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Brian Ross, ABC's investigative correspondent, either found his potential expose defused by the State Department--or it made big enough waves to force the State Department to relent. Ross' took A Closer Look at the two-year-old $22m project to build a new embassy in Beirut. He obtained a diplomatic cable written at the end of May to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by Amb Jeffrey Feltman. In the cable Feltman told Rice that his staff "unanimously opposes construction" because the neighborhood is controled by Hezbollah. Hezbollah, Ross asserted, had already bombed US diplomatic premises in Beirut twice during the decade of the '80s.
Ross reported that "just a few hours ago" the announcement was made that the embassy project had been killed. The State Department insisted that its timing had nothing to do with Ross' report since the decision had been made--but not communicated to Feltman in Beirut--"earlier this month." Ross pointed out that he asked the State Department about the project's status two days ago, but was not told then that it had already been axed.
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