Now Lebanon - CBC reporter says he was threatened by UN’s senior lawyer - November 25, 2010

In an exclusive interview with NOW Lebanon, the author of the freshly released Canadian Broadcast Corporation’s (CBC) report on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) Neil MacDonald said he attempted to inform STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare of the report’s content but the only response he received “was a threat from the UN’s senior lawyer.”
“Bellemare refused to speak with us even though we tried” to do so several times, MacDonald said, adding that the STL prosecutor could have conveyed his concerns several times but opted not do so.
MacDonald also said that he responded to Bellemare’s claim that the CBC broadcast might endanger people’s lives.
“Whose lives are in danger and from whom?” MacDonald asked Bellemare, adding that he does not know how to respond to Bellemare’s vague statements.
The STL prosecutor has not responded to my questions yet, he also said.
“I had multiple sources for my report. Some information was double-sourced and in some cases triple sourced or confirmed by four sources. I will not [reveal] who my sources are.”
When asked about the timing of the report’s release, MacDonald said that he published it as soon as he completed sourcing the report properly.
CBC said Sunday it had evidence from the UN inquiry strongly linking Hezbollah to the massive car bomb in 2005 that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and that investigators became suspicious of Internal Security Forces (ISF) – Information Branch head Wissam al-Hassan.