LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
April 14/08
Bible Reading of the day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 10,1-10. Amen, amen, I
say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over
elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the
shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his
voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven
out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they
recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away
from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers." Although
Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to
tell them. So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the
sheep. All who came (before me) are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not
listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will
come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter
and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
A_solution_for Lebanon's power shortage. By Aziz Chbeir, Ya Libnan
13/04/08
(Robert Fisk).Man of war. By: By: Rachel Cooke. The Guardian 13/04/08
Who owns Lebanon?.By: Ghassan Karam. Ya Libnan 13/04/08
Latest
News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for April 13/08
Saniora: Electing President prevents Renewed Civil War-Naharnet
Saniora in Amman-Naharnet
What is on The
Berri-Mubarak Agenda: Lebanon or Syria?-Naharnet
Paris Sponsors Pro-Saniora Conference-Naharnet
Sfeir: Lebanon on the Path of Collapse-Naharnet
The terrible human cost of cluster bombs-Sunday
Herald
March 14 Not Against
Modified 1960 Electoral Law-Naharnet
Berri Rules Out
Inter-Lebanese Conflict, Israeli Offensive-Naharnet
Berri Rules Out
Inter-Lebanese Conflict, Israeli Offensive-Naharnet
Geagea: Siddiq's
Disappearance Issue New Bid to Obstruct Hariri Tribunal-Naharnet
March 14 Not Against Modified 1960 Electoral Law-Naharnet
Saniora Draws Two Paths
for Lebanon Crisis Solution-Naharnet
Russia Reiterates
Support for Hariri Tribunal and Punishment of Culprits-Naharnet
Rifi Expects More
Assassinations-Naharnet
Aoun for Gen. Suleiman heading Interim
Cabinet!-Naharnet
The Ordeal of Lebanese Detainees in Syrian
Jails-Naharnet
Lebanon Marks Civil War Outbreak Teetering
on New Precipice-Naharnet
Berri: 1960 Electoral Law in Exchange for
Immediate Presidential Elections-Naharnet
Syria Slams Claims By Israel About Arms
Smuggling-Naharnet
U.S. Accuses Iran of Triggering Shiite
'Backlash' in Iraq-Naharnet
Saniora: Electing President prevents Renewed Civil War
Naharnet: Premier Fouad Saniora on Sunday said only
electing a president would activate state institutions and the rule of law to
prevent a return to civil strife that had shattered Lebanon for over 15 years.
Saniora, in a statement to the nation on the 33rd anniversary of the civil war
that broke out on April 13 1975, told the Lebanese that even during the conflict
"we managed to elect a president, and this is the present priority." "Some ask
if there would be a return by the ordeal of confrontations among the Lebanese or
between others on the Land of the Lebanese. Others promote dark thoughts and
catastrophic expectations," Saniora noted.
"like you, I ask myself daily: what to do?" he added. The "only answer is no to
despair …we should not accept to be pushed back by our own will," Saniora said.
"We had managed during our ordeal to elect a president, more than once. The
Lebanese civil order confronted the ferocious campaign that tried to demolish it
and managed to rise again," he added. "Now we are called to work towards
achieving one goal, which is reactivating our Lebanese constitutional
institutions, the basic priority for which is electing a new president," he
concluded. Beirut, 13 Apr 08, 10:54
Sfeir: Lebanon on the Path of Collapse
Naharnet: Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir on
Sunday criticized those who sell their homeland for little money, noting that
"money evaporates while the nation survives." Sfeir, in his sermon at suburban
Bkirki, told believers the nation is being "fragmented, being without a
president, run by an amputated government and with a parliament that doesn't
meet." "This means that the homeland is on the path of collapse," Sfeir noted.
"Despite that we are not being motivated to exert the impossible to salvage it,"
the Patriarch noted. "We ask God to inspire us to what is best for our nation
and our salvation," he added. Beirut, 13 Apr 08, 11:48
Saniora in Amman
Premier Fouad Saniora arrived in Amman Sunday for talks with King
Abdullah II of Jordan on the Lebanon crisis and the strained Beirut-Damascus
relations.
The state-run National News Agency, in a dispatch from Amman, said the talks
later in the day fall within the framework of Saniora's contacts with Arab
leaders to scout ways of facilitating a settlement to the ongoing crisis. The
Saniora mission coincides with a visit by parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a
prominent figure in the Hizbullah-led opposition, to Cairo for talks with
Egyptian President Husni Mubarak. Beirut, 13 Apr 08, 11:17
What is on The Berri-Mubarak Agenda: Lebanon or Syria?
Naharnet: Parliament Speaker Nabih
Berri is to discuss with Egyptian President Husni Mubarak Sunday Lebanon's
presidential crisis that he believes the Arab initiative has failed to settle.
Berri, who flew into Cairo Saturday, would also brief Mubarak on talks he had
held with Syrian President Bashar Assad during a recent visit to Damascus.
Diplomatic sources expected Berri to visit Saudi Arabia, although there has been
no confirmation from Riyadh that the Lebanese Parliament Speaker was to hold
talks with the Kingdom's officials. Before leaving for Cairo, Berri said the
Arab initiative was "in the middle of a blocked road."
He said he was calling for dialogue to "salvage the Arab initiative, which would
lead to salvaging Lebanon.""Let us help ourselves so we can help the Arabs,"
Berri said. He cautioned that in four or five months "we wouldn't be able to
discuss the topic of forming a national unity cabinet. The topic for discussion
would be forming an interim cabinet to supervise (parliamentary) elections."
Forming an interim cabinet, according to Berri, "requires a neutral premier or
at least a neutral interior minister. This would result in a problem," Berri
noted.
"The Americans are not in a hurry to achieve a settlement," Berri said, adding
"Saudi Arabia and Iran realize the need to maintain their relations because they
know that it affects Lebanon, especially the Sunni-Shiite issue."In a related
development, Agence France Press (AFP) quoted an unnamed ministerial source as
saying efforts by majority Premier Fouad Saniora to request a meeting by Arab
Foreign Ministers to tackle Lebanon's deteriorating relations with Syria appear
"facing some complications because Syria heads the Arab Summit."Arab League
Secretary General Amr Moussa is to ask Damascus about its stand regarding
discussing the issue by Arab Foreign Ministers, the source added. The source,
which was not identified, said Moussa's visit to Lebanon at present "would be
useless."
He added that Egypt and Saudi Arabia "insist" that any rapprochement with Syria
should go through a settlement to the Lebanese crisis "at a time Syria rejects
such a link. This does not indicate that a settlement is near." Beirut, 13 Apr
08, 08:41
March 14 Not Against Modified 1960 Electoral Law
Naharnet: The pro-government March 14
coalition said it is not against adopting the 1960 parliamentary elections law
but after making amendments to the qada-based law. The pan-Arab daily Al Hayat,
citing high-ranking March 14 officials, said Saturday that the alliance "does
not object to accepting qada as electoral constituency but that can only happen
after re-evaluating the 1960 law."The officials said the majority was open to a
"fair and balanced solution even though laws are not equal to all people,
meaning that they cannot please all Lebanese.""Therefore, agreement on a law
that satisfies the majority of them (Lebanese) is needed," one official said.
The officials were responding to a call by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri who
announced his willingness to elect Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman as
President "immediately" if March 14 approved the 1960 electoral law at the same
parliament session scheduled to choose a new head of state for
Lebanon.Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said Berri's offer is being examined by
March 14. "The problem is a political one, and any settlement should be
political," Aridi said in remarks published by the daily An Nahar on Saturday.
Beirut, 12 Apr 08, 07:14
Paris Sponsors Pro-Saniora Conference
Naharnet: French Foreign Minister Bernard
Kouchner is setting the stage for sponsoring a meeting grouping foreign
ministers and representatives of 10 western and Arab states in support of
Premier Fouad Saniora's Government. The Pan-Arab Daily al-Hayat said U.N. chief
Ban Ki-moon, EU representative Javier Solana and Arab League Secretary General
Amr Moussa are to take part in the meeting on the sidelines of a conference on
Iraq reconstruction to be hosted by Kuwait.
The meeting, according to the report, is to group foreign ministers of Saudi
Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Germany,
Italy, The United Kingdom and Spain. Paris, the report said, believes "time is
not in favor of Syria." "Lacking a president in Lebanon similar to (former head
of state) Emile Lahoud is good news for advocates of independence and
sovereignty … Presidential powers are now held by the government, and this is in
favor of independence advocates because when the presidency (Lahoud's) was in
Syria's hands they had not been able to make any move," the report added. "The
government can make appointments without being hampered by someone like Lahoud,"
the report explained. Paris believes "Saniora is running the country well … this
cabinet that is backed by the majority enjoys wide respect like the threatened
MPs who reside in a hotel to avoid the death threat," the report noted. It spoke
of a general belief that "no major developments are expected before the spring
of 2009." "No one is in a win position in Lebanon at present, neither the
opposition nor the majority. But the majority is gaining ground," the report
concluded. Beirut, 13 Apr 08, 09:24
Berri Rules Out Inter-Lebanese Conflict, Israeli Offensive
Naharnet: Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on
Saturday ruled out the likelihood of inter-Lebanese conflict or a new Israeli
aggression on south Lebanon "at this stage." Berri said his offer for dialogue
was the only means to rescue the Arab initiative aimed at ending the ongoing
political crisis in Lebanon. "If dialogue is prohibited, then what is
permissible?" Berri asked in a clear response to some pro-government leaders who
rejected his call for all-party talks. "The Arab initiative has almost reached a
deadlock and the dialogue I called for is to salvage it," Berri said. Beirut, 12
Apr 08, 18:45
A solution for Lebanon's power shortage
Sunday, 13 April, 2008 @ 8:46 AM
http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2008/04/a_solution_for.php
By Aziz Chbeir,
Special to Ya Libnan
In Lebanon, electricity is a scarce and expensive resource comparing to the
lifestyle and income of the people.
EDL (Electricite du Liban), the local state-controlled company managing the
power resources of the country, find it difficult to meet the needs of the
entire population. People then appeal to the holders of power generators (mostly
in a monopoly or oligopoly context) who can blackmail their clients, powerless
in front of such situation.
It seems therefore urgent that the consumer takes charge of its own "power"
destiny in order to no longer be at the mercy of unscrupulous suppliers.
The installation of a solar water heater in Lebanon is an effective way to
combine ecology, economy and energy independence. It is made up of thermal solar
panels (4 sq. meters) and a hot water tank (200 liters). This standard is
appropriate for a household of 5 persons. During 6 months, the solar water
heater is 100% operational while the remaining 6 months, it provides
approximately 70% of the hot water needs of a family of 5 persons. The system is
thus efficient.
Indeed at the economic level first, according to several studies, 25% of the
electricity consumption of a Lebanese household is devoted to its hot water
requirements. Knowing that the price of a solar water heater is estimated at
$1000, studies carried out in Lebanon showed that the payback of the investment
is estimated at 5 years while the equipment can work at least 20 years (LAU
study in 2005).
Each square meter receives more than 2000 kWh per year in Lebanon. This is
higher than the Spanish average, estimated at 1700 kWh/year. But in Spain, any
new housing is required (it's in the law) to install a solar water heater. Why
not do the same and even more in Lebanon?
In addition the installation of solar water heaters (on a large-scale) is
helping EDL by sparing the construction of new costly power plants and thus in
principle, maintaining electricity prices "affordable". Because the cost of
electricity production in Lebanon is strongly linked to imported fuel oil whose
price is set to increase "irreversibly" over the years. Hence the urgent need to
act before it is too late.
This approach is especially beneficial for the country as a whole that it will
increase the share of electricity production from its own resources, initiating
a first step toward energy independence of Lebanon.
Indeed if we are looking at the local production of electricity, Lebanon
produces less than 10% of its electricity through water power. Solar energy
could be added to this part of energy independence at about 10% (government
estimation) only with the installation of solar water heaters in all houses of
the country. Thus by opting massively for this technology, the citizen
contributes to the lightening of the pressure on EDL while reducing energy, and
hence economic and political, dependence of Lebanon vis-a-vis neighboring
countries. Those are our major suppliers of electricity and fuels (oil and gas)
required for the functioning of our power stations.
The future of the country depends on the democratization of such technologies
because once aware of this potential, people will naturally be asking for it.
Local media can play an important role for public awareness on the positive
effects associated with renewables. Just as the state may catalyze the
acquisition on citizen scale of solar water heater, whether through a mechanism
of grants or by the enactment of a law more engaged in this field.
But ultimately, it's up to us to make the decision.
Source: Ya Libnan Exclusive
March 14 Not Against Modified
1960 Electoral Law
Naharnet/The pro-government March 14 coalition said it is not against adopting
the 1960 parliamentary elections law but after making amendments to the qada-based
law. The pan-Arab daily Al Hayat, citing high-ranking March 14 officials, said
Saturday that the alliance "does not object to accepting qada as electoral
constituency but that can only happen after re-evaluating the 1960 law." The
officials said the majority was open to a "fair and balanced solution even
though laws are not equal to all people, meaning that they cannot please all
Lebanese." "Therefore, agreement on a law that satisfies the majority of them
(Lebanese) is needed," one official said. The officials were responding to a
call by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri who announced his willingness to elect
Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman as President "immediately" if March 14
approved the 1960 electoral law at the same parliament session scheduled to
choose a new head of state for Lebanon. Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said
Berri's offer is being examined by March 14. "The problem is a political one,
and any settlement should be political," Aridi said in remarks published by the
daily An Nahar on Saturday. Beirut, 12 Apr 08, 07:14
Saniora Draws Two Paths for Lebanon Crisis Solution
Naharnet/Premier Fouad Saniora, who is preparing to kick off his second Arab
tour, has announced that either a new president is quickly elected or the
Lebanese crisis will be handed over to the Arab League to bring closer the views
of bickering politicians. We "either elect a president as soon as possible or
(we) hand over the issue to the Arab League" to deal with it, Saniora said in
remarks published on Saturday. He said the organization was studying "new
procedures to solve the crisis regarding Lebanese-Syrian relations." Saniora
returned to Beirut on Thursday from a tour to Arab countries aimed at shoring up
support for a Lebanese demand to hold an Arab foreign ministers' meeting to
discuss strained Lebanese-Syrian ties. An Nahar daily reported Saturday that
well-informed Arab sources have said Secretary General Amr Moussa will discuss
in Damascus next week with Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is the head of the
rotating presidency of the Arab League, the issue of electing a new Lebanese
head of state during a parliamentary session scheduled for April 22. The
newspaper said the meeting will be held on the basis of a decision made by Arab
foreign ministers on March 11 calling for the immediate election of a new
president and a decision later in the month by the Arab League to entrust Moussa
with resuming his efforts to solve the Lebanese crisis. Beirut, 12 Apr 08, 05:39
Russia Reiterates Support for Hariri Tribunal and
Punishment of Culprits
Naharnet/Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Sergei Pukin on Friday
reiterated Moscow's support for the international tribunal that would try
suspects in the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri and related
crimes. Pukin told reporters the ongoing investigation into Hariri's murder
"should be accomplished and the culprits, be they individuals or sides, should
be punished." "We adhere to this stand and we would support the tribunal that
shouldn't be politicized. We, as permanent members of the U.N. Security Council,
follow up closely the ongoing investigation into the crime," he added. He also
outlined that Russia rejects "political assassination." Pukin made the remarks
to reporters during a visit to Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat
at his ancestral palace in Mukhtara. Beirut, 11 Apr 08, 17:11
Rifi Expects More Assassinations
Naharnet/Police chief Gen. Ashraf Rifi did not rule out new
assassinations in Lebanon. "There is always a possibility," Rifi said after
meeting Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir in Bkirki on Friday. He said that the
government's top priority was to make sure that civil war does not ignite. "We
don't have signs that any side wants" civil war, Rifi said. When asked about the
investigation into the Jan. 25 assassination of security intelligence officer
Maj. Wissam Eid, Rifi said: "There are some clues…but these terrorist crimes
were committed by professional murderers and more time is needed," to find the
culprits. Sfeir, in turn, expressed fears that what Lebanon and the region were
experiencing was really "the calm before the storm." "I see that the tranquility
prevailing over Lebanon and the region is the calm before the storm," Sfeir
said."Lebanon cannot suffer from more jolts and battles in the absence of
institutions," he added. Beirut, 12 Apr 08, 08:04
Aoun for Gen. Suleiman heading Interim Cabinet!
Naharnet/Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun was quoted Friday as
proposing a compromise based on appointing Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman
head of an interim cabinet that would sponsor parliamentary elections. George
al-Aaraj, representative of the so-called Liberal Tigers faction that broke away
from the National Liberal party, told reporters he discussed with Aoun the idea
that "Gen. Michel Suleiman, being the subject of consensus, heads a transitional
government that supervises parliamentary elections.""Gen. Aoun said the idea is
part of his perspective," Aaraj added, according to a report distributed by the
state-run National News Agency (NNA).The non-constitutional proposal appears
aimed at averting efforts aimed at facilitating the election of Suleiman
president, which would drop Aoun as a major factor to any settlement. Only an
elected president can appoint a head of an interim government, a post to which
Aoun was appointed by ex-President Amin Gemayel when his term came to an end
late in the 1980s during the civil war. The post of president went vacant on
Nov. 22 when former head of state Emile Lahoud's term expired with parliament
failing to elect a successor. With no president running the nation, no one has
the constitutional authority to appoint an interim cabinet. Beirut, 11 Apr 08,
15:07
Who owns Lebanon?
Saturday, 12 April, 2008 @ 4:47 PM
By Ghassan Karam
Special to Ya Libnan
Who owns a country, I mean who is it that really owns a country?
When such a seminal question is raised it is not meant to show an interest in
who holds title to property but the question is raised in an effort to get a
handle on who in society is empowered to make the important decisions that shape
the social, political and economic policies for the state. Who is it that is
responsible for the design of the national fabric?
In many parts of the world the above question would be dismissed not because it
is not important but because citizens view such a question as being very so
elementary that they would be surprised about even the need to ask it. They
would regard it as being the epitome of triteness and banality. It would be
taken for granted that in the same way that the sun shines every morning the
stakeholders, the everyday citizens own the nation and that elected officials
are their only to serve the public.
Elected officials are held accountable for every one of their actions and if
they cannot deliver on their promises then their term of service will become
short indeed. Unfortunately this is not the case in the Arabic speaking world
including Lebanon. This is a world where such a question is not raised because
to contemplate the possibility of ownership by anyone besides the anointed
tribal lords is tantamount to sacrilege.
What is truly disconcerting about this political setup is the daily scenes of
the victims praising their victimizers. That is nothing short of feudal
societies where the serfs gave everything that they have, including their lives,
for the protection of the Lord of the Manor.
The mindless shouts of "By blood, by soul, we sacrifice for you Bashar" is not
that much different from the hoodlums in Beirut who roam the street terrorizing
neighborhoods because of a 2 minute comedic sketch that made some light hearted
fun of their hallowed leader or those that take to the streets in their cars
filling the night sky with thousands upon thousands of rounds from their illegal
guns just because their tribal leader gave a speech on TV.
It would be easy to blame the Lebanese political class for the huge problems
that the country is facing and that would not be wrong. But the real failure in
Lebanon, just as well as the rest of the Arab world, is the failure for
responsible citizenship to make an appearance. It is time that we, the citizens,
wake up and take control of our destiny. The country belongs to us and we have
to hold the feet of the politicians to the fire so to speak. Traditional
politicians and traditional tribal lords belong to a traditional world that is
hanging to life because of our failure to assert ourselves. If Lebanon is to
grow and prosper then we, the citizens, must change. The blame for failure rests
upon our shoulders more so than the shoulders of our failed politicians.
Democracy demands that we become involved, active and that we insist on
accountability. If we do not make this transition then the best that we can hope
for is a continuation of the current status quo. That would be tragic.
*Ghassan Karam welcomes your correspondence at wp.karam@gmail.com
(Robert Fisk).Man of war. By: By: Rachel Cooke. The Guardian 13/04/08
Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
He's been bombed, shot at and severely beaten. His reporting over 30 years in
the Middle East has earned him many awards - and as many enemies. So, at 61, is
Robert Fisk finally ready to leave Beirut? Not a bit of it, says Rachel Cooke
By: Rachel Cooke
The Observer, Sunday April 13 2008 Article historyAbout this articleClose
This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday
April 13 2008 on p12 of the Comment & features section. It was last updated at
00:49 on April 13 2008.
Journalist Robert Fisk. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/EPA
Over the years, the balcony of Robert Fisk's flat in Beirut, which looks out
over the city's renowned Corniche, has taken on a legendary quality. In his
writing, he mentions it often, as a place of refuge: it is where he wants to be
as he tries to forget the quotidian horror of his working day. Having survived
countless shells in the more than 30 years he has lived in the building, it has
come to stand for Fisk's longevity as a reporter, his endurance and also,
perhaps, his luck. In his book The Great War for Civilisation, he describes the
way that, in the years since the American-led invasion of Iraq, he wakes to the
sound of the wind swishing through the branches of the palm trees outside his
window and thinks: 'Where will today's explosion be?' (Answer: on his doorstep.
Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister of Lebanon, was murdered on 14 February
2005, probably by the Syrians, only yards from Fisk's home, in an explosion so
fierce the aforementioned palm trees dipped towards him as if 'in a tornado'.)
It is, then - at least on the page - a place of peace and tranquillity, of quiet
before the permanent storm that is life in the Middle East.
In reality, though, it is not quite like this. I've stood on more relaxing
traffic islands. It is early evening, and Fisk and I are sitting on this famous
balcony in the gloom of a Beirut power cut. We are talking - or, rather, he is
talking. Luckily he has a loud, uncompromising kind of a voice and the balcony
is tiny, so he is close to me, both of which ensure that I can hear him above
the roar of cruising Mercedes below. It is the end of a long day - he picked me
up at nine this morning for a drive south to the border with Israel, and I've
been with him every minute since - but, if anything, Fisk's energy, unlike my
own, increases with every word he utters. On he goes: unrelenting, furious,
pernickety and labyrinthine in argument. Every anecdote involves three dusty
side alleys, every explanation three historical examples. Worn down by these
things, I ask - too casually, I see now - if he thinks that, once the Americans
exit Iraq (he believes that they will do this soon; that the US media is already
preparing the ground by running articles bemoaning - I paraphrase - the fact
that the Iraqis simply don't deserve what the US has offered them), there will
be a civil war. 'Do you CARE?' he shouts. Perhaps I look startled, because he
now corrects himself. 'Do WE care? I don't think we do.'
It's at this point that I start to think longingly of my hotel room in the
Holiday Inn; not the old Holiday Inn, which stood close to the green line during
the Lebanese civil war and is a pockmarked, shelled-out monument to terror to
this day, but a new one, above a smart shopping mall. But it's difficult to get
away. For one thing, every time I open my mouth to make my excuses, either he
interrupts - Bin Laden this, Noam Chomsky that - or he takes another mobile
phone call (no call can be missed, no matter that those coming in tonight are
not from top contacts but from groups wanting to book him for lectures). When I
do finally lift my bottom from my seat, he takes it as an opportunity to show me
his desk - on it, a set of Russian dolls decorated with the faces of Israeli
prime ministers and a framed postcard of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the
moments before his assassination in 1914 (Fisk's father fought in the trenches
in the First World War, a fact that has had a profound influence on his own
life). At last he puts me in a taxi, though not before he has reminded me that
he'll pick me up at 5.30am so that we can travel to the airport together: he is
off to Canada to lecture; I'm going home to sleep like the dead. It's kind of
him to take such care of me, but I can't say I feel too grateful at this moment.
Will he still be like this in the morning? Fisk's long-suffering driver, Abed,
was right: one day with him is like a month with anyone else.
Robert Fisk is one of the most famous journalists in the world, and one of the
most divisive. Many revere him both for the muscular quality of his reporting -
in a world numbed by 24/7 television, he makes news seem gripping and important
and full of pity - and for his refusal to shy away from saying that which few
other writers dare to put down on the page. No one escapes the heat of his ire:
neither Bush nor Blair, neither Israel nor the Arab dictatorships. For him,
journalism is about 'naming the guilty' and sod the consequences. In his more
than 30 years as a Middle East correspondent - during which time he has survived
bombs, bullets, two kidnap attempts and, perhaps most notoriously, a thorough
beating at the hands of a group of Afghan refugees in Pakistan - he has won more
awards than any other foreign news journalist and has written two bestselling
and acclaimed books: Pity the Nation, a devastating history of the Lebanese
civil war, and The Great War for Civilisation, a 1,300 page history, with
eyewitness accounts lifted directly from his own notebooks, of the 'conquest' of
the Middle East (his latest book, The Age of the Warrior, a collection of his
journalism, has just been published). Fisk's lectures sell out across the world;
at his book signings, the queue extends out of the door.
For others, though, Fisk is a hate figure, especially since 9/11, when he
outraged many by asking what had motivated those who were responsible for the
attacks. As a result, he received extensive hate mail. 'My father thinks he's
the Antichrist,' said a friend of mine when I told her that I was going to meet
him. His enemies accuse Fisk of being 'biased'; he is anti-west and anti-Israel,
they argue. Usually they stop short of calling him anti-semitic, though this
does happen sometimes. Alan Dershowitz, the liberal Harvard law professor, has
called Fisk 'pro-terrorist' and 'anti-American', which, he added at the time,
'is the same as anti-semitic'. (Fisk's approach to this sort of thing is robust:
anyone who makes this accusation in print can expect to hear from his lawyer.)
His enemies also accuse him of getting his facts wrong. In 2001, the word 'Fisking'
passed into the language, meaning a point-by-point refutation of a news story.
The term was named after Fisk because he is such a frequent and, his enemies
would say, deserving target of this kind of treatment.
For my own part, I admire his bravery - that, at least, is indisputable - and
his writing; he is a brilliant reporter, and I feel this even when I disagree
with him. At the Israeli border, where Fisk wants to check out the rumour that
south Lebanon's villages are empty of their young men, all of whom have gone to
Iran to train as Hizbollah fighters in the expectation that there will soon be
another war, I am struck by his charm, his refusal to accept his interviewees'
answers at face value, and his eye for the telling detail. His book Pity the
Nation is without peer. But it is worrying that he refers to himself repeatedly
in the third person. 'Have you read any Fisk?' he asks me on the telephone
before I land in Beirut, a question that is insulting on so many levels. And now
I'm here, he keeps calling himself 'Mr Bob'. Oh, well.
When we get back from our trip, we eat lunch in the heart of Rafik Hariri's
rebuilt Beirut, in streets so beautiful that it's almost vertigo-inducing to
consider the way that, two hours down the road, I see how people are still
trying to recover from the Israeli bombs of 2006. Does he ever get used to this,
to landing in normality after a day out in the field? He looks dismissive. 'I
was talking to an Armenian girl the other day,' he says. 'She said: "How has
Lebanon changed you?" It was the same week that Antoine Ghanem [the Lebanese
anti-Syrian MP, murdered in September 2007] was killed in his car. I saw him in
his car, dead, blood everywhere. I was totally unmoved by it. That's what
Lebanon has done to me, and it has done exactly the same to the Lebanese.'
Does it appal him, this numbness? 'No. If you do the job I do, you're going to
see a lot of dead people. My anger is still there. I name the guilty party, and
fuck them if they don't like it. At Sabra-Shatila [when, in 1982, Christian
Phalangists murdered some 2,000 Palestinian refugees while the Israeli army
stood by], I'd never seen so many bodies. I stopped counting at 100. I climbed
over corpses. I remember thinking: if these people have souls, they would want
me to be there. I thought they would treat me as a friend for that reason. So I
wasn't horrified. I was horrified that they had been murdered, but that
[manifested itself in] anger. I thought: the fucking people who did this. I knew
some of them. I've met some of them since! Of course, this may be very arrogant
of me. Maybe they'd prefer not to have Mr Robert wandering around. People are
frightened of dead bodies because they're frightened of dying. I'm very careful.
I want to live a long time. But I'm not afraid of the institution. I'm one of
the few people who knows he's going to die.'
But if he doesn't want to die, why has he done his job for such a long time? He
is 61; most men would have long since hung up their flak jacket (not that Fisk
deigns to wear one). 'There is nothing so satisfying as to be shot at without
effect.' So he is addicted to danger? 'William Dalrymple called me a war junkie
in his silly book. No, I don't have a desire for it. I'm appalled and infuriated
by it.' So what does he mean: that it is exciting? 'When I came here, there was
no doubt it was exciting. I was 29. At that age, your experience is movies, in
which the hero always lives. So you think you'll live. I remember bullets
whizzing past me like bees, feeling the air pressure change as they did. Back in
Europe, you could dine out on your experiences for ages. But I was frightened.'
Being frightened is a necessary side-effect if you're to tell readers what is
happening. Fisk is dismissive of what he calls 'hotel journalism', a trend that
has reached its nadir in Iraq, where reporters stay largely inside the Green
Zone; they might as well, he says, be reporting from County Mayo.
But against such a background, does the rest of life - love, friendship, home -
seem more or less important? Fisk refuses to discuss his private life (he is
divorced from the journalist Lara Marlowe), but such an existence must play
havoc with relationships. 'If you don't use your terror to think properly,
you're dead,' he says. 'The thing that's bad about that is you start making
other decisions in life too quickly: where to buy a house, where to go on
holiday.' All he'll say about the other stuff is: 'I'm not sure whether I've
been happy. After my last book tour, I sat on my balcony with a cup of tea. I
thought: you can't rewind the movie. I've spent more than half my life in the
Middle East. There have been great moments of horror and depression and
loneliness. Was it the right thing to do? I could have been in Paris with a safe
job, watching children grow up. Then I remembered the letter in which the
foreign editor of the Times offered me the job [he left the Times for the
Independent in 1988]. It was like King Abdullah being offered Jordan, or Faisal,
Iraq. Sitting there, I realised that if I had my time over, I still would have
gone. I would have lived this life. I can't imagine a more eventful, dramatic
life.' So when is he happy? 'Oh, when I'm bought lunch by The Observer.'
The trouble is that he has 'so many' friends. 'You don't know people as well as
you should. It's a bit like having four stories to write in a day: you can't
concentrate on any of them.' In The Great War for Civilisation, he recalls that
in 2001, after he was beaten up by refugees on the Afghan border - they reduced
him to tears and left him with a problem with his balance, but he said
afterwards that he didn't blame them for their fury - the second person to call
him as he lay bleeding in bed was Rafik Hariri, then the Lebanese prime
minister. He tells this story somewhat proudly, but it makes me feel a little
sad for him.
Fisk was born in 1946 in Maidstone, Kent, an only child. His father, the borough
treasurer of Maidstone Council, seems to have been quite a distant man: 'a man
of his time', says Fisk, who was closer to his mother. Bill Fisk had fought in
the trenches and used to take his small son round the battlefields of the Great
War each year. By the time Robert was 14, he could recite the names of all the
offensives: Bapaume, Hill 60, High Wood, Passchendaele. Fisk is adamant that he
is not a soldier manqué, that his career is not some kind of atonement for his
failure - his generation's failure - to have fought in a war. But still, there
is a link between his father's life and his work. After the Allied victory in
1918, the victors divided up the lands of their former enemies. As he notes in
the preface to The Great War for Civilisation, in the space of 17 months they
created the borders of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and the Middle East - the
very places where Fisk has spent the past 30 years watching people 'burn'. He
decided when he was just 12 that he wanted to be a reporter, after seeing
Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent. He took a degree in linguistics and classics
at Lancaster University - his digs were on the front at Morecambe - and then
joined the Newcastle Evening Chronicle as a cub reporter. From 1972, he was
Belfast correspondent for the Times. Then, in 1979, he was dispatched to Beirut,
from where he reported on the Iranian revolution, the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf
war, the Balkan conflict and, of course, on more than a decade of Lebanon's
15-year civil war. During the hostage crisis, he was the only western male
journalist who stayed in Beirut. 'I thought: if you leave, you'll never come
back. There was the danger of contamination, that people would think I was a
spy. There are still people who think I'm a spy because I am a foreigner,
because I wasn't kidnapped.'
It's a crazed exaggeration to say that his being offered the Middle East was
like Faisal being offered Iraq, but still, it was something of a poisoned
chalice: replete with stories and adventure, but also with a ravenous kind of
danger. When he arrived, the war was four years old. Were his parents worried
about him? 'My father became so as the years went by, but at first he just told
me: "Don't worry about shells, worry about snipers." When he died, my landlord,
Mustapha, said: "I don't think you would have survived without him", and he was
right.' When the Israelis finally ordered all journalists to leave West Beirut,
his mother somehow got through on the telephone - a miracle, given the shelling
- and when he told her that he was staying put (he believed the Israelis wanted
journalists to leave so they could get on with killing people), she said: 'Yes,
we thought you should stay.' Even so, as their only child, didn't he ever feel
guilty? 'No, it didn't worry me at all. I want to do what I want to do. I wanted
to report the war. What else would I do if I didn't do that? I would go mad.'
One of the striking things about Fisk is that he has never gone native - or, as
he puts it, 'become one of those mad loonies who go round wearing kafias and
empathising' - a fact he attributes to the fact that the Arab world 'drives me
up the wall', and to his father, 'who taught me to be me: he was dismissive of
people who tried to copy other people'. But how does he feel about Lebanon? He
has a house in Ireland, yet you cannot imagine him ever leaving his flat on the
Corniche. 'I don't like people who say they love Lebanon,' he says. 'They come
here, cream off the stories they want, don't bother to learn the language [he
speaks Arabic], then go off and become Moscow correspondent. I love the life I
have here, but the Lebanese are dangerous people. They're hospitable, gracious,
cosmopolitan, learned, yet they can rip themselves to pieces in a civil war and
kill 150,000 people. Foreigners come here, they smile and Lebanon smiles back,
and they don't spot when she stops smiling. Between "no problem" and haraam
["for shame"], there's about five seconds. I treat the Lebanese with respect;
most people don't. It's not my country.' Does this statement include an element
of fear? 'No. But I think they live a great tragedy. Anyone living in an
artificially created country is living a tragedy. They risked their lives for
me. [In the hostage crisis] they used to put me in a Druze hat to take me to the
airport.'
The phrase 'It's not my country' is one he uses several times, notably when I
bring up the subject of fundamentalism, about which he has (unusually) little to
say: 'It's not my country; I might [worry about fundamentalism] if I were
Lebanese.' When I worry aloud about women's rights in the Muslim world - I've
just been to Yemen to report on them - he grows exasperated. 'Yes, and it's
amazing that the great pastor George W Bush, who cares so much about
Christianity, is successfully emptying Iraq of one of the oldest Christian
communities in the Middle East. You've got to take society as you find it,
unless there is clear evidence of torture or sexual mutilation, and then
education is the only thing. Laws don't work. If we put as much money into
computer science and schools in the Middle East as we do into weapons, we would
not have the problems we have. But we don't do that. We want oil.' These
problems, he believes, are severe; the situation is more serious than at any
time since he came here. Those who say he is a doom-monger are just wrong. 'I
will not say there is any hope. I will not! We are in deep shit.'
When Fisk first arrived in Beirut, he believed that Israel would survive. Now he
is not so sure. The Israeli press is, he says, self-delusional. The army is
'shabby, a rabble; they don't always obey orders, and they don't always turn
up'. In South Lebanon in 2006, they got 'chucked out by Hizbollah, a third-rate
militia'. He wonders whether, if Israel's borders were really threatened - 'as
opposed to false threats; Ahmadinejad might as well work for the Israelis, and
maybe he does' - America would go to war for it. 'American power in the Middle
East is collapsing. It doesn't need much more than a shove, and it will - and
that's not going to be a good thing.' But I'm not exactly sure why he thinks it
will be a bad thing, because his next point is that the west should leave the
Middle East alone: 'We've got to stop bombing them, either in a surrogate manner
through Israel, or directly... There are 22 times more western troops in the
Muslim world than there were at the time of the crusades... We come promising
freedom yet we always arrive with our horses and our swords, our Humvees and our
helicopter gunships.' When this collapse of US power does happen - he won't give
me a timescale - Israel's best bet will be to go back to its international
borders. Has Israel a right to exist? 'Yes, why not? I think any group of people
can have a homeland, but they've got to remember that if they build it on other
people's land, there will be a problem with that, [especially if] they then
treat the dispossessed as animals.'
After I've paid our bill, Abed, Fisk's faithful driver, takes us to his flat.
Though my illusions about that peaceful balcony are somewhat shattered, it's a
lovely place: spare and cool and book-laden, with a few handsome pieces of
Syrian furniture. I switch my tape recorder on. Off he goes again. We talk first
about bias. 'We must pursue injustice. This is not a football match where you
report both sides. This is a massive human tragedy. At Sabra-Shatila did I give
equal time to the Phalange? No, I did not. When I reported on a suicide bombing
in an Israeli pizzeria did I give equal time to Islamic Jihad? No. You talk to
the victims.' Then we talk about Osama Bin Laden, whom Fisk has interviewed
three times. 'Bin Laden is irrelevant. Killing him now is like arresting the
nuclear scientists after the atom bomb was invented. The monster is born. Even
when he does speak, we don't listen. He says things [Arab] leaders will not say.
He articulates injustice.' When, finally, I can think of no more questions - or,
at least, when I can go on no longer - he seems surprised that my industry does
not match his own. I follow him downstairs to find a taxi and I think again what
a straight, almost military back he has. He is very proud. Perhaps I have
offended him with my exhaustion. Or does he just want for company?
So now let us cut to 5.30am, or thereabouts. The scene: the desk at the
executive lounge at Beirut International Airport. Fisk is kindly asking his
friend, the woman who runs this executive lounge, if I might join him, even
though I'm travelling economy. She makes a joke. 'Maybe she doesn't want to sit
with you, Robert,' she says - or words to that effect. Am I imagining it, or is
there a knowing glint in her eye? I walk in the direction of the nearest sofa,
hoping the coffee will be strong. He is, God love him, exactly the same in the
morning: if this is what he's like on four hours' sleep, I can only tremble at
the thought of him after eight.
· The Age of the Warrior, by Robert Fisk, is published by Fourth Estate, priced
£14.99. To order a copy for £13.99 with free UK p&p go to observer.co.uk/bookshop
or call 0870 836 0885