Well, It's Not A Suspect, But ...

The fast-working U.N., in just two lightening-fast years, has come to the point where its crack investigative team thinks it knows ... not the killers of assassinated Lebanon leader Rafik Hariri ... but maybe the backdrop for the motive behind the murder -- well, they will in another few months.

The Seventh report of the International Independent Investigation Commission established pursuant to Security Council resolutions 1595 (2005), 1636 (2005), 1644 (2005) and 1686 (2006) by commissioner Serge Brammetz wonders on for 20 pages; think of it as a season of CSIs rolled up in a sheaf of bureaucratic dribble.

Here's the nitty gritty graf:

As indicated in earlier reports to the Council, the Commission had collected a significant amount of evidence and information related to Rafik Hariri during the last 15 months of his life. The picture assembled is complex and multilayered, and provides part of the backdrop for the motive behind the decision to assassinate him. This aspect of the Commission’s investigation is ongoing, and is unlikely to be completed in the next reporting period given the significant amount of work required.

They've checked out mobile phone SIM cards of many of the probable assassins; they've identified the exact time of the bomb's detinantion and confirmed it was a surface detonation, they've said they're going after DNA, blah, blah, blah ... endless bureaucratic thoroughness is a great way to avoid having to reach a conclusion.