By Ahmad Hussein ALHUSSEINI
The phenomenon is not new. Political scientists call it state capture—or, in its broader form, an integrated kleptocratic system or mafia state: the total convergence of corruption, when thieves own the government, the banks, the courts, and the press. In such systems, power is no longer contested but consolidated through theft; institutions become façades, justice a bargaining chip, and public office a cash register. The banker, the politician, the judge, and the journalist fuse into one organism of plunder, feeding on the carcass of a captured republic.
Lebanon has reached that stage of rot where crime no longer hides—it governs. Dressed in suits, speaking the language of reform, the corrupt now rule in daylight. It is in this theatre of moral collapse that the crooked politician thrives.
It is no coincidence that this so-called “investigation” appears only months before parliamentary elections—and on the very day websites were buzzing about the prospective next speaker of parliament—to mobilize the political cartel against Hassan El Husseini, precisely when serious and legitimate political forces are challenging the corrupt monopoly that has paralyzed Lebanon’s institutions. Its timing and tone expose it for what it is: a paid smear designed to protect the mafia-state architecture that turned obstruction into governance and decay into policy.
Let us be clear.
The El Husseini name needs no borrowed credibility. It is written into Lebanon’s modern history—its sovereignty, its civil peace, and its constitutional rebirth. Those who invoke Hussein El Husseini’s legacy to slander his son only reveal their desperation. Rafic Hariri, who late in his life came to understand the menace of state capture by the bloodletting warlords of the civil war, was El Husseini’s fair and honest political foe—on a long list of issues, Solidere among them. Generations grew up knowing that. Hariri’s fate was sealed when the two men neared an understanding about the ills that befell the land. The man who presided over the Taif negotiations and restored the principles of coexistence and the rule of law never sought wealth or power; he left public life poorer than he entered it—a rarity in Lebanon’s political landscape.
This desperate campaign seeks to invert that legacy—to suggest that integrity begets corruption, and that anyone who challenges the current order must be punished through slander. It fabricates “sources,” invents figures, and stitches together half-truths into fiction to distract from the real question: who benefits from the paralysis of Parliament, the erosion of the rule of law, and the silencing of any credible alternative to the mafia’s cartel of obstruction?
The answer is simple: the very clique of robbers now funding this smear.
Addressing their absurd, self-contradictory allegations—collected from every thief and fantasist—is an exercise in futility. It suffices to say that Ahmad El Husseini has never had any dealings or professional relationship with any of the individuals mentioned, some of whom he knows and some he has never even met—whether the supposed unnamed Nigerian billionaire or the sanctioned art collector.. Yes, Ahmad El Husseini maintains a wide global network, but it serves one purpose: to expose corruption, looting, and the criminal suspension of the Taif Constitution and the rule of law. That mission is what unsettles the bandits who prefer plunder to reform.
The El Husseini family’s position has never wavered: full implementation of the Taif Accord; restoration of state authority and the monopoly of arms; judicial independence; and the reactivation of Lebanon’s constitutional institutions—free from militia coercion, blood lords, or foreign tutelage. Ahmad has defended these principles in every capital that still believes Lebanon deserves to function as a state, not a fiefdom. These efforts have earned him enemies among corrupt bankers, traffickers in influence, and political middlemen who live off paralysis. Their retaliation now takes the form of slander disguised as journalism.
Every line of this smear follows the same formula: a cowardly, fabricated author; imaginary “sources”; unverifiable numbers; and recycled rumors from individuals under investigation for corruption and money laundering. The allegations are theatrical, contradictory, and transparent in intent—to deflect attention from the real problem:
Refusal to convene Parliament for reform laws, even at the cost of losing a World Bank loan of $280 million at 0 percent interest for the reconstruction of the South;
Obstruction of judicial independence;
Ongoing gangstering of depositors’ money;
Fear of allowing the Lebanese diaspora to vote;
Protection of those responsible for the financial collapse, the port explosion, and the disintegration of the state.
And the list is too long to cover it all.
Lebanon’s tragedy is not the ambition of reformers but the impunity and insolence of the entrenched. Those who profit from rot are now trying to criminalize dissent.
To those who read these attacks, we say:
We are judged by our record, not by the slanders of the frightened. Judged by the positions we defend—the Constitution, the State, and the equal citizenship envisioned by Taif—not by the caricatures drawn by the courtiers of corruption. We are judged by what we build, not by what they invent.
This campaign against Ahmad El Husseini—and those before him—is not about one man or what he does to earn a living. It is about silencing a movement that insists Lebanon can still return to legality, accountability, and dignity. It will fail—because truth, unlike defamation, needs no patron.
The mafia state and its godfathers have every reason to be nervous.
More on that in due course.