Samir Qaseer was unknown to most in the western world, but to the many Lebanese he was one of the bravest and most pugnacious voices of protest to the oppression that emanated from Damascus, both that the lay over his own country and also that which the al-Assad dynasty extended over its own country. It was Qaseer?s vocal opposition to the latter that got him killed (Terrorist Attack forthcoming). The regime in Damascus may have had to swallow the surge of voices ? and eventually, the yells and chants of millions of protestors ? that swept them out of Lebanon , but when Qasseer pursued the retreating Syrian regime all the way back to Damascus with his pen and his criticism, he had to be silenced.

Many have wondered how Damascus could do this after the assassination of Rafiq Hariri that backfired significantly when it triggered international and domestic outrage. The Lebanese had come to believe that they were living in a post-Hariri age, in which arbitrary assassinations and arrests of Lebanese by Syrians had become a thing of the past. The problem that this belief posed to Damascus was personified by Qaseer: voices that had been brave and defiant in denouncing Syria?s occupation of Lebanon before the expulsion of the Syrians became even braver afterward. The lack of a Syrian presence, rather than quell their rage, emboldened them to go after the al-Assad regime with a vengeance. This was something Damascus would have to stop in order to prevent what the Lebanese have called their ?Intifada of Independence? from crossing the Bekaa valley and coming for the Syrian heads of state in their hometown palaces.