The Wall Street Journal - USA (2020-12-01)

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Tuesday, December 1, 2020 |A

An alliance of hip-hop mu-
sicians, writers, internation-
ally known artists and Black
activists has emerged as a
driving force against censor-
ship and government repres-
sion in Cuba, prompting a rare
Communist government ac-
tion: to hold talks about free-
dom of expression.
Hundreds of Cubans, many
of them young artists from
elite schools, protested in
front of the country’s stately
neoclassical Ministry of Cul-
ture in Havana’s upscale Ve-
dado district overnight on Fri-
day. Protests of any sort are
very rare in Cuba.
“We demand the right to

Cuba’s Creative Class Crafts Historic Rally Against Censorship

anese banking system allows it

to finance attacks against U.S.

troops and allies in the region

and to support the group’s key

ally, Iran. U.S. officials also al-

lege that much of Hezbollah’s

financing from abroad is from

illegal activities, including

drug trafficking.

The officials say that al-

though Mr. Salamé has shut

some Hezbollah accounts at

their request, the group’s reli-

able access to the financial sys-

tem has helped it to flourish.

U.S. officials have said Leb-

anon’s crisis offers a unique

opportunity to do what the

U.S. has struggled to do in the

past: use financial diplomacy

to restrain Hezbollah’s influ-

ence and overhaul a systemi-

cally corrupt political system.

fied U.S. political demands.

The officials also said the

central bank has been pivotal

in financing the U.S.-desig-

nated terror group Hezbollah,

including attacks against the

U.S. and its allies.

Evidence fueling the con-

cerns are central-bank re-

cords—copies of which were

reviewed by the Journal—

showing it allowed known

Hezbollah accounts at a Leba-

nese private bank to operate

even after being directed by

the U.S. to shut them down.

Hezbollah Secretary-General

Hassan Nasrallah said in May

that Mr. Salamé was aware of

Hezbollah’s financial activities.

Current and former West-

ern officials are concerned

Hezbollah’s access to the Leb-

the target of protests, includ-

ing in November, when demon-

strators attempted to enter its

offices in Beirut after the Leb-

anese currency hit fresh lows.

Current and former U.S.

and allied officials say weak

central-bank supervision has

helped foster the widespread

corruption that has been cited

in a series of U.S. sanctions. In

November, the U.S. imposed

sanctions on former foreign

minister Gebran Bassil, son-in-

law of Lebanon’s president

and head of the Free Patriotic

Movement, saying he exempli-

fied systemic corruption in

Lebanon’s political system. Mr.

Bassil said the allegations

were baseless and called the

sanctions retaliation for his

refusal to submit to unspeci-

Fars news agency reported,

adding that the pickup truck

then exploded.

Mr. Fakhrizadeh was trans-

ported first to a local medical

clinic, then by helicopter to a

military hospital in Tehran,

where he died.

The death of the scientist,

who is regarded as the father

of Iran’s nuclear-weapons pro-

gram in the 1990s and 2000s,

adds to a spate of strikes in

the past year against highly

guarded Iranian security and

nuclear personnel and facili-

ties. Iran’s most prominent

military commander, Maj. Gen.

Qassem Soleimani, was killed

by a U.S. drone strike in Janu-

ary after he disembarked from

a plane at Baghdad’s airport,

drawing reprisal strikes from

Tehran on an Iraqi base with

U.S. military personnel. No-

body was killed at the base,

but tensions with the U.S.

soared over the attacks.

In July, an explosion ripped

through Iran’s main nuclear

facility, Natanz, destroying a

centrifuge-assembly hall.

Iran also accuses Israel of

killing four nuclear scientists

in Tehran between 2010 and

2012, accusations Israel hasn’t

confirmed or denied.

Iran hasn’t presented evi-

dence that Israel was behind

Mr. Fakhrizadeh’s killing.

American and regional offi-

cials have said they suspect Is-

rael was responsible.

Iranian security forces are

holding up Mr. Fakhrizadeh

and Gen. Soleimani as national

heroes. Mr. Fakhrizadeh’s cas-

ket arrived on Monday for a

funeral procession in the holy

city of Mashhad before return-

ing to Tehran for burial. A

similar procession was held in

Mashhad in January for Gen.

Soleimani.

Some details about how Mr.

Fakhrizadeh was killed remain

murky, and access to foreign

media is largely restricted in

the Islamic Republic. Iranian

state outlets and journalists

have published contradictory

information, including accounts

that describe the attack begin-

ning with an explosion that hit

one of the cars, after which up

to 12 gunmen leapt from mo-

torcycles and a parked sport-

utility vehicle and opened fire.

It wasn’t clear how the killers

escaped unharmed.

Mr. Shamkhani said that no

perpetrators were present at

the site and that the machine

gun was controlled by elec-

tronic equipment.

The episode suggests that

the perpetrators were able to

gain detailed knowledge about

the scientist’s movements.

Mr. Fakhrizadeh, who built

up Iran’s nuclear program in

the 1990s before it was dis-

WORLD NEWS

banded in the early 2000s,

was the highest-profile scien-

tist targeted yet, often com-

pared with Robert Oppen-

heimer, the American physicist

who oversaw the U.S.’s efforts

to build an atomic bomb in the

1940s. Mr. Fakhrizadeh, a well-

connected operator, was pre-

sumed to be the official most

capable of helping Iran shift

from a civilian nuclear pro-

gram to bomb-making, if it

chose to do so.

His name first became

widely known to the public in

April 2018 after an Israeli raid

months earlier where agents co-

vertly extracted a trove of docu-

ments detailing Iran’s nuclear

program in an operation in Teh-

ran. Mr. Netanyahu said the

documents proved Mr. Fakhriza-

deh was the chief architect be-

hind a secret Iranian mission to

develop nuclear weapons.

Iran says its enrichment

program is for civilian pur-

poses. The U.N.’s nuclear

agency hasn’t found evidence

that Iran currently has a nu-

clear weapons program.

Amos Yadlin, a former di-

rector of Israeli military intel-

ligence, said those who

planned the operation aimed

to make it difficult for the in-

coming Biden team to return

to the 2015 nuclear deal. While

the timing of the attack could

partially be explained by oper-

ational considerations, those

behind the attack have had

other opportunities to target

Mr. Fakhrizadeh, he said.

“They didn’t look only to

Tehran, they looked to Wash-

ington as well,” Mr. Yadlin

said.

Mr. Netanyahu said in a

Twitter video for his political

supporters posted on the day

of the killing that he “can’t tell

you everything” about what he

had achieved on the job over

the past week.

—Felicia Schwartz

in Tel Aviv

contributed to this article.

The Iranian nuclear scien-
tist killed last week was am-
bushed in a remotely con-
trolled operation, the country’s
top security official said, de-
scribing an audacious attack
Tehran has blamed on Israel.
“The enemy used a com-
pletely new method, style and
professional and specialized
way to succeed in reaching its
goal,” said Ali Shamkhani, sec-
retary of Iran’s Supreme Na-
tional Security Council, at the
funeral procession for the sci-
entist on Monday.
Israel hasn’t confirmed or
denied its involvement.
“The assassination in Iran,
whoever did it, it serves not
only Israel, but the whole re-
gion and the world,” Yuval
Steinitz, Israel’s energy minis-
ter and a member of Prime
Minister Benjamin Netan-
yahu’s Likud party, told Kan
public radio.
The scientist, Mohsen
Fakhrizadeh, was traveling
with his wife on Friday, the
Iranian weekend, from the
tranquil northern town of Ros-
tamkola to Absard, a small
town with cool weather and
luxurious villas east of Tehran
that is a popular vacation spot
for the capital’s elite.
Entering Absard, the scien-
tist’s four-car convoy took a U-
turn on the highway around
2:30 p.m., and continued to-
ward town. The convoy came
under fire from a machine gun
mounted on a Nissan pickup
truck, which sprayed Mr.
Fakhrizadeh’s car with bullets,
leaving him wounded in the
side and the back, with his
spine severed, the semiofficial

BYSUNEENGELRASMUSSEN
ANDARESUEQBALI

Remote Operation Killed Iran Scientist

Tehran blames Israel

for what it called a

new method of attack

against nuclear official

N

Fakhrizadehgetsoutofthecarbecause

hedoesn'trealizethesoundsaregunfire.

Fakhrizadehisshot.Hisbodyguardjumps

ontopofhimandisshotfourtimes.

Nissanpickupexplodes.

IRAN

AbsardRd.

FiruzkuhRd.

KeshavarzSt.

Convoyisfireduponbya

machineguninaNissan

pickuptruckabout

feetaheadofthemon

theroad.

Four-carconvoyexitsjunction

Fakhrizadeh

may be in 2nd car

Caspian Sea

Semnan

Rostamkola

Tehran

Possible route

44

79

30 miles

30 km

Convoy leaves about 11 a.m. local

time

Attacked as convoy arrives in

Absard

Helicoptered to military

hospital in Tehran

A

A

C

B

C

B

Absard

Tehran

1

3

4

5

2

Sources: Fars news agency, Iranian officials, media reports; Google Earth (satellite image)

targets for sanctions by the

U.S. and its allies.

During a trip to Beirut in

August, U.S. Under Secretary

of State for Political Affairs

David Hale outlined U.S. con-

cerns. “There’s a lot of...focus

on the central bank and the

need for an audit of the cen-

tral bank so that we can un-

derstand what exactly has

been happening there,” Mr.

Hale told reporters.

An explosion of an ammonia-

nitrate stockpile in August dev-

astated Beirut, killing at least

178 people, injuring thousands

and adding to economic strain.

Months of wrangling over

the central-bank audit helped

scuttle bailout talks with the

International Monetary Fund

over the summer, and a former

senior Lebanese finance minis-

try official said a full review is

unlikely as long as Riad

Salamé, who has served as cen-

tral-bank governor for nearly

three decades, is in charge.

Mr. Salamé told The Wall

Street Journal that allegations

he and the central bank had

colluded with Hezbollah or

had a role in facilitating cor-

ruption and money laundering

are untrue. He said the central

bank had issued circulars and

decisions to ensure that local

banks complied with U.S. laws,

including sanctions.

The central bank has been

ber when the independent au-

ditor hired to carry it out

withdrew, citing insufficient

access to central-bank records.

“Today they thwarted the

criminal audit,” caretaker

Prime Minister Hassan Diab

said after the finance ministry

on Nov. 20 said the New York-

based firm Alvarez & Marsal

had withdrawn, referring to

unspecified parties in the

country. “The wall of corrup-

tion is too thick and too high

for reform,” he said.

Current and former West-

ern and Lebanese officials said

influential people in political

and economic spheres in Leba-

non have obstructed interna-

tional efforts to subject the

central bank, known as the

Banque du Liban, to a top-to-

bottom review.

Among those impeding the

audit efforts, the officials said,

are the central bank’s long-

serving governor and govern-

ment regulators tied to Hez-

bollah, making them potential

U.S. and other Western fi-
nancial-enforcement and diplo-
matic officials are exerting
pressure on Lebanon’s central
bank as part of an international
push to sideline Iran-backed
Hezbollah, oppose corruption
and alleviate the country’s eco-
nomic and political crises.
Washington and its allies
for months have demanded a
forensic audit of the central
bank they believe may uncover
evidence of money laundering,
corruption and links to Hez-
bollah by top Lebanese offi-
cials, including at the central
bank, Western officials said.
The pressure on the central
bank, including the threat of
possible sanctions, the West-
ern officials said, is a rare step
the U.S. usually reserves for
bitter rivals such as North Ko-
rea, Iran and Venezuela. Fo-
rensic audits are investigatory
examinations that check for
possible evidence of fraud or
other activity that could bring
legal or enforcement action.
Washington and its allies are
leveraging Beirut’s desperate
need for emergency financing,
demanding the examination in
the hope of shedding light on
long-opaque central-bank oper-
ations, the officials said.
Efforts to conduct an exam
suffered a setback in Novem-

BYIANTALLEY

Lebanon’s Central Bank

Fuels Corruption Concerns

Protesters in November tried to enter the central bank’s Beirut offices after the currency hit lows.

NABIL MOUNZER/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Pressure by the U.S.

and allies is aimed

at sidelining Iran-

backed Hezbollah.

have rights...the right of free

expression, of free creation, the

right to dissent,” said Kather-

ine Bisquet, a young poet, read-

ing the activists’ manifesto by

the light of cellphones outside

the ministry where streetlights

were turned off. Videos posted

on social media showed Ms.

Bisquet saying that she spoke

for all Cuban citizens.

The protests—sparked by

the violent arrest Thursday of

members of a small artists’ col-

lective—were joined by ordi-

nary Cubans as well as some of

Cuba’s leading artistic lights,

including the influential film

director Fernando Pérez and

renowned actor Jorge Perugor-

ría. After hours of protests,

singing and poetry, the minis-

try made the unusual move of

allowing some 30 protesters

inside to discuss their griev-

ances with senior officials. The

government considers many of

them to be U.S.-financed ene-

mies of Cuba’s revolution.

“We described the fear and

harassment that we experi-

ence every day, and we told

them that we didn’t feel repre-

sented by them,” said Aminta

D’Cardenas, one of the activ-

ists who entered the ministry.

“Their response was some-

what cynical. They told us

they had no knowledge of

what was happening,” she said

by telephone from Havana.

The protest was possibly

the largest peaceful demon-

stration since Fidel Castro

took power in 1959, marking

growing dissatisfaction by the

island’s young artists.

Cuba’s totalitarian control is

facing growing challenges less

than two years after it allowed

internet services for mobile

phones, making social apps a

key tool to organize spontane-

ous protests and share infor-

mation about arrests.

Some of these artists are

also growing more indepen-

dent by selling their art to for-

eign collectors and exhibiting

their work in globally ac-

claimed museums and galler-

ies.

An archipelago of indepen-

dent media, galleries, and art-

ists’ collectives have flour-

ished in the past few years,

helped by the Obama adminis-

tration’s short-lived opening

to Cuba before it was abruptly

curbed by the Trump adminis-

tration.

“What has happened here

in Cuba is unheard of and his-

toric,” said Abraham Jiménez,

an independent journalist who

participated in the protest. “It

shows there is a generation

that thinks differently and is

willing to face the state and

tell it to stop this repression

because Cuban society must

change.”

Havana has been reeling

from a triple whammy of

woes—rounds of crippling

sanctions imposed by the

Trump administration, a dizzy-

ing collapse in aid from Cuba’s

main ally, Venezuela, and the

ravages of Covid-19—all of

which have hammered the is-

land’s tourism-driven economy.

Cuba now hopes the incom-

ing Biden administration will

lift some U.S. sanctions. But

there are risks.

“If the government re-

presses harshly, it could make

it impossible for Biden to

move on a path towards nor-

malization,” said Jorge Casta-

ñeda, a former Mexican for-

eign minister.

In a tweet on Sunday, Jake

Sullivan, President-elect Joe

Biden’s national security ad-

viser-designate, said Mr. Biden

supported the Cuban people in

their struggle for liberty,

called for the government to

release peaceful protesters,

and said Cubans must be al-

lowed to exercise “the univer-

sal right to freedom of expres-

sion.”

BYJOSÉ DECÓRDOBA
ANDSANTIAGOPÉREZ

Mourners attend Mohsen Fakhrizadeh’s burial ceremony in Tehran.

HAMED MALEKPOUR/TASNIM NEWS AGENCY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES