Nicholas Noe is founder and editor-in-chief of the Beirut-based news translation service mideastwire.com. He was previously a news editor on the Lebanon Daily Star/Herald Tribune, and has written for numerous regional and international publications. Nicholas Blanford is Beirut correspondent for The Times, the Christian Science Monitor and the Lebanon Daily Star. He is the author of Killing Mr Lebanon: The Assassination of Rafik Hariri and its impact on the Middle East. Ellen Khouri is a consultant on human rights and democracy, and managing director of the Lebanese publisher Al Kutba. She has worked as a translator and editor for over 25 years.