Will This Be Kofi's End?

Taranto picks up today's WaPo/Mehlis reports on a gaffe of huge, historic proportions that just happened to happen on the UN's 60th birthday. What a gift!

The original [UN report on the Hariri assassination] Microsoft Word document is here, and MidEastWeb.org has rendered it in HTML form. Here's the key passage, rendered to look like redlined Microsoft Word text (note that this will not appear properly if you're reading this column as a text e-mail):

One witness of Syrian origin but resident in Lebanon, who claims to have worked for the Syrian intelligence services in Lebanon, has stated that approximately two weeks after the adoption of Security Council resolution 1559, Maher Assad, Assef Shawkat, Hassan Khalil, Bahjat Suleyman and Jamil Al-Sayyed senior Lebanese and Syrian officials decided to assassinate Rafik Hariri. He claimed that Sayyed a senior Lebanese security official went several times to Syria to plan the crime, meeting once at the Meridian Hotel in Damascus and several times at the Presidential Place and the office of Shawkat a senior Syrian security official. The last meeting was held in the house of Shawkat the same senior Syrian security official approximately seven to 10 days before the assassination and included Mustapha Hamdan another senior Lebanese security official. The witness had close contact with high ranked Syrian officers posted in Lebanon.

Notice the strike-over of "Maher Assad?" That's Bashar's brother, and the others are Bashar's inner circle. The UN might as well have sent a blimp up over Beirut with "Bashar Offed Rafik!" in lights.

Another birthday gift: This could spell the end (finally!) of Kofi Annan. He promised not to change a word of Detlev Mehlis' report -- a temptation I thought he might fall to. And he did, according to the NYT's report:

But computer tracking showed that the final edit began at about 11.38am on Thursday--a minute after Herr Mehlis began a meeting with Mr Annan to present his report. The names of Maher al-Assad, General Shawkat and the others were apparently removed at 11.55am, after the meeting ended.

This is Kofi's National Guard memo. Watch for a firestorm.