LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
May 17/08

Bible Reading of the day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 8,34-38.9,1.
He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? What could one give in exchange for his life? Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."He also said to them, "Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come in power."

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Welcome to Hizballahstan-TIME 16/05/08
Lebanon fears Hezbollah pursuing 'state within a state''.By Liz Sly 16/05/08
Octopus Iran Sets its Tentacles into Lebanon with Hezbollah Microwave Communications System.By: Rabbi Daniel M. Zucker 16/05/08
Terror Triumphant-By: P. David Hornik. FrontPage 16/05/08

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for May 16/08
Army Colonel Says US Needs Better Focus in the War on Terror-CQPolitics.com
Lebanese government in Hizbollah turnaround-Euronews.net
Lebanese Unrest Cost Up to $600 Million, Tourism Minister Says-Bloomberg
PM holds talks with Siniora on Lebanese crisis-Gulf Times
Bin Laden slams West over Israel, vows to fight on-AP
Qatar hosts squabbling Lebanese politicians-AFP
Lebanese Leaders on 2 Separate Planes to Doha in Bid to End Lebanon Crisis-Naharnet
Hizbullah Arms, Suleiman's Election Issue Almost Torpedoed Deal-Naharnet
Arab Force to Protect Beirut if Opposition Threats Continue!-Naharnet
Gemayel: Spreading State Authority is Key to Settlement-Naharnet
Jumblat Breaks Clemenceau Siege, Tours Mountains-Naharnet
U.S.: Lebanon Won't Resolve Difficulties in the Course of a Week-Naharnet
Moussa Hopeful Suleiman Will be Elected 'Within Days'-Naharnet
Sfeir from New York Calls for Efforts to Help Lebanon-Naharnet
Bush: Al-Qaida, Hizbullah and Hamas Will Be Defeated-Naharnet
Arabs Contain Lebanon Violence, Sponsor Inter-Lebanese Dialogue in Qatar-Naharnet
One Person Killed in Quarrel about Politics in East Lebanon-Naharnet
Hizbullah Erected Them, Hizbullah Removed them-Naharnet
Main Points of the Arab Committee's Statement-Naharnet
Hezbollah shows might in Lebanon, but faces limits-The Associated Press
Israel says Hezbollah could have seized power in Lebanon-ABS CBN News
Top US general visits Lebanon to discuss military aid: US-AFP
Lebanese to hold crisis talks in Qatar-AP
Lebanon Backs Down to Hezbollah-AP
Feuding Lebanese factions reach deal to end violence-AP
Main Points of the Arab Committee's Statement-Naharnet
Arabs Contain Lebanon Violence, Sponsor Inter-Lebanese Dialogue in Qatar-Naharnet
Hizbullah Erected Them, Hizbullah Removed them-Naharnet

Qatar hosts squabbling Lebanese politicians
DOHA (AFP) — Lebanon's squabbling political leaders were to meet in Qatar on Friday for talks brokered by the Arab League aimed at ending a long-running feud that drove the country to the brink of a new civil war. After nearly a week of fighting that left 65 people dead and some 200 wounded, the US-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition agreed to a new national dialogue aimed at electing a president and forming a unity government. Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani was due to open the talks in a Doha hotel at 9:00 pm (1800 GMT). A six-point plan was agreed in Beirut on Thursday, under the mediation of an Arab League delegation headed by Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani.
Under the deal the rivals undertook to launch a dialogue "to shore up the authority of the Lebanese state throughout the country," to refrain from using weapons to further political aims and to remove militants from the streets. It also called for the removal of roadblocks that have paralysed air traffic and closed major highways, and for the rivals to refrain from using language that could incite violence. Life began to return to normal in Beirut on Friday with the port, businesses and many schools reopening. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told Beirut's pro-opposition daily As-Safir that "Syria supports the agreement."
"This step could be a real opportunity to save Lebanon from the dangers it faces," Muallem said, adding that he had advised the Arab delegation "to close the road of international interference that could have negative impacts." Lebanon's pro-government daily An-Nahar described the deal as almost miraculous but also warned that the country still remained at the brink. "The agreement, in some of its clauses, deserves to be labelled an achievement bordering on a miracle," it said.
"Beirut's streets and airport returned to what they were before May 5, but this return does not mean the retreat of the explosive political situation."
The pro-opposition newspaper Al-Akhbar said: "Those going to Doha today carry an immense patriotic duty in their hands.
"Lebanon will be relieved of its leaders for a few days, but people are still worried about picking up the pieces of their lives as they are still under threat in the event the Doha meeting fails to bring a comprehensive solution."Meanwhile a group of disabled people, some bearing injuries from Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, gathered on the Beirut airport road bearing signs they hope the leaders will see: "If you don't come to an agreement don't come back."In the biggest challenge yet to Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, fighters from the Iranian- and Syrian-backed opposition rose up against pro-government forces last week, taking over swathes of west Beirut in the worst sectarian violence since the civil war. Hopes of a deal were raised on Wednesday after the government -- in a major climbdown -- cancelled controversial measures against the Shiite militant Hezbollah group that had triggered the unrest. It rescinded plans to probe a private Hezbollah telecommunications network and reassign the head of airport security over allegations he was close to the Hezbollah, moves its chief Hassan Nasrallah had branded a declaration of war. Parliament in Beirut is scheduled to convene on June 10 for its 20th attempt to elect a president. Damascus protege Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his term of office in November, exacerbating a crisis that began in late 2006 when six pro-Syrian ministers quit Siniora's cabinet.
Both sides agree on army chief Michel Sleiman as Lahoud's successor, but they remain at odds over the details of a proposed unity government and a new electoral law for parliamentary polls due next year. Despite Thursday's renewed optimism, analysts said the government U-turn over Hezbollah had weakened Siniora's administration and was a slap in the face for Washington's allies in Lebanon. "This climbdown is a major retreat, not only for the government but the US agenda in Lebanon," political analyst and expert on Hezbollah Amal Saad-Ghorayeb told AFP."It... basically shows that force is the only way of dealing with the government."

Arab mediators reach deal to end Lebanon violence
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Arab League mediators announced a deal on Thursday to end Lebanon's worst internal fighting since the civil war, after the U.S.-supported government backed down in its conflict with Hezbollah. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani also summoned Lebanon's government and Hezbollah-led opposition to Qatar for talks to resolve a broader political showdown which has paralyzed the country for 18 months.
"We declare an agreement sponsored by the Arab League to deal with the Lebanese crisis," said Sheikh Hamad, who led the Arab mediators. "The parties pledge to refrain from returning to the use of weapons or violence to realize political gains." The political talks in Qatar, which start on Friday, would continue "until agreement is reached," he said. As Sheikh Hamad announced the deal, mechanical diggers on the airport road removed roadblocks erected by Hezbollah supporters last week as part of a protest campaign against the government. "The opposition has decided to end the civil disobedience (campaign) and open all roads and routes to the seaport and airport," opposition member of parliament Ali Hassan Khalil told Reuters. Less than an hour later an airliner from Lebanon's Middle East Airlines landed at the airport, the first commercial flight to the facility in a week. A roadblock at the main border crossing between Beirut and Damascus was also lifted.
FIGHTING
At least 81 people were killed in the fighting, the worst internal conflict since the 1975-1990 civil war.
The violence was triggered by government decisions last week to ban the Iranian-backed Hezbollah's communications network and sack Beirut's airport security chief, who is close to Hezbollah. Hezbollah said those moves were a declaration of war and briefly seized control of Muslim areas of the capital, dealing a severe blow to Washington's allies in the ruling coalition. On Wednesday the cabinet of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora cancelled the two measures, meeting one of Hezbollah's demands and easing tensions in the Lebanese capital. Hezbollah, which had also demanded the ruling coalition agree to talks on political powers as a condition for ending its civil disobedience campaign, said the government's climbdown was a "natural way out" of the crisis.
"We want to return to a settlement which leads, in the end, to there being neither victor nor vanquished," said Sheikh Naim Kassem, Hezbollah's deputy leader.
Washington, which blames Hezbollah and its allies for Lebanon's instability, declined to criticize the Siniora government for rescinding last week's measures.
"I don't think it's appropriate to start second-guessing those people who are making decisions that literally will determine the future of democracy in Lebanon -- whether it survives to fight another day, another week, another month, another year," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The talks in Qatar will tackle how to share power in the cabinet and the details of a new parliamentary election law. The row has paralyzed much of government and left Lebanon with no president since November. Sheikh Hamad said top leaders would attend the talks in Doha but political sources said Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah would not attend because of security concerns.
Hezbollah are set to be represented by a senior official, most likely the head of the group's parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammad Raad, the sources said.
Any deal would result in army commander General Michel Suleiman being elected president.
As well as highlighting U.S.-Iranian tensions, Lebanon's rivalries are also regarded as part of a regional tussle for influence between Saudi Arabia, which supports the ruling coalition, and Syria, which backs the opposition. The United States has blamed the instability on Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, a political movement with a guerrilla army. Iran blames the United States for the violence. The ruling coalition accuses the opposition of trying to restore Syrian control of Lebanon and secure a stronger foothold for Iran in the country. Syria dominated Lebanon until 2005, when the assassination of statesman Rafik al-Hariri triggered international pressure that forced it to end its military presence after nearly three decades and plunged Lebanon into crisis. (Additional reporting by Laila Bassam, Tom Perry, Nadim Ladki and Yara Bayoumy in Beirut, and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Editing by Charles Dick)

Arabs Contain Lebanon Violence, Sponsor Inter-Lebanese Dialogue in Qatar
Arab mediators succeeded Thursday in containing Lebanon's cycle of violence that drove the nation to the edge of sectarian war.
The deal was announced by Qatari prime Minister-Foreign Minister Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem al-Thani at a packed news conference in the plush Phoenicia Hotel.
The six-point plan said leaders of the rival factions agreed to join dialogue in Doha as of Friday, to elect Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman President and to form a national unity government.
The feuding factions agreed on spreading state authority throughout Lebanon, on refraining from using weapons for political aims, withdrawing gunmen from the streets and halting propaganda campaigns that agitate hatred. The two sides also agreed to reopen roads that have been blocked for nearly a week. Sheik Hamad said the effort is backed by all Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia. He said a guarantee is available for refraining from resorting to weapons.
Sheik Hamad said moving to Doha on Friday indicates that all sides are serious in their approach. He said the Doha talks do not aim at replacing the Taif accord, stressing that "the Taif accord remains valid."Sheik Hamad noted that "our relations with Saudi Arabia are excellent and Saudi Arabia supports the committee."
He said Suleiman's election president is expected "in days."Sheik Hamad said Lebanese leaders are responsible for healing the nation's wound and ending the crisis.
He stressed that "neither Shiites, nor Sunnis or Christians can control Lebanon."Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said what has happened "should not be repeated."Sheik Hamad ended the press conference by asking reporters to "give us a chance to sleep."As the conference was underway, Hizbullah bulldozers started removing earth mounds blocking traffic to Beirut airport, which resumed services. The first jetliner, a Middle East Airlines flight coming from Paris, touched down at 7 p.m. and full services would be re-activated as of midnight.Hizbullah bulldozers also reopened the main highway leading to the Lebanese-Syrian border crossing of Masnaa and started reopening roads linking various neighborhoods of the capital. Beirut, 15 May 08, 20:35

Hizbullah Erected Them, Hizbullah Removed them
Militants loyal to Lebanon's Hizbullah-led opposition on Thursday removed roadblocks on the highway leading to Beirut's international airport, paving the way for commercial flights to resume. Lebanon's only international airport had effectively been shut down since last Thursday because of the worst sectarian unrest to hit the country since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war. Crowds of people gathered on a bridge overhead to watch as tractors piled sand and rock into trucks as they dismantled the roadblocks. "The airport is the pulse and life of the country," said Samih Karneb, 45. "At least now there won't be any more shows of force. Each side knows their size."Abbas, 26, said that opening the airport motorway was "a beautiful sight," while a soldier standing nearby disagreed, saying "it shouldn't have come to this in the first place. "Are we supposed to be happy about this?" he asked. The violence in Lebanon over the past week left 65 people dead and 200 wounded.(AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 15 May 08, 20:53

Main Points of the Arab Committee's Statement
Following are the main points of the agreement unveiled by Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani:
1) A return to the status quo before the clashes broke out on May 5, when the government announced two decisions against Hizbullah.
"The immediate end to any form of armed presence, the withdrawal of all armed militants from the streets and the opening of all roads as well as the airport and the port."The deal stipulates a "return to normal life with the army taking charge of civil peace and the running of public and private institutions."
2) Sheikh Hamad said there should be a re-launch of a national dialogue to restore confidence among the rival parties leading to the formation of a national unity government and a new electoral law.
"This accord will be crowned with the end of a sit-in in the center of Beirut on the eve of the election of consensus candidate General Michel Suleiman president."
3) "Dialogue begins as soon as this accord is announced and as soon as the first point is implemented, in Doha on Friday, (May) 16, under the auspices of the Arab League. The dialogue will continue until an accord is struck."
4) All sides to refrain from any resort to violence to achieve political goals.
5) "Launching a dialogue (also in Doha) to shore up the authority of the Lebanese state throughout the country and its relations with the different parties in Lebanon in order to guarantee the security of the state and its citizens."
6) All political leaders to refrain from using language that might incite political or sectarian violence.(AFP) Beirut, 15 May 08, 20:43

Terror Triumphant
By P. David Hornik
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, May 15, 2008
“Hezbollah must know,” Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora said in a speech this weekend, “that the power of weapons will not terrorize us.”
Unfortunately his words were directly contradicted when the Lebanese army almost simultaneously announced that it was freezing the two measures by Siniora’s government that had kicked off the crisis—the removal from his post of the Hezbollah-affiliated security chief at Beirut airport and the declaration of Hezbollah’s telecommunications network as illegal. It didn't take much longer for the government to follow through and rescind those two steps.
It was Hezbollah’s seizure of West Beirut in a naked show of force, in reaction to those measures, that clearly showed the terror organization holds the real power in Lebanon and allows what’s left of Siniora’s hamstrung government to keep functioning on sufferance. Even though, by early this week, Lebanese army forces had taken up position in West Beirut and the Hezbollah gunmen had cleared out, barricades to the airport put up by Hezbollah remained and the airport was still shut down.
And the scattered fighting in Lebanon, while fierce and taking dozens of lives, showed that the pro government forces are ragtag and disorganized, consisting of groups of Sunni and Druze fighters with no central structure or clear overarching purpose. Indeed, most telling is the role of the Lebanese army, which in some cases has fulfilled a peacekeeping task of separating the various combatants and bringing calm.
Well and good—except that an army that plays, at best, a neutral role between a foreign-directed terror organization and pro government forces is actually abetting foreign-directed terror by letting it keep its power position. Nor is any of this surprising in a country whose population is now close to half-Shiite and much of whose army, reflecting that balance, is sympathetic to Shiite Hezbollah and the Iranian and Syrian-powered axis it represents.
With 150,000 predominantly Christian and Sunni Lebanese having left the country since the February 2005 assassination by that axis of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, the recent flare-up—even if it eventually subsides—is only a further sign that Lebanon’s takeover by totalitarian jihadists is proceeding in the face of Western abandonment of the more moderate, pluralist camp.
So far Teheran can also look with satisfaction at parallel events in these same days on its Gazan front. There its Hamas proxy has been similarly demonstrating its violent hegemony over southwestern Israel unhindered by an impotent Israeli government.
On Friday a mortar attack on a kibbutz killed a 48-year-old man and the bombardment continued with over 20 mortar shells and rockets fired at various Israeli communities over the weekend, including a rocket that almost hit a schoolbus and several cases of shrapnel or shock victims.
It kept up Monday morning as a rocket landed near a school in the coastal city of Ashkelon and another hit a park there. On Monday evening there was another loser in the Russian roulette game when a 70-year-old woman was killed by a rocket in a small Gaza-belt community.
Israel, though an incomparably more cohesive and powerful country than Lebanon, seemed no better able to cope with the terrorist aggression. But whereas Lebanon used the pretext of a peacekeeping army not really aligned with the state, Israel resorted to that irresistible temptation of democracies—talks on a ceasefire.
Also on Monday Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman was in Israel with proposals concocted along with Hamas for a lull in the fighting, meeting first with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and then with both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Both Barak and Olmert reportedly told Suleiman there was no deal without the release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped two years ago by Hamas, and a commitment to end all smuggling of weapons into Gaza.
As Olmert’s spokesman Mark Regev put it, “We see our relationship with Egypt as one of the central foundations of regional stability, and a pillar of our foreign policy, and we are always eager to engage with the Egyptian government.” It was a horrifically obtuse statement given that Egypt has steadily facilitated the deadly smuggling into Gaza in the face of all agreements, lulls, understandings, and arrangements and only a willfully blind or catastrophically weak Israeli government could pretend otherwise.
Barak is reported to have told Suleiman that “Israel will have to take broader action in the Gaza Strip if the firing of Qassam rockets and mortar bombs does not stop.”
With the firing from the Strip having gone on for seven years and no possibility that Hamas would stop it except as a transparent ruse to gain time to fortify itself for an even more lethal assault, Olmert and Barak’s “conditions” amounted to abject demands that Egypt cease to be Egypt and Hamas cease to be Hamas, and that reality cease to be difficult and unpleasant and instead magically become easy and serene.
Although the concern for Shalit is clearly a legitimate one that unites Israelis, Likud Member of Knesset Yuval Steinitz stated that “Shalit’s release must not be a fig leaf [to cover] the shameful and dangerous surrender agreement that is being signed with Hamas. Capitulating to Hamas violence and extortion in removing the siege of Gaza will lead to Hamas becoming stronger [and will result in] additional kidnappings in the future.”
But with an Iranian-made Katyusha rocket hitting a shopping mall in a further escalation, it wasn’t certain whether the agreement would materialize and whether Israel under Olmert would go as far as Lebanon in bowing to Damascus and Teheran-sponsored terror.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
P. David Hornik is a freelance writer and translator living in Tel Aviv. He blogs at http://pdavidhornik.typepad.com/. He can be reached at pdavidh2001@yahoo.com.

RED ALERT, RED ALERT: Octopus Iran Sets its Tentacles into Lebanon with Hezbollah Microwave Communications System
By: Rabbi Daniel M. Zucker, Professor
http://www.analyst-network.com/article.php?art_id=2066
14 May 2008
Middle East Times, 14 May 2008
The Islamic Republic of Iran has just extended its power into Lebanon through its completion within the last 90 days of a new microwave communications system, ostensibly meant as an aid to its ally, Hezbollah—in reality its local proxy militia. However, the communications system, which the pro-western Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora tried to dismantle, touching off the current round of warfare between Hezbollah and the Sunni-Christian-Druze coalition led by Saad Hariri, is much more important than a private phone system for Hezbollah. My source, a high ranking military communications staff member, informs me that the microwave communications system is a high density military data transmission link that links all Hezbollah missiles in Lebanon directly to Tehran with telemetry directed by the Sepah-e Qods of the Pasdaran (Qods Force Unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps), the same group that was recently designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. Department of State[1] (October 25, 2007). With this microwave link in place, Tehran can activate within three minutes its mobile units of Fajr-5[2] and Shahab-3[3] missiles.
My sources indicate that the 2006 Israeli destruction of south Beirut and southern Lebanon gave Iran and Hezbollah a perfect excuse to come in and reconstruct the Hezbollah strongholds.[4] However, now everything was upgraded with immense interconnected underground tunnels placed under all the reconstructed areas. These tunnels are used to store and transport the rockets. As was common in the 2006 war, rockets would be launched from amidst such dense population areas. Additionally, all major buildings, including public housing complexes, have the lowest underground basement level reserved for the location of the transponders. Located in such positions, any attack to destroy the transponders or to knock out additional rockets would result in horrific collateral damage to civilian Lebanese Shiite populations, a guaranteed propaganda coup for Hezbollah and Iran.
All the reconstructed buildings of Beirut, in their last and highest stage are housing the microwave antennas and IF and BB repeaters of this data link, and they are completely and exclusively controlled by the Iranian Qods Force personnel deployed in Lebanon. These microwave links are carried on the IntelSat satellites. The “BK 15” relay station, installed in 2002, was purchased by a Lebanese company located in Marseilles, and now is controlled by Hezbollah.
Reports[5], earlier this year, of extensive excavations in the reconstruction projects in southern Lebanon would appear to indicate that Iran has supplied Hezbollah with an extensive set of tunnels both north and south of the Litani River, from which Hezbollah can launch missiles when Iran chooses for it to do so. Not only is Israel at risk, but all pro-Western Arab governments in the area, as is the Suez Canal, and of course, American troops in Iraq. The importance that Tehran attaches to this microwave link is vividly demonstrated by the regime’s propaganda in its daily media.[6] With this strategic base, Iran has established itself on the Mediterranean. Is anyone in Washington, London, or Paris paying attention? Ignore this threat long enough and 9/11 will seem, by comparison, like a picnic in the park.
***Professor Rabbi Daniel M. Zucker is founder and Chairman of the Board of Americans for Democracy in the Middle-East, a grassroots organization dedicated to teaching government officials and the public of the dangers posed by Islamic fundamentalism and the need to establish genuine democratic institutions in the Middle-East as an antidote to the venom of such fundamentalism. The organization’s web site is www.adme.ws. Additional articles by Rabbi Zucker can be found at www.analyst-network.com .

Lebanon's fiber-optic powder keg
Iran's hand seen in Hezbollah's growing communication grid, amid fears of 'state within a state'
By Liz Sly | Tribune correspondent
May 15, 2008
Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo Print Reprints Post comment Text size: BEIRUT — An extensive telephone network constructed by the Shiite Hezbollah movement, possibly with Iranian help, lies at the heart of the crisis that pushed Lebanon to the brink of civil war this week.
The state-of-the-art fiber-optic network was laid mostly in the two years since Hezbollah's 2006 war with Israel, under the guise of Iranian-sponsored reconstruction projects in Lebanon, according to Lebanon's telecommunications minister, Marwan Hamade.
The government became concerned in the past six months amid signs that the network was being rapidly extended into territory beyond Hezbollah's normal areas of operations, in the northern Bekaa Valley and on the peaks of Mt. Lebanon, he said. Amid concerns that Hezbollah's pursuit of a "state within a state" was taking on new dimensions, the government decided to investigate the network.
"In the past six months they have developed a huge, octopus-sized network covering the whole of Lebanon, entering areas where there are no Shiite headquarters in what appears to be the creation of a parallel Iranian network in Lebanon," Hamade said in an interview.
But Hezbollah regards the network as an integral part of its defensive network against Israel and demonstrated over the past week that it was prepared to wage war against fellow Lebanese to protect its existence.
Enraged by the government's decision to investigate the network, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah gave the green light to his forces to attack mostly Sunni West Beirut.
Crackdown reversed
In a humiliating climb-down Wednesday, the government rescinded the decision after Hezbollah succeeded in routing pro-government Sunni forces, leaving Hezbollah free to continue to build its still-unfinished network unchecked.
A second decision opposed by Hezbollah, to fire Beirut airport's security chief in the wake of the discovery of a Hezbollah surveillance camera at the airport, also was overturned, following a deal brokered Thursday by the Arab League.
Hezbollah agreed to lift its blockade of key roads, Beirut airport reopened for the first time in eight days, and the parties to the conflict are due to meet in Qatar on Friday with a view to finally settling their political differences, electing a new president and forming a new government.
But the episode also highlighted the sharp differences between the pro-U.S. government and Iranian-backed Hezbollah over the role played by the Shiite movement.
Addressing journalists live via a televised link to a venue in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs that he said was made possible only by the existence of the network, Nasrallah described the telephone lines as a vital component in Hezbollah's ability to defend Lebanon against Israel, by enabling Hezbollah members to communicate with one another with minimal risk of eavesdropping.
"The wire network is not only part of the resistance arsenal but the most important part of the resistance arsenal," he said. Hezbollah fighters also used mobile and radio communications during the war, but those technologies are vulnerable to electronic interception and jamming, Nasrallah said. "Therefore, we have the wire network … the resistance wire network," he said.
Network expanded
According to Hamade, however, Hezbollah relied only on a limited fixed-line network during the 2006 war. There were cables linking command posts within Hezbollah's Beirut stronghold in the southern suburbs and others linking commanders along stretches of the border. But only since the war has Hezbollah significantly expanded the network.
Around six months ago, he said, ministry engineers attempting to map the network found that it was being extended far beyond the Israeli border region in the south to the far north of the Bekaa Valley and down into the mountains of Lebanon.
The network has a capacity of 99,999 lines, far beyond the needs of Hezbollah's small fighting force, and could easily be expanded, perhaps as a commercial network that would deprive the state of revenues, he said.
"It's a complete bypass of anything linked to the state," he said. "They already have their own justice system, their own police, their own social services and schools, and now their own phone network."
The project is being carried out under the auspices of the Iranian government organization that has carried out numerous reconstruction projects in Lebanon since the war without consulting the Lebanese government, he said. A spokesman for the Iranian Embassy declined to comment on the allegations.
"We are witnessing the creation of a Shiite land in Lebanon which if not contained will become a real beachhead of the Iranian Islamic revolution on the shore of the Mediterranean," Hamade said.
Militarily, Hezbollah's expansion of the network into the northern Bekaa Valley makes sense, said retired Gen. Elias Hanna. Many strategists agree that any future war with Israel would force Hezbollah to fight from deeper inside Lebanon.
"Hezbollah needs more strategic depth, so it needs a bigger network," Hanna said. "It's logical from a military point of view. But from a nation-state point of view it is not welcomed by many Lebanese."
lsly@tribune.com
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune

Qatar hosts squabbling Lebanese politicians
DOHA (AFP) — Lebanon's squabbling political leaders were to meet in Qatar on Friday for talks brokered by the Arab League aimed at ending a long-running feud that drove the country to the brink of a new civil war.
After nearly a week of fighting that left 65 people dead and some 200 wounded, the US-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition agreed to a new national dialogue aimed at electing a president and forming a unity government.
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani was due to open the talks in a Doha hotel at 9:00 pm (1800 GMT).
A six-point plan was agreed in Beirut on Thursday, under the mediation of an Arab League delegation headed by Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani.
Under the deal the rivals undertook to launch a dialogue "to shore up the authority of the Lebanese state throughout the country," to refrain from using weapons to further political aims and to remove militants from the streets.
It also called for the removal of roadblocks that have paralysed air traffic and closed major highways, and for the rivals to refrain from using language that could incite violence.
Life began to return to normal in Beirut on Friday with the port, businesses and many schools reopening.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told Beirut's pro-opposition daily As-Safir that "Syria supports the agreement."
"This step could be a real opportunity to save Lebanon from the dangers it faces," Muallem said, adding that he had advised the Arab delegation "to close the road of international interference that could have negative impacts."
Lebanon's pro-government daily An-Nahar described the deal as almost miraculous but also warned that the country still remained at the brink.
"The agreement, in some of its clauses, deserves to be labelled an achievement bordering on a miracle," it said.
"Beirut's streets and airport returned to what they were before May 5, but this return does not mean the retreat of the explosive political situation."
The pro-opposition newspaper Al-Akhbar said: "Those going to Doha today carry an immense patriotic duty in their hands.
"Lebanon will be relieved of its leaders for a few days, but people are still worried about picking up the pieces of their lives as they are still under threat in the event the Doha meeting fails to bring a comprehensive solution."
Meanwhile a group of disabled people, some bearing injuries from Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, gathered on the Beirut airport road bearing signs they hope the leaders will see: "If you don't come to an agreement don't come back."
In the biggest challenge yet to Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, fighters from the Iranian- and Syrian-backed opposition rose up against pro-government forces last week, taking over swathes of west Beirut in the worst sectarian violence since the civil war.
Hopes of a deal were raised on Wednesday after the government -- in a major climbdown -- cancelled controversial measures against the Shiite militant Hezbollah group that had triggered the unrest.
It rescinded plans to probe a private Hezbollah telecommunications network and reassign the head of airport security over allegations he was close to the Hezbollah, moves its chief Hassan Nasrallah had branded a declaration of war.
Parliament in Beirut is scheduled to convene on June 10 for its 20th attempt to elect a president. Damascus protege Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his term of office in November, exacerbating a crisis that began in late 2006 when six pro-Syrian ministers quit Siniora's cabinet.
Both sides agree on army chief Michel Sleiman as Lahoud's successor, but they remain at odds over the details of a proposed unity government and a new electoral law for parliamentary polls due next year.
Despite Thursday's renewed optimism, analysts said the government U-turn over Hezbollah had weakened Siniora's administration and was a slap in the face for Washington's allies in Lebanon.
"This climbdown is a major retreat, not only for the government but the US agenda in Lebanon," political analyst and expert on Hezbollah Amal Saad-Ghorayeb told AFP.
"It... basically shows that force is the only way of dealing with the government."
As the hereditary chieftain of Lebanon's Druze Muslim minority, Jumblatt earned the nickname "the Weather Vane" for being able to steer his followers through the ever changing winds of Middle Eastern politics. A former vassal to the Syrian regime, he switched his loyalties to the Bush Administration after the invasion of Iraq, when it briefly seemed as if American military power would transform the region. Now he seems ready to turn again. Sitting in his garden terrace with a few family members and loyal retainers, Jumblatt said that he has spoken with the U.S. embassy to deliver his grim assessment. "The U.S. has failed in Lebanon," he said. "We have to wait and see the new rules which Hizballah, Syria and Iran will set. They can do what they want."
**With reporting by Brian Bennett/Washington, Tim McGirk/Jerusalem