All in the (first) family: Lahoud threatens son-in-law after Murr’s cabinet intervention

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIRUT 000647 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR ABRAMS/DORAN/SINGH/WERNER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2026 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, KDEM, LE, SY 
SUBJECT: MGLE01:  ALL IN THE (FIRST) FAMILY:  LAHOUD 
THREATENS SON-IN-LAW AFTER MURR'S CABINET INTERVENTION 
 
Classified By: Jeffrey Feltman, Ambassador, per 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
1.  (S)  In a 3/3 meeting with the Ambassador, Deputy Prime 
Minister and Defense Minister Elias Murr said that he had 
been threatened by his father-in-law, President Emile Lahoud, 
in front of friends and relatives over dinner the previous 
evening.  Lahoud, according to Murr, ordered Murr to recant 
publicly his 3/1 cabinet intervention, in which Murr -- 
asking that Lahoud do something to make his grandchildren 
proud -- told the president he should resign.  Murr refused 
to withdraw his statement, and Lahoud warned Murr that he 
will "see what we can do to you."  While he broke down into 
tears at one point in recounting the story, Murr felt that 
Lahoud's theatrics were intended for Hizballah and Syrian 
ears as much as for his.  Even First Lady Andree Lahoud got 
into the act, attacking Murr for hurting Lahoud.  Murr 
countered that it was Lahoud's allies, the Syrians and 
Hizballah, who were behind the 7/12/05 car bomb that nearly 
killed Murr.  When Murr stormed out of the dinner, Lahoud 
ordered Murr's wife Karine to stay behind.  Murr described 
Lahoud as having no decency left and said that he did not 
expect to be reconciled with either his father-in-law or his 
wife.  Citing the fact that the Syrians seem to have tabled 
the names of three possible replacements for Lahoud, Murr 
also thought that even the Syrians were ready to see Lahoud 
resign.  End summary. 
 
SHAMING LAHOUD AT THE CABINET 
----------------------------- 
 
2.  (C)  Back in his Ministry of Defense office after several 
weeks overseas for further treatment of his injuries, Murr 
recounted for the Ambassador his 3/1 intervention in the 
weekly cabinet session asking his father-in-law, Emile 
Lahoud, to resign the presidency.  Murr spoke last, after a 
series of ministerial speakers all attacked Lahoud.  Murr 
said that he pointedly noted that none of Lahoud's so-called 
allies in the cabinet -- the five Shia ministers, Minister of 
Justice Charles Rizk, Minister of Environment Yaccoub Sarraf 
-- came to Lahoud's rescue.  "They pretend to be your 
friends, but they are not," Murr quoted himself as saying. 
Lahoud was left without a single defender.  For his coup de 
grace, Murr invoked family pride, saying that he wanted his 
children to be proud of their grandfather for at least one 
thing.  And that one thing would be resignation, as soon as 
possible. 
 
A DINNER INVITATION HE COULD NOT REFUSE 
--------------------------------------- 
 
3.  (C)  Asked by the Ambassador for his father-in-law's 
reaction to an intervention that made front-page headlines 
the following day, Murr said that Lahoud had stared at him 
"with a stupid grin" on his face, as if the president could 
not fathom what was happening to him.  The following day 
(3/2), Lahoud called to invite him to dinner at a villa 
Lahoud owns.  Saying that "I had to go," Murr accepted 
without knowing whether Lahoud was attempting a 
reconciliation at the family level or setting up a venue to 
launch a counterattack.  When Murr arrived from the office, 
he discovered that the other guests included First Lady 
Andree Lahoud, the Lahouds' son Ralf and Ralf's fiancee, 
previous Constitional Court judge Salim Jeresseiti and his 
wife Nada, and Murr's wife Karine. 
 
HURT FEELINGS, AND A CALL TO RECANT 
----------------------------------- 
 
4.  (C)  Murr said that he knew something was up when 
everyone fell silent as Lahoud started speaking to Murr over 
cocktails.  "He rehearsed his lines before I got there," Murr 
insisted.  Lahoud started by talking about how much Murr had 
hurt his feelings and hurt the family.  No matter what the 
political differences, the family should show unity to the 
outside.  Now, "you've broken me in two," Murr reported 
Lahoud as saying.  Andree Lahoud then rebuked Murr, shouting 
that Murr had no idea how much the president had suffered 
because of Murr. 
 
5.  (C)  Lahoud then handed a cell phone to Murr, ordering 
him to call his press advisor to ask him to issue a press 
release in Murr's name.  Murr was to denounce his cabinet 
statement and express full confidence in Lahoud.  Lahoud told 
Murr to tell the press that he supported Lahoud remaining in 
 
BEIRUT 00000647  002 OF 003 
 
 
office until the end of his term.  Murr refused.  Rising from 
his chair, Lahoud shouted that Murr had forgotten that he had 
done for Murr, how Murr would be nothing if it weren't for 
Lahoud. 
 
MURR CITES SOLIDARITY 
WITH OTHER BOMBING VICTIMS 
-------------------------- 
 
6.  (C)  Murr said that he responded by accusing his 
father-in-law of ignoring the fact that his closest allies -- 
Syria and Hizballah -- had been responsible for the car bomb 
attack against Murr.  "You accuse me of being March 14 
(anti-Lahoud forces), when you think I should be with March 8 
(pro-Syria forces).  I am not with March 14 or March 8. 
Instead, I am with the forces of October 1 (attack against 
Marwan Hamadeh), February 14 (Hariri murder), June 2 (Samir 
Kassir's murder), June 21 (George Hawi's murder), and 
September 25 (May Chidiac's attack)."  When Murr started to 
storm out of the house, Lahoud shouted that, if he didn't 
recant his cabinet testimony immediately, Murr will "see what 
we can do to you."  When Karine stood up to join her 
departing husband, Lahoud shouted at her to stay, which she 
did. 
 
LESS PHYSICAL THREAT THAN SIGNAL TO SYRIA 
----------------------------------------- 
 
7.  (C)  Asked by the Ambassador whether Lahoud was implying 
a physical threat, Murr said that he assumed Lahoud's words 
were intended to be reported back to Syria and Hizballah, to 
show that Lahoud is trying to punish Murr for his apostasy. 
He did not expect physical harm, although "I can't rule that 
out entirely."  He said that his father-in-law had stationed 
soldiers prominently near the doors of the salon, probably to 
ensure that "they heard and reported every word." 
Jeresseiti, too, would tell the Syrians, Murr said; "he's 
their guy." 
 
8.  (C) Murr mused that Lahoud had probably meant to 
humiliate Murr in front of the soldiers in order to discredit 
him at the Ministry of Defense.  But Murr thought that he had 
comported himself well, which only added to Lahoud's 
frustration and anger.  Breaking down momentarily, Murr said 
that he thought his father-in-law would, however, succeed in 
breaking up his marriage, already rocky, completely.  "That 
man ruins everything," Murr said.  "He has no decency."  Murr 
said that he did not expect that he would be reconciled with 
either his father-in-law or his wife. 
 
SYRIANS SIGNALING LAHOUD MIGHT GO 
--------------------------------- 
 
9.  (S)  Murr said that he calculated that Lahoud would be 
forced out "within three months" as even the Syrians have 
tired of him.  Murr cited the rumors, which he thought 
credible, that the Syrians have used former Minister of 
Health (and Asad family gynecologist) Karam Karam to float 
three names as potential Lahoud replacements:  Central Bank 
Governor Riad Salameh, Minister of Justice Charles Rizk, and 
former Minister (and happy gourmand) Michel Edde.  That the 
Syrians have moved into the "name game," in Murr's view, 
means that the end of Lahoud's tenure is rapidly approaching. 
 The specific names, he said, are less interesting than the 
fact that the Syrians seem to be contemplating the 
post-Lahoud period. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
10.  (S)  Murr is a self-promoter who has on-again/off-again 
relationship with the truth.  He is inclined (like most of 
us, actually) to give a version of events that puts him in 
the most favorable light.  His pride in his 3/1 cabinet 
statement, however, is well-justified.  His shaming of 
Lahoud, witnessed by the entire cabinet, was the strongest 
call yet for a change in the presidency, coming from a 
son-in-law who was once heavily invested in the Syrian 
occupation of Lebanon and who only miraculously survived, and 
with heavy injuries, the car bomb attack intended to kill 
him.  Given the corruption and party-boss machinations of the 
Murr family, Elias will never entirely transcend his past. 
But it is that very past -- with the mafia-like connections 
between the Lahouds, Murrs, and Syria -- that makes his 
denunciations of Lahoud and break with the Syrians so 
politically and symbolically powerful. 
 
 
BEIRUT 00000647  003 OF 003 
 
 
11.  (S)  As for the dinner encounter between Lahoud and 
Murr, Ghattas Khoury recounted for the Ambassador on 3/4 the 
version told by Salim Jeresseiti.  It featured a more 
benevolent Lahoud, begging for family reconciliation for the 
sake of his grandchildren, and a more rabid Murr.  But the 
basic outlines of the story were the same, including Lahoud's 
threat and Murr's identification with all the bomb attack 
victims since October 1, 2004. 
FELTMAN