LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 21/08

Bible Reading of the day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 20,17-28. As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve (disciples) aside by themselves, and said to them on the way,Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day." Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached him with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.
He said to her, "What do you wish?" She answered him, "Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom." Jesus said in reply, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?" They said to him, "We can."He replied, "My cup you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left (, this) is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Mughniyeh’s Death a Harbinger for War-Arab News. 20/02/08
Turning a terrorist into a cult hero.By W. Thomas Smith, Jr. 20/02/08
Lebanese turmoil withers 'Beirut Spring' optimism.By Nicholas Blanford. 21/02/08
Lebanon is in desperate need of responsible leaders-By Makram Ouaiss. 20/02/08
Security Breach. By: Elias Harfouch.Al-Hayat. 20/02/08
Mughniyah – Iran Has Only Itself to Blame.By: Dr. Yohai Sela. CFP 20/02/08

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for February 20/08
Berri Hints Solution in the Offing, Says 10+10+10 Formula Could be Adopted-Naharnet
Ahmadinejad Attacks 'Savage Animal' Israel Over Mughniyeh's Murder-Naharnet
Geagea Speaks of New Status Quo After Feb. 14-Naharnet
EU: Unacceptable Lebanon Situation-Naharnet
Report: Threats Forced Closure of French Cultural Centers-Naharnet
Mughniyeh: A Legend in his Home Village-Naharnet
Morocco Arrests 23, Including Manar Correspondent, Over Terror Plot-Naharnet
Small Quake Hits South Lebanon-Naharnet
Syria to Facilitate Last-Minute Elections to Avoid Arab Boycott of ...Naharnet
Lebanon's Worst After the Damascus Summit-Naharnet
A President, No Government and Another Divine Victory-Naharnet
US presses N. Korea on Syria By Nicholas Kralev-Washington Times
Siniora says lack of Lebanese president will sink Arab summit-Daily Star
'There is no initiative but the Arab initiative' - Mitri-Daily Star
Analysts say civil war unlikely, but warn situation could slip 'out of control-Daily Star
French centers to reopen if tensions ease-Daily Star
State seeks death penalty for Abssi, three others-AFP
Israel fears Hizbullah will target officials abroad-Daily Star
Lebanon through the lens of Larnaca-Daily Star
Israel was 'well aware' it was harming civilians Jewish state 'has duty' to investigate war crimes-Daily Star
Lebanon's trade deficit hits record $8.999 billion-Daily Star
Snowstorm cuts off access to villages in Lebanon's mountains-Daily Star
Olmert and Abbas agree to pick up pace of peace talks-Daily Star
Ailing Castro calls it quits after five decades in office-AFP
Hezbollah will strike back, question is where and when-American Jewish Committee (press release
Analysis: EU Hezbollah policy draws fire-United Press International
Israel must 'assume' Hezbollah will attack-United Press International
INTERVIEW-Arab summit at risk without Lebanon solution-PM-Reuters
Muslim Religious Summit For Thursday-Naharnet
Syrian Border Guards Kill Lebanese Child-Naharnet
A President, No Government and Another Divine Victory-Naharnet
Qandil Accuses Saudi Arabia of 'Conspiring Against Lebanon'-Naharnet
Gordon Renews to Saniora Britain's Backing-Naharnet
Qabalan Asks Saudi to Withdraw Travel Advisory on LebanonSevere Snowstorm Batters Lebanon-Naharnet
Prosecutor Demands Death for Abssi, 3 Others in Ain Alaq Bombings-Naharnet
Israel Fears Hizbullah Would Target Top Official Abroad-Naharnet
Pharaon: Let's Not Link Lebanon to Regional Elements-Naharnet
Bazzi: 'Knot' Remains in Formation of National Unity Government-Naharnet
Saniora: Lebanon Wants 'Good Relations' with All Countries-Naharnet
Syria to Facilitate Last-Minute Elections to Avoid Arab Boycott of Summit-Naharnet
Saudis Advised to Stay Out of Lebanon as France Shuts Cultural Centers-Naharnet
Fearing Hizbullah Retaliation, Israel deploys Defense Missiles-Naharnet
View Lunar Eclipse in Lebanon on Thursday-Naharnet
Kuwait Urges Restraint after Mughniyeh Killing-Naharnet
Ex-Mossad Agent in Beirut: It's Not a Matter of Just Pressing the Button-Naharnet

Several countries believe Moughniyah is a criminal but not the Hezbollah
Arab Times/The world considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization while Imad Moughniyah is perceived a murderer. Arab, Christian and Islamic nations are united in claiming that Moughniyah is a terrorist — except for Hezbollah members who are accepting condolences from Syria and Iran, which served as his sanctuaries.
No one really knows who assassinated Moughniya but his friends named some suspects right after his death. Several countries believe Moughniyah is a criminal but not the Hezbollah, who should pledge allegiance to their nation and its people, not the other way around.
Zahed Mater/Email: ahmedjarallah@hotmail.com

Small Quake Hits South Lebanon
A 3.5 magnitude earthquake jolted parts of southern Lebanon Wednesday but no damage or injuries were reported, the National News Agency said.
It said the quake shook the area of Tyre at 10:53 am local time, lasting about 10 seconds. The small earthquake was also felt in the area of Hasbaya, according to NNA.A tremor measuring 5.0 on the open-ended Richter scale rocked Lebanon on Friday, slightly injuring several people and sending panicked residents out into the streets in the south of the country. Beirut, 20 Feb 08, 11:39

Berri Hints Solution in the Offing, Says 10+10+10 Formula Could be Adopted
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has said that a 10+10+10 formula in the future government could still be adopted to salvage Lebanon and expressed fears over the deteriorating security situation. "Many Lebanese sides have been in favor of this (10+10+10) formula," Berri said in remarks published by Lebanese dailies Wednesday. "I informed (Arab League chief Amr Moussa) that I was ready to adopt (the formula), head to parliament and elect a president," during a session scheduled for Tuesday Feb. 26, Berri said. "All Arab and foreign envoys, and ambassadors I've met have told me that they don't object to the formula of three 10s," Berri added. The speaker said the Arab League's initiative, which called for the election of Army Chief Gen. Michel Suleiman president and formation of a national unity government, had stressed rejection of veto power in the future Lebanese cabinet.
About a meeting scheduled to be held on Sunday between Moussa, Mustaqbal movement leader Saad Hariri, Free Patriotic Movement leader Gen. Michel Aoun and ex-President Amin Gemayel, Berri said: "Something is being prepared to be put forward in the meeting of Feb. 24…If (conferees) agree on it, we immediately head for elections on Feb. 26."Moussa has so far failed to mediate a solution to the protracted crisis between the pro-government camp and the Hizbullah-led opposition. Meanwhile, Moussa's assistant Hisham Youssef arrived in Beirut Wednesday in an effort to bring bickering politicians' views closer ahead of Moussa's visit Friday.  About recent clashes between his Amal movement's supporters and Hariri's backers in Beirut, Berri said: Civil strife "destroys the country…Not any side in Lebanon is thinking about creating problems and crises on the street." "No one will emerge victorious" from any trouble, he said.

Ahmadinejad Attacks 'Savage Animal' Israel Over Mughniyeh's Murder
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday called Israel a "dirty microbe" and "savage animal," as Tehran stepped up its rhetoric against the Jewish state after the murder of top Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh. "World powers have created a black and dirty microbe named the Zionist regime and have unleashed it like a savage animal on the nations of the region," Ahmadinejad told a rally in the southern city of Bandar Abbas broadcast on state television. The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, on Monday had predicted Hizbullah would destroy Israel in the near future. Ahmadinejad's latest tirade came a week after Mughniyeh's assassination in a car bombing in Damascus. Hizbullah and Iran have accused Israel of involvement in his murder, an act denied by the Jewish state. "They (Israel) assassinate pure and pious people and then they celebrate it, like what happened to the son of Lebanon who had stood against the savage onslaught of the Zionists and broke the Zionists' horns," said Ahmadinejad. He also accused world powers of establishing Israel to create a "scarecrow" to frighten and dominate other nations in the region. Iran's embassy in Riyadh meanwhile vehemently denied reports in the Saudi press that Mughniyeh had been traveling around the world on an Iranian diplomatic passport, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.(AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 20 Feb 08, 14:08

Geagea Speaks of New Status Quo After Feb. 14
Lebanese forces leader Samir Geagea said the Feb. 14 mass rally has created a new status quo under which all demands by the Hizbullah-led opposition over the future cabinet have become obsolete. "All suggestions and proposals that March 8 forces have been relying on to market their political plans have collapsed," Geagea was quoted as saying by An Nahar daily Wednesday. The mass rally to commemorate the anniversary of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination on Feb. 14 left "no doubt that the March 14 forces are backed by the majority of the Lebanese people and particularly the Christians," he said. All parties have to take this as the basis in the new status quo, he told An Nahar. He said that it was impossible to implement in the aftermath of Feb. 14 what was being suggested before the mass rally. About attempts by Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa to end Lebanon's presidential crisis, Geagea said: "The LF and all March 14 forces support the Arab League imitative and will continue to do so as long as it stands." The initiative calls for the election of Army Chief Gen. Michel Suleiman president, the formation of a national unity government in which no one party has veto power and the adoption of a new electoral law. "We are waiting for Moussa's return…hoping that he would have more luck this time in convincing the other party to head to parliament on Tuesday and elect a new president," he said. Beirut, 20 Feb 08, 11:03

EU: Unacceptable Lebanon Situation
The European Union has described Lebanon's political crisis as unacceptable, urging the election of a new president as soon as possible.
"The situation is deteriorating," Slovenia's secretary of state Matjaz Sinkovec said on Tuesday after talks between the EU and Lebanese acting Foreign Minister Tarek Mitri. Slovenia is the current EU president. "The continuing institutional crisis in Lebanon is simply not acceptable," he said during a joint news conference with Mitri at the EU council building in Brussels. "The parties need to return to dialogue in a spirit of compromise. It is crucial that the president is elected without delay," he told reporters.Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Emile Lahoud ended in November.(AP photo shows acting Foreign Minister Tarek Mitri)
Beirut, 20 Feb 08, 09:45

Report: Threats Forced Closure of French Cultural Centers
France decided to close two of its cultural centers in Lebanon after receiving threats, Al Hayat newspaper reported Wednesday. It quoted sources in Paris as saying the decision to shut down the centers in the southern port city of Sidon and in Tripoli in north Lebanon came after threats and due to their locations near Palestinian refugee camps. The French embassy in Beirut said Monday that the centers were closed "for security reasons." "Security of these cultural missions is a priority," it said. The Daily Star quoted the head of the cultural section at the French embassy Dennis Gailler as saying during a visit to Tyre municipality that the centers could reopen once the security situation "has cooled down." He refused to say, however, if closure was as a result of threats. The Saudi government has also warned its citizens not to travel to Lebanon because of the "unstable" security situation in the country. But Gailler said the French decision "was in no way tied to the Saudi warning." Beirut, 20 Feb 08, 09:38

Mughniyeh: A Legend in his Home Village
Decades of eluding U.S. and Israeli intelligence won Imad Mughniyeh a mythic stature in his home village, where even his family knew little of what the secretive Hizbullah commander was doing. After his death in a Damascus car bombing last week, his poster hangs on every lamppost and building corner in Tayr Debba.
"My feelings toward him were the same as a fan's for a celebrity, wanting to get his autograph," said Zaynab, 25, one of Mughniyeh's two sisters.
Mughniyeh, who helped set up Hizbullah, became one of the world's most feared terror masterminds, accused by the West of killing hundreds in suicide bombings and hijackings in Lebanon during its civil war and around the world. He dropped out of sight some 15 years ago, and few outside his inner circle knew where he was or even what he looked like -- until last Tuesday, when a car bomb killed the 45-year-old in the Syrian capital.
But in this southern Lebanese village, surrounded by hills lush with orange groves and wild flowers, the mystery surrounding Mughniyeh -- known to his supporters by his nom de guerre of Hajj Radwan -- only deepened his image as a warrior against Israel and its ally, the United States.
"To us, he's holy, a great leader," said 18-year-old Hasan Karam. "When we were growing up we kept hearing about Hajj Radwan, the hero fighting Israeli occupation. We used to hear Israel was after him and that he liberated our lands. But I never met him or knew what he looked like. We didn't even know -- until now -- that Hajj Radwan was the same person as Imad Mughniyeh." Now there's no escaping his image here. A recent photo of Mughniyeh -- stocky, wearing military garb with a thick gray and black beard -- is hung everywhere in his home village of Tayr Debba, nestled in Hizbullah's heartland of mainly Shiite south Lebanon. Over the weekend, thousands came to mourn his death and pay respects to his family.
"He was like a ghost in hiding," said Badie Zaydan, 52, a high school teacher in the village. Even Mughniyeh's mother rarely saw him since 1982, when at the age of 19 he quit his business administration studies at the American University of Beirut to help set up Hizbullah after Israel's invasion of Lebanon that year.
"I encouraged him," his 69-year-old mother said as she received hundreds of mourners. Mughniyeh's wife, who refused to talk to reporters, sat next to her, her eyes red and swollen from crying. They had three children, two boys and a girl. It was the brief earlier 1978 invasion by Israel -- when Mughniyeh was 15 -- that first planted the seeds of armed action in Mughniyeh's mind, said his mother, who refused to give her first name and goes by the name Umm Imad, or mother of Imad.
"That's when he decided to carry the gun and fight Israel," Mughniyeh's mother said. She said she knows little of what he was doing in recent years, though she said he "lived for a period in Iran." Over the past 15 years, Mughniyeh is believed to have secretly moved between Lebanon, Iran and Syria. Unconfirmed reports were widespread that he had undergone plastic surgery to change his appearance and avoid capture. Western and Israeli intelligence accuse Mughniyeh of involvement in suicide bombings in the 1980s in Beirut that killed hundreds of American and French troops, as well as the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed, and bombings in the 1990s against the Israeli Embassy and a Jewish cultural center in Argentina that killed over 100 people.
Mughniyeh's relatives deny his role in any of those attacks. "My son is not a terrorist," his mother said. "These are silly allegations ... My son is a fighter."
Mughniyeh's two brothers, Jihad and Fouad, were killed in car bomb explosions in Beirut in the 1980s and 1990s.
The only time villagers saw Mughniyeh after some 20 years of absence was in 2002, when he attend his uncle's funeral. "He comforted me saying my father's passing was God's will," said Mahmoud Mughniyeh, 45, a cousin. He said he couldn't tell whether his fugitive relative had plastic surgery because he hadn't seen him since the early 1980s. Huge black banners cover the outside walls of the Mughniyeh family house, a one-story building at the end of a green field that overlooks a valley that stretches to the Mediterranean. A brown gate opens to a garden with rows of olive and orange trees. "You will continue to haunt them ... you will be victorious," one banner says on a wall. "We shall not cry for you Hajj Imad, but we will resist," says another.(AP) (AP photo shows Mughniyeh's mother receiving mourners) Beirut, 20 Feb 08, 09:17

A President, No Government and Another Divine Victory
The assassination of Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus was the most significant development in the region since the July 2006 war between Hizbullah and Israel, al-Hayat's Radwan al-Sayed wrote on Tuesday. The Mughniyeh assassination was the opposite of the July war, al-Sayed wrote, explaining that in the summer of 2006 Hizbullah, backed by Iran and Syria, "lured Israel into war.""By the assassination of Mughniyeh, the Israelis and the Americans are trying to lure Hizbullah and Syria into war," he noted. By declaring open war on Israel in the presence of Iran's foreign minister, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah escalated tension in the region to its "maximum limit," he added. The Mughniyeh assassination shifted decision-making to Iran, that is why the forthcoming "initiative would be aimed at permitting presidential election to set the stage for a confrontation that is expected to be soon," al-Sayed wrote. Electing a president would automatically lead to the mandatory resignation of Premier Fouad Saniora's government, which would become a care-taker cabinet unable to communicate with the international community, he added. The expected confrontation between Hizbullah and Israel would freeze efforts to form a national unity government and allow Nasrallah to be the sole leader of the confrontation and the sole beneficiary from the upcoming "divine victory," he concluded. Beirut, 19 Feb 08, 14:37

Lebanon's Worst After the Damascus Summit
The worst in Lebanon is to follow the Arab Summit conference scheduled for March 29 in Damascus, an-Nahar's Sarkis Naoum wrote on Wednesday.
Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime "is not prepared to make concessions in Lebanon … in return for facilitating the convening of an expanded summit attended by all Arab heads of state," Naoum added. "Syria realizes that the summit would eventually convene and that major Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, would be represented by minor-level delegates," he explained. "What matters for Syria is the convening of the summit (irrespective of the level of participation) because by that Syria would chair the Arab summit and the Arab league for a year," Naoum noted. "That would reflect on the Lebanese street, but rather Lebanese streets. Settling inter-Arab accounts would escalate in the Lebanese arena, especially in light of Syrian orchestrated charges to specific Arab states of working to destabilize Syria's security and stability and in light of accusations by these states to Syria of seeking to target their security and stability," he warned. Naoum concluded stating: "By then the honest stands by Saudi Arabia and Iran of rejecting intra-Muslim war in Lebanon would not be sufficient to contain the situation." Beirut, 20 Feb 08, 14:02

Syria to Facilitate Last-Minute Elections to Avoid Arab Boycott of Summit
Syria will facilitate last-minute presidential elections in Lebanon prior to an Arab summit due in Damascus late in March, the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat said on Tuesday. Citing European circles, al-Hayat said Syria will facilitate the election of army commander Gen. Michel Suleiman President at the eleventh-hour to "force major Arab countries not to boycott" the summit slated to be held in Damascus March 27-29. The sources said Damascus will then work toward "obstructing" formation of a new government. Meanwhile, Arab League chief Amr Moussa said he was dispatching his assistant Hisham Youssef to Beirut in an effort to end Lebanon's 15-month-long political crisis. Moussa, who is expected to return to Beirut on Friday, said Youssef would arrive in the Lebanese capital late Wednesday.
The Arab League secretary general said on Monday he was planning a new mission to Lebanon at the weekend to try to end the nation's presidential election crisis.
Moussa has visited Beirut several times to try to resolve the deadlock but has so far been unsuccessful and the political tensions have on occasion boiled over into street clashes in the Lebanese capital. Beirut, 19 Feb 08, 09:43

Morocco Arrests 23, Including Manar Correspondent, Over Terror Plot
Moroccan Security forces have dismantled an alleged terror network, arresting 23 people, including Al Manar TV's correspondent, in connection with a plot to carry out attacks in the Kingdom, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Wednesday. An investigation by the judicial authorities led to the sweep Monday in the capital Rabat. A security source told Agence France Presse several arms were seized during the raids. A report by the state-run news agency MAP identified only three suspects: Mustapha Moatassim, the secretary general of a small, legal Islamist party, Al Badil Al Hadari, Mohammed Merouani who heads the illegal Umma Party and the alleged group ringleader Abdelkader Balliraj. The report said those arrested had ties to radical Islam. It did not specify what type of plots the alleged terror group had been planning. Police said they had probed "the ramifications and connections of the network with others active in Morocco and abroad."
Moroccan authorities banned Al Badil Al Hadari party, Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi announced in a statement Wednesday. Asharq al-Awsat said that a well informed security source refused to comment on the link between Abdel Hafiz al-Saryati, the correspondent of Hizbullah's Al Manar TV, and the others arrested over the alleged terror plot.(Naharnet-AP-AFP) (Photo courtesy of Asharq al-Awsat is of Abdel Hafiz al-Saryati) Beirut, 20 Feb 08, 10:22

U.S. presses N. Korea on Syria
By Nicholas Kralev
February 20, 2008
The United States, alarmed by mounting evidence that North Korea gave nuclear assistance to Syria, has rejected pressure from some of its partners in six-nation talks to compromise on an overdue declaration of Pyongyang's nuclear activities, U.S. officials said yesterday.
The declaration, which was due at the end of December, would complete the second phase of an October deal aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and clear the way for promised political and economic benefits to the communist state.
"We won't have a complete and correct declaration until we have a complete and correct declaration," Christopher R. Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator, said yesterday after meeting with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, in Beijing. "So I'm not sure if we yet have an understanding on that."
The Syrian connection has become a major problem for the United States since an Israeli air strike in Syria in September. The target was widely reported to be a nuclear facility under construction with help from North Korea. Current and former U.S. officials said yesterday that intelligence points to a plutonium-related facility.
Yesterday, Mr. Hill said the North's declaration must account for the Syrian connection. "We discussed all of the elements that we believe need to be included, including the Syrian matter and uranium enrichment," he said of his talks with Mr. Kim. U.S. and Israeli officials have refused to talk about the September strike, but diplomats and analysts said even the administration's strongest advocates of engagement with Pyongyang are worried by what they have learned from intelligence sources. Only days after the bombing, the North's official KCNA news agency reported that a high-level meeting between Syria and North Korea had taken place in Pyongyang. "We've made it abundantly clear to the North Koreans that the issue of nuclear cooperation abroad, whether it's with Syria or other states — we need to know all about that," Mr. Hill said in a little noticed interview on Friday.

Siniora says lack of Lebanese president will sink Arab summit
British pm voices 'strong support' for visiting counterpart
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Next month's Arab summit in Syria will be undermined if a solution to Lebanon's political crisis cannot be found by then, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora warned on Tuesday. The election of a new Lebanese president has been delayed since November and Siniora told Reuters efforts were being made to fill the post and prevent a power vacuum. Siniora, whose anti-Syrian ruling coalition is locked in a 15-month power struggle against an opposition led by Hizbullah, said without a president, the summit would lose its value. "I believe that the lack of representation of Lebanon on a presidential level at the summit will make the summit lose a lot of its importance," he said. "This summit should be attended by all the presidents and all the Arab countries. Let us imagine a summit without Lebanon having a presidential seat at it, how would it look?" asked Siniora, who was in Britain to meet with Premier Gordon Brown.
Diplomats and analysts say Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is unlikely to attend the Arab League summit unless Lebanon's political crisis is resolved.
Saudi-owned Al-Hayat daily reported on Monday that Syria will facilitate a last-minute presidential election in Lebanon prior to the summit.
Citing European sources, Al-Hayat said Syria will facilitate the election of the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, General Michel Suleiman, as president to "force major Arab countries not to boycott" the summit slated to be held in Damascus on March 27-29.
Lebanon has still not received any official invitations yet from Syria to attend the annual summit in Damascus at the end of March.
Siniora has said Lebanon wanted "good relations" with all countries in the world, including Syria and Iran, but not with Israel, "our only enemy."
"Relations, however, must be based on mutual respect," Siniora told reporters in London Monday.
He stressed "it is not acceptable for Iran to view Lebanon as an arena for solving conflicts."
Lebanon has been without a president since Emile Lahoud's term ended in November 2007, plunging the country into the worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 Civil War.
The war ended in 1990 but a Saudi-brokered peace pact has been strained to breaking point since the assassination in 2005 of former Premier Rafik Hariri.
In other developments on Tuesday, the British premier offered his Lebanese counterpart his full backing Tuesday.
Following talks in London, Brown offered support to Siniora and the Arab League in their efforts to end the impasse over the election of a new president.
"His government has our strong support as it works to restore and strengthen the integrity of Lebanon's institutions, and to protect Lebanon's future as a tolerant and diverse democracy," Brown said in a statement issued after the meeting. "The UK will continue to back the efforts of the Arab League to resolve Lebanon's political impasse, to work closely with European and other international partners, and to continue our strong bilateral support."
Lebanon's Parliament recently postponed a session to elect a new president until February 26 - the 14th delay in three months.
Government supporters accuse Hizbullah of seeking to restore Syrian domination of Lebanon, while the opposition says Siniora's government is putting the country in the control of the US and Israel. Also on Tuesday, the EU called Lebanon's institutional crisis unacceptable and said Lebanon should elect a president as soon as possible. The Slovenian EU presidency said it was "sincerely worried" by the escalation of tensions in Lebanon.
"The situation is deteriorating," Matjaz Sinkovec, secretary of state at Slovenia's Foreign Ministry, said after talks between the EU and Lebanon's acting Foreign Minister Tarek Mitri. "The continuing institutional crisis in Lebanon is simply not acceptable," Sinkovec told a news conference. "The parties need to return to dialogue in a spirit of compromise. It is crucial that the president is elected without delay." In separate developments, Muslim religious leaders are to hold a summit on Thursday to discuss the deteriorating situation in Lebanon. The state-run National News Agency said the summit is to be held at the offices of the Higher Shiite Islamic Council.  The meeting would group Sunni mufti Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani, vice president of the Higher Shiite Council Sheikh Abdel-Amir Qabalan and Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Naim Hassan. - With Reuters, additional reporting by Nafez Qawas

'There is no initiative but the Arab initiative' - Mitri
Daily Star staff
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
BEIRUT: Acting Foreign Minister Tarek Mitri said on Thursday "there is no initiative in Lebanon but the Arab initiative" to resolve the continuing political deadlock, which has left the country without a president since Emile Lahoud stepped down in November 2007. Mitri described the initiative as "the only realistic formula that summarizes the problems of existing political differences in Lebanon," adding that it has received Arab and international support.
The three-point Arab plan, adopted in Cairo in January during an extraordinary meeting of Arab foreign ministers, calls for electing commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces General Michel Suleiman, forming a national unity government, and drafting an electoral law for the 2009 legislative elections.
In a statement made after a meeting of the European-Lebanese Partnership Council in Brussels, Mitri said that Europeans want the Arab initiative to "fortify" Lebanon's position. "Europeans do not want to provide alternatives or give the impression that there is weakness in the Arab initiative, but they want to cooperate with the initiative as we are approaching the date of the Arab summit." Mitri said it was "premature" to speculate whether the Arab summit will bring about the election of a new president for Lebanon, adding that all parties supported efforts to elect a president before the Arab summit in Damascus in March. "We ask our friends, the Europeans, to play a more coherent role and to speak with one voice," he said. Europe, he added, has done a lot for peace in the region within the boundaries of international legitimacy and in line with the Arab peace initiative. "Lebanon relied heavily on European assistance through the Paris III donors summit, but we could not employ all the funds allocated to Lebanon because of the institutional and parliamentary vacuum," he said. Mitri said the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora prefers to keep matters of economic reform, such as the privatization of the telecommunications sector, "on hold," as they could "further complicate the situation on the ground." He expressed hope that the parliamentary session scheduled for February 26 results in the election of a president, "thereby rectifying the unacceptable situation in Lebanon."A session to elect the next president has been delayed 14 times, while feuding groups sought to agree on the election of the army chief as president. They are still at odds over the shape of the new government and other critical issues.
The political standoff revolves around each party's share in the next Cabinet as the opposition demands veto power, a demand repeatedly turned down by the ruling coalition. - The Daily Star

Arab summit at risk without Lebanon solution
Tue Feb 19, 2008
By Samia Nakhoul
LONDON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Next month's Arab summit in Syria will collapse if a solution to Lebanon's political crisis cannot be found by then, Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said on Tuesday.
The election of a new Lebanese president has been obstructed since November and Siniora told Reuters in an interview efforts were being made to fill the post and prevent a power vacuum, after the worst street clashes since the 1975-90 civil war.
Siniora, whose anti-Syrian ruling coalition is locked in a 15-month power struggle against an opposition led by Shi'ite Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, said that without a Lebanese president -- and the possibility that other Arab leaders could boycott the gathering in solidarity -- the summit would lose its value.
"I believe that the lack of representation of Lebanon on a presidential level at the summit will make the summit lose a lot of its importance," he said.
"This summit should be attended by all the presidents and all the Arab countries," said Siniora, who was in Britain for talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Diplomats say Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is unlikely to attend the Arab League's annual summit unless Lebanon's political deadlock is resolved.
SUMMIT BOYCOTT?
Asked whether Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, might not send top-level representation or even boycott the summit, Siniora said no decisions had been reached.
"I don't really have any information that confirms the position of every Arab country. Lebanon has not asked any Arab country to boycott," he said.
"We are saying that Lebanon should be represented by a president and all the Arabs expect Lebanon to be represented on a presidential level," he said about the summit due to be held in Damascus at the end of March. "This is what we are seeking and what others are seeking to facilitate: the election of the president and to remove all the hurdles that are being placed from inside and outside Lebanon." Saudi Arabia has emerged as a leading Arab power in recent years, as surging world oil prices have enabled the U.S. ally to play a more forceful role in settling regional disputes.
Riyadh has thrown its weight behind the Siniora government and mediated between Beirut and Damascus.
But as tensions have risen between Lebanon and Syria it recently warned its citizens not to travel to Lebanon because of deteriorating security and following strains in ties between both countries over Lebanon. France, another ally of Siniora's, has just closed two of its cultural centres in Lebanon for the same reason.
The prime minister said both moves were triggered by the escalation in rhetoric inside Lebanon, which led to unrest in the streets.
He also said that a threat by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to spread the conflict with Israel into "open war" had raised the national and regional temperature.
"The statement by Nasrallah does not serve the interests of Lebanon, Hezbollah or the Islamic cause...," he said.
He said Lebanon has already paid a high price for attacks carried out by Hezbollah against U.S. and Western targets, implicitly referring to Imad Moughniyah, the Hezbollah military commander who was killed last week in a car bomb in Damascus.
Hezbollah and its main backer Iran accused Israel of assassinating him. Israel rejected the charge, though its Mossad spy service had long sought to kill him.
Moughniyah was implicated in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. embassy and U.S. Marine and French peacekeeping forces in Beirut, the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner as well as the kidnapping of Westerners in Lebanon in the 1980s. Israel accuses Moughniyah of planning the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires and involvement in the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in the Argentine capital. Lebanon's 15-year civil war ended in 1990 with a Saudi-brokered peace pact which has been strained to breaking point since the assassination in 2005 of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. The governing coalition accuses Syria of killing Hariri and other anti-Syrian figures assassinated since his death. Syria denies any involvement.

Imad Mughniyah, Talal Hamiyah, Hezbollah and Iran
Mughniyah – Iran Has Only Itself to Blame
By OnTheWeb: Dr. Yohai Sela Tuesday, February 19, 2008
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/19464:53 PM 2/19/2008
Iran’s active involvement in Hezbollah opened a slight crack in the organization’s clandestine shell, but this crack was to prove crucial. Mughniyah’s likely replacement: his protégé, Talal Hamiyah.
If Iran is truly shocked and disconsolate about the sudden death of Imad Mughniyah, it has only itself to blame, because the operational measures Iran took since the Second Lebanon War led to his exposure. It took Israel a long time to fully comprehend the significance of the last war that broke out because of a reckless gamble by Hassan Nasrallah and the military arm of the organization – which operates under Iranian tutelage. Until the war Hezbollah and Nasrallah built around themselves a threatening aura that managed to emasculate the Israeli response to them over many years (just as Iran and Ahmadinejad are currently doing in the psychological war against the West and Israel). Despite the sense of missed opportunity over the results of the war, Israel made certain very important decisions that will influence the future of Hezbollah, and the man heading it, in both the short term and the long term:
Israel responded in a disproportionate fashion. Hezbollah’s long-range missile arsenal was annihilated by an Israeli air operation that took all of half an hour.
In the course of the war over 650 trained terrorists were killed and about a thousand additional terrorists were wounded.
The Shiites fled South Lebanon, which astounded Nasrallah and Iran. Intolerable levels of destruction in South Lebanon.
Hezbollah was forced to wander to the Litani region. Lebanese army forces were deployed along the border with Israel with the assistance of foreign forces according to the UN resolution adopted on the eve of the war’s conclusion. Hassan Nasrallah is still in hiding. According to some estimates he found refuge in the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. Nasrallah had to engage in daily rhetoric in order to transform the failed gamble into a “divine triumph” over Israel. Neither Nasrallah, Iran nor members of the Shiite community in Lebanon believe this boasting. The Israeli sense of a missed opportunity and the public image created by the war in Israel itself played into the hands of Nasrallah, who desperately needed to present the Shiite community with as many achievements as possible given the defeat he sustained and the destruction he brought upon Lebanon, the result of a single hasty decision on July 12, 2006.
The Iranian Role
Over the years Hezbollah has become the main “operations contractor” for Iran and Syria in Lebanon and around the world. Imad Mughniyah had an intimate relationship with the leaders of the Iranian regime even without Hassan Nasrallah serving as an intermediary. It is highly doubtful that Nasrallah himself was aware of all the operative details that Mughniyah was responsible for throughout the world with the aid of the Iranians and with their full collaboration. Iran invested billions of dollars in the organization’s military and civilian networks – both in Lebanon and in the global arena. The international fame that Mughniyah won served Hezbollah as an effective tool to create deterrence against internal forces within Lebanon and vis-à-vis international forces seeking to harm the organization and its leaders.
The well-oiled Hezbollah military machine operated successfully until the Second Lebanon War, but due to the severe repercussions of the war upon the organization and Nasrallah’s mental performance, Iran began to increasingly intervene in the internal affairs of the organization, vertically and laterally, up to the level of staffing intermediate posts. Iran’s measures caused a degree of disgruntlement within Hezbollah, and there were even some reports of a growing rift between Nasrallah and Iran. The main dispute between Nasrallah in Iran was over the organization’s military activity. Nasrallah sought to be involved in this aspect as well, but Iran decided that Nasrallah would focus primarily on internal Lebanese politicals in order to leave the military arena to more professional people like Mughniyah and his associates.
Since the war Hezbollah has attempted to strike Israel indirectly. The ties between Hamas personnel in Gaza and Iran and Syria served as a catalyst for shoring up military ties between Hezbollah and Hamas with the encouragement of Iran and Syria, including operative military rendezvous between senior Hezbollah leaders and senior Hamas operatives on Syrian soil. As a result the circle of people with an intimate knowledge of Hezbollah’s clandestine activity expanded, which facilitated surveillance of senior Hezbollah commanders. This weak point did not go unnoticed by the Syrian and Iranian security services, which began investigating the circumstances that led to the assassination of Mughniyah.
In view of the results of the war, certain people were appointed to key positions or appointed to new positions that had not existed prior to the war. Following the successful air attacks that wiped out the entire long-range missile arsenal – in which prodigious efforts had been made by both Iran and Hezbollah – it became clear that Israeli intelligence had infiltrated the military innards of Hezbollah. New security arrangements were introduced to prevent military and security leaks. According to Lebanese sources, since the Second Lebanon War Hezbollah has budgeted millions of dollars per month to maintain the organization’s tight security network.
Iran’s active involvement in the military and political measures of the organization and the setup of new operative wings opened a slight crack in the organization’s clandestine shell, but this crack was to prove crucial. All the intelligence organizations in the world that maintained close surveillance over the senior Hezbollah commanders had been waiting for this moment, and the result came swiftly with the assassination of Imad Mughniyah in the heart of Damascus.
Talal Hamiyah, Mughniyah’s Deputy
Despite the denials by Hezbollah, Talal Hamiyah, who served as Imad Mughniyah’s deputy, will probably be appointed commander of the organization’s military wing. But the person responsible for the entire security network of the organization will be Naim Kassem, Nasrallah’s deputy, who enjoys the full confidence of Iran’s spiritual leader, Ali Khaminei. It will be hard to fill Mughniyah’s shoes because he ran a system that spanned the world, and was highly compartmentalized, and as such only he was familiar with it. Hamiyah may be appointed temporarily while the accumulated information is passed on in an orderly fashion to the individual Iran settles on in the near future. Like Mughniyah, Hamiyah also maintained close and direct ties with the Iranians and he does not need a patron in the personage of Nasrallah. Throughout the Second Lebanon War Hamiyah resided in the Iranian Embassy in Lebanon, where he enjoyed the tight protection of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who operate freely in Lebanon.
Hamiyah mainly managed the organization’s recruitment network in Africa and South America. He wove a tight web of sleeper cells among sympathetic Shiite communities, and now they await the big day when they are called on to carry out qualitative attacks, primarily in Africa and Gulf states hostile to Iran. Hamiyah also penetrated Iraq via the border with Iran, where he met with senior Shiites from the Mahdi Army, which operates under the leadership of the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and which enjoys military assistance and close guidance from Iran. Al-Sadr’s organization works against the American presence in Iraq and against the Sunni community, and is conducting a bloody struggle against al-Qaeda branches in Iraq.
The close ties between Hezbollah and the Shiite terror organizations operating in Iraq has not gone unnoticed by the al-Qaeda operators. When the organization’s activists heard about the assassination of Imad Mughniyah they let loose cries of exultation, and now they are hoping Hassan Nasrallah soon joins Mughniyah. For many in the Arab world it is perfectly clear that whoever assassinated Mughniyah didn’t just damage Hezbollah, but sent a resounding message to the heart of the Iranian elites in anticipation of the future, and this is the most important message that the assassins of Imad Mughniyah sought to convey to his real dispatchers and handlers. In the end result both Iran and Hezbollah will discover that Israel is not necessarily their most bitter antagonist in the Middle East.
Dr. Yohai Sela (2/19/2008)

Security "Breach"!
Elias Harfouch
Al-Hayat - 19/02/08//
http://english.daralhayat.com/opinion/OPED/02-2008/Article-20080219-31cf9d7e-c0a8-10ed-01dd-6f8213c40ae3/story.html
It takes little guesswork for the observer to appreciate that Imad Mughniya's assassination, both in manner and place, will from now on put the leaders of Hezbullah in the face of new facts, the least of which is related to the security of party officials on the Israeli target list, especially when they travel in capitals where they often felt a degree of protection. There is naturally a difference between the possibilities of providing this security in the areas that are under the control of the party or in other areas that are not, since security in these latter places will naturally be entrusted to those who are responsible for it, which creates the possibility of "breaches" as happened with regard to the assassination of Mughniya.
Since not everything that is known is said or written in the vague world of security and intelligence, a careful reading of the statements that have been issued permits the assumption that Hezbollah has questions over the circumstances in which this assassination took place. There is for example the omission in the statements and death notice of a reference to the place where Mughniya was killed. This is an omission that is similar in strangeness only to the Syrian media's pretending not to know the identity of a person killed of the importance of Imad Mughniya for approximately 24 hours. Then there is the shared wish on the part of the Iranian leadership and Hizbullah to participate in the investigation, and it is a wish that was conveyed, as was mentioned by the news media close to the party, by the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki during his last visit to Damascus. However, it appears that this wish was denied by the Syrian security authorities which believe that they alone can be in charge of investigating an assassination that occurred on their territory.
However, the circumstances in which the investigation conducted has also drawn the attention of observers and correspondents in the Syrian capital in the Kafr Sousa quarter, the exact location where the assassination took place. Since it is self-evident that preserving the crime scene is an important element of the investigation, Lynn Maalouf, the Washington Post correspondent to Damascus noted that until last Thursday (that is, two days after the assassination) there were no signs that indicating an investigation around the crime scene, except that people were not allowed to gather around the site. The site itself was covered in black after the explosion although all traces have been washed away by the rain. On Thursday, another car was stopped close to where Mughniya's car was blown up. This correspondent quoted one of the ladies in the quarter as saying that policemen came, asked some questions, and left. This lady added: Even if I were a policewoman I would have asked more questions.
It is natural that Israel and the United States are the immediate beneficiaries of the assassination of a man whom the Israeli media agreed unanimously to characterize as the deputy secretary general of Hezbollah for security affairs. The Israelis say that the first real opportunity that they missed to assassinate Mughniya was in the year 2000 after the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon, when he was visiting the liberated area, and the Israeli intelligence apparatuses monitored his presence there. However, Ehud Bark, who was the prime minister, prevented the execution of the operation for fear that it would lead to inflaming the front again. If that is true, it calls for questions about the meaning of the current timing, when Barak is minister of defense. Is the aim of the timing to lure Hezbollah into a new confrontation that would permit, from an Israeli perspective, the "correction" of the mistakes of the July 2006 war that were recently revealed? Or is the aim of the timing to remove the party from the internal confrontation in Lebanon and to tie it down in a war with Israel of the size that its secretary general described as an "open war."
However, in the face of the projections with respect to the effects of this assassination on the situation in Lebanon and the region, what is more noteworthy is what the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallim concluded. He believed that the assassination of Mughniya is an attempt to assassinate the efforts to revive the peace process! Despite all of Mughniya's memorable "achievements," the one thing that he was not known for and perhaps the one thing to which he did not aspire to was to be one of the heroes of the peace process between the Arabs and Israel

Lebanese turmoil withers 'Beirut Spring' optimism
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0219/p04s04-wome.html
But many young activists are still struggling to maintain the movement that followed in the wake of Hariri's death.
By Nicholas Blanford | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the February 19, 2008 edition
Reporter Nicholas Blanford talks about a potential political reawakening in Lebanon.BEIRUT, Lebanon - Rafik Hariri's assassination three years ago triggered an uprising in Lebanon. Following the death of the former prime minister, young Lebanese poured onto the streets in a movement that not only pushed out Syrian troops, but also gave rise to a new optimism for political change known as Beirut Spring.
Since then, however, much of the ambition of those young protesters has been eroded by a devastating war with Israel, political turmoil, and ongoing violence.
"Spring 2005 was a very euphoric moment for all of us," says Asma Andraos, president of 05Amam, a civil society group. "Everything was going to suddenly change from a feudal and [client-state] country into a modern democratic transparent country. I think we were all very naive."
Leaders of the anti-Syrian March 14 parliamentary coalition had hoped that a rally last week in downtown Beirut to mark Mr. Hariri's death would rekindle the movement's spirit. But the event was overshadowed by the funeral for Imad Mughnieh, a Hizbullah leader killed in Damascus two days earlier. And many Lebanese who participated in the rallies of the Beirut Spring stayed home, partly because of weather, but also out of a sense of disillusion at the turmoil engulfing Lebanon.
Political deadlock between March 14 and the Hizbullah-led pro-Syrian opposition is continuing to stoke tensions here. The country has been without a president since November, the rate of bomb attacks has increased, and scuffles and shootings between rival groups break out nearly every day.
Now, even though the heady days of Beirut Spring are long gone and the situation here seems to present new obstacles every day, those civil society activists still cling to the idealism that they embraced three years ago.
05Amam recently organized a mock municipal council in a school in an impoverished area of north Lebanon, teaching students about democracy, voting, and accountability. The group hopes to expand the scheme to cover three mixed schools of Christians and Muslims.
Hayya Bina, Arabic for "Let's Go," is one group that has adopted a harder political edge to its campaign to abolish sectarianism. It is focusing its efforts on weakening Hizbullah's influence over Lebanon's Shiites by supporting new independent voices within the community.
"Frankly, Hizbullah scares other communities," says Inga Schei, an American activist with Hayya Bina. "It frightens them back into their sectarian holes."
Confronting powerful Hizbullah is a daunting challenge, but Schei says that Lebanese civil society groups "have become synonymous with a lack of action."
Rudy Jaafar, a board member of Nahwa al-Muwatiniya, Arabic for "Toward Citizenship," says that "the work of NGOs has not been made any easier because of the situation. It has been difficult for us to get projects going and get the people we need because people are leaving the country, especially the young. And there are problems with security, problems with funds."
Most Lebanese – while generally supporting the ideas that motivate the civil society groups – have more pressing priorities given the deteriorating economy and security climate in the country.
"Changing the system is not really the priority anymore [in people's minds]," says Ms. Andraos, of 05Amam. "The priority is making sure you're not blown up."
One group was formed as a direct result of the worsening violence in Lebanon. Khalass, Arabic for "Enough," was established in the wake of a deadly university riot in January 2007 in which Sunnis and Shiites fought each other on the streets of Beirut. The riot, which ended with seven dead and an Army-imposed curfew, served as a vivid warning to Lebanon's political leaders of the tensions building among their respective partisans.
"Khalass was based on the fear and frustration of young people that the same [sectarian] leaders that created war between 1975 and 1990 are doing the same thing again in 2007 and 2008," says Gilbert Doumit, a Khalass activist.
The group circulated a petition calling for an amicable solution to the crisis which drew 40,000 signatures and, last November, in the run-up to the scheduled presidential election, held sit-ins outside parliament and a mock funeral procession past the homes of politicians. But Doumit admits that while people privately sympathize with Khalass, turning that latent support into direct action and influence is proving a challenge.
Optimism in Lebanon is an increasingly scarce commodity amid continuing street clashes in mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhoods, hostile tit-for-tat rhetoric from politicians, and a political impasse that only seems to be worsening. Despite this, civil society activists vow to press on.
"You have two options, leave or stay," says Andraos. "If stay, you can sit at home and complain, or you can get out and do something."

Turning a terrorist into a cult hero
By W. Thomas Smith, Jr
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2008/02/19/turning_a_terrorist_into_a_cult_hero
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
In what the Jerusalem Post refers to as “an uncommon act of journalistic contrition,” the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has issued a public apology “to anyone who was offended” by its reference of recently-killed terrorist mastermind Imad Mughniyeh as a “great national leader.”
For once, a major Western media outlet did the right thing by admitting its complicity – perhaps unwitting collusion – in what is becoming a trend toward soft-soaping terrorists and their activities. But how could the BBC have come to this is in the first place?
Holding a poster of Lebanese Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, an Iranian protestor chants slogans during a demonstration in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Feb. 15, 2008, condemning the assassination of Lebanese Hezbollah top commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a car bomb in Syria late Tuesday. (AP
It’s all part of a dangerous drift toward so-called fairness – not to be confused with free speech – wherein media companies increasingly are giving platforms, equal time, and – for some strange reason – objective deference to terrorists and terrorist organizations.
After all, isn’t it important we respect and give a voice to the poor souls who are so frustrated with life and their places in it that they are forced to blow up 241 sleeping U.S. Marines, sailors, and soldiers; or torture an unarmed American sailor before shooting him in the head and tossing his body out onto an airport runway? Perhaps if you’re on the editorial staff of Al Manar: not the BBC.
Last week, a BBC television report included the line: “The army is on full alert as Lebanon remembers two war victims with different visions but both regarded as great national leaders.”
The two named “greats” were the late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and Hezbollah’s doctor of death, Mughniyeh.
I won’t get into who Mugniyeh was in terms of the acts of terror and murder for which he was responsible: His bloody perverseness has been widely reported. And it’s good the BBC has apologized. But I think it’s also important we take a look at the way in which the latter came clean.
The BBC's retraction (actually more of a qualifier) said: “While there is no doubt that supporters of Hezbollah did regard Mughniyeh in such terms – as a great leader – we accept that the scripting of this phrase was imprecise.”
Imprecise? Referring to Mughniyeh as a “great national leader” went far beyond simple imprecision. And what has become even more problematic in the “war of ideas” between the West and Jihadism – as counterterrorism expert Dr. Walid Phares describes it – is how a newsroom environment could exist in the West that would allow such a public accolade be paid to a butcher like Mughniyeh in the first place. If Mughniyeh may so-easily be described in some Western media as a ‘great national leader,’ then how do we describe the likes of SS commander Heinrich Himmler and his henchmen, any of the faceless KGB assassins who operated during the Cold War, or any who committed war crimes under Slobodan Milosevic?” says Phares, who directs the Future of Terrorism Project for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. “The only ‘greatness’ Mughniyeh has been accorded stems from some quarters in the Western media which have been deeply influenced by the Iranian oil-funded propaganda. There is increasing evidence that one of the centers of this network of propaganda is Beirut, where Hezbollah profits from and operates a huge, heavily funded media operation.”
And this money and center of influence, Phares adds, is having a major impact on Western media and how the West ultimately reports stories like the death of a terrorist.
Holding a poster of Lebanese Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, an Iranian protestor chants slogans during a demonstration in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Feb. 15, 2008, condemning the assassination of Lebanese Hezbollah top commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a car bomb in Syria late Tuesday. (AP
Then there is the question of how Mughniyeh could have been associated with “greatness” or “national leadership” when few outside of Hezbollah’s leadership and military wing (or the Western counterterrorists who for years have been studying or hunting the elusive Mughniyeh) knew anything about the man until he was killed?
In the immediate aftermath of Mughniyeh’s death, it became obvious – based on the Internet posts of Hezbollah supporters in pro-Hezbollah chatrooms – that the supposed-fans of Mughniyeh had no idea who the guy really was. Yet within a 24-hour period, he was rapidly morphing into some bizarre form of cult hero.
Of course, we can’t lay all the blame at the BBC's doorstep. Practically every major media outlet in the world had a hand in this. It was a relatively big story, a story no one could ignore. But perhaps we journalists could have packaged it differently. We could have looked at the tactical significance: Mughniyeh was an international thug. Here’s who he worked for. Here’s what he did. Now he’s been killed. Then the strategic significance: What intelligence was perhaps gleaned. How might this shakeup his organization. Who are the others we’re looking to get.
Instead, too many reporters proclaimed Mughniyeh’s demise as if it were the death of Suleiman the Magnificent. The coverage spurred Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, a Hezbollah founder who – amazingly – has had op-eds published in the Washington Post and Newsweek, to declare: “The resistance [Hezbollah] has lost one of its pillars.” Then Hezbollah’s secretary general Hassan Nasrallah got so juiced up he was declaring “open war” with Israel. Even Gen. Michel Sleiman, the commander-in-chief of the Lebanese armed forces and the man who could become president of Lebanon, was compelled to pay public condolences to the Mughniyeh family, many of whom are deeply involved in the business of international terror.
No matter who paid for it, planned it, provided ground-zero operational support, or detonated the device, the killing of Mughniyeh was one of many tactical victories – usually covert, thus unpublicized – for the U.S. and its allies in the war on terror. In the end, however, the Western media’s handling of it, may have given the enemy some strategic leverage.
**W. Thomas Smith Jr. is a former U.S. Marine infantry leader, parachutist, and shipboard counterterrorism instructor and co-author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pirates.

Mughniyeh’s Death a Harbinger for War
Osama Al Sharif,
osama@mediaarabia.com
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=106970&d=20&m=2&y=2008
There are no written rules of engagement in the ongoing tussle between Israel and Hezbollah. And if there were, neither would stick by them for long. This has been an open war with both parties using every available resource and every trick in the book. But quite often both would accept mediation and, through third-party negotiations, they would agree to exchange prisoners and the remains of dead soldiers and fighters.
But last week’s assassination of leading Hezbollah military commander and mastermind of some of the most sophisticated and bloody operations in the history of paramilitary warfare may be remembered as a critical turning point in the showdown between Israel and the Lebanese resistance movement. The killing of Imad Mughniyeh in a car explosion in Damascus dealt a powerful blow to the organization’s military setup. It came at a time when both sides were busy with domestic challenges. But most importantly it took place outside Lebanon.
Only Israel — and the Americans — could have carried such a high-level operation that would have required enormous intelligence resources and logistical assets. Only they could benefit from his death. The two have been hunting down the 46-year-old Mughniyeh for years. His involvement in the bombing of the American Embassy and the US Marines base in Beirut in the 1980s is taken for granted. Israel blames him for the blast that destroyed its embassy in Argentina in 1992. His special relationship with the Iranians has been instrumental in providing Hezbollah with an extraordinary advantage in its military confrontation with Israel.
Taking out Mughniyeh was a crucial move in the US-Israeli effort to contain Hezbollah, but it was also a reckless one. The movement’s reaction was expectedly defiant and Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah’s promise to take the battle outside Lebanon should not be underplayed. For years now, Hezbollah has been successful in building a watertight credibility among followers and sympathizers. It proved this in its 34-day-war with Israel in the summer of 2006 when its katyushas and other missiles reached as far as Haifa and forced Israel’s mighty army to stand down.
But in addition to the tactical misjudgment of Mughniyeh’s assassins, the killing provided much-needed political ammunition to Hezbollah’s leadership. If Israel was taking the war to new battlegrounds, the movement and its supporters were ready to meet the challenge. This was bad news to the March 14 coalition in Lebanon, which is already strained by the failure of the Arab League initiative to end the political deadlock in that country.
The July 2006 showdown between Israel and Hezbollah was seen as a proxy war involving Iran and Syria on the one hand, and the Jewish state and its American benefactor, on the other. In spite of Israel’s sustained and indiscriminate bombing of Lebanon, Hezbollah was able to defend the national territory and pound Israeli targets hard. Israel’s top military and political leaders were forced to resign. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert barely survived.
A stalemate kept both sides on their toes and a shaky truce remained intact. But while Hezbollah was celebrating victory, it was being cornered domestically. A coalition of Sunni, Druze and Christian parties was pushing hard to weaken the party’s military grip and loosen its political influence. In the ensuing months following the cease=fire, Hezbollah found itself fighting an unwinnable battle against the majority opposition. It responded by allying itself to Christian leader Michel Aoun and bringing the government and Parliament to a halt.
It was clear that the proxy war had moved from the military confrontation with Israel to the political arena involving Lebanon, Syria and Iran. Washington sided with the so-called majority and used its influence to keep Hezbollah and its allies at bay.
But the political row was dragging on without an end in sight. Meanwhile, Israel warned of an upcoming resumption of hostilities with Hezbollah, claiming that the pro-Iran party was beefing up its fire power and bringing in more sophisticated weaponry. It is believed that Mughniyeh was instrumental in the rebuilding of the party’s military power.
The party claims that last Tuesday’s assassination carried the mark of Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who at one point in his career was a top commando officer. Barak is no stranger to Lebanon and he is reputed to have personally gunned down top Palestinian leaders in the 1970s.
Whether Mughniyeh’s death was carried out through Barak or not is now irrelevant. The killing has taken Hezbollah off guard and is now considered as a serious breach of uneasy truce with Israel. It is a matter of time before the party responds and it has proven that it has the ability and infrastructure to do so. Its retaliation will ignite a new cycle of violence and may lead to a new war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Such a development will most likely stifle efforts to bring about a political resolution to the Lebanese quandary. Mughniyeh’s death will be used by Damascus and Tehran to serve various political ends, especially as the two capitals recalculate their positions in light of what is happening in the region.
The coming few weeks will be decisive for all the parties. Hezbollah will retaliate for the killing of a top and respected commander. A fresh cycle of violence may soon be unleashed and its effects may reverberate throughout the region for some time. Whoever carried out the killing of Mughniyeh may get far more than it has bargained for. But most critically Lebanon will find itself once again at a dangerous crossroad and the odds that things will go wrong in that beleaguered country are quickly staking up.
— Osama Al Sharif is a veteran publishers and journalist based in Jordan.