The Mystery of Ziad and Ziad

As Beirut Spring points out, reading the comments to Naharnet's article on the disappearance of two men affiliated with the Druze Progressive Socialist Party does not exactly fill one with a sense of confidence and goodwill towards man. These people do not seem to be enamored of Hizbullah, or of proper spelling and grammar. "Hezbala are known for their histoey of kidnaping," reminds one commenter. "Return them or else!!!" (there were actually far more exclamation marks), writes Sam from Texas.

But, in all seriousness, it's just this sort of seemingly isolated violence which can become the spark which ignites serious fighting. The Ayn Rummaneh bus attack is the event which is commonly argued to have started the Lebanese Civil war in 1970.

From Beirut to the Beltway sketches out the possible reason for the kidnapping, and the probable murder, of the two Ziads. Both were tied to a gruesome murder of a Hizbullah-affiliated man on January 25, during the political riots. After a runaround with the judicial system, and a possible faked "confession" by a Syrian national, it's possible the man's family simply resorted to tribal justice.