAGS: PHUM KPAO KDEM PTER KMPI SCUL SY LE SUBJECT: MGLE01: DAILY "AN-NAHAR" REELING FROM PUBLISHER'S ASSASSINATION, IN-HOUSE FEUDING BEIRUT 00000305 001.2 OF 004 Classified By: Ambassador Jeffrey D. Feltman. Reason:Sections 1.4 (b) and (d). SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) The December 12, 2005 assassination of "an-Nahar" publisher (and member of Parliament) Gebran Tueni was also an attack on one of Lebanon's two newspapers of record. It removed "an-Nahar"'s leadership and triggered a scramble for control among several of Tueni's heirs: his father Ghassan, his widow Siham, and his daughter from a previous marriage, Nayla. This family feud is drawing in various other political players (Sa'ad Hariri and Marwan Hamadeh, among others) and is leaving the paper's staff confused and demoralized. Ghassan Tueni has taken his murdered son's place at the helm of the paper (as well as his seat in Parliament),but his personality and management style seem only to be adding to the centrifugal force on a struggling organization that the flamboyant and charismatic Gebran was somehow always able to hold together. While the surviving Tuenis bicker over control of the "an-Nahar" group, Saudi Prince al-Walid bin Talal pockets his ten percent stake and may be ready to replay a well-worn role as a pro-Syrian spoiler. If "an-Nahar" collapses or is highjacked by anti-sovereignty forces, the dismaying lesson will be that terrorism works. End summary. FATHERS AND SONS -------------- ¶2. (U) Founded in 1933 by Gebran Tueni -- whose grandson and namesake, a member of the Lebanese Parliament, was assassinated in December 2005 -- the daily "an-Nahar" has been an outspoken voice for Lebanese sovereignty, independence and democracy for the past six decades. Long one of the country's two newspapers of record (along with its rival, the Arab nationalist "as-Safir"),"an-Nahar" has remained a family business, with management passing from father to son for three generations. ¶3. (U) The elder Gebran Tueni, director of the paper from 1933 until his death in 1949, was succeeded by his son, Ghassan. Ghassan in turn handed the reins to his son, also named Gebran, in 2000. Following the younger Gebran's death, the latest in a wave of assassinations and assassination attempts that has rocked Lebanon since the fall of 2004, the 80-year old Ghassan has once again resumed management of the paper. Ghassan, who previously served in Parliament in the 1950s, has also been elected to his murdered son's Parliamentary seat. ¶4. (C) In the wake of Gebran's death, several of "an-Nahar"'s most loyal supporters and best journalists have approached emboffs with concerns about the paper's future. For a staff still mourning the June 2005 assassination of their colleague, "an-Nahar" columnist Samir Kassir, Gebran's assassination was a terrible psychological blow. Even more disturbing for the staff -- because it directly bears on the future of "an-Nahar" -- is the drama being played out within the Tueni family over control of the paper. A DECAPITATING ATTACK... -------------- ¶5. (C) Gebran's assassination has had a direct impact on the day-to-day operations of "an-Nahar." Not only did it rob the paper of a courageous and outspoken (if sometimes deliberately outrageous and provocative) editorialist, it also deprived it of a strong, charismatic manager who gave his staff both inspiration and a sense of security. Gebran's death leaves a leadership vacuum in the paper that his aged father is neither physically nor temperamentally able to fill. ¶6. (C) In addition, Gebran's death has potentially drastic implications for the paper's ownership. "An-Nahar"'s business model, like that of most of Lebanon's other print media outlets, was weak to begin with. The Tueni family lately had been covering the paper's financial losses in order to keep it running and its editorial stance intact, with the goal of furthering a pro-Lebanese sovereignty political agenda. (Comment: Other papers, such as the sensationalistic "ad-Diyar," appear to do the opposite, swerving their editorial stance in whatever direction suits the highest bidder. End comment.) BEIRUT 00000305 002.2 OF 004 ¶7. (C) Losses amounted to USD one million last year, according to Bassam Tueni, general manager of the group's English-language "Naharnet" Website. Gebran's widow, Siham Tueni, told the Ambassador the "an-Nahar" group (parent company of the newspaper as well as of the "Dar an-Nahar" publishing house, an advertising company, and a distribution company),is USD six million in debt, an issue with which her husband had been grappling right up until his death. She said she had no idea what Gebran planned to do to put "an-Nahar" back on solid financial ground. ... AND A DEBILITATING STRUGGLE FOR CONTROL -------------- ¶8. (C) Gebran's death triggered a contest for control of the "an-Nahar" group, the precarious financial situation of which has not made the matter any less contentious. According to Siham, and repeated by several others both inside and outside "an-Nahar," Gebran did not leave behind a will. Gebran's 43-percent stake in the "an-Nahar" group will therefore be divided up according to custom, with 25 percent (equal to 10.75 percent of total shares) going to widow Siham, 17 percent each (equal to about 7.3 percent of total shares) to his daughters (the infant twins born to him and Siham as well as 25-year old Nayla and 18-year old Michelle, daughters from Gebran's previous marriage). Ghassan Tueni, who already owns 1.6 percent of total shares, will inherit seven percent of what Gebran owned (equal to about 3 percent of total shares). ¶9. (C) The company's other shareholders illustrate how Lebanese business and political figures intersect. The late Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri's "al-Mustaqbal" group owns 17 percent; Saudi Prince al-Walid Bin Talal -- who has Lebanese nationality and was once said to be a potential rival to Hariri for the post of prime minister -- owns 10 percent; and the Greek Orthodox Church, businessman Ali Ghadour, Druse leader Walid Jumblatt, and several minor shareholders account for the remaining 30 percent. A FAMILY AFFAIR... -------------- ¶10. (C) The division of inheritance described above gives Siham Tueni a major stake in the "an-Nahar" group. Given Siham's strained relationship with Ghassan, Nayla, and Michelle, this fact has not gone unnoticed elsewhere in the Tueni family or among the "an-Nahar" staff. (Siham's earlier relationship with Basil al-Asad, deceased brother of Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, seems to have long ago started her off on the wrong foot with her Tueni family in-laws.) ¶11. (C) These rivalries within the family are now coming into play with regards to Gebran's assets and control of the paper, and are drawing others into the fray. Siham told the Ambassador that Sa'ad al-Hariri, son of the assassinated prime minister, had already sent his media/political advisor, Nadim Moula, to convey the Hariri group's interest in buying her shares. Friends advised her not to act too quickly. According to Siham, Hariri's tentative offer showed that his sympathies lay not with her, but with her stepdaughter Nayla. (Venturing into some armchair psychology, Siham speculated that Sa'ad identified with Nayla because of a strained relationship with his own stepmother, Rafiq Hariri's widow, Nazik.) ¶12. (C) In contrast, Minister of Telecommunications Marwan Hamadeh -- Ghassan's brother-in-law, Gebran's uncle, longtime senior "an-Nahar" editorial staff member, and key ally of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt -- has taken Siham's side. Reportedly concerned about what would happen to "an-Nahar" in the event of Ghassan's death, Hamadeh is pressing for Siham to start taking an active role in the paper's management now. ¶13. (C) For their part, the family of Gebran's first wife, the Murrs, are egging on Nayla to take over the paper. (While the Murr family patriarch, former deputy Speaker of Parliament Michel al-Murr -- Nayla's other grandfather -- has long been the Syrian-crowned king of the Metn region of Mount Lebanon, his son, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Elias al-Murr, dramatically turned against the Asad regime after surviving a July 2005 assassination attempt.) Nayla has been angrily denouncing, to whomever will listen, the role of her stepmother's advocate, Hamadeh, in the management BEIRUT 00000305 003.2 OF 004 of the paper. ¶14. (C) Gebran's seat in Parliament was also briefly a matter of contention. During Gebran's funeral, MP Boutros Harb told Siham that she should prepare to run for the seat. Nayla, hearing that, was furious. In the end, Ghassan ran for the seat, and was elected to it without contest. "An-Nahar" staff perceived Ghassan's decision to succeed his son in Parliament as another way of preventing Siham from playing any role. ... PLAYED OUT IN THE OFFICE -------------- ¶15. (C) With Gebran Tueni's immediate family members -- and their respective political allies -- squaring off over control of "an-Nahar," a low-intensity conflict is being played out in the paper's newsroom. The result is a widespread crisis of confidence among the staff. "An-Nahar"'s employees are reacting to the current situation with emotion and anxiety, and Ghassan Tueni's brittle personality and distant management style are not helping. Describing Ghassan as "heartless," one "an-Nahar" journalist told us that the staff always thought of Gebran as their "insurance" and "protection" -- from Ghassan. ¶16. (C) Lately, both Nayla and Siham have begun to play a role in the paper's management, and are normally found in the evening hours at the paper's ultra-modern Martyrs' Square headquarters (outside of which hangs a huge portrait of a waving Gebran, a red-and-white "independence" scarf jauntily wrapped around his neck). But the relationship between the two -- with only about 15 years' difference in their ages -- is, as noted above, poor. Their presence at the office has done little to reassure its staff, who tell us they often do not know whose orders to follow. Ghassan has refused to play arbitrator, and staff complain that they are being pressured to choose to side with one or the other. WILL "AN-NAHAR" GO INTO THE SHREDDER? -------------- ¶17. (C) In this situation, day-to-day decisions have been falling to editors Nabil Bou Monsif and Edmond Sa'ab -- with mixed results, according to staff. The already rail-thin Bou Monsif (part of a husband-and-wife team at the paper, whose spouse Rosana Bou Monsif writes the paper's influential second-page political analysis column) looked haggard and worried when we met him recently, saying he was just trying to keep out of the crossfire. ¶18. (C) In tears, one female "an-Nahar" staff member described how she had tried to report a sexual harassment case to the paper's management. She first took the matter to Ghassan, who said simply that he did not want to get involved. She then raised it with Nayla, who did not respond. She finally contacted Siham, who, afflicted by depression, was at home in bed. Siham angrily replied that she would take care of the matter. "This would never have happened if Gebran were around," the staff member told us. ¶19. (C) As if this all were not bad enough, Ghassan Tueni recently issued an administrative memo ordering all "an-Nahar" staff to quit other sources of employment -- without any compensation from "an-Nahar." This appeared to be targeted at those writers who host programs on, or serve as correspondents for, television and radio stations. Given "an-Nahar"'s increasingly uncertain future and the need to earn a living, at least one of these writers, political columnist Nicholas Nassif -- who is also a senior correspondent for Radio Monte Carlo -- is thinking about leaving "an-Nahar" in order to keep his other job. With a son studying medicine at the American University of Beirut, his fellow columnist, Rosana Bou Monsif, who is also a stringer for Saudi newspaper, told us, "I need this extra money." NAYLA'S SPECIAL (AND SUSPICIOUS) FRIEND -------------- ¶20. (C) Against this maddeningly complicated backdrop of family and workplace tensions, Nayla's romance with (and alleged secret marriage to) the 33-year old Feras al-Amin has raised concern about her judgment, as well as about the future ownership and direction of "an-Nahar." According to an "an-Nahar" editorial writer who knows the family well, BEIRUT 00000305 004.2 OF 004 Nayla quarreled bitterly with her father over this issue just days before his death. Her frequent travels to Dubai, where Amin is now working for a private company, Dubai Holdings, as a communications and public relations expert, is feeding the anxiety. ¶21. (C) During Amin's short tenure with "an-Nahar" as a local politics correspondent, he reportedly managed to establish a relationship with Gebran and learn the inside workings of the paper. He also earned a reputation as ruthlessly ambitious (or, as a contact who knows Amin fairly well put it to us, "Machiavellian"). Since leaving the paper some ten years ago, Amin has hopscotched through a series of jobs. ¶22. (C) One job he has held since then causes particular concern: from 1998 to 2000, he worked as a media advisor to President Emile Lahoud. Reportedly, Amin's classmate (and Lebanon's First Son) Emile Emile Lahoud helped him secure this position. There, Amin allegedly enjoyed close ties with the Lebanese and Syrian intelligence services and made friends with the "four generals," the Lebanese security and intelligence officials currently in detention on suspicion of involvement in the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Hariri. ¶23. (C) The fact that Amin is a Shi'a from southern Lebanon also seems to cause some anxiety at "an-Nahar." This is probably not out of prejudice (the Tuenis are Greek Orthodox and many of the paper's prominent writers are Christians, but a number of others are Shi'as). More likely it is because Amin is seen as susceptible to pressure from President Lahoud's ally, Hizballah. Whatever the case, Ghassan Tueni made his opinion clear on the relationship in a recent one-on-one conversation with Amin. According to a contact close to the "an-Nahar" patriarch, Ghassan told Amin, "The closer you get to Nayla, the further you'll get from 'an-Nahar'!" COMMENT -------------- ¶24. (C) Those behind the murder of Gebran Tueni knew exactly what they were doing. (And, given Tueni's long and vocal opposition to Syrian interference in Lebanon, there is little doubt among many Lebanese about who the likely suspects are.) It is not obvious that the paper can survive for much longer without Tueni's strong leadership. In this chaotic situation, Prince al-Walid bin Talal, with his 10 percent stake and tendency to play the role of a pro-Syrian spoiler, ought to be a matter of particular concern. If Gebran Tueni's assassination leads to the collapse of "an-Nahar," or its reconstitution into something unrecognizable from what it is now -- the leading pro-sovereignty voice in the print media -- the lesson will be that terrorism works. That prospect frightens many Lebanese, and it should disturb us, too. End Comment. FELTMAN