LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
April 08/08
Bible Reading of the day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Saint Mark 4,26-34. He said,"This is how it is with the kingdom of
God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise
night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own
accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain
in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the
harvest has come." He said, "To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or
what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown
in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is
sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large
branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade."With many such
parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained
everything in private.
Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Gadhafi is right to say Arab rulers are worthless -
but so is he-The Daily Star 08/04/08
Here's how Iran is vulnerable: a view from Israel-By
Yossi Sarid 08/04/08
Why A Terrorist Strategy?
By: Barry Rubin
Apr 08,
2008
World Security Network
Who will wake up the West.
By: Colonel Gary H. Rice 08/04/08. World Security Network
Latest News Reports From
Miscellaneous Sources for April 09/08
Siniora brushes off Berri's call for dialogue-Daily
Star
Jumblatt calls for disarming Hizbullah, respecting
Taif-Daily Star
Official from UN's Hariri tribunal stresses
'irreversibility' of probe
Adwan wants Arab League to fix Lebanese crisis-Daily
Star
Khreis backs opposition's right to Beirut sit-in-Daily
Star
French 'preparing statement on 1701 at UN-Daily
Star
Gemayel backs efforts of Berri, Siniora to end crisis-Daily
Star
Fadlallah: Only dialogue will better relations with
West-Daily Star
Hizbullah, Amal say Israeli military drill reflects
defeat-Daily Star
Despite media buzz, war shows no sign of returning to
South-Daily Star
Beirut pulls in a few good marks in cautious IMF
report on economy-Daily Star
National Bloc chief, LOG head speak out-Daily
Star
Perceived cronyism led to delay of FPM vote - source-Daily
Star
Chouf farmers are going nuts for chestnuts-Daily
Star
Some designers have a different way of being Lebanese-Daily
Star
Azour touts growth of 'close to 4 percent' despite
obstacles-AFP
Lebanon PM rejects Berri's terms for dialogue-Ya
Libnan
Murr Quits Aoun, Supports Berri's Arab
Tour-Naharnet
Israeli Minister Vows to Destroy Iran,
Confront Hizbullah's Rockets-Naharnet
Saniora: Arab Umbrella Shadows
Lebanon-Naharnet
Lebanon's Economy Grows by Four Per
Cent-Naharnet
Pope laments killing of Iraqi priest
IRAQ: An endangered Christian community.Los Angeles Times
Religious Cleansing" In Northern Iraq; "Christians In Life
Danger"
Iraqi Christians shaken anew by Orthodox priest's murder-Catholic
World News
Iraq: Christians “keeping faith” despite shock of Archbishop’s death.Aid
to the Church in Need (press release
Murr Quits Aoun, Supports Berri's Arab Tour
Naharnet/MP Michel Murr officially announced on Monday that he
broke away from the Change and Reform Parliamentary bloc to "maintain my
independence."
"I am neither with the opposition, nor with the majority," Murr told reporters.
"I've been independent ever since I started my political career … I support any
side that can promote a settlement," Murr added. He declared support for the
separate Arab tours launched by Premier Fouad Saniora and Parliament Speaker
Nabih Berri. However, Murr said he has "high hopes" on the outcome of Berri's
Arab tour. "Every body awaits the outcome of Speaker Berri's Arab tour,
especially his visits to Damascus and Riyadh. These are the two major capitals
and Speaker Berri can play a major role during this tour," Murr added. "If (Berri's)
Arab tour was positive, and if Syria and Saudi Arabia dismantled major obstacles
… that would reflect positively on dialogue," Murr said. Beirut, 07 Apr 08,
17:20
Jumblatt calls for disarming
Hizbullah, respecting Taif
By Maher Zeineddine
Daily Star correspondent
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
BEIRUT: Democratic Gathering and Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) leader MP
Walid Jumblatt said the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) should be the country's
exclusive holders of arms in his weekly editorial for PSP-owned Al-Anbaa
newspaper. Jumblatt denounced the gunfire which accompanies the television
appearances and speeches of Lebanese leaders, saying that the Lebanese people
have suffered and worried enough and that they didn't need more innocent victims
and martyrs. He said the gunshots would "willingly or unwillingly" be seen as a
provocation to the LAF and other security institutions who could only consider
this as an insult to their hard work in trying to maintain stability. The Druze
leader called on local figures to try and control their crowds by inflicting
legal punishment in case of arms use. "We shouldn't give more political means
for armed militias, whether it is the resistance or not; arms belong to the
government and no one else," Jumblatt editorial said. The resistance was losing
its "positive image" by using its arms for other purposes than protecting the
country he said, adding these purposes are in contradiction with the "peaceful
and democratic path taken by the ruling March 14 coalition."As for leaders'
posters invading walls, Jumblatt said that not only did they ruin some
neighborhoods, but they were also leading to tensions. Commenting on the recent
Israeli military maneuvers, Jumblatt said that it was yet another proof that
Lebanon is the arena of a number of conflicts. He added that Syria deployed its
army on the Syrian-Lebanese border instead of sending its men to the
Syrian-Israeli border, showing that "Israel and Syria want Lebanon to be the
theater of their own interests."He urged politicians to avoid the possible
"catastrophic open war" by revising and respecting the Taif agreement "that
stipulates a truce with Israel." Regarding LAF commander Michel Suleiman's
announcement that he will quit his post on August 21, Jumblatt said that
Suleiman remains the consensus presidential candidate
Siniora brushes off Berri's call for dialogue
Parliament speaker says Syria 'has no conditions at all on an inter-Lebanese
accord'
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Parliament Speaker and key opposition figure Nabih Berri issued a new call for
dialogue between his country's feuding political factions on Monday but was
swiftly rebuffed by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. After a two-hour meeting with
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Berri said Syria was putting "no conditions"
on the inter-Lebanese talks which he has been trying to organize. "I tell
our people in Lebanon, the Arabs and the world, that our brothers in Syria have
no conditions at all on an inter-Lebanese accord," Berri told reporters. "On the
contrary, they are ready for any help they might be asked for."
But after talks in Cairo, the Lebanese prime minister said the time for internal
dialogue was over and called for an urgent meeting of Arab foreign ministers on
the crisis which has left Lebanon without a president for more than four months.
In Damascus, Berri said his visit had provided him "with a new boost to launch a
dialogue in Lebanon aimed at electing [head of the Lebanese Armed Forces]
General Michel Suleiman to the Lebanese presidency."
Berri intends to gather Lebanon's political leaders for talks before April 22
when Parliament is due to convene for a fresh attempt to elect a president, his
spokesman Ali Hamdan said. But Siniora rejected the idea outright after talks
with Arab League chief Amr Moussa in the Egyptian capital. "The path to a
solution through dialogue no longer exists in Lebanon at present," he said. The
Western-backed Siniora has been touring pro-Western Arab capitals in a bid to
shore up support for his beleaguered government. Two of his main Arab backers -
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah - are to hold a summit
on the Lebanese crisis in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on
Wednesday, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency announced.
Both leaders boycotted an Arab summit in Damascus last month in protest at what
they said was Syria's negative role in the Lebanese crisis.
After his talks with Berri on Monday, the Syrian president offered to help
bolster security in Lebanon and voiced support for inter-Lebanese talks.
Syria "stands ready to provide all possible help which the Lebanese could
request, to guarantee security and stability in Lebanon," Assad said, according
to the official Syrian Arab News Agency. The Syrian president also expressed
support for "an internal Lebanese dialogue" saying such talks between Beirut's
feuding politicians would help resolve the crisis that has plagued Lebanon for
more than a year.
The Lebanese government and opposition have both agreed on Suleiman as a
consensus candidate for the presidency but continue to bicker about the make-up
of a new Cabinet. Parliamentary sessions to vote for a new president have been
postponed 17 times since last September.
After talks with Mubarak on Sunday, Siniora accused Syria - for decades the main
powerbroker here - of holding his country hostage by blocking the election of a
new president. The Reform and Change parliamentary bloc welcomed Berri's call
for dialogue "as long as the goals of dialogue were clear and free from foreign
intervention and conditions," according to a statement issued after the bloc's
weekly meeting. The bloc said the government's decision to boycott the Arab
summit, followed by Sinio-ra's meetings in capitals across the Arab world and
request for an Arab foreign ministers meeting to solve the continuing impasse,
was "requesting and rejecting the same thing." On behalf of the bloc, MP Ibrahim
Kanaan said the Reform and Change meeting covered the recent Israeli maneuvers
near its border with Lebanon. Kanaan said the possibility of a meeting between
bloc leader MP Michel Aoun and Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir would
be decided by the two parties involved. MP Michel Murr said on Monday that
he was never a member of Aoun's Reform and Change bloc but was rather "aligned
with it."
"I am neither with the opposition, nor with the majority," Murr told reporters
following a meeting with British Ambassador to Lebanon Frances Mary Guy.
"I have been independent ever since I started my political career ... I support
any side that can promote a settlement to the crisis," Murr added.
The former deputy premier expressed his support for the separate Arab tours
launched by both Siniora and Berri.
However, Murr said he has "high hopes" on the outcome of Berri's Arab tour.
"Everybody awaits the outcome of Speaker Berri's Arab tour, especially his
visits to Damascus and Riyadh. These are the two major capitals and Speaker
Berri can play a major role during this tour," he added. "If [Berri's] Arab tour
was positive, and if Syria and Saudi Arabia dismantled major obstacles ... that
would reflect positively on dialogue," Murr said. Also commenting on recent
political developments on the Lebanese political scene and Berri's call for
dialogue, Lebanese Forces (LF) boss Samir Geagea said the ruling March 14
coalition has taken upon itself the responsibility of "saving Lebanon." "The
March 14 Forces has taken the responsibility of saving Lebanon; nothing else can
save it," Geagea said.
"The plan of adversaries and enemies at the present time is insidious and aims
at diluting the situation, exhausting the people and disrupting everything to
lead the people to desperation and frustration," Geagea added. "But we have to
keep our faith that the battle will be victorious."
The LF leader said the future would prove the validity of his words adding that,
"as a case in point, the group which enjoyed a 60 or 70 percent popularity [in
the 2005 parliamentary polls] currently gathers not more that 20 or 30 percent,"
in reference to Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement.
Geagea said that if freedom and democracy could not be achieved in Lebanon,
"then it cannot be achieved in any countries in the Middle East."
"Rest assured that this gray phase is transient ... We are taking all
precautions to win our confrontation as soon as possible," he added. - The Daily
Star, with AFP
French 'preparing statement on 1701 at UN'
Daily Star-Tuesday, April 08, 2008
BEIRUT: French diplomats at the United Nations have written up a draft of a new
presidential statement on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution
1701, local newspapers reported on Monday. The draft statement calls on all
concerned parties to intensify efforts and to cooperate with the UN secretary
general over the implementation of Resolution 1701, which put an end to the
summer 2006 war and also expresses the diplomats' concern for the fate of the
two Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbullah on July 12, 2006.The draft statement
also encourages the resolution of the issue of Lebanese detainees in Israel, and
reiterates the diplomats' opinion that the Lebanese state should be the only
body to possess weapons. It also mentions the continuing Israeli violations of
Lebanon's airspace. The diplomats called for holding presidential elections in
Lebanon without delay, adding, "The Security Council is concerned about the
ongoing political crisis and calls for holding fair and just presidential
elections without foreign interference
Perceived cronyism led to delay of FPM vote - source
By Anthony Elghossain
Daily Star staff
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
BEIRUT: The postponement of Free Patriotic Movement's (FPM) internal elections
may be the result of in-house resistance toward perceived cronyism within the
party itself, well-informed sources told The Daily Star on Monday. The FPM
elections, initially scheduled to take place on May 4, were postponed for six
months by FPM leader MP Michel Aoun for reasons that remain somewhat unclear.
The postponement of the elections was initially reported by local newspapers
over the weekend, and was attributed to the objection of FPM officials to
expanded authorities given to Aoun's son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, who is currently
the party's political relations officer. However, sources close to Aoun told Al-Hayat
newspaper that the reasons for pushing back the elections were simply technical,
having more to do with logistics than any political disagreement. The Al-Hayat
report added that party members who objected to this expansion of authority
simply favored a more institutionalized process, and were not objecting to
Bassil's potential rise in principle.
But sources involved with the FPM have told The Daily Star that the reasons
behind this postponement stem from dissatisfaction over Aoun's reported
intention to appoint his son-in-law as deputy head of the party. "Selected
members of the party, active in Lebanon for the past 20 years on behalf of [what
is now] the FPM, some of whom suffered jail sentences and overt pressures during
the Syrian domination of Lebanon, objected to this appointment during a meeting
with General Aoun who, it appears, is taking some time to reconsider this
decision," said the source. In the aftermath of the Lebanese Civil War, the FPM
developed - first as a broad movement, then as a political party - in opposition
to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon and in reaction to traditional rule,
cronyism and corruption in Lebanon
National Bloc chief, LOG head speak out
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Daily Star
BEIRUT: The National Bloc party and the Lebanese Option Group said on Monday
that building a free and independent state can only be done through serious
work. The leaders of the two factions, Carlos Edde and Ahmed al-Assaad, also
called on MPs to elect a president with a simple majority vote
Hizbullah, Amal say Israeli military drill reflects
defeat
By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
BEIRUT: Hizbullah and the Amal Movement said on Monday "the background of the
Israeli military exercises [which commenced Sunday] is hostile no matter what
their causes are.""The exercises reflect Israel's hidden intentions to avenge
its defeat during the July [2006] war," a joint statement issued by the two
parties said. "They also reflect the field impuissance which the Israeli
military institution is witnessing and constitute an attempt to raise its
spirits."
"These maneuvers cannot erode our people's morale and their adherence to the
choice of resistance," it added.
A five-day nationwide exercise simulating air and missile attacks on cities,
including by nonconventional weapons, began on Sunday, the Israeli military
said, and is the biggest drill of its kind ever carried out in the Jewish state.
Over the next few days emergency sirens will be sounded across Israel and
schoolchildren will practice entering shelters and protected spaces in the event
of chemical and biological weapons attacks. Also on Monday, resigned Energy and
Water Minister Mohammad Fneish said that Israel "aspires for and tries to grab
the opportunity to compensate for its loss and recover the role of its army."
"The fate of any Israeli offensive or adventure will not be less than that of
the July 2006 hostilities," Fneish said during a ceremony for Hizbullah students
and teachers in Hanawey. Tackling the ongoing political crisis, Fneish said the
ruling party "does not believe that it is incapable of dealing with the
country's affairs on its own." "The opposition has and is still making lots of
concessions because it knows that the country's interest requires that we deal
with those present in the political arena," he said. "If we want an authority in
the country, we should be partners."Hizbullah's top man in South Lebanon, Sheikh
Nabil Qaouk, said the Israeli maneuvers "reveal once again the deep fear of the
Zionists' military and political leaderships."
"What the Israelis fear the most is that their army is no longer capable of
providing them with protection and confronting the resistance in Lebanon," Qaouk
said.
According to Qaouk, Israel's exercise and continuing violations of Lebanon's
land and airspace confirm that the resistance in Lebanon is an "indispensable
necessity.""The more the resistance is strong, the more the possibility of a war
with Israel recedes," Qaouk added.
Hizbullah politburo member Ghaleb Abu Zeinab said that the Israeli military
maneuvering cannot change anything in the present balance of power in the region
and cannot eliminate the resistance. "The Israeli enemy does not have enough
political power to take a decision to attack Lebanon, and it is aware of the
resistance's readiness," Abu Zeinab said. "The enemy knows that any military
adventure against Lebanon will lead to the end of its existence and that of its
army," he added.
On the country's political woes, Abu Zeinab said the ruling party bears
responsibility for blocking any solution to Lebanon's crisis because it is
following US orders.
Resigned Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said Sunday that Israel's major missile
attack drill was in violation of international law.
"Any maneuver along the border of any country is tantamount to war against that
country," Salloukh told reporters in South Lebanon.
He said the Lebanese Army, Hizbullah, as well as Lebanon's entire population
were "ready" for any attack.
"There is full cooperation between the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL in order to
thwart any Israeli violation of the Blue Line," Salloukh added.
He said he hoped the Israeli exercise is not an "excuse" by the Jewish state to
launch a new offensive on Lebanon
Fadlallah: Only dialogue will better relations with West
Daily Star staff
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
BEIRUT: An honest dialogue is the only way for Islamic-European relations to
improvem senior Shiite cleric Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah told Norway's visiting
vice foreign minister on Monday. Raymond Johansen told Fadlallah that different
parties were sparing no effort in order to establish a proper dialogue while
some groups were working hard to create divisions between Muslims and
Westerners, adding that "a lot of problems can be easily solved."
"We must find a solution to offenses toward religions expressed as freedom of
speech," Johansen said. Referring to the controversial Danish cartoons of the
Prophet Mohammad published in several European countries, Fadlallah said it was
unacceptable to allow such offenses and disrespect toward Islam and the Muslim
community by pretending that it is a matter of freedom of speech, adding that
both Muslim and European parties should initiate a clear and honest dialogue.
"If Muslims worked on an objective and scientific 'Holocaust' movie, would the
countries that have allowed the cartoons' publication, broadcast it?" he asked.
The sayyed accused some Westerners of handling the situation the wrong way by
calling for economic boycotts which, he said, could only increase the actual
tensions. Fadlallah praised the reaction of "responsible" Arab and Muslim
communities living in Europe. Meanwhile, vice president of the Higher Shiite
Council, Abdel Amir Qabalan, called on the Lebanese to unite in order to save
the country from its ongoing crisis. This message also concerned politicians "as
they should open up to each other and resolve conflicts," he said. "While
different countries should work with each other in order to fulfill their
interests, Lebanese people should start doing this within Lebanon so they can
save the country by removing existing tensions," he was quoted as saying.
Moreover, Qabalan highlighted the increasing poverty in the country as he
summoned those who can afford it to help their fellow citizens. In
separate developments, Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir met with
Democratic Gathering MP Wael Bou Faour, with whom he discussed the continuing
political deadlock in the country. "The presidency is being held as a hostage"
he said. Bou Faour denounced the opposition's "wasting of time" and insisted on
the importance of electing a new president, adding that the presidential vacuum
is suppressing an entire religious community's political role. - The Daily Star
Gemayel backs efforts of Berri, Siniora to end crisis
Daily Star staff
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
BEIRUT: Former President Amin Gemayel confirmed on Monday his support for the
efforts of both Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in
recruiting Arab support to reach a solution to Lebanon's 17-month-old political
deadlock. After a regular meeting of the Phalange Party that he heads, Gemayel
announced that he intended to work to ensure communication among all Lebanese
parties.
The former president said former Interior Minister and Marada Movement leader
Suleiman Franjieh's request for the adoption of the 1960 electoral law was
"positive as it limited the demands of the opposition." "However," he added,
"the law needed some amendments."In an interview last week, Franjieh said he
would accept presidential elections if the 1960 law were passed in a
parliamentary session prior to voting on a president. He also stressed the need
to grant the opposition one-third of the cabinet posts to ensure that decisions
of significant importance were made according to the national interest. March 14
MP Butros Harb also responded to Franjieh's comments, saying that he supported
the proposed packaging of the presidential election with an electoral law
decision, despite the fact that such a linkage is technically unconstitutional
(Parliament may only convene for the purpose of electing a president if there is
a vacuum), because he considers it "a step toward a solution to the crisis."
Franjieh also stirred controversy by comparing the role of of Maronite Patriarch
Nasrallah Butros Sfeir to the "rule of the jurisprudent" model in Iran, arguing
that the pro-government factions' claims that Hizbullah sought to set up such a
model in Lebanon ignored the fact "that the patriarch is becoming like [Iran's
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei."The presidency has been vacant since
November 23, and the government is currently functioning without the formal
participation of opposition ministers. - The Daily Star
Adwan wants Arab League to fix Lebanese crisis
Daily Star-Tuesday, April 08, 2008
BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces MP Georges Adwan said on Monday that the problem in
Lebanon lies with two diverging points of view. "The first is the group pressing
toward the establishment of a state, while the second is the group rejecting
this idea and keeping Lebanon an open ground to foreign intervention," Adwan
told the Saudi daily Al-Yawm. "I hope an Arab meeting will be dedicated to the
situation in Lebanon, as Lebanon is a founding member of the Arab League," he
added. He added that Lebanon needs the Arabs to help work out Lebanese-Syrian
relations
Official from UN's Hariri tribunal stresses 'irreversibility' of probe
'There will be no room for political bargaining'
By Michael Bluhm
Daily Star staff
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
BEIRUT: The UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon will not need "years" before it
begins trying suspects in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri, said
a senior official from the UN Office of Legal Affairs, which is establishing the
tribunal. "Nobody is talking about years; nobody is talking about tomorrow" for
a trial to begin, Radhia Achouri, senior communications adviser to UN
Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Nicolas Michel, Monday told a group of
journalists in Beirut. "Ultimately, there will be people who will be named" in
indictments for Hariri's killing, she added. The UN Security Council formally
created the tribunal last May 30 in Resolution 1757, after the dormant Lebanese
Parliament never met to vote on the bilateral agreement between the UN and
Lebanon to form the tribunal.
The tribunal has become another element dividing the country's polarized
political camps, with many in the March 14 governing coalition having long
blamed Syria for the assassination of Hariri and other anti-Syrian figures,
while members of the March 8 opposition have voiced concerns that the tribunal
could be wielded as a tool in the US-led isolation of Damascus. Syria has denied
any involvement. Last Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told ANB
television Damascus had received and rejected "bargain offers" to terminate the
tribunal in exchange for expediting a presidential election in Lebanon. Without
mentioning Moallem, Achouri said the tribunal would not be put on hold or become
fodder for political deals. "There will be no room for political bargaining,"
she said. "There will be no backtracking on it. The tribunal itself is a
reality. They have put an end to any doubt that this track might be reversed. It
is irreversible."
Although acknowledging the deep rifts in Lebanese society, Achouri said she
thought a "large consensus" here wanted to unveil Hariri's killers, and she
mentioned how the national dialogue in the spring in 2006 had expressed
unanimous support for the tribunal. Speaker Nabih Berri told Michel Parliament's
inability to function was not connected to the tribunal and he did not have any
objections to the tribunal, Achouri said.
Achouri, however, did not say when the commission investigating Hariri's
assassination and the other political violence would be ready to submit an
indictment. The office of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is coordinating the
work of the commission, headed by Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare, with the
establishment of the tribunal by the Office of Legal Affairs, she added.
Achouri said Michel and his department do not know anything more about the
findings of the investigation than what the commission publishes in its regular
reports. Bellemare will meet the Security Council on Tuesday in New York - in a
public meeting and a private consultation session - and then hold a news
conference on the report he released on March 28. Bellemare will later slide
from his role as commission chief to become the tribunal's first prosecutor,
although Ban will officially start the tribunal only after the investigation
makes sufficient headway and the UN consults with the Lebanese government,
Michel has repeatedly said. As for the nascent operations of the tribunal, the
next major steps will be when tribunal registrar Robin Vincent takes office and
the tribunal's judges meet to lay down rules of procedure and evidence, Achouri
said.
Achouri said Vincent commencing work at the tribunal's headquarters in Holland's
The Hague represented a significant milestone, as the British citizen will
function as something like the tribunal's CEO. Vincent will take office before
the summer, Achouri added, and will be responsible for all the tribunal's
administrative matters, as well as sorting out which countries may be willing to
imprison anyone convicted by the tribunal.
The UN has selected judges for the tribunal, but it will not announce their
names until security can be assured for the individuals, Achouri said.
In addition, the tribunal's management committee will meet next month to ratify
the budget for items such as renovation of the former Dutch intelligence
building which will house the tribunal, she said. She added that the position of
the management committee has spurred many questions about whether the body will
exercise political influence and interfere in judicial matters, but the
committee's "role will be only financial and administrative."
Aside from the UN, Lebanon and tribunal host the Netherlands, the management
committee includes major donors to the tribunal such as the US, which doubled
its donation from $7 million to $14 million on February 14, the third
anniversary of Hariri's killing. Giving money to the tribunal does not "entitle"
countries to political influence over the tribunal's work, Achouri added.
Contributions for the tribunal have topped $60.3 million, enough to cover the
tribunal's first years of operations, Michel said on March 28. The management
committee exists to oversee the use of funds, while the model of a tribunal
funded by voluntary contributions with a management committee reflects the
international community's move away from "very expensive" international
tribunals such as those for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s, said
Marieke Wierda, head of the prosecutions program at the International Center for
Transitional Justice.
Lebanon's tribunal, like that of Sierra Leone, follows a "push to economize"
after the tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, which were paid for by part of
the mandatory contributions each UN member state must annually make, she added.
Aside from the financial aspect, Lebanon's tribunal differs in other ways from
the models of the international courts for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, as well as the
"hybrid" tribunal for Sierra Leone, Wierda said.
Lebanon's tribunal is based on the UN-Lebanon agreement, meaning the provisions
of the UN Charter's Chapter VII - which requires all member states to cooperate
- do not apply, she added. Although the structure of Lebanon's tribunal more
closely resembles the Sierra Leone hybrid, it differs in that its headquarters
are located outside Lebanon, while Sierra Leone was able to provide greater
security than Lebanon can, Wierda said
Gadhafi is right to say Arab rulers are worthless - but so is he
By The Daily Star -Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Editorial
In the aftermath of the Arab League's 20th summit in Damascus late last month, a
number of Arab commentators and editorialists have criticized the regional
body's chronic failure to break away from its two-decade-long pattern of
impotence and inaction. Much like the 19 aimless meetings that preceded this
year's gathering, the Damascus summit was marked by poor attendance, even poorer
progress on substantive issues, and an abundance of
made-for-government-owned-media rhetoric. And as was the case with several
previous summits, the highlight of last month's show - at least in terms of
entertainment value - came in the form of Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi's annual
diatribe. Many of the criticisms that Gadhafi heaped on his fellow Arab leaders
- that they lack unity, that they practice hypocrisy, that they never accomplish
anything noteworthy and that they bow to the whims of Washington - resonated on
the Arab street, where the idea that the league might one day achieve something
worthwhile was long ago abandoned.
Many of Ghadafi's most scathing appraisals, however, can easily be directed
right back at Gadhafi himself and the Libyan regime. Unless one counts comic
relief as a contribution to the advancement of Arab causes, Gadhafi has done
nothing to improve the lot of the more than 300 million Arabs who reside in this
region. Sadly, he has done even less to better the lives of more than 6 million
Libyans in his own country. After nearly 40 years with Gadhafi as its leader,
Libya has become a firmly entrenched authoritarian state, where nepotism and
economic stagnation are the laws of the land, where the most innocent forms of
political expression are punishable by death and where even the most peaceful
dissidents are routinely jailed or murdered.
One must ask, then, whether Gadhafi fancies himself immune to all of his own
criticisms, or whether he intends to actually begin to practice what he
preaches. Any number of the Arab world's problems could benefit from the active
and energetic engagement of one of its leaders - including the territorial
dispute between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, an issue that Gadhafi himself
raised at the Arab summit in Damascus. Dealing with complicated issues such as
these, however, would require that Gadhafi contribute something more substantive
than entertaining quips. Regrettably, Ghadafi's failure to offer the Arab world
anything other than an annual comedy routine has made him the epitome of the
ineffectiveness that he so often criticizes.
It is precisely because large parts of the Arab world are such a mess and so
many of its leaders are terminally inept that Gadhafi's cutting remarks tend to
hit home with so many ordinary people around the region. Still, this part of the
world has been plagued with the same problems for so long that Gadhafi's jokes
are getting less and less funny each year
Here's how Iran is vulnerable: a view from Israel
By Yossi Sarid -Daily Star
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
In the previous decade, toward the end of the 20th century, it appeared for a
moment as if the world had learned a lesson and was becoming a better place: No
more war crimes and crimes against humanity without the criminals being brought
to justice; no more cases of genocide and ethnic cleansing without the murderers
paying a price for their deeds. But in the last few years we have become wiser;
the shortcomings of the international community are increasingly obvious in
Darfur, Tibet, Burma and other God-forsaken places. Perhaps instead of
"shortcomings" we had best say: too many vested interests; too many profit and
loss calculations.
The international community's weakness is revealed in all its shame when it
comes to Iran and that country's nuclear option, which is slowly but surely
taking shape. Iran's provocative policy is unusual in its severity: There are
many conflicts and confrontations in the world, but no other country save Iran
is threatening the destruction of another country.
It is doubtful whether there really is a military option - American, Israeli or
combined - for destroying Iran's concealed, dispersed and well protected nuclear
installations. But even if there were, the war in Iraq has effectively
eliminated it. The American military's strength has been exhausted in Iraq and
Afghanistan and the leading superpower has no force left to devote to a
particularly dangerous third front. This is perhaps the greatest damage done by
the Bush-Cheney adventure in Iraq, where after five years there is no end in
sight. The United States may be stuck in Iraq for years to come, regardless of
who the next president is. And Israel may end up as the main victim of that
adventure, just as Saddam Hussein had hoped before he himself was eliminated.
The principal actors responsible for the weakness of the international community
are Russia and China. But they are not alone. Were the nations of the world to
really seek to stop Iran's nuclear program they could do so without firing a
single cruise missile. But the global community is apparently not all that
willing, insofar as stopping Iran comes at a high cost. For a period of time,
oil prices may rise yet further beyond their current record levels. Even Western
leaders might prefer to risk a bomb in the future rather than monstrously
expensive oil in the present. Oil drives people crazy, particularly if they are
world leaders. It was oil that caused the American president and vice president
to launch the Iraq war and it is oil that now prevents them and their colleagues
from removing the bomb from the stalls of the Persian market.
International sanctions are a very efficient tool for dealing with "crazy
states" and "leper states," particularly when those states' leaders are only
pretending to be crazy. Sanctions have already proven their efficacy in North
Korea, Libya and Iraq itself - if only they had been given a chance; if only
Bush had waited and allowed them to do their job before launching his holy war.
Isn't it strange that thus far not a single truly painful and serious economic
sanction has been leveled against Iran?
Here are some sample warning and punitive steps. Iran may be one of the largest
producers of oil but it is a big consumer of refined petroleum products that it
does not itself produce. One can only imagine what would happen in that country,
which suffers from serious domestic problems, were it to be denied refinery
products in one fell swoop. Iran is also a huge importer of car parts. Within a
single month, traffic could be brought to a total halt throughout the country.
Iranian officials and businessmen travel the world to negotiate, buy and sell;
why not send them all home? Unrest would only increase at home, while President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his ayatollahs would lose their urge to act crazy.
The West fears Iranian retaliation. But Iran's capacity to react is limited if
not negligible. What would it do? Stop exporting oil? Oil is its principal
source of income, its sole source of support; without oil sales it cannot exist.
What could the ayatollahs do? Splash around in a sea of oil? Drink it? More
likely they would prefer to dispense with Ahmadinejad and his nuclear policy
rather than lose their regime.
Conceivably even the sanctions might be superfluous were Iran to become
convinced that the intention to impose them is serious. The threat alone might
suffice for the uranium enrichment centrifuges to be taken out and dumped. But
Iran has learned thus far from experience that the threats are empty; it knows
the international community is a paper tiger that, once it smells oil and big
business deals, loses its sense of direction and particularly its sense of
responsibility.
The global community is hesitating and real sanctions are lagging, but it is
still not too late. To all those who fear a spiraling rise in oil prices we say:
A nuclear-armed Iran can in any case play with oil prices at will, raising and
lowering them, but by that time it will be far more difficult to bring it down
to earth. There is today no more serious threat to the earth than the marriage
of extremist fundamentalism in the mosque with a bomb in the basement.
***Yossi Sarid was a member of Israel's Knesset, a minister of education and a
minister of the environment. He is currently an author, a columnist at the
Haaretz daily newspaper and a lecturer in national security at the Herzliya
Interdisciplinary Center. This commentary first appeared at
bitterlemons-international.org, an online newsletter publishing contending views
of Middle Eastern and Islamic affairs
Lebanon's Economy Grows by Four Per Cent
Naharnet/Lebanon's economy grew by about four percent last year despite a
long-running political crisis and increased sectarian tensions, Finance Minister
Jihad Azour said on Monday. "The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will publish
a report next week confirming that Lebanon saw a growth rate of close to four
percent and an inflation rate of 4.4 percent in 2007," Azour told AFP. "The
political situation weighed down the economy but could not bring it to a
standstill," he said. In 2006, the Lebanese economy contracted by five percent
and inflation shot up to 7.03 percent amid a devastating 34-day summer war with
Israel.
"In 2007, we tried to remedy the effects of the war in 2006," Azour said. "In
spite of the battles in Nahr al-Bared and the assassinations, we were able to
improve our financial standing," he added, referring to an uprising by Islamist
militants in a northern refugee camp and a series of killings of Lebanese
opponents of neighboring Syria. The IMF report is also set to highlight a
falling budget deficit and reduced levels of foreign debt, the minister added.
The costs of reconstruction after the 1975-91 civil war helped push Lebanon's
public debt to a massive 41.3 billion dollars in May last year.
In January 2007, France hosted a conference of Lebanon's international creditors
which offered a new package of assistance in return for pledges of reform, most
of which have yet to be honored. "The government is still committed to reform
but parliament's failure to meet has an impact on a large portion of the laws
necessary for reform," Azour said. Parliament has not convened since November
2006 when six pro-Syrian ministers quit the cabinet.(AFP) Beirut, 07 Apr 08,
16:38
Israeli Minister Vows to Destroy Iran, Confront Hizbullah's Rockets
Naharnet/Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said
Monday the Jewish state would respond to any Iranian attack by destroying that
country, and accused Iran of provoking Israel by arming Lebanon's Hizbullah. "An
Iranian attack against Israel would trigger a tough reaction that would lead to
the destruction of the Iranian nation," Ben-Eliezer said in remarks of rare
virulence. "Iranians are aware of our strength but continue to provoke us by
arming their Syrian allies and Hizbullah," he said during a meeting at his
ministry. Ben-Eliezer, a member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security
cabinet, stressed however that the Iranians were unlikely to attack as "they
understand the meaning of such an act." Last month, Defense Minister Ehud Barak
told visiting U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney that "no option" would be ruled
out in Israel's bid to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Israel, along
with its ally the United States and other Western powers, accuses Iran of
pursuing the development of a nuclear bomb under the guise of its civilian
nuclear program -- a charge Tehran denies.
Israel considers Iran its top enemy following repeated calls by President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map.
Ben-Eliezer also stressed that an ongoing five-day home front defense exercise
was not meant to threaten Israel's neighbors, but stressed that "the scenarios
considered in the exercise could be reality tomorrow." He said Israel could one
day find itself in a situation in which hundreds of rockets rain down on
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. "Nowhere would be safe from Syrian and Hizbullah
rockets," Ben-Eliezer said. The scenario for Monday's drill had Israel coming
under simultaneous attack from Syria and the Lebanese Hizbullah militia in the
north and from Palestinian militants in Gaza to the south. The exercise, which
started on Sunday, comes amid media reports of heightened tensions along
Israel's heavily guarded border with Syria and just days after Lebanese Prime
Minister Fouad Saniora put his armed forces on alert.(AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 07
Apr 08, 16:27
Why A Terrorist Strategy?
written by: Barry Rubin, 07-Apr-08
http://www.worldsecuritynetwork.com/showArticle3.cfm?article_id=15700&topicID=34
Many years after September 11, despite more than 10,000 terrorist attacks by
radical Islamist groups alone, there is still an amazing amount of confusion and
falsehood over what should be a very simple point: What is terrorism all about?
The answer is politics and, to be specific, revolutionary politics. Most
obviously, terrorism is a tactic used by political groups but, most importantly,
it is a strategy. Defining who and what is "terrorist" should be neither a moral
judgment nor a propaganda exercise. It is a simple use of political analysis.
There are many incomplete or misleading concepts of terrorism. Often, terrorism
is conceived as evil and its perpetrators as irrational criminals. While, of
course, terrorism is evil in moral terms the problem with this approach is that
it feels no need to go further in understanding what is going on.
Partly as a reaction to that concept, terrorism is presented as a matter of
opinion. In today's world, of course, repressing women, denying freedom, and
murdering dissenters are often presented in democratic countries as a mere
cultural choice, an aspect of local color. It should be remembered that when the
Communist USSR made an alliance with Nazi Germany the Soviet foreign minister
explained that fascism was merely a matter of taste.
Leaving all that aside, though, once the issue is defined in moral terms then it
is being depoliticized. The media thinks of itself as neutral. Consequently, the
English-language Western media often calls people who commit terrorist actions
"militants" or "extremists." That may be a good thing since it indicates a
radical and implies a violent orientation. But it only educates up to a point.
Here's what you need to know: There are arguably good reasons for having a
terrorist strategy, not as a reaction to poverty or oppression but as a way to
seize state power and transform societies.
Why does an ideology or movement decide that its best course is deliberately
murdering the maximum number of civilians? The choice of terrorist strategy is a
judgment particularly about one's goals, enemy, and constituency.
Only a despotic goal pursued by a totalitarian movement can sustain a terrorist
strategy which, in turn, further reinforces an anti-democratic, intolerant
orientation. A radical Islamist dictatorship in which the ruling elite's whim is
rationalized as divine will is the shining hell that is the movement's utopian
dream. This replaces the Marxist dictatorship of those claiming to embody the
proletariat's needs with that of those pretending to interpret divine desires.
To be deserving of mass murder or even genocide, the enemy must be defined as
simultaneously demonic and weak. Pure evil, so to justify its being massacred
but also cowardly to explain why the revolutionaries will triumph. We have
reached the point where many non-radical Muslims agree that criticizing radical
Islamism is punishable by death.
Unfortunately, a large part of the West seems to be acting in a way that seems
to embody the predicted weakness but that, too, is another story. More relevant
here, though, is the fact that the terrorist strategist may make a tactical
adjustment in the face of a tough opponent. The reason that Muslim Brotherhoods
in Egypt and Jordan do not presently engage in terrorism has nothing to do with
their worldview and everything to do with fear of repression. In contrast, Hamas
and Hizballah--very parallel movements in every way--can go all-out because
there is no government of their peers that is going to flatten them for doing
so.
Especially important is the terrorist strategist's assessment of his
constituents. He must believe that terrorism will be relatively popular among
those he wants to win over. Terrorism appeals as a revolutionary strategy
largely because the violence used against Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, and Western
targets is largely cheered among Arabs. Only a minority are radical Islamists
but a majority is pleased, at least at their work in nearby places. The fault
lies with the fans in the stands rather than the victims in the arena.
This is the problem presented by terrorism and radical Islamism. Crazy people
can be given therapy, misunderstandings can be cleared up with dialogue; honest
grievances can be resolved by mutual concessions. With determined, ideologically
clear, mass-based revolutionary movements you can only defeated them or
surrender. Holding them off, that is preventing them from winning for a very
long time until they are truly worn down, is another option. Refer here to the
history of Communism.
Finally, a new twist is added, not for the folks at home but for the suckers out
there. "The communists disdain to conceal their aims," wrote Karl Marx in 1848.
Since then, the public relations' industry has flourished. Terrorist movements
and supporters learned to feign innocence (and moderation), accusing their
victims of being terrorists. With a lot of help from prestigious Western news
organs they have turned the tables.
Arab leaders spoke in 1948 and 1967 of repeating the Mongol massacres and
driving the Jews into the sea. This has not completely changed. Hizballah chief
Hasan Nasrallah said recently, "The Zionist entity can be wiped out of
existence." But there is no end of commentators around to explain that he
doesn't really mean it seriously.
Instead, the sophisticated talk is of "collective punishment" and "excessive
force." Even a young gentleman of the old school like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has
many saying he was misquoted about seeking to wipe Israel off the map.
Consider this 1993 exchange between two founders of the U.S.-based, Hizballah-supporting
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR):
Omar Ahmad: "There is a difference between you saying, 'I want to restore the
'48 land' and when you say 'I want to destroy Israel..."
Nihad Awad: "Yes, there are different but parallel types of address. There
shouldn't be [a] contradiction. Address people according to their minds. When I
speak with the American, I speak with someone who doesn't know anything. As for
the Palestinian who has a martyr brother or something, I know how to address
him, you see?"
Yes, I see. But I wish everyone else did, too.
------------------------------------------------------------
Barry Rubin is Director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA)
Center, Interdisciplinary Center university. His latest book, The Truth about
Syria was published by Palgrave-Macmillan in May 2007. Prof. Rubin's columns can
be read online at: http://www.gloriacenter.org/index.asp?pname=submenus/articles/index.asp.
Who will wake up the West?
written by: Colonel Gary H. Rice, 31-Mar-08
http://www.worldsecuritynetwork.com/showArticle3.cfm?article_id=15689&topicID=34
On September 12, 2001, for the first time in its history, the North Atlantic
Council invoked NATO's cornerstone article, the "all for one" pledge to defend
any member subject to aggression. The NATO nations were not prompted by
nostalgia or brotherly love. They knew that at some point, al Qaeda would target
them. And they knew that unless they supported America in its hour of need, the
United States could hardly be expected to respond if and when another of its
members needed the weight of American power. America's cause was shared by the
Western alliance strategically, politically and morally. Six years later,
however, NATO stands divided, unable to commit to a cohesive and comprehensive
strategy to defeat the ongoing common threat and ready to risk failure of its
proclaimed and singularly important mission in Afghanistan.
The uncivilized, unprovoked acts of terrorism committed by al Qaeda in New York
City, Washington and Pennsylvania, and in the tourist spots of Bali, the London
subway and in Madrid have shaken NATOs resolve. Last fall's Riga Summit
signalled to al Qaeda that the Alliance that could stand together and win the
fifty-year Cold War no longer has the stomach to fight, and win.
This inability collectively to confront the existential threat now facing all
liberal democracies says that the time has come to begin thinking about a new
global alliance. An Alliance comprising like-minded nations prepared to share
the burden of defeating the relentless attacks of Islamo fascism, jihadism, and
al Qaeda.
The 20th Century is characterized by unparalleled social upheaval, unprecedented
health, scientific and technological advances as well as the emergence of mass
communications and the movement towards a global economic order. It is also
distinguished by its repeated and mutually ruinous internal conflicts and wars.
It was an era that brought with it almost unequalled bloodshed and the wide
scale displacement and slaughter of innocent civilian populations, the
destruction of nation states, the fall of royal dynasties and the emergence of
new national polities. Its closing decade saw a realignment of long standing
global spheres of economic and military power and, with some major exceptions,
the rejection and abandonment of unworkable and humanly oppressive ideologies
and regimes.
During the 1930's and1940's, when the world's liberal democracies faced the grim
prospect of either standing alone and being destroyed and enslaved by the
expansionist, totalitarian regimes of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial
Japan, or coming together to collectively confront and defeat them, they wisely
chose to unite. More than any other act, it was likely this single commitment
that ultimately allowed the allied nations, after six long years of war, to
emerge triumphant in 1945.
The determination in the 1930's to act collectively to overcome the common
threat was a replay of the same successful strategy adopted by the Western
Allies in 1914 that led to the successful conclusion of the Great War in 1918.
It should surprise no one, therefore, that the leaders of the West chose a
similar strategy in 1949, when faced with the advance of global Communism.
Although the resulting struggle to defeat Communism lasted for fifty long and
sometimes perilous years, the wisdom of uniting to preserve western democracy
for future generations was a policy that worked. Communism was rejected by the
peoples of Eastern Europe and with the resulting collapse of the Soviet Union in
1989 freedoms again emerged in its former vassal states.
Nevertheless, these epochal decisions did not occur by chance. In the 1930's
they were crystallized by two prescient national leaders gifted with the wisdom
and the moral courage to take a personal stand against external forces and their
own populations - forces that if left unchallenged, unchecked and ill informed
would change the course of humankind. Who were these key leaders? How did they
persuade the doubters that an enemy was at the gates? How did they rally the
West?
In August 1941, almost two full years after the Nazi German invasion of Poland,
and less than four months before Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour,
British Prime Minister Churchill, and United States President Roosevelt,
convened the Atlantic Conference and held secret meetings aboard the heavy
cruiser USS Augusta and the battle cruiser HMS Prince of Wales in Newfoundland's
Placentia Bay.
The outcome was the forging of the Anglo-American alliance that would ultimately
lead to victory in the Second World War. Over the remarkably short span of only
four days these two exceptionally gifted leaders and statesmen, and their
accompanying politico-military staffs, devoted their energies to fashioning a
grand strategy for the conduct of the war against the Axis Powers, the conduct
of future military operations, rallying other liberal democracies to their
cause, and the drafting of an "Atlantic Charter,"setting out the shared
principles and policies on which Great Britain and the United States based their
hopes for a better future for the world.
The wisdom of Atlantic Charter lay in its clarity and frankness in stating that
neither the United Kingdom nor the United States had any aggrandizement,
territorial or other aims; wanted no territorial changes that did not accord
with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned; respected the right
of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live;
wished to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those who had
been forcibly deprived of them; to further the enjoyment by all States, great or
small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the
raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity; their
desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the
economic field with the object of securing, for all, improved labour standards,
economic advancement and social security; and after the final destruction of the
Nazi tyranny, their hope to see established a peace which will afford to all
nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which
will afford assurance that all the men in all lands may live out their lives in
freedom from fear and want; that such a peace should enable all men to traverse
the high seas and oceans without hindrance; and their belief that all of the
nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons must come to
the abandonment of the use of force.
The Atlantic Charter concluded with a statement of Churchill and Roosevelt's
belief that no future peace can be maintained if land, sea or air armaments
continue to be employed by nations which threaten, or may threaten, aggression
outside of their frontiers; pending the establishment of a wider and permanent
system of general security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential;
and a resolve to aid and encourage all other practicable measure which will
lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden of armaments.
In short, the Atlantic Charter clearly identified the threat, presented a set of
human values and a dream for the future that would resonate with peoples round
the globe, and outlined the means of overcoming the common enemy.
Remarkably, by today's standards, within a scant five months, by January 1942,
some twenty-six like-minded nations stood in support of the principles
enunciated in the Atlantic Charter by Messrs Churchill and Roosevelt during
their brief seaborne sojourn aboard ships in Placentia Bay. Counted among the
nations acknowledging that the time had again come either to hang together or be
hanged one at a time, was the United States, United Kingdom, Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, China, Australia, Belgium, Canada, India, Netherlands, New
Zealand, Norway, and South Africa.
These nations, and the other fourteen signatories of this unprecedented
declaration subscribed to the common program of purposes and principles embodied
in the Atlantic Charter, voiced their conviction that complete victory over
their enemies was essential to defend life, liberty, independence and religious
freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice in their own lands as well as
in other lands, and signalled to the rest of the world that they were engaged in
a common struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the
world.
Without reservation, each of the twenty-six national governments pledged to
employ its full resources, military or economic, against the members of the
Tripartite Pact (Germany, Italy, Japan) and its supporters, to cooperate with
the other signatories, and not to make a separate armistice or peace with their
enemies. By March 1945, nineteen other nations had also signed on to the
declaration and agreed also to render material assistance and contributions in
the struggle for victory.
The trans Atlantic alliance of two English-speaking nations, one a
constitutional monarchy, the other a republic, which had begun with an
unprecedented act of moral courage by their elected leaders in the face of
seemingly hopeless odds, had grown from two states to forty-five. Very different
from the situation in the year 2007 that finds members of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United Nations (UN) deeply divided and unable
to acknowledge the common threat, let alone formulate, a common grand strategy
to deal with the existential threat of Islamo-fascism and jihadism.
Between 2000 and 2007 some nations in the West have fought in two undeclared
wars and many more regional skirmishes, yet the Islamo-fascist and jihadist
threats remain as great as it was in 2001 when its aims became clear.
Totalitarianism, this time wrapped in the religious disguise of Islam, is again
on the march. Its goal is the same as the defeated Nazis and Communists regimes
that preceded them. Under the cloak of Islam, the Islamo-fascist leadership
seeks to impose its will on the liberal democracies of the West, subjugate its
peoples, deny the enlightenment of western democracy, and turn back the clock to
establish a pseudo religious state reminiscent of Islam's seventh century
caliphate.
The Islamo-fascists' will to win remains unbroken and they have yet to flee the
field. In short, today's threat remains essentially the same as it was on
September 11, 2001, when America was first attacked on its own soil. So what
must the West do if it is to avoid another century of war like the last one?
Following the 1941 declaration of The Atlantic Charter it took the Allied
Nations who had signed on to it a further three years to develop the capability
to strike the blows on the Eastern Front and against the Atlantic Wall that led
to their final defeat. We are now ending the sixth year since 9/11 and the free
nations of the West have yet to evolve a cohesive and coherent grand
politico-military strategy to defeat the threat of Islamo-fascism.
Nothing perhaps exemplifies this dangerous situation better than the
inexplicable behaviour of some of NATO's European member states. In the wake of
the Islamist's bombing of Madrid's Atocha railway station, Spain - the same
courageous nation that in modern times could overthrow the brutal dictatorship
of Francisco Franco and reestablish democracy, and had fought incessantly for
800 years to defeat and expel its Moorish conquerors - decided it had enough,
threw in the towel, and withdrew its troops from the fight in Iraq.
Similarly, Nations such as France and Germany, who owe their present day freedom
and prosperity to the willingness of other nations to sacrifice their sons and
daughters, and their nations' wealth, in World War Two to defeat and throw out
their Nazi occupiers, see nothing wrong with placing 'caveats' on how they may
employ their soldiery in Afghanistan, while other nations within the same
alliance continue to pay the price in blood and treasure.
The defence of the West demands that when you will the ends - the political
objectives that require the use of force - you must also will the military
means. If you will the military means, you must also will the financial means. A
nation, or an alliance, unclear about why it is fighting, or what victory means,
is usually on the proverbial road to ruin. In a war where one side (the
jihadists in the Middle East, for example) has huge numbers willing to die,
while the other (the West - including NATO) has small numbers mainly unwilling
to die, the result cannot be long in doubt. Those who have the will to win will
prevail.
Is Canada at war? Is its closest allies, Australia, the United Kingdom and the
United States at war? The answer appears unquestionable: Of course we are. Yet
if this is true, then why have none of these nations ever made a formal
declaration of war? Their leaders have repeatedly reminded their fellow citizens
,and the world at large, that their country stands firm in its resolve to
prevail in what is popularly called the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT).
In this regard, perhaps none have been more consistent than our own Prime
Minister, Stephen Harper. In his maiden speech at the United Nations in New York
he emphasized the importance of Canada's mission to the GWOT. Immediately
following last September's visit of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's and his
appeal for Canada's continued military involvement in his war-torn country, Mr.
Harper told a rally on Parliament Hill in support of our troops in
Afghanistan:"We don't start fights, but we finish them."
And in a televised address to mark the five-year anniversary of the September 11
terrorist attacks he observed that: ". . . because of this war of terror, people
around the world have come together to offer a better vision of the future for
all humanity." And then he elaborated: "For this vision to take hold, the menace
of terror must be confronted. And these horrors cannot be stopped unless some
among us are willing to accept enormous sacrifice and risk to themselves." Has
Prime Minister Mr. Harper begun to exhibit the prescience and moral courage of a
Churchill or a Roosevelt? Has President Bush or Prime Minister Blair? Perhaps.
But why then has neither Canada, nor any of its major partners, decided not to
enact a formal declaration of war, even though it is taken for granted that all
are now fighting one? Is it because Canada and its allies lack the political
will?
Or are there perhaps other reasons? There was no hesitancy in 1939 and 1941 as
to what had to be done when German Nazism, Italian Fascism and Japanese
Imperialism presented the world's democracies with the choice of either
confronting and destroying them, or looking the other way and awaiting their own
inevitable defeat and subjugation.
Who among today's world leaders will wake up the peoples of the West? Who among
them will come forth and display the same moral courage and wisdom that
motivated Churchill and Roosevelt to become the architects of victory in World
War Two? Who will be the architects of a Global Charter for the 21st Century?
Who will fashion the essential but missing grand strategy that they will need to
defeat the steadily gathering threat of Islamo-fascism and al Qaeda? Who will
wake up the West?
Hizbollah turns to Iran for new
weapons to wage war on Israel
Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/fisk/hizbollah-turns-to-iran-for-new-weapons-to-wage-war-on-israel-805763.html
By Robert Fisk in Teir Dibba, south Lebanon
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
The Shia "martyrs" of this hill village are normally killed in the dangerous,
stony landscape of southern Lebanon, in Israeli air raids or invasions or
attacks from the sea. The Hizbollah duly honours them. But the body of the
latest Shia fighter to be buried here – from the local Hashem family – was flown
back to Lebanon last month from Iran.
He was hailed as a martyr in the village Husseiniya mosque but the Hizbollah
would say no more. For when a Lebanese is killed in live firing exercises in the
Islamic Republic, his death brings almost as many questions as mourners. Yet it
is an open secret south of the Litani river that thousands of young men have
been leaving their villages for military training in Iran. Up to 300 men are
taken to Beirut en route to Tehran each month and the operation has been running
since November of 2006; in all, as many as 4,500 Hizbollah members have been
sent for three-month sessions of live-fire ammunition and rocket exercises to
create a nucleus of Iranian-trained guerrillas for the "next" Israeli-Hizbollah
war.
Whether this frightening conflict takes place will depend on President Bush's
behaviour. If America – or its proxy, Israel – bombs Iran, the response is
likely to be swift and will come from the deep underground bunkers that the
Hizbollah has been building in the fields and beside the roadways east and south
of Jezzine.
For months, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbollah leader, has been warning
Israel that his organisation has a "surprise" new weapon in its armoury and
there are few in Lebanon who do not suspect that this is a new Iranian-developed
ground-to-air missile – rockets which may at last challenge Israel's air
supremacy over Lebanon. For more than 30 years, Israel's fighter-bombers have
had the skies to themselves, losing only two aircraft – one to a primitive
Palestinian SAM-7 shoulder-fired missile, the other to Syrian anti-aircraft guns
– during and after its 1982 invasion.
After its 1980-88 war with Iraq, Iran introduced a new generation of weapons,
one of which – a development of a Chinese sea-to-sea missile – almost sank an
Israeli corvette in the last Hizbollah-Israeli war in 2006.
Can the Hizbollah shoot Israeli jets out of the sky in the event of another
conflict? It is a question much discussed within the 13,000-strong United
Nations force in southern Lebanon – essentially a Nato-led army, which contains
French, Spanish and Italian troops as well as Chinese, Indian and sundry other
contingents – which would find itself sandwiched between the two antagonists.
There are no armed Hizbollah fighters in their area of operations – Nasrallah
respects the UN resolution which placed the peacekeepers between the Israeli
border and the Litani in 2006 – but the UN mission, along with its soldiers,
will be gravely endangered in the event of another war.
If its aircraft could no longer bomb at will over Lebanon without fear of being
destroyed, would Israel stage another costly land invasion – highly unlikely
after the bloodying its troops took in 2006 – or use its own ground-to-ground
missiles on Lebanon? For if the latter option were chosen, it would bring a
whole new dimension to Lebanon's repeated wars. Long-range missiles have proved
hopelessly inaccurate in Middle East conflicts and the Iran-Iraq war. But
whatever political sins they still commit, the Lebanese – despite their current
crisis – appear to have rejected any return to civil war. In such a war, no one
could repeat the old lies about "pinpoint accuracy".
The government of Fouad Siniora may be trapped in its own "Green Zone" in
central Beirut – it even refused to attend the Arab League summit in Damascus –
and parliament is suspended after 17 vain sessions to elect a president. A
series of prominent Lebanese MPs and journalists have been murdered or attacked
since 2005 but Syrian troops have left and the Lebanese army still manages to
keep a form of order on the streets. However, the Syrian intelligence presence
has been maintained in Lebanon – and Syria is Iran's only ally in the Arab
world. This does not mean that war is inevitable.
So the future of Lebanon remains – as it did in 2006 – in the hands of the
United States and Iran. Just as the Israelis constantly warn of war, so the
Hizbollah still promises revenge for the car-bomb murder of its former
intelligence officer Imad Mougnieh in Damascus in February. Regularly, the
Israelis warn that they will respond to attacks but that they will "choose the
moment and the place and the means".
And sure enough – following the Hizbollah's pattern of using Israel's own words
– Nasrallah said on 24 March that the Hizbollah would "choose the moment and the
place and the means" to retaliate for Mougnieh's death.
And each month, the Hizballoh improves its new bunkers north of the Litani. Some
now sprout aerials but they may be "dummies" for Israel's pilots to attack. Deep
underground telephone land-lines have been laid to those which are visible and
to those others which are beneath the surface. The Hizbollah learned a lot from
the 2006 war. Then its secret bunkers were air-conditioned with beds and
kitchens attached. But when Israeli troops discovered a handful of them, they
also found copies of their own Israeli air force reconnaissance photographs,
complete with Hebrew markings.
The Hizbollah had obviously bribed or blackmailed Israeli border guards for the
pictures – from which they could tell at once which bunkers the Israelis had
identified and which remained unknown to them.
Which is how, in 2006, its guerrillas sat safely through days of air bombardment
in the latter, while allowing the Israelis to blitz the "known" fortresses to
their hearts' content. Who knows if the Hizbollah has not since collected a new
batch of photographs for the coming months?
Pope laments killing of Iraqi priest
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict lamented on Sunday the killing of an
Iraqi priest during a drive-by shooting in Baghdad, the latest attack on Iraq's
Christian community.Adel Yousif of the Syrian Orthodox Church was killed on
Saturday near his home in central Baghdad's Karrada district.
"(The Pope) prays that all people will follow the ways of peace in order to
build a just and tolerant society in the beloved land of Iraq," the Vatican said
in a telegram, signed by Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone.
Last month, Iraq's Christians mourned a Chaldean Catholic archbishop, Paulos
Faraj Rahho, who was kidnapped by gunmen and later found dead. It was not clear
how Rahho, who was known to suffer from poor health, had died.
Peter A. Huff: With the murder of Archbishop Paulos Faraj
Raho, Iraq's descent into hell appears near total
April 7, 2008
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080407/OPINION0106/804050324/1058/OPINION03
Recent news of the murder of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Raho confirms some of our
worst fears about Iraq. After five years of war, occupation, and unrelenting
civil strife, Iraq's descent into hell now appears near total. It may be
irreversible.
The full toll of the war currently surpasses the grasp of even the most astute
observer. Over time we may come to terms with its far-reaching social, economic,
and political consequences. It will take decades to atone for the lost treasures
of art and architecture that once served as precious links to the cradle of
civilization. A lifetime will not be enough to mourn the more than 4,000 fallen
American soldiers or grieve for the innocent civilian dead, now measured in the
tens of thousands.
A unique casualty of the war has been the historic Christian community in Iraq.
Christian beliefs and institutions have profoundly shaped cultural life in the
Americas for 500 years. Iraqi Christianity dates back 2,000 years, to the age of
the apostles. Christians in Iraq preserve the Aramaic language of Jesus in their
ancient modes of worship. Christ's distinctively Asian worldview lives on in
their Mesopotamian mores and sensibilities.
For centuries, the Christian minority in Iraq lived peaceably under Islamic
rule. Medieval Baghdad witnessed some of the most brilliant examples of
Muslim-Christian dialogue in global intellectual history. Christians regularly
served in the Iraqi government before 2003.
Since the U.S. invasion, violence against Christian targets has become
tragically routine. Insurgents have bombed churches, and terrorists have singled
out clergy from Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions for cruel attacks.
Victims include Catholic priest Ragheed Ganni and Protestant minister Mundhir
al-Dayr.
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Raho was abducted by unknown assailants on February 29,
after presiding at a Stations of the Cross service in Mosul's Catholic
Cathedral. His companions were killed immediately. For days, government leaders
and church officials, including Pope Benedict XVI, appealed to the kidnappers
for mercy and the international community for assistance.
Iraqi authorities discovered the body of Archbishop Raho in a Mosul street on
March 13. He was buried the following day.
T. S. Eliot's classic "Murder in the Cathedral" tells the story of another
churchman's confrontation with injustice: St. Thomas Becket, England's
12th-century Archbishop of Canterbury, killed at the altar by knights from the
court of King Henry II. Written partly as a response to the rise of European
fascism during the 1930s, the play uses King Henry's shocking assassination of
Becket as a warning to viewers who may underestimate humanity's seemingly
unlimited capacity for evil. In one scene, set in the winter of 1170, Archbishop
Becket preaches a Christmas sermon on the uncommon topic of martyrdom. "On earth
the Church mourns and rejoices at once," he says, "in a fashion that the world
cannot understand." The final scene, after his brutal murder, concludes with the
somber refrain of the Chorus: "Lord, have mercy upon us. Blessed Thomas, pray
for us."
In war-torn Iraq, Archbishop Raho never had the chance to preach an eloquent
homily on martyrdom. Nor was a dramatic Chorus on hand to place his murder in
poetic perspective.
His church may share his fate.
Blessed Paulos, pray for us.
*Peter A. Huff holds the T. L. James chair in religious studies at Centenary
College of Louisiana.
Iraqi Christians shaken anew by Orthodox priest's murder
http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=57664
Baghdad, Apr. 7, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Iraqi Christians joined in mourning after a
Syrian Orthodox priest was murdered in Baghdad on April 5.
Father Yusef Adel was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen in the Iraqi
capital. The killing occurred than 3weeks after the death after Chaldean
Catholic Archbishop Faraj Raho was found dead, after having been kidnapped from
outside his cathedral in Mosul.
Syrian Orthodox Bishop Matti Shaba Matoka presided at the funeral for Father
Adel, with Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly and the apostolic
nuncio, Archbishop Francis Chulikatt, representing the city's Catholic
leadership. The AsiaNews service reported that the new killing caused "great
fear" among Iraq's Christians, who have seen a drive by Islamic militants to
drive the religious minority out of the country. The campaign of violence and
intimidation against Christians has taken an enormous toll. The number of
Christians living in Iraq today is estimated at under 500,000-- roughly half
what it was before the start of the war in 2003. In a message of condolence to
Syrian Orthodox leaders, Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) promised his prayers,
"that all people will follow the ways of peace in order to build a just and
tolerant society in the beloved land of Iraq."
Iraq: Christians “keeping faith” despite shock of
Archbishop’s death
Posted by Press Release on 4/4/2008, 5:11 pm
Board Administrator
ACN News: Friday, 4th April 2008 – IRAQ
A LEADING Iraqi prelate has told how Christians have reacted with a show of
defiance following the tragic death of an archbishop – an event which shocked
the world.
Despite the ever-present risk of kidnappings and bomb-blasts, Easter Mass-goers
have packed churches across the country both on Sunday, 30th March and the
weekend before. At least two Iraqi priests, until now studying in Europe, have
decided to return to Baghdad in a move bound to boost the confidence of the
country’s dwindling Christian community. Discussing the Christians’ defiance in
an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Andreas Abouna of Baghdad
said the people’s determination gave new cause for hope. Speaking from Baghdad,
the auxiliary to the Patriarch of Babylon (Baghdad) of the Chaldeans, said: “Our
people are used to being part of a persecuted Church – it’s all we’ve ever
known, almost from the beginning starting barely 400 years after Christ.
“They know it is their life to go through this.” Bishop Abouna was speaking
three weeks after the death of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, of Mosul in
northern Iraq. The archbishop, 65, was kidnapped on the steps of his cathedral
in an attack which left his driver and two bodyguards dead.
Archbishop Rahho died about two weeks later, apparently of natural causes, and
was buried in a shallow grave in Mosul.
Meantime, reports have come in showing how Christians in the nearby Nineveh
plains have held peaceful demonstrations calling for the arrest of Archbishop
Rahho’s kidnappers.
Acting on an Easter appeal by bishops in Nineveh, Christians have taken to the
streets with pictures of Archbishop Rahho and other ‘martyrs’ walking through
villages including Karamles, where the prelate’s funeral took place on Friday,
14th March.
Bishop Abouna said there was still no further information about the kidnappers’
identity or motive. He refused to rule out the possibility of them striking
again.
The bishop went on to stress how Christians were determined to “keep faith”.
The bishop said: “Many of the churches were packed with people – although in
Mosul, it is different because until now the situation has been unstable.”
He said: “We – both us bishops and priests – have told the people that they have
to stand by for anything and that they have to defend their faith. We have asked
them not to lose hope in Christ.
“Christians in Iraq do not like being a persecuted Church but if persecution
comes, we are ready.”
He spoke of his delight at the imminent return to Baghdad of the two priests,
who cannot be named for security reasons. “This is wonderful news – a real sign
of hope,” he said.
The return of the priests, who have received funding from ACN, will help allay
fears that Archbishop Rahho’s death would spark another mass exodus of
Christians from Iraq. Before 2003, Christians in Iraq numbered up to 1.2 million
but it is now thought that almost two-thirds have fled abroad, especially to
Syria, Jordan and Turkey.
Editor’s Notes:
Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful
wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic
charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and
action.
Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An
Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145
countries throughout the world.
The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing
transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings,
funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the
initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles
have been distributed worldwide.
For more information, please contact the Sydney office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929.
e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245
Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web:www.aidtochurch.org
An advocate for Iraq's displaced Christians
Stephen J. Carrera / For The Times
Robert DeKelaita leaves immigration court in Chicago with Anaam Merza Khoshaba,
an Iraqi Christian who was left in legal limbo after her husband divorced her.
Robert DeKelaita, a U.S. lawyer who is himself a Christian born in Iraq, is on a
mission to help others gain U.S. asylum. He would rather see them return to a
safe homeland.
By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 4, 2008
SAN DIEGO -- The immigration lawyer and his client sat huddled at the defense
bench in federal court, whispering in a foreign tongue.
Robert DeKelaita, born and baptized Christian in Iraq and raised in the U.S., is
a solidly built man who dwarfed his slender client, a frightened young Iraqi
named Yousif Ibrahim. DeKelaita murmured assurances in a modern version of
Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus.
Ibrahim, 23, a Christian, had been jailed as a "deportable/inadmissible alien"
since he walked across the U.S.-Mexico border at San Ysidro in May. Except for a
phony Polish passport and a copy of his baptismal certificate, he arrived with
only the clothes on his back.
Ibrahim wore a blue prison smock and baggy trousers. A court officer removed his
handcuffs, and Ibrahim absently rubbed red welts on his left wrist, just below a
tattoo of Jesus Christ.
Minutes later, DeKelaita described how Ibrahim's father had been burned to death
in his home by Muslim insurgents in Iraq in January 2007 -- because he was a
Christian working for the U.N, and because another son had served in the U.S.
armed forces.
"Your honor, he cannot go back to Iraq. . . . He has established credible fear"
of persecution, DeKelaita told the immigration judge.
The judge set a new hearing, giving DeKelaita more time to prove his case.
DeKelaita whispered again to Ibrahim in Aramaic, promising that he would be a
free man soon.
Over the last decade, DeKelaita has obtained asylum for hundreds of Iraqi
Christians threatened with deportation. He travels the U.S. to counsel
distraught, uprooted men and women who have fled religious persecution in Iraq.
But each new grant of asylum leaves DeKelaita feeling conflicted; his efforts
inadvertently contribute to the slow dissolution of the once-vibrant Christian
community in Iraq.
"My heart is really wedded to the idea that they should be safe and secure in
their own homeland in Iraq," DeKelaita, 45, said inside his law office in
Skokie, Ill., near Chicago. "What I'm doing is temporary. That's how I justify
it to myself -- that they will one day all go back home safely to their
homeland."
Repressed under Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Christian population has been decimated
since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Muslim extremists have murdered priests and
burned churches and Christian-owned shops and homes. Priests in Iraq estimate
that fewer than 500,000 Christians remain, about a third of the number as before
2003.
On March 13, the body of the archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho, was
recovered, two weeks after he was kidnapped while leaving Mass. The slaying
prompted Iraqi Christians to consider worshiping in secret; church services have
also been attacked. Christian leaders say some Christians have been abducted and
killed after refusing to convert to Islam.
"No group was happier than Christians when Saddam fell," DeKelaita said. "But no
group is more disappointed with the way things played out."
Anguished over mistreatment of Iraqi Christian family members and strangers,
DeKelaita long ago decided to dedicate his law practice to defending them. He is
among a handful of immigration lawyers nationwide who specialize in representing
Iraqi Christians, though he represents other clients.
"I know their pain; I feel it," he said of Iraqi Christians. "These are my
people. I don't even have to ask them what they've been through."
Each Christian released from federal custody is a blessing, he said. But for the
most part, "I deal in misery, unfortunately."
In August, DeKelaita got a 3 a.m. phone call from his mother in Chicago telling
him that her brother had been kidnapped in Kirkuk, DeKelaita's city of birth.
The kidnappers demanded a $120,000 ransom, DeKelaita said. After a series of
phone calls and e-mails to Iraq, his uncle was released. DeKelaita declined to
say whether any ransom was paid.
DeKelaita did say, however, that he sent money to hire bodyguards for his uncle.
He worries about his aunt, an interpreter for the U.S. military, whose position
is known to Muslim insurgents, he said.
Unlike Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, Iraqi Christians have no militia to protect
them. Many are clustered in villages in the Nineveh plains north of Mosul, where
their ancestors lived before the Islamic conquest.
DeKelaita's own family left Iraq for the U.S. in 1973, when he was 11.Baptized
in the Assyrian Church of the East,DeKelaita spoke virtually no English but
quickly learned the language in public schools in Chicago. He earned a master's
degree in international relations from the University of Chicago and a law
degree from Loyola University. He is married to an Iraqi Christian; they have
taught Aramaic to their sons, ages 10 and 17.
Even as he delivers speeches and writes articles seeking support for Christians
in Iraq, DeKelaita presses ahead on dozens of asylum cases every month.
More than 235,000 Iraqi refugees, most in Syria and Jordan, are seeking
resettlement, according to the United Nations. Just 2,631 Iraqis were admitted
for resettlement in the U.S. last year. (A spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services said the agency did not keep statistics on Iraqi
Christians who had sought or received asylum.)
For 2008, the U.S. has set a goal of 12,000 Iraqi resettlements, with a focus on
Iraqis who have worked for the U.S. in Iraq. So far this year, 819 Iraqis have
been admitted.
In Chicago recently, DeKelaita counseled Wesim Hanino, a Christian who has been
seeking asylum since mid-2005. Hanino has lived in Detroit on a visitor's visa
since fleeing Iraq after family members were killed by Muslim gunmen, Hanino
said.
Hanino's relatives in Detroit had accused DeKelaita for weeks of dragging his
feet. They persuaded Hanino to take time off from his liquor store job and drive
to Chicago to see him.
At the Chicago immigration office, DeKelaita told Hanino what he had told his
relatives: His case file was still stuck in Detroit. Hanino was convinced
DeKelaita could break the impasse, telling him, "Robert, your hand is blessed."
But even after DeKelaita and Hanino met with a sympathetic immigration
supervisor, they were told Hanino would have to wait for his case file to be
tracked down. Hanino left the office a beaten man. "I spent a thousand dollars
to come to Chicago for nothing -- no answers," he said.
It was a common setback, DeKelaita said: "Clients think I can work magic -- that
I can wave my hand and have the federal government do as I say. It's a long,
difficult process. And when things don't go their way, they -- and 20 or 30
relatives -- blame me."
But most cases, after considerable time and expense, end well.
Anaam Merza Khoshaba, a thin Christian woman, sat wringing her hands in a
courthouse hallway in Chicago just after DeKelaita finished with Hanino.
DeKelaita negotiated her asylum petition with a judge and a government lawyer
inside a closed courtroom.
Khoshaba, 31, had fled Iraq in 2001. She had been detained briefly by Hussein's
intelligence agents and accused of helping Christian missionaries. While a
refugee in Jordan, she married an Iraqi American Christian.
The marriage gave her entry into the U.S. But her husband divorced her in 2004,
leaving her in legal limbo. She missed the deadline for filing for asylum,
forcing DeKelaita to seek an exception. Khoshaba was consoled by an in-law,
Manal Solaqa, an Iraqi American Christian. Solaqa assured her that everything
would work out -- that DeKelaita would prevail.
A few minutes later, DeKelaita emerged from the courtroom and told Khoshaba she
would be granted an exception. She could refile in May for permanent residence.
DeKelaita had persuaded the judge and the government lawyer that she deserved a
second chance because she was employed (at a bakery) and was law-abiding.
Khoshaba covered her face with her hands and wept. "I've been praying every day
for this," she said.
"You're very lucky," DeKelaita told her.
Solaqa shook her head. "It's not luck -- it's Jesus," she said. "He answered our
prayers."
Khoshaba wiped her eyes and grasped a small gold medallion of the Virgin Mary
that dangled from a necklace. She brought it to her lips in a kiss of gratitude.
Ibrahim's case was more problematic, but also more typical of Iraqi Christian
asylum applicants: He arrived penniless after spending his savings on smugglers
and forged papers, then spent months in federal detention while DeKelaita tried
to persuade judges to grant asylum.
In court documents, Ibrahim described an odyssey that took him to Jordan,
Turkey, Greece, Germany, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico in an effort to reach
his sister in Illinois. He said he paid a smuggler $1,150 for a visa to Turkey,
spent $2,500 on a phony French passport in Greece, and gave $3,500 to a Syrian
in Germany for the fake Polish passport.
He made his way to the U.S.-Mexico border, he said, because other Iraqis told
him that was the easiest way to enter the U.S. At the border post, he approached
an immigration officer, admitted his Polish passport was phony, and requested
asylum as an Iraqi Christian.
"I fear that returning to Iraq, I will be subject to torture or even killed due
to my religious beliefs as an Assyrian Christian," he told the officer through a
translator. "I have nothing to return to except fear of death at any moment."
In the San Diego courtroom months later, Ibrahim whispered to a reporter that
there was one more reason to fear returning to Iraq: His brother now works as an
interpreter for the U.S. military at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
"It puts me in direct danger," he said in Aramaic.
A government lawyer fought the asylum application. He said all Iraqis faced
possible death or kidnapping, not just Christians. He pointed out that Ibrahim
was unable to say when he was baptized. DeKelaita countered that Ibrahim was
baptized as an infant. Christians, the lawyer said, are specifically targeted by
Muslim extremists solely because of their faith.
In November, Ibrahim was granted asylum and released. He lives with his sister
outside Chicago and is looking for work. He can apply for a green card, and
permanent residency, in a year.
For DeKelaita, it was a bittersweet victory.
"I wish he could go back to his homeland," he said, "and prosper."
david.zucchino@latimes.com
Iran debate heats up as testimony day approaches »
IRAQ: An endangered Christian community
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2008/04/iraq-iraqs-enda.html
For the second time since February, an Iraqi Christian leader has fallen victim
to religiously motivated violence. Yousif Adil, a priest in Baghdad, was shot to
death Saturday in the capital's Karrada district, which has become an enclave of
sorts for the city's few remaining Christians.
Last month, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of the northern city of Mosul,
Paulos Faraj Rahho, was found dead after gunmen grabbed him Feb. 29 outside his
church after he had finished celebrating a prayer service. Rahho was the
highest-ranking Christian leader to be targeted by armed groups in Iraq since
the U.S. invasion of March 2003.
As the Los Angeles Times reported in this story Friday, Iraq's Christian
community has been decimated and is estimated to number fewer than a
half-million now, compared with more than twice that before the war. As the
story pointed out, unlike Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, Christians have no militia
to protect them. Churches have closed, and many Christians have fled the
country.
Many persevere, though. Last Christmas, as Baghdad enjoyed a relative lull in
violence, thousands of Christians crammed churches to celebrate Mass. Last
November, Iraq got its first Roman Catholic cardinal when Cardinal Emmanuel III
Delly was elevated to the position.
This may have come too late to prevent Christians such as the ones we reported
on last summer in this story from fleeing. It certainly did not help Adil, who
was to be buried Sunday.
The Associated Press quoted an assistant to Adil as saying he was 40 years old
and had moved to Karrada after being forced out of southern Baghdad's Dora
neighborhood, the district profiled in the above-noted story. Adil ran a
religiously mixed school for Christian and Muslim children and was married but
had no children, according to AP.
At least 12 other people were reported killed in violence in Baghdad and
elsewhere Saturday, on what passed for an unusually calm day in the country. The
victims included three people inside a bus in central Baghdad that hit a
roadside bomb; a police brigadier general shot to death in eastern Baghdad, and
four government workers employed to protect oil pipelines who were abducted and
murdered near the Iraq-Iran border east of Baghdad.
— Times staff writers