Kofi the Editor

The UN agency tasked with investigating the death of a former Lebanese leader is caught red handed aiding a dictator who may have been involved in an assassination:

The United Nations withheld some of the most damaging allegations against Syria in its report on the murder of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, it emerged [Friday].

The names of the brother of Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and other members of his inner circle, were dropped from the report that was sent to the Security Council.

The confidential changes were revealed by an extraordinary computer gaffe because an electronic version distributed by UN officials on Thursday night allowed recipients to track editing changes.

The WaPo has it in MS Word and here it is in HTML.

The changes were made shortly after investigator Mehlis met with Kofi Annan:

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.

Hat tip: James Taranto who covers this better than I. More at Ace, PW, Lakeshore Laments , the Dignified Rant and the Free Will blog.

Still waiting for Democracy Arsenal to respond after posting this suck-up to the UN on Saturday.