LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
November 08/09

The Cancerous Iranian Hezbollah
It has been very clear that Lebanon can not disarm or control Hezbollah. Hezbollah, this Iranian cancerous armed body is a major threat not only to Lebanon, but to all the Middle East countries and to the whole world in regards to stability, peace and democracy. Meanwhile the United Nations peace forces stationed on the borders between Lebanon and Israel are crippled and do not have the needed engagement jurisdiction to disarm Hezbollah or even to confiscate its weaponry caches. This evil stalemate status is not a helping element for the peace in the Middle East. The Free world has an obligation to put an end to Hezbollah's mini state that Syria and Iran have created in Lebanon against the will of the majority of the Lebanese people. The Free world should not wait for terrorism disasters to unfold like what took place on 11 September in the USA, it has an obligation to prevent these disasters from occurring by all means including use of force.
Elias Bejjani

Bible Reading of the day
John 15/12-25: “This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. You didn’t choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. “I command these things to you, that you may love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’* If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me, hates my Father also. If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now have they seen and also hated both me and my Father. But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’*

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Getting ready for war/By: Ana Maria Luca/Now Lebanon/November 07/09
Three Middle Eastern models/By: Ziad Majed/Now Lebanon/November 07/09
The mullahs' big week/By CAROLINE GLICK/Jerusalem Post/November 07/09

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for November 07/09
Opposition Gives Consent to Hariri Proposal Paving Way for Cabinet Formation/Naharnet
Cabinet Policy Statement New Point of Contention /Naharnet
British Ambassador: Arms in the South Are a Problem, Both Sides are Violating 1701/Naharnet
Spanish Troops Mark Blue Line Near Fatima Gate all the Way to Adaisseh/Naharnet
Berri to 'Break his Fast/Naharnet
Aoun: Shiites Don't Want the Faqih Rule, al-Qaida Killed Hariri/Naharnet
Francop Crew Members Deny Weapons Aboard Ship/Naharnet
Army Arrests More People with Ties to Sikamo/Naharnet
Sfeir Won't Renounce Last Stances in 'Al-Massira' Despite 'Christian Demands/Naharnet
Bassil: We Are Solving Some Pending Details/Naharnet
French Sources: Israeli War on Lebanon Next Spring/Naharnet
Abssi Gets 10 Years with Hard Labor for 2006 Bank Robbery/Naharnet
Lebanon's opposition agrees to join Hariri government/Reuters
A continued political stalemate/Washington Times
Cabinet formation expected within next 48 hours/Daily Star
Special Tribunal refines rules to enhance trial's efficiency, integrity/Daily Star
Berri: Israel arms-ship claims 'fabricated/Daily Star
UN's Williams expresses unease of cabinet delays/Daily Star
Corruption rife 'in every level of society/Daily Star
Lebanon-based Al-Qaeda official convicted of terror/Daily Star
Fatah al-Islam bank robbers get hard time/Daily Star
Hizbullah criticizes Al-Alam embargo/AFP
Lebanon surpasses Israel for press freedom/Daily Star
Lebanese agricultural exports may fall, warn consumer groups/Daily Star
Anne Frank diary censored from Beirut school textbooks for 'Zionist' materia/AFP
Baroud promises to boost motoring-law enforcement/Daily Star
Former ISF officer quizzed over Israeli bomb plots/Daily Star
Fraud victims urged to re-claim property from ISF/Daily Star
Car-jacker busted in cunning stake-out sting/Daily Star
Tawlet Souk al-Tayeb caters to traditional tastes/Daily Star
STL judges amend rules to improve Tribunal efficiency/Now Lebanon

Terrorism or Tragic Shooting? Analysts Divided on Fort Hood Massacre
FoxNews 07/11/09: The shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 dead and 38 wounded this week has sparked a debate about whether it was an act of terrorism.
It was one of the of the deadliest mass shootings on a U.S. base, but the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that killed 13 and 38 wounded this week has sparked a debate about whether it was an act of terrorism.
The alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Palestinian-American and an Army psychiatrist, reportedly shouted "Allahu akbar! -- Arabic for "God is great!" when he opened fire. He was seriously wounded by police and is being treated in a military hospital. The military has said he was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan, and family members suggested he was trying to avoid serving overseas. That doesn't qualify as a terrorist attack, said Carl Tobias, a professor of law at University of Richmond who analyzes terrorist investigations across the country.
"I suppose I think terrorist attacks are undertaken by people who typically want to have some agenda they want to forward politically, and from what I see in the news, this is just a person acting individually because he doesn't want to deploy overseas," he said. "So I just don't see that angle."But others disagreed.
"Clearly I think it was a terrorist act, whether he was connected to another group or not or a formal group is question we'll find out over the next couple of days," said Michael Scheuer, the former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit.
"But for years now, it's been very clear that two of the targets for Al Qaeda and other Islamic groups for recruitment were in the U.S. military and in the U.S. prison system," he said. "So this is not really much of anything new."
Walid Phares, an expert on terrorism and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, called the shooting "the largest single terror act in America since 9/11."
"What happened at Ft. Hood is not about being frustrated by America's foreign policy or exacting revenge for racial slurs. Nor is it about simply being a Muslim-American serving in the military or about being a member of any faith," he wrote in an opinion piece published by Foxnews.com.
"The murders at Ft. Hood are about the radicalization of individuals by an extremist ideology -- jihadism -- which fuels acts of terror," he said. "The main question we should be asking is when did Hasan become radicalized and who indoctrinated him? Everything else will fall in place once we have these answers. Moreover, this would allow us to detect other potential terror acts that may be in the making."
The authorities have not ruled out terrorism in the shooting but they said the preliminary evidence suggests that it wasn't.
Phares said he doesn't expect the shooting to be ruled an act of terrorism because he believes the Obama administration has made a political calculation to not fight a war on terror. He cited the administration's decision to substitute "Overseas Contingency Operation" for the "global war on terror."
"Had this occurred under the previous administration or any other previous administration, the natural position would have been America is under attack," he said. "It would have been a different posture. Now because a strategic decision has been made to disengage, our efforts will be suffering. They're not going to coin it as terrorism."
Scheuer said law enforcement officials have been loathe to rule the shooting an act of terrorism because "they're politically correct."
"Over the last 24 hours it appears this major was a very devout Muslim and his pending deployment overseas put him in a position where he was going to be assisting in killing other Muslims," he said. "And that's a very big decision for a Muslim to do, not only killing another Muslim but killing on behalf of an infidel or a Christian."
But Tobias remained skeptical. "To me, it looks more like the other shootings where one person seems mentally deranged," he said, adding that the rampage reminded him of the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007.

Lebanon's opposition agrees to join Hariri government
Monday, 7 Sep 2009 01:48pm EDT By Laila Bassam
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's opposition, including Iranian-backed Hezbollah, agreed on Friday to join a national unity government proposed by Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri, a senior opposition source said. "The Lebanese opposition has approved the proposed unity government," the source told Reuters after opposition leaders held a late-night meeting.
The source said the opposition would officially inform Hariri of its decision on Saturday and expected the new government to be formed in the coming two days.
Hariri's spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the report. Hariri, who is backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, was nominated as prime minister-designate after he led his anti-Syrian coalition to victory in parliamentary election in June. He has spent more than four months trying to broker a deal with the opposition to join a unity cabinet. A warming of ties between the two sides' main backers Syria and Saudi Arabia in recent weeks helped ease the rift in Beirut and led eventually to the breakthrough.
The rival factions had agreed in July on the broad division of seats in the new cabinet. But Hariri, son of assassinated statesman Rafik al-Hariri, had struggled to reach agreement with opposition politicians on the details. At the heart of the dispute were the demands of Christian leader Michel Aoun, an ally of Hezbollah. Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement holds more seats in parliament than any other Christian party. The new 30-minister cabinet is set to include 15 ministers from Hariri's coalition, 10 from the opposition including two Hezbollah ministers, and five, including the key interior and defense portfolios, will be nominated by President Michel Suleiman. Incumbents Ziad Baroud and Michel al-Murr, loyal to the president, are set to keep their interior and defense portfolios, while new foreign and finance ministers are expected to be named. Hariri had named Raya Hassan for finance minister, responsible for managing Lebanon's massive public debt burden, in an earlier proposal that was rejected by the opposition. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the main Shi'ite Muslim ally of Hezbollah, is set to name the new foreign minister, political sources said.(Writing by Nadim Ladki; Editing by Alison Williams)

Sfeir Won't Renounce Last Stances in 'Al-Massira' Despite 'Christian Demands'
Naharnet/Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir stressed that he will not renounce his last stances, published in an interview with Al-Massira magazine last week, regarding Hizbullah's arms and the parliamentary majority's right to form the cabinet. In new remarks to be published in the next Al-Massira issue, Sfeir said: "I will not renounce them (last stances) despite interventions, mainly Christian, to withdraw some parts of my interview with Al-Massira magazine or to issue a clarifying statement that softens or reconsiders some stances that I consider as constants and axioms." Beirut, 06 Nov 09, 18:22

Cabinet Policy Statement New Point of Contention
Naharnet/With cabinet on the verge of formation following more than four months of attempts by PM-designate Saad Hariri to broker a deal, the government policy statement seems to be the new subject of contention. An Nahar daily said Saturday that some majority forces have been asking not to mention the resistance arms in the policy statement. Such a demand has been met with an insistence by the opposition not to bring up the issue of Lebanon's commitment to international resolutions. Al-Liwaa, newspaper in its turn, said a new war has erupted between majority and minority over Hizbullah's arms. It said Christians in the March 14 forces insist on discussing the issue of Hizbullah's weapons during national dialogue sessions headed by President Michel Suleiman rather than mentioning them in the policy statement. According to al-Liwaa, Hizbullah has informed Hariri that it would propose not to bring up the issue of resolutions 1559 and 1701 if there was no mention of the party's arms. The newspaper, said, however, that contacts made on Friday led to a decision to include the article of the previous policy statement as a middle ground solution that satisfies all parties. Beirut, 07 Nov 09, 10:53

British Ambassador: Arms in the South Are a Problem, Both Sides are Violating 1701
Naharnet/British Ambassador to Lebanon Frances Guy said Saturday the presence of arms south of the Litani river is a problem but stressed that both Israel and Hizbullah are violating Security Council resolution 1701. Guy's comment came during an event organized by Mine Action Group (MAG) in Tyre. She said there has been peace in southern Lebanon and northern Israel since 2006 "and this is something positive."About the ship intercepted by Israel that was allegedly carrying Iranian weapons destined for Hizbullah, Guy said the vessel's discovery gives more reason for the violation of 1701. Turning to the issue of cabinet formation in Lebanon, the British ambassador said the government was an internal issue and "the responsibility of the Lebanese." Beirut, 07 Nov 09, 11:38

Opposition Gives Consent to Hariri Proposal Paving Way for Cabinet Formation
Naharnet/Lebanon's opposition has agreed to "go ahead with the formation of a national unity cabinet," paving way for Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to propose a cabinet lineup to President Michel Suleiman in the coming hours. The decision came on Friday night during a meeting attended by Speaker Nabih Berri, Free Patriotic Movement leader Gen. Michel Aoun, Marada movement leader Suleiman Franjieh, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Jebran Bassil, MP Ali Hassan Khalil and Hussein Khalil and Wafiq Safa. "The conferees agreed to go ahead with the formation of the national unity cabinet based on the agreements reached during negotiations" carried out by Hariri with different factions, said a statement issued by the opposition members following their four-hour meeting. The opposition leaders also expressed "hope that this step would bring good for Lebanon and its people." Bassil visited Hariri at Center House at noon Saturday and informed him about the opposition's consent on the formation of a national unity cabinet.
However, Baabda sources told several local TV stations that Suleiman is not expected to issue a decree on the cabinet on Saturday. The sources, on the other hand, did not rule out a visit by Hariri to Baabda. The new 30-minister cabinet is set to include 15 ministers from Hariri's coalition, 10 from the opposition, and five, including the key interior and defense portfolios, will be nominated by President Michel Suleiman. An Nahar newspaper said Hariri had proposed that the FPM and its allies get the telecom, energy, industry and tourism portfolios and a state minister. As for Speaker Nabih Berri, he would get the foreign and health portfolio and most probably the youth and sports ministry. Hizbullah's share would include the agriculture and administrative reform ministries, according to the newspaper. Hariri was nominated as prime minister-designate after his coalition's victory in the June 7 parliamentary elections.
He has spent more than four months trying to broker a deal with the opposition to join the unity cabinet. However, he faced many obstacles, including demands by Aoun for his son-in-law Bassil to retain the telecom portfolio. A majority leader told al-Liwaa newspaper that the Iranian and Syrian green light quickened the formation of the government after Hizbullah pressured Aoun. However, a top FPM official denied any foreign link to the latest political developments or to Bassil's visit to Damascus. Beirut, 07 Nov 09, 08:10

Spanish Troops Mark Blue Line Near Fatima Gate all the Way to Adaisseh
Naharnet/Spanish peacekeepers began on Saturday visibly marking the Blue Line near Fatima gate, which is close to the village of Kfar Kila, all the way to the town of Adaisseh, the National News Agency reported. NNA said UNIFIL troops were seen putting the X sign near the barbed wire. The decision to mark the Blue Line in the area came following an agreement reached between the Lebanese and Israeli sides under UNIFIL sponsorship in Naqoura, according to NNA. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon had asked the Lebanese army and the Israeli military to visibly mark the Blue Line in order to reduce inadvertent violations. Beirut, 07 Nov 09, 13:19

Berri to 'Break his Fast'
Naharnet/Speaker Nabih Berri has promised to make public comments following the formation of the Lebanese government, An Nahar daily reported Saturday. "Wait for me next Monday if the government wasn't formed," Berri told An Nahar when asked what steps he would take if there was no cabinet by the weekend. "Does this mean that you would break your fast?" An Nahar asked. Berri replied: "Hopefully."Berri had announced that he had taken a decision not to make any public comments on efforts to form a government. The speaker's circles have told An Nahar that Berri continued contacts via MP Ali Hassan Khalil with Center House and Rabiyeh on Friday to accelerate cabinet formation efforts. However, Hariri sources denied such a move by Berri. Beirut, 07 Nov 09, 08:43

Aoun: Shiites Don't Want the Faqih Rule, al-Qaida Killed Hariri
Naharnet/Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun said Shiites don't want to impose the Faqih rule in Lebanon and believed al-Qaida was behind ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination. "The Shiites of Lebanon don't want the Faqih rule project. Furthermore, the country's demography doesn't allow that to happen," Aoun told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in an interview published Saturday.Turning to Hariri's Feb. 2005 murder, Aoun said: "A weapon (other than that of Hizbullah) is present on Lebanese territories and carrying out massacres against the army. This weapon (which belongs to Fatah al-Islam) is still carrying out bombings and causing casualties such as the blasts in Tripoli and Metn, in addition to the biggest explosion, meaning ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination."The FPM leader believed al-Qaida carried out Hariri's killing. Aoun has also reassured the Lebanese that the government will be formed by the end of the week but expressed pessimism at what he called lingering "Saudi guardianship." "We are in the last stages and on the verge of forming" the cabinet, Aoun told Asharq al-Awsat. He expected the government to be formed by the end of the week "if nothing extraordinary happened."Aoun stressed that he was in continuous contact with Premier-designate Saad Hariri denying reports that "contacts have reached a dead-end." He blamed the mentality of those bickering over top posts for the delay in government formation. Aoun also said his foes were attacking his FPM "as if we are rivals dueling in front of electorates rather than serving them."Such a bickering "deprives the cabinet of its consensus formula," he added. Beirut, 07 Nov 09, 12:30

Francop Crew Members Deny Weapons Aboard Ship
The crew of a ship intercepted by Israel has denied that the vessel was carrying Iranian weapons destined for Hizbullah, security sources told An Nahar newspaper.
According to the source, Israel would have arrested Francop's crew if it had found arms aboard the ship. The Jewish state should have also called for an international probe into the incident if its allegations were true, the source told An Nahar.

Francop Crew Members Deny Weapons Aboard Ship
Naharnet/Francop entered on Friday Lebanese waters where authorities are questioning its crew, the army said. "The Francop ship entered Lebanese territorial waters at noon today and, upon its arrival off Beirut port, the navy in cooperation with U.N. naval forces searched the vessel," an army communiqué said. "Military intelligence began interrogating the crew on the motives for the seizure of the vessel while the concerned authorities... will take all the necessary measures to ensure it does not carry banned goods," it said. Israel said the ship which it intercepted around 100 nautical miles from the Israeli coast overnight Wednesday was carrying "hundreds of tons" of weapons. Israeli media reported the military tracked the containers from Iran to the Egyptian port of Damietta, where they were transferred onto the German-owned Francop vessel en route to Syria. However, the security sources told An Nahar that investigation carried out by the Lebanese army intelligence on Friday showed that the vessel was heading from Iran to Syria with foodstuff on board and stopped in Damietta. Then it continued its journey to Syria before being stopped by Israel. The sources wondered why Israel didn't seize the ship's cargo in Damietta if it was carrying weapons as the Jewish state alleges. Beirut, 07 Nov 09, 09:03

Army Arrests More People with Ties to Sikamo
Naharnet/The Lebanese army intelligence has arrested in the past two days in Sidon three people with links to Fadi Ibrahim, who has connections with Fatah al-Islam, al-Akhbar daily reported Saturday.
Ibrahim, who is better known as Sikamo, was arrested late last month after the army lured him outside the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh. The newspaper quoted security sources as expecting new arrests in the case. While some sources didn't reveal information on investigation with the suspects, other sources said Ibrahim's revelations were of "outmost importance." Beirut, 07 Nov 09, 10:06

Bassil: We Are Solving Some Pending Details
Naharnet/Caretaker Telecoms Minister Jebran Bassil said that "there are some details still pending regarding cabinet formation", adding that those details are not few but are on the track of being solved. "We haven't concluded names yet, when we finish with portfolios, we'll move to names," said Bassil during a tour to some MTC Touch company projects. The FPM minister stressed that each party should choose its own ministers. Bassil said that those who speak so much do not know that much and those not speaking are the ones who are following up on things, stressing that his visit to Syria "has nothing to do at all with cabinet's issue". Beirut, 06 Nov 09, 19:24

French Sources: Israeli War on Lebanon Next Spring
Naharnet/Israel may wage a war on Lebanon instead of conducting attacks with uncertain results against the Iranian nuclear program, French sources told the Jordanian Ad Dustoor daily. According to French sources interviewed by the Jordanian daily, Israelis have realized that the United States is not ready, at least in the meantime, to wage a new war in the world and engage in a military confrontation with Iran. Hence, Israel will try to push the world into a crisis against Tehran's nuclear program. Parliamentary French sources said that a meeting, held last month in France, gathered top military leaders from France, Israel, and the United States. The Israeli side presented ideas about Israel's readiness to wage an attack on Lebanon next spring. The sources added that Israel aims to neutralize Iran's regional proxies Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the thing that allows it to attack the nuclear sites in Iran without the threat of any retaliation from Hizbullah or Hamas. Beirut, 06 Nov 09, 17:00

Abssi Gets 10 Years with Hard Labor for 2006 Bank Robbery
Naharnet/Former Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi was sentenced in absentia to 10 yeas in hard labor for taking part in an armed robbery on BLOM bank in Beirut's Corniche al-Mazraa neighborhood in April 2006. Azzam Qassem Nhar and Khairallah Mohammed Khalaf, both Palestinians holding Syrian citizenship, got 10 year sentences with hard labor. Tah Hajji Ahmed Suleiman, a Syrian, was sentenced to 3 years in jail also with hard labor. The Beirut criminal court said Abssi incited the three men to do the robbery to fund terrorist operations he was planning to carry out in the country. At the time, media reports said four men stole $100,000 from BLOM during a hold up in broad daylight. They said the thieves threatened to trigger a grenade if any of the staff members attempted to stop them. Then, they grabbed over $100,000 in different currencies and made a quick and easy escape. Beirut, 06 Nov 09, 14:51

Special Tribunal refines rules to enhance trial's efficiency, integrity
Daily Star staff/Saturday, November 07, 2009
BEIRUT: The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) charged with prosecuting those responsible for the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has further refined its Rules of Procedure and Evidence, officials said Friday. The amendments, adopted in October, were aimed at further enhancing the efficiency, effectiveness and integrity of the proceedings, a statement from the STL said. The most significant amendments include: l an increased consultation and coordination between the president and the registrar on administrative and judicial support functions.l a mechanism for the prosecutor to provide the pre-trial judge with documents and information, during the investigative stage.l a strengthening of the regime for protecting witnesses at all stages of the proceedings, including the investigation stage, as well as after proceedings have concluded. l the addition of procedures to ensure that victims who participate in the proceedings will have the same access to documents as other parties. l witnesses will also be subject to disclosure obligations, including the obligation to disclose exculpatory evidence. l the extension of “in absentia proceedings” to all stages of the proceedings before the STL and not only the trial stage. l the inclusion of two new contempt provisions which will operate prospectively. l a clarification that the pre-trial judge is empowered to take statements of anonymous witnesses at all stages of the proceedings, while the decision on whether to admit such statements in a trial is one for the Trial Chamber. l an improvement on rules relating to the appeal stage of the proceedings, including when notices of appeal must be filed and the status of an accused following an appeal. The amendments will enter into force on November 17. –The Daily Star

Berri: Israel arms-ship claims 'fabricated'
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Saturday, November 07, 2009/Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said Friday that Israeli claims about an alleged arms ship sent from Iran to Hizbullah were fabricated by Israel to target the resistance, which he stressed had the right to obtain weapons from “anywhere in the world.” The speaker added that Israel’s capture of a ship near Cyprus was also a bid to deflect attention away from the Goldstone report, on Israeli war crimes during the Gaza war. The Goldstone report accused Israel and Hamas militants of war crimes during the recent conflict in the Gaza Strip, which killed up to 1,387 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. The report gave Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movemnet six months to mount credible investigations into the allegations or face possible prosecution at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. On Wednesday, Israeli naval commandos stormed a ship they said was carrying hundreds of tons of weapons just before dawn in waters close to Cyprus. Israeli media reports on Thursday suggested that the haul consisted of more than 3,000 rocketsMilitary officials claimed to have obtained a document proving that the ship was en route from Iran, had docked in Beirut and was due to travel on to Latakia in Syria after receiving its cargo in Egypt. In response to Israel, Hizbullah denied on Thursday Israel’s claim while condemning its piracy actions. “Hizbullah categorically denies any link to the weapons that the Zionist enemy claims it removed from the vessel Francop,” the group said in a statement on Thursday. “At the same time it condemns Israeli piracy in international waters.” In Beirut, Berri said that he didn’t seek to defend the resistance, which he said “isn’t under any accusation. – NNA, AFP

Hizbullah criticizes Al-Alam embargo
By Agence France Presse (AFP) Saturday, November 07, 2009
BEIRUT: Shiite party Hizbullah slammed Friday two Arab satellite providers for dropping a television channel from predominantly Shiite Iran as a “violation of freedom of speech and opinion.” “Hizbullah condemns Arabsat and Nilesat’s decision to stop broadcasting the channel Al-Alam: a decision made on political grounds,” the party said, calling it “a violation of freedom of speech and opinion.” Arabsat and Egyptian Nilesat this week stopped Al-Alam broadcasts on the grounds it was in breach of contract, the press reported. But Al-Alam’s Beirut bureau chief, Atef Musawi, said the decision was punishment for the channel’s support of Hizbullah. – AFP

Lebanon surpasses Israel for press freedom
/Daily Star staff/Saturday, November 07, 2009
BEIRUT: Lebanon may have overtaken Israel in terms of Middle East press liberty, but a culture of censorship still weighs heavily on freedom of speech, said a new report. The Samir Kassir Eyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom (SKeyes), in its November bulletin, said that in spite of relative domestic calm and good working conditions for journalists following the June 2009 elections, “censorship on culture has returned to Lebanon.” The report cited the banning of a Brazilian samba carnival in Tyre, in October, after local religious leaders objected to the festival on moral grounds. “The naked festival is incompatible with the religious and Islamic morals of Tyre,” said a clerical statement at the time.
Lebanon has long been a bastion for international reporters in the Middle East, with a number of global news agencies operating bureaus in Beirut throughout the country’s Civil War during the 1970s and 1980s. The report, on freedom of the press and cultural freedom in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan, references the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, released last month. Although Lebanon performs unremarkably against a collection of developed countries, coming 61st globally – an annual rise of five places – it is second only to Kuwait in the Middle East and North Africa region. Israel and Egypt make up the top for MENA countries in terms of press freedom.
The SKeyes report said that the ranking “pointed at the same time that the countries [which ranked highest] enjoy relative freedom, while the freedom of the press in the remaining countries is almost nonexistent.” The report attributed Lebanon’s relatively lofty position to “the relative political calm [that] was reflected in the security situation in the country after the elections of June 2009, especially [concerning] working conditions of journalists.” Israel, by contrast, slipped from 46th globally in 2008 to 93rd in 2009, a year-on-year fall of 47 places. The report attributed this to the hampering of reporting on incidents such as the recent clashes at the Al-Aqsa compound in Occupied Jerusalem. It detailed a total of eight journalists who had been either beaten up by Israeli police or protesters, or arrested and denied access to certain areas of the flare-up. These included a reporter for the website “Palestinians of 48,” two Associated Press photographers, two photographers from the Israeli press and a reporter from the Palestine News Network. The report also touched upon the recent layoffs from Lebanese media corporations. Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) laid off staff after the chairman of the board of directors announced his intention to review the number of employees in different departments, in a step seen by the dismissed employees as politically motivated. The dismissed staff all had links to the Lebanese Forces, which created LBC to be its media mouthpiece in 1985. LBC’s chairman Pierre Daher had previously said he opposed the station becoming “a propaganda tool for the Lebanese Forces.” The layoffs at LBC came as news channel ANB dismissed a number of employees, including “a number of journalists,” while in September, Al-Nahar newspaper and television station MTV laid off a number of staff, which “triggered disparate reactions in the Lebanese media,” according the SKeyes report. – The Daily Star

The mullahs' big week
By CAROLINE GLICK
Jerusalem Post 7/11/09
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1257455195053&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
At first glance, this past week seems like a week that Iran's mullahs would very much like to forget. Early Wednesday morning, IDF naval commandos boarded the merchant ship Francop and diverted it to the naval base at Ashdod. There the IDF displayed its cargo of 3,000 rockets and various and other sundry ordnance useful only to terror forces.
The Francop originated in Iran and was intercepted en route to Iran's Hizbullah proxy force in Lebanon via Iran's Arab toady Syria.
As Israel's political leadership noted, this shipment constitutes hard proof that Iran is actively sponsoring terrorist armies in Lebanon, and doing so in full breach of binding UN Security Council resolutions. The commando raid also exposed the depth of Syria's collusion with Iran in arming Hizbullah. After Israel's seizure of the Francop, voices claiming that Syria is but a bit player in the terror game can be laughed off the international stage.
Israel's interception of the Francop came a week after Yemeni forces seized an Iranian ship transporting armor-piercing weapons to Houthi Shi'ite rebels in northern Yemen. As Saudi Arabia's Al-Watan reported over the weekend, Iranian Revolutionary Guards are training Houthi rebels in Eritrea and sponsoring their insurgency against the Yemini regime.
Earlier in October, the Hansa India, which sailed from Iran to Germany, fell under suspicion as it made its way to Syria. It was diverted from Egypt to Malta, where its cargo of bullets and industrial materials intended for weapons production was removed.
On Wednesday morning, just as Israel was announcing the capture of the Francop, scores of thousands of Iranians in cities throughout the country took advantage of the regime's planned demonstrations celebrating the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the US Embassy in Teheran to protest against the regime. These regime opponents willingly placed themselves in front of the batons, tear gas cannons and guns of Iranian regime goons to protest June's stolen presidential election and to call for the overthrow of the mullahs' regime of tyranny and its replacement with a democracy.
The protesters turned regime supporters' calls for "Death to America," and "Death to Israel" into big, deadly jokes by calling out, "Death to the Dictator" (that is, supreme ruler Ali Khamenei) and "Death to Russia."
Far from embracing the regime's 30-year war against the US and the nation-state based international system, representatives of the "Green Revolution" asked the US to forgive Iran for taking 52 US Embassy personnel hostage in 1979.
Back in Israel, for the past two weeks some 1,400 US military personnel have been deployed throughout the country for the biennial Juniper Cobra missile defense exercise with the IDF. Although Juniper Cobra is a routine maneuver, this year's exercise was unprecedented in size and scope. Observers claim that there have never been so many American generals in Israel at one time.
No previous Israeli-American joint exercise has been conducted with such a high profile. And Israeli leaders did not hesitate to name the enemy in this year's exercise. This year's Juniper Cobra exercise, they said, was part of the two nations' preparations for a joint response to a potential Iranian strike against Israel. The obvious message Israel and the US hoped to transmit to Teheran was that the strategic alliance between the two countries remains strong.
ALL IN all then, on the surface, this past week seemed like a horrible week for the mullahs. But appearances can be deceiving. Unfortunately and counterintuitively, the past week has been one of the best weeks the mullahs have had for a long, long time. Certainly, it was the best week the Iranian regime has had since it falsified the results of the June 12 presidential elections.
In January 2002, the IDF commandeered the Iranian Karine A weapons ship en route to Gaza. The Karine A was carrying a 10th of the weapons that the Francop was carrying. But the impact the Israeli commando mission then had on Israel's political position was more than 10 times greater than the political impact of this week's successful operation.
The exposure then of Iran's support for Palestinian Authority-backed terror forces caused the Bush administration to abandon its previous acceptance of Yasser Arafat as a legitimate political leader. That in turn paved the way for Israel's launch of Operation Defensive Shield three months later. In that operation Israel wrested military control over Judea and Samaria away from Palestinian militias and terror cells.
Wednesday's raid has had no discernible impact on American policy. The US did not denounce either Syria or Iran for breaching the UN Security Council resolution barring Iranian arms shipments as well as the Security Council resolution prohibiting nations from arming Hizbullah. The US did not state that in response to what Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called a "smoking gun," it will reconsider its decision to send an ambassador to Damascus or its commitment to appeasing Iran through its nuclear talks in Geneva. The only thing a State Department official could bring himself to say was that the US is concerned about "Hizbullah's efforts to rearm in direct violation of various UN Security Council resolutions," and remark that the groups remains, "a significant threat to peace and security in Lebanon and the region."
Despite the government's energetic efforts to use the Francop interception as a means to convince the nations of the world to unite against Iranian-backed terror, no one seems willing to acknowledge the clear strategic implications of Iran's exports of terror weaponry. Today no one is any more willing to treat Iran as the enemy of the international system it has been for 30 years than they were before Israel exposed the Francop cargo of terror for all the world to see.
And the US-led international community's refusal to take any action against Iran in response to this latest evidence of its rogue behavior is a great victory for the mullahs. Thirty years after their first criminal challenge to the US and the free world as a whole, no one seems to care when their criminality is so graphically exposed.
WITH THE international community making clear its unwillingness to confront Iran for its support of global terrorism, the greatest single threat to the Iranian regime today is the Iranian people. Since the likes of Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole the June 12 presidential elections, the Iranian people have daily risked death in their desperate and courageous bid to overthrow the regime.
The Iranian opposition movement announced weeks ago that its members would be out in force at the anniversary rallies on Wednesday. And on Wednesday, the protesters begged the world for support. They called out to US President Barack Obama, "You're either with us or with them."
But Obama - in full appeasement mode - issued a statement ahead of Wednesday's "Death to America" rallies announcing, "We do not interfere in Iran's internal affairs." That is, when asked to choose between Iran's freedom riders or their oppressors, he chose the oppressors. The US is with the mullahs against the Iranian people.
No doubt Obama's statement brought contemptuous smirks to faces of the illegitimate leaders in Teheran.
As for the Juniper Cobra exercise, far from being a cause for concern for Teheran, it is a cause for celebration. As Iran's centrifuges churn on, by loudly voicing its determination to defend Israel if Israel is attacked by Iran, the US signaled that it is willing to take its chances with a nuclear-armed Iran. More than anything, Juniper Cobra demonstrated that the Obama administration has abandoned its previously stated pledge that it will not accept a nuclear-armed Iran. Rather than working with Israel to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, the US is using Juniper Cobra to noisily demonstrate that it merely hopes to deter Iran from using nuclear weapons once it acquires them.
While this was perhaps the mullahs' greatest reason for rejoicing this week, three additional developments no doubt also warmed the cockles of their hearts. First, Obama's pledge not to support the anti-regime protesters was part of a larger message in which the president of the United States effectively groveled at the mullahs' feet and begged them to allow the US to enrich uranium for them.
Obama said, "I have made it clear that the United States of America wants to move beyond this past, and seeks a relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran based upon mutual interests and mutual respect... We have recognized Iran's international right to peaceful nuclear power. We have demonstrated our willingness to take confidence-building steps along with others in the international community. We have accepted a proposal by the International Atomic Energy Agency to meet Iran's request for assistance in meeting the medical needs of its people. We have made clear that if Iran lives up to the obligations that every nation has, it will have a path to a more prosperous and productive relationship with the international community."
And when Khamenei responded to Obama's obsequious bowing and scraping by saying that negotiating with the US was a "naïve and perverted" enterprise, the Obama administration had nothing to say.
The White House won't even acknowledge that the Iranians have already rejected the IAEA-brokered deal to have the US, France and Russia enrich uranium for them. Indeed, rather than accept that the Iranians are playing them for fools, administration officials were furious at Israel for Defense Minister Ehud Barak's announcement early last week that their proposed deal with Iran would have little impact on Iran's nuclear weapons program.
According to Channel 10, the White House demanded that Netanyahu applaud their efforts. They threatened Israel with unspecified sanctions if he failed to announce his support for their pathetic attempts at appeasement. And so he did. And about five minutes after Netanyahu applauded the Americans for their brilliant offer to enrich uranium for Iran, the Iranians rejected their offer as insufficient.
Finally, Obama has threatened that if Iran rejects his nuclear appeasement offer the US will move swiftly to enact painful sanctions against it. But with the UN the only international institution the administration believes can legitimately initiate sanctions, and with the UN currently busy discussing the Goldstone Report accusing Israel of committing war crimes in its campaign against Iran's Hamas proxy in Gaza, no one can expect any movement on yet another sanctions resolution against Iran any time soon. (And as to Gaza, neither the US nor anyone else had any significant reaction to Israel's revelation Tuesday that Hamas successfully tested an Iranian missile capable of reaching Tel Aviv.)
Today we are in a waiting period. At the end of this period, either Iran will emerge as a nuclear power or Iran will see itself disarmed of nuclear power, its regime humbled and its terror proxies deterred.
Through their actions again this week, the US and the international community as a whole have demonstrated their preferred outcome. It must be fervently hoped that like the brave Iranian people themselves, Israel will not bend to their will.
caroline@carolineglick.com

Three Middle Eastern models
Ziad Majed , November 6, 2009
Now Lebanon/The Middle East -- the name of a region whose geographic specifications vary according to the background and purposes of whoever uses the title -- comes across as a woeful stretch of land in which three powerful states stand out: Israel, Iran and Turkey.
The first is obsessed with security and demographics. A malicious [pattern of] aggression governs the state under the pretext of fear. It conducts itself as a besieged fortress, building a dividing wall which separates itself from its immediate Palestinian environs. It seeks to subdue the population of those environs; to cut off their water and air; and to reinforce and expand its occupation there, installing more settlements, roadblocks and checkpoints and surveillance in Palestinian territory.
The second, under its expansionist politics, is looking into building bridges to and making footholds in neighboring states. It has built alliances with sectarian minorities here and there, based first on ideology, petro dollars and nuclear ambition, and secondly on US strategic “naïveté” in its reading of the situation, allowing Iran to be able to spread its influence eastward after the war in Afghanistan and westward after the war in Iraq.
The third operates out of trust and with sound judgment. It relies upon political and institutional modernity. It is rooted in an imperial past and in a traditional society which possesses remnants of a common history with surrounding societies – which it controlled for centuries – and, as such, is able to perpetuate its deep-rooted connections with those societies.
As such, the first state, Israel, appears incapable of succeeding in making any inroads, normalizing relations, or developing any form of peaceful coexistence with states in the region or their peoples despite its having benefitted from Western support and Palestinian and Arab weakness. This inability has kept Israel in a constant state of alert and made it into a state that is rooted in war, lacking any bond its neighbors other than one rooted in hatred and violence.
The second state, Iran, for its part, has been unable to establish firm and reliable relations with its neighbors for a variety of reasons, among which are sectarian differences and also its fear of these neighboring countries’ inclination to control and govern the region in its place. As such, it is a country without any ally on the state level other than Syria. Its remaining “alliances,” as it were, are comprised of organizations and minority groups whereby Iran’s position is more of a sponsor, funder and employer than that of an “ally,” with these groups in many circumstances having concerns regarding their own peoples in their own enclaves.
However, the third state, Turkey, in contrast to the first two states, on account of the dynamics of its solid diplomatic practices, seems to be influential in and accepted by more of its neighbors, if not all of them. It has fostered some level of reconciliation with a historical enemy and the victim of its former empire: the Armenians. It continues the process of normalizing relations with a tough adversary in Greece (in order to pave the way for acceptance in Europe). And it has continued to profit from its deep-rooted historical, linguistic and religious ties with Central Asia. Turkey, in addition to what was mentioned above, and more importantly, is also an ally of Russia and the US, countries whose general ideology Turkey is closer to than that of the major Islamic ideologies present in the region and the world. For years now it has been distancing itself from its previously strong ties to Israel, without this ever coming across as a desire to dissolve its alliance with NATO. As such, Turkey has been able to maintain its relations with the Great Powers and international organizations; it has closed the distance between its own sentiments and mindsets and those of a major portion of the population of countries of geo-political significance to Turkey; and it has even attempted to improve relations with the Kurds, a population that continues to be a victim of Turkish policies (and those of the Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian regimes, as well as themselves!)
With that, the scene we are watching unfold today in the Middle East has three major actors moving at different paces: Israel, frozen in place; Iran, making moves, albeit at a rather slow pace; Turkey, moving rapidly forward without causing fear or alarm. However, the Arabs, until now, have merely been watching from afar and there exists no indication that they will become major actors in the region in the near future as they analyze without adding anything or bringing about any change. **This article originally appeared in NOW’s Arabic site on November 3, 2009

Getting ready for war?
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=124711
Ana Maria Luca , November 6, 2009
Name: Francop. Expedient: Iran. Destination: Hezbollah, through Syria. Quantity: thousands of medium-range 107- and 122-millimeter rockets, armor-piercing artillery, hand grenades and ammunition for Kalashnikov rifles.
On Wednesday morning Israeli Defense Forces seized a ship carrying 500 tons of weapons on its way to Cyprus. Apparently, they were alerted to the ship by Unites States, which also asked them not to bomb it. The IDF then escorted the ship to Ashdod harbor in Israel and a couple of hours later revealed its contents to the Israeli and international media.
Diplomatic sources are now wondering if this is the pretext that will launch the next war on Lebanon.
The move came a day after UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon announced conclusions of the 11th report on implementing UNSCR 1701, which said that Hezbollah’s continuing to arm is worrying, although there is no proof of arms smuggling to Lebanon.
A few hours later, however, the Israelis provided all the proof they deemed necessary. They displayed the missiles from the Francop in the harbor, organized a media tour, allowed all international press agencies to photograph them and, for good measure, the IDF released a movie of the capture for the entire world to see.
Who’s going to listen to Hezbollah?
Very few people, now. It took a day for Hezbollah to release a statement denying “any link to the weapons that the Zionist enemy claims it removed from the vessel Francop.”
In terms of making the case for war, it would seem the Jewish state has gained the upper hand over the Party of God in recent months, with the discovery of an assassination plot against the head of the IDF, several rocket attacks from Lebanon, the explosions of arms storage facilities, official complaints filed to the United Nations. Hezbollah has fought back with a few press releases.
After Wednesday’s incident, Israel's Foreign Ministry issued a document to Israeli embassies and consulates around the world, instructing employees to utilize Israel's seizure of the ship to increase international pressure on Iran. Israeli diplomats were instructed to stress Iran's violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions forbidding it from supplying weapons to Syria or Hezbollah.
Talk of war
Diplomatic sources in Lebanon say they are already discussing the possibility of a new conflict in South Lebanon, and reports in the media have said that the United States prevented IDF from actually bombing the ship. According to Arabic press reports, in a trilateral meeting between the United States, Israel and France, Israeli officials stated that hitting Hezbollah would be easier than attacking Iran directly and that the best time to launch such an offensive would be spring 2010.
“The situation in South Lebanon is not at all finished and is more and more tense. There is going to be new fighting soon. Israel has been waiting at any moment for Hezbollah to be asked by Iran to do something: kidnap two soldiers or shoot down a plane,” a diplomat close to UNIFIL told NOW.
The UN’s 30-year-old peacekeeping operation in South Lebanon is going through a crisis too, as rising tensions between Hezbollah, Iran, Syria and Israel are causing a diplomatic spat between Italy and Spain. UNIFIL is currently led by the Italian contingent, though General Claudio Graziano’s mandate will expire in February 2010. The Spanish contingent is scheduled to lead UNIFIL next, but the Israeli government has lobbied the Italians to stay on at UNIFIL’s helm. Israel perceives Spain as being closer and more friendly to Hezbollah than Italy. Amid the diplomatic squabbling, more countries announced they are reducing their troop numbers in Lebanon. Italy recently said it was withdrawing half of its troops at the beginning of 2010. Germany is also set to gradually withdraw its fleet.
“UNIFIL cannot stop the armament of Hezbollah. It is a proven thing. It is a peacekeeping operation. It cannot interfere in the conflict. I think that UN will stay out of the conflict once it breaks out and will stick to the humanitarian job,” the diplomat told NOW.